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

===Building a Mono-God Army=== 
Daemons are capable of running a Mono God force, just like our [[Chaos Space Marines| power armoured brothers.]] However, from our previous Codex, it was really difficult to run Mono army, unless you used Tzeentch Daemons (Even then, it was likely during the infamous White Dwarf update). The rest weren't competitive in many ways, and it encourage a mixed force more than anything. This was easily the sore thumb for Daemon players that want to enjoy a fluffy force (if you keep tzeentech away from nurgle and slaanesh away from khorne that is fluffy enough for some). Thankfully this was fixed when the new codex was released. While they aren't the most competitive to play, Mono builds are now much easier and better than before, and in the right hands, not only can they work well, but are also rewarding to play. Pretty much most of the units in their respective God they serve can find use in your Daemonic Assault on the enemies of Chaos, so this part of the article will help give you an idea on how each army works, and what can be done to fix the gaps your Mono build may have. One important note I must make, unless you are playing on a small gaming board or low point games, NEVER footslog your entire force or your close combat units. You must use all the tools that are provided at your disposal if you want to keep your force alive. Again, by no means should you use them in tournaments, but they work excellent in a friendly gaming environments. That doesn't mean they can't win against WAAC lists, but they can be difficult. Now enough of that, let's take a look at the lists!

====Khorne====
Daemons of Khorne, as anyone would expect, are primary a close combat army, more so than the other Gods. They have a good selection of HQs, the Bloodthirster being the strongest out of the four Greater Daemons, and has a good selection of gifts to start with. Of course you can always roll twice on the Greater Reward table making him strong or durable and have more weapons at his disposal, but he can work well without the gifts if you want to use those points else where. They even have THE challenge king, the best challenge character in the Warhammer 40k game, the Exiled One, better known as Skarbrand. Not only is he very nasty to go against and can buff your Daemons but he's so cheap for what he brings to the table, that taking him won't cause a huge impact on you if he gets banished. The Heralds are also very useful, being great force multipliers or downright deadly. Their Troops are excellent Marine killers, and with Space Marines starting to be more common, this will make you lick your chops for more blood! However, the problem with Bloodletters is that they are fragile for their cost, and aren't quick to compensate this, so the best way to minimize casualties is by Deep Striking them. It also gives them the mobility they need to reach their target. As for objectives, it's best you should focus on any threats your opponents may have that can remove your Troops and claim the objective for themselves, before you start grabbing them.

*Bloodcrushers are the only fast moving Icon users for Khorne Daemons, and are also quite fragile as well in a bad situation. So how can you make the best out of Bloodcrushers without losing them from instant death? Taking them in a minimum size squad, and making them less of a threat is probably your best bet. Thankfully, having a Bloodhunter with a gift and an Icon Bearer will only cost you 160 pts. Depending on the size of the game, one or two units should be enough to get your Bloodletters (Skarbrand too!) safely on the table, preferably behind cover. Once they have done their job, you can throw the safety logic out the window and use them as a light flanking unit. An entire Tactical Squad can easily be wiped out when you charge them in, and if they have a single wound left when they make it to Assault, they can dish out a lot of hurt before they inevitably die. If you want to run more than three, it's best to stick a Herald to the unit to help them survive, and Skulltaker is perfect for that role! This does make them more expensive, but they can survive being gun down if you end up being in the enemies line of sight. In minimum sized, the best you can do is either provide a Grimoire for them, or learn to spread wounds to prevent them getting killed by bolters or even lasguns.

*Flesh Hounds are definitely a must have. Slapping a Herald on Juggernaut with the Greater Locus makes them very deadly, but even better Skarbrand's buff can grant them BOTH rage and hatred (Everything)! Very cheap for a T4 two wounds unit, having the right amount will only cost 160 points. If you really want to make them a pain for your opponent, granting them a 3++ save with rage will give them a run for your points, making Flesh Hound Bombs very difficult to remove. Even Necron Wraiths will have a difficult time trying to wipe out the dogs of war, making their Rending attacks useless and having to survive wave after wave of attacks will put them to shame. Also Scouting them can be worthwhile if you go second, and if you pull it off right, you have yourself a turn 1 assault with no problem. Their Soul Grinders, while being the cheapest out of the four, are easily the weakest variant as they don't get any buffs for being a Daemon of Khorne. Still, having a versatile walker is always welcome, especially with the lack of shooting in Khorne armies. The Skull Cannon is an excellent supportive chariot, providing your units with assault grenades on the target the cannon fired on. Plus a S8 AP5 pie plate is always handy to have. Finally the Daemon Prince, presuming you toke a Greater Daemon, are a welcome addition to rip and tear tanks apart.  

