Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

==Unit Analysis==
Common keywords are {{W40kKeyword|Chaos}}, {{W40kKeyword|Daemon}}, the army-encompassing {{W40kKeyword|Legiones Daemonica}} and any of the four Chaos Gods.

===<span style="color:#8b0000;">Daemons of Khorne</span>===
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The Daemons of Khorne perceive everything through a red mist of undiluted rage. They cannot wait to spill blood, and so surge across the battlefield to get to grips with their foes as quickly as possible so that the slaughter can begin in earnest.

Horny Khornys are a reliable source of High Strength, AP, and Damage weaponry other god's minions often don't have and even some elite choices have a decent armour save. But like Slaanesh, most Khorne daemons lack defenses and once in combat, the lesser daemons' 5+ won't keep them alive for long.
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====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Warlord Traits</span>====

{{W40kKeyword|HERALD}} units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits. 

#'''Aspect of Death:''' Enemies within 6" of the general take -1 to Leadership and -1 to Combat Attrition checks. Because of fuck conscript and cultist blobs. Karanak gets this. 
#*Because of the two stacking effects, this leads to a -2 leadership AND -2 to all attrition checks. Works well enough to break mobs but nothing more.
#'''Brazen Hide:''' 5+++ FNP save, making this as valuable on Bloodthirsters as it is on heralds.
#'''Devastating Blow:''' The Warlord's melee attacks cannot be ignored by any sort of FNP save. Skulltaker gets this.
#*With how many ways you can get an FNP save, having the ability to just ignore them is pretty nice, especially against enemy warlords.
#'''Glory of Battle:''' +1 attack, plus another if the warlord's within 3" of 6+ enemies, plus yet another if they're within 3" of 11+ models. Better saved for <s>heralds</s> and princes since thirsters already have the sweep profiles of their axes providing double the attack output.
#'''Immense Power:''' +1 to Wound in melee. On the charge in a Khorne detachment, <s>this gives heralds an effective S8 which can be huge in a low anti-vehicle army,</s> or particularly an Str9 DP with 9 attacks, great against high wound T8 models, with a Bloodthirster with a greataxe wounding them on +2.
#'''Rage Incarnate:''' +1 to charge and advance rolls. Any {{W40kKeyword|CORE KHORNE}} units charging an enemy engaged to the warlord get +1 to their charge rolls. Skarbrand gets this.
#*Probably the best for a support hero, as it gives your Bloodletters even more incentive to get stuck in as quickly as possible.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Stratagems</span>====
*'''Banner of Blood (1CP):''' One {{W40kKeyword|Khorne Icon}} unit can roll 3d6 when making a charge, dropping the lowest. This version makes the focus on reliability clearer and as an added bonus, this isn't restricted to once per game. 
*'''Brass Stampede (1CP):''' When a {{W40kKeyword|Khorne Cavalry}} or {{W40kKeyword|Khorne Vehicle}} finishes a charge move, roll a d6 for each model in your unit. One enemy unit within 1" takes d3 MW on a 6+ or d3+3 MW on a 9. As you can tell, this has become a lot less viable, especially for anything smaller than a vehicle since that roll only adds +3 when charging with the Skull Cannon or Throne of Skulls. This is especially shitty because this reduces the effectiveness on big bads.
*'''Frenetic Bloodlust (1/2CP):''' Use at the start of any fight phase. A {{W40kKeyword|Bloodletters Core}} unit can either move 6" towards the nearest enemy if they're not engaged or pile in if they're engaged with any enemies. A far cry from 8E's version, but mobility is equally as vital, especially at the beginning. Costs 2 CP for a normal move, otherwise it's 1 CP.
*'''Glorious Decapitation (2 CP):''' If one of your characters murders an enemy character in melee, they gain a new 6" aura that lets fellow daemons of Khorne deal a mortal wound on a natural 6 to wound, adding a bit of extra punch to your forces.
*'''Relics of the Brass Citadel (1 CP):''' Typical "more relics" strat.
*'''Contempt for Sorcery (1 CP):''' If an enemy psyker casts within 12" of a Khorne unit, roll a d6, adding +1 if there are flesh hounds within 12" of the psyker. On a 4+, that power is blocked.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Exalted Bloodthirster</span>====
As with abilities like Chapter Command, you can now give an unnamed Bloodthirster (so no Skarbrand) a special power by spending points and PL rather than CP.
*'''Indomitable Onslaught:''' This thirster can't lose more than 8 wounds per phase. By itself, it's kinda trash as it's only keeping them alive for two turns when a good force might wipe them out in one. If you take the Blood-Drinker Talisman then you've now got a very good way to keep your thirster around for much longer.
*'''Lord of the Blood Tide:''' +1 to Strength and Attacks when this Bloodthirster charges, gets charged, or heroically intervenes. The good news is that this is your cheapest upgrade.
*'''Rage Unchained:''' Double your wounds for the damage table. Degrading stats were always a bane to monsters, and it's especially the case for a daemon meant to kill in combat.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Relics</span>====
*'''A'rgath King of Blades:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} models only. One weapon of your choosing gains +1 damage and can ignore any modifiers when rolling to wound. While heralds can no longer hit as hard as princes, they now have the potential of taking down enemies much faster. Also lets your Bloodthirster's mini axe be almost as good as the big axe, while still letting you have a flail or lash.
*'''Armour of Scorn:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne Monster}} only. The bearer gets a 4+++ FNP against Mortal Wounds and +1 to any saves against attacks with a Damage characteristic of 1, circumventing the rule that typically forbids your saves from being modified and making walls of lasguns even more laughable.
*'''Blood-Drinker Talisman:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} models only. Heal a wound on a 5+ for each enemy model killed in melee. Can't heal more than 6 wounds a turn. Now that it's been released from only being spent on Thirsters, it's become valuable not only for stopping the degrading statlines of Bloodthirsters but also to help top off heralds and princes as well, as all HQs have their own precious auras to project.
*'''Crimson Crown:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} models only. When the bearer kills any enemy models, you get to save up to two Warp Storm tokens so you can spend it on something more devastating.
*'''Rune of Brass:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} models only. Gives a 12" aura that makes Psykers trigger perils on any doubles and deals d6 MW during Perils instead of merely d3, giving you a decent way of scaring them off, though nothing to really stop them from casting in the first place.
*'''Skullreaver:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} models only, replaces an Axe of Khorne, restricting it to only Bloodthirsters. It essentially gives you a regular axe that can be improved to become a greataxe when fighting against monsters and vehicles with the strike profile, improving the weapon's Strength to x2 and Damage to 3+d3. Great if you're planning on taking on superheavies but still want the ability to fight at range with more than just their breath.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">HQ</span>====
=====<span style="color:#8b0000;">General</span>=====
*'''Bloodthirster:''' Streamlined from three different datasheets to one, though you'll have to pick the correct tools for the job you need to be done. Like all Greater Daemons, they have a 6" aura that grants allied Khornate Daemons re-rolls of 1 to hit. They also got a new rule where they deal d3 mortal wounds to a nearby enemy on a 2+ (4+ for infantry characters). FLY alleviates that problem somewhat, but anti-tank weapons (and to a lesser extent anti-air) will fuck a Bloodthirster's shit up real fast. Don't let those 20 wounds lull you into a false sense of security. Although Khorne favors getting stuck in and fucking things up in melee, remember that the support aura is still useful. They are very very very attractive for enemy lascannons (often the only targets in the whole army), cannot hide from it (the models are massive), and only get a 4++ save against something that can hit them from anywhere on the table, at any time. They are melee fighters with degrading WS to make their problems even more severe... One could deepstrike one with the new stratagems, but doing so with 30 Bloodletters instead is probably better... or both for the lols. There is an argument to be made for giving your Bloodthirster the Armor of Scorn so it can zoom up the board without getting shot off the table. Make him your warlord and take the 5+++ FNP for added defensive power. Next, you'll want enough other threats on the board that your opponent will be left with only bad options: Flesh Hound blob screening a Daemon Prince with Skullreaper and a JuggerHerald with King of Blades make for an unavoidable distraction. Skull Cannons in your backfield, now cheaper and stronger, splits your enemy's anti-tank while allowing you to clear away screens for your harder hitting units. You'll be annoyed by units on upper floors of buildings, but your Skull Cannons should make enough room for your deep striking Bloodletter units (or Furies moving up the board) to stream up the floors. A Bloodthirster is a commitment: rush into the enemy as fast and hard as you can with everything you have. They may kill the Bloodthirster, but they leave the rest of your offensive power untouched.
**As part of the consolidation, all Bloodthirsters got the S5 AP-2 heavy flamer breath that was originally for the Insensate Rage thirster. Both the regular thirster axe and the Insensate Fury's massive axe both got two differing profiles for crowd control and monster-slaying, with the great axe being most useful in instances where you're most worried about knights and other superheavies where hitting at S16 would make a difference - stick with the regular axe for anything else. When picking between the whip and the flail, note that the whip, while decent, is at AP-1 and thus will fall flat against Armour of Contempt. The flail, on the other hand, got a remarkably dangerous upgrade, now being Sx2 AP-4 D3d3 with damage that can spread to other models in a unit - just the thing to thin space marines of any flavor if you manage to make that one hit roll.
*'''Herald of Khorne:''' Gain two 6" auras, one giving the mandatory "re-roll 1s to wound" given to all Lieutenant-types and the other lets Bloodletters auto-wound on a hit roll to 6. Heralds are super useful to summon during combat if you have space since you aren't moving in combat anyway and they have low power levels (which makes them easier to summon). Is armed with a Blade of Blood that is S6 AP-3 D3, plenty threatening against other heroes.
<tabs>
<tab name="Bloodmaster">
The baseline Foot slogger Herald. Less mobility, weapons, and defense but significantly cheaper. 
</tab>
<tab name="Skullmaster on Juggernaut">
Juggernaut Herald. Fastest Herald of Khorne option. Adds T+1, +2 Wounds and movement +4". While you no longer get a better save from being stuck on it, you are getting the extra Toughness.
</tab>
<tab name="Rendmaster on Blood Throne">  
T+1 Herald with +3 wounds for about double the price of a normal Herald with about double the attacks when accounting for the dopes driving the thing. While their auto-wound aura got a bit of a range boost to 9", their re-roll aura remains the same. They also get to re-roll to wound enemy monsters and characters, something that can capitalize on the Bloodthirster's re-roll aura.
</tab>
</tabs>

