[cannibal]

Just bought some Chaos Bikes to add to my Daemon army and thought I'd try them out in a 750 point local tournament next week. Opponents range from ultra-competitive to Dark-Vengeance-plus-a-couple-of-other-boxes. Here's what I'm thinking:

Herald Of Tzeentch with ML3, Paradox & Exalted Reward (probably the Portaglyph) [150]
12 Pink Horrors [108]
11 Pink Horrors [99]

Gorepack
6 Flesh Hounds [96]
6 Flesh Hounds [96]
3 Chaos Bikers with 2 Meltaguns and Champion with Combi-melta & Melta Bombs [111]
3 Chaos Bikers with 2 Flamers [86]

That's currently running at 746, so 4 points spare. Currently building the bikers, so it's not too late to adjust their load-out. The idea is to have one unit of bikers for vehicles (the melta unit) and one unit for troops (the flamer unit) with the hounds filling in the gaps. Since Daemonic Instability isn't an issue for Daemonkin Fleshhounds, I thought it would be better to have 2 units of 6 rather than 1 unit of 12. I haven't run Chaos Bikers before, so I'm a little unsure of the best loadout for them. I actually have three more and plan to build a second melta unit with those for bigger games. Don't have many other Khorne units, so going full on Daemonkin isn't really practical, but I have plenty of other options for the daemons (particularly Tzeentch and Nurgle), so I'm open to suggestions.

The plan is to be fairly aggressive with the Gorepack and use the Horrors, Herald and Portaglyph to summon stuff, hopefully making use of the Paradox staff to increase my chances of getting those mastery level 3 powers off. Haven't used the new artifacts yet, so would I be better dropping the Paradox, using my Horrors for summoning (how I used to do this since they have less exposure to perils) and spending the extra 25 points on something else?

 

[andrewbeater]

I typically load out my Bikers with Melta x2 and the Champ with a Combi-melta but that's just me.

The list is alright, however some might say that you shouldn't just summon and that you should do a bit of summoning and some buffing. But in a 750 game I think the parameters change slightly and summoning more is okay. You'll need to beware in that your opponent will try to key in on your summoning units and target them first especially with ranged weapons.

If I had to critique this list it may be about the Portalglyph. Summoning is more reliable IMHO and have better unit sizes. You may want to consider removing the Portalglyph. With the points remaining and the 30 points from the removal of the Exalted Reward, you will have 34 points. This would give you one more Hound in each unit of Hounds. It doesn't sound like much, but the addition of a Hound adds two more wounds per unit and in a 750 point game, it is.

Another angle is this; remove the Exalted Reward and take a Disc for the Herald. It's a different way to think, but then your Herald can keep up with the Bikes and /or the Hounds and buff them, then just leave the Pink Horrors to summon units. I would summon more Pink Horrors to keep the Warp charges coming.

I think your list is probably okay and these items are just different ideas to consider.

 

[cannibal]

Thanks for the advice. I get what you are saying about the Portaglyph and I've also realised that I can't have Paradox and the Portaglyph (since it's also a Hellforged Artifact) on the same model, so I decided to drop the Exalted Reward. I only have 14 Flesh Hounds, but if I use Karanak as a counts-as Flesh Hound (should be OK for this tournament, but I really need to get at least another 6 Flesh Hounds going forwards), I could then have 3x5 Flesh Hounds instead of 2x6, which I think will work better. Until now I've usually gone with one big unit of hounds to reduce the impact of daemonic instability, but I'm thinking with Daemonkin, that's not going to be a problem, so MSU will probably work better. With a few other adjustments, I then get:

Herald Of Tzeentch with ML3 & Paradox [120]
11 Pink Horrors [99]
11 Pink Horrors [99]

Gorepack
5 Flesh Hounds [80]
5 Flesh Hounds [80]
5 Flesh Hounds [80]
3 Chaos Bikers with 2 Meltaguns [96]
3 Chaos Bikers with 2 Meltaguns [96]

This is dead on 750 points. I'd have liked to include a couple of Melta Bombs on the biker champions, but I can't think of anything else to drop if I want to maintain my summoning base. My summoners are vulnerable enough to losses as it is, but at least I'll be starting with 6 warp charge and hopefully will be able to get this up to say 10 in turns 1-2 before I start to summon more useful stuff (usually this is Daemonettes, Screamers and Plaguebearers).

Do you think I'll get much use out of blood points for such a small Daemonkin contingent? I assume I'm better just going for early buffs rather than holding out for summoning a Bloodthirster or Skull Cannon (don't have a Khorne prince in my collection).

 

[Draco765]

Skull cannon only if you get that many points in one turn.
Otherwise just do Feel No Pain or +1 attack as often as you can.

 

[andrewbeater]

Do you think I'll get much use out of blood points for such a small Daemonkin contingent? I assume I'm better just going for early buffs rather than holding out for summoning a Bloodthirster or Skull Cannon (don't have a Khorne prince in my collection).

I find at 750 points and only just over half of your list true Daemonkin, I doubt you will generate too many points. I just played a 750 game tonight with all Daemonkin and I generated 4 points by turn 3 and another 3 points thereafter. You need at least 5 to summon anything, so I wouldn't think that you would be able use them to summon until turn 4. I guess that all depends on the game and how it goes I will admit.

If you generate enough to summon a Bloodthirster, don't look for it until turn 4 or 5, but consider this; the rule is a Bloodthirster having wings must enter play from reserve flying (Swooping) when he deep strikes (please reference the Flying Monstrous Creature section -"deployment"). Since you must land for at least one turn before you assault, the game may be over before he can do anything meaningful. The only exception to this is if the Bloodthirster gets grounded in the enemy's turn. If he grounds, he can assault in your next assault phase. Also, you must have a CSM champion still alive to complete the summoning of a Thirster. The later the game goes, the slimmer the chance that a champ is alive for this transformation.

In short I would buff but remember, when you spend the Blood Tithe Points and get a buff, it only affects your Daemonkin models and not your Tzeentch Daemons.