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I'm thinking of this more as an idle thought experiment than anything else. Initial rough costing is making it pretty expensive, so the main question is whether you can actually get the value out of the expenditure over the course of a game.

Anyway. My line of reasoning is mostly that close combat death stars have a finite amount of targets each game (based on the fact that you'll only feasibly be able to kill 3-4 units over a 6~ turn game). Shooty death stars mostly lack either the mobility to keep range to murder something every turn, or are vulnerable to being tied up in close combat by something tough.

So I came up with this:

Slaanesh Lord - armament to be decided. Unit is weak to MC's/walkers at the minute.
Slaanesh Sorc - Mastery 3, rolling twice on biomancy hoping for Endurance.
20 Noise Marines - 19 sonic blasters, VoTLW (for re-rolls vs marines), extra CCW, Icon. Champ wargear to be decided.
Allied Daemons Daemon Prince - Mastery 3, rolling twice on biomancy again for endurance. Probably give him wings so that he can interdict onto close combat walker threats or otherwise stay mobile.
Optional (but probably required to get them into midfield quickly) Spartan Assault Tank with everything except the Prince loaded inside.

Essentially the gist is that you have a 2/3 chance of getting Relentless Sonic Blasters, which are then going to output 57 cover ignoring 24" range shots/turn on the move, and make it very costly for a non-vehicle units to charge due to overwatch. Roll powers for the Prince first so that if you get Endurance early you can instead roll twice on Slaanesh powers with the Sorc to hopefully get Symphony for S5 sonic weaponry. If you load them into the Spartan you can roll it up into midfield, hop them out and have the option to charge something do death to really plant you deep into their table half.

Obvious weaknesses - S8+ and/or AP3+ templates. Also it's insanely points expensive.

Thoughts? Is the cost worth the damage output? You're buying a very versatile death star that's both good at shooting stuff apart, and can hold its own in combat if it gets the charge due to I5, whilst also deterring being charged by most non-vehicle units. Also it scores. What would you add to the un-upgraded units to round things out? With some tweaking could something like this actually be feasible? Or is it just not worth spending 800-1.1k points on this when there are decent alternatives available? Especially since the survivabilty is something of a weak point (compared to some alternative death stars).

Champ would need power sword. Commence slaughter.

Sadly the lack of any real invulnerable save or 2+ means your costly deathstar gets wiped on turn one by ignores cover plasma pie plates, grav guns, helldrakes, massed WS fire... and gets stuck in cc with a Wraithknight with no real way of hurting it.

Against everything else it's okay.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much the biggest problem. You get so very very boned by ap3+ or high str templates, since that FNP roll is basically the main point of survivability.

First turn you'd probably be ok since you're hiding inside a Spartan, but there's no way the rest of the army could mitigate multiple heldrake threats or even MSU Blastmaster squads before you bailed out and started eating multiple templates/turn.

I dunno... I just feel bikes are superior because that +1 Toughness with a IoE means only Str 10 IDs them. Plus they get a built in cover save, better mobility, Hammer of Wrath, can still give the Lord a LC and PF to get the +1 attack and a weapon for any foe. You take Sigils on both to give you a for sure invuln save. Melta bombs on the Sorc and Champ, maybe a LC on the champ, Force Axe on the Sorc (if no Mark) or maul if you stick with the Mark. If your willing to give up FNP on the Sorc, you can just take him without a Mark for 3 rolls on Biomancy, but then sigil is a must on him. Plasmas on relentless bikes... yeah.

I just can't see normal marines being better than bikes or terminators, even with the increased numbers. You have to kit out your Lord and even your Sorc better. Even on a Bike your riding the FNP against a lot of stuff, but that increased Toughness helps a lot.

Ap0k wrote:

Slaanesh Sorc - Mastery 3, rolling twice on biomancy hoping for Endurance.

why mark him at all? you are likely giving him a power axe so you are paying 15 points to not roll on Biomancy once?

 Exergy wrote:

Ap0k wrote:

Slaanesh Sorc - Mastery 3, rolling twice on biomancy hoping for Endurance.

why mark him at all? you are likely giving him a power axe so you are paying 15 points to not roll on Biomancy once?

Well, his plan is to run 20 noise marines. He would get FNP and +1 Init on his sorc and hope he rolls Symphony of Pain (33%) to make his Sonic weapons better. Hysterical Frenzy is the only Chaos buff power for a whole unit so isn't terrible, specially combined with Biomancy. So it isn't a totally bad move.

But if your hell bent to get Endurance, going unmarked gives you a 50% percent chance to get it. This makes the DP less than Ideal to me, because your down to two chances at 33% if your roll the DP first and fail and then having the Sorc roll next. If your that hell bent to get it, you take a Unmarked lvl 3 Sorc and have him roll first. Then instead of Demons you Allie up with CSMs and take their HQ as a unmarked lvl 3 Sorc to give you another 3 rolls.