readercolin

So I managed to do a bit of testing with some of the new warscrolls (using proxies for the Relictor and Protectors) and here are my opinions: Stardrake. I'm playing one in my Cities of Sigmar list, and I'm not impressed. Honestly, he should just cost 400 points... maybe less. Yes, he is 18 wounds, he has a 3+ save, and he can reflect mortal wounds on 6's to save (an ability that I keep forgetting about). The rend -3 shooting is pretty nice for punching through armor, but the fact that it is a maximum of 8 damage means it is only really good to use as a way to try to snipe support hero's. The Cavernous Jaws ability means that he really likes going into small elite units (ex. most little stormcast stuff), but his total damage output is just... poor. Additionally, the wording on Cavernous Jaws is just awkward, and having to say "I'm rolling a die for this model, then one for this model, and then one for that model" and not being able to just say "I'm rolling 3 dice, I chose a model to remove for each success" is just straight up annoying. If I take him, I can expect an average of 10 damage before saves, not counting whatever the Cavernous Jaws manages to do. I can get more damage out of 2 fulminators that AREN'T charging. This is a model that I really, really want to love, but it can't go toe to toe with any other monster in the game. For cleaning up smaller stuff... why are you spending 500 points for a unit to try to do this? If I want an underwhelming dragon, I can just bring a Dreadlord on Black Dragon and get a similar damage output for a little over half the points. Fulminators. These guys I was impressed by. If you can get the charge off, they will go HAM on whatever they hit. If you don't get the charge off, they are still able to dish out decent damage, and you are going to force your opponent to really commit to try to take them off the board as well. Still a bit weak to mortal wounds. Protectors. I put a block of 15 of these guys down, just to see what would happen. What happened is they chewed through 60 phoenix guard (backed up by an annointed giving them re-roll wound rolls) and only lost 5 models while doing so. The 2+ save is just ridiculous, especially when you can trivially buff it to ignore rend -1. Damage wise they are also surprisingly killy for something that I was more throwing down to pretend to be a brick wall. That being said, I do agree that these guys are only really playable for as long as Translocation stays how it is, and you are going to need to pay a Relictor tax if you want to bring these guys. Additionally, they are so good with "Unleash Thy Hatred", that you really want to bring that if you are bringing a big block of these guys, which means you can't take the double-tapping from the shooting units, which is something that I think most lists are going to need to be planning to take. I also think that the normal glaves are better than the maces most of the time, unless you are specifically planning to use the "Unleash Thy Hatred" ability. To sum it up though, I would say that these guys are a very solid build around. Annihilators (with shields). Underwhelming. Yes, they have a base 2+ save. But you really don't want to be bringing these guys in groups of 6, which means you are spending 200 points for 9 wounds. Damage wise, you can expect them to bring 9 damage in before saves, and -1 rend means that it isn't all that reliable. With a Lord-Imperitant allowing them to drop closer, their charges are a bit more guaranteed, and they can hit a few more things with their mortal wound bubble. But without it they are just too slow. The Lord-Imperitant only affecting 1 unit a turn also means you can't just take a few and plan to spam the mortals across the opponents army in a single turn, and trickling them in is rather unimpressive as well. Lord-Relictor. Translocation Tax. Outside of Translocation, I am unimpressed with him, but translocation is so good that I think he is going to be an auto-include in most armies anyways. This also makes me really, really annoyed that he is only available in the start collecting, and there really isn't anything else in that start collecting that I am interested in. Anyone have any good suggestions for some kitbashes to make one? Yndrasta. I tried her alongside the paladins to see if she would be impressive reviving them. MSU Annihilators didn't last long enough to be revived (or never got into combat so didn't lose anything). And the protectors really didn't need a 320 point tax to revive a model when they did so good on their own. Overall, I think she might be worth it in an MSU paladin spam army, as she can bring models back here there and everywhere. However, she isn't worth bringing to accompany a big block of dudes, as a single paladin coming back isn't making her worth her points. Additionally, damage output wise, she is not impressive at all. Lovely model though. For reference, here is the army I ran. Note, I know it isn't a "competitive" list - I was running it to test some new warscrolls, and to test my Cities army against something that pretty much hard-counters it: Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals- Stormhost: Knights Excelsior- Grand Strategy: Hold the Line- Triumphs: BloodthirstyLeadersYndrasta, The Celestial Spear (320)*Lord-Relictor (145)*- General- Command Trait: High Priest- Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)- Prayer: TranslocationBattleline3 x Annihilators (200)*3 x Annihilators (200)*15 x Protectors (675)*- 6x Starsoul Maces- Reinforced x 2Units4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*- Reinforced x 1Core Battalions*Battle RegimentAdditional EnhancementsHoly Command: Unleash Thy HatredTotal: 2000 / 2000Reinforced Units: 3 / 4Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 101Drops: 1 And Here is the Cities of Sigmar list that I was testing against it (and trying to get a feel for the Stardrake): Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar- City: Tempest's Eye- Grand Strategy: Hold the Line- Triumphs: InspiredLeadersLord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)*- Celestine Hammer- Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)Anointed (110)*- General- Command Trait: Master of Magic- Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)- Lore of Eagles: Aura of GlorySorceress (95)*- City Role: General's Adjutant- Lore of Eagles: Aura of GloryBattleline30 x Phoenix Guard (525)**- Reinforced x 230 x Phoenix Guard (525)**- Reinforced x 210 x Phoenix Guard (175)**Endless Spells & InvocationsEmerald Lifeswarm (60)Core Battalions*Command Entourage - Magnificent**Hunters of the HeartlandsAdditional EnhancementsArtefactTotal: 1990 / 2000Reinforced Units: 4 / 4Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 98Drops: 6

I would probably run either hammers for the 6+ ward, or astral templars to give them immunity to monstrous rampages. That being said, I'm not really looking to build a list around kitties anymore, just considering them as a potential fast hammer for 300ish points if I think that is what my list needs. If they had made them conditional battleline somehow though, I would totally be running an 18 kitty list.

Dispelling endless spells happens at the start of the hero phase. Casting happens during. So if you have the portal at the start of your turn your opponent can kill it before you can cast a spell through it. However, if you cast it during your turn and your opponent fails to stop it, they can't then dispell it to prevent you from using it.

