What happened to Slaanesh?

In some of the leaked background material for the Age of Sigmar, we are discovering that the chaos god Slaanesh is no more. His throne is empty. Why is this? 

Well, its looking like he was captured after becoming bloated with a feast of souls at the end of the world that was.

Here are some alternative memes as to what happened to Slaanesh that I've heard people utter when they knew his throne was empty, but wasn't sure he had been captured.  I'll keep it clean.

* He went to his bedroom.

* He was just in the toilet.

* He possessed Fulgrim, just for laughs.

* He was trying to get Isha back off Nurgle.

* He was just having a laugh and seeing how everyone would react to his empty throne.

* Its a trap. His empty throne is just a way to hurt someone. Like Tzeentch. Or the Masque.

* He's bored and has left the building.

* He is on a quest of some kind (cross-ref: Isha, above).

* He decided the ultimate experience could not be had by sitting on his throne.

* He is just joking around and playing mind games with people. Like Tzeentch.

* He's gone to Commorragh to sort out those Dark Eldar.

* He really is dead. Ynnead caused it. (Well done Eldar: your plan worked!).

* He was tricked in to leaving it by Cegorach.

* Khaine killed him. Secretly. With the help of Cegorach. Or the C'tan. Or Tzeentch (delete as appropriate).

Any others?, please leave a comment!

Playing With Daemons - First Impressions

Hi All, Eldrad Vect here, I'm starting something new and I'm throwing all my armies under the bus here and focusing my posts heavily on the Ruinous Powers. This blog is first and foremost about Chaos and though I love all of my armies, none are Chaos and I think that all you loyal Chaos players that read the blog are are sick of my Sisters, Space Elves and IG. For a long time I've been slowly seduced by the powers of the Warp, I even dabbled in the realms of Traitor Marines, but now, they have drawn me further... here be Daemons...

Now, this doesn't mean I'm neglecting my other forces, far from it, I just wanted to start a new army that was fun and one that I had some amazing conversion ideas for.
Anyway, onto what I have come to so far, I wanted a themed army, none of this Undivided rubbish, but a pure force, but, which god to choose? Personally my favourites have always been Slaanesh and Khorne, so I had a hard choice to pick since I couldn't do both, as I would be sinking to much money into the Daemons. The choice all came down to the models themselves, I love Bloodletters, they look like the quintessential Daemon, red skin, horns, the works not to mention one of my favourite looking IC ever, Skulltaker. However, Khorne's elite units were not as impressive to me, the Skull Cannon, Bloodcrushers and Hounds just weren't as cool as the basic Bloodletter, which means I really wouldn't play them much and just be left with a Bloodletter horde.
Slaanesh is the opposite, I'm not a fan of Daemonettes but I love Seeker Chariots, Hellflayers and Seekers. Giant purple lawn mowers are awesome looking and also Slaanesh is the polar opposite to my other armies, being Eldar and Dark Eldar. So my choice had to be Slaanesh and with that I started writing up a list. This is a 1000 point adaptation of my original 2000 point list.

Chaos Daemons 1000 Points List.
HQ
1x Herald of Slaanesh. Exalted Seeker Chariot, Psyker Lvl.2, Greater Rewards, Lesser Rewards and Greater Locus of Swiftness
1x Herald of Slaanesh. Steed of Slaanesh, Psyker Lvl.1, Greater Rewards and Exalted Locus of Beguilement
 TROOPS
10x Daemonettes.
10x Daemonettes.
 FAST ATTACK
15x Seekers of Slaanesh. Heartseeker, Greater Rewards, Icon of Chaos, Rapturous Standard
HEAVY SUPPORT
Seeker Cavalcade. 3x Exalted Seeker Chariots

This is just a first list, I have yet to play it but would love to know what you think of it and what I should or shouldn't change.

Chaos Daemons Review: Seeker Cavalcade and Exalted Chariots

A seeker cavalcade is a squad of seeker chariots or exalted seeker chariots in any combination.

On the negative side, these chariots have only 2 HP each and are only AV11 on the front (10 on the rear).  This makes them very flimsy to say the least.  A good volley of bolter fire to the back can readily take them out.  The exalted versions has a bit more staying power with 4 HP each.  But it is still fundamentally weak.

