Infernal Tetrad Tactics

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**SonsofVulkan**

Trasvi wrote:
jy2 wrote:
Thanks for sharing.

The Tetrad does take some practice, especially against some of the tournament-styles of lists. That is because they are a less forgiving army than, say, Eldar or Battle Company.

Did the tournament use the new GW FAQ's? If so, did you feel that they made any difference in any of your games? Thanks.

No, the new FAQs weren't used. We used the AUS/NZ 40k FAQ which hasn't been updated.
That being said I don't think it made any difference. The only thing that really would have affected me was the Shriek change, and with effectively TL BS5 I managed to hit with all of them anyway.

I guess I just struggled with the 'delete 1 unit' abilities, which I guess is to be expected when you've essentially got only 4 units. Stomps are rough, D-Weapons are rough, suicide grav is rough. Even with all the buffs and gifts, tournament-level offensive armies won't struggle at all to take down at least one T6 3+ Sv MC per turn, and you're losing about a 20% of your army potential every time that happens. If you don't get first turn and need to weather 2 turns of fire before you get to combat...you'd better hope the remaining 2 can stay in combat for the rest of the game.

The Khorne and Slaanesh DPs are the easiest to kill without any buffs to make them better than 3++ or getting invis. Basically against flyrants, mass grav, and scatter bikes one of them will die if they are gliding. The only reason Id take Belakor is so that he can guarantee shroud and invis to keep the most vulnerable princes alive, even if you roll crappy gifts.... So the only thing you have to worry are the few armies that can ignore cover.

**astro_nomicon**

Trasvi wrote:
Hmm so my feedback after a tournament is:
I needed more practice with this list against tough opponents before bringing it to a tournament!

I ended up with 3 wins and 2 losses over 5 games, but one of them doesn't really count because the opponent's list was very easy, and the two other wins could easily have swung the other way if I'd made one or two less Feel No Pain rolls.

Practice Game 1: Vs a Guard Tank Company.
I got first turn, got all the buffs I needed, and proceeded to wreck face. I tabled him on top of 3 and lost only 3 hounds to the one turn of shooting I allowed him before getting in to combat. It was fun to see the Slaanesh Prince put out 12 S10 shots with his whip and destroy Pask + Friends in one go, but it wasn't a good learning experience.

Game 1: VS Eldar. Maxed Seer Council, Wraithknight, 3x 6 Scatterbikes, 6x 5 Warp Spiders
This was a game against a very good general that I've had close games with before, but that wasn't the case today. He took first turn, and used his superior range + mobility to stay at absolute max range where I couldn't catch him. A 6 on the destroyer chart took out the Warlord with his 2++ rerollable, and he had enough psychic dice to deny the critical powers when I needed to cast them.
If I had the game again I think I would have taken to the air in T1 with all my princes and shrieked the scatter bikes off the board before landing and trying to do combat with the remainder.

Game 2 vs Eldar + Marines. 4 Grav Devestators + Libby in a pod, 3x 4 Scatterbikes, Wraithflamers in a Waveserpent, 6 x Warp Spiders.
He got first turn and lands the pod next to my Slaanesh Prince. It soaks up nearly his whole army's worth of shooting before dying.
I buff up and counterattack, but my nurgle prince is in a bad spot for the Wraithguard to get him next turn. Without whip from the Slaanesh Prince I have only a tiny bit of shooting and can't manage to take out the Waveserpent.
The nurgle prince gets flamered to death next turn.
For the rest of the game I chase him around the table, generally *just* missing out on killing a unit per turn on the charge and thus not taking much return fire. The Khorne prince goes down in T4, but by that time he has only 2 squads of spiders left alive.

Game 3 vs Dark Eldar with lots of venoms, raiders and flyers
Still no first turn, but a host of good powers this game. All the objectives were up his end of the board, which was good for me.
I made good use of Cursed Earth this game, with the Tzeentch prince failing all his attempted charges in to combat and just being a buff-bot all game.
I had a few turns where I soaked a truly ridiculous amount of firepower; a squad of horrors took 0 wounds from 2 venoms and a bomber shooting at them, and the Slaanesh Prince especially got caught in the open but made his 4+ FNP saves count and managed to survive on a single wound; he then charged some Kabalites and regained them all! This was a regular opponent of mine so I knew how to take him on. I surrendered my back field early (all the objectives were up his end) and tactically summoned flamers in to roast the transport contents.

