Hello Everyone,
I am excited to review my first Age of Sigmar Path to Glory rules expansion. These come from the Stormcast Eternal (SCE) book and I am excited to see how Games Workshop is going to use this system in fun and narrative ways. As with my past reviews I will look at each section of the book and provide my thoughts on its balance and flavor. As a caveat I have yet to play in this system and have only played a few AoS games in this edition so take my ideas with a grain of salt.
Army Special Rules
When you build your army you have to chooses between a Stormkeep and Scions of The Storm army which determines if you can take Cities of Sigmar units as part of your force. Be aware that you can’t change it once you make a selection. Unsurprisingly, the Stormcast get a special re-forging rule to reflect their fluff which gives you the option of paying renown points to bring back a hero (you do lose any upgrades if they downgrade a rank). You can also bride Grungi to give your hero the white glove service by spending glory points to get a heroic upgrade. At the same time after a hero has been reforged twice they can never receive more then 3 renown points at the end of a battle. Also you get the option to pick two options from a variety of tables when you create your army. These buffs cover a variety of options from 6+ wards to stopping enemies from retreating if they are within 3″. These options are all decent thought the Tenets of the Tempest might have the best options.
Quests
The SCE get 4 new quests to choose from for their army. The first gives you an easy way to get mount traits for a unit (they need to kill an enemy unit to get it). The Rewards of Victory gives you a way to level up your army quickly by selecting multiple units to be “Favored Warriors”. Along that theme The Nemesis Eternal rewards you for beating chaos armies by giving out extra renown points to surviving units. Finally Guardians of Dawn allows you to play one of two special missions after you reach the threshold. I actually like this idea a lot as it makes these missions a special bonus rather then a free option and it’s something I might include in other campaigns.
Veteran Abilities and Heroic Upgrades
The SCE have one table for their veteran upgrades and one for the Heroic upgrades. The veteran abilities seem good but not overpowered. You get options to inflict mortal wounds on an unmodified 6, a free command, or a free 6″ move in the first turn. The Heroic Upgrades table allows you to level up your Knights to Lord or put your Lords on various mounts. I like this mechanic as it helps create a sense of progression for your characters.
Territories
Finally we get some options for upgrading your base. You get 6 options if you roll correctly and as with the upgrades these seem pretty balanced. There are options to reduce the GP cost to upgrade strongpoints, another option allows you to ignore the GP cost to get Grungi’s services, and an option to re-roll casualty or injury rolls.
Conclusion
Overall this set of rules seems to be a decent but tame addition to the Path to Glory rules. None of these rules appear to reward stacking obscene buffs on a unit or creating super characters. Additionally, the writers at GW have given us some fun fluffy options and appear to capture the spirit of the SCE. I am optimistic that this bodes well for the future of faction-specific rules but we will see what the future holds.
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