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I'm new at Warhammer and my friend wants to play Daemons after failing at Grey knights. From what I heard from him, Chaos Daemons deep strike in the begining and own in close combat. So how do you beat that? They own my Eldar in all the tests I have done. Please help

Daemons can be played in many ways, only a few things are standard against all daemon fighting:

1.) Mob them with lots of shots. Dont worry about having low AP stuff, they dont have armor saves, but they all have invuln saves.
2.) Get the charge. Against tzeentch daemons it is good to charge them, against all others it denies them the extra attack.
3.) Dont take any dark reapers or fire dragons.

Against Khorne:
1.) Stay out of close combat at all costs, if you have to, mob them with guardians or hit them with a squadron of warwalkers or something. They have power weapons standard, and are just mean in CC.
2.) Dont use psychic powers that shoot people. Use guide and fortune if you have to.

Against Nurgle:
1.) Nurgle is the only faction you can use Howling Banshees, Bright Lances, and Fire dragons on with good effect, because it denies their FNP.
2.) They aren't dangerous in CC, but they stick around FOREVER. Also, everything is poisoned. EVERYTHING. Don't even touch the models, they're probably painted with poison. So dont use wraithguard or wraithlords.

Against Tzeentch:
1.) Dire Avengers with Defend will wreck tzeentch daemons, fly up, bladestorm, and charge the entrails of what's left.
2.) Dont take guardians. Flamers > Guardians.
3.) Watch out for fateweaver. He is nasty. Read his rules if you dont believe me.

Against Slaanesh:
1.) Howling banshees can be used here with decent effect, as that I10 is the only thing that you have that can strike first vs daemonettes. Wraithguard and Wraithlord are bad, because of their rending.
2.) Everything fleets. EVERYTHING.
3.) Mechanizing wont really help you escape, as they can kill your vehicle well too. Steal a friend's land raider, insist GW released some errata the made it legal, as Land raiders are the only vehicle they fear.

You BASTARD. Using a forum to defeat me!!! But seriously, You're Eldar. Run like hell. You already know my list. We calculated that on average the a bloodletter squad which I'm mobbing like hell will die from sustained fire from your squads. Don't bring heavy weapons to a CC fight you already know you can't win, because I don't have fleet. I can only move so much every turn.


I hate you now.

If you can, place as as many models as you can in transports; they have problems against transports. After they have deep striked, they are pretty slow and will have problems chasing you down. Keep mobile and shoot for as long as you can. Scatterlasers are great against most daemons due to the high ROF and strength.

Avoid combat as much as you can. None of your CC specialist can beat them in a even fight.

How many points are you playing?

500 for now, 1500 later (maybe)

mech eldar do very well vs daemons..skoot and shoot...

easy; shoot em! don't let em get the charge

Poor form fludit, using a forum to gain an unfair advantage.

But yeah, shoot them wiff ur gunz pew pew!

Put a lot of dakka in them and eventually they will die due to bad saves (expect Bloodcrusher, Greater Demons and Plaguebearers)

Canonness Rory wrote:Poor form fludit, using a forum to gain an unfair advantage.

HAHA!!!

Uhm, at 500 points, what are each of you bringing? It would seem that a farseer with doom coupled with bladestorming dire avengers would pretty much finish off all the "trooplier" demons as they come in.

Well I'm actually playing him with Dark Eldar. The reason I want to know is because I want to learn some Eldar stratigys, and I know nothing about Daemons. So I asked to see what makes daemons so special and how people have beaten that in the past. And I did.

We never tell each other until right before the game. We exchange lists and study them, so that way we can come up with strategies before the game, but we can't change our lists.

If you're playing dark eldar, then wyches work really well against, well all the demons. They are tough to take out in CC, and if he probably won't have much shooting to take advantage of their crap saves.

You guys should really play closer to 1500 points, ad 500 points makes for really one sided games.

How do 500 pt games make one sided games?

For the Deamon player may i suggest a prince or soul grinder?

I was thinking more of a bloodthirster. I have my list on my sig if you want to look. I actually intend to take the 1500 point list on it.

fludit wrote:How do 500 pt games make one sided games?

Because a good chunk of your points will be your troop choices, and his troop choices are a lot better than yours. If you take more points, you will be able to include a lot more specialized units, as well as mechanized ones.

Well, time to hit the codex. I need to make a 1500 pt Dark Eldar army by tomarow when we play. Maybe a warp portal army will be good? That or bring in my Eldar.

Just mob him with Dark Eldar Warriors w/ Blasters and such. They beat daemons on initiative mostly.

Also, Wyches and small squads of Reaper jetbikes isn't to bad either.


Just take a Talos though that puts a hurt on them as well.

Just take any mech army.

Foot army vs daemons = you're toasted.

since you are playing Dark Eldar I would suggest for an HQ taking a haemonculi on jetbike with siscorhands and destructor. Variable AP flamer = win and it comes out very inexpensive.

Well, with my Mechdar list + Council....I just show up. Deamons lose every time.

Honestly, Mechdar does not fear Deamons...at all.

fludit wrote:Well I'm actually playing him with Dark Eldar. The reason I want to know is because I want to learn some Eldar stratigys, and I know nothing about Daemons. So I asked to see what makes daemons so special and how people have beaten that in the past. And I did.

In this case, don't play his game. Don't go into the assault -- put all your guys in raiders and just fly to the other side of the board when he appears. Use ravagers with 3 small templates plus shuriken cannons to clear him out. When he gets to close, have a squad of witches or your archon to pound one squad into oblivion.

Hit and run tactics are how you win against demons.

@ OP - A high rate of fire shooting army works quite well in my experience, you just need to know your enemy and prioritize shooting.

A huge number of warriors would be great.

A daemon army starts with half it's guys DS on turn one and the rest DS throughout the game. Remember that they DON'T get to charge on the turn they arrive. You therefore get a turn to whittle down the unit or to get your nearest guys out of charge range.

Shoot whatever is closest!

So yeah, high rate of fire. As many guns as you can manage, doesn't matter if they're low AP or even low S a lot of the time, just make sure you're rolling lots of dice...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and use the terrain. Ideally, you want your army bunched together, surrounded by a big, empty area so you can make a no-man's land.

This way, if he wants to get the charge on you next turn, he needs to DS into the open. If he wants to protect his models with cover, he's too far away to charge you.

You bunch your army together (and near impassable terrain if poss) so that DS any models in the middle of your army becomes an extremely hazardous move...