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Hi all,
I am starting a new army while I finish up painting my Death Guard and Slaanesh horde. Can you please give me constructive feedback on this list and how well it will fare in the competitive environment. I tried to take as little mech as possible to get as much benefit from combat drugs as I could. All min squads so no Icon of Excess anywhere. I feel the biggest weakness is lack of AP2 shooting hence the raptors with melta guns.

Emperors Children Rapture Battalion

Core
Kakophoni
Chaos Lord (Goes with Spawn or Raptor Talon)
-The Soulsnare Lash, Jump Pack
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster
Noise Marines
-Blast Master, Sonic Blaster, Doom Siren, Rhino with Dirge Caster

Auxiliary
Raptor Talon
Chaos Lord
-Blissgiver, Melta bombs, Jump Pack
Raptors
-2x Meltagun, Melta Bombs on champion
Raptors
-2x Meltagun, Melta Bombs on champion
Raptors
-2x Meltagun, Melta Bombs on champion
Spawn
4x Spawn

I love the idea of getting shred and +1 strength on sonic weapons but I think having to take all 6 squads for the +1 strength becomes a little pointless when you end up with so few sonic weapons. May be worth considering going with fewer squads but more sonic blasters?

I think the list would struggle if you came up against gargantuan MCs, you'd have to focus all the raptors there leaving any other armour to be dealt with by blast masters which wouldn't be particularly efficient. Again, dropping some noise marines in exchange for some more anti armour/high toughness might be worth consideration.

Both Lords have weapons that can instant death or remove from play if they get lucky. All melta bombs will get a chance to hit against gargantuans or monstrous creatures even if the champions are killed. If I drop a spawn I can add melta bombs to the noise marine champions as well. Would that help?

Well, if you're going competitive, you sadly don't have obsec across anything, so a Maelstrom/Objective based game will be rough.

I would also be careful attaching the Chaos Lord from the Kakophoni to the Raptor Talon as that will prevent them from assaulting from Deep Strike, which is really their biggest benefit. Sticking him with the Spawn is decent. I would also move most of your Sonic Blasters into just a couple units and let those hang back; Salvo is crippling on your range when you're moving around and one shooting out of the hatch really isn't that impressive. You can have your Sonic Blaster marine squads camp mid-field objectives while your others and the Raptors get around to snatch others and deal with squads.

The Kakophoni is a great boon to ranged Noise Marines, but you really should try and take better advantage of both it and the combat drugs.

For starters, go for gold, and make sure you max out your sonic weapons while still getting the maximum units for the strength bonus. That gives you 1 blastmaster and 3 sonic blasters per squad. Sonic blasters will be strength 5, blast masters will be strength 9, everything ignores cover, everything gets rerolls to wound, AND you can now direct the sonic blasters at one target and the blast master at another, if you so choose.

Second, strongly consider a sorcerer. Getting a symphony of pain roll, and having an army of strength 6 salvo 2/3 is nothing to scoff at, not to mention a strength 10 small blast that ignores cover, is AP3, and rerolls to wound. Good luck jinking from that.

Third, combat drugs. They are going to be random, and as such, it makes sense to have a mix of units like you do, since only 1 of the 6 possibilities make your shooters better (+BS), 1 makes everyone better (+T), 1 is largely irrelevant (+I? Really? I need initiative 6?), and the other 3 (thats half, mind you) only help you in CC (+S, +WS, +A). Definitely consider keeping the raptors and the spawn...however...

...point four, did you mark those units? If they don't get the Mark of Slaanesh, they don't get the love. While it is VotLW which gives the special rules, the requirements for running an Emperors Children detachment is that all units which CAN take the MoS must do so. Raptors and Spawn can take them, and so they must. Consider recalculating your points as a result.

Last point is to restate that which has been stated, and that is the lack of obsec. Definitely consider getting some on the board somehow, even if it's running a CAD of EC with bare-bones noise marines or regular csm. There is always a reason to have a couple obsec units in your army.

To find the needed points, I would start by dropping some of the rhinos, then tuning down the spawn (they are not a requirement of the Rapture Battalion if you have the Raptor Talon), and definitely drop the doom sirens on units you intend to sit back and shoot with.

Just my two cents.