The gates of the great twin cities of Hammerhal are open and the Dawnbringer Crusades march to war in the form of the Twin-Tailed Comet – two of the largest expeditions ever raised in order to found two new cities, one in Ghyran and one in Aqshy.

But in Dawnbringers Book 2: Reign of the Brute, up for pre order today, we learn about this twin crusade and how the peoples of the Mortal Realms fare in their brave trek into the wilds…

In this review we will be taking a look at the second book of the Dawnbringer Crusades series and digging our teeth into the narrative along with the new gaming content contained within. We’ll also be taking a look at all the new models that are being released alongside this book from Trugg the King of the Troggoths, to the new Kruelboys Vanguard Box and an awesome entire wave of Orruk models to fill out the Ironjawz range! We’ve also managed to paint some of the new releases up, and we’ll show off just how they stack up to other models in the range.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free early review copies for us to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a couple of videos showing off the new kits being released alongside the book, which you can check out over on YouTube or just down below!

So gather together your finest warriors as we march out alongside the Dawnbringer Crusades!

Dawnbringers Book 2: Reign of the Brute Review

Following on from Book 1 in the series, Harbingers, Reign of the Brute begins with the two Crusades heading out from Hammerhal – one driving into Aqshy and the other into into Ghyran in order to found two new cities in order to strengthen Sigmar’s hold in those realms. We also learn that this is in the closing time period of the Era of the Beast (The span of time that the 3rd edition of Age of Sigmar has covered) which again reinforces the fact that this campaign is most likely going to bridge the story between 3rd and 4th edition (Which based on the usual release cycle should be due Summer 2024)

I’m not going to dip too deeply into the story here, but without any spoilers it’s safe to say that both of the assaults out from Hammerhal go pretty badly with the forces of Sigmar hitting some powerful adversaries during their journey. In Aqshy we meet Trugg, the King of the Troggoths and his army of Troggs (And a load of Gloodspite Gitz that have tagged along for a good scrap) and in Ghyran we see the full might of the Orruks and the Sons of Behemat brought against the defenders and their Sylvaneth allies. I’d describe this book as the “Empire Strikes Back” of the series so far with things ending fairly downbeat based on the progress of the crusades so far

One of the tails of the comet is going to be successful and the other destroyed, but at the moment I can’t call which one is going to get out of there in one piece as they have both taken quite the beating!

We do get a tantalizing tease of what might be on the horizon in the next book, as we get quite a discussion about cannibal tribes of Khorne worshipers following Scyla Anfingrimm – Who I can see getting a new model in a Dawnbringers box alongside the next book. Meanwhile in Aqshy we still have quite the focus on the Sylvaneth along with an unnamed threat that is mentioned in passing but not explicitly called out – So the antagonist for the Ghyran half of the story could be anyone, though it wouldn’t surprise me if the Sylvaneth themselves get some love in the next book as they have had quite a lot of presence so far. I’d love to see Orion be birthed from the Oak of Ages for example – That would be a great moment in the story, especially if with his more aggressive war like nature he sees the encroaching Dawnbringers as a threat to himself.

Path to Glory

We get the start of a multiple book spanning Dawnbringers Path to Glory – while you can use each “chapter” independently of each other, the really cool part is being able to use each of the chapters across the entire series in order to play through the entire Dawnbringers story line. The first chapter is included here and sets the scene for creating your own crusades that are venturing out of Hammerhal.

For players of Cities of Sigmar, the Path to Glory content here is essentially an expansion to the Path to Glory content in that book, but with a few twists to make it fit the narrative.

Firstly, you do not found your city when you hit 25 Crusade Points (As the cities have not yet been formed within the story line) – The book teases that rules for founding your city will follow in a future supplement. Another change is that you get to pick a limited pool of 3 Crusade Traits (Out of 6 for each Ghyran and Aqshy Crusades), and of those 3 you can only use each one once. This represents the limited resources that the Crusades have while out in the open.

Finally, we get something similar to the branching quests in Warcry with a series of quests for both Aqshy and Ghyran. These are very very cool and I hope we see more of this in the future books in the series. Essentially you play through a series of pre determined games (Some of which are from the core book, others are brand new ones that have been included in this book) and depending on if you win or lose each battle you will have a branching story that involves different battles and rewards spelling out the glory or consequences of what has happened from a narrative point of view. I really like this, as it really drives home what Path to Glory is about – Making an awesome story! One side effect to this is that this chapter is very much focused on Cities of Sigmar armies, and players with other armies may feel a little left out here – though with the Cities of Sigmar very much being the focus of this campaign then it does make sense to me. While this will play out over the next few books, I do hope this is something that the Studio has in mind for future Battletome content for armies in order to enhance Path to Glory even more!

