Dark Eldar (DE) Strategy Guide 5th

[fwacho]

Just wanted to state something obvious no one has said yet that I discovered in a test game against myself (pathetic, I know).

Due to location of weapon on front of raider it is rather easy to stick the front end around the corner of LOS bocking terrain and take a clean shot while keeping yourself in 50% cover. I just thought that was pretty cool as I can't think of any other vehicle that can do that off the top of my head.

In my test of wracks they severely weakened an assault squad with after absorbing the initial charge. They also managed to bag a wraithguard squad in another game. I was fairly pleased. The Talos has impressed me the most. It kicked some serious rear end even walking.

[eyescrossed]

(you can buy one raider for 20 and then one each for the 10 man squads)

No, you cannot. The Codex forbids buying transports for squads it can't fit.

[Krovin-Rezh]

Just wanted to state something obvious no one has said yet that I discovered in a test game against myself (pathetic, I know).

Not at all. Play testing is something more people ought to be doing rather than theoryhammering.

Due to location of weapon on front of raider it is rather easy to stick the front end around the corner of LOS bocking terrain and take a clean shot while keeping yourself in 50% cover. I just thought that was pretty cool as I can't think of any other vehicle that can do that off the top of my head.

yes, it's quite easy to get clear shots with a Raider while being obscured from the target. What's more is that the turret and gun do not count as part of the Raider's hull, and cannot be used for spotting. So if you could have just that visible (it's admittedly more tough to hide the prow), then you would be untargetable from that LOS.

In my test of wracks they severely weakened an assault squad with after absorbing the initial charge. They also managed to bag a wraithguard squad in another game. I was fairly pleased. The Talos has impressed me the most. It kicked some serious rear end even walking.

Both units are a great mix of offense and durability. I'm not surprised they do well for you. They are equally impressive in my games.

[Tordeck]

No, you cannot. The Codex forbids buying transports for squads it can't fit.

Can you point where it states that please? I was looking to see if it did and I didnt see it anywhere.

[Krovin-Rezh]

It's on p91 Tordeck.

[eyescrossed]

What Krovin-Rezh said. I'm pretty sure it's the only recent Codex to say so, too.

[Tordeck]

Thx, just found it. And yeah up until now it is the only "new" dex to specify.

[Aschen]

Just a lil confused on something. How far can you move a raider and still disembark and assault out of it?

[Marshal Augustine]

12" move, get out within 2" then fleet, then charge.

[matelloco]

hi All,

What is the best way to handle the classical GI full of chimeras with leman Russ support ?
I do not manage anything against them. I play most of the time within 1000 points.

T1 : He plays, move to the middle of battlefield, pop up smoke while Leman Russ*2 blow everything that is not behind cover.
My T1: I cannot rush anything as everything is within armored vehicule and behind smoke. I have to focus on a single target close to 6/7 Dark Lance to hope to do some damage.
his T2: He wipes me out, Chimeras with heavy Flamers, and inside Veteran troups with flamers & Plasma Guns just rip my head off...

Any comment is appreciated

Thx a lot

[Aschen]

12" move, get out within 2" then fleet, then charge.

Thanks. I do appreciate it

[jansuza]

@matelloco: We call that particular IG army the "leaf blower" list, and it does what it says on the box. I would say that with the previous Dark Eldar codex, they were by far the most difficult army to beat, as tanks are hard to crack (except ours of course), and there's a lot of medium strength, high volume weaponry.

My IG friend and I have swopped lists for a tournament as well, so I've also played on the bussiness end of a leaf blower list, and so far this is what I've found:

It's apparent that the only real glaring weakness, is that even though everything is in vehicles, IG loses most of their firepower if they have to start moving. Fortunately, DE are good at making opponents react to us. You should be doing this anyway against superior firepower, but pick a flank of the opposing force and move your raiders to that side.

It has the effect of forcing the IG player to move many of his tanks in order to bring his guns to bear, and seeing as we shoot better than them on the move, you should be able to pop a tank or two and leave two tanks unable to shoot every turn. You'll also find that in games of 1500+ points, the massed amounts of Chimeras and Leman Russes tend to get in each other's way and LOS.

Basically:

*Pick a flank
*start focussing fire on that flank, trying to pop tanks on that flank, but moving on to the next one if you stop it from shooting in that phase
*try to block LOS and movement with the IG's own tanks.
*start working your way through, and remember that you're much faster than him in objective based games, so try keep him in his deployment zone.

I'm sure there's many other ways to go about it as well, but that's been working for me so far.

[hungry hungry hormagaunt]

That's an excellent point. If you manage to prevent a tank from firing (or from firing the main gun, in the case of certain tanks), don't bother sending any more shots at it in the hope of "finishing it off". It's not going to do anything worth worrying about this turn - pick on something that's still a threat.

The only exception to this is when the vehicle is a transport and you desperately need to get at the passengers, or if it's very late in the game and you need to stop it tank shocking you off an objective.

