Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Hosts of Slaanesh

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: CHAOS and SLAANESH with semi-independant MORTAL and DAEMON sub-themes.

Heroes

• Keeper of Secrets: This guy is FAST (14" at full wounds, down to 6" when almost dead) and pretty killy, although fragile, and has a few nifty abilities, the most hilarious of which is the possibility to bribe an enemy HERO into gaining up to 6 attacks (your opponent chooses how many) on any of their weapons. However, if they roll any one when attacking with said weapon, they instantly die. Avoid using it on stuff that gets re-rolls and it'll give your opponents headaches. The Keeper itself re-rolls to-hit rolls of 1. Also the only wizard in the hosts, who can cast and dispel one spell per phase. His exclusive spell has you roll 2D6 and every enemy unit within 6" whose bravery is lower than the result takes D3 mortal wounds. This is... Pretty weak, especially against other daemons or Death where everything is bravery 10, but it can occasionally be useful against low-bravery armies. Most of the time, stick to arcane bolt for dealing damage. This is all made up by his command ability, which allows any unit of Slaanesh Daemons to pile and attack twice during the next combat phase. This is ridiculously strong and there is absolutely no wrong target when using this - just target whichever unit is engaged with the thing you want dead. (this is a bit of a lie: don't target something that will die before getting to attack the second time).

• The Masque of Slaanesh: One of the best trolling units there is. The Masque moves 10" and trades the regular herald's abilities for a crappy additional attack, +1 to her save, and some very, very annoying powers. First off, you roll a die at the beginning of each combat phase: each time one of your opponent' to hit rolls matches the die's result when targeting the masque, the attack fizzles. This is very hit-or-miss, and can either make you ridiculously tough or be absolutely useless. Her second ability allows her to re-roll failed hit rolls if her move characteristic matches her opponent's, and also re-roll to wound if is greater. With a move of 10" and her last ability, you'll often be rerolling both: enemy units that start their turn within 12" of her halve their movement. yes, halve. Either use her as a suicide bomber to glue your opponent down or as a support unit to prevent enemies from retreating.

• Herald of Slaanesh: Does additional attacks on sixes to hit, re-rolls her 5+ save during the combat phase, and... that's about it. She has a lot of attacks, especially when you factor in that she'll do one more on average with her ability, but isn't that killy. Her role is more that of a support unit, activating the locuses on your daemons, especially since she isn't a wizard and has no command ability outside of the basic one (and any scenario-specific one).
  • On Seeker Giving her a seeker makes her move 12" and gain the mount's attacks. This is... Largely pointless for cavalry lists, as she will struggle to keep up with speeding seekers, but a couple of additional attacks and some flexibility in locus-activation is nothing to spit at.

• Herald of Slaanesh on Seeker Chariot: See regular seeker chariot, but has three more attacks, its non-rending attacks hit on a 3 instead of a 4, and heroes have -1 to hit against the chariot. Downright inferior to the exalted variant except for always running 6 and being easier to summon, so may have a role as a support unit as daemons are always in need of things to activate locuses with (especially in bigger games). Still decent.

• Herald of Slaanesh on Exalted Seeker Chariot: See regular exalted seeker charios, but has three more attacks, its non-rending attacks hit on a 3 instead of a 4, and heroes have -1 to hit against the chariot. (notice a pattern here?). As murderously strong as the normal variant.

• Chaos Lord of Slaanesh: This guy has a lot of attacks and hits heroes and monsters on 2+. He still won't do too much damage, but he compensates with a pretty decent command ability: he turns any MORTAL SLAANESH within 12" of him into daemonettes, making them do more attacks on sixes to hit. With the selection of Slaves to Darkness units that already use massed attacks to deal damage, you'll be hard-pressed not to find a decent target. Like most chaos carriors he has a chaos runeshield to avoid mortal wounds on a 5+.

• Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount: All-around better than the footslogging version in general, except for having no rend. His move of 16" means he can accompany pretty much whatever he wants and his special rule makes everything have -1 to hit against him if they are within 3" of him. Like the footslogging version, he also has a chaos runeshield. His command ability is the same as the Keeper of Secrets, but for MORTAL SLAANESH instead of daemons, for when your Hellstriders need that extra punch to rack those sweet free attacks. or, you know, target any slaves to darkness unit and rape stuff - attacking twice doubles the effectiveness of pretty much anything. Almost required to be run with Slaves to Darkness infantry if you want him to keep the pace with anything at all.

