Pariah Neverborn: The Guide to Playing Daemons in the Pariah Nexus Season (With Four Lists to Try!)

I’m mad at myself. This was supposed to be a quick writeup that I knocked out over lunch on a work day. The intent was for this article to be a 5-minute writeup called, “4 Daemon Lists to Try in Pariah Nexus”. I was just going to copy in 4 mono-God lists I had written, do a few sentences about why I like them, and hit publish. You would have enjoyed it, and I would have enjoyed the tiny fraction of a cent of ad revenue I got from your read. Then we would both quickly go about our days.

And then I started thinking about how hyped I am to play Daemons over the next few months, and I couldn’t stop myself. I got out of control and ended up writing an entire guide to playing Daemons in the Pariah Nexus season. You’re welcome.

I want to get ahead of something. My worry is you’re going to get to the end of this guide, and realize I was positive about every God and almost every Daemon unit. You’re going to think, “Hold up… Mike is too biased. This was just a hype piece. I’m asking for a refund on my fraction of a penny of ad revenue.” Do you realize how silly that sounds? Getting mad over free content? Calm down. What you should do is sign up for the Warphammer Patreon so this is content you’ve paid for, and then you won’t sound so silly if you get mad about it. Click here if you’re going to complain, you grump: https://www.patreon.com/Warphammer

And for the record, every God is viable and almost every unit is at least decent. It’s not my fault that Daemons are genuinely in a great spot, but I’m going to make it my responsibility to help Daemon players enjoy it. Let’s dive right in.

Why Are Daemons So Good in The Pariah Nexus Season?

There’s a lot of reasons to be excited for Daemons these days. Let’s go over them, starting with my favorite.

Greater Daemons Providing a Shadow of Chaos/Warp Rifts Aura is a Game-Changer

Remember the Warp Locus mechanic from 9th Edition? It’s back, and better than ever.

This is what we’ve been missing all edition. I had to re-read this several times when I first saw it, because I am so used to being disappointed by Daemons rules that I didn’t believe it was this good at first. Keeping Shadows of Chaos active through objective control is unreliable in the midfield, and it never comes up in your opponent’s deployment zone unless you’re completely running away with the game. This meant that previously, our only reliable way to provide Shadows of Chaos was by bringing Be’lakor. Now, any of our Greater Daemons (and their named variants) can provide a Shadows of Chaos aura and allow 6″ deepstriking for Daemons of their respective Gods.

There are a lot of cascading effects from this change:

• Enhancements Always Get the Upgraded Effect
  • Because Greater Daemons are always in Shadow because of their own aura, they always get the enhanced version of the enhancement which triggers off of being in Shadow. No more worrying about enemies turning off Shadow in the midfield and reducing the Feel-No-Pain on your Great Unclean One. He’s always extra chunky in the Pariah Nexus.
• Your Greater Daemons Can Always Use the Warp Surge Stratagem to Advance and Charge
  • Same idea as above, they’re always in Shadow so they can always zoom
• Can Always Select 2 Greater Daemons or Units Near Them for Realm of Chaos
  • Realm of Chaos lets you teleport 2 units if they’re both in Shadow, and now you’ll be able to always pick multiple Greater Daemons or units near them
• Mono-God Lists Can Access the Be’lakor Drop Pod
  • One of the strongest tricks Daemons had access to was deepstriking Be’lakor and then deepstriking other units wholly within 6″ of him to get 6″ charges into opponents. The fact that lists without Be’lakor can pull off this trick, or lists with multiple Greater Daemons can do this in multiple places at the same time, is wild.
• Greater Daemons And Friends Always Heal From Passed Battleshock Tests
  • They always give off an aura of +1 to Battleshock tests and healing off of Battleshock, meaning they’re going to be way tougher to take down once below half-strength. They’re also going to have hilarious interactions with units or abilities that force Battleshock tests. Leave your Skull Cannons at home in the Daemon mirror.

Nerf to Indirect Fire

Daemons were an army that suffered from Indirect Fire way more often than they took advantage of it. As a result, we are very happy to see a game wide nerf that prevents Indirect Fire from hitting on better than an unmodified 4+. Kairos hitting on 4’s is a small price to pay to not be hit on a 2+ by Manticores or Exorcists or Magnus.

Our Lone Ops Are Safer

Thousand Sons and Grey Knights had the ability to target Lone Ops from outside of 12″ with Doombolt or Vortex Of Doom. Daemons have more Lone Ops and higher quality Lone Ops than most armies, so this was painful (albeit partially preventable using terrain, depending on how many tradeoffs you and the TS/GK player was willing to make). Now that the Lone Operative ability also prevents you from targeted by these abilities outside of 12″, your Lone Ops will be safer than they are before.

