First off I have to say that the Elite section of this book is very
interesting… because every single unit would fit equally well in the
Fast Attack. Which is a bit odd, but I'll take it! It certainly helps
with speed when you're a assault heavy
army.
Bloodcrushers of Khorne
Bloodletter cavalry basically, but with a offensive boost as well. Each Bloodcrusher has 3A base at S5 plus Furious Charge. That's a lot of AP3 attacks that are likely to wound. Speaking of wounds, each model has 3W and T4. Which is certainly a lot more durable than many other things in this book, but they are lacking a decent save… but you can fix that with the Grimoire of True Names. So then of course you need a Herald to take the Grimoire, and a Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaut is a great addition to Bloodcrushers… especially as he can give the entire unit Rage (or Hatred, but I feel Rage would be better here) as well.
But if we go back to the unit itself and their options. They can take a Bloodhunter that can take rewards for 20 points. I'd take a Greater Reward for that, hoping for some armour so he can sit in front and take some small arms fire for the unit. If you get the armour save you might want to consider deploying the unit instead of Deep Striking it, as with T4 and 3W they're one of the more durable units in a mono-Khorne army… not that it says much though. Anyhow, they are pretty fast - but being such a dangerous unit if they reach combat they'll be a high priority target. So just because of that it's probably safer to Deep Strike them in and make sure the opponent doesn't get more than one turn of shooting against them.
They also have quite large bases, which means if you use a Icon you can create a quite long "chain" of safe Deep Striking off Icons with some clever placement of the Icons. Because like all assault units they do need support, and if you can call down stuff at the same time that can deal with an entire flank or so at once you should do so every time.
For this unit I would also consider the banner of blood… because they are Cavalry. Meaning they're Fleet. So you have a 6+1D6" charge with a re-roll… meaning you can pretty safely make a very long charge which can catch your opponent very much off guard.
As for unit size… they can be 3-9 strong, but they are expensive. I don't think I'd ever want to run with less than 6, but would prefer more if I have the points… I mean, they are quite fragile, but if even one Bloodcrusher reaches combat a unit of MEQ will suffer pretty badly. Ideally you want them for more than one charge though, costing what they do they need to do more to justify taking them…
Flamers of Tzeentch
Jump Infantry with flamers, with slightly better AP than normal flamers. I can not really think of many reasons to take these guys unless I know beforehand that I'll play Xenos or IG. Especially since they like pretty much all Tzeentch-units grants Feel no Pain if you pass a T-test. That one alone makes me wonder why I'd ever want to shoot these guys at Marines? Against T3 that gets no save, then yeah I'd risk it because they'll probably kill enough for it to be worth it.
Now, since the FAQ changing how wounds are allocated with "kill zones" it's probably not worth it to Deep Strike these guys close to the enemy to be able to flame on the turn they arrive… Them being Jump Infantry you're fast enough so that you can Deep Strike a bit more safe and then jump in instead.
You can take a Pyrocaster… but I have a hard time to motivate it. For some reason he has one better BS (very helpful when you're shooting a Template weapon!), so I guess you could take a Reward and hope for either Hellfire Gaze or Warp Breath… either is a one in six… and the rest of the Rewards doesn't look optimal on this unit to me at least.
Squad size three to nine… With the changes to wound allocation I mentioned above I doubt you'll ever have use for a full squad of nine. I reckon about six is probably pretty decent. Might even consider going for a minimal squad to just use as a disruption unit. It's just that they seem so terrible against Marine armies so it feels very hard to justify taking them…
Beast of Nurgle
This unit has some really odd special rules! They're allowed (actually, they MUST if possible) to charge in the opponents turn! Combine this with a special rule that makes the opponent always make a Disordered Charge against them and you're not likely to get charged by units that benefit the most from charging usually… (everything with Furious Charge or Rage for example). So their role is clear, counter-charge! They're there to protect units that are themselves not very good in combat… except for the fact that they're not that good at killing stuff themselves. S4 and AP- but with Poison (4+) is not very spectacular. Especially since you get D6+1A… But they will add wounds to the combat, being T5 and 4W as well as having It Will Not Die they'll definitely help surviving the combat.
