Sup.
Chaos! Daemons! Are! Here!
I basically got into buying GW stuff because of the Lord of Change miniature, which is one of my favorite minis in all of wargaming to this day. While my interests eventually wandered throughout the ranks of Chaos ever since, Daemons (Tzeentch in particular) were my first love.
Then I made the mistake of having a conversation with a local about the potential of mixing Tzeentch Daemons, who within the new codex seem strong but are somewhat held back by having a playstyle that doesn’t cater well to the current scenario packet, with something a bit more… aggressive.
So I guess… blood for the blood god?
The main problem Tzeentch is going to have in the current ruleset is that they perform very poorly up close; while Horrors are a fantastic troop choice for holding a location and taking a lot of attacks to remove, the God of Change favors an anti-ranged approach with their daemon saves and prefers to stay back and shoot. Current 40K is a game of moving up the field and taking over objectives, and while Tzeentch is extremely mobile, they don’t do a great job actually taking over objectives from tough ObSec options on their own.
So we need someone willing to get a bit more… up close and personal.
Who better to get up there and start smashing than the Blood God’s forces himself? Tzeentch takes over with a solid back line force of psykers and guns, while the Khorne forces can deep strike or just move quickly upfield and take over objectives. Let’s see what my first list is gonna look like.
Patrol Detachment
HQ:
-Lord of Change w/Rod of Sorcery, Master Mutator
-Changecaster w/Staff of Change
Troops:
-Pink Horrors
-Pink Horrors
Heavy Support:
-Burning Chariot w/Horror Infestation
-Burning Chariot w/Horror Infestation
Patrol Detachment
HQ:
-Bloodthirster w/Axe & Bloodflail, Indomitable Onslaught
-Bloodmaster
Troops:
-Bloodletters
-Bloodletters
Elites:
-Bloodcrushers (x3)
Fast Attack:
-Flesh Hounds (x5)
-Flesh Hounds (x5)
Basically the new competitive meta right here.
There are a lot of ways to improve this; new Flamers are incredibly strong but… I only own three and I have all these damn Burning Chariots lying around (I’m not kidding, I have so many) I may as well use them, plus they look fun. This is essentially a combination of some Tzeentch I already own, plus one of the new Combat Patrol which is an amazing deal and a Bloodthirster because… let’s be real, it’s half the reason to play Khorne on its own.
Let’s talk about what we’re actually doing here. By keeping the two gods separate in their own Patrol detachments, we get access to the Warp Storm abilities of both of them, each having an array of really solid buffs for the army, though not being the most important thing. The Lord of Change can be built out to be nearly unkillable at range, with options like the Impossible
Robe and Incorporeal Form. Alternatively, giving the Bloodthirster a Warlord Trait to let it ignore Invulnerable saves while also giving it the Blood-Drinker Talisman in the hopes of healing it back up over its 8 wound per phase damage gate after it takes damage. The Tzeentch force makes for a solid back/mid line, with horrors able to get good control of objectives with their hard-to-remove nature of splitting into more Horrors to soak damage for them, shooting a decent bunch of shots from the Horror units and the Burning Chariots while the Changecaster and Lord of Change blast an array of powerful spells from behind everything.
Then, deep striking or using their high speed, the Khorne army is going to put the melee pressure on an opponent, hitting immensely hard up close while being quick (though not exactly Slaanesh quick) and also adding some more dedicated anti-psyker tech to the mix.
At the very least I think the list looks like a lot of fun, and is what I’m going to use as a jumping off point for playing around with the new Daemons. Once I get more Flamers in, and with a few reps to get more of a feel for what I like and dislike, we’ll see how stuff evolves over time. At the very least, I’m thrilled to throw my Lord of Change back on the table with his horde of new thral-…. I mean friends.
Have you picked up the new Chaos Daemon codex? What are your thoughts about it so far? Let us know! In the meantime… I’ve got so many bloodletters to assemble. Gotta be careful with this hobby knife, wouldn’t want to bleed on them…