Buffing Archaon

[TheFrenchBaron]

Hi all

Im not a competitive player and I'm looking for a bit of advice on the best ways to buff Archaon if I'm going to play a competitive game against a 'gamey' player. At the moment I'm thinking of taking the following to buff him;

1) Lord of Khorne on a Juggernaut : for the +1 to wound 

2) Lord of Slaanesh on a Daemonic Mount : for the double attack

3) Chaos Sorcerer Lord : for his reroll 1s spell

4) Bloodsecrator: additional attack

I'd run with a unit of Varanguard and 3x 20 Bloodreavers .

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Arkiham]

Just take the slaanesh lord. Don't ruin the list by focusing everything on archaon he can only do so much an be in one place.

[Warchief Varard]

I use him with;

-Aspiring death bringer

-  lord of khorne on jugg

- mighty lord of khorne

But im mainly khorne bloodbound so they buff my army aswell.

[TheFrenchBaron]

Cool that's what I was thinking with the bloodsecrator, Lord on a juggernaut and sorcerer. Their spells / abilities can buff the rest of the army and the varanguard if I align them to Khorn. So the buffs aren't wasted just on Archaon.

Plus Archaon buffs the Varanguard so they should be quite killy whilst hopefully my opponent focuses on Archaon. 

[Nico]

You're better off piling a load of buffs onto the Varanguard! At least they have either -2 rend on the charge or mortal wound attacks.

You could buff Archaon through the roof and he still couldn't scratch 10 Temple Guard in cover with mystic shield and a Skink Priest.

[BrAiKo]

Given he has pretty much all of the chaos keywords (don't forget he's a daemon too), any buff that uses a keyword will likely help him.  There must be a lot of options.

[Aspirant Snaeper]

3 hours ago, BrAiKo said:

Given he has pretty much all of the chaos keywords (don't forget he's a daemon too), any buff that uses a keyword will likely help him.  There must be a lot of options.

It will also hurt him. The Hero, Monster and Daemon tags are some of the most popular that buff his opponent's attacks. 

[Warchief Varard]

I wouldent build the army to buff him, he buffs the army by allowing you to stack all command buffs you have in the army on the army/him.

[TheFrenchBaron]

I see your points, it's risky having all your eyes in 1 basket, his strength of having all the key words is also a weakness and he he relies on the special attack from the slayer of kings for damage and doesn't have much rend. 

Therefore do you think it's better going for;

Archaon

Lord of Khorne on a Juggernaut 

Lord of Slaanesh on a Daemonic mount

 bloodsecrator 

2x 3 varanguard 

3x 10 Bloodreavers

The theory being Archaon, the juggerlord and bloodsecrator all can buff the varanguard. Plus I get get all the Varanguard and Archaon to double attack for 1 turn. The opponent should focus on Archaon but the Varanguard will do the damage. 

[Warchief Varard]

Love the idea on paper but all those units moving at different speeds trying for the bloodsecrator bubble is going to be tricky sometimes.

 

[TheFrenchBaron]

54 minutes ago, Warchief Varard said:

Love the idea on paper but all those units moving at different speeds trying for the bloodsecrator bubble is going to be tricky sometimes.

 

Agreed, but when you do get it to work you'd feel like a boss! I think it would be fun to play, really aggressive and sometimes it'll work and sometime it won't but it'd be fun.

 

Plus I love any model which can do special damage (like Archaon) it just makes it more fun for me. 

[Warchief Varard]

Archaeon is why i play chaos really.

[ChippyRick]

i have been writing quite a few lists with Archaon in, and the best ones so far are including atleast 2 lords with solid command abilites as mentioned above. Slaanesh Lord of Mount is one that is there everytime.

Wish the Varanguard were not so over pointed, loved the idea of running 6 but your left with no points to help them!

Like your idea with Slaanesh Lord and Khorne Lord, both have speed to keep up and good themselves.

[Slaanesh]

You can always use 2 slaanesh lords, buffing varanguard and archeon. Or eachother. 

[TheFrenchBaron]

1 hour ago, Slaanesh said:

You can always use 2 slaanesh lords, buffing varanguard and archeon. Or eachother. 

Could do but the Varanguard can double attack one turn if Archaon is on the table. So maybe better to use the points elsewhere. 

[ChippyRick]

How are people finding Varanguard under GH so far and within lists? I really want to include 6 but points are so high (even more so included with Archaon) that you dont have a list with them. Is 3 still ok for a decent damage output unit atm?

[Arkiham]

Looked at their points and then never again.

 

I don't even think about them. 

[Louzi]

I think Varanguard is pretty good, but u only play them with Archaon and that said you have to pay at least 1060 points and there is no battleline unit included.

If you want to stick with Varanguard in 2000 point games, you cant use them as propper cavalary, but as bodyguards for Archaon.

The only "must unit" is a Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount. The rest is up to u.

I tried every combination. The most solid one was Nurgle. I normally add a Harbringer of Decay, which makes Archaon and the Varanguard extremely tanky. Then I add Orghott or a GUO. Orghotts command is so good on Archaon, but GUO is doing extremely well for 240 and can heal Archaon. That said, I am still undecided which one is the better choice.

+ Plaguebearers are rly good battleline unit.

If you want to be more competetive, I would add Warmashines. I think a good list would be:

Archaon 700

3 Varanguard 360

Harbringer 140

Lord of Slaanesh 140

3x 10 Plaguebearers 300

Magma Cannon 140

Deathshrieker 120

Daemonsmith 100

= 2000 points

 

[Thomas Lyons]

On September 16, 2016 at 3:49 PM, Louzi said:

If you want to be more competetive, I would add Warmashines. I think a good list would be:

Agreed.  A couple things:

First, in general if you are wanting to invest the same points, I would swap out the 3 chaos dwarf units for 2 plague claw catapults.  No need for LOS, solid range, and bonus damage to deal with high model count units.

Next, I would consider dropping Orghotts for a Chaos Warshrine (Nurgle).  The Warshrine grants the same re-roll wounds buff to all Nurgle Mortal units, which includes both Archaon and Varanguard as possible targets. It clocks in at 60 points cheaper and it also projects a 6+ ward bubble to all Mortal units as well (which is another ward save on Archaon), which leads me to my final point...

Using the extra 60 points from Orghotts, I would swap out the 3 units of Plaguebearers, for 50 or 60 Nurgle-marked Chaos Marauders equipped with Axes and Darkwood shields (3 units of 20, possibly one of 10).  I know, it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out.  You have the same save (5+), hitting on similar base numbers (4+ to hit; 4+ vs 3+ to wound), but double the number of possible attacks, always re-rolling 1's to hit with possible additional bonuses to hit, double the number of wounds, higher movement (6" vs. 4"), and since they are Nurgle-marked, they gain a 6+ ward save from the Warshrine and 5+ ward save from the Harbinger.  

The list then looks like this: 

• Archaon (700)
• 3 Varanguard (360)
• Harbringer (140)
• Lord of Slaanesh (140)
• Nurgle Chaos Warshrine (200)
• 20 Chaos Marauders (120)
• 20 Chaos Marauders (120)
• 10 Chaos Marauders (60)
• Plagueclaw Catapult (180)

You could drop the Plagueclaw for 30 more Marauders.  If I could get Epidemius in there, I would given how many Nurgle units are in the force.  

 

[Tasman]

You'd probably do better to bring 2 bloodsecrators. When I've used them, or played against them, they are marked for death.