Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

My models are really underperforming and I'm losing faith that my army can be useful. My local meta is Tau, Necrons, Space Marines, Orks, and Tyranids.

What is the next purchase I should get to improve my army?

Rhino w/ 8 Berserkers - Champion w/ Power Fist, Icon of Wrath, 8 Berserkers w/ Chainaxes
Rhino w/ 8 Berserkers - Champion w/ Power Fist, Icon of Wrath, 4 Berserkers w/ Chainaxes
Rhino w/ 8 Berserkers - Icon of Wrath

5 Chaos Terminators - Various weapons WYSIWYG with kit, modeled with Autocannon

1 Chaos Lord in Power Armor (or non-Terminator relic armor) - Power Axe (or equivalent), Plasma Pistol

... Flesh hounds. Lots of flesh hounds
.the sad thing is that bezerkers and csm and probably among the least efficient kdk units. Bloodletters are a cheaper troop, allowing focus on aggressive rush units like hounds, D-thirsters maulerfiends etc.

Agreed. The best daemonkin armies rely on many small, fast units - hounds, bikers, spawn. Keep ugrades to a minimum because everything is expendable.

i would dp the following:

Officially downgrade two bezerker units to 'normal' marines and upgrade one to possessed - the slaughter cults ability is well worth it.

add in some spawn and cultists for quick and easy blood tithe and cheap objective holders...

skycapt on here beats me with his daemonkin all the time. along the lines of this

D Thirster
Khorne Chaos Knight
Maulerfiend
Skull Cannon
15-20 dogs with lord on juggernaught (sometimes with the axe that can spawn another bloodthirster)
sometimes chaos bikes with melta
min squad of cultists
couple squads of bloodletters

You might look into the "fist of Khorne" if you're looking to field berserkers. Sadly they aren't much good regularly even in rhinos because they are too expensive and have to spend a turn outside their transport getting shot before they get a chance to charge.

The fist of khorne(blood oath campaign I think...) requires the chaos forgeworld drop pod and 20 berserkers but it has some amazing special rules. First you arrive via deepsrike and anything under the pod takes a strength D ap1 hit, and the pod itself is a pretty big model so can cover a good area on the board. The second part is hotly debated but you can assualt the turn it arrives and you could hypothetically arrive turn 1. So one heck of an alpha strike, particularly if you take more than one pod. However as stated this is going to be hotly debated and likely won't get FAQ until it is no longer relevant. Still in my opinion this is the best competitive way to run berserkers if that is indeed your goal.

Cultists
Hounds
Bloodletters
Juggernaut Lord
Maulerfiend

tons of units. spam spam spam and assault the enemy with 3 squads of guys in one turn. You are trying to win combat through pure volume of attacks but with your rhino approach, you are relying too heavily on a single squad. The idea with KDK is to assault with MULTIPLE squads and throw hundreds of dice at your opponent's squad. A proper KDK army can flood the field with troops and close off all possible avenues of escape for the enemy before drowning them in bodies with invulnerable saves.

I agree with Arkaine on that. maybe not a lot of cultists but swarm somebody with hounds and other cheap bodies so you can let big things like a maulerfiend, or a knight or a bloodthirster pick their targets.

the whole KDK army seems to move 12" if you're picking fast stuff. its in your face quick and it makes you pay.

You need the bulk of your threat units to move 12". Your opponent will get 1-2 free turns of shooting into you and whittling your units down before you can respond effectively.

You can't afford to give him an extra one unless you have an army build around massive durability.

A wall of hounds and bikes is very scary - hell, there's an argument for building a Khorne Daemonkin army out of nothing but Gorepack formations (you can always make your warlord one of the aspiring champions in a bike squad).

Cheap, fast, flexible, lethal model-for-model in CC, expendable.

What more do you want?

that would definitely scare me and most armies.
crapload of dogs with tough lord mixed in. couple small squads of bikes with melta to open vehicles.
maybe add in a maulerfiend or two and a thirster or knight.
slam 30-40 dogs forward, tie everything up and then bring in your big guns when they're not threatened to add muscle where needed.

i do basically the same thing with nurgle but I'm using beasts instead which are much more expensive.

remember that the dogs really benefit from the charge. that furious charge at WS5 can do a number