Continuing with the new Emperor’s Children Tactics Articles, this time we’re going to look at what is one of my favourite detachments in the new book – the Carnival of Excess – and some of the synergies with particular units that you can enjoy here.

Before we carry on, you can find the other articles in this series below – Part 1 in particular might be worth a read as it explains how the Army Rule Thrill Seekers works as it’s fundamental to making the most of each of the Emperor’s Children detachments.

• Part 1 – How Best To Seek Your Thrills
• Part 2 – The Most Twisted Show in Town – Carnival of Excess

Carnival of Excess was one of the detachments I was most curious about ahead of the release of Codex Emperor’s Children, as there’s been all sorts of rumours about Chaos Daemons and as a Slaanesh Daemons player I was particularly excited to potentially get greater use of some of my favourite minis alongside some sexy new pink marines. But, I was also a tad nervous about what it meant for the wider Daemon faction. I had started writing this piece before the Balance Update dropped so, we now have a bit of a better understanding about what this all means for Index Daemons. The datasheets in the Index have been brought more in line with those found in Codex Emperor’s Children and some of those missing from the Codex have also been sent to Legends (Chariots of all varieties). I’m not going to talk too much more on this now as I have another post about Slaanesh Daemons in the works that has gained some additional context with the changes. Also, spoilers, we’re not going to use all of the Daemon datasheets in Codex Emperor’s Children to explore this detachment, those that we don’t look at will be explored in the context of that wider Daemons article when it lands (feel free to subscribe – it’s free – and you’ll get an email to let you know when that drops!)

Those of you that might be familiar with my Hedonites of Slaanesh List Archetypes will know the drill somewhat here. I’m going to use an army list to explore some of the rules of the detachment and some of the synergies. We’ll not look at everything as not everything will fit in a list (sadly!). I’m also not saying this is the best way to play Emperor’s Children or even the best way to play Carnival of Excess but hopefully it provides some inspiration for how to use the detachment and what sorts of synergies to use. It’s hopefully also a fun list – I will certainly be giving it plenty of game time over the coming months!

Carnival of Excess (1990pts)

Fulgrim (385)

Lord Kakophonist (60)
• Empyric Suffering (15)
w/ 6 Noise Marines (135)

Lord Kakophnist (60)
w/ 6 Noise Marines (135)

Lord Exultant (80)
• Dark Blessing (10)
w/ 5 Infractors (85)

Lord Exultant (80)
• Possessed Blade (25)
w/ 5 Infractors

5 Tormentors (85)
6 Noise Marines (135)

Rhino (80)
Rhino (80)
Rhino (80)

3 Fiends (95)
3 Fiends (95)
3 Fiends (95)
10 Daemonettes (90)

So we have a healthy mix of Emperor’s Children and Daemons but let’s look at the detachment rules as this shows us how this Daemon integration works. Carnival of Excess has two detachment rules as such one about how we use Daemons and then another about how the different units empower one-another. We’ll look at Legions of Excess first that tells us how we can include Daemons:

Carnival of Excess – Legions of Excess

You can include LEGIONS OF EXCESS units in your army even though they do not have the EMPEROR’S CHILDREN Faction keyword. The combined points cost of such units you can include in your army is:

• Incursion: Up to 500pts
• Strike Force: Up to 1000pts
• Onslaught: Up to 1500pts

A couple of bits about this before we look at the other Detachment rule. The Daemon datasheets in the Codex all have another rule, Pact of Excess, that stops them being selected in any of the other detachments. If you want Daemonic help you have to run Carnival of Excess.

The Daemonic datasheets were slightly different than those found in the Index for Chaos Daemons, but these have now been mostly brought in line with the only differences being around Daemonettes (OC1 and no Battleline here but OC2 and Battleline in the Daemons Index) and Seekers (gain Fights First in the Index).

I do think there’s something pretty daft about choosing a Faction keyword of Legions of Excess when the Grotmas Index Detachment for Mono-Slaanesh Daemons was Legion of Excess. It seems an unnecessarily similar name for no real benefit, it’s not like they really are Legion here as at most they can only make up half of your army..

Anyway, we’ll look at some of those Daemons rules in a bit but first, Daemonic Empowerment is what gives this detachment some juice:

Carnival of Excess – Daemonic Empowerment

• While an EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit from your army is within 6″ of one or more friendly LEGIONS OF EXCESS units, it is Empowered.

• While a LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit from your army is within 6″ of one or more friendly EMPEROR’S CHILDREN units, it is Empowered.

