Before last FAQ the “go to” bladeborn team to get numbers for cheap in Order were Starblood Stalkers (or Hexbane’s Hunters, but the doggos having only T3 and 6 wounds disqualified them for many players, so lets forget about them for a moment) and the fact that fighters from this team provided speed, ranged damage and numbers for cheap meant that it was a perfect addition to most Stormcast factions. Now there is a new team that can threaten Stalkers place as default allies for shining knights of Sigmar and its Ylthari’s Guardians that just got 85 points cheaper. Before we dive deeper into all 7 Stormcast factions (we are slowly getting into 40k territory with significant portion of factions being Sigmarines) lets see what Ylthari’s Guardians have to offer
Ylthari’s Guardians
The leader of the faction is a sidegrade of Kixi-Taka in my opinion. It is slower, but has 2 more wounds and is 5 points cheaper. On paper Kixi-Taka triple seems more useful but personally I almost never use it and if there is one stat that Stormcasts don’t need more of, its Toughness. Ylthari ability is a quad, so we will not have much opportunities to use it, but in certain matchups (mostly against hordes) I can see using it instead of Rampage. Reaction wise just as with abilities it looks like the skink is defensive and Ylthari is offensive with “reversed counter” reaction (1 dmg for hits and 2 dmg for crits). Overall its a very cheap fighter with quite classic wizard profile.
Next fighter is the only one that didn’t have its cost adjusted. With 4 attacks, 2/4 damage and 12 wounds he isn’t the best fighter at its cost, but should have no problem murdering Kixi-Taka skink friends. For me this fighter is the least impressive one from the team (but when doing the math looks surprisingly efficient), in some lists I will take it over the next fighter in this warband just because of the 2 extra wounds.
Gallanghann is a perfect chaff to hide behind the Stormcast eternal back (and attack from there thanks to 2″ reach). Its quite rare to use onslaught on your chaff, but there is no other chaff unit that will gain more from it. It doesn’t have the most consistent damage output, but for a fighter that costs 80 points its acceptable.
At the end lets look at the star of the team, the most efficient archer in Order – Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer. It has lower speed and crit than Otapatl, but higher Toughness and attack range, yet the biggest advantage she has over the lovely chameleon is that she’s 15 points cheaper.
Overall Ylthari’s team is slower and has one ranged unit less than Kixi-Taka’s crew, but is a bit more durable and deals a little more damage and (what is the biggest advantage in some factions) costs 10 points less for a set of four fighters.
Lets start with a faction where Stalkers will definitely get replaced by Ylthari’s Guardians – Blacktalons
Blacktalons
Most players asked for a minimal size of a team that they are comfortable playing will answer with 7 or 8 and Blacktalons have the problem of having only 5 fighter in the box. Previously they could run 4 fighters from Starblood Stalkers instead of Shakana and Lorai/Hendrick to get to 7 fighters, but after last FAQ its no longer possible (without using other allies). Because of that the 10 points cheaper Ylthari’s Guardians will fill the gap and for many players the default build of Blacktalons will change to this:
Ylthari’s Blacktalons
Neave Blacktalon (285pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Rostus Oxenhammer (200pts)
Hendrick, The Silver Wolf (155pts)
Skhathael (85pts)
Gallanghann of the Glade (80pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Ruination Chamber
The newest addition to Stormcast factions not only have great looking models, but also tempts players with a powerful profile of Reclusians and great tricks like “counterspell reaction” or a teleport on double. With a faction being this new there are no proven lists yet, but I believe the one below has a potential to became popular. I think the main concern when listbuilding in this faction is to balance as high as possible number of fighters with the number of threats while at the same time minimizing the number of gryph-crows and trying to also include some of the tricks that the faction offers. As Ylthari’s Guardians are currently the cheapest source of extra bodies they are a natural fit. I’m quite proud of how much I managed to fit in this list. The only place where I would hesitate to run it is a battlepack with very low amount of treasure missions (like Ferocious Gnarlwood II), because Prosecutor Prime mobility and teleport might be less useful there and some different selection of fighters would certainly work better there, but outside of this specific scenario I think this list is great.
Guardians of Ruination
Prosecutor-Prime (205pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Battle Priest (65pts, Hero)
Reclusian (160pts)
Reclusian (160pts)
Reclusian (160pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Gryph-Crow (60pts)
Vanguard Auxiliary Chamber
I believe this is the worst faction I will cover today (probably the worst faction in the whole Grand Alliance). FAQ certainly helped Vanguard players a bit by making Farstriders a lot cheaper (135 points discount on 3 fighters!), but sadly if the best fighters from a faction are a part of bladeborn team then the best way to use them is outside of their main faction (LRL for example). Tragedy of this chapter is that the better the list you want to build the less Vanguard units you will use and because of that I will show you 2 lists, one with only Farstriders and as techically this list could be played as another faction I will also show another one that will legally work only as Vanguard list.
