Daemonic Thoughts

Posted by Ranillon on 22. January 2009 00:05

After painting up Skulltaker for the From the Warp contest (thanks to everyone who participated) I’ve been reading through the Chaos Daemons codex attempting to get a proper handle on the force.  I don’t claim to have completely done so, but I can make some observations.

1)       Slaneeshi Daemons:  These may be fast, but they sure are fragile.  Daemonettes and Seekers, for example, are just toughness 3 and the regular Daemonic save.  Likewise, given how they only have Rending (without Feeding Tendrils to save them) I really wonder how effective they are really going to be in close combat even once they get there, especially against any target with a decent armor save.  They almost strike me as throw-away troops, but their cost precludes that.  They seem clearly to be the worst choice as a pure single type army.  As for their powers the Pavane is nice, but the rest are nothing special.

2)      Nurgle Daemons:  The other extreme from Slaneesh these guys are rock hard.  Good toughness, a daemonic save, and Feel No Pain?  They are slow, but who needs that when they can last perhaps three times as long as their Slaneeshi compatriots under fire?  They aren’t going to be too bad in close-combat either given their ability to wound effectively regardless of the target’s toughness.  All this makes Nurgle a viable single-type force.

3)      Khorne Daemons:  Less tough than Nurgle, but more so than Slaneesh Khorne is the other type that, I think, can be effectively used as a pure force. This is in large part due to most of the army going around with power weapons and that extra attack.  Bloodletters and Crushers may have to walk everywhere, but at least they are balanced out in the movement department thanks to Hounds (and a winged Bloodthirster if you can fit one in).  I also happen to like the look of the Khorne models best of all.

4)      Tzeentchi Daemons:  These guys strike me as a good support choice for other types of Daemons without being a particular sterling choice for a pure force.  The problem is that while they have good firepower they are just too whimpy in close-combat.  I just don’t think you can have a viable force that prefers to stand a foot away blasting without ever coming closer (or getting further away).  Take Pink Horrors – they are really just Imperial Guardsmen with better armor and a big gun.  Yet, even Warpfire isn’t really as nice as it may seem.  It is devastating against weakly armored opponents, but pretty mediocre against power armor.  For example, each turn a squad of 10 Horrors can slaughter 10 fire warriors, but only a meager 2 space marines.  I do think that Breath of Chaos makes Flamers potentially great against anything (assuming they can get that close intact).

If I was going to build a force (and I just might one of these days) I think I’d go for a combination of Khorne with either Tzeentch or Nurgle.  In the former case you have good close-combat combined with good shooty while in the second the toughness of the Nurgle troops would give more staying power to my army.  I just don’t see using Slaneesh Daemons, which is a shame given that Daemonettes are plastic.