Thursday 11 May 2017

How i did it: Stormcast Eternals Lord Aquilor

- Pain may be my flesh
Death may be my fate
but Victory is my Name

- Tylos Stormbound's Honour Scrolls during the Crucible of Blood's war
Reamlgate Wars - Stormcast

   
   After their second Battletome's release, Stormcast have become a very solid army. almost unbeatable for the majority of AoS factions. I managed to bring havoc on any challenger in my local gaming club: Nurgle, Dwarves, Khorne, Ironjawz, Slaves to Darkness, Death, Skavens, Seraphon, Beastclaw Raiders, Flesh Eaters ecc... Only against Tzeentch I lost a bunch of matches. Exploiting their new command trait Staunch Defender, which adds 1 to any save rolls to any unit within 6" from your general (if not charging) and combining it with Lord Castellant skill on a 15-20 men unit of Liberators will make your 300/400 points Battlelines unkillable; with shields their saves shall be at 2+ with rerolling 1's.
    So be it, but many players begun to grumble about that, and with reasons; so unless I'm playing against Tzeentch or an equal I started to use Vanguard Chamber in the majority of my matches, avoiding Staunch Defender (that's quite un-thematic for an army that rely on speed and ambushes) and using Aefirin, my Lord Aquilor, as general.


   That helps you to change quite a lot your playing style, too; the classic Warrior Chamber set-up was becoming boring, really powerful but boring. This is one of the things I love more in Stormcast: they are unyielding warriors but they have a very yielding way to wage war, able to adapt to each situation on the tabletop very easily.

    Ok... but this is not a tactical corner, although I always love to chat about that, so straight on to the painting tutorial for him, Lord Aquilor, a striking model and a real beast on the battlefield!

Saturday 6 May 2017

Showcase Me!: Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Palladors

- From the Darknest night shall rise the Raven, shall take flight in the shadows, shall reveal the nature of its kind.
Prepare yourself for its coming, for the faithful shall be elevated to take flight with the Raven, the rest be forgotten to walk upon the ground, clipped wings and shame.
- Prophecy of the Raven God, World of Warcraft

   Ok... they are not Anzu's copies but you have to admit they're quite similar. To be honest, the very first time I got to see their pictures I suffered a throwback to the days I was playing WoW. So I took some inspiration from those times and made my Palladors blue-ish, which perfectly fits to my Stormcast main scheme and, in the result, are very similar to my first attempt on the first Gryph-hound I painted.


   I am not sure about their Temple's name and history but I have already a full storyline for their chamber, Auxiliary Vanguard "Epoch Hounds". You can always check this page if you are interested in some background hints about my whole stotmhost, Guardians of the Ages, and here for a dedicated Vanguard Chamber's background.
   Let's waste no more time and get straight to the paintjob!