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I have been wanting to try out a blitzkrieg type tactic for dark eldar, where I attack in multiple places, and whichever I manage to break through, send a ton of reinforcements there and sweep through. I was thinking of running 3 ravagers and 4-5 raider squads as the main assault force, this is still fairly cheap, around 900 points and the plan is for a 1500-2k point game. then to supplement, maybe another raider squad, bikers, or wyches. The main problem with wyches is that they need to be fast to work in this idea, and 10 wyches won't cut it against a melee oriented army. From my experience, 10 wyches can destroy guardsmen, most eldar(barring scorps and shining spears) and even ork slugga boys if they are at about 15-20 boyz left.

The overall plan is to have three spearheads. One in the center, two on the sides of the board. Each spearhead will consist of a ravager and raider squad, and probably a biker squad(3 biker squads wouldnt be too hard at 1750) 2 squads of 4 with hamunculi with destructors and drugs, and one 3 man squad with a hamunculi with drugs and an archon suitably decked out. Each spearhead will advance, being careful of melee's i couldnt win, firing at whatever looks weakest in their area, and the bikers flying in to enter melee with any weaker melee unit and then backed up by the warriors.



I run my ravagers with 3 disintegrators or 2 disintegrators and a darklance; that way the ravagers can move 12" and fire all their weapons.

Raiders with darklances

All vehicles with horrorfex, maybe torture amps on the raiders. I have found horrorfexes, for 5 points, to be amazing. blast those units that will give the most firepower, dropping their leadership usually by at least 2-3, and then trophy racks If i'm going to use horrorfexes and torture amps, for extra 1 ld drop.

Raider Squads are equipped with a splinter cannon and blaster, if points are plentiful and I'm fighting MEQ, a syrabite with a power weapon, but not unless i really feel i need it, their goal is to only be supplemental melee when needed

Wyches have blasters as well, and a succubus with a power weapon(or punisher/tormentor helm if points allow)

Biker Squads have as many blasters as they can(2 I believe) and upgrade one to a succubus with power weapon or punisher/tormentor helm

Hamunculi have destructors, scissor hands, and combat drugs, mounted on bikes

Archon on a bike, combat drugs, shadow field, punisher, tormentor helm, animus vitae


this all assumes I get first turn, if I don't I deploy in reserves and then swoop in.

While these units are at the front lines, more raiders and probably wyches in raiders(even though they are weak in such small numbers alone, They are amazing when combined with bikers or even warriors just for sheer volume of hits) wait on the back lines, ready to flat out to the fight when needed, lending their darklances to the fight against vehicles. I would keep them close enough together to deal with outflankers or deep strikers(if they are early game at least, if they come back there later, I would probably ignore them and move to the front, with my speed, I would probably avoid them all together.)

1st turn I blast whatever would be the most threatening, usually vehicles
2nd turn, I start to shift toward whatever side is breaking through. Since disintegrators have a 36" range, I move them 6" only and fire at units near the side i'm breaking through.
3rd turn. Everything that is left goes flat out and takes position near the breaking point.
4th turn. Everything flys at the weak spot I opened and anihilates anything in that area and start firing/moving along the back line.
5th turn. If its and objective game, i fly to the objectives with my raiders, If its KP, I focus fire on everything that is weakened and try to mop up as many more KP as i can, possibly tank shocking some units off the board with torture amps.

That's the basic strategy, time to break down its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths
Very fast(yep, thats Dark Eldar)

Huge amounts of firepower, tons of high S low AP, and sheer volume of splinter weapons(once again, yep, Dark Eldar)

The element of surprise. Assuming I go first, I deploy first. The enemy has no idea where I am going to commit my forces to, which makes him deploy in such a way that he can defend multiple places at once. This is his downfall because I can pick out and exploit the weaknesses of his line.

Melee superiority against non dedicated melee units. Against guard or vanilla shooty marines, eldar non melee units or necrons, wyches with bikers and maybe warriors will usually win. there's enough power weapons spread around to take down 10 man MEQ squads pretty easily.

Weaknesses
Weak Armor Values. With the ravager having the best armor of 11/11/10, anti tank units are extremely dangerous, and can sto pthis tactic in its tracks.

T3 units. A lot of armies have T3 units, nothing special here, just easier to kill.

Terrible armor. Sv 5-6+ doesnt let you survive much. but if the game is going my way, i won't be leaving the raiders until I either am going into melee, or warriors will be taking a shooting position in cover.

Needs to go first. Like most dark eldar games, You need to go first. IF that isn't possible, i've found it much more prudent to keep them in reserve.

This is somewhat similar to a tactic I use to good effect with my Dark Eldar. My one caveat is thus;

You're setting yourself up for some potentially risky situations by wanting to "test" the opponent's line. As you've noted when it comes to durability (AV, armor saves, and toughness) the DE are hardly anything to write home about. Though you have the right concept about using the speed to overshadow this weakness I would suggest the following adjustment.

