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Azrael would spank them,
but they'd probably like that |
Hello, battle brethren! For the past couple of weeks, we've seen the Chaos Daemons Legion of Excess detachment putting up unreasonably high win rates - 75% since the release of the Astra Militarum codex with an overrep of 5.19 according to
Stat-Check.com. I thought it would be useful to all of us to dig into this army so we know how to play into it when we face it.
I looked at a couple of lists that performed well over the last couple weeks as examples for the detachment. The first was the list Eduardo Cortell used to take 1st place at the Fire & Blood GT in Arona, Spain. The other was the list Michael Hooper went 5-0 with at the Manchester 40K Super-Major in Urmston, England. Here are Eduardo's list and Michael's list for your edification.
Post-Dataslate Edit: Of course I would undertake writing this article about a week before a Balance Dataslate dropped. Anything that has changed between then and now will have strikethrough and updated information will be green.
Army Rule: The Shadow of Chaos
The Shadow of Chaos rule divides the table up into three sections: the Daemon player's deployment zone, No Man's Land, and their opponent's deployment zone. The Shadow is always active in the Daemon player's deployment zone, and is active in the other zones when the Daemon player controls a majority of the Objectives in that zone at the start of a phase. That means it can also be turned off at the start of a phase - say if you flip an Objective in your Movement phase.
The Shadow of Chaos, when active, simultaneously grants benefits to the Daemons player and disadvantages to their opponent when the shadow is active in a section of the table. The Daemonic Manifestation sub-rule grants the Daemon player +1 to Battle-shock tests in an active Shadow zone, restoring D3 lost wounds to a Daemonic unit that passes, or D3 destroyed models to a Battleline unit.
The Daemonic Terror sub-rule imposes a -1 penalty to opposing units that take a Battle-shock test in an active Shadow zone, and if failed the unit suffers D3 Mortal Wounds. This also applies if an opponent's unit is within 6" of any of the Greater Daemons, named or generic.
Detachment Rule: Beguiling Aura
Slaaneshi Daemons in the army are eligible to declare a charge after performing a Fall Back move. Nice and simple, and you can see how it would benefit a mostly-melee army.
Detachment Rule: Seductive Gambit
Just getting Fall Back+Charge would be kind of a weak detachment rule compared to some others, but it's not all the Legion of Excess gets. After a Slaaneshi Daemon unit ends a Charge move, they can opt to switch their charge bonus from Fights First to reroll all Hit and Wound rolls. This can make Slaaneshi Daemon units hella efficient charging into units they can afford to absorb the damage from before swinging. To know how powerful this can be, you really need to take a look at the Slaaneshi datasheets.
This rule deservedly took a hit in the just-passed Balance Dataslate. It got changed to exchanging Fights First for rerolling 1's on Hit and Wound rolls, upgraded to rerolling all Hit rolls (but still only 1's on Wound rolls) while within the board's Shadow of Chaos. Generally most of the things the Daemon player is really going to care about are going to carry their Shadow of Chaos with them, but if something charges outside of 6" of a Keeper of Secrets or Shalaxi, the increase in offense won't as ridiculous.
Now let's take a look at the Enhancements
Enhancements
False Majesty [Aura] 30 points: 6" aura of +1 to Wound in melee, excluding Monsters
Dreaming Crown [Aura] 30 points: 6" aura of +1 To Hit in melee, excluding Monsters
Avatar of Perfection 15 points: Reroll Advance and Charge rolls, plus ignore modifiers to the Move characteristic and Advance and Charge rolls
Soul Glutton 10 points: Destroy an enemy model in the Fight phase, regain up to D3 lost wounds
Soul Glutton popped up in both lists on a Keeper of Secrets, for the obvious reason. Eduardo's list has False Majesty on a Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot. His list uses a lot more lesser Daemons, so that undoubtedly helps them punch up into tougher targets. Michael's list featured Avatar of Perfection on a Keeper of Secrets, because sticking a Charge with one of the big daemons seems like a good thing for the Daemon player. Dreaming Crown probably doesn't seem so attractive at 30 points because Slaaneshi units are hitting on at least 3+ in melee and have a reroll Hits option in their detachment rule.
