Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, with the new Dark Eldar (and Haemonculus Covens) books out, I've been tooling around with my lists trying to determine the best list to run. My normal 'Aerial Assault' list just makes me miss Sliscus, and that's just too painful right now.

So I've been thinking about sticking with the Covens. I was waffling about, until someone pointed out that the Ld bubble from Freakish Spectacle stacks.

Which is what led me to this. I'm calling it the Freakshow. The idea is to field several Coven formations, along with allied support, all designed to take maximum advantage of the enemy's reduced leadership.

Farseers- Mounted on Jetbikes, the Farseer can come in with an ally tax of only 51 points, if he takes Windriders, who have the added advantage of bringing Objective Secured units to the table, something the formation-dependent Covens sorely lack. If the Farseers stick to Telepathy, they can generate several powers which can capitalize on the many negatives to enemy leadership, not least of which is Psychic Shriek, a power that gets much tastier when the enemy is taking -1 to -5 to their Ld scores.

Dark Eldar- Codex Eldar can bring some added long range firepower, enabling the Covens to handle hordes or MCs a little better. Perhaps tastiest of all, the DE can bring the Armor of Misery, which can stack its -2 Ld bubble with the Freakish Spectacle rule.

The Coven formations, which can be mixed and matched according to desire, collection, or points level, give lots of options for a wide range of situations, but there are a few things I'm still up in the air on.

Wraithfighters- The Hemlock Wraithfighter seems like a good pick for the list. The Mindshock Pods (successful Morale and Pinning tests within 12" must be rerolled) could synergize well with the core themes of the list. From my reading of the rules, they affect friendlies and enemies alike, but the majority of this list will be Fearless by turn 2 at the latest. It seems pretty expensive though, and for a flyer, it's weapons can only engage ground targets, which seems like a downside.

Torment Launchers- The upgrade definitely seems like it would be either SUPER useful in this list or SUPER wasted. It wounds based on Leadership, but it doesn't affect the majority of armies (Marines of all flavors and Daemons are immune). I'm undecided.

Warlock Council- It's no big deal to make this army Eldar primary to pick up a Warlock council. Bike mounted Warlocks could seriously add mojo to the Ld inhibiting game with Horrify, but that's only a 1/6 chance per 'lock, and they seem kind of pricey. I remain unsure.

Archangel of Pain- It's one use only, but it could put some SERIOUS hurt on units already bubbled by the Freakish Spectacle. It's got the same negatives as the Torment Launchers though. It DOES give a -2 Ld for the test, which is sweet, Still, the wide range of models who are immune to it make it a sketchy choice, and the fact that to bring it you have to either bring a second Archon or forgo the Armor of Misery make it of questionable desire.

I don't know. What does Dakka think? I'm already pretty set on running the Freakshow as my core concept list, so I'm not really looking to be talked out of it. I'm more looking for ways to fine tune it at this point. Any suggestions on what to bring/leave behind are more than welcome! Helping me make decisions on those questionable units would be dandy as well. And I'd LOVE to hear about any options I missed to capitalize on the near table-wide leadership negatives.

I think Spiritseers are the way to go with this army. 0-5 from Iyanden they get Telepathy their LVL 2, They can fire Psychic Shriek from Deep Striking Raiders or Venoms and the Haemonoculus you get with the Grotesquirie and other Formations can be put with Fire Dragons or Wraithguard w/ D Scythes.

Downside is you won't be casting any other Psychic abilities from inside a Raider other than Psychic Shriek.

Also, this is a kick ass army idea and could actually be a pretty powerful army. 210 buys you 3 Spirit Seers another 210 buys you 5 Wraithguard w/ D-Scythes.

I tried to mess around with it but I couldn't ever get anywhere with it though.

I got in a game with it last week, against Daemons. Sucked because Terrify didn't work, and the Ld penalty never came into play to see if shooting attacks sent him scurrying. But the Ld penalties started helping when melee came about, and the Daemonic Instability rule came into play.

I thought about the Spiritseers, but they seemed like they really lack mobility, since they can't take a bike. They also bring a lower mastery rating, which is a concern for me since my local meta is pretty psyker heavy. I may play around with them though.

Torment Grenade launchers and Archangel of pain do work on Daemons, they have quasi fearless.