The flesh shredder is a S4 rending hammer of wrath attack.  Sure, it gets d6 hammers per HP, but the S4 isn't much really.  On the flip side, the exalted alluress' ability to gain attacks via unsaved wounds from the hammer of wrath attacks is an interesting combination.  But its never going to be very high I suspect.  (that's to say: not high like a greater daemons..., or Angron...).

Customizability comes in the shape of lesser and greater rewards.  But, again, I'm not sold.  These beasts shouldn't need them.

BUT: on the good side: they're only a little bit more pricey than a rhino (for the basic seeker chariot).  But heck, a rhino can ram, fire guns, machine spirit, has more HP, deploy smoke... they're just better really.  AND: they're competing against soul grinders in the heavy support slot.  So, overall: I'm not sold on them.

And that concludes the Daemons Codex review from Warpstone Flux.  I'm taking a little holiday soon so will leave you with the company of Eldrad Vect :)

Chaos Daemons Review: Hellflayer of Slaanesh

First appearing in the supplemental white dwarf pull out section, the hellflayer is still an oddity to me.  Sure: its the Slaanesh chariot.  But,with only 2 hull points, and AV11 (AV10 on the rear), it really, really is not going to last long.  The only way it is going to last is to have multiple hellflayers on the battlefield to provide a target rich environment.  But then, we're wasting a valuable fast attack slot which in this codex seems to also be a rich environment.  Seekers of Slaanesh might be a more prudent points investment to be honest.

As for the hellflayer itself: it does have its uses.  The special rules mean that when it hammers into another vehicle, it gets a tonne of attacks that rend.  Effectively, with a good die roll, one can glance most low AV vehicles to death quite readily.  This has to be weighed against the fact that there are many other units in this codex that can do similar.  So there's nothing too appealing here.  The alluress is nothing special either to be honest.  Some extra attacks related to how well the hammer of wrath goes against other units really isn't too special.

So overall, my advice is probably to give this chariot a skip and take seekers of Slaanesh instead (which  are the same points value, base).

Chaos Daemons Review: Seekers of Slaanesh

The fast attack slot of the daemons codex feels like it is jam packed with quite reasonable and darn good choices.  Seekers of Slaanesh are probably in the quite reasonable category.

Think of them as enhanced daemonettes.  In addition, they have outflank and acute senses.  This makes them very agile.  And did I mention swift?  As cavalry, they can certainly cover a great amount of distance and combined with the mark of Slaanesh mean they can move with an additional 6" when running.  That's phenomenal - and in some ways: game breaking.  There's almost no other unit that can move that far.

For the upgrades, the rapturous standard is interesting and could be used for high priority target hunting.  The etherblade and the heartseeker upgrades seem worthwhile on face value and probably should be taken on most squads.  The lash of despair could be useful for its 2d6 assault value, but the strength is poor - as is the AP.  So perhaps best to stick with an ether blade in my opinion.

Here's a pair of builds to consider:
12 Seekers of Slaanesh, including 1 Heartseeker with Etherblade. (159 points)
A large squad of rapidly moving seekers that should take a herald on a steed with them in many cases to go forth and target whichever squad they like with their rapid movement.  They are a herald delivery system to some extent.

6 Seekers of Slaanesh, including Icon upgraded to rapturous standard, 1 Heartseeker with Etherblade. (117 points)
The HQ hunters.

Chaos Daemons Review: Fiends of Slaanesh

The fiends of Slaanesh have also taken a hit compared to the previous codex.  They have 3 wounds each, sure, but they are still only toughness 4.  That means they're going down like space marines with a worse saving throw.  And they're also vulnerable to instant death if they don't make their saving throws: think vindicators wiping out an entire unit.

They are now also missing grenades. This is significant.  Their loss means the fiends are a lot less playable than before.

What they do have is the ability to cause a successfully charged unit to lose 5I.  With their own I6, this means that they will go first against anything in the game -- they just have to pull off a successful charge.  Therefore, there is a role for fiends in an alpha-strike sense.