Troops

• Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Who said Slaanesh was dead? Perhaps one of the strongest massed infantry units around. Daemonettes move 6", can run and charge in the same turn, and each 6 to hit gives you an additional attack (which can generate further attacks). Sure, you only hit and wound on a 4+, but that's with two attacks per girl and a -1 rend. If you have 20+ models in the unit, they do bonus hits on 5s instead, so if at all possible DO THAT. They only have a 5+ save, which isn't that bad for massed infantry, and their locus forces opponents to re-rolls succesful hits of 6 or more in the combat phase, so try to keep that activated at all times. Their champion has a bonus attack and their icon bearer and musician are par for the course for daemons, giving the unit bonus models when you roll a 1 on a bravery test and forcing enemies to re-roll bravery tets of 1, respectively (so remember to always test for bravery even if you can't possibly fail - you might very well get more daemons). A sufficient number of daemonettes, once it gets in melee (and it has the speed to do that) will murderize almost anything through sheer number of attacks. Add a Keeper of Secrets to make them attack twice per phase and your opponents will be brought to tears.

• Seekers of Slaanesh: Daemonettes on steroids who move 14", run 2D6 and charge in the same turn, and have 2 wounds each. Their mounts aren't too shabby in combat either, hitting and wounding on a 4+. Otherwise their special rules are the same as regular daemonettes with the exception of the locus which adds 1" to their Run and Charge rolls. So yes, that's a potential 16+4D6" charge range for a 40" threat bubble on those girls. They are very much guaranteed to get in combat with what you want them to be in combat with, so either use them to pin enemies down while moving your force or to get to targets in the backlines.

• Fiends of Slaanesh: Compared to the awesome that are Daemonettes and Seekers, those guys are a bit of a letdown. They move 12", which is very fast, but for ogre equivalents they're neither very tanky nor very damaging. Their locus allows them to reroll failed hit rolls of 1 when activated, which helps. Other than that enemies have -1 to hit them during the combat phase and if they roll a 6 to hit with their pincers the attack has a rend of -2 (as opposed to none), but you still need to wound (on a 4+) for that to take effect. Their stinger will murder stuff... When it hits. These guys won't let you down, but they're nothing impressive compared to some of the other choices in the hosts. They're very much brought down by the fact that they'd be a great mass unit, but GW now only produces an expensive, single-pose Fiend model. Maybe in a few decades when they see some plastic.

• Hellstriders of Slaanesh: Odd, but the good kind of odd. These guys are blessed with a move characteristic of 16" and chaos runeshields, but they really don't hit that hard. the catch lies in their special rule: At the end of combat, you roll a die and if the result is equal or inferior to the number of models killed by the Hellstriders this turn, they add +1 to their weapon's Attacks characteristic until the end of the battle. This is harder than it sounds, especially when their mounts usually outdamage the riders at first. They have two weapon choices: clawspears that hit and wound on a 4+, but have a rend of -1 and get +1 to wound on the charge, and hellscourges that have no rend or charge bonus but get 3" range instead of 2" and hit on a 3+. Their hero has the usual +1 attack, their nifty musician adds +1 to their run and charge rolls and they have two choices of banners: the Icon of Excess which allows to re-roll the die when rolling to see if they get bonus attacks (meh), and the Enrapturing Banner which gives enemy models within 6" -1 to their hit rolls (very good). If you want to play these guys put them in a big unit of 10 or more and use spells and command abilities to get the best of them - the mounted lord of Slaanesh in particular is especially helpful in getting them some much needed kills. With 16" they can also do some warmachine hunting (though seekers are better at that) and try to gain bonus attacks off the crew. Always send them against easily killed chaff and don't sweat it if the dice gods are against you.

• Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh: Inferior to the exalted seeker chariot and in turn inferior to the chariot with a herald on it. 'course, that means it costs less in games with point systems! It's a bit fragile for a chariot, with a 5+ save and only 6 wounds, but eh, it moves 12". Compared to the exalted seeker chariot, the only thing it does better is always run 6 and being easier to summon. It has 9 attacks, 5 of which do like daemonettes and generate more attacks on 6s to hit (though only two rend), and after it charges you roll a die for each enemy model within 1" and for each 4+ that model's unit takes a mortal wound. Like the other chariot variants its unit size is "any number" so nothing is stopping you from making a huge cavalcade and playing ride of the valkyries in the background everytime it charges. All in all, decent, but far from as good as the...

• Exalted Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh: This thing is a monster. Well, it doesn't have the monster keyword, but it might as well (and unlike most monsters it doesn't get weaker for taking damage). 12" move, 9 wounds, and SEVENTEEN attacks nine of which generate more attacks on sixes (though, again, only three have rend). So yeah, that's more attacks-per-wound than the seeker chariot. It has the same thing as a seeker chariot where it deals mortal wounds when charging to units of models within 1", except this time that's D3 mortal wound per 4+. Which is also likely to affect more models, as the exalted seeker chariot is much larger than the regular one. In addition, during the turn in which it charges enemy units within 3" add 1 to their bravery tests. This thing eats tarpits. Charge where you will maximize the impact hits wound count and don't worry too much if it takes a beating. The final hilarity lies in the "any number" of them which you can bring per unit, meaning ride of the valkyries is a go.