Next let's look at the Stratagems.
Stratagems
Thieves of Pain (1 CP)
Any phase after an attack or mortal wound would be allocated to a non-Monster non-Vehicle Slaaneshi Daemon model. The target unit can select a friendly Slaaneshi Daemon unit within 12" 9" and visible to the target unit to dump wounds onto, the selected unit taking Mortal Wounds for every wound dumped off in this way
Post-Dataslate Edit: This strat took quite a nerf. Reduced range, requires LOS, and can't target Vehicles. I guess Soul Grinders were popping up in these lists fairly frequently.
Archagonists (2 CP)
Fight Phase
One Slaaneshi Monster or up to two Slaaneshi non-Monster units gain +1 to Wound rolls
Sensory Excruciation (1 CP)
Daemon player's Command Phase
A Slaaneshi Monster acts as the target
Each unit on the table in the Shadow of Chaos takes a Battle-shock test, at -1 if the unit is below Half-strength
Phantasmal Longing (1 CP)
Movement or Charge phase
Target Slaaneshi unit can move through terrain features
Cavalcade of Blades (1 CP)
Charge Phase, after a Slaaneshi unit has ended a Charge
Roll 6D6 for a Monster or 1D6 for every model in the unit, inflict Mortal Wounds for every 4+
Overwhelming Excess (1 CP)
Opponent's Shooting Phase
Unit attacking the target Slaaneshi unit takes a Battle-shock test at -1. If passed, the attacking unit suffers -1 To Hit. If failed, the unit cannot shoot the target Slaaneshi unit. The shooting unit can select a new target -1 penalty on To Hit rolls.
Post-Dataslate Edit: Wow did this strat get nerfed! Again, deservedly so.
This seems like a really good set of stratagems for me. It grants impact hit Mortals, a significant Fight phase buff, a phase-through-walls strat, wound allocation shenanigans, an enemy shooting debuff, and a Battle-shock strat that actually does something besides just make the opponent take a Battle-shock test they'll probably pass. I did find it interesting that Advance+Charge is nowhere in the detachment rules, but being able to phase a Monster through walls makes it a lot less necessary.
Units
I'm choosing the units I'm covering based on the sample lists I'm using. Here's the short version of those lists so you know what we're looking at.
Slanesh Kejo (Eduardo's list)
Contorted Epitome
Contorted Epitome
Keeper of Secrets: Soul Glutton - Warlord
Keeper of Secrets
Syll'Esske
The Masque of Slaanesh
Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot (yeesh that's a mouthful): False Majesty
10 Daemonettes
10 Daemonettes
10 Daemonettes
Fiends: Blissbringer and 5 Fiends
Fiends: Blissbringer and 2 Fiends
Seekers: Heartseeker and 4 Seekers
Soul Grinder wt Harvester Cannon
Michael's list
Shalaxi Helbane -Warlord
The Masque of Slaanesh
Contorted Epitome
Keeper of Secrets
Keeper of Secrets: Soul Glutton
Keeper of Secrets: Aura of Perfection
10 Daemonettes
Seeker Chariot
6 Fiends
Both lists have a lot of units in common, though Eduardo's list seems a lot more balanced, with smaller daemons doing some heavy lifting, whereas Michael's seems like a straight up monster-mash list. I'd be pretty confident taking Assassinate and Bring It Down as fixed Secondaries against Michael's list, but since he went 5-0 at the Manchester Super-Major, he must be pretty adept at dealing with that.
Let's look at the Keeper of Secrets first, since it seems pretty key to both lists.
