In the midst of their latest Christmas preview, GW also revealed the Hedonites of Slaanesh battletome and confirmed more new models! It’s time for another
Luke from Warhammer Community tempts us with his paintwork.
The Godseeker Host of Shalaxi Helbane all ready for #Blackout19 very happy with how this whole army has come out, especially after a little hobby wobble that the three color idea wouldn’t work. #AoS
GW just rolled out a new batch of over a dozen all-new models for the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Take a look!
Cześć, Jak zwykle, ważnym elementem nowego Battletome są ilustracje w nim zawarte. Battletome: Hedonists of Slaanesh jest pod tym względem szczególnie ciekawy ze względu na spore kontrowersje jakie od zawsze budził najmłodszy z bogów chaosu (szerzej o tych kontrowersjach pisałem >> TUTAJ << ). Jak GW poradziło sobie z utrwaleniem na obrazach prawdziwej natury Slaanesha? Czy w Battletomie mamy jakieś interesujące rozkładówki i czy trzeba chować go pod łóżko? To rzecz jasna każdy oceni według własnej miary ;) Według mnie jest dobrze - zamiast "SEGZ i BeNiZ" mamy dość ciekawą mieszanką elegancji doprawionej dekadencją i groteskowym horrorem. Wszystko to (w większości przypadków) narysowane dobrą (według mnie, prostego człowieka bez wykształcenia artystycznego) kreską. Wśród ilustracji z pewnością wyróżnia się ta przedstawiająca Shalaxi Helbane w walce z Bloodthirsterem Khorna. Jeśli jakiś obraz ma stać się kultowy i gościć (w powiększeniu) na ścianach pokoi, klubów i sal gry to właśnie TEN. Tymczasem zatem - zapraszam do galerii. PS. Wszystkie wpisy z serii prezentującej ilustracje świata Age of Sigmar znajdziecie natomiast >> TUTAJ << PS.2 Zainteresowanych zasadami odsyłam do recenzji Battletome: Hedonists of Slaanesh >> TUTAJ <
The new Hedonites of Slaanesh book is here, and with it a fully updated mortal section to the faction! This is nice to see since so much of the previous book only focused on the demons. So what delights does this new book hold? Let's find out! To kick things off, we have brand new cover for this book. Just like with the Daughters of Khaine book, I think this is a big improvement over the previous cover. Not only do I find the mortals of the faction to be more interesting, I also like the art style more. The previous one had a bit of a sketchy vibe to it, while this new one feels much more finished and polished. It also pulls in a lot more of the traditional Slaanesh colors with the pinks and purples in the background. The lore section also follows a similar path as the Daughters of Khaine book. Understandably, a lot of the lore is pretty similar to what we had in the original Hedonites Battletome. We get a brief overview of the whole army, before diving into Slaanesh themselves and what it means to be a follower of the Chaos god. We then go through the description of how Slaanesh was imprisoned by the aelf gods, and how his domain within the Realm of Chaos is structured. As far as I can tell this is all pretty similar to how it was portrayed previously. The first truly new section is a cool little illustrated section talking a bit about the Sybarites, or mortal followers of Slaanesh. We'll come back to them more later, as they will provide most of the new content to the lore. I do like how they have their own name within the faction, like the Rotbringers in Nurgle, Bloodbound in Khorne, and Arcanites in Tzeentch. The next section goes over the three main factions of Slaanesh in more detail, the Invaders, Pretenders, and Godseekers, which seems fairly similar to their descriptions previously. Now we start getting to some of the newer lore for the faction. The previous book covered a bit about how Slaanesh was starting to secretly destroy the magical chains binding him, and then quickly replacing them with a fake one. Each of these chains can only be destroyed by an event that the aelfs thought unlikely to happen. At the end of the last battletome Slaanesh had destroyed two through their own machinations, and a third had been destroyed due to the magical energy unleashed by the Necroquake. Since then, they have destroyed another one through the help of Archaon. The Everchosen found the prison of the god of excess and was fighting to free them. Unfortunately, he had to return to the Eightpoints to deal with the invasion of the Bonereapers, but not before he had Dorghar destroy a chain that only a demon of Khorne could break. With their power slowly returning they were able to spread their influence out into the realms further than before, hence the rise of the Sybarites. When Morathi arrived to steal some of the most potent aelven souls for her own ascension to godhood the chain of Stolen Apotheosis was broken. Though it wasn't enough to free the god entirely, they were able to send out a shard of themselves which the armies of Slaanesh began to rally around. The timeline section has some cool bits in it, like the freeing of Sigvald who then starts taking his revenge on the troggoth herds. There's also mentions of Beastgrave as well as Morathi's ascension to godhood. The timeline ends with the shard of Slaanesh beginning its rise to prominence in Ulgu itself. The unit section is where we really get to dive into the new mortal followers of Slaanesh. Sigvald gets almost a full two pages all to himself. This covers how he survived his death at the end of the world-that-was. Cast aside by his god as a failure, it was Nagash who scooped up his soul and trapped him within a Shadeglass mirror. It was the Kharadron who first found it, and then it fell into the hands of a Slaanesh warband who shattered it. Slaanesh found his interest in Sigvald reignited and granted him a sliver of his power. Since then Sigvald has been seeking revenge on both the troggoths and the servants of Nagash for both of their parts in his original death, as well as his imprisonment. Though he appears flawless, he actually has a single scar on his body to remind him of his failure and drive him into a