*Outside of those units tho, you'll be spending most of your shooting phase with the Warp Storm and running up the board. The best way to make a Mono Khorne army work is by moving everything up, and deep striking your Bloodletters to keep up with the rest of the army. If you choose to run allies, it may be wise to invest in either fast shooting mobile units or strong objective holders. As you would guess, Chaos Marines have what Khorne's Daemons are looking for. Chaos bikers are the answer, being fast and provide special weapons on the go, while the Chaos Marines can sit on the backfield or ride in a Rhino to capture midfield objectives. Anti air isn't much of a problem if you use Bloodletters to operate a Quad Gun, or bring multiple Soul Grinders, but adding a Heldrake never hurts. If you want more firepower on the go, Dark Eldar works wonderfully well, and are an ally force that shouldn't be underestimated. Poison shots everywhere will make everyone with a high value of Toughness cry. This is invaluable as this makes the pairing look very scary to go against, and having Incubi with Skarbrand's buff will add extra lulz.

In the end, Khorne is one of the harder forces to pull off effectively due to having almost no shooting attacks and/or how fragile they are for their cost as well as very poor anti-vehicle ability (if you immediately quit when you see an armored battlegroup or Knight army across the table, no one will blame you), but with some practice and knowledge, you'll have a fast, and somewhat a glass hammer force, -That hits hard and are very rewarding.

====Tzeentch====
Trolololol... *ahem*, pardon me. We now have come across possibly the least played Mono force, but hold your horses. Mono Tzeentch, despite the nerf they received, are still surprisingly a good force if not perhaps the best mono-build in the game, thanks to how shooting is powerful in this edition and certain cheese builds (Screamer Star and Uber-prince) that are probably why D strength weapons ignore invulnerable saves now. They have a good selection of HQs, and their Greater Daemon, Lord of Change, is possibly one of the best Flying Monsterous Creature in the game, being versatile and effective in the role you give him. More than likely, many will prefer him buffing his army via Divination and engaging in melee. With a Staff of Change and two Greater Rewards to make him more tougher, you got yourself a serious beatstick monster (Pun attended). Their character Fateweaver, acts more of a supportive HQ, with access to most of the Psychic powers from the Rulebook, but is still a solid choice. Heralds are also useful here. They aren't mandatory for Pink Horrors, but they grant them not only Prescience, but also make their standard shooting attack more powerful. The characters are not bad, but should only be used in '''FUN*''' matches.

*Warp Flame: The biggest turn-off for Tzeentch grants enemy units a feel no pain roll if they survive a toughness test after being hit. This might stack but suppose you kill half a space marine squad and they pass their toughness test getting FnP 6+; so, they now have a one in six chance of surviving any subsequent wounds. But even if there slightly tougher, there are less of them now so it should balance out in your favor. Your best bet is to flame a squad ONCE, then charge it with another unit. They should be weakened and more vulnerable and as long as you can send them running (you should be able to do this, FnP 6+ or not), then you've gotten the most out of warp flame while mitigating the risks.  Focus warp-flame attacks on low toughness chaff units, such as GEQs, while keeping it away from high toughness units, Monstrous Creatures in particular and ''especially'' '''anything''' that already has FnP; giving your enemy a shitty save is one thing, giving him a better save is just idiotic.

*Pink Horrors are going to be your bread and butter. Even with Warp Flame, you won't have to worry about handing out Feel no Pain to units, as these guys will be filling up your Troops slots. Since you don't want to be in close combat with them, you don't need to Deep Strike any of them unless [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX| you want to place a blob of them behind your opponents deployment zone and surprise them.]] There aren't any upgrades needed, though an Iridescent Horror can help minimize the threat from the Warp Storm. Flamers are also good, but are best used against lightly armoured units, and Necron/Tau Fire Warrior equivalents. Having six templates will make them poop bricks. Screamers also work in a way as a harassment unit, but a good size of them can be your melee unit. Be sure to give them the re-rolls to hit, and they are set.