Keeper of Secrets: 290 points
As you can see, this dude has a fairly beefy profile with a 4+ Invulnerable save and the option to take a 5++ Feel No Pain. Spoiler alert - all of the Keepers in both lists took that option. Extra-spoiler alert - Shalaxi has it too. So, if the Daemon player is using Thieves of Pain to play wound allocation shenanigans, they can dump them onto the Keepers and possibly just negate them outright
For offense, Keepers have an okay shooting attack with Phantasmagoria, but the real show is in melee with 10 AP -2 Damage 3 attacks. Did I say AP -2? Keepers also have their Daemon Lord of Slaanesh aura, granting nearby friendly Slaaneshi daemon units an additional -1 AP. Since Keepers are their own best friends, that makes their melee attacks AP -3. At Strength 6 and 8 for the Snapping Claws and Witstealer Sword respectively, their strength is not such that they're not ordinarily a tremendous melee threat to Monsters or Vehicles, but their detachment rule granting them the ability to reroll Hit and Wound rolls on the charge makes them a much bigger threat to tougher targets. The Daemon player will likely be pretty confident they can take their opponent's swings and come through to swing back because, in addition to the 4++ Invulnerable and 5+++ FNP, the Keeper's Mesmerising Form ability imposes a -1 penalty to incoming Hit rolls.
How this detachment got its win rate is starting to become pretty clear. One can see why both lists featured multiple Keepers of Secrets.
Shalaxi Helbane: 425 points
Shalaxi is a bigger, badder, better Keeper of Secrets, with not much more and maybe arguably less defense, as they don't have incoming Hit debuff of the Keeper, but they make up for it with a lot more offense. Their shooting attacks are decent, Soulpiercer is Strength 14, AP -3, and D6+2 damage in melee, and their Monarch of the Hunt ability grants rerolls of everything against Monster, Vehicle, or Character units, so they won't have much need to give up Fights First on the Charge to get rerolls. Plus Cloak of Constriction lessens the number of incoming melee attacks they have to face, and they just get a 5++ Feel No Pain as a Core ability.
Only Michael's list used Shalaxi.
The Masque of Slaanesh: 85 points
The Masque of Slaanesh is a Daemonette that got dressed up to go to a fancy dress ball. She's not a Monster, so the durability dropped off sharply, but she's still got the 4++ Invulnerable save, and has Lone Op, so you're not shooting her unless you get close to her. Her Eternal Dance rule lets her buff melee attacks into an enemy unit and simultaneously debuff that unit's melee attacks. Plus, Dazzling Acrobat lets her charge after an Advance or Fall Back move, and with her 9" movement, which is common to all Slaanesh Daemon Infantry, she can get across the table pretty fast and charge into a unit she wants to buff attacks into/debuff, either so she comes out on top, or to help friendly units punch up and survive the swing back. Slaanesh Daemon Infantry is largely Toughness 3, so they don't want to take full strength attacks if they can help it.
Masquey's own offense is baseline okay, but as she inherently has Fights First, I don't think she loses anything if she opts not to get the Charge bonus Fights First to get rerolls To Hit and To Wound, which considerably increases the threat she represents. Plus, if she can charge into the AP-buff aura of a Keeper of Secrets, that also increases her threat potential. Also her claws have Devastating Wounds, which with the detachment's To Wound rerolls have the potential to help her punch up into tougher targets.
I suspect the main utility of Masquey is that she can sprint around the table picking up opposing tech pieces. I wouldn't like the chances of a Scout Squad she charged into. As a secondary application, she can charge alongside a heavy hitting unit to provide the buff/debuff into their mutual target. I imagine Daemon players would like to take more than one of her, but she's an Epic Hero, so we're spared that nuisance at least.
Both lists used Masquey
Syll'esske: 120 points
Syll'esske is a Monster Character that can attach to Daemonettes. As you can see, he (I think he's a he) has a fairly beefy profile for a character that can attach to an Infantry unit. He's got some pretty decent chaff-clearing shooting, and quite a good melee attack with the Axe of Dominion. It'll take Terminators to their invulnerable save and pick most of them up with one failed save. There are also the cute little Scourging Whip attacks that will also cut through chaff, and maybe take a last wound off something bigger.