• Hellflayers of Slaanesh: A better version of the seeker chariot that's just a bit slower, now where have I seen that before? These have the same defensive stats as a seeker chariot, 11 attacks base, only 3 of which rend but 7 of which have the do-more-attacks-on-sixes-to-hit thing. They do impact hits like seeker chariots but if any mortal wound is succesfully inflicted this way, attacks which can generate more attacks (so, 7) can re-roll failed hit rolls, which is very good. Again, the unit can have "any number" of models. Since Hellflayers are built sideways on the base, you're likely to hit more models than a seeker chariot with the impact hits, too. All in all, not an exalted chariot but don't be afraid to bring them.

Battalions

• Pleasurebound Warband: Technically a Slaves to Darkness battalion, but the Mortals from the hosts are eligible. You bring 1 MORTAL SLAANESH hero and 6 MORTAL SLAANESH units. All units that start with a number of models that is a multiple of 6 gain +2 bravery for the duration of the battle and if any model from the formation dies in the combat phase, all units in the formation gain +3" to their pile in moves. Both bonuses benefit infantry more than they do cavalry, so are less beneficial to the hosts as only the Hellstriders are mortal units, but the lords are very good in general and give great bonuses to the formation. The mounted lord in particular has the potential of allowing units to pile in 6" twice, which is essentially an additional free move.

• Daemon Cohort of Slaanesh: 1 Keeper of Secrets or Slaanesh Daemon prince, 1 of any kind of Herald of Slaanesh, 3 units of Daemonettes and 1 unit of any other kind of slaaneshi daemon. For buying that many daemonettes, all models in the cohort add 1" to their already annoyingly high Move characteristic and every time an enemy unit fails a bravery test, you roll a die for each unit from the formation within 3" and on a 6 one model in that unit heals D3 wounds (or you add D6 models to the unit if it is a unit of daemonettes). not much to say here, it's a basic army-template formation that gives neat bonuses. Profit.

• Lascillion's Wanton Horde: This one forces you to mix and match hosts and slaves to darkness. 1 mounted lord, 1 unit of chosen, 3 units of daemonettes and 1 unit of seeker chariots. The formation's first ability is campaign-only and allows your lord to roll on the Triumph table even if he doesn't achieve a major victory and roll twice and choose the result if you do. The chosen from the formation are also boosted up and when they activate their bonus to wound to nearby units, all units from the battalion are affected as well, and finally, your seeker chariots can move through daemonettes as though they could fly. This is a bit of a schizophrenic battalion that wants the chosen in combat first even though they are the slowest unit in it, but otherwise is pretty solid.

Allied Armies

Hosts of Slaanesh are blindingly fast, hit extremely hard in melee, and have a plethora of to-hit debuffs, but they have key weaknesses in their lack of magic access, high-damage single attacks and ranged attacks which leave them particularly vulnerable to stuff like monsters when played as a solo army.

• Slaves to Darkness: You might have guessed from reading this that the few Mortal units in the hosts, especially the lords, do much better in a Slaves to Darkness list than in a pure-host army. So do not hesitate to do that as they are tremendously strong supporting lords. You might even want to take some slaves to darkness in a host list just because you didn't bring a keeper of secrets and the lords' command abilities are that good. Slaves to darkness also bring the host a nice selection of good wizards, which they very much lack. Bonus point for the sorcerer lord on manticore for bringing both a wizard and a monster in a single model.

• Tzeentch Arcanites and Daemons of Tzeentch: What did you just hear me say hosts sorely needed? Wizards. What does Tzeentch have in droves? Strong wizards. Tzeentch gives the hosts the magic punch that they so much need, and I of course don't need to remind you how broken summoning can be. Tzeentch also is the other daemon army with ridiculously fast units and chariots, so you can mix the two and neither break theme nor risk leaving half your army behind.

• Clans Skryre and Legion of Azgorh: these two bring pretty much the same things to a host army: ranged units, artillery, and even a few wizards, all of which the melee-focused, wizard-deprived hosts will be very thankful for.

• Monsters of Chaos: Well, duh. Use the monsters as you would with any other chaos army.

• Other Grand Alliances: If you want to bring non-chaotic stuff with the hosts, be on the lookout for the same thing as above - Wizards, artillery, and good ranged units, generally in that order.

• Using the hosts as support: Other than what has already been said (USE THE LORDS IN A SLAVE TO DARKNESS ARMY, DO IT), what the hosts bring are terrifying speed, lots and lots of mele attacks (which chaos is good at in general) and impressive tarpit-munchers in the form of chariots. If you want to use them as support, do it for an army which has trouble with tarpits or speed, such as nurgle. Hellstriders both get stronger against tarpits and are good warmachine hunters, seekers can and will kill that one unit on the other side of the board which you want dead, and even a single exalted seeker chariot is a very effective tarpit-killer that will not disappoint you.