Saturday, January 8, 2011

Denizens of Commorragh - Court of the Archon


The Court of the Archon is one of those odd units, that I am wishing for an errata on. At first to me it seems like a great idea, however I think it will be one of those extremely rare units on the tabletop due to a couple factors. The Court of the Archon is a unit of favoured bodyguards meant to be extremely varied with 4 types.

First off, to take one you must also take an archon. Asdrubael Vect of Lady Malys will count towards that number. If you take a court of the archon, you currently must take at least one of each type. This is what I am hoping to see an errata for.

Medusae. 1-2 Visored slave beings that float around like brain looking jellyfish. These sound cool. WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I5 A1 Ld 9 Sv5+. They can open their visor and paralyse those under their gaze with raw anguish that puts their victims into a coma. Flamer Template S1d6+1 APd6 Assault1. They are fleet and come with power through pain.

Ur-Ghuls. 1-5 A sightless but agile troglodyte, once it has smelt you with its rows of scent-pits, it tracks you down to violently rip you apart. WS4 BS0 S4 T3 W1 I5 A3 Ld3 Sv-. It comes with claws and teeth which count as a single close combat weapon, and has Fleet, Feel no Pain, and Furious Charge.

Lhamaeans. 1-2 These are a mysterious sisterhood that are lovers as well as poisoners without equal. It is said that a kiss blown in the wind by one will kill in seconds. WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I5 A1 Ld9 Sv5+. They come with a splinter pistol, and a poisoned weapon 2+. Fleet, night vision, and power from pain, Mistress of Poisons (All poisoned weapons shooting and close combat by the Lhamaeans and the Archon she belongs to are upgraded to wounding on a  2+.

Sslyth. 1-3 Alien mercenaries, these are a serpentine bodied warrior fiend, whose race fell to temptations of excess a millennia ago. They have two sets of arms sporting guns and sharp blades. WS4 BS4 S5 T5 W2 I4 A3 Ld3 Sv5+. They carry a shardcarbine, close combat weapon, and splinter pistol. They have the rules, fleet, and feel no pain. (no power through pain).

The unit is not a retinue, and can take a dedicated transport, Raider or Venom. They do not take up a force organization slot.

Now what do we do with these. First off take the base unit which is one of each. Give them a raider and we are now sitting at 135pts. Add in another Medusae and at least one more Sslyth. Now we are up to 185pts. The unit comes with two flamer templates, and some decent backbone with two Sslyths. You can run it this way, however I think we will need some fighting strength in this unit, and Ur-Ghuls with their I5 and furious charge are cheap to add. Adding in 4 more for a total of 5 gives us a fantastic number of attacks for this unit at 245 with transport. You are looking at 35 attacks on the charge.

You can go that route to make them decent close combat unit which is expensive point wise, or do as I think I prefer, a stripped down court with a Raider and two medusae. 150pts.

The Court of the Archon really is over priced as it is. Yes you get a multi-stat lined unit, but so what. Get yourself a Beastmaster unit and call it a day. Same point cost gives you upwards into the 70 close combat attacks. Really, if you are taking a court of the archon, you either like the flamer templates that much, or you are looking for another slot that you can get a vehicle out of.

If you are taking them just to get raiders, keep them cheap. Two extra raiders in your list might not be such a bad thing if your are running Archons. It takes your maximum vehicle count up to 14 if you do. With Vect you can maximize it at 15. However 14 raider/venom/ravagers is just fine.

Overall I wont be taking the Court of the Archon. If they come out with cool models, I might end up with some, however as it currently stands they will not be seeing the tabletop as they are currently written. I highly doubt anyone else will truly field them either.