Just make sure to watch out for Typhus, who is now the game’s best Lone Op sniper with mortal wounds from 18″ away. Mortarion is my favorite Primarch, so you know I didn’t need more reasons to dislike Typhus, but here we are.

Binding Tendrils Got Nerfed

There was nothing more infuriating then having a melee unit tied up by the Thousand Sons’ Binding Tendrils ability from an Exalted Sorcerer on Disk. Because the previous version halved your charge rolls (amongst other things), it meant that even if you used Realm Of Chaos to pick up a unit and set it down 6.1″ away to charge, you needed an 11 or 12 on your Charge roll. Now, you just need an 8″ Charge roll. That’s still annoying, but a lot more manageable.

Thousand Sons Just Doing Less Of… All That Stuff They Do

I really didn’t like playing Daemons into Thousand Sons, if you can’t tell. The matchup should be a lot less infuriating now. I won that matchup the two times I played it, but both games could have easily ended differently.

Thousand Sons are still really good, by the way.

Our Big Models Are Way More Mobile Now

There are several big mobility changes to the game that benefit Daemons more than most armies. The first is the change to pivoting. Units on circular bases pivot for free, and other units pay up to 2″ for pivoting regardless of how far or how many times they pivot. Being able to move where you want and then rotate as much as you like to hide the tips of Be’lakor’s wings or a Keeper’s sword or tail will be a big help.

The other change I love is that units can fit through or around terrain anywhere their base can fit, as long as they don’t end somewhere they can’t physically fit. For units like Bloodthirsters or Slaanesh Chariots that overhung their base, they had to lose valuable inches making sure their wings or Seeker tongues could fit around terrain. Now, as long as the base can fit past a wall, don’t worry about moving further to get the physical bits hanging past the base to it.

The last piece of the mobility puzzle is the FAQ that allows models to overhang the edge of the board as long as their base is wholly within the battlefield. This is huge for plays where you want to squeeze a Greater Daemon into a tight corner, but previously couldn’t because they had bits that would hang over the board edge.

Realm Of Chaos Will Have Its Cost Increased Less Often

One issue Daemons ran into over the previous few months was that since their key stratagem was a Battle Tactic, they were really hurt by units like Callidus Assassins that could increase its cost to 2CP for the rest of the game. I found when that happened I still used Realm Of Chaos just as often as I did when it was 1CP, but I quickly ran out of CP to spend on other things. Now that all CP cost increases only work within 12″ of the model with the ability, Daemons will be able to use Realm Of Chaos with much less fear of having to spend 2CP. This change is one I’m really excited for from a Daemons perspective.

Secret Missions

Daemons have an almost unique ability to teleport around the board, especially as the game gets late and opposing screens have been torn to shreds. Because Daemons can threaten to score any of the Secret Missions without having to telegraph it as much as other armies, they’re going to be a huge headache to play against in close games.

This one I’m not 100% sure of since I haven’t tested any Secret Missions yet, but in theory Daemons seem like a good fit for all 4 of them.

Mono-God Lists Are Way More Viable

While there is no rule that directly encourages us to run mono-God lists, the fact that Greater Daemons are now incredible synergy pieces for their respective Gods means that once you start including 1 or 2 Greater Daemons from a God, you’re encouraged to keep adding more units from that God.

If you’re a mono-God player who has been wanting more juice in their rules all edition, now is your time to shine. Until we get a codex with explicit mono-God detachments, this is probably as good as its going to get.

Are Nurglings Trash in Pariah Nexus?

Those are our Little Lords you’re talking about. You’re going to start showing them some respect.

First of all, Nurglings provide a ton of value besides scoring Secondaries. They stop opponents from Infiltrating or Scouting. They have a ton of wounds so they’re great for tying up opposing shooting or scoring units. They help other units stay alive with their conditional -1 to hit in melee aura. They can even kill a few Elves in melee (it’s funny every single time).

They can also still score some secondaries. Here is a complete list of every Secondary in Pariah Nexus that Nurglings can score:

• Area Denial
• Behind Enemy Lines
• Engage On All Fronts
• Bring It Down, Cull The Horde, Assassination, No Prisoners, Overwhelming Force (technically)

That’s not a ton, realistically. But you know what Nurglings are great for? Helping your other units score Secondaries. That Plaguebearer unit that stickied your back objective turn 1 is amazing at scoring secondaries, but can’t do that if it’s stuck on your backline screening all game. Sticky the objective with your Plaguebearers, cover it in Nurglings, and then pick up those Plaguebearers to go score secondaries or flip objectives somewhere else.

