We've done HQ's, Elites, Troops and Fast Attack.
Now it's time for Heavy Support,
We only have 2 choices here but one of them has quite a lot of options so may take a while.
This one in fact.
Daemon Prince of Chaos.
So for our starting 80 points we get a fairly decent close combat monster. With 4, WS 7, I 5, S 5, Monstrous Creature attacks basic he can do some damage in combat. He has a base toughness of 5 together with the pretty standard 5+ inv. save, but does come with 4 wounds which is pretty good.
I used to take 3 of these without any upgrades in my 1750 Daemon list and they perform rather well. Unfortunately with the move towards torrent of fire armies that came with 5th edition his survivability became more of an issue. With the quantity of S5 and upwards shooting attacks that a Grey Knight army can dish out he may die to shooting before he becomes a potential threat. This is an issue against many lists, not just Grey Knights.
He can be upgraded with 'Iron Hide' for 30 points that gives him a 3+ armour save but considering that the kinds of weapons he'll be getting shot at with will either be massed fire-power or ignore it anyway that's not much help. If we want to increase his mobility by making him Jump Infantry vis 'Daemonic Flight' that adds a massive 60 points to his price tag. This Daemon Prince Tax is a trend that continues through the other options as well so get used to it.
To put it into context, a Winged Daemon Prince in the Chaos Space Marine Codex costs 130 points. To get a Chaos Daemon Codex Prince to the same stat-line would cost 190.
We need to make some decisions about our Daemon Prince, the first being "what do we want him to do?"
At BS 5 he's about the best shot that the Daemons have access to and we could really do with 'Bolt of Tzeentch' in as much of our army as possible. To create this 'BoT' platform will cost us at least 140 points as the required Mark of Tzeentch is 25 points and BoT is a whopping 35. There are some arguments for making this type of Daemon Prince a dual threat by adding 'Breath of Chaos' for another 30 points. I personally think that has 2 problems. Firstly it's as many points as a Fiend of Slaanesh and secondly it encourages you to be a bit too 'offensive' with your Deep Striking...
It's also well worth remembering that the Mark of Tzeentch ups our invulnerable save to 4+ in addition to unlocking Bolt.
If you want him out there killing shit in assault then he could do with a few upgrades though none are really mandatory.
Lets start with a general issue that many Daemons suffer from and that's a lack of Assault Grenades. We can get around this in two ways, both of which involve 'Marks' of some description. The Mark of Slaanesh (10 points) gives us access to Aura of Acquiescence (5 points) which provides us with both Defensive and Assault grenades and ups our Daemon Prince to 95 points. A similar effect can be gained via the Mark of Nurgle (30 points) and the Cloud of Flies upgrade (5 points) which also gives us Assault and Defensive Grenades but comes out slightly more pricy at 115 points. Obviously T6 is more widely useful than I6 so I can understand the Nurgle upgrade being the most expensive. If were thinking about killing the average Grey Knight then we'll either already be faster with our basic Initiative or only 'as fast' with the Slaanesh Mark boosting us to 6 which is the same as Halberd armed Knights. A Toughness score of six should never be underestimated when combined with an invulnerable save.
The flexibility of this entry means you can do pretty much whatever you like with your Daemon Prince, mine however will look like this,
Heavy Support: Daemon Prince of Chaos (1#, 140 pts)
1 Daemon Prince of Chaos @ 140 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Bolt of Tzeentch)
Or this,
Heavy Support: Daemon Prince of Chaos (1#, 115 pts)
1 Daemon Prince of Chaos @ 115 pts (Mark of Nurgle; Cloud of Flies)
Or occasionally this,
Heavy Support: Daemon Prince of Chaos (1#, 80 pts)
1 Daemon Prince of Chaos @ 80 pts
Now onto our other choice,
The Soul Grinder.
The only vehicle in the Daemon Codex. With Armour 13 to the front and sides with armour 11 at the back its adequately protected though it's worth remembering that an average roll Melta roll in short range is still going to penetrate it good and proper. It comes with a respectable 4, S10, armour ignoring attacks but is unfortunately only WS and I 3 though it does have Fleet.
As a shooting platform it comes with a 'Harvester' which is to all intents and purposes an Assault 6 Boltgun and a S 6, AP 4 Flamer (Vomit). For 25 points each it can also be given a 36" range Battle Cannon (Phlegm) and/or a 24" range S10, AP 1, assault 1 gun (Tongue). A single 'Weapon Destroyed' result will take out all of the Mawcannon upgrades and the original firing mode so it's probably not worth taking all of them. BS 3 reduces the effectiveness of these shots but an immunity to both Gun and Crew Shaken means you can at least keep firing till your weapon-less or dead.
Given the average strength of Grey Knight weapons and their lack of Melta without taking Inquisitorial retinues the Soul Grinder is fairly survivable but lacks the number of Attacks, Weapon Skill and Initiative to be considered a true close combat threat. It's BS of 3 makes it a poor gun platform as well. Also against any army other than Grey Knights your going to be eating Melta with such regularity that you'll be lucky to get any use out of this particular choice.
That conclusion bit again.
If you think you have enough Bolt Platforms from your Heralds then by all means take some Daemon Princes as Assault units. If you don't then take them as BoT platforms and they'll still do a fairly good job should they ever reach combat.
With those pair done we've reached the end of our Force Organisation Chart analysis. Next we'll look at tying all that into a list or two.
Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.
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Tactica
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