Over the last 12 months, we have witnessed the journey of the Twin Tailed Crusade – Two different Dawnbringer Crusades heading out from the realm straddling city of Hammerhal in order to found new cities in the name of the God King Sigmar. One Crusade headed into Aqshy the Realm of Fire and faced challenges such as the Gloomspite Gitz, the King of the Troggoths, the wrath of Khorne and the forces of the Nighthaunt before finally coming to their goal and founding the city of Embergard. This city was near a mountainous region rich in realm stone deposits and looked set to prosper in the harsh heat of Aqshy. Another Crusade set off into Ghyran the Realm of Life and equally was set upon with many threats such as the Maggotkin of Nurgle, the Sons of Behemat and the delusions of The Mad King Ushoran. Eventually however, the survivors founded Verdigris, standing sentinel over the Realm of Life.

In Dawnbringers Book 6: The Hounds of Chaos, we find out the fate of these cities. Portents say one will stand and the other will fall. And dark forces conspire to change the Mortal Realms forever.

In this review of The Hounds of Chaos, we’ll be taking a look at the book and seeing what new gaming material is included, but also more importantly taking a look at the lore ramifications – I can’t really review this in detail without going into major spoilers, and so I’ll be covering the lore at the very end of the review, giving you chance to escape if you want to experience the story for yourself.

We’re also taking a look at 2 of the new kits that are released alongside this book – Abraxia’s Varanspear and Brand’s Oathbound

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free early review copies to check out on the site, if you would like to support the site then why not order your Warhammer Age of Sigmar goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We have also filmed a full unboxing of both of the new kits, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s dive straight into it starting with the new kits!

Abraxia’s Varanspear Unboxing and Review

Every Dawnbringers Book has been acompanied by a bundle box that collects a new hero together with some older kits at a discount, and The Hounds of Chaos is no different with the Abraxia’s Varanspear box. This costs £95 and contains a unit of 3 Varanguard (RRP £65) along with Abraxia herself (a similar size to Belthanos who costs £65) which offers a discount on buying the contents individually.

The Varanguard box is a fantastic kit and one of my favourites in the Slaves to Darkness range – I myself tend to run an army consisting of Archaon and 3 units of Varanguard, and there’s lots of different weapon options to make 3 units all look different to each other – which is a nice touch in an elite army with only 10 or so models.

The real star of the show however is Abraxia herself, which is an absolutely gorgeous model and was an utter joy to paint up.

The model only arrived 3 days prior to writing this review, so I’ve been channeling the will of the Everchosen to get her painted ready for the article, and rather than feeling burned out, I’m actually really excited to paint more Slaves to Darkness! I went for something a little different with the skin by using the “magical blue” triad from Two Thin Coats (Sentient Turquoise, Cursed Blue and Ray Gun Glow) – In my head I wanted something close to Godzilla’s Atomic Breath, unnatural and glowing

Brand’s Oathbound Unboxing and Review

The other new kit that is released alongside the book is Brand’s Oathbound – a new Darkoath set made up of characters from the Warhammer+ animated show Hammer and Bolter. I loved the recent Darkoath set, so any excuse for more chaos worshipping barbarians is always a good thing for me!

What I didn’t realise was that this is a push fit kit – no glue is needed at all, simply push together to assemble, and this is something that Games Workshop have dabbled with across certain kits and ranges – Some people complain that push fit kits do not go together cleanly – but in my experience that only happens if you have not properly removed all the sprue, or if you are trying to use glue (The kits are engineered so that they push together, there is not always enough space for glue between the components) – If you do wish to glue them, then my advice would be to cut down the pegs to make sure there’s enough space for the glue to sit in

The finished models look ace and match the aesthetic of the wider Darkoath range, something I hope that grows over time in the 4th edition of Age of Sigmar.