While a unit from your army is Empowered, weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability. If such a weapon already has that ability, each time an attack is made with that weapon, an unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit.

So if EMPEROR’S CHILDREN and LEGIONS OF EXCESS units are within 6″ of each other they are Empowered and gain [SUSTAINED HITS 1]. This is great as it’s on all weapons, not just melee weapons! If the weapons already had [SUSTAINED HITS 1], they instead score Critical Hits on a 5+. This rule is pretty awesome and I’m sure like mine, your brain instantly asked “Which units have [SUSTAINED HITS 1] already?” so that you can get some of that tasty 5+ Crit goodness in your life!

There are two particularly clear choices that stand out in answer to that question, Fulgrim and Noise Marines accompanied by a Lord Kakophonist.

Fulgrim has [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on both his Malefic Lash (ranged weapon) and his Daemonic Blades (melee weapon). The higher the quality of attacks, the greater the potential benefits of [SUSTAINED HITS 1] and on a 5+ Fulgrim achieves suitable levels of Daemonic Primarch scary!

Fulgrim is also pretty manoeuvrable with his 16″ Move and FLY but he does have a large base and with his speed you’ll have to be careful he doesn’t move outside of range to be Empowered.

We spoke about Fulgrim’s Daemonic Poisions in Part 1 but I’ll just repeat the rule here as again, it’s a fun opportunity to spread around some Mortal Wounds for the rest of the game!

Fulgrim – Daemonic Poisons

In your Shooting phase and the Fight phase, after this model has finished making its attacks, select one enemy unit hit by one or more of those attacks. Until the end of the battle, that enemy unit is poisoned. At the start of each player’s Command phase, roll one D6 for each poisoned enemy unit on the battlefield: on a 4+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

To me, Fulgrim feels like a great target for the Ecstatic Slaughter stratagem in this detachment also:

Stratagem – Ecstatic Slaughter – 1CP

When: Fight phase, just after a LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit from your army destroys an enemy unit.

Target: That LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit and one friendly EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit within 6″ of it that is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.

Effect: Your EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit can declare a charge. If it does so and it has already been selected to fight this phase, it cannot fight again this phase.

So this one is a little situational as one of your Daemon units has to get a kill and there has to be an unengaged EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit within 6″ to make use of this. But, there are a couple of things that make this potentially awesome when you can manage to do it…

Firstly, it can be triggered in either Fight phase, this means if you already killed your charge target in your turn, you can use this to get an extra charge from a unit in your opponent’s turn. If used on Fulgrim, for example, this means he can score some hits, inflict his Daemonic Poisons on the enemy unit and if it survives the next Command phase, he can Fall Back from the combat and pick a new dance partner with Thrill Seekers.

You may also use it in your turn, for example, Fulgrim might fight, kill his target and free himself up from combat – perhaps he uses his consolidate move to bring himself a little closer for a charge or to Empower your Daemon unit that’s about to fight. Once the Daemon unit slays their target, you trigger this stratagem and get an extra Charge out of Fulgrim this round. He won’t get to fight (and his target might if they haven’t already fought this turn) but it might get him into a good position to deny a Secondary Objective for your opponent or tie up a key shooting unit that your opponent won’t be able to make use of (especially if they can’t Fall Back and Shoot) importantly, it denies them the chance to use Overwatch against Fulgrim’s charge also.

This could be particularly handy when you factor in Fulgrim’s Daemon Primarch of Slaanesh rule:

Fulgrim – Daemon Primarch of Slaanesh

At the start of your opponent’s Command phase, select one of the below abilities, until your opponent’s next Command phase, this model has that ability.

• Beguiling Form: Every time a model makes an attack that targets this model, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

• Daemonic Speed: This model has the Fights First ability.

• Enthralling Hypnosis (Aura): While an enemy unit is within 6″ of this model, each time that unit is selected to Fall Back, it must take a Leadership test. If that test is failed, that unit must Remain Stationary this phase instead.

-1 to Hit and Fights First pretty much speak for themselves. Enthralling Hypnosis is a pretty cool effect but the Leadership test makes it less effective. Although you can perhaps stack that with Terrifying Crescendo on your Noise Marines to make it trickier for your opponent.

Noise Marines – Terrifying Crescendo

In your Shooting phase, after this unit has shot, select one enemy unit hit by one or more of those attacks. Until the start of your next Shooting phase, each time a Battle-shock or Leadership test is taken for that enemy unit, subtract 1 from that test.

