Dark Eldar Tactica - 6th Edition

[Ereshkigal]

Tbh i am really thinking about Drazhar, 3 incubi and a Klaivex. Demiklaives are worth it right now and you won't kill a fearless Drazhar in melee, just soften paladins or th/ss termies before assault and it's game.

[DeviantApostle]

i'm stuck with the Lhamaeans description. It says that any close combat poisoned weapon carried by the archon is poisoned 2+, but the only real poisoned close combat weapon that an archon could carry is the venom blade, already poisoned 2+... what the hell?

One of the sloppiest rules in the codex. Yes, it only works on his splinter pistol.

Then i read an example from the rulebook about the mixed toughness unit, in that example the Archon had a court of 3 Sslyth and 2 Ur-Ghuls without any Medusae or Lhamaeans while the codex says you need to take at least 1 of each if you want the court (thus screwing the T5 of the sslyth because if you take 3 Sslyth, 1 Meduse, 1 Ur-Ghul, 1 Lhamaean your majority toughness will be 3 and not 5).

I can only imagine that the unit has already taken casualties in previous turns.

It is really that impossible to take the court of the Archon? It seems like they designed the court to be worse than any other unit an archon could join.

Yes, they're substandard as an Archon caddy. Only way I'd consider it is 3 Sslyths and a few ablative wounds. Ok, the Lhamians aren't that bad, they have 2+ poison weapons and the Medusa can get lucky but no, they're not optimal.

Btw i want to add one thing:
We can't play without razorwing or voidraven because they are the only things in the codex that can skyfire.

You're right. And I don't know how to feel about that, honestly. Yay, I have a reason to field them... but I could really use those points elsewhere.

Now, let's not ignore something else here: our CCW potential got *%&$ in that FAQ unless there's a table in the rulebook nobody's talking about. Agonizers downgraded. Huskblade downgraded. Sceptre of the Dark City downgraded.

[DeviantApostle]

it seems that Sybarites and Dracons got a use too. In particular, taking a Blaster (or whatever) on a Warrior/Trueborn and then upgrading it to a character gives you a chance to control which model the hits go on thanks to Precision Shot. For Warriors in particular, it also means that you can use Look Out Sir! to deflect any wounds that might inadvertently end up on the blaster (either through Precision Shot or awful model placement).

Or, upgrade the guy with the Dark Lance or Splinter Cannon.

[eldargal]

Lelith Hesperax still ignores armour saves, so with the PW nerf she is looking really good now. A whole lot of attacks, even if S3, some should wound and no armour save.

Splinter racks on shooting raiders are basically compulsory. Ten trueborn/kabalites in a raider with splinter rifles and splinter cannons will put out a hell of a lot of shots while moving 12" re-rolling misses from BS1.

Flickerfields offer saves against melee, and with moving vehicles being WS1 this perhaps means worth taking on wych buses.

Archons and Succubi still not useless, a lot of 4+ wounding AP3 attacks is still very good against most units. 2+ saves are a minority.

Wyches are now brilliant at destroying armour, even against Marine snapfire will only lose 1-2 to shooting. Give them PGL for stealth and try and charge from cover to get a decent cover save perhaps.

Disintegrators will now actually be seen, our best bet for killing terminators.

Talos get all the same buffs as other MCs, still beasts.

Thanks to Aerial Assault our Razorwings can fire all their weapons a turn rather than 4 the others are limited to. This means TL splinter rifles/Splinter cannon, two dark lances and four missiles potentially. Also harder to shoot down with skyfire being so rare. Flickerfields still good for our flyers.

Nightshields much more useful with premeasuring.

WWPS largely useless except perhaps as a delivery platform for shooting units, talos and reavers.

[Souleater]

the FAQ says to ignore Aerial Assault and refer to the main rulebook. I wonder if our missles will count as a single weapon. If they don't then stupid Mon'keigh flying bricks are better than our planes...

