Lucentia

It can also block LoS to a small hero/unit, which is occasionally useful.

You could double up on the box set, but it might wind up as overkill given the points costs of some of the units (I rarely find space in my lists for more than 10 Twinsouls/Painbringers, or a single unit of archers/cavalry, as much as I might want to squeeze more in!) Purely mortal lists often lean on some of the special characters, like Glutos or Sigvald, so you might want to consider those instead. That said, two of the box sets would probably give you more than enough mortals for a variety of lists, even if you might not necessarily be using them all at the same time.

Both of the exalted seeker cavalry options are quite good (as far as Hedonite 'good' stetches, at least!) The archers are marginally cheaper, and play better with the damage poking > summoning the faction is currently stuck with, but the melee ones are fairly decent damage dealers and might serve better if you don't have a lot of daemons to summon yet.

Could be a little gap between the box and the battletomes, ala shadow and pain, I suppose.

My first thought was Drukhari Wych based on the colour scheme, but the bladed whip handle is identical to the DoK sisters of slaughter. Then again DoK whips up until now have all been braided, rather than smooth like this one. Drukhari Wych armour also has quite distinctive back vents, and drug/stimulant ports/pipes which don't seem to be present here, so I guess I'm leaning back towards AoS. Perhaps a named Kraith hero? Or a cursed city expansion hero could be a good shout. Naturally I'd love a DoK expansion wave, but I don't see much call for more whippy infantry in that line necessarily. Then again if that Avatar does turn out to work across games maybe more DoK to go alongside it isn't out of the question...

I would consider the truly essential summons to be Daemonettes en masse to provide bodies and screens (you'd want 30 available at a minimum I'd say, probably more like 50 to be safe), and a Keeper as a bully piece with the potential to swing a combat via double-activation when it shows up. If you're doing cost analysis it's probably worth noting that you can get 10 daemonettes, 5 seekers, and an exalted chariot from the Slaanesh start collecting box, and the latter two units can also be valuable pieces for summoning (Seekers provide a wider screen than 10 daemonettes and are fast enough to steal far off objectives, and exalted chariots have a decent mortal wound output). Other interesting options are the Contorted Epitome and Infernal Enrapturess, but I probably wouldn't consider them essential summons that you're going to want in every game.

The snake/5 shaped thing on the top left is one of the eldar/ynnari runes, so I'd guess it's just more in the same vein.

Might've been simpler to have disease tokens cap at 1 but deal an automatic d3 mortal wounds instead. But it depends what other effects (if any) can be tied into disease token count. I don't hate it, but it is a little messy for a fairly low impact ability.

On the plus side it means we'll probably see the models these rumour engines belong to fairly promptly (I'd be willing to bet we even see some over Christmas after the advent calendar's concluded) so I suppose it's a case of what is preferred, a broad spread of rumours for things that might not be shown for months, or a more focused lead-in to a single release.

Double post cos my net hiccuped, apologies!

As it happens most if not all GW kits do have a warning on the packaging for small components and sharp points, I believe that's also the reason for the 12+ age recommended age restriction on the kits? So I'm afraid you may be out of luck in claiming damages for your spear-magnet thumb!

That's just a part of the studio Slaanesh terrain they use for photoshoots, you can see another angle on some of the pics in the battletome.

To be honest if I were in charge of updating Maneaters for AoS I'd be tempted to make them an army subfaction instead of a specific unit, I think with the much broader scope of the mortal realms it'd be tricky to design a kit which hits the wide-travelling mercenary concept in a satisfactory way. Whereas if it's a subfaction that let's you, say, include 1/4 units from a broad list of ally factions, or whatever, that would suit better in my mind. That said I do think an Ogor sculpt is a likely fit for that rumour engine, though as ever it could just be a warcry/underworlds release.

Being able to ping out fairly reliable wounds at range is obviously good for depravity too, he mentioned being able to summon 800-1200 points worth of free stuff per game, which is nothing to sneer at, of course. I'm not a big fan of allies/coalition units in general though, so personally it's not a list that excites me much. At least Cocatrices are models which it shouldn't be too hard to find a Slaanesh-looking alternate sculpt for, I suppose.

Cypher Lords come in multiples of 8 I think, one of the smaller warcry squads, but they do match quite nicely with the look of the Slaanesh mortal range.

