Chaos Daemons Codex review

I'm not sure what to make of the new codex for the daemons. The last one was quite easy to gauge and plan lists around. This time I think it isn't quite so easy, which is both good and bad, plus I'm sure part of it is not being a daemons player myself.

First off, I couldn't get into the background fluff section of the book. It doesn't read as well as the prior two codexes. I found it a real slog and quite frankly not very interesting. Plus, it still doesn't explain how the supposed "physical" locations like Slaanesh's palace or the Skull Throne exist in a dimension of pure thought and emotion. Games Workshop could do with giving that a better explaination otherwise I want to see ships crash into them.

Anyway, let us get to the meat of the book.

Deep Strike has become an optional tool for the army now. It was a pain in the last codex but a fair balance for how good that book was. Now I can see other than a few options this army is going to be a footslogging horde much like the Tyranids are.

Daemonic Instability has returned. Now it works like morale tests after the assault phase except that you could easily lose a lot of models depending who you have just been fighting. Lesser daemons don't have a great leadership for this so you are relying on winning close combat.

A Warp Storm table has been added to the game too which gets rolled on the Daemons' players turn. It feels like a random element too far in a game already filled to overflowing in random elements. Half are good and half are bad but this is an element that I don't feel should have been added, even as some kind of balancing factor.

Next up for me are the psychic powers. Thankfully these are psychic now not sorcery, so you can get a Deny the Witch roll. The disciplines of plague and excess are not bad. However I feel that no one will take the discipline of change for the most part because of the Warpflame special rule. All the discipline of change powers (and Flamers of Tzeentch) have this and it wrecks the powers. If the unit hit by the Warpflame survives the unit makes a Toughness test. Fail and you lose more models with no save. Pass and the Tzeentch daemons have just given you a 6+ FNP for the rest of the game, or +1 to it if you already had it. I just can't see many people playing that.

On to the options...

HQ's.There are still three special characters for greater daemons; Skarbrand, Kairos and Ku'gath. Why isn't there a Slaanesh one? Don't know but I feel there should be one. Skarbrand and Ku'gath seem fair though at their points you won't want them in typical size games (1500-1750pts). As for Kairos, he seems way overcosted and I can't see where his points really come from. Plus I was dissapointed that his fluffy "runs away when wounded" rule has gone. That was part and parcel of the character and seems wrong to see it go.
The generic greater daemons seem fine though does a Bloodthirster really need I9? It's all rage, not speed and finesse like a Keeper of Secrets.
The daemon princes are identical stat and pointswise to their CSM counterparts, though the options are more limited, plus they have the daemonic instability rule.

The Heralds seem fine and reasonably pointed but I feel Skulltaker and Epidemius are the real winners here. You won't want Tzeentch because of warpflame and I don't think the Slaanesh options are strong enough. Nurgle on the other hand seem to have become a very viable option.

Troops.
Lesser daemons have had a reduction in strength and toughness to make them more balanced and fair. I approve of this. Shame that some still have issues good and bad.
* Bloodletters are still the primary choice because GW let them keep their AP3 hellblades. AP4/5 I might have said were ok, but I still don't like power weapons as standard on a troop choice.
* Pink Horrors may see use but again using warpflame makes me think you won't unless they are spammed as the primary troop option.
* Plaguebearers have moved up in my mind as a good troop option. Space marine toughness means that they can still be used to bog units down but they won't be too tough to handle.
* Nurglings... not convinced.
* Daemonettes are very much a waste now, but then they were last time too. Strength 3 rending isn't worth it and yet I keep seeing people suggest these as the means of handling terminators and 2+ save models. Khorne and Nurgle have won the troops section in my mind.

Elites.
* Bloodcrushers are the only elite option I think is viable. They are a reasonable choice.
*Flamers at least have lost AP3 which is a blessing. They didn't need that and it was overpowered. Everyone took Flamers. They also have warpflame making them less desirable.
* Beasts of Nurgle and Fiends of Slaanesh are really meh. I really don't see the point to these outside of a fluffy single god list.
Overall I think the elites section is uninteresting other than the bloodcrushers.

