CODEX: Daemons
This is the Codex: Daemons. It contains all the information needed to design and run a Daemon army in Warhammer 40,000 (well, not just yet it doesn't, but I'm working on it!). The Daemon armies are born straight from hell, and are represented by the great Tempter himself. As an army, they are expensive but good, an "elitist" army, if you will. They have strong guns, good close-combat ability and good maneuverability, but not all 3 in each unit of course. I have tried to balance fairness within Warhammer with regards the other armies with the fact that they are other-worldly daemons spawned from the inferno of hell, and as such are pretty rockers. I hope I have succeeded, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Feel free to let me know your thoughts via the feedback section of the 'darium.
You can check out a rival/sister Codex at Deadnet's Codex: Undead.
| Opening the eyes of the blind | Daemons see not with eyes as we know them, but with a greater sensory force granted them by transcendant forces. As such, they do not suffer penalties of vision in night-fight scenarios or other vision-imparing circumstances such as smoke clouds. |
| Temper of Perdition's Flames | Daemons have been hardened by their environment in the Inferno. This is represented by all models having an invulnerable 6+ save in addition to their normal saves. Also, all Daemon units are immune to heat-based weaponry. |
Satanic Avatar
The Avatar is the incarnation of Satan himself. He is granted powers of the Devil and is controlled directly by his will. In this, he is Satan.
| 450pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Satanic Avatar | 10 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2+ |
Weapons:
Daemon Claws, Seven Crowns - see Special Rules
Wargear:
Wings, Seven Crowns - see Special Rules
Special Rules:
| Special Character | Satanic Avatar is a special character and as such can only be used in battles to which all players have consented to the use of special characters. In addition, Satanic Avatar can only be taken in armies of 2000pts or more, and if it does so it counts as an HQ choice for the army. The Avatar must be taken exactly as indicated and may not be given other equipment or weapons. |
| Monstrous Creature | The Avatar is gifted with all the strengths of the Devil, and as such it is immensely powerful. It receives 2D6 instead of the usual 1 for penetrating vehicles in combat. |
| Save | Due to its daemonic armour and satanic gifts, the Satanic Avatar is very hard to destroy. This is represented by the Avatar having an additional 4+ invulnerable save against any and all attacks that would damage it. This save may be taken in conjunction with its usual 2+ armour save and 6+ invulnerable save, giving the creature 3 saves against attacks that would damage it. |
| Summoned | The Avatar is summoned in exactly the same way that a chaos player would summon a greater daemon. |
| Fearless | Satanic Avatar is the embodiment of fear, and as such cannot ever be affected by psychology. It is assumed to automatically pass any tests required of itself which use its Leadership characteristic. It cannot become pinned and will never fall back. |
| Independent Character | The Satanic Avatar is an independent character and follows all the rules for independent characters set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rule book. |
| Severence | If the Avatar Dies whilst the Devil is inside it, Satan may also experience a great sensation of pain and death as he is suddenly thrust back to his fiery existence in the underworld (although, of course, the Devil cannot be killed, only his incarnate body, the Avatar, can be destroyed). Due to this, Satan withdraws his Avatar from battle just before death should the Avatar be on the brink. To represent this, If the Satanic Avatar is killed, he instead withdraws from battle, denying his enemy the kill. No victory points are gained from the destruction of the Model. |
| Unique | The Satanic Avatar is unique. There is only one. There can be therefore only a single Avatar in any battle. The first Avatar to arrive, though, is not necessarily the only one to do so. If, after the Avatar has arrived, another one is successfully summoned to battle, the previous host is lost, its body being torn apart by the immense power of the beast. |
| Seven Crowns | The Satanic Avatar wear a crown on each of its seven heads. They are forged in the pit, and grafted with immense powers which bestow Satan, and hence bestow his Avatar, with unique and wondrous gifts. One effect of the crowns is to grant the Avatar the ability to dissipate any psyker effects which target it or encompass it in their area of effect on a 5+ on 3D6. In addition, they allow Satan to channel his wrath through the avatar and straight into the enemy. This gives the Avatar a weapon with the following characteristics. |
| Range | Str | AP | Type | |
| Wrath of Satan | 36" | 10 | 2 | Assault 1, Blast |
Amancivore
The Amancivore is a creature that fled from the bottomless pit when the gatekeeper opened it. With the head of a lion, it spits fire and destruction across the ranks of its foes.