While I think this is a decent starting point for a list, I think it is suffering from a lack of damage - especially applied damage. What I mean by that is that your Vindictors are going to be doing about 15 damage before saves, or 23 if buffed by Vandus. Bastian can deal a maximum of 16 though an average of more like ~9 before saves, but really wants to be wading into enemy hordes. Yndrasta can only do ~12 damage max if everything goes through, and again an average of ~7 before saves. And Vandus can only deal ~7 or so before saves. On top of that, you don't have any good way to apply damage from range. There is no way to pick off priority targets that aren't getting up in your face. You can't reliably achieve some of the battle tactics, like taking down an enemy monster, or killing the enemy general, or even kill a battleline unit. Finally, you don't have any big hammer that can smash your opponent in melee, as there isn't anything here that your opponent is really going to be afraid of running into. What I would recommend is taking out one of your squads of Vindictors (or reducing it to a 10 man squad), and then cutting something else to make room for a true hammer unit. This can be a squad of 6 Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrikes, giving you the ability to snipe away key support pieces, and you can also bring the ability to double tap with them once per game. Or you can bring a squad of 10-15 Judicators for similar damage performance, but a lot more wounds to better survive counterfire. Or you can go ahead and bring a squad of 4 Fulminators for a unit that can charge in and delete just about any unit in the game. The last interesting option would be either some evocators (on foot) or some Paladins of your choice.

19.3.2, last line: An endless spell cannot be summoned again in the turn that it is removed from play

So, I like Fulminators as much as the next guy, but I really don't like spamming 4 different 2 man squads of them. Why? Power application. If you have a single squad of 2, you can expect it to put out ~19 damage on the charge before saves (12 to a 3+). This is enough to clear a screen or a small elite unit, but anything bigger is going to brickwall them, and you have no way to retreat and charge, which means the following turn you are going to be doing only 10 damage before saves (~7 to a 3+). Basically, a bigger unit can more effectively punch through something harder with less chance of being bogged down. Second, fight order. Combat is done in I go you go order, and if you charge with 2 units of fulminators, you are going to go with one unit, and then your opponent gets to go before you can use your second unit. This leaves you with a pretty good chance of getting that unit either killed, or losing a model before it can swing and do any damage. However, if you take and put them in 2 blocks of 4, now you can apply all the damage of your charge without having to worry about combat order because you just have that one unit in. Third, buff application. You are using the Relictor Translocation trick, which is a nice trick, but doing it to a single squad of 2 fulminators is a bit underwhelming. A squad of 4 on the other hand is a threat that can take down Archaeon or a Megagargant. In addition, a squad of 4 carries buffs better, whether that is Celestial Blades, Mystic Shield, All Out Attack or All Out Defense. All of those buffs will only affect a single unit, and can only be used once per turn or once per phase, and putting them on a squad of 4 is more impactful than putting them on a squad of 2. Basically, I'm saying that I think your list would be improved by running 2 squads of 4 instead of 4 squads of 2.

Just to clarify - having a stardrake general does make Stormdrakes battleline. Stormdrakes are Battleline If for either Stardrake or Draconith generals, which means you can do Either Celestant on Stardrake, Drakesworn Templar, Knight-Draconis, or either Krondys or Karazi.

A unit like that is generally not being brought for its combat ability, it is being brought because it is cheap battleline/screening/objective capturing. For example, lets take the Tree Revenants. These only cost 80 points, but are specifically being brought because they come with a built in teleport. They are being used then to either stand in front of your actually good units and prevent your opponent from being able to charge them or teleport near them or whatever. Or they are standing around on an objective that you don't really care about to be able to capture it, but not have to worry if your opponent comes over to take the objective. Or they are just standing around the back of the board and forcing your opponent to keep forces back at their objectives so that they don't lose it to a teleport. For other units, they lose the teleport ability, but the other notes are as valid. For example, a 5 man squad of liberators for 115 points is... not going to accomplish much. They are tanky enough that you can't really just attack them with chaff and wipe them out, but any semi-serious damage unit is going to go through them like a hot knife through butter. However, they are still brought because they can still hold an objective, or they can still screen your more important units. And they are brought because they are literally the cheapest battleline you can bring, leaving the most points for the units that are going to do something. All this being said, these chaff units can still be useful in melee, provided that you are providing your opponent multiple combats. For instance, if you have 2 units in combat, is your opponent going to swing at your chaff unit first, or are they going to swing at that big hammer unit that is worth 300+ points? But then after they swing against that, you still have that chaff unit, and any damage that they get in is effectively a bonus. And if you get lucky with your swings, you can do enough damage to cripple your opponents unit and take that objective/eliminate that damaged unit, etc.

There is no FAQ addressing this. The command ability does say that the unit receiving it needs to be wholly within 18" of a hero. However, there is nothing in the book that specifically says who has to be using the command ability. Until this is addressed by an FAQ, you will probably need to talk to your opponent about how to interpret this, or if you are in a tournament, your tournament organizer. There are 3 potential interpretations that I see: A hero has to issue this command ability to a unit wholly within 18" of the hero. This is the strictest interpretation, and matches the play pattern from 2.0. Personally, I would plan any usage of this ability using this interpretation, with the potential for looser play patterns available. A unit can issue the command ability to themselves, but they have to be wholly within 18" of a hero to do so. This would be reading the rule as written, and following the exact wording of the rule, but since nothing about the rule says that a hero has to issue the command, the unit can do it to itself. A unit can issue the command ability to itself, and no hero's have to be nearby. This would be the loosest interpretation, and basically saying that with the new 3.0 rulings saying unit leaders can issue commands to themselves, and that the only requirement is that whoever is issuing the command has to be wholly within 18" of the target. They gained the Elite keyword in the new book.

It mostly depends upon what you expect to see in your games. If your opponents are primarily going to be playing with a ton of MSU stuff, then you can get away with lances even on 2 man squads. If you are expecting to face more meaty opposition, then you probably want swords for any 2 man units. For 4 man squads, lances become a lot more appealing. A 4 man squad of lances will go through a 20 wound unit with a 4+ save, which makes them somewhat reliable. They have the maneuverability to get into position and do what they want to do as well, so you don't need to worry too much about getting countercharged when you are trying to get into position. All this being said, if you are thinking about how you want to model them, I would advise looking into magnetization. Stormcast tend to be kind of chonky, which means that as long as the difference between the models is just a changed arm, and their arm is likely to be thick enough to hide a magnet. Additionally, the difference between a stormdrake and the Knight-Draconis is likely to be the entire upper torso section, which means that you can a magnet and be able to have a model that can either be a Stormdrake or a Knight-Draconis.