Their ability to reduce Ld of enemy psykers is an interesting one.  But its not too significant.  Overall, I think the fiends are now over priced compared to some other units in the game.  The main thing I can see using them for is shock commander killers.  As such, I'd be tempted to take them in units slightly bigger than the default if I'm going to use them.  Get them on the board.  Tactically get in to position (and/or screen other and support units along the way) and aim to wipe out an enemy command structure.  There's probably better ways of doing it though, but they're still kinda viable in this role.

Chaos Daemons Review: Daemonettes of Slaanesh

Daemonettes are still high initiative and good WS.  They still lack in the toughness department and they still have rending and fleet.  Plus they can run a valuable extra 3" thanks be being Slaaneshi.  Keep the pink horrors at home: I'm taking these androgenes and the plaguebearers!

Sure, they lack durability.  But that's not the point.  They can hit hard, travel quick, rend light vehicles to death and out-initiative marines in close combat.

The Alluress upgrade should be automatic: the extra attack for 5 points is a great deal for the Slaaneshi player. In terms of rewards, the ether blade (normal or greater variant) should be a great option for the daemonettes.  The rapturous standard is interesting, but probably not strictly required I think -- unless the daemonettes are aiming at taking monstrous creatures down.  The instrument is also worthwhile on one squad here and there.

Here are a pair of sample builds

12 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, Alluress with Etherblade (123 points)
A small tactical and surgical strike squad suitable for forward deepstriking.  They'll probably get shot to pieces, but a few should survive to rend their opponents.  Alternatively look to rend a light vehicle to death. And 12 is a multiple of Slaanesh's holy number (six), so its also fluffy.

20 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, Alluress with Etherblade, Instrument of Chaos, Icon of Chaos (215 points)
A large squad of forward deepstriking, or rear guard actions, and also scoring.  Get them in combat as soon as possible.

Chaos Daemons Review: Herald of Slaanesh

The Herald of Slaanesh is a neat choice, and has application in both mono-Slaaneshi forces and mixed forces.  I think these daemonettes have many interesting configurations and options.

Firstly, in terms of the rewards that they can choose, the Slaaneshi weapons in both lesser and greater rewards are tempting (S5 rending and 2d6 ranged assault weapons).  The etherblade is not bad either with AP2 (but we already have rending), so if we're doing that, then perhaps a greater etherblade would be superior.

In psychic abilities, the herald has access to the telepathy and Slaanesh's own discipline.  Telepathy is, of course, powerful, but it can be a bit of a gamble to get a good roll there.  So if we're doing psychic abilities, I'd be taking level 2.

The Locus abilities are similarly strong.  I'm particularly smitten with the exalted locus: re-rolling all to hit rolls and selecting who accepts a challenge in melee.  The greater locus (+5 I) is neat, but perhaps not as needed.  The lesser locus (move through cover) is okay.  But for me, the exalted locus is where it is at!

The herald can also select a steed of Slaanesh, chariot and exalted chariot.  The first is useful so that the herald can run with the other pleasure-seekers, whilst the chariots are a good way to top up the totaly number of chariots in the army should a mono-Slaanesh player be going down that particular route.

Here are a selection of builds to consider:

Herald of Slaanesh, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, witstealer sword (85 points)
A lower points value build, but valuable inside a maximum sized squad of daemonettes.

Herald of Slaanesh, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, Steed of Slaanesh, Level 2 Psyker (140 points)
To run with the seekers!  Consider a greater etherblade to taste.

Herald of Slaanesh, exalted seeker chariot, lash of despair, level 2 psyker (195 points)
A hugely expensive herald, but a way to have many more chariots inside the army.

Chaos Daemons Review: Masque of Slaanesh

The victim of one of Slaanesh's mood swings, the Masque is cursed to eternally dance across the galaxy and draws mortals and unborn alike in to her jig.

As per the previous edition, her major draw back is the lack of independent character status.  She can and will get shot to shreds in next to no time should the opposition desire it.  So to use her, she needs to be screened until she is in position (12") to use her dance abilities on enemies at which point she wants to charge (along with another nearby unit preferably).

She has 3 different dances that she can use on opponents.  These range from -5WS (strong, but not the best), some AP2 hits (not going to do much given S1), and -5BS with no overwatch.  This latter one is powerful and can keep (e.g) potent flamer units at bay.

