Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.0/Stormcast Eternals

Lo and behold the might of the Sigmarines! Stormcast Eternals!

Stormcast Eternals Summary

Wanna hit hard, have always multiple wouands and fight for the Emperahhhh Sigmar? Then the Stormcast Eternals army is the right one for you! Stormcast Eternals all have atleast a 4+ sv and 2 wounds per model making them a really tough force to take down in hand to hand combat, at the moment they seem more focused on having X models and ensuring those X models survive until the end of the game through various hero abilities (immune to battleshock, regen wounds, increase the already durable (for AoS atleast) 4+ sv and +'s to hit). at the same time Each unit is able to punch above what could be considered normal for the setting with several hitting like a freight train and being just as difficult to stop, For now they are fairly generalist, a easy to learn hard to master army. just like their 40K equivilents.

Stormcast Eternals Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a pinch of salt.

Named characters

Sigmar: Probably, in the future, available in a limited release of 100 pz. in change of a shitton of money, one kidney, one left eye and your soul on a gold plate. Keep hoping...

Heroes

Lord-Celestant on Dracoth: A guy in pompous golden armour and a big cloak who swings a giant warhammer and rides a dragon on lightning. Couldn't be more Power Metal if he tried. He's very killy in close combat and his command ability grants a huge bubble in which Stormcast Eternals don't have to take Battleshock. His ranged attack is potentially devastating, but only if the enemy was stupid enough to bunch up all his important stuff and you get very lucky. due to being mounted he moves at a fast pace and has 7 wounds as opposed to the "general" hero base of 5, this guy is hard hitting, fast and durable meaning you want him up in the frontline bubbling his command umbrella while leading the charge.

Lord-Celestant: strong hero on foot that can do an average of 3 mortal wounds in the shooting phase and 1,77 damage at -1 rend + 0,66 damages in the melee phase (improved if he charged). His command ability make the Stormcast Eternals units around him more precise (+1 to hit) in the combat phase. This guy while a fairly solid choice is a little outclassed by his Battlelizard riding counterpart but you can expect him to hold the line for you and take a fair few guys with him if you mess up, like his mounted freind this guy is best used leading the charge against the enemy.

Lord-Relictor: A mediocre foot-slogger who can control the storms. This means he can choose to either heal a friendly model for D3 wounds, best used on other Heroes, or to loose what is basically Arcane Bolt without a casting roll on an enemy, with the slight difference that anyone hit also takes a To Hit-penalty in the following turn. As the origional author has put, The Relictor is less of a choppy Conan character and more of a support choice. while no slouch in combat he isnt as good as a lord celestant of any type, but thats not why you take him. Best use for him is in the "secondry" line using his healing buff to keep your men in fighting shape and lending a hand with the lightning storm anywhere they're struggling, hero's and paladins of all types will find him a very good "best bud". The comparison between him and the lord celestant is explained quite easily as this, the celestant is the fighter of the party while the Relictor is the cleric.

Lord-Castellant: 1 wound more than the standard hero on foot, this hero is slightly better than Lord-Celestant in the combath phase (2,66 damages at -1 rend and 2" range). His ability inflict 1 mortal wound to a chaos unit or an average of 1,5 mortal wounds to a chaos daemon unit. It can otherwise make Stormcast Eternals units more resistant and occasionally heal them. As above, the celestant may be the fighter, the relictor is probably the cleric and the Castellant is definetly the paladin, he's at home up front where the celestant could be (though the castellant lacks any command ability of his own) but equally at home in the secondry line warding your Eternals with his lantern (wording means that you can gain and lose wounds at the same time while your units will have a majority 3+ save thanks to him) or even as a semi beastmaster if he fights with a bunch of gryph hounds in close proximity.his lantern's other ability is very nice if a little circumstantial, autosniping a chaos maurader equivilent or letting him damage deamons somethign feirce without even trying. all in all he's a flexible choice. similar but different to the relictor, he's good at buffing up units that are goign to be taking some saves ensuring you've got enough men to hold on that little bit longer.

