CeleFAZE

So here's the list I'm considering: Allegiance: Slaanesh - Host: Godseekers Host - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line - Triumphs: Inspired LEADERS Bladebringer, Herald on Seeker Chariot (190)* - Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation Lord of Pain (155)* - General - Command Trait: Speed-chaser - Artefact: Arcane Tome - Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture UNITS 5 x Myrmidesh Painbringers (145)* 5 x Myrmidesh Painbringers (145)* 22 x Blissbarb Archers (340)* 22 x Blissbarb Archers (340)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (330)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (330)* CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment TOTAL: 1975/2000 It's kind of a weird list, but I wanted to make use of massed archers, twinsouls, and a couple units of painbringers. I'm a bit light on heroes, but honestly everything we have in that department is okay at best, and with the arcane tome and a caster I should have enough magic to matter in games where I'm not facing a magic-dom army (where honestly any amount of casting would be a waste to focus on). General idea is to run in (literally) first turn and unload with 82 shots from the blissbarbs. Depending on my opponent this will either be to kill an early threat, soften a dangerous target for a first-turn charge by twinsouls (which is where godseekers is important), or to generate a huge amount of depravity out the gate. The myrmadesh will act as charge blockers for the blissbarbs, running in front to keep them safe, while the twinsouls will try and jump in first turn with rerolls if there's a good target, or help castle my firebase with their ward if they can't reach anything. Intention past that point is to basically keep defensively blocking for the archers while wheeling the shooty murdermass around to grab objectives as needed. Power in Numbers is one of the missions in the pack, and everything here is battleline thanks to the LoP as general. He'll take a mostly backseat role, supporting with command abilities and mystic shield, battle-rapture, or monster-mode for objectives. The bladebringer is there for acquiescence and another source of unbinds that can provide some mortal wounds opportunistically. I'm honestly not sure how well it'll do, but I haven't really seen a list like this used, and as the only current Slaanesh player in the local meta I'm hoping I can bank on at least some opponents underestimating the tankiness and ranged potential I have. One thing I am debating is whether or not to switch to lurid haze. This would give me some opportunity for setting up trickier avenues of attack with my blissbarbs and an extra +1 save command during combat, but would lose me the arcane tome. Basically amounting to a potential loss of mystic shield + acquiescence on the first turn in exchange for something that can still be countered with canny deployment and roar. Since I'm aiming for a fair amount of early depravity I'm rather hesitant to lose the significant statistical boost to charging after summoning too. Any thoughts?

I know in the states the gloomspite box had squig hoppers and sneaky snufflers for the same price as the hoppers by themselves. So I think it would've been like £30? I imagine these will be a bit more than that, but I'd be overjoyed if it turned out to be the same cost.

Syll'Esske is an odd piece. The spell is good, but less powerful now that unit champions can issue commands to their unit. What they suffer from is having a range of abilities that we can get from other sources with less "if then" requirements. I suppose there are worse beatstick heroes, but that's really the only thing about them aside from the command ability you can reliably count on. So not really 👍 or 👎 just 🤷‍♀️.

I had to step away from the game for a bit (sadly missing LVO) but I have the opportunity to jump back in for a 2 day event later this month. It feels like the meta has shifted significantly over the last couple months, and I'm not sure what I should be planning for at this point. I recently acquired 10 painbringers, which I want to work into my list somehow, but I'm struggling to find a good balance. I know at least one of the missions in the pack has effectively 40k objective secured for battleline, so I'm tempted to run a LoP general with 2x5 painbringers and 2x10 twinsouls, but with dragons and fulminators seeming to be the powerlist at the moment I feel like that will be a rough matchup.

If they intend to extend the edition cycle the "seasons" approach they've taken with 40k, as well as the quarterly balance updates would be a good way to ensure it's the kind of living ruleset that can stick around for awhile. Granted the last 40k update was pretty anemic.

If I had to guess, I'd say we'll probably see Tau reveals at LVO more than anything AoS. I'd love to be surprised with a BoC announcement, though. Since they haven't had a WD rules update yet it's not unlikely that there could be something in the works.

Has the mirror been working well for you? If it's not integral the only major changes I might consider would be dropping it to upgrade the chariot to a seeker bladebringer (making that your general), or swapping the chariot for a more durable unit to hold the line while you get your depravity generation going. The epitome is a bit rough as a godseeker general, as you want it to be charging every turn, but it dies very quickly to protracted combats, especially if you end up getting double-turned before you have a chance to retreat and charge a new target.