Dawnbrigners 6 The Hounds of Chaos Review

So here we are, the final Dawnbringers book and the final release for the 3rd Edition of Age of Sigmar. It’s been a hell of a ride so far, across 5 previous volumes culminating in this grand finale, and I’ve enjoyed every moment of the story so far. These kind of books tend to tell the story from one edition to the next, and I kind of hope they change track a little and instead have these spread throughout the edition rather than just over the final year of the edition. We’ll be diving into the lore and what implications it has for 4th Edition Age of Sigmar at the end of the article, but first let’s take a look at what gaming rules are in the book

The Swords of Chaos

We might only have a month or so until Age of Sigmar 4th edition erupts onto the scene with the new Skaventide box, but we still get 3rd edition rules for Abraxia along with a rather tasty Army of Renown for her

Abraxia herself is pretty cool with a decent combat profile, but she comes into her own when leading Varanguard. Her Warlord of the First Circle rule allows her to issue the same command to 3 different Varanguard units in the same phase – allowing her to stack All Out Attack, All Out Defense or even things like Rally to bring back multiple depleted Varanguard units, making her a really good too to lead those elite armies.

Like a Magmadroth she also bleeds Molten Blood, causing a mortal wound on a 4+ to anyone who wounds her. She may only have a 4+ save, but with 14 wounds and a 4+ ward against mortal wounds she’s pretty resilient too.

Her spear is a daemon weapon, and as so is a bit of a double edged sword – you roll a dice at the start of the combat phase if she is in combat, and on a 1 she takes a mortal wound (Though she will get her 4+ save against this), a 2-3 nothing happens, a 4-5 her damage increases by 1 taking her main weapon up to damage 3 (With 5 attacks hitting on 3, wounding on 3 and -2 rend), and on a 6 she gets the damage increase AND on any hit of a 6 she causes D3 mortal wounds to a unit of her choice within 6″ (This doesnt have to be who she is fighting)

Her subfaction is pretty cool too, you can only take her, Archaon and Varanguard, but you get the ability to set up all your units in the sky and “deep strike” them into battle at the end of the movement phase outside of 9″ of enemies.

Each turn you also get to select a chaos god in order to gain an army wide special rule plus a bonus rule on a target unit – so for example if you pick Khorne you get extra rend on all your non-mount weapons, and in addition a single unit gets Strikes First. Or pick Nurgle to heal D3 wounds on EVERY one of your units, and reduce the save of a target enemy unit by 1. These are really fun, you can pick the same god twice, but not on two consecutive turns.

You also get access to some new Enhancements – 3 of your Varangaurd units can each pick a “First Circle Title”. These basically improve your unit with a certain specialisation – for example, you can incease the wounds of the models, increase the damage of their mounts, make them cause mortal wounds to units they end the combat phase close to, increase their save, increase their movement or increase their attacks while in enemy territory. These are really cool and give you some flavour and personality to your different Varanguard units.

They get 3 new battle tactics – these are all pretty achieveable – slay the general with Varanguard, take an objective controlled by your opponant with a unit that has used Relentless Killers, or pick a unit within 3″ of an enemy unit and slay them by the end of the turn. The Grand Strategy is nice too – you achieve it if Archaon and/or Abraxia are the only heroes on the battlefield.

Really like this, and is a great way to send off my Slaves to Darkness army for 3rd Edition!

There’s also a new Chaos Terrain Feature in the book, the Nexus Chaotica – this generates power points over the course of the game, and friendly wizards can spend points in order to add +1 to their casting values, or you can spend 9 points in order to cause D3 mortal wounds to all units contesting a target objective or terrain feature – though there is a 1 in 6 chance this instead backfires and causes damage to friendly units near the Nexus. I like this, though can be risky.

Tribes of the Snow Peaks

We also get some nice Darkoath content (Including all the new Darkoath profiles from the recent launch box, meaning you can have these in book format in case you missed out on that box)

Tribes of the Snow Peaks is the new Army of Renown, and this is based around an army consisting of just Darkoath models. This features a new mechanic where you gain Oath Points by completing Oaths with your units (each Darkoath Unit has an oath on their warscroll that they must complete in order to gain a bonus buff) or by completing Battle Tactics. These points can then be spent on enhancing your units.

