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Let's chat: Steelheart's Champions


Killax

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On 21-10-2017 at 4:27 AM, Elodin said:

The more I play with Steelheart (and Shadespire in general, but especially with Steelheart’s Champions) the more I see Charge as a risky action. Completely removing tactical possibilities from a character for the entire phase (in the event of an early charge) is a big deal. I imagine the more experienced players become, the less charging we’ll see. 

Dont get me wrong, it still has uses for sure, it’s just the drawback is bigger than I originally thought.

Ive found charging to be essential in the early stage of the game (turn 1 out of 3) but indeed the battles have to be picked wisely and ideally are supported by a defensive Power card before that. Unlike others Steelheart's chaps do have the option to charge and turn into defence.

Generally speaking the game has one important Action per turn  that is different, usually starting out with charging is rewarded, as the pieces are all vanilla and thus not difficult to kill. After that movement, simple attacks and defence become more important, this is also usually the most difficult and exciting turn in a game. Lastly we turn to card cycling and ideally sculpt a hand that allows us to find that drastical impactful Objective card, by large also because we have either so many pieces left that we want to secure the win or we don't and we look for great Objective cards to break this stalemate. 

In my opinion most players just remember the 2nd turn the most because most models are usually lost there. Everything is at least in chargerange of somebody or Stormcast formed a brick house that dominates Objectives. Bloodreavers on the other hand are fantastic aggressive swarmers but if they cannot do that they are stuck. In practice it also has mend the following for me:
1. Creating a board bottleneck is extremely effective for Stormcasts as it leads to 1 vs 1 combat more often.
2. Handing over the first turn means your opponent cannot go for an empored charge (thanks to Power cards) from the getgo, this leads to practically all Stormcasts to be capable of recieving an charge turn 1, action 1.

Stormcast rewards playing smart (bottleneck and respond to opponents) really well, likewise Bloodreavers punish opponents who think they can play as straight forward as they do (charge and swarm). 

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Can only agree with that, the board choke also feels essential, when my Bloodreavers lost it was due to Stormcast being able to pick fights with them one on one. 

Play tight, move tight and pick the essential fight is the key to succes with them. Once boards are open things can become too dangerous quick.

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Here's my thake on the cards for Steelheart!

Objective
Awe-Inspiring (4/5) easy to do, great to score instantly.
Cleanse (2.5/5) actually very hard to do, slightly better if your opponent has 2 Objectives on his side but that's information we don't know pre-game.
Consecrated Area (4/5) great to archieve turn 1 if your set up is correct.
Eternals (3/5) really depends on your opponent if this is actually possible, remains interesting nontheless as it rewards defensive play like you want to. Long boards and 'walls' allow for this to be possible.
Immovable Object (4.5/5) fantastic follow up after an Hold Objective card is played before. Not easy to do but also not terribly hard.
Lightning Strikes (5/5) amazing!
Seize Ground (4.5/5) fantastic.
Sigmar's Bulward (3.5/5) mixed with the slew of Guard bonusses quite great.
Slayer of Tyrants (3/5) leader hunting is difficult.
Annihilation (2/5) while it's a ton of Glory in order to have this occur your opponent has to make mistakes against 3 Stormcast, it's almost impossible to do. Perhaps slightly better against Orruks.
Conquest and Denial (3.5/5) for Stormcast quite possible to do, going up to the board boundry and hang around is usually a very solid plan for Stormcast. Either scores nicely.
Supremacy (2/5) for Stormcast too difficult, Objectives are 2 apart at least and it basically leads to impossible plays for them in order to obtain this.

