Slaaneshi Daemons in 8th

[Mileposter]

... Is four Daemon Princes even a good idea in a list? I've seen on to two... But never that many!

[Armchairarbiter]

If you're going to take 4 I suggest only using heralds on foot then. Put the DPs in a Supreme Command detachement. Two with wings, two without. I'd specialize them if you can, maybe give one the soulstealer relic or whatever it is to kill infantry, one as a character hunter, etc, etc. 

[Slan Drakkos]

I have a small question for you guys, what would you do with four daemon princes? I went a bit overboard and bought three more. And I’d like to make the best use of them, model wise and game wise, so what do I kit them out with? And how do I field them in game? I have lots of bits and a bit of greenstuff, ideas are welcome for customization.

Even for someone that likes Slaanesh, four is excessive. You could take them as a supreme command detachment. Maybe surround one with cultists armed for close combat and cast delightful agonies on the cultists to keep them alive long enough to get into combat. Scratch, that, you could do that with any close combat related unit. Truth be told though, I don't see a reason to break out more than one DP unless you're going up against a primarch. They're just too costly and paint such a big target on their heads for my liking.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

I would make two DPs (with Wings) and two KoS.

[Lord_Quesnel]

Wow, I didn’t expect that many responses so fast! Thanks for all the insight.

 

First, I just want to make clear that I’m not expecting to win tournaments with four DP’s (or with any mono-slaanesh army at the moment) it’s realy just for fun.

 

Second, after giving some thought, my take on them being big targets, Slan Drakkos, is that if I have so many of them at least one of them is bound to do something and also it’s pretty scary on the board.

 

Third, I’m trying something this week-end against infantry heavy imperial guards. It’s 750 points and I’m bringing a supreme command detachment with 3 winged daemon princes (the fourth one hasn’t arrived yet) and three heralds on foot. I’ve got one DP with soul eater and murdrer dance warlord trait, two with talons. I’m thinking about deep striking my warlord and maybe one other DP and foot slogging the rest, Wich is still super fast. Still don’t now what to chose for the psychic powers.

 

Fourth and last, every one has been talking about it in matched play, but just think about how much fun it will be in open play!

[Blackarmor_redtruth]

I have one plastic, one exact same but metal, one Azazel (sp), and two conversions. Add the snake from page 8 and that will make 5. Not on the fence about some other 3rd party ones, just don't have the cash just yet. What do you do with 4? Collect more and model the hell out of them. Sure I'll never use them all, but man, those are some sweet looking models on my shelves!

[Lord_Quesnel]

After trying it twice this week end. I can say that three DP’s are pretty solid. I’ve tried it against death guard and guards and won both times. I was able to get charges turn one and tie down important units with them (two out three plague burstcrawlers against DG, one lemanruss in a 750 points game against IG). It seemed really hard for my enemies to deal with the 3 of them at once plus my warp talons. Again, just like the chariots I’m not sure about deep striking because they’re just so damn fast on the board.

Im going to put it to the test for real on Wednesday at my local game night.

[Armchairarbiter]

I made my first exalted chariot today. I am pretty excited to use it this weekend, and my Slaanesh army in general. It will be the first time that I field them. :D 

[Blackarmor_redtruth]

Congrats - and definitely let us know how it works out. My two are still on sprue ...

[Armchairarbiter]

Here's a fun question.. and thanks for the well wishes on my armies performance. :D 

 

Can anyone recommend a way to transport these chariots? Battlefoam doesn't seem to have a Slaanesh cut out. 

[techsoldaten]

Can anyone tell me what good are Fiends in 8th edition? I get the impression they are for clearing out bubblewrap / tying up tanks, but their not useful against more heavily armored targets and they die easily.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

You have to make your own.

 

I have 5 Hellflayers and a Seeker Chariot, with judicious positioning they will all fit in a BFM 15×12×4 Pluck Tray.

 

Fiends are for anti-Psyker, seemingly. I don't rate them either and don't ever take them. They're expensive and they die if you look at them funny.

