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I have never seen these played, does anyone really play them?

I picked up a couple boxes of Daemonettes as my reward for placing in the Ard Boyz Prelims, so I can start my second ever army, and figure I will make a Slaanesh army, or at least have the bulk of it be Slaanesh.

So that would be like :

Masque
Keeper of Secrets
LOTS of Daemonettes
Seekers
Fiends
Maybe a Demon Prince or two, have not decided. Maybe a Soul Grinder, does not seem to fit though.

Any suggestions on this? Am I missing something really important or interesting?

Daemons are rarely played because they're only good in close range combat, get torn up in anything else. They're basically a FB army in the 40k setting, except for Soul Grinders.

Horrors and Flamers are some of the best shooting units in the game. They are pretty well popular in a lot of areas, you just rarely see them in tournaments because they are the kind of army that will lose a game based solely on dice rolls.

It's funny, cause I was just thinking of working on a Slaaneshi Daemons army after seeing the old metal daemonettes being posted.

I don't honestly care for the new plastic daemonettes, to be honest, so I was looking around other miniature manufacturers' sites, and found some cool minis from Reaper Miniatures. Despite the minis being all metal, I figured out that I'd save over 200 dollars - but still spend nearly half a thousand once taxes were included - getting those Reaper minis over GW minis. Enh, a project to be done over the next few months, at least. ^_^

Mostly I'd be in it for the boobs, of course. Boooooooooooooooobs... Just like my Sisters of Battle, to be honest.

I play them, yet with the update of Grey Knights, it's nothing but an uphill battle the entire game, and there are some games where I can only deepstrike into a 1 foot by 1 foot box...

I hate you GK, may you all be disemboweled by Skulltaker.

However, Daemons are all about the dice. Your units are individually powerful, but if you whiff a single roll, it can be game over.

Let's take it from the start of the game shall we?

Deployment: You don't deploy, enemies set up defensive perimeter, or, in the case of mobile/GK armies, deny you deep-strike areas. Pray to the Gods that you make your favored reserves roll, or else the game becomes rough. Fail this roll, it can hinder you, Succeed this roll, "All according to plan..."

Turn 1: You drop down (if you got the bottom of turn two, that's one less shooting phase you have to suffer through, if not, be prepared to take heavy losses). It's here that your Fateweaver, Skulltaker, Bloodcrushers, Plaugebearers, ANYTHING, can get a mishap, best-case scenario, delayed a turn, worst case, DEAD/in corner of map for the rest of the game.

Turn 2: If you have top of turn two, you move your melee units forward, and attempt to kill what you can, or claim/contest objectives. If you have bottom, you will be shot at for not having been shot at last turn.

Turn 3: Usually your units (or what's left of them) start chewing through squads right now. Fateweaver (if he lived), is shrugging off whatever firepower is thrown at him with his 3++ re-rollable invuln, and is casting his 3 spells and popping tanks if he can.

Well, anyway... The point is, that Daemons are a risk-reward army. You need to play smart, and know what your units are capable of more-so than most other armies, because you can't afford losses too much with your expensive and fragile units. Fateweaver is usually played in 2000 point battles, simply because he adds much needed durability to your army, which it normally does not posess.

Daemons are colorful, and varied, with armies being very different, though usually based around some sort of core. Common lists include:

Epidemius lists
Triple Nurgle Princes
Slaanesh Daemonette hordes
Triple Soul Grinders
Double Bloodthirsters
4 Tzeentch Heralds
18 Fiend Blitz

The list goes on and on... The special characters are fun and unique, with the Masque being able to move up to 3 enemy units a turn. Epidemius is able to make Nurgle units stronger, and Fateweaver and his infamous ability to allow all friendly units re-rollable saves.

Daemons are fun, but their randomness just does not sit well with a competative environment, which needs consistency and reliablity, which Daemons often cannot give.

And yes, if you want to start Slaanesh, you will need Daemonettes, and lots of them, as well as fiends, Daemons armies are VERY pricey, with Fiends being something around 20 dollars a piece, and being one of the best units in the Codex, you're going to want a few.

Fun is what I am after, and I figure I can proxy My Little Ponies in the place of Fiends if I mount them on the big round bases.

Daemons are the definition of a fun army in 40k I think.

Also worth pointing out that Fateweaver lists are evil...

