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I've been reading around the internet looking for advice on small Dark Eldar forces.  I came across one seemingly knowledgeable site that suggested starting up your army with a lot of bare knuckle Raider squads.  This would be for some small conflicts, 500-1000 points, and I was wondering what you guys thought of the viability of this kind of tactic.  Seems to me that a bunch of splinter rifles aren't really that effective, even if they get to ride around really fast and pop up out of nowhere to rapid fire you.  And if it is an ok idea, how would the execution of the plan go?  Thanks

I am not a huge fan of Raider squads.  They are very fragile and are more support units. 

Gunboat style is what it is referred to when you have a 5 man, 1 blaster and 1 SC riding around shooting and rapid firing squads.  It was much more viable in 3rd edition, but now the whole Dark Eldar airforce is only possible with webway portals which I would only recommend in 1500+ games.

However Raiders are crucial to giving wyches and other troops a ride to the close combat, so picking up 3-5 is my recommendation. 

10 man 2 DL "sniper" squads are the norma and will dish out more than that raider squad would vs armored foes and is more survivable in cover.  You lose mobility for survivability, which is not a huge loss for DE because everything else is still fast.  It gives you a firebase to build from.

I run 12 man DL squads with 1 blaster per squad myself and it works well. I also run bike squads of 3 with 2 blasters, and a succubus packing a power weapon, tormentor helm, and combat drugs. Risky however at S5 with 5 attacks you can really tear up some MEQ's. I run 3 squads like this and I can tell you from first hand experience combined with an Archon on a bike you can rapidly flank and wipe out entire armies with this combination. In fact it's the only army I've played that has allowed to me to phase out Necrons.

Also I run 2 ravagers, a talos, 1 wych squad on a raider, 2 haemonculi, and a unit of warp beasts, and 6 of those 12 man DL/blaster squads. It's an all around nasty combination and I've taken down tournament marine armies with it without losing more than 25% of my own force.

Yeah, I'm thinking for very small encounters though, where it will probably be tough to get that many extra assaulty units involved. I dunno though, I have some time to figure it out.

I like this list:

Archon, bike, agnoizer, drugs, shadowfield

2 x grotesque? (the HQ choice you can take 3 of for one slot) with a WWP

6 x 10 man, 2 dark lance warrior squad

3 x 10 wyches, syrabrite, drugs, agonizer, raider

3 Ravagers with disintegrators or dark lances.


That gives you 20 stable BS4 dark lances, the ravagers can move and put down three plamsa cannon shots, or three dark lances, the grotesques (or whatever they are called) drop the webway portals and the wyches come out and hit anything on the board the turn they come out.

It is a pretty nasty list, i have played against it many times and my marines HATE it.

The only thing you have to look out for is a dropping libby with fear, or drop troops in general to be honest, allthough the wyches will counter them pretty effectively.

Reecius, you mean Haemonculi, not Grotesques.

thanks, i forgot.

the Wych cult list with craploads of blasters is pretty hawt. Plus Wyches are mega annoying in assault.

Wych squads in raiders coming out of a Web Way Portal are rad. You usually have plenty of movement to assault right out of the portal denying the enemy to shoot at your flimsy raiders or flimsier wyches. Plus, with two blasters in the wych squads and the lance on the raider, you've got 3 S8, low AP shots; potentially at 2 different targets.

They have a place, mostly as an annoyance.  I usually take 2 in 1000-1750 point lists: 6-8 warriors with blaster and splinter cannon.  Start the game with them dismounted, move up the table, then dismount near cover or to harass shooty squads and the weak side/rear of vehicles.  It is all about target saturation.  Don't keep the squads on the raider.  Everything in my DE army except Archons and Wyches are expendable. 

i dont run any raider squads at all i run a strict wytch cult 4-6 wytch squads 6 wytches in each squad all in raiders 2 blasters each

if i use reg warriors then they are 2 dl and 2 blasters at 10 men each x's 3 i run an archyte with shadow field combat drugs punisher tormentor helm and animus vitae a wytch squad with 2 blasters and the raider...i would not put an agoniser with an hq character use a succubus for that if your so worried about tanks and such

i add succubi to each wytch squad and give them poison blades cheap but effective

and i add 3 ravagers with 2 dl and a disintigrator and nightshields

fast hard hitting great shooting can handle anything

Posted By DarkKhabal on 08/17/2007 7:42 PM
i dont run any raider squads at all i run a strict wytch cult 4-6 wytch squads 6 wytches in each squad all in raiders 2 blasters each

if i use reg warriors then they are 2 dl and 2 blasters at 10 men each x's 3 i run an archyte with shadow field combat drugs punisher tormentor helm and animus vitae a wytch squad with 2 blasters and the raider...i would not put an agoniser with an hq character use a succubus for that if your so worried about tanks and such

i add succubi to each wytch squad and give them poison blades cheap but effective

and i add 3 ravagers with 2 dl and a disintigrator and nightshields

fast hard hitting great shooting can handle anything

The blasters are cheap, but unless you have stationary targets within 12", you'll rarely get to fire both the blasters and darklances in the same turn, and I don't like my sniper squads within 12" of anything.  I usually don't bother with them on the plain warrior squads unless I've maxed out the force org chart.

Granted 12" is not much range but i have had drop podding dreads in my face and the extra blasters reminded those pesky marines never to do that again!!!

and over the cost of 3 squads its only 30 points .. so its not that much of a points drain

sorry double post

i don't know about raider squads only being used for support, in 500-1000 point games they could wok quite well, i dont really use it all that much myself, but you can have raiders that deep strike if you give them the up-grade, and altho the people inside cant disembark on the same turn everyone onboard can still fire their weapons, could be a good counter attack option

I run my Archon on bike with a Power Weapon instead of the Agonizer. +1S, Reroll failed to-hit rolls, and +1 attack. Makes hime S5 with 6 attacks on the charge, pretty much all hit due to re-rolls, and you kill marines on 3's instead of 4's with the agonizer.

On foot I run him with a Punisher. +1S from the weapon instead of the bike same deal though. Put him on a raider with a Raider squad. Move the raider 12" forward from behind cover. Jump the Archon off the front 2" from the raider, fleet D6" and then combat drugs, and assault 12". If you start the raider off behind cover it becomes pretty much unstoppable short of a lucky indirect ordnance shot on the raider. 12" + 2" + D6" + 12" = a minimum assault distance of 27" thats if you roll a fleet of 1. Typically follow him up with Wyches, and warp beasts.

I use one Raider squad with a splinter cannon, blaster, and sybarite with a xenospasm. This unit is used to plug holes and do drive by's. It is usually viewed as less of a threat than my raiders w/ Wyches and Ravagers so it is often ignored. Then the Xenospasm fires and pins a large unit (usually one about to counter-attack my wyches) and then the whole squad rapid fires into the unit to whittle it down further. I've used this squad in several games and it hasn't let me down yet, often doing more to contribute to my win than any other single unit!

Ozymandias, King of Kings