Many thanks to Games Workshop for providing us with an advanced preview copy of the new Stormcast Eternals Battletome for us to review.

Please note: the Battletome doesn’t come with printed points and this obviously limits our ability to assess everything in detail. We’ll follow up with a deeper dive once the points are out.

Another edition and another Stormcast Eternal battletome coming in early. Just like the Skaven one this gives us a glimpse as to how battletomes will broadly look across the edition; though historically the first few tomes are a bit tame compared to how things end up later on. We are very interested to see how far things actually end up diverging from faction packs, if at all, because spoiler alert: this doesn’t very much.

The Stormcast Eternals are the poster-children of Age of Sigmar. Always the starter faction, always a launch-window battletome, and always present in the lore; but they’re not static. Stormcast have evolved through the editions becoming an army with real depth both in background and a colossal miniature range (read: clearly too big since some are even being retired). Each edition focussed on a different aspect of the army. In second edition the fatal flaw of the Stormcast was brought to the fore, the degradation of their humanity as they were continually reforged, death after death. In fourth edition the spotlight returns to this aspect of Sigmar’s chosen from a different angle. The Sacrosanct of second edition sought a cure, but the new Ruination chamber represent those that are almost too far gone. It’s a fun concept to hang a new chamber on and has allowed the artists involved to go to some more GW-traditional grim and dark places than Stormcast have been before.

So what’s actually in the battletome? Some very mild tweaks to the faction pack content, warscrolls for the new units, two armies of renown and two regiments of renown. 

Changes from the Faction Pack

The changes to Vanguard Wing from the battlescroll have been rolled into the book, so failing the 3+ roll no longer stops the unit using it from moving. Thunderhead Host has been changed so that it no longer triggers off of beast units. This was already not a great Battle Formation (Stormcast are hardly blessed with quality there), so making it no longer work with that unit of Gryph-Hounds you wanted to take anyway just feels a bit mean. Are we addressing a really scuffed interaction? Was this devastatingly counter to the lore? In the grand sweep of Stormcast internal balance what is going on here? Another head-scratcher here is that Summon Everblaze Comet now casts on an 8. Of all the changes you could have made, to go this light and pick these few is a baffling series of decisions.

In happier news, a second paragraph has hit the Shock and Awe Heroic Trait, so that it can grant itself the benefit of being -1 to be hit for the rest of the battle round, as well as anything that arrives within 12” of it. Depending on the hero setup you are bringing and how they want to arrive on the battlefield, this can be more competitive with Envoy of the Heavens now.

Underworlds warband Domitan’s Stormcoven now returns as a generic unit in the guise of the Stormcoven – they’re relatively chunky with 3 wounds apiece and some decent shooting and melee. As a wizard the unit gets +1 to its power level when contesting an objective, which is very nice indeed, as is a handy strike-last warscroll spell. This is a good unit, and having access to a wizard that doesn’t take up a drop is a fantastic thing to have in your list building arsenal. I doubt this will hit the heady heights of power that the Skaven Plaguepack hit, if only because the Knight-Arcanum exists and will undoubtedly be much cheaper as your spellcasting option. 

What’s New?

Iridan the Witness

Iridan is a warscroll that gets pulled in a few directions and I’m not quite sure they stuck the landing. They’re a baby monster (12 wounds, no ward, okay-to-middling combat output), a priest (1) and pack some interesting utility. Of all the new warscrolls, this is the one that will be most sensitive to where they pitch the points. Because Iridan is just straight up better than the generic build in most aspects (spoiler alert) they can’t be too cheap because that leaves nowhere for the Lord-Vigilant to go, but equally the existence of Ionus means if Iridan is too high into the 300s then what’s the point of them in comparison?

For ‘interesting utility’ we have their unique prayer, which chants on a 4+ for a d3 heal and 6+ ward after a Ruination unit fights wholly within 18”. There’s stuff you can do to chase this with the Lord-Vigilant from the starter set handing out double fighting but mostly this is some nice to have incidental healing ticking over the fight phase. The fun here is Darkflight, an end of turn rampage that asks you to beat an enemy unit’s Health characteristic on one dice and on success you slay one model from the unit and Iridan can make a free retreat move without taking damage. Out of sequence movement is great, and Iridan moves 12” and doesn’t have the most enormous base to contend with. This is a decently reliable ability against infantry but in the new world of 3-wound cavalry it starts getting very dicey very quickly. I want to love Iridan because the model is very sexy but barring some very aggressive points we’re looking at a warscroll that is too mild an upgrade over a Lord-Relictor for basic praying and too weak compared to Ionus as a centrepiece. 

