Lemm's introduction to Demons

[Lemminkäinen]

With us hopefully getting new English-speaking players, I thought that maybe we should do short descriptions of the different factions. I'm the most knowledgeable about Demons, so decided to start with them. Others are more than welcome to offer their insight into Demons in this thread or begin new threads on other factions. So comments and questions are very welcome.

Demons don't get wounded - they function at their full until they drop. They also have very low Protection scores but this is made up by their huge Life Point totals. All of this combined means that Demons tend to survive without losses for the beginning stages of the game but then have a tendency to start dying in droves in the latter stages.

Demons also don't shoot and they aren't a match for the raw combat power of the Lost, but they have lots of neat tricks up their sleeve and are pretty good at controlling the pace and flow of the game.

I decided to tackle the starter box first, but I will hopefully add the reinforcements, too. Of course others are also welcome to do so

• Asaliah, the fallen angel leader of the Demon band has a high Defense of 5, but her strange damage table means that she is not a fighter. You see, in close combat Asaliah mainly inflicts different malus states on her opponent, but she doesn't do actual damage. This means that she is good as support, but really needs friends. Her true power, though, are her magical abilities. She can summon toxic clouds, possess enemy fighters or turn their own faith against them (causing Faith x 2 in straight damage).
  
  She also has Charisma with which to support her troops and, probably most importantly, she heals them. Her mere presence heals other Demons a bit, but her unique Order (that consumes three permanent command points) heals every Demon on the board an astounding eight Life Points! An extremely powerful ability and probably the best unique order I have come across.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/asaliah/index.php


• Succubus is good in support of other Demons as she has Charisma. But her true strength lies in close combat. That seductive body hides a true powerhouse with a huge Combat-value of six! Combine this with her nice damage table and we have a force to be reckoned with. But wait! It doesn't end there. With her order she can up her already high DEF of five to an incredible six against males. This means that you need to kill her before she activates the order on each round (it's passive) or you need to stall her or use a female/asexual fighter to beat her.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/succube/index.php


• Infernal Ambassador is a good fighter. With his order he can get a great Protection value of four against a specific damage type, but opponents that inflict several are a problem. He also confers Protection 1 to all friends in base to base contact, which is nice considering the usual Demon lack of armour. His main attraction, though, is his ability to cancel opposing Vae Soli and Vae Victis orders. This has a huge impact on the game and gives the Demons incredible control abilities.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/ambassadeur-infernal/index.php
• Damned One of Anger is the basic grunt of the Demons. Relatively fast, no maluses for charging, nice damage table but not very durable, DOAs do the thankless job of hitting enemies up and getting hit in return. They are nice to have racing into frays that are going a bit poorly as they can hang back and use their nice 10" charge to race into the rescue.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/damne-de-la-colere3/index.php
• Damned One of Sloth is a tricky one. They have an abysmal DEF of just two, an abysmal move of just two (two inches!), and to make matters even worse, if they charge the enemy gets a free round of close combat against. But what they do have is advanced deployment and, especially, Attraction 3. This is absolutely huge. Unengaged enemies who start their activation within three inches of an unengaged Damned One of Sloth must get into contact with the annoying little bugger. And with the incredible 18 Life Points these guys can really take it and then some. The problem naturally is, that since their DEF is only two, if the enemy has some interesting effects in their damage table, those will happen. Which sucks for the Sloth, but then again, they're just grunts.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/damne-de-la-paresse2/index.php

So, any comments or questions?

[Don Lope]

Hi

just a comment:

It's a very good work.

godd luck

[Lemminkäinen]

Thanks, Superphoenix!

I'll continue on to the first wave of reinforcements:

• Samael, the 80-point Officer, is a lot more "hands-on" than Asaliah. And I do mean a lot. He has Charisma, which is a lot easier to use with him than with Asaliah as he is usually at the fore front of the action. He has nice combat stats and skills, the most important being Frenetic, which means that when Samael charges or assaults, two melees are performed back to back. Yeah, this guy is rather quick and brutal.
  
  Samael's weakness is that he isn't all that tough, really. Sure, DEF 5 and Regeneration 2 help, and 14 Life Points isn't bad at all, but he still tends to die a lot. Especially as one of his tricks is choosing an allied fighter and then taking damage instead of that fighter. This, btw, is really nice when coupled with the Grand Damned One of Anger, as that monster is really, really good at dishing it out but also takes a beating in return. Now, when the brute has only one Life Point left, you begin shunting the damage into Samael. Now, the real beauty of the trick is that Samael has the ability for ultimate sacrifice - when he does, the Demon player doesn't lose the CMD-points as usual and all his fighters are healed to full. Yes, healed to full. This means that the Grand Damned One of Anger would be back at 20 Life Points.
  
  Samael also has another sacrifical order: he loses three Life Points and all his allies gain +1 CBT until the end of the round. Not bad, but not all that superb either - unless you need to sacrifice Samael in order to heal your models. A very fun model, all in all, just avoid Tarik!
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/samael/index.php
• The Black Freak's most notable feature is his damage table. Life Drain, nothing but Life Drain and that, my friends, is pure love. It goes right through armour and it heals the Freak - what more could you want? OK, the Freak is slow and has a lot DEF, but fear not. Kills someone in his vicinity, use his unique order and voila! +1 to Movement and DEF and +2 to CBT. Suddenly you have an absolutely awesome powerhouse in your hands, that chews through... a lot. Things to avoid with the Black Freak are models with lots of Life Points. Fighting a Damned One of Sloth would be a real pain in the posterior region for this guy.
  
