Wulfrik the Wanderer

They are a bit confused. Unfortunately in Khorne, Archaon can only fight twice, because they are referring to the Slaughter Host: Reapers of Vengeance Command ability which activates at the start of the combat phase. It is an easy oversight, but the Chaos Lord on foot's command ability allows a Slaves to Darkness Unit wholly within 12" can fight a Second time in the combat phase. The issue in Khorne is, both are spent at the beginning of the Combat Phase and the Reapers of Vengeance command ability says "After fighting for the first time in the combat phase, this model may immediately fight again." Although paraphrasing, the important bit is "After fighting the first time". The Chaos Lord on foot's command ability allows a "Slaves to Darkness Unit to be chosen to fight a Second time" the important bit being "Second Time". They are unfortunately replacement effects and don't add up to 3 times attacking in combat. I would just bag the Reapers of Vengeance Slaughterhost and take a Chaos Lord if I were running him in Khorne. (Play Blood Lords, it is better and Archaon can use Command Points to heal himself). Bloodtithe ability to fight "a third time" is a waste of bloodtithe and is highly situational. It occurs in the Hero phase anyway. Best only used to fight and free himself up so he can then move, so he can charge and fight another target. However, I would just cast spells and use a Nurgle Head ability to kill the targets in that situation and then save the Bloodtithe for an Insensate Rage or Exploding 6's, or a 20 man drop of Bloodletters on an objective. If you are hell-bent on getting the big boy to fight 3 times, you are better off in Slaanesh, using the Chaos Lord (again) to make Archaon fight a Second time, then a Keeper of Secrets to allow him to fight a third time (Keeper of Secrets allows a unit to fight again, regardless of how many times it has fought in the combat phase, however can only be targeted once with this command ability). So Archaon can fight 3 times, but I the problem becomes "do I have enough to kill within 3" of me?" because I can tell you through experience, Archaon, after fighting 2 times, leaves little remaining to pile in again. So best keeping to the fighting twice in Khorne and bringing a Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury to allow him to pile in 6".

Along this lines, 16" of fly is amazing! Screamers are probably the chaff model I would take over Marauder horesmen, as they don't have that crappy bravery the horsemen do. Why I feel the Gaunt Summoner on Disk is way better then the one on foot and only 20 points more(?)! Give him the miasmic blade from Ulgu, the Illusionist Command Trait, and that sweet Tzeentch Locus! Watch him fly by and drop a unit of Pink Horrors on an objective and fly away! -3 to hit will keep him riding around the board with his Tzaangor Enlightened and Skyfire buddies!

There has been a lot of errata to the text in the Battletome. All command traits and artefacts can be taken by all Khorne heroes, regardless of whether they are Daemon or Mortal. The only ones that are specific are Command Abilities for the various Hosts, but even then you need to read the text in the historium of the Errata. So yes, Blood Lords "Slaughterer's Thirst" and "Halo of Blood" can be taken with a Khorne Mortal unit, like the Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut.

So the new errata changed the awesome Nurgle Daemon Prince's Nurgle Command Ability to be more fair (Heavy Nerf LoLz!) and now all models in a unit have to have the same weapons loadout (Chaos Warriors have to ALL have double hand weapons or greatblades or runeshields - no WYSIWYG). All in all, playing a Khorne Tyrants of Blood list with a block of "double hand weapon" Chaos Warriors in a block of 20 was amazing! I took this in a tournament prep for LVO this last week before the errata. Rerolling hits, then whip them with a Bloodstoker for rerolling wound rolls, and rerolling save rolls gave this giant unkillable block the movement they need to get into action! With the +1 to run and charge from the horn blower and the +3 to run and charge from the Bloodstoker, they get in most of the time. Buff them with a bloodsecrator and they become far more kill-y! Also a fun tidbit of discovery - in the new Disciples of Tzeentch book, the Gaunt Summoner on Disk is both mortal and daemon. If taken from Ulgu, you can get -1 to hit from the miasmic blade Artefact, -1 to hit from the Illusionist Command Trait for Tzeentch Mortals, and the innate -1 to hit from the Tzeentch Locus for Tzeentch Daemon units makes the Gaunt Summoner on Disk a safe bet for lots of spells and mortal wounds! Drop a unit of Pink Horrors on an objective and fly 16" to the next objective! Slaves to Darkness units have lots of great synergies in lots of other factions as well. Nurgle I have found to be the best mark to build around as it helps nerf the Big Waagh buffs to hit rolls and nerfs Shootcast lists. Combined with S2D movement with knights and chariots, and especially the beloved Marauders! it allows you have the speed to get to the objectives, the tankyness to hold them, and with rerolling wound rolls and daemonic power, combined with the incredible damage potential of your new Slaves to Darkness units, you really have the best of all worlds!

