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As I've been at school and not doing much Warhammer related the only thing that's been at my mind is how badly I want to paint my army and get into it again this summer. I play Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids. I play Nids rarely, but I think they're cool. Chaos however, is my true love. When my friend got me into the hobby he showed me the wrong book, the 3.5 book. For those of you who don't know this is when Daemons and CSM were one in the same.

My gaming partners are ones who don't mind doing things like a 2,000 point game where I can have something like, gee, I don't know, two 1,000 point detachments. The seed has been sown since I was corrected about which book to use two years ago when I began. Now it's sprouting. I bought a box of Daemonettes to use as "Lesser Daemons" and I know that a Keeper of Secrets will be in my hands before long. The idea is to have a painted and fully functional 1,250 point Slaaneshi Daemon army by the end of the summer.

The only problem with this is I'm not quite sure where to begin. I know Daemonettes are a must and the Keeper is too cool for me not to have. Fiends are well and good (and expensive), and the heavy support slot is often a topic of debate. Just from the stats, grenades, Pavane of Slaanesh, and fleet, this seems like an army that can deepstrike and safe distance away but still lunge in for the kill a little bit faster than the opponent hopes for. I could be wrong. I'd like a force that can play on its own, as a detachment, or be a solid chunk in summer apocalypse games.

Are there any vets who can give me a few tips, both financial and game tips? Any help is appreciated!

I play mono slaanesh all the time and its pretty tricky to pull off :3

most of the time you want two keepers and about three blobs of 20 man strong daemonettes (or else they just die -_-) as a core for large point games

next add a few units of 6 fiends which you can make from seekers or WFB spiders with daemonette torsos

then about 2-3 daemon princes should mop up the rest of the points ^_^

so for 1250pts I would roughly go:

2 keepers

2X 20 man blobs of daemonettes

1 unit of 6 fiends

a daemon prince

And what about Seekers? Their models are crazy cool and they have a 24" threat range 0.o

their good but die too fast :/ their main problem is that their too good at killing. a ten man unit has 50 rending attacks which will kill what ever they charge leaving them open for a volly of fire next turn

So their problem is that they are too good? That's kind of funny to hear when most people whine about things being awful or through the roof op. I could almost see a group of these deepstriking >18"-24" away from a rapid fire squad and doing their dirty work next turn....

yeah, OP is something bad in the daemons codex, like blood crushers. sure they'll kill what ever they touch but that leaves them in the open to get shot at some more

with daemons you want to stay in combat untill the end of your opponents turn if your fighting a shooty army, or kill chunks of his army in one go if its a combat army.

The real big benefit to Slaneesh is that Slaneeshi Monsterous Creatures (and I think a couple other units) can take Soporific Musk, which gives them hit and run.IIRC, the Slaneeshi Herald can imbue Hit and Run on the unit she joins...

Let me give a second opinion here as someone else who plays Slaanesh Daemons.

Daemonettes are bad, very bad. Spending 1/3rd of your armies points on them doesn't make them less bad. Nothing you can do will make them good. They absolutely should have been WS5.

Seekers on the other hand are a great unit. While I completely agree that you don't want to wipe your opponent on the charge with slaanesh daemons Seekers aren't exactly killing squads left and right.

Lets say you take 10 seekers, and proper usage of their 24 inch charge range you get them into combat without taking any wounds. Average opponent being a space marine you get.

50 attacks, 25 hits, roughly 8 wounds, 4 of which are rending. Of the remaining 4 wounds 2-3 are saved. You just killed 5-6 marines. That isn't "overkill" by any stretch of the word.

And I am a huge fan of taking the masque. Put her in your (hopefully) second group so when she deploys she can pull 3 enemy units closer to your already large charge range. Not to mention that oh so glorious 3+ invuln. On top of that if you take 1-2 Grinders with her she can pavane your opponent nicely together for his templates.

If you are absolutely insistent on taking daemonettes then take a few small squads, put them in your second wave and when they show up deepstrike them near or onto objectives and throw them to ground. Their only purpose is to be scoring. Personally despite running a Slaanesh themed list I replaced them with plaguebearers. (Using Dryad models to represent Slaanesh's Garden of Vainglory.)

But assuming you refuse to use the vastly superior plaguebearers at 1250 I would run a list like so.

