Tactica: Khorne Daemonkin – Part 5 – Spam-Grinders
Welcome back for the fifth instalment of Tactica: Khorne Daemonkin! Today we Grind our opponents into gristle for the Brass Throne!
Brought to you by Blog for the Blood God
In tonights installment of Tactica: Khorne Daemonkin I will be sharing another list with you! this one will grind your opponents to a pulp!
SPAM GRINDER
A major strength of Codex Khorne Daemonkin is its ability to take multiple war engines in a battle forged army, lets assume you are in an environment that does not allow unbound armies, I know many tournaments do not and a lot of players frown upon it. Well to them I say “say hello to the Khorne Daemonkin Blood Host!” Now first I want to say, based on the new releases we are seeing it looks like this might become the standard for the 7th edition codex format, but as it stands Khorne Daemonkin are one of the few armies with this ability.
When taking a blood host detachment you must take 1 core choice (slaughtercult) and 1 to 8 auxiliary choices, one of which is a single war engine! This means you can take 8 war engines such as soul grinders in games as small as 1850 points and still remain battle forged!
We all know taking multiple of the same unit can make it very difficult for your opponent. Spam lists work on the principal that most armies have a mix of anti tank, anti infantry, anti flyer, anti elite infantry and anti Monsterous Creature. If you only take 1 unit type you are effectively negating the majority of their force. For example the below Spam Grinder list features 8 soul grinders in a 1850 point army, this means anything other than your opponents anti tank weapons will be severly limited in thier effectiveness. Why Soul Grinders? Because they truely are the Daemonic Swiss army knife of the Daemon Engine world! Lets break down thier abilities, strengths and weaknesses:
OFFENSIVE
Iron claw = 4 x Strength 10 Ap2 close combat attacks, enough to destroy most vehicles with ease, also great for taking on Monsterous Creatures and Special Characters
Harvester cannon = 48″ Strength 7 Ap4 Heavy 3 with the ability to switch between skyfire! This is your obvious anti air weapon but also great for ranged combat against light vehicles, Monsterous Creatures and heavy infantry.
(Optional) Warp Gaze = 24″:Strength 10 Ap1 Heavy 1. This is great for deep strike attacks but personally on a vehicle that already has fantastic anti tank close combat i would give this one a miss
(Optional) Baleful Torrent = Template Strength 6 Ap4 Assault 1 Torrent. This one is great to have in the bag of tricks as torrent weapons are easily the most effective anti infantry weapons around, however i would still give this a miss in favour of the third option as it ticks all the boxes
(Optional) Phlegmn Bombardment = 36″ Strength 8, Ap3, Ordnance 1 Large Blast… that is what I am talkin about! Great range, 36″ on a moving weapons platform is plenty long enough, great strength, strength 8 ordnance means you will be instant killing Toughness 4 or lower, wounding most things on a 2+ and rolling an average of 12 or 13 for armor penetraton. Great AP, being Ap3 means you will munch through all but the most elite infantry and finally great blast! The large blast can reliably hit multiple targets making it great anti infantry, and also give you the potential to destroy multiple vehicles as the blast only has to nick them! The other thing to mention with the large blast is that it is surprisingly accurate even on a BS 3 platform.
Generally BS 3 means 50-50 hit / miss but with a BS 3 large blast you have a 33-66 of rolling a direct hit on the scatter and on the 66% when you dont you will scatter an average or 4″ which should still hit your target!
Last we have the warpsword, I nearly did not include this in the article because in my opinion it is just dumb… 25 points gets you a Strength user (6) Ap3 specialist master crafted close combat weapon, when you already have a power claw I see no need for this, it does grant an additional attack for 2 x specialist weapons but for 25 points its waaay overcosted. Simply put… do not waste the points.
DEFENSIVE
The Soulgrinder is one tough cookie with 13 front and side and 11 rear. Being a walker means enemy close combat will be hitting your front armor, this is particularly useful now that Monsterous Creatures only get a single smash attack.
On top of this you get your Daemonic save of 5++ which will shrug off an additional 33% of all damage
And even better you have Daemonic resilience that allows you to ignore shaken and stunned results on a 2+. So your opponent is going to have a very difficult time slowing your advance!
USAGE
Definitely equip all your Soul Grinders with Phlegmn Bombardment, but do not think of them as a long range unit, they are a multi tool and the best way to maximise thier effectiveness is to use all the tools at your disposal. Push forward and never stop moving, with 8 of these guys on the table your opponent will not be able to hide for long.
Do not forget they can deep strike, this is situational and very much depends on your opponent, I would suggest putting an instrument and icon on your manditory Bloodletters so that should you decide to deep strike you can do so reliably and safely
Here is an example of a Spamgrinder list:
BLOOD HOST DETACHMENT
Slaughtercult
160 – Chaos lord, Kor’Lath axe of ruin, Sigil of Corruption
110 – 8 Bloodletters, banner of blood, instrument of chaos
110 – 8 Bloodletters, banner of blood, instrument of chaos
150 – 5 possesed
War Engines
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
165 – Soul Grinder, Phlegmn Bombardment
1850 ppints
Thanks again for tuning in! Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the next instalment of Tactica: Khorne Daemonkin! and while you are at it head over to Blog for the Blood God, give me a like, and join in on the other great content! Everything from Battle Reports to Hobby Tutorials, Rules discussions and tactics to Animated movies and 40k based comedy (wanna see a 15 thousand point per side apocalypse battle report?)
Thank you all for your time!
Dae’vros The Gorehound
Signing out!
