Slaanesh CSM Tactics

[DrBored]

Hey all!

You may know me from complaining about the Chaos Marine book. Well, a lot of people have been shoving it right back in my face, so I've decided to try again.

My passion is Slaanesh and Noise Marines. I love those models!

So let's all put our thinking caps on and think about how we can best use an army devoted to Slaanesh!

We've got our psychic powers, our Lucius the Eternal, our Noise Marines, our Icon of Excess, and even our Chaos Daemons allies...

Whatcha got? Throw it at me.

[daboarder]

Steeds are tasty as frak, Outflanking a unit where you want too. SOOO nice. definitely worth NOT having T5

I'll be running slaanesh as my second chaos army and I want to look at the idea of running 3 steed HQ characters and outflanking heavily with bikes/plasma-chosen/doomsirens

I think with a core of blastmaster squads to hold the line so to speak it could work very well. I'd really like a reason NOT too take heldrakes as I have two in my nurgle army and a good excuse is to run bike units with FNP.

[DrBored]

Steeds are tasty as frak, Outflanking a unit where you want too. SOOO nice. definitely worth NOT having T5

I'll be running slaanesh as my second chaos army and I want to look at the idea of running 3 steed HQ characters and outflanking heavily with bikes/plasma-chosen/doomsirens

I think with a core of blastmaster squads to hold the line so to speak it could work very well. I'd really like a reason NOT too take heldrakes as I have two in my nurgle army and a good excuse is to run bike units with FNP.

Steeds+Bikes has definitely done well for me in the past. The question is always whether or not to put FNP on the bikes, since it can be a point sink, and they tend to die pretty quick if you mis-deploy them anyway, so why not put the points somewhere else?

And yeah, Blastmasters.. as soon as I say they will insta-gib your T4 characters and deny their Armor and Cover, people get a bit bug-eyed at me :P

[daboarder]

on a 3 man kill-squad, no FNP, on a 5 man squad + character (Who benefits) or a 6 man squad, YES!

Yeah a core of 5 man blaster squads are great, even throwing Sonic blasters on such squads is worth considering as that way they put out firepower equivalent to a full tac squad, which aint shabby.

Slaanesh really does have soem nice rules that changes the paradigm of the codex. Obits and the like are less favoured as you don't have T5 if you run the slaanesh mark, but a lot of the power armour gets a little more appealing with I5 and FNP

[DrBored]

on a 3 man kill-squad, no FNP, on a 5 man squad + character (Who benefits) or a 6 man squad, YES!

Yeah a core of 5 man blaster squads are great, even throwing Sonic blasters on such squads is worth considering as that way they put out firepower equivalent to a full tac squad, which aint shabby.

Slaanesh really does have soem nice rules that changes the paradigm of the codex. Obits and the like are less favoured as you don't have T5 if you run the slaanesh mark, but a lot of the power armour gets a little more appealing with I5 and FNP

Indeed. I am quite happy with the boost they got in this Codex. It definitely is fitting. The trouble ends up being the expense in a lot of cases, and that the Mark of Slaanesh doesn't benefit things like Oblits, Cultists, or really anything that's not going to see assault.

I wonder though, how to fit Lucius into the army? Or how to ally with Chaos Daemons? Daemonettes aren't terrible, but they're squishy, and Fiends got a huge nerf, but Steeds got a huge buff, and the Keeper of Secrets is one of the better monstrous creatures.

[Anggul]

Lucius would be a lot more useful if he had Rending and a 4++ so he wasn't awful at duelling (the thing he's meant to be great at). Being able to have two Doom Sirens in a squad is amazing though.

[DrBored]

Lucius would be a lot more useful if he had Rending and a 4++ so he wasn't awful at duelling (the thing he's meant to be great at). Being able to have two Doom Sirens in a squad is amazing though.

The one thing I've noticed about Lucius is that he's not built to go after Ghazghul and Chapter Masters and Hive Tyrants, he's made to go after those weak, squishy sergeants so he can slay them quickly, get boons, and move on to the next combat. He fits well with Noise Marines because of the dual Doom Siren, but like him, Noise Marines aren't made to take on elite troops, they're made to be slightly faster than regular Tac marines and other equivalents so they can slay them quickly and move on.

So really, that's where I would use Lucius and his squad, taking on the things that the opponent likes to use to cap points. Yes, he'd be much better with Rending and a 4++, but I'm not trying to wishlist here, I'm trying to make what we have work.

[nathanjd]

My favorite topic!

Best Allies
Heralds of tzeench. Prescienced sonic weaponry yes please! A few horrors, heralds and blastmasters behind an aegis line is a damn good firebase. With that setup you can hardly pass up the autocannon havoc squad for another great prescience target.

Best Way to Run Blastmasters
5 man squads with just a blastmaster. The marines and 30pt gun are expensive enough.

