Daemonic Review - TO BE UPDATED

[Captain Malachi]

First off, I would like to apologies for my abrupt departure some time ago. However, I'm now back, and bring with me the complete daemon review in all it's glory. Obviously it fell apart a little after we started the hobby section (entirely my fault), and for this reason I'm going to leave this for now, however I may come back to it later. Now, on to the reason I'm here.

 

Note: I've never used coding before so after this initial one, I'm just going to bold headers.

 

The Daemon Army

 

An introduction

This guide is a group effort from the daemon fans of the Bolter and Chainsword. It's based on experience and conjecture, and aims to give the average person interested in the Daemon Codex a place to start learning about the wonder that is the Daemon Codex.

 

Daemonic Special Rules

The Daemonic army benefits from several special rules that set it apart from other forces.

 

Daemonic Assault

This is the hallmark special rule of the daemonic codex. Prior to deployment, you split your force into two lots, roughly equal in terms of the number of units in each. You designate one of these as your 'chosen' half, and on a d6 roll of 3+, you get that as your first wave.

 

Once you've got your half of the army, you deep-strike in on your first turn. Thus, it's often to our advantage to go second, as we deprive the enemy of a turn of shooting. It also allows us the second move towards objective-grabbing. The remainder of our army deep-strikes in per the reserve rules.

 

We deploy this way, regardless of scenarios like Dawn of War. This means our army plays incredibly reactive. It is to our interest to focus our force on part of the enemy, rather than try to fight their entire army with a portion of ours.

 

By now, though, you've noticed the randomness inherent in the Daemonic codex. This is simply how it works for us; we are random and sometimes unreliable like that. One way to combat the randomness in our deployment is to build as much redundancy into the army as you can by taking multiples of units that you want to see. Relying on a Soul Grinder or unit of Fiends to show up after your initial wave? Take several.

 

Also of note is that our troops and Heralds can take Icons. Icons cost 25 points a pop, but you may deep-strike without scatter within 6" of them. Some people swear by them, some do not.

 

Eternal Warriors

The entire army is immune to instant death. Considering that a fair number of our units are multi-wound, this is rather nice.

 

Invulnerable

All our units (save for our one vehicle) have invulnerable saves. Some units also have armour saves or can purchase them, as noted in their entries. The bulk of our units, though, have a 5+ invulnerable save, which means that they need cover. On the bright side, per the rules we can take invulnerable saves against dangerous terrain tests.

 

Fearless

All daemon units are also fearless. We're not the only army that can field a totally fearless army, but it's worth mentioning.

 

On the bright side, we never break from gunfire, and there are a variety of morale-related problems we can ignore that others suffer from. Everyone boasts leadership 10 for when that's actually relevant, too.

 

The downside? We never retreat from close combat. While most of our units will usually win close combat, it's a problem sometimes. The biggest issue is against dreadnoughts. This codex has a particular problem dealing with high AV walkers, as most units simply cannot scratch them. There's nothing quite like watching your 40-point Bloodcrushers throw S5 hits at an AV12 or 13 walker. It also means that when we lose said close combats, and sometimes we do, we face No Retreat! saves, and are particularly vulnerable to them as they are usually taken at a 5+.

 

Fearless makes it very important to be able to deal with Walkers reliably, and ensure that you don't lose melee combat in general.

 

The Chaos Gods

There are four major Chaos Gods in the Warhammer 40k universe. They are embodiments of for primal forces: experience, death, change, and decay. None of them particularly like each other in principle, but there is fluff justification for both pure-god armies, and mixed armies. Mixed armies are justified in the sense that the individual minions of each god likely have their own agendas, and might find it convenient to work together from time to time.

 

In terms of rules, heralds (an HQ choice) may not join a unit of daemons of a different god. Khornate heralds just won't join anything other than a unit of Khornate Daemons, for example.

 

Khorne

Khorne is the god of death, in terms of separating someone's head from their shoulders. Khorne is also known as the blood god, hence the chant 'Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!' Khorne's minions exist primarly for spilling the blood of the enemy in glorious battle.

 

In terms of fluff, Khorne's opposite is Slaanesh. Khorne also hates Tzeentch, as Tzeentch isn't keen on straight-up battles and hand-to-hand combat. Khorne has no particular problem with Nurgle beyond the fact that Nurgle is not Khorne.

 

In game terms, Khorne's units are not particularly fast, but they excel at butchering infantry in close combat. They have to go it on foot, but will harm things when they get there. Most Khorne units ignore armor saves, and some Khorne units actually have 3+ armor saves of their own. Most Khorne units have an invlunerable save of 5+, aside from their Greater Daemon, whose is at 4+. Khornate units also boast higher-than-average weapon skill.

 

Slaanesh

Slaanesh is the hermaphroditic deity of excess, experience, and pleasure. Slaaneshi daemons will still kill in combat, but they are known for making an art of it and taking their time. This is typically very painful for those on the recieving end. Slaanesh is all about the self-indlugence. Slaanesh actually came about due to an event that the Eldar will, as a rule, refuse to discuss with anyone.

 

In terms of fluff, Khorne is Slaanesh's opposite. Slaanesh has no particular problem with Nurgle and Tzeentch aside from the fact they are not Slaaneshi.

 

On the tabletop, Slaaneshi daemons are among the fastest units in the codex. All have Fleet of Foot minimum, and some are faster still. Most of them have rending as well as high initiative values and high base attacks, but only average weapon skill. Slaaneshi daemons are also the most fragile of the codex, as they all have a 5+ invulnerable save. Their toughness is also on the lower end.

 

Tzeentch

Tzeentch is the god of change and sorcery. Tzeentch plots for the sake of plotting, and loves nothing more than a convoluted plan that confuses the enemy.

 

In terms of fluff, Tzeentch is the opposite of Nurgle. Khorne also has a hatred for Tzeentch because Tzeentch does not particularly care to meet you on an open battlefield.

 

Tzeentch daemons are the primary source of ranged combat, and reliable ranged anti-tank, in the daemon codex. Tzeentch daemons have average levels of toughness, but the best invulnerable saves of the codex, as most of them take a 4+ invulnerable. Tzeentch daemons are shooty to the exclusion of close combat prowess. If Guardsmen or Fire Warriors were of a mind to assault, they could probably beat down most Tzeentch daemons in a fistfight.

 

Nurgle

Nurgle is the chaos god of entropy and decay. Nurgle loves pestilence and filth, and is apparently quite paternal as well. He's the closest Primeval to having a sense of humor, though it involves rotting flesh. Your rotting flesh, to be precise.

 

In fluff terms, Nurgle isn't fond of Tzeentch, because Tzeentch changes things while Nurgle rots them. Nurgle has no real angle on Slaanesh or Khorne.

 

On the tabletop, Nurgle's units stick out for being slow and durable. Most of them have the Slow and Purposeful special rule. Most of them have above-average toughness, and a 5+ invulnerable save. Nurgle units also tend to have poisoned weapons, low weapon skill, and low initiative

 

 

 

Armoury:

The Chaos Daemons have ‘daemonic gifts’ rather than wargear. They come in general flavours, and in god-specific flavours. This section offers a run-down of the gifts and their utility.

 

Gifts of Chaos:

Boon of mutation:

Target model passes a toughness test, or it dies. Or, better yet, the thing turns into a chaos spawn under your control. Sounds good, right?

 

If you’re willing to get within 6 inches of the target and try it, most targets worth hitting with this pass a toughness test on a d6 2/3 of the time. You will mutate that Carnifex 1/6 of the time, period. It can be used in close combat, at least.

 

Ultimately, this is a ‘for fun only’ gift and has no place in a daemon army looking to be competitive.

 

Breath of chaos:

It’s canned brutality against troops. It’s a template weapon that ignores cover saves, armour saves, and wounds on a 4+. Unless they have invulnerable saves, half of whatever is under the template will die.

 

However, it’s not a perfect gift. The template range means that whatever unit carries it must be able to close effectively to template range and get the shot off. It is also not terribly effective against vehicles, but it glances them on a 4+ per template.

 

Aside from the speed requirements to use it, Breath of Chaos is good at killing infantry, but the daemon codex in general is adept at killing infantry. Before including units that can use Breath of Chaos, make sure your capabilities are more well-rounded.

 

Chaos icon:

Icons of chaos:

Simply put, you get some degree of accuracy in your deep striking, which for our army is pretty good. However, you pay a lot, and don’t get to use them on your first turn. They should really be put on plaguebearers or horrors since they can protect them better. Certain units get more of a bonus than others from icons, while others really couldn’t care less, mainly it‘s slow units that need to be close soon and units with a big base that need icons. Just remember that they cost quite a lot.

 

Iron hide:

The model buys a power armour save. Some units have it as standard, some have the option to buy it. If you can buy it, you probably ought to. It is, however, bloody expensive for the daemon princes.

 

Daemonic flight:

Unit now has a jump pack. It comes standard on a number of units. The only person with an option to buy it is the daemon prince, and the prince pays through the nose for that privilege. On anyone else, it makes them faster, pure and simple. Speed kills..

 

Daemonic gaze:

It’s good for three Strength 5, AP 3 shots. It’s not a bad shooting attack, but it’s not a great shooting attack, either. It might pop a couple of infantry a turn, or even menace AV10 on vehicles.

 

If you really want to be popping shots off, then you probably already have this gift. Some units can pick it up, but if they want to be in close combat, they’re better off saving the points. You want to be running or fleeting, not giving the enemy a chance to keep you out of close assaults by removing the closest troopers.

 

The last note is that no daemon unit will ever really be able to crank out enough shots on their own to drop many units.

 

Unholy might:

Unit gains +1 strength. If it’s a unit that relies on strength to kill things, then it’s probably worth it. This means that just about any close-combat-oriented unit, aside from Nurgle ones and Fiends of Slaanesh, benefit from it. Additionally, it makes a monstrous creature more likely to penetrate vehicle armour.

 

Instrument of chaos:

If you draw, you win by 1 instead. It’s points filler at best, as most of the time daemons win big or die trying in assaults. That’s not to say it can’t work, but don’t take them unless you’ve got to fill up the last few points.

 

Gifts of Khorne:

Blessing of the Blood God:

A 2+ save against psychic powers and force weapons for 5 points? Why would you ever not take this? Unless you know for a fact you will not face psykers, take it. Keeping an expensive unit from getting Mind Warred to death is worth five points.

 

Death strike:

It’s a single-shot plasma pistol that doesn’t Get Hot. However, everyone who can take it has only a decent ballistic skill. Simply put, it’s not worth the price tag.

 

If you’re mono-Khorne, then maybe you’ll think about this. Otherwise, it has no place in an army looking to be effective.

 

Fury of Khorne:

As most Khornate units have power weapons, this gift looks pretty redundant. However, Khorne’s boys use this for penetrating armour. It’s generally considered a weak ‘just-in-case’ measure against walkers. Simply put, walkers ruin Khorne’s day, but on higher-strength units like Bloodcrushers, you might actually hurt the dreadnought.

 

Most Khorne units simply don’t have the number of attacks, combined with rending, to get results.

 

It is worth taking on Flesh hounds, however, as flesh hounds have no power weapons.

 

 

Hellblade:

It’s not a gift you can buy so much as a standard-issue weapon. It’s a power weapon. Yes, it’s good. It’s part of what makes Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers favourites, since they don’t much care about your armour save.

 

Gifts of Tzeentch:

Bolt of Tzeentch:

This is our only real, reliable anti-tank shot. All Tzeentch units aside from Screamers can mount it, and Horrors get it especially cheap.

 

However, it is only strength 8, AP 1. It struggles against higher armour values.

 

If you’re going to go Tzeentch, or bring Tzeentch units, pack it into every unit. Think about skipping it on flamers unless you plan on seeing the flamers survive past their initial drop ‘n’ fry.

 

 

Master of sorcery:

The unit may fire an additional ranged weapon a turn. Note that you must first have a second weapon. On a monstrous creature, you could theoretically fire three times.

 

This gift works well with We Are Legion, as our shooting arsenal is varied; we have two anti-infantry shots and one anti-tank shot. Thus, you might as well be efficient about your shooting and fire it at what needs to die.

 

Soul devourer:

This gift is largely useless. It lets the herald buy a mini force-weapon, which is to say you get a power weapon and each unsaved wound means a leadership check or instant death.

 

Note that the Daemon Prince and Lord of Change already ignore armour saves, and forcing high-leadership multi-wound models to take leadership tests is usually not a good way to kill them. Plus, there are a lot of units running around with Eternal Warrior, so instant death is hardly what it used to be.

 

The only marginal, strange use for this is a Tzeentchian chariot-herald going into a unit that’s not built for close-combat and trying to maim it up with an S3 power weapon.

 

 

Warpfire:

Horrors and flamers mount this simple ranged attack. It’s three S4, AP4 shots that you get to shoot out to 18” while moving. Units of horrors can crank out a lot of shots with this, though Flamers are better suited to trying to use their Breath of Chaos.

 

We are legion:

You may fire your ranged weapons at more than one unit. Obviously, you need to have multiple ranged attacks and the ability to use them, so we’re talking about either monstrous creatures or regular units with Master of Sorcery.

 

We Are Legion usually costs a bit, but it makes shooting more efficient, since a unit can rattle off Daemonic Gaze at infantry, Bolt a tank, and then assault whichever one needs it if it’s a Daemon Prince or Lord of Change.

 

Make sure that you need the capability before you spend for it, though.

 

Gifts of Slaanesh:

Aura of aquiescence:

Offensive and defensive grenades, 5 points. What you need to ask yourself is why you aren’t taking it. It’s too cheap and useful to ever pass up.

 

Pavane of Slaanesh:

Make a shooting attack at an enemy unit. Move them d6 inches if you hit. It’s not Lash of Submission, but it can’t be blocked by a psychic hood. Units may only feel one Pavane a turn, though.

 

The firing unit won’t be fleeting, but it can let you pull enemies closer to you if you want to assault them, or shove them away. It also lets you move the enemy into Group Hug formation for firing template weapons at them.

 

 

Rending claws:

Rending. That’s pretty much it, you can’t buy it for anything. The units who have it often have a lot of low strength attacks and need rending to do their damage. Any unit like this must be able to crank out lots of attacks, even after casualties.

 

Soporific musk:

Get in to combat, kill a few models and then leg it. It can be very powerful, as you can ping-pong around the board. Move, fleet, (as all Slaanesh units come with Fleet of Foot) assault, then hit ‘n’ run fallback, and move, fleet, assault. It’s a pretty staggering two-turn movement rate for the unit in question.

 

Transfixing gaze:

One enemy unit loses an attack. It’s not exactly the most epic or useful ability. The main perk of it would be to, say, deprive an enemy HQ or Sarge of a high-strength attack. Realistically, your unit should be going before them and beating them to death before it’s a factor.

 

 

Gifts of Nurgle:

Aura of decay:

On the one hand, being able to take a shot at everyone close to you sounds pretty cool.

 

Then, you realize that Aura of Decay hits at S2, AP-. This means you wound those hardy Grots on a 4+, and just about anything worth wounding takes it on a 6+, and gets an armour save.

 

Unless you know that you’re going to face a horde of T3 models with low saves, don’t bother. And if you are going to face the aforementioned horde, think long and hard about not bothering.

 

Cloud of flies:

Offensive and Defensive grenades for cheap. Take it if you can get it. Most Nurgle units don’t have the initiative to make use of the offensive grenades, but you at least swing before powerfists. Mostly, it makes Nurgle units more durable on the charge, since it deprives the enemy of attacks.

 

 

Noxious touch:

Easily one of the most powerful upgrades in the codex. Wounding anything on a 2+ is lethal, especially so on daemon princes. Great Unclean Ones start with it.

Plaguebearers, Beasts of Nurgle, and Heralds of Nurgle may also take it, but don’t bother. Plaguebearers and heralds will never be great in close combat. If you’re running Beasts of Nurgle, then you’re running an Epidemius list and the Beasts will benefit from the Tallyman’s upgrades.

 

Plaguesword:

It’s the standard-issue weapon for Plaguebearers and Nurgle heralds. It’s a poison weapon that wounds on a 4+.

 

If Plaguebearers and Nurgle Heralds had a decent number of attacks and weapon skill, then it might be scary. As it is, Plaguebearers can threaten high-toughness targets.

 

Also, be mindful of 5th edition poison rules. If your strength is equal to or greater than the target’s toughness, you may re-roll wounds with poison weapons.

 

 

HQ:

Keeper of Secrets

As a monstrous creature, this guy packs a mean punch in close combat. His punch is second only to the Bloodthirster. But, a lot of the daemon army is good in close combat. What makes it special? Initiative ten is very nice, and combined with aura of aquiescence means you always go first. That alone isn’t worth 200 points. Fortunately, the keeper has other things going for it, though they do require you to buy upgrades.

 

The first upgrade worth looking at is soporific musk: hit and run on a greater daemon? Yes, please! One of the main things this does is allow you to avoid protracted combats, and escape from units that have a large number of high strength attacks. Another upgrade to look at is transfixing gaze. It is helpful against walkers and powerfist unit leaders, but will do nothing against a full unit of high-strength attacks. Unholy might is useful in that it helps with tank busting, and hurting toughness 5 units. Skip the other upgrades. In summary, the suggested Keeper of Secrets build is 235 points and takes Unholy Might and Soporific Musk.

 

The Keeper’s downsides are a 4+ invulnerable save, and a height that makes cover saves hard to come by. Its lower-end strength hurts it in one-on-one fights with other monstrous creatures.

 

Tactics:

Aside from the normal ‘run up and smash’ that all monstrous creatures use, our very own ==Me== has provided us with this tactic. “The Keeper has the potential to be the fastest Greater Daemon. Give it soporific musk and your Keeper becomes a highly mobile killing machine. Hit & Run is 3D6" in any direction, and when combined with the Keeper's normal movement and fleet you get a assault range of up to 36", a full foot and a half longer than the Bloodthirster's (maybe that's why Khorne's angry all the time). With such a huge threat range, nothing is safe from the Keeper's deadly caress. Use it to hop across the battlefield to catch enemy vehicles, drive deeper into enemy lines, and leave plenty of sloppy seconds for the rest of your army.”

 

Aside from this, there are other simple tactics. Dreadnoughts and most tanks make good targets. Land raiders require 7+2d6, which is a penetrating hit under 50% of the time, and leave you in position to be assaulted by its contents. Ignore monoliths outright, as S7 + d6 will never = 14.

 

Great Unclean One

This is Nurgle’s big bruiser. This guy just never dies! With an extra wound over the other greater daemons and feel no pain, it takes a crazy amount of firepower to take the Great Unclean One out. Which is good because he’s isn’t all that great at anything else. He’s so slow that it’s usually pretty easy for the enemy to keep out of combat with him, and with no real ranged weaponry to speak of there’s not a lot else he can do. Fortunately, thanks to his being a monstrous creature, he combines Move Through Cover with Slow and Purposeful.

 

On to the upgrades. With Cloud of Flies, you get grenades, so you can charge through cover without penalty and the enemy doesn’t get an extra attack for charging you, for 5 points? Take it. The Great Unclean One’s initiative is fairly sad, but most anyone that wants into melee with him will get the charge off. Aura of decay is a weak, short ranged shooting attack that costs a lot, against low toughness horde armies (think tyranids) you might get a few kills against them, but generally it’s not worth taking. Breath of chaos, while an excellent upgrade, is just too expensive, and the Great Unclean One is just too slow to justify it here. Unholy might, +1 Strength? No point, you already wound on a 2+, and against vehicles you hit plenty hard enough, leave it at home. Instrument is, as always, points filler. Thus, our suggested build is a Great Unclean One with Cloud of Flies, at 165 points.

 

Tactics:

Since it’s so slow, the Great Unclean One requires a bit of skill and deep-striking luck to use effectively. Best bet is to tie up a unit in close combat with something like plaguebearers or nurglings, and then have your greater daemon slam in to them and finish them off. With his low price tag, you can get this guy at pretty low points games, so in those games he can often create an area where the enemy simply won’t go, combined with a few Plaguebearers you can pretty much guarantee an objective is yours. One way to make good use of him is to assault through cover, the enemy either has to leave cover, and therefore lose the cover save, or stay and fight a greater daemon in close combat that suffers no penalties due to his grenades. The best build for the Great Unclean One is the Epidemius build, but we’ll go in to that in more detail later.

 

Note that if the enemy can nullify Feel No Pain with AP 1 or 2 weapons or attacks that ignore armor saves in close combat, the Great Unclean One is slow meat. He will simply cease to exist against massed powerfists or thunder hammers.

 

Bloodthirster

The Bloodthirster is a simple, unsbutle close combat monster. He gets the job done and doesn’t even bother sticking around to ask questions. Weapon skill 10 puts him in a class shared by only one other unit in the game, the Eldar Avatar. The Bloodthirster will spank the Avatar in a one-on-one fight. WS4 and lower opponents hit him on a 5+, making WS10 actually a bit of a defensive feature.

 

Wings let him to get in to combat quick, give him a longer threat range and basically make him better at what he does best, combined with a 3+ armor save standard and toughness 6, he should be getting in to combat safely. Now let’s take a look at the upgrades available.

 

First up, we have death strike, now you may be thinking “great, I can make my bloodthirster a threat at range”, well, you’d be wrong. A single strength 7 shot at BS4 is not going to make him a threat, best bet is to leave this one at home. Next we have blessing of the blood god, a 2+ save against psychic powers for 5 points? Always take this, one of the most cost efficient options in the codex. Unholy might is another must have, base strength 8 means you instant kill marine characters, and have a better chance of tank and dreadnought busting, also don‘t forget that thanks to furious charge it means you auto penetrate most vehicles on the charge. Instrument is a points filler, you really shouldn’t be tying combats with your bloodthirster, so I’d leave it.

 

However, as with all units, there are some downsides, first off is a very high cost, 250 base, though most players count his cost as 275 for might and blessing. With no real shooting to speak of, as death strike doesn’t count, he’s not much of a threat if your enemy can avoid close combat, and since he’s fearless he’s very vulnerable to tar pitting.

 

Tactics:

As a greater daemon of the least subtle god in existence, it’s pretty obvious how to use this guy: run up and kill. However, there’s a little more to it than that. Really, you should be using the Bloodthirster to take out what the rest of your army has the most trouble with: walkers and tanks. It also excels at killing multi-wound T4 characters and other monstrous creatures, which are typically T6-7.

 

There is one thing that the Bloodthirster is bad at: getting fast vehicles. Not only does the old boy often have trouble getting to them (12” move + 6” assault or d6” run), he’s probably hitting on 6’s when he does get there.

 

Lord of Change

Tzeentch’s greater daemon is your fire support. Daemonic armies are light on firepower, so that’s a bonus. However, he costs 250. For approximately 220, you can field a pair of Tzeentch Heralds on Chariots with the same Bolt of Tzeentch and Daemonic Gaze as the Lord of Change. For fewer points, you get twice the firepower, two targets, better mobility, but no melee capability. Combine this with the Lord of Change’s melee capabilities (three base WS5, I5, S6 monstrous creature attacks) and most people have little regard for the Lord of Change.

 

Captain Malachi has a soft spot for the Lord of Change, though. It comes with the best ranged anti-personnel weapon the Daemons boast, and the ever-trusty Bolt of Tzeentch. It also comes with a 3+ invulnerable save, the best in the book. We Are Legion is pricy, but allows the Lord of Change to fire the anti-personnel weapon at infantry and send the Bolt of Tzeentch at an armoured target. Master of Sorcery requires you to buy a third weapon, and the only option for that is Breath of Chaos. Breath of Chaos, however, involves being close enough to the enemy to assault them. While the Lord of Change has some melee capability, Mal says it’s better to save the points. Boon of Mutation is simply too unreliable to have a place in any competitive list, or even in any fun list that wants to save the points.

 

Tactics:

The people that use the Lord of Change often field him as a long range fire support unit. While that is a valid tactic, it doesn’t make full use of its abilities, and if you’re going to do that you may as well take a pair of heralds for reasons discussed earlier in this entry. Mal suggests hitting a tank with a Bolt of Tzeentch, then following up with a charge. An S8, AP1 shot along with four S6+2d6 attacks usually does a number on tanks. Otherwise, the Lord of Change has enough melee prowess to deal with most enemies.

 

Ku’gath the Plaguefather

Ku’gath is essentially a bigger, meaner Great Unclean One with a few nifty tricks. Ku’gath has an extra wound and attack over the regular great unclean one, making him a scarier prospect in close combat as well as making him even harder to take down at range.

 

Beyond that, he’s a great unclean one that pays 140 points for some nifty abilities. His nurgling infestation ability gives you the option of generating a free nurgling base 50% of the time. This can be a real benefit in an objective based game, but should be avoided in kill point games. Necrotic missiles gives you a decent ranged attack that can decimate units outside of cover that have no invulnerable save, but is totally useless against vehicles.

 

While powerful, the big guy is exceedingly expensive. He costs almost as much as two basic Great Unclean Ones. He really offers only the Necrotic Missiles and Nurgling Infestation. He has the same pros and cons as any other Great Unclean One, save that he is no longer cheap. The consensus is that he might have a place in mono-Nurgle builds. Might. Generally, though, whatever he can offer is available elsewhere, for cheaper.

 

Fateweaver

Tzeentch’s favourite lord of change is an odd character. He has all the powers a regular lord of change can get and then some, at a better price than a comparably-equipped Lord of Change. On the other hand, all but his save and ballistic skill are knocked down by one over his generic counterpart.

 

What makes him so special though, is his Oracle of Eternity power. It lets all friendly units with a model within 6” to re-roll all their saves, making them a lot more survivable. This ability also includes Fateweaver himself. However, the drawback is that if he suffers a wound, he has to take a leadership test on the lowest leadership value in the army, though admittedly it’s still 9. If he fails, well, goodbye Kairos.

