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Self explanatory title

For those of you who don't play DE
Huskblade instant kills ICs and MC (wounds on str 3)
Soultrap doubles the strength everytime it kills an IC or MC

It works pretty well, especially if your Archon or Haemonculi is already rocking FC before combat (and thus hitting at S 4).

It's not my favourite loadout, but it works well enough, assuming that you can actually HURT the MC or SC. If you are up against anything to far above your strength you'd better pray you packed a shadowfield

S 3 for example cannot even dent T 7, and S 4 likewise cannot hurt S 8.

The huskblade is a nice bit of kit, but against a Talos or a Wraithlord you're a tad doomed

Against T5/6 which many SC's/MC's are these days you're only wounding on 6's, so you'll not slip many wounds through, and if they have an invulnerable save you may not do any harm at all. I prefer to use the Huskblade against other eldar/Guard/Tau/etc and use a Flesh Gauntlet against Nids and uber uber T6 SC's for my Haemies, and an Agoniser for my Archons. You lose the instakill with the agonizer, but you'll likely land more wounds..

If you have the point to spare then diffenitly! Once he kills one IC or MC he's S6 with instant death power weapon.......that's one scary Archon! xD

And after 2 he's strength 10. Even Mephiston looks worried by a strength 10 instant death weapon.

The problem being that it is exceedingly unlikely that there were 2 other IC's on the board for you to kill apart from Mephiston to even GET to S10.

If we're talking killing Tau, Eldar or IG characters, great! Easily slain, get that strength up high so you can... um... hit tanks? After your strength is boosted, what else will hi be doing? For that matter, why did you need your strength that high to begin with against those enemies?

Okay, okay, sure. We'll just send him in against tougher enemies. Against Space Marines he'll need that extra strength, right? Oh. Wait, I guess he'll actually have to wound the T4 for it to work. Then the SM chatacter will have to fail its 4 or 3++ that it's sitting with. But hey, it's dead then, so that's cool. So now you have s6, but if you charged into the enemy's retinue with yours, and that retinue is probably rocking thunder hammers or PW with good invulns. So your Incubi, though good, probably won't do enough damage before being killed to an elf. Then your archon is standing there with S6, a shadow field, and probably a loosing combat. So now his S6 self gets run off, and possibly shot, run down (less likely given his I) or escorted off the board.

Okay, we'll go after Ork IC's. Oh. T5/6 hunh? With an Invuln? How about Tyranid MC's? T6/7. Yeah. Well hey, if I get lucky, I'll just clean up the rest of them, and that's great. Because if DE are lacking any one thing it's a reliable way to handle high toughness enemies. Wait. Poison across the board on nearly every unit or transport? Oh. Well I suppose I could use it on Demons. It'll be great to just ID them. Eternal Warrior, eh? Hunh.

Well, at least it's an automatic doubling of the toughness. So even if I get a wound through, I'm S6 right away and that will help later. :reads: Ah. Kill a model, make a LD save. If you pass, double your Strength. So I have to hit (usually 2/3, not bad) wound (usually 1/3 or worse. Not good) then they have to fail a save (count on a 5++ at least, if not better) then not fail a LD10 (Oh, well pretty likely, but still possible, 11/12 chance at success, or there abouts.) So, assuming a WS <7, T4, and only 5++, your chances of getting it off are 66/81 on a charge, prone to change based on number of pain tokens, a better Inv save, toughness, etc. So not great.

TL;DR Worthless combo. Anything with a reasonable toughness to make it easy enough to get off will make the extra S redundant (unless you're running an all melee army and you need ways to crack armor, but if that was an issue, how did you get to that IC to start with?) Anything with a high enough toughness to make the S bonus a benefit into late game will be hard to kill to start with and can be more easily handled at range with Poison or in Melee with an Agonizer.

Save the points, take an Agonizer, you'll be glad you did.

It's one of the best ways to kit out an archon. Don't worry about not being able to wound stuff, that's what all those poisoned weapons are for.

Just go in swinging, kill something, and walk out a baddass. Also consider a shadow field on him when doing this.

juraigamer wrote:It's one of the best ways to kit out an archon. Don't worry about not being able to wound stuff, that's what all those poisoned weapons are for.

Just go in swinging, kill something, and walk out a baddass. Also consider a shadow field on him when doing this.

Shadowfield is mandatory. And giving the Archon a poisoned weapon paired with the Huskblade won't work, as he has to attack with one or the other, their effects can't be combined as they are seperate special weapon types.

The Huskblade is generally a pretty good choice if you're taking Combat Drugs. At least half of the results on there (re-roll to wound, +1S, +1A) help to mitigate how poor S3 is.

If you are taking an Archon with HB and Drugs, the Soultrap is not a bad use of 10pts, even though you won't get use out of it all the time, because it's not that big a premium on top of how much he costs already, and it does make him quite scary when it works.

God no.

The huskblade is insanely expensive for a power weapon on a Str 3 model that will have to wound on a 5+ more often than not, or on a 6 if it's one of the MC's you can actually hurt, and then have to bypass the inevitable invulnerable save and just... no. Not worth 35 points.

