Daemon Army Book rumour summary

[Jared van Kell]

This rumour summary was posted over at Warseer. I have added what I know to it.

General

The book is out in May 2008, meaning that some stuff goes on sale late in April.

How will this army book interact with the Hordes and Beasts of Chaos army book?
It appears that it is a stand-alone book, similar to how the Daemonic Legion
list was and how the Daemon Codex for 40K has been confirmed to be.

What about the Daemons in the Hordes of Chaos book?

It would appear that these are used as they currently are until the Hordes book is redone in November this year. So for about six months there will be two sets of rules for Bloodletters, Daemonettes, etc.

New models

Daemon Prince??? (box of 1 plastic model?)
Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut? (box of 1 metal mini)
Bloodletters of Khorne (box of 10 plastic minis)
Daemonettes of Slaanesh (box of 10 plastic minis)
Flesh Hounds of Khorne? (box of 5 metal minis?)
Fiends of Slaanesh? (box of 5 metal minis)
Beast of Nurgle (box of 1 metal mini?)
Horror command group (box of 3 metal minis)
Plaguebearer command group (box of 3 metal minis)

This will be pretty much the same for both 40K and Fantasy. The 40K one come with a Soulgrinder.

Daemon Spearhead box (32 minis)

1 Codex/Armybook
10 Bloodletters
10 Daemonettes
5 Fleshhounds
1 Bloodcrusher
1 Beast of nurgle
1 Fiend of slaanesh
1 Epidemius
1 The Masque
1 Skulltaker
1 Keranak
1 Soulgrinder (only in the 40k one)

Amy special rules:

- Instability is altered somewhat, now there is no special effect of rolling above your basic Leadership, so you just take a modified break test and lose a number of wounds equal to the amount you failed the roll by.
- Supposedly, units within 12" of the army general may take their Daemonic Ward save against any kind of attacks, not just non-magical ones. Units more than 12" away from the general follow the current rules for Daemonic auras.

Lores of Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch

- different from the ones in the other two chaos books

Daemon Lore of Tzeentch

- Supposedly only 6 spells

#1: Flickering Fire of Tzeentch: D6+1 hits, Strength D6+1, 24" range
#2: Boon of Tzeentch: Adds D3+1 Power dice to own side's dice pool
#3: Gleam Magic: Cast any enemy spell (other than one that creates new models, such as certain Undead spells) as a Bound spell with a power level equal to its basic casting level
#4: Bolt of Change: 2D6 hits, Strength D6+1, 30" range
#5: Gift of Chaos: all enemies within 12" takes D6 Str D6 Hits
#6: Tzeentch Firestorm: One Strength 5 hit per model in unit, wounds caused creates horrors, range unknown.

Daemon Lore of Slaanesh

#1: Enemy unit must test for Stupidity each turn for the rest of the game

Lords

[/u]- Greater daemons are supposedly more modifiable than currently, more resembling how they were in 5th edition.

Bloodthirster, Greater Daemon of Khorne

- Believed to be getting a rule called Eternal Frenzy so it does not loose its frenzy.

Changer of Ways, Greater Daemon of Tzeentch

- Level 4 wizard

Keeper of Secrets, Greater Daemon of Slaanesh

- Level 2 wizard, may be upgraded to level 4

Great Unclean One, Greater Daemon of Nurgle

- Level 2 wizard, may be upgraded to level 4

Daemon Prince

- Possible new plastic set

Heroes

- Chariots are only available as a mount for Heralds
- Supposedly there will be no Undivided Heralds
- It is possible that there will be no "generic" Herald models and that people will be expected to use or convert the special character ones (see below) instead. Or it might be that there will be a plastic Heral set at some point

Herald of Nurgle

- May ride a Palanquin of Nurgle or a chariot pulled by Beasts of Nurgle
- Grants the Regeneration special rule to Plaguebearer units he joins

Herald of Khorne

- May ride a Juggernaut of Khorne or a chariot pulled by Juggernauts
- Grants the Hatred special rule to Bloodletter units he joins
- Believed to cost 115 pts but this is not confirmed.
- M5 WS7 BS0 S6 T4 W2 I6 A3 Ld8
- Has Magic Resistance 1.
- Has Killing Blow.
- Has access to 7 new gifts.