Or for that matter to soak up some fire while moving across the board. They are one of the toughest units in the book so they seem made to start on the board, and then run up to protect your Deep Striking units with their counter-charging. Being Daemons of Nurgle they also have Shrouded - and being Beasts they'll gladly sit inside of Area Terrain anyway - they're still super fast.
You could however Deep Strike them in… and that way create some kind of Tarpit-trap. If you present a very tasty target for your opponents strongest Assault unit… and then you Deep Strike the Beast of Nurgle in close by, you might end up in a combat where those assault specialists will get nowhere for a while.
Now, their problem though is that they're really expensive. At 52 points each and one to nine in a unit… How much are you willing to spend on a unit that isn't that likely to kill much? They're helpful for sure, but…
Fiends of Slaanesh
More Beasts! So, they're basically tougher and stronger Daemonettes but with worse WS for more than three times as many points. Granted, they have 3W as well, but they don't have three times as many attacks.
They do have some nice supporting abilities however. Most important is probably that if they successfully charges a unit they'll get -5I. So if you use a small unit in combination with something killy you'll probably crush most units in the game before they can even strike back. Pretty nifty. The other ability is anti-psyker, which is a bit unexpected. Psykers within 12" suffer a -1Ld for Psychic tests… not super great, but it can certainly help. Also, the wording is a bit unclear on this thing… "within a fiend"… but no mention of wether it's cumulative or not - so if a unit of 9 are all within 12" does the Psyker suffer -9? Or if it's per unit, can you cause -3 with three units? Hopefully they'll FAQ that soon though.
Anyhow, I wouldn't take large units of these. A small unit of perhaps 5 at most to support another assault element. But that's quite expensive, so taking the minimum unit might be more effective. Them being Beasts they can probably do well to start on the board instead of Deep Striking as well… with Daemon of Slaanesh they run extremely fast so no chance of them being left behind!
Bloodcrushers of Khorne
Bloodletter cavalry basically, but with a offensive boost as well. Each Bloodcrusher has 3A base at S5 plus Furious Charge. That's a lot of AP3 attacks that are likely to wound. Speaking of wounds, each model has 3W and T4. Which is certainly a lot more durable than many other things in this book, but they are lacking a decent save… but you can fix that with the Grimoire of True Names. So then of course you need a Herald to take the Grimoire, and a Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaut is a great addition to Bloodcrushers… especially as he can give the entire unit Rage (or Hatred, but I feel Rage would be better here) as well.
But if we go back to the unit itself and their options. They can take a Bloodhunter that can take rewards for 20 points. I'd take a Greater Reward for that, hoping for some armour so he can sit in front and take some small arms fire for the unit. If you get the armour save you might want to consider deploying the unit instead of Deep Striking it, as with T4 and 3W they're one of the more durable units in a mono-Khorne army… not that it says much though. Anyhow, they are pretty fast - but being such a dangerous unit if they reach combat they'll be a high priority target. So just because of that it's probably safer to Deep Strike them in and make sure the opponent doesn't get more than one turn of shooting against them.
They also have quite large bases, which means if you use a Icon you can create a quite long "chain" of safe Deep Striking off Icons with some clever placement of the Icons. Because like all assault units they do need support, and if you can call down stuff at the same time that can deal with an entire flank or so at once you should do so every time.
For this unit I would also consider the banner of blood… because they are Cavalry. Meaning they're Fleet. So you have a 6+1D6" charge with a re-roll… meaning you can pretty safely make a very long charge which can catch your opponent very much off guard.
