Greetings fellow Social Justice Warriors! We take a break from not writing blog posts to bring you this important message about something I’m interested in talking about, like why the hell is that How To Play the Flying Circus article still at the top of the popular posts list on the left hand side when it's supposed to cycle out after a month? Every other post cycles out so why not that one? And how come the post where I leaked the psychic power cards and got like 38,000 hits isn't still up there? It's boojey! Somebody should do something...
Well, that wasn't what this was going to be about, but I am prone to bouts of rambling off topic in pursuit of setting up silly jokes about Diane Keaton films, which is all part of the reason this is the best 40k blog on the net according to some. Nay, instead this post is about summoning. It’s the current Daemon gimmick. Daemons have always had a gimmick since Fatecrusher. Unlike previous gimmicks like flying circus, which you could run for a couple hundred bucks in used models, this new gimmick is going to run you a fair amount in coin of the realm. Fatecrusher was really expensive too. Can't wait til those clowns are good again because I couldn't move but three or four of the twenty-four I had. We’ve had newer players here talking about starting off Daemons and building summoning into it. What the uninitiated may not realize is just how many models that requires.
Starting with a basis of two new units per turn, you figure you would start with either one unit of 11 or 16 Horrors on the board, and either a second unit of Horrors or possibly Daemonettes, depending on what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to move the Horrors 6” forward, drop Daemonettes on the board 12” down range, then run, you’ll probably want two Horrors on the board. If you wanted a big blob of ‘Nettes, you might reserve those or deploy them. Nurglings are also a possibility as the second mandatory troop pick based on sheer cheapness, but I don’t bother with them because they are dead weight.
This discussion will not deal with Bloodletters, nor Plaguebearers, because they are simply not as useful as Daemonettes or Horrors. Certainly, summoning ten Bloodletters isn’t a bad thing to do, but I’m going to use the word Daemonettes in all cases, because they are better against a wider variety of targets.
Also, you can’t count on getting Incursion, so I won’t factor in Bloodcrushers, Screamers, Fiends or Plague Drones into this discussion either. You can run a summoning list quite happily without any of them, but if you get incursion, dropping Screamers for a late linebreaker or contested objective is fun and annoying for your opponent.
It starts with having Horrors. Horrors aren’t what you want to summon, that would be Daemonettes, but sometimes, they are what you ought to summon. Occasionally, you might summon Horrors to bump up your warp charge. Certainly, one unit of 11 or 16 Horrors is enough to get another unit of Horrors on your first psychic phase even if they are the only psykers on the board. I have called down units in 6 of 7 turns in a game starting with 11 Horrors. I called down more Horrors and I was off to the races, tossing all my dice at Summoning. For this reason, you should always have at least one unit of Horrors, preferably two.
If I want to start with 22 Horrors on the board, and they come in boxes of ten, I guess I’d might as well own 30. I doubt anyone would need more than that. The only models I've purchased since 7th was a box of Horrors the week before BAO, because I was pretty sure 20 wasn't going to cut it. I think I was right.
Awright, so most of the time, you will want to drop Daemonettes as they are the most all-round useful thing to be summoned, and can run to safety after they drop. They also die fast, so you’ll probably get to recycle them. I have 40 Daemonettes, and in a two-units-per-turn summoning list, I have run out of them on more than one occasion. Not often, mind you, maybe two or three times. When this happens, I start dropping Hounds because that is what I own, and it’s the next most useful thing for me to be summoning.
It has been my experience that 40 Daemonettes is sufficient for a 2 unit summon list. 50 would probably be the realistic cap. If you only have 30, you probably don’t have enough bodies to make this gimmick worth your while. You’ll probably want to have 20 Flesh Hounds in your collection eventually as well, simply because they are often very good, and they are a decent backup unit to be summoned. Certainly, ten on the board free first turn is pretty good, if not as much bang for your buck as Daemonettes.
It’s pretty tough to pull off three units per turn. It can be done, but it’s hard to do it without sacrificing offense. You can make a very strong list that gets two units per turn. Three units per turn requires playing Eldar/Daemons, or sacrificing punch. It isn’t something I’ve ever pulled off to be honest. With my 30 Horrors and 40 ‘nettes, I’d start 22 Horrors on the board, drop 8 Horrors and 20 ‘Nettes or 15 Flesh Hounds first turn, probably give up first blood since I’d be hurling the ‘nettes (or Hounds) straight at the other guy’s lines with justifiably reckless abandon. Second turn, I’d summon 30 ‘nettes, be in assault, and probably be onto Flesh Hounds. The game might be decided by then, but I can always recycle casualties.
Finally, besides just having the models to summon, you need an actual army. You probably have Fateweaver. If you're going the classic Screamerstar route, that's four disc Tzeralds and at least 9 Screamers, possibly as many as 18. You could also go Nurgle circus, which is perhaps more efficient, and would require a GUO and two Princes.
There are other creative ways to get two units per turn without either of those options, see my BAO list, but whatever you end up picking needs to be able to handle Knights and Wave Serpents.
In the end, we're probably looking at 40 Daemonettes, 30 Horrors, 9 Screamers, and 3 disc Tzeralds as an absolute bare minimum. You'll probably want 20 Hounds and 9 more Screamers. That's a healthy set of models right there. Takes awhile to build it up.
Disclaimer: This post is not about telling you what you ought to buy. It's about telling you what you'll probably NEED to buy if running a Daemon factory is your goal. I don't tell nobody to go buy nuttin'.
A one unit per turn option is also viable with 20 Horrors and 20 Daemonettes. Or you can forgo the whole mess and just rush them with a man's army that has no psychic powers whatsoever, or if you're a pansy like me and scared to lose stuff, toss in Be'lakor and 'sploit invisibility and shrouding. I've been known to do all of the above.