Lord-Vigilant on Morrgryph

A generic mid-range monster is something Stormcast are actually lacking, so this is a potentially interesting new option. As an attacker, on the charge this sits between a Knight-Draconis and a unit of two Stormdrake Guard. Defensively, it’s 12 wounds and a 3+ save with no ward, but getting the nice Ruination Chamber ability. This feels a little conservative – the Draconis provides a strong offensive buff to Stormdrake Guard but otherwise you never see it as a solo monster, and I worry this makes the Morrgryph an even less attractive proposition. There is some extra utility here – you get a once per turn +5 control to a non-hero Ruination unit, +5 is a decent swing especially with Ruination units coming in 3s, but if that’s the utility you want then maybe save the points and take a Terminos. There’s also Vice Like Grip, a rampage that is so close to being good and just… isn’t. In any charge phase you can roll 2d6 vs the target’s Health and if you beat it they get strike-last and can’t receive commands. That’s amazing, the problem is that it can only target non-monster hero models and it is therefore limited to only targeting the worst kinds of unit in the game. 

This isn’t setting the world on fire, but it’s fine and can even be a good unit that fills a hole in the Stormcast catalogue provided they get the points right. If this can sit at or below the Knight-Draconis it’s probably playable but anything in the 300s range and I just don’t see the point. 

Tornus the Redeemed

Banger alert. Tornus packs 8 wounds and an okay attack profile – he’s more of a lightly beefed up generic hero than a brand new beatstick. What’s neat are: a Control score of 5, ruination chamber and a combat phase ability to roll a 3+ for either -1 to hit on any enemy in combat with him or a d3 heal to each Stormcast unit in combat range of him. Tornus’ passive is what we’re here for though – Herald of Redemption is some of the best Rally tech we’ve seen in 4th edition and is a flat +3 Rally points to anything that rallies wholly within 12” of him. This stacks on all the other heal abilities Stormcast have now between prayers and Vexillors – if you can avoid getting one-shot there’s a build in here of units that just won’t die.

Knight-Azyros

The generic build out of the Tornus kit, the Azyros has less Health and slightly worse attacks but retains the 12” move, 5 Control and combat phase ability to heal or hand out -1 to hit. Instead of providing a Rally buff, the Azyros instead focuses on one specific other warscroll – Prosecutors. At the end of any turn your Azyros can roll a 3+ to either let a unit of Prosecutors retreat without taking mortal damage, or just make a normal move if they’re not in combat. Prosecutors haven’t made a huge splash but they’re actually decent – fast and punchy but unable to get hit back. If you’re going down the Prosecutor route (or if they get a points decrease at any point) then an Azyros starts to become worth your consideration – that’s a huge Fuck You ability to an enemy, and being able to make end of turn 12” moves is massive in a game about standing on objectives at the end of a turn.

Stormstrike Palladors

Oh god, what were they thinking? Part of me wonders if there’s some kind of early-version print error going on, that is how baffling the Stormstrike Pallador warscroll is to me. In a vacuum this unit looks good but unfortunately we exist in a timeline with Vanguard Palladors. The Stormstrike models have lots of barding on their Gryph-chargers, so it makes sense that they move 12” instead of the Vanguards’ 14”. It makes less sense that they are exactly as tough as each other with 5 wounds, a 3+ save and no ward of any kind. Let’s not even mention that being Warrior Chamber provides you with diddly squat by itself, whilst the Vanguard Chamber comes with baked in run and shoot or charge. 

You’d assume that these would be, therefore, much better in combat but that is sadly not true – they output less than axe wielding Vanguard Palladors and lose out on the shooting attack. The riders are actually decent here: 3 attacks each on 3+ with 1 rend and 1 damage but they pick up a point of damage on the charge and are anti-infantry +1 rend. This would put them pretty much at parity with axe Vanguard Palladors, but then for some reason the Gryph-chargers for Stormstrikes hit on a 5+. I have to assume that is a mistake, otherwise these really are just a worse Gryph-charger in multiple dimensions for no reason and it just feels wrong.

On the plus side: Warrior Chamber is at least a much easier keyword to fit into your Stormcast list building, these get a full command and an interesting ability whereby once another friendly Warrior Chamber unit has been destroyed they get to re-roll charges and strike-first for the rest of the game. This sets them up as a cool counter-charge unit, and I get the idea of hiding behind a screen of Libs and waiting for your opportunity to grab that buff + Envoy of the Heavens for a hugely buffed unit but the core warscroll here is so weird. Fingers crossed for some kind of early errata or for them to just be dramatically cheaper than the Vanguard version. 