Khorne is descent, but exploding 6s can add more attacks if the roll is spiked, and at worst, sures up attack rolls. It is as good as "rerolling hits". The volume of attacks allows the weight of the dice to allow more spiked rolls. Marauders, slaanesh mark for sure. The number of attacks is just too good to not bring slaanesh mark. Only issue with Khorne is you need to plan on bringing those pieces and build around it. Otherwise, it ends up being a points tax. A build with Khorne needs to comit to being Khorne. And Archaon double pile-in is great, three pile-ins in Slaanesh right now is even better. The problem with double pile-in, is you need to have models left to pile-in to. Since you spend the CP at the beginning of the combat phase with the Chaos Lord on foot, it might end up being a wast without a Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury giving Archaon a 6" pile in, Archaon might just (and often does) kill his way out of combat (might not be a bad thing, but if wasting a CP then I'd rather not). If I was fighting it, I would pull from the front of my units and pull him out of combat, allowing me to charge back with other units, possibly getting buffs and benefits. Khorne mark gives +1 to wound. Well most of Archaon's abilities hit on a 2+ anyways, and giving an aura effect for your Varanguard to get +1 to wound is still not as good as a 3+ rerolling. And you would be rerolling everything using Daemonic Power. Besides, in a critical review of the Hedonites Battletome, the only thing that breaks the exploding 6's rules is the lack of rerolling. Rerolling everything into exploding 6's often sees far more additional attacks than a Bloodsecrator would provide. Example: rolling 18 dice on 3+ to hit 3+ to wound rerolling both, 6's generating additional hits allows me to get about 22 hits followed by 18 wounds at -1 rend 2 damage each. This compared to a 19 hits, 16 wounds -1 2 damage each. It just mathematically is better to mark slaanesh unless you specifically build for Khorne. Khorne isn't bad, it is actually very, very good. But with the list provided, I would do Slaanesh. If you change things up, Khorne might become more viable. (I main Khorne everything btw, so not just a biased HoS duche)

Competitively or just as a casual list? Battalion is super situational, I would not take it in Everchosen as it becomes redundant. I would use it as a way to get Circles outside of playing Everchosen lists. That being said, if you are looking for competitive lists with Archaon and some Varanguard you might have even better luck in Despoilers or Ravagers. That said, Everchosen would still work! Archaon's 18" aura in Everchosen is large, but you would want to cover the rest of the battlefield as your Varanguard are going to need to run in different directions depending on the scenarios. It is a very viable list, but I would augment it with a few things: Slaves to Darkness : Everchosen, Realm Aqshy (2000pts) Heroes: Archaon (800pts)- General, Slaanesh Mark, Spell - Spite-tongue Curse Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)- Artefact - Ignax's Scales, Slaanesh Mark, Spell - Mask of Darkness Units: Varanguard (300pts)- Battleline, Slaanesh Mark Varanguard (300pts)- Battleline, Slaanesh Mark Varanguard (300pts)- Battleline, Slaanesh Mark Chaos Warshrine (170pts)- Slaanesh Mark Endless Spells: Suffocating Gravetide (20pts) 82 wounds Having another hero besides Archaon gives you flexibility with the aura effects. You don't need to stay under the auras, but exploding 6's on the Varanguard's 18 attacks 3+ 3+ -1 2 (obviously take 6th circle, just do it) is sure to free them up for another charge which you need to keep up the killing power of your army. Having a Chaos Lord to give rerolls to everything to a unit of Varanguard (or Archaon) to get in will pay dividends, and the Warshrine's aura will give your Varanguard a much needed Mortal Wound shrug. Also, your Warshrine can simulate Daemonic power by doing the Unmarked Prayer on a 3+ to another unit of Varanguard (or Archaon). You will have 2 command points a turn with Archaon on the field so one for you to By My Will a unit of Varanguard just incase they take a nasty crack-back swing or to reroll a charge, and one to see who is going next. I would recommend doing the later first. Most important thing about Varanguard I tell people is to almost always do the once per battle double pile in if they didn't quite finish off the unit. Getting them to charge again is going to be the goal of the army and eventually how you will win. I do recomment dropping a unit of Varanguard if you are looking at a tournament, and bringing 40 marauders in Slaanesh Mark. The ignoring battleshock with Everchosen will make it an even more deadly unit moving up the field.

