As mentioned in a previous post, SCE Thunderstrike are some of the easiest models you can acquire. Not only are these units readily available from GW most of the times, but there’s a good chance you can find a few at your local game store too – as well as other resellers such as Amazon or eBay.
There’s also been some great boxed sets released that pit the Stormcast against other foes, many of whom can also easily be built into warbands of their own (so it’s good to have friends you can split the purchase with!)
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Warhammer Store, Amazon, or Local Game Store? Why so many options!?
Figuring out where you buy models for your SCE Thunderstrike Warcry list (or any Warcry list) isn’t as straightforward as it could be.
Contrary to what you might think, not all listings are evenly priced when it comes to picking up Games Workshop models.
For reasons not entirely clear to me, it seems that depending on the day you can sometimes find them cheaper on Amazon that Games Workshop – and almost certainly cheaper at your Local Game Store (where I’ve seen prices as much as 25% lower than the GW listing price on occasion).
Pro-Buying Tip: The first place I would always recommend checking when picking up GW models first is your Local Game Store – you get to support a hopefully not evil local business, and often the ones with websites typically have lots of stock or can do special orders saving you a few bucks in the process.
Games Workshop is almost always a good bet for core sets or latest releases, but honestly it’s amazing how often they have basic things out of stock.
The other option is Amazon (CA/US/UK), where GW lists items themselves but sometimes you’ll find resellers also listing out of print boxes and units. Just be careful they aren’t trying to charge you something like $500 for a starter set).
In any case, let’s look at some good options for buying and assembling our lists on the cheap.
Best Value – Box of Annihilators and Box of Vindictors
Easily, the cheapest SCE Thunderstrike lists to build that we spoke about previously would be ones that rely on core units – such as “Oops! All Vindictors” or “The Tin Cans.”
So, to get up and running with a 1000 point list involving the least amount of work necessary, your best bet is to pickup a box of each of the core units – Vindictors and Annihilators.
With Annihilators, you unfortunately get only 3 per box (these guys don’t come cheap). So you might want to plan your list around that fact.
As of writing this, Amazon isn’t the best price that I’ve seen for them on most days, but maybe if Prime shipping does it’s thing you can get them in like a day or less.
Fortunately, with the Vindictors, you get 10 of the dues for about the same price as your Annihilators (so if you wanna really go cheap, you can build the Oops! All Vindictors list using a single box).
Depending on where you live, buying some off eBay is also worth it – especially for Vindictors – as people tend to sell their surplus models from Age of Sigmar at a heavily discounted price.
I’ve seen some crazy deals where you can get away with 5x Vindictors for like 1/3 the price of a regular box. Just be carful about the shipping cost as it is sometimes more than the models themselves!
For those wanting a bit more variety, and models overall, there are some bigger boxes that come in at a heftier price tag but also offer a better deal overall for what you get.
Great Value – The Mighty Dominion Box
For those of you with more money on your hands, and a pressing desire to paint a lot of plastic, Dominion is a sweet, sweet boxed set.
It’s not strictly SCE focused (you get a whole ton of Kruleboyz who are also a great Warcry Faction) but the SCE pieces you get are pretty solid for getting you up and running with Warcry.
You get 3 Annihilators, a Lord-Imperatant, 10 Vindictors (including pieces to make 2 Primes), a Gryph-Hound, a Knight-Vexillor, a Knight-Arcanum, and 3 Praetors that are usable.
Obviously, not all of these pieces are gonna be gamechangers, and some downright suck (cough cough Praetors) but there’s enough for 2 full SCE Thunderstrike Warbands in there along with pieces for an equal number of Kruleboyz lists.
Most of the time the box gets kicked around in the area of $199 CAD / #115 USD / Β£159. Great value for what you get, provided you don’t mind a lot of Orks in your bundle.
Some links for the Dominion box:
Calthia Xandire – Starter Set, Underworlds Boxes, or Single
As I mentioned earlier, Calthia Xandire is a great piece and kind of worth picking up if that’s the route you wanna go. The only problem is she isn’t sold as a standalone mode, but in a couple of sets (unless you can find her on Ebay where she is more common than one might think).
Normally, she can be found in the Xandire’s Truthseekers box from Warhammer Underworlds – or also in Nethermaze – Rivals of Harrowdeep where she come paired with a Nightgaunt faction as well (but at nearly twice the cost).
However, if you’re just starting out you might also want to consider the Crypt of Blood Starter Set that pairs off the Truthseekers against the Crimson Court (Soulblight Gravelords).
It’s honestly a bit of a weird box to be called a “Starter Set” since it’s missing a lot of the essentials to get a full game of Warcry going. However, you get 2 “Warbands” (or roughly 60% of a full warband each), some terrain, and a board. So it could be a good box to split with a friend if you both plan on starting to collect from there.
To Wrap Things Up
This post shouldn’t be read as an exhaustive guide to buying and building for SCE Thunderstrike in Warcry, but hopefully it gives you a couple of places to start.
If you’re interested in reading more about different Storm Cast Eternals chambers, we’ve also recently done a piece on listbuilding for the Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber.
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