Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons (section)

==Tactics==
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===The Bloodletter Bomb===
Let's get this bad boy out of the way: 20-30 Bloodletters with the Banner of Blood tearing out of the warp 9 inches away from your opponent's line and charging 3D6 (don't forget the nearby character to re-roll that charge). Really, that's it. Plug a Patrol Detachment of a Herald and Bloodletters (Icon + Instrument) into any army and clear away those pesky chaff units, or fold in the side of your opponent's line. Regardless of what you throw this at, your opponent will spend their next turn trying to clear it away, which leaves the rest of your army free to run wild. It costs you 2-3 Command Points to pull this off with one unit depending on the size of it.  
*'''Why Bloodletters?:''' Because they have better offensive power than any other Daemon troop choice, are cheap as dirt, and get a 3D6 charge with potential re-rolls. Bloodletters get +1S and +1A on the charge and with 20+ of them, they hit on 2+ and wounds on 6+ double damage. This means 50 hits on S5 on AP-3! 33 wounds on most enemy units and 17 wounds on most vehicles - it's dead, Jim. Oh, and if it's not, spend the Khorne stratagem to fight again (at the end of the fight phase) and warp surge to make your enemy having to invest heavily into removing this unit in the heart of his lines. 
*If you want to spend less CP, consider adding some token CSM support so you can access the Termite Drill, which RAW can carry the Bloodletters and let them deepstrike with it.
I feel that is an auto-include.
*This tactic is possibly the killiest in the game. [[Anal Circumference|On '''average''' a 30 man unit of Bloodletters and a Blood Throne w/ the Crimson Crown will kill '''80''' GEQs, '''53''' MEQs, '''26''' TEQs or '''3''' Leman Russ Battle Tanks.]] [[Rape|Plus an average of 0.33 Mortal Wounds for each nearby model.]] [[Cheese|All for only 390 points and 4-6 CP.]]

===Bloodcrusher Bomb?===
While not as board control as the Bloodletter Bomb, Deep Striking Bloodcrushers gets them into position out the gate as full strength. And hey, it's not like you can't also give them a Banner of Blood alongside your other Bomb. 1CP for 3 Crushers, 1CP for the banner, 1CP to inflict MW on a charge, and then you Deep Strike in Skulltaker nearby (8" aura) for the +1 hit rolls. Food for thought...
*'''Alternate Opinion:''' Bloodletters are better bombs. It's less that Bloodcrushers are bad, but it's simply the case that Bloodletters are better. As well as being far cheaper (at 7pts), they'll produce an even greater number of attacks than the Bloodcrushers. The Bloodcrushers larger base size might also make deep striking them an issue. Since Bloodletters can charge 3d6+1 (re-rolling charges in pure Khorne detachment), just 20 of them deliver '''41 hits at 2+ str 5 and ap-3'''. At a cost of only 197 points (with 2 icons and 2 instruments), on the other hand, a minimum squad of Juggernauts (at 120 points) produces 19 attacks (with 13 at str 6 and a-3/ and 9 at str 7 -ap1).

===The Pink Horror Blob/Bomb===
A shooty way to clear any chaff that might stand in the way of your other deep striking units. 20-30 Pink horrors supported by a daemon prince with the Demonspark warlord trait and a tzeentch herald. This gives you 90 shots at S4 18" range, re-rolling 1s to hit and to wound with +1 to wound from flickering flames (Optional: Boon of change to have a chance of being S5 on the horrors or a Mutalith Vortex Beast can give you a further +1S). There are two options of running them: starting on the table and forcing the opponent to deal with them and activating warp surge to absorb A LOT of damage with that 3++ on 7 pts models.  Alternatively they can deep strike and shoot stuff off the table. Since their shooting attack is 18" assault you don't have to deepstrike them right next to a unit.  Also, if you have second turn and your opponent isn't just sitting back in their deployment zone, you could even deepstrike them turn 1 in your deployment zone and hit a unit.  They won't be expecting that.

===Plaguebearer Infestation/Bomb===
Take a unit of Plaguebearers w/ Plague Banner, a Poxbringer w/ Virulent Blessing and a Spoilpox Scrivener. The Scrivener gives +1 to hit with 7+ allowing for more attacks, while the Poxbringer gives + 1 Strength and +1 to wound, with 7+ allowing for double damage. Finally, Locus of Virulence gives another +1 damage on a 6+ and the Plague Banner makes their swords D2 for one round, resulting in a maximum of '''6 Damage''' on a roll of 7+. This results in a unit that hits of 3s, wounds elite models like Russes on 4s and does an average of 3.67 Damage per wound with the Banner (2.33 Damage without). As such, a blob of 30 Plaguebearers will makes 31 attacks, 20.67 hits, 10.33 wounds and deal [[Rape|37.89 Damage total]], [[Cheese|enough to kill 3 Russes in one round.]]
*If you don't want to spend 3-4 CP to drop the Plaguebearers, consider taking a squad of 10 + the Heralds in a Termite. This is still enough to alpha-strike one Russ equivalent, along with whatever the Termite manages.