Game 4 vs Iron Hands bikes + centurions / Knight / Admech
Well this was a massacre.
Turn 1 he pods in 2 centurion squads which wipe out the Khorne and Slaanesh princes.
Nurgle prince charges one squad of cents and wipes them out (this was probably a mistake!) I put Iron Arm + Cursed Earth on the Tzeentch Prince, prescience on the Screamers, and charge his knight - and do a total of 3 hullpoints, before getting 6'd on a stomp. Ouch.
He takes out the Nurgle prince even through 2+ jink & 4+ FNP, and we call it there before my turn 2.

Wow. When I was running the Nurgle Prince list last year I purposefully didn't take armor - and twice today I've been undone by my decision to take armour on the princes. OTOH I also got saved by that decision in the other games.
I probably should have reserved one or both of the armored princes, but without reserve manipulation I wasn't really game for that strategy. I probably could have held on a bit longer by:
- not charging the knight. I figured with 7 S10 attacks and 7 Armourbane attacks I could take it down, but it didn't happen. The screamers could have charged and held him up for a turn while the warlord took out a bike squad or 3.
- Multicharging with the hounds + Nurgle prince against the cents + pod so I could purposefully not wipe them out and stay in combat for an extra turn before moving on to the bikes.

Nice report. Im curious as to how useful you found the Herald with paradox to be. Being able to functionally guarantee certain WC intensive powers (summoning, prescience) with relatively few dice strikes me as having a lot of utility. On the other hand in a WC starved list such as the Tetrad it might not be such a good fit. I can definitely see it being useful in lists that generate 20+ WC but I have yet to play with any of the new Daemons fornations and toys so this is all theoryhammer for me.

**blackmage**

i play a tetrad list which generate 16 CW and paradox herald is a strong option, i can save some extra dice and grant one power any turn will work, usually i use for summon.If someone is interested i could post a battle report from latest tournament i did about 1 month ago with tetrad.

**Fakkz**

100% interested in any and all Tetrad battlereports. Loving the effort put into this thread, knowledge bombs going off all over it.

**labmouse42**

blackmage wrote:
i play a tetrad list which generate 16 CW and paradox herald is a strong option, i can save some extra dice and grant one power any turn will work, usually i use for summon.If someone is interested i could post a battle report from latest tournament i did about 1 month ago with tetrad.

That would be awesome.

**blackmage**

ok tomorrow i will post it thanks

**Trasvi**

astro_nomicon wrote:
Nice report. Im curious as to how useful you found the Herald with paradox to be. Being able to functionally guarantee certain WC intensive powers (summoning, prescience) with relatively few dice strikes me as having a lot of utility. On the other hand in a WC starved list such as the Tetrad it might not be such a good fit. I can definitely see it being useful in lists that generate 20+ WC but I have yet to play with any of the new Daemons fornations and toys so this is all theoryhammer for me.

The Paradox is fantastic. A++. Definitely would take it over the Grimoire unless you have Fateweaver.

The two games that were actually a bit of a contest the Paradox did work. He always rolls once on Divination for Prescience, and twice on Malefic (hoping for Incursion / CE/ Sac and Summoning). 3 dice on guaranteed prescience or 5 on summoning is amazing. Prescience isn't as important for the princes while 2 are left alive for rerolls of 1s, but you really want to make as many of their attacks hit as possible.

I did rememeber one case where the new FAQ would have changed things: in the first game, my opponent was using a Seer Council that was casting Guide twice per turn. He was using 5 dice for each cast so I would have needed to roll all my dice to dispel, so I didn't bother. Under the new FAQ this wouldn't have been allowed and I could have actually reduced some of his damage output rather than being resigned to "If I blow all my dice to dispel it this time then he's just going to cast it again straight after".

