Hola all. Massawyrm here.
So having just started this column, we’ve got a little catch up to do. A few important things have come out in the last few weeks that people have asked about – and I’ve been inundated with offers from people who want to write for AICN Tabletop. But we’re still kind of feeling this thing out. Thanks for all the letters inquiring, but as of right now we’re gonna keep this small and see how it goes.
However, I’m a big 40K fan, and as of late I haven’t been able to get to The Dragon’s Lair or Battleforge Games for so much as a quickie battle. And I’ve been dying to. I’ve got a company and a half of Blood Angels sitting here waiting to tear some shit up, especially with 5E right around the corner. I saw the Demons on the shelf and had to resist picking any up. Without time to send my bloodthirsty Space Marines into combat, how could I field anything else? At least, that’s what the voice in my head (which sounds suspiciously like my wife) has been telling me. But I was curious how they played. So when two guys – Citizenkade and Old One Eye e-mailed offering to write specifically about them (they’ve been out a few weeks) I figured this would be a great chance to find out what’s up with them.
Now I’ve been making a few calls, trying to get a hold of the 5E rules (which Partner stores are getting a demo copy of this week, by the way) and finally found my way to a chunk of them. I even managed to watch two complete games. And it. Is. Sick. The games run very smooth, but they are brutal as all hell. One game I watched lasted 3 rounds before the Eldar cried uncle. Close combat is a bloody, nasty affair that no longer will drag out for round after round. Losing armies roll their leadership checks with a penalty equal to the number of units they lost. Which means more fleeing armies. Yes. Let that sink in a second. But worry not, for every rule like this that makes some aspect nastier, something compensates. You can no longer consolidate into an enemy unit. Now, this is something that makes my Death Company very, very sad. Rending also got defanged, so I was getting a bit…pensive.
Then I saw Run in effect. Everyone can Run now - in place of shooting - for extra movement. Fleet apparently now allows you to assault after a run. But just as things got FASTER, table position became so much more important. The Line of Sight (LOS) rules have changed dramatically. The new TRUE LOS removes a whole level of complication, but changes the way you think about terrain and troop placement. If you can see it from eye level of the shooting mini, it has LOS. They introduced this into CONFRONTATION last year to howls, screams and calls for revolt – but I loved the mechanic. Simple, easy, right on. We'll see how the 40k community takes it. There’s still cover saves if it is partial LOS, but if you can see it, you can shoot it. And here’s the BIG kicker. If you can see one mini of a unit, you can wipe out the whole unit. Yes. Pretty brutal, huh? For terrain builders the entire field has actually changed. Things like dragons teeth and rubble will become a little less popular since the 6” rule no longer applies. And hills, buildings and walls will take on added significance. Getting high means hitting more things, and high interfering terrain means the ability to hide. Those old low hills will only grant a cover save now. Get ready to start building terrain folks.
Oh, and tanks provide cover saves. That will both work for and against you as you can use your tanks to cover your march forward - but your tanks will also grant cover to your opponent, so don't accidentally leave your tanks in front of targets you want to shoot. Saw that happen tonight. Not fun for you.
And with the new blast template rules, which no longer have partial effects and automatically hit (you still have to roll damage), mortars, missiles and heavy support just got a whole lot nastier. Seeing the IG Basilisk in action tonight was just incredible. The thing was hollowing out the Eldar backfield like there was no tomorrow. Basilisks, Vindicators, Whirlwinds…oh my god, Baneblades. Yeah, the game’s changing. The new vehicle rules take things up a notch. The ramming rules (which is tank shocking other tanks…RAMMING) make certain vehicles awesome vehicle killers – and unless there’s an FAQ on the topic, certain elder tanks with stardrives will become insane, suicidal missiles of death. Cheap, insane, suicidal, missiles of death. But on the other side of the coin, the new, promised singular vehicle damage chart is exactly as advertised. Glancing just gives a –2 to the roll. Very simple, very effective. And of course with only TROOP units qualifying as scoring units now, things like Eldar Cheese™ are a thing of the past.
I’m gonna see if I can get some games in this weekend and I’ll get back to you guys next week with some more tidbits. But let me turn this back to talk of Demons. Here’s Citizenkade, a professional painter who wanted to throw his 2 copper in on the actual models.
