Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Chaos Daemons

This is the current 9th Edition's Chaos Daemons tactics. 8th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Chaos Daemons?

Chaos Daemons are the ultimate enemy of the Imperium, perhaps more so than the Chaos Space Marines who worship them. Each one of them is an incarnation of the Dark Gods' will made of pure Warp energy, and therefore mortal concepts such as fear, exhaustion, or pity are alien to them. If you always wanted to command an army entirely composed of bizarre and horrifying monstrosities (and who didn't?), then Chaos Daemons are for you.

Pros

• Armywide Daemon saves, armor saves that can't be modified, which makes them better than invuls.
• Wide range of miniatures, so painting never gets boring.
• Lots of different playstyles with 4 different gods, monsters, hordes, magic and so on. Probably even more once you factor in allying with the various flavors of CSM.
• Your Daemon Prince murder machines can hide behind other troops.
• Your army is completely compatible with Age of Sigmar, kill team, The Horus Heresy, Boarding Actions and, of course cause you're here, Warhammer 40K. It's almost like having five armies for the price of one.
• 9th changes make Daemons fantastic at board control, lots of variety in objective holders and takers. When mixing Gods, you can oversaturate target priority, makes them stress about what to shoot.
• The entire army has all sorts of Deep Strike shenanigans which will work even when you ally with CSM, and all without needing to do summoning rolls.
• Warp Storms give you plenty of tricks to throw out-of-turn, including your most frequent means of shooting without needing guns.

Cons

• Mono god daemons doesn't work and neither does Undivided. There are no mono god static rules at all, making it worthless to play mono god for either good rules or flavor. Sucks big time.
• Tzeentch has 6 spells that can only be cast once each. Lord's of change cast 3 each and Heralds cast 2. You can't run 2 LOC's without running out of spells. This codex makes Tzeentch, the psyker daemons, impossible to use as a mono god, pysker army.
• Daemonic Invulnerability is something but not much, and you have got a lot of T3 units...
  • While 9E's Daemonic Invulnerability improves saves, it's also sacrificing defensiveness in one range for another. Tzeentch in particular suffers hard from this.
• You need quite a lot of miniatures, and the big ones aren't cheap, but you wanted to sell your firstborn child anyways, didn't you?
• Looks like Chaos Undivided won't be a big thing in the future. The fact that Furies (who are supposed to be Chaos Undivided incarnate) got squatted despite having models in Warcry is a big enough clue for you. You want undivided, go play Be'lakor's secret club.
  • To pour salt on the wounds of any mixed-god players, your Warp Storm powers pretty much rely on mono-god builds if you want all the tricks, though you have plenty of tricks with the undivided list.
• Daemons have a low leadership value compared to other hordes and only one option to improve it a bit (buy icons!). The new codex is making these scores even worse.
• Limited shooting capabilities. You really have to get up close as fast as possible, on foot because...
• Lackluster mobility (unless you're running Slaanesh). If you intend to make use of the Daemon's unique deep-strike rules, you'll need either the named Greater Daemons or lots of Leadership debuffs, preferably both.
• Not a lot of cheap anti-horde capabilities (besides Slaanesh) compared to enemy horde point costs. Try to deal with Ork-/Nid-/Guard-Blobs. Have fun...
• You will have trouble with fast (Space Elves) and shooty (Guard, Tau) armies - always. Especially ones that can kill your Greater Daemons on turn one with some heavy armed flyers or lascannons.
• Really CP intensive, but only a paltry number of strats if you go mono-god. Going multi-god means kissing the god-aligned Warp Storm effects goodby. Expect to rely on Warp Storm Tokens just as much as Strats.
• Your lesser daemons, the troops meant to hold the objectives for you, cannot add any more models to their ranks. 10 is the size you get, and nothing can change it. This is a serious issue for a mob-based army, rezzes or no.

Changes from 8th to 9th Edition

Game has made a large shift from prioritizing mass slaughter to board control and objective scoring.

A more important change is morale with units not having guaranteed destruction after a certain number of models were killed that turn.

A downside is Blast weapons will ruin your horde's day with guaranteed full shots against a large unit.

Special Rules

All Troops choices gain Objective Secured in a daemons army unless they have the Swarm keyword. <Sad nurgling noises>.

• Buff Auras: Gone are the Loci, but now the HQs of your armies have much more homogenized 6" bubbles.
  • Daemon Lord of X: Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes gain one 6" bubble that lets Core units of their respective god re-roll 1s to hit.
  • Herald of X: Heralds gain another 6" bubble that lets Core units of their respective god re-roll 1s to wound.
    • Most (but not all) generic Heralds also have a second bubble (usually in the same name as the Herald itself) that lets Core units of their respective god auto-wound on a natural 6 to hit.
• Daemonic: The big overarching rule for your entire army, it encompasses all the big rules that aren't bound to any one god.
  • Daemonic Invulnerability: Daemons all have variable saves, with different values depending on whether the hit was in melee or ranged. While most Greater Daemons and princes have the same save for both, lesser daemons will have differing saves, the first being for melee and the second for ranged. What makes these better than even invulnerable saves is that these ignore any rules that would normally negate invulnerable saves like the Hammerhead's railgun because they aren't invulnerable saves - and what's more, they can't be modified in any way.
  • Daemonic Terror: Your entire army gets a 6" aura that takes -1 to enemy Leadership and -1 to their attrition checks. All of them.
  • Manifestation: With reserves playing a much bigger role in the game, the whole "summoning points" game needed to go away. Now your units can just start the game in reserves without costing CP and pop in during the Reinforcements phase, at least 9" from enemies or within 6" of a Warp Locus unit (read: your named greater daemons) and at least 6" of an enemy.
  • If your army is all-daemons, you can now spawn daemons inside your DZ and at least 3" away from any enemies or in the area between both DZs with a distance equal to an enemy's Leadership score (to a max of 9", but you have ways to cut Leadership down for closer spawns).
  • Warp Storms: See below, it's your mono-army rule. If you take daemons as an allied detachment, you lose this part.
• Daemonic Equipment: All of your lesser daemon squads have options for special gear that comes with their own rules and keywords.
  • Daemonic Icon: An important 15pts upgrade to put on a unit. Taking one allows the unit to ignore all modifiers to attrition checks. While this doesn't mean much, the fact that your gods do add a special strat for your icons does mean a bit more.
  • Instrument of Chaos: 10pt upgrade that grants +1 to Leadership. With the near-universal drop in Daemon Leadership, this becomes considerably more valuable in keeping your forces standing.
• Daemonic Legions: If you field any Greater Daemons, one of them must be the Warlord unless you also took Be'lakor. In addition, for each Greater Daemon you field, you can also take a Herald of the same god without taking up an HQ slot.
• Daemonic Pact: The much-expected ally rules. Similar to Eldar Harlequins, you can attach a single detachment of Daemons to a CSM army and as long as they're less than 25% of the total army cost, they get the Agents of Chaos keyword to ensure that they don't mess with the Marine benefits. This does come at the cost of manipulating Warp Storms.
  • This applies as well for the god-aligned armies, but only for mono-god detachments. The Death Guard, Thousand Sons, World Eaters (once their codex drops) and Emperor's Children will not suffer these issues so long as the entire Daemon Detachment is of the same god as they are. Then again, why would any self-respecting Death Guard sorcerer try to summon a Bloodthirster or, grandpappy forbid, a Lord of Change?
• Malefic Weapons: Seen on the weapons of mounts, these weapons are pretty much locked to the quantity assigned for them (e.g. the Juggernaut's horn has Malefic 4 and thus must make exactly 4 attacks, the Disc must make exactly 1 attack because Malefic 1) - nothing can change this number, and they're made in addition to your other attacks. In addition, the characteristics of a Malefic weapon can't be changed, including the characteristics of an attack made with a Malefic weapon. This negates rules such as armour of contempt that would affect characteristics of the weapon (strength, AP, and damage). However rules that modify the characteristic of the model or roll still apply, such as -1 to wound rolls.

Warp Storms

It's back, and it's a lot less prone to fucking you over!

At the start of each Battle Round, you roll 8d6. Each 4+ gives you a Warp Storm Point, which you can then spend on certain phenomena. There are, however, three drawbacks:

• While there are Undivided events, the God-aligned ones only work if the entire detachment is aligned with that one god. This can prove to be problematic for any mixed-god armies.
• You do not save any points between turns by default. You'll need to spend all the ones you get, as the abilities that do let you save them are few.
• You can't use the same effect more than once per Battle Round, limiting the utility of effects like Otherworldly Tread that need to be spent on a per-phase basis or like Magnified Glory that need to be spent per-turn.

Warp Storm Budget

Here are the odds you'll have at least the listed amount of WSP to spend (on average, you will have 4, but the odds of you having exactly 4 is only 27.34%). Remember, costs are never 0, 1, or 6+, while only 1 effect is cost 5 and it is Undivided, whereas Undivided has no cost-4 effect and every God has at least 1.

1. 99.61%
   • Can't afford anything.
2. 96.48%
   • 1xWC2.
3. 85.55%
   • 1xWC3 or 1xWC2.
4. 63.67%
   • 1xWC4 or 1xWC3 or 2xWC2.
5. 36.33%
   • 1xWC5 or 1xWC4 or 1xWC3+1xWC2 or 2xWC2.
6. 14.45%
   • 1xWC5 or 1xWC4+1xWC2 or 2xWC3 or 1xWC3+1xWC2 or 3xWC2.
7. 03.52%
   • 1xWC5+1xWC2 or 1xWC4+1xWC3 or 1xWC4+1xWC2 or 2xWC3 or 1xWC3+2xWC2 or 3xWC2.
8. 00.39%
   • 1xWC5+1xWC3 or 1xWC5+1xWC2 or 2xWV4 or 1xWC4+1xWC3 or 1xWC4+2xWC2 or 2xWC3+1xWC2 or 1xWC3+2xWC2 or 4xWC2.

Warp Storm Effects

Warp Storm Effects

God	Name	WSP	Timing	Description
Undivided	Dark Invigoration	5	Start of Any Morale	Costly, but it lets every unit in your army regain d3 wounds/resurrect d3 W1 models during the Morale phase. Considering how easily you'll lose models not only by combat but by attrition, you'll be wanting this more than you'd like. This is especially wicked for Horrors, as this lets you resurrect Pinks even after they've split off.
	Descending Shadow	3	Start of Enemy Shooting	Enemies shooting at daemons from over 12" away take -1 to hit. Very necessary for early-game antics, considering the limited saves of most non-Tzeentch daemons.
	Magnified Glory	3	Start of Any Turn	All auras gain +3" for the turn. Nice!
	Primeval Terror	3	Start of Any Turn	Improves the Daemonic Terror aura of all units to now take away 2 points of Leadership, lasts until end of turn. Especially handy for a mono-Daemons army that's planning to make deep-strikes.
	Insidious Whispers	2	Start of Enemy Psychic	Until end of phase, your daemons gain a new 12" aura. While inside it, enemy psykers trigger perils on any set of doubles rather than just 1s or 6s.
	Malicious Misdirection	2	Start of Enemy Reinforcements	Until end of step, enemy Strategic Reserve units can only be set up as if it were the second battle round.
	Music of the Warp	2	Start of Your Turn	Until end of turn, any units with Instruments expand their Daemonic Terror aura to 12".
	Otherworldly Tread	2	Start of Your Movement or Start of Your Charge	Until end of phase, your units can move or charge without any penalties.
Khorne	Fury of Khorne	4	Start of Your Fight	Your entire army gets an additional attack during the fight phase. Sadly you won't get more, but it's a follow-up to help clean up any straggling units.
	Overwhelming Rage	4	Start of Enemy Movement	During the enemy's movement phase, roll a d6 for every engaged enemy (that isn't aircraft) that attempts to flee your units; on a 4+, that unit cannot flee, trapping them for another round of violent murder.
	Burning Terror	2	Start of Your Shooting	Roll a d6 for each enemy unit within 24" of your units and not wholly within Area Terrain, dealing d3 MW for each 6. Really only there for an opening salvo, pinging a spare wound or two before the charge.
Nurgle	Swarming Insects	4	Start of Any Fight	During the fight phase, enemies take -1 to hit your forces, driving home how much of a tarpit they can be.
	Plague of Rust	2	Start of Any Fight	During the fight phase, your melee attacks improve their AP by 1 when fighting vehicles. Got a dreadnought you plan to tear down? Lots of Rhinos? Spill this out to topple them.
	Wave of Sickness	2	Start of Your Shooting	During your shooting phase, roll a d6 for every unit within 12" of your plagueboys, dealing d3 MW on a 6. Nurgle doesn't have as much ranged combat, so this can give you something to soften enemies up before charging.
Slaanesh	Mesmerizing Dance	4	Start of Any Fight	Your entire army fights first. With how flimsy your army is, you absolutely need this as an advantage.
	Lightning Speed	3	Your Movement or Charge	Until end of turn, all units add +1 to their advance or charge rolls. A shame that you can't get anything better, but this gives you something reliable.
	Dark Hallucinations	2	Start of Enemy Turn	During the enemy turn, roll a 2d6 for any enemy attempting an action within 12" of your perverts; if this roll beats the enemy's Leadership, the action fails and the enemy takes d3 MW.
Tzeentch	Deluge of Fire	4	Start of Your Shooting	Your entire army adds +1 to BS. With the massive amount of shooting you have, you'll absolutely love it.
	Sorcerous Winds	3	Start of Your Psychic	Your psykers gain +1 to their casting checks. Though you don't have as many psykers as you used to, this will be useful for those you do have.
	Rampant Mutation	2	Any Fight	During the fight phase, any natural 6s to wound deal an additional mortal wound, to a maximum of 3 per enemy unit per phase. Absolutely pointless on your Horrors, but it's a gift to your Screamers and monsters.

Psychic Powers

<tabs> <tab name="Pandaemoniac Discipline"> Only Tzeentch Daemon Psykers may roll powers on this chart.

