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Putting my list and models together. Mostly just buying what I like at the moment. Problem is I like both Soul Grinder model and Daemon Prince models. So far I have Skulltaker w/ juggernaught, tze herald, 20x bloodletters, 20x pink horrors and 2x daemon princes which can double as Bloodthirster. Is there a place for any Soul Grinders or just stick with Daemon Princes? Any links to battle reports with said units would be great as well.

My personal preference is Daemon Princes, based on this simple philosophy:

1 lucky lascannon will fell a Soul Grinder

It takes 4 to do it to a DP.

Soul Grinders suck pretty badly IMHO.

As soon as they come down they start taking lascannons, vindicator templates, and meltaguns to the face, (or other equivalents) and will usually die before they get to shoot more than once.

Big picture, both of them will be fairly equivalent. SG is immune to small arms but Melta is a bigger issue whereas the DP is the reverse.

Tactically, I'd pick the SG if you want a Battle Cannon or you're strapped for points as the naked SG is a better/faster buy then any other DP you can make for the same point cost.

Model-wise, I'd go with the SG simply because you already have 2 DPs, that is assuming you like how the SG looks.

Dark eldar will shred daemon princes with their poison weapons. Sure the walker can be popped by a lucky shot from a lascannon, so can any vehicle but mech is very popular. The walker is immune to bolters and lasguns which is a good trade for being vulnerable to higher strength weapons. A great way to utilize walkers is to keep them back and protect your troops. If a meltagun gets up close then charge that unit the next turn. Dropping Grinders up close to the enemy line is an invitation for disaster.

Personally I like to run two Grinders fully loaded and one winged Prince. The walkers sit back and shoot, protecting the lesser daemons while the prince protects the Grinders.

BloodThirSTAR, the problem is that, in the abstract, you are right. However in the real DoC lists out there, the poison/small arms fire is already good against your army. The meltas and las cannons aren't really. So you are opening up your list to a weakness that it doesn't have.

The best builds of DoC are going to have redundancy. A 'thirster or kairos in the HQ slot lets you overwhelm the small arms fire and makes you essentially immune to the melta. Anytime you can make melta guns and las cannons bad, you should take it. Don't let them become good! Take DPs!!

Soul grinders are cheap and beat face... nuff said

It really comes down to how many points you are playing. At about 1850 and above, there is just too much anti-tank for 3 Soul Grinders to last longer than the turn they drop. At or below that they are amazing and give us the anti-swarm we desperately need. Plus, it is always fun to assault something that can't hurt it.

Yea its all about the points your playing and if you want heavy fire support or not. Alot of daemons are only close combat so soul grinder would be good to have for long range support. As for the melta guns and stuff, I play eldar the only experience i have with daemons is because my girlfriend plays them and as far as vehicle survivability goes I run war walkers which are Fa 10 Sa 10 Ra 10 and In the games where I have had war walkers present I havent had a single casualty yet. Keep soul grinder in back he'll survive just fine.

At 1500 points or less I like to use 2 or 3 soul grinders. The lower the points, the more devastating they are. Keep in mind that SGs ignore 1 out of 3 penetrating hits and most glances. Its like having a 5+ invuln on them.

From around 1500 and up, the enemy starts bringing too much AT, and those are your only "tanks", so at that point I prefer daemon princes.

If you do a search or click through on my name you'll find a lot of daemon battle reports, some with grinders, some with daemon princes.

The one rule I have with grinders and princes is never mix the two, you either take 3 grinders or you take 3 princes, there's no middle ground.

Other than that it depends on the rest of your army build. I wrote some stuff for someone that got posted up on bols a while back talking about the uses of the much maligned soul grinder

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/09/40k-warmasters-corner-soulgrinder.html

Might I suggest neither and load up on other options?.... like more Bloodcrushers, lawl.

In your case bring more Princes. They're a cheap source of MCs for the Daemon List. The Heavy Support section is good for supporting mono-god armies due to the Soul Grinders and Princes supporting the various drawbacks of mono-gods while still remaining "fluffy". However for a mixed army there are much better options. Bloodcrushers can do CC stuff for much cheaper than a Prince. They might lack the 2D6 penetration but you can bring in two or three crushers for the same cost of a lone prince. In all other cases they are just as effective as Princes in close combat. Range wise, Flamers and Horrors can fulfill the Prince's shooting responsiblities (although they lack the prince's Bs5 and access to Daemonic Gaze, they are even cheaper than crushers so it evens out).

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:In your case bring more Princes. They're a cheap source of MCs for the Daemon List. The Heavy Support section is good for supporting mono-god armies due to the Soul Grinders and Princes supporting the various drawbacks of mono-gods while still remaining "fluffy". However for a mixed army there are much better options. Bloodcrushers can do CC stuff for much cheaper than a Prince. They might lack the 2D6 penetration but you can bring in two or three crushers for the same cost of a lone prince. In all other cases they are just as effective as Princes in close combat. Range wise, Flamers and Horrors can fulfill the Prince's shooting responsiblities (although they lack the prince's Bs5 and access to Daemonic Gaze, they are even cheaper than crushers so it evens out).

I'd argue that the main reason to take Daemon Princes is that they're MCs which allows you to bust tanks easier. 95% of the Daemon codex is geared to killing infantry so its never something you have to build for but they do have a serious lack of good tank destroyers and especially for AV14. Daemon Princes are one of the few options outside of Greater Daemons and Screamers.

Very kool info, thanks guys. I will be using 3x Soul Grinders under 1.5K and 3x Daemon Princes at 2K and higher. This will justify me getting the models I want.