Fast Attack.
* Fleshounds are a nice option if you know you are up against low armour units and/or against psychic heavy lists like Eldar.
* Screamers are still a nuisence. They should really be killed if they destroy a vehicle. But that is a bias to be fair.
* Plague Drones are the new toy for this section and I really like these. Nurgle wins out again with some jet pack cavalry.
* Chaos Furies... nothing special but now they can take marks of a chaos god. I thought the point of furies was that they are the forms of chaos worshippers who didn't choose a specific god to follow?
* Seekers again seem like a naff choice on paper. Never seen these played under 40K and still don't expect to.
* Hellflayer of Slaanesh... a big old chariot pulled by Seekers. Doesn't really fit the 40K universe in my mind (see later) but fair enough. Will have to see what these are like if anyone plays one locally.
Nurgle wins the FA section too by looks of it.

Heavy Support.
* Soul Grinders are now a must IMO, as the only option in the codex that has Skyfire options. With the amount of flyers these days daemon players will have to use up a slot for this.
* Skullcannon / Blood Throne. I really dislike these. Not because of what they do because (a) the models are hideous, and (b) these belong in Warhammer Fantasy. It doesn't fit the science fiction game. Daemons are not about tanks but horde. As it stand though, the Skullcannon looks like a nice unit on paper though I fully expect one these on the table to take a shedload of fire from turn 1.
* Seeker Chariot / Exalted Chariot. Don't rate these, not when you have soul grinders and the skull cannon.

My final thoughts are that this is a very odd codex now. In areas it seems more balanced and fair but in others I wonder what the designers were thinking (looking at warpflame here mainly), and why add Fantasy style things in rather than something new in the lines of the soul grinder.
This is still going to be a tough codex to deal with but not nearly as horrid as its predecessor was.

Chaos Daemons codex - first thoughts

I've finally found time to read through the new codex and I'm somewhat confused by it. Quite a bit has changed. Stats have dropped on a fair few units, weapons have changed and so on. I understood the last codex but now I haven't a clue what you would field now other than having to take a Soul Grinder (for skyfire) pretty much now.

I did get a sense that it is a much more balanced codex than it was before, though still annoyed at the amount of AP3 weaponry available. Going to need another couple reads I think before I can do my video review,

Chaos Daemons Warlord Traits

Chaos Daemons advance order

The new Chaos Daemons codex and psychic power cards have gone up online for advance order.

Ordered mine. I just so hope they tone them down. Rumours do seem to suggest that Bloodletters have gone down to a AP4 weapon rather than AP3. Please say it is true!

Daemons Rumours.

Taken from a post on 40k Forums. Comments in red are mine.

Now that everyone has ordered their redundant Death from the Skies it is time to move on to the next "impeding" release: Deamons. I am one to think that they aren't coming out just yet, but maybe with the April release. With rules rumors being hard to come by let us look at some obvious ones right in front us and others not so much.

As most people realize Daemons will lose both Fearless and Eternal Warrior replaced with 5+ invulnerable and Fear. Eternal Warrior never really made sense in the grand scheme of things anyway because wouldn't Force Weapons be perfect to "banish" Daemons back to the War? As for Fearless,
see a return of "instability" which is going to be close to 5th edition Fearless.

This makes more sense to me as EW was too much. Also now Daemon gives them immunity to fear anyway. Bringing instability back would be so much better. Here's hoping that is true.

As I stated in a previous rumor GW is hell-bent on having each army hate something. Daemons are no different they just seem to hate themselves now.

Taking a look at the Chaos Space Marine and Warriors of Chaos books you can see where this is going. Each Chaos God units will hate a certain other god. This leads into the next rules change right in front of us. Depending on the Daemon's God it will determine the special abilities they get.
Good. Bring back the original hatreds. In reality Khorne would never ally with anyone, except Nurgle if the old plague guys didn't use pyskers, Slaanesh would only ally with Tzeentch and Nurgle. Tzeentch only with Slaanesh, and Nurgle only with Slaanesh or as said above Khorne if the cercumstances were right.

