WFB: The Ruinous Powers and 8th Edition

The changes in 8th Edition have forced me to my change army building tactics – having to take different percentages, new magic phases, and combat rules.

8th edition’s reliance on mass amounts of core has really changed the way armies are constructed now. In the past I’ve taken the minimum – 3×10 Bloodletters – in order to sink more points into other things. These days I have to make a large point allowance to hit the new core percentage requirement, and have an army that will survive deep ranked combat. I’ve found that Bloodletters are still a good choice due to their high WS and I, ITP, 5+ ward save, and being nearly unbreakable. My other fallback, Daemonettes, have become all but worthless for anything beyond providing small blocks of flanking troops due to the new strike back rules – they’ll pop faster than ever. I’ve considered big blocks of Furies and/or Horrors, but haven’t been able to play them just yet.

My beloved Fleshhounds have lost some of their strength thanks to stomp and warstomp. They’ve definitely gone from a must have to a sideline choice. Overall the special choices for Daemons are less effective than they have been in the past, but this leaves more points open for core units.

Heralds seem to have become the new thing in 8th – providing some killer spells, hatred, re-rolls, etc for relatively low point costs. Nurgle has suffered a bit because of the inability to stack regen and ward, but manages to pack some dangerous spells. 8th compliant lists will do well with several of these placed in choice units – I’d suggest a Khorne herald in a block of bloodletters for that stabby hatred goodness.

Rare choices are another good place to spend points now. Fiends with their I6, AP attacks, range of movement, and stomp are a good addition; as are Plaguebeasts, which also have stomp and are a good counter to large core units. Bloodcrushers are still not that great, though the new model is just as pretty as ever. The bonus for me, however, is the fact that Flamers can now march and shoot. I hated that rule.

Big monsters are still a good choice, even though they eat through points. My Bloodthirster, with his ability to crush units, is still my top choice. Keeper of Secrets is a great addition for its movement abilities, and the Great Unclean One offers magic resistance and some nice spells. The Lord of Change will make an army’s magical abilities nearly unstoppable. They make take up a quarter of the allotted points, but no daemon army is complete without one.

After looking over the army and core rule books, I’m going to have to branch out from my Tzeench/Khorne mix to get the killing power I want. I’m looking at adding more Nurgle than I ever considered in 7th, and picking up heralds for magic attacks. I’m not looking forward to battling Skaven and Lizardmen with the changes.

I have to say that some of these changes make me like the game a bit less now, but I’m going to give it some more time to grow on me before I consider moving to a new system (like many of the WFB players in my area have).