Played my first SoM game last night

[jormiboced]

I had a blast! There was some insane stuff going on.

HE had first turn. On this turn he used the cantrip on my tooled up Chimera to send it packing.

On my first turn my Slann was able to cast 8 Lore of Fire spells and 2 cantrips on 14 dice as Lore of Fire was in ascendancy. I reduced his Swordmasters to like 5 guys. Truth be told they should have all died from that barrage, but I rolled poorly on my 6d6 fireball and he saved well. I also used the cantrip to take his Shaggoth off the table this turn.

His second magic phase I used cube of darkness on his first spell and then shut down the whole phase.

Another thing that really influenced the game was my Slann miscasting on two dice with my first spell of the third turn which turned all of the wizards into toads (which I feel should have no effect on a Slann since he is already a toad:)). This caused me to lose like 20 dice when fire was ascendant again! Then my slann and one skink failed to come back in his magic phase but all but one of his wizards came back. I then failed to bring back either my slann or my other skink on my next phase, so I tried throwing lots of dice at my few Heavens spells and cantrips that I could. I ended up miscasting with my skink and he turned into a monster. Luckily my Slann came back in his next magic phase so I could try and dispel again.

Another fun thing for me was when his storm dragon charged into my spears. My Scar Vet had the Dawnstar and I had dominance. So his dragon killed like 6 Saurus, but then my Scar Vet landed 8 auto-hit, auto-wound,2d6 Multiwounds on the dragon. He saved a few of them with his armor, but I did way more than enough wounds, we didn't even roll them:) It would have been kind of fun to see what he would have gotten.

There were a couple of wierd rules things we ran into. On Let the Four Winds Blow it says nothing about targeting units in buildings. I assumed they just took the hits as they couldn't move, like the Wind Blast spell from heavens. That is what we ended up going with, although we thought not targetable and making them exit the building might be viable options as well. It did allow me to drop his level 2, and I had a chance of dropping his level 4, so it was kind of important to the game, but I am pretty certain we played it right.

Also, he brought a Storm Dragon which has a breath weapon like the lore of metal spells, but doesn't say no armor save. We played it as no armor save though. Not 100% sure if that is right, but assuming GW just missed a line on that one too.

Anyway, I had a blast and want to play again. Maybe Lord Baerion will get on and give his impression too.

[Lord BROaerion]

After turn 1 - I knew without a doubt I was going to lose this game. The Slann for lizardmen is just too powerful in the storm of magic with Loremaster, +1 dice to every spell, almost impossible to kill - especially on a fulcrum. The lore of fire is pretty insane, Michael was throwing around so many damage spells I was completely overwhelmed! Casting 10 spells with 14 dice and each spell going off in the mid teens or higher was pretty insane.

The things I didn't like about Storm of Magic:
1. Like any GW new release there are too many questions that come up and rules that aren't explained well enough. Examples include:

• Wind Buffet - can models/units in buildings really be harmed by wind?
  
• Slann turning into a toad, it says he loses all magical items, upgrades and equipment and can't generate or cast spells. So does that mean he can still becalm another wizard? Does he still have his Battle Standard?
  
• Storm Dragon Breath Attack - does it allow armor saves?
  
• Are mystical artefacts magical items? Can they be destroyed by Vaul's Unmaking? Are they negated by items/abilities which make all weapons in base contact mundane?
  
• I'm sure there are more that I can't remember right now.
  

2. The game takes a really long time. I don't feel like we had to look up that much stuff, but with 20 spells to cast, and 20 dice to use to cast them the magic phase is ridiculously long. Other than that the game plays about as fast as any other game. We got started around 6 and didn't finish until shortly after 10 pm.

3. The Dawnsword. Anyone can take it sure, but all characters are not created equal. Auto Hit and Auto wound are all well and good, but if I have to wield it with a S4 noble or Prince it's not going to be real effective against good armor saves. However, put that in the hands of a Saurus, Warboss, Exalted Hero etc. the thing gets a little OC.

4. The ease at which Monsters can be sent packing. Both of us lost an expensive monster in the first turn of the game to a spell that is only a 3+ to get off. Sure you have to roll a 5 on a D6 to make them go away, but really 1 in 3 chance there that the monster is gone or ruins your battle line. For low leadership monsters they could be come stupid and/or not beable to use your general's leadership making them very ineffective. I don't know what unbind monster should be, but seems a little too powerful for how easy to cast it is.

Things I liked about Storm of Magic

1. It's FREAKING INSANE - and yes it is something I like. After deployment there was a Chimaera, a Dragon, and a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth on the table, 6 wizards and 4 beautiful (not painted yet) fulcrums. Then the insanity that is storm of magic began!

2. Fun as hell - I got my butt kicked, but the cataclysm spells, monsters, and crazy cantrip spells including the magical duels made the game a very entertaining experience.

3. The Lore Ascendency - this is a pretty cool addition to the game. Makes sense fluff wise that a certain wind is stronger and is just a really cool addition. Really sucked when he got the Lore of Fire in ascendency and lit up my army, but it made casting shadow spells a lot easier as well when Shadow was in ascendency for me.

4. All the crazy combinations that we will all come up with. Armies have access to just some ridiculous monsters, items and spells and it will be a lot of fun trying all sorts of new stuff out.

5. Breaks the Monotony. For the past year I've only played games that have been either Tournaments or games preparing for a tournament. It is easy to forget to go out and have fun when playing this game and just enjoy it for what it is! Storm of magic brought that back for me. To just set some cool shit on the board and let the dice fly! Enjoy the fantasy nature of the game and do your best to win. If your mage totally screws up and sucks himself and a fulcrum into the realm of chaos...LAUGH! Cause that is awesome!


Will this make it to tournaments - I can't imagine it will. It takes too long and is too fickle and unpredictable. Also some of the items, and wizard combinations that are out there are made too powerful in this Scenario. Will I play it again - HELL YES, but probably not too terribly often. When I'm burnt out playing the game to prep for tourneys and want a little spice in my life Storm of Magic will be coming out.

So I got stomped and we quit in turn 4 when I only had one level 4 wizard left with 1 wound and no way to gain control of more than 1 fulcrum I could only hope for a tie at best and then lose on victory points. Even with the 3+ ward I had a feeling 6d6 s4 then 3d6 s4 fireball hits would have likely sealed my doom anyway.

Thanks for the game again Jormi! We'll definitely be doing it again sometime.

[Tom McClure]

That is so cool to get a review of your experience. Thanks!! I think the terrain is wicked awesome. I'm very happy to hear it was fun and something you'd play again. I think all the SoM product would be very cool as tournament prizes since it can be used no matter what army you are playing.