Stormcast Eternals Harbinger Chamber

[Threejacks]

Picked up the Stormcast Battletomb a few weeks back,the Battletombs are the new name for what used to be the army books.I just finished reading through it and found it to be well worth the purchase as it has several new Battalions and all of the scrolls for all units that have been released.Plus it has the conglomeration battalion warscrolls for the three chambers of the Stormcast,those being the Warrior chamber,Harbinger chamber and Exemplar chamber.Before I get in to the one in question I wanted to say how these new army books are of top quality and still have great backround on the faction just as the old books did.I plan to pick up the Khorne one soon and look forward to seeing what comes next army wise,hopefully it will be one of the other factions im playing.Certainly the books aren't necessary to play which is nice too:)

 

Anyhow,on to the Exemplar Chamber..

 

Im really liking this one as it has what I think is the best Abilities of all the battalions ive seen so far.

It consists of the following sub battalions:

1-Lords of the Storm-

Which contains 1- Lord-Celestant or Lord Celestan on Dracoth

1- Lord Relictor

0-1 Units of Gryph-hounds

2-5 units chosen from the following list;

Lord-Castellant

Knight Heraldor

Knight-Vexillor

Knight-Azyros

Knight-Venetor

This is pretty much the HQ battlescroll for the formation.

Abilities for this battalion;

+1 to bravery of all Stormcast within 6" of a hero

Wave of Celestial might- if 3 or more heroes from this battalion are within 3" of each other in your opponents hero phase,roll a dice for each enemy unit that is within 3" of them.On 4+ the enemy suffers one mortal wound for each Hero within 3" of it.Any enemy unit that suffers wounds from this must retreat in its next movement phase.

 

 

3-Vanguard Wings-

Each one contains 3- units of Prosecutors

1 unit of Liberators

Abilites for this battalion;

Bearers of the Storm,Liberators within 8" of one of the battalions Prosecutors that roll a 6 or higher to hit make two wound rolls rather than one for that hit.

Stormstreak,Instead of moving in the movement phase a unit of Liberators can vanish removing them from the battlefield then place them anywhere within 5" of a unit of Prosecutors.

 

 

Ok,,so that's the scrolls and battalions within the Chamber,now for the abilities that the chamber gives..

Lighting Strike--pretty common one as all chambers have it.It works the same as the Thunderstrike Brotherhood that is shown in the starter box.Stormcast can Lightning strike into the game during their movement phase.

 

Heres what I think is the best scroll ability in the army,"Celestial Nimbus"...The entire chamber get +1 to hit.OK so that means that ALL of the Heroes are going to be 2+ to hit as 3+ is pretty much the standard with Stormcast heroes.

 

In fact take the Knight-Venator hes the dude with the wings,fancy bow and that bird with him,his Realmhunter`s bow auto hits,wounds on 3+ with a -1 rend,1 dmg,,cool and all.But then theres his once per game "Star Fated Arrow" he can shoot that instead makes only one attack with it,auto hit doing d3+3 damage OR D6+3 damage if the target is a hero or monster...yeah,dont fail your save,lol

That bows range is 30":)

 

Finally the biggest cheese part of this I think is what it does to those NINE UNITS of Prosecutors,at minimum 27 models.When shooting those guys put out 54 attacks at range 18" hitting on 3+ and rerolling 1`s,yup only 2s miss in the first throw.Then theres the melee stat were they,as a whole would put out 63 attacks hitting on 2+ and rerolling 1`s.

 

The Liberators are pretty much hitting on 3+ across the board though I have one unit that has dual hammers so they would be rerolling 1`s.The main thing is their "Bearers of the Storm" ability from the Vanguard Wing would now proc on a 5+ due to the +1 to hit so their damage output is boosted considerably.

 

I would probably throw in the Prime with this Chamber to deal with those big things that just wont go down.

 

Model count(minimum needed) for this Chamber-47

 

Wound count (minimum)-112

 

OrdoComp score(minimum choices)-74

 

Warscroll total(minimum)-16

 

 

Certainly would only be used in a "Grand Battle" type game but makes for one of those epic painting goals too:)

[Norrad]

Interesting... I think that these grand formations are cool and would look spectacular but with that high of a model count will rarely be seen on the table.

[Threejacks]

Heres another Battalion from the book that seems very manageable;

 

"Wardens of the Realmgate"

 

1-Lord Castellant

0-1 Gryph-hounds

1- Unit of Protectors

2-Units of Liberators

1-Baleful Realmgate

 

Abilities-

"Guardians of the Gate" Don't set up the Realmgate when setting up terrain,instead its placed when the Lord-Castellant is placed.

 

"Summon Reinforcements" If the Lord-Castellant is within 6" of the Realmgate during your hero phase,he can summon a new unit through the gate on a d6 roll of 4+.This unit can be a new unit from your collection or one that has been slain earlier.

 

"Celestial Barrier" You can reroll failed save rolls for units from this battalion that are within 6" of the battalions unit of Protectors.

 

With a minimum of 5 scrolls in this one it would be pretty easy to fill out a force around it.

[Norrad]

I'm trying to grasp why the Lord Castellant has the Realmgate deployed with him? Is this Battalion a scenario specific one? Meaning you can only field this group if you play this particular scenario. I really need to pick up my copy of this book so I can read up on the fluff and rules.

[Threejacks]

It's just another warscroll battalion.I think they are implying that it's more of how the mission of the Castellants is to hold newly opened realmgates.