Daemonettes

So finally you all get to see the final product on the slight conversion I did on these girls. They were painted very heavily with the new GW washes, as I attempted to integrate them more and more into my style. I liked one of the schemes for the girls shown in the codex (pink skin, purple "daemon parts") and decided to make the pink part more like the mortals. The washes do amazing work on this.

All fleshy parts (including claws/feet) were basecoated in the Foundation paint Dheneb Stone. It's an extremely pale color, but that's ok. When it was dry, I used a 3:1 mix of Ogryn Flesh and Baal Red, both washes. Coat her heavily with it, let it get deep in all those cracks and claw-grooves. When that was dry, I had a good fleshy color and moved on to Leviathan Purple (another wash) to hit any fleshy part that looked more daemonic than mortal (lower legs and claws). Hair was based in Hormagaunt Purple, then washed with Asurmen Blue. All the costume parts using Shining Gold were washed in Leviathan Purple, just to bring it closer to the color theme. The banner was base coated with 2:1 Warlock Purple:Dheneb Stone, then washed with Leviathan Purple.

They were based on the Lava Bases I mentioned earlier.

So, a Daemonette's stats read similar to those of the Howling Banshees: WS 4, S3, T3, I6. Let's check out their abilities.

Aura of Acquiescence gives them the effect of assault and defensive grenades. This means they are a good unit to assault through or into cover.

Rending Claws offer a little added punch to their assault.

Daemon means they have a 5+ invulnerable save and are immune to Instant Death.

Fleet will let them make their 6" assault move even after making a d6" run in the Shooting Phase. Lovely.

All of this paints a very interesting picture. They are fragile, yet seem to excel at first strike assaults. Fleet will allow them to reach the opponent before a unit of Bloodletters would, the Aura will help them assault units even in cover, and the high Initiative and Rending Claws will help to minimize casualties due to retaliation.

Base attacks is 3, so with numbers, they will easily begin to accumulate a LOT of attacks. A unit of Daemonettes numbers from 5-20. 20 chicks with 3 rending attacks each, 4 on the charge... still quite formidable

The Aura might not seem like much, but I've already seen a unit of Bloodletters get torn up for assaulting a unit in cover. Cover gets first hit since Bloodletters don't have an Aura-like ability, and they're not that much more resilient than the Slaaneshi girls. These two HtH units would most likely best be suited moving in tandem; the girls make first contact and soften up the target, the Bloodletters come in and clean up with their S4 Power Weapons. If it doesn't sound fluffy to have them work together like this, think of it in a different light: competition. The Daemonettes are much faster and would most likely be taunting the hell out of the Bloodletters for missing out on all the kills. The Bloodletters' rage would most likely have them following suit in order to upstage the Daemonettes.

Here's a downside, though: They cost 14 points each. That's one point less than a Space Marine. Given that you can deep-strike the entire army, make sure you plan out your tactics really well, as you probably won't have numbers on your side (especially if you go taking elites/heavy support. Talk about a points-sink!)

One note on survivability: please make use of cover. The Daemonettes have no normal armour save, only the 5+ invulnerable one. Add to that a Toughness of 3, and it will not take much to decimate them. Most cover in 5th edition offers 4+ saves (invulnerable, even) and is much preferable to their standard save. Take this into account when Deep Striking them in. Discretion is the better part of valor.

As promised, some close-ups: