Don’t miss all the new rules previews for Slaanesh’s Battletome in AoS, as we get a brand new look at all the how all the models will interact now.
Warhammer Community revealed the rules for Slaanesh’s new Battletome in AoS 2.0. After years of being out of the picture, it looks like his forces are ready to take back some ground. Let’s dive right into what the Daemons of Slaanesh will be getting.
Depravity Points
Khorne may run off his blood tithes but Slaanesh thrives off of Depravity points. You’ll be able to get these points whenever a hero (Slaanesh or not) takes damage but isn’t slain. If your opponent doesn’t run many heroes, you might want to take a few yourself and throw them into combat. Just so you make sure you have some points to spend on summoning Daemons.
There are also a few unique ways each Slaaneshi subfaction can generate their own depravity points. Invaders, Godseekers, and Pretenders have their own preferred ways of showing devotion to Slaanesh.
Hedonite Heroes & Euphoric Killers Rules
Slaanesh’s Locus of Diversion essentially can shut down an enemy unit in combat. On a 4+ (2+ for a Greater Daemon), you’ll be able to force an enemy unit within 6″ to fight last. It’s brutal but it almost forces you to take a Greater Daemon in your list. Only getting to do it once per combat is too much riding on a single 4+ roll.
You’ll want to blob your units up and keep them at above 20 models to get maximum benefit. But with each hit roll of a 6+, they explode.
Between shutting down one enemy in combat and exploding hits on another, the combat phase is looking to be Slaanesh’s bread and butter.
Slaanesh Sub-faction: Invader Rules
Looking at the Invaders of Slaanesh, these are the forces that don’t care where their god went. They just want to satiate the dark desires in their hearts.
Slaanesh players will be able to pick three generals for their army and use their command abilities for each. Just make sure they stay outside of 12″ from each other. The other cool thing is that when they die, you’ll get a Cp refunded back to you.
Similar to Nurgle’s force, if you’ve got guys in your territory, you’ll get D3 depravity points. But if you’re keeping three or more units back in your territory, you’ll go up to D6 points. You’ll want to find either cheap heroes or ranged units to fill the role of just sitting back at home base.
The faction has two ways of generating a hefty amount of depravity points. It just takes a little finesse to stock them up.
Slaanesh Sub-faction: Godseekers Rules
On the flipside of the Invaders, the Godseekers are relentless in finding their missing god. They travel the realms far and wide with incredible speed. Thus, bringing in their Thundering Cavalcade.
The Godseekers also have a way of generating even more depravity points. If you make enough successful charges in a phase, you’ll be able to rack up the points in no time. You’ll probably want to run a couple of units of cavalry or Fiends for some extra speed and melee tricks.
To keep up with the Godseeker’s theme of relentless speed, they have their own special command trait called speed-chaser. Keep your heroes from getting bogged down by giving them the ability to retreat and charge all in the same turn.
Slaanesh Sub-faction: Pretenders Rules
Pretenders are particularly arrogant followers of Slaanesh who, in the Dark Prince’s absence, have taken up his mantle for themselves. Most Pretenders are particularly influential Keepers of Secrets, but some mortal champions have been known to take up the title. The superb skills of any given Pretender warlord are represented in-game by two command traits rather than one. Additionally, larger Pretenders units can re-roll hit rolls of 1.
Pretenders heroes can have two command traits instead of one. Plus, any Pretenders unit with ten or more models can reroll hit rolls of 1. That’s just icing on the Slaaneshi cake!
Keepers of Secrets Are a Must for the Pretenders
You’ll want to bubblewrap your general with enemy units to get maximum benefits. Really, you’ll want to pick something tanky like a Greater Daemon to fill this role. Otherwise, your general will just get jumped and you’ll lose out on any hope of racking in the depravity.
If you decide to go with a big bad Daemon, he gets even better when there’s no friendly unit nearby. Just have him hold down the left or right flank of the table and watch him go to work bringing in the depravity points and rerolling all hit rolls.
Whip of Subversion Artifact
A Slaanesh hero can take the whip of subversion and snatch a weapon from the enemy’s hands and use it to dish out mortal wounds equal to the weapons attack characteristic. If there’s something like a Mangler Squig within 6″ of the dude with this whip, that’s a potential seven mortal wounds to an unlucky unit.
Slaaneshi Spells Are Twisted & Depraving
Hysterical Frenzy is like a super smite that gets even more powerful if you pick a blobbed-up unit. You roll a dice for each model in a unit and do D3 mortal wounds for every roll of a 6. Imagine the devastation you could cause against something like Clan Rats or Stabbas/Shootas.
combined with the bravery check the unit would have to make, this spell alone could delete a unit.
This spell essentially makes a Slaanesh Mortal unit fearless until your next hero phase. If you roll hot, you can make three units fearless. It’s not busted, but it’s cheap at only a casting value of 5 which is nice.
If you need extra depravity points for summoning, just take Song of Secrets. You roll a dice for each model in the unit and instead of doing D3 mortal wounds for each 6, you’ll be getting a depravity point.
Meanwhile, Slothful Stupor shuts down an enemy hero. They can’t use their command abilities, run, or charge. Really, they can fight in combat or just move normally. Not bad!
Slaanesh is looking to be another finesse army coming to Age of Sigmar. Their power lies in combat and their heroes being placed in key positions. How are you going to run your Slaaneshi forces? Which sub-faction are you tailoring your list around now? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
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Bio: Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4.
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