I feel like a filthy heretic for evening considering this but...What's the best way to collect Stormcast Eternals?

[Ravinsild]

Which different sets are the best way to collect a decent army? A Soul Wars Box, the 3 different Start Collecting and maybe a handful of the Skirmish Warboxes? Is there a better way? Are the giant army boxes a good deal like Khorne Slaughterstorm, etc? If I wanted to get started on SCE how would you recommend I go about doing so? 

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, Ravinsild said:

Which different sets are the best way to collect a decent army? A Soul Wars Box, the 3 different Start Collecting and maybe a handful of the Skirmish Warboxes? Is there a better way? Are the giant army boxes a good deal like Khorne Slaughterstorm, etc? If I wanted to get started on SCE how would you recommend I go about doing so? 

Generally speaking the Start Collecting sets and big starter boxes will give you the best value.

A lot of these boxes include under-strength units (e.g. 2 Retributors when the minimum unit size is 5) so watch out for that. But you can negate this issue by pairing two or more boxes together. For example, combining the original Start Collecting: Stormcast Eternals and the new Start Collecting: Thunderstrike Brotherhood will result in all units being at full strength - it will also give you a decent sized starter army with some useful units and iconic models. It's also worth noting that the Thunderstrike box is now the only way to collect the Lord Relictor - which isn't the most essential hero in the game but he's a cool model and fairly important in the lore. Start Collecting: Stormcast Vanguard has no issues with unit sizes and the units can be fielded right out of the box.

If you'd prefer to invest in the new hotness (the robed wizards and war machines of the Sacrosanct Chamber) then your best option is probably to buy the new Soul Wars box, perhaps selling or splitting the Nighthaunt half. Again, I believe there are some odd unit sizes in there which can be brought up to full strength with the new 'easy to build' kits.

So yeah, the big boxes are absolutely the best way to go if your main concern is getting a 2000 pt army up and running for minimum cost, and you have quite a lot of choice with Stormcast Eternals.

 

Out of interest, what's so heretical about collecting Stormcast Eternals?

[blueshirtman]

The easiest thing to do would probablly buying a box of judicators, two halfs of the soul thingy, a stardrake and 4 smaller drakes. With that your almost set to have a full army. Later on add 2-3 box of sequitors, and a box of evocators, and all the heros needed to play and your done with the army. But the easy to get core is 20 sequitors, 10 evocators, lord magus dude on dog eagle mount and 5 judicators.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, blueshirtman said:

The easiest thing to do would probablly buying a box of judicators, two halfs of the soul thingy, a stardrake and 4 smaller drakes. With that your almost set to have a full army. Later on add 2-3 box of sequitors, and a box of evocators, and all the heros needed to play and your done with the army. But the easy to get core is 20 sequitors, 10 evocators, lord magus dude on dog eagle mount and 5 judicators.

Seems kind of random that you would recommend that selection of units specifically, with such specific numbers, given the vast amount of unit choice and box set choice in the range. The guy didn't ask you to write his army list for him, he asked about the best way to start collecting! 

Maybe it would be useful for @Ravinsild if you explained why you feel this is a good setup for the start of a new collection?

[Aggesut]

As it's already been said; 1-2 Start Collecting! plus a Stardrake or a Celestant Prime is your best and cheapest option. It really depends on your jam as well, but if you start from a Battalion point of view you can almost never go wrong.

A couple of Start Collecting, a couple of Heroes & Lords and a some Vanguard Palladors and you're pretty set with a decent Vanguard Wing

[blueshirtman]

1 hour ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Seems kind of random that you would recommend that selection of units specifically, with such specific numbers, given the vast amount of unit choice and box set choice in the range. The guy didn't ask you to write his army list for him, he asked about the best way to start collecting! 

Maybe it would be useful for @Ravinsild if you explained why you feel this is a good setup for the start of a new collection?

