Community made Codex - HQ Archon

The time to talk about HQs has arrived ... I think we all agree our HQ section is ... lacking ... to say the least and everyone wants to see our lord and master Asdrubael Vect come back as an HQ ... but honestly I would rather come back as our Lord of War and have a different named archon come back as the Kabalite named HQ. That being Lady Malys, but for now let's discuss the generic HQ selection.

Archon (same statline/pts as current)
Ability: Plans within plans during the command phase gain 3+D3 dice. These dice can be used to reroll one hit, wound, damage, charge, or save roll per unit.

Overlord: While enemy units are within 6" of this model they do not gain the benefits of Auras or positive modifiers.

The Model comes equipped with a master crafted splinter pistol and a power sword.
This model may exchange it's splinter pistol with one of the following:
Hexrifle(+5), shardcarbine(free), Blaster(+10), shredder (+5), or Blast pistol(+5)

This model may replace its power sword with one of the following:
Agonizer, Venom blade, Power Lance (+5), or Husk Blade (+10)

This model may replace both splinter pistol and huskblade for one of the following
Dark lance(+15), Dissintegeator cannon (+10), Splinter Cannon (+10), Haywire Blaster (+5) or Dark Scythe (+20)

This model may be equipped with scourge wings (+10) if chosen this model gains the FLY keyword and its movement is increased to 14"

Shadowfield: this model has a 4+ invulnerable save, all hit rolls suffer a -1 penalty.

You may select an Uprising trait for your archon from the following list.

Oppressor in the shadows: Select an enemy unit within 12" of this model (if this model is embarked on a transport measure from the hull) that unit loses objective secured.

Schemes of ambition: select a friendly unit within 6" of this model, that unit gains objective secured.

Towering Arrogance: Choose an enemy unit within 18" of this model, the selected models aura does not effect friendly units this turn.

What do yall think? Feel free to add your own ideas to this and any of the Community made Codex topics

The thing I desperately want for the Archon is to turn his aura into an active ability:
Ability: In the shooting phase, target one enemy unit in the shooting phase within 18". Re-roll all hits of 1s against this target.

Suddenly, he is usable from transports and provides actual tactical value to the army.

However, this could also just be one of many powers an Archon has.
In the lore, Archons originate from all sorts of backgrounds and come with all kinds of weird quirks and eccentric traits. Therefore, for one Archon you can choose one of several abilities akin to how other Eldar races give characters additional abilities.

Furthermore, I'd demote all non-upgraded Archons to Dracons.
In terms of weaponry, there should be 2 flavours of Archons:
- Cheap Power Sword/Agonizer/Venom Blade
- Powerful Huskblade

Even with the Huskblade, the Archon shouldn't be a different flavour of Succubus. It can have its unique role and identity by creating mortal wounds. Something like "unmodified wounds of 4+ trigger one Mortal Wound in addition to any other damage".

In the end, the design goal are to have 4 types of Kabal HQs (increasing in cost):
- Token HQ
- Token HQ with reasonably good melee potential
- Proper HQ with strong synergy effects
- Killy HQ with strong synergy effects


And as much as I'd like to give the Archon a 3++, it would turn him only into a different flavour of Succubus. I'd say keep the Shadowfield as-is, but give him a reliable 5++ as well.

I'll try for a longer response soon but I have a few thoughts off the bat:

1) I don't think Archons should be wielding Dark Lances or Disintegrators. I think Blasters and Shredders would be enough.

That said, we could also make some of the Archon's weapons Master Crafted (to justify them having better statlines than the grunt weapons). e.g. a Master Crafted Splinter Pistol could be 18" Pistol 2 S1 AP-1 D2 Poison 3+. This would give the Archon a bit of bite at mid-range and actually make the pistol a meaningful choice, compared with a Shredder or Blaster.

2) Plans Within Plans is cool (and I'd probably just use it in place of the aura) but might be a bit strong. It's basically the entire Harlequin loyalty ability on an ~80pt HQ. I think I'd either cut it down to 1 free reroll or maybe 1 bonus CP (or bonus use of one of a few specific stratagems).

3) Regarding Shadowfield, I'd lean towards a 4++ or even a 5++ but with some extra defences. e.g. enemies have -1 to hit and all successful hit rolls must be rerolled. Could also give him the ability that he can only be shot if he's the closest target (probably won't come up all that often, just seems thematic).

4) I like the idea of the Huskblade inflicting Mortal Wounds. It definitely seems like a weapon in dire need of its own niche.

I was planning on doing a section on the Dracon as a cheap Kabalite HQ, and looking at weapon profiles soon, I wanted to try and change up the shadow filed as it's the only invulnerability save in the game that goes away once it has failed (that I know of) so I was kind of trying to make it permanent in some form but I suppose making it a 4-5++ with an ability like "the model can only be hit by hit rolls of a 5 or 6" would also be thematic ... As for the Dissintegrator Cannon, that was basically from me playing Dawn of War Souldstorm again ... and its one of the upgrades the archon can get but yeah I think the Dark lance and cannons are a bit much

Yeah, the current rules for the Shadowfield really feel like out of place at this point.

Also, if you want a character with a Dark Lance, a Scourge HQ (or even Elite) might make more sense?

Soulless Samurai wrote:

Also, if you want a character with a Dark Lance, a Scourge HQ (or even Elite) might make more sense?

A scourge lord would be pretty awesome

Some changes have been made to the archon

I would like the Shadowfield to be the 2++ with maybe one reroll per game.
The -1 to hit could be the Clonefield.

Also, I really really really want the Soultrap back.

I thought about the Huskblade:

S+1 AP-2 d3D +1A

When fighting a Character change the damage to flat3.
On an unmodified to hit roll of 6 no invul saves can be made.

Too strong? Too weak? Or reasonable?

Given some of the insane weaponry just released between the tau and craftwolrd codex I would say this is reasonable

Just to add my own suggestion for the Huskblade, I was thinking something like:

S:User, AP-2, D1d3 When attacking with this weapon, you may reroll wound rolls against non-VEHICLE, non-TITANIC units. On an unmodified wound roll of 5+ the Huskblade inflicts 1d3 mortal wounds and the attack sequence ends.

Idea is to try and make it a high-risk, high-reward weapon. Don't know if it would be better to, say, up the Mortal Wounds to 3 but have it work only on a 6 to wound. Basically just playing with ideas to try and get away from Archons having 4 different sorts of Power Sword.

(For reference, it will currently put out an average of about 4.5 mortal wounds against infantry)