Jaskier

It looks like we're starting the year off with Death Guard and Slaanesh releases...I don't like our chances 😬

Happy New Year from Australia, fellow Hedonites! Today holds a very high chance of further Slaanesh reveals - the palanquin model, presumably - and our new release is close enough that I'm expecting some hype-building articles describing rules and lore sooner rather than later. Exciting times! Are we expecting any other Slaanesh models besides the palanquin? I'm holding out hope for a character mounted on a Seeker, but anything more than the palanquin model would be a very nice bonus.

This sounds a lot like how Tzaangor Enlightened/Skyfires work, and I'd be all for it. There's not a lot of tactical decision making with our current allegiance abilities, it's all just about piling on the pain as much as possible before opponents can hit back which honestly seems counter-intuitive to the intent of the Depravity rules (wherein it's about pain received as much as pain inflicted.) Give us cool ways to power up our units at the expense of having to suffer damage first in the vein of the Tzeentch schemes. I'm also personally hoping they change the Locus rule back to a 4+ but remove the bonus for Greater Daemons, and now that we have some shooting units, allow the exploding 6s to affect ranged attacks too.

Add a mounted character besides the palanquin lord and I'll happily sell my soul to James Workshop.

Just throwing out some rules predictions about the new units, based off the Dread Pageant warscroll. I think unless Hellstriders regain the Battleline tag, or existing units like Fiends get a 'Battleline if xyz' tag, then at least two or three of the new units will be (un)conditional Battleline. Blissbarb Archers - Besides maybe run and shoot, I'm not expecting any additional rules here. Two shots each at 18" 4+ 4+ Rend -1 Damage 1 is plenty good for a light archer unit; more than capable of clearing weak chaff screens, which is really all we need. I'm guessing these will be straight Slaanesh Battleline. Slickblade Seekers - I'm expecting 3 Wounds each and a 4+ save given how big and heavily armoured these look compared to Hellstriders. Their big weapons are almost certainly going to be at least Rend -1 and Damage 2, or possibly Damage 1 with charge bonuses. I have a feeling they will be a bit slower than normal Seekers - maybe a 12" Move instead of 14" - but with the trade-off of the Steeds having a better profile (3+ to-wound seems a safe bet.) If Hellstriders don't get their Battleline tag back, I can't see the more elite equivalent getting it either. Myrmidesh - Unless Vasillac is the exception, 3 Wounds each and a 4+ save looks pretty certain based on the Dread Pageant warscroll. I'm guessing they will have a 5+ or even 4+ after-save for the combat phase only; basically the Chaos equivalent of Hearthguard Berzerkers, but more vulnerable to shooting as is the Slaaneshi way. At a guess, Sigvald will unlock them as Battleline. Twinsouls - Where Myrmidesh will be the (still scary) anvil, these will be the hammer. I'm betting on lots of attacks with some Rend, no after-save but probably some variation of 'mortal wounds on 6s to wound'. Sigvald - His rules are almost certainly going to closely resemble the current Daemon Prince warscroll, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him share that "always fights first" rule. Beef up the combat stats for Sliverslash, chuck on an after-save for the shield, and add a Sybarite-centric command ability and I don't think you'd be far off what he'll end up being. In fact, I'm predicting they might decouple Keepers from the Sybarites by making its command ability work specifically on Hedonite Daemons, and Sigvald or the other new character could have a version that works on Hedonite Sybarites. Currently, the Keeper is both Slaanesh' best synergy piece and bruiser, and that shouldn't remain the case with all the new mortal units and heroes arriving. These seem like pretty safe predictions to me, but it will be interesting to see how many I get wrong 😁

As a proud owner of 20 Seekers and 10 Hellstriders, I can say with confidence that I want at least 30 Exalted Seekers. Those models are SICK! Slaangors look really depraved and intimidating compared to Tzaangors, and the Archers look great too. Also, we've got confirmation of that palanquin-riding model thanks to the cover reveal. I'm super excited for the new book! Gonna be saving all my pennies Two key things I just noticed in the video; Slaangors are definitely on 40mms, and they look to come in units of three. The Warcry Slaangor had 3 wounds, right? Seems like they're going to be more analogous to Tzaangor Enlightened on foot than regular Tzaangors.

Nothing surprising at all, but man do Lelith and the new Slaanesh stuff look amazing! Hedonites 2.0 will hopefully adjust Depravity to make the army less one-note, gonna be a long wait for the new models and book!

I'm expecting a Death reveal/tease of some kind based on the Advent Calenders, but not tied to the battletome in February (which I'm pretty certain will be Slaanesh 2.0) as well as the rest of the Slaanesh range and hopefully a sprinkling of 40k (Lelith Hesperax!) Also, it's Christmas Day down under, so Merry Christmas everyone 😀

You know, I completely forgot about them...and I used to collect them! Whoops 😄 Still, compared to every other grand alliance, Death definitely feel like the odd ones out in terms of quantity of releases!

