Storm Eagle discussion

[The Marshel]

you people all confuse me so much tbh. Just because the eagle has a 20 man capacity doesn't mean you have to use it. If you're worried about 'all your eggs in one basket", stop putting 10 man terminator squads in.

I see the eagle as a land raider substitute, trading durability for mobility. different slots have an effect on the matter and the fact that you can take a dedicated transport land raider for termies is also a key factor though.

Seriously though, if you want to get "the most" out of a storm eagle you dont really have to put 20 men in there. IMHO thats a bit of a dumb move. Treat it as a flying land raider

[Kevlar]

Yes the forgeworld rules are soo ridiculous....

They price things in line with current rules, and the stuff all does what it should.... That's like so ridiculously over powered man.

A 20 man flying assault transport is not "in line" with current 40k rules. While something like that may be okay in Epic, it is highly divergent from standard 40k.

[Nurgling Chieftain]

Tell that to the Stormraven. It's a flying transport with the equivalent of 20 slots (given the precedent that a dreadnought takes 10).

[Kelanen]

Indeed, although being able to carry two units rather than one, 5 Terms and a Dreadnought at that, and at a better price point means that as usual (and as per FW's operating terms from GW) the FW variant is definitely less powerful.

Sorry Kevlar but if you think FW is overpowered you need your head read. For ever overpowered item you can find in FW (difficult) I'll show you a dozen in regular codexes. As to borderline broken stuff, I can think of one in FW, again as opposed to 6-10 in regular codexes.

Now I can see FW might seem overpowered (but only slightly) if you are using old 4th codexes in your amies. Rightly or wrongly, the game has moved on since then though, and those are all seriously underpowered. FW don't produce stuff on the power level of GK, BA, SW etc, nor even stuff like the Vendetta...

[lantzkev]

exactly, it's taking existing ideas and just changing them up a little, the points and rules are all virtually existing already.

[sgtspiff]

So I've been thinking alot about the Stormeagle and CSM.

I'm just about to start a Slaaneshi CSM and the ship has really grown on me.

My though's about how to get 20 CSM into the ship without having a pretty fragile points sink.

20 zerkers are nice but crazy expensive and mostly just one purpose (killing infantry). Not to mention I don't like em at all.

As Noise Marines are overcosted I'm looking at normal CSM squad with IoS and two meltas.
Havocs would be great with alot of staying power in CC and 4 meltas. But then you've no troops and the cost starts to get steep.

Then from nowhere I thought of Fabius Bile (an emperor children character which fit my Fluff perfectly).

How would 19 Enhanced Marines and Fabius do if transported in a Storm Eagle (give them IoS and 2 meltas and PW champion)?

Would be lovely with a pair of Hell Blades as escort.

[Kelanen]

As Fluffy option fine, as a competitive one terribly. If you are doing that stick to 10 normal CSM, have them enhanced in your mind and/or paintjob and leave Fabius back at base. 19 Enhanced MArines + Bile + StormEagle puts you squarely in non-competitive territory, even at 3k+

[Enigma6]

What about weapon options. Naturally this will be slightly different depending on the army, particularly CSM, but what are the thoughts?

The natural pull for me is to go multi-melta, no wing weapons, maybe extra armour to keep things fairly cheap, but i want to know i've considered the options properly.

Lascannons are expensive and make it tempting to fly slowly, which is probably bad, but do make for a fairly scary shooting phase, especially paired with TML (again more pts).

[Master Commander Ajax]

I'm thinking of buying a Storm Eagle for a Space Wolves army. Any thoughts on what a good (or the best) load-out could be?

P.S. Ill be using it to transport Ragnar and a squad of TA wolf Guard.

[Caitsidhe]

I plan on converting/building one. They provide CSM with some real punch. Zoom in on turn two lighting up key targets. Drop into hover on Turn-3 in their backfield and assault tactical targets. It really depends on how reliable AA becomes.

[Kelanen]

CSM certainly have a real need and use for one now. I rate it above a Land Raider for an army that needs either.

[Mandragola]

I'm getting one mostly to use as a fighter plane, not a transport. That's in a legion list, where I get it as a FA slot and there's no other AA available.

I don't really like flyers as transports. On top of all the other dangers of putting lots of points in one place, you have a major risk of it not showing up in time for the guys inside to affect the game. The very soonest they are going to assault is turn 3. It could be turn 5 before they get out.

So to assault stuff, get a land raider, or get a jump pack, a bike or a horde. Or maybe just get a gun.

[Caitsidhe]

I'm getting one mostly to use as a fighter plane, not a transport. That's in a legion list, where I get it as a FA slot and there's no other AA available.

I don't really like flyers as transports. On top of all the other dangers of putting lots of points in one place, you have a major risk of it not showing up in time for the guys inside to affect the game. The very soonest they are going to assault is turn 3. It could be turn 5 before they get out.

So to assault stuff, get a land raider, or get a jump pack, a bike or a horde. Or maybe just get a gun.

