Huskblade tactics?

So, I don't really use a Huskblade for my archons very often anymore, as a bad experience with orks made the archon look like a rook since he couldn't hit, so I had been using an Agoniser for a while, and it works great.

I Just like the Huskblade for the fact that its the Archons weapon, unique to him, looks nice, and also the instant-death is cool, the strength though causes wounds on 5+ and by then, if I were to finally get it, by then the Archons usually taken a beating if not dead.

Does anyone who uses it quite often have any heads up on how to make it more effective? Do very many enemy units have the rule of no instant deaths? Whats the best way to get the Archons strength up pretty fast?

The Fume Knight wrote:

Does anyone who uses it quite often have any heads up on how to make it more effective? Do very many enemy units have the rule of no instant deaths? Whats the best way to get the Archons strength up pretty fast?

In order: don't, few, don't try.

I take the Huskblade on my Archon to give him some teeth, but he's NOT an HQ who can go mano-a-mano with other leaders. Any attempt to bring him up to this level is, in my opinion, just throwing good points after bad.

I recommend burying him in a squad that presents an actual threat. Give him his Huskblade, since he'll be going first and the AP 3 can potentially clear some enemies out. While Eternal Warrior is fairly rare, FNP is ludicrously common these days, and the Huskblade is a great tool against that.

Past that, don't expect too much.

It would also reduce necron reanimation rolls while ignoring all armor but a kitted out lord.

I use the huskblade all the time. There really isn't any 'tactics' to it other than the strategy of building your bodyguard to compliment and trying to get the (mis)match you want, if it exists. If you play against forces that have multiple ICs/characters like say orks then the soultrap is worthwhile. If you only face say nids then not so much. The only other thing that you can really do to effect the blades success is to try for a cc warlord trait and/or stick him with coven PfP for eventual zealot.

Honestly I keep him cheap and use the SF to tank ID wounds for the grotsquad. The ID threat at i7 is gravy although it does pay off. He was much scarier back when he could take a venom blade and had ap 2 on the huskblade, but even then it was more about the threat then the actual damage output so that much hasn't changed.

His ideal targets: multi-wound models/units, t6 MCs, FNP units. These are usually the same units that grots excel at btw. I'm probably in the minority but I feel the soultrap actually jives better with the huskblade then the agonizer. Even +1 str on an ID weapon is a huge buff while the agonizer takes multiple successful wounds against characters before you see any tangible benefit (reroll wounds at s5, potential ID at s8+).

Brom wrote:

I use the huskblade all the time. There really isn't any 'tactics' to it other than the strategy of building your bodyguard to compliment and trying to get the (mis)match you want, if it exists. If you play against forces that have multiple ICs/characters like say orks then the soultrap is worthwhile. If you only face say nids then not so much. The only other thing that you can really do to effect the blades success is to try for a cc warlord trait and/or stick him with coven PfP for eventual zealot.

Honestly I keep him cheap and use the SF to tank ID wounds for the grotsquad. The ID threat at i7 is gravy although it does pay off. He was much scarier back when he could take a venom blade and had ap 2 on the huskblade, but even then it was more about the threat then the actual damage output so that much hasn't changed.

His ideal targets: multi-wound models/units, t6 MCs, FNP units. These are usually the same units that grots excel at btw. I'm probably in the minority but I feel the soultrap actually jives better with the huskblade then the agonizer. Even +1 str on an ID weapon is a huge buff while the agonizer takes multiple successful wounds against characters before you see any tangible benefit (reroll wounds at s5, potential ID at s8+).

While I still think the Soul Trap is throwing good points after bad, I definitely agree that it works better with the Huskblade than the Agonizer.

So, in a challenge, what would represent a 'character'? Like, I remember here when I was starting out with some noob questions months back, I do remember someone quoting something along the lines of '...And if they deny the challenge, then the soul trap is doing its work in another positive way.' and being honest thinking of that does make a good point, I feel like opponents that do notice the Huskblade is an instant kill it is something to stress about somewhat, but if I recall, someone was saying squad leaders don't count as characters, so under that circumstance it is iffy, but still, I just worry because in short, against leaders, which I guess the Huskblade will shine more, still can be negated by armor and invuln saves, so at AP3, If i recall correctly, most enemies would be having at least a decent 3+ Invuln, wounding on a 5+ is hard enough, and then when all they need is a 3+ the chances of it actually taking out some of these leaders is basically a snowballs chance in hell.

Yeah. But at least they don't get to use their feel no pain. And honestly? I don't fight against that much 3++ characters. The only one I can think of are the storm shielded Space Marines.

And as far as I remember a squad leader is a character too. So he can accept challenges and get sucked into the soul trap.

Anyone with 'character' in their profile which includes squad leaders, and then ICs obviously. It's in the rulebook. many armies have they're fair share. Certain xenos have less like us and tau while others like crons and nids have almost none. Orks and any marine faction are brimming with them. The trap let's you take a champ out of the fight at worst or, if joined by an IC let's you kill the champ and then possibly the IC.

It's worth noting that most ICs packing 3++ are also wearing 2+ armour.. aka marines. The rest usually aren't bar 1 cron and buffmander. The rest need to foot slog to acquire the 2+ so it's rare to see (or be forced to fight) these ICs.

Well against some space marine squad leaders and possible captains using things like a power fist, that has the same 'instant kill' rule on the archon since the strength is twice the toughness, so if I roll a 1, and he hits past the shadowfield, then my archon is already gone right?

The Fume Knight wrote:

Well against some space marine squad leaders and possible captains using things like a power fist, that has the same 'instant kill' rule on the archon since the strength is twice the toughness, so if I roll a 1, and he hits past the shadowfield, then my archon is already gone right?

Yes, anything that has the Instant Death rule, including attacks with Strength double (or more) your Toughness will kill you outright if you fail your Shadowfield save. Given how common it is to see S6+ weaponry in 40k, it makes our characters extremely fragile. If only they had the offensive output to compensate for that!!

And as I mentioned elsewhere, I feel the Agoniser is a much better weapon to use with the Soul Trap than the Huskblade on the basis that you do not want to be facing off against anything with multiple wounds anyway so the ID is pretty much wasted, other than negating FNP and making RP a bit harder, plus it's harder to wound in the first place.

The ideal target for a Soul Trap Archon is a squad leader such as a Space Marine Sergeant, Chaos Aspiring Champion etc. Someone with a single wound, a 3+ (or worse) save and no invulnerable. Challenge with the Archon, kill it fairly easily with the Agoniser and take the extra Strength bonus from the Soul Trap. If you can get your Strength up enough you will then start getting rerolls to wound from the Poison rule.

Yes. very good point, the Agoniser alone is just so reliable, the Huskblade is just one of those, when it finally does work it actually makes a badass type of aura on the field, makes the opponent second guess things