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So, now that the book is out, I'm revisiting my Daemon army and am considering a GUO. With all the stuff in the new book, I think he could be a really strong choice, but I'm worried about how he'll actually do in a real world (not theoryhammer) environment where he has to maneuver around terrain and such.

His base is 130mm (over 5") - given the necessity of LOS blocking terrain in 8th, and the size of his base/model, I have reason to believe he'll have to move around really big pieces of area terrain in a lot of matches, and won't end up being very effective.

Have you guys had any experience with this? He seems like an EXCEPTIONALLY big model...

Well, you could always deep strike him, I guess.

130mm is only 5ish inches though.

Daedalus81 wrote:
Well, you could always deep strike him, I guess.

130mm is only 5ish inches though.

I totally failed on the math at that... even at 5", though, he has to go around everything....

Also, take into consideration GUO slow movement speed. He isn't going to walk across the board without being killed. Your opponent's anti-vehicle weapons don't have a lot of targets in a Chaos Daemons list. At T7 GUO is easy to wound with Missiles, Lascannons, Meltas, etc. Invun save and FNP will help but even then he won't last long to ranged attacks. Since GUO has so many wounds he is very snipe-able.

You can deep strike charge Hail Mary 9+ roll. Or deep strike behind some plague bearers in CC. Use some psychic powers to buff them then wait for next round to wade into combat.

Just be prepared for your enemy to fall back once GUO is in combat and be shot at. Unless you can surround the enemy unit so they can't fall back.

He looks that same size as the FW GUO, which some players have been using for years.

But yes, he'll have to move around terrain much of the time.

-

I think the lack of total targets is really important. If the GUO is drawing fire away from something else which I want to keep alive, he's probably doing his job.

If not, then I'd just be giving my opponents anti-tank weapons an efficient target.

Think about it this way. Can the GUO do anything that 2 daemon princes of nurgle can't for roughly the same point cost? I haven't been in a situation where I wish I have brought a GD over a daemon prince or heralds.

Here's the rub down:
- GUO have meh melee damage output compared to his greater daemon brothers and sisters.
- GUO have psychic powers but nothing special and nothing that any other psychic character could do.
- GUO have better survivability than the other greater daemons but not enough for it to survive long enough to do anything with it's pitiful move speed.

Bloodthirsters are better in melee (the KoS is too but to a lesser extent), the LoC is better at magic and a Nurgle Daemon Prince does everything a GUO can and more for cheaper. I see absolutely no reason to field a GUO except for fluff purposes.

GUO with the extra 6+++ warlord trait, the -1 to hit power, the healing d3 wounds power, the 4++ invuln strat, and the reroll 1s for fnp strat is insanely tough. Not to mention you can heal d3 with a strat as well.

The guy is built to endure and hold down the backline with his leadershio not charge in.

And a GUO fully bonused can stomp a thirster....

 sfshilo wrote:
GUO with the extra 6+++ warlord trait, the -1 to hit power, the healing d3 wounds power, the 4++ invuln strat, and the reroll 1s for fnp strat is insanely tough. Not to mention you can heal d3 with a strat as well.

The guy is built to endure and hold down the backline with his leadershio not charge in.

And a GUO fully bonused can stomp a thirster....

Right, and they can advance and charge and have +1A with a bilepiper nearby. And S8 with a herald.

Acid ichor definitely puts a huge hurt on things if he's in melee. You could even get him a 2+ armor save if you took hide and stuck him near a tree.
Give him the +1 to wound spell combined with the Locus for more damage.

The options for traits and combinations are really, really awesome.

The biggest threat to a GUO is the lack of other threats you have on the table for the enemy to point their AT guns at. Which is more prevalent in a Daemons army in general as you'll tend to have one or two monsters with the rest filled out with troops.. then of course all those lascannons will be pointed at the GUO (even more so now that the model is that much larger compared to the old one)

I love the model, and competitiveness be damned, I'll still be using him - I'll just get used to the fact that I'll always be -2CP every game as I'll be deep striking him every game to get him into the thick of it asap

I am starting to like Rotigus. The no range restriction on Deluge of Nurgle is a very nice. Think of those late game situations where few units are left. He can be doing 2 mortal wounds no matter where he is on the table just by casting buffs.

