Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Ruinstorm Daemons
This is the current tactics page for the Legio Custodes in HH 2.0. The 1.0 tactics can be found here
For the generals on how to play the game and the basics on listbuilding (as well as other tactica rules), you may want the General tactics page. You may also find the Horus Heresy general thread as "/HHG/" on /tg/.
Why play the Ruinstorm Daemons
Because you already have an army of Daemons from any other GW game and just don't want to paint any more.
Pros
Cons
- Shooting is pretty much nonexistent.
Special Rules
- Ætherial Invulnerability (X+): It's an Invulnerable save. You know it, you need it. Sadly doesn't work against force weapons.
- Daemon Unit Type: Of course, you'll need to work around this. Daemons get Fear(1) and are immune to Fear as well as auto-passing any Pinning checks, which is a bigger deal now. However, daemons cannot opt to fail morale checks and any they do fail suffers d3 wounds rather than falling back.
- The bigger issue is the matter of Degradation. See, during the turns 1 and 2, your forces get +1 to their strength and toughness. On turns 3 and 4, those bonuses go away and on turns 5 and 6, your forces now suffer -1 to their strength and toughness and turn 7 sees those penalties upped to -2. Drawing a game out is actively dangerous for you.
Ætheric Dominions
Of course, knowledge of the Warp and Chaos in general was proscribed to the general public, so nobody really had a clue how they operated. Rather than a singular deity, people presumed that they had certain malign intelligences guiding them.
- Encroaching Ruin: Your daemons get Move Through Cover. Units with only this rule also only suffer 1 wound as a result of failing a morale check.
- Heedless Slaughter: Your daemons must charge any units within 8". In addition, units with only this rule add +1 to their combat resolution and to their sweeping advance checks.
- Formless Distortion: During the Fight subphase, your daemons roll d3 and get a random buff to their melee attacks: Lance and Concussive(1) to knock tanks, Reach(1) to top Initiative, or Shred and Sunder to tear down defenses.
- Putrid Corruption: Your daemons gain the Heavy Subtype. They also gain a special 6+ save they can use against any damage that isn't Instant Death or psychic in nature.
- Ravenous Dissolution: Your daemons get +1 to hit Psykers, Independent Characters, other Daemons, and Corrupted units on the first turn of combat. Sadly, all it means is a glorified Hatred.
- Rapturous Sensation: Your daemons gain +1" to the distance of any Runs, Charges or reaction moves. Successful charges that aren't disordered also give your forces a +1 to Initiative for the turn, letting them potentially beat out Praetors. Units with only this rule get to re-roll tests for Blind and Concussive weapons.
- Malevolent Artifice: Your daemons re-roll any armour saves against attacks where the attack's strength is less than their toughness.
- Infernal Tempest: Your Daemons have Hammer of Wrath(1), with the bonus of any HoW hits gaining Deflagrate for extra fun. They also gain a special weapon, an 8" S8 AP5 Assault 2 gun with Deflagrate that can only be used as a reaction but always hits. While S8 is nifty, AP5 means that any MEQ can easily shrug it off.
Daemonic Wargear
Melee Weapons
- Brute Armaments: The basic weapons for your brutes and attendants. AP3 makes it plenty threatening, as does Murderous Strike(5+) and Rending(6+). Two-Handed here doesn't mean much unless the full army list gives alternatives.
- Regent Blade: The Daemon Regent's sword. A Two-Handed AP2 weapon with Murderous Strike(5+), so it's just as deadly as the brute's weapon.
Unit Analysis
HQ
Named Characters
Elites
Troops
Fast Attack
Heavy Support
Lords of War
Bound Daemons
Released as an Exemplary Battles doc, this gives us a bit of a preview of what daemons may end up being. That said, they require someone else
Special Rules
- Bound Subtype: The big selling point here. All Bound Daemons no longer suffer from deterioration, but now require psykers to be on the field to avoid them losing power.
- The big tradeoff is how they're deployed. During initial deployment, One IC psyker must make psychic tests in order to summon each unit of daemons on the field. However, one failure and any remaining squads are thrown into reserves. Afterwards, your IC psykers can make psychic tests in order to summon those daemons from reserves.
- Bound Malefica: Allows Bound Daemons to count as Ruinstorm Daemons in terms of any rules that require the latter, such as the Esoterist's Breach the Veil power or Erebus' Harbinger of Chaos.
Warlord Trait
- Malefic Supplicant: Pretty much a necessity, as this is the only way you can summon your forces. Fortunately, this is available to both your daemons as well as to any allied traitor warlords. This makes the warlord a psyker, but they don't get the ability to cast anything aside from "Summon Daemons". Your army also gains an extra reaction during the Assault phase.
Unit Analysis
HQ
- Bound Daemon Regent: What might well become better known as Daemonic Heralds. They're slightly tougher with T6, 4 wounds and a 4+/4++ save, while WS5 makes them about on par with most basic characters with their AP2 Regent Blade with Murderous Strike (5+) making them capable of carving through most things.
- If you're worried about survivability, you can also buy Attendants. In fact, that's the only way your Regent can be in a squad since they lack Independent Character or some other way to join squads. That said, these Attendants are just Daemon Brutes with a fancier title.
Named Characters
Troops/Elites
- Bound Daemon Brutes: Oddly both a Troops and Elites choice, meaning you'll need to see a LOT of them. Their weapons are quite effective at S5 AP3 with Rending (6+) and Murderous Strike (5+) on top of Hammer of Wrath (1), and being T5 with a 4+/5++ save and 3 wounds a model makes them more than a little durable for a squad of brutes. Being Bulky (3) also means that outnumbering them won't be as easy as you think.
Lords of War
Allies
As Agents of the Warmaster, you're pretty much set in regards to who you want to ally with. If they're traitors, you can go with them.
Legiones Astartes
Mechanicum
Knights
Building your army
Army Tactics
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