The Daemon Prince: A Second Look by SeerK

SeerK here. Well I have finalized my list for the Adepticon GT. My Iron Warriors will be marching to battle against, well, everybody. After really crunching numbers and looking at all the options available I decided to go with a Daemon Prince for my HQ.

Now I know what some of you are saying; Why a Daemon Prince? He's so expensive and is not as good as the other HQ choices in the codex. I will give you the points thing. He is expensive. He can still clock in under Abbadon though. Not only that, but after the very abbreviated FAQ on the Chaos Codex, the Daemon Prince gains access to some new toys that can really make them one-man wrecking machines. Let's look at the Daemon Prince shall we?

Ok, so the Base Prince is 145 points. You can upgrade him to be a Daemon of one of the four Chaos Gods. You can also slap some wings on him. A winged Prince base is 185 points. Pretty hefty I know, but he is much more mobile and survivable with the wings. As a flying monstrous creature he can engage air and ground targets. This is factors into how you equip the prince as well, but I am a little ahead of myself. For anybody that has read my blog,Craftworld Lansing, you know I am a big fan of utility. Eldar armies are full of specialists and having multi-role utility units, even among specialists, is a big plus when you are looking for army synergy. So a Prince being able to deal with air and ground targets, very effectively I might add, adds lots of value and makes the points spent worth it.

That all said think if you will of a Winged Daemon Prince made a Daemon of Khorne. This gives the Daemon Prince Furious charge and access to Khorne Chaos rewards and Khorne Specific Artifacts. The FAQ changes the codex entry so that units and characters with a Mark or A Daemon type have access to God specific wargear. So that said we give the Daemon Prince an Axe Of Blind Fury. So now we have a flying Strength 8 Prince with Furious Charge, Rage, A Daemon Weapon and hell let's give him some power armor. That's 255 points. 10 points cheaper than Abbadon and in my opinion, more killy and has way more utility.

This is just one example. There are lots of possibilities. Did you see that Daemon princes of Nurgle have shrouding? That alone gives you the ability to move across the table largely unmolested. Combine it with a killy artifact and you have yourself a big hard to kill target that can dish as much pain as it can take. With wings your Jink saves are 2 better for a 3+ save. Not to shabby.

The wings really are the icing though. My current Army Leader is the aforementioned Khorne Prince build. While Flying I can vector strike at a strength of 6. This is not to bad as many flyers are armor 11 at best anyway. You will inflict a minimum of 2 hits which is not bad. I wish I could include the bonus from the axe but the rulebook does state “... at the models unmodified strength and AP3....”. Sad but its only fair I suppose.

So there is my two cents about the Daemon Prince. I think he is overlooked and dismissed because of the way things use to be. This is a new codex and Chaos players have to think outside the box as it were. The codex is different and although old tricks still work, some better now, there are new tricks and ways of doing things that will bring the full potential of your army out. You just have to explore the codex and get the old way of doing things out of your system. So what is your thought on the subject?

Until Next time...........