Life for a freelance paint-slinger can be dangerous; Few can comprehend the perils we face, wandering the bleak landscape of geekdom in search of the next big score, hoping against hope for that One Big Job. But underneath the often drunk and vulgar exterior you’ll find a veritable treasure-trove of advice, information, and long-winded stories of the "good old days", when paint was cheap, game stores didn’t smell like moldy cheese, and Rhino tanks were a mere ten bucks. I’ve wandered long and painted hard, youngsters, and I’m here to help.
Buying miniatures can be a gamble. What’s really in that package? How hard is it going to be to put together the contents? How easy will it be to paint? What else can you make with it? And most important, is it going to be worth your hard-earned cash?
Games Workshop is arguably the premiere producer of miniatures in the market, and love them or hate them it is hard to deny the influence the company has had on the industry. Games Workshop produces some of the top selling miniature games systems in the world, with Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000, and the Lord of the Rings all receiving regular releases of spankin’ new figures. Cool. We’ve covered GW 101, we can move on.
The latest wave of models from GW are aimed at both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 with Chaos Daemons. Two plastic kits have been released; Bloodletters of Khorn and Daemonettes of Slaanesh. Both sets are multi-part, both cost the same, and you get the same number of figures. With 22 bucks to my name, the decision on which kit to buy ultimately came down to, well, the boobies. I’m not too proud to admit it! Here’s what I came away with after completing this kit, to help you determine wether or not you want to take it on.
What You Get:
Two plastic sprues with enough parts to build ten freaky little hermaphrodite beasties. There are ten torso-leg combinations, 12 pair of claws, 18 heads, 2 banner options, and a horn. You also get round and square bases to pose the figures on, depending on which flavor of Warhammer you’re into.
Difficulty:
The Dameonettes package took me about an hour and a half to clean, de-sprue, remove mold lines, assemble, texture and base coat. The kit comes with a minimum of accessories, so while you don’t get a bucket of tentacles or a monkey in a corset, you can put the whole thing together pretty quickly. The sculpt is pretty slender, which lends to the aesthetic of the finished figures, but can make assembly of the arms a little tough since the contact surface for the glue is so small. I strongly suggest gluing the legs to the torsos as you clean the figures, since each leg matches to a unique body.
Paint:
I stuck to simple base coats and glazes to finish up the figures, and found no really tough areas to reach. I was also surprised to find that the sculptor had included lots of fine details and textures that really pop with a thin paint wash, so even a beginning painter can produce some nice detail on their models. A delicate hand is needed with the arms, since again, they are small, and about as flimsy as the plot of Darkman; both are fun, but won’t stand up to much prodding. I was able to get my test model to a good table top standard in about two hours.
Chop-Shop:
With the extra bits in the box an adventurous miniaturist can have a blast, especially all you depraved Chaos junkies. You’ll have between 4 to 6 sets of claws, a banner, and 8 heads left over after assembling the kit. A Traitor Guard or Chaos Space Marine player can use heads and crab-claws on champions. You could also use the spare heads for some Vampire Count thralls, especially if you like the look of the vamps on Buffy! I used some of my left-overs to kit out some bitchin’ Slaanesh flavored Dark Eldar warriors, since I can’t wait for new models.
Value:
The kit works out to about $2.20 a figure, which compares nicely to the lower end of the pre-painted minis out there. You also get several hours of hobby time out of each figure, and score some sensitivity points (and tax credits) for employing she-males in your army. It’s a pretty bare-bones kit, especially when you compare it to the Ork Boyz from December. I have been a little spoiled by extra bits lately, and maybe a few extra tentacles or a melon baller would have been a nice addition, but I’m not complaining. It’s a solid kit. Special mention should be made of sculptor Alex Hedstrom’s work; his anatomy is dead-on, avoiding a lot of the cliches that befall feminine miniatures (hot dog lips, double E busts, and man hands, anyone?). If Games Workshop ever decides to re-visit the Sisters of Battle in plastic, this is the guy for the job! The finished models are dynamic, fun to look at, and I imagine a blast on the table. If 28 millimeter crab-clawed she-male killing machines fit your gaming niche, this grizzled old painter highly recommends this kit.
