Recommendations for Outfitting an Archon

I'm slowly getting into DE and in a few test games that I've played I am wondering on how people recommend equipping an Archon if/when they take them.

In the couple games that I've played, I have ran it with a Huskblade, Shadowfield, and a Blaster or splinter pistol. This works well enough until I get into melee combat where I find myself hitting opposing ICs with T5 (and thus a 6 to wound). Needless to say, the results of these combats haven't been in my favor since I can't wound reliably.


Do people tend to just take combat drugs or is the Huskblade better on paper than in practice? Should I switch to a Venom Blade or Agonizer to offset the S3?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank

I like to run Venom blade and huskblade if I can along with shadowfield. If I have lots of points left then also a soul trap and PGL since he goes with my grotesques.

The various schools of thought depend on your playstyle: some players keep them fairly simple, and cheap, so VB and field; personally my Archon is a kick-ass bitch, I play her aggressively, and although she dies fairly often, just as often she owns the game.  I like my games epic, and am not necessarily into the win.
Husk, Soultrap and Drugs (because I also have Sliscus).  Of the 20-30 games I've played, she has twice maxed out her strength by killing a SECOND IC/MC in the game. Strength 10 AP2 ID  biatches!

The thing is, the Venom blade is as bad against 2+ as the Husk blade is against T6
And most big stuff has both.
At least the HB is one hit kill.

Husk, Field, Drugs.
The trap is fun, but it never works, people run from the archon if they arent certain they can kill it. I save the ten points.
Dont get me wrong, when it works, it rules, it just doesnt that often.
Now, if Sergeants counted, it would be fantastic

Theres always a chance your drugs will increase the utility of your huskblade too

In lower point games, I've gone with *just* the husk blade

I'm an ol' skool Archon, myself: shadow field, drugs, agonizer, pistol. Never leave home without some Incubi bodyguards.

Huskblade/shadowfield/drugs/soul trap.if with my grotesques he gets a PGL as well.

I run mine

Huskblade, shadowfield, PGL, combat drugs and soul trap (you never know if you get a lucky hit double str is fun)

I usually run mine in a venom with 3 wracks and a heamo (having furious charge is nice to start with and also making him t4 vs overwatch and other small fire normally helps me) haemo has shattershard for giggles, also the wracks on the charge rerolling wounds on anything t4 or below is quite nice and helpful

It kind of depends on where you put your Archon: I run a rather shooty list so I keep him nice and simple: Blaster, Venom Blade, Shadowfield. He exists to help his raider warrior squad snipe tanks, tanks shots, and be a mandatory HQ. In these aspects he performs admirably.

Of course my main opponent plays Tau and Eldar so I rarely ever have the luxury of closing to assault range.

In my first game I ran my Archon with SF, VB, and HWG. He was pretty good and helped me win due to be winning close combat. I probably will drop HWG and throw on the PGL for the wych squad he is in.

Well, my Lady Baliarstil goes all the way to the bank - Huskblade, Shadowfield, Blast pistol, Combat drugs, Soul trap, PGL, coming up at whopping 195 points. Other Archons, depends on the model - going anywhere from cheap and utilitarian (Blaster, Shadowfield, Venom blade) to extravagant (Power lance, PGL, Soul Trap, Combat drugs). It really depends on the list, the opponent I'm facing and how competitive we want the game.

After a few trials i dropped the soultrap as they payoff was very rare and the 10pts is much better spent on combat drugs. My archon is equipped with huskblade, venom lade, shadowfield and combat drugs. He is an absolute beast and can deal with most types of enemy. Tough? No probs, wound you on a 2+ with a vemom blade. High armour? awesome my huskblade turns you into cheesy puffs. Not much can stand in his way and 150 pts is not expensive really for what you get

At lower point games (1250 and under usually) I run my Archon with a shadow field, Venomblade and a blaster if I have enough points. The BS 7 blaster is worth its weight in gold in these smaller games, definately worth the loss of an attack.

In bigger games I'll run him with the tried and tested husk blade, soultrap, shadow field, drugs and sometimes a venomblade too.

Mine runs exactly the same as spellcheck2001's - huskblade, shadowfield, venom blade, combat drugs. Generally pretty awesome; only drawback is S3, which you have a 1/3 chance of overcoming with combat drugs.

Panic_Puppet wrote:

Mine runs exactly the same as spellcheck2001's - huskblade, shadowfield, venom blade, combat drugs. Generally pretty awesome; only drawback is S3, which you have a 1/3 chance of overcoming with combat drugs.

What do you mean a 1/3 chance of over coming S3 for with the drugs? I know there's the +1S roll but which other results do you count as helping to offset the S3?

My largest issue with the huskblade is the S3. I can see it working for infantry; however, most multi-wound models seem to have S5 or better making it extremely difficult to wound. Definitely interested in hearing how people address such (or if they tend to focus Archons against standard infantry over characters).

Drug 4, Painbringer; Re-rolling wounds helps with the low strength.

My next go this weekend I am going to drop the haywire and get a blaster. Will be different as the grenades didn't even come into play my last game.