As for unit size… they can be 3-9 strong, but they are expensive. I don't think I'd ever want to run with less than 6, but would prefer more if I have the points… I mean, they are quite fragile, but if even one Bloodcrusher reaches combat a unit of MEQ will suffer pretty badly. Ideally you want them for more than one charge though, costing what they do they need to do more to justify taking them…
Flamers of Tzeentch
Jump Infantry with flamers, with slightly better AP than normal flamers. I can not really think of many reasons to take these guys unless I know beforehand that I'll play Xenos or IG. Especially since they like pretty much all Tzeentch-units grants Feel no Pain if you pass a T-test. That one alone makes me wonder why I'd ever want to shoot these guys at Marines? Against T3 that gets no save, then yeah I'd risk it because they'll probably kill enough for it to be worth it.
Now, since the FAQ changing how wounds are allocated with "kill zones" it's probably not worth it to Deep Strike these guys close to the enemy to be able to flame on the turn they arrive… Them being Jump Infantry you're fast enough so that you can Deep Strike a bit more safe and then jump in instead.
You can take a Pyrocaster… but I have a hard time to motivate it. For some reason he has one better BS (very helpful when you're shooting a Template weapon!), so I guess you could take a Reward and hope for either Hellfire Gaze or Warp Breath… either is a one in six… and the rest of the Rewards doesn't look optimal on this unit to me at least.
Squad size three to nine… With the changes to wound allocation I mentioned above I doubt you'll ever have use for a full squad of nine. I reckon about six is probably pretty decent. Might even consider going for a minimal squad to just use as a disruption unit. It's just that they seem so terrible against Marine armies so it feels very hard to justify taking them…
Beast of Nurgle
This unit has some really odd special rules! They're allowed (actually, they MUST if possible) to charge in the opponents turn! Combine this with a special rule that makes the opponent always make a Disordered Charge against them and you're not likely to get charged by units that benefit the most from charging usually… (everything with Furious Charge or Rage for example). So their role is clear, counter-charge! They're there to protect units that are themselves not very good in combat… except for the fact that they're not that good at killing stuff themselves. S4 and AP- but with Poison (4+) is not very spectacular. Especially since you get D6+1A… But they will add wounds to the combat, being T5 and 4W as well as having It Will Not Die they'll definitely help surviving the combat.
Or for that matter to soak up some fire while moving across the board. They are one of the toughest units in the book so they seem made to start on the board, and then run up to protect your Deep Striking units with their counter-charging. Being Daemons of Nurgle they also have Shrouded - and being Beasts they'll gladly sit inside of Area Terrain anyway - they're still super fast.
You could however Deep Strike them in… and that way create some kind of Tarpit-trap. If you present a very tasty target for your opponents strongest Assault unit… and then you Deep Strike the Beast of Nurgle in close by, you might end up in a combat where those assault specialists will get nowhere for a while.
Now, their problem though is that they're really expensive. At 52 points each and one to nine in a unit… How much are you willing to spend on a unit that isn't that likely to kill much? They're helpful for sure, but…
Fiends of Slaanesh
More Beasts! So, they're basically tougher and stronger Daemonettes but with worse WS for more than three times as many points. Granted, they have 3W as well, but they don't have three times as many attacks.
They do have some nice supporting abilities however. Most important is probably that if they successfully charges a unit they'll get -5I. So if you use a small unit in combination with something killy you'll probably crush most units in the game before they can even strike back. Pretty nifty. The other ability is anti-psyker, which is a bit unexpected. Psykers within 12" suffer a -1Ld for Psychic tests… not super great, but it can certainly help. Also, the wording is a bit unclear on this thing… "within a fiend"… but no mention of wether it's cumulative or not - so if a unit of 9 are all within 12" does the Psyker suffer -9? Or if it's per unit, can you cause -3 with three units? Hopefully they'll FAQ that soon though.
Anyhow, I wouldn't take large units of these. A small unit of perhaps 5 at most to support another assault element. But that's quite expensive, so taking the minimum unit might be more effective. Them being Beasts they can probably do well to start on the board instead of Deep Striking as well… with Daemon of Slaanesh they run extremely fast so no chance of them being left behind!
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