8th Ed. Need some advice for dealing with our favourite daemons...

Any ideas on how to deal with a Khornate list? My mate's list consists of a Bloodthirster (equiped for a 2+ ward against magic), a few blocks of Bloodletters, some Bloodcrushers with Skulltaker and a few Tzeentch WIzards.

I've had success with a Slaan and Life Lore, the Thorny Chair and Flesh to Stone makes a Bloodletter hurt Saurus on 6s =) The problem is that I can't whittle the Daemons down fast enough to bring my units together, and then the Bloodletter rips the Slaan a new one.

I've been thinking a Skink build, as they're only Toughness 3, but I dunno whether to fork out for a Slaan and TG, an Oldblood on Carni, or just skink heroes (Frenzied Skinks are fun!). Any advice?

 

Several units of 10 skink skirmishers can really ruin an opponents plan and at only 70pts they're well worth it. It's worth noting that once you get close to the enemy you are generally fast enough to stay out of their charge arcs and double tap at short range. Remember it's reform or charge.

 

I'm not sure how much this would've changed with 8th, but I've had success vs a similar Daemon player with Skinks. If you're buffing with a Slann with Lore of Life, a Skink horde should stand a chance of either taking a charge with Stand and Shoot or getting in to close combat and rolling for poison attacks.

 

Fast units that hit like bricks - CoC. These guys are fast enough to easily flank the units of bloodletters and slam into their sides. Since bloodletters have great weapons they strike last so you'll have the advantage.

Skink skirmishers will mess up his plans completely. Go cheep with a unit of ten and shoot the poop out of his bloodthirster. Your poisoned double shots will add up VERY quickly. Take four or five units.

Skink cohorts. Yeah I wasn't impressed by them in 7th edition but in 8th I've taken a unit of 30 and given them three kroxigors and had a hay day with Lore of Life buffing them to T6. They laughed their way through 30 ork warriors with surprising ease.

A well protected Slann in a unit of 20 TG should be enough to hold for a time, use your saurus to protect him and try to draw off his hard hitters with skirmishers. If you just can seem to keep his bloodthirster from eatting your frog then you can try an OB on a Carno but I'd not be surprised if he gets eatten faster.

 

bloodletters don't have great weapons, they have base S of 5 and killing blow, with I5(i think) they are going to kill at least half of the COC at 3+/3+ and if you do get a save you get a 4+

i agree with skinks, most of the demon army only has the 5+ ward, spam enough poison and he will start to fall. also, go for T8 saurus.

 

Big skink/ kroxigor units work great on bloodletters. Yeah, they wound you on 2's, but so does almost everything else, and the skinks get their parry save regardless of killing blow. They only have 1 attack as well, so it's not usually going to be enough to break 'steadfast' on a large skrox unit. In the vast majority of cases you'll hold long enough to flank them a couple turns later, and in some cases kill them altogether with kroxigor hits and combat res.

I agree with Bibamus, Cold Ones are a bad idea on bloodletters. S5 I5 Killing blow is going to hurt, and bad.

For Bloodthirster, 1) Mass poison, as already stated. Every turn he's not in combat, punish him with chameleon/skirmisher/cohort shots. Make sure the only places he can land to set up a charge are surrounded.

2) Hex+characteristic test spells. He doesn't get that ward against anything that doesn't directly cause wounds, so soften him up. There's always a 1 in 6 chance of him failing a characteristic test as well, so if you feel lucky and have the dice, go for it.

3) Combat resolution. If he's wounding your buffed up T8 saurus or temple guard on 2's, he's going to lose combat and take wounds. Set him up for failure.