With the release of Book 8, Richmond 30k saw its first game with the new Demons of the Ruinstorm army list this past weekend pitting Will’s Shattered Legion Iron Hands against Steven’s Demons. We won’t give a play-by-play here, suffice to say the new Demon rules are nothing short of intimidating. Luckily for the loyalist players out there, there’s plenty of new units and gear in Book 8 that’ll help in dealing with what’s sure to be a bevy of demon players hitting the tables in the coming months.
The Legion Nullificator and Esoterist consuls are comparatively cheap psykers with special wargear options geared towards combating warp entities. The Nullificator terminator squad is sure to the be the bane of both demon and militia players, and comes in at a comparable points cost to regular legion terminators.
Something that’s readily apparent from the Demons list is combating it requires a different approach than when facing Astartes or Mechanicum lists. Tactical squads, Heay Bolters, Auto Cannons and all manner of high volume/low AP shooting are likely going to be coming back into fashion. Below you’ll find a sample list built to face demons. I kept it non-legion specific and tried to limit the list to units that are common among Astartes forces already.
Legion Nullificator + 1x Mastery Level 100 pts
Forge Lord + rad grenades + thunder hammer + refractor field 120 pts
Legion Nullificators + 5x marines + 2x power fists + 3x toxiferran flamers 510 pts
Mortis Dreadnought + twin-autocannon + 2x hunter killer missiles 145 pts
3x Cortus Dreadnoughts + 1x heavy flamer 445 pts
Tactical squad + 5x marines + vexilla + ccws + (sergeant)powerfist and artificer armor 240 pts
Tactical squad + 5x marines + vexilla + ccws + (sergeant)powerfist and artificer armor 240 pts
Tactical squad + 5x marines + vexilla + ccws + (sergeant)powerfist and artificer armor 240 pts
Fire Raptor gunship + reaper autocannons + hellstrike missiles 230 pts
Spartan tank + dozer blade 310 pts
2x Sicaran Punisher tanks + heavy bolter sponsons + pintle mounted heavy bolter 420 pts
3,000 pts
This list has A LOT of firepower. Force your opponent to roll saves. Demons, even the high level ones, don’t have great armor saves so you’re placing the mechanics of math and time on your side. The Sicaran Punisher tanks in particular are a great asset; 60 AP4 shots per turn, 36 of which can Rend if they don’t move. Your “Death Star” of sorts comes in the form of the two consuls along with the Nullificators hanging out in the Spartan tank. The idea is for your bolters to plow a path through the lesser demons and allow the Nullificators a chance to close with a greater demon or lord. The Hexagrammic Wards allow you to reroll Invul saves and the rad grenades on your Forge Lord are going to negate the +1 Toughness the demons get on Turns 1 and 2.
As always, thanks for your time. Now get to painting.
-Jared