**blackmage**

1st game relic+maelstrom ITC mission2
my list
demon CAD
tz herald lev2°, paradox
N herald lev2° greater reward locus of fecundity doomsday bell
11 horrors
10 plaguebearers
Tetrad
K DP armor of scorn 2 greater 1 lesser wings
N DP wings armor 2 greater lev3°
SL DP wings armor 2 greater lev.3°
Tz DP wings imp,robe 2 greater 1 lesser lev3° warlord

KDK list
chaos lord juggernaut,, power fist sigil corruption
3x 8 bloodletter 2 with instrument and 1 with icon
2x10 hounds
2 grinders with flame
renegade IK with double gatling cannon
I won initiative and decided to start, just to avoid his hounds can sit over the relic, all princes beside Sl went gliding sl DP move on relic, pb in deepstrike and horrors+herald on my obj, he keep out both grinders and the squads of letters
SL DP shoot 2d6 str 10 (iron arm) to his knight strip down only 2 HP, all 3 princes charge the hounds+lord, lord challenged and killed by N prince, Tz and K DP kill about 7 hounds (both DP swing at str8), Tz herald summon 10 demonettes waiting for hound onslaught
his knight take an heavy tool on horrors kill 5 of them regardless going to gound and save at 3+, hiunds charged SL prince try to steal the relic but FNP and good armor save make them almost bounce on him,2 hounds was killed by SL DP. the other 3 princes dispatch the remaining 3 dogs,
In my turn i drop the PB+herald over the top of his obj but i scattered bit away, K and Tz princes point on knight and N prince get into postiion to charge hounds demonettes move near my obj, and i summon 3 screamers with herald, killed about 5 hounds but still 3 remain, Knight is engaged and destroyed by tz+k dp, tz dp rolled armorbane from reward so was not very difficult remove him,
his reserves coming, 2x letter and 1 grinder all close to my obj in my dep.zone. with grinder flame he removed other 3 horrors, hounds make nothing to DP's and was killed same turn now i have all the DP free and close to his grinder and letters
a charge on grinder make it explode and letters was engaged so they cant reach my obj and treathen horrors, pb move on his obj and sit,waiting screamers moved on relic
all his reserve came in another grinder drake and 8 letters he tried to burn pb on his obj but FNP made them survive enough to hold the obj and score maelstrom, he have not a lot do i have still 4 unwounded princes and i have both relic and the two obj under my control he have only drake grinder and 8 letters, i let the drake go around i charged the grinder with pb+herald with warp speed but i cant kill it and do just 2 HP he managed to kill 2 pb, at that point he figured cant reach any of my obj i keep summoning so no way to get into my obj the best he could do is try to kill all my pb but between save and FNP he cant i got relic lot of maelstrom first strike and slay the warlord he got nothing so was 11-0 for me.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
2nd game ITC scenario 3 purge the alien
opponent was an eldar with some D weapons
4x4 scatter bikes
3x2 D batteries
WK with double D weapon
5+5+5 spiders
2 farseers with bike
this game was weird we both deployed and i got a phone call i needed to leave in hurry the tourney i was away for 1 hour when i came back we started play anyway but of course he already won cause i left the game, we played 2 turrns with me in swooping mode killing bikes with psy scream and vector strike and him killing my troops and score some maelstrom point after 2 turn we was drawing so he, a real gentleman agree to have a draw with me so i got my 6 tourney points, probably if we still play couple of turns maybe i could talke victory he cant touch easily my DP when i m swooping, spiders cant wound them neither the D weapons cant touch my flying superheroes, the problem with that kind of list is if were not a kp mission woudl be very hard for me score points i cant easily go in glide mode, too much D shots and scatter shots, my troops cant survive enough to score points so would be a very hard match, but at KP you can manage with scream vector strikes and some psy shoots. anyway was intersting also if short

**labmouse42**

I've found that if you have the ability to reroll saves, or have a 2+ cover, the D-lite is not that scary. (D-lite being the D from Eldar that
Sure, you don't want to be hit by it constantly, as you can lose d3 wounds if you fail -- but risking one round is not to bad.

