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Considering swapping my 8k's worth of space wolves for KDK?

Just wanted to know your guys opinions? Are KDK fun? Are they versatile? Are they better than wolves in assault?

Some people find ig artillery spam fun to play. It's all personal.

Are they fun?

In my opinion, yes.
KDK actually need to PLAY THE GAME. A lot of powerful armies are very non-interactive - big death stars that take one wound for every thousand shots you throw at them, gargantuans that are immune to many model's attacks, armies that don't deploy anything or attempt to win just by having drop pods on objectives. KDK need to get in there and get dirty. What's more, it doesn't matter who or what dies, just as long as *something* does. Often when I'm playing my KDK I'm hoping as much as my opponent is that he kills a squad of mine. My games with KDK tend to end as 'crushing victories' for me on the scoreboard, but I'll be lucky to have more than 10 models left alive.


Are they versatile?

They can do most things, but they have a few big flaws. Half the army is Chaos Space Marines which most people agree are pretty terrible. The entire army is assault focussed, and assault in 40k needs to be FAST.
So the good Daemonkin armies max out on the fast models and leave the rest behind. So you're likely to see:
Flesh Hounds
Chaos Bikers
Heldrakes
Flesh Hounds
D-Thirsters
Maulerfiends
Flesh Hounds
Chaos Spawn
Chaos Lords
... Flesh Hounds.

There are a few good formations (Gorepack... which is made of Flesh Hounds) but most of the rest have very high 'taxes' in the form of slow and/or overcosted units


Are they better than Space Wolves in Assault?

Very very little is better than Thunderwolf Cavalry or Wulfen in assault. Most KDK units can hold their own against most things in the game - hounds are a wickedly tough unit for anything without thunderhammers to get rid of - but Space Wolves are on another tier altogether.

There's a lot to be said for massed Gorepacks. Bikers can take meltaguns and meltabombs, hounds can rip up anything you don't need them for, and the whole mess is fast and tough.

Many small units gives you a good answer to massive deathstar units - let them smash a ~100 point unit per player turn. Who cares? Whilst they're doing that, you chow down on the rest of their army and grab the objectives.


Gorepack Bikers are not a deathstar. There's no psykers, no hundred point characters, no extensive special rules. But despite this the damage they can do for their points is ridiculous.

3 charging bikes get 6 twin-linked bolter shots, plus three hammer of wrath attacks with shred, plus (with some tithe points) sixteen attacks on the charge.

That's the ork-shredding equivalent of a five man, lightning-claw armed terminator squad from anyone else's army. From a three-strong, throwaway unit of bikes that you actively want to get itself killed.

Kdk is fun to play if you're in the Khornate mentality"everything must die", you gain from having your units killed just like how a true khorne addict should be.

It makes you play more aggressive and balls to the wall, just how droves of homicidal maniacs should feel.

And it rewards you for that.

KDK is a glimmer of what a codex is when fluff and rules goes hand in hand, even though the codex issues i get much more enjoyement out of it then any CSM codex since the 3,5ed one.

Better than wolves in assault? Not even close, Thunderwolf Cavalry and Wulfen are still much better than pretty much anything Daemonkin can field. A unit of Wulfen in CC with anything in the 'dex is an auto-delete button.

Fun? Yep, for both sides. I subscribe to the belief that 40K fun relies on removing models, and there will be lots of that. Hopefully for both players.