Much like the Bloodreaver deck I think that at this moment every Hold Objective card is worthy to be put into the 12 Objectives deck. What I think is a fine choice is:

 

Hold Objective 1
Hold Objective 2
Hold Objective 3
Hold Objective 4
Hold Objective 5
Awe-Inspiring
Consecrated Area
Immovable Object
Lightning Strikes
Seize Ground
Sigmar's Bulwark
Denial


Ploy and Upgrade
Heroic Guard (3.5/5) free Guard is good.
Peal of Thunder (4/5) amazing as it works for offense and defence.
Righteous Zeal (4/5) not really required so much against Bloodreavers but fantastic nontheless. Offense is great.
Sigmarite Wall (3/5) not too easy to do but certainly not bad.
Stormforged Resistance (2.5/5) not terrible but the card is difficult to defend as an inclusion.
Stormforged Tactics (3/5) this has some potential as it unclogs you, still needs an opponent to fail but possible in combination with Guard.
Tireless Assault (5/5) basically a re-roll for a failed Attack, it doesn't come any better (yet).
Undaunted (3/5) situational but can be good for Severin and Oberyn.
Unstoppable Strike (2.5/5) Cleave is sometimes good but hard to defend as a Power card inclusion for Stormcast.
Valiant Attack (3/5) with 3 fighters in this Warband it's likely you will need this card at some point. 
Blessed by Sigmar (4/5) a second Great Fortitude is always welcome.
Block (3/5) a good upgrade, nothing too exciting but good.
Brave Strike (3/5) situational but not too bad against swarms as you drastically increase the chance of succession of hitting and thaking 2 Wound models away needs to be done too.
Fatal Riposte (4/5) having a chance to strike back is truely great.
Heroic Might (3/5) good for the mirror but close to useless against Bloodreavers and Sepulchral Guard.
Heroic Stride (3.5/5) all forms of movement are welcome, even if it's just for Steelheart.
Lightning Blade (3/5) ranged attacks can be really good would be higher if it wasn't just there for Steelheart.
Lightning Blast (4/5) love it, fantastic against Bloodreavers and Sepulchral Guard.
Righteous Strike (3.5/5) great for leader hunting. I also wonder if this Reaction can only be applied once...
Shield Bash (3.5/5) solid defence, what makes it so nice is that it's a reaction and it can allow you to block the path of a potential second charger.
Confusion (3/5) can make the difference for assist purposes or Objective holding.
Healing Potion (3.5/5) keeping everybody around is essential.
Shardfall (4.5/5) when used well can turn the tide of combat it's one of the best ways to defend from Stormcast in particular because Movement 3 has issues with needing that 1 extra space.

Sidestep (5/5) offence and defence.
Sprint (2/5) moving up is good but not being able to activate again that phase isn't. Stormcast don't have the right number for this.
Disengage (2/5) pushing is good, dealing 1 damage isn't, especially not if you have to pay Glory for it.
Great Fortitude (4/5) tanks becomming more tanky.
Great Speed (3.5/5) move than solid choice for any, the difference between Movement 3 and 4 is really big for them.
Great Strenght (5/5) more damage? Nobody says no to that! Makes Angharad lethal against Saek and Karsus too.
Total Offence (4/5) much better in Stormcast as in Bloodreavers. Charges are usually not the main plan anyway and not being able to activate isn't a massive issue if it guarateeds the kill for Severin or Oberyn.

All in all I like the cards for Stormcast too but they are less swingy as the Bloodreavers. The narrow boards remain the best defence regardless of cards and heavier Objective play synergizes very well with narrow passages.

Cheers,

 

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Current deck I'm working with:

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The build itself isn't something I'm too terribly certain about, most of my play focus has been on Garrek's Reavers so this is really a beta test, if anything. I can give some reasons behind excluding some cards and I'm a firm believer of figuring out what you don't like first before adding what you like :) 

What I like less:
Valiant Attack - it's added defence but still very situational, being ganged up is ideally prevented anyway. In addition with less models as your opponent good opponents will also be able to make another move and 'delay' a supportive action like this if need be. Simply said not sold on this card.
Stormforged Tactics - doing something if your opponent fails his attacks is something but we can't really guarantee an attack failure. In addition it's not just a Reaction, it's an added reaction so the information is open.
Unstoppable Strike - Cleave is good but not as just a Power card effect, more is required.
Steamforged Resistance - Interesting but again not adding defence or offense.
Sprint - Ideal if you have 5+ models with good Movement, Stormcast have no Activations to waste. 
Brave Strike - Once Undead hit might be back in the deck again.
Lightning Blade - Not sold on any ranged attack that does a max of 2 damage.
Heroic Might - Like Unstoppable Strike.
Shield Bash - Good but again relies on failing attacks.