As a person who sometimes can't get a thought out of their head I've had ideas for artefacts and command traits popping up unbidden for days since I wrote this. The 3.0 Stormcast book has 9 artifacts, the Warclans book has 12 but they're split between the various subfaction hero types, I figured I'd aim for around 9 artefacts with the assumption that the SCE book will be more typical of 3.0 battletome design. Interestingly the SCE book also has a reduced number of command traits, down to 4, presumably they realised that no one ever actually rolled for a random one, but I've come up with 6 anyway cos, y'know, Slaanesh and all. Artefacts are a little tricky because not only do they all have to be equally enticing as choices in some way, but they also have to be enticing compared to the ubiquitous Amulet of Destiny from the core rules. I feel like I could pick any one of these 9 and have good cause to, depending on the list. Artefacts of Power Tools of Agony Sliverslash - Pick 1 of the bearer's melee weapons. Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon, add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon instead if the bearer made a charge in the same turn. (I contemplated just putting this back up to its old +2 attacks effect, but this way seems more fun.) Lash of Submission - Enemy units within 3" of the bearer may not retreat. If you would receive a depravity point from any enemy unit within 3" of the bearer, receive 2 depravity points instead. (This might be a little much on a single artefact, and it's not really a weapon upgrade in the usual sense, I originally had it increasing the range of one weapon to 3", plus the no retreat effect, which might be more reasonable.) Rapier of Ecstatic Conquest - Pick 1 of the bearer's melee weapons. Once per combat phase, in step 4 of the attack sequence, you can add 1 to the damage inflicted by 1 successful attack made by that weapon. In addition, the bearer counts as 3 times the normal number of models for the purpose of contesting objectives. (You're mainly taking this for the objective scoring, it is the rapier of conquest, after all, the extra damage is just to tie it to a weapon for flavour.) Raiments of The Dark Prince Girdle of the Realm-racer - In your hero phase the bearer may don the Girdle of the Realm-Racer, if they do so they immediately suffer 1 mortal wound and may add 1 to their Movement characteristic, Run, and Charge rolls, and can Fly, until your next hero phase. (Changing this to a deliberate choice to take damage makes it tie in better with the depravity mechanic) Coronet of Majesty - Once per battle, in the combat phase, the bearer may activate the Coronet of Majesty, if they do so they gain a ward of 3+ until the end of the phase. (I'm not generally a fan of one-use artefacts, but given how the Fane works it makes sense to have some available, and it just makes sense for me to once per battle items to have powerful effects to counteract their limited utility.) Cuirass of Revelations - At the beginning of each battle round roll a D6, subtract the value from the Bravery characteristic of all enemy units within 12" of the bearer. At the end of your movement phase you may chose to release the energies of the armour, each enemy unit within 12" of the bearer suffers D3 mortal wounds, but the armour no longer has any effect on the Bravery characteristic of enemy units for the rest of the battle. (Another kind of one-use artefact for the fane, but maybe a D6 bravery reduction will actually make bravery bomb lists usable? Probably not.) Esoterica and Exotica Rod of Misrule - As is in the current battletome. (This is already a great, fun artefact, the only reason to change or replace it would be that I don't know how newer battletomes are going to deal with CP generating effects under the new CP rules.) Scroll of Whispers - Add 1 to casting, unbinding, and dispelling rolls for the bearer. If the bearer attempts to unbind a spell and the unmodified unbinding roll is a 6 then the spell is automatically unbound regardless of its casting value. (Not sure that I like having an unmodified roll effect attached to an artefact which modifies that same roll, but I feel that every army with wizards should have access to a +1 to cast option at the very least.) Icon of Infinite Excess - Once per battle, in your hero phase, the bearer may lift the Icon of Infinite Excess. If they do so add 1 to Hit rolls for Hedonite units wholly within 18" of the bearer, and Hedonite units wholly within 18" of the bearer do not suffer battleshock tests. (Again, I think 1 use artefacts should be noticeably potent, so I boosted the range and effect of this one.) Command Traits Quicksilver Dodge - This general cannot be targeted by missile attacks, spells, or abilities unless the attacking model is within 12" of this general. (Should provide some valuable shooting protection, the SCE book has an artefact which does basically the same thing.) Speed-Chaser - This general can charge even if they ran or retreated in the same turn. (Don't think this one needs much explaining, it's just a solid ability that fits Slaanesh well.) Bewitching Vapors - Subtract 1 from Wound rolls for attacks made by enemy units within 12" of this general. (The value of this is obvious, several armies have a similar effect and it's always powerful, thematically it ties into the Fiend ability, and general befuddling incense/musk/fog that Slaanesh is known for.) God-hunt Master - Just reprint the Lurid Haze outflank ability here, it's a powerful tool and a good list option to have even if those sub-sub-factions end up vanishing. Skin-Taker - Add 2 to this general's Wounds characteristic. At the end of the combat phase heal D3 wounds from this general if any enemy models were slain by attacks or abilities made by this general in that phase. (Combined two old command traits into this one, still feels like it might be the weakest of the bunch and could use some pizazz though.) The Faultless Blade - Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by this general which target enemy MONSTERS and HEROES. Subtract 1 from hit rolls for attacks made by enemy MONSTERS and HEROES which target this general. That's what came to my mind at least, there are obviously some of the current options that I would have liked to squeeze in there or improve, but looking through the lists in the book and seeing so many artefacts and command traits which are just totally useless does make me think that having smaller lists with more carefully considered and balanced options is probably a good thing.

