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Greetings all.

Don't see many KDK topics on here. Just want to hear how their faring, and what works for them at 1500/1850.

My inclination is that a CAD or CAD + gorepack is the way forward. Anyone got any thoughts and/or lists that they'd like to offer up?

hey! nice painting log by the way. i really like seeing all the old models.

i've been liking the CAD + gorepack, and using a rush+bomb type of list. run at em with dogs, drop grinders in their face. i usually have a jump pack lord with a combi-something and the axe of ruin w/ obliterators as part of the bomb, then Axe of Blind Fury lord running with the dogs

curious to see what other folks are running

Gorepack is the staple. I am a fan of lords on juggers with lightning claw and goredrinker running with one of the dog packs. Maulerfiends, soul grinders bloodletters are in most of my lists. I've actually been a fan of running a skull cannon as of late which provides some cheap ignore cover and grenades for my dog packs going into cover. Thirsters are awesome and I am really starting to like the D thirster a lot. If you are looking at FW the Khorne knight is something special.
Max out the minimum units of dog packs in the gore pack. 4 units of 5 is awesome. if you want to boost one up to 10 to carry your lord that is cool too.
I've not really cared for the Slaughter cult and prefer the CAD + gorepack with MSU. Heldrakes are also a nice bonus.

I had been using CAD+Gorepack, but I recently started using the Blood Host Detachment. The +1 Blood Tithe automatically every turn is great, and adding a second below 4 pts to Slaughtercult is fantastic. The only thing that actually changes for me from CAD is adding the Slaughtercult Possessed, which have been pretty decent as objective takers, and an extra unit of Bloodletters. Soul Grinders are great, I like to put banners and instruments on my Bloodletters to plop down my Grinder wherever I want (or close to it).

My only issue with it is not being able to take Skull Cannons without the formation, which I'm not a fan of to begin with, but in my last game I was easily able to summon 2 of them and give my Slaughtercult FnP at the same time.

Also like everyone else I run my Juggerlord with dogs and LC/Goredrinker, but I've gotten a bit of pushback from an opponent or two as to whether I can award GD bonuses to the LC, so I'm considering dual LCs with Skull Helm.

Also, I wouldn't do it at 1500, but I really like the Khorne's Bloodstorm formation. I used Raptors and Heldrake in my CAD, and the Warp Talons can benefit from the Bloodletters same as the Soul Grinder, so they're usable. Kind of.

I like the idea of the brazen onslaught.
Combimelta termies and two bloodchrusher squads.

Good vs vehichles and meq.

i had thought of doing an all berzerker army in msu with rhinos for blood tithe spam, currently working on it right now but slaughtercult is better. i have seen a minimum slaughtercult with 8 grinder or maulerfiends

What would you recommend against Grey Knights?

D Thirster too vulnerable?

I like the CAD/Gorepack combo... But as others have stated- that +1 BT from Bloodhost can be pretty sweet.

The collar of Khorne comes stock on hounds and crushers and should be added to all Lords and Princes when facing Grey Knights!

 KharnsRightHand wrote:
Also, I wouldn't do it at 1500, but I really like the Khorne's Bloodstorm formation. I used Raptors and Heldrake in my CAD, and the Warp Talons can benefit from the Bloodletters same as the Soul Grinder, so they're usable. Kind of.

Have an exalt for being a fellow fan of the Bloodstorm. It may not be as good as the Gorepack, but it sure is fun! I run it in my Blood Host since I don't even own any Chaos bikes (and not a whole lot of hounds either). Warp Talons can really tear gak up if they survive to make it into CC, so at least they can be a good fire magnet while your other stuff goes unmolested. Buff them with the FnP tithe bonus to keep them alive longer (and give your Slaughtercult Rage/Furious charge in the bargain! ).

Saying Warp Talons are a good fire magnet is kinda misleading. They're killed because they're expensive and easy to kill, ergo wiping out a good chunk of your points.

