LeonBox

Had a battle versus FEC last night which I surprisingly won despite some extremely poor rolls. My list: Lurid Haze Leaders (6) Glutos, Dark Delusions, Priestess having a serious crisis of faith Keeper of Secrets, General, Sinistrous Hand, Progeny of Damnation, Lurid Haze item Sigvald the Magnificent, deathwish Contorted Epitome, General, Rod of Misrule The Masque, General, slayer of ghouls Vicebringer Battleline 2x5 Chaos Warriors, all the bells and whistles 1 x 11 Blissbarb archers Battalions Supreme Sybarites Endless Spells Dreadful Visage My opponent's list, roughly: No allegiance AKA that one that lets you pile in and attack again for free 1/round Terrorgheist with dude on the back Zombie dragon with dude on the back 20 x ghouls 10 x ghouls Abhorrent Arch-Regent with +2 to cast, curious aversion to leaving his throne almost the whole battle Another Abhorrent type, also determined to sit on the throne all day 8 x Crypt Horrors (Summoned) 2 x Varghulfs (Summoned) 10 ghouls (Summoned) 3 x Crypt Flayers The battleplan was "Take and Hold" (the two objectives directly opposite each other, take both simultaneously to win). My opponent castled up and put ghouls all around his castle to prevent Sigvald from deepstrike charging anything important. The battle in précis: Round 1 Slaanesh I took first turn, moved most things up and Lurid Hazed the Herald to block off deepstriking on one of my flanks. My original plan was to deepstrike Siggy, but he had not a single appealing target. The Keeper sacrificed the Lurid Haze artifact for +1 to hit. Blissbarb shooting represented, putting 3 wounds on a Horror and wiping out 7(!) ghouls from 10 shots. Round 1 FEC My opponent summoned in 3 Flayers and 10 ghouls on a chunk of real estate I'd unwisely left open in my backfield. Nothing else moved because he wanted to maximise his free summoning from the FEC terrain piece. Round 2 Slaanesh I charged Siggy, probably quite stupidly, into 20 screening ghouls. My rationale was that it was a price worth paying to set up a counter-charge on the terrorgheist behind them. He wiped them out without needing a second activation from the Keeper sitting 12" behind him. A bunch of Aquiescence went off from the Herald (moving to deal with the backfield Flayers/Ghouls) and the Epitome. Despite this, my archers fluffed their 21 shots into the backfield flayers, dealing maybe 3 wounds. The Herald and 5 Chaos Warriors I'd had babysitting my objective charged in and killed 1 Flayer and 3-4 ghouls. Round 2 FEC Due to careless Blissbarb positioning, my opponent charged his Horrors into the screening Chaos Warriors and also managed to tie up the archers (I had left them just within 3"). The Chaos Warriors easily died and 3 archers went too. The Terrorgheist annihilated Sigvald despite my spending 2 command points to put him on a re-rollable 2+. My opponent also threw up a gravetide whatever gate thing to block the Keeper behind Siggy, and also screened out the Terrorgheist with 10 ghouls. I believe he also got off a re-roll wounds spell from the zombie dragon dude. Round 3 Slaanesh I dispelled his zombie fence and crippled the terrorgheist with much famishment from Glutos' warscroll spell. The depravity already overfloweth so I summoned a second Keeper in my backfield (foolishly, I did not place it in such a way that I could use it to re-activate my other Keeper). My archers were making up for their strong round 