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ok ive had my DE army for 12 months and played prolly 4 to 5 games. of that i did tear all but 1 opponent to bits (damn Necrons)

anyway, i tend to be dark lance heavy with wychs gettin into assault early on. i been playing 1000 point games but i need a bit of advice

This is what i been using lately and it has been quite good for me, but against necrons it isnt as great as i hoped

HQ

Dracon 35 pts
9 Warriors 72 pts
2 Dark Lances 30 pts

Wych Dracite 45 pts
Combat Drugs 25 pts
Shadow Field 25 pts
9 Wych Retinue 108 pts
7 Wych Weapons 9 pts
Raider 55 pts

Elite

Wych Squad
10 Wych 120 pts
10 Wych Weapons 10 pts
Raider 55 pts

Mandrake Squad
5 Mandrakes 75 pts

Troops

Warrior Squad
10 Warriors 80 pts
2 Dark Lances 20 pts

Warrior Squad
10 Warriors 80 pts
2 Dark Lances 20 pts

Heavy

Ravenger 105 pts

999 pts total

Models i do have

1 Lord
1 Wych Lord
20 Wychs
12 Mandrakes
2 Ravengers
3 Raiders
60 warriors
5 Reaver Bikes

The (unequipped) Dracon attached to a sniper squad is a bit useless.
3 Sniper squads, 2 Wych squads, 1 Ravager, Mandrakes.
Well, Necrons can be a nemesis for DE.
Better ignore the Monolith and go for the phase out.
For this, I'd replace one sniper squad (incl. Dracon) with a Raider (Warrior) squad.
Then you will have 3 attacking squads in Raiders.

DL Heavy is one way to go. I think a Haemonculi leading the army might serve you better. Cheaper and atleast you can arm him with some gear.

The Dracon is wortlhess especially without a weapon.

The Wych Squads really needs a Succubus with an Agonizer to lead them and maybe plasma grenades as well. I find 7 man + Succubi with Agonizer is the ideal number 2 blasters(min Dark Lance) adds some punch especially to Necrons and tanks.

If you take Wyches you might want to pick up some Warp Beast, I use a 3 Beast + Leader at only 51 points I believe is a real bargain.

The Ravager is ok, Dissies Melt Faces off 3+ Saves. I tend to use 2 Dissies w/ 1 DL myself.

Mandrakes are one of my favorite units, they can hold objectives and survive unhurt to the target.

If you are really tight on points, at a minimum get poison blades on your HQ's and unit leaders.

I think you should ditch the second HQ (Dracon) and use your second Ravager. muchos shootos.

Mandrakes. Cool. I don't even remember what they do. Turn invisible and kill everything.

And yes, I agree with jesterz that if you like the weird cool stuff Warp Beasts are a very popular choice. What do they do? Run across the table and eat themselves.

Plenty of old posts and tactics on this subject if you do a search.

Not having the Codex on me I could be misremembering something, but as I recall if you purchase a Wych Lord (including Drachites) you have to use the Wych Cult list. That would prohibit you from running the Drachite. The change in the force org chart would also have some impact on your army structure.

My thoughts on the list?

It looks pretty solid for 1k. I agree with the prior comments that the Wyches need Succubi/Agonizers/plasma grenades/and blasters.

You might free up some points by dropping the drugs and shadow field from the Dracite. She is already rather killy against most other CC opponents that you will run into at 1,000 pts. without that extra boost. Since she looses the Independent Character rule when she is within her retinue, the Shadow Field helps turn her into a point sink without greatly improving her performance.

That has generated some debate about the Archon or Dracon with Dracite.

The side bar text in the codex says A DE force can only ever contain 1 Archon or one Archite, but as many Dracons/Dracites as the mission allows.

Then it says if the army is led by a Wych Lord, they become a Wych Cult.

The problem is 2 things, the first paragraph is suspect and allows pretty much what he has here. The Lord is not a Dracite/Dracon by some standards even though it is clearly under the Dark Eldar Lord box.

Also, some believe that you simply say the Dracon is leading and therefore it is a Kabal, why would a Dracite overule a Dracon? I can buy that, but nothing is firm either way.

I think if you take a Wych lord at all it is a Wych Cult, but in friendly games it hardly would matter as long as you were in a force Org chart. But, then you could take a Dracite and a Dracon and just change wyches to troops, meaning 2 squads and all the other changes. Like more Warp Beast packs!

jesterzdragon wrote:I think if you take a Wych lord at all it is a Wych Cult, but in friendly games it hardly would matter as long as you were in a force Org chart.

If you let your opponent know that you are breaking a Codex restriction and they are OK with it, that's fine. Breaking a Codex restriction without your opponent's knowledge/consent seems to go against the spirit of a "friendly" game.

Going back to the list-do your Necron opponents run the Viel of Darkness a lot? If so, mounting Disintegrators on your Raiders/Ravager could be a worthwhile investment. Loosing the Dark Lances shouldn't be a huge problem as at 1,000 pts. it should be easy enough for your opponent to keep all of their models within Res Orb range going from S8 to S7 isn't a major loss, and even the small template works well enough against Deep Striking things.

i had the chat at the local shop where i play and as i aint playing a Archite im not a Wych cult. but yeh i have been looking at the other options. i did drop the Dracons Retinue and put him on a skyboard with a punisher, and moved the shadowfield to him. i cant remember all the changes, but when i get my desktop back from the computer shop i will post some of the changes i had made

Edit - The Codex States as Follows

HQ: Dark Eldar Kabalsare lead by ruthless individuals who do not share there power with others. A dark eldar force may only ever contain one Archon or one Archite. As many Dracons and Dracites may be taken as allowed by the mission being played.

My Archon usually rides a skyboard.
Well, there is still a debate whether he can fof on the skyboard or not.
While Hellions can't, he possibly can.
In local tournaments here, it is allowed. Cheers!

Freaky Freddy wrote:
HQ: Dark Eldar Kabalsare lead by ruthless individuals who do not share there power with others. A dark eldar force may only ever contain one Archon or one Archite. As many Dracons and Dracites may be taken as allowed by the mission being played.

Then later in that same box it states:

If the army is led by a Wych Lord, they become a Wych Cult. Blah blah changes Wyches to troops etc.

I ask before hand, and my gaming group is ok with it. I developed an FAQ for DE for players on 40konline and they read it over and we hammered out many things ahead of time. One of which is the Jump Pack(Skyboard) allowing the Lord to FoF, which is allowed by RAW, and my group has no issues in this regard either. I have not tried it in a tournament, but I would still ask ahead of time.

Well, as we normally play objective based games at the local store, i declare my Dracon as my Primary HQ (for assassinate) and my Dracite as most expensive HQ (Bonus Points).

Thus my army is classed as a Kabal rather then a Wych cult. The store has approved this for the time being and has asked a rep to confirm if my army list is legal or not in the regards to that