[Panzer]

I have no real experience playing with a Daemon army but imo fiends are awesome. Incredibly fast and tie up shooty units without FLY so your opponent has to either shoot them first or deal with them in melee before the rest of your army reaches his lines. They are pretty much the most perfect support/utility unit I could imagine.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Yeah, in practice they die long before they get near the enemy. At least, in my experience. It is entirely possible, however, that I am a bad general, so...

 

I'd maybe take three if I wanted to fill out a Brigade, but I wouldn't expect them to do much.

[Lord_Quesnel]

In my experience fiends can either be one of the most useful units, for exemple when you tie up tanks, big shooty units or even just occupy an important CC unit for a turn or two(when you have at least 3-4 fiends), or the most useless pieces in your army when you failed your charges or just attack the wrong unit such as poxwalkers or nurflings.

[Armchairarbiter]

So my first game went quite well! It was a fun 2v2 at 1500 points for each player. I didn't use any DPs or KOS. I actually used an herald on an exalted seeker chariot as my warlord. I gave it the Fatal Caress trait since it has so many attacks and it worked out quite well. She brought down some giant flying Tyranid thing, my Seekers destroyed a big blob of Genestealers. Sadly my two blobs of Daemonettes were annihilated by a first turn death company charge but I have to say, Quicksilver Swiftness was definitely underestimated. It let my second daemonette squad attack first against the second death company squad so they were able to contribute and made them easier to clean up. Even though they had a 4+ invuln they really did some work. 

 

The hellflayers did some real work as well, as did my regular heralds on seeker chariots. Secondary to performing well.. it was a lot of fun and easy to crack jokes about how my psychic powers worked and what was happening when my chariots crashed into people. I managed to kill 3 death company marines from my seeker chariot on the charge from the mortal wounds it deals out, almost 4 but he saved with a FNP. I also brought along 2 solo Fiends. They seemed so insignificant next to everything else they were ignored but with Quicksilver Swiftness again coming into play, one of them got to murder 2 out of 3 Raveners that had charged it! Then I killed the third with the tail next turn. They got us a couple points because they were so quick (the fiends) as well as helping in shutting down a psychic power with their -1 bubble. 

 

Slaanesh is a lot of fun! Now I'm even more inspired to finish modeling my DPs and my Forgeworld KOS.

[Masked Thespian]

Hey, everyone.

 

Brand new coming to this thread, though not brand new to Daemons.  I've always had an interest in Daemons, right from when the 2nd Edition Chaos Codex dropped (back when you had to earn Summoning Points in different ways for each of the Chaos Gods in order to summon your Daemons).  When the 4th Edition Codex dropped I bought heavily into them, supplementing what I already owned for my Chaos Space Marines, and continued playing them into 5th Edition.  I was out of the country and away from my models for all of 6th and almost all of 7th Edition, but am back for 8th Edition and have been bitten again by the Daemon bug, specifically the Slaaneshi one.

 

I own a small amount of Slaaneshi Daemons, as the 4th/5th Edition Codex was pretty much all about mixed-God armies (back then mono-God armies were playable, but had significant weaknesses (in my opinion - I could be completely wrong)).  These are as follows:

 

• Herald of Slaanesh on Seeker Chariot (converted from a High Elf Chariot, two Juan Diaz Seekers of Slaanesh, Asdrubael Vect's throne (bottom part here, back and side parts here (minus the blades on the back), the reclining Dark Eldar prisoner, the head off of one of the two Seekers, and the left arm off of the old Dark Elf Hag Queen so that the Herald is drinking... something...  from a chalice as she rides into battle),
• 6 Fiends of Slaanesh (2 metal versions of the current models, and 4 converted from the plastic Chaos Spawn kit),
• 20 Daemonettes (the current plastic ones), and,
• 18 Seekers of Slaanesh (a mixture of the Juan Diaz Seekers of Slaanesh and some all-plastic ones I kit-bashed from the old Wood Elf Glade Riders' horses' bodies and the torsos, arms, and heads of the current plastic Daemonettes (centaur-style)).