Reduction to charges is nice, but without shooting units that are reliable, I would rather get in combat by any means than keep units out (exluding knights with lances of course). Best thing in my opinion is let the opponent charge and just make your dudes super tanky, which you have a myriad of ways to do. You could be Unmarked with a Chaos Warshrine. If you have CP to spend bring a Harbinger of Decay and a Chaos Warshrine. You could try my favorite strategy of increasing the threshold of what your enemy needs to even make their first dice roll by bringing the Lord of Blights -2 to hit in shooting and -1 to hit in melee if you have over 10 models. I bring Ravagers and take the Master of Deception command trait and the Miasmic Blade from Ulgu. Nurgle mark everything and bring a Lord of Blights and your opponent's "Top Tier Faction" goes back to bottom tier as he struggles with a -3 to hit your general and -2 to shoot your units (-1 in melee). Also the Nurgle Daemon Prince has a great deterring ability for that friend of yours who always rolls hot, spend a CP and watch those Grots and Daemonettes die with 6's doing d3 MWs back at them! Combined with the minus's to hit, 6's are what they'll need to even do damage to you, and with the punish, it becomes a lose-lose scenario.

Mammoth with Slaanesh Mark and Daemonic Power and Oracular Visions is a beast. I took down a fully buffed unit of 30 witchelves and a cauldron before he went down. He is great with Archaon and the horror ghast endless spell in all Bravery Bomb lists (don't take BB lists vs DoK fyi). I love using him because he has great wound output and lots of wounds to soak up the damage. Play him in Despoilers for greatest effect as all Monsters on a 4+ in your hero phase heal d3 wounds. Combined with the Despoilers Command Trait "Radiance of Dark Glory" on a 3+ he can heal another wound. I like to play Archaon because he gets the Monster heal, doesn't need to be the general so you can get the Radiance of Dark Glory heal, and you can pick the Khorne Head to possibly heal 3d3 wounds in your hero phase! Bring a mammoth and a ton of marauders for flavor! Make unmarked if you want more tanky-ness and bring along a Warshrine, You'll be surprised how hard those big tankers are to remove!

I find in my CoS lists, I use lots of Stormcast to fill my holes. A Lord Celestant on Star Drake with Iron Oak Artisan in Living City is a tanky-killy hammer of a unit that helps deliver solid distraction and is useful to fight other large units on the board. I couple this with ranged Irondrakes and a Runelord painted in a scheme that complements my Stormcast. Sometimes, if I feel particularly shooty, I bring in a unit of 9 Vanguard Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows. My battleline consist of Longbeards, sometimes Pheonix Guard with a Emerald Lifeswarm if I feel like it. The amount of wounds brought to the board are high, and there is no points limit to the size of units of Stormcast you can bring, but rather a unit count limitation. You see, you can play your "Dispossessed" or your "Pheonix Guard" and might not have all the units you need to make it wholly a "Darkling Covens" list, but you can supplement Stormcast, or Kharadron Overlords and Sylvaneth respectively. It just seems to be that the right tools for the job are simply not being taken in people's lists. A Darkling Covens army might not have enough Darkshards, but might be heavy in Drakespawn knights. I say just ally in some Vanguard-Raptors which are about $30 a box and not expensive. If they lack cavalry, bring in some Fulminators. A unit of 2 for $50 will do nicely. If you need solid monsters/biguns, Hydra's in a Living City army are especially tanky and can deliver quite a punch! But if you need more, bring the Celestant-Prime to deliver an incredible amount of damage. I have found CoS to be highly competitive with solid choices of 1 wound battleline for relatively cheap (both money wise and points wise) that can easily be brought back with an Emerald Lifeswarm. Use these to screen your amazingly overpowered ranged options and watch you play 40k with your melee based opponent! If a CoS player wants to be competative, they most certainly can be, $30-80 is more than enough to send any army into the right direction, it all comes down to correctly diagnosing what your army lacks and filling the holes. Example: A CoS Greywater Fastness list I made to Alpha Strike at my local tournament. Runelord (90) - General; Command Trait - Ghoul Mere Ranger Runelord (90) - City Role : General's Adjutant Cogsmith (60) - Artefact: Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope Celestant-Prime (340) Knight-Incantor (140) - Artefact: Ghyrstrike; Spell - Choking Fumes 10 x Longbeards (110) - Ancestral Weapons & Shields; City Role : Honoured Retinue 10 x Longbeards (110) - Ancestral Weapons & Shields 10 x Irondrakes (150) 10 x Irondrakes (150) 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130) 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130) Helstorm Rocket Battery (130) Helstorm Rocket Battery (130) Battalions : Greywater Artillery Company (120) Endless Spells : Emerald Lifeswarm (50) Extra Command Point (50) Irondrakes are the bane of Keepers of Secrets, which seem to be a popular choice in my local meta. Bump those Grudgehammers up to Rend 3 and they have no save. Not only that, but your first turn (assuming they play for the double turn as with most CoS you have a ton of drops!) you hit hard. This list on average delivers about 35 unsaved wounds during its' first turn of combat against an army of a 4+ save. With Slaanesh (again local meta) it is even better since most of their roster have a 5+ save. This army sacrifices units like the Sisters of Thorn as a bit of a "Chaff" unit to keep your irondrakes safe, but the good news is if they don't die, you can easily bring them back with the Emerald Lifeswarm! The Celestant-Prime can be swapped for some more units and a group of fulminators, but in my tournament, I found it better to bring the assassin/shooting powerhouse he is. This army was built with the armies I had and got me pretty far in the tournament I played in.

