ROGUETRITE

A universe has its PC debut in WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR: STORM GROUND

- Rob Zak

With Warhammer games having the hit ratio of a blunderbuss shooting a target at 50 feet, I should really be immune to the IP’s allure by now. But something about its tone and lore just gets me, so when I was asked to review the turn-based tactics game Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground – the first Warhammer game on PC set in the newish titular setting – I felt that familiar frisson stirring.

But like so much Warhammer spawn, Storm Guard’s lore and fine writing flatter a flawed game that clumsily combines tactical turn-based combat with an odd 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 over a campaign run by completing missions and looting chests in battle.

Storm Ground’s three factions cater to different playstyles. You have your straightforward Stormcast Eternals – humans donning heavy armour and divine judgement. The Nighthaunt are a ghostly 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 to act as spawn points.

INFECTIOUS ENTHUSIASM