Khorne: Furious Charge

Slaanesh: Rending, Run bonus, Fleet

Tzeentch: Re-roll 1s for saves

Nurgle: Slow & Purposeful, Shrouded

Other changes that will surely happen...

Flamers and Screamers are getting nerfed, but the real big change will be Deamons having standard Deployment rules: no more Daemonic Assault.
Yay! Flamers and Screamers were horribly overpowered and still are even with the rules update. Flamers for a start should not be AP3 and Screamers should be killed if they explode a vehicle.

The big reason Deamons were fast tracked has to do with Alessio Cavatore. Chatting with a few inside GW there has been an everything Alessio purge, and Daemons are the last big chunk of Alessio material left. Yeah, I know it sounds kinda petty, but it was a major impetus to get Daemons done. Daemons will still primarily be an assault based army, but that is the nature of the models having to be used both for Fantasy and 40k. That means Daemons will rely on speed to get across the board. Expect Chariots, warp portals, beasts, cavalry, jump troops to help with all this. Then there is cover saves Nurgle is the first piece of the puzzle, but just like certain Dark Angel things expect a "Clouds of Flies" to provide bonuses to cover saves all around. Chaos Space Marines and Deamons ICs will be able to join each other as long as their gods match up.
Cavatore made the best version of the rules and now he's gone they are dropping everything.

Anyhoo, dropping the deepstriking daemons element is a great idea. It never really worked the way I thought it should. Proper deployment might hurt them a lot though. We'll have to see. Will also have to see how it will change the Daemon missions from Battle Missions.

Things have been spares from all rumor mongers, but a lot has to do with GW "renewed" lock down; translated GW rumor monger wack'a'mole.

Another good thing to understand is GW is moving quicker with releases than ever before. They had almost an entire year to create a backlog on sculpting and rules. To give you an example, the Chaos Space Marine codex was done in December of 2011. I am not talking about just the rules, but everything the photography, the layout, everything! Dark Angels same thing, done in March 2011 [I think he means 2012 -Sour]. That means Daemons have been done since June and Tau and Eldar compelete or almost complete.

Situation Report

Played my first game against Daemons under 6th edition tonight. Well, Daemons with CSM allies, to be exact. Firstly, I was surprised that my opponent actually took a land raider and a heldrake as part of his allies detachment as so far all I have seen people play is a HQ and two troops. As for the main list, he didn't play anything twinky and it was nice and fair. Though I still find that Flamers need to be toned down. Their flamer weapons do not need to be that harsh!

The game started off really well for me but turn 3 saw his Heldrake come in, smash my Stormtalon via vector strike and then consign half a squad of marines to a fiery death. That prevented my winning the game.

I was pleased with one thing though. He had played Fateweaver as his warlord, and the remaining four men from the squad I mentioned above shot him with three bolters and a plasmagun. Wounded, he took a leadership test, failed, and fled into the warp! I may not have won the game but I claim the moral victory for that. :-)

Overall, what was fielded was fair and balanced. No Bloodletters, juggernauts or twinky options. Lots of plaguebearers which held my assault terminators up.

Victory was my opponents purely because of two flamers squads and the heldrake, which did their job very well.

Codex comparrisons - part 1.

So, KhorneGuy suggested that I put forward my thoughts on how each codex was under 5th and now 6th. Not a bad idea so here goes. Bear in mind as always that this is a casual players point of view not a competative one.

Black Templars.
I have only played against the black templars once under 5th and that was right near the beginning of that edition. Still learning the changes between 4th and 5th my vanilla marines were defeated (though to be fair, my opponent was and still is a lot better than me).
Under 5th Black Templars were not too bad but I think they suffered the same problems that the vanilla codex did and that was that compared to everyone else they were too expensive and fewer options. The only thing going for them was land raider crusaders as dedicated transports thus allowing them to hold objectives with a scoring unit inside. They could also have close combat weapons in troop options which was a step up from the vanilla codex.
Under 6th I think they are now underpowered as they don't really gain the benefits that the vanilla marines got from the new edition and they lost the ability to hide in their land raiders on top of objectives. This codex really needs an update, though to be fair I think they should be dropped and just brought into the vanilla dex. I don't see that they bring anything new to the table.

