Unit Focus: How to use Storm Guardians in Warhammer 40k

[@yugiMOWS]

One of my storm guardians has a special rule with my mate I play with every week where he gets a 4+ fnp on combat with models with 5+ wounds because he once survived 2 full battle rounds against a swarmlord on his own with only the 5 plus save from the serpent shield

[@WBConcilio]

@@yugiMOWS I love that kind of crazy personal meta fluff

[@snowbjorne]

Whats his name?

[@Messner7]

I am eating all your content. As someone who is just learning and building this first 1k army, I am so lost at all the possible options. I hope you have a vid that talks about it directly. Love your stuff.

[@WBConcilio]

@@Messner7 next video is about 1k armies :)

[@jgt1120]

​@@WBConcilio great! I have a combat patrol and half the Eldritch omens and figuring out how to get to 1k. Gonna invest in a spiritseer too probably

[@deltaP1G]

I’m so glad you are uploading frequently again!

[@WBConcilio]

Me too. Life's just been really nuts

[@RockmanXV]

I put Yvraine and the Visarch in a squad (mainly because I don't have Harlequin, yet) and they do surprisingly well. They defended an objective for 3 turns in my last game. So proud of them.

[@smoothgarak9537]

Love your blue scheme with the dark under and lighter plates on troops mate

[@WBConcilio]

@@smoothgarak9537 thank you!

[@smoothgarak9537]

@@WBConcilio Any time. I stan Iybraesil appreciatorrs when i see them haha

[@Logolth]

So many videos this month! Thank you Brent!

[@danielpedersensevaride5928]

As an Ulthwe player, man I have been waiting for this video, I finally finished painting up my first unit of defenders and now I'm hyped to get my storm guardians on the table.

[@WBConcilio]

@@danielpedersensevaride5928 woot!

[@chrisattwood5930]

Great video! Love the storm guardian models too. I used only the female sclupts and painted them the same as my banshees and wraith blades (with swords). They look great great together

[@everettcolby8976]

13:38 I’m also running the foot autarch with a dragon fusion gun with fate’s messenger, so I can reliably push through another shot! Works pretty well! :)

[@everettcolby8976]

I run this in 1000 points. I run defenders in 2000 because I need date dice

[@davidfeline5850]

I'm painting my squad whilst watching this video, perfect synergy. 🙂

[@christophermcarthur6943]

Haven’t thought much of storm guardians but this has me reconsidering, they can add more value than I realised. Maybe I finally paint them up. Great video as always Brent

[@abraxas365]

I fell in love with Stormies in 2nd Edition. I took the 80 point Avatar and two squads of 15x Stormies, which marched up the center of the map, tarpitting everything along the way. Then my Hawks/Spiders, vehicles, and bikes all hugged the sides of the map until they were needed. I know big Eldar infantry squads aren't very fluffy, but that was one of my most successful and competitive lists I ever made at the time. I've been adding a Stormie squad to all my Eldar armies since then, as a kind of homage 😅

[@WBConcilio]

@@abraxas365 was the second Dead Avatar really only 80 points?!? That's so hard for me to imagine

[@abraxas365]

@WBConcilio oh yeah... with 6 toughness and 4 whole wounds! 😏

[@Gojira1744]

Keep these videos up! They are genuinely helpful. I've learned so much, and they've had a tangible impact on my gameplay.

[@ThKiller458]

last year while running my craftworld I had run a storm squad with a farseer, great protection, weirdly durable, and the sticky objectives are a great tool! Excited to pick up the battleforce when it comes out.

[@beowylfen]

Thank you for this video, I built my combat patrol guardians as Storm Guardians cause they look cool and I’ve been struggling to figure out how they are meant to work

[@WBConcilio]

@@beowylfen Yeah they really aren't intuitive at all, but I agree; I think they look way cooler than the guardian defender build

[@edarthur85]

Great video! Would love to have an Ulthwe video about defenders etc.