Unholyllama wrote:

Panic_Puppet wrote:

Mine runs exactly the same as spellcheck2001's - huskblade, shadowfield, venom blade, combat drugs. Generally pretty awesome; only drawback is S3, which you have a 1/3 chance of overcoming with combat drugs.

What do you mean a 1/3 chance of over coming S3 for with the drugs?  I know there's the +1S roll but which other results do you count as helping to offset the S3?

My largest issue with the huskblade is the S3.  I can see it working for infantry; however, most multi-wound models seem to have S5 or better making it extremely difficult to wound.  Definitely interested in hearing how people address such (or if they tend to focus Archons against standard infantry over characters).

This is why I run with wracks (1 pain token already, 2 if with a heamo) drug roll which help then are +1st, reroll wounds and if no heamo extra pain token giving furious charge. I find the wracks are great for knocking up my avg toughness too vs overwatch fire, hate losing my shadowfield to overwatch

mine always ends up this way

Agonizer, Huskblade, Ghostplate Armour, Combat drugs, Soul Trap, Haywire Nade, Clone Field, PGL

i run him with some grots, i find some poor MC or IC and kill them with the Agonizer and then use Huskblade for the rest of the game, i find that most opponents are scared of this WS7 I7 A5 S6 AP2 Instant Death 

Yeah but surely by the time you do that, the games nearly over?
I can see it working, blast the MC with poision and then charge for the finish, but I usualy struggle to find enough MCs or ICs

my area tends to run quite a few MC and IC's so for me it works great, though it depends on the meta for your area

I went from ba, so had four ics easily, so it was a big surprise for me when my first deldar game was against guard, who have none.

yea, for using the trap they are out worst match up, as they have 2 IC(i think) and no MC's, i find Nids to be the best matchup for it(and us in general), the agonizer is rather cruel vs them considering that it pens all their armour but the tyrant but by then i normally have killed a MC by then, pods work great for that i find

Unholyllama wrote:

Panic_Puppet wrote:

Mine runs exactly the same as spellcheck2001's - huskblade, shadowfield, venom blade, combat drugs. Generally pretty awesome; only drawback is S3, which you have a 1/3 chance of overcoming with combat drugs.

What do you mean a 1/3 chance of over coming S3 for with the drugs?  I know there's the +1S roll but which other results do you count as helping to offset the S3?

My largest issue with the huskblade is the S3.  I can see it working for infantry; however, most multi-wound models seem to have S5 or better making it extremely difficult to wound.  Definitely interested in hearing how people address such (or if they tend to focus Archons against standard infantry over characters).

+1S and re-roll wounds, which is the one I hope for. Re-roll wounds is actually statistically better against T4 (wounding on 4s is 50%, wounding on 5s with a re-roll is 55%). Its also better against T6 (you're wounding on 6s either way). +1 S gives you the ability to scratch S7 but you're better off not being in that situation (also, venom blade overcomes this drawback).

Essentially, with the v-blade/huskblade combo, you can decide whether to risk going for that lucky 6 to drop a nasty MC/character, or if they're down to their last wound throw a venom blade into the mix and hope to kill 'em that way. I.e. if its an absolute emergency I'll chuck my archon at a riptide; unwounded I'll roll with the huskblade and pray for a 6, or that the shadowfield keeps him alive until I get one, if its on its final wound thanks to shooting I'll start throwing out the venom blade, wounding on 2s and hoping to take it out through mass saves. The trick is knowing when it's correct to use which weapon.

I run mine with incubi as a lethal combat-deathstar. There's actually not much in the game with Eternal Warrior, and an Archon with huskblade/shadowfield can best most non-EW characters in one-on-one combat. If its something with a 2+ save AND Eternal Warrior, chances are its a damn sight slower than incubi so they normally carve it to shreds. There's the occasional outlier, but those aren't hugely prevalent.

I usually give mine a huskblade, blast pistol, phantasm grenade launcher, combat drugs, ghostplate armour and sometimes haywire grenades too. He is stupendously expensive, and almost never earns back his points, so I don't use him that often. I find our HQ choices that make more units scoring, like the baron and haemonculi, to be much more useful. It's nice to have a close combat beatstick, don't get me wrong. But to make the most of him you really have to run a proper close combat list, or at least a couple of squads. Sticking him in a squad of Incubi is the equivalent of painting bullseyes all over them, but when they hit they cream stuff. I like to play it old school in that regard, so most of the time he goes with them. But the time when he was most useful was when he was with wyches, bizarrely. They hugged the objective, then he split off. He charged a guard squad following an incredibly cinematic precision shot on the flamer trooper, then proceeded to kill four of them, take no wounds then charge the rest down. He then consolidated, tanked the combined firepower of a Vendetta, a command squad, a Rune Priest, a Wolf Lord and a squad of Grey Hunters, charged in and killed the Rune Priest before being taken down.

It's not just how you outfit him, essentially, it's who you put him with.

Though if we're talking outfitting in the literal sense, I think a sharp looking waistcoat and calf length boots would be a good look for him  

Mr Believer wrote:

Though if we're talking outfitting in the literal sense, I think a sharp looking waistcoat and calf length boots would be a good look for him  

As my Archon is female, I concur with the waistcoat, but prefer the boots higher..!