Definitely not Sylvaneth or Thunderstrike
Liberator-Prime With Dual Sigmarite Weapons (205pts, Hero +Strength blessing)
Sanson Farstrider (170pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Elias Swiftblade (135pts)
Almeric Eagle-eye (135pts)
Skhathael (85pts)
Gallanghann of the Glade (80pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
As I mentioned – Farstriders are the best part of this faction so they are here and the rest is Ylthari’s crew for numbers and Liberator Prime as the list was lacking a “can opener” for very durable fighters. For only a double Liberator attack profile can change to 6A 6S 4/4.
Ok the list above is cheating, let’s make the real Vanguard list that will be more fun (single ranged attack with 4/10 damage is fun right?) lets add Fight for Profit to the list to make it potentially “twice more fun”:
Rolling six is fun
Sanson Farstrider (170pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Company Captain (90pts, Hero)
Vanguard-Raptor with Longstrike Crossbow (195pts)
Elias Swiftblade (135pts)
Almeric Eagle-eye (135pts)
Gallanghann of the Glade (80pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Thunderstrike Chamber
From the least competitive Stormcast faction lets jump to the most competitive one. In some factions I follow certain requirements that make the listbuilding process work almost automatically and having the constrait of having to use Ylthari’s Guardians makes the process even more structured. Let’s see what are the goals I like to meet when listbuilding in this faction:
- at least one annihilator to have access to their quad
- if there are 3+ bigger fighters Calthia is in the team
- (new rule) New Lay Low the Tyrants is too juicy to pass, so I need at least one Liberator (preferably with crit blessing)
- 8 fighters if possible
There is very limited amount of ways to construct the list with this requirements, this is one example:
Calthia in the woods
Calthia Xandire (210pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Annihilator with Grandhammer (155pts)
Liberator With Dual Sigmarite Weapons (140pts)
Annihilator with Meteoric Hammer (140pts)
Skhathael (85pts)
Gallanghann of the Glade (80pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
If you use blessings and have some spare points then its very tempting to crit bless the liberator and make him 5A 5S 5/5 for a double, which just looks right.
Sacrosanct Chamber
Last FAQ made Averon Stormsire drop from 235 to 215 points, which means that Sacrosanct has a way scarier version of Knight-Arcanum with Storm of Eldritch Lightning – burst that on single target is stronger than Engulfing Flames of Dark Artifice (Horns of Hashut flamehurler triple). The faction is known for “Thundercats”, so instead of trying to get to 8 fighters we will use one and try to fit everything in 7 body list (which we will achieve thanks to Battle Priest extremally low cost). There is an option to improve Rastus to 170 points Sequitor, but it would require demoting the Thundercat to 10 points weaker one and losing Strength 6 in the warband so I decided not to do it, but I’m not sure if its the right decision here. Here is the list:
Thundercat Guardians
Averon Stormsire (215pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Battle Priest (65pts, Hero)
Evocator on Celestial Dracoline with Tempest Blade and Stormstave (285pts)
Rastus the Charmed (160pts)
Skhathael (85pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Warrior Chamber
Sadly new version of Lay Low the Tyrants didn’t reach this chamber. Before paladin cost increased I would definitely try to include 3 or 4 of them, but now lets stay with 3 big threats including 2 paladins and support them with Coordinated Strike. Protector fans can replace Calthia and Gallanghann for 2 Protectors which is quite a reasonable change. I won’t go into much details here as the faction will most likely not make the next edition.
Coordinated Paladins
Calthia Xandire (210pts, Hero)
Retributor-Prime (190pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Paladin with Starsoul Mace (165pts)
Paladin with Starsoul Mace (165pts)
Gallanghann of the Glade (80pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Questor Soulsworn
Last Stormcast faction I cover today that similarly to Black Talons has a serious numbers issues. We will fix this exactly as we did in Neave’s team and outside of our happy tree friends we will also hire a Battle Priest. Questor profile selection is quite easy in my opinion as I only like the big hammer and the shooty version. If you expect to fight elites take more hammers (as in example below) and against hordes you can consider slightly different approach. If you have single box then 2-2 split is something you can build and it is a nice option too.
Trees on a quest
Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
Soulsworn Knight-Relictor (165pts, Hero)
Ylthari (125pts, Hero)
Battle Priest (65pts, Hero)
Skhathael (85pts)
Ahnslaine, Revenant Archer (65pts)
Closing thoughts
I think Ylthari’s Guardians are a great way of adding numbers to your team. I’m convinced that they will start appearing in tournament lists and I think I will take them to events too (Ruination list seems especially strong and I’m sure that with some practice it has what it takes to win an event). Due to the number of factions covered I tried really hard not make it too long and I hope you enjoyed this article just as much as I enjoyed listbuilding for it.
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Overthinking Warcry 