I don’t think you’re going to run 4+ units anymore, but you can run 1-3 units and feel great about it. It’s just less of a no-brainer choice to run Nurglings, which is a good thing.

Scoring Secondaries

Let’s talk about Secondaries, because that’s one of the keys to winning games these days.

Tactical or Fixed?

I’m going to keep it simple for you: Always take Tactical as Daemons. The only exception is if the opponent gives up 2 Kill Secondaries and you’re running a Khorne or Slaanesh list that is planning to table the opponent.

Scoring Each Secondary

Let’s go secondary by secondary and share some thoughts on scoring them as Daemons.

• Area Denial
  • You can usually score it on demand in later turns because you’re teleporting units around. Just make sure in deployment that you have at least one unit that can end wholly within 6″ of the center even if it rolls on the advance. Nothing is worse than spending a CP to reroll an advance when you could have just premeasured and avoided that failure point in the first place.
• Behind Enemy Lines
  • This is easier to max nonw that you can 3″ deepstrike one of your many Shadows aura units and then bring another unit 6″ away with them
• Bring It Down
  • Very list and board-state dependent. This can range anywhere from trivial to nearly impossible, so there is not much you can do besides keep in mind the possibility of drawing this if its late in the game and you haven’t drawn it yet.
• Cleanse
  • Units that have datasheet buff abilities like Rotigus and Rendmasters are great for doing this because Cleansing doesn’t prevent you from using your datasheet abilities.
• Containment
  • Daemons have plenty of fast or teleporting units to get within 9″ of different board edges and score this. You’ll basically always score 3 or 6 points from Containment.
• Cull the Horde
  • Daemons have pretty inefficient horde clearing outside of specific lists so this will often be a secondary you’ll discard.
• Engage On All Fronts
  • Nurglings and Screamers are great for scoring this turn 1 if you go first. Keep in mind that Engage no longer has a restriction that your units must be a certain distance from other quarters, so you can use a Greater Daemon’s Shadows aura on one side of the quarter dividing line to sneak a unit onto the other side.
• Establish Locus
  • The main thing to keep in mind is that in Pariah Nexus, to max this secondary, your unit has to be wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone. This is a great secondary to score with a Greater Daemon that uses the 3″ deepstrike stratagem to appear in the opponent’s deployment zone and then serves as a Warp Locus for other friendly units that will actually do damage that turn, because you’re giving up very little by not shooting your Greater Daemon in the opponent’s DZ unless it’s a Lord of Change.
  • Keep in mind that the difference between scoring this in the center of the battlefield and the opponent’s DZ is only 2 points. It usually won’t be worth it to spend 1CP to 3″ deepstrike and sacrifice the unit to do the Action in the opponent’s DZ if you can do it for free and safely in the center.
• Extend Battle Lines
  • Basically free 5VP for any faction in the game. Enjoy it.
• Marked for Death
  • Let’s talk about preventing it instead of scoring it. Be cognizant that picking up any Marked For Death units with Realm of Chaos will automatically score this secondary for your opponent, because removing a unit from the battefield is counted the same as destroying it for the purpose of this secondary. If your opponent otherwise won’t score the secondary if you don’t pick up a specific unit, be sure to carefully weigh whether you should use Realms of Chaos on something else instead.
• No Prisoners
  • Blood for the Blood God
• Overwhelming Force
  • Skulls for the Skull Throne
• Recover Assets
  • Scoring this secondary is a great use for durable units that aren’t on objectives, because your opponent will have the VP incentives for who to attack split into a bunch of different places. Beasts of Nurgle are especially cheeky for this secondary, because if they try to kill your Beast and fail it’s twice as painful for them as normal since you score the points and heal all the damage. This will require them to commit even harder, and you may be able to take advantage of that in other ways.
• Sabotage
  • Look for opportunities to put a fast or deepstriking unit within a terrain piece but behind a wall so the opponent has to either overextend to stop you from scoring it, or just accept that you’ll get free VP.
• Secure No Man’s Land
  • Put units on objectives. Complicated stuff.
• Assassination
  • Daemons are great at scoring Assassination. So many of our hard hitters are Characters that can use the Epic Challenge stratagem to charge and single out a Character hidden behind an Attached unit. Also look for opportunities to use the 3″ deepstrike stratagem or Warp Rifts to come in closer than 12″ from Lone Operatives and shoot them off the board.
• Storm Hostile Objective
  • This is a great opportunity to use high OC bombs like Plaguebearers getting 5″ charges near a Great Unclean One to flip objectives if you can’t kill the units on it.
• Defend Stronghold
  • A great secondary for Daemons because you likely have picked up some units using Realm of Chaos when you draw this. Once you see you’ve drawn this, its a good idea to help reinforce your back objective if the opponent has units that will be able to contest it on the following turn.

