AoS 2 - Hedonites of Slaanesh Discussion

[Beliman]

Hi ppl! I'm not a Slaanesh follower (yet) but the new releases makes me curious (being a fan of Emperor's Children doesn't help too):

How does an army of Mortals play on AoS?
Are there any musts that I need to take care? I hate spamming the same unit.
Are there any novels to read about them? I love to read lore about cults and mortals infiltrating cities and corrupting things (the new Battleforce of Tzeentch is really tempting too).

 

[Enoby]

32 minutes ago, Beliman said:

Hi ppl! I'm not a Slaanesh follower (yet) but the new releases makes me curious (being a fan of Emperor's Children doesn't help too):

How does an army of Mortals play on AoS?
Are there any musts that I need to take care? I hate spamming the same unit.
Are there any novels to read about them? I love to read lore about cults and mortals infiltrating cities and corrupting things (the new Battleforce of Tzeentch is really tempting too).

 

It's hard to say how mortals play in Slaanesh as we haven't had any of our own besides Hellstriders, however Slaanesh as a whole is good for the idea of using strong Chaos Lords to bring forth an army of daemons with the pain the cause. Mortal-wise, unless our new stuff changes this, marauders are considered good with the Lurid Haze (nearly always get a first turn charge, 3 hits on 6s, and a lot of bodies), but I've had a lot of luck with chosen, the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak, Archaon, the Chaos Sorcerer Lord, and even the on foot Chaos Lord. I reckon the Lord of Pain will work well with our new stuff, and a KoS (despite not being mortal) will also be useful when we have more hedonite targets.

Lurid Haze Invaders tends to be the best for confirming an early charge, though I've found pretenders decent for rr1s to hit and having a very killy character. 

It's hard to say without knowing more about our new rules - these Painbringers, Two Souls, and Sigvald could have insane rules that change everything, or they could be a bit of a flop (hopefully not!). Assuming our allegiance abilities stay the same, universal extra hits on 6s is great, as is an inbuilt rr1s in the pretenders host for hordes, the extra move in Godseekers, and depravity points on tanky heroes (our mortal options are tankier than you might expect for Slaanesh) mean you can make a decent Slaanesh Mortals list. A KoS will likely still be wanted, but hopefully not needed after this release.

[Popisdead]

On 11/20/2020 at 5:37 AM, Vurtias said:

Im ashamed to admit despite owning close to 1.5k points of slaanesh daemons now, getting the chariot in shadow and pain is the first time I've bought a slaanesh chariot. As a quick question can you, and should i buy another chariot kit (likely from somebody selling the same one from S&P on eBay) and assemble it as an exalted seeker chariot?

I know such questions are not the best on these forums, but it's hard to know how good or bad the chariots genuinly are given how much we depend on depravity points.

Exalted Blade Bringer chariots are really good and I've seen 3 in lists often.  However,.. meta shifts so if you don't want to drop $240+ on chariots that's a risky venture.  

On 11/20/2020 at 6:21 AM, PensivePanther said:

As far as chariots go you cant go too wrong with an exalted chariot in either AoS or 40k. I'd say its a safe buy. Outside of that you should really have a plan or just expect mediocrity out of the modest hellflayer or seeker chariot. 

This.  I own 2 Hellflayers, an an Exalted and I've been custom making some rather eccentric Seeker chariots.  I wish I owned two more Exalted chariots but because they are converted wiht Juan Diaz sculpts unless GW makes another Build-To-Order wave of those I'm stuck.  

On 11/21/2020 at 7:27 AM, 5kaven5lave said:

Broken Realms: Sigvald to be the next book then?

Its' funny, friday someone photoshopped a Sigvald broken realms book and I thought "sigh,.. really?" and boy was I happy to be wrong.  I guess he got a good leak and waited close enough to tease us.

On 11/21/2020 at 7:43 AM, Gorthor21 said:

This just goes to show GW has been listening to what peoples complaints about their products what with new mortals being revealed.  

