In this series of articles we take a deep dive into the Army Rules, or an Army of Renown, for a faction. We’ll cover the faction’s battle traits, spells, prayers, and upgrades and talk about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Army Rules for Stormcast Eternals. You can find the rest of our Start Competing Stormcast Eternals Articles here.
Rules Overview
If you fire up the app and have a look, Stormcast Eternals rules look like kind of a mess. You’ve got a ‘Battletome Supplement’ that’s actually just a repository for all of the Legends warscrolls and battle traits to support them and for some reason this is listed first. Then you go into the Battletome itself, Scourge of Ghyran and the Rules of Renown/Spearhead. Hopefully the app gets tidied up at some point, as this is rough for new players.
For the avoidance of doubt – we’ll cover the main Battletome and Scourge of Ghyran here (for as long as the latter remains matched play legal). Rules of Renown will be covered in their own articles, as they’re pretty different beasts.
Battle Traits
The Celestial Realm and Scions of the Storm are your linked deployment abilities. If you’ve got more models on the battlefield than in reserve, you can elect to deploy a unit in reserve. In your movement phase you can pick any number of units set up in reserve and pop them down the standard more than 9” from all enemy units. This is a handy way to keep units safe until you want to bring them to bear. Do be aware that with 4th edition’s version of Redeploy and a lack of in-faction boosts to charge, it can be challenging to use this to deliver melee units as more often than not you’ll be punting on a huge and unlikely charge. It’s great for shooting units and Prosecutors, who natively bring a 3d6 charge. These abilities aren’t the be-all and end-all for Stormcast movement shenanigans, but it is the one you’ll always have.
Heavens-Sent is a once per battle ability that also costs a command point, but lets you pick an infantry or cavalry unit with 2+ models that has been destroyed and you get to set up a replacement unit with half the models more than 9” from all enemy units. Great for insurance against alpha strikes or to let you trade a unit and get something back, but also handy as the game progresses as a way to be able to put a unit your opponent might not have been thinking about into a part of the board that they weren’t expecting to have to deal with. Particularly handy with units like Longstrikes who can arrive and contribute without having to worry about a charge.
Their Finest Hour is your last Battle Trait and it’s once per turn (army) in your own hero phase only – you pick any Stormcast unit that hasn’t already had its finest hour and for the rest of the turn they get +1 to wound in melee and +1 to save. +1 to wound is very nice, though a few Stormcast hammer units you might want to use this on already wound on a 2+. The money here is the +1 to save, especially under the current GHB where All-out Defence is less efficient. Sure, you don’t get it reactively in your opponent’s turn where it would be most useful, but it makes you safer charging into scary enemy units, or attempting to pin something.
Battle Formations
Stormcast Battle Formations are awkward in that each battle formation focuses on a particular keyword. Stormcast generally want to adopt a somewhat generalist listbuilding style, and this means you’ll often end up having to take units that gain no benefit. Also, a couple of the good options here require a dice roll on top of looking for specific units, so whilst they can be powerful they’re not abilities you can anchor a plan around. It’s a little frustrating, but Stormcast are otherwise generally quite reliable.
Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels is a very solid option. It only works on Ruination Chamber (the new stuff) units, but it makes it so that every turn in the hero phase you can pick a unit and they get a 5+ ward for the turn. Simple, easy and very effective. Ruination unit options are limited but Reclusians and Prosecutors both love this. If you’re going down the route of the Reclusian Quicksilver combo and/or reinforcing Prosecutors to use as a speedy hammer then this is an extremely solid pick. Doubly good now that Scourge Iridan is usable.
Thunderhead Host is the option nobody really takes anymore. You get +1 to hit in melee for your Warrior Chamber (your basic infantry + annihilators) units if they’re wholly within 12” of a non-hero, non-beast Stormcast unit that isn’t Warrior Chamber. It’s a lot of setup for a pretty poor effect that you can replicate with other abilities. There was a time when you could use cheap Gryphounds to proc this, but now it’s pretty awful, especially when you consider how limited Warrior Chamber is for units that are already good at punching things.