The very first question was what sets are best to get first. So I don't know what you are talking about. Start collecting are bad, at least the regular one and I have never seen anyone play venguard and have a positive win rate.   Getting an army out of the soul war boxs is the best way to start.  Only the castigators out of the boxs are so-so. By buying a few heros, and the obligatory stardrake+fuliminator pack, 2 soulwars halfs and some easy to assemble evocators/sequitors you have a finished army for which you don't really have to buy anything more, unless you want to experiment with stuff like mounted evocators or some of the caster heros that are mounted on something else then a gryph mount.

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, blueshirtman said:

The very first question was what sets are best to get first. So I don't know what you are talking about. Start collecting are bad, at least the regular one and I have never seen anyone play venguard and have a positive win rate.   Getting an army out of the soul war boxs is the best way to start.  Only the castigators out of the boxs are so-so. By buying a few heros, and the obligatory stardrake+fuliminator pack, 2 soulwars halfs and some easy to assemble evocators/sequitors you have a finished army for which you don't really have to buy anything more, unless you want to experiment with stuff like mounted evocators or some of the caster heros that are mounted on something else then a gryph mount.

Okay, but you're clearly coming at this from the point of view of building a competitive army, whereas Ravinsild only mentioned that he was looking for a good deal. I'd say it's safe to assume that this is his primary concern, and for all we know competitiveness may be way down on his list of priorities after things like theme, ease of painting and any number of other factors.

So recommending a set of purchases based primarily on whether or not they're competitive might not be good advice in this case (emphasis on 'might'). I could be wrong, maybe it is important to him, but either way it's worthwhile giving some context and explanation for why you're recommending it just in case your reasoning and priorities don't match up to his. He mentioned wanting a 'decent' army but that's not necessarily synonymous with 'the most competitive'. We don't know exactly what he meant by that so it's probably not a good idea to assume.

Regardless of his motivation, a Stardrake is absolutely not 'obligatory'. Even in a competitive context, but especially in any other context. Nothing in this game is 'obligatory'. I mean, the guy's just starting his collection - why make him feel like there are certain models he shouldn't buy or certain models he has to buy?

[Richelieu]

My collection has been built from 1/2 the starter set (now Start Collecting: thunderstrike brotherhood).  1/2 of blight war.  1/2 of Soul Wars.  

I have added other heroes and units depending on what I felt like playing, but I'm a big fan of variety.  Stormcast are AoS at its core.  No tricks or gimmicks, just a huge bag of tools, which individually are fairly generic, but can be put together to handle any situation.  My favorite thing about stormcast is that I can build any list and still go toe to toe with top tier armies.  I might not win with a less than optimal list, but I'm always in the game.

There is only one box that I say you absolutely must have and that is Judicators.  They are pricey at 160 points, but they're battleline and can camp an objective like nothing else in the game.  And there are few things as rewarding as rolling a 6 on a shockbolt bow.  

[Nos]

1 hour ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Okay, but you're clearly coming at this from the point of view of building a competitive army, whereas Ravinsild only mentioned that he was looking for a good deal. I'd say it's safe to assume that this is his primary concern, and for all we know competitiveness may be way down on his list of priorities after things like theme, ease of painting and any number of other factors.

So recommending a set of purchases based primarily on whether or not they're competitive might not be good advice in this case (emphasis on 'might'). I could be wrong, maybe it is important to him, but either way it's worthwhile giving some context and explanation for why you're recommending it just in case your reasoning and priorities don't match up to his. He mentioned wanting a 'decent' army but that's not necessarily synonymous with 'the most competitive'. We don't know exactly what he meant by that so it's probably not a good idea to assume.

Regardless of his motivation, a Stardrake is absolutely not 'obligatory'. Even in a competitive context, but especially in any other context. Nothing in this game is 'obligatory'. I mean, the guy's just starting his collection - why make him feel like there are certain models he shouldn't buy or certain models he has to buy?

Not to mention that to get 20 Sequitors now as he states would be more expensive by virtue of having to buy multiple boxes of other things rather than waiting on the forthcoming box set of 'em. Never mind the fact that that would he recommends would also leave you with an army of about 8 model poses total.

