Dark Eldar (DE) Strategy Guide 5th

[TheRatsInTheWalls]

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I normally run 5 Scourges with 2 Heat Lances and a Cronos instead of the Void Raven but i'm sick of having to use several units to gun down Marines and a few people in my area are switching to Grey Knights and they will need to learn that large Paladin units just aren't cricket. This list does well, I can reliably tackle most things apart from Tau, someone in my local shop runs the optimal 1,500 build and I just can't get close enough to do anything.

I was thinking of running a 10 man Scourge unit with Haywire Blasters to shut down tanks but a Trueborn Blaster unit is tempting. A large unit of Khymerae with Razorwing Flocks and a Clawed Fiend (for the model) to draw fire away from my Raiders. I just can't decide. A small unit of Incubi in a Venom is also tempting as my 6 man unit (to accompany Malys) has worked really well.

I think posting your list in the Army Lists subforum would have been more appropriate, but we can discuss these choices.

The Voidraven is an excellent and versatile choice. Since your don't have a Webway Portal, I think you should stick with it over the Cronos. How have those Scourges been working for you? I've been considering a switch to Heatlances, but the range issues have been staying that decision.

10 Scourges to use on tanks seems quite excessive as that's 5-6 Shardcarbines you just won't be using. If you really need that much suppression power, you should probably split it to two units of 5. That way you at least have some redundancy, and can shut-up two tanks a turn.
4-Blaster Trueborn squads are quite popular and very effective. All the Scourge have over them is a bit more range.

Beastmasters are an excellent way to screen your Raiders, but they're also quite slow for Dark Eldar. I haven't really been able to use them effectively without a Portal.

The second Incubi unit is just redundant. Incubi are really good at a very niche role and kinda suck otherwise. The second unit will rarely have a target that the first can't take care of. Spend your points elsewhere.

[Rabid Bunny 666]

Thanks. The Scourges are alright, they tend to pop a transport then hold up the unit inside for the rest of the game. Heat Lances are superb at popping tanks, they're normally close enough to guarantee a kill. I normally took the Cronos as i'm dead chuffed with my conversion for it as well as it being a superb bullet magnet. I don't really need the Beast Master unit to be fast I just need it to draw fire from my Raiders whilst running up the midfield.

[lethlis]

I was thinking about doing that with my beasts but that leadership of 8 makes them too susceptible to pinning for me to want to risk it.

I also find that since I am running a talos and chronos I am needing a webway portal anyway (dawn of war anyone?). So might as well have them jump out of it as well.

[Fist full of Pills]

I have been toying around with the idea of replacing my archon's normal wych entourage in a raider for 3 grotesques w/ LG and 1 aberration w/ scissorhand in raider. Of course adding the obvious PGL to the archon. Any thoughts?

[jumai]

We indeed seem to come at this from different perspectives. I didn't really consider the archon as an upgrade for a tarpit unit. I can imagine you want to give your tarpit some bite and leadership so they can actually hold their ground but for this to warrant an archon you must indeed face some really expensive enemies, and apparently you do with units at 400 points. Your argument concerning wound allocation is a good one, sacrificing a bit of overall effectiveness to actually remove models has its merits especially versus nobz and the like.

As for the ghostplate, our archons seem to be clearly living different lives. Mine is rarely targeted by things that can't ID it and by the time he has to eat bolter fire the **** clearly has already hit the fan.

400 point units are so inconceivable that there's no call to include a plan for surpressing them? That sounds like a recipe to make a fair chunk games real frustrating.
The bloodbrides clock in at 195, and while it's convenient that the archon both fits in their raider and helps when they need help, if they'd be overkill together, just split them up. They'll function fine on their own, they'll just hunt things less than twice their cost. Maybe charge a dread with them? Not every DE list has that option.
The archon does feel more out of place without them, but for 135-145 (depending on drugs, heh) being suboptimal out of role isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, and instant death is still a good tool. He could handle 2-strong Obliterators on his own, off the top of my head, or charge a Librarian with ~78% chance to taking him out at I7. Sanguinary Priests still seem worth a mention, clearing away FnP is a worthy task and if they run away they can't buff... pretty much what you're going for.

