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So I am debating on which weapons to give my Varanguard units. Ive already obviously ruled out the lances but cannot decide between the daemonforged blade and ensorcelled weapons. I will be running them with Archaon on the field so they want will be hitting on a 2+. The question now becomes whether I go with the near certain 6 damage or the likely 3-9 damage plus the possibility of mortal wounds on a 6.

Which am I better off with?

Daemonforged blade looks a lot better.

Ignoring saves (as they have the same rend anyway), the Daemonforged Blade does an average of 5.1 wounds, while ensorcelled do 3.3.

Yeah, the Ensorcelled weapons are a bit more likely to do at least 1 wound, but by every other metric Daemonforge wins imo.

Ensorcelled gives you a 0-18 wounds for a full squad, 36 if you elect to fight twice. Daemonblades give you 0-36 or 0-72 if you fight twice. Given the amount of re-rolls you can get, I think going Daemonblade is the better option. Or...if you’re running multiple units of the guys, then do two units of one type and a third unit of the other type. But I honestly think Daemonblade is the best option. Somebody put up a chart that says on average Daemonblades do SLIGHTLY more damage than Ensorcelled. It’s close enough on paper you could do either or. But Daemonblade gives you the chance for a higher damage output.

With Archaon on the field and aura of Khorne, these bros are hitting and wounding on 2+, and re-rolling 1’s to hit, which is epic. In this case, and including the circle of +1 dmg on the charge, aren’t the ensorcelled weapons better on average? I guess they don’t do the additional mortal wounds.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
So I am debating on which weapons to give my Varanguard units. Ive already obviously ruled out the lances but cannot decide between the daemonforged blade and ensorcelled weapons. I will be running them with Archaon on the field so they want will be hitting on a 2+. The question now becomes whether I go with the near certain 6 damage or the likely 3-9 damage plus the possibility of mortal wounds on a 6.

Which am I better off with?

What else is in your army? Is it mighty enough that you can afford a random punch from Varanguard, or do you need it to do certain regular damage because the rest of your army wont.
Reliability is valueable, if you can carefully predict an outcome and engage with a unit based on that you can calculate the effects of your actions. You can choose to take on enough that you can cope with. If however you go with random damage you can be facing a point where you either do overkill or not enough, puting Archaon at risk. No point having weapons that can slaughter twice as many models as Archaon can be safely put in B2B with, if there is a good chance they might not kill enough aswell.
Offset this with the thought that you have the rest of the army to provide insurance with, and if you attempt to maximise damage with Varanguard, and account for contingencies with other units you may well punch above your weight, which is always good in an elite low model count army.

There isnt a single right answer, on paper daemonforged blades is the better option, but it depends on how you run your army. High risk/high reward or a steady damage ramp. If you do get multiple units consider both and add Archaon to the unit with the ensorcelled weapons as a damage reliable bodyguard, that is as close to a definite answer as I can provide.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Ensorcelled gives you a 0-18 wounds for a full squad, 36 if you elect to fight twice. Daemonblades give you 0-36 or 0-72 if you fight twice. Given the amount of re-rolls you can get, I think going Daemonblade is the better option. Or...if you’re running multiple units of the guys, then do two units of one type and a third unit of the other type. But I honestly think Daemonblade is the best option. Somebody put up a chart that says on average Daemonblades do SLIGHTLY more damage than Ensorcelled. It’s close enough on paper you could do either or. But Daemonblade gives you the chance for a higher damage output.

I think it's close until you factor in +1 damage on the charge circle. Which makes a lot better use of the ensorceled weapons. Literally doubling the damage on 6 attacks. The best part is the damage is also very reliable. Daemonblade will still have more potential damage though.
I think it's reasonable to take one of each type. One squad is more reliable - the other higher damage potential but also doesn't rely on charging so much (at least with the 6th circle).

I plan on taking 3 units with Archaon 6 ensorciled and 3 daemon blade.

I’m planning to do the opposite: 2 units w/Daemonblades, 1 unit with ensorcelled. As awesome as the spears are...I don’t think anyone uses them.