[@WBConcilio]

If you are on the Discord, DM me for a roster. I am currently deciding whether to put our the Ulthwe video before the codex drops and presumably changes things big time- but I might

[@AvsYoutube]

im currently running storm guardians and guardian defenders in my list to great success! i use the Guardian defenders as point guards and fate dice generation until round 3 where i start moving the up the field after i have thinned out my opponents army. My storm guardians are more of a torpedo unit with my autarch, they usually always down a big vehicle and score secret missions for me. With them being battleline aswell it makes scoring secret missions very easy since you have 2 options now if you can wipe opponents battleline from the field! I'd be down to dicuss some lists if you are cool with it :)

[@asgerlakkenborg2435]

Ulthwe player here. I run far more guardians than is reasonable. I usually run a single unit of storm guardians as, essentially, a torpedo / slightly inefficient trading unit. Once they've stickied my home objective, they wait out of Line of Sight until a hard target comes along, run up to it and do as much damage as possible before inevitably dying. Usually, like you said, it takes at least a few of my opponents volleys to kill them, and if they pass leadership tests they can keep throwing grenades until they die. Very fun annoyance unit that saves me from worrying about my backpoint. I find that they work poorly with foot autarchs. To get value out of them, you need to put them in danger, and you generally don't want your CP generator to be in danger. Moving a storm guardian + Foot autarch squad tactically, therefore, is very difficult. Defenders with a brightlance and a foot autarch with, say, a reaper launcher is a lot safer, for sure.

[@zinmoney96]

We are being spoiled by these frequent uploads

[@Soulblast2]

These fellas are my eldrad doom carriers, go get em space wizard

[@WBConcilio]

@@Soulblast2 woot! Definitely the best escort for the big E.

[@AquaticIvy9622]

I hope when the codex comes out they will at least up the basic guardian combat weapon to strength 4 an sustaiend hits, so it is at least equvialent strength and a choice between good at cutting through armour or getting extra hits for dealing with swarms

[@Mrholysymbol]

As a new player buying and building an eldar list currently im glad to know i stumbled across a semblance of a good combination with the footarch post change and storm guardians, gives me a bit more confidence in the list i put together pre looking at info like this. Though I am debating if having them and also eldrad+guardians is worth it for the extra fate dice now 😂

[@WBConcilio]

@@Mrholysymbol as long as you are using Eldrad's ability to reroll wounds, it is.

[@Mrholysymbol]

@WBConcilio Glad to hear that, the rest I'm fairly confident in though I am torn on wave serpent versus falcon fire dragons still but the list is fairly infantry heavy with squads of 10 and having at least one but probably 2 wave serpents is the way I'll go unless I tweak it some more

[@matthewantonello5029]

I know its 45pts. but the -2" change Range combined with phantasm is actually good. if you Roll a 4 and an enemy combat unit was 1.1" from you, now they have a 40% chance to fail that charge. if a unit deep strikes on you thier charge Roll goes from 33% to 10% with phantasm it becomes a 3% or 0%.

[@matthewantonello5029]

a common Scenario is a unit of assault intercessors or a scout unit or some other trading piece unit with a speed boost will shoot from one bit of terrain to charge you off an objective with a 5" or 7" charge distance. you may get to over watch them and then add 4" - 5" to that distance and they fail. you come out, kill the Rest of them and Retain the objective.

[@7Falcon8Wings7]

Hello Brent! (Hope that’s the correct spelling) Awesome video, got some good ideas I’ll be using. I wanted to point out that you can put the flamers, the fusion guns, and the power swords all on the same unit. The data sheet doesn’t make you choose one over the other and the app also allows this format. Let me know what you think!

[@WBConcilio]

I don't think that the video said otherwise

[@Barballs]

@@WBConcilio Is it worth actually running all 4 guns given how weak the melee weapons are?

