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Hey I'm an avid 40K player and have been playing for quite some time now but am thinking of starting my first real Fantasy army.
I have dabbled in the past but have never had an army bigger than around 500-750 points.

All of my friends and I recently decided to start up Fantasy armies and I have been indecisive on which army to choose.
I think I will go with Dark Eldar (oops I mean Dark Elves) but idk how they play or what units to buy.

Any advice on the subject of the army or the game would be very useful.

Thanks in advance

i would sincerely suggest learning the rules first and then try a few games with a loaner army.
you may jump in to the game only to find you hate the dark elves.

wish i could give you some other advice but i don't play DE.

update...
after rereading your post if you dont have an army to borrow and you and your friends are diving in together then the first buys id suggest are the easiest, core troops. pick up a nice block of spear men and maybe a unit of repeating crossbowmen to support them.

Oh I forgot to mention that I own around 1750 points of Orks and Goblins so I get practice with them.
I know the rules pretty well and how the game works.

The reason I posted this is to find out more about Dark Elves, the GW site is worthless as it tries to make every army out there seem unbeatable and amazing.

Greetings Sgt. Salt!

Dark Elves are my current and favorite army! I run 1,500 points of DE, and I'd love to help you out.

Unit Rundown

Lord/Hero

you obviously need one and the lord can be used in 2,000 point and up games. I would actually suggest waiting for the release of the new dreadlord with Great Weapon, but it's ultimately up to you. My favorite combo for my Dreadlord is Pedant of Khaeleth, armor of eternal servitude, and Sword of might with mundane equip

Sorceress
If you are going to use one, it's imperative for you to take her on foot and put her with some sort of cheap expendable unit. Sacrificial Dagger works wonders for her, not much else to say.


Cores

Crossbows are always good, not much to say here. 3+ without modifiers is nice, but 2 shots each is nice as well.

Spearmen make a cheap and cheerful (or not) bodyguard for a sorceress (give her sacrificial dagger and slice away!) or defending your warmachines.

Corsairs are pretty good, I prefer 2 hand weapons, handbow isn't my favorite.

Dark Riders: Either you're going to convert them or buy them, either way, i've heard tons of good stuff about them. ALWAYS try to give them repeater Crossbows.

Harpies: mixed bag, good march blocking, and warmachine and lone mage hunters, but can be shot up if just simply left alone. March Blocking and Warmachine hunting are my favorites.

Specials

Cold One Knights: So far so good! Stupidity is never good but the banner of cold blood is useful for that one charge you need.

Chariot: Same as above, slightly slower and more attacks methinks.

Executioners: Good, but Great Weapons striking last isn't my favorite thing. Try to get a battle standard bearer with Standard of Hag Graef in the unit for Always Strikes First.

Black Guard: Better than Executioners. Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, re-rolls to hit ALWAYS make this unit the one that you can count on. Same thing as above with Standard of hag Graef

Shades: I've heard good things as well, obviously good scouts, some people like to deathstar them, but entirely up to you. Most people I know like theirs with Great Weapons

Rares

Bolt Thrower
What Can I say? 6 shots with -3 modifier? nice. plus they can be fielded as 2 for one rare slot.

War Hydra
Basically everyone I know loves this unit. good toughness, regeneration, a real beast (lol) in close combat. I would highly recommend it. Nice breath attack too.

Thank you soo much Cryonicleech that pretty much summed it up.

I'm thinking a lot of Corsairs as the center of my army and not a lot of shooting except Dark Riders and maybe bolt throwers.

Shades seem cool but what is Deathstar?

here you go

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/226311.page

DEs have become greatly competative since their last release, not OT Tlike daemons and VC, but very good.

The one entry Cryonicleech missed is the assassin.

These guys can be insane.
The 2 best uses for them I've seen so far are in a shades unit for a nasty surprise when the enemy catches them (also allows the shades to be used as a stronger flanking unit that can reliably charge) or hidden in the rank and file infantry next to a sorceress or lord (if in there).
He jumps out, smashes the rank and file and then the champ or character tie up the enemy in a challenge.

With the huge number of attacks, and hatred they are combat monsters.

However.
Any more than 2 and you start to run short of points for other stuff.
They are pretty lame at beating anything with a 2+ armour save, so heavy cav (brets especially) will be best avoided.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:DEs have become greatly competative since their last release, not OT Tlike daemons and VC, but very good.

The one entry Cryonicleech missed is the assassin.

These guys can be insane.
The 2 best uses for them I've seen so far are in a shades unit for a nasty surprise when the enemy catches them (also allows the shades to be used as a stronger flanking unit that can reliably charge) or hidden in the rank and file infantry next to a sorceress or lord (if in there).
He jumps out, smashes the rank and file and then the champ or character tie up the enemy in a challenge.

With the huge number of attacks, and hatred they are combat monsters.

However.
Any more than 2 and you start to run short of points for other stuff.
They are pretty lame at beating anything with a 2+ armour save, so heavy cav (brets especially) will be best avoided.

So Shades in a Dark Elf army = possible assassin?

At 2500pt tourney (with special characters allowed) I faced:
Morathi
Shadowblade
Khorhil (the kraken dude)
BSB with the +1 attack banner
1 unit corsairs (assassin, BSB and Khorhil)
3 units repeater x bows
1 unit shades with assassin
1 unit dark riders
2 RBTs.

