Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons

GUESS WHAT, FA/TG/UYS? Everyone's favourite codex author has blessed Chaos once again with a new 'dex. Keep your eyes peeled for further updates... 5th Edition Tactics are here. And 7th Edition are here

Our Dark Gods thought adding more random elements would be a good idea and make the codex more interesting, but in practice, it made it more complicated and frustrating at times and can screw your Just As Planned tactics that were carefully put together, meaning you have to think carefully about everything you do. On the plus side, this can make them more FUN*, and if you happen to not like what random gift you rolled for on the table, you can always pick the weapon alternative. The possibilities are HUGE, so there's a lot to explore with the new book.

You can also now field your army just like any others, so Deep-Striking is no longer required! You can still Deep-Strike if you want to, but it's recommended that to bring Cavalry units with Icons so you can do it more safely. There're three to choose from, so you can be a bit tactical on how you set up your army depending on what you take.

You'll do fine against 6th edition books, however 5th edition books (especially Grey Knights) have a better chance against you. Even games against them can still be a lot of FUN* to play against, with the chances of the Warp Storm messing with your opponent's HQ (hilarious to see their face when you turn their Vanilla Librarian into a Herald of Khorne) or vice versa.

Pros:

• Extremely powerful in the psychic phase and can use Malefic Daemonology without hurting themselves.
• Deep Striking is no longer required, which means you can now bring large-base models like a Soul Grinder or a Seeker Cavalcade as well as more troops in each squad.
• The whole army causes Fear. Guard and Tau will tremble when confronted by Daemons in CC.
• Powerful anti-infantry and close-combat.
• Plentiful amounts of AP3/2
• Awesome Greater Daemons and cheap, effective Heralds.
• Cheaper units means they can now act like a Horde army.
• The only army other than Tyranids that can bring a lot of Flying Monstrous Creatures.
• FUN*.
• Daemonic Instability: Daemons are almost fearless, except if they lose in an assault. However, if you roll a 2, the entire unit comes back. Nothing like losing a challenge, followed by your Herald of Khorne coming back to life, Necron style, and killing their warlord in the following turn. Also those pesky psychic powers that get rid of fearless don't work on us, because technically we aren't fearless, we just imitate it PLUS we can still go to ground!
• While the random nature of the codex can be considered bad, Fateweaver and having default options offers a method of controlling the madness.
• Our Cavalry units (Plague Drones, for example) can give our troops and other units the mobility they need via Deep Strike to get into assault (Behind cover of course).
• From a modeling perspective, Daemons have, by far, the most variety. Unless you're making a mono-god horde list, you'll rarely grow bored of painting.

Cons:

• You know how GW charge an arm and a leg for their models? For a Daemons army you can say goodbye to an eye and a testicle too. Nice kidney, GW will be taking that as well. Especially now that you'll be using more than twice as many infantry thanks to the new codex promoting horde tactics.
• Not an army for beginners. You need to know what codex you're up against and play accordingly, so knowledge of other codices is vital.
• The whole army causes Fear, but the chances this will benefit you are slim.
• Even worse against Grey Knights now without Eternal Warrior and new dependence on psykers. (However, since you can deploy normally they can't use that annoying tactic of covering the board in warp quakes and killing you before they fire a shot).
• No Eternal Warrior along with a slew of models vulnerable to instant death (Greater Daemons, Bloodcrushers, Nurglings, etc).
• The abundance of random tables can cause the result of the game to be determined regardless of tactics or strategy.
• Crappy saves and a major lack of ranged weapons except for Psychic powers.
• Daemonic Instability: Daemons are fearless, except if they lose in an assault. If failed, the unit takes wounds equal to the difference of the leadership. If a 12 is rolled, the entire unit is evaporated.
• The Warpstorm can be really annoying, with most of the rolls causing damage to your units. Take Fateweaver to "fix" this due to his guaranteed warlord trait, or take units of an opposing god with an instrument.
• Flyers, especially armour 12 ones, will wreck your face. If faced with multiple Heldrakes, just give up. Check the strategy section below for how to deal with flyers.

Special Rules, Warp Storms and other FUN* stuff

The new rulebook added a lot of new general stuff to this old codex. Shall we take a look?

• Daemonic Instability: Most Daemons now have this special rule. As stated above it's basically Fearless, but if you lose an assault you must pass a Leadership test or take wounds, like the old No Retreat. As an additional twist, a double 6 will completely wipe out the unit, but a double 1 will return the unit to full wounds.

• Daemonic Alignment: As any neckbeard worth his salt knows, Daemons are aligned with one of the Four Big Bads, giving them some nice boons and defining which weapons, psychic powers and daemonic gifts they can take:
  • Daemons of Khorne have Furious Charge and hate Slaaneshi daemons. Also their chariots' Hammer of Wrath hits count as Strength 7 (this works for the Skull Cannon too!).
  • Daemons of Tzeentch have +3 Leadership on Psychic tests (for now up to a maximum of ten unless they FAQ it) and reroll saving throws of 1. They hate Nurglings.
  • Daemons of Nurgle have Slow and Purposeful, Shrouded and defensive grenades. They don't like Tzeentchians.
  • Daemons of Slaanesh get Fleet, Rending and can Run or Flat-out a farther 3"(6" if Cavalry). The manly servants of Khorne make them feel inadequate.

• Icon of Chaos: It works just like before....but better! (+1 Combat resolution and no Deep Strike Scatter within 6") it only works with Daemons of the same alignment, but works immediately upon arriving on the table! So precision Deep Strike away! Servants of the other gods still scatter, albeit only d6", but since you don't need to wait a turn anymore for icons it's WELL worth the trade off. Also, now you can buy god-specific icons with a special effect usable once per game:
  • Banner of Blood: Unit charges 6+d6".
  • Blasted Standard: Adds 2d6 S4 AP- hits to the unit's shooting or witchfire power this turn.
  • Plague Banner: This turn all melee attacks are Poisoned 2+. Works great with Etherblades.
  • Rapturous Standard: All enemies engaged in combat with the unit lose -d3 WS until the end of the phase.

• Slime Trail: Enemy units who were retarded enough to charge your Beast(s) will always make a disordered charge. Seriously, why would they do that? In any case, this will make Beasts of Nurgle more difficult to kill in close combat.
• Attention Seeker: oh ya, that why. A Beast of Nurgle that is within 12" of an enemy that successfully charged in their Assault phase immediately charges that enemy. Pretty funny that your foe must choose to either attack the blob of meatbags (through the slime trail) or ignore them but suffer poisoned hits from them.
• Aura of Change: The Burning Chariot's HoW attacks haves the Warpflame Special Rule. Scroll to the bottom to read Warpflame.
• Blue Horrors: A funny Special Rule brought to you by Phil Kelly and Robin Cruddace. Basically any Pink Horrors that suffers a wound in close combat inflicts one S2 AP - hit (From each Horror) to the enemy at the I:1 step. In most cases, you'll need 6's to wound them, and you could cause one or two wounds if you're lucky. Nothing special, but it could help, and can cause a laugh if it manages to kill a TH/SS Terminator.
• Daemonic Resilience: Ignores Crew Shaken or Stunned on a 2+. Pretty straightforward.
• Totem of Endless Bloodletting: Khorne units within 6" of the Blood Throne benefit from the Herald's locus. Useful if you don't want to put multiple Khorne Heralds in different units, but keep in mind that the area of effect is VERY small.
• Disruptive Song: -1 Leadership to psykers 12" for psychic tests.
• Fleshshredder: Add a D6 for each Hull Point your Chariot has when making HoW attacks at S4 AP - with Rending. Makes your Seeker Chariots more threatening when charging in.
• Gorefeast: Roll a D6 when your Khorne Chariot cause an unsaved Wound from his HoW. It regains a Hull Point on a 4+. Basically an equivalent to the It Will Not Die! Special Rule.
• Soporific Musk: Enemy units have -5 to their Initiative in the Assault Phase. This is your other source for the lack of assault grenades your Daemons carry aside from the Skull Cannon. Also helpful on those annoying Necron Canoptek Wraiths that make you I1 in close combat (For only one round though).
• Soulscent: You get one more attack for each unsaved HoW wounds you inflicted. Nice!
• Warpflame: The infamous rule that gave Tzeentch units a bad first impression. Any unit that suffers one or more unsaved Wounds at the end of each phase must pass a Toughness test. If they fail, they suffer d3 more wounds with no armour or cover saves allowed (Until it's FAQ'd, you could make an invulnerable save if you and your opponent want to). If passed however, the entire unit gets a 6+ FnP (Or add +1 to their existing FnP)! This sounds a huge turn off at a first glance, giving most of the game has infantry with a Toughness 4, but thankfully there's a way around this. Simply put, if you want to bring Tzeentch Daemons to shoot down the ranks, you will need to bring at least two BIG squads of Pink Horrors with a Herald, and you must have them shoot at the same squad to kill, if not wipe out, the unit so the benefit won't help them much. Again, choose wisely on who to target first. Firing this at Nurgle units, bikers, and Monstrous Creatures is almost always a bad idea. It's also worth pointing out that having a feel no pain roll does not mean there any more or less likely to pass the test, only live though the wounds it dishes out.

Warlord Traits

Just like any other 6th edition Codex, Daemons have their own Warlord Traits Table that must be rolled on a d6 for your selected Warlord. Most of them are quite helpful with only one (Herald of Doom) being kind of useless (and it still can be very helpful depending on who you play!)

• 1 -Death Incarnate: The Warlord's Melee weapons now cause Instant Death. This is really good on any MC and Heralds that aren't Khorne (They can get this by taking an Axe of Khorne). Tzeentch Heralds may not benefit from it much, but a Lord of Change can now kill any generic HQ with ease. Doesn't work on models with Eternal Warrior sadly. Skarbrand has this trait by default.
• 2 -Destroyer of Mortals: Woot, Hatred (Everything!) for the Warlord and his units (If he joins them). Rerolls to hit on the first round of combat is tasty indeed. Heralds with a squad will be more rapetastic in assault, with the exception of Khorne and Slaanesh Heralds, because they can take a locus with this rule (Or at least a form of it), but if they haven't, then you're in luck! Also good on a Bloodthirster or a Keeper of Secrets.
• 3 -Herald of Doom: Your foes are more scared than ever. Enemy units have a -1 penalty to their Leadership on Fear test. Muahahaha! Seriously though, this one is easily the worst trait you can roll for. It's only good on Tau, Guards, Eldar(actually not bad here if you run a Slaanesh army), Orks (In low numbers), Tyranids (Not in Synapse range) and MAYBE Necrons. Against Fearless units and Loyalist Marines, this trait doesn't do jack. Well, at least this is better than the CSM Warlord trait which only gives them Fear.
• 4 -Immortal Commander: Any friendly Daemon within the Warlord's 12" bubble can reroll failed Daemonic Instability tests. Hell yeah! You should really try and make good use of this trait, because it can make a major difference between rerolling 2d6 than losing your entire squad in assault. Best to have the Warlord charge in with multiple friendlies to enjoy the rerolls. Ku'gath has this trait, a gift from Papa Nurgle.
• 5 -Lord of Unreality: Arguably the best, as this will allow you to reroll the results on the Warp Storm table, so long as the Warlord is alive. The Warp Storm can be exasperating, so if you rolled this trait, then considered yourself to be blessed by the Dark Gods! As we all know, Fateweaver comes with this trait. Changing the results from getting a 6++ Invulnerable save to instead getting a free unit on the board? Just as Planned.
• 6 -Warp Beacon: The name is just as what you would expect, all friendly Daemons (And only Daemons) can Deep Strike within 6" of the Warlord without scattering (so long as he was on the table to start the turn). So basically this makes your warlord a 5th edition Icon, not a bad trait by any means, especially on fast moving HQ's like Bloodthirsters and Lord of Change.

Warp Storm!

At the start of each Daemon player's shooting phase (so if you got a Daemon vs. Daemon game this is going off every turn!!) roll 2D6 and apply the matching result...

• 2 - All units with the Daemonic Instability rule must test for it. Now obviously the idea of losing models for no reason other than the codex you play is a little frustrating but this is still a REGULAR Ld TEST (unlike the next result), so at MOST you lose 4 models in a standard troop unit or 2 Wounds on a DP or Greater Daemon(THIS is pretty painful), or course thats assuming you don't roll double 6's for EVERY unit's instability check (where this to happen I'm sure your opponent would understand you throwing the table, just let them get their army off it first....this isn't their fault) . So, in summary, while this is pretty depressing I wouldn't consider it QUITE that army breaking (it will leave a mark though!). Note: Until it gets FAQ'd feel free to assume that you get FNP against wounds caused by instability (its not technically a save). Don't be surprised to lose 30-100 points if this result is rolled.
• 3 - One of your characters must test for Daemonic instability on a 3d6. This can be pretty painful depending on who gets hit by it, losing a GUO or a Bloodthirster to this would be a sour feeling indeed! Were this to happen you have our permission to rage. Make sure you take those cheap squad character upgrades to mitigate this.
• 4- All Models with the Daemon rule suffer -1 to their Invulnerable Saves for a round. THIS.....THIS......O This......after rolling this you can take comfort in the fact it can't get any worse. Unfortunately, your Daemons probably won't be around to celebrate the sunnier days. This is by far and away the worst possible result you can get so if the idea of it frightens you, invest in Fateweaver!
  • Alternate opinion. While #4 is pretty bad, and some players simply concede upon rolling it, this result will rarely be a game changer as you should already have a 4+ cover save wherever possible. Nurgle Daemons are even less likely to get hammered by it with their Shrouded rule. (Plus with the addition of cursed earth you can effectively ignore this)
• 5 - Tzeentch compels you to roll a bunch of dice. For every six an enemy (or Nurglite) unit wins a cover-ignoring S4 AP5 large pieplate to the face.
• 6 - Every enemy or Tzeentchian unit has a chance in 6 to suffer d6 S4 AP3 hits that wound on a 4+ and ignore cover, courtesy of Papa Nurgle.
• 7 - Nothing. Remember that this the most statistically likely result.
• 8 - As a 6, but Slaanesh likes his/her hits to be S6 AP-, Rending and with a chance to hit Khornate allies.
• 9 - As a 5, but Khorne's mighty pieplates are small, S8 AP3 and have a tendency to hit Slaaneshi pussies.
• 10 - All daemons get a +1 to their Invulnerable Save for a round. Every Daemon in your army now has an Iron Halo.....I don't think I need to explain the awesomeness in that. If you honestly don't see this as a game changer, wait until you roll it than ask your opponent how they feel about it. By far the best result you could hope for.
• 11 - An enemy psyker must pass a leadership test on a 3d6 or become an Herald of your choice at your command. Oh, look-see, your precious and unique snowflake just became my new lieutenant (try a Tzeentch Herald here for free Divination trolling). Totally useless if your opponent doesn't even have a psyker on the board though, but it "removes from play" so even eternal warrior sporting psykers are liable to just go poof. Kill a flyrant with it and win the game.
• 12 - You get an entire unit of troops of your choice, 2d6+3 strong, completely free of charge. Lucky you. Hope you're not playing Purge the Alien.

Random Wargear

Daemons may purchase various types of rewards, as opposed to each reward only doing one specific thing they each have a random effect that you roll for (rerolling any results that the daemon already comes with). In addition to the random effects each reward has a default choice that the player may take if they do no want the result rolled (basically a "primaris" reward), these are usually a standard weapon available to all 4 types types of daemons and a set of god specific weapons that may also be taken.

Lesser Rewards

• 0 - Magic Weapon - If you don't like what the Dark Gods gave you, you can still fall back on a nifty special weapon.
  • Etherblade - default is this AP2, master-crafted melee weapon. At 10 pts., you will scarcely find a bargain like this in any other codex.
  • Axe of Khorne - AP2, Instant Death on 6s to-wound. The preferred armament for the Blood God's servants and just like the Etherblade, you are very hard pressed to find a better bargain.
  • Staff of Change - a power maul with WARPDOOM, which causes victims to explode and inflict d6 S5, AP- hits on nearby units, although this includes yourself. Kinda risky, plus the Mutating Warp Blade is better.
  • Plague Flail - +1 Strength, suckers must pass a Toughness test or suffer an additional wound. Not bad, but the Balesword is way better.
  • Witstealer Sword - it has Rending for some superfluous reason but causes an additional wound on a failed Initiative test. Kinda meh: would've been better priced at 5pts. instead of 10.

• 1 - Burning Blood - Every wound suffered in combat causes d3 bolter shots to the offender. It's... okay.
• 2 - Cleaving Strike - A 6 to Hit doubles the attack's Strength. Cute; pairs nicely with an Axe of Khorne on Daemons of Khorne if you have the Blood God's favour.
• 3 - Corrosive Breath - A Flamer with +1 Strength and Armourbane. Very useful for defense and offense.
• 4 - Spell Breaker - Adamantium Will. Not as good against Grey Knights as you expect, due to most of their psychic powers being blessings.
• 5 - Warp Breath - Range 18" S8 AP4 Assault 1 with Soulblaze. Meh.
• 6 - Warp Strider - +1 to Reserve Rolls for the daemon and his unit. Hell yes!

Greater Rewards

These are, without a doubt, the best choice of rewards, with a decent price and some pretty big bonuses. If you don't like what you get (and most of them are pretty sweet), you can always exchange it for one of the awesome Greater Magic Weapons.