Some thoughts: Lurid Haze requires Invaders, so you have a couple directions you can go in. Specific to Lurid Haze: Sigvald is amazing, but don't always bank on him getting to do those juicy backline charges against a canny opponent, as you can be zoned out from being able to scalpel the way you'd want. Use him more as a threat to keep your opponent deployed back and punish with fast units like seekers, which you want to run in units of 5 at most due to coherency rules. Twinsouls are amazing, but are actually not a great choice for the ambush redeploy as they need to be on the board in your hero phase to get their rotating buffs going, but are good enough that they're worth including in a list. Specific to Godseekers: Sigvald is actually still great, and I've had more recent success with him in Godseekers, if you'd believe it. This will let you run seeker chariot battleline, which will probably be your best option with the collection you have. The +1 is actually a huge benefit, especially when it comes to summoning. You also can never fail a 3" charge, barring outside shenanigans on the part of your opponent. Unspecific to either subfaction: Twinsouls are the way forward for us right now, and I highly recommend a unit of 10. You can probably get away with 2 units of 5, but I really think they are at their most efficient with command abilities in a reinforced unit. Fiends are decent, and there is a good argument for running a unit of 6, even if you'll face coherency concerns until the first casualty. There's nothing wrong with running daemonettes per se, just remember that they are overcosted in your initial list, and I would probably do no more than a unit of 30 to keep the other 30 on hand for summoning. Seekers are expensive but still actually quite good due to their run and charge and 2d6 run, though avoid units of 10 due to weapon ranges and 2-rank coherency. It would not be a bad idea to convert at least a unit of blissbarbs for ranged depravity generation. Synessa is a great support piece, but run her with the epitome as she doesn't function well as your sole caster. The exalted bladebringer in my opinion is one of our best heroes, and is a great candidate for flaming weapon for some additional punch on an already great chassis. Belakor is Belakor, he'll always be key to disrupting opponent strategies and is probably one of the best ally choices we can make at the moment. Things the are okay, but probably won't be as useful: Syll'Esske, hellflayers, and soulgrinders. You won't be strictly taking garbage, but there are better choices you have access to to do what they do. Things that are probably best served as bench warmers for the time being: Slaangors. They're just outclassed in every way by literally anything else you could field. Hopefully this gives you somewhere to start.

At this point I'm tempted to convert some bullgors out of slaangors. They may not get allegiance abilities, but they're cheap and punchy.

To be fair though, a lot of times at least one side in battlebox pairings often gets an expanded range with their book. Here's hoping that both do. I would love to see at least some foot akhelians for Idoneth and cavalry or a "weird" unit for nudist dwarves, Like, fyreslayers that are literally on fire would be awesome, especially if they were large multi-wound infantry.

The only reason to use slaangors at the moment is if you really like the models and want to play at a handicap. I've tried to find a use for a lot of the pieces available to us, and slaangors just don't do much of anything well, and even at 130 I just can't recommend them at all. Which is a huge shame, as they're one of the best sculpts in the new lineup. Slickblades can do some definite work, but as others have mentioned they really shine with rerolls (acquiescence, LoP), a hit or wound buff (invaders artifact, dark delusions, AOA, shardspeaker), and/or a double pile-in from a keeper. They operate best when you can reduce incoming attacks as despite their decent wounds they're startlingly fragile, so in a situation where they won't be your first pick for attacker you'll want a locus buddy to minimize damage. Even without buffs they can be great in the right situations. Slickblades were amazing in my last game against Skaven, basically tore through an entire flank on their own with minimal support.

Yeah, teleports have been my bane in a lot of matchups. Granted most of the times I've dealt that were back in 2.0 with the previous large board size, but I got absolutely merc'ed by an annihilator-bombardment list during a major before the new SCE book came out. I'm honestly surprised we didn't get any sort of teleport or deepstrike beyond the lurid haze ambush. On that note, has anyone had recent good results with lurid haze? I've been having problems with canny opponents zoning me out and keeping the matchups at the edges highly suboptimal. Recently I've been going back to my old standard of godseekers, as the +1 charge and extra depravity is clutch enough to outweigh the extra few CP from vanilla invaders, or occasional good scalpel-alpha with Sigvald in LH.

I had a feeling Nurgle would be a great matchup for us. Between chip damage that never stops unless we want it to, our speed, and access to one of the best counters against ward saves in the game, we're really well positioned against them. Some of the top ITC players in my meta have been saying that Nurgle has the potential to be pretty strong; once the competitive lists congeal for them and there's more representation in the meta it'll be great for us. Doesn't do much about our current problem matchups, but it does mean a better chance to run into the paper to our scissors as it were.

Retreat and charge. Hurler is great against gargants, but I prefer maximizing the mortal wound output of the bladebringer, as well as the depravity generation from having my general be able to charge in the vast majority of turns. The bonus depravity from a charging general in godseekers is worth a unit in combat on average, so you want to maximize that wherever you can.

