PJetski

Hasn't been my experience. Sylvaneth are a melee army, and like all other melee armies they just get tied down by Aetherwings and shot/blasted down by the Longstrikes and Evocators. They have the woods to block sight but the mortal wound output between evocators, geminids, heraldor, and even Stormcaller they can't camp in the woods forever. The Aetherwings and Incantors stop them from being effective in the woods so they have to eventually leave to accomplish anything, and if they leave the woods then they get shot off the table. Any list with Alarielle loses almost automatically because she can't use the woods to block sight.

Yes, it is a very skill intensive list with a high skill floor to make it even remotely worthwhile. 1x10 Evocator 1x9 Longstrikes 2x3 Aetherwings 3x5 Liberators 2x Incantor Azyros Heraldor Relictor (Translocation) Geminids

Anvilstrike is arguably the best list in the game with seemingly nothing that can consistently counter it... but it is only as good as the general. If you play it just right it seems like there's really nothing your opponent can do. Aetherwings stop melee, teleporting raptors win the ranged game, incantors stop magic long enough to let the raptors shoot, and evocators kill everything they touch. The only truly hard matchup is the mirror 🤣

Heraldor for sure, you need to be able to retreat & charge Dracolines need some kind of ranged support. Ballistas are the usual choice, they can deep strike in behind the dracolines.

Vostarg Warrior Kinband is pretty good, though. Might be a viable way to run a lot of Vulkites

Incantor is definitely a great choice. You can also bring an Arcane Dais for 30 points to give the Incantor another unbind, +1 save, and a 12" fly move (which can make it very easy to get in cover for another +1 save).

The concussor MW on hit6 ability is pretty underwhelming. It averages out to 1 mortal wound for every 2 models you have attacking, which doesn't seem to justify a 20% point cost increase. Concussors are certainly better in smaller squads than Desolators, and they scale better with +Attack bonuses like Vandus or the Celestial Vindicators command ability. Desolators are much better in big squads (6+) and they scale better with Hit/Wound roll bonuses - like +1 hit from Astral Templars/Drakesworn Templar, or +1 wound from Celestial Blades spell.

Desolators have -1 hit but +2 attacks each, which is much better on average and can spike much higher. They both have a breath attack that does mortal wounds.

Why run the cogs instead of a 2nd Starpriest? If you're using them to get an extra spell on the Slann you could cut the 4th unit of Skinks for a Balewind Vortex and get basically the same effect. Kroxigors in Thunderquake seems to be pretty good but it seems like the kind of unit you want to bring in a bigger squad than just 6. If you cut the cogs and Skinks you would have 150pt for more kroxigors. In my experience it is best to give retrices to the Astolith since they tend to be in enemy focus fire range, while the Slann is comfortably far away (or can snap summon an Eternity Warden)

Seems like the only difference is that you feel better about yourself for playing a WAAC list because you wrote a little backstory about the models

The simple answer is... don't play Stormcast as a pure melee army. If you want to play an army that can win competitive matches purely through melee you shouldn't have picked the one with the most ranged options in the game. That doesn't mean you need to spam shooting - battleline Judicators and some Dracoth breath attacks go a long way to dealing with fight first monsters.

It's not just about Anvilstrike and it's not just about shooting. You can screen with disposable units and entirely avoid 2" attacks with proper positioning, then counterattack with a unit 3" away. It doesn't entirely avoid 3" attacks (unless you have an ability to pile in from further away) but it usually does enough to get the job done. You don't even have to counterattack in the same turn - lose a disposable unit to hold them in place then counterattack in the next turn. Every army that messes with activations has some kind of other limitation you can play around. Every relevant army can bring some amount of shooting, magic, positioning/combat tricks to deal with key units that fight first. If you are playing a list with no way to counter units that fight first then you are not playing a good enough list, or you are playing an army that desperately needs an update (like Ironjawz). You wouldn't play an army with zero unbinding in a wizard meta...

You play around fight first with disposable screening units. Armies that mess with activations generally can't deal with screens. I don't like how prevalent Fight First has become but if that's the way the game is going then an elite army like Stormcast shouldn't fall behind.

