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So I recently bought a 1k slaves to darkness army, with the full intent to buy Archaon and Varangard and try to build an army around him. However after speaking to a few friends of mine, they seem to be of the opinion that Archaon is simply not worth it currently. Far too many points for what he does and he'd almost never make his points back in kills or buffs to the army.

Have any of you had luck with Archaon? Have you switched him out and managed to make a good Slaves to darkness list without him?

Well, at the 1k pts lv Archaon (800pts) doesn't leave you with much else to work with pts wise. I would call that a bad army.... You've got zero flexibility to take/defend objectives & HAVE to wipe your foe asap - wich still might not win you the game! And if he goes down early (like my buddies did last week when I charged him with a Mangler squig) then your just done.
But if you're into such gambles, knock yourself out.

I think he'll do you much better in 2k pt or higher matches.

Ah sorry think I miswrote. I currently have a 1k army build around the start collecing box, Archaon and the varangard are for a 2k/2.5k list. Not 1k.

He will do fine in 2-2.5k games but you still need to be careful with him.
He’s surprisingly fragile for his points.

Ideally you want to target things he will either wipe out in a single turn or at least kill most of so the return attacks are almost 0.

Avoid anything that has potential to strike first as that can ruin his day badly.

Avoid Morathi and Gotrek as he can’t kill either in a single turn and they will likely kill him (Gotrek almost certainly will do)

As long as you play him smart he will do fine, it’s just a case of picking your targets and using him for area denial.
It’s likely he won’t earn back his points often though, especially against a player that knows how he works.

Jackal90 wrote:
He will do fine in 2-2.5k games but you still need to be careful with him.
He’s surprisingly fragile for his points.

Ideally you want to target things he will either wipe out in a single turn or at least kill most of so the return attacks are almost 0.

Avoid anything that has potential to strike first as that can ruin his day badly.

Avoid Morathi and Gotrek as he can’t kill either in a single turn and they will likely kill him (Gotrek almost certainly will do)

As long as you play him smart he will do fine, it’s just a case of picking your targets and using him for area denial.
It’s likely he won’t earn back his points often though, especially against a player that knows how he works.

Most of the players at my local shop know what their doing, so this will probably cause problems :/

The problem with Archaon (yes I have him and plan to run him) is he’s going to be fun but probably not that powerful to play. If you win with him, you’re “that guy” (but not TFG, necessarily) because you brought an 800pt model to a 2k game. If you lose...”how could you lose, he’s the Everchosen!”-expect that remark a bunch. Don’t run him if you HAVE to win. Run him because you want to run Everchosen and have a plan. And avoid Gotrek like the plague.

Then you just need to use his movement to avoid fights you don’t want to be in or screen him with other units.


General consensus on Gotrek is always avoid him though.
Trying to kill him or even slow him down is basically just not going to happen.
If you do play against him, just keep away from him and kill the army around him while playing the objective.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
The problem with Archaon (yes I have him and plan to run him) is he’s going to be fun but probably not that powerful to play. If you win with him, you’re “that guy” (but not TFG, necessarily) because you brought an 800pt model to a 2k game. If you lose...”how could you lose, he’s the Everchosen!”-expect that remark a bunch. Don’t run him if you HAVE to win. Run him because you want to run Everchosen and have a plan. And avoid Gotrek like the plague.

I'm considering expanding it to a 2.5k game, just for that little extra screening power. As for winning I don't "HAVE" to win. I just don't want to run a list that i'm going to lose the majority of my games with.

If you want to use him, just do so. The model is cool and the comment does not describe him as bad.

He is ok. His power level when you do a linear regression against the entire game puts him in the correct place, which means he won't win you tournaments if your buddies are min maxing around you, but he's not going to lose you games by virtue of you showing up with him.

Have any you been able to make a good list around the Everchosen and Varangard? I'm torn between going for the Varangard battalion or not, as the difference between 2 units or 3 units of Varan is a lot of points that could be used elsewhere

The battalion, as written, gives you a second circle attached to them. This is essentially a “Varanguard-wide artifact”. Do you want your Varanguard to fly AND heal wounds when they kill a unit? Take the battalion. Does only one circle strike your fancy? Blow it off and get more bodies. I know that I find it worth it, want Varanguard who do D+1 on the charge PLUS heal when killing units. More damage and more health on a small army feels necessary, so I want two circles and less drops (currently Archaon, a Bloodstoker, 3 units of Varanguard and either a Sphyrinx or Darkoath/Exalted hero at 2k. Unless I find another 100pt magic wielder to ally in.

I played him in a game against Blades of Khorne yesterday. He will most likely one-shot anything you throw him at, but against horde armies he will quickly deplete in points. Keep him well guarded though and he will sow a path of destruction through the enemy.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I played him in a game against Blades of Khorne yesterday. He will most likely one-shot anything you throw him at, but against horde armies he will quickly deplete in points. Keep him well guarded though and he will sow a path of destruction through the enemy.

Ended up decideing to just hold off on Archaon until he gets some form of a buff. From what I can tell he'd just never make the points back the way any other model at his cost would.

 kylesev wrote:

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I played him in a game against Blades of Khorne yesterday. He will most likely one-shot anything you throw him at, but against horde armies he will quickly deplete in points. Keep him well guarded though and he will sow a path of destruction through the enemy.

Ended up decideing to just hold off on Archaon until he gets some form of a buff. From what I can tell he'd just never make the points back the way any other model at his cost would.

He missed his chance at a buff. He is utter garbo. Though he is a great centerpiece for your display case.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 kylesev wrote:

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I played him in a game against Blades of Khorne yesterday. He will most likely one-shot anything you throw him at, but against horde armies he will quickly deplete in points. Keep him well guarded though and he will sow a path of destruction through the enemy.

Ended up decideing to just hold off on Archaon until he gets some form of a buff. From what I can tell he'd just never make the points back the way any other model at his cost would.

He missed his chance at a buff. He is utter garbo. Though he is a great centerpiece for your display case.

I don’t know if he’s garbage, all of his attacks are wounding on 2+ (If you go Khorne mark) which is pretty neat, he’s fast, good rend, good dmg, magic. Don’t know if he’s worth 800pts though, when you consider that spot is contended with dudes like Nagash who sits back doing a million spells. But I don’t think I’d call him garbage. He could definitely do with going down to maybe 700pts.