The sun is getting low, kids, and off I go... If ever we meet again, I’ll tell you about Rosie, the one-legged miniature prostitute with a heart of gold. I’ll also let you know if GW’s new-fangled paint wash system is worth your time and money. Until then, buckaroos, paint em’ if you got em!
-Citizenkade
-CitizenkadeSo, now that you’ve got your Demons assembled and painted, how do they play? Here’s a guy who asked to be called Old One Eye, which I will gladly accommodate.
I like Nurgle. Anyone familiar with Warhammer or Warhammer 40k knows Nurgle. He's the happy grandfatherly chaos god of disease and decay. He'll smile while giving you a terrible disease that'll fucking kill your ass just for you to come back to life as a motherfucking space zombie. He's a hard guy not to like. Nurgle is only one of the four Chaos Gods, though, and the new Daemons book focuses on the Gods and the Daemons in a way that Games Workshop has never really done before. They've always had Chaos as a major faction but they were mostly relegated to second in importance to the Chaos Space Marines. While the Chaos Space Marines themselves would worship various Chaos gods the books still dealt with them and their quest to overthrow the "false Emperor". Finally, there is a book dedicated to the Daemons themselves and the gods they serve. The Chaos Daemons army is a funny one. It plays completely different than any other army in 40k and for that GW should be applauded. This book focuses on the daemons of the four gods of Chaos, Khorne, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, and Nurgle. Khorne is the god of war, blood, and savagery. Slaanesh is basically the god of sex, drugs, and rock and roll with a little bit of crab clawed hotties thrown in. Tzeentch is the god of magic and the changer of ways. The book has a lot of fluff and story in it. A lot of it is really interesting and I was surprised at how good it was, especially considering it deals with various gods and their daemonic lackeys. There's a lot of detail about the nature of each of the gods and of their kingdoms they control. The book goes into a lot of detail about how the gods struggle against each other and how they will betray and do whatever it takes to fuck one another over. The story for Skarbrand the Exiled, the Special Character Blood Thirster, is really cool as it explains how Tzeentch tricks him into striking Khorne in the back and afterwards is exiled by Khorne. Skarbrand now is fueled by an endless seething rage and will do anything to prove his worth to Khorne again by tearing the shit out of anything and everything that moves. There are lots of stories like this and every character, unit type, and everything in between gets a lot of fluff to explain its existence and how it interacts with those around it. All of these descriptions and stories are really well written and give a lot of character to an army that could have very easily become less than the archetypes each god represents. The entire army follows a few rules. Nothing in the army can suffer Instant Death and all of their Shooting Attacks are just Shooting Attacks. Nothing they do is a Psychic Attack so they won't be affected by a Psychic Hood. The army also deploys differently. At the start of the game you choose half of your units and roll a d6. On a 3+ that half deploys via deep strike on your first turn while the second half comes in as reserves. If you roll a 1 or 2 the half you didn't choose instead comes in via deep strike on your first turn. Instead of each side lining up from each other the Daemon army will come onto the board scattering in all different directions. It makes for a very chaotic army. The army list has a lot of options, most of them very good. This is also one of the best internally balanced books I've seen in a while, meaning most options are worth looking at and I can't see any lists that are far superior to others. The first thing I've noticed is the sheer number of choices you have for your Headquarters choice. There's 15 choices and most of them are decent and have a place. Each god has a Greater Daemon HQ, three of the gods have Special Character Greater Daemon HQs, there are Herald HQs that only count as ½ an HQ slot, and each god has a Special Character Herald. Each god has rules that go for almost all of their units. Nurgle's daemons are tough and most of them have higher Toughness and Feel No Pain but also Slow and Purposeful because they're slower. Most of Khorne's units have Furious Charge and Power Weapons while being at least Toughness 4. Slaanesh are weaker than most but also incredibly fast, both in movement and Initiative, and have Rending. Tzeentch has a better invulnerable save than most and also have a lot of Shooting. The Greater Daemon HQs are all very solid choices. Each are Monstrous Creatures and each specialize in