Daemonic incursion

So, I leave the country for 3 weeks and return to find Daemons running rampant! Well as a devout and stoic (if a little tactically inept) Grey Knight I feel it is my duty to put these things down *clicks storm bolter ammo in*

Who ya gonna call?

That being said there's not really that much darting round the ol' blogosphere about them at the moment (I may have missed any comments by a fortnight, damn unpredictable warp travel) but I'm going to wade in anyway.

So the first thing I notice is it's not a codex update, it's a miniature release. I do think gw is on the right tracks with this kind of release as goes someway to mitigating the stagnation of older codices. I mention it only as I thought the Daemons would be high in line for an update (regardless of what the rumour mill is spouting, I'm keeping my opinions). Looking at Fantasy in 8th one of the first things gw did was get the army books that had strange and unusual ways of casting spells (yes Ogres and Tomb Kings I'm looking at you) and bring them in line with the new magic system. This simplified things somewhat, streamlining it if you will (a recurring theme recently). Therefore, I wondered whether gw would address the changes that affect Daemons, mostly the new psychic shenanigans, forced reserve etc. Yet no, it is but an update. And official update. In White Dwarf. This however, is a point I would like to underline (yet, because of laziness I'm not going to do it font-wise). Official updates for codices in White Dwarf is a big step. I had become somewhat disappointed in the magazine recently (the tactics articles seem to just be descriptions of what things do for one. It is likely you could find that by, hm, reading the codex...?) but this I like. New stuff, as I have said before, is very cool (usually). That said, onto said new stuff.

I am only going to pick on the bits that stood out for me, not everything. So this will fast become subjective. Warning: opinions ahead.

Fear me, and my loose grasp on physics!

The Hellflayer, pictured above. Now, first look is I like it. It's got lots of blades and looks very Slaaneshi (even though I'm not a big fan of that god). Further impressions not so much. I worry that most of the blades will be unlikely to turn because they are not touching the ground and there appears to be no method of rotating them mounted on the chassis. I can't help but feel that would reduce it's impact but this is Warhammer, this is Daemons, so it's probably magic. Let's let that slide. Secondly, it requires the entire enemy unit to be between both 'steeds' to grind them up. In 40k, possible, in fantasy I get the idea that a lot of the unit isn't going to be there...never mind. It's not realistic. Rules-wise, it's a pretty basic chariot. 40k is getting one of the first chariots to actually use the chariot rules. I'll wait to see how that pans out. In Fantasy it's a bit simple. I would like the big grindy blades of death to do something a little more impressive. It works but I'm almost disappointed that it's just bog-standard.

say cheese

 I do like the new plague bearers though. I'm not a fan of Nurgle, let me say. I don't like disease. At all. Yet they finally seem to be capturing the humour behind these guys. I like that. Ol' pappa nurgle had a sense of humour to juxtapose with the horrible disease-y bit (I bet). So kudos.

Not a great picture but it seems they're a bit camera shy

Another one I like. The Blue Scribes. They also have that humour about them. I read a bit on their background and rules (I'm sure you folks know more than I do) and I like them. They're my favourite of the new releases. I've not really got anything else to say about them sadly.


Well that was a quick zoom through. I'm treating this as a 'know your enemy'. Of course. I look forward to sending these critters back to the hellish part of the warp they were spawned from. But I will exit by saying I'm being pleasantly surprised with how things are going at gw. They're not fantastic as I'm sure many people will be happy to tell you, but things seem to be swinging back at least. I'm positive. I hope some of you are too.