Somanlius Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 So, despite my initial years-long hesitation to start an army that is one dimensional and very expensive, I ended up buying and being gifted some Everchosen this holiday season. I thought I would start a write up of various battle reports, army configurations, tactics I find useful and not, and eventually photos once the army is painted. So far they are all just primed black but I have played two games and will share the experience. Firstly, I will lay out the models and the three army configurations I have planned. The first revolves around the Overlords of Chaos battalion, which can be quite exciting and plays some psychologial games with your opponent. Essentially it allows Archaon to predict turn order, so I always know who is going next and when and if the double turns will fall. It also allows Archaon to mark an ememy unit for one Varanguard to reroll all hit and wound against. Very interesting battalion. The second list throws in a Warshrine for useful buffs and a nice bubble of protection from mortal wounds, which is helpful for the Varanguard, as well as a small unit of warriors for objective grabbing. The third list puts in Bel'akor instead of the Warshrine+Warriors for a few extra spells, a sweet ability, and some extra fluff. List 1 Archaon the Everchosen, Grand Marshal of the Apocolypse Gaunt Summoner of Tzeench 3 units of Varanguard, one unit with each weapon choice 10 Marauders with hand weapons and shields Overlords of Chaos battalion 2000 pts List 2 Archaon Gaunt Sumoner 3 units of Varanguard 5 Chaos Warriors with hand weapons and shields Chaos Warshrine 1990 pts List 3 Archaon Gaunt Summoner Bel'akor the Daemon Prince 3 units of Varanguard 2000 pts I used list 1 in my first game vs Beastclaw Raiders, without the Marauders as I didn't have them built yet, in the Total Conquest scenerio. My opponent had Frostlord on Stonehorn with Master of Everwinter and an artifact that adds +1 damage to his Frost Spear, a Huskard on Stonehorn, a Butcher ally, Thundertusk Beastriders, and two units of 4 Mournfang with Gargant Hackers. I finished deploying first, placing Archaon and two units of Varanguard (Ensorcelled Weapons and Fell Spears) on my right flank just south of the objective, along with the Gaunt Summoner 3" away from Archaon to take full advantage of the battalion bonus. My other unit of Varanguard with the Daemonforged Blades took up position on my other flank to capture the other objective. My opponent deployed similarly with one unit of Mournfang, his Thundertusk, and his Huskard across the board from Archaon, while his Frostlord and another unit of Mournfang were across from my unit of Deamonforged weapon Varanguard. With Beastclaws you can never be too sure how far they will move, with the potential +3" move from Everwinter and the ability to run and charge Stonehorns, but despite that I made my opponent go first. I was out of range of the Thundertusk so I wasn't too worried. He rolled on the Everwinter table, and like I feared he rolled the +3" move. With his Butcher he cast a Mystic Shield on his Mournfang, and even pulled a +1 to hit out of the Cauldron, which he put on the Mournfang as well. After his Frostlord's command ability went up he moved up his Mournfang on my right to block off a choke point in the terrain while his Huskard followed closely behind. Luckily he was unable to make a charge with the Mournfang, but they were in a very good position, blocking access to his heavy hitters and all buffed up for my charge. The Thundertusk ran up to an objective and grabbed it. His Frostlord and second unit of Mournfang moved up around the centerpiece terrain (a giant mountain we have) and Line of Sighted my Gaunt Summoner and Archaon and positioned themselves for a potential counter-charge. The Butcher ran to grab the other objectibe and just made it with a nice run roll. In the Shooting phase the Huskard sent out his Hawk for Archaon but rolled low so I picked the Gaunt Summoner to suffer the mortal wound, as I had taken the Chaos Talisman, but he didnt save it and lost a wound. End of turn one for my opponent and he scored 2 victory points. My turn one, first thing I did was use the Overlords of Chaos battalion ability and secretly rolled a dice. I rolled a 5 (on a 4,5,6 I go first in the next battle round) and was pleased but tried to keep my best poker face on. My opponent was laughing at the rule and thought it was a really interenting mechanic. Next I used Archaon's Warlord Without Equal command ability, which lets Varanguard reroll charge rolls so it actually has a nice use and a fun mirror to the Frostlord. Then I marked the unit of Mournfang ahead of me with the Overlords of Chaos ability to reroll all failed hit and wounds with my Fell Spears Varanguard, put a Mystic Shield on the same unit, then used Arcane Bolt and Fractal Mindstorm on the Mournfang. I managed to get a few mortal wounds, but killing off a Mournfang is no joke and he only lost 4 wounds. In the movement phase I placed Archaon and the Gaunt Summoner on the objective and 18" away from the Thundertusk. I didn't need to worry about getting shot thanks to the foresight from Overlords of Chaos, so I planned on blasting it