rage. The Myrmidesh were also quite interesting, being part of a specific cult that learns that art of the blade. They're the elite of the Sybarites and are given the best armor and weapons accordingly. The Slaangors are probably my favorite of the new units though, and their section goes over several of the creation myths behind them. The gallery section shows off all of the 'Eavy Metal models, with a particular emphasis on all of the new mortal stuff. The painting guides in it are a combination of the ones from the previous book, the ones from the Wrath of the Everchosen book, and new ones to cover some of the new models, such as Slaangor skin and Myrmidesh armor. Now we move onto the rules section. They have three main allegiance abilities, with Euphoric Killers staying the same. This grants you 2 hits on the roll of a 6, or 3 hits, if the unit has 20 or more models. The other two have both changed though. Locus of Diversion activates in much the same way, but now if you're successful it prevents your opponent from piling in instead of making them fight last. I think this feels much more balanced and won't give as many feel bad experiences. Feast of Depravities is still the way you summon on new models. You gain 1 depravity point for each unit on the battlefield that had 1 or more wound suffered that was not negated, or has fewer models in it that at the start of the turn. This is checked at the end of the battleshock phase. This means it's a max of one depravity point per unit. Accordingly, the cost of summoning demons has dropped, with a Keeper of Secrets only costing 12 points now. The other big change is that you can only summon on one unit per turn. Both of these changes will help limit the overwhelming swarm feeling people got when playing slaanesh in the past. The rest of the army rules are broken down between Invades, Pretenders, or Godseekers. You have to pick which of these three your army will be. The Invaders traits have stayed pretty much the same, except the Escalating Havoc rules generates less depravity points to fit in with how those work now. The command traits have stayed the same with the exception of Territorial, which now lets you re-roll hits instead of generating depravity points, and Delusions of Infallibility, which now gives you +2 wounds instead. All of the artifacts are the same. Just like the Invaders, the Pretender's abilities are the same as before, but with a reduction on depravity generation. Their command traits have gotten toned down a bit, with True Child of Slaanesh replaced with Craving Stare, which makes more models flee from battleshock instead of generating depravity. Strength of Godhood and Inspirer also both got toned down slightly. The artifacts are also the same, but with Silverslash only adding 1 extra attacks instead of 2. The Godseekers have seen Manical Hunters tweaked slightly. You now generate D3 depravity only if your general charged that turn, but you get +1 to that roll of any other units charged as well. Their command traits only got toned down slightly in spots, but Thrill-Seeker got replaced entirely with Sweeping Slash, which does impact hits when you charge on a 2+. Their artifacts are the same as well, but with Enrapturing Circlet, Cameo of the Dark Prince, and Bindings of Slaanesh all getting toned down a little bit. The spell section is broken up into six spells for demon wizards, 3 for greater demons, and 3 for mortals. The demon spells are all exactly the same with the exception of Born of Damnation which now casts on a 4+ instead of a 5+, and just heals a flat D3 wounds instead of only 1 with the potential for more. For the greater demon spells, Song of Secrets has been replaced with Paths of the Dark Prince, which lets the caster fly on a 7+. The other two spells are the same, except both of them have become easier to cast. The mortal spells are the same as well, but also with one replaced, and one easier to cast. The Fane of Slaanesh works in much the same way, except it no longer generates depravity when you summon units off of it, and the Damned Conduit now adds +1 to hit instead of re-rolls. This is followed by a narrative battleplan and the Path to Glory section. There are six warscroll battalions, and one mega battalion. The mega battalion and three demon base battalions are unchanged from the last book. We also get three mortal based battalions though as well. Out of these three I think I like Exalted Speed-Knights the most. This battalions is all Seekers and lets D6 units from it make a pre-game 6" move. Looking through some of the warscrolls for the existing demon units, it looks like they're pretty much identical, though some have lost abilities that generate extra depravity. I'm sure there are some changes I probably missed, but you can find the warscrolls for free on the App. The big additions are all of the new mortal units. I really like Sigvald's warscroll. I know some are disappointed, but he seems like quite the combat monster to me. He fights at the start of the combat phase when he charges, wounds inflicted by him cannot be negated, and he either has 5 attacks, or the number of the charge roll if it's greater; meaning he can have up to 12 attacks doing D3 wounds each! Overall this book seems pretty similar to the previous one, but with the new units and lore for them added in. All of the stuff that seemed too over the top in the last book has been toned down and I think they'll be a lot more fun to play against. The fact that there's a lot that's the same makes sense, since if it's not broke then there's no need to fix it. I definitely like all of the mortal units more than the demon ones, but that's a personally preference for me. The sculpts are definitely amazing though. Until next time, Tyler M.
GW just rolled out a new batch of over a dozen all-new models for the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Take a look!
As if the incredible new models weren’t enough, Slaanesh is getting a new battletome – one that gives the army ...
