Goatboy’s Grimdark List – Be’lakor’s Burning Fiends of Chaos!
The Chaos Daemons army is really punching above its weight with Arks of Omen detachments. Here’s my take on it. Don’t get burned!
With the changes in Arks of Omen, Warhammer 40K armylists have really started to look at fatter bodies to set up the initial building blocks of their lists. The lack of needing the troop tax to get your army together seems to be a powerful thing for a lot of lists. The game really is less about your troop units holding objectives and more about answering the question – can your unit survive the onslaught coming at them as they sit on their neoprene disc of importance?
This has me looking at armies with options to have “fatter” units that either give something important to the army, like speed. Things like units that can easily hit above their weight. Or just units who somehow have a crap ton of wounds and love hanging out on the tabletop. The current army that seems to have really pushed the “wound” total more than others is the Chaos Daemon army.
Chaos Daemons Have the Beef
In fact a lot of their units seem to have shifted away from being tough and have really embraced just having more wounds. From Greater Daemons having more, elite units just getting an extra wound, and other options just feeling fatter. It is probably one of the factors that have really helped push the big boys and the buddy-style list you see doing well in events. You live and die on a 4+, but if you have extra wounds, each of those 4+ saves becomes so much more powerful versus what they were before. We know this from how Custodes can just be like – oops, I made all those 4+ saves you hear players complaining about.
The unit I want to utilize today is the good ole terrible model to build – the Fiend of Slaanesh. It is a 4-wound, 14″ moving, Strength 5, and totally creepy jerk that is ready to wreck shop on the battlefield. It, luckily enough, has the keyword Beast, which allows it to be especially tricky by being able to go thru walls, get close to the enemy, and throw out some Damage 2 and a single damage 3 attack. Oh, and randomly enough, it has a 4+ daemonic save in close combat which makes this an interesting tarpit unit to catch models. Especially with its Musk ability that has enemies hitting it with a -1 when in close combat. You also can just have them in units of three so a 12-wound unit is nothing to sneeze at as they skitter around the tabletop. You mix this with some Flamers, and you have a very solid set of counter-charge/shooting units to help keep your opponent on their backfoot as your big monsters inch closer.
Arks of Omen – Legiones Daemonica – Elites
-HQ-
Lord of Change – Warlord (-1CP) – Incorporeal Form, Relic (-1CP) – The Impossible Robe, Baleful Sword, Architect of Deception – 355pts
Bloodthirster – Great Axe of Khorne, Indomitable Onslaught, Relic (-1CP) – A’rgath, the King of Blades – 360pts
Be’lakor – 420pts
Skarbrand – 330pts
-Elites-
Fiends of Slaanesh X 3 – 90pts
Fiends of Slaanesh X 3 – 90pts
Fiends of Slaanesh X 3 – 90pts
Flamers of Tzeentch X 5 – 125pts
Flamers of Tzeentch X 5 – 125pts
PTS: 1985 CP: 3
Slaanesh – Tzeentch Monster Mash
This is a pretty simple monster mash list designed to get in there and start to work on your units. You live and die on your Daemon saves. Your “objective” holding units have a large number of wounds, a big movement characteristic, and can be a pain if you get too close. The Flamers are still amazing, as they can easily jump around and cause a ton of issues for your opponent. Skarbrand is a nice addition to murder units, but you could drop in to get more utility if you wanted. I think some Screamers to jump around the tabletop might be a nice addition if needed, as well as another unit of Flamers to help shore things up.
I played a few of these style lists at LVO. While I ended up winning due to some bad dice rolls from the opponent, I could quickly see how this would all fall apart if things got too close and a few saves went my opponent’s way. I love the idea of Monster Mash and think this list is a fun way to spend some time on the tabletop and get wrecking things.
All Hail the Primordial Annihilator!
