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The peal of brass bells portends the explosive arrival of the Vermindoom. Blight City has burst into the Realm of Fire, and the Hour or Ruin is upon us. The new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is nearly here, and it’s arriving with a huge launch box: Skaventide.
If you weren’t able to catch the box reveal live, or if you want to pore over the video for juicy details, you can watch the Mortal Realms Reforged Preview again below.
What’s in the Box?
The Skaventide is sweeping across the Mortal Realms – and the faithful Stormcast Eternals of the Hallowed Knights are first into the fray. This gigantic box is the biggest Warhammer Age of Sigmar launch set yet, and it’s packed to the brim with books and miniatures.
The box is divided into two sides coming in at 1,200 points. There are 24 Stormcast Eternals, reforged warriors and grizzled veterans of a thousand conflicts, and 50 Skaven, swarming horrors who fight with overwhelming numbers, foul magics, and madcap technology.
The Stormcast Eternals
Created by Sigmar himself to reclaim the Mortal Realms from the forces of Chaos, each Stormcast Eternal is a heroic soul snatched from the God of Death and Reforged into an immortal warrior upon the Anvil of Apotheosis. Sigmar’s lie was that this immortality would not have consequences – it is as much a curse as a boon, for each fresh death and Reforging hammers out more flaws, it also whittles away a little more of their soul.The Skaven threat is so dire, however, that Sigmar has been forced to throw open the Ruination Chamber and press back into service those warriors on the brink of losing themselves completely. All are willing to fight, as the hour is simply too dire.
Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-stalker
Lord-Vigilants are the commanders of the Bleak Citadels, those quiet monasteries that house the Stormcast Eternals in the retirement of the Ruination Chamber. They ride on corvine Gryph-stalkers, wielding hallowed greataxes and marshalling their allies with grim resolve.
Lord-Terminos
There is one release from the curse of immortality – the oblivion offered by the Lord-Terminos. In this hour of need, these warriors will range the battlefield and take Skaven heads with their mighty Blade Terminos.
Lord-Veritant
With a hatred of Chaos that eclipses all else, the Lord-Veritant is an expert in excising corruption from the Mortal Realms. Aided by their Gryph-crow companions they hunt down powerful wizards and heretical priests.
Knight-Questor
Unburdened by the pressures of command, a Knight-Questor is an errant hero tasked by Sigmar to perform a significant duty, be that retrieving a lost heirloom or slaying an enemy warlord. Whatever their task, few can stand between them and their ultimate goal.
Reclusians
With only a handful of Reforgings left before they lose themselves entirely, Reclusians are deployed only in the most desperate of times. Unwavering and unnervingly quiet, they stride forward as sorceries and corruption wash over them – such foul energies fail to find purchase on their eroded souls. They are accompanied by Memorians, mortal companions who preserve their deeds and memories.
Prosecutors
Prosecutors descend into battle on burning wings, hurling crackling javelins at their foes. Veterans of countless conflicts since the dawn of the Age of Sigmar, and oft-exposed to the perils of the Cursed Skies, these fearsome angelic warriors are included among the ranks of the Ruination Chamber.
Liberators
The mainstay of any Stormcast Eternals army is an obdurate backbone of Warrior Chamber troops such as the hardy Liberators. Armed with shields and hammers, they are deployed to hold the line and counterattack with crushing blows.
Find out more about the Stormcast Eternals in the Skaventide box below:
The Skaven
The Skaven are treacherous ratmen congenitally willing to stab even their closest ally in the back if it would bring them one claw closer to power. Nevertheless, after an audacious series of cunning rituals, the Skaven have managed to crash the nightmarish sub-dimension of Blight City into the Mortal Realms, and are now pouring forth in never-before seen numbers as the Great Horned Rat takes his rightful place among the Chaos pantheon.
Clawlord on Gnaw-beast
The Clawlords of Clan Verminus are born survivors with a zeal for power, yet only the most accomplished (or conniving) can pull the strings needed to acquire a twisted Gnaw-beast from the Clans Moulder, as well as a lethal ratling pistol forged by the Clans Skryre.
Grey Seer
Grey Seers are natural-born mages and verminous prophets who can magically teleport around the battlefield and manifest roiling storms of warp lightning, all while wolfing down shards of warpstone to further enhance their arcane prowess.
Warlock Engineer
As hordes of Clanrats teem around them, Warlock Engineers focus on maintaining the temperamental but destructive weapons of the Clans Skryre, all the while sniping enemy heroes with their custom warplock muskets.
Ratling Warpblaster
The Skaven penchant for volatile artillery is exemplified by the Rating Warpblaster, a terrifying rotary cannon that unleashes torrents of warpstone-infused munitions capable of mowing down swathes of infantry.
Rat Ogors
Rat Ogors are rabid war-mutants created by the twisted minds of the Clans Moulder. Their muscled bulk is further enhanced by exposure to warpstone, and specimens that display a flicker of intellect are rewarded by having volatile Clans Skryre weaponry grafted to their limbs.
Warplock Jezzails
Skaven are cowardly creatures who favour ranged combat because it keeps them far from the thick of combat. Warplock Jezzails are extremely effective at helping them keep their distance, all while giving them the glory of sniping enemy generals.
Clanrats
Clanrats are the disposable dregs of the Clans Verminus, pressed into service with rusty blades and cheaply-made shields. What they lack in skill and courage, they make up for in numbers and the overwhelming, desperate desire to claw their way further up the pile.
You can find out more about these loathsome ratmen below:
What Else Is in the Box?
These forces are the core of two fantastic armies, and both sides of the box can be fashioned into Spearhead forces: the Vigilant Brotherhood and the Gnawfeast Clawpack.
The box contains all the terrain, card decks, and double-sided boards you need to play fast, tense games of Spearhead. You get the 144-page hardback Spearhead: Fire and Jade book, which contains the rules for 25 separate Spearhead boxes, the Spearhead battlepack, and the Core Rules all in one neat package. The terrain sprue even comes with 3” and 6” range rulers you can snap together – so all you need to get going is a handful of six-sided dice!
Read more about the Spearhead content here:
On top of all that, there’s the 272-page Warhammer Age of Sigmar Core Book. This weighty grimoire contains masses of lore and background information about the Mortal Realms and their inhabitants, alongside reams of gorgeous art and atmospheric photography of miniatures painted by the ’Eavy Metal team. It includes the Core Rules, the battlepacks for Matched Play (First Blood), and Path to Glory (Ascension), a rules glossary, a Citadel Terrain List, and copyable Path to Glory and Army rosters.
And the goodies don’t stop there. For Matched Play aficionados there’s a 17-card General’s Handbook deck which provides the Season Rules and battleplan cards for the General’s Handbook Season 2024-25, so you can start honing your tournament skills from minute zero.
Read more about the Core Book and General’s Handbook here:
Discover the Origins of the Skaventide
The focus of the Skaventide launch box is the disastrous rataclysm known as the Vermindoom and its realm-shaking aftermath. You can find out more about the conflict between the Stormcast Eternals of the Ruination Chamber and the frenzied ratmen in a new novel: Skaventide by Gary Kloster.
This thriller ushers in the Hour of Ruin, and hinges on a race between rat and Reclusian alike for a lost Stormcast Eternal who holds the key to forbidden knowledge.
You can read the rest of the reveals from today by clicking on the button below.