Cleanse - Seems a bit unrealistic unless opponents make very strange Objective placements.
Immovable Object - Not difficult to get but some movement is still needed for Stormcast even if it's just Moving (and Guarding).
Sigmar's Bulwark - Too difficult to obtain in my opinion.
Annihilation - Too difficult to obtain against Bloodreavers and Undead.
Conquest - Possible.
Supremacy - Too difficult to obtain for Stormcast.

Let me know what you guys think of the above! 

Cheers,

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I would only choose 3 of the 5 numbered objectives not all of them. But I have to do some numbers to see if that is the best option. I think the 5 is ok for reavers because of their mobility but for stormcasts being only 3 you will always have unused objectives from that list, so let's say you have 5 objectives, you most of the time might have between 5 and 2 of them wasted (some games you might score 5 but if you can score 5 you will win regardless) if you add only 2 worst case is you have 2 wasted (assuming you get other easy to score objectives).

Not sure if you see my point but I think 3 numbered objectives is better than 5 if you can replace the other 2 with other good objectives.

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2 hours ago, Wallack said:

I would only choose 3 of the 5 numbered objectives not all of them. But I have to do some numbers to see if that is the best option. I think the 5 is ok for reavers because of their mobility but for stormcasts being only 3 you will always have unused objectives from that list, so let's say you have 5 objectives, you most of the time might have between 5 and 2 of them wasted (some games you might score 5 but if you can score 5 you will win regardless) if you add only 2 worst case is you have 2 wasted (assuming you get other easy to score objectives).

Not sure if you see my point but I think 3 numbered objectives is better than 5 if you can replace the other 2 with other good objectives.

I dont really see the point in skipping on Hold Objectives, we at least place 2, sometimes 3. It remains the easiest and most defensive way of possibly scoring Objective points. My aim isnt to score all 5 Hold Objectives but to have easier choices phase 1. 

However, Im still looking forward to know more about your thought process. As the placing of Objectives is random and so are Holding Objectives cards I dont see running 5 as any disadvantage for anybody. While there are fewer models both players have 3 Objective cards and defensive play is best done while sitting on an Objective (and later hopefully scoring).

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My thought process is that stormcast are not objective holders and having all 5 cards is not really useful. If as a Stormcast you can score 5 objectives means you will win regardless. Movement is low and model count is low only 1 move per activation ... so my thought process is that you are never going to score all the 5 objectives meaning you are going to have some of them as dead cards in almost 100% of the matches. My thought is that you will always have 2 objectives that you won't be able to reach/play so at least you will always have 2 objective cards wasted.

Instead of that I'll get only 3  hold objectives and use the other 2 for other less random objectives that I might score more easily.

 

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While true to some extend you can always cycle a card with the 4th activation. Same deck as above is the deck my Reavers can really win on. I do agree the hold 3 a turn or sit on one for 2 turns are not useful :)

If for whatever reason you start with Hold Objective heavy hands and cannot go that route you can discard the hand and grab a fresh one too. Which is something I can highly recommend for your Objectives as it's a pre-filter. Don't do this often with my Power cards, do this more and more often with my Objectives, so you know you will draw into all your Objectives.

Made one card change to the deck, Heroic Stride out, Lightning Blade in. Neither are really essential, Lighting Blade was added instead though to add some ranged impact, it can lead to some great things with Great Strenght too and in typical fasion I think Heroic Stride will often do less as Lighting Blade Would though both are very nice, like Total Offence.

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Yes, but In my opinion I'm not going to be charging 3 times with the SC and have an empty activation. I see it more as getting charged, charging with another fighter to that enemy that attacked me (to have support) and then active the first target that got attacked 3 more times to finish the oponent.

I see it more as "I dare you to charge me" and if you do, my friends come help me.