It's finally here, the Battletome everyone has been asking for since the launch of the game, the Hedonites of Slaanesh! What does the tabletop hold for the Dark Prince? What has happened to him since the end of the world-that-was? Read on and find out! First things first, the cover art. I think I would have preferred a Keeper of Secrets as the central focus, it's just such a cool new model. I understand why they went with the Daemonette though. I like the color choice on it, mostly purples and pinks. It definitely evokes the Slaanesh vibe. It's not one of the strongest covers out there for AoS, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. The lore section in this book is pretty important for AoS as a whole. The mystery of where Slaanesh is and what happened to him has been a big question mark since AoS launched. Some of those questions were answered with the Daughters and Deepkin books, but this Battletome delves into it even further. To start with, I'm assuming most people reading this are familiar with Slaanesh, but for those who aren't here's a brief overview. He's one of the four major gods of Chaos (sorry Horned Rat) and the chief rival of Khorne. Known as the Dark Prince, Slaanesh revels in and gains power from excess and obsession. Basically anything done to excess feeds into Slaanesh. If you're an obsessive musician who ignores everything else besides your music, you feed into Slaanesh. Excess and obsession of war feeds into him. It's mentioned in the book that even the other Chaos gods feed into him. They secretly fear him because he may be the most powerful of the four. Khorne, Nurgle, and Tzeentch are all manifestations of obsession and excess in one particular area, whether that be in war, despair, or knowledge, and ultimately, all of the feeds into Slaanesh's power as well. It's a really interesting concept, and not one I ever really thought of. Though most of his followers are horrible to look upon, they have an undeniable allure that draws others towards them. This will often result in combatants laying down their arms as they flock to the scions of Slaanesh, only to see their true forms mere moments before being cut down. At the end of the world-that-was Slaanesh was glutted upon all of the souls of aelf-kind. He had ingested so much soul stuff that he was most likely the most powerful of the four at the time, but was too full to do anything with that power. When he saw the Mortal Realms though he saw eight new worlds of opportunity. He began to sow his corruption amongst the civilizations of these realms, enticing those susceptible to excess. Slowly, pleasure cults and other obscene things began to gestate within the cities and soon he had his foot in the door. His burgeoning reign wasn't to last though, since the survivors of the aelves had another idea in mind. We actually learn a bit more about the aelves here as well. It's mentioned that even though most of their race was consumed by the Dark Prince, some of them escaped the world-that-was and made it to the Mortal Realms intact. This seems to be a callback to the Araloth storyline from the End Times: Khaine, where a pocket dimension was made and some of the aelves fled into it before the End Times resolved themselves. It's nice to see storylines like this mentioned and acknowledged. Of these survivors, the new aelven gods of Tyrion, Teclis, Malerion, and the demi-god Morathi sought to entrap Slaanesh. They lured him into Uhl-Gysh, a pocket realm between Hysh and Ulgu, using themselves as bait. Once there, they trapped him using chains of pure magic. Since the magic was equal parts shadow and light, itself a paradox, the Chaos god was unable to break them. Even though he was lost, his followers and demons continued on, their very existence proof of their gods' continued life. The armies of Slaanesh more or less divided into three groups, the Invaders, the Pretenders, and the Godseekers. The Invaders pretty much carry on with what they were doing before their god disappeared, waging all out war on the Mortal Realms for the sake of violence and the pleasures it brings. They believe that by conquering as much of the realms as they can they'll empower their god, giving him the strength he needs to break free on his own. An Invaders army typically has multiple leaders, always fighting amongst each other for who the true leader is. The Pretenders are those who seek to replace Slaanesh with themselves. A particularly powerful demon or warlord will position themselves as the Dark Prince's heir and amass an army of devout followers. Raging egomaniacs, these Pretenders believe that they can ascend to godhood if they gather enough power. If they encounter another Pretender they will kill them and all of their followers, eradicating any trace of them. The Godseekers are those who are actively looking for their god. They scour the realms for any trace of Slaanesh, typically mounted upon fast steeds or chariots. Lately they have been drawn to Ulgu more and more as they catch the scent of their god due to Morathi siphoning off more than her share of aelf souls and unbalancing Slaanesh's prison. Within Uhl-Gysh the aelven gods are pulling the souls Slaanesh had consumed from his gullet. In this way they have made both the Scathborn and the Idoneth, as well as others. When each of these souls is pulled from out of him it's the most excruciating pain that Slaanesh has ever felt, leaving him feeling literally hollowed out inside. It's both torture and the most exquisite sensation he has ever felt. He knows he must escape though, and is actively looking for a way to do so. The key is in breaking the 66 magical chains that bind him. Each chain is unique and fashioned from unique magic. Orchestrating events through his greater demons, Slaanesh has already manufactured the breaking of two of the chains on his own, while the Necroquake broke a third. As each of these chains broke the Chaos god quickly manufactured the illusion of a fake chain, so that none of the aelves were aware what was happening. One of the chains was the Chain of Utmost Betrayals, which could only be undone when thousands of innocent souls were killed by their own