Stormreach Portal

It’s massive, it’s not incidentally easy to remove with 12 wounds and a 4+ save and if a Stormcast unit is wholly within 6” of it in the movement phase they can do a regular 9” teleport. Fine, but a bit of a hog to deploy. 

Armies of Renown

As always, throw out everything to do with the default Stormcast battle traits, artefacts, spells etc – and you can replace it with either of the Armies of Renown here. There’s one focused around all the new toys, and another hero hammer + annihilators. 

Ruination Brotherhood

You can take: Iridan, anything Ruination keyworded, Liberators, Knight-Questors and any other non-Hero Warrior Chamber units (yes, this would also include Liberators). The Extremis and Vanguard chambers plus beasts are what we’re missing out on here, but that is where a decent amount of the sauce for competitive Stormcast lies.

For battle traits, the sentinels of the bleak citadels battle formation is baked in and there’s a consolation prize of a 6+ ward for any Warrior Chamber units wholly within 12” of any Ruination. There’s a unique rampage which effectively only Iridan and the Vigilant on Morrgryph can use that’s actually decent – picking up to 3 targets in combat for the usual 2+ to do d3 mortals. 

The main ability here is temper the flaw – you pick a non-hero Ruination unit (so, Reclusians or Prosecutors) that’s fought and at the end of the turn it can either get 1 slain model back if it’s wholly within 12” of a Ruination Hero or if it isn’t near an appropriate hero the unit gets +1 attack but can’t contest objectives or use commands. Reclusians with a 5+ ward aren’t trivial to kill so potentially getting one back a turn is nice, but neither they nor Prosecutors are terribly high impact units. Both units do love the +1 attack but there’s sort of a triple whammy of downsides here – running away from your hero support and switching off commands would probably be enough of a downside but straight up not being able to contest objectives is terrible. Age of Sigmar is a game about standing and fighting on objectives, if your unit wants +1 attack there’s a decent chance they’re attempting to contest an objective. 

For the rest of it the heroic trait lets your hero use its Ruination Chamber ability even if something else has already – ignoring non-core abilities is remarkably strong so getting to double dip here is very good, but your opponent does have some control over sequencing. If they make the hero use it first that will then count as your one use for the turn. The artefact is a ward, 5+ for infantry or 6+ for anything else. 

There’s also an entire prayer lore, despite Iridan and the Lord-Veritant being your only priests. The unlimited prayer morrda’s embrace is funky – chants on a 5 with an 18” range and you roll a dice vs a target enemy unit, if you exceed their Health characteristic then one model dies. There’s more offensive praying in the form of murderous flock, a 12” range 5-chanter that is your horde sweeper, roll a dice for each enemy model and do a mortal on a 5+. Finally raven’s flight hands out +2 move on a chant of a 4, and a run and charge on an 8+. This is a really weird prayer lore! The damaging prayers are situational, morrda’s embrace reads like it wants to target low health units but that barely seems worth it, so it’s an unlimited prayer that gets to have multiple punts at dicing off a big scary model? You’re capping out at looking for 6s against stuff like Troggs and Varanguard but I guess if you get the 6 that’s a big impact. The real money here is in the bonus move and the potential to run and charge.

This army is playable – what you can take is obviously a bit limited but it also gets a bit tougher and can hit a bit harder, at the expense of the usual Stormcast mobility. Getting a full prayer lore is fantastic for an Army of Renown, but it’s probably not as generally useful as the default Stormcast prayer lore. Still, it’s obviously targeted at people with the starter set + new models and if that is you this has some juice. Tempering the flaw is a really thematic mechanic for Ruination and what it offers is quite powerful, provided you’re careful about your unit placement and what you’re expecting your units to achieve on the battlefield when you use it.

Heroes of the First-Forged

You can take: Bastian, the Celestant-Prime, Krondys & Karazai, Yndrasta, Warrior Chamber Heroes, Praetors and both kinds of Annihilator. That’s it. Do you own 18+ annihilators? They made an army for you. I’m saying you in the singular as I assume you are the target audience for this Army of Renown.

What do you get for your bad purchasing decisions? Half the battle traits are setting up the standard Stormcast reserve deployment, and another lets units arriving from reserve appear wholly within 6” of Bastian and more than 3” from enemy models. Hilariously, the wording on these abilities is different to the battletome and therefore does not trigger the Annihilators blazing impact rule, apart from the Bastian teleport which explicitly calls out that it works for that. Why does The Annihilator Army turn off half of their rules unless you bring one specific model and teleport specifically to him? The final battle trait is ‘punch through’ which effectively lets one infantry unit move through enemy models when it charges, which is actually pretty cool!

