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Fellow Chaos followers, why this wonderful Gift isn't as popular as it should be? Your Daemon Prince actually gets an extra melee attack, but you can choose the victim yourself (within 6" range), and its WS or saves don't matter at all - only Toughness! With high BS, the Prince hits on 2+, and there are very nasty characters with low Toughness, but great saves (Dark Eldar, Eldar etc.) that can be instantly killed with Boon of Mutation.

The typical setup is Daemon Prince of Nurgle + Boon of Mutation + Iron Hide + Noxious Touch. It costs 180 points, which isn't very high for that melee monster. Daemonic Flight can also be added.
If you want to minimize costs, only Iron Hide is really needed, you may go without any Marks. Daemon Prince + Iron Hide + Boon is quite cheap for what it can do... What do you think?

Well, often, the stuff with T3 isn't as important to kill off in a hurry as the stuff with T5, or Armour.

Important targets for Boon = Canoness, Warlocks/Farseers, Commissars in blob squads, archons w/ shadowfield - I can't think of much else really.

How many of those are you really running into, that you can't take care of some other way given time? Can that 30 points be better spent elsewhere?

I think boon of mutation spam is a good intermediate tactic and will catch alot of people off guard. it's main limitation is the platforms you have to use to deliver it - they aren't the greatest choices in the book. alot of the really dangerous stuff you want to spawn are toughness 4 or better so it's only 1/3 effective against them. It's nice to have but I dont think it will work as an army's grand strategy.

on another note I've often wondered if you couldn't run a phalanx of big evil monsters out of that book. fate weaver skarbrand 3 demon princes w/mark of tzeentch.... hard to think of something that can stand up to that.
AF

Mech armies dont care much for boon of mutation.

If you do play guard, boon commisars or imperial commanders. Any named character boon as well. If you focus too much on boon, your going to suffer vs mech armies.

Redbeard wrote:Well, often, the stuff with T3 isn't as important to kill off in a hurry as the stuff with T5, or Armour.
Important targets for Boon = Canoness, Warlocks/Farseers, Commissars in blob squads, archons w/ shadowfield - I can't think of much else really.
How many of those are you really running into, that you can't take care of some other way given time? Can that 30 points be better spent elsewhere?

Let's calculate the probability of killing. Your DP shoud roll 2+ to hit (5/6 chance), and then the chosen model should roll 4+ for Toughness 3 (1/2 chance), 5+ for Toughness 4 (2/3 chance) or 6+ for toughness 5+ (5/6 chance). Total chance of killing is 41.67% for T3, 27.78% for T4 and 13.89% for T5+.
Now please evaluate the chance of killing an enemy character in "normal" close combat. You have to hit, then you have to wound, and then he can save (and he will generally have high save!) And all the mentioned is enough to inflict just one wound, while he generally have several! Even if you encounter a character alone, which is unlikely, your chance of killing it in one turn is generally much less than 13.89%. Thus, Boon of Mutation is very, very advantageous, even against T5+ characters. Even against T6+ monsters, since 6 is always a failure. What's wrong in having 13.89% chance of instantly-killing 300-point Ku'gath?
Why do you think 30 point is a lot for that? An extra melee attack for your DP would cost at least 20, and the Boon is much more powerful. Even if you won't catch enemy officer, the very fact that you choose the affected model makes it worth its cost. Normally your opponent removes rear models that don't participate in combat, and his number of attacks remains the same, but Boon can remove the vanguard model, thus removing its attack and, possibly, attacks of another model that was 2" away. You also can remove the musician, the only model with a power weapon, and so on.

I think boon of mutation spam is a good intermediate tactic and will catch alot of people off guard. it's main limitation is the platforms you have to use to deliver it - they aren't the greatest choices in the book. alot of the really dangerous stuff you want to spawn are toughness 4 or better so it's only 1/3 effective against them. It's nice to have but I dont think it will work as an army's grand strategy.