1. Boon of Change: WC6, 18" blessing: Selects a Legiones Daemonica Tzeentch unit within 18" and give it a mutation on 1d3!
   1. +2M
   2. +1S
   3. +1T
   • Good for buffing up Tzeentch HQs (T8 LoC is nice) and Screamers, but rather useless on most other Tzeentch Daemon units because you can't control which mutation you get.
2. Bolt of Change: WC7, 18", witchfire: Roll 9d6, dealing a mortal wound for each 5+, plus an additional MW for any casualties you make to a max of 3. Basically a targeted Smite, kinda, but with an average of 3 damage. Really good at clearing 1W units.
3. Gaze of Fate: WC6: Lets you retain 2 unspent WSP for the turn. Useless if you soup with a non-daemon faction.
4. Treason of Tzeentch: WC8, 18", malediction: You can choose an enemy unit within 18". It cannot be affected by auras.
5. Infernal Flames: WC7, 18", witchfire: A friendly Tzeentch Core unit within 18" gets +1 to wound rolls when shooting. Your Horrors can now hold their own in the shooting phase spamming with this active. Also useful on a unit of Flamers next to a Herald: S6 flamers with +1 to wound will wound most non-vehicle/monster units in the game on 2+.
6. Infernal Gateway: WC8, 18" witchfire: If manifested, identify the nearest visible enemy unit within 18" of the psyker. That enemy AND friendly units within 3" of the targeted unit take 1d3 mortal wounds or a flat 3 instead if you manifest this with a 12+. Ideal for punishing enemies that like to huddle close to characters with auras.

</tab> <tab name="Warprot Discipline"> Only Nurgle Daemon Psykers may roll powers on this chart.

1. Stream of Corruption: WC6, 12", witchfire: Flinging ' d3 mortal wound' poo on the closest enemy unit within range or d3+2 if said unit has 11+ models.
2. Fleshy Abundance: WC7, 18", blessing: One friendly Legiones Daemonica Nurgle unit gains +1T.
3. Nurgle's Rot: WC7, 6", witchfire: Roll 2d6 for every unit within 6" of the Psyker, if it beats that unit's toughness, the unit suffers d3 mortal wounds or d6 mortal wounds if the result is twice their toughness.
4. Shrivelling Pox: WC6, 18", malediction: Until the start of your next psychic phase, one enemy unit has -1 toughness. Yes, this can affect vehicles. Combo with Virulent Blessing for extra Nurgle-tainted cheese.
5. Virulent Blessing: WC6, 18", blessing: A friendly Nurgle Daemon unit within range gets +1 damage to melee weapons.
6. Malodourous Pall: WC8, 18", malediction: Target enemy unit can't do actions & fails current one (if applicable) and loses obsec.

</tab> <tab name="Soulstain Discipline"> Only Slaanesh Daemon Psykers may roll powers on this chart.

1. Cacophonic Choir: WC7, 18", witchfire: Roll 3d6 targeting closest visible enemy unit within 18". That unit suffers a mortal wound for each point that your 3d6 exceeds their leadership. It's basically a gambler's version of Smite.
   • The benefit this power has over other leadership bombs is that it doesn't rely on the enemy failing a morale test for it to be effective. Armies whose morale loses are capped at one (like Dark Angels) or normally have such low model counts that they never worry about morale (like Custodes) are just as susceptible to Slaaneshi mind-fuckery as everyone else. This also means that single-model units that normally never take morale tests can be affected. It also helps that your entire army has Daemonic Terror fucking with those numbers too.
   • Tyranids in particular, can go fuck themselves. Synapse only lets units automatically pass morale checks, it doesn't modify their generally terrible leadership. For reference, a mighty Carnifex has a base leadership of six. Bask in your opponent's despair when his bioengineered killing machine shits itself to death.
2. Symphony of Pain: WC7, 18", malediction: One enemy unit within 18" suffers -1 To-hit until the start of your next psychic phase. Potentially a great pick against more Elite Armies.
3. Hysterical Frenzy: WC7, 18" blessing: Targets a friendly unit of Legiones Daemonica Slaanesh core unit, it gains +1 attack and any natural 6s to hit deal an additional hit. Simple, yet powerful.
4. Delightful Agonies: WC6, 18" blessing: Select a friendly Legiones Daemonica Slaanesh Core unit within 18" of the psyker. They get a 5+ FNP save. Make your squishy guy-girls less squishy.
5. Pavane of Slaanesh: WC6, 18", witchfire: select an enemy unit within 18" and roll a d6 for each model in it. On a 5+, the unit takes a mortal wound, up to a maximum of six mortal wounds. An excellent horde-buster that gets more powerful with the size of the targeted unit.
6. Phantasmagoria: WC7, 18", witchfire: Roll 6d6, for each roll of 5+ the enemy unit suffers a mortal wound, in addition, that unit get -1 Leadership until your next Psychic phase. Greatly stacks with other -LD sources and Cacophonic Choir. Even better, this can let you drop a surprise chariot or daemonettes right up the wrong side of an enemy's flank in a mono-daemons army.

</tab> <tab name="Noctic Discipline"> Available to Be'lakor and Disciples of Be'lakor psykers. Both Daemon and Marine alike.

1. Shrouded Step: WC6. Range: 18". Blessing. If manifested, select one friendly disciples of bel'akor unit within 18" of this psyker. Remove that unit from the battlefield and set them up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" from any enemy models. If that unit Remained Stationary this turn, it is instead treated as having made a Normal Move this turn.
2. Wreathed in Shades: WC7. Range: 12". Blessing. If manifested, select one friendly disciples of bel'akor unit (excluding monster and vehicle units) within 12" of this psyker. Until the start of your next Psychic phase, enemy models cannot target that unit with ranged weapons unless that unit is the closest eligible target to the firing model or it is within 12" of the firing model.
3. Pall of Despair: WC7. Range: 18". Malediction. If manifested, select one enemy unit that is within 18" of and visible to this psyker. Roll 3D6; if the result is greater than the enemy unit's Leadership characteristic, select one of the following to apply to that unit until the start of your next Psychic phase.
   • If that unit has any Aura abilities, select one of those abilities. Until the start of your next Psychic phase, that unit loses that ability.
   • Until the start of your next Psychic phase, that unit cannot perform actions (if that unit is currently performing an action, it immediately fails).
   • Until the start of your next Psychic phase, in the Fight phase, that unit is not eligible to fight that phase until after all eligible units from your army have done so.
4. Voidslivers: WC5. Range: 12". Witchfire. If manifested, select one enemy model within 12" of and visible to this psyker. Draw a line between any part of this psyker's base and any part of the selected model's base (or hull):
   • The selected model's unit suffers 1 mortal wound (if that unit contains 11 or more models, it suffers D3 mortal wounds instead).
   • Every other enemy unit that this line passes over or through suffers 1 mortal wound (if that unit contains 11 or more models, it suffers D3 mortal wounds instead).
5. Penumbral Curse: WC7. Range: 18". Malediction. If manifested, select one enemy unit within 18" of this psyker. Until the start of your next Psychic phase, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, subtract 1 from that attack's wound roll and reduce the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.
6. Betraying Shades: WC6. Range: 18". Witchfire. If manifested, select one enemy unit within 18" of and visible to this psyker. Select up to 6 models in that unit, and add together the unmodified Attacks characteristics of those models. Roll a number of D6 equal to the total (for example, if five of the selected models had an Attacks characteristic of 2, and one had an Attacks characteristic of 3, you would roll thirteen D6). If the result of the Psychic test was 11 or more, add 1 to each dice result. For each roll of 6+, that unit suffers 1 mortal wound.

</tab> </tabs>

Unit Analysis

Common keywords are Chaos, Daemon, the army-encompassing Legiones Daemonica and any of the four Chaos Gods.

Daemons of Khorne

The Daemons of Khorne perceive everything through a red mist of undiluted rage. They cannot wait to spill blood, and so surge across the battlefield to get to grips with their foes as quickly as possible so that the slaughter can begin in earnest.

Horny Khornys are a reliable source of High Strength, AP, and Damage weaponry other god's minions often don't have and even some elite choices have a decent armour save. But like Slaanesh, most Khorne daemons lack defenses and once in combat, the lesser daemons' 5+ won't keep them alive for long.

Warlord Traits

HERALD units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits.

1. Aspect of Death: Enemies within 6" of the general take -1 to Leadership and -1 to Combat Attrition checks. Because of fuck conscript and cultist blobs. Karanak gets this.
   • Because of the two stacking effects, this leads to a -2 leadership AND -2 to all attrition checks. Works well enough to break mobs but nothing more.
2. Brazen Hide: 5+++ FNP save, making this as valuable on Bloodthirsters as it is on heralds.
3. Devastating Blow: The Warlord's melee attacks cannot be ignored by any sort of FNP save. Skulltaker gets this.
   • With how many ways you can get an FNP save, having the ability to just ignore them is pretty nice, especially against enemy warlords.
4. Glory of Battle: +1 attack, plus another if the warlord's within 3" of 6+ enemies, plus yet another if they're within 3" of 11+ models. Better saved for heralds and princes since thirsters already have the sweep profiles of their axes providing double the attack output.
5. Immense Power: +1 to Wound in melee. On the charge in a Khorne detachment, this gives heralds an effective S8 which can be huge in a low anti-vehicle army, or particularly an Str9 DP with 9 attacks, great against high wound T8 models, with a Bloodthirster with a greataxe wounding them on +2.
6. Rage Incarnate: +1 to charge and advance rolls. Any CORE KHORNE units charging an enemy engaged to the warlord get +1 to their charge rolls. Skarbrand gets this.
   • Probably the best for a support hero, as it gives your Bloodletters even more incentive to get stuck in as quickly as possible.

Stratagems

• Banner of Blood (1CP): One Khorne Icon unit can roll 3d6 when making a charge, dropping the lowest. This version makes the focus on reliability clearer and as an added bonus, this isn't restricted to once per game.
• Brass Stampede (1CP): When a Khorne Cavalry or Khorne Vehicle finishes a charge move, roll a d6 for each model in your unit. One enemy unit within 1" takes d3 MW on a 6+ or d3+3 MW on a 9. As you can tell, this has become a lot less viable, especially for anything smaller than a vehicle since that roll only adds +3 when charging with the Skull Cannon or Throne of Skulls. This is especially shitty because this reduces the effectiveness on big bads.
• Frenetic Bloodlust (1/2CP): Use at the start of any fight phase. A Bloodletters Core unit can either move 6" towards the nearest enemy if they're not engaged or pile in if they're engaged with any enemies. A far cry from 8E's version, but mobility is equally as vital, especially at the beginning. Costs 2 CP for a normal move, otherwise it's 1 CP.
• Glorious Decapitation (2 CP): If one of your characters murders an enemy character in melee, they gain a new 6" aura that lets fellow daemons of Khorne deal a mortal wound on a natural 6 to wound, adding a bit of extra punch to your forces.
• Relics of the Brass Citadel (1 CP): Typical "more relics" strat.
• Contempt for Sorcery (1 CP): If an enemy psyker casts within 12" of a Khorne unit, roll a d6, adding +1 if there are flesh hounds within 12" of the psyker. On a 4+, that power is blocked.

Exalted Bloodthirster

As with abilities like Chapter Command, you can now give an unnamed Bloodthirster (so no Skarbrand) a special power by spending points and PL rather than CP.

• Indomitable Onslaught: This thirster can't lose more than 8 wounds per phase. By itself, it's kinda trash as it's only keeping them alive for two turns when a good force might wipe them out in one. If you take the Blood-Drinker Talisman then you've now got a very good way to keep your thirster around for much longer.
• Lord of the Blood Tide: +1 to Strength and Attacks when this Bloodthirster charges, gets charged, or heroically intervenes. The good news is that this is your cheapest upgrade.
• Rage Unchained: Double your wounds for the damage table. Degrading stats were always a bane to monsters, and it's especially the case for a daemon meant to kill in combat.

Relics

• A'rgath King of Blades: Khorne models only. One weapon of your choosing gains +1 damage and can ignore any modifiers when rolling to wound. While heralds can no longer hit as hard as princes, they now have the potential of taking down enemies much faster. Also lets your Bloodthirster's mini axe be almost as good as the big axe, while still letting you have a flail or lash.
• Armour of Scorn: Khorne Monster only. The bearer gets a 4+++ FNP against Mortal Wounds and +1 to any saves against attacks with a Damage characteristic of 1, circumventing the rule that typically forbids your saves from being modified and making walls of lasguns even more laughable.
• Blood-Drinker Talisman: Khorne models only. Heal a wound on a 5+ for each enemy model killed in melee. Can't heal more than 6 wounds a turn. Now that it's been released from only being spent on Thirsters, it's become valuable not only for stopping the degrading statlines of Bloodthirsters but also to help top off heralds and princes as well, as all HQs have their own precious auras to project.
• Crimson Crown: Khorne models only. When the bearer kills any enemy models, you get to save up to two Warp Storm tokens so you can spend it on something more devastating.
• Rune of Brass: Khorne models only. Gives a 12" aura that makes Psykers trigger perils on any doubles and deals d6 MW during Perils instead of merely d3, giving you a decent way of scaring them off, though nothing to really stop them from casting in the first place.
• Skullreaver: Khorne models only, replaces an Axe of Khorne, restricting it to only Bloodthirsters. It essentially gives you a regular axe that can be improved to become a greataxe when fighting against monsters and vehicles with the strike profile, improving the weapon's Strength to x2 and Damage to 3+d3. Great if you're planning on taking on superheavies but still want the ability to fight at range with more than just their breath.

HQ

General

• Bloodthirster: Streamlined from three different datasheets to one, though you'll have to pick the correct tools for the job you need to be done. Like all Greater Daemons, they have a 6" aura that grants allied Khornate Daemons re-rolls of 1 to hit. They also got a new rule where they deal d3 mortal wounds to a nearby enemy on a 2+ (4+ for infantry characters). FLY alleviates that problem somewhat, but anti-tank weapons (and to a lesser extent anti-air) will fuck a Bloodthirster's shit up real fast. Don't let those 20 wounds lull you into a false sense of security. Although Khorne favors getting stuck in and fucking things up in melee, remember that the support aura is still useful. They are very very very attractive for enemy lascannons (often the only targets in the whole army), cannot hide from it (the models are massive), and only get a 4++ save against something that can hit them from anywhere on the table, at any time. They are melee fighters with degrading WS to make their problems even more severe... One could deepstrike one with the new stratagems, but doing so with 30 Bloodletters instead is probably better... or both for the lols. There is an argument to be made for giving your Bloodthirster the Armor of Scorn so it can zoom up the board without getting shot off the table. Make him your warlord and take the 5+++ FNP for added defensive power. Next, you'll want enough other threats on the board that your opponent will be left with only bad options: Flesh Hound blob screening a Daemon Prince with Skullreaper and a JuggerHerald with King of Blades make for an unavoidable distraction. Skull Cannons in your backfield, now cheaper and stronger, splits your enemy's anti-tank while allowing you to clear away screens for your harder hitting units. You'll be annoyed by units on upper floors of buildings, but your Skull Cannons should make enough room for your deep striking Bloodletter units (or Furies moving up the board) to stream up the floors. A Bloodthirster is a commitment: rush into the enemy as fast and hard as you can with everything you have. They may kill the Bloodthirster, but they leave the rest of your offensive power untouched.
  • As part of the consolidation, all Bloodthirsters got the S5 AP-2 heavy flamer breath that was originally for the Insensate Rage thirster. Both the regular thirster axe and the Insensate Fury's massive axe both got two differing profiles for crowd control and monster-slaying, with the great axe being most useful in instances where you're most worried about knights and other superheavies where hitting at S16 would make a difference - stick with the regular axe for anything else. When picking between the whip and the flail, note that the whip, while decent, is at AP-1 and thus will fall flat against Armour of Contempt. The flail, on the other hand, got a remarkably dangerous upgrade, now being Sx2 AP-4 D3d3 with damage that can spread to other models in a unit - just the thing to thin space marines of any flavor if you manage to make that one hit roll.
• Herald of Khorne: Gain two 6" auras, one giving the mandatory "re-roll 1s to wound" given to all Lieutenant-types and the other lets Bloodletters auto-wound on a hit roll to 6. Heralds are super useful to summon during combat if you have space since you aren't moving in combat anyway and they have low power levels (which makes them easier to summon). Is armed with a Blade of Blood that is S6 AP-3 D3, plenty threatening against other heroes.