I also have several models for the army currently unassembled, including The Masque of Slaanesh, a Herald of Slaanesh (the old Dechala, the Denied One model, that I intend to use unconverted), the bits to convert up a Herald of Slaanesh on Steed of Slaanesh (using the mount from the Lord of Slaanesh kit), a few more Seekers of Slaanesh, and a Soul Grinder.

 

I've been very much inspired to take these models into a mono-Slaanesh army by the recent release of Morathi, for the Age of Sigmar range.  I feel that the model could be used as a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince(ss) with little-to-no conversion work, and the small version of her could also be easily converted into a Herald of Slaanesh.  She's a bit pricey compared to the normal plastic Daemon Prince kit, but her look feels so Slaaneshi that I really want to go ahead and have her lead my army.

 

I've brainstormed a final list that I would like to work towards and I was hoping that other, more experienced (in 8th Edition) players would be so kind as to take a quick look at it and see if there's anything that I've missed.

 

Lord of War: Zarakynel (could also use as a "counts as" Keeper of Secrets in lower points games)

HQ: Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with Wings

HQ: The Masque of Slaanesh

HQ: Herald of Slaanesh

HQ: Herald of Slaanesh

HQ: Herald of Slaanesh on Steed of Slaanesh

HQ: Herald of Slaanesh on Seeker Chariot

Elites: 6 Fiends

Troops: 30 Daemonettes with 3 Daemonic Icons, 3 Instruments of Chaos (each of these can be split up into units of any multiple of 10)

Troops: 30 Daemonettes with 3 Daemonic Icons, 3 Instruments of Chaos (each of these can be split up into units of any multiple of 10)

Troops: 30 Daemonettes with 3 Daemonic Icons, 3 Instruments of Chaos (each of these can be split up into units of any multiple of 10)

Fast Attack: 10 Seekers of Slaanesh with Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos (can be combined with the other units if I want to make a larger unit)

Fast Attack: 10 Seekers of Slaanesh with Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos (can be combined with the other units if I want to make a larger unit)

Fast Attack: 10 Seekers of Slaanesh with Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos (can be combined with the other units if I want to make a larger unit)

Fast Attack: Hellflayer

Heavy Support: Seeker Chariot

Heavy Support: Exalted Seeker Chariot

Heavy Support: Soul Grinder

 

Overall, this comes to over 160 Power Levels and over 3000 points, enabling me to comfortably play games of 100 Power Levels or 2000 points whilst still having some choice over the units I can take.

 

Is there anything glaringly obvious that I've missed?  Do I need to have more models of a particular type to give me better options during list building?  Am I crazy for wanting to go for Zarakynel instead of the normal Keeper of Secrets model?

[Armchairarbiter]

Zarakynel is a great choice. Just a fun lord of war or KOS fill in and a great model! The only thing I would advise against getting is a Soul Grinder. They cost as much as almost 3 Exalted Seeker Chariots points wise and do far less. It sounds nice to have some cannon support but they can't move and shoot without a penalty (5+ BS on the move), are rather slow, just bad stats all around. They do look cool... so if you rule of cool over performance than fine but it's just my 2 cents. 

 

Personally I don't see the point of a herald on a steed. Either pay for the herald on a chariot or just run a regular herald. In the new Codex the Heralds on foot are the only ones in the Codex and have a different weapon that does 2 damage a pop if they're in combat and with the new advance/charge they're almost just as quick as being on a steed. The chariot has the chance to do mortal wounds (I killed 3 death company guys from just charging a herald on chariot in my last game). 

 

I am very new to Slaanesh and Daemons though so I have limited experience but... just my opinion from the research, reading and limited playing I've done. :) 

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

With 30 Seekers in the list, I can see a point to Heralds on Seekers. Chariots are markedly slower than Seekers.

 

I would echo previous comments about Soul Grinders but would recommend it be replaced with as many Hellflayers as possible.

 

Zarakynel is the dogs, by the way. If you play it just right, She can (with Raptor assists) launch Cacophonic Choir at a -5 LD penalty, -7 if you're lucky. And She can be DSd for only 2CP. You know She got FAQed back to her old cost in Chapter Approved, right? She's not 460 points anymore.

