Striking down from the celestial heavens, the Stormcast Eternals are deployed to face the enemies of the God King Sigmar. The process of reforging means that these warriors have immortality of a sort, though there is a dark price that Sigmar did not share with them. Each time they are reforged they lose a little piece of themselves, until finally they become mere husks.

Hot on the heels of the Skaven Battletome, it’s now the turn of the Stormcast Eternals to get their 4th edition Age of Sigmar Battletome and miniatures, up for pre order today! In this full review and unboxing we’ll be taking a look at the new Battletome along with the new kits getting released alongside it. We’ll check out what’s changed, what’s new and what hints may lie in place for the future!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free review copies to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not pick up your AOS goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the new Stormcast Eternals kits, which you can see just below or over on YouTube!

So let’s dive into the brand new Battletome!

Stormcast Eternals Battletome Review – Age of Sigmar 4th Edition

I think it’s safe to say the 4th edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is going down well so far! From the incredible Skaventide box to the new Spearhead format, there’s lots to love!

Dave recently reviewed the Skaven Battletome, and his only real disappointment was the lack of multiple spell and prayer lores. How does the Stormcast Eternals book look in this regard? We’ll take a little look later…

We do also have a whole host of new kits getting released alongside this book, so we’ll be checking those out as we get to the profiles!

It’s also worth noting that for this edition there’s now two ways to get your book – The standard hardback or a small sized “gamers edition”. Our review is based on a digital preview copy, so some things such as gatefold sections or the binding of the book itself we can’t really comment on at this time.

Lore and Presentation

So let’s kick off with something that’s perhaps sometimes overshadowed by the rules and models, the lore and presentation of the book.

From the outset the book is gorgeous. I’m a little surprised they kept the same styling as the previous edition with the red banner across the top. Personally I think it would help for edition identity for each to have a new design to help show which edition the book is for, though this is a minor moan!

Across it’s 154 pages the book is a feast for the eyes, with gorgeous artwork and much more colourful and exciting page layouts than in the previous Battletome. This is very much a book which you can settle down on the sofa and flick through and enjoy the lore section without it just being walls of text.

One of my favourite things from a sense of getting new players into the game is the secton of the book that details each unit from a lore point of view now has photos of the models in question. While most people reading this review will know their Liberator from a Reclusian, having the models alongside the unit lore will help players identify them much easier, and also means that the warscroll profiles can be much more concise to aid finding game information.

While Stormhosts no longer matter from a gameplay point of view, the key Stormhosts are still covered here in detail – again with examples of painted miniatures

The lore is nicely presented in a similar way to the core Age of Sigmar rulebook, split between traditional paragraphs and in universe letters on a subject. One of my favourite AOS releases was the Thondia book, which had a similar approach, and I’m happy to see that continue here! We also get some insight into Morrda, a new aspect of Morr in the Age of Sigmar, who is the deity of the Memorian order. I’d really love us to see a new “Garden of Morrda” kit as a spiritual successor to the old Garden of Morr.

With model pictures now spread much further through the book, there’s less of a dedicated model showcase section now, but instead some pages filled with awesome shots of Stormcast Eternals armies in full force!

Stormcast Eternals – The Rules

So let’s take a look at the rules themselves! Now, just to set expectations here – non of the Faction Rules have been updated in the Battletome. Games Workshop recently shared on Warhammer Community that early Battletomes for this edition would be much in line with the Faction packs released at launch, but later releases would see bigger changes. For the Stormcast Eternals that means that all the Battle Traits, Formations, Heroic Traits, Artefacts and lores are the same as they are in the Faction Pack.

Also, there are not any additional Lores included here. I do wonder if the choosing of Lores will be something we see introduced via campaign books and General’s Handbooks, as with both this and the Skaven book you only get the single lore to pick from. There is an arguement of course that if you had multiple lores then people would just gravitate to the best one anyway, but it would be nice to have the option of picking from a few to suit your play style!

Stormcast Eternals – Warscrolls

So first things first, from what I can see non of the existing Warscrolls have changed. There may be some little tweaks here and there, but nothing jumped out from my initial read through of the book. We do however have lots of new kits and Warscrolls to go with them! In this section we’ll be going through the profiles of the new units and checking out the new kits!

Iridan The Witness

First up we have what is the centrepiece kit of this release, Iridan the Witness. Adding to the ranks of the Ruination Chamber is this new Priest who has some really good supporting abilities while also being able to hold themselves in a fight.

The main reason you’ll want to take them (if you are running a Ruination Chamber heavy army) is his unique prayer Prayer of the Witness – this goes of on a 4 and gives each Ruination Chamber unit wholly within 18″ the choice of 1 of 2 buffs immediately after they fight. They can heal D3 (or 3 if the prayer goes off on a 8+) or they can gain a 6+ ward for the rest of the turn. This is good as you can switch these around based on the order units are fighting! You unit going first? Take the ward save to soak the counter attack. Fighting after the enemy? Take the heal and mitigate the damage. This will keep your Ruination units ticking over when you need them to stay in the fight.

His other ability is really cool too – at the end of the turn if he rolls over the wounds characteristic of the unit he’s in combat with then he auto slays a model and can retreat for free with no damage

The kit is gorgeous and builds either Iridan or optionally a Lord-Vigilant on Morrgryph (which we’ll take a look at shortly). They’re approximately the size of Belthanos and has some amazing detail on it. The kit is £74, which seems a tad too high for the size of it, but I really enjoyed painting it up!

As you can see, I opted for Iridan with a slightly darker scheme. I’m hoping to run a full Ruination Chamber army, so he seemed a no brainer to paint up first!

Lord-Vigilant on Morrgryph

It makes sense now to look at the other option that can be build from the Iridan kit, the Lord-Vigilant on Morrgryph

Another model that boosts the effectiveness of your Ruination units. In the hero phase you select a non hero ruination unit wholly within 12″ and add 5 to the control score. This is really good as makes those ruination units a lot more likely to take objectives – especially if you lean heavily into that!

In addition he has a pretty good Rampage ability in the charge phase that works on non monster heroes – if he rolls over the health characteristic of the unit he charges (on 2D6) then the target strikes last and cannot be the target of commands! With him having 5 attacks that do 3 damage on the charge this makes him a pretty good character assassin – though he might struggle with 1 rend. His Morrgryph on the other hand has 6 attacks with 2 rend and 2 damage each.

Tornus The Redeemed

Next up with have the other new named character in the book, Tornus The Redeemed! He’s another Ruination unit who acts as an awesome way of supporting a Ruination army (Which really seems a viable way to play, given the various overlapping buffs from the characters).

Healing and bringing back models is very much a theme of these new models, and Tornus is no different. With his Herald of Redemption rule, all Ruination units wholly within 12″ get an extra 3 dice when using Rally, which is brilliant for people like me who want to go all in on Ruination!

In addition in the combat phrase on a roll of 3+ he can ether make enemy units -1 to hit him, or deal with stormcast unit within combat range D3 wounds!

The kit is a big step up from the old Knight-Azyros kit (Which he can also be build as) and surprisingly it is actually push fit! there’s not much in the way of optional parts with the only real difference between the two builds being the head and weapon

In order to differentiate him from a standard Knight-Azyros I opted to paint him in the box art colour scheme – and I feel this is really going to be the only well to tell them apart! He was really fun to work on though and push fit also makes him really quick to build! The kit is £31.50

Knight-Azyros

So on to the other half of that box, the Knight-Azyros! This is another supporting unit, this time working well with Prosecutors to give them some impressive movement tricks for getting battle tactics. At the end of any turn he can pick a prosecutors unit, and on a 3+ they can retreat for free with no mortal damage if they are in combat, or they can make a normal move! The fact that this can be done at the end of either players turn makes your already speedy Prosecutors even faster!

