40k List-Tech: To Bee or Not To Bee

The list-tech series focuses on unique, competitive lists crafted by players in the community. Today, we have a Chaos drone star.

The list-tech segment is a series of articles designed to focus on unique, competitive lists crafted by players in the community in order to provide new and experienced players with tactics, tips, and tricks to use in the heat of battle.

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Hello guys and welcome to another 40k List-Tech. Today we have a great write up from the best general at the Flying Monkey GT Cyle Thompson. Cyle is primarily a Space Marine player (he says so himself!) who has decided to make the leap to Chaos. Chaos Deamons offer a lot of tactical flexibility to skilled players and are arguably one of the strongest factions in the game at the moment. However, they are not easy to play. Lists can be varied, and complicated and Deamon players need to be acutely aware of deployments and how much one bad dice roll can ruin your game. Anyways, on to the list!

To Bee or Not To Bee

Flying Monkey 2016

Chaos Daemons CAD

• HQ
  • Fateweaver (Warlord)
  • Heralds
    • Herald of Nurgle
      • ML2
      • Exalted Gift
      • Greater Locus of Fecundity
    • Herald of Nurgle
      • ML2
      • Lesser Gift
• Troops
  • 10x Pink horrors
  • 10x Pink Horrors
• Fast
  • 6x Plague Drones of Nurgle
    • Venom Stings
    • Plaguebringer
      • Greater Gift
• Heavy
  • Daemon Prince
    • Tzeentch
    • Flight
    • ML3
    • The Impossible Robe
    • 2x Greater Gift
    • Lesser Gift
• Lord of War
  • Chaos Knight Paladin
    • Tzeentch
    • Dirgecaster

1. Tell us a little bit about your army, why did you go with certain units?

I’m usually a MSU marine player, I played drop pod BA/skyhammer last season, and won events back in the day with Raven Guard Rhino rush but
I’ve been getting sick of auto losing Purge the Alien because of all my cheap rides and 5 man squads. This has been a problem for me for as
long as I’ve been playing since I started with chimera spam then GK razorspam back in 5th. I was going to play warconvo this season but I
felt so pigeonholed into a mono build that honestly felt very robotic to play, especially after getting 20+ games in and winning an RTT. It
felt like the book was beat my opponents, not me. I was also considering playing a psychic heavy army this season(maybe demon
summoning GK/libby conclave or centstar or seer council) but then I played Nick Navati at the LVO team tourney and saw what demons could
do when they weren’t heavy khorne/nurgle (which is what my teammates play). So after I realized Warconvo wasn’t turning my crank I hit up ebay and an army of what I wanted fell in my lap.

So about the list: I only got one game in with it before Flying Monkey! I played a good 15 games with my demons, but the list changed basically every day. Fatey and the knight were pretty much auto includes but the drones and prince were in and out of the list for screamerstar, more princes, tetrad, you name it. I wanted to play a denial game: make first blood/strike really hard to get, deny kill points and kill a unit maelstroms. I finalized on drones+prince+knight because everything was self-sufficient, the grimore only had one target, and I could start everything on the table against pods.

2. Why did you pick this army list in particular? Is there anything special about your army that you want to highlight?

I wanted to have a very flexible army that had some simple components to play. The drones+knight+prince are simple move forward and kill stuff units, fatey takes to the air and is a mobile gun platform. He knowing the new Change table really takes him over the edge. I could easily bubblewrap the knight and MCs against pods by throwing the drones+horrors up front to make it hard to melta/rapid fire on them. I chose pink horrors as troops for more dice, 10 wound objective campers, and for more rolls at possession so I could turn them into great unclean ones or lords of change. I generally didn’t summon and just tanked everything with 2++ rerollables or 2+ cover/5+FNP on big bags of wounds. If the knight and drones got overwhelmed (like in my last game against my teammates ‘cron deathstar) Fatey and the prince can take to the sky and start summoning to play for objectives.

3. What expectations did you have for the meta? Were there any armies you were worried about? What match-ups did you feel most comfortable with?

I expected Eldar for days, battle company, and Tau. I was really worried Eldar and BC on an objective game. I didn’t get a variety of games in before we left. I was super comfortable against drop pods as that’s what I played against Nick and he wrecked me. I also had a ton of games against Tau and Crons so I felt good about those matchups. I also brought the prince just in case I pulled 4 flyrants or something so I could challenge them in the air with another shooting platform.

4. How did you prepare yourself and your list for “meta” armies like Eldar varients, Battle company, and Daemon lists? Who did you beat on the way to victory at the tournament?

I made sure to play really tanky units that couldn’t get cut down by bikes/spiders/pods without some major commitment. Demons I figure I would toss my knight into whatever 2++ garbage they had and hope for stomps while I cleaned up the rest. Having two fliers makes going after fatey/LoCs/avoiding the ground game a lot easier. Battle company I really kind of walk though and as long as I keep the objectives clean I can get them.

I played Harlies (a loss that turned into a draw after the fact), Pod BC (on relic!), Rhino rush BC (on purge!), ’crons with a monolith/destroyer cult/wraiths, triptide/cron destroyer cult/2fliers, and a nasty ‘cron superfriends attached to wraiths deathstar.

5. Hindsight is 20-20 and looking back on the tournament was there anything you would have changed about your list to better accommodate the meta you experienced?

I’m considering dropping the knight for a screamerstar. I’d get more dice as I felt my psychic phase felt a little constrained. It would also help against D shots/swings and I could still use them to tank some other deathstar with the 2++. The prince feels like a maybe piece but he was money in every game and being a guaranteed extra flier/summoning/shriek platform is nice. Also he doesn’t cost me more troop taxes by being a LoC or Bel’akor.

6. What are some tips or tricks you have for people who might want to start using your army?

This list doesn’t look like a lot but it is super tanky, very aggressive and flexible. Be careful in deployment and make sure you are thinking about what you are doing next in your opponents turn. Because you are only moving around so many models time generally isn’t an issue. Don’t summon just to put more “free points” on the table. Every spell should have a purpose. I found myself blasting things a lot more than I expected.

Turn your used models into cash!

Author: Pablo Martinez

Warhammer 40k analyst, tournament reporter and Ultramarines enthusiast, I'm the man behind the 40K podcast: Signals From the Frontline. I seek to gather more knowledge about the Warhammer 40k and share it to unite both hobbyists and gamers. I began writing for BoLS in 2016.