Void Archon

Introduction

So, we haven’t gotten a lot of new models lately, I think it’s just Rahera, technically the Hermit of Hengehold, and the incoming Riot Quest Necrotech guy, so I wanted to talk a bit about the Void Archon, which was fully spoiled the other day on the Developer Hangout.

As you may see, he didn’t change at all from the final CID incarnation, except for the fact that it gained 2 boxes. This means that all the thoughts I’ve had over the past few months are mostly still valid.

The Good

So, at first glance this is a very capable combat solo, with a powerful spray, 2 initial melee attacks and the ability to boost. He also brings some good (offensive) utility in Dark Shroud and Entropic Force.
Dual Attack synergizes very well with Void Walk to get interesting threat angles, which can catch your opponents unaware, or to get the Void Archon back to safety.
Void Walk is frankly an amazing ability, especially on a model with Dual Attack. It can charge, melee, teleport, spray. It can even move/charge, spray, teleport to somewhere else completely and put 2 P+S 15’s into it. Or it can simply spray all over some dudes, reap their souls and teleport back to safety.

The Bad

Soul Phase is okay, but will basically only serve to move through or away from models, since it already has Flight and we have access to Ghost Walk. The main drawback of this is that it’s not defensive tech as it only lasts a turn and it costs a soul, which means you need to have him filled up beforehand and you lose a boost.

8 points is quite a lot for a purely offensive solo that will compete with a spot for a Stalker, which mimics the Entropic Force, in a faction that already has access to quite some Dark Shroud. He also competes with other Mercenary slots, such as Ragman, the Hermit, Gorman, etc. So, if you take him, it will most likely be to abuse his movement shenanigans and massive spray. It’s also worth noting that his cost puts him in direct competition with the Cephalyx Overlords if you want sprays, which will count as friendly faction, unlike the Void Archon.

Apart from being able to teleport away, the Void Archon has no defensive measures at all, since Soul Phase only works for a turn. 14/17 with 12 boxes is respectable, but once it commits, it’s not that hard to kill.

Both its utility abilities are fairly short range, so if you’re using it for those, you will likely only get one use out of them. Unless your opponent somehow runs into range without attacking, but I wouldn’t count on that.
This mean that you will have to choose, turn-to-turn, if you want to skirmish with it, or use its “support”.

In my opinion, the worst thing this guy has going for him, is that he relies on the souls to be at max capacity. The good news is that he can collect friendly souls, but in a faction where half the themes don’t generally include living models, that could still be problematic.

The Ugly?

So the first thing that pops out is that this guy will compete with other soul collection, most notably Terminus, Asphyxious 2, Scaverous. That means the Void Archon will most likely not have a place with these casters. Deneghra 3 and Asphyxious 3 can make their own souls, so I doubt they care.
What’s more is that this implicates that more factions will have ready availability of denying us souls, because of access to the other archons, which is actually impactful to only a handful of factions, namely Cryx and Infernals. There is a reason that there aren’t that many soul powered models in our current competitive lists, because it’s already hit-or-miss in a “regular” matchup, but this skews the playing field even more. That will, of course, include the Void Archon, but unlike literally every Cryx model (what’s up with that?*), this one can at least collect friendly souls.

So, right off the bat, the fact that this is in Dark Host, which makes perfect thematic sense, feels a bit off, because the theme doesn’t natively supply it with souls. In addition the theme doesn’t lack for Dark Shroud and the most popular battle group models would probably be Desecrators and Stalkers, who already bring Grievous Wounds, decreasing the need for Entropic Force.
If you can’t power him up from your own stuff, that means he will need to skirmish for a while to collect enemy souls, and hope that there is no enemy Soul Ward, or simply put him close to the action. Both scenarios increase his chances of dying prematurely compared to just hanging back for a while.

It’s also not Friendly Faction to us, so we can’t target it with many of our buffs, nor does it actually count as a Bane, so it does not gain Prowl in Dark Host, which would’ve been cool.