• 0 - Greater Magic Weapon - as per lesser rewards, you can opt out of whatever you rolled for one of these.
  • Greater Etherblade - a +1 S, AP2, master-crafted melee weapon. It is so worth 20 pts.!
  • Blade of Blood - for Daemons of Khorne, AP2 and Rampage, but Unwieldy. Great for Thirsters and DPs but also swell on Heralds or Bloodreapers looking to pick up horde-mulching duty. Grab an Etherblade, Greater Etherblade or Axe of Khorne for either Master Crafted or character hunting and that bonus attack.
  • Mutating Warpblade - for Daemons of Tzeentch, power sword that turns slain Characters and MCs into Chaos Sp... things that never should be named. It's very good, but the hard part is slaying the enemy character or Monstrous Creature. Works for some characters, but monstrous creatures may a bit tough.
  • Balesword - for Daemons of Nurgle, poisoned 4+, Instant Death and what is basically Gauss. The ultimate anti-MC weapon when given to a Daemon Prince or GUO; just remember to tie up the enemy whatsit with another unit first lest your DP get gibbed by Overwatch.
  • Lash of Despair - 2d6 attacks at the user's base strength up to 12" away. Should this weapon be rending, you have yourself a rather brutal long range weapon. It is also otherwise a nifty albeit unreliable form of anti-air when loaded onto a flying DP.

• 1 - Corpulence - +1 Wounds and It Will Not Die. Very useful although funny to picture on anything Slaaneshi.
• 2 - Daemonic Resilience - Feel no Pain 4+. This + Greater Daemons = Your opponent's tears.
• 3 - Dark Blessing - Can reroll ALL Invulnerable saves. Fuckin' A - you just improved your invulnerable save by about 1.5. Marginal improvement for Daemons of Tzeentch, though.
• 4 - Hellfire Gaze - A Tau Fusion Blaster with Lance instead of Melta. This one is excellent for anything with a BS of 6 or more - Bloodthirsters, Keepers of Secrets, Lords of Change and Heralds of Khorne/Slaanesh, specifically.
• 5 - Touch of Uncreation - Fleshbane and Armourbane on all melee attacks. This is the one you hope and pray to roll for your close combat Heralds. Greater Daemons and DP's also benefit from not having to Smash to pop vehicles.
• 6 - Unbreakable Hide - 3+ Armor Save. What's that? You're a DP with Warp-Forged Armour or a Bloodthirster? Oops! If you're any other Greater Daemon or a Herald, this is awesome because free-ish power armour!

Exalted Rewards

Ostensibly, you only ever want to buy Exalted Rewards for your GDs and DPs - they're just too expensive and don't do enough, plus the MC Daemons can afford to purchase more rewards than Heralds, just in case.

• 0 - Hellforged Artefact - You get a special artefact of your choice. There's only four of them this time around, read up on them below.
• 1 - Doubly Blessed - You get a reroll on the table and a Lesser Reward free of charge. In a word, AWESOME. This is the sort of thing you want to get as a DP.
• 2 - Riftbringer - At the end of the combat phase, roll 2d6 and add +1 for every three wounds the daemon caused. On a 9+ you can create a new unit of troops, just like a 12 on the Warp Storm table. Watch the Hive Tyrant flip the table after all his gaunts poof into warpspawn.
• 3 - Souleater - If the daemon causes any wounds in combat you gain a wound up to a maximum of 10. Nice!
• 4 - Unholy Frenzy - Rage and Rampage. If you're a Daemon of Khorne and you're planning on rocking a Blade of Blood, this can be moot.
• 5 - Warp Tether - The first time the character would die he is instead placed in reserve with one wound left. Trolliest, by far.
• 6 - Wind of Chaos - Strength 2d6 AP4 Blast, Large Blast if you roll an 11 or 12.

Hellforged Artefacts

• The Eternal Blade:Frankly, with a name like that I expected something a little more impressive. It's a close combat weapon that gives its user +1 Strength and +d3 WS, Initiative and Attacks. On one hand, even a humble Herald can become a rapetastic murder-machine, but having AP- will get you in trouble against anything with a decent save (i.e. just too many things, what with the five and more Marines codices we've got around). On the other, giving it to a Greater Daemon (other than the Bloodthirster and Keeper of Secrets) or Prince can solve this little problem (on average, a Daemon Prince will be WS10 S7 I10 A7-that's even better than a Keeper of Secrets or Bloodthirster in terms of damage output!), but do you REALLY, absolutely need to be WS or I 10 instead of 9? Slap it on a Lord of Change or a Great Unclean One if you REALLY wanna get the most out of the stat buff. If you want to kill stuff, then go with a Herald of Slaanesh, Rending with enough attacks can hew though terminators (which says nothing of the WS and Initiative buff putting it on par with a KoS).
• The Portalglyph: Simply put, it's a Random Daemon Generator: it sits around as an immobile vehicle with 12 Armor all around and 1HP, and every turn there's a 50% chance it will spawn a unit of d6 Daemonic Troops of your choice. The true purpose of the Portalglyph is to spawn tarpits to tie up shooty squads for a turn saving your bigger units from being gunned down and they could serve as late game objective grabbers. Alright, here's why this thing sucks: first, if you hope you can just place it behind a building and enjoy an endless tide of free reinforcements, think again - it has to be summoned during the game and scatters 4d6" from its owner (side note: no idea whether this thing can claim benefit from Icons as it technically doesn't deepstrike, RAW) although at least it can't suffer a mishap. Second, this thing is incredibly fragile and you're basically giving your opponent free VPs. The final nail in the coffin is that as of 7th Ed, your psykers can do its job better with Daemonology. What's really sad is that this thing could've been cool - if it was actually a fortification instead of equipment, had more HP and didn't have such retarded deployment rules, it would've been so much more useful!
• The Doomstone:The doomy stone of doom is actually a pretty nifty assassination tool. At the start of each fight sub-phase, all non-daemon characters in the same combat as the bringer of doom must pass a Leadership test or permanently lose d6 Leadership for the rest of the game, and if they reach 0 they're DOOMED. Dead - as in "removed as casualty," as opposed to "suffers instant death." It's fucking hardcore, no ifs and no buts! The problem with this is that it will usually be on a big Greater Daemon, where the Eternal Blade would allow you to just kill the enemy instead of waiting for the doomy stone of doom to do its work. The other problem is that most characters you care about killing aren't going to fail leadership tests very often.
• The Grimoire of True Names: Funny, this used to be an anti-daemon tool in the Daemonhunters army, Phil Kelly and Robin Cruddace pulled a Ward. A powerful defensive tool with a catch: on a 3+ the user can improve the Invulnerable save of a single friendly unit by +2 (so to a 3++ in most cases), but on a 1 or 2 it's instead worsened by -1. Alternatively, in a mirror match you can use it to debuff the save of enemy daemon units. It can be especially useful with Kairos Fateweaver who allows a single dice to be re-rolled. Also, seeing as Tzeentchian daemons reroll Invulnerable save rolls of 1, this can bring Fateweaver to a 2++ rerollable. Sure, while the Change powers are mediocre, Biomancy and Telepathy primaris powers are pretty good, the former being a TEQ killer, and the latter OMNOMNOMs horde squads with low LD. Combining the those two and the primaris Change power can still do a good amount of damage.

Daemonic Loci

Now Heralds may take a special upgrade called a Locus, giving a special bonus to themselves and any unit they join. Unlike most things in the book you can actually choose which one you want, although there are limitations based on the herald's allegiance. A cookie if you guess which belong to which god.

• Lesser Locus of Abjuration: Gives Adamantium Will to the unit. Honestly, it's probably not worth it, if just because the most powerful psychic powers are almost all buffs, which aren't affected by DtW anyway, plus the Greater and Exalted Loci of Khorne are generally more useful for your purposes (which is killing things). Still, it's cheap and, if you think you'll go up against an army (like Chaos Daemons) that could spam offensive psychic powers, it might just be worth it.
• Lesser Locus of Transmogrification: When a Pink Horror is slain, the unit gains d3 Blue Horror tokens instead of one. It's a cheap, melee gimmick. Since your Horrors shouldn't be in close combat anyway, it's probably rarely a good choice, but if you have a few more points to spare, it could be useful.
• Lesser Locus of Virulence: 6s to Hit always wound on a 2+. Adds a bit more punch to your plagues, alright for 10 points.
• Lesser Locus of Grace: Move Through Cover. Good on Slaanesh cavalry and chariots.

• Greater Locus of Fury: RAGEEEE!!! This little Locus is essential on Bloodletters, being the cost of a Bloodletter and a half but boosting their melee punch far more than that. It's not as good on other units, since they generally have plenty of attacks to begin with, considering it's the same price as the Exalted Locus.
• Greater Locus of Change: The whole unit's Strength is randomized at the start of each turn. This cannot end well.
  • on the other hand, Tzeentch stuff only has a strength of 3 anyway, so on a 4+ your getting better, on a 3 your normal, and on a 1 and two you're screwed, So the odds are in your favor, if you think you might need to assault with Horrors (you silly silly man) consider this one.
• Greater Locus of Fecundity: Feel no Pain. Makes Plaguebearers who are in cover harder to crack than terminators.
• Greater Locus of Swiftness: +5 Initiative (WHAAAAAA...?)

• Exalted Locus of Wrath: HATRED (against EVERYTHING)!!! It's the same price as the Greater Locus, but this one is far more useful to Khornate units that aren't Bloodletters, since they have more attacks anyway. That being said, this shouldn't be considered absolutely necessary; it's a neat boost, but it also requires a (comparatively expensive) Herald to run with the unit. Alternatively, this thing may have a use for a Herald with Bloodletters in a fortification.
• Exalted Locus of Conjuration: +1 Strength to all Psychic Powers. Pretty straightforward.
• Exalted Locus of Contagion: 6's to Hit generate an additional hit that always wounds on a 4+. Go kill some MCs.
• Exalted Locus of Beguilement: Reroll all failed to Hit rolls, the opponent must always accept your challenges and YOU decide who accepts.

Unit Analysis

HQ

HQ are broken down into Greater Daemons and Heralds. Greater Daemons (including Daemon Princes) bring a lot of hurt but cost a lot, especially the Daemon Lords; conversely, Heralds are cheap, disposable HQ and you can take a shitload of them as they bend the rules a bit for HQ selections.

Greater Daemons

• Bloodthirster: This guy is your basic "big stabby HQ". He is an unholy rape train, with WS10, I9, 6A, and he comes with an Axe of Khorne (AP 2 and rolls To Wound of 6 cause ID), a Lash of Khorne (S6 AP2 shooting attack, albeit with only a 12" range), and Warp-Forged Armour (a 3+ save a la power armour). He comes standard as a Flying Monstrous Creature, which lets you swoop around the field assaulting whatever you want. Remember that you can Vector Strike (to troll people) and use Smash Attacks (to crush tanks to death). Although he can technically be seen as an anti-air choice, don't rely on him, since you can't assault flyers and the Lash of Khorne (your only shooting attack) is a.) short-ranged and b.) only S6 (which will have trouble penetrating most flyers). He gets the three levels of Gifts, most of which make him even better, but also make him cost a fair bit more and unlike the other Greater Daemons, he doesn't really need upgrades to make him a total badass. He is worth every point of his cost. Just keep the force weapons as far away as possible!
  • Skarbrand, the Exiled One - Skarbrand is now a beast! Cheaper than a normal Bloodthirster, he balances the loss of wings and Fleet with +1I and +1A from the two close combat weapons (on top of a Bloodthirster's already ludicrous statline), and his aura gives him and all units within 12" Rage and Hatred (though that does include enemy units as well, so this can backfire horribly you should only worry about it benefiting Grey Knights, other than that, the buffs will benefit you more than your enemies unit, since you are a melee-oriented army after all!). Oh, I almost forgot: now ALL HIS ATTACKS HAVE INSTANT DEATH AND FLESHBANE OR ARMOURBANE! I'm not kidding when I say that anything he gets a charge on is already dead. HE HAS NO BRAKES! He can defeat any CC character in the game on the charge, aside from Kaldor Draigo (whose Daemon-killing shenanigans will still mess him up). Even the Swarmlord will be annihilated. The problem is that like the Black Mace Daemon Prince he lacks defensive power and while some might say T6 is enough, most CC beasts have S8+ weapons that are AP3 or lower and let's be honest - a 5++ save isn't going to stop him from taking 2-3 wounds. Be sure to grab the Grimoire of True Names to fix this problem, and Deep Strike this beast so he can get to the thick of it!
  • Angron (Forge World/Apocalypse) - Hell yes! At first glance Angron looks like a slightly buffed (+1 W,I,A) Bloodthirster at literally twice cost. His master-crafted instant-death sword is pretty nice to take out other monstrous creatures, and big 12" bubble of -1 Ld is good too, but the main reason you take him is his retinue of 2-12 Bloodthirsters. And everything they charge would die - even Aetaos, Scabeiathrax and An'ggrath (though, this would never happen, cause Angron and An'ggrath are good fellows). On Armageddon this squad wiped out ONE HUNDRED Grey Knights, and they totally could do it on the board.
  • An'ggrath (Forge World/Apocalypse) - Costs thrice as much as a normal Bloodthirster pointswise at a whopping 888 points but is an unholy monster in close combat - anything within range of his axe is pretty much dead but is just too stupid to realize it. And when I say "anything", I really mean anything - not even a Imperator titan or Hierophant would survive close combat with this thing. His melee capability is pretty much unmatched; if it's in base contact with him, it's going to be dead within the turn. He costs A LOT and is a massive firemagnet, but as a flying gargantuan creature he is now insanely durable (as in T8 2+/3++ save with FnP that you can only hit on 6's durable), and can rip apart enemy fliers. On the plus side, he eats titans and superheavies like Abaddon eats people; hell he could eat Abaddon for breakfast. He gets +D6 attacks on the charge and has a lovely 2+ Deny the Witch. Thanks to the new Gargantuan Creature rules he can now be locked in close combat, so be wary of tarpits should anything survive your charge. On the brighter side you now no longer have to trade all of your attacks to Stomp attack, so once you have launched all of your strength 10 AP 2 Instant Death on 6's hits, throw down some Stomp attacks on anyone that managed to survive. He's still overpriced though - Zarakynel does it almost as well for 222 points less, regenerates wounds and Dat Ass.... On the other hand, because superheavy vehicle rules regarding D-strength hits are much better than gargantuan creature rules, he can get ganked with horrible ease by D-Strength weapons , keep him flying and away from anything that can smack him with an SD hit like your life depends on it (this is now only a secondary priority now strength D only ignores invun on a 6, although it will still ignore your armour and FNP no matter what). Because going down to two turbo-laser shots is not fun. If you see a Tau Manta or Tigersharks; prepare to cry because they're going to sodomize you and there's nothing you can do about it.

• Great Unclean One - Being a Greater Daemon of Nurgle, it's no surprise that this little guy can take tons of punishment, being one of the toughest units in the entire game with the ablity to reach T10(!) by having access to Biomancy. Despite his fat and bloated appearance, The Great Unclean One can also bring the pain in close combat by having five S6 attacks with no upgrades. However, the Great Unclean One is terribly slow, being only able to move 6" a turn due to Slow and Purposeful. As a result, Deep Strike is an absolute necessity for him to ever reach any sort of combat. Now here's where it gets tricky. Any 40k player worth a damn is going to ignore shooting this unit because of its sheer bulk and target your other more squishy units instead. You need to invest in plenty of upgrades for this guy, or he's going to be the world's fattest statue. A good loadout for The Great Unclean One involves two Greater Rewards (the Exalted Rewards table is pretty meh for this kind of unit). As for psychic powers two points in Biomancy for ridiculous buffs, and one point in Plague to gain access to a shooting attack might seem like the obvious route, but what tends to be more practical is all three powers on Biomancy for maximum chance at Iron Arm; besides the Great Unclean One doesn't really need a shooting attack. Deep Strike him on an objective or behind your opponent's delicious gunline, and you just made the Great Unclean One something that cannot be ignored by your opponent. Then giggle manically as they struggle to put down a T7-T10 Monstrous Creature with 6 wounds, all while the rest of your forces come in to help clean up. However, you will always need to watch out for tarpit units, poison or sniper weapons (Nurgle weak to poison?! HERESY! But seriously they hurt.), and Mindshackle Scarabs. Fuck Mindshackle Scarabs.
  • Ku'gath, The Plaguefather - A Great Unclean One that's a bit more expensive than a regular Great Unclean One. Don't be fooled by the shiny AP3 Large Blast. Only Psyker Level 1 and no rewards mean this guy is a great deal weaker than a pimped out GUO. But he gets stuff that regular GUO's can't even buy, for example he is even BETTER in melee than a regular Great Unclean One and he gets to throw AP3 Poisoned 4+ Large blasts with BS3 at the enemy every turn! Oh, and one last thing. He has no model, and apparently he travels around on a pontoon-like palanquin filled with laboratory instruments carried by an entire battalion of Nurglings. So before you go spending hundreds of dollars (and hours! Jesus!) on converting this model, just use a regular Great Unclean One model (or a Forge World Daemon of Nurgle) and say that he decided to walk today. Nobody will mind. (Also he can have nearby Nurglings gain a wound back every turn.)
  • Scabeiathrax (Forge World/Apocalypse) - Will never, ever, ever, ever die. He is to Great Unclean Ones as An'ggrath is to Bloodthirsters. Though he costs 777 points, with 6 wounds, Feel no Pain (4+), Invulnerable saves (3++), Daemon of Nurgle (Shrouded), and toughness 9 (which means that heavy bolters and down can't hurt him and he has a pretty good chance of just laughing off lascannons on toughness alone) there is practically nothing in the game that will kill him. He has a bunch of Nurgling attacks, though not that many of his own - but any wounds he inflicts become 2 wounds to the model he strikes should they fail a toughness test. Additionally should anything that doesn't have Mark of Nurgle or is not a Daemon be within 6" of him they must take a toughness test or suffer a wound with no armor or cover saves allowed. This helps considerably should something try to keep him locked in close combat thanks to the new Gargantuan Creature rules. He's kind of like Typhus if Typhus were mutated by nuclear waste that had Papa Nurgle had spilled his latest concoction on. He's a big firemagnet, but given the amount of effort it takes to kill him; that won't do anything to him and in fact will be very good for the rest of your army. All the same, watch out for Strength D shooting weapons FAQ is out on destroyer weapons and they no longer ignore invulnerable saves, making them a minimal threat to Ol' Scabies.