Stick with your original setup plan - I like doing this, especially against newbie players, as they will almost invariably set up a giant line to equal the wide front you just placed out. Still try to make use of what cover you have, however, you never know when your opponent might steal the initiative.

Now, instead of "testing" the opponent's line just eyeball it as they set up. Spot what you consider to be major threats to your DE (with your Raider Rush style force, as you noted, anti-tank is an issue - especially anti-tank with good range).

Decide which side looks soft, or which side looks like it can be exploited. For instance, if all his fast attack is on one flank and all his footsloggers are on the other you know you can exploit his poor setup by attacking the fast attack side, and leaving the footsloggers struggling for a turn or two to even get back into the fight.

Now, just direct your entire attack force onto that one flank. Hit him hard, fast, and with hordes of Dark Lance shots and Reaver Jet Bikes swooping in with Blasters and Haemy support. Your goal is to maul as much of his force as you can in the 1-2 rounds of breathing room you'll have before the rest of his army can react and swing themselves around to support their abused flank.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about using Reserve with DE. I personally do not care for it, but many good players do.

IMO there are two ways to run a Dark Eldar Blitzkrieg. With Incubi or Wyches. At the lower points levels (1850 & below) having a deathstar unit of Incubi with a lord can mow through most infantry, you have enough raider squads to open up most armor, and you can include units of wyches, Hamunculi, and bikers for mop up duty.

The way I'm building my army out is as a wych cult. At 2000 points people will have to deal with about 50 wyches plus Lelith. With 9 of those wyches choosing their own combat drugs you can talor the selection to what you need. There are not many armies that can deal with that many wyches in close combat.

While horrorfexs are pretty good you are seeing a lot of armies now with fearless, stubborn, or totally mech. At 5 points a pop the horrorfex is a great deal, but if you are spending another 10 points for the trophy rack you'll have spent 15 points on pieces of wargear that are useless against some of the heaviest played armies out there.

run my ravagers with 3 disintegrators or 2 disintegrators and a darklance; that way the ravagers can move 12" and fire all their weapons.

Raiders with darklances

All vehicles with horrorfex, maybe torture amps on the raiders. I have found horrorfexes, for 5 points, to be amazing. blast those units that will give the most firepower, dropping their leadership usually by at least 2-3, and then trophy racks If i'm going to use horrorfexes and torture amps, for extra 1 ld drop.

Raider Squads are equipped with a splinter cannon and blaster, if points are plentiful and I'm fighting MEQ, a syrabite with a power weapon, but not unless i really feel i need it, their goal is to only be supplemental melee when needed

Wyches have blasters as well, and a succubus with a power weapon(or punisher/tormentor helm if points allow)

Biker Squads have as many blasters as they can(2 I believe) and upgrade one to a succubus with power weapon or punisher/tormentor helm

Hamunculi have destructors, scissor hands, and combat drugs, mounted on bikes

Archon on a bike, combat drugs, shadow field, punisher, tormentor helm, animus vitae

My army looks quite similar.
The Blitzkrieg tactics is possibly the only way to field DE successfully.

Another strength to add to the strengths of your army: moswt gamers dont know what to expect. This army will rule in the metagame.

I also think that the strategy is pretty solid, so...

The Blitzkrieg tactics is possibly the only way to field DE successfully.

I have to completely disagree with this, I am no DE expert or player for that matter. though I have played quite a few games against them mostly 1500+, and a gun line with maxed out Dark Lances, with a small assault force is nothing to scoff at. and don't forget Telos, floating dreadnoughts with an armor save, I have had tac squads just eaten alive, and my Assault Terms with TH/SS just halted from over whelming an objective point(this of course turned into an epic slug fest that lasted 3 turns). so as a Marine player looking in, I would say Telos and Lords, Incubi are annoy as well, but it is the Telos and Lord that give me the hardest time.

I like the idea, not so hot on your list though. With all the haemis and mounted warriors you have excellent close range shooting but a single squad of wyches is not enough counter assault. They could easily die when their raider explodes and then you've got nothing. As a side note, i don't think DE necessarily need to go first. The only time that i absolutely feel i need to go first is with pitched battle. With Dawn of War i want to go second and come on as a whole. With spearhead i love being in reserves because you can use the entire long table edge and since your opponent is probably packed into that table quarter you can often get first turn charges with wyches.

Jsullivanlaw wrote:
I like the idea, not so hot on your list though. With all the haemis and mounted warriors you have excellent close range shooting but a single squad of wyches is not enough counter assault. They could easily die when their raider explodes and then you've got nothing. As a side note, i don't think DE necessarily need to go first. The only time that i absolutely feel i need to go first is with pitched battle. With Dawn of War i want to go second and come on as a whole. With spearhead i love being in reserves because you can use the entire long table edge and since your opponent is probably packed into that table quarter you can often get first turn charges with wyches.

