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This is my first KDK list, and it's made for a friend who has never played 40K but wants to play as KDK.

Daemon Prince (This is the model that got him interested.)
7x Chaos Space Marines + Aspiring Champion w/Boltgun & Power Fist
7x Chaos Space Marines + Aspiring Champion w/Boltgun & Power Fist
Heldrake
Defiler

Not really ideal but is a decent starting point depending on how you play. Soul Grinder over the defiler, heldrake is very good. CSM are not a very good choice as KDK want cheap troops that die. Flesh hounds, maulerfiends, bloodthirsters, and Chaos lords on juggarnaughts are my go to. Spawn are nice little single unit objective grabbers. Bloodletter for Deepstriking troops and once you get into higher points look into the gorepack formation. As a starting point this would be ok as your friend has never played.

Yeah as above, especially the part about swapping the Defiler for a Soul Grinder. That alone will free up a mess of points. But I would also suggest that if you are dead set on taking marines as troops you drop those power fists. A 25 point upgrade on a guy who has to issue and accept challenges and swing last is not a good plan. That frees up 50 more points and now you are looking at a decent unit of pups or several free-ranging spawn or something which will really get work done at the 850 lvl.

EDIT: Also moving forward you (or he) will want that DP model for Dark Apotheosis, but seeing as Khorne DPs can't be psykers, and buying their upgrades gets very expensive, there are other much more effective HQ choices such as Juggerlords (run them with a pack of dogs) and even Bloodthirsters as you rise up in points. I mean it's always good to start with the models that speak to you so that you blow through painting them and find joy in them, but if he wants to be competitive on the tabletop with a melee-focused army like KDK he will soon find out it is all about SPEED. Hence all the 12" base movement units are the ones you see the most on the battlefield.

First thing that stands out is replace the Defiler with a Soul Grinder.. Cheaper points wise and better all roundU

Are you/he planning on using the Blood tithe table and points? Will the opponent have a flyer or are you just using a Helldrake for the hell of it?

I'd change the 2 CSM units to something more like 2 units of Cultists and 2 units of Bloodletters. More bodies, more blood tithe points. Maybe some chaos hounds and/or bikers in there too instead. A Rhino to run guys around might not be a bad idea either.

If his opponent won't have any flyers I'd ditch the Helldrake for even more ground units.

The best starting point for KDK is models that will fit in Blood host and Slaughtercult. That is fluffy and is also the base for a lot of competitve lists using KDK. (so no models will go to waste when expanding)

He will generate one bloodtithe each turn (which will help tremendously) and get a second blood tithe trigger each for the slaughtercult.

Do something like this ( you will be playing maelstorm of war, won't you? if not some changes should be made)

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition v2013) (848pts) +++

++ Chaos KD Blood Host Detachment (Chaos Khorne Daemonkin v2000) (848pts) ++

+ Core (683pts) +

········Slaughtercult (683pts)
············Bloodletters (80pts) [8x Bloodletters (80pts)]
············Bloodletters (80pts) [8x Bloodletters (80pts)]
············Chaos Lord (210pts) [Juggernaut of Khorne (45pts), Kor'lath, The Axe of Ruin (60pts), Melta Bombs (5pts), Power Armour, Sigil of Corruption (25pts), Warlord]
············Chaos Spawn (128pts) [4x Spawn count (128pts)]
············Possessed (185pts) [Chaos Rhino (35pts), 4x Possessed (120pts), Possessed Champion (30pts)]

+ Auxiliary (165pts) +

········War Engine (165pts)
············Soul Grinder (165pts) [Phlegm Bombardment (30pts)]

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

For summoning: Bloodthirster, Daemon Prince, skull canon is sometimes handy, recuperate dead bloodletters.

Mostly Feel no pain will be the thing to use blood tithe for.

The way to upgrade afterwards is adding in a Gorepack formation with 2x3 bikers 10-20 flesh hounds and more war engines (I really love maulerfiends but there are advocates for other things). That will make this list more competitive.

Also the great thing about this list is that you can actually add in a lot of points by adding big stuff like war engines as you can take up to 8 Auxiliary choices and still have your command slot open.

Its a shame the defiler is pants, its such a cool model (defo needs a buff imo). I would swap it out for a soul grinder or maulefiend [which is my prefered model, cos they look awesome]

I'd say keep the heldrake and DP too if you like the models. The DP might not be the best model for its points but i like the model.

Could go for something like:

DP w/wings + Goredrinker(axe) + warp forged armor
7x Chaos Space Marines + 2x Marines w/ melta + Champion w/Boltgun & PW + Rhino
9 x Cultists + Cultist champ
heldrake
Maulerfiend

which is exactly 850 pnts

If you want a soul grinder, swap it for the maulerfiend and go down to 8 cultists for 849 pnts