Thursday, February 28, 2013

Finalizing my Demons list

Time to finalize.

Now that we know what the Banners and Icons do, I think it's time to finish off this army list with some stuff. I've definitely decided to go with a pure Slaanesh and Tzeentch army, and kept only the units I liked visually. Honestly, when playing Daemons, I don't think you can take things too seriously with so many random effects going off left and right.  I think this is going to be a very good book, although the first couple of tidbits made us all very worried.

Here is what the list looks like currently:


1992

HQ:
Lv.3 Telepathy Keeper of Secrets = 270
2 Greater Gifts, 1 Lesser Gift

Lv.3 Divination Herald of Tzeentch = 120
Disc

Herald of Slaanesh = 85
1 Lesser Gift, Exalted Locus

Herald of Slaanesh = 85
1 Lesser Gift, Exalted Locus

Masque of Slaanesh = 75

TROOP:
20x Daemonettes (Slaanesh Banner, IoC) = 210
20x Daemonettes (Banner, IoC) = 190
10x Daemonettes = 90
10x Daemonettes = 90

FAST ATTACK:
9x Screamers = 225

ELITE:
9x Flamers of Tz (Pyrocaster) = 212

HEAVY:
Tz Chariot (Blue Horror) = 110
Tz Chariot (Blue Horror) = 110
Tz Chariot (Blue Horror) = 110


Other possible units to add and try:
20x Seekers of Slaanesh, Slaanesh Banner, Instrument of Chaos
led by a Herald on a Seeker, with Seduction and an lesser gift

What do you guys think of the list?  Any suggestions on what I can add/try?

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Building Demons - Thinking Outloud

Shit just got real man.

If you guys saw my last brainstorm, you'll know that before I saw any rules/points, I already had an idea of what I want.

Here is what I wrote previously:
  • The army will be led by a Keeper of Secrets.
  • The army will also have a Lord of Change if I like the rules, or just two smaller heralds.
  • The army will have several units of Daemonettes - I was thinking maybe 12 in each squad; 6x2.
  • The army will also have 12 Seekers.  Love the models, the style, looks good man.
  • The army will have 9 Flamers of Tzeentch.  Love the models, the rules look good too.
  • The army will have 6 Fiends of Slaanesh.  The models are great, the rules are great, they definitely scream Slaanesh like crazy.
  • The army will have 3 Burning Chariots of Tzeentch.  Why?  Because I am in LOVE with the models.  Plus I hear they're the best anti-tank in the army.
Now that the rules are here, let's revisit the army with the new rules.

The army will definitely have a Keeper of Secrets still, even though the Lord of Change seems like an extremely potent choice.  Let's go over the two and compare them:

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Finally, solid Demons info

TALK ABOUT RANDOM!@^#


Will be updated as we go!
UPDATED: 12:00 PST 2-28-13

Some info on Icons and the Blue Scrubes:

Icons and Banners act like homing beacons for deep striking units.

If the icon and deep striking daemon(s) are from the same deity, they don't scatter within 6" of the icon.
If the icon and deep striking daemon(s) are from different deities, the deep striking unit (when aiming for a spot within 6" of the icon) only scatters 1D6" instead of 2D6"
If one of the units (icon or deep striking) hasn't got the Daemon special rule, the icon has no effect whatsoever.

Standard icon costs 10 points, +10 points for a god specific icon.

There are several different icons for the different gods:

Khorne: Unit may attack 6+D6" (once per game)
Tzeentch: Inflicts 2D6 S4 AP- hits to a unit you shoot at (must declare before; once per game)
Nurgle: All attacks count as Poison (2+) (must declare before close combat; once per game)
Slaanesh: In close combat: takes D3 WS from enemy units in combat; Slaanesh units are immune (once per game)

Instruments have two purposes:

1) If a unit with an instruments comes into game via reserve, you can immediately get another daemon unit out of reserve (they don't have to roll)
2) If you roll on the warpstorm table and get e.g. the result where Khorne attacks Slaanesh units, you may re-roll ONE DIE that could be harmful for your Slaanesh models PER instrument of Khorne in your army and on the table (and of course in any other god combination, too).

Instruments of Chaos cost 10 points.
You place a magic marker next to them each time a psyker on the board successfully casts a spell. At the beginning of you turn you throw a D6 for each marker. For each 6 a single friendly psyker within 12" of the Blue Scribes gains a warp point. Then the magic markers are removed.

Also, at the beginning of your turn you choose one of the magic disciplines from the rulebook and throw a D6. The result cannot be swapped for the primaris power. The spell is then cast without a psychic test and it doesn't need warp energy (don't know the correct English terms).

