Court of the Archon

[Calgar33]

To start I am not a competitive player, I prefer playing fluffy, but can anyone tell me the point of using The Court of the Archon?
The Lhamaean seem useless to me since their Mistress of Poison only helps with the her poison weapon and at most 3 splinter pistols.
The Medusae could provide a devastating shot but only if you roll well but in combat they will only provide 1(2) attacks.
The Ur-Ghuls seem like they could provide a hefty punch in combat but they don't really have the speed or power weapons some other choices in the Dark Eldar list would provide.
The Sslyth were originally what drew me to the choice but then I notice how expensive they are and that the Mistress of Poison rule doesn't help them.
Most of my concern is because I really only ever play against Marines (all varieties) and the lack of power weapons seems to be they down fall.
Does anyone use these guys or have an idea why someone would use them?

[Majorcrash]

i have also faced that question. I am looking for something to spend points on to repalce the razorwing, which has done exceptionly nothing. The court looks cool and I think would be a huge distraction to your opponent. plus with the arcon joining it provide the ablative shield he needs while he kills his way thru your enemys. My problem is staying fluffy with a wytch army and taking one. not sure how thats going to work. I think its going to be another unit of wyches or blood brides.

[GrenAcid]

@Calgar33
Im sorry to say but court is big pile of useless cr*p, flufy & fun but dose nothing and IMO its the weakest and most unsynergy(sory but dont know how to spell it) unit in whole codex. Forget about them.

[Vindur]

i have also faced that question. I am looking for something to spend points on to repalce the razorwing, which has done exceptionly nothing. The court looks cool and I think would be a huge distraction to your opponent. plus with the arcon joining it provide the ablative shield he needs while he kills his way thru your enemys. My problem is staying fluffy with a wytch army and taking one. not sure how thats going to work. I think its going to be another unit of wyches or blood brides.

But the razorwing is pants on head insane...

[w7west]

But the razorwing is pants on head insane...

This is true


@Calgar33
Im sorry to say but court is big pile of useless cr*p, flufy & fun but dose nothing and IMO its the weakest and most unsynergy(sory but dont know how to spell it) unit in whole codex. Forget about them.

This is also true



There are a lot of really weird things that turned up in the new codex. Reading the unit descriptions, and subsequently looking at the unit's actual rules and wargear has led to many hours of head scratching. A simple example is the void mine, the description for which would lead most players to believe it is the same thing as a vortex grenade. Basically the unfortunate space inside of the containment field is torn apart with the force of a black hole. Now we look at the rules and see it is a joke. Not even as powerful as a 10 point missile you can buy for the voidraven. Similar anomalies occur throughout the codex like with incubi and the lack of grenades.

It seems that after the codex was written, it passed through a checkpoint where several things were toned down to xenos level to keep more in line with the direction GW would like to go

[GrenAcid]

It seems that after the codex was written, it passed through a checkpoint where several things were toned down to xenos level to keep more in line with the direction GW would like to go
You scored point.

First rule in GW is: Xeno CANNOT be stronger than Imperium. Its sad but I can live with that, we have nice and balanced codex just like nids, there are units/wargear thats shines and suck no big deal, and one of most important things our(xenos) minis ROCK! compare to plain Imperial sh*t:D

PS. I havent use razor yet but on paper it isnt so horible.

[yrdetraxe]

I don't think the CoA is too bad. It's definately one of the less powerful units, but its not cr*p and should not be overlooked so easily.

The Court is the only Unit (apart from Grotesques and Clawed Fiends) DE can field which can dish out a bucketload of S5 Attacks.
Ok, they don't have PowerWeapons to ignore that nasty 3+ MEQs have but wounding on 3+ (2+ in Case of the Lhamaean) and striking at a Higher I than most MEQs is quite nice.

Example:
Taking 1 each of the Court gives you the following when assaulting for only 75 Points:
3Attacks @ I5 wounding on 2+ (Lhamaean)
4Attacks @ I6, S5 (Ur-Ghul)
5Attacks @ I4, S5 (Sslyth)
1Attack @ I5, S3 (Medusae) (ignore her in Combat ;))

That is 7(8) Attacks hitting before Marines can even try to hurt you and 5 Attacks hitting at the same I. And both the Sslyth and th Ur-Ghul benefit from FNP.
Now add an Archon and put them all in a Venom. You now have a small Unit capable of giving the Pain to small to medium sized MEQ squads for less than 300pts.

Replacing these with 4 incubis costs about 30pts. more for the same number of attacks. Ok, they may hit at 3+ and have PW but only wound on 4+ and they're the only Unit having an abundance of PWeapons. But then again I never regret to take them with my Archon. ;) But I will definetely give the Court a try.


Xeno CANNOT be stronger than Imperium
Yes they can! Every game I played up to now with the DE was against Imperials, and none of them I lost. :p
They're not weak, they just require more finess to master....

[eldargal]

How did I miss this thread when I searched for 'Court of the Archon' on BolS?:confused: Nevermind. As I detailed here (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=14644) I think the Court is a good, not great, unit. But it is a gamble. It could do spectacularly well, or it could fail abysmally. Either way opponents will underestimate it which gives it a boost, in my opinion. Having it ignored in favour of focusing on Wyches etc sounds good but might look less sensible when a bunch of S5 attacks and shardcarbine shots start mincing up your flanks.