Chaos Space Marines Codex Review: Summoned Daemons

There is a slight chance you didn't even know the Chaos codex has Daemons, but it has. Let's get on with this right away.

Summoned Greater Deamon

VT2: They cost almost nothing, but don't let the price tag fool you. It's one of the book's biggest traps.

100 points, you say? Well, it is much better than the other things available, so why isn't it used more?

Oh, let's see.

No 3+ armor save, need to pay the huge-ass points for a champion to possess (easily +30 points on top of the greater demon), wait until at the very earliest turn 2 to have a 50% chance of bringing it into play, and when it gets in, initiative 4 and no grenades make it bad at combating things. 4++? Shove it. My marines get a 4+ from cover.

4+ means nothing if you're expensive.

Lash prince costs 155. Greater demon is 100, plus however many points you blew on your champion(s). Better take multiple champs, 'cause if they're all dead when the demon rolls in from reserve, IT DIES AUTOMATICALLY.

Yes, it can potentially rip and tear some asses.

No, it's not worth it. If it didn't have all those retarded restrictions, you'd see people use it. Cheap and cheery, but crippled beyond rescue by Gav.

Zjoekov: Ye, not too hot on the GD either. It's oké at best, as it's not bad in combat at all actually. I just wish you could take more than 1... but anyways, not much to add. If you want them: Add some naked champions in your army, done.

Summoned Lesser Daemons

VT2: Question: what do you get if you take a 3rd edition chaos marine, and remove all his equipments, powers, and bonuses?
A: you get a lesser demon.

Think about it.
It's got the same basic stats (4's everywhere), high leadership, and the 2 attacks come from it having 'two combat weapons that are included in the profile.' 13 points for this, 15 points for that.
Only there's no power armor to protect you, no boltpistol to shot with before you charge, no grenades to make cover useless, no kraks to kinda-sorta hurt armor. No bolter, either. Not even a magical warpbolter. In fact, they've got no special rules that are special.

Gav, I'm disappointed.
Very disappointed.

Deamons with no special rules? Well, they can take marks, surely? No.
Zero options. Two combat weapons. That's all you're getting.

They have some uhh, 'sorta' useful abilties, however.
Obviously, they're always in reserve. When they become available, you can place them anywhere within 6 inches from icons. They don't scatter, but you can declare assaults with them, should you so desire.
Let's touch upon some bad things now.

Icons are shit. Icons cost a lot, and are easily sniped. When playing chaos, you want as many dudes as possible, with as little bling as possible. If you're doing a cult army (thousand sons, world eaters, etc), you won't have any flags.
When you're playing horded power armor, you really don't want either flags, or champions, because those suck away precious points.
Meched up? That usually means playing the sacred 2 DP, 3 TERM. 4 PM, 3 Oblitz, so no dice. Putting icons or flags in there means cutting something - which only ever leads to declined performance.
Mish-mash chaos, made from battleforces, old models, and hand-me-downs? Hahaha! Oh, you so funny. No, armies like those use the yiff marine codex - not the gimp marine one.

So you don't want icons. Not hard to grasp why, but now we've established that again.
The thing is, lesser demons can only appear within 6 of icons, and if you have none on the table when they become available, the demon unit's automatically destroyed.

Pay that 'expensive premium' 1 extra point. It gets you power armor, guns, no fearlessness, grenades, ability to take more special weapons, plus a cooler, cheaper model.

Zjoekov: I hate Lesser Deamons, I dislike them completely. They are dependant on too many factors to make them 'work'. Even when they 'work', they aren't always good: No frags, fearless and only a 5++ save. Result: You die, don't win combat an die more.

Too expensive for what they do, should have been 11 points each at most.

Now quite some people do use them, most of the time when I play against a Chaos player at least 1 squad of these 'things' is present in the army. Usually they take them as an objective camper. I dislike them as an objective camper also. You know why? Because they still need to come within range of an Icon you silly. What are you going to do? Leaving another unit there for 4 turns sometimes till it comes? Now you got 2 objective campers... In any case, no, I dislike them for any role as they are too unreliable for what you get in the end.

Conclusion:

Did you notice that both units haven't got a single option? Actually, instead of giving options it takes options away: You now have to buy Icons and/or Champs heh. Omgz I love this book so much <3 Both units aren't really suited for competitive play, honestly. Well the whole Chaos codex isn't really suited for that... but that's another thing.