Thunderhead Brotherhood

[Riddlesworthy]

I like the idea of the Thunderhead brotherhood, but in practise, is anyone using it successfully?

With Staunch defender sitting behind the liberators and a LC on foot as the leader, seems like the liberators get some decent power for the rest of a list to work around. Even works with the LCoD, just makes the libs a bit more pillow fisted.

[Turragor]

What I see with lists after the new book is reduced total number of deployment drops. Increases the chance you can deploy things with scions the way you want if you can make your opponent go first.

Thunderhead brotherhood is one of the better ways to do this with your battlelines. The bonus to wound and the save bonus for the juds are almost a footnote.

[Austin]

I have lately almost started to take a "why not" approach to thunderhead brotherhood. Especially since I am usually taking its component parts anyway. 

The obvious counter is, well the why not is an extra unit of prosecutors, or a lord-relictor. 

I think @Turragor is right, the main point is to decrease drops and then use the bonuses as a nice side benefit. 

Unless of course like me, you are determined to make dual wielding Liberators a force to be feared. Then the benefit is less. 

[kozokus]

It have passed the step of "why not" for me several time when i want to field a lot of liberators.

The +1 artifact is nice but not outstanding for 80 pts. The reduced number of deployment is.

 

Also, 80 points is two or three things in a Stormcast army :

• A knight Azyros. add some flesh to the army, rerolls 1 to hit for Jud' and do nothing for Lib' in that case, i want to make sure that i get the reroll 1 to wound for everybody, otherwise the Azyros is best. This is a problem because 5 units are not easily divisible by 3 (unless you field them in a hammers of sigmar or Hanvils of heldenhammer where there is 4 lib' or 3 jud') So you have to choose either to keep everybody together, which is not optimal considering they fulfill different roles at different ranges or you make two of your units without the buff, which is a shame.
• A lord relictor. This is a different story, the prayers are nice and all but unreliable. In such case, i prefer to field bigger units rather than multiples.
• A jav' prosecutor unit. This one is hard. I value javelin very high as for a low price they provide a very high volume of fire. 

Well the best answer is that you want to field the Thunderhead brotherhood with an Azyros and a prosecutors unit but you may have other priority when you construct your army. That beeing said, reducing your number of drops is critical in a stormcas army.

[Turragor]

A bonus artefact too! Quite right kozokus.

For me I think if I'm not trying to reach another battalion that is either:

A) expensive (so you're thinking of minimum battleline costs)  and/or

B) requires liberators and judicators AS WELL (vanguard wing, aetherstrike);

Then I'm tempted by the thunderhead as a basis for a balanced force with a bonus artefact and a single drop for battleline +2 more units.

 

[PJetski]

I don't care for this battalion. Judicators are already weak and not worth their points, so it doesn't seem worthwhile to spend more points to keep them alive longer

[Let's 'ere it for da boyz!]

3 hours ago, PJetski said:

I don't care for this battalion. Judicators are already weak and not worth their points, so it doesn't seem worthwhile to spend more points to keep them alive longer

What?  I'd be very interested to hear how you came to this opinion.  

I would argue that Judicators are among the best Battleline choices in the game.  They're not cheap, but they're definitely worth their points in my opinion.

[PJetski]

They only do 2-3 wounds per shooting phase. You can get a lot more damage output for 160 points. You could take 2 squads of Prosecutors with Javelins or Hurricane raptors for the same cost.

I actually think liberators are the best battleline in the game. Put the special weapon on a prime and try to hit models with 5+ wounds and they do significant damage.

In my opinion the only reason to use Judicators is to use the special anti-horde crossbow and to fill out battalion requirements like the Aetherstrike Force.

[arnoldrew]

51 minutes ago, PJetski said:

They only do 2-3 wounds per shooting phase. You can get a lot more damage output for 160 points. You could take 2 squads of Prosecutors with Javelins or Hurricane raptors for the same cost.

I actually think liberators are the best battleline in the game. Put the special weapon on a prime and try to hit models with 5+ wounds and they do significant damage.

In my opinion the only reason to use Judicators is to use the special anti-horde crossbow and to fill out battalion requirements like the Aetherstrike Force.

My Judicators have rarely done only 2-3 wounds in a shooting phase, and I'd be hard-pressed to remember a time when 5 Liberators ever did much more than that.

[Let's 'ere it for da boyz!]

9 hours ago, PJetski said:

 

They only do 2-3 wounds per shooting phase. You can get a lot more damage output for 160 points. You could take 2 squads of Prosecutors with Javelins or Hurricane raptors for the same cost.

I actually think liberators are the best battleline in the game. Put the special weapon on a prime and try to hit models with 5+ wounds and they do significant damage.

In my opinion the only reason to use Judicators is to use the special anti-horde crossbow and to fill out battalion requirements like the Aetherstrike Force.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread it, I agree with @arnoldrew.  I find that the Prime with the Shockbolt Bow often does 2-3 unsaved Wounds on its own each shooting phase.  

Also, Judicators are a much more pressing threat to your opponent when they're sat on an objective.  

I love Liberators, but I've never found them to be particularly fighty.  But hey, to each his own.