<tabs> <tab name="Bloodmaster"> The baseline Foot slogger Herald. Less mobility, weapons, and defense but significantly cheaper. </tab> <tab name="Skullmaster on Juggernaut"> Juggernaut Herald. Fastest Herald of Khorne option. Adds T+1, +2 Wounds and movement +4". While you no longer get a better save from being stuck on it, you are getting the extra Toughness. </tab> <tab name="Rendmaster on Blood Throne"> T+1 Herald with +3 wounds for about double the price of a normal Herald with about double the attacks when accounting for the dopes driving the thing. While their auto-wound aura got a bit of a range boost to 9", their re-roll aura remains the same. They also get to re-roll to wound enemy monsters and characters, something that can capitalize on the Bloodthirster's re-roll aura. </tab> </tabs>

Named

• Skulltaker: They took his Khorne damned Juggernaut option away, but Skulltaker is still pretty beastly. He moves 1 inch faster than other infantry, has a 3+/5++, and rerolls everything when fighting a character. His aura lets nearby Bloodletters Core units within 8" add 1 to hit (no longer includes other heralds, including himself, as of 9E), and his weapon is Strength User, AP -3, D3, on 6+ to wound boosted to D3+3 damage. Get him into combat and he'll lop heads off with ease, a double bonus as each kill also boosts the range of his auras by 3" to a maximum of 12". A pretty nice support character with a very specific focus that is overshadowed by more generalist Princes with Skullreaver and Skullmasters.
• Karanak: Still a character-hunter who can deny 2 psychic powers per turn. You call out an enemy character at the start of the game and for the rest of the game, when Karanak is fighting against that character, his attacks now deal 2 Mortal Wounds instead of S6 AP-2 D2, meaning that everything will be targeting him. Fortunately, he can also give a re-roll 1s to wound aura to his fellow Flesh Hounds that will re-roll all wounds if they attack a psyker.
• Uraka the Warfiend^{Forge World}: Uraka the Warfiend now gives a re-roll hits of 1 for Khorne Deamon with 6", but also he buffs HIMSELF when he kills things. He defiantly likes to make a synergy bubble with a herald. He's certainly not a pushover with a 5+/4+ save and 6 attacks, a decent short-range attack, and may attempt to deny 1 enemy psychic power a turn. He does get to killing after slaying 8 models for +1 to movement, Strength, and Attack. As the new codex has stripped the Heralds of the good Loci, you're not going to be getting those kills as easily as you used to.
• Skarbrand: Remains the utter frothing berserker he ever has been, utterly immune to any psychic power while sadly unable to bock for you. Note that as his wounds reach certain thresholds, his attacks actually INCREASE - so what he loses inaccuracy, he compensates for with sheer undiluted RAGE. This partially solves the main problem that you'd have with a base thirster with the big axe. Still - you're going to have to play him very cleverly, otherwise, you can expect him to get wrecked by anti-tank weapons before he reaches the enemy's front lines. He does have a ranged attack that acts like the Thirster's Hellfire, however, so he can surprise a foe cocky enough to charge him with an Overwatch shot.
  • Rather than the basic aura given to most Thirsters, Skarbrand's is a bit less discriminating on who benefits from it. See, now every unit within 6" gets a spare attack and auto-passes morale checks - both things that are awesome for your Bloodletters, but not for whoever you're planning on killing with the big guy, especially if they're kitted out to kill him in particular. It also forces anyone in range to roll 3d6 when falling back, preventing them if the roll exceeds the unit's Leadership, which can prove troublesome on a bad combat turn.

Samus^Legends: Samus, Daemon Prince of the Ruinstorm is as Khorne as it gets. A decent number of attacks that wound more often on infantry. Psykers nearby get minus 1 from their power rolls. Friendly units summoning near him get to reroll the summon. Anything not Khorne near him subtracts 1 from their LD. He's a big red rat and he's ANGRY.

Troops

• Bloodletters: (12ppm) Managed to get a bit of a bump up, as now they're S5 and T4, but they remain glass cannons with only a 5++ save in melee. Their Hellblades are now better, being Power Swords that do a flat 2 damage, making them more reliable at butchering multi-wound thickies like the Marines. 2 attacks each (3 with Fury of Khorne up), at AP-3, hitting on 3+, wounding on 3+ (against MEQ), each dealing 2 damage with one swing? These guys can be brutal.

Elites

• Bloodcrushers: By Khorne, these are brutal. Charging produces MW from Brass Stampede, 13 S6 AP-3 D2 sword attacks, and 9 S8 AP-1 is enough to pummel most non-superheavy units, or severely maim them. And that's what a MINIMUM squad of these does. The fact that they have 4 wounds, 4+ regular save and a 5++ daemon save. Position them well for an early charge before they are spotted and promptly shot to bits, or summon them with an appropriate hero and let them loose on the enemy and they would be hard-pressed to NOT win their points back. Seriously, this anon bought a bunch to use in Sigmar, but they are way more brutal in newhammer 40k.
  • 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, and Deep Strike in Skulltaker nearby (8" aura) for the +1 hit rolls. Food for thought...
  • Alternate Opinion: Bloodcrushers are largely (if not totally) outclassed by Bloodletters. It's less than Bloodcrushers are bad, but it's simply a case that Bloodletters are some of the best infantry in the game at the moment. As well as being far cheaper (at 8pts), 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 230 points (with 2 icons and 2 instruments), on the other hand, a minimum squad of Juggernauts (at 135 points) produces 19 attacks (with 10 at 2+ str 5 and a-3/ and 9 at str 5 -ap3).
    • Alternate Opinion: as of 9th, Durability matters more, so paying for a balance of defenses, speed and damage while a group Bloodletters will die quickly to blast weapons.

Fast Attack

• Flesh Hounds: Remained mostly the same stat-wise and rule-wise, however, the rules around them have changed. Compared to the previous codex they only move 10" max and are now susceptible to being slowed by terrain. To compound these new issues Daemonic Instability is gone, and with LD7 morale tests are going to hurt. Positives: They're 15 points each for relatively speedy, two wound, two attack models, they now always hit on a 3+ in combat, and they get +1 S and A on the charge from Unstoppable Ferocity (20 of these is 300 points. Let that sink in a minute...). Combine this with always striking first on the charge, and their fangs being AP-1 CCWs, and you will tear light infantry to pieces. This leaves them in a similar niche as before, a light infantry killer and your front line bubblewrap unit to tank light weapons fire for harder-hitting characters (JuggerHerald, Karanak, etc.) However, the loss of Herald locus upgrades and the attachment of characters leaves the Hounds as mostly an expensive tarpit unit, unable to effectively deal with anything higher than a 4+ save, and unable to hold units in assaults for longer than one turn. Screamers do a better job of being zippy harassment units, and Bloodcrushers are more durable and hit so much harder.
  • A quick note on Flesh Hounds: If you are taking a fluffy Khorne-dedicated list (and if you're not, Khorne will send these fuckers after you anyway) these puppies are (as of time of writing this) Khorne's only source of denying the witch outside of Karanak excluding forgeworld. So for this reason alone, a few MSU squads of these should be auto-includes unless you want your face melted with mind bullets
  • In case you forgot that Wrath and Rapture are giving Khorne some new stuff too, Flesh Hounds are finally getting a plastic kit! One of them can now be upgraded to a Gore Hound, which lets their bark does damage - D6 autohits at 8", S4 AP0 D1 (as per the most recent faq). So, basically a flamer. Not a big boost but now they can do something before they charge.
  • 9E is looking to give them a bit of a boost. Aside from the 4++ invulnerability from shooting, they now move 12" and got an offensive boost with A3 and S5 by default. On top of that, they now add +1 to their bite's damage when they charge or heroically intervene, making them much better at taking down MEQs.

Heavy Support

• Skull Cannon A mixed bag like the Soul Grinder but cheaper at 80 pts. It's gun is 48" Heavy D6 (S8 AP-2 D2 Blast, that ignores cover bonus), more to take out MEU and light vehicles. On the plus side, it hits on a 3+ and can do some good damage on the charge, but even melee is only a last-ditch surprise option, especially now that it lost its healing power. Overall not that great, but it's one of the few long-range options we have and ok to get a few wounds off some light tanks and marines.

Lord of War

• Anggrath the Unbound - Oh boy, THIS guy. When you absolutely need to have the angriest, smashiest guy on the board and price is of no concern, accept no substitutes! He will always hit things on a 2+ and starts off with a massive axe that is just as versatile as any Bloodthirster's that just happens to have S10. He shrugs off attacks like nothing too, thanks to his T8, 24 wounds, 4+/4+ and 2 uses of Deny the Witch without needing a Stratagem. If anyone manages to bring him down by some chance he gets a chance to wound everyone around him. Don't expect much to come from his whip, even though it got a slight boost by being able to be used while in close combat. Also, note that he can be your warlord now. Why yes, I did want 6+ FNP on him to thank you very much!
  • With the new codex, Anggrath feels a lot less killy than before with the skimmed-down strats given to each god. Heralds now only give measly re-rolls to wound and he doesn't even give his forces any re-rolls to hit so he can't support his army like a traditional thirster. If you're fielding him, it's because you seriously want to kill a rival superheavy and nothing else.

Fortification

• Skull Altar - First Khorne approved building ladies and gentlemen! First, off all just like Nurgle tree, it cannot be targeted and affected by enemy attacks and cannot move. Secondly, this altar has a bunch of good abilities, especially when playing defender with Khorne, as the footslogging Bloodmaster/Skulltaker can hide inside it and improve their footprint - and the range of their auras with it. The last 2 abilities are also nice, it gives -2 to psychic tests if the enemy is within 18" of the altar and the herald inside it can perform a special action between the movement and charge phases, allowing you to roll 1d6 for Warp Storm points for each of your units in combat within 12". All of this for 100 points

Biggest Problem

The best way to run mono-Khorne daemons appears to be simply picking 1 unit and spamming it as much as physically possible. So a list with a mixture of Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds, and Bloodcrushers would not be anywhere near as effective as a list including only 1 of those units in vast numbers.

Daemons of Nurgle

The Daemons of Nurgle are surrounded by an aura of pestilence and disease that infects all nearby, and their talons and blades drip with thrice-ripened plagues. The merest touch of such a weapon in the presence of such a creature can cause a mortal to wither and die in seconds.

The big synergy winners this edition. They lack widespread weapons with good AP but high toughness and Disgustingly Resilient will make these units your tanks and tarpits. They are not particularly accurate but can dish out multi-damage attacks with fitting buffs and some hot rolling. However, they will have trouble with armored targets and when facing off against multi-damage attacks, especially now that Disgustingly Resilient was taken away from them and replaced with a mere Toughness and Wound bump. Finally, they will struggle to catch fast-moving enemies unless you build to counter that.

Warlord Traits

HERALD units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits.

1. Heaving Mass: +2 Wounds. Simple, adds a bit more before dropping brackets and forces additional rolls before your enemy can snipe your leader dead.
2. Acidic Ichor: If your warlord takes a wound in melee, the unit that inflicted the wound takes a mortal wound on a 4+ at the end of the Fight phase. Horticulous Slimux gets this.
3. Virulent Touch: All hits automatically wound any non-Titanic enemies. Epidemius gets this.
4. Plaguefly Hive: -1 to hit your warlord in melee if the attacking unit is within 6" and they can't do actions.
5. Overflowing Fecundity: Unmodified wound roll of 1-3 always fail against this warlord.
6. Pestilent Miasma: At the start of your turn roll a dice for each enemy unit. On a 2+, they suffer a mortal wound. They suffer 1d3 MW instead if the result was a 6. Rotigus gets this.

Stratagems

• Chortling Murrain (1 CP): Single use. Pick one enemy unit within 6" of a Sloppity Bilepiper and roll a d6 for every model in it; for each roll that beats the model's Toughness, they suffer a Mortal Wound.
  • It does good at driving away mobs of guardsmen and gaunts, but this won't do a lot to an angry pack of boyz or space marines.
• Pestilent Inspiration (1 CP): One psyker learns ALL the psychic powers for one turn. Weird how this isn't something Tzeentch gets, but this is a massive gift.
• Relics of the Great Garden (1 CP): Another generic "extra relic" strat.
• Revolting Constitution (1/2 CP): Whenever a Plaguebearers unit is attacked, they cannot be wounded on a roll of 1-3. The fact that this can be used on any phase makes this particularly annoying, as it will limit the effectiveness of anything high-strength, especially if they have Blast.
  • Costs 2 CP for a unit with PR 12 or higher.
• Slime Trail (1 CP): Pick one unit of Beasts or Horticulus Slimux. When an enemy attempts to fall back, roll a d6; they cannot fall back on a 4+.
• Swarming Flies (2 CP): Enemies take -1 to hit one unit.
• Crushing Bulk (1 CP): Pick one Great Unclean One, Beasts of Nurgle or Plague Drones that just charged and roll a d6 for every model in the unit, adding 3 for a GUO. The enemy suffers d3 MW on a 6+, improved to 3 on a 9+.
• Plague Banner (2 CP): During the fight phase, one Nurgle Icon unit that fights deals a MW on a natural 6 to wound.

