Hey guys, prospective daemon player here! I have a couple other armies for 40k, and I just thought I really wanted to make a cool little daemon force a little later this year, using those wonderful Dweller in the Dark models from LotR wherever possible. I thought I could make a really cool looking army around those models and similar stuff (Balrog, Gulavhar, Bloodletters, and Belakor are the models I'm looking at using), so I started looking at the codex to see what I could do.

I want this force to look really cool on the table, but I also want it to be as competitive as possible within a theme, so I can use it in tournaments and what is a very competitively-oriented group at my FLGS. Anyhow, I thought I'd throw up my first list attempt here and see what people thought. Any coments, criticisms, ideas, et cetera, are very welcome! I want to nail down the list before I go out and get the stuff to make it all look cool.

LIST:
HQ: Lord of Change (Master of Sorcery, Breath of Chaos)

HQ: Lord of Change (Master of Sorcery, Breath of Chaos)

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Change, Breath of Chaos)

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Change, Breath of Chaos)

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Change, Breath of Chaos)

Total cost is 2,000 even.

Couple of things:

Tzeentch big guys and Khorne little guys doesn't really look fluffy, I know, but the models aren't going to be built or painted like regular Lords of Change or even Bloodletters; basically everything is going to be ash black with accents of fire and magma and stuff, like the Balrog or Dweller in the Dark on GW's website (Dweller Pic). These guys aren't even going to be Khornate or Tzeentchian, per se, just a particular band of daemons (Undivided, I suppose) doing their own thing and looking good doing it (I hope).

Bloodletters are only really in there for the visual theme, 'cause I feel like they're the only lesser daemons who really fit well into the idea I have for the army look....maybe plaguebearers painted up right could as well, but the bloodletters seem like a perfect fit to me. I am perpetually bummed that they don't have 3+ armour like they used to, and also with power swords in sixth....piff. Oh well?

I don't really have to have 40 of them though, so ideas for replacements are welcome. I thought furies would look really cool too, but frankly, they seem terrible. :(

Finally, the Flying MC's are really awesome as Tzeentch in 6th! As I'm sure a few here have already noticed. With Master of Sorcery They can all Vector Strike in the movement phase, and then still shoot both Breath and Bolt in the shooting phase. Breath glancing vehicles is great now with hull points too, so all of these are options against a lot of different targets. Add to that the immense durability of a MC with a 4+ invul in flight (snap shots only), they're pretty fantastic!

Okay, that's my very simple spammy circus list, anyone have any ideas?

Stheno

Just thought of a different name for this list, "Duck Hunt".

Aside from that I think some flamers of Tzeentch could work in the army as well. They look beautiful when painted up with the ash/lava scheme and they are very powerful in 6th edition.

Also at 2k+ you get a double force org, unless you agree to play at 1999 +1

My personal demon army is Khornate with Balrogs as Bloodthirsters and Dwellers and Bel'lakor as demon princes.

I think you might come out better dropping all the breath and master of sorcery upgrades and just buying flamers for those points.

Also, if you want to be competitive, you might wanna drop some bloodletters and get some horrors with bolt. Think of them as imps/gremlins shooting annoying balls of fire at the enemy.

If you drop breath from every single one of your monstrous creatures with it you can get a flamer of Tzeentch for each one and still have points leftover for something else.

Second the horrors suggestion.

Duck Hunt! Excellent, except not even the Lords of Change will be birds in this army. Oh well?

Okay, Flamers are indeed an excellent idea. New list!

HQ: Lord of Change

HQ: Lord of Change

Elites: 5 Flamers

Elites: 5 Flamers

Elites: 5 Flamers

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

Troops: 10 Bloodletters

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Change)

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Change)

HS: Daemon Prince (Daemonic Flight, Unholy Might, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Change)

This comes to 1985. I'm sticking to a single FOC because there hasn't been any indication locally that people want to play with that option at 2,000. I have enough to drop 10 more bloodletters for 9 horrors and the changeling, though not enough to give the unit bolt.

If I were to use horrors I'd probably want to convert them or do some counts-as stuff to help them fit better visually in the army. Maybe bloodletters tossing balls of flame in lieu of their swords, or something.

If I can think of a good way to convert something for the horrors that meshes well with the Dwellers/Belakor/Balrog thing, there is this alternate option for the troops: 3x 9 Horrors with Bolt and Changeling, for 494pts, and making the army total 1999pts. Then it's all Tzeentch as well so that makes theme that much easier when you look at the list on paper. But I want the troops choices to mesh visually with the bigger stuff, so............

Anyone know of any miniatures that might be useful?

Blood letters actual form is pretty... "flamy" I guess is the best word. Usin the color scheme for blue Tzeentch units should be good enough I would think, unless you want them to be the color scheme of blood letters of course.

Worst comes to worst, Tzeentch is a fickle and can trick the bloops letters into his bidding or just make horrors look like bloodletters to throw off the enemy or some fluff like that. *shrugs*

Onto the list: only thing I don't agree with really is unholy might. You may get to wound on 2's, but usually smashing is going to be a better option for character killing (s10 is mean even if you only get 2 attacks). Just a thought, considering its what? Without looking at the codex 60 points to make 3 princes s6?

Well with Unholy Might I'm thinking more about the Vector Strikes wounding on a 2+. I figure the FMCs will spend a healthy amount of time in swoop mode to protect themselves, and they're that much more lethal this way. Helps against vehicles a bit as well, and with Hammer of Wrath. There are enough thing it's still helpful for, I think it's worth the points.

As for the horrors, I will be painting them the same as the Dweller scheme, so I guess I could just use horror models any way, and let the colours pull the army together. But looking at the models, I'm wondering if it might be possible to do some work and give the plastic horrors some bloodletter heads. Not totally sure how that would work. It's the horns on the bloodletters that really matter to me anyhow.