They're not actually "fearless".

Good point! Still not sure if they're worth taking.

1 or 2 are a very good answer for Daemon Princes with a 2 + Jink Save simply because it only needs to hit, then they don't get armour or cover and have to rely on the 5+.

It also decimates Daemon squads and TAU specifically Riptides who are not fearless. As well as pretty much most of Chaos Space Marines. One hit with just a -1 or -2 can actually straight up kill some Crisis Suit squads.

I don't think I'd take them en masse but having 2 to 3 isn't a bad idea in a take all comers list.

Armies it's good against

Eldar
Tau
Daemons
Chaos Space Marines
Imperial Guard

That for me is a enough to take them ESPECIALLY against Rip Tides and Crisis Suits.

I'm also kicking around Chain Snares. The potential ability to force an opponent to make 3 fallback moves (tank shock, terrify/psychic scream, shooting) without even needing to assault seems like it could be mighty tasty.

You can actually get a unit to -4 LD with Tank Shock, Armour of Misery Archon with a Grot Squad w/ a Haemonoculus from another detachment.

Or just the normal -3. That's pretty insane.

It's why I am all for the Spirit Seers, Deep Strike in near a unit give it -3 to LD, Terrify it or Psyhic Scream it and it's not like you don't have those units anyway.

That's the huge thing going for it, it's not like you have to buy a seperate Haemonoculus or something like that, they're all good units your using.

Hmmm. What about Hemlock Wraithfighters? They don't bring much firepower, but their morale effect seems like it'd be much more potent in the Freakshow list.

No harm in trying em out. I just was like "holy gak is that expensive and would never use that model ever in any other circumstance" so kind of just hung that hat there. It's cool but man that thing has barely any other use. It's soooo expensive point and money wise.


I actually think that using the Eldar weapons that cause pinning would be a great asset to the army. Dark Eldar don't really have that but the Eldar have a lot of weapons that cause pinning.

I ran a game with it last week, turned out okay.

I played a 2500 pt game against Daemons. I won on objectives in the end, but it was a damn close game. Lost an entire Corpsethief Claw to a single round of attacks from a Greater Daemon, which hurt my damn soul. (Before that happened they were running around like a freight train, though.) I think I may reserve the formation for games over 2k points.

The Scalpel Squadron was probably MVP, though. Seriously awesome.

The Ld penalties (I also brought an Armor of Misery Archon and a Grotesquerie) helped quite a bit. I lost out on using Terrify, but when it came time to Daemonic Instability checks, I think they swung the game in my favor.

I originally planned on running one eldar detachment per full thousand, but may up it to one per partial thousand.

Got another game in with this army today. (1500 points)

2 Farseer/bike units
Scalpel Squadron
Dark Artisan formation
Archon (armor of misery) and 3 incubi
Unit of 5 wyches
Dark lance Ravager

vs

Ork psyker
ork bikes
ork shoota boys
2 units of slugga boys
2 units of 4 killa kans
7 burnas in a trukk

I won on objectives in the end, but it was SUPER close.  I ran into an Ork Killa Kan wall army, which hurt a bit since I had brought so very little anti-tank.  I've never faced the new Orks before, and I have a hard time remembering that unlike SMs, my eldar SHOULD be assaulting them.  I made several tactical screwups.  

On the bright side, 1 Farseer per partial thousand seems like the way to go.

Hmm...

Not sure why no one seems interested in this. I at least expected a small spate of "this list is bad, spam more venoms" comments. Not sure if I should take that personally or not...

On the other hand, just read the updated rules on Shadow Spectres today. Holy crap, that would synergize with this army super well! The only question now is if I can afford them or not. What do you guys think? Makes enemy Morale/pinning tests roll on 3d6, take the two highest. Worth it?

 Jimsolo wrote:
I'm also kicking around Chain Snares. The potential ability to force an opponent to make 3 fallback moves (tank shock, terrify/psychic scream, shooting) without even needing to assault seems like it could be mighty tasty.

Yeah. Nerfing an enemy unit's leadership into the ground, then tank-shocking it off the board sounds pretty fething awesome tbh. lol

I want to do it to a Riptide.

