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I have been wondering how viable it would be to use the disiples of mannon formation with maxed out possessed and a herald of tzeench with a book of true names as a deathstar. You can kit out the sorcerer with some good gear, use the book of true names to max that invuln save while also having the ability to roll of telepathy or maelific daemonology.

Personally I have been playing around with the burning skyhost and the disiples of mannon together as a team and It has been working amazingly! I have a sorcerer (varying gear choices) with a large blob of posessed, 9 units of screamers and a herald of tzeench with the book of true names. I often roll the herald on maelific daemonology and the sorcerer on telepathy. Thanks to the CS posessed rules sometimes I don't even need to use the book and only need cursed earth to buff them to 2+ invuln save!

I really enjoy rolling for shrouded on my sorcerer and watching as my opponent cringes at the frankly terrifying blob of nine units of screamers huddling 6 inches around the chaos sorcerer for that sweet 2+ rerollable jink save, only leaving the comfort of their master aura when they want an objective or are in charge range of the enemy (which can happen quite fast if your possessed turn into beasts). I just really enjoy the sight of so many screamers almost completely enveloping the sorcerer, it makes me feel as if my around 160 pt model is quite powerful. And god have mercy if you roll invisibility. Your opponent is not going to have fun killing your blob of posessed.

On a side note there is also very cathartic about when you get a free LoC from the portents of doom, a very satisfying rarity.

I would love to hear everyones thoughts on this combination, as I havn't heard anyone playing these formations together. I do know some of the weaknessess having played it before, the largest 2 being ignore cover blasts makes my screamers cry and when people manage to focus the herald and kill him it hurts your chances of winning (have fun killing him with a 2+ re-rollable jink save bit it happens), but other than that it seems pretty solid. Thoughts?

How many points does that total up to be? I'd be interested in play testing it, but I'd need to know some more specifics.

Could you write this out in a "Army List" style?

Possessed are still a lot of points, and not too fast. They also suffer from the randomness of the grimoire. Can be mitigated by fateweaver... But hard to fit that in.

Assumedly with 9 units of screamers you only have 3 per unit? Makes the grimoire Herald fairly easy to snipe out. A daemon Cad with one big unit of screamers + fateweaver would be another option.

The list depends really on how many points your playing. The minimum point that its reasonably viable is 1250 point which includes:

Burning Skyhost -
9 x units of 3 screamers of tzeench - 675 pointz
Herald of Tzeench: Book of True Names, Psy Lvl 3, disc of tzeench. - 150 points

Disciples of Mannon -
10 posessed with champion - 260 pts
CSM Sorcerer with power armour, Psy Lvl 3, prophet of the voices, bolt pistol, melta bombs, force sword, spell familiar. 160 pts

This is the bare bones of the combo, depending on your interpritation of the FAQ you can kit the sorcerer out with a murdersword and other goodies like slaughterers horns to make him extra powerful! But thats only if you ignore the FAQ's "1 arftfact per model"

Also in higher point levels just increase the amount of screamers around the herald and it solves the lists biggest problem. Also because there is a 1/3 chance that the possessed wont need the book of true names its less of a problem of it failing to get off. And due to shrouded if you have enough points for more screamers giving them and the herald all 2+ jink saves is almost better than an invuln because with spell familiar its more reliable.

Shrouded is rather difficult to come by in the daemon codex unless your slanneshi or belakor so the benifits of this formation is its fluffyness and its viability thanks to shrouded and invis. Although the posessed are expensive, if worst comes to worst they still have a 3+ armour save that normal daemon units dont have, in addition the "slaves to the voices" special ability makes them worth their points thanks to such strong benifits. Str 5 2 attacks isnt bad either

The first question I'd have is how dangerous the Possessed are. They're just S5 after all.

Is there a way to make the Possessed blob more dangerous?

Yoyoyo wrote:
The first question I'd have is how dangerous the Possessed are. They're just S5 after all.

Is there a way to make the Possessed blob more dangerous?

There are a few ways, if you don't mind being un-fluffy then give them mark of khorn and icon of wrath, making them Str 6 and +2 extra attacks on the charge with counter attack... ouch. If you want to stay fluffy it is a bit more difficult, you can give buffs to the sorcerer like the murdersword and or slaughterers horns to decimate the enemy warlord and his unit. Other than that you would have to forgo telepathy for buffs from other disiplines which I dont reccomend. That being said so long as you dont charge a wraithknight you should do fine without those buffs. Str 5 is enough to take out most infantry, and if your charging vehicles then your playing this build wrong. Against you vehicles wont survive past turn 2 as a unit of screamers has 3 str 5 armourbane attacks... with 9 units of screamers your opponent better hope he dosn't have any vehicles

Reavas wrote:
The list depends really on how many points your playing. The minimum point that its reasonably viable is 1250 point which includes:

Burning Skyhost -
9 x units of 3 screamers of tzeench - 675 pointz
Herald of Tzeench: Book of True Names, Psy Lvl 3, disc of tzeench. - 150 points

Disciples of Mannon -
10 posessed with champion - 260 pts
CSM Sorcerer with power armour, Psy Lvl 3, prophet of the voices, bolt pistol, melta bombs, force sword, spell familiar. 160 pts

This is the bare bones of the combo, depending on your interpritation of the FAQ you can kit the sorcerer out with a murdersword and other goodies like slaughterers horns to make him extra powerful! But thats only if you ignore the FAQ's "1 arftfact per model"

Also in higher point levels just increase the amount of screamers around the herald and it solves the lists biggest problem. Also because there is a 1/3 chance that the possessed wont need the book of true names its less of a problem of it failing to get off. And due to shrouded if you have enough points for more screamers giving them and the herald all 2+ jink saves is almost better than an invuln because with spell familiar its more reliable.

Shrouded is rather difficult to come by in the daemon codex unless your slanneshi or belakor so the benifits of this formation is its fluffyness and its viability thanks to shrouded and invis. Although the posessed are expensive, if worst comes to worst they still have a 3+ armour save that normal daemon units dont have, in addition the "slaves to the voices" special ability makes them worth their points thanks to such strong benifits. Str 5 2 attacks isnt bad either

Looks interesting. Personally I don't mind Possessed.

Do you intend to attach the Herald to the Possessed unit? IIRC, models with Daemonic Instability cannot join units of models without it.

No why would I do that? Just stick him with 2+ jinking screamers, if you have the points max out his unit