Again I think there are better objective cards for stormcasts than the hold ones.

We'll see how the meta is defined but I'm pretty sure that most top stormcast decks won't have 5 hold objective cards.

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I don't see it that way, simply because Charging isn't always required, even less so with Stormcast who can be moving in Guard aswell. Attacking can also be done after that as much as you want to. It's only in the initial turn that Charges are more important but it's also there where you are able to see at least 6 Objective cards if you do not like your initial grip.

By comparison Hold X or Y could also be Sigmar's Bulwark and Immovable Object. For Sigmar's Bulwark it means you need to not recieve any damage at all, possible but unlikely. The moment this happens your going to be ahead, at least this is more likely when you have Hold Objectives because you do not need to be in combat asap. Immovable Object on the other hand allready forces you to be on an Objective, the result is you might aswell have Hold Objective.

Othe Objective cards, worth more Glory are Cleanse, Annihilation, Conquest and Supremacy. Cleanse means you need to hold 2+ Objectives most of the time, this is difficult. It's even possible for opponents to place their Objectives in the Neurtral or your zone and then the Objective cannot even be realistically scored. Annihilation is often not available due to speed, Conquest is an option but unfolds very late, to the point where the game cannot be predicted, Supremacy, like Cleanse is realistically hard to archieve.

So what I'd like to know is why do you exactly prefer other non-Hold Objective cards here? 
- You do not need to charge 3 times. Hold Objective cards are the exact reason why you wouldn't want to do this.
- The moment you do play Hold Objective cards like Peal of Thunder, Confusion, Sidestep, Great Speed, Heroic Stride and Total Offence serve an additional purpose.
- The moment you do play all Hold Objective cards "I dare you to charge me" turn into "I force you to charge me because I play Hold Objective cards and am standing one one".

As always looking forward to your thoughts. I believe the Hold Objective cards are purposefully designed to be part of the game and a great part because otherwise the game might aswell present fixed Objective placement. In addition I do agree that holding multiple Objectives at the same time isn't easy but having one is still a reason to force your opponent to charge, more specifically because the punishment is even harder if the opponent fails, gets attacked (possibly removed) to score a glory and then score another glory in the end phase because you hold the objective you need. In the end only one Objective that's likely out of reach for them is the "last one", IF it's placed on the edge of the board, while neither Bloodreavers or Stormcast actually have a good reason to place it there, Undead are the only ones who do.

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You got me wrong, my main point is that I don't think we should use all hold objective cards only one of them. This also helps your placement on the board to take a different strategy if the ones you have in your deck are in the other side of the board. I don't know I don't have the numbers and I don't have the preorders yet but I hope to see some of the top decks of the tournament that starts today to prove my point!

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I don't believe I got you wrong, I just wanted to know what the point is in skipping some Hold Objective cards in your opinion. In reality placement occurs after you've seen the Objectives and have your hand. So at that phase, if you start out with 3 Objectives, say 4 and 5 while those are on the oppossing side of the board, discarding that hand is always the better choice. Not only for the upcomming turn 1 but also turn 2 and more often than not turn 3 also. Discarding your Objective hand is not punished in any form because it allows you to know all your Objective cards for the comming game.

If there are better Objective cards out I can see a point in not running the Hold Objective cards. However we turn the page though Hold Objective cards are the easiest and least punished Objective cards. 
- They do not require a Charge but can be done while doing one.
- They do not require any dice to be rolled to obtain the Glory.
- They force your opponent to remove you from said objective through driving a model back.

Regardless of what Warband we are playing, the above 3 facts apply to all. If you feel Stormcast have fewer movement and thus want to keep Objectives close to you, that is completely possible to do. If you want to play more aggressively with Stormcast you can do this alongside of playing for Objectives because even in a stalemate the one holding the most Objectives with Hold Objective cards in his deck is winning. 

So as above, if you do not run them the idea should be your running something better as Hold Objectives, easier to obtain glory or forcing more aggressive play from your opponent. As the moment you run less Hold Objective cards you are without doubt forced to play more aggressively.