Now that we’ve gotten some general thoughts on Daemons in Pariah Nexus, lets focus on individual Gods and how they’ll win games.

Slaanesh Thoughts

Slaanesh Daemons ended up in a really great spot. You can bring Slaanesh Daemons and compete in any event you attend.

Slaanesh are conceptually speaking the kind of army that benefits immensely from the new version of Warp Rifts. Their glass cannon nature means its incredibly important for them to ambush the enemy instead of getting in a fair fight. Be’lakor is still pretty important for Slaanesh lists because even though Keepers and Shalaxi are excellent sources of Warp Locus, Be’lakor’s aura to be unshootable outside of 18″ is valuable for keeping units like Fiends and Daemonettes safe from Indirect Fire. Daemonettes in particular are a unit that loves to show up and get the first punch in by any means possible, because every second they spend on the board outside of Be’lakor’s aura before they’ve reached combat is potentially very fatal.

Keepers are also the perfect source of Shadow because they’re so fast that they’re great at delivering other units instead of needing to be delivered. Units like Skarbrand and a Great Unclean One often hog one of your two Realm Of Chaos teleport slots to get picked up and set up somewhere to deliver their Shadow. Keepers can just run to where you want and let you place down two other units.

Fiends going down in points is a huge benefit, because it gives Slaanesh Daemons an efficient middleweight class unit. The Slaanesh roster is broadly speaking split into Daemonettes/Chariots/Seekers, fast units that struggle to take a punch or do any damage to anything tougher than T3, and Keepers/Shalaxi/Soul Grinders, expensive monsters that can battle with almost anything but you will have few of. When Fiends were points inefficient, Slaanesh really lacked a unit that was happy to fight something like 5 Marines on a point or provide some level of commitment without committing one of their most valuable units. They also help you hunt down screens early, particularly units with 12″ deepstrike denial auras. If you add in buffs from units like Tormentbringers or the Masque, they can also start to punch way up.

With Slaanesh, I think there are two great directions to go. I think you’ll either want to go all-in on sensual beef and crunch, or all-in in on trading pieces and controlling the board. You can definitely mix the two styles, but I find you start running out of points in Slaanesh lists really quickly because their units are generally expensive. The core of the first list will be 3+ of Keepers/Be’lakor/Shalaxi and 3 Soul Grinders, with units like Seeker Chariots and the Masque to round out your roster. The core of the second list will be 12-18 Fiends, 10-20 Seekers, 1-2 Keepers, a Tormentbringer, and some Daemonettes.

Let’s go over the Slaanesh roster and see what to include in our lists.

Fiends (6/6)

At 105 points, they help solve a previous weakness of Daemons: Hunting down units behind walls, or units with 12″ deepstrike denial auras. Their auras are also legitimately good. Both their current sculpts and their previous sculpts are really fun, and a swarm of Fiends on the table make every Slaanesh player happy. They’re not an auto-include at 105, but they’re a unit you can feel really happy about including.

Keepers of Secrets (6/6)

You can include anywhere from 1-3 Keepers in your Slaanesh list and feel great about it. You’ll need the Masque nearby to help them punch up versus tough targets, but they can slice and dice through medium weight units and their durability and mobility and synergy is top tier.

Shalaxi (5/6)

My attitude on “overcosted” units has shifted over time. On the one hand, Shalaxi is probably overcosted. Somewhere in the 400-425 point range would be a fair price for our murder queen. On the other hand, if a unit brings something really valuable that I can’t get elsewhere, I don’t mind overpaying to include it in my list. And Shalaxi brings best-in-game damage output and consistency that Slaanesh Daemons can’t get anywhere else.

Tormentbringer on Exalted Chariot (5/6)

Tormentbringers are extremely valuable synergy pieces in Slaanesh lists. There are a couple key things people miss that lead them to underrated Tormentbringers. Their Hysterical Frenzy ability to let a Slaanesh unit Fight On Death lets a unit fight for a second time, unlike every other Fight On Death ability in the game. This was RAW before and the latest FAQ included a section saying abilities that let a unit fight can let them fight again as long as the ability doesn’t prevent that. The other piece people miss is that Tormentbringers are most powerful out of Deepstrike or Rapid Ingress, not starting on the board. The only exception is versus armies like World Eaters that can rush you in melee right away. Most people say their Tormentbringers just get shot off the board before their army reaches combat. My big question is why is your Tormentbringer on the board until your army is in combat? Just place it where you need on turn 2 or 3 to turn a key fight. The sustained hits aura is especially valuable now that Fiends are an efficient unit, because their large bases make it easier to have one base get within 6″ of the Tormentbringer and still fight elsewhere.

