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Hey! not gonna talk about this one much, Ill just link you to the tactics forum at the bottom.

Came up with it last night as a bit of a laugh/experiment but it could be good.

Ancient Haemonculus
-Husk Blade
-Dark Gate
-Vex Mask
9 Wracks
-Liquifier Gun
-Acothyst
--Flesh Gauntlet
Raider
-Flickerfield
-Enhanced Aether Sails
355

Ancient Haemonculus
-Husk Blade
-Dark Gate
-Vex Mask
9 Wracks
-Liquifier Gun
-Acothyst
--Flesh Gauntlet
Raider
-Flickerfield
350

Haemonculus
-Husk Blade
-Dark Gate
-Vex Mask
4 Wracks
-Acothyst
--Agoniser
Venom
-Exra Cannon
255

Haemonculus
-Husk Blade
-Dark Gate
-Vex Mask
4 Wracks
-Acothyst
--Agoniser
Venom
-Exra Cannon
255

(an extra 2 of these venom teams for 2.5k)

6 Reavers
-2 Cluster Caltrops
172

5 Incubi (more for added fun than consistant theme)
-Klaivex
--Demi Klaives
--Blood Stone
--Onslaught
175
(dont have another venom model and Im intending to try this list out)

6 True Born
-2 Splinter Cannons
92
(points filler, should be ok on foot hopping through cover)

Talos
-Chain Flails
110

Cronos
-Vortex
-Probe
110

Ravager (disintegrators!)
-Flickerfield
-Nightshield
125

Total
1999

So after reading some advice and thinking about things, I can see it needs a few changes, but it was more of a fun idea with taking max haemonculi with wracks and spamming husk blades. You may not like the dark gate but dont slate it, I think its the most fun piece of wargear in the entire game! Problem is, last night my haem chucked one out of a ruin window and he bloomin bounced it off the window frame by accident and it blew up in the wrong direction.. :(

Heres where were talking about Dark Eldar - Tyranid tactics:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/344749.page#2412410

Hopefully my opponent doesnt read this too soon! haha


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Ive started taking the vex masks because its the only slight protection enhancement a haemonculus can take which is a pity.

They should be able to get ghostplate or 'even more gnarly gnarlskin' or sumthing! haha

I know you're working on a theme here, but I'm personally not sold on the Haemonculus Ancient at all.

An Archon is 20 points cheaper than an Ancient. The Archon has +2 WS, +2 BS, -1 T, +2 I, +1 Att, +1 Ld, and +1 Armor Save. Now, let's consider the cost of your second Haemonculus Ancient. He comes in at 150 points. For 145 points, you can have an Archon with Huskblade, Soultrap, Clonefield, Ghostplate Armor (or alternatively, you could replace the Clonefield and Ghostplate for a Shadowfield at the same points), and Combat Drugs. That Archon will be FAR more effective in assault than the Ancient for fewer points. The only benefits the Ancient has over the Archon is the fact that he Ancient comes with a Pain Token and is T4.

Oh, and also, the Dark Gate is a one per army item of Archane Wargear. See page 60-61 of Codex: DE. Items marked with an Asterisk may only be included once per army, and the Dark Gate is so marked...

So after looking over your list I ask how new are you to 40k and dark eldar? You have 0 troop choices making your army illegal.

I read your post in the tactics forum I will just post both recommendations and how to make it work here.

For starters drop the trueborn they are too expensive. Ide drop all of the haemonculus and instead take the following hq
Duke Silicus
Archon w/ shadow field and whichever equipment you want him to use

Elite i would bump incubi to 10 strong as they are your elite warriors and all of their weapons are PW's.

Troops I would take a unit of 20 warriors with 2 splinter cannons. You can deploy the duke in this squad and the weapons will wound on 3+. Doesnt matter what save the MC has. If a model has to take 10-15 saves they will fail 3-5.

I would also recommend a 10 man squad of warriors in a raider that is equiped with splinter racks. This makes their weapons twin linked when they shoot out of it.

