Tactica - Running a Daemon Summoning List

So you wanna summon daemons, huh kid?  You want to keep your heresy to a minimum, and work within the fluff?  While any army (except the shiniest of the Space Catholics) can work off of Malefic Daemonology, my experience has been in summoning daemons with daemons, or occasionally, with those who aspire to daemonhood.  My prime focus since 7th came out has been working the daemon factory.  It's a simple machine at it's heart, but like the humble Honda Civic, you can customize to your heart's content.  To work properly, you're going to need to summon a minimum of two units of daemons a turn, preferably three; cast cursed earth from a central location, and bring out at least one herald.  That's right, I want you to summon 285-400 points of units a turn.

Philosifelt - Being Done

The MiniWax polyurethane satin can yawns wide, inviting.  From it waft fumes that promise a change.  Each one in turn is pulled up, attached to the mechano-harness, baptized.  They emerge different, the fluid streaming down their faces a torrent of tears.  One-hundred seven of them disappear into the hungry silver mouth, one-hundred seven emerge.  They long for battle.  No shake of transport shall dislodge them.  No errant hand will shatter their limbs.  They are...finished.
There was a feeling of piquant sadness as I looked at the assembled hordes.  The waft of varnish fumes was harsh in my nostrils.  They gibbered.  More than a year.  Each one must represent an hour of hobbying, from their exquisite kitbashes to their custom bases.  Nearly an hour and a half a week went into them over the last eighteen months.  That's a lot of time to spend with anything.  There was no way that they could be good enough to justify that.  They just don't look good enough.  There's no going back.  Finished.

eXtreme Kitbash - summoning circle bases

I finished painting all my infantry in time for the BA0 2014 - 40 Daemonettes, 36 Pink Horrors, 10 Plaguebearers and 24 Screamers.  I was proud of my accomplishment until I saw the amazing basing jobs that brought the nicest looking armies to the next level.  Since then, they've been languishing on primer-white bases, being less than they could be in tabletop pop.  I just added 20 Plaguebearers, and in the spirit of incremental gains, I decided it was time to base the whole army.
But we're talking 130 models here, and many of them are on slotta bases, fantasy square bases, popsicle sticks.  I wanted to use this opportunity to make my kitbashed, disparate army tie together.  It was also an opportunity to do break maintenance - after 50+ games, these models have lost a fair amount of arms and heads.  Start to finish, this has been the easiest and most satisfying way to improve the overall look of the army.

Tactica - Strengths & Weakneses of Daemons

Many have already written exhaustive Daemon tacticas, and with good reason - they are the best army.  The flesh-scribes and internet-servitors serve well as they churn out paragraphs of why bloodcrushers aren't so bad.  But they are bad, and I've never used a blood crusher.  So I don't feel confident writing about them. 
In the 41st millennium, there are commanders who bandy opinion far from the fields of war and there are those who soak those battlefields in their enemy's preferred circulatory fluid.  I am of the latter sort, so I'll tell you what I've learned.

2014 - Year of the Screamer

 

Despite the achings of the internet and every list of tournament armies I read, 2014 was a good year for Chaos.  I say this personally, because Chaos is personal.  From the champions yearning for Daemonhoood to the lowly cultists, every member of the ragged host has an individual investment in the process.  You may have joined because a man with a skull for a face and axes for hands gave you the choice of service or death, you still made a choice, damnit!  These space commies, immortal elves and kidnapped child-Astartes can't understand what that means.

Sunday Battle Reports

Saturday night used to be a maelstrom of liquor and bad decisions.  These days, it a MAELSTROM OF WAR!!!!  The war has moved away from my remaining brain cells and on to the tabletop - there are still a number of bad decisions to be made.  There was a low turnout for games at the Humboldt F.O.G. headquarters, but we still made do, getting in two games.

