Daemonhosts!

[Janitor]

With thier quite random and chaotic nature (not to mention no GK allowed!) is it worth using these potential monsters?

 

Any good stories of your usage and just how you have used them in the past is good!

[Apogee]

I use them and love them. They are rarely a power-house unit, but they are amazing at screwing up an enemy plan. Basically, throw them at weak units (anything without much CC - bulk attacks hurt more than power weapons). Then use the distraction to move on up. Often they'll die terribly, but 4 T4 wounds with a 4+ invul takes a while to go down. And a lucky power can really screw things up.

 

Couple notes:

-Don't deepstrike. Deploy and advance - 1/3 of the time you'll either teleport or get Timeshift, which is awesome. Stay out of LOS at all cost till you can Timeshift up, or just teleport in to some weak long-range units, or...

-Kill tanks. D6 S6 hits on rear armour - very hurty.

-Don't worry about pinning your guys with Terrify, keep them away or use Books of St. Lucius.

-Don't plan on anything but tying up enemies in CC. Avoid bringing your own troops in if the combat will go past one round - an unluckly bloodboil can really hurt Sisters/vets.

-Use them aggresively. Remember they are not going to win the game, but just screw up the game. They work really well for a water army style, just use them as obstacles.

-Lastly, avoid S8+ at all costs. They aren't eternal warriors, so a singly fisting has them on the ground. Beware marines of all stripes. Go for the combat squads without fists...

[Aidoneus]

I'll second what Apogee said. They're not fantastic units, especially in their own right, but they can perform quite well in messing up the enemy's battle plan. I've found they rarely win combats, due to having no way to punch through armour, and only having relatively few attacks. But at the same time, as long as you avoid S8+, they'll last a while too. Throw them against enemy units (without power fists) that you simply want to tie up for a few rounds, while the rest of your army deals with other threats. Don't expect them to survive, but always expect them to be entertaining.

[Narthecium]

I'll third the notion that they make excellent disruptor / tarpits. I have never used one (because I love my grey knights too much when I play DH to play without them) but have faced them multiple times. Their psychic powers remind me a lot of weirdboyz in that a roll of the dice can make or break you (less than with weirdboyz of course) but in general I think they are "fun" units and very high on the cool factor. And they do indeed last in combat for a while, particularly if they manage to mend their wounds.

[Venenum]

They are definitely fun units. After resisting many fun codicies I broke my own rule of I am not starting army x because of one cool unit. I just couldn't resist daemonhosts.

 

I agree with the use comments above. One good use for them I've found is tying up units like broadsides. In order for the daemonhost to be successful here, it doesn't actually need to kill the broadside. But if it can survive 2-3 rounds of CC (especially when you roll regenerate host form) you can gain a large benefit by simply denying the Tau player the ability to make use of the broadsides firepower. Same applies for any other fire support unit you can reach.

 

Sometimes I find the daemonhosts are more effective and survive better if I take two and use them to attack the same target.

 

The big drawback and benefit with these guys is that their power is dependent on the whim of the notoriously fickle dice gods. Some times if you get the right rolls and the right time 1-2 daemonhost can mow through several high value targets. That being said, I've also seen daemonhosts punched out by a Tau Shas'O

 

 

-Venenum

[Kadaeux]

*Inquisitor Lord walks in* You're all under arrest for treason!

[Venenum]

Narrow-minded fool you cannot begin to understand the importance of our work!

[Thaelion Hexis]

*Inquisitor Lord walks in* You're all under arrest for treason!

 

-Mind scrub-

 

I have never used them, though money permitting, I do intend to start a radical DH force sometime. I would like to hear more of people's experiences/tactics with them.

[Venenum]

It depends what you want to do with a radical force. You can do something quite characterful if you max out on your elite choices.

I.e. Inquisitor Lord + Daemonhosts + DCAs + Eversor or Callidus.

 

While it is fun on paper and very characterful, the points to killing power ratio does not favour the DH player.

 

You may have more efficacy should you run an SM or IG parent list and then flavour with Daemonhosts.

[Thaelion Hexis]

I was actually thinking of filling out the Elites in such a way, for fun really as it would give me good variety.

[Venenum]

yeah, i tried that. Didn't work out too well. It's looks great before turn one. But after that having your rear handed to you is a little less fun. Generally I found that in order to be effective I would take only one fun choice and the rest had to be effective choices. I'd love to max out on all the freak show choices, but the repeated losses just sapped all the fun out of it for me.

 

Generally it was one of:

2 Daemonhosts

1 Daemonhost + Callidus

Eversor + 2-4 DCA.

 

As my anti armour came from C:SM I always had to take 4 troop choices. 2 IST, Tac Squad and Scout squad. Generally didn't leave much room for anti armour. Anti personnel was rounded out by a metalstorm ][ retinue

[Aidoneus]

The best luck I've had with mine has been in this list. They generally just run distraction. If I'm lucky, they might eventually drag something down with them. Mostly though they just slow down fast units, to let my mostly-shooty army do its job.

 

My friend Agrab has also had pretty decent success using them as allies in a SM army (along with a radical Inq Lord). Again, they pretty much just get in the way, although sometimes he concentrates 2 or 3 against one of my units, and if they've Timeshifted or Warp-strengthed, they can be pretty nasty.

[Narthecium]

Yeah maxing out the freak show (so to speak, I think that is an extremely accurate statement!) choices is just putting far too many points into far too few models (something DH typically already has an issue with).

 

It was funny, the other day I played a 2v2 with my SM and my allied guard versus another guard and his allied daemons.

 

In my list I had something like a squad of five Grey Knight termies w/psycannons, two tac squads, two ironclads, two rhinos, a captain on bike with relic, a squad of assault marines. He goes (1500 point game) "Where are the rest of your marines?"

 

I just laughed. I can only imagine his face if I'd been playing 1500 grey knights.