• Keeper of Secrets - Similar to the Bloodthirster except fleet and tricksy instead of flying and beefy. He lost his big bag of tricks and now must rely on random Rewards like anyone else, but again they pumped his stats like crazy (WS9 I10 anyone?). Not to mention at 170 pts base he is a STEAL for a T6 monstrous creature, and with Fleet and an extra 3" Run move he's quite mobile for a footslogging MC. Pair him up with a Bloodthirster and go crazy. That said, he's not a CC killer in the same way that the 'thirster is. Despite an awesome statline, he's more geared towards mowing down the rank and file than taking on anything terribly strong - without the Flyer-related defences of a 'thirster or LoC, or the durability of a GUO, T6, 5 wounds and only a 5++ will not last long against most challenge-geared HQs or heavy shooting, but his high WS and Init will ensure most troops will be hitting him on 5s long after he's torn through them. Greater Rewards will mitigate your survivability issues somewhat, as 4 out of 6 will increase your defenses in some way. As a situational bonus, the Keeper of Secrets now has Preferred Enemy against Eldar and Dark Eldar. Given the prevalence of the former due to the new codex, this may come up more than you'd think.
  • Zarakynel (Forge World/Apocalypse) - Essentially the An'ggrath of Keeper of Secrets. While she is the weakest of the Uber Greater Daemons at 666 points, she is no slouch and will bring massive levels of oh so literal assrape to everything in her long reach. She has both Init and WS 10, gains D3 attacks on the charge, counts as armed with assault grenades when charging and re-rolls all failed to-hit and to-wound rolls - pretty much guaranteeing that she will go first and hit rather regularly with her AP1 instant death sword that replenishes her wounds on a 2+. For extra lulz, non-fearless units have to pass a leadership test before they can try and hit her back. The latest edition gives her a 36" S6 AP3 shooting attack with D6 shots and pinning. So essentially, like Lucius the eternal turned up to eleven. Plus DISTRACTION BOOBS!

• Lord of Change - What Bloodthirsters are to stabbing LoCs are to magic. If you're going down the shooty path, be sure to bring Pink Horrors with Heralds, just so your opponent doesn't get Feel no Pain (Even if you do grant them FnP, in most cases the unit will only have a few models left by the time they get it, unless you're shooting at MCs or Nurgle bikers, in which case you were stupid for trying anyway). For a melee LoC, take the Psyker (Master Level 3) upgrade with full Divination, The Eternal Blade & a Staff of Change and you have a LoC that's hitting like a Bloodthirster! Do not sleep on these guys! They are the most versatile Greater Daemon in the book; buff, combat, or shooting, take your pick 'cause he does it all.
  • Fateweaver, Oracle of Tzeench - THE Psyker of 40k (Level 4) with a points decrease and two heads that are always better than one. Each head knowing all the Change powers (but they're not all that great anyway) as well as randomly generating a power from all the standard disciplines except for Telekinesis. No longer flees when things don't go just as planned. Overall a very deadly flying psyker. Use the Grimoire of True Names on him and watch him become harder to kill than before! Do not take him into CC, he doesn't belong there, doesn't like it there and will turn you into something that shan't be named if you bring him there. Use his staff to reroll WHATEVER THE HECK YOU WANT!!! A fun little trick with it is manipulating the warpstorm table; say you roll a 6 and a 1? Using Kyros's warlord trait is risky cause one of your die are high already, instead, use his one die ability and reroll the 1, now at worst your result is a 7-12! So yea, be creative, you have an army wide chronometron so enjoy it!
  • Aetaos'Rau'Keres (Forge World/Apocalypse) - 999 points of pain. He's been changed up recently but still grows your army at the expense of your opponents' with Riftbringer or heals himself with Soul Eater. For the shooting phase, he comes with Wind of Chaos, a shooting attack which summons horrors with 48" of him AND his staff can drop an INFINITE RANGE poisoned haywire apocalyptic barrage that can hit up to 9 times. In addition to his high toughness, large number of wounds, 3++ invulnerable save, and flyer rules, this Daemon Lord is a Mastery Level 4 psyker and can rebound psychic powers back onto their caster with after a successful DtW and a 4+ on a D6. If you see this guy leading a tetragon of darkness you're getting screwed. The only winning move is to find the tournament organizer and punch them in the throat. Aetaos'Rau'Keres does have a set of drawbacks however: if he gets within 18" of a Greater Daemon, Daemon Prince or another Daemon lord, he'll direct all his shooting attacks upon the poor sod. Second, he has to pass a leadership test to call down his apocalyptic barrage and if he fails, your opponent gets to place the blasts.

• Daemon Prince - Your customizable killing machine, and with WS 9, S6, I8,and 5 attacks it's not to be sneezed at - and that's before the mandatory upgrade to a Daemon of a Chaos God (one of them had to promote the lucky mortal after all). Most of the time these guys won't be your HQ if you like your Greater Daemons, because when you buy a Greater Daemon of your choice God, a Daemon Prince of that God moves to a Heavy Support choice (Similar to the Tyranid Tervigon, except they're taken as Troops). Its strength is that it can be tailored to your liking. CC monster? Spellcaster? Vector-Striking flyer? He can do it all if you're willing to shell out the points - which brings us to the main flaw: it will become more and more costly as you upgrade it and in most cases you should consider investing your points to the more powerful Greater Daemons as they are damningly more cost effective (and sometimes cheaper as with the GUO and KoS) than the Daemon prince, which both says something and is pretty fucking sad. It's better to take this Build-a-Daemon as your Heavy support choice. Just do not, I repeat, DO NOT go overboard on the gifts and upgrades! Keep in mind that Wings and Armour are damn near mandatory.
  They do however have a few roles for you to consider, such as the Slaanesh Lash Prince. Consisting of a DP with wings, Lash of Despair and a biomancy psyker, pray to Slaanesh that you roll Iron Arm and fly around all game throwing 2d6 S9 shots (which is absolutely insane!) at enemy flyers. It's unreliable as fuck but if you wanted reliability, you picked the wrong codex. Alternatively, you can build a monstrous creature hunter by taking a Nurgle Prince, give it the Balesword and three points into Biomancy. Buff yourself up with the fantastic Biomancy buffs to make yourself a very tough cookie to take down (watch out for Tau, however. They love their Skyfire and Ignore Cover). Get him into assault with a MC, prepare to drink your opponent's tears: stab 'em with your Balesword for an AP2 Instant Death attack. The big drawback with the Balesword is its lack of AP but because DPs are monstrous creatures they can bypass this drawback.
  • Uraka the Warfiend (Forge World) - One of two named Daemon Princes from Forgeworld. His stat line remains unchanged except for Ld 9 and he costs 200 points now. His axe lost Instant Death proper but gained Fleshbane and Decapicating Blow (ID on a to-wound of a 6) to compensate. Uraka's added goodies include a nice shiny Collar of Khorne, Warp Forged Armor, and Unholy Frenzy. This is cool and all but he is still likely to get shot to death before he does anything productive. Still not enough of a badass to make us believe he beat a Bloodthirster before gaining daemonhood.
  • Mamon, Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Forge World) - The other FW named Daemon Prince. His stats are similar to a Great Unclean One, putting him at WS7, S6, T7, 5 wounds, I4, 4 attacks and Ld 9. Throw in Feel no pain, Poisoned 2+ attacks, Daemon of Nurgle and a poisoned 2+ AP3 template weapon. Not bad at all!
  • Be'lakor The Dark Master (Dataslate)- A returning character from Fantasy, Be'lakor gets Eternal Warrior that regular Daemon Princes lack and is a Level 3 Psyker with all Telepathy Discipline by default. He comes with the unique rules Shadow Form (4+ invulnerable save and Shrouded and automatically passes Dangerous Terrain tests) and Lord of Torment (gains a bonus D3 Warp Charge points by making enemy units fail morale checks). He also has wings and possesses a unique weapon called the Blade of Shadows (S+1, AP2, Fleshbane, Armorbane, and Master-Crafted). He also doesn't need to be devoted to a chaos god, as he serves all of them. At 350 points, he's a flat upgrade to the basic Daemon Prince and cost-effective to boot. His model is arguably the coolest GW has ever made, too.

Heralds

The following HQ selections are Heralds and differ from the Greater Daemons and Princes because up to four Heralds may be taken in a single HQ slot in a primary detachment, meaning you could have lots of them if you wanted to (but not as an allied detachment). The following count as Heralds: Skulltaker, Karnak, Epidemius, and the Changeling as well as the four generic Heralds. The Masque and the Blue Scribes don't however.

• Herald of Khorne - With WS7, BS7, and initiative 6, the Herald of Khorne is a 55 point character/TEQ killer. Just watch out for the strike back, because you're only 6+ 5++... As for what to equip him with, either one of the Etherblades, Blade of Blood or Axe of Khorne, really depends on what you want to throw him in. If you plan on butchering hordes with your unit of choice, an Etherblade is a better choice (hordes with higher toughness values should be dealt with via Greater Etherblade); units with higher initiative or model count are better served with the Blade of Blood. The Axe is meant for challenges and chopping the heads off of Monstrous Creatures, so take that instead if wish to spill blood in a badass way. Additionally, you could take two of these weapons and get the benefits of both.
  • Blood Throne of Khorne - Your personal Khornate Pimpmobile. It's the slowest but toughest of the chariots (Armor 12 with 3 HP, with a 50% chance to regain one every-time it wounds something), and its Hammer of Wrath attacks are at Strength 7. It offers your Herald good protection and mobility, but more than anything else it broadcasts his Locus to all Bloodletters within 6". Just imagine this massive blob of power weapons with either 3 attacks each on the charge or Hatred for everything...
    • Skulltaker - The new book changes how he rolls. WS9 I9 4A, 3+ Armor, Eternal Warrior, Adamantium Will for the whole unit and a power sword with Soul Blaze that has Instant Death when you roll a 6 To Wound. All this at the bargain price of 100 points. Yeah, he must always issue and accept challenges, but if he's not actively hunting the opponent's most dangerous character you're doing it wrong. Put him on a Juggernaut with at least three Bloodcrushers to Look Out Sir, and watch as he gets into combat much faster than last edition (He still keeps his 3+ Armor save with this option). Unfortunately he lost his 4+ rending so The Taker of Skulls will be decapitated by models with a 2+ and is rarely more useful than a standard Khorne herald with an Etherblade Axe of Khorne. I think the main use of Skulltaker is in 500-1000 point games as he is only 100 points or 145 points with his upgrade and can beat any other non 2+ save HQ into the pavement. Another appealing option for Skulltaker is to put him on a Juggernaut and run him with a pack of 10-20 Flesh Hounds. Skulltaker can take care of any high armor models that would otherwise tarpit the hounds. Plus, the high model count in the unit grants re-rolls in challenges and will help him take down your opponent's special snowflake that much easier.
    • Karanak - This big ol' doggy is made for hunting down special snowflakes. You can nominate one at the start of the game: Karanak will get to re-roll ALL To-Hit and To-Wound rolls against him/her/it, and at that point it's only a matter of getting him in melee. Don't think that daemon-Cujo here is a one-trick pony though. He's got a better statline than a vanilla Herald, Hates everyone and everything, gives his whole unit Rage and as a frosting all psykers within 12" suffer Perils of the Warp on a double (problem, Grey Knights?). All this for a only 120 points. Alternatively, putting him in a squad of Bloodletters isn't a bad idea, because his Loci grants Rage, and MEQs will be slaughtered by them, especially with Karanak's marked Hatred! Not the best way to use Karanak, but an interesting combo none the less.

• Herald of Nurgle - These guys actually got a buff this time around. They have got high WS, BS, S and T but MAINLY provide your Plague units with FNP. These guys can be Psykers and can take from Plague and Biomancy. Keep them lv 1 and take Plague for either some very nasty witchfires or an amazing blessing that turns your Plaguebearers into scary CC killers. They also hit at Initiative 4 with AP 2 (if you give them the Etherblade) which is awesome as you can actually kill something relatively tough without being killed first! Can't recommend these guys enough!
  • Epidemius - As of the new codex, Epidemius got nerfed hard. He's only just usable in a Nurgle based army. He could possibly pump up your units to absurd levels, so long as they are Daemons of Nurgle within 6". Now as he only has a 6" bubble that he gives buffs to (+1T, +1S, +1FNP, etc) and he only buffs Daemons of Nurgle, not Mark of Nurgle, he will be rarely used. The Buffs got better but the area of effect makes him far less useful than before, especially as he doesn't even give FNP to his unit to start with like a cheaper Herald could.

• Herald of Slaanesh - A decently balanced faster unit. Give her an Etherblade, Greater Loci of Swiftness and a Steed of Slaanesh or Exalted Chariot. Stick her in a squad of Seekers so that you have yourself an angry mob of initiative 10 Daemons being lead by an even bigger Daemon with AP2, or a squad of angry fast Rending machines on Speed.
  • The Masque - The Masque is only 75 points. She is now 5++ with re-roll and three dances to choose from that debuff -5 to WS another to BS with no overwatch and one that causes them to literally dance themselves to death. Debuffing BS -5 and preventing overwatch sounds particularly delicious. She can't join units so be extra careful with her, but her nerfs are the last word in countering death stars so consider her carefully if you opponents use them often. Dancing starts at the start of the shooting phase, she still free to run after the dancing begins so she can jump out in move, nerf something, then run into cover.
    • A very important note, though she's in the herald part of the book, she's not actually listed as a herald so she takes up a full HQ slot by her self not the 1/4 a normal herald takes up, a MAJOR detriment.

• Herald of Tzeentch - A lot of dakka in a small package. Upgrade to Mastery 2/3 and if you roll on Change, hope for the third power or take the primaris and roll all others on divination. A lot of dakka with great div buffs zipping around on a disk is very effective. A solid choice. The chariot he can take has weaker armor than a rhino (10 on all sides) meaning that bolters can glance it to death with sixes, but hang on and you don't want it. This guy is amazing if you roll an 11 on your warpstorm, since the new Herald has to be BASIC and Tzeentch Heralds happen to be Psykers as basic, so you gain a nice Divination bonus for free, whereas the other Heralds are only really usable with upgrades.
  • Exalted Flamer - A recent issue of White Dwarf weekly now allows single units of Exalted Flamers to be taken outside of their chariot for half the points cost. Though it gained independent character, it isn't jump infantry unlike regular Flamers and its shooting attacks are still classified as heavy weapons. Actually, it's kinda better this way as it allows it to hide away in terrain along with some Pink Horrors and provide some extra ranged power while camping some objective. Counts toward your Herald allowance.
  • The Changeling - Now works similarly to the fantasy Changeling, with the caveat that you only alter your own profile. You can replace any or all of your WS, Strength, Initiative, toughness, and/or attacks with that of a single model in base contact. Might be useful to tie up a generic close combat character, but will quickly get outclassed by anything with special snowflake gear. Statistics will never be in the Changeling's favour. The best you can hope for is 50%, given the target has no wargear at all. One fun trick is against characters that have an 'X' or '*' for their characteristic like Crowe's attacks. Since this means the longhand description counts as his characteristic, you copy that as well. The question is: do you use the same stance as Crowe, choose your own, or just copy the number of attacks and forgo the rest of the benefits? Discuss this with your group before playing while we wait for an FAQ, but you may have to wait a while as GW doesn't seem to care much about FAQing rule discrepancies in the Daemons codex. It's been months and all we have are some corrected typos.
  • The Blue Scribes - Cheap multi-purpose character who should be kept out of melee at all costs. They lost "Watch this!" and now have a Hellforged Artefact "Scrolls of Sorcery" for which each turn you choose a discipline, roll d6(no primaris swap) and auto-manifest the power with no tests needed and no charges expended(as they aren't actually psykers) and a spell siphon ability that recycles used charge points by enemy psykers on a 6. Makes decent support with horrors around as you can cycle those warp charges onto them and then use there flicker fires to dump that extra spell charge into even more mind bullets.