When your playing a big game, I'd suggest making Eldar your primary, and then swap the Hemlock for Irilyth. You don't want Shadow Specters, they are quite bad unfortunately, but their phoenix lord is great. He could run around in a Grot bomb because he can fire on the move and is good on melee.

I'm wondering how your kitting out your Dark Artisan unit, i'm just putting the finishing touches on mine but i'm not sure what items to equipt everyone with bar the must-take Spirit Probe.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
When your playing a big game, I'd suggest making Eldar your primary, and then swap the Hemlock for Irilyth. You don't want Shadow Specters, they are quite bad unfortunately, but their phoenix lord is great. He could run around in a Grot bomb because he can fire on the move and is good on melee.

I'm wondering how your kitting out your Dark Artisan unit, i'm just putting the finishing touches on mine but i'm not sure what items to equipt everyone with bar the must-take Spirit Probe.

For Dark Artisan, I take Splinter Cannon/Ichor Injector on the Talos, and the Probe on the Cronos. For the Haemmy I go with a Scissorhand, and possibly the Vexator Mask, which can help mitigate the lack of grenades.

Out of curiosity, why do you say Spectres are bad? I just haven't heard that from anyone else; all the feedback on them I've heard has been that they are costly but good.

 Jimsolo wrote:

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
When your playing a big game, I'd suggest making Eldar your primary, and then swap the Hemlock for Irilyth. You don't want Shadow Specters, they are quite bad unfortunately, but their phoenix lord is great. He could run around in a Grot bomb because he can fire on the move and is good on melee.

I'm wondering how your kitting out your Dark Artisan unit, i'm just putting the finishing touches on mine but i'm not sure what items to equipt everyone with bar the must-take Spirit Probe.

For Dark Artisan, I take Splinter Cannon/Ichor Injector on the Talos, and the Probe on the Cronos. For the Haemmy I go with a Scissorhand, and possibly the Vexator Mask, which can help mitigate the lack of grenades.

Out of curiosity, why do you say Spectres are bad? I just haven't heard that from anyone else; all the feedback on them I've heard has been that they are costly but good.

The Spectres are simply overpriced imo.

However, the Spectre Pheonix Lord is badassed.

Sweet. He comes with the same bubble, so no worries. He might definitely be an option to consider.

Ah yes, that's why I discarded Irillyth as an idea. His Ld bubble only works in Shadow Spectre squads. He doesn't project it himself.

Okay, got another Freakshow game in today. Here's the army list I threw down with.

Formation: Grotesquerie
3 Grotesques, 1 Aberration (Scissorhand), Raider (Night Shields, Torment Grenade Launcher, Dark Lance) - 250 Points
3 Grotesques, 1 Aberration (Scissorhand), Raider (Night Shields, Torment Grenade Launcher, Dark Lance) - 250 Points
Haemonculus (Syndriq's Sump, Scissorhand) - 90 pts

Formation: Scarlet Epicureans
Cronos Parasite Engine (Spirit Probe) - 110 pts
Haemonculus (Scissorhand) - 80 pts
5 Wracks (Ossefactor), Venom (Dual Splinter Cannons) - 130 pts
5 Wracks (Ossefactor), Venom (Dual Splinter Cannons) - 130 pts

Allied Eldar detachment
Farseer (Singing Spear, Runes of Warding, Jetbike) - 130 pts
3 Guardian Jetbikes (1 Shuriken Cannon) - 63 pts

We played Maelstrom, got the one with dwindling objectives. My opponent fielded a Sisters of Battle list. All in all, the Freakshow concept really clicked this game. I won with 12 victory points, six of which were scored by my Farseer's unit alone. Psychic Shriek and the Ld penalties from Freakshow are really nice together.

I got my "worst case" set of Telepathy powers (Shrouding, Mental Fortitude, Hallucination), but Psychic Shriek earned its biscuits a couple of times.

I think, on the balance, that I'm going to drop the Torment Launchers. Chain Snares for all the vehicles would have been more effective, probably. I tend to use my Raiders as safety-net anti-tank, and putting an anti-infantry weapon on them just doesn't add up. You can Tank Shock even if you've Jinked, right? That would make snares the better investment...

First time really getting to see Grots do their thing in this edition, and holy moly are they amazing!