*<s>Sadly the Burning Chariot is broken due to how they ruled its weapons as Heavy for the rider, so this is the only exception that they get to see any use. However if they do get an FAQ allowing it to fire at it's normal BS, this will be your go to tank hunter and MEQ destroyer on a fast and cheap chariot, so pray that it gets fixed if you really wish to troll your enemy with a 100 pt Land Speeder strapped with Lascannons and a Baleflamer.</s> Better than a FAQ, there's a new edition: as per the 7th Ed rules, the rider in a chariot counts as stationary for shooting purposes, plus a fast vehicle can shoot two weapons at full BS when moving at cruising speed. If you're nuts, you can deepstrike the chariot and Dakka away as it will only count as having moved at combat speed (beware: the HUEG GUTS problem, though). Additionally, Tzeentch's Soulgrinders are only five chips more than Khorne's but re-roll saving throw 1's is actually way more useful to a Grinder than Furious Charge; it's just not as awesome as the other two we have yet to go over. Now their Daemon Prince are really expensive, but if you can afford the points, having another beatstick (I'm so sorry!) to help out The Lord of Change can sure fill in the gap for close combat PLUS you can tool up a TDP to add to your already outrageously destructive psychic phase.

*As you would assume, having Pink Horrors staying back and provide fire support for your melee units is the way to go. As long if you focus fire alot of your shooting one unit at a time and bring plenty to engage more units from range. Now for allies, Mono Tzeentch can use some effective tank destroying out if long range and some counter attack units to protect the Pink Horrors, so we again look for help from CSM. A Tzeentch Terminator Lord with the Chainfist and Lightening Claw combo with a small squad of Terminators with either Combi-Weapons and Power Weapons of your choice or the same combo as the Lord can make any unit stay clear from assaulting your Troops. They can also provide a Land Raider as a transport so you can use it as a fire base if you wish, although I think Obliterators in their max unit sized can provide better support for just a little extra. Once the midfield is clear, the can move up and make use of their weapons that's begging you to get closer. The tank destroying duty can also be done by Imperial Guards. Vendettas and Lemun Russ tanks are great, and a platoon of Guardsmen can help toss ammo down range with some Heavy weapon squads, which is always welcome in a Mono Tzeentch army.

Now at the closing of this analysis, you may be asking "Is it worth running a Tzeentch Daemon army?" The answer is yes, but play them wisely. They are also a hard force to play, but are considered to be the "Shooty" force for Daemons. When you do find the weak spot of your enemy and humiliate him with it, [[Just As Planned| everything will go according to plan.]]

====Nurgle==== 
One of the favorite Mono builds crunch wise, Nurgle Daemons are the toughest, but also the slowest moving force. Nurgle is arguably the easiest Mono build to play as most of your guys are hard to kill, especially with how cover is all over the place in 6th edition, Nurgle sure has gained more benefits than he could ever get (Except for the nerf on Epidemius). Before we can see how units work by themselves, the first and most important note is the army is really slow due to having Slow and Purposeful. Getting your force from first base to second can be a problem as smart players can simply move and shoot your force with little difficulty, like Tau and Necrons. To fix this issue, most of you force will need to Deep Strike if they can't move more than 6 inches or have special rules to move up the board fast, which I'll go more in depth later on. Basically if you want to play Nurgle Daemons, foot slogging is a big no no. Yes, you are tough as nails, but remember shooting is very power in this edition, so like I've stated earlier, don't deploy your force on the board unless you commonly play on small gaming tables. 

