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And as if that's not strange enough, she's interested in playing them in friendly 40k games.
I was looking at a DE army for her, but she seems to really like how ugly the Deamons are.
Would you guys consider this an appropriate starter army for a new player.

If she likes them, why not?
you do realize that DE are probably the hardest army to start with, right?

Yeah, that's what I hear, and is part of the reason why I haven't jumped on a starter army yet.

I like your wife.

Right?
She's so surprising.
I mean, I knew she was cool, but damn!
Anyway, what do you guys think?
Are the CD something you would give to a starting player?
Do they ever win by merit of their general power level?
We aren't talking Necrons #2 are we?

matphat wrote:Right?
She's so surprising.
I mean, I knew she was cool, but damn!
Anyway, what do you guys think?
Are the CD something you would give to a starting player?
Do they ever win by merit of their general power level?
We aren't talking Necrons #2 are we?

They can win quite easily given the right units and the right opponent. Really depends what she wants to run, honestly. Its not a starter army by any means; their troops are vunerable to shooting, the big critters are powerful but get focus fired down quickly, and you gotta mix and match gods to get the most versatile army to fight with.

That being said, for a starter army, I'd recommend Tzeentch/Slaneesh. Some shooty and quick assaulty units work well together

How shooty can that army get?
Is it best to combine shooty and CC or could you just go shooty?

Wouldn't daemons be a little tricky for a new player as well as DE?

Why not try some nurgle choas marines

matphat wrote:How shooty can that army get?
Is it best to combine shooty and CC or could you just go shooty?

Very shooty.

10 Horrors = 30 shots a turn. They're fragile (t3) and expensive for a daemon troop (17 pts/ea). Plus 1 guy can shoot a str 8 ap 1 shot, but at BS3.

Its best to combine gods, like I said. You need assaulty stuff to bail out your not assaulty stuff for daemons; if horrors get into CC they will get mowed down quickly. Fiends, daemon princes, keepers of secrets, etc. combined with tzeentch shooty units can do pretty well. a full unit of fiends gets 30 str 5 attacks at ws 5/I5!

Sounds pretty great actually.
Plus she is really excited to paint them.
What would you suggest for a starter 500pt army?

matphat wrote:Sounds pretty great actually.
Plus she is really excited to paint them.
What would you suggest for a starter 500pt army?

Try this:

Herald of Tzeentch on Chariot - Bolt of Tzeentch - 90 pts
Fiends of slaneesh x 5 - 150 pts
5x horrors of tzeentch - bolt - 95 pts
5x horrors of tzeentch - bolt - 95 pts

Cost: 430 pts

I'd recommend possibly getting some daemonettes to flush it to 500. Note that fiends are EXPENSIVE if you don't convert them, and you'll have to convert the herald on chariot. This list would do well tho, you can pop tanks and shoot up people, and fiends will nom-nom anything they touch. I don't have my dex atm so sorry if points are off a bit

I have to say Deamons are a hard starter army to play only because i restarted the game and choose them to start back up with. The best way to use them is with fateweaver and bloodcrushers

any army for starters is hard if you're dumb and fairly easy if you're smart. its not the army its the person.

Go for it! GET THOSE DAEMONS!!!!

For a starting force I'd sit down with your wife with the CD codex and first, show her all the pictures to find the models she likes best.
When she picks a unit, write down a potential unit set-up for it and start building a list.
Aim to get 500 points with this, it doesn't matter whats in it.

For the next 500 points make sure you do the following (if the following points are not fulfilled yet)
1) 2 Troops and 1 HQ. If she didnt pick these out in the models she likes then tell her that she needs to at least fill these choices and do so.
2) See if she has so far angled towards one or two gods and make sure she knows about the units she passed on from that/those gods.
3) Take a look at what you have so far and try to fill out the list to cover tactical situations, For instance, maybe she has no way to deal with heavy tanks in the units she has chosen. So explain this and show her what units can do this, and how, and how effiective they are at it.
4) Repeat 3 as many times as needed to round out the list and cover all the bases.
5) Use up any spare points or shave points off if you went over to get a decent 1k list.
6) Test the army with Proxies, let her use it, present her with a mix of different situations and talk to her about what she thinks the list needs to change. Being first games, go slow, explain EVERYTHING you do, even if it gives away tactical insight. "I'm moving these guys, there really good at XX but vulnerable to YY" etc.
It could be she couldn't kill any terminaters reliably so explain what units she could swap out and play again.

By the end of this you should have an army list that your wife has (mostly) chosen herself (with your help) that consists of some powerful units, and some units that are included simply because the look so god-damn cool. In the end, i think this may be a better (also longer) way to get her an army as it will be HER army rather that one you prefer, or someone on the net prefers.

I more or less did this with my Fiance's army. She wanted Eldrad because she liked the fluff, she wanted wraithguard because she liked how tough they can be, she liked wraithlords because of how cool they looked and she liked guardians because i told her i could make a weapon platform from a pit pony so she has a pony cannon. So thats alot of points already... she settled on Yriel after i explained the whole iyanden theme and his ability to be able to explode all over marine units. We didnt need proxies as i already had an Eldar army but shes played a few games and tweaked it here and there, its not fully finalised as she works most evenings so misses most game nights but its getting there.

Zid wrote:

matphat wrote:Sounds pretty great actually.
Plus she is really excited to paint them.
What would you suggest for a starter 500pt army?

Try this:

Herald of Tzeentch on Chariot - Bolt of Tzeentch - 90 pts
Fiends of slaneesh x 5 - 150 pts
5x horrors of tzeentch - bolt - 95 pts
5x horrors of tzeentch - bolt - 95 pts

Cost: 430 pts

I'd recommend possibly getting some daemonettes to flush it to 500. Note that fiends are EXPENSIVE if you don't convert them, and you'll have to convert the herald on chariot. This list would do well tho, you can pop tanks and shoot up people, and fiends will nom-nom anything they touch. I don't have my dex atm so sorry if points are off a bit

That is a truly evil looking list.
+1.

Been reading the codex and wow, this list does look quite scary.
Question, because I'm new to the deployment rules of Daemons, (All in reserve?!), it seems like this would be a huge issue in small games like 500pt.
What is your input on this?

You can Deep Strike anywhere, so she should be fine. I once Played a Daemons player as IG at 750 points and I had reasonable trouble getting the "OMGWTFBBQ" rapetrain out of my face. You shoulda seen the look on my face when the Soulgrinder pooped right in front of my formation.

It's not that much of a big deal to be honest. Essentially, half your army deep strike in your first turn, the rest arrive as reserves. Sometime you get the half you want in turn 1, sometime you don't. The randomness is part of the fun..

matphat wrote:Been reading the codex and wow, this list does look quite scary.
Question, because I'm new to the deployment rules of Daemons, (All in reserve?!), it seems like this would be a huge issue in small games like 500pt.
What is your input on this?

once you get used to it, its not that big of an issue. Just be conservative when deep striking your "good" stuff lol