Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review

Last Updated on January 28, 2022 by FauxHammer

Old ememies re-ignite in Games Workshop’s latest battlebox. The raw fury of the Fyreslayers is pitted against the duplicity and cunning of the Idoneth Deepkin as the two factions face off against each other over the legendary magmahold of Ryftmar. Who will be victorious: the Warm Dwarves or the Wet Elves?

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Summary

Fury of the Deep is a really great box, and is step in the right direction for future battlebox releases. Creaking under the weight of the miniatures inside it and jam-packed with all the extra goodies you need to take your new figures from your hobby table and to the battlefield, it’s an excellent release that no Age of Sigmar fan will want to miss out on.

No matter which way you look at it, Fury of the Deep has one major trump card with which no naysayer can argue: it’s staggeringly good value. With both factions offering up an equitable amount of models to the retail price of the box, you’re basically getting one faction for free.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Introduction

ans of Warhammer 40,000 have had a pretty good run of battleboxes over the last few months courtesy of the simultaneously benevolent and chaotic gods at Gee-Dubyah. The last three battlebox releases, Shadow Throne, Hexfire and even Piety and Pain, have taken fans of the grim darkness of the far future on a crash-course through some of the universe’s perhaps lesser-known factions in order to wrangle the limelight away from Space Marines.

Whilst these have all been great in their own right, Age of Sigmar fans have been left high and dry, started of a battlebox release for quite some time. Perhaps this is because Age of Sigmar was the recipient of a new edition last year, which prompted the release of the formidable Dominion box, as well as a trio of excellent starter sets.

Still, 2022 kicks off promisingly for all fans of swords and sorcery with the new Fury of the Deep battlebox, which sets everyone’s favourite bemusled, ginger-haired maniacs – the Duardin Fyreslayers (dwarves with a thing for fire, for newcomers) – against the ocean-dwelling, soul-stealing cunning of the Idoneth Deepkin (ethically questionable water elves, again for the unfamiliar).

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Unboxing

Y’all know how this be goin’ now, we’ve done dozens of these together so you know the format. Here’s the box.

As ever, it’s festooned with incredible artwork. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but Games Workshop never fails to deliver on its artwork.

With the lid removed, we have our piles of plastic.

Sprues! Nine of them, in fact.

Next up, we have a divider with the same artwork as is on the front of the box. Whilst these will always make great posters for a painting cave or wheresoever it is you perform your rites to the hobby gods, their primary purpose is to keep your plastic and your paper goods separate so one does not scratch the other. There’s a good chance yours may arrive with perforations or scratches, but if it does, it has fulfilled its purpose.

Beneath the divider, we have everything else in the box.

So, that’s your bases and the various books and cards that come in this set. Each are kept in their own plastic bag or wallet for safekeeping during transit.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Contents

There’s a lot of stuff in this box. Like, a lot of stuff. Here it all is rammed into my (somewhat measly) lightbox.

Here’s what you get:

• 21 x Fyreslayer miniatures
  • 1 x Auric Flamekeeper
  • 5 x Auric Hearthguard, also able to be built as Hearthguard Berzerkers
  • 5 x Hearthguard Berzerkers, also able to be built as Auric Hearthguard
  • 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers
• 22 x Idoneth Deepkin miniatures
  • 1 x Akhelian Thrallmaster
  • 1 x Akhellian Allopex
  • 10 x Namarti Reavers
  • 10 x Namarti Thralls
• The 56-page Warhammer Age of Sigmar Core Rules book
• The 40-page Fury of the Deep booklet
• 9 Warscroll Cards
• A Token Board which can be used to make 27 Tokens
• 2 x 9″ Range Rulers

Yeah. A lot of stuff.

Compared to previous more recent battlebox releases, there’s a great deal more in this box to enable purchasers to actually get playing. Compared to the previous Warhammer 40,000 battlebox releases from the last twelve months – namely Shadow Throne, Hexfire and even Piety and Pain – the inclusion of Warscroll Cards, tokens, and a copy of the game’s core rules sets Fury of the Deep well apart from its recent predecessors.

