Goatboy’s 40K – Daemonic Chaotic Glue
Goatboy here with Chaos Daemon Monday nonsense to kick off January! Ohh the dirty tricks this army can pull!
The newest bit of 40k fun is the upcoming Daemon Codex release. I have had a few days to look at it and while as a whole I think it is ok – it does give something pretty dang powerful to the Daemon keyword. I am sure if you are paying attention to anything 40k you have seen the leaked Deep Strike Stratagem – Denizens of the Warp. There is another Stratagem that this combos with – but lets look at that one first.
The Daemons – they are “Dropping In”
For 1 CP you can place a Power level 8 or less Daemon unit into reserves and deep strike them. For 2 CP you can put a 9 Power Level or great Daemon unit reserves. This all happens as you place your models onto the table top which means there is no limit to how many times you can use it – as long as you have enough command points to burn. The big thing on this Stratagem is that it can target any “Daemon” unit which means per the Death Guard FAQ and how any Stratagems work – if your unit has the Keyword needed to allow a Stratagem to work – it can work on it as long as you have the right detachment to gain those Stratagems. This is pretty dang amazing as it lets you relook at a lot of units who happen to have that keyword attached to them.
Deep Strike THIS puny Loyalist!
CSM “Denizens”
Let’s look at the Chaos Space Marine codex and the things that now could get access to Deep Striking and how you can use this stratagem.
- Lord of Skulls
- Possessed
- Heldrake
- Daemon Princes
- Defiler
- Maulerfiends
- Forgefiends
- Kytan Ravager
- Brass Scorpion
- Chaos Decimator
- Other Random Daemon stuff from Forgeworld
Of course not all of this is any good but there are a few outstanding things. The Brass Scorpion does have a longer charge range with his 3d6 charge option . That is pretty good and could turn out to be pretty devastating coming in so close to the enemy. I love my Lord of Skulls and having it come in would be pretty spectacular. I bet there is an army with him and the Primarch twins of doom to help scare the poop out of your opponent. I like the Lord of Skulls as you can dump some spells on him as well which could be how he gets powered up, gets close, and mows down as much as he can before he dies in an glorious explosion.
Into the warp we go – WHEEEEEE!
Death Guard “Denizens”
This leads me into the next batch of deep strike targets – Death Guard. A lot of this stuff is duplicated with Chaos Space Marines so the only real add ons is:
- Mortarion
- Drones
- Myphitic Blight-haulers
- Plagueburster Crawler
Besides Morty I would expect the Myphtic Blight-Haulers to be actually good to have deep strike in. A unit of 3 would come in close with a lot of angry firepower with 3 Multi-Meltas and 3 Missile launchers. Plus the Bile Spurt hits at 12″ which means it can get close and get to spitting on your enemy. These guys seem just exciting and I can’t wait to get my 3 in to paint up and maybe use and abuse. We all know how great Morty can be and having him hit close without needing a Warptime to get across the field is a powerful thing.
Finally the last big Daemonic thing is of course Magnus. I expect his usage to change heavily dependent on how he is updated for the Thousand Sons book. I bet he loses Warptime as that really kind made him nutty with a chance to have a 32 inch movement. But hey we only have a few weeks to wait on that.
Meet Warp Surge
After all of this deep striking nonsense we have one more Stratagem to worry about – the +1 to a daemonic units invulnerable save. Thankfully it comes with a bit of control built in with the extra rule of not allowing a reroll of the inv save – which is a good thing for the game. But a 3++ Mortarion seems like a strong thing. I still haven’t had the amazing turns of strings of 3++ saves for my Magnus – but I do know my FNP rolls for Morty are usually on point. I guess this means I am truly a grandson of Nurgle.
So what does this all mean? Well it means you could have a really mean set up with Bash Bros, some kind of crazy super heavy, and enough command points to get this army party started. As soon as I saw this and was convinced how the Keywords in the Stratagem worked it had me thinking – how do we throw in all these jerks into an army list and maybe actually have it work? I blame LVO, my constant need to have all Chaos models, and my love of the monster mash lists for this thought.
Bash Brothers
Super Heavy Detachment – Chaos Space Marines/Death Guard/Thousand Sons
LoW: Mortarion
LoW: Magnus
LoW: Brass Scorpion (World Eaters)
Daemon Detachment – Nurgle
HQ: Herald of Nurgle
HQ: Herald of Nurgle
Troops: Nurglings X 3
Troops: Nurglings X 3
Troops: Nurglings X 3
Outrider Detachment – World Eaters
HQ: Chaos Lord, Combi-Bolter, Power Axe
FA: Chaos Spawn
FA: Chaos Spawn
FA: Chaos Spawn
This hits right under 2000 points, has 10 Command points, and you can drop 3 super turds down into the ground with hopefully Nurglings setting up in areas to allow them space to get near your opponent. I went with World Eaters because your Brass Scorpion now has a 1 CP chance to stop a psychic power on a 4+ – after you have tried to Deny the spell with Magnus or Morty. It also means you can have 2 things get close and hurt your enemy with Morty getting Warptime from Magnus on him, or himself and the Brass Scorpion moving 3d6. The Chaos Spawn are there just so I can find the cheapest Chaos Space Marine detachment to activate their stratagems. This is the power of the bad guys – they all have tiny bits of glue (Daemon Keyword) that helps combine all of their armies into one cohesive and deadly unit.
Overall the book is ok. It has 2 very strong Stratagems, some decent units, and overall the synergies within are pretty good. I don’t think it has nearly the single codex power of say Astra Militarium – but it doesn’t need to as it really is a glue book in the overall design philosophy that GW seems to have for the bad guy armies. And heck will see the initial “final” codex in the bad guys with Thousand Sons coming out soon. It is a great time to be a Chaos player right now with so many options, so many combos, and a ton of different ways to play whatever army you want. Chaos is truly a soup style army now – I just wish the regular Chaos Space Marines were better. But that is the case for almost every troop option in the game right now.
I won’t leave you with just this crazy list. I want to show you something I thought of as I looked at the power of Skarbrand in the new book with mixed in “Daemonic” Chaos Space Marine units.
Skarbrand’s Mad
Chaos Daemons Supreme Command – Khorne
HQ: Skarbrand
HQ: Daemon Prince, Khorne, Malefic Talon X 2
HQ: Bloodthirster of Insenate Rage, Armor of Scorn
World Eaters Battalion
HQ: Kharn
HQ: Exalted Champion
Troops: Khorne Berserkers X 8, Icon of Wrath
Troops: Khorne Berserkers X 8, Icon of Wrath
Troops: Khorne Berserkers X 8, Icon of Wrath
FA: Warp Talons X 8, Mark of Khorne
Dedicated Transport: Rhino, Combi-Bolter X 2
Dedicated Transport: Rhino, Combi-Bolter X 2
Dedicated Transport: Rhino, Combi-Bolter X 2
This list is just about dropping in a lot of stuff – and then have Zerks coming in from behind to clean things up as needed. Plus it has Kharn coming in to do his work – which is bring as many skulls to Khorne. Skarbrand has some interesting interaction with a change to his attack profile by allowing a sweep attack. It is the same with the other Blood Thirster as he can get in, do a lot of damage, and hopefully stay stuck in as Skarbrand keeps everyone fighting. The Warp talons come in with 4 attacks apiece which is pretty nice profile when you mix in Rerolls to hit and wound. Plus the entire list is all Khorne, feels fluffy, and will hit like a brick. Of course someone will stop it, the game will be quick, and you can move on to something else interesting as you wait for the event to finish up.
~Happy Chaosing! Now who do you think is on top of the meta?
