Normally at this point, that's about it, but in the spirit of an active Sunday Morning, with the Honey-Do-List Honey-It's-Done and the paint drying on felt in a new dice box...
...man, that's kind of a long sentence...
...I thought, why not? Let's crack open the book and check out the basic rules a bit.
Okay, the basic rule from the main rulebook provides a Daemon with a 5+ Invulnerable Save and Fear. Note, that's not Fearless! Reading under the Fear rule:
"At the start of each Fight sub-phase, a unit in base contact with one or more enemy models that cause Fear must take a Leadership test (called a Fear test) before any blows are struck. If the test is passed, (edit) there is no effect. If the test is failed (edit) all models have their Weapon Skill reduced to 1 for the remainder of the fight sub-phase."
Practically speaking, the Fear causing unit will hit on 3's and the Fear struck unit will usually require 5's. Units with a model that has the And They Shall Know No Fear or Fearless special rules won't have to take the Fear test. Neither will Daemons; the relevant section is under Daemonic Instability:
"Units with this special rule will automatically pass Fear, Pinning, and Morale tests..."
Instead of Morale, a Daemonic unit rolls for Daemonic Instability. A double-1 or double-6 is a special result, either returning or removing all models, respectively, but any other roll is adjusted by any modifiers (usually the amount of wounds the Daemonic unit lost combat by) and can obviously destroy any remaining models.
What's interesting here is how these wounds are applied. The Daemons Codex states:
"For each point the unit fails its Daemonic Instability by, it suffers one additional Wound, allocated by the unit's owning player and with no saves of any kind allowed."
So does this mean, for example, that a player could allocate one wound to each of three remaining Fiends? No. The owning player could choose where the initial wound is allocated, but page 25 of the rulebook, last paragraph, states:
"Once a model has a Wound allocated to it, you must continue to allocate wounds to it until it is either removed as a casualty or the Wound pool is empty."
Easy enough. One Fiend would be removed due to Daemonic Instability. It should be noted this does not mean that a model previously wounded (for example, in the combat itself, or even as a result of Instability from a previous round) would have to be allocated wounds until destroyed. The process ends when "the Wound pool is empty," providing for a definite start and finish to the Daemonic Instability process.
Well, what started on Sunday ended this dreary Monday morning. This is a partial draft of this week's Terrible Tuesday article, so if anyone sees any errors in the text, please let me know.