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So with the new Chaos Daemon codex officially announced I was thinking of how they might handle Summoning (if the mechanic even stays at all). It got me thinking at I came up with an interesting way of handling it.

Daemonic Summoning

Patrol Detachments composed entirely of units from codex Chaos Daemons change their CP cost to 0 so long as your entire army has the CHAOS or UNALIGNED Keyword and your army's warlord has the HERETIC ASTARTES keyword. All units in this detachment must start the game in strategic reserves at no additional cost in CP and gain the Warp Strike special rule (see codex CSM).

thoughts?

I wouldn't force you to start your Daemons in Deep Strike. Otherwise, it's fine for its purpose.

I think that's a good way to handle letting daemons hang out with CSM. But I'd ditch the deepstrike thing too. Giving daemons a wandering players type rule is a good idea, but I don't think this would scratch my itch if I wanted actively summoning daemons mid-game to be part of my army's gimmick.

For that, I'd want stuff like the ability to have a model get peeled open in the movement phase to act as an entry point for models arriving from strategic reserves. So basically, exploding cultists as drop pods. I think chaos had options like that back in 3rd edition?

Wyldhunt wrote:
I think that's a good way to handle letting daemons hang out with CSM. But I'd ditch the deepstrike thing too. Giving daemons a wandering players type rule is a good idea, but I don't think this would scratch my itch if I wanted actively summoning daemons mid-game to be part of my army's gimmick.

For that, I'd want stuff like the ability to have a model get peeled open in the movement phase to act as an entry point for models arriving from strategic reserves. So basically, exploding cultists as drop pods. I think chaos had options like that back in 3rd edition?

In 3rd Daemons had to start in reserves and deep strike. When they arrived you placed the old 5" blast template anywhere within 6" of a chaos model with an icon and they were all set up on that template, they couldn't move more than turn but they could shoot and charge. Greater Daemons had to possess a champion or character to arrive and you removed that model and replaced them.

An idea that I had would be to remove all possibility of Deep Strike from the Daemon Codex... (now that everyone has scoffed and said what a stupid idea that is...) Then I would modify how summoning works. What I would propose is that all daemon units that have a sergeant upgrade can attempt to summon a unit in reserves and that the summoned unit would be restricted to be within 9 inches of the summoning unit and would not be restricted by the proximity of an enemy unit, basically the same rules as the webway gate for the eldar.

The mechanics of this would be up in the air, but there are many different ways you can do it so there would be some risk but not make it oppressive for either player.

SaganGree wrote:
An idea that I had would be to remove all possibility of Deep Strike from the Daemon Codex... (now that everyone has scoffed and said what a stupid idea that is...) Then I would modify how summoning works. What I would propose is that all daemon units that have a sergeant upgrade can attempt to summon a unit in reserves and that the summoned unit would be restricted to be within 9 inches of the summoning unit and would not be restricted by the proximity of an enemy unit, basically the same rules as the webway gate for the eldar.

The mechanics of this would be up in the air, but there are many different ways you can do it so there would be some risk but not make it oppressive for either player.

I would have considered that maybe a bit much getting to show up that close but honestly with codecies these days, it's probably no worse than some things other armies can do. I've heard rumours that Daemons will all be able to deep strike in the next codex, whether that's true or not we'll see I guess.

Worth noting though in the new Chaos Marines codex, the Master of Possession has the Warp Locus keyword which seemingly means nothing and has no interaction at all within the codex. So I would speculate it's going to have some interaction with Daemons.

 Zeruel13 wrote:

SaganGree wrote:
An idea that I had would be to remove all possibility of Deep Strike from the Daemon Codex... (now that everyone has scoffed and said what a stupid idea that is...) Then I would modify how summoning works. What I would propose is that all daemon units that have a sergeant upgrade can attempt to summon a unit in reserves and that the summoned unit would be restricted to be within 9 inches of the summoning unit and would not be restricted by the proximity of an enemy unit, basically the same rules as the webway gate for the eldar.

The mechanics of this would be up in the air, but there are many different ways you can do it so there would be some risk but not make it oppressive for either player.

I would have considered that maybe a bit much getting to show up that close but honestly with codecies these days, it's probably no worse than some things other armies can do. I've heard rumours that Daemons will all be able to deep strike in the next codex, whether that's true or not we'll see I guess.

Worth noting though in the new Chaos Marines codex, the Master of Possession has the Warp Locus keyword which seemingly means nothing and has no interaction at all within the codex. So I would speculate it's going to have some interaction with Daemons.

The Crown also has the Locus keyword. Presumably, at least from what Auspex Tactics has mentioned in their video, that units with the Warp Locus keyword will interact with the Daemon's deep striking, acting as 'beacons' for the Daemons to 'lock onto' and thus burst from the warp within some inches of the model. Id wager many of the key Daemon units will have it (Such as greater daemons, probably any heralds that might exist or named/unique commander/lieutenant type models).

For CSM that seems kinda neat but feels less so for Daemons who could generally just deep strike like normal. Needing an 'anchor unit' to 'spawn from' feels a little clunky mechanically even if feeling fluffy.

Purely guessing here, but I could see Warp Locus units basically letting daemons arrive with something like the webway gate rules. So if your opponent is near a crown or a master of possession, they have to be aware that daemonic reserves might pop up.