I play mine with great success against all (well
Maybe not grey knights tbh) they're fun and a challenge to work, but very powerful when they do, I think give it a bit till people stop having GK as flavor of the month and they'll be fun again

My slaanesh daemons do fine outside of tournaments, its nice that even the basic girls can kill vehicles in close combat because of their rending.

I have my daemons and I love them to no end. I typically run a tzetch/slanesh or tzetch/khorne army for my melee and shooty death combo. They are chaotic and fun. Its much like orks in that if you win, great, if not? A lot of stuff died and it was fun. I will attest it sucks when a 5 man unit of crushers with skulltaker whiff into a cliff and you loss them, but the scatter rolls are all about the skill of being able to mitigate risks. On the flip side, it can make for some seriously awesome happenings on occasion.

They arent so good in competition, as a bad set of dice rolls will leave you stranded. Even with a lot of skill, there are some times you can just get screwed with them. But in a fun 1v1, they are so much fun. A 2v2, your friend will usually get stomped while waiting for you to appear, and then you clear the board. a 3v3, its about even gameplay as if you had classic army.

If you get a soul grinder, get 2 or 3. One isnt enough and gets all of the vehicle hate on the board. Fiends are your best friends in a slanneshi army. The models blow, but if you can model some substitutes, you should be fine. I personally made up some sick medusa looking beasts. (ravener lower body/deamonette torsos) and for the 18 of them, i paid about as much as 3-3.5 of the metal models would have run me. Be creative.

Mono god armies are kind of hard to pull off. Not that the deamons arent good, but its kind of a one trick pony then. And if the enemy has any way to counter that army set, they capitalize on you in spades. Much like no one often runs a guard list without tanks. It can work, but sometimes it fails, epically.

You may want to think of getting a unit of horrors or a unit of PBs. I found the masque is awesome at pulling a heavy weapon squad in the open where some pink horrors mulch them. or DPs if you give them daemonic gaze (heavy bolter) And PBs give you some high toughness stuff to hold objectives. I find my slanesh armies have a hard time hold objs.

@shimraa

Awesome amount of information. Thank you, that gives me some things to consider.

The problem with daemons besides their small amount of shooters is the problem of GK, which they really have no way to combat effectively.

I play all slaanesh daemons from time to time and I've found that 2 keepers are waaaaaaay better than masque as she's a kill point waiting to happen.

your biggest advantages with slaanesh are your speed and EVERYTHING in your army can pop a tank due to rending (something most people forget :/).

seekers should be used as tank hunters or picking on small units and let the fiends handle anything big. the fact that seekers can have a 24" charge is pretty scary and means you dont have to be too close to your opponent. same with the fiends (though they only have 18") so deploy near cover and farish from your enemy

dont bother with grinders as they become the focus of every lascannon and melter in your opponents list

here's the list I tend to play with:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/351673.page

At a higher points level I would take 2 KOS’s, the heralds only there cos she’s cheap and fast

Durza wrote:The problem with daemons besides their small amount of shooters is the problem of GK, which they really have no way to combat effectively.

Really?

Not the fact that they all have an Inv. save?
Not the fact that Khorne demons get a 2+ save against them?
Not fact that they all have eternal warrior?

And you say that they have no way to combat them effectively? That is interesting.

If you want to things Slaaneshi there's always counts as.

I currently play and love my daemons. They are phenomenal in fun games, and mine fare quite well in tournaments.
All Slaanesh will be a hard list to play honestly, but they can roll a ton of rending dice.... I only have enough of one god and thats khorne. Playing 1 god is truly a ton of a fun with daemons, it can be hard, but each god gives you the ability to hypothetically kill any unit in the game.
I would agree that fiends that of course a very good unit, but be weary that a 5+ invuln is not that sturdy. So if you dont kill whatever you are charging, they will probably do a bunch of wounds back. So I would advice helping your fiends with a squad of daemonettes to throw a ton more attacks in there.

DPBellathrom, Keepers are very strong in the fact they have very high I, but you need to give them musk so they can hit and run. With fleet they can charge a good amount of stuff.
Seekers are useful, but do not ever run them in small groups. Run them in 10 or larger, in a squad of less than 10, they will get mowed down to bolter fire.
Also, I dont know why DPBellathrom says that seekers and fiends have a different charge range, they are both cavalry/beasts. Which have a 6 inch move, d6 fleet, and a 12 inch charge. So they have a the same charge capabilities. Not sure where you are getting the definitive 18 inches from bud.

