Malign Sorcery Review
Tags : malign sorcery review second edition age of sigmar
Hello everyone !!
Welcome to the review of Malign Sorcery, the Extension for AOS 2.0 about sorcery, spells and relics !
Malign Sorcery let you launch spell so big that they need models ! These new effects are called Endless Spell. As the name suggest they are spells that stay on the field until dispelled by either side. That's the trick, Endless Spell can be dispelled or moved by both players, meaning the you can cast a big spell and see it coming back into your line on the next turn and be forced to dispel it. Loads of fun expected !
The Malign Sorcery box is composed of 13 models (the endless spell) , 1 rulebook, 14 warscrolls cards.
Malign sorcery include matched play profile so it's considered an official addition to the Meta. With the release of Souls War and the Second edition of AOS it's difficult to foresee how these spells are going to fit it. But we can consider that with the nerf to Bolt and Shield, there is room for new forms of magic ;)
This set is a different take on magic in miniatures games and it's really interesting, the idea to use physical models available to every army is great. One of the big problems for a lot of allegiance (usually old one) is generating mortal wounds. With the nerf to Arcane Bolt (from 1d3 to 1 Mortal Wound unless 10+ on casting) Offensive Endless Spells are a necessity for some armies. Another difficulty if you play with a limited range of models in your faction is that sometime list building is repetitive. Lastly in some case your army just don't have specific answer to the meta.
This is why I really like this expansion, every faction can take Endless spell or Realm items. While I am sure some new armies have enough spells or relics already. Limited faction without a dedicated Battletome (like brayherds) are going to use them intensively.
Maybe you can see it as an old codex tax (point wise and money wise ^^) but the box is only 65€ and most of the spells are 40 to 60 pts. It also add to list building options. For the last 200 pts, do I want a Battalion ? Command points ? Endless spells ? So many choice for everyone.
To me the real gems are the Endless support spells !! The prismatic wall, the Chronomatic Cogs and The Balewind Vortex are all superb options ! Sure they are not as flashy as a Purple Sun but they really help any armies. Maybe the Cog is too strong for his points and the portals have too many scary interactions but it's going to be fun to test this !!
The book is divided in 2 parts, one about Endless spells (Fluff & Rules) The second is about Rules of the Realms (more Relics and Spells)
Endless spells
So yea Malign sorcery is about Endless Spells but there is a lot of good fluff about magic.
Fluff
10 pages of the book are dedicated to the Magic in the Mortal Realms. A lot of ground is covered here. You learn about all magic colors/types, different methods to see the magic flow, There is a double page on the Learning of magic for each Grand Alliance, another one on the different Realmstones and their Properties. 2 more on the source of Magic. The end of the chapter cover the Necroquake and it's consequences. Tales about Spell Bounty Hunters are also mentioned (it's a super idea for an AOS RPG !!)
After the general background the book go into the details of each spell, how it came to exist, where
it manifested, some tragic or great stories. What happen when you dispell one or summon another.
It's all very interesting and while biggest spells have bigger screen time ^^ each one of them have some backstory and a nice illustration.
Some exemple :
The non rules section of the Malign Sorcery Book end with pics showing Endless Spells on the battlefield and a few painting tutorials.