protectors. To do this Slaanesh manipulated events until the Stormcast were forced to purge many of their own cities of Chaos cults, killing thousands of innocents in the process. This is an event mentioned within the Stormcast Eternals Battletome, so it's cool seeing it used here as part of Slaanesh's plan. He now has the knowledge needed to break dozens more of the chains. Once enough of the chains are broken he will be strong enough to break the rest on his own, at which point he plans on drowning Hysh and Ulgu in excess, bringing the realms under his control. The timeline section has several cool moments spanning from the Age of Myth to the current point in the story. There's a cool little story hook from around the time of Malign Portents that mentions a Godseeker host in Shyish that ventures off to Shadespire. There they find a mirror amongst a heap of duardin bones. Taunted by the being held within, they shatter the mirror, which sets in motion a chain of events that will see Shyish face a new evil. I have no clue who or what it could be, but I'm definitely excited to see where it leads. The last story has Morathi warning the other aelven gods of Slaanesh's danger. She is ignored by all but Teclis, who begins marshaling the might of the armies of Hysh while Morathi continues to expand her Scathborn for the war she is sure to come. The unit section goes into more detail on every unit in the army, some of them getting a lot more attention then I would've expected. The most interesting to me is Shalaxi Helbane, a Keeper of Secrets created by Slaanesh with the sole purpose of hunting down the Dark Prince's prey. Shalaxi was trained to be able to counter and kill the Bloodthirsters of Khorne over all others. The Keeper has even managed to fight Skarbrand to a standstill twice. The heralds of Slaanesh section gets greatly expanded as well with numerous new models and units. Next we have the gallery section. Again, the photography here is amazing. I particularly like the big two page spread that starts off the section. It has the forces of Slaanesh duking it out with the Deepkin on a beach with the sun setting in the background. It's an extremely inspiring image and does a fantastic job at setting the scene. There was plenty of custom scenery made for this section as well, with a bunch of really cool looking romanesque pillars and temples. We get a couple of alternative color scheme examples with some Daemonettes. I particularly like the yellow and green ones, which would normally seem odd for Slaanesh, but works really well. The painting guide sections gives step by step tutorials for the main Slaanesh color scheme, as well as breaking down a few of the alternate schemes. I really enjoy these hobby sections. It gives you so many good painting ideas and breaks down exactly how to do it, or at the very least, which paints were used. While Slaanesh has had rules in the General's Handbook for a bit now, this is the first time they've gotten their very own Battletome. The Depravity Points and summoning from their previous ruleset has carried over, and more or less stayed the same with some modifications to how many points things cost. Basically you generate the Depravity Points with your heroes. You earn one for each wound they inflict that does not kill a model, and for each wound they suffer that does not kill them. So if they attack a unit of Liberators, which each has 2 wounds, and kills 3 of them, you would earn 3 Depravity Points for the first wound inflicted on each model, since it was the second wound that actually killed them. You also get to pick a host for your army to be from, either the Invaders, Pretenders, or Godseekers. While you don't HAVE to pick one, all of the command traits and artifacts are tied to these hosts, so if you want any of those then you need to pick one. They also have two army special rules, Locus of Diversion and Euphoric Killers. Locus of Diversion allows each of your heroes to pick one enemy unit within 6" of them at the end of the charge phase and roll a dice. on a 4+ that unit fights at the end of the combat phase. Keepers of Secrets get +2 to this roll. This is a super powerful ability that can ensure that you get to strike before your enemy a lot of the time. Euphoric Killers affects all Slaanesh models, so that means demons, mortals, beasts, whatever, and turns each unmodified hit roll of a 6 into two hits. If the unit has 20 or more models then it inflicts three hits instead of two. On large units this can be devastating. Now onto the three hosts. Each of these has their own extra set of rules, as well as a set of command traits and artifacts. Unlike with all of the other mono-god books, this isn't split up between demons and mortals, so all your Slaanesh heroes will be pulling from the same tables. Each host also has a unique way to generate more Depravity Points. The Invaders host has a rule called Figureheads of the Dark Prince. You can have 1 to 3 generals in your army, but only one of them can have a command trait. This means they all have the extended range on command abilities that generals enjoy, as well as generating you an extra command point each time one of them is slain. You can't use any traits or command abilities if they're too close to each other though as they're too busy bickering with each other. At the start of your hero phase you earn D3 more Depravity Points if you have your units wholly within the enemy territory, or D6 if you have 3 or more units wholly within. All of their command traits seem pretty balanced, with none really standing out as better than the rest, which seems good to me. Out of their artifacts I like the Icon of Infinite Excess. It's a once per battle ability but gives you a 12" +1 to hit bubble around your hero. The Pretenders get to have two command traits on their general, as well as all units with 10 or more models getting to re-roll hits rolls of 1. You earn extra Depravity Points for them by having your general close to enemy units. Basically, you want to get them stuck in. Out of the command traits for them I like Inspirer which gives you a 9" bubble of ignoring battleshock, and True Child of Slaanesh, which