Hail Commanders!
The Mortal Realms are a dangerous place, even for the noble forces of Order. To give your Dawnbringer Crusade the upper hand we’ve created these tips to help lead the Stormcast Eternals to victory in the Realms of Ruin.
Forged into living weapons on the Anvil of Apotheosis by the God-King Sigmar himself, the Stormcast Eternals are an army of immortal warriors with a single purpose: to retake the Mortal Realms from the forces of Chaos.
Wrapped in Sigmarite armour and wielding weapons of celestial power, each unit in the Stormcast Eternals’ army is a fearsome combatant, able to mete out great damage and withstand harsh punishment before succumbing to their wounds. However, the cost to field a unit of Sigmar’s chosen is such that every loss is keenly felt.
If you wish to lead the Storm Kings to success in the savage lands of Ghur, cleansing the realm of Chaos, Death, and Destruction, you must first learn the tactics of combined arms warfare used by the Stormcast Eternals.
A Mighty Wall
Every soldier in Sigmar’s army is a mighty warrior. The frontline unit, the hammer-wielding Liberator, is an immovable wall of Sigmarite and wrath. Abilities like Aegis of Sigmar buff their defences, making the Stormcast Eternals’ battalions even more resolute.
The storm-forged warriors of Sigmar don’t only rely on blunt tools, such as hammers and shields; you may also field deadly ranged weaponry, such as Longstrike Crossbows and the Celestar Ballista, impaling your enemies with bolts of captured lightning.
The price to pay for this dominance on the battlefield is high; each Stormcast Eternals unit costs more than the equivalent warrior in your enemies’ armies. In the early stages of battle, your foe will be able to grow their force more quickly, seize territory more easily, and encircle you if you are not careful.
Despite your strength, you must command your faction with caution. Be prepared to recall a unit from battle with the Retreat order if they are near death. Reinforcing a unit only takes time; recruiting a new one is expensive. Mistakes early in battle can fatally stymie your growth.
When you move away from the early stages of battle and have access to the second tier of units, building a Sigmarite Wayshrine over a captured Arcane Conduit can make for an effective rally point—creating a spot nearer the frontlines where your troops can reinforce, rather than retreating all the way back to your Muster Point.
For success in the late game, you must establish a flow of resources. Build Outpost Syphons and Aetherwing Roosts to boost your Realmstone and Command point supply. The Stormcast Eternals have access to powerful units and abilities, but they all have a high cost.
To learn more about resources, combat and other mechanics, read our Beginner’s Guide to Realms of Ruin.
Combined Arms
Some of the most dangerous units in the Stormcast Eternals’ army aren’t frontline troops like the Liberators but the ranged forces that support them. Vanguard-Raptors armed with either Hurricane Crossbows or the upgraded Longstrike Crossbows can pummel your enemy with bolts at range, and the Celestar Ballista deals incredible damage at great distances.
However, your foes will easily defeat these units in hand-to-hand combat. For success on the battlefield, you must take a combined arms approach, using the melee units of Sigmar to lock your enemies in battle while your ranged troops whittle them away from a distance.
Ranged units will attack anything that steps into their firing arc, but troops that flank that region will be able to assault them easily. Orruk Kruleboyz are particularly dangerous as many of their units can conceal themselves in the shadows, making them masters of ambushes.
With combined arms, you can establish well-defended firing positions that tear your enemies apart without them touching your archers or ballista engineers.
Driven to Glory
The Heroes of the Stormcast Eternals, the Lord Celestant and Knight-Vexillor, are both formidable warriors who lead their forces from the frontline. Their strong arms keep enemies at bay while their abilities bolster and reinforce the soldiers that fight around them.
Armed with a Sigmarite runeblade and warhammer, the Lord Celestant easily carves through monsters, daemons, and the undead. However, their real power comes from their Furious Retribution ability, which increases the attack damage and movement speed of all allies around them and makes them Unstoppable, allowing you to charge down any of your enemies.
The Knight-Vexillor’s Banner of the Reforged ability allows you to heal and reinforce units, returning them to strength without retreating to the Muster Point or a Sigmarite Wayshrine. You can upgrade them further to provide a protective shield to nearby allies.
These Heroes’ abilities bookend your battles, with Furious Retribution driving your forces to a swift victory and Banner of the Reforged restoring your army at its close.
Army of Elites
At the centre of the Stormcast Eternals is the combined might of its indomitable infantry and damaging ranged units. However, augmenting that core is a wide range of specialist elite units.
With their star light wings, Prosecutors can race between your troops at the heart of the battle, lending support where needed. However, they also make for great harassers, infiltrating enemy territory to seize control of Victory Points and Arcane Conduits behind the frontlines.
Any defensive line supported by an Evocator unit is near-insurmountable. These blessed warriors can shield nearby allies, boost their armour, and harm any enemy caught in the range of their Empowering Aura.
When the time comes to push forward and take well-defended territory from the factions aligned against you, the Annihilators carve a clean line through any defenders with their Meteoric Hammers and Force of a Falling Star charge.
Finally, there is the Stormdrake Guard, a dragon-riding warrior who can scorch your enemies with Wyrmflame. This monstrous unit can cause chaos from the sidelines of battle.
Each of these elite units is powerful, though don’t rely on them to perform all the functions of your army. They are specialists who will fall if used too far outside of their role.
Strike from the Sky
If you fully upgrade your Muster Point, you can access the Stormcast Eternals’ Faction Ability: Deepstrike. This power allows you to summon units directly from the Celestial Realm, teleporting them into battle wherever you have line of sight.
You may only summon one unit at a time in this manner, but it’s an effective way to turn the tide of a skirmish against your enemies. Use Deepstrike to deliver a specialist elite unit where it's most needed, such as an Evocator to a buckling defensive line or an Annihilator to a battle trapped in a stalemate.
Wield the mighty strength of the Stormcast Eternals to hammer your enemy into submission, cleansing the Realm of Ghur in the name of the God-King Sigmar. This faction’s power is evident on the battlefield, but don’t let their steel blind you to their weaknesses.
The army you field is expensive, and you can only summon its strongest units and use their abilities if you maintain a rich flow of resources. Seize territory, develop it, and pour this wealth into your frontlines.
The Stormcast Eternals roster is balanced between melee and ranged soldiers, with specialist elite units. Use all these troops in tandem, and you will find success; treat them all the same, and you will lead your soldiers to slaughter.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is available to play NOW on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.