Costs 9x9 = 81 points
War Lord Table:
1)Warlord gains Instant Death USR
2)Warlord and his unit gain Hatred (Everything) USR
3)As long as the War Lord is alive, your opponent test for Fear at -1 LD
4) As Long as the War Lord is alive, units within 12” of the War Lord may re-roll Daemonic Instability
5) As long as the War Lord is alive, you may re-roll results on the Warp Storm Table
6)Units with the Daemon USR may Deep Strike within 6” of the War Lord without scatter.
lesser/greater/exhaulted locus is 10/20/30
Lastly, the Chariot does not have Screamer attacks:

no, no screamer attacks. the flamer however can attack.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Demonic Brainstorm

There be demons..

First, if I go Demons, should I do fantasy square bases or 40K bases?  I think I want to play the army in 40K more simply because I like their mechanics a little more.  The idea of demons marching across the field in organized ranks always bothered me.. but them appearing out of nowhere via DS is awesome!  I also like look of the round bases a lot more.  Hmm... I think I just answered my own question.. but I want your guys input as well.

Alright guys, what do you think of this brainstorm without seeing any of the new rules?
Without seeing any of the points yet, this is what I want to construct:

The army will be led by a Keeper of Secrets.
The army will also have a Lord of Change if I like the rules, or just two smaller heralds.
The army will have several units of Daemonettes - I was thinking maybe 12 in each squad; 6x2.
The army will also have 12 Seekers.  Love the models, the style, looks good man.
The army will have 9 Flamers of Tzeentch.  Love the models, the rules look good too.
The army will have 6 Fiends of Slaanesh.  The models are great, the rules are great, they definitely scream Slaanesh like crazy.
The army will have 3 Burning Chariots of Tzeentch.  Why?  Because I am in LOVE with the models.  Plus I hear they're the best anti-tank in the army.

What do I do about anti-air?  Maybe the Lord of Change will help since it flies.  Other than that, I have no clue.  Even though Soul Grinders get Skyfire in the new rules, I don't like the mechanical hybrid looking thing of it all.  It's just not very.. demon-ish to me.  Of course, there's always the idea of allying in CSM with a Lv.3 Sorc for cheap buffs, a big unit of CSM with ADL to hold a point, and a Helldrake because they're incredible.  Sadly, I'm not a fan of the model as it falls into the same category as the Soul Grinder aesthetically.

I've decided to go with a Slaanesh and Tzeentch theme.  They hate Khorne and Nurgle and thus, I will not going that way.  Besides, I think I've had enough of Khorne and Nurgle.  Slaanesh and Tz will give me a lot of Rending, flamer templates, powerful high S low AP attacks, and the best of all, speed.

I haven't been this excited for a release since.. I can't even remember.  And to think High Elves and Eldar are later this year.. shit's gonna get expensive!  Thankfully I've sold my Death Guard, Blood Angels and Cygnar to fuel all this.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Kelly and Ward writing the new Daemons

Looks like it's a write-off guys!

You guys probably know that I like Phil Kelly's writing and design philosophies, but I have really mixed feelings about Mat Ward writing WHFB Daemons of Chaos (again).

Let's look at their track record off the top of my head:

Phil Kelly:
3rd Ed. Eldar - Strong when they first came out, but other armies caught on quick.
4th Ed. Orks - Fairly balanced book, some questionable stuff here and there, but tame.
7th Ed. Warriors of Chaos - Balanced book that got better in 8th.
5th Ed. Space Wolves - His most "powerful" book.
5th Ed. Dark Eldar - Good balanced book.
8th Ed. Vampire Counts - Good balanced book.
6th Ed. Chaos Space Marines - Good balanced book.
6th Ed. Chaos Daemons - ???

Mat Ward:
7th Ed. Daemons of Chaos - The most ridiculous, overpowered book ever created in the 12 or so years I've been playing.
5th Ed. Space Marines - Fairly generic, tame book.
5th Ed. Blood Angels - Nice balanced book, some oddities, but his best work imo.
5th Ed. Grey Knights - Over the top. Just no reason why they're this strong.
5-6th Ed. Necrons - A good book, well-designed, but again, too strong compared to everyone else.
8th Ed. Daemons of Chaos - ???

Remember that article I wrote about the hallmarks to good book design?  Let's go ahead and give out some ratings.  Keep in mind that the entire design studio has a say, but the writer of the book at the end of the day, guides the direction of the project.

Overall Design
Kelly - A, Ward - B+

When I did this quick author review, I did it in the order of External Balance, Internal Balance, and finally Overall Design.  Overall, I think Kelly captures the transition between fluff to army the best.  Each of his books play the way you envision them to play in the fluff, and I think that's where Mat falls a little short.  Although I feel that his Daemons of Chaos book is brilliantly designed, the rest of his work always drew some eyebrows.  The biggest offender is Grey Knights.  Being my first army, I understood that army inside and out, fluff and gameplay.  When they turned into Grey Knights, he completely took out all the flavor that was Daemonhunters and gave them random grenades instead (in short).  It also made no sense how Grey Knights, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus, has a harder time killing Khorne Daemons than fellow marines.  Space Marines was just bland, but he more than made up for it by giving Necrons a guiding light.

