Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

==Strategy==
Pray that chaos doesn't abandon you. Realize that this is a '''FUN'''<font size=5>*</font> army, and just have a laugh with it. 
Want to troll your local daemon-bashing GK players?  Here's what you do:  Field a Nurgle based List. Hide your troops on your side in ruins or behind a barricade and open up with as many poisoned and decent ap weapons as you can and watch their psycannons just bounce off the ruin. And you know what? When they come to get you in cc with that dreadknight? BAM poisoned weapons and easy ap2 swords available to all (all being heralds and squad leaders)! Along with your flying MC being able to tie up their precious heavy weapons and kill those psyrifleman dreads with easy cc and shooting, just watch out for being grounded and mobbed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Dealing with Flyers===
Daemons and Sisters of Battle are so far the last remaining armies in 40K that have difficulty dealing with flyers on their own. However, the situation is less dire for Daemons as they get access to FMCs and have a skyfiring heavy support choice - the Adepta Sorritas get none of that! In spite of this, the fact that nearly all FMCs available in Codex Daemons are capped at S6 can seriously hurt their chances at dealing with Flyers with SA12 or more. So barring your opponent [[Necrons|flyer spamming you]], here are a few ways to deal with flyers:
*'''Lash of Despair:''' A daemon prince of Slaanesh can toss out 2D6 S6 shots (up to S9 if he's a psyker with Iron Arm). That's a lot of shots but there are two problems: first, it's still base strength 6 which means you need all 7 of those expected shots to hit for a decent chance at a glance. Second, it's very unreliable especially hoping for Iron Arm on what will be an incredibly expensive DP.
*'''Horrors of Tzeentch:''' 4D6 shots, rerolling to hit from prescience and at S6 from the locus. A bit better but has many of the problems above
*'''Burning Chariot:''' If you get really lucky, the S9 snapshots might just do it. Even less reliable than the above.
*'''Soul Grinder:''' BS3 and S7 means that even with prescience it will almost always take 2-3 rounds of shooting, and you may still accomplish nothing. Warp Gaze could wreck the flyer, but that's a real stretch.
*'''MC Spam:''' Yes, they are only S6 but you do get D3 hits per Vector Strike. Take at least 3 MCs mixed between Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes. Be warned, this will be expensive.
*'''Aegis Defense Line:''' Any models you have with at least BS3 or more can opperate it. Plus, it's cheap! One strategy is to put a unit of Plaguebearers with a herald of Nurgle behind this (or on a bastion) so they can camp with Shrouded and Feel No Pain while the herald makes use of his BS5. Be careful of Tau markerlights, Eldar's "reveal" psychic power, noise marines, and anything else that ignores cover.
*'''Imperial Bastion/Fortress of Redemption:''' Similar to ADLs, but are actual buildings instead of obstacles, what with that sweet, ''sweet'' AV14 all around. You could put Plaguebearers in these, but it's a much better idea to use Bloodletters and their obscene BS5 to man quad-cannons, Icarus lascannons, heavy bolters and, in the case of the FoR, that missile silo. Putting a Herald of Khorne on the missile silo all but prevents the large blast from scattering, too.
*'''Blight Drones:''' The only flyer Daemons have. Unfortunately, it's a Forgeworld model and only BS2 but its weapons are either template, blast or twin-linked - specifically that Reaper Autocannon; lemme explain, it has a similar profile to a Harvester, but re-rollable 5+ to-hit is statistically superior to a 4+. Additionally, the weapons load-out of these thing effectively make it a flying Nurgle Grinder. A blight drone squadron is amazingly expensive but it is still a damn good option!
*'''Hellfire Gaze:''' Both of the flying Greater Daemons or DPs can take this, although you must roll a 4 on the Greater Gift table to get it, and its a 50/50 if it will do anything.
*'''Allied Heldrakes''': Go to Chaos Space Marines tactics to read about what havoc they wreck. Combines very nicely with MC spam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<font size=1>'''*The [[Chaos Gods]] do not guarantee fun. Fun is subject to early termination at Tzeentch's discretion. Fun is to be taken in context of [[Dwarf Fortress]].'''</font>
[[Category: Warhammer Tactics/Old]]