Stormfiends useful at all?

[Raoiley]

Having lived in fear of stormfiends.. I hear they are no longer scary with the weapon change. I am getting some Skaven from a Carrion empire set from a friend. Are the fiends usable? Are more a good idea? Are they doomed to ride the shelf?

[Skreech Verminking]

Well, they are still rather strong.

the only problem Stormfiends have right now, is that they can’t fixate on one specialty.

for example before the book came out, they could easily all be equipped with warpflamers, shock gauntlets etc. Which gave them a possibility to fixate themselves on one unit type like hordes or very elite units.

Now they are more of a jack of all trade unit, beeing able to do some good but not to overpowered damage to hordes and elite etc. .

and if rightly buffed by our new magic lore and  allegiance ability’s, they will kill-slay all foe-things that dared, to challenge Us-us!

Yes-yes.

 

[Reezark_SP]

Last game I played 1 unit of 3 put 10 wounds on my Lord of Change in a single round of combat. It was carrying the artifact that gave it -1 to hit. I imagine the Stormfiends had a good chance of killing it if it didnt have that artifact.

 

[Overread]

It's not that they are bad, they are just not capable of being made into specialist units any more; and most competitive people far prefer specialist over generalist in army composition. That said they are still big and powerful units and whilst many of their weapons are mirrored in weapon-teams to some degree; the stormfiends are a very durable platform and more reliable (if also far more expensive in points). 

 

You can still also do some specialising by focusing on the ranged or close combat weapons within the options that they have. You just can't load out 3 with ratling guns etc... Used right they are a versatile unit now that can dish out damage at a variety of target types and ranges and are not afraid of getting into close combat. The kind of unit that can advance and deal out pain and damage ot the enemy for most of the travel and when they arrive.

[bitchparty]

They are still really good, they've just lost their cheese factor. Personally I think that's better for the game on the whole.

The key to using them (and most Skaven units) is target priority. Have them tunnel up near your opponent's weak point and they will have to do something about it.