Terrifying Crescendo also dovetails beautifully with the Lord Kakophonist’s Doom Siren rule:

Lord Kakophonist – Doom Siren

In your Shooting phase, after this model’s unit has shot, select one enemy INFANTRY unit hit by one or more of those attacks and roll three D6: for each 4+, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. If an enemy unit suffers on or more mortal wounds as a result of this ability, it must take a Battle-shock test.

Before we go back to the Noise Marines we’ll look at Obsessive Annunciation on the Lord Kakophonist too:

Lord Kakophonist – Obsessive Annunciation

While this model is leading a unit, ranged weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.

This is why we want him in our Noise Marines unit and we want our Noise Marines standing near some Daemons because Critical Hits on 5+ with Sonic Weapons… very tasty!

One of the Lord Kakophonist models in our list has the Empyric Suffusion Enhancement:

Enhancement – Empyric Suffusion

EMPEROR’S CHILDREN model only. Once per battle round, you can target one friendly SLAANESH unit within 6″ of the bearer with the Heroic Intervention Stratagem for 0CP.

Seeing as we’re likely going to want some Daemons babysitting our Noise Marines so they get the full benefit of being Empowered, there’s a nice opportunity to use this to drag their escort into any combats the Noise Marines find themselves having to reckon with. As it triggers on the SLAANESH keyword everything in the list (except the Rhinos due to the restrictions on the Stratagem itself) is able to use that Heroic Intervention if within range. Whilst you lose your charge bonuses, it gives you the opportunity to make any attempts to take out your Noise Marines a painful trade for your opponent. Plus, we spoke about this with Ecstatic Slaughter, but if Fulgrim has his Daemonic Speed power up for Fights First, then he’s really going to mess up those plans… I’m not going to lie, the chances for shifting Fulgrim about out of phase are some of the biggest appeals to this detachment for me – certainly feels like one of the better ones to play the Primarch in!

Overall, the Noise Marines are pretty key to making this list work. As we look at other detachments you’ll likely see a theme emerge there too – Noise Marines make Emperor’s Children tick (which feels like how it should be to be fair!) – they add some quality shooting to the largely melee-based damage that the rest of the list can dish out. The Rhinos are here primarily for them – getting them where we need them and keeping them safe otherwise, although, one is possibly best given to our pair of Infractor + Lord Exultant units, not least as they can Scout it forwards thanks to the Infractors’ Scouts 6″ which the Lord Exultant gains when he joins them.

There’s a lot of synergy between the Lord Exultant and Infractors. The Lord Exultant benefits from the Infractors Excessive Assault rule:

Infractors – Excessive Assault

Each time a model in this unit targets an enemy unit with a melee attack, re-roll a Wound roll of 1. If that enemy unit is within range of an objective marker, you can re-roll the Wound roll instead.

Already a great rule for the Infractors, it really ramps up the damage output of the Lord Exultant. He in turn gives the Infractors the Perfectionists rule:

Lord Exultant – Perfectionists

While this model is leading a unit, weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [LETHAL HITS] ability.

Lethal Hits and wound re-rolls (either of a 1 or full re-rolls) is pretty good – know what makes it better? That’s right Sustained Hits! So if we can have some Daemons near these at the opportune time, they should hit well above their weight!

The Infractors themselves are a great little unit, and having Precision on their attacks can be handy for making them a threat to Characters they otherwise shouldn’t be worrying, but in this setup in particular, they’re delivery vehicles and ablative wounds for the Lord Exultant first and foremost. These make excellent trading units, able to put pressure on early and remove some of your opponent’s front-runners. This is helped by the Lord Exultant having a similar rule to Chaos Lords – Euphoric Strikes:

Lord Exultant – Euphoric Strikes

Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, this model can use this ability. If it does, until the end of the phase, add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by this model and improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of those weapons by 1.

One Lord Exultant is carrying the Possessed Blade which ramps that damage potential of one of these units even further, especially on their ‘go-turn’:

Enhancement – Possessed Blade

EMPEROR’S CHILDREN model only. At the start of the battle, select one melee weapon equipped by the bearer; add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon. In addition, each time the bearer is selected to fight, it can use this Enhancement. If it does, while resolving those attacks, add 1 to the Damage characteristic of that weapon and that weapon has the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] and [HAZARDOUS] abilities

There’s not much access to Devastating Wounds for Emperor’s Children generally but this detachment has access to loads by comparison thanks to all the Daemons and this particular Enhancement. The risk of a few Mortal Wounds is worth paying for pushing the Damage on his Power Fist or Phoenix Power Spear to 3 with Devastating Wounds… remember you’ll also be re-rolling at least some and maybe all of those wound rolls thanks to Excessive Assault from the Infractors so there’s an opportunity to fish for those Devastating Wounds if needed!