[Ravinsild]

10 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Generally speaking the Start Collecting sets and big starter boxes will give you the best value.

A lot of these boxes include under-strength units (e.g. 2 Retributors when the minimum unit size is 5) so watch out for that. But you can negate this issue by pairing two or more boxes together. For example, combining the original Start Collecting: Stormcast Eternals and the new Start Collecting: Thunderstrike Brotherhood will result in all units being at full strength - it will also give you a decent sized starter army with some useful units and iconic models. It's also worth noting that the Thunderstrike box is now the only way to collect the Lord Relictor - which isn't the most essential hero in the game but he's a cool model and fairly important in the lore. Start Collecting: Stormcast Vanguard has no issues with unit sizes and the units can be fielded right out of the box.

If you'd prefer to invest in the new hotness (the robed wizards and war machines of the Sacrosanct Chamber) then your best option is probably to buy the new Soul Wars box, perhaps selling or splitting the Nighthaunt half. Again, I believe there are some odd unit sizes in there which can be brought up to full strength with the new 'easy to build' kits.

So yeah, the big boxes are absolutely the best way to go if your main concern is getting a 2000 pt army up and running for minimum cost, and you have quite a lot of choice with Stormcast Eternals.

 

Out of interest, what's so heretical about collecting Stormcast Eternals?

The fact that literally everyone does it lol. I play Khorne Bloodbound and Ironjawz, and in 40k I play World Eaters so I feel like I’m betraying my aggressive melee roots to play the “good guys”. 

[Ravinsild]

5 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Okay, but you're clearly coming at this from the point of view of building a competitive army, whereas Ravinsild only mentioned that he was looking for a good deal. I'd say it's safe to assume that this is his primary concern, and for all we know competitiveness may be way down on his list of priorities after things like theme, ease of painting and any number of other factors.

So recommending a set of purchases based primarily on whether or not they're competitive might not be good advice in this case (emphasis on 'might'). I could be wrong, maybe it is important to him, but either way it's worthwhile giving some context and explanation for why you're recommending it just in case your reasoning and priorities don't match up to his. He mentioned wanting a 'decent' army but that's not necessarily synonymous with 'the most competitive'. We don't know exactly what he meant by that so it's probably not a good idea to assume.

Regardless of his motivation, a Stardrake is absolutely not 'obligatory'. Even in a competitive context, but especially in any other context. Nothing in this game is 'obligatory'. I mean, the guy's just starting his collection - why make him feel like there are certain models he shouldn't buy or certain models he has to buy?

I will be clear with my motivation: I want to buy all the eligible heroes for Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower because there’s around 8 for Stormcast Eternals and then I figured since they’re so prominent and such a big part of the game and have so many ways to collect them maybe there were some boxes with these heroes mixed in to get them easier and/or cheaper.

I just thought if I was going to the trouble of buying all the heroes I might as well have an army to use them in. 1 off heroes like a Skink Starpriest or 1 whole Dark Elf it’s like I don’t need an army, but 8 whole singular models?

Plus I could lend them out to my friends in small bits to play Skirmish with and/or just to teach them the game. It’d be like my personal demo army.

My most competitive itch will always be trying to milk as much as I can from my Ironjawz and when I want to slaughter hordes I bring my Bloodbound. 

If you didn’t know which heroes I mean it is these:

1. Knight-Azyros 

2. Knight-Heraldor

3. Knight-Questor

4. Knight-Venator 

5. Knight-Vexillor

6. Lord-Castellant

7. Lord-Celestant

8. Lord-Relictor

[SuperHappyTime]

20 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

 If I wanted to get started on SCE how would you recommend I go about doing so? 

Depends on what your secondary goal is.

Casual Gamer? Buy what you want. I'd probably also look at beginning in one of the other categories (Budget) and then switching to another (Fluff or Competitive).

Budget Gamer? Find someone else interested in AoS and split a box with them. Alternatively, buy the box yourself and sell the other half for money.

Fluff Gamer? Buy the Battletome first and read it, then buy what you think best fits the fluff.

