Honestly I never got why people don’t like Stormcast. Obviously they aren’t my favorite but I do think they are cool.
I don’t think it’s as much the Stormcast themselves. I myself am a fan of them, at least in their original incarnation, but I can see why others don’t. I’m sure others can comment on the specifics:
In terms of them as a whole, for a lot of the ex WHFB fans they represent the change to AoS, and certain people (who I won’t be naming, will I
@NIGHTBRINGER) still haven’t gotten over or accepted the change (which is totally understandable. I joined the hobby after the change so I wasn’t aware of it until I joined the forum, but it sounds like they had an awful lot of lore there).
Aesthetics wise I think it’s the fact that they look so much like Space Marines. When we joined we were introduced to both at the same time, so they seemed new and interesting and cool. However, for the longer term fans, who had been subjected to endless Space Marine releases, it probably just seems like even more of the same.
With releases, and this is the part I can relate to the most, the Stormcast dominate updates and releases to the point where it is just plain wearying. I can understand why GW do it - it’s a sound financial strategy (they are the starter army, so they need to have a good range of models, keep up with all new updates etc and Space Marines are a concept that GW have and given how major a concept it is they are within their rights to want to guard it and milk it jealously). However, when your army is having potential updates passed over for
yet more Stormcasts, you start to maybe feel just a little bit antagonistic toward them.
And finally, while I can’t comment too much what with my inexperience, from what I can gather, that same starter army concept means that the Stormcast becom jack of all trades, but still have a way to go to not be master of none as they should be! From what I’m aware, they certainly have the reputation for being OP and my perusal of their warscrolls would seem to agree with that - I know I’ve created a list with them that while it may not have been field tested, certainly seems like it would be absolute fromage against armies without a lot of mortal wounds.
Any of you passionate Stormcast haters, feel free to correct me or add to any of my points.
With that said, despite my sizeable Stormcast army, I have absolutely no issues of you brutally maiming one of their number. In fact, I’m just more pleased you actually found something useful to do with the free model!