Watch out internet, Traitor’s Hatred is here and it’s in full swing, and it’s time to talk about what your Demon Prince can do for you. Loyalists, keep walking, this article is not for corpse worshipers.
Demon Weapon + Demon Prince = Hoser City
Here’s the oldest trick in the book. Get any demon weapon. Put it on a demon prince. It is now AP2 because a demon prince is a monstrous creature. Go wipe out a squad of marines and hurt feelings and lose friendships.
But that’s obvious.
What else can you do? Well, if you’re one of the cult-marked legion princes, (1k Sons, Emp’s Children, Death Guard, World Eaters) then your options are limited. But what if you’re one of the undivided legions that suddenly has options now? Unlike cult legions, undivided legion princes actually have free choice of which marks they pick. (all demon princes must pick a god.)
So who should pick what, and which toys? Let’s look at the wargear for the undivided legions and see what kind of awful things we can cook up.
BLACK LEGION
3 items come to mind when we talk black legion, but none of them are terribly impressive.
- Last Memory of Yuranthos- Get an extra psychic level. Nice. Get a super charged nova power. Also nice. With a winged prince, you’ll actually have the mobility to get in there and bust it in the center of your opponent’s line. Unfortunately, this could put you massively out of position, and spending a ton of points to make a demon prince into a psyker and then even more points to make him a super psyker is a risky bet. Probably best to stick with nurgle for the shrouding, and hope for good malediction powers so you can sling some other crap out while you’re bursting, or just completely ignore the sunburst nova altogether and just use the Last Memory for the bonus psyker level. Either way, it’s a neat trick but not worth building the roster around.
- The Skull of Colonel Sanders- Demon Princes are T5, which still puts them in range of a lot of instant death and even force weapons if your opponent can catch him. The Black Legion can get you that sweet Eternal Warrior though. Unfortunately, like the Last Memory, this is more a minor perk than it is a major dealbreaker. I think the Skull of KFC does a way better job protecting a chaos lord, who will have a better chance to make use of it, and then hopefully just turn into a demon prince with a hot roll on the boon table later in the game anyway.
- The Spineshard Blade– It’s one of the cheapest demon weapons you can grab, which makes it good. It doesn’t really do anything interesting though. Try getting a black mace on one DP and this sword on another, and double your action.
ALPHA LEGION
There’s really only one here, but boy is it fun.
Blade of the Hydra- Like the Black Legion’s Spineshard Blade it isn’t really that special… Except you get more attacks when you roll sixes, baby! And if you roll sixes on the extras, those make extras too! Take it to the bank! This is the prince of demon weapons- Not as deadly as the black mace or the blissgiver, but definitely the most fun. So who is going to take it? Well, the safe answer is always Nurgle, but screw the safe answer- Go Khorne and go for broke with furious charge, you’ll be hitting those sixes at Strength 7 AP2. That’s a demon prince walking around punching people with a plasma gun that doesn’t explode.
IRON WARRIORS
Now here’s a few worth thinking about.
- Fleshmetal Exoskeleton- Give him a 2+ armor save and It Will Not Die. Prince of Tzeentch rerolls saving throws of one… Is this even legal? Someone better FAQ that. (The Alpha Legion also has a 2+ armor item but screw that noise, Hydra Blade.)
- Cranium Malevolus- Every shooting phase, haywire the shit out of every enemy vehicle within 2d6 inches. Throw it on a nurgle prince and tell him to go for a glide. That should be fun. Keep in mind to that every vehicle within range is hit- That means that if the demon prince floats over a squadron of vehicles, these hits will all stack onto the closest vehicle when the damage is resolved, likely wrecking it instantly. Not likely to happen, but fun against Guard players.
NIGHT LORDS
Best in show, hands down. There’s awesome stuff in here. The Night Lords are spoiled for stuff to throw on their princes. If there’s a way to spam demon princes, it’s the Night Lords that should do it.
- Scourging Chains/Talons of the Night Terror- The talons are a mini demon weapon that grant an additional D3 attacks or D6 if you charged, but what’s important here is that the chains and the talons both grant shred, meaning your demon prince that already wounds most targets on a 2 mathematically can’t fail to wound. Who should pick these toys up? A Slaanesh prince- That way you get shred and rending. Why care about rends when you’re already AP2? Because it means you walk up to vehicles and blow them out without having to smash them, you can just roll dice and rip hull points on the rear armor of most tanks. The thing that makes these items fun is that they’re cheap and guarantee your math, because only needing a 2 to wound is not enough.
- Curze’s Orb- Even more guaranteed math. You can’t miss, and you can’t fail to wound. Not bad for twenty points.
- Stormbolt Plate- Another murky item that might be abusable for Tzeentch, but equally jerky for Nurgle as well, so pick your flavor. Get a 2+ save, and get +1 to cover saves as well.
WORD BEARERS
These guys don’t do much for demon princes. Most of their items are on mortal models that can grant force multipliers to other units. As far as having toys are concerned, none of them really compare to just whacking someone with a black mace.
- Crown of the Blasphemer- An interesting choice, the Crown is the only way for a demon prince to get a 4+ invulnerable save without being Belakor.
- The Cursed Crozius- The Crozius is at least worth considering, and it’s a big fluff stick for legion lore. It isn’t a demon weapon so it won’t get the raw killing power of a that extra die of attacks, but you do get to be Strength 8, and you do get Preferred Enemy: Loyalist Jerks. That’s not bad at all, and on Khorne, that’s a furious charge at S9. Not bad for bashing land raiders.
So what say ye Warsmiths? Is a Daemon prince yeah or nay?
