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What are the absolute must haves for starting a KDK army? No one plays demons in my area. I currently own a box of bloodletters. My FLGS is having a customer appreciation day on the 24th, so I'm going to load up. In my shopping cart so far is 2 demon princes and a bloodthirster. What else should I throw on the counter?

Flying daemon princes, hounds, and slaughterfiends are excellent choices. The fist of khorne formation seems nice. Bloodthirsters are always neat.

Maulerfiends are good, fast threats. Fleshounds are great, but the models arent - I use fenrisian wolves.

Soulgrinders are VERY good value for their points; battle cannon for 165 points, but on an AV13/13/11 walker with 4 hull points and A4. yes its slow, but it gives you some shooting

BIkes go well if you take the gore formation - 2 bikes and 1 hound unit, everyone gains move through cover, dogs get Hammer of Wrath, bikers get shred on their hammer, and they get bonus against psykers. well worth it.

BLoodthirsters look awesome, and draw attention, however are generally overcosted given how poorly they survive.

Lord on jugger, with eternal warrior armour and axe of khorne is pretty good, and can go with the dogs to give some AP2 punch.

Not a must have but you could swap out the BT for a Kytan daemon engine. Haven't used one myself but I hear good things.

Bikes and dogs for days, man. I personally use the Chaos Warhounds as my Flesh Hounds since the regular models are kinda ugly and way overpriced. Get a Soul Grinder for sure, and at least one more box of Bloodletters. You can make up for the slowness of the Grinder by using the Bloodletters to no-scatter Deep Strike it. I also wouldn't bother with 2 Princes but that's just me. Grab a Skull Cannon or two.

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
Not a must have but you could swap out the BT for a Kytan daemon engine. Haven't used one myself but I hear good things.

The khytan suffers from NOT having an ion shield, and while I5 is nice, too many people jsut stand in cover. Unless you have skull cannon around, this makes his I5 pointless. The gun is kinda meh as well.

For 100 points less grab a chaos knight, with daemon of khorne. He then gets an Ion shield AND the Daemon rule, granting an invulnerable save of 5+ on all facings AND in close combat. You also get better guns, and can take a dirge caster....

nosferatu1001 wrote:

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
Not a must have but you could swap out the BT for a Kytan daemon engine. Haven't used one myself but I hear good things.

The khytan suffers from NOT having an ion shield, and while I5 is nice, too many people jsut stand in cover. Unless you have skull cannon around, this makes his I5 pointless. The gun is kinda meh as well.

For 100 points less grab a chaos knight, with daemon of khorne. He then gets an Ion shield AND the Daemon rule, granting an invulnerable save of 5+ on all facings AND in close combat. You also get better guns, and can take a dirge caster....

Where might one find the rules for a chaos knight?

The rules are free on the FW site. Just go to the Chaos Knight model page and Bob is your proverbial.

 KharnsRightHand wrote:
Bikes and dogs for days, man. I personally use the Chaos Warhounds as my Flesh Hounds since the regular models are kinda ugly and way overpriced. Get a Soul Grinder for sure, and at least one more box of Bloodletters. You can make up for the slowness of the Grinder by using the Bloodletters to no-scatter Deep Strike it. I also wouldn't bother with 2 Princes but that's just me. Grab a Skull Cannon or two.

The Gorepack formation is the single best thing in the entire book... Add a killy Jugger HQ to the Hounds, then run the Bikes MSU w/Meltaguns for anti-armour or Plasmas for anti-MEQ/TEQ.

The basic Slaughtercult isn't that bad either, as it can net you a good deal of MSU chaff such as 'Letters & Cultists, plus min-sized Possessed.

Raptors are decent choices for doubling up on special weapons on the cheap, however their formation is crap as you're forced into taking MoK Warptalons, which are easily the single worst of said unit.

Things like 'Thirsters & Princes are actually much better off taken as Codex Daemons allies, due to the fact you can take proper Daemonic Rewards on them. (especially the 'Thirsters for either the Grimoire or Portalglyph!)
In fact, most of the remaining Daemonic options such as Heralds & 'Crushers are also much better off taken as Daemon allies, as they synergise much better with Rewards vs. Wargear.


Overall, KDK work best of all when you play them as an extreme MSU style army, due to how the Bloodtithe system actively rewards you for getting your own stuff killed off alongside your opponent's units.
Hounds are pretty much the one and only unit that's worth taking beyond the minimum size, while overcosted units like the basic Chaos Marines & 'Zerkers are trash when compared to 60'sih-80pts worth of Cultists & Bloodletters.

Thanks for all the feedback.