  Other than that, the Freak also has awesome staying power. PR 2 (huge for a Demon), a nice nine Life Points, Weapon Master, Ricochet for some extra damage and Defensive Combat all make him more survivable. Really good stuff, all in all as long as you don't get bogged down fighting models with a ton of Life Points.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/foulques-le-noir/index.php
  

[zim]

I find the write-ups really helpful as I finally can play the Demons I possess like six months now and never played
keep up the good work and tell us more about the next wave's models. if you are French feel free to translate all the stuff Tsilla has other than abilities of course

[Lemminkäinen]

Thanks for the kind words, zim

I can't speak French, but I have become moderately good in deciphering Hell Dorado cards. As far as I can tell, Tsilla's spells are as follows:

First one causes Stunned-state on an enemy model (I can see the -1 DEF as being very useful against some opponents).

Second one causes a cloud of deadliness three inches from the Lemure. Anyone in this cloud at the beginning of the round takes one point of damage except for Demons. Spamming these sounds like fun in take and hold style scenarios.

Third one causes 1d6+1 points of straight damage that goes through PR.

Her unique order is a teleport (on herself only), which is very nice in scenarios. And her aura causes -1 to Faith to fighters within four inches.

All in all she seems like a nice support piece and a cheap leader, but she can't fight her way out of a wet paper bag (the worst damage table in the game). Luckily she is good at running away :p Asaliah is better but 20 points difference is nothing to scoff at. And I can see her as being hellishly good in some scenarios, which call for strategic control (who ever has more CMD-rating at the objective wins).

[Don Lope]

hi

In the second tsilla's spells:

You forget the damné in exception to damage.

Good luck

[Lemminkäinen]

I did include the "except for Demons"-part in there But how long does the effect last? There is something about "permanent" there, but I'm not sure. Also, there is a lot of stuff about the teleportation order that I can't fully decipher - can it be used to leave close combat?

[Don Lope]

hi

The land is permanent and deadliness except for the demon and the damné.

Tsilla can use her teleportation order all the time. She can eave close combat. She doesn't arrive in a control area for the end of her teleportation.

excuse my english i'm a fucking french and i'm not very good with the Shakespeare's language.

Good luck

[Lemminkäinen]

Your English is light years ahead of my French, let me assure you And thanks for the answers, very enlightening!

[CaffeineBoy]

Thanks, Lemm! Great summary!

I've been looking for this kind of info for a while now. Keep up the good work and, uh... whenever you want to start the other factions (say, maybe Sarrasins), I'll be reading. 

[Lemminkäinen]

Superphoenix, I just realized what you meant. Yeah, Damnes and Demons are immune to that Tsilla's spell - I honestly just somehow missed the Damnes part and then was confused. Sorry about that.

CaffeineBoy, thanks fo the kind words, and your wish is my command

Also, let's tackle the second wave of reinforcements, the big fella:

• Grand Damned One of Anger is a very apt description of this big brute. The mini was chosen into the top ten editor's choice releases of the year by TGN and it was a very worthy choice. In a game he is just as fearsome as he looks. Being Incontrollable, he is something of a command point sink, but the carnage is so much worth it. CBT 7 (8 on the first exchange of blows), MOV five and no charge malus makes everyone quake in fear. In very real fear, too, as the giant causes terror, too. His damage table is also suitably brutal and two exchanges of blows are resolved each time he assaults or charges. All of this makes quick work of almost anything on this side of Bran Carnoth.
  
  The downside is the low DEF of only three coupled with the Demon lack of PR means that those 20 Life Points will tick away quick. Asaliah can heal him, Samael's trick was already discussed and Tsilla is cheap enough to consider taking two of these monstrosities, so it's all good. The thing to watch out for, though, is nasty malus states. Knockdown, Stun or Immobilizing are all very bad news for anyone and this beast's low DEF makes him rather susceptible to such tactics.
  http://www.helldorado.fr/factions/les-demons/grand-damne-de-la-colere/index.php

[Breten]

Nice write-ups.  Kinda wish I would have read this one before my first game this weekend.  My Sarracens didn't fare too well against the Demons.  That Angelic Inspiration is nasty.  Luckily I finished off the Infernal Ambassaor before my opponent got to activate the order.  Them Demons is tough.

[lapiaz]

 I have  seen the great demon of rage samael  combo work  and it tis a nasty trick ...  demons players  have in this a  fantastic way of dealing  lot of damage  .. the idea is to get all oponent  down in their point of life  to weere all are wounded  or neear wounded  and then heal back those points  and  leave to the maths ......

againts  demons  runing this  combo the best thing is to avoid  the great demon and all other heavy hitters  and  concentrate in samael...  shooters  grenade  artillery are a must to  manage  this  and of course run arround the table ....  if you got a good independent that could stand  againts  the demon of rage  bring him on early in the game in contac with the Great demon  to keep him busy ....

[Tuska]

Tack Lemmy, this are handy and useful information.
Btw: can we get all of them pinned?

[zim]

@Tuska
you want Lemm to pin your minis ?