Ill let you decide the rest. Just know shooting is your friend. Bring down the mc's with your lances and poision weapons. DE should destroy nids.

Serious!?! ARGGHHH. Didnt see that. I'd love to have about 6 of them in an army. Massive blasts going off everywhere with mad laughter! lol

Yea, I see your point about the archon, I just wanted to see how many husk blades I could get in an army, so 6 is the most if you take all haemonculi possible and its necessary to make 2 of them ancients because standard haemonculi are barely better than acothysts!

I still dont understand this huskblade/soultrap thing. Why do you need to be strength 10 if your using a poisonned weapon? as far as I know you can choose to not use your huskblade for attacking armour.

Also, I was saying on the Beasts of War website that I think combat drugs are a waste on archons because only 2 or 3 of the effects are worthwhile when you already have a massive ws and a poisoned weapon and all the rest. There was a bit of a grey area about whether then 3d6 fall back would confer to his attatched unit.

I see what your saying tho. Normally I take an Archon and an ancient if I can afford it over the standard haem, just for the wracks as troops option. Although Id normally only take them as an attatched unit with the haem in a raider for objective captury. Im more of a warrior person in general.

I was also looking at the Asdrubel Vect option for being able to have basically 4 Ravagers in your army in a 2.5k game or something! about 640pts at cheapest tho..


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ARGHHHH!!!!

How have I managed to misread so many things and continue to believe them for weeks!!?!?!?!

I was positive husk blades were also poisoned, but aparantly Im wrong. I thought a husk blade was basically like a combination of an agoniser and a flesh gauntlet in terms of stats.

Thats absolutely ridiculous.

I doubt it would be possible to hurt most monterous creatures at all in that case.

Newt-Of-Death wrote:Serious!?! ARGGHHH. Didnt see that. I'd love to have about 6 of them in an army. Massive blasts going off everywhere with mad laughter! lol

Yea, I see your point about the archon, I just wanted to see how many husk blades I could get in an army, so 6 is the most if you take all haemonculi possible and its necessary to make 2 of them ancients because standard haemonculi are barely better than acothysts!

I still dont understand this huskblade/soultrap thing. Why do you need to be strength 10 if your using a poisonned weapon? as far as I know you can choose to not use your huskblade for attacking armour.

Also, I was saying on the Beasts of War website that I think combat drugs are a waste on archons because only 2 or 3 of the effects are worthwhile when you already have a massive ws and a poisoned weapon and all the rest. There was a bit of a grey area about whether then 3d6 fall back would confer to his attatched unit.

I see what your saying tho. Normally I take an Archon and an ancient if I can afford it over the standard haem, just for the wracks as troops option. Although Id normally only take them as an attatched unit with the haem in a raider for objective captury. Im more of a warrior person in general.

I was also looking at the Asdrubel Vect option for being able to have basically 4 Ravagers in your army in a 2.5k game or something! about 640pts at cheapest tho..

I am personally not a fan of the huskblade. However, tyranids can be instant killed pretty easy IF you can roll a 6 to wound. The huskblade is not poison.

Duke Silicus has contraband. Allows you to roll 2 d6 for combat drugs and you pick which result will apply. In addition, the duke has combat drugs so if you can roll a 6 and get a pain token for him then it also applys to that unit of 20 warriors giving them feel no pain. I had a recent 2500 point DE list posted on here. I recommend scrolling down and checking it out. Might get some good ideas.

Tomb King wrote: So after looking over your list I ask how new are you to 40k and dark eldar? You have 0 troop choices making your army illegal.

I read your post in the tactics forum I will just post both recommendations and how to make it work here.

For starters drop the trueborn they are too expensive. Ide drop all of the haemonculus and instead take the following hq
Duke Silicus
Archon w/ shadow field and whichever equipment you want him to use

Elite i would bump incubi to 10 strong as they are your elite warriors and all of their weapons are PW's.

Troops I would take a unit of 20 warriors with 2 splinter cannons. You can deploy the duke in this squad and the weapons will wound on 3+. Doesnt matter what save the MC has. If a model has to take 10-15 saves they will fail 3-5.