[@WBConcilio]

@@Barballs I don't quite understand. There is no reason not to take two shoulder mounted weapons, two wrist mounted weapons, and the glaive for melee- and the glaive is the strongest of the lot

[@Barballs]

@@WBConcilio I was referring to the Storm Guardians. Meaning out of the 10 man squad you would have two guardians with fusion guns and two with flamers. Is there any benefit to having 4 gunners instead of 2 for the squad given there's no points penalty in 10th?

[@WBConcilio]

​@@Barballs Ohhhhh! So sorry! Yeah, you definitely want all four

[@nimfadoro1169]

Love the content!

[@ProxyHammer1]

My favorite unit 😊😎

[@toysforthetoygod2671]

we know 🫵😂🤣

[@LateNightSpooks-sb6pj]

How things change. Right? On my side they were the first unit I fully painted.

[@ProxyHammer1]

@@LateNightSpooks-sb6pj True! They were so horrible in 9th 😕

[@Eldinarcus]

Perfect timing on this video for me. I recently bought a combat patrol and am unsure on if I should make guardian defenders or storm guardians. Would I be allowed to make 5 of each or is it a bad idea? I just really love the plumed helmets of the storm guardians but the long range rifles of the guardian defenders

[@ProxyHammer1]

You can always use the heads of Storm guardians for your defenders! Or you can magnetize which is another option

[@Eldinarcus]

@@ProxyHammer1 I considered that! haha, I wasn't sure if it would be frowned upon or not to use the plumed helmets on the defenders. Do you think it's better to give all of them one type of weapon though? Like is it a bad idea to make 5 storm guardians and 5 guardian defenders instead of just 10 of one or the other(since the combat patrol only comes with 10 guardians)? I really don't know anything about the rules yet, so treat me like a noob(because I am) haha

[@ProxyHammer1]

@@Eldinarcus For the unit to be legal you definitely need to build them all as one or the other but the heads don’t really matter This is how you should build them as…either -10 Storm Guardians with 2 flamers, 2 power swords, 2 fusion guns, 4 close combat weapons and pistols , and the serpent scale platform. (Power swords have triggers on them) -10 Guardian Defenders with all shuriken catapults and a Brightlance platform

[@Eldinarcus]

@@ProxyHammer1 wow thanks so much for the advice! All those weapons will be on my sprues I assume? Also, about the legality, what makes it against the rules to run 5 of each? Is it because a squad needs 10 guardians in it? If I for example bought an extra 10 guardians and made them the other one, could I run 10 storm guardians and 10 guardian defenders in one army, points allowed?

[@ProxyHammer1]

@@Eldinarcus Yes all the weapons will be on the sprues just be careful clipping them out and follow the instructions because the pieces don’t all fit together unless you know which pieces are which It’s illegal to run 5 and 5 because the min squad size is 10 so you are correct! You could definitely buy another unit and have 10 defenders and 10 Stormies though in the sand list I run several lists using both!

[@SCRunnie]

I’ve been experimenting with the foot autarch and a warlock attached to my guardian defenders. The warlock has the nice benefit of keeping any melee threats away with the -2 to be charged ability. So melee deep striking units are almost no threat, and it’s really difficult for any footslogging melee threats to get to them. I usually just keep them hidden most of the game, but in turn 5, I’ll jump them out 13” with the warlock ability, then fire and fade them for 1 CP, stretching them out across 2 midfield objectives. With proper positioning, you can stretch them out across 29”, which can be huge for late-game objective control.

[@Daelnoron]

Do you think the Warlock might find a home in a Storm Guardian Unit lead by an Autarch?

[@WBConcilio]

@@Daelnoron I think it's a little bit of a stretch in a competitive build, but not so much that you couldn't do it if you wanted to. In addition to the ability, the Warlock has a little bit of melee and shooting. That's not terrible

[@SanDan3rdDan]

I use both Defender and Storm squads because I have style, that and next to the rest of my army they will be underestimated.

[@ProxyHammer1]

You do have style!

