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I know of warp quake, but once they land, whats the strategy for playing against an army that has 2++ in cc against force weapons? What are some fun / fluff / effective ways to play GK against Deamons? I plan on bringing a close combat henchmen squad with evicerator for one... what else? What special characters are good? Any fun interesting things in the codex to bring? Psychic powers specifically effective you've found?

Thanks!
EDIT
Alright I got worked by a Khorne DP heavy list. Seriously I need to come back on the rematch and own some deamons. No rock unturned, what are the tricks of this codex to take on the gnarliest deamon list imaginable??

Just turn up and you've won. There is only a select few with Blessing of the Blood god they can still be killed. Just by weight of attacks this time.

It would help if you told us the Points cost of the games you would be playing. But in short Daemons lose easy against GK.

I feel like the right deamon army would be a fun and fair fight. They've got powerweapon attacks on bloodletters, good weaponskill and fighting skills. Many deamons will be played and most have blessing of the blood god. Skulltaker etc... some crazy things like fiends, pink horrors etc.

Also we would probably be playing smaller games around 1000-1200.

Librarian. Dark excommunication. Doomfists are not NFWs (Dreadnoughts.) You could also use a shieldbreaker round if you want to cause a rules dispute.

But a dreadnought would be crushed by a deamon only having initiative 4 and armor 12.

You realize the only things that will tear a dread down (And they can/will in a hurry, yes.) with BOTBG is the bloodthirster or DP, right? Herald of khorne is S4. Skulltaker is S4.

If you are running into more of the former than the latter, disregard the dread. If on the other hand, the daemon players there run more heralds than MC daemons, well...hit it with a dread in the face.

I say MSU units to prevent the GK from concentrating and eliminating one unit.

Herald of Khorne on Judger or Chariots with +1S, Rending, Blessing. Not terrible on points and can bust anything in the game except 'liths.
Don't the hounds of Khorne get the blessing for free? Could be funny to use these agains GK.

Slannesh units aren't bad either, for volume of attacks and a greater chance to charge vrs Blood letters. Charging for demons is way more important with Psy-grenades everywhere (I1... really??!?). Just be warry of Psybolt storm bolters, 2+ to wound hurts T3 units.

Dark Excommunication = no BOTBG for you


drown the lesser deamons in bolter fire. those 5++ saves start to look absolutly horrible when you have to make a bajillion saves.


Larger deamons can be dealt with by Psycannons and simple CC. each wound you inflict will require a Ld test, even Ld10 fails 8.3% of the time.

an 8.3% chance to be removed from the table is not a nice odd. especially if you are making several of these tests.

You deal with BotBG in the movement (warp quake) and shooting phase (assuming you don't have DExc up).

Flesh hounds die horribly to S4-8 shooting, which GK have in spades at 24". It's also hard to build an army around a huge corps of flesh hounds unless you're tailoring for GK, so even if flesh hounds are present they're not going to be much better than a tarpit.

Bloodthirster/Daemon Prince can be shot to death on arrival by S6-8 pretty easily, which is psybacks, psycannons, and psyflemen.

Mass juggers are really slow, and easily blocked by transports--storm bolters and S6-8 shooting should simply pick them apart enough to be dealt with in CC, if they ever get there.

In short, unless it's a mono-khorne army with significantly front-loaded waves, I don't see how you get enough BotBG units onto the table to saturate GK shooting and achieve CC.

Alright I got worked by a Khorne DP heavy list. Seriously I need to come back on the rematch and own some deamons. No rock unturned, what are the tricks of this codex to take on the gnarliest deamon list imaginable??

2 Librarians with Dark Excommunication.

Some Dreadknights wouldn't hurt either.



concentrate on shooting.

they don't get the 2++ save against that. Psybolts and Psycannons.


the Libbies and DKs are for when they do close.

have 2 squads of terminators with Swords and Psycannons. Libby in each.

the libby can protect the Terminators from the 2++ save and power weapons while the terminators carve up. 4++ save is for the power attacks that can't be negated(DP attacks)



a couple of Strike or Interceptor squads can keep them from Deep Striking too close. Interceptors will also proove almost impossable to catch, meaning more shooting.

Alright so I've made a 1500 point list based off that idea... but it's 100 points over. What to cut?



Librarian = 155
- dark excommunication

Librarian = 155
- dark excommunication

Terms - 200

Terms - 200

Interceptor - 130

Interceptor - 130

Dreadnought - 2 autocannon w/psy = 135

Dreadnought - 2 autocannon w/psy = 135

Purifiers 2 psycannons rhino = 180
Purifiers 2 psycannons rhino = 180

SOFDC wrote:Librarian. Dark excommunication. Doomfists are not NFWs (Dreadnoughts.) You could also use a shieldbreaker round if you want to cause a rules dispute.

