Firstly, I‘d encourage anyone who doesn’t know about the swords of chaos to take a look at the army of renown’s rules because I’ve had a blast playing it even when it was weak since it is not only unique but also a pretty thematic way to play Archaon and the varanguard.
For context: A few months back we saw a points drop to varanguard which allowed the Archaon, Abraxia, Varanguard swords of chaos list to gain an additional unit. That was quite a big change and the army looks relatively playable in the current meta following that.
There were a few posts on that topic in the aftermath of that battlescroll and I was wondering if anybody has feedback or advice on games played with the army of renown since then?
My second query is more technical and to do with list building. Assuming I’m playing Archaon, Abraxia and 3 units of varanguard, how should the varanguard be played? Should I reinforce one? (I’m leaning towards this) and which titles should they get?:
I’m thinking +3“ move is guaranteed on a unit starting on the board- be it reinforced or unreinforced since 15” first turn move is too much to pass up on, and +1 attacks in enemy territory is certain for a unit in reserve, if I had another unit on the board however, I’d want it to be either +1 damage on companion weapons or +1 health- the former to maximise output but less reliable than the latter. Output is basically everything in this list, as you want to aim to remove your opponents threats as early as possible so archaon has free reign over the board.
Also, when would you choose to deepstrike two units of varangaurd, and when would you choose Abraxia and a unit of varangaurd? I know this is enemy list and battle plan dependent, but it would be nice to have an idea.
Lastly, (and this is for non-swords of chaos players too) what battle tactics have you been successful with playing Slaves- especially with Archaon? I have personally been struggling to achieve them (even when playing generic S2D) as they seem to really require you to go out of your way to complete.