I would also recommend a 10 man squad of warriors in a raider that is equiped with splinter racks. This makes their weapons twin linked when they shoot out of it.

Ill let you decide the rest. Just know shooting is your friend. Bring down the mc's with your lances and poision weapons. DE should destroy nids.

Yeah, I don't agree with just about all of this.

Firstly, having a Haemonculus of any type as an HQ choice makes Wracks Troops, so he actually has six full Troops selections.

I'd honestly drop the Incubi entirely against Tyranids. The only thing that Tyranids will take that are a good target for Incubi are Warriors, and if the Warriors are equipped with Lash Whips and Bone Swords, the Warriors will munch through the Incubi. The big bugs will only be wounded on a 6 by the Incubi, and the Incubi will get no save against the MC's attacks. The little bugs will just swamp the Incubi and overwhelm them with volume of attacks.

The big block of Warriors w/Cannons with Sliscus is a unit that costs, at minimum, 330 points. Odds are, since it is a footslogging unit, it will get two rounds of shooting before it is assaulted by something like Gants or Genestealers (maybe three, if you go first). It's such a large, points intensive, and effective unit that it will be one of the prime targets for your Tyranid opponent. You'll be stuck making a decision each round with that unit: should you target a nearby MC to get the most out of the poisoned weaponry, or shoot one of the units of little bugs that will assault you next turn? While it's a solid unit that will put out 16 wounds (on average) within 12 inches, it can only do that to one unit per turn. If I were the 'Nid player against that type of a unit, I'd just start sending Tervigon spawned units at it, forcing you to shoot those freebie units in order to prevent being tied up in combat.

Splinter Racks are also pretty useless. They only work with Splinter Rifles and Splinter Pistols, not Cannons or Shard Carbines. If you tool a unit of 10 warriors with no upgrades in a Raider with Splinter Racks, it'll net you about two more wounds per round of shooting, before saves. However, you can only shoot out of the Raider if you move 6" or less. Splinter racks would be significantly more useful if they affected all Splinter weapons or if the Raider's passengers could fire while moving 12".

As far as the Huskblade/Soultrap combot goes, when the Archon assaults a T6 MC with a WS of less than 7, the Archon has about a 50% chance of getting that one 6 "to wound" roll that he needs. If you get the re-roll to wound drug effect, it's almost assured that you'll get it. After that, you're one Ld 10 test away from being S6. Then, you're instakilling the next MC on a "to-wound" roll of 4+....

I missed the wracks thrown in there. I am not a fan of them as they are too expensive.

For some reason i thought the raider could move twelve and still have passengers shoot. Either way moving 6 and still TL the weapons would serve its purpose against nids.

Obviously the warriors would draw attention. But you should have other things to support the big block of 20 warriors. This should be your bread and butter in this match up.

I guess I agree on the incubi. just bring more witchs

Tomb king; Ive been playing them since they came out the 1st time. I have 4 troop there at 2k cuz haemonculus make wracks troops. And I often use Sliscus and Im mainly a warrior person, this is a themed list that I thought might be good against Tyranids, but cheers for the comments and suggestions. Last time I took Sliscuss I put him in a raider with 9 warriors, but I must try him on foot with 20 warriors. Maybe coming out of a webway! The trick to stop them becoming the prime target is to take 2 of them! Massively expensive, but I always end up taking expensive units. Its ok in a 2k-2.5k game, as you could take 2 and it would only be what, 460pts for 2 squads of 20 with a sybarite with agoniser and 2 cannons. 500 if you take phantasm's which Im recently a big fan of!

Thats before HQ, but I wouldnt count them up together anyway. I'd allow up to about 30-40% of my army on HQ + Retinue normally anyway cuz Im a big fan of the super expensive / super nasty, mixed with lots of light troops and a portion of heavy.

I'll definately take some wyches. Definately an Archon as I usually do, but should it be Archon and Sliscus, or Archon and Lelith, or Archon and 3 haemonculi each with husk blades?!