It depends on how the ability is worded. Icon of Grimnir does not require models to stay in range, but it's generally a good idea to stay in that range so you don't start the hero phase out of range. Searing Ash does not require the unit to stay in range. Prayer of Ash does not require units to stay in range.

Stormcast are good at melee but not as good as the dedicated melee factions. You have to use a combined arms approach to combat. It would be fine if our Stormhosts allowed us to specialize further. In theory Celestial Vindicators should be the melee guys and Celestial Warbringers should be the spell guys but in practice they are only marginally better than not taking a Stormhost at all. Stormcast need more specialization. They could juice up the Stormhost bonuses but add some restrictions to army building, for example: Celestial Vindicators Trait: If you charged you can fight at the start of the Combat Phase, but all their missile weapon have -1 hit unless they are within 12" of the target Celestial Warbringers Trait: All WIZARD HERO can cast one additional spell, but if they use this ability to cast another spell then they can't move or charge later that turn. Knights-Excelsior Trait: Once per turn if you destroy a unit you can immediately fight again, but you cannot take Allies. Hallowed Knights Trait: Ignore all spells (from friend or foe) on a 4+

In terms of raw damage output without considering your enemy profile, the Broadaxes are better on average. Once you start factoring in armor it gets a bit more complicated. Both are good but they can be situationally more useful. Poleaxes are really good against units with 3+ saves or better, and once you reach a critical mass of poleaxes you can usually wipe units out with the mortal wounds alone. This is really useful against big monsters that only have 12-14 wounds. They are also far less effected by hit debuffs, but less effected by bonuses to their accuracy (eg. Runic Empowerment). However, Poleaxes lose a lot of their impact against units that can ignore the Mortal Wounds on a 5+, or against units with 30+ wounds since you won't get the killing blow right away. Great against Stormcast, Seraphon, and Nighthaunt Broadaxes pull ahead against units with 4+ saves or worse. They also benefit tremendously from buffs (RRWounds, +1 Rend) but are really awful against units that ignore Rend (Nighthaunt, Bastiladon, etc.). Great against Daughters of Khaine, Skaven, Legions of Nagash, Flesheater Courts, and other Fyreslayers TL;DR: Broadaxes if you are using small units or in big squads with Runic Empowerment Polaxes if you are using a unit of 20+

No. Prime+Shockbolt bow does an average of 1.944 damage (before armor saves) while the Thunderhead Crossbow does an average of 2 mortal wounds (assuming you hit the right target) and it leaves the Prime open to use his +1 hit on a bow or crossbow. Shockbolt can swing higher (max 6 damage) but that comes at the cost of having to roll to deal with hit/wound/save rolls

I haven't tried magnetizing Judicators yet, since I own 10 of each weapon. You and me both. Castigators are one of the best models GW has ever produced but their rules are a bag of wet farts.

Yes, Hurricanes are without a doubt our most cost effective shooting unit. Crossbow Judicators can fill battleline slots, though. It's worth mentioning that the anti-horde weapon has not been modelled, but if you can constantly shoot at a unit of >6 models then it makes Judicators significantly better. I should model that.

You're right, thanks for catching that. I'm not sure the edge cases are worth adding, since they are match-up specific. Judicators can get reroll hit1 from other sources, and Castigators getting an average of 0.5 extra hits in every volley (D3 on 1/6 chance with 3 shots) against two keywords is an incredibly small bonus.

Reposting my shooting spreadsheet updated for GHB2019 - feel free to check my math.

Exodites? 😮

No, you can't retreat and shoot. Heraldor allows you to retreat and run, but not retreat and shoot. This is one of the main reasons I prefer Concussors and Desolators over Fulminators/Dracolines now, since they don't mind getting stuck in combat with their great saves and damage that doesn't rely on charging. You can use it on anything with the STORMCAST ETERNAL keyword.

1. Wait for the FAQ 2. Assume you can use faction terrain as it says on the warscrolls and allegiance abilities