Two Heads Are Better Than One - A Guide to Sturm & Drang

[ajay29]

OK so here’s my attempt on a write-up on the pigs newest warlock, Sturm and Drang (hereafter known as S&D). Feel free to tell me I'm wrong or throw in your own opinions.

Stats –
S&D share most of their stats, with a below average SPD, DEF and ARM but a good above average fury stat. Sturm falls down a bit in his own stats, with a rubbish STR, MAT and RAT, but an excellent CMD, while Drang flips this on its side with a good STR and MAT and poor CMD (RAT doesn’t matter for Drang). They share a good amount of health boxes and have a number of WB points slightly below our other 2 warlocks.

Weapons –
They have the same fists, but they’re better with Drang than Sturm. Sturm’s lower strength means he swings much weaker than Drang, but not hopelessly. Sturm also comes with a nifty magical spray, which takes the pressure off Bonegrinders to snipe incorporeal models. However his low Rat means he’ll need to boost to hit most of the time unless they’re Def 12, and he hates spending his Fury on attacks.
Drang punches as hard as Carver swings with Hand of God, and has the MAT to do it effectively. He also comes with a cool Critical Pitch, allowing for some throwing goodness.
One thing to keep in mind with these 2… Their melee weapons are NOT magical. Sucks, but oh well.

Abilities –
The main thing about S&D is “Struggle of Wills” which dictates that you must pick which pig is dominant at the start of the maintenance phase, meaning you have to plan ahead for which spells and abilities you want for the round. Don’t do what I did one time which is have a cunning Drang-related assassination run planned out which relied on TK being cast…

Sturm has no other abilities, but Drang is jam packed.
Drang cannot upkeep spells. Not an issue with his spell list, it just means that Vision and Watcher won’t be around when you switch.
Drang gives his beasts a passive +2 MAT through Pack Hunters. The only thing better than a Warhog, is a MAT 8 Warhog.
Drang has Goad too, meaning those MAT 8 Warhogs can do some pseudo-sidestepping when they kill something.


Spells –

Sturm –

Telekinesis - low cost spell with INFINITE POTENTIAL!! Ok, maybe not infinite, but it’s a universally hated spell when you don’t have it on your own caster’s card. I don’t think I need to go over all the uses, but giving Sturm a potential 17” threat on his magical spray can be nice.

Deflection – low cost spell which gives all warrior models +2 ARM against ranged and magic. Decent but not amazing. Helpful for dissuading a mass ranged/magic run against S&D (where 2 transfers won’t help much against a “thousand tiny cuts” tactic), and nice to make Brigands 16/16 when dug in.

Vision – epic win of a spell, especially when combined with Watcher (below). The first hit a model takes doesn’t get a damage roll. Simple. Easily countered (any random attack will remove Vision), but sometimes saves your bacon (literally). Watch out for certain things, it won’t save you from chain attacks for example, as that first attack still hit. Also won’t save you from “on hit” effects, it JUST negates the damage roll.

Watcher – Sturm should always have this up, unless he doesn’t have any beasts left… Whenever an enemy model ends its movement within 6” of Sturm, a warbeast in his battlegroup can make an advance and a fully boosted attack targeting that model. Lots of applications, but you need Sturm near the front lines to get good use out of it. Take note that the spell will end when a beast makes the ATTACK, so you can move beasts around as much as you like and the spell will stay up. Especially awesome when the following situation arises; focus laden jack of death charges your lead beast, but it walks away from the attacker due to Watcher AND ignores the free strike damage due to Vision! In most cases it’s still worth walking away even without Vision (taking a charge attack to the face is pretty much the same as taking a freestrike, but avoiding the attacks afterwards is advisable).


Drang –

Obliteration – expensive big AOE of death. Nothing fancy. Drang’s only way of hurting incorporeal on his own. He normally has loads of Fury to spare so you might cast this more than you think.

Killing Ground – two good points for this; all friendly faction models beginning in Drang’s control get pathfinder, and all his beasts can charge or make slams for free. VERY useful, very straightforward.


The Feat –
Psychic Apocalypse– All enemy warbeasts have their fury reduced to one. All Warjacks can only be allocated 1 focus max. No channelling.
Not a bad feat, but not a great feat overall. Significantly better against Hordes than WM.
It will save you from a massive ‘jack beatdown (very few jacks can kill a ‘Hog with only 1 focus), and casters lose the use of their arcnodes, so all the focus they’re saving from not giving it out will not be spent chucking spells at you from miles away.
Against Hordes, when a warbeast has it’s fury stat reduced, it loses all the excess fury. This means that the opposing warlock SHOULD be starved next turn. Also, consider this; Kaya has had a busy turn. She is on 2 Fury for transfers, and her 2 Stalkers are only on 2 fury each so she can transfer to them. S&D pop their feat and both stalkers go down to one fury. Kaya will be starved for 2 Fury next turn… If she lives that long! Both Stalkers are now technically FULL of fury, as their fury stat is 1 and therefore she cannot transfer to them! Also, if she survives to counter, those stalkers are only going to be able to force once, ensuring the safety of your stuff mostly. (NOTE – Kaya and stalkers used as an example, not specific!)


