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With the imminent arrival of the Grey Knights codex, I thought it would be fun to slap together a daemon army to be their foil. Gotta give them something to hunt down. I'm painting towards a 1500 point list I have written up, and may expand it as I see fit. I'm currently working on some bloodcrushers and another unit of bloodletters to fill out the 'Bestial Legion' portion of the army. But rest assured, there will be daemons of all kinds represented in the final version of the army. I'll be adding fluff as i add units, and I plan to add units at a pretty blistering pace. Shooting for two every week, with an absolute minimum of one unit per week. Please bust my balls if the updates slow down. I want to get this project finished quickly so I can be ready for all of those fancy silver marines!

Oh yeah, thanks in advance for checking it out...

In the year 999.M41, on the planet known as Argolis, a great tragedy occurred. The commander of the 322nd Nemean Lions Artillery received word that the home planet of their regiment had been issued Exterminatus by the Emperor's Holy Inquisition. Imperial records are incomplete as to the fate of Nemea, but nevertheless, General Kadmos "Lord of Thunder" commanded his entire artillery regiment to fire sustained barrages onto the heads of the remaining imperial army group. The "lion's roar" was renowned for its accuracy and ferocity, and the destruction and death that was caused was ghastly. The violence was massive enough to weaken the fabric of reality, and the Nemean regimental command center was turned into a monument to Khorne. General Kadmos, having done what he was instructed by the herald of a powerful lord of khorne, beckoned forth the army that he hoped would avenge his home planet.

Master Khorne, enthroned on brass, I beg for revenge on my foe, they shamed my home with false judgement, they murdered my son, they murdered my wife... I will live my days for you, servant at your feet, if only to be granted retribution... SLAY THEIR PRECIOUS FAMILIES!!

-last words of General Sealus Kadmos

When the battered, decimated regiments of the army group finally reached the artillery positions they were met by a demonic incursion. Disorganized, disheartened and deafened by the pitiless barrage they received, they were cut to bloody ribbons or blasted into burnt ash by the demons that awaited them. The demons consolidated their victory, and quickly set upon the populace, causing the slaughter that brought forth An'ggrath the Unbound. The Grey Knights of the Inquisition would be called to quell this incursion, as An'ggrath had intended. Soon he would claim his revenge.

666 years I have spent in my domain, the lord of bloodthirsters, the bringer of death. Now I discharge my horde.. FOR PUNISHMENT.

HERALD!!!

Send my epistle to this human wretch. He must drench the ground below in blood, i must hear the howl of cursed men. The bloodied red host will manifest when rage reigns!

DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!

-An'ggrath the Unbound, to Kha'raum, Marquis of the Bestial Legion




Kha'raum, Blood Envoy, Manslaughterer, Marquis of the Bestial Legion

The herald of Khorne known as Kha'raum is one of Lord An'ggrath's Dukes. He has gained the Lord of Bloodthirsters' favor following his defeat at Vraks. He gained this favor by promising An'ggrath an opportunity to seek revenge on the Grey Knights. He has a great many accolades as the commander of the Bestial Legion. He gained the title of Manslaughterer during an incursion onto the feudal world of Verdul. His legion entered unbeckoned through a rift opened in the midst of a massive cavalry battle between two tribes. One of the tribes, the Tribe of the Sun Cross, held a massive numerical advantage over the other, known as the Kentauroi. 4,000 horsemen of the Sun Cross rode right through the warp rift, their audacity immediately enraging Kha'raum. He led the bloodcrushers of his legion in a massive charge on the tribesmen of the Sun Cross. The bodies of all 4,000 men and their horses were reduced to mangled, trampled bloody masses. Upon seeing this godlike destruction, Kherion, the leader of the Kentauroi, fell to one knee and pledged allegiance to Kha'raum. Kha'raum instructed Kherion that in order to appease his lord, he would have to slaughter one out of every eight of his own men. Kherion did as he was commanded, and the Lord Khorne was pleased.

It was Kha'raum's planning that set the events on Argolis in motion. He delivered the instructions to General Kadmos. And he was the first daemon to emerge from the warp rift... bursting from the exploding corpse of Sealus Kadmos.




The Bestial Legion

The Bestial Legion is a massive army, marching under the banner of An'ggrath the Unbound. They gained the attention of Khorne by defeating 8 legions of Skarbrand the Exiled. Marching down onto Skarbrand's legions from a plane above them, they cut through ten times their own number before The Exiled One enlisted the help of a scheming Great Unclean One, known as Phlegethon, to halt their advance. As the last of the Bestial Legion were reabsorbed back into Lord Khorne, he reformed all of the bloodletters that died in that conflict as members of the Bestial Legion. Skarbrand howled impotently as the scales of power tipped even further towards his enemy, An'ggrath.