I'd give either their Stingers or Claws Rend -2 as well. While I wouldn't call them pillow-fisted, they aren't really so good against heavily armoured enemies, which again just leads us back to "well a Keeper does that better."

It's a lot more than 2/3 units. Just from what's been revealed, we have; Slaangors, Archers, Archers on Exalted Steeds, melee unit on Exalted Steeds, Myrmidesh, Twin Souls, Shardspeaker, Sigvald. We know there's at least one more unit coming too. I do agree otherwise, bar Nighthaunt Death have been neglected for a long time. I'm positive their day is coming in 2021.

I really hope that if it is a new Hedonites battletome (it's looking very likely now) that it really is a full top-down rewrite and not just a patchjob with some new toys. Currently, 6 Fiends costs the same as 1 Keeper of Secrets, and if you had to choose one or the other you'd be a fool to even bother with the former in a competitive list. The same is true of pretty much anything that isn't Battleline, and even then, I hope they address the Hellstrider situation either by reverting that change or giving us a few new options for those that don't want to run Slaves or Depraved Drove - currently, our only in-book Battleline units are Daemonettes. I'm expecting new sub-factions and probably Syll'Esskan Host becoming a fully fledged host in the book, and while that's all well and good, it's all irrelevant if the book continues to reward taking heroes and punishing you for investing in anything else. Depravity needs to change, and our over-reliance on Keepers (many of our units don't stack up offensively compared to contemporaries in other books unless they are double piling-in) needs to go. Fixing Depravity will help give purpose to our smaller (less Depravity efficient) heroes, and let our cool units like Fiends and the new Myrmidesh and so on do the heavy lifting as they should. I love the army and have played it extensively at tournaments for two years now, but it just isn't fun playing the same type of list over and over again. I love that it lets you play herohammer, but when herohammer is all you've got that works, it gets uninteresting for everyone - particularly opponents - real fast. I won't be sad if it is just a patchjob, and it won't deter me from the new mortal stuff or anything, but I really do hope it is a full on revamp, especially after all the erratas make entire sections of the book redundant anyway. Playing Slaanesh right now just feels like a bit of a chore, especially when you often rack up 200+ Depravity points per game (Syll'Esskan Host) - what's the point of having that many summoning points when you know you're just gonna summon the same units over and over again, models permitting? It's not interesting or rewarding in the slightest, and it's massively unfun for opponents even if they win. Rant aside, I'm genuinely excited for whatever we end up getting. Even if Depravity stays the same, the promise of changes elsewhere (particularly to warscrolls, as we've seen with the Hellstrider improvements) the new units and almost certainly new sub-factions (most books nowadays tend to have six, and six is...you know) will still spice things up plenty. If nothing else, we're going to end up having one of the most complete, high quality ranges in AoS - a far cry from the situation we were in just a few years ago.

If Slaanesh isn't the next AoS release, why'd they show them off first and not whatever other faction would be getting that battletome in February, especially considering we know Slaanesh were originally due in January?

Let me clarify; 1) We know Slaanesh are getting a minimum 6 (but looks to be 7+) new kits, many of which haven't been properly previewed but already teased. 2) Slaanesh is the AoS faction they are currently hyping. No other faction has had any pre-release hype yet, so either Slaanesh are next or the new battletome is a quick one before the big Slaanesh drop. 3) The Death Guard got a coin and are getting a new codex. Daughters had a single character model as part of their release. Slaanesh are, again, getting a minimum of 6 brand new kits. 4) There's been no indication of what other AoS releases there might be besides this new battletome and Slaanesh, and we know there's other Slaanesh stuff yet to be shown off. Of all the possibilities, Slaanesh is the most likely. My earlier post was just to add to the other evidence being thrown around.

Friendly reminder; Death Guard were supposed to release this month, and the coin for December is Death Guard. The January coin is for Hedonites. It's a new Slaanesh battletome.

I voted for the C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon, but I also agree they should have split the voting for AoS and 40k. My AoS-specific pick (and runner-up overall) would be the Light of Eltharion. On-topic, I can't wait to see more Slaanesh, hopefully on Christmas!

I have a very strong feeling this is the case. Including heroes and the big model we've not yet got a clear picture of (if it is a new model) we're looking at 7-8 kits minimum. That screams new Hedonites battletome to me.

Is anyone else starting to feel like we actually are getting a brand new battletome with the mortals release? A Hedonites of Slaanesh battletome refresh before Daughters/Legions of Nagash/Nurgle/etc would be odd, but the scale of this release (especially as there's certainly more models yet to be revealed) feels like it would be too big to just be confined to a Broken Realms book. Maybe we'll get both?

