Daemon Deep Stike Tactics

[FTE-Charge!!!]

Hello all,

I wanted to start a thread for Daemons concerned with Deep Strike only and how to go about it. Having experimented with different styles I have come to the following conclusions:

1. By DS away from the enemy and amassing your forces you put yourself in their crosshairs for a minimum of 2 turns. This tactic involves DS in the center or your table edge away from the enemy. Despite trying to amass, the shear volumn of firepower that most armies can put out will often decimate that measly half of an army you deploy with. This tactic has worked for me (and still testing) in games of capture and control where the enemy is fast and coming at you. Specifically I used this against DE raider force and made him forgo shooting to close with me. Later turns allowed me to DS on his obj while he fought over my home obj. USE RARELY

2. DS in the enemy's face. This can be risky with mishaps, but the end result is to saturate the enemy's fronts with enough deadly units that something will survive to assualt the next turn. Combine this with several Breath attacks and you may do some serious damage. This is a tactic I see, and use most often. The goal is to only weather one round of shooting from the opponent before massing your charge. Theoritically units that arrive in subsequent turns will reinforcing the combats you have committed and further block the movement of the enemy. USE AGAINST MOST OPPONENTS

3. Nothing is more annoying than seeing your prized monster or unit blown away via shooting before it even had a chance to move. But this happens often esp for Greater Daemons and banner units. Try taking the attention away from your opponent by 'selling' another target unit. For instance, when I send in my BT and BL w/ banner in the same wave you better believe that the enemy will light up the BT. But by DS the BLs close and talking up the threat they, and their banner, pose in subsequent turns you might be able to keep the fire away from the big fellow. This also works very well with large units of PB. Either the opponent will try everything to get rid of them bc they can tie up a large amount of units; or ignore them completely and suffer from the ulitmate tarpit.


I know this is a large rant but Im on the run and wanted to spit this out for some feedback. Please post any comments, questions or additional tactics here so we can have a working library to use against the enemy. DS is both our greatest tool and foe and by learning it and utilizing it effectively we can scare the pants off of our enemies!

[The Twilight Fade]

Personally it depends on the opponent or what im taking as to what methods I use. I'm growing particularly fond of large 20-man units of bloodletters. I've found anything less just tends to get them wiped down to too few in number to pose a big enough threat. However I always deep strike them about 60% away across the board in cover and run.

I tend to put an icon in there as Fateweaver regardless of what points cost I play is an auto-include in my lists and dropping him behind bloodletters/crushers and surrounding him just seems to work too well. After that it tends to depend, deep strike agressively with flamers and not so agressively with fast things like fiends, flesh hounds or soul grinders

[Loafer of Change]

Having failed pretty miserably in my two games so far, I'm developing some hatred for the daemonic assault rules. Admittedly, choosing Tzeentch Daemons as my first foray into the game was probably asking for trouble

I have quietly dropped my bigoted stance on the other gods ; Plaguebearers have found their way in, and I've just bought some Flesh Hounds for speedy assaults.

It seems that the crucial thing, as you said above, is to go for it - attack with everything you have against it's best possible target straight away. My natural caution does not serve this army well...

[Chumbalaya]

Deploy safely and take lots of cavalry. Fiends, Hounds and Seekers are the bread and butter of good Daemon lists. Shooting also helps significantly, so go nuts on Tzeentch chariots and Princes.

[Igen]

I dont have the best tactics, but I have learned how I enjoy this army.

I have terrible luck with how I deep strike. If I'm 11 inches away from an enemy with a good clear 270 degrees of safe scatter zone, I will scatter 12 inches on top of the enemy.

I try to keep my forces in the same table quarter. Forcing my opponent to maneuver and cover a flank. With a soul grinder or demon prince off to the side as a distraction that will cause havoc if it goes unchecked.

Icons are great, expensive, but if your bringing in a shooting unit and you were able to position the icon ahead of time, it is wonderful.

The 20 man blood letter squad is great. I like to include skull taker in the squad. It draws a ton of fire, but kills what ever it touches.

[deviant_cadaver]

Denied flank is also a big one. If you overload one side you can make it more of an even fight as they have to move to get you and you can focus half your army against half their army.

[FTE-Charge!!!]

Ive been loading up on Flamer and units that can take the Breath attack. Makes for a nasty alpha strike. A good amount of cav units also allows me to place them away and move in later for the kill.