Harald Hammerstorm
Harald Hammerstorm (Otherwise known as "Harry the Hammer") is a character based deeply in the history of Warhammer.
How deep, you ask?
How about "So Deep that when Warhammer was born, he was the first guy on the cover of the first boxed set, smacking up a skeleton with a hammer"? Or, if that doesn't satisfy you, "Deep enough to have appeared again in the 2E Boxed Set, throwing down with Orcs and Goblins"? Yeah, HE held the first Warhammer, before Sigmar ever saved some lumpy Dwarf. One would think that he'd be a memorable character, right? WRONG. He, like his probable penmate Grombrindal the White Dwarf, remained as a figure, a mascot without a story.
He is later mentioned as having fallen against Vlad after a gruesome duel in the End Times.
Rules & Redo[edit]
Around the 6E-ish era, that made a change. To commemorate WHFB's 25th birthday, the guys at GW decided to redesign him. Since they now had the whole mythos of Sigmar and Ghal Maraz established, their idea was to make an evil opposite number to the Empire's holiest weapon and made Harry the Hammer into a Chaos Warrior.
His story, though, remains humble. Harry once killed a daemon with his badass hammer. And that's just how he got people to listen to him. His tribe later found themselves taking shelter in a mountain in the middle of the Chaos Wastes. They went in thinking there was treasure. What they found instead was an entire army of skeletons, for they discovered an ancient human settlement from ages long past. Harry thus decided to flip off the odds by going to town with his hammer. After a day of pounding the spooky scary skeletons into dust, they won and on that day Harry became the archenemy of all things undead. So much so that the undead can actually FEAR him. What this means against that fuckmotherer Nagash is something to only be speculated upon since Harry's stuck in the Chaos Wastes, but if Sigmar could take him down with his hammer and some thievery, Harry's probably got a shot. Ironically he seems to have no particular advantage over Vlad when they duel in the final battle, and he is slain rather quickly.
| Name | Points | M | WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry the Hammer | 365 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 9 |
Harry the Hammer is a Lords Choice for a Warriors of Chaos Army
Equipment:
- Armour of Damnation: All enemies who hit Harry in close combat must re-roll successful to-hit rolls.
- Bane Shield: A shield that delivers an S4 hit on any unit that hits Harry, but has that hit saved.
- Hammer of Harry: Hand weapon with Multiple Wounds (d6) that cannot be saved using Armour saves. If fights against a unit with the Daemonic, Forest Spirit, or Undead rules, Harry can re-roll to-wound.
Special Rules: Unbreakable, Hatred (Undead), Killing Blow (against Undead)
- Bane of the Dead: Harry causes Terror against Undead models, while his unit only causes Fear. In addition, Undead units must pass a Leadership Test in order to charge him or his unit and then test for Terror. If an Undead unit is outnumbered in combat, they ignore the Unstable rule and immediately break from combat. The Undead unit will immediately rally the next turn.
Total War: WARHAMMER[edit]
After years in the shadow, he finally got an appearance as a FLC Legendary Hero available to all Chaos Warriors factions as a foot only unit. Not only does he get the special abilities he had in tabletop, such as being unbreakable, the Hammer of Harry, the Bane Shield and being a bane of the undead, his stats are massive and geared towards being an unkillable menace. Chaos players will rejoice to have such a cool lad in their ranks.
On a less cool note, Harry is in fact, not the hammer, Karl Franz will kick his ass in a duel, and doesn’t even need Deathclaw to do it, so the hammer is in fact, Ghal Maraz.
Harry is more of a anchor and chaff clearer hero, any dedicated duelist lord can beat him in a fight and like in the lore Vlad will gladly give him new holes. Stick him to anti infantry roles, with his AOE Harry the Hammer ability he can destroy infantry formations and blobs. He also serves as a entire front line on his own, The Bane Shield buffs his melee defense while lowering enemy damage in an area, Chaos Armor constantly adds missile block chance and damage reflection, Unbreakable means he will never rout, add in the 25% Ward save, 10% physical resistance and Perfect Vigor to make him even more unkillable to anything in melee that isn't a Legendary Lord or a Giant.
His coolest ability Bane of the Undead, as in the lore, makes anything risen from the grave RUN FOR THEIR UNLIVES. He can remove the Undead trait from any unit and adds a leadership debuff, combine this with his fear and terror, and he can send any kind of undead unit running, unless they have Terror themselves. Seeing entire waves of zombies and grave guard run in fear will never not be funny.
He also provides plenty of benefits to the army he is in, increasing melee defense and armor, immunity to vampire attrition, enabling flaming attacks (don't bring him to fight the chaos dwarves), pluss positive relations with all chaos factions, making confederation easier for undivided Chaos Warrior lords.
Gallery[edit]
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25 years of lore and six editions later...
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His limited editon model.
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Looking good in Total Warhammer
