Emperor's Children: Carnival of Excess Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

Most allied detachments give the ally something. This one gives both halves something, and only while they are close together, which changes how you deploy and move far more than a one-way buff would.

The practical consequence is that your two halves cannot operate independently. A daemon flank on the left and a legion flank on the right is two unbuffed armies. The detachment wants one advancing mass with the halves interleaved, or at least two pairs each containing one of each.

That sits awkwardly with the Thrill Seekers army rule, which pushes you to spread attacks across many targets, and with the Disruption disposition, which asks you to be where your opponent is not. This is the central tension of the detachment and the thing to plan around: cluster for the aura, spread for the army rule. The compromise most lists land on is pairs, one Emperor's Children unit and one daemon unit moving together, rather than one big blob.

The upgrade clause is worth chasing. For a weapon that already has [SUSTAINED HITS], Empowered improves the Critical Hit threshold to an unmodified 5+ instead. The pack's own FAQ confirms this works, using Shalaxi Helbane's Pavane of Slaanesh with [SUSTAINED HITS 3] as its example. A 5+ Critical Hit threshold on a weapon that already generates extra hits is a much bigger effect than granting [SUSTAINED HITS 1] to something that had none.

Six stratagems, and the two most characteristic ones are mirrors of each other.

Sustained by Agony (1 CP) fires just after an Emperor's Children unit destroys an enemy unit: a friendly Legions of Excess unit within 6 inches has one model recover up to 3 lost wounds, or if it is a Daemonettes unit, return up to D3+3 destroyed models instead. The legion half heals the daemon half.

Ecstatic Slaughter (1 CP) fires just after a Legions of Excess unit destroys an enemy unit: a friendly unengaged Emperor's Children unit within 6 inches can declare a charge. The daemon half creates a charge for the legion half. Note the limitation, that a unit which has already fought this phase cannot fight again.

Both require the 6 inch proximity the detachment rule already wants, so they reward the same positioning discipline rather than a different one.

Sycophantic Surge (1 CP) is how the daemons borrow the army rule they do not have: the targeted Legions of Excess unit is eligible to declare a charge in a turn it Advanced or Fell Back, provided at least one target is within Engagement Range of an Emperor's Children unit. That last clause again pulls the halves together.

Violent Crescendo (2 CP) gives a Slaanesh Beasts, Infantry or Mounted unit 6 inch Pile-in and Consolidation moves, and relaxes the requirement to end closer to the closest enemy model. Uncanny Reactions (1 CP) subtracts 1 from hit rolls against a targeted SLAANESH unit, and the wide keyword means it covers either half.

Dark Apparitions (2 CP) removes an unengaged Daemonettes unit to Strategic Reserves, and if it returns by Deep Strike next turn it can be set up more than 6 inches horizontally from enemies rather than the usual distance, provided it lands wholly within 8 inches of a friendly Emperor's Children unit. This stratagem's Effect section is one of the two entries Faction Pack v1.2 amends by name for this detachment, changing 9 inches to 8 inches.

This is the only Emperor's Children detachment whose enhancement points changed in the current Munitorum Field Manual pass, and both changes are increases, so a list built from a lagging source will be under-costed.

Possessed Blade (35 pts), marked as an increase of 10 points from 25. Select one of the bearer's melee weapons at the start of the battle and add 1 to its Attacks; each time the bearer fights it can also add 1 to that weapon's Damage and give it [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] and [HAZARDOUS]. Note the [HAZARDOUS], which is a real cost on a character you are trying to keep alive.

Warp Walker (35 pts), marked as an increase of 5 points from 30. Emperor's Children or KEEPER OF SECRETS model only, which is an unusually wide restriction. The bearer's unit swaps its Advance roll for a flat +6 inches of Move, and its models can move through enemy models on Normal, Advance or Fall Back moves without ending there, passing any Desperate Escape test automatically.

Empyric Suffusion (15 pts) makes a Heroic Intervention stratagem use targeting this unit cost 1 CP less. This enhancement is the other entry Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites by name for this detachment.

Dark Blessings (10 pts) is Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only and is the cheapest enhancement in the detachment: once per battle, just after an enemy unit selects targets, the bearer gains a 3+ invulnerable save until the end of the phase. For 10 points, a phase of near-invulnerability on your key character is the best value here.

Noise Marines are a solid Emperor's Children body to anchor the aura, and the pack's own FAQ confirms their Terrifying Crescendo ability can affect the same enemy unit more than once, for multiple Battle-shock and Leadership subtractions.

Tormentors are the cheap way to put enough Emperor's Children bodies on the table that the daemons always have something to stand near, which is the practical constraint on a mutual aura.

Daemonettes are named specifically by both Sustained by Agony and Dark Apparitions, so those two stratagems do nothing without them. Keeper of Secrets is one of only two model types that can carry Warp Walker. Shalaxi Helbane is the model the pack's FAQ uses to confirm the Critical Hit upgrade clause. We link no boxes for any of these because our catalog holds no exact entries for them.

At 2 DP this pairs with any of the three 1 DP detachments for exactly 3 DP.