Troops

• Bloodletters of Khorne - Now only 10 pts. Bloodletters are overall okay. MEQ armies will piss themselves with fear when they hear that Bloodletters' close combat weapons are power swords. Then they'll realize Bloodletters don't have any grenades, have a poor invulnerable save, have no armour saves and their swords are AP3, so TEQ will eat them for breakfast. On the plus side, they're now a lot cheaper, so horde tactics are a good call. Deepstriking a unit of 'letters with an instrument allows you to call down another Khornate daemon unit. Bloodletters' main problem is their low number of attacks (1 base). While Bloodletters will decimate MSU units, they will get mowed down by hordes due to their low number of attacks. Also marine squads of 15+ (CSM) will beat them in close combat through sheer volume of attacks if outfitted with close combat weapons; or the 'letters will mostly be dead by the time they get into combat and will be taken down by sheer weight of numbers. There are ways round this though. If you give them a Herald with a Locus give them Greater Locus of Fury (Rage) - it helps remedy their low number of attacks. The Exalted Locus (Hatred) is a bit worse and more expensive, as they'll already hit most stuff on 3's. Another problem is that they will always endure at least 1 turn of shooting (if not 2) so unless your opponent ignores them they will have lower numbers when they get into combat. The Blood Banner is essential here, greatly improving their chances of getting a successful charge in; and the Character upgrade can be effective especially with access to that Axe of Khorne.
  Bloodletters are also the unit for garrison duty in buildings with weapon emplacements. Their BS5 makes them hilariously and counter-intuitively (for a close-combat unit) efficient at shooting; if you're looking for some effective and reliable anti-aircraft in your Daemon army, give some serious thought to a Bloodletter squad in an Aegis defense line, Imperial bastion, Fortress of Redemption or even an Aquila strongpoint.

• Daemonettes of Slaanesh - Clocking in at 9pts each, they have Fleet and Rending as standard. Like every other force organization slot, the Slaanesh unit is faster and more fragile than the Khorne unit just as the Nurgle unit is slower but more durable. They're designed to tie up the enemy before they have a chance to use their ranged weapons, and now that they're not forced to deep strike their whole strategy is actually possible. They still have to foot-slog it though, so we're still back at square 1 (unless you Deep Strike them). Now that they're only 9 pts. a model, you can take a lot of them, which might even out your odds... maybe... However, they are better than Bloodletters in CC because they have more attacks, are faster, and don't fold to TEQs. Speaking of which, they will rape TEQs. Example: 9 Daemonettes and 1 Alluress cost 95 points, same as 3 Chaos Terminators and are putting out 21 attacks, hitting on 3s, wounding on 5s. With Rending they'll kill a 3 man squad in 1 turn most of the time. If you take a Herald go ahead and spring for the Exalted Locus (reroll all To Hit rolls); it gives them more teeth (something they lack) and ups their likelihood of getting a rend.
  • The Great Promenade of Exquisite Excess (Apocalypse only) - If you play Apocalypse, you may want to look into this. The new Apocalypse book has this nasty Slaanesh Formation consisting of the Masque and six squads of Daemonettes and/or Seekers. They must be kept in reserve and deep strike when they come in, but can assault when they come in and Rend on a 4+. This will be guaranteed to throw your opposing team off guard, so if you're feeling horny and have the models this is highly recommended.

• Pink Horrors of Tzeentch - With 6th edition rules, Pink Horrors were arguably the best choice in the Troops section. As of 7th, they easily are the best. They're a ranged unit, but they shoot psychic powers instead of regular shooting attacks, namely the fact that you can run after shooting witchfire powers. This means you can move up, squeeze off a volley of Flickering Fire, then run in the shooting phase back into cover. The big kicker though with these things in the psychic phase is that not only are they psykers themselves for the purpose of generating Warp Charge points, but their unique Magic Made Manifest rule lets these things generate 2 Warp Charges instead of one if they number 11 to 15 or 3 Charges if they number 16 to 20. Small groups of these guys are useful as a shooting unit, but multiple squads of 20 will assure you complete dominance of the psychic phase.

In addition, with the new FAQ confirming Daemonology as a optional choice to generate psychic powers, it is possible to achieve what can be only described as a gribbly bacterial plague. With a focus on claiming battlefield objectives and holding them, you can use your mastery charge to generate "Summoning" from the malefic daemonology discipline, which will then give you the option to spawn another unit of horrors using 5-6 warp charges to guarantee success. By selecting Malefic discipline for the new unit, your opponent now has too eliminate two units of horrors in order to prevent a third/fourth unit entering the field. In theory, you should be able to hold the line using the age old principle of "Bodies over bullets". While this does restrict the use of other psychic powers in the army, it is perfect to use as allies for an army with a particularly weak selection of psykers......

• Plaguebearers of Nurgle - Plaguebearers may have lost FnP and got their toughness docked by 1, but they got a dramatic points reduction in exchange. They get Shrouding as part of their new deal, so as before they're still great at holding objectives. Since they are no longer Fearless and have Shrouded they can go to ground for 2+ in any cover. Also now their attacks always glance on a 6, which means that these are your anti tank. A massive unit of these with a Herald could march across the board and kill a hell of a lot of stuff that your other units might struggle with (see Wraithlords and AV13 Walkers). If you take a Herald, take the Greater Locus of Fecundity (Feel No Pain) to make camping Plaguebearers unkillable or to survive the march to your enemies' vehicles. Or you could bring Plague Drones/Seekers/Bloodcrushers with Icons to get them where you need to go, which is a better idea because they have Slow and Purposeful. These guys definitely need a Herald to give them their FNP back to truly shine at backfield objective camping. Otherwise they're a few markerlights away from oblivion.

• Nurglings - A four wound tarpit, Nurglings have lost their amazing Eternal Warrior and are now incredibly vulnerable to instant death. In 7th edition, the rule disallowing Swarms to be scoring units has disappeared which means these things score and have Objective Secured! Plus they have the Infiltrate Special Rule, and they're decent at distracting units with a lot of dakka and missile launchers, allowing your assaulting units to move up and chop them to pieces. Alternately, they can grab a vital objective early in the game. Taking about 6 should do the job, but taking more isn't a bad idea. Just don't expect them to do much. Be careful, however, using these guys against Tau. Infiltrating units with four wounds seems like a perfect solution to keep some of that shooting off your army as they run up the board, but sadly any S6 shooting or templates will absolutely destroy the unit in no time at all, and Tau unfortunately have tons of that.
  • If playing apocalypse, you can usually find a place behind the enemy to infiltrate to. Take a bunch of 3-base units and DISTRACTION CARNIFEX.

Elite

• Beasts of Nurgle - Toughness 5, 4 Wounds, Shrouded and It Will Not Die? Beasts are amazing tarpitters, and can even charge in the enemy's assault phase. Yes you read that right. One of the best countermeasures to your weaker units being charged in the book. They last forever and will hang around long enough for hopefully some one else to come and help. Pairs well with Plague Drones, BUT remember to keep them in cover! They are Beasts, and as such they ignore difficult terrain, so take advantage of the free saves. Great as road bumps for Death Stars and also good at distracting assaulting units in a shooty Daemons army. As long if you're willing to invest in Tzeentch units and focus on one target at a time, Beasts can really help as a meatshield for your shooty units. Also, in the fluff in the new codex since about 1986, these creatures are attention-seeking puppy-like beings who love making new friends and jump at the chance to show their affection. They never fully catch on to the fact that, in their quest to give and receive affection, their size/strength/natural abilities always result in the gruesome deaths of their intended playmates.

• Bloodcrushers of Khorne - With 6+ (Why does it even have this?) 5++ and T4, Bloodcrushers are possibly the worst hit by the new codex. They still hit very hard, and now they have 3 wounds, but the whole loss of the 3+ save means that Bloodcrushers will die quickly when in the open. On the other hand, now they're a proper Cavalry unit, so what they lost in survivability they gained in mobility, but that won't save them. Plus they cost 5pts MORE than their 5th edition counterpart. Trading their 3+ armour save, T, and their Eternal Warrior in exchange for 1W and counting as Cavalry for 45 pts? Pass. On the other other hand, if you manage to cast the Grimore of True names on them, they'll be nigh-unkillable with 3 wounds and a 3++ save. Their main use in this book is to attach Karanak with five Bloodcrushers with an Icon so you can deep strike your Khorne/Slaanesh (HERESY!) units safely (within cover of course) so they can launch an assault next turn after the Bloodcrushers do. Again, if you're worried about their their survival, grant them the True names and they'll do fine for the most part. Using these in range of a Leman Russ, Krak missile long fang squad, or Hive guard tends to end hilariously. For the enemy anyway. For you it'll probably just make you cry.

• Fiends of Slaanesh - These guys look *weird* and they're adequately killy. They're pretty fast (Beasts) with an OK 3 S4 rending attacks at a good initiative (6). Their MAIN use is that any unit they charge has -5 I. Hell yes! Oh and enemy psykers have -1 Ld when within 12" of them. The downside? T4 and 5++ (Although 3 wounds sorta helps out). They are even more of a glass hammer than last time around but have some nice tricks to help them out. For extra lulz, have a Keeper of Secrets with a Witstealer Sword charge in a unit with the Fiends, laugh when your opponent tries to pass his Initiative test but fails thanks to these Beasts!

• Flamers of Tzeentch - At one point, fielding Flamers would have caused your opponent to leap over the table and strangle you. Now he will thank you for giving his Space Marines Feel no Pain - if he doesn't mind losing half his squad first (or none of it if you shot it into bikers of nurgle, god damn it). 23 points for a Strength 4 AP4 flame template, which forces the unit to take a toughness test. If he fails, the unit takes D3 cover and armour ignoring hits, if he passes, the unit gains 6+ Feel no Pain for the rest of the game or a bonus to his existing Feel no Pain, and ATM until an FAQ comes out this STACKS. However, they have one saving grace: they still kill models with 4+ saves and higher in droves and since most of these models are T3 half of the time you get D3 extra auto hits. Remember, it's at THE END of the Shooting Phase when the unit must take a toughness test, so take six in one squad and have some Pink Horrors to help them out! By the way, I don't recommend you putting nine in a squad, because this unit is meant to harass and distract your opponent's squad while your troops gets within charge range to finish them off. Six flame templates are plenty to do that job.
  One use is to deepstrike them right next to the biggest blob the enemy has (either praying for no scatter or taking the CSM's Dimensional Key) and let rip with your AP4 flamers. Fire warriors, gaunts, boyz and necrons will be wiped off the table by a 3 'man' 69pt unit (remembering to lay down the template the best way possible and multiplying the models under it by the unit size)

• Decimator Daemon Engine (Forgeworld) - A healthy alternative to the Soul Grinder. Costs a LOT more, not as well armoured (13/12/11) but potentially more durable. Like other daemon vehicles it has Daemonic Resilience, deepstrikes and gets a 5+ invulnerable save, but unlike other vehicles it has "Unholy Vigour." Basically, it can regrow blown-off weapons and un-immobilize itself on 5+ AND can revive itself from a Wrecked result on a 6+ ON ANY TURN! Mind it will also suffer final death on a 1. This thing also gets access to smoke launchers for 3 pts., so buy them. The Decimator can additionally mount the following weapons:
  • Decimator Siege Claws: Your decimator comes stock with two of these, providing a total of 4 S8 AP2 lightning-claw attacks plus they have built-in heavy flamers. These claws can also perform a smash attack that if it penetrates a transport or building, you get to make D6 heavy flamer attacks against anyone inside - Falcon PUNCH!
  • Butcher Cannon: The butcher cannon will help against things like dreadnoughts, medium armour and when bought as a pair, can lay down an eye-watering 8 S8 AP4 shots at 36". It can glance vehicles alright, pop infantry with low armour saves and maybe have some marginal anti-air power, but it may be better to take an allied Forgefiend.
  • Storm Laser: 36" S6 AP3 Heavy D3+2. Like the butcher cannon, the laser is best bought as a pair and is a cost effective alternative to them. Storm Lasers are best at chewing up MEQ infantry: Necron Lynchguard/Destroyers/Praetorians/Tomb Spyders, Blood Angels in power armour, PAGK's, the occasional Tyranid monstrous creature, etc. Tau Crisis and Stealth suits (should you ever catch them in the open) are the most flavourful targets of laser decimators appearing out of nowhere and scorching them in a volley of hurt.
  • Soul Burner Petard: Yes, that's... really it's name. Petard. A French/British word that basically means "bomb". Anyway, it gives you S5, AP5, Rending, Large Blasts for smashing Orks, 'Nids, or Guard (or any other blobs you may need to remove). You only need to buy one of these (as it's an Ordnance weapon), allowing you to retain a Siege Claw for the fighty bastards that get too close.
  • Heavy Conversion Beamer: 6th edition gave this thing a purpose, for now you can hide one of these in a building while taking another gun for more dakka and dedicating this vehicle to Slaanesh for the defensive grenades... although this seems like a goofy way to use a decimator.
    The Decimator can be dedicated to the Gods (requires an Independent Character in the army with the same dedication) for +15 pts. as follows:
  • Khorne: Gains Rampage. Great for tearing apart lots of things in hand to hand and goes well with the double claw or claw plus petard.
  • Nurgle: Gains It Will Not Die. Arguably the best, making an already hard to kill unit even harder to kill!
  • Slaanesh: Counts as armed with assault and defensive grenades. Assault grenades are marginally useful, but defensive grenades are alright if you're weird and are going for a camping decimator with a heavy conversion beamer.
  • Tzeentch: Re-roll to-hits of 1's for shooting attacks, and heavy flamers (if any) get Soul Blaze. A good gun/claw mark which will do terrible things to light mech armies.

Fast Attack

• Plague Drones of Nurgle - Plaguebearers riding on giant jetpack cavalry flies. And you thought you were badass. Can be upgraded with Poison (3+) or turn one of their attacks into Instant Death (Stinger tail to the face). The whole unit can also get an upgrade for Str user assault 2 poisoned 4+ 12" ranged attacks. There is also the champion upgrade that gives you +1 attack and gives you access to that AP2 Etherblade (this makes them hit very hard). Don't forget that because they are jetpack cavalry they can move 12" in the movement phase (kinda like a jumppack with their dangerous terrain test if they start or end turn in terrain), then shoot you with Death heads and then they have Fleet and Hammer of wrath for their charge (again ignoring any terrain they have to charge through (bar a dangerous terrain test). Oh, and they have 3 wounds each at T5 so they ain't going anywhere quickly! And if you don't fancy charging don't worry, you can move 2D6" in the assault phase for free like Tau Battlesuits, making their move average at 19" per turn and with shooting. NOTE: They also make great ICON bearers so you can Deep Strikes your other units more effectively and pretty far across the board turn 2 since they are so fast and tough.

• Flesh Hounds of Khorne - Good points: they're fast, have multiple wounds, can effectively deal with any non-melee unit that isn't wearing power-armor. That and they have +2 to Deny the Witch rolls as standard. Bad points: their attacks don't ignore armor saves so anything that's as tough as a Space Marine will laugh them off. As a counter to this, Karanak or a Herald on a Juggernaut can give the squad he is in RAGE which makes them really scary on the charge and since they are so fast and ignore difficult terrain ALL THE TIME, being beasts, they should be charging. Along with Karanak's perils'-causing collar, him and the Hounds make great psyker hunters. These guys also now have Scout and just generally better stats. A cheap group of ten is well worth their points if your opponent has at least one annoying psyker pissing off the Blood God. These guys are also borderline mandatory when playing against very shooty armies, such as Tau, IG, or Eldar. Use a squad of ten to sponge up most of your oppenent's firepower on turn one, and roll your other fast units up the board. Using a large blob of them buffed by the Grimoire with Karnak is typically considered a most excellent dick move.
  • Models note: If you want to add Flesh Hounds to your force but don't have the money to buy them (They cost $50 in America for five Hounds), you can get either the Beastmen/WoC Hounds or the Vampire Counts Dire Wolves for "Count as" models for half the price AND twice the amount you get. Did I mention they're plastic rather than Finecast? Hmm, Me gusta!

• Furies of Chaos - These got a total change this time around, but still suck. They have jump packs but only one attack each and rubbish stats make them un-usable. Even for 6 points a pop they have leadership 2. Yes, you read that right, Grots and Conscripts have more balls than they do - these are undoubtedly the biggest pussies in all of 40k. That means if they EVER lose combat they are gone, no ifs or buts about it; if they ever have to take a morale check they are unbelievably fucked. You can make them dedicated if you want but seriously don't bother wasting a precious fast attack slot and points on these guys. For extra Fluff-Heresy you can Mark Furies. Even though they were scorned by each god to be mark-less abominations of despair and eternal punishment for the fickle mortal they once were. Other than the Slaanesh Mark, we aren't to sure why you would want to do that.

• Screamers of Tzeentch - They will get mowed down if properly targeted/assaulted, so be sure you're using them tactically to herd enemies or as a small suicide squad against tanks, although they have 2 wounds now which helps. They have three attacks each (plus Hammer of Wrath) which means their chances in combat are OK. They have a "Slashing Attack" Special Rule, allowing D3 S4 AP- auto-hits on unengaged enemy models by turbo boosting over them (don't forget this gives you a 4+ cover too). The update brought them to heel where now you can substitute your normal CC attacks for one Strength 5 Armourbane attack at AP2 (REMEMBER you still get your S4 Hammer of wrath attacks too!). Use this against big vehicles and Terminators only and watch light vehicles get ripped to little shreds by your 25pt models. These guys are still usable, but no longer the cheese they used to be.
  • Note: It can be argued that Screamers do get their second attack from charging while using Lamprey's Bite as it only states normal attacks, not ALL attacks (same wording as Smash). Until a FAQ comes out regarding that make sure you talk it over with your opponent. If you wanna be a rule lawyer sure; "they may trade in all their normal close combat attacks for one attack with the following profile..." is pretty self explanatory. Just take the extra Hammer of Wrath attacks and be happy folks!

