The Archangel Rises

So the biggest Dragon we can take has had another tweak to it’s rules as part of the Circle CID. This time it might be enough to get this beautiful model on the table.

I spoke with some of the UK Legion crowd about the chance that we might be seeing this change when Circle testing finished and the last edition of the Storm Raptors had the flying high rule, and shared a lot of similarities with the Archangel. Turn out we got luck and here it is.

For those of you that didn’t catch the changes, we have a point cost reduction to 35, the AA gains Pathfinder, and the new ‘Flying High’ rule – Ranged attacks suffer -3 RNG and friendly models can advance through this model.

With the change is it’s just enough to get our original Gargantuan on the table?

I’ve been looking at its changes, where it stands and if it now has a place.

Currently I’m not convinced, I think it’s not far off the mark but to actually see competitive play I feel it needs just a little more. Saying that, the changes so far are decent, and I’ve put it on the table already to see where it’s limits lie. At the heart of it, the Archangel stat line seems very mediocre for such an investment of points. I’m struggling to get over the fact that for a lot of heavies and heavy infantry I’m having to boost to hit, so after paying to use its animus even with minimum shots you’ve already put 3 fury on the beast.

I’d like to see the RNG on the AA and it’s animus extend to 12″ in line with the Storm Raptor. With the reduction in how much impact Flying High has, it still gives the AA that element of survivability against ranged elements to allow it to have an impact on the game without it being too easily removed.

Now I could go on about Fury 5, or a host of other improvements that for sure would make the Archangel better, but aren’t really necessary. We’re at a stage where just a few tweaks tips it over from our shelves to instead see our games. What needs to happen is small incremental changes and tests, there’s no point going too far and making it ridiculous especially with one caster (looking at you Judicators), but more important to give it a more solid base line that our different Warlocks and lists can take build on.

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So in summary, there’s been some good changes and the Archangel is poised to see some table time, but who with?

Abby1. What better spot for the reworked Gargantuan than the new Abby. There’s a bunch of obvious synergies, both with abby and in Oracles which she finds herself most often. A quick look at Abby’s buffs and you can see that Wild Aggression has a spot when you send in the AA and need to be hitting anything above a bad heavy, and Playing God for any other time. The Spd and Str buff, as well as taking the dragon to effective DEF 13 in Melee vs most living enemies is a great prospect. This is where it starts to really add up though; position a good Blight Burst where the AA will end up and even without the feat it becomes a lot more survivable in Melee, even moreso when you add the healing from the feat. The big problem with Abby comes in with the mediocre reliability of hitting. Having to choose Wild Aggression over Playing God seems a bit sad but necessary, losing out on threat range and damage to ensure you actually connect. This might be a spot where taking Ice Witches in Oracles to land their debuff as well as Puppet Master is part of the plan, with Flying High allowing them to park behind the AA then walk through and tag its targets before it sails over them.

Abby2 – Having a ranged presence with Abby2 can work well to her strengths. If she can force her opponent to close or just face tank being shot each turn it gives Abby a better chance to trigger Alpha Hunter, add onto the AA’s increased defence vs shooting the ability to shoot back with Return Fire. Increasing its threat range in melee, fixing its MAT, and increasing its damage is enough to bring it to the level of premium Gargantuan

Kallus2. The Archangel performs as a mobile gun platform under Kallus, sitting back and scattering continuous fire AoEs, or taking chunks out of heavies before the Feat goes off, and when it does there’s the flexibility of using the AA to tag feat targets for the rest of your army, or triggering Overrun for Kallus himself or his other beasts, or being able to charge into the frey from 15″ away is no joke.

Lylyth1. Simply put, Parasite and leveraging the Pow difference is where Lylyth comes into her own in any list and here is no different. Taking the shots to effective pow 19 and the feat helping it to reliably hit When you need to commit is no joke. The rest of her kit helps a little offering free charges at tagged enemies, but sadly not allowing the AA to move in reaction to a Pursuit target advancing, still, POW 19 gunfire is worth a look for sure, and offers a very powerful gun platform and end game piece.

Lylyth3. Lylyth can’t protect the AA in her bubble vs Non magical shooting but she can speed it up to let it shoot up the table, and under her feat it’s a lot easier to land those shots or prepare for the AA to descend on its frozen target in Melee. Thanks to ‘Flying High’ Lylyth can sit behind it and trample forwards having been completely blocked previously and unload on the opponent’s army. It’s a nice synergy and gives her some options.

Saeryn works similarly to Abby1 in that she works to control whatever wants to go in on the AA. Banishing ward protects it from nasty little things like Kiss/Harm and the Blight Bringer AoE in the right spot denies buying or boosting against the beast. Breath Stealer limits the ability to get models onto the AA and the feat takes it to a more significant ARM stat to be able to take shots on the way in for those that have avoided being shut down.

Lastly, Vayl2 gets honourable mention by the pure virtue of being able to throw it further into Melee, and debuff it’s targets to ensure it’s hitting.