New Chaos Daemon Stuff

Morning folks.

I've tended to shy away from "look here's new stuff!" posts, but today I'm plum out of ideas for a blog and haven't been getting any painting done due to that pesky "real life" thing.

(Thanks to HERO's Gaming Blog for the pics, and Faeit 212 for the rules rumours)

Anyway, over the last few days there's been a fair bit of activity in the Warp and Daemon rules rumours have rolled a 3+ to show up, swiftly followed by pictures of the actual models.

I figured I'd pass these on here for club folks who don't check many other blogs, but also to spout my opinion on them - no doubt there'll be people who love the stuff, others will hate it...

Slaanesh Herald - Looks nice enough, but I think she suffers a similar problem with other heralds that they don't stand out enough from the bog standard troops. Suppose it'll be down to the paint scheme as well.

This guy looks cool, suitably dynamic and menacing at the same time. I think a lot of people will have already converted stuff like this though, Bloodletter + extra Bitz.

I'm holding out on seeing the fluff and idea behind this thing because to me, it looks a bit stupid. Like the kind of thing they would force into a toy range for a Superhero movie. "IRON MAN'S HOVERCYCLE" or "BATMAN'S FLYING BAT FORTRESS". And even then, the front prow bit looks like someone has just jammed a big Squig on it.

This looks the better option visually for the Khorne kit. I'm hoping you can also convert this into being a Chariot for a Herald, as that was one of the things I was really keen on putting in my Daemon army.

This guy looks ace and, to me, different enough from the fodder Plaguebearers to stand out in a crowd. I've heard this guy will be plastic, although personally... I really like the Warriors of Chaos Nurgle Lord to use as a Plaguebearer herald.

Love the mounts, they look suitably Nurgle and disgusting. However the riders just look a bit stuck on... As though someone's opened a box of plastic Plaguebearers and glued them on the top.

Now this is ace and exactly how it should look. Lots of Tzeentchy stuff going on, dragged by a Screamer and not a flying stem in sight.

This to me isn't so good. I'm not keen on the "ghost fire" stuff everywhere although it'll be interesting to see what this actually does in a game.

Now onto the rules rumours! (All copied from Faeit212, although since then

The bloodthirsters : 280pts
WS  BS  S   T   W   I   A   LD   SV
10    4    9  7    5   5   5    10   5+
Daemonic gifts: blood axe, armour of terror, whip of destruction
special rules: daemon, daemonic flight, furious charge, rage,blood without end
blood axe - user gains a previously lost wound he has lost earlier in game for every kill he makes on a 4+
armour of terror - user gains a 2+ save and 5+ invulnerable. The bearer gains a 4+ feel no pain if the weapons AP in lower than 3
whip of destruction - 12'' shooting attack - strength 8 AP 4 rending
daemon - see page 36
daemonic flight- see chaos special rules
furious charge & rage - rule book (P41&37)
blood without end- the bloodthirsters gain +d6 attacks on the charge and makes another strike at initiative step 1 for every wound he causes.
These extra strikes do not produce any further strikes.

 This guy sounds like an absolute beast. Exactly as he should be. To me, the old Bloodthirster is measured against the Swarmlord for Tyranids, who got even better with the Psychic power buffs from 6th edition changes. The Bloodthirster should be the out and out combat King of the Universe. Key to stopping him will be the same as in 5th edition though: shooting, shooting and more shooting.

Great unclean one : 260pts
WS  BS  S   T   W   I   A   LD   SV
 5     4    6   8   6    1   4   10   6+
Daemonic gifts: plague sword of death, bloated body, aura of decay
special rules: daemon, slow and purposeful,my master gifts all,shrouded
plague sword of death - wounds everything on 2+ with an ap of 3 - turns characters into spawn
bloated body - the daemon has a 4+ armour save and a 3+ feel no pain on any weapon AP 5 or below.
aura of decay - the great unclean one has defensive and assault grenades and causes all enemy weapons to count as -1 strength (I believe this is ranged and
close combat)
daemon - page 36
slow and purposeful - page 42
shrouded- page 41
my master gifts all - pick an enemy and friendly unit at the beginning of the game. The enemy unit gains -1 toughness and strength while a friendly plaguebearers count as +1 strength and +1 to there feel no pain rolls.