That said, the reason to put Silly Boy in a list is clearly his Prince of Slaanesh ability. This is getting ahead of things a bit, but Daemonettes have Devastating Hits on their melee attacks, so Critical Hits on 5's is a big deal to them. Then, if you manage to chew through the Daemonettes and kill him, his Delightful Agonies ability is likely getting him back up at full health, so you have to go through all 9 of his wounds again.
Eduardo's list used Silly-boy, and plenty of Daemonettes to attach him to.
Contorted Epitome: 80 points
The Contorted Epitome is another character that can attach to a Daemonettes unit (and an attaboy to Games Workshop for giving them an effed-up Freaky Mirror that can attach to them), and there are two big reasons to do so. The first is that they add almost the equivalent of 3 extra Daemonette's Ravaging Claws attacks to the unit - more Devastating Wound attacks is always going to be better than less - plus some cute Damage 2 Tentacle attacks on top. The second is that their Horrible Fascination ability can debuff an opposing unit's shooting, with a possibility of preventing the unit from shooting altogether. It's not limited to Shooting targeted at its attached unit either. Just imagine you're setting up to light something up with Hellblasters led by Azrael, you've lined them up on your Oath target, and your opponent rolls a die and says "Nope!" Fortunately this ability only has a 12" range and it's measured from the model, not from the unit, so you should be able to play around it. The one wrinkle to that is that both this model and Daemonettes have Deep Strike, so a Daemon player may put them in Reserve to Rapid Ingress them within Horrible Fascination range.
Both lists featured at least one Freaky Mirror. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Rapid Ingress debuff was part of their overall game plan.
Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot: 140 points
(Author's snarky comment: There isn't a foot Tormentbringer, so I'm not sure why Games Workshop felt the need to give this unit such an over-the-top name. Well, except Slaanesh.)
The Tormentbringer on Exalted Seeker Chariot is a wacky wagon of kink with a lot of speed and a fairly beefy profile to chew through. It's shooting is cute but not something to be overly concerned about. In melee it's got half a Daemonettes Squad's Ravaging Claws attacks, plus some Seeker Tongues to enhance your discomfort.
Tormenty's real reason for being included in a list are her datasheet abilities. Tormentbringer grants a 6" aura of Sustained Hits 1, which with all the Devastating Wounds attacks and the detachment's ability to reroll Hit rolls is a real force multiplier. The other reason to include it is that the Hysterical Frenzy ability is a 4+ Fights-On-Death for any one friendly Slannesh Daemon unit within 6" of it. It's not hard to see why both our sample lists included Tormenty. Techincally they could take more than one Tormenty, as while it's a Mounted Character, it's not an Epic Hero. However it is rather large and pricey, and while reasonably durable for the points, isn't Keeper of Secrets with 5+++ FNP durable.
Daemonettes: 100 points
Daemonettes are the Battleline Infantry of the Legion of Excess. At 100 points for 10, they're a reasonable value. Their durability is nothing to write home about, being T3 with a 5++ Invulnerable save, so boltering them down is a reasonable solution to them. That said, if you don't kill every model in a squad by the end of your turn, models will be coming back next turn when the Daemon player uses Sensory Excruciation. They might use their Freaky Mirrors to further protect the Daemonettes, but chances are that ability is being used to protect more important things.
Daemonettes may not be the picture of resilience, but they are speedy, with the 9" movement all the detachment's Infantry gets. They get +1 to their Charge rolls too, which is tied to the model with the Instrument of Chaos, but there's no reason for the Daemon player to take her as a casualty till dead last.
For offense they have their 3 attacks each with their Slashing Claws, the spiciest thing about them being that they have Devastating Wounds. They also have their Swift-taloned Slaughter rule, which natively gives them Hit rerolls, so they don't have to use the detachment ability to reroll Hits and Wounds, but if they can afford to they certainly will to maximize their ability to do Devasting Wounds. Ideal targets to send the Daemonettes into would be chaff Infantry or Vehicles that don't have very many or very good close combat attacks, like Tanks. If the Daemon player throws them into your Gladiator, you can reasonably expect them to opt to let your Tank fight first so they can fish for Devastating Wounds. Just with their own attacks, a full-strength squad is likely to generate 7-8 Devastating Wounds, not counting extra attacks from a Freaky Mirror or Crit Wounds on 5+ from Silly Boy.