[@Gergbnaks]

"their elf-self" from now on I'm "my elf-self"

[@LordNerfherder]

Better than my wraithknights being on stuck on the elf-shelf

[@WretchInCrown]

U can no longer throw grenades after advance. They changed it in pariah nexus update, so it its not so powerfull on storm guardians now.

[@WBConcilio]

@@WretchInCrown whoops. Thanks for the correction

[@Julio.C-b5b]

Love me some guardians, both of them! It's worth noting that as of pariah nexus you can't advance and grenade anymore.

[@Dementia55372]

Whose Autarch is on display at 8:43 ? I just started painting an aeldari army in almost this exact scheme!

[@WBConcilio]

@@Dementia55372 Fernando Cantu- his name pops up on the bottom of the screen if you look again- he is on Instagram; great painter

[@ElGordoBandito]

So dumb question. If the Autarch leading this squad has fights first, does she lose that ability? Does she fight first and the rest of the unit fight normal? This is probably too much thought for a 100 point unit, as you said 😂

[@ProxyHammer1]

Nope it confers fights first to the whole unit 😉

[@n3onblue500]

New player here. I already assembled and painted these guys so I guess I'm just going to have to figure it out.

[@jessepunch8945]

I loved the video as always, but you did say quite a few times you can advance and throw grenades which you cannot

[@WBConcilio]

@@jessepunch8945 yep. Lots of other people pointed out that this changed in Pariah Nexus. All of you are correct of course

[@lordilluminati5836]

I've been running a storm guardians with foot arch and warlock in my PN crusade group. They absolutely decimate guardsmen and they put some good hurt into armour too. My autarch has a banshee mask, dragon gun and a relic banshee blade with 2 damage and the warlock has a witch blade

[@syvus1307]

you think the quins will get any major changes in the upcoming codex?

[@2dola]

Have a warlock with them, give them quicken so you never have to waste you free strat on a free 6'.

[@ProxyHammer1]

Dola you madman! Love that idea going to try it out soon!

[@2dola]

@@ProxyHammer1 let me know how you go with it to

[@muriomoira]

Could you plz make a video Bout wraithlords? I love them and I'd love even more to have an excuse to use them lol

[@CatroiOz]

12:15 pretty sure you can't advance and grenade anymore since the summer balance update

[@WBConcilio]

@@CatroiOz true. There are now four comments to this effect; all of you are correct..

[@dtluna1312]

Greetings, Asuryani kin!

[@WBConcilio]

@@dtluna1312 greetings outlander

[@MilliardoZetsuai]

You also don't need to choose between flamers and fusion guns - you can have 2x of each per squad

[@WBConcilio]

@@MilliardoZetsuai I did say in the video that you could

[@MilliardoZetsuai]

@@WBConcilio Oh fair, I missed that - a lot of people seem to miss that since they changed it with the new kit. Great video!

[@WBConcilio]

@@MilliardoZetsuai I totally missed it for months and months. In fact, the first time I recorded audio for this, I still still thought you had to choose

[@enistogni3041]

It thought the day this video would come on would have been 26 seconds long. After the intro, the MagnetBaron ads and the logo Brent just says “Don’t”. End of video.

[@WBConcilio]

@@enistogni3041 hahahaha hahaha hahahaha

[@eldenwarden9673]

I remember when dark reapers could fire and fade into a Waveserpent..those were the days.

[@AlamoMelt]

I am also aesthetically offended by the "display combat weapon" the Storm Guardians carry. I'm looking forward to trying out detaching the Farseer from the Guardian Defenders and adding the Foot Autarch to the unit, then being a little more aggressive with it (rather than camping the home objective).

[@danjones3012]

Last game I played aeldari vs necrons. I have Yvraine leading my storm guardians and they were engaged with a hexmark destroyer. The whole squad, yvraine included wounded it on 5+ so it survived 2 fight phases (mine then his) until my next turn where I had to fall back shoot it dead with the dragon fusion guns. So very weak in melee its ridiculous haha

[@chadverrall9516]

So, I feel like you did a bit of a disservice not mentioning attaching a Warlock to Storm Guardians. 45 points more, adds 2 more wounds, another flamer (Destructor), but more importantly gives them quicken (Auto 6” when running but not costing you a stat/command point!

