Wednesday, June 5, 2013

New Chaos Daemons: The Tide of Chaos Stretches even further!

So.... Aside from doing nothing warhammer related for the past couple of months... I've started to get back in the swing of things since it looks like I'll have a chance to play a bit more regularly soon. I recently traded my chaos army for a huge skaven army and a small vampire counts army. But enough of the Fantasy. To the 40k mobile!

Chaos Daemons Codex Review first off.

Nature of the Daemon
Your standard lore really, first it talks about the 4 greater chaos gods. Then it talks about how Daemons come through the warp into the material plane. After that it gives you a nice stylized timeline. Then it talks a little bit about the End Times.
-This is pretty standard stuff when it comes to Daemon Lore and it's nothing I haven't read before from the last Daemons codex and the Liber Chaotica book.

The Legions Infernal Army Special Rules
-So, on to the meat and potatoes of the book. Starting with a whole host of army special rules.

Daemonic Alignment: Basically you can't stick a Herald of Khorne into a unit that isn't dedicated to Khorne. Or same wording with different gods.
-Nothing we haven't seen before

Daemon of Khorne: Furious Charge, Hatred (Daemons of Slannesh), Chariot Hammer of Wrath hits at S7
Daemon of Slannesh: Fleet, Hatred (Daemons of Khorne), +3 inches on running, +6 inches of running for Calvary or Beasts, +3 inches for flat-out moving for vehicles.
Daemon of Nurgle: Shrouding, Hatred (Daemon of Tzeench), Defensive grenades when entire unit is made up of Daemons of Nurgle.
Daemon of Tzeench: Re-roll 1s for Invul saves, Hatred (Daemon of Nurgle), +3 LD when manifesting psychic powers (making it normally LD 10)
All Daemons of... have the Daemon special rule
-I'm liking this a lot. Khorne is still pretty much Khorne, Slannesh is more powerful (From last 'dex) and it fits with it. Nurgle is nice and lore-freindly as is Tzeench though it loses a lot of duribility (Since they don't have a standard 4+ invul)

Daemonic Instability
Basically... They pass all fear, pinning, morale tests but on break tests... For each point they fail by they lose a wound.
Unless... You roll a double 1 or double 6, which is really good, or really bad respectively.
On a double one Reality Blinks and all the models you lost in the combat comes back into play.
On a double six Banishment! the whole unit is removed from play as casualties.
EX: My 15 man daemon unit loses 5 models in combat and loses combat by 2, bringing their LD down to 5 (Basic daemon LD is 7) and I roll a 8, the difference between LD and result is 3, so the daemon unit takes 3 more wounds without saves.
-Big step down from fearless but I was expecting something different with the new 'dex and I have thumbed through the last Fantasy Daemon Army book and I had a feeling they might go with something like that. It seemed rather lore-freindly. The double 1 or 6 results are equally brutal though.

On to the Warp Storm Table:
Roll on a crazy table every start of the shooting phase for the daemon player (Or each... O.O)
2-4 really hurts the Daemon player. From each unit in your army taking a Instabilitity test. To taking a -1 to your invul until your next Warp Storm Table
5-9 with the exception of 7 (In which nothing happens) the Gods throw their hat into the ring. Khorne, Tzeench, Slannesh, or Nurgle targets each enemy unit (And their oppsite gods units). On a roll of a 6 the unit takes damage in one form or another, from D6 S6 AP- rending hits. To a small blast S8 AP3  barrage hit.
10-12 gives the Daemon player some nasty boons. From Increasing the invul save of all their units by 1. To outright deepstriking a whole unit of 2D6+3 lesser Daemons on to the field.
-On a whole... This is really making me take Fateweaver, not just becuase he's awesome in different ways now but because he lets you re-roll the result of this chart thanks to a warlord trait. Other than that, I'm liking the chart as a whole, really re-enforces the randomness of Daemons, since we lost the Daemonic Incusion special rule. Thats right, daemons are going the way of the foot sloggers. but they all have the deepstrike rule, so great options.

Warlord Traits
1: Warlord Melee weapons cause Instant Death
2: Warlord and unit have Hatred
3: All enemy units -1 to fear tests while warlord is alive.
4: All friendly units within 12 inches re-roll failed Instability tests.
5: Re-roll Warp Storm chart while warlord is alive
6: Friendly units arriving from deepstrike do not scatter when they land within 6 inches of the warlord.
-Liking them all though I have to admit, 2, 4, and 5 are the only truely awesome ones though the others are still quite useful.

