Wrath of the Everchosen Review

Last Updated on April 23, 2021 by FauxHammer

Table of Contents show

This review contains minor spoilers for Wrath of the Everchosen.

Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)

Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.

Artus-Opus-FauxHammer-Starter-Set-Banner-3

Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores

UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
US/Canada: MTechCave, GameKastle, eBay (US), eBay (CA), Amazon

Germany: Taschengelddieb
Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
Australia: eBay, Amazon

Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours

3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic

FauxHammer – Latest Video on YouTube

One of the biggest issues with Warhammer Fantasy Battles was that the story had been in a state of stagnation for many years, with the only time the story advanced significantly in recent years being the story arc which culminated in its destruction. Yep, that one.

Not so with Age of Sigmar.

Since its inception the game world has been shaped by an ever evolving narrative. In the early days of the Mortal Realms players even shaped the development of the setting through a global narrative campaign (it was awesome).

Age of Sigmar Second Edition saw the beginning of the Soul Wars story arc and the rise (again) of the embodiment of death and egomania, Nagash. Wrath of the Everchosen is the latest chapter in the Soul Wars story arc.

Following up on the events of the Forbidden Power supplement released Summer 2019, Wrath of the Everchosen chronicles the incursion of Katakros the Undefeated and his Ossiarch Bonereapers into the Eightpoints, a realm between realms that has been ground under the heel of Archaon the Everchosen and the forces of Chaos.

The book features an account of the events of Katakros’ invasion, guides for painting your models to look like the various factions and subfactions featured within the story, battleplans for reenacting the campaign within the book, and rules for sieges, wandering spells and monsters and more.

“Sounds comprehensive,” you say.

Well, we’ll see.

Wrath of the Everchosen Review – Lore

Games Workshop writers always have set before them a bit of an uphill struggle. Despite how thrilling fighting is in games and films, it can be quite boring to read about. One of the clever ways that Games Workshop circumvents this is in having event timelines that serve both to inform the reader whilst also instilling a sense of history.

Because Wrath of the Everchosen is an account of a series of battles in a single campaign – as opposed to a battletome grounding a faction with thousands of years of history within the Mortal Realms – a timeline is somewhat redundant.

And there’s quite a lot of attritional warfare within the story that makes for quite dry reading.

There are still plenty of the signiature GW “short” short stories introducing new characters and detailing dialogue between characters that arguably make for the most interesting reading. There is a fantastic scene between Archaon and a certain god of some renown that was my own highlight within the lore section.

Marakarr Blood-sky first appeared in Malign Portents and makes an appearance in the story, too.

The attritional warfare wouldn’t be such a problem were it not for the feeling that after everything was said and done – nothing really happened.

Katakros has his first real outing since his reveal and establishes a fortress within the Eightpoints, and it’s always cool being reminded why everybody is terrified of Archaon, but the payoff ultimately makes everything that occurs up that point feel a bit like filler.

Wrath of the Everchosen Review – Art

I absolutely love the cover art for this book. Seeing Archaon – the avatar of Chaos in the Mortal Realms – sweeping through disciplined ranks of Bonereapers whilst Dorgharr is just hovering about in the background doing his thing really evokes the power and dark majesty of the character.

“I knew Dorgharr when he was a daemonic war-horse!”

You just know how things are going to go in this book by looking at this image.

The usual evocative miniature showcases are peppered throughout the book, featuring models painted to an exceptional standard by the ‘Eavy Metal team from both the Chaos and Death ranges. Most of the artwork has been repurposed from previous publications.

If you’re not familiar with Slaves to Darkness, Bonereapers or Nighthaunt a lot of the artwork will be new to you. But given this is a book that’s largely going to appeal to Chaos and Death players/fans/collectors it’s a bit of a shame that they’re going to be seeing images that they’ve mostly seen before.

Games Workshop artwork is stunning to look at every time, but it would have been nice to see a couple more new pieces.

The painting guides primarily focus upon Chaos models that were released before the Contrast paint range came out and so focus largely on painting those models using the Contrast range, often in conjunction with other paints from the Citadel Colour range.

The guides are simple, comprehensive and cover enough techniques that painters of various skill levels should find something useful to try out.

There is also a guide for painting a Bone Tithe Nexus for the Bonereapers but as an abundance of painting guides for the Death factions featured in the book already exist it makes sense that Chaos gets most of the attention here.

Wrath of the Everchosen Review – Rules

The rules section is where this particular book really shines. Though the bulk of this section is comprised of the Allegiance Abilities and Battalions for running a Legion of Chaos Ascendant (aka Archaon’s Dudes) Army, there is a treasure trove of stuff here for every Age of Sigmar gamer.

Realm of Battle rules for the Eightpoints. Roaming Monsters. Wandering Endless Spells. Siege Warfare. Battleplans. Lots of stuff to spice up your ~~life~~ games.

The Roaming Monsters and Wandering Endless Spells are particularly interesting. Essentially, these have been transplanted from Warcry (also set in the Eightpoints). Basically, they are AI systems that introduce models outwith the control of either player to the table that add an extra element of danger to games of Age of Sigmar.

Because nothing says “fantasy” like a flaming, screaming skull crashing your battle.

If you’re a Chaos player you should probably get this book. You could almost consider Wrath of the Everchosen another Chaos Battletome with the sheer amount of Allegiance Abilities on offer.

The Legion of Chaos Ascendant will allow you to take a mixed Daemons army. These rules are a really great call-back to the Daemons of Chaos armies that some will remember from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The writers even snuck in a couple of rules that allow you to get that sweet, sweet 5+ ward save from back in the day.

As if that weren’t enough, the book also includes rules for each of the 4 Chaos factions with each god getting at least 2 sets of abilities that are esssentially supplements to those respective books. It’s always good to see GW dishing out new shinies for existing factions and model ranges. Honestly, I wish they’d do that a little more.

Wrath of the Everchosen Review – Final Thoughts

Pros	Cons
Rules for Chaos Undivided! Roaming Monsters! Wandering Endless Spells! Sieges!	Very little New Art Largely Uneventful Story Overwhelmingly a Chaos Love-in

Whilst it may – at least superficially – seem that this is a book for Chaos and Death players, Wrath of the Everchosen really has something to offer every type of Age of Sigmar player. If you’re interested in this book purely for the lore and narrative elements, you’re most likely going to be disappointed.

I don’t really see even the most hardcore fans of the Mortal Realms’ Edgiest getting excited about the events of Katakros’ invasion.

There’s no question that the story is a bit disappointing, though it does set up the potential for some really interesting stuff in the future. It’s particularly annoying when GW cheekily didn’t even reveal what was in the much hyped Storm Vault of Forbidden Power within the cover of that book.

At the time of writing this review Scotland is still largely in lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I am seriously excited about being able to play Age of Sigmar again and I will absolutely be getting the Spells and Monsters rules from this book to the table as the first order of business. Wrath of the Everchosen is absolutely redeemed by what it brings to the game.

A copy of Wrath of the Everchosen was provided by the author for this review.