*Anyway, Nurgle has some good Greater Daemons that can be almost impossible to kill! Great Unclean Ones are awesome, as they get to mess around with the cheesy Biomancy powers, meaning you can make your Greater Daemon toughness TEN and can no longer be instant killed (except for ID weapons). Against armies that lack cover ignoring weapons, they'll have a hard time trying to put down a fat Daemon that requires Lascannons and poisoned weapons, and a lot of them will struggle to hurt the damn thing! Meanwhile, you enjoy a tasty 3+ cover save and just give your enemy a big smile after soaking up all their shots. Ku'gath is another handy HQ for your force. Having Slime Trail and a very useful Warlord Trait provides a hybrid role between being a roadblock, dealing decent damage in return, and keep your force from losing close combat. And helping Nurglings regaining their wound back a turn is cute and handy. Their Heralds on the other hand, are okay. Aside for providing Feel no Pain to your Plaguebearers, Nurgle Heralds offers the weakest buffs to your force. However they make a nice unit to have in providing ranged attack from the Plague discipline table. AP3 template and AP2 pie plate that always wounds on a 4+? Yes please! Only problem though is you need to get up close to make good use of them, but since you'll be Deep Striking, this won't be an issue. Oh, and the Blessing power works wonders if you can get it. Epidemius is okay, with his buffs being nerfed hard, but he can still be useful to a group of Nurglings if you can cause damage to your opponent, as the buffs really starts to help them out a lot. Also wounding on a 2+ Poison gives them a bit more punch up close to your enemies face.

*Plaguebearers are the best objective holders out of all of the others in the Codex, and are not bad in close combat. Because of this, having a unit or two to deploy on the board to hold objectives will give you an advantage, being hard to remove when you give them Feel no Pain, making shooting at them while in cover quite frustrating unless they can get around that without the need to engage in assault. The rest of course can move up, providing some additional help by glancing tanks to death and soaking up small arms fire. Be careful not to attract too many tho, as mass shooting will still wipe out the squad just like many other units. Nurglings provides you some nice distraction on heavy weapon squads or those that are terrible in melee. They have Infiltrate, so despite their slow movement, they can be fast thanks to moving within 18 inches of your opponents line of sight or 12 behind them. Fire warriors and even Thousand Sons don't want to be near Nurglings, as they dish out too much S3 attacks for them to handle. Having a swarm or two never hurts if you can hide them well for a round of two before going after the guys with dakka guns. Beast have seen a huge buff, and became useful to have thanks to the change of rules and rules that make them a nuisance for your foe. Fast and tough for a Nurgle Daemon, they make excellent roadblocks, and with It Will Not Die, you can abuse wound allocation by replacing the closest model with the other and have it regenerate its wounds back. Rinse and repeat, and then tie up some units while your force can handle the rest. That Tervigon won't be spawning more Termagants when he's stuck in melee with Beasts. 

*Our new addition to the book and for Nurgle without a doubt, makes this Mono force really effective. Our lovely Plague Drones are the stars for this force with good reasons. They're fast being Jet Pack Cavalry (For Nurgle of course), and are the toughest Icon wielders out of the three Daemonic Cavalry units. These guys, like Bloodcrushers for Khorne, are mandatory if you want your entire force to get into combat safely. Seriously, these guys are excellent, both in delivering your cargo and in assault as well. They can also be a decent shooty unit with Death's Heads, being able to pull the move shoot move tactic, annoying the hell out of that Tactical Squad sitting on an objective. You can never go wrong with these guys!  Now this is when we get into the good stuff. Nurgle Soul Grinders, are one of the best land vehicles in the game, giving you buff to cover, and since there's plenty to choice from, you can have it hide behind a ruin cover and enjoy a 2+ save! The best way to use them is focus on their range weapons, and have them provide fire support for your Plague Drones as they move onward. Now their Daemon Prince is actually worth their points, thanks to have Shrouded, and getting access to Divination powers, these guys gives your Troops the buffs they need, especially Plaguebearers as they don't have enough attacks to put serious damage against many in melee. Plus they can cause Instant Death when given the Balesword, making them also very nasty against units like Riptides and Necron Overlords (But watch out for Mindshackle Scarabs). 