-I've still got some time and im not tired yet so... here we go (It's 11:53 pacific 6/4/13 up to this point)
-I'm going to be deviating a bit and going into the armory since most of the unit entries don't make sense without a jist of what wargear im talking about.
Daemonic Armory
Ranged Weapons:
Khorne Flavored:
Lash of Khorne: 12 inch, S6 AP2 Assult 1
Skull Cannon: 36 inch, S8 AP5 Heavy 1, Large Blast, Dreadskulls, Ignore Cover
Dreadskulls: Basically the unit doesn't benefit from cover in the next assault phase when it gets hit with this weapon
Khorne Ranged Weapons as expected, limited in number but all sorts of deadly.
Slannesh Flavored:
Lash of Dispair: 12 inch, S4 AP- Assult 2D6
Nerd-gasm perpotions since heralds of slannesh can take this item, and you can have up to eight of them... but at a ludicrous amount of points. (500+)
Nurgle Flavored:
Death's Heads: 12 inch, S-user AP- Assult 2, Posioned (4+)
Most meh of the ranged weapons in my opinion.
Tzeench Flavored
Blue fire of Tzeench: 18 inch S9 AP2 Heavy D3, Warpflame
Flames of Tzeench: Template S4 AP4 Assult 1, Warpflame
Pink fire of Tzeench: Template S5 AP3 Heavy 1, Torrent, Warpflame
Warpflame: It's a very special rule, very chaotic. At the end of a phase where a unit was damaged with a weapon with this rule they take a toughness test, if they fail they lose D3 wounds. If they pass they get Feel No Pain (6+) or if they already have it gain +1 to their feel no pain save.
Devestating weaponry, either to your opponent when they fail toughness tests or yourself when they pass the same tests.
Soul Grinder only Weapons:
Baleful Torrent: Template S6 AP4 Assult 1, Torrent
Harvester Cannon: 48 inch S7 AP4 Heavy 3 shot, 2 profiles one with Skyfire
Phlegm Bombardment: 36 inch S8 AP3 Ordinance 1, Large Blast
I'm seeing a Soul Grinder in nearly every army of pure daemons for the Skyfire awesomeness, though they may suffer a bad case of lascannon-itus cause they are big and potentially scary targets with Plegm Bombardment.

Melee Weapons:
Khorne Flavored:
Axe of Khorne: S-User, AP2, Decpaitating Blow
Blade of Blood: S-User, AP2, Bloodlust, Unweildy
Hellblade: S-User, AP3
Decapitating Blow: To wound rolls of 6 cause instant death
Bloodlust: Model gains Rampage special rule
Awesome and quite possibly the best melee weapons of the 'dex as befitting Khorne.
Slannesh Flavored:
Witstealer Sword: S-User, AP5, Rending, Witsteal
Witsteal: Model that takes an unsaved wound from this weapon must pass an initiative test or lose an additional wound.
In my opinion... one of the worse weapons in the 'dex.
Nurgle Favored:
Balesword: S-User, AP-, Instant Death, Posion (4+), Touch of Rust
Plague Flail: S-User+1, AP-, Contagion
Plague Sword: S-User, AP-, Posion (4+), Touch of Rust
Touch of Rust: Weapons with this special rule causes a glancing hit on armour penetration roll of 6.
Contagion: Models that take an unsaved wound from this weapon must pass a toughness test or lose an additional wound.
Haven't given Nurgle weapons much thought though they seem rather useful, espcially the plague swords of the plague bearers. Able to damage anything in the game, litterally.
Tzeench Flavored:
Mutating Warpblade: S-User AP3, Warp Mutation
Staff of Change: S-User+2 AP4, Warpdoom
Warp Mutation: If the  bearer slays an enemy character or Mosterous Creature, on a D6 roll of 2+ the victim is turned into a Chaos Spawn:
WS:3 BS:0 S:5 T:5 W:3 I:3 A:D6 LD:10 SV:-
Beasts, Fearless, Rage, Very Bulky
Warpdoom: if a non vehicle character of monsterous creature loses its last wound to a attack from this weapon it explodes, dealing to every unit within D6 inches D6 S5 AP- hits.
Very unpredictable weaponry and very strange, must meditate more on them but initial thoughts make them decent.
Etherblades:
Etherblade: S-User AP2, Master-Crafted
Greater Etherblade: S-User+1 AP2, Master-Crafted.
These are some of the upgrade weaponry for Daemons, will be apparent when you read the Rewards. And very powerful in the right hands and makes even though meh in combat a force to be reckoned with.
Soul Grinder Flavored:
Iron Claw: S-UserX2 AP:2, Unwieldy
Warpsword: S-User, AP3, Master-Crafted
I see the Iron Claw getting more use then the warpsword. No way in heck should a terminator getting hit by a weapon that could cut it in half and it still gets up 5 out of 6 times.

Daemonic Attrubutes:
Collar of Khorne: Unit gain +2 to Deny the Witch rolls. (Fleshounds only)
Rot Proboscis: Close combat attacks are Poison (3+) (Plague Drones only)
Venom Sting: Make 1 special attack and roll separately, this attack causes Instant Death. (Plague Drones only)
Warp-Forged Armor:  Model gets a 3+ armor save. (Blood Thirster, Scarbrand, Daemon Prince only)
Not much to say on this regard, Warp-Forged Armor is veru good since the vast majority of Daemons don't have a Armor Save. Plague Drone upgrade Rot seems much more useful than the Venom sting despite the same point cost.

Daemonic Steeds:
Juggernaut of Khorne: Model gains +1 toughness, wound, and attack. Model becomes Calvary.
Disk of Tzeench: Model gains +1 attack. Model becomes Jetbike
Palanquin of Nurgle: Model gains +2 wounds, +1 attack and gains the Very Bulky special rule.
Steed of Slannesh: Model gains +1 attack, Acute Senses and Outflank special rule and becomes Calvary.
Steeds seem rather similar to the last steeds not including the Chariots which aren't included (Most are their own units now or upgrades for heralds, will talk about them when they come up) All of them have their place but Steed of Slannesh seems the most useful given that it lets a herald of slannesh outflank with her unit. (One of the only units that can outflank in the Daemon 'Dex.)

Getting Tired now. Will finish the Review another time. Hopefully soon.


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