=====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Named</span>=====
*'''Skulltaker:''' They took his Khorne damned Juggernaut option away, but Skulltaker is still pretty beastly. He moves 1 inch faster than other infantry, has a 3+/5++, and rerolls everything when fighting a character. His aura lets nearby {{W40kKeyword|Bloodletters Core}} units within 8" add 1 to hit (no longer includes other heralds, including himself, as of 9E), and his weapon is Strength User, AP -3, D3, on 6+ to wound boosted to D3+3 damage. Get him into combat and he'll lop heads off with ease, a double bonus as each kill also boosts the range of his auras by 3" to a maximum of 12". A pretty nice support character with a very specific focus that is overshadowed by more generalist Princes with Skullreaver and Skullmasters.
*'''Karanak:''' Still a character-hunter who can deny 2 psychic powers per turn. You call out an enemy character at the start of the game and for the rest of the game, when Karanak is fighting against that character, his attacks now deal 2 Mortal Wounds instead of S6 AP-2 D2, meaning that everything will be targeting him. Fortunately, he can also give a re-roll 1s to wound aura to his fellow Flesh Hounds that will re-roll all wounds if they attack a psyker.
*'''Uraka the Warfiend<sup>Forge World</sup>:''' Uraka the Warfiend now gives a re-roll hits of 1 for Khorne Deamon with 6", but also he buffs HIMSELF when he kills things. He defiantly likes to make a synergy bubble with a herald. He's certainly not a pushover with a 5+/4+ save and 6 attacks, a decent short-range attack, and may attempt to deny 1 enemy psychic power a turn. He does get to killing after slaying 8 models for +1 to movement, Strength, and Attack. As the new codex has stripped the Heralds of the good Loci, you're not going to be getting those kills as easily as you used to.
*'''Skarbrand:''' Remains the utter frothing berserker he ever has been, utterly immune to any psychic power while sadly unable to bock for you. Note that as his wounds reach certain thresholds, his attacks actually INCREASE - so what he loses inaccuracy, he compensates for with sheer undiluted RAGE. This partially solves the main problem that you'd have with a base thirster with the big axe. Still - you're going to have to play him very cleverly, otherwise, you can expect him to get wrecked by anti-tank weapons before he reaches the enemy's front lines. He does have a ranged attack that acts like the Thirster's Hellfire, however, so he can surprise a foe cocky enough to charge him with an Overwatch shot. 
**Rather than the basic aura given to most Thirsters, Skarbrand's is a bit less discriminating on who benefits from it. See, now every unit within 6" gets a spare attack and auto-passes morale checks - both things that are awesome for your Bloodletters, but not for whoever you're planning on killing with the big guy, especially if they're kitted out to kill him in particular. It also forces anyone in range to roll 3d6 when falling back, preventing them if the roll exceeds the unit's Leadership, which can prove troublesome on a bad combat turn. 
'''Samus<sup>Legends</sup>:''' Samus, Daemon Prince of the Ruinstorm is as Khorne as it gets. A decent number of attacks that wound more often on infantry. Psykers nearby get minus 1 from their power rolls. Friendly units summoning near him get to reroll the summon. Anything not Khorne near him subtracts 1 from their LD. He's a big red rat and he's ANGRY.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Troops</span>====
*'''Bloodletters:''' (12ppm) Managed to get a bit of a bump up, as now they're S5 and T4, but they remain glass cannons with only a 5++ save in melee. Their Hellblades are now better, being Power Swords that do a flat 2 damage, making them more reliable at butchering multi-wound thickies like the Marines. 2 attacks each (3 with Fury of Khorne up), at AP-3, hitting on 3+, wounding on 3+ (against MEQ), each dealing 2 damage with one swing? These guys can be brutal.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Elites</span>====
*'''Bloodcrushers:''' By Khorne, these are brutal. Charging produces MW from Brass Stampede, 13 S6 AP-3 D2 sword attacks, and 9 S8 AP-1 is enough to pummel most non-superheavy units, or severely maim them. And that's what a MINIMUM squad of these does. The fact that they have 4 wounds, 4+ regular save and a 5++ daemon save. Position them well for an early charge before they are spotted and promptly shot to bits, or summon them with an appropriate hero and let them loose on the enemy and they would be hard-pressed to NOT win their points back. Seriously, this anon bought a bunch to use in Sigmar, but they are way more brutal in newhammer 40k. 
**'''Bloodcrusher Bomb?:''' While not as board control as the Bloodletter Bomb, Deep Striking Bloodcrushers gets them into position out the gate as full strength. And hey, it's not like you can't also give them a Banner of Blood alongside your other Bomb. 1CP for 3 Crushers, 1CP for the banner, and Deep Strike in Skulltaker nearby (8" aura) for the +1 hit rolls. Food for thought...
**'''Alternate Opinion:''' Bloodcrushers are largely (if ''not totally'') outclassed by Bloodletters. It's less than Bloodcrushers are bad, but it's simply a case that Bloodletters are some of the best infantry in the game at the moment. As well as being far cheaper (at 8pts), they'll produce an even greater number of attacks than the Bloodcrushers. The Bloodcrushers larger base size might also make deep striking them an issue. Since Bloodletters can charge 3d6+1 (re-rolling charges in pure Khorne detachment), just 20 of them deliver '''41 hits at 2+ str 5 and ap-3'''. At a cost of only 230 points (with 2 icons and 2 instruments), on the other hand, a minimum squad of Juggernauts (at 135 points) produces 19 attacks (with 10 at 2+ str 5 and a-3/ and 9 at str 5 -ap3). 
***'''Alternate Opinion:''' as of 9th, Durability matters more, so paying for a balance of defenses, speed and damage while a group Bloodletters will die quickly to blast weapons.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Fast Attack</span>====
*'''Flesh Hounds''':  Remained mostly the same stat-wise and rule-wise, however, the rules around them have changed.  Compared to the previous codex they only move 10" max and are now susceptible to being slowed by terrain.  To compound these new issues Daemonic Instability is gone, and with LD7 morale tests are going to hurt.  Positives:  They're 15 points each for relatively speedy, two wound, two attack models, they now always hit on a 3+ in combat, and they get +1 S and A on the charge from Unstoppable Ferocity (20 of these is 300 points. Let that sink in a minute...).  Combine this with always striking first on the charge, and their fangs being AP-1 CCWs, and you will tear light infantry to pieces.  This leaves them in a similar niche as before, a light infantry killer and your front line bubblewrap unit to tank light weapons fire for harder-hitting characters (JuggerHerald, Karanak, etc.)  However, the loss of Herald locus upgrades and the attachment of characters leaves the Hounds as mostly an expensive tarpit unit, unable to effectively deal with anything higher than a 4+ save, and unable to hold units in assaults for longer than one turn. Screamers do a better job of being zippy harassment units, and Bloodcrushers are more durable and hit so much harder.
**'''A quick note on Flesh Hounds''': If you are taking a fluffy Khorne-dedicated list (and if you're not, Khorne will send these fuckers after you anyway) these puppies are (as of time of writing this) Khorne's only source of denying the witch outside of Karanak excluding forgeworld. So for this reason alone, a few MSU squads of these should be auto-includes unless you want your face melted with mind bullets
**In case you forgot that Wrath and Rapture are giving Khorne some new stuff too, Flesh Hounds are finally getting a plastic kit! One of them can now be upgraded to a Gore Hound, which lets their bark does damage - D6 autohits at 8", S4 AP0 D1 (as per the most recent faq). So, basically a flamer. Not a big boost but now they can do something before they charge.
**9E is looking to give them a bit of a boost. Aside from the 4++ invulnerability from shooting, they now move 12" and got an offensive boost with A3 and S5 by default. On top of that, they now add +1 to their bite's damage when they charge or heroically intervene, making them much better at taking down MEQs.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Heavy Support</span>====
*'''Skull Cannon''' A mixed bag like the Soul Grinder but cheaper at 80 pts. It's gun is 48" Heavy D6 (S8 AP-2 D2 Blast, that ignores cover bonus), more to take out MEU and light vehicles. On the plus side, it hits on a 3+ and can do some good damage on the charge, but even melee is only a last-ditch surprise option, especially now that it lost its healing power. Overall not that great, but it's one of the few long-range options we have and ok to get a few wounds off some light tanks and marines.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Lord of War</span>====
*'''Anggrath the Unbound''' - Oh boy, THIS guy. When you absolutely need to have the angriest, smashiest guy on the board and price is of no concern, accept no substitutes! He will always hit things on a 2+ and starts off with a massive axe that is just as versatile as any Bloodthirster's that just happens to have S10. He shrugs off attacks like nothing too, thanks to his T8, 24 wounds, 4+/4+ and 2 uses of Deny the Witch without needing a Stratagem. If anyone manages to bring him down by some chance he gets a chance to wound everyone around him. Don't expect much to come from his whip, even though it got a slight boost by being able to be used while in close combat. Also, note that he can be your warlord now. Why yes, I did want 6+ FNP on him to thank you very much! 
**With the new codex, Anggrath feels a lot less killy than before with the skimmed-down strats given to each god. Heralds now only give measly re-rolls to wound and he doesn't even give his forces any re-rolls to hit so he can't support his army like a traditional thirster. If you're fielding him, it's because you seriously want to kill a rival superheavy and nothing else.

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Fortification</span>====
*'''Skull Altar''' - First Khorne approved building ladies and gentlemen! First, off all just like Nurgle tree, it cannot be targeted and affected by enemy attacks and cannot move. Secondly, this altar has a bunch of good abilities, especially when playing defender with Khorne, as the footslogging Bloodmaster/Skulltaker can hide inside it and improve their footprint - and the range of their auras with it. The last 2 abilities are also nice, it gives -2 to psychic tests if the enemy is within 18" of the altar and the herald inside it can perform a special action between the movement and charge phases, allowing you to roll 1d6 for Warp Storm points for each of your units in combat within 12". All of this for 100 points

====<span style="color:#8b0000;">Biggest Problem</span>====
The best way to run mono-Khorne daemons appears to be simply picking 1 unit and spamming it as much as physically possible. So a list with a mixture of Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds, and Bloodcrushers would not be anywhere near as effective as a list including only 1 of those units in vast numbers.

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===<span style="color:#387439;">Daemons of Nurgle</span>===
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The Daemons of Nurgle are surrounded by an aura of pestilence and disease that infects all nearby, and their talons and blades drip with thrice-ripened plagues. The merest touch of such a weapon in the presence of such a creature can cause a mortal to wither and die in seconds.

The big synergy winners this edition. They lack widespread weapons with good AP but high toughness and Disgustingly Resilient will make these units your tanks and tarpits. They are not particularly accurate but can dish out multi-damage attacks with fitting buffs and some hot rolling. However, they will have trouble with armored targets and when facing off against multi-damage attacks, especially now that Disgustingly Resilient was taken away from them and replaced with a mere Toughness and Wound bump. Finally, they will struggle to catch fast-moving enemies unless you build to counter that.<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

====<span style="color:#387439;">Warlord Traits</span>====

{{W40kKeyword|HERALD}} units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits. 

#'''Heaving Mass:''' +2 Wounds. Simple, adds a bit more before dropping brackets and forces additional rolls before your enemy can snipe your leader dead.
#'''Acidic Ichor:''' If your warlord takes a wound in melee, the unit that inflicted the wound takes a mortal wound on a 4+ at the end of the Fight phase. Horticulous Slimux gets this.
#'''Virulent Touch:''' All hits automatically wound any non-Titanic enemies. Epidemius gets this.
#'''Plaguefly Hive:''' -1 to hit your warlord in melee if the attacking unit is within 6" and they can't do actions.
#'''Overflowing Fecundity:''' Unmodified wound roll of 1-3 always fail against this warlord.
#'''Pestilent Miasma:''' At the start of your turn roll a dice for each enemy unit. On a 2+, they suffer a mortal wound. They suffer 1d3 MW instead if the result was a 6. Rotigus gets this.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Stratagems</span>====
*'''Chortling Murrain (1 CP):''' Single use. Pick one enemy unit within 6" of a Sloppity Bilepiper and roll a d6 for every model in it; for each roll that beats the model's Toughness, they suffer a Mortal Wound.
**It does good at driving away mobs of guardsmen and gaunts, but this won't do a lot to an angry pack of boyz or space marines.
*'''Pestilent Inspiration (1 CP):''' One psyker learns ALL the psychic powers for one turn. Weird how this isn't something Tzeentch gets, but this is a massive gift.
*'''Relics of the Great Garden (1 CP):''' Another generic "extra relic" strat.
*'''Revolting Constitution (1/2 CP):''' Whenever a {{W40kKeyword|Plaguebearers}} unit is attacked, they cannot be wounded on a roll of 1-3. The fact that this can be used on any phase makes this particularly annoying, as it will limit the effectiveness of anything high-strength, especially if they have Blast.
**Costs 2 CP for a unit with PR 12 or higher.
*'''Slime Trail (1 CP):''' Pick one unit of Beasts or Horticulus Slimux. When an enemy attempts to fall back, roll a d6; they cannot fall back on a 4+.
*'''Swarming Flies (2 CP):''' Enemies take -1 to hit one unit.
*'''Crushing Bulk (1 CP):''' Pick one Great Unclean One, Beasts of Nurgle or Plague Drones that just charged and roll a d6 for every model in the unit, adding 3 for a GUO. The enemy suffers d3 MW on a 6+, improved to 3 on a 9+. 
*'''Plague Banner (2 CP):''' During the fight phase, one {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Icon}} unit that fights deals a MW on a natural 6 to wound.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Exalted Great Unclean Ones</span>====
Same as abilities like Chapter Command, you no longer need to spend CP to power up one of your nameless Great Unclean Ones. Instead, you can spend points/PR in order to improve these fat shitsacks.

*'''Bountiful Gifts:''' Lets you save up to 2 Warp Storm Points so you can spend it on more tricks.
*'''Hideous Visage:''' A 6" aura that essentially doubles the effects of Daemonic Terror for summoning shenanigans and extra [[SQUAD BROKEN|squad breaking]].
*'''Revoltingly Resilient:''' Melee attacks against this bloated pusbags deal -1 damage.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Relics</span>====
*'''Corruption:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} models only. Upgrades one melee weapon, giving it +1 damage and the ability to ignore any rules for damage mitigation.
*'''Effluvior:''' Upgrade a Plague Flail to Assault 3d3 S+1 AP-3 D3 with damage that can be spread past other models. Now fully able to route infantry with its assault pistol whip.
*'''The Endless Gift:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} models only. Each turn the bearer regains a number of wounds equal to the round number.
*'''The Entropic Knell:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} models only. Mark one unit within 12" of the bearer, they cannot use their auras and count has half their unit size for the sake of capping objectives. The first one matters more for characters, but the latter gives you a reason to spam this on squads, especially ones with some special relic like the Black Templars.
*'''Horn of Nurgle's Rot:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} models only. Every time the bearer kills an enemy model in melee, roll a D6: on a 4+ you can add a model to a friendly {{W40kKeyword|Plaguebearers Infantry Core}} unit within 18". Pairs well with an offensive unit like a daemon prince (hiding in a plaguebearers unit).
*'''Tome of a Thousand Poxes:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Psyker}} models only. Know another power from the Warprot Discipline and anytime the bearer rolls a 7+ to cast a power from this discipline, the power can't be denied.

====<span style="color:#387439;">HQ</span>====
=====<span style="color:#387439;">General</span>=====
*'''[[Great Unclean One]]:''' This fat bastard's an incredibly resilient model, with 22 wounds and T9 with a 5+/4+ save .  He can cast 2 powers and deny 1 power and knows Smite plus two Warprot powers. Before accounting for any loadout choices, he also gets 7 Malefic Nurgling bites at S2 AP- and a 12" Assault d6 vomit stream at S5 AP-2 so it can potentially gnaw away at even marines and kin. Disgustingly strong in melee for his points, especially with the Crushing Bulk strat. Getting him there can be a problem, so consider starting him in reserves to minimize the risks of footslogging. Not bad but best to deepstrike because his mobility is painful at a reduced profile.
**For melee builds He gets a Plague Flail (which he can shoot into close combat with) which is S:User AP-3 and does 2 damage and a Bilesword which can switch between a direct S+1 AP-3 Dd6 that deals auto wounds on a natural 6 to hit and a crowd clearing S:User AP-3 sweep that doubles attacks.
**Alternatively, you also have the Bilevlade and Doomsday Bell. The Bileblade replaces the Plague Flail with a second melee weapon with AP-3 D2 that also lets you inflict MWs on the fatass for a +1 to casting. The Doomsday Bell sacrifices your Bilesword for a far less impressive S+1 AP-1 D2 whack that lets you raise a {{W40kKeyword|Plaguebearers Core}} model (d3 models for {{W40kKeyword|Infantry}}) to a unit within 12" each command phase. Taking these two together makes a far more support-focused greater daemon, but even taking the Bilesword and Bileblade can make for a serviceable battle psyker.
*'''[[Poxbringer]]''': The classic Herald of Nurgle, now with a new name to distinguish it from the other two Heralds. They took away his steed, but his balesword is AP-3 and can re-roll all failed wound rolls.  He is a psyker and can cast Smite or Stream of Corruption once he reaches melee. His bonus gives +1S, which is actually a big deal. Your plaguebearers wound Space Marines on 4+ with reroll and with the buff on 3+, even bikers on 4+. S5 is the sweet spot to wound T8 vehicles on 5+ instead of 6+ too so your plaguebearers become much more versatile.
*'''[[Sloppity Bilepiper]]''' New kind of Herald, gives +1 attack to GUOs and Nurglings within 6" and also allows them to run and charge in the same turn. Also, every {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemon}} within 6" have to do Morale tests on 2D6 discarding the higher value, and the enemy within 6" failing a Morale test loses one model more than it should. Even if you don't plan on taking lots of Nurglings, the morale benefits alone are worth bringing this freakish jester along. Keep him protected, though. He doesn't have much in the way of direct combat ability.
*'''[[Spoilpox Scrivener]]''': Other new Herald that allows Plaguebearers within 6" of him to add +2" to their movement and +1 to their hit rolls. If the boost brings their roll result up to 7 (read: the buffed unit rolls a 6), they can attack again with the same weapon they used before. More attacks hitting and the chance for extra attacks mean more possibilities of an unsaved wound making it through, and the movement bonus doesn't hurt either while increasing your Plaguebearers hits by over 33%. In addition to the basic Herald plaguesword, he can also attack with his grotesque mouth (AP-1, but can only reroll wound rolls of 1) and disgusting sneezes (6", Pistol D3, S3 AP0 1 D, rerolls wound rolls of 1). Yes, he can kill things by sneezing on them.

=====<span style="color:#387439;">Named</span>=====
*'''[[Epidemius]]:''' Costs a bit more than a normal Herald and isn't a psyker (Smite!) but has quite a bit more punch and can take some more. But you want him for his army-wide buff (as always). Note that this time you have to destroy units, not models (because fielding 4x30 Boyz shouldn't have a downside)! Starting at 2 destroyed units by {{W40kKeyword|NURGLE DAEMONs}}, and it pumps up your offensive capabilities - defensive buffs start at 5 destroyed units. Sadly he misses the other +1S bonus of the normal Herald hence you should get both of them in a Nurgle themed army. If you don't like the old metal mini you can grab a disc of Tzeentch, spit on it, scratch it like a DJ, paint it green and glue a few nurglings and bells (from the plaguebearer kit) on it and then put a Herald of Nurgle on top.
*'''[[Cor'bax Utterblight]]<sup>Forge World</sup>''': The Forgeworld Character series Daemon Prince.  He's significantly tougher than a Daemon Prince of Nurgle at 12 wounds at T8, and a 4+ FNP against dmg 1 weapons. His base speed of 7" makes him slower.  He's a mixed bag in CC. Having 5 base attacks is good, and the gaping maw weapon is AP-3 with D3, and can instant-kill a model by beating their wound count in a D6.  If you take the Virulent touch warlord trait for +1 to wound and cast Virulent blessing for another +1 to wound. Furthermore, any roll of 5+ will cause 6 dmg.  Unfortunately, with the only S7, he's only good at taking on infantry, which means his high damage will largely be wasted unless you dedicate other units to buff him.  His profile degrades movement, S, and attacks, so he quickly becomes useless.  He also gives out no aura buffs whatsoever.  Clocking in at 180pts, he's not going to be able to get enough done on his own to justify the investment when you could've bought Mammon or even a plain DP for the same cost.
*'''[[Horticulous Slimux]]''': Ported over from [[Age of Sigmar]], Nurgle's Grand Cultivator retains his ability to make Beasts of Nurgle actually pretty decent, by way of giving to Beasts within 12" +1 to hit rolls, as well as allowing Beasts within 6" to reroll failed charges. Units that fall back within 1" of him take d3 mortal wounds on a 4+, and he's no slouch in melee either&mdash; he has a 4+ save that lets him rely less on the invulnerable save and Disgustingly Resilient, his lopping shears are a souped-up Balesword, and Mulch can add an extra S7 AP-4 3 D sucker punch to surprise more heavily armored opponents. 
**He can also create new Feculent Gnarlmaws within 3" of him at the end of his movement phase (if he didn't use Daemonic Ritual in the same turn), and a single {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemon}} within 7" can heal a wound at the beginning of each your turn if any model died the turn before. A blob of allied Cultists will ensure that healing effect will trigger, even if your opponent doesn't use horde armies. 
**If you have the models (and spare 85 points per model), there's really no reason why Horticulous shouldn't keep planting a Feculent Gnarlmaw each turn.  They're damned useful, and it means that he'll constantly enjoy a 2+ cover save.
*'''[[Mamon Transfigured]]<sup>Forge World</sup>:''' Named Daemon Prince and the bastard responsible for the entire mess at Vraks. Can't cast spells but allows re-rolling misses of 1 in the Fight Phase for {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemons}}. Has two melee weapons, a kick that ''really'' excels at murdering high-wound infantry, 5 S7 Ap3 D3 melee attack, and a 12" Assult 2D3 S5 AP-2 D2 Flamer.
**The updates of 9E have dealt a bit of a blow to Mammon. While his aura remains able to buff more than mere {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemon Core}} units, his having 9 wounds means that he's now just over the edge of what can comfortably hide behind a mob of lesser daemons or allied heretics. Add his plodding movement to that and...well, you just bought a walking bullseye to your range.
*'''[[Rotigus|Rotigus the Rainfather]]:''' To make up for the [[fail|absence]] of [[Ku'gath|Ku'gath Plaguefather]], we now have a new named Great Unclean One. His main melee weapon, the Gnarlrod, is essentially a Bilesword with worse AP but more reliable damage (3 damage instead of d6), but he has d6 extra Fanged Maw attacks that mean he's still better in melee than the standard GUO. His real best weapon is the Streams of Brackish Filth, essentially a 2d6 S7 AP-3 flamer that rerolls wounds, which he can now shoot in melee thanks to 9th edition rules. Every time you roll a 7+ on a psychic test, the closest enemy unit suffers a mortal wound after using whatever power you were casting. Unlike the Death Guard's Malignant Plaguecaster, this doesn't have any range specified, so you could technically do it from the other side of the board. At only five points more than a Bilesword Great Unclean One, knowing one more power than a basic GUO, and being able to deny one more power as well, you might as well take him.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Troops</span>====
*'''[[Plaguebearers|Plaguebearers of Nurgle]]''' (9ppm) Slow but tough and ok in melee with their re-rolls to wound. If you want to hold the line, they are the right choice, especially with the new codex giving them T5 and two wound each. In packs of 20 (so get 30 to keep the bonus for a while), enemies have to subtract 1 from their attack rolls. Unfortunately, they lost the rusty sword abilities to auto-glance vehicles or poison monsters, and for that old shrouded rule, they need to be 20 or more but still cost defacto the same - somewhat a downgrade, but we got the FNP for that. Two or three blobs of 30 can flood the field and can be surprisingly (disgustingly) resilient and soak up a lot of fire and damage. When combined with a Poxbringer and a Spoilpox Scrivener, they can get a fair punch against tougher Infantry units in melee, hold objectives pretty well with numbers, or bind some annoying ranged units.
**Here's where some of that sweet, sweet synergy comes in.  Combine the Locus of Virulence (+1 damage if your wound roll is 6+), the Plague Banner (one-time pop to make plagueswords do 2 damage for one turn), the Virulent Blessing power (+1 to wound rolls, and if you roll 7+ to wound, you do double damage), and the Scrivener (Plaguebearers get +1 to hit, and a hit roll of 7+ lets them make an extra attack).  What do you get?  A combat phase in which plagueswords are 2 damage base, on a wound roll of 5 each plaguesword does 3 damage, on a wound roll of 6 each plaguesword does '''5 damage''', and if the hit roll is 6, each Plaguebearer makes another attack!  And remember, plagueswords let you re-roll failed wound rolls automatically.  This isn't even considering Epidemius' Tally shenanigans or the hit buff from a nearby Daemon Prince.  Fucking drown your opponent in wounds! Add a Poxbringer and they will wound MEQ's on 2+.
***Realistically you want to target big multi-wound stuff like vehicles, Knights, etc. with this, since the bonus damage is wasted on single-wound opponents (and larger-based targets let you get more Plaguebearers in close to swing). If you're targeting a vehicle with this one-turn damage extravaganza, coordinate the fight phase with a Plague Hulk. The Rusting Curse will effectively give your Plaguebearers AP-1.
**Take 20+ Plaguebearers, buff them with Miasma of Pestilence and park them completely within 7" of a Feculent Gnarlmaw or two.  They'll have a 4+ cover save, and your opponent is at -2 to hit them.  These guys become some of the best objective-campers in the game, because they'll never, ever die.  Maybe keep a GUO with the doomsday bell nearby, so on the off-chance some do kick, you can bring one back each turn.    
*'''[[Nurgling|Nurglings]]:''' (18ppm) Now, who forgot these buggers? These little shits get to deploy 9" away from the enemy DEPLOYMENT ZONE, and then act normally. Yes, that's right. They can move and then charge after doing this. Combined with the Disgustingly resilient rule (which they only get against weapons with damage 1 and they are multi-wound models...), they can easily tie down a shooty unit, or force them to fall back and waste a turn, granting your footsloggers valuable time. Sloppity Bilepipers will give them more attacks for better tarpit functionality. In addition, these very cheap tarpits make a decent objective holder, a screen to protect your units from deep-strikers, and a sneaky way to prevent knights from falling back (they are neither infantry nor bike).