The big problem I've found - and I'm not sure if this is accurate for everyone, but it's my experience playing them - is that it's much harder to actually get all your Wyldwoods on the table nowadays thanks to the changes to placement restrictions, and the fact many armies now bring their own terrain pieces. Old Sylvaneth could slap down woods with virtual impunity (which wasn't a good thing for the game I feel, balanced or not it wasn't a fun play experience for anyone, but they may have gone too far in the opposite direction) and get plenty of mileage out of the fact their allegiance rules were tied to them, but the new book both made them much more difficult to place and didn't address the fact the allegiance rules should've been updated to reflect their dependency on placing Wyldwoods. I guess the real question is what good is a set of allegiance rules and warscroll synergies based around a particular terrain piece if the terrain placement rules harshly restrict where you can actually get mileage out of them? I still love the army thematically and think they are at least somewhat stronger perhaps than people give them credit for, but I really believe now (after voicing the opposite opinion previously) that there's no denying the terrain placement changes hit the army harder than the rules designers for the new battletome expected. If nothing else, the battletome is fantastic to play around with in a more casual setting. The inevitable addition of the Kurnothi should help solve some of the factions' core problems (namely a lack of diversity.) It's a real shame that currently it seems the best way to run Sylvaneth models competitively is to splice them into another battletome.

For Hellstriders specifically, their points were changed to 100 in the Shadow and Pain box-set Generally speaking, Azyr and Warscroll Builder will source the latest points updates - even if they aren't accessible via the Warhammer Community site, such as in the case of the Shadow and Pain changes.

It's odd, 2 attacks each at 3+ 3+ seems decent on paper, but even with access to re-roll 1s to-hit (Syll'Esske) and a double pile-in (Chaos Lord) they just didn't do much in any of my matches. I got 17 to pile-in twice into a unit of 40 Chainrasps (a total of 70 attacks thanks to the unit champion, all with re-rolls 1 to-hit and the usual exploding 6s) and I think I only killed like 15. They were a great anvil though and let my heroes do the killing so I'm happy enough with how they went.

Good spot! I'm guessing they'd probably only have a 5+ shrug like the Lord of Pain, but I won't say no to Slaaneshi Phoenix Guard. Speaking of anvils, I tried a blob of 20 Chaos Warriors today and it's so refreshing to have something in the army that doesn't feel like it dies to a stiff breeze. Here's hoping Myrmidesh perform similarly.

I'm giddy just from Slaangors being confirmed, everything else is a happy bonus

It really does look like it's going to be a big release, which hopefully means a whole new Battletome and not just a Broken Realms update (tjough I'd be perfectly happy with that too!) After losing Hellstriders as Battleline, it's a guarantee at least one (Slaangors) of the new units will be a Battleline option which will shore up a big hole in our roster. The new mortals give us something we previously relied on Slaves for; elite heavy infantry, and new mortal heroes will hopefully give us cheaper ways of generating depravity so we can field the new toys and not feel penalised for spending points outside of the leader slots. Sigvald and both kits they've shown are absolutely fantastic aesthetically; Sigvald in particular is just...wow! There are super exciting times ahead for us, fellow Hedonites

So I'm planning on attending a tournament next month, and I'm undecided about which of the two following lists to take - especially as I haven't built any Khinerai yet, and each list requires different variants for the battalions (I only own 10 unbuilt, so it's a very important decision!) I'm leaning towards the first list because I don't think I can get my Morathi(s) painted in time, but I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts. It's amazing how much you get in exchange for dropping Morathi, but at the same time Morathi brings so much to the table and is the only reliable source of high Rend in the army (sans the Cauldron itself.) List 1 Hagg Narr Mortal Realm: None Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood - General, Command Trait: Devoted Disciples, Prayer: Martyr's Sacrifice - 330 Bloodwrack Medusa - Artefact: Shadow Stone, Spell: Mindrazor - 140 Hag Queen - Artefact: Iron Circlet, Prayer: Blessing of Khaine - 100 Hag Queen - Prayer: Catechism of Murder - 100 30 Witch Aelves - Pairs of Sacrificial Knives - 300 30 Witch Aelves - Pairs of Sacrificial Knives - 300 30 Sisters of Slaughter - Barbed Whips and Blade Bucklers - 300 10 Sisters of Slaughter - Barbed Whips and Blade Bucklers - 120 5 Khinerai Heartrenders - 90 5 Khinerai Heartrenders - 90 Slaughter Troupe - 130 Total - 2000/2000 List 2 Hagg Narr Mortal Realm: None Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood - General, Command Trait: Devoted Disciples, Artefact: Thousand and One Dark Blessings, Prayer: Catechism of Murder - 290 Hag Queen - Artefact: Iron Circlet, Prayer: Blessing of Khaine - 100 Morathi-Khaine/The Shadow Queen - Spell: Mindrazor - 600 30 Witch Aelves - Pairs of Sacrificial Knives - 300 30 Witch Aelves - Pairs of Sacrificial Knives - 300 10 Sisters of Slaughter - Barbed Whips and Blade Bucklers - 120 5 Khinerai Lifetakers - 80 5 Khinerai Lifetakers - 80 Cauldron Guard - 120 Total - 1990/2000