=== The hidden Daemon Prince(s) ===
Daemon Princes are one of your rare options to take on vehicles and similar stuff. They are mobile, customizeable and can do some warp stuff too and they are only 8 wounds and therefore can hide behind other units. Most armies will have a few of them. Take 30 plaguebearers with a scrivener and advance over the table and bubble wrap your 3 or more daemon princes so that your enemy has to waste his precious las cannons on your cheap plaguebearers and then jump out of hiding with 12" movement and kill his elite stuff. If you form a wide oval formation in the center of the table your flying DPs can run around and still hide while your buubble wrap charges and binds stuff here and there. Don't forget your pile in moves to bubble wrap a DP even in combat. Last thing you want is to kill an elite unit shout out in victory and then see your 200 points DP get shot of the next turn. The oval formation is especially nice with khorne or slaanesh DPs that have better chances to reach enemies with their loci. Combine that formation with some deep striking bombs and the enemy will have multiple big threats in his face.

===Alphabet Chicken Soup===
Note that this is ''not'' a pure Daemons list, but most of the models/units in it are - you'll need the Chaos Index, the CSM Codex, and the Imperial Armour Chaos Index to field it, and, if you want to fully explore your options, the Imperial Armour Astra Militarum Index.

With the release of Chapter Approved, the points cost of several of these models have been vastly increased and the strategy described below doesn't really work anymore.

Two of the most powerful units in the game are Tzeentch Daemons, so..... why not take both?  Use {{W40Kkeyword|Chaos}} as your army-wide Faction binder, then take Magnus and Aetaos'Rau'Keres (the Alphabet Chicken).  The Chicken's powers are picked for you, since the Tzeentch Discipline hasn't been expanded to 3 powers yet.  Magnus should take Warptime, so you can get him into melee anywhere on the table, Weaver of Fates, because 3++/re-rolling 1s will keep Magnus alive beyond all reason, and then Death Hex, Prescience, or Diabolic Strength, depending on your local meta - Prescience is useful for Magnus to hit something dodgy, like a Culexus Assassin if he needs to, in melee, while Diabolic Strength will help him delete enemy heavies in melee faster, which is one of his jobs in this list; Death Hex is relatively difficult to cast, but on anything with problematic invuln saves, like Space Marines with Storm Shields, it can be critical to letting your Knight do some proper work.  Without any foreknowledge of your local meta or what your opponents might bring, Death Hex is the safest choice, since it's the only power Magnus can bring which will help the rest of the army (unless you go for a variant; see below), not counting any Chaos Spawns you make with his Blade.

Since you're now only 1 Lord of War short of getting 3 CP from a Super-Heavy Detachment, take a Renegade Knight with two Avenger Gatlings, a Heavy Stubber, and an Ironstorm Missile Pod, so you have some anti-hordes dakka.

Then take the Changeling and the Blue Scribes, and 3 minimum units of Brimstone Horrors to screen the Knight, in a Battalion; each unit takes 1 Iridescent Horror with an Instrument, because going from an average Advance of 10.5 to 11.5 is so significant when screening an M12 model.  The Changeling can also be used to protect both Magnus and the Chicken, of course, if they need to take cover.

The net result is <s>2000</s> many, many points for a 9 CP army that will almost always get the +1 to rolling to go first and punches way above its weight, since it requires incredibly specific counters but is a very general counter to anything it might face - the two big Daemons delete enemy heavies, while the Knight and its small Daemons delete enemy hordes.

There are basically two ways to modify this list: the Blue Scribes, which are only present because they're a cheap Chaos HQ, and the Knight, who's there for Dakka.

The Blue Scribes can be dropped for a Malefic Lord, a Smite source and an HQ tax so cheap you can afford a fourth Brimstone Horrors with spare change left over for another 3 Horrors models somewhere, but that will make your Horrors lose Objective Secured, assuming you're playing with the announced Chapter Approved rules.

The Knight can be dropped for a Renegades and Heretics Baneblade (you'll need to perform the Scribe to Lord swap to pay for it), or you can pay 3 CP to take the two big demons in their own detachments, and use the Battalion's Heavy slots for Hellforged Deredeos.  If you do that, you can also swap the Scribes for buffers for the Deredeos: it's easy to fit a Sorcerer of some stripe in (including Ahriman), and if you commit to ''not'' having them be THOUSAND SONS, a Chaos Lord or Hellwright.  Note that if you avoid the Thousand Sons, you can use the swapped-in HQ to carry a CSM Warlord Trait and/or Relic; none of them are ''particularly'' compelling, but it's worth noting.  If you just want pure Deredeos, the Malefic Lord is cheap enough to let you take 3 of them, although that's also enough for 5 Basilisks.