I feel like you would get better results just taking a Heldrake and Raptors from a regular CAD pr even just the CSM codex.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Saying Warp Talons are a good fire magnet is kinda misleading. They're killed because they're expensive and easy to kill, ergo wiping out a good chunk of your points.

I feel like you would get better results just taking a Heldrake and Raptors from a regular CAD pr even just the CSM codex.

If you take a CAD, you miss out on the benefits of the Blood Host. Many people will debate whether it is worth taking the tax units (like Possessed) to get the benefits of the Blood Host. If you do go the Blood Host route and want to run Raptors or a Hellturkey, Warp Talons are one such tax unit. I misspoke when I said they make a good fire magnet. That is not a good use for 180 points. However, with a little bit of threat saturation, your opponent will have to make tough choices about what to kill. I think one of the central strategies of the Khornekin codex is getting a bunch of stuff in your opponent's face at once so that he cannot possibly kill all of it before it crashes into his army. And if some units die, you can summon more!

If i didn't have a Nurgle Spawnstar already, a Khorne dog biker army would be just my thing to play.

Min/max bikes, lots of dog packs, and then cultist fodder for Blood Tithe.

Must... resist.... purchasing.....

What works for them is a bunch of their stuff dying. More MSU = more tithe points.

"Hey guys, I have an idea! When our stuff dies, we get Blood points! Let's make an army where all our stuff wants to die!"

"What do we do with the Blood points then?"

"Make more stuff for them to slaughter..."

The Blood Tithe table is what puts the KDK codex far above the CSM one. A lot of the units are just copy-pasted from C:CSM and C:CD and so are overcosted, but at least Daemonkin can summon more stuff to replace losses or buff existing units with FnP and stuff.

I'm looking for some insight on this too, I'm trying to get back in the game, been AWOL for about a year now.

Are any of the thirster variants worth takin? Or is it better to just take as many lords as possible? What are the good allies for them? I'm thinking crimson slaughter for the extra lord.

The D-Thirster is really good. Arguably necessary against, say, knights.

I don't see how the D-thirster stands much of a chance against knights in a KDK army. Chaos daemons can buff him up good, but KDK don't have that option. Possibly combo him with a maulerfiend with lashers, but that ends up being quite the investment.

Yea, I haven't actually used a D-thirster thus far, but I1 doesn't look like it does it any favors against Knights. Has to withstand the regular attacks of the Knight, then goes simultaneously with the Stomp. Has to kill it straight off, and then you use 250 pts to kill one thing, because that stomp is gonna hurt.

WK hit on 5's is a big deal. I have used the Dthirster to great success. i'd be lying if I said I never lost him to a lucky 6 on the stomp but 9 times out of 10 I'd kill the WK at the same time. The only way to kill the knight is with the D Thirster so I find it a fair trade off. The key is getting him into that combat. The good thing is all the scat shooting at the D thirster isn't shooting at the rest of your army which is usually down their throat turn 2. Personally, I am a big fan of the D thirster. Paired with a goredrinker lord you have two great CC units that can't be ignored. Between those two, gore packs, and maulerfiends you get up close very fast.
That's just vs Eldar. Vs other armies he is just as good if not more so. Night fighting can be clutch at times to ensure you have the 3+ jink vs pesky drop cents. Regardless, he is worth trying out just so you find out first hand in actual games vs looking at paper and saying "Oh I1 that sucks". If he dies big deal, take your blood tithe and and be happy...it's a game.

I've got the last two Maulerfiends needed for me to run the Hellforged Hunting Pack, which, on paper at least, looks fantatstic.

At 1850 its:
Brass Scorpion
x2 Heldrake (flamer)
x2 Soul Grinders
x4 Maulerfiends (x2 Lash)

It has the same speed as the knight, so has a decent chance of charging it rather than the other way around, though.

A regular knight charged by a Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage will need '5's to hit on three attacks, and can only take it down on a deathblow.
If it doesn't get deathblow-ed it has about a 50/50 of taking a couple of wounds off, but that's it.

A knight only has 3 attacks at WS4 and can't fire overwatch (barring special formations). That's not going to land enough hits to reliably kill the daemon. The key is not to be too scared of destroyer hits; one is generally survivable for a monstrous creature, and one is all the knight should get.

Stomp has about a 30% chance of killing it as/after it strikes but if it doesn't cause an outright kill, the odds of doing meaningful damage are low (S6, and you get your warp-forged armour save), with even one wound being unlikely.

Finally, assuming you take out the knight, you'll probably be hit by the strength D explosion unless the scatter gods are in your corner, which is another Strength D hit.

All told, you have about a 50% chance of losing the bloodthirster outright, but even if you do you should get to swing first, and that means you should take the knight with you: If you do get to swing, you should demolish a knight without too much trouble - 8 WS10 AP2 destroyer attacks willl smash a 6HP walker to bits even with fairly bad rolls.

In short, yes, you're gambling. You're throwing the Bloodthirster at a target which may one-shot it before it even gets to swing. But the odds are in favour of it wounding you a couple of times (and you can take that), and you smashing it into itty-bitty chunks of tinfoil.... and above all, the Bloodthirster costs less than the knight.

In a Khorne Daemonkin army, everything is expendable if it stands a chance of killing something first....

I'm not convinced on Bloodthirsters in a Daemonkin army. Yes it will have a fair chance of dealing with a knight in CC but there's also a fair chance of it dying before it gets into combat. I've said it before but I think they are much more viable in a Daemons list due to being able to take greater rewards and benefit from things like invisibility to make them more survivable.

I'm not saying the D Thirster is a bad unit but I think there's better ways to spend the points in Daemonkin list.

I read a batrep from BAO 2015 GT here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/655932.page

look down for "Game #5 with Jon's Daemonkin"

You gotta read it its amazing

The guy fought against a 5 flyrant list and won with this:

1850 Daemonkin + Chaos Space Marines

Daemonkin Slaughtercult:

Herald of Khorne
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage

8x Bloodletters
8x Bloodletters

Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend

Chaos Space Marine CAD:

Warpsmith

10x Cultists
10x Cultists

Fire Raptor Gunship

Void Shield Generator - 3x Void Shields

Wow! Good effort win. Tho all the hitty stuff evaporated. I do wonder if the chaos fire raptor is almost compulsory..

 chaosmarauder wrote:
I read a batrep from BAO 2015 GT here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/655932.page

look down for "Game #5 with Jon's Daemonkin"

You gotta read it its amazing

The guy fought against a 5 flyrant list and won with this:

1850 Daemonkin + Chaos Space Marines

Daemonkin Slaughtercult:

Herald of Khorne
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage

8x Bloodletters
8x Bloodletters

Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend - Lasher Tendrils
Maulterfiend

Chaos Space Marine CAD:

Warpsmith

10x Cultists
10x Cultists

Fire Raptor Gunship

Void Shield Generator - 3x Void Shields

Where are the possesed?

If you read the batrep he has the posessed, I think the poster just forgot to put them in the list

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Wow! Good effort win. Tho all the hitty stuff evaporated. I do wonder if the chaos fire raptor is almost compulsory..

Fire Raptors are one of the only good things they can take.

Its interesting to note too that list ended undefeated and 5th in that GT out of 134 players.

More than just throwing a fire raptor into the list, it seems that manipulating the blood tithe table to summon or buff what you need takes some tactical thinking.

The flyrant player said he lost cause he was out-generaled.

If you're playing 1850 games, the Hellforged Host is a nice list, too.

Battleforged, and built around a Greater Brass Scorpion with a pack of maulerfiends running escort - upgrade one or two to heldrakes or forgefiends to taste for flak and fire support.

6-8 Maulerfiends with permenant Rage and +1 cumulative attack every time someone drops one of their mates are a scary, scary thing to see barrelling down the table at you.