====<span style="color:#387439;">Elites</span>====
*'''[[Beast of Nurgle|Beasts of Nurgle]]''' - Those gross attention whores may look underwhelming at first but their abilities may make them worthwhile. They are pretty cheap at 35 points, making them the most durable unit per point in the entire game and can be taken in units of 9. They make 6 S4 AP0 D2 attacks each and reroll all wound rolls. They can also make Heroic Interventions like characters and if the enemy retreats from them they take a mortal wound on a 4+. With 7 wounds each and a 4++/5++ combined with their ability to regenerate all lost wounds, they will stick around practically forever. However, the poor guy remains disgustingly slow. Best used alongside Horticulous Slimux as a bodyguard, since they can intercept foes who might tie the Grand Cultivator up while gaining greater accuracy and rerollable charges in the process.
**The Codex is seeing these guys getting a substantial glow-up, from now being S6 T6 to the now ridiculous 7 wounds that regenerate ''EVERY PHASE'', this now truly feels like an unfeeling mountain of flesh that can withstand whatever comes against them. Let us repeat: They will regenerate all wounds on '''EVERY PHASE''' so long as they do not die, meaning that you're absolutely going to need Eradicators or something of equally high damage to guarantee that these fuckers will die.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Fast Attack</span>====
*'''[[Plague Drones]]:''' Excellent. 4 Wounds at T5 with all the defensive trappings Nurgle Daemons enjoy anyway makes these insanely tough. Add to that the decent movement speed and the 4 damage 2 attacks each Fly dishes out and they become a force to be reckoned with. Can take a beating and nothing wants to be in melee with them. Their shooting sucks, but bad shooting is still better than no shooting whatsoever, right?
*'''[[Plague Toads|Plague Toads of Nurgle]] (Legends FW):''' Fly has been FAQ'd out of their profile. Their melee attacks are still brutal although their maw has been downgraded, dealing S5 Ap-1 D2 and hits of 6 generate more hits - nice considering they only get 3 attacks that hit on a 4+. Their grasping tongue got an upgrade too, although it's an assault d3 instead of pistol hitting at S5 and re-rolling to-wounds. Also T5, W4 and get the 5+++.
*'''[[Pox Riders|Pox Riders of Nurgle]] (Legends FW):''' Still tanky as hell with T/W5, fast-ish movement, banners, instrument, and the ability to get to a -2 to hit above six models. Gone are the degenerating profiles so a full unit will tank 22 lascannon shots, 135 bolter shots and/or 67 assault cannon shots ''without'' degenerating stats - awesome! Combine that with the weapons above and exactly 2 plaguesword attacks at S4.  Now think about the locus bonuses, character re-rolls, stratagems, and psychic powers you can add on top of this. They also come with 60mm bases, which makes them a huge board control unit.  You can make a huge bubble to hide daemon princes.  The drawback?  $$$$$$ These cost a firstborn to purchase from Forgeworld (£65 for 3).

====<span style="color:#387439;">Heavy Support</span>====
*'''[[Plague Hulk of Nurgle]]: (Legends FW)''' Went down in price to 190 pts, so it's closer to the cost of a Soul Grinder. S/T8, 14W, 3+, 5++ and 5+++ Disgusting Resilience; it's slow, unfortunately, with a 7" move that degnerates. You could summon it and its PL did go down but it's still 10 and that's not very reliable. Rusting Curse got buffed to affecting Vehicles within engagement range, and now it improves the AP of attacks against said vehicles by 1 rather than reducing vehicle saves.  Rot Cannon got buffed: 36" Heavy D6, S7 AP-3 D2 and you can re-roll to-wound against anything you shoot, rather than just infantry. Its vomit got a range buff to 12" while retaining its profile: Pistol D6, S5 AP-2 D1 where all shots auto-hit. The Iron Claw remains largely unchanged, Sx2 AP-3 D6 with the Warpsword being potentially good now with User S, AP-3 and a flat 3 damage which also allows you re-rolls to hit (much better than last edition for sure!)... Most people will probably continue taking the claw. All around, the Plague Hulk is a better 9E choice but still suffers from mobility problems. If you can get it close to vehicles, it will straight up ruin tank and artillery formations, but you have to get it there first and although it's tough, it likely won't survive the battering it receives on the way in.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Lord of War</span>====
*'''[[Scabeiathrax the Bloated]] (FW):''' My oh-my is this guy one tough son of a bitch. At T8 with 21 wounds and a 5+/4+ save befitting his station, you will need a crap ton of heavy firepower to put him down. And if he dies, on a 4+ a unit within D6" suffers D6 mortal wounds. His close combat abilities are not to be [[Nurgle|sneezed]] at either. He has Horrific Vomit, which is a 2d6 flamer at S6 AP-2 D2 which can be fired in close combat. Then, he has the Blade of Decay, an S+2 AP-4 sword that does a flat D3+d3 damage and can re-roll wounds. To round it all out, he gets 2D6 additional nurgling attacks at S2 AP0. He can cast 2 powers and deny three powers and knows Smite plus two Nurgle powers. Finally, he lets Nurgle Daemons use his leadership within 6" of him. Oh, did I forget to mention he forces a -1 to melee hit modifier on all friendly Nurgle Daemon units within 6"? Yeah, you want this guy. The only thing stopping you from taking him in every game is he's 475 points, and he's a LoW.

====<span style="color:#387439;">Fortification</span>====
*'''[[Feculent Gnarlmaw]]:''' New Nurgle-themed scenery thing, which is treated as a terrain feature after it's set up. Costs 95 points but isn't a model.  {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemons}} within 7" can fall back or advance and still be able to shoot and/or charge in the same turn, any {{W40kKeyword|Legiones Daemonica Nurgle}} unit completely within 6" that is not a {{W40kKeyword|Vehicle}} or a {{W40kKeyword|Monster}} gets what amounts to light cover, {{W40kKeyword|Chaos Character}}s within 7" can re-roll any dice when summoning {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemons}}. and at the beginning of each turn you have to roll a die for each non-{{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} unit within 3", dealing to each unit a mortal wound on a 4+ and D3 mortal wounds on a 6 (so 0.67 mortals on average).
**Plaguebearers are now specifically blessed by having one, as each command phase lets one pack of them within 6" roll 7d6, with each 6 resurrecting a Plaguebearer at max wounds. Considering that they're now quite tanky as hell, you now have a decent strongpoint to use as a reinforcement spot.
**Obliterators are {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle Daemons}}. Deploy them next to a Gnarlmaw to get a unit with a 2+ armor save that ignores the first two points of AP. They may not have Disgustingly Resilient, but they're still tough bastards that can spew out a lot of much-needed dakka. Better yet, make them Iron Warriors, for rampant technovirus and the strat to reduce incoming AP by 1. Congrats, you have a 2+ vs lascannons! 
**If you intend to summon Nurgle Daemons, take a Fortification Network with one of these. It'll help you summon said Daemons and will also give the summoned Daemons the standard Nurgle detachment buffs once they're on the table.</div></div>

===<span style="color:#471F5F;">Daemons of Slaanesh</span>===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
The Daemons of Slaanesh dance across the battlefield with a grace and speed that defies belief. They can close the distance on the killing fields of a battlefield in a heartbeat, falling upon their surprised and panic-stricken prey with psychotic delight.

Fast and fragile and lots of attacks. If you need to kill large blobs of weaker and/or faster enemies the pretty god's minions will do it for you. They also have surprisingly high AP on their weapons, but Khorne is more consistent at fighting MEQs and tanks. <div class="mw-collapsible-content">

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Warlord Traits</span>====

{{W40kKeyword|HERALD}} units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits. 