**astro_nomicon**

Was thinking about trying this take on a Tedtrad:

Khorne Prince: Wings, Armor of Scorn, 2x Greater, Lesser
Slaanesh Prince: ML3, Wings, Armor, 2x Greater
Nurgle Prince: ML3, Wings, Armor, 2x Greater, Lesser
Tzeentch Prince, ML3, Wings, Impossible Robe, 2x Greater, Lesser

Lord of Change: ML3, Paradox, 2x Greater, Lesser

11 Horrors
11 Horrors

Nothing earth shattering but I think it should perform decently. Obviously suffers from the same bad match ups as most Tetrads. I know Be'la is a great force multiplier, but I have a similar experience/gut feeling as labmouse about him. Lord of Change is a little tougher natively and ideally he flies around summoning a unit a turn until its safe enough to land. Might switch out one unit of horrors for two units of nurglings to help with null deploy options should the need arise.

**blackmage**

they did not have D lite, they had D battery so normal D and wraithknight D wraithcannons, the unit which have D lite are wraitguard with scyhtes....

Automatically Appended Next Post:
3rd game ITC mission 1
against a marine war convocation
demi cimpany
assault squad 4 space marines+sergeant
devastator squad 2x lascannon
3x tactical squad with melta razorback with heavy bolter
marine CAD
chaplain with auspex
captain storm shield relic blade thunder hammer
2x tactical squad grav cannon+amplifier razorbak
3x centurion with grav cannon
3x thuderfire
i won the die roll to start but he seize init, 1st turn was night
i know i can have some troubles score enough maelstrom points, he put his obj into a ruin and put there also thunderfires and fortified it, he moved on the 18" away obj and try to start score maelstrom points, he started (and made an error in my opinion) to shoot at my Nurgle tz prince but between jinking with +1 and FNP he made nothing , i glide with all my prince beside Sl as usual, sl prince shoot 2d6 hits on razorback sitting on obj and destroy it, tactical squad disemark and was charged by K prince, but i was very unlucky and killed only 2 marines....so he scored the maelstrom point, but i made first blood, in my turn i summoned plague drones on an obj hope to get some maelstrom points too, princes shoots shrieks to thunderfire and with a nice 16 i managed to remove 2 techmarine 1 thunderfire and wound another, not bad, but thanks to chaplain he did not fallen back, korne DP finished off the remaining 3 tactical marines and consolidate toward thunderfire (who kill the most costly unit get 1 victory point in this scenatrio and thudnerfire was his most costly unit), anyway with the remaining thunderfire he got lot of hits on my plague drones and manage to kill ALL of them.... uhmmmm.....so no maelstom point for me this turn, he keep trying to wound my DP with low success some wounds here and there, nothing critical, i start make maelstrom point with my plague bearers sitting on a obj in a ruin i think he made another mistake keep shooting at DP instead focus on my troops and strip me away maelstrom points i did during the game last turn he tried run toward my base with a razorback but during my turn SL prince killed his rarorback and then 5 tactical marines was anillathed, so i saved my base, he had 3 razor with tactical at 3" from his base,so for me impossible dislodge him so emperor will obj was a draw, i scored 1 more maelstrom point first blood big game hunter we draw quadrants and linebreaker, so won by 3 points, i guess if he tried since 1st turn to take down my troops probably he could have a chance to win or would be very close, cause i scored 2 maelstrom points with my plaguebearer,probably he losted game when he seized init going last made me play easily and got points enough to win.
Final considerations: tetrad is funny and a good list, but you suffer a lot some lists like gladius marines, you must think any game what powers and rewards take and many other things to plan each turn, pb+herald if in cover are great, the N herald with a greater reward (aetherblade most of time) is a good melee character in one game i rolled warp speed and iron arm ,for eight str 9 hits in charge, in 3 games i lost only couple of horror units and 1DP after a failed warp perils which grounded me... i like the list but i dont think it can really shine in hyper competitive tiurney. Thanks for reading and sorry if i missed something but 1 month passed since that tourney. I made a 3 place so i m happy with my tetrad

**Thantos Kalev**

FWIW, I posted my first run and batrep with a Tetrad here. The game itself was a bit of a wash on my end, but was fun nonetheless. I opted to run Typhus/sorcerer/zombies with my tetrad.

