Thinking of starting Slaanesh Daemons

[GenerationTerrorist]

Hi all, hope everyone is good.

Now that my all-Primaris Black Templars army is all done and dusted in terms of painting, I need a new project to help me back into gaming when Covid restrictions are (hopefully!) lessened further over the course of the Summer.

 

As my Templars are quite Slow/Reliable/Resilient, I wanted to go to the opposite end of the scale; Speed, Psychic Power and more Fragile in terms of play style. So it was a very tough choice between Harlequins and Slaanesh Daemons (yes, even more opposite!) but Slaanesh Daemons have won me over by the fact that I can use them if I ever decide to get back into Fantasy/AoS.

 

Managed to snag myself 30 unbuilt Daemonettes on ebay and hope to use that as a basis for a Patrol detachment to start with. Obviously full command and the Rapturous Standard. I'm going to ignore Keeper of Secrets, for now, but wonder which way to go for HQ/FA/HS slots to build this up to 1000pts.

 

The Masque is a personal all-time favourite of mine, from a background standpoint, so will end up with her as one of the HQ slots even if her rules are/were/ever not amazing. Then I am torn between Syll'esske, or Epitome (with Slothful Claws) or Enrapturess/DP (with Forbidden Gem) as the other. How has each worked for you when anchoring a horde of Daemonettes going full speed towards the enemy? Especially at lower point levels.

 

2*3 Fiends is pretty much a given for me for Elites, but I am not overly impressed on paper with the Fast Attack or Heavy Support options. Should I just add more Daemonettes instead?

 

Thanks as always 

Edited April 28, 2021 by GenerationTerrorist

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Welcome!  I'm also a slaneshi demon player - you can check out the link in my signature for my army.

 

I haven't played them much, as they are kind of a side project from my Emperor's Children CSM.

 

That said, from my own experience:

 

1)  The special character Syll'Eske is a beast - in my game versus orks, it killed more orks than did my 60 demonettes.

 

2)  Even with +1 strength from a herald, demonettes don't really do anything... so don't count on them doing any of the heavy lifting in your army.

 

3)  I've heard good things about fiends, but haven't used mine yet myself.

 

4) One of the posters to this board has been successful at tourney's with his slaneshi demons... he had quite an interesting list.  I'm going to go see if I can find it, and if I can I'll post the link here - here it is: https://bloodofkittens.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Are-Verlo-1st-Place-Invasion-40k-2020-Chaos-Daemons.pdf

Edited April 28, 2021 by Dr_Ruminahui

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to the warp, you've made the best choice in my completely unbiased opinion Rumi covers the basics, your HQ choices will all work but at smaller points some boon to your Daemonettes would go far. S3 can struggle, S4 works much better but don't forget AT as it's a weakness of Slaanesh. Think of Daemonettes as a horde combat unit and you won't go far wrong.

 

Fiends are very good in my experience, their great speed is the best thing but they hit pretty well too. HQs are important as aside from giving you some of the stronger hitting and support they also provide your main method of moving quickly. Slingshotting units into combat via Characters is a core part of how the army works, and with something like Fiends can really trouble your opponent as they zip across the table to engage something.

 

I'm thinking about HS currently, I think the Soulgrinder is the way to go. Chariots require number I think but I've not used them yet. Have you thought about colour schemes yet? Don't forget to show us pictures

[Panzer]

A bit of a necro, but I figured the Daemons subforum is so inactive and I have been absent for so long I'll go ahead and post anyway. 

 

I'm about to play my first Slaanesh Daemons match in 9e this saturday so I did some basic research to prepare myself.

From what I've gathered, playing Slaanesh Daemons in 40k is all about trying to stay in combat to not get shot off the board, so Fiends and the Contorted Epitome are in pretty much every successfull list. There usually also are 2+ KoS since they are simply strong and cover something Slaanesh Daemons are usually lacking otherwise in form of high strength attacks with good AP and good damage. Whether you focus on lots of Daemonettes as the main bulk of your army or focus more on Fiends and KoS is probably up to you, I've seen both kinds of lists being successfull on tournaments.

