Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Daemons of Chaos (section)

==Building Your Army==
The Daemons battle force is a good place to start, otherwise start with a Herald and a block or two core. Bloodletters and Plaguebearers are good starts, expand with a Prince or a greater daemon and some supporting units like Daemonettes, Horrors or special/rare choices.

===Army Composition===
Your core can vary, with Bloodletters being 14 points each you want to put them in fights 
that they will win, so like every other army don't have them try to toe off with warriors because
their OP units of characters. Daemonettes are pretty good when used as redirecting units so a
few small units may not be a bad idea. nurgle plague bearers are hit and miss, like Bloodletters
their really hard hitting, and like to stay around, its a good unit to hold flanks. finally for
core there's pink horrors, which are OK, but get worse if you don't have many magic dice, it is,
however possible to run say a 10 man unit or 2, with 2 lvl 2 heralds of Tzeentch nearby, because
the daemon magic lore attributes add daemons to nearby units of the god that the lore is for,
but you get a extra horror on a 4+ instead of a 5+ like the other 2 core that can be bolstered
like that, so you can have a ever growing unit if you keep magic pressure on your opponent. You
also want to sneak Heralds into these units plus a special standard, though that last one is
superfluous.


Take Beasts and Khannons or you're doing it wrong and either a Daemon Prince or a Greater Daemon (a KOS or LOC is recommended).

A good goal is to build towards one or two gods at first, and add to your collection over time, because every god by itself is fairly reliable (nurgle is arguably the best) when you mix two or more your army will quickly become a honed daemon death machine.

===Daemonic Gifts===
Daemons do not get access to magic items, which in 8th edition can be a bit of setback. However, they may purchase rolls on the Daemonic Gifts table, available to them in their army book and just like magic items, it's easy to go overboard with them. Your Greater Daemons get 100 pts. worth, Daemon Princes 75 and Heralds 50. 

Remember that you can swap your gift for a points-equivalent magic weapon from the BRB. What this means is that you can actually tailor your setup based on who you are up against. For example, if you're playing against an army with high armor, you could swap your Greater Gift result for an Obsidian Blade or Ogre Blade.

*'''Exalted Daemonic Gifts:''' These bad boys come in at 75 points per gift,(unlike greater and lesser you may not chose to swap these out for generic magic item of the same value). As such, a bad roll on here will make you feel like you wasted points. After the roll is made, you may choose to keep the roll or opt for the 0 option, just like with deciding magic spells. <b> You cannot have multiples of the same roll, and you cannot buy more than two rolls on a table. </b>
**0: Hellforged Artifact. Choose from a series of four magic items that may make the game even more [[fun]]:
**1: Aura of Disruption. You get a free dispel dice each time the model is on the board and a dispel attempt is made, like some weird anti-Slann.
**2: Sorcerous Lodestone. When anyone casts a spell, on a 5+, your Daemon regains a wound. If someone miscasts, on a 4+, your Daemon loses a wound. Why? BECAUSE CHAOS
**3: Bringer of the Swarm. For each unsaved wound you do to a unit (and there should be many), a unit of Chaos Furies is made next to you with a number of dudes equal to how many guys wounds you did. If you can't put the unit down, you get NOTHING. 
**4: Impenetrable Hide. +2 Toughness. Could be awesome, but everything wounds on a 6 anyway.
**5: Massive Might. +3 Strength. Aren't you already at S6 or higher anyway?
**6: Doubly Blessed. Roll once on this table and the Lesser table and take both, re-rolling results of 6.

*'''Greater Daemonic Gifts:''' These are worth 50 points apiece, and since you can take multiples, you have a better shot at getting what you want. Overall though this table is more or less a trap, because they are either inefficient or downright detrimental to your character's well-being. Only the armor result is really worth it.
**0: Greater Weapon. Choose this and get either a magic weapon from the core rulebook worth up to 50 points, or get a god-specific weapon from the following page.
**1: Unholy Sacrifice. (More expensive, less effective, more self-destructive forbidden rod. Pass). Lose d3 wounds with no possible save to get d3+1 Power dice in your magic phase that turn. Absolutely disgusting as d3 wounds is not worth d3+1 power dice.
**2: Corpulence. +1 Wound. This is not worth it. 50 points for 1 wound is not that efficient. Consider getting a magic weapon instead.
**3: Incorporeal Strike. No armor saves can be taken against this beast. Look at who you're up against. Lotsa armor? Take it. Not so much armor? Exchange it for more attacks or more strength.
**4: Souleater. Remember Soul Stealer from the old book? It's back, but this time you only get one Wound back per combat phase.
**5: Unbreakable Skin. 2+ Armor Save that cannot be improved EVAR. Probably the best one on this table. You want your characters to stay alive, and armor certainly helps in being resilient. 
**6: Unholy Flurry. +2 Attacks. Honestly a little underwhelming. Could be worth it on a Bloodthirster because this stacks with his additional hand weapon, giving him 9 attacks in total.