**dahayden**

Symbiode wrote:
I made some data cards to keep rewards straight for each prince, they're below if anyone finds them useful. Any feedback on additional things to put on the cards would be great too, I just got all my princes together yesterday so I haven't gotten a chance to use them yet and see exactly what I need.

http://imgur.com/eJ20Kqi

Seriously awesome. Thank you!

**buo-ong**

Have anyone tried tetrad against GK?

Please share your experiences.

I played once, but DPs were killed by DK with sanctuary and psylencer, as I didn't have skull cannon of khorne.

**gwarsh41**

Ok, so I have a challenge for you. Infernal tetrad at 1000pt! Here is what I am thinking.

Khorne - greater, skorn, wings
Nurgle - Greater, armor, wings,
Tzeentch - Robes, wings, lesser, ML1
Slaanesh - Wings, greater, ML1
Exactly 1000pt

I figure that I can stick with the usual strategy of Slaanesh in the sky, shriek/lash combo, but no chance of iron arm. Nurgle will probably jink, so no point in having the ML on him. Tzeentch with robes will never jink, so I can fish for cursed earth, or just get summoning and if I roll high, try to get some pinkies or flesh hounds.

**blackmage**

and what do you think to do with 2+d6 WC? think is very low also for cursed heart if you roll 1 you could fail also a simple cursed heart, probably at this point i will cut both ML and add some greter/exalted/lesser rewards, help more than just +2 WC.

**gwarsh41**

Good point, that is 2 more greater and another lesser reward! Could give the khorne one a lesser, Tzeentch a greater, and either slaanesh or nurgle another greater.

**blackmage**

survaivalbility increase dramatically with 2x greater rewards, i m sure you will not miss 2 WC. things like 4+FNP or repeat inv or also +1w and IWND are big, in particular at lower points where opponent could be unable to deal with such though models.

**TheSnowmanInHell**

Have a 2k game scheduled against an eldar army next week. Doing the Tetrad, Tallyband, and Fateweaver...and then realized I'm going to be up against, most likely, scatriders, warpspiders, and dark reapers...so all those Nurglings are going to get doubled out quick.

Anyone have any advice?

**rabidguineapig**

TheSnowmanInHell wrote:
Have a 2k game scheduled against an eldar army next week. Doing the Tetrad, Tallyband, and Fateweaver...and then realized I'm going to be up against, most likely, scatriders, warpspiders, and dark reapers...so all those Nurglings are going to get doubled out quick.

Anyone have any advice?

You might be better off just adding a CAD with Fatey and a bunch of pink horrors/ML3 tzeentch heralds (one with paradox) and just continuously summon stuff all game while the Tetrad does its thing. You could probably get up toward 25-30 dice to fuel Fatey, summoning, and your Tetrad buffs at 2K pretty easily. Unfortunately you lose the objective corruption and warp storm manipulation, but it would probably be tough to cram a (useful) warp flame host in along with the Tetrad AND Fatey.

**TheSnowmanInHell**

Hmmm...was really hoping to run an Incursion, but I think you might be right that a CAD would be better. The player is deathly afraid of Flickering Fire after I took out a squad of swooping hawks...so lots of horrors it is.

**jy2**

TheSnowmanInHell wrote:
Hmmm...was really hoping to run an Incursion, but I think you might be right that a CAD would be better. The player is deathly afraid of Flickering Fire after I took out a squad of swooping hawks...so lots of horrors it is.

Stick with the Tallyband and run the -1LD relic. Then park those nurglings and objectives in ruins and then laugh as he wastes his firepower into 2+ cover.

**whembly**

Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

**Slayer-Fan123**

whembly wrote:
Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

Pretty sure the Tallyband is one of the more popular options to supplement the Tetrad.

