My third game (and a second 3-player as such), and now we had Slaanesh fixed. I was very unlucky with World Events as they topped both nobles and I was left behind in the threat meter. I felt that I used "move N-, H-, P-token"-card too early and should have held on to it for emergency use only. I had hard time coming back from this but in the end the victory was still tight between all three of us (although my chances were very, very slim).

I think Slaanesh is bordering vulnerable with the noble tokens, if the event cards wont give you any hero or noble tokens like in our game. The next noble tokens come quite late in the threat dial and weren't that useful anymore (in this game at least). I was already seriously handicapped.

Of course next time I know to hold on to that card... although the luck might have you even more seriously screwed, if those cards are at the bottom of the deck. Even more so, considering that Slaanesh wont churn through the deck like for example Khorne and Tzeentch..

So my feelings with Slaanesh now is that it's more dependent on luck on the start than the other three.

Of course Khorne is luck based basicly every battle, yet he throws so many dices that I think it evens out a bit better.

Tzeentch has 3 warpstones at start and it can make more available advance threat places with his magic Chaos cards.

Nurgle has always 4 places. Although as they are not random this can be used as weakness, because you know where he wants to concentrate and he cant move them.

Of course in a Slaanesh-Khorne-Tzeentch 3-game Slaanesh is obvious first target for Khorne as he can easily narrow his targets, while Tzeentch can fiddle around more easily. Although I'd imagine that to be in 4-player game also as Nurgle still has 4 good places to start.

In my experiences playing this game the 6 games I've played (2 3-way, 4 4-way). Slaanesh has won 4 of these games. Those 4 times was because of the Threat Dials. Slaanesh has the smallest threat dial victory (if you observe closely they are all different lengths). So even getting one tick a turn was more then enough to win if (and only if) no one was getting 2 ticks. Nurgle and Khorne won the other 2 games. * . But Slaanesh's main strong point is defense IMO, those Warrior's (deamonetts?) are fortresses. I found it much easier to win with slaanesh when turtling in one area at a time and when more hero/noble tokens come up, make sure they land near the area your fortressing, then just split your forces in those areas.

* Nurgle pulled of an enormous 3 region ruination in one turn and got 24 victory points in one turn. And of course Khorne was just killing people. Tzeentch is the only one that has yet to win a game, when I used him I found it hard to win by VP and hard to win by threat, had to pick one on the first turn in order to stand a chance and that depended on the token placement and even then it was tough.

Wolfie6407 said:

That's just it. If World Event tokens land on those spots and you dont have a move card available you're screwed. Where a Nurgle with 4 spots, or tzeentch with its cards and warpstones can react more easily to bad luck.

Also with 2 tokens, you pull only max two dial tokens at the start. All others can pull a max 3 dial tokens. So all anyone needs to do is screw Slaanesh in the start, and it will have hard time coming back in time for victory. You're defensive abilities come only if you get the upgrades.

Of course events and player's choices make a major factor in this game. I'm not saying that it's unbalanced, I just think that Slaanesh is more vulnerable to luck on the start.

Were all those 6 games with Slaanesh Dial Advancement errata? 2 corruption tokens instead of 1.

After which errata? The one that says that you need two cultists instead of one per region to gain an advancement token? If it's not changed, Slaanesh is greatly overpowered.

Slaanesh and Khorne are very vulnerable in their first turn. Without Blood Frenzy, Khorne has a tough time getting one advancement token if the other players are being careful. Slaanesh on the other hand has only two victory areas and if they are split up, one Battle Cry or some other mishap will cost you your only advancement token.

So, what you will be doing with Slaanesh at the very start is struggling to get one advancement to get closer to Defence 2 cultists. After that it becomes easier and just about all areas on board should be your victory areas. Slaanesh is supposed to be like this, it's not a fault in the game and therefore it should not be fixed.

As to being screwed: if you're sure you have no way to compete for an advancement win, go for VPs. Slaanesh is very effective at capturing victory points too and you won't necessarily need that first advancement anytime soon if you start grinding for VPs. Of course the quicker you advance while collecting VPs, the more your opponents have to worry about you - getting to a position where you can win by advancement or victory points is sweet indeed.

The young prince is an upstart: weak at the start, powerful if left alone for a while. That's why most players keep a chokehold on Slaanesh from the start.

Slaanesh becomes annoying after getting the defense 2 upgrade. I think if you want to keep Slaanesh under control you have to go after him in the beginning. Khorne will find Tzeentch and Nurgle as better targets because Slaanesh is too hard to kill. After getting the upgrade, it's almost a guarantee that Slaanesh will advance the dial at least once per turn. Since the nobles are giving the +1s, Slaanesh is a good contender for the VP track as well.

Whitmire said:

Exactly how i see it. Except the overpowered part for this very same reason. I think Slaanesh has to put his charm (appropriately) on the table to seem weaker in order to get the start right. Specially if the World Events land on your noble tokens. Our group are usually board gamers with a long gaming background, so weaknesses will be used.

And no, I'm still not asking for fixes, balances or anything. Just discussing how Slaanesh works...

I think Slaanesh should try to consolidate its power, concentrating to get at least that one tick in the first 2 turns.