In fact, to get anything even a little similar to the level of contents we see, we have to go back more than twelve months to the last Age of Sigmar battlebox: Shadow and Pain (has it really been that long since we’ve had an AoS battlebox, or am I forgetting something…?).

A hindsight tinged by more recent 40K battlebox releases (which have trended towards including only models and a campaign book) makes Shadow and Pain look as if it were positively bursting at the seams with goodies. Fury of the Deep, however, makes it look positively underfed with its impressive offering of both miniatures and extra goodies to get people engaged with the game. Let’s take a closer look at everything in turn now.

Literature

This box is overflowing with many things, and written goods number amongst the myriad. Between a copy of the Age of Sigmar Third Edition Core Rules, a Fury of the Deep Campaign Book, and a decent stack of Warscroll Cards, there’s everything you need to get playing Age of Sigmar contained in this box.

Core Rules

I really can’t overstate how great these books are.

Due to reviewing various sets across the last year or however long it’s now been since Third became a thing, I’ve got a couple of these kicking around the house. They’re awesome resources: they’re distilled, filtered-down and comprehensive versions of the main rules that don’t take up too much room on the tabletop.

They’re a brilliant resource for gamers who just need to check a rule quickly, and they’re not so jargon-heavy that new players can’t understand them. Sure, they might not be quite as glamorous as one of the special edition rulebooks nor one of the hardcover copies, but they have all the info you need.

I’ve played a few games of Age of Sigmar via TTS over lockdown, and even thought the game comes with all the rules you need already built in to the mod, I found having one of these next to my keyboard to be extremely useful – especially when it came to arguing whether or not my Weirdnob Shaman could keep unbinding the endless tide of meteors my opponent’s Lord Kroak’s kept dropping on my Orruks.

Fury of the Deep Campaign Book

For the uninitiated, campaign books are the “expansion content”, for want of a better phrase, that comes in each battlebox.

They contain new rules, battleplans, and additional means to add narrative structure to your games of Age of Sigmar using the contents of the set.

This follows the GW battlebox campaign book genome to the letter. The first part of the book contains all the lore and relevant background to e3stablish why there are a bunch of Fyreslayers and Idoneth Deepkin in a box together in the first place, interspaced with plenty of eye-popping artwork

And, of course, the book also contains all the Warscrolls you’ll need for your miniatures.

Warscroll Cards

Much like the slimline Core Rules book also included in this set, Warscroll Cards are one of those things that you don’t really appreciate the value of until you have a cause to use them.

They are extremely handy resources to have. Small enough to be tucked into a pocket or bag, but durable enough to survive being leafed through again and again or tossed across a table in frustration.

Fury of the Deep comes with a card for each unit included in the box, so you have no excuse to not take your new miniaturised warriors straight to the battlefield once they’re all assembled (and painted to a level you’re satisfied with).

Wargear

All the wargear, as we call it, that is included in this set comes on a single push-out perforated board. These are the tokens and range rulers that are designed to be used to help facilitate play of the Fury of the Deep expansion.

Tokens

How is it possible that the company responsible for such wild, colourful, and interesting tokens such as those we’ve seen in Harrowdeep, Red Harvest, Kill Team: Octarius, and, to be honest, just about every other recent release that had tokens in it, capable of creating such dull tokens as those in this box?

As you’ll see with the range rulers below as well, I feel like a ball was definitely dropped somewhere between the artistic direction of the rest of the Fury of the Deep box and the push-out tokens and range rulers. Sure, they do what you need them to, but they’re so boring.

I mean, look at these offerings from past releases:

Because each token is so vivid and colourful, or is shaped in a certain way or sports it own unique design, it’s clear at a glance which little cardboard shape is supposed to be used for what.

