Storm Division was released last week, and I can’t say I was overly thrilled. Their casters each lost something important (Escort, Resourceful, Veteran Leader). Their warjacks are relatively cheaper without losing much which is nice, but storm Knight lost a lot of survivability (No wall of steel, no Iron Zeal, no force barrier)
The stormsmiths got a nice buff and we’re simplified which I like, but overall I just can’t help but see the fact as a whole it’s very difficult to deliver models that have low survivability without any shield guard. Especially since storm blades lost a couple pow on their glaive bolts and have trouble scratching heavies now.
I played a game against circle and won (mostly because the other player overextended kromac into ol’ rowdy’s “cuddle range”. But I probably would have lost otherwise as my blades were torn apart and I lost thunderhead to a feral Warpwolf early trying to close the distance.
I’ve posted my list below, but let me know what your thoughts are, I’m trying to figure out how to make a completive list since I love storm division as a whole.
Stormsmiths got “a nice buff” ? That’s an interesting way to put it. I fully expect to see them fixed quickly, as now they are just absurd.
Maddox buffing ranged POW now makes Storm Division a devastating gunline.
I really hope new Steamrollers will force far more terrain on tables (like twice the anount or more) because these shooty lists are terribly oppressive unless you bring a boring rock-paper-scissors counter.
Would help against those 13"long, 21"threat range sprays too…
100% on the terrain issue. Having played on both steamroller and some of the new battlegrounds layouts, and playing on my own “overloaded” tables, more terrain is crucial to a better balanced game.
I’m digging Stryker. His changes overall are positive, in my opinion. Battering Ram is an improvement over arcane zapper, or whatever it was. He gained Veteran leader with stormblades, which is neat. Decel is helpful on the approach. I’ll miss escort a little, but keeping Stryker moving with his stormblades means not rushing in with cav and jacks (it’s a change in playstyle for me).
Not surprised Beth got rolled, as she got most of her fixes toward mk3’s end. Love the stormsmiths, and actually I don’t think they’re OP, especially with Nemo losing his vet leadership.
I think Nemo wants more jacks, less dudes. Try dropping the blades and rowdy for a different jack along with a solo. Stormclad is good, and gets the extra focus, and a Stormblade captain is like playing the game with cheat modes on (Tactician). Just my opinion though.
I don’t know, with most basic and easy to get buffs (Ionization and Maddox feat) full allotment of Stormsmiths means 27 attacks at RAT 8 POW 16. They delete everything, from masses of infantry (no cover or stealth) to multiple heavy warjacks a turn.
6 of them could kill an ARM 20 Colossal if they were still in the game.
They can win a 50pts game on their own.
That’s not what you expect from, essentially, 1pt solos.
Stormsmiths must have made a deal with the Infernals or something because they seem to be blessed with uncanny luck. Despite their unimpressive defensive stats, I always seem to miss my low-investment shots at them and need to kill them with something that would’ve been better used elsewhere - or otherwise lose some of my key stuff to those blasted lightning bolts.
Yeah they’ve always been like that, even now with force barrier. It bothers me though that average rolls on basically any attack can bring down a storm Knight (pow 10 average, rolls a 7 average on two dice, arm 16)
Well, 7 to hit and 7 to wound still means that only one attack in 3 will kill a model. Pretty good chances of survival in this scenario (average attacker vs elite infantryman) IMO.
This community isn’t like that. Please don’t bring the typical social-media-style arguments here. We don’t need mocking l33t-speak meme nonsense to communicate.
Make a compelling argument that is not reliant upon pure theorycraft and maybe it will gain traction.
As-is, these complaints rely a lot on “I somehow delivered a huge swarm of fragile low-mobility models to within 10” of something, and with ≈30 points of support models in place and a feat, they did a huge amount of work."
We’ve seen apocalyptic army-wiping theorycraft prognostications utterly fail to come true dozens of times before, just as we’ve seen curveballs from out of nowhere prove to be issues. And then we’ve seen the momentum swing in the opposite direction, wherein this week’s apocalyptic “everything is broken, nerf it!” prove to be no issue once people learn to play against it. (Ref: Going all the way back to MK I Eiryss, and how people learned “Hey maybe I should screen my warcaster somehow instead of just leaving them wide open in the center of the table.”)
Determining the truth requires a preponderance of actual table experience.
I was clear on the FB group that my argument was that with a 9pt solo that does work and isn’t considered “support” and 12pts worth of stormsmiths and a feat you get 27 pow 16 rat 8 shots with beat back for 21pts which is less than a 4th of your army.
I don’t think people see that you aren’t building a list around the Stormsmiths. Its a 12 pt investment that compliments the rest of your 88 pts in storm knights. You will be taking Laddermoore and probably a firefly in that army already, because they already do work by themselves and are good models to have.
And yes I do agree that they can die to stiff breeze and even if your opponent manages to kill all 9 of them that they now wasted resources to kill 12pts that was behind the rest of your 88pts of models.
The smiths aren’t leading the army on the frontline and you brought X amount of points of support to make them work and when they all manage to die your list just falls apart.
We’ve also seen apocalyptic army-wiping theorycraft come to life when Karchev mad dogs won the invitational and then was immediately nerfed and ghost fleet doing the the exact same thing the following year. So its entirely possible that something thats broken slips throught the cracks.
a) availability of models
b) abusing an obvious loophole awaiting errata is low
c) the tiny remnants of our community are mostly casual players, using an abusive list against them is counterproductive - maybe you get your win (bravo, you!), but you lose the last few players to play against
Yes, I understand that. The article specifically said just 9 Stormsmiths though.
Not that 27 Rat 8 Pow 12 attacks would be anything to ignore either. Would certainly wipe most opponents units from the board for 12 points.
Given how shaken up everything is with the slow transition to MKIV I’m rather leery to call anything out as too broken until people have had a bit to adjust to it, this being one of our newest armies, but this does seem like something that perhaps PP should be keeping an ear to the ground on.
If it does need to get hit by the nerf bat, I’d like to still see it be a notable ability. Maybe something like ditching the bonus attacks would help balance it? Point increase?
Storm “noun” on the whole shouldnt be run with nemo. He really doesnt do much for them as he is a batrlegroup caster, so that, i feel was your first mistake. 1 SB unit will absolutly get thrashed, even with protection, i always ran 2 to make an enemy have to dedicate more to them. Another issue i see with the list is its awkward build (to my eyes), SB, SG, rowdy, firefly, thunder head etc. SD as it is now needs to be built very particularly with what it lost, if you have ANY infantry that you want to run you need to take Stryker or Maddox.
I suggest dropping the firefly and taking laddermore, better speed and threat, better ionization, harder to stop and she is more annoying to remove. SG are… still underwhelming, drop them for a second SB unit. Interestingly, and i cant believe im saying this, drop rowdy for a centurion. Its tougher, does the same work on damage and has the added benefit of reach. Your SB units NEED deceleration or dauntless resolve to be survivable.
No hate whatsoever, storm division was what got me into the game. Id love for them to be amazing but, they require EXTREME focused decision making with lists.
Please don’t bring the typical social-media-style arguments here. We don’t need mocking l33t-speak meme nonsense to communicate.
