I agree, it’s a cool ability but stormsmiths need to nerfed. I’ll be honest, in my original list I thought each stormsmith was 4 points, paid 12 for 3 and honestly I think that’s a fair trade-off
2 Likes
Look, I see the points you make on why the new army is good. But at it’s core it’s called Storm Knights and the storm knights suck. They are worse in every possible way - less damage, less survivability, less usefulness. Before, Stormguard were Infantry killers with electro-leap and stormblades could bring down a Heavy Warjacks. Now, both are designed as infantry killers who can’t reach the front line.
You can’t honestly tell me that the current stormblades are anywhere near as good as the POW 14 glaive bolts with POW 15 glaives with Iron Zeal, Arcane Shield, and Stryker1’s feat, they just aren’t. For a unit who got slowed down (by the captain not having desperate pace) they’re lucky if tht get within shooting range.
Stormsmiths are more powerful, overly so (now I realize they come in packs of 3, not 4/apiece). But the rest of the army lost a lot of their core bonuses with vey few benefits. Laddermore’s 10" ionization is good but Keller doesn’t grant force barrier. The warjacks got cheaper but lost key skills, of the warcasters did. The army, in terms of it being Storm Knights, is very weak. Trying to build a squishy shooting force is powerful (with current stormsmiths), but once stormsmiths get debuffed back into oblivion that’ll be incredibly inferior as well. The army needs more survivability in order to function. And it doesn’t have that.
Try Stormlances, they seem to be the default unit choice now. They are absolutely great !
2 Likes
Maybe, I wish I had more bulk though. They’re to expensive for how many units you get. Even with how elite they are. With storm knights you almost need screening units of some sort. Before stormblades could really tank up for a turn, and stormguard had wall of steel so weren’t as vulnerable as long as you gave them a spell. And you could do that with 10 models. Instead… Same result with 3.
Those Callers are an interesting case 
They are definitely cheap for their output, that’s hard to deny. I don’t think they are the most degenerate models in the Army. I think that honour belongs to Laddermore. I don’t see any list that doesn’t always want to take her.
The way I’m trying to unpick the issue is by thinking about what the army looks like if you strip the Callers out completely. I don’t think Storm Knights can expect to stand up to a sustained grind. The small-based infantry has almost no survivability at all. The Storm Lances are way tankier, which is part of what makes them good, and the only way to push them from good to great survivability is Dauntless Resolve on one unit (3 models). Centurions are decently tanky and Rowdy is nice, too (and can actually get work done). There’s also nothing here in terms of defensive or control style Feats. Also, the anti-shooting tech is okay or fairly limited (specifically, Decel is pretty good and Shield guards are quite nice) Overall, this is an Army that can’t grind especially well.
This compensated for by decent melee accuracy across the Army and great hitting power at some pretty short ranges, combined with shooting in a similar style; medium-to-short ranges, decent accuracy, great power. The Army is also characterised somewhat by Electroleaps or similar mechanics.
So what do we get by adding Callers in their current state? I think they lean into Maddox’s playstyle the most and are an auto-include for her. They’re just a very points-efficient way to increase the work she can get done turn-by-turn. Nerfing them would bring down the power level of our best caster.
Stryker, I would argue, can do without them. I think he’s doing his best to tee-up a big feat turn, so points spent on things that don’t synergize with him are taking away from that. His feat is kind of like an even more effective version of what Callers do anyway. (Having said that, he does turn a cheap Caller into a POW 10 auto-hitting weapon master on that turn , but thats seperate from their ranged output)
Nemo probably likes Callers to deal with things that try to crowd him out or jam, so he might like to take them despite doing absolutely nothing for them. (Honestly haven’t written a list I like with him yet, anyway)
If a nerf is necessary (and I’m still not convinced it is), I think a light touch that restricts the effective range of the Callers, so they stay dangerous at shorter range, and are harder to reach out at the full 16" at full power.
Tldr: I’d make it so they only get their bonuses when the target is within 10" of another caller, rather than the active model.