You take the dreadlord on black dragon because you can't take the Knight-Draconis as your general, and you are limited by the 1/4 rule. The dreadlord still has play over a unit of 2 Stormdrake Guard. He is a hero and therefore can benefit from heroic actions. He can carry an artefact, to either add additional tankiness, or some other utility. And he can be your general, to benefit from a command trait. Sadly for him, he only has the command trait bonus over the Knight-Draconis. If we look at command traits that can make a notable difference, there are a few. The first is Hammerhall, and "Blood of the Twelve", giving a 12" bubble of re-roll 1's to wound. Considering that the dreadlord can buff his wound rolls by 1 using his command ability (or a neighbor can), this can be a noticable improvement in damage because he would be wounding on a 2+ with every melee weapon except his sword. Combine this with the Twin Stones on somebody, and you can be buffed by +1 to hit, +1 to wound, and re-roll 1's to wound. Meanwhile, the Knight can be buffed by the +1 to hit and re-roll 1's to wound. Combining these, we can get Dreadlords that can expect to do 19.44 damage before saves, and 11.67 to a 3+ with lances compared to the Knight-Draconis getting 12.29 before saves and 9.34 to a 3+. If you are going this deep though, it is only really going to pay off if you are running 2-3 dreadlords. In Anvilguard, there are no command traits that make a significant difference. However, you do have the drakeblood curses. Acidic Blood can give someone some caution when hitting him, though it will do a maximum of 14 wounds and an average of 7 unless you can get some healing on the dragon. Jutting Bones is probably better, as it effectively will let you "stomp" twice after charging. In Tempest Eye, Swift as the Wind lets your dragon fight first, as well as run and charge. This is a drastic improvement, and can be well worth bringing. Also, I really, really wish that coalition units could be your general, because I really want to stick this trait on a stardrake. Living City gets you Iron Oak Artisan, which lets you have your crossbow and still have a +1 to your save, as well as buffs your wound rolls, making your command trait irrelevant. Once again, I'm irritated by the ruling of coalition units not allowed to be your general. Misthaven will let you deepstrike your dragon, and you can use your command trait to give it a 6+ ward, allowing you to use your amulet of destiny on a unit that is more useful (like the Knight-Draconis). Excelsis can let your general retreat and charge. So yeah, we have a few use cases where a dreadlord general can be slightly better than a Knight-Draconis. Most of the time though, the Knight-Draconis or a squad of 2-4 stormdrakes is going to serve you better. And any case where you are wanting to run a different general (to unlock battleline requirements, or to buff other parts of your army), the Knight-Draconis is basically always going to be better (except misthaven I guess...).

Wow... once again we get back to reading comprehension. In no way did I say that my list was better because I get 7 more on my alpha. I proposed a list that can also alpha strike if you want. But you completely missed out on my primary point. YOU ARE "ALPHA" STRIKING WITH NO WAY OF FIGHTING FIRST You are going to charge your stormdrakes in, fight some, and get models picked off before you are done fighting with all your stormdrakes. This is what happens when you charge your army smack dab into the middle of your opponents. I know, I know, we are all very surprised that this happens. A squad of fulminators can charge, do their damage, and be done. All 37 of their potential charge damage (25 to a 3+ save) is done before your opponent has a chance to respond. 4 Stormdrake Guard are going to do 22 damage (15 to a 3+ save), and then your opponent gets to go. 10 damage to a 3+ save is QUITE significant. If you need something dead, the fulminators have accomplished it before your opponent gets the chance to react or fight back. A squad of Annihilators are going to drop down, charge, get their mortals in, and then fight before the opponent has a chance to react. 31 damage (21 to a 3+ save) done before your opponent has a chance to react. In this case, only 6 more than the squad of stormdrakes can manage, but still the difference between killing Archaeon and wounding him. The proper way to play is to pick off your opponents support pieces with the longstrikes, then time things appropriately to charge either of your hammers in on one turn, and have the other unit to destroy something the next turn. This is how you win a game on objectives and not flub your alpha strike and lose because of it. Now, can your list win games? Yes. It is probably a great starting point for anyone who wants to get into stormdrake guard. Are you going to win games due to your alpha striking potential? Only until people learn how your army works and how to react to it. Alpha striking doesn't win you games. Objectives and Battle Tactics do. Being able to eliminate key units from the opponents army will score you battle tactics and win you games, and a squad of fulminators or annihilators can do that more reliably without having to throw half your army into the middle of theirs.

Ok, so let me get this straight. 6 longstrikes cost 480 points. All that SDG and Knight Draconis that you are running costs 1255 - basically 2.5 times the points for them as for the longstrikes. And I am supposed to be impressed by the alpha of the SDG when said longstrikes are doing 1/3 the total damage of all the guard combined? Which part of this list is responsible for your alpha again? Does your list pass the DPS check that is megagargants? Yes, you do - you might be able to make this a 4-1 or 5-0 list until people adjust. You have successfully created 3.0's Gav-bomb - the list that can go out and run over unprepared lists, and then falls apart when people realize the importance of screens again. You can even fit it all into the Battle Regiment, so you can get it all as a one drop. It seems though that you forgot some of the important parts of "Melee alpha strike". Specifically, it works when you have "Fights First". There is a BIG reason why the meta was all about the "Activation Wars" back 2-3 years ago when melee alpha striking armies were a thing in 2.0. This means that you are going to go in, fight with your block of 4 knights (unless of course your opponent has "fights first"), and then you are going to lose your squad of 2 knights, or your 1 solo unless they are stuck on one of your opponents screening units. But once again, we are coming back to Lances vs Swords, which is where this whole discussion started. If we say that you manage to attack with all of your Stormdrake Guard without losing any models, lances are going to deal a grand total of 4 more damage to a 3+ or 4+ save. Once you get countercharged though, swords is going to be doing 5 more damage to a 3+ save, or 6 more damage to a 4+ save. Or you know, you ran into pinks, in which case lances do 2 more damage than swords when charging and 9 less off the charge. Now, lets look at the other options for Stormcast outside of the Stormdrake Alpha list. First things first, Longstrikes + Relictor is probably going to be a stormcast staple. Longstrikes ability to snipe important enemy support units, punch through screens, and maneuver around with translocation is going to be an important part of many lists. For ease of comparison, we can just look at your 68 damage number and your 21 damage from longstrikes, and call the stormdrake part 47 damage. Next up, lets take a look at Annihilators w/ Grandhammers. A Lord-Imperitant is letting them come down at 7", and they get re-rollable charges on the turn they come down, for a reasonably reliable charge. They are also going to be doing mortal wounds on the charge (if we call it 7", we can get an average 3.5 mortals on the charge, with the possibility for more). They are also going to be doing mortals in an AOE on setup, though that will be much more effective against some opponents than others. Finally, if we take a squad of 6 of them, we can expect 21 damage to a 3+ save, which is a mere 5 less than 7 stormdrake guard can manage to a 3+ in melee, while being only a single activation, so you have no risk of losing one. Yes, you can get all 6 in on a target with current coherency rules, and I suspect it will be easier to do that than to try to get all 7 stormdrakes in on one target. All of this while costing only 480 points, which is leaving you over 750 points for other units... like maybe another squad of annihilators for the next turn. Or you can go MSU with a few squads to maximize the mortals on entry. For the next unit, Fulminators. A squad of 4 Fulminators on the charge can expect to do ~25 damage to a 3+ save, which is 5 less damage than 7 stormdrakes with lances will do if they all get to activate on their charge. For delivery, they are best served with a combination of a Lord-Relictor translocating them, at least until Translocate gets an FAQ about no moving after teleports (and after that FAQ, you can buff them with a Ghur Battlemage for +2 to run/charge). A squad of 4 of them is also only 460 points, leaving you quite a few points that you can be putting into other units. Here the difference between Charge vs No Charge is significantly more noticable though, as the best non-charging Guard unit is Concussors who will only do an average of 16 damage, or about half what Stormdrakes would do. A squad of 4 fulminators can also only expect to do an average of 4 mortal wounds with their breath attacks, which is noticeably less than the 10 available from 7 stormdrakes. Also, no worries about distance for this one to work due to translocation. Combine this together, and we can get a force that looks like this: Lord-Relictor (translocation) Lord-Imperitant 4 Fulminators 6 Annihilators with Grandhammers 6 Vanguard Raptors with Longstrikes 2x 5 Liberators or Vindictors This army has to go with either Hammers of Sigmar or Knights-Excelsior for battleline purposes. But you can have your double-tapping raptors just like your list, translocate the Fulminators, and Scions in the Annihilators. In combat to a 3+ save, you can expect 46 damage from those 2 squads, alongside 4 mortal wounds from the Fulminators shooting, 3.5 mortals for the Annihilators charge, a variable number from the Annihilators landing, and 21 damage from your Vanguard Raptors shooting. This brings us up to a 75+ damage alpha strike, and it doesn't matter where your opponent deploys because you can hit them there. It also fits into the one drop battalion, just like the Stormdrake list, to let you dictate engagements. It is also noticeably less likely to receive a points nerf than the stormdrake list. Moving away from Alpha Strike lists, you can also make quite reasonable forces with lots of units of Paladins in Knights Excelsior, especially when accompanied by Yndrasta to give them some more sustainability. There is already a list out there that is doing fairly well with Annihilator spam, and just dropping a bunch down and letting the mortal wounds happen, and nothing has really changed to make that list worse. Just rocking Dracothian Guard can also do quite well, as 3 squads of 4 concussors can expect to deal an average of 50 damage per combat round to a 3+ save (20 more than Stormdrake Guard w/ lances on the charge) while costing about the same as the Stormdrake Guard group.