| 152pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Amancivore | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 4+ |
Weapons:
Fire issued out its mouth - See Special Rules
Wargear:
Flaming Breastplate (already included in stats)
Special Rules:
| Invulnerable | The Amancivore is extremely tough, forged as it was in the fires of Hell. This lends its 4+ save to invulnerability, and so it can always be taken, even against attacks which disallow armour saves. |
| Independent Character | Amancivore is an independent character and follows all rules for independent characters as set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. |
| Monstrous Creature | The Amancivore is an extremely powerful being that managed to escape the Inferno. As such, units in close combat with it receive no armour saves against its attacks, and it gets 2D6 for armour penetration against vehicles in combat, instead of the usual 1. |
| Horses with Lions' Heads | The legs of an Amancivore are the main horse section of the creature. The powerful muscles allow it 12" movement instead of the usual 6". |
| Special Character | Amancivore is a special character and can only be used in battles where all players have agreed to the use of special characters. In addition, it can only be used in armies of 1500pts or more, and if it does so it counts as an HQ choice. Amancivore must be used exactly as described and cannot be given additional weapons or equipment. |
| Fire issued out its mouth | The Amancivore has the ability to spew fire and brimstone from it's Lion-like mouth. This powerful spray gives the creature a weapon with the following profile. |
| Range | Str | AP | Type | |
| Fire Spray | Template | 8 | 3 | Assault 2 |
Beast of the Sea
The first of Satan's beasts, the Beast of the Sea is known primarily for its resilience, although its offensive side is far from weak.
| 112pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Beast of the Sea | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 2+ |
Weapons:
Water Blast, Daemon Blades
Wargear:
Flaming Breastplate (included in stats), Wings and The Devil looks after his own. In addition, Beast of the Sea can take up to 2 additional equipment from the wargear section of the Daemon armoury.
Special Rules:
| Independent Character | Beast of the Sea is an independent character and follows the rules for independent characters as set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. |
| Monstrous Creature | Beast of the Sea is a very large creature with great heft and bulk. This gives its attacks enough force to smash through even the toughest armour. As such, it disallows all armour saves that would be made against its attacks in combat, and it gets 2D6 armour penetration against vehicles in combat instead of the usual 1. Invulnerable saves may be taken as normal. |
Beast of the Earth
The second of Satan's beasts, the Beast of the Earth is known primarily for its ferocity, although its defences are never down.
| 112pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Beast of the Earth | 8 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 4+ |
Weapons:
Flame Grift, Daemon Blades
Wargear:
Wings and The Devil empowers his own. In addition, Beast of the Earth can take up to 2 additional equipment from the wargear section of the Daemon armoury.
Special Rules:
| Independent Character | Beast of the Earth is an independent character and follows all the rules for independent characters as set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. |
| Monstrous Creature | The Beast of the Earth is an immensely powerful creature which is strong enough to cut through the toughest armour as though it weren't there. As such, no armour saves are allowed against attacks it makes in close combat, although invulnerable saves may be taken as normal. In addition, it receives 2D6 armour penetration against vehicles in combat, rather than the usual 1. |
Great Daemon
Satan's direct understudies, the Great Daemons are very powerful daemons that have gained the Devil's favour and are thus empowered further.
| 50pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Great Daemon | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4+ |
| Daemon Lord (+20) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 4+ |
A Great Daemon may be upgraded to a Daemon Lord at +20pts
Weapons:
Daemon Blades, Hell Gun. A Model may upgrade his Daemon blade to a Daemon claw at +15pts or a Perdition fist at +15 pts and may upgrade his Hell Gun to a Flame Grift at +10pts or a Water Blast at +5pts. A Daemon Lord only may exchange his Hell Gun for a Wildfire Cannon at +45pts.
Wargear:
The Great Daemon may take up to 2 items from the wargear section of the Daemon Armoury. A Daemon Lord may take up to 3 items of wargear.
