Daemons Fighting Back!

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

So then Daemon players - what can we do about this new threat from the Grey Knights? Is our codex now broken? Or is there a way to build our forces to give us a fighting chance against the scalpels of the Imperium? IDEAS NEEDED!!!!

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

Ok, to kick things off, I'm thinking Khorne - wherever possible, that Blessing of the Blood God is gonna be needed! Perhaps this is the ideal time to have Skarbrand leading a load of Slaaneshi daemons into combat, maybe even backed up by Fateweaver - the high Initiative and rerolls to hit should create some damage. Other than this, firepower is important; Flamers will still be useful as assassination units against characters...

[DrLove42]

Greatest problem facing deamons against GK (cos nothing changed for everyone else) is the lack of deepstrike now.

If you get 1st turn and get in before the physic powers that disrupt deepstriking in great...if not you can't land close. So I see Seekers and Juggernaughts a bit more, with the fast movement and long assault range.

[gcsmith]

Im not one for chaos but im tempted to do a daemon army just to kill GK, My friend is doing bronze angels army *GK rules*

so Im tempted to not only counter with my BT but also with an army he should easily beat

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

The whole daemon deepstrike rules are so ridiculously broken it is unreal. Not being able to assault from the get-go basically means having to deep strike near or even in cover to protect your troops - not easy if you take large units. Otherwise, you get shot to pieces. They should IMO a) give some of the Assault units the ability to assault from deep strike and b) allow deep striking icons to be used for subsequent deep strikers in the same turn...

Anyhoo, what's to be done about these Grey Knights? What sort of builds are we looking at? Incidentally, I will be buying Grey Knights with a view to creating at least 4000 points of them, so hopefully I will find out their weaknesses fairly quickly!

[Connjurus]

I'll be quite frankly surprised if the most popular meta-build isn't Henchmen spam with a few Grey Knights there to soak up fire. Considering this, I'm going to be reworking my list. Still going to run T. Heralds, but I'm considering dropping my Daemon Princes for Soul Grinders - cheaper, and those pie plates should really come in hands.

Also, I think you might start seeing more Seekers - I know I'm going to be running quite a few Seekers now, and a Karanak/Blood Hound squad.

For Troops, Horrors, and lots of them. Maybe backed up with Daemonettes, maybe not.

[FTE-Charge!!!]

My daemon army is still building, and I have yet to read the new GK codex, but the internet gives me a powerful idea of what to expect.

Im still a fan of the nurgle wall. It is one of the most resiliant tactics we have available, and we need it to hold back the GK until the time for a proper counterattack. This basically calls for large hordes of plaguebearers coming down and spreading out in lines. Subsequent arrivals deepstrike behind this unit with the PB icon to get them their. PB get charged, whatever is behind counterattacks. Combat res lets you put the PB back up front. Might work??

ALSO, we cannot overlook nurglings!!!! Swarms that cannot be instant killed!!! Talk about a tarpit for some of the GK big nasties.

[Connjurus]

I'd agree with you for Plaguebearers, except Psilencers, man...dear god, Psilencers. Completely negates the bonus for Plaguebearers having Toughness 5, and it's Heavy 6. A purgation squad with 4 Psilencers deals out 24 shots that wound Daemons and Psykers on a 4+. So around 16 will hit, around 8 will wound, and you'll end up saving 4-5 plaguebearers. Not a lot at first glance, but combine it with their other, heavier weapons - like Psycannons, Heavy S: 7 with Rending (so 6's to wound ignore FNP) and...it's just nasty for those Plaguebearers.

And don't get me started on what happens in Close-Combat.

[isotope99]

Although grey knights have lots of serious anti-daemon abilities and could create a tailored list for killing daemons that would be extremely hard to resist, I think that the average grey knight list is not likely to be much worse for daemons than other space marine lists. Preferred enemy being balanced out by smaller units where power weapons aren't that good.

Certain lists (particularly all nurgle) are going to suffer badly but most should be OK.

A GK list isn't terribly manouverable, so gathering forces and attacking weak points in the enemy's deployment will remain the way to go.

Daemons-GK is going to be very tough but I don't think it's an auto-lose situation

[Connjurus]

Nor do I - in fact, like I said, I expect to see mostly Henchman spam, maybe a few Draigo-wing lists with scoring Paladins and Dreadknights, and Land Raider Crusaders with psybolt ammunition.

Personally, I'm looking forward to this new codex - I can't wait to play against my friend. He already has 15 Grey Knight Terminators - so I figure I'll get him a box of new plastic Terminators and have them be his Paladins.