with magic next turn. The two units of Varanguard next to Archaon moved up to get into position for a charge on the buffed Mournfang unit while the third unit of Varanguard grabbed the other objective. I forgot the shooting attack from the Gaunt Summoner for the entire game, so I went right on to charges. I was excited to see what they could do in their first fight so the buffed unit of Varanguard charged and... rolled a 4. Needing an 8, I rerolled as per Warlord without Equal and.. rolled snake eyes. Lame. No combat for my buffed Varanguard. Next the second unit of Vananguard charged and.. rolled a 4 again. They were further away and needed a 10 so I rerolled and... failed again. Lame. No Varanguard combat in turn one. Because I knew I had the next turn I threw caution to the wind and charged the Grand Marshal of the Apocolypse and he easily made the roll with an 11. Time to show the underlings how it's done. My opponent and I are good friends who got into the hobby together with Age of Sigmar and Beastclaws were his first army so I knew what to expect from the Mournfang after almost two years of playing against them . Archaon went first and killed off 2 Mournfang dealing 9 wounds and puking in them with the Nurgle head of Dorghar for 2 mortal wounds! The Mournfang swung back and unfortunately lived up to expectations by not scoring any wounds on Archaon at all. Battleshock time, and of course the Mournfang rolled a 6+2 from the Crown of Domination. Luckily they had their banner bearer so he could reroll 6s for battleshock. He needed to roll a 3 here but just missed the mark by rolling a 4 and off runs the useful banner bearer. At least he helped before he ran. I got 2 victory points here to tie it up. At this point we were both dying from anticipation of the Overlords of Chaos dice, and I definitely took some pleasure in revealing my 5 for the double turn! Knowing it was coming was really exciting for both of us, as it's a pretty unique mechanic. I took turn two. In my hero phase I rolled for the Overlords Dice again, as the Gaunt Summoner was just barely in range of Archaon's gigantic base, and rolled another 5. No double turns for my friend. Next I marked the other unit of Mournfang with the battalion's other ability and tried another mystic shield. No luck this time. Fractal Mindstorm also failed, but Archaon pulled off another badass move and blasted the Thundertusk for 3 mortal wounds with Arcane Bolt and severly took down its effectivness. After Warlord without Equal I moved on to the movement phase. I decided to move my Daemonforged Blades unit of Varanguard off my objective and hunt down the Butcher across the board. I knew they would be able to make it into combat my next turn so it was a risk I was willing to take, since double turns were out of the picture next turn. The Gaunt Summoner moved 6" away from the objective to make some room for the advancing Varanguard. I decided to play a little mind game with my friend and retreated Archaon from combat with the last Mournfang and moved closer to my Gaunt Summoner, making my opponent think he had a double turn and would be able to get both Stonehorns on him. Really I was anticipating what he would do in his turn, which was go to block off my advancing Fell Spears Varanguard, so Archaon could buff and charge in my next turn. My unit of Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard got into position to charge the Mournfang, only needing 3" so they better not fail this time! The unit of Fell Spears Varanguard moved up to attempt a charge on the second unit of Mournfang 8" away. Chaege time, and the Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard made the 3" and prepared to take care of the last Mournfang. The Fell Spears unit charged and rolled a 10! That was all the charges so I moved on to combat. The obvious choice was attacking with the Fell Spears unit so I started there. With the rerolls and the charge bonus against an unbuffed Mournfang unit they hit really hard, killing more than half the unit. My opponents turn to swing and I explained the Varanguard's once per game ability that lets them pile in and attack twice so he no choice but to try to attack the Fell Spears unit before they took the last two Mournfang off the board. He swung into the Varanguard and almost killed one of the Fell Spears, but couldn't quite manage it. I attacked with the Enscorcelled Weapons Varanguard and defeated the last Mournfang before he could attack and moved on to finish the first unit. The Fell Spears attacked again with their ability, no better time to use it than buffed on the charge, and killed one more Mournfang. At the end of that bloodbath the final Mournfang fled from battleshock and I was up to 3 points. My opponents turn and he rolled the reroll saves on 1 on the Everwinter table. He somehow managed to pull a +1 to hit from the Cauldron again and put it on the Frostlord, along with a Mhstic Shield. Even with the nurf, a buffed up Frostlord is no slouch and I knew a fierce stomping was coming. He threw up his command ability and went to movement. The Thundertusk stayed put on the objective while the Huskard and Stonehorn manuvered around the centerpiece mountain to get some Charges off, while the Butcher tried