Stormbringer Magazine – An Introduction

As some of you may already know, Hachette Partworks have been partnering with Games Workshop for a number of years, publishing a series of magazines offering up lore, rules, painting guides and of course, miniatures! These magazines have covered both the 40K and AoS realms and have allowed those both new and old to the hobby to either start a collection or grow it. 

The last series, Imperium, focused on the 40K universe and this has just finished its run, with a total of 82 issues. Hachette haven’t hung around and have now released Stormbringer, a series of magazines covering AoS and the Mortal Realms. Stormbringer will allow collectors to collect and build armies from both the Grand Alliance of Order and the Grand Alliance of Destruction. Instead of focusing on just one army, there will be multiple factions offered up throughout the magazine run, with a heavy focus to begin with on both the Stormcast Eternals and the Orruk Warclans. There will be other factions introduced throughout the series but as you can see from the image bekow, there is plenty to collect. The issues will also include various pieces of terrain so you can really kit out your battlefields and theme your games within the Mortal Realms.

These magazines will be released on a weekly basis, priced at £8.99 and issue and will usually include the magazine as well as either a model(s) or paints. The magazine is filled to the brim with lore around the factions and the Mortal Realms, as well as modelling and painting tips. The magazine also offers up an easy introduction of how to play Age of Sigmar and this is perfect for people new to the hobby. It builds on rules and concepts week-on-week until you’re ready to tackle your first full game!

 Perhaps the biggest appeal of these magazines is the price, but more-so the value of the contents when compared to the cost over the course of the magazine run. While £8.99 could be seen as expensive for a weekly magazine, you will often find models and sprues that would ordinarily cost you in the region of £25-£35 if bought from Games Workshop directly. Of course, this isn’t every issue and the cost is offset by the inclusion of paints and brushes and other miscellaneous items included in the magazines. Although this offsets some of the cost, you will still be looking at saving an average of around 45% on the RRP of everything included in the collection. Things are subject to change so it may not be everything that’s included in the image above but even still, the savings to be had here are pretty awesome! 

In terms of buying the magazines, you have a few options available to yourself. The option I have gone with is perhaps the easiest and most popular way, and that is to subscribe through Hachette directly. This way, you will receive issues every 4 weeks and the delivery will include the 4 issues that have been released in that month. While you won’t be as up-to-date as if you were buying it in the shops, you do receive bonuses such as binders for the magazines, free gifts, as well as having the option to add “premium content” to your subscriptuion (I will touch on this shortly). This method of subscribing also guarnatees you get the issues you want, however, this also means that you won’t be able to ‘skip’ issues when paints are included, something that is often done to save on costs. 

The second option is to buy the issues online through stockists. The most popular stockist is Forbidden Planet. They have stocked most of the magazine series in the past and continue to do this for Stormbringer. While there may be occasion when a popular issue sells out, this is a good way of buying the magazines as you will receive them weekly, but you also have control over which magazines you want, instead of being forced into buying each and every one, something you may not want to do. 

The third option is to buy the issues from either WHSmith or your local newsagent. WHSmith will almost always have at least one, if not two copies available of each issue, which is handy for someone like me who has the subscription with Hachette, but may want an additional issue if it has some good units in it. You can also speak to your local newsagent who can then get the issues delivered in for you and again, this will give you an element of control over which issues you actually want to buy. 

As mentioned above, the Hachette Subscription also gives you the option to add “premium content” to your subscription, for an additional £2 an issue. This allows subscribers to receive 4 premium sets throughout their subscription and these will be high-ticket models with a bonus magazine included. The image below shows what will be included for each of the 4 premium kits.

Alongside the premium option, there will also be bonus issues and items added into the subscription along the way. These work on an opt-out basis, where if you do not want them, you will need to contact Hachette. As of writing, the first of these bonus items has been announced for the price of £9.99. 

For me, as a newbie to AoS, this is a great way to start collecting and enjoying the Mortal Realms side of Warhammer. The magazines ease you into the lore and the rules of the game, offering up neat little games to garner understanding of how the rules and mechanics work without overloading you with complex intricacies. The slow build-up of the collection over the course of roughly two years is also very appealing. You could just go out and buy everything now but where’s the fun in that! I quite enjoy getting my monthly delivery and if you’re careful, you can spread out the building and painting to make it last the whole month while you’re waiting for your next delivery. 

Over the course of this magazine range, I will be producing a weekly blog, covering the issue released that week. This blog will include my thoughts on the content of the magazine, as well a sneak-peek at the model (if included) as well as my thoughts on the building and painting experience. I am conscious that we are well into the issues now, with issue 19 having hit shops this week. Don’t panic though, as will be doing some bumper blog posts to catch up and ensure you get the scoop on everything Stormbringer. 

If Stormbringer has tickled your fancy, then be sure to head over to the Stormbringer website here where you can still subscribe and take advantage of the free gifts on offer. The free gifts include a range of different models, tools and accessories which can be seen below. 

I’m really excited to see what Stormbringer holds and it’s great that I can share this all with you. Be sure to join me every week as I dive into that week’s issue and please do let me know what you want to hear or see in my weekly blog posts.