The Warhammer world has been buzzing with words on the Storm of Magic expansion, and most of it has been quite negative from what I've heard. Yes, there are some seemingly extreme and ridicolous spells out there, that can bring back units from the dead or switch places with half of the terrain board, making the expansion quite unlikely to be accepted for competitive tournament Warhammer. That said, I am far from a tournament player exclusively. Sure, I'll build competitive armies and I'll theoryhammer with the best of you, but I'm also someone who reads through the lore section of the army books, subscribe to Black Library novels and just enjoy the Warhammer universe in general. I would love if the local games made use of the special terrain features more (some of us do, sometimes), I'd also welcome more special characters in the games we play (that doesn't mean I'd love to face Teclis on a weekly basis). I guess that's part of the reason why I'm closing in on 6000 points of Greenskin, rather than 2500 points on the number.
For me, Storm of Magic is a chance to have fun with the game I love to play. It's a good opportunity to immerse myself in the world of Warhammer. The added 25% ontop of your normal army will be cool to play with, and I've already set my sights on some of the monsters destined to join my Greenskins in battle. However, I just hope that the abuse factor won't play too big a part. You know, that some monsters will just be too good for their prices while others won't ever see the field. Even reading through the White Dwarf magazine, I'm torn on the subject. While I love the idea of River Trolls joining up with a Wood Elf army to protect Athel Loren, or even Great Eagles allying with a Ranger-heavy Dwarf force (imagine how useful those will be in the game), or Giants helping out a Mercenary Empire army, I'm less excited about the prospect of dual Hydras joining up with a Skaven army already fielding Abominiations, or something similarly abusive that will just turn the game into a power creep. Unit choices made simply because some monsters are much better than others, turning them into no-brainers. In fact, if the only thing Storm of Magic does for our local gaming community is to ensure that everyone gets their own Abomination to play with, I'd consider it a big failure. Reading through the White Dwarf articles, I'm already sensing an early pattern: anyone else noticed that 4/5 armies included a Chimera? Perhaps it's merely another promotion trick, but it's unnerving me slightly...
What are you expectations for Storm of Magic? Are you looking forward to it for the gaming possibilities or merely for the shiney new models?
