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Recently I've been thinking about going with a pure Slaneesh daemon army. However, I've run across a tactical situation that I have no idea if it can be overcome. My basic problem is that while Slanesshi units move fast the don't hit very hard and they have no ranged weapons at all. This means that the only way to bring down say a flyer is via Psychic abilities or with a Daemon Prince with wings and it takes a Keeper of Secrets to deal with heavily armored units like Titans and most Lords of War.

So, my question to the general community is: If you were running a pure Slaneesh daemon army how would you prepare to face flyers and/or heavy units.

Replies of don't do it or add something else are not helpful and thus not really wanted. Thank you for your insights.

I am playing GSC. I have the same problem. My opponent runs dakkajets and outside of ridge runners I have no awnser to the planes. They deny deep strike and kills one unit a turn each

My suggestion is to play for objectives and accept heavy losses. Or grab something that can fight it.

Winged Princes can assault flyers, at the very least.

Combine with the Contorted Epitome for insta kills.

I don't see how the Contorted Epitome enters into this. The BRB (p213) states that flyers do not need to fall back out of engagement range. The CE just stops units from making fall back moves.

@Naiiai - Why don't you just shoot it down with ranged weapons. At least, I assume GSC have access to ranged weapons.

Leo_the_Rat wrote:
I don't see how the Contorted Epitome enters into this. The BRB (p213) states that flyers do not need to fall back out of engagement range. The CE just stops units from making fall back moves.

@Naiiai - Why don't you just shoot it down with ranged weapons. At least, I assume GSC have access to ranged weapons.

Not so much actually.

Leman russes only hit airplanes in 5+, making it hard.

Ridgerunners can hit on 4+ after gettin boosted by the atelean alfa. But they are mostly the only thing you have going in the army anyway. So they are a bit oversaturated for targets.

With GSC, you're typically hitting on a 4+, or 5+ against flyers, and you don't get a lot of shots with mining lasers (although you can fit a lot of them into an army)

To deal with flyers as slaanesh daemons, I recommend psychic powers and winged Daemon princes. About the only option you've got unless you expand out into Chaos Marines (Emperor's Children would solve all your worries!)

Leo_the_Rat wrote:
I don't see how the Contorted Epitome enters into this. The BRB (p213) states that flyers do not need to fall back out of engagement range. The CE just stops units from making fall back moves.

@Naiiai - Why don't you just shoot it down with ranged weapons. At least, I assume GSC have access to ranged weapons.

Ah-that’s a minor detail I missed.

Okay, so ignore the Epitome bit, but flying Princes can still eat them.

The problem with flying princes are that they are an HQ unit. I would want/need 2 Keepers and 1 herald and that means I take a battalion limiting me to 3 HQs. If I want 4 HQs then I need to add a patrol to the mix. Or I need to take 2 patrols which would still give me the 4 HQs I need but I still only have 1 unit to deal with flyers and DPs aren't all that durable.

There's also the matter of getting to the flyer. I suppose that I could warptime it (if I'm lucky and make the roll and my opponent doesn't deny the roll) and then charge after making 2 assault moves. While that would make the average threat distance (12+3.5 x2 +7) 38". I should be able to get to the flyer regardless of where it starts but I'd have to be going first. Otherwise my opponent may get to my DP first.

For GSC, I recommend command squads, veterans, scions, hydras, and their ready supply of cheap psykers. Leman russ are not great for killing enemy flyers -- but leman russ tank commanders are not half bad. Can GSC take tank commanders? The diffident armor pen and s8 profile of the missle launcher is a sweet spot for beating up flyers -- and its a very similar profile to the battle cannon on a LR tank commander. All that stuff can shoot an enemy flyer at 4+ when you factor in 1 point of minus from the flyer's supersonic. BUT.
One model can do better -- put a plasma pistol in the hands of your lord commisar, and you can fire with 2+ bs all you want brood brother!
For the chaos demons (these I don't know) I will say however, that belakos is a specific demon -- so he brings a different list of psyker powes. If you get only 1 demon prince he might be a wise pick, cause then you can cast cacophony from someone else, adn shut off an invlun shield with him, and then close to attack.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
For GSC, I recommend command squads, veterans, scions, hydras, and their ready supply of cheap psykers.
For the chaos demons (these I don't know) I will say however, that belakos is a specific demon -- so he brings a different list of psyker powes. If you get only 1 demon prince he might be a wise pick, cause then you can cast cacophony from someone else, adn shut off an invlun shield with him, and then close to attack.

Do you mean Belakor? Because he loses you the Locus if you take him in the same Detachment.

One of the question is, what is the opposing flier doing? I run pure Slaanesh myself, and the effort required to take out my opponents fliers is too much IMO. Fliers are expensive this edition, they generally only shoot, and don't contribute to objectives. With all that taken into consideration, I find it much more beneficial to just kill everything else and play to the objectives.

I considered that and that was the conclusion that I came to as well. I'm just seeing if I have other alternatives (choices are nice).

If I wanted to have 2 detachments I could have 1 Slaneesh and the other one "Other". I wouldn't lose the locus ability of Slaneesh in the first detachment and would be able to field things like flamers and exalted flamers in the second detachment. The thing is that I really only want to play with mono detachments since I usually only play casual games. I just want to have a list that can compete not necessarily be optimized.

Please keep the ideas and discussion coming.

2 keepers, syl’eske, lots of Daemonettes, and seekers, fiends etc for flavor and you’ll have a plenty good list for a semi comp environment. I don’t think you’d be going over the top if you brought two detachments to get all the tasty hqs you want either. Contorted epitome is also great

I assume the opponents flyers are airplanes? If you clip them with something flying (fries?) when they need to move they can not shoot because of falling back. Or are furies fantasy only?

 Niiai wrote:
I assume the opponents flyers are airplanes? If you clip them with something flying (fries?) when they need to move they can not shoot because of falling back. Or are furies fantasy only?

Furies are in the Chaos Dex, but Fliers don't need to Fall Back when in Engagement Range. They can just move out.