I always wondered if a Demon Slayer is worth it. Afterall, he has no armour, costs a lot and takes up a lord choice.

Recently I used him for the first time and with great success. In fact, he killed a unit of 16 White Lions led by an Elven Prince all by himself! :o B)

He was equipped with a runic weapon with +1 attack, +1 strength and +1 initiative, and with a talisman with a 4+ ward and immunity to fire.

With T5, 3 wounds, a 4+ ward and immunity to fire he was well protected, so he could march off on his own without being afraid of being killed by magic or shooting. My plan was to get him into combat with rank-and-file units. With his I+1 he had more initiative than the Elves (as a dwarf! :eek: ), so he would strike first with 5 S5 attacks. I assumed that even if someone in btb-contact survived, he would have a hard time wounding the Slayer. Due to his unbreakableness, he could therefore hold up and eventually kill a whole unit.


As a unit of White Lions led by a prince marched through the forest to get to my units while under cover, the Demon Slayer walked into the woods himself, blocking the Lions, but staying more than 2" away. My opponent didnt want to lose time turning around, so he moved the unit into charge range of the Demon Slayer, not thinking he was taking any risk. The Slayer charged and challenged the Prince. It was a bloody fight. Although the Prince carried the Talisman of Saphery and the Guardian Phoenix and had the Swordmaster Honour, the Demon Slayer eventually defeated him (with 1 wound left). Then he started to whirl his runic axe at the unit. After two or three rounds of combat, in which the Lions never even got a chance to hit the Slayer, he caused enough wounds to win the combat. The Lions fled... and were caught!
You should have seen my opponent's face! :lol:


So to conclude, I think a Demon Slayer can be really cool. What makes him so good, especially against Elves, is his high initiative. Combined with a ward save he is very hard to wound and S5 is perfect against elves too. I wouldnt always take him, but I think he is a lot better than I thought he'd be on first glance.

Nice! It's always cool when a single character slaughters an entire unit of elite warriors. It would look great on a battle report. The slayer didn't achieve his objective, though: he didn't die in battle...

The +1 Initiative was useless, though: the Elven prince had 8 Initiative and all his unit was striking last because of their great weapons. But I am amazed they didn't manage to kill him (what, WS5 and S6!). He was lucky.

Yeah, the +1 initiative was useless in that specific battle. But normally against Elves I think that I+1 upgrade for merely 5 points is great on a Demon Slayer.

And yes, he had some luck in the challenge (failed his ward save two times while it saved him from losing a wound three or four times). Once the Prince was dead though, the White Lion's WS5 and S6 was useless, because the three models in btb-contact were killed each round before they could strike back. :)

Umm.. he's illegal. Slayer characters can only take weapon runes, no armour or talisman ones, it says under their entry. Sorry, but of course a slayer with a 4+ ward would own anything it met.

There maybe uses for a DS but IMO only in high point games, I prefer my lords to be protected by more than a ripped loincloth.

KU

Holy sh*t! Damn you, KU! :P

Never noticed that, thats a big dissapointment. In fact, that makes DS's extremely useless... like engineers...

That said, I think nobody I play with will have anything against the house rule of letting a DS take talisman runes. I mean, whats the point of having THREE useless character choices?? (or even four, if you count the RuneLord). Does GW want every army list to look the same? :angry:

It aint cool for a single character to slaughter a regiment, elite or not. This is supposed to be a game of battles, nay? Units crashing into units, arrows flying, guns blazing, saddles blazing...
It just aint cricket when it comes to a single packed-up statline to go and get medieval up a lotta little guys' asses. Imho ;)

correct but it is cool when a single character takes on a unit of elite warriors, and possible- come on its a little stunty ginger with a massive beard and whirling axe. not much will take him down, loin cloth or not. plus there was a story that a Norse berserker in history called "url" managed to defend a bridge against a large english army, full of axemen, until he was chopped in the back by a spearmen. so yeah its possible IMHO of course ^_^

Oh yeah, it's possible. It's just a lot cooler when it happens in real life then on the table. I preffer regiment fighting on the table :)

The reason they're not allowed wards is pretty obvious: a T5 unbreakable ward-saved character would be a pretty game-breaking combo, as it could do what you just described to pretty much anyone without some severe characterage of their own. Think about it... there are the 20 Chosen Warriors of Khorne, but OH NO! The Daemonslayer's in contact. Well, that's the CWoK out of the game for the next five or so turns...

Characters aren't meant to have that much power. If you stick a nice runic weapon on a slayer character, then he can function admirably against most units in this faculty, but giving him the capability to resist the troops that would usually kill him makes him far too good.