#'''Warp Mists:''' You can save up to 2 Warp Storm Points to exploit in future turns. If daemons had a stratagem to take extra warlord traits this might have been nice on a support herald to give a little more flexibility with the Warpstorm. Unfortunately, GW decided fuck them in particular, so this competes with the various killy traits.
#'''Fatal Caress:''' Each time you make a to wound roll of 5+, the target can't take invulnerable saves against the attack. Situational, against foes in light armour that rely on their invulnerable save (looking at you [[Harlequin|clowns]]) this can put in work, but in the age of Armour of Contempt there's no guarantee it will make a difference.
#'''The Murderdance:''' +d3 attacks if your warlord charges. The Masque gets this.
#'''Quicksilver Duelist:''' Can reroll to hit anything in melee and can reroll to wound when in melee against a {{W40kKeyword|Character}}. Shalaxi has this.
#'''Savage Hedonist:''' +1 Strength per turn, to a max of 3. Well, this can help make your heralds hit like monsters and your princes and keepers overwhelm other monsters...if you can keep them alive for long enough
#'''Aura of Bewitchment:''' Enemies within 6" cannot perform objective actions. Syll’Esske has this.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Stratagems</span>====
*'''The Endless Dance (1 CP):''' When a {{w40kKeyword|Daemonettes}} unit fights, they can pile in or consolidate an additional 3" for extra coverage when hitting the enemy.
*'''Exquisite Gifts (1 CP):''' Another generic "extra relics" strat.
*'''Impossible Elegance (1 CP):''' When a non-{{w40kKeyword|Vehicle Character}} fights, they cannot be hit by anything higher than a 4+. Way to piss off all the elite swordsmen and monsters of the world, you just tanked their accuracy.
*'''Melodic Delirium (1 CP):''' Use at the start of the Psychic phase. One unit of Fiends gains a new aura that makes psykers within 12" take -2 to their casting checks.
*'''Race through the Warp (1 CP):''' During the Command phase, one {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh Vehicle}} that isn't a soul grinder can immediately fly back into reserves to be thrown elsewhere. This is especially useful since your chariots have zero shooting to rely upon.
*'''Rapturous Standard (1CP):''' Pick one {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh Icon}} unit during the fight phase. This entire unit can now re-roll to hit, which is incredibly cool to get and is now usable more than once!
*'''Razor-sharp Caress (1 CP):''' When a {{w40kKeyword|Daemonettes}} unit fights, a natural hit roll of 6 improves the AP of their weapons by 1. 
*'''Thirst for Souls (1 CP):''' Ancient Doom for the other side. When one of your units fight an {{W40kKeyword|Aeldari}} unit, you can reroll hit and wound rolls against your favorite snacks.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Exalted Keeper of Secrets</span>====
As with things like Chapter Command, you no longer need to spend CP in order to upgrade one of your nameless Keepers into something bigger and <s>hornier</s> meaner. Instead, you can spend points and PL for that.

*'''Diaphanous Panoply:''' Ranged attacks take -1 to wound this cow-man. There's not much you can do to stop a lascannon from nailing them, so take what you can to make sure they can't make their mark.
*'''Epicurean of Agonies:''' Each natural 6 to hit scores another hit.
*'''Insatiable Onslaught:''' +2 to charge and advance rolls. You're already freakishly fast, so why not make it even easier to bumrush your enemies?

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Relics</span>====
*'''The Forbidden Gem:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} models only. During each command phase, you can shut down all auras for one character within 12". While not as fun as last edition, this is infinitely more useful in the aura-stacking meta of 9E.
*'''The Mark of Excess:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} models only. Bearer gets +1 attack by default, and gets another +1 every time he kills a {{w40kKeyword|Character, Vehicle}} or a {{w40kKeyword|Monster}}.
*'''Silverstrike:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} models only. Upgrade a Witstealer to S+3 AP-3 D3 with a sinister trick: Enemies wounded by this sword take -1 to all hit and wound rolls. Not only is this potent, but it's now able to cripple enemies too.
*'''Soulstealer:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} models only. Replaces a Witstealer sword or Hellforged sword. A dangerous S+2 AP-3 D3 weapon. Each time a model is slain by this weapon, the bearer regains one lost wound to a max of 6 each turn. In addition, you auto-wound all Eldar. Useful for keeping a melee character alive, gives Eldar a reason to stay far away from you. Give this to your Keeper of Secrets or DPoS for an infantry killing machine that '''just won't die!'''
*'''Slothful Claws:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} Herald models only. One set of Ravaging Claws or Snapping Claws gains +1 Damage and anyone hurt by it cannot use auras for the rest of the turn. Take over the Forbidden Gem if you intend to keep this Keeper in melee, otherwise take the Gem instead.
*'''Whip of Agony:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} models only. Upgrade Living Whip or Lashes of Torment. This whip now becomes Assault 8 and will auto-wound on a 4+ if the target is not {{W40kKeyword|Vehicle}} or {{W40kKeyword|Titanic}}.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">HQ</span>====
=====<span style="color:#471F5F;">General</span>=====
*'''[[Keeper of Secrets]]:''' With the release of the new plastic model the Keeper has gotten a new revised datasheet and 210 pts base cost. The new price includes one of three options: the living whip, ritual knife, or Sinistrous Hand. If you take the Shining Aegis, that adds +10 pts.  An already frightfully speedy unit (who gets slower the more wounds it takes) its movement has increased to 14", and now has 16 wounds. Its base combat ability remains impressive as always, with its Snapping Claws becoming Malefic 4 with an absurdly high AP-4 D3 while the primary Witstealer Sword boosts combat with S+2 AP-3 D3 that makes those wounded by it suffer -1 to hit. The best part is you don't have to choose between the two; with the claws being Malefic, all your attacks default to the sword for a total of 10 (!) attacks at full wounds, and even at its lowest, you're still throwing around an impressive amount of attacks. Mesmerizing Aura penalizes enemy attacks in melee with -1 to hit, which gives it protection similar to the Bloodthirster's flat 4+/4+. Cast Symphony of Pain on the target of your charge for an additional -1 to hit. In combat wound them with Witstealer for an additional -1 to hit. Now characters are hitting on a 5+. Or alternately, take the free Soulstealer relic sword and recover previously lost wounds by killing enemy models, all of which stack with the Sinistrous Hand. Make this Keeper exalted with the Insatiable Onslaught trait and now you're charging 20+2d6" EVERY TURN. If you make the charge into a chaff unit, she'll kill 6 and recover a max of 6+d3 wounds. Soulstealer also auto-wounds all Eldar, making it into an evil blender with picky tastes.
**As with the Lord of Change, the KoS can actually learn two powers on top of Smite, making for a potent buffing daemon as well. Grab Symphony of Pain and Hysterical Frenzy and you've got yourself the ideal blender at hand. Swap Symphony of Pain for Delightful Agonies and you've just made a pack of Daemonettes durable and much deadlier. 
**As this is a fancy multi-part kit, your keeper comes with new wargear options:
<tabs>
<tab name="Living Whip"> 
12" Assault 6 S6 AP-2 D2. It can no longer hit anything within engagement range, so its value solely relies upon how much you need that shooting. Luckily, that 2+ BS doesn't decay.
</tab>
<tab name="Shining Aegis">
Grants a 4+/4+ save, which is very handy for a unit that's likely to attract chargers and incapable of hiding behind anything. Nothing quite tops a Daemon Prince hiding behind the Daemonettes though.
</tab>
<tab name="Ritual Knife">
At the end of the fight phase, pick one enemy model about 3" away that lost wounds by this model and roll D6: On a 2+, that enemy suffers D3 MW. Made specifically to screw over monsters and heroes with annoying damage mitigation.
</tab>
<tab name="Sinustrous Hand">
If the user kills any non-vehicle in the Fight phase, it heals D3 wounds. What, was the Soulstealer sword not enough healing for you?
</tab>
</tabs>
*'''Herald of Slaanesh:''' 
<tabs>
<tab name="Tranceweaver"> 
The newly named generic Herald of Slaanesh on foot, oddly renamed from Viceleader to Tranceweaver. Sadly, the official miniature is still resin only but easily converted from various Slaanesh plastic kits. She's fairly speedy at 9" movement and is a Psyker who can cast/deny 1 power, knowing Smite and one power from the Soulstain discipline. Alongside her herald-based re-roll 1s to wound aura, the special aura gives {{W40kKeyword|Core Daemonettes}} who roll a natual 6 to wound a bump in AP, which is...not quite as necessary considering that they get AP-2 on those claws, but it does negate Armour of Contempt.
</tab>
<tab name="Tormentbringer on Seeker Chariot">
Tired of having very fragile Heralds? Have this fairly fragile one. With the Steed of Slaanesh going Legends, these are now your budget mounted heralds. The regular Seeker Chariot variant is now 100 pts, and like all Slaanesh units, it is a bit of a glass hammer. 12" move, T5, a 5+/4+ Save, and 7 wounds to let it hide behind screens gives you a mobile leader, but it will crumble if it gets focused down, -1 to hit from ranged attacks be damned. There is some potential for play if you give the Herald the Slothful Claw relic. Otherwise, you are looking at six S4 AP-2 D2 attacks and four Malefic attacks at S4 with no AP from the steeds pulling the thing. If you manage to charge, you can cause mortal wounds to enemy models within 1" on a roll of a 5+ on 4d6 and gain two extra attacks, which just reinforces the units roll as a chafe cleaner. Charge into a screening unit, clear it out, and hopefully your Keeper of Secrets will have a clear path to something important. All in all, you are paying some extra points for extra toughness and wounds, a few extra attacks, a small chance of mortal wounds when charging, and, most importantly, a bigger base, which means his aura of +1S is bigger. It's probably the best Herald, but it's hard to maneuver, so be careful.
</tab>
<tab name="Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot">
Sadly inferior to the smaller chariot. On paper, it starts off nice. With 16 attacks in melee (8 from the Herald's ravaging claws and 8 from the mounts) it would seem to be a strong melee threat. Furthermore, the larger base size means more Daemonettes will be benefitting from your auras. Then you run into the problem of getting it to your opponent's battle line. Having 12 wounds looks nice, but that means you can't hide behind a blob, and if you lose half your wounds (and it will be soon enough, trust me) it becomes slower and worthless in melee because of degrading stats. To seal the deal, it costs 20 points more than a normal Herald on Seeker Chariot with no other benefits. Avoid this.
</tab>
<tab name="Tormentbringer on Hellflayer">
For 10 pts more than a Herald on a Seeker Chariot, you get a unit with all the Seeker Chariot's strengths while being slightly better at tackling MEQs. The Hellflayer replace the Scything Impact rule with a unique weapon: the Bladed Axle. This is stronger than the rest of the vehicle's attacks at S+2 AP-2 D2, but it's helf back by being Malefic 4, so you can't rely on it to kill a whole combat squad of marines. However, charging gives this axle Malefic 6, making said wipes come more easily.
</tab>
<tab name="Herald of Slaanesh on Steed of Slaanesh (Legends)">
Sadly consigned to oblivion in Legends. A basic Herald mounted on a Steed which grants 14" movement, re-rolling charges, and +1 wound for 85 pts. Taken in a Slaanesh Daemon detachment she has a 6" aura which allows units to advance and charge in the same turn. The Legends update finally gives her Ravaging Claws with S: user/AP-1/Dmg 2/Counts as AP-4 on a wound roll of 6. Which can now be swapped out for the Slothful Claw relic.
**Even less useful now, as the Herald got none of the updates from the codex. It still relies on (irrelevant) Quicksilver Swiftness and doesn't get any of the new Daemon rules. It also gains nothing from any of the other buff auras due to keyword fuckery.
</tab>
<tab name="Contorted Epitome">
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose ass is going to be fucked up worst of all?" 2 heralds riding on a magic mirror that acts as a psychic turret, casting and denying two powers per turn. Taken along with an Infernal Enrapturess and Fiends it can provide excellent Psychic Defense. It also has a 2+ save against mortal wounds that protect it further from enemy psykers, and enemy units including fliers that get within 6" of it need to roll a Leadership score on a 3d6 or else have their movement cut in half and take -1 to hit anything, making them effectively sitting ducks against the oncoming tide of Fiends and Daemonettes.  Be sure to take Phantasmagoria for its 12" penalty aura of -1 LD as one of its powers. There is only ~37.5% chance to roll lower than LD10 on 3D6 and pass the test. Debuffing LD even by -1 reduces the chance of an LD7-8 unit escaping to ~26%, and if you recall Daemonic's 6" Leadership debuff aura, you'll realize just how devastating this can be. Anything LD7 would effectively be stuck as they only have a ~0.46% chance to escape. 
**Don't count this out as a beatstick! Aside from the eight attacks made by the Heralds' claws, you also get a Malefic 3 attack from the various unpleasantness of the portal, giving S+1 AP-2 D3 attacks to help take down Primaris with ease.
**But the Contorted Epitomes isn't just an extra killy Daemon Prince it's also an amazing Psyker. What really makes the Mirror powerful is its synergy with the Infernal Enrapturess and Fiends. Because of its speed, the Epitome is best taken alongside chariots, fiends or seekers. If you're running swarms of Daemonettes, take Syll'Esske if you have the extra points.
</tab>
<tab name="Infernal Enrapturess">
Rather than frontline combat, the Infernal Enrapturess provides powerful sonic fire support with her Heartstring Lyre, a dual profile gun that's either an Assault 6 18” S4 AP-1 D1 assault rifle or an Assault 1 24” S8 AP-3 D3+d3 shotgun. But wait, there's more! Her Discordant Disruption ability causes enemy psykers within 24” to suffer Perils of the Warp on any doubles. While not as powerful with the loss of the Fiends' constant anti-psyker power, it remains a deterrent against careless psykers. Finally, she has the Harmonic Alignment special rule, allowing you to resurrect a single slain {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh Core}} model or d3 Daemonettes within 6" to top off the ranks.
*Perhaps you're not surprised, but this also has the {{W40kKeyword|Warp Locus}} keyword, making it great for supporting deep-striking daemons.
</tab>
</tabs>

