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Ah... this one is confusing. To most people. I used to stand by Bloodletters and Horrors, but after much thought, I know the only one(Or two) really worth picking.

Nurgle owns this catagory. In 5th Ed., troops need to survive more then anything else. Shove Plaguebearers on an objective and most fire won't kill them. And anything directed at them is something that's not killing my Fiends/Heralds (And my other choices). Nurglings are the best tarpit in the game. Those TH/SS Termis aren't getting out of them. Both these choices are cheap, and that's helpful to get the big Daemons out.

I still like Bloodletters, so they are a good bit behind my favorite objective holders.

I think they are all viable. I prefer Daemonettes because of their speed, grenades, high number of attacks, and rending. The fact that they fleet makes it that you don't have to deep strike them into 12" rapid fire range. The grenades mitigate getting assaulted and allow you to assault into cover (which cannot be understated). The I6 also lets you attack before most units and helps with their overall fragility.

Bloodletters are great but have a bunch of weaknesses. They don't ever want to assault into cover and cannot fleet. Which means you have to deep strike them close if you run them offensively. At which point your opponent can a. rapid fire you b. retreat into cover and the rapid fire you c. run away

Horrors are good for bolts and the Changeling. Otherwise I don't love their low BS and high cost.

Plaguebearers are the tourney gamer and min maxers favorite. They are incredibly resilient and can hold objectives while the rest of the list crushes face.

But Daemonettes get their faces beaten in by just about anything at a distance. On average, a squad of space marines can kill 8 of them with one round of shooting. Even if you put them out of RF range, it won't stop them from castling up, or moving closer to rip them to shreds.

In high cover games, they can really come to their own, but otherwise, keep the Plaguebearers. IMO

And again, we have the poll-spam that was discussed so many times before. Do you have a point to these polls? are you building a chaos army and can't decide on which units you want? then just ask and stop spamming the boards!

But Daemonettes get their faces beaten in by just about anything at a distance. On average, a squad of space marines can kill 8 of them with one round of shooting. Even if you put them out of RF range, it won't stop them from castling up, or moving closer to rip them to shreds.

In high cover games, they can really come to their own, but otherwise, keep the Plaguebearers. IMO

Take big squads then. Or DS them into area terrain. A squad of 16 getting shot by space marines with 8 bolters and 2 meltas kills about 4-5 in cover. Next turn the Daemonettes take it to the space marines.

New member here. So I don't know about anything that happened before.

Yes, the point is for the comunity to band togather and create a collective of Daemon knowledge that will help everyone to turn their Daemon Army into a force which can compete with other armies, rather then just being mocked as I've seen so much of.

Also, I am building a Daemon army. My group has been letting me proxy so I can test things out, and I like what I see. So I guess yes, I am wondering what to buy.

I'd also like to add that nobody else seems angry about this. At all. Why not just join in the fun and do something productive?

BTW, this was going to be one poll, but I didn't think people wanted a poll with 97 options on it.

Lol @ the poll, i knew who the winner was before i voted.

New member here. So I don't know about anything that happened before.

Yes, the point is for the comunity to band togather and create a collective of Daemon knowledge that will help everyone to turn their Daemon Army into a force which can compete with other armies, rather then just being mocked as I've seen so much of.

Also, I am building a Daemon army. My group has been letting me proxy so I can test things out, and I like what I see. So I guess yes, I am wondering what to buy.

I'd also like to add that nobody else seems angry about this. At all. Why not just join in the fun and do something productive?

BTW, this was going to be one poll, but I didn't think people wanted a poll with 97 options on it.

I've got no problems with it. The same boring tactica nonsense questions get posted all the time on this board. Daemons are under discussed and if no one posts in these threads the die. I see no issue with that.

No issue with "Poll-spaming", or 97 options.? I'm kinda confused.

@ Farmer: Yeah, it's pretty obvious to me.

No issue with "Poll-spaming", or 97 options.? I'm kinda confused.

@ Farmer: Yeah, it's pretty obvious to me.

"Poll spamming". Don't let anyone tell you that you can't ask tactics questions on a tactics board.

I don't think there can be a clear winner here, as all have advantages/disadvantages:

Bloodletters: Need to survive to charge on turn 2/Awsome in combat

Horrors: Great DS shooting ability/Poor close combat

Daemonettes: Versatile, but seekers are only 3 points dearer and are far superior

Plaguebearers: Not much punch/ultimate objective campers

I use the following:

Plague bearers
bloodletters
daemonettes

Plague guys because they are durable scoring units, and durability is something my other units tend to lack.

Bloodletters to scare my enemy away with their FC power weapons.

Daemonettes to go after those annoying squads that hide in area terrain and ruins.

I voted plague bearers, since I always take them, where the other two depend on the rest of the list.

I like horrors because they can impact the game while holding objectives, and because they add much-needed fire support and anti-tank capability to a list that doesn't have a lot of either.

Plague Bearers do one thing well, and that's not dying. And, that's pretty good for troops, but in a daemon army, simply having enough forward pressure on your opponent, combined with having your troops arrive via deep strike makes any selection here reasonably survivable. If I need to hide my troops, I can hide some horrors as well as I can hide some plaguebearers.

On the other hand, if I need to pop transports or cut down some opposing shootyness on the turn I arrive, horrors are the only option that can do that.

I know plenty of people who swear by daemonettes and bloodletters. I'm not a fan. I don't like having scoring units that are assault-only. I'd rather leave the assaults to something that doesn't need to stay put.

My vote is for horrors because small squads tend to get ignored and they hold objectives while shooting, unlike plaguebearers. Yes plaguebearers are more durable, but they can't get bolt or do anything other than sit on objectives.

Isn't there a POLL sub-board. Tactics shouldn't have the top 6 post being polls.

