“You’re filthy cute and baby you know it.”

Prince and the New Power Generation – Cream

For followers of legitimate Chaos Gods, the best news in the recent Slaves to Darkness battletome was the return of the Chaos Daemon Prince. In 4th Ed he has become the Godmarked Ascendant Regiment of Renown available only to the true Gods, meaning Skaven miss out. For 270pts you get the STD Daemon Prince with the faction keyword of your choice, and a buff to give him a bit of a glow up.

Even if the Prince himself isn’t exactly a world beater, the ROR represents a tip of the cap to the old Chaos Soup approach that typified the Alliance.¹ It’s not the Archaon option we all wanted but at least it’s something for people stuck with unusable models. In today’s article we will be taking a look at the Daemon Prince warscroll and coming up with a few options for every playable faction. It will shut Editor Pete up for a while and lets face it, if your Chaos God ain’t Tzeentch, you could probably use a few more options.

But first…

Does the Daemon Prince get Heroic Traits and Artefacts?

I say yes. Take a look at the rules for Regiments of Renown:

Point 2 is pretty clear: No enhancements unless you have the faction keyword.

Now, as we see in the rules for the Godmarked Ascendant Regiment of Renown:

…He specifically gets that faction keyword, making him eligible for enhancements. And finally, we can double-check that heroic traits and artefacts are indeed enhancements:

There we have it, QED motherfuckers.

The problem is that the list builder in the App does not currently give you the option to include enhancements for your Daemon Prince. This is bound to lead to a certain amount of confusion amongst small-minded Tournament Organizers,² people who struggle with reading comprehension³ and the sort of mean-spirited haters who can’t stand seeing anyone else have anything nice.⁴ I daresay there will be an FAQ at some point and it is entirely possible GW will go against their own rules and shaft the Daemon Prince.

Whatever. Right now the RAW is crystal clear on this one. An adverse ruling won’t make me wrong, it will make them an even bigger parade of assholes, so I’m continuing with the assumption that the traits and artefacts are in.

The Warscroll

First up, the Daemon Prince has two options for its load out:

Hmm, extra movement and Fly or a point of rend against heroes? Moving right along.

His stat line is unchanged in the new book and it is still … interesting. Resilience-wise 10 wounds on a 3+ 6++ makes for a tough nut to crack. He won’t stand up to to a reinforced murder blob but he will definitely take some killing. That 3+ save puts him into the all-important “Can get lucky with All Out Defence against low volume, high damage attacks” space that Stormcast thrive in. A control score of 5 is good for someone who isn’t lumbered with a useless MONSTER keyword and he benefits from the Guarded Hero rule for early game survivability.

His output is, once again, interesting:

Meaner than a support hero, weaker than a Monster.⁵ He can pretty reliably flatten a support hero or a flanking unit but going against a reinforced combat unit unsupported will probably be the end of him. Crit Mortal 3 gives him another chance to get lucky and spike a bunch of damage.

His signature ability is a doozy:

A lot of Strike Firsts are charge activated but this bad boy works in any combat phase. The 4+ is too flaky to rely on and you will end up treating this as a bonus free hit in most factions. That said, it is way too useful for your opponent to ignore completely when he attacks you. Nobody wants some Daemonic freak getting lucky and murdering a few Karenguard before they have had a chance to pile in. The real value here might be messing with your opponent’s planning.

The design on this warscroll positions the Prince as a perfect mid-point between a support hero and a Monster. He is sort of quick, sort of tough and sort of killy. He might survive a big hit, flatten an important support unit or fight first and spike some damage in an important combat. It’s a unit for people looking to gamble and/or express a bit of skill.

The big issue is the price tag. 270pts is a lot for a sort of/might unit and he faces stiff competition for a slot in his factions. The Daemon Prince definitely has a place in Not Playing for Sheep Stations lists. How useful he will be in truly competitive lists will depend on what we can squeeze out of his faction abilities.

