With the release of Codex: Emperor’s Children and the upcoming books for World Eaters, Death Guard, and Thousand Sons, Games Workshop confirmed that these books would include rules for these Legions’ Daemonic allies and a detachment for each which allowed you to run them alongside the Chaos Marines as a combined force. While reviving the Khorne Daemonkin from 7th edition has been popular with select members of the Goonhammer team, this left an open question as to what would happen with the Daemonic Pact rules from Index: Chaos Daemons – would you still be allowed to use these to add Chaos Daemons to the new Codexes when they also contain native datasheets for this?

The 40k app updated today with a new version of this rule which clarifies this, as well as bringing back some units for the Daemons Index which had gone missing in the previous update in March. Mike Pestilens from Warphammer is here to talk us through the changes and what they mean for Chaos players.

What’s Changed?

• Tormentbringer Chariots are back, and with a tweaked datasheet.
• Hellflayer Chariots are back, and with a buffed datasheet.
• Karanak is back, and with a buffed datasheet.
• It is confirmed that the four Cult Legions do not have access to allies from the Daemons Index.

What Does This Mean?

Mike: Daemons players are winners from this update. 

Hellflayers coming back with +1 Strength/+1 Damage on the charge as their unit rule is huge. Hellflayers suddenly have 12 2-damage attacks and 3 3-damage attacks on the charge, each with some sort of special rule (Dev Wounds, Anti-Infantry 3+, Lethal Hits). That’s a unit that can trade well with medium infantry, and can actually start to punch up if you have access to something like Lance from Shadow Legion or +1AP from Daemonic Incursion. 

The main change for Tormentbringers is that they can lead Hellflayers, making for an intriguing package. Don’t forget that the +1 Strength/Damage from the Hellflayer unit rule would also apply to the Tormentbringer, leading to an eye-watering amount of multi-damage attacks from the unit overall. Tormentbringers also no longer select nearby Slaanesh units to 4+ Fight On Death, instead getting a guaranteed Fight On Death for their own unit. 

Karanak got slightly more expensive but his datasheet is genuinely excellent now. His flamer is a very real threat. Getting a bump to OC3 means he is much better at contesting objectives with his mobility. Letting his unit reroll advances, charges, and get re-roll wounds versus his chosen “prey” unit makes Karanak leading a unit of Flesh Hounds into a really effective skirmisher, or even into a hammer unit with Rendmaster buffs. Anti-Character 3+ and Precision means even a solo Karanak is a threat to snipe a fragile Leader out of a unit. 

Chaos Daemons only being ally options for Chaos Knights and Chaos Space Marines was expected, but at least we have confirmation now. If you’re running Cult Legions, you can only run Daemons from your specific codex (and only in detachments that allow those Daemon units, if the other codices function like Emperor’s Children). That is probably disappointing for fans of those Legions. The upside for Daemons players is that they’ll be easier to balance when there are fewer armies that will be affected by any changes to Daemons.

Liam: This does mean we’re in a weird period where World Eaters, Death Guard, and Thousand Sons players can’t use Daemons and also don’t yet have access to the Daemons expected to be in their codexes. For the first two this is irritating, but should only matter for a few weeks, since per last week’s Sunday preview their book goes up for pre-order on 26 April and therefore will be out on 10 May. It’s a bigger deal for Thousand Sons players whose codex has not yet been trailed beyond being “next” on the road map, with no definite date given for when that will actually be.

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