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.