I had slayer cult and was thrashed soundly.

The shades with assassin was the biggest shock and when I finally did pin them between 2 (depleted) units of advancing slayers, the assassin almost single handedly fought his way out in a single turn, IIRC they were out in 3 combat phases.

I'm on a 16 hour shift at work today but when I get my DE book at home and am online tomorrow night I'll do up the insano assassin that has become the tourney default here in Oz.

That'd be much appreciate, Dr. Nads. My idea was to keep them cheap
and field multiples, just for the sheer psychological game. I know, I know,
that's a lot of money to spend on a mind game (for the blocks of
infantry) but whatever!

Im gonna throw in my two cents, ive been playing my new DE now for about 5 months and have learned some sneaky bussiness. Assassins are a must for they are sheer killing machines and can win combat for whatever unit their hideing in by themselves. Reaper bolt throwers are a must as are shades with great weapons, like to run mine in a unit of ten. Black guard are the bread and butter of DE they can put anything on lock for long periods of time, just watch out for choas knights and empire knights, those high saves will keep them in the fight for a long time and they'll shrug off most of your wounds.

Deadly but very expensive thing to do with Black guard is the following.
Lokhir fellheart
Assassin decked out
banner of hag graf
15 black guard totally decked out, up to include their special leader who counts as a champion who makes them unbreakable and gives three str 6 attacks. this unit will now have the extra bonus's
ASF
cause terror
unbreakable
Ive done this once and watched as my black guard shreded empire. its risky though i did it for kicks and giggles

Hydras are tough as nails and becoming more popular when run as tag team.
Even dwarves with all their shooting are having a hard time killing both of them, and all the shooting at them allows the above mentioned black guard unit to get into combat and munch the enemy.

Tourney default assassin.

Assassin (ASF, poison, eternal hatred)
Extra hand weapon (+1 Attack)
Rune of Khaine (+d3 attacks)
Touch of death (killing blow)

So now you have:
5-7 attacks @ WS9 and I10 ASF, rerolling to hit first turn, any sixes poison.
Strength 4 with killing blow on any sixes.
-1 armour save (this is why I say they are weak vs heavy armour.

I'll roll up some trials with my dice...
vs the new saurus with spears:
6 attacks rolled, 4 hit (one poison), 2 rerolls which both hit.
3 wounds (one killing blow), plus the 1 poison carry over
4+ armour save at -1... 3 dead, plus 1 for killing blow.
4 dead before anyone else has even attacked.
On subsequent trials it came up 3-4 most times.
And saurus are one of the better infantry units.


Throw it in a unit with the hydra banner (BSB) for another attack, then corsair unit with banner of murder for ANOTHER attack from frenzy.

That was the abomination I faced.... 9 attacks of pointy death. :(

Try this one put him in a unit with the banner of murder!! Then he is better dealing with good armour. Here is one of my units im useing in a siege battle tomarrow
15 black guard full command with Korun
Banner of murder
Lokhir fellheart
assasin with Runes of Khaine and touch of death. This unit will be high priorty target but thats fine go ahead and ignore my large group of shades with great weapns and see what happens!!

Dark Elves are a very nice army to start playing with, since although they are elves they have atleast one completely over the top unit choice in every force organisation category and many incredibly useful magic items and a strong magic phase. I'm seriously contemplating of starting a DE army myself.

I see you've gotten some advice already, but if I were you I would steer clear of the Corsairs. They're one of the horrible units in the army book, so don't take them unless you want to give your opponent a better chance at winning. There's still plenty of ways to make use of the fantastic new Corsair models. You can easily kitbash them and the Warriors to make 'Black Ark Spearmen/Crossbowmen' or whatever. Unless you're going full Khainite, also try to avoid using Witch Elves and Executioners, since your points are much better spent at Warriors, Crossbowmen, Black Guard, CoK/CoC and Hydras.

As far as the Assassin is concerned, it's a little hit and miss. Sure it will demolish a lot of RnF and what I've seen it's quite fun to use but on a raw power scale you should concentrate on the magic phase. As far as the lord choices are concerned, the unkillable pendant lords are funny and you can make incredibly resilient mounted BsB's too, but again the Supreme Sorceress is where the big money would go. Mount her on a Dark Pegasus and give her the Focus Familiar is one brilliant way to use her. She's untouchable.

Anyway I'm sure you'll have a great time.

DE battalion? ( gets you xbow / spear / corsair / Coldones )

a large chunk of what people listed at a good price.

And some repeater throwers.

I had to face morathi with the focus familiar.

IIRC the words 'slowed' and 'lame' were used much during that ame much to my opponent's ammusement.

Also great to see you back posting again Therion, hope we'll see alot more of you around here.

I personally think that those Executioners are great, and even though they've only got 1 attack, that's hitting often on 3's, and then wounding on 2's (Strength 6) with a killing blow. I can see how they wouldn't be that popular for killing infantry with that 1 attack, but Strength 6 and Killing Blow rules.

Also, on the assassins page, I believe you can reveal an assassin to stand and shoot, right? This means that should someone charge, for example, your lovely great weapon Shades, then out pops the assassin with Rending Stars! That's like, 3 Strength 5 hits hitting on 2's, not to mention the Shades shooting as well. And then of course there's things like Rune of Khaine which is rigged and Touch of Death.

I think Assassins are great, and so are Executioners.