Well, if you chose to take him in a Hedonites of Slaanesh army, he would be able to benefit from certain battalions, spells, and most of all, Locus of Diversion. Which is pretty cool!

Yes this is what would happen. This is only possible due to his "Slaves to Darkness" and each individual keyword on his warscroll. Since Aura's only look for keywords, and none are removed due to the Aura of Chaos allegiance ability, then you can benefit so long as you have an appropriately marked slaves to darkness hero nearby. Difficulty comes with 1. keeping up with Archaon and 2. getting that Phat Base wholly within 12".

But you are forgetting that this little excerpt is under the "Aura of Chaos" part. Also, you are not removing Keywords from a Warscroll anywhere with the Allegiance ability, which is the point I was making. And the Aura's only care about if a Slaves to Darkness <god keyword> unit is wholly within 12". The way to think of this little tid-bit on the allegiance ability is that it limits Archaon's ability if you made him the General, so that you would not have all the General "Buffs" or exude multiple marks onto his lonesome self. This states nothing against his ability to get buffs from his buddies as separate units.

Incorrect, but close. Actually the Aura's specifically are "emanating" from the heroes. A hero with multiple Marks of Chaos (ie. Archaon) can exude only one for the remainder of the Battlefield. So Archaon would get his buff 100% of the time, however, under the text for each of the Auras state there after, each aura looks for Slaves to Darkness <Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle, Tzeentch> is wholly within 12" of the hero emanating the Aura, then they get the effect. This is to keep any one hero from exuding multiple auras, not from benefiting from multiple auras. Aura of Chaos: Each Slaves To Darkness Hero in a Slaves to Darkness army has one of the following Aura of Chaos abilities. The Aura of Chaos a Hero has is determined by its Mark of Chaos keyword. Khorne Heroes have the Aura of Khorne. Tzeentch Heroes have the Aura of Tzeentch. Nurgle Heroes have the Aura of Nurgle. Slaanesh Heroes have the Aura of Slaanesh, and Undivided Heroes have the Aura of Chaos Undevided. If you select a unit with more than one Mark of Chaos keyword to be part of your army, you must pick which one will apply to that unit for the duration of the battle. If we look at the Aura of Khorne for example we can infer that the units benefiting from the aura of chaos simply benefit and are not "looking" for the hero. The Aura simply states that any "Slaves to Darkness Khorne" unit "wholly within 12"" gets "x" effect. Since Archaon picks which Aura he exudes and does NOT remove any of the keywords on his warscroll, then he benefits from the effect. Aura of Khorne: You can re roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made with melee weapons by friendly Slaves to Darkness Khrone units wholly within 12" of this model. In addition, if this model is a general, add 1 to wound rolls for attacks made with melee weapons by friendly Slaves to Darkness Khorne units wholly within 12" of this model. So we can see that logically, if Archaon had a Khorne Slaves to Darkness Hero, a Nurgle Slaves to Darkness Hero, and a Tzeentch Slaves to Darkness Hero near by him (assuming we take him with the Slaanesh Aura, I mean... come on?!) then Archaon would get the base benefit from each of their emanated Aura's of Chaos whilst only emanating one himself (Slaanesh). The text for the auras were written carefully by screen-shotting the book and duplicating it verbatim.