Exalted Great Unclean Ones

Same as abilities like Chapter Command, you no longer need to spend CP to power up one of your nameless Great Unclean Ones. Instead, you can spend points/PR in order to improve these fat shitsacks.

• Bountiful Gifts: Lets you save up to 2 Warp Storm Points so you can spend it on more tricks.
• Hideous Visage: A 6" aura that essentially doubles the effects of Daemonic Terror for summoning shenanigans and extra squad breaking.
• Revoltingly Resilient: Melee attacks against this bloated pusbags deal -1 damage.

Relics

• Corruption: Nurgle models only. Upgrades one melee weapon, giving it +1 damage and the ability to ignore any rules for damage mitigation.
• Effluvior: Upgrade a Plague Flail to Assault 3d3 S+1 AP-3 D3 with damage that can be spread past other models. Now fully able to route infantry with its assault pistol whip.
• The Endless Gift: Nurgle models only. Each turn the bearer regains a number of wounds equal to the round number.
• The Entropic Knell: Nurgle models only. Mark one unit within 12" of the bearer, they cannot use their auras and count has half their unit size for the sake of capping objectives. The first one matters more for characters, but the latter gives you a reason to spam this on squads, especially ones with some special relic like the Black Templars.
• Horn of Nurgle's Rot: Nurgle models only. Every time the bearer kills an enemy model in melee, roll a D6: on a 4+ you can add a model to a friendly Plaguebearers Infantry Core unit within 18". Pairs well with an offensive unit like a daemon prince (hiding in a plaguebearers unit).
• Tome of a Thousand Poxes: Nurgle Psyker models only. Know another power from the Warprot Discipline and anytime the bearer rolls a 7+ to cast a power from this discipline, the power can't be denied.

HQ

General

• Great Unclean One: This fat bastard's an incredibly resilient model, with 22 wounds and T9 with a 5+/4+ save . He can cast 2 powers and deny 1 power and knows Smite plus two Warprot powers. Before accounting for any loadout choices, he also gets 7 Malefic Nurgling bites at S2 AP- and a 12" Assault d6 vomit stream at S5 AP-2 so it can potentially gnaw away at even marines and kin. Disgustingly strong in melee for his points, especially with the Crushing Bulk strat. Getting him there can be a problem, so consider starting him in reserves to minimize the risks of footslogging. Not bad but best to deepstrike because his mobility is painful at a reduced profile.
  • For melee builds He gets a Plague Flail (which he can shoot into close combat with) which is S:User AP-3 and does 2 damage and a Bilesword which can switch between a direct S+1 AP-3 Dd6 that deals auto wounds on a natural 6 to hit and a crowd clearing S:User AP-3 sweep that doubles attacks.
  • Alternatively, you also have the Bilevlade and Doomsday Bell. The Bileblade replaces the Plague Flail with a second melee weapon with AP-3 D2 that also lets you inflict MWs on the fatass for a +1 to casting. The Doomsday Bell sacrifices your Bilesword for a far less impressive S+1 AP-1 D2 whack that lets you raise a Plaguebearers Core model (d3 models for Infantry) to a unit within 12" each command phase. Taking these two together makes a far more support-focused greater daemon, but even taking the Bilesword and Bileblade can make for a serviceable battle psyker.
• Poxbringer: The classic Herald of Nurgle, now with a new name to distinguish it from the other two Heralds. They took away his steed, but his balesword is AP-3 and can re-roll all failed wound rolls. He is a psyker and can cast Smite or Stream of Corruption once he reaches melee. His bonus gives +1S, which is actually a big deal. Your plaguebearers wound Space Marines on 4+ with reroll and with the buff on 3+, even bikers on 4+. S5 is the sweet spot to wound T8 vehicles on 5+ instead of 6+ too so your plaguebearers become much more versatile.
• Sloppity Bilepiper New kind of Herald, gives +1 attack to GUOs and Nurglings within 6" and also allows them to run and charge in the same turn. Also, every Nurgle Daemon within 6" have to do Morale tests on 2D6 discarding the higher value, and the enemy within 6" failing a Morale test loses one model more than it should. Even if you don't plan on taking lots of Nurglings, the morale benefits alone are worth bringing this freakish jester along. Keep him protected, though. He doesn't have much in the way of direct combat ability.
• Spoilpox Scrivener: Other new Herald that allows Plaguebearers within 6" of him to add +2" to their movement and +1 to their hit rolls. If the boost brings their roll result up to 7 (read: the buffed unit rolls a 6), they can attack again with the same weapon they used before. More attacks hitting and the chance for extra attacks mean more possibilities of an unsaved wound making it through, and the movement bonus doesn't hurt either while increasing your Plaguebearers hits by over 33%. In addition to the basic Herald plaguesword, he can also attack with his grotesque mouth (AP-1, but can only reroll wound rolls of 1) and disgusting sneezes (6", Pistol D3, S3 AP0 1 D, rerolls wound rolls of 1). Yes, he can kill things by sneezing on them.

Named

• Epidemius: Costs a bit more than a normal Herald and isn't a psyker (Smite!) but has quite a bit more punch and can take some more. But you want him for his army-wide buff (as always). Note that this time you have to destroy units, not models (because fielding 4x30 Boyz shouldn't have a downside)! Starting at 2 destroyed units by NURGLE DAEMONs, and it pumps up your offensive capabilities - defensive buffs start at 5 destroyed units. Sadly he misses the other +1S bonus of the normal Herald hence you should get both of them in a Nurgle themed army. If you don't like the old metal mini you can grab a disc of Tzeentch, spit on it, scratch it like a DJ, paint it green and glue a few nurglings and bells (from the plaguebearer kit) on it and then put a Herald of Nurgle on top.
• Cor'bax Utterblight^{Forge World}: The Forgeworld Character series Daemon Prince. He's significantly tougher than a Daemon Prince of Nurgle at 12 wounds at T8, and a 4+ FNP against dmg 1 weapons. His base speed of 7" makes him slower. He's a mixed bag in CC. Having 5 base attacks is good, and the gaping maw weapon is AP-3 with D3, and can instant-kill a model by beating their wound count in a D6. If you take the Virulent touch warlord trait for +1 to wound and cast Virulent blessing for another +1 to wound. Furthermore, any roll of 5+ will cause 6 dmg. Unfortunately, with the only S7, he's only good at taking on infantry, which means his high damage will largely be wasted unless you dedicate other units to buff him. His profile degrades movement, S, and attacks, so he quickly becomes useless. He also gives out no aura buffs whatsoever. Clocking in at 180pts, he's not going to be able to get enough done on his own to justify the investment when you could've bought Mammon or even a plain DP for the same cost.
• Horticulous Slimux: Ported over from Age of Sigmar, Nurgle's Grand Cultivator retains his ability to make Beasts of Nurgle actually pretty decent, by way of giving to Beasts within 12" +1 to hit rolls, as well as allowing Beasts within 6" to reroll failed charges. Units that fall back within 1" of him take d3 mortal wounds on a 4+, and he's no slouch in melee either— he has a 4+ save that lets him rely less on the invulnerable save and Disgustingly Resilient, his lopping shears are a souped-up Balesword, and Mulch can add an extra S7 AP-4 3 D sucker punch to surprise more heavily armored opponents.
  • He can also create new Feculent Gnarlmaws within 3" of him at the end of his movement phase (if he didn't use Daemonic Ritual in the same turn), and a single Nurgle Daemon within 7" can heal a wound at the beginning of each your turn if any model died the turn before. A blob of allied Cultists will ensure that healing effect will trigger, even if your opponent doesn't use horde armies.
  • If you have the models (and spare 85 points per model), there's really no reason why Horticulous shouldn't keep planting a Feculent Gnarlmaw each turn. They're damned useful, and it means that he'll constantly enjoy a 2+ cover save.
• Mamon Transfigured^{Forge World}: Named Daemon Prince and the bastard responsible for the entire mess at Vraks. Can't cast spells but allows re-rolling misses of 1 in the Fight Phase for Nurgle Daemons. Has two melee weapons, a kick that really excels at murdering high-wound infantry, 5 S7 Ap3 D3 melee attack, and a 12" Assult 2D3 S5 AP-2 D2 Flamer.
  • The updates of 9E have dealt a bit of a blow to Mammon. While his aura remains able to buff more than mere Nurgle Daemon Core units, his having 9 wounds means that he's now just over the edge of what can comfortably hide behind a mob of lesser daemons or allied heretics. Add his plodding movement to that and...well, you just bought a walking bullseye to your range.
• Rotigus the Rainfather: To make up for the absence of Ku'gath Plaguefather, we now have a new named Great Unclean One. His main melee weapon, the Gnarlrod, is essentially a Bilesword with worse AP but more reliable damage (3 damage instead of d6), but he has d6 extra Fanged Maw attacks that mean he's still better in melee than the standard GUO. His real best weapon is the Streams of Brackish Filth, essentially a 2d6 S7 AP-3 flamer that rerolls wounds, which he can now shoot in melee thanks to 9th edition rules. Every time you roll a 7+ on a psychic test, the closest enemy unit suffers a mortal wound after using whatever power you were casting. Unlike the Death Guard's Malignant Plaguecaster, this doesn't have any range specified, so you could technically do it from the other side of the board. At only five points more than a Bilesword Great Unclean One, knowing one more power than a basic GUO, and being able to deny one more power as well, you might as well take him.

Troops

• Plaguebearers of Nurgle (9ppm) Slow but tough and ok in melee with their re-rolls to wound. If you want to hold the line, they are the right choice, especially with the new codex giving them T5 and two wound each. In packs of 20 (so get 30 to keep the bonus for a while), enemies have to subtract 1 from their attack rolls. Unfortunately, they lost the rusty sword abilities to auto-glance vehicles or poison monsters, and for that old shrouded rule, they need to be 20 or more but still cost defacto the same - somewhat a downgrade, but we got the FNP for that. Two or three blobs of 30 can flood the field and can be surprisingly (disgustingly) resilient and soak up a lot of fire and damage. When combined with a Poxbringer and a Spoilpox Scrivener, they can get a fair punch against tougher Infantry units in melee, hold objectives pretty well with numbers, or bind some annoying ranged units.
  • Here's where some of that sweet, sweet synergy comes in. Combine the Locus of Virulence (+1 damage if your wound roll is 6+), the Plague Banner (one-time pop to make plagueswords do 2 damage for one turn), the Virulent Blessing power (+1 to wound rolls, and if you roll 7+ to wound, you do double damage), and the Scrivener (Plaguebearers get +1 to hit, and a hit roll of 7+ lets them make an extra attack). What do you get? A combat phase in which plagueswords are 2 damage base, on a wound roll of 5 each plaguesword does 3 damage, on a wound roll of 6 each plaguesword does 5 damage, and if the hit roll is 6, each Plaguebearer makes another attack! And remember, plagueswords let you re-roll failed wound rolls automatically. This isn't even considering Epidemius' Tally shenanigans or the hit buff from a nearby Daemon Prince. Fucking drown your opponent in wounds! Add a Poxbringer and they will wound MEQ's on 2+.
    • Realistically you want to target big multi-wound stuff like vehicles, Knights, etc. with this, since the bonus damage is wasted on single-wound opponents (and larger-based targets let you get more Plaguebearers in close to swing). If you're targeting a vehicle with this one-turn damage extravaganza, coordinate the fight phase with a Plague Hulk. The Rusting Curse will effectively give your Plaguebearers AP-1.
  • Take 20+ Plaguebearers, buff them with Miasma of Pestilence and park them completely within 7" of a Feculent Gnarlmaw or two. They'll have a 4+ cover save, and your opponent is at -2 to hit them. These guys become some of the best objective-campers in the game, because they'll never, ever die. Maybe keep a GUO with the doomsday bell nearby, so on the off-chance some do kick, you can bring one back each turn.
• Nurglings: (18ppm) Now, who forgot these buggers? These little shits get to deploy 9" away from the enemy DEPLOYMENT ZONE, and then act normally. Yes, that's right. They can move and then charge after doing this. Combined with the Disgustingly resilient rule (which they only get against weapons with damage 1 and they are multi-wound models...), they can easily tie down a shooty unit, or force them to fall back and waste a turn, granting your footsloggers valuable time. Sloppity Bilepipers will give them more attacks for better tarpit functionality. In addition, these very cheap tarpits make a decent objective holder, a screen to protect your units from deep-strikers, and a sneaky way to prevent knights from falling back (they are neither infantry nor bike).

Elites

• Beasts of Nurgle - Those gross attention whores may look underwhelming at first but their abilities may make them worthwhile. They are pretty cheap at 35 points, making them the most durable unit per point in the entire game and can be taken in units of 9. They make 6 S4 AP0 D2 attacks each and reroll all wound rolls. They can also make Heroic Interventions like characters and if the enemy retreats from them they take a mortal wound on a 4+. With 7 wounds each and a 4++/5++ combined with their ability to regenerate all lost wounds, they will stick around practically forever. However, the poor guy remains disgustingly slow. Best used alongside Horticulous Slimux as a bodyguard, since they can intercept foes who might tie the Grand Cultivator up while gaining greater accuracy and rerollable charges in the process.
  • The Codex is seeing these guys getting a substantial glow-up, from now being S6 T6 to the now ridiculous 7 wounds that regenerate EVERY PHASE, this now truly feels like an unfeeling mountain of flesh that can withstand whatever comes against them. Let us repeat: They will regenerate all wounds on EVERY PHASE so long as they do not die, meaning that you're absolutely going to need Eradicators or something of equally high damage to guarantee that these fuckers will die.

Fast Attack

• Plague Drones: Excellent. 4 Wounds at T5 with all the defensive trappings Nurgle Daemons enjoy anyway makes these insanely tough. Add to that the decent movement speed and the 4 damage 2 attacks each Fly dishes out and they become a force to be reckoned with. Can take a beating and nothing wants to be in melee with them. Their shooting sucks, but bad shooting is still better than no shooting whatsoever, right?
• Plague Toads of Nurgle (Legends FW): Fly has been FAQ'd out of their profile. Their melee attacks are still brutal although their maw has been downgraded, dealing S5 Ap-1 D2 and hits of 6 generate more hits - nice considering they only get 3 attacks that hit on a 4+. Their grasping tongue got an upgrade too, although it's an assault d3 instead of pistol hitting at S5 and re-rolling to-wounds. Also T5, W4 and get the 5+++.
• Pox Riders of Nurgle (Legends FW): Still tanky as hell with T/W5, fast-ish movement, banners, instrument, and the ability to get to a -2 to hit above six models. Gone are the degenerating profiles so a full unit will tank 22 lascannon shots, 135 bolter shots and/or 67 assault cannon shots without degenerating stats - awesome! Combine that with the weapons above and exactly 2 plaguesword attacks at S4. Now think about the locus bonuses, character re-rolls, stratagems, and psychic powers you can add on top of this. They also come with 60mm bases, which makes them a huge board control unit. You can make a huge bubble to hide daemon princes. The drawback? $$$$$$ These cost a firstborn to purchase from Forgeworld (£65 for 3).

