Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground review

With Warhammer games having the hit ratio of a blunderbuss shooting a target at fifty feet, I should really be immune to its allure by now. But by Sigmar’s steely scrotum, something about its world just gets me. I’ll internet-binge whichever faction I command in Total War: Warhammer, and amidst the onslaughts of Vermintide I’ll tell my teammates to shut up and wait a second as I soak up the banter between the heroes in my search for little lore tidbits. 

So when asked to review Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground—the first Warhammer game set in the newish titular setting—I felt that familiar frisson stir within me. Sadly, like so much Warhammer spawn, its lore and fine writing flatter a flawed game—a clumsy attempt to combine tactical turn-based combat with a bewildering roguelike metagame.

You start each battle with a single hero unit. As you amass ‘Power’ over the turns you can call in subsequent units using cards that you earn by completing missions and looting chests in battle. The card system is an interesting idea, keeping battles unpredictable and disruptive (particularly in multiplayer) as your opponent will never quite know what unit you’ll throw in next—and where.

The three factions cater to different playstyles. You have your straightforward Stormcast Eternals—humans wielding heavy armour and divine judgement. The Nighthaunt are a spectral faction of low-armour, fast-moving swarmers, whose hero can throw down healing wisps each turn to heal allies and summon pyres all over the battlefield that act as spawn points. hen there are the Maggotkin. Ahhh my sweet Maggotkin, where have you been all my life? Probably partying in whatever brown bubble bath awaits at the far end of our society’s sewage system, given their predilection for all things putrid.