Archons Court

So, I know what everyone thinks about them... ugh, archons court, what a waste... but recently I was looking at them and thinking... and honestly, I've decided they aren't too bad... yeah, lhameans should upgrade the entire squads weapons, and yeah, her powers don't work worth a flip on the archon, since it doesn't give him a "free" venom sword, but he still gets a + poison pistol so... but at 12", you get 2 2+ poison shots, and 9 4+ poison shots, along with two medusa templates str d6+1, ap d6. In CC, on the charge you get 6 2+poison attacks, 4 str 3 attacks, and 23 str 5 attacks. Combine that with an archon with a djinn blade (6+2 pw attacks), and you're looking at an extremely formidable force... the eyebursts alone have the potential of wiping a small squad, disregarding the poison shots and rather nasty assault force....

So, that being said, why dont we see these more often? They don't take up a force org slot, and I don't think they are terribly overpriced (the ur ghuls might should cost a few points less), but honestly, it seems to me that people are just caught up on the lhameans (which for a 10 point venom blade/stinger pistol, and upgrading your archons pistol to a stinger, isnt a bad deal)

I have used them to great effect in the past. I do like the court, the thing is people prefer to use those points on more blasterborn... I will personally be using them in various varieties, but the urghul bomb works nicely and a couple of medusae always work great! those eye blast can destroy stuff, and being able to be str7 is awesome.

For larger games they provide a great way to add another tank to your army and NOT use up an elite slot to support your HQ.

As anything in this game tho, playstyle and practice are what makes or breaks a unit.

Point optimization - there's literally nothing the court does that you can't do for better and cheaper with an alternate unit.

Templates?
Haems and Wracks.

Shooting?
Venoms, Splinterborn, Scourges, even Warriors.

Beefy assault, multi-wound tie-up?
Beastmasters and Grots.

Swarmy attack close combat high init?
Wyches and Beastmasters.

Also - Court requires Archon, one of our less impressive HQ options.

So, the player with a mind towards a effective army is likely to take the other options first, and only use the Court at the stage that is no longer a viable option AND when his HQ slots are clear for an Archon AND when he still has enough points left to then afford the Court - and that particular situation doesn't come up very often.

If you're going pure Kabal I guess this is the assault unit of choice. Ur Ghuls ain't half bad; the Lhamean is fairly priced as is the Medusa. The Sslyth, though they look awesome, are actually pretty meh.

As it stands it's pretty simple why the Court isn't seeing much play: it's an assault unit without grenades; we have a couple of those. Grots, Wracks and Incubi come to mind, all of which are better recipients for the Archon's PGL.

I think this may be one of the exceptions to a unit that needs grenades... toss them in a raider and template anything with medusas for a couple of turns and they're going to get enough and run at you... Have any of you tried running them without a attached PGL?

Yeah, me. None of the configurations I tried put out enough shooting for the investment.