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So, I've run an all-slaanesh Daemons army for years. That won't be changing. But after a quick read through of the new codex, it looks pretty dire for the followers of slaanesh..

- no Aura of Acquiescence any more, so no assault/defensive grenades
- no Soporific Musk to give hit & run to fiends and keepers, so they're now lockable in combat

Given that the slaanesh units are suh a glass cannon, that's a pretty big hit. What are the advantages?

- 3" extra move on the run (but not the charge)
- slaanesh furies are half-decent for the points.
- outflanking seekers

So, it seems like my army is pretty buggered to me, but other threads are claiming slaanesh to be quite strong? Does anyone have any idea why? What's the interesting new advantage I've missed?



PS - please don't post something like 'get some plague bearers' or 'convert some slaanesh plague bearers' etc etc. if it doesn't have a mark of slaanesh, it's not going in the army!!

Im pretty sure that the new advantage is that your daemonettes are now significantly less points.

The big monsters seem to be better too, and the slaanesh special weapon from greater rewards is sweet on a prince. 2d6 shots at the demon prince's strength and BS on a flying monster.

Ah the whip on a price, I did not think of that! How does the rending rules work, does the whip also get rending of the unit has it?

The good things with slaanesh daemons I think will be the fact that you can re-roll to hit with the small HQ (quite good!) Also you can reduce your oponents inisiative so you both hit on 1's.

Also, the medium gifts in the price table looks very sweet as they make the gretaer demons harder to hit/kill.

Sell the army to me for dirt cheap. That's the best solution.

Seriously.....yes they appear to be quite viable.

I know you don't want to hear of any non-slaanesh models but hear me out the new Khorn skullcannons are actually pretty decent you can keep two in reserve and pop them out second turn they fire 36 inch large blasts that when they hit a unit any demons charging them gain assault grenades (Ignore cover and decent strength doesn't hurt either). I don't think I need to tell you how awesome that is for Slaanesh being able to rip apart whole units without any retaliation and go onto the next at full strength. Plus it would be fun to use those fantastic looking Slaanesh chariots that are still horrible in game, slap a cool looking Slaanesh cannon thing in front of the driver and call it good.

Faster soulgrinder.

Same trend as all 6 ED codexes so far. Troops get better (even if its only because they can be more numerous for comparable points) and the best HQs buff those troops. Look past the pure elite/fast choices from the last codex and you'll see well built, balanced Slaanesh demon armies are incredibly viable.

The points cost turned Slaanesh daemons from a niche unit taken against specific foes, to a viable horde army. You can quickly pile up a lot of attacks for those Rending 6's, though the low Strength hurts in general like it always has.
If you take the Masque, you can perform a double whammy of deep-striking a big unit nearby then slowing their target right down so that they're all but guaranteed to get the charge.

There is talk over the slaanesh -5 init ability putting models to init 0 which makes them strike after your init 1 if you are forced to assault through cover, which would really be great to overcome the no assault grenades and I'm praying GW rules it this way.

 ArbitorIan wrote:
So, I've run an all-slaanesh Daemons army for years. That won't be changing. But after a quick read through of the new codex, it looks pretty dire for the followers of slaanesh..

- no Aura of Acquiescence any more, so no assault/defensive grenades
- no Soporific Musk to give hit & run to fiends and keepers, so they're now lockable in combat

Given that the slaanesh units are suh a glass cannon, that's a pretty big hit. What are the advantages?

- 3" extra move on the run (but not the charge)
- slaanesh furies are half-decent for the points.
- outflanking seekers

So, it seems like my army is pretty buggered to me, but other threads are claiming slaanesh to be quite strong? Does anyone have any idea why? What's the interesting new advantage I've missed?


PS - please don't post something like 'get some plague bearers' or 'convert some slaanesh plague bearers' etc etc. if it doesn't have a mark of slaanesh, it's not going in the army!!

Hardcore Slaanesh player for many many years. I've won many of tournaments with a mono god army such as this one. I do not agree with the other peoples assessment concerning Slaanesh and the codex in general.

When you remove any chance of having assault/defensive grenade aspect of your army. You are Boned. BONED because of the 6th ED is a shooty Rule set negates this now horde army. Then give them instability? Screws them even more. Reduce 1 attack from before? (Daemonettes) Another Boned move.The 225 model army is going back to its display case/storage. There are better armies that play horde than this.

Allies are what they are good for now. And that is not for me. I'll go break out my Slaanesh CSM and play them. At least I have a fair chance of winning a game than this mess.