I feel this is a bit vague but what I'm feeling is GW is bringing back more AoS style stuff from WFB we miss a lot.  Sigvald, there was no reason he didn't survived as Chaos has mechanics to keep their heroes alive.  Plus we've seen people coming back to the game after they realized 40k is better with AoS-rules so AoS must finally be better and if GW releases our old armies then all is good.

On 11/22/2020 at 7:59 AM, Silphid said:

Am I the only one to think this will NOT be an addition to Hedonites and instead a stand alone faction?

who knows right?  I think what will happen is akin to Psychic Awakening in 40k.  I understand the PA books are being merged into the new 9th ed 40k codices and thus those old PA books will be phased out as armies get their new 9th ed codex.  

In parallel I expect Broken Realms books will be stop-gaps until AoS 3.0 battletomes are released.  For example July AoS 3.0 will probably drop, and shortly after Deepkin will get a new book withe the BR updates.  

21 hours ago, Rors said:

Twinsouls have the worst face sculpts I've ever seen. They don't look half demon, they look like they're made out of playdough. The rest of the release has me excited to added them into my STD list.

A friend told me "GW is terrible at sculpting female faces" and until I really looked at it,.. boy did I not see it.  That daemonette face with the crazy teeth.  WTF?!?!!?

[Midjithero]

10 hours ago, Beliman said:

Hi ppl! I'm not a Slaanesh follower (yet) but the new releases makes me curious (being a fan of Emperor's Children doesn't help too):

How does an army of Mortals play on AoS?
Are there any musts that I need to take care? I hate spamming the same unit.
Are there any novels to read about them? I love to read lore about cults and mortals infiltrating cities and corrupting things (the new Battleforce of Tzeentch is really tempting too).

 

You have 2 options...buy into demon Hedonites and purchase what you think is cool (or could be used as a summons side board) 

or save your money and wait until we get more info.  
 

there is very little info other than the new sigvald and unit reveal, Hellstriders Warscroll update, and Lord of Pain model.

you can buy into S2D if you are itching to buy-build mortals, but if you are starting fresh into Slaanesh, and don’t want to paint any of the demons, I’d wait u too we get more solid info. 

[Enoby]

11 hours ago, Beliman said:

Are there any novels to read about them? I love to read lore about cults and mortals infiltrating cities and corrupting things

As for novels, I would recommend the Sigvald book (now in a compendium with a few other champions of chaos) - highly entertaining and oftentimes very funny, while giving you a good look at the character and Slaanesh. It's set in the Old World, but the character and themes translate very well. 

In AoS, I've enjoyed Darkly Dreaming and the Red Hours - especially the latter if you can find it. It's a twist on the normal chaos plot, but I won't say much more. 

[Golub87]

11 hours ago, Beliman said:

Hi ppl! I'm not a Slaanesh follower (yet) but the new releases makes me curious (being a fan of Emperor's Children doesn't help too):

How does an army of Mortals play on AoS?
Are there any musts that I need to take care? I hate spamming the same unit.
Are there any novels to read about them? I love to read lore about cults and mortals infiltrating cities and corrupting things (the new Battleforce of Tzeentch is really tempting too).

 

The way I see it, you got three options:

1. Pickup some Daemons. 10-20 Daemonettes and 5-10 Seekers are always useful to have in your box for that last minute summon to grab the objectives. On the more flashy side, Keeper is an amazing model that is currently very useful. Syll'Eske is a bit more risky pickup, but with hints that we will get a MORTAL/DAEMON battleline I think that we will be seeing some great lists with them.

Cons here are that it seems that we are getting a new battletome, meaning that there is a chance (not a big chance, but a chance) that summoning is removed entirely or at least significantly reworked. It is also likely that Daemon portion of the book will be underpowered when compared to mortal one - it is just good business sense on part of GW.