The missions included within the book are really fun too – One has the opponent trying to burn supply carts, while the Dawnbringers players attempts to put the fires out, while the other is a giant Age of Sigmar game of noughts and crosses – essentially each small quarter of the board (divide the board into quarters, then each of those quarters into quarters) becomes an objective, with the goal of the mission being to create an uninterrupted sequence of small quarters under your control from edge to edge or diagonal to diagonal. Its a lot less complicated that it sounds written out, and is a really fun and different way of playing a game!

2 “normal” missions and 2 cinematic story missions are included for each of the two campaigns giving players a total of 8 new missions to play through – tied together with the awesome branching story system then this is going to be a great excuse for Cities of Sigmar players to add all the cool new things to their armies!

Trugg’s Troggherd

In the book we also get a number of Armies of Renown based around the forces in the book, and with them a considerable amount of brand new Miniatures that expand a couple of these armies! The first in the book is Trugg’s Troggherd, which is as the name suggests based entirely around Troggs – you can’t take anything that doesnt have the Troggoth and Gloomspite keyword (Which sadly shuts down allied Troggs from the Kruelboyz) but you get some cool new abilities in exchange for this

While under the moon your Troggoth’s still get +1 to their saves as per the Battletome.

What’s new for the Troggherd however is that every single unit in your army gets the benefit of Truggs leystone (Which we will see shortly) and some of these bonuses are very strong!

Additionally, every Trogg without the Hero keyword becomes Battleline, letting you put together an army with whichever flavour of Troggs you want!

They also get access to some really nice Command Traits:

Ceaseless Growth affects your entire army and adds 1 to the wounds healed through regeneration – as this is army wide that becomes very strong – from a lore point of view this is a particularly regenerative trogg, but his skin is flaking and the other troggs are eating the flakes, causing them to inherit the same power!

Prized Trogglet (You actually get a Trogglet in the Trugg kit too!) is used to shut down all enemy commands issued or received within 12″ on a 5+, the opponent still counts as spending the command point too, which is ace!

Living Landmark allows you to “deep strike” a unit of Troggs into a piece of terrain with the lore explanation that they were there all along but had been asleep!

3 new Artifacts of Power are also included in the book:

Thwakwheezer Club makes the bearer -1 to hit and wound in combat, which makes Troggs very tanky!

Crunchy Shinies changes the movement of the beaer to D6+5. This one is a little swingy, as the standard movement of a Dankhold Trogboss is 6, so there’s a chance you just roll a 1 and move at normal speed.

Finally Loonstone Teef makes the Trogg into a Monster and allows them to do 2 Monstrous Rampages. This is pretty nice as it adds some monster options into a pure Trogg list.

We also get a new Grand Strategy and 3 Battle Tactics unique to the Troggherd!

“Leave me Alone” is the Grand Strat, and that is a nice straight forward one that needs you to kill every enemy hero and ensure that Trugg survives! Not the easiest, but really fun!

“Don’t Like Dat One” is the first Battle Tactic and this comboes well with the Grand Strategy, as it just requires you to kill a hero with Trugg

“Feels Funny…” requires you to kill a unit while a unit of Troggs is under the influence of the Leystone

“Wot’s Dat Glowy Fing?” requires you to take an objective and have 2 units contesting it under the light of the moon – pretty easy one to get early in the game!

Trugg

We also get the full rules for Trugg, though it’s worth pointing out that these are also entirely free to download on the Warhammer Community website too!

Clocking in at 16 wounds, a 4+ save and the Monster Keyword makes Trugg the toughest Trogg we have seen so far – He doesn’t have a ward save, so you’ll still have to be careful about spikes of damage, but he does heal D3 +3 wounds every turn, meaning he can soak up a lot of damage (D3 +4 if you have him in an army with the Ceaseless Growth trait)

His main ability however is the Leystone – he rolls a number of dice (which decreases as he gets wounded) and gets to pick an ability from a list of 6 to have. If you have his Army of Renown then EVERY Trogg in your army gets this ability too, which is amazing!

1: You suffer D3 mortal wounds – due to the fact you are rolling 4 dice you are unlikely to get this unless you are very unlucky…

2: +1 attacks to all melee weapons – very nice, especially if you get it army wide

3: Increases rend by 1 for all melee weapons – Again, another great pick that can make even Rockguts pretty scary

4: Glyph of Hysh – Everytime you spend a command point, on a 2+ you get the point back. This is pretty good, though I feel the combat ones are better if you get them army wide

5: He can only be hit with ranged weapons on an unmodified roll of 6 – again this is very nice against armies with lots of guns, especially if you take the army of renown and make it army wide

6: You gain a 5+ ward, again this one is really good army wide.

