Games Workshop have been selling storage cases for their miniatures for as long as I have been in the hobby. While many people just play their games at home, there’s a lot of people who play games at their local game store or friend’s house, their closest Warhammer store or even to go to tournaments. One of the most stressful things when transporting models not knowing if your army is going to be intact on the other side when you get to your destination.

Today, Games Workshop have their new Stormvault Skirmish Case up for pre order, their newest solution for transporting small forces for their skirmish systems around with you. In this review we’ll be taking a look at the case and seeing how it stacks up against the competition and discussing just who it is aimed at.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us one over free to review, if you would like to support the site then why not order yours though our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also done a full unboxing video showing off what you can fit into it and what it looks like in the flesh which you can see over on YouTube or just below:

So just how does this new case stack up? Let’s take a look!

Stormvault Skirmish Case Review

So for the last couple of years, Games Workshop have sold a trio of figure cases – the Crusade, which is designed for holding an army, the Battle which can hold a small force and the Skirmish designed for skirmish games. These cases are actually pretty good with a two tier system of channel foam allowing them to hold quite the range of models from infantry to tanks. You can also fit quite a lot into them – however they are not the most sleek and small design as they are essentially cases with handles for you to carry them.

Now for a lot of people, this is no issue as you can simply stick them in the boot of your car, or carry them round to your friend’s house. People will, quite rightly, point out that for a fraction of the price you can also use Really Useful boxes to store and transport models – with them having a range of different sized boxes to accommodate different sized models – all you need is some magnetic sheet in the bottom or some blutac to hold your models in place. This is something I do myself with the majority of my collection stored and stacked in these boxes.

But what if you are playing a small skirmish scale game of Warcry or Necromunda for example and do not drive and so have to rely on walking, getting the train or riding a bike? That Really Useful box mentioned earlier is going to be difficult to store in a bag, and the larger Games Workshop cases can be a little cumbersome if you are also carrying rulebooks and dice etc?

Well I think this is were the Stormvault Skirmish Case comes in.

This is a small format case (9″ x 9″ x 2.5″) that can hold around 12 Space Marine sized figures. Now while that may not be a lot of figures, it is just enough for games such as Necromunda, Warcry, Kill Team or Blood Bowl, and is small enough to be slipped into a satchel or backpack alongside your rulebook and tokens.

The case itself is actually made up of two identical halves that clip together much like a plastic food storage box or lunchbox – each of the halves has raised rubberised feet that stop the case from sliding around on a surface and makes filling the case easy without it slipping around as you fill it.

Inside is a series of flexible fingers that are spaced in such a way to accommodate figures of various sizes. Games Workshop say it can hold anything up to a 75mm oval base, and I’ve managed to get everything from Space Marines, to Ogors and Cavalry into it without any issue – the fingers slot between any gaps in the figures and around any shaped parts to really hold the model in place. The two halves are then sandwiched together with the models locked in place inside. It really is a really good design and in my motion tests i found I could give the case quite a lot of abuse, throwing the case up and down and jostling it around in my bag, and the miniatures inside were perfectly fine once I got to the other end of my journey.

So far so good – though I will say this isn’t for everyone, obviously this is for a select group of people who want a small and slimline way of carrying a small number of minatures – if you are looking to transport an army this is not for you, and you would be better going for some of the other methods we have previously mentioned in the article – but specifically for transporting a small number of models for a skirmish game when you do not have a car to put a larger case into then this is actually a decent and small form factor case.

However, the elephant in the room is the price tag. Clocking in at £35 this does seem a little on the expensive side for me considering this only holds around 12 models. In comparison the smallest of the old style cases is £42.50 and holds considerably more models in it’s duel layer foam with the advantage of that holding tanks too. I feel if this was a tad cheaper at say £25 then this would be a no brainer for anyone doing any skirmish events to save the hassle of carrying larger cases around with you as it really does a great job of protecting the models and holding them in place in something that can simply be thrown into your backpack. That said, if you do need to carry your skirmish game forces around regularly then you can pick the case up a little cheap from places such as Element, it’s just a shame the RRP wasn’t a little lower as I think this could be really popular, but the price will put people off.

The Stormvault Skirmish Case is up for pre order today and is released in two weeks on Saturday 28th October.

Games Workshop sent Sprues & Brews a free copy for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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