Seekers (5/6)

Seekers are valuable for early board control. I wish they did any damage at all, but you’ll take their tradeoff for their moveblocking potential.

Seeker Chariots (6/6)

Seeker Chariots are our Nurglings. On GW terrain where there are lots of <2″ terrain pieces for Seeker Chariots to traverse, these are some of the best scoring units in the game. The fact that they can actually beat up light infantry and are OC3 makes them great for establishing tempo early, and their large bases mean they work well as screens or moveblockers too.

Hellflayers (4/6)

A great unit, but they’re currently locked in points jail. Hopefully GW lets them out in the next update.

Exalted Seeker Chariots (5/6)

I really like this unit. You get a huge pool of wounds with a 4++ invuln and OC5 for barely over 100 points, and they help you lean into Toughness skew without giving up Bring It Down.

Daemonettes (4/6)

I’m glad Daemonettes went down to 100 points. I really am. Unfortunately, they’re still overcosted. I like one unit in a Slaanesh list to give you access to a high OC bomb, but it’s hard to recommend Daemonettes at 100 when Plaguebearers are 110 for massively improved durability and help you control objectives. I don’t want my high OC units to be units that can be slaughtered by a Rhino or Guardsmen.

Tranceweaver (5/6)

Now that Heroic Intervention is down to 1CP, a Tranceweaver leading a unit of Daemonettes has gone up in value. Being able to Heroically Intervene and Fight First gives you a large area of protection versus enemy glass cannon melee unit.

Contorted Epitome (3/6)

Come back, my beloved. If you want to run it, run it solo to give you a cheap and fast unit to hold objectives and troll opponents with their Horrible Fascination ability.

Slaanesh Soul Grinders(5/6)

The versatile gun helps you either clear screens or chip wounds from tough targets. Being able to get easy charges near Keepers and hit with +1AP makes them surprisingly valuable.

Syll’Esske (5/6)

Syll’Esske is a 4/6 unit because they hemorrhage secondary points, but I’m bumping them up to a 5/6 because of how incredible the model and lore are.

Infernal Enrapturess (3/6)

In another version of 10th Edition where T3 5++ 1 wound models are tanking enemies for multiple turns, the ability to resurrect Daemonettes would be very valuable. This is a 2/6 unit that got bumped up to a 3/6 because it is genuinely one of the coolest sculpts GW has ever produced. The one cool thing it did previously was let Daemonettes advance and action, but with that feature gone is has no real purpose in lists.

Slaanesh List

If I had to take Daemons to a GT tomorrow, this is the list I would run. I have a more traditional list with Fiends and a Tormentbringer that I suspect is also very strong, but I can’t get away from how powerful this list looks. It’s very hard for melee units to play into because of the Masque/Tormentbringer/Shalaxi package, but it is also a nightmare for shooting lists since you can overwhelm them where they are weak and shoot up their screens very quickly.

• Be’lakor
• Shalaxi
• Keeper of Secrets (Enhancement: Soulstealer)
• Soul Grinder (Slaanesh)
• Soul Grinder (Slaanesh)
• Soul Grinder (Slaanesh)
• The Masque
• Daemonettes
• Seeker Chariot
• Seeker Chariot
• Seeker Chariot

Khorne Thoughts

I’m just going to call it now: Khorne Daemons are wild, and are good enough to start winning big events. This is a legitimate A Tier or higher army. Adding reliable Warp Rifts to an army that already is almost unparalleled in raw damage output is going to create something really powerful.

The ability to drop pod Skarbrand and/or Bloodthirsters through each other makes both units much more dynamic. You can now drop Skarbrand 3″ away in the opponent’s DZ, setup a Bloodthirster with Ar’grath 6″ away from the enemy, charge in, and have the enhanced version of Ar’grath active at all times in their DZ. These kind of plays are going to enable you to absolutely hammer through enemy armor the second their screens start getting whittled down.

You’re going to lean on the same synergies as before, just with the added layer of being able to bomb much more reliable charges and claim skulls anywhere on the board. Units like Skarbrand and Bloodletters that didn’t like moving around on the board (because they’re so slow/easy to moveblock and fragile, respectively) will love the greatly increased access to 6″ charges. Units like Bloodcrushers that previously loved to Rapid Ingress in will not be able to bang out 5″ charges, saving you a CP and making your gameplan less predictable.

If you’re a loyal followed of Khorne, your patience has been rewarded. Let’s discuss the Khorne roster.

Bloodthirsters (8/8)

Much faster than ever before and with 100% more Drop Pod ability. What’s not to love?

