As much as I hate to admit it, YTTH is right Fiends of Slaanesh are the new nasty. I can remember going to my last tourney and seeing quite a few Daemon armies. About four out of the five had Bloodcrushers where none had a single Fiend. It makes sense at first glance, who would not want to use Bloodcrushers? They have power weapons, two wounds, and furious charge. Still only one Daemon player finished in the top ten.
For ten points less you get the Fiends which have a lower weapons skill, toughness, no furious charge, and no power weapons. So how could Fiends be better? Two very important ways, Fleet and Beast. Unlike Bloodcrushers which are infantry are slow; slow enough that any good general worth his salt, will either avoid them or shoot them to death. As I have learned with flightless Daemon Princes. Fiends on the other hand if not killed in the drop turn will kill. Twice I have had just two measly Fiends reach their target and destroyed it. Fiends also unlike Bloodcrushers can still get in the fight with a bad scatter.
There is also Rending which is not reliable, but with the onslaught of attacks Fiends have, there is a good chance of getting a few off. The attacks, oh god, name any non character model that gets six attacks on the charge? A full squad of Fiends means 36 attacks, even a full squad of Blooodcrushers has 32 with eight not six models. So that is where the point analysis comes in. A full squad of Fiends is only 180 points! That is really ridiculous for a unit with that kind of damage output. For the same number of Bloodcrushers that is 240 points and 24 attacks; the cost of my missing wings for my Daemon Prince or four plaguebearers.
Let’s not forget Fiends have hit & run (not grenades thanks to Stelek for calling me out). Allowing you to get out a combat with a tarpiting unit or to re-up your charge attacks. I also want to make it clear that Bloodcrushers are great, they are resilient and brutal. I just think overall, 5th ed is more about mobility and less about unit stats. If they cannot get into assault what use are they anyway? This is what I have learned from playing Fiends twice so far. That does not make a final verdict. The two games were against very mobile armies, which makes me wonder what hell can I bring against a static army…
I will keep you all updated.