=====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Named</span>=====
*'''[[Shalaxi Helbane]]:''' TACTICAL WHORE, INCOMING! Slaanesh is at long last getting a named Greater Daemon (that isn't the super powerful uber number one overpriced)! Her Soulpiercer spear is a ridiculous Sx2 AP-4 Dd6, and if it scores a 6 to wound against a character it always does the full 6 damage. She also wears the Cloak of Constriction, which imposes a -1 to wound against enemy melee attacks, which nicely complements the hit penalty she shares with the standard Keeper of Secrets. Delicate Precision allows her to re-roll wound rolls of 1. While Monarch of the Hunt allows her to move 6" during a pile in or heroic intervention as long as it is towards the nearest enemy character. If you make her your warlord she must take Quicksilver Duelist which allows her to re-roll to hit and wound enemy characters. Finally, she can take either a Living Whip: 6"/S6/AP-2/Damage 2/Assault 6/attacks from this weapon can target enemy units within 1"; for 240 pts. Or a shining Aegis: roll D6 whenever the model takes a wound on a  6+ the wound is ignored; mortal wounds are ignored on a  5+; for 250 pts. Since she has Delightful Agonies as a psychic power skip the shield and take the living whip instead. Counterpoint - the shield is viable as there are a lot of other excellent Slaanesh powers that make you a beast in cc (looking at you hysterical / symphony). Plus the shield looks dope as hell.
*'''[[The Masque of Slaanesh]]:''' Due to the changes in how characters work, the Masque is finally granted the protection of hiding behind a blob of Daemonettes. As well as gains a stunning new plastic model. She can advance or fall back and charge in the same turn, and she forces a -1 to-hit penalty against enemy attacks that target a Daemonette unit within 6" of her in the fight phase (and she has the DAEMONETTE keyword, so that applies to her too). Also, if she's locked in combat with something, you add 1 to hit against the target unit. Her Ravaging Claws are now S: user and AP-2, with DMG 2. Her cost increased in MFM21 going from 78 pts to 85 pts. If your running Mono-Slaanesh, you should always be taking her. She combo very well with Syll'Esske in a massive swarm of Daemonettes.
*'''[[Syll’Esske]]:''' 200 points and so 15 more than a fully kitted out DP, let's see what they get. For starters, as a Prince and Herald mix, they get the aura abilities of both, rerolls of 1 to hit and wounds for core is pretty nice. Statline wise, Syll'Esske is also a mix of Herald and DP (on foot, but with the +2 movement baked in, moving them to 10"). Syll'Esske's shooting is based off of the herald, who has a 3+, Strength too. Everything else except Leadership is off of a DP except for leadership. Which is neither 8 or 10, and instead a 9? Okay. Deadly Symbiosis is gone, instead opting for turning the Scouring Whip into a Malefic 6 weapon. The Axe of Dominion is still the same, but Syll'Esske loosing the +1 Strength Aura turns this into a worse Hellforged Sword at maxing at S:7 vs 8. Overall it seems like Syll'Esske has seen an overall nerf in 9th edition. In fact the only buff they've done is let them cast and know an extra power, but not deny an extra one. I guess the best place for Syll'Esske is to save yourself an HQ slot and pal them up with a few units of daemonettes to get the most out of their auras.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Troops</span>====
*'''[[Daemonettes]]:''' The Daemonettes were the best daemon at ripping up armor until 8th came along and made Bloodletters more reliable at it. Their Piercing claws are AP-2, compared to the Bloodletters and their Hellblades which have a higher strength with AP-3 and D2 to rip apart marines in a single swing. This isn't to say these girls aren't good at the job, but they have been overshadowed, especially now that MEQs tend to have multiple wounds. They still have more attacks (and at 10 models and 4 attacks per model, you're rolling for over 40 attacks) and an absurd 10" movement which would make them great... if only they weren't so frail! Instead, use them like you would Genestealers - throw something else at TEQs while you use these girls to overwhelm some camping shits in cover. Daemonettes rely on getting into combat ''fast'' so be sure you get them stuck in quickly, especially if you deep-strike them.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Elites</span>====
*'''[[Fiends of Slaanesh]]:''' S5/T4/W4 with four AP-4 D2 claw swipes and a Malefic 1 tail with AP-3 D3. With 4 attacks a turn, they are good at fighting multi-wounds units... but that's not their main role. Their role is more to frustrate as their Soporific Musk makes enemies engaged with them take -1 to hit, absolutely infuriating and will keep them tied up for a surprise reaming from a Keeper or Daemonette pack. They sadly lost the ability to tie up enemies by making them unable to fall back, but you're so fast that you can immediately rush them regardless.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Fast Attack</span>====
*'''[[Seekers of Slaanesh]]:''' They've lost their innate Advance and Charge rules in the new codex but they still have access to the rules with the new loci ability. Instead, their Unholy Speed rule now allows them to re-roll charges. Holy smokes, that's an impressive threat range of 32" (33" with an instrument of chaos, since you still can't declare charges outside 12"), and an average of 26,5". With 2 wounds each, their role is clear; you can reliably charge turn one and engage stuff you don't want to shoot, and have just the right stuff not to get completely demolished by overwatch and resist a turn or two. They have the same attacks of the Daemonettes plus 2 attacks from the mount, but don't expect them to kill too much, especially without a Herald to back them (you can have one, but since Seekers will run as close as the enemy as possible, it's risky. If the Seekers get destroyed, you will most probably lose the expensive Herald too). In general, if you play mono-Slaanesh you want a big unit of those girls.
*'''[[Hellflayer]]:''' It's nice to see that the Hellflayer finally has a role on its own, instead of being "just a Seeker Chariot with an extra gimmick". Hellflayers don't have the Scything Impact of the chariot, but instead, have D6 extra attacks at Sx2 AP-1 D2. High strength attacks are rare in this army, so having another source such as this is welcome. Laugh at the image of an Hellflayer destroying tanks with their blades. They gained +1 attack in the new codex but nothing else.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Heavy Support</span>====
*'''[[Seeker Chariot]]:''' Cheap and flexible. Seeker Chariots have both the piercing claws and the lashes of torment (which can hit in and out of combats), and their Scything Impact ability gives you a slim chance of dealing mortal wounds. They don't really have a role on their own but are always a nice addition. They gained +1 attack in the new codex but nothing else.
*'''[[Exalted Seeker Chariot]]:''' Just like the Hellflayers got some different stuff, now even this is not "just a Seeker Chariot but bigger" anymore. Unlike the Seeker Chariot, this thing have scalable wounds and start with a respectable WS 2+ and 8 attacks, only to lose them when it gets wounded. It no longer caused mortal wounds on 5+ like in the Index, but rather a 6+ like the regular chariot. So it's more expensive than the Seeker Chariot and potentially far stronger. On full and half wounds, it's better in every situation. Causing more wounds than a regular chariot. Once it gets to it's final wound bracket, the regular chariot is better; but by this point, it's already taken 1.5x the wounds of a regular chariot and is still on the table. Sitting at 80 pts with MFM21; basically take this one if you can spare the 20 points more.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Lord of War</span>====
*'''Zarakynel:''' With our great and glorious overlords at GW writing the imperial armour books Zarakynel has seen a rework, and will still violate all your orifices with joyous abandon. They lost their 3++ in combat for a simple 5+/4+ like any other keeper, but instead gained a -1 to hit from all sources, which is better as the move has been towards giving all units lower ballistic skills unless they're the bees knees. At 18 wounds they're still exposed to ranged firepower, but at movement 14" and having extra wounds means that you can run from cover to and not care, although being a Monster will make cover a bit harder to find.
**Melee is much the same (Zarakynel falls into the category of units that still get to hit on a 2+), just with the... Delicious? improvements. Firstly, the claw attack which you never had a reason to use before, that gets 4 extra attacks with it each fight phase, and at S7 AP-3 D3 its going to do something to those unfortunate enough to be hit. Then there's the famous Souleater Blade. S9 AP-3 D3 means that Zaraknyel can easily chop through marines with ease, Armour of Contempt be damned. But that is not why you choose the blade. You choose it because on a 4+ to wound you deal 3 mortal wounds instead of normal damage, letting you chop through any manner of damage. This is a big deal. In 9th edition mortal wounds are much harder to come by, and on the whole all units have gained more wounds. So having a weapon which will deal, on average, '''7.5 Mortal Wounds''' each time it fights, against all targets, is a big deal. Then there's the earlier reference to delicious. If Zarakynel kills '''ANY''' non-vehicle '''MODEL''' in the fight phase they regain D6 previously lost wounds. Against pretty much anything short of demon primarchs, it is simply impossible to kill this unit.
**For further context, Zarakynel costs 450 points. Guilliman costs around 400 points, and is much slower, doesn't hit as hard, and comes wrapped with a delicious snack of meatshields. Overall, Zarakynel costs roughly the same as before, but is now balanced for their cost, and will make a joyous addition to any army of debauchery.

====<span style="color:#471F5F;">Fortification</span>====
</div></div>

===<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Daemons of Tzeentch</span>===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
The Daemons of Tzeentch surround themselves in layer upon layer of mind-traps and illusions, each mirage shifting into the next. The result utterly confounds those nearby that would do the Daemons harm, and means their attacks are often ineffective.

Tzeentch is the shooting department in the codex while the other gods often footslog to the enemy to kill him in melee. They also specialize in the Psychic phase, with many casting attempts, Denies, and abilities to get them. That doesn't mean that the bird nutters don't have a few okay melee units or tricks and with a widespread 3+ save at range they can be hard to kill as well. The problem is that they are utterly exposed in melee, protected by only the weakest saves.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Warlord Traits</span>====

{{W40kKeyword|HERALD}} units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits. 