Vanguard Wing was super popular earlier in the edition when the Vanguard Chamber (Palladors and Longstrikes) was at its height of popularity. It’s still strong, but you’re just less likely to be running Vanguard now. You get a 3+ roll to do a standard 9” away teleport on one of your Vanguard units. Still handy on Longstrikes if nothing else is floating your boat. If you’re not really running Ruination you’ll still be looking at this or the next one.
Lightning Echelon is your Extremis Chamber (dragons & dragon related cavalry) option and gives you a once-per turn (army) ability for a unit that has charged to get Strike-first on a 3+ roll. This is great to get the drop on your opponent in their own turn with a counter-charge, or to effectively get to pick two units to fight before your opponent can activate in your own turn. Stormcast also have access to Strike-first from the Quicksilver Draught so there are opportunities here to either have two units strike-first or you can stack Quicksilver on a Stardrake for insurance against failing the 3+ roll or getting charged yourself.
Heroic Traits
Two sets of traits to choose from here, courtesy of Scourge of Ghyran, and we get our first instance of something costing points. The Battletome traits aren’t too flashy, but have one solid generic pick, whereas the Ghyran traits are much more tailored towards a specific role.
Aspects of Azyr (Battletome)
- Shock and Awe: When you set up the hero or a friendly unit wholly within 12” with the Scions of the Storm ability, they are -1 to be hit for the rest of the battleround. Initially looks quite strong but ends up being awkward to use in practice. Working for the battleround is nice, but if you go second in the battleround it’s still unlikely to actually do anything unless you hit a big charge roll. This could have happily worked on any of the Stormcast teleport abilities and not been remotely overpowered. As it is, it’s fiddly and weak.
- Envoy of the Heavens (20 points): Another fiddly ability, but the payoff is much better. If one of your units is destroyed in the previous turn, you can pick a unit wholly within 12” (of the hero, not the destroyed unit) and they get a 5+ Ward until the start of your next turn. Stormcast have great saves by default but very few units come natively with a ward, so being able to give something a 5+ is fantastic. Costs points now but still fantastic on something like a Stardrake that can just give itself the ward and not have to worry about positioning.
- Staunch Defender: Whilst the hero is contesting an objective, any friendly Stormcast units contesting the same objective get +3 control. Objectives are tiny now so this is tricky to use and the effect isn’t great. You never see it.
Stormforged Qualities (Scourge of Ghyran)
- Legendary Tenacity: The first time the hero would die then on a 3+ roll it doesn’t, any remaining damage to allocate is cancelled and it gets to Heal (d3). Not very exciting, the major use-case here is to protect an important buff piece from getting sniped out as Stormcast often lack the coverage to protect from teleport charges or enemy shooting. With the current GHB season there’s very little reason to run this as you can protect heroes from shooting with terrain.
- Hour of Glory: You can spam Their Finest Hour on the hero as many times as you want. Basically only viable on a Stardrake, but makes it a more effective bully. Not a bad choice at all if you’re running a Stardrake, just be careful on not falling into the trap of unthinkingly Finest Houring it in every single one of your turns. You can do it multiple times, you don’t have to.
- Intense Piety: Pick an enemy Priest or Wizard within 18” to be the target and on a 3+ they get -1 to cast and chant until the start of your next turn. This would be really good if it was an aura that was always on, but you’ve got a triple limitation of range, a dice roll and selecting a target in your own hero phase. The effect is still good, but this is an “I can’t afford the points for Envoy of the Heavens” option.
Artefacts
As with the heroic traits there are two sets to choose from; this time they’re all free and there’s actually a few decent options to choose between.
Artefacts of the Tempest (Battletome)
- Null Pendant: You pick an enemy unit in combat and give them -5 control for the rest of the turn. Did I mention that this ability is once per battle? Hard pass.
- Quicksilver Draught: A banger artefact; you would have to be running a very specific kind of list for this to have no viable users. Once per battle in any combat phase the hero can chug the potion for Strike-first. We talk about this a bunch in the competitive faction focus as it’s the cornerstone of a few build options. You can put it on a Stardrake as a solo piece, or you can throw it onto one of the many Stormcast heroes with a fight-after ability to get a double Strike-first activation.
