Playing a Demon Army

[rodgambit]

My buddy is purchasing a demon army and he's been telling me a little about it. He basically hinted that he would be running nurgle troops to tie up forces and bog them down and then 1 of each demon and I believe a pair of demon princes, oh and those flamer guys he liked a lot.

 

I'm just curious what sort of tactics or units work well against demons and should I try to just avoid his deep striking tarpit unit by moving out in a transport if he lands next to me or try and shoot them off the board and charge?

 

On a side note I enjoy building all comers list so I don't want to totally tailor the list against demons. We often play 3 man games or 2 on 2 with varying armies so I need flexibility.

 

Thanks

[Spacefrisian]

Nurgle troops are actually a joke. Exploit their I of 3 and you know the usual trick against those guys, (which is in turn an all comer tactic).

 

As for deployment try to scatter youre forces in that way that each can suport each other. When daemons deepstrike they come in juicy targets ready to be shot down.

[TheWulfen123]

The flamers can be problamatic in my experience of going against them with there flamers that ingnore armour saves....

if you going against a demon army lots of rune priests when i once went against demons i had 4 rune priests with tempest-he couldnt even deep strike xD so my advice is rune priests

[sazzer]

If he takes Epidemis then the plaguebearers can quickly become nasty. The I3 does suck, but the T5, FNP(If the daemons get that - I can't recall) and the fact that they can potentially become power weapons wounding on a 2+ regardless just hurts... I3 is less of a painful thing for the plaguebearers if he happens to drop them on you in 20s - assuming that he has 20 plaguebearers charging 10 marines.

* The 10 marines strike first. 20 attacks, 10 hits, ~3 wounds, ~2 kills. (10%)

* The 18 plaguebearers strike next. 54 attacks(?), 27 hits, ~13 wounds, ~4 kills. (40%)

 

These numbers are *all* in my head, based on stats from memory, so are very unreliable. In specific it assumed:

* Plaguebearers don't get FNP. If they do then the 2 dead is actually only 1 dead.

* Plaguebearers are 2 attacks base.

* Plaguebearers and Marines are equal WS.

* Plaguebearers are S4.

* The Plaguebearers have zero benefit from Epidemis - so don't have the poisoned weapons or power attacks.

 

I *believe* that after the first 5 deaths from a Nurgle model, the Plaguebearers are 4+ poisoned attacks, which increases to 3+ then 2+ then 2+ Power Weapon attacks after there have been 20 deaths from a Nurgle model...

 

 

You're best bet against them is to use heavy enough ranged weapons that the T5 isn't going to matter so much - Heavy bolters work quite well here, as do Heavy Flamers/Hellstorm Cannons/Demolisher Cannons. The flamers in particular could hit quite a few models and wound on 4+. Long Fangs with massed Krak Missiles / Lascannons are also nasty.

[Stormbrow II]

Nurgle troops cry green slimy tears when a RP with Jaws shows up.

 

As his army comes in dribs and drabs you should be setting up your stuff to counter attack - you will need to get the drop on Fiends to thin their numbers so they don't use their monstrous movement to pick their targets for example. Much of the Daemon army will be sitting for a turn before it gets to bring numbers to bear so use that to your advantage. Tempest's Wrath is a nice boost to this too.

 

Dreads are a very good choice to tarpit a unit of Bloodcrushers as they struggle to hurt AV 12 whereas they'd mangle almost any unit sent to fight them.

[Spacefrisian]

Grey knights as allies can be an option as well. WIth Psycannon shots those plaguebearers cannot use feel no pain cause in order to use that they would have to be able to make a save first.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

Grey knights as allies can be an option as well. WIth Psycannon shots those plaguebearers cannot use feel no pain cause in order to use that they would have to be able to make a save first.

 

but using GK allies grants Without Number to the daemons...maybe not so good.

 

WLK

[Grey Mage]

Nurgle is defeated the way nurgle is always defeated- plasma goodness.

 

Most Daemons have a problem peircing armor... so target the monstrous creatures early, and make sure your force is mounted.

 

Rune Priests, particularly with Tempests Wrath.

 

Your GHs are cheaper than Daemons, make sure you use this to your advantage- lots of them is always good, against daemons its a very excellant idea.

[sazzer]

It occurs to me as well - if you can, pick off the Icons of Chaos early. Without them the deep striking half of the force is a lot less certain as to where it's going to turn up...

[hmk17]

Grey knights as allies can be an option as well. WIth Psycannon shots those plaguebearers cannot use feel no pain cause in order to use that they would have to be able to make a save first.

 

but using GK allies grants Without Number to the daemons...maybe not so good.

 

WLK

 

 

Not really. RAW works for the GK's on this one.

 

Daemonic Infestation affects: daemon packs, daemonic beast packs, & nurglings (but NOT Greater Daemons, Daemon Princes, or any other type of daemon)

 

Last time I checked, nurglings were the only thing in the 4th ed. Daemons codex still affected.

 

 

Truthfully, you do not need GK's to handle Daemons. Rune priests do an exceptional job.