Trugg comes in the great Troggherd box which also includes 6 Rockguts too – he was really good fun to paint up and the Rockgut models still hold up now, especially as they have lots of options making it very easy to have a unit of 6 all looking different!

We also get a substantial update to the Ironjawz in the book with a whole host of new models plus their own Army of Renown!

Grunta Stampede

Fancy an all mounted army? This could be the Army of Renown you have been looking for!

The only units you can take to take advantage of these rules have to have either the Maw-Grunta or Gore-Grunta keywords, so no Maw-krusha.

So with these limitations in place, what do you get?

First of all you get a unique WAAAGH!, which allows you to potentially do mortal wounds on the charge (on a 3+, does D3 MW). Gore-Gruntas gain Battleline and finally you don’t subtract 1 from each of your Momentum scores in the first battle round.

You get two exclusive monstrous rampages:

– Greedy Gobble: Instant death for an enemy model. Just need to roll over how many wounds the enemy model has on their warscroll.

– Charge Down: Charge again D6”, so long as you aren’t in combat with multiple units.

In addition to the above, you get a unique Command Traits, Monster Hunter (improve the rend by 1 on the PIg Hacka for your Tuskboss when fighting, you guessed it, Monsters), an artefact (Bearer can command anyone on the battlefield, and has the chance to do 1 mortal wound to a nearby enemy unit), unique mount traits (3 of them), a Grand Strategy and 3 Battle Tactics.

At first when I saw this Army of Renown I sort of dismissed it. Perhaps I was too hurt not being able to take a Maw-Krusha, but after re-reading the rules for it I really do fancy giving it a run out one day. It doesn’t seem over powered, but does seem a lot of fun.

Maw-Gruntas

What a kit this is! Honestly, one of the best kits I’ve ever built. All parts went together like a dream, I’d happily (and probably will) build a number more of these.

I decided to build the first one as a Tuskboss, however each of the different builds have strengths.

The Tuskboss himself grants re-roll charges to other Maw-Gruntas should he make a successful charge himself. If he’s your General he also unlocks Gougers as Battleline, meaning you can take a full pig army should you ever want too. His Pig-hacka has 6 attacks, 3s, 3s -1 and flat 2 damage.

The second option is a Maw-Grunta with Hakkin’ Krew. He’s an elite level unit who bridges the stats of the above Tuskboss and the potential battleline version we will touch up on shortly. Like the boss, he has two Orruk buddies hanging off the side for extra attacks, and also has the same Monstrous Rampage ability, which is called Carve a Path. It allows you to do mortal wounds to models with fewer than 4 wounds as well as allowing you another charge, meaning you can almost slingshot in to another unit.

The third and final option is the Maw-Grunta Gougers. They lose the ‘sidecar’ Orruks, but can still deal a fair bit of damage. They have 5heir own Monstrous Rampage, which can give an enemy unit Strikes-last.

Ardboy Big Boss

First and foremost, super proud to have had this mini featured on Warhammer Community!

A super easy model to put together, with no choice of parts.

The Big Boss will see play if you lean into a couple of units of Ardboys. This is because for 1CP he can Rally two units of Ardboys. Not only this, but you’ll Rally on a 5+ instead of 6s. Also, he procs the Shield Bash ability on your Ardboys with a +1 (more on that ability shortly).

He’s no slouch in combat himself, but you really need 2 or more 7nits of Ardboys to make his cost worth it.

Zoggrot Anvilsmasha

A special character!

This named Orruk and his Squig buddy again were easy to assemble. Zoggrot has one choice of parts. He can be armed with a pair of Grunta-tongs or a Ward-smashin Choppa, which as the name suggests, destroys ward saves (on a unmodifed hit of a 6).

He has an ability in which you select a friendly Ironjawz unit. Roll a dice and should you roll a 4+ that unit does a mortal wound in addition to normal damage on it rolls of 6. If your Zoggrot has his Grunta-tongs equipped you add 2 to the roll. That’s an ace ability for an army with few mortal wound options, hence why I’ve built mine with the tongs!

Klonk gives you a couple of token attacks, but he’s an awesome model, and that’s that!

Brute Ragerz

A slightly more frustrating model to build, I’d recommend putting his neck part on once his body is together (hence the glue damage). This aside he went fine. Sadly I only had time to build 1.

