Rivetbull
Vassal
I have been, slowly buying up, and trading for the original Slaaneshi daemons for about half a decade. Some of the daemonettes and one Keeper of Secrets have been in my collection since the late 80s. I began adding to them casually with no particular goal in mind since I moved to the UK in 2014. I began seeking them out in earnest since 2018 after going to (and being inspired by) Bring Out Your Lead that year. Recently, I have acquired enough to get to work on the project properly.
I have been smitten with the bizarre look and feel of Slaanesh since Slaves to Darkness dropped when I was in my impressionable teens. I collected a modest mortal Slaanesh army in the late 80s/early 90s, but what I really always wanted was a Daemonic Legion full of the madness like my teenaged self saw in the Slaves to Darkness tome. However, because of my meager funds back then and the limited availability of those models in the US, such a collection was frankly unachievable for me. As I mentioned I kept some of the models out of nostalgia, and in 2018 I decided to try to deal with this “unfinished business” from my gaming youth. I set about making a plan of what I would need to find to make a reasonably credible and playable list. Honestly though, I have no real expectation of getting to play it. I just need to build it. Turns out just planning a legion was a trickier task than I initially gave it credit for.
When one looks at the descriptions for the daemonic legions in the Realm of Chaos books they will see a lot of randomness and contradictory advice for starting out. Slaves to Darkness states on page 173 that “To start off, limit the armies to no more than 10,000 points each.” but then again on page 176 it states ”A battle with a single 5,000 point legion on each side should last most of an evening. A 5,000 point Daemonic Legion is also around the right size for your first Daemonic Legion battles.” Certainly 10,000 points seems like a tall order when you look at the Army lists themselves and start tallying up unit costs, as that kind of points level isn’t really possible without significant auxiliaries or multiple legions. However, in the Lost and the Damned on page 238 it says that ”3,000 points is the usual yardstick for a Warhammer battle...” and that “we would recommend 3 greater daemons...”. If one ignores auxiliaries and allies, then 3,000 points does give a reasonable distribution of units in a single legion. Therefore, I decided to use 3,000 points of lesser daemon units and three Keepers of Secrets as an initial goal for my Slaaneshi Legion. These should form the core of the legion in any circumstances even if I get more ambitious later. 5,000 points would make for a good list with some basic auxiliaries and mortals added to the core.
The three Keepers of Secrets required would need to be differentiated from each other. GW made the Keeper of secrets modular with two sets each of upper arms, lower arms, and legs. They also made a half dozen different heads. Two of these are undead skulls, which never did much for me. Another, my least favorite, had an eyepatch and pretty small horns. Ironically, “pirate-minotaur” was the only one I ever found when I was a teenager, but I have since corrected that problem and found the three better more menacing bovine heads. Careful choice of parts, and relatively minor conversion work will allow me to make all three Keepers look significantly different, while still using almost entirely classic model parts. The most obvious difference in the three Keepers is that one, and only one, in a Slaaneshi Legion gets a Rod of Command. GW never made a model for the Rod, so I needed to convert one. I settled on using the old daemonette familiar as the basis for the Rod as she is standing straight with her limbs tight together and is small enough to be an implement in the daemons mighty fist. The second Keeper would be the champion or enforcer of the legion. I gave him a pair of chains each ending in a morning star at each end. I used real chains and some plastic chaos warrior maces for the balls. The last Keeper would be the Legion’s Battle Standard bearer. This would require some wrist cutting and converting to get right.
The core of the legion I kept simple and made sure to use all the released Slaaneshi daemon models from the realm of chaos era. I settled on three units of six Daemonettes. Citadel made thirteen sculpts of daemonettes, and I have all of them represented in these three units, as well as some duplicates of my favorites. One will be given a banner, which may or may not have any impact on the table. It certainly won’t be as grand as the Keeper’s banner. Next were two units of six Fiends of Slaanesh. Again, I’ve gone to some trouble to make sure that all the sculpts are represented in these two units. Lastly, I have one unit of six Mounted Daemonettes. This unit was by far the most problematic. Mounts of Slaanesh are simply not easy to come by, and finding six took no small amount of time and effort. In addition, the only daemonette rider sculpt from that era, which is pictured on page 158 of Slaves to Darkness, was never released. Even if it had been, one sculpt repeated six times in a single unit is not acceptable. This meant that I would have to convert riders from the classic daemonette sculpts. The trick here is to choose daemonettes whose tails are well out of the way. I have built a couple so far and it is tricky to model them sitting up straight on their steeds. But, it is already obvious that they will be a striking unit when finished. Together these units weigh in at precisely 3,000 points, and with six units of six daemons each feel entirely appropriate as the basis of a Slaaneshi Daemonic Legion.
The first thing to get painted was one of the Keepers of Secrets. I painted this fella a pastel green with bright yellow contrast on the leather and lacquered horns and such. His schtick is the Legion's champion, and he was given a pair of ball and chains made from modern GW Chaos Warrior maces and some simple necklace chain. I decided to keep the base simple and largely without color to contrast with the riot of colors on the rest of the models. I picked broken flagstones because they are easy and because they can be replicated on a display board at some point in the future.