Her final boon is to re-roll her invulnerable saves: this is a solid buff, but it won't stop her from getting slaughtered.  Her low toughness and lack of independent character status will bring her down very quickly.  I used to use her in the previous edition to drag opponents out of cover, but this is no longer possible.  Hence I don't think I'll be using her any longer.  This makes me sad, but its kind of inevitable.  

Chaos Daemons Review: Keeper of Secrets

The Keeper of Secrets is the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon. In common with the Great Unclean One, it lacks wings and must make its way on foot to where it needs to be.  As such, it is a prime candidate to deep strike on to the gaming board to where it needs to be.  This is doubly true given the "average" stat line for most things except WS and I.  The Keeper is also the cheapest of the Greater Daemons.

Flavour-wise, I'm gratified to see that the Keeper of Secrets obtains preferred enemy against eldar and dark eldar.  And rightly so in my opinion as well. Those spirit stones are very tasty, the way I hear it.

Like the Great Unclean One, he (she? it?) is a level 1 psyker that is upgradable to higher levels with some additional points invested.  Given the access to telepathy, and Slaanesh's own "excess" discipline, this could be good in the long run.

And as with other greater daemons, they can choose up to 50 points worth of lesser, greater and exalted rewards.  I've slowly been warming up to the Grimoire of True Names and the Portalglyph recently, and I think both The Keeper of Secrets is a good choice for either (Great Unclean Ones for the Grimoire only, and Lords of Change and Bloodthirsters for both as well probably due to their movement).  With that in mind, here's a couple of builds.

Keeper of Secrets, Level 3 psyker, Portalglyph (250 points)
Deep strike in to the heart of the battle with support from your other troops.  Use the portalglyph immediately and start using those telepathy powers. Charge and using rending as soon as possible.

Keeper of Secrets, Grimoire of True Names (200 points)
Use the Grimoire as a buff for nearby allies (probably a fully decked out squad of seekers, or a squad of daemonettes with an attached herald) and have a bit of fun as a road bump before getting downed.

CSM Options: Icon of Excess

Late in 5th edition, there were a number of players who espoused the view that feel no pain had become too wide-spread in many armies.  To me, feel no pain means just that.  The narrative reason behind this had been one of two things: either the human(oid) body in question really wasn't wired for pain, whether due to degenerate disease (Nurgle!) or something similar; or the creature had taken certain chemical concoctions / drugs / psychic weirdness to bypass their pain receptors (Dark Eldar!).  And then necrons were just robots, but they have other rules.  But we'll ignore that!

So, upon reading the new chaos codex, it was a surprise and a narrative fit that I saw the Icon of Excess.  For the Slaaneshi devotees, they now have the option to also feel no pain.  The narrative reason falls under the second concept from above: a bit too much inhalation of "cloying musk" that drives them to seek fresh sensations regardless of the current state of their being.

The price is reasonably high for most units though.  I therefore think that we wouldn't want to be paying more than about 5 pts per marine for this icon for it to be truly effective.  Hence a slightly larger squad than minimal seems ideal for taking this icon, at least 6 (for fluffy reasons) and certainly a full squad of 10.

Additionally, I think the icon should certainly be deployed for front line marines (melee).  But for rear line marines, I have mixed feelings.  I can see how it would be of benefit for sonic weapon squads, or havoc squads, to grant them a little added durability and protection from incoming ballistics.  But the price kind of puts me off.  So I'll be sticking with front line units to use this icon with.

CSM in 6th Review: Noise Marines

Lots of plusses about Noise Marines in the new Chaos Space Marine codex.  They got cheaper, they can produce a prodigious amount of firepower and are dangerous in close combat due to their higher initiative. Their sonic weapons are also cheaper and the Icon of Excess looks on paper to be pretty awesome.

In comparison to the old codex, the Noise Marines now are strictly better. They have more options, and more builds.  Squad upgrades include the sonic weapon (excellent price), close combat weapons (in exchange for the bolter, or instead of taking sonic blasters), Veterans of the Long War (great in a space marine heavy meta-game), Icon of Excess (making them feel no pain -- very cheap as well if there we're taking a large blob of Noise Marines), and one in ten marines can get a blastmaster.