- Mirrorshield: Less relevant in the current GHB but generically solid for your backlining priests and wizards, or to protect a bigger hero in a shooting meta. The unit can’t be targeted by shooting attacks unless the attacking unit is within 9”.
Relics of Sigmaron (Scourge of Ghyran)
- Banner of Sigmar: Once per battle you can pick an objective within 18” and until the start of your next turn your opponent doesn’t control it unless they have units contesting it. This is really interesting tech as objectives in AoS are ‘sticky’ by default – you can take an objective and then move all of your units away and you’ll still control it, but in AoS4 armies often lack the extra units to directly defend every objective. There’s a couple of things that have held this back in favour of the more straightforward artefacts – the hero phase timing is awkward given the range limitation and Stormcast have a few options for being able to teleport and snag objectives that their opponents have moved off of. Taking an objective is better than denying it to your opponent. There’s definitely potential for shenanigans here to be explored, but there’s more obvious and directly powerful abilities here.
- Sigil of Morrda: Your hero gets to turn off a command or rampage ability for a unit in combat with it once per turn, on a 3+. This ability is grand, the problem you run into with Stormcast is what to put it on. Ideally you want something like this on a big scary beatstick hero and the interesting issue with Stormcast is that every single one of those heroes for them is a named character, and so can’t take this enhancement. Your best bet really is the Stardrake but in all honesty, you’ll probably get more mileage out of the Quicksilver Draught. A shame, because this could be really handy, especially as more and more monsters get repositional rampages.
- Beacon of Azyr: This is probably the most significant alternative to Quicksilver in the current AoS metagame. Once per battle in any hero phase you can pick a friendly Wizard or Priest wholly within 12” and their next cast/chant gets to be a 7 that can’t be modified. For a Priest it also resets their ritual points to 0. Now a 7 for a wizard isn’t great because you’ll just get unbound but this is fantastic on a Priest as it’s a guaranteed cast on Translocation, the teleport prayer. What makes this sing is the ability to use it in the enemy hero phase: you pay the CP to intervene and can (once per game) guarantee a teleport. That’s a huge ability to disrupt your opponent, and makes this a very strong pick if you’re taking a Priest.
Spell Lore(s)
Stormcast get the pretty standard selection of a 3-spell lore and 3 endless spells. Honestly, neither are that amazing and you can get away with being wizardless with Stormcast, or just entirely going with a generic manifestation lore.
Lore of the Storm
- Lightning Blast (CV5, unlimited): You pick the closest visible enemy unit that hasn’t already been lightning blasted and lightning blast them for d3 mortals. The infinite range is cool but this is really just early game poke if you’ve nothing better to cast (you will almost always have something better to cast). Despite being unlimited the stipulation about not hitting the same unit twice means there’s no real ability to gimmick spam this at a target.
- Thundershock (CV6): 12” range and -1 to wound for an enemy target. A nice effect with an awkward range. Stormcast wizards are still Stormcast and so pack the 3+ save but they still don’t particularly want to be near the front lines. If you can get this onto something like an Aelf unit to get them wounding on 5s then that’s the real money.
- Starfall (CV7): 18” range and you pick an enemy unit to get -1 dice on their charge rolls until the start of your next turn. The best spell here, as the range makes it usable and -1 dice on charge effects are incredibly useful even if the enemy is close, due to AoS’ 3” bubbles around units that require a charge to enter.
Manifestations of the Storm
- Dais Arcanum (CV6): Your wizard summons a floating beyblade to stand on like Goodies Disc of Tzeentch. What they get for this is some slightly complicated rules for standing the wizard on top of the spell and then an 8” flying move, Ward (5+) and +1 power level. This is all extremely fine but not particularly exciting. The power level is nice as your sole wizard that can actually use this is a good manifestation caster but only PL1, but this then requires the rest of the lore to be good enough to warrant casting more spells.
- Celestian Vortex (CV6): Another spell that’s OK but not very exciting. You get 12 piss poor attacks from the spinny hammers and a passive effect that makes enemy units within 12” of the manifestation -1 to hit with shooting. AoS4 hasn’t been the shootiest edition outside, but it is starting to creep back into the game as more and more armies get much better at it. As such, this is something that is useful to have in the arsenal, but you may be getting the impression that this manifestation lore is a bit underwhelming.