Special Rules:
| Independent Character | |
| Variation | The Daemons which ascend to such levels of power come from varied backgrounds and ascend due to different acts. As such, there are no features common to every one and they are greatly varied and mixed. To represent this, you may purchase additional stats for the Great Daemon and Daemon Lord at the following prices: Note: These require a great deal of tuning |
| Increase | +1S | +1T | +1WS | +1BS | +1I | +1A | +1W |
| Cost | +12 | +9 | +8 | +10 | +7 | +12 | +17 |
| Maximum | +4 | +2 | +2 | 5 | +4 | +4 | +3 |
Daemon Master
When a daemon performs an act of outstanding cruelty or daring, a feat which is so great as to impress Satan himself, he is often rewarded with promotion. In Hell, this does not mean just rank, but also the bestowing of new powers. Daemon masters are such daemons, daemons who are admired so by other, lesser daemons that they become like leaders to them. Although there is no real hierarchy amongst the daemons, the lower creatures tend to follow these powerful monsters and heed their every word.
| 75pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Daemon Master | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 5+ |
Weapons:
Daemon Blades (X2). A Daemon Master may exchange one of his Daemon Blades for one of the following: Hell Pistol no extra cost, Flame Grift +10pts, Daemon Claw +15pts, Hell gun at +25pts, Perdition fist +15pts or a Water Blast at +5pts. Either or both of the Blades may be exchanged in this way.
Wargear:
The Daemon Master may take one item from the Wargear section of the Daemon armoury.
Special Rules:
| Invulnerable | |
| Independent Character | The Daemon Master is an independent character and follows all of the rules for independent characters as set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. |
| Master of Daemons | All friendly Daemons (the troop choice) within 12" of the Daemon Master are treated as fearless. In addition, Daemons (again, the troop choice, not any Daemon model) within 12" get +1S and +1BS as long as they remain within 12". |
0-2 Poultergeist
A Poultergeist is the spirit of a long dead warrior that fell into the depths of Hell in the afterlife. Realising that these were truly great warriors in life, Satan sometimes allows the most powerful of these ghosts to fight with his minions, resurrected in a spectral form. - editor's note - The addition of poultergeists into the Daemon world is a very useful tool for me. It will give me access to famous old spirits such as Fantasy's Prince Tirian as a special poultergeist character. Look out for such units in the future.
| 70pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Poultergeist | 6 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 4+ |
| Great Spirit (+20) | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 4+ |
Weapons:
Daemon Blades, Hell Pistol. Either of these can be exchanged with one of the following weapons: Hell Pistol or Daemon Blade at no extra cost or a Water blast at +10pts. A Great Spirit only may upgrade any of these weapons to a Hell Gun at +15pts.
Wargear:
A Poultergeist may take one item of equipment from the Wargear section of the Daemon Armoury. A Great spirit may take up to 2 items of wargear.
Troop:
Up to 3 Poultergeists and/or Great Spirits may be taken as a single heavy support choice.
Special Rules:
| Individual | Poultergeists do not form units but roam the battlefield freely from each other. They are not confined to unit coherency rules as other units are. |
| Damnation | Poultergeists are not creatures of Hell, but are souls eternally tortured in its fires. As such, they do not receive the bonus from Temper of Perdition's Flames, but instead, being made more resceptive to the heat so as to increase their agony, they must pass a leadership test when wounded by a heat-based weapon, or become pinned. |
Tengu
Tengu are Imps that have become unusually large and powerful. They are just as fast, but they operate in smaller squads of far more powerful beasts.
| 50pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Tengu | 6 | 5 | 6 | - | 5 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4+ |
Weapons:
Daemon ClawsWargear:
WingsSquadron:
A squadron of Tengu is comprised of 3-6 models.Special Rules:
| Deep Strike | Tengu fly far ahead of the Daemon Army and descend in the ranks of its foes. A Tengu Squad may set up using the rules for Deep Strike as laid out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if the mission allows it. Otherwise, they must set up with the rest of the army. |
Daemons
Daemons are the underlings which ascend to Satan's armies due to their prowess on the battlefield. Satan maintains these beasts as the body of all his forces.
| 45pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Daemon | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5+ |
Weapons:
Daemon Blades and Hell Pistol.
Options:
A single model may exchange its Hell Pistol with a Flame Grift at +10 pts.
Wargear:
Wings
Pack:
A Daemon Pack consists of between 5 and 10 Daemons.
Minions
Minions are smaller, weaker daemons that Satan fields for the simple purpose of numeric intimidation; they are individually weak, but in such numbers, they are fearsome opponents.
| 6pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Minion | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6+ |
Weapons:
Hell Pistol. In addition, the entire pack may be given Daemon Blades at +4 pts per model.
Pack:
A Horde of Minions consists of 10-30 models.