The Noise Champion can get the doom siren, in addition to melta bombs, an odd gift of mutation as well as access to melee and ranged weapons from the armoury.

Let's have a look at the the sonic weapons to start with.  The blasters have been changed to Salvo 2/3.  But, we've got to remember one thing about "salvo" weapons: we cannot charge any model who has fired a salvo weapon.  So if you're planning a charge, you need to switch to bolt pistols. That said, their ability to ignore cover and a range of 24" means they're always going to be pretty useful on the move, or stationary.  The blastmaster on the other hand, is tremendous.  Seriously!  With a choice of modes (both of which ignore cover and cause pinning), this weapon singularly can cause tremendous headaches and has great range to boot.  Alone, this weapon is the reason to go for 10 strong squads.  For the Noise Champion, the doom siren is an interesting selection for an assault-orientated squad.  The AP3 on the template weapon is clearly going to down space marines and discourage assaults.

Since there's so much here, let's turn now to consider a pair of comparably priced builds and a crazy 20 man shooty squad.

10 Noise Marines, 9 Sonic Blasters, 1 Blastmaster (237 points)

A ranged, blasting unit.  Set them up in a building or ruin to start with.  Only move them out to gain better range.  Use as a bait by spreading them out and then falling back (not routing!), firing as they go, luring the enemy close to other guns and units.  Take a bastion for fun?

6 Noise Marines, 2 sonic blasters, 4 close combat weapons, Veterans of the Long War, Icon of Excess, Noise Champion with doom siren, melta bombs and power sword, rhino with dirge caster and havoc launcher (245 points)

This is an assault orientated squad with a fluffy number of members.  Get on board the rhino and fire the salvo weapons from the roof-top hatch, along with the havoc launcher to lay down a strong ground fire.  Get out, rapid fire.  Assault the enemy (don't forget the doom siren) or let them charge you (don't forget the doom siren).  Use the champion to take out opposing champions and sergeants to secure rolls on the chaos rewards table (did he make daemon prince?).  Use the Icon of Excess to buff the saving throws of your (smallish) squad and keep them alive.  Once done, hop back on board the rhino and get away!

20 Noise Marines, 14 sonic blasters, 2 blastmasters, Icon of Excess, Noise Champion with Power Sword, Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun (622 points)

Team up with a Slaaneshi sorcerer to (hopefully) get Symphony of Pain.  Shoot.  Then shoot some more.  Then don't bother shooting some of the blasters, but shoot the blastmasters instead and maybe the quad gun.  Then shoot a bit more.  If in trouble, charge the enemy: the icon and high initiative should be enough.  These guys are going to be a tough nut to crack. Probably strictly better to run as two 10 man squads (but then 2 Icons would be getting expensive), but what the heck: we can dream.

There's something for everyone here.  And more significantly, Noise Marines just made the top tier!

CSM in 6th Review: Lucius the Eternal

A swordsman without peer, Lucius the eternal provides Slaanesh players with a counterbalance choice to Kharn for Khorne players; and for a similar points cost.

Fundamentally, Lucius is yet another close combat exponent, but does not have a pre-set warlord trait like Kharn. What he does get is a number of attacks equal to the WS of any opponent in a challenge.  And said opponent will get -1A in return.  Should any wound caused on Lucius be saved, his shrieking armour will strike back with a S4 AP2 hit which could be nasty.

Other than that, most things that have already been mentioned about Kharn probably apply to Lucius.  He unlocks noise marines as troops, he does not have eternal warrior (despite his name: shock horror!!!), and we probably wouldn't mind upgrading him to a daemon prince.  And even a chaos spawn upgrade might be attractive if he is down to his last wound!

And as with Kharn, we want to get Lucius in to combat pretty quickly.  So, we're going to be thinking about placing him in a combat-orientated squad (marines, possessed, terminators, fabius bile upgraded squads, mutilators - well, probably not mutilators because we probably won't be running them, right?!), and then embarking the squad in a land raider, or rhino, or giving them a Huron or Ahriman inspired Lord of Deception ability to infiltrate even (as a combo).

