Chaos Space Marines: Daemon Allies



Hello everyone! Now that I have a few months before my next big tournament, I've spent a good deal of time looking over the Daemons book, and also the Allies system. As a Nid player, I actually don't know the rules too well on allies! However, looking over the Battle Brothers section it's quite clear that they can use powers on each other... the natural conclusion of this, of course, is to look for Divination to add to my Chaos Marines. Fortunately, Tzeentch is my god of choice! 

When looking at an allied chart, you MUST take a troops and an HQ. While some people like to take 5 warriors and Necron Wraiths as allies, I feel that a good allied contingent must have a useful unit in every slot, otherwise you're wasting points for the unit you're adding in! I'd like to keep my attachment to a relatively small number of units, like 2 or 3.

HQ: Because I want to add divination to my army, there are really only two choices. A herald of Tzeentch or a Lord of Change.

Herald of Tzeentch:
 Pros: Cheap, can be hid in units. Up to three Divination powers
Cons: Very weak, can only join other Daemons, and only Tzeentch ones. An absolute pushover in CC.

Lord of Change: Pros: Tough, Flying Monstrous Creature. No slouch in CC, and isn't tied to a unit, very mobile.
Cons: Big target, draws fire, only a 5+ save, pricey.

From my experience with FMCs from Tyranids, I know how fast they can go down. With only a 5++ and not as easy access to FnP, I think that the Herald is more price-efficient.

This then means that the Herald needs a unit to go with him. Compared to my Nids, I run relatively few scoring units for my Chaos Space Marines (I plan on three). The Daemon troops should then be very tough against shooting for a ore resilient unit, which Pink Horrors fit just fine. With the new Daemonic Instability rules, they can go to ground. A unit of Pink Horrors behind an Aegis Line are just nasty, as they have a 2+ cover save, and are allowed to reroll 1s due to being Daemons of Tzeentch! Gnarly! Horrors also add in a nice bit of shooting, if they need to use it.

The base allied attachment would then be 11 Horrors, with an Iridescent Horror (For Mastery level 2 until they got shot at) and a Herald of Tzeentch. The Herald would be ML 3, and rolling all divination. With Havocs and Forgefiends around to play, there shouldn't be an issue of running out of targets. Twin-linking a Forgefiend will brutalize a Rhino, even with cover, while making autocannon Havocs a sudden menace to any aircraft around. This even fits what I see as the Iron Warriors theme, a very immobile shooting force behind a fortification, with Daemons only being used as tools to further their own ends. And really, isn't that what allies are? Because sometimes, you just want Twinlinked Lascannons to ruin a guys day.

This would run in at 199 points, which is altogether VERY cheap for an allied unit. It has minimal upgrades, and doesn't have to roll on the Warp Storm chart. I'm basically paying for a tough unit behind an Aegis line, and a minor character who can really help my army be devastating on the field.