 

He costs a lot, but has an enormous influence on the game. Drop him in with a few units close by and you have a very solid core of troops that just won’t die. His close combat skills are sub-par, with a measly two S5, WS4 attacks base. Give him support in melee or write him off. This is not the sort of model you can just add in to your list. He requires some serious care to use effectively. You really need to build your army around him to get your money’s worth.

 

Skarbrand, the Exiled One

He’s a slightly slower Bloodthirster with a few neat tricks. He has no wings, but he gets fleet, so he’s still fast enough for most purposes. He has an extra attack over the regular Bloodthirster, and comes with unholy might, making him a pretty scary prospect in close combat. He also has something a regular Bloodthirster can never get, breath of chaos, this makes him pretty damn scary on the charge.

 

“Rage Embodied” sets Skarbrand apart. It makes everyone in 24” re-roll to hit, friend and foe alike. This completely changes the game, and when used right, will win you the game. The important thing to remember when using Skarbrand is to maximize the attacks you get, while minimizing the attacks your opponent gets. There’s a specific build revolving around Skarbrand which we’ll discuss in more depth later on, but for now what you need to remember is that anything with high initiative works best with Skarbrand, since they will get lots of attacks out before the enemy, and therefore the enemy won’t get the bonus, they can’t re-roll their attacks if they’re dead.

 

Daemonic Heralds

There are three things to bear in mind with the Heralds in the daemon book. First, they can only lead units of Daemons of their patron god. In other words, a Herald of Khorne is not going to hang out with Horrors of Tzeentch, and a Herald of Nurgle is not going to lead Daemonettes.

 

Second, and more important, Heralds come two to an HQ slot. Now, you can take a single herald and be done with it, you can take a pair and a Greater Daemon, or you can take up to four.

 

Third, heralds come in three flavours: on foot, on a daemonic mount, and on a Chariot. On foot is just what it sounds like. Daemonic mounts provide stat buffs. Chariots provide better stat buffs but cost the herald independent character status. For the most part, the contributors to the guide favour Chariots.

 

Herald of Khorne

On foot

This guy is a buff character, stick him in a unit of bloodletters and watch them carve their way through just about any unit they can catch. In this incarnation, the best upgrades to choose are blessing of the blood god and unholy might, this gives you the ability to pass additional wounds caused by psykers to your herald while the unholy might makes your attacks more powerful. As said, the best way to use this guy is to simply point him and his unit in the direction of the enemy. The problem is his slow speed, a fast opponent will be able to avoid your unit.

 

On a juggernaut

Like the one on foot, this guy is a buff character, you can use him to make a unit of Bloodcrushers or Bloodletters stronger, not a lot more to it than that. On a Juggernaut, the Herald is essentially a 3-wound Bloodcrusher that costs as much as ~3 Bloodcrushers.

 

On a chariot

Put your bloodletting fiend on a chariot and you have a cheap little mini daemon prince. He loses the independent character rule, but gains a whole lot of wounds and some other nifty little bonuses. With blessing of the blood god and unholy might you have a solid unit for hitting the enemy hard. However, he is still slow, and without the independent character rule he’s vulnerable to getting shot up on his way to the enemy. Despite this, this load out is still considered the best option for heralds of Khorne. As always, bring multiples.

 

Herald of Tzeentch

Like all Tzeentch units, the herald does best at range. He also fills up a gap in our army list in the form of ranged anti-tank. He is one of the few units in the codex that can reliably take out light to medium tanks at range. This is the main reason you're taking him.

 

On foot

Hide him in a unit of horrors, give him we are legion, master of sorcery and bolt of Tzeentch and you have a solid anti-tank unit, with excellent anti-troop power, and a lot of bodies. This is a solid enough choice.

 

On a disc

Extra mobility and an extra attack seems pretty good. In reality, the extra attack is wasted as these guys should be kept out of combat. The only units that match him for speed are flamers, but they want to get close while the herald doesn’t. If you are considering a disc-mounted herald in flamers, just get more flamers instead.

 

On a chariot

This is the best option on the Tzeentch herald. The speed and stat boost leaves you with a mobile, semi-durable weapons platform. With Bolt of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, and We Are Legion you can zoom around on the most cost-effective ranged anti-tank unit in the daemon army. Like all chariots, you lose the independent character special rule, so you can be slightly more vulnerable to shooting, but the extra wounds make up for it. Still, don’t get rapid-fired. You die that way.

 

Herald of Nurgle

The short version: skip the Herald of Nurgle. He has no chariot. He does nothing that Plaguebearers can’t do, except go at I3. If you give him upgrades, you end up with an ineffective HQ that costs more. Breath of chaos won't help as he's too slow to use it reliably. Noxious touch won't help since he just doesn’t have enough attacks. Unholy might is wasted thanks to his poisoned attacks.....seeing a pattern here? Suffice it to say, avoid him.

 

If you want a Nurgle Herald, take Epidemius.

 

Herald of Slaanesh

Like the others, there are three ways to use the herald of Slaanesh, foot, mount and chariot.

 

On foot

While it’s an HQ, it’s a strength and toughness three HQ with no real combat prowess. You can add unholy might to get to strength four, but really there are better options than this. The only use is to boost a unit of daemonettes, but frankly you aren’t gaining enough for it to be worth it, you may as well just get more ‘nettes.

 

On Mount of Slaanesh

Like the foot herald, this can be used to bolster a unit of seekers. It only gains you one attack and a longer charge range. You still need to get Unholy Might to get to a respectable S4. At the end of the day, you’re served better by more Seekers of Slaanesh.

 

In a chariot

Now this is where the fun begins. When you put a herald in a chariot, she gains two attacks, three wounds, T4, a 4+ save and furious charge. All this comes for 15 points! The boost in durability means that you’re suddenly able to actually take a few bolter rounds and live. The extra attacks, furious charge, and obligatory Unholy Might mean you hit like a freight train. It’s also worth picking up soporific musk so that you can use the ping pong tactic described in the keeper of secrets section. If you’re taking a herald of Slaanesh, put her in a chariot, it’s also almost always a good idea to take more than one, since she needs backup.

 

The Masque

In theory this gal is pretty awesome, three Pavanes a turn mean you can pretty much dictate where your enemy will go. However, she has one huge drawback- She can’t join units. She gets a boost to her save to try and make up for it, but she still only has two wounds with a 3+ save. She isn’t going to survive long under any kind of concentrated fire (IE: a tactical squad’s rapid fire). She just won’t do much for her cost.

 

Note though, that in a Pavane-themed list with a lot of templates and large blasts she can be pretty useful.

 

Epidemius

A Nurgle herald on a palanquin with a nifty trick. His tally is the only reason to take him. See the sample army lists for more details, but in short he should be in Nurgle-pure or nearly Nurgle-pure lists. The most important thing to remember with Epidemius is not to let him get killed! You need to keep as far away from the action as possible, preferably stuck in a big unit of plaguebearers, so that he can keep the tally going. If the tally goes down, you lose a good deal of your power.

 

The Blue Scribes

These guys are pretty good in that they cost a lot less than an equivalent generic herald, and gain a couple of nifty tricks. First up, they have pavane of Slaanesh, pretty useful in some cases. They also have aura of decay, which they have solely to allow you to try and get some revenge if they get assaulted; it’s basically useless otherwise. Other than that they have all the abilities a normal herald can get.

 

They count as jump infantry, but the only units they can join with the same speed are flamers. Considering their cost and the amount of fire Flamers draw, their best friends are horrors.

 

Their other ability is “watch this!”. Half the time you’ll use the same power on the same target twice in a turn. You can mitigate the downside to this by simply using powers that compliment each other, so that it doesn’t really matter if you get the same one twice. However, always use the better one first, and never Pavane first, as units can only ever be affected by one Pavane a turn, unless of course you really want to move that unit.

 

The Skulltaker

For all intents and purposes, he’s nothing more that a much better herald of Khorne. He even has the same mount options. So for general strategy just see the heralds entry, but it’s about as complex as ‘go that way, kill, and avoid Dreadnoughts.’

 

He does have a pretty neat special rule though, it’s called “Skulls for the Skull Throne” and basically doubles his badassery. Rending on a 4+ (note that this does not work against vehicles) and inflicting instant death means he basically murders any multiple wound model he fights, provided they aren’t immune to instant death. Although, even then he’ll still likely win. He’s a little pricy, but just look at the carnage. Skulltaker in a chariot will draw even more fire than a regular Khornate chariot, so consider keeping him on foot or on a Juggernaut.

