Druchii Cult of Slaanesh designer's notes

When I was sitting down to brainstorm new units for the Age of Rebuilding project, elves gave me relentless trouble. The reason for this is actually pretty simple: elves are highly intelligent, have a very distinct look and have been making war for thousands of years. And unlike Dwarfs, they presumably don't have a testing period for innovations which the Adeptus Mechanicus might think is a bit long. If they haven't already developed a method of making war, the odds are that it is be cause they simply don't want to make war that way, or don't think it will improve their battlefield efficiency. 

Now, with High Elves I came up with the Shadowflame Guard, based on a similarly named unit in the End Times. With the Wood Elves... treeish things can be relied upon. But with the Dark Elves, I spent a while staring at my notepad in idiocy. The answer came to me, rather bizarrely, whilst I was sitting by a fjord in western Norway.

Eidfjord. Possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been. And rather bizarrely, a good place for hobby inspiration.

The Cult of Slaanesh, of course! One of the most colourful armies to come out of 2004's much underrated Storm of Chaos campaign, the Cult of Slaanesh combined units from the Dark Elves and Hordes of Chaos books. Now, creating a coherent list in the manner of that original supplement is on my list, but I'm also mindful that armies can be expensive. So my first thought was to create units which 'plug-in' to the 8th edition Dark Elves book so that a hobbyist could, if so inspired, use these new units with their existing collection. Now, a few explanatory notes. 

General

Veteran hobbyists will note that the presence of 'forbidden units' in the rules I've created created a bit of an old-school feel (though there are no 0-1 choices). I didn't want to do this at first, but in good conscience I couldn't envision a lore-abiding army where Slaaneshi and Khainites are making friends. 

Anointed

The Druchii Anointed was always a rather cool idea to me - the idea of a warped Dark Elf so consumed by Slaanesh that they can't even pass for normal elven. I tweaked the background a little to have it that a small number of modern Druchii have metamorphosed rather than all of them being impossibly ancient. 

The model is a Black Dragon Dreadlord with a daemonette's head, a Hellstrider's shield and the Daemonic Mount from the Lord of Slaanesh. 

Rules wise, I kept the Anointed as a combat machine, but removed the magical capabilities to keep his role clear. I removed the rule where he can't be the army's general. High point Lords who can't lead armies tend to get ignored even in the most narrative games.

Painseekers

I love the look of Steeds of Slaanesh and of Cold One Knights. That's basically where this came from. I wanted them to seem more in control than Hellstriders, with the same noble arrogance as Cold One Knights. 

The models are a simple rider-swap of Cold One Knights onto Hellstrider Steeds. Warning - it's harder than it looks. 

Rules wise, I wanted them to be incredibly quick and hard-hitting, but a bit glass-cannon-y. With T3 and a 3+ maximum save, you're going to want to be careful where you strike with them.

Vicerunner

Who doesn't want a Steed of Slaanesh chariot?! I did this purely because I thought it would be visually striking and fit the idea of depraved hunters well. 

The model is simply a Dark Elf chariot with Steeds swapped in. The charioteers are: a beastmistress with one of her arms replaced with a daemonette claw, and a charioteer with a Hellstrider's head. 

I was going to give this thing some really funky rules, ut ultimately I decided that a chariot which is so incredibly fast really didn't need anything else. 

Ascendant

Straight up: in 2013, when the 8th edition Dark Elves book was on preorder, I honestly thought that the Medusa was a Cult of Slaanesh concession. It's just so perfect that I had to make a unit using her. I decided to make her a kind of preacher-figure. I've got a feeling I got the inspiration from a scene of a Slaaneshi temple in Fulgrim.

The only conversion to the piece is the Slaanesh icon. 

Rules wise, I thought about giving her the standard Hatred power, but decided that it would make more sense for her to impart Frenzy (excess and all that). 

I hope all this makes sense. And fear not, I shall be tackling the concept of a true Cult of Slaanesh as seen in the glory days at a later date!