Competitive Play? Start watching videos from other players to form an opinion

Painter: Since the original Stormcast look a little too much the same, I'd have to suggest the Dracoths, Vanguard, or Sacrosanct chambers.

Hobby Hero: Considering Stormcast have a few new female models, buy only the bits for them and build your army that way.

I don't advise Soul Wars or the regular SC boxes because of wonky unit numbers. If you are looking to go into a Vanguard  you could go with last year's Battleforce (if you could find it) or 1/2 of Blightwar + SC Vanguard box. Alternatively, the original SC, 2016 Battleforce, or the old old Starter Expansion Box may good places to start.

[Ravinsild]

Actually this has reinvigorated a stupid pet project I had rolling around inside my head. Since the Ironjawz remind me so much of the Warcraft 3 Horde Orcs in so many ways, I thought it’d be fun to make a sort of ode to the Alliance (Humans) from Warcraft 3. Nothing will be 1 to 1 equivalent, but it should be fun enough to get something vaguely similar. 

Heroes: 

Archmage - I’m pretty sure GW sells a generic human Archmage on foot and on a horse. 

Mountain King - literally any dwarf hero with a hammer and axe? Or two axes whatever. There’s no CC in AoS so him being a CC monster is irrelevant. 

Paladin - any Stormcast guy who buffs and heals basically. I don’t know if there’s a spell to raise dead units back to life for anyone aside from Undead so it’s whatever. 

Blood Mage - basically any offensive oriented Elf caster would count. I don’t think they have spells like “fireball” in AoS. 

Footman - I was thinking normal liberators with sword and shield. 

Dwarf Riflemen- I was thinking something from Kharadron Overlords. Probably Grundstok Thunderers. 

Knights - I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to bye “basic human with a sword and shied on a horse” in the entire GW line somehow. 

Priest - I’m not sure. Are there any Elf or otherwise units or heroes who buff attack or to hit and/or can reliably heal? 

Sorceress - for all intents and purposes, since there’s no CC like Polymorph, the Dark Elf hero with her spell is basically like casting slow on the enemies. It’s just a good debuff. 

Spell Breaker - I’m not sure. Are there any CQC elves who excel at canceling magic or absorbing mortal wounds? Are there any units besides Chaos Warriors like this? 

Flying Machine - lol there’s actually a Gyrocoptor in AoS. I’ve seen it. 

Siege Tank - as for this I don’t know. Maybe the dwarves have a war machine or something. 

Mortar Team - Dwarves who shoot AoE splash damage from far away. I’ll have to look around and see there’s any long range Shooty dwarves who are artillery-like. 

Gryphon Rider - I don’t think there’s anything like this in AoS. They’re dwarves who ride on Griffons and throw thunder hammers. Stormcast May have something like this? Do they have any flying units? 

Dragonhawk Rider - for all intents and purposes one of the elves on a Phoenix would be great for this. Same theme and whatever. There’s no dedicated anti-air or anti-building stuff in AoS so it’s more about the look and feel. 

So with a Stormcast base and then a bunch of allies or General Allegiance Order I could have a super cool and beautiful narrative type casual list that is reminiscing of the Alliance from WC3

[Ravinsild]

39 minutes ago, SuperHappyTime said:

Depends on what your secondary goal is.

Casual Gamer? Buy what you want. I'd probably also look at beginning in one of the other categories (Budget) and then switching to another (Fluff or Competitive).

Budget Gamer? Find someone else interested in AoS and split a box with them. Alternatively, buy the box yourself and sell the other half for money.

Fluff Gamer? Buy the Battletome first and read it, then buy what you think best fits the fluff.

Competitive Play? Start watching videos from other players to form an opinion

Painter: Since the original Stormcast look a little too much the same, I'd have to suggest the Dracoths, Vanguard, or Sacrosanct chambers.

Hobby Hero: Considering Stormcast have a few new female models, buy only the bits for them and build your army that way.