In a casual game, yup. However, you will need to be aware that KO play very different with boats vs without them. With boats, KO can maneuver and put a solid shooting force that can be used like a scalpel, peeling off portions of the opponents army. You can put yourself in a position where you can maximize your damage while leaving yourself relatively unexposed to counterattack. You can also force your opponents to spread out because you can easily hop in and take objectives from them. Without boats, KO lose their maneuverability. Your opponent can move forward at you and not have to worry about their back lines, and you can't use your precision shooting to even the odds. Your units are likely to feel underpowered for their points, because they are pointed the way they are expecting you to have that maneuverability and precision. Can you play this way? Absolutely. Can you win this way? Casually, yes. Competitively... probably not. If you do go this way, I would expect that you are going to need to lean heavily into the power of your Arkanaught Company, and also plan to use Thunderers with special weapons loadouts. If you don't care too much about winning, you can also bring the Balloon Brigade, and swarm your opponents from the skies anyways, with some Arkanaught Company to hold objectives. Ex: Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit 2x 6 Skywardens 2x 10 Arkanaught Company 1x 5 Thunderers Optionally, replace a squad of company with a Khemist and have him follow your thunderers around. This is a solid army to play casually, and will function like infantry blocks with some cavalry escorting it. Except everything has guns. Just refuse to play anyone running Sylvaneth and you should be fine.

Save swords lances lances charging 2+ 1.93 1.04 3.11 3+ 2.89 1.56 4.15 4+ 3.85 2.07 5.19 5+ 4.81 2.59 6.22 6+ 5.78 3.11 6.22 - 5.78 3.11 6.22 Here is the same chart with the lances charging vs not charging. If you think that you can consistently get the charges off, then yes, Stormdrake Guard are better with lances than with shields. However, you pretty quickly run into a problem. Once you include the mounts in as well, a squad of 2 stomdrake guard with swords is going to deal just short of 13 damage before saves. Lances on the charge, just over 13 damage. To a 4+ save, the swords can expect just under 10 damage, while the lances can expect just over 11. Once the lances stop charging though, they are looking at just over 10 damage and then to 8 damage expected. Here is the chart with the mounts added: Save swords lances lances charging 2+ 5.48 4.59 6.67 3+ 7.63 6.3 8.89 4+ 9.78 8 11.11 5+ 11.93 9.7 13.33 6+ 12.89 10.22 13.33 - 12.89 10.22 13.33 This is barely enough damage to go through a cheap screen. Any semi-reasonable anvil is going to stop them cold, and then you are going to be stuck in combat for the rest of the game because you can't fight your way out of the chaff that your opponent throws at you. Yes, if you look at the lances in a vacuum, and you assume that you can always get the charge off, they do look rather good. The problem that we keep coming back to though is that when you look at the unit as a whole, you quickly see that most competent opponents are going to be able to bog you down, and that all this talk about getting a great turn 1 charge off fails to mention that your total damage is... not all that impressive.

