Just because Slaanesh is “missing” does not mean his followers are missing out on the summoning party that AoS 2.0 is rocking.
These guys and gals gain Depravity points by having Slaanesh heroes do damage to models without killing them.
Age Sigmar Summoner’s War: Daemons of Slaanesh
The example given is say your Keeper of Secrets deals 10 unsaved wounds to a unit of 10 liberators that have 2 wounds each. You would gain 5 Depravity points from that round of combat because the first wound does not kill a model but the second one does.
Your summoning list starts at 6 points for something like a Herald of Slaanesh and goes all the way up to 24 points for a Keeper of Secrets. Also every wound your hero’s receive but that does not kill them you gain a point as well.
For this army we want a high movement, so we are going to make our army seekers, giving all our models 2” to their movement if they have a move of 10” or greater or 1” if less than 10”
Let’s get started with the all-important leader characters to get those Depravity points rolling in. We are going to want to play with a lot of heroes that have tons of attacks but deal 1 point of damage each. Also, Depravity points are not limited to just combat phase so magic and shooting count as well.
- Herald of Slaanesh on Steed: 60 points (Leader 1 of 6)
- Herald of Slaanesh on Exalted Seeker Chariot: 160 points (Leader 2 of 6)
- The Masque of Slaanesh: 80 points (Leader 3 of 6)
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore: 200 points (Leader 4 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 3)
- Keeper of Secrets: 260 points (Leader 5 of 6, Behemoth 2 of 3)
- Herald of Slaanesh on Steed: 60 points (Leader 6 of 6)
Coming in at 820 points all these models can move at least 10” and have multiple attacks that do 1 point of damage, except for the keeper of secrets which deals 2 damage. All these models are made to basically run forward as fast as possible and hit something in the face. Just be careful to place them near larger groups of troops so that you are getting cover and the lookout sir rule against shooting attacks.
Where you are really limited is the magic phase, an enemy can easily overpower you with magic attacks. So you need to try and get into combat before the enemy is within range of their spells.
The goal of this army is to get your heroes in and spread out attacks as much as possible, so things like the keeper of secrets Cacophonic Choir is great, or the Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh’s Exalted Blades. For this army, I am going to choose to give the Exalted Seeker the Lash of Despair which adds an area of effect ability 6” around the model. I am going to make the Keeper of Secrets my general and give them the Supremely Vain so that hopefully he can unbind an opponent spell easier or cast Cacophonic Choir.
Let’s add in our battleline troops
- 30 Daemonettes of Slaanesh: 270 points (Battleline 1 of 3)
- 10 Hellstriders of Slaanesh: 200 points (Battleline 2 of 3)
- 10 Hellstriders of Slaanesh: 200 points (Battleline 3 of 3)
Your new total is 1490, and this gives you a huge block of troops that you can push forward with in the Daemonettes. They hit hard but die easy, so we are going to try and distract our opponent with the hell striders who have a 16” move (18 with the seeker ability). Also, your fasters heroes can hide near the Hellstriders so they can benefit from the lookout sir rule and still move forward as fast as possible.
If you can tie up some shooting attacks with the Hellstriders and buy your Daemonettes a turn from shooting you are in fantastic shape. Let’s spend out 400 points of allies to bring in some heavy hitters that can either distract your opponent from your hero or come in and hit like a hammer.
- Cygor: 180 points (Allied Warheard, Behemoth 3 of 4)
- Ghorgon: 200 points (Allied Warheard, Behemoth 4 of 4)
Bringing you up to 1870, these two guys add a massive presence to your battlefield and can easily distract your opponents. The Cygor gives you two more unbinding attempts which you’ll need against more magic oriented opponents. He also makes a good mage hunter with his hurl bolder attack. The Ghorgon is a beast in hand to hand combat and should he make it to the fray he will dish out some pain. The only problem is that they are not considered Slaanesh so do not get the bonus move and they have a move of 8” so might not be able to get to the fight as fast as your other troops.
This leaves you with 130 points left to play with whatever you want, personally, I would go for the endless spell Prismatic Palisade to block line of sight of some shooting attacks and then another unit of 5 Hellstriders to capture objectives or tie up an opponent. But you can do whatever you like with the remaining points.
There you have it a summoning focused army in terms of getting your heroes into combat and generating those Depravity points. Don’t be too concerned with saving up summoning points more than just use them wisely.
Remember sometimes it’s better to summon a unit to score an objective rather than just go for the throat every time.
For past Summoner’s War articles check these out:
About the Author: Travis Perkins
An avid homebrewer and Detroit sports fan (yes even the Lions). I am new to the world of wargamming and very much enjoying the journey. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to comment on the article or email me at perki116@msu.edu
