Let's chat Stormcast Eternals

[Earthtremor]

Big blocks of drop down/teleporting liberators is pretty good against them and pretty useful in general in this meta. Decemator paladins can wreck hordes too and still be reasonably useful elsewhere but can be tricky on the pile in. I've been tempted to run 10 but the range issue is frustrating and you will end up making a choice between getting your maces in or maximising your attacks. At which point protectors begin to look like a better option when running 10 as you are guaranteed to get them all in. Although the - 2 bravery debuff from the Decemators is super useful. 

Obviously there is plenty of ranged options but hurricanes stand out for weight of shots. 

Allies wise... Sure you could join the crowd and get a tonne of skinks, or you could run drycha who is a great horde clearance tool and a spell casters to boot. 

Hope that helps? 

[Josh]

Idk if anyone has mentioned it but one list i want to run is Skyborne Slayers for anti horde

just unsure on Liberator unit sizes and what heros would be best to maximise the army, relictor is first that comes to mind to lightning chariot what isnt in the battalion 

[Earthtremor]

Skyborn is strong and army wide battleshock immunity is massive if you are running big units 

Having 2 relictors with lightning chariot really helps with movement once you have dropped 

Vanguard wing gives you more flexibility though 

[AverageBoss]

LCoSD and Fulminators easily eat hordes alive. Between them, Decimators, and Hurricane Raptors, Stormcasts have plenty of anti horde options without having to resort to 30 man Liberator blocks, which I feel are clunky and unwieldy. One or two 5-10 man units will continue to be the best option for them imo, outside formations. Even then I think 15 max would be what you see more often.

[Keldaur]

Maybe i am wrong, but he didn't ask for anti-horde, but how to bring your own horde to be able to score in 2 out of 6 battleplans.

[CountryMou3e]

25 minutes ago, Keldaur said:

Maybe i am wrong, but he didn't ask for anti-horde, but how to bring your own horde to be able to score in 2 out of 6 battleplans.

All you need to do is tag objectives early and bring the enemy units below 20models with ranged attacks. That way they can't steal them. Relatively simple really 

[Thebiggesthat]

I'm still in two minds with the hurricane Raptors. I have three to build, but with 3 longstrikes already, a unit of 6 with bless weapons seems so much better

[AverageBoss]

4 hours ago, CountryMou3e said:

All you need to do is tag objectives early and bring the enemy units below 20models with ranged attacks. That way they can't steal them. Relatively simple really 

Yep. Stormcasts will be better off killing enemy hordes, rather than trying to compete with them. That is what I was trying to say.

[Samanar]

So since I haven't glued my Raptors yet... Longstrikes or Hurricanes? I'm kinda tempted to go Hurricane cause they just look cooler but not sure if they're any good on the tabletop. Opinions?

[AverageBoss]

1 hour ago, Samanar said:

So since I haven't glued my Raptors yet... Longstrikes or Hurricanes? I'm kinda tempted to go Hurricane cause they just look cooler but not sure if they're any good on the tabletop. Opinions?

The common consensus I see is that Longstrikes are generally better at first. After you have about 6 of those, Hurricanes become better. Longstrikes are great character snipers and can do solid damage to units from obscene range. Having that helps draw attention away from your Hurricanes, who need to get up close but are also very fragile.

[Requizen]

1 hour ago, AverageBoss said:

The common consensus I see is that Longstrikes are generally better at first. After you have about 6 of those, Hurricanes become better. Longstrikes are great character snipers and can do solid damage to units from obscene range. Having that helps draw attention away from your Hurricanes, who need to get up close but are also very fragile.

More or less. You want both, but Longstrikes are priority. You can drop 3-6 Longstrikes in any list and do fine, but not necessarily true with Hurricanes. You want Longstrikes to support the Hurricanes from a range, so even outside of Aetherstrike they work really well together. 

[BURF1]

38 minutes ago, Requizen said:

More or less. You want both, but Longstrikes are priority. You can drop 3-6 Longstrikes in any list and do fine, but not necessarily true with Hurricanes. You want Longstrikes to support the Hurricanes from a range, so even outside of Aetherstrike they work really well together. 

Also unless you're planning on stacking some buffs on them always take min units of hurricanes for the extra primes and the -2 charges.