But he won't quite hit as hard as Kharn in close combat.  Against a space marine sergeant, he's likely to be getting a base of 4 attacks and going first.  Better hope that 3+ or 4+ to hit and 4+ to wound results in a wound!  Kharn really shines by comparison on the charge quite frankly.  Therefore, whilst I want to like Lucius, and indeed do like his special rules, I don't see him as being highly competitive (and indeed: competitively priced enough) to consider a tooled up chaos lord as an alternative.  Let's be honest: if our opponent has feel no pain, his power sword may not result in any wounds at all.  So, sorry Lucius: I love your background and some of your special rules, but I'll be sticking with alternative choices methinks.

Be'lakor -- Conversion and Painting

One of the old gems of Warhammer Fantasy: the Be'lakor miniature is an ideal representation for a daemon prince with a round base attached.

I've had this guy in my collection for quite a while.  When I bought it, I was going through a bit of a Slaanesh phase (*ahem*).  Hence this one sports a minor conversion: a pair of scorpion claws (from a very, very old games workshop scorpion) has been added below the two main arms.  They are pinned in place using a long section of paper clip.  Naturally, drilling the metal miniature was a pain to do this, so I don't recommend it any longer.  That said, the overall vibe of the converted miniature does cry out "Slaanesh" very effectively in my opinion.

The painting features a blue palette.  I chose this over the standard Be'Lakor grey / black as I wanted a miniature that stood out from the others in my army; as might befit a daemon prince who leads armies.  The painting features an ultramarine blue basecoat coupled with a dark blue wash and electric blue highlights. 

For the scorpion claws, a more muted brown-grey colour was used and shaded.  The bobbly bits are picked out in a muted pink colour (again, Slaanesh inspired).  For the metal parts of the miniature (knee guard, etc.) I used gold (actual metallic paint) for a change.  The various skulls in the wings are picked out in a variety of shades of grey (no pun intended).  The chaos star on the chest of the beast was picked out in white and gone over (with a steady hand) in yellow to provide a sharp contrast with the blue of the skin. If I were planning this more carefully, I would have gone for a "glowing" chaos star in hindsight, but I think the final product still works well for the contrasting colours.

I wanted the sword to stand out so I attempted one of my first "lava" style paintings.  It features a black undercoat, with progressively more "warm" colours building on top of one another: reds, oranges, and yellows. I'm not too happy with the sword: my modern bloodcrushers (and bloodletters) are better for a wet blending technique, I think.

The base of the miniature was scratch built from a series of cork layers.  Each layer was glued on top of one another and then painted with a stone-like slate colour.  I decorated the base with a few skulls from spare skeleton sprues and flocked it with green and brown grassy areas.  The overall feeling is one of a beast standing on a small mound or hillock and field-marshaling his chaotic troops.

How Slaanesh is infiltrating the Olympics?

Did you hear the one about the 2012 Olympics and Slaanesh? It would seem that Slaanesh has loaned some sonic weapons to the organizers.  Or perhaps in the pursuit of perfection, the Emperor's Children have decided that they're going to show Terra how good they are at, ...well, everything.

Pet theories not withstanding, it was this BBC online article that caught my eye.  It concerns how "sonic weaponry" is being deployed in London for security and announcements during the 2012 Olympics.

Wargames Gallery: Daemonette Captures the Flag

The daemonette secures the objective flag, supported by a soul grinder in the background.

Wargames Gallery: Lured by the Masque of Slaanesh

Lured by the dance of the Masque of Slaanesh, the Black Templars leave the relative safety of the woodland ruins and come toward the Death Guard.  Only the Land Raider (top right) is unaffected by the dance, but seems unable to bring itself to destroy the rhino and its riders. 

The Death Guard leave the rhino and rapid fire the Black Templars.  This is followed by the Masque charging in to fell the remainder.  Ah, the insanity of Apocalypse!

Wargames Gallery: Daemons Pincer Dark Angels Scout

After a lethal volley from horrors of Tzeentch, the lone remaining Dark Angels scout looks the objective-holding plaguebearers in the eye(s) with grim determination.  Too late he hears the playful laughter of the hand-maidens of Slaanesh race up behind him in a pincer movement.

Who is Guilty?

When I was a much younger lad (playing in the Rogue Trader and Realms of Chaos era), I must confess that I had a bit of a different take on the Horus Heresy.  The impression that I got from the source materials was that:
(a) the traitor primarchs were the primary people responsible for turning their legions to chaos;
(b) the same primarchs were unrepentant / unapologetic about this.