I don’t know if this army actually wants a non-named hero but if you do then the heroic trait is +1 attack if they’re near Bastian and the artefact is a 4+ roll to switch off ward saves for an enemy unit in the combat phase. There’s two spells, a prayer and a runt manifestation lore of just the Everblaze Comet.

The unlimited spell is Wreathed in the storm which casts on a 7 and makes it so that the target unit bounces a mortal damage back whenever it rolls a 6 to save in melee. Storm’s wrath is an unusually strong nuke, it’s a limited range of 9” but inflicting d3 mortals onto up to 3 enemy units in that range. The prayer is +2” move on a 4, but unlike the previous prayer lore this doesn’t grant run and charge on the power up, instead just picking a second target.

There’s some fun rules here but my overwhelming feeling is who is this for? Are you supposed to go hero hammer and take all the big stuff with some praetors and go full beer and pretzels? Being able to deliver a big hammer directly into combat with something is cool, as is potentially getting a few blazing impacts right in the middle of the enemy lines, so I suppose we’re just looking at alpha strike and pray but all of that is reliant on Bastian trundling up the battlefield and getting into tussling range. Also, with 3 armies of renown out now the poor old Vanguard Chamber is notably absent from all of them.

Regiments of Renown

There’s two of these and I like them both, which means it’s a damn shame they’re totally paywalled off.

The Horizon Seekers

1 Lord-Aquilor, 5 Vanguard-Hunters, 3 Vanguard-Palladors of your choice. Baseline, Palladors are a premier Stormcast unit, Hunters are OK but have issues with mobility and the Aquilor is weak. The extra rules for the regiment here do go some way to lessen the issues with the unit selection, which is great to see. Firstly the Aquilor can bring both units with them when they teleport, which gives the Hunters the mobility they were otherwise lacking. 

Secondly, the whole regiment gets +1 to hit against the Hunter’s uhh Hunted target (a single enemy unit picked at the start of the game). This gives the regiment a nice, clear bit of design space: you get a package deal assassination formation and some highly mobile units that can play objectives and Battle Tactics. That’s good, and probably gives the Hunters and Aquilor a lease of life they don’t have in the Stormcast army itself.

Valnir’s Stormwing

Hell yeah. 1 Knight-Draconis. 1 Stormdrake Guard unit of 1 model. Being able to windmill slam some dragons into any order army is a great idea and regardless of whether this is a strong competitive choice or not, it’s a fantastic option to have available.

As its regiment ability you basically get a joint finest hour – once per game in your hero phase both models get +1 to wound and +1 to save for the rest of the turn. The +1 to wound is a bit wasted on the Draconis who wounds on a 2+ in melee anyway (though it will make the shooting a bit better) but the save bonus is always helpful. I for one am eagerly awaiting those Fyreslayer-riding-a-dragon kitbashes.

Conclusion

Where does this Battletome leave Stormcast as an army? In truth, they are as they were. Not really any better, but not worse off. The Skaven book tweaked enough and brought enough new and good to shake up the formula, if only a little bit. Here, what’s good before is still good now: Longstrikes, the Knight-Vexillor, Vanguard-Palladors, Krondys, Vanquishers, and Knights-Arcanum are all still really good. Knight-Questors, Lord-Aquilors and Chariots are pretty bad. Will the new stuff make a splash? I can see Palladors ending up being fine enough and easy enough to fit into lists to make it, there’s value in a reinforced unit that’s fast, 30 wounds, with a 3+ save. Tornus, a priest (let’s be honest, Ionus or some sort of Relictor) and a Vexillor can do a pretty nasty amount of healing. New players looking to expand out of a starter set could do worse than picking up Iridan to be a part of a heal and ward save strat centred around Reclusians. 

Stormcast Eternals have historically suffered from first battletome syndrome, with armies that come later just getting more and better options as the design team grows into the edition. It’s hard not to see this as yet another repeat of that curse. We would really like to believe that they won’t keep reprinting faction packs with very minor changes for the whole edition. That being said, the core of what’s on offer here is more interesting than previous iterations of Stormcast, and the army could be given a huge lease of life later down the line if the restrictions around unit selection in list building are lessened. Ruination feels so nearly there as a Thing, and it’s probably only some mild points tweaks away from being a decently build-around for an army. 

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.