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So I was thinking of starting an Emperor's Children army alongside my beloved Tyranids, but I was wondering about what troops to take. If I do this army then it will be mono-Slaanesh, as I am a stickler for fluff.

Now, I'm not normally bothered about overly competitive builds, as I rarely actually play (due to my army being a long way from finished) and I consider 40K to be a casual, "beer and pretzels" type game, intended more for fun than tournament play. However, me and my friend were considering entering the Battle Brothers doubles tournament at some point, each with a 500 point force. He is doing a Dark Mechanicus army using the Grey Knight codex, whilst I will be doing Emperor's Children.

I haven't got the codex yet, but I want to know whether, on a semi-competitive level (Battle Brothers is a little bit less hardcore than, say, Throne of Skulls) I'd be better off taking Noise Marines or just ordinary Chaos Space Marines with the Mark of Slaanesh. Like I say, I want it to be mono-Slaanseh, as the thought of Berzerkers running alongside a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince annoys me no end.

Your thoughts?

Now I'm no expert, but there's a huge difference between MoS marines and noise marines.

MoS marines want to be in CC to take advantage of that +1 Initiative. The Noise Marines on the other hand, have great weapons and really need to be standing still to get the most out of them (which are relatively expensive). However they are good guns.

A regular opponent takes MoS bikers with the Icon of Excess and and MoS lord to unlock the Noise Marines as troops. The bikers are pretty good with T5, FNP and I5.

With only 500 points you're going to be hard pressed to fit a lot of noise marines in there. It's possible to spam around three minimized squads with a blastmaster at that points level.

I'd say if you want to do Slaanesh go for Marines with MoS with a MoS Sorcerer to lead them. The primaris power is actually pretty dang good. You can run the CSM in large assaulty blobs or you can run them in rhinos for the extra mobility.

In a doubles tournament I would probably suggest that you focus on the assault portion while your GK friend focuses on the shooting. Heres a list I just whipped up:

HQ: Chaos Sorcerer w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Sigil of Corruption = 100

Troop: 20 x CSM, Replace bolter with extra CCW, 2 x Flamers, Melta Bomb, Icon of Excess 315

Troop: 18 x Cultists 82

List total is 497

It's not the most competitive list, but it does have high fun/fluff factor. Slaanesh loves the din of battle and enjoys all the visceral aspects of combat. So you have twenty decked out marines with feel no pain and three attacks on the charge rushing up to put pressure on the opponent. I didn't put the Sorcerer in terminator armor because a Slaaneshi worshiper wouldn't ever want to be as slow as that. Instead I gave him a 4+ invulnerable so he can hopefully tank some precision shots. Roll your one power on the Slaaneshi table and if you don't get one that looks useful, just swap for the primaris which I think is pretty awesome. The devoted cultists stay back and either guard a home objective or help to bubble wrap your friend's Grey Knights.

I made this list without knowing your Grey Knights build, but I assume it is shooty. So I tried to make a fluffy list that was fun and also helped to compliment that play style.

Noise Marines are one of the most efficient points wise than any other Elite CSM.

Three basic ways to run them:

Pure shooty: 5 or 10 with 1 or 2 blastmasters and the rest with Sonic Blaster. Great firepower since they ignore cover...
137/264

Pure HTH: 10 Children, VotLw switch the bolter to CCW and give the Champion a Doomsiren and Lightning Claw or Power Maul. 220
You could add the CCW instead of replacing and then you would have the ability to shoot. 228

Hybrid: 10 Children: VotLW, add the CCW, 2 guys get Blastmasters, Champion with Doom Siren and Lightning Claw
290 This is the most costly but also most flexible... Put it in a rhino with havoc Launcher and your 2 blastmasters get to fire. Add a Dirge Caster to the Rhino and they still have the CC ability to charge.

A Slaanesh sorcerer can make them come alive if he gets symphony of pain... Target the enemy and you get +1 S to all sonic weapons and -1 BS and WS to that unit. I would like two sorcerers though so then the children are stuck as Elites... I suppose you could just build it with regular CSM with MoS and then take 3 shooty Emporer's Children as elites...

Thanks guys! I'll take that into account.