This guy has nearly doubled in points, which is a shame although I didn't see them very often on the tables. The "my master gifts all" rule sounds particularly nasty for the Uber-Plaguebearers although I'm not keen on rules where enemies start off with stats modified, essentially you're robbing the other player of points they've paid for a unit. Example, I pay Xpts a model for an Incubi unit and if this rule gets put on them, they're now T2 and S2 (S3 with the Klaives) which means a points sink now becomes super easy to shift and causes minimal damage in return if it does manage to get there.

bloodletters: 14pts each
WS  BS  S   T   W   I   A   LD   SV
 5     0    5   4    1   4   2   10    6+
daemonic gifts: blood swords (strength: user  AP: 4)
special rules: daemon, furious charge,rage
unit type: infantry
Number/squad: 5-20

Good. I don't mind the issue of the swords being AP4 so much... although I loved hacking Marines up with them. Furious Charge and Rage were my wishlist for Bloodletters, along with a points drop. According to all this they'd be S6 on the charge with 4 attacks which is pretty cool - although now they strike the same time as Marines and can't slice through their armour.

Daemonettes of slannesh: 12pts each
WS  BS  S  T   W   I   A   LD   SV
 4     0   4   3    1   6   2   10   6+
Daemonic gifts: rending claws
special rules: fleet, make them suffer (+1 added to strength - already included)
Unit type: infantry
Number/squad: 5-15

 Strength boost and a points drop is pretty good. Although it still doesn't make up for Fleet getting shafted in the 6th edition rules.

tzeench gift of betrayal -50pts (one use)
pick an enemy independent character at random, that model or unit must pass a leadership test with a -4 penalty or be removed  after being sucked into the warp for tzeench amusement, models from codex: space marine, dark angels,black templars,grey knights,space wolves,blood angels take a -2 penalty instead to represent their resistance from the dark gods temptations.

 Being a Shattershard user, rather than a target, I can't really complain about this. But this sounds pretty daft, I would hope it'd be at least a certain range away, rather than anywhere off the board etc. The Shattershard, whilst it can be really harmful, requires a Haemonculus to get in flamer range of the enemy units, so can always be shot down, tied up, hacked to death, etc. before he can get there.

nurgle's blessing (30pts)
pick a nurgle unit in your army, that model/unit gains +1 to their feel no pain roll.

 Considering FNP is now a 5+ (albeit gets used a lot more) I don't have an issue with this too much.

sword of a thousand souls: 45pts
the bearer must charge every enemy unit and must challenge but gain +2d6 extra attacks on the charge.

 Old school Rage, but he's a monster charging in. Interesting to see what units or Chaos Gods can actually take these, probably Khorne only.

dance of death: 40pts
pick an enemy unit at the beginning of the game, that unit must roll a initiative test every turn of the game or is under the control of the daemon player. The unit under control may charge friendly models but cannot move off the board or into any piece of terrain that can cause hard to the model. If the enemy passes the initiative test more than three times during the battle then the dance has been removed for the remainder of the game.

Again with the shafting of opponents right off the bat. There's nothing more annoying as a player, especially at events, to be on the back foot or have points from my army robbed from me before anything has even moved. This'll be a nightmare for Necron players if it's real...

After these rules were posted up yesterday, there's been a follow up since...

I just thought you'd want to know those Daemon rumors you posted up are fakes.
Greater Daemons are stronger than last edition. Troops are about the same and a little bit cheaper here and there.
All daemons can deep strike or can start on the board and when you reserve units for deep strike they kinda come in waves, it's similar but new at the same time.

The biggest thing I take from this, and also from interviews about the new Daemons cropping up about "balancing between Fantasy and 40k" and "Daemons needing the speed to cross the board, Warp portals, etc." is that Daemons no longer all deep strike.

To me, that was half the fun and challenge of the army meaning that you couldn't set up a fire base at the back of the board, or hide in that building straight from the off. You were at the mercy of the Dice Gods in the same way the army should be at the whim of the Chaos Gods.

I'll wait and see the Codex before casting any more judgment, but most of the models are a bit bleh and stupid (Skull Cannon0, some are really nice (Plaguebearer Herald) but I was hoping for some bigger beasties similar to the Forgefiend and Heldrake.

Anyway, that's all for now until the Codex drops some point next month I'm guessing. There'll be more stuff between now and then surely.

Cheers,
SB