Army Options –

Warhog – Do you even need to ask? Our only available heavy is golden, and S&D makes it better. Watcher and Vision are good for them, and Pack Hunters and Goad make them monsters on the field.

Road Hog – I’ve proxied it a few times and they are pretty cool. With TK you can reach out and touch something 22” away from where it started, and they benefit from the other stuff as much as a Warhog (don’t forget, you can get a spray out of Watcher…). Drang likes Lightning Strike because he WANTS to beat something up, but he doesn’t want to be left out to dry afterwards.

Gunboar – I’m a bit biased, but I always take one. S&D don’t offer anything extraordinary apart from the extra range gleaned from TK (or turning round a target, netting the boar +2 RAT), but having a decent AOE and 2 open fists is always nice.

Targ – Unless you’re stuck by character restrictions, take him. There’s no reason not too, and S&D actually give him a measure of protection through Deflection and Vision if he needs it.

Brigands – Why not? I always bring them out. Deflection with Dig in puts them at an annoying 16/16 from range with blast immunity, with tough the majority of the time. Drang can even net them so they can always be tough (or Hog Wild, if you’re as mad as me using this every damn turn)

Bone Grinders – Yes. +2 range on Sturm’s TK’s with a hyper accurate magical shot? Cheap as chips? Sold.

Slaughterhousers – My new favourite unit, no reason not to take them. S&D again don’t offer them much bar +2 ARM from ranged (which pops them mostly safe from pow 10s), but they’re good anyway.

Rorsh and Brine – TK makes them even more fiddly, and they’re already solid by themselves. Take them if you’ve got the points to spare.


Pact vs Theme
By my own admission, I almost exclusively play Theme forces. I love them, so I may be a tad biased...

The Thornfall Alliance pact nets you unlimited brigands, advance deploy on ALL your units and access to Alten, Saxon, Victor and Gudrun. I'm a purist at heart, so the minion solos don't come out to play much... I won't deny their usefulness, but I can't really comment on them. AD units is pretty sweet, but I find that S&D play a bit unit light anyway. You want your Bonegrinders back with S&D anyway, and Slaughterhousers are generally second wave "finishers", so I don't rate the mass AD.

S&D's theme is pretty tasty for the most part.
Tier 1 (which is the same as all the others.... pure pig) gives you a variety of bonuses dependant on who you start as. Sturm gets all his upkeeps in play and doesn't pay to upkeep on turn one. This only gets Vision and Watcher out, but this still means you'll get 2 TK's on the first turn for the saved cost, plus a fury to camp. PLUS Vision can start further away (last night I had it on Rorsh, who was about 20" away from S&D, whereas he would not have otherwise had it...). Drang gets your beasts +2 SPD on the first turn, which is nice but generally overshadowed by Sturm's benefits and Drangs lack of use on turn 1 (however rocketting a Roadhog 18" up the field on turn one is kinda cool, if not a sure-fire way of getting it killed...).
Tier 2 is hit by taking Targ (barring character restrictions, thats a given), and gets you +1 to your starting roll. Nice.
Tier 3 is reached by taking a single unit of Slaughterhousers. Again, a given. This means all your Slaughterhousers get Advance Move, technically only leaving them an inch behind where they'd be IF they AD'd.
Tier 4 is the least appealing, and requires 2 Roadhogs but gets a point off them and subsequent Roadhogs. Cool, and free points are always nice, but I see myself taking 2 Warhogs and 1 Roadhog mostly.

As always, it's down to your own playstyle. Carver loves the Pact because Brigands are so good with him, but S&D gain very little from it in my opinion.

[pattison]

This is very good, thank you!
I have a feeling that I won't be able to postpone this purchase anymore...

[Rotfell]

What I'm missing here is a "Theme force vs Pact". But so far it seems to be pretty stable.

I personally use the feat to hinder some smashing (since in larger games it's pretty hard to get into contact without a lot of lost Brigands and Slaughterhousers), but that don't really function against eKaya and those who can charge (or making power attacks) without forcing.
The real use of this feat is very depending on the enemy warcaster/-lock, therefore I would add this. And most locks will cut themself to get some fury, for the 7-8 fury locks with large range it doesn't really matter, since nobody expect them, to live, when they're engaged (so some damage beforehand won't hurt).

