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I recently got in to playing AOS, I currently only own 10 Sequitors, 5 Castigators, 3 evocators, 2 Celestar Ballista, 1 knight questor (converted from a spare Sequitor after this game), 1 knight-Incantor, and 1 lord-Arcanum on gryh-charger.

I bought a Stormcast half of soul wars, not realizing that unlike 40k you can't pay for individual models after the base amount...

I ran a list recently and Id like some feedback.

1 lord Arcanum on Gryph-charger
1 knight-Incantor

5 man Sequitors- prime has a greatmace, and 1 model has a great mace
5 man Sequitors- prime has a greatmace, and 1 model has a great mace

1 Celestar Ballista
1 Celestar Ballista

5 Castigators, I paid for a 6 man but only had 5 models.

A friend has a stormcast half of the blightwars box i was thinking of picking up, any thoughts?

All of the stormcast sacrosanct stuff is good bar castigators which are one of SCE worst units overall.

Sequitors are extremely good battleline with their combat phase ability to pick between re-roll saves or hits based on what they need. Note that the champion does not count towards the maximum great weapon allotment so you can have the champion with greatmace plus two dudes with greatmace in a 5-man unit (which you want to do). The starter set equipment is set up so you can run a unit with no greatmaces up to the max of champion+2. Those extra models are really great for testing paints & color schemes on.

Think of them like space marine captains which got psyker abilities on top of it. However this means they come with a hefty points cost so if you don't utilize all their elements they can come up short, something to keep in mind.

Ballista are great, you can deploy and shoot from afar or deep strike to make use of their higher output at close range.

The half of the Blightwars box is vanguard stormcast, the more mobile-shooty element. They are reasonably good, but with the force as it stands you would be better off picking up a box of sequitors to beef out model count on the units you have.

the same friend also has two halves of the same soul wars box i got, which is where i got the second ballista, and the 3 man etb sequitors from. I was going to try to get the remaining 16 sequitors that he has off of him, and then pick up another 3 man ETB to fill out 30 sequitors. I was basically trying to pick up his Stormcast army bits at a time, to get my self a decent sized Stormcast army. so eventually I would end up with triple of everything form the soul wars box, I dont necessarily want to do that, but we will see what happens, he also has an Ordinatori was planning to pick up to make the deep striking ballista even better.

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh and from the game I played, I agree that the castigators are not so great...

Could someone confirm that this rule works the way I think it does?

Lord Arcanum, on Gryph-Charger

Soul Energy:

You can use this command ability in your hero phase, your shooting phase, or the combat phase.

Does this mean I can activate it during my opponents combat phase? The only FAQ I could find that is similar just says that if a command ability doesn't specify a phase you use the hero phase.

I think that it's because the Sequitors, whos ability it is activating, can activate in both your combat and your enemies combat phase

Yup, it can be used during their combat phase.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Yup, it can be used during their combat phase.

Im guessing that because it says once per turn its once per 2 player turns right? as in i cant use it till we roll initiative again.

also would you consider Castigators a good proxy/conversion for Judicators with crossbows? I cant find any scale to compare them to see if they are about the same height/size.

Per turn means once during your turn, once during their turn. So twice per round.

Castigators can be converted to xbow judicators but xbow judicators cost the same as bow ones (because all equipment options are free) while being much less effective. You can't find any pictures because no one uses them. Best thing to do with castigators is hold onto them until they get a point nerf eventually.

Out of curiosity, what makes the Judicators better than castigators? is it that Judicators are 5 for 160, and reroll ones against chaos, or the fact that they are battlelines?

and what makes the normal bows better than the crossbows?
from the stats, I assumed that the 3-4 shots from the crossbows at 12" was better than the 1-2 shots from the bows at 24".

The value of 24" range cannot be understated here. That means deploying (maybe) moving and almost always having range turn 1. It's standing on one objective while shooting the enemy on another. It's sniping wizards before they have spell range. It's being able to reliably shoot every turn without spending one running to get some enemies in range.

Also, the shockbolt bow is the best weapon option for the champion, who has +1 to hit. This is also what gives judicators a big step up from castigators as that champion reliably delivers as much output as the rest of a 5-man unit combined. Since the champion is already shooting at 24" anyways it makes sense to have the others do so as well.

Finally, the crossbows themselves. The number of shots is nice, but note with a 12" range they will likely need to move a lot and thus lose the bonus for not moving. Due to a worse wound roll and no rend they don't actually do that much more damage (less than double) and don't have as much target choice for their no-rend attacks. Unless you drop them from the sky they are extremely likely to not shoot first turn, lowering their damage output relative to bows further. They are also a ranged unit that needs to be close to the enemy, with the disadvantages that brings.

Castigators, on the other hand, don't have it as bad as xbow judicators. Their aetheric channeling is really useful and the stats of their shooting aren't bad. But they cost a lot of points for that shooting and can't make up for it with 24" range or an awesome special weapon. Note this is coming from someone who really likes the unit and has run it in matched play multiple times, where they look really nice all lined up in formation but dam they sure do not earn their points back.

Also their unit size is weird.

you are definitely right on all accounts, ive been using the 5 that come in the soul wars box to kinda fill out my remaining points, but ive been thinking of just getting a third ballista, or an ordinator, to buff the other two i already have. if i take the ballista id have 50 points remaining that i could drop on a command point, or i could take an ordinator and have about 20 points remaing. im just not sure which i want to go with even though i want both lol. The ballista have been doing some heavy lifting in the few games i played. and i was thinking that when i moved up to a 2k game, i would grab a second arcanum on gryph-charger, since they can buff my Sequitors and heal models, while also throwing smites at people. Thoughts on that?

on the other hand if i drop the castigators and then incantor, i could run 2 10 man squads of sequitors.

All of those options sound good, though incantors are so useful I would be hesitant to drop it.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
All of those options sound good, though incantors are so useful I would be hesitant to drop it.

I know they are, and i do like my incantor, i just wonder if it would be worth dropping him to get the extra hit chance on the ballistas.