[WarriorFish]

It has been fairly active of late in part due to Be'lakor (check him out if you haven't already), but good to see you back again Panzer I think the newer toys are well worth having as they have more legs for the more recent attention but aside from it being nice to have said new toys they're also great models so not a hardship to add them to your roster :)

 

I have been thinking about this a bit more recently with games looking to be returning soon, and I think the vehicles shooting in combat is something to watch out for. Not so much of a deal for Daemonettes who die like flies at the best of times more the larger and more important models who are likely to be chopping the more dangerous vehicles. I was keen on the enhanced survivability options already but anything to try and help keep your vital units around longer will be well worth considering.

 

Of course better to kill things quickly so they can't fight back as there's no safer method but beggars can't be choosers Don't forget to report back on how your first game goes (bonus points for a picture batrep!)

[Panzer]

 

Of course better to kill things quickly so they can't fight back as there's no safer method but beggars can't be choosers Don't forget to report back on how your first game goes (bonus points for a picture batrep!)

 

Careful with that though. It's only better to kill things quickly if it doesn't mean you are left standing out in the open afterwards. Getting shot by half an army is usually a lot scarier than getting hit in melee by one or two units. :P

 

Oh I'm expecting it to be a massacre on my behalf unless I'm getting lucky. I only have 30 Daemonettes, 3 Fiends, 15 Seekers (well only 5 and 10 of the older AoS mortal cavalry lol) and none of the big hitter characters. If my Herald on chariot dies I don't really know how to deal with the tougher units AdMech can field even in a 1000p list. 

[WarriorFish]

Yeah, the balance of being killy enough but not too killy is hard because there are so many variables across targets like T/W/Sv and of course any fancy rules they may have on top... That's before we consider the dice :P So I don't think about it much during list planning, plus I can usually count on my dice to be rubbish when the time comes so I can "afford" to aim higher to accommodate :lol:

 

At least you know how your list is likely to fare. Herald will be key in about every way, but will probably be target priority one accordingly. Making use of the character slingshotting from the Locus will probably make or break the game too, but if you can play tag with enemy units you might gain some leverage there especially for objectives. There is some merit in going in as the underdog, as expectations are lower - good luck!

[Panzer]

Small update for the ones who're interested. It's not really worth a new thread tbh as I won't turn this into a whole batrep thing.

 

My list is going to be:

964p /1000p
Patrol detachment
Rewards of Chaos -1CP

 

HQ
Herald of Slaanesh on Hellflayer, Symphony of Pain, The Forbidden Gem
Herald of Slaanesh on Seeker Chariot, Quicksilver Duelist, Symphony of Pain, The Slothful Claws, Warlord

 

Troops

1x30 Daemonettes, Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, Rapturous Standard (-1CP)
1x12 Daemonettes, Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos

 

Elites
1x3 Fiends

 

Fast Attack
1x15Seekers, Daemonic Icon, Heartseeker, Instrument of Chaos, Rapturous Standard (-1CP)

 

 

And I'm going to face this list AdMech (copy&paste so please forgive the formatting):

Dominus  Warlord
    Phosphorserpenta 
    Logi 
    Master Annihilator
    Phosphoenix

 

Manipulus
    Transsonic cannon
    Artisans
    Ashrunner 1cp
    Pseudogenetor 1cp

 

Ensingseer

 

20x Vanguard
        Datatheser 

 

10x Corpuscarii

 

10 infiltrators

 

Onager icarus 
Onager phosphor

 

 

Honestly, the 10 Infiltrators alone scare me already. I can't really ignore them (unless he places them far away for some reason) and even if I go first it kinda requires my whole 30 Daemonettes to deal with them. More if he goes first and brings them under 20 models.

 

Double Symphony of Pain on my Heralds because honestly the other powers are pretty trash so I'd rather cast Smite than those anyway and this way I still have Symphony of Pain even if one of them dies.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Panzer