Sell Me on Stormcast or Sylvaneth

[ElectricPaladin]

Due to financial concerns, I've had to sell off my beloved Seraphon (except for a few of my favorite conversions, favorite models, or OOP models, plus the few models I actually painted). As much as I like reptiles, my wife and I need the money right now. I've promised myself that as soon as the money isn't quite so tight, I'll start a new Order army to replace them. The question is, which?

Stormcast Eternals (who I'll paint as Astral Templars) or Sylvaneth?

Here are my thoughts on these two armies.

Stormcast

I really dig the way the Astral Templars are described, and dressing them up with feathers and other totems would be a fun way to use my leftover Seraphon bits. Also, it's a good excuse to break up the rather monotonous Stormcast armor with warpaint. And I'm also thinking of using Space Marine heads to model all of my primes and officers as helmetless, the better to stare down their foes and show their utter disdain!

Also, the Astral Templars seem like the sort of Stormcast who would work well with the Seraphon models I've retained.

Sylvaneth

I feel like they have a really interesting playstyle, and wood textures are fun and easy to paint. Also, similarly, I could paint them to look a little jungle-y and they'd match my remaining Seraphon. And, for that matter, I think that Sylvaneth teleporting through forests and chameleon skinks teleporting through sheer irritatingness would be a fun way to give my opponents headaches! I'm concerned that the Stormcast are a bit one-note (kind of like the Seraphon, who were frankly, kind of boring me).

Altogether, I suppose I'm looking for two things:

1) Sell me on whichever of these you think is, frankly, cooler.

2) My other (and, currently, main) army is Undead. Which of these two do you think would provide a more interesting contrast in playstyle to my Flesh Eaters (and skeletons, and ghosts, and vampires)?

[Payce]

The topic really boils down to a single question:

Would you like a hammer or a surgeon's knife?

[Shorewood]

Sylvaneth field a lot of big monsters and are much more "support the big guy so he can get some work done" with their healing and wyldwoods.  I play sylvaneth and I always have at least 2 behemoths.  

Stormcast are much more about kick ass heros that are backed by a solid infantry line.  

[ElectricPaladin]

8 minutes ago, Shorewood said:

"support the big guy so he can get some work done"

That sounds a lot like my undead, whereas "solid infantry line" feels very different from my craptacular ghouls and skeletons.

[Shorewood]

I haven't played against undead yet, I always thought their big guys were more of the spell caster variety rather than the sword to the face type.

[ElectricPaladin]

5 minutes ago, Shorewood said:

I haven't played against undead yet, I always thought their big guys were more of the spell caster variety rather than the sword to the face type.

Zombie dragons, terrorgheists, and coven thrones would beg to differ. Though, that's a fair description of ghoul kings and vampires on foot, not to mention necromancers.

[Shorewood]

Good point.  

[Shorewood]

I do appreciate all the mobility options of the sylvaneth.  The ability to hold models out of deployment to just pop in on the wyldwoods can really help you choose y our match ups

[chord]

Stormcast as you can pick up cheap liberators, prosecutors, etc off ebay and paint them until things become better.

[MrCharisma]

3 hours ago, ElectricPaladin said:

2) My other (and, currently, main) army is Undead. Which of these two do you think would provide a more interesting contrast in playstyle to my Flesh Eaters (and skeletons, and ghosts, and vampires)?

 

I'm assuming your Undead army is a horde type army? Lots of skeletons, zombies, etc

If that's the case I would imagine both Stormcast and Sylvaneth would meet your criteria. Stormcast are easy to paint, and low model count... while the Sylvaneth will bring in the big models that you might have been used to through the Lizardmen, I mean Seraphon. Stormcast will bring in some flying dudes if you used Ripperdactals in your old strategy.

Either way it's a win win... I guess it comes down to what has the cooler models.

[MacDuff]

Pick your favorite - living or dead. Stormcast are in between in truth.

[LordRogalDorn]

The thing about Sylvaneth is that you want to make sure you keep your Sylvaneth allegiance because they get a lot of their cool abilities then. So mixing them with your lizards won't be a good idea. Stormcasts can mix a little more easily and have some similarly cool deployment strategies with different battalions. They are also one of the most supported factions in AoS right now.

[Immersturm]

The thing about SCE is that no matter how well you convert them, they will still remain an army full of the same dude with different weapons. The models vary little in their size. Compare it to KBB, which is another army full of infantry dudes. They are way more interesting to look at because the silhouettes differ. Reavers are smaller than Warriors, which are in turn smaller than Wrathmongers. If that sort of visual diversity does not matter to you, then SCE will offer you greater diversity in actual builds and work pretty well with some of the Seraphon monsters. If you are going Sylvaneth you are resigning to pure Sylvaneth because their effectiveness drops a chunk when you lose Sylvaneth allegiance.

[MrCharisma]

I will call out that I hear Sylvaneth is a ***** to transport around for gaming. Not sure if that's important to you...

[Aezeal]

On 20-12-2016 at 10:44 PM, MrCharisma said:

I will call out that I hear Sylvaneth is a ***** to transport around for gaming. Not sure if that's important to you...

This is truth. I carry shoebox sizes boxes just to transport single treelords.

[KHHaunts]

Their trees with Big *** weapons! Whats to think about?

[Shorewood]

the trick to transporting sylvaneth is to put magnets on the bases then stick them all on a baking sheet (preferably with a lip).  Then put the baking sheet in a box deep enough so that none of the models are sticking out the top and you are set.  Unless you use magnets that are far too big for the models they won't be too hard to pick up off the sheet while at the same time during transport they won't tip over, just kind of slide around.  

This is nice because it means that none of the dozens upon dozens of branches and twigs that poke out of these guys will rub against foam avoiding the paint wearing off and fragile plastic being bent.  

[Aezeal]

3 hours ago, Shorewood said:

the trick to transporting sylvaneth is to put magnets on the bases then stick them all on a baking sheet (preferably with a lip).  Then put the baking sheet in a box deep enough so that none of the models are sticking out the top and you are set.  Unless you use magnets that are far too big for the models they won't be too hard to pick up off the sheet while at the same time during transport they won't tip over, just kind of slide around.  

This is nice because it means that none of the dozens upon dozens of branches and twigs that poke out of these guys will rub against foam avoiding the paint wearing off and fragile plastic being bent.  

I actually bought a metal tool case for that reason.. it's reasonably large but treeman are a close fit. I put them on the sides of the case and on the bottom I use thin foamy stuff, to avoid scratching (however the smooth surface of the case and the fact all my sylvaneth I currently use are plastic don't make this likely )

[Shorewood]

I have what will be an entire army of basically everything save the everqueen herself on two modest baking sheets,