Codex: Khorne Daemonkin

[Path Walker]

Don't forget, each of the formations has extra rules as well, slaughter cult get to take two choices from the Blood for the Blood God table for example

[Cutter]

I rejected it as soon as I realized there weren't new Khorne Berzerkers. I care more about the models than the rules.

It feels like a slightly more canny version of Codex Imperial Knight. Here's a big new expensive kit and here's a reason to buy one (or three).

If it means the other gods might get the same treatment I encourage you all to buy several.

[Erik Setzer]

It might not be a tournament dominating book, but I think I'll have some fun running guys across the table to try to take skulls for Khorne. And if you're bringing Kairos, you're definitely not doing a Khorne army (especially after the events in Archaon).

I probably will avoid the detachment setup, because some of it just seems so odd to me, like having to take Bloodcrushers and Terminators together, or Bikes and Flesh Hounds. And having each walker take up one of those eight slots is also limiting, though it seems you can just throw out nine Lords of Skulls if you want (#BecauseLOL). I guess it'll depend on how I feel like building an army. I don't have any Possessed right now, but I haven't really built many of the models, and I have some old bits from old Chaos Warrior possessed models (a mutated arm sprue), so it'd be simple to get a box of CSM or Berzerkers and just replace an arm here, a head there, maybe have a bit of fun with the conversions.

Heck, it's a simplistic army that could be fun. If I'm going to keep losing (I really need to get a dice exorcism), I might as well have fun doing it.

[Kesher]

I think its going to have lasting impacts, just because of the army wide bonuses you can dish out every turn and fearless daemons. Plus Khorne hounds are nothing to sneeze at, and that formation with them is BANANAS IMHO.

Anyhoo, did a first look review. BTW is it just me or RAW a Daemon Prince can ride a juggy? Not competitive, but would be fun to kitbash!

[Venomlust]

I think its going to have lasting impacts, just because of the army wide bonuses you can dish out every turn and fearless daemons. Plus Khorne hounds are nothing to sneeze at, and that formation with them is BANANAS IMHO.

Anyhoo, did a first look review. BTW is it just me or RAW a Daemon Prince can ride a juggy? Not competitive, but would be fun to kitbash!

See the notation. Chaos Lord and Herald only. Daemon Prince would have been cool, though.

[Venomlust]

For some reason Karanak is in the HQ section now on the GW site.

[DrBored]

I watched two games involving Khorne Daemonkin the other day. They were pretty deadly, all told. Starting turn 2, both Daemonkin players had Feel No Pain and either +1 attack or Furious Charge for the entire game across their army. Nobody tried summoning anything, and honestly, there wasn't really a reason to.

The first game was Khorne Daemonkin vs. Dark Eldar/Harlequins. Both players were trying out new armies and units, so there was a bit of back-and-forth. The Khorne player had a Soul Grinder, 4 squads of 5 Khorne Hounds, and a Herald and Chaos Lord on Juggernauts in a squad of Spawn, as well as a squad of Possessed and a few min squads of Bloodletters. The Dark Eldar player had two squads of Harlequin bikes, two Starweavers and one Voidweaver, along with Shadowseer, Solitair, and the Death Jester, and two Venoms with Wracks loaded up, as well as two squads of five Scourges.

I was certain that the Soul Grinder was going to go down first turn from the Dark Eldar fire, but it survived all game, and just wasn't as effective as it should have been. The biggest mistake from the Dark Eldar player's side was Deep Striking the Venoms with Wracks behind the enemy lines. The vehicles got swarmed by Bloodletters and Possessed, and when the models couldn't disembark, the units inside were completely wiped from wrecked vehicles.

The Harlequins did well enough, especially if they got the charge, but with so many units rushing up the field so quickly, they rarely got the charge. The min squads of Khorne Hounds were the stars of the game. Either they were wiped out quickly and netted a Blood Tithe point, or they kept something tied up so the rest of the army could get closer. The Scourges were tied up by turn 2. The individual Harlequin characters did well enough, except the Death Jester that seemed to die very quickly as well.

The Khorne player had easily gotten 4 points by turn 2, and had a couple of turns where he could have summoned a Bloodthirster, but went for army-wide buffs instead (he didn't have the models yet), and getting army-wide FNP and extra attacks on many models that already had 3 attacks base, was pretty gnarly.

The next game was a smaller game versus Orks. The Khorne player took a Maulerfiend, Berzerkers in Rhinos, a Jugg Lord in Spawn, a Helbrute, and two squads of Cultists. The Ork player took a Trukk with boys, and a few big squads of foot-slogging boys, as well as a Warboss in with some Meganobz, and a few other things I didn't recognize.

There were few shenanigans with this battle. It was pretty much a matter of who could punch harder, and all told, the Chaos player punched the hardest. Again, using Blood Tithe for FNP and Furious Charge or +1 Attack seemed to do well. Cultists held points and the Berzerkers simply went nuts on the Ork Boys. 3+ armor plus FNP kept the Berzerkers alive, and the weight of attacks they were able to bring thanks to the +1 attack whittled the Boys down. The Spawn did well too, finishing off a squad of Boys before turning about to have a big mosh battle with the Nobs, Helbrute, and more Berzerkers.

Some great battles, neat to watch the army operating. One of the oft-forgotten benefits of big assault armies is the way that they can surround transports, cause wrecks, and wipe out the squad inside them without that squad even getting a save. I've seen it happen to Venoms, Land Raiders, Rhinos, Chimera, pretty much any transport is vulnerable to this against armies with fast units that can surround them in a turn. Keeping your full transports away from the assaulting armies, or deploying your units from their transports early and using the transports as a screen to protect your units on points is going to be important against Khorne Daemonkin. Remember, units don't consolidate off of vehicles, so neutering that extra movement that assault armies get by feeding them cheep units they can't consolidate off of will be important. However, since those transports do count as 'units', they do net a Blood Tithe point.

Against Daemonkin, if I had to list-tailor, I'd certainly be looking at fat Death Star units that can wade through tides of Berzerkers, denying them saves by using power fists or other power weapons. I'm sure that many Eldar and Necron lists won't have as much of a problem with Daemonkin, and it's against those armies that I see the summoning of more units being more important, whereas against things like Orks and other Space Marines, simply getting into assault should be enough.

[Lord_Valorion]

Everyone is wrong on the additional Bloodtithe bonus from the slaughtercult...that bonus is only for the formation and not for the complete army!