Grinders and princes are hard to choose between, for a mono god list of slaanesh I would go all grinder, or all princes. Grinders would give you some str 10 melee that would destroy raiders and instant death anything. Which Slaanesh has none of since it is all rending you wont ID anything. Plus you have zero shooting with fast attack, troops, HQ, so having a 36 inch battle cannon, or a 24 inch railgun would open up some tanks for you to charge. But 3 soulgrinders can be effective if screen correctly, along with 3 princes. But If you want slaanesh, I would give them hide, wings, mark of slaanesh(obviously) and musk so they can hit and run out of any bad combats, or simply 5 pt aura of aq so they go at initaive always. If you want to ge tmore expensive and want to play around, buy them pavane. They will be 210 points, but they then can fly 12, pavane d6, and charge 6. They are essentially monstrous creatures with a cavalry/beast threat range.


Wall of text....

Durza, i think you would be surprised how well a solid fatecrusher list can do against GK lists. I have ran mine in the past 3 tournaments and I am 2-0 against GK players, massacred both of them. 1 Used purifier spam, and the other had a mix of purifiers and strike squads, both with tons of AC dreads. You just have to be MUCH more aggressive than normal. I honestly dropped my entire ard boyz first wave 8 inches from the GK players flank. He spent the entire time wiping a squad of a crushers, I counter charged with a bloodthirster and a khorne prince with BotBG and he couldn't hurt either with their 2+ invuln to force weapons. Khorne is making a comeback

Regarding blackmoors comments, he is partially correct. All invuln saves is amazing since your power weapons mean nothing. Sadly bloodletters, and bloodcrushers do not have the blessing of the blood god, nor can you upgrade them to have it. Only princes(which everyone takes nurgle or bolt tzeentch), bloodthirsters can upgrade for it(which i do), flesh hounds(which are unfortunately pretty garbage against most good armies, and heralds of khorne which no one takes. So about half ot he khorne stuff can have the blessing. But if you get a bloodthirster in a melee vs 10 purifiers or hell, 10 strikes, or whatever, he will probably wipe them.
Also yes blackmoor is correct that eternal warrior is amazing

Make sure if you go that route, use large squads of deamonettes, sot that after they are shot at ya got some of the squad left.

I always give them musk :3

Also fiends are beasts so they dont have fleet.....or I might be reading things again =_=

All beasts/cavalry are fleet.

Well played my first Daemons game vs Tau, we tied. it was 4 objectives.

The fiends never got into assault, and so did nothing. I will have to try them again.

However, the Seekers did fine, and they are way less expensive. Pretty similiar overall, and nearly half the points. So I am thinking, more seekers.

I ran the Daemonettes in squads of 20, except one which was 15 strong. By the end of the game, I had exactly 3 of them left, but they were on an objective.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Well played my first Daemons game vs Tau, we tied. it was 4 objectives.

The fiends never got into assault, and so did nothing. I will have to try them again.

However, the Seekers did fine, and they are way less expensive. Pretty similiar overall, and nearly half the points. So I am thinking, more seekers.

I ran the Daemonettes in squads of 20, except one which was 15 strong. By the end of the game, I had exactly 3 of them left, but they were on an objective.

You did the right thimg with the Deamonettes, and they died; which is what you should expect. All Slaaneshi Deamons are brittle in combat, and they die faily easily. That said, they usually kill lots in return. You are right about seekers. They are, I have found, almost the equal of Fiends but much cheaper; call it blasphomey, but consider replacing them with Flamers...

Son_Of _Deddog wrote:

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Well played my first Daemons game vs Tau, we tied. it was 4 objectives.

The fiends never got into assault, and so did nothing. I will have to try them again.

However, the Seekers did fine, and they are way less expensive. Pretty similiar overall, and nearly half the points. So I am thinking, more seekers.

I ran the Daemonettes in squads of 20, except one which was 15 strong. By the end of the game, I had exactly 3 of them left, but they were on an objective.

