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Having started a Daemons army for 40k, I can honestly say that I am impressed with the internal balancing of the troop choices available in Codex Chaos Daemons.

Pink horrors, Daemonettes and Plaguebearers all have pros and cons that really make each choice not only different in their play-styles, but also viable in a mixture of competitive lists. (bloodletters to a much lesser extent).

The question I want to ask is, which Chaos Daemons troop choice is, in your mind, the most efficient and best value for its points if we consider its overall battlefield performance?

I will not include nurglings in the poll, as they are not a scoring unit.

Tactically,
Plague bearers are best for home objective holding,
Horrors - for deep striking to gun enemies down and harass his backfield, preferably with herald attached.
Daemonettes - again, with herald attached, to charge forward in big blob to take midfield objective/assist in assaulting enemy positions.

I'm not sure between plagues and horrors on holding the home objective.

The reason being that a squad of horrors who go to ground behind behind an ADL will get a 2+ re-rollable cover save, which puts them ahead of plagues in terms of survivability. In area terrain the difference is pretty negliable between the two (with plagues being better), but the horrors can get some shots off or run if you need them to.

Bloodletters look the coolest, but they are pretty meh on the field. I'm sure S5 AP3 can be useful in some instances but not for me.

Plagues are extremely boring to use, though can't deny their usefulness.

Not a great fan of Horrors, those shooting attacks haven't been that great for me. But still new to the codex.

Daemonettes are lightning quick, and rival Bloodletters for CC ability. Seems almost unfair how much better they are than their Khornate rivals

I don't care that Nurglings aren't on the chart, they are by far my favourite though! Harassing and annoying people with them is just plain fantastic!

Poor Bloodletters

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
Poor Bloodletters

QFT. I'm really not sure how they justified 'balancing' them they way they did. Having a higher price tag than the others and putting them alongside the superior Daemonettes does seem a bit odd to me.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
Poor Bloodletters

QFT. I'm really not sure how they justified 'balancing' them they way they did. Having a higher price tag than the others and putting them alongside the superior Daemonettes does seem a bit odd to me.

In defense of Bloodletters (which really should be the same cost as the other daemon troops, 9 points), in real-game conditions (outside of the vacuum comparison), Bloodletters are more effective at killing MEQ than Daemonettes. In order to really chew through MEQ with Daemonettes, you need alot of numbers or else you'll get mired in a prolonged combat. A similar amount points-wise of Bloodletters will perform better with fewer numbers, which is especially important from a real-game view. Just saying 100 points of Daemonettes generates similar or more wounds to equal points of Bloodletters is misleading, because that's not taking into consideration the casualties taken enroute to combat. Rare is the Daemon troop unit that makes it into combat completely intact, and taking that into consideration, the S5 AP3 Bloodletter attacks typically wins out against the S3 AP- Rending attacks from Daemonettes.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying Bloodletters are better than Damonettes. Simply put, they aren't. They are just better at killing MEQ. Daemonettes win out in speed and variety of targets. Bloodletters start to fall apart against TEQ and most MC, as they need larger numbers to spam wounds, while Daemonettes will often tear both apart in the intial charge. I will say that Daemonettes rely more on their Herald than Bloodletters do, as the Slaaneshi locus are so much better than the Khorne ones.

^^^^
Quite, and anything that is good at killing GWs precious Space Marines must be punished!

Daemonettes have proven to be the most effective for me, but it is mainly due to their versatility. They can hide in reserve and then when they DS in, their extra run distance means they almost always make it to the objective.

Once there, they are a legitimate CC threat to all troop types - and the new large kits (Wraithknight, Riptide_cringe at the 20-30 Rending attacks they put out at I 5, WS 5.

There have been times with Horrors or plagues that I have had to 'babysit' them because they cannot really protect themselves effectively. The plagues are a bit better since Defensive Grenades, Shrouding and Poisoned attacks help mitigate this somewhat. Horrors though tend to be useless unless they get Bolt and have a shot to nuke multiple vehicles.

2d6 S5 AP4 BS 3 attacks is just not that impressive.

 azreal13 wrote:
^^^^
Quite, and anything that is good at killing GWs precious Space Marines must be punished!

Except the Helldrake....


Horrors are best for DSing.

Plaguebearers are best for Objective Camping.

Daemonettes are best for kill strategies.

Bloodletters should have be 9pts base. They aren't bad, just not as quick or durable and lack a shooting attack.

 ClassicCarraway wrote:

 Big Blind Bill wrote:

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
Poor Bloodletters

QFT. I'm really not sure how they justified 'balancing' them they way they did. Having a higher price tag than the others and putting them alongside the superior Daemonettes does seem a bit odd to me.