• Seekers of Slaanesh - Got changed this time around, Seekers are now a solid unit that one should consider when making their lists. These cavalry units are cheap-as-chips (12 pts), they may just seem like daemonettes on mounts, but when you take a closer look, you see that they have Acute Senses and Outflank. They also have an extra attack, which gives them 4 on the charge, and if that's not enough, they run an extra 6' in the shooting phase, so Seekers are both fast AND deadly! Seriously, for only three points more just for all of that makes me think their point costs is a print error. Whether you use them for a fast offence unit, an Icon carrying squad, or to simply distract your opponent from your other units, you can't go wrong with Seekers. Even if you were to maximize the unit to 20 seekers, it won't take up your points and still leaves you room for other units, unlike the other unit that requires the Grimore to be effective and are an expensive investment *CoughBloodcrushersCough*.

• Hellflayer of Slaanesh - The Hellflayer was overlooked when it was first launched on account of it sucking during that brief update from White Dwarf. Let's not kid ourselves, this thing is still fragile and will succumb to most gunfire with ease. Granted, should it survive, you will quite literally drink the tears of your enemies troops as the chariot deals out D6 S4 Rending HoW hits per hull point remaining, granted it only starts with two. However, the Exalted Alluress riding the thing gets an additional attack per unsaved wound inflicted on top of the four with which she starts! Like we said, there's an incentive to kill this thing before it drives into the soft, moist folds of the rank and file. There's just one critical problem: 'flayers are 60 pts each whereas seeker chariots cost 20 points less, have the exact same profile and can be taken in 1-3 vehicle squads. If you can't take those or Exalted chariots (likely because you don't have any free Heavy Support slots left), only then shall you consider this unit. They aren't very good if you got the memo as they pay 20 points for a gimmick.

• Blight Drone (Forge World) - A fast flyer with a Reaper Autocannon, an old-style Mawcannon (Phlegm and Vomit only) and now Deep Strike and the Daemon of Nurgle rule. At 150 pts., it's a nifty fast attack vehicle. With the increased points, it is now closer to a soul grinder. The downside? It's BS2. The upside? It has Shrouded so evading for a jink is 3+ cover (2+ if they're within 8" due to defensive grenades). One of the contenders for best fast attack choice since it's a good load of dakka on a flyer with Shrouded which many armies lack effective counters to. Beware that these explode when destroyed (wrecked/explode) so keep them away from squishy friendlies and always near enemy lines. These can also be taken as a 1-3 squadron. Never hurts to double tap, and opens slots up for other fast attack awesome.

Heavy Support

• Skull Cannon of Khorne - Basically auto-include if you're bringing Daemonettes or Bloodletters. Not because S8 cover-ignoring blast (which is still nice at popping-out vehicles), but because your guys can charge anything hit with this blast without initiative penalty for not having assault grenades. If the enemy gets too close, it's a chariot, so charge them with your D6 S7 Hammer of Wrath hits! Then die horribly as they shove a power fist up your armour-10 rear.

• Burning Chariot of Tzeentch - Fragile but very killy. 10AV all around but is in fact a Daemon of Tzeentch and 3HP make it more durable than most fast skimmer... chariot... things. The Exalted Flamer will be shooting AP3 torrents and 18" heavy d3 lascannon shots, which unfortunately have Warpflame. Even its Hammer of Wrath attacks have Warpflame. Here have FnP while I burn you alive. Just as Planned. Alternatively you can give a Herald of Tzeentch one of these to pimp around in, casting Divination, Change, and/or Malefic Daemonology powers all over the place. Or you could use a Warpblade to spawn the shit put of your opponent using sweep attacks, then 'accidentally' flamer the t5 spawn, as well as the enemy squad, and let the nomming commence.
  • Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition update. Now in 7th Edition chariot riders count as always stationary and relentless. It means exactly what you think it means. Our beloved av 10/10/10 skimmer can now move 12", torrent another 12" and because it's open topped it can be from anywhere on the vehicle. While the durability is low, 3 HP, chariots can now never be immobilized only, explode on 7 for damage roll and they can pass off hits/wounds to the rider. And if you do choose to run the Herald on this instead, remember that you can spew psychic powers in the psychic phase and then flat-out into safety in the following shooting phase.

• Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh - These guys are cheap. A squad of three of these used to be unusable due to their massive bases and deepstriking, but now they can deploy safely. Rules for these girls are simple: Charge the enemy. Your d6 per hull point Hammer of Wrath Attacks with RENDING due to its Fleshshredder rule owns everything. And since chariots can't be locked in combat when it's your turn again just back up an inch and repeat! These things are very delicate but at only 40 pts a chariot they are worth it. Be careful with the rules in cc as it gets very confusing with the exalted Alluress in combat.
  • Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh - Same as above only 4 HP instead of 2. you could put a Herald here and take the locus that means all your chariots ignore difficult terrain all the time.

• Soul Grinder - In 4th edition, Games Workshop decided to expand its repertoire of things stolen from intellectual properties and so knicked something a bit more recent (from Doom, specifically). It was a shitty waste of points back then because its HUGE GUTS made deep-striking it an exercise in annoyance and failure, but we don't talk about that much no more. For this codex, the Spider Mastermind Cyberdemon Soul Grinder is very similar to what it once was in terms of stats and cost. He still comes with a harvester, has one Iron Claw (it's a power fist, actually) and still has that same, rather solid stat-line. So what's new? Well, he can Skyfire if he wants with his new S7 AP4 3-shot harvester and has to buy all his other weapons from scratch. However, losing a Mawcannon won't remove all the the profiles you upgraded it with so that's a plus, right? Speaking of weapons and profiles:
  • Baleful Torrent - just like the last one, S6 AP4 but now with torrent!
  • Phlegm Bombardment - very similar to the phlegm profile it replaces, your half-range battle cannon doth return. Note, you have to snap-fire all other weapons when shooting it now because it's Ordnance and this is post-6th Ed.
  • Warp Gaze - why? Oh sure, S10 AP1 seems terrifying, but its range is pathetic and you can expect to miss as often as you can to hit with it; could be worth it on camping Nurgla/Tzeentch Grinders just to add more dakka. This would've been awesome if you could give it to a Daemon Prince!
  • Warp Sword - your back-up if you lose your Iron Claw and a pricey one at that, but it will also give you a bonus attack, being that both your claw and this sword are specialist weapons. Warp Swords are also master crafted, which is totally a plus for close-combat grinders
    Soul Grinders must now be upgraded to a Daemon of a god in which it gets Daemon USR (5++ and Fear) as well as the special god-related bonuses:
  • Khorne - This one is free as the Iron Claw already doubles strength (making furious charge useless unless someone shoots off your claw) but also means you'll almost always be loading up with a Warp Sword just in case.
  • Tzeentch - The next cheapest, giving you jack shit in terms of psychic powers but 5 pts for a re-rollable save 1's is fantastic!
  • Nurgle - Best by far for Shrouded Soul Grinders (2+ cover behind ruin anyone?) but be careful with an ADL as it might be too small to obscure him properly. Always double check that this massive model is obscured before assuming he is. Otherwise, you're gonna be shooting so take phlegm, maybe Torrent and maybe Warp Gaze. Keep in mind that this thing will be in the backfield, which is a weird position for daemons that are more used to taking the fight to the enemy.
  • Slaanesh - the +3 run, Fleet and Rending! Grab yourself a Warp Sword and Baleful Torrent. Speed up the field, and soften a unit up with the torrent and the harvester cannon, then assault it with 6 S10 attacks (with rending, but at S10 that's a bit of a moot point) - not even buildings or big metal bawkses can withstand that! You can even charge in and kill those Gay Knights shooting you with Psycannons that aren't allowed to run away in CC and have to stand there while you kill them (unless they brought Daemon Hammers... then you're fucked).

While the Soul Grinder is usually worth taking, it is annoyingly counter-intuitive. It offers Skyfire, but only has BS3 and if used, prevents the use of Phlegm or the torrent (requires some Divination trickery); they have access to powerful guns, but have criminally short ranges; they come with strong close combat options, but also great ranged options. The trick is to figure out what you need it to do in your army and use it to fill in the gaps. Most importantly, play to its strengths: it's a walking tank! It's way more durable against things that threaten other walkers, like autocannons or krak grenades so don't be afraid to leave yourself a little vulnerable at times. If you're really concerned, take them in pairs for safety.

• Plague Hulk (Forgeworld) - Essentially a Soul Grinder of Nurgle with a poisoned 3+ S5 AP3 flamer instead of the Harvestor and a rending phlegm bombardment with 2 fewer strength but at 150 instead of the 180 for the codex version with Phlegm. Replacing the Iron Claw with a Warp Sword for +25 points is a hilariously bad idea which you should not do. Definitely worth the points but wants you to get close to take advantage of the poison template (which is counter intuitive of Nurgle Grinders siting back abusing Shrouded). Since you can take it in CSMs too its a good way to get a 4th Grinder via allies if you really like them. You are losing the versatility that the Harvester gun has but for being the most budget Grinder it's always worth consideration.

• Blood Slaughterer (Forgeworld) - FUN* name notwithstanding, these jacked-up chaos dreadnoughts are bad fucking news! Front armour 13, WS5, a dreadnought close combat weapon, Rampage, Daemon of Khorne, Deepstrike, Fleet, Daemonic Resilience and +D3 attacks on the charge spell death for anything they touch. You can either stride them across the table but they will likely get kited because they have to run towards the nearest enemy unit in sight. Fortunately, you can instead choose to deep-strike them close to that thing you want to die; this is a marginally better proposition as individual Slaughterers are roughly dreadnought sized and it's fairly easy to place one (and in most situations, the other two). If you take a full squad of three, give them all Impalers (a Blood Angels magna grapple with one worse AP and a scant 12" range; it can never be snap-fired): they always hit on a 4+ and drag penetrated vehicles or wounded and unsaved monstrous creatures 2D6" closer to them. Oh, if you happen to drag anything into base contact it's blender time as the model is now in a close combat with the Bloodslaughterers which count as having charged. Did we mention that multiple Impaler hits are cumulative? Or that these are one of the few things that can assault and sweep on the turn they deepstrike? RIP AND TEAR!

• Spined Chaos Beast (Forgeworld) - No longer available to CSM, this thing is now a Chaos Daemons exclusive. Basically, it's a daemonic construct made from flesh instead of metal. It's a deep-striking monstrous creature with WS5, S7, T6, 4 wounds with It Will Not Die. Must be a Daemon of a Chaos god:
  • Khorne: free furious charge! +1S on the charge is nice although it isn't an earth-shattering bonus, but it's hard to beat a price of 0.
  • Slaanesh: Got bumped up by +5 pts. but is no longer the cheapest or worst of them all. Fleet, rending and an extra 3" of movement are pretty sweet. Great for running up the field, dashing through cover or deep-striking and running out of LoS. You also don't have to smash to pop lighter vehicles with rending, which is nice. All in all, like Khornate Daemonhood, there are no drawbacks or wasted abilities here. A Slaaneshi Chaos Best combines the good parts of a Daemon Prince (high WS, easier to Deepstrike) with a Soul Grinder (strong and remarkably tough), although you lose access to ranged weapons, gifts and psychic powers. Still, it undercuts both those competitors by a fairly significant margin.
  • Nurgle: Oh how the mighty have fallen - 15 points for shrouded and slow and purposeful. Alright, so you already get a 5+ save from being a Daemon and slogging through difficult terrain to buff that cover save makes you even slower - which paired with Slow and Purposeless makes this thing a 155 point sink that has a chance to do FUCK ALL during a battle when foot-slogged. Deep-striking it into cover may get you closer but you still have to waddle over to your targets (which will be agonizing) or you can scatter onto bad things for a mishap, again giving you the opportunity to have a 155-point sink. Topping it all off, you won't get your cover saves in close combat, which hangs a massive question mark over the whole goddamn thing! What's really sad is that the bonus it replaced (FNP) was way better; just skip it.
  • Tzeentch: +5 points to better use psychic powers... that you don't get. Being able to re-roll 1's for saves is nice and quite a bargain at only 5 points granting an almost 4++.

Fortifications

Before the new book, these were a pretty silly idea, but now that you can choose to deploy regularly, these might actually be worth it.

• Aegis Defense Lines: More of the more reliable Skyfire/Interceptor choices, although, being a very choppy army, you probably won't benefit much from the cover saves. A Herald with a minimum unit for meat shields can use it's higher BS to fire the emplacement and hold a backfield objective.

• Skyshield Landing Pad: Your Deep Strikers don't have to scatter and you can get improved Invulnerable Saves, given you already get 5++.

• Imperial Bastion: Put your bloodletters in this guy and put your trollface on as you fire a quad gun at BS5 at their precious aircraft.

• Fortress of Redemption: Ew, no. It's incredibly expensive and really made for a shooty army, which you aren't. Unless of course you put a squad of Bloodletters on it in which case you can have 4 BS5 Heavy Bolters, a BS5 Krakstorm, and a BS5 Lascannon with Interceptor and Skyfire.

Building your Army

Step one is usually the same for building any army: Start with an HQ and two Troops. However, this is a bit more complicated in a Daemons of Chaos army! If are anything like I was when I started playing, you read the fluff on the chaos gods and you think "No fucking way would these miserable sacks of shit ever work together!" And you know what? You're right. But if there's one thing you should learn about Warhammer 40k RIGHT FUCKING NOW, it's that both the fluff and the crunch are best enjoyed separately. I know that winning isn't everything, but if you build a mono-Slaanesh army you're just going to lose all of your games (If you don't know how to use them right that is), and that's not fun either. So here's the real step 1 of building a Chaos Daemons army (For the newbies and the non-intelligent players that is):

• Step One: Are you sure you don't actually want to play Daemon Marines?
  • You can, however, run a mono-god list if you take daemons as allies to a primary detachment of Chaos Space Marines. I won't talk about that here since this is the Chaos Daemons tactics article, but suffice it to say that Death Guard with Ku'Gath and a Soul Grinder is not just fun and lore-friendly but highly competitive, and Noise Marines with a Lord of Change is one of the strongest unit combinations in the game right now, hands down. (Not lore-friendly per se, but at least it's not two rival gods.) You also don't have to deal with Warp Storm.As well as the fact that Daemon allies bring sorely needed Divination powers to units like Thousand Sons squads. Remember, Daemons aren't a forgiving force when you run them as your Primary detachment, so if you aren't so good playing as Dark Eldar, you will do much worse. All I'm saying is don't buy 1500 points of Daemons only to realize you wanted to play Chaos Marines with a Daemon twist all along.
• Step 1.5: How about Daemons in Fantasy?
  • Don't forget that Warhammer Fantasy has Daemons of Chaos, which are essentially the exact same army. They used to be one of the most ridiculously overpowered armies, to the extent that many changes in 8th edition were introduced solely to tone them down. However, they got an update the same month as Chaos Daemons did, and it was... well, it was weird. They still have a lot of good things (Skull Cannons are one of the biggest pieces of cheese in the game currently), but it's terribly balanced internally and many options are absolutely terrible. The recent High Elves release also further screwed them over with the Banner of the World Dragon, which allows a unit to more or less ignore all attacks by Daemons. That being said, you're still (essentially) getting two armies in one, especially if you can magnetize the bases. In short, if you want to get your moneys worth for building a Daemon army, get some magnets for your collection and get an Army Book. This is optional tho, so if you don't like Fantasy or have no desire in using them there for any reason, then that's fine.
• Step Two: Now you can get an HQ and two troops.
  • Just because you're going to playing low-point games doesn't mean you have to use heralds. (See if anyone is willing to play 750 points, you can fit a lot of variation even in such small lists. 500 points is too restricting for this writer's taste.) The Greater Daemons or a Daemon Prince are rewarding as hell to use and you can totally pull it off, even at 500 points, although it's a squeeze. I'd recommend a Daemon Prince for starting, they're cheaper after all (So long if you don't go overboard on the gifts and Psykic powers), and you can always transition him to heavy support later when you've expanded your collection. Probably the best troops to start with are Plaguebearers, as they are tough, forgiving, hold objectives well, and aren't bad when opperating a quad gun behind a Aegis Defense Line, although all of the troop choices are okay. Daemonettes are probably the other best choice because they can work in small games without the Heralds help, but in larger games any amount of firepower will eat them for breakfast, so take some Calvary units with Icons so they can deep strike closer to the enemies. Plague Drones are tough as nails while being the slowest out of the three, Seekers are the fastest and cheapest, but die very quickly when not used right, and Bloodcrushers are a balance of the two and are great against Space Marines(Watch out for Krak missles!). Although you can't assault after they arrive, the extra mobility and safety from it is worth it. The same goes for bloodletters, but they do need a Herald to perform better, and they should only be used when you're going against Space Marines that aren't TEQ. Don't instantly discount the "bloodletters behind an Aegis Defense Line with a quad gun" strategy, it's surprisingly effective and only a 200 point investment.
• Step Three: Now pick up a Soul Grinder.
  • These are borderline mandatory in a Daemons army. Phlegm Cannons are fuckawesome and they're your only reliable form of Skyfire. But don't actually Skyfire with them, you're better off Phlegm-ing all over their infantry. Or vehicles. Or anything.
• Step Four: Once you hit 1000 points, you have to deal with Flyers.
  • Anyone fielding flyers at under 1000 points is enough of a douche that you can just say "I'm not playing against that cheese," but once you get to 1000 points it's more forgivable. The obvious solution, Soul Grinders, is not always the best, because if you shoot at their flyers you're wasting a potential phlegm cannon shot or vomit torrent. This is not to say that soul grinders are a bad option, just not necessarily the best. Bloodletters behind an ADL is cheesy but effective, however you can't count on this to take out more than one flyer. A Heldrake doesn't care about your cover, and you are T3. Additionally, you can drop another 25pts. and pick up an Imperial Bastion for your Bloodletters to camp and at AV14 all around and the serious firepower it packs, your opponent is gonna get shot - a lot! Another option is a Bloodthirster or a Winged Daemon Prince, vector striking their flyers out of the sky King Kong style. This is fun and hilarious and if they don't bring too many flyers you can transition your bloodthirster back to killing everything else. The final option is to take allies. Heldrakes are okay at Anti-Air, but Vendettas are sexy. (The author also forgot to mention a Winged Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with Lash of Dispair and Iron Arm is another good way to deal flyers that is about as unreliable as it is effective.)
• Step Five: Now just keep adding on units that look cool!
  • Mono-daemons isn't a particularly competitive army. You will have games where you roll 10 on every warp storm and just win hilariously and you will have games where you're tabled on turn 2, so the most important thing is buy cool models that are fun to paint/convert. Daemons can be competitive if you use them right though competitive lists unfortunately aren't very varied and all of them feature Fateweaver for his re-rolls. Popular choice 1 is Flying Circus lists of Fateweaver, a Lord of Change, 3 Daemon Princes, and the bare minimum Troops tax of Pink Horrors or Plaguebearers. The former troop choice is tough but slow while the latter is flimsier but can get up the field faster and has a psychic shooting attack which guarantees they'll actually be doing something most of the time. Popular choice 2 involves building a list around the Screamerstar (see below) which involves said deathstar sitting in the middle of the field with the frustrating 2++ re-rollable and tanking everything short of a D weapon they charge while at the same time throwing around Flickering Fire to whatever strays closest before splitting off on the last turn to contest the objectives.