Nemesis Doomfists are indeed Nemesis Force Weapons. They are listed under that heading in the Wargear section of the GK codex.

You have to tailor GK to beat Daemons.... wow....

GK inherently hurt Daemons badly. You shouldn't need to tailor. Warp Quake is awful for Daemons. Move up and spread out. Use quake. Purifiers are also horrid for Daemons. Even high initiative units like Daemonettes go simultaneously with Halbreds and that's after Cleansing Flame. Also, if you charge them then they go at I1. Finally, you have Preferred Enemy against them.

There's no reason to tailor. Daemons are a decent list but not anywhere near as good as GK even before all the one sided stuff they have.

you don't HAVE to tailor, but certain things just arn't needed. like autocannon dreds.


more shots is preferable as you just need to overwhelm the Deamons invulns.


DE is a anti-deamon power, but its cheap enough to be taken in a TAC list.

JGrand - wow thanks cool!
I'm playing a friend who has tailored a Khornate DP HEAVY Blessing of the Blood God HEAVY chaos list to defeat GK. That list is clearly tailored to take on GK, its enemy. This thread is about that sort of dynamic. So it would be more appreciated if you gave helpful suggestions instead of inane bias. Thanks again!

@tldr
From the list you made, I would cut a uninkf purifiers and give Psycannons to your terminators. With relentless they'll shoot more from their 2 Psycannons than the Purifiers. Then get 3 more powers each for your librarians (perhaps might, sanctuary and warp rift). That's 80points and 100 more to bring you down to 1500. You'd then have only one rhino and would have the option to keep it or just drop it for unit upgrades (like combining the interceptors and getting psybolts and psycannons).

Doing these things would improve your shooting phase a lot. Hope that helps!

3 dreadknights > 3 Deamon MCs.

Paladins can take on hordes of other things. Draigo alone can make most deamons cry. Put them in a stormraven and you dictate the terms of assaults.

A list around Draigo, Paladins, stormraven, libby, and a pair of dreadknights will be nasty and also toss in a regular GK squad to keep off table in missions unless its objective with psychic communion. Also like previously said, dark excommunication gets rid of pesky things like blessing of the blood god and powerweapons on bloodletters or bloodcrushers.

JGrand - wow thanks cool!
I'm playing a friend who has tailored a Khornate DP HEAVY Blessing of the Blood God HEAVY chaos list to defeat GK. That list is clearly tailored to take on GK, its enemy. This thread is about that sort of dynamic. So it would be more appreciated if you gave helpful suggestions instead of inane bias. Thanks again!

You are asking how to further tailor an army that is already tailored to fight that specific army. It seems rather obvious but their list would help. As a Daemons player I fear:

1. Smart opponent deployment and Warp Quake. Normally Daemon players choose to take second turn. I'd choose first v GK if they were Strike or Interceptor Heavy. A dirty tactic you could use would be to take lots of Strikes and Interceptors. Take a GM and let the Interceptors scout. Cover the board turn 1 in Warp Quake. GG.

2. Purifiers. These guys are amazing as troops or elites. Halbred heavy means they are faster than his units. Cleansing Flame destroys Daemons because of low saves. 12 Daemonettes would lose 4 models before attacks even happen. Cross apply to other Daemon hoards.

3. Getting assaulted. GK have psych out nades. These make Daemons I1 when charged. So...yeah.

4. Land Raiders. Daemons don't have a reliable answer to heavy armor. I suppose 2 Thirsters could be nice but that list sounds bad to begin with.

5. Dark Excommunication. This power takes away all Daemonic Gifts. Which is basically everything good Daemons have.

These are 5 really easy things to do to tailor toward Daemons. Really, you already have nades, preferred enemy, and the fact that you are a 5th edition codex on your side. Tailoring further is almost a joke. Using point 1 makes the game just awful when you can pull it off. It's an auto win. At this point it is such an uphill battle for Daemons v GK that I just don't see the point to taking it further.

Thanks for a thoughtful reply.


First off, I would never do tactic one, as I am not that cheezy and he is my friend, not someone I'm trying to anger.

In the first time I've played heads up against this list, he wrecked halberd'd strike squads interceptor squads. Because when it comes down to it, ws4 vs ws4 with str 4 or 5 vs t 4 with a 4++ or 5++ means one to two deaths per close combat. Then the deamons strike with 4-5 attacks each and it's over for 5 grey knights. GK have all those built in things like psych grenades and preferred enemy because without them they are totally sunk vs deamons. Even with them, they don't perform that well. Purifiers are a good one but don't provide an instant win answer. Land raider is a good idea, or stormraven with hurricane bolters also good, but those are a ton of points.

If you fight daemons, don't try and assault them unless you have to. if you back up and use Psybolt powered storm bolters, you should be able to deal with most everything. Interceptors are your friends.