Troops

Liberators: your basic melee troop, strong with an average resistance (4+ and 2 wounds). Sigmar tweaked those to be used against the strongest chaos enemies, so, always go for the biggest model on the field. Now let's talk a little about weapon options, because you can have four different flavours of liberators. If you want to arm them with a weapon and shield, don't bother choosing one, the math is the same (0,66 damage per model and you can reroll save rolls of 1 improving them from 50% to 58%). If you want to use two weapon there is a slight advantage in warhammers (0,77 damage per model instead of 0,74 damage per model with the warblades). Always choose to add the special weapon (same efficency again between the two, but doubled compared to the normal weapons and with a -1 rend ). To expand a little, The liberator is much above regular troops with their 4+ 2 wounds and 2 attacks, you can certainly rely on them to hold the line. their special rule is helpful for better chances to hit against anythign with 5 wounds on it's origional starting profile making them that bit more threatening to monsters or characters. Weapons wise it's personal preferance for swords vs hammers, hammers hit harder than swords but swords get a better bonus out of their special rule against characters and monsters (they hit on effectively 2+ but retain their 4+ to wound)

Judicators: your basic ranged troop, same stats of the Liberators. They can reroll hit rolls of 1 against chaos in the shooting phase. If you arm them with Skybolt Bow you can do 0,44 damage per model with -1 rend at 24". With boltstorm crossbow you can do 0,66 damage per model with at 12" and if you don't move this number goes up to 0,99 damage per model. As with Liberators, always add the special weapon (1,54 damages per model with -1 rend at 24" for the Shockbolt Bow, 1,5 mortal wounds with the Thunderbolt Crosssbow but only at certain conditions: choose the latter only against monsters or heavy armored numerous units). In melee you do an average of 0,33 damage, the bare minimum to reply in combat, which is where these guys dont want to be. when it comes to weapon choice different tactics apply, bows will see you a better pay off in the long run, Let them hang back and pincushion the enemys units and they'll do just fine. however though it takes a little longer to set up the triple shots of the crossbows can just about darken the sky and with the amount of forced saves you'll find the waiting was probably worth it. A good idea might be to let for eample a unit of liberators to hold up a unit in combat before letting the crossbowmen scythe the opposing infantry down as if they were fish in a barrel.

Paladins

All the paladins have the same basic profile swapping an inch of movement for an extra wound and point of bravery over their liberator breatheren. All Paladins can alternatively use a Starsoul Mace that inflicts D3 deadly wounds (2 every 5 models).

Retributors: It's Hammertime! Retributors are the jack of all trades out of the paladin rank, you get 3 for a minimum squad as opposed to 5 for the others but they're worth it. at 2 attacks each with 3's to hit and wound they'll pile on the saves your opponet has to take and at -1 with 2 damage per hit they'll make your opponet regret failing them as each guy has the potential to knock 4 of his little puny mortals off the board. while not as gimmicky as the other two, they have the best "all round" ability of them, with every six to hit they auto deal 2 mortal wounds as they literaly blast the poor unfortunate on the end to ash.

Decimators: These guys have an axe to grind,they dont like horde infantry and horde infantry doesnt like them. With a 2" range per guy you want these men in the thick of the fight, as deep in an enemy unit as possible. why you may ask? because each model gets one attack for every enemy model within that 2" and at 3+/3+/-1/1 they'll certainly put a combine harvester to shame, Furthermore enemys have to add 2 to battleshock tests when within 6" of a Decimator meaning even more of your opponets models will decide to call it a day after seeing their buddies get blendered. their major weakness however is that they dont do well against monsters or characters, sicne thet will generaly only yeild 1 attack per guy.

Protector: Guan Yu would be proud, Protectors come with BFG's, big Frakking glaives and they are almost as blendy as the decimators with a whopping 3 attacks each, with a 3" reach they can quite easily fight over the top of liberators or a trooper of your choice and with the same statline in weapon as the decimators, can inflict a decent amount of damage too. These guys have pretty decent abilities too they get to deflect some shooting that is fired either at them or over them. where they relly shine though is slicing apart monsters. on a 6 to wound the big beastie your attack will end up doing d6 damage instead of a measely 1 meanign a good roll can see you cutting down dragons with relative ease.

Others

Prosecutors: with a 12" move and fly, these guys are your air mobile assault marines. they have a nice long range (16") shootign attack as they throw their magical hammers at you and are also pretty handy with them up close all to hit rolls with these guys (shooting and close combat) get to re roll wayward 1's. plus with a 3d6 charge range they can really make that long sprint that you need. these guys are your (excuse the pun) Wingmen when it comes to the battlefeild, have them sit on the flanks as your main force drives up the middle so they can maybe sneak around back to bust up a war machine, harass a unit with some hammertime and finish off any small squads left hanging around in your stormdozers wake.

Gryph-hounds: if you have a Lord-Castellant you must have one of this unit next to him. His 1,33 damages are a better wounds/damages ratio than liberators and at the same time with a bit of luck you can avoid being hit back with the Darting Attacks ability (which is always good since it has no save). His warning cry ability is useful, but you must remember to deploy this unit (and the Lord-Castellant) exactly in the middle of your army. with a bunch of these circiling around or atleast close to the castellant you can have a fairly decent beastmaster unit, doubling up on their attacks then darting off.

Monsters

You don't need those evil beast... yet!

External links

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