So for example, you can spend a point on increasing the rend of a Darkoath unit, or giving a target unit a 4+ ward save when attacked, or even allowing a Darkoath unit to fight a second time in a round of combat. These are all really fun and give you an incentive to complete as many oaths as you can in order to power up your units.

There’s 3 new Command traits here too, and all of these revolve around generating extra Oath points, for example Oath of Slaughter increases the rend of the character, and also gives them an oath point if they slay a model during the turn.

Likewise, theres also 3 new Artefacts that lean into the new units added with the new range – so for example Grand Offering allows your to give a Wilderfiend D6 Sacrefice Points at the start of the game.

Battle tactics are doable, one means an enemy unit has to be destroyed first in the turn, one is completed if a Darkoath hero slays a hero and the final one has you getting a Darkoath unit to within 1″ of the long battlefield edge in enemy territory – this is probably the hardest one, though your fast cav have a good chance of getting an easy battle tactic late game with this, especially as they are hard to hit with shooting.

In addition to the new Darkoath kits rules, we also get profiles for the Brand’s Oathbound set – this is a collection of 2 heroes and a unit that operate much like most underworlds units. Gunnar himself is all about killing heroes, with him able to fight twice if he’s near an enemy hero, and giving all his Oathbound a 4+ ward after he kills one.

Singri Brand is a 3 wound horsewomen who has a 2 shot bow causing D3 damage, and the change of hits of 6 causing D3 mortal wounds if the target is near Gunnar.

Finally, the Oathsworn Kin consist of 2 pretty decent fighters supporting a caster with the ability to cause mortal wounds and reduce the attack characteristic of a target hero. All 3 units have the Eye of the Gods keyword so also take advantage of that mechanic too.

Path to Glory

There’s a lot of great Path to Glory in this book, starting with the conclusion of the Dawnbringers Campaign. Essentially this is rules for creating the big cinematic show down with the Crusade you have protected and grown over the book series defending their fledgling city against a siege from Despoilers.

This is an awesome way to end your Dawnbringers campaign, with your defenders hiding behind their city walls as a massive horde looks to tear down the walls and fight their way inside. There’s a gambit mechanic that represents the pre-battle efforts that the forces have made to try and sway the cause of battle – both players roll 6 dice and take turns “blind bidding” by secretly picking one, covering it with a cup or hand and the opponent doing the same, with both players revealing them at the same time – the winning player gets to roll a dice to generate an effect to happen in the battle – for the attacker this can be something such as getting to place a piece of terrain to cover their advance, up to even being able to destroy an entire section of wall. The Defenders have things such as giving all their units a 6+ ward in the first turn, all the way up to being able to give their general a bonus artefact or improve their rend.

I really hope that we see some equally epic campaigns that span multiple books in the 4th edition of AOS – though it would be nice for forces other than the Cities of Sigmar to have this kind of fun, though speaking of that the forces of Chaos do get some love in this book too…

Building on from the awesome Anvil of Apotheosis in the Thondia expansion, there’s a full Path to Glory campaign for Chaos armies very much inspired by the Realm of Chaos books from the 80s! In the Realm of Chaos campaign we see each player commanding the Slaves to Darkness, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Disciples of Tzeentch, Blades of Khorne or Maggotkin of Nurgle and fight each other for the glory of their gods.

I do wonder if this is a taste of what Path to Glory will be in AOS 4, as the mechanics revolve around creating a custom hero by using the anvil to select what weapons, mounts and abilities they have. As the campaign progresses and battles are won, your hero gains additional points that can be spent to change their weapons and mounts and to improve their abilities. For example, you might start your campaign with your hero on foot with some basic gear. A few battles later you might have earned enough points to buy then an awesome new weapon with some cool special rules that you have designed yourself from the various charts and upgrade options in the book. Fast forward a few more battles and now you have earned enough points to give them a monster to ride on. This is the kind of thing I love to see for Age of Sigmar, as it gives you the excuse to convert and create your very own character and have them evolve over the course of your campaign. If this is what Path to Glory is going to look like in the new edition of the game then I am very excited to start making some custom heroes to lead my armies.

