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Hi everyone,
I'm starting a Chaos Daemons list, to do a complete about-face from my shooty Tau army.

I want something that is FAST, preferably in assault on the second or even first turn. I'm looking at things like Flesh Hounds, Screamers, Seekers. I want to be able to show people that melee isn't dead.
I'd prefer to take a horde rather than a bunch of monstrous creatures, if that would be viable.
I don't have allegiance to any particular god, in fact I'd prefer a mixed force.

This is what I'm thinking of:

HQ:
Karanak - 120
Joins the Hounds, stands out the front to tank missile hits.
Herald of Slaanesh - Lesser Locus, Steed of Slaanesh, Psyker 2, Greater + Lesser reward - 150
Joins the Seeker Deathstar to give them move through cover and Psychic powers
Herald of Slaanesh - Lesser Locus, Steed of Slaanesh, Psyker 2, Greater + Lesser reward - 150
Joins the Seeker Deathstar to give them move through cover and Psychic powers


Troops:
10 Bloodletters, Instrument of Chaos- 110
These guys are a moderate combat threat, but mainly they are there to force my opponent to fire at more units. Instrument means they can hopefully deep strike in to screw up my opponent's plans.

13 Daemonettes - 117
17 Daemonettes incl Alluress w/ Lesser Reward, Icon - 178
3 WS5 Rending attacks each on the charge, mostly attacking first and hitting on 3's, and on average will advance 27" in the first 2 turns...

10 Plaguebearers, Plagueridden - 95
Purely to hold objectives, the plagueridden to help protect me from any nasty rolls on the Warp Storm table, and issue challenges to prevent any pesky assault monsters from removing the unit in a single turn.

Elites:
3 fiends - 105
Get out the front to help out any assaulters

Fast Attack
15 Seekers of Slaanesh incl Heartseeker w/Greater Reward, Rapturous standard - 235
The Death Star... I think this can reliably rip apart nearly any unit it contacts, which it will be doing on possibly even their first turn.
10 Flesh Hounds - 160
A more durable unit, they'll run in front of the seekers and be in range of most armies for a first turn assault if I take second turn.
11 Seekers of Slaanesh - 84
WHY ARE THEY SO CHEAP?

Heavy:
Skull Cannon - 125 -
provides grenades for assault units
Soul Grinder - Phlegm Bombardment, Mark of Nurgle
Provides skyfire and anti-vehicle/meq shooting. Mark of Nurgle to let him hide for a 3+ cover save most of the time.

My only army so far has been Tau, which are much less reliant on combat, psykers and characters. This is a completely new style of play for me: I just chose an army that I would be scared of playing against, but it seems like I've taken a lot less points worth of characters than I see other people playing with. I'd have liked to fit in a unit of screamers w/ Herald on disk, but couldn't work it in at 25 pts per model. Perhaps I could drop the second unit of seekers+plaguebearers+second herald to pull this off?

Any suggestions for this list? Thanks very much!

Tau player, eh?

The CD version of the Riptide is to take a Grimore of True Names and use it on those Seekers of Tzeench.

Its boring to play and boring to play against though.

Screamers of Tzeentch or Seekers of Slaanesh? What makes it particularly boring to play?
I can definitely change the rewards around a little to get the Grimoire if it is really that good, but I'm afraid of the randomness: a 1/3 chance to make my daemons half as survivable, its those same odds which occasionally see my nova-charging my own riptide to death...

You will see why seekers of Slaanesh are so cheap once you see them get shot to ribbons. T3 5++ with only 1 wound means they die in droves.

I wouldent play a daemon list over 1500 and not include FateWeaver, he's that good.

Dunno about your meta, but in mine there are walkers and a few landraiders, how do you plan to deal with that?

I don't have my army builder, but I would seriously drop some seekers, drop Karnak, and pick up the grimoire along with more hounds.

Hounds are horrible in CC, I wouldn't even consider them a tar pit. Literally all you get is the 12" ability of Karanak and the collar of Khorne; and giving the bloodletters a banner of blood is 100% worth the 20 pts.

My meta is pretty light on walkers: in any case, I have enough S5 and/or rending attacks to deal with most walkers I think. Land Raiders, I honestly just plan to ignore as much as possible - but again, there aren't many people running around with them. Put some Khorne dogs in front of it to make it change course, or just eat the handful of shots it puts out and focus on killing troops rather than terminators.

I figure that the Seekers are squishy, but I hope I can have them exposed to only a single round of shooting most of the time. With 12" move, and 8" average charge and 10" average run, I should definitely be in contact with pretty much any army on my turn 2. Same with hounds, except with scout I can get there on my turn 1. Right?

What would you recommend if my aim is to get into combat as soon as possible, and win after I get there?

What is so good about Fateweaver? He seems like a decent enough character, but I guess I'm really not seeing the synergy with his spell list just yet? Where would Fateweaver fit in to the army above? What would his role be from turn to turn? What psychic powers do I need to be casting every turn on what units?

I do want my army to contain at least one big unit of Seekers and Daemonettes - I have some of the lovely Juan Diaz models from 6th edition that I want to field - but apart from that I'm fairly open, as long as it involves combat. Most of the nurgle options look terrible to me - perhaps only good for holding an objective, but nothing more. Tzeentch look alright, but I've never played the psychic game before, and I want a more combat-focused army rather than shooting/psychic. Slaanesh + Khorne look to be where its at for me. So given that, focussing on slaanesh+khorne units with possibly a Tzeentch herald or MC, how would you build a competitive army?

This is a completely different play style to me, so I do really appreciate the help.

Bring fateweaver a lord of change, and the daemon princes. Top it off with plague bearers our pink horrors as troops, faceroll your way to victory my friend.

@ Dalymiddleboro
While I appreciate that you've replied to my thread, the list that you suggested is not at all what I've said that I want to build.

Could you offer some suggestions of tactics that you would achieve with that list, or why that list is particularly effective? On face value plague bearers and pink horrors seems fairly useless for anything except holding objectives. The Daemon Princes seem good but expensive... and I'm dubious about swooping monstrous creatures given how easy I find them to take down with my Tau at the moment.