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So, I want to add the Daemon Flying Circus to my Daemons.

I have a couple questions, and would love the help.

What is the best set up, in regards to the MC?
* 1 Fateweaver, 1 Bloodthirster, 3 Princes
* 1 Fateweaver, 3 Princes
* 1 Thirster, 3 Princes
* Other?

What is the best set up for a Daemon Prince?

What are the best troops for the list?

Any other good pointers? (Like possible other units and what not.)

Thanks for your help!

There's a couple viable ways to run the Flying Circus.

FW + CSM DP with Black Mace + 3 Tzeentch Princes

FW + GUO + 3 Tzeentch Princes

FW + GUO + 3 Nurgle Princes

FW + KOS + 3 Slaanesh Princes

Plaguebearers as troops.

I put those in order of effectiveness; in my opinion of course. All these lists have common factors. All your DPs are going to be kitted out with Mark, Flight, Armor, ML2 and 2 Greater Rewards AT A MINIMUM. Usually they'll be ML3. and a one or two will have Exalted+Greater to trade for Grimoire and possibly Portalglyph.

I run the top one, with allied CSM. A lot of people add a helldrake in this scenario. It adds some anti-horde, which this list can lack. I don't personally use it but wouldn't discourage it either. The black mace DP is just such a pimp.

The GUO list, in either itteration, can be very good too. You can DS him in to the enemy lines and he's just a load to move. You can also keep him back to protect your plaguebearers against armies with reserves of their own.

I don't like the Keeper list, I think it's inferior but it can be done.

Lastly, many would contend that the Flying Circus isn't the best daemon list at all. These people would put forward a list with 3 units of 9 Screamers + Herald + FW. The Screamers are just insanely shooty, while being able to hold their own in assault. They're very mobile, being jetbikes, and one of the units will be grimoired, rendering a 2+ rerollable invul save. I haven't seen this in action personally but it has been making the tournament rounds on the West Coast mainly, to some success.

 The Shrike wrote:


Lastly, many would contend that the Flying Circus isn't the best daemon list at all. These people would put forward a list with 3 units of 9 Screamers + Herald + FW. The Screamers are just insanely shooty, while being able to hold their own in assault. They're very mobile, being jetbikes, and one of the units will be grimoired, rendering a 2+ rerollable invul save. I haven't seen this in action personally but it has been making the tournament rounds on the West Coast mainly, to some success.

Quick question, how are screamers shooty? Are you referring to their slashing attack rule?

How do Flesh hounds get a 2+ re-roll invul save, Grimore gives them a 4+ invul no?

 greg0985 wrote:

 The Shrike wrote:


Lastly, many would contend that the Flying Circus isn't the best daemon list at all. These people would put forward a list with 3 units of 9 Screamers + Herald + FW. The Screamers are just insanely shooty, while being able to hold their own in assault. They're very mobile, being jetbikes, and one of the units will be grimoired, rendering a 2+ rerollable invul save. I haven't seen this in action personally but it has been making the tournament rounds on the West Coast mainly, to some success.

Quick question, how are screamers shooty? Are you referring to their slashing attack rule?

ML3 Heralds on Discs of Tzeentch spitting FFoT @ 4D6.....

The choice for your flying circus comes down to the princes, you should take Fatey regardless

Ignoring Khorne sadly the remaining three are all very viable and rather strong.

-Tzeentch: Great synergy on turns where you Grimore. Easiest time with spells and the tzeentch lore isnt bad for shooting attacks. Also if you go this route it frees up the other HQ to take disk heralds to ride with the screamers and make massive PEW PEW noises.

-Nurgle: The Balesword is still murdering a bus full of Wraithknights and Riptides trying to get to school somewhere, a very potent out that solves a tons of problems in the meta. Shrouded + Biomancy is unfair against the unprepared. The weakness is that much melee is wasted against gun lines and Papa Nurgle tax is hard due to his slowness, though Deep Striking mitigates somethings. You can conversely take one as a HQ and Tzeentch Princes as Heavy though.

-Slaanesh: The 'best' one according to many online due to Iron Arm+ Lash of Dispair+Vector Strikes. This one can still be kept around easy with Biomancy+Grimore though you are stuck taking the slightly slower keeper of secrets. It is the least survivable but has the most toys to play with like fleet. The same Nurgle caveats apply (Keeper dont fly and your forced to either HQ a prince or take a keeper to spam the princes).

With that decided you also need another type of hammer, either dogs or screamers. Screamers can make a 'fluffy' mono Tzeentch list viable and will stay around forever when Grimored while dogs are hard to hide against since their beast status makes them very nimble for the charge (also being annoying/unkillable while Grimored as well).

For troops again if its not Khorne, it has a place. This one is a personal preference, I enjoy horrors since they are the most proactive of the lot the other two tend to just be straight babysitters due to melee only. With that said numerous Daemon lists fare very well with combinations or spamming of all three. The only common thread is take at the most 2-3 minimum units (11 horrors for the level 2) and have the Portaglyph plump out any deficiency.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

twinner wrote:
How do Flesh hounds get a 2+ re-roll invul save, Grimore gives them a 4+ invul no?

The Grimore gives them +2 to their invul, giving them a 3+ Warp Storm table or Forewarning will give them a 2+. Screamers who are under this effect also reroll 1's...making you the popular kid on the block.

 lazarian wrote:
The choice for your flying circus comes down to the princes, you should take Fatey regardless

Ignoring Khorne sadly the remaining three are all very viable and rather strong.

-Tzeentch: Great synergy on turns where you Grimore. Easiest time with spells and the tzeentch lore isnt bad for shooting attacks. Also if you go this route it frees up the other HQ to take disk heralds to ride with the screamers and make massive PEW PEW noises.

-Nurgle: The Balesword is still murdering a bus full of Wraithknights and Riptides trying to get to school somewhere, a very potent out that solves a tons of problems in the meta. Shrouded + Biomancy is unfair against the unprepared. The weakness is that much melee is wasted against gun lines and Papa Nurgle tax is hard due to his slowness, though Deep Striking mitigates somethings. You can conversely take one as a HQ and Tzeentch Princes as Heavy though.

-Slaanesh: The 'best' one according to many online due to Iron Arm+ Lash of Dispair+Vector Strikes. This one can still be kept around easy with Biomancy+Grimore though you are stuck taking the slightly slower keeper of secrets. It is the least survivable but has the most toys to play with like fleet. The same Nurgle caveats apply (Keeper dont fly and your forced to either HQ a prince or take a keeper to spam the princes).

With that decided you also need another type of hammer, either dogs or screamers. Screamers can make a 'fluffy' mono Tzeentch list viable and will stay around forever when Grimored while dogs are hard to hide against since their beast status makes them very nimble for the charge (also being annoying/unkillable while Grimored as well).

For troops again if its not Khorne, it has a place. This one is a personal preference, I enjoy horrors since they are the most proactive of the lot the other two tend to just be straight babysitters due to melee only. With that said numerous Daemon lists fare very well with combinations or spamming of all three. The only common thread is take at the most 2-3 minimum units (11 horrors for the level 2) and have the Portaglyph plump out any deficiency.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

twinner wrote:
How do Flesh hounds get a 2+ re-roll invul save, Grimore gives them a 4+ invul no?

The Grimore gives them +2 to their invul, giving them a 3+ Warp Storm table or Forewarning will give them a 2+. Screamers who are under this effect also reroll 1's...making you the popular kid on the block.

So:

Bloodletters and Blood Crushers are no good?

twinner wrote:


So:

Bloodletters and Blood Crushers are no good?

Eh, umm... not really. Bloodletters cant take out vehicles in a pinch, like Daemonetts, have no range like Horrors and will die very quickly in comparison to Plaguebearers. They are not unusable, you can certainly win, its just much harder.

Blood crushers are just too many points for what is done better elsewhere. They can work, its just hounds are a third of the points + scout and screamers are half the points plus jetbike. 200 points will give you a robust squad of dogs/screamers and a very small squad of blood crushers. Again, not unusable, just much harder.

As I mentioned earlier I ally in CSM for the Black Mace, but failing that, I like the FW + GUO + 3 Tzeentch Princes.

Deep Strike the GUO. Always give him ML3 and 2 GRs. This gives you max resiliency. One can always be the Balesword if you're facing a lot of MCs.

Personally, I'm not in love with screamers, but I am in love with Flickering Fire of Tzeentch. Horrors are so fragile but they can pump out some dakka with this. Fateweaver can surprise people too. I love flying him around, grimoired, having people just ignore him out of a sense of futility and then have him shoot a unit off an objective EVERY turn. It's great when that last warp charge goes to Iron Arm too; but that's only so often.

Bottom line, Tzeentch and Nurgle are super strong ways to run the circus. I can't speak to Slaanesh. It's intriguing but not my style.

So i'm making my foray into monster mash lists. In the past i've only played mono-Nurgle and Khorne lists. Nut i keep hearing that flying circus lists are fun, so what the hell right?

The list i settled on appealed to me for a few reasons. First off, i already owned all but one of the models. Second, the only model i was missing (Fateweaver) seemed like a real fun conversion opportunity (and it was, just posted the finished pics here). Lastly, this list came in 4th place in a recent tournament, so it seems to at least work in the right hands, though any list can do that.

Here's the list i'm using:

I use the Keeper in my list as I favour the Slaanesh Princes. I do not run biomancy on them as it is random and having multiple mastery levels makes them very expensive. They are still decent for anti air providing they roll well for number of shots.

I also ally my Daemons with CSM, I use a Mace Prince, Heldrake and Cultists.

If you are interested my list looks like this:

Keeper of Secrets - mastery level 3 & 2 x greater rewards
Daemon Prince - daemon of slaanesh, wings, armour & black mace

10 x Horrors
10 x Horrors
10 x Cultists

10 x Flesh Hounds
10 x Flesh Hounds
Heldrake - baleflamer

Slaanesh Prince - wings, armour & 2 x greater rewards
Slaanesh Prince - wings, armour & 2 x greater rewards
Slaanesh Prince - wings, armour & 2 x greater rewards