Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Chaos Daemons(8E)

Why Play Chaos Daemons?

Chaos Daemons are the ultimate enemy of the Imperium, perhaps more so than the Chaos Space Marines who worship them.

Pros

• No more warpstorm table. No risk of dropping your invuln save!
• Daemonic Instability is gone. No risk of losing an entire unit due to an unlucky roll!
• There's an emphasis on toning down the admittedly insane amount of D6 tables in the old 6th edition Chaos Daemons book. Seriously, Phil Kelly gave them buffs but it was a book-keeping nightmare.
• Possible charge after (now fucked up) summoning. With an instrument you'll get +1 to charge and therefore need an 8 (42% chance) - doable with CP re-rolls.

Cons

• No more warpstorm table means no more possibilities for invuln buffs, free damage or free units.
• Daemonic Instability is now replaced with bog-standard morale tests. Yes, Daemons can now flee in terror. That, or just forge the narrative of daemons simply vanishing one-by-one. But a Greater Daemon can share its leadership of 10 in a 6" bubble.
• No more god-specific wargear tables. In fact, you cannot purchase any wargear aside from icons.
• Much less random FUN happening now if you were into that.
• Summoning was stomped in several ways. Now you have to pay points for summoned units (ok), you can only summon daemons of your god (no swiss-army-knife-summoning anymore, damn it!) and you have to sacrifice your movement of a herald/big one (...in a melee army...) aaaannnd you roll 3 dice now to see which power level you can use and if you roll any doubles you'll get a mortal wound (or d3 with triples - ouch!).
• Next to zero customizable synergy effects with heralds - even the bird nutters get +1 S which doesnt stack.
• no deep-striking on your daemons anymore.

Daemons took quite a beating here.

Special Rules

• Unstoppable Ferocity: Models with the KHORNE keyword only. Gets +1 attack and Strength if they charge, get charged, or performed a heroic intervention. Now this helps, but unfortunately Bloodletters and the like may feel it when the enemy kills them before they can strike back. As always, get that charge.
• Ephemeral Form: Models with the TZEENTCH keyword only. Re-roll failed saving throw results of 1. Same as the old "Daemon of Tzeentch" special rule.
• Disgustingly Resilient: Models with the NURGLE keyword only. It's Feel No Pain, roll a die when you get a wound and on a 5+ it doesn't count. Now back on bog-standard Plaguebearers!
• Quicksilver Swiftness: Models with the SLAANESH keyword only. A model with this special rule always attacks first in close combat, even if they were charged. If an enemy unit has a similar ability (used the special Stratagem, or are facing off against Howling Banshees or the like). Slaanesh is gonna get squatted like AoS? Fuck that noise.

Psychic Powers

Nurgle Discipline

Only Daemons with the Psyker and Nurgle Daemon keyword may roll powers on this chart.

• 1 - Stream of Corruption
• 2 - Virulent Blessing
• 3 - Fleshy Abundance Manifested on a 5 you can recover d3 wounds of a friendly NURGLE DAEMON unit within 18". Nice to keep a Soul Grinder, DP or GUO alive to actually see the charge.

Slaanesh Discipline

Only Daemons with the Psyker and Slaanesh Daemon keyword may roll powers on this chart.

• 1 - Cacophonic Choir
• 2 - Symphony of Pain
• 3 - Hysterical Frenzy

Tzeentch Discipline

Only Daemons with the Psyker and Tzeentch Daemon keyword may roll powers on this chart.

• 1 - Boon of Change
• 2 - Bolt of Change
• 3 - Treason of Tzeentch

Unit Analysis

Common keywords are CHAOS, DAEMON, and any of the four Chaos Gods.

Daemons of Khorne

HQ

• Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury
• Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster
• Bloodthirster of Incessant Rage

Troops

• Bloodletters

Daemons of Tzeentch

HQ

• Lord of Change

Troops

• Pink Horrors
  • Blue Horrors
  • Brimstone Horrors

Daemons of Nurgle

HQ

• Great Unclean One
• Epidemius

Troops

• Horrors of Tzeentch Greatly changed from their previous incarnations, when a Horror is killed it splits into smaller horrors and also stays part of the same unit. Unfortunately for matched play, the "new" horrors come out of your "reserved for summoning" points allotment. Fully utilizing this increases the relative cost of Pink horrors by 120%, although it's an automatic success with summoning. Thankfully, those points are not reserved just for Horrors, can can be used for summoning other items. While this does reduce the overall size of your force, you could easily use this to keep bodies in the unit on objectives or in high-threat positions. Similarly, the threat of having whatever your opponent kills in a charge splitting off into more units might be enough to make them think twice about it.

Daemons of Slaanesh

HQ

• Keeper of Secrets
• The Masque of Slaanesh

Fast Attack

• Seekers of Slaanesh: They're as fast and dangerous as before, perhaps even more due to the Unholy Speed rule which lets them Advance and Charge in the same turn. Holy smokes, that's an impressive threat range of 32".

Neutral

HQ

• Daemon Prince: Your classic murder-machine, now buffed to S7 T6 with 10 wounds and a natural 3+ Armor save. They must choose allegiance to a Chaos god and gains their respective special rule. They can become psykers except for Khorne-aligned princes, which gain +1 attack to compensate for their lack of psychic potential. They can also buy wings and a slew of equipment to make them even deadlier.
• Be'lakor: The Dark Master's got a fairly good price reduction, but he's taken a slight nerfing. He is 2" faster than a Flying Daemon Prince, but has 2 less wounds (though in some ways this can be a good thing, see below). However, Be'lakor's utility lies in his special rules. He grants all Daemon units within 6" of him re-rolls of 1 to-hit, and enemy models within 12" subtract 1 from their Leadership. Finally, he may re-roll all failed saving throws. He knows 2 psychic powers from the Dark Hereticus discipline, and Smite.

Keep in mind that 10 Wounds are the line of not beeing able to hide behind other troops. The Daemon Prince of CSM (and also Be'lakor) has only 8 Wounds and lacks the ritual rule, but can hide among other models.

Fast Attack

• Chaos Furies

Heavy Support

• Soul Grinder Your heavy fire support platypus. Heavy because it comes with 14 wounds and a 3+ save plus it can take a mark of X for free (e.g. Nurgle for that defacto FNP or Tzeentch for 4++ Invu against all those nasty heavy weapons out there). Fire Support because it gets you two 36+” high strength okay-AP weapons. Platypus because it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Its artillery purpose gets hindered with 5+ on the move and it wants to be on the move to get some use of its fine melee capabilities too: an iron claw for guys who need some heavy pounding and a sword you should switch to the warp claw for more attacks against guys who need a lot of pounding. With a move of 8" it can keep up with other more vulnerable stuff and draw some fire while returning some. Overall its never a bad pick in any daemon army for 235 points.