Flesh Hounds of Khorne

In a nutshell: One of the best Fast Attack choices available to the Daemon armies, if not the best. If you just have to fill the FA slot, this is a very good unit to bring along with all the goodies they get. Speaking of goodies...

Pros: 3 attacks on the charge at S5 and I5. Beasts, which gives them mobility the Daemon army as a whole severely lacks. Of all the fast attack choices, this one at least has the virtue of being better than 'crap' when compared to tactical marines, right? They also come with a 2+ save against damaging psychic powers, and what's really amusing is this also gives them a 2+ save against force weapon hits. Not a force weapon attack (psykers can't execute one on Daemons anyway) but it makes the default weapon of all psykers utterly useless against these (literally!) demon dogs from hell. :)

Cons: Still only T4 with a 5+ save. Not exactly survivable. Better than the other white meat, the Seekers of Slaanesh, but they still die to rapid fire or concentrated heavy weapons fire. Which leads us to how to avoid this...

Tactics: While I don't recommend more than one pack, you can really make one pack an excellent unit. Still pricey for what it does compared to other Daemon units, but having a fast beasts unit is invaluable. Ask any Tyranid player how useful they really are. So, to make this one pack really good; add Karanak and upgrade another model to rending capable. This gives the whole unit Move Through Cover, which combined with Beasts movement is truly a unit that can get through cover quickly, which boosts their survivability. I'd recommend a squad of 15 to make it difficult to get rid of Karanak. Without him, you lose one of your renders (the better one) and move through cover.

Final word: While most people don't really believe in sacrificing units that consist of 15 point models, this is really what this unit is for. Making it better able to do it's job and hang in until the rest of the army arrives isn't a bad thing. You can play hide and go seek with your plaguebearer/bloodcrusher armies with mobile enemy armies if you really want to, but you won't like how that works out most games. Having something that can reach out and lock down a enemy unit, even pull enemy models towards you, and give your normally slow infantry models a free assault move forward the next turn...that really is priceless.

Furies of Chaos

In a nutshell: Lost WS and I from the non-sucky Chaos Space Marine book. Must be because...meh, some stupid GW reason. Model not selling, make it suck worse and remove it from the line! Ugly anyway. Harpies much better looking. These can't be joined by a Herald so they have a very weird 'we are chaos but we hate chaos undivided' concept going on.

Pros: 3 attacks on the charge, jump pack troops. S4. Not horrible. You can run a bunch if you want to, I think that's about the only way to run them is in large numbers. They do compare favorably to the other Fast Attack choices, but as I've said elsewhere in the review...

Cons: Daemon Fast Attack choices are models looking for a home. The unsuck home. Sadly, that's where they are right now and will probably stay. See, their problem is, in CC...they tend to get beaten up by tactical marines. While marines aren't the lowest of the low or anything, they are the de facto standard you need to compare against. No rending, furious charge, or power weapon attacks nor any upgrades at all. Definitely the black sheep of the Chaos Daemon family.

Tactics: Use just like most other jump pack troops. These are, however, even more fragile than marine assault troops so you really need to support them. Locking up a enemy unit then hitting them with a big unit of these guys is I think the best and really only tactic for this unit. If you think of them as a flanking unit, not a main combat unit, I think you won't be far off.

Final word: More utter crap from GW. Do not buy Harpies to sub for these models, the current 'official' models are such utter rubbish I can only see them being replaced with a plastic kit in a few years time or see the entire unit/line being binned entirely. If you have them, I hope you can field large (12-15) units so they can bring some use to your Daemon army. Otherwise, skip this subpar unit (rules and models--a double whammy) entirely.

Screamers of Tzeentch

In a nutshell: 100% speedy sacrifice units. The only units they can really beat in CC are IG and Tau, against everyone else...they fail. Their primary purpose seems to be against Land Raiders, which while popular you can't really buy units just to kill one kind of vehicle. ;)

Pros: They do have T4 and a 4+ invulnerable save, and as jetbikes can turboboost around they can boost it to a 3+ save. Since they have no real shooting and against fast moving vehicles don't do a whole lot with their 1 attack apiece (meltabomb rule)...I suggest they are primarily a sacrificial unit first and an anti-raider unit second.

Cons: WS3, I3, 1 wound, 1 base attack. Just no good in CC and can't shoot, but they are the fastest thing you've got available. Not much solace for such utter crap, but make do with what you've got.

Tactics: Use these as a screen, they are great for blocking movement towards your assault elements (better to charge Bloodcrushers than be charged, after all) and your shooty elements (almost all of which fold to CC).

Final word: If you have the models and 100 points to spend, they aren't terrible choices. Buying new models though, I'd probably not do so until they do something better than sucking the sweat off of a real units balls, ok? ;)

Seekers of Slaanesh

In a nutshell: Faaaaast. Lots of attacks for cheap. A nice looking model too, sadly it's metal but what can ya do? Sometimes GW makes great models, and sometimes great rules, but almost never do they make great rules and great models. Funny, yes?

Pros: Like the Fiends, they are a torrent of CC attacks unit. They have 5 attacks on the charge at Init 6. They come with rending claws and the unique Daemon grenades--I like to call them super nerf grenades, for while they do indeed have an effect...they also don't have any effect on tanks, which sucks since Daemons really need it. Shooting this unit is the way to get rid of it, you can CC it but you probably shouldn't. Just like Fiends, there are too many attacks and unless you are I7 they'll be going first. Harlequins beware, these girls have got your number.

Cons: Unlike the fiends, they don't have a whole lot of survivability nor any utility against vehicles. They are also only WS4, so...they can run down IG and Tau. Woopdeedoo.

Tactics: When you need a unit that can reach out and get into combat quickly, this unit is one of the few you have that is fast enough to do so. I'd recommend they only be used against enemy infantry, as they have very little use against enemy tanks. Sure, they have rending. They are like Sniper Rifles. S3+6+D3. Autoglance on a rend, pen on a 3+. While dangerous against vehicles sitting still, they have a hell of a time against fast moving vehicles but when it comes to pisspoor shooting or pisspoor assault...you suck at it either way so hey why not? 5x6=30 attacks, 6 hit, 1 rend. Not exactly...uber. It's something, which is often all you can hope for in a Daemon army. You really do need to remember that this unit is easily destroyed, so keep it in cover at all times--you are safe assaulting through it as you have the super nerf grenade launcher to protect you. ;)

Final word: While all of the Fast Attack choices are 'viable', that's really only if you close your eyes and don't look at the HQ and Elite choices--then they're pretty decent. As soon as you open your eyes though, you'll find they are quite mediocre and pretty much very expensive hormagaunts is all you have in your Fast Attack slots. Sorry!