As for picking an archon at all, well mostly you don't I guess but discussing options is about revealing niches where things fit. Maybe you run a WWP list with the Baron and feel like a shadow field turn 1 would be nice... for instance if you deploying in harlies and like surviving a high Veil Of Tears roll.

[a1elbow]

400 point units are so inconceivable that there's no call to include a plan for surpressing them? That sounds like a recipe to make a fair chunk games real frustrating.
The bloodbrides clock in at 195, and while it's convenient that the archon both fits in their raider and helps when they need help, if they'd be overkill together, just split them up. They'll function fine on their own, they'll just hunt things less than twice their cost. Maybe charge a dread with them? Not every DE list has that option.

How are you running your Brides? Nine with trip/shardnet and a Raider top 200pts, add in an Archon and you are looking at 350+.

This is my beef with this build, it is expensive as the units it is designed to stop. Holding up terminators is one thing, but I'd rather throw cheap wyches in there than the expensive ones. DPs I'd rather just poison out.

Like most things with this book, there is so many different lists it is hard to argue in a vacuum, but it seems like there are better, less focused ways, to deal with power units.

[Nurgling Chieftain]

Played my first game with gristly trophies. Interestingly, my opponent was also Dark Eldar and also brought grisly trophies.

Net effect? I never failed a check and so never needed a re-roll (despite memorably making both a Ld6 and a Ld5 check in a lost combat with trophies nearby), and my opponent never had a vehicle close enough to use for his.

Maybe they'll have an opportunity to work next time.

[Torpedo Vegas]

Brining this up because I don't think anyone else has. GK have Jokearo and Land Raiders. That means lascannons. Long range STR9 shots. Just a though, gentlemen. Granted, they probably won't be able to field them en masse like IG can, but its something to consider.

[Nurgling Chieftain]

Land Raiders don't worry me so much (sure, dump more points into an armor 14 12 vehicle). Jokaero could, but I'm dubious that I'm going to see large numbers of them on the table very often.

[evilsponge]

spamming str 9 lascannons is no different than than spamming str 7 autocannon armies(which we already have) when all your armor is av 11 or worse. If anything, its less effective against DE since lascannons are heavy 1 rather than 2

[Hashmal]

Lascannons aren't a new thing for DE to deal with at all, so I'm a bit confused as to where you're going. If they hit, they hurt. So, shut them up if they become a problem. So it goes.

[jumai]

How are you running your Brides? Nine with trip/shardnet and a Raider top 200pts, add in an Archon and you are looking at 350+.

This is my beef with this build, it is expensive as the units it is designed to stop. Holding up terminators is one thing, but I'd rather throw cheap wyches in there than the expensive ones. DPs I'd rather just poison out.

Like most things with this book, there is so many different lists it is hard to argue in a vacuum, but it seems like there are better, less focused ways, to deal with power units.

The raider's price isn't included. I assume if it weren't mandatory regardless of your choice in squad, you wouldn't have bloodbrides anyway.

I said so from the start but I should stress again that I haven't had a chance to run the brides + huskblade archon yet. They do keep occuring to me as something it'd be nice to have, and I've given it a fair amount of thought/math, but I'm not telling people to run them. Just to think about them.

[Torpedo Vegas]

Lascannons aren't a new thing for DE to deal with at all, so I'm a bit confused as to where you're going. If they hit, they hurt. So, shut them up if they become a problem. So it goes.

Just thought I would mention that Grey Knights have access to them, it seemed a few pages back that some people in this thread forgot about them.

[Jokaero!]

Wych weapons.

I'm running two units of near enough identical Wyches in my army, both have a Shardnet and Hydra gauntlets. A lot of people have been saying you should always run duplicates; where is the benefit in this?