Skarbrand (8/8)

Slightly faster than before and with 100% more Drop Pod ability. What’s not to love?

Flesh Hounds (8/8)

Flesh Hounds are really powerful because they’re either effectives as cheap MSU units to go fast and score points, or as 10 man units to stack buffs an go absolutely wild on the enemy.

I know people are hesitant to run large bricks of Flesh Hounds because they’re thought of as an MSU unit. Please, go out and run the 10 Flesh Hound bricks. It’ll blow your mind. They can hit a unit, absolutely annihilate it, and then tie up or moveblock an entire flank of the enemy army. Their oval bases are also really valuable for bringing the entire unit into engagement range of the opponent with only a few models basing.

Rendmasters (8/8)

Rendmasters are a hard-hitting unit on a durable that gives out one of the best buffs in the entire game. Don’t forget that you can use the 3″ deepstrike stratagem to come down, do an action, and still select an enemy unit for it’s debuff in the same turn. They don’t even need to buff friendly units to be worth their points in some games, because if they just pick the enemy unit they’re engaged with to buff their own melee they hit incredibly hard.

Bloodletters (7/8)

They soak up synergies from Bloodthirsters/Rendmasters/Skarbrand incredibly well. They’re valuable either unattached or with a leader, and they’re one of the only two options Khorne has that can move through walls. I’ve been really impressed with the 1 unit I’ve run in Khorne lists, and while I wouldn’t spam them, they’re better than people think.

Bloodcrushers (7/8)

Bloodcrushers are your tarpit that can sometimes hit really hard. They lose a tiny bit of value now that Khorne players are more incentivized to run Bloodthirsters and Skarbrand and you start running into increasing issues of blocking your own places to charge or move, but they’re still a great datasheet you’ll be happy to run.

Skull Cannons (7/8)

Skull Cannon shooting is pretty awful, and if you bring them as solely shooting platforms you’ll be disappointed. I still love Skull Cannons for two reasons. First, their battleshock ability is very relevant in some matchups, mainly melee matchups to make combat interrupts unreliable. Second, they are just really durable and have OC3, making them great at defending your objectives versus units like Inceptors that want to cause havoc in your backfield. And at <100 points, they’re a unit you don’t mind teleporting around to score Secondaries in the late game. They’re not mandatory, but you can run anywhere from 0-3 in a list and feel great. Don’t forget that if they shoot an enemy unit near any of your Greater Daemons, the opponent will take the Battleshock test at -1 and take d3 MWs if they fail!

Skulltaker (6/8)

He hits like an absolute truck and gives a great buff. Skulltaker is a great datasheet. The only reason I’m not rating him higher is he buffs Bloodletters and I’m always hesitant to make my Bloodletter units more expensive when they’re already so fragile. He’s a surprisingly spicy option as a solo Character now that he can teleport into combat with his Greater Daemon friends.

Bloodmaster (6/8)

Same principle as Skulltaker. Good datasheet, valuable buffs, efficiently costed at 65 point points, but it’s sometimes hard to fit in a buff Character for Bloodletters when there are so many more general buff units you want to bring.

Karanak (6/8)

A 5/8 unit that gets bumped up to a 6/8 because of his incredible lore. Karanak with 10 Flesh Hounds is a surprisingly spicy unit, I just wish he was 10 points cheaper.

Khorne List

With Khorne, I want to lean all in on the synergies that mono-Khorne has to offer. We bring units that help other units punch hard, we bring units that punch hard, we bring units that punch hard and help other units punch hard, and we bring units that punch hard with the help of other units.

I can’t tell what will be funnier: The look on the opponents face when they see a hull spam list that gives up 10 total Bring It Down points, or the look on an opponent’s face when 10 dogs kill Canis Rex.

• Skarbrand
• Bloodthirster (Enhancement: Aargrath)
• Rendmaster
• Rendmaster
• Rendmaster
• 6 Skullcrushers
• 10 Flesh Hounds
• 10 Flesh Hounds
• 10 Flesh Hounds
• Skull Cannon
• Skull Cannon
• Skull Cannon

Nurgle Thoughts

Nurgle doesn’t benefit as much as the previous couple Gods from the Warp Locus change. Unfortunately, they don’t have the high damage melee bombs that Khorne or Slaanesh have. Delivering a Plaguebearer bomb isn’t nearly as powerful on the surface as delivering a Bloodletter bomb.