I don't advise Soul Wars or the regular SC boxes because of wonky unit numbers. If you are looking to go into a Vanguard  you could go with last year's Battleforce (if you could find it) or 1/2 of Blightwar + SC Vanguard box. Alternatively, the original SC, 2016 Battleforce, or the old old Starter Expansion Box may good places to start.

What’s a Vanguard? Is that a Battalion?

[Urauloth]

7 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

What’s a Vanguard? Is that a Battalion?

It is, but more generally it's Stormcasts from a Vanguard Chamber; Lord-Aquilor and the units prefixed with "vanguard" (hunters, raptors, palladors). More loosely, aetherwings, hounds, and Knights-Vetator and Azyros are included in this as well.

[Aezeal]

10 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

Actually this has reinvigorated a stupid pet project I had rolling around inside my head. Since the Ironjawz remind me so much of the Warcraft 3 Horde Orcs in so many ways, I thought it’d be fun to make a sort of ode to the Alliance (Humans) from Warcraft 3. Nothing will be 1 to 1 equivalent, but it should be fun enough to get something vaguely similar. 

Heroes: 

Archmage - I’m pretty sure GW sells a generic human Archmage on foot and on a horse. 

Mountain King - literally any dwarf hero with a hammer and axe? Or two axes whatever. There’s no CC in AoS so him being a CC monster is irrelevant. 

Paladin - any Stormcast guy who buffs and heals basically. I don’t know if there’s a spell to raise dead units back to life for anyone aside from Undead so it’s whatever. 

Blood Mage - basically any offensive oriented Elf caster would count. I don’t think they have spells like “fireball” in AoS. 

Footman - I was thinking normal liberators with sword and shield. 

Dwarf Riflemen- I was thinking something from Kharadron Overlords. Probably Grundstok Thunderers. 

Knights - I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to bye “basic human with a sword and shied on a horse” in the entire GW line somehow. 

Priest - I’m not sure. Are there any Elf or otherwise units or heroes who buff attack or to hit and/or can reliably heal? 

Sorceress - for all intents and purposes, since there’s no CC like Polymorph, the Dark Elf hero with her spell is basically like casting slow on the enemies. It’s just a good debuff. 

Spell Breaker - I’m not sure. Are there any CQC elves who excel at canceling magic or absorbing mortal wounds? Are there any units besides Chaos Warriors like this? 

Flying Machine - lol there’s actually a Gyrocoptor in AoS. I’ve seen it. 

Siege Tank - as for this I don’t know. Maybe the dwarves have a war machine or something. 

Mortar Team - Dwarves who shoot AoE splash damage from far away. I’ll have to look around and see there’s any long range Shooty dwarves who are artillery-like. 

Gryphon Rider - I don’t think there’s anything like this in AoS. They’re dwarves who ride on Griffons and throw thunder hammers. Stormcast May have something like this? Do they have any flying units? 

Dragonhawk Rider - for all intents and purposes one of the elves on a Phoenix would be great for this. Same theme and whatever. There’s no dedicated anti-air or anti-building stuff in AoS so it’s more about the look and feel. 

So with a Stormcast base and then a bunch of allies or General Allegiance Order I could have a super cool and beautiful narrative type casual list that is reminiscing of the Alliance from WC3

Siege Tank : Steam tank?

Mortar Team: old empire mortar with a dwarven crew? Play as cannon?

Gryphon: there are gryphons but they are HUGE beasts not cavalry sized. You could use either the big ones (real griffins) or  the grypcavalry stormcast have or demigryphs.. but all have knightly guys in the saddle so if you need dwarves there you'd need to convert that.

Dragonhawk: Old warhawk riders might be an alternate option.

Priest: Gameplay wise you have the wanderer spellweaver you could use her stats and proxy a more fitting priestly model I guess (old empire had several nice priests and the silvertower priest looks nice too.

Knights: Old empire knights are available on ebay demigryphs are another option which fit AoS better but the WoW knights less.

[Feche90]

https://amzn.to/2uV8nCo

The Soul Wars box set is with discount on Amazon, just in case you decide to buy it is 15% off.

