The Stormcast Eternals are demigods clad in gleaming sigmarite armour. Each one is a mighty warrior plucked from their moment of death and Reforged on the Anvil of Apotheosis by the God-King himself – transformed into immortal heroes and sworn to protect the Mortal Realms from the depredations of Chaos.
They arrive on bolts of divine lightning, dispatched to fight Sigmar’s gravest battles. When they die – and die they do, for the Mortal Realms are full of terrors – their souls return to Azyr to be Reforged anew. They pay a hefty price for this immortality, as their souls erode with each Reforging, slowly losing shreds of their humanity.
Despite this, the Stormcast Eternals fight on to secure a future for the faithful of Sigmar, the will of the Heldenhammer made manifest. In our first faction focus, we find out exactly how these tireless champions of Order do battle in the upcoming edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
Overview
Stormcast Eternals are separated into Stormhosts, each one an autonomous military organisation with its own history, heraldry, and favoured ways of war. These are led by a Lord-Commander and his Command Echelon, who preside over various chambers – tactical formations which each have their own battlefield role.
The Warrior chambers are the most common of these, deploying Liberators as an unyielding bastion to hold the front line and Annihilators to pulverise enemy lines like living meteors. They are joined by the likes of the Vanguard chambers, forward scouts and fast cavalry who range ahead of the main host, and the Extremis chambers, who ride draconic starbeasts into battle – plus various other, more specialised formations.
The latest of these to be called into action are the Ruination chambers, roused from their Bleak Citadels, quiet monasteries in which elite veterans of hundreds of conflicts reside in a life of quiet contemplation. On the verge of losing themselves completely to the curse of Reforging, they have been called into action once again to combat the resurgent Skaven menace using skills honed across centuries of fighting.
Beyond their own skill, the Stormcast employ the aid of numerous beasts. Gryph creatures become loyal mounts and companions, while through a long-standing alliance with the offspring of the god-beast Dracothion, Sigmar’s finest fight alongside Draconith comrades.
Battle Traits
Battle Traits are army rules that define how each faction plays on the tabletop. The Stormcast Eternals are typified by how they deploy from The Celestial Realm, striking precisely as Scions of the Storm.
Those warriors whose role is to hold ground call upon increased resilience and ferocity in Their Finest Hour, supported by Heavens-Sent reinforcements as fallen warriors are replaced in a clap of righteous thunder – in an example of a faction-specific Command Ability.
Battle Formations
Each faction begins the new edition with a Faction Pack. This provides a choice of four Battle Formations, which work like the subfaction rules of old. These encourage you to build and play your army in a certain manner, to benefit from specific bonuses.
Many Stormhosts will fight either as a Thunderhead Host or a Lightning Echelon, but when the Ruination chambers are pressed into battle they often march as Sentinels of the Bleak Citadel.
Their centuries of death and resurrection might cost the Ruination chambers their memories and passions, but their Ancient Aura of storm-charged energy lets them shrug off physical attacks and spells by granting Ward (5+).
Each Faction Pack also has three Heroic Traits and three Artefacts of Power to choose from. These can be taken by any HERO, adding extra layers of flexibility and tactical choice to your list building.
Arcana and Incantations
Spells, prayers, and manifestations can change the tide of battle, and each Faction Pack comes with lores to expand your supernatural options. Some have a Spell Lore, some have a Prayer Lore, others have both, and some factions also come with a Manifestation Lore. The Stormcast Eternals have an abundance of priests, and the
Bless Weaponsprayer is key to getting the most out of this elite army.
With a chanting value of 6, it can take a turn or two to build up your ritual points and empower a key unit. Plan ahead, and you can amass 12 ritual points to share that buff with all units within 12” and strike your enemy on multiple fronts.
Unit Focus
When the severity of a threat demands the most powerful response, a Stormhost may battle alongside Krondys, Son of Dracothion, a venerable sorcerer-drake who once ruled an empire that spanned nearly all of Ghur.
The Regalia Fulmentarus enhances his already-prodigious arcane strength even further, allowing him to reliably conjure an Atavistic Tempest to debilitate the enemy with a choice of three effects.
Age hasn’t dulled his talons, and in close combat Krondys will massacre the foe with his Apex Maw and send foes into disarray with a Soul-Shaking Roar, which can prevent a unit from heeding commands. Just imagine how brutal his angrier, more melee-focused brother is…
Dozens of legendary heroes fight for Sigmar Heldenhammer, though few are as ferocious as Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear.
As The Prime Huntress of Sigmar’s chosen, Yndrasta must track down and slay the most heinous monsters. Her magical spear Thengavar is more than up to the task, dishing out massive damage to gigantic beasts, while her Dazzling Radiance encourages other Stormcast to give no ground to terrifying foes.
The Knights-Arcanum are slightly more level-headed, Indomitable Loreseekers who seek out the endless spells that rage across the realms.
With the ability to engage with MANIFESTATIONS now part and parcel of battle, the Knights-Arcanum have a warscroll well suited to the task, including a special ward against mortal damage inflicted by endless spells, and the ability to strike them down with extra Rend.
Supremely skilled in both offence and defence, most Stormcast Eternals can act as the hammer or the anvil, and few exemplify this doctrine better than Annihilators.
When they crash down to the battlefield, their Blazing Impact deals mortal damage to nearby enemy units. Those who carry mighty shields instead of meteoric grandhammers can use them to Brace for Impact and weather any retaliation, creating an armoured front line ahead of the main Stormcast force.
The Word from the Studio
Matt: “When developing the new edition, we took the time to rebalance characteristics across the different factions to help everything feel inherently apparent, just from the miniatures. For the Stormcast Eternals, this meant we could align their Save characteristic across the faction to 3+ across the board – with a few exceptions, such as the avian Aetherwings who haven’t got a scrap of armour on them.”
Combined with Their Finest Hour, this makes Stormcast a straightforward but exceedingly resilient army to play with. However, they are not easy to master. Their wide roster of units provides plenty of strategic conundrums, and you’ll need your decision-making skills to choose which units to hold back and deploy later. Knowing who to send into battle and what to keep in the Celestial Realm for a surgical strike is key to mastering these lighting-wreathed champions.
Spearhead Spotlight
Every faction in the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar has a Spearhead force designed to play the fast-paced, compact Spearhead game mode. With the Skaventide box, the Stormcast Eternals have two to choose from: Yndrasta’s Spearhead, and the new Vigilant Brotherhood which comes in the new Skaventide box.
Yndrasta’s Spearhead works as a delaying action, awaiting their leader’s devastating arrival in battle round 3, but the Vigilant Brotherhood is a small and effective force of units from the Ruination and Warrior chambers. With three Prosecutors, five Liberators, a Lord-Veritant and a Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-stalker, each individual packs a mighty punch.
The Liberators and Prosecutors both have the REINFORCEMENTS keyword to balance that low model count, allowing you to return them to battle after they’re destroyed, while two Battle Traits add additional abilities to use during battle.
Shield of Azyr allows you to toughen a unit in times of need with a Ward (5+), while Storm Charge lets you cover more ground with your Liberators or Lord-Veritant, who are touch slower than their winged and mounted allies.
This article is the first in a series that will cover every single faction in the game. We’ll be updating the hub page for the new edition with new article as they’re published, so keep checking back every day for fresh updates
