The Monstrous Arcanum
One of the most highly-sought-after products at the Forge World Open Day was the Monstrous Arcanum. Suffice to say, the front doors were virtually smashed in by the first guys to arrive at Warhammer World and the limited number of books disappeared faster than a Gnoblar in a pit of hungry Gorgers. Fortunately, you can now order the book from the Forge World website, so those of you that didn't come to the Forge World Open Day can now get your hands on it, too.
The book, written by master scribe Alan Bligh, is completely bonkers - an insane collection of monsters, magic items and scenarios that are just waiting to be used in your Storm of Magic battles. There are nine new magic items, all of which are very useful when it comes to taking on Wizards and big beasties; and three new mythic artefacts in the book, giving you more options to upgrade your Heroes than ever before. The Crucible of Horrors looks particularly terrifying (both for you and your opponent). Put it this way: make sure your Hero reads the instructions before they use it.
Then you've got the main part of the book - the main course, as it were, which is literally crammed full of gribbly Bound Monsters. 31 of them to be precise, ranging from Shard Dragons and Elementals to the Rogue Idol of Gork and the utterly bizarre Necrofex Colossus - an Undead Giant constructed from wood, bone, metal and many, many bodies. There's also a creature in there called the Mourngul, the artwork for which is very creepy indeed. Like all Storm of Magic monsters, these colossal creatures are available to any Warhammer army, making this book a fantastic addition to any hobbyist's collection.
For those of you that haven't seen it yet, Alan Bligh has also been filmed talking about the Monstrous Arcanum - what it's all about, the kinds of monsters you'll find inside it, the different ways that you can use them in your games and how you can include them in your armies.
While many of these epic monsters are not yet available from Forge World (give the designers a chance, they've only got two hands each. Well, for the most part...), those that are have already started to make an appearance in our Flickr pool. Check out these fantastic examples painted by Christopher Poole using his distinctive grimy colour scheme.