[Alfascozzesi]

I have this very same decision to make. My plan at the moment is to have 1 x squad of longstrikes (already assembled) and one of hurricane crossbows to help with cutting down the hordes protected by aether wings to the front and or a 5 man squad of liberators.

My thoughts on seeing everyone's comp lists for the recent events say that most folk are staying the same at the moment and not going for massive units and maybe a larger squad of long strikes would be better to whittle down the power characters.

I also have one squad of judicators with reasonable range in my list and was even thinking of taking two units of judicators and only one of liberators to fulfill my three units of battle line.

If I took two units of judicators then hurricanes may be okay but if only one and two units of liberators then I am leaning towards a large unit of long strikes.

Any views on this?

[Thebiggesthat]

I'm planning on running 6 longstrikes and a Relictor with bless weapons, to see how well they do

[Turragor]

2 hours ago, Thebiggesthat said:

I'm planning on running 6 longstrikes and a Relictor with bless weapons, to see how well they do

The problem I have with this is thats an average of what 1 extra attack per shooting round? Which could be another 2 mw or regular wounds (if they bypass saves - we'll say so as it's either mw or -2 rend).

If the relictor makes the 4+ which is a 50/50 so you'd have it 3 rounds max a battle. If the unit survives that long.

So on average 6 wounds.  Is that even how the maths add up for the averages? I suck at maths

Don't get me wrong I always take a relictor (2 actually) but I give them both lightning chariot as I just feel the threat of that mobility is something you can't put a wounds per battle price on.

Is that how the maths here works?

[Thebiggesthat]

You are absolutely right with the maths, and it's a lot of points to hope for some above average rolling, I just like the thought of deleting a character a turn potentially

[Turragor]

3 hours ago, Thebiggesthat said:

You are absolutely right with the maths, and it's a lot of points to hope for some above average rolling, I just like the thought of deleting a character a turn potentially

That is more often than not how I play too - where's the fun in the mathematically 51% win ratio list versus the exciting list?

[newsun]

Seems to me venator is very similar to longstrikes for the points. You can get three of them for the cost of 6 LS. Obviously this depends on heroes you are bringing. They do have better range and mobility.

[Tidings]

Hey guys, sorry if I briefly hijack the thread for a few posts, but I have a question for Stormcast mains. 

I'm playing a Mixed Order army that is based around a Hurricanum and lots of Wanderers shooting, and I'm looking to use some Stormcast as my frontline. I'm looking for a powerful, fairly scary unit that can reliably take/hold an objective without support. But I also need the unit to, depending on the situation, work well as a frontline that can dish out some damage.

So with those needs covered, here are the two units I'm looking at. I'd like to know if there's a clear winner between the two mathematically, or your thoughts in general, as I've never played with either. Or if there is a better option I'm not considering, let me know!

Retributors - Same cost as Kurnoths, which I am also fielding, but slightly less survivable on their own. Retributors have higher damage output, however, and if used as a screen/frontline they combo very nicely with the Hurricanum because the +1 to hit will cause the 2 MWs to proc twice as often. Currently my only source of MWs is the Hurricanum, so any other source of MW output is tempting.

Decimators - A bit cheaper than Retributors/Hunters, with damage output that is more variable, but probably closer to the Hunters. They don't get any real synergy with the Hurricanum, but that means I have less incentive to hold them close and can more comfortably play them as I need off on an objective. They're a natural anti-horde unit. While I don't have much issue with hordes, due to lots of shooting, I still think this is pretty valuable because it's reliably going to contest an objective against hordes without support. 

If you don't mind, let me know which you think fits my needs better. If you've experienced something I'm missing, also let me know! For example, am I overestimating Decimator's damage? It seems good on paper but for all I know Retributors are clear winners. Also, what's the general strategy regarding Starsoul Maces? Take 2/skip them altogether? 

Thanks for the help guys.

[Lez]

On 16/09/2017 at 12:58 PM, CountryMou3e said:

Had a blast with Les's drake list last night. Played scorched earth scenario against a pokey Khorne list with a win for stormcast. I need to get a few more games with it but I'm not sure how much it'll need to change as the meta shifts. It's a very robust list! The fulminators were amazing. I'm tempted to swap out the relictor for a wizard but who knows! >< 

I'm glad you enjoyed playing with it, I was tempted to drop the heraldor for a loremaster.

lets you make the venator a boss in the list and allows you to mitagate the chances of whiffing with the Drake.

as a personal thing I'd never drop the Relictor, his healing ability and -1 to hit prayer is amazing. 

not to mention lightning chariot as getting the castellant in range for he lantern buff can be hard if you are pushing the Drake forward.