I agree with the rest of your points wholeheartedly. A unit with Sv2+ should be shot to bits. ICs will be tough but even I as a dedicated combat Archon fan was not finding them as good as they were back in 3rd or 4th when the simply murdered anything they were put against (hordes excepted.)

[Sami]

Disintegrator cannons were great anti-armour-save weapons in 5th edition too. The issue is that you have to give up Dark Lances in order to take them, and the cannons are shockingly bad against vehicles.

I've just noticed that neither of our flyers get hover mode, so they will have to be constantly zooming around the battlefield. This of course means that if you bring them for anti-flyer firepower and your opponent doesn't bring flyers, it will be a lot of hard work to use them as effective anti-ground/skimmer units due to always having to move and the limited turning circle. Or you bring Ravagers and lose anti-flyer capabilities. Or bring a hybrid and be poor at both.

edit: SoulEater, missiles are not a single weapon. In addition, a flyer can only fire two single missiles a turn, and a maximum of 4 weapons per turn. So if you took disintegrator cannons and a splinter cannon on a Razorwing to focus purely on anti-infantry, you can either fire 2 missiles and 2/3 of the other guns, or 1 missile and all 3 of the other guns.

[eldargal]

Urgh, yes I was reading the Ravager aerial assault rule lol. Still, our flyers are very good, particularly with the upgrades. FF and NS while zooming will make them quite hard to kill even if you have skyfire units firing at you. Voidraven now has a use for its void mine and void lances are still nice. Not too unhappy with Dark Eldar in general.

[Souleater]

@ Sami: I know that but given that we and Tau have this fairly rare ability to take multiple one shot missiles I was hoping that they might treat firing them as a single weapon. You know, some kind of nod to the superiority of our stuff over the Imperium.

Other than Huskblades not being AP2 this really isn't that bad.

[09Project]

the FAQ says to ignore Aerial Assault and refer to the main rulebook. I wonder if our missles will count as a single weapon. If they don't then stupid Mon'keigh flying bricks are better than our planes....

Flyers can fire 4 weapons per turn of which 2 can be missiles (so no turning up and shooting 4 missiles!) or drop 1 bomb (but you can move at combat (18) or cruising speed (36) and drop a bomb as far as I can figure out but you can't drop it if you want to go flat out)

Also, no missiles or bombs can be used if you evaded in the previous turn as you can't snapfire weapons which don't use BS. Also, I noticed you have to choose to evade before your opponent roles for armour pentration, so it based purely on hits. Which, if your friendly necron player has 3 doomsythes, I am quite happy about!

[Ereshkigal]

We have FF... it's mandatory to our fliers

[Sami]

@ Sami: I know that but given that we and Tau have this fairly rare ability to take multiple one shot missiles I was hoping that they might treat firing them as a single weapon. You know, some kind of nod to the superiority of our stuff over the Imperium.

Other than Huskblades not being AP2 this really isn't that bad.

Sorry, when I said "they are not a single weapon" I was referring to how they've ended up in 6th. As for superiority over the Imperium, seems the good old Adeptus Mechanicus has managed to develop AA missiles before we did

[eldargal]

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if we see a big round of FAQchanges giving each armour a skyfire weapon, otherwise I think only the Imperium and Fortifications have them.

[danny-d-b]

I would be suppried if broardsides and walkers don't get them (maybe maybe not)

I think this edition will be probiably be people bringing 2 razerwings (with dissy and a void raven) for us- it seems that we have to do things the other way round now, kill the tanks through combat and the infantry through shooting, rather than tanks through shooting and infantry through combat, especialy terminators which short of the demi klaves the only way to kill them now is through weight of attacks

[DeviantApostle]

Lelith Hesperax still ignores armour saves, so with the PW nerf she is looking really good now. A whole lot of attacks, even if S3, some should wound and no armour save.

The FAQ also says she gets a number of extra attacks depending on the highest WS of those in base contact with her, so throwing her on the worst guy in the bunch is valid for max. attacks. But yeah, she and Drazhar got... you know, they didn't get better, they just trod water while a bunch of other stuff sank.

