Following on from my previous article on how to deal with teleporting Retributors this article will talk about dealing with the Stormcast battalions that let you teleport.
The Stormcast have three battalions that allow warscrolls to start out deployed off the table these are:
- Thunderstrike Brotherhood
- Skyborne Slayers
- Warrior Brotherhood
Thunderstrike Brotherhood
This is the battalion that comes with the starter set, it is comprised of the following scrolls:
- 1 Lord Celestant on Dracoth
- 1 Lord Relictor
- 1 Unit of Retributors
- 1 Unit of Prosecutors
- 2 Units of Liberators
The units can drop in all at once or one at a time and can be deployed anywhere that is more than 9″ from any enemy unit this happens in the movement phase and units cannot move further after this in the movement phase. Units also get plus one to their bravery when they are within 6″ of at least one other unit from the battalion.
It is by far the weakest of the three discussed here in terms of raw power as it only has a single true combat unit in the form of the Retributors. The other big weakness this battalion has is that it deploys in the movement phase meaning that when it appears on the table neither of the Heroes can use their abilities.
What you need to watch out for with this battalion is that it can drop four scoring units on the table at anytime it wants and anywhere it wants. This can be game winning in certain scenarios and whilst it will not do a huge amount of damage it can be very hard to deal with and given that most games are based around capturing objectives in some form or another.
Another use for this formation can be to drop in two large units of Liberators to engage you and pin you in place allowing the Stormcast player to move around as they need to.
The third trick that can be performed is if this battalion is used in conjunction with a Knight Azyros, he allows models in this formation to drop in to the table instead of 9″ away from the enemy to be 5″ away from him. This allows you to teleport your Retributors to be 3″ away from their chosen target thus making their charge having a 1/36 chance of failing.
In summary this is a battalion that is more focussed on objective securing and board control rather than destructive power. You should focus on killing the Knight Azyros first if he is present bit after that just be mindful of units appearing throughout the game to capture objectives.
Skyborne Slayers
This is the battalion that has seen the most use by tournament players as it combines the good combat potential, good shooting and objective securing troops. It is comprised of the following scrolls:
- 1 Lord Celestant
- 2 Units of Liberators
- 2 Units of Judicators
- 1 Unit of Decimators
- 1 Unit of Protectors
Unlike the Thunderstrike Brotherhood all units from this battalion must drop on to the table at the same time in the movement phase. You pick a point and the entire battalion needs to deploy within 12″ of that point. You can as part of this deployment deploy up to 5″ away from enemy units.
This is problematic for the Stormcast player in that it means that the Judicators need to be deployed much further forward than they would like them to thus making them more vulnerable. This is also a relatively expensive battalion so do not expect to see much other than this in your opponents list, this effectively means that once this battalion has dropped in you know exactly where your opponent will be and all being movement 4 means it’s hard for them to move around a lot.
Again like the Thunderstrike Brotherhood it appears in the movement phase so it cannot make use of the Lord Celestants command ability which is a 9″ plus one to hit bubble, given that this effects both shooting and combat he is a critical element to eliminate before he gets to use this ability.
The other special rule that this battalion has is that units from it never need to take battleshock tests which makes it much harder to shift.
Expect to see this formation with 5 man units of liberators and 10 man units of both Judicators and Paladins(each with 4 star soul maces). This mean that the battalion has considerable shooting and combat ability and can focus this in one place with little that can be done to counter it.
The battalions alpha strike ability is also the easiest way to counter it in that if you use the same tactics as I described to counter Retributors you will do well as the Protectors and Decimatiors will not be able to get to your high value targets. Obviously you will have to weather potentially 20 Judicators shooting at you – so make sure these are deployed in terrain for the additional save.
In summary this battalion is all about the alpha strike but with good positioning and target prioritisation it is possible to minimise its impact.
Warrior Brotherhood
This is the newest battalion of the three and it is comprised of the following scrolls:
- 2 Heroes chosen from, Lord Celestant on Dracoth, Lord Celestant, Lord Castellant, Knight Azyros, Knight Venator, Knight Heraldor, Knight Vexilor
- 1 Unit of Proescutors
- 2 Units of Paladins
- 3 Units of Liberators
- 2 Units of Judicators
This is essentially the love-child of the Thuderstrike Brotherhood and the Skyborne Slayers, it has all the flexibility and more of the Thunderstrike Brotherhood combined with the power of the Skybourne Slayers.
It has exactly the same deployment rules as the Thunderstrike Brotherhood, in addition all units within the formation gain plus one bravery if they are within 6″ of another unit of the battalion, lastly the units in the battalion get plus one to wound if they are within 8″ of two or more units from the formation. Combined this makes for a formation that is very hard to play against.
If I was using this formation I would deploy the two units of 10 Judiators witha Lord Celestant between them with a Prosecutor body guard. This means the Judicators are getting both plus one to hit and plus one to wound thus providing huge ranged damage potential. I would then in the first movement phase firstly deploy the Knight Azyros close to the enemy within 10″ of a viable target for the Judicators to give them re-rolls on failed to hit rolls of one. Then I would drop in 10 protectors (with obligatory 4 star soul maces) within 5″ of him thus being 4″ from the enemy to maximise their chances of getting a charge with a unit of 5 Liberators behind them so that they get the plus one to wound bonus. This means that you have a very powerful first turn. The remaining Liberators and the smaller unit of Paladins would then be used for objective grabbing on later turns or dropping in to act as roadblocks to protect the Judicators.
This is very hard to play against as it can drop when and where it wants and has a very solid shooting phase. The tactics for defending against Retributors will work to a certain degree however the Stromcast player can choose then to sit off and shoot you until there is a gap. Probably the best tactic against this list is lots of fast small units that do not provide the Stormcast player with a juicy enough target to sacrifice their Paladins for.
Hopefully that has provided some insight into these battalions and how you can play against them.