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.

Hello all, after reading a lot of tacticas, unit analysis and mathhammers i think i'm ready to start crunching some competitive lists.
The tournament is going to Happen in Brazil, i've researched about tourneys around here and it seems its going to be the largest one.

There's only one Dark Eldar player, its me. The tourney is 1500pts, three diferent missions in three diferent scenarios.
1st mission - killpoints with little variation
2nd misson - grab and hold with funky deployment, the players choose the between the small sides of the table and its 24" or 30" from the edge (infiltrators in this scenario are killers)
3rd mission - Anihilation with extra points by killing HQs (standard deployiment)

I've come up with three possible lists, i'll do my best to explain the purpose of each unit

List 1:

HQ
3x Haemonculus - 3x Liquifiers, Shattershard and Crucible

Troops
3 Wracks // Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon (reserved)
3 Wracks // Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon (reserved)
3 Wracks // Venom with 2nd Splinter Cannon (reserved)
9 Wyches - Hydra Gaunts, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields
9 Wyches - Hydra Gaunts, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields
9 Wyches - Hydra Gaunts, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields

Heavy
Ravager - Flickerfield
Ravager - Flickerfield
Ravager - Flickerfield

DashOfPepper variant. The Wracks aren't supposed to disembark, they're just there to provide Venom's firepower at distance. Keep in mind they are reserved to flat-out into objectives or move 12"-shoot when they appear. Of course i can choose NOT to reserve them depending on what i'm facing and the scenario being played.
They're also there so i can score objectives that my wyches aren'y trying to take. In 1500 points matches i'm not afraid of heavily mechanized armies, 12 Lances and a bunch of Haywires seem enough (considering the Brazillian meta).

List 2:

HQ
3x Haemonculus - 3x Liquifiers, Shattershard and Crucible

Troops
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster // Raider w/ Flickerfields
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster // Raider w/ Flickerfields
9 Wyches - Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields and Torment Grenade Launchers
9 Wyches - Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields and Torment Grenade Launchers
9 Wyches - Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Agoniser // Raider w/ Flickerfields and Torment Grenade Launchers

Heavy
Ravager - Flickerfield
Ravager - Flickerfield

Fast
3 Beastmasters - 5 Khymerae, 4 Razorwings

Took the Splinter Cannons out and a Ravager to put some more 'usable' troops. This is more melee oriented, of course. The Beastmaster squad is big enough to pound some faces and hopefully survives til they get there. Interesting to note here: TGL is a great way to make battles won by one or two into battles won by two or three, that along the obvious synergy with Crucible. I've lost three lances removing one ravager and spread them into two units that each have one Lance and one Blaster so i'm not losing much here.

List 3:

HQ
Archon - Combat Drugs, Agoniser, Shadowfield

Elite
4 Trueborn - 4 Blasters // Venom w/ 2nd Splinter Cannon
4 Trueborn - 4 Blasters // Venom w/ 2nd Splinter Cannon
6 Incubi // Raider w/ Flickerfield

Troops
10 Kabalite Warriors - Splinter Cannon, Blaster // Raider w/ Flickerfield
10 Kabalite Warriors - Splinter Cannon, Blaster // Raider w/ Flickerfield
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster // Venom w/ 2nd Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors - Blaster // Venom w/ 2nd Splinter Cannon

Heavy
Ravager
Ravager

This is a Shoota list, as you must've imagined. The only melee here is the Archon and his Incubi retinue. They're there to be cirurgical and assault crippled targets. Most of this army are supposed to shoot from inside the vehicle if possible. More S8 AP2 weaponry than lists before but zero Haywires. This is not a stand and shoot army, is a march forward and shooting while outmaneuvering the oponent. It sure looks like a sit-and-shoot but its not. Extremely resilient HQ with more than formidable Assault squad, obviously being target fired from the begining but i'm using that as an advantage: that means my whole army will be shot less than usual.

I really DO want to put the Baron in whatever list, but after hours of crunching i couldn't get anywhere without aborting the main idea of the list, 1500 points is too harsh on competitive list building.

I'd like to hear comments, suggestions and analysis backed by tactical thoughts and personal experience, please don't post stuff like "this is better than that, period", at least make an effort to put an argument (if backed by a battle report then its even better).

Thanks all in advance

I don't like any of the lists:

List 1:

Wyches are more a tarpit unit than a real CC powerhouse. They have Hydra Gauntlets with do less damage than Razorflails fo rthe same points which makes no sense. This list to me is more threatening from range than up close but not threatening enough from either to really worry me.

List 2:

Total mess really. Beasts don't really dovetail well with the rest of the army. So you hit the opponent in nice bite sized waves for him to deal with you.

Both these lists lack AT fire power. Personally if I was making an assault list it would still have about 15-20 Dark light weapons at this point level.

List 3:

My personal favourite way to play DE but again too low on threat level. Do you need the Incubi? Why don't you have 3 Ravagers a must for any list but a shooty list its a total no-brainer. I'd like to see more Darklight weaponry in the list too (25-30 perhaps more if you're going DL spam).

Of the 3 lists List 1 is the best and can be fixed by swapping in razorflails or upgrading the Wyches to Wracks.

List 1 is similar to Dash's list and probably the best of the 3, but is missing the Trueborn which give it much needed anti tank punch. Looking at the missions only 1 is objective based, which means 6 scoring units is definitely overkill for 1500pts. I would at least drop two of those units of Wracks for a unit (or two if you strip the Flickfields off the Ravagers, drop a couple of Wyches and the Crucible) of Blaster Trueborn in Venoms. In any case I wouldn't be reserving those Wracks + Venoms unless you are going second against long ranged firepower list (in which case you are probably reserving everything). With Dark Eldar you want as much firepower on the table as early as possible. If you opponent shoots at the Venoms/Wracks flying around in your backfield then thank him for not shooting at your Wych Raiders or Ravagers and proceed to run him over.

I'm not convinced the Crucible is worth it, but if you are expecting plenty of Grey Knight armies then go for it. If you can find a few points to put Torment Grenade Launcher on a few Raiders a well, it drops HQ psykers to a more reasonable Ld9 and stuff like Justicar will be testing on Ld8.

The second list isn't that good, the Beastmasters don't fit the rest of the list (more so because you already have plenty of anti infantry with your Wyches than a speed issue, in practice they are barely any slower than Raider based assault units) and to get them you have given up a big chunk of your long ranged firepower, notably the Lances.

The third list is probably the least optimised, its trying to be a shooty list but doesn't quite get there. If you take Incubi you need multiple units of them (and other powerful assault units like Beastmasters or a Court) to create an overload of threatening units which your opponent can't handle. Even at only 6 strong + the Archon that Incubi unit is a very obvious target, and in your AV10 paper plane you won't last long.
Warriors should never have both Blasters and Splinter Cannons because they have totally different targets and operating distances. If you want a long ranged anti tank unit take a Dark Lance and nothing else, if you want a close range anti tank unit take a Blaster and maybe a Blast Pistol. If you want an anti infantry unit then take the Splinter Cannon, depending on the situation you can shoot to full effectiveness or move to get into better positions.

Today i've playtested the first list.

LIKE I SAID, i had enough lances coupled with Haywires to deal with any kind of vehicle (i was playing against the guy that will bring more vehicles next to me)

Flickerfields? a Must.

Wrack squads? hummm i'm not sold on them even though they performed well.

Wych squads? I need a fourth.