Deamons! The Review!

Well, its that time again for the release of a new fantasy army book. This time, it's DEAMONS!!!
You know, that army that was so simple as to push 90 bloodletters across the table or that army that reduced your leadership 10 down to leadership 1 and made you run off the board in terror..

yes, that army.

Now, I know that since deamons are a dual game system army that a lot of the readers will want to know how they work in 40k. well, for this review, I am only focusing on the Fantasy version as that version of demons were considered the most "over powered" book of the two. that and I've only personally read through the fantasy version.

Deamons as a whole:

Starting with the warriors of chaos book, it seemed that the focus of all the demonic gods loving each other and holding hands over the fire and singing kumbya is gone.. Back is the old edition of each god hating another god. Khorne hating slaanesh for not inviting him to that orgy, nurgle hating tzeentch for burning off the diseases he gives to people... stuff like that.

In the warriors book this was represented by marked units only able to be placed in units of the same mark, and no two marks could go in the same unit even if the unit was unmarked. Even demon princes had hatred vs the opposing god when you marked them. 

This is ever so true in the demons army book. It even goes as far as to say that if your army is lead by say a Bloodthirster then your Slaanesh, Tzeentch, and Nurgle deamons can not use his leadership, same with the Bsb's "hold the line" rule.

Also, the Demonic "marks" so to speak are the EXACT SAME as the warriors of chaos army book. ie nurgle -1 to hit in cc

This is also evident in something new added to the chaos deamon army book.. Storms of Chaos.. What this is is a chart that you consult at the start of each of your magic phases (Even you mono khorne!) and based on the winds of magic roll is what happens. The results range from drastic (double 1's every unit takes a demonic instability test) to "create a new unit".
Now, in the middle of this chart is where things get interesting. Depending on the results one of the gods get completely angry at the demons of the opposing god, IE Khorne-Slaanesh, Nurgle-Tzeentch and you roll a dice for each of the units of that mark.. on a 6 bad stuff happens, usually a template comes down ontop of their head. This could lead to some funny results and can probably limit some armies from being heavily multi god focused.

Demonic instability has one major change associated with it. You continue to do things as you used to, but now on snake eyes every model in the unit that was killed in that combat phase comes back, but on box cars the entire unit is removed!  stubborn/steadfast does take into account.

Items and Units

First off, this is a massive change from the old book. Gone are the Magic Items that are like magic items but not, meaning you could duplicate items at will.. Now, when your making your army list you buy points to allocate into a gift table. 25 points, 50 points, 75 points.  Each purchase of these points gives you 1 roll on the table, with the default being a magic weapon from the BRB of equal or lesser points at 25 points of gifts, and 50 points of gifts, at 75 points you can default to one of 4 artifacts in the book.

Whats interesting about this is, yes these items can be duplicated across the board, but they are now considered "enchanted items" meaning spells and items that target enchanted items, IE Vauls unmaking etc. can destroy these gifts. They are also generated randomly before the start of the game/ Placing the model with the gifts down. Even the picking of the magic weapon can change from game to game. For instance, if your going up against high elves your Greater deamon can have the ASF sword. Or the +1 to hit sword in another game.

I want to point this out now, there is no dispel scroll! There is a 1/6th chance of getting an item that is like a dispel scroll, but you can't just pick out the scroll from the list. There is also no option for armor except through rolls on the table. So, expect to run around with your 5+ ward to save you in most games.

All in all the gifts bring a unique aspect to the game and will be interesting to see how they will work in the fast paced tournament environment.

Now, onto the units.

Greater deamons as a whole had a dramatic points reduction. Bloodthirsters that used to run about 550-600 points now run 500 points MAX and that's after buying 100 points in gifts.
Same with the other deamons who can buy magic levels.  It's still just enough points in a 2500 point game to only be able to run one of them, but at least you have the points free for the rest of your army...

Which is much needed. Gone are demon core costing 12 points a model for every type. Bloodletters had a 2 point increase, as well as 1 point of decreased strength, They still have Killing blow from their magic swords but gone are the str 5 khorne demons of the past. It forces you to charge if you want that str 5.
Slaanesh got a point cost reduction, with nurgle remaining about the same and tzeentch becoming cheap. They also all get access to 25 point magic banners from the main rule book.. NO DEMONIC BANNERS!

Don't think you can fill your level 4 wizard wizard requirement with these new cheap tzeentch horrors.. They got completely changed. now they are a level 1 wizard no matter how big or small the unit is, although the number of ranks increase the casting value of the spell from the lore of tzeentch and on a miscast its 2d6 hits with no save of any kind allowed onto the unit.

Command is identical across the board no matter what unit you buy it for. It's identical to how the warriors were when it came to command. My guess is that they are finally deciding that people don't run unit champs because they are more than double the cost of a standard bearer or musician.

Only the 4 choices are in core now, with Furies moving to special. They got a slight "benefit" as well as you can now buy marks for them.. My guess is so that they can use your generals leadership.

Of course demons got some new units, like nurgle plague flies, and The now markable Soul grinder. but the biggest "auto include" in any list is the 135 point Flaming Cannon of khorne.. Yes.. a str 10 cannon on a chariot base that is a cannon.. It's a demonic ironblaster with only t5 and 4 wounds and a 3+ armor save and a 5+ ward.. Guess matt ward decided to throw in some bullshit in the book after all to make up for the wackiness of it. The only saving grace is that it's in the rare section so only ever expect two of them and a soul grinder to show up in the "WAAC" meta. These cannons will be a staple in every deamon army.. It makes my hydra cry and want to go hide in a corner.

Special Characters

They are the same ones from the old book, except some of the more powerful ones, like the mask and fateweaver, have been neutered tremendously.  The mask still can do his/her/it dance but now it only is useful for your turn and it only is a -1 to either leadership, initiative, or strength. Still has the 3+ ward and still can't join units.

Fateweavers reroll a dice ability is now only 1 dice and only for your turn. He no longer knows all the lores of tzeentch and rolls for them as normal, but can still pick spells from the rulebook, and this is the only way to get spells from the rulebook aside from Swapping out Tzeentch for metal, Nurgle for death, and Slaanesh for shadow. That's right, MASTER OF SORCERY BULL IS GONE!!!

Kugath no longer lets you create new nurglings but instead heals them.

Karnak and the changeling got bumped up to being heros (a sign of things to come for us elves) and the changling can no longer swap stats.. It now goes up to the level of the person it's fighting minus the wounds.

Even the all mighty skulltaker got his ass neutered by the new book gods. Gone is his bullshit heroic killing blow on a 5+. Now, he has normal flaming attacks and killing blow but only in challenges(that he always has to issue and accept) is his killing blow heroic. He also has a 4+ armor save now, although I think he always had that.

Over all, I would not mind people using these special characters from the new book. They all seem balanced, as is the way of 8th edition special characters.. now, the wait is on to see how bad Teclis in the high elf book that's coming out in a couple of months gets it..

Final Impressions

Overall, the book is solid. It's internal synergy is quite amazing and no real "bullshit" builds to speak are popping out at me as were in the last book. Time will tell to see what comes of them, but it's no longer an auto win for the demon player and it seems that the added randomness will be interesting.

Now, onto the month delay before the new High elf book (and maybe a hint about how my precious dark elf book will be) comes out.