Heavy Support

• Plague Hulk of Nurgle: (Legends FW) Went down in price to 190 pts, so it's closer to the cost of a Soul Grinder. S/T8, 14W, 3+, 5++ and 5+++ Disgusting Resilience; it's slow, unfortunately, with a 7" move that degnerates. You could summon it and its PL did go down but it's still 10 and that's not very reliable. Rusting Curse got buffed to affecting Vehicles within engagement range, and now it improves the AP of attacks against said vehicles by 1 rather than reducing vehicle saves. Rot Cannon got buffed: 36" Heavy D6, S7 AP-3 D2 and you can re-roll to-wound against anything you shoot, rather than just infantry. Its vomit got a range buff to 12" while retaining its profile: Pistol D6, S5 AP-2 D1 where all shots auto-hit. The Iron Claw remains largely unchanged, Sx2 AP-3 D6 with the Warpsword being potentially good now with User S, AP-3 and a flat 3 damage which also allows you re-rolls to hit (much better than last edition for sure!)... Most people will probably continue taking the claw. All around, the Plague Hulk is a better 9E choice but still suffers from mobility problems. If you can get it close to vehicles, it will straight up ruin tank and artillery formations, but you have to get it there first and although it's tough, it likely won't survive the battering it receives on the way in.

Lord of War

• Scabeiathrax the Bloated (FW): My oh-my is this guy one tough son of a bitch. At T8 with 21 wounds and a 5+/4+ save befitting his station, you will need a crap ton of heavy firepower to put him down. And if he dies, on a 4+ a unit within D6" suffers D6 mortal wounds. His close combat abilities are not to be sneezed at either. He has Horrific Vomit, which is a 2d6 flamer at S6 AP-2 D2 which can be fired in close combat. Then, he has the Blade of Decay, an S+2 AP-4 sword that does a flat D3+d3 damage and can re-roll wounds. To round it all out, he gets 2D6 additional nurgling attacks at S2 AP0. He can cast 2 powers and deny three powers and knows Smite plus two Nurgle powers. Finally, he lets Nurgle Daemons use his leadership within 6" of him. Oh, did I forget to mention he forces a -1 to melee hit modifier on all friendly Nurgle Daemon units within 6"? Yeah, you want this guy. The only thing stopping you from taking him in every game is he's 475 points, and he's a LoW.

Fortification

• Feculent Gnarlmaw: New Nurgle-themed scenery thing, which is treated as a terrain feature after it's set up. Costs 95 points but isn't a model. Nurgle Daemons within 7" can fall back or advance and still be able to shoot and/or charge in the same turn, any Legiones Daemonica Nurgle unit completely within 6" that is not a Vehicle or a Monster gets what amounts to light cover, Chaos Characters within 7" can re-roll any dice when summoning Nurgle Daemons. and at the beginning of each turn you have to roll a die for each non-Nurgle unit within 3", dealing to each unit a mortal wound on a 4+ and D3 mortal wounds on a 6 (so 0.67 mortals on average).
  • Plaguebearers are now specifically blessed by having one, as each command phase lets one pack of them within 6" roll 7d6, with each 6 resurrecting a Plaguebearer at max wounds. Considering that they're now quite tanky as hell, you now have a decent strongpoint to use as a reinforcement spot.
  • Obliterators are Nurgle Daemons. Deploy them next to a Gnarlmaw to get a unit with a 2+ armor save that ignores the first two points of AP. They may not have Disgustingly Resilient, but they're still tough bastards that can spew out a lot of much-needed dakka. Better yet, make them Iron Warriors, for rampant technovirus and the strat to reduce incoming AP by 1. Congrats, you have a 2+ vs lascannons!
  • If you intend to summon Nurgle Daemons, take a Fortification Network with one of these. It'll help you summon said Daemons and will also give the summoned Daemons the standard Nurgle detachment buffs once they're on the table.

Daemons of Slaanesh

The Daemons of Slaanesh dance across the battlefield with a grace and speed that defies belief. They can close the distance on the killing fields of a battlefield in a heartbeat, falling upon their surprised and panic-stricken prey with psychotic delight.

Fast and fragile and lots of attacks. If you need to kill large blobs of weaker and/or faster enemies the pretty god's minions will do it for you. They also have surprisingly high AP on their weapons, but Khorne is more consistent at fighting MEQs and tanks.

Warlord Traits

HERALD units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits.

1. Warp Mists: You can save up to 2 Warp Storm Points to exploit in future turns. If daemons had a stratagem to take extra warlord traits this might have been nice on a support herald to give a little more flexibility with the Warpstorm. Unfortunately, GW decided fuck them in particular, so this competes with the various killy traits.
2. Fatal Caress: Each time you make a to wound roll of 5+, the target can't take invulnerable saves against the attack. Situational, against foes in light armour that rely on their invulnerable save (looking at you clowns) this can put in work, but in the age of Armour of Contempt there's no guarantee it will make a difference.
3. The Murderdance: +d3 attacks if your warlord charges. The Masque gets this.
4. Quicksilver Duelist: Can reroll to hit anything in melee and can reroll to wound when in melee against a Character. Shalaxi has this.
5. Savage Hedonist: +1 Strength per turn, to a max of 3. Well, this can help make your heralds hit like monsters and your princes and keepers overwhelm other monsters...if you can keep them alive for long enough
6. Aura of Bewitchment: Enemies within 6" cannot perform objective actions. Syll’Esske has this.

Stratagems

• The Endless Dance (1 CP): When a Daemonettes unit fights, they can pile in or consolidate an additional 3" for extra coverage when hitting the enemy.
• Exquisite Gifts (1 CP): Another generic "extra relics" strat.
• Impossible Elegance (1 CP): When a non-Vehicle Character fights, they cannot be hit by anything higher than a 4+. Way to piss off all the elite swordsmen and monsters of the world, you just tanked their accuracy.
• Melodic Delirium (1 CP): Use at the start of the Psychic phase. One unit of Fiends gains a new aura that makes psykers within 12" take -2 to their casting checks.
• Race through the Warp (1 CP): During the Command phase, one Slaanesh Vehicle that isn't a soul grinder can immediately fly back into reserves to be thrown elsewhere. This is especially useful since your chariots have zero shooting to rely upon.
• Rapturous Standard (1CP): Pick one Slaanesh Icon unit during the fight phase. This entire unit can now re-roll to hit, which is incredibly cool to get and is now usable more than once!
• Razor-sharp Caress (1 CP): When a Daemonettes unit fights, a natural hit roll of 6 improves the AP of their weapons by 1.
• Thirst for Souls (1 CP): Ancient Doom for the other side. When one of your units fight an Aeldari unit, you can reroll hit and wound rolls against your favorite snacks.

Exalted Keeper of Secrets

As with things like Chapter Command, you no longer need to spend CP in order to upgrade one of your nameless Keepers into something bigger and hornier meaner. Instead, you can spend points and PL for that.

• Diaphanous Panoply: Ranged attacks take -1 to wound this cow-man. There's not much you can do to stop a lascannon from nailing them, so take what you can to make sure they can't make their mark.
• Epicurean of Agonies: Each natural 6 to hit scores another hit.
• Insatiable Onslaught: +2 to charge and advance rolls. You're already freakishly fast, so why not make it even easier to bumrush your enemies?

Relics

• The Forbidden Gem: Slaanesh models only. During each command phase, you can shut down all auras for one character within 12". While not as fun as last edition, this is infinitely more useful in the aura-stacking meta of 9E.
• The Mark of Excess: Slaanesh models only. Bearer gets +1 attack by default, and gets another +1 every time he kills a Character, Vehicle or a Monster.
• Silverstrike: Slaanesh models only. Upgrade a Witstealer to S+3 AP-3 D3 with a sinister trick: Enemies wounded by this sword take -1 to all hit and wound rolls. Not only is this potent, but it's now able to cripple enemies too.
• Soulstealer: Slaanesh models only. Replaces a Witstealer sword or Hellforged sword. A dangerous S+2 AP-3 D3 weapon. Each time a model is slain by this weapon, the bearer regains one lost wound to a max of 6 each turn. In addition, you auto-wound all Eldar. Useful for keeping a melee character alive, gives Eldar a reason to stay far away from you. Give this to your Keeper of Secrets or DPoS for an infantry killing machine that just won't die!
• Slothful Claws: Slaanesh Herald models only. One set of Ravaging Claws or Snapping Claws gains +1 Damage and anyone hurt by it cannot use auras for the rest of the turn. Take over the Forbidden Gem if you intend to keep this Keeper in melee, otherwise take the Gem instead.
• Whip of Agony: Slaanesh models only. Upgrade Living Whip or Lashes of Torment. This whip now becomes Assault 8 and will auto-wound on a 4+ if the target is not Vehicle or Titanic.

HQ

General

• Keeper of Secrets: With the release of the new plastic model the Keeper has gotten a new revised datasheet and 210 pts base cost. The new price includes one of three options: the living whip, ritual knife, or Sinistrous Hand. If you take the Shining Aegis, that adds +10 pts. An already frightfully speedy unit (who gets slower the more wounds it takes) its movement has increased to 14", and now has 16 wounds. Its base combat ability remains impressive as always, with its Snapping Claws becoming Malefic 4 with an absurdly high AP-4 D3 while the primary Witstealer Sword boosts combat with S+2 AP-3 D3 that makes those wounded by it suffer -1 to hit. The best part is you don't have to choose between the two; with the claws being Malefic, all your attacks default to the sword for a total of 10 (!) attacks at full wounds, and even at its lowest, you're still throwing around an impressive amount of attacks. Mesmerizing Aura penalizes enemy attacks in melee with -1 to hit, which gives it protection similar to the Bloodthirster's flat 4+/4+. Cast Symphony of Pain on the target of your charge for an additional -1 to hit. In combat wound them with Witstealer for an additional -1 to hit. Now characters are hitting on a 5+. Or alternately, take the free Soulstealer relic sword and recover previously lost wounds by killing enemy models, all of which stack with the Sinistrous Hand. Make this Keeper exalted with the Insatiable Onslaught trait and now you're charging 20+2d6" EVERY TURN. If you make the charge into a chaff unit, she'll kill 6 and recover a max of 6+d3 wounds. Soulstealer also auto-wounds all Eldar, making it into an evil blender with picky tastes.
  • As with the Lord of Change, the KoS can actually learn two powers on top of Smite, making for a potent buffing daemon as well. Grab Symphony of Pain and Hysterical Frenzy and you've got yourself the ideal blender at hand. Swap Symphony of Pain for Delightful Agonies and you've just made a pack of Daemonettes durable and much deadlier.
  • As this is a fancy multi-part kit, your keeper comes with new wargear options:

<tabs> <tab name="Living Whip"> 12" Assault 6 S6 AP-2 D2. It can no longer hit anything within engagement range, so its value solely relies upon how much you need that shooting. Luckily, that 2+ BS doesn't decay. </tab> <tab name="Shining Aegis"> Grants a 4+/4+ save, which is very handy for a unit that's likely to attract chargers and incapable of hiding behind anything. Nothing quite tops a Daemon Prince hiding behind the Daemonettes though. </tab> <tab name="Ritual Knife"> At the end of the fight phase, pick one enemy model about 3" away that lost wounds by this model and roll D6: On a 2+, that enemy suffers D3 MW. Made specifically to screw over monsters and heroes with annoying damage mitigation. </tab> <tab name="Sinustrous Hand"> If the user kills any non-vehicle in the Fight phase, it heals D3 wounds. What, was the Soulstealer sword not enough healing for you? </tab> </tabs>

• Herald of Slaanesh:

<tabs> <tab name="Tranceweaver"> The newly named generic Herald of Slaanesh on foot, oddly renamed from Viceleader to Tranceweaver. Sadly, the official miniature is still resin only but easily converted from various Slaanesh plastic kits. She's fairly speedy at 9" movement and is a Psyker who can cast/deny 1 power, knowing Smite and one power from the Soulstain discipline. Alongside her herald-based re-roll 1s to wound aura, the special aura gives Core Daemonettes who roll a natual 6 to wound a bump in AP, which is...not quite as necessary considering that they get AP-2 on those claws, but it does negate Armour of Contempt. </tab> <tab name="Tormentbringer on Seeker Chariot"> Tired of having very fragile Heralds? Have this fairly fragile one. With the Steed of Slaanesh going Legends, these are now your budget mounted heralds. The regular Seeker Chariot variant is now 100 pts, and like all Slaanesh units, it is a bit of a glass hammer. 12" move, T5, a 5+/4+ Save, and 7 wounds to let it hide behind screens gives you a mobile leader, but it will crumble if it gets focused down, -1 to hit from ranged attacks be damned. There is some potential for play if you give the Herald the Slothful Claw relic. Otherwise, you are looking at six S4 AP-2 D2 attacks and four Malefic attacks at S4 with no AP from the steeds pulling the thing. If you manage to charge, you can cause mortal wounds to enemy models within 1" on a roll of a 5+ on 4d6 and gain two extra attacks, which just reinforces the units roll as a chafe cleaner. Charge into a screening unit, clear it out, and hopefully your Keeper of Secrets will have a clear path to something important. All in all, you are paying some extra points for extra toughness and wounds, a few extra attacks, a small chance of mortal wounds when charging, and, most importantly, a bigger base, which means his aura of +1S is bigger. It's probably the best Herald, but it's hard to maneuver, so be careful. </tab> <tab name="Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot"> Sadly inferior to the smaller chariot. On paper, it starts off nice. With 16 attacks in melee (8 from the Herald's ravaging claws and 8 from the mounts) it would seem to be a strong melee threat. Furthermore, the larger base size means more Daemonettes will be benefitting from your auras. Then you run into the problem of getting it to your opponent's battle line. Having 12 wounds looks nice, but that means you can't hide behind a blob, and if you lose half your wounds (and it will be soon enough, trust me) it becomes slower and worthless in melee because of degrading stats. To seal the deal, it costs 20 points more than a normal Herald on Seeker Chariot with no other benefits. Avoid this. </tab> <tab name="Tormentbringer on Hellflayer"> For 10 pts more than a Herald on a Seeker Chariot, you get a unit with all the Seeker Chariot's strengths while being slightly better at tackling MEQs. The Hellflayer replace the Scything Impact rule with a unique weapon: the Bladed Axle. This is stronger than the rest of the vehicle's attacks at S+2 AP-2 D2, but it's helf back by being Malefic 4, so you can't rely on it to kill a whole combat squad of marines. However, charging gives this axle Malefic 6, making said wipes come more easily. </tab> <tab name="Herald of Slaanesh on Steed of Slaanesh (Legends)"> Sadly consigned to oblivion in Legends. A basic Herald mounted on a Steed which grants 14" movement, re-rolling charges, and +1 wound for 85 pts. Taken in a Slaanesh Daemon detachment she has a 6" aura which allows units to advance and charge in the same turn. The Legends update finally gives her Ravaging Claws with S: user/AP-1/Dmg 2/Counts as AP-4 on a wound roll of 6. Which can now be swapped out for the Slothful Claw relic.

