What goes into a good Demon army?

[eagleboy7259]

Hey all,

I recently returned some stuff to GW and decided to start a new army since I haven't built one in about three years now. I picked up the Chaos Demons codex and I'm just lost, no one at our club uses them and I've never seen anyone play with them except on the BoLS battle report. There are a bunch of things which look like they could be good but in actuality I have no idea. Can anyone give me a rundown of which units play good and which stink? and why does it seem to me like no one ever uses any of the Slaanesh units?

[Herald of Nurgle]

Anything, apparently.

I play, obviously, mono-Nurgle. However, it is better to plan your list out a bit more than that. Plaguebearers do well in the first wave, while dedicated assault forces should go into Second. As a fallback, use a few (25%) of each wave to show off what the other wave is trying to do, so that the 1-2 won't fail too badly.

Slaanesh units aren't used because they either look awful or are too expensive. Case point: New Daemonettes.

[ninja skills]

fiends are always good, fast have lots of attacks and are good at popping transports.

daemonettes can be good as they have a bucketload of attacks and defensive granades but are extreamly fragile

the three chariots available are all good for various reasons. khorne ones are similar to daemon princes, slaanesh ones are fast and (if amred properly) st 5 on the charge with lots of attacks and the tzeentch ones are good gun platforms (theese are the most popular on the net) and all are a bargin for around 100pnt's

i've played around with different lists and either go for lots of small units or a lesser number big (15+) ones as both ways maximise your suriviability in different ways.

be careful of the masque as she is VERY tricky to use right but can turn a battle to your favour, skulltaker can kill anything but the very hardest of special characters and with a juggernaut can take them on too. fateweaver is very useful but can constrict your deployment. saving the best to last (the others i've not used) is the changeling for 5pnts is a bargin and can make some of the funiest situations happen.

i favour princes (nurgle ones) but grinders are great but you'll need 2 as one is just a big dead target.

luckily the book is full of (mostly) powerful units as thier biggest downfall is one of thier biggest strgenths in thier deployment, but they are chaos after all. one thing to remember you don't have to split your army until ater they the game has started so you can see they board and enamy deployment.

you have to get your units working together to get the best from them, eg pavane enemys out of out of cover so it doesn't matter that bloodlettes don't have granades

sorry to rant I just love my daemons and wanted to help


(mods, does this belong in tactics?)

[Lerra]

Some units are better than others, but daemons are like most other armies in that the units are fairly specialized, and you have to take into account how they work together to make a good list.

Soul Grinders provide great anti-tank and are just plain scary. Daemon Princes compete for valuable heavy support slots, and can also be very good. You'll probably fill your heavy slots quickly between these two options.

Ignore the fast attack slot. Nothing good will come of it.

For troops, any of them can be good in the right army. Daemonettes are probably the weakest choice, though - they must be taken en masse or not at all (they are fragile and will die to shooting unless you run a lot). Plaguebearers make amazing objective holders, but don't expect them to kill anything. Bloodletters are incredibly killy, but also quite fragile with that 5+ save to protect their high point cost. If you can get them into combat, they are extremely destructive, but they often attract a lot of firepower and can't assault after the deepstrike. Horrors have an amazing "gun" with 3 shots per model at AP4, but the short range can be a bit tricky. Horrors are still my favorite shooty troops in the game, though. Deep Strike in and a squad of 10 can throw 30 shots at something. The Changeling is the best 5 points you will ever spend, in any army in the game! Amazing upgrade.

[eagleboy7259]

So I had planned: Fateweaver, Bloodthrister, 5x Blood Crushers or Flamers, 2x Soul Grinders, Horrors & Plague Bearers and I'm not too terribly far off?

[Lerra]

Sounds very solid I'd recommend play testing it out a bit. Fateweaver is great in a build like that, but also locks you into a certain playstyle (you end up clumping your army near Fateweaver, which limits some of your options). Fateweaver is very competitive but it's pretty easy to build a competitive list without her if that's not your style.

[DarkLink]

So I had planned: Fateweaver, Bloodthrister, 5x Blood Crushers or Flamers, 2x Soul Grinders, Horrors & Plague Bearers and I'm not too terribly far off?

Sounds pretty solid. Flamers and Bloodcrushers are both brutal units, and Fateweaver is just mean (unless you play Grey Knights ).

[Chumbalaya]

Don't go Noobcrushers, you'll surprise new players but get beat down by any halfway decent player who has seen it before. It's crazy hard to fit Bloodcrushers in clear terrain if you're using proper amounts and your opponent spreads out properly, plus they're only infantry so it's ridiculously easy to avoid them.

Fiends are the best unit in the book, take lots. Daemons have trouble with armor and closing to get into assault, Fiends, Tzeralds, Tzeentch DPs, Flesh Hounds, Sheralds, Pavane, and the like help you close so beater like Bloodletters and Grinders can finish the job.

Read this [url]http://40kdaemonreview.blogspot.com/[/url]

[eagleboy7259]

Don't go Noobcrushers, you'll surprise new players but get beat down by any halfway decent player who has seen it before. It's crazy hard to fit Bloodcrushers in clear terrain if you're using proper amounts and your opponent spreads out properly, plus they're only infantry so it's ridiculously easy to avoid them.

Fiends are the best unit in the book, take lots. Daemons have trouble with armor and closing to get into assault, Fiends, Tzeralds, Tzeentch DPs, Flesh Hounds, Sheralds, Pavane, and the like help you close so beater like Bloodletters and Grinders can finish the job.

Read this [url]http://40kdaemonreview.blogspot.com/[/url]

It made me re-think some of the paper tigers... I heard that Tzeentch and Nurgle were the best troops due to the shooting attack and high toughness respectively. So Flamers and Fiends over Blood Crushers? I'll probably leave them in for now just because the models look so dang cool IMOP and I really want to get the chance to build and paint them. I'll probably switch over if I start loosing because you have a way of often being right...

[zealot]

Don't go Noobcrushers, you'll surprise new players but get beat down by any halfway decent player who has seen it before. It's crazy hard to fit Bloodcrushers in clear terrain if you're using proper amounts and your opponent spreads out properly, plus they're only infantry so it's ridiculously easy to avoid them.

Fiends are the best unit in the book, take lots. Daemons have trouble with armor and closing to get into assault, Fiends, Tzeralds, Tzeentch DPs, Flesh Hounds, Sheralds, Pavane, and the like help you close so beater like Bloodletters and Grinders can finish the job.

Read this [url]http://40kdaemonreview.blogspot.com/[/url]

I rarely QFT but this guy hit the nail on the head hard