# Starting Daemons of chaos... HELP!



## Dragax

Well, ive been into 40k for a long time and im finally going to take the dip in to fantasy! im interested in deamons, mostly Nurgle and Tzeentch, thats not to say id ignore the other 2 gods.

I have a slight understanding of fantasy, and as far as i can tell magic is a big player, just wondering if anyone if able to give me any good ideas to the best/most useful units?

Also, is the new Chaos Battalion worth purchasing? ive found a good tutorial to turn the Bloodletters into Plaguebearers which could be pretty useful. 

Thanks, Adam.


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## Daemon Prince Paintbox

Excellent, another Daemon player. Welcome to the chaotic goodyness. It's difficult to say which unit is better then the other. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. Overall any Khorne model is best to just get straight into action and kill kill kill. Nurgle are hardy and can soak up some fire power. Great for holding up a unit, not the quickest but poison attacks help. Slaanesh are quick and have several attacks. Great to get into combat and rip to pieces large swathes of enemies. Although they are only Toughness 3, so they don't can't sustain a long combat phase. Tzeentch provide help with magic and are your only shooting with the Flamers. A 4+ ward save makes them reasonably resilient, but that said they are by no means a combat unit.

Everyone has their preferred gods. I would say start of using a mix so you get a feel for them. I personally use a mix with a healthy dose of Khorne.

The starter set is great if you want to use a bit of everything.It does save you a bit of money too! If you get this and the new Herald of Tzeentch (give him master of Scorcery and he becomes potentially very nasty in the magic phase, and in a daemon army you don't get much magic for cheap) you'll have around 1,000 points straight away. Chuck in some Flamers, Bloodcrushers and another Herald and you'll be at 1,500 in no time.

Hope this helps. There's always the army list section to give you some inspiration so take a look. 

Have fun and enjoy. All the best.


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## Dragax

Sounds like a good start, ive heard flamers are very nasty in smaller "suicide" squads

Another thing is hordes, ive looked around and noticed alot of people seem to like hordes of Letters with heralds for the Hatred, are these worth getting?

Thanks.


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## Daemon Prince Paintbox

You could hoard them or go for a couple of blocks of 15-20. It friends on who you face really. The hatred the herald confers is great. Although a herald on juggernaut with etherblade is good to get rid of heavily armoured foe. but there are many combos you will find.

Flamers can be useful as they have their vanguard movement and so can get close to small units or machines quickly. just play around and see what suits you.


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## Dragax

Will do, just found out ive had a hefty bonus from work so ill get the Battle force and Herald and have a few practice games, Thanks for the help.


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## Silens

Just got back from a game with my daemons today. Yet again, my flamers proved to be surprisingly good in close combat. Last time, my flamers got charged by Flagellants last time and beat them (I think it was 3 flamers vs 3 flagellants) and today they took down a few Vampire Bloodknights in close combat. I believe it was 3 Knights vs 5 Flamers; the flamers took 0 wounds across two turns of combat. I hear magic is very good for Daemons, but as of yet I have a single level 2 Herald of Tzeentch. Last game he turned into a super-frog from miscasting and this time he cast Purple Sun of Xereus and... It didn't do anything. I'm going to be investing in Kairos Fateweaver when I get the rest of my army a bit bigger.

Don't buy the Battalion from GW, get them from wayland games (I think you save about £12 there). I like my Seekers of Slaanesh; they've done some damage in games.


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## olderplayer

Daemons of chaos are a good army to start with. 8th edition changed the balance of power and make up of the army. All the core are still playable but have very different roles to play in 8th edition and daemons are no longer the best army choice that they were in 7th edition (almost to the point of being unfair to play against in 7th edition). 

Lords:
Greater daemons cannot go in units (being monsters). Unless you have a lot of terrain that blocks line of sight and blocks cannon balls (like impassible terrain, obstacles and buildings) then greater daemons and daemon princes are tough to play due to long range shooting by war machines being able to kill them too easily in 8th edition. In 7th edition, bloodthirsters and lords of change and great unclean ones were all played and decent choices because forests and certain other things blocked line of sight (used virtual line of sight rules in 7th edition, and true line of sight in 8th edition, so forest now do not block line of sight absent house rules). So, it is best often to just stick with the hero-level heralds as a start. 

Core and Heralds:

It is important to remember that heralds can only run with units with the same chaos god. Most of the time, heralds will be run with their associated core units. 

It is now fairly standard at or above 2250 points to run bloodletters in a horde formation with a herald of khorne (gives the unit hatred which is essential for use with killing blow; armour of khorne and one of two possible weapons/ablities) with icon of endless war. Top tier armies, in competitive builds at 2500+ points, commonly require bloodletter hordes at or above 40 models due to the low toughness of T3 of bloodletters. ETC comp limits the sizes of Daemons army units to prevent units of that size, however. 

Horrors can run anywhere from 10 (cheap unit for babysitting a Herald of tzeentch and one spell) up to 40 with icon of sorcery (+1 to cast for the horrors). Horrors are not a "good" combat unit. Heralds of Tzeentch with master of sorcery and spellbreaker with lore of life are very common. Lore of life allows one to boost toughness and regrow units, important for bloodletter units. A herald of tzeentch with wings (flying) and BSB magic banner (sundering or chaos standard are expensive but well worth considering) is an interesting option to run with a unit of six flamers but it will limit the flexibility of the flamers. 

Plaguebearers are no longer as good as they used to be but still can play a role due to ability to wound tough things with poison and greater toughness. The herald of nurgle BSB is still a viable option. Many armies run two heralds of khorne and two bloodletters units (one larger horde and one a bit smaller) and don't run plaguebearers any more. 

Dameonettes are very situational. They often are best used as a smaller unit of 10+ to flank and bait with a herald of slannesh with siren to force something to charge and, hopefully, fail the charge. 

Better players play with multiple units of 6 to 8 chaos furies to go after war machines, light cav and skirmishers and screen and redirect. 

Rare:

The best and most broken unit is the flamers unit. Two units of 6 flamers will draw a lot of complaints and not be appreciated unless playing a very competitive game. 

We see units of fiends of slannesh as the other rare option. They are vulnerable to shooting but very fast and hard hitting models that can be run a single models to interfere with movement and take on war machines, fast cav and skirmishers. 

Some play bloodcrushers in larger points battles with a herald of khorne on a jugg but it is a very expensive unit and too easily killed off by shooting. 

Special:

Fleshhounds were excellent back in 7th edition and are not as good now. They still have a good role because of their magic resistance and ward save and speed to deal with skirmishers, fast cav and some other similar types of units. 

We rarely see the other special units played any more in armies in our area due to a lack of cost efficiency.


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## khrone forever

Silens said:


> Don't buy the Battalion from GW, get them from wayland games (I think you save about £12 there). I like my Seekers of Slaanesh; they've done some damage in games.


sorry, but this is wrong. if you by it from GW you save £22 and if you get it from wayland you save £35


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## Dragax

Silens: I was looking at Wayland or Gifts for Geeks so ill order this when they are out. 

Olderplayer: Thanks, from looking around i did notice it is mainly Letters which is a shame as I have a thing for Nurgle, do Epidemius lists still work at all? or is it best to just stick with everything? Shame about the Blood Crushers as i love the models.


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## kavyanshrike

Blood crushers are really irritating to kill without decent shooting plague bearers on a flank with thing which gives them regen is also irritating


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