has you roll 6 dice at the start of the game with each 5+ earning you an extra Depravity Point. The artifact Silverslash adds 2 to the attack characteristic of one of your hero's weapons, which can be devastating on the claws of the Keeper of Secrets. The final host, the Godseekers, adds 1 to the charge roll for your entire army. It also unlocks Seeker Chariots as battleline. You earn extra Depravity Points for making charges as well, so everything really encourages you to make a super fast army. Thrill-seeker allows you general to run and charge, which would be amazing on a Keeper. There are three spell lores to pick from. One for any Slaanesh wizard, one for Keepers of Secrets, and one for mortals. The one available to any Slaanesh wizard has six spells to pick from. Hysterical Frenzy stands out the most to me from this lore. You pick an enemy unit wholly within 18" of the caster, and roll a dice for each model in the unit. Each 6+ does D3 mortal wounds! This would be insane on a horde, and even multi-wound models will feel the pain from this one. The Keeper lore has three spells for you to pick from. There is one to heal a model, which I would probably use on the Keeper themselves, and another that lets you pick a hero within 12". That hero cannot use a command ability, or run, or charge until your next hero phase. Depending on how the turn rolls go that could really hamper your opponent. The mortal spell lore also has three spells to pick from, and is probably the weakest of the lot. Battle Rapture allows you to make a friendly unit immune to battleshock, which could be pretty good at a key moment, and depending on how you roll on the casting it could potentially be 3 units instead. This only works on mortals though. The Fane of Slaanesh is the new scenery piece the army gets access to. If you summon a unit on wholly within 12" of the fane, then you earn back D3 Depravity Points. You can also buff your heroes with it be either taking a mortal wound, or sacrificing an artifact of power. The mortal wound sacrifice only buffs you for a turn, while the artifact one if for the rest of the game, but then you can't use that artifact anymore. That could be worthwhile on one use artifacts that have already been used in the game. The narrative battleplan for this is interesting in that it actually represents two rival Slaaneshi hosts duking it out. Normally you're facing off against some other army, but the idea of a civil war type thing is perfect for the vainglorious Slaaneshi forces. Depending on which host you are you'll have a different quest you need to complete along with securing the objective, a Fane of Slaanesh at the center of the battlefield. Path to Glory features in here as well, with the usual tables and rules we have come to expect from it. There are four warscroll battalions to pick from for the Hedonites. The mega battalion, the Hedonite Host, is actually attainable within a Matched Play game considering how small the other three battalions are. You need to take at least one of each of the other battalions in it and then you gain 1 bravery across the army, plus an additional D3 Depravity Points in each of your hero phases. Depending on which host you're playing there are different requirements on this as well. The Supreme Syrabites battalion is 3-6 heroes, which can earn you extra command points. The Epicurean Revellers is at a minimum 2-6 units of Daemonettes, and has those Daemonettes generating mortal wounds on a wound roll of 6, and then stopping that attack sequence. The last battalion, the Seeker Cavalcade, is 2-6 units of Seekers or Hellstriders, and then some chariots if you want to take them. They get to pile in 6" and can pile in from 6" away. I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over the warscrolls for this army since you can see them in the App for free, but there are some gems in here. The Keepers are insane and will put out a ton of damage. Their claws alone are damage 5! There are 10 heroes in this book, and 8 units, three of those are chariots on both the hero and unit side of things. The Hellstriders have been split up into two unit entries, one with blades and one with hellscourges. The Endless Spells are pretty good too. The Mesmerizing Mirror forces you to move closer to it or suffer D3 mortal wounds. Enemy heroes can potentially get a bucket load of mortal wounds from its other effect as well. You roll 6 dice and for each 6 you do a mortal wound multiplied by the number of 6s you've rolled. So if you somehow rolled six 6s then you would do 36 mortal wounds! This is definitely one of the most anticipated battletomes in AoS outside of the aelves, and it's finally here. It delivers on everything we've been hoping for with the background. We now have a much better understanding of what's going on with this MIA Chaos god, and the hints dropped about what's in store for the future could be devastating to the Mortal Realms. I'm definitely looking forward to some of the storylines getting mined in the future. The army itself is a powerhouse too. It's super fast, can summon a ton, and will be pumping out the mortal wounds. I was toying around with a few lists and came up with some fun ideas for a 1,000 point Godseekers army that's mostly chariots. I do love me some chariots. If you're a fan of Slaanesh then this is the book you've been waiting for. It's also a pretty pivotal book for the story line of AoS in general. Until next time, Tyler M.
"Your fury thrills me, fills me with amusement and desire. Come now, priest, rake my face with your nails, gouge and tear my skin. If you hate me as you say, then take out my eyes, and rip my hair! Burn them on your fire. Show me you have passion, priest. Show me you feel fear. I can read your every anxiety, for you are no warrior to fight me. Even now your stuttering spirit edges to the throne of my Master." —Extract from the poem, "The Horned Man", from the Liber Chaotica.[2b] The Champions of
GW just rolled out a new batch of over a dozen all-new models for the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Take a look!
Tempted by the new Slaanesh book? You will be when you read about our favourite bits.
