Slaanesh Daemons - First Impressions

Warhammer 40,000 – I was able to get my Slaanesh Daemons on the table this week. As a first run with a new codex against a Cadian and Scion list they didn't do to horrible. I lost pretty horribly but I can see potential. 

Originally our game night was going to be four players each with a 100PL list. As life happens some of our players had to bail on the game and others were going to join in if we dropped to 50PL per player. Of course at the last minute we had someone else bail so I played 2 separate 50PL lists against a Tempetus Scions list and a Cadian list with a Knight. This was not my ideal situation but mashing the two lists together this is what I played:

Slaanesh Daemons (Battalion Detachment)

HQ - Keeper of Secrets - Warlord, Fatal Caress, Mark of Excess, Psychic: Smite, Pavine of Slaanesh, Symphony of Pain
HQ - Herald of Slaanesh on Steed - Psychic: Smite, Cacophonic Choir
TROOP - 20 Daemonettes, Icon and Instrument
TROOP - 10 Daemonettes, Icon and Instrument
TROOP - 10 Daemonettes, Icon and Instrument
FAST - 5 Seekers, Icon and Instrument
ELITE - Fiend of Slaanesh
HEAVY - Exalted Seeker Chariot
HEAVY - Giant Chaos Spawn

Night Lords (Battalion Detachment)

HQ - Terminator Lord, Claws of the Black Hunt
HQ - Dark Apostle, Combi-Flamer
TROOP - 10 Chaos Cultist w/Flamer
TROOP - 10 Chaos Cultist w/Flamer
TROOP - 10 Chaos Cultist w/Flamer
ELITE - Hellbrute w/fist and scourge

Questor Traitoris (Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment)

LORD of WAR - Renegade Knight, 2x Avenger Cannons, 2x Heavy Flamer, Heavy Stubber, Ironstorm Missile Pod

We rolled one of the new Eternal War Missions out of Chapter Approved. This was the Supply Drop mission, which starts with six objectives and then on Turn 3 four of the objectives are removed and the remaining two are worth 3 VP each. In addition Warlord, First Blood and Line-breaker are worth one point each. Deployment was the corner diagonals on a "city" board.

I opted to spend 3 Command Points to put the Keeper of Secrets and large Daemonette unit into deep-strike reserve. I also kept the Chaos Lord in reserve. The rest of my units crowded around the objectives in my deployment zone and on the edge of my zone for the units that want to get into combat ASAP. With the +1 to my roll I got first turn and advanced forward with everything. My Knight was able to strip the opposing Knight down to the second tier on it's wound track, which was sadly my only real shooting. The Keeper dropped into the backfield and prepared to allow my advancing units a early charge. Sadly the dice didn't go my way and only the Keeper was able to get into combat. The pesky crusaders made some their invulnerable saves denying me First Blood.

Things went downhill for me from there. Some punishing shooting took out my cultists, giant spawn and the Keeper of Secrets soaked up a bunch of damage being in the back lines essentially alone. 

The second turn saw me in combat with all of my daemons. They performed less than stellar but were able to take out a Taurox, Knight Errant, Guard Infantry Squad and a few Scions. During the fight with the Knight my opponent jumped in front of my units to tear apart the Hellbrute with his Reaper Chainsword. 

Units falling back combat meant my Daemons got shot to pieces. My Renegade Knight also fell to enemy fire. (Not having access to the +1 Ion Shield on Renegades is a bummer).  The Third turn saw both objectives that were left on my side of the table. However with very few units left that could attempt to claim them and having lost (2) Warlords, First Blood and Line-breaker I opted to concede.

I see potential with the Daemons codex, not so much as a stand-alone force but something to supplement the CSM or Questor Traitoris. Keeping your detachments god-specific grants a fairly large boon and should be your goal when building the force. 

Upon first glance I assumed Slaanesh got shafted (again) but the codex combined with the Indexes give enough options to put together a solid force. The chariots seem to perform really well and I should consider adding more to my collection in the future. I might consider just doing a Supreme Command of Keepers because I love the model and what it brings to the table.