help against chaos daemons

[maverik_girl]

so what should I expect, and what do I need to bring on the table? the game will be on Sunday, 1500pts. I don't know much about chaos daemons, as I am a little concerned. Rune Priest are in, but against chaos daemons, is it better to go mech heavy? so no wolf scouts and use....... dreadnoughts? is close combat good or not so good against them?

[Eric the Green]

I've not faced daemons myself, but i believe the general concensus is massed bolter fire and frag missiles win the day. Also I think the likelyhood of assaults going your way has a lot to do with which gods' daemons you face. Khorne daemons are nasty in close combat, tzeentch not so much.

[Nrthstar]

I had my first demon fight this week, it's common to see a mix of demons, not just one. They tend to have a higher initiative than us but they are not as strong, so my grey hunters won against slanesh demons and my boys did ok with the blood letters. The ugly truth I discovered was we can't cancel their sorcery attacks since it's not technically psychic in nature.

 

Rune priests are a must still though since everything in a demon army deep strikes into play. Tw is a must. Otherwise our books match up pretty well. Just get your big stuff like termies and dreads in line with daemon princes and what not.

 

they don't have vehicles but their spell casting demons have some shots equivalent to a lascannon, so missile those bastards to death.

[maverik_girl]

thank you! I was a little worried there for a second. I was thinking they had faster Initiative than us. I was worried about all those power weapons from bloodletters.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Like Deathwing, Daemons are a slow army. They have great deployment, but once that is gone, they are, basically, infantry.

 

If you were fighting horde, you could just blaze away at them, with foot Greys. However, you don't have 24" for which to whittle down the Daemons. They "shouldn't" be landing more than 12" away from you, which means you'll get assaulted if you stand still.

 

This is where Mech shines:

After he has landed, you are free to out manoeuvre him.

You can get in his way - move block - with your Rhinos. Even if he hits it in an assault, he doesn't get to consolidate and still has the immobilised tank to get around. Or the wreckage to difficult terrain over. Or it blows up and kills some of his guys.

• I have killed many boyz just from my transports going Boom!

 

If you have flamers in your squads, you can roll 6" and flame them. You might even get to tank shock! them. Even if they don't run away, you can compress his unit and get even more hits from the flamer. Beware that he can surround your Rhino and kill your dudes in it just by blowing the Rhino up....

 

You can use your Fangs as bait, in true Tau sneakiness. The Fangs are just as slow as his dudes, and cannot move and shoot. They are a natural target for the daemons. Use this to lure him in. A nearby Rune priest with the deepstrike disrupt spell [i forget] can really leave his guys vulnerable to getting shot up.

 

Dreadnoughts are great for dreadlocking nasty Bloodletters, but themselves are rock-scissored by Monstrous Creatures.

[maverik_girl]

Thank you Wilhelm! so I'm thinking Rune Priest with Tempest's Wrath and Murderous Hurricane! is JAWs even worth taking against them? and I was also planning on using a Land Raider Redeemer. But I'm a little concerned about their heavy support like Daemon Princes. I want to be able to tie it down or take him out quickly. I can see that thing eat through my packs quickly if I don't go after it right away. Also with your comment on Long Fangs, should I take two if I'm going to use one as a bait and trap tactic? or keep them cheap and use tanks as my main heavy support?

[Prot]

I'll give you my two fangs worth...

 

Basically I am very happy to let a daemon player go first because they hold everything in reserve, but they aren't quite sure what will come out first.... they roll for their favoured wave.

 

So in turn one, you have nothing to do. Therefore (especially with objectives) I am fine with them going first.

 

Secondly, my favourite HQ is Rune Priest and I favour Jaws and Tempest's fury now for sure.... Tempest hurts all the deep striking, and Jaws is ideal for Fateweaver.

 

-side note: ask your opponent if he's using Fateweaver. That model can be a deal breaker as a lot of strong builds use it to reroll all invulnerables within 6". So now you can see why Jaws is crucial.... Fateweaver is a very powerful HQ but also expensive in 1500, so if he's using it, and you Jaws it, that can be a deal breaker for Daemons.

 

I typically castle up and force them to make dangerous deep strikes, but if things go bad for you early it can be a real grind.

 

Beware of the spawn power.... I've had major characters turned into spawns of Chaos (and people complain about Jaws! This can happen to you even while engaged in CC)

 

- Side note 2: the powers daemons cast aren't considered psychic so be prepared for them all to work. Thus, the rune priests will not be able to negate any of them. (this includes the spawn power I mention)

 

Otherwise you have to carefully dissect the army. Note where his troops are and how aggressive he is. Daemon players can count heavily on Plague Bearers for instance to hold objectives.... don't let them have Feel No Pain saves. You'll have to use the right powers on the right units, and take it apart bit by bit.

 

A lot of people down play Daemons in 40K but the reality is that a competent player can make them really work. Good luck.

[Firenze]

I play a full footslogger force, so having counter units helps. Vassakov (an friend of mine) uses 2 DPs and Fateweaver. Jaws works wonders ^_^

[Brother Nihm]

My best advice for you is to go here, read it, then reverse engineer. B)

[Black Arrow]

Hey hows it going maverick girl?

 

Im Sam.

 

Heres my thoughts, I play a daemon player almost once a week. he runs x3 squads of plague bearers, a daemon prince, two soul grinders, 2 x 7 man squads of fiends, and 3 juggernauts of tzeentch and 1 of khorne, he also runs an 8 man juggernaut unit. I have never lost to him. Keep in mind this is for competitive play and at 2000 points.

