The highly opinionated rvd1ofakind is throwing his hat in the ring with a Daemons Troops review.
I use 4 things to review these units:
- Tournament results
- Mathhammer
- Top player opinion
- Personal experience
Mathhammer: (everything is by pts value, so when I say something is durable and you see it is T3 6++, remember – without points cost, the stats mean nothing)
The best units to start with are troops: you need them for most lists, most of them are in the top of the tournament result chart and HQs usually rely on buffing the troops.
Description:
The best melee damage unit daemons have. They can‘t footslog as they have 6‘‘ movement with no way to increase it. They have to deep strike and they have a 3D6 charge if they take the banner and use 1cp to buff it. That‘s the very well-known „bloodletter bomb“. It‘s usually with 20(1CP to deep strike but they lose their 2+ WS on first model death) or 30(2CP to deep strike) models. Buffs: DP (great, makes them 2+, re-roll 1s), Herald (str 6 is usually not required as you should have something else to kill T3 units), Skulltaker (good with units of 20 letters)
Tournament results and top player opinion:
10th most successful chaos unit, 5th most successful daemon unit. Some top players have said that the bloodletter bomb is easy to screen out, which is why you have to have something to kill the screen or surround.
Mathhammer:
Damage: best melee damage in the codex against almost every target, especially against T4 high save, no invul save things.
Durability: average-below average. Against no AP weapons they are just guardsmen that cost 3pts more (that’s almost twice!).
Personal opinion:
I love Bloodletters. They’re my favourite unit in the book. The most important thing to learn is how to prevent them from getting shot. You usually do this in the charge phase by not declaring a unit that’s weak in melee as a charge target – you charge something else and you send 3 models into the unit you didn’t charge. During pile in and consolidate you surround a model from the unit you didn’t charge and since you can’t attack it – you’ve successfully prevented Bloodletters from getting shot off the table.
RATING: Competitive
Description:
The only scouts in the Chaos faction. Annoying to kill. Can’t really kill much. Buffs: Herald(going from str 2 to str 3 is a big deal), Bilepiper (+1 attack but that’s not as meaningful as the herald buff)
Tournament results and top player opinion:
4th most successful chaos unit, THE most successful daemon unit.
Mathhammer:
Damage: bad
Durability: above average
Personal opinion:
Scout units are always amazing. These will often be the things that win you the game by camping on an objective from turn 0, by getting you Recon, by screening out deep strikes(With the FAQ nerfing infiltration abilities this might not be as useful). However you have to be careful to not give away easy kills. They are also great at filling out Nurgle battalions.
RATING: Competitive
Plaguebearers:
Description:
The best screening unit in the game. Can easily be -2 to hit, T4, 4++(stratagem) with regenerating models when you roll 1 on morale tests (where you use Bilepiper to roll 2 dice). Usually used in units of 30 to maintain the 20+ buff longer. Buffs: Herald(+1 str is not as important because they re-roll wounds anyway. However the -1 to hit the herald casts is a must), DP(not as important because their role is usually to die), Scrivener(+2’’ movement is why you take him, +1 to hit rolls is the icing on the cake), Bilepiper(rolling 2 dice for morale is great, however there are definitely times where you want to just auto-pass morale)
Tournament results and top player opinion:
6th most successful chaos unit, 2nd most successful daemon unit.
Mathhammer:
Damage: average when fighting infantry, below average against vehicles
Durability: the best in the game
Personal opinion:
Perfect unit for screening your Thousand Sons smite battery. They’re actually fast(7’’ move, +1 on advance and charge). If you can make them the only unit your opponent can shoot(hide nurglings out of LoS, characters inside plaguebearers, other stuff in deepstrike) – you’re golden. They are really good at getting you “kill more” and preventing “kill one” from your opponent.
RATING: Competitive
Pink Horrors:
Description:
The best screen clearing unit daemons have. Somewhat durable with their 4++ (sadly you can’t buff them to 3++ anymore). Usually used in units of 30 to maintain the 20+ buff longer. They can also smite, however it’s only a 1/3 chance and it make all your other smites harder to cast. After you’ve cast 2 smites – Horror smite is uncastable. Buffs: Herald(going from S3 to S4 is great because that’s the same as +1 to wound on most targets you want to shoot with pink horrors, the herald also usually buffs them with Flickering Flames(+1 to wound) meaning you’ll be wounding most things you want to shoot on a 2), DP(re-roll 1s is great and a DP is always nice to have)
Tournament results and top player opinion:
11th most successful chaos unit, 6th most successful daemon unit.
Mathhammer:
Damage: amazing against screen units, Pinks really rely on buffs so be sure to have that herald around them.
Durability: Average-Above average, weak to lasguns, bolters and especially S6 mass shooting.
Personal opinion:
This is the unit you use to clear screens for your bloodletter bombs. The have 18’’ range, they’re hard to get rid of so they can soak overwatch for your letters. If you take these, you have to take a Tzeentch Herald to buff them. To maintain their 20+ buff, you can spend 160 points to add a buffer of Blue and Brimstone horrors, which you can kill during the morale phase instead of the pink horrors. The main knock against these guys is that cultists sometimes do their job better.
RATING: Competitive
Description:
The cheapest troops option in the game. Camp objectives in the backfield, screen out deep strikes.
Tournament results and top player opinion:
Seen sometimes to fill out battalions
Mathhammer:
Damage: bad
Durability: above average
Personal opinion:
These are very good if you need to fill out that cheap battalion for CP and if you need some guys to camp the backfield while you charge forward.
RATING: Competitive
Blue horrors
Description:
Sadly stuck in the middle of Pinks and Brimstones, during neither job well
Tournament results and top player opinion:
Never seen
Mathhammer:
Damage: bad
Durability: Average-Above average, weak to lasguns and especially mass bolters.
Personal opinion:
The only time you’ll see these guys is when people split Pink Horrors (which doesn’t happen very often) and only for a few seconds because they’ll die.
RATING: Suboptimal. They need to have a niche to fill, being in the middle of 2 great units is bad. Maybe if they could smite just like pinks do and cost only 4 points, they’d see some use.
Daemonettes
Description:
A unit that’s really sad that Bloodletters exist. Buffs: Herald(must have, it’s basically +1 to wound rolls), DP(it’s OK, slaanesh DPs aren’t amazing though), Masque(really good, gives a -1 to hit buff in close combat and +1 to hit if you’re risky with her placement).
Tournament results and top player opinion:
Never seen
Mathhammer:
Damage: average
Durability: average-below average.
Personal opinion:
The reason this unit isn’t ever seen on top tables is because what they do well – Bloodletters do better. Letters hit a lot harder and can hit any unit well, they don’t require a herald to babysit their str 3 attacks and most importantly – they will always get into combat and will strike first, while daemonettes will usually die on their way there. The only thing daemonettes have is “fight first”. However that very rarely matters and hardly makes up for all their weaknesses.
RATING: Suboptimal. They really need a way to get into combat better. Footslogging with 7’’ movement just doesn’t do it. If they can somehow get that – they’d be competitive at 5pts per model (then they’d do more damage than Bloodletters for their points against low armor/high invul targets). If they just have to footslog – I’d say they need to be 4pts per model. Then they’d be about on par with cultists.
So that wraps it up for the troops. Next time it’ll be character HQs.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