#'''Born of Sorcery:''' +1 to all psychic tests your warlord takes in each psychic phase. This will stack with other modifiers, so it's great for making the psychic phase better and your Smite hit harder.
#'''Incorporeal Form:''' Enemies take -1 to wound this warlord. Good against everything, you want this on your Lord of Change. Bolters wound you on 6s, AV wounding you on 4s, and even the really big stuff can only ever would on 3s. Strictly better than T8. Your heralds are too squishy to make much use of this; if they're getting hit, they're probably dead anyways. The Blue Scribes take this.
#'''Fractal Mind:''' Can cast one per turn while also performing a psychic action. Skip unless the objective demands it.
#'''Warp Tethers:''' Your warlord gains Kairos' {{W40kKeyword|Warp Locus}} keyword and a 12" bubble that lets your units re-roll morale checks, a necessity considering how easily they can break. The Changeling takes this.
#'''Lorekeeper of Tzeentch:''' +6" to the any Pandaemoniac power manifested. Sadly won't work on Smite anymore and won't expand the range of any further ranges.
#'''Tyrant of the Warp:''' This warlord never suffers perils, and a nice 5+++ FNP vs MWs on top of that. Naturally, Kairos takes this with his insane amounts of casting.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Stratagems</span>====

*'''Blasted Standard (1CP):''' Used during the psychic phase. Any time a psyker within 12" of a {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Icon}} unit rolls a 9+ to cast a power, the nearest enemy within 24" of the icon takes a surprise MW.
*'''Burning Warpfire (1/2 CP):''' Select a {{W40kKeyword|Flamers}} unit during the shooting phase. When using the Flamers' flickering flames or the pink fire, they always deal 9 hits on a unit of 11+ models. As your premier horde-clearers, you can expect no less.
**Costs 2 CP is used on a unit of 4+ models.
*'''Magical Boon (1 CP):''' One {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Psyker}} can cast an additional psychic power this turn. 
*'''Minions of Magic (1 CP):''' A {{W40kKeyword|Horrors Core}} unit improves the AP of their attacks to -3 on a natural 6 to hit. Gives a nice extra punch to your firing lines. 
*'''Relics of the Impossible Fortress (1 CP):''' Another generic 'extra relics' strat.
*'''Warp Jaws (1 CP):''' In the Fight phase, Screamers, Burning Chariots and Fateskimmers add +1 to wound when targeting {{W40kKeyword|Monsters}} or {{W40kKeyword|Vehicles}} with their mount bites. It's not like you can expect much else from one bite, but it's at least nice to see them try.
*'''Warp Portal (1/2 CP):''' Use in your Movement phase. Select one {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Character}} and remove them from the battlefield. Then, set it back up anywhere that is more than 9" from any enemy models. This counts as its movement. Costs 2 CP on any characters that aren't Heralds.
**With how squishy your heroes have become in melee, this has become an escape button more than a surprise assassination tool.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Exalted Lord of Change</span>====
As with abilities like Chapter Command, you don't need to spend CP to make a super-daemon out of a generic Lord of Change, instead it costs points and PL.
*'''Architect of Deception:''' Enemies take -1 to hit this birdman at range. While very costly, there's nothing more reliable than having the enemy consistently miss out on hitting the broad side of a bird with a lascannon.
*'''Master Mutator:''' At the end of the psychic phase, any enemies already harmed by the birdman's powers take an additional MW on a 2+.
*'''Nexus of Fate:''' For each turn the birdman is on the board, you gain a CP on a 4+. The cheapest but also the one with the broadest influence if you consider all the strats available.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Relics</span>====
*'''The Endless Grimoire:''' {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Psyker}} only. Adds an additional step between knowing more powers, as now the bearer must waste a turn to learn an additional power. On the plus side, this can let you learn multiple powers, but there's no need to use this more than once.
*'''Everstave:''' {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Psyker}} only. If this model rolls a 9 to cast Smite or any other witchfire power, the power can't be blocked.
*'''The Impossible Robe:''' {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch}} models only. Once per phase, you can negate the damage of an attack that gets past your save. Beware any attempts to cheese that out with a line of lasguns before firing the lascannon, as you get to choose which wound to ignore. 
*'''Warpfire Blade:''' One melee weapon of your choosing becomes a relic, adding +1 to its damage and making any natural 6s to wound deal a mortal wound on top of everything else. None of your characters want to be in melee though, so why are you taking this?
*'''Ruination:''' Replaces a rod of sorcery, becoming a 12" Assault 3d3 weapon with S6 AP-2 D3. More rapid-fire mayhem than focused-fire destruction.
*'''Soul-Eater Stave:''' {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch Psyker}} only. Whenever an enemy is killed by the bearer's psychic power, they can regain a wound on a 4+ to a max of 6. Nice to make your Lord of Change super tanky. The Impossible Robe is probably better than this, since healing wounds is worse than just not taking damage in the first place.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">HQ</span>====
*'''Lord of Change:''' Your big spell caster lord. A slightly cheaper, less powerful Kairos. Casts 3 just like Kairos, but only 2 denies. These casts get a +2 bonus that degrades with wounds. Has the Greater Daemon aura that lets {{W40kKeyword|Core Tzeentch}} units reroll 1s to hit. Super durable with the -1 to wound exalted trait, -1 to hit warlord trait, and the Impossible Robe to negate one shot (save it for meltas and railguns).
**While its staff gives a surprisingly decent melee statline at S6 AP-2 D3, you can also equip with either a second staff for some non-Psychic shooting or a sword that's a touch deadlier than the staff but has Malefic 3. However, you don't want to be charging this guy into melee against anything with teeth. T7 and a 5++ won't take you very far against something like Terminators or Chosen.
*'''Herald of Tzeentch:''' The Heralds very much embody the fragile wizard trope. Each a flimsy S3 T4 with a puny AP-1 dagger (which you can and probably should replace for a staff for much stronger shooting that can demolish marines) and a 6++/3++ save, but they know two powers and can cast twice and deny once. Like all heralds, they gain a 6" aura that lets {{W40kKeyword|Core Tzeentch}} units reroll 1s to wound, with a second bubble that lets Horrors auto-wound on a nat 6 to hit.
<tabs>
<tab name="Changecaster">
Your basic budget footslogger Herald. 
</tab>
<tab name="Fluxmaster">
Disc Herald. Same as the normal one, but with {{W40kKeyword|Fly}}, 12" movement, and an additional (weak but Malefic) attack for 60 more points. Though the new auras aren't quite as powerful for accompanying Screamers, Flamers absolutely will be throwing out enough shots to make some crits cash in.
</tab>
<tab name="Fateskimmer">
Chariot Herald. A Herald again BUT now with almost two times the wounds AND +2T while still being a character? Check! And the chariot's 6 Malefic S6 AP-3 D2 Attacks? Check! And 14" movement? Check! Also {{W40kKeyword|Fly}}? Check! He can buy a retinue of Horrors for a +1 to casting checks. A very solid HQ, relatively durable and killy (if he manages to hit something), while being quite the bargain at 140 points.
</tab>
</tabs>

=====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Named</span>=====
*'''The Changeling:''' Went from a nice fluffy idea with no real purpose to fuckawesome. Now he can copy the stats (not wounds!) of an infantry model within 1" near him, even the attacks, but most importantly he can copy one weapon profile too, but only from enemy {{W40kKeyword|Infantry}}, so no stealing from Dreadknights. It now can take on a lot of characters, beat them with their own weapons and can actually come out on top of them with its 4++ save. Also, it grants a 6+ FnP for Tzeentch daemons in 9". Oh and he is a psyker and can cast one spell as a cherry on top. No longer the auto-include the index made him, but still useful.
**With Formless Horror '''timing is critical'''. The ability activates ''"when the changeling fights"'' so be careful about getting preemptively struck while in your original vulnerable form before you get the opportunity to.. you know? fight. This means to look out for opponents who charge you with a good chance of taking you outright. The 1" limit is also something to be careful of as well because unless you can pile in and move across to that big bad dude on the other side of the melee, you might end up being surrounded by opponents who cannot grant you huge buffs. Leaving you just as vulnerable as when you started, then when he gets the opportunity to pile back, you could be in trouble. To avoid this he can sit behind a unit of something (like horrors) and perform a heroic intervention when they get charged. He will be safe from the charging unit as they can only attack their charge target and he can fall back on your turn so they cannot melee him back. 
*'''The Blue Scribes:''' S3 T4 W5 FUN anti-psyker, They gift enemy psyker -1 to cast and permanently remove (opponents) failed psychic powers within 12" (Ouch!). They also autocast a mostly-random Tzeentch power every turn, and if they successfully removed an opponent's power in the last psychic phase they also autocast Smite. As they are not actually psykers themselves, they cannot deny opponent powers- but at the same time, their own powers can't be denied or trigger Perils, as no psychic test is made for them. Just remember to have them cast first, so they don't randomly roll something you've already used. Actually, the FAQ says that's not an issue. This makes them a viable choice, but you need to play them precisely to always position yourself to be able to use all of the powers (preferred range - within 12-18" of the enemy and within 18" of a unit you would want to buff with flickering flames or boon of change (i.e. flamers or pink horrors, alternatively even obliterators, daemon engines or tzaangor enlightened).
*'''[[Kairos Fateweaver]]:''' He knows Smite and all Tzeentch powers, has a casting bonus equal to the current turn (+5 to cast in the last turn!) and can choose one opponent's strategem to cost an extra CP for the rest of the game. Expensive and decent in melee but more importantly he can cast 3 powers and knows EVERY TZEENTCH POWER. Like the rest of the "We were really powerful psykers once. No, REALLY!" characters, the chicken king can deny three times. 
** A few things to keep in mind when comparing Kairos to a regular LoC. Kairos will hit with higher strength in close combat, hitting at S8 compared to the LoC's S6/7 making him better in fights against VEQ's, but he can't take Relics, he can't take Exalted Traits, and the Warlord Trait he is forced into is fairly mediocre (can't perils, 5+++ vs mortal wounds). Since the codex limits you to one warlord trait, you'll probably want him if you're tooling up one generic Greater Daemon but still want a LoC.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Troops</span>====
*'''Horrors of Tzeentch''' Greatly changed from their previous incarnations, when a Horror is killed it splits into smaller horrors and also stays part of the same unit. Though you no longer have to pay for this division, you do now have to roll a 4+ on each death for it to succeed - needless to say, the moment you get charged, you'll absolutely be praying that you make those splits because that 6++ save and T3 will see them torn to bits. The unit is now automatically locked to a default size of 10, but on average that means a Pink unit turns into 10 Blues and then 5 Brimstones, or 25 bodies total, which is nothing to simply pass up (starting at 10 Blues simply proceeds, on average, to 5 Brimstones). They have 2 18" ranged attacks but have sadly lost their traditional ability to become budget psykers.
**All horrors are M6 T3 W1 DSv 6++/X++.  They are armed with Coruscating Flames: 18" Assault 2 S+1 AP-1 D1.
**'''Pink Horrors:''' Have gotten even more expensive at 14ppm. Shoots at S4 and BS3+, and having at least 1 in the unit is necessary for performing actions and retaining Objective Secured. DSv 6++/3++. Considering you get ten pink horrors in the regular kit, 10 blue horrors (you need 20 in theory), and 10 brimstone horrors (also 20), you have to buy 2 kits in case you roll hot. At current retail price, that would cost approximately $114 and $228 for the brimstones/blue horrors, making the total about $342 + tax. Whilst very fluffy, it is impractical for anything outside of an apocalypse game as they will definitely not perform up to their point costs and losing a single pink horror in the morale phase would be devastating. 
**'''Blue Horrors''' Like a Pink Horror with -1 BS/WS/S/Ld/ranged DSv (-2 Ld relative to the Iridescent leader), but also does not really cost anything either, at 7ppm. Only given a 6++/4++ now, if you wanted a Tzeentch tarpit you have no better option. Not only do these units have no ability to perform actions, but they also lack ObSec so they're singularly dedicated to being tarpits.
**'''Brimstone Horrors''' No longer available as their own unit, instead only appearing on a successful split roll for a Blue Horror. Not only are they subject to all the handicaps the Blues get, they are also even weaker now at a pathetic S1 Ld4 DSv 6++/5++, so you can't even expect them to fight back, much less shoot.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Elites</span>====
*'''Flamers''': For now, arguably the best unit in all of 40k; with a 12" movement and shooting D6+3 S5 AP-2 torrent of magical fire (the codex improving the Flamers into being beefed-up Heavy Flamers), but their melee prowess has become laughable as their save has degraded to a 6++ in melee while their shooting save was improved to a hefty 3++. The Q1 2023 Dataslate decided to nerf them further by making their attacks need to hit normally, reducing their damage output.
**'''Note:''' their weapon strength is S:user, which means a nearby Exalted Flamer will give them S6. A squad of 5 5D6+15 S6 shots, and you can take 3 squads. These are going to eat most infantry for breakfast. With a herald nearby for reroll 1s to wound and +1 to wound psychic power, these will delete everything your opponent has.
*'''Exalted Flamer''': A flamer with a brighter flame for slightly less than the cost of a unit of flamers. However, you don't take these guys for the 2d6 s5 ap-2 attacks, you take them for the 3 S9 Ap-4 D3 Damage mini lascannon shots at 18" range hitting on a 3+. Also, the single model is a character.  Take these guys behind those units of brimstones to prevent them from being shot.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Fast Attack</span>====
*'''Screamers of Tzeentch:''' They're still fast Flyers and are monster/tank hunters. When flying over a unit, Roll a D6 for each passing Screamer and on a 6 the unit suffers a mortal wound. On top of each making 3 Lamprey bites that are S+2 (S6 or 7) AP-3 and do 2 Damage. They have little defense (T4, W2, InvSv 4++). They are pretty good once again. A unit of 6 (158 pts.) Could easily rip apart most infantry and hunt tanks with their Warp Jaws Stratagem.
**They are one of the few Tzeentch units that want to be in melee. This makes them natural targets for Boon of Change.
**The codex is giving them the ability to redeploy whenever they advance, allowing them to bounce anywhere across the board to harass anything you need.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Heavy Support</span>====
*'''Burning Chariot''' Same as an Exalted Flamer but has double the wounds, a 14" move, worse Weapon Skill, is toughness 6 instead of 5, has a 4+/4+ instead of 6+/3+, and is driven by a pair of Screamers which get to make an additional six hits in combat (at S6 AP-3 D2), all for 110 points. The big trade-off is that it loses the Character Keyword which is one of the best things about the Exalted Flamer which could be hidden behind a wall of horrors and kill tanks. The extra resilience helps to combat the loss, but a couple of lucky lascannon shots will bring it down quickly. Note, it will take on average 10.3 lascannon shots with BS3+ and 13.7 w/BS4+ to bring it down. So it's not as good as the Exalted flamer with the loss of Character status, but it is a lot tougher than it first appears and makes a half-decent distraction carnifex rushing up the boarding shooting stuff.

