The Twintailed Crusade continues it’s fight across two realms as part of Sigmar’s quest to strike back out into the wilds and claim the land for the Mortals of the Realms. As part of this campaign, two crusades were sent into two realms, both from the twin city of Hammerhal. One Crusade headed into the realm of fire, the other into the realm of life. It’s safe to say that this have not gone too well for our brave crusaders. But in Dwanbringers Book 3: The Long Hunt, up for pre order today, we see if fates have improved for our twin crusade and if things are finally turning in the favour of the Dawnbringers. Alongside the continuing narrative we also get rules for the awesome models released alongside this book and some interesting new ways of using them in your armies. Finally, the Path to Glory continues, allowing players to reenact the thrilling moments of the Crusade so far.

In this review we’ll be checking out the book, diving into the narrative and seeing what cool things have been added for armies in this latest volume.

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

We have also created some reviews of the two Dawnbringer boxes – the first Cryptborn’s Stormwing you can see just below or over on YouTube, with the Belthanos video following on Monday!

So let’s once more venture into the wilds as we follow the Dawnbringers to The Long Hunt…

Dawnbringers Book 2: The Long Hunt Review

It’s safe to say that the Dawnbringer Crusade isn’t going great, with both halves of the Twin Tailed Comet having faced adversity and despair during the events of book 2. In Aqshy, Trucebreak has fallen with the Dawnbringer Crusade harrassed by Troggoths and Gloomspite Gitz, with Pontifex Zenestra and the surviving forces now licking their wounds after surviving the conflict.

Meanwhile, in Ghyran Fort Gardus has also fallen, with the Lord-Celestant Gardus Steel Soul sacrificing himself during the brutal conflict.

Tensions and morale have been stretched and with more setbacks the crusades may well stand on a knife edge. Both forces venture deeper into the realms, but their list of adversaries continue to grow with Aqshy hunted by the Goretide of Korghos Khull (Yes, the baddies out of the very first Age of Sigmar box all those years ago!) and the Ghyran crusade heading past the resting place of the legendary Behemat which is rumoured to be home to a pack of Gorgers since the Mega-Gargants left the area…

I don’t want to go too far into spoiler territory as this is an awesome story, but I’ll discuss the main story beats. We learn that Vandus Hammerhand (Yes, again the leader from the first Age of Sigmar box) has returned to hunt Khull. He is obsessed with finding and slaying his foe, and nothing can stop him – not even his old friend Ionus Cryptborn. Cryptborn has been abroad in Shyish trying to find a cure for the curse of reforging, but has come back now, sent by Sigmar himself on a secret mission that will chance the course of the age. Cryptborn believes his friend is blinded by his hatred, and that this could be a side effect of the reforging process, but Hammerhand is determined to stop the Khorne Lord regardless of the consequences. It’s really interesting seeing these old characters come back and I do wonder if this points to them getting new models to represent them in this age. After all, Ionus himself was the Lord Relictor out of that orginal box, and now has an awesome new dragon mounted model – so perhaps we will see a Khorne/Stormcast showdown in the next book as a rematch following the original face off.

Meanwhile, in Ghyran we learn that a tribe of Ogors has moved into the land that is made up of the remains of the great titan Behemat from whom the Gargants are descended. We also learn that a council has been formed among Allarielle and a couple of other key characters who I won’t reveal here in order to reverse the wrongs caused by Allarielle’s great spell of life. They want to age the Era of the Beast and over the course of the book we see them begin to enact their plan – though in true form we end on a cliff hanger before we find out what happens!

We also learn about Belthanos the First Thorn – the original Kurnoth Hunter and herald of Spring and Kurnoth himself. Is this a sign that spring may be returning and Kurnoth himself will return from the Oak of Ages Past? Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but Sylvaneth fans will want to pay close attention to any seeds that are dropped here as they may just plant shoots that we see grow into the 4th Edition story line next year.

As with the other Dawnbringer books I really enjoyed the story and I can’t wait to see how this all plays out!

Path To Glory

Like with the previous Dawnbringer books, we get a continuation of the Path to Glory campaign in The Long Hunt. This is essentially an expanded campaign system for Cities of Sigmar players (who get some reinforcements today in the form of the rest of the Cities range) and allows them to see what would happen if it was their army that headed out into the realms in place of the forces in the story. In Dawnbringers 2 you could choose to have your army herald from either Aqshy or Ghyran, and this continues into book 3, with any progress you have previously made carrying over into this book. This is really fun as allows a developing story for your crusade with way more depth than we have seen previously. It’s a shame that this is focussed just on Cities of Sigmar, as I’d love to see all factions get something at this level.

