The Dawnbringers series is in full swing, and alongside Dawnbringers 3: The Long Hunt (Also reviewed on the site today) we have some awesome boxes jam packed of miniatures up for pre order today. To me the most exciting of the two is Cryptborn’s Stormwing, a set containing not only two Stormdrake Guard but also Ionus Cryptborn – The Warden of Lost Souls.

In this review we’ll be taking a look at the kit and what it looks like fully painted, and then checking out his new rules from Dawnbringers 3 and seeing what he looks like on the battlefield.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us an early free review copy 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 have also filmed a full unboxing video which you can see just below or over on YouTube

We also have an unboxing and review of Belthanos the First Thorn on the way too – so stay tuned to the site!

Now I’m a big fan of dragons – I’ve painted most dragons that Games Workshop have released including the big Forge World Vorgaroth and Skarlok and even written an article about dragons for Warhammer Community.

So when a big box filled with dragons arrived on my doorstep I was more than a little excited! Fist things first, let’s talk value. The box retails at £100, but the included Stormdrake Guard would cost £75 by themselves, meaning you are picking up the new character for a bargain £25! As you will probably want some Stormdrakes to run alongside the character then this is a great box in my option containing around 740 points of models and the large part of an entire Dragon army.

I had loads of fun getting this guy painted and I can honestly say it’s one of my favourite models I have worked on for Age of Sigmar. The pose is really cool with the dragon actually clutching onto the ruin he is perched on, and Ionus himself looks really sinister sat atop him in dark armour. I used mostly Two Thin Coats paints to work on this guy as their colours are really nice to use (especially the metalics) and suited the tone of the model.

If you are painting this one then to make your life easier you’ll want to build this in a number of sub assemblies. I had: The ruin, Dragon, Dragon’s head, Ionus and Ionus’ head all as separate parts in order to make painting this as easy as possible. The Dragon started off with a gradual airbrushing of reds before stipping black wash into the recesses in order to give them a shadow effect, while Ionus himself made good use of the new TTC metalics including the gorgeous Dwarven Iron, which is a really nice dark silver.

Once the base and Dragon are painted, these can be stuck together along with the head, and touch ups can be make to bring these all together.

So what is he like from a rules point of view? Well the full rules along with his Army of Renown can be found in The Long Hunt, the 3rd Dawnbringer book (Which we have also reviewed today)

Ionus’ dragon Cthorak is tougher than most, having spent a large amount of time in Shyish trying to find the underworld of the Draconiths. Exposure to the realm of death has taken it’s toll on him, making him a little different to other dragons.

Clocking in at 16 wounds a 3+ save and a 14″ move he certainly flies circles around his kin. His breath attack is also different too. He gets 9 rend 2 damage 1 shots, which hit and wound on 3s, but any target that is wounded by them is burnt for the rest of the game – every battle round if you can roll under the turn number then the target takes D3 mortal wounds. In addition to this if the target is ever healed they instead just lose the burn debuff, making this a great way of shutting down any enemy healing.

Being a scary dragon from the realm of death also gives the dragon an aura of fear that stops any Rally or Inspiring Presence commands from being received within 12″ of him

Ionus is a priest and can cast 2, including his own one baked on his warscroll that makes a unit suffer D3 mortal wounds, then on a dice roll of 3+ it jumps to another target within 3″ dealing D3 mortal wounds and jumping again and again until a roll of 1 or 2 is made of there are no longer targets within 3″

He’s also pretty good at stopping Endless Spells and Invocations, as he simply dispells them on a roll of 2+ in his hero phase.

He’s 400 points, but really nice as a tough combat priest.

He really comes into his own in the Army of Renown though, as this unlocks Krondys and Karazai as battleline, allowing you to create the Dragon army of your dreams! While it may not the most competitive, it is all kinds of cool to be able to do a Dragon army and take all the different dragons in it! Check out out The Long Hunt review for all the details on the Army of Renown!

In summary, he is a really cool model, and the fact you can pick him up in a box alongside 2 Dragons that normally sell for £75 is a great deal! I’m really looking forward to seeing him lead a flight of dragons as he searches for the cure to the curse of reforging.

Cryptborn’s Stormwing is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 11th November

Games Workshop provided free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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