Best Mortal Wound generators. Elemental Cyclone gives you an average of 1 mortal wound for every 2 models in the unit, and is one of the stronger offensive options. For best effect, shove it through a spellportal, as otherwise the 12" range might fall a little short. Warding Brand is a "defensive" option, but you can throw it on a trash unit and run it into their graveguard. Each time they take a wound, on a 4+ they reflect it back. The upside of this is that the graveguard HAVE to attack in melee, so they have a good chance of taking a good bit of damage back. The downside is that whatever unit you do this to is going to be very thoroughly blended afterwards. Celestial Hurricanum. In addition to casting either of the above spells, the Hurricanum will also be able to deal 3d3 mortals in the shooting phase with the Storm of Shemtek, and also has Chain Lightning to deal d3 (with possible d3 to other units... basically he can have 2 roaming wildfires), and the comet has a pretty decent chance of dealing d6 to a unit of graveguard, but will always be able to do at least d3. The Battlemage on foot can bring Chain Lighting like the hurricanum, but the more important spell here is Fireball (available to battlemages from Aqshy), which is going to deal d6 mortal wounds to units of 10+. The Sorceress on Dragon can deal an average of 4.5 with bladewind to a unit of graveguard. She can deal about 7.5 to a unit of zombies, but then is going to be very sad with her 1.5 mortals to a buffed up vampire lord. Additionally, don't forget to consider the endless spells. Aethervoid Pendulum will deal d3 mortals to any unit that it passes over. Gemenids will deal a mortal wounds to models that it passes over, and will also prevent command abilities from being used. Purple sun can deal d3 to d6 mortals and roam around some. Quicksilver Swords will deal an average of 2, but ignores ward saves. Ravenaks Gnashing Jaws will deal mortals on 6's for 3d6 dice (which is also its move characteristic). Suffocating Gravetide rolls a die for each model in the unit and deals a mortal on a 6. ----------------- Taking a look at the Stormcast wizards and priests, the best that any of them can do is d3 mortal wounds. Their spells are surprisingly uninspiring (and yes, this was all the new warscrolls). If you are looking for pure damage, you would do better to consider bringing some Stormdrake Guard or Dracothian Guard units, which are going to be able to deal some ranged mortals and then still mix it up pretty good in melee afterwards. Finally, don't forget to consider a reinforced unit of Vanguard Raptors, which can deal an average of 12.33 damage to a squad of graveguard without any buffs, or 15 if they get a +1 from somewhere. ---------------- Next, Cities units, and their damage without spells.. A squad of 10 greatswords that have a +1 to hit (from all out attack, being near a hurricanum, or being near a freeguild general) can expect to deal an average of 11 damage to graveguard if they can attack first, or 22 if you get a squad of 20 of them. If your opponent is stacking +1's to save, this is still an expected 9 damage with a squad of 10 or 18 with a squad of 20. Sisters of the Watch still remain good as a way to spit out some mortals, and can do so without having to mix it up in melee. 180 points per 10 is a bit rough though. An Annointed on Flamespyre Phoenix is an interesting option to consider as well (or just a flamespyre phoenix if you are a little crazy). They kind of suck for their points in melee, and have been nerfed in that they only deal mortal wounds on a "normal" move, which means they can no longer do their wake of fire on a run, retreat, or charge. But unwounded, they can deal 5 mortals on a 2+ just by flying over an enemy unit. However, you can give one the arcane tome and then 2 Hallowheart spells to have a very durable mortal wound platform. Gyrobombers can add to the mortal wound collection, dealing d3 mortals on a 2+ per bomber that flies overhead. Gyrocopters can also do that once per game, but you can bring a brimstone gun to chew through hordes of zombies as well. Finally, you can also get mortals from Hammerers and Executioners in combat. Drakespawn Chariots can deal d3 mortals on the charge, and Scourgerunner Chariots have the chance to deal d3 mortals from their harpoon attacks. ----------------- Finally, Allies. From Daughters of Khaine, you can bring bow snakes. Is a squad of 10 of them dealing a mortal on 6's to hit worth it? Ehh... possibly not, but it is there as an option. Sylvaneth Allies allow you to bring Drycha, who is a caster who can also deal mortals both in melee and at range. She wouldn't get the extra spell from Hallowheart though. The warsong revenant is also an interesting option as a 2 cast wizard who can roll 7+ dice (whatever his casting value is) and deal mortals on a 5+ to each enemy unit within 9". Extra points for throwing that through a spell portal. From the Idoneth Deepkin, the turtle is an interesting option. Its crushing jaws can deal 3 mortals on the attack if it gets a 6 to hit (6 to monsters), and starts with a base 2+ save. This is in addition to everything else it can do - and you can get it to benefit from the d6 heal available from Hallowheart as well. From Kharadron Overlords, you can bring a pair of Grundstock Gunhaulers, which with drill cannons can snipe from across the board. Everything else is a bit more questionable compared to other cities options outside of tempest eye though. Finally, Gotrek. Gotrek gets d6 mortals in addition on 6's to hit, and can fish for 6's with his re-roll hits effect. This is in addition to the normal damage that he can put out, the fact that he is extraordinarily tough, and the fact that he can fight twice in a turn. The only downside to Gotrek is that he is kind of slow, but he can still get healed by Sear Wounds and can get a +2 to run/charge from the Ghur battlemage.

As others have said, a good spot to start is with the Ironclad, a start collecting, and a box of Arkanaught company. From there, a good way to expand is a second start collecting, and another box of Arkanaught company. This gives you 1720 points, with a list that looks like this: Endrinmaster w/ Endrinharness Endrinmaster w/ Endrinharness 2x 10 Arkanaught Company 2x3 or 6 endrinriggers 10 Grundstock Thunderers 2x Grundstock Gunhaulers Akrakaught Ironclad Playstyle is to stick the thunderers and Endrinmasters in the Ironclad, and then you can move around with the Endrinriggers and Gunhaulers following the Ironclad around. Meanwhile, you have the Arkanaught Company on the ground to hold objectives. However, this list has to choose one of the subfactions that make either the thunderers or gunhaulers battleline. From here, to expand out to the last 2k points, there are a few decent options. Option 1 is to get the "Drongs Aether Runners" box (6 more endrinriggers + Endrinmaster w/ Ballon), which gives you a decent guy to be your general, and would allow you to run any subfaction. Option 2 would be to get another 10 Arkanaught Company, allowing you to have 3 units of battleline, which again would allow you to run any subfaction. Option 3 would be to get a Frigate, which is going to open up another subfaction, and you can either stick the thunderers in the frigate and the arkanaughts in the Ironclad so that way you have 0 boots on the ground. However, if you discuss with him and he has a better idea of what he wants to run, there are a few other interesting lists to consider, but keep in mind that they are going to be more skew lists. Option 1: Ironclad City Admiral Navigator Navigator 20 Arkanaught Company 20 Arkanaught Company 10 Thunderers Ironclad Ironclad Optional - replace a navigator with a khemist. The idea with this list is to have 2 ironclads full of 20 dudes, and stuff a navigator in each as well as the admiral in one. Then stick the thunderers on the ground to hold objectives, and see how your opponent likes boats to the face. This particular list would have to run with the subfaction that allows for thunderers battleline, but you can also run any list if you break the company up into units of 10. Option 2: Frigates are cool Admiral Navigator Navigator 20 Arkanaught Company 10 Arkanaught Company 10 Arkanaught Company 10 Thunderers Frigate Frigate Ironclad Basically, take the list above, but replace an ironclad with a pair of frigates. This can be run in any skyport, and is also a decent option for future expansion if he wants to test the other boats out. Alternatively, if he finds that there is 1 particular model that he loves and wants to build around, an important thing to keep in mind is that aside from Hero's and the Ironclad, EVERYTHING is conditional battleline. So if he wants to build around something, he can make it work. But if he just doesn't know what he wants to do and wants to keep his options option, then the easiest way to do so is get 3 boxes of Arkanaught Company, a hero to lead his force, and then he can finish it out with a unit here or a unit there, etc.