Nobody's talking about the grand strategy. You're right, the choices for the Boon aren't the greatest in the book. But, for instance, having a DP of Nurgle with Boon of Mutation can be very good in an all-Nurgle army with Epidemius. The army would benefit from non-Slow and Purposeful DP of Nurgle anyway, so you just have to spend 30 extra points
Now, how about the devious DP of Slaanesh with Iron Hide, Soporific Musk and Boon of Mutation? For 170 points you get an assassin that cannot be locked in close combat and will eventually get to the juicy enemy officers. Add Pavane to spoil the opponent's plans entirely

I've often wondered if you couldn't run a phalanx of big evil monsters out of that book. fate weaver skarbrand 3 demon princes w/mark of tzeentch.... hard to think of something that can stand up to that.

Yes, that's another reason for using the Boon. In large formats you're limited in slots, not in points

Ector
by all means use it. I dont think mutating things counts towards Epidamus' talley. It doesnt inflict a wound.
AF

AbaddonFidelis wrote:I dont think mutating things counts towards Epidamus' talley. It doesnt inflict a wound.

That's an interesting question! The ability text reads: "keep a count of all models killed by followers of Nurgle". There is nothing about wounds.

Ummmm... I can see both sides to that. I guess it's killed if it's mutated... If it hasn't been faqed then 4+?

I use Boon from fateweaver frequently enough. Sometimes it works well, took out a carnifex and a hive tyrant with it in one game, sometimes it doesn't seem to work at all. Good for taking out powerfists in the group of marines that assaulted you and such.

As for the mutated. Well, I don't have any models to use as spawns, on purpose. So I just have the target disappear, why give them a unit they can kill for an easy kill point?

because it's fun to taunt your opponents with spawn that bear a suspicious resemblance to their favorite hq......

I don't think you can abuse something that is under powered and over costed. If you have nothing else to spend 30 pts on one boon is kind of fun. But the more you pay for the farther behind the pack you get.

Ector wrote:Nobody's talking about the grand strategy. You're right, the choices for the Boon aren't the greatest in the book. But, for instance, having a DP of Nurgle with Boon of Mutation can be very good in an all-Nurgle army with Epidemius. The army would benefit from non-Slow and Purposeful DP of Nurgle anyway, so you just have to spend 30 extra points
Now, how about the devious DP of Slaanesh with Iron Hide, Soporific Musk and Boon of Mutation? For 170 points you get an assassin that cannot be locked in close combat and will eventually get to the juicy enemy officers. Add Pavane to spoil the opponent's plans entirely

DP's are a poor platform for Boon. They're slow, and if you want them in CC you really need to give them wings making them very very expensive when you start adding stuff like Boon.

I don't really think Boon (or Pavane come to that) has a place in an all comers list, purely because they're wasted points if you're facing a heavy mech opponent

Bartali wrote:I don't really think Boon (or Pavane come to that) has a place in an all comers list, purely because they're wasted points if you're facing a heavy mech opponent

Not all lists are mech, and just because he has Boon doesn't mean he doesn't have anything else to crack open tanks

If you go to use it on a Canoness don't forget they get a save against psychic attacks directed at them.

n0t_u wrote:If you go to use it on a Canoness don't forget they get a save against psychic attacks directed at them.

Fortunately it's not a psychic attack. None of the abilities in the CD codex are. And saves are to avoid wounds. So no save vs Boon, or Pavane.

As for pavane, I brought the masque to some of my games last weekend. She was really usefull in getting units to group up for my flamers, and walkers to turn around so other units could shoot them in the back with the bolt of tzeentch. It's sometimes useful. Just not as often as I'd like.

Lord Rogukiel wrote:

Bartali wrote:I don't really think Boon (or Pavane come to that) has a place in an all comers list, purely because they're wasted points if you're facing a heavy mech opponent

Not all lists are mech, and just because he has Boon doesn't mean he doesn't have anything else to crack open tanks

If you're taking Boon or Pavane it's either in the Heavy or HQ slots where Bolt normally goes. Relying on assault alone to pop tanks normally isn't a good idea