Court Is Now In Session: The Court Of The Archon

So I have been reading the Dark Eldar codex with a fine tooth comb. With the release of new Court Of The Archon models, making it so you can actually field all of them, I have been looking at the Court again. They are much lamented as an effective unit. We all know I like trying to “Take back units”. I had great success running mandrakes despite the hate the internet hurled at them. Of course that hate was generally hurled by guys who think the only effective kind of lists are from The Space Wolves and Grey Knights codex’s and involve lots of Razorbacks. SO I take it with a grain of salt.

SO lets look at the Court Of The Archon. The first thing you will notice upon close inspection is that you must take at least one of each member of the court. Thats not a big hindrance. You only really need one Lhamaean. The same goes for the Medusae. Sslyth and Ur Ghuls should be taken to their max or near max. They are the real punch of the unit.

The Ur Ghuls are actually, theoretically, not to bad in close combat. They are strength 5 on the charge and have 4 attacks each at initiative 6. This gives your unit a good solid mass of attacks that go after you Archon. They have FNP from the start so this makes up for their lack of armor, kinda. The Sslyth are the real beefy portion of the unit. They are strength 5 and toughness 5 with 2 wounds. They sport shard carbines so this adds nice mobile shooting. They also have 4 attacks on the charge so this gives you a whole host of attacks that will wound marines on a 3+. Between the Sslyth and the Ur Ghuls, if you take 3 Sslyth and 4 Ur Ghuls, you get 32 attacks at strength 5 on the charge. The Sslyth also give you good options for strength 8 and lower wound allocation. You don't have to just sit there and take a wound you don't get FNP on. You just allocate to a Sslyth and not loose any models from the unit. I do have to note for all my Craftworld brethren that the low leadership of the Ur Ghuls and Sslyth make them prime targets for Mind War. They are leadership 3 so even if they roll a 6 you will kill them outright if you roll a 1, because Farseers are LD 10 and will inflict 2 wounds on a roll of a 1.

The Medusae is a strange duck, as in a duck possessed by Cthulhu. They have a template eye beam that has variable strength and variable AP. As I am a fan of liqufier guns this does not really phase me. Templates are nice to thin the heard before you lay into a unit. Hitting a unit with the Medusae gives you a chance to have some unsaveable wounds in the mix to force allocation. Depending on what you arm your Archon with you can really deal out some hurt before the assault phase.

The Lhamaean is an enhancer. She beefs up any of your Archons poison weapons to wound on a 2+. This basically means you should choose your Archons weapon load out to take advantage of the 2+ wounding ability. She adds a little in combat, but basically is a 10 point ablative wound that gives your Archon a little more potency. Granted the only real poison weapons available are his splinter pistol and a venom blade......which already wounds on a 2+. So take the minimum and throw her in front of that melta gun like a crazy ex girlfriend so you don't scuff up your shadow field.

I am going to try and run a Court this week if I make it to the FLGS this week. I need to get some Ur Ghuls, but I have the rest of the Court I plan on running. With my new found Warhammer Fantasy habit the budget has been stretched thin. I am thinking to just doing high elves as I have always been a fan. I like the ogres, but I have a nice chunk of High Elves to start the army thanks to the Island of Blood set. I am also trying to get some ork truk bits, or whole kits, into the mix so I can get my conversions done for Da Kabal uf Da Big Teef. I have one about 25% done and it is screaming to get done. More on that later.

Until then...............................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!