You did the right thimg with the Deamonettes, and they died; which is what you should expect. All Slaaneshi Deamons are brittle in combat, and they die faily easily. That said, they usually kill lots in return. You are right about seekers. They are, I have found, almost the equal of Fiends but much cheaper; call it blasphomey, but consider replacing them with Flamers...

Yup. Seekers do pretty well, honestly. Their statline isn't as good in most departments as a Fiend's, individually, but you can take about 2 of them for every Fiend you can take, and they're a lot easier on the wallet.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:I have never seen these played, does anyone really play them?

I picked up a couple boxes of Daemonettes as my reward for placing in the Ard Boyz Prelims, so I can start my second ever army, and figure I will make a Slaanesh army, or at least have the bulk of it be Slaanesh.

So that would be like :

Masque
Keeper of Secrets
LOTS of Daemonettes
Seekers
Fiends
Maybe a Demon Prince or two, have not decided. Maybe a Soul Grinder, does not seem to fit though.

Any suggestions on this? Am I missing something really important or interesting?

Actually soul grinders with tongue attacks are very slaanesh and will help to bring some ranged fire power to your force. Without soul grinders or any tzeentch horrors you are severely lacking in any ranged ability. Most of the slaanesh psychic attacks are relatively short ranged. Without too much ranged ability you will need to use cover constantly when you deep strike and move towards your opponents since you can't assault on the turn you deep strike.

When the dice go your way a daemon force that includes all 4 powers can be overwhelming. I find that forces focused on a single chaos power are still capable, but not as overwhelming when the dice go your way.

Take your list as is. Add in a couple soul grinders with tongue attacks an at least 1 daemon prince and have fun with the army. Just know that most of your model's special abilities and gifts will likely be invalidated against a lot of different Grey Knights units. Chaos daemons and Grey knights don't mix well for the daemon player.

Skriker

The tongue may be Slaaneshi, but BS 3 with a 25 point shot is kinda crap. Go with the phlegm (Nurgly, I know) for the same cost as a S8, AP3 large blast. Far better. Also, Flamers are not blasphemy, unless you want a 100% Slaanesh list. And yes, seekers are great. I've run them multiple times and they've always been worth it. Do I always use them? No. But that book has so much to offer, I've cycled through everything except the following: plain daemon princes, khorne daemon princes, Ku'Gath and regular GUOs, Beasts of Nurgle, Furies. Furies aren't bad, I just have better uses for my FA slot.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Skriker wrote:
Take your list as is. Add in a couple soul grinders with tongue attacks an at least 1 daemon prince and have fun with the army.

Unfortunately, this isn't great advice. Mixing Soul Grinders and Princes does not work well. The general concensus is 3 of one or the other. Soul Grinders are your only vehicles on the table, and as such will eat every melta gun, Lascannon and Railgun type weapon in the game. Run three, or leave em at home. Princes have more wounds and typically last longer, but if you mix and match, you only offer your opponents more options in this case of the big nasties that need to die. This combo lets your opponent use anti tank against the grinders and anti-monster against the princes. Make him focus on one, rather than splitting to his heart's desire. A tournament list should be able to meet any challenge-don't make it easier for him

timetowaste85 wrote:Unfortunately, this isn't great advice. Mixing Soul Grinders and Princes does not work well. The general concensus is 3 of one or the other. Soul Grinders are your only vehicles on the table, and as such will eat every melta gun, Lascannon and Railgun type weapon in the game. Run three, or leave em at home. Princes have more wounds and typically last longer, but if you mix and match, you only offer your opponents more options in this case of the big nasties that need to die. This combo lets your opponent use anti tank against the grinders and anti-monster against the princes. Make him focus on one, rather than splitting to his heart's desire. A tournament list should be able to meet any challenge-don't make it easier for him

Who said anything about tournies?? If you back up in the thread you will clearly see this list is designed solely for *fun*. Adding in grinders and a daemon prince gives some more tactical options and adds to the flavor of the army. Same for the tongue attack. Yep grinders will be targets of the big guns, so will daemons. Having 3 of the lot in any combination still offers up 3 big juicy targets to the big guns, regardless of what they are. There is no sound tactical advantage to having only 3 of one of the other and not mixing and matching. Your logic doesn't make much sense at all.

Either way since this list is about fun that is what I suggested: something that will add further character to a solely slaaneshi force to stick with its theme and to cover all the bases.

Skriker