Tamie headed out early this morning to a wedding. I dropped the kids off with a good family friend of ours and headed to the studio. A few hours later, everything is ship-shape (thanks to help from David). There are like six packages all wrapped up tight and ready for the PO on Monday.
Mike (a painter) came by and all three of us had a game of 40K-- I gave the studio Tau their maiden run. And lost.
These pics were taken while I was playing so they are strongly lit from overhead, making them seem darker. I decided to reverse the color scheme on the fire warriors, making the armor a pale bone color. I still need to tweak them a bit-- I'm likely to orange-up the round things on the guns and make squad "bar code" markings on their helmets.
My wife and I went out on a date tonight. We wanted to see Iron Man (which I've heard is fantastic), but it was super-sold-out so we headed up to the dollar movie and saw Spiderwick, which I thought was a fun time, very solid, but definitely not for younger kids sadly.
Those that follow our Youtube fare know that I picked up some Daemons of Chaos army boxes (two for Fantasy and two for 40K) and therefore know that we have the codexes. I have absorbed one of each kind into the studio library. I've spent some good time reading the 40K codex. Here are my initial impressions:
First off, this is a REAL codex, the first since the Tau came out. This isn't "Chaos Space Marines Part Two". I expected them to make it sort of an Allies list for CSM. But that's not the case. It's a full on army in it's own right, with strengths and weaknesses and a very, very distinct play style.
First off, half your army deep strikes in on the first turn. This would be great except that you can't assault, and this list has more assault-only troops than any other list including Tyranids. In fact, only the Tzeentch has ranged attacks. The Pink Horrors have warp fire which is Assault 3, S4 AP4 18" range making it a fabulous mid-range unit. Tzeentch stuff can also have Bolt of Tzeentch which is Assault 1, S8 AP 1, and 24" range.
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Ayup, the deep striking is the weakness of the list. Turn one you have to sit there and get shot up, Turn two the other units that come in have to sit there and get shot up. That's the downside. To make up for this the units are hideously under-costed. Here's an example:
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This Elite unit of 1-6 models is WS4 S5 T4 W2 I5 A5 LD10 Save 5+ inv. Rending Attacks, Hit and Run, Eternal Warrior (no instant death), Fearless and is a Beast (charge of 12"). So, what do you think the cost per model should be?
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Thirty points is what it costs for a Fiend of Slaanesh. It's astounding.
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The lack of ranged weapons is noticeable. Flamers, Horrors, Soul Grinders, and maybe some characters are all that have any ranged attacks at all.
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Pavane of Slaanesh is an interesting power, sort of like a reverse Fleet of Foot. It's a ranged attack of 18". If it hits (just needs to hit, there's no save) you get to move that unit 1d6". I think it will be one of the best powers, strategically. You can make your enemy move farther away, trap them in difficult terrain, move your enemy closer to one of your hideous CC units.
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One thing I really, REALLY like about both lists is that they have taken out the fluff about daemonic rivalry so much, allowing theme-wise for the mixing of units. Purists like myself will have a hard time with this. I'll at least have to make the models look like they fit.
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So, the jury is out. The army definitely has a different play style; a completely different feel. I don't think it will be over-powered in the end. But players will definitely need to account for Daemons in their battle plans if the army becomes popular.
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In terms of play style, I think fighting against a Daemon army will have a unique feel to it: horror and desperation as the daemons appear and you have to run for your life. Then a mid-game in which you hope to NOT get slaughtered, hopefully you have whittled down their ranks enough to have a fighting chance. And then an endgame which I predict will be very sad for one side or the other.
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A side effect is that it makes Daemonhunters a lot cooler since you're much, much more likely to encounter them.
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I have always like the Daemonic Legion list, and I plan on doing several Daemon armies for both Fantasy and 40K. I'm going to start with a Slaanesh 40K force. I think it will look like this to start:
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1x Keeper of Secrets (using the FW model)
2x Herald of Slaanesh (using the Lord of Slaanesh)
6x Fiend of Slaanesh
3x Flamers of Slaanesh (Flamers of Tzeentch Rules, with some kind of Slaaneshi conversion)
18x Daemonettes
18x Horrors of Slaanesh (Daemonettes with serpentine lower bodies, using the Pink Horrors rules; I think that Horrors will become a staple in any Daemons army since they have ranged attacks that can be used the same turn they arrive)
6x Seekers of Slaanesh (I love these models!)
3x Soul Grinder (I have a wicked conversion idea for these, hopefully it will work out)
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For Fantasy, I haven't really looked at the book. My main revelation is that Khorne doesn't have Frenzy anymore. But they still rock in close combat. That is a fabulous change, thank you GW!
I should note that I'm notoriously bad at analyzing army lists. I am not a power gamer. I play for style and fun!