*'''Lesser Daemonic Gifts:''' These are 25 points apiece, and cheap enough to make enemy characters think twice about challenging when a Herald is around. This is the table that you want multiples of, because it has more useful and effective results compared to the Greater one.
**0: Magic Weapon. Same as the Greater Gift, but your max is at 25 points...or you could pick something your god wants you to have. If you have terrible luck, consider getting the ASF sword on your Greater Daemons since they have good strength already, the rerolls would be more beneficial.
**1: Skill Swallower. If you slay a character in combat, increase one of your stats by 1. Your choice! This one unfortunately is not that great on account of the fact that you have to kill a character to get the benefit.
**2: Cleaving Blow. Your guy gets Multiple Wounds (2). Consider what your opponent has. If you're up against Ogres or a monster-heavy army, then this will absolutely wreak havoc.
**3: Crushing Mass. When you charge, your daemon pretends he's an Ogre and gets d3 Impact Hits.
**4: Dark Blessing. You get a Luckstone! Very useful in a cannon-saturated meta. Probably almost always a must-keep. Take note that you get the 2+ ward save on your first WOUND, not your first hit.
**5: Noxious Breath. You get a Wood Elf Dragon Breath Weapon. Not too bad.
**6: Unnatural Swiftness. Always Strikes First, because fuck High Elves. What this also means is that you can swap your other Gift results for a weapon and still get the benefits of ASF.

===Reign of Chaos===
When you roll for Winds of Magic now, you take your roll and consult the table below.  Some of these can help you, others can hinder and some can swing either way.  Results 5, 6, 8, and 9 don't affect units locked in combat.

* 2- Everything with Daemonic Instability immediately tests for it.  Okay, so not only are you going to have a useless magic phase, but now everything in your army is at risk of vanishing.
* 3- As above, but only hits one random character, so not as bad.  Losing a Greater Daemon to this would really suck though.
* 4- Your Daemons' Ward Save gets gimped by 1 until your next turn.  Watch the fuck out because as soon as your opponent sees this happen they will drop the hammer.
* 5- Tzeentch hurls fire throughout the battlefield.  On the roll of a 6, enemy units will take a small pie plate of S4 Flaming Magical hits.  Your own Nurgle dudes are at risk of getting hit too though.  [[Just as planned]].
* 6- Nurgle spreads his love.  Those who embrace his love take D6+3 S3 hits with no armor saves allowed with your own Tzeentch units at risk of being hit as well.
* 7- Jack shit.  Nothing happens.
* 8- Slaanesh rubs his nipples and things start dying.  Lucky targets including Khornate daemons take a leadership test on 3D6 and take wounds based on the number failed by with no armor saves allowed.
* 9- Khorne makes skulls rain from the sky.  More pie plates but these ones scatter 3D6 and are treated as stone thrower shots with the center template being S9 with Multiple wounds D6 and everything else being S3.  Oh and Slaanesh might [[just as planned|"accidentally"]] be targeted with these as well.
* 10- Your Daemons' Ward Save is improved by 1 until your next turn.  Essentially the opposite of result 4.  Your whole army now has Talismans of Preservation for even just a turn.  Think on that for a while.
* 11- You see some of those enemy wizards?  Well one of them (random choice) has to pass a leadership check or get killed.  If he dies, you get a free Herald of your chosen alignment for '''free'''.  Best as a Tzeentch one because you immediately generate a spell and you gain an extra channeling chance for the turn (if you need it, you did roll 11 after all).  Because otherwise these Heralds have no upgrades.
* 12- A free unit of 2D6 +3 Lesser Daemons shows up '''anywhere''' one inch away from other shit.  Despite this being a rare happening, you'll want to have a few extra models in case this happens because if you don't have enough models the unit doesn't enter play at all.  But hey, do you see that unit of Skullcrushers about to hit your Pink Horrors' flank?  Boom: block of Plaguebearers standing in their way.

