Chaos Daemons Codex: The nerf storm approaches

I have been a very dedicated Daemon player for about 2 years now, and I can honestly say I was very excited for the launch of the new Daemons codex. Emphasis on WAS. I went into this launch with an open mind. I understand that a new edition means changes to the army. I understand that a new codex doesn't just mean the same thing over again with a few new units and some slight upgrades. However I did not think a new codex meant completely changing how an army operates. With this new codex the Daemons have gone from an elite shock army, to a lol-ranDUMB horde army.

Many people are very happy that Daemons lost the army wide eternal warrior rule. While I can say I'm sad about it I can also understand why it had to go. Another change I'm for the most part okay with is the new daemonic instability rule. It is extremely reminiscent of how fearless worked back in 5th edition so it was not a huge change to me. However I am confused by the bizarre addition of the random element of having the unit having a chance to either fully heal or completely disappear. This adds nothing to strategy. You cannot plan it. You cannot make your next move based on what happens. You will either have your day completely ruined by a new random roll, or inexplicably saved "because reasons."

Also the fact that they now have an army-wide 5+ invulnerable save is pretty disappointing. It is just another item on what has proven to be a long laundry list of nerfs that are only there to change the play style of the army which is disappointing.

Another nerf which robs the army of strategy is the way the Daemonic gifts work. Instead of just investing in the upgrades as you like, spending points on upgrading your units in a normal manner you instead spend points on how many times you get to roll on a table at the beginning of each game. This then decides which upgrades your unit has for that match. Again the army suffers from being unable to plan.

My least favorite new change and a nerf that I still do not understand the point of is the warp storm table. Seven of the eleven possible outcomes are either outright terrible for the daemon player, or possibly terrible for them. Having to randomly roll on the wheel of nerfs (my name for the warp storm table) every shooting phase is completely pointless. I do not understand what it adds to the army by being there.

I also find it hilarious that because GW sold more than enough Flamers models in the last edition they decided it would be okay to nerf them into near uselessness for this codex.

I know there will be people who disagree with me, and I'm sure they will be rather vehement about it, but I am simply stating my opinion. I do not believe that what I have said is fact of any kind. I am just putting my two cents in. Some people will probably be happy that they are now a random extremely luck based army where you never know what is gonna happen next. I however fell in love with them when they were an elite shock army who's greatest weapon was their unparallelled element of surprise. However the only person getting surprised by them now is the poor guy playing them.

I will be taking a bit of a break from 40k for a bit. This is a good opportunity for me to shift my focus to Warhammer Fantasy. I do have a burgeoning Warriors of Chaos army and this is a nice chance to give them all of my focus.

This is a painting blog though so have some pictures of some of my more recently completed commissions. 

Dark Eldar Hecatrix.

Dark Eldar Wych who, for obvious reasons earned the name "Destro."

The Dark Eldar Wyches all together.

 Craftworld Ulthwe Avatar of Khaine.

Black Templars sergeant.

As always thanks for reading. Keep your paintbrushes clean and your imaginations open!

Warriors of Chaos

Cannot wait to start painting this beast!

Well the new Warriors of Chaos stuff launched. I guess I started the army just in time. I had decided to start picking up Warhammer Fantasy a little bit before Christmas and had gotten a few things together for the army. However with the launch of the new stuff I now find myself with two army books, the battle magic cards and a couple new kits. The main one I'm excited about is this big brute here --->
Throgg the king of trolls. I already had a Lord on Manticore, Lord on Juggernaught, and Exalted Khorne hero on foot, so I thought myself pretty set on lords and heroes for the time. But when i first saw promo images of this guy I just about died. I've only been doing Warhammer/ Warhammer 40k for maybe 3 or 4 years now so I've not been around for many launches of new minis. All of the minis that would currently qualify as my favorites were out long before I got into the hobby. However this is the first time I have been really really excited about the launch of a new mini. The sculpt is amazing, it is in a pretty dynamic pose, (which is something I love), and the pose also shows a serious amount of personality. You get so much about Throgg just from looking at the mini. Even if you don't know his fluff you can still tell just what kind of troll he is. I also generally don't take issue with finecast the way many people do, but I have seen times where the finecast molding process has messed up and you end up with air bubbles, sunk in bits, pockets, and even some loss of detail. However Throgg was basically perfect fresh out of the box. I saw no imperfections on the mold. I will have to do some slight green stuff work where his raised fist and cape attach to the body, but it is very slight and things like that happen even with a lot of high quality minis made of other material. Apparently getting finecast on the initial release is the best way to avoid any of the usual pitfalls of the material. One last note on Throgg, (I know I just want to keep talking about him) I was skeptical of the price at first. I thought, "okay yeah he is a decent size and I know finecast stuff is expensive, but even this seems a bit much." Then I got him and put him together. He. Is. Huge. His raised fist rises past the height of the Manticore for my lord to ride. This troll is massive. Which makes the fact that the mold came out so well even more impressive really.

I also picked up the new Dragon Ogre models. Considering how ugly the old minis were for them these new ones look even better. The new Dragon Ogres are already beautiful, amazing models but comparing them to the old ones makes them look even more amazing. It is a full plastic kit, which is always preferable to any other material, so customizing would be super simple. I didn't want to mess with the molds to much as this was my first run with the kit and I wanted to experience what it had to offer without mucking with the process, but I couldn't resist completely. I just did a tiny bit of customizing work on the weapons. I wanted to equip them all with great weapons, but I'm not to keen on holding the weapons with two hands usually. For the first Ogre I took one of his one handed maces and trimmed down the sharp edges of it to make it look more like a longer weapon shaft and then attached the head of the great axe to it. This let's him hold his great weapon in one hand and the other hand is outstretched, perhaps reaching to grab and devour a nearby dwarf. Having a hand free and the weapon in one hand really opens up the pose which I like because it just lets you get a better look at the mini as a whole.
The second Ogre's customization was far simpler, so much so that it is hardly considered much customizing really. He came with two different long two handed weapon shafts, one with the business end of the weapon facing forward, a stabbing pose for giving him a halberd, and the other with it facing back, as though he has pulled the great weapon back to bring it down on his opponent in a crushing manner. I simply put the mace head for the great weapon on the halberd shaft instead, deciding it would be fun it he was moving to mash an opponent with the top part of the mace rather than swinging it down in a more conventional manner.
The third ogre I had a bit more fun with. I again used a double handed shaft as the base. Each weapon shaft ends in a half shaft which is where you would normally attach the weapon head of choice, (halberd blade or great weapon head.) I cut the large spike off the bottom of the shaft and then cut the half shaft edge off the top off another leftover shaft and attached it to the bottom. I then used two of the halberd blades to give the Ogre a double-sided swallow blade type weapon. I wanted to put a little bit of myself into each mold and I feel I managed to accomplish that with just some slight weapon mods. They'll truly receive my own personal touch when I get to paint them though I suppose.
As always thanks for reading. Keep your paintbrushes clean and your imaginations open!

Named Dovak for his helmet, this Ogre seems to have his own way of using a mace.

Named Sergg for his weapon choice, I think this one might have my favorite of the weapon mods.

Named Amon because his axe and armor give me a slightly viking feel, this one, as I mentioned, opens up the mini in a fashion I'm quite happy with.