There’s some really cool bits here such as branching campaigns with some “pick your own adventure” elements that add different outcomes to your adventure. For example, if you are questing through Ghyran you might lose a battle and find that in order continue you are going to have to take a much longer and more dangerous path to get to your destination due to the enemy that just defeated you blocking the direct route. So you then have to decide if you want to contact your Sylvaneth Allies and call for help from them, or to instead march through the night in order to make up lost time. Some of these have positive and/or negative outcomes, and as general you’ll have to weigh up the risks of each option. This is just cool and blurs the lines between wargaming, roleplaying and storytelling – and I would love to see this expanded more in the future.

Like with the previous book we also get a mix of standard battleplans and more narrative Story Battleplans that use characters from the narrative. I’m really excited for playing through this entire series with two Cities of Sigmar armies – one heading into Aqshy and one into Ghyran and seeing which of the two survives!

Belthanos and the Evergreen Hunt

The first of the new army rules in the new book are for the Sylvaneth with Belthanos the First Thorn added to their army list and a new Army of Renown the Evergreen Hunt

Belthanos is an awesome new character for the Sylvaneth with a couple of really fun abilities! He’s no slouch in combat and packs a pretty decent statline, but he really works as a force multiplier for the Sylvaneth, allowing friendly units within 18″ the ability to run and still charge, and a command ability to let units fall back and charge. He also has a really interesting power that causes a piece of terrain to gain a selected Mysterious Terrain effect and also count as an Overgrown Terrain feature. Now Overgrown Terrain in itself is a big mechanic for them, with lots of effects triggering off this, but the ability to make terrain you are near Arcane, or make enemy terrain Deadly is really cool!

The Evergreen Hunt is his Army of Renown, and this is pretty cool – you can only take him, Arch Revenants, Kurnoth Hunters and Seekers or Lancers, but all non hero units gain battleline – meaning you can take an army of dragonflies if you so wish!

Their main mechanic revolves around getting a number of chords each battle round. At the start of the game you pick a quarry, and then once killed you select a new one. You get chords based on these – 1 gained if Belthanos is on the table, one for each quarry destroyed and one for each unit in the same quarter as a quarry. As you gain chords you get a series of cumulative effects from adding 1 to run and charge rolls, to adding 1 to attacks when near the quarry to finally allowing Sylvaneth within the same quarter to pile in and fight if they are within 6″

All Sylvaneth units within 9 of an overgrown terrain feature also heal a wound each turn, making this quite a resilient army.

They also get a unique heroic action that can change who the current Quarry is, and an amazing monstrous rampage that has you roll a dice and add it to the number of wounds suffered on the target and if the total beats their wounds characteristic they are slain! This is a really nice way of finishing off units that are nearly dead, or even getting lucky and taking out characters that are slightly wounded.

They also get a new trait that allows the hero to heal D3 from the passive army ability, An artefact that once per game increases the chords by 1 (Seems a bit of a waste to me this one!), 3 new battle tactics revolving around interactions with the quarry and a grand strategy which seems pretty easy to achieve in killing 4 quarries.

Ionus Cryptborn and the Draconith Skywing

Next up we have Ionus Cryptborn – you can see what he does over in our full review of the kit, but essentially this is a priest on a particularly scary dragon that shuts down Rally and Inspiring Presence, can dispell Endless Spells on a roll of 2+ and can burn targets causing them to take damage each turn, with any healing effects simply removing the burn instead of healing the target.

While he can be taken in any Stormcast army, you can also choose to field the Draconith Skywing, and army revolved around taking all the dragons!

Only models with the Draconith keyword can be taken – which means that you are limited to Stormdrakes, Knight-Draconis, Cryptborn, Karazai and Krondys – however the two big named dragons and units of 2 Stormdrakes get battleline, which a really cool way of being able to take both of the big dragons in the same list while not having to have take 3 units of Stormdrake Guard. I love the dragon models, so an army of Cryptborn, both named dragons and 3 stormdrakes really appeals to me!

Stormdrakes near Cryptborn can take wounds for him on a roll of 4+, and heroes near two or more friendly units get +1 attack on their mounts weapons, which is also really cool!

A couple of thematic monstrous actions are also unlocked with one reducing pile in to 1″ and the other making the target -1 to wound on a roll of 3+, which I really like.

We get a nice trait that allows a hero to move D6″ after it fights in combat and is not within 3″ of anything, theres a artifact that heals all nearby units D3 wounds once per game, a spell that allows command points not to be spent on a roll of 5+ (This doesnt seem that great as even if you cast the spell it only has a 1/3 chance of triggering), and a trio of new prayers which are perfect to be used by Cryptborn.

As for battle tactics we get a trio of dragon themed ones and a Grand Strat that is earned if 3 dragons are within 9″ of each other at the end of the game, which again seems achievable.