Blood Angels.
A horrible tough army to beat under 5th and even worse now under 6th. Depending on the player I really don't enjoy many games against this codex ( *cough* my nephew *cough* ). There are far too many twinky options that just make them far far too killy. Under 5th furisos dreadnoughts in drop pods or carried under a stormraven were the bane of my marines. At least under 6th if I can't hurt it I can at least run away and try to let something else have a go.
I think Blood Angels have done rather well out of the new edition. The combat rules favour them and as an army built for close combat they do well out of it. With power armout it is still tough to drop them with overwatch.

Chaos Daemons.
When this codex first came out it was horribly broken and twinky, and it remained that way throughout 5th edition. The only time Chaos Daemons seemed to lose a game was when the player wasn't focused or when he was up against a much more canny opponent. Khorne themed lists were a must for the most part because they had power weapons on their bloodletter troops (why? *shakes fist*). Now they have lost a lot of that focus under 6th as power weapons can't drop terminators and everyone is afraid of terminators. The codex does need an update but I feel GW will just make them stupidly powerful again when they do.

Chaos Marines.
Under 5th CSM players grumbled like all hell about how weak this codex was. I think they were smoking something because while not very fluffy, this army was extremely powerful. Ten to twenty man squads with the close combat weapon and pistol bonus attacks already overpowered the pathetic space marine tactical squads. Daemon princes were far too powerful and two was a common deployment. Obliterators too. But in balance they had units such as bikers, raptors and havocs that no one ever took.
As the first codex of 6th I think we have a good idea where GW are taking codexes for this edition, and this time we have a nice balanced codex. The cost of units seems fair and nothing stood out as being too good. This probably means that CSM players will still grumble. As the new codex has only been out for a few weeks at this point I think it will be a while before we get a real idea of how this army now plays.

Dark Angels.
There are really only two ways to play Dark Angels, either terminators as troops or bikes as troops. No one ever plays the bike list. With terminators being the run to list for the codex now what with changes to power weapons under 6th I think this is all we will see until they get a new codex. The army suffers in only one regard right now in my opinion and that is the lack of a flyer and rumours seem keen to say that they won't get one in the new book.
Despite the lack these days of something unique to call their own I think the Dark Angel codex is still very viable, tough and fun to play.

Dark Eldar.
Dark Eldar were pants until they got their 5th edition codex and then they became a nice balanced army. They had strong points; good in close combat, decent initiative and excellent long range heavy weapons. However I feel that 6th edition has screwed them royally. Their vehicles are more fragile than ever as small arms fire can just glance them to destruction and overwatch has blunted their close combat prowess. These days I feel that the only real way for Dark Eldar to win is if they take allies to shore up their weaknesses. Shame as the codex under 5th had a nice feel to it.

To be continued...

The Stygia Campaign

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some bods from the club (I forget who unfortunately) and the topic of how you could have a planetary campaign featuring all factions came up. Many years ago that is exactly what I planned for a couple of campaigns that we ran. Hunting through my files I found the backstory I had written for it. Just for enterainments sake here is the Stygian Campaign.

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Armageddon. Cadia. Vraks. Macgragge. These are wars so vast that no one will ever forget them. Now, in the waning years of the Imperium a new name has been added to that list, Stygia. A world located deep in the heart of the Ghoul Stars. A world that has become the centre point for every major power in the galaxy. A world whose fate may very well spell the salvation or damnation for the entire universe.