Our other Lord Exultant has the Dark Blessings Enhancement – this one doesn’t boost his inherent killy-ness but might help him cause issues for your opponent for as long as possible:

Enhancement – Dark Blessings

EMPEROR’S CHILDREN INFANTRY model only. Once per battle, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, the bearer can use this Enhancement. If it does, until the end of the phase, the bearer has a 3+ invulnerable save

Handy when there’s a lot of pain coming the Lord Exultant’s way and/or if the enemy has [PRECISION] attacks or uses the Epic Challenge Stratagem to try and remove the threat of the Lord Exultant from the Infractors… It’s heroic when we do it and cowardly when the enemy does!

I’m going to gloss over the Tormentors a little here as whilst they’re performing a key role in ensuring some space for our army to expand into thanks to their Infiltrate rule – they’re largely here to sticky an objective and die for the cause – we’ll look at Tormentors in greater detail in the next of these Attaining Perfection articles as we’ll be running more of them in the next detachment we look at…

Before we move on to the Daemons, there’s one last Enhancement for Carnival of Excess that we don’t have in the list but we’ll have a quick look at it as making any changes to this list, I’d be looking at whether there’s anything that would benefit from having Warp Walker:

Enhancement – Warp Walker

EMPEROR’S CHILDREN or KEEPER OF SECRETS model only. Each time the bearer’s unit Advances, do not make an Advance roll. Instead, until the end of the phase, add 6″ to the Move characteristic of models in that unit. Each time a model in the bearer’s unit makes a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, it can move through enemy models. When doing so, it can move within Engagement Range of such models but cannot end that move within Engagement Range of them, and any Desperate Escape test is automatically passed.

Whilst this isn’t in this list, I do think it’s a great Enhancement. Even without the second half of this, an automatic 6 every time you Advance in an army where you can Advance and Charge is pretty awesome – once you factor in the extra manoeuvrability that Warp Walker provides for moving through enemy units – great on models with large bases like the Keeper of Secrets – this becomes a really good Enhancement but an expensive one that we couldn’t find space for here.

Next up we have the Fiends of Slaanesh. They’re fast and pretty killy (and one of our other sources of Devastating Wounds). They have lost their -1 to Hit, their Soporofic Musk now has a different effect:

Fiends – Soporific Musk

Each time an enemy unit (excluding MONSTERS and VEHICLES) within Engagement Range of one or more units from your army with this ability Falls Back, models in that enemy unit must take Desperate Escape tests. When doing so, if that enemy unit is also Battle-shocked, subtract 1 from each of those Desperate Escape tests.

In this list our Fiends are a very mobile support element to ensure the units that need to be are Empowered (and they are too of course!). With 15 attacks at S5 Ap-2 and D2 they’re not bad in a fight and again, Sustained does a lot of work here bumping their average damage. With the Sycophantic Surge stratagem you can also further elevate that mobility:

Stratagem – Sycophantic Surge – 1CP

When: Your Charge phase.

Target: One LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit from your army.

Effect: Until the end of the phase, your unit is eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced or Fell Back, provided at least one of the targets of that charge is within Engagement Range of one or more EMPEROR’S CHILDREN units from your army.

With your Daemons not having the Thrill Seekers rule, this lets you get one of them in on that action! The restriction works a little like a reverse of the Thrill Seekers restriction and they have to charge a target that’s already tied up with an EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit – again order of actions can make the difference here as they can go into a target another unit charged this same phase.

Before the killing is done (and after it) there’s the Violent Crescendo Stratagem to add some further movement shenanigans before you fight with a unit:

Stratagem – Violent Crescendo – 2CP

When: Fight phase.

Target: One SLAANESH BEASTS, SLAANESH INFANTRY or SLAANESH MOUNTED unit from your army that has not been selected to fight this phase.

Effect: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes a Pile-in or Consolidation move, it can move up to 6″ instead of up to 3″. When doing so, it does not need to end that move closer to the closest enemy model, provided it ends that move as close as possible to the closest enemy unit.

This works on everything except Fulgrim and the Rhinos but could be of particular use on your units to help them get into position to Empower one another or just as valid to get you to a point to steal an objective or deny your opponent some of their scoring. It also works brilliantly if you used Sycophantic Surge to get your Daemons into a target with an Emperor’s Children unit that only one of those needs to fight to be able to kill it. Then you can use the extra large Pile-in move on the second unit to slingshot them further up the board into another even juicier target that might once have looked a long way out of range and then keep going even further with their Consolidate move! This one costs 2CP but when used well it’ll be totally worth it!

