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With my undying loyalty to Chaos and attempting to find a partially redeeming and competitive list, I find myself trying to make the most of what we have been given and are left with. Mono-builds, mixed Gods, solo-builds solely of Daemons or Marines and a mix of the two thereof. Any and all lists pertaining to Chaos. For now I will focus on Khorne as that is the army I have been working on first and, as we go along, I'll update this first post when I push different lists up to see what ya'll think and what critiques/suggestions you can provide. Alright. First list is Khorne Daemonkin and keep in mind that I'm looking at making them competitive. I'm a little weary of seeing the same old stuff locally. We usually have 1 tournament per month. There's the usual: Necrons, Eldar, Tau and Space Marines. Then there's the lesser such as a frequent Tyranid player who runs the Tri-Flyrant list with 2x Devilgaunt pods, a dash of Zoanthropes, Warriors and a Toxicrene in a pod.

Anyway. I'm not looking to tool, but Flyers are frequent around here and normally face FMCs more than actual Flyers, but we're looking to make this an all-comers list. I'll post below what I've come up with. This is a 2-CAD list with the ITC rules in mind as that is what our local players use in tournaments.


CAD 1: KDK Detachment


HQ:

Chaos Lord - 180 pts
Juggernaut
Kor'lath

Bloodthirster of Insenate Rage - 275 pts


Troop:

8x Cultists - 58 pts

8x Cultists - 58 pts

8x Cultists - 58 pts

8x Bloodletters - 80 pts


Fast Attack:

10x Flesh Hounds - 160 pts

Heldrake - 170 pts

Heldrake - 170 pts


Heavy Support:

Maulerfiend - 140 pts
Lasher Tendrils


CAD 2: Chaos Daemons


HQ:

Bloodthirster - 300 pts
Lesser Reward
Greater Reward

Troop:

10x Bloodletters

10x Bloodletters




The second CAD is so I could take a 2nd Bloodthirster. That is where I became stumped with 267 pts left to spend. I was looking at 2x Maulerfiends as I, personally, think they're great for their points and output potential and best brought in pairs. Everything apart from the cannon fodder (Cultists for Blood Tithe accruing) can at least move 12" in the Movement Phase. Mobility is a BIG factor nowadays and along with having an impressionable presence factor, that can do a lot for an army. People will naturally focus on the 2 Bloodthirsters, more so the D-Weapon 'Thirster. They're still both intimidating and I figure they'd soak most of the damage up while the other stuff runs around where it needs to. If the Cultists are shot, great! That's what they're there for or sneaking up the field and snagging objectives before being scoured from the face of the Earth.

So. Worth it for another Bloodthirster to give me 3 Flyers, 4 if you count the 'Thirster that will pop out of the Chaos Lord later? I'm not quite sure, it looks good on paper, but I'd have to test run it.

Comments, questions, suggestions, etc... fire away! Certainly looking to make this better and practically nothing is concrete. I know in some match ups that most of this will suck (*cough*Tau*cough*) and so on, but we'll try to make the most of it.

Thanks for reading!

Only real issue I am seeing is the chaos space marines to be honest. Taking cultists would free up more points to put towards hounds or another heldrake. Heldrake are pretty amazing.

Could see the maulerfiends working out as well, as the d-thrister will be primary target. I tend to try to use the d-thrister with maulerfiend or two with lasher tendrils to try to reduce attacks and go knight hunting. It can work amazingly but it can also blow up in your face pretty hard, so something to keep in mind.

In either case, I would go with cultists or bloodletters for troop choices. Cultists are there to die and hang back on objectives. Bloodletters benefit from being able to deep strike in and can sneak in there when your lining up for a round 2 charge with your other units for extra pressure. Fearless ap 3 is never a bad thing and I believe would still free up a good amount of points to put elsewhere. The unfortunate thing about kdk is that it didn't do enough to make chaos space marines a viable troop choice in my opinion. I have never seen them in a tournament, period. What you'll want is fearless units or vehicles and preferably anything that can move 12' both to get where you want to be (cc) and for the purposes of claiming objectives.

Also, first post ever.

Welcome to forums!

Interesting advice. I'm thinking about instead adding in an allied Chaos Daemons Bloodthirster rather than the plain KDK one. Greater Rewards either really boost killability or resilience, and all that for 40 pts more, 50 if I take a Lesser. I'd get a lot more mileage out of him that way. OR, I can take another CAD for 2 Bloodletter squads so I can choose the CD Bloodthirster as the Warlord and get the Warp Storm chart for extra benefits and the occasional detriment to myself.

Are you allowed to use the Blood Host detachment in your tournament? The Blood Tithe rules are a huge reason to take Daemonkin in the first place, and if you can take a Slaughtercult formation you can get an additional point of Blood Tithe per turn. It just helps ramp it up faster so you can get the bigger bonuses earlier in the game. The Slaughtercult formation isn't half bad either... having the ability to cull your routing cultists also helps your Blood Tithe ramp-up. The ability to pick a second result on the table to apply is also quite a boon.

The only real thing I would pay attention to is your Chaos Lord. He is a pretty expensive model to not have Eternal Warrior, especially since he has no invulnerable saves. First S10 AP 2 attack to hit him and he's toast. If you plan on him to be some sort of martyr to get the Thirster due to Kor'Lath, best to drop the juggernaut points and just keep him plain, so you aren't spending almost as much as a Thirster anyway. He can ride with the CSM in a rhino that way... If It was me, I'd just drop him altogether and run a single-CAD list (assuming formations are not allowed) and stick a unit of Bloodcrushers or a 2nd Heldrake in. With no Bloodcrushers to back him up, he's gonna get singled out pretty hard anyway.

This codex has tons of access to AP 3 daemons on the cheap, I'd try to work a unit of Bloodletters or two in to make use of that. All those cultists don't seem like they would survive long in their basic 8-man squads anyway, combining them might increase their survivability. A 16-man squad of cultists is a lot more likely to survive long enough to accomplish something.

Anyway, that's all just my observations from my whopping 2 games with DK so far, so if I am raving lunacy, just disregard me.

Thanks!

Sure, you can go the CD route - the greater rewards are just that, pretty great. My particular favorite has to be re-rolling invul. saves, which coupled with the grimoire can be absolutely devastating for anything that doesn't have the D if you're lucky enough to roll it. That being said, if you were heading in that direction, I'd probably suggest moving the space for a herald to take the grim with, and preferably one that can keep up with the rest of your army (i..e khorne herald on a jug. to throw with the hounds or tzeentch herald on a disc for a screamer star).

Personally, I'd drop the space marines in the original CAD as you already have your troop slots filled with the cultists. Go for the second CAD with purely demons w/ blood letters as your troop-choice. Then you would have enough points for your suited Thrister along with the herald on a jug w the grimoire and a locus of wrath (for hatred). Toss that bad-boy with the hounds and the lord. Whenever you come across a duel, toss your lord w/ your AoK and hatred into the fray and actually hope he dies, and take's whatever he's up against out with him. (For the free Thirster and additional BP, if that's not clear). It's a pretty solid combination that will help your Thristers out with the grimoire, and more importantly can keep up with them to provide a suitable threat on it's own against most units.

Worth a shot, in either case.

They go by ITC rules, which allow formations, so I can take the Blood Host detachment easily.

The Chaos Lord is intentionally left as bare as possible. I still want to get something out of him, though, so I gave him a Juggernaut for that needed mobility and resilience. While Bloodcrushers are tempting he actually is going with the Khorne Dogs, which I swear by due to their excellent delivery system via Scout. For the same points I'd have 3 Bloodcrushers, 9 wounds, to the 20 wounds of Khorne Dogs, plus Scout. Even against Tau the Khorne Dogs have been excellent wound soakers, they can really take a fair amount of punishment before downing them. I've had them take almost an army's worth of shooting before, given that their Scout move brings them uncomfortably close to the enemy.

Cultists I left MSU due to flexibility. To me they're too weak/squishy to be done offensively without hiking up the board in one turn and getting demolished the next. They tend to be the last thing targeted by the enemy until the big threats are gone, which is just fine. With the design of my list (Which I've edited and will edit in the first post) that should work well with what I have in mind.

Oh no, your input is appreciated. It lets me think from different angles I didn't think of before.



The inclusion of KDK was, of course, for the extra benefits. I'm trying to take minimal of the regular CD stuff where it doesn't steal too much from KDK. Versus the KDK Bloodthirster the CD one provides so much more for the same and only 50 more points.

I WOULD like to include a second Maulerfiend, but I had only that much points left and it seemed to fit right in versus anything else.

I like the looks of the list and am eager to try it out. I'll have a much clearer view once I try this and see where I'm lacking.

The Hounds are definitely a solid choice, I back you up there. The reason I use crushers is because when in a Brazen Onslaught formation, they get an additional attack when they are outnumbered in the assault subphases. Considering I play Ork and Tyranid players a lot in my local meta, they are excellent for wading into tarpits and destroying them utterly. That's just me though, sounds like you have a lot more competitive meta.