“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”
Daemons of Chaos. Beings of pure psychic energy given physical form to wreak havoc across the known universe, these horrors from the warp are spread far and wide and are to be feared, or perhaps, maybe revered, as they strive to seize all that they can in the name of their Chaos God masters, whomever they may be…
Greetings everyone, Build Monkey here and I’m back today with another look at one of the many Boarding Patrol boxsets available: the Chaos Daemons. So, let’s see whether these entities are good enough to earn our reverence for the sake of their Chaos God Masters, or whether they fall somewhat flat and are nothing really to be feared at all, shall we?
So, what’s in the box? Well, for starters, in the Boarding Patrol: Chaos Daemons boxset you get a healthy 21 model count made up of 4 different boxes, which includes: Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance, 10 Flesh Hounds, and 10 Bloodletters. But what does this mean in terms of a pricing breakdown?
1x Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance - £25
10x Flesh Hounds (2 Boxes of 5 at £35 each) - £70
10x Bloodletters - £25
Total: £120
Saving: £40
With the current RRP of this boxset being £80, you’re making a saving of £40 by buying this boxset full of demonic doggos and imps, which net’s you plenty of money left over to buy extra doggos if you so wish. And who doesn’t want more doggo’s? But the question we need to be asking though, is are these ‘good boi’s’ and their friends any good on the tabletop, or are they just all bark and not actually any bite?
Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance - The ‘goodest’ (or baddest? Maybe?) boi of ‘good’ boi’s, Karanak is basically an extra spiky Cerberus with a mean streak many many many miles wide. The faithful guard dog of the grand throne room of Khorne, he is ready and always willing to pounce on any and all interlopers to feed his everlasting hunger. Equipped with a meaty set of Soul-Rending Fangs, at Karanak’s base strength of 6 and with a Weapon Skill of +2, an AP -2 and a Damage of 2, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to attack not only successfully, but very well at that (unless the dice gods don’t side with you). Plus, he can attempt to deny Psyker powers twice during the opponent's Psychic Phase and he has an Aura Ability as a Pack Leader, which gives friendly models within 6” the chance to re-roll Wound rolls of 1.
Flesh Hounds - This pack of snarling doggos are fast. Very fast, with a Movement of 12” (which is the same as Karanak), and each turn they’re guaranteed to attack successfully as they have something called a Burning Roar, which automatically hits their target. Though, if you want to try and not auto-hit your targets every time, you could use their Gore-Drenched Fangs, which are a sort of “lite” version of Karanak’s Soul-Rending Fangs, in that they have the same AP of -2, but they only have a Damage score of 1. It’s up to you… Of all the Flesh Hounds though, one of them can be built as a Gore Hound, but while it does gain 1 extra level of Leadership and 1 extra attack, it’s not much extra for the 240 points it costs to field it as the Unit Leader when compared to the 185 of a standard Flesh Hound.
Bloodletters - More or less the foot-soldiers of any Chaos army, Bloodletters are nothing but rippling muscle and knotted sinew carrying a Strength stat of 5 and a Toughness of 4. They do only have 1 Wound though, so when they do eventually go down they go down pretty easily. They’re not as fast as their fellow Chaos puppers at only a Movement of 6”, but that’s still pretty damned quick. They come equipped with a Hellblade that has an AP of -3 and a Damage stat of 2, so they can land a pretty damned meaty hit if you roll successfully with their Weapon Skill of +3. Like with the Flesh Hounds, one of these Bloodletters can be built as a Bloodreaper, and although stat-wise you’re not making massive gains (although that 1 extra attack is pretty tasty), where the Bloodreaper really shines is in its abilities, such as Warp Storm. This ability lets you make a roll at the start of each battle round of eight D6, and for every roll of a 4+ you gain 1 Warp Storm Point . For Warp Storm Points you gain, you can spend them to apply an effect, depending on the Chaos God for your Daemon Army, that can really give your units an overpowering edge on the battlefield. For example, as this is a Khorne army, “Fury of Khorne” lets you add 1 to the Attack stat for each model in the army that has the Characteristic of Legiones Demonica Khorne… And as every model in this army has this ability, even Karanak can benefit from it which is absolutely disgusting.
So, what’s my verdict? Well, I think this army is outrageous and I love it. It stands to really dominate on the battlefield, what with all the crazy fast Chaos mutts with the danger zoomies, backed up by the horrors with tongues so long they risk tripping over them mid-charge. Though for me, the thing that really stands out is that Warp Storm ability and the potential it will continue to open up throughout play as you rack up and bank all those Warp Storm Points. Also, deep down, who doesn’t love a bit of Chaos?
With this verdict then, you’d think I'd say it’s a great investment… And while it is pretty nice, it’s only 21 models and there is very little variety available to you. It also has a Character model in it which does hamper the potential re-buyability of this boxset a little if you’re hoping to use it to boost the numbers of an existing Chaos Daemon army (although I suppose eBay is a thing). When you compare this boxset to something such as the Combat Patrol: Chaos Daemons boxset, which nets you 34 models including 3 Bloodcrushers and a Bloodmaster, as well as all the Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters for only an extra £15, I’d be more inclined to pick up that one instead of this Boarding Patrol boxset. But then again, if you are just starting out and you bought both of these together, then you’d have a pretty damned good army right there for only £175, ready to begin rending flesh in the name of the Blood God. And that’s pretty good.
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