As I've grown up and read some of the newer materials, my opinion has shifted somewhat on a number of primarchs and their legions.  Below, I present brief (one line!) comparisons in the old background (Realms of Chaos) versus the more updated.

III: Emperor's Children: One of the units brought to "pacify" Horus.  Horus introduced Slaanesh worship to their highest officers and the legion declared "neutrality".  But that wasn't enough for Horus and he waited for the Slaanesh worship rot to spread through the entire legion before they broke and succumed to Horus' side.  Most certainly, Fulgrim did not appear to be possessed - he willingly embraced Slaanesh.
IV: Iron Warriors: surprisingly little is said of the Iron Warriors in the old Realms of Chaos books, but there is a small paragraph on Perturabo's daemon world and a couple of imposing banners.
VIII: Night Lords: Dedicated to Khorne according to Slaves to Darkness, but little more is made of them.
XII: World Eaters: Horus (possessed) readily brought them to the worship of Khorne, with little modification of the chapter rituals, bloodsoaked dues to their neural implants as they already were.  Perhaps not too much difference here.  Angron "genuinely thought that he alone could save humanity from destruction" for his temptation to chaos (Lost and the Damned).
XIV: Death Guard: Mortarion openly offered up the Death Guard to escape the plague whilst they were stuck in the Warp. (Only later did it become apparent that Typhus was the cause of this and secretly aligned to chaos all along).  He "fully believed that he was the herald of a new age of justice" in his temptation to chaos (Lost and the Damned).
XV: Thousand Sons: Similar to the modern background.  The Thousand Sons were loyal, but practiced sorcery (to the extent of doing so in favour of fighting the reunification wars according to the Lost and the Damned). They tried to warn the Emperor through sorcery of Horus, but got the Space Wolves sent after them for their trouble.  Ultimately, they were forced to ally with Horus.
XVI: Luna Wolves: Horus started the rebellion and influenced all the other legions to turn to chaos (rather than the Word Bearers being the cause of it all).  Horus instigated "warrior lodges" in to 5 legions apparently (source = Slaves to Darkness).
XVII: Word Bearers: They weren't the first: The Sons of Horus were.  Otherwise, very little is said about them in the old realms of chaos books.
XX: Alpha Legion: "Twisted minds and bodies" in the service of chaos according to Slaves to Darkness, and they most definitely were not secretly serving the emperor's aims.

Review: Liber Chaotica II (Slaanesh)

In the second book of Liber Chaotica, Slaanesh gets his/her chance to shine.  This is truly one of the stronger books of the series.  Rather than entirely focus on the Eldar and how they gave birth to the god, the book begins with an exploration of what Slaanesh stands for.  This is in contrast to how the volume of Khorne commences with the focus on the barbarous tribes, and frankly is a much more focussed and exciting way to hook in the reader.

The book acknowledges from the outset that Slaanesh isn't simply about "pleasure".  The core emotion can be perverted in to many forms ranging from "purpose" to "willpower" and "experience".  These include not only the negative forms such as "lust"and "greed", but can extend to what may seem benign emotions such as "love", "joy", and "aesthetics".  Therefore the picture of Slaanesh that is painted is one of the most insidious gods of the chaos pantheon: one who has many ways to infect the hearts of mortals.

The excellent in-depth treatment of the nature of Slaanesh is elucidated through the considerations of his cults.  This is the manner in which the Khorne volume should have been presented I think.  The book then descends in to a few other matters (a re-writing of the Slaves to Darkness: Brothers von Gottlieb; daemonic possession; the eldar; elves and Slaanesh; and short background writings on various tribes and Warhammer individuals).  The strongest section of this has to be the "conversing with the damned" section, wherein Kless interviews a Slaaneshi adherent charged with a variety of (not very well defined, yet obviously implied) crimes.

Together with a presentation and analysis of the daemons of Slaanesh and the Emperor's Children, this book is not only strong, but very well rounded.  Superior to the exploration of the nature of Khorne, the book demonstrates in no uncertain terms the full extent of the threat that Slaanesh represents.