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I have been playing around with the prospects of using emperors children as long range artillary for me slanneshi daemon army, as a replacement for my roughly 300 point keeper of secrets Im just finding he isn't doing his job well enough. And is killing around 1 unit a game.

I run a horde army so my opponent rarely advances on me and it takes 1 or 2 turns to get into combat so I find some shooting is needed, especially with pinning, hence why Im leaning towards 2 units of 5 noise marines each unit with a blastmaster. 48 inch Str 8 AP 3 ignore cover with pinning sounds amazing! In a CAD they also synergise with my daemonic incursions corruption rule meaning they can sit on objectives ensuring they don't get purified.

Now I want to know of any downsides to running noise marines, and if there are better options for artillary please share below

If you really want to shell the jeebus out of someone, you can't go far wrong with Renegades of Vraks - you can pack an army almost exclusively with (ex)guard artillery vehicles.

They don't have access to Slaanesh, though - Nurgle or Khorne only.

Noise Marines are good. Expensive - if using them as a blastmaster caddy then you're essentially paying 6 points per model more than loyalist marines to upgrade And They Shall Know No Fear to Fearless - but the Blastmaster is damn nasty against a lot of opponents.

The main alternative is Soulgrinders, but Slaaneshi soulgrinders are better used as a melee version with a warpsword, given the Daemon of Slaanesh rule.

If you have access to Imperial Armour 13, consider the Emperor's Children Sonic Dreadnought - with a Warp Amp it can put out a lot more firepower than the same points worth of noise marines.

The other option is to invest in 300 points worth of Heralds Of Slaanesh - if you've not already taken your choice-of-four. Extra Telepathy will help get more of your army to the enemy intact.

I already get to the enemy intact and fine, I just feel that there are 2 turns I could be shelling my opponents with long range fire, I have tried soul grinders, but despite their 36 inches it seems too short a range, and they get a fair amount of high str fire or grav pelted into them. Also, it actually comes more expensive to take a soul grinder than a unit of noise marines and a blastmaster, the blastmaster is also arguably better, with ignore cover most units get 0 saves.

The sonic dreadnaught sounds interesting, although how would I field it without expending too many points on other units. I have a 350 point limit on my CSM detatchmemt. Vracks sound interesting but like you said they don't have a slanneshi option. Could you explain what a warp amp does?

What's going wrong with the KoS? Is it just taking too much early firepower? If so I'd be tempted to try deepstriking it, so you have time to tie things up with the seekers, daemonettes etc. before it arrives. Alternatively (or as well as that) maybe just run a cheaper version with only one or two greater rewards so if it under performs it's not such a big deal

I don't know... I just feel like a couple of units of noise marines isn't offering more than a Keeper does, and by introducing vehicles and/or guys in power armour you're giving the opponent targets for weapons that would otherwise be wasted against a pure daemon horde

True, but I was assuming the 48 inches would provide a long enough distance to be out of reach, the main problem I am finding with my keeper is just lack of strength, with the soulstealer and rewards he is impecable, and more often than not he survives. But he will often only take out 1 or 2 units as he only has 5 attacks, where my daemonettes are more than capable of wiping a whole unit in one turn with their 30 attacks on charge. I often give my keeper 2 greater rewards and I find they are rather unreliable, same problem with psychic powers.

If the noise marines even atleast weather some of the enemy units with their blastmasters, getting rid of some of their firepower, I will be rather pleased with them

Reavas wrote:
...Could you explain what a warp amp does?

Warp Amp: If the Sonic Dreadnought does not move in the controlling player's turn, it may double its rate of fire on any of its sonic weaponry for that player turn.

Fakkz wrote:

Reavas wrote:
...Could you explain what a warp amp does?

Warp Amp: If the Sonic Dreadnought does not move in the controlling player's turn, it may double its rate of fire on any of its sonic weaponry for that player turn.

Whoooaaaaaa thats awesome!

Blastmasters aren't good in my opinion namely because they are small blasts and only get 1-2 hits a time which is very low damage for the over 100 points you spent to take that 1 BM.