Top Stormcast units that I would consider bringing in the Cities: Krondys. First off, he's a big dragon. Second off, he is a 2 cast wizard... now the only one we have available to any city. Third, he starts with a +3 to his cast (+4 in the cities for an endless spell), so if anyone REALLY wants an endless spell to go off, he's your guy. Is he worth 600 points? Ehhh... probably not - but I'm certainly going to consider bringing him anyways. Celestant Prime. Guess what - he can still come down from the sky, giving you a solid missile that can put out the damage and be immune from sniping or Shenanagins like Belakor. Bastian. If you need some insurance against big monsters, this is your guy. In the cities, he can issue a free command to himself once per turn, but you would primarily be bringing him because he is a 3+/4+ save that gives you 4 attacks a 3+/2+/-2/4 damage. Basically, he is going to wade into enemy troops and blast them to ashes, and then provided that he survives (which is likely) he's going to heal back up to full. He probably isn't worth it in the extreme hero-hammer meta, but if the meta evolves he is likely something you want to consider bringing. Lord-Celestant on Stardrake. This guy is a massive anvil you can put on the battlefield (though you likely want to give him the Amulet of Destiny), and he gives your wizards +1 to cast if they are near him. Combine that with a Hurricanum, and you can be casting endless spells at a +3 to cast (or just sacrifice someone with a sorceress and get that endless spell off on a +4). And that is ignoring Hallowheart Shenanagins. Additionally, he now has a shooting attack, meaning he can take advantage of the Living City abilities for move + shoot + move again, and he can throw mortal wounds back at people if someone trys attacking him in melee. Knight-Incantor. Hey, look, its the old staple, and its back. Once again, you aren't bringing this guy because he's great. You are bringing him because he rocks a 3+ save over all the cities wizards 5+, and he gets a once-per-game auto-unbind. Basically, if I have spare points and I'm wanting to cast the city specific spell, I usually take a peak to see if I can bring this guy over a generic battlemage/sorceress. Lord-Ordinator. It looks like he is keeping his +1 to hit for war machines, so if you are bringing war machines, you still want to consider bringing him. There aren't a lot of cases where I am looking to do that in the cities because the infantry shooting tends to be so much better than the artillery shooting, and you can get a similar effect from a Celestial Hurricanum, but it is still something for you to consider. Lord-Imperitant. If you are running an army that is CP heavy, bringing one of these guys for a free CP usage each turn can be big. Yes, it is only going to be the generic CP's for the most part, but sometimes the city's command ability can be worth using it on as well. But getting a free all out attack/all out defense, or a free redeploy or unleash hell can be a big deal. Knight-Judicator. Basically, you would look to bring this guy due to his 3 damage rend -3 attacks at range, and look to combine that with a few other things for trying to snipe key support units. Bring a pair of them and stick them next to a hurricanum, and you can reliably threaten most support hero's in the game - especially if you also have a few squads of handgunners with long rifles too. Knight-Draconis. He has a breath weapon attack (which is a ranged attack for living cities purposes), a 12 wound model rocking a 3+ save, a monster, and he comes with rend -3 attacks. Overall damage wise, he is a bit worse than bringing a dreadlord on black dragon, but he has a base 3+ (instead of a 4+ with +1 from shield), he doesn't bracket, and the fact that all of his attacks are rend -3 or rend -2 means he actually does a little bit better than the black dragon against high saves. Vanguard Raptors (with longstrikes). The fact that Vanguard Raptors now get 2 shots each always makes them a good bit better in a cities army than they were before, and these guys are now pretty decent at sniping key hero's. Stick them next to a Hurricanum and give them all out attack, and they can basically ignore look out sir to snipe 2 key support hero's a turn, or just make someone very unhappy when they charge your screen. Evocators on Dracolines. These are one of the fastest, hardest hitting units in both the cities and the stormcast. However, with only a 4+ save, and the fact that they don't reinforce that well, and the fact that they only have rend -1, they tend to be better for just obliterating chaff/screens and trying to hit weak points in the opponents line rather than trying to take down the big hero/monster that is threatening you. Also, you get an extra unbind if you bring them too, though they can only cast empower on themselves in a cities list. Vanguard-Pallidors. These guys got a huge buff in that they can now teleport. 3 models, count as 6 on objectives, and then can teleport and shoot after doing so to help force your opponents to have to respect the threat to their back lines. This is a force that you are more likely to bring to support more of a castle style force, as they are the threat that forces your opponents to spread out more and not just try to bring everything down on your castle. Dracothian Guard. Concussors, Desolators, and Fulminators are all powerful units (we are continuing to forget that Tempestors exist though). But all of them are 10" move, rock a 3+ save, and are doing rend-2 damage on all of their weapons, alongside a breath weapon for Living City purposes. Fulminators in particular are incredible on the charge, but in exchange are the worst when not charging. Concussors have some potential mortal wound output (I think - that part got cut off from the picture in the GMG battletome review which is the best that I have to work with at the moment), while desolators are looking to just throw out as many attacks as possible. Stormdrake Guard. Stormdrakes are the big new thing that everyone is talking about, but the relevant thing for the cities is that they operate pretty well on their own, are monsters, and are rocking 9 wounds each at a 3+ save. They work well either as an independent unit that will force significant investment from your opponent to remove, or as a massive brick wall screening unit that protects your guns behind them (with unleash hell to make sure that your opponents regret charging). Finally, if you are looking to alpha strike in hard, they can move 24" on turn 1 (30" in tempest eye), which is nearly going to guarantee you a turn 1 charge. ---------- You will note that most of what I am suggesting as Coalition units are either hero's, or fast movers. Being honest, Cities does better at bodies on the board than stormcast does, and they also generally do shooting better than stormcast does. Where stormcast shine though is in bringing fast moving durable units, durable support hero's, and combat monsters that are better than what the cities can field on their own. Not every city is going to want all of these units, nor will every build want to bring all of them. Personally, I'm probably going to continue including the Knight-Incantor in many of my armies that don't have much other stormcast presence. I am also likely to be looking to include Fulminators in my Living Cities lists, and probably testing a unit of 4 Stormdrake Guard out in a few different lists. I am also thinking that now may be the time to pick up a Celestant Prime, as he is looking a lot better as a beatstick with his new warscroll than with his last one. Oh, and I'm likely to toss Krondys in a few lists, whether he is good or not.

The downsides of trying to read off youtube videos - I would probably have caught this if I had my battletome, but that doesn't come in till tomorrow (hopefully... though I haven't gotten any shipping notices...). However, I do want to note that while Irondrakes are good for Alpha with the Bridge, I don't personally feel that the bridge is as vital now as it used to be. 1/3 of the battleplans have 3 objectives in a line across the center of the board (ether horizontally or diagonally), another 1/3 of the battleplans have some sort of objective in the center of the board that you are fighting over, and the last 1/3 have either 4 or 6 objectives 1/4 of the way up the board. This means that in 1/3 of the battleplans, if you just move up and park your Irondrakes behind some redeemers, you can make a castle that your opponents HAVE to come in range of, another 1/3 where your opponents are likely going to need to come in range of, and 1/3 where having a big castle isn't quite as good. Basically, I think you can get your points worth out of irondrakes now even without the bridge, whether you are running as cities or as stormcast, especially when you compare their shooting to an equivalent number of points of Stormcast shooting. 20 Irondrakes + runelord without any bonuses to hit/wound are going to give you an average of 18.67 damage before saves if the stay put, or 9.33 if they do move. For about the same number of points, you can bring 10 judicators, which is going to give you an average of 11.56 damage before saves, or 6 vanguard raptors for an average of 14 damage before saves. This shows us that the irondrakes shooting isn't particularly worse than the other good shooting options if they move, while having the option to be significantly better if they can stay put. They are also going to be counting as a lot more bodies on the objectives, have a 4+ save just like their stormcast counterparts, have a +1 save vs shooting attacks, and you are also bringing a hero along for those points as well that is giving you prayers and an unbind at +2.