to put as much distance between himself and the Daemonforged Blades Varanguard as possible. In the Shooting phase he sent out his hawk again and rolled low again so the Gaunt Summoner took another mortal wound and failed to save it. The Thundertusk took a Frost Blast shot at my Ensorcelled Weapons Varanguard, but only got 2 mortal wounds. The Arcane Bolt from my turn really paid off. He used the Chain Trap and Harpoon next but didn't score any wounds. In the Charge phase the full weight of two Stonehorns crashed into my Fell Spears Varanguard and did 7 mortal wounds from the charge alone, then the Frostlord preceded to crush the rest under his massive horns and stomps. End of turn 2 and he scored 2 more points, bringing it to 4-3. I revealed the Overlords dice and it was my turn next! My friend and I had a good laugh because he had been sure of the double turn and was planning on double charging Archaon next, but it was not to be. In my hero phase I used the Overlords dice again and rolled a 4, so next turn would be a mine again. The Gaunt Summoner and Archaon both tried to blast off the Thundertusk with magic but only managed a few mortal wounds. I managed a Mystic Shield on Archaon to finish off the hero phase. In the movement phase I moved up the Daemonforged Blades to get in range of the Butcher, the Encorcelled Weapons to get to the Thundertusk, and Archaon positioned for a charge. Everyone made the charges and on to combat. Archaon piled in with the Huskard and attacked first. Amazingly, he managed to drop the Huskard in one round of combat and was free from retaliation! The Frostlord was just over 3" away. The Thundertusk took its swings at the Enscorcelled Weapons Varanguard and managed to kill one with its Tusks. The Encorcelled Weapons wiffed on their rolls and couldn't kill the Thundertusk, and so had to use their special ability to kill it with a second round of attacks, while the Daemonforged Blades made short work out of the Butcher. I snagged 3 victory points here putting it at 4-6. In my opponents turn he rolled reroll saves again on the Everwinter table, put up his command ability, and tried to charge Archaon. Double 1s! He gets to reroll and does so but.. double 1s again! I reveal my dice, its my turn, so we decide to call it. Good game with an interesting new army! Fighting against Beastclaws is usually a roller coaster. Sometimes they kick serious butt and other times they wiff completely. I think this game was the latter with some seriously bad dice rolls. It was fun using the Overlords battalion ability, and I definitely want to try it again. I was very impressed with all the abilities from the Varanguard, for such a small model count the army has lots of cool synergy and rules. Only thing it lacked was objective holders, and next time I wil remedy that with Marauders. Next game was against the same opponent but with his Dark Elf Army! He brought in Malekith for the epic fluff, so it should be an excellent game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent of Chaos Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Great write up! Keep em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somanlius Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Game two with the Everchosen vs Dark Elves! I used list 2 with the Warriors and Warshrine, hoping to have an objective holder and a nice buffer on the field. My opponent had a pretty cool list; Malekith, Celestial Battlemage on Hurracanum (converted from the Cauldron of Blood) , 2 groups of 10 Bleakswords, 20 Darkshards, a Reaper Bolt Thrower, and 30 Blackguard. We ended up rolling for a scenario and got Duality of Death, which wasn't great since you need Heroes or Behemoths to capture objectives and we both only had two. We each deployed in a clump in the middle of the board, huddled around our shrines in the middle for our buffs. He finished deploying first somehow and made me take the first turn. I threw up a mystic shield on my Gaunt Summoner and buffed up the Daemonforged Blades Varanguard with the Warshrine in my hero phase and used Archaon's command ability. In the movement phase I moved the Gaunt Summoner up 17" to grab the objective on my left and positioned the rest of my units in a clump around the Warshrine. I knew Malekith could easily take the other objective, and would have to to keep up in points, so I left it empty of opposition. I just hoped the Gaunt Summoner could withstand the barrage of missile attacks long enough for him to heal a bit in turn 2. I got 1 point here. In my opponent's turn he was too far to hit me with any magic so he put a Mystic Shield on his Blackguard and an Inspiring Prescence on them and started moving up the board. The Darkshards moved into range of the Gaunt Summoner while the rest of his foot soldiers and Hurracanum shifted over to place themselves in front of the Varanguard to block any charges. Malekith moved and ran up to take the objective. In his shooting phase, after a moments descussion, he targeted my Warshrine with the Bolt Thrower to knock down its buff radius. He managed 3 wounds on it, which successfully took the range down to 7", leaving the Gaunt Summoner exposed. Next was the Hurracanum shooting at the Summoner. He managed to get 6 mortal