Warhammer 40K: Vashtorr the Arkifane Is… Not God-Tier
40K’s new Chaos big bad Vashtorr the Arkifane – is actually merely bad, and not so big.
For several Arks of Omen books now Vashtorr the Arkifane has been menacing the 40K galaxy. This would-be Chaos god has been gathering power and relics, biding his time to strike. Now at last he is ready to hit the tabletop with a model and rules. Take a look at if he is any good.
Who Is Vashtorr the Arkifane?
Vashtorr the Arkifane is a somewhat unique character in 40K. He is a powerful warp entity, but not one that serves any of the Four Gods. He’s far more powerful than a greater daemon or daemon prince. Powerful enough to remain independent. His control of the Forge of Souls allows him to build daemon engines, something that makes him very useful to the other gods. Vashtorr doesn’t have small ambitions. He seeks nothing less than becoming the 5th god of Chaos, a nearly all-powerful being. His plan for that is well underway. As one of the most powerful daemons and someone on the path to godhood – he must be pretty powerful on the tabletop.
The Rules
Well, we recently got a look at his rules… and he’s just not very potent. He’s got decent states, but they aren’t anything special for say a greater daemon or even a Dreadnought. Indeed with 14 wounds he doesn’t get Look Out, Sir and can be freely targeted. This is helped a bit by a 4++ save and reducing incoming damage by 1. All that makes him tough, but not really super hard to kill. He’s pretty likely to get shot off the table.
Next up are Vashtorr’s weapons. For ranged combat, he’s basically got a heavy flamer with an extra point of AP but 2 fewer shots. It’s pretty underwhelming and unlikely to do much. His combat attack isn’t all that crazy either. 7 attacks at S14 with d3 is good, but nothing new to the game. Only having AP-2 is kind of a bummer as well. He can do decent mortal wounds vs vehicles, but that’s only so useful. Besides, there are plenty of units in the game that kill a tank. It’s just really not that much damage output in late 9th Edition.
Vashtorr the Arkifane’s Abilities
In addition to pretty mediocre offense, he also has a trio of abilities he can pick from. Each command phase he picks one to use. He can give +1 to hit to one friendly Daemon engine. Honestly, this is the option you are going to use the most. It’s pretty sad that this nascent Chaos god is reduced a unit that gives out a +1 to hit. His other two options, which either halve an enemy’s range or their attacks and movement are simply too limited to be great. They have short range, require LoS, and are activated in your command phase. This combines to make them super situational and just not genericly useful. And thats… that’s all he gets. No psychic power. Nothing else crazy. Some mediocre stats and a some pretty meh rules.
Final Thoughts
If Vashtorr the Arkifane was just some random Chaos dude or a normal daemon I don’t think I’d be upset by this. But Vashtorr has been built up as a major threat to the Imperium. He is on his way to becoming a god. He is the new BIG BAD that everyone is scared about. After all this hype we should really expect him to be pretty crazy on the tabletop. And he’s just not.
Nor is he cheap. At 260 points I don’t really see taking him in a normal army at all. He does unlock his own Army of Renown, which might be good (hilariously he does not benefit from the army’s main rule). However, it’s not a great look if your centerpiece sucks. Maybe he’s built for the likely upcoming 10th Edition. But for now in 9th Edition this guy certainty isn’t god-tier, or even demi-god-tier.
Let us know what you think about Vashtorr, down in the comments!
