Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Ruinstorm Daemons

This is the current tactics page for the Ruinstorm Daemons 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

• Very customizable. Since each unit isn't as clearly defined as in 40k, you can pretty much model them however you please.
• Your troop options have the stat line of an Ogryn, the armor of a Custodian, and close-combat weaponry to match a Space Marine. Only Knights are more elite than you.

Cons

• Shooting is pretty much nonexistent.
• Daemons degrade in effectiveness the longer a battle goes on.

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.

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 to summon them onto the field, so they'll always be the allied force unless you're really dumb/ballsy enough to hedge all your bets on summoning enough daemons at the start of the game. The tradeoff of this is the fact that your daemons won't be subject to any turn-based decay.

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. That said, these powers do not allow you to circumvent the summoning tests for a Bound Daemons army.

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 warlords of the Traitor allegiance. This makes the warlord a psyker, but they don't get the ability to cast anything aside from "Summon Bound Daemons". Your army also gains an extra reaction during the Assault phase.
  • More of a no-brainer if you already have a psyker for a Warlord (chiefly the Thousand Sons and most special Word Bearer Characters and Praetors with Burning Lore).

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

• Bound Samus, the End and the Death, Daemon Prince of the Primordial Annihilator: The only daemon prince you have access to, he's a pretty fierce monster. On top of his benefits as a Monstrous unit and a 3+/4++ save and IWND (5+), he also has Empyrean Avatar to make any Instant Death attacks deal only d3 wounds. He's also surprisingly nimble with Fleet (2) and his Encroaching Ruin dominion letting him walk through any terrain.
  • The End and the Death: Despite being potentially an allied force, you can make Samus the warlord. His WT allows all of his attacks (All AP2 with Armourbane (Melee) and Murderous Strike (5+)) force re-rolls on successful invulnerable saves. Pretty much all that he needs since his weapon is quite devastating.
  • Whispers of Madness: So Samus has some uses in Reserves, forcing his enemy to take a -1 to all Reserves rolls, and unlike the Master of Signals' jammer, this won't fuck with your forces. Once you summon him, however, he gains an 18" bubble of -2 Leadership for any psychic checks. Fighting in melee also lets him boost his Fear rating to Fear (2) so he can force more sweeps.

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.

Lord of War

• Bound Ka'bandha, Daemon General of Signus: The biggest, angriest and fuckingest Bloodthirster known to man. Being the Gargantuan subtype makes him pretty much on tier with a Primarch, with 8s for most stats except BS5 I6 A7 Ld9, immune to any stat mods, Eternal Warrior, forces anyone to re-roll Poison and Fleshbane rolls, able to walk past any terrain (with wings that he can trigger for 14" movement like a jetpack - because fuck you) and able to shoot wherever and whenever. That said, this makes him essentially unable to react against anything smaller than a Primarch. Defensively he's pretty well-set with a 3+/4++ save, IWND (5+), and a 3+ Adamantium Will save lest anyone forget that he serves something that hates psykers, though this'll only apply to Force weapons thanks to the Gargantuan subtype making him immune to any other powers.
  • Skull-Keeper: Ka'bandha's WT only works on any daemons of the Heedless Slaughter dominion. Any daemons of this dominion within 12" get Rage (3) for even more devastating charges. He also gives an extra reaction in the Movement phase.
  • Eternal Rivalry: So you'll notice that he has Hatred (Sanguinius) as a rule, as he's got a bone to pick with the Fabulous Hawk-Boy on account of Signus. That's only half of the story; should the two be fielded, Ka'bandha also gets a special secondary objective that requires him to challenge Sangy to a duel. If you kill him, you score 2 VP, but if Ka'bandha dies, you forfeit 1 VP - all on top of the VP scored for Slay the Warlord.
  • Armaments of Ka'bandha: His weapons are essentially consolidated to a melee and ranged profile. In melee, he's got a Two-Handed S+4 AP2 behemoth with Sunder, so he can carve apart tanks with laughable ease. At range, he's got a close-quarters machinegun with 6" S6 AP2 with Assault 7 to drown lesser mobs.
  • Scythe of Hatred: So after all of his attacks in melee (including Hammer of Wrath (d3) and Rampage (d3+1) - which won't trigger as much as you'd think due to him counting as 10 models for outnumbering) and after accounting for Sweeping Advances, he can make a singular Hellstorm Flamer attack. Any units with models inside this template take a number of S6 AP- hits equal to the number of wounds he caused this round, so you can easily use this to cut through a few more units after wiping one in a fight.

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.

Army Tactics

Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics	General (7E) Movement (7E) Psychic (7E) Fortifications (7E)
Imperium	Legiones Astartes (7E)
	Legio Custodes (7E) Sisters of Silence (7E) Mechanicum (Legio Mechanicum • Taghmata Omnissiah)
	Questoris Knights (7E) Solar Auxilia (7E) Imperialis Militia (7E)
Chaos	Ruinstorm Daemons (7E • 7E Codex) Warp Cults(7E)