wounds from the ranged attacks but I had the Chaos Talisman again and shrugged off 2 wounds. The Gaunt Summoner was alive with 1 wound! He then put 30 shots from his Darkshards into the Ensorcelled Weapons Varanguard and 10 into the Summoner. It was a gamble, and it definitely didn't pay off. The Gaunt Summoner managed to survive the barrage and was left standing after a lucky 6 for the Talisman roll, while the Varanguard only took 1 wound. End of his turn and he got 1 point. The roll off didn't favor me this game and my friend got a double turn. This time he was in range of the Summoner for Comet of Cassandora and made the spell with double 6s! Since I couldn't unbind he rolled the dice and chose the Gaunt Summoner to take d6 mortal wounds. He rolled a 4 and the Gaunt Summoner couldn't save them and went down. He tried a Mystic Shield from Malekith but it failed and he was slightly out of position for Inspiring Prescence. He moved up his Bleakswords and Blackguard closer to my line and followed behind with the Hurracanum and the Bolt Thrower, but Malekith stayed put. I was pretty happy such a massive point investmemt was going to waste so far. But the 30 Blackguard about to charge my Daemonforged Weapons Varanguard looked intimidating with their 2" range and buff from the Hurracanum. In the shooting phase he targeted my Warshrine with the Bolt Thrower again but only did 1 wound this time. The Darkshards unloaded on my Ensorcelled Weapons Varanguard but hardly dented them, one Varanguard lost another wound. But the Hurracanum targeted the same unit and managed to kill one off and wound another. In the charge phase it was the Blackguard's turn to wreak havoc. The idea was to make a decent 10" charge to lock up two units on Varanguard, the Warshrine, and the Warriors, but they rolled a 7 after their rerolls! They were only able to engage the Daemonforged Blades Vranguard, though they were still within the Hurracanum's radius. They piled in to attack and did some serious damage, leaving only 1 Varanguard remaining. The Varanguard attacked back and killed off 4 Blackguard. No battleshock for either of us, so the end of his turn he was ahead 3-1. My turn and I started off with a Mystic Shield from Archaon on the Fell Spears Varanguard. Next I put an Arcane Bolt into the Blackguard, since all the other units were out of range, and got 2 mortal wounds on them. The Warshrine got its buff off on the Fell Spears Varanguard and after Warlord Without Equal I went onto the movement phase. The Fell Spears Varanguard moved to flank the Blackguard and Archaon siezed the objective while being guarded by the Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard. I positioned the Warshrine in a great place so it would be able to keep 7" from all but the Ensorcelled Weapons unit after their charges. The Fell Spears and Warriors charged the Blackguard while Archaon and the Ensorcelled Weapons charged into the Darkshards. The Fell Spears went first and hammered the Blackguard, killing almost half of the unit. In retaliation his Blackguard hit back and got my last Daemonforged Weapon Varanguard down to 1 wound left. Archaon swung next and totally wiffed on his rolls! He only killed two Darkshards, but at least one died to the Heads so the Nurgle head puked up on the Hurracanum and did three wounds! The Darkshards did nothing to the Ensorcelled Weapons Varanguard and Archaon while the Fell Spears attacked again with their once per game ability. The Blackguard lost another 10 models to their deadly spears. The Warriors attacked next and left 2 Blackguard standing. Finally the Daemonforged Weapon Varanguard attacked and scored 3 mortal wounds on the Blackguard, killing the unit, but I rolled a 1 on the fourth mortal wound, missed the save and he went down too! The Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard attacked and killed off a few Darkshards. In the battleshock phase Archaon helped make a few more Darkshards flee. Points were at 3-2. I needed to win the roll off to get him off the objective but I rolled low again and the Dark Elves took the next turn. In the hero phase he went for a Comet of Cassandora on my Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard but Archaon was able to unbind it. Next Malekith tried a Mystic Shield but failed the casting roll. Then he cast Arcane Bolt on the Fell Spears Varanguard but they ignored the spell with their Shields. In the movement phase the Bleakswords and Hurracanum pulled back and tried to make it toward the objective and Malekith, while the Witch King moved back slightly to avoid a charge from the Fell Spears. In the shooting phase the Bolt Thrower, Hurracanum, and Darkshards all took shots at the Encorcelled Weapons Varanguard and managed to kill one and leave the final model with one wound left. In the charge phase a single unit of Bleakswords charged my Chaos Warriors and attacked with good rolls, killing one and wounding another. The Darkshards didn't do anything before Archaon wiped out the rest of the unit and puked again on the second unit of Bleakswords. The Warriors attacked the Bleakswords and killed only two. Unfortunately for the Bleakswords I was abke to pile in the Fell Spears and finish them off. The Warriors passed