Herald of Slaanesh

- May ride a Steed of Slaanesh or a chariot pulled by Mounts of Slaanesh
- Grants the Always Strikes First special rule to Daemonette units he/she/it joins

Herald of Tzeentch

- May ride a Disk of Tzeentch or a chariot pulled by Screamers
- Grants Horror units he joins a 4+ aura save instead of the normal 5+ aura save

Core

- The Leadership of the Core daemons are supposedly the same as in the Hordes of Chaos book (in the Daemonic Legions list it is higher)
- One unit per god (plus Furies)?

Bloodletters of Khorne

- New plastic models
- Toughness increase
- Believed to be getting a rule called Eternal Frenzy so they do not loose their frenzy.
- What Hellblades will do (if they end up being anything special) is not known, though in 5th edition they were identical to Wight blades, which now have the Killing Blow rule
- M5 WS5 BS0 S6 T3 W1 I4 A1 Ld7
- Have Killing Blow
- Magic Resistance 1.

Daemonettes of Slaanesh

- New plastic models

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

- New metal command models, possibly a plastic set at some later date
- Poisoned attacks

Horrors of Tzeentch

- New metal command models, possibly a plastic set at some later date
- Do not cast Bound spells, instead the unit counts as a wizard with magic levels depending on the number of Horrors in the unit (1-5: lvl 0, 6-15: lvl 1, 16-25: lvl 2, etc).
- If the Horror unit miscasts, it takes D6 wounds
- Spells are set depending on the unit's level (lvl 1: spell #1 Flickering Fire of Tzeentch, lvl 2: spells #1+4, lvl 3: spells #1+4+5, lvl 4: spells #1+4+5+6)
- Improved WS, but lower Ld
- All attacks are flaming
- Noticeably cheaper

Chaos Furies

- No news
- Do not count towards minimum number of Core?
- Might be a Special unit

Special

Nurglings

- Although they act as a swarm they still follow the rules for instability
- Almost certainly no longer 0-1
- Scouts(!)

Flesh Hounds of Khorne

- May be upgraded to have Magic Resistance 3, Killing Blow or the ability to ignore terrain penalties
- New models?

Screamers of Tzeentch

- Strength and Toughness reduced
- Strength of slashing attacks up to 5, may make slashing attacks to all units they move over, not just one
- Slightly cheaper

Flamers of Tzeentch

- If the Fantasy list resembles the 40K one, these will be a separate unit

Seekers of Slaanesh

- Equivalent to mounted Daemonettes (i.e. the ones on cavalry bases), NOT the daemonettes on Steeds of Slaanesh from the Storm of Chaos list

Rare

Bloodcrushers of Khorne (Bloodletters riding Juggernauts)

- New metal models
- Improved armour save
- Frenzied (1 base A from rider, 2 from steed, so 5 attacks in total while Frenzied)
- Believed to be getting a rule called Eternal Frenzy so they do not loose their frenzy.

Plaguebeasts of Nurgle

- New metal models
- Do not have riders.
- Beasts have D3+2 poisoned attacks
- "Slime Trail" rule means that enemy units do not get bonuses for charging flanks and rear

Fiends of Slaanesh

- Very fast with a movement of 9.

Flamers of Tzeentch

- A separate unit, not longer hangers-on for a unit of Horrors
- Flame shooting is D6 S4 shots per Flamer, 18" range
- Close combat attacks go up in Strength and are flaming

Special characters

- Note that the special characters are the same in both the 40K and the Fantasy lists, though naturally their stats and exact abilities may differ somewhat.
- There are supposedly twelve special character, which is not that excessive as it might sound since the models are also in the 40K Daemon Codex.

Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch (Greater Daemon of Tzeentch)

- Model has two heads
- Knows all Tzeentch spells and each head also knows 4 spells from any of the lores (in the rulebook?)
- 40K version has only one(!) wound, but doubtless some special rule to make up for it
- Increases the survivability of units within a radius of the model.

Kugath, the Plaguefather (Greater Daemon of Nurgle)

- Has two special rules: Blessing of Pus which is realy nasty shooting attack and Nurgling Infestation.

Skarbrand, the Exiled One (Greater Daemon of Chaos Undivided)

- Has the best statline in the book.
- All models within 12" gain hatred.

Tallyman Epidemius (Herald of Nurgle)

- Mounted on a Palanquin of Nurgle
- Confers extra abilities to nearby Nurgle daemon units the more it kills.