• • Even less useful now, as the Herald got none of the updates from the codex. It still relies on (irrelevant) Quicksilver Swiftness and doesn't get any of the new Daemon rules. It also gains nothing from any of the other buff auras due to keyword fuckery.

</tab> <tab name="Contorted Epitome"> "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose ass is going to be fucked up worst of all?" 2 heralds riding on a magic mirror that acts as a psychic turret, casting and denying two powers per turn. Taken along with an Infernal Enrapturess and Fiends it can provide excellent Psychic Defense. It also has a 2+ save against mortal wounds that protect it further from enemy psykers, and enemy units including fliers that get within 6" of it need to roll a Leadership score on a 3d6 or else have their movement cut in half and take -1 to hit anything, making them effectively sitting ducks against the oncoming tide of Fiends and Daemonettes. Be sure to take Phantasmagoria for its 12" penalty aura of -1 LD as one of its powers. There is only ~37.5% chance to roll lower than LD10 on 3D6 and pass the test. Debuffing LD even by -1 reduces the chance of an LD7-8 unit escaping to ~26%, and if you recall Daemonic's 6" Leadership debuff aura, you'll realize just how devastating this can be. Anything LD7 would effectively be stuck as they only have a ~0.46% chance to escape.

• • Don't count this out as a beatstick! Aside from the eight attacks made by the Heralds' claws, you also get a Malefic 3 attack from the various unpleasantness of the portal, giving S+1 AP-2 D3 attacks to help take down Primaris with ease.
  • But the Contorted Epitomes isn't just an extra killy Daemon Prince it's also an amazing Psyker. What really makes the Mirror powerful is its synergy with the Infernal Enrapturess and Fiends. Because of its speed, the Epitome is best taken alongside chariots, fiends or seekers. If you're running swarms of Daemonettes, take Syll'Esske if you have the extra points.

</tab> <tab name="Infernal Enrapturess"> Rather than frontline combat, the Infernal Enrapturess provides powerful sonic fire support with her Heartstring Lyre, a dual profile gun that's either an Assault 6 18” S4 AP-1 D1 assault rifle or an Assault 1 24” S8 AP-3 D3+d3 shotgun. But wait, there's more! Her Discordant Disruption ability causes enemy psykers within 24” to suffer Perils of the Warp on any doubles. While not as powerful with the loss of the Fiends' constant anti-psyker power, it remains a deterrent against careless psykers. Finally, she has the Harmonic Alignment special rule, allowing you to resurrect a single slain Slaanesh Core model or d3 Daemonettes within 6" to top off the ranks.

• Perhaps you're not surprised, but this also has the Warp Locus keyword, making it great for supporting deep-striking daemons.

</tab> </tabs>

Named

• Shalaxi Helbane: TACTICAL WHORE, INCOMING! Slaanesh is at long last getting a named Greater Daemon (that isn't the super powerful uber number one overpriced)! Her Soulpiercer spear is a ridiculous Sx2 AP-4 Dd6, and if it scores a 6 to wound against a character it always does the full 6 damage. She also wears the Cloak of Constriction, which imposes a -1 to wound against enemy melee attacks, which nicely complements the hit penalty she shares with the standard Keeper of Secrets. Delicate Precision allows her to re-roll wound rolls of 1. While Monarch of the Hunt allows her to move 6" during a pile in or heroic intervention as long as it is towards the nearest enemy character. If you make her your warlord she must take Quicksilver Duelist which allows her to re-roll to hit and wound enemy characters. Finally, she can take either a Living Whip: 6"/S6/AP-2/Damage 2/Assault 6/attacks from this weapon can target enemy units within 1"; for 240 pts. Or a shining Aegis: roll D6 whenever the model takes a wound on a 6+ the wound is ignored; mortal wounds are ignored on a 5+; for 250 pts. Since she has Delightful Agonies as a psychic power skip the shield and take the living whip instead. Counterpoint - the shield is viable as there are a lot of other excellent Slaanesh powers that make you a beast in cc (looking at you hysterical / symphony). Plus the shield looks dope as hell.
• The Masque of Slaanesh: Due to the changes in how characters work, the Masque is finally granted the protection of hiding behind a blob of Daemonettes. As well as gains a stunning new plastic model. She can advance or fall back and charge in the same turn, and she forces a -1 to-hit penalty against enemy attacks that target a Daemonette unit within 6" of her in the fight phase (and she has the DAEMONETTE keyword, so that applies to her too). Also, if she's locked in combat with something, you add 1 to hit against the target unit. Her Ravaging Claws are now S: user and AP-2, with DMG 2. Her cost increased in MFM21 going from 78 pts to 85 pts. If your running Mono-Slaanesh, you should always be taking her. She combo very well with Syll'Esske in a massive swarm of Daemonettes.
• Syll’Esske: 200 points and so 15 more than a fully kitted out DP, let's see what they get. For starters, as a Prince and Herald mix, they get the aura abilities of both, rerolls of 1 to hit and wounds for core is pretty nice. Statline wise, Syll'Esske is also a mix of Herald and DP (on foot, but with the +2 movement baked in, moving them to 10"). Syll'Esske's shooting is based off of the herald, who has a 3+, Strength too. Everything else except Leadership is off of a DP except for leadership. Which is neither 8 or 10, and instead a 9? Okay. Deadly Symbiosis is gone, instead opting for turning the Scouring Whip into a Malefic 6 weapon. The Axe of Dominion is still the same, but Syll'Esske loosing the +1 Strength Aura turns this into a worse Hellforged Sword at maxing at S:7 vs 8. Overall it seems like Syll'Esske has seen an overall nerf in 9th edition. In fact the only buff they've done is let them cast and know an extra power, but not deny an extra one. I guess the best place for Syll'Esske is to save yourself an HQ slot and pal them up with a few units of daemonettes to get the most out of their auras.

Troops

• Daemonettes: The Daemonettes were the best daemon at ripping up armor until 8th came along and made Bloodletters more reliable at it. Their Piercing claws are AP-2, compared to the Bloodletters and their Hellblades which have a higher strength with AP-3 and D2 to rip apart marines in a single swing. This isn't to say these girls aren't good at the job, but they have been overshadowed, especially now that MEQs tend to have multiple wounds. They still have more attacks (and at 10 models and 4 attacks per model, you're rolling for over 40 attacks) and an absurd 10" movement which would make them great... if only they weren't so frail! Instead, use them like you would Genestealers - throw something else at TEQs while you use these girls to overwhelm some camping shits in cover. Daemonettes rely on getting into combat fast so be sure you get them stuck in quickly, especially if you deep-strike them.

Elites

• Fiends of Slaanesh: S5/T4/W4 with four AP-4 D2 claw swipes and a Malefic 1 tail with AP-3 D3. With 4 attacks a turn, they are good at fighting multi-wounds units... but that's not their main role. Their role is more to frustrate as their Soporific Musk makes enemies engaged with them take -1 to hit, absolutely infuriating and will keep them tied up for a surprise reaming from a Keeper or Daemonette pack. They sadly lost the ability to tie up enemies by making them unable to fall back, but you're so fast that you can immediately rush them regardless.

Fast Attack

• Seekers of Slaanesh: They've lost their innate Advance and Charge rules in the new codex but they still have access to the rules with the new loci ability. Instead, their Unholy Speed rule now allows them to re-roll charges. Holy smokes, that's an impressive threat range of 32" (33" with an instrument of chaos, since you still can't declare charges outside 12"), and an average of 26,5". With 2 wounds each, their role is clear; you can reliably charge turn one and engage stuff you don't want to shoot, and have just the right stuff not to get completely demolished by overwatch and resist a turn or two. They have the same attacks of the Daemonettes plus 2 attacks from the mount, but don't expect them to kill too much, especially without a Herald to back them (you can have one, but since Seekers will run as close as the enemy as possible, it's risky. If the Seekers get destroyed, you will most probably lose the expensive Herald too). In general, if you play mono-Slaanesh you want a big unit of those girls.
• Hellflayer: It's nice to see that the Hellflayer finally has a role on its own, instead of being "just a Seeker Chariot with an extra gimmick". Hellflayers don't have the Scything Impact of the chariot, but instead, have D6 extra attacks at Sx2 AP-1 D2. High strength attacks are rare in this army, so having another source such as this is welcome. Laugh at the image of an Hellflayer destroying tanks with their blades. They gained +1 attack in the new codex but nothing else.

Heavy Support

• Seeker Chariot: Cheap and flexible. Seeker Chariots have both the piercing claws and the lashes of torment (which can hit in and out of combats), and their Scything Impact ability gives you a slim chance of dealing mortal wounds. They don't really have a role on their own but are always a nice addition. They gained +1 attack in the new codex but nothing else.
• Exalted Seeker Chariot: Just like the Hellflayers got some different stuff, now even this is not "just a Seeker Chariot but bigger" anymore. Unlike the Seeker Chariot, this thing have scalable wounds and start with a respectable WS 2+ and 8 attacks, only to lose them when it gets wounded. It no longer caused mortal wounds on 5+ like in the Index, but rather a 6+ like the regular chariot. So it's more expensive than the Seeker Chariot and potentially far stronger. On full and half wounds, it's better in every situation. Causing more wounds than a regular chariot. Once it gets to it's final wound bracket, the regular chariot is better; but by this point, it's already taken 1.5x the wounds of a regular chariot and is still on the table. Sitting at 80 pts with MFM21; basically take this one if you can spare the 20 points more.

Lord of War

• Zarakynel: With our great and glorious overlords at GW writing the imperial armour books Zarakynel has seen a rework, and will still violate all your orifices with joyous abandon. They lost their 3++ in combat for a simple 5+/4+ like any other keeper, but instead gained a -1 to hit from all sources, which is better as the move has been towards giving all units lower ballistic skills unless they're the bees knees. At 18 wounds they're still exposed to ranged firepower, but at movement 14" and having extra wounds means that you can run from cover to and not care, although being a Monster will make cover a bit harder to find.
  • Melee is much the same (Zarakynel falls into the category of units that still get to hit on a 2+), just with the... Delicious? improvements. Firstly, the claw attack which you never had a reason to use before, that gets 4 extra attacks with it each fight phase, and at S7 AP-3 D3 its going to do something to those unfortunate enough to be hit. Then there's the famous Souleater Blade. S9 AP-3 D3 means that Zaraknyel can easily chop through marines with ease, Armour of Contempt be damned. But that is not why you choose the blade. You choose it because on a 4+ to wound you deal 3 mortal wounds instead of normal damage, letting you chop through any manner of damage. This is a big deal. In 9th edition mortal wounds are much harder to come by, and on the whole all units have gained more wounds. So having a weapon which will deal, on average, 7.5 Mortal Wounds each time it fights, against all targets, is a big deal. Then there's the earlier reference to delicious. If Zarakynel kills ANY non-vehicle MODEL in the fight phase they regain D6 previously lost wounds. Against pretty much anything short of demon primarchs, it is simply impossible to kill this unit.
  • For further context, Zarakynel costs 450 points. Guilliman costs around 400 points, and is much slower, doesn't hit as hard, and comes wrapped with a delicious snack of meatshields. Overall, Zarakynel costs roughly the same as before, but is now balanced for their cost, and will make a joyous addition to any army of debauchery.

Fortification

Daemons of Tzeentch

The Daemons of Tzeentch surround themselves in layer upon layer of mind-traps and illusions, each mirage shifting into the next. The result utterly confounds those nearby that would do the Daemons harm, and means their attacks are often ineffective.

Tzeentch is the shooting department in the codex while the other gods often footslog to the enemy to kill him in melee. They also specialize in the Psychic phase, with many casting attempts, Denies, and abilities to get them. That doesn't mean that the bird nutters don't have a few okay melee units or tricks and with a widespread 3+ save at range they can be hard to kill as well. The problem is that they are utterly exposed in melee, protected by only the weakest saves.

Warlord Traits

HERALD units can only choose from the first 3 warlord traits.

1. Born of Sorcery: +1 to all psychic tests your warlord takes in each psychic phase. This will stack with other modifiers, so it's great for making the psychic phase better and your Smite hit harder.
2. Incorporeal Form: Enemies take -1 to wound this warlord. Good against everything, you want this on your Lord of Change. Bolters wound you on 6s, AV wounding you on 4s, and even the really big stuff can only ever would on 3s. Strictly better than T8. Your heralds are too squishy to make much use of this; if they're getting hit, they're probably dead anyways. The Blue Scribes take this.
3. Fractal Mind: Can cast one per turn while also performing a psychic action. Skip unless the objective demands it.
4. Warp Tethers: Your warlord gains Kairos' Warp Locus keyword and a 12" bubble that lets your units re-roll morale checks, a necessity considering how easily they can break. The Changeling takes this.
5. Lorekeeper of Tzeentch: +6" to the any Pandaemoniac power manifested. Sadly won't work on Smite anymore and won't expand the range of any further ranges.
6. Tyrant of the Warp: This warlord never suffers perils, and a nice 5+++ FNP vs MWs on top of that. Naturally, Kairos takes this with his insane amounts of casting.

