Phat J here to talk to talk about the best ways to beat off those pesky lightning men, the Stormcast Eternals!
Since we’ve entered the era of the competitive Age of Sigmar play there has been a lot of noise regarding the difficulty when facing the Stormcast Eternal faction in matched play. Armored in the fanciest Sigmarite and sporting hammers bigger than your face, they do strike an imposing figure on the Age of Sigmar battlefield. These guys spit out damage in huge quantities and if you are unprepared for their onslaught you’ll be having an early half cooked Hungry Man dinner in front of the television instead of basking in the glory of victory then taking the head cheerleader out for dinner at Applebees.
There are several reasons the Stormcast Eternals do so well on the tabletop that I want to go over before telling you the best ways to counter them.
Alpha Strike Abilities – The Stormcast Eternals have a myriad of ways to reach out and smash you, no matter how well you bubble wrap your vulnerable units. With the teleport trick (featured in the General’s Handbook battle report) using the Knight-Vexillor and a beefed up unit of Retributors the Stormcast player can teleport and assault any jabronies they see fit to. They also have a formation that allows all the warscrolls in the formation to deep strike 5″ away from the enemy. You can imagine what happens next.
Devastating Range – They also have some of the most devastating ranged units in the game, namely the Judicators and their Skybolt Bows and Shockbolt Bow. These are -1 rend bad boys will take out lower level heroes without too much of an effort.
Assault All Day Son – Once you are done being peppered by the Judicators, you can expect to be assaulted by teleporting Retributors or a rampaging Celestant-Prime on Stardrake. These guys will completely wreck your face and you should avoid this at all costs. I had a Stardrake take out a complete unit of 20 Pink Horrors before it even finished all of it’s attacks.
Now that you know what to expect from the Stormcast Eternals, here are some ways you can deal with them on the tabletop and really ruin Steve’s day. That guy has been walking around like the cock of the walk for too long!
No Magical Defense – One thing that stands out with the Stormcast Eternals is their lack of magical defense. If you have a powerful wizard that can take out their heavy hitters from range you have a good shot of neutering their offensive abilities. The key here is that you have to have decent range on your spells so that they don’t get too close to your wizards. Having bubble wrap units around these wizards will keep them along long enough to cast their spells and remove the threats.
Mob Rulz – While the Stormcast Eternal armies can be devastatingly powerful, they definitely pay a high point cost for having this kind of power. Most armies will be a very low model count. If you play an army like Skaven or Orruks you will have numbers on your side. You need to make sure you do have some potent weapons other than your mobs of troops so that when you do tie up their beatsticks you have something to blast them with in the shooting phase.
Out Punch ‘Em! – They definitely hit like a ton of bricks, but even the Stormcast Eternals can be out punched by some of the armies in Age of Sigmar. The Ironjawz come to mind, with their big boss dude able to eliminate anything it comes into contact with in melee. Skarbrand and a unit of Wrathmongers is all you need in a Khorne Daemonkin army to kick stormy ass and take names. Make sure you take at least one powerful melee unit when writing your army lists so you have SOMETHING that can get in there and smash it with the likes of a Stardrake or Retributors.
Kill it with Fire! – Artillery kills Stormcast Eternals just as dead as anything else it hits. Warscrolls live the Duardin Cannons can take out the Stardrakes from a distance and can make mince-meat out of multi-wound models like the Retributors. Skaven have access to devastating ranged weaponry that deals out mortal wounds which go a long way to negate the re-roll saves that a lot of the Stormcast heavy hitters have.
So there you have it, a couple ways you can deal with the Stormcast Eternals on the tabletop. They are definitely a force to be reckoned with but with the right tools you can falcon punch them straight back to Sigmaron! Tell us some of your best tips and tricks to countering the Stormcast Eternals threat in the comment section below.
Whats a good method for Death to battle Sigmarines? i have my nagash lol
I would say heavy bubble wrapping with cheap units. SEs live or die by getting the right charges off (like most armies in AoS). As Death, you have some of the best and cheapest fodder in the game, and in some cases the ability to add back lost members. Just be careful of Decimators, who are 100% designed to shear through mobs of weak dudes.
Also, as the article says, no Magic defense. If you get up there and blast Mortal Wound spells, Heroes and dudes will go down alike.
I guess it also comes down to what type of Death you’re playing as too. Flesh Eaters can just do their normal thing and as long as they protect their Heroes they should do well against Stormcast. Deathrattle might struggle some more if you don’t use a lot of Wizards.
All this, and reserve back some summoning points for blocking units of zombies/skeletons or hard hitting stuff like Morghasts, pure Stormcasts won’t be able to block your summoning and you can hold them back to just the right moment denying the alpha strike against them. Can be a little bit risky if you don’t get the spells off but with no dispelling it’s a much more reliable tactic against Stormcast.
Great article, tragically worded first sentence 😉
For my beastclaw raiders I’m thinking thundertusks and skall for sniping out the characters. And a Stonefrost with everwinter charm will kill ten retributors on the charge with attacks to spare(at least or did last week
Then aga I n, if they get the first turn……….:(
Yeah, going to be tricky to bubble wrap with a beastclaw army, might be worth getting in some grots, or if you’re going pure beastclaw making sure it’s tricky to get enough retributor in combat range. Unit of ten retributors doesn’t mean anything if only two or three can get to your characters through your standard halving wound monster riders.
Bit of good positioning can scupper a retributor bomb, they’re large based and with only a 1 inch range you can force them to spread their attacks thinly which they really don’t want to do, particularly against beastclaw monsters, and you’ll then roll over them pretty easily.
Also, Retributor bombs struggle against Stonehorns. The Retributors want to kill off their target immediately and not get attacked back, so if you halve their incoming wounds it can really slow down their effectiveness.
I’ve played against Beastclaw Raiders a couple times now with my Stormcast, and it’s brutal for sure. SE have the premier counter for BCR – any of the Deep Striking battalions will take away your ability to get off the appropriate charges and can even end up killing a big thing before it has the chance to do much. However, you have a pretty good amount of ranged Mortal Wounds and charge damage, so it comes down a lot to player skill and a bit of luck on both sides.
Retributor bombs and the like are scary a first but it’s worth bearing in mind that they’re on pretty large bases and only have a 1 inch attack range, bubble wrapping is the obvious and great answer but even bunching up harder units forcing them to attack on a wide front and spread themselves too thinly can scupper them.
I’ve stopped using a retributor bomb with my Stormcast as it’s a big points sink and most people I play with have learned to counter it too well to make it really worth it 😛
Much prefer the vanguard wing battalion at the moment, 10 dual sword liberators teleporting between three prosecutor units throughout the game, a bit more versatile, hits much less hard but easier to get into useful positions throughout the game and a much less obvious threat. Great for sneaking into the backline.
The formation with prosecutors dropping squads of retributors is pretty brutal if you cant take out the angle guys before they get into position. As destruction I have been taking the relic that gives me a 4+ save against mortal wounds. This little thingy ensures that my mawkrusha will survive the onslaught of mortal wounds(at least one round of them) and punk some retributors when its my turn to swing.
That is super crucial in this game. Some factions like the SE can just pump out mortal wounds like nobody’s business. You need an effective way to save against those in the early game.
Hey man, i have just started Sylvaneth and my mates playing Stormcast Bloodangels, any tips?
we both have starter sets but i think we are planning to expand.