[Masked Thespian]

Zarakynel is a great choice. Just a fun lord of war or KOS fill in and a great model! The only thing I would advise against getting is a Soul Grinder. They cost as much as almost 3 Exalted Seeker Chariots points wise and do far less. It sounds nice to have some cannon support but they can't move and shoot without a penalty (5+ BS on the move), are rather slow, just bad stats all around. They do look cool... so if you rule of cool over performance than fine but it's just my 2 cents. 

 

Personally I don't see the point of a herald on a steed. Either pay for the herald on a chariot or just run a regular herald. In the new Codex the Heralds on foot are the only ones in the Codex and have a different weapon that does 2 damage a pop if they're in combat and with the new advance/charge they're almost just as quick as being on a steed. The chariot has the chance to do mortal wounds (I killed 3 death company guys from just charging a herald on chariot in my last game). 

 

I am very new to Slaanesh and Daemons though so I have limited experience but... just my opinion from the research, reading and limited playing I've done.

 

 

Regarding both the Soul Grinder and the Herald on Steed, it's more that I own the models more than anything else.  I bought the models/bits for the models years ago and I'm loathe to not use them now that I'm in the mood for a Slaaneshi army.

 

I currently own one Soul Grinder glued up and two further ones still new on sprue, one of which I'm nabbing for this army.  I agree that I don't think it's an especially great unit on the tabletop, but I do feel that Slaaneshi armies have a lack of high Strength weaponry which the Soul Grinder can help out with.  I expect to deploy it on an objective and leave it there, taking pot-shots at whatever I can get a bead on and assaulting anything that tries to take the objective away from it.

 

As Res Ipsa Loquitur points out, with as many Seeker of Slaanesh models as I have, it's nice to have a Herald that can keep up with them to give them the boost from its aura effect.  I've tried doing so with a Herald on Seeker Chariot in one of the two games of 8th Edition I've played, but it got quickly outpaced.  I figure that the Herald on Seeker can keep up with the Seekers whilst my Herald on Seeker Chariot can boost the Seeker Chariot, Hellflayer, and Exalted Seeker Chariot as a second wave attack.

 

 

Zarakynel is the dogs, by the way. If you play it just right, She can (with Raptor assists) launch Cacophonic Choir at a -5 LD penalty, -7 if you're lucky. And She can be DSd for only 2CP. You know She got FAQed back to her old cost in Chapter Approved, right? She's not 460 points anymore.

 

Glad to hear Zarakynel is good.  I missed that she got a points increase (I was looking in the wrong section of Chapter Approved, but have since spotted it after you pointed it out).  On the one hand, I'm saddened she's more expensive.  On the other hand, she's back to costing exactly what she ought to cost 

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

And if you don't fancy DSing Her and having Her stood around for a turn striking a pose, make Her the Warlord, give her Celerity of Slaanesh and enjoy a 15+3D6" Move, Advance and Charge.

 

EDIT - With a Malefic Lord casting Creeping Terror and two Raptor units nearby, She can cast Cacophonic Choir at between -6 and -10 Ld.

 

Slaanesh Soul Grinders are probably best kitted out for melee, IMO.

[Slan Drakkos]

And if you don't fancy DSing Her and having Her stood around for a turn striking a pose, make Her the Warlord, give her Celerity of Slaanesh and enjoy a 15+3D6" Move, Advance and Charge.

EDIT - With a Malefic Lord casting Creeping Terror and two Raptor units nearby, She can cast Cacophonic Choir at between -6 and -10 Ld.

Slaanesh Soul Grinders are probably best kitted out for melee, IMO.

God, that sounds so nasty.

 

 

..................I want to try it now.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

It's fun when it works, but also requires an investment of around 1000pts minimum (around 1200pts if you want Detachment bonuses) so it's probably not for ITC, you know?

[DreamIsCollapsing]

Is the start collection Slaanesh daemon a good way to start a Slaanesh army ? 

[WarriorFish]

It is yes, more so if you buy from a reseller for further savings. Main thing is the Chariot as it depends on if you want to use them or not. If you do you could use the box set to build up a good selection though you may need to get additional Daemonettes.