Going through the list of options the cities give you: The battlemage is the first clear option that you would want to consider taking. A clear winner is the Ghur battlemage, who gives you +2 to run/charge distance (and gets +1 to cast if you are playing matches from the GHB2021). The Chamon battlemage can give you good game against the current herohammer meta, because it can halve the movement characteristic of a unit, and if they have a 2+/3+/4+ save, you can also re-roll hit rolls of 1 against that unit. The Ghyran mage can give you a unit that your opponent really, really doesn't want to charge (especially a redeemer unit in a stormkeep) as they will take d3 mortal wounds for charging the unit from the spell on top of the potential d3 mortal wounds for charging a redeemer unit, and maybe even another d3 more if they were a liberator. The other battlemages are... ok, but there are no real standouts there that you would want to take over a stormcast wizard. Celestial Hurricanum. This will give itself +1 to cast, any other battlemages +1 to cast, has a decent mortal wound ranged attack, and some decent mortal wound spells. Overall, because the Portents of Battle ability doesn't affect stormcast (it does in the Cities because they gain the Cities keyword), it probably isn't the best option, but if you are really looking for some mortal wound output it is an ok choice. Freeguild Crossbows. These guys are something to consider if you just want to bring pure weight of dice to a list. With a 24" range, they can castle up pretty decently, and a block of 30 of them is only going to set you back 315 points. However, that block of 30 can put out 60 shots at a 4+/3+, for an average of 20 wounds before saves. If we give them all out attack and Celestial blades (or bring a freeguild general for +1/+1), we can bump that up to an average of 33.33 before saves. As nice as these numbers are, they aren't really all that impressive against anything with a save, but it is more something to consider bringing if your meta decided to ignore saves and just concentrate on putting as many wounds on the table as possible (ex. Zombies, Bonesplittaz, pink horrors, etc.). Irondrakes (+ runelord). You can bring 20 irondrakes and a runelord in your list for a mere 420 points. Celestial Blades can give them +1 to wound, all out attack can give them +1 to hit, and the runelord can give them +1 rend (in addition to being able to unbind a spell at a +2). This means you can have a block of irondrakes doing the exact same thing they do in the cities - murdering literally anything that looks at them funny, with an average of just under 30 damage to a 5+ save (or 15 to a 2+) per shooting phase. Stick them behind a big block of Vindictors and laugh at your opponent as you tell them that this objective is very, very much yours. Gyrocopter/bomber. First things first, they are cheap, and they are fast. Gyrocopters can be a decent hedge against horde armies, and bombers can fly over things to give mortal wounds. Both are more units that you take as filler because you have some spare points though. Frostheart Phoenix w/ Annointed. At 12 wounds with a 4+ save, an easy way to get a +1 (cast a spell near him), a 4+ ward save, and a -1 to wound in melee aura, this guy is a solid addition to any army. He is a big monster, and he is durable enough to give stormcast units a run for their money, as well as being super fast with his base 16" move. I would use him as an escort for a fast moving force (ex. evokitties), or you can send him out on his own to harrass, and he can generally hold out unless your opponent throws literally their whole army at him. And yes, I have had a frostheart survive a turn or two when my opponent threw literally their entire army at him. Phoenix Guard. A block of 20 of these guys will set you back 350 points, but with a 4+ save, a 4+ ward, and a 3+/3+/-1/1 profile, they can both do work and hold out for a long time. Especially if you back them up with the Emerald Lifeswarm. I would have given these guys a solid A+ for stormkeep usage before this book came out, because they count as so many more models on the objectives. However, with the new stormkeep rules of redeemers counting for more, point for point a redeemer unit is going to be a better objective holder than Phoenix Guard. If you already have phoenix guard, consider bringing them - but I would no longer recommend going out to get some just to put in your Stormkeep army. Shadow Warriors. These guys are another threat that you can have in reserve, and if you go a stormkeep, allows you to keep a little bit of play with reserve units. I would only really consider bringing them if you are bringing the Celestant Prime, as a unit that can sneak objectives away if the opponent leaves them exposed, but it is still something to keep in mind. Overall, if I was running a Scions of the Storm army, I can only bring Cities units as allies. In this case, my top ally choices would be the Ghur Battlemage to help me re-position units after coming down, the Frostheart as a fast moving tank that can quickly move up to support the Scions units, or the Phoenix Guard so I can put 20 models on an objective to help me hold it when I don't have the Stormkeep rules to help me do so. If I was running a Stormkeep army, I would still consider the battlemage, though now I'm debating more between Ghur and Ghyran. Second choice would probably be the Irondrake package, followed by the Frostheart Phoenix again. 4th choice would be the Phoenix guard, and only if I was planning to bring the Emerald Lifeswarm along with them. Other options are a bit more situational, or more for flavor than for actual usefulness.

Depending upon how you feel about legends, there are a few options. First of course is running them as Brettonia. Yes, the legends rules for brettonia suck, but they do exist as an option. Second, and keeping with Legends is to run them as Dragon Blades. Note, the latest change to the legends added dragon blades (and a number of other options as well) to the Cities of Sigmar. Third is to run them as Dark Riders. Dark riders aren't great... but they are armored knights with lances. You may want to glue a crossbow onto them to represent the fact that dark riders come with crossbows though. Fourth is to run them as allied Dawnriders (which by the way is what I'm running my old Dragon Blades as when I don't feel like pulling out legends rules). Fifth is to take and put them on slightly larger bases, maybe with a gryph hound or two and call them "Demigryph Knights". This is probably going to be the most representative option for their actual power/usefulness. You can of course also put them on the table and call them Drakespawn Knights and just test them out that way. Just... be prepared to be VERY disappointed.

I've used them. They are utterly terrible. The problem with the Drakespawn Knights is that they hit like a moist towellete. Pillow fisted just doesn't say enough about how little damage they do. This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world though, if you could get them into position well enough that they could keep an opponent off of objectives. But they are sooooo slow. A 10" move is generally going to be enough to get them ONTO an objective, but the fact of the matter is that as long as they are only counting as 5 models, they are only going to hold that objective if they can maneuver in such a way to completely prevent an opponent from being in the zone... which they don't have enough movement to actually accomplish. Literally the only thing that the knights have going for them is the fact that they are rocking a 3+ save, and if you force your opponent to actually have to go through that 3+ save, they aren't devoting those resources to a unit that actually matters. At the same time though, it isn't like you really are going to want to spend resources buffing their saves, because the only tools that we have to do so are all out defense and mystic shield. I mean, I suppose you might use all out defense if nothing else is in combat, but that is basically the only case where you would. In general, if I was considering running Drakespawn knights, I would look at them long and hard, and ask myself if they were really worth it over dwarven ironbreakers, or Eternal Guard. Ironbreakers give you the same 3+ save, but do so with 10 models for objective holding, and can run to be about as fast as drakespawn can without running. Eternal guard are rocking a 4+ save, but they get +1 to saves, hits, and wounds if they stand still, and also have a 6" move over the ironbreakers 4". On top of that, you can bring a ghur battlemage to give +2" run/charge, which is going to make a significantly greater impact on the infantry than the knights. Overall, drakespawn knights just have too low of a starting point that they have to work from to make them worth it.