Tzeentch

The best performing of the True Gods has some really solid options for the Daemon Prince, which it is least in need of. Besides being a Wizard⁶ in Tzeentch he gets access to Destiny Dice. Cheat Dice are an excellent mechanism for melee heroes to make crucial saves or charges; our hero can also use them to churn out Damage 3 crit mortals. Just noodling along and handing out up to 18 mortals is kind of nutty. Worried you don’t have enough sixes? Worries are for suckers who have to play by the game’s rules.⁷

If you are looking to inflict more lasting damage you can spread the love around with a Wyrdflame Blade, allowing you to light up as many units as you can reach with auto-hit mortals:

The Prince is also a fine candidate for the Illusionist heroic trait. He doesn’t have a big bird base but he is mobile enough to keep any one of Tzeentch’s numerous deadly 6-man units nice and safe:

Oh and throw in the odd Shield of Fate just to sap the will of anyone who thinks they are ever going to get an even chance to hurt the guy:

I have no doubt there are a lot more tricks to be played here by someone who really knows the faction in depth. It’s no surprise that the strongest faction produces the best incarnation of the unit, but is it worth the 270 points to have a flying Chad of burning murder? I’d say yes, but Tzeentch has always been the Order faction of the Chaos Gods, and the followers of the fickle Lord of Change can always be relied upon to pursue the safest, most risk-averse option. If a Tzeentch Daemon Prince list wins a major event somewhere you will see him creeping into netlists

Khorne

Our hero brings quite a bit to Mighty Khorne. First up he gets an extra attack which is eh, a missed opportunity to give him 8 attacks to my mind. His ten inches of flying movement is much more important, making him the fastest thing in the army that isn’t a Bloodthirster. This gives you extra projection for the fabled Murderlust pin, 10″ + 6″ run + 3″ ML gives you a just inside 22″ pin range, all on a much smaller base than a Thirster. A ridiculous threat range for locking down crap like Longstrikes or Ratling Guns, and great for carving up support heroes in hard to reach places. That’s about it for Daemon buffs outside of a 3d6 charge from a Whipthirster or a 5++ ward after fighting in the Murder Host.

Daemons suck anyway, at least according to the Index Review I wrote and the massed Skullreaper build I advocated in there rocks like a hurricane. The Prince really shines in Khornate Legion:

It’s a decent subfaction hampered by the shortage of good Daemon units. The only unit fast or hard -hitting enough to make a meaningful contribution is a Bloodthirster and they cost a fortune, struggle to return their points and change your whole playstyle.⁸ The Prince benefits from Guarded Hero and can bide his time to wheel into action with a coordinated push from big, choppy mortal units. With a 50% chance of striking first you can threaten your opponent with two unanswered 10x Skullreaper activations, which should be enough to win a battle.

He is great on the defensive as well. Your opponent won’t want to risk bring him into combat with a 50% chance of making one of your better units fight first, but with Counter Charge and Redeploy/Murderlust on the table you have good odds of putting him where they don’t want him. It is a gamble getting it to work but so what, if you don’t want to take risks you should be running Tzeentch.

As for Heroic Traits and Artefacts there isn’t much going on. Favored of Khorne and starting with a Blood Tithe is the auto-include trait. It’s a choice between the Collar of Contempt (which is your only unbind if you aren’t rocking a Slaughter Priest) and Ar’gath:

It’s a hard call. You need an unbind, but switching off wards on a hero is so damn useful if you can spike a few mortals with all the Karazai’s about.⁹ I guess if you are looking for a more aggressive role pummeling support heroes, take Ar’gath.

270pts is a lot but the latest patch has given a few more points drops to Khorne and I would expect to see forward thinkers find a place for the Daemon Prince. Not just for the potential activation douchery but the variance in movement speed which is just so useful for Blood Tithe shenanigans.

Nurgle

File footage of my Nurgle Daemon Prince because, why not?