what their god would have them specialize in. The Bloodthirster has wings and Weapon Skill 10, meaning anything with WS 4 or less hits him on 5. That's going to turn out to be a real big deal in a lot of games. The Keeper of Secrets, the Slaanesh Greater Daemon, has Hit and Run, meaning it won't get tar pitted in combat against hordes of cheap models. It isn't as flashy as the other Greater Daemons but it is still a very solid HQ choice. The Great Unclean One, Grandfather Nurgle's Greater Daemon, is slow, as seen by the Slow and Purposeful rule, but is incredibly hard to kill since he has a 4+ invulnerable save and Feel No Pain, which is another 4+ save if he fails his first one. He also has 5 wounds, compared to everyone else's 4, and always wounds on 2's and he comes out as a very mean HQ, doubly so because he's 160 points with no upgrades. Last, the Lord of Change is a spell casting monster. He has a 3+ invulnerable save, which means he's going to shrug off most attacks regardless of how mean they are, and he can cast a lot of spells in every turn. He's not as outlandishly good as some others but he's an incredibly solid choice and is even meaner because he has wings. The Special Character Greater Daemons are also a lot of fun. They're also much more expensive than their regular counterparts. Skarbrand the Exiled One is like a beefed up Bloodthirster but he makes every model, even enemy models, reroll all failed rolls to hit in close combat. Kugath the Plaguefather adds an Ordnance Blast and can create Nurglings. Fateweaver has a lot of shooting attacks and can allow those around him to reroll failed armor saves. There are Heralds for each of the four Chaos gods and there is a Special Character for each of them as well. They all do what you think they would given the god they serve but the Special Character ones are pretty interesting. Epidemus, for instance, can make all Nurgle models on the board insanely good if you kill enough enemy models. The Masque of Slaanesh is incredibly strong and Skulltaker is a beast in close combat. Each of these choices make sense, are strong, and only count as ½ of an HQ choice so you can get 4 of these in an army. Each god also gets a host of units to choose from for their troops. Khorne's basic infantry, Bloodletters, are strong and Bloodcrushers are even better as they have two wounds, higher toughness, a 3+ armor save, and a point more in strength. The Flesh Hounds of Khorne don't have Power Weapons but are fast and should be able to charge the turn after they come in. Nurgle's basic infantry, Plaguebearers, are tough motherfuckers. Toughness 5 with a 5+ invulnerable and Feel No Pain means they won't go down easy. They're slow and only get 1 attack, though, so they're not going to kill much. Nurgling bases are amazing. 3 wounds, 3 attacks, a 5+ invulnerable, and immunity to instant death makes them the ultimate tarpit unit. I've seen 7 of these hold down 10 Wolf Guard Terminators for 4 turns. They're freakish good. Beasts of Nurgle are like Chaos Spawn for Chaos Space Marines except cheaper and with an invulnerable save. They're nothing to write home about but it's all Nurgle has for an Elite's choice. They're also a more offensive unit than Plaguebearers or Nurglings. Slaanesh has lots of high Initiative and Rending units. Daemonettes are fast, both in Initiative and Fleet of Foot, and have a lot of Rending attacks. Seekers of Slaanesh and Fiends of Slaanesh are both Beasts and are going to get huge charge attacks off with lots of Rending wounds. The problem with Slaanesh is that they are all fairly low toughness and their speed won't be as important because of how the army deploys. Rending is a fickle bitch, as my Tyranid Genestealers and Ravenors will tell you, and I'd rather have the more consistent Power Weapon attacks of Furious Charging Bloodletters. Tzeentch provides all the shooting for the Daemons. Horrors are going to get a multitude of shots off whereas Flamers are going to kill units outright if they are deployed correctly. Screamers of Tzeentch are going to provide the bulk of the army's ability to destroy vehicles. As you'll probably notice none of these seem good enough to make an entire army out of. The closest is Khorne but Bloodletters are about the same cost as a basic Space Marine and only have a 5+ invulnerable. Bolters will take a toll on them. Nurgle can survive a lot of damage but their ability to take on the enemy is fairly minor compared to the other gods. A mixture of gods will be your best bet and honestly it seems that you can get by with choosing just two gods, such as Nurgle and Khorne, and do fairly well. The Soul Grinder and Daemon Prince provide the two Heavy Support options and both are god neutral, although the Daemon Prince can be given a mark to make him god specific. The Soul Grinder is like a Chaos Space