I have quite a few times. To be honest, it plays just fine, and a 1k game isn't going to go for 5 turns anyways, so it lets you jump into the action a bit faster and get to the fun stuff. That being said, if you are playing a mobility/skirmish army (ex. lumineth foxes build), you are going to have a bad time because there is nowhere for you to really run to, and it much more favors armies that want to mash in the center of the board. Turn 1 charges are the norm, and you have to plan for them to happen. For the most part, as long as you are aware that the game is going to play a bit differently on the differently sized boards, it is fine. Going back to that skirmish style build, that is going to be a lot more effective on a 44x60 board than a 44x30, as there is enough space and your opponents have few enough points that they can't really zone you out. So that is drastically going to affect winrates and how good/bad your army feels on these smaller boards. If you play it frequently, you are going to get an idea of how a game will play out, and then if you take that same army to go play someone else on a bigger board, your expectations are going to be off from the actual results. This isn't a bad thing - it is just something that you are going to have to keep in mind. Personally, I am good playing up to 1250 points on a 44x30 board. Past that point value though and the board is really starting to feel too small and you want to increase the size. I also much prefer that smaller board if you are playing with less than 1k points, as otherwise the board is going to feel too empty.

Lets take a serious look at this. Reviewing just the GHB2021: 1. Marking Territory. This gives you 4 objectives on the edge of your territory, with victory going to whoever controls all of the objectives starting on turn 3 (notable, whoever loses the roll off gets to remove one of these objectives). This is a battleplan that gives you a strong incentive to have someone who is good at controlling objectives the ability to sit there - ex. vindictors in a stormkeep. 2. Savage Gains. You have 4 objectives, one on the edge of each players territory, and 2 in the middle. You don't really care about controlling "your" objective points wise, because it only gives you 1 point - but you care about preventing your opponent from getting it because it will be worth 4 points to them. This is a solid example of wanting to have something that will sit back to stay on your "home" objective. 3. First Blood. Deployment is in the corners, and you have 3 objectives along the diagonal. Standard score 1, score 2, score more. No real home objectives that you want to control, but you are likely to want to play it out with a light force on 1 objective and most of your army contesting your opponent on a second. 4. Power Struggle. You have 2 objectives on the border of each players territory, and 1 in the middle. You score if you control the objective for 2 consecutive turns. A solid battleplan where you want something to sit back on your home objectives. 5. Survival of the fittest. This is first blood, but the territories are slightly bigger and you get "predator" units. Once again, no real home objectives to sit on, but just like first blood you are likely to want to play it out with a light force on 1 objective and most of your army contesting the second. That being said, now your territory is touching the objectives, which means that stormkeep rules will always be giving your redeemers the ability to count as 3 on them. 6. Tectonic Interference. 3 objectives in a line on the center, one is worth an extra victory point (also, all are prime objectives so Ghur can't eat them). Very relevant here - stormkeep rules say anything that is partly or wholly in your territory, which means Stormkeep redeemers will always count for 3 models. The changing of the "alpha" objective means you are likely to be bouncing between objectives, but as with all of the 3 objective games, you are likely going to end up sitting a small force on one objective and then be fighting your opponent on the second with most of your army. 7. Apex Predators. Hey look, it is first blood/survival of the fittest again, but once again the deployment has changed, and this time the objectives can only be captured by leaders (either moving on, or killing an opponent's leader in melee to kick them off). Due to only leaders scoring, this is one where you don't care to have an objective sitter. 8. The Vice. You get 4 objectives, but they converge on the center. Here you DEFINITELY want to make sure you have something controlling your home objectives turns 1-3, because starting turn 4 you have only 1 objective you are fighting over. But, you still have "control 1, control 2, control more" for your victory points, meaning turn 4 and 5 you can only score a maximum of 2 points from strategy, while earlier turns you can potentially score 3 if you can kick your opponents off one of theirs. 9. Tooth and Nail. You get 4 objectives, with 2 on the border of your deployment. Also, no reserves, because we hate stormcast. Standard scoring, but one of the border objectives will be eaten by Ghur on turn 3. Likely way to play is to have something light that can hold your home objective, while you fight over the border objectives. 10. Feral Foray. You have 6 objectives, 3 in each players territory. Starting turn 2, you can raid your opponents objectives, score an extra point, and the objective goes away. VERY strong arguments to having solid objective sitters in this battle plan. 11. Power in Numbers. This is Feral Foray again, but now we have to decide to burn objectives for points based on how many turns we have held it. Also, battleline get priority in contesting objectives. Once again, a very strong argument for having some objective sitters. 12. Veins of Ghur. You start with 0 objectives, and after deployment you get 1 in on the line in the middle of the board. Then turn 3, objectives show up in yours and your opponents territory. You get points for each objective that you control, with points equal to the current battle round. Here you definitely want something to hold objectives, but at the same time, it either needs to be deployed on the sky and come down, or it needs to be fast enough to get to the objective depending upon where it lands. So we can say that we don't really want something that does nothing but stands on objectives. So, lets count. Battleplans that want you to sit on a "home" objective are: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Battleplans that want you don't want objective sitters are: 3, 5, 7, 12 So, 8 battleplans reward you with having some objective sitters, and 4 don't. So 2/3rds of the battle plans will reward you for having a good objective holder in the back lines, though to varying degrees. If you are just playing a pickup game, I would recommend having at least 1 good objective sitter. If you are playing in a tournament though, you are going to want to look at what battleplans the tournament is running before deciding exactly how to build your force. If you have Power in Numbers of Feral Foray, you are likely going to want to consider having at least 2 good objective holders. For the other 6 battleplans that reward holding home objectives, you are likely going to want to have at least 1. And if your tournament is mostly built around the 4 that don't care to have objective sitters, then you can look to ignore that.

After getting a pair of Phoenixes and a few KO ships going, I actually find that the flight stands are decent. As the center of a pile of air drying clay. Due to my lack of talent actually sculpting, I went with "mountain" bases, and to get the rocky look of actual mountains (rather than a pile of mud), I literally stuck small rocks in the side. Then painted over everything with modpoge before doing the actual paintjob. However, if you have any actual sculpting talent, you can instead do something like trees, pillars, etc. But keeping the flight stand there at the center both gives you something to build around and get the appropriate height with, but also gives you a better guarantee that the model will stick on the top.