The Masque (Herald of Slaanesh)

- Kicked out of Slaanesh's entourage for being able to out-dance Slaanesh.
- Has a special rule in 40K called the Eternal Dance which allows him to move enemy units.
- 3 human arms and a big claw arm. Wields a staff with a mask at either end and changes it's personality depending on who it chooses to be.
- Has a 3+ ward save.

Skulltaker? (Herald of Khorne)

- Angry, Bloodletter-style model, wearing some kind of coat or jacket
- Must issue or accept a challenge if able to do so.
- Eqquiped with a hellblade.
- Kills enemies outright on a 4+ to wound.

Bluescribe (Herald of Tzeentch)

- Has BS4.
- Has all of the shooting spells.
- Must roll to determine which spell is used.

The Changeling (Horror champion)

- Formless Horror: At the start of close combat, the Changeling may select any enemy model in base to base contact and swap WS/S/T/I/A with this model.

Keranak, Hound of Vengeance (Flesh Hound champion)

- Model has multple heads

Plus three more special characters???

Stuff removed from the list

- Exalted Daemons (use as Daemon Prince)
- Pleasureseekers of Slaanesh (use as Fiends or Seekers, possibly counting each model as two, or as Heralds)
- Plagueriders of Nurgle (use as Beasts of Nurgle, or as Heralds riding Palanquins)
- Changebringers of Tzeentch (use as Screamers, Heralds riding Disks or as unit fillers in Horror units)
- Daemon chariots as independent units (can now only be taken as mounts for Heralds

JvK :happy:

[Dr. Paris]

Looks awesome.

[Beardy_Wierdy]

So the only god that doesnt get some nice new plastics would be mine then?


Capricious B****** that he is. Still, on the bright side it appears to be made up for by a nice shiny new lore of change.


And as a whole...that looks nice.

[Rhadamanthys]

Hey, everyone. I'm just starting in on Fantasy, and I had planned to buy a Hordes of Chaos army to go along with my Chaos Marines army. But on seeing this long list of new daemon models and a November? release of a new Hordes book, I might need to reconsider.

Should I wait for the new models and army books, or buy the current models and books?

[Kaelis Ra]

Originally Posted by Jared van Kell

Core

- One unit per god (plus Furies)?

Chaos Furies
- Do not count towards minimum number of Core?
- Might be a Special unit

So this means no God specific armies then, who thought of this rule?

JvK thanks for the info.

[minus_t]

Originally Posted by Kaelis Ra

So this means no God specific armies then, who thought of this rule?

JvK thanks for the info.

I'm confused by this...

I think what "One unit per god" means is that each god has one core unit (ie: khorne = bloodletters, slaanesh = daemonettes, nurgle = plaguebearers, tzeentch = horrors), rather than you are only allowed to take one core unit from each god.

Or so I assume, anyway.

All in all, looks pretty exciting. I am very glad I just finished converting a Daemon Prince for fantasy now...

-t.

[Sir Theobold the Lame]

Im looking forward to the new plastics- deamonettes are just what my fledgling Slaanesh 40k army needs!

Hooray for the pink!

[vikingboy6956]

Originally Posted by Rhadamanthys

Hey, everyone. I'm just starting in on Fantasy, and I had planned to buy a Hordes of Chaos army to go along with my Chaos Marines army. But on seeing this long list of new daemon models and a November? release of a new Hordes book, I might need to reconsider.

Should I wait for the new models and army books, or buy the current models and books?

I would wait if you can. For one there are going to be some plastic mini's which are always cheaper than metal. Secondly, if you wait for the new hordes book you'll be able to better build your army instead of building one now and then having it not work so good when the new book is released.

[Inquisitor Blackadder]

DUDE! how good is your astropath!?!

Seriously though, this is really good to know. I'm guessing everything with a ? is not confirmed yet? I sodding pray for a plastic Daemon Prince! (one from Forgeworld would make my life complete)

Thanks! :happy:

[Jared van Kell]

Originally Posted by Inquisitor Blackadder

DUDE! how good is your astropath!?!

He is pretty good. Every now and then he requires some corrective action to keep his thoughts purely on service to me. (Jared pats the head of his now slavishly loyal astropath minion.). 8Y

Originally Posted by Inquisitor Blackadder

Seriously though, this is really good to know. I'm guessing everything with a ? is not confirmed yet? I sodding pray for a plastic Daemon Prince! (one from Forgeworld would make my life complete)

Thanks! :happy:

That is correct. As I find more information I will update the summary so please keep checking back and I will do my best to keep you all informed as to the latest developments.

JvK :happy: