It’s Like Tactics: Chaos Daemons first and probably wrong Impressions

My Tactics pledge: I am not the greatest player, nor a seal pup. I will endeavor to speak from my experience and always be honest about what is theory and what is play tested. Never will I assume to know better than anyone else... unless I must call out ego or pretension.

As is the case with every new codex, bloggers frantically put up reviews and insights instantaneously.

Instant analysis is often shortsighted and based on antiquated meta, but that isn't necessarily a reason to avoid them. It is always useful to see if Blood of Kittens's conclusions about a codex are the same as the rest of the punditry.

If you see similar analysis on other sites understand Blood of Kittens is writing independently of what you might have read. Remember, what one thinks is good now isn't always going to be good six months from now.

Those familiar with Blood of Kittens Chaos Space Marine reviews will see much of the same stuff that made them successful, and in addition expect more "interactive" elements to appear with the Chaos Daemon review.

With all that preamble out-of-the-way, let us get started.

Chaos Daemons codex is a game changer, it feels like the first real 6th edition codex. The Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels felt like meek updates to their previous incarnations. They threw a few the 6th edition USRs around, added some new units, and tweaked around the edges. The Chaos Daemon codex presents a new way to play an army and provides many "nostalgia elements" to make both new and old players happy.

Great pains were taken to make each Chaos God seem both synergistic and independent of one another. You can play mono-god armies and still be competitive. The design team took the best elements Alessio Cavatore presented, then had Phil Kelly redefined them, fitting the current Games Workshop vision. The Alessio Cavatore codex always felt like some great experiment, by a hired gun that hadn't grown up in the culture and history of the company. The new codex you can see a nod to the past with the Blanche artwork, the fluff, to the random tables-- this is the reimagining of the The Realms of Chaos for the modern player.

Beyond all the attention devoted the past, the biggest question is how do the Chaos Daemons play? On the surface they look pretty amazing. If you knew nothing about the special rules for Daemons you would see nine-point troops, mass amount of multi-wound models, psykers everywhere, and standard deployment. If the Chaos Daemons were just a 6th ed update, that is where it would have ended. Instead, Phil Kelly comes in, who unlike the rest of the design team has an internal balance thermometer.

The invisible hand of Kelly is everywhere. The Warp Storm table, the return of Instability, removal of Eternal Warrior all these elements are designed to keep Chaos Daemons in check. For the competitive player much is anathema, but for Kelly it is his tool for balance.

This all leaves a player wondering where do you start with creating a Chaos Daemons army? You really can start anywhere almost every unit in this codex is playable, just understand always consider these words of wisdom.

Understanding the Chaos Gods are fickle and tipping the odds in your favor is going to be the best chance for success with this codex.

As for specific units themselves let us take a quick look at some of the winners and losers from the Chaos Deamons codex.

As most of you know, this is only the beginning, just like Chaos Space Marines we are going all in on this one! Next up an indepth look at the Chaos Daemons codex where Blood of Kittens will breakdown every unit into competitive tiers.

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