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.

I'm writing up a tournament list at 1500 points and I'm stuck between giving my Daemon Prince Daemonology or adding 2 Obliterators.

Has anyone had any success with Daemonology? The tournament is in a couple months so I need to decide now so that I can purchase some daemons and paint them.

The list is a Rush/Assault list with an Axe Lord, Black Mace Prince and 2 Maulerfiends as the primary heavy lifters.

I have, but I play Daemons exclusively, so anything besides Summoning is still nice.

I would say either 2 Obliterators or if you can, buy the Bel'akor Dataslate and run him, as Invisibility is godly.

What kind of missions is there? The more turn by turn scoring there is the better summoning would be for an army like that. Given your setup perhaps consider using KDK combined with a Daemon/CSM CAD/Formation.

The more Daemons in your list either through points or summoning the better the other spells in Malefic will be too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Malefic is also really dice hungry. So if the army doesn't have a lot of dice it's effectiveness is questionable.

Nvm

I guess I should specify.

This is a Classic 40K tournament. Meaning CAD only. No formations, allies, superheavies or gargantuan MC's.

Only troops may score or contest, not even dedicated transports unless the mission specifies otherwise. No Maelstrom missions. Most of the missions have primary objectives based around non-fleeing troops choices holding an objective.

Malific is really dice heavy, but fortunately I have access to a Spell Familiar which allows me to re-roll failed Warp Charges.

"Classic" hunh? Ouch. Sounds like a series of games built to let eldar auto win. Lame.

Seriously? It seems like this will be fun as hell. They can't take wraithknights.

That leaves jetbikes and warp spiders as the main problem.

I missed the super heavys/GMCs bit, but its still a bike council, max scatbikes with the remainder in spiders. I cant see the attraction.

Get a cheap as chips rhino with the Death of Kastyr Lutien relic thingy to help out with summoning efficiency.

You should only summon if you have 15+ warp charges before rolling your 1d6 if you're playing for keeps. Because you need to throw 7 dice to reliably get off a wc3 power. In that kind of format I would roll biomancy on the mace Prince to synergize w his melee potential.

That being said... don't let anyone tell you what to do with your army. Do what you want!

If it's "Classic", I can see some people complaining if you take Malific - it didn't exist before 7th.

To get back on topic...
Yes, malific is worth it. Whenever i bring a psycher, i always roll at least one die in it (especially if he's ML3) and just swap to basic summoning if i don't get sacrifice to bring heralds.
To get basic summoning off, you on average need 5-6 dice for a decent chance, or 4 if you think you can spare the charge for another power. If you're ML3 already, then you only need a 2+ on your extra warp vharge die. Even if you don't get it off that turn, you might have enough residual dice to do something else scary.
Dice heavy though it is, you just need to have your timing down if you're going to not have 100% malific powers... If you have ML3, and just 1 power in malific you can go for summon turn 1 (go for horrors. They're far enough back in the field at this point you can just have them camp and give you an extra warp charge each turn after) and have your new daemons do basic stuff that cheap units do.
You also have a slight advantage with this in the tournament. With basic summoning, all you bring out is troop daemons.. Which can score based on the rules you've laid out.
You can alsp use summoning as a defense. For example, if your opponent has a death star rolling around, summon some daemonettes next to them then run the daemonettes in a ring around that unit using their fleet and +3 inches to run, potentially 9 inches of movement to spread around and cose a circle or at least corner off a direction for that unit to go. Since at that point the only option they have is to sit, shoot the daemonettes and charge them, wasting a turn, or they can go the direction you leftopen for them, also wasting a turn.

In short, malific powers are expensive to cast, yes, but they can provide much much flexibility to your army. These powers culminate into a tool box to help push your army up, they are not to be used as a crutch as that will seriously weigh you down.

With a prince and 2 maulers as your main hitting power, i would definitely consider taking these powers, as you'll need something to soak bullets, tarpit, and grab objectives.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the feed back. Malefic seems interesting.

I'm going to have to crunch some numbers, I've never played daemons before so I'll have to start learning their rules and buying up some stuff.