 

Run atleast one rune priest since you will be playing 1500 points. Equip him with murderous hurricane and tempest wrath, or JOWW. yes JOWW has totally wrecked face on some of his stuff who cares if its I5 or I6 he still can lose his 5 wound bad-a guy on a 5 or a 6. Trust me Ive done it to him before and another daemon player who runs all slaanesh.

 

Do not! run scouts or dreadnoughts, they will be gobbled up!

 

My advice

 

3x6 squads of long fangs all missiles = 420 Points.

 

One Rune Priest Murderous Hurricane/Tempest Wrath. (Coolest thing about murderous hurricane is it will make daemons or anything else without assault grenades I1 and you I10 in close combat!!! I know its wicked.

 

Then run grey hunter squads how you prefer them, i run them 8 man with Standard and Mark of the Wulfen, and add a wolf guard with Powerfist + Combi melta in a rhino

 

or 5 man squads in razorbacks with lascannon/ Twin-linked Plasma gun

 

Always stay on area terrain such as difficult or dangerous or in rubble! shoot shoot shoot let him or her come to you then let them charge you! remember they don't have grenades so you will always go first if you are in cover!

 

Also if you play objectives put your objective at the top of the building, beast (some daemons cannot go up levels in buildings) so your guaranteed to capture at least one objective.

 

I also run an elite Wolf Guard squad which decimates anything it touches, these guys are great for rapid firing plasma into a multi huge wound creature or melta into a soul grinder! this is what it looks like :

 

(8) Wolfguard

X 5 Combi Plasma

Combi Plasma + Combi Melta

Powerfist + Combi Melta

Mark of the Wulfen + Combi Melta

Rhino

 

You name it they've killed it :cuss I cant remember off the top of my head but I believe its in the ball park of 250 points.

 

 

I Really hope this helps. I'm a veteran SW player and will give you any advice when you need it! message me if you have any questions

 

-Sam

[Baba Lem]

Blood Crushers are a mean bunch too. They're slow, though tough.

 

Against a mean greater demon, Arjac would have just the right anvil hammer to smash them down with, covered by a squad to take the wounds of course.

 

Also, not every demon unit comes equipped with grenades, I think. If at all ? Cover could work in your favour here.

[maverik_girl]

already had my game two days ago. I pulled out a draw. It was a tough game. Learned allot! Rune Priest helped, Long Fangs are a must.

[Nrthstar]

I faced off against my friends demons again yesterday with disastrous results. No wolf likes to admit defeat but I blew this one and met some seriously bad rolls. Like tycho said, rolling bad once is just bad luck, twice is just careless.

 

I have a new razor/rhino on order since I completely recognize my list just lacks any synergy. At 1k I played

 

1 rune priest

Ll and tw with master of runes

Long fangs x 4 + squad leader

3 ml and 1 pc

 

gh squad x 5 banner, pw, melta

Wg with fist and combi melta

Razor las plas

 

Gh x 9 banner, mark, pw, melta

Gw fist combi melta

Drop pod

 

Gh x 8 banner, mark, pw, plasma

Gw fist, combi plasma

 

I was tabled by turn 4. His caster nailed my fangs, and his squad of blood leters I believe they're called, the khorne demons with all power weapons, only needed 2 guy's in a squad to wipe out my foot slogging gh plasma squad.

 

I fully recognize that having a mixed small army of a drop pod and razor and footslogging is just idiotic, but at this moment that's all I own till my order comes in.

 

I should have left out the wg and added extra gh and one more lf ml too, but am I missing something truly obvious otherwise? It didn't help that on turn 2 all of his army came in.

[maverik_girl]

don't worry about it too much! I got lucky and pulled a draw. But I intend to play against them more. It's a good challenge, and I want to get better at it. Yeah those bloodletters are nasty once they get to swing at you! I tend to stick my Wolf Priest with preferred enemy with my 10 man Grey Hunters, which helps.

[narf]

Murderous hurricane works wonders against bloodletters, as they dont have greandes, this means you can sit back and bolter them, cast MH on them, and when they charge your unit you go first, and nearly always get Counter charge off.

 

rune priests should also take the deepstrike prevention spell (cant remember its name)

 

Dreadnoughts will be eaten by MC's, but will hold up and destroy bloodcrusher units.

 

Long fangs can be good, though i would prefer to use razors with las/plas, and use these to divert the MC's, whilst having a load of foot slogging GH's with bolters.

 

The nasty stuff they have comes in different forms, flamers of tzeentch will eat any high armoured, high cost units and they wound or glance on 4+ with no armour saves, Bloodeltters get FC and all have power weapons, daemonettes get a silly amount of movement, attacks, iniative and rending. Bloodcrushers will mince any infantry they come accross. So plan against that and take a balanced army and you shold be ok, just dont rely on your rune priests to take the daemons out in CC, as they wont, they will just get minced.

[hendrik]

don't worry pups, sometimes the dice gods don't favour you, it has happened to all of us (heck i recently only killed 3 necrons(who still had their WBB) after firing my complete army on them. everey scatter weapon missed, and most of my dice rolls were 1's and 2's.... but a good job on your draw mav girl! as for you northstar, you risk splitting up a small force by using the droppod as you have noticed yourself. also i think in this case i would have prefered plasmagun over meltaguns. Does your opponent allows count as? personally i always let people do it if they tell me what is what since the hobby is already this expnsive. if they do allow it try out some more stuff you might not have the models for at the moment