===Magic===
There are 3 Daemon Lores, one each for Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch. The lore attributes for all three are incredibly similar, as they all grant a token to one lesser daemon unit of the corresponding faction(Daemonettes for the lore of Slaanesh, horrors for the lore of Tzeentch etc.) for every wound caused, each token will generate a new lesser daemon on a 5+ with the exception of horrors, which is a 4+. This also effects certain specified daemonic beasts but only on a 6+.   

*'''Daemon Lore of Nurgle:''' An odd lore, clearly written for the warriors of chaos and full of garbage spells with a few fantastic gems. 
**0. '''Stream of Corruption:''' While on paper this spell is quite powerful, the problem lies in the pitiful range of the template and the inability to cast the spell on a unit the caster is currently engaged in combat with, these two factors will result in the spell seeing very little use in game unless you deem it necassery to take a flying daemon prince of Nurgle. 
**1. '''Miasma Of Pestilence:''' A basic, easy to cast buff that applies a debuff of -1 WS and I to any enemy unit in base contact with the target, by doing so you can potentially decrease the number of hits received and increase the number of hits dealt out, making this spell moderately useful, but certainly not powerful.
**2. '''Blades of Putrefaction:''' Applies the "poisoned attacks" special rule to a friendly unit within 18" or upgrades an existing "poisoned attacks" special rule to activate on a 5+. Oddly enough, this spell is best applied to units like Daemonettes, as their high number of attacks and low S will make the most of the special rule, while units like plague bearers will actually rarely make use of it, as the locus of virulence offers the exact same effect in a passive package. 
**3. '''Curse of the Leper:''' This is a fantastic spell that can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes at a handy casting value of 10+. It has a range of 18" and acts like a augment to friendly units, giving them +D3 toughness, or as a hex to your opponents units, decreasing their toughness by D3. This spell allows you to apply some much needed protection to your rather squishy units or guarantee a victory in almost any close combat. 
**4. '''Rancid Visitations:''' Another very powerful spell with a range of 18", rancid visitations inflicts D6 S5 hits on a single target unit,  and unless they pass a toughness test, it will inflict another D6 S5 hits with a additional toughness test, and so it goes, on and on until the unit passes a toughness test, or it is wiped out. Now, it must be made clear that this is not a universal killer, nor is it something that you can rely upon to deliver a consistent amount of damage, it is however, very effective at thinning large units of weak infantry, and can be combed with curse of the leper to tackle even heavy infantry and monsters. 
**5. '''Fleshy Abundance:''' THE garbage spell of the lore, as it applies a 5+ regeneration save on a targeted friendly unit or increase a existing regeneration save by +1. The problem lies in all daemon units possessing a 5+ invulnerable save as basic with beasts of Nurgle being the only unit in the book possessing a natural regeneration save and Plague bearers being upgradeable with a herald with a specific(and expensive)locus. With this in mind, you could gear up a Plague bearer unit to become very powerful tank, of course, nobody wants to fight a unit of S/T 4 infantry with a 3+ regeneration save, but there is no reliable way to ensure you possesses the spell that can be done for cheap, the cheapest level 4 wizard is a 395 Pts. Nurgle Daemon prince, and a herald of Nurgle is 125 points at level 1. 
**6. '''Plague Wind:''' If Daemons had cheap access to level 4 wizards, this spell might not be too bad, but as you can see from the bullet point above, you do not have access to cheap level 4 wizards, meaning that this spell will suffer from being mainly restricted to a level 1 herald. Plague wind is a magical vortex that inflicts a number of hits on a unit equal to the number of models it passes over, for each hit, the unit must pass a toughness test or suffer a wound with no armor saves. The vortex will move a distance equal to the roll on the artillery dice multiplied by the casters wizard level. Unfortunately the spell is far too similar to "stream of Corruption" to be of any significant use aside from charge blocking, you can however, cast this spell into combat, making it quite a reasonable threat, if at a weighty cost.                       

