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I'm currently considering making a Tzeentch based army, with the advent of the new Chaos codex around the corner, and I was planning to run some Horrors as part of my allied troops from the Daemons codex. My question is, how effective are they? I've played against Daemons a few times, but plaguebearers were almost always the troop of choice. So, does anyone use them? Are they effective?

I use them in mono-Tzeentch lists and I will say...they're alright.

Assuming you play against MEQ, their invulnerable save and shooty attack means you can be reasonably sure that they will hold back-field objectives fairly well. They can soak up damage and an Assault 3 S4 main weapon is enough to take down small threats.

Against anything with an armour save 4+ or worse for default, they're even better. They can hold objectives, and use a large amount of firepower to threaten anything that tries to take it. Also being deamons, you can deepstrike them whenever you like. Against T3 and 4+ or worse, a squad of 5 will lay down 5 wounds at up to 18", which is pretty sweet.

The best thing about horrors though is the ability to take the Changeling. That guy rocks.

 Testify wrote:
I use them in mono-Tzeentch lists and I will say...they're alright.

Assuming you play against MEQ, their invulnerable save and shooty attack means you can be reasonably sure that they will hold back-field objectives fairly well. They can soak up damage and an Assault 3 S4 main weapon is enough to take down small threats.

Against anything with an armour save 4+ or worse for default, they're even better. They can hold objectives, and use a large amount of firepower to threaten anything that tries to take it. Also being deamons, you can deepstrike them whenever you like. Against T3 and 4+ or worse, a squad of 5 will lay down 5 wounds at up to 18", which is pretty sweet.

The best thing about horrors though is the ability to take the Changeling. That guy rocks.

Oh for 5p the changeling is possibly the best priced upgrade in the game!
I have always expected little to nothing from my horrors except sit on objectives and die, and they've always done cheerfully well. The only time they've fluffed it was when I deepstriked 2 blocks of 10 next to 20 orks who's wagon had just been wrecked by a DP's bolt of change, and i hit 6 times.

That's 60 shots. I got 6 hits. Needless to say my horrors got butchered. But outside that one time, My horror's have provided surprisingly good assistance with their firepower. More damage than my bloody plague bearers ever did.

Considering the other troop choices in the codex, ie Bloodletters, daemonettes and plaguebearers, they are the only ones with shooting attacks en-mass. They are well priced and a good unit for what they do. The added invul save means they can take more punishment than daemonette and the letters but are pretty much on par with the plaguebearers now. Changling does do wonders for them and is well worth the points for the upgrade, especially when you get the heavy weapons, dev or havoc squad to shoot one or their own units. With the release of the "new" flamer units it would be much better to get a squad of those guys in addition to the Horrors, point dependent.

The horrors should have the job of a support and holding objectives, sometimes moving on to hostile objectives with the support of other units, like chaos space marines....

You can never go wrong with Horrors if you want any shooting in your army.
This really goes without saying.

Alright, sounds good then. Seems like I'll only want one unit of them.

I do plan to add a unit of Flamers and Screamers, depending on the Chaos Codex.

What's the recommended size for unit of Horrors? 10 seems about right.

 Sasori wrote:
What's the recommended size for unit of Horrors? 10 seems about right.

Nine, duh.

(The holy number of Tzeentch.)

With the changes to slow and purposefull and fearless Horrors come out in the lead. Plaguebearers used to be the goto guys for holding objectives. But since they can no longer go to ground (thanks to fearless), and they can no longer run (thanks to slow and purposefull), it really affects their mobility. Plus a smart opponent will drop whatever blast weapons he has on them the turn they drop since they are stuck bunched up together.

5 horrors (4 regular and 1 with a bolt) is very good and is my standard. I would rather have 2 5's with 2 bolts than 1 10 with 1 bolt. It also helps to give you more units on the drop.

Horrors are very extremely terrible. Do the math on their shooting effectiveness against anything and you'll wonder why you're paying 17 points for this garbage. 10 will put 2.5 wounds on MEQ and then get obliterated for their trouble. Horrors lose. 10 will kill 7.5 Orks and then get obliterated for their trouble. Horrors lose again.

Take Daemonettes instead. They're cheaper and easier to hide since they're fast. All the Daemon troops stink, so go with the ones that stink the least for the purposes of scoring.

slaede wrote:
Horrors are very extremely terrible. Do the math on their shooting effectiveness against anything and you'll wonder why you're paying 17 points for this garbage. 10 will put 2.5 wounds on MEQ and then get obliterated for their trouble. Horrors lose. 10 will kill 7.5 Orks and then get obliterated for their trouble. Horrors lose again.

Take Daemonettes instead. They're cheaper and easier to hide since they're fast. All the Daemon troops stink, so go with the ones that stink the least for the purposes of scoring.

Hyperbole much? Even without Karios around the MEQs would kill 3.33 Horrors...Also, 8 Horrors cost less than 10 Daemonets but they are mroe durable against shooting than them. This said, Daemonettes are not useless nor are the Horrors

Pink Horrors are meh, but Tzeentch daemons make for good allies as they have a lot of good units now with the new and improved flamers and screamers.

And if you want to get real cheesy (and expensive!), throw in Fateweaver to give your Thousand Suns re-rollable 3+/4++'s or those terminators re-rollable 2+/4++'s (I hear the new chaos terminators are going to be much better and much cheaper than this edition's CSM). He'll also make your screamers/flamers much more survivable as well.






Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sasori wrote:
Alright, sounds good then. Seems like I'll only want one unit of them.

I do plan to add a unit of Flamers and Screamers, depending on the Chaos Codex.

What's the recommended size for unit of Horrors? 10 seems about right.

Depends how optimized you want your list to be. The less the pink horrors, the more optimized your army will be. Spend less on horrors and more on screamers/flamers and your army will be more competitive IMO.

 Sasori wrote:
Alright, sounds good then. Seems like I'll only want one unit of them.

I do plan to add a unit of Flamers and Screamers, depending on the Chaos Codex.

What's the recommended size for unit of Horrors? 10 seems about right.

5 or 9. Either MSU (which is a bit meh and not recommended since its no longer EVERY QUICK MECH UP so you don't need as many bolts...) for lots of bolts. Or 9 for...you know...sacredness

(10 is fine, i do blocks of 10 )