Lucur

It's in the Stormcast allegiance now, called "scions of the storm", which allows half your army to setup anywhere on the field, outside 9" from enemy models at the end of your movement phase. I've not seen someone run Paladins recently, though i could imagine Decimators thrive in the hordes that are around these days.

Judicators do ~15% less damage than Longstrikes vs 4+sv, while also ticking the battlelinebox. One could argue you save the Liberator tax to get more shots, and Judicators lose less punch per model lost as most of the shots come from shockbolt bows. But longstrikes get more range when stationary, get "overwatch" when charged and activate aetherwings, which i'd consider more valuable than dodging Liberators.

Azyros, Relictor, 2×5 Liberators, 9 Longstrikes and Skinks or Aetherwings to fill, leaves you at 990/1000. I wouldn't expect that to work all too well, as you lack a second threat (Evocators) but it might be worth a shot.

To add to Mark's previous post, there is always only the one ballista bomb and the one Gav charge. Those are potentially devastating, but can be played around to a degree. There can, however, be any number of Terrorgheists and the only counterplay to the "i go first twice" one is shoot/cast it dead. Which won't happen often with high move and fly. @Sedraxis the fact you would like to see the game balanced around older, weaker units (tomes, synergies, pts-per-wound or whatever) doesn't make it happen. GW is balancing around the new dialed up to eleven stuff. Thus, nerfing the Sacrosanct units would leave SCE behind the pack (which we arguably are anyways, with mediocre faction boni, no terrain and the halfbaked 2.0 tome, compared to later books.) If the entirety of SCE is brought to Liberator levels of power, the entirety of SCE is - in a competitive environment- subpar.

Tauralon gives +1 to hit for ranged when it moves across enemies.

The hailstrike isn't that bad if you really want another artefact, it's just not as efficient as simply adding two more ballistae instead of battalion and Castigator tax. Also, to consistenly wound (which you want to trigger the reroll on the ballista), you need 6 Castigators, which further tilts the balance in favour of more ballistae instead. Considering points in SCE, if anything we need buffs to the old models, nerf Gavriels CA to be once a turn and maybe drop a few on the weak battalions, as there's currently no way to significantly lower drops compared to most armies. The power of the new books is what sets the tone, so we should get balanced around that, and Evocators simply aren't broken compared to concurrent releases.

If you can never shoot one down and they never fail to mw your drake, maybe just roll over? Jokes aside, even if that happened three times in a row, that can't be used for objectively judging a matchup. Maybe loaded dice are a thing?

I would assume Sequitor battleline 😜

The effect can be used only once per game, but when used lasts for the entire phase. So all three spells would be cast at +1 with one additional mortal wound to all caused mortal wounds.

An Incantor lobbing his warscroll spell and chain lightning through a spell portal with the staff of focus on is a fun gimmick. A one trick pony, but fun.

As stated, if you want to, you can invent any story arch that would lead your forces to collaborate, if unwillingly. Maybe they only hold back until after the Chais threat is defeated, just to turn on what is left of their "allies"... In the book Black Pyramid, there's an alliance between a certain vampire and some Hallowed Knights, if even the faithful can indulge the soulblighted... have at it

@RareDesire you will have to decide what you want to build a list around. Evocators on foot are more powerful and cheaper, therefor they need a "delivery-system" like Gavriel Sureheart and Scions or a Knight-Vexillor. The Kittycators are fast by themselves, they might need a Knight Heraldor to retreat and charge and otherwise they're good to go. The general consensus seems to be that shooting is necessary to pick out enemy characters, that can be done my 3-4 ballistae and a Lord Ordinator delivered into 18" range per Scions or a larger squad of Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrikes, the latter preferrably as Anvils to shoot a second time in the hero phase. @RiavanAs many Greatmaces as possiple. They rival Retributors in damage output and are more resilient due to shields and rerollable save in combat, while ticking that battleline box.

For one, you have one extra artefact and no battalion, cheater The stormhost artefact takes up the free slot, so no lantern. Also that's 1740 pts I'd consolidate the Sequitors into ten man squads at least, you have the Judicators to fill in battleline. If you go for 20 Sequitors in one unit you also get the discount and quite the deathball with the Castellant's lantern and Evocators' Empower/ Celestial Blades, while retaining 3 battleline with the 2 squads of Judicators. To build up to 2000 points get more Evocators, add something fast to grab objectves, like Aetherwings. In my opinion you have too much shooting and too little to block chargers. Hope that helps

Did you use your last posted iteration of the list? Otherwise i'm curious what you supplemented the longstrikes with!

To add to that, consider variance. Staves might do more damage on average against 4+ and worse, but staves habe a propability of doing no damage of like 78% per attack, whereas for swords it's like 70%. That is because swords have more attacks and staves doing either 0 or 2 damage, but never 1. Against 5+ and 6+ saves though, staves get far ahead on average damage.

True, make that Plaguemonks or Stormvermin, though... I think i wanna try out some Decimators next time i play v Skaven, they should easily get 7-8 models within 2" with a good charge and pile in. Maybe the horde meta will revive a Paladin choice? Maybe i should just get some sleep...

Even 10 Evocators will have a tough time going through 40 rats. Sure they'll vanish to battleshock if not CP'd but 12 or so will get to retaliate first.

I would rather take a Knight Heraldor and get that run&charge turn 1 than rely on the Templars trait, especially when the rules aren't clear. I've only run a unit of 3 kittycators so far, and not in an overly competitive environment, but i've found the ability to fall back and charge invaluable. Won't count if every charge one-shots your cats, but it's there

@PJetski thanks for the insights, that makes sense! @That Guy I regularly use a squad of three hurrica e Raptors, they do work. The number of dice is obscene and with a Knight Incantor's spiritstorm in the back you can position them somewhat aggressively and still be relatively safe from things that don't run and charge.

I'm considering building towards an Anvilstrike list and while mathshammering some lists i came to the conclusion that 6 Longstrikes will reliably drop 5w 4+sv heroes. This made me want 12 of the buggers so i can headshot four necromancers a turn. In most Anvilstrike lists i see 9 Longstrikes. Why is that, considering that it gives more shots per CP?

The Longstrikes make way better use of the anvils CA and have the ability to get teleported by a Lord Aquillor. If you want to play Ballistae other stormhosts offer more, just bring an Ordinator and 4 Ballistae.

Of course the CA is useful on units in combat, if you have the CP you can also use it on several units simultaneously. The issue i find is that what gets touched by Evocators is usually not in combat anymore due to being dead or at least crippled to a point where spending a CP seems unnecessary (unless you really need to get those Evocators moving without falling back). The unit/s that come in to countercharge and in turn dead-en the Evocators is what bothers me, and shooting them with Longstrikes helps.

It would be possible to bulge out the chestpiece of male Stormcast with some greenstuff (like Angarad Brightshield has). The accentuated boob armor doesn't make any sense anyways.

I don't think so, as it is a missile attack and the Heraldor allows to run and charge, not shoot, iirc. I haven't used one, but i think you need a specific list, that uses all his abilities (much shooting, Heraldor for run+charge for CA), otherwise the gryphcharher will likely just be more efficient.

Yep, i ran sone maths on that. Evocators' damage comes from the mortal wounds more than anything and Sequitors Greatmaces profit more. Also Sequitors in Phalanx get to reroll hits, too, exponentially making rr wounds better and which allows them to reroll all saves every fightphase (remember, Empower can't even be denied when cast with a CP). Per point, Empower is better on Sequitors, when in a Cleansing Phalanx.