*'''Daemon Lore of Slaanesh:''' personally my favourite lore. good all round really. Great for fuckery and shenanigans.
**0. '''Lash of Slaanesh:''' the one truly weak spell in the lore, and it just ''has'' to be the signature, right?  It's basically a 24" cannon bounce that does a S3 armor pierce to everyone hit.  Not very good, except maybe for some minor thinning of a large unit- also bear in mind the Lore Attribute, so maybe you can add a couple free models to one of your Daemonette units.
**1. '''Acquiescence:''' the first of the awesome fuckery spells.  A hex with 24" range (boostable to 48") that gives Random Movement D6 and Always Strike Last to the target until the caster's next Magic Phase.  Doesn't sound like much, right?  But think about it.  The enemy's death star suddenly stalls out like a unit of trolls that forgot to stand near the general.  Or those annoying elfs lose their Always Strike First, evening things out a bit (and presumably you have ASF on your Daemonettes, so you get to show them how it feels...).  And you can get creative- for example, war machines and handguns are typically "move or fire" weapons.  If you have Random Movement, you are ''required'' to move.  So cast this on an enemy cannon and buy yourself a little time to move around.  Just be aware that Random Move also allows the unit to make a free turn before they make their move, and if the move makes them bump an enemy, they count as having charged- so if you cast this on a unit near you, you might be helping the enemy flank you.
**2. '''Pavane of Slaanesh:''' a direct damage that forces a single target model (can snipe characters in units) to take a Ld test on 3d6 added together, and failure inflicts exactly one wound with no armor save.  Not really all that exciting since it's usually easy to pass Ld tests nowadays and the guys you would really want to kill (enemy generals, lords, etc) are going to be well protected... but it can be useful for picking off champions, or killing a Chaos Knight, or doing a wound to a lonely Hero wizard annoying your flank. It can even potentially take a wound off a warmachine that isn't near its general/battle standard. Don't forget the Lore Attribute either- hey, a free Daemonette is a free Daemonette!  Same range as Acquiescence, including boosting.
**3. '''Hysterical Frenzy:''' back to the fun stuff.  It's 24" and can be cast as a hex on enemies or an augment on friendlies, and remains in play.  Gives the unit Frenzy (or an extra attack if they already have it).  Additionally causes D6 S3 hits to the target at the end of the caster's magic phases.  Obviously it's most useful on your daemons, making them even better in melee, and the D6 S3 hits aren't really worth worrying about unless your target is something like a very small unit of Daemonettes.  It can also be used to screw with enemy nuisance units like scouts or fast cav, since Frenzy- by granting Immune to Psychology- disallows Flee reactions, and can potentially force them to charge your daemons (which scouts and fast cav typically ''don't'' want to do).  Frenzy also disallows parry saves, so if you don't mind giving away some extra attacks, you can use this spell to negate parry saves, especially against Dwarfs or Tzeentchy Chaos Warriors with their boosted parries. 
**4. '''Slicing Shards:''' a magic missile that does D6 S4 armor pierce, and then the target has to pass Ld test or suffer it again.  Keep repeating until the test is passed or the unit is destroyed.  Not quite as good as Nurgle's Rancid Visitations, since Ld tests are generally pretty easy to pass and S4 isn't all that scary.  If you can combine this with Leadership-affecting spells like the next one, Treason of Tzeentch, and Doom and Darkness, it gets more interesting- especially if you can get more than one of those spells in there.
**5. '''Phantasmagoria:''' a hex with 24" range, can hit one unit or be boosted to hit all enemy units.  All Ld tests by the target(s) are taken on reverse "Cold Blooded"- roll an extra D6, dropping the lowest.  Takes spells like Slicing Shards and makes them a little scarier, and can potentially help deal with things like Steadfast/Stubborn enemies. 
**6. '''Cacophonic Choir:''' the big daddy spell, and it's a good'un.  Only 12" range, but can be boosted to hit every enemy unit within 12"- plus it's a hex, so you can always cast it into melee.  Each target takes 2d6 hits that always wound on 4+ and ignore armor.  And if that's not enough, any unit taking any damage from the spell is also affected by Acquiescence.  Have your Keeper of Secrets get into the middle of the enemy army (obviously, you don't want to charge a lone Keeper at a death star... be smart) and royally fuck them.  However, as with Acquiescence, bear in mind the way Random Movement works and that you may be setting your Keeper up for being charged in the flank.  Also make sure, if you cast this boosted, you have a unit of Daemonettes or Fiends nearby so you can possibly take advantage of getting lots of free daemons from the Lore Attribute.

*'''Daemon Lore of Tzeentch:''' Still pretty much a 'shooty' lore, slinging warmachine-like spells and magic missiles left and right. Think of the lore as a less reliable, less consistent shooting phase. 
**There are a few things to note about spells from this lore. All the damaging spells (i.e. magic missile and direct damage) have the Warpflame special rule. This rule causes a toughness test to be made on the unit a spell has wounded - if the unit fails, they take d3 wounds with no armor save; if they pass, they get a Regeneration save of 6+, or +1 to any existing Regeneration save. Keep in mind however, that you take a characteristic on the highest value within the unit, so be mindful of where you are aiming your Tzeentchian fires. Also, you take the Warpflame test at the end of the phase and not for each spell- so you can obliterate one enemy with multiple spells in one magic phase and only give up one Warpflame test.  Lastly, even though it's called Warp''flame'', not a single spell from the lore counts as "flaming".
**0. '''Blue Fire of Tzeentch:''' Exactly the same as the lowest level Fireball from Lore of Fire, except no Flaming and does random D6 Strength instead of S4 and slightly lower casting value; can be boosted to double the range.  Most useful on your Pink Horror units, which can always take this spell if they roll poorly (i.e. did not get Infernal Gateway.) You can use this to secure your flanks from low toughness, low armor fast cavalry. 
**1. '''Treason of Tzeentch:''' One of the better spells from this lore- the target unit cannot benefit from the army's BSB or general, and has to use its lowest included value ("haha, your Empire Knights are Ld 5 now!"). You can set up devastating Terror charges with this spell. This spell obviously has great synergy with the Lore of Slaanesh. Same range as Acquiescence, including the boosting.
**2. '''Pink Fire of Tzeentch:''' A teardrop template that has d6 strength and goes a distance equal to a roll on the artillery dice. Arguably better on a highly mobile caster, such as a Lord of Change or a Sorcerer on a Disc, than a footslogger, because you really need a flank to maximize the damage on this spell.
**3. '''Bolt of Change:''' A direct damage spell that acts much like a bolt thrower, but imagine it shooting energy that causes spontaneous mutations on the enemy. Like a bolt thrower, it penetrates ranks, ignores armor, and does d3 multiple wounds. It however has a strength value of d6+4, so it is strictly more reliable than the other spells from this lore. This is a valued spell as it answers the question of highly armored units.
**4. '''Glean Magic:''' You and an enemy wizard roll off, adding your wizard levels to the result. If you lose, aside from being disappointed, nothing happens. Otherwise (win or draw), you get to punch the wizard with a strength 3 Warpflame hit, he loses a wizard level and a random spell, and your caster steals that spell. Tactically speaking, target your opponent's lower level wizards to ensure you win the roll-off.  And hey, maybe you steal a fireball or burning gaze spell from a little level 2 wizard... suddenly Warpflame doesn't look quite as irritating (it's still irritating... just slightly less so).
**5. '''Tzeentch Firestorm:''' Rain fabulous fire on your enemies. ''Exactly'' the same as Flame Storm from Lore of Fire in all ways, except it (of course) inflicts hits at random strength (D6) and no Flaming.  Best used to blast hordes of low-Toughness units, especially if you can get the large blast with a S4+, but otherwise underwhelming.
**6. '''Infernal Gateway:''' The wizard opens a portal to the Realm of Chaos, exposing the target to the very face of magic itself. It is a direct damage spell that deals 2d6 strength 2d6 hits. If you roll an 11 or 12 on the strength, the hits become 3d6. This is a very powerful spell that ruins large units and utterly destroys small ones. It is also a very potent monster killer. Do not be discouraged by its variable nature as rolling average means that you're still doing 7 strength 7 hits. Keep in mind that it is a direct damage spell, so you only need your target to be in the caster's front arc and do not need line of sight. Aim at warmachines hiding behind units and watch those stone throwers and cannons melt.