Dont think Id take more than 10 wyches and 5 bloodbrides as my army style isnt really really wychy, but it wasnt really haemonculus orientated either, it was just an idea. Im a warrior person to the core!



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Oh yes, Venom blades would surely be pretty amazing against MC's if you get say, 3 wounds a piece for your sybarite and HQ. If their save is 3+ then that would be statistically 2 wounds, but we all know that statistics dont work in real life. I always roll terrible until the crucial moment where it either goes completely unexcitingly wrong, or absolutely bouncing and screamingly brilliant. Like my 5 trueborn with 2 DL's who were up in the tower of the fortress of redemption and fired 2 shots into a Valkyrie squad of 2, rolling 2 6's to hit, 2 5's to penetrate and a 5 and a 6 for damage! Wheres the mathhammer in that! haha.

Ok, Ive changed my hq options. What dyee's think of this:

(The Haemonculus theme is completely out the window now).

Sliscus
9Trueborn
-2 Splinter Cannons
-6 Shard Carbines
-9 Plasma Grenades
-Dracon
--Agoniser
Raider
-Flickerfield
412

Archon
-Husk Blade
-Soul Trap
-Shadowfield
-Combat Drugs
9 Hekatrix
-3 Shardnet and Impaler
-Syren
--Phantasm
--Agoniser
Raider
-Flickerfield
402

40% on Hq

I dont need to go mad on anti-tank or any more elites now apart from some more trueborn in venoms and suchlike so the rest is really for warriors mostly. Ill definately be taking the ravager with disintegrators however.

How do you figure that? You have spent a massive chunk of your points on two fairly squishy units that a completely anti infantry focused (they can't touch vehicles) which are flying around in paper airplanes. If you wanted to run with this as an army almost everything else in the list would probably need to be focused on dealing with vehicles. 3 Dark Lance Ravagers, Dark Lance + Raider Warrior units etc.

Tyranids dont have any vehicles!

That was the point.

I do go pretty over the top on spending for HQ. Its just what makes me happy. I might deepstrike Sliscus as theyd still be able to shoot on landing and thats their main purpose.

Going to the bathroom to finish the list, then hopefully Ill get as much scrutany and advice as possible (of which Im very greatful), to perfect it a final time!


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Ok. Im pretty happy with this at the moment. Got 109 points left so if you have any ideas or see any holes theres that to play with.

Sliscus
9Trueborn
-2 Splinter Cannons
-6 Shard Carbines
-9 Plasma Grenades
-Dracon
--Agoniser
Raider
-Flickerfield
-Chain Snares
417

Archon
-Husk Blade
-Soul Trap
-Shadowfield
-Combat Drugs
9 Hekatrix
-3 Shardnet and Impaler
-Syren
--Phantasm
--Agoniser
Raider
-Flickerfield
-Chain Snares
407

3 True Born
-2 Splinter Cannons
Venom
-Night Shield
121

3 True Born
-2 Splinter Cannons
Venom
-Night Shield
121

15 Warriors
- Splinter Cannon
-Shredder
-Sybarite
--Agoniser
--Phantasm
200


15 Warriors
- Splinter Cannon
-Shredder
-Sybarite
--Agoniser
--Phantasm
200


15 Warriors
- Splinter Cannon
-Shredder
-Sybarite
--Agoniser
--Phantasm
200

Cronos
-Spirit Vortex
100

Ravager
-Flickerfield
-Night Shield
125

Total - 1891

Im thinking to finish it off: 4 Reavers, 1 with cluster caltrops - 108pts

Ive taken lots of phantasm grenade launchers because Ive got scooped for charging into cover so many times, plus the defensive grenades should be worthwhile WHEN I get charged lol.

At this point, I have no more transport models, no more warriors with rifle models, and no more ravagers or anything. Just 2 more talos models, loads of old grotesque and old mandrake/warrior splices that i use now as wracks too, and probably another 6 or 7 wych models, warp beasts (lol, tried them out of the new dex and it didnt go well at all, definately need to portal them or something), Ive also got 10 old jetbike models and 6 old broken hellions that could be fixed in about 15mins. Ive also got 4 old incubi and drazhar and 3 haemonculi models and the old kruellagh model and 5 old scourge models, which are too different and stupid to use now..