If you want a competitive army that is still very much a daemon army, you should either build a 500 point allied detachment of daemons and fill the rest in with Chaos Space Marines, or learn that the Warp Storm is there to make the game FUN*, and adapt to the Dark Eldar knowledge when putting your list together. I'm starting to get the feeling that Phil Kelly had the allies table in mind when he wrote this codex in the first place, because daemons are actually fucking fantastic as a supporting force to a CSM primary army. Running daemonettes alongside a rhino as mobile cover? Prescience on noise marines? Typhus and Ku'gath bro-ing it up in the same army? Yes please! Daemons can be pretty competitive, but thus far just about every "top tier" list is a deathstar of some sort.

Building a Mono-God Army

Daemons are capable of running a Mono God force, just like our power armoured brothers. However, from our previous Codex, it was really difficult to run Mono army, unless you used Tzeentch Daemons (Even then, it was likely during the infamous White Dwarf update). The rest weren't competitive in many ways, and it encourage a mixed force more than anything. This was easily the sore thumb for Daemon players that want to enjoy a fluffy force (if you keep tzeentech away from nurgle and slaanesh away from khorne that is fluffy enough for some). Thankfully this was fixed when the new codex was released. While they aren't the most competitive to play, Mono builds are now much easier and better than before, and in the right hands, not only can they work well, but are also rewarding to play. Pretty much most of the units in their respective God they serve can find use in your Daemonic Assault on the enemies of Chaos, so this part of the article will help give you an idea on how each army works, and what can be done to fix the gaps your Mono build may have. One important note I must make, unless you are playing on a small gaming board or low point games, NEVER footslog your entire force or your close combat units. You must use all the tools that are provided at your disposal if you want to keep your force alive. Again, by no means should you use them in tournaments, but they work excellent in a friendly gaming environments. That doesn't mean they can't win against WAAC lists, but they can be difficult. Now enough of that, let's take a look at the lists!

Khorne

Daemons of Khorne, as anyone would expect, are primary a close combat army, more so than the other Gods. They have a good selection of HQs, the Bloodthirster being the strongest out of the four Greater Daemons, and has a good selection of gifts to start with. Of course you can always roll twice on the Greater Reward table making him strong or durable and have more weapons at his disposal, but he can work well without the gifts if you want to use those points else where. They even have THE challenge king, the best challenge character in the Warhammer 40k game, the Exiled One, better known as Skarbrand. Not only is he very nasty to go against and can buff your Daemons but he's so cheap for what he brings to the table, that taking him won't cause a huge impact on you if he gets banished. The Heralds are also very useful, being great force multipliers or downright deadly. Their Troops are excellent Marine killers, and with Space Marines starting to be more common, this will make you lick your chops for more blood! However, the problem with Bloodletters is that they are fragile for their cost, and aren't quick to compensate this, so the best way to minimize casualties is by Deep Striking them. It also gives them the mobility they need to reach their target. As for objectives, it's best you should focus on any threats your opponents may have that can remove your Troops and claim the objective for themselves, before you start grabbing them.

• Bloodcrushers are the only fast moving Icon users for Khorne Daemons, and are also quite fragile as well in a bad situation. So how can you make the best out of Bloodcrushers without losing them from instant death? Taking them in a minimum size squad, and making them less of a threat is probably your best bet. Thankfully, having a Bloodhunter with a gift and an Icon Bearer will only cost you 160 pts. Depending on the size of the game, one or two units should be enough to get your Bloodletters (Skarbrand too!) safely on the table, preferably behind cover. Once they have done their job, you can throw the safety logic out the window and use them as a light flanking unit. An entire Tactical Squad can easily be wiped out when you charge them in, and if they have a single wound left when they make it to Assault, they can dish out a lot of hurt before they inevitably die. If you want to run more than three, it's best to stick a Herald to the unit to help them survive, and Skulltaker is perfect for that role! This does make them more expensive, but they can survive being gun down if you end up being in the enemies line of sight. In minimum sized, the best you can do is either provide a Grimoire for them, or learn to spread wounds to prevent them getting killed by bolters or even lasguns.

• Flesh Hounds are definitely a must have. Slapping a Herald on Juggernaut with the Greater Locus makes them very deadly, but even better Skarbrand's buff can grant them BOTH rage and hatred (Everything)! Very cheap for a T4 two wounds unit, having the right amount will only cost 160 points. If you really want to make them a pain for your opponent, granting them a 3++ save with rage will give them a run for your points, making Flesh Hound Bombs very difficult to remove. Even Necron Wraiths will have a difficult time trying to wipe out the dogs of war, making their Rending attacks useless and having to survive wave after wave of attacks will put them to shame. Also Scouting them can be worthwhile if you go second, and if you pull it off right, you have yourself a turn 1 assault with no problem. Their Soul Grinders, while being the cheapest out of the four, are easily the weakest variant as they don't get any buffs for being a Daemon of Khorne. Still, having a versatile walker is always welcome, especially with the lack of shooting in Khorne armies. The Skull Cannon is an excellent supportive chariot, providing your units with assault grenades on the target the cannon fired on. Plus a S8 AP5 pie plate is always handy to have. Finally the Daemon Prince, presuming you toke a Greater Daemon, are a welcome addition to rip and tear tanks apart.

• Outside of those units tho, you'll be spending most of your shooting phase with the Warp Storm and running up the board. The best way to make a Mono Khorne army work is by moving everything up, and deep striking your Bloodletters to keep up with the rest of the army. If you choose to run allies, it may be wise to invest in either fast shooting mobile units or strong objective holders. As you would guess, Chaos Marines have what Khorne's Daemons are looking for. Chaos bikers are the answer, being fast and provide special weapons on the go, while the Chaos Marines can sit on the backfield or ride in a Rhino to capture midfield objectives. Anti air isn't much of a problem if you use Bloodletters to operate a Quad Gun, or bring multiple Soul Grinders, but adding a Heldrake never hurts. If you want more firepower on the go, Dark Eldar works wonderfully well, and are an ally force that shouldn't be underestimated. Poison shots everywhere will make everyone with a high value of Toughness cry. This is invaluable as this makes the pairing look very scary to go against, and having Incubi with Skarbrand's buff will add extra lulz.

In the end, Khorne is one of the harder forces to pull off effectively due to having almost no shooting attacks and/or how fragile they are for their cost as well as very poor anti-vehicle ability (if you immediately quit when you see an armored battlegroup or Knight army across the table, no one will blame you), but with some practice and knowledge, you'll have a fast, and somewhat a glass hammer force, -That hits hard and are very rewarding.

Tzeentch

Trolololol... *ahem*, pardon me. We now have come across possibly the least played Mono force, but hold your horses. Mono Tzeentch, despite the nerf they received, are still surprisingly a good force if not perhaps the best mono-build in the game, thanks to how shooting is powerful in this edition and certain cheese builds (Screamer Star and Uber-prince) that are probably why D strength weapons ignore invulnerable saves now. They have a good selection of HQs, and their Greater Daemon, Lord of Change, is possibly one of the best Flying Monsterous Creature in the game, being versatile and effective in the role you give him. More than likely, many will prefer him buffing his army via Divination and engaging in melee. With a Staff of Change and two Greater Rewards to make him more tougher, you got yourself a serious beatstick monster (Pun attended). Their character Fateweaver, acts more of a supportive HQ, with access to most of the Psychic powers from the Rulebook, but is still a solid choice. Heralds are also useful here. They aren't mandatory for Pink Horrors, but they grant them not only Prescience, but also make their standard shooting attack more powerful. The characters are not bad, but should only be used in FUN* matches.

• Warp Flame: The biggest turn-off for Tzeentch grants enemy units a feel no pain roll if they survive a toughness test after being hit. This might stack but suppose you kill half a space marine squad and they pass their toughness test getting FnP 6+; so, they now have a one in six chance of surviving any subsequent wounds. But even if there slightly tougher, there are less of them now so it should balance out in your favor. Your best bet is to flame a squad ONCE, then charge it with another unit. They should be weakened and more vulnerable and as long as you can send them running (you should be able to do this, FnP 6+ or not), then you've gotten the most out of warp flame while mitigating the risks. Focus warp-flame attacks on low toughness chaff units, such as GEQs, while keeping it away from high toughness units, Monstrous Creatures in particular and especially anything that already has FnP; giving your enemy a shitty save is one thing, giving him a better save is just idiotic.

• Pink Horrors are going to be your bread and butter. Even with Warp Flame, you won't have to worry about handing out Feel no Pain to units, as these guys will be filling up your Troops slots. Since you don't want to be in close combat with them, you don't need to Deep Strike any of them unless you want to place a blob of them behind your opponents deployment zone and surprise them. There aren't any upgrades needed, though an Iridescent Horror can help minimize the threat from the Warp Storm. Flamers are also good, but are best used against lightly armoured units, and Necron/Tau Fire Warrior equivalents. Having six templates will make them poop bricks. Screamers also work in a way as a harassment unit, but a good size of them can be your melee unit. Be sure to give them the re-rolls to hit, and they are set.

• Sadly the Burning Chariot is broken due to how they ruled its weapons as Heavy for the rider, so this is the only exception that they get to see any use. However if they do get an FAQ allowing it to fire at it's normal BS, this will be your go to tank hunter and MEQ destroyer on a fast and cheap chariot, so pray that it gets fixed if you really wish to troll your enemy with a 100 pt Land Speeder strapped with Lascannons and a Baleflamer. Better than a FAQ, there's a new edition: as per the 7th Ed rules, the rider in a chariot counts as stationary for shooting purposes, plus a fast vehicle can shoot two weapons at full BS when moving at cruising speed. If you're nuts, you can deepstrike the chariot and Dakka away as it will only count as having moved at combat speed (beware: the HUEG GUTS problem, though). Additionally, Tzeentch's Soulgrinders are only five chips more than Khorne's but re-roll saving throw 1's is actually way more useful to a Grinder than Furious Charge; it's just not as awesome as the other two we have yet to go over. Now their Daemon Prince are really expensive, but if you can afford the points, having another beatstick (I'm so sorry!) to help out The Lord of Change can sure fill in the gap for close combat PLUS you can tool up a TDP to add to your already outrageously destructive psychic phase.

• As you would assume, having Pink Horrors staying back and provide fire support for your melee units is the way to go. As long if you focus fire alot of your shooting one unit at a time and bring plenty to engage more units from range. Now for allies, Mono Tzeentch can use some effective tank destroying out if long range and some counter attack units to protect the Pink Horrors, so we again look for help from CSM. A Tzeentch Terminator Lord with the Chainfist and Lightening Claw combo with a small squad of Terminators with either Combi-Weapons and Power Weapons of your choice or the same combo as the Lord can make any unit stay clear from assaulting your Troops. They can also provide a Land Raider as a transport so you can use it as a fire base if you wish, although I think Obliterators in their max unit sized can provide better support for just a little extra. Once the midfield is clear, the can move up and make use of their weapons that's begging you to get closer. The tank destroying duty can also be done by Imperial Guards. Vendettas and Lemun Russ tanks are great, and a platoon of Guardsmen can help toss ammo down range with some Heavy weapon squads, which is always welcome in a Mono Tzeentch army.

Now at the closing of this analysis, you may be asking "Is it worth running a Tzeentch Daemon army?" The answer is yes, but play them wisely. They are also a hard force to play, but are considered to be the "Shooty" force for Daemons. When you do find the weak spot of your enemy and humiliate him with it, everything will go according to plan.

Nurgle

One of the favorite Mono builds crunch wise, Nurgle Daemons are the toughest, but also the slowest moving force. Nurgle is arguably the easiest Mono build to play as most of your guys are hard to kill, especially with how cover is all over the place in 6th edition, Nurgle sure has gained more benefits than he could ever get (Except for the nerf on Epidemius). Before we can see how units work by themselves, the first and most important note is the army is really slow due to having Slow and Purposeful. Getting your force from first base to second can be a problem as smart players can simply move and shoot your force with little difficulty, like Tau and Necrons. To fix this issue, most of you force will need to Deep Strike if they can't move more than 6 inches or have special rules to move up the board fast, which I'll go more in depth later on. Basically if you want to play Nurgle Daemons, foot slogging is a big no no. Yes, you are tough as nails, but remember shooting is very power in this edition, so like I've stated earlier, don't deploy your force on the board unless you commonly play on small gaming tables.

• Anyway, Nurgle has some good Greater Daemons that can be almost impossible to kill! Great Unclean Ones are awesome, as they get to mess around with the cheesy Biomancy powers, meaning you can make your Greater Daemon toughness TEN and can no longer be instant killed (except for ID weapons). Against armies that lack cover ignoring weapons, they'll have a hard time trying to put down a fat Daemon that requires Lascannons and poisoned weapons, and a lot of them will struggle to hurt the damn thing! Meanwhile, you enjoy a tasty 3+ cover save and just give your enemy a big smile after soaking up all their shots. Ku'gath is another handy HQ for your force. Having Slime Trail and a very useful Warlord Trait provides a hybrid role between being a roadblock, dealing decent damage in return, and keep your force from losing close combat. And helping Nurglings regaining their wound back a turn is cute and handy. Their Heralds on the other hand, are okay. Aside for providing Feel no Pain to your Plaguebearers, Nurgle Heralds offers the weakest buffs to your force. However they make a nice unit to have in providing ranged attack from the Plague discipline table. AP3 template and AP2 pie plate that always wounds on a 4+? Yes please! Only problem though is you need to get up close to make good use of them, but since you'll be Deep Striking, this won't be an issue. Oh, and the Blessing power works wonders if you can get it. Epidemius is okay, with his buffs being nerfed hard, but he can still be useful to a group of Nurglings if you can cause damage to your opponent, as the buffs really starts to help them out a lot. Also wounding on a 2+ Poison gives them a bit more punch up close to your enemies face.

• Plaguebearers are the best objective holders out of all of the others in the Codex, and are not bad in close combat. Because of this, having a unit or two to deploy on the board to hold objectives will give you an advantage, being hard to remove when you give them Feel no Pain, making shooting at them while in cover quite frustrating unless they can get around that without the need to engage in assault. The rest of course can move up, providing some additional help by glancing tanks to death and soaking up small arms fire. Be careful not to attract too many tho, as mass shooting will still wipe out the squad just like many other units. Nurglings provides you some nice distraction on heavy weapon squads or those that are terrible in melee. They have Infiltrate, so despite their slow movement, they can be fast thanks to moving within 18 inches of your opponents line of sight or 12 behind them. Fire warriors and even Thousand Sons don't want to be near Nurglings, as they dish out too much S3 attacks for them to handle. Having a swarm or two never hurts if you can hide them well for a round of two before going after the guys with dakka guns. Beast have seen a huge buff, and became useful to have thanks to the change of rules and rules that make them a nuisance for your foe. Fast and tough for a Nurgle Daemon, they make excellent roadblocks, and with It Will Not Die, you can abuse wound allocation by replacing the closest model with the other and have it regenerate its wounds back. Rinse and repeat, and then tie up some units while your force can handle the rest. That Tervigon won't be spawning more Termagants when he's stuck in melee with Beasts.

• Our new addition to the book and for Nurgle without a doubt, makes this Mono force really effective. Our lovely Plague Drones are the stars for this force with good reasons. They're fast being Jet Pack Cavalry (For Nurgle of course), and are the toughest Icon wielders out of the three Daemonic Cavalry units. These guys, like Bloodcrushers for Khorne, are mandatory if you want your entire force to get into combat safely. Seriously, these guys are excellent, both in delivering your cargo and in assault as well. They can also be a decent shooty unit with Death's Heads, being able to pull the move shoot move tactic, annoying the hell out of that Tactical Squad sitting on an objective. You can never go wrong with these guys! Now this is when we get into the good stuff. Nurgle Soul Grinders, are one of the best land vehicles in the game, giving you buff to cover, and since there's plenty to choice from, you can have it hide behind a ruin cover and enjoy a 2+ save! The best way to use them is focus on their range weapons, and have them provide fire support for your Plague Drones as they move onward. Now their Daemon Prince is actually worth their points, thanks to have Shrouded, and getting access to Divination powers, these guys gives your Troops the buffs they need, especially Plaguebearers as they don't have enough attacks to put serious damage against many in melee. Plus they can cause Instant Death when given the Balesword, making them also very nasty against units like Riptides and Necron Overlords (But watch out for Mindshackle Scarabs).

