GW has really dialed it up a notch with the new Warhammer: The Old World Arcane Journal, The War of Settra’s Fury.
In the next couple of weeks we will see the release of Arcane Journal: War of Settra’s Fury. This is the final announced Old World product we’ve been waiting for, so we don’t know what’s coming after it. Now this book has a fair bit of stuff of in. I’ve already covered the brand new army, Renegade Crowns, that GW snuck in on us. But there is still more in the book to go over. (There is also a very short FAQ already out!) You might recall that I was a little hard on the prior Arcane Journal, Dawn of The Storm Dragon. That book had a very weird hodgepodge of rules in it and it didn’t feel like you really got a lot of value out of it. Fury however feels like a much better book, and a move in the right direction. So let’s take a look at what you get in it.
Still A Bit Of A Hodgepodge
Now this book is still a bit of a hodgepodge or collection of rules. Unlike the first run of AJs that focused on one army this book, like Dawn, is more of a campaign focused book. That means you get some rules for several armies, as well as some generic rules for the game as a whole. While some of the choices here still feel a bit odd, the main difference between Fury and Dawn is the amount of rules you actually get. Dragon only included 17 pages of what could loosely be called rules, but most of those were missions or terrain. It only had about 4-5 pages worth of rules that actually affected an army.
Settra’s Fury on the other hand gives you a bit more. Its got about 19 pages of rules in it. However there are no missions in this book, and a good 14-15 pages of those rules are rules for armies, and will affect the game in general. So that’s about three times the actual game effecting rules as in Dawn. This includes things for three armies and a ton of new lore. This amounts to basically a whole brand new army!
A New Play Format – Battle March
The first thing you’ll find in this book are rules for a new game format called Battle March. This format is designed for 500-750 point games. This isn’t really ground breaking stuff here, but its is useful. You get some rules on how to build armies of this size and some missions as well as tweaks to scoring.
This is all fine stuff if you want to play very small games and it seems like it works. The core rules aren’t changed, this isn’t a skirmish mode, and it seems like the main use here is for some intro and learning games. Or maybe side battles in a larger narrative. While this type of thing isn’t critical for a game to have, it is useful and it’s good that these rules exist. And they are something anyone can use.
Tomb King Mounts and Monsters
Next up we have a section giving some buffs to Tomb Kings, who didn’t really need them, but whatever. Now GW has been teasing new mount rules for Tomb Kings for a bit now and it had us a bit confused. It turns out what they meant was the option for TKs to take barded steeds. I’m guessing this is solely to accommodate the new models they are putting out. It’s… a thing they can do, but not a huge deal so, fine I guess?
This section also gives you rules for running a Winged Warsphinx. This is a kitbased model that is basically taking the howdah and crew off the Warsphinx and giving it wings. Overall it’s likely a worse choice than either the normal Warsphinx or the better Nexrosphinx and I don’t think we’ll see it much competitively. Still I think making rules for fun kitbashes, which is really the theme of this Arcane Journal, is great so I love that it’s in here.
Incantations
The last thing that TK’s get in this book are the new Incantations of the Mortuary Cult. These are scrolls that you can buy for some characters. They do cost points, but don’t come from your magic item allowance. High Priests can buy 3 of them, Mortuary Priests can buy two and Necrotects and Arch Necrotects can buy one. No character can have more than one copy of the same Incantation and no two characters can have the same combo, but you can take the same Incantation more than once (they are kind of like Dwarven Runes).
To use an Incantation you make a LD check. If you fail, nothing happens! If you succeed the Incantation goes off and is cast as a bound spell with the listed Casting Value. The spell can still be dispelled like normal, and once you’ve succeeded on the LD check the Incantation crumbles and can’t be used again.
I’m not sure how to feel about these from a power level. Some of them are really good. For instance one gives the enemy -1 S and I and takes away their Ward and Regen saves. Another heals a unit and boosts its regen save. Those are really powerful effects. On the hand these cost a lot, don’t have an amazing chance of going off when you want and are all pretty easily dispellable. Most have a casting value of 7 or 8, which… really isn’t that hard to beat.
Still if the Incantation goes off some of them are good enough to turn a game. We will have to see how players use them, but it is at least rules that make you think. They add something to the game and that’s nice.
Renegade Crowns
The next big section of the book is the rules for the Renegade Crowns. As mentioned at the top I’ve done a full break down of this army already so check it out. In short this is a brand new army for the game made up of all kitbashed or converted units. It’s similar to the Brettonian Exiles list, with a bit more of an Empire theme and represents mercenaries and exiled lords controlling armies in the Border Princes. Its not the most meta powerful army, but its really cool and adds a lot to the game and a lot of cool new units.
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Slayer Host Army of Infamy
Lastly we’ve got a brand new Dwarf Army of Infamy. This allows you play a whole Slayer host. There isn’t a whole ton here as you get a page of army composition, a page of new rules and a single brand new unit. It’s about what you’d expect as well. You can take all the Slayer units that are around and a lot of them. You can also take Ungrim Ironfist and if you take him you can take a unit of Hammerers. The army gets access to Dwarf Carts and can take a unit of Rangers as Mercenaries.
All that gets you access to a few minor buffs, a little pre-game speed and a slightly upgraded unit of slayers known as the Brotherhood of Grimnir. Now people LOVE Slayers and I know a lot of them have been clamoring for an all Slayer list so this lets them go hogwild. I’m not sure its a great army. Outside of the ability to take and abuse a great number of Doomseekers its just an army focused on a unit that’s already pretty bad. However fans will love it. And not every army has to be super good!
Overall I’m happy to see it in the game. It’s a fun addition. And it does round out this book. Fury has a lot in it and players from several armies should be interested in the book. It’s also got plenty of new and fun lore.
Overall its a huge improvement over the last book we got and I hope we see more like it. BRAVO GW!
Let us know what you think of the new book, down in the comments!
Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.