The plan is to have an even split(more or less) and the division between how many heralds vs princes that appear the first turn will depend on opponent. I'm brand spanking new to daemons in 40k and the lack of vehicles is actually the part that attracts me to daemons. I know we're not considered to a top tier army but I have to like what I paint and build so here it goes... General plan is to Bolt'n'gaze, and to use Pavane to put enemies within charging range, out of cover or stop heavy weaponry from going off. I've heard people having good success with PBs with instrument as they take little damage and then with due to the instrument. A solid unit to sit on objectives as well.

Tzerald(Legion,Mastery,Bolt); Chariot
Tzerald(Legion,Mastery,Bolt); Chariot
Tzerald(Legion,Mastery,Bolt); Chariot

5 Horrors(Bolt)
5 Horrors(Bolt)
5 Horrors(Bolt)
5 Horrors(Bolt)

7 Plaguebearers(icon,instrument)
7 Plaguebearers(icon,instrument)

5 Fiends
5 Fiends

Prince of Slaanesh(Pavane,Gaze,Hide)
Prince of Slaanesh(Pavane,Gaze,Hide)
Prince(Gaze,Hide)


TOTAL: 1750 down to the last point.
14 deployment slots

Any comments at all would be helpful, if on tactics or army list composition.

Thanks, D.

Daemons are kinda bad at taking out tanks so you have to go a bit heavy on it. Horrors and fiends are great at taking out hoards so no problem there , but a few rhinos can really mess with fiends and daemon prince assaults. My suggestions are geared toward improving this.

So amusing you split you wave:

wave one

Tzerald

2X 5 Horrors

7 Plaguebearers

5 Fiends

Prince of Slaanesh(Pavane,Gaze,Hide)
Prince(Gaze,Hide)

That gives you 3 bolts and 9 gazes to take out tanks.

So you are looking at : about 6 gaze hits and 2 bolt hits ( will assume you can get armor 10 , but they will have popped smoke. So your looking at a glance and a pen from the gazes and 2 pens from the bolts. He cover saves one of the bolts and one of the gazes.

So on average your killing about a rhino a turn. on turn two when you add how many you can kill in assault the number will go up. ( if you can catch them.) This is just some rounded statistics , but it dose kinda show my point.

I would make the daemon princes Tzeench and give them bolt to help with this. I would also try to get a 3rd fiend squad in there for a bit more hitting power.

In terms of things you can cut to make room for the points. You don't really need legion on the TzHeralds or a second unit of Plague bearers and you can drop the hide from the princes if you make then Tzeench.

I am not a fan of instruments on Plague bearers because when they win combat the are most often have to low I to chase people down. I would much rather have them tie combat and keep a unit locked up. SM assault and do no wounds, you do none make instrument makes you win they chose to fail then regroup and shoot next turn.

The reason for cutting the second Plague bearers unit is that you will mainly use them to hold objectives and daemons are great at holding one and contesting the rest so the points could be better spent else where.

As far as tactics go I have a few suggestions.

1. In objective based mission hold more TzHeralds in reserve so you can do some last turn grabs and send the daemon princes out instead.

2. Fiends are great , but can take heavy casualty from shooting. Don't be afraid to drop them in to cover or a little farther back to make sure some make it in to assault.

3. Daemons are all about target saturation the 1st turn you kinda have to give the opponent something to chew on while you wait around for turn two. I think in your list it is going to have to be the horrors and TzHeralds. I would drop the horrors kinda close and do as much damage with the as possible and try to set up a counter charge with your fiends. With your TzHerlads I would try and get them just with in distance to try and draw out the opponent as much as you can.

Thank you very much for your advice.

What I am proposing to do is;
Keeping one pavane prince, chaning the other two to tzeentch with bolts. I kept the hide though as I don't trust my 4++ saves to save me from massed fire. Trust me, my dice is evil but for some reason they love 3+ saves.
2 units of 4 fiends and one 5 strong.

Removed legion and one PB unit(and instrument).

This lands me at exactly 1750 again.

Seems stronger and has some versatility. If you play safe with the units of 4 man fiends it might be enough. May need to drop a unit of horrors to up them though. My experience is more geared to 2000-2500 point games so units of 4 may be enough.

Do you have these units or are you going to start buying them ?

They're all based on convertions/sculpts. The theme is corruption and for fiends I will use deformed dark eldar with daemonic mutations(like strong hind legs speed or vicious claws). Horrors will be various races(like chaos marauders representing a catachan guardsman). Some will be pure green-stuff work. Tzeralds are made from TK chariots and so on. I have a massive bits-collection due to my impulse-buy tendicies so who knows what I find in there. Some stuff are also left-over from my fantasy days, so there already are some daemons on the way.

"What you are, we once were. What we are, you will be." Pretty much sums up the theme.

EDIT: Would it be preferbly to field 2x 6 fiends with might over the smaller units perhaps?

Might on fiends is one of the 1st thing you do with extra points but, it is not needed. The reason for bigger units is they don't Handle shooting the best and if they get down to one or two models they don't hit hard enough and end up just dieing when they charge in. I would cut a unit of horrors to make 3 units of 6 fiends. This is true for any squishy daemon units. Horrors are the exception because most of the time you are taking them for bolt more then anything else.

You probably should get some games under you belt then make your own call.