Archaon himself.
My opponent's list consisted of Archaon, two Khorne Lords on Juggernaughts, a Slannesh Lord on Daemonic mount, and two units of ten Clanrats (ironically painted by myself; what an enabler!). This list does one thing. Archaon allows all heroes to use their command abilities, and all three of his accompanying friends buff him with bonuses to hit, double pile ins, and so on and so forth, turning an already terrifying slaughter machine into an absolute unstoppable meat grinder.
And just to top it off, because he has the keyword Khorne, my Bloodsecrator banners would gift him with extra attacks to his many weapon profiles; most significantly the Slayer of Kings, his brutal sword. Yep… this was going to be a rough ride. My only hope of victory was to focus entirely on the objective and come to grips with the fact that my entire army was acceptable losses. Everything was expendable for the sake of the mission.
I deployed in the same formation as usual, making sure that both of my Bloodsecrators were safe in the woods. My Bloodreavers were on my left flank, while I deployed my Skullreaper unit on my right hand side, with a relatively protected avenue to travel up the board, hopping from terrain piece to terrain piece.
And this is what I was staring down! Archaon and Friends were here and they meant business. We were playing Gift from the Heavens, so this game was either going to go well, and I'd have a chance at winning, or I was going to get bulldozed. But shying away from a fight is not the Khorne Way…
Turn one was a bit of a non-event. Neither of us wanted to commit to a fight before the meteors came down and we had our bearings. I dropped both totems, activated the Deathbringer's command ability for the +1 attack 6" bubble, and then I rushed as fast as I could up the board with my Skullreapers. There were several reasons for this action. Firstly, they were on an opposite flank to Archaon, and I was confident that they could take on any individual element in the rest of his army without too much risk. Secondly, I knew that if I wanted any hope of winning this game, I would need to deny my opponent at least one turn of scoring from his own meteor, allowing me to pass him on the scoreboard and hopefully maintain a lead long enough to run down the clock!
My opponent did much the same thing, shuffling forward a little with Archaon and casting Mystic Shield upon himself. The standoff was tense!
Turn two began and meteors began to fall! Mine landed on my left flank, and my opponent's landed on his left flank. Perfect! This allowed me to shuffle my entire force (barring the stationary Bloodsecrators with a small bodyguard of Blood Warriors) onto my left flank and wrap the objective with as many bodies as possible!
Now, I'm gonna stop here for a moment and make a bit of a public apology, as I actually placed my objective incorrectly. It was meant to be in the centre of the tile, and for some reason (this was no Tzeentch trickery, I swear) it is 5-6" too close to my board edge. I'm aware that this poses an advantage to me, but fortunately it had no influence on the end result (spoilers, right?). Sorry, Jamie!
Fortunately for me, this turn really set things up for success. Archaon was too far away to land behind my Reavers, and I knew that he had a healthy terror surrounding my Wrathmongers, which were (lets be real) my only chance at killing the big guy! The Skullreapers put in a huge run and got within range of my opponent's meteor behind the small building. This wasn't so much about me claiming the objective, but stopping my opponent from scoring, launching me into the lead!
This put my opponent under immense pressure! All of a sudden, despite the elite nature and raw power of his list, I was in a sturdy position. A unit of defiant champions of Khorne rallied around their banner, holding their cursed blades aloft in anticipation of bloodshed, were standing squarely in the way of my opponent scoring! The whole army shifted sides of the board to deal with this threat, which was fantastic! A 140 point unit, although doomed, was buying me valuable time and drawing Archaon away from my main force! The game would only go for five turns, and every moment was vital!
My opponent won priority, and things went pretty much exactly how you think they would. Archaon and both Juggernauts slammed into the Skullreapers, but it only took a few attacks from the Everchosen to obliterate the entire unit before they could lift a finger. As a silver lining, one Skullreaper lashed out as he was slain and clipped Archaon for two mortal wounds! That'll show him! This put my opponent back on the scoreboard, as one of his units of Clanrats gladly took up residence far from the danger of battle.
Knowing that I was about to have a very unwanted guest in my own deployment zone, I spread out my army, giving Archaon nowhere to land and forcing him to charge in and slaughter his way through (which sounds a lot more challenging that Archaon actually finds it to be) to my meteor. As you'll see in later games, Bloodreavers played a crucial role in all of my matches. I always thought they were a little bit trash, but having bodies and numbers on the table is hugely important, and I don't regret my selection at all. This game was no different. When it came to protecting an objective, their footprint is huge! Sure, they die by the dozens (as you'll soon see), but they are essential to this army!
So, yeah… this happened. With blinding speed, some clever pile ins and one of the scariest weapon profiles in the game, Archaon just ploughed into my army…
And killed. Everything.
He hit the reavers with a monumental charge and just deleted them! That was end of turn four. He was outside of range to deny me points. If I won priority for the final turn, I would score again, which (thanks to the cheeky points denial at the start of the game by my Skullreapers) would have maintained my lead and won me the game! But it was not to be! Archaon won priority, and moved onto the objective, denying me a huge chunk of points and essentially winning the game. There was no way i could shift such a monumental monster off an objective in a single turn, but I was gonna give it a go! Wrathmongers went in, and failed to do any significant damage, while Archaon declined making his attacks, saving him from a brutal self inflicted head wound. Doubling down on denying me points, one of the Jugger-Lords moved in as well. So my Deathbringer, Skullgrinder and a Bloodsecrator charged in! Because I (foolishly) activated the Wrathmongers first, the Jugger-Lord administered bloody murder upon my band of merry men! While he managed to kill both my general and one of my banner men, the Skullgrinder once again proved what an absolute monster of a character he is by pulverising the full-health Jugger Lord in a single round of combat!! This guy is only 80 points and is already one of my favourite heroes! Why have i never used him before?!
That closed out the game with a narrow win to Archaon. Honestly, the fact that I was one priority roll away from winning, was incredibly satisfying. I know it was a loss at the end of the day, but I played the mission, and nearly came out on top against a foe I realistically had no way of killing. I made a few minor errors of judgement, but all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my game! My opponent was a gentleman and the banter around this game and its many cinematic moments was hilarious.
Games 3 & 4 of Throne of Ages will be posted very soon, so keep an eye out for them!
As always, thanks for reading,
Gabe
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