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So I played two AMAZING 2500 games over the weekend. The first was against Aspartame's Imperial Fists (Win- 4-3) and the second was against Raven Guard (Loss- 15-13). I used this list for both:

Ahriman (Warlord)
10 Tsons- Rhino
10 Tsons- Rhino
10 Tsons- Rhino
Heldrake- Baleflamer
Heldrake- Baleflamer
5 Havocs- Plasmagun x4, Rhino
Fateweaver
10 Horrors
9 Screamers
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch- Psyker: Mastery Level 1, Warp-forged Armor, Grimoire of True Names

Obviously my Prince has no wings. That's fine, because he's a Magnus the Red model that's all painted up anyways.

So, my question is this: If we can assume my opponent's army has first turn and is average competitive shooty (ie: sternguard in a pod, devastators with Prescience, etc), is it best to deploy the Prince and Fateweaver on the board or Deepstrike one or both characters?

I am under the impression that they should always be deployed. Screamers being deployed on the board and d3 Infiltrating units or either Tsons or Tsons combined with Plasma and Ahriman provide serious threat. How do you guys deploy your chicken and book carrier?

I'm not a Daemon player, but I did exactly what you described to one. Turn 1, 8 Sterguard put 4 wounds of Fatey. I would personally keep the DP on the table and fly Big Bird in, as you can avoid the big alpha strikes.

Lucarikx

Your biggest weakness is the Tzeentch DP. Since he's maintaining the Grimoire on Fatey, he is a huge linchpin. If he drops, say goodbye to fateweaver, then say goodbye to his rerolls and psychic support. He's too fragile for such an important role in the army. Wings would help, since you can't kill what you can't hit, but I think the easiest way to make him more durable is to give him ML 3 and all Biomancy powers. Then hope for Iron Arm and/or Endurance.

I keep a ML 3 Biomancy GUO for Grimoire duty myself, since he's an immovable object who can plop his fat arse on a central objective (hopefully in cover), an can dependably deny it all game, plus with a 24" range on the Grimoire, he'll be able to maintain that precious 2++ rerollable pretty much all game.

Thank you for your input greg. : D

I would not even bother running Fateweaver as an allied contingent. Most of what he brings to the table is based on his reroll and Warp Storm manipulation. For Daemons one reroll can mean a lot (say you get a 5/6 and 1 on the Warp storm, good chance to get a 10/11/12 with a reroll, a rerolled grounding test, a rerolled grimoire failure). Not to mention his Lord of Unreality trait too.

While he has some nice psyker abilities and shooting from them - most of his cost (in my opinion) is tied into his synergy with the Daemon codex.

With that out of the way, I reserve Fateweaver in any situation where he can be 1 shot by an opponent - even if I have first turn. That means pods full of sternguard or S10 weapons that I cannot hide from. It is not worth the risk of him not getting in the air and getting 1 shotted before a Grimoire or Invisibility is dropped on him. The same is probably true for the Daemon Prince - although I do not run Daemon Princes.

I like that ahriman can use his reroll when trying to outflank/pop witchfires and not die/get heldrakes in or even prevent him from turning into a spawn and losing all those powers.

I guess what I'm saying is that FW does offer me some control over my goodies

 calypso2ts wrote:

With that out of the way, I reserve Fateweaver in any situation where he can be 1 shot by an opponent - even if I have first turn. That means pods full of sternguard or S10 weapons that I cannot hide from. It is not worth the risk of him not getting in the air and getting 1 shotted before a Grimoire or Invisibility is dropped on him. The same is probably true for the Daemon Prince - although I do not run Daemon Princes.

Great point. One important thing to note, neither of Fateweaver's special abilities (the Staff of Tomorrow, and Lord of Unreality) require him ON THE TABLE TO BE USED (they state while he is alive, he's still alive if off the table ). He can still use his rerolls while in reserves or ongoing reserves...so you won't be severely penalized for playing him more conservatively.

Then it comes down to having him on the board to soak up fire away from CSM units.. Or to leave him in reserve purely for his re-roll. Hm.