I picked up the new Chaos Daemons Spearhead box a bit ago. Sifting through the figs has left me all giddy. Beasts of Nurgle, the New Soul Grinder, Bloodcrushers, Daemonettes, Bloodletters, it's all awesome.
The Codex:
Reading through the codex and planning out possible strategies was much more difficult than usual, due to the setup for how daemons work.
First of all, the entire army Deep Strikes. In a way, that's awesome because your opponent has to fully deploy their units before you do. It will leave them in a tricky situation. Do they deploy spread out and risk your entire force concentrating on one area at a time? Do they clump together in a corner and risk the multitude of templates that daemons can lay down? The drawback to this ability is that only half of your army will come in on the first turn, so you have to split your army in two ... and even then you have to roll to see if the half you want comes in first ... or if the ruinous powers disagree with you and have the other half come in. After the initial wave, the other half undergoes normal rules for reserves.
There are plenty of cool units, options and upgrades to choose from. My collector's nature works against me here, as a preliminary tally of what I ideally would like to have to maximize on army building possibilities puts me at near 6,000 points worth of stuff. Meh, it'll be a fun ride.
Greater Daemons. They're great, and have a good variety to choose from. Also, you have 3 special character Greater Daemons (sorry, no Slaaneshi) to choose from. Frankly, though, I find them a bit lacking in that I can build a very similar "Do It Yourself" greater daemon for much less points.
Heralds. Ok, unlike with the above, I cannot make a herald anywhere near as cool as the 4 special character heralds they supply you with. Can not. Lets start with Skulltaker. I can build up everything nearly to the same effect, except that his WS is higher ... and he has the ability "Skulls for the Skull Throne!" which is unavailable to a DIY herald. This ability changes his Rending to 4+ instead of only on 6's. Also, one wound from a rend result kills the model regardless of Toughness. He has decapitated them. That's ridiculous and cool. Next up, The Masque. She has the ability "Eternal Dance" which allows her to use her Pavane of Slaanesh ability 3 times. She alone will allow me to move a good chunk of my opponent's army as I will. Epidemius. This bloke is way awesome with his "Tally of Nurgle" ability, which gives escalating benefits to anyone bearing the mark of Nurgle depending on how many kills they got. benefits include EVERYONE getting Feel No Pain, weapons being Poisoned, Poisoned weapons wounding on 2+, all weapons counting as power weapons. Yeesh. Lastly, but certainly not least, is The Blue Scribes, the herald for Tzeentch. I can build a similar herald, but two things I cannot do. First, there is a chance that the herald will be able to cast the same spell twice in one turn. Can be way beneficial. Secondly, they have access to nearly every spell in the codex (even Slaaneshi and Nurglesque ones), allowing you to always have the most appropriate spell for the situation.
Soul Grinders. They're vehicles. Other than that, they're pretty damn awesome. I still wish they were Monstrous Creatures, but oh well.
Daemon Princes. These are likely the most customizable units in the codex. I'm quite pleased that they decided to put them as Heavy Support, because compared to the Greater Daemons, they're more of a supporting role. Back in the Chaos Space Marines Codex, they were your big baddie that flew around and terrified your opponent. Now, it's the Greater Daemons that do that. These guys can't really do anything that a Greater Daemon can't, and even then can't do it better. So, rather it makes sense to equip them to compliment what you already gave your Greater Daemon(s) to make a more terrifying combination of things. An example of this is the ability Pavane of Slaanesh. It's technically a shooting ability, meaning it will deny your Daemon the Fleet ability in favor of moving your opponent d6". If your intent is to assault them, the end result is the same; either you fleet d6" or you Pavane your target d6". Unless ... you have a nearby Daemon Prince with Pavane. Then you could have the Prince Pavane the target d6" and your intercepting Greater Daemon can Fleet. Or Pavane the target closer to your Bloodthirster. Anything near that is dead anyways.
Sorry I don't have any pictures for you all, I haven't assembled the box yet. I have a ton of Eldar, a ton of Chaos Marines, and a ton of Tau assembled and ready to paint. They called "dibs" too, so it's a bit out of my hands.
