Age of Sigmar: Hedonistic Analysis Of The New Slaanesh Battletome From The World Champ

Current AoS World Champion, Jean-Baptiste Aymes, shares his thoughts on the new Hedonites of Slaanesh Battletome.

Who better to discuss the upcoming Battletome: Hedonites of Slaanesh than the reigning Age of Sigmar World Champion? Jean-Baptiste Aymes took some time to share his thoughts on the updates to one of his favorite armies and drop a few spoilers about the new rules.

Paragons

Jean-Baptiste began by discussing the core of the new Hednoite mechanics, the Paragon system.

At the heart of the book are the Paragons. At the start of your turn, a new unit (up to a maximum of three) may be chosen in the sight of the Master of Excess, Slaanesh himself, and benefit from his favours as a Paragon. The most decadent figures of all do not need to prove anything anymore and are always Paragons – Sigvald the Magnificent, Glutos Orscollion, and Shalaxi Helbane.

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The mechanic system adds a fascinating dimension to the choices of both players throughout the game, while remaining deeply thematic. Yet Slaanesh is fickle and might choose not to support one of his champion units anymore, if it falls from grace in his eyes. To represent this, a non-Unique can lose the Paragon keyword if it does not perform well enough in the charge, suffers too much damage outside of being attacked, or miscasts a spell.

This is cool stuff, for sure. There have always been plenty of ways for Chaos players to reward the growing strength of their champions but beyond a bad roll and turning into a chaos spawn, there were few negatives. The Paragon rules really show just how fickle the Dark Prince is.

Glutos Orscollion

Meanwhile, it seems that one of Jean-Baptiste’s favorite characters has received some interesting upgrades.

The Lord of Gluttony, who is the living embodiment of excess, guided by the daemon Loth’shar, remains one of my favourites. He brings 18 Health, a 3+ save, and  Ward (6+) to the table, as well as a great toolbox. He can heal six damage allocated to a friendly Sybarite unit at the end of your enemy’s turn, and this ability can even bring back models! 

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Glutos has kept his iconic spell, which has a range of 18” and halves his target’s movement, run, and charge, and he can choose to reduce enemy charge roll by 2 with the Beguiling Glance Temptation because he’s a Paragon! He can also feast on a selection of delicacies, allowing him to choose from several particularly useful bonuses, depending on the circumstances. More than ever, he seems capable of transforming the whole game into his private banquet while the opponent struggles.

Lord of Hysteria

We’ve also been granted a peak at one of the rules associated with the all-new Lord of Hysteria.

He provides a boost in lethality, thanks to being able to give an additional attack to a friendly Sybarite unit, and allows the option to castle up with his Anti-charge (+1 Rend) in a 12” bubble.

Cool stuff, for sure. It looks like the Lord’ is going to be a powerful little utility model with benefits on both the offense and defense.

Daemonic Temptations

Lots of promising changes have come for the daemons of Slaanesh as well, according to Jean-Baptiste.

Shalaxi Helbane has some new tricks.

Her spell is now a Strike-first, for herself or a friendly Hedonites of Slaanesh unit, and she is always free to move because, as the Keeper of Secrets, she gained Retreat and Charge, allowing her to choose a prey and kill it with her huge bonuses against Monsters and Heroes. And once the target is gone, she shares her advantage with other Hedonites by granting them an additional attack.

It also seems that many Slaaneshi spells and sub-faction buffs apply to both mortals and daemons. But daemons haven’t been snubbed.

Daemonettes are not as lethal as they used to be, but they can stack some powerful bonuses that will bring the fight to the backline thanks to their ability to move through enemy units. They are also well-suited for the spell Last Ecstasy, which allows them to inflict mortal damage on a unit after one of their models is slain.

The Masque is a huge asset to disrupt enemy plans. Its ability to move into combat during any movement phase will prevent some devastating charges from happening, or you can use it to avoid a redeploy. Being able to dive into combat during the movement phase makes him a perfect choice for the Cutting Barbs battle trait. The Hero can grant everyone a +1 to hit on the enemy unit or set its control score to 1. But they have even more cool stuff to offer!

Very cool stuff and it’s awesome seeing an army taking centerstage when just a few years ago it was commonly believed that Slaanesh was being abandoned by Games Workshop! Jean-Baptiste offers some more excellent analysis in his article, so be sure to read it in full.

Are you tempted by the Lord of Excess and their new battletome?

Author: Simon Berman

Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he's the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.