Age of Sigmar: Stormcast And Orruks Get A Big Boost In The Meta Rankings
In an absolute shock to no one that’s been paying attention, Stormcast Eternals and Orruk Warclans got a bump in the meta. I wonder why…
Codex Creep. Or Power Creep. You’ve heard the terms thrown around before. It’s when an army gets a new codex and suddenly they become the top dog for a couple weeks. Generally, we see a spike in their usage and, if they are truly better, they tend to stick around the top rankings for a while. While we see this trend more obviously in 40k (because they get way more codexes more frequently), we can see the same trend in Age of Sigmar, too. And now we’ve got the numbers provided by GW to back that up.
“The release of the new battletome and the addition of Kruleboyz has seen Orruk Warclans now become the most popular faction in the game, edging Sons of Behemat out of the top spot. Orruk Warclans have nearly doubled in success rates – jumping from 3.27% of armies winning four or more times, to 6.05%. The Stormcast Eternals have seen a similar Battletome bounce, going from 1.22% to 4.19%.”
Shocked. I’m just so shocked.
Okay, not really. If you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably noticed the increase in both Stormcast and (more noticeably) Orruk Warclans. And it’s not rocket science to figure out why:
These two armies got new Battletomes. They are the first two armies to get books for the new edition. They also got a boatload of new models each. Heck, they still haven’t gotten all their models from their respective books yet! That means more are on the way. They are also relatively easy to collect right now thanks to the Dominion boxed sets.
The funny part is, I don’t think the Kruleboyz are driving the Orruk Warclan’s rise as much as the rest of the book. It’s not that they are bad (they aren’t!) — it’s just that Ironjawz are REALLY good right now.
I blame the killer cabbage that is the Maw Krusha.
There were already a fair number of Orruk players that had existing armies, too. The new battletome (unsurprisingly) made Ironjawz even better than before. It’s a combination of Codex Creep and armies that were ready to go. The Stormcasts Eternals are also reaping the benefits, too. Again, that’s an army that’s been around with a LARGE existing range. They are also gaining a lot of traction from all the new stuff they are getting. But the fact remains that players were able to throw together or redo an existing Stormcast Eternals army relatively quickly compared to a completely new army range.
Take your old list, add in some new toys, and see if it works!
Power Creep AF*
I know I keep harping on this point: No one is shocked by this shift in the meta. So what’s to be done if anything? Well, as players, there’s not much we can do here other than get used to seeing more Stormcast or Orruks on the tabletop and learn to deal with them. It’s tough and challenging but that’s tabletop wargaming for you. It’s going to be up to GW to do something about it in the long run.
The FAQs helped. Sorta. Regular updates are appreciated and I understand how difficult it is to attempt to balance a game with this many moving parts. But that doesn’t mean GW shouldn’t try. We know that the Maggotkin of Nurgle are coming next. While that’s a welcome book the fact remains that it’s just one book. The new edition’s been out for a couple months now. We don’t even have a real time-table or road map for AoS releases at this point. And hey, I know global shipping is completely jacked. GW even pushed back the 40k codexes for Genestealer Cults and Adeptus Custodes. So yeah, it’s that bad. It’s going to take time to get new battletomes out there.
But we need them.
The armies at the bottom are getting pushed down even more. And the bottom 5 armies aren’t even that old. Hedonites just had a big release last year. Nighthaunt were the “big bads” for AoS 2.0! Beast of Chaos are just playing on hardmode…I got nothin’ for them.
The point is that there is a new edition out there and the two newest Battletome are performing better. That’s exactly why we need to get the older armies new books as soon as it’s reasonably possible. Heck, even the not-so-old armies need new books quicker. Power Creep — it’s a thing.
What army would you like to see get a new book after Nurgle?
*The AF stands for AS FORETOLD!