 

8/10 times, a daemon army will fray itself at the edges not getting what he wants when he needs it. Prioritize targets like Grey Mage was saying and you will be able to stretch his forces thin.

[Natanael]

My most regular opponent have got a daemon army that I have yet to win against. The real threats in a daemon army are not the flamers or the nurglings/plagebearers but the fiends of slaanesh, large packs of bloodcrushers and the great unclean ones. My friend runs a list like this:

 

2x GUO

2x5 Plaguebearers

8 (I think) Bloodletters

8 Bloodcrushers

2x6 Fiends

1x8 Hounds of Khorne

Daemon Prince of Nurgle

 

I think thats it. No shooting, but he can take any shooting to the face and still survive. He drops his crushers within chargerange of my guys, and then the GUOs, DP and Fiends a bit further back, but still in range most of the time. Suddenly you have no choice but to kill the crushers, and if you do (but you wont, cause they can take A LOT of fire before going down) the GUOs will kill you with their 2+ w/ rerolls.

 

I hate his army :o

 

But against flamers and stuff like that, just stay inside your rhinos and do some shooting from the hatch. They have zero staying power.

 

Just a few thoughts for both you and your friend.

 

- Natanel

[Bjorn Wulfsen]

Well i faced demons today alas with podding wolves. A few lessons were learned.

 

If he takes bloodletters, shoot them down, dont try going toe to toe.

Horrors are very hit and miss. My opponent took 2 squads and in 1 turn their massed fire killed a single marine. Next turn they shredded a full pack. So handle with care.

Wherever you can try to get the charge. I struggled doing this with pods.

 

A Rune priest seems a must, i had to watch in horror as a unit of blood letters and a slaneshi greater demon chewed up my wolfguard and wolfguard battle leader without breaking stride.

[n00b in need]

my first battle with my space wolves was against an all nurgle deamon army, and let me just say that it turned out prety aweful even though it ended in a draw. First off i didn't know that all of his units deep striked in, so in my ignorance i took the first turn (HUGE MISTAKE) i basically wasted my entire first turn in a 5 turn game, luckily he rolled bad to see what half of his army he got so his 3 deamon princes and Epidemis and i'd put my squad of Grey Hunters into these ruins with my long fangs in support while my Blood Claws with my Wolf Lord where in a rhino and my wolf guard were in a razorback with twin linked lascannons, and njal and three wolf guard where on the oppisite side of the board from the grey hunters. So when his nugrlings? (the basic nurgle deamon) and greater nurglings? (the better version of the basic unit) all deep strike to completely surround my grey hunters i pull my units back except the long fangs so i can get into a good position to have my remaining units cover each other (i know i sacrificed the Hunters to chaos *facepalm*) this left my army on one short edge of the board and the bulk of his forces on the board at the other. he was only able to bring in his three deamon princes for the rest of the game and they all died the turn they came in thanks to Long Fangs with high strength and good AP weapons, Njal, my wolf lord, and njal =D. oh and i should mention Lukas the trickster got one. but since his entire army had Slow and Purposeful they never reached me at my end of the table by turn 5 and so i'd lost 1 squad of Grey Hunters, 4 blood claws out of 10 and a rhino to his three deamon princes and a bunch of minor deamons, which we decided was a draw.

 

so my lesson learned was that i should never split my force in such a way, keep njal where he can actually do some damage, and any type of bolter (from a pistol to a Heavy Bolter) are completely useless. why? because they are all toughness five with a 5+ inv save and Feel No Pain which amounts to a 4+ inv save. My entire squad of Grey Hunters (minus the plasma guy) accounted for 2 kills after 2 volleys of 2 shots per man, the heavy bolter on my Land Speeder got none after fireing every turn, the two storm bolters on my two rhinos and the one on my dreadnaught got no kills for 3 trys each and the only long fang with no kills at the end of the game was the one with the heavy bolter and no one with a bolt pistol got a kill either. next time i'm gonna do what Wolves do best: CHARGE! and kill everything in there path :D

[Ail'Slath'Sleresh]

Charging Plaguebearers guys... Bad ideA! I am a daemon player and run bearers in 20x squads to tarpit any unit. Once I pitted two 10x squads of jump packin death company With chaplains for 3 turns with one squad losing one or 2 bearers each round until my bloodletters arrived to do nothig less than wipe them all out on the charge. If you could field high str templates u will negate their FNP saves all together if they are the right AP. Shooting bloodletters is smart because they die so quickly. Never charge plagebearerz until you become desperate. Don't let his units scare you. IF you position your units correctly he will have to either be worried about scattering or worse never reach you cuz of s&p. The dAemonprince can be bolteres down trust that. His guo's if he runs a pair will be tough so if you field a fast enough army or enough transports you will run circles around him all game. Take out his fastest moving units and you'll be fine. Maybe Joww him to death lol. If you feel your tactics failing try your best to learn his. Remember he's a beginner daemon player so unless he's a deepstriking master you don't need to worry. Not everyone thinks 2 moves ahead! I don't lol, play for fun!!!!!! Otherwise, high costing spacewolves are lunchmeat for my daemons :D