Splinter racks on shooting raiders are basically compulsory. Ten trueborn/kabalites in a raider with splinter rifles and splinter cannons will put out a hell of a lot of shots while moving 12" re-rolling misses from BS1.

Giving you an 11/36 or 30.5r% chance of hitting. Definitely better than not being able to shoot at all, I'll grant, but when Orks have better odds it makes me wonder.

Flickerfields offer saves against melee, and with moving vehicles being WS1 this perhaps means worth taking on wych buses.

Agreed. It it'll stop at any point, the FF is very useful. Also Torment Grenade Launchers.

Archons and Succubi still not useless, a lot of 4+ wounding AP3 attacks is still very good against most units. 2+ saves are a minority.

My big concern is point efficiency. From the looks of things, we're going to be buying more fliers, which are more points intensive. An Agonizer Hekatrix is a fair slog of points all told, particularly one with a PGL on top of that. You're looking at a Squad Leader there that costs as much as 5 Wracks that can be sniped out with relative ease at range.

Wyches are now brilliant at destroying armour, even against Marine snapfire will only lose 1-2 to shooting. Give them PGL for stealth and try and charge from cover to get a decent cover save perhaps.

Agreed.

Disintegrators will now actually be seen, our best bet for killing terminators.

I've been using them to great effect already in 5th, so heartily agreed.

Talos get all the same buffs as other MCs, still beasts.

But unfortunately takes up a HS slot.

Flickerfields still good for our flyers.

No jink for fliers, eh?

Nightshields much more useful with premeasuring.

Agreed.

WWPS largely useless except perhaps as a delivery platform for shooting units, talos and reavers.

There's still some shenannigans there, I think, but none of the ones I can think of are really worth the points.

[eldargal]

For Agonisers I'm thinking more for archon and succubi rather than squad leaders. You could model a hekatrix with a regular, cheaper power weapon, make it an axe, and watch her slap things around at S5 AP2. Her initiative will be poor but with a 4++ in CC she has a good chance of surviving, especially with Look Out Aaargh and whatnot.

I never take talos for that reason, HS slot is already too full, but they still got buffed.

Don't forget we can take an extra FOC at 2k, that means 6 HS slots at 2k.

Edit: Oh and if Harlequins Veil of Tears changes apply to our Harlequins, they will get even better too.

A Shadowseer is a psyker and always has the Veil of Tears psychic power. The Shadowseer, and all the models in her unit, have hte Stealth and Shrouded special rules.

Any enemy unit wishing to target the Shadowseer or the unit she is with must roll 2D6x2. This is their spotting distance in inches.

If the models are not within spotting range, they may not fire that turn. The Shadowseer and her unit can always be ignored by the enemy for the purposes of determining target priority.

[stereynolds]

Harlequins buffed with an allied farseers fortune could be the 'kill terminators in close combat' answer? Ap2 rending, a tonne of attacks, a high cover save on the way in (if they even get spotted) and an invulnerable once there. Obviously points wise this is an expensive unit to run and it has no transport bar stealing one turn 1.

[Ereshkigal]

Fliers can jink but next shooting phase they snap fire. So FF is mandatory.

[Sami]

Flyers only get jink if they evade, which limits them to snap shots in the following shooting phase. As jink and FF are both 5+ (cover and invul respectively), the FF gives it a permanent save equal to jink without any of the draw-backs.

The FAQ didn't clear up calculate the range of melta and rapid fire weapons against night shields which is a little annoying, especially as the melta issue has been around since 5th. Can't find any new wording in the rulebook to answer this either.

Closest answer I ever found (in both 5 and 6th) sadly relates to characteristic tests, which says apply any multipliers/etc before addition/subtraction. In the case Boltguns it would be:

24" max range
/ 2 for Rapid Fire
- 6" fixed value for night shields
= 6" double tap distance

[Johnmclane]

Might be stupid or because i read the errata on my phone but what's the news on agonisers?

[danny-d-b]

looking like they count as power swords (somewhere said any power weapons with aditional rules count as power swords) so users S AP3