One more thing Getting REAL tired of Magic the Gathering with Plastic. Get your special character to unlock those special powers in your deck, err your army. Another money grab for Geeedub.

Your daemonettes are 9 points apiece now, that's 180 points for SIXTY rending attacks on the charge. They can kill anything from TEQ to MCs to even Vehicles 12AV or below. Seekers are only 12 points now. Heralds either make you I10 or make everyone else -5 to their intiative. The Masque is basically the anti-deathstar, screwing over whichever unit you want. To top ot off, everyone of your units runs and extra 3" (6" for seekers and fiends) all but assuring a turn 2 charge.

Fiends got hurt a bit - loss of Eternal Warrior, 2 attacks, Hit & Run, and a point of strength is not counter-balanced by 1 more (T4) wound, init penalties for the enemy, and a minor ding to psykers. But their new init penalty for the enemy is interesting - you can either run some small units (and treat them like assault grenades - run in alongside your bigger units), or run a big unit and try for multi-assaults.

Everything else got better. Seekers are absurdly good for their points against anything that isn't flying or up a staircase. The Keeper has better options for survival (against things that aren't Force Weapons). Daemonettes are worth fielding at this cost, particularly when you can buff them a bit with a Herald, and slip some AP 2 weapons into the mix. Telepathy is a solid selection of powers; the Slaaneshi ones are okay (though the new Pavane is admittedly pretty lame, barring some very selective tricks).

I'm starting with a core of 60 Daemonettes, 20 Seekers, and 9 Fiends, backed with 4 Heralds (2 mounted, 2 on foot); that's a bit over 1300 pts, before upgrading the Heralds at all. Toss up as to whether to bring a Keeper, a Daemon Prince, or The Masque in the other HQ slot. Consider a Soulgrinder or 2 for Skyfire.

If you want to throw points at it, you can have 8 chances to roll up Invisibility, which makes Seekers & Fiends truly shine - move into some area terrain on turn 1 for 2+ cover, assault on turn 2.

Now, it could be better if you (and I) weren't so monotheistic. Nurgle adds a lot of objective-camping staying power for relatively few points (and Nurgle Soul Grinders are going to be hated everywhere). Tzeentch gets access to Divination, which can be very helpful for everything from shooting down fliers to making your Fiends/Seekers hit like a true ton of bricks. But if you don't mind allying in some CSMs or IG, you can probably patch around those issues easily enough.

Heralds either make you I10 or make everyone else -5 to their intiative.

I10 yes, but they can't make anything -5 to their I, unless they roll 1-2 on the Slaanesh table for powers, and are at least a Lv.1 Psyker themselves.

 HERO wrote:

Heralds either make you I10 or make everyone else -5 to their intiative.

I10 yes, but they can't make anything -5 to their I, unless they roll 1-2 on the Slaanesh table for powers, and are at least a Lv.1 Psyker themselves.

Sorry ur right, mean to say KoS

PanzerLeader wrote:
Same trend as all 6 ED codexes so far. Troops get better (even if its only because they can be more numerous for comparable points) and the best HQs buff those troops. Look past the pure elite/fast choices from the last codex and you'll see well built, balanced Slaanesh demon armies are incredibly viable.

Did CSM troops get better?

 labmouse42 wrote:

PanzerLeader wrote:
Same trend as all 6 ED codexes so far. Troops get better (even if its only because they can be more numerous for comparable points) and the best HQs buff those troops. Look past the pure elite/fast choices from the last codex and you'll see well built, balanced Slaanesh demon armies are incredibly viable.

Did CSM troops get better?

Noise Marines certainly did, plus Cultists/Plague Zombies. Regular CSMs did okay - slight discount over previous versions.

Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:

 HERO wrote:

Heralds either make you I10 or make everyone else -5 to their intiative.

I10 yes, but they can't make anything -5 to their I, unless they roll 1-2 on the Slaanesh table for powers, and are at least a Lv.1 Psyker themselves.

Sorry ur right, mean to say KoS

KoS is the same thing.
He has to have Acquience psychic power.

You're thinking Fiends.

I'm very disappointed in what I'm hearing so far (of course, I pre-ordered my book from GW, so I haven't got it yet).

But, all the discussion seems to be how daemons are now a horde army. Great, just what I didn't want. I already have two horde armies in foot guard and orks. Chaos Space Marines added their own horde component too.