2. Get some mortals - Shadow and Pain box is an option, there you get Lord of Pain and Hellstriders, as well as 10 Daemonnetes to summon and a bonus chariot. But LoP and Striders are a bit underwhelming atm to be honest. Best current targets are marauders. Their sculpts are horrible, however, so I just use Splintered Fang and the Unmade as marauders. Those are some great models and fit well into Slaanesh aesthetic.

Risk here is that, while currently great, they may get overshadowed by other mortal options come new book.

3. You could wait until we know more. This is the smartest option probably, but it is no fun.

[Gorthor21]

I really don’t see them separating daemons and mortals in any of the chaos armies.  From the beginning of age of sigmar it has been a separation based on the god rather than the old 7th edition fantasy division of daemons/warriors/beasts.

I would go so far as to speculate they will use the disciples of tzeentch as a kind of template going forward with daemons and mortals together with the god specific beast men.  I would love for the khorngors and pestigors to come back!

[AngryPanda]

I’m a Blades of Khorne collector, and I have a pretty sizable Bloodbound army. I’ve been on the edge about what to start collecting next, and have been pretty uncertain since I like both 40k and AoS. 
 

As a chaos fan, I’ve yet to be disappointed with the AoS releases: everything that has come out has impressed me. But, the recent mortal Slaanesh reveal has me super excited, and is exactly what I hoped for! Personally, I’ve always been a huge fan of Slaanesh, and I’ve told myself that if Hedonites were to receive a mortal followers release, that I’d collect the army.

Not only are they bringing Sigvald back (one of my favorite characters from fantasy), but they’re also releasing some amazing Warrior of Slaanesh equivalents; both the twin-souls and painbringers look equally incredible. I’m definitely going to pick up a mortal Slaanesh army when the models drop, as they’re going to pair very nicely against my BoK. 

[5kaven5lave]

I mean, if the first Broken Realms book is anything to go by, a new Sigvald book could just be the place for new minis’ Warscrolls, some rewrites and maybe even new / changed allegiance abilities. Not sure a new tome would be out quite yet, at the back end of an edition as well. 

[Enoby]

22 minutes ago, 5kaven5lave said:

I mean, if the first Broken Realms book is anything to go by, a new Sigvald book could just be the place for new minis’ Warscrolls, some rewrites and maybe even new / changed allegiance abilities. Not sure a new tome would be out quite yet, at the back end of an edition as well. 

Yeah, I'm erring on this side; with this broken realms kind of being a mini battletome. I think we'll get an optional host (with reduced artifacts and traits), a few battalions, the warscrolls, and maybe an updated spell lore if we get a caster and if we're lucky.

It will definitely be a good book for us if this is the case, and worth it as a sub-battletome. Worst case scenario, we just get the warscrolls. This would be dull, but our allegiance abilities aren't bad and I don't think this is very likely considering what other armies have gotten.

I have to say, if it is Broken Realms Sigvald, I will be more than a bit tempted to get the limited copy if it's a smug shot of his face.

[shinros]

18 hours ago, Enoby said:

As for novels, I would recommend the Sigvald book (now in a compendium with a few other champions of chaos) - highly entertaining and oftentimes very funny, while giving you a good look at the character and Slaanesh. It's set in the Old World, but the character and themes translate very well. 

In AoS, I've enjoyed Darkly Dreaming and the Red Hours - especially the latter if you can find it. It's a twist on the normal chaos plot, but I won't say much more. 

I'm currently reading Sigvald and I would have to give my thumbs up as well, I'm half way through it. Also I just finished Darkly Dreaming by your recommendation, kinda makes me sad that Josh Reynolds isn't working for Black Library anymore. 

[Popisdead]

1 hour ago, shinros said:

I'm currently reading Sigvald and I would have to give my thumbs up as well, I'm half way through it. Also I just finished Darkly Dreaming by your recommendation, kinda makes me sad that Josh Reynolds isn't working for Black Library anymore. 

NO KIDDING regarding JR leaving BL.  His stuff was really good but people didn't really buy into AoS novels like they do 40k sadly.  So i can see his paycheques from BL not being as high as they need to be supporting a family and all.