I was hoping that the DoK shadowstalkers warband would herald a wave of 8 new Order warbands for various factions, but then I don't think we saw any new Warcry releases after Catacombs? In any case all of the bespoke Warcry warbands are nice, characterful little squads, so I suppose I don't mind too much which faction new stuff shows up for. But it would be nice to see some love for the Spiderfang! If not here maybe in Underworlds, I suppose...

I noticed in the new 3.0 battletomes for SCE and Orruks the subfactions have been condensed into a much simpler form, mostly providing just a single bonus rule and sometimes freeing up certain battleline options, whilst no longer locking in specific artifacts or command traits. I don't know whether that's going to be the way for all factions going forwards (given there are plenty of different styles of subfaction across the 2.0 books) but I find it a kind of interesting way to try and avoid the issue of printing a bunch of artifacts and especially command traits that no one is ever going to use, and in theory it allows for an easier parity between the subfactions so there's no clear 'good' choice, except, y'know, we've already seen a couple of clear winners in the two 3.0 books so far... In any case, I figured I'd have a go at drafting up some 3.0 style subfactions for Hedonites, naturally there are 6 of them, it's only appropriate, based around the 6 circles of Slaanesh's domain as described in the battletome: Host of Avidity - Add 1 to charge rolls for friendly units from this host. SEEKERS, SLICKBLADE SEEKERS, and BLISSBARB SEEKERS are battleline in this host. (Just Godseekers again, it's a good, simple bonus that works well here.) Host of Gluttony - Do not take battleshock tests for friendly MORTAL HEDONITE units in this host whilst they are within 3" of an enemy unit. If GLUTOS ORSCOLLION, LORD OF GLUTTONY is in this host then he counts as your general in addition to your chosen general. (This one was the trickiest to think up something valuable and interesting, I'm still not sure I like it. Some sort of post-combat healing could also work.) Host of Carnality - Subtract 1 from attacks made by melee weapons which target friendly DAEMONETTE units in this host. SEEKER CHARIOTS, HELLFLAYERS, and EXALTED CHARIOTS are battleline in this host. (Stupid, sexy Daemonettes. This is to represent their alluring glamour which doesn't really show up on the tabletop generally.) Host of Paramountcy - Once per turn your general may issue a command ability without a command point being spent. SYMBARESH TWINSOULS are battleline in this host. (An alternate option for this Host could be to just use the old Pretenders double command trait instead.) Host of Vainglory - Every friendly HEDONITE HERO in this host counts as a General, and each may take a command trait. The same command trait cannot be chosen more than once in the same list. You must still select a single HERO as the true general as relates to battle tactics/grand strategies/etc. MYRMIDESH PAINBRINGERS are battleline in this host. (Basically just nu-Invaders.) Host of Indolency - Friendly HEDONITE MORTAL HEROES in this host count as HEDONITE DAEMON HEROES for the purposes of the Locus of Diversion battle trait. In addition, once per turn you may re-roll a failed Locus of Diversion test. If DEXCESSA, THE TALON OF SLAANESH, or SYNESSA, THE VOICE OF SLAANESH are in this host then they counts as your general in addition to your chosen general. (This is assuming the Locus stays the same as it works currently, of course.) Obviously these are less impactful then the current hosts, notably losing out on the bonus depravity generation and Lurid Haze outflank, but at the moment at least that seems to be the style for 3.0 battletomes. It is quite fun trying to get the flavour of a subfaction across within a single rule, hopefully I've managed to make all of these attractive options. I might try and do some artifacts/command traits to go along with them later. Also I did a quick rewrite for the Slaangor warscroll, attempting to keep to the spirit of their current scroll whilst giving them more of a defined role: The profile is much the same, but with an extra wound and 3+ to hit to make them more akin to an ogor-type monstrous infantry piece, plus a pip of rend on the charge. I've combined the weapon profiles whilst making the sword a 1 in 3 option rather than being solely for the unit, so a 3 model unit can kick out a solid 13 D2 attacks (16 on the charge), and a 2" reach let's them operate easily in a 6 model unit if you're so inclined. You could rewrite Obsessive Violence to make it an actually useful mortal wound option for the army, but in this case I opted to replace it with a more techy ability to shut down command abilities (though I'm iffy on the timing, it might be more reasonable to just have it last into the battleshock phase to block Inspiring Presence.)