That being said, there are uses for a soul trap. I've started taking Agoniser + Soul Trap + Djinn Blade. The Djinn Blade doesn't replace either your pistol or close combat weapon, so you can retain your pistol to take advantage of bonus attacks. The Agoniser always wounds on a 4+, which makes it infinitely more reliable for taking down... fething everything. That way you can actually reliably kill MCs and ICs.

After you kill something, swap to the Djinn Blade. You are now Str 6, meaning you wound MEQ on a 2+ and are wounding the majority of MC's on a 4+, which isn't an improvement over the agoniser but you've got 8 fething attacks on the charge and potentially 9 if your combat drugs are on the up and up.

I like to take this combo with a shardnet bloodbrides retinue and clone field though. The clone field can outright nullify the str-6 attacks you might direct into yourself with unfortunate dice rolls instead of gambling on your shadow field. Plus, it's cheaper than the shadow field. This whole combo is actually cheaper than a kitted out huskblade archon. (145 for the huskblade and 140 for agoniser, clone field, combat drugs, djinn blade and soul trap) though a 9 hekatrix strong retinue is much more expensive than 4 incubi, so.

Honestly, in every game I've used it, its kinda meh. Most armies pack 3 IC's max, and will keep them away from the archon best they can. I find an agonizer is better 9x outta 10, at least then you mow down infantry quickly, its cheaper than the blade, and you don't need to buy a soultrap as well

When you use the combination you really have to manipulate the battlefield to make it work well. It is all about singling out the independent character or monstrous creature you want, weakening the retinue or knocking the MC down a few wounds, then swooping in for the kill (I also highly suggest you give the Archon a retinue that can finish the job in case he flubs). This tactic is more psychological than anything. People put a lot of stock into their favorite characters, generally speaking, and being instantly gibbed by an elf with a 2++ and watching him become a strength 6 monster gets into their heads.

Is this fun? You bet it is. Is this fluffy? An Archon with his favorite weapon going out and dealing a crippling blow to the enemy command structure and morale by personally slaying their leader whilst also showing off to his own warriors? I'd say yes.

However, will this combination win you a tournament? I wouldn't count on it.

Lokas wrote:God no.

The huskblade is insanely expensive for a power weapon on a Str 3 model that will have to wound on a 5+ more often than not, or on a 6 if it's one of the MC's you can actually hurt, and then have to bypass the inevitable invulnerable save and just... no. Not worth 35 points.

That being said, there are uses for a soul trap. I've started taking Agoniser + Soul Trap + Djinn Blade. The Djinn Blade doesn't replace either your pistol or close combat weapon, so you can retain your pistol to take advantage of bonus attacks. The Agoniser always wounds on a 4+, which makes it infinitely more reliable for taking down... fething everything. That way you can actually reliably kill MCs and ICs.

After you kill something, swap to the Djinn Blade. You are now Str 6, meaning you wound MEQ on a 2+ and are wounding the majority of MC's on a 4+, which isn't an improvement over the agoniser but you've got 8 fething attacks on the charge and potentially 9 if your combat drugs are on the up and up.

I like to take this combo with a shardnet bloodbrides retinue and clone field though. The clone field can outright nullify the str-6 attacks you might direct into yourself with unfortunate dice rolls instead of gambling on your shadow field. Plus, it's cheaper than the shadow field. This whole combo is actually cheaper than a kitted out huskblade archon. (145 for the huskblade and 140 for agoniser, clone field, combat drugs, djinn blade and soul trap) though a 9 hekatrix strong retinue is much more expensive than 4 incubi, so.

Your Agoniser is better for killing then your Djinn Blade, if you have higher STR you can re-roll to wound I rather have a S6 hit with reroll to wound then a S6 hit with two extra attacks

Agonizer doesn't let you re-roll to wound. It's not a poisoned weapon.

Agonizers do go well with the re-roll to wound combat drug effect, but that's only 1 result out of 6. If you have drugs + huskblade, about half the results give you comparable killiness to the agonizer vs T4, and your second Pain Token gives you Furious Assault, which (+ the drugs) lets you wound MORE reliably than the agonizer assuming you have the charge.

SiLKY wrote:Self explanatory title

For those of you who don't play DE
Huskblade instant kills ICs and MC (wounds on str 3)
Soultrap doubles the strength everytime it kills an IC or MC

Short answer, No.
Long answer, not really.
Huskblade is 35pts, and I forget if the soul trap is 5 or 10, but either way, it adds up fast to lotsapoints.

Its target is going to be either lone mcs, or ics that will likely be padded by something nasty anyway.

Ultimately, I would be taking an agoniser, or normally, a Venom Blade (go, go, 2+ poison!) as both are cheaper and more versatile.

What Manna said. Can't reroll to wound with an agoniser unless you have the combat drugs that allow all rerolls to wound.

And if you have combat drugs that allow you to reroll to wound, I'd rather have 8 Str 6 attacks rerolling to wound than 6 attacks that wound on a fixed 4+

And the huskblade's killing power is only equal to the agoniser if your combat drugs and/or you have furious charge, which requires mulching two units before you are combat effective on the same level as the agoniser, or you're in another unit with combat drugs and get the lucky free pain token on your drugs roll, or you have a haemonculus attached to the unit as well, and the unit is one of the coven units that starts with a free pain token.