Sigvald was written by Darius Hinks though I think and it starts slow then gets,.. interestingly,.. Slaaneshi.  I guess.  I hope they keep that lore in and his soul was just lost in the Warp and Slaanesh birthed him back into the realms.

[Thalassic Monstrosity]

Hello, everyone. I just got my first chariot in Shadow and Pain and I want to know, what should I assemble it as? What's the most versatile and useful choice of the chariot types?

Provided it isn't a Herald varient, however.

[Lucentia]

10 hours ago, Thalassic Monstrosity said:

Hello, everyone. I just got my first chariot in Shadow and Pain and I want to know, what should I assemble it as? What's the most versatile and useful choice of the chariot types?

Provided it isn't a Herald varient, however.

As it stands right now the Herald versions of all three chariot options are going to be better choices in 99 percent of cases simply because the rules for Hedonites are so hero focused.  It's worth noting that it's quite easy to assemble a Slaanesh chariot so that you can swap the rider for a Herald with a couple of small magnets, which is something I would recommend for maximum versatility.

The absolute most useful chariot is the Exalted Seeker Chariot, however to assemble one of those you actually need to combine the components of two Slaanesh chariot kits so you would have to pick up another chariot box.  If you don't want do that then of the remaining two options I'd recommend the basic Seeker Chariot as opposed to the Helllflayer,  neither of them are hugely spectacular units on the battlefield, but the Seeker Chariot's ability to retreat and charge can be a useful tool on occasion, and it's quite cheap in terms of both points and for summoning purposes.  (Though, again, the Herald version is the better option.)

[Enoby]

12 hours ago, Thalassic Monstrosity said:

Hello, everyone. I just got my first chariot in Shadow and Pain and I want to know, what should I assemble it as? What's the most versatile and useful choice of the chariot types?

Provided it isn't a Herald varient, however.

If you can, I'd suggest waiting until January when we get our new release (Covid permitting) there's a good chance nothing will change, but if we get a new battletome (or a very descriptive Broken Realms) we might have a totally different answer than currently - for example, if they make depravity points generated from all units

[Morovir]

On 11/24/2020 at 7:21 PM, Popisdead said:

NO KIDDING regarding JR leaving BL.  His stuff was really good but people didn't really buy into AoS novels like they do 40k sadly.  So i can see his paycheques from BL not being as high as they need to be supporting a family and all.

Sigvald was written by Darius Hinks though I think and it starts slow then gets,.. interestingly,.. Slaaneshi.  I guess.  I hope they keep that lore in and his soul was just lost in the Warp and Slaanesh birthed him back into the realms.

From yesterday's WC article about Sigvald:

 

"Abandoned by Slaanesh, the scraps of Sigvald’s soul lingered in the void for an age, until Nagash – now the god of Death in the new worlds of the Mortal Realms – found them and claimed revenge for Krell’s destruction. The Great Necromancer trapped Sigvald’s essence in a Shadeglass mirror that would reflect only an idealised image of whoever gazed into it, ensuring Sigvald could never be seen again – fitting revenge for one so vain. He cast the mirror into the pocket dimension of Uhl-Gysh, where it came to rest in the cursed city of Shadespire.

Unknown to Nagash, Slaanesh was also trapped in Uhl-Gysh. The Dark Prince’s gradual escape and growing power gave Sigvald some measure of awareness and control. The mirror was eventually taken from Uhl-Gysh by duardin privateers, before falling into the hands of a band of Hedonite Godseekers, who unwittingly released Sigvald’s essence. Reborn and empowered once more by the growing might of his god, Sigvald set out to unite the followers of Slaanesh in preparation for the Dark Prince’s apotheosis."

 

So yes, it's a continuation of his former lore rather than a rehashing of it.