Stratagems

• Blasted Standard (1CP): Used during the psychic phase. Any time a psyker within 12" of a Tzeentch Icon unit rolls a 9+ to cast a power, the nearest enemy within 24" of the icon takes a surprise MW.
• Burning Warpfire (1/2 CP): Select a Flamers unit during the shooting phase. When using the Flamers' flickering flames or the pink fire, they always deal 9 hits on a unit of 11+ models. As your premier horde-clearers, you can expect no less.
  • Costs 2 CP is used on a unit of 4+ models.
• Magical Boon (1 CP): One Tzeentch Psyker can cast an additional psychic power this turn.
• Minions of Magic (1 CP): A Horrors Core unit improves the AP of their attacks to -3 on a natural 6 to hit. Gives a nice extra punch to your firing lines.
• Relics of the Impossible Fortress (1 CP): Another generic 'extra relics' strat.
• Warp Jaws (1 CP): In the Fight phase, Screamers, Burning Chariots and Fateskimmers add +1 to wound when targeting Monsters or Vehicles with their mount bites. It's not like you can expect much else from one bite, but it's at least nice to see them try.
• Warp Portal (1/2 CP): Use in your Movement phase. Select one Tzeentch Character and remove them from the battlefield. Then, set it back up anywhere that is more than 9" from any enemy models. This counts as its movement. Costs 2 CP on any characters that aren't Heralds.
  • With how squishy your heroes have become in melee, this has become an escape button more than a surprise assassination tool.

Exalted Lord of Change

As with abilities like Chapter Command, you don't need to spend CP to make a super-daemon out of a generic Lord of Change, instead it costs points and PL.

• Architect of Deception: Enemies take -1 to hit this birdman at range. While very costly, there's nothing more reliable than having the enemy consistently miss out on hitting the broad side of a bird with a lascannon.
• Master Mutator: At the end of the psychic phase, any enemies already harmed by the birdman's powers take an additional MW on a 2+.
• Nexus of Fate: For each turn the birdman is on the board, you gain a CP on a 4+. The cheapest but also the one with the broadest influence if you consider all the strats available.

Relics

• The Endless Grimoire: Tzeentch Psyker only. Adds an additional step between knowing more powers, as now the bearer must waste a turn to learn an additional power. On the plus side, this can let you learn multiple powers, but there's no need to use this more than once.
• Everstave: Tzeentch Psyker only. If this model rolls a 9 to cast Smite or any other witchfire power, the power can't be blocked.
• The Impossible Robe: Tzeentch models only. Once per phase, you can negate the damage of an attack that gets past your save. Beware any attempts to cheese that out with a line of lasguns before firing the lascannon, as you get to choose which wound to ignore.
• Warpfire Blade: One melee weapon of your choosing becomes a relic, adding +1 to its damage and making any natural 6s to wound deal a mortal wound on top of everything else. None of your characters want to be in melee though, so why are you taking this?
• Ruination: Replaces a rod of sorcery, becoming a 12" Assault 3d3 weapon with S6 AP-2 D3. More rapid-fire mayhem than focused-fire destruction.
• Soul-Eater Stave: Tzeentch Psyker only. Whenever an enemy is killed by the bearer's psychic power, they can regain a wound on a 4+ to a max of 6. Nice to make your Lord of Change super tanky. The Impossible Robe is probably better than this, since healing wounds is worse than just not taking damage in the first place.

HQ

• Lord of Change: Your big spell caster lord. A slightly cheaper, less powerful Kairos. Casts 3 just like Kairos, but only 2 denies. These casts get a +2 bonus that degrades with wounds. Has the Greater Daemon aura that lets Core Tzeentch units reroll 1s to hit. Super durable with the -1 to wound exalted trait, -1 to hit warlord trait, and the Impossible Robe to negate one shot (save it for meltas and railguns).
  • While its staff gives a surprisingly decent melee statline at S6 AP-2 D3, you can also equip with either a second staff for some non-Psychic shooting or a sword that's a touch deadlier than the staff but has Malefic 3. However, you don't want to be charging this guy into melee against anything with teeth. T7 and a 5++ won't take you very far against something like Terminators or Chosen.
• Herald of Tzeentch: The Heralds very much embody the fragile wizard trope. Each a flimsy S3 T4 with a puny AP-1 dagger (which you can and probably should replace for a staff for much stronger shooting that can demolish marines) and a 6++/3++ save, but they know two powers and can cast twice and deny once. Like all heralds, they gain a 6" aura that lets Core Tzeentch units reroll 1s to wound, with a second bubble that lets Horrors auto-wound on a nat 6 to hit.

<tabs> <tab name="Changecaster"> Your basic budget footslogger Herald. </tab> <tab name="Fluxmaster"> Disc Herald. Same as the normal one, but with Fly, 12" movement, and an additional (weak but Malefic) attack for 60 more points. Though the new auras aren't quite as powerful for accompanying Screamers, Flamers absolutely will be throwing out enough shots to make some crits cash in. </tab> <tab name="Fateskimmer"> Chariot Herald. A Herald again BUT now with almost two times the wounds AND +2T while still being a character? Check! And the chariot's 6 Malefic S6 AP-3 D2 Attacks? Check! And 14" movement? Check! Also Fly? Check! He can buy a retinue of Horrors for a +1 to casting checks. A very solid HQ, relatively durable and killy (if he manages to hit something), while being quite the bargain at 140 points. </tab> </tabs>

Named

• The Changeling: Went from a nice fluffy idea with no real purpose to fuckawesome. Now he can copy the stats (not wounds!) of an infantry model within 1" near him, even the attacks, but most importantly he can copy one weapon profile too, but only from enemy Infantry, so no stealing from Dreadknights. It now can take on a lot of characters, beat them with their own weapons and can actually come out on top of them with its 4++ save. Also, it grants a 6+ FnP for Tzeentch daemons in 9". Oh and he is a psyker and can cast one spell as a cherry on top. No longer the auto-include the index made him, but still useful.
  • With Formless Horror timing is critical. The ability activates "when the changeling fights" so be careful about getting preemptively struck while in your original vulnerable form before you get the opportunity to.. you know? fight. This means to look out for opponents who charge you with a good chance of taking you outright. The 1" limit is also something to be careful of as well because unless you can pile in and move across to that big bad dude on the other side of the melee, you might end up being surrounded by opponents who cannot grant you huge buffs. Leaving you just as vulnerable as when you started, then when he gets the opportunity to pile back, you could be in trouble. To avoid this he can sit behind a unit of something (like horrors) and perform a heroic intervention when they get charged. He will be safe from the charging unit as they can only attack their charge target and he can fall back on your turn so they cannot melee him back.
• The Blue Scribes: S3 T4 W5 FUN anti-psyker, They gift enemy psyker -1 to cast and permanently remove (opponents) failed psychic powers within 12" (Ouch!). They also autocast a mostly-random Tzeentch power every turn, and if they successfully removed an opponent's power in the last psychic phase they also autocast Smite. As they are not actually psykers themselves, they cannot deny opponent powers- but at the same time, their own powers can't be denied or trigger Perils, as no psychic test is made for them. Just remember to have them cast first, so they don't randomly roll something you've already used. Actually, the FAQ says that's not an issue. This makes them a viable choice, but you need to play them precisely to always position yourself to be able to use all of the powers (preferred range - within 12-18" of the enemy and within 18" of a unit you would want to buff with flickering flames or boon of change (i.e. flamers or pink horrors, alternatively even obliterators, daemon engines or tzaangor enlightened).
• Kairos Fateweaver: He knows Smite and all Tzeentch powers, has a casting bonus equal to the current turn (+5 to cast in the last turn!) and can choose one opponent's strategem to cost an extra CP for the rest of the game. Expensive and decent in melee but more importantly he can cast 3 powers and knows EVERY TZEENTCH POWER. Like the rest of the "We were really powerful psykers once. No, REALLY!" characters, the chicken king can deny three times.
  • A few things to keep in mind when comparing Kairos to a regular LoC. Kairos will hit with higher strength in close combat, hitting at S8 compared to the LoC's S6/7 making him better in fights against VEQ's, but he can't take Relics, he can't take Exalted Traits, and the Warlord Trait he is forced into is fairly mediocre (can't perils, 5+++ vs mortal wounds). Since the codex limits you to one warlord trait, you'll probably want him if you're tooling up one generic Greater Daemon but still want a LoC.

Troops

• Horrors of Tzeentch Greatly changed from their previous incarnations, when a Horror is killed it splits into smaller horrors and also stays part of the same unit. Though you no longer have to pay for this division, you do now have to roll a 4+ on each death for it to succeed - needless to say, the moment you get charged, you'll absolutely be praying that you make those splits because that 6++ save and T3 will see them torn to bits. The unit is now automatically locked to a default size of 10, but on average that means a Pink unit turns into 10 Blues and then 5 Brimstones, or 25 bodies total, which is nothing to simply pass up (starting at 10 Blues simply proceeds, on average, to 5 Brimstones). They have 2 18" ranged attacks but have sadly lost their traditional ability to become budget psykers.
  • All horrors are M6 T3 W1 DSv 6++/X++. They are armed with Coruscating Flames: 18" Assault 2 S+1 AP-1 D1.
  • Pink Horrors: Have gotten even more expensive at 14ppm. Shoots at S4 and BS3+, and having at least 1 in the unit is necessary for performing actions and retaining Objective Secured. DSv 6++/3++. Considering you get ten pink horrors in the regular kit, 10 blue horrors (you need 20 in theory), and 10 brimstone horrors (also 20), you have to buy 2 kits in case you roll hot. At current retail price, that would cost approximately $114 and $228 for the brimstones/blue horrors, making the total about $342 + tax. Whilst very fluffy, it is impractical for anything outside of an apocalypse game as they will definitely not perform up to their point costs and losing a single pink horror in the morale phase would be devastating.
  • Blue Horrors Like a Pink Horror with -1 BS/WS/S/Ld/ranged DSv (-2 Ld relative to the Iridescent leader), but also does not really cost anything either, at 7ppm. Only given a 6++/4++ now, if you wanted a Tzeentch tarpit you have no better option. Not only do these units have no ability to perform actions, but they also lack ObSec so they're singularly dedicated to being tarpits.
  • Brimstone Horrors No longer available as their own unit, instead only appearing on a successful split roll for a Blue Horror. Not only are they subject to all the handicaps the Blues get, they are also even weaker now at a pathetic S1 Ld4 DSv 6++/5++, so you can't even expect them to fight back, much less shoot.

Elites

• Flamers: For now, arguably the best unit in all of 40k; with a 12" movement and shooting D6+3 S5 AP-2 torrent of magical fire (the codex improving the Flamers into being beefed-up Heavy Flamers), but their melee prowess has become laughable as their save has degraded to a 6++ in melee while their shooting save was improved to a hefty 3++. The Q1 2023 Dataslate decided to nerf them further by making their attacks need to hit normally, reducing their damage output.
  • Note: their weapon strength is S:user, which means a nearby Exalted Flamer will give them S6. A squad of 5 5D6+15 S6 shots, and you can take 3 squads. These are going to eat most infantry for breakfast. With a herald nearby for reroll 1s to wound and +1 to wound psychic power, these will delete everything your opponent has.
• Exalted Flamer: A flamer with a brighter flame for slightly less than the cost of a unit of flamers. However, you don't take these guys for the 2d6 s5 ap-2 attacks, you take them for the 3 S9 Ap-4 D3 Damage mini lascannon shots at 18" range hitting on a 3+. Also, the single model is a character. Take these guys behind those units of brimstones to prevent them from being shot.

Fast Attack

• Screamers of Tzeentch: They're still fast Flyers and are monster/tank hunters. When flying over a unit, Roll a D6 for each passing Screamer and on a 6 the unit suffers a mortal wound. On top of each making 3 Lamprey bites that are S+2 (S6 or 7) AP-3 and do 2 Damage. They have little defense (T4, W2, InvSv 4++). They are pretty good once again. A unit of 6 (158 pts.) Could easily rip apart most infantry and hunt tanks with their Warp Jaws Stratagem.
  • They are one of the few Tzeentch units that want to be in melee. This makes them natural targets for Boon of Change.
  • The codex is giving them the ability to redeploy whenever they advance, allowing them to bounce anywhere across the board to harass anything you need.

Heavy Support

• Burning Chariot Same as an Exalted Flamer but has double the wounds, a 14" move, worse Weapon Skill, is toughness 6 instead of 5, has a 4+/4+ instead of 6+/3+, and is driven by a pair of Screamers which get to make an additional six hits in combat (at S6 AP-3 D2), all for 110 points. The big trade-off is that it loses the Character Keyword which is one of the best things about the Exalted Flamer which could be hidden behind a wall of horrors and kill tanks. The extra resilience helps to combat the loss, but a couple of lucky lascannon shots will bring it down quickly. Note, it will take on average 10.3 lascannon shots with BS3+ and 13.7 w/BS4+ to bring it down. So it's not as good as the Exalted flamer with the loss of Character status, but it is a lot tougher than it first appears and makes a half-decent distraction carnifex rushing up the boarding shooting stuff.

Lord of War

• Aetaos'Rau'Keres: Good luck trying to pronounce that name! Like Fateweaver, he has an innate +2 to his casting rolls (that gets reduced the more wounds he loses) and knows 3 Pandaemoniac powers and Smite and can deny 3 powers, too. Unlike Fateweaver, this guy gets WS/BS 2+, and T8 W27. Shooting-wise his Staff of Cataclysm is Assault 2d6 S9 AP-4 D3 and can be fired within 1" of enemy models and into melee. Also, if you slay the final model of a unit with 10 or more models (highly likely), you immediately get 3 Flamers of Tzeentch, provided you have the reinforcement points on hand. To further contrast his might with Fateweaver, his smite has 48 inches instead of 36, and if anyone dares to shoot him with a psychic power and succeed on it, roll a d6, and on a 5+ he ignores the power that was cast on him and the caster suffers a mortal wound. Just wait for your opponent to think that they would rather try their luck in melee with him instead of shooting, he's a monster there too. Be careful though, if an enemy Lord of Change or Daemon Prince comes within 12" of him, roll a die and on a 4+ he must attack that unit with his Staff, ignoring the rules for targeting models (so he can shoot them if they're a character and not the closest unit, or if he can't see them). Hilariously, he has the lord of change keyword so he will always hit himself on a 4+, and the staff is actually pretty dangerous against him.
  • Chapter Approved Alternate Take: This guy's 600 points in Chapter Approved. This guy's a bit expensive for what he brings to the table now. Pass.

Neutral

Here are the daemons any god can take.