1 shooting now by failing to force even a single save on the Crypt Horrors. They were subsequently wiped out in combat. The original Keeper zipped across the battlefield to engage the Crypt Horrors on the left flank, far from the Terrorgheist but close to his zombie dragon. I put 10 wounds on them but 8 Horrors is so very many wounds (32, in fact). My opponent removed casualties so that they were no longer in combat with the Keeper. My herald and Chaos Warriors finally took his backfield lurkers out. Round 3 FEC My opponent charged the Keeper with his zombie dragon and a Varghulf, and the Epitome and Glutos with his Horrors. The zombie dragon did very little even with the free extra activation, and my Keeper disappointingly didn't kill the Varghulf (I fluffed the impaling claw attacks even hitting on 2s). The Epitome died, failing to get off Horrible Fascination but managing to prevent pile-ins with the Locus, which was good news for Glutos. The big boi brought the hurt, putting through 8-10 wounds on the Horrors. I believe my opponent moved the Terrorgheist back at this stage to make a charge on it harder (it was still famished so couldn't easily get to me). Round 4 Slaanesh Keeper #2 charged my opponent's other Varghulf, located just beyond the Glutos-Horror combat. Keeper #1, gamely holding on with 10 wounds taken, was still in combat with Varghulf #1 and zombie dragon. The Herald moved up and charged the zombie dragon. I summoned 30 daemonettes on my right flank, ready to defend if/when his Terrorgheist came forward. Glutos famished the poor beast again. Glutos killed the Horrors. Both Keepers continued to disappoint: Keeper #1 failed to kill Varghulf #1, leaving it on 7 wounds, and Keeper #2 put only a couple on his own (I got three hits through with her claws due to exploding sixes, then rolled three ones. Sigh.). The zombie dragon and Varghulf #1 killed Keeper #1. The Herald held on to lock the zombie dragon in combat. Round 4 FEC The Herald was killed by the zombie dragon's pestilential breath. The Terrorgheist charged the Masque (locked in her own private war with 10 ghouls for the past turn or so), needing to spend 2 CPs to do so thanks to crippling famishment. The now-free dragon charged Glutos. The Terrorgheist killed the Masque (12 mortal wounds from his maw!) and Glutos killed the zombie dragon. Round 5 Slaanesh The Keeper retreated from the Varghulf, up towards my opponent's backfield. Glutos moved up, failing to famish the Terrorgheist this time, but the Keeper got Slothful Stupor on it. At some point Varghulf #1 was killed but I don't remember how. The backfield Keeper summoned 20 daemonettes, who made their 9" charge into the 10 ghouls guarding his objective. My 30 daemonettes moved to my own objective, and after a double pile-in on the 20 daemonettes from the Keeper, it was game to me. A very, very close game that went right down the wire. Summoning was absolutely key for me (I wouldn't have had the bodies to win if not for it) -- I summoned 50 daemonettes and a Keeper over the course of the game. Learned some valuable lessons about keeping fragile units better screened. My archers were too close to their screening warriors and paid the price. Oh, and although it didn't really end up affecting too much, I failed Glutos' 2+ ward save four out of five times. Between that and the awful Keeper rolls, I really need some new dice as these ones are clearly cursed.