Next I painted a pack of Daemonettes. I gave each one her own skin color scheme and then used the same bright yellow to tie them together. The flagstone effect was repeated on the movement tray and looks like it is going to be effective throughout the project.
I have been smitten with the bizarre look and feel of Slaanesh since Slaves to Darkness dropped when I was in my impressionable teens. I collected a modest mortal Slaanesh army in the late 80s/early 90s, but what I really always wanted was a Daemonic Legion full of the madness like my teenaged self saw in the Slaves to Darkness tome. However, because of my meager funds back then and the limited availability of those models in the US, such a collection was frankly unachievable for me. As I mentioned I kept some of the models out of nostalgia, and in 2018 I decided to try to deal with this “unfinished business” from my gaming youth. I set about making a plan of what I would need to find to make a reasonably credible and playable list. Honestly though, I have no real expectation of getting to play it. I just need to build it. Turns out just planning a legion was a trickier task than I initially gave it credit for.
When one looks at the descriptions for the daemonic legions in the Realm of Chaos books they will see a lot of randomness and contradictory advice for starting out. Slaves to Darkness states on page 173 that “To start off, limit the armies to no more than 10,000 points each.” but then again on page 176 it states ”A battle with a single 5,000 point legion on each side should last most of an evening. A 5,000 point Daemonic Legion is also around the right size for your first Daemonic Legion battles.” Certainly 10,000 points seems like a tall order when you look at the Army lists themselves and start tallying up unit costs, as that kind of points level isn’t really possible without significant auxiliaries or multiple legions. However, in the Lost and the Damned on page 238 it says that ”3,000 points is the usual yardstick for a Warhammer battle...” and that “we would recommend 3 greater daemons...”. If one ignores auxiliaries and allies, then 3,000 points does give a reasonable distribution of units in a single legion. Therefore, I decided to use 3,000 points of lesser daemon units and three Keepers of Secrets as an initial goal for my Slaaneshi Legion. These should form the core of the legion in any circumstances even if I get more ambitious later. 5,000 points would make for a good list with some basic auxiliaries and mortals added to the core.
The three Keepers of Secrets required would need to be differentiated from each other. GW made the Keeper of secrets modular with two sets each of upper arms, lower arms, and legs. They also made a half dozen different heads. Two of these are undead skulls, which never did much for me. Another, my least favorite, had an eyepatch and pretty small horns. Ironically, “pirate-minotaur” was the only one I ever found when I was a teenager, but I have since corrected that problem and found the three better more menacing bovine heads. Careful choice of parts, and relatively minor conversion work will allow me to make all three Keepers look significantly different, while still using almost entirely classic model parts. The most obvious difference in the three Keepers is that one, and only one, in a Slaaneshi Legion gets a Rod of Command. GW never made a model for the Rod, so I needed to convert one. I settled on using the old daemonette familiar as the basis for the Rod as she is standing straight with her limbs tight together and is small enough to be an implement in the daemons mighty fist. The second Keeper would be the champion or enforcer of the legion. I gave him a pair of chains each ending in a morning star at each end. I used real chains and some plastic chaos warrior maces for the balls. The last Keeper would be the Legion’s Battle Standard bearer. This would require some wrist cutting and converting to get right.
The core of the legion I kept simple and made sure to use all the released Slaaneshi daemon models from the realm of chaos era. I settled on three units of six Daemonettes. Citadel made thirteen sculpts of daemonettes, and I have all of them represented in these three units, as well as some duplicates of my favorites. One will be given a banner, which may or may not have any impact on the table. It certainly won’t be as grand as the Keeper’s banner. Next were two units of six Fiends of Slaanesh. Again, I’ve gone to some trouble to make sure that all the sculpts are represented in these two units. Lastly, I have one unit of six Mounted Daemonettes. This unit was by far the most problematic. Mounts of Slaanesh are simply not easy to come by, and finding six took no small amount of time and effort. In addition, the only daemonette rider sculpt from that era, which is pictured on page 158 of Slaves to Darkness, was never released. Even if it had been, one sculpt repeated six times in a single unit is not acceptable. This meant that I would have to convert riders from the classic daemonette sculpts. The trick here is to choose daemonettes whose tails are well out of the way. I have built a couple so far and it is tricky to model them sitting up straight on their steeds. But, it is already obvious that they will be a striking unit when finished. Together these units weigh in at precisely 3,000 points, and with six units of six daemons each feel entirely appropriate as the basis of a Slaaneshi Daemonic Legion.
The first thing to get painted was one of the Keepers of Secrets. I painted this fella a pastel green with bright yellow contrast on the leather and lacquered horns and such. His schtick is the Legion's champion, and he was given a pair of ball and chains made from modern GW Chaos Warrior maces and some simple necklace chain. I decided to keep the base simple and largely without color to contrast with the riot of colors on the rest of the models. I picked broken flagstones because they are easy and because they can be replicated on a display board at some point in the future.
Next I painted a pack of Daemonettes. I gave each one her own skin color scheme and then used the same bright yellow to tie them together. The flagstone effect was repeated on the movement tray and looks like it is going to be effective throughout the project.
Amazing looking army, wonderfully vibrant colours. Those minotaurs look good, like the colour scheme on them. As Old Hob said - more photos please! Some of the beasties you have hidden there in the photos look awesome.