Alongside our Fiend units we’ve got a unit of Daemonettes as well. These have been adjusted slightly also and now have the Horrifying Beauty rule:

Daemonettes – Horrifying Beauty

At the start of the Fight phase, each enemy unit within Engagement Range of one or more units from your army with this ability must take a Battle-shock test, subtracting 1 from the result if that enemy unit is Below Half-strength.

Daemonettes are fragile but can hit hard and have lots of synergy in the Carnival of Excess Detachment. Chances are these are probably going to look after a home objective for you to start with. With Fights First and Devastating Wounds they can be a bit of a deterrent to any units wanting to try and steal your home objective in combat and Horrifying Beauty only adds a further little challenge to enemy units trying to pinch objectives from them.

Where Daemonettes get to be especially flexible though is in conjunction with the Dark Apparitions stratagem:

Stratagem – Dark Apparitions – 2CP

When: End of your opponent’s Fight phase.

Target: One DAEMONETTES unit from your army that is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.

Effect: Remove your unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. If it arrives back on the battlefield in the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase using the Deep Strike ability, it can be set up anywhere that is more than 6″ horizontally away from all enemy units (instead of 9″), provided it is also set up wholly within 9″ of one or more friendly EMPERORS’S CHILDREN units.

Uppy-downy is always useful and being able to Deep Strike within 6″ of enemy units, if near enough to an Emperor’s Children unit, makes it even better. This makes Daemonettes great for setting up Empowered in your next turn somewhere where you don’t have any Fiends or if you’ve lost a unit, or to potentially steal onto an objective your opponent thought they had screened out. It’s also worth remembering that the Instrument of Chaos in the Daemonettes unit gives them +1 to their Charges, so they have a greater chance of making the charge, if needed, once they return to the battlefield. It is a costly Stratagem at 2CP though, so the restrictions on this make it a tad more situational but there will be times that this can win you games!

Should your Daemonettes or your Fiends have taken some damage and have Empowered an Emperor’s Children unit that’s killed its target in the Fight phase, then the Sustained By Agony stratagem gives you access to some healing for them:

Stratagem – Sustained By Agony – 1CP

When: Fight phase, just after an EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit from your army destroys an enemy unit.

Target: That EMPEROR’S CHILDREN unit.

Effect: Select one friendly LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit within 6″ of your unit. One model in that LEGIONS OF EXCESS unit recovers up to 3 lost wounds or, if it is a DAEMONETTES unit, return up to D3+3 destroyed models to it instead.

It might not come up all the time or always be a priority when it does, but certainly handy to have in your back pocket!

That leaves just one Stratagem that we haven’t covered yet and it’s definitely one that you’ll find a use for, Uncanny Reactions:

Stratagem – Uncanny Reactions – 1CP

When: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

Target: One SLAANESH unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

Effect: Until the end of the phase, each time an attack targets your unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

-1 to hit can be massive for keeping a unit alive. We can target any unit in the list with it plus it lasts until the end of the phase, which means we can make something that your opponent wanted to remove take a greater level of resources than they might have hoped for or force them to abandon that plan with any shooting that was going to follow. The only downside is that it does only work in the Shooting phase.

So that’s how our list interacts with some of the Carnival of Excess rules. As I said at the start, I think this detachment has a lot of strength. Movement shenanigans are always amazing and there’s a few different ways of getting extra distance from elements of the army or getting out of sequence movement to further your own plans and mess with your opponent’s. Throw in that you have a really great boost to your offensive output through the Daemonic Empowerment rule and Daemons can add some Deep Strike and Devastating Wounds potential to your lists and I think this detachment can go the distance!

I reckon there are quite a few ways to get some good lists out of Carnival of Excess – I picked this one as it feels like an exciting way to try and get the most from Fulgrim, but there’s plenty you could mix up. If you decided not to take the Primarch, then a Daemon Prince on foot adds some additional synergy and support for both your Emperor’s Children units and your Daemons (and could be a great alternative carrier for the Possessed Blade or maybe even better with Warp Walker). You could perhaps add in some Seekers for some extra speedy support to get Daemonic Empowerment wherever your Emperor’s Children need it. Ultimately, this is the detachment with the most options!

Have you given Carnival of Excess a try yet? What lists are you running and what synergies have you found that I’ve missed?

Next up there’s a detachment that really puts the Rush in Rhino Rush and I imagine it’ll be the one that I end up playing the most!