So now my army of previously elite hard-hitting combat guys is now a army of lots of weak combat guys. Nerfs all around, and so what if they cost less, I don't want another horde.

 Redbeard wrote:
I'm very disappointed in what I'm hearing so far (of course, I pre-ordered my book from GW, so I haven't got it yet).

But, all the discussion seems to be how daemons are now a horde army. Great, just what I didn't want. I already have two horde armies in foot guard and orks. Chaos Space Marines added their own horde component too.

So now my army of previously elite hard-hitting combat guys is now a army of lots of weak combat guys. Nerfs all around, and so what if they cost less, I don't want another horde.

You have a few options.
* Go to bartertown and trade your daemons for an army that you might like.
* Play them as a 'counts as' army.
* Bring 5 MCs/FMCs.

We cant be really shocked that GW made the old army invalid. That's been their MO for a while. They want you to buy more models with a new codex so they make the stuff that used to be rock solid garbage, then make you buy stuff you never did before. For example, Eldar players better start stocking up on swooping hawks.

 vossyvo wrote:
There is talk over the slaanesh -5 init ability putting models to init 0 which makes them strike after your init 1 if you are forced to assault through cover, which would really be great to overcome the no assault grenades and I'm praying GW rules it this way.

Is it literally -5 Initiative down to 0, or is it 'to a minimum of 1'? Because that would be amazing

Yea that is definitely how it works, page 2 of the big rule book states that no characteristic can be modified above 10 or below 0 also when assaulting into difficult terrain it says that you are striking at I 1 so that means if you attack anything that is I 5 or lower in close combat you will strike first

 labmouse42 wrote:

We cant be really shocked that GW made the old army invalid. That's been their MO for a while. They want you to buy more models with a new codex so they make the stuff that used to be rock solid garbage, then make you buy stuff you never did before. For example, Eldar players better start stocking up on swooping hawks.

We can be shocked that they changed the basic nature of the army. I mean, Marines aren't suddenly a horde army, regardless of what support units are good or bad in any given codex. Guard don't suddenly become a low-model count elite army. I don't think I've seen the statline of basic models change so drastically in any codex rewrite.

You have a few options.
* Go to bartertown and trade your daemons for an army that you might like.

Heh. There's no one that could trade anything like what my army is worth.

* Play them as a 'counts as' army.

Counts as what? Seriously, what might a daemon model count as?

Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
To top ot off, everyone of your units runs and extra 3" (6" for seekers and fiends) all but assuring a turn 2 charge.

I thought the rule said units comprised entirely of cavalry got the additional 6". Fiends are beasts. Is there a connection I am missing?

 Green is Best! wrote:

Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
To top ot off, everyone of your units runs and extra 3" (6" for seekers and fiends) all but assuring a turn 2 charge.

I thought the rule said units comprised entirely of cavalry got the additional 6". Fiends are beasts. Is there a connection I am missing?

you're right I misread the book AGAIN

Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:


you're right I misread the book AGAIN

Welcome to the "I misread the codex club." I am a lifetime member.

 Redbeard wrote:
I'm very disappointed in what I'm hearing so far (of course, I pre-ordered my book from GW, so I haven't got it yet).

But, all the discussion seems to be how daemons are now a horde army. Great, just what I didn't want. I already have two horde armies in foot guard and orks. Chaos Space Marines added their own horde component too.

So now my army of previously elite hard-hitting combat guys is now a army of lots of weak combat guys. Nerfs all around, and so what if they cost less, I don't want another horde.

It's too early to be whining about this. Maybe next month your tears will be valid.

 Sasori wrote:
It's too early to be whining about this. Maybe next month your tears will be valid.

Well, aren't you funny. Of course, you're taking the quote out of context - this is the right month to be crying. The quote you're referencing was in regard to Sisters, when the rules were known, and the point costs were not. We know both about the daemons though.

Still, B+ for effort.

I am a follower of Nurgle, so I don't have all the Slaanesh parts memorized, but The Dark Prince seems to be doing pretty well. With access to cheap AP2 CC weapons your heralds and unti champions should be tearing it up in melee. The key is making sure that you get there and there are enough of the ladies left to finish the job.

The name of the game is going to be target saturation. Make sure there are enough targets on the board where your opponent won't be able to kill everything before you get to charge.

This blog's tactics get into detail about possible strategies to use with daemons, not just Slaanesh. Very interesting reads.

http://daemons40k.blogspot.ca/2013/03/daemon-icons-and-possibilites.html

But...but...rending!