[Daemons] Mono-Khorne Daemons First Impressions

Hey guys, thought I'd spend a few minutes on here talking about my newest fledling 40k army - an all Khornate Daemon Army.

I've been building this army since August, buying a lot of things cheap at Britcon, with the aim that I'll do it all in plastic, avoiding lots of heavy, easily damaged and more importantly, expensive metal models. I'll do another article at a later date with pictures of my army.

Over the past 2 weeks I've brought the Daemons to the table, since they're now completely painted, thanks to Christmas holidays and bad weather conditions stopping me leaving the house.

Both weeks I've used the following list and played against a Marine army, week 1 Black Templars, Week 2 was Salamanders. Both lists had a land raider, terminators, a tough HQ choice and numerous Marine squads in Rhinos.

I used the following list:

Gorezilla, the Bloodthirster - Deathstrike, Unholy Might, Blessing of the Blood God, Instrument of Chaos.

- This guy is my main anti-Tank and anti-Character unit. Plus bullet magnet. In the first game against the Black Templars, he showed up on Turn 1, plonked on a flank to Deathstrike the back armour of a Predator the turn he comes down, then move onto munching some Marines in Rhinos. But the Marines jumped out, Predator turned round and a Land Raider combined to take him out by sheer weight of fire.
- I run him with Deathstrike so he has the ability to attempt to pop a Transport before charging the troops inside, and also so he can do something ont he turn he drops.
- Unholy Might is there for reliability sake. I'd rather know he's S8 all the time, with the Bonus of S9 on the charge, for the extra oomph when attacking vehicles and also to insta-kill Marine chars if they try and charge him.
- Blessing and Instrument are there as point fillers. I figure 5th ed means more Psykers (Space Wolves, Nids as prime examples) and the Instrument has managed to earn it's points back when holding off a unit of Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield terminators.

Skullcrusher and Bloodfist, Heralds of Khorne: Deathstrike, Unholy Might, Juggernaut

- These guys support a unit of Bloodcrushers each, Unholy might is there so they have an extra pop at killing off Vehicles that the big guys can't reach and Deathstrike is there to try and open up Rhinos to get at the squad inside.

8 Bloodcrushers (2 units of 4): Icon and Instrument

- This squad is the beef of the army, the Bloodthirster and his friends are there to pop tanks and characters, this unit wants to walk into any fight and smash whatever comes at it.
- I always go with the Icon and Instrument combo, as when I actually remember to use the icon, it's really handy, especially as these guys are ridculously survivable.

20 Bloodletters (2 units of 10): Icon and Instrument

- So far, these guys are the ones that are getting pasted by Enemy fire the turn they drop, so I think I need to be more careful with where I place them.

10 Flesh Hounds: Karanak

- These guys haven't earned their points back yet, and the lack of power weapons and anti-vehicle really hurt them. They're nice when they work and you can get a long charge with them, but when they get there, they don't pack the punch I want. I think I'll be dropping these to upgrade....

Krush, Kill and Destroy, Daemon Princes: Mark of Khorne, Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Deathstrik, Instrument.

- These guys take up a fair chunk of my army, but I really wanted to play Daemonzilla to scare the pants off people.
- The Iron hide upgrade served me really well, the ability to shrug off Bolter fire has kept these guys alive.
- As with the BT, Deathstrike is there to pop transports to get at stuff inside, and also for lucky kills on the turn they drop.

Things to Remember:
- Always remember the icons on the table. I forgot near enough every other turn I had an icon on the table when stuff was showing up and it would have really helped my game had I used them. Especially when the Fleshhounds deviated and landed in terrain.
- Don't drop out in the open. I've ended up doing this in both games, dropping Bloodletters out into the open to be mowed down by flamers and Bolters. Same with the Bloodthirster in the first game.
- Don't take the first turn. In the first game I went first and basically gave Ste an extra round of shooting at me, which was daft.
- Split your army equally. Don't attempt to put everything you want that's big and nasty in your favoured choice, it's a 1 in 3 chance you won't get it. Work to split your army equally and get used to that system.

Things to Change:
- Another unit of Bloodletters for Objective based games, or simply be more careful with them. I only have 2 scoring units and they're quite fragile to shooting.
- Drop the Flesh Hounds. If they had power weapons, I would love them, simply for the potential 18" charge, but when they get there they need support, in a normal Daemon army you would weaken a unit with shooting from Flamers / Horrors, then send in the hounds to tie them up and / or finish them off. I think I'll swap the unit either for another unit of Bloodletters to boost my Scoring unit count, or Wing upgrades on the Daemon Princes.

Conclusion:
So I've won my first 2 games with the Daemons, admittedly both against similar Marine armies, but I've learnt lessons in playing as the Daemons and will no doubt come unstuck against shooty armies, or horde close combat armies, but we'll see what the future holds.

In the mean time, I'll continue to plug away with them and work out what I need to do. Hopefully do a Khorne Daemon army showcase next week!