The Balance Dataslate changed this unit's datasheet a lot. For starters, they got Fights First as a Core Ability, so when the charge they can just turn on the detachment bonus without losing anything. However, they also lost the Swift-taloned Slaughter rule, which has been replaced by Horrifying Beauty, which at the start of the Fight phase imposes a Battle-shock test on every enemy unit in Engagement range, with the usual -1 penalty for units below Half Strength. This feels like a lateral move (maybe even a nerf) outside of this detachment, but within the detachment it feels like at least a modest buff, as while the Daemonettes won't be able to reroll Hits when they're charged, opponents now have to thing a little harder about whether or not charging them is a good idea, and on their turn they'll be free to leave Engagement and Charge again on their turn.
Both units used Daemonettes. Michael's list just had 1 squad, whereas Eduardo's had 3, so they were clearly a fairly big part of Eduardo's game plan.
Post-Dataslate Edit: Prior to the nerf to the detachment rule, there was definitely an argument to be had for Daemonettes to be a major part of the detachment's striking force, because on the charge they could fish for Devastating Wounds. Their Dev Wound potential has taken quite a hit with the updated detachment rule, so we may see less lists like Eduardo's and more lists like Michael's, with Daemonettes relegated to holding backfield objectives and/or scoring Secondaries.
Fiends: 110 points for 3 / 220 points for 6
Fiends seem to occupy a middle ground between Keepers of Secrets and Daemonettes. They're fast, can go through walls because they're Beasts, hit decently hard with a profile that seems best into elite Infantry, and they have middling Toughness and a fair number of Wounds. They're not super-expensive but they're not cheap either. Six of them are 70 points cheaper than a Keeper of Secrets though, so they doubtless give the Daemon player something they can rely on picking up midrange-toughness targets, freeing up their Keepers to go crush their opponent's most threatening units. Being fast, they can also run around and score Secondaries as needed. With OC 2, a unit of 3 of them will out-OC most 5-man units of non-Battleline Infantry. Their Soporific Musk ability also oblige non-Vehicle/Monster units to make Desperate Escape tests to Fall Back from them, which is a headache for an opponent. Just imagine how obnoxious it would be to lose a 50 point Deathwing Knight to a Desperate Escape test from these things.
Both our sample lists had a unit of 6 of them, and Eduardo thought enough of them to include a second unit of 3.
Seekers: 80 points for 5 / 160 points for 10
Seekers are a cheap little Mounted unit consisting of Daemonettes astride riding anteaters. They move fast, are a little tougher than foot Daemonettes, and have a fair number of attacks. I think their main virtue is their Scouts 9" rule, making them useful as a screening unit, or possibly zipping out for a first turn charge. Their Unholy Speed ability allows them to reroll Advance and Charge rolls, which makes them more likely to stick a first turn charge. They may not do much damage (but like everything else in the list, they do have Devastating Wounds), but it would oblige an opponent to deal with them in their own deployment zone instead of moving onto midfield objectives like they'd probably prefer. Being cheap and fast, they also make a good utility unit. Eduardo's list featured a minimum-sized unit of them.
Seeker Chariot: 65 points?
This unit is listed in Michael's list, but for the life of me I can't find it in the Index or on 39k. Maybe it's a Legends unit? I'm surprised the Manchester Super-Major allowed someone to sue a Legends unit in their list.
Soul Grinder: 180 points
I remember this guy from when Games Workshop first released Daemons as a standalone 40K army. Patterned after the Chaos Marine Defiler, the Soul Grinder was one of few good shooting platforms in a mostly-melee army. It was kind of underwhelming back in 5th edition because it was a Vehicle in an edition where Vehicles sucked in comparison to Monsters, but those two keywords are pretty reasonably balanced now, and there's definitely an argument to be made for Mr. Grindy here.