He also has the same Light of Sigmar rule as Tornus allowing for heals or -1 to hit.

Stormstrike Palladors

Another new kit, and this one isn’t Ruination! This is a fast cavalry unit with anti infantry +1 rend and charge +1 damage. Unfortunatly, with a base -1 reg and 1 damage they are not going to be hitting very hard if they are not making a charge. To make up for this a little their Ride for Vengeance rule actually gives them re-rolls to charge distance and strike first on the charge as long as a Warrior Chamber unit has been destroyed this battle. I wish this was something they had base, a this would make them very good – I don’t know the points values yet however, so if they are cheap enough they might be a good pick for a quick unit to do battle tactic duty

Kit costs £42.50

The kit is very nice however, with a range of different heads and options for command or spears.

Not managed to get any paint on these yet, but will probably go for something a little darker to match the Morrgryphs!

Stormreach Portal

The Stormcast Eternals finally get a faction terrain piece! This is an interesting one from a gameplay mechanic, allowing units that are within 6″ of it during the movement phase to be removed from the battlefield and set up anywhere on the board outside of 9 of the enemy. While that means late game you’re going to need to move back to it to trigger, in the early turns this makes a great way of popping a unit where you need it to be. This is limited to a single unit per turn however, and only works in your movement phase

Kit costs £50

This is an impressive kit however, standing pretty tall on the battlefield. It’s made up of two identical sprues and goes together really well for a large terrain piece.

Again, not got round to painting this one up – but it’s next on my painting desk! It’s also got a few option parts to show the the standard Stormcast icon or that of the Ruination Chamber

Other New Stormcast Eternals Kits

Those units listed are all the ones with new rules, but there’s a whole stack of new updated kits (that retain their old rules)

The Lord Celesant in particular surprised me. In the preview images I wasn’t a fan of the pose, but there’s a whole load of different build options here that in my opinion look better than the box photo!

The Reclusians too are very cool. They have a number of different weapon options, but they all count as the same profile within the game. While some poeple would have liked more options from a game pov, this does mean that you can simply build them with whatever you think looks coolest!

Rounding out the new models are also a new Lord Terminos and a new Lord Relictor

Spearhead

While we don’t get a new Spearhead force in the book, we do get a section dedicated to it. This follows a similar format to the 40k books with a double page spread showing the force, full painting guide to get the models ready for the table asap, and then the profiles needed to play.

With Stormcast and Skaven out of the way, I suspect future Battletomes will have brand new Spearhead forces for us to sink our teeth into.

Stormcast Eternals – Path to Glory

One of the things I was most excited about in the Skaven Battletome was the Path to Glory section. I’m a big fan of narrative games, and nothing is more exciting than the ability to design and build your own custom characters to lead your forces.

The Anvil of Apotheosis allows you to do just that, having been developed further than the version last seen in the Thondia suppliment. In each Battletome that is released you’ll get access to a tool kit that allows you to build your very own heroes and develop their story over a series of games.

The way this works is quite simple – you start by selecting one of 3 different “levels” of hero, each having a different number of Destiny Points they can spend on upgrades and abilities.

You can then go to town picking all the options you want in order to get the character you desire.

So for example, I’m wanting to put together a Ruination Chamber army, but I’d quite like a Wizard leading them, mounted on a Morrgryph

So I start with the Stormcast Eternals Templar Profile – this gives me 30 Destiny points to spend, and will let me build a hero worth 250 points to field in battle.

I decide to make him Ruination Chamber (4dp) and give him a Draconith to ride upon (10dp). I quite like the idea that her service with the ruination chamber has given her an aura of dread, and so give her the Snatched from the Grave origin (2dp) to stop enemy units from being able to Rally within 18″. I want her to be a Wizard (6dp) and I want her to have a ranged attack to represent her throwing magical fireballs at her foes, so I pick the Terminus Greatbow upgrade (6dp). This leaves me 2 dp left to spend – the Ruination Chamber has a lot of magical defence, so I spend those last 2 points on giving her a 6+ ward save.

