Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

===Troops===
Troops for Daemons tend to be an afterthought in most cases. This is not to say they are awful, but the strength of the Codex lies in its HQs and Fast Attack. Unsurprisingly, Nurgle units are durable for their cost and thus handy for objectives. Bloodletters and Daemonettes are melee glass-hammers, with their main difference being in terms of whether to hunt Marines or lightly-armored infantry and the occasional Riptide. Horrors are "the ranged unit" of the Codex, and are special enough to discuss in their entry.

*'''Bloodletters of Khorne''' - These guys are one heck of a mixed bag. On the one hand, their base weapons are AP3, and they hit at S5 on the charge (thanks to Furious Charge), which will cause any MEQ army to give them respect. And they're now only 10pts a model - perfect for horde tactics. On the other hand, you will need said horde numbers to have any hope of doing much damage. They've got a pisspoor armour save, a weak invulnerable save and no grenades, which greatly mitigate their longterm effectiveness. With just one base attack, you need all the bodies you can get. If you give them a Herald with a Locus give them Greater Locus of Fury (Rage) - it helps remedy their low number of attacks. Another problem is that they will always endure at least 1 turn of shooting (if not 2) so unless your opponent ignores them they will have lower numbers when they get into combat. The Blood Banner is essential here, greatly improving their chances of getting a successful charge in; and the Character upgrade can be effective especially with access to that Axe of Khorne. Deep Strike is another useful card to play, especially if the unit has an instrument, allowing another Khorne unit to come down on top of it.
*'''Daemonettes of Slaanesh''' - 9pts each, with Fleet and Rending. Like every other force organization slot, the Slaanesh unit is faster but less reliably killy than the Khorne unit, just as the Nurgle unit is slower but more durable. With 'letters reduced to AP3, Rending gives Daemonettes a new niche in the army, as they're a lot more capable of dealing with TEQs on their own. They are also arguably better vs some MEQ's than the 'letters as I5 means any damage you deal will reduce damage you take, rather than 'letters striking at the same time and taking the full amount of attacks. However Daemonettes have notably less armor ignoring attacks (even as they have more base) as compared to the guaranteed AP3 swords the 'letters all have. If you have enough Daemonettes the difference between rending and AP 3 will diminish, but in small units the difference will be more notable. With their speed and Deep Strike, they're good at tying up enemy units before they can really blast your more fragile units. And being relatively cheap, you can take big units to mitigate your rather crappy Toughness and Inv save. If you take a Herald go ahead and spring for the Exalted Locus (reroll all To Hit rolls); it gives them more teeth (something they lack) and ups their likelihood of getting a rend.
*'''Horrors of Tzeentch''' - There are three different types of Horror unit: Pink Horrors, Blue Horrors, and Brimstone Horrors. However, their rules are similar enough and intertwined with one another such that they are discussed together.
**No matter the type of Horror Unit, each one is considered a Brotherhood of Sorcerers unit with access to the Lore of Change. The immediate implication of this is that a single Horror acts as the "point of origin" for Flickerfire, thus allowing the unit to engage in pseudo-sniper shenanigans; the model you choose will determine "which" enemy model is considered the closest for casualty removal, which can make all the difference when you wish to pick off a specific model from a unit, or whether you can hit a vehicle's side arc. Since they are Psykers, they can then run back into coverin the Shooting Phase.
**However, the units are also worth keeping in the open due to their other special trait. When a unit of Pink Horrors or Blue takes casualties, they can "split" into their lesser bretheren; One Pink Horror splits into two Blue Horrors, one Blue Horror splits into a pair of Brimstone Horrors. The key things to remember are that "splitting" happens at the end of any phase where a unit suffers casualties, models destroyed by Daemonic Instability do not split, and that newly-split Blue and Brimstone Horrors MUST be placed within 6" of the unit they were split from, and they must join a unitif such a unit is within 6" of them, or else they create a new unit.
***As an example, suppose you take two units of 10 Pink Horrors, with 12" of space between them. One Pink Horror unit loses two models, and thus splits off four Blue Horrors into a new unit. If the Blue Horror unit is placed in between the two Pink Horror units and within 6" of the second Pink Horror unit, then any Blue Horrors split from the second Pink Horror unit would have to join the Blue Horror unit in the middle. If, however, the initial Blue Horror unit was placed on the opposite side of the Pink Horror unit, then the Blue Horrors split from the second unit would split into their own unit.
**Each unit generates 1 Warp Charge by default. Pink Horrors generate 2 Warp Charge if they have 11-15 models, and 3 if they have 16 or more models.