[CeleFAZE]

19 hours ago, Morovir said:

From yesterday's WC article about Sigvald:

 

"Abandoned by Slaanesh, the scraps of Sigvald’s soul lingered in the void for an age, until Nagash – now the god of Death in the new worlds of the Mortal Realms – found them and claimed revenge for Krell’s destruction. The Great Necromancer trapped Sigvald’s essence in a Shadeglass mirror that would reflect only an idealised image of whoever gazed into it, ensuring Sigvald could never be seen again – fitting revenge for one so vain. He cast the mirror into the pocket dimension of Uhl-Gysh, where it came to rest in the cursed city of Shadespire.

Unknown to Nagash, Slaanesh was also trapped in Uhl-Gysh. The Dark Prince’s gradual escape and growing power gave Sigvald some measure of awareness and control. The mirror was eventually taken from Uhl-Gysh by duardin privateers, before falling into the hands of a band of Hedonite Godseekers, who unwittingly released Sigvald’s essence. Reborn and empowered once more by the growing might of his god, Sigvald set out to unite the followers of Slaanesh in preparation for the Dark Prince’s apotheosis."

 

So yes, it's a continuation of his former lore rather than a rehashing of it.

I'm very glad to see that the small mentions of plot points seeded throughout various books are coming to fruition. I had initially thought that the mention of the mirror was just a throwaway Easter egg, but now it's turning out that it was incredibly plot-relevant and ties the narrative around Underworlds more directly into the main canon.

What's also interesting is that this seems to suggest that Sigvald is NOT the Newborn, which is presumably something else entirely. The question now is whether or not the Newborn is going to enter the game with a model or remain solely in the narrative. It would be interesting if that palanquin-thing spotted in the background is hauling it, but I think I would personally prefer that model to be a non-named support piece. We've actually got quite a few named characters now with Shalaxi, the Masque, Syll'Esske and Sigvald, so I'd love to see more non-named leader and/or behemoth options in this new wave. A generic mortal caster in particular would be a welcome addition.

[Enoby]

I reckon we'll see the AoS rules for our Warband soon, and this should give us a hint what our actual models do. That's not to say we'll get a 1:1 copy, but the tzeentch warband has similar stats to the real models (if slightly worse). We probably won't see any special abilities, but we might see their approximate stat profile.

[Clise]

As a new slaanesh player I have a question. Taking a look at the wrath of the everchosen book I see that the slaanesh subfactions are tied to the original 3 subfactions in the book. Does this mean that a lurid haze army also has access to the rules for invaders hosts on top of their new rules? I've never seen another army subfactions worded like these ones so I'm a little confused.

[Enoby]

1 hour ago, Clise said:

As a new slaanesh player I have a question. Taking a look at the wrath of the everchosen book I see that the slaanesh subfactions are tied to the original 3 subfactions in the book. Does this mean that a lurid haze army also has access to the rules for invaders hosts on top of their new rules? I've never seen another army subfactions worded like these ones so I'm a little confused.

It does, yes the downside is having the artifact and command trait selected for you

[Popisdead]

On 11/29/2020 at 1:40 AM, CeleFAZE said:

I'm very glad to see that the small mentions of plot points seeded throughout various books are coming to fruition.

Yeah they have done some deep seeds for AoS.  I get the sense they had a large map-out session after the post AoS drop and flop.  It seems the road map and development is fairly extensive and less "thrown together".

On 11/29/2020 at 11:54 AM, Enoby said:

I reckon we'll see the AoS rules for our Warband soon, and this should give us a hint what our actual models do. 

I hope so too cause I want to see the stats for the Slaangor.  I wonder if it will be 2W and then GW has some sort of long term plan to make generic Gors cult-themed to replace the current Gor kit over the next few years.  Also makes for a kit they can sell to 40k.  

[Thalassic Monstrosity]

In today's Community article, GW remarks about the Direchasm Slaangor:

"Perhaps his appearance is a taste of things to come..."

Something to consider.

[Klamm]

I'm personally hoping slaangors are 40mm base 3/4 wound models, coz then I'll have an excuse to do my slaanesh ogors.