We also see the rules for The Blacktalons in this section. Fresh from their Warhammer TV series, we get a new profile for Blacktalon herself along with her companions. They are pretty expensive in points, but this is essentially 2 heroes and a tough bodyguard unit that all synergise with each other. Blacktalon has a cool ability where if she kills a model, on a 2+ she teleports back to her bodyguard unit, wherever they are on the battlefield.

Gorgers and the Roving Maw

Next up it is the turn of destruction! Here we get the Age of Sigmar rules for the recently released Ogor Gorgers and Mawpit from the recent Warcry box, and they are really good! They can be set up anywhere on the board outside of 9″ of enemy models as an ambush attack, and they cause any commands issued within 12″ to not be issued yet still cost command points – note that this is always in effect, not just when they are eating. They have 1 fewer wound and attack, and lose the jaw attack but gain rend on their attack and cost a lot less points than 5 of the old ones would.

The Mawpit has a chance of causing mortal wounds to units that are within 12″ of it, which can be extended to 18″ if a butcher is on it – that butcher can then also cause mortal wounds to a chosen target each turn as he orders the maw to eat them

The Roving Maw Army of Renown is the ultimate game of “The Floor is Lava” with all enemy units that are not within 1″ of a terrain feature or who can fly. Essentially you roll 2D6 and depending on the result something bad happens to everyone who isnt flying or hiding elsewhere – this can be anything from reducing bravery, to stopping commands to even causing mortal wounds – this could be really nasty by forcing people away from objectives and into terrain to avoid the ability. They also unlock a unit of Gorgers as Battleline for each Butcher taken in the army, opening up more Ogor list building options.

Like with the other Armies of Renown we get a number of new traits, spells and abilities. For the trait a Butcher knows all spells from the lore of the Great Maw, and a really nice artefact allows a Mawpit that has been smashed to rubble (Or deactivated in any way) to come back to life with all its keywords

We get a trio of new spells including a way of making a piece of terrain not safe to stand near in regards to the army ability, and a spell that can drag enemy units closer to the maw ready to be eaten by it

Battle tactics are included that unsurprisingly remove around the mawpit and Gorgers and finally the grand strategy is for 6 or more enemy models to be killed by the butchers mawpit ability. Considering this can cause 3 mortal wounds on a decent roll, this is a really easy to achieve grand strat!

Lofnir Drothkeepers

The final set of rules in the book are for the Fyreslayers, again giving the new Vulkyn Flameseekers from Warcry rules for Age of Sigmar. The specialty for these guys is shutting down monsters, as units within 3″ of them cannot do monstrous rampages. Other than that they are all about rolling lots of dice that hit and wound on 3s, but have no rend and are only damage 1 – good if you are thining a horde or trying to force lots of save rolls, but ironically lack punch when fighting monsters.

There’s also a Lofnir based Army of Renown, which is flavoured around Magmadroths and Flameseekers. They can take Flameseekers as battleline and can even include a single Runeson on Magmadroth as a battleline choice, which is cool! They have a cool mechanic where they can use Magmadroths as transport – so as long as they have not moved, the unit can redeploy within 6″ of a friendly Magmadroth after it has moved, which makes getting around the board a little quicker! Flameseeker units also all get a 5+ ward while they are next to a magmadroth too!

They get a trio of new monstrous rampages – one that causes mortal wounds, one that increases the rend of nearby friendly units (Which comboes really well with the Flameseekers) and one that turns off ward saves!

Like with the other Armies of Renown we get some a new trait – this one improves the rend by 2 of nearby units that are targeting a monster, which is really cool against certain armies. On a similar theme, the artefact makes monsters who are contesting an objective they are on as only worth 2 models, even if they have another rule that contradicts this (Such as Mega Gargants!) this is really ace and again makes the Drothkeepers really good in monster match ups

We also get some mount traits, one of which allows an additional unit to use them as a transport, and one that changes their Blazing Maw damage to 3.

Finally we get Battle tactics revolving around flameseekers and Magmadroths and a grand strategy that requires you to have no enemy monsters in your territory.

Summary

So what do I think of the 3rd book in the Dawnbringer series? This is one of my favorite ones so far as we get a nice mix of narrative and gaming content. The story in particular is really good and leaves the door open to some plot threads that we may see explored in the next edition of the game, and also a pretty big hint into who the adversary is in the 4th book. It also sets up brilliantly the end of the Era of the Beast and I’m excited to see how this plays out.

From a rules point of view we get some really fun rules for a number of different factions along with a pair of awesome new models! These book series are also a really good excuse to release some models out of the usual release sequence, and the new additions here are really nice – Cryptborn in particular being one of my favourite models in the range!

The stage is set now and I can’t wait to see how things end!

Dwanbrigners 3: The Long Hunt is up for pre order today and is released on Saturday 11th November

Games Workshop provided free copies for review purposes.