Mr. Grindy comes with a Harvester cannon, which is basically a battle cannon with a fixed number of shots and without Blast, but it will put a dent in 3-wound units, and at Strength 10 is a threat to Vehicles and Monsters. They get a second gun based on what Chaos God they're aligned to. Slaanesh-aligned Mr. Grindys get the Scream of Despair, which is an elite infantry killer with Sustained Hits 1 and Devastating wounds. Honestly, I think Scream of Despair compliments the Harvester cannon for shooting into elite Infantry-style targets.
The Soul Grinder's shooting is decent, but it's melee is fearsome. All Mr. Grindys come with the Iron Claw, which stands a pretty good chance of wrecking any Vehicle or Monster in the game with one activation. On top of that, it can also take either a Warpclaw or Warpsword for Extra Attacks. You get more from the Warpclaw, but you get better AP and damage from the Warpsword, and that's what Eduardo went with, no doubt to make it a little more likely to pick up those really beefy targets. Legit, Mr. Grindy arguably hits harder in melee than Shalaxi, and unuarguably hits harder than a Keeper of Secrets. It costs considerably less points too. You could get 2 Soul Grinders for the cost of Shalaxi, and 3 Grindys for the cost of 2 Keepers.
The Soul Grinder is certainly the slowest thing in the list, but with an 8" movement is not exactly slow, and its Scuttling Walker ability allowing it to move over friendly Monsters and Vehicles and 4" or shorter terrain features does mitigate this somewhat. It also has Deep Strike, so the Daemon player can put it in Reserve and plonk it down where it can get angles with its shooting. It's comparable to the Keeper of Secrets in durability - it has higher Toughness, less Wounds, the same Invulnerable save, and it adds a legit 3+ Armor Save to the mix, whereas everything else has to take all their wounds on their Invulnerable saves.
Eduardo's list included a Soul Grinder. Michael's did not, but based on GW feeling the need to nerf Thieves of Pain to not be targetable on Vehicles, I imagine they've been cropping up in high performing lists with some frequency. Soul Grinders dumping wounds onto Keepers who could then take Feel No Pains against them was probably a pretty feels-bad experience for opponents.
How To Play Into It?
Looking at the units Eduardo and Michael chose, it's not hard to conclude that the Legion of Excess army is a fast melee army that can deal a lot of Devastating Wounds with units that really amp up their damage output when they charge. The units are going to be more durable than their appearance suggests due to a combination of Datasheet Abilities, Enhancements, and Stratagems. Nothing in the army has Fly, however, which makes screening an obvious way to slow down their offense. The Phantasmal Longing strat does let units that usually can't move through terrain features however, so be aware of this and don't let yourself to be taken off guard by it. The army doesn't have any Advance+Charge mechanic either, so as long as your units are standing more than 26" away from everything in the army, you don't have to worry abou them getting charged.
As far as how to get the kinky daemons off the table, there are the obvious methods. Ideally you'll shoot them off the table. If you have to punch them off the table, you're obviously better off charging than being charged, though that's likely to be harder than it sounds considering the speed advantage they've got over our good punching units. Also be aware any unit with Daemonettes in or on them have Fights First, so you might not have as many models in the Fight phase as you did in the Charge phase.
This army did get toned down a fair bit from what it's been doing since the detachment's release. I think it's still good, but it'll probably see win rates in the 50's instead of the 60's. I don't know, maybe it's been nerfed to oblivion and the competitive players will move on, but I think we'll probably still see the Legion of Excess at events. And now, hopefully, we'll know what to expect and be better prepared to beat it when we face it across the table.
If you find this kind of article helpful, find that Follow button like it's a member of the Fallen and smite it like you're a member of the Deathwing. This kind of article takes some work, and events can often catch up with me when I'm writing one, as they did here. I'll keep trying to produce them though.
If you like to watch YouTube videos while you're getting your hobby on, Dank List Wargaming is a pretty good channel. Here's a link to their
latest video. Check them out, and in the comments tell Bailey to paint his flags! Until next time, battle brethren, may you fight to glorious victory. For the Lion!
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