====<span style="color:#01bbe3;">Lord of War</span>====
*'''Aetaos'Rau'Keres:''' Good luck trying to pronounce that name! Like Fateweaver, he has an innate +2 to his casting rolls (that gets reduced the more wounds he loses) and knows 3 Pandaemoniac powers and Smite and can deny 3 powers, too. Unlike Fateweaver, this guy gets WS/BS 2+, and T8 W27. Shooting-wise his Staff of Cataclysm is Assault 2d6 S9 AP-4 D3 and can be fired within 1" of enemy models and into melee. Also, if you slay the final model of a unit with 10 or more models (highly likely), you immediately get 3 Flamers of Tzeentch, provided you have the reinforcement points on hand. To further contrast his might with Fateweaver, his smite has 48 inches instead of 36, and if anyone dares to shoot him with a psychic power and succeed on it, roll a d6, and on a 5+ he ignores the power that was cast on him and the caster suffers a mortal wound. Just wait for your opponent to think that they would rather try their luck in melee with him instead of shooting, he's a monster there too. Be careful though, if an enemy Lord of Change or Daemon Prince comes within 12" of him, roll a die and on a 4+ he must attack that unit with his Staff, ignoring the rules for targeting models (so he can shoot them if they're a character and not the closest unit, or if he can't see them). Hilariously, he has the lord of change keyword so he will always hit himself on a 4+, and the staff is actually pretty dangerous against him. 
**'''Chapter Approved Alternate Take:''' This guy's 600 points in Chapter Approved. This guy's a bit expensive for what he brings to the table now. Pass.</div></div>

===Neutral===
Here are the daemons any god can take.
====HQ====
*'''Daemon Prince of Chaos:''' Your classic murder-machine, coming in at S7 T6 with 8 wounds and a 5+/4+ Daemonic Invuln. Even better, they don't suffer from degrading statlines like the Greater Daemons do. They can also buy wings and another weapon to make them even deadlier. Double Talons have become the cheap horde option, though AP-1 means that Armour of Contempt can ruin their turn. If picking between the sword and axe, pick the sword if you're intending to go against a lot of heavy armor units and pick the axe if you intend to target high toughness monsters. DPs are a very good all-round unit in a codex with otherwise specialized units and can compensate the respective god's weakness.
**They must choose allegiance to a Chaos god and gains a special perk for it, considering how the big four no longer have any overarching rules for their daemons. They all can become psykers except for Khorne-aligned princes, which gain +1 Strength and +2 Attacks to compensate for their lack of psychic potential. Tzeentch in particular prefers them to be psykers as princes can now cast twice in a turn and know an additional power from their discipline. Nurgle and Slaanesh in the meanwhile just give +1 Toughness and +2" Movement respectively.
**Note: Being a large beast with 8 wounds, they have a very important role in your army--forcing your opponents to choose between shooting your big scary Greater Daemon who is scary by itself but has a useful but slightly meh aura, or trying to shoot down your hordes of Lesser Daemons that are protecting a monster that is almost as scary. Bonus points if you can also have a Herald in there too.
**''Important Note:'' Fly again allows models to move across enemy models while charging. However, flyers can no longer block movement, and a demon prince that flies into ruins in the movement phase can still be stuck there in the charge phase. It also makes them a visible target for the multitude of strats that do target flying enemies.

*'''Be'lakor:''' The Dark Master has taken a price hike, but he still has his good points. He is now effectively a greater daemon masquerading as a daemon prince, complete with that degenerating statline and the {{W40kKeyword|Supreme Commander}} keyword. All attacks against him take a -1 to hit and wound penalty and cannot reroll failed hits. Finally, any ranged attacks that actually wound him have their damage reduced by 1. He knows 2 psychic powers from his own super-special discipline, and can cast 2 powers compared to the DP's one. He lost access to the whole of Malefic which is really sad, but he's an excellent psychic nuker that can buff Daemons of any allegiance.
**As Be'lakor all four gods' keywords, allowing him to nominally be usable in any mono daemons detachment and keep the rest of the detachment buffs. That said, he's not likely to benefit from any of it and he forbids using any other daemon princes. In fact, he hates other daemon princes so much that he can re-roll to hit and wound another daemon prince he fights.
**As of the new codex, he now has his own unique WT. All it does is let a single {{W40kKeyword|Core}} unit within 9" re-roll to hit, which is a bit of a step up from Charadon since this is no longer exclusively tied to just his super-special fanclub.
**Be'lakor's Blade of Shadows has been tweaked to have two different attack modes. Sweeping Strikes is the horde-buster, acting like a Power Sword which makes two hit rolls per attack. Piercing Strike is what you take when you need something dead RIGHT NOW, with S+4 AP-4 D3+d3 and the ability to outright negate invulnerable saves.

====Fast Attack====
*'''Chaos Furies''' Furies are no longer in the codex. Weep for them, for this loss is particularly confusing seeing that they recently got new models.

====Heavy Support====
*'''Soul Grinder''' Your heavy fire support platypus. Heavy because it comes with 16 wounds and a 5+/4+ save plus it can be whatever mark you want (e.g. Nurgle for that +1 Toughness or Tzeentch for 4+/4+ save against all those nasty heavy weapons out there). Fire Support because it gets you two 36+” high strength okay-AP weapons. With a move of 8" it can keep up with other more vulnerable stuff and draw some fire while returning some, with Slaaneshi grinders becoming more like skittering death machines. Moving into 9th may have given the Soul Grinder a small boon, all for being a vehicle. As it stands, it ignores the heavy rule, so the SG may have become a viable battering ram at range and melee for Daemon armies, especially given its propensity not really caring about a degrading BS. It still doesn't shoot good, but now it's not as bad as it was.
**The new Codex has given you a reason to stick with the warp sword over the warp claw. The claw now gives you Malefic 4 at S8 AP-2 D2 while the sword's Malefic 2 with S8 AP-3 D3+d3, meaning the claw has more value against crowds while the sword's for popping tanks. However, Malefic also means that you can only make a set number of attacks. For the rest of the fight phase, you're stuck with the iron claw, a power fist-like weapon let down by its swingy d6 damage. Fortunately, you have five swings with it, and going to Khorne gives another two attacks to go ham with.
*'''Giant Chaos Spawn<sup>Legends,Forge World</sup>:''' Got some buffs from Warhammer Legends: S/T6, degenerating BS, an 8+D6 move to start and churning claws and fangs hitting with AP-2 and dealing 2 damage apiece. The GCS retains its 6+d6 attacks to start, 4+ and 5++ saves from the last time. The big reworking is the special rules now that most of the stats are no longer randomized. You get a similar mutated beyond reason rule to regular gribbly beasts getting either AP-4 attacks, +6 attacks (as opposed to +D6) or re-rolling to-wound rolls at the whim of a d3 at the start of the fight phase. Additionally, the GCS causes -1 Ld to all models in engagement, not just enemies... eep! At 150 pts. a model, the changes to stats are nice but they no longer regain wounds, which makes them a bit more frail. You can summon them to save them from being shot to ribbons, though their PL went up from 5 to 7 - still doable, but the next one is arguably a bit better and costs 10 pts. less.
*'''Spined Chaos Beast<sup>Legends,Forge World</sup>:''' The other generic Forgeworld HS beasty kindly buffed by Warhammer Legends: Forgeworld. Retains its S/T of 7 and 6 respectively from previous editions along with its 5++ while gaining 12 wounds in the process and a 4+ save. The beast starts with M10, WS3+ and a whopping 8 attacks. Mercifully, WS no longer degenerates and the volume of attacks paired with the damage output of a beast is rather staggering. If the degenerating stats still irks you, you can summon it even more reliably at PL8. It also has to be aligned with one of the gods, gaining that god's deamon rule, so this time, the Nurgle beast isn't terminally useless and can absorb mortal wounds. And then it gets three new weapons: 
**'''Jagged Claws''' - your standard attack, for ripping apart things, dealing 2 damage apiece at with an improved -2 AP and you get two bonus attacks for using this one. Warhammer Legends upgraded the attacks to make them scarier for Primaris Marines, Tau Battlesuits and now dedicated CC squads.
**'''Tusked Maw''' - changed to dealing a flat 3 wounds at Sx2 and -3 AP. You can't regain a wound from biting people anymore but you're not limited to only one attack either - that's right, you can chomp to your attacks characteristic. Given the strength and damage of this attack coupled with the attacks leveled by a beast, this is the preferred attack against vehicles.
**'''Warp Spines''' - MASSIVELY reworked. Whenever it finishes a charge move, pick an enemy unit in engagement range and roll a D6: on a 3+, deal D3 mortal wounds and deal 3 mortal wounds on a 6. Far more deadly and less janky than it was before, you can soften up an enemy before you even start attacking - which is nice.