Pro tip, hellstrider shields are the exact right size to be gutplates. Pity those sheilds are hard to come by online, I've used them a fair bit for other conversions. 

Ogor sized weapons are a little harder, though the keeper of secrets spear tip and dagger will fit on an ogor sword handle.

[KingChaos]

Hey Folks, 

I am well aware we are awating on the big drop of our New Mortals, as is everyone, I await with bated breathe to see what we actually get! But, I was wondering if I could utilise some exsisting knowlegde? 

I have tried a few lists but nothing seems to be clicking so far, I have at least one of every hero (Bar the Herold on Foot) and a decent amount of Demonettes, Seekers and 6 Fiends, Endless spells and the Fane (also just picked up the Shadow and Pain box, which i can see it not much use yet really) What is your go to 2k lists that could help a fellow Slaanesh player better his?

Thanks for any advice!

[Golub87]

16 hours ago, KingChaos said:

Hey Folks, 

I am well aware we are awating on the big drop of our New Mortals, as is everyone, I await with bated breathe to see what we actually get! But, I was wondering if I could utilise some exsisting knowlegde? 

I have tried a few lists but nothing seems to be clicking so far, I have at least one of every hero (Bar the Herold on Foot) and a decent amount of Demonettes, Seekers and 6 Fiends, Endless spells and the Fane (also just picked up the Shadow and Pain box, which i can see it not much use yet really) What is your go to 2k lists that could help a fellow Slaanesh player better his?

Thanks for any advice!

Not going to give you a list, but general guidelines:

1. Do battlelines as cheap as possible. My start are 5 Chaos Warriors, but you can upgrade those to 10 Daemonettes if at the end of list building you have throwaway points. Daemonettes can be used as screens better, but are 20 pts more expensive. I fit in at least one block of 20 Marauders as they are best outflankers.

2. Heroes are stars of the show. Keepers of Secrets and Contorted Epitomes are best we have. Hero on Exalted Chariot is great vs chaff. If you are willing to dip into StDs, Manticore and especially Karkadrak are decent options. Some people roll with Archaon. Not my cup of tea, but I can see it.

3. Suballegiance that I find works best for me is Lurid Haze Invaders host from the Wrath of the Everchosen book. You get all the abilities from the regular Invaders Host. The artifact gives +1 wound, I just put it on a Keeper and toss it in the fane turn one for rrs to hit. General trait is... acceptable. Command ability is quite good, giving a unit +1 to save once per combat faze. The ability to outflank with d3 units is immense. I usually do that with Marauders and guarantee a first turn charge with them.  They usually cause enough distraction for really killy stuff (like Keepers) to get their charges on  turn 2. Sometimes those Marauders even kill support pieces.

4. Battalions and artifacts are mandatory I think. Supreme Sybarites is the best one and the artifact I pick up is the Rod of Misrule. We are CP hungry. Keepers give out double activations. Giving out armor saves, various re-rolls, making sure that charges happen... Very very CP hungry. Battalion and artifact are there to give you those CPs that you need. Also, battalion will make you a 4-drop army, most of the time (all heroes go in it and then you have three battlelines).

5. When it comes to summoning, Daemonettes and Seekers are best. 10 or 20 Daemonettes for that last minute objective grabbing, 5 Seekers a bit earlier (say turn 3), for their unparalleled mobility, allowing you to threaten stuff that is far away. Do not count on summoning Keepers unless you are playing SoBs or some other monster list.

In general, focus on heroes, forget about troops, except what you must take. I love the Fiend models, but they just don't cut it. Try to not get bogged down with enemy screens (that is why outflank is so important in my game plans), but to hit key pieces. This will situate you for a much better late game, as you will have more depravity to summon reinforcements to hold the objectives and kill enemy troops. Again, outflanking helps with this, as the opponent will leave some openings that you can exploit.

Edited December 3, 2020 by Golub87