And I don't see how combat drugs with a huskblade is better than combat drugs with an agoniser. The +1 str is the only one that benefits the huskblade and not the agoniser. The +1 WS benefits them both, albeit only marginally with the archon since he's already hitting most things on a 3+ and WS 8 isn't enough for him to only get hit on a 5+ by WS 4. Reroll to wounds is phenomenal, but a rerollable 4+ against everything is better than a rerollabe 5+ or 6+ and the bonus attack benefits the agoniser more because it has the better base capability to put wounds on things. The extra run roll doesn't benefit either. The pain token benefits both equally, unless you are running your archon in a unit that starts with a pain token or another combat drugs unit, in which case you're now str 4 which means you can wound MEQ on a 4+ (same as the agoniser) but still are wounding monstrous creatures on a 6+ (worse than the agoniser.)

I don't ever see a reason to take a huskblade over an agoniser. If you really want a soul trap, take the Djinn Blade, it's fething phenomenal. I adore that thing for fluff and crunch reasons, I love the idea of the archon's past nemesis being trapped in a weapon to be used against his enemies. Plus, eight attacks on the charge at str 6 with a soul trap? Yes please. If you get the combat drugs that give you str 4, or furious charge, you can just start off using the Djinn blade against MEQ, because you're wounding on a 4+ anyways and a stupidly high number of attacks.

Agonizer vs. Huskblade with drugs.

1. Run better. Wash.
2. WS. Wash.
3. Str. Advantage Huskblade, esp in combo with FA.
4. Re-roll to wound. HB goes from 33% against most common target to 54%. Agonizer goes from 50% to 75%. The Agonizer is a bit better here, but with FA the HB is better, and once the Trap works the HB is better.
5. A. As above; Agonizer is better until the Archon gets FA and/or the trap goes off.
6. Pain token. Would be a wash, except that this gets you straight to FC if you started him attached to a Wych squad (common) or a unit with a Haemonc attached (also pretty standard). Advantage Huskblade.

Fair enough that they're pretty close to equal, but IMO with Power from Pain factored in, overall the Huskblade comes out ahead. The Agonizer is very nice against high-Toughness targets like Monstrous Creatures, but OTOH those tend to have enough wounds that it takes the Archon several rounds to get through them, and meanwhile he's praying not to get hit and fail that 2+. Whereas the Huskblade archon just needs to get that 6+ once, which is quite likely to happen round 1 if you get the re-roll wounds drug, or probably R2 otherwise.

The huskblade is better once you have a couple pain tokens, and/or have your soul trap kick in, but I'd much rather have a piece of wargear that I can just hit the ground running with and perform exceptionally well instead of needing to do x y and z to get an exceptional performance out of it.

And praying you don't fail your 2+ is exactly why I take a clone field over a shadow field. Three shardnets mean the enemy IC is usually reduced to 1 or 2 attacks and the Clone Field can just up and lolnope those attacks instead of needing to gamble on dice at all. Of course, this doesn't apply if you're taking any retinue but a 3x shardnet bloodbrides unit.... But I really can't stress how amazingly that combination has performed for me. As always, YMMV, but there little more amusing than Mephiston or Draigo reduced to 1 attack a turn.

And the HB's instant-death effect can work against you. Specifically in combat with MC's. If you get that lucky 6 in the first round of combat, congratulations, you're now out of combat and open to being shot to death. The Agoniser puts about 2 wounds down a turn (all things being average) which means you're safe from fire for a turn or two. This applies less to ICs, since they have retinues you're usually going to remain locked in combat with, but it's something to think about when you go charging TMCs.

I would absolutely like the Huskblade if it was cheaper, 30 points or 25, but at its current point cost... I just can't find myself ever fielding it. S'just my opinion though, which I've explained. As always, YMMV, and if you like it, go for it.

I think it's an okay buy, but if I were to use an Archon, I'd rather have one with Shadowfield + Agonizer (25 points cheaper), but if you play with people who use a lot of special ICs or MCs then it'd probably be a bit better also. I just don't seem to have to worry about them as much.

It can be useful, but you need a use for a late game high str archon. Depends on how you play him and what army you are playing against. Against many armies it could be overkill, and against some good players they will plan away from him and shoot him down if possible. Consider the points elsewhere in a competitive game.

I already had doubts about the huskblade and
I really just had to know cause I didn't want to cut the arm off my archon before I was 100% sure that I was going to use the agoniser.
Think I settled on the agoniser cause I don't want to gamble on what army I'm going to face.

You can always cut it off at the blade and replace the blade at the hilt, or just tell people it's a djinn blade/venom blade/agoniser..

Agonisers aren't always whips, after all, just usually..

huskblades only wound targets on 5+ if at all.... and the soultrap has very specfic and limited use. plus they are super expensive.

better off with an agonizer, or even just a basic power weapon. more effective in points, and you have enough attacks to deal a nice amount of damage to anything you want to insta kill anyway..... or just shoot those nasty multi wound models with splinter fire.....