Land Raider is a non-starter for me. They die too easily and can only place the units in certain positions going head first through what my opponent has put in my way. I prefer to fight on my own terms. I'm willing to wait for Turn-3 (half the time you will be anyway) to assault from a direction and against a unit that I choose first. The Storm Eagle provides the ONLY 20 units transport I can get, provides anti-flyer weaponry when it comes in, is an assault vehicle, and is fairly durable even when in hover. Risks are involved in using flying transports but I don't consider that any greater than having my LR cracked mid-board and my units (10 man at most) shot to death by every shooting unit on the board. The zoom distance of the flyer will get my troops at least as far as I would have otherwise when it crashes and the survivors will STILL get to assault the next turn out of the wreckage because it is an assault vehicle.

[Vlad Urkana]

Well you could get the rolling fortress that is the Spartan. 14 all round, 5 HP, can hold 25 dudes, assault vehicle, armoured ceramite, and to top all that off it has 4 TL Lascannons.

[Disciple of Caliban]

^^ I'm considering one of each, throw in 2 big tactical squads, a pair of apothocaries and you would leave just enough room for a HQ and a primarch with retinue at 2k. one army, 3 units, minimal need to paint models white

[Mandragola]

Land Raider is a non-starter for me. They die too easily and can only place the units in certain positions going head first through what my opponent has put in my way. I prefer to fight on my own terms. I'm willing to wait for Turn-3 (half the time you will be anyway) to assault from a direction and against a unit that I choose first. The Storm Eagle provides the ONLY 20 units transport I can get, provides anti-flyer weaponry when it comes in, is an assault vehicle, and is fairly durable even when in hover. Risks are involved in using flying transports but I don't consider that any greater than having my LR cracked mid-board and my units (10 man at most) shot to death by every shooting unit on the board. The zoom distance of the flyer will get my troops at least as far as I would have otherwise when it crashes and the survivors will STILL get to assault the next turn out of the wreckage because it is an assault vehicle.

Fair enough. If you really want to send 20 guys, the Storm Eagle is the only option. I'd just be concerned that it's such a large proportion of your army not doing anything for such a long time. I don't really see much value in sending 20 guys in normal games of 40k anyway. Too often you will just hit one unit, which inevitably cannot be worth as much as your plane and squad. You will wipe out that squad and then get to enjoy being in rapid fire range of the rest of the enemy army, while the SE gets shot at and charged by anyone who feels like it.

Plus it's not as if the thing's invincible. People have vendettas. I've knocked out a storm raven with a quad gun as it came onto the board. If it dies while zooming with people inside then they don't get to assault the next turn. Well, 3 of them do, on average, after all taking a S10 hit with no armour saves. Crashing in a flyer is not the same as being in a land raider when it explodes.

I'm not saying it will never work, just that it isn't my preference to base my entire game on one model.

Spartans are something else entirely, in the legion list anyway. You can buy it a flare shield to drop the strength of anything that hits it from the front, and ceramite armour to stop melta weapons. Then it becomes truly difficult to slow down and a near-guaranteed way of delivering a unit where you want it.

[Wolf Lord Balrog]

I'm thinking of buying a Storm Eagle for a Space Wolves army. Any thoughts on what a good (or the best) load-out could be?

P.S. Ill be using it to transport Ragnar and a squad of TA wolf Guard.

The loadout I'd use [if I could afford the $166US for a single model], would be stock + wing TL Lascannon and Extra Armor. That makes it 300pts total, but to my mind you just aren't getting the full potential out of the Storm Eagle without the lascannon.

Useful rule of thumb for any points-expensive single model: Never let them take up more than 30% of your points in a particular army list. With the 300pt loadout, for me that means 1 Stormeagle per full 1,000pts of army.

[Fizzy]

I use a Storm Eagle in my Legion army list for my World eaters. It will work as a tank hunter and a unit killer.

As extra AA I got 5 missile with Flakk.

It will not work well as a transport with normal units as it must hover while setting them down. In hover mode it will be utterly destoyed.

But my Storm eagle is only equipped with the 2 extra Twin-linked lascannons. So about 250pts in total.

P.S: The army list is 2500pts

[Kevlar]

I'm getting one mostly to use as a fighter plane, not a transport. That's in a legion list, where I get it as a FA slot and there's no other AA available.

I don't really like flyers as transports. On top of all the other dangers of putting lots of points in one place, you have a major risk of it not showing up in time for the guys inside to affect the game. The very soonest they are going to assault is turn 3. It could be turn 5 before they get out.

So to assault stuff, get a land raider, or get a jump pack, a bike or a horde. Or maybe just get a gun.

The difference between the turn 3 storm eagle assault and a turn 3 rhino or footslogging assault is that your storm eagle troops will be unmolested.

[Mandragola]

There's a 2nd difference. You get at least twice as many guys if you send them in rhinos. Bad stuff might happen to them, but bad stuff might happen to the SE as well. Plus, they are actually there already on the board, so if the other guy goes first and zergs forward himself, they can get out and do something about it.

Anyway rhinos aren't for assaulting stuff. Foot sloggers are able to get into assault sooner, just by running. For some units like berzerkers, I don't actually think there's any viable way of getting them into combat, unfortunately.

I think a unit has to be pretty amazingly good before it's worth spending 300 points to carry it around, and that 300 points has to guarantee that the unit will arrive where and when it is required. Otherwise why are you spending 1/3 of your points (roughly, obviously) on a single unit and its transport?