[SuperHappyTime]

11 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

Actually this has reinvigorated a stupid pet project I had rolling around inside my head. Since the Ironjawz remind me so much of the Warcraft 3 Horde Orcs in so many ways, I thought it’d be fun to make a sort of ode to the Alliance (Humans) from Warcraft 3. Nothing will be 1 to 1 equivalent, but it should be fun enough to get something vaguely similar. 

Heroes: 

Archmage - I’m pretty sure GW sells a generic human Archmage on foot and on a horse. They did, don't know if it's available online anymore, check a local store or eBay.

Mountain King - literally any dwarf hero with a hammer and axe? Or two axes whatever. There’s no CC in AoS so him being a CC monster is irrelevant. Warden King is closest.

Paladin - any Stormcast guy who buffs and heals basically. I don’t know if there’s a spell to raise dead units back to life for anyone aside from Undead so it’s whatever.  Stormcast yes. I'd look at the Retributor for a perfect pose, and find an equivalent warscroll (I haven't looked enough)

Blood Mage - basically any offensive oriented Elf caster would count. I don’t think they have spells like “fireball” in AoS. Archmage

Footman - I was thinking normal liberators with sword and shield. Good Choice

Dwarf Riflemen- I was thinking something from Kharadron Overlords. Probably Grundstok Thunderers. Or Regular Thunderers

Knights - I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to bye “basic human with a sword and shied on a horse” in the entire GW line somehow. That's an out of print model unfortunately, but Empire Knights. Alternatively, convert from Outriders and/or use Demigryph Knights

Priest - I’m not sure. Are there any Elf or otherwise units or heroes who buff attack or to hit and/or can reliably heal? This will have to be converted from somewhere. Using Elf Mages are expensive models. I can't think of a good rules equivalent either. Also depends on how many you want.

Sorceress - for all intents and purposes, since there’s no CC like Polymorph, the Dark Elf hero with her spell is basically like casting slow on the enemies. It’s just a good debuff. That's a good choice but again, expensive if you want a few GW.

Spell Breaker - I’m not sure. Are there any CQC elves who excel at canceling magic or absorbing mortal wounds? Are there any units besides Chaos Warriors like this? Rules-wise, not sure on an equal. Model-wise either use Black Guard or High Elf Spearmen

Flying Machine - lol there’s actually a Gyrocoptor in AoS. I’ve seen it. 

Siege Tank - as for this I don’t know. Maybe the dwarves have a war machine or something.  Steam Tank

Mortar Team - Dwarves who shoot AoE splash damage from far away. I’ll have to look around and see there’s any long range Shooty dwarves who are artillery-like.  Empire had an actual mortar. Could always use a Cannon.

Gryphon Rider - I don’t think there’s anything like this in AoS. They’re dwarves who ride on Griffons and throw thunder hammers. Stormcast May have something like this? Do they have any flying units? Maybe convert it to Kharadron Overlords, but not really griffon riders. Closest looking models are Freeguild General on Griffon, or a High Warden from Spire of Dawn, but they're big. Demigryph Knights or Vanguard Palladors are smaller, but don't have wings.

Dragonhawk Rider - for all intents and purposes one of the elves on a Phoenix would be great for this. Same theme and whatever. There’s no dedicated anti-air or anti-building stuff in AoS so it’s more about the look and feel. Phoenix would work. If you can convert wings, I'll suggest Ishlaen Guard

So with a Stormcast base and then a bunch of allies or General Allegiance Order I could have a super cool and beautiful narrative type casual list that is reminiscing of the Alliance from WC3

Oooh! That's a great idea!

For knowledge, Warcraft is based almost entirely off of the Warhammer IP. Blizzard were making the game looking to get an offer from GW, but were turned down and decided to make it their own thing. Very similar thing happened with Starcraft and 40K.

For the army, you'll want to broaden your horizons to Mixed Order rather than straight Stormcast. A lot of models have in-game equivalents, some models have a similar looking model but would need you to make your own rules. Finally, other models will need a bit of converting to get the models correct, but can probably use a similar warscroll.

Cheerio!