Yeh the wyches will be hit or miss, theyre not meant to win by themselves at all, theyre meant to mop up after tons of shooting and combi assault with bikers and possibly warriors, although warriors will almost always be better firing rapid fire splinter rifles. I've tried small teams of wyches like this a few times and they have about a 50/50 success rate. Even alone I've had 10 wyches with succubus decimate non CC weaker units, theyre great for tieing up larger weak units. 2 squads of raiders arent going to do much in shooting against a 30 man guardsman unit in cover, they would be better shooting at veterans or turning blasters on vehicles, but wyches would probably win that fight, depends on what drug they get. If they got +1 A they would get 40 attacks on the charge, 28 would hit, 14 wound, 10 dead, Guard hits back, 20 attacks(sergeant doesnt get his extra CC weapon attack) 10 hit, 5 wound, 2-3 dead thanks to 4+ invul in melee, unless there is a commissar, the guard are testing lead at minus 7-8, so snake eyes. most likely the wyches will plough through and sweep with I5 vs I3. The main problem that ruins this is, as you mentioned, the raider getting cracked open and 3T 6+ armor units getting shot all to hell. And no, I agree that DE don't have to go first, its just that going second changes the tactics for me up a lot, i nearly always deploy in reserve if I go second.

Asugradinwa wrote:
While horrorfexs are pretty good you are seeing a lot of armies now with fearless, stubborn, or totally mech. At 5 points a pop the horrorfex is a great deal, but if you are spending another 10 points for the trophy rack you'll have spent 15 points on pieces of wargear that are useless against some of the heaviest played armies out there.

Yeh I rarely take the trophy rack, depends on the army I'm fighting, but for 5 points I usually go for the Horrorfex, unless I'm fighting orks, by the time they arent fearless, they will probably break and can't regroup.

Thor665 wrote:
This is somewhat similar to a tactic I use to good effect with my Dark Eldar. My one caveat is thus;

You're setting yourself up for some potentially risky situations by wanting to "test" the opponent's line. As you've noted when it comes to durability (AV, armor saves, and toughness) the DE are hardly anything to write home about. Though you have the right concept about using the speed to overshadow this weakness I would suggest the following adjustment.

Stick with your original setup plan - I like doing this, especially against newbie players, as they will almost invariably set up a giant line to equal the wide front you just placed out. Still try to make use of what cover you have, however, you never know when your opponent might steal the initiative.

Now, instead of "testing" the opponent's line just eyeball it as they set up. Spot what you consider to be major threats to your DE (with your Raider Rush style force, as you noted, anti-tank is an issue - especially anti-tank with good range).

Decide which side looks soft, or which side looks like it can be exploited. For instance, if all his fast attack is on one flank and all his footsloggers are on the other you know you can exploit his poor setup by attacking the fast attack side, and leaving the footsloggers struggling for a turn or two to even get back into the fight.

Now, just direct your entire attack force onto that one flank. Hit him hard, fast, and with hordes of Dark Lance shots and Reaver Jet Bikes swooping in with Blasters and Haemy support. Your goal is to maul as much of his force as you can in the 1-2 rounds of breathing room you'll have before the rest of his army can react and swing themselves around to support their abused flank.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about using Reserve with DE. I personally do not care for it, but many good players do.

Yeh, eyeballing would be preferable to testing when available, it depends on what the situation is. Eyeballing it requires a tactical advantage in my favor, The enemy has to leave something exposed that I can exploit, like putting all his FA flankers on one side as you mentioned. This is of course the best way to go about it, less risk, but a lot of opponents don't leave a clear open spot. My IG friend is a great example of this, he almost always deploys in such a way that an opening is hard to find and spaces his tanks and long range weapons in such a way that they can overlap fire. He tends to have his big infantry squads about 2' from the table edges, putting them about 2' from each other. This way he can move one squad to support the other, or be close enough to FRFSRF 2 shots at 24", plus heavy weapons. As the game starts, he usually moves up a little to cover every angle he can.

In the case that there is no clear opening I think testing would be reasonable, then instead of relying on a tactical blunder on my opponent's fault, I have to push my luck. If the dice go in my favor on one of the attacks, I may have an opening. It seems like a good plan when there is no opening or easy way to flank an opponent.

One thing I have been considering, is having a few raider squads of the backup in reserve to deep strike with screaming jets. This would help me surround the enemy, and still give me the range of movement I need.

I also play a similar DE army and over all your strategy seems solid. I have a few things I want to mention though.

1. Although archon on the bike is good I think 6 haemoculi on bikes are more bang for the buck.
2. Are you using nightshields they are worth it.
3. Horrorfexes are no longer defensive weapons in 5th ed. Wasn't sure if you knew.

thats about it happy hunting!