Internal Balance
Kelly - B+, Ward - A

Ward actually does really good work when it comes internal balance.  Although the 7th Ed. DoC book was insane, all the options were equally insane.  That's when you can tell internal balance is good:  You can take many options, build any army to your hearts desire, and do well with it on the battlefield.  Phil Kelly's Space Wolves had the best internal balance of the lot, but when you look at Eldar, Orks and WoC (just burdened with too man units imo), one can argue that there are lots of bad units.  Every codex has "bad" units which are virtually unplayable unless you're a fluff bunny, but Ward's books have less of them.

External Balance
Kelly - A, Ward - C

I don't think Mat understands game balance as well as Kelly does.  It always seems to me that Mat's books tend to 1-up the previous book, and he doesn't rest unless he has the most powerful codex out there.  7th Ed. DoC was his biggest offender, a lot of people cried about Blood Angels too, but not nearly as much as Grey Knights and Necrons.  Kelly's books tend to be more tame, but a little power curvey as well.  I look at Kelly's books as the ones that are strong, but only because everyone else needs to catch up.  Space Wolves stand out the most when you talk about Kelly's "power" books, but in the end they were beaten down quite easily by Ward's books.  When it comes to busting people's balls and what generates the largest amount of complaints on the internet, it has to be this category of game balance.  People hate getting stomped, feeling helpless and generally don't know what to do vs. an army.  Most of those armies are the ones Mat wrote unfortunately.

Let me know what you guys think about this.  I really, really hope Ward redeems himself with these new Daemons.  It really was brilliantly written.. (both fluff and rules) it was just too powerful.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Holy cow Daemons!

What the hell is she doing?

Here are some pics that surfaced on the web today of the new Daemons of Chaos.
Supposed to come out Feb-March for both 40K and Fantasy.
I'm really excited about them.. to a point where I might do a Slaanesh army.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

DE: My current 1750

That Hansel.  He's so hot right now.

I've been having great success with this list over the last couple of months.  A lot of games over Vassal, a good deal of games at the stores, and some vs. friends at the Blizzard campus.  The list I'm about to show you guys is something pretty unique to me.  I'm a super lance heavy player as most of you guys know, and I show it off in my lists a good amount of time.  In the last 2 years, I've built one Venom.  Yes, I bought 3 boxes with DE came out, but I ended up building only one because of my playstyle [Kabal only, no weird ass Haemonculi shit].

If you guys remember my first list with 6th Ed., you'll notice that not much have changed.  By taking advantage of the benefits of 6th Ed. rules and hugging cover like a beast, I'm able to disassemble most of my opponents piece by piece.  There's just something incredibly satisfying about that.

Here's the list:
1746
18 KP

HQ:
Succubus (Agonizer/BP, Haywire) = 105

TROOP:
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
10x Warriors (Raider NS/SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
10x Warriors (Raider NS/SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
9x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/BP, Haywires) = 215
10x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/BP, Haywires) = 225

ELITE:
3x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 3x Blaster) = 156

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS) = 115
Ravager (NS) = 115
Razorwing (NS/FF) = 165

+++++

The most noticeable changes here are:
  • Dropped the extra HQ, no need.  Just need one cheap one who can sweep and provide a Strategic Warlord trait.
  • Dropped the Voidraven for a Razorwing just because of points effectiveness.  This one was a hard one because I've had good games with the VR, but also games where it was NOT worth the points at all.  That's why I settled with the Razorwing.  It's significantly cheaper and if I don't make all the points back from it, I'm not at a huge loss.
  • Added 3x Trueborn in a Venom for more Lances and some long-range Poison fire.
  • Oh, and added Aethersails on the Wych Raiders because there's been times I needed to rush/pressure some tanks, and giving myself +2D6" of extra movement is worth the 5 points spent.

I would say that this list excels at killing MEQ - which sadly, is about 70% of the meta.  It does well vs. elite armies, but struggle vs. loads of mediocre things like footguard.  Green tide and mass Tyranids can be a problem at first glance, but careful play with your poison gunboats and proper spacing using terrain as difficult terrain blockers wins you games.

Opening volley allows for 12 Lance shots.  Second round of mid-ranged shooting with Blasters on full allows for 21 Lances if the Razorwing hits the field.  Pretty deadly if I don't say myself!

If any of you haven't read the previous articles I linked above, I highly suggest them.  You'll find a lot of good stuff there that you can take to your games and start enslaving your friends.