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Since GW didn't release a Battle Force for the new DE, I was wondering if you guys and girls could help me flesh one out?
I'm building my wife a starter army, and don't know a damn thing about the Dark ones, being an Ork guy myself.
Most of the starter sets are somewhere in the range of what, 400 to 800 points?
I'd like to start with something like that.
Thanks!

umm i myself started playing dark eldar, you can go either 2 ways or both ways, you can go fast CC assault with wyches and what not, or go shooty with warriors and ravagers and all that good stuff. or do a combo of the both.... for 800 points you can bring
HQ (archon) or any named HQ
2x warriors (10) with dark lance or something like that
2x Raiders with FF NS and dark lance
2x ravagers
all that is like 650 points or something random like that. lol


Automatically Appended Next Post:
HQ
Archon 105 (roughly)
2x Warriors with dark lance 150
2x raiders with flicker, nightshields and dark lances 140
2x ravagers with flicker 250
sorry for my bad judge of points, but i dont have codex by me and havent remembered the point values yet.

Since I have a pretty awesome Ork army already, I'd like her to have a more shooty army to contrast mine.
Highly mobile shooty list would rock.

Okay, to keep in mind a battleforce kind of thing I would do this which is similar to what I run:

Archon, shadowfield, agonizer, wwp, whatever other upgrades

2x5 kabalites, shredder
10 wyches, hekatrix with agonizer

5 trueborn 2 blasters, 2 splinter cannons
5 trueborn 2 dark lances

ravagers

a couple of raiders for whichever squads you want.

So that is the battleforce list. The one that I run, and would be a bit more expensive but is crazy mobile (and keep in mind venoms aren't out yet, but will be soon)

archon, agonizer, shadowfield, wwp
2x5 warriors, blasters, raider with dark lance
10 wyches with hekatrix agonizer
3x5 trueborn with 3 blasters and 2 splintercannons in venoms with dual splinter rifles
3 ravagers

I posted a batrep with it where you can see the mobility

Sweet Somni!
To be clear, that is a shooty army?
Wyches are CC aren't they?

yeah wyches are cc but they are more to tie things up and not die. In objective games she will need to claim an objective, which means CC 90% of the time (especially against orks).

edit: the games I have played the wyches haven't made it to close combat til turn 5 or later, the rest is entirely shooting.

Great!
I may very well use this as my "battleforce".
Anyone else have input?

Greetings.

1. If you want wyches in your army, I'd definitely advise that you put a haemonculi with them - the initial pain token turns their 6+ armour save into an additional 4+ feel no pain save, which is a saving grace when their vehicle gets exploded out from under them. In close combat (especially against Orks) it will be a 4+ invulnerable save followed by a 4+ feel no pain save.

2. I would definitely *not* advise putting nightshields on *ANY* Dark Eldar vehicle; they are a waste of points. If you really care, there are pages of discussion on it in tactics, all the reasons why they are useless, complete with breakdown of individual anti-tank weapons in every army and the night shields role against it based on range and maneuverability provided.

3. If you're wondering what a DE battleforce will look like, I suspect it will have an archon, a raider, a warrior unit or two, and a few reaver jetbikes. Reavers are poopy, don't use them.

4. In my opinion, building a dark eldar list starts with deciding what kind of army to build. Personally, I play mostly shooty DE. You can't completely negate close combat, because there are times when you're going to be busy shooting at things in the enemy backfield while close combat units approach - and you need to be able to tie them up / kill them while your firepower is concentrated elsewhere.

5. Duke Sliscus is a good match for a shooting based army, but I don't think he adds enough to an army - his special rules sort of benefit things that the DE player shouldn't be wanting to do anyway (like deep-striking your raiders....) - anytime a special character comes with rules that I wouldn't ever use, I end up feeling that there are wasted points in there. My personal favorite is Baron Sathonyx - specifically because he gives +1 to go first - and if you're playing a shooting army, any advantage you can get towards getting in the first turn and capitalizing on your shooting is of premium value.

My advise:

HQ: Baron Sathonyx.
Troop1: 5 warriors, one with a blaster, in a venom with an extra splinter cannon.
Troop2: 5 warriors, one with a blaster, in a venom with an extra splinter cannon.

Fast Attack1: A beast unit; mix and match as you like - I'd shy away from clawed fiends because of their cost - find the mix of razorwing flocks and khymerae that you like. Besides, the Baron needs to go with an unmounted unit since he's jump infantry - and its a better choice than hellions because you *need* some sort of close combat ability, especially if her primary opponent is going to be orks.

Heavy1: Ravager with triple lances + Flickerfield
Heavy2: Ravager with triple lances + Flickerfield
Heavy3: Ravager with triple lances + Flickerfield

Let me explain a bit -

6. After the two mandatory troop choices and the HQ - I think the first addition to every potentially competitive DE list needs to be an automatic 3 ravagers. Disintegrators might serve her better specifically against orks, but for a take-all-comers list, triple lance ravagers are the way to go.

7. As points allow, my next addition would either be more warriors in venoms, or trueborn toting blasters in venoms. Both are important.

8. There is no venom model yet, but you can either convert them out of a raider kit by shortening one down, or convert one out of an Eldar Vyper with a bit of plasticard. There are ample pictures of both methods around the internet.

This has the core to be a powerful shooting army - the splinter cannons are going to give your orks some grief, and they're also prime for taking down infantry that get spilled out of vehicles by the lances.

Thank you so much Dash.
This is exactly the type of breakdown I was looking for.
Extra thanks for coming over at request.
Going to Genghis Con in Denver tomorrow, and hoping to find someone selling some DE so I can get her list growing!
=)