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I was looking in my codex and thinking about Lesser Demons. I have heard that they are no good and should never be taken. But I was wondering, could it possibly work to do the following:

Use something that can have an icon, (models in a land raider or a rhino, Lord with Jump pack hidden inside a squad of raptors) move it ahead 12 inches. Now, unless the model with Icon is killed, which may be hard to do, you can potentially bring in a small squad of lesser demons, six inches from the icon. Depending on how many there are you will create a blob of units that will decrease the distance between you and your opponent. With moving 12, summoning six, deploying 1-2 and then assaulting, you create a bubble of 25-26 inch range assault. Could it work to do this with just a few demons in order to tie up units and block line of sight until you stronger stuff gets there? Such as raptors or berzerkers? I am just wondering and am in no way claiming that this is some brilliant and amazing tactic, I just want to know if it could work.

The problems I see right off the bat is that you either need first turn to get the most out of this trick. You will also need to pray for good rolls for the summoning. If the demons don't come in the turn you charge across the board in the rhino your opponent can shoot the heck out of it entangling your unit and stranding both the CSM and the demons in the open. Raptors or a disposable bike squadron is more reliable for delivering the demons.

don't bother with the daemons, they just take up points that are better spent on things like CSM's or terminators

There are some rare circumstances where Lesser Daemons would be effective. Very low points battles comes to mind. I've used them to good effect in Combat Patrol missions.

But once you have enough breathing room to afford even the basic CSM in larger numbers, the utility of Lesser Daemons begins to fade.

Lesser daemons are to be used as a tarpit unit and nothing else. Just like Tyranid rippers, their sole purpose is to tie up units that can hurt your other stuff.

Capt K

agreed much. as i rarely play anything under 1500 i never have the chance to use them like that though. might have to start doing some combat patrols and such just for the helluvit

Indeed. I play in a campaign where 250 point CP battles are very common (skirmishers harassing enemy map locations) and have found the Daemon packs to be an effective way to boost my numbers. One common force I play is this:

6 CSM, IoCG, Melta, Rhino
8 Lesser Daemons

At 250 points a Rhino is actually a pretty tough vehicle. The marines can hide inside and do a drive-by summoning. They hop out when the extra firepower is needed. Otherwise the Melta makes the Rhino into a short range anti-tank vehicle.

Mine did pretty well in the Adepticon Championships Sunday.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/208724.page#277850

They CAN kill some things. And lend extra numbers cheaply to assaults. Against others they do well as a tarpit. They work best in an army with multiple mobile icons, for maximum flexibility in summoning. Instead of 8 raptors, or 10 marines in a rhino, suddenly at a given point you have twice as many S4 T4 guys, throwing a pile of attacks.

If you don't have to worry about Escalation, you can actually still do a biker daemonbomb using 50+ lessers, and I think it'd be pretty solid against most non-mechanized armies.

i still go for my 16 termies over daemons any day, and replacing anything else in the list would mean having less troops with icons to DS the termies in with

I was wondering about the chaos lesser demons when using them they would take up a troop choice? or are they by themselves interetly?

First this is threadromancy, you are not supposed to resurrect threads over three months old. This is 19 months old.

Second summoned lesser daemons don't take a force of command slot but are otherwise treated as troops.

Sorry about that I did not know, the reason I asked becuase when Im playing aganist any army I want to conserve my points on troops like space marines use scouts

Just so we can end this with a high note:

@the topic in general:

Please use the search function more.
There have been many discussions about the lesser daemons.

The Bottom Line: they are a functional unit that does what it does well. It's not that they suck, it's that the other options are really good.

Lesser daemons are not a unit to simply throw into a list. They need thought and correct application to get the most out of them.

I use a single squad of 20 at 2000 with only 3 icons, it's been good so far.
Able to tarpit, break hordes, hold objectives, and just a big headache to the enemy.
In addition to that there's Rhino Plague marines, Princes, and oblits.

They're really great in a Chaoszilla list.

1 - 2 Winged Daemon Princes
0 -1Greater Daemon

2 - 3 Dreadnoughts

2 - 3 Troops
2 - 3 15 Man Daemon Packs

2 - 3 Defilers


Just mix and match for points etc.. Basically they are huge tarpits and annoying its really really fun to play that list.

I forget who's list it was though.