In this article series we’re taking a look at the cavalry, monster, beast and warmachine options available to each faction, looking at what units they pair with, and talking about the combos available to those units as well as tips for running them solo. You can find the rest of our Start Competing Stormcast Eternals Articles here.
The Stormcast Battletome is so huge that we’ve broken down the unit evaluations into three articles: Heroes, infantry and everything else. Here’s everything else (it’s mostly cavalry). Stormcast cavalry is super solid, being by default 5 wounds per model with a 3+ save means reinforced units are 30 wound monsters that can rampage across the board. There are quite a few options that are still matched play legal, and a surprisingly high number of them are competitive.
Dracothian Guard Concussors
All-around, these are probably the best Dracothian Guard at the moment. They’re slightly worse than charging Fulminators at doing damage, but they get to shut off commands and the fact that their damage is consistent even when not charging means that they play better with the quicksilver draught combo.
Dracothian Guard Desolators
You forgot about these, didn’t you? That’s because they’re the worst Dracothian Guard and always have been.
Dracothian Guard Fulminators
For the points, these on the charge are the most damage you get out of a Stormcast cavalry unit. As mentioned above, I think if you’re doing one unit of Dracoths as part of a combo these aren’t the ones you pick, but if your army goes down the road of being more Extremis-focussed, then a unit of these as a more aggressive combat piece is totally viable.
Dracothian Guard Tempestors
A huge downgrade in offensive capacity compared to all other Dracoths, but we’re looking at a unit that’s pretty cheap now. 170 and the ability to shut off all-out defence is pretty neat. Now, all-out defence isn’t what it was, but the value of these does go up if you’re investing in fewer, but higher quality hammer units.
Stormstrike Palladors
People were very dismissive of these on release, but they’re now really quite cheap for a profile that isn’t that much worse than the other cavalry options and they’re by far the most defensively efficient cavalry. A brick of six is a decent budget hammer, but they’re also cheap enough that you can start using units of three of them as a way to make a list optimised for the Scouting Force battle tactic.
Vanguard-Palladors with Shock Handaxes
Vanguard-Palladors have been a bit of a do-it-all unit this edition. They’re tough, they’re incredibly fast with a 14” move and run and shoot/charge, they shoot, the fight. They don’t shoot or fight as well as the units that really specialise in it, but they’re good enough that they’re a threat. These are now fabulously expensive and have fallen out of favour a bit, but remain a solid all-rounder. The shock handaxes have an ability that hands out -1 to wound to units they damage, which is decent.
Vanguard-Palladors with Starstrike Javelins
Very similar to the shock handaxes but slightly cheaper, these have been the preferred choice in general as they shoot a bit more and then their ability to shoot again when charging puts their damage a bit above the handaxe variant.
Aetherwings
Once upon a time these being kinda expensive for what they are made sense because allies were a thing and Idoneth Deepkin existed. Now there is absolutely no reason for 6 health unit with a 6+ save, awful melee, the beast keyword and middling ability to cost 80 points.
Gryph-hounds
These were decent on release of the index but got gutted by points and the battletome, as they’re now just 10 points less than the nearest cheap infantry that packs a 3+ save and they no longer trigger the Thunderhead Host ability. Even at 90 points you will find that you just don’t have the points spare to take ‘em.
Stormdrake Guard
Let’s argue about weapon options. Truly, it baffles me that Stormdrake Guard weapon options are one of the few surviving single-warscroll weapon choices that remain different from each other, and I pray to Sigmar that this changes in a future edition. As it is you’ve got Lances that have 2 damage when they charge or swords that have double the attacks. If you are just taking this unit as it is and throwing it in unsupported then the optimal build is swords on everyone except the champion, who can and should have a lance. I hate that this exists. If you can hand them out extra attacks (with e.g. a Stardrake) then all-lances is better.
Okay, let’s actually talk about Stormdrake Guard. They’re big beefy monster cavalry, packing 9 health per model and come in units of two or four. The unit of four has been the most common option traditionally, as whilst it is astronomically expensive, 36 wounds with a 3+ save is nothing to sniff at. Their damage output is pretty poor for their points, as it is roughly on par with Dracothian Guard; what you get by upgrading to these is the health boost, flying move and an ability to power through and disrupt your opponent like nothing else.
Stormstrike Chariot
Having an absolutely huge base with a cheap cost is pretty decent, especially backed up with a 3+ save. These could theoretically not be bad units to spam for controlling board space. Sadly they seem to have fallen into an awkward space where they’re not quite cheap enough as pure filler like this but don’t have the abilities or output to justify what they do cost. Their gimmick is that with a charge and a power through these could nail a unit for 3d3 mortal damage, but there are just better uses of power through and your points. Eventually these will hit a price point where someone will run like 5 of them and it will be an absolute nightmare.
How to Pick Your Cavalry
Putting aside the beasts and warmachines as they’re all a bit rubbish, and lumping Stormdrakes in with cavalry as that’s basically what they are, there’s quite a bit of choice here. Stormdrakes are the biggest, chunkiest and scariest but given a reinforced unit eats a full third of your 2,000 points they’re actually something of a finesse option, as they’re so offensively inefficient. On the other end of the scale, Dracothian Guard offer the best bang for your buck, but having a full model less than the other cavalry units but the same Health makes them quite fragile. Vanguard-Palladors have excelled for a lot of the edition as all-rounders that really can do it all, and whilst they’re now incredibly expensive they still have value with the way the current GHB battleplans and battle tactics value mobility. Stormstrike Palladors are cheap and cheerful and that’s fine.
When people see a unit type in AoS they tend to start thinking “can I spam this” and so the answer here is… kinda? All of this cavalry is basically good, and there are plenty of heroes to interact with it and boost the power, particularly if you’re willing to invest in the Extremis heroes to help the Dracoths. That being said, you miss out on quite a lot by being a cavalry purist in this army, and you’ll find you don’t end up with many bodies on the table.
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