It's a real shame she can't cast the healing spells with unlimited range. Their 6" range is extremely limiting. Why can't Slaanesh's holy number be 12?

Can I ask why you took 4 battleline rather than 3? Why not drop a unit of Chaos Warriors and spend those points on something pretty? (Not that we have anything pretty for 90 pts)

Hey now -- it also makes it completely useless for an allied Kairos to borrow too!

One thing I will add is that the range of the warscroll spell is made irrelevant by the fact that it can be cast anywhere on the field.

No, I don't think so as no wound is inflicted; the artefact is destroyed in place of taking a wound.

Yes, you lose the wound because the artifact is gone.

Wow. That's both insane and not all that surprising. Team Slaanesh!

Very interested to know how it turns out. I may run a Keeper as one of the twins (or two Keepers as both) next week, since their bases are basically the same size.

Alright yes, specifically High Elves. 8th edition Dark Elves were pretty mean as well though, though they were easier to counter than High Elves.

I've just noticed as well that despite Dexcessa wielding the "Scourge of Slaanesh" (which I assume is a whip), it actually seems to be the Synessa model that has anything resembling such a weapon. Dexcessa Synessa, with what looks like the whip.

Oof, I didn't even notice they lacked the Greater Daemon keyword.

I can only really speak for Slaanesh but the last battletome, whilst massively improving Depravity Point generation and adding some great new units, really dropped the ball on the lore (why do Godseekers and Pretenders still exist when Slaanesh has been found?) and certain warscrolls/battalions (Shardspeakers are support wizards that need to be within striking distance, some battalions require completely anti-synergistic units, the less said about Slaangors the better). There's not too much lore to support the new mortal stuff either -- Hedonites got no novels and the lore in the battletome is in many parts a straight copy-paste from the last one. Loath as I am to bring LRL up again but the amount of love they got mechanically (2 Battletomes, Aetherquartz special rules, double activation, powerful magic, powerful ranged, powerful melee, bucketloads of mortal wound output, autocasting, free re-roll to magic from terrain piece, free CP from terrain piece, powerful and versatile spell lores, fast units, tough units, strong units, etc. etc. etc.) as well as fluff-wise (novels, Teclis got his own BR book) makes it seem like not all factions are created equal. As said, I cannot speak for Soulblight but I've heard a lot of complaints that the vampire heroes are pretty boring with the same 3/3/-1/D3 attack profiles and a dearth of interesting/flavourful rules.

Is there *any* chance at all that 3.0 will feature any sort of rework to basic Hedonite mechanics? It seems unlikely given how recently our book came out, but something like "spend [x] DPs for +1 to cast" would be really awesome.

I've used them a fair bit in the past (useful for guaranteed turn 1 charges) but we're already so fast that they're often not necessary. They will be fantastic with Synessa, though.

Upon reflection it's probably best that Synessa didn't get unlimited-range Slothful Stupor; that would be extremely feelsbad for our opponents and precisely the kind of interaction for which LRL is frequently criticised. Unlimited-range Pavane is actually very nice as I believe that spell is usually 6" and almost never sees use (at least not in my lists) because the only thing that would conceivably use it is always going to take a spell from the Greater Daemon lore. As it is, this is the perfect spell to cast on LRL fox archers. Rolling 24 dice and dealing MWs on 5s to those guys is going to feel very, very good indeed.

Absolutely. But I still find it utterly baffling that this "reflection of Slaanesh's godly arcane power" can't be a two-cast wizard (or at least one with some thematic way to get casting bonuses, à la the new Warsong Revenant).

This is absolutely the case as I see it. Elves historically get all the love from GW (who can forget the Alariellestar days of WHFB High Elves) and the attention lavished upon LRL, including their byzantine ruleset and constant exceptions from established rules (auto-casting, deep-striking to 3", MWs on no-LOS shooting, double activations etc. etc.) makes it feel bad when cool-looking stuff from other factions gets very uninspired rules.

The lore for the Voice now though: "While still perfectly capable of bisecting foolish mortal warriors with their claws, Synessa prefers to let their magical might do the talking – which is even more worrying for unlucky foes that now have to stare down a reflection of Slaanesh's own godly arcane power."

Synessa's spell is so very bland. Basically a better version of Dark Delusions from the mortal lore (making that one more spell that is useless to them). Dexcessa is fairly tanky with the free CP; -1 to hit, +1 save from Lurid Haze (still little reason to take any other faction right now) and with the CPs overflowing you could easily give them re-roll saves of one even if you don't get Mystic Shield off. If you pair them up with Glutos you've got a tanky shred-monster that gets more dangerous every round. A little surprised they didn't get MWs on 6s to wound, though.

Dexcessa could combo really well with Glutos in the same way that Fiends currently do (and assuming the rumours that modifiers are capped at +/-1 is not true). Sure, they won't survive against concentrated ranged fire, but what does these days? If you can get them into melee combat fast and with Glutos in range, they'll be pretty difficult to stop.

Yep I think, upon reflection, this is a healthy outlook to have. I certainly wouldn't want Keepers to be even more overshadowed than they are right now, and it does seem like these two will, as @Enoby pointed out, have some utility outside of mega-caster or beatstick. Having an un-unbindable Slothful Stupor will be pretty good, as well as the toolbox of the other Slaanesh spells. Worst case scenario, we've gained new options.

Any word on whether they get a warscroll spell, or just access to all the Slaanesh spells? Also, is there any chance at all that the terrible mortal lore gets spells added/reworked?

Same. I was already disappointed by the models (there's way too much Keeper in them, and the sceptre is pretty unimpressive in either build) but was hoping they might have some cool rules. If the leaks are true they don't. At least we have the February release with all of the cool mortal models. Could be worse; we could be BoC.

Haha wow that immunity to battleshock is really gonna come in useful on my bravery 10 daemons, can't wait!