40K: Radical Daemonhunters
With GW said to releasing the Daemonhunters and Witchhunters codices on their website in the future, there’s a bit of renewed interest in the forces of the inquisition. Now the rumored Grey Knights codex is said to be on its way in early 2011, but we honestly aren’t sure what it may include!
I’ve been using my radical inquisitor, Lord Cyrus for a good few years now. The army was originally built to go up against the forces of Chaos in the 13th Black Crusade campaign weekend, and the lure of using Chaos’s own power against it was far too strong! This left me with a big challenge though, how to build a half decent list, that’s fun to play with and against, using an old codex and without half of the options (since I wouldn’t be using Grey Knights). I’m not going to go through the whole army today, but just highlight three key units and their uses on the battlefield. Now, bear in mind, daemonhunters are a sub-par army, and rely on inducted units to really compete, but, of all the armies I own, I always seem to have the most fun with them!
First is Lord Cyrus himself, my radical inquisitor lord. Despite having some fancy wargear, daemonhunter inquisitors are not that great in combat. I outfitted Cyrus as the ‘traditional’ shooty inquisitor. This means he brings along a Psycannon, and is accompanied by 3 gun servitors, 2 mystics and 2 sages. I sometimes include two acolytes with artificer armour (his cybernetic bodyguards), who can soak up small arms fire directed at the squad. This is similar to the inquisitor units you see floating around as allies in so many tournament forces, with the all important mystics offering protection from deep striking forces. I’ve always included a plasma cannon servitor to combat deep striking terminators and obliterators, however, with the increase in deep striking vehicles, a multi melta might be a better option nowadays! This unit pumps out a good amount of shooting, certainly enough to make most people not want to go up against it.
Next, the thing that makes the force a radical one, daemonhosts. One of the most random units in the game, they can either annihilate the enemy, or fall flat on their face. Because of their unpredictability, I always take 2. Now, at a hefty 85pts, these are sooooooo over priced it’s not funny, but as an integral part of my theme, I can never justify leaving them behind. You generally spend most of your time waiting for a timeshift or teleport power to come up, both of which allow this close combat specialist to get close to the enemy. I generally have two types of target with my ‘hosts. Firstly, their prime targets are vehicles with rear armour 10 (or 11 at a push), so generally anything but land raiders and walkers. Teleport is especially good against artillery or other long range vehicles. Their second targets are squads without S8 attacks (which can instant kill the daemonhost), who they can then proceed to tar-pit. With T4, a 4++ save and 4 wounds, they can usually last a couple of rounds, and hopefully roll a timely reknit or even bloodboil. I’ve managed to hold up a thousand sons squad for 3 complete game turns before, effectively taking them out of the game. They can even go up against Daemon Princes and the like, due to their invulnerable save.
My favourite part of the army is the callidus assassin. She’s the best of the four assassins in my opinion, mainly for ‘a word in your ear’ which is a fantastic ability. “Oh, you’ve deployed your basilisk behind that building? Oh look – it’s out in the open now!”, “I see your Devestators have a commanding view of the battlefield! Not any more they don’t!”, “that assault squad behind the wood, well, now they’re in the wood, and cue dangerous terrain tests when they jump out!”. She can do other funky stuff as well, but purely for upsetting you opponents plans, she is the nuts.
The reason I have highlighted these three units, is that they all have one thing in common, they mess with your opponent’s head. The inquisitor and retinue can act as area denial, making your opponent deep strike further away than hebmight otherwise. The daemon hosts are that unpredictable, that no general can really tell what they are going to do next! The callidus makes you opponent do something they don’t want to do, and for added effect you can always go round to their edge and move their unit for them. The callidus and the daemonhosts could literally so ring up anywhere, and can both easily take out an unsuspecting unit. The inquisitors retinue can pump out a devestating amount of firepower, at every unit that deep strikes withing 4d6″.
If you haven’t used daemonhunters before, when the PDF codices come out, why not give them a try. You can easily add them into an existing imperial army. Just go beyond the ‘routine’ inquisitor and mystics that almost everyone has. They may not be the most reliable troops, but they are certainly fun to use!
Mkerr is a lover of the daemonhunters like myself, so head over to Chainfist, and look for his more in depth tactica for assassins, inquisitors and daemonhosts. Meanwhile, if you have any comments or feedback, it’s always appreciated, so email me or feel free to follow me on Twitter.