[@jakegunning61]

Thinking about doing this how well does it work I don't have fire dragons so been thinking of using them

[@timlowesmusic]

I must say, the usage of the wayleaper is not quite right when described. You want the wayleaper to hold a central objective, ready to phantasm back. Then have a unit like yvraine blob or wraithguard come out to kill what threatened the objective. Wayleaper is used for primary, but in the mid.

[@WBConcilio]

@@timlowesmusic I mean have used- and seen it used successfully in a lot of very successful tournament play- as I described. I have also used Phantasm on it in the midfield- it sort of depends on what you're playing into, and the d6 on Phantasm is simply not super reliable into a fast opponent. Opponent. Everything's a flowchart right? Way that I described is exactly how the atork will function in every game with absolutely no deviation, but it is a good default strategy to start with

[@WBConcilio]

Also, I wasn't suggesting that he doesn't play the midfield, only that he usually does it in the late game

[@timlowesmusic]

@@WBConcilio I’m not saying your strategy is wrong, but I believe, and I have seen him used like this on top tables, that to get the most out of the points is to use him aggressively in the mid pretty much from the go in many cases, phoenix gem definitely is a fallback in case phantasm is needed elsewhere or lack of cp, but I think many would agree that often aeldari scores primary best by using lone ops

[@timlowesmusic]

@@WBConcilio I’m not saying your strategy is wrong, but I believe, and I have seen him used like this on top tables, that to get the most out of the points is to use him aggressively in the mid pretty much from the go in many cases, phoenix gem definitely is a fallback in case phantasm is needed elsewhere or lack of cp, but I think many would agree that often aeldari scores primary best by using lone ops

[@WBConcilio]

@@timlowesmusic Yeah I totally agree with you.

[@malekith13]

It's sad to see these guys at 100 points when in ork they have boyz at 80 with the same special rule but way better stats, sure without the special guns but still... I also guess they got their sword at the same shop as the scorpions... where the damn AP-1 ? lol I really hope the codex will fix a lot of the index issues like some weird stats ( no AP-1 on chainsword ? ) or weird costing ( 14 points one dire avenger... for 16 you can get a flashgitz... or 34 points a wraithblade... as much as a terminator ? and nearly as much as these godly deathshroud terminators... or only one point less than meganobs... ) or at least help us with nice detachment allowing us to use different type of units more efficiently, the current rule being mostly good for squad with few powerfull shots while most aspect warrior have the same profil in their squads...

[@WBConcilio]

@@malekith13 I think they just did not want to give the Storm Guardians better AP than Striking Scorpions

[@crangon78]

Path of the Horse Dentist

[@WBConcilio]

@@crangon78 hahahaha

[@beefyscout8857]

I use storm guardians with a footlock ahead of my Avatar to screen him from charges.

[@danielmartinezmartinez441]

I wonder why an autarch takes civillians as bodyguards. He/she should be taking aspects

[@WBConcilio]

@@danielmartinezmartinez441 yeah, it's a solidly good point

[@MichaelHusman-b2l]

Auto include for me lead by autarch on foot

[@kinsmanifesto1]

You can’t shoot and throw a grenade

[@WBConcilio]

Yes, you can. The grenade strat says, "before you shoot"- ohhh, I see- you mean order of operations; yes, of course you are right

[@kinsmanifesto1]

@ I’m Just happy you replied, I’ve been bouncing back and forth to your video and the rule book. Thanks for the clarification 🙏

[@WBConcilio]

@@kinsmanifesto1 yeah, sorry- I certainly didn't mean to imply you could throw grenades AFTER shooting- I sometimes get sloppy when explaining things off the cuff

[@theresawalsh3825]

Path of the youtube watcher checking in

[@LordChaos2010]

Autarch + Warlock so u dont have to ever waste a strategm on advance 6