But with Fury of the Deep, we’ve got some white circles. The objective markers, command points and various other status and effect tokens all look completely identical at a glance. Age of Sigmar 3.0 was designed to be a slimmed-down, quick-fire, fast and furious game of spinning dice and making imaginary war across a table top. That’s not going to be possible when you have to spend rifling through a pile of white disks looking for the right one, or stooping over the batlefield to try and read what token your opponent just stuck down next to your Hearthguard Berserkers.

The tokens are very much a blip in this box, which is otherwise so far excellent.

Range Rulers

Subscribers to the Age of Sigmar: Mortal Realms or Warhammer 40,000: Imperium partworks magazines – or even purchasers of other boxed games – may expect the range rulers that come in the Fury of the Deep box to be of the same plastic ilk that they have previously come into contact with. However, this is not the case.

The range rulers that come with Fury of the Deep are pushed out of the same perforated board from which one removes their tokens, which means that they are made of card. Each ruler is also printed with a slightly different design, though due to the colour of the print, it’s not so obvious what’s going on in the artwork on each. Simply one is printed with a Fyreslayer design, the other with an Idoneth Deepkin design.

On the one hand, it’s nice to have some slightly different range rulers compared to the usual run-of-the-mill plastic range rulers that get chucked in with the odd release every now and then (such as the one picture below, which is from the Warcry: Red Harvest set). It’s also good to see GW using the leftover space on what would otherwise have been a fairly empty perforated board with just the token on it for something else.

However, the rulers that come with Fury of the Deep are not only shorter than the standard 12″ range rulers we’ve grown accustomed to, I’d also argue that they aren’t as durable. Sure, the regular plastic ones we’ve seen slotted in with many releases over the past few years will snap or break if bent too far, but the fact that they’re made of a single piece of plastic likely makes them more durable.

The card range rulers in Fury of the Deep are much more likely to get bent, fray, peel apart, or just break. Whilst it’s cool to have some slightly different rulers, and good to see that waste on the perforated board from which the tokens and rulers are birthed (ew…) is being minimised, if I’m honest I think I’d have preferred some of the typical plastic ones over these.

Again, much like the tokens, the rulers are a bit of a disappointment in what has thus far been an extremely promising release.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Models

With no less than 43 figures – yes, 43! – in the box, Fury of the Deep is a treasure-trove for any model-making, miniature-painting, or wargaming hobby-lover.

One thing to note right away is the, uh, distinct lack of dress presented by both armies included in the battlebox. There’s a lot of flesh on display in Fury of the Deep, so if you’re like me and your skin-painting skills tend to leave something to be desired, now might be a good time to find yourself a good flesh painting guide!

Both FauxHammer himself and I would recommend all hobbyists have a look at Monument Hobbies’ Olive, Tan and Shadow Flesh paints. These are excellent paints, great for mixing and blending and will be a good tool to have in your arsenal when it comes to painting skin – particularly Duardin flesh, which tends to be much ruddier than other skin tones.

That said, the classic Bugman’s Glow, Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh combo hasn’t done me dirty yet.

Fyreslayers

We’ll kick off our look at the models with an in-depth dive into the Duardin part of the box. Fyreslayers, known for branding themselves with Ur-gold tattoos to augment their strength, are feared warriors in the Mortal Realms – even though they have a tendency to eschew clothing.

Auric Flamekeeper

The Auric Flamekeeper is one of two new models exclusive to this box set. Whilst these will no doubt be released separately in the near-ish future, collectors particularly keen to get their hands on some brand-new and original plastic will want to take note.

He’s a straightforward build aside from a handful of components that go together to make his headdress. His three-tiered mohawk is made up of three “slices”, which don’t go together as easily as one may like, but aside from that he’s a very easy little chap to put together.

He’s a nice model, too: covered in details and sculpted really well, his flaming axe really helps add to the overall gravitas of the figure. He’ll look smashing at the front of your armies.

Auric Hearthguard

You can also assemble your Auric Hearthguard as Hearthguard Berserkers. This means that the box provides you with all the parts you need in order to build ten of one or the other instead of five of each, if you so wished.