 NurglesR0T wrote:
The biggest threat to a GUO is the lack of other threats you have on the table for the enemy to point their AT guns at. Which is more prevalent in a Daemons army in general as you'll tend to have one or two monsters with the rest filled out with troops.. then of course all those lascannons will be pointed at the GUO (even more so now that the model is that much larger compared to the old one)

I love the model, and competitiveness be damned, I'll still be using him - I'll just get used to the fact that I'll always be -2CP every game as I'll be deep striking him every game to get him into the thick of it asap

This for me is the play style for a GUO in an nutshell, either deepstrike him in or spend all the turns it takes walking into combat eating every anti tank weapon your opponent has

You could field GUO/Rotigus alongside Mortarion, DG Daemon prince, Bloat-Drones, Blight Haulers and PBC. All of them are daemons and draw lascannon fire.

That, or you field a sufficiently sized unit of beasts of nurgle that rampage towards your enemy.

2+ Princes
GUO
Rotigus
Blight Haulers
and Beasts

What exactly do you focus your las on because death is coming.

valdier wrote:
2+ Princes
GUO
Rotigus
Blight Haulers
and Beasts

What exactly do you focus your las on because death is coming.

In shooting, bring down the haulers and any chaff units. In combat, target the Princes and the Heralds that give the GUOs their buffs. Without their large amount of supporting cast, GUOs are the least scary of the 4 Greater Daemons and can be easily bogged down/avoided until that turn where your opponent fails their psychic buffs/has no more aura buffs/no more CP for stratagem buffs where you'll pounce in and pop the big monster.

Nurgle's lack of speed and dependence on buffs to put out any kind of serious damage is their downfall.

For those of you fielding a GUO, are you going with the sword or the bell?

While I love the bell for fluff reasons I feel it might be very situational and I wonder if the points spent to field the GUO with such a buff focused weapon would have been better spent just fielding more drones / blights / DPs.

 knas wrote:
For those of you fielding a GUO, are you going with the sword or the bell?

While I love the bell for fluff reasons I feel it might be very situational and I wonder if the points spent to field the GUO with such a buff focused weapon would have been better spent just fielding more drones / blights / DPs.

I like the Bell. Considering how big the GUO footprint is plus a 7" bubble, you can have lots of units getting a model back. Also they come back at full wounds. With a GUO, Demonic Icons, Sloppy Bilepeper and Stratgem you will be getting a lot of models back.

You could also try and summon the GUO.... Yeah I know, I'll show myself out. Lol.

Seriously though, the only 2 I would consider summoning would be a KOS or GUO, the other 2 cost way too much, and summoning can still be useful with the ability to adapt to what you may want or need in the middle of the battle.

Seeing myself out now.

 mrhappyface wrote:

valdier wrote:
2+ Princes
GUO
Rotigus
Blight Haulers
and Beasts

What exactly do you focus your las on because death is coming.

In shooting, bring down the haulers and any chaff units. In combat, target the Princes and the Heralds that give the GUOs their buffs. Without their large amount of supporting cast, GUOs are the least scary of the 4 Greater Daemons and can be easily bogged down/avoided until that turn where your opponent fails their psychic buffs/has no more aura buffs/no more CP for stratagem buffs where you'll pounce in and pop the big monster.

Nurgle's lack of speed and dependence on buffs to put out any kind of serious damage is their downfall.

So you have good shooting and amazing combat capabilities? Princes are no joke on their own. There is more than one GUO. And i'm sure they could drop the CP to deepstrike something.

Daedalus81 wrote:

So you have good shooting and amazing combat capabilities?

Who doesn't? Can't have CC on it's own this edition, have to back it up with some deadly shooting too.