[Crazy_Irish]

I can only agree. In my last game(against mobile BA) i only deployed my bomber, a ravanger with 3 DL , jetbikes with 2 HL and a Raider with wyches. I managed to hide them all, and did so cause he had the first turn. He came closer and my reserves where then in striking range of the infantry that had to come out of his popped tanks.

As i am slowly getting to know the new codex, i am a bit shocked of its potential. I had two games and twice a massacre for me. Both very much on the shooting side of life... even though i always play a mix. And CC this time was always a big success.
Then again, i never pick a fair fight ;-)

[jansuza]

Fair fights are for people who have armour. Bah!

I admit that sometimes I also have to hold back on trying to open up a stunned/shaken tank. With my various venoms and warrior squads, I have 72 splinter cannon shots floating around, and against fully mech armies, they're useless until you can crack a tank open.

Every time I crack a tank open, the non-MEQ squad inside gets splintered to death, but I find that with a mostly mech list, its better to rather focus on stunning as many enemy tanks as possible, and hoping that your AV10 paper planes hold together through the return fire.

[Crazy_Irish]

I guess you use Trueborns with 2SC in Venom with 2 SC?

Yesterday i took 5 warriors with a Blaster in Venom with 2 SC. It worked out great. You can shoot 24" with the Blaster and 42" with the SC, enough to help out anywhere.

[jansuza]

I guess you use Trueborns with 2SC in Venom with 2 SC?

Not quite. I'm using the ol' 5 man warrior squad with blaster in a venom, and I've got one or two trueborn squads with 2 blasters. I've just got many many venoms is all.

I do really like the way the little squads work. If needed for that "alpha strike" turn one, I'll move the tanks 12 at the enemy turn one, and disembark the warriors/trueborn so that they can shoot. The 30" blaster shots in the 1st turn sometimes make all the difference, and it helps if you deploy them Fish of Fury style, so that they use the vehicles as cover/assault blockers.

Sure, you're overextending yourself by some margin, but its those all-out/skin of your teeth moves with DE that makes them so fun for me.

[Hashmal]

hi All,

What is the best way to handle the classical GI full of chimeras with leman Russ support ?
I do not manage anything against them. I play most of the time within 1000 points.

T1 : He plays, move to the middle of battlefield, pop up smoke while Leman Russ*2 blow everything that is not behind cover.
My T1: I cannot rush anything as everything is within armored vehicule and behind smoke. I have to focus on a single target close to 6/7 Dark Lance to hope to do some damage.
his T2: He wipes me out, Chimeras with heavy Flamers, and inside Veteran troups with flamers & Plasma Guns just rip my head off...

Any comment is appreciated

Thx a lot

Multilasers weren't killing you?

Those two Russes can engage a maximum of two targets per turn, unless you're keeping your vehicles too close together (and even then, a half strength Battlecannon shot doesn't scare me).

The fact that you're calling out Heavy Flamers, Flamers, and moving Plasma Guns as being the death of your army means a few things to me:
-You're not in vehicles; or
-You're far too close.

It sounds like you're deploying opposite him, tank for tank. Don't do this. Dark Eldar get creamed if they line up British Redcoats style and play fisticuffs with an opposing shooting force. We're all about the flank. We have the mobility to force an opponent forward with our long range shooting and denial of medium range shooting (Night Shields, I love thee). We also have the mobility to reshift our force, creating an entirely different front somewhere else on the field. Preferably, we'll create this front at their most vulnerable flank. Crash it hard and make his comparatively immobile vehicles create cover saves for you while you shake, stun, and blast your way through the armor wall like Pac Man on speed.

It's still a tough match up, but DE versus IG chimeraspam is not as dire as it is versus some armies (my poor Daemons).

[Da Black Gobbo]

Against massed IG tanks i think Hywire grenades on wytches and Hywire blasters in units of scourges work ace, a squad of 5 scourges with 2 is only 130 points, and it can disable tanks preventing them from shooting pretty easily since a hit means on a 2+ a minimum result of stun and probably shaken/weapon destroy. Also 5 scourges fire 9 shard carabine shots, wich can kill 3 veterans per turn.

[Krovin-Rezh]

Webway portals are the answer to a gun line army like IG. Use a couple of units to drop portals in range and watch as everything else gets to do up-close damage before even getting shot at. A pincer maneuver is most effective here, as you can then choose which flank to have reserves arrive from, and it leaves nowhere for the enemy to escape to.

Expect a tough fight no matter what against the Leafblower, but this tactic will give you a better opportunity to nullify a lot of those multi-lasers before they have much to shoot at. And if you go second, you can usually hide two Raiders pretty well, whereas the usual number is going to have to be in LOS. Trap squads in their wrecked Chimeras with haywire Wyches if you get the chance. I play this as gaining a pain token, so that makes the Wyches much more resilient to things like flamers in the next turn (and they'll likely have cover against other guns thanks to the Chimera wreckage they are hugging).

And remember that a vehicle damage result of less than 1 (such as a glancing roll of 1 or 2) is still a shaken vehicle. My club had been ignoring those results until recently, to my DE's great detriment.