Product Review: Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos

Product Review: Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos

Warhammer Forge, the Warhammer Fantasy division of Forge World, has released their first Warhammer Fantasy supplement called Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos. The book provides lore, campaign outlines, scenarios, army rules and themes that centers around the coming of Tamurkhan, the Maggot Lord and his conquest of the empire of man.

The production quality of the book is absolutely top notch. Every single page is made of high quality parchment paper and the book is bound with a dark red leather cover. The pages are full color and the font they use varies from an “archaic” freehanded script to your standard print. The artwork is both unique and stunning, it provides you with a wonderful visual of what the author was trying to convey in his story. I have purchased my fair share of gaming books in the past and the quality of this supplement really rates at the top.

The story for this supplement was done very well. In this tale, Nurgle has unleashed his chosen champion Tamurkhan upon the world. Historically, the forces of Chaos have always come down through Kislev and smashed against the might of the Empire’s northern battlements. Tamurkhan, the Maggot Lord, decides to come in from the South and blazes his way through the Ogre Kingdoms, the Dark Lands and finally through the Border Princes to Nuln. Each chapter describes how Tamurkhan conquers, slaughters, dominates or enslaves both allies and foes on his way to the heart of the Empire. The story is so well done and it dominates the first 100 or so pages of the book. The author, Alan Bligh, does such a good job describing the blasted trail that Tamurkhan and his hordes of chaos carve through the Warhammer world and the events that transpire during the journey.

Now the next part of the book deals with the actual game world and provides the reader with not only new units to use but also how to run the actual story campaign and the scenarios to go along with it. I was already pleased with the book due to the story and I knew that the new units in the book were going to be well worth the $76.00 price tag, but I had no idea that the book would provide the campaign setting and outline for Tamurkhan’s storming of the Old World. The campaign outline was the proverbial icing on the cake. The campaign outline is designed for armies of both 2500 and 3500 points. This further reinforces my belief that Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition is geared towards higher level point values but I digress! The campaign itself is split up into six different chapters or phases and has it’s own limitations for heroes and magical items. Each “phase” corresponds with one of the six chapters in the story section of the book and each phase they recommend having as many battles as you have players in the campaign before moving on. Each battle you fight will have a random scenario to be chosen which is worth a set number of points. The side (Order vs. Chaos) that has the most points at the end of the phase wins that phase and the side with the most points will receive bonuses in the final scenario. I personally am looking forward to running this campaign with my friends and seeing how it plays out.

The bestiary is the next leg of the book that describes three main sections; Chaos forces, Empire forces and the Legions of Azgorh – the Chaos Dwarves. I will be providing a super brief run down of various units in this book and my thoughts about them. The first thing I wanted to make known is that the units in this book are actually well done. The Chaos units are definitely themed and do not suck! The point values actually reflect the model’s worth very well and I think the game designer did an excellent job on all three sections. In future posts I’ll do a full evaluation of each unit and special character in the book but for this post I’ll just list out the units and the chaos dwarf army.



Bestiary of Chaos:

Bile Trolls of Chaos – rare selection for Warriors of Chaos

Plague Toads of Nurgle – Core choice in Daemons of Chaos, Special Choice in Warriors of Chaos.

Pox Riders of Nurgle – special selection for Daemons of Chaos

Chaos War Mammoth – Rare selection for Warriors of Chaos (so awesome!)

Chaos Siege Giant – Rare selection in both Warriors of Chaos and Legion of Azgorh.



The Empire Bestiary is full of special characters that augment the army or have a pivotal role in the Throne of Chaos campaign.

The Marienberg Class Land Battle Ship – is a Rare selection for the Empire.



Now is the part that everyone has been waiting for! I will not be typing out anything other than what is listed and the type of unit it is. I will do a full run down in later posts about each unit.



Legion of Azgorh: The Chaos Dwarves



Lord choices:

Sorcerer-Prophet –Wizard (lore of Hashut, Fire, Metal or Death)

Hero choices:

Daemonsmith Sorcerer – Wizard (lore of Fire, Metal or Death)

Infernal Castellan – Infantry melee Hero

Hobgoblin Khan – Infantry melee Hero

Bull Centaur Taur’ruk – Monstrous Beast Hero

Core choices:

Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard – two options for outfitting – ranged or hand to hand.

Hobgoblin Cutthroats – infantry

Special choices:

Chaos Dwarf Infernal Ironsworn – Infantry

Bull Centaur Renders – Monstrous Beasts

K’Daai Fireborn – Monstrous Infantry

Magma Cannon – War machine

Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher – War machine

Iron Daemon War Engine – Unique war machine/chariot/something

Rare choices:

Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders – Cavalry

Dreadquake Mortar – War Machine

K’Daai Destroyer – Monster

Hellcannon – as per Warriors of Chaos army book

Chaos Siege Giant – Monster



The army itself is very formidable and should be fun to play and play against. I was exceptionally pleased with how well they presented the material. The army is more of an elite and specialized army but has a lot of flexibility. I was surprised that there was not a Lord level close combat styled character but that may be because the Sorcerer-Prophet’s are beefy enough to give even your standard combat Lord pause before attacking.



The last section and probably the most surprising was the Storm of Magic chapter. The designers actually included a Bestiary of the monsters located in this book for SoM! You can take the Chaos Siege Giant, Bile Trolls, Carmine Dragon and the Toad Dragon.



Final thoughts and wrap up for Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos.

I think that Warhammer Forge has managed to single handedly win me over with just one release. I was almost willing to order the 800+ dollar order to get a medium sized army of Chaos Dwarves, good thing fear of my girlfriend and my imminent death swayed me not to. The book itself is phenomenal, the content is amazing and the rules and bestiary are top notch. Two thumbs up in my book. I will now have a hard time NOT buying Warhammer Forge releases!



You can all expect a full run down of each unit in the Legion of Azgorh in the next few weeks.