Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

===HQ===
*'''Bloodthirster''' - Your basic big stabby HQ. He has wings to get him into close combat where he will invariably wreck shit (he will tear apart most HQs and special characters) before getting taken out. Take unholy might if anything, which lets him instant kill most HQs, the other powers are pretty questionable. Also a flying monstrous creature now, which is very nice, especially since this is one of your three, count them, three anti-air options.   
**'''Skarbrand, the Exiled One''' - Basically a wingless fleet bloodthirster who allows '''all''' units around him (all as in, Friend ''and'' foe) to reroll attacks in close combat. Why you would want to give rerolls in close combat when its the only place you have an edge is beyond me, but if you have to, use it with high initiative Slaanesh units to run the board. Although if you're bold/stupid enough to take on the Grey Knights, he can be helpful since Grey Knights can already re-roll missed attacks against daemons, so in that case there's no downside to him (not that it will be enough for you to win), unless the Grey Knight player uses Coteaz.
***'''An'ggrath (Apocalypse)''' - Costs thrice as much as a normal bloodthirster pointswise at a whopping 888 points(you don't want to know how many dollars his model costs) but is an unholy monster in close combat, anything within range of his axe is pretty much dead but is just too stupid to realize it. His melee capability is pretty much unmatched, if it's in base contact with him, it's going to be dead within the turn. But again, he costs A LOT and is a massive firemagnet. On the plus side, he eats titans and superheavies like Abaddon eats people, hell he could eat Abaddons for breakfast. As a flying monstrous creature he is now insanely durable, and can rip apart enemy fliers.  
*'''Uraka the Warfiend (Forgeworld)''' - A Daemon Prince HQ choice, has 2 more strength and 1 initiative over an ordinary prince, plus he comes with a 3+ save and blessing of the blood god. All his attacks also cause Instant Death, so if you were thinking of using Skull taker for any reason, just forget about it. Still not enough of a badass to make us believe he beat a bloodthirster before gaining daemonhood.
*'''Great Unclean One''' - Sixth edition reworked how these guys roll. Tough as mutated nails and scary in close combat with a variety of decent upgrades you don't need (but might want). Only problem is, he's slower than a snail, can't run in the shooting phase or after he deep strikes, but fuck that. Your toughness 6 and have feel no pain, so unless your opponent can take off '''five wounds''', you'll be just fine. In close combat, beware off tar pits, you only get 4 attacks, and may be stuck in a fight for the rest of your game. 
**'''Ku'gath, The Plaguefather''' - A Great Unclean One that's almost twice the cost as a regular Great Unclean One, and easily twice as powerful. And then some. Seriously, he gets shit that regular GUO's can't even buy, like for example he is even BETTER in melee than a regular Great Unclean One but he gets to throw AP 2 Poisoned blast templates at the enemy every turn! Like if 2 Great Unclean Ones decided one day to congeal into 1, it'd be something like this, but not as awesome. So think of him as the Super Ultra Magnus Prime of Nurgle daemons. Oh, and one last thing. He has no model, and apparently he travels around on a pontoon-like palanquin filled with laboratory instruments carried by an entire fucking battalion of Nurglings. So before you go spending hundreds of dollars (and hours! Jesus!) on converting this model, just use a regular Great Unclean One model and say that he decided to walk today. Nobody will mind. (Also he spawns a base of Nurglings every turn.)
***'''Scabeiathrax (Apocalypse)''' - Will never, ever, ever, ever die. He is to Great Unclean ones as An'ggrath is to bloodthirsters. Though he costs 777 points, with 10 wounds, feel no pain, invulnerable saves, armor saves, and toughness 9 (which means that heavy bolters and down can't do shit to him and he has a pretty good chance of just laughing off lascannons on toughness alone) there is practically nothing in the game that will kill him. He has a bunch of nurgling attacks, though not that many of his own, though any wounds he inflict become 2 wounds. He's kind of like Typhus if Typhus were mutated by nuclear waste. He's a big firemagnet, but given the amount of effort it takes to kill him; that won't do shit to him and in fact will be very good for the rest of your army. And God help you if he can find some cover saves, because then he'll never go down, ever. Use him in Big apocalypse games.
*'''Mamon, Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Forgeworld)''' - Though he is a daemon prince, he has more in common with a Great Unclean One. First, his stat combines Daemon Prince and Great Unclean One, giving him a WS7, S6, T7, 5 wounds, I5 and 4 attacks. Throw in feel no pain, Noxious Touch, Slow and Purposeful (rolling 3D6) and a poisoned 2+ AP3 template weapon. Not bad at all!
*'''Keeper of Secrets''' - Similar to the bloodthirster except fleet and tricksy instead of flying and beefy. Unlike the bloodthirster he's more geared towards mowing down the rank and file than taking on anything terribly strong. Has a host of very interesting abilities including one that allows you to move units (say, right in front of a bloodthirster for example). Now that fleet doesn't work like it used to, you can use these abilities instead of running. Pair him up with a bloodthirster and go crazy.  