• Now the Nurgle army must focus on giving each other buffs to make the even more harder to kill, and to use cover to their advantage. Once they can secure this step, the force can then go after the enemy or start firing they ranged attacks before the rest gets ready to assault. What makes them so easy to play is the fact that, despite being slow- Are rather hard to kill without your foe focus firing most or all guns on a single squad. Combine this with Plague Drones to close the gap of their crippling slow movement and Nurglings adding some spice for distracting purposes, means the army are still quite good in close combat with poison attacks, glancing attacks, and being difficult to wipe out without sacrificing rounds of combat. Allies, as always, are welcome if you have the points. Nurgle has a lot of situations they can handle for themselves, but what they lack units that can bring lots of special weapons and units to bring a lot of infantry guns. Again, CSM can provide this, with Nurgle Chosen and Havoc squads. Both can bring weapons like Flamers and Meltaguns, without the need to go over their allies FoC slots. Even better you can have two of each in games over 2k, with a maximum of 18 special weapons and 2 Combi-Weapons all inside of Rhinos to give them the mobility to deliver them to your enemy. Nurgle Cultists are handy for their Autoguns and Flamers, it's a boon to have ranged weapons, even if they're S3. However, they can never have enough dakka, but Orks can bring more! Lootas are downright nasty, both in shooting down land units and flyers, they are popular with good reasons. Shoota Boyz haves more punch with their Shootas and Big Shootas, although BS2 does makes up for this. Still they can unload loads of shots on whatever they're shooting. Also the Big Gunz can provide some nice fire support along side of the Soul Grinder.

This Mono force will attract many given how this is a more forgiving than the others. With the joy of durable units while dealing a decent amount of damage makes them a force to be reckon with. A great army for those that find armies like Guards and Necrons to be common, while having Beasts and Nurglings to add extra lulz when playing them!

Slaanesh

At last we've come to the most competitive Mono army in the eyes of powergamers; not that they would play them over other armies, but out of the four this would be their pick. Slaanesh is the other army that people would play crunch wise, they trade tough units with fast moving units. The entire force gets Fleet and Rending for both shooting and melee, this makes them also a army that deal a lot of damage, just like Khorne. Also if you play on small table boards often, every Slaanesh unit moves so fast that it can make them a competitive force to go against.

• Going through their HQ slot, they seem to not have many, but they are still great none the less. The Keeper of Secrets are awesome, being the cheapest Greater Daemon while still being powerful up close, they really do give you a bang for your buck (Speaking of which, they cost the same as the other Greater Daemons money wise, so they actually do give you that bang)! What also makes them great is that they give you access to one of the best Daemon Princes in the Heavy Support slot, which I'll cover later. Give him/her/it two greater rewards and he/she/it is ready to go. The Heralds are also excellent as they have some really strong Locus to buff your army, and they all have their uses. The Masque on the other hand is okay. She can find some use given her Dances can help in a pinch, but because she eats up an entire HQ slot rather than being a Herald herself, it's best that you use her in low point games, she becomes a nice supportive HQ. Just make sure she is safe, as she can easily get instant killed. At last we've come to the Daemon Prince. What makes them so good is that they can equip a Lash of Despair , with Wings and Armour and maybe a power or two from Biomancy makes this a great (albeit unreliable) anti-air Monsterous Creature, on par with the Dakka Tyrant, except you can have more than two/four if you for some reason have to points for them.

• Their basic Troops are considered to be the best as they pack a punch in close combat. Daemonettes are a favorite to many thanks to having Rending and Fleet, this means they can compete against TEQ and even Monsterous Creatures on rolls of sixes. They even have enough attacks on their own, so they can fight off horde units with little difficulty. Heralds aren't needed, but they start to be even more devastating when they have the Exalted Loci. It's expensive, but with such an amazing buff, how can you argue for it's hefty price tag? As I've mentioned, they are also fastest out if the other Troops in the codex, running an extra 3 inches in the shooting phase means they can footslog well if you want to, although just like Khorne and Nurgle, they work best when you Deep Strike them as they can get across the board safely. Fiends are another good unit to have, with their ability to reduce to opponents Initiative by 5 and reducing their Leadership by one when casting their Psychic Powers helps. Because of their former ability, they are your go to unit to help compensate the lack of assault grenades your army haves. Its also hilarious if a Keeper of Secrets with a Witstealer Sword forces an Initiative test with the Fiend's ability during the Assault phase, being able to slip in some cheeky wounds to your enemy. They can also soak up wounds when your opponent Overwatch with his unit that's getting charged at, thanks to their cheaper cost compared to Bloodcrushers.

• Moving on, Seekers are both the cheapest and fastest Calvary unit in the game, for only three points more, that is quite a steal! You'd be hard pressed to not include them in your army list, as moving an extra 6 inches in the shooting phase means you can go up to 30 inches in one turn alone, and with Fleet, this can be possible. They are very fragile, but due to the (Extremely low) point cost, this can easily be fixed by taking more. They also deal a good amount of damage as well, so having an Icon plus a Herald with an either a Lesser or Exalted Loci should make their points back in no time. Chaos Furies of Slaanesh are surprisingly not bad, given how Slaanesh grant his/her/it's buffs to even the lowest class of Daemons (They used to be mortals that couldn't choose which god to align themselves with, so they would get punished with this form rather than being that other thing which Thou shalt not be named, but enough of that). The buffs such as Fleet and Rending turns an otherwise bad unit into a decent one. Having the same extra run move makes them pretty quick as well. While Seekers are better for just a few points per a model as well as the other goodies they get compared to Furies, Slaaneshi Furies are nonetheless not a bad choice, and they're a lot better than other Furies in a Mono army.

• Then we come across to an oddball chariot, the Hellflayer. What makes it different from the Seeker Cavalcade is you can only have one rather than the choice between one to three of them in a unit. It also seems to be a bit on the pricy side when you pit it next to the Vanilla Seeker Chariot, however the abilities the Hellflayer posses makes it an interesting option. Dealing a D6 Hammer of Wrath attacks on S4 plus Rending means its meant to shred infantry to pieces. Even better, for every wound you caused from Hammer of Wrath adds an extra Attack in close combat, meaning you have a minimum of 5 attacks on the charge to a max of 11! Wow, thats impressive for a 60 pt chariot. However, with only 2 HP and given how Melta and even Plasma weapons are available to many armies, this thing can be destroyed with a single shot, so it may be best to use this in low point games or Deep Strike it safely behind cover. Again, Seekers should be the ones filling up your Fast Attack slot, but the Hellflayer is still an interesting option to consider if you can protect it. The Soul Grinder are also good. The Chariots are great infantry killers, and thanks to their cheap cost and having more than one in a unit makes them a good choice. Moving on in the HS section, where Nurgle Grinders are best staying in the back laying down a lot of firepower, Slaanesh Grinders want to be up close and tear everything in its path a new one. Again with Fleet and having Rending for their weapons, this makes Baleful Torrent a good weapon to have, giving you a chance to melt some TEQ before charging them. Also the Harvester Cannon has a decent chance in penetrating Land Raiders, so thats a nice bonus. It also doesn't hurt giving a Slaanesh Grinder a Warp Sword for that bonus attack and Master Crafted-ness.

• Given the fast nature of Slaanesh Daemons, the force should move up and deal a lot of damage before going after objectives. Much like Khorne and Nurgle, the Troops of this force should be in reserve and Deep Strike so you can have enough models to finish the job. Rending attacks and Fleet makes the army much more reliable than Khorne, where as the followers of the Blood God are generally better against MEQs. Adding the cheap cost for what they bring to the table, its no wonder why Slaanesh is considered to be most competitive out of the other Mono Gods. Plus with access to the one of the best variant of the Soul Grinder and Daemon Prince, they aren't lacking in anti-air either! You don't need to bring allies as they are strong just by themselves, but adding in some extra range weapons is always welcome. Of course CSM can bring this with Noise Marines and Vindicators. Its better to run a pair with the latter, but they can deal devastating damage to any unfortunate unit comes across. Alternatively, Tau can pack a punch out of longer range with the Riptide and Hammerhead. If you can get a couple of Markerlights onto a squad, they can really shine and make great allies to have.

• The followers of the Dark Prince will be pleased (Pun not attended) to see that this Mono God army is by far the deadliest out of all of them. But don't go thinking this will be a auto-win against many other armies, even with their low cost and how fast they are, you still need to look out for them as they can easily be wiped out if you're not careful. But if you can manage to keep casualties as low as possible, they will punish anyone in their way, and this will make your opponent think twice before they face you again. An excellent force overall IF you use their speed to your advantage and avoid mass shooting.

Allies

Luckily, all hope isn't lost. The ally system can help Daemons out if you choose the right kind of units in your allies list. Even still with the update and the buff from 6th edition, Daemons can STILL lose games, either from bad Deep Strikes, terrible dice rolls, end up going first, etc. Thankfully, allies can help fill in the gaps making the army more competitive. You should take in mind, that allies of convenience and desperate allies would suffer from warp storm. Have fun.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your Warpstorm table will target EVERYONE on the table except Chaos Marine Allies. Take non CSM allies at your own risk.

Battle Brothers

• Chaos Space Marines: Chaos Space Marines are probably the way to go; however, due to the FAQ, Daemon ICs cannot join non-Daemon units and non-Daemon ICs cannot join Daemon units, leaving you with few units that will hang out together. CSM is also the best choice fluff-wise, so you can't go wrong either way. Very useful as ranged support if you feel hesitant about flamers and their silly warpflame rule handing FNP to enemy marines. Even though Epidemius lost his fridge full of tally-cheese, plague marines still work great together with Nurgle daemons. Outside of shooty marines and armour, bringing in Heldrakes to seize the skies is another solid choice. Another potentially major benefit is the ability to bring Divination to a CSM army. Rerolling to-hit on your Obliterators, Thousand Sons, and prescience combined with Forgefiends can be quite devastating, especially when they activate demonforge.
  • Black Legion: Interesting, to say the least. Chosens are Troop choices with the Black Legion, although you must take Veterans of the Long War for every unit that can take it. Some of the cool items that their Daemon Princes can take is the Skull of Ker'ngar (Eternal Warrior and Adamantium Will) and Hand of Darkness ( Single attack with Fleshbane, Armourbane, and Instant Death), which can help if you plan on running a Flying Circus. Otherwise, same as Chaos Space Marines, but with different toys for their Champions.
  • Crimson Slaughter: Now this seems like the better Supplement than the Black Legion. Possessed are Troops in this force, however they are different than their normal counterpart, with a different mutation table that's way better (Although they cost a little more, as their trade off for a better table). They're the opposite of the Black Legion as they can't take VotLW, with the exception of Cult Marines and the whole army causes Fear (which is meh, but a nice bonus). If you're planning on taking Supplement allies, this is the better choice.

• Renegades and Heretics: They're a lot like Guard below, but are also Battle Brothers. Defenders of Vraks are pretty standard, bringing ranged blob guard, tanks and whatnot while Servants of Slaughter and Decay bring some cheap(er) disposable close combat infantry.

Allies of Convenience

• Imperial Guard: Imperial Guard is a good alternative to CSM; they're fluffy and they can help shoot down Space Marines/Necrons/Tau/Tyranids/etc. Honestly, there's no loss in taking Guards over Chaos Marines, since you can't join their units anyway, and Guards do make up for the poor quality of their Troops and Possessed Vehicles with the HUGE amount of meat and anti-tank/anti-personnel firepower. If you don't want CSM, IG is an acceptable substitute. Take a Vendetta to fix the lack of anti-air.

Desperate Allies

• Dark Eldar: Dark Eldar is a mixed bag. DE is more of a specialist type, and can brutally help Daemons when played right. They have a fast moving play style the One Eye Open won't effect them badly. It depends on what you're taking in both lists. If you know what you're taking on the battlefield, then Dark Eldar can arguably do better than Orks and IG, but if you're a newbie to begin with, you should look elsewhere.

• Orks: Orks, along with Daemons, are great at hitting hard and fast, but they really shine as allies in a defensive role. While you can run Ork allies more offensively, you have access to better units that can do the same job. For example, a Warboss/Nob biker unit can seem appealing, but a well-rounded squad can run you up to around 400(!) points. Instead, you can pick up a flying Daemon Prince for less than that cost and it's still just as scary and about as hard to kill as the bikers. Focus on improving weaknesses that your army may have. Shoota Boyz are dirt cheap and arguably the best troop choice in the game, with T4 (same as your Plaguebearers), Mob Rule, and the ability to pack a punch in both shooting and close combat. Take tons of Boyz in groups of 30 to hold objectives and to use as both tarpits and meat shields for your other more offensive Daemon units. Another great unit that's worth taking a look at are Lootas, which bring in some fantastic long range firepower that Daemons lack.

• Tau Empire: Ah yes, Tau. These guys are pretty much the exact opposite to us, as they're a shooting based force. They do lack the amount of troops they can bring when compared to Guards, however they make this up with sheer quality. Unless you have Slaanesh units (Or a few Soul Grinders), anti air can be a problem for the Daemons, which Tau can bring in the form of the Broadside, albeit a bit weaker in this edition. As far as what else to bring, a full squad of Fire Warriors is pretty much mandatory to get the best use out of them. The rest is up to your taste, since it really depends on what's in your primary detachment. While Guards are a more competitive choice outside of taking CSM, Tau has a couple of tricks up their sleeves to troll your opponent to oblivion.

Strategy

Pray that chaos doesn't abandon you. Realize that this is a FUN* army, and just have a laugh with it. Want to troll your local daemon-bashing GK players? Here's what you do: Field a Nurgle based List. Hide your troops on your side in ruins or behind a barricade and open up with as many poisoned and decent ap weapons as you can and watch their psycannons just bounce off the ruin. And you know what? When they come to get you in cc with that dreadknight? BAM poisoned weapons and easy ap2 swords available to all (all being heralds and squad leaders)! Along with your flying MC being able to tie up their precious heavy weapons and kill those psyrifleman dreads with easy cc and shooting, just watch out for being grounded and mobbed.

Risk Management

Demons more then any other army are beholden to dice. You can't remove this element of chance, but you can direct it and take steps to minimize it. Demons are a army of risk management, as much as tactics.

• Warp-storm table: the table has 11 results, only three of which WILL screw you over, (2,3 and 4), one that does nothing (7) and three that WILL only help you (10,11,12). The other four,(5,6,8,9) which we will call the 'blast results' swing both ways and can hurt both players since they target all your opponent units and one type of your own on a dice roll of six. To minimize the effect of a blast result you have two major options. First restricting your self to one or two types of demon. A mono build army would only be effected by one result, while all other results would fall on only your enemy. Additionally if you stuffed it with instruments of chaos if your result came up you can use the instruments to make your opponent reroll any 'failed' results on the table give you a higher chance of hitting him with the warp storm. However, if you did roll your opposite god you whole army would get hit insuring that at least one unit would get wracked. option two is for every one type of demon you take, take one of the opposite god units. For every Khorne unit take a Slaanesh for example. IF you roll either of those two results on the table, it's true you run the risk of getting your self hit, but the instruments of one god can influence the warpstorm table that would hurt one of your units. If you roll a 8 on the warpstormt able, your Khorne units might be hit, but your Slaanesh units can blow there horns to make Slaanesh change his/her/its mind, and if your Khorne unit is unharmed (remember, only on a six) then you can make your enemy re-roll there results if they don't get hit. Thus you can get the most of the table and make it work for you.

• Rewards of Chaos: you have to roll for wargear and upgrades, but what powers do you want each demon to get? and how to you make sure you get something good. Consider what each reward level gets you and consider what demons benefit from those bonus the most. To summerize, Khorne loves all the reward levels, Nurgle and Slaanesh are a bit more meh, while Tzeetch only really loves greater rewards. Note I'm leaving out the weapons you can swap for, you can plan for those and if you want one, you can just snag one.
  • Lesser Rewards - we see that two of them grant benefits for being in melee, two are shooting powers, one grants psyker defense, and one grants better reserves rolls for the demon alone. All Khorne demons benefit the most from this table as they lack psychic powers, (which the two shooting attacks compensate for), want to be in melee and psychic defense is always nice, only one power does not help too much for them and even then it can be useful. Next, Slaanesh and Nurgle heralds find this table useful as ,again, they want to be in melee, but both have access to psyche shooting attacks so the shooting buffs are less useful to them. However since you roll gifts before psyice powers if you get a shooting gift you can focus on buffs for powers. The deep striking options works well for these hearlds as well. Greater Demons of Slaanesh and Nurgle Also benefit form this table, given there higher psyker levels they don't need the shooting powers as much as the Heralds do. Tzeentch Demons have nothing here. They already have plenty of shooting from spells, and Don't want to be in close quarters at all. While you can hope to get Admantium will or a+1 reserve rolls thats a 2/6 chance of something good and is too risky to throw points at.
  • Greater Rewards - have four gifts that grant increased survivable to varying degrees, one shooting power and one close combat gift. All demons find this table useful to dagrees. There is nothing here a Khorne demon would not want, one thing a Tzeentch demon would grimace at (the C.Q.C gift) and a Nurgle greater demon rolling twice here can almost promise to become neigh high unkillable. A good bang for you buck.
  • Exalted Rewards - one gives you a free lesser gift just consider this an added bonus and don't worry as much if get a power you don't want there, three grant you bonus for being in melee, one grants you a free shooting attack, and one lets you COME BACK FROM THE DEAD!!! once, with one wound. Again, Khorne demons love this table as it gives then bonuses, while also compensating for there lack of shooting options. Slaanesh and Nurgle like this table next followed by Tzeentch who gets almost nothing since the majority of the gifts go against his role.

