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Good day everyone, I currently play Salamanders and Imperial Guard, but I've finally decided to be brave and try out my dark eldar. I believe I have a fair selection of most models, and have no qualms about proxying, so there are no limitations as far as models.

Here's my stab at a 1k point list, to hopefully be tried this Thursday. I'd appreciate any comments on strengths or weaknesses of my list, am completely ok with tough love, and wouldn't mind any general advice about dark eldar in general or what they can do that's competitive given today's metagame.

HQ
Archon
-Agoniser
-Splinter Pistol
-Plasma grenades
-Shadow field
-Retinue
--9 Warriors aka meatshields
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--Trophy Racks

Elites
Wyches x9
-Plasma grenades
-Wych Weapons
-Succubus
--Agoniser
--Goblet of Spite
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--trophy racks

Troops
Warrior Squad 1 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2

Warrior Squad 2 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2

Warrior Squad 3 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2
-Sybarite
--Nightmare doll <- ok, so this does make my opponent reroll to see who goes first right? If not this and the sybarite will be subbed for combat drugs on the lord

Raider Squad (x10)
-Splinter Cannon
-Blaster
-Sybarite (filling up points)
--Plasma grenades (only on the sybarite)(filling up points)
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--trophy racks

That comes out right at 1,000 unless my math has failed me again. Thanks for looking, and especially thanks for any help.

Here is my quick 2 cents, you have some squads in raiders and some not. One is going to be QUICKLY left behind and quite frankly DE cant afford to get spread too thin. If shooting is your goal minimize on models in a squad and maximize on the number of transports and special weps in each. If not, still suggest raiders to get in cc. Moral of the story, any time I have had success with my DE it has been with (almost) everyone in a raider.

Needs more raiders.... honestly. Really does. And a ravager. At 1k points I'd run something like this;

HQ
-----
Archon
- Punisher
- Shadow Field
- Combat Drugs
4x incubi
Raider

305 pts

Troops
----------
Raider Squad
- 5x warriors, 1 DL

Raider Squad
- 5x Warriors, 1 DL

Raider Squad
- 5x Warriors, 1 DL

Raider Squad
- 5x Warriors, 1 DL

Lance Squad
- 10 warriors, 2 DL's

520 pts

Heavy Support
-------------------
1x ravager
- 3x Disintigrators

125 pts

Use the rest of the points as you see fit. This army is super mobile, and at 1k points VERY few armys can deal with that much armor moving around the field. The archons squad is just icing on the cake, running in to punch a squad. Honestly I'd almost run a Dracon and put her in his squad too, just for another power weapon. And trip disintigrator ravagers own!

My points may be off slightly (don't have codex with me) so sorry in advance!

If you haven't read the dark eldar tactica yet, do so: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dark_Eldar_Tactica

Aside from that, we have two resident DE tactical geniuses, each with their own playstyles that mostly converge; the first is the author of that tactica, Thor665, and Clthomps.

See if you can find either one and have them critique your list. Alternatively, here's the list *I* made and all the critiques and comments that went into it: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/265152.page

ProseDragon wrote:
HQ
Archon
-Agoniser
-Splinter Pistol
-Plasma grenades
-Shadow field
-Retinue
--9 Warriors aka meatshields
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--Trophy Racks

You are spending way too many points on a HQ unit that to be honest is fairly weak, and will get mauled in CC. Yes your Lord has plenty of attacks and the Initiative, but any reasonable CC unit will take that in it's stride and then pummel most of those warriors in 1 go! Plus if their Raider gets taken down you are taking wounds on half the squad and with their 5+ saves see a lot of points gone in a flash. If you really want this unit then take 3 Incubi and 2 Warriors so you still have a meat shield but also some additional high Initiative power weapons for extra crunch. To be honest I'd take a Dracon at best in 1k (to be honest i always stick to a Dracon anyways because as soon as he fails a power fist/S6+ invun save he is toast). Overall though i would suggest freeing up a *lot* of points by dropping the entire squad and just taking Hermonculi with Destructors at 40pts each. The great strength of Dark Eldar at 1k is their ability to spam due to very cheap units. Ask yourself what this Archon HQ unit is really going to do in a 1k match... not much more than 1-2 guys with flamers of death!

ProseDragon wrote:Elites
Wyches x9
-Plasma grenades
-Wych Weapons
-Succubus
--Agoniser
--Goblet of Spite
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--trophy racks

Yikes... well let us start off with the Goblet of Spite, there is little point with S3 and only being T3 to allow your opponent the ability to hit you on a 3 with the benefit of you hitting on a 3. The Wyches strength is more to make them a tar pit than to really do much damage with them. It's a "myth" that wyches are some CC beasts, and one that can win a lot of DE players games when opponents do all they can to focus fire at them. Goblet of Spite further negates the benefit your Wych Weapons give of halving the opponents WS when they hit you, if they are not S6. I would revise this squad to make it slightly smaller since once again if that Raider goes down you lose 4 of them straight away. With the points saved you should definatly add some of the special weapon options because this squad will end up being close and personal. Double blaster make them slightly useful against vehicles or trying to PK some characters on their own but i would probably consider putting a double Shredder instead. DE suffer against large squads, and even Wyches can get dragged down facing mass numbers therefore double S6 blasts helps ease the burdon.

ProseDragon wrote:Troops
Warrior Squad 1 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2

Warrior Squad 2 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2

Warrior Squad 3 (x10)
-Dark Lance x2
-Sybarite
--Nightmare doll <- ok, so this does make my opponent reroll to see who goes first right? If not this and the sybarite will be subbed for combat drugs on the lord

Raider Squad (x10)
-Splinter Cannon
-Blaster
-Sybarite (filling up points)
--Plasma grenades (only on the sybarite)(filling up points)
-Raider
--Horrorfex
--trophy racks

You should rarely be in the situation of needing to fill up points with needless wargear when there are so many better cheap options in the DE armoury. