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Hi there guys,

I've written my opinions on the Troops of the Daemons Codex!


For more information on the warp storm table, have a look at: Armywide Special Rules and the Warpstorm Table.
For more information about the rewards and Warlord Traits in the Daemons Codex, have a look at: Rewards, Psychic Powers and Warlord traits
For More on the Codexes Greater Daemons, have a look at: My Review of the Greater Daemons
For More on the The Heralds of Chaos Heralds of Chaos in this edition

To have a look at my previous review of the space marine codex, follow this link, then click on any image for that section of the Space Marine Codex.

Enjoy!

Pretty decent review though I disagree with a few things. I guess though my first question is are your ratings just in respect to the other Daemon troops, if not you rate these guys entirely too high.

In general Daemon troops are lack luster. So points of some contention

1.)Disagree with the "Standard Loadout" for all the troops. In most Daemon lists the "standard Loadout" is 10 bodies with no upgrades at all. Daemon troops are not super killy so you keep them small to load up on killy.

2.)Statement that Horrors are the only Non-monster, Non-Vehicle that shoots is incorrect. Flamers (though terrible shoot), White Dwarf added the Exalted flamer as an infantry model that shoots, all heralds can shoot (as can potentially any model with a reward. But the point largely holds that they are the only shooting troop, and one of the only shooting centric units.

3.) Horror Survivablility should be ranked above Blood Letters and Daemonettes, simply because they re-roll 1s, which means if they go to ground they are about twice as survivable in cover.

4.)Plague Bearers are overrated...in a world of Ignores cover shooting, they are not that much more durable than the other troops. (unless you add a herald for additional cost). The best way to keep daemon troops alive is in reserve, and they are worse at this due to speed than ever other choice. Horrors are more durable against Tau and Eldar than PB are due to high strength ignores cover shots.

5.) PB are bad in CC against lots of things due to lack of attacks and low WS. They are somewhat servicable but it isn't what I'd consider a strength.

6.)Though I agree nurglings are bad (because they cannot score or contest), you rate them far too low in most categories. Their survivability per point is better than any other troop, they have infiltrate, they have a lot of attacks, In general they would probably the choice troop in the book if they could score/contest. That is really the only reason you don't see them. Otherwise I'd run 6 squads of 3 bases (the cost of 3 other scoring units) in almost every list. They are bad because they don't score...that is really about it.

Breng77 wrote:
Pretty decent review though I disagree with a few things. I guess though my first question is are your ratings just in respect to the other Daemon troops, if not you rate these guys entirely too high.

In general Daemon troops are lack luster. So points of some contention

1.)Disagree with the "Standard Loadout" for all the troops. In most Daemon lists the "standard Loadout" is 10 bodies with no upgrades at all. Daemon troops are not super killy so you keep them small to load up on killy.

Yep, I did say why I was giving them the numbers I did. 14 for nurgle for example, because nurgle's number is 7. I do just take 10 bodies each for my own troops. Also, 20 Daemonettes can hit quite hard if your opponent hasn't been focussing on them, which he won't have.

2.)Statement that Horrors are the only Non-monster, Non-Vehicle that shoots is incorrect. Flamers (though terrible shoot), White Dwarf added the Exalted flamer as an infantry model that shoots, all heralds can shoot (as can potentially any model with a reward. But the point largely holds that they are the only shooting troop, and one of the only shooting centric units.

You can understand why horrors didn't cross my mind, I'll correct that.

3.) Horror Survivablility should be ranked above Blood Letters and Daemonettes, simply because they re-roll 1s, which means if they go to ground they are about twice as survivable in cover.

Disagree here - Daemonettes can get to their enemy quickly enough that they can hit quite hard. Also, because there are a lot of much scarier things than daemonettes, they usually get their unharmed. Pink horrors are higher on the threat level rating than daemonettes, aren't they?

4.)Plague Bearers are overrated...in a world of Ignores cover shooting, they are not that much more durable than the other troops. (unless you add a herald for additional cost). The best way to keep daemon troops alive is in reserve, and they are worse at this due to speed than ever other choice. Horrors are more durable against Tau and Eldar than PB are due to high strength ignores cover shots.

You forget thats just Tau and eldar Wave Serpents, and SM to some extent. Cover is very reliable against the right opponents, and we kick tau's butt in close assault. Eldar Wave Serpents aren't a big deal against them, averaging about 3 wounds, they kill two bearers per turn, plus whatever their shuriken cannon/scatter laser kills. Give a squad of 20 FNP and they kill 2 bearers per serpent, tops.

5.) PB are bad in CC against lots of things due to lack of attacks and low WS. They are somewhat servicable but it isn't what I'd consider a strength.

Ah, but by decent I compare them to other common objective cappers. They're finer than tactical marines, for example - they hit harder against T5+, and harder against T3 or worse, but are 1/6 worse against WS4T4 than normal tacs.

6.)Though I agree nurglings are bad (because they cannot score or contest), you rate them far too low in most categories. Their survivability per point is better than any other troop, they have infiltrate, they have a lot of attacks, In general they would probably the choice troop in the book if they could score/contest. That is really the only reason you don't see them. Otherwise I'd run 6 squads of 3 bases (the cost of 3 other scoring units) in almost every list. They are bad because they don't score...that is really about it.

We're talking about a codex that you're publically calling the troops of awful. They don't score and that pretty much makes them for me. I'd rather take Puppies of nurgle - they're a lot harder to kill and hurt more in CC. Also the fluff behind puppies is more fun.

Comments in Bold. Nice to hear from you again, by the way.

3.) I can see some points there, but if you are rushing your Daemonettes at your opponent they will be higher threat than horrors typically. Especially Camping horrors. Also I rarely see this happen because they are troops and Daemons have precious few.

4.) And the top 2 armies are Tau and Eldar, but Divination also gives lots of armies potential to ignore cover, or flamers (heldrakes, Dreadknights etc.) or some IG artillery. Yes if you take big squads with FNP heralds, they will last ok but then you are sinking a lot into units that don't kill things. Further since most daemon builds don't have a lot of troops serpents killing 3 or so models each means no troop by game end.

5.) Yes against other, objective sitters they are ok, but most of those are not what I would call decent in combat, so since they usually end up fighting better units they struggle, but as I said if you are just comparing to other troops they are ok.

6.)Like I said they are bad because they don't score, but that should not effect ratings like durability, or offensive out put etc. Like I said...if they scored they would be good. They don't so they are not. But if I were rating them in durability they would be pretty high. I.e. Generally I rate their durability higher than Plague bearers, but overall they are low (probably like a 2/10) simply because they don't fill a useful role because they cannot score or contest. Loss of EW and fearless really hurt them as well. They were great last book.

Breng77 wrote:
3.) I can see some points there, but if you are rushing your Daemonettes at your opponent they will be higher threat than horrors typically. Especially Camping horrors. Also I rarely see this happen because they are troops and Daemons have precious few.

4.) And the top 2 armies are Tau and Eldar, but Divination also gives lots of armies potential to ignore cover, or flamers (heldrakes, Dreadknights etc.) or some IG artillery. Yes if you take big squads with FNP heralds, they will last ok but then you are sinking a lot into units that don't kill things. Further since most daemon builds don't have a lot of troops serpents killing 3 or so models each means no troop by game end.

5.) Yes against other, objective sitters they are ok, but most of those are not what I would call decent in combat, so since they usually end up fighting better units they struggle, but as I said if you are just comparing to other troops they are ok.

6.)Like I said they are bad because they don't score, but that should not effect ratings like durability, or offensive out put etc. Like I said...if they scored they would be good. They don't so they are not. But if I were rating them in durability they would be pretty high. I.e. Generally I rate their durability higher than Plague bearers, but overall they are low (probably like a 2/10) simply because they don't fill a useful role because they cannot score or contest. Loss of EW and fearless really hurt them as well. They were great last book.

MCs are fantastic in combat, aren't they?

Tau, Eldar, Necrons, Daemons are top tier from what I've seen lately, with Chaos Space Marines, SM and Nids bringing up the middle. Also most of the terrain you wanna hide on Artillery can't ignore, and Heldrakes are eternally ineffective against us - you just revert to the 5++.