1. I do not feel Sigmar's Bulwark is better as Holding Objective X because if your opponent is failing to do any damage your winning regardless with Stormcast. As it closes the gap between having less models activation by activation. Keep in mind in order to obtain a Glory from Stormcast by killing them you need to 'invest' 2 Activations minimum. Some Upgrades allow for 1 Activation to do the trick, though this window only opens from turn 2+.
2. Immovable Objective is "Hold Objective X a turn later". As you need to be there 2 phases I highly doubt I'd be willing to go through that for 1 Glory while I could be scoring Glory by killing Garrek's Reavers instantly or Hold Objective (and thus continue to prevent being ganged up). 

Lastly Conquest and Supremacy force a particular moveset and because of that Stormcast lose the flexability they require. A Charge or Move done with any model should aim to obtain Glory. 

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1 hour ago, Wallack said:

Winner of blood and glory, undead, didn't use any hold objective, second player, khorne, used all 5.

Im a firm believer of all or nothing, as above. Dont know the full Guard contents to comment on the alternative though I still feel Hold 1 to 5 should work well if not better for Undead. For 1 Activation you secure at least two Objectives, whats not to like?

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G'day guys.

Had a chance at a few sets of games and have done quite well with a "Good stuff" power deck and an "Easy to claim" objective deck. Some janky luck (putting riposte on Steelheart, getting him charged by Oberyn, Oberyn flubs, Steelheart rolls a hammer for riposte, succeeds for 3 damage, play confusion to flip Oberyn into charge range for Brightshield, Brightshield finishes Oberyn) but hey, we GW types love playing high luck games for whatever psychotic reason. :P
First point I suppose is that "Good stuff" decks are probably a legit archetype. We don't need to hone decks to be devoted one kind of strategy, or to "attack" one angle of the game. The best offensive and defensive ploys, best offensive and defensive upgrades, and a healthy dose of "control" ploys (Confusion, Shardfall, etc) is likely a very good power deck.

An important observation I've made is that the most valuable resource in the game is an Activation. I suppose technically the most valuable resource are your fighters, 'cos you can't do very much with everyone dead, but I'm comparing activations with cards. In games like Magic the Gathering, cards are the ultimate resources. They give you the other main resource (mana) and the means by which you interact with your opponent and win the game. Each card is indispensable and this is why one of the main theories of Magic is Card Advantage; whoever draws and plays the most cards probably wins the game.

It seems to me so far (though there's plenty of time to be proven wrong) that it's actually "Activation Advantage" that gives you the keenest edge in Underworlds. By this I don't mean getting extra de jure activations (we haven't seen any cards like this. There's one that flips the sequence of two subsequent activations, but this doesn't result in a 13th activation) but rather ways of doing things that could usually only be achieved by using an activation. The two most important examples of this are movement (Sidestep, Confusion) and attacking (Fatal Riposte, 'Avin' a Good Time, but "attacking" could also include damage like Final Blow). Activation advantage can also be gained by depriving your opponent of meaningful activations. Cards like Shardfall can put potential chargers out of range, can block off entire sections on bottle-necked setups and (by my reading of what an occupied hex is, I look forward to having this cleared up and my interpretation vindicated :P) stop the claiming of an objective for a whole phase. 

All this is not to say cards are worthless, just that they are more abundant than activations and therefore in this sense less valuable. I say they are more abundant because you will always be able to draw up to starting hand size at the end of a phase. In a game like Magic or Hearthstone, you get your one card draw, and typically have to invest cards in order to draw more. These effects exist in Underworlds as well as the end of phase card draw, which allows us to throw cards down far more aggressively. The interplay between the value of an activation and the value of a card is quite interesting. Fatal riposte seems a bad trade if you see activations and cards as having equal value; you spend a card to maybe get an extra activation if you successfully jump through some hoops. But the value of a potential de facto attack activation is such a huge upside compared to spending a card you will always be able to replace at the end of the phase. The card isn't "free" (TANSTAAFL) but fairly close to it. The extra attack can be a blowout.