I know have a dragon mounted Ruination Mage, who flies around the battlefield tossing fireballs and unsettling any nearby units.

And this is just one example, there’s lots of cool stuff you can do here to create your dream character. Yes, you can probably make some silly combos, but this is at it’s best when you have a group of people with the same mindset looking to create something fun and flavourful for their Path to Glory games.

Armies of Renown

Two new Armies of Renown are included within the book that allow you to play your Stormcast Eternals in a different way

The first of these is the Ruination Brotherhood – this as the name suggests is all about running Ruination armies (Backed up by Warrior Chamber units). You have to take Iridan, and you can take any Ruination units, Liberators, Knight Questors and non-hero Warrior Chamber units.

This gives you 4 new battle traits – once per turn in the hero phase you can give a ruination chamber unit a 5+ ward. Warrior Chamber units within 12″ of a Ruination Chamber unit gain a 6+ ward. And monsters get a new rampage – you pick up to 3 units in combat with you and on a D3 roll of 2+ they take that much mortal damage. The really good bit is Temper the Flaw which affects every Ruination Chamber unit that fought each turn. If they are within 12″ of a hero then they return 1 slain model, but if they are not near a unit then they get +1 attacks to all their weapons, but can no longer contest objectives.

They also get access to some pretty ace prayers such as Morrda’s Embrase which slays a model in the target unit if you roll over their health (And on a cast of 10+ you roll 2D6 making this a very good support character killer…)

I really like this Army of Renown, and play on building it myself.

The Second Army of Renown is the Heroes of the First Forged. This is a fun one that requires Bastian and allows most named characters and warrior units with a real focus on Annihilators.

The main gimic for this one is the battle trait that allows Annihilators to land within 6″ of Bastian and outside of 3″ of enemy units. This can be done once per turn but allows you to do quite a lot of damage with your Blazing Impact rule!

Personally I’m more a fan of the first Army of Renown, but there’s still some fun stuff that can be had here!

Regiments of Renown

The book also has two Regiments of Renown – these are collections of models that can be taken in other armies. In the case of these they can be taken for Cities of Sigmar, Seraphon, Lumineth, Daughters of Khaine, Idoneth, Sylvaneth, Kharadrons and Fryeslayers

The first is The Horizon Seekers – this consists of a Lord Aquilor, 5 Vanguard Hunters and 3 Vanguard Palladors. For taking the regiment you unlock the ability for all units in it to be picked up by the Ride the Winds ability of the Lord Aquilor, and in addition you get +1 to hit Hunted targets.

The second will be popular for people who want some dragons in their armies. This consists of a Knight Draconis and a Stormdrake, these get the ability to once per game get +1 to wound and +1 save (Basically unlocking finest hour for them in a non-Stormcast army. I think there’s good conversion potential here too such as Sylvaneth Forest Dragons…

Summary

So what do I think of the new Stormcast Eternals Battletome? 4th edition Age of Sigmar has had a strong start, and we’ve got gorgeous new battletomes for the first two armies. I know some people will be disappointed that there’s not more customisation in regards to Spell lores etc, but I feel this is something that we’ll see expanded with the Armies of Renown, of which we get 2 fun ones in the book.

A lot of the book is the same as the Faction Pack, but the new additions to the force are interesting, particularity if you want to do a Ruination force – plus call me old school but i much rather have a physical book to play with,

The real winner for me however is the Path to Glory content. There’s so much cool stuff that can be done with this in order to make your very own characters, and this is something I’m most looking forward to across other Battletomes. While later books may have bigger changes, the Stormcast Eternals still have a solid book and in my opinion this is worth picking up as they are a decent all rounder force that can be used in a couple of different ways now.

The new models released alongside the book are also ace and were a joy to paint up! I can’t wait to finish my Stormcast army and get them all on the Battlefield!

The new Stormcast Eternals Battletome and miniature releases are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 20th October

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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