When most people embark on a Crusade campaign, they seek to gather mighty armadas, hunt down dangerous traitors, conduct super secret operations, and other important tasks. The Emperor’s Children, however, are not most people, and all they really want to do is concoct the most outrageous combat stimms imaginable and try them out on unsuspecting prey. How very Slaaneshi of them.
A well-ordered mise-en-place is the secret to every successful kitchen, and the sons of Fulgrim are nothing if not professionals when it comes to their Combat Elixirs. Their potent potables require a set amount and type of material that must be gathered from the battlefield, with most requiring some combination of Common or Rare ingredients.
COMMON INGREDIENTS
Common ingredients represent substances that are readily obtained and traded for, such as freshly harvested flora and fauna or surgical supplies seized from medicae storage stations.
At the end of every battle, roll one D6, adding 2 to the result if you won that battle: on a 4+, add 1 Common ingredient to your Combat Elixirs Stash; on a 6+, add D3 Common ingredients to your Combat Elixirs Stash.
RARE INGREDIENT
Rare ingredients are harder to obtain, typically because their quality needs to be of the highest standard or because the materials only possess the required potency when fresh. Examples of Rare ingredients include fungal spores harvested from the jungles of lethal death worlds or venom glands ripped from the living bodies of venomous monsters.
At the end of every battle, roll one D6, adding 1 to the result if you won that battle: on a 6+, add 1 Rare ingredient to your Combat Elixirs Stash.
Once you’ve amassed some choice ingredients, it’s time to get creative. Codex: Emperor’s Children contains 12 different recipes split between Army and Personal elixirs that affect your entire force or a particular Character respectively. You can equip as many as you want at the start of the battle, then at the beginning of a round of your choice the whole lot gets slammed back in one go.*
The effects can be profound – a shot of Skorflense gives your entire army a bonus to their Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill, while Anfrak Silk boosts their speed so they can show off that newfound fighting prowess up close. Want all of them to go off at the same time and have one turn of absurd stimm-fueled glory? Go for it, burn your entire stash! At the very least, you’ll be a legend at the next legionary jamboree.
Skorflense
Ingredients Required
Effect: Improve the Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill characteristics of weapons equipped by Emperor’s Children models from your Crusade army by 1.
Anfrak Silk
Ingredients Required
Effect: Add 2" to the Move characteristic of Emperor’s Children units from your Crusade army.
Sure, there are a few drawbacks. You have to down every elixir you have equipped at the same time – no chickening out – and the boost only lasts for one battle round. You can’t equip the same ones for two battles in a row, as your hedonites swiftly grow bored of their stimulants, and even if you choose not to drink them during the battle** they’re still lost at the end.
True connoisseurs can amass a stash of exotic ingredients to brew their strongest potions, or otherwise stand in for other parts of lesser concoctions, though these delicacies can only be earned by special means. The results are well worth it – champions quaffing a draught of Sanctus Vi become very hard to kill, for instance.
Sanctus vi
Ingredients Required
Effect: The bearer has a 2+ invulnerable save.
Thrynicine
Ingredients Required
Effect: Each time the bearer makes an attack, a successful Wound roll inflicts 1 mortal wound on the target in addition to any normal damage, or 2 mortal wounds in addition to any normal damage instead if the bearer has lost one or more wounds.
Being a stim-crazed sensation-addict is no excuse for poor bookkeeping, so the Codex includes a handy sheet to keep track of your ingredients and doses. It’s right opposite the list of shiny Crusade Badges you can amass by being a particularly good champion of Slaanesh – nothing motivates the Emperor’s Children like the promise of shiny baubles.
Then there are all of your usual Requisitions, Battle Traits, and Crusade Relics, some of which even give you new ways to earn exotic ingredients. Being a fully paid-up member of Club Chaos also grants powerful Boons of Slaanesh – you might might transform their flesh into living silver or sprout razor-sharp claws.
Just, you know, don’t go too crazy. Roll the same boon twice and it’s curtains for your hero, who explodes into a gibbering Chaos Spawn and gets to spend the rest of their short existence flailing across a battlefield on a motley collection of arms, legs, and tentacles. Tragic, but amusing.
BOONS OF SLAANESH
RAZOR CLAWS:
Improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of melee weapons equipped by this model by 1. If this model destroys one or more units with a melee attack during a battle (excluding Imperium and Chaos units), then at the end of that battle you gain 1 Extract of Xeno-matter.
If you’re wondering how to kick off your own Crusade campaign, take a look at how the Warhammer TV crew are getting started with their own. A brand new Crusade expansion has also just been revealed at AdeptiCon, which contains rules for warp-wracked battlefields that will be perfect for your Emperor’s Children.
* The Emperor’s Children are not known for their moderation.
** Shame on you.
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