**'''Zarakynel (Apocalypse)''' -Essentially the An'ggrath of Keeper of Secrets, while she is the weakest of the Uber Greater Daemons at 666 points, she is no slouch and will bring massive levels of oh so literal assrape to everything in her long reach. She has an incredibly high initiative (though oddly lower than a normal Keeper of Secrets), allowing her to attack first pretty much all the time, and her enormous weapon skill stat will pretty much guarantee a hit, and ignores invul saves (currently the only thing that does in close combat) and inflicts instant death. Add that to a very high speed and she will pretty much always get where she's needed to bring about pincer clawed butt rape. So essentially, like Lucius the eternal turned up to eleven.
*'''Lord of Change''' - What bloodthisters are to stabbing LoCs are to shooting. Up to three ranged attacks per round if you upgrade him to. The ability to fly, decent melee, and a 3++ save are just more frosting. Unfortunately he's also one of the most expensive cakes around, and can (will) go down to light weapons. Handle with care. But now that it's a flying monstrous creature it's a good deal more survivable, and one of your other options for anti-air.  
**'''Fateweaver, Oracle of Tzeench''' - Kairos is generally considered one of competitive choices in Daemons, due to his ability which allows all units within six inches to re-roll all Invulnerable,Armour and cover saves, which for an army of low saves is amazing however, Karios has some major weaknesses. He's 333 points, if he fails a save, he must take a LD test which if failed will led to him leaving the battle-field and a poor stat line compared to the other Greater Daemons. Kairos only has 3 wounds, the lowest of all Greater Daemons, toughness 5, again the lowest of all Greater Daemons and 1 attack. Kairos is a flying monstrous creature, which means he can be immune to most fire, but must move constantly around the board, which means his power is useless or invective. 
***'''Aetaos'Rau'Keres (Apocalypse)''' - 999 points of pain. Ironically for the oldest LoC in existence his shooting attacks aren't that great. On the other hand he gets lots of them along with the ability to call down apocalyptic barrages and bounce psychic abilities. Whats really going to have you rocking a permanent troll face though is that he gets a ''flamer template boon of mutation'' and a 20" move and flying monstrous creature rules, allowing you to reduce entire squads, ICs and all, to piles of spawn allowing you to increase the size of your army at the cost of theirs, giving you an excuse to have lots of chaos spawn models at very long last, all while laughing at incoming ground fire with his high toughness, large number of wounds, 3++ invulnerable save, and flyer rules. Pretty much, he's like Ahriman on steroids, lots and lots of steroids. When he shows up, shit will blow up in copious quantities and you will lay down so much firepower you'll make [[touhou]] look conservative by comparison. Any army that's tightly packed will pretty much cease to exist the moment he's in range, leaving only spawn and ashes in his wake. To add to that, he's pretty damned fucking durable too and can whack enemy fliers with his magic stick/shoot them with mind bullets. If you see this guy leading a tetragon of darkness you're getting screwed. The only winning move is to find the tournament organizer and punch them in the throat.
*'''Herald of Khorne''' - Give him a chariot to turn him into a finely tuned murder machine. Sure chariot makes him lose his independent character status, but who the hell cares when your whole army is fearless anyways? Besides, he'll be tough enough to go it alone, if the Chaos Gods smile upon your dice, or else you'll be giving away a free Victory point. Joining him with a pack of Bloodcrushers would be a better idea, although they'll be much slower.
**'''Skulltaker''' - 4+ rending and instakill are nice, but at this point level you may as well take a bloodthirster.
*'''Herald of Nurgle''' - Don't stack up well despite their good set of upgrades (unholy might excluded). Passable in every sense of the word.
**'''Epidemius''' - In high point all nurgle army (lolwut?) he could quickly pump your units to absurd levels, Nurgle marine allies that get better and better as they kill?  SIGN ME UP!  Oh, 3+ FNP, only way in the game to get this now! One thing to do is bring Typhus inside a blob of unaligned cultists as allies. Once you get into assault, let Typhus shit out his Destroyer hive, raping everything around him in a S4 AP2 large blast and laugh evilly while watching the tally go up... (Keep in mind that you'll have less plague marines if you bring this sacrificial blob)
*'''Herald of Slaanesh''' - A decently balanced faster unit. Still suffers from pavane's inherent problems.
**'''The Masque''' - The ability to basically puppeteer the opposing army is tempting, but since she isn't an IC you'll have to make an extraordinary effort to keep this expensive choice alive. Another '''FUN'''<font size=5>*</font> unit.
*'''Herald of Tzeentch''' - A lot of dakka in a small package. Upgrade and put them on a chariot and they'll be both shooty and survivable. A solid choice.
**'''The Blue Scribes''' - Expensive multi-purpose character who should be kept out of melee at all costs. Having every spell is fun but not nearly as cost effective as buying its herald version. Unless you plan on never using the same spell twice. Which can be hard to do with their "Watch This!" special rule, where you basically flip a coin to see whether they use the same attack consecutively or not.