Next part of awesome Artwork Compilation from Age of Sigmar. Hope you enjoy! Link to Part I of Compilation: HERE Link to Battletome Skaven Pestilens art compilation HERE
The new Hedonites of Slaanesh book is here, and with it a fully updated mortal section to the faction! This is nice to see since so much of the previous book only focused on the demons. So what delights does this new book hold? Let's find out! To kick things off, we have brand new cover for this book. Just like with the Daughters of Khaine book, I think this is a big improvement over the previous cover. Not only do I find the mortals of the faction to be more interesting, I also like the art style more. The previous one had a bit of a sketchy vibe to it, while this new one feels much more finished and polished. It also pulls in a lot more of the traditional Slaanesh colors with the pinks and purples in the background. The lore section also follows a similar path as the Daughters of Khaine book. Understandably, a lot of the lore is pretty similar to what we had in the original Hedonites Battletome. We get a brief overview of the whole army, before diving into Slaanesh themselves and what it means to be a follower of the Chaos god. We then go through the description of how Slaanesh was imprisoned by the aelf gods, and how his domain within the Realm of Chaos is structured. As far as I can tell this is all pretty similar to how it was portrayed previously. The first truly new section is a cool little illustrated section talking a bit about the Sybarites, or mortal followers of Slaanesh. We'll come back to them more later, as they will provide most of the new content to the lore. I do like how they have their own name within the faction, like the Rotbringers in Nurgle, Bloodbound in Khorne, and Arcanites in Tzeentch. The next section goes over the three main factions of Slaanesh in more detail, the Invaders, Pretenders, and Godseekers, which seems fairly similar to their descriptions previously. Now we start getting to some of the newer lore for the faction. The previous book covered a bit about how Slaanesh was starting to secretly destroy the magical chains binding him, and then quickly replacing them with a fake one. Each of these chains can only be destroyed by an event that the aelfs thought unlikely to happen. At the end of the last battletome Slaanesh had destroyed two through their own machinations, and a third had been destroyed due to the magical energy unleashed by the Necroquake. Since then, they have destroyed another one through the help of Archaon. The Everchosen found the prison of the god of excess and was fighting to free them. Unfortunately, he had to return to the Eightpoints to deal with the invasion of the Bonereapers, but not before he had Dorghar destroy a chain that only a demon of Khorne could break. With their power slowly returning they were able to spread their influence out into the realms further than before, hence the rise of the Sybarites. When Morathi arrived to steal some of the most potent aelven souls for her own ascension to godhood the chain of Stolen Apotheosis was broken. Though it wasn't enough to free the god entirely, they were able to send out a shard of themselves which the armies of Slaanesh began to rally around. The timeline section has some cool bits in it, like the freeing of Sigvald who then starts taking his revenge on the troggoth herds. There's also mentions of Beastgrave as well as Morathi's ascension to godhood. The timeline ends with the shard of Slaanesh beginning its rise to prominence in Ulgu itself. The unit section is where we really get to dive into the new mortal followers of Slaanesh. Sigvald gets almost a full two pages all to himself. This covers how he survived his death at the end of the world-that-was. Cast aside by his god as a failure, it was Nagash who scooped up his soul and trapped him within a Shadeglass mirror. It was the Kharadron who first found it, and then it fell into the hands of a Slaanesh warband who shattered it. Slaanesh found his interest in Sigvald reignited and granted him a sliver of his power. Since then Sigvald has been seeking revenge on both the troggoths and the servants of Nagash for both of their parts in his original death, as well as his imprisonment. Though he appears flawless, he actually has a single scar on his body to remind him of his failure and drive him into a rage. The Myrmidesh were also quite interesting, being part of a specific cult that learns that art of the blade. They're the elite of the Sybarites and are given the best armor and weapons accordingly. The Slaangors are probably my favorite of the new units though, and their section goes over several of the creation myths behind them. The gallery section shows off all of the 'Eavy Metal models, with a particular emphasis on all of the new mortal stuff. The painting guides in it are a combination of the ones from the previous book, the ones from the Wrath of the Everchosen book, and new ones to cover some of the new models, such as Slaangor skin and Myrmidesh armor. Now we move onto the rules section. They have three main allegiance abilities, with Euphoric Killers staying the same. This grants you 2 hits on the roll of a 6, or 3 hits, if the unit has 20 or more models. The other two have both changed though. Locus of Diversion activates in much the same way, but now if you're successful it prevents your opponent from piling in instead of making them fight last. I think this feels much more balanced and won't give as many feel bad experiences. Feast of Depravities is still the way you summon on new models. You gain 1 depravity point for each unit on the battlefield that had 1 or more wound suffered that was not negated, or has fewer models in it that at the start of the turn. This is checked at the end of the battleshock phase. This means it's a max of one depravity point per unit. Accordingly, the cost of summoning demons has dropped, with a Keeper of Secrets only costing 12 points now. The other big change is that you can only summon on one unit per turn. Both of these changes will help limit the overwhelming swarm feeling people got when playing slaanesh in the past. The rest of the army rules are broken down between Invades, Pretenders, or Godseekers. You have to pick which of these three your army will be. The Invaders traits have stayed pretty much the same, except the Escalating Havoc rules generates less depravity points to fit in with how those work now. The command traits have stayed the same with the exception of Territorial, which now lets you re-roll hits instead of generating depravity points, and Delusions of Infallibility, which now gives you +2 wounds instead. All of the artifacts are the same. Just like the Invaders, the Pretender's abilities are the same as before, but with a reduction on depravity generation. Their command traits have gotten toned down a bit, with True Child of Slaanesh replaced with Craving Stare, which makes more models flee from battleshock instead of generating depravity. Strength of Godhood and Inspirer also both got toned down slightly. The artifacts are also the same, but with Silverslash only adding 1 extra attacks instead of 2. The Godseekers have seen Manical Hunters tweaked slightly. You now generate D3 depravity only if your general charged that turn, but you get +1 to that roll of any other units charged as well. Their command traits only got toned down slightly in spots, but Thrill-Seeker got replaced entirely with Sweeping Slash, which does impact hits when you charge on a 2+. Their artifacts are the same as well, but with Enrapturing