Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

===Troops===
*'''Bloodletters of Khorne''' - Now only 10 pts. Bloodletters are overall okay. MEQ armies will piss themselves with fear when they hear that Bloodletters' close combat weapons are power swords. Then they'll realize Bloodletters don't have any grenades, have a poor invulnerable save, have no armour saves and their swords are AP3, so TEQ will eat them for breakfast. On the plus side, they're now a lot cheaper, so horde tactics are a good call. Deepstriking a unit of 'letters with an instrument allows you to call down another Khornate daemon unit. Bloodletters' main problem is their low number of attacks (1 base). While Bloodletters will decimate MSU units, they will get mowed down by hordes due to their low number of attacks. Also marine squads of 15+ (CSM) will beat them in close combat through sheer volume of attacks if outfitted with close combat weapons; or the 'letters will mostly be dead by the time they get into combat and will be taken down by sheer weight of numbers. There are ways round this though. If you give them a Herald with a Locus give them Greater Locus of Fury (Rage) - it helps remedy their low number of attacks. The Exalted Locus (Hatred) is a bit worse and more expensive, as they'll already hit most stuff on 3's. Another problem is that they will always endure at least 1 turn of shooting (if not 2) so unless your opponent ignores them they will have lower numbers when they get into combat. The Blood Banner is essential here, greatly improving their chances of getting a successful charge in; and the Character upgrade can be effective especially with access to that Axe of Khorne. <br />Bloodletters are also the unit for garrison duty in buildings with weapon emplacements. Their BS5 makes them hilariously and counter-intuitively (for a close-combat unit) efficient at shooting; if you're looking for some effective and reliable anti-aircraft in your Daemon army, give some serious thought to a Bloodletter squad in an Aegis defense line, Imperial bastion, Fortress of Redemption or even an Aquila strongpoint.

*'''Daemonettes of Slaanesh''' - Clocking in at 9pts each, they have Fleet and Rending as standard. Like every other force organization slot, the Slaanesh unit is faster and more fragile than the Khorne unit just as the Nurgle unit is slower but more durable. They're designed to tie up the enemy before they have a chance to use their ranged weapons, and now that they're not forced to deep strike their whole strategy is actually possible. They still have to foot-slog it though, so we're still back at square 1 (unless you Deep Strike them). Now that they're only 9 pts. a model, you can take a lot of them, which might even out your odds... maybe... However, they are better than Bloodletters in CC because they have more attacks, are faster, and don't fold to TEQs. Speaking of which, they will rape TEQs. Example: 9 Daemonettes and 1 Alluress cost 95 points, same as 3 Chaos Terminators and are putting out 21 attacks, hitting on 3s, wounding on 5s. With Rending they'll kill a 3 man squad in 1 turn most of the time. If you take a Herald go ahead and spring for the Exalted Locus (reroll all To Hit rolls); it gives them more teeth (something they lack) and ups their likelihood of getting a rend.
**'''The Great Promenade of Exquisite Excess (Apocalypse only)''' - If you play Apocalypse, you may want to look into this.  The new Apocalypse book has this nasty Slaanesh Formation consisting of the Masque and six squads of Daemonettes and/or Seekers.  They must be kept in reserve and deep strike when they come in, but can assault when they come in and Rend on a 4+.  This will be guaranteed to throw your opposing team off guard, so if you're feeling horny and have the models this is highly recommended.

*'''Pink Horrors of Tzeentch''' - With 6th edition rules, Pink Horrors were arguably the best choice in the Troops section.  As of 7th, they easily '''are''' the best.  They're a ranged unit, but they shoot psychic powers instead of regular shooting attacks, namely the fact that you can run after shooting witchfire powers.  This means you can move up, squeeze off a volley of Flickering Fire, then run in the shooting phase back into cover.  The big kicker though with these things in the psychic phase is that not only are they psykers themselves for the purpose of generating Warp Charge points, but their unique Magic Made Manifest rule lets these things generate 2 Warp Charges instead of one if they number 11 to 15 or 3 Charges if they number 16 to 20.  Small groups of these guys are useful as a shooting unit, but multiple squads of 20 will assure you complete dominance of the psychic phase.

:In addition, with the new FAQ confirming Daemonology as a optional choice to generate psychic powers, it is possible to achieve what can be only described as a gribbly bacterial plague. With a focus on claiming battlefield objectives and holding them, you can use your mastery charge to generate "Summoning" from the malefic daemonology discipline, which will then give you the option to spawn another unit of horrors using 5-6 warp charges to guarantee success. By selecting Malefic discipline for the new unit, your opponent now has too eliminate two units of horrors in order to prevent a third/fourth unit entering the field. In theory, you should be able to hold the line using the age old principle of "Bodies over bullets". While this does restrict the use of other psychic powers in the army, it is perfect to use as allies for an army with a particularly weak selection of psykers......          

*'''Plaguebearers of Nurgle''' - Plaguebearers may have lost FnP and got their toughness docked by 1, but they got a dramatic points reduction in exchange. They get Shrouding as part of their new deal, so as before they're still great at holding objectives. Since they are no longer Fearless and have Shrouded they can go to ground for 2+ in any cover. Also now their attacks always glance on a 6, which means that these are your anti tank. A massive unit of these with a Herald could march across the board and kill a hell of a lot of stuff that your other units might struggle with (see Wraithlords and AV13 Walkers). If you take a Herald, take the Greater Locus of Fecundity (Feel No Pain) to make camping Plaguebearers unkillable or to survive the march to your enemies' vehicles. Or you could bring Plague Drones/Seekers/Bloodcrushers with Icons to get them where you need to go, which is a better idea because they have Slow and Purposeful.  These guys definitely need a Herald to give them their FNP back to truly shine at backfield objective camping. Otherwise they're a few markerlights away from oblivion.

*'''Nurglings''' - A four wound tarpit, Nurglings have lost their amazing Eternal Warrior and are now incredibly vulnerable to instant death. In 7th edition, the rule disallowing Swarms to be scoring units has disappeared which means these things score and have Objective Secured! Plus they have the Infiltrate Special Rule, and they're decent at distracting units with a lot of dakka and missile launchers, allowing your assaulting units to move up and chop them to pieces. Alternately, they can grab a vital objective early in the game. Taking about 6 should do the job, but taking more isn't a bad idea. Just don't expect them to do much. Be careful, however, using these guys against Tau. Infiltrating units with four wounds seems like a perfect solution to keep some of that shooting off your army as they run up the board, but sadly any S6 shooting or templates will absolutely destroy the unit in no time at all, and Tau unfortunately have tons of that. 
**If playing apocalypse, you can usually find a place behind the enemy to infiltrate to. Take a bunch of 3-base units and [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]].