Personally I'd say open it up to ranged units, but keep it to Hedonites, but I'm not generally a fan of mixed armies in the first place so I'm kinda biased, but keeping things to a single book just makes balancing things out easier. Whilst we're homebrewing I took a stab at designing a scroll for Shalaxi Helbane with the intent of making the unique, named Keeper actually useful: I took a few liberties in making assumptions as to how a general Keeper scroll might be written under the 3.0 ruleset, namely with a tighter damage table. I also tried to make the weapon options compare more favourably against the Sinistrous Hand, though possibly too much so. It always felt weird to me that the Cloak of Constriction was a self buff and not a debuff on the enemy it's supposedly constricting, so I swapped that for a plain -1 to hit in melee. Delicate Precision stays as it is, it's a fine, fluffy ability. Irresistible Challenge has been replaced with a new ability, I do like the old challenge ability, but it's kinda clunky and rarely ever meaningfully impactful. I debated giving them some sort of teleport ability to let them constantly chase down their prey, but hopefully a 14" move with run/retreat and charge access will get that flavour across well enough. The major change was to the Soulpiercer, I wanted to keep the theming of a single, artful kill, but make it actually dangerous, so I pretty much just ripped a couple of abilities from the new Kruleboyz stuff, allowing Shalaxi to potentially instantly kill smaller heroes or sweep chunks of wounds off of larger monsters, but still keeping them fairly ineffective against massed/multi-model units. The spell I mostly just changed for changes sake, it could have potentially stayed the same, though the +1 to hit isn't that meaningful with all attacks now hitting on 2s, and the +1 to save would be a potentially frustrating combo with new Shining Aegis, so I replaced it with a fairly low-impact spell that is still situationally valuable. Hmm, I don't know why that image has gone so small, I'll try and fix it later.

Having a rule for combat elixirs/drugs on mortals is a good idea, and has obvious parallels to Aetherquartz/Aethergold and similar mechanics. I feel like your version is perhaps a little too broad though, if I were to write my own it might be something like this: At the start of the shooting or combat phase pick one mortal hedonites unit. That unit gains +1 to hit and wound rolls until the end of the phase. At the end of the phase that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. A unit cannot benefit from this ability more than once per battle. This has a more potent effect than similar abilities in other factions, but also a more deleterious cost (whilst also innately tying into the depravity mechanic). I feel that allegiance rules like this are best served being simple and easy to remember. I do like the idea of being able to refill the elixirs, but perhaps that's something best left to a subfaction, command ability, or potion-brewing hero? It doesn't make thematic sense to me to use depravity points for that role.

22.2.4 suggests to me that you would just roll the appropriate random value and use whatever that is. The rule says 'if you need to know the value of a random move characteristic... ...make the random characteristic role shown on the unit's warscroll. The roll is the move characteristic... ...for the rest of the phase.' No reference to it having to be rolled in the movement phase or anything, so I would say your opponent just rolls the dice in the hero phase and you use that value for the spell's effect.

If you know anyone with a lot of DoK Witch Aelves they may well have a lot of spare whips which are considerably shorter and less fragile than the proper Hellstrider ones. That said I find my Hellstriders are very rarely charging anything to activate the weapon bonus in any case, so choice of loadout probably doesn't matter all that much, really.

I've started work on painting up Glutos (and, coincidentally, started cursing past me's decision to use NMM gold for this slaanesh army...). I've noticed that each of the character cupolas have little pockets of themed trinkets, the priestess has some scrolls, the painmaster a bunch of coins/treasure, but I can't for the life of my figure out what's supposed to be in the front of the whip guy, it's kind of tiny, squiggly bits, my best guess is that it's supposed to be bits of offal to throw to the mutants dragging the wagon around? Anyone got any better insight?

They're pretty fiddly, yeah, lots of small detail. It's hard to give general painting tips as I don't know anything about your style and method! I did them 5 at a time production-line style, but I can't say I'd especially recommend doing that unless you're used to that process! Blocking in the main colours on each model first and then coming back to pick out all the trinkets and baubles in one batch might make it less daunting.

I was doing some list building and was again reminded of quite how uninspiring the Hedonites spell lore is, granted a bad spell lore isn't something unique to Slaanesh, but I wound up amusing myself trying to think how I'd change it given the opportunity: Lore of Slaanesh Forbidden Sorceries of Slaanesh Lore of Pleasure and Pain Let me know what you think, I guess. Obviously this is purely wishlisting with no relevance to much of anything at all, but it was a fun diversion for 30 minutes.