They’re simply little models, made up of only a handful of components that go together with ease. One thing to be aware of, though, is that some of the sprue gates are not always placed in the easiest to access areas, or are sometimes connected to flimsier parts of the figures – such as the keys on the Hearthguards’ bodies, and some of the thinner parts on their weapons. Take your time removing these from the sprue in order to ensure you don’t damage them.

Hearthguard Berserkers

As above, your Hearthguard Berserkers can also be built as Auric Hearthguard, so if you wished you could have ten of one or the other instead of five of each.

Because they come from the same sprue as the Auric Hearthguard, there’s not much else to be added here – aside from that those pesky thinner pieces on the Auric Hearthguards’ weapons are no longer an issue. The weapon heads attach to the handles easily, and the sculpt of the torsos and arms makes it really easy to ensure that both arms are lined up in the correct place.

They’re quite fun little figures too, once they’re together. Really mad naked dudes with burning morningstars. Warhammer, everyone.

Vulkite Berserkers

I think the Vulkite Berserkers might be my favourite kit in the Fry of the Deep box. These models are not only astoundingly easy to put together, but they’re designed in such a way to ensure you have maximum freedom over how you put them together.

Every belt, head, helmet plume, and weapon are interchangeable (within the limitations of making sure that a right hand is attached to a right wrist and so-on), so you really can build a unique unit of warriors. They’re super modular, and as a result, they’re extremely easy to put together. Oh, and they look really cool.

I also love this set because the captain is called a “Karl”, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this little Duardin’s mates saying “Kaaaarl, that kills people!” every time he swings his mighty weapons. Also, there’s a dwarf with a trumpet, which conjures up memories of Gimli blowing the horn of Helm Hammerhand at Helm’s Deep.

Idoneth Deepkin

With the Dwarves Duardin out of the way, let’s have a look at their foes. There are no fewer than 22 Idoneth Deepkin miniatures in the box, one of which just so happens to be a heavily armed and armoured shark.

Akhelian Thrallmaster

The Akhelian Thrallmaster is the second of two new miniatures currently exclusive to the Fury of the Deep box set. In spite of being a build with a surprisingly large number of components, the Akhelian Thrallmaster goes together with ease.

Clear instructions, as well as a thoughtful sculpt, make all the various components slot together easily. And once he’s together, he makes for a pretty impressive model.

Akhelian Allopex

Rather like the Thrallmaster before it, the Akhelian Alloplex is a fairly long-winded build but isn’t too bad. There are a couple of points during construction – when attaching the stand to the rear of the Alloplex upon which the second crewmember stands, and lining up said second crewmember with his crossbow and the stand upon which he is attached – that are a bit fiddly, but other than that it’s a straightforward model to put together.

There are a handful of variant choices across the model; the pilot and rider’s weapons, the Alloplex’s head, the ammunition loaded into the crossbow, and there are a few option bits – rope, bottles, and so-on – that can be attached should you wish to.

I noticed that there appear to be a couple of mislabelled components during the Alloplex build. In step 2d, when building the pilot, component C18 is, a chestplate, seems to refer to the piece labelled C20 on the sprue, and what is labelled as C20 in the instructions (a leg) is C22 on the sprue.

There is one very big problem with the Alloplex, though. The shark does not want to attach to its base.

The Alloplex is attached via a flight stand to its base – you know, one of those transparent plastic stems that you’ve seen holding up Adepta Sororitas Seraphim and Zephyrim, and just about any other unit in mid-air. However, the slot into which the stem goes is a little too large for the stem, which leaves room for the Alloplex to see-saw backwards and forwards. In all, this means the two don’t sit together so well and will need to be given a good long time to set (I left mine for three hours, came back, picked it up and it immediately fell off the stand), so be prepared to have to prop the Alloplex up and leave it be – maybe overnight.

Namarti Reavers

In stark contrast to their predecessors, the Namarti Reavers are a bit more fiddly to assemble, in spite of being made up of far fewer components. Each model has a variant build as well, holding their bow and something in their other hand in a slightly different angle, so you’ve lots of freedom to make these figures look just how you want.