[Nierak]

Road hogs with targ are going to be pretty dangerous on the feat turn. If you manage to drop their fury so all beasts maxed out those sprays are going to look tasty on the caster.

[Bob of Doom]

It should be pointed out when a good time to switch is. S&D is an interesting caster as he is actually 2 casters in 1. (This helps me maintain that the minions casters are just overall better at what they do then non-minion casters.) You Sturm when you are playing defensively or if you are going up the board. You Drang when you want things dead. Pulling out 5 P+S 18 and 1 P+S 17 at Mat 8 can kill almost anything without boosting. You should still have trouble hitting circle but then I have never not had trouble hitting circle.

[ajay29]

Thanks for the points, I did honestly mean to do theme force vs pact AND when to switch, but I wrote this in work in the brief moments people couldn't see my screen (sshhhh), so forgive my missing bits. I shall update on the morrow!

[Yertle4]

Isn't the feat called 'Psychic Apocalypse'? Because that's a way sweeter name.

APOCALYYYYYYYPPSSE!!!

[ajay29]

Isn't the feat called 'Psychic Apocalypse'? Because that's a way sweeter name.

APOCALYYYYYYYPPSSE!!!

Yeah it totally is.... I was tired, I'm sorry, I'm gonna punch myself in the face for my mistakes.... xD

[ForceFields!!!]

A suggestion to add into the Gun Boar area. His animus can let Sturm do a spray when triggered. With watcher on a road hog, and counter blast up on Sturm. If an enemy unit charges Sturm, they should be hit by to powerful sprays. I suggest doing the road hogs first, so you can clear out Sturms area and not have him locked in melee so the spray is an option.

I am waiting for the road hog model to come out to try this (I am not big on proxying). But it looks good to me in theorymachine.

[TheLoki]

Added to the index

[Azahul]

A suggestion to add into the Gun Boar area. His animus can let Sturm do a spray when triggered. With watcher on a road hog, and counter blast up on Sturm. If an enemy unit charges Sturm, they should be hit by to powerful sprays. I suggest doing the road hogs first, so you can clear out Sturms area and not have him locked in melee so the spray is an option.

I am waiting for the road hog model to come out to try this (I am not big on proxying). But it looks good to me in theorymachine.

Amazing idea

I also think you should do a little on the various solos we have at our disposal. Sturm and Drang are our only Warlocks that actually give some sort of support to the non-Farrow Minion solos we can hire. For example, Gudrun's biggest problem is that when knocked down he has no real way to get up and back into the fight again. With his Reach and Telekinesis, he still has an effective 6" threat when knocked one his back (although rather Fury intensive, so you're not likely to do this unless you have nothing else to really do). Better than that, with Deflection and Vision Gudrun becomes a truly hard nut to crack, meaning that hopefully he survives the shooting on the way in without being knocked on his back in the first place.

Oh, and Alten Ashley becomes Defence 20 Arm 16 when in cover with Deflection up, not to mention the same Vision trick, which is amusingly hard to kill (I play Cygnar a lot, and watching the Black Thirteenth waste three whole activations trying to kill one two point solo brought a warm glow into my heart). In fact, I find I get a bit more bang for my back when casting Vision on a solo than a Warbeast. The War Hogs are such an obvious threat most people will take the trouble to shoot them with some low POW shot before sending in their own heavies. Solos often get ignored, and when they do get noticed it's rarely a sizeable part of the enemy force targetting them, so Vision is actually wasting a good chunk of the resources dedicated to bringing that solo down. In the case of someone like Gudrun, it really increases his resilience. If you're using Rorsh and Brine, well, it's sorta a no-brainer on Rorsh in my opinion (not to mention that he's another chap that benefits hugely from Deflection)

[ajay29]

A suggestion to add into the Gun Boar area. His animus can let Sturm do a spray when triggered. With watcher on a road hog, and counter blast up on Sturm. If an enemy unit charges Sturm, they should be hit by to powerful sprays. I suggest doing the road hogs first, so you can clear out Sturms area and not have him locked in melee so the spray is an option.