- Everblaze Comet (CV8): Speaking of underwhelming, this once extremely cool spell now does a single instance of d3 mortal damage to enemy units within 6” when it lands and then passively hands out -1 to cast for enemy wizards within 12”. It has 5 health and banishes on a 6+. If you can combo this with Intense Piety then a -2 to cast is actually a pretty crippling debuff onto an enemy wizard, but the word “if” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
Sadly, the manifestation lore is underwhelming here. There’s some OK abilities but all with pretty serious limitations or niche application. The Knight-Arcanum is a good manifestation caster and can do better than this, if you have the points to spare on one of the better generic manifestation lores.
Prayer Lore
The prayer lore on offer is actually pretty good, especially compared to the spells. This is handy, as wizards are generically more useful than priests. You don’t need a priest for Stormcast to function, and some builds really couldn’t care less, but they can be a big value add, particularly if you’re infantry heavy.
Prayers of the Stormhosts
- Healing Storm (CV4/8, unlimited): A d3 heal to a friendly target wholly within 12”. Wholly feels a bit mean here for measly heal. If you hit the 8+ you can heal everything in range instead. Not very flashy but occasionally useful, especially if you have something big and tanky.
- Translocation (CV4/8): A simple teleport for a unit wholly within 12” of the caster, dropping them anywhere more than 9” from enemy units. Simple and effective, this is the bread and butter of Stormcast praying. It’s absolutely not worth pushing for the 8+ here, as you just get a -1 to hit for the rest of the battleround on the target – nice to have if it happens but otherwise you’ll get more mileage out of chanting the basic Translocation more often.
- Bless Weapons (CV6/12): An infantry build multiplier – as it can only target infantry for +1 attack in melee. On a 12+ it hits all friendly Stormcast (dropping the infantry requirement in the process) wholly within 12” which is absurd, but you can’t base a gameplan around a 12. A 6 for +1 attack is, however, extremely achievable and there are great targets for it: Reclusians and Annihilators with Grandhammers love it if they’re in position to fight, but Prosecutors are great with it due to their incredible mobility. People can forget that Prosecutors fight like cavalry without the horse, and going up to 4 attacks a model with damage 2 is tasty.
Faction Terrain – Stormreach Portal
The infamous portaloo now costs 20 points and for that reason doesn’t make it into every Stormcast list. If you’re down to that final smidgen of points and are wrangling between this, Envoy of the Heavens and a manifestation lore it is definitely worth keeping the portal in mind, as it is good.
It’s decently tough for faction terrain at 12 health 4+ save, though bear in mind that as always throwing down faction terrain in your deployment zone can give opponents with teleports or off-board deployments an ability to catapult themselves into your lines much more easily. What you do get is the ability in your movement phase to pick a non-monster unit wholly within 6” of the terrain and give it the old stormcast more than 9” away teleport. No dice roll, just match the keyword and positioning and you can do it. Particularly good with Prosecutors as it allows you to use abilities like Bless Weapons to buff them before sending them for a teleport 3d6 charge that you couldn’t do if they were deployed off-board. Another excellent use-case is to deploy a unit of Longstrikes centrally but wholly within 6” of the terrain (though only in matchups where your opponent can’t pick them off at range themselves) to act as a Covering Fire threat, and then still have the ability to pick them up and put them where you want later on when you need to get their positioning right to get the target you really want.
Final Thoughts
A word I’ve used a few times here is “underwhelming” and that’s what the Stormcast army rules can feel like – there’s some decent enhancements but all are limited in some way, even ubiquitous choices require your units to be dying or are once-per battle abilities. It’s easy to be a bit disappointed but Stormcast players shouldn’t be – Stormcast warscrolls are just really solid but these rules do pick up areas where the army would otherwise struggle. There’s a lot of mobility options in here, and you can tailor your access to them to an unusually high degree. Likewise you can get a decent amount of ward coverage should you choose to build your army in that direction. You’re not going to get everything you want all of the time; but Stormcast are a wide, wide faction and that’s part of what makes them interesting.
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