The models are great and look smashing once they’re together: they’re all rendered in fluid, dynamic, exciting poses. However, this comes with a caveat: because these models are in such expressive poses, this means – and this is something of a universal truth with a lot of Warhammer – that they’re often a bit more difficult to put together.

Because limbs are extended or contorted, this means that the contact points between components are often quite small, which means making sure that arm holding a bow lines up with the other arm holding an arrow can be a little more difficult than one may like. Also, completed models often have very small contact points with their bases, which means a builder can find themselves sitting holding a figure for a while as the parts dry together.

It’s not much of a complaint, more something to be aware of. Don’t expect to be able to build the Namarti Reavers quickly – be patient, and the results are well worth it.

Also, some of the cloths the Reavers are wearing around their waists have a few gaps between the components. Check out our guide to filling gaps and seams to help you get rid of these.

Namarti Thralls

The Thralls, much like the Reavers, are made of only a handful of components each. However, the vast majority of the Thralls go together far easier than the bow-toting brethren with whom they share a box. Components are, on the whole, both far larger and fewer in number, which makes the Thralls very easy to assemble.

They’re also a nice bunch of models once they’re all assembled, and a few of them have variant weapons and weapon poses so once again you’ve got plenty of opportunities to personalise your unit.

There are also a handful of undersea-themed scenic components that you can attach to the bases of whichever Thralls you wish – coral, seaweed, fish, that sort of thing – which is a nice touch.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Price and Availability

Here at FauxHammer.com, we know how much you all love a good table, so here’s a blow-by-blow breakdown of everything in the box, how much it all costs, and how much moolah you can save by picking up a copy of this box.

*based on Auric Runemaster, Grimwrath Berserker, Battlesmith

**based on Isharann Soulrender, Isharann Soulscryer, Isharann Tidecaster

Here’s how much each side of the box is worth:

And last but definitely not least, your savings:

Cor blimey, that’s some crackin’ value there, that is. You’re basically paying full retail price for one of the two factions and getting the other for free!

And, of course, we’re basing the value of the box solely on the models inside it, discounting the Warscroll Cards, the Campaign Book, the Core Rules (which I’ve found to be an exceptionally useful resource) and the tokens which would only further increase the overall value of the box.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Where to Next?

Luckily for newfound lovers of both Warm Dwarves and Wet Elves, GW produces Start Collecting! boxes for both the Fyreslayers and the Idoneth Deepkin, so if you’re desperate to reinforce your new armies, the next logical step lies with either of those boxes. The Fyreslayer one is a little bit more expensive, but it comes with a whacking great dragon-lizard thing, so I think it can be forgiven.

If you’re all about the paint, the Idoneth Deepkin have some truly sublime models for you to get your brushes onto, such as Eidolon of Mathlann and Volturnos, High King of the Deep.

And, of course, no collection of Dwarves, Duardin, or whatever it is you want to call them, can be considered complete without the Ginger Menace himself.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Final Thoughts

There is a great deal to like in this box, and very little not to like.

The models are excellent. Sure, one or two of them have a couple of fiddly bits that don’t go together as well as one may like, and the accursed flight stand on the Alloplex is a pain, but persevere and you’ll be rewarded with some truly brilliant and unique miniatures.

There’s also a huge heap of other stuff in the box to do, and the inclusion of the Core Rules booklet enables people to actually start playing Age of Sigmar with the contents of this box alone (well, providing you have a few dice knocking around your abode somewhere).

This has to be one of the most accessible battleboxes we’ve had for a while. It’s not necessarily beginner friendly – there’s no introductory content akin to that in the Starter Sets – but anyone with the patience to sit down and read through the rules will be able to pick the game up. That the box does come with a set of the rules makes it a great purchase for anyone looking to get back into Age of Sigmar after a break, or any experienced wargamers looking to break into the Sigmarsphere.

This is a really great box and an excellent start to 2022 for Age of Sigmar. This well-thought-out box makes me very hopeful for whatever other boxed releases there may scheduled for this year.

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