True, but being the eternal pessimist look at it this way -
Lets say 4 Doom Reavers charge Sturm (not unlikely). They all get into combat, then you trigger watcher. Road hog plods up and sprays the Doomies. Firstly, chances are he will catch S&D with the spray unless your opponant was stupid or your placement of the Hog is stellar. Secondly, the Hog only gets boosted hit/damage against the one Doomie who you triggered it off, and at RAT 5 it will be lucky to hit the others, and still has a decent chance of setting S&D on fire too (sod's law, it's going to happen!). So lets be kind, the Hog burninates the Watcher target and one other, and doesn't catch S&D. S&D is now engaged, likely at reach range. I can't remember if he can make a counterblast ranged attack if he is engaged... I presume he can. He's STILL only RAT 5 and can't boost outside of his own activiation, and if you opponant has any sense you will only be catching one Doomie with that spray.
This gets worse if stuff like Kayazy reach you, as you will never hit them.
It's a nice tactic but generally it won't work unless you're getting swarmed by mechthralls .
I'd rather have Vision on S&D with some transfers.

[Azahul]

I'd rather have Vision on S&D with some transfers.

So long as I still have Warbeasts, I'd pretty much always prefer Watcher on Sturm and a bunch of Transfers, simply because Watcher enables so many fun tricks. With the example you gave of the Doom Reavers charging Sturm, you could've moved one War Hog about 12", or a Road Hog 15", before using the Road Hog to make the attack (which, come to think of it, would allow you to get that stellar placement you were talking about, although I can't disagree about the odds of it doing much).

[ajay29]

Added a section about pacts and themes, but couldn't fit in the bit about when to sturm or when to drang -_- so here it is in brief;

When to Sturm, when to Drang...
In my opinion, Sturm is early game, Drang is mid-late game, and the enemy caster dictates who you use for the assassination run.
With Deflection and Vision, Sturm protects the force moving foward, offers extra movement and shenanigans with TK and early melee assassination dissuading with Watcher.
When your battlegroup gets stuck in, it's time for Drang. The base +2 mat ensures all those attacks hit the mark, and Goad gives you options for erasing entire infantry lines with a single heavy, plus Killing Ground giving free charges eases the Fury burden for that big turn.
I generally find I want Drang for the assasination run BUT I also want TK too, and it's usually a hard call. If the enemy is too far away for Drang to get a beast there, use Sturm to either get it there with TK or consolidate your position and castle up with Vision, Watcher and transfers.
Otherwise, get your MAT 8 P+S 18 Warhog in there and wreck face like a BAWSE!!

[freelancerebel]

S&D is a fun caster to play with. Basically they gave Sturm really good defensive spells to get up the field relatively intact. Once you have charges or stuff you need to kill its time to Drang. With deflection, vision, watcher, counterblast, and transfers you should be well protected against most obvious assaults. With massacre and goad you're hog could move and extra 3+ inches on the charge. Have Drang cast massacre on the hog and then make sure you charge something you can kill, brigands .

[Lamoron]

A thing to note: watcher requires advance and end move, so when someone teleports a warpwolf to him, it won't work since that wolf sacrifices it's movement. Corner case, but it could happen

[Jake the Dog]

How would you rate S&D as a way to start Farrow? I find him interesting for he is almost two 'locks in one.
How is this Tier 3 25pt list?:

Sturm & Drang
-Warhog
-Warhog
-Gunboar
-Targ
Slaughterhousers

[ajay29]

How would you rate S&D as a way to start Farrow? I find him interesting for he is almost two 'locks in one.
How is this Tier 3 25pt list?:

Sturm & Drang
-Warhog
-Warhog
-Gunboar
-Targ
Slaughterhousers

Personally, I wouldn't. Go with Carver, and win a lot. Then do Arkadius, lose a lot, then win again due to learning how to really play. Then, and only then, when you have tasted both polar opposites of the Farrow Warlocks can you have the best of both worlds with S&D.
If you start with S&D you may never truely appreciate Arkadius as he's pretty much worse than them in every way (I'M NOT STARTING A FLAME WAR WITH ARKADIUS LOVERS, I LOVE HIM TOO).

Also, your list looks reasonable. Maybe dump the gunboar for min brigands, but try and get some Grinders in there. S&D really like them.

[watchgeorgerock]

I'm not understanding watcher. When i read it, it sounds like a guy comes 6 inches from Sturm then ONE warbeast gets to move and then attack if it chooses. When you guys describe it it sounds like every warbeasts gets to move and then if one attacks it ends.

[Jake the Dog]

Personally, I wouldn't. Go with Carver, and win a lot. Then do Arkadius, lose a lot, then win again due to learning how to really play. Then, and only then, when you have tasted both polar opposites of the Farrow Warlocks can you have the best of both worlds with S&D.
If you start with S&D you may never truely appreciate Arkadius as he's pretty much worse than them in every way (I'M NOT STARTING A FLAME WAR WITH ARKADIUS LOVERS, I LOVE HIM TOO).

