Check out these new 40k Chaos Daemon rules that are coming inside Engine War, as another Psychic Awakening preview from GW is here!
Warhammer Community has had constant rules reveals. We’re able to see some kind of new rule, relic, and Stratagem for each of the four Chaos God allegiances. Here’s the latest on Daemons.
GW Reveals New Daemon 40k Rules For Engine War
Of the content within the pages laid out, we know we’re getting Stratagems, name generators, datasheets, updated points, customizable Forge World/Knight Households, and more. It’s difficult to tell what some things are based on their title in the Table of Contents alone. But we have all of that from above to look forward to!
For starters, Engine War is going to be the Psychic Awakening Book with the most amount of points printed yet. We’ve seen Primaris characters make their way to Blood of Baal and Ritual of the Damned, but Ad Mech is getting a handful of new units with all their points. Daemons look to be getting a ton of love too, lets dive in:
Le’ts start with Khorne. If you’ve got a special place in your heart for the Bloodthirster, well they’re about to get even better.
For a single Command Point, you can declare one of your Bloodthirsters to be an Exalted Bloodthirster – giving it access to new abilities. You can either randomly determine two of these, or you can freely select a single one.
We don’t know all of the rules we have to choose from on the Bloodthirster just yet. However, we’ve seen Slaughterborn revealed, giving +1 Strength and Attacks the first time this model is engaged in melee. The best part is that this stacks with Unstoppable Ferocity which also gives +1 Strength and Attacks! That means you could have a Bloodthirster drop in at S9 with 8 attacks…
A new artifact is also coming to Khorne which might give your Bloodthirsters that much-needed longevity in melee. It’s only natural to believe that they’re going to take some damage as they move/charge in and take overwatch. This artifact will give you a chance to heal up to 8 wounds in a single turn for every MODEL you kill.
If you see a squishy squad somewhere nearby and you need to heal up, you might be tempted to rush in and gain a couple of wounds to keep you going.
For 1CP you can add some speed to your list by letting some Flesh Hounds charge after advancing. You’ll also be getting +2″ to charge which almost guarantees you making it into combat. Especially with a CP reroll that’s not bad at 1CP- especially if you’re just trying to tie something up for a bit.
Slaanesh Support
The Keeper of Secrets for Slaanesh is getting the same treatment as the Bloodthirster. You can spend 1CP to make them an Exalted Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, unlocking more rules.
This is a sweet rule, but it’ll take some finesse to use it right. There’s no range on this rule so as long as an enemy unit fails morale anywhere on the board, you’ll be able to move this model. The key thing is that you’ll either have to have some degree of shooting or have units in melee pushed further up than this Daemon to make it work. Otherwise, you won’t move anywhere purposeful. You’ll definitely want a broad view of the battle and not get tunnel vision.
This turns your Witstealer Sword into a super mega Witstealer Sword. keeping the same basic profile and -1 to hit bonus for things that get smacked by it, you also get +2 free attacks with the weapon.
This Stratagem plays in with the Fear-Seeker rule we talked about earlier. All it takes is some decently-placed Fiends and you can subtract 2 from a unit’s leadership within 6″. That’s not bad at all, but remember for right now there’s still a 2Cp auto-pass morale Strat that’ll surely be used in some circumstances.
Nurgle Support
If you turn your GUO into an Exalted GUO, you’ll get more rules just like what we’ve talked about above.
Adding a little bit of surprise speed to Nurgle, you’ll be able to add +1″ to your charge roll and deal D3 mortal wounds on a 2+. That’s a day-and-night difference from dealing one mortal wound on a 4+.
Wow, this is strong. You get to know another Nurgle spell for free and if you roll a 7 on your casting value, it can’t be denied. That’s statistically average on 2D6 so you might find you roll that more than you might think.
To make the most use out of this Stratagem, you’ll want to send your Poxriders into the thick of it. For one CP, you can turn your losses into a mortal wound on a 2″ for every unit within 6″. It’s not the best Stratagem we’ve ever seen because you have to lose models in the process. However, if you’re in a Tau gun line you can do a decent amount of mortal wounds overall.
Tzeentch Support
Your Exalted Lords of Change will have access to a rule called Spell-Thief which straight-up locks an enemy Psyker out of casting it again if it’s denied. Imagine shutting down Warp Time from a Chaos Daemon Prince/Primarch list…
This artifact is a Chapter Masters or Chaplain’s worst nightmare. You roll off adding leadership and if you win, you’ll turn off that character’s aura abilities until your opponent’s next turn. The 12″range is nice but here’s to hoping there’s a way to increase that ability a bit!
Flames of Mutation is another cheap Strat you can pop on a Flamer unit and cause wounds of a 6 to do a mortal wound in addition to other damage. That’s not bad at all for as cheap as it is. Just note that it says “unmodified 6″ so you can’t make it any better.
Engine War is right around the corner and we’ve finally gotten a small teaser of what’s in store for every faction!
After seeing these bonus rules, which chaos god looks to be getting the better end of the deal? Do you think Daemons by themselves will ever be competitive?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, King of sprues.