New to SCE. My store is doing a Necroquake event to celebrate the new Forbidden Power that has hit the shelves. They also want to break in the new terrain they have received. However the rest of my friends are planning on bringing competitive lists to play in these battles (Skaven, BoK, DoK, SCE, and LoN). The format is 2000pt with battle line requirements, the catch is that your army can change if wanted through the matches, but your general stays the same. I wanted to run a Stormcast list rather than doing my normal go to - Blades of Khorne. Here is the list I am thinking: Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals - Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar LEADERS Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (560) - General - Command Trait : We Cannot Fail - Stormbound Blade - Artefact : God-forged Blade - Mount Trait : Star-branded Lord-Castellant (100) Gavriel Sureheart (100) Loremaster (140) - Allies Excelsior Warpriest (80) - Allies UNITS 3 x Aetherwings (50) 3 x Aetherwings (50) 6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (360) 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 2 x Concussors (260) TOTAL: 2000/2000 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 0 WOUNDS: 101 LEADERS: 5/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+) BEHEMOTHS: 1/4 ARTILLERY: 0/4 ARTEFACTS: 1/1 ALLIES: 140/400 Idea of the list is to buff the dragon to reroll everything and send it in after a series of continuous fire from the Vanguard-Raptors at 30". Casting Hand of Glory with the Loremaster on a 5 to reroll Hit rolls and Wound rolls for the model. The Lord-Castellant to give the dragon a +1 to save and heal on 6's (become 7's). Gavriel Sureheart is my backup to reinforce or hammer any position that needs more "umph" with a unit of Concussors in deepstrike (they land, shoot MWs, then charge and most likely get MWs and keep enemy units from piling in). Aetherwings intercept charging units keen on stopping my Vanguard-Raptors, and the free (1 model) Gryph Hound from the Castellant gives off warning calls for any deep striking or teleporting units getting near them. Liberators are there to grab and hold objectives amid the chaos. Question: Should I drop the Stardrake and Excelsior Warpriest and Aetherwings to bring in a Lord-Celestant on Dracoth General with Vandus Hammerhand and 4x Fulminators? Would the Mortal Wound output of the Fulminator's shooting attacks in combo with LC on Dracoth with Vandus be more consistent then a LC on Stardrake? And the magic does seem low, but is it too low to be viable? Any tips would be great and appreciated! **note: not concerned with picking who goes first, hence the many drops and no battalions.

My store is doing a Necroquake event to celebrate the new Forbidden Power that has hit the shelves. They also want to break in the new terrain they have received. However the rest of my friends are planning on bringing competitive lists to play in these battles (Skaven, BoK, DoK, SCE, and LoN). The format is 2000pt with battle line requirements, the catch is that your army can change if wanted through the matches, but your general stays the same. I wanted to run a Stormcast list rather than doing my normal go to - Blades of Khorne. Here is the list I am thinking: Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals - Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar LEADERS Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (560) - General - Command Trait : We Cannot Fail - Stormbound Blade - Artefact : God-forged Blade - Mount Trait : Star-branded Lord-Castellant (100) Gavriel Sureheart (100) Loremaster (140) - Allies Excelsior Warpriest (80) - Allies UNITS 3 x Aetherwings (50) 3 x Aetherwings (50) 6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (360) 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 5 x Liberators (100) - Warhammer & Shield - 1 x Grandhammers 2 x Concussors (260) TOTAL: 2000/2000 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 0 WOUNDS: 101 LEADERS: 5/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+) BEHEMOTHS: 1/4 ARTILLERY: 0/4 ARTEFACTS: 1/1 ALLIES: 140/400 Idea of the list is to buff the dragon to reroll everything and send it in after a series of continuous fire from the Vanguard-Raptors at 30". Casting Hand of Glory with the Loremaster on a 5 to reroll Hit rolls and Wound rolls for the model. The Lord-Castellant to give the dragon a +1 to save and heal on 6's (become 7's). Gavriel Sureheart is my backup to reinforce or hammer any position that needs more "umph" with a unit of Concussors in deepstrike (they land, shoot MWs, then charge and most likely get MWs and keep enemy units from piling in). Aetherwings intercept charging units keen on stopping my Vanguard-Raptors, and the free (1 model) Gryph Hound from the Castellant gives off warning calls for any deep striking or teleporting units getting near them. Liberators are there to grab and hold objectives amid the chaos. Question: Should I drop the Stardrake and Excelsior Warpriest and Aetherwings to bring in a Lord-Celestant on Dracoth General with Vandus Hammerhand and 4x Fulminators? Would the Mortal Wound output of the Fulminator's shooting attacks in combo with LC on Dracoth with Vandus be more consistent then a LC on Stardrake? Any tips would be great and appreciated! **note: not concerned with picking who goes first, hence the many drops and no battalions.