Just a few thoughts on general Underworlds theory. If you think I'm way off base please shoot me down. This is a game I wanna get quite good at. :) 

A few minor points:
Shardfall is legit. Being able to interact with your opponents movement in such a way can destroy games.
I'm hoping an "Eternals" objective deck is viable. Combo'd with easy to score, passive objectives( Bulwarks, Immovable object), Tactical Superiority for 3 more glory, and a lot of controlling ploy cards to keep the baddies away and defensive upgrades might make for a competitive archetype, if a little boring for you and/or your opponent. I mean... I'd get a kick out of it, but it might not be for everyone. 
"Aggro" Stormcast also seems a possible archetype. Conquest is, IMHO, quite easy for the 2 glory it gains, and the Stormcast have access to easy aggressive objectives. And Army of One on a flipped Stormcast is living the dream. :D 

All the best. 

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@Mikarovic great write up intro, I really agree with what most you've said here. Keep up the work and let us know how you are doing. 

So my friend Jeff won the latest tournament with Stormcast and he really piloted it like a boss. It were his first four actual games after a quick explanation from me on the phone. Needless to say he went on to read the rest of the actual rules the night before it and was the undefeated champion of the day. 

That aside though, it's interesting to see how they don't seem very popular in Shadespire yet. There where two players playing them and Jeff really had my starter box basically with some new cards put in there that I felt should be in the deck anyway. I think it's interesting to cover the cards because they synergized extremely well during the day and his games.

Ploy
Righteous Zeal
Peal of Thunder
Unstoppable Strike

Tireless Assault
Shardfall
Sidestep
Healing Potion
Distraction
Mighty Swing
Parry

Upgrades
Blessed by Sigmar
Fatal Riposte
Lightning Blade
Righteous Strike
Great Fortitude
Great Strength
Army of One
Flickering Image
Helpful Whispers
Soultrap

Objectives
Hold 1-5 (1)
Consecrated Area (1)
Lightning Strikes (1)
Seize Ground (1)
Plant a Standard (1)
Ploymaster (1)
Denial (3)
Contained (3)

The basic set up of the deck is very straight forward but also very effective because of it. Boardchoke (3 hex/2 hex no preforance), place Objectives very much near the Neutral zone and stick around. The combination of Contained/Denial with Peal of Thunder, Shardfall, Sidestep, Distraction and Mighty Swing basically means that anyone entering the zone gets hit with Obryn's hammer or Steelheart's sword and it won Jeff the game.

In addition stepping in and out isn't terribly difficult to do either, because of the ploys. In addition tot hat Army of One also did some amazing work for this Warband on Steelheart and I can seriously consider using that Upgrade for any Steelheart deck. The added movement pf Flickering Image is very welcome and Helpful Whispers guarantees some crazy hits (as if needed in certain cases ;) ). What was very awesome to see is Obryn crushing Saek and Karsus in one Mighty Swing. 

The defences of Stormcast are allready very good out of the box and become insane with the pushes and added defences this deck offer. The combination of Flickering Image with Seize Ground or Plant a Standard is also very good. But most games where sealed with Denial or Contained. 

Cheers,
 

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So I played my first match without the starter decks tonight, best of three against the Orruks. I decided to build an ultra-defensive deck relying on objective scoring and keeping my guys alive. I won the match 2 games to 0 (with a draw included as well). All of the games were close (except the first one where my opponent didn't know what to expect): Glory Point scores were 5-1, 7-7, 7-6.

My deck:

Ploys/Upgrades:

Heroic Stride
Lightning Blast
Great Speed
Blessed Armour
Shardcaller
Great Fortitude
Blessed by Sigmar
Disengage
Block
Shadeglass Darts
 
Stormforged Tactics
Heroic Guard
Duel of Wits
Daylight Robbery
Cruel Taunt
Distraction
Sidestep
Healing Potion
Shardfall
Peal of Thunder

 

Objective Deck

Hold Objective 1
Hold Objective 2
Hold Objective 3
Hold Objective 4
Hold Objective 5
Superior Tactician
Consecrated Area
Eternals
Annihilation
Victorious Duel
Immovable Object
Sigmar's Bullwark

 

Annihilation was useless so I will be replacing that with something else.

