Cronch's Road Through 2025, Part 9: Azyr-pilled and Stormcast-maxxing

Hey folks. Last time, I’d been to the Warhammer World Age of Sigmar Team Championship and…won! Since then, I’ve been taking it easy. We’ve got a game to cover, and a fair bit of hobby progress to go through, so let's get to it.

Club Game: Linked Ley Lines vs Will C’s Lumineth Realm-lords

I had a game booked with Will, and I opted to bring the Stormcast list that I took to the AoS team event - mainly so I didn’t have to think of a new list. The last time we played was at a local event earlier this year, which went overwhelmingly in my favour - I was looking forward to getting another game in with Will in a slightly more casual setting, although we agreed we wanted a competitive game still.

Will’s list - click to expand

Will’s list 2000/2000 pts

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Grand Alliance Order | Lumineth Realm-lords | Alarith Temple

General's Handbook 2025-26

Drops: 2

Spell Lore - Lore of Hysh

Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Hysh

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General's Regiment

Avalenor, The Stoneheart King (410)

General

The Light of Eltharion (210)

Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)

Reinforced

Vanari Dawnriders (440)

Reinforced

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Regiment 1

Alarith Stonemage (140)

Silver Wand
Flawless Commander

Alarith Stoneguard (240)

Reinforced

Alarith Stoneguard (240)

Reinforced

I won priority and, after deployment, gave Will the first turn. He played it cagey, moving units forward to take an objective and scoring a few points, but making sure to keep clustered around the Stonemage’s Protection of Hysh bubble rather than being tempted into long charges that left his forces at risk if failed. The Sentinels stepped into range and exploded the Stormcoven turn 1, meaning I had no magic coverage all game - this was a mistake by me, I really should have made sure they were in obscuring terrain. On my turn 1 I charged the Questors into a block of Stoneguard on their quest-marked objective, killing just enough to flip it and score Restless Energy’s affray. Upsettingly, Avalenor stayed alive on a couple of wounds after a volley from the Longstrikes, denying me a Master the Paths score.

I won priority into turn 2, but didn’t feel I had good enough board position or enough of a lead to give away the double, so I let Will have the turn. Avalenor did a huge Rally (which he’d repeat on my turn) to heal a load of damage. The Sentinels split fire and wiped out the Longstrikes, whilst the other half failed to do too much to the Questors. The big block of Dawnriders threaded their way through the battlefield and made a charge into Iridan and the Knight-Relictor, popping the foot hero with their mortals. Unfortunately though Iridan succeeded on their 3+ ramage and bounced to the other end of the unit, probably moving about 18” and engaging the Sentinels in combat. Avalenor and the Light of Eltharion stepped forward towards the Reclusians, but ultimately only Eltharion completed a charge. I burned the fights first potion and the Terminos killed Eltharion, while a few Reclusians fought into the horses.

Mid-game vs Will! Sorry, I didn't take many good photos. Credit: Rich Nutter

On my turn 2 I managed to pile the Terminos and enough Reclusians towards Avalenor that he was knocked back down very low, but he was once again left on just a couple of wounds! Why will this cow not die. Iridan started killing Sentinels, and the Questors kept up their duel with the Stoneguard, but overall it was quite low impact. I did score full primary and part 1 of Master the Paths thanks to killing Eltharion in Will’s turn though.

Will won BR3 priority and took the turn, spreading his forces out to kill through some stuff and lock in more battle tactics. Unfortunately on my turn 3 the game really turned in my favour, with fights going my way and most of his army being lifted. We talked through from here.

Result: 71-41 Win

This was a really fun game, and the score doesn’t really reflect how close it was! Had some fights gone Will’s way in turn 3, he would have had the 2 turns of uninterrupted scoring instead of me. It’s been great to see Will improving his game and I look forward to facing off again in the future!

Hobby

After the hobby nightmare that preceded the WHW Teams event, I’ve been going back to those Stormcast and finally getting them finished. Up first was a Lord-Terminos. I really like this guy, he’s pretty characterful. I actually enjoyed painting him so much that I went and bought the alternate multipart sculpt and built him up ready for paint. I’ll never need to run two, but ah well.

Lord-Terminos. Credit: Rich Nutter

After this I started on the Prosecutors, but got bored and needed a quick win, so finished off 5 Liberators that have been half done forever. It’s good to have these in the back pocket to slide into a list when needed. I’m quite pleased with the effort to outcome ratio, too - there’s hardly any highlighting on these.

Liberators. Credit: Rich Nutter

After that I did commit and go back to the Prosecutors. These are honestly quite sloppy, but they make up for it with spectacle, and they’re never going to be on the table for very long.

Prosecutors. Credit: Rich Nutter

For a break, I put an evening into Leena Stormspire, and old Store Anniverary Liberator model. She’s a fun sculpt - I think the face came out a bit severe, but Stormcast Eternals come in all shapes and sizes. I plan on grouping her together with other ltd edition Stormcast models to make a second unit of Questor Soulsworn.

Leena Stormspire. Credit: Rich Nutter

And finally, I got 3 Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers done. This takes my total up to 6, and it’s a unit I want to try out on the table. They don’t really have a delivery system, but if you can get them there then they’re one of the biggest damage threats in the army. Pleasingly these 3 are painted with a very different method to my original trio, but they look absolutely fine together.

Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers. Credit: Rich Nutter

Wrap up

Wow! What a lot of Stormcast. I’ll be honest, I’ve been relishing having some low effort, formulaic painting to do. I’m quite burnt out on the year, and it’s been a good way of continuing to engage with hobby without having to get very emotionally invested. I do feel like I’m forming a kind of attachment to Stormcast though, as I currently have an irrepressible urge to collect every single unit that has been released for them and turn my cabinet into a museum of Stormcast Eternals.

See you next time, when we'll see if I’ve been able to talk myself out of that…

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