It was only one unit, but they eliminated a unit of mancrushers on the charge 1st turn (I went 2nd). Generated a fair amount of depravity from hit and run charges from my exalted bladebringer general and the twinsouls alongside the bladebringer took out the first of the other three gargants. The twinsouls died around turn 3, but I was able to summon 2 keepers throughout the game that were able to double-pile the bladebringer and roar the gargant I focused in a given turn. A lot of it came down to making good plays, but the twinsouls slapping with rerolls on the charge, then being able to go defensive with the ward afterwards was very useful. The bladebringer was an important element too, as being able to add in mortal wounds and use locus to keep a gargant from pivoting on the pile-in onto objectives kept me ahead on points. Also since the bladebringer is a wizard she can basically become a monster on demand, which let me use roar strategically to keep armor saves from getting out of hand. Being able to fit in two units and a bladebringer with ranged support is going to be helpful. We'll still be on the back foot against certain armies, but most don't have 3+ save units, and even those that do we can use the other elements of a balanced list to deal with them as we have to. The current list I'm working on is looking like this: Allegiance: Slaanesh - Host: Godseekers Host - Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery - Triumphs: Inspired LEADERS Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (265)*** - Artefact: Arcane Tome - Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Synessa, The Voice of Slaanesh (260)** Festus the Leechlord (150) - Allies UNITS 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (330)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (330)* 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)* 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)** 11 x Blissbarb Archers (170)*** 11 x Blissbarb Archers (170)*** ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Chronomantic Cogs (45) CORE BATTALIONS *Hunters of the Heartlands **Vanguard ***Vanguard TOTAL: 1990/2000

You're right on a point-for-point basis, but that's seldom how it actually plays out on the table. Two units of myrmadesh will outperform them, yes, but you actually have to get them into range, with less movement and shorter weapon ranges that's a bigger ask at times than it seems. On top of that, not all units will have all-out-defense, and/or mystic shield. That's a big part of why I advocate 2 units, forcing the hard decision on your opponent. On top of that they're fairly resilient, and will actually stick around long enough to generate depravity throughout the game. My last tournament game against SoB was won largely on the back of a unit of twinsouls.

Well, even that being said, against 2+ saves they're still the best non-hero unit we have. Comparing combat output between 10 twinsouls rerolling hits, 5 painbringers (even in a unit of 10 the 1" reach and coherency will generally only allow 5 to swing) and 5 slickblades: The twinsouls have it, really. With 2 damage each every failed save is worth 2 failed saves from anything else we have, and anything short of a keeper is only going to be -1 rend at best. If we're super desperate for additional rend we do have the option of allying in Festus for his permanent -1 save spell.

Well, this update was... something, I guess? Major upside was the big discount on twinsouls, which I think are now poised to be our major damage dealers. Two units of 10 will be pretty solid, and with rerolls can put out some good damage. If you run them with a LoP you can have them running opposite buffs and use the command ability on whichever one has the ward to keep 100% uptime on rerolls. Not sold on myrmadesh, but at 10 points more than hellstriders they're a little tankier and provide some mortal wounds, so if you're already running an LoP there are worse choices for battleline. I'm going to do some experimentation with these changes; while they're not the fix we needed I think they're at least an improvement. Shame they didn't give slaangors a new scroll.

I imagine it was a situation where even GW didn't know if it was coming back due to some secret catastrophe with whoever was printing the game materials. If I had to guess there was some kind of major screwup with either a third-party factory itself (possibly files being lost or company facing Covid issues or going out of business) or the work-for-hire contracts on the design work for the printed pieces were screwed up in a way that made that artwork not technically GW's property. GW probably figured they could cut their losses by selling the parts that they had in hand while the question of if the situation could actually be resolved was still in the air.

I just updated and checked, that's in there for the slaanesh units too, presumably everyone. I get the notion that this update is going to be larger than we thought, probably updating scrolls to list the unit champions as champions at the very least. I doubt we're going to see granularity in points to give specific upgrades or anything, but it's certainly a sign that something is changing.

My pet theory is that they're delaying the FAQ until Christmas so it doesn't have a negative impact on shopping. Keeping us in the dark fuels "it could get better with the FAQ" buying.

Convenient if they needed extra time, certainly, however bringing out a tie-in too late negatively impacts sales of the tie-in, I'd imagine. Hype is fleeting.

I feel that this point almost any issues related to release timing can be blamed on Covid.

I don't recall, but I would be ecstatic to be wrong in this case.

I imagine with the preview of what's coming next week not mentioning it we're at least one more week out. They said December, but they also said December last year and it wound up being late January.