My List -

Chaos Sorcerer, Psychic Pet ML3 x2
18 Cultists
17 Cultists
Sicaran Battle Tank, Daemonic Possession x2
Sicaran Battle Tank, Death of Kasyr Lutein

Herald of Tzeentch, ML 3, Disc x2
Herald of Tzeentch, ML 3 x2
20 Daemonettes
20 Daemonettes
8 Screamers

His List
Rune Priest
Servitor
Servitor
Drop Pod
Drop Pod
5 TWC, Power Fist, 2x Storm Shield
Infiltration FW HQ
Five Scouts, Pistols & CCW, Landspeeder Storm w/ HF x3
Five Scouts, Pistols & CCW, Landspeeder Storm w/ MM x2
3 Centurions, Grav Amps, Omniscope

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire, FLG style

I deployed and went first.  I spaced out my Sicarans equally along my long table edge.  I put cultist/sorcerer blobs on both objectives in my zone, with daemonettes and the Tzeentch blob in the middle.  I went first, dropping cursed earth and failing invisibility with both sorcerers, even with their pets! Summoned a pile of horrors, herald of slaanesh on a steed, and incursioned a group of screamers.  The entire army minus cultists, as usual, has a 4++.  I flat out'd a Sicaran to kill a servitor; this was far outside my control area and will be my sacrifice target.  It grabbed me first blood and a maelstrom.

My opponent dropped a pod with Centurions inside to target my screamer blob, hoping to kill some heralds and drop my warp charges.  Put three wounds on them, which we mathhammered out to be the probable outcome.  Oops.  The rest of his army is outflanking and in the other drop pod.

Second turn, I continued to push my daemonettes into the backfield.  Split my foot heralds into the summoned pink horrors and moved the screamers towards the centurions, ready to catch anyone who outflanked into that area.  Summoning phase gave me a seeker chariot, a group of daemonettes, and two invisible Sicarans.  I held my point for a maelstrom.  Destroyed the centurions, unfortunately, and boosted the screamers towards the corner with no objectives to limit his outflanking landspeeders.

My opponent brought in his entire army.  The melta command squad melta'd my sacrifice Sicaran with a MM LS to help.  5++ and 12 AV is still quite resilient - it took all those shots to down it.  Landspeeders and centurions whittled down a daemonette blob, but a 4++ usually leaves them wanting...it left him wanting.  The TWC futzed about.

Third turn, I used dark flame and FFoT to burn some speeders.  My daemonettes engaged the TWC and centurions.  Sicarans killed two speeders.  Landspeeders moved on my back cultist blob, but the curtain has already begun to draw....I stopped taking notes because it was a slaughter from here on out.  It came down to can I StW on turn five, yes I can with 31 daemonettes, for a 10-0.

I usually do well against SM unless I don't play tactically.  I can get outmaneuvered with drop pods, landspeeders, etc.  Since adding the Sicarans, this tends to happen less, because I can reach out and kill light transports with ease.  This list was a light experiment, I dropped pink horrors for daemonettes with the idea of "pre-summoning."  The pink horrors, providing 6 WC, can almost reliably summon a unit of daemonettes between them each turn, struggling over the game to provide 40.  Of course, having daemonettes instead deprives me of those wounds in the backfield for immediate offensive capability.  I also dropped the lascannon sponsons on the Sicarans, it was a little too expensive for not a lot of work.  4+ cover saves and the sponson fields of fire meant I was getting 3-4 ineffective lascannon shots a game with each tank.  Not work 40 points apiece, not worth 120 over the entire army.  They are also lower priority targets, especially when the have a 4++, and I would prefer they live FOREVER.

I'll further tweak the list; I'll swap out a horde of daemonettes for a group of 17 pink horrors and add dozer blades to the Sicarans.  I really want an extra place to park heralds, having them all blobbed up with the screamers limits my first-turn maneuvers and puts me at risk for an alpha strike from barrage weapons crippling my WC potential.    The list is coming to where I want it, a compromise between my BAO list and what I've learned since then.

eXtreme Kitbash - Plague Bruddahs, Meth Witches

I have a distinct aversion to buying GW daemon miniatures.  Each of them displays a set of terrible design choices and have some of the highest $/point ratios.  A box of plague bearers costs ~$30, and fields at ninety points.  $0.33/point is pretty expensive, especially for some of the models that will only see action in the off fluff game or occasional summoning.  What's a cheap boy to do?