*Now the Nurgle army must focus on giving each other buffs to make the even more harder to kill, and to use cover to their advantage. Once they can secure this step, the force can then go after the enemy or start firing they ranged attacks before the rest gets ready to assault. What makes them so easy to play is the fact that, despite being slow- Are rather hard to kill without your foe focus firing most or all guns on a single squad. Combine this with Plague Drones to close the gap of their crippling slow movement and Nurglings adding some spice for distracting purposes, means the army are still quite good in close combat with poison attacks, glancing attacks, and being difficult to wipe out without sacrificing rounds of combat. Allies, as always, are welcome if you have the points. Nurgle has a lot of situations they can handle for themselves, but what they lack units that can bring lots of special weapons and units to bring a lot of infantry guns. Again, CSM can provide this, with Nurgle Chosen and Havoc squads. Both can bring weapons like Flamers and Meltaguns, without the need to go over their allies FoC slots. Even better you can have two of each in games over 2k, with a maximum of 18 special weapons and 2 Combi-Weapons all inside of Rhinos to give them the mobility to deliver them to your enemy. Nurgle Cultists are handy for their Autoguns and Flamers, it's a boon to have ranged weapons, even if they're S3. However, they can never have enough dakka, but Orks can bring more! Lootas are downright nasty, both in shooting down land units and flyers, they are popular with good reasons. Shoota Boyz haves more punch with their Shootas and Big Shootas, although BS2 does makes up for this. Still they can unload loads of shots on whatever they're shooting. Also the Big Gunz can provide some nice fire support along side of the Soul Grinder.

This Mono force will attract many given how this is a more forgiving than the others. With the joy of durable units while dealing a decent amount of damage makes them a force to be reckon with. A great army for those that find armies like Guards and Necrons to be common, while having Beasts and Nurglings to add extra lulz when playing them! 

====Slaanesh====
At last we've come to the most competitive Mono army in the eyes of powergamers; not that they would play them over [[Eldar|other]] [[Necrons|armies]], but out of the four this would be their pick. Slaanesh is the other army that people would play crunch wise, they trade tough units with fast moving units. The entire force gets Fleet and Rending for both shooting and melee, this makes them also a army that deal a lot of damage, just like Khorne. Also if you play on small table boards often, every Slaanesh unit moves so fast that it can make them a competitive force to go against. 

*Going through their HQ slot, they seem to not have many, but they are still great none the less. The Keeper of Secrets are awesome, being the cheapest Greater Daemon while still being powerful up close, they really do give you a bang for your buck (Speaking of which, they cost the same as the other Greater Daemons money wise, so they actually do give you that bang)! What also makes them great is that they give you access to one of the best Daemon Princes in the Heavy Support slot, which I'll cover later. Give him/her/it two greater rewards and he/she/it is ready to go. The Heralds are also excellent as they have some really strong Locus to buff your army, and they all have their uses. The Masque on the other hand is okay. She can find some use given her Dances can help in a pinch, but because she eats up an entire HQ slot rather than being a Herald herself, it's best that you use her in low point games, she becomes a nice supportive HQ. Just make sure she is safe, as she can easily get instant killed.  At last we've come to the Daemon Prince. What makes them so good is that they can equip a Lash of Despair , with Wings and Armour and maybe a power or two from Biomancy makes this a great (albeit unreliable) anti-air Monsterous Creature, on par with the Dakka Tyrant, except you can have more than two/four if you for some reason have to points for them.

*Their basic Troops are considered to be the best as they pack a punch in close combat. Daemonettes are a favorite to many thanks to having Rending and Fleet, this means they can compete against TEQ and even Monsterous Creatures on rolls of sixes. They even have enough attacks on their own, so they can fight off horde units with little difficulty. Heralds aren't needed, but they start to be even more devastating when they have the Exalted Loci. It's expensive, but with such an amazing buff, how can you argue for it's hefty price tag? As I've mentioned, they are also fastest out if the other Troops in the codex, running an extra 3 inches in the shooting phase means they can footslog well if you want to, although just like Khorne and Nurgle, they work best when you Deep Strike them as they can get across the board safely. Fiends are another good unit to have, with their ability to reduce to opponents Initiative by 5 and reducing their Leadership by one when casting their Psychic Powers helps. Because of their former ability, they are your go to unit to help compensate the lack of assault grenades your army haves. Its also hilarious if a Keeper of Secrets with a Witstealer Sword forces an Initiative test with the Fiend's ability during the Assault phase, being able to slip in some cheeky wounds to your enemy. They can also soak up wounds when your opponent Overwatch with his unit that's getting charged at, thanks to their cheaper cost compared to Bloodcrushers.

