Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

===Alphabet Chicken Soup===
Note that this is ''not'' a pure Daemons list, but most of the models/units in it are - you'll need the Chaos Index, the CSM Codex, and the Imperial Armour Chaos Index to field it, and, if you want to fully explore your options, the Imperial Armour Astra Militarum Index.

With the release of Chapter Approved, the points cost of several of these models have been vastly increased and the strategy described below doesn't really work anymore.

Two of the most powerful units in the game are Tzeentch Daemons, so..... why not take both?  Use {{W40Kkeyword|Chaos}} as your army-wide Faction binder, then take Magnus and Aetaos'Rau'Keres (the Alphabet Chicken).  The Chicken's powers are picked for you, since the Tzeentch Discipline hasn't been expanded to 3 powers yet.  Magnus should take Warptime, so you can get him into melee anywhere on the table, Weaver of Fates, because 3++/re-rolling 1s will keep Magnus alive beyond all reason, and then Death Hex, Prescience, or Diabolic Strength, depending on your local meta - Prescience is useful for Magnus to hit something dodgy, like a Culexus Assassin if he needs to, in melee, while Diabolic Strength will help him delete enemy heavies in melee faster, which is one of his jobs in this list; Death Hex is relatively difficult to cast, but on anything with problematic invuln saves, like Space Marines with Storm Shields, it can be critical to letting your Knight do some proper work.  Without any foreknowledge of your local meta or what your opponents might bring, Death Hex is the safest choice, since it's the only power Magnus can bring which will help the rest of the army (unless you go for a variant; see below), not counting any Chaos Spawns you make with his Blade.

Since you're now only 1 Lord of War short of getting 3 CP from a Super-Heavy Detachment, take a Renegade Knight with two Avenger Gatlings, a Heavy Stubber, and an Ironstorm Missile Pod, so you have some anti-hordes dakka.

Then take the Changeling and the Blue Scribes, and 3 minimum units of Brimstone Horrors to screen the Knight, in a Battalion; each unit takes 1 Iridescent Horror with an Instrument, because going from an average Advance of 10.5 to 11.5 is so significant when screening an M12 model.  The Changeling can also be used to protect both Magnus and the Chicken, of course, if they need to take cover.

The net result is <s>2000</s> many, many points for a 9 CP army that will almost always get the +1 to rolling to go first and punches way above its weight, since it requires incredibly specific counters but is a very general counter to anything it might face - the two big Daemons delete enemy heavies, while the Knight and its small Daemons delete enemy hordes.

There are basically two ways to modify this list: the Blue Scribes, which are only present because they're a cheap Chaos HQ, and the Knight, who's there for Dakka.

The Blue Scribes can be dropped for a Malefic Lord, a Smite source and an HQ tax so cheap you can afford a fourth Brimstone Horrors with spare change left over for another 3 Horrors models somewhere, but that will make your Horrors lose Objective Secured, assuming you're playing with the announced Chapter Approved rules.

The Knight can be dropped for a Renegades and Heretics Baneblade (you'll need to perform the Scribe to Lord swap to pay for it), or you can pay 3 CP to take the two big demons in their own detachments, and use the Battalion's Heavy slots for Hellforged Deredeos.  If you do that, you can also swap the Scribes for buffers for the Deredeos: it's easy to fit a Sorcerer of some stripe in (including Ahriman), and if you commit to ''not'' having them be THOUSAND SONS, a Chaos Lord or Hellwright.  Note that if you avoid the Thousand Sons, you can use the swapped-in HQ to carry a CSM Warlord Trait and/or Relic; none of them are ''particularly'' compelling, but it's worth noting.  If you just want pure Deredeos, the Malefic Lord is cheap enough to let you take 3 of them, although that's also enough for 5 Basilisks.