Selpharia

Had my first play with the new book. The Keeper and the Shardspeaker did incredibly, just lifting a reinforced unit of Chaps Knights on my T1, putting me up to 30+ DP almost immediately. The Masque also endured two rounds of dancing with about 600 points of S2D to just crush his ability to control the board

I think the Lord of Pain will be more durability and value than the Shardspeaker, and you have the points spare

The Masque has been a real sleeper hit; they were the pick of a bad lot in the last battletome, able to tie up units significantly above their weight class. In this new incarnation, I think they’re even better; I can’t really see a list without their unique tech.

The delight of it, is that the opponent has to manage to do both. The Slaanesh player can focus temptation dice mortals on the units that are the worst EK targets, while the opponent has to figure out how to shield the soft targets with a set of units that are getting nibbled away at what can be quite a clip

Slaanesh magic has sucked for a while; it’s just not reliable. I tend to consider it a nice little bonus when it goes off, but you really can’t plan around it, except with the epitome. Re: depravity, I think they should just cap it at 36.

I was actually really hoping Hellstriders were battleline still. A unit of the whippy boys stopping units with 1 or two wounds contesting objectives is brutal (helllo and goodbye Nurgle chaos warrior bricks)

So if I’m reading things right out current Battleline situation is: Daemonettes Blissbarb Archers Seekers Symbaresh/Myrmidesh if the general is a Lord of Pain/Hubris Chariots if the general is a Bladebringer Herald on a chariot of the matching type? So, all the cool buffs from making a Pretenders Keeper your general do have a significant opportunity cost.

Agreed but it’s probably just a case of putting the weapon in the wrong category. Although, getting them an ablative -1 plus a 5+’ward seems a decent way of keeping them alive. I think you end up having to run the Twins in Invaders, since that lets you do enough heroic actions to make them at least somewhat interesting. Definitely fighting from underneath the rules though

It’s a bit of a shame to see that Dexcessa doesn’t appear to have changed at all, even though a native -1 to hit just doesn’t do much. Synessa’s also not much different but at least they were in a better spot to begin with.

It feels like the really busted Strength of Godhood user is the Herald on Exalted Chariot though.

Are slickblades still D:1? I’d think with those huge glaives they might go to D:2 on the charge or something Edit: Strength of Godhood with Slickblades as a T1 bomb, oh my!

Under the guideline that the Greater Daemon should lose you all your Depravity bonuses, I’d expect the top line to be 36 DP, with the lowest at 12 DP. At that level, I feel like it’s nowhere near as bad as presently

It turns chaff into a liability: sure you just spent some exalted seekers to wipe 20 chainrasps, but trading an elite unit for a chaff unit + 10-20 DP? Notably better.

Exploding 6s usually equate to approximately a +1 to hit. Given how easy those are to acquire these days, and the likelihood that there are other ways of getting a similar bonus available to the army, I don’t think most of our units will miss old Euphoric Killers

So looking at this, the opportunities to tempt a unit are Hero Phase Bonus activation, opponent shooting phase, unleash hell in your Charge phase, and either combat phase. Interesting. You could pretty easily punish a few key units pretty hard with these.

It’s Synessa’s warscroll spell

He’s an interesting piece, especially in concert with fighting-twice fiendbloods. I’m not sure a 4+ ward will be enough, so you’d really need to use him carefully as his likely price tag is steep for negating one unit once

So I kitbashed a custom Lady of Pain because I didn’t love the default Lord

Synessa is a great toolbox at 2k, but at 1k they’re a lot of points in a fiddly, unreliable basket. I’d replace them with something speedy, like seekers, hellstriders or fiends, since your current list is a little slow. You could also consider 10x Twinsouls or The Masque + 5 Twinsouls. They’re a good hammer or anvil depending on the turn, and the Masque’s ability to tie things that are much bigger than them up can really come in clutch

I actually think they’ve got a pretty good starting point, they mostly just need to change the scrollls, abilities, and subfactions to actually enable multiple playstyles, and if they’re keeping Depravity, decouple it a bit from summoning. I think by incorporating stuff from the grab bag of elven abilities we’ve seen so far, Slaanesh could be made a highly technical offensive board control and buff/ability management army that would feel very rewarding

Since we’re likely to get a book sometime in the coming year, I don’t expect big changes. I’d bet on a 15-20 point reduction for the exalted seeker units, and maybe some other small boost, but nothing grand.

I’m thinking of having ten Slickblades in reserve for the new book in the coming year. Pretty much every recent tome has had a viable option focusing on elite cavalry, and I think they’re very close to being usable. That said, after testing the Exalted Chariot at 1k and finding it underwhelming, I’m considering something like this, and would love some feedback, especially as to what you’d elect to replace the slickblades with [b]++ **Contest of Generals** 2,000 (Chaos - Slaanesh) [1,990pts] ++[/b] [b]+ Leader +[/b] [b]Lord of Pain [140pts]:[/b] 0. Oil of Exultation, 2. Glory Hog, General [b]Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh [205pts]:[/b] General [b]Synessa, Voice of Slaanesh [260pts]:[/b] General [b]The Masque [130pts][/b] [b]+ Battleline +[/b] [b]Blissbarb Archers [280pts]:[/b] 22 Blissbarb Archers, High Tempter, Reinforced [b]Hellstriders with Hellscourges [135pts]:[/b] 5 Hellstriders [b]Myrmidesh Painbringers [120pts]:[/b] 5 Myrmidesh Painbringers [b]Symbaresh Twinsouls [260pts]:[/b] 10 Symbaresh Twinsouls, Egopomp, Reinforced [b]+ Other +[/b] [b]Slickblade Seekers [230pts]:[/b] 5 Slickblade Seekers [b]Slickblade Seekers [230pts]:[/b] 5 Slickblade Seekers [b]+ Allegiance +[/b] [b]Allegiance[/b] . [b]Allegiance: Slaanesh[/b] . . Invaders Host: Lurid Haze [b]++ Total: [1,990pts] ++[/b]

There’s been a definite pattern where times that are “pretty good!” mostly get a streamline and a cleanup. I think of DoK as a very good example of this. On the other hand, armies whose gimmick has been seen as weak or boring have seen more significant changes, such as Nurgle or Nighthaunt. I’d still say that pretty much all the books have been thematic, tightly focused on a vision for the faction, but also have options catering to a wide range of playstyles within that faction. I remain optimistic.

Next week I have my first 2k Gallet game. Yes, I’m bringing a Keeper and both of the twins. Yes I will get destroyed, but it will be glorious

So I really love the vibe of the new Nighthaunt book, but as a potential new player, really struggle to pick the alright battleline units. I like Quicksilver as a procession, but I’m not sure how hard to go in on their unique battleline options