**Pink Horrors are Strength and Toughness 3, and have the options to take a Musician, Icon, and Iridescent Horror. Blue Horrors are S2 and T2, while Brimstone Horrors are S1 and T1, with W2. Though that last part looks silly, this actually highlights a critical weakness that Horrors have, in that they really do not wish to be in Assault, and multi-assaults can be especially devestating to them; every slain Brimstone Horror counts as "two" wounds inflicted. A Daemon player could be "cheeky" and try to place a unit of newly-split Horrors "in front" to discourage shooting them beforehand (since a unit can only charge a unit it has shot at beforehand), but this is unreliable at best. Worst comes to worst, do not leave Horror units exposed to chargers, and use your blocking unit of choice (Drones, Screamers, etc) to interdict. DO NOT split off Brimstone Horrors next to your unit of Screamers, or bad things will happen!
***'''Note:'''Wrath of Magnus' rules update came with a price: Malefic Daemonology has been omitted from the datasheets, and it was on purpose. It's a fair trade-off since Horrors now split into 2 units which become new bases themselves as they die. It doesn't really stop the summoning cheese armies since Horrors will just become batteries for that LoC/Herald.
***'''Note:''' GW has stated ''new'' Pink Horrors cannot use Daemonology (Malefic), with no explanation as to what they mean by ''new''; [[skub|discuss with your opponent]] if this means "the ones from Wrath of Magnus" or "the ones created after the beginning of the game by a special rule, such as the Summoning power" or some other interpretation one of you favors.  However, this ban is explicit in the Wrath of Magnus FAQ, whatever it means.
***The Chaos Daemons FAQ, on the other hand (which came out a month ''after'' the Wrath of Magnus FAQ), specifies:
****AMENDMENTS
*****Various – Psykers
******Any model with the Psyker or Brotherhood of Sorcerers special rule may generate powers from the Daemonology discipline in addition to the others listed in their Army List Entries.
***As this is standard-issue [[skub|GW grade rules clarity]], discuss with your opponent, but it still comes back to what exactly the word "new" means in the Wrath of Magnus FAQ.
***'''FINAL NOTE''' I have had confirmation from a GW employee that the new Horrors Datasheet in Wrath of Magnus COMPLETELY replaces the old horrors. This is also stated in the Wrath of Magnus book. The reasoning is that because the new horrors split, they took off Malific in order to balance them a little. Therefore, you CANNOT summon with Horrors at all anymore.
*'''Plaguebearers of Nurgle''' - Plaguebearers may have lost FnP and got their toughness docked by 1, but they got a dramatic points reduction in exchange - and, more importantly, Shrouded. Since they are no longer Fearless and have Shrouded they can go to ground for 2+ in any cover. With this, they're not far off being as durable as they were before. However, objective camping isn't their sole use - now their attacks always glance on a 6, which means that these are actually decent at anti-tank. A massive unit of these with a Herald could march across the board and kill a hell of a lot of stuff that your other units might struggle with (see Wraithlords and AV13 Walkers). If you take a Herald, take the Greater Locus of Fecundity (Feel No Pain) to make camping Plaguebearers unkillable or to survive the march to your enemies' vehicles. Or you could bring Plague Drones/Seekers/Bloodcrushers with Icons to get them where you need to go, which is a better idea because they have Slow and Purposeful.  These guys definitely need a Herald to give them their FNP back to truly shine at backfield objective camping. Otherwise they're a few markerlights or flamer blasts (beware the sisters of battle) away from oblivion.
*'''Nurglings''' - A four wound tarpit, Nurglings have lost their amazing Eternal Warrior and are now incredibly vulnerable to instant death. In 7th edition, the rule disallowing Swarms to be scoring units has disappeared which means these things score and have Objective Secured! Plus they have the Infiltrate Special Rule, and they're decent at distracting units with a lot of dakka and missile launchers, allowing your assaulting units to move up and chop them to pieces. Alternately, they can grab a vital objective early in the game. Taking about 6 should do the job, but taking more isn't a bad idea. Just don't expect them to do much. Be careful, however, using these guys against Tau. Infiltrating units with four wounds seems like a perfect solution to keep some of that shooting off your army as they run up the board, but sadly any S6 shooting or templates will absolutely destroy the unit in no time at all, and Tau unfortunately have tons of that. 
**If playing apocalypse, you can usually find a place behind the enemy to infiltrate to. Take a bunch of 3-base units and [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]].