The bloodletters and bloodcrushers of the Bestial Legion formed the backbone of the Argolis Incursion. A great many skulls were taken in Khorne's name by these relentless murderers before the Grey Knights were to arrive.




Shal'briri, The Libidinous, Fleshtaster, Wargasm

The daemon known as Fleshtaster was once a Keeper of Secrets. Shal'briri, on many occasions, was able to savor the anguish of physical agony and the rolling pleasure of arousal while tormenting mortal races from the warp. The lure of experiencing these sensations first-hand drove Shal'briri to the formless wastes, where he-she made the Iron Pact with the Masters of the Soul Forge. It was his-her hope that the fleshform that grows over the thrice damned machine will have nerve endings, cilia and all of the other pleasure-pain receptors the mortal races have been undeservingly blessed with.

The Soul Grinder Shal'briri offered to serve Kha'raum when news of an impending warp rift had spread. Attempting to conceal the desperate desire to be in real space in order to test his-her new form, Shal'briri made a pledge on behalf of the Soul Forge. Kha'raum had little fear that the mad daemon had any aspirations for glory, and the raw power that the Soul Grinder possessed would be a boon to him, and so he accepted the arrangement.

On Argolis, Shal'briri's wildest fantasy became reality. The stink of death was an intense sensation, but the intensity only increased as the pressure of his-her claw shattered the bones of an imperial guardsmen. Shal'briri sprinted towards enemy formations with lustful abandon, kicking and crashing, but when a meltagun fired at close range severed one of his-her limbs, the sensation of a compound bone fracture of the femur shot through his-her newly formed limbic system. The agony was transcendent, and the daemon now known as Wargasm immediately launched into a battle-trance, tearing a hole through the densest portion of an armored defensive line. Wargasm is not stopping.. searching for the agony of death... heedless of his-her own survival.

Those look great, especially the bases.
One thing I should point out is that the blending on the herald's sword is very abrupt.
but other than that, keep up the good work

Aquaterry

Awesome fluff! I can't wait to see how these guys grow.

I like the cooling metal feel of the swords myself. And the light blue tongues are a nice color splash.

Now *that's* how to start a plog!

Love the narrative, and I'm very curious to see your take on constructing a daemon army post-Grey Knights.

Honestly, I think Grey Knights look like a better matchup for daemons than nullzone C:SM ;-)

Wow those Daemons are looking great, man! Kha'raum is looking friggin' epic! I can't wait to play against those vile beings.... 'da boyz 'r itchin' fer a gud and propa' Waaagh 'gainst dem Daemonz

Thanks for looking guys. I just posted my first soul grinder (added it to first post).... and I am very close to being finished with a unit of 4 bloodcrushers. I'll post those later this week rather than next week... gonna keep pushing myself.

As far as competitively speaking and grey knights. They might be able to ignore daemonic eternal warrior, and they might have some mini-null zone type weapons... But unless its a torquemada based melta-spamming army, soul grinders are going to give them trouble. And unless they have halberds, bloodletters will continue to really give them a problem. Grey knight units will be excellent at getting rid of bloodcrushers and fiends for sure, those units are much more useful against other types of armies.

Everyone is looking for the advantage that daemons got in order to counteract the obvious bonuses that the grey knights got. Their advantage comes in the form of the flesh hounds of khorne. The entire grey knights army is equipped with force weapons, and these cheapish beasts will have 2++ when fighting units of grey knights. In my opinion, the seekers of slaanesh were probably, point for point, a bit more useful than the corn-dogs. But it was very close. In terms of vehicles, 17 flesh hounds perform slightly better than 15 seekers. And in terms of marine units, the seekers performed slightly better. But fare worse to enemy shooting. But for me, they are close enough, that the chance to rock a 2++ against their hated opponents is too good to pass up. Especially this first batch of painted units, since the narrative includes grey knights, and the incursion is led by a herald of khorne.

You'll notice I have limited the amount of multi-wound models as best I could. The herald is cheap and is really an extension of the complex bloodcrusher unit (he'll probably get a blessing of the blood god too). And one bloodcrusher unit can sometimes just be a serious problem for marine armies. It is a great counter to assault terminators and mid-sized thunderwolf cavalry units. The fiends just have to be in there as they most powerful unit in the codex in my opinion. I need them to stand a chance against mech, but grey knights will just annihilate them in CC for sure.