These guys have 3 weapon options:

• Chain-smasha – I’d ignore this option unless you are building the other potential unit from this kit (Wierdbrutes, reason shortly).
• Mighty Gore-hacka – -2 rend is not to be sniffed at. Flat 2 damage too…
• Brute-Crusha – Same amount of attacks as the above weapon, but with only -1 rend and D3 damage. However, 6s to hit causes 3 mortal wounds and the sequence ends.

Extra bonus…these can run and charge. As can the next unit…

Weirdbrute Wrekkaz

The second unit from the above dual box, these are Orruks that have REALLY fallen to the power of the Waaggh!

Weirdboy Shamans slap masks on them to try and control them. Not that it helps much.

These have to take the Chain-smashas, which are 4s, 4s -1 and damage 2, with 6 attacks each. These would work great with Zoggrots ability.

If this unit is fighting a unit that has 10 or more models, 6s to hit equals 2 hits instead of 1.

Finally they have a 5+ ward save, but only in combat.

Orruk Ardboys

Finally, the Ardboys. They’ve got a new kit and say goodbye to the old Black Orc kit from Warhammer Fantasy (although you can still use them if you have them!).

These are really quick to assemble, whilst their rules have had a glow up too.

They now have a choice between Stikkas (2inch range) or Choppas (1inch range). Both have -1 rend. when the6 charge they either get an additional attack (if armed with Choppas) or extra rend (if armed with Stikkas).

In addition, once they’ve fought you roll a dice for each model within 1” of an enemy model, and on a 6 yo7 deal a mortal wound (or on a 5 if you have a Big Boss nearby!)

King Brodd’s Stomp

The Troggs are not the only big stompy faction to get an Army of Renown, the Sons of Behemat also get one too, this time built around King Brodd and his personal Stomp!

This is a really fun one, for a couple of reasons – firstly, Brodd gets a 5+ ward save while he is close to any other Mega Gargant, and secondly once per shooting phase a Mega-Gargant gets to throw a piece of terrain!

This is hilariously fun, and the bane of anyone with any faction terrain – all you need to do is be within 1″ of a terrain feature and roll a 2+

If successful, any unit in that terrain takes D3 mortal wounds on a 2+, the terrain feature is destroyed and you get to make a decent ranged attack at a unit within 18″ causing D6 attacks, hitting on 4s, wounding on 3s and dealing D3+3 damage at -2 rend!

A new Monstrous Rampage is also unlocked in the list which allows you to make a 3D6 move as long as you end the move within 3″ of an enemy unit (Note, this doesnt have to be the unit you started in combat with) – each unit you pass over takes D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ (You also count as flying so can merrily stomp around hitting as many units as you can!)

There’s 3 new command traits, and interestingly they can be given to Brodd too – the first increases death grip attacks by 1 for all Mega Gargants on the table, the second allows a mega gargant to heal D3 wounds if they kill a model, and the final one allows a target unit to use the top line of their damage chart

They also get 3 new artefacts, the first gives the bearer strikes first on a 8″+ charge, which is really cool, the second grants them a 5+ ward against mortal wounds and the final one turns off enemy artefacts within an inch on a 5+

They also get some new battle tactics and a fun grand strategy – the strat has you destroy every terrain piece on the table by the end of the game, which is doable between throwing and rampages. For the Battle Tactics, there’s one to kill something with a thrown terrain piece, one to contest a unit with Brodd and another mega, and finally one to contest an objective after a charge – all are pretty doable!

Grundstock Expedition Force

The final new Army of Renown in the book is the Grundstock Expedition force – as you can imagine this one revolves around the Grundstock units, with every model in the army having to be a non-unique hero or having the Grundstock keyword.

While this limits the units you can take, it is very strong. Firstly, it allows Gunhaulers to move units that start within 3″ of them and redeploy them 3″ when the move finishes. Those units are then allowed to move, but cannot charge.

The really good ability though is that every time a unit from your army shoots, it can immediately shoot again though at -1 to hit. This also can be used on unleash hell, making the Grundstock Expedition Force an extremely nasty ranged army – though your unit options are limited with the list restrictions.

Summary

As with the Broken Realms series before it, I’ve really enjoyed the Dawnbringers books so far – and I suspect later in the series we’ll start to see some epic events that change the course of the Age of Sigmar world. The gaming content is amazingly fun too with some cool new builds to existing armies and a shot in the arm to the Ironjaws with some great new kits.

If I had one negative mark against it is that the stakes don’t currently seem as high as in the Broken Realms series, but I’m sure things will start to ramp up as the crusades continue – I also hope this is a way of giving love to a lot of armies that have not had model releases for some time such as the Skaven and Beasts of Chaos.

Reign of the Brute is available to pre order now and is released Saturday 23rd September

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes

Published by Matt Crowther

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