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Okay, well I'm finally making the shift from 40K to Fantasy after several of my gaming friends have told me it'll be good to play something new. With this in mind, I'll be playing my Daemons of Chaos army as a total novice to this game, basically I've got a grasp on many of the basic rules and some of the more in depth ones, but have no actual experience as to what works on the table.

So, baring in mind I'll be up against experienced players and fully expect to suck and fail in equal measure in my first game, what advice can the experts of Dakka give me about playing the Daemons?

Are there any units that tend to be particularly effective? Any that aren't worth much?

Any other basics are welcome too, though also note I'm not looking to create some all conquering cheese army that requires no thought (If such a thing is possible in Fantasy?), just a balance of ideas that leaves me with a fighting chance until I can figure the game out for myself.

Plaguebearers are a bit ropey these days, as the Ward and Regen do not stack.

Bloodletters in Horde munch, well...pretty much everything, and take forever to kill.

Something to bare in mind when purchasing your army...you only get VPs for wiping the unit out. And against Daemons, that inevitably involves getting up close and personal. And when in a Horde, that's a LOT of killing I need to do!

Just beware of units with lots of low S attacks. Dropping Daemons (well, Lesser Daemons) is no different to them than Elite infantry. And being considerably cheaper than most Daemons, numbers willl be on their side. T3 and A1 for the most part can be bad!

Thanks for the advice, I've been looking into which core units to take, and noticing they're generally more expensive than some of my opponents, so I expect to have less overall (Especially against the Skaven I've seen! So many rats...).

Just out of curiosity, each core unit seems to gain a bonus from having an appropriate Herald nearby, is that something worth looking out for, or is it a negligible effect?

heralds - pretty much mandatory for any infantry block. the bonus you get for having a herald of the right kind in the block is mandatory (think ork mobz without a nob , you could do it but who would)

due to current meta game and a cubic but ton of skaven players at most stores who might want to think about a slaanesh heavy army. the ability for a slaanesh army to leadership bomb steadfast units is pretty awesome.

demon princes in fantasy are ftl. our heralds are mandatory and depending on the point level greater demons can be awesome.

your going to need some magical defense. even if you really really want to play mono khorne the other players ability to effect the board through magic can be pretty major. a unit of 30 plus horrors and a standard or a level 4 caster of some kind is almost auto include just for defense. if you want to be offensive a few power vortexs are nice. a HoT with MoS - Life is very very nice for keeping your uber expensive units around longer.

Stay away from nurgle(honestly until the give nurgle a way to get their save rerolls they are just bad)

Your lord is going to have a very large impact on how your army runs, as they are all very different in ability and power.

Tzeentch is all about magic, the Lord of Change is a threat both in the magic phase and in combat, and Tzeentch's daemonic abilities are the opponent's wizard's worst nightmare. Spells are alot stronger from the Lore of Tzeentch than others, such as the base spell doing 1D6+1 hits at 1D6+1 Strength, Bolt of change capable of doing 12 hits at Strength 10 (if you roll lucky), and Firestorm of Tzeentch creating more Horrors from the enemies fallen. Flaming attacks are also hell for Wood Elf players.

I personally prefer the Keeper of Secrets over the Bloodthirster, as the KoS is a wizard too, and has plenty of Leadership reducers. Focus your Slaaneshi forces on the opponents general - any units within range MUST use their general's Ld, even if its lower. KoS also has AP attacks, so armour saves take a -4 penalty. Coupled with ASF at Init 10 and WS 9, you'll be dishing out 6 attacks with a +3 to hit with re-rolls, against standard units wounding on a 2+ and likely denying any chance of an armour save.

The Bloodthirster still has plenty of power, but overall I think the KoS is better. 6 attacks with re-roll is better than 7 attacks, IMO, and Magic Resistance isn't worth it over being able to cast spells. The Bloodthister also has heavy armour too, though its likely that strong attacks will be focused at it so it won't have that much use when against S 5 attacks or better.

The Great Unclean One is such a painful thing to fight against (especially for me as a WoC player - no shooting units). It has 10 Wounds, so can take a huge amount of punishment, and with the poinsoned attacks, gifts and spells of Nurgle, it is not what you want to go up against. In CC he does only have a WS and A of 4, but other abilities more than make up for it. Miasma of Pesilence reduces all models in base contact to WS, S, T, A and I of 1, allowing him to demolish opposition and characters easily. I have seen Rancid Visitation demolish entire units in a turn, and Plague Wind halt units as their fallen become nurglings.

Overall, The Lords are very different, LoC doing alot range-wise and to opponents wizards, Bloodthirster and KoS being monsterous in CC, and GUO simply a slow-moving unstoppable force.

Daemonettes with herald get ASF, and with the reroll to hit thanks to their high I vs most enemies, they can really tear a hole in most non super heavy armoured units.

4 bloodcrushers + herald with the weapon that gives flaming is a brutal, brutal hammer unit.