Slaede does a good job of examining the deep striking possibilities with Daemons. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you read it first. I agree that Daemons aren't truly a horde army
In my initial review of the new Chaos Daemons Codex, I'm seeing two and a half styles of builds that have potential to be viable tournament-style lists. The idea with both of these builds is that at least 1/2 to 2/3 of your army (by unit count, not by point count) will consist of units that take advantage of certain aspects of the Daemon codex.
#1 - Leaf on the Wind
Slaede describes this concept pretty well. Go read it!
#2 - Fast as a Freak
Slaanesh units are the obvious queens here, but every god has some units that can contribute. Basically anything that has the potential to move over 12" a turn between all three phases, without assaulting, can let you be hyper-aggressive and dominate the movement phase. If half to two-thirds of your force consists of these fast-movers, you can reasonably expect to have the bulk of your models in assault by turn 2. Same effect as in Leaf on the Wind, with less worry about the (small) possibility of rolling really badly on reserve rolls in return for being exposed to damage from turn 1. In this style of list, your more resilient, objective-holding units are actually going to be ones that you hold in reserve for deep striking, so that they can seize objectives and the like in the later portions of the game.
#2.5 - The Mighty
Basically, you try and combine #1 and #2, so that you can do either as appropriate. The main factor in your choice is likely to be whether you go first or second. If you go first, you go with Fast as a Freak, deploy nearly everything, and zoom forward at max speed to get to grips by turn 2. If you go second, you go with leaf on a wind, deploy your resilient units, and hold the rest in reserve abuse the deep strike rules.
This is essentially what I'm trying to come up with...an army that can do either, as the situation dictates.
Great advice, Bill Kim. I'm not a tournament player, but my friends and I like to play competitively. It will be interesting to pick an army to exploit one of your play styles according to the opposition I'll be facing (mainly 'nids, necrons, space marines, and CSM, at the moment).
ReplyDeleteThe more I look at the book, the more I think Flesh Hounds are one of the best buys. Cheap enough that you don't miss them if they get instant deathed, strong enough to wreck tanks, dangerous in assault super fast, and reasonably durable. There's not a lot they can't do.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble sticking to my mono-god list. A part of me knows I would be better served mixing units from the 4 gods and starting with my super durable troops in play while the rest comes in later and beats face. Unfortunately that means many different units.
DeleteBah, maybe I'll do both yet.
I think that's going to be the next unit I try. I've got 24 of them thanks to a really good deal I got on ebay a while back, when I was looking into them as anti-GK elements.
DeleteAt this early stage, I think I would reserve half the army even if I did go first because if I deploy first, my opponent reacts to me. If I reserve half my stuff, I get to react to whatever they do during deployment and their first turn and still pick the matchups.
ReplyDeleteBut it is early, and I won't have played a game for at least another week, so I may be wrong.