Also, your list looks reasonable. Maybe dump the gunboar for min brigands, but try and get some Grinders in there. S&D really like them.

I love Arkadius...he screams "run a lot of beasts with me" which I love. If Farrow ever get Fury Management models, he is going to rock a lot (currently he only gets one turn of easy fury management from his Feat). Plus, he is Dr. Frankenstein in the IK, how cool is that?
S&D also have a "run me with a lot of beasts" flavor, but not as strong I think...
And yeah, I guess Carver might be better to start with. Same list, sans Slaughterhousers and Targ and adding two min. Brigands. But S&D just seem cool to shift play styles mid-game...

[Dan from Chicago]

I'm not understanding watcher. When i read it, it sounds like a guy comes 6 inches from Sturm then ONE warbeast gets to move and then attack if it chooses. When you guys describe it it sounds like every warbeasts gets to move and then if one attacks it ends.

If you choose not to attack, and you can choose not to attack, than watcher doesn't expire. If watcher hasn't expired the next time something moves within 6" of Sturm, it triggers again. Thus you can't move every model off of one trigger, but you can get more than one trigger, and move as many models as you have triggers of watcher.

[Azahul]

I'm not understanding watcher. When i read it, it sounds like a guy comes 6 inches from Sturm then ONE warbeast gets to move and then attack if it chooses. When you guys describe it it sounds like every warbeasts gets to move and then if one attacks it ends.

The trick is to get it to be triggered multiple times If your opponent's about to charge a ton of infantry into your own infantry, and S&D are just behind them, your War Hogs can expect to rocket across the board

Anyway, I actually see Arkadius as the powerhouse Warlock of the faction. He's the only one with buff spells (and debuff spells) that actually improve the damage output of the War Hogs. I played S&D first, then Arkadius, and while S&D are my favourite Farrow Warlock when I want an easy win I pull out Arkadius. Frankly, I think Arkadius spoils Farrow players. He makes War Hogs able to bulldoze through a closed Devastator and laugh.

[Jake the Dog]

How is just getting Tier 1 or 2 versus if you are already running Pig?
Aka is loosing Advance Deploy on your units with the free spells (or extra speedon beasts) and +1 to start (if you go to tier two)?
I was thinking of running Brigands over Slaughterhousers, so no Tier 3. Like:
Sturm & Drang
-Warhog
-Warhog
-Gunboar
Full Brigands
24/25

[Azahul]

Thus far, I almost always run S&D with Thornfall, and I actually use a good number of Slaughterhousers, and I expect the only times I'll use the theme list is when running two Road Hogs (and I suspect I'll only be running a single Road Hog most games). It's not like Sturm has a lot of trouble getting his spells up and running, which means the real question is if +2 Speed and +1 to starting roll is really worth sacrificing the first turn for setting up Sturm's upkeeps/Deflection and Advance Deploy. Even if you have Slaughterhousers, Advance Deploy is almost invariably better than Advance move (1" further forwards on the field, ignores difficult terrain, lets you set up after your opponent).

[PG_Dmark]

Great writeup. One thing, though. Thornfall Alliance Pact only gives +1 to FA of all Farrow units, not unlimited. That's FA: 3 on all Farrow Units. Carver's Theme Force is the one granting FA: U on Brigands.

[GRYM]

Keep in mind that with both Watcher and Counter Blast, an opponent must advance and end a models movement within X" based on the individual Spell or Animus. An opponent is allowed to move a whole units models before either effect can trigger as you move the whole unit. This has come up in a few instances in my games before I played S&D when running Gun Boars.

Also note that both Watcher and Counter Blast allow either a Melee or Ranged attack with the attack from Watcher being boosted attack and damage rolls, a very nice thing when you have a Road Hog flame template available.

Watcher is cast on S&D(self) and the Gun Boars Animus can only be placed on a Gun Boar(self) or as a Spell & Animus on S&D or Lord Carver or Dr. Arkadius as it is SELF.

Next, that a smart opponent will END their models movement outside the front arc of a Gun Boar or even possibly S&D that have Counter Blast on them so its best to stagger your models that have the Animus on them to give the best chance of it taking effect.

With Telekinesis if you need to move an enemy model that is in melee with one of your own models do one of the following;

A-- move S&D into melee with the enemy model and thus remove the shooting/casting into melee penalty.
B-- If you cast TK on your own model in melee with said potential enemy target you can auto hit your own model with TK remove them from the melee range of the enemy model and then use TK again to target the enemy model now hopefully no longer in melee with your own models. This is an expensive route but is sometimes the best method for success when critical results are required.