Best Way to Run Sonic Blasters
Big squads with a Sorcerer rolling biomancy. I'm talking maximum points efficiency here. Skip mark of slaanesh, the extra roll on biomancy is more important and you save 15pts. You're hoping for endurance, giving you relentless and saving you the points of a banner for feel no pain. Relentless is absolutely essential to get from under the crushing grip of salvo weaponry. I chose terminator armor over the steed not only because of the saved points. A large sonic blaster unit is just too juicy a target to tie up in combat. Biomancy + terminator armor makes for the best "protector" of the unit.

My preferred setup is:
Sorcerer: terminator, ml3, spell familiar, force axe, combi-bolter - 150
10 Noise Marines: 9 sonic blasters - 207

Best Lord
This is an absolute no brainer for me. Lucius in a Land Raider. haha no but seriously that's the only way I'd run Lucius.

To begin, Mark of Slaanesh. Need that for scoring noise marines. Next a lord needs a means of getting to combat. Perfectly reasonable to put him on a bike but I find outflank to be more useful. Now that he is potentially outflanking, the burning brand takes best advantage of that. 12" move + 12" torrent + acute senses makes for a pretty deadly threat range. With one hand occupied better take a specialist weapon and since the Initiative 6 is not to be wasted the lightning claw is the only obvious choice. Every self respecting lord needs a sigil to last in combat. Toss in melta bombs to make vehicles a target as well.

For the retinue sadly you can never mix cavalry with bikes so spawn are the only option. The reason is that bikes get a jink save while moving so players are free to "focus fire" your lord out of the squad.

Lord: slaanesh, lightning claw, burning brand, melta bombs, sigil, steed - 175
5 Spawn: slaanesh - 165

Honorable Mentions
Sorcerer: slaanesh, steed, force lance, bolt pistol, melta bombs - 100
3 Spawn: 90

This is budget force weapon delivery. Six S5 AP3 force weapon attacks at I5 on the charge. Just hope you're playing another CSM player and they have to accept your challenge :).

Lucius - 165
9 Noise Marines: icon, doom siren, power sword - 223
Rhino: dirge caster - 40
- or - Land Raider: dirge caster - 235

Drive by double doom sirens! In all seriousness I haven't quite figured out how to take doom sirens.

[DrBored]

Those are some great tips! I like the idea of having scoring 5-man Blastmaster units, though getting them *to* their objective might be easier said than done (but at least Blastmasters have an assault option still)

I also like the trick with the Sonic Blasters. You're right, that's probably the only way to really accomplish a decent Sonic Blaster squad. I'll give it a shot!

[daboarder]

I disagree on lord setup, My favourite is

Lord, MoS, Sigil, Steed (or bike if you want, I just like the boob snake) and the spine shiver blade. a brutal I machine.

[DrBored]

I disagree on lord setup, My favourite is

Lord, MoS, Sigil, Steed (or bike if you want, I just like the boob snake) and the spine shiver blade. a brutal I machine.

Hmm... That does make the Lord Initiative 7 with an AP3 weapon that strikes at said initiative, which is pretty nice. For the potential of up to 10 attacks at WS 6? That's pretty sweet.

I'd prefer the bike, but only barely. The Steed someone can Focus Fire you out if your Bikes use Jink. With the Bike, you get that +1 Toughness, along with a standard twin-linked bolter, the Jink option, and Hammer of Wrath attacks. Throwing that Lord in with a unit of Slaanesh Bikers with Icon of Excess and you've got a unit that, technically, is more survivable than a squad of Nurgle bikers (against AP2, they still get a 5+ save).

We'll have to see if Crimson Slaughter get any neat Daemon weapons, since giving that same Biker Lord a 2+ armor save and IWND on top of T5, FNP, and a 4++... well, you've got a pretty survivable lord that can only be insta-gibbed by the very rare S10 weapons.

[Charon]

The "problem" is that the bike doesnt give you acute senses and outflank, so no flanking for the bikelord (and his motorcycle gang).
The "may take Divination" relic from the Crimson Slaughter supplement as rerolls are quite good on the sonic blaster marines. Not too convinced on the "power lords" suggested here either but that may come from a different meta with my gaming group which tends to be quite rough for close combat models (well you have eaten my squad, now lets see if you can digest that 150 lasgun shots too....)

[DrBored]

The "problem" is that the bike doesnt give you acute senses and outflank, so no flanking for the bikelord (and his motorcycle gang).
The "may take Divination" relic from the Crimson Slaughter supplement as rerolls are quite good on the sonic blaster marines. Not too convinced on the "power lords" suggested here either but that may come from a different meta with my gaming group which tends to be quite rough for close combat models (well you have eaten my squad, now lets see if you can digest that 150 lasgun shots too....)