Like Oz said on the stream, good combat solos need to do something cool, even when they’re not in combat, I feel like the Void Archon doesn’t. Everything it could potentially do for other models has a short range, so it will be in combat when it’s applying debuffs.
I argued during CID that it should have some minor support ability on top of it, possibly keying off souls to balance it. Something like Path of Urcaen, as seen on the Shrine of the Lawgiver, instead of Soul Phase, would’ve been amazing and fluffy for instance.
Obviously PP didn’t share my view, and I do agree that it’s still a very good combat solo, I just question the necessity of it in our faction.
I get the feeling that it’s supposed to be better in other factions.

* To be fair, Cryx lost the ability to collect friendly souls all the way in MKI when people were making Asphyxious 2 eat the souls of a tightly packed group of mercenaries that were then Purged all over. Although, fluff-wise it makes no sense that any of the Cryx soul collectors would actually care whether or not a friendly soul passes on to the afterlife or not.

Potential

I know this whole last part sounded very negative, but I’m honestly pretty excited for this model, or else I wouldn’t even bother writing this post. It definitely has a lot of potential for disruption and can wreak havoc or possibly even enable an assassination to the unaware. I love that it can teleport around and get into obnoxious positions.

Most of our buffs can’t target it, but it will scale very well with our debuffs. While I would love to be able to feat on it with Skarre 1, Denny 1’s debuffs will serve it just fine. Interestingly, Skarre 2 can also feat on it, although it sadly can’t benefit from Black Spot. Coven will also be able to protect it on the approach and perhaps even buy it some time to collect souls. They can help to get it wherever it wants with their spell list and perhaps it can enable some Infernal Machined jack to hit way above its weight class by way of Entropic Force and Dark Shroud.

It could potentially be great in Scourge of the Broken Coast, where there are surprisingly little damage fixers for non-jacks, though it’s a shame it won’t trigger Gang Fighter. In lists where there are no Stalkers wanted/needed, it could also provide anti-healing when the Blood Witches, or Gerlak, are off somewhere else.

Black Industry (warjack) lists will also appreciate a skirmishing model that can unjam them and sometimes provide Dark Shroud or anti-healing in a pinch. It might be a bit difficult to charge it with souls or to keep it safe, but there is access to Shield Guard in the theme.

Sample lists

War Witch Deneghra

[Theme] Dark Host
[Deneghra 1] Warwitch Deneghra [+26]
– Deathripper [6]
– Deathripper [6]
– Desecrator [14]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Lord Rockbottom [4]
Machine Wraith [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
– Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
– Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
– Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Sea Dog Pirates (max) [11]
– Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster [4]
– Sea Dog Pirate Rifleman (3) [3]

Might as well go full retard when trying to abuse the Void Archons. The pirates are a fast first wave, that can get some shooting done if it survives until Deneghra’s feat turn. These are backed up by the Void Archons that will syphon their souls when they die and get powered up. Behind them are 3 units of slow moving killing machines with Tough and recursion.
If you’re lucky, the Void Archons will get a quick assassination, if you’re not, things will still die, in droves.

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast

[Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
[Skarre 2] Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast [+26]
– Barathrum [15]
– Deathripper [6]
– Kraken [35]
– Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
Misery Cage [2]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Severa Blacktide [0(6)]
Void Archon [8]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
– Jussika Bloodtongue [0(5)]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
– Satyxis Blood Hag [4]

One of the few feats that works on the Void Archon, it almost makes me miss the old Scourge of the Broken Coast, where he would pick up Dodge.
This list can basically shove itself in the opponents face and ask what they’re going to do about it. If they’re not careful, they will eat a (hopefully loaded) Void Archon to the face.

Witch Coven of Garlghast

[Theme] Black Industries
[Coven 1] The Witch Coven of Garlghast [+26]
– Barathrum [15]
– Deathripper [6]
– Deathripper [6]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
– The Withershadow Combine [9]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Void Archon [8]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]

Can you say Murder(ous)? The list will probably deliver itself, especially when going first. After that the Witch Coven are masters at delivering certain death to wherever they want it and the Void Archon can help here.

Summary

So, all in all, I’m pretty excited for the Void Archon, even if only for the fact that it’s one of the few first cool models we’ve gotten access to lately. I’ll definitely try to give it a couple of test runs and see where I land on it.

Any lists you’re excited to try this guy in?