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I notice a lot of Chaos Daemon lists, run troops (daemonettes and bloodletters) at 10 models per squad. Is this the best way to do it?

I figured I might run units of these at 20 models, is this a bad idea? The only thing I can think of is deep strike being a bit more crowded. Is there anything else I am missing about why this might not be a good idea?

What is everyone's preferred squad size for daemon troops?

you are asking about an army with a pretty diverse troop selection. Gonna get a lot of radically different answers.

bloodletters (8-10) used as an aggressive scorer and imitation elite choice.

horrors (5) changeling and bolt delivery system

plaguebearers (12-15) the one 'will not die' unit to put on home objectives.

demonettes (0) ...

I'm running Bloodletters at 12-16, in regular-sized games. Plaguebearers I've been running at squads of 7.
Horrors I've been running at 9.

Yes, I started out by running them as sacred numbers, but I've found that at least for Plaguebearers and Horrors, it works out pretty well.

For bloodletters, you need lots of bodies. No grenades means they're going to take some hits charging into cover, and they need weight of numbers to survive incoming fire.

Horrors, depends a lot on whether you consider warpfire a real weapon, or if you're just trying to spam bolts. Since I like warpfire, I like larger squads.

Plaguebearers...are survivable no matter what size. Larger squads are necessary if you want them to actually do anything in assault, with only 1 attack /model and WS3.

Daemonettes...are about 3-5 points too expensive. Every time I've tried to proxy them, I've been singularly underwhelmed. Maybe, a super-large squad (18-20) could actually do something useful. Maybe.

Maybe, a super-large squad (18-20) could actually do something useful. Maybe.

im sure they will attract the 1st large blast fired
and im pretty sure most will die, they just seem a little weak and pathetic.

bloodletters - 12-15 work well, survive a while and enough strength to bury dedicated assult units.

horrors - 10 is a nice ish number, they last quite a while, and actually kill stuff (with shooting)

pleagues - 15 will give you a nice stong block, they will soak up any and all smalls arms fire, and should shrug most of it off.

daemonettes - dont bother, easy kills.


Edit: my usual crappy spellings.

Centurian99 wrote:Daemonettes...are about 3-5 points too expensive. Every time I've tried to proxy them, I've been singularly underwhelmed. Maybe, a super-large squad (18-20) could actually do something useful. Maybe.

I was running squads of 12 last night. One squad scattered too close to a Defiler, and got heavy flamer'd to death (1" run roll). 1 squad landed far away and took an objective. The last squad got assaulted by the Defiler, and were stuck playing with it for 6 rounds of HtH. The nerf to rending armor penetration really hurts, as you need to a) hit b) rend c) roll 3 on the d3, and still d) roll 5+ on the vehicle damage table to do ANYTHING.

Daemonettes do get a lot of dice (3/model standing still), and are great for tackling single monstrous creatures (esp. since the squad upgrade knocks one attack off). But S3 and T3, on top of a 5++ save, is just too flimsy. I'd pay 12 pts for them @ WS5, maybe.

In other news, Fiends and the Keeper of Secrets are lovely.

So a unit of 8 Bloodletters is not worth the points? What is the minimum number of troops and size pet squad you need to run at 1750 and above?

G

I gotta agree that daemonettes are a bit pricey for how long they live through that first round of shooting. Maybe if you could drop them out of LOS and then move and fleet before assaulting the next turn they would be fun, but as is, they just get splattered.

If you were hell bent on them, I might use multiple small squads, 5-6, so that any overflow wounds are wasted. Still... that is kind of reaching.

Green Blow Fly wrote:So a unit of 8 Bloodletters is not worth the points? What is the minimum number of troops and size pet squad you need to run at 1750 and above?

G

My problem is that a unit of 8 bloodletters usually was a one-shot deal. It landed, got shot, charged and killed one squad (maybe) and then died from enemy shooting. With 12-16, I can usually knock off 2-3 enemy squads before they get attritted to death.

Since I'm only running 3-4 squads of troops, I need my troops to stick around.

As demons are fearless it comes down to a KP issue. You could spam MSU and overwhelm the board with target saturation but then you could be giving away easy killpoints..

Although if they are never gonna run away (and just get extra stomped in H2H) then it might be viable?

Thanks Cent. Good thing I have an extra box of Bloodletters.

: )

G

I usually run squads of 10 daemonettes and 10 bloodletters.

But I want to try squads that are bigger just because I have noticed the squad survives till it gets into combat, but when it gets into combat its not as a devastating as it should be.

The only issue I am worried about is deep strike mishap. I'm going to give it a go next week though.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Shep wrote:demonettes (0) ...

This frustrates me to no end. The stats of Harliquins, yet the delivery system means they are doomed. (the rending nerf didn't help either)