Emperor's Children: Slaanesh's Chosen Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

Three consequences follow from the way the title moves, and all three cut against normal habits.

Field more characters, not better ones. The title transfers to the first character unit to destroy an enemy unit in each player's turn, so what you want is several characters each capable of finishing something off, not one expensive character doing all the work. Two or three Lord Exultants will hold the title more turns than one Fulgrim will.

It changes hands in each player's turn, which includes your opponent's. A character of yours that kills something in your opponent's Fight phase takes the title then, so your defensive fights matter to the economy too.

The first clause is quietly the strongest. Ignoring any or all modifiers to Move, Advance and Charge rolls for all your character units is protection against the whole class of effects that shut melee characters down: the -2 inch Move debuffs, the charge-roll penalties, the terrain modifiers. In a faction whose army rule is built on movement, having your characters immune to movement interference is worth more than it reads.

One warning about stacking. The Favoured Champions bonus is a wound roll re-roll, so it does not stack with other wound re-rolls and competes with them. Check what your second detachment already gives before you build around it.

Six stratagems, all naming CHARACTER units, and two of them were amended by name in Faction Pack v1.2.

Vengeful Surge (1 CP) fires in your opponent's Shooting phase, just after an enemy selects your character as a target: your unit makes a surge move of up to D6 inches, and if your unit is NOT your Favoured Champions you can re-roll the distance. That re-roll clause is what the pack's rewrite added, and note which way round it works: it helps the characters who do not hold the title, which is the detachment nudging your other leaders forward to go and take it.

Refusal to be Outdone (1 CP) is the other rewritten entry. When a character unit within 12 inches of an engaged enemy unit declares a charge, it can re-roll charge rolls but must end that charge engaged with one or more of those enemy units. It is a committed charge, not a free one.

Heightened Jealousy (1 CP) needs reading twice. It triggers just after a character becomes your Favoured Champions, or just after the Favoured Champions destroys an enemy unit, and until the end of the phase it gives +1 Strength to attacks made by every Emperor's Children CHARACTER unit that is NOT your Favoured Champions. The buff goes to everyone except the unit you targeted, which fits the theme exactly: your other champions are spurred on by jealousy.

Devoted Duellists (1 CP) targets one or more character units for the same cost and gives their melee weapons [SUSTAINED HITS 1] against one selected enemy unit. The multi-target clause makes it unusually efficient in a list with several characters.

Beautiful Death (1 CP) lets destroyed models in a character unit fight anyway on a 4+, with +1 to that roll if the unit is your Favoured Champions. Diabolic Majesty (1 CP) forces Battle-shock tests at -1 on enemies within 6 inches just after a character takes the title, once per battle round.

All four read Emperor's Children model only, and three of the four have a clause that only switches on while the bearer's unit is your Favoured Champions, which is the detachment reinforcing its own mechanic.

Slayer of Champions (15 pts) is the one that most directly serves the plan. The bearer's melee weapons gain [PRECISION], and attacks targeting a CHARACTER unit improve Strength and Armour Penetration by 1. Killing an enemy character is one of the surest ways to take the Favoured Champions title, and [PRECISION] is what lets you reach one inside a squad.

Eager to Prove (15 pts) re-rolls Charge rolls for the bearer's unit always, and adds 2 inches of Move while it is the Favoured Champions. Reaching the enemy is the precondition for taking the title in the first place, so this is the cheapest way to make a character a contender.

Proud and Vainglorious (20 pts) re-rolls Battle-shock and Leadership tests always, and adds 1 to Objective Control while the unit is Favoured Champions.

Repulsed by Weakness (25 pts) makes enemy units within Engagement Range of the bearer's unit, excluding Monsters and Vehicles, take Desperate Escape tests when they Fall Back, at -1 while the bearer's unit is Favoured Champions. This is the detachment's answer to being walked away from, which is the standard counter-play against melee characters.

Lord Exultant is the model this detachment is really built for, and the cheapest way to field the several competing characters the Favoured Champions mechanic wants.

Lucius the Eternal is the faction's duelist and a natural title-holder, since the title moves to whichever character destroys an enemy unit first.

Lord Kakophonist is the shooting-oriented character, and that matters here because Heightened Jealousy and Diabolic Majesty both trigger in your Shooting phase as well as the Fight phase, so a character who kills at range can take the title without charging.

Fulgrim is a character in his own right and can hold the title, though he is expensive enough that a list built around him is fighting the detachment's spread-the-work design. His keywords gained MOBILE in this pack.

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