HQ

• Daemon Prince of Chaos: Your classic murder-machine, coming in at S7 T6 with 8 wounds and a 5+/4+ Daemonic Invuln. Even better, they don't suffer from degrading statlines like the Greater Daemons do. They can also buy wings and another weapon to make them even deadlier. Double Talons have become the cheap horde option, though AP-1 means that Armour of Contempt can ruin their turn. If picking between the sword and axe, pick the sword if you're intending to go against a lot of heavy armor units and pick the axe if you intend to target high toughness monsters. DPs are a very good all-round unit in a codex with otherwise specialized units and can compensate the respective god's weakness.
  • They must choose allegiance to a Chaos god and gains a special perk for it, considering how the big four no longer have any overarching rules for their daemons. They all can become psykers except for Khorne-aligned princes, which gain +1 Strength and +2 Attacks to compensate for their lack of psychic potential. Tzeentch in particular prefers them to be psykers as princes can now cast twice in a turn and know an additional power from their discipline. Nurgle and Slaanesh in the meanwhile just give +1 Toughness and +2" Movement respectively.
  • Note: Being a large beast with 8 wounds, they have a very important role in your army--forcing your opponents to choose between shooting your big scary Greater Daemon who is scary by itself but has a useful but slightly meh aura, or trying to shoot down your hordes of Lesser Daemons that are protecting a monster that is almost as scary. Bonus points if you can also have a Herald in there too.
  • Important Note: Fly again allows models to move across enemy models while charging. However, flyers can no longer block movement, and a demon prince that flies into ruins in the movement phase can still be stuck there in the charge phase. It also makes them a visible target for the multitude of strats that do target flying enemies.

• Be'lakor: The Dark Master has taken a price hike, but he still has his good points. He is now effectively a greater daemon masquerading as a daemon prince, complete with that degenerating statline and the Supreme Commander keyword. All attacks against him take a -1 to hit and wound penalty and cannot reroll failed hits. Finally, any ranged attacks that actually wound him have their damage reduced by 1. He knows 2 psychic powers from his own super-special discipline, and can cast 2 powers compared to the DP's one. He lost access to the whole of Malefic which is really sad, but he's an excellent psychic nuker that can buff Daemons of any allegiance.
  • As Be'lakor all four gods' keywords, allowing him to nominally be usable in any mono daemons detachment and keep the rest of the detachment buffs. That said, he's not likely to benefit from any of it and he forbids using any other daemon princes. In fact, he hates other daemon princes so much that he can re-roll to hit and wound another daemon prince he fights.
  • As of the new codex, he now has his own unique WT. All it does is let a single Core unit within 9" re-roll to hit, which is a bit of a step up from Charadon since this is no longer exclusively tied to just his super-special fanclub.
  • Be'lakor's Blade of Shadows has been tweaked to have two different attack modes. Sweeping Strikes is the horde-buster, acting like a Power Sword which makes two hit rolls per attack. Piercing Strike is what you take when you need something dead RIGHT NOW, with S+4 AP-4 D3+d3 and the ability to outright negate invulnerable saves.

Fast Attack

• Chaos Furies Furies are no longer in the codex. Weep for them, for this loss is particularly confusing seeing that they recently got new models.

Heavy Support

• Soul Grinder Your heavy fire support platypus. Heavy because it comes with 16 wounds and a 5+/4+ save plus it can be whatever mark you want (e.g. Nurgle for that +1 Toughness or Tzeentch for 4+/4+ save against all those nasty heavy weapons out there). Fire Support because it gets you two 36+” high strength okay-AP weapons. With a move of 8" it can keep up with other more vulnerable stuff and draw some fire while returning some, with Slaaneshi grinders becoming more like skittering death machines. Moving into 9th may have given the Soul Grinder a small boon, all for being a vehicle. As it stands, it ignores the heavy rule, so the SG may have become a viable battering ram at range and melee for Daemon armies, especially given its propensity not really caring about a degrading BS. It still doesn't shoot good, but now it's not as bad as it was.
  • The new Codex has given you a reason to stick with the warp sword over the warp claw. The claw now gives you Malefic 4 at S8 AP-2 D2 while the sword's Malefic 2 with S8 AP-3 D3+d3, meaning the claw has more value against crowds while the sword's for popping tanks. However, Malefic also means that you can only make a set number of attacks. For the rest of the fight phase, you're stuck with the iron claw, a power fist-like weapon let down by its swingy d6 damage. Fortunately, you have five swings with it, and going to Khorne gives another two attacks to go ham with.
• Giant Chaos Spawn^{Legends,Forge World}: Got some buffs from Warhammer Legends: S/T6, degenerating BS, an 8+D6 move to start and churning claws and fangs hitting with AP-2 and dealing 2 damage apiece. The GCS retains its 6+d6 attacks to start, 4+ and 5++ saves from the last time. The big reworking is the special rules now that most of the stats are no longer randomized. You get a similar mutated beyond reason rule to regular gribbly beasts getting either AP-4 attacks, +6 attacks (as opposed to +D6) or re-rolling to-wound rolls at the whim of a d3 at the start of the fight phase. Additionally, the GCS causes -1 Ld to all models in engagement, not just enemies... eep! At 150 pts. a model, the changes to stats are nice but they no longer regain wounds, which makes them a bit more frail. You can summon them to save them from being shot to ribbons, though their PL went up from 5 to 7 - still doable, but the next one is arguably a bit better and costs 10 pts. less.
• Spined Chaos Beast^{Legends,Forge World}: The other generic Forgeworld HS beasty kindly buffed by Warhammer Legends: Forgeworld. Retains its S/T of 7 and 6 respectively from previous editions along with its 5++ while gaining 12 wounds in the process and a 4+ save. The beast starts with M10, WS3+ and a whopping 8 attacks. Mercifully, WS no longer degenerates and the volume of attacks paired with the damage output of a beast is rather staggering. If the degenerating stats still irks you, you can summon it even more reliably at PL8. It also has to be aligned with one of the gods, gaining that god's deamon rule, so this time, the Nurgle beast isn't terminally useless and can absorb mortal wounds. And then it gets three new weapons:
  • Jagged Claws - your standard attack, for ripping apart things, dealing 2 damage apiece at with an improved -2 AP and you get two bonus attacks for using this one. Warhammer Legends upgraded the attacks to make them scarier for Primaris Marines, Tau Battlesuits and now dedicated CC squads.
  • Tusked Maw - changed to dealing a flat 3 wounds at Sx2 and -3 AP. You can't regain a wound from biting people anymore but you're not limited to only one attack either - that's right, you can chomp to your attacks characteristic. Given the strength and damage of this attack coupled with the attacks leveled by a beast, this is the preferred attack against vehicles.
  • Warp Spines - MASSIVELY reworked. Whenever it finishes a charge move, pick an enemy unit in engagement range and roll a D6: on a 3+, deal D3 mortal wounds and deal 3 mortal wounds on a 6. Far more deadly and less janky than it was before, you can soften up an enemy before you even start attacking - which is nice.

Armies of Renown

The new version of the specialist detachment, introduced in the Book of Rust.

Disciples of Be'lakor

Introduced in the Tome of Fire and again in the 9E Codex, this is essentially your answer as to how you can run a combination daemon-CSM army. This isn't the wet dream you're thinking about, however. The big drawback is that this army is a very undivided-heavy one, to the point of potentially being obstructive while not allowing those that are aligned to operate at full capacity but providing some defensive perks. It also focuses heavily upon the big guy himself, as he is the uncontestable warlord here.

• Restrictions: Sit down, there are a lot of them.
  • Be'lakor is your warlord. NO QUESTIONS. NO EXCUSES.
    • You cannot bring ANY greater daemons, any marked marines, or chaos titans. NONE. No Daemon Princes either, though Big B never let you anyways. Heralds and undivided CSM HQs are still fair game though. All units that aren't Unaligned or Buildings gain the Disciples of Be'lakor keyword.
    • You can attach a House Corvax knight as a Superheavy Auxiliary Detachment, gaining all the benefits from the house despite only being one unit. If this unit takes a Blessing of the Dark Gods, they must take Blessing of the Dark Master.
  • All psykers can learn powers from the Noctic Discipline.
  • When taking daemons, you NEED to have a unit of daemons from each god before you can opt to select a second unit from any god, barring Big B himself and any aligned CSM. This is going to be the biggest pain for this army.
  • Any Daemon units gain the Daemonic Disciples keyword. You can still use Warp Storm powers even though you might have non-daemon units included. God-exclusive ones are still out of reach though.
  • Any CSM units gain the Legion Disciples keyword and can take any generic CSM stratagems, WTs, and relics.
    • Note that we said generic. You cannot join any legions for this and this rule is essentially replaced with Disciples of Shadows. Any enemies shooting from beyond 12" away take a -1 to hit and your units add +1 to their combat attrition checks.
    • So as to block cultist spam any further, you can't take more cultist units than you can Traitoris Astartes Infantry units in your army.
  • Despite all the intermingling rules, you still need to split your daemon and marine armies into separate detachments. Not like there was any benefit from mixing them together anyways.

• Stratagems:
  • Shadow Pact (1 CP): Select one Legion Disciples Infantry unit that isn't marked during your command phase. This unit can gain either +1 attack, a 5++ save, +1 toughness, or +1 to movement and advance/charge rolls for the turn. That's right, you're making washable tattoos outta those (8E) marks!
  • Daemonic Boon (2 CP): Select one Legion Disciples unit that isn't a vehicle and is within 6" of a Daemonic Disciples during the fight phase. The mortals add +1 to their Strength and automatically wound on a natural 6 to hit.
  • Legions of Shade (1 CP): At the start of the movement or charge phase, you can make one Disciples of Be'lakor essentially invisible, capable of running through other models without a care in the world.
  • Mortal Boon (2 CP): Pick one Daemonic Disciples unit within 6" of a Legion Disciples unit during the morale phase. This unit of daemons will automatically pass all morale checks with a natural 1, making them hold on at all costs. This is especially helpful because Daemons do not have good Leadership, even with icons.
  • Draught of Terror (1 CP): Pick one Daemonic Disciples unit during the morale phase. They gain a 6" aura that affects enemy units. If any enemy models flee, your unit regains a wound, potentially resurrecting a model at one wound if you're missing any models but everyone's topped off. Since summoning is now more of a hassle, you'll be relying on this to maintain your daemonic hordes.
  • Blessing of Be'lakor (2 CP): Pick one Disciples of Be'lakor unit during any phase while the big guy's on the field. If they fail a save, this negates the attack. Since this works on only one attack, this is best used to cancel out any crits or if you want to laugh at lascannons.

Tactics

The following is outdated, please update.

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. 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. Plus an average of 0.33 Mortal Wounds for each nearby model. 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 37.89 Damage total, 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 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 2000 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.

Friends and Allies

Renegades and Heretics

Sadly all Legends now, and mostly far from competetive in any event. There are a few things your heretical mudfoots can offer their masters, and all on a budget! If you're going bare minimum, you can drop ~600 points on a big pile of GEQs and a few Chaos griblies and still have plenty of points left over for your big boys/girls. Second is summoning fodder. Renegade Commanders and Enforcers are some of the cheapest Chaos CHARACTERS in the game, and are mostly likely going to be undivided to boot, letting you use Daemonic Ritual without risking a much more valuable and expensive CSM or Daemon CHARACTER. Finally, R&Hs bring what Chaos Daemons painfully lack: long range fire support. Leman Russes, Basilisks, Malcadors and even the mighty Baneblade, there will certainly be something you can use. And if your opponent doesn't seem concerned about a Daemon horde advancing under the cover of an Earthshaker barrage, check their pulse because they're likely dead.

CSM

The obvious choice for both fluff and functionality. Aside from the obvious souping perks, CSM also have a lot of the heavy shooting Daemons don't have, with Havocs providing cheap fire support, Predators for dealing with infantry and tanks depending on loadout, Fiends having either big scary guns or big meaty claws to spook heavy infantry and armor, Obliterators for a crippling mass of fire from out of nowhere, and lastly Defilers for being better than Soul Grinders in every conceivable way. Cultists also give you a cheap fodder unit to camp objectives and hold angles while your blocks of daemon troops are busy getting shit done. Rhinos are also a nice thing to grab since they can block enemy LOS and allow your squishier daemons like Bloodletters or Daemonettes to run from cover to cover and set up charges unmolested.

• Seriously, the buffs Defilers have had through the edition change and FAQ put Soul Grinders to shame, since they're so much cheaper base, can take heavier or punchier weapons, AND have a (albeit CP-intensive) method of gaining full rerolls. The only thing that sets the Grinders apart is their daemon allegiance, but even then the amount of overpay for a unit that's permanently stuck between trying to shoot things and trying to punch things makes it not all that worthwhile by comparison.
• Night Lords are ironically very powerful allies to attach Daemons to thanks to all their Leadership bomb abilities. With the improved perks of Manifestation, you can have them deep strike much closer to the enemies through strategic Strat spam and getting a Warp Locus in there.

Of course, these all involve attaching Daemons as allies. Using CSM as the allies throws this all off due to loss of any faction bonuses. Regardless of who allies to who, you'll have to grapple with the issues of no keyword synergy, as now Daemons have a different keyword than the marines, and thus you can't have your DPs benefit both mortal and daemon units or have your greater daemons boost your cultists.

Renegade Knights

With the release of the Renegade Knights codex via a Games Workshop FAQ, bringing a Knight to assist your daemons became a lot easier; points for the typical Renegade Knights were lowered slightly, and Renegade Knights Dominus and Renegade Armigers were added as well. As the best Daemon codex unit for long-range fire support was the Soul Grinder and its 4+ BS, replacing it with a single Knight as a Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment lets you have that long-range fire support (give the knight two of whatever ranged weapon you want, which loyalist Knights aren't allowed to take and is its main advantage over them and their Knight Houses) and don't forget the Renegade Knight strategem letting you reroll all failed hit rolls for a knight in a single phase for 2 CP. Or, run it as a close-combat knight and make your opponent choose which group of foes he wants to get killed by. Alternatively, Knights Dominus give some anti-Lord of War capabilities with the Volcano Lance and its 3d3 damage per hit, and if points are more restricted, Armigers aren't too shabby either. Though take more than one or two super-heavies and you'll be Knights supported by Daemons more than Daemons supported by Knights.

Secondaries

A description goes here.

Purge the Enemy

- Assassinate

- Bring it Down

- Titan Slayers

- Slay the Warlord

Warpcraft

-Abhor the Witch

-Mental Interrogation

-Psychic Ritual

No Mercy, No Respite

- Thin their Ranks

- Attrition

- While We Stand, We Fight

- First Strike

Battlefield Supremacy

- Engage on All Fronts

- Linebreaker

- Domination

Shadow Operations

- Raise the Banners High

-Investigate Sites

- Repair Teleportation Homer

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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