**whembly**

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
whembly wrote:
Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

Pretty sure the Tallyband is one of the more popular options to supplement the Tetrad.

I played a Tallyband +CSM... in the CSM detachment, I brought csm deamon prince, fireraptor and Brass Scorpion.

Tallyband (nurglings) ended up being just distraction and gobbled up objectives... the prince+Scorpion did the heavy lifting.

I did "okay", but having 2 models to engage the enemy (a 3rd being the fire raptor) seems too lightweight.

Thinking of going all out with Tallyband+Tetrad:
-Nurgle hearld (ml2, exalted, bell)
-7 x 3man nurglings
-Kranak
-Loaded Tetrad.

Now I just have to assemble my 3 NiB Deamon princes...

**mrhappyface**

whembly wrote:
Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
whembly wrote:
Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

Pretty sure the Tallyband is one of the more popular options to supplement the Tetrad.

I played a Tallyband +CSM... in the CSM detachment, I brought csm deamon prince, fireraptor and Brass Scorpion.

Tallyband (nurglings) ended up being just distraction and gobbled up objectives... the prince+Scorpion did the heavy lifting.

I did "okay", but having 2 models to engage the enemy (a 3rd being the fire raptor) seems too lightweight.

Thinking of going all out with Tallyband+Tetrad:
-Nurgle hearld (ml2, exalted, bell)
-7 x 3man nurglings
-Kranak
-Loaded Tetrad.

Now I just have to assemble my 3 NiB Deamon princes...

From what I have seen the tallyband is just used as cheap objective holders, nurglings don't exactly have a punch.
If you have the points the Tzeentch formation (can't remember its name right now) is much more powerful for punching holes in things. The exalted flamers are particularly good: 9xd3 Str10 ap2 warpflame/soulblaze OR 9xStr5 ap3 flamers. Very nasty.

**Tonberry7**

whembly wrote:
Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

Yes, a full Daemonic Incursion detachment with Tallyband, Tetrad and Daemon Flock of Furies. It worked very well. I strongly recommend trying it out.

I took 6x Nurgling units and a unit of plaguebearers for my Tallyband, gave the herald ML2 and the bell, and camp him in backfield ruins with the plaguebearers. With 6 Nurgling units infiltrating or deep striking all over the place and 4 DPs rushing up the table my opponent had more pressing conceres than my herald.

**whembly**

Tonberry7 wrote:
whembly wrote:
Has anyone tried using Tallyband+Infernal Tetrad?

Yes, a full Daemonic Incursion detachment with Tallyband, Tetrad and Daemon Flock of Furies. It worked very well. I strongly recommend trying it out.

I took 6x Nurgling units and a unit of plaguebearers for my Tallyband, gave the herald ML2 and the bell, and camp him in backfield ruins with the plaguebearers. With 6 Nurgling units infiltrating or deep striking all over the place and 4 DPs rushing up the table my opponent had more pressing conceres than my herald.

Sounds intriguing.

Has anyone tried Kranak (instead of Furies)? Seems counter-intuitive with a Tetrad (psyker heavy), but considering conclaves/eldar psyker are still a "thing"... he could serve as a "speed bump" against psyker units?

**Jacksmiles**

Regarding a small points-value army, such as the one gwarsh was thinking of above- rolling on the tzeentch table seems like a no-brainer for warlord traits, but if you're not taking any mastery levels, which trait list do you guys like best? I personally like the look of Nurgle and Slaanesh, and am thinking about pulling out a 1000 point list tonight for some funzo games with my friends just to finally bust my princes out onto the table. Kinda limited to 1000 because of their armies being small still, unless I can convince them to 2v1 for a larger amount of points.

**gwarsh41**

Well there is only 1 trait on Tzeentch that is caster related, but you might end up with 4 Tzeentch casters, which would kind of stink, so I guess you would then have aonly a 50% chance of a decent warlord trait. (I think that is how the +1ML would work, they all would have to generate on Tzeentch because they were not psykers, right?)

I'll have to take a look at the other WTs, I hadn't considered that!