On the other hand, Nurgle needed the mobility boost more than any other God. Mono-Nurgle was good at holding objectives, but wasn’t great at stealing enemy objectives. With the ability to bomb Plaguebearers in from GUOs and Rotigus, they’re going to be able to threaten objective contest plays or tie up enemy units much more reliably. If you’re good at using charges for more than just damage, you’ll find a lot of value in teleporting Plaguebearers through your Great Unclean Ones. It also frees up any Great Unclean Ones or Rotigus that start off the board from having to use Rapid Ingress to get into melee. The image of a Great Unclean One popping out another Great Unclean One like disease filled Russian dolls is a hilarious image and something that is going to frustrate opponents.

Nurgle Daemons are truly one of the most durable armies in the game, bringing a lot of powerful defensive statlines for the points. They also have one of the best Battleline units in the entire Chaos superfaction in Plaguebearers. Much like Slaanesh, with Nurgle you’re able to run effective Toughness skew or effective board control skew. In practice, this means you’ll want to max out either your Great Unclean Ones or your Plaguebearers. Either version is still going to want some amount of Plaguebearers and GUOs/Rotigus, and both versions are happy to bring in damage support in the form or Soul Grinders and/or Brigands.

Plaguebearers (7/7)

Plaguebearers have the distinction of being the only way for Daemons to sticky an objective in your Command Phase if you go first, as well as being the only way to sticky objectives for 0CP. 110 is also just a great price for 20 wounds of T5/5++ goodness with 20OC, making them great at either defending your objectives or contesting opponent’s objectives.

Rotigus (7/7)

Solid offensively, great defensively, and a synergy/jank machine. An auto-include in any Nurgle heavy lists.

Great Unclean One (7/7)

Mediocre offensively, otherworldy defensively with the Endless Gift, and costed well enough to run multiples. The GUO with Endless Gift is an auto-include even in Undivided lists, and Nurgle lists can run up to 3 and feel good.

Nurgle Soul Grinder (6/7)

Nurgle Soul Grinders are mediocre in a vacuum but make a ton of sense in pure Nurgle lists, where you need their damage output and they help you lean into the thiccness overload.

Plague Drones (6/7)

Plague Drones can be used either on the board to grab objectives/do actions early, or start off the board and come in on later turns to shoot enemies for full Wound rerolls and help you push through in the midfield. At 110, they’re well-priced for either role.

Nurglings (6/7)

You love to love them.

Horticulus Slimux (4/7)

The value of his Shadow garden goes way down now that GUOs provide the same benefit and are already auto-includes in Nurgle lists. The good news is he still has a decent statline for the points. A Slimux + 2 Beast bomb teleporting through Rotigus for a 6″ rerolling charge and getting +1 Damage sounds like a very package for fun games.

Beasts of Nurgle (5/7)

Their ability to heal any damage that doesn’t kill them forces the enemy to commit real resources to stop them from finishing Actions. The issue is that pillowfisted Nurgle lists have less ability to punish enemies that commit than any other army in the game. I like Beasts a lot more in Undivided or soup lists than in Nurgle for that reason.

Epidemius (6/7)

His own profile is really solid for the points, he provides a powerful (albeit boring) buff for his Plaguebearer unit, and he’ll occasionally provide some CP. You’ll find a spot for him in your Nurgle lists.

Daemon Prince on Foot (6/7)

When your gameplan is to waddle up the middle of the board, handing out a large Stealth aura goes a long way.

Winged Daemon Prince (6/7)

T10 is a great breakpoint and it gives you a mobile response unit wherever they try to push through your wall of beef.

Other Plaguebearer Characters (5/7)

How long do we want this article to get?

Nurgle List

My personal version of Nurgle toughness skew runs 3 Soul Grinders or soups in Brigands, but I’m guessing people will get bored if I shove 3 Soul Grinders in every list, so I’m going to show an example pure Nurgle toughness skew that I think is actually damn good.

• Rotigus
• Great Unclean One (Enhancement: Endless Gift)
• Great Unclean One
• Great Unclean One
• Epidemius
• Daemon Prince
• Plaguebearers
• Plaguebearers
• Plaguebearers
• 3 Plague Drones
• 3 Plague Drones
• 3 Plague Drones
• 3 Nurglings
• 3 Nurglings
• 3 Nurglings

Tzeentch Thoughts

In the literal sense of every unit having the Tzeentch keyword, Tzeentch isn’t as good as the other Gods as a mono-faction. They miss out on too much. But if you’re willing to expand slightly outside of mono-Tzeentch to include Be’lakor and/or the GUO with Endless Gift and/or Nurglings, you can cook up something powerful.

If you’re playing Tzeentch, you want to play the list as a mobile, teleporting shooting castle that does damage without taking damage back by playing angles and using Be’lakor’s 18″ lone op aura. If they try to catch you, use Be’lakor and Soul Grinders to pounce on enemies in melee that extended too far from their main army. Packs of Flamers hunt their scoring units while the Lord of Change with Everstave and Soul Grinders rip holes in their tough units. Meanwhile, Screamers score you early secondaries and Pinks score you points over the course of the game. This is a powerful concept, and very fun to play.

