Forgefiend
You want a Daemon Engine with huge firepower and capable of chewing up the odd Imperial guardsman whilst it does it? Then you sir need the Forgefiend. Guaranteed by the Traitor Legions and the Dark Mechanicum, the Forgefiend was designed in mind with the idea of causing widespread death and mayhem from afar. On four sturdy legs, the forgefiend carries two hefty Hades autocannons, capable of blasting through even the most courageous (or dull-witted) Ork. Yes, when you have the power of the warp burning into your chest, a burning gift from the forges that created this fine machine, then you need look no further.
For those desiring a bit more of the arcane, then it is no problem to remodel your forgefiend into a Cerberite. No, not one of those kinky leather lovers from Hellraiser, it's actually that three-headed dog from myth- NO NOT THAT MYTHOLOGY! It's a monstrous machine with huge plasma cannons and a dripping mouth just waiting to cause pain and misery. Yes, the Forgefiend truly can see to all your slaughtering needs. The forces of Chaos vouch for it!
On the Table
The Forgefiend competes with the Defiler and Maulerfiend directly in the CSM heavy support section... and the rest of the entries in that section as well.
Pros
- Fairly inexpensive, a basic Fiend clocks in at 175 pts. with nothing while taking every option and making it a Cerberite adds another 25 pts. on top of it.
- For the amount paid, you get a lot of gun. A lot. Hades Autocannons will give you 8 S8 shots a turn, while the Ectoplasma Cannons keep the strength but up the the AP from 4 to 2; think of the latter as a counter to deep-striking palatanks.
- Has all the other advantages of being a Daemon Engine for the Chaos Space Marines: 5++, IWND and Daemon Forge, the last one being especially useful to the Forgefiend!
- Has enough firepower to consider itself ruminary Anti-Air with the default Autocannon loadout. We also recommend giving it Re-Rolls for extra Flyer hate.
Cons
- The Fiend's guns ranges leave something to be desired. The Hades Autocannons possess the longest range at 36" and the EP cannons knock 12" off of that.
- It effectively has dreadnought armour on a MUCH bigger frame, which makes the 5++ and IWND necessary for its survival.
- BS3 makes shooting more risky, although you can mitigate this with using EP cannons instead and HAcannons do have a lot of shots.
The biggest selling point of the Forgefiend is that it's a cheap walker with a lot of gun. Sure, the Defiler has more gun and can hold its own in close combat but it usually costs a lot more. Oddly enough, this daemon engine is recommended when going up against a more close combat oriented foe as the terrifying level of dakka that it can spit out will chew threw your opponent's precious little snowflakes. They are especially deadly against DEldar, wherein you should take two against and oddly enough, against Grey Knights wherein you should be using the Cerberite configuration. These armies just can't help but try and run up real fast to you, but alas - it's never fast enough! They either can't rush fast enough to make a charge or they have to stay put after deep-striking, at which point they can get the sweet, ever-loving, instant death FUCK shot out of them! You can also use them as an anti-air artillery, like loyalist dreadnoughts. With the quantity amount of dakka, you should at least get one hit, and gives that lucky shot a good chance to penetrate flyers or cause an unsaved wound on Monsterous Creatures that doesn't have a 3+ save. Plus the fact that Heldrakes had gotten nerfed, this makes the Dakka-Dino an attractive choice for some players. Bonus points for adding a Tzeentch Herald or the balestar mannon to cast prescience to reroll failed hits.