In defense of Bloodletters (which really should be the same cost as the other daemon troops, 9 points), in real-game conditions (outside of the vacuum comparison), Bloodletters are more effective at killing MEQ than Daemonettes. In order to really chew through MEQ with Daemonettes, you need alot of numbers or else you'll get mired in a prolonged combat. A similar amount points-wise of Bloodletters will perform better with fewer numbers, which is especially important from a real-game view. Just saying 100 points of Daemonettes generates similar or more wounds to equal points of Bloodletters is misleading, because that's not taking into consideration the casualties taken enroute to combat. Rare is the Daemon troop unit that makes it into combat completely intact, and taking that into consideration, the S5 AP3 Bloodletter attacks typically wins out against the S3 AP- Rending attacks from Daemonettes.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying Bloodletters are better than Damonettes. Simply put, they aren't. They are just better at killing MEQ. Daemonettes win out in speed and variety of targets. Bloodletters start to fall apart against TEQ and most MC, as they need larger numbers to spam wounds, while Daemonettes will often tear both apart in the intial charge. I will say that Daemonettes rely more on their Herald than Bloodletters do, as the Slaaneshi locus are so much better than the Khorne ones.

Bloodletters are undeniably better once in cc vs MEQ. However as you said yourself the squad will be taking damage before it gets into cc, and the Daemonettes' +3 run and fleet means that they may well get into cc a full turn before the bloodletters, therefore having a higher chance of having enough models left to do some damage. Because of this I'm still not convinced of bloodletters over daemonettes, even when it is vs MEQ.

There needs to be a "Plaguebearers, Daemonettes and Horrors are all worthwhile" option.

I like a blend of all three of the 9-point Daemons. All three can be run in either of two ways each.

Plaguebearers:

Ten plus a Herald behind an Aegis with an Icarus. These are tough enough to survive most shooting (since the Herald has the Greater Locus of Feel No Pain) and can do a decent job in combat, too, plus they're actually pretty good anti-tank / anti-air.

Fifteen to twenty plus a Herald and full command Deep Striking. These are an unusual choice, but they can be very effective, especially when they bring the Great Unclean One with them. I like this because it puts two large, tough units straight in front of the enemy, generally at the same time as your on-board stuff is closing, overloading the opponent's defences.

Horrors:

Twenty with a Herald running from cover to cover while bearing down on the foe. This is a very deadly unit which can easily take down pretty much anything in the game in combat, though they are also fragile. They're about as fast as non-bike Troops get; with a six-inch move supplemented by a re-rollable d6+3" Run, it's rare that they'll move less than a foot per turn, and with an average charge radius of 15" they should be in combat turn 2 as often as not.

Ten with a kitted-out Herald on Steed. This may look like an odd choice, but the reason I like them is simple - Outflank. These are one of the best midgame harassment units available for Daemons - the Herald gives them Outflank and Acute Senses, so they can appear more or less wherever you want, and then the ten can target the smaller objective holders while the Herald runs off by herself to make some nice tank sushi or whatever.

Horrors:

Twenty plus level 3 Herald with the +1 Srength locus. I feel this is a no-brainer of a choice; it can be scarily effective when shooting, with a total of 7d6 S6 twin-linked shots spread between two Psychic Powers. Remember that they're unreliable but potentially devastating, and you won't go far wrong. These are the only Daemons that can actually do mid-range shooting battles; all other Daemons want to get into combat ASAP or skulk around picking off targets of opportunity. Speaking of which...

Eleven Horrors, no upgrades. The only choice on my list which doesn't feature a Herald, mainly because I love the whole Herald concept, this is the alternative backfield-objective unit. You take eleven instead of ten because it's an extra d6 shots unless the enemy diverts some fire into them. Skulk around the back, shoot things like Land Speeders or Scouts which try to mess with you, but don't expect much more.

There is an honourable mention, a seventh choice for Troops for Daemons: Three bases of Nurglings. A lot of people would think I've gone mad for even suggesting such a thing, but they can be useful in some admittedly unusual situations - primarily by Infiltrating forwards in cover then squelching towards something like Devastators. Don't get me wrong, these guys are not going to directly win you the battle - but if they tie up the opponent's anti-infantry for a turn while your Daemonettes surge forward, they might end up doing more than you expect.

Of course, there is one more Troops choice which I consider invaluable, even though it doesn't take up a slot and the points come from HQ or Heavy: the Portalglyph. Be prepared with around a dozen spare Lesser Daemons of different sorts - Horrors are good all-rounders to spawn, Daemonettes have a scary range for endgame objective-grabbing, a single Plaguebearer in cover will survive longer than you would expect, and it's the only real way that the lowly Bloodletter will get to join the party.

Even if the Glyph only puffs out one or two guys before a missile or ball of plasma scares the rest away - or even if you choose not to take it in the first place - it's worth having those spares with you for the rare time the Warp Storm gives you a unit. Believe me, there's no feeling quite as bad as rolling a 12 on the table turn 1 and getting a new unit, only to realise that you have no spare Lesser Daemons, making the entire unit count as destroyed and giving your opponent first blood which ends up deciding the game and costing you first place in the tournament... not that I'm bitter or anything.


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PS: I voted Pink Horrors, on the basis that if I can only take one breed of Lesser Daemon, it'll be them.