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Codex: Chaos Daemons
Army Name: Skulltaker's Wager

Army List:
HQ: Skulltaker (Skulltaker, Chariot of Khorne 160 points)
Qetzaktak, of the Bloody Flag (Herald of Khorne w/Icon of Chaos, Chariot of Khorne (110 points)
Slasher (Herald of Khorne, unholy strength Chariot of Khorne 100 points)
Nuklaaabak, the Pennkeeper (Herald of Khorne, Chariot of Khorne 85 points)

Troops: Blade Bearers (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)
Woe Betide (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)
Slasher's Chosen (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)
The Cutters (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)
The Bloodtide's Breakers (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)
The Red Scars (6 Bloodletters, 96 points)

Elites: The Crimson Calamity (4 Bloodcrushers w/Fury of Khorne, 170 points)
The Widowbreakers (4 Bloodcrushers w/Fury of Khorne, 170 points)
Nuklaabak's Host (4 Bloodcrushers w/Fury of Khorne, 170 points)

Heavy Support:The Bladebringer (Soul Grinder, 135 points)
The Lasher (Soul Grinder, Tongue upgrade, 160 points)
The Terran Sunset (Soul Grinder, Phlegm upgrade, 160 points)

Grand total 1996 points:
HQ: 455
Elites: 510
Troops: 576
Heavy Support: 455

Story: Skulltaker brooded alone within the warp. The urge had taken him, as it invariably did, to walk the Materium again, harvesting skulls for his Red Lord. Yet he hesitated, his martial pride warring with his vast wrath and, for the moment, prevailing.
In a recent battle he'd been mocked by the mortal forces that he struck out against. Their warp communiques, effortlessly decoded by the Daemons of Tzeentch and endlessly spread by the hand of the vile Changling, warned of an attack from a daemon of "Brutal aspect and pitiful strategy". They spoke further of how his targets should prepare themselves for "a frontal assault 40,000 years out of date, an infantry or calvalry charge with blades raised, the product of a mind that did not realize that warfare had evolved past hack and slash".

The thought stung, not that he might be regarded as out-of-touch, though his Master's monumental pride had an echo within him, but that there were humans who believed that war had changed past strength. Such thoughts festered within the brains of those influenced by the jealous Daemons of the Changer of Ways. He'd show them. They thought he could only roar and charge. How surprised would they be when he roared and charged in the best possible way!

Exerting his warp presence, the Skulltaker besought aid from other vassals of his master. With dire threats and subtle (for a Khornate Daemon) blandishments he forced them into line. There was to be a Chariot Race, in the grand tradition of the High Handed Slayer. Skulltaker summoned to his presence the stately Slasher, and his legions of Bloodletters, the furious Nuklaabak and his unstoppable Bloodcrushers, and the inscrutable Qetzaktak, who maintained a kinship with those who had gone to the Blood Forge.

To each he made the same offer. Race him, with their finest chariots and the aid of their chosen servants, through 5 battles in the mortal plane. Whichever Herald claimed the greatest victory (measured not in time, but in heads, as a Khornate race is of course a killing spree), would receive the honor of joining Skulltaker in avenging the mortal insult. And so the date was set, and the hosts of the Blood God prepared for the Great Race.

Explanation:

Atlanta has 2 GT's at the end of the year (Exterminatus and Toys for Tots), and I can't seem to get myself in a competitive state of mind. I think I'm just burned out, too many tourneys, but whatever the reason, I've decided to bring nothing but Khornate Daemons for both. (playing 40k in Exterminatus, Fantasy in TFT) To that end I've dropped the pink horrors from the list, replaced them with Bloodletters and added Skulltaker. I'm going to keep a count on this one in terms of wounds inflicted by each Herald and their "team".

So, who do you think will win? It seems to me like the Crushers have the edge, as the Grinders simply can't get that volume of hits in, and the letters will have to hang back a bit to take objectives.

Additionally, what do you think of putting Fury of Khorne on Bloodcrushers? I've had Dreads abuse them too much frequently, and I'd like to have at least a shot at hurting one in CC if it charges me.

This army seems way to fragile for 2000 points.

Six squads of six bloodletters for troops will not last long against any sort of concentrated fire (Not to mention using Slaanesh's sacred number for letters is just wrong).

Three Soul Grinders are definitely a good choice but they should all have the Phlegm upgrade. Grinders don't have the BS to be a reliable ranged AT unit so dropping templates will work better. Daemons kill armor in CC, thats just the way it is.

Dreadnoughts will definitely be a problem for you, and I wouldn't be surprised if you had to face a marine list with 6 Ironclads in it and if you do get that fight, you have lost before you the battle even begins.

I think you should rework your HQ to try and get two Bloodthirsters. They are faster and can crack vehicles more efficiently than your heralds.

Personally, if you want as competitive a daemon army as possible, you should get plaguebearers instead of letters as they don't wither under small arms fire.

You can do competitive with Khorne only. You DEFINITELY need to have a monstrous creature. Personally, as ihockert suggested, give your soulgrinders phlegm. Tongue isn't very good - it is only a single BS 3 shot. Also, I have found that 2 bloodthirsters wasn't great, but you have to have at least one. My current khorne build goes with 1 thirster and 1 minithirster in the form of a strong, winged, iron-hided prince of khorne.

Skulltaker is a bit of overkill, but he looks good and is fun so I definitely understand wanting to keep him around and those chariots are basically iron hide foot princes so they are pretty good, but 4 doesn't really do much more for you than 2 did.

I personally prefer 2 Soulgrinders and a Daemon prince for my heavy choices (especially if you want to use 2 chariot heralds). This will aid in dealing with dreadnoughts and the like.

I would probably drop 2 of your bloodletter units to beef the other ones up (I did 3 units of 8 at the vegas GT and that worked out fine - there are so many other high threat targets that if they all die you probably lost anyway.) Also, I don't know how much playtesting you have been doing, but in my experience, you will want to have icons on 2 of those units of letters - those models you have all take up a huge amount of space making scatters more dangerous.

Each of the bloodcrushers should be on 60 mm bases, the soulgrinders are just absolutely huge as well - the larger the footprint the worse off you are because you will end up doing mishaps just from your own units (since they will need to be kind of clustered in order to be most effective.)

Anyway, don't let anyone tell you that mono Khorne (or really and god) can't be effective. They can, you just have to be aware of your weaknesses and do what you can to over come them.

It's a challenge yourself army, right?

Good luck with it, man.

I run 3 Sould Grinders all with the tongue upgrade and they have done just fine for me. Mind you i do run a Nurgle/Tzeentch list though.