The list struggles a little bit with the question of “What do I do if the enemy ignores my shenanigans and just runs at me?”. If you’re not running Soul Grinders, you don’t really have an answer. If you’re running Soul Grinders, you can can at least pretend to have an answer. Hopefully your opponents don’t ask you that question.

I really do like Tzeentch, but I want to address my issues with the mono-faction. My first issue is that a disproportionate amount of their power comes from running Soul Grinders. Grinders just solve so many gaps in the Tzeentch roster that you can’t find answers for elsewhere. I love Soul Grinders, especially Tzeentch Soul Grinders. I have 3, and run them in most of my Daemons lists. But I also acknowledge that they’re an old model that could be Legend-ed at any point in the next few years, it’s a model that many people think is dated, and it can be difficult to acquire. All 3 of the other Gods can make genuinely powerful mono-faction lists without Soul Grinders. Tzeentch Daemons can’t.

The other issue is their tricks have diminishing returns and it’s hard to fill a 2000 point list. Let’s take Pink Horrors as an example. One unit can be very powerful because you can put it on an objective somewhere where the enemy doesn’t have easy ways to whittle it down with Grenades or Tank Shock and can only shoot at it. In that scenario, your Pink Horror unit is awesome, and you’ll hold that objective for a long time. But if you are running mono-Tzeentch then you’re going to use several units of Pinks as your Battleline option, and the other units of Pinks are much less than durable than the first unit or two. This is because some of those Pink Horrors will have to hold objectives in the face of high volume of attacks or non-attack damage, and those Pinks will crumble. The LOC with the Everstave is a legitimate shooting threat. The other LOCs shoot so much worse. When I write a Khorne list, I struggle to cut enough good stuff to get underneath 2000 points. When I write a Tzeentch list, I struggle to fill 2000 points with good stuff.

Lords of Change (7/9)

The LOC who gets the Everstave is a real force to be reckoned with, but the other LOCs shoot like a unit half their cost.

Screamers (7/9)

Fast and durable, Screamers are excellent for grabbing objectives or scoring Secondaries early. They can also sometimes win fights versus units like Scouts. They can sometimes lose fights to Guardsmen. You never know what you’re getting with this iconic unit, other than their consistently high style points.

Fateskimmer (7/9)

At under 100 points, 1 Fateskimmer is a fine option to help score secondaries. It doesn’t do much, but it’s pretty durable for its cost and will win fights versus chaff.

Pink Horrors (8/9)

One or two units are great, but you’ll probably end up disappointed if you spam them.

Blue Horrors (2/9)

Before the Warp Locus change, the absurd cost of Blue Horrors made a bit of sense since it was your only way to get Shadow in the midfield early. Now that your big birds bring Shadow with them, there is almost no way to justify running Blues.

Flamers (7/9)

Now that their datasheet ability to fall back and shoot doesn’t let them fall back and do Actions, the role of Flamers has shifted. Instead of small units to score secondaries, you want to run larger units of 6 as teleporting hunters of the enemy’s scoring units. Use the 3″ deepstrike stratagem or Warp Rifts to come down, roast 1 or 2 small units, and look at a another and ask your opponent exactly how much did they want to move that unit next turn. They’re also great for charging in, tying units up with their 4++ invuln and high wound count, and then falling back and shooting in your turn.

Tzeentch List

This is a strong list that seems like a huge pain to play against, with the ability to drive the opponent’s scoring down while putting up high points itself.

• Be’lakor
• Lord of Change (Enhancement: Everstave, Rod)
• The Blue Scribes
• Soul Grinder (Tzeentch)
• Soul Grinder (Tzeentch)
• Soul Grinder (Tzeentch)
• Pink Horrors
• 6 Flamers
• 6 Flamers
• 6 Flamers
• 3 Screamers
• 6 Nurglings
• 3 Nurglings

Final Thoughts

I keep comin back to Daemons regardless of how good they are. I know many Warphammer fans are the exact same way. Fortunately for both you and I, Daemons are incredibly fun and strong right now.

Now go out there and get some wins for the Dark Gods before GW realizes they forgot to increase the points on the GUO with Endless Gift. And if you enjoyed this article, consider supporting Warphammer on Patreon. Now that the balance update is out, I’m going to start working on some CSM Legion guides, and the Legions chosen for Warphammer writeups will be entirely chosen by Patrons. Link here if you’re interested: https://www.patreon.com/Warphammer

As always, have fun, stay safe, and may the Dark Gods bless your rolls!