 

 

Elites:

Fiends of Slaanesh

A very powerful unit, they have a lot of rending attacks, high strength and average survivability. They are one of few units in the codex capable of taking down just about anything. Their main advantage though is their ridiculous speed. Remember that trick with hit and run from the keepers section? These guys can do it too, and probably with even more effectiveness. Another advantage of their speed is that you don’t need to be too risky with your deep striking, you can drop quite a way away and be in combat next turn.

 

The main thing to remember is that while capable against anything, there are some things you want to avoid, the main ones being dreadnoughts and land raiders, monoliths cannot be taken be taken down at all. It’s worth noting however that they can handle these things (except the monolith), but they simply have better targets. Another thing to note is that they are fragile like all Slaaneshi units, a 5+ save and toughness four can only go so far. It’s recommended that you try and stick to cover with these guys. Finally, remember that they don’t have grenades, so don’t go charging into cover unless you have to or have tied the unit up already.

 

Flamers of Tzeentch

There are two main ways to use this unit, the three man suicide unit, and the larger more versatile unit. The three man unit is the most common way to run them, it’s cheap, powerful, but very, very fragile. Three flamers can decimate most units in one turn, and often cost less. The main point of them though is to die, they take off a good amount of firepower from the rest of your army, as every one you play against knows they have to die or they will run wild through his army, killing units of left right and centre. Just remember to take them in your second wave, you want to icon them in so they can actually get that volley off.

 

The larger unit is another valid way to use them. Six to eight is a good choice, and they can be used as more of a mobile reserve unit. With their speed they can be where you need them when you need them, and if you give them bolt you can threaten tanks a bit more. It’s worth noting that if the larger unit takes a lot of fire but aren’t wiped out, you effectively have the smaller unit we mentioned earlier left. Another plus for this method is that you aren’t wasting your precious elites slots on a doomed unit. A lot of the more veteran players are leaning more towards this method than the suicide unit.

 

Bloodcrushers

Like all of Khorne’s units, these guys are very powerful in melee. Power weapons, strength five and weapon skill five means even a small unit can wipe out tactical squads in one or two turns. They also have durability on their side, toughness five combined with a 3+ armour and a 5+ invulnerable mean they can take a surprising amount of small arms fire and live through to combat. If you take four of them with all the upgrades you get to play wound allocation games as well, meaning they’re even harder to kill off.

 

However, despite being very killy, they do have some downsides, not least of which is their speed. They’re an infantry unit, so despite their powerful close combat abilities, a mildly fast army can simply walk away, and when you can’t shoot that can be pretty nasty. Fortunately we have other units that can tie them up or we can simply use our deep strike ability to get in a good position, but it does require a little planning. Another downside is their enormous foot print, a full squad will be nearly impossible to deep strike safely, and even average sized squads can be hard. Finally, you really, really need to avoid walkers, strength five and a single model with rending is not a good way to kill dreads, and since they’re fearless they’ll be stuck there until you can bail them out. Not a good place to have a 200 point unit. We feel small units of 3-4 to be the most effective.

 

Beasts of Nurgle

There is only one use for these guys, and that’s in an Epidemius build. If you look at the other elites choices you’ll quickly realise they are outshined in every way in a mixed build by the other choices.

 

In an Epidemius list though, they excel. With the tally up they make excellent second wave beaters. By that I mean keep them back until the tally is up and then go all out with the attack. We’ll go in to more detail later when we review the Epidemius build as a whole. For now just remember that they are only good in mono-Nurgle tally lists.

 

 

Troops:

Bloodletters

These guys are our primary assault troops. With a decent strength, good weapon skill and power weapons, coupled with furious charge, they will basically kill anything they can catch in combat, except dreadnoughts. They’re even good at hunting those nasty thunder hammer terminators you see so much these days. Just be wary of hordes, they don’t have the attacks to kill enough of them in a lot of cases.

 

However, they have a rubbish save and only toughness four to protect them. This means that they are heavily reliant on cover to stay alive during that trek to the enemy. The fact that they’re slow doesn’t help. You will be taking a good few casualties on the first turn drop, so make sure you have numbers on your side. Thankfully, even a weakened squad is a serious threat to most units. If you want troops that will survive, or hold an objective, look elsewhere. Also remember that without the charge bloodletters are a lot less powerful, and it isn’t hard for the enemy to take the charge away.

 

Daemonettes

These gals are both our cheapest and fastest troops, as well as having the most basic attacks and highest initiative. They also come with grenades standard making them good for charging through cover. They have rending, so can be used for tank busting in an emergency, just don’t try and bust land raiders or monoliths with them. They also make good monster hunters, big things have high enough strength that their low toughness doesn’t matter and all that rending should get you few wounds.

 

However, against just about any troops choice bloodletters will out kill daemonettes, their superior strength, weapon skill and power weapons just makes them better for the points. So if you take daemonettes make sure you use them wisely, they won’t survive any kind of enemy fire, so use cover to your advantage, and try and make other things appear more dangerous so they don’t get shot. Their main strength is their speed, so make sure you make the most of it. As for the upgrades, generally don’t bother, transfixing gaze can be useful if you focus on monstrous creatures, but they are too fragile for icons and it’s unlikely they’ll draw a fight so instruments are wasted. Due to their fragility, it’s recommended that you take larger squads of daemonettes, we find 14+ to be best.

 

Plaguebearers

Two words: Objective campers. These guys really do excel at holding objectives and just plain surviving, something our other troops choices lack. Toughness five with feel no pain makes them very hard to kill. If your opponent spams plasma or is able to get lots of power weapons in to combat with them you may be in trouble, but otherwise you can usually rely on them to live through the game.

 

However, don’t expect them to do any real damage, you might get lucky and kill a few models, but with a low weapon skill, initiative and only a single attack each, they have little in the way of killing power, plagueswords help but not by much. You can stick with smaller units with these guys thanks to their resilience, either a few units of five or a couple of units of ten to twelve. Finally, note that these guys are a great place to put your icons, since in other places there’s a higher chance the icon bearer will die from first turn shooting. It’s best to use slightly bigger units if you plan to take icons in them though.

 

Horrors

As our only ranged troops, these guys are pretty useful. Warpfire has enough AP to break through anything short of power armour, and is strong enough to wound most basic troops on either 3’s or 4’s. It also has a lot of shots, meaning that even a small unit of ten horrors can pump out enough shots to do some serious damage to a lot of units. You need to remember though, that horrors are for light/medium infantry hunting, not heavy infantry or tank hunting.

 

However, they can take bolt of Tzeentch to give them some anti-tank ability, just don’t rely on it, you’ll only hit half the time and you won’t be making good use of those warpfire horrors. It is usually a good idea to pick it up though, just for the option. They’re also our most expensive infantry, which isn’t great but the range firepower makes up for it. Thankfully, they’re also our second most survivable troops (after plaguebearers), making them a good place for icons. Also note that when you deep strike them, if there are blast/large blast weapons nearby, run them to spread out rather than shooting. Sitting in a big circle when you’re staring down the barrel of a demolisher cannon is rarely a smart thing to do.

 

The Changeling: This guy is pretty nice for the cost. For only five points you get a chance, albeit often a small one, to make your enemy shoot one of his own units. Even if it doesn’t result in you actually getting to redirect his fire, the psychological effect can be useful too, your enemy always has to worry about the Changeling.

 

Note: There is some rules contention as to how many units you can affect each turn, in friendly games it’s best to stick to one (or whatever your gaming group agrees on), in tournaments you should call ahead and check their ruling on it.

 

Nurglings

Pretty much the definition of a tarpit. These guys are unlikely to win many fights, weapon skill two and strength three can only take you so far, even with three attacks each. What they will do however is take forever to kill, being immune to instant death and having three wounds each, for a pretty low price, means they just refuse to die. However, beware of flamers, for each unsaved wound you’re losing two wounds. Bad times.

 

In an Epidemius list, they actually become pretty lethal, but we’ll go in to that in more detail later. Just remember that because they are so hard to kill, they can be pretty useful for contesting objectives, even if they can’t hold them. Also remember that unlike other Nurgle units they don’t suffer from slow and purposeful, and being swarms they get a really good cover save if you put them in cover. If you go to ground in cover you get a 2+ save.

 

 

Fast Attack:

Flesh hounds

It really is all about target priority with these guys, much like most of the fast attack section. They won’t be able to take on genestealers and win, and they’ll probably overkill tau firewarriors. Their main use is to tie up nasty shooty units, thanks to their speed they can hopefully get in there fast and tie them up while the rest of your army comes down partially safe from enemy firepower. You just need to make sure you don’t kill them too fast or you’ll be left in the open to get shot to death.

 

They can be used against vehicles, strength five with quite a few attacks means you’ll probably get a couple of penetrating hits, and a few glances, but we have better options usually, so this is situational. The problem is they pay for blessing of the blood god even though they’ll rarely, if ever, use it, meaning they are generally slightly over costed for what you get. We find they’re best used in mono-Khorne armies as a type of tarpit unit that can actually do some damage when you need it to. Their main advantage is, obviously, their speed, since unlike bloodletters they have a decent chance of getting the charge. The lack of power weapons is their main downside.

 

Karanak: With this guy in the unit, you get to move faster through cover, more rending attacks and an instrument that you can’t otherwise get. An instrument isn’t all that great, but rending attacks and move through cover are. Rending means you do more damage to vehicles (and infantry to a lesser extent), while move through cover lets you move faster through the cover you want to be in, since you want a cover save this is pretty good. When taking Karanak it’s usually better to take the fury of Khorne upgrade on another model to maximise rending abilities.

 

Seekers of Slaanesh

Essentially, beefed up daemonettes. For three extra points you get a 12” charge and an extra attack, but you lose scoring status. In many ways they’re similar to flesh hounds, except they rely on rending to do the damage. They can be used against vehicles, since all those rending attacks mean you’ll probably kill it outright. They’re also good for trying up or killing shooty squads that aren’t very good in melee.

 

However, like daemonettes, they have toughness three, meaning they die to just about any kind of firepower. It also means they will not make it in to combat full strength, so factor that in if you decide to take them. Also, like most of the fast attack section, they’re rather outperformed by the elites equivalent, fiends are generally better. However, seekers do have grenades and an extra point of initiative, so when charging in to cover they can do better. The main problem is that a deep striking army just doesn’t need speed, which is what these gals really have going for them. If you like to drop further away, or your elites slots are used up, these are a pretty solid choice for hitting power, just not for staying power. Try and stick to cover if you can.

 

Screamers of Tzeentch

A very hit or miss unit, their usefulness really depends on your opponents strategy. If your opponent likes to go all mechanised and run around the board a lot, they’ll do next to nothing. But, if your opponent likes to have a few tanks in the back giving fire support, then you’ll be very glad you brought them along. They’re fast, so you’ll be able to get to those tanks easily, and they have melta-bombs, so as long as they haven’t moved too far you should take it out (hitting the rear armour is a true blessing).

 

This is why they aren’t very good at taking down mobile armies though, they just don’t have enough attacks to kill fast moving vehicles, unless you take a lot which isn’t generally a good idea. However, if you go after the right targets they’re worth their weight in gold, even if the other guy decides to move away rather than stay and die, you’ve still stopped it from shooting. They can be fast too, they’re jet bikes so they can turbo-boost, so even if that tank does move it’s going down soon enough. The main problem is, they’re pretty fragile so try and keep them away from enemy firepower. I’m aware that isn’t easy when you’re hunting tanks, but keep it in mind. Also remember, they have next to no use against anything other than tanks, so if the other guy has none, just keep them out of sight, or maybe use them to contest an objective late in the game.

 

Note- They can also be used as a charge screen. This is a good tactic if you’re playing an objective based mission and have no enemy tanks to kill. Just send them out in front of a more valuable unit and give them a cover save. The screamers themselves likely won’t last long, but the unit behind them will get to combat in a stronger form than they would have otherwise.

 

Furies of chaos

The only truly undivided unit in the codex, the main thing they bring is speed, as you’d expect from a fast attack unit. They have the invulnerable save all daemons get, and have a couple of attacks each at a decent strength. They also have a decent toughness, so at least they won’t die as quick as seekers.

 

The problem is the only thing they do better than our more dedicated close combat troops is tarpit and move. The movement issue isn’t all that important simply because the army deepstrikes, so has little need for speed. As for tarpitting, they’re just too expensive in most cases. We feel they can have a use in certain situations, mostly when you really need the speed, but otherwise they’re a bit over costed for what you actually get.

 

 

Heavy Support:

Soulgrinders

Our only vehicle, you can take up to three in a game. Two is more common but three works too. They help immensely with our anti-tank problem; they can take tongue to take out tanks at range, though this isn’t always a good idea as with a ballistic skill of three you won’t be hitting often and are unlikely to do much unless you take a lot of them, and that isn’t exactly cost effective. However, in close combat the soulgrinder will annihilate most vehicles without breaking a sweat. Five strength ten attacks against rear armour is very effective at tank busting. They have a little more trouble with land raiders and monoliths, but everyone does.

 

As for shooting, they have two anti-infantry weapons: the mawcannon and the harvester gun. The mawcannon can fire in three modes; vomit, the previously mentioned tongue, and phlegm. The last two have to be purchased, but it’s at a reasonable price. The harvester gun is a six shot bolter at 24” range, it can be good for adding casualties to enemy units but on it’s it own its unlikely to do much. The vomit attack is a template weapon with good strength and average AP, it can do damage, but its short range lowers its effectiveness somewhat. Generally, you’ll want to buy phlegm for your soulgrinder. When packing phlegm your machine can fire off large blasts in to enemy units, resulting in a large number of casualties, especially against horde armies. Its high strength just makes it better. The soulgrinder has fleet though, so you may not always want to be shooting if you’d rather be in combat.

 

However, despite it’s incredible shooting and close combat abilities, the soulgrinder has one glaring weakness: anti-tank weapons. Being the only vehicle you’ll have, it’s pretty much guaranteed that all your opponents anti-tank will be used on your soulgrinder. AV13 helps, and the fact that it’s AV11 on the rear helps too as it stops your opponent going round the back and boltering you to death. But without serious support he’s going down quick, this is why you need to run them in pairs at least. One will die, two still die but get a few shots off first. It’s worth noting that the ‘daemon’ rule makes the soulgrinder immune to ‘crew stunned’ and ‘crew shaken’ results, meaning you have to be destroyed or suffer multiple weapon destroyed results to remove you as a ranged threat. Finally, beware of initiative four walkers, specifically dreadnoughts, with their higher initiative they can destroy you in close combat before you can attack.

 

Note on size- The soulgrinder is a very big model, so deep striking can be difficult in areas with lots of terrain. Either use icons to guide them in or deep strike in to large, open areas. Having your soulgrinder drop down and instantly be immobilized isn’t fun. It’s large size also makes it difficult to get a cover save.

 

Daemon princes

Seeing as how the prince is so customizable, we’ve had to limit ourselves a bit. Rather than go through every single upgrade and how it compares to the others, we’re going to give you some different roles they can fulfil, tell you what we feel is the best loadout to do this, and give notes on possible variations (these will be limited though).

 

Fire support:

Mark of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch and daemonic gaze. For 160 points, which is conveniently the same as our optimal soulgrinder build, you have some decent ranged anti-tank with a high ballistic skill, as well as strong counter assault abilities. Bolt of Tzeentch will help a lot with our lack of light armour busting ability, since normally we have to do it in close combat where we end up hitting on 6’s, bolt however hits on 2’s. The downside is that it only has one shot, so you’re looking at a maximum of seven shots a game, depending on the number of turns you play. The main army style our army has difficulty with is mechanised, this prince build can help a lot with that, a strength eight shot is enough to bust open most transports.

 

The second power we recommend you take is daemonic gaze. This allows your prince to be fairly good at infantry killing, and it can threaten very light armour, especially when coupled with bolt. However, since it is only S5, don’t rely on tank busting with it. This is mainly a back-up weapon for when no vehicles present themselves. Note that when firing at infantry, you should fire the bolt as well, it may not be it’s optimal target but it is a pretty much guaranteed wound.

 

Optional: Breath of chaos can turn your fire support prince in to more of a short ranged counter assault unit. Swapping gaze for breath (or having both if you’re a big spender) means you get the ability to wipe out lots of infantry in one go, before charging and doing even more damage. Keeping bolt allows you to dual role the unit by taking tanks out as well. Daemonic flight makes you much more expensive but can be good in certain situations, and unholy might can increase your combat prowess. Overall though we prefer the bolt, gaze and mark of Tzeentch build.

 

Light assault:

Unlike the fire support build, there is no standard mark for this build, they can all do well. Basically this build is a cheap monstrous creature that is used to get a decent bit of combat power in your army for little in the way of points. An example build would be just giving it unholy might. At only 100 points it is very cheap, is good in combat but can‘t stand up to concentrated firepower. Other possible builds include, but are not limited to: Mark of Tzeentch and unholy might, or mark of Khorne and unholy might (optional iron hide). Another option to look at if you play a lot of eldar is the mark of Slaanesh, you don’t get the extra attack of the mark of Khorne, or the extra defensive abilities of the marks of Nurgle and Tzeentch, but you do get to hit first against pretty much any basic troops out there, and most characters. Throw on aura of acquiescence and you have a decent monstrous creature running around beating on those toughness three eldar.

 

The main thing to remember is that these guys are cheap, and therefore expendable. They have limited killing power, but they attract about as much attention as a much stronger prince, meaning they can be used as a giant target as well as a combat unit. However, if they do make it in to combat you can be fairly sure of taking a good few of the enemy down with you. As long as you don’t expect miracles from the light assault prince, then you may well be pleasantly surprised. They make decent anti-tank units too. If running light assault princes it’s probably best to run several or give them soulgrinder back-up, this is mainly to make it so at least one will make it in to combat.

 

Note: Except against dreadnoughts and other walkers, a soulgrinder generally wins out over the light assault prince. The prince is more resistant to melta weapons though.

 

Support:

A prince with pavane of Slaanesh usually falls in to the ‘support’ category. What this means is that it can work with your other units to make for an effective assault phase, by using pavane to pull the enemy out of cover for example. It can also be used to aid your shooting, denying the enemy their cover saves can be very effective when combined with a unit of horrors. Alternatively, you can use them to try and push the enemy back, say they’re getting too close to your horrors, you can use pavane to move the unit away. Finally, you can use it to pull the enemy off objectives.

 

You’ll have noticed that we aren’t fans of this upgrade on other units, the reason for this is that they all have fleet, and so should be using it. They also generally have a lower ballistic skill and so can make less use of it in the first place. However, on a prince you get an effective platform that doesn’t sacrifice anything to make use of it. Coupled with breath of chaos it becomes even more effective, you can use pavane to bunch them up in to a template shape, and then use breath to roast them. However, this is less ‘support’ and more ‘kill’.

 

Beyond pavane, the other upgrades are personal choice. We recommend iron hide to keep it alive, mark of Slaanesh is mandatory, so you may as well take aura of acquiescence to make use of that initiative six. But other than that just take what you think will help.

 

Heavy assault:

This is where the prince really does live up to its classification of heavy support. These princes will run you around 200 points, so generally you want to make sure they’re worth it. Most of us consider the following build to be best: Mark of Nurgle, daemonic flight, iron hide, cloud of flies, noxious touch and breath of chaos (optional). As you can probably see, it has the best defensive upgrades available to the daemon prince, toughness six and a 3+ save will increase your survivability by a long way. It takes 108 bolter shots to kill this prince, on average.

 

However, this prince does a lot more than just survive, it also kills. A lot. With noxious touch it wounds anything in the game on a 2+, making it an excellent unit for killing other monstrous creatures like carnifexes or opposing daemon princes. Flight means it will actually get in to combat, expensive but generally worth it on a big expensive prince like these. Cloud of flies just means you hit at initiative, and you deny the enemy their extra attack on the off-chance they charge you, pretty good for five points. Now, breath of chaos; expensive, but very effective at thinning the enemies ranks before a charge. However, you’re then paying 245 points for a single model, you could get a bloodthirster for 5 points more, so consider carefully before you just throw one of these princes in to your army.

 

Another possible build: Mark of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, daemonic gaze, breath of chaos, unholy might and master of sorcery. Expensive but makes a hell of a pre-charge dent in the other guys squad. You can give it flight but then you’re paying 280 points….

 

Note on heavy support choices: Something we’ve noticed with our heavy support choices, is that whatever you take, you should take at least two and don’t mix. So that’s two soulgrinders, or two fire support princes, or two heavy assault princes etc. You should also try and cover any weaknesses in your army, for example, if you’re army has an easy time against troops, but has a harder time against tanks and you want to take princes, perhaps flight, hide and might would be a good combo. If you want more anti-horde, a pair of phlegm equipped soulgrinders would be a good choice.

 

 

Sample army lists:

Now that you have an overview of the units available to you, we’re going to show you a few ways to make the most of them. We’re going to show you our own army lists, one for each type of army, and give you a rough idea of tactics and where they excel and where they don’t do so well. First up, Rahveel’s 1500 point mono-Tzeentch army.

 

Mono-Tzeentch:

 

4x herald of Tzeentch with bolt of Tzeentch, chariot, we are legion and master of sorcery.

 

2x 3 man flamer units, one of which has bolt of Tzeentch.

 

2x 10 man horror units.

 

3x daemon prince with mark of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch and daemonic gaze.

 

As you can see, he uses several of our ‘best builds’ for his units, specifically the heralds and princes. Clearly, this is a very, very shooty army, unlike most daemon armies which are optimised for close combat. This alone means you can often catch someone off guard, provided they only know they’re up against daemons and not against a mono-Tzeentch army.

 

Rahveel likes to use his heralds as anti-infantry, but thanks to we are legion bolt is never wasted, since there is nearly always a tank in range. He’ll freely admit it’s light on troops, but thankfully with all the other big things to worry about, Rahveel says his troops are rarely shot at, and often survive the battle fairly unharmed. For the most part, he uses the horrors as little more than objective holders.

 

The daemon princes are his ‘line holders/turrets’ as he puts it. Dropping a little bit in front of the main spearhead of the army, they are able to start shooting units up as soon as possible, and as the only units with any kind of combat ability, keeping them in front is a good idea. As for the flamers, Rahveel likes to send them in later to help clear out units after the enemy has taken enough casualties that there are fewer shots being taken at them. When used in this way, they make excellent objective clearers.

 

As I said earlier, this army has a major problem with combat. With only the princes being able to kill anything in hand to hand, you’ll probably want to stay away from the enemy for as long as possible. Having said that, a 4+ invulnerable save means you can use your horrors to tarpit the other guy, you won’t kill anything, and you won’t live as long as plaguebearers, but you’d be surprised how long horrors can last for. Like all things though, there is a downside, Rahveel says that occasionally you’ll find yourself willing your horrors to just die so you can start shooting that unit again.

 

 

Mono- Khorne:

Continuing with the theme of mono-god lists, here’s a list for Khorne that Infidel wrote up, and I must say it’s unashamedly direct.

 

2x bloodthirster with unholy might and blessing of the blood god.

 

3x 2 man squads of bloodcrushers.

 

2x 12 man squads of bloodletters. One has an instrument.

 

2x soulgrinder with phlegm.

 

The bloodthirsters are your main anti-tank, being fast enough and strong enough to threaten anything reliably. The bloodcrushers are rather small units, but it has the advantage of letting you assault multiple units at once. The bloodletters are your line troops, again, they just kill stuff. The soulgrinders are your support, with phlegm they can provide cover fire to your more fragile bloodletters or high profile bloodcrushers.

 

Sadly, mono-Khorne doesn’t have much in the way of tactics beyond ‘run up and hit’. Careful use of flesh hounds can let you tie up fire support units, princes can provide additional anti-tank, and heralds make excellent troops killers, but with little or no ranged support, you really are looking at being in combat as much as possible.

 

Mono-Nurgle:

We’re going to combine the mono-Nurgle build with the Epidemius build, since they generally go hand in hand. Epidemius basically unlocks the potential of a Nurgle army. Here is Infidels Epidemius army:

 

Epidemius.

 

4x 9 man squads of plaguebearers, 2 have icons.

 

2x 6 bases of nurglings.

 

3x daemon prince with mark of Nurgle, iron hide, breath of chaos, daemonic flight and cloud of flies.

 

As you can see, the heavy slots are maxed out on daemon princes, this is for two reasons. 1) Nurgle armies are incredibly slow and have little killing power, daemons princes make up for both of thee weaknesses to some extent. 2) The tally. Epidemius can only boost the army once you have killed a few units, and plaguebearers and nurglings aren’t going to do that any time soon, but three princes can get the tally up in one or two turns, especially when given breath of chaos. You may notice that the princes are very similar to our standard ‘heavy assault’ build, but minus noxious touch. This is because at ten kills, they get it from Epidemius’ tally, so you save yourself 30 points by not buying it. However, some people buy it anyway to get the tally up even quicker.

 

There are two different views on the best unit to take advantage of the tally, beasts or nurglings, plaguebearers don’t have the number of attacks to do it effectively. Beasts have the advantage of potential, they could theoretically throw out six power weapon attacks that wound on two’s when the tally is up, but they could also only have one. Nurglings get three all the time, are cheaper and have more wounds, however, they have a lower toughness and take more damage from templates and blasts. Really it’s up to you which one you take, but you really do need to take one or the other, or else there’s not much point in taking Epidemius.

 

The problem these lists have is anti-tank. Yes, princes can bust open tanks quite quickly, but to get the tally up they should be focusing on troops. For this reason some players like to include a unit or two of screamers of Tzeentch as pure tank killers, they aren’t Nurgle units so won’t benefit from the tally, but it also means your princes can focus on the troops and get the tally up.

 

Rules note- It’s important to note that enemy Nurgle units both benefit from, and add to, the tally. However, this can lead to some complicated situations. There is some debate on whether or not Epidemius’ tally affects ranged attacks, so discuss this with your opponent before the game, or the tournament organiser before you sign up. You want to make sure you know if you’re Death Guard ally is going to be getting AP2 bolters or not in that doubles game.

 

 

Mono-Slaanesh:

Another of Infidels lists for you, this is his herald spam list.

 

4x herald on chariot with unholy might and soporific musk.

 

3x 6 man units of fiends with unholy might.

 

2x 12 man daemonette units with instruments.

1x 6 man daemonette squad with instrument.

 

2x 6 man seeker squads.

 

 

As you can see, there is no heavy support in this list, meaning all the anti-tank is in the fiends, for this reason many of us would recommend including soulgrinders or princes/keepers in a mono-Slaanesh list. However, fiends are surprisingly good at killing tanks, with their speed and decent strength + rending, and with their sheer number of attacks, you’d be surprised how much damage they can do. The problem is, once your opponent realises this, it won’t take him long to wipe them out, so make sure you pick your targets carefully.

 

Each chariot is also capable of tank busting, but is more suited to light infantry killing, much like the daemonettes. With only strength three (four on the heralds) they will have trouble killing toughness fou enemies, but toughness three enemies tend to die quickly, making infantry heavy guard armies a favourite target for these lists.

 

The daemonettes and seekers are there to add numbers more than anything else, although the seekers do have some pretty impressive speed on them, making them good at tying up units. The instruments are there as points filler for than anything else, but you never know it might come in handy.

 

Another way to do mono-Slaanesh is pavane spam. These lists generally have the Masque and a couple other heralds with pavane in HQ (maybe a keeper for anti-tank), and then they often have three soulgrinders. With pavane you can bunch enemies up to get hit by the soulgrinders phlegm attacks, very nasty.

 

 

Daemonzilla:

Time for my own list now, here is 1500 points of daemonzilla.

 

Bloodthirster with unholy might and blessing of the Blood God.

Keeper of secrets with soporific musk and unholy might.

 

3x 7 man units of plaguebearers.

 

2x daemon prince with mark of Nurgle, iron hide, daemonic flight, noxious touch and cloud of flies.

Daemon prince with mark of Nurgle, iron hide, daemonic flight, breath of chaos, noxious touch and cloud of flies.

 

 

Straight away you can see that all of my killing ability is in five models, which is why I’ve made each of those models as strong and hard to kill as possible. I usually dedicate the bloodthirster and one of the princes to tank killing, leaving the other three monsters to kill troops.

 

The main thing to remember is that you are very unlikely to kill an entire army with a daemonzilla list, so you need to pick your targets carefully. For example, do you kill the predator battle tank or the close combat scout squad? Normally, you’d pick the predator, as it has the best chance of killing one of your monstrous creatures, but if the scouts are holding an objective, then the choice suddenly swings the other way. Just killing the nearest unit doesn’t work, you really need to think. Unlike nidzilla, we only have five monsters to play with, not eight.

 

The reason I only have plaguebearers as troops, is because I don’t really have the points for another killing unit, and it enables me to win objective missions. However, horrors are also a good choice for daemonzilla troops, as they give you the ability to shoot and are still able to hold objectives fairly well. Plaguebearers are better at holding objectives, but they won’t do anything else, so think carefully on that choice.

 

A quick look at your codex will tell you that each of those princes are over 200 points, and that’s pretty expensive. However, they really need to be, if you don’t take all those upgrades then they won’t kill enough to make up for your lack of numbers. Alternatively, you could take soulgrinders, it’s commonly accepted that they count as monstrous creatures for the purposes of daemonzilla, but try and stick to one or the other, don’t mix.

 

The main weaknesses of daemonzilla armies are hordes and tar pitting units. Large squads really give you a headache, as they can tie up up to a fifth of your killing power nearly indefinitely. That’s one of the reason I took the keeper, with his ability to leave combat, it’s much harder to stop him without actually killing him.

 

While hordes may be a weakness, daemonzilla has the advantage of being much better against mechanized armies than other daemon armies, for this reason you really have to give most, if not all, of your monstrous creatures flight, so that they can keep up with those tanks. Flight is good anyway, since with only five things able to do damage, you need to hit them where it counts, and speed lets you do that.

 

 

Skarbrand and his ladies:

We mentioned this in Skarbrands entry, essentially it’s the big man himself and a load of high initiative models. The list:

 

Skarbrand.

 

2x 6 man fiend units.

 

2x 12 man daemonette units.

1x 6 man daemonette unit.

 

3x soulgrinder.

 

Credit to Infidel for writing that up. Obviously Skarbrand is the key, making it so most of your army re-rolls to hit, but why not take bloodletters over daemonettes? Simple really, it’s to stop the enemy making use of Skarbrands ability. The idea is to kill so many of the enemy before they attack that it doesn’t matter that they get to re-roll.

 

The fiends are an excellent unit to start with, and with re-rolls to hit they just get better, all those rending attacks guarantee a good few kills a turn. The daemonettes, while normally not as killy as bloodletters, make good use of their initiative six with Skarbrand around to limit the amount of attacks coming their way, making up somewhat for their low survivability. Note however, that they die just as quickly to shooting as ever. The six man (girl) unit is more to stick to sacred numbers than anything else, you may want to consider taking two units of 15 instead, but a unit of six holding your home objective just might get ignored long enough to win you the game.

 

The soulgrinders are the odd ones out, with a low initiative they don’t seem to fit so well in the army, but thankfully they’re mostly used for anti-tank so the low initiative doesn’t matter so much. Get in to combat with a tank and re-rolling strength ten attacks are incredibly effective.

 

Some people include plaguebearers or other Nurgle units on the theory that they’ll survive the enemy onslaught and still make use of the bonus from Skarbrand. But, that’s a whole new army really and we’re not going to review it here, but it is worth trying out if you have the models.

 

 

Multi-God balanced:

Finally, we have a balanced list made from elements of all four gods, courtesy of Minigun762.

 

2x heralds of Tzeentch on chariots of Tzeentch with we are legion, master of sorcery and bolt of Tzeentch.

Keeper of secrets.

 

4x bloodcrushers with fury of Khorne and instrument of chaos.

 

2x 7 man plaguebearer squads.

10x bloodletters of Khorne.

 

2x soulgrinders with phlegm.

Daemon prince of Nurgle with noxious touch, cloud of flies, daemonic might and iron hide.

 

Clearly it’s a little heavy on the big things, mostly as the daemon army as a whole has a problem killing tanks and this makes up for it. The army itself is split in to two parts, the aggressive part, and the defensive part.

 

The aggressive part consists of the keeper of secrets, the bloodcrushers, bloodletters and the daemon prince. This half is used to attack the enemy and take objectives or just rack up kill points. The defensive half consists of the heralds, the plaguebearers and the soulgrinders. They are used to give fire support to your aggressive half and to hold your own objectives or counterattack as needed.

 

Making sure both halves work together is the key to victory with a list like this. If the aggressive half were to fail, the defensive half would suffer for it, and vice versa.

 

Choosing how to split your forces for daemonic assault is a simple matter of splitting it in to the aggressive and defensive sections. Which one to drop first will be decided in a case by case basis, but it’s a good idea to go either all aggressive or all defensive most of the time.

 

The army is a little light on speed, so very fast armies will give you a headache, but this is true of nearly all daemon armies, and the heralds should go some way to mitigate the problem. Generally this list is a jack of all trades army which will do well against all comers, just don’t try and win a shooting match with tau or guard.

 

 

 

Well there we have it, every single unit in the army has now been explained to you, assuming you made it this far. I'll end by saying this: Happy hunting, make Khorne proud.

 

Edit- I forgot the sample lists... The lesson: don't make a huge post like this at one in the morning.

[sword brethren]

nicly done captain :(

 

you did say it was long *collapses from exhaustion*

[calypso2ts]

This is a great guide, well written and informative. I am working on a Mono-Slaanesh army and there are some great tips here in what I should be purchasing for it. Now, to start converting to chariots!

[Sigismund Himself]

I think this definitely would look good in the Librarium ;) Mind if we put it up there?

[Captain Malachi]

Fine by me Sig. :)

 

@SB: You were warned :P

 

Calypso2ts, always nice to hear we've been helpful ;) Good luck with your army, and remember to let us know how it goes with a few batreps.

[Sigismund Himself]

Up in the Librarium. All we need is a list of contributers to thank.

[Captain Malachi]

Well, there were quite a lot of people who helped out, but the ones that come to mind are Minigun762, ==Me==, Rahveel and Raptor1313. But as I said, there were lots more, too many to name really. In fact so many people helped I've probably forgotten some of the big contributors...