=== Swiss Army Knife Summoning ===
Summonings sucks now? Yeah sure it does for daemons but not for CSM. ANY CSM character can now summon daemons and they can summon daemons of every god if they are not aligned to one. Get some fire support daemons lack of and start summoning what you need with your (ranged/psychic) characters while they keep firing. You need anti-horde? Summon some Crushers, Plague Drones or Slaanesh bitches! The enemy has a lot of good armor saves? Get some Khornys in! You need to hold the line? Splitting Horrors or Plaguebearers en masse will do it for you! You want to shoot back at the enemy? Well, try it with Burning Chariots, Soul Grinders or Flamers. Just do it!
*1 or 2 characters (maybe Sorcerers for utility), some Havocs and some meatshield cultists or marines (Corsairs, for the CP) will do in a 1000 point list to leave some leftover points to customize the rest of your army on the fly. 
**Take at least 1 Master of Possession, ideally with the Word Bearers Legion Trait. He has better summoning odds, via the Incursion power, essentially 2 summoning rolls per turn or summoning after moving, and access to the Dark Pact Stratagem, which is fully compatible with Incursion. Adding in a Venomcrawler instead of one of the Havocs lets you add 1 to the summoning rolls of the Master if they're within 6" of it. Greater Possessed are also helpful, albeit in a more limited fashion, but with the Mark of Khorne, can engage in some shenanigans via the Skull Altar.
*Be'lakor as an unaligned daemon can serve as a summoning source too after he will have reached melee and won't move a lot. You can hide him behind other units too.
*Keeping points in reserve means flexibility but on the other hand it means a lot of unused points until summoning and the charge after summoning is not guaranteed and might cost another round.
*When fielding Pink Horrors, one should try to benefit from splitting, so here will be some unallocated points in your list. If your opponent is unwilling/unable to kill your Pinkys, summon the "reserved" Blues & Brimeys where they can tarpit/smite something. A Horror unit is 5 Power ,so on three dice... You do the math.

===CSM prince summoner===
This works best with a prince of Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch with wings. Choose warptime as your power. The turn that you want to summon your daemon units don't move the prince at the end of the movement phase summon your unit 12 inches away and 9 inchs away from the enemy in a U shaped formation. In the psychic phase cast warptime to move your prince near the front of the U formation , the front models will screen your 8 wound character from enemy fire. Now in that assault phase you can now charge with your prince and the infantry deamon unit taking full affect of that reroll 1's ability of the prince ... pure nasty combo. Personally i think 20 demonettes and a winged prince of slaanesh is the perfect choice for this combo. Keep in mind if you have an instrument of chaos your charge target number is only 8! Doable with command rerolls ('''More than''' 9 inchs away, within 1 inch to charge normaly 9, 8 with the instrument thanks to +1 to charge rolls)

===Special Note/Tactic against Imperial Knights (and similar Titanic models)===
Imperial Knights have a special rule that allows them to fall back "over" some types of models, allowing them to exit melee in the movement phase. They then can shoot at said models, despite having just fallen back. This only works against Infantry and Swarms, so Imperial Knights (and similar Titanic models) can be surrounded and trapped by units of Beasts or Cavalry. Multi-wound models will give them more trouble, as their typical solution to being trapped by multiple models is Stomp, which only does d3 damage per wound (so it won't kill entire multi-wound models, every time). So Flesh hounds, in example, can be used to "pin" an Imperial Knight in place, allowing a Bloodthirster to kill it, without having to be concerned about the cowardly Imperial Knight fleeing combat.

===Grindranger Battalion===
During the [[Fate of Konor]] campaign it was brought up by a guy from [[/m/]] that Chaos players should deploy nothing but Soul Grinders, maybe have Chaos Titans, Renegade Knights, and/or Daemon Engines as ally units. The idea boils down to having at least one grinder from every Chaos God and unload artillery from a distance. The problem with this tactic is that it requires A) The game set at least 1000 points due to one being 235 in 8th edition and B) Not go up against range favoring armies like Necrons and Tau because Soul Grinders aren't as fast as they once were. Cheesy, but expensive. The name comes from various tokusatsu (special effects) squadron shows since the idea was brought up by a guy from /m/. A non-god specific traitor legion like the Iron Warriors or Night Lords is recommended if using Titans, Knights, or Daemon Engines, preferably for more speed to spread out on the battlefield. This tactic is ideal for bigger matches and for those that prefer wipe out strategies over securing objectives.