Chaos cult army list thoughts part 3 - Emperors children

Hi all, we now come to the third part of the cult unit analysis which looks at, in my opinion, the stand out unit of the four: Slaanesh Noise Marines. Looking down the army lists these guys just seem to gel so well with the rest of the list to create a unified Slaanesh army. I think simplicity is the key here, as only three things really distinguish them from the rank and file, namely fearless, +1 initiative and their weapon options. Let’s look at those one at a time. 

Fearless is an attribute you can give to most of the regular squads in the list should you really want to by paying for an icon of vengeance, though this would restrict you from taking an icon of excess which I’ll come back to later. Fearless is a pretty useful trait in this edition especially as chaos are not as reliable as their loyalist brethren when it comes to rallying and getting stuck back in. It also makes you more durable in an assault, not that you really want to be getting your noise marines into assaults though.

From a fluff perspective, you can choose to give any of your units VOTLW in order to represent them being of Legion or renegade descent, which is a nice touch should you wish to distinguish an Emperors Children warband from some more recent converts. I like to view those with the mark of Slaanesh as converts to the cause whether they are noise marines or not. Their God had blessed them with heightened senses, represented in game by the higher initiative. Those which are noise marines (and thus also fearless) I class as those who are too far gone, their sanity warped by their use of the twisted instruments of slaanesh, hence why they would be fearless and why they would use the specialised weapons where others don’t. After all, In the Horus Heresy series, not all Emperors Children took to using the instruments.

Last point is regarding the banner options. As mentioned you can take a banner of vengeance if you want the units to be fearless, but instead (and also for the noise marines) there is the banner of excess option to grant feel no pain. This is a great option (Nurgle players wish they had) that is a great representation of the euphoria the disciples of Slaanesh experience and, IMO, is worth taking especially in larger units where you get more benefit from your investment. Any unit in the codex is potentially a good Slaanesh one, with bikes standing out as a good investment. (T5, I5, FnP, yes please!) Dirge casters on vehicles may also be a good shout, although initially they struck me as more of a word bearer thing. Here’s a sample 2000pt list making full use of large units with icons of excess:

Lucius	1
Noise marines	10	rhino, IoE, doom siren, mutation, blastmaster, 8 SBs
Noise marines	10	rhino, IoE, doom siren, mutation, blastmaster, 8 SBs
Noise marines	20	IoE, doom siren, mutation, 2 blastmaster, 16 SBs
Bikes	10	2 melta, MoS, IoE, VotLW, Power axe, MBs
Raptors	14	2 melta, MoS, IoE, VotLW, Power axe