Dhunian Archon

File:Minion Logo.jpg File:Trollblood Logo.jpg

Template:FH2

Dhunia is the goddess of life itself, of Caen, of the seasons, and of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The boons Dhunia has bestowed upon her chosen peoples are many, but she rarely interacts directly with mortals. That her archons are now manifesting more often is confirmation of the dire peril facing Caen. They bring with them the god-mother’s wrath. The manipulation and theft of souls is particularly loathed by these archons, and they ruthlessly punish those guilty of such actions, drawing on the power of nature itself.

Basic Info

Minion - Dhunian Archons will work for Template:Circle minion, or Template:Trollblood minion.

Abilities

• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Tough
• Template:Divine Manifestation
• Template:Mother's Embrace
• Template:Righteous Fury
• Template:Shepherd's Call
• Template:Soul Ward
• Template:Threads of Life

Weapons

Old Oak
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				5				12
delete Template:Dispel

Theme Forces

• Minions
  • Template:Thornfall
  • Template:Vengeance of Dhunia
  • Template:Will Work For Food

• Trollbloods
  • As a Minion model she can go in every Trollblood theme, however she'll use up your "up to one Minion solo" slot most of the time.
  • Template:Band of Heroes
  • Template:Kriel Company
  • Template:The Power of Dhunia. Does not use up your Minion slot in this theme.
  • Template:Storm of the North
  • Template:Vengeance of Dhunia. No limit on Minion slots in this theme.

• Circle
  • Template:The Bones of Orboros
  • Template:Devourer's Host
  • Template:Secret Masters. No limit on Minion slots in this theme.
  • Template:The Wild Hunt

Thoughts on the Dhunian Archon

Dhunian Archon in a nutshell

The Dhunian Archon is a support piece which plays equally well with warbeasts & infantry, but she is best with some easy-to-kill chaff to trigger her healing ability, which she can the use to heal multi wound infantry or warbeasts. She extends the already frustratingly difficult to deal with Tough troops found in Trolls & Circle by keeping the last few alive as those around them die. She supports warbeasts with an extremely useful piece of pin-point fury management, an ability especially relevant for Trolls & Minions. On top of all this, she is an Archon and denies enemy soul collection and is remarkably difficult to scalpel out. Overall a really solid support piece which will feature in a lot of Troll & Minion lists, and might show its head in the support-rich Circle.

Combos & Synergies

• Minions
  • The Dhunian Archon is Thornfall's fury management. Most Minion lists want to run lots of beasts, and historically have been restrained due to poor ability to manage all the fury this creates. The Dhunian Archon solves this problem.
  • She also happens to love being stationed behind a big blob of disposable troops, a signature model class of Farrow.
• Gatorman Bokor & Bog Trog Shamblers - Models dying to activate her heal ability can be turned into corpes for the Gator, who can then generate fresh bodies for scenario and attrition. Dying Shamblers in turn can also trigger Mother's Embrace again. Waste not Want not.
• Malvin & Mayhem - She can heal these guys with Mother's Embrace for some reason. In Vengeance of Dhunia this gets even sillier due to the presence of the Krielstone as an ablative ARM buff to both her and M&M.

• Trollbloods
  • Threads of Life & Mother's Embrace are especially relevant with Trollkin Champions, who can naturally spread damage through their unit. The Dhunian Archon lets you heal up the back line of Champions to whom you've spread damage, enabling the two waves strategy the Champions encourage.
  • Trollkin Fennblades are a superlative chaff unit as sacrificial Mother's Embrace triggers.
• She also works very well with a swat of Runeshapers in the Power of Dhunia theme, where you can also bring two of her, as they are tough, steady, multi wound infantry she can heal.
• In Storm of the North she becomes a Northkin, gains Immunity Cold and thus casters can upkeep on her for free. Additionally she can gain all ther benefits from the Kriel Stone with a Northkin Elder.
• Madrak2 - Blood Fury and the Cold Stone make her a P+S 14 weapon master. Grim Salvation can be used to trigger Righteous Fury for P+S 16 and ARM 21 under the stone aura. Berserk and Overtake can be hilarious, too.

• Circle Orboros
  • The Dhunian Archon cannot interact with Circle Warbeasts' fury, however Threads of Life is brutally efficient on Tharn Ravagers, Brighid and Caul, and (occasionally) Wolf Riders or Lord of the Feast if the Dhunian Archon is in range of them. Additionally, Dispel on the melee weapon can be extremely useful for the often poor upkeep removal that Devourers Host brings, allowing the solo summoned in through the Well of Orboros to be something other than a Bloodweaver Night Witch. This is a highly useful model in Devourer's Host, and a sometimes useful model in Secret Masters due to being able to keep powerful minion solos alive. As of March, 2021, this inclusion in Secret Masters is less likely as Death Archons are likely to become the dominant way to build that list, and due to animosity [other Archons], Dhunian's cannot coexist with the incarnation of the reaper.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• She is a 6 pt model which will not meaningfully do any damage herself. Beware of support bloat, especially in Trollbloods.
• She's Partisan: Trollblood, but only called out in the Power of Dhunia and Vengeance of Dhunia themes. This means that you can't include more than one in In Storm of the North or Band of Heros where you can field her favourite infantry Trollkin Champions.
• Anything which shuts down Tough & Healing, especially en masse, (Mortality, Entropic Aura, Grievous Wounds) makes Dhunia sad..
  • On the other hand, Mother's Embrace can heal anything, anywhere on the board with no LOS or CMD requirements, and your enemy likely wont be able to cover your whole entire army with anti-healing, meaning you'll always have something to heal.
• Spd 5 & Pathfinder is decent, but not enough to keep up with the faster warbeasts in Farrow & Circle. Be aware of the 3" Shepherd's Call bubble when moving your beasts

Tricks & Tips

• In order to trigger Mother's Embrace a friendly warrior model must die within 10" of her, but the healing can go to any of your models on your table, including constructs or the undead.
• Theards of Life is turn only, not round only, so you can negate a free strike on your turn, and then still negate a damage roll during the opponents.
• Divine Manifestation makes it difficult for your opponent to get past the Archon. She can block for your caster pretty reliably in a pinch.
• Mother's Embrace triggers off "any friendly model", including Constructs & warbeasts, and with a 10" bubble you should be able to cover most if not all of your army.
  • Threads of Life only triggers off "friendly living warriors". Don't get the two confused and try to prevent an attack on a warbeast! Also with Divine Manifestation she can’t target herself.
• Two Dhunian Archons can cover the entire playspace with Soul Ward & Mother's Embrace. If you are looking for anti-Infernal tech for Trolls or Minions, run two.
• The Archon's attack is weak enough that it is unlikely to hurt high-ARM allies. As such, the Dispel can be used on your own dudes regularly. And if you accidentally do deal damage, heal it back with Mother's Embrace on your opponent's turn!
  • Note that you can't prevent damage from your own attacks with Threads of Life

Other

Trivia

File:DhunianMiniCrate.jpg

Dhunian Tree Spirit; Minicrate Exclusive.

• Released 2019.11
• Template:LES