Archaon the Everchosen

"By Khorne, by Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh, let the world come crashing down!"

Archaon the Everchosen is a Warriors of Chaos Legendary Lord introduced in Total War: Warhammer with the Chaos Warriors DLC. Archaon is one of the best melee fighters in the game, and is also a decent spellcaster.

Description
"Fear me, mortals, for I am the Anointed, the Favoured Son of Chaos. The armies of the gods rally behind me, and it is by my will and by my sword that your weakling nations shall fall."

- Archaon the Everchosen

Archaon is the Lord of the End Times, the vessel through which the Dark Gods will unite their followers and turn the whole world into a Realm of Chaos. He is an individual whom all the Chaos Gods have bestowed their gifts upon. Of all the Everchosen of Chaos who have assailed the world over the ages, Archaon is the most ruthless and powerful. At the heart of Archaon's army is his old warband, the Swords of Chaos, the most dread group of Chaos Knights ever to have blighted the world. The Everchosen often rides to war leading this cadre of veterans from atop the daemonic beast known as Dorghar, the Steed of the Apocalypse.

''Time is meaningless within the Realm of Chaos. Has Archaon completed his Unholy Quests or just begun his infernal journey? It matters not to him, for he is the Everchosen, and is destined to bring the End Times to the mortal fools that eke out their pitiful lives in the south. They will all pay; the price is blood, slaughter and death!''

Abilities

 * Foe-Seeker
 * Stand or Die!
 * Frenzy

Campaign effects
When chosen as starting lord, as of TWW2:


 * Additional Starting Units
 * Chaos Warriors
 * Chaos Warriors (Halberds)
 * Chosen (Great Weapons)
 * Faction effects
 * Units gain +3% weapon and missile strength per veterancy rank for all units.
 * [[File:Treasury_Chaos.png ‎]] Recruitment cost: -30% for Chaos Warrior units (all forces)
 * [[file:Diplomacy.png]] Diplomatic relations: -30 with all factions
 * Lord effects
 * Ward Save +5% for all units in lords army
 * Income from razing settlements +50%

Spells

 * Lore of Fire

Items
Archaon has the following items:
 * The Slayer of Kings
 * The Eye of Sheerian
 * The Armour of Morkar
 * The Crown of Domination

Mounts
Archaon has the following mounts:
 * Dorghar

Strategy
A beast in melee and master of the Lore of Fire. Archaon's only two significant issues are that he lacks a monstrous mount (making him a smaller target, but also harder for him to escape mobs of infantry) and that as a hybrid warrior/caster he needs to get to a very high level to amass enough skill points to use his entire skill set. Generally it best to prioritize one or two trees and once those are filled out sufficiently, diversify into the neglected trees.

Archaon is a strong generalist fighter. He is an effective melee fighter capable of dueling many characters in the game as well as slaying his way through armoured infantry. He has magical attacks as well to circumvent physical resistance while also having a small (10%) physical resistance of his own. Along with that he has the lore of Fire which is very effective for clearing crowds of enemies with burning head/flame storm/piercing bolts of burning or sniping enemies with fireball. One of his biggest weaknesses among dueling other characters or units is his lack of access to healing which means he can either be whittled down or can only take 1 or 2 serious engagements before being dropped to a low amount of health.

A simple template for Archaon campaigns is to work all across the Norscan region until two armies (at the minimum) are at play with one holding at least tier 3 infantry. While not the strongest at first at this point in time, Chaos Warriors can crush any other infantry during the mid-game with no problem.

When playing on difficulties higher than Hard, one should never travel to the Old World without a tier 5 hoard building and a decently leveled legendary lord (unless that individual is confident with winnings battles that should be losses for some 20 turns). When it comes to army compositions late-game, I personally build stacks of Chosen, Chaos Knights (sword-based), Hellcannons (needed against the Empire and the Dwarfs), and a few Shaggoths if I think they're needed.

Inside Archaon's army, Chosen become the strongest infantry in the game. A single Chosen unit with great weapons is able to win against most low-level lords easily due to their incredible stats. I can't understate this enough, but Chevron 9 Chosen with great weapons, and the right skills/traits for Archaon can result in over 70 melee attack, over 70 melee defense, over 140 armor, and some high 50 armor piercing weapon strength. A single Chosen unit in this state can single-handedly solo like 7 Swordsmen stacks (I haven't tried it, but it probably works).

Trivia

 * During the early days of Total War: Warhammer, Archaon was considered an underwhelming commander compared to Sigvald and Kholek, leading to fans jokingly refer to him as "Archaon the Neverchosen".
 * One of the victory conditions in the Old World and Mortal Empires campaigns is by ensuring that Archaeon is in a wounded state, which is done by defeating him in battle and ending a Chaos Invasion.