I wrote a considerably less enthusiastic review of the Nurgle Index. Papa’s stocks have definitely risen since then with the latest patch making Blightking spam much more feasible, but things are still not looking great. The Prince’s best contribution to all things Nurgle is his comparatively blistering speed and mobility. He gets a 5++ ward and can be made pretty tanky with Fleshy Abundance. Weirdly enough he meets the criteria for the Affliction Cyst:

With the recent changes to coherency for Flies you can deploy him forward to back up a reinforced screening unit of Plague Drones or drop him somewhere close as a harassing unit. I’ve done the same trick with a Lord of Afflictions with some success. He also gets Sloppity buffs which can be very useful for a crucial -1 to hit or shutting off wards to deliver his output.

Artefact wise the only real choices are Grandfather’s Blessing and a Witherstave, and he is a fine vessel for both. Grandfather’s Blessing is, well, a blessing for tough heroes and there is something awesome about a guy who has a 4 up fights first and fights last.

The big issue with the Nurgle Prince is his price point. Papa has some very solid Maggoth Lord shaped options at around the 270pt mark. They aren’t what they used to be but they are still ok. As a mobile artefact carrier he competes with the cheaper Lord of Afflictions who is roughly similar in terms of resilience and output. I think his natural home will be in Daemon heavy armies where he has the option to catch a Sloppity buff or two.

Slaanesh

The man of the hour struggles to find a home in Slaanesh. The principal Euphoric allegiance ability doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot for somebody who already has Crit Mortal. The plus 1 to run and charge isn’t really setting the world on fire either. The speed that makes him so useful in Khorne and Nurgle does nothing in Slaanesh. I guess it’s down to resilience. Without doing an exhaustive search, Sigvald is the only other hero with a 3+ save but the Gelid Prince is 10pts cheaper and his hair is amazing.

The obligatory GIF for any mention of Sigvald

As far as Battle Formations go Slaanesh don’t have any that do much for Daemon Heroes which is a little odd. Their artefacts and heroic traits don’t seem to be particularly useful either. This is a shame because about the only role I can think of for a Slaanesh Prince is a tough non-unique hero to carry an enhancement. The 250ish point hero slot is crowded in Slaanesh, particularly with recent drops to the Butterfly Twins and I can’t really see a good reason to take this guy. That said I’ve never really understood how Slaanesh armies work aside from shooting with 80 Blissbarbs and if people who know the faction can find a use for him, then good luck to them.

In Conclusion

So there it is, a reasonably thorough examination of an old favorite. The Daemon Prince definitely has a role in competitive Tzeentch and Khorne lists and he will always find a home amongst people who don’t tether their sense of self-worth to their AOS win-loss ratio.¹⁰ Not only is the model pretty sweet he also represents a hobbyists dream for conversions and kit bashes. It’s also good to see a bit of Chaos Soup back on the menu.

The Daemon Prince is one of those units that will always be worth reexamining when the meta shifts. For instance the biggest weakness of the Prince was that he increased your drops above the competitive standard of 2, but between starting and finishing this article the December patch landed. Early signs indicate that some people will be maximizing their drops in the hopes of securing a second Honour Guard ability so an extra drop might even be a good thing. The ability to hop the enemy lines and gank a Field Sergeant could prove useful as well.

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1. Other alliances have traditionally griped about Chaos Soup, I say take it up with Kragnos, Callis and Toll or Nagash. ↩︎
2. Me. ↩︎
3. Me again. ↩︎
4. Also me. ↩︎
5. Monsters people actually use that is. ↩︎
6. Harry! ↩︎
7. Yes I am bitter. Thanks for asking. ↩︎
8. Run a Thirster and you have to save 8 Blood Tithe; don’t and you can spend at will and almost never run short. ↩︎
9. Perfectly costed Karazai’s as well, according to the latest points update. ↩︎
10. Clearly not me. ↩︎

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