Keeper of Secrets.
Masque (Put with a unit of daemonettes)
Herald on steed (put with seekers)
3 small units of daemonettes (5-6, 6 for holy numbers wee)
Unit of 6 fiends
Unit of 10 seekers
2x Soul Grinders.

I don't have my book with me for exact prices but that looks about right. If you don't like Grinders you can go princes or if you need to save points you can remove one of the heralds.

Seekers are whatever, I'd rather have more daemonettes honestly... but if you're playing Slaaneshi daemonettes, then you absolutely must take 3 units of 6 fiends. They are too good not to take them (they are easily the best unit in the book). If you do take daemonettes, definitely take more than 6 in a squad... I recommend shooting for unit sizes between 15 and 20. If you want to stick to the 'holy number'; thing (which afaik is old fluff that has since been removed, considering that there is absolutely no mention of it in the daemons book, aside from max unit sizes on certain units... honestly they are more arbitrary than anything, what with nurglings being max size 9 (tzeentchs supposed number) and tzeentch units being max 12, etc.).

I don't play Daemons, but I would take as many Daemonettes as possible. They have 3 attacks each with the Rending rule, and they're the cheapest lesser Daemons available. A 20 strong troupe of Daemonettes will make 60 Rending attacks, probably before the enemy, and with the Rending rule they could easily wipe out an MEQ unit in a turn. Plus, they're fast, so they'll be able to get to the enemy quickly.

Oh yeah, also fun: Take Skarbrand with an all slaanesh daemons army. The fact that all your units are like I5/I6 means that its irrelevant that your opponent benefits from your reroll bubble, as you will be killing most of the enemy models in combat before they have a chance to take advantage of it.

To squigsquasher: Daemonettes are fourteen points per model and have three attacks each. Fourteen divided by three is 4.67. This means that I'm paying 4.67 points for one attack, essentially. Seekers are seventeen points per model but have four attacks. This means I'm paying 4.25 points per attack. This difference may seem trivial, but Seekers are also cavalry, which means they have a solid 24" threat range. Throw in the Masque and that could be potentially 30" (in essence) in one turn! I think a healthy mix of both is good, seeing how Daemonettes can go in buildings and such while cavalry cannot. Alas, we also cannot forget the most important rule: The rule of cool.

Thanks for the Skarbrand idea BTW, I like it.

@ squigsquasher. 20 Daemonettes on the charge will on average kill 6.6 marines with rending and have another 6.6 that need to take saves (2.2 failed saves)

So on average 20 nets are killing about 9 marines, who will then likely have to take fearless wounds and die. Now your blob of daemonettes is out in the open on your opponents turn.

The only reason you want 20 nets is because you want the squad to survive shooting. Putting them in your second wave where they can hide in reserve for half the game is a lot better "safety" than spending close to 300 points on a unit that dies as fast as guardsmen.

Daemon armies aren't about having their troops do the killing. They are about letting their HQs, Elites and Heavy Support do the hard work. While the troops stay nice and safe in reserve and then deepstrike onto objectives later in the game.

Taking 6 nets makes it much harder for my opponent to kill than 20 for multiple reasons.

1) Daemons deepstrike, having 20 nets gives you a MUCH higher chance of landing into a deepstrike mishap and landing into terrain kills a lot more of your daemons.

2) Footprint, It is a lot harder to keep 20 models in cover or out of line of sight than it is 6.

3) Target Priority. 6 Nets aren't scary. Your opponent will let them live because even his bolters are better used trying to kill your stronger units.

4) smaller squads can hide in close combat, 20 nets kill on the charge and then sit in the open to die.

Not to mention the amount of points you save and are now able to spend on a unit that doesn't suck. Example and its a big one. For the price of 20 nets, I can buy 6 nets and a full unit of fiends. Now especially at 1250 where points are needing to be optimized more. Why on earth would I pass up a unit of fiends so I can take more of a terrible unit? But like I said, for a single point more I can give my models 2 more toughess and FNP.

Uh, yeah, like I say, I don't play Daemons. I'm a Tyranid player, and as such my solution is "throw tides of Hormagaunts with Toxin Sacs at it until it dies". For everything, not just wargaming.

Annoying relatives coming round for dinner? Unleash the Hormagaunts.

Stuck in traffic? Unleash the Hormagaunts.

Date not going well?...Umm...

I wish I could unleash hormagaunts on people i don't like. T.T