Imps
Imps are the winged creatures that range ahead of the rest of the Daemon Hordes and assault the enemy lines quickly, creating chaos in their ranks, which leaves them defenseless to the incoming assault troops and open for the slaughter.
| 12pts | S | T | WS | BS | I | A | W | Ld | Sv |
| Imp | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6+ |
Weapons:
Daemon Blades
Wargear:
Wings
Squadron:
A squadron of Imps consists of between 10 and 20 models.
Special Rules:
| Deep Strike | Imps fly ahead of the main body of the army and descend from the skies on top of the enemy. They may set up using the deep strike rules as set out in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if the mission allows it. Otherwise they set up with the rest of the army. Note that not all models in the squad may fit under the blast marker, so you may use 2 blast markers next to each other (in contact) in order to place them. |
Please note that the following armoury is quite young and requires a lot of tuning. This is why some weapons (ie the Hell Cannon) are grossly over-powerful. They are useful as a guide to me as they remind me what type of weapon each is (ie rate of fire/range/strength etc.).
| Name | Cost |
| Hand to Hand
| |
| Daemon Blades | +2 points |
| Daemon Claws | +25 points |
| Perdition Fist | +7 points |
| Single Handed | |
| Hell Pistol | +2 points |
| Double Handed | |
| Flame Grift | +12 points |
| Water Blast | +12 points |
| Hell Cannon | +75 points |
| Hell Gun | +15 points |
| Wildfire Cannon | +25 points |
| Wargear | |
| Wings | +5 points |
| Flaming Breastplate | +12 points |
| The Devil Looks After His Own | +50 points |
| The Devil Empowers His Own | +50 points |
Weaponry
| Name | Range | Strength | AP | Type | Notes
|
| Hand-to-Hand: | |||||
| Daemon Blades | - | as user | - | Hand-to-Hand | User always strikes first in hand-to-hand combat. |
| Daemon Claws | - | as user | - | Hand-to-Hand | Disallow all saves, even invulnerable ones. |
| Perdition Fist | - | 8 | - | Hand-to-Hand | Disallow armour saves, and any model damaged by a Perdition Fist is automatically thrown out of combat 2 inches. The user always strikes last in combat, regardless of any other effects such as cover or Daemon Blades. |
| Guns: | |||||
| Flame Grift | 48" | 5 | 5 | Assault 1, 5" Blast | - |
| Water Blast | Template | 8 | - | Assault 1 | Any model hit by a Water Blast is pushed back to the end of the template. In the case of units such as Spore Mines which detonate when destroyed, the model is pushed back and then detonates. Also, the Water Blast may be fired at any point (even during combat or your opponent's turn!), although it may only be fired once per turn rotation (once you fire it, you may not fire again until your next turn). |
| Hell Cannon | 72" | 10 | 2 | Ordnance 4, 5" blast | Every time the Cannon is fired the user takes a single wound, no saves allowed, not even invulnerable ones. If the user is a vehicle it takes a glancing hit (this is one hit per volley, not 4 each time). If this destroys the user, that model blows up in a 5" blast causing a single strength 10 AP 2 wound. |
| Hell Gun | 36" | 6 | 3 | Heavy 1 | - |
| Hell Pistol | 12" | 4 | 6 | Pistol | - |
| Wildfire Cannon | 48" | 6 | 3 | Heavy 1, 5"Blast | If a unit is killed by a Wildfire Cannon, then that model explodes, causing a 5" explosion which has strength equal to the explosion that killed it -1 and AP equal to the explosion that killed it +1. If this explosion kills another unit then that unit explodes with a similar blast (Str-1, AP+1). Repeat this process until no units are killed by an explosion. |
Wargear
| Name | Effect
|
| Flaming Breastplate | The user is protected by a breastplate forged and tempered in the inferno. This serves to increase it's armour save by 1. Note that this cannot be used in conjunction with a 2+ or invulnerable save to increase their effects. |
| The Devil looks after his own | The user is granted an aura by Satan which protects him from the most almighty blows. This is represented by the model having an invulnerable 4+ save as well as any other saves which may be taken. |
| The Devil empowers his own | The user is grafted by the Lord of Darkness with a great daemonic force, which enhances its power many times over. As such, any model in hand-to-hand combat with the user is allowed no saves against attacks it makes, not even invulnerable ones. |
| Wings | Wings grant the hordes the ability to fly, and they are common amongst daemons. They grant the user a 12" movement across any terrain. The unit is treated exactly as though it were equipped with jumppacks. |