Can Khorne and Slaanesh Fight Side by Side? A Small Old World Daemons Rules Rabbit Hole
Sometimes an army-building question looks simple, and then five minutes later we are deep in PDFs, list builders, screenshots, and increasingly enthusiastic messages about weird daemon units. This time it started with a very practical question from Pegie: can you put Slaanesh and Khorne daemons in the same army in Warhammer: The Old World, even though they absolutely hate each other?
Short answer: yes, but the details depend on which list you are using.
And of course, the longer answer was much more fun.
The first hurdle: the builder says no
At first Michał answered that mixing them should be possible, as long as there was no specific restriction like “only if a Herald of Slaanesh is your General”. Then came the classic next step in any modern rules discussion: checking the army builder.
That immediately produced a complication, because Old World Builder was not happy about the combination.
That kicked off the usual chain of thought: maybe the issue was the General, maybe you would need a Daemon Prince, maybe that is completely unrealistic at 500 points.
Meanwhile Ender contributed the most lore-accurate ruling possible: if they start beating each other up halfway through the game, he has no objection.
Then the PDF phase began
As always, when the builder and our assumptions start disagreeing, it is time to go to the source. We started digging into the Daemons rules and trying to understand whether the restriction was army-wide, unit-by-unit, or only affecting Core choices.
At one point it looked like Daemonettes also required a Slaanesh General:
Then a moment later the interpretation shifted again. The key realization was that the General seemed to determine what could count as Core, not necessarily what could be taken at all. That opened the door to a mixed force where some units move into Special instead.
So for a moment, the answer became:
- yes, a Khorne-led force could still take Daemonettes,
- but they might sit in Special rather than Core,
- and then the real limitation becomes points percentages, because Core has a minimum while Special and Rare have caps.
Which already felt very Old World: the answer is yes, except also no, except actually maybe yes in a different slot.
And then: plot twist, we are using Renegades anyway
Just when it seemed like we had untangled it, Michał came back with the most important correction of the whole discussion: that interpretation applied to the normal Legacy list, but we are playing Renegades because, in our group, better rules tend to win.
And in Renegades, the restrictions are much looser.
That was the real breakthrough. In that version of the list, you can much more freely mix the god-specific daemon troops. In practice, that means Pegie can do exactly the sort of experimental mixed daemon force they wanted to try.
So what can go into Core?
Once we were looking at the right list, the picture became much clearer. Michał summed it up: in Renegades, you can always take the classic basic daemon infantry in Core:
- Bloodletters
- Plaguebearers
- Daemonettes
- Pink Horrors
Which is a wonderfully chaotic shopping list already.
Naturally, this also led us into appreciating just how gloriously odd some daemon units are.
Pink Horrors: comedy masquerading as a unit
At some point Michał described Pink Horrors as “a joke, not a unit”, which honestly tells you everything about the tone of the conversation.
And because no daemon discussion is complete without a nostalgic detour, we also got a reminder that oldhammer versions were somehow even sillier.
Stas, being a simple man of refined taste, saw oldhammer and immediately approved.
Special choices get even weirder
The next nice discovery was that in Special, the Renegades list does not seem to have those General-based restrictions at all. Which means the mix-and-match potential gets even bigger.
So yes, you can start looking at things like Beasts of Nurgle in the same force.
And if that was not enough, there are also the magnificent little disasters known as Blue Horrors.
At this point the conversation had fully evolved from “can I legally mix Khorne and Slaanesh?” into “honestly, daemons are kind of amazing.”
Which, fair enough.
Meanwhile, on the tools side: Rozpy Staroświata got an Updates page
In the middle of all this rules detective work, Michał also dropped news about a new feature on Rozpy Staroświata: an Updates page showing how many new lists each update added.
He also noted that updates are not automatic yet, and that some numbers may shift around while the list parsing algorithm is still being improved. That means a list that was in one points bracket yesterday might appear differently today after parser changes.
Still, this is exactly the kind of hobby-tool improvement we love seeing, especially for anyone browsing tournament lists and tracking how the database evolves.
The final answer
So, where did we land?
For our games, using the Renegades version of the Daemons list in Warhammer: The Old World, Pegie can absolutely experiment with mixing Khorne and Slaanesh units in one army. The hatred between gods does not stop the list from working the way they feared, and the restrictions are much lighter than in the standard Legacy interpretation.
In other words: yes, the army can happen.
And the best ending to the whole exchange was also the most sensible one: Pegie decided to make a few test changes and see how it looks in practice.
Which is usually the right answer in army-building anyway. Read the list carefully, double-check the slot restrictions, and then try something weird.
Bonus hobby mood
Not directly related to the daemon rules puzzle, but too relatable not to mention: when asked about painting progress, Michał reported that he would have one and a half miniatures painted today.
We have all been there.
Actually, no — we are not inventing screenshots here, so instead we will end with the one Stas was waiting to approve:
So yes: cool daemon mixes, weird horrors, oldhammer charm, and one more useful tool update for the community. A pretty good day in the hobby chat.