Circlet, Cameo of the Dark Prince, and Bindings of Slaanesh all getting toned down a little bit. The spell section is broken up into six spells for demon wizards, 3 for greater demons, and 3 for mortals. The demon spells are all exactly the same with the exception of Born of Damnation which now casts on a 4+ instead of a 5+, and just heals a flat D3 wounds instead of only 1 with the potential for more. For the greater demon spells, Song of Secrets has been replaced with Paths of the Dark Prince, which lets the caster fly on a 7+. The other two spells are the same, except both of them have become easier to cast. The mortal spells are the same as well, but also with one replaced, and one easier to cast. The Fane of Slaanesh works in much the same way, except it no longer generates depravity when you summon units off of it, and the Damned Conduit now adds +1 to hit instead of re-rolls. This is followed by a narrative battleplan and the Path to Glory section. There are six warscroll battalions, and one mega battalion. The mega battalion and three demon base battalions are unchanged from the last book. We also get three mortal based battalions though as well. Out of these three I think I like Exalted Speed-Knights the most. This battalions is all Seekers and lets D6 units from it make a pre-game 6" move. Looking through some of the warscrolls for the existing demon units, it looks like they're pretty much identical, though some have lost abilities that generate extra depravity. I'm sure there are some changes I probably missed, but you can find the warscrolls for free on the App. The big additions are all of the new mortal units. I really like Sigvald's warscroll. I know some are disappointed, but he seems like quite the combat monster to me. He fights at the start of the combat phase when he charges, wounds inflicted by him cannot be negated, and he either has 5 attacks, or the number of the charge roll if it's greater; meaning he can have up to 12 attacks doing D3 wounds each! Overall this book seems pretty similar to the previous one, but with the new units and lore for them added in. All of the stuff that seemed too over the top in the last book has been toned down and I think they'll be a lot more fun to play against. The fact that there's a lot that's the same makes sense, since if it's not broke then there's no need to fix it. I definitely like all of the mortal units more than the demon ones, but that's a personally preference for me. The sculpts are definitely amazing though. Until next time, Tyler M.
Guest Writer Steven C. Plagman is back with another idea on how to 'fix' Slaanesh for Mass Appeal. And it really could work!
Luke from Warhammer Community tempts us with his paintwork.
GW just rolled out a new batch of over a dozen all-new models for the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Take a look!
Luke from Warhammer Community tempts us with his paintwork.
GW just rolled out a new batch of over a dozen all-new models for the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Take a look!
Luke from Warhammer Community tempts us with his paintwork.
Today I have a special guest post by Elfhead of the TGA Community as he shows off his fantastically converted and painted Cult of Slaanesh warband. This army bridges the gap from The End Times to AoS spectacularly, and every single model is a unique character in their own right. Check it out, you won't be disappointed! Elfhead: A couple of years ago I decided to get back in the hobby by stripping my old models and re-painting them. I used to play High elves, but also had some models lying around I got back in the day using the Cult of Pleasure list during the Storm of Chaos campaign. What started of as just re-painting the models I already owned, soon turned into a hobby project including writing fluff and getting lots of new kits and bits to add to the army. Sharing my work and receiving feedback on forums and social media has become an important part of the hobby for me and I am very thankful I get to share my work on this excellent blog Thalion, as Daemon prince and elven prince The background story for this army was the driving force behind the creation of many of the units and character in the army. When the End Times hit, I came up with the story of Thalion, a high elf prince who strives to reach daemonhood in order to survive the End Times. Instead of having a typical chaos warrior bent on destruction and debauchery, I wondered what would be in it for Slaanesh. What would it take for an elven prince to be granted daemonhood by the god of pleasure? Thalion uses deception, corruption, and treachery to save the greatest works of art in order to please his lord Slaanesh. In a way Thalion is really a hero, trying to save the greatest achievements of elven civilization while the elves are consumed by civil war once more. In the end Thalion succeeds, sacrificing almost all of his followers to save his vast collection of art. Fast forward to the Age of Sigmar and Thalion is a daemon prince worshipped by artisans, artists and poets, a demi-god of art and creation. I have a few simple rules in mind when working on the army. Every unit has to consist of six warriors (or a plural of six); six being the sacred number of Slaanesh. I find this way I can finish the unit before getting distracted by something else and often leaves me with lots of bits for the bitsbox. I also want to have lots of banners, to reflect the proud nature of Slaanesh's warrior. For the color scheme I try to stick to white robes and either black or gold armor, with only a few subtle hint of purple. To me painting slaaneshi units is not about painting everything purple. I rather have the warriors appear as proud warriors clad in intricate ornamental armor. Thalions bodyguard, consisting of princes from the elven realms of Avelorn, Chrace, Caledor, Eataine, Elyrion and Cothique Thalions army consists of daemonic, elven and human followers. working on this army has been a creative challenge on many levels. almost every models has been converted to fit in with the army. When I started I had only painted NMM armor once and my green stuff skills were a lot worse then they are now. One of the biggest challenges was creating Thalion and his bodyguard. The bodyguard of Thalion is formed by elven princes from several realms of Ulthuan. I had a blast creating these warriors, using numerous bits to representing the heraldry from the different kingdoms. In a way, these warriors literally represent a piece of the old world saved by Thalion, which nicely represents the background story. Devoted of Slaanesh The daemonic followers of Thalion are made up of the old Juan Diaz daemonettes, both on foot and mounted. These are some of my all time favorite models. The keeper of secrets is based on the old bull-headed model. I've always liked the model, but found is was very much out of proportion. I've re-sculpted his head and sculpted armor on his legs so they wouldn't look so skinny. Working on this guy has really challenged me to improve my sculpting. Daemons of Slaanesh I've only just finished creating Thalion in his Daemonic form. In a way this completes the army and Thalion's story (for now). This leaves me with some room to start other projects, like an AoS28 warband. But I feel I'll keep adding to Thalion's force whenever I feel inspired. You can follow my progress in my plog on TGA Community and on Instagram (elfhead_warhammer). Tyler: I would like to thank Elfhead again for taking the time to put this together, his models really are stunning. I highly recommend following his work. Until next time, Tyler M.