*Moving on, Seekers are both the cheapest and fastest Calvary unit in the game, for only three points more, that is quite a steal! You'd be hard pressed to not include them in your army list, as moving an extra 6 inches in the shooting phase means you can go up to 30 inches in one turn alone, and with Fleet,  this can be possible. They are very fragile, but due to the (Extremely low) point cost, this can easily be fixed by taking more. They also deal a good amount of damage as well, so having an Icon plus a Herald with an either a Lesser or Exalted Loci should make their points back in no time. Chaos Furies of Slaanesh are surprisingly not bad, given how Slaanesh grant his/her/it's buffs to even the lowest class of Daemons (They used to be mortals that couldn't choose which god to align themselves with, so they would get punished with this form rather than being [[Chaos Spawn|that other thing which Thou shalt not be named,]] but enough of that). The buffs such as Fleet and Rending turns an otherwise bad unit into a decent one. Having the same extra run move makes them pretty quick as well. While Seekers are better for just a few points per a model as well as the other goodies they get compared to Furies, Slaaneshi Furies are nonetheless not a bad choice, and they're a lot better than other Furies in a Mono army. 

*Then we come across to an oddball chariot, the Hellflayer. What makes it different from the Seeker Cavalcade is you can only have one rather than the choice between one to three of them in a unit. It also seems to be a bit on the pricy side when you pit it next to the Vanilla Seeker Chariot, however the abilities the Hellflayer posses makes it an interesting option. Dealing a D6 Hammer of Wrath attacks on S4 plus Rending means its meant to shred infantry to pieces. Even better, for every wound you caused from Hammer of Wrath adds an extra Attack in close combat, meaning you have a minimum of 5 attacks on the charge to a max of 11! Wow, thats impressive for a 60 pt chariot. However, with only 2 HP and given how Melta and even Plasma weapons are available to many armies, this thing can be destroyed with a single shot, so it may be best to use this in low point games or Deep Strike it safely behind cover. Again, Seekers should be the ones filling up your Fast Attack slot, but the Hellflayer is still an interesting option to consider if you can protect it. The Soul Grinder are also good. The Chariots are great infantry killers, and thanks to their cheap cost and having more than one in a unit makes them a good choice. Moving on in the HS section, where Nurgle Grinders are best staying in the back laying down a lot of firepower, Slaanesh Grinders want to be up close and tear everything in its path a new one. Again with Fleet and having Rending for their weapons, this makes Baleful Torrent a good weapon to have, giving you a chance to melt some TEQ before charging them. Also the Harvester Cannon has a decent chance in penetrating Land Raiders, so thats a nice bonus. It also doesn't hurt giving a Slaanesh Grinder a Warp Sword for that bonus attack and Master Crafted-ness.

*Given the fast nature of Slaanesh Daemons, the force should move up and deal a lot of damage before going after objectives. Much like Khorne and Nurgle, the Troops of this force should be in reserve and Deep Strike so you can have enough models to finish the job. Rending attacks and Fleet makes the army much more reliable than Khorne, where as the followers of the Blood God are generally better against MEQs. Adding the cheap cost for what they bring to the table, its no wonder why Slaanesh is considered to be most competitive out of the other Mono Gods. Plus with access to the one of the best variant of the Soul Grinder and Daemon Prince, they aren't lacking in anti-air either! You don't need to bring allies as they are strong just by themselves, but adding in some extra range weapons is always welcome. Of course CSM can bring this with Noise Marines and Vindicators. Its better to run a pair with the latter, but they can deal devastating damage to any unfortunate unit comes across. Alternatively, Tau can pack a punch out of longer range with the Riptide and Hammerhead. If you can get a couple of Markerlights onto a squad, they can really shine and make great allies to have.

*The followers of the Dark Prince will be pleased (Pun not attended) to see that this Mono God army is by far the deadliest out of all of them. But don't go thinking this will be a auto-win against many other armies, even with their low cost and how fast they are, you still need to look out for them as they can easily be wiped out if you're not careful. But if you can manage to keep casualties as low as possible, they will punish anyone in their way, and this will make your opponent think twice before they face you again. An excellent force overall IF you use their speed to your advantage and avoid mass shooting.