So quite a lot but possibly not the right things.

Honestly, right now you could probably throw almost anything together with a DE list and whomp the Nids (it's a pretty tough match up for them) but what I've found works well against them isn't a specific list but specific items/selections.

First of all Wracks. The sheer number of poisoned close combat attacks they can throw is devestating against a big bug.

Second is Wyches. They own the smaller guys in hand to hand combat.

Third is Dark Lances from Vehicles. Watching a Nid list try to catch you while you shred their synapse creatures is pretty humorous.

Fourth is Agonizers. No armor save that wounds at a 4+ pretty much cuts them to ribbons. Especially when you fit 2 in a squad.

Fifth is small squads of Trueborn in Venoms (probably 2 units)

The goal is to blow up their big bugs from range and avoid leaving your vehicles until absolutely necessary. The venoms and the Trueborn are pretty good at shredding the little bugs as well. So is rocking double flame templates from a wrack squad. Worse part is, they don't even have to get out of the vehicle to do it. When you do finally get backed into a corner then you simply charge home and let your poison or obscene number of attacks do the job. expand it.

I like your thinking.

I have most of the above, but I dont have the points or models to darklance spam at the same time, and I want to prove that its not necessary.

Do you rekon I could get away with say 8 or 9 wracks on foot with liquifiers? I dont have another transport unless I go back to the paper aeroplane idea! lol

Its either the wracks or the reavers.


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Full battle report to be done tonight btw!

Hmmmm. The list idea I gave can be made with less than 1850 points which honestly can probably still win against a 2k point Nid list. As you can see you don't dark matter spam except with the ravagers and the raiders but it is still 13 Dark Lances. One thing I forgot to add is that with Urien, only throw the pain tokens on the Wyches. When I've played it, I've found I don't need more than one Trueborn squad, although 2 does make the game go faster in the end so you could drop a vehicle that way and put the wracks back in them. Then I guess have one trueborn squad hang out in cover toward the center of your deployment (to protect them from Genestealers outflanking) and fire upfield. I don't like running wracks without a transport because they are too slow and if your opponent knows what 2 liquifier guns and 2 agonizers in one squad can do, they will get blown off the table before they get to their targets. Bikes aren't bad against the nids so you could maybe get away with dropping a trueborn squad and venom that way too. I rarely use bikes except when I want a fun unit that I don't expect to preform well. If you do take your bikes I recommend that you hide them and only fly them over an enemy as a counter-measure against something you are about to charge or that is getting to close to you.

I don't like the huskblade recommendations for you either that people suggested. Archon has 7 attacks of which 2/3 of those will hit which means you'll get about 4.5 of those as hits. You then need to roll a 6 to wound the MC which means at most you get one wound and then you are asking him to fail an armor save (a 1/3 chance). So 7 x (2/3) x (1/6) x (1/3) = 0.25 wounds on a MC with an Archon and a huskblade. Yes, if you've killed another creature it's a different story, but I don't like to rely on it because you opponent should know that and move to intercept your squad with his big stuff . . . and that's hairy. An agonizer is simply a better choice as 7 x (2/3) x (1/2) = 2.31 wounds on a MC. Even though, I don't recommend even getting into combat with an MC as a DE player until they are nearly dead from dark matter spam. I don't know . . . I don't think going paper airplanes isn't a bad thing since the venoms aren't out yet and anyone that doesn't understand that should show a little more patience. What do you have to work with model wise?

Sorry if the post rambles, I just woke up.

Why not fit some hexrifles inyour list, they are quite handy against multiwound models and afterwards you can still charge as they are assault weapons

Was thinking about hex Rifles, but I went with the last list there, including 8 wracks.

The wracks did nothing, everything else was brilliant.Best unit of the game was Sliscus and his chaps, but it was an 8x4 board so it was a bit hard to chase after stuff and still fire, yet not enough cover to dart and hide for a turn.

