Warhammer 40K: Detachment Breakdown – Mastering the Chaos Daemons’ “Legion of Excess”
Goatboy here to breakdown the 40K Advent Calendar Detachment – the Chaos Daemons ‘Legion of Excess’ with tips, tricks, and a sample army!
With this 2024 Advent Calendar of fun stuff for Warhammer 40K coming out, it’s time to review the detachments as they come out. We’ll do as usual a Good, Bad, and Ugly little break down for each one then a look at the type of list I would play for this army. I will begin with one of the detachments and as the weeks go on break down a few in batches as they come out. I am very excited to see some new rules and maybe some new ways to play an army and create something new and unique. Right now the game is sorta of locking into “best” of style armies and while we do have some innovation from time to time it feels like the same tricks are what is going to carry “best of” armies to the top.
‘Legion of Excess’ – The Good
The Legion of Excess is a Chaos Daemons Slaanesh army built to do what we always thought a Slaanesh army should do. It is going to hit you so hard, overwhelm you in pain, and then snip away your life. It is going to be such a hard hitting army and feels like one of the stronger detachments to come out from this Xmas Advent calendar. The Army has two extra rules for Slaanesh Daemons. One is called Beguiling Aura which grans the Daemons the ability to declare a charge when they fallback. The second is called Seductive Gambit and it is a power that lets them decide to lose the Fights First ability when they charge and instead gain the ability to re-roll to hit and wound. This is huge as the army has a ton of close combat Devastating wounds that would love to get more hits and get more access to roll that sweet 6 to wound.
As you can tell from the rules this is a Devastating Wound army and is designed to get units into your army, dice to start flowing, and damage to start stacking. There are four Enhancements for the army. Two are options that let smaller Slaanesh Daemons get better and two are set up to go on a Slaanesh Daemon Monster. False Majesty is an Aura that grants gives a +1 to all Slaanesh Daemons (non monster) to wound within 6”. There is the Dreaming Crown Aura that gives a +1 to hit on all non monster Slaanesh Daemons within 6”. There is an Avatar of Perfection that grants a Slaanesh Daemon Monster the ability to reroll advances, charges, and ignore all modifiers to any move rolls. It only works if there is no other Daemons within 6” so probably not the best one. The final one is the Soul Glutton upgrade for a monster that lets the model regain up to d3 wounds if it killed one or more enemy models at the end of the fight phase.
There are few Stratagems that feel very strong. Thieves of Pain is going to be used heavily as a 1CP option to allow a non Monster Daemon unit to give Wounds to another Slaanesh Daemon unit within 12”. This is a great way that a Keeper of Secrets can be a pain battery for your Fiends as they wait to unless an avalanche of claws on the enemy. Sensory Excruciation is a Stratagem that a Slaanesh Daemon Monster can use to cause all models on the battlefield (friend and foe) to take a Battleshock test. Remember that Daemons within the Shadow regain wounds for passing Battleshock tests so it can be a way to regain wounds. If the unit is below Half Strength they get a -1 to the test. The also get a move thru Terrain power too in Phantasmal Longer for 1CP to help your Keepers get there. The Cavalcade of Blades is a Tank shock like option for Daemon units. If you make your charge you can select one unit with engagement range and roll per regular Slaanesh Daemon or 6d6 for a Monster and each 4+ is a Mortal wound. You even get a power to mess with Opponents shooting in Overwhelming Excess that lets take an opponents unit that just targeted you, force a Battleshock test at a -1, and if they pass gives them a -1 to hit. If they fail they can’t target that unit and have to pick something else to shoot at.
‘Legion of Excess’ – The Bad
I really wish they didn’t so as much “breaking” of the Monsters getting bonuses as while Keepers are pretty powerful in this detachment they could have been given a bit more love. I also wish we had some other fun Enhancements too but knowing the limits on them per detachment build it is ok.
‘Legion of Excess’ – The Ugly
The only real ugly is I don’t have a Shalaxi Helbane painted to have 4 Keeper of Secrets running around.
Sample Detachment Armylist – Legion of Excess
Chaos Daemons
Legion of Excess
Strike Force
CHARACTERS
Keeper of Secrets (320 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Phantasmagoria
• 1x Shining Aegis
• 1x Snapping claws
• 1x Witstealer sword
• Dreaming Crown
Keeper of Secrets (290 Points)
• 1x Phantasmagoria
• 1x Shining Aegis
• 1x Snapping claws
• 1x Witstealer sword
Keeper of Secrets (290 Points)
• 1x Phantasmagoria
• 1x Shining Aegis
• 1x Snapping claws
• 1x Witstealer sword
OTHER DATASHEETS
Fiends (105 Points)
• 1x Blissbringer
◦ 1x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
• 2x Fiend
◦ 2x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
Fiends (105 Points)
• 1x Blissbringer
◦ 1x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
• 2x Fiend
◦ 2x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
Fiends (105 Points)
• 1x Blissbringer
◦ 1x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
• 2x Fiend
◦ 2x Barbed tail and dissecting claws
Seekers (80 Points)
• 1x Heartseeker
◦ 1x Lashing tongue
◦ 1x Slashing claws
• 4x Seeker
◦ 1x Daemonic Icon
◦ 1x Instrument of Chaos
◦ 4x Lashing tongue
◦ 4x Slashing claws
Seekers (80 Points)
• 1x Heartseeker
◦ 1x Lashing tongue
◦ 1x Slashing claws
• 4x Seeker
◦ 1x Daemonic Icon
◦ 1x Instrument of Chaos
◦ 4x Lashing tongue
◦ 4x Slashing claws
Seekers (80 Points)
• 1x Heartseeker
◦ 1x Lashing tongue
◦ 1x Slashing claws
• 4x Seeker
◦ 1x Daemonic Icon
◦ 1x Instrument of Chaos
◦ 4x Lashing tongue
◦ 4x Slashing claws
Soul Grinder (180 Points)
• Daemonic Allegiance: Slaanesh
• 1x Harvester cannon
• 1x Iron claw
• 1x Scream of despair
• 1x Warpclaw
Soul Grinder (180 Points)
• Daemonic Allegiance: Slaanesh
• 1x Harvester cannon
• 1x Iron claw
• 1x Scream of despair
• 1x Warpclaw
Soul Grinder (180 Points)
• Daemonic Allegiance: Slaanesh
• 1x Harvester cannon
• 1x Iron claw
• 1x Scream of despair
• 1x Warpclaw
‘Legion of Excess Tactics
This is a pretty simple list as we can use the Soul Grinder to move forward, take damage, and siphon them off to the Keepers as the Grinders are not Monsters. The other pieces are small enough to move around the table, try to hit units hard, and fish for damage. The Fiends might need to be bigger squads but I really felt like we needed more units to go do things. This game isn’t just about killing stuff but trying to do things. This is a lot of beef coming at you, throwing out a ton of wounds, and wreck stuff which this Slaaneshi army should do.
Download the Legion of Excess Here