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I bought the boxset a week ago and am painting up the Stormcast as they're fewer and  I have an ambitious plan for learning the game:

My local store is hosting a tournament on Sunday and I reckon I'll turn up and play to learn (and lose).

I'm a quick study and think this'll be fun. The only thing I don't want to do is make an opponent feel they had a bad game. My hope is they'll love it as they'll get a win.

I'm going to play a few games alone to get the hang of the rules but am wondering about a deck.

I am pretty sure were I to build something myself I'd need to do a bunch of research (and it'd be untested - maybe I'd take a popular current variant) but how is the boxset beginners deck for this warband? Is that something I'd be okay using?

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18 minutes ago, Turragor said:

I am pretty sure were I to build something myself I'd need to do a bunch of research (and it'd be untested - maybe I'd take a popular current variant) but how is the boxset beginners deck for this warband? Is that something I'd be okay using?

Not too much research is needed, the card pool is still fairly small :). In addition I think the Steelheart exclusive cards are allready quite good, much better now that Orruks are around but I'd try to obtain some additional cards for sure. The boxset beginners deck is decent but even adding the extra cards from the Core Set allready massively improves your odds of having a good time. Shardfall, Sidestep, Great Strenght and possibly others are just very good to use for the otherwise slow-ish Stormcast.

In addition there are two cards in the expansions I feel are just amazing for Stormcast altogether, there are actually many more great cards but for my buddy who won the last tournament two cards in particular really shined for him: Denial and Containment (Containment is not in Core) for the simple reason that at that point Stormcast have 1 goal and that's to defend their territory (which they do very well) and Army of One because with Army of One either Steelheart or Obryn or even Brightshield (ideally not but what gives) become absolute monster tanks. At that point even 2 dice Cleave attacks are no guarantee to succes because having 3 defence dice (assuming they are Inspired at that point) has a very high chance of rolling a Crit.

Other cards that are also very worthy considerations would be Shadeglass Darts (which essentially is an Upgrade over Lightning Sword), Distraction (because pushing enemies at any location is truely the most powerful thing to do in the game in my opinion) and even Illusonary Fighter, a card that I initially only gave to Bloodreavers but in reality it's great for every Warband as after a single Move/Charge Action one of the backfield models can be on the front field Deployment zone in an instant, especially for Stormcast this is key aswell because it cuts into Activations needed to Move or even Charge. 

So all in all I still really like the basics of Stormcast and think their defensive game is a fantastic one. The only thing in my opinion that can go wrong with them is when you somehow fail to roll any Shields or Crits on defense die. Which so far hasn't occured in any of our games but in theory could occur.

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13 minutes ago, Killax said:

Not too much research is needed, the card pool is still fairly small :). In addition I think the Steelheart exclusive cards are allready quite good, much better now that Orruks are around but I'd try to obtain some additional cards for sure. The boxset beginners deck is decent but even adding the extra cards from the Core Set allready massively improves your odds of having a good time. Shardfall, Sidestep, Great Strenght and possibly others are just very good to use for the otherwise slow-ish Stormcast.

In addition there are two cards in the expansions I feel are just amazing for Stormcast altogether, there are actually many more great cards but for my buddy who won the last tournament two cards in particular really shined for him: Denial and Containment (Containment is not in Core) for the simple reason that at that point Stormcast have 1 goal and that's to defend their territory (which they do very well) and Army of One because with Army of One either Steelheart or Obryn or even Brightshield (ideally not but what gives) become absolute monster tanks. At that point even 2 dice Cleave attacks are no guarantee to succes because having 3 defence dice (assuming they are Inspired at that point) has a very high chance of rolling a Crit.