My units will never have characters in them and I find that the Shardnet runs into the enemy squad leader/character and takes an attack away while the gauntlets ensure a few extra attacks. Am I doing something really wrong with my view on this?

I'm also looking at Razorflails as they seem to guarantee wounds more than the gauntlets though I am taking Duke and have a greater chance to get to re roll to wound, the best option after Splintermind. Anyone have experience on this?

(Am I the only one who misses falchions and razorsnares?)

[Rabid Bunny 666]

Brining this up because I don't think anyone else has. GK have Jokearo and Land Raiders. That means lascannons. Long range STR9 shots. Just a though, gentlemen. Granted, they probably won't be able to field them en masse like IG can, but its something to consider.

Single shot weapons aren't as scary as the Psybolt Riflemen Dread, I played three games today (2 against the new GK) and these things mulched Raiders. Sorry about the poor quality of the reports, I just wanted to get them down quick.

I had my first game against Daemons, mainly Khorne list, after losing 16 Bloodletters to DS mishap the rest of the game was mopping up what else came down.

First game against GK was standard deployment with 2 objectives. Mordrak/Draigo/Ghost Knight squad, 2 Psybolt Autocannon Dreads/ Dreadknight, Vindicare and 3 Paladins. I got massacred, most of my vehicles went down quickly, I killed Draigo through shooting as my mate allocated wounds to him but fluffed every save (and bellowed YES! in store, scared most people). The Ghost Knights took a beating but every time I wounded Mordrak they came back. By the end of the game I had 6 Incubi and Malys, an immobilized Ravager and an immoblized Venom, he had one Paladin, both Dreads and Mordrak on one wound, he won one objective to none.

The second game was DoW deployment, 2 objectives. List was Crowe, 20 Purifiers with Rhinos, Vindicare, 3 Servitors, 2 Psybolt Rifleman Dreads, Dreadknight and an Inquisitor with the stupid sword.

I put Crowe down first turn (I got re roll to wound combat drugs, so I was S4 re rolling to hit and wound). The Inquisitor and Dreadknight charged the Wyches which ended up with the Wyches killing the Inquisitor and wounding the DK through ATSKNF wounds. whilst the combat squadded Purifiers advanced. indicare did nothing, spent the entire game getting into position without firing a single shot. Malys and the Incubi charged 10 Paladins and killed all bar one. The rest of the game was isolating that was left and finishing it off.

So I learned some valuable lessons against the new GK. The best solution we have to Vindicare assassins is Venoms, a 3+ cover save isn't too handy against a torrent of shots. Dreadknights aren't worth worrying about, I put it down in both games through sheer volume of splinter fire. Rifleman Dreads are frustrating, DE struggle with AV12 and they put out enough shots to trash any vehicle we have.

[Nurgling Chieftain]

I'm running two units of near enough identical Wyches in my army, both have a Shardnet and Hydra gauntlets.

That's exactly what I run. It serves me well enough - especially when I remember they're there.

[shadow hunter]

I have an opponent who will be collecting Grey Knights (he's always used them so looking forward to this release).

Is any of the anti psyker stuff worth it? Specifically the crucible of malediction?

[Rabid Bunny 666]

Not really, only one Grey Knight counts as a psyker in the squad, better going for the Shattershard or Implosion Missiles.

[Da Black Gobbo]

Guys i need your takes on MR Pimp A.K.A Asdrubal Vect in a 1.500 list, would you run him? what's your experience with the greatest **** of all? I think his stats are pretty fearsome and his "pasive" abbility of stealing I on a 4+ pays for it self too. So great CC abbility nice Shooting toy and neat rules= worth the points?

I'm waiting for your thoughts!

[Symrivven]

At 16% of your total army without vehicle or support unit I think he's a bit expensive. Sure he's great in cc and decent at short ranged shooting, but the 4+ is just not reliable enough to base your strategy up. I would field him in larger battles where his high cost hurts less.