The Lore (And what it holds for the future…)

So, I can’t really give this book a fair review without going into the lore, and that unfortunately means there will be spoilers beyond this point! If you want to read the story for yourself now is the chance to bail out, but you should know that it is an epic and satisfying conclusion to the 3rd Edition story line, and sets up some very interesting things for the next edition! If you want things spoiled then continue to scroll down past the Everchosen and his Varanguard…

Things kick off with the fledgling city of Verdigris under attack by Abraxia and the Varanguard – she has promised Archaon the city and is brutally in the process of tearing the defenders down – Unfortunately for her, she falls to the Flesh Eater Curse as some of the Dawnbringers have been tainted following their encounter with The Mad King. Archaon advises her the effects can be undone, though it will need the fire from the Ur-Phoenix temple itself. We often see some epic moments in these End of Edition series, and the razing of the Phoenicium is one such moment. Abraxia and her varanguard decimate city and Phoenix Guard alike in order to claim her prize of the Phoenix flame. We see the final Aelf defending the temple absorb the remaining enemy of the flame and being turned into a Phoenix spirit, which may well hint at a future Lumineth model – maybe taking the concept of the old High Elf Phoenixes but giving them a new AOS look. Ultimately she burns the city to the ground and turning the temple itself into a citadel called Blackpyre, which stands as a fortress from which the forces of chaos will burn the Everspring Swatch to ash – perhaps pointing at a Chaos vs Sylvaneth storyline in 4th Edition. We do see some other little hints to Slyvaneth developments in the druidic Dawnbringer Thorian slowly turning to bark over the course of the book before finally growing antlers and travelling out into the woods to find Belthanos and the Kurnothi – we’ve seen hints of a wider kurnothi range in the past, and this is maybe a sign that the magic of the Slyvaneth is starting to affect mortals in the realm of life too – I really hope this means that we will see more fay and enchanted looking creatures and characters, centaurs, fauns and satyrs for example.

We also see some pretty big lore developments over in Aqshy – with Khul acsending to dameonhood after taking the head of Gavriel Sureheart (Guess that’s why he is no longer in the range!) In the chapter he’s described as becoming a Scorpion like creature with wings, chained axes and the form of a hound – this certainly sounds like Khul will be back as a big centrepiece model for Khorne armies, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for this! Meanwhile, poor Vandus Hammerhand is denied the opportunity to take Khul down himself and is left utterly insane and broken – with Ionus Cryptborn left asking Sigmar if he knew how things would play out and if it was necessary – we see that it isnt just Hammerhand that Cryptborn has locked away, but hundreds of other cells filled with broken Stormcast. It seems that the fate of the Stormcast is a lot darker than we first thought, and that they all face a very dark future as shattered and mindless fragments of who they once were.

Of course, we also learn of how the Rataclysm happens and the details of the Vermindoom itself. The Skaven have been working with Archaon in order to create a network of Nexus points infused with Warpstone in order to shatter reality and drag their sub-realm of Blight City directly into Aqshy. Detonating these Nexuses creates an eruption that vomits their sub-realm into the center of the Realm of Fire destroying a large part of The Parch, including the city of Embergard. With the Skaven Realm now fused into the Realm of Fire, the Skaven are now a huge threat, and a Skaventide will soon engulf the realms…

I really enjoy these “end of edition” series, and it’s been great following the progress of the Dawnbringer Crusades over the last year – yes, Age of Sigmar 4th Edition is just around the corner, but I highly recommend picking up this book to experience the story while also giving you some fun and unique narrative games of 3rd edition while you wait for the Skaventide box to be released.

Age of Sigmar 3rd Edition has been a lot of fun to me, and will always hold some nostalgic appeal as I’ve been able to teach it to people I care about a great deal and created many memories with it by sharing something I’m very passionate about. Everything I’ve experienced so far for 4th Edition has been excellent, and I can’t wait to finally get my hands on it. bring on the Rataclysm!

Dawnbringers 6: The Hounds of Chaos is up for pre order today and is released Saturday the 8th June

Games Workshop provided Sprues and Brews with free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

View all posts by Matt Crowther