So you'd be fine with it if there wasn't polls, is what that statement says. So when I add something (Mainly for fun, mind you) that doesn't hurt anyone, you get upset. But if I had made these without polls, then it would be better.

even if your problem is the number of topics, there still isn't much of a problem. If I, instead, named it "Bloodletters vs Plaguebearers" then I'm certan it would have the same results, and people would even say other choices like "Those two are okay, but not as good as Horrors".

Seriously, is there such a big problem that you guys need to bring it up?

No I like to read about tactics in the tactic from. I go to the Dakka Poll sub-froum for polls, answered like 20 there already.

P.S. The thing is if you know your going to start a lot of polls theres a place for it.

If you have a big squad of BL in cover and they've gone to ground they are very survivable. Few will want to charge them. So they are actually good at holding an objective.

That's true, but do you think that's the best use for a big unit of bloodletters?

That's true, but do you think that's the best use for a big unit of bloodletters?

That's something I've struggled with as well. I want to like them and use them, they just have lots of downsides.

I feel like there are so many ways to go about neutralizing them. That is my issue. They do pack the most punch of the daemon troops though.

I like PBs. Good for objectives. If I need combat stuff, thats what fiends and princes are for

I only use minimum sized units of troops, only enlarging squad size when other FOC slots are all filled and the points are higher. Sure it make them easy to kill, but large units also draw lots of fire, can only be at one place at a time, and take away points that can be spent elsewhere.

It doesn't take many bloodletters to scare away Meqs from attacking into cover an objective. It doesn't take many plague guys camping on objective to survive the whole game if you have units that are actually dangerous running around. It doesn't take many daemonettes to ferret out those annoying scout type units and make suicide charges at light transports (rending is nice, even it is S3 when you have so many attacks)

JGrand wrote:

That's true, but do you think that's the best use for a big unit of bloodletters?

That's something I've struggled with as well. I want to like them and use them, they just have lots of downsides.

I feel like there are so many ways to go about neutralizing them. That is my issue. They do pack the most punch of the daemon troops though.

It's an option, you dont have to do it every single game. It is a great tactic while the rest of your army shreds.

People are getting up in arms about polls because of a particularly elitist thread that came up recently, where members are keen to police the boards with their own sense of justice, because "Dakka isn't the same as it used to be".

You're a new poster, yet you presented yourself in a calm, collective manner. You simply gave a poll to ease people's responses, and gave a pretty good back and forth after some posts. There's nothing wrong with your post - don't worry :p

To me, calling out a new member who wants to legitimately discuss the game is making Dakka worse; not polls.

JGrand wrote: Or DS them into area terrain.

Isn't deliberately killing your own guys a bad idea? Maybe Deep Strike them near area terrain with the intent to run into it, but DS right into the terrain?

Meh, they get their invul save. And generally you don't lose a single one when you drop a squad of 5 into cover. That way if you scatter out you can probably run back in

Agreed. Never be afraid to deep strike into cover. a one in six chance to take a wound / model and we get a save. It's actually pretty safe. I do it because my opponents don't think I will and leave those areas wide open.

As to the poll, I can't decide. Bearers are great because they can hold objectives like no other and you don't need a lot of them. Recently I had 7 of them land on an objective turn one against mech guard, and 3 were still there at the end of the game. Blood letters scare the bejebus out of any unit within charge range. Thier lack of mobility is why I started packing a Prince of Slaanesh with pavane. They are fleet now. Sort of.

For all rounded-ness I would have to vote for the Horrors. On their own Horrors pack quite a punch with their ranged attacks, and the Bolt of Tzeentch is one of the more useful upgrades. However, they're only well rounded because they can actually attack on the first turn they come in. Otherwise they're the only ranged troops you get.

All of the other troop choices have niches to fill. Bloodletters are powerful second wave troops that can hit pretty damn hard, perfect against MEQs and Terminators. Daemonettes, similarly, are powerful anti-horde troops that can take down an astonishingly high amount of enemy bodies and fare moderately well against heavy infantry with their rending rule. Plague Bearers are anti-monster (due to their Poison weapons) and objective sitting, while Nurglings are for bringing some mobile Cover save along (for non-monstrous creatures anyways).

However it's hard to give one single definitive choice. Depending on what you have to support your troops, each one can shine. If you bring some Tzeentchan Daemon Princes or Fateweaver, suddenly the 5+ invul save on the Bloodletters isnt that bad anymore, as the former is an even bigger fire magnet and can bring on the hurt with some ranged attacks, while the latter gives them a better chance at surviving the first turn. Similarly a block of Bloodcrushers can make a beachhead on the board with their superior save, toughness and wounds, which would allow them to charge the enemy's primary rangers and give the bloodletters or Daemonettes a turn without being shot at by these units to deepstrike.

@Magnalon: Aww shucks. Thanks. As for being "Cool and Collected" having a gigantic ego kinda helps with that xD

@MechaEmperor: Horrors hold my second spot. I'd still rather bring just a few PBs, and spend the rest on cooler stuff. The problem with the Horrors is that they're WAY to easy to kill. Sure, a big squad can lay down the hurt on Guardsmen, Boyz, Tau, Eldar.... *thinks*

Nevermind, Horrors are pretty good. Bring some big things to distract you're enemy from them and you can do quite a bit of damage.

Depending on the game, I sway back and forth between Horrors and PBs. I only stick with a Pure Khorne force solely out of the fact that I already committed alot of money into the army prior to the standalone codex coming out. Using PBs with Epidemius and they're really powerful, especially if you can get the Noxious Touch and Power Weapon abilities on the Tally. In the same vein Horrors next to the Fateweaver are suddenly just as survivable, if not moreso, as PBs, while still retaining their warpfire.