Today I have a special guest post by Elfhead of the TGA Community as he shows off his fantastically converted and painted Cult of Slaanesh warband. This army bridges the gap from The End Times to AoS spectacularly, and every single model is a unique character in their own right. Check it out, you won't be disappointed! Elfhead: A couple of years ago I decided to get back in the hobby by stripping my old models and re-painting them. I used to play High elves, but also had some models lying around I got back in the day using the Cult of Pleasure list during the Storm of Chaos campaign. What started of as just re-painting the models I already owned, soon turned into a hobby project including writing fluff and getting lots of new kits and bits to add to the army. Sharing my work and receiving feedback on forums and social media has become an important part of the hobby for me and I am very thankful I get to share my work on this excellent blog Thalion, as Daemon prince and elven prince The background story for this army was the driving force behind the creation of many of the units and character in the army. When the End Times hit, I came up with the story of Thalion, a high elf prince who strives to reach daemonhood in order to survive the End Times. Instead of having a typical chaos warrior bent on destruction and debauchery, I wondered what would be in it for Slaanesh. What would it take for an elven prince to be granted daemonhood by the god of pleasure? Thalion uses deception, corruption, and treachery to save the greatest works of art in order to please his lord Slaanesh. In a way Thalion is really a hero, trying to save the greatest achievements of elven civilization while the elves are consumed by civil war once more. In the end Thalion succeeds, sacrificing almost all of his followers to save his vast collection of art. Fast forward to the Age of Sigmar and Thalion is a daemon prince worshipped by artisans, artists and poets, a demi-god of art and creation. I have a few simple rules in mind when working on the army. Every unit has to consist of six warriors (or a plural of six); six being the sacred number of Slaanesh. I find this way I can finish the unit before getting distracted by something else and often leaves me with lots of bits for the bitsbox. I also want to have lots of banners, to reflect the proud nature of Slaanesh's warrior. For the color scheme I try to stick to white robes and either black or gold armor, with only a few subtle hint of purple. To me painting slaaneshi units is not about painting everything purple. I rather have the warriors appear as proud warriors clad in intricate ornamental armor. Thalions bodyguard, consisting of princes from the elven realms of Avelorn, Chrace, Caledor, Eataine, Elyrion and Cothique Thalions army consists of daemonic, elven and human followers. working on this army has been a creative challenge on many levels. almost every models has been converted to fit in with the army. When I started I had only painted NMM armor once and my green stuff skills were a lot worse then they are now. One of the biggest challenges was creating Thalion and his bodyguard. The bodyguard of Thalion is formed by elven princes from several realms of Ulthuan. I had a blast creating these warriors, using numerous bits to representing the heraldry from the different kingdoms. In a way, these warriors literally represent a piece of the old world saved by Thalion, which nicely represents the background story. Devoted of Slaanesh The daemonic followers of Thalion are made up of the old Juan Diaz daemonettes, both on foot and mounted. These are some of my all time favorite models. The keeper of secrets is based on the old bull-headed model. I've always liked the model, but found is was very much out of proportion. I've re-sculpted his head and sculpted armor on his legs so they wouldn't look so skinny. Working on this guy has really challenged me to improve my sculpting. Daemons of Slaanesh I've only just finished creating Thalion in his Daemonic form. In a way this completes the army and Thalion's story (for now). This leaves me with some room to start other projects, like an AoS28 warband. But I feel I'll keep adding to Thalion's force whenever I feel inspired. You can follow my progress in my plog on TGA Community and on Instagram (elfhead_warhammer). Tyler: I would like to thank Elfhead again for taking the time to put this together, his models really are stunning. I highly recommend following his work. Until next time, Tyler M.
