[Phalanx]

I just read most of the book. GW is definately pushing the special character Heralds- with the exception of the Khorne one, they're all within 20 points of the normal Herald, with the Masque being the same price as a HoS.

Personally I think gutting the magic out of the Daemon's list was a bad move on GW's part. Nurgle can work easily on level 1s with their cheap spells, but with Slannesh, most of their spells have a high casting cost. Then again, as they can only cast one spell a turn, that doesn't matter so much... But then you also have to realise your paying nearly as much as a WE High Born for your hero choice. I also don't like that Daemon Princes max out at level 2.

The daemonic upgrades are interesting. Many of the more interesting ones are quite expensive, but thats to be assumed, but you still have to wonder if its worth it. Would you pay more points than a lord choice level 3 wizard for a level 1 wizard with 6 s4 armour piercing attacks and ASF?
Actually, I guess its a bit tempting, but what will probably happen is if someone makes a decently combatty character, they'll leave the magic at home. Daemon's are going to have really bad magic defence, or very expensive characters (or a lot of horrors, though they are also very expensive points-wise, though it may be fun to bring a 500 point unit just so you can cast Tzeentch Firestorm with them).

Flesh Hounds of Khorne seem pretty good for their cost, and Kharnak (sp?) gets an additional +2 attacks over a normal flesh hound, and gets bonuses against one foe.

I think the rare choices are all good looking. Fiends of Slannesh cost as many points as a troll, but they have massive movement, 3 wounds, and 4 attacks. Bloodcrushers may be a bit overcosted at 2 wounds at over 5x the cost of a bloodletter, but they do get 2 s6 KB attacks and 2 s5 kb attacks and a 4+ save IIRC.

Overall, I'm not quite sure how well the army will do (I hate that there are no undivided choices except for Daemon Princes), but it definately seems interesting, though things aren't looking too good from a 2 second look, at least from a mono-god point of veiw. If you want your army to be "mono" god, then you better get working converting units to count as something else.