Yeah, I think the tough part for the power lords is the survivability, but if Crimson Slaughter comes out with a 2+ armor that doesn't need a Terminator load-out, then that might change a bit. A T5 model with a 2+/4++ FNP and IWND will go a long way to surviving long enough to challenge a few models.

[Charon]

Need to test a few things but I think I have a list hat might work (not too exited about a few things, mainly need to rely on psi powers), but I'm not too sure if this isnt kinda "cheating" as I have "unmarked" models too.

Basically it contains

Lord on steed with mark of Slaanesh
Sorcerer (lvl 3) unmarked with terminator armor (Biomancy)

5x5 Noisemarines with a Bassblaster

1x10 Noisemarines with Sonicblasters (Sorcerer is put in here at front to hopefully roll the right powers and tank enemy fire while granting relentless)

large group of chaos spawn with mark of slaanesh (Lord is put in here, granting them outflank and acute senses while they provide additional hitpoints)

3 Maulerfiends

You should be able to create much pressure due to the 12" movement from your scary units while noisemarines can provide a stable firebase while advancing in optimal positions.

[DrBored]

Need to test a few things but I think I have a list hat might work (not too exited about a few things, mainly need to rely on psi powers), but I'm not too sure if this isnt kinda "cheating" as I have "unmarked" models too.

Basically it contains

Lord on steed with mark of Slaanesh
Sorcerer (lvl 3) unmarked with terminator armor (Biomancy)

5x5 Noisemarines with a Bassblaster

1x10 Noisemarines with Sonicblasters (Sorcerer is put in here at front to hopefully roll the right powers and tank enemy fire while granting relentless)

large group of chaos spawn with mark of slaanesh (Lord is put in here, granting them outflank and acute senses while they provide additional hitpoints)

3 Maulerfiends

You should be able to create much pressure due to the 12" movement from your scary units while noisemarines can provide a stable firebase while advancing in optimal positions.

I like it. I don't think taking the Sorc is cheating. He's just got a passion for drugs that you're showing through Biomancy more than through Slaanesh's crazy powers. Though, if you rolled right and got that one Slaanesh ability that makes Sonic Weaponry effectively +1 strength, that'd be pretty sweet, but you'd really have to pray for the right rolls on all those powers...

I'm working on a list that uses more Bikers instead.

Primary:
Chaos Lord
-MoS, Steed, L. Claw, Burning Brand, Sigil

Chaos Bikers (7)
-MoS, x2 Plasma, Champ w/ P. Axe, Combi-Plas, Icon of Excess

Chaos Bikers (7)
-MoS, x2 Melta, Champ w/ P. Axe, Combi-Melta, Icon of Excess

Troop: x4 Noise Marine (5) w/ Blastmaster

Heldrake w/Baleflamer

Ally (Black Legion):
Chaos Lord
-MoS, Steed, Spineshiver, Skull, Sigil, Combi-Plas, VotLW

Troop: x2 Cultist (20)

This should be *roughly* 1850, though I haven't calculated all the points down.

But hey, two outflanking, fast, T5 with FNP units that have lots of dakka and some decent assault potential. P. Axe is for help with getting locked into vehicles or mopping up terminators just in case (though might go with Fist instead...)

What do you think?

[nathanjd]

@Charon, I really dig the maulerfiends. They add quite the unexpected element that actually rounds out the army pretty well.

@DrBored, I can't condone the use of the steed lord with bikes as it can be focus fired out due to lack of a jink save. I heartily recommend you switch the steeds for bikes. As you're gearing the unit up for assault, you probably want to be on the table first turn so you can get to assaulting earlier. Your bikes are going to be tough to crack. You might try shaving some points for a unit of 5 spawn to get yet another unit immediately into the opponent's face. This would do wonders to protect your bikes.

Why the combi-plas on the lord? The spineshiver blade is not a special weapon so you're losing a melee attack. Plus the lord with burning brand matches the plasma squad better as they'll more likely be hunting infantry over tanks.

Below is my current attempt at an 1850 Cult of Noise list.

Lord: slaanesh, steed, claw, brand, sigil, melta bombs - 175
5 Spawn: slaanesh - 165
Standard beat stick lord with spawn for extra wounds.

Sorcerer: terminator, ml3, spell familiar, axe, melta bombs - 155
12 Noise Marines: 11 sonic blasters - 247
Mother of god please roll endurance so this unit can walk down the field.

5 Noise Marines: blastmaster - 125
5 Noise Marines: blastmaster - 125
Camps home objectives and fires quad gun.

Forgefiend - 175
3++ from the grimoire.

Herald of Tzeench: exalted reward - 75
Herald of Tzeench - 45
11 Horrors - 99
Going to ground and casting prescience all day long.

18 Daemonettes: alluress, 2 lesser gifts - 187
Deep strike in behind the spawn with covering fire from the sonic blasters.

Soulgrinder: warp gaze, nurgle - 175
Much needed anti tank.

Aegis Line: quad-gun - 100