            Thousands of years before mankind crawled from the seas, the Eldar race had already been instrumental in the banishment of the Necrontyr, but found the universe still beset by warp entities from the Immaterium. Their seers knew of the Chaos Gods, and foresaw a time when the ruinous powers could collapse the walls between worlds and all would be lost. They scoured worlds where daemonic incursions had destroyed native species and laid traps for the most powerful daemons, drawing them from the warp and containing their essences within specially prepared devices called the Amarth-Thame ("Apocalypse Box"). By the time the seers declared an end to their work, they had contained the spirits of thousands of powerful warp entities within these devices. Now they needed somewhere to hide them away. Such a place was found along the rim of the galaxy, a newly forming world still primordial with a surface of molten rock. The Amarth-Thame were dropped into the churning core of the planet, hidden away but protected from the untamed forces of creation. Within a few generations knowledge of the Amarth-Thame had been forgotten amongst the petty desires of the Eldar race. The world that would be Stygia cooled and solidified. The artifacts were distributed across its surface, deep beneath the ground. Here the contained daemons slumbered and awaited a time when they would be freed to extract their wrath upon the galaxy.

Stygia was first discovered by humanity in M24 when a colony ship, the Endeavour, was swept of course in the warp by powerful storms that buffeted and pushed the ship far off its intended route. When finally, the ship's navigator was able to punch a hole back into the material universe they were in a region of space dominated by ancient and dying stars. Too far from Earth or its other colonies to make contact, the colonists looked for a new home out here. They found Stygia, a beautiful green world with vibrant blue oceans. After a brief exploration, this is where they decided to make their new home.

In M31, an exploratory ship moving ahead of the Great Crusade located Stygia and its colony. What they found disturbed the crew greatly. The colonists were living a simple lifestyle, living off the land but almost a third of the population exhibited mutation or unchecked psychic potential. The mutants, though accepted by their human counterparts, lived separate to them and had thus slowed the unnatural evolution of the humans on the planet. The world was logged but all concerns were swept aside when in the following year the Imperium was plunged into civil war. The Horus Heresy had begun.

Once again, Stygia was forgotten until 812.M41 when records of the planets existence were uncovered by an accident in the great libraries of the Administratum on Holy Terra. For some time now, space marines of the Death Spectres chapter had been stationed near the Ghoul Stars, fending off incursions from daemons and other warp entities, and word was dispatched to them to investigate the current situation on Stygia. When they arrived, they found that mutation had spread further through the population though no direct cause could be attributed. Those who were heavily mutated or were identified as latent psykers were eradicated by the Death Spectres and the planet forcibly converted into the Imperium. Local system lord, Salem Draco, paid a visit to the planet and decided that it would be perfect for an agri-colony, supplying the nearby systems with an abundance of food. The locals were put to work working the newly planted fields, or in the mines pulling precious ores to the surface. The surviving mutants, manyclassified as "beast men", fled into the untamed forests and hills to escape persecution or extermination. The planetary governor, Exon Valdez, set up his palace in the newly constructed city of Bludhaven.

Several years later, miners working the Drakkensgraab mines unearth and bring to the surface an unusual object bearing xenos markings. The first Amarth-Thame had been pulled from its resting place beneath Stygia. Concerned by this turn of events, Exon has the artifact dispatched to an Inquisitorial facility in a nearby system. Scholars of the Ordo Hereticus determined that the object was of Eldar manufacture and that the runes were of containment, and that they held the essence of Chaos. The Amarth-Thame was quickly secured within their fortress library behind multiple purity seals, for safekeeping. Over the next one hundred and fifty years, several more of these artifacts are uncovered and the concerns of the Inquisition grow.

Events come to a head in early 999.M41 when suddenly and without warning all the Amarth-Thame began to broadcast a psychic scream that penetrated the minds of all on Stygia. The scream echoes into the warp, affecting psykers across the galaxy, disturbing the sleep of ancient evils and drawing the armies of Chaos like bees to honey. Even the Tau whose species have no psykers were able to hear this call, though faintly. The Eldar farseers are affected worse than any other, feeling the rage of a thousand trapped daemons flooding through their souls. The Amarth-Thame have been unearthed and awakened.

Now, in the last days of the 41st millennium, every major race has descended upon Stygia.

Why We Fight…

Chaos Marines & Chaos Daemons.

The call of the daemons trapped within the Apocalypse Boxes has reached across the galaxy. Touching the minds of all who serve the Ruinous Powers, it calls them to battle, plunder and fire. Fleets of traitor ships are leaving the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, and their strongholds throughout the galaxy are heading towards the Ghoul Stars. Daemons claw their way through the weak fabric of reality, stepping onto the surface of Stygia. Soon this world will burn and the entities within the Amarth-Thame will be freed.

Grey Knights & Sisters of Battle.

The Inquisition has been aware that something is afoot on Stygia for some time and has planned for just such an event. Grey Knights and Inquisitorial forces have been drawn from their secret places and now bolster the defences of Stygia. Under the guidance of one High Inquisitor Butlerian, the armies of the Inquisition fight to uncover and safely deal with the xenos artifacts and any heretic forces that have arrived.

Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar have raided Stygia for centuries, taking slaves and generating fear among the colonists. Drawn again to Stygia by the cry of the Amarth-Thame, these piratical Eldar see the war as a great opportunity to conduct their attacks with impunity. Let the lesser races fight one another, while they sow disorder and reap the benefits.

Eldar.

Memories of the Amarth-Thame have resurfaced and the Elder rush to Stygia. They have found the foolish humans uncovering things better left alone. Reading the fickle winds of fate, the seers of the Eldar know that this war will determine the fate of the entire galaxy. Either humanity will rise from this stronger or else they will usher in a new age of Chaos. Neither event favours the Eldar, but they cannot sit back and do nothing. The Eldar ride to war.

Necrons.

The psychic scream of the Amarth-Thame have disturbed the Necron who still slumber under dead worlds in the Ghoul Stars. The psychic scream interferes with their machines, awaking them early and causing great pain. The Necrons have begun to materialise upon Stygia, harvesting life forces and seeking a way to silence the incessant scream that interferes with their operation.

Orks.

Orks are drawn to conflict, and even they sense that something big is going down. Across the galaxy Orks are leaving battlefields to follow larger fleets that are headed into the rim of known space. Most Ork vessels are destroyed before reaching orbit but a few have managed to get past the great fleets above and crash into the surface of Stygia. It matters not to the Orks what this fight is about, they just won't be left out of it.

Space Marines & Imperial Guard.

The might of the Emperor's finest have been redirected to Stygia by the planetary governor and the Inquisition. The PDF has been augmented by troops from Cadia, Valhalla and other fortress worlds, while companies of Space Marines are deployed across the surface of Stygia. This world belongs to the Emperor and they fight to ensure it remains so.

Tau.

The Tau high command has sensed an opportunity with the growing conflict on Stygia. Their race has no knowledge of warp travel, but intercepted communications hint at the presence of artifacts from the warp. If such artifacts could be recovered and returned to the enclaves, the Tau would gain a significant advantage. Under cover, the Tau have managed to sneak a force onto the surface of Stygia in an effort to recover the Amarth-Thame for the Greater Good.

Tyranids.

The psychic scream of Amarth-Thame has even blotted out the shadow in the warp. Disorientated and lost without a connection to the greater hive mind, a Tyranid bio-ship entered the Stygia system and was engaged by picket vessels of the Imperium. Confused, the ship was no match for the enemy and crashed through the atmosphere, its carcass spewing spores in a last ditch effort to ensure the survival of its brood. However, the Amarth-Thame have prevented the emergent Tyranids from connecting to a single hive mind and those hives that have sprung up and survived have become single entities. Reports from the Ordos Xenos have even indicated that rival hives have fought and consumed one another in a savage survival of the fittest.

Chaos Daemons?

So... Chaos Daemons next then?

Rankings

Over on the 40K forums site there has been a recent discussion with posters ranking the codexes. I've not taken part but I have read through it and here is my list from top to bottom (top being best).

Chaos Space Marines.
Grey Knights.
Tyranids.
Blood Angels.
Space Wolves.
Eldar.
Dark Eldar.
Chaos Daemons.
Imperial Guard.
Necrons.
Dark Angels.
Orks.
Tau Empire.
Sisters of Battle.
Space Marines.
Black Templars.

That's how I would list them. How would you?

Chaos Daemons review

6th ed Chaos Rumours