Marine Defiler with better armor and more options for its attack. The Daemon Prince is similar to the Chaos Space Marine one, meaning he's a monster in combat, but with a lot of options to make him incredibly expensive. I expect to see 80 point naked Daemon Prince become popular as they'll do plenty well without any upgrades. This army is going to do well if you can get the charge off with your aggressive units, such as Bloodletters and Daemonettes, and can manage to hold off your opponents scary stuff with Plaguebearers and Nurglings while shooting the unholy shit out of them with Tzeentch. I also expect to see Daemonzilla armies come about since you can field 5 really scary deep striking Monstrous Creatures that can beat the holy shit out of people. A smart Daemon army will encircle an opponent so that they can't outrun the really heavy hitting Daemons while still putting on the pressure and capturing objectives. The best way to beat this army is going to involve a mixture of Bolters and lots of high powered weaponry. I think Missile Launchers are going to experience a lot more use because of their high STR option and for the option to do a blast with lower STR to kill lots of Daemonettes and Bloodletters with. Mobility is also key against Daemons and if you are faster or better at going through terrain you should be able to keep out of their charge while firing on them all the while. The army adds a lot to the game. It's going to play similar to a lot of horde armies and this is going to help change the meta game even more. The new Ork codex is incredibly strong and if Daemons prove to be another semi-horde army that'll make it so that armies are going to have to predict facing Marines, Skimmer heavy armies, and horde armies and that can only be a good thing for the game. Out of the games I played 3 were really note worthy and show some of the armies strengths and weaknesses. My mix of Khorne and Nurgle had a fair number of Monstrous Creatures, 3, 2 units of Plague Bearers, 2 units of Bloodletters, Bloodcrushers, and some Beasts of Nurgle. The first game was against a Space Marine gunline with lots of 5 man Lascanon / Plasmagun squads. I learned a hugely valuable lesson during this game: Chaos Icons are invaluable. Monstrous Creatures don't need wings if you can reliably deep strike them to within 6" of a Chaos Icon. I didn't use enough and since then I havn't used less than 3. My opponent focus fired on my Bloodletters while ignoring my Plaguebearers and this really hurt as Bloodletters will drop to Bolters very quickly. Like Tyranids, however, a few of them go a long way and having a few crash into the enemy allowed me to slaughter 5 man squads and to hope from one to the next. The game ended in a draw because of Victory Points but it would have been closer had I not scattered as much as my Daemon Princes couldn't get into combat until the 4th turn. A game against Eldar went very poorly as the list has very little it can do against Skimmers. In the future I need to keep this in mind when building a list and will need to include Flamers of Tzeentch as they can always glance a vehicle on a 4+ and at the very least keep them neutralized during the course of the game. A game against my own Tyranids was very close as we slugged each other. Lots of little shooting did my Daemons in, though, as Tyranid Warriors armed with Deathspitters, small blast weapons, shot the shit out of everything as it deep striked in. With 5th edition coming around that won't be such a big deal since Daemons should be able to move a d6 after deep striking and won't be balled up after they come in. I also think 5th edition is going to force people to screen their units with Nurglings and Plaguebearers so that the Bloodletters and Daemonettes, which do most of the damage, don't die before they can get into combat. These games were done using a lot of proxying but I am currently painting and converting a lot of new figures to use! This book is also written with 5th edition in mind. That's going to change some things. Rending isn't going to be as powerful as it currently is and the ability to run, meaning you can move to some extent after you come into play, is going to help this army not get bunched up early on and destroyed by blasts and other template weapons that hit more than one model at a time. Overall this is an exciting army to play and to play against. It is also fantastic as one can use the same figures for Warhammer Fantasy giving you two armies for the price and painting of one.
Thanks guys. I’m looking forward to finally getting my army to a table to take these guys on myself. Maybe I'll run into some while trying out 5E. I saw someone at Battleforge with a killer looking Soulgrinder tonight. Maybe I can talk him into a scrap or two. Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. Massawyrm
