"From Little Things, Big Things Glow", 1750pt Daemons - Tournament & Social

[The Eye]

I really hate stereotypical.

Part of the great sadness of Warhammer (40k & Fantasy - but especially the latter these days) is the tendency of theory-hammer to create pre-set best builds of armies. I've always been a major fan of innovation and unorthodoxy, so the creation of predictable build for armies really gets my goat.

I've been reading a lot of posts (on other sites, predictably ... and unfortunately so) where Chaos Daemons have been analysed to the Nth degree and the perfect combinations widely ascertained & duly acclaimed.

The standard build for mono-Tzeentch appears to be based on a killer triumvirate of 3 Daemon Princes, a Lord of Change (or Kairos Fateweaver for the daring), & the lesser Daemons can be whatever you like. I call this the 'Big Build'.

So, of course, I have gone for the 'Little Build'. My only prerequisite is that it contains my two fave characters: the Blue Scribes, and the Changeling. And Horrors - lots and lots of Horrors.

So after fiddling around with various versions (including moments of weakness when I considered a 'Big Build' themed soft option ), I have arrived at this:

3 Heralds of Tzeentch with Bolt of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery + We Are Legion
The Blue Scribes

9 Flamers
3 Flamers

2 x 9 Horrors, inc. Bolt of Change (and the Changeling goes with one of these)
4 x 8 Horrors, inc. Bolt of Change (a Herald or the Scribes joins each of these)

What has really accelerated this project along was finding this thread right Here, which basically makes the whole shebang quite affordable. The only minis I needed were the Horrors, so with this viable and cheaper alternative, I now have this army firmly in my sights.

I will of course, be painting them as PINK Horrors instead of that sad nurgli green scheme used in that army (although I am looting that idea for blue flames on their backs). And I plan on tossing in some Chaos Spawn and Zombie bits to further mutate them up.

My main fear with this force is a nagging doubt as to whether or not my ability to fire off ten Bolts of Change in every firing phase will be successful against any armour. Because I think that having up to 198 shots of Warpfire + Daemonic Gaze per turn (or a mere 162 shots of same if the Scribes have invoked Pavane of Slaanesh in order for the Flamers to let rip with 12 Breaths of Chaos) should have some reasonable degree of impact on most infantry formations.

Any thoughts?

[blader4411]

Congratulations for breaking the mould and using a list of your own devising!!!

Gameplay wise, this army will be more challenging than the "big build" but it is certainly viable, and you can decimate any infanty, and you have sufficient firepower to reliably take out anything but the most heavily armoured tanks.

The only improvement I might suggest would be to add some screamers to really mess up the enemy armour.

[Lord Ghaleb]

I think with that much firepower you have a good bet to try a wipe of the enemy infantry. And with your good invul saves, you can shrug off half the enemy tank fire.

I think the biggest problem will be IG and their heavy tanks with ordinance.

[The Eye]

@ blader4411 - I did have Screamers in a couple of earlier drafts of the list, simply because I wanted to incorporate all of the lesser Daemons (plus I already have the minis anyway). When the list expands out to 2k, they will be in it on principle.

@ "Lt-Col" Ghaleb - You, of course, have infinitely more experience with Imperial Guard than Eye, so Eye will concede that point to you.

This build actually has the potential to throw more Bolts of Change at any enemy armour than the 'big build', so this formation will have as much hope against the big tin cans as any.

(At least, that's the theory. )

[Lord Ghaleb]

The Big Build will have better luck ripping up Leman Russ in close combat than shooting. Bolts of Change are marginal against AV14.

The Flamers can stun them though, and prevent them from shooting. This can stop a squadron pretty well with the massed flamer shots.

Against the IG I think you will have to be very aggressive and try to really drop behind their tanks and get the light rear armour.

Still, if you kill all the infantry, none of the tanks can claim anything either.

[Baphmet]

I like this list except for one thing. Why not split your flamers into three groups instead of two. Spreads your breath out and inables you to hit more targets. Plus 9 Flamers is a pain to drop on the board. I personally use Fateweaver. I was apprihensive about doing it at first because of his one hit fail leadership goes bye-bye thing. But in the 10 times that I have used him I have only lost him thrice, and two of those times they actually had to kill him to get rid of him, one wound at a time. Screamers would be a great addition to this list. I ran a 2 herald list before for a 1750 tourney and it did ok. I used Blue Scribes and HoT on chariot as the other. I also had a butt load of flamers and screamers in that list because I did not have that many Horror models. Oh BTW like you I am a big fan of the Changeling. He doesn't work for me all the time but when he does. OH BOY! I have taken out a dread by having 10 terminators fire on it. I have had a Tau big tank (don't know the name of it) take out another of it's kind. One of the things I like about Fateweaver is his Boon of Mutation ability. I take great pride in turning their special characters into spawn. (Yeah me.)

[The Crawling Chaos]

I have run a similar list to the one you have posted Eye. The only difference is that I run a fourth herald of TZEENTCH in place of the Blue Scribes. I don't have a suitable "counts as" model for The blue Scribes to be honest. I admit that I to have a penchant for the smaller/"weaker" units available to us and I just can't afford to break my wallet on the GD's, DP's and SG's that almost every other daemon player seems to covet. *tch*

I am interested in how well your list turns out for you.