Enemies of Concern

Try thinking of Daemons as an evil old-edition Eldar with tons of glass cannon shit. Because of that, they have a few weaknesses especially against certain armies that are very capable at dealing with glass cannons.

• Grey Knights - What can we say about the Ghey Knights that hasn't already been said? They are an army specifically designed to defeat Chaos Daemons. In a perfect world this would be fine as Daemons would be both great and terrible (read - "cheesy," like 7th Ed Fantasy Daemons); trouble is that Daemons, now just like all the other 40K "bad guy" armies are less terrifying credible threat than they are Space Marine fodder, more or less. Being that Grey Knights are super-duper Space Marines with a 5th Ed Codex written by Matt Ward, they come with a host of cheesy shenanigans: all sorts of anti-psyker, anti-daemon, anti-you rules specially designed to make you hate your life. Grey Knights have taken a substantial down-grade in 7th Ed, forcing most of their units to roll for their psychic powers and removing some of their cheesiest powers (Dark Excommunication is GONE - hurray)! Unfortunately, even the weakest PAGK unit can fuck up your toughest guys because of their Daemonbane Force Weapons and all your units no longer get Eternal Warrior on everything. On top of that, rad grenades will drop most of your troops' toughness to "Instant Death via boltgun" levels, Psycannons and Psyflemen Dreads will tear through your army like butter (except Soul Grinders), the one flyer they get is damn near impervious to everything you have, there are baby carriers that can one-hit your monstrous creatures AND everything has access to Sanctic powers, with most units getting Banishment and Hammerhand for free.
  • How To - There is no easy to take on Grey Knights with Daemons and win without resorting to absolute cheese (like an all-Soul Grinder army) and even then, a GK player can ALWAYS out-cheese you. Assuming both you and your opponent are chronologically and mentally out of your teen years, there are ways of dealing with GK's without Mutually Assured Cheese. For one, Daemonettes led by Heralds with either a greater or exalted locus are terrifying to both PAGKs and TAGKs. If your opponent likes to field Dreadknights, a DP of Nurgle with the Balesword will very quickly make short work of them. Units like Psyflemen and Stormravens do present a problem; the former for their long-range, high-strength guns that will straight up murder screamers (ie, what would've been the weapon of choice against them) and the latter because they are flyers. There are tactics to deal with flyers, but Psyflemen either require using a lot deep-striking Daemonettes or a close-combat Soul Grinder, preferably a Slaaneshi one to get it into close combat faster.

• Tau - Markerlighted missiles will table you in 2 turns because their drawback is in their AP, which is irrelevant against Daemons. Also they're S7, which means nothing in your codex is resilient against them except maybe a Soul Grinder or Great Unclean One with Iron Arm (if you last long enough to cast it). Just say goodbye to your Nurgle Daemon's awesome cover saves. Also, your vehicles and monstrous creatures (even your flying monstrous creatures) will not hold up against Tau firepower - just don't!
  • How To - Try and find ways to make target priority difficult for them by throwing a lot of fast and scary units at them. Tau are always a tough fight, but make it into combat and they fall like wet noodles. Lots and lots of Daemonettes, Seekers, Flesh Hounds, screamers, and (most hilariously of all) motherfucking furies are positively terrifying to Tau players. You read that right - furies scare Tau, especially furies of Slaanesh with their fast movement and S4 rending attacks. If you need more oomph, consider Beasts of Nurgle or Fiends of Slaanesh; don't take Bloodcrushers as they will die too easy against Tau guns. For anti-air, consider a fortification as anti-air broadsides will likely be sniping you out of the sky.

• Eldar - With loads of Wraithcannon/Heavy Wraithcannon S10, even some of your Greater Daemons will suffer instant death from their shooting (the Distort rule is LETHAL). Additionally, shuriken catapults are nasty and easily available on their shittiest units. Just thank the Gods that they don't block psychic powers anymore now that all the Daemon "abilities" are Psychic powers.
  • How To - generally, you'll be fielding a horde of units to deal with their new-fangled Guardian spam. Wraith-weapons will take some finesse, but generally speaking just don't field MC's against Eldar, except for FMCs as Eldar anti-air is decent at best. In many ways, fighting Eldar is a lot like fighting Tau, although more difficult due to the fact that Eldar won't go down so easily in close combat. If you find yourself dealing with a multitude of Eldar MC's, use plaguebearers and use a lot of them. Daemonettes and other Slaaneshi Daemons are also very useful at dealing with Eldar. Be wary about taking vehicles as you can expect them to either be torn apart by their really good small arms fire or bright-lanced; exceptions to this include the Bloodthrone because of its dreadnought armour and Blight Drones because they are flyers.

• Tyranids - Shadow of the Warp subtracts Psykers Ld by -3 period (which is a big deal when it comes to Daemonic Instability, as you'll see below), and they can bring a lot of anti-infantry guns. Also they can spawn more troops to gun you down. Thank our Dark God who wrote their book again they can't take Rulebook powers anymore.
  • How To - dealing Tyranids is arguably the easiest of the troublesome armies for Daemons. Yes, Shadow of the Warp is a pain in the arse, but this isn't a problem if you come rolling with the Blood God's finest; Heralds and Bloodthirsters will normally wreck elite Tyrranid units and Winged DP's come in handy against bugs because they only have access to FMCs just like you. You should however watch out for Genestealers and their high-volume of rending attacks although most of your MCs can actually strike before them and your lack of armour isn't as big a deal for getting hit by rending attacks as it is for other armies. If you're really concerned about blobs of Genestealers or just blob-nids in general in CC, consider Flamers - Warp Flame is less of a stupid rule against things that can't armour save against it! Seeker Chariots and Hellflayers are also excellent choices for mowing down hordes of units and eventually smashing into Tyranid MCs.

Dealing with Flyers

Daemons and Sisters of Battle are so far the last remaining armies in 40K that have difficulty dealing with flyers on their own. However, the situation is less dire for Daemons as they get access to FMCs and have a skyfiring heavy support choice - the Adepta Sorritas get none of that! In spite of this, the fact that nearly all FMCs available in Codex Daemons are capped at S6 can seriously hurt their chances at dealing with Flyers with SA12 or more. So barring your opponent flyer spamming you, here are a few ways to deal with flyers:

• Lash of Despair: A daemon prince of Slaanesh can toss out 2D6 S6 shots (up to S9 if he's a psyker with Iron Arm). That's a lot of shots but there are two problems: first, it's still base strength 6 which means you need all 7 of those expected shots to hit for a decent chance at a glance. Second, it's very unreliable especially hoping for Iron Arm on what will be an incredibly expensive DP.
• Horrors of Tzeentch: 4D6 shots, rerolling to hit from prescience and at S6 from the locus. A bit better but has many of the problems above
• Burning Chariot: If you get really lucky, the S9 snapshots might just do it. Even less reliable than the above.
• Soul Grinder: BS3 and S7 means that even with prescience it will almost always take 2-3 rounds of shooting, and you may still accomplish nothing. Warp Gaze could wreck the flyer, but that's a real stretch.
• MC Spam: Yes, they are only S6 but you do get D3 hits per Vector Strike. Take at least 3 MCs mixed between Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes. Be warned, this will be expensive.
• Aegis Defense Line: Any models you have with at least BS3 or more can opperate it. Plus, it's cheap! One strategy is to put a unit of Plaguebearers with a herald of Nurgle behind this (or on a bastion) so they can camp with Shrouded and Feel No Pain while the herald makes use of his BS5. Be careful of Tau markerlights, Eldar's "reveal" psychic power, noise marines, and anything else that ignores cover.
• Imperial Bastion/Fortress of Redemption: Similar to ADLs, but are actual buildings instead of obstacles, what with that sweet, sweet AV14 all around. You could put Plaguebearers in these, but it's a much better idea to use Bloodletters and their obscene BS5 to man quad-cannons, Icarus lascannons, heavy bolters and, in the case of the FoR, that missile silo. Putting a Herald of Khorne on the missile silo all but prevents the large blast from scattering, too.
• Blight Drones: The only flyer Daemons have. Unfortunately, it's a Forgeworld model and only BS2 but its weapons are either template, blast or twin-linked - specifically that Reaper Autocannon; lemme explain, it has a similar profile to a Harvester, but re-rollable 5+ to-hit is statistically superior to a 4+. Additionally, the weapons load-out of these thing effectively make it a flying Nurgle Grinder. A blight drone squadron is amazingly expensive but it is still a damn good option!
• Hellfire Gaze: Both of the flying Greater Daemons or DPs can take this, although you must roll a 4 on the Greater Gift table to get it, and its a 50/50 if it will do anything.
• Allied Heldrakes: Go to Chaos Space Marines tactics to read about what havoc they wreck. Combines very nicely with MC spam.

Tactics

• Bubble of Hate: Mostly a Khorne-only tactic. Given how fast Flesh Hounds are, get them, get two squads. Grab a Khorne-marked Soul Grinder too. Also grab a Herald of Khorne and give him the Hate-fuelled Locus and the Grimoire of True names then stick him in a Blood Throne. Grab some Bloodcrushers as well just in case and make sure they have an Icon and an Instrument. Grab 2 squads of Bloodletters and also give them Instruments. Grab a Skull Cannon to help with grenades. Now have something in the backfield with a Comms Relay and backfield scoring, anything will do. Maybe 2 squads of Plaguebearers if you really want to. Maybe a backfield Soul Grinder as well. Got all that? Reserve the Bloodletters, the Cannon, one Grinder, the Crushers and the Throne. On the first turn, Hounds will be going up and hug cover, getting ready to enter your intended drop point. Deepstrike the Crushers and use its Instrument to bring in the Throne (Details are blurry on whether Icons work immediately but that's why you have run). The Herald should cast the Grimoire of True Names on the Crushers and hope you roll well. Deepstrike in a Bloodletter Squad and use their Instrument to bring in the Cannon. Ditto the second Bloodletter squad bringing in the Grinder. Try to get everyone within the bubble of hate that the Blood Throne has and force your opponent to pick their poison before everything mass charges. They should only have one turn to react and all those threats are out for blood. Enjoy. My dick is so fucking hard right now.

• Wound shenanigans, Daemon edition: Mounted Khornate and Slaaneshi heralds, Karanak included, make great escorts for their multi-wound beasts/cavalry. Not only do they add the extra killing power of herald and the bonuses of the loci, 2+ Look out sirs let you spread wounds around, keeping your speedy pets going and keeping icons alive for all your deep strikers. Mounted khornates work best at this as their mount not only gives you another wound, but gives him toughness 5, letting him take str 8 shots for his t4 bloodcrusher and hound squadies. Tzeentch heralds can do this as well with screamers,and technically flamers but they suck, but aren't as effective. You can't shoot the herald and sweeping attack and the herald doesn't really want to be in melee, but it's not a bad squad for some speedy divination buffs while the screamers sweeping attack things and then retreat. Sadly this doesn't work for nurglites, as their 'mount' doesn't make them any faster so they they can't keep up with beasts and drones. This is probably because a plague drone mount would make all the other heralds jealous and wound shenanigans on beasts, who would just it will not die the wounds back, would be a little too broken.

• The super-standard daemons list: Fateweaver, 20 Bloodletters with herald, 20 Daemonettes with herald, 20 Horrors with Herald (using prescience and flickering fire), Skull Cannon, Soul Grinder. It all fits in 1500 pts and can deal with most things. For light vehicles you have the Skull Cannon and S6 psychic volleys from the Horrors. For heavy vehicles you have the Soul Grinder and Fateweaver. If they have a Heldrake just concede.

• Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war: (Note that this tactics follows "The more the merrier" rule) 20-40 Flesh hounds, Karanak attached to a unit of around 5 'Crushers with Icon and Jugger-herald, Soul Grinder and/or Cannons of Khorne in reserve. Deploy as close as possible while stretching unit coherency horizontally to the max. Scout move the 'hounds and the 'crushers(through Karanak) 12". You are already halfway across the board if not more(depending on deployment.) If you go second that's a possible turn 1 charge. If you go first then on turn 2 you can charge almost everything after you move 12" again (Remember that beast and cav aren't slowed by terrain.). If not, run, their fleet helps. By turn three you should be able to charge or have charged anything on the table. Once reserves start to come in on turn 2+ your icon will be in the center of the table allowing you to Deepstrike flawlessly. The hounds can run through cover, have 2 wounds and always a 5++. They can kill a lot of things and survive. Skulls for the Skull Throne!

• Meaty Balls of Rage: Run 5 monstrous creatures (1 Greater Daemon,3 Daemon Princes of same god,1 Daemon Prince of your choice), all of which rolling on Biomancy. You havent seen unkillable until you've seen the rage in your opponent's eyes as his vendetta's lascannons wound your T10 Great Unclean One of 5's thanks to Iron Arm. Its beautiful. Throw in Greater Rewards for more awesome things, such as Feel No Pain (4+), It Will Not Die/+1 Wound, Rerollable Invulns, etc. Daemon Princes of Slaanesh with the Greater Reward Whip + Iron Arm = Dead Fliers. Seriously, 2D6 Str 7-9 shots at BS 5 is amazing. Beware the new Eldar. S10 will instant death daemon princes and some greater daemons.

• Screamer Star: This can be really fun to play (though infuriating on the receiving end) and is quite liberating as you don't have to worry about anything but killing and staying alive (not recommended HIGHLY recommended for tournament play), so here is what you do. Take 4 heralds of Tzeentch on discs, give one of them the grimoire of true names. Now use the rest of your points on Fateweaver (to reroll the grimoire check if need be), a 6 to 9 man unit of screamers. Use the rest of the points on Daemon Prince heavy support and troops. Cast forewarning on the herald and screamer unit and use the grimoire for a 2++ rerollable cause you're a daemon of tzeentch. You now have a giant deathstar that will not fucking die; much rage will ensue from the other end of the table. Though not truly the best for close combat, it is good for vehicle hunting (with the Screamers' Armorbane attacks) and can easily tarpit forever; besides you have Daemon Princes for hitting hard. As a bonus, if you got second turn, keep these guys in the middle of the table then split off the heralds on the last turn to contest all the objectives. Note: Just be careful, the grimoire doesn't work on its bearer but that's what Look Out Sir! is for.

• Daemon King: This requires a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (perhaps several), Fateweaver, and a whole lot of points dumped into said prince. First you need the Grimoire, secondly you need your princes to be ML3 and roll up Forewarning for a 4++, giving you a 2++ rerollable, then you need either a greater etherblade or an eternal blade and you must roll up Iron Arm, if you get warp speed or endurance too, that's just gravy. Now you have a model that can beat Horus in a one on one dust up without a scratch on it. Not as reliable as the Screamer Star, but still deliciously rage inducing. Keep away from D-strength units unless you want to see all your hard work go up in smoke.

• Operation Touhou: Heralds of Tzeentch can use flickering fire to fire 4d6 worth of heavy bolter shots. This is madness level of dakka from one model even if you roll all ones you're still ahead of the curve as far as most shooting HQ's go. Take eight (you can only have four Herolds for each Force Org Chart) heralds of Tzeentch, upgrade them to level three for mind bullets, for all of them roll two of your three powers on the Tzeentch psychic powers and the third where you like in the main book *cough*Divination*cough*. Tzeentch has two anti infantry powers, (flicking fire and firestorm) and two anti tank powers (bolt and infernal gate). You want one anti tank power, and you want to swap the other power for flickering fires. This alone nets you the ability to fire between 32(all ones) to 192 (all sixes) worth of heavy bolter shots, from your HQ section alone!

• Molon Labe: One (or more) unit(s) of Bloodletters with (at least) one attached Herald hunkering down in a Fortress of Redemption with heavy bolters and Krakstorm Missiles. Man the TL-Icarus and Heavy Bolters with Bloodletters while the Herald mans the missile launcher. The Herald's BS7 will more often than not prevent the blast marker for the missile silo from scattering. This setup will do 3 things: first, it gives you a very good AA option (a twin-linked, double-ranged lascannon that skyfires and intercepts can down most aircraft with a single shot); second, it'll provide artillery support that obviates the need for a Nurgle Grinder and even outdoes an allied Defiler's battle cannon. Lastly, it's gonna be a very hard thing to deal with: between the building's AV14 and 4 HP per section and the cover save granted to occupants, it's a very tough cookie shooting-wise; anything brave enough to assault it will get a thorough gunning from its occupants and then has to fight Bloodletters in cover in close-combat. To that end, tool up your Herald and/or Bloodreaper for challenge duty or just give them a Blade of Blood if they're gonna be facing down numerous foes (or both if you have the points); this might also be one of the few times where the Exalted Locus of Wrath is useful.

*The Chaos Gods do not guarantee fun. Fun is subject to early termination at Tzeentch's discretion. Fun is to be taken in context of Dwarf Fortress.