Other cards that are also very worthy considerations would be Shadeglass Darts (which essentially is an Upgrade over Lightning Sword), Distraction (because pushing enemies at any location is truely the most powerful thing to do in the game in my opinion) and even Illusonary Fighter, a card that I initially only gave to Bloodreavers but in reality it's great for every Warband as after a single Move/Charge Action one of the backfield models can be on the front field Deployment zone in an instant, especially for Stormcast this is key aswell because it cuts into Activations needed to Move or even Charge. 

So all in all I still really like the basics of Stormcast and think their defensive game is a fantastic one. The only thing in my opinion that can go wrong with them is when you somehow fail to roll any Shields or Crits on defense die. Which so far hasn't occured in any of our games but in theory could occur.

Thanks for this. I think I'll take the beginner deck then do a bit of research on adding the extras you speak of from the core set. I'm even open to just buying whichever warband expansion has the non-core cards you speak of. The event is in a GW after all and (stock depending) I just need to buy them, open the box and take the card.

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41 minutes ago, Turragor said:

Thanks for this. I think I'll take the beginner deck then do a bit of research on adding the extras you speak of from the core set. I'm even open to just buying whichever warband expansion has the non-core cards you speak of. The event is in a GW after all and (stock depending) I just need to buy them, open the box and take the card.

No worries! I think that from the Core set the following cards are now simply said still great in almost any scenario.
Some of them do depend on some combo's but hey, that's part of the game too :) 

Core Set Ploys I like:
Peal of Thunder - moving opponents is just the best thing there is. Distraction is amazing too and having two of those cards is just great.
Righteous Zeal - more damage is always welcome.
Tireless Assault - succeeding with Attack actions is key for everybody.

Healing Potion - keeps guys around, especially great once Inspired because it means you enjoy your double defence dice longer.
Shardfall - allround amazing card for too many reasons. 
Sidestep - More optional but again Movement is key, ever so more when you have Move 3 and less guys as usual.

Core Set Upgrades I like:
Blessed by Sigmar - logically you want to keep your fighters around.
Fatal Riposte - every possible additional Attack action is great, especially as an Upgrade that sticks.
Heroic Might - Obryn has Cleave while Inspired but Steelheart does not, since the Ironjawz are around the Cleave isn't just for the mirror matches anymore and breaks games that depend on those Shield defences.
Heroic Stride - Sidestep as an Upgrade is like Fatal Riposte, every additional movement is welcome.
Righteous Strike - seemed very niche at first but I've found that against Stormcast the leader usually needs to meddle in also. It's almost a guaranteed attack against a Leader and that's just very good for several reasons. 

Great Fortitude - logically you want to keep your fighters around.
Great Strenght - Obryn and Steelheart going to 4 damage means that you can kill any model except Gurzag with a single swing.

Core Set Objectives I like:
Awe-Inspiring - this isn't difficult to archieve with Stormcast if Obryn and Steelheart can get in there.
Consecrated Area - synergizes so well with Sidestep, Peal of Thunder, Distraction etc.
Eternals - I personally still like it because it's one of the prime goals and reasons you don't have to be overly aggressive. While it sounds silly but to me this, Denial and Containment are the keys to victory against Sepulchral Guard. You want to kill some but otherwise let them come and charge instead of going in a Cleave filled minefield.
Lightning Strikes - you can do this :P 

Hold 1-5 - I don't think Stormcast should attempt full aggressive routes like Orruks just yet. 
Denial - you can do this!

Objectives and many additional Ploys are also often a matter of personal preforance. I personally am not a huge fan of any of the coinflip effective Ploy cards while others swear they are great and won them games. So if you like that sort of card, feel free to add them. As mentioned before I do think cards like Illusory Fighter, Distraction, Army of One, Shadeglass Darts are all good choices for the Stormcast. The latter is almost exclusively good for Stormcast and Sepulchral Guard but still a good choice because you can have trouble reaching others or simply don't want to charge.


In terms of the expansions... I've arranged the cards per number again so can't say which card was in which expansion right now. The unboxing of the Sepulchral Guard and Ironskull video is still up however and covers all the cards per box. Video:

 

 

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