The Trueborn in Venoms with the splinter cannons were full on brilliant, but again the darting about was difficult. If I could have squeezed another trueborn venom in instead of the wracks I would have done that. Or even believe it or not another cronos, cuz opponents are always scared of them and shoot them down.

The cronos managed to give a token to a squad of warriors, and the wyches re-rolled to get a token. Having those feel no pains was great. Definately a successful boon! I managed to remember about drugs, and keep check on all the tokens in that game, considering my previous game, I completely forgot about drugs altogether and didnt even roll the whole game! haha.

Sliscus's best kill was definately the winged hive tyrant in turn 2, straight from deep strike, Dark lance - missed, splintercannons - 2 wounds, shard carbines - finished him off! Then the Gargoyles got a beating from him. Didnt even get out of the raider the whole game.

The warriors were brilliant. Phantasms were worth the points a couple of times over! Managed to get 1 surviving sybarite from the 4 that were left before about 16 gaunts charged me, and between the phantasm and the feel no pain, he survived to kill a mighty 2 with his agoniser!

The Ravager just ran around all night taking pot shots at bigish things and rarely rolling more than 3 or 4 successful hits which is typical. Took a wound or 2 off here and there but by turn 4 (after being in the lead in turn 3), my tactical mind got tired and distracted, whilst the tyranid player regrouped everything that previously looked a bit shatterd and I ended up loosing! Horay! lol

It was a good game tho. Annihilation, pitched battle, 8 kill points to my 7.

Definately learnt a lot and I think I may be playing more Tyranids in our clubs actual league so it was good experience.

Finishing building my Trueborn now and modelling a proper Sliscus as I think he'll be getting a good bit more use!

Tempted to fire my bank details into my wayland games basket immediately for a new Ravager (to be occasionally used as Vect's dias), more warriors (to use as trueborn (my old models are for warriors)), and a box of wyches! The old metal ones are horrid. After that, my priority list is probably Raider (No.3), More incubi and possibly 2 boxes of hellions.

Right, think I need a Fegarette after all that!

Cheers for your inputs!

Oh yes, the huskblade got in there and got that one 6 needed to instakill a.. eh, hive..something. Cant remember, think they came in 3's but 2 got trueborn'ed down first. Then they all got shot by termigaunts..

Drop the phantasm on the warriors.

Have the trueborns in the raider be 10 strong.

Combine two 15 man warrior squads.
This makes a squad of 30 men stick the duke in this squad to maximize his ability. In addition if the duke gets a 6 on combat drugs he gives the whole squad FnP.

If you have extra points after these changes throw in a talos and give him the ichor that can cause instant death and possibly the template weapon. One can kill the enemy MC and the other can whipe out the little guys.

Eh, ok. Sorry, I dont normally like to slate nor cut people down, but in the nicest way with no offense intended:

The phantasm saved my 'bacon' every time I got charged as described above. Id never leave without it.

The trueborns were in the venoms, so I could have 4 cannons all at the same target with no wasted weapons nor points. (if they get cracked open then they get cracked open).

The highest squad number for warriors is 20, so I couldnt combine them and if I did I'd be limiting the number of targets I could shoot at, although if I had the models and points I would make them up to 20 with 2 splinter cannons in each.

Talos would be nice enough, but its initiative would let it down against Tyranids so it would probably die before it got into combat. The shooting would be nice tho, but I took the cronos to distribute pain tokens which worked at least on turn 1 before I let the gaunts get to him!

Thanks for the input all the same.

Next few games are all against marines and such like, but Ive new models on the way too! Mainly another raider

All you need is love.. I mean warriors. Just 6 full squads of warriors with splinter cannons. You don't even need raiders. After that, Scourges with splinter cannons.
Nid's die in splinter fire. If you still have points, get true born with splinter cannons. And don't forget your cheap HQ.

I think your missing a few splinter cannons! lol

But yes, splinter cannons are the way forward. They did well.

Trying to devise a list that will counter Space Wolves and Eldar seperately in our league, as were only allowed to change our lists for a new months set of 2 games.