Dumplingman Wrote:
I also play a similar DE army and over all your strategy seems solid. I have a few things I want to mention though.

1. Although archon on the bike is good I think 6 haemoculi on bikes are more bang for the buck.
2. Are you using nightshields they are worth it.
3. Horrorfexes are no longer defensive weapons in 5th ed. Wasn't sure if you knew.

thats about it happy hunting!

1. It could be, but a dark eldar army has a compulsory choice of either a wych lord or dark eldar lord. And an Archon on a bike is still pretty devastating. Give him a punisher, tormentor helm so he can get 2 CC weapons, animus vitae, and combat drugs. Thats 1 S from the bike, 1 from the punisher, 1 from the drug, 1 from the animus vitae, and 1A from the drugs. Thats either 5 or 6 attacks(I can't remember if the archon is base 2 or 3 A) at S6-7(depends on if the vitae has kicked in yet) all ignoring armor. Thats enough to decimate most units, the only problem is there is no way to step it up to 8, and that would instant death T4 units, but, oh well.

2 Not yet, I havent gotten around to trying it yet. The opponent I play against most often plays IG, so his weapons are either extremely long range and it won't matter, or if I'm in close, denying rapid fire on S3 weapons won't matter as they can't hurt vehicles.

3 Yeh, you have to give up firing a weapon to use it.

The idea of a blitzkrieg is a good one. The only thing I have found is that it is very risky, prone to leaving parts of your army stranded.
Personally, I play against a lot of veteran players, and tournaments. They will quickly negate my mobility and go for the kill on the closest more vulnerable elements of my army. So in this case, I can't really spread out... the most I have done is sending the army in pincer formation only to redeploy one of the prongs of the attack, putting my enemy off balance. The thing is that raiders fall like flies, so you can necer rely on them to stay arround for long...

The archon on a RJB with his RJB unit is quite a good distracting unit, the enemy will usually shoot at them and be afraid of them, and that is why they are there, of course this allows the raiders to get into better position and to take out elements of the opponents army that would add support to the flank you stike with the bikes. This then lets you take out each enemy unit at its own time. Never fight fair with DE!

RedFloyd90 wrote:1. It could be, but a dark eldar army has a compulsory choice of either a wych lord or dark eldar lord.

You have a compulsory HQ unit, and you may only ever field either one Archon or Archite.

There is no obligation to field either an Archon or Archite, you could field double Dracons or 6 Haemys if you wished..

Blitzkrieg could even be started by deploying two WWP's close to the enemy.
But this is a risky job.
In my last games, I took Haemonculi carrying the portals and bolstered their appearance with Warrior units.
Anybody else with experience on that?

Haemonculi as Webway carriers is a quite common tactic since they are one of the tougher units the DE have access to.

When I run Webway my usual delivery system of choice is for one of the carriers to be a Haemy in a Raider with a unit of Grotesques. This makes the unit darn near invincible unless my opponent runs out and engages me in close combat. As long as you pick your angle of approach correctly you can usually assure that this won't happen.

Thor665 wrote:

RedFloyd90 wrote:1. It could be, but a dark eldar army has a compulsory choice of either a wych lord or dark eldar lord.

You have a compulsory HQ unit, and you may only ever field either one Archon or Archite.

There is no obligation to field either an Archon or Archite, you could field double Dracons or 6 Haemys if you wished..

Yeh you're right, I dunno why I thought you had to have either a dark eldar or wych lord.

I may have to try 6 Haemunculi, even on foot theyre pretty nasty. If I am remembering off the top of my head, a hamunculi with a scissor hand and destructor for 50ish points, and then combat drugs if I can afford them. I've found that to be a nasty combo, the destructor can be devastating on its own, and then giving him 2+ wounding to get rid of that mediocre at best strength of 3. From what I have been playing with on my army lists, At 2k points I'm looking at 6 raider squads, 4 10 man, 2 9 man, 2 squads of bikers, a lord, 1 haemunculous, and 3 ravagers. I may drop a raider squad and the lord, put a biker hamunculous with each bike squad, and then put 4 other ones on foot in 4 of the raider squads, 2 in the 9 mans and drop one from two of the others, so they'll fit in the raider.

>Archon on a bike, combat drugs, shadow field, punisher, tormentor helm, animus vitae

I don't have my codex handy, but I don't think this is legal. You can only take so much wargear and I've never been able to shoehorn an Animus Vitae into my bike lord loadout.

The lawyer of ninja is correct - that particular build tops out 5 points over the maximum allowed for an Archon.

The usual fix is to use a Drachite in an army which already has an Archon or Dracon and skip the Shadowfield.

or

To drop the Tormentor Helm or Animus Vitae.