The Groupie King

 Unlike a lot of players out there, I'm really not all that into special characters. They often seem uneccessary and badly written (one day Mat Ward will be found dead after being force fed a number of skulltaker models). However, there's one guy that I am immensely fond of and is strangely often considered a bad choice in the new edition.

Sigvald's backstory tells of a divinely handsome, inbred, cruel little prince of the northern tribes who goes on an oedipal killing spree amongst his own royal family and ends up walking into the wastes alone, seeking patronage from a chaos power. Of course, the one who answers is Slaanesh and he becomes the dark prince, adored by thousands, feared by more.

So why is Sigvald cool? Well, you could start out by looking at his obvious abilities. He, for the most part, has a Chaos Lord's statline, coupled with some pretty cool gear. The thing is, nowadays in th
 e reign of 8th edition, a lot of these abilities are downplayed quite a bit. Sigvald was actually the answer to Chaos Warrior's prayers in 7th as he made his unit im
 mune to march blocking and being slowed by terrain, he was stubborn on Ld10, so when your Chaos Warriors got smacked about by the oh-so-many things that were harder than them, they stayed and on top of that he had always strikes first, so there was a chance that he could cut down a couple of those blood knights before they gang raped your chaos warriors and refused to even call them afterwards.


So why wasn't everyone taking him? Well for one thing, a 1+ save and regen often did not cut it when you had vampire lords, skull taker and wight blades flying around. The other was that he basically forced you into foot slogging mode in an era where the answer to everything was "take more knights" (seriously, if you take steam tanks and have them produce a love-child with pink horrors, thats how much a must-have choice knights were in 7th).

So now a lot of these things have gone out the window. Steadfast means a lot of people will break into uproarous laughter at a character that bestows stubborn 10 for the price tag Sigvald comes with (though in the hands of a clever player, its still very much worth it). Always strikes first, while still groovy is not worth as much as it was in an army that is for the most part initiative 5 or higher and as for march blocking and moving through terrain.... well, yeah, you can basically cross out his Favoured Son rule with a fat black marker in your book.

So again, why is he cool? Well all his abilities and wargear are still make him a nice enough character to take but the real awesome factor is somewhat to do with his weaknesses. His supreme vanity rule gives him the stupidity rule, meaning that even while his followers are fighting and dying all around him, he just can't help but notice how awesome he looks in his mirrored shield. This, coupled by his stubbornness is the real cool factor. Whenever you play with Sigvald you basically have a unit that will pretty much never ever break as long as he's around, even though they're getting the crap knocked out of them. Meanwhile their beloved prince couldn't care less and will only lift a finger when it suits him. In other words, when you take Sigvald, as opposed to Archaon or Kolek etc, you're taking a total rockstar. Not a general, not a bloodthirsty tyrant, your army is led by the fantasy version of Hendrix or Bowie or Michael Hutchence or whoever else you're secretly gay for. Not just that, but the army almost, sort of works. Its not bad being able to put a lot of eggs in one basket and knowing that it'll all stay together (at least until Sigvald embarressingly croaks, and if that happens you were probably boned anyway). And hey, if you're really worried, you can always give him a bodyguard Exalted Hero with a Dragon Bane Gem(2+ ward vs flaming), the armour of Zhrakk (immune to killing blow) and a 1+ armour save. Anything that could smack sigvald to death in one round of combat probably won't do the same to this guy

So that its, part poster boy, part serial killer. What's not to like? Here's a list I might consider running with him:
　
425 - Prince Sigvald the Magnificent
150 - Sorcerer, level 2, mark of Slaanesh - Dispel scroll
201 - Exalted Hero, mark of slaanesh - Battle Standard Bearer, Bronze Armour of Zhrakk, Dragonbane gem, potion of toughness, chaos steed, shield
853 - 48 Chaos Warriors, mark of slaanesh, full command, halberds, Razord standard
90 - 5 Warhounds (x3)
250 - 6 Chaos Knights, mark of slaanesh
250 - 6 Chaos Knights, mark of slaanesh
205 - Hellcannon
75 - Chaos Spawn, mark of slaanesh

2499 points