battleshock easily. Score was now 6-2 and it was looking grim for me. My turn and I tried to put a Mystic Shield on Archaon but failed the roll and had my Arcane Bolt unbound by the Hurracanum. The Warshrine also failed its buff, so this turn my army would be buffless. Warlord Without Equal and then onto the movement phase. I decided to risk it and abandon the objective and moved Archaon and the Ensorcelled Weapons up to try to make a charge into the Hurracanum. The Fell Spears moved close to the middle of the board to hopefully get a double turn charge on Malekith while the Warriors and Warshrine clunked up the middle as well. Archaon and the Ensorcelled Weapons rolled low in the charge phase so couldnt quite make it into the Hurracanum. The Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard was within 3" so I hoped I could smash the Hurracanum after wiping out its bubblewrap Bleaksword guardians. Archaon attacked first and wiffed again and couldnt wipe out the unit. He did manage to kill with the Heads again so the Nurgle head puked on the Bolt Thrower crew and killed them both . The Bleakswords didn't manage a wound so the Varanguard tried to finish them but they wiffed too and couldnt finish them. What I couldn't kill battleshock took care of, and at the end of the turn it was still 6-2 going into battle round 4. In the roll off the Dark Elves won again. Malekith tried anotner Mystic Shield which failed again and an Arcane Bolt was deflected by the Varanguard's shield once more. The Hurracanum was unbound by Archaon once again, so his hero phase really fizzled that round. He decided the retreat his Hurracanum to try to run it into range of Malekith but rolled low on the run and couldnt get into range. Malekith decided it was time to move and flew over to the Fell Spears to ensure they didnt get a charge off. Malekith tried to use some Dragon breath but no dice. He charged the Witch King and started combat. Amazingly Malekith totally wiffed on his rolls and didnt even hurt a Varanguard! They swung back and only did a single wound but it was a good laugh for both of us. End of his turn and its still 6-2. My turn and this was the end for the Dark Elves! Archaon managed a Mystic Shield on himself that didnt get unbound, and shot off an Arcane Bolt at the Hurracanum for 2 mortal wounds. Warshrine managed to buff Archaon for that extra punch, then the Command ability went up and off to movement. The Warshrine lumbered out of the way to make room for Archaon while the Ensorcelled Weapons and Chaos Warriors made for the Hurracanum. Archaon was positioned 8" away from Malekith and rolled up a 10" charge! The Warriors and Ensorcelled Weapons both made it into the Hurracanum. Archaon started things off woth some serious damage, bringing Malekith down to 7 wounds remaining! Thats after his unnerfed halving wounds and mortal wounds, so that felt pretty epic. Malekith swung into the Varanguard but amazingly wiffed again and did no damage . The Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard went next and wiped out the wounded Hurracanum, then the Fell Spears took Malekith down to 5 wounds remaining. End of battle round 4, still 6-2, but a roll off was next. I won the roll, sealing Malekith's fate. We decided to call it there before the Witch King bit the dust. Game two with Everchosen was another tabling victory. Its pretty cool to table twice in a row. I dont think I have ever won via tabling until using Everchosen. The Warshrine really was useful in this game, as there were a lot of mortal wounds flying around from the Hurracanum and spells. The Warriors were no help in this game, but that was just bad luck on this particular scenario. It was unfortunate that Malekith rolled so poorly at the end of the game but I wasnt dissapointed in seeing Archaon vs Malekith go so well for the Grand Marshal of the Apocalypse! I'm excited to try this list again. Next game on Wednesday is a Triumph and Treachery game vs Free People and Gutbusters so it should be interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightbox Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Glad to see you using everchosen well! I recently got a box of varanguard off my friend for use with my slaves to darkness & tzeentch chaos. I was thinking of going with fell spears for the charge pain. One question though. How difficult are varanguard and archaon to paint? I would love archaon but the idea of painting him terrifies me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somanlius Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 6 minutes ago, Lightbox said: Glad to see you using everchosen well! I recently got a box of varanguard off my friend for use with my slaves to darkness & tzeentch chaos. I was thinking of going with fell spears for the charge pain. One question though. How difficult are varanguard and archaon to paint? I would love archaon but the idea of painting him terrifies me. I just started the Varanguard this week. There is a ton of detail but they are large enough that it's not too bad. It might get a little tedious doing all the drybrushing but it doesnt look too bad at the moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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