I've always found I have to take stock and consider the next turn in each hero phase  and teleport the castellant to the best position to buff the Drake next turn. 

 

Obviosuly this is all just my opinion, mix it up and try some stuff out man  

[boombyeyeah]

1 hour ago, Tidings said:

Hey guys, sorry if I briefly hijack the thread for a few posts, but I have a question for Stormcast mains. 

I'm playing a Mixed Order army that is based around a Hurricanum and lots of Wanderers shooting, and I'm looking to use some Stormcast as my frontline. I'm looking for a powerful, fairly scary unit that can reliably take/hold an objective without support. But I also need the unit to, depending on the situation, work well as a frontline that can dish out some damage.

So with those needs covered, here are the two units I'm looking at. I'd like to know if there's a clear winner between the two mathematically, or your thoughts in general, as I've never played with either. Or if there is a better option I'm not considering, let me know!

Retributors - Same cost as Kurnoths, which I am also fielding, but slightly less survivable on their own. Retributors have higher damage output, however, and if used as a screen/frontline they combo very nicely with the Hurricanum because the +1 to hit will cause the 2 MWs to proc twice as often. Currently my only source of MWs is the Hurricanum, so any other source of MW output is tempting.

Decimators - A bit cheaper than Retributors/Hunters, with damage output that is more variable, but probably closer to the Hunters. They don't get any real synergy with the Hurricanum, but that means I have less incentive to hold them close and can more comfortably play them as I need off on an objective. They're a natural anti-horde unit. While I don't have much issue with hordes, due to lots of shooting, I still think this is pretty valuable because it's reliably going to contest an objective against hordes without support. 

If you don't mind, let me know which you think fits my needs better. If you've experienced something I'm missing, also let me know! For example, am I overestimating Decimator's damage? It seems good on paper but for all I know Retributors are clear winners. Also, what's the general strategy regarding Starsoul Maces? Take 2/skip them altogether? 

Thanks for the help guys.

I like Decimators only, when you can drop them somewhere right next to horde unit, since you are playing order GA i guess most oppponents will just outmaneuver decimators.

You could consider Protectors too, they are more resilient to shooting than retributors, and the 3' range is very handy.

[Tidings]

4 minutes ago, boombyeyeah said:

I like Decimators only, when you can drop them somewhere right next to horde unit, since you are playing order GA i guess most oppponents will just outmaneuver decimators.

You could consider Protectors too, they are more resilient to shooting than retributors, and the 3' range is very handy.

Honestly I totally glossed over the fact that they are slow as molasses. Thanks for bringing that up. That might not be an issue as I'm intending to basically run them straight at a contested objective, but I guess I'll find out either way? haha. 

Hadn't really given much thought to them as shooting isn't very strong here in my local scene, but generally speaking, do you think they are better for what I described? I was a little concerned they weren't as "killy"

Thanks for the reply man.

[BURF1]

3 hours ago, newsun said:

Seems to me venator is very similar to longstrikes for the points. You can get three of them for the cost of 6 LS. Obviously this depends on heroes you are bringing. They do have better range and mobility.

Venator between the eagle and him does about 1.61 damage per turn against a 4+ save. Star fated arrow does 2.4 average but has a MASSIVE swing to it(+.5 for star eagle).

Single Longstrike does .93 Wounds(ignoring the mortal wounds on 6+) against a 4+ save which means a unit of 6 would do 5.555 wounds per turn whereas 3 venators would do 4.83 with 1 turn of 8.7. Add back in the mortal wounds on 6+ for the longstrike and the -3 rend for star eagle on 6+ and it means that even with Star Fated, you'd still do more damage on average with a unit of longstrikes over the course of a game. You wouldn't have the miracle "Ace 2 thundertusks in one turn" highs of three venators but you also wouldn't have 'he saved all 3 starfateds so now I'm useless' of them either.

[boombyeyeah]

I just think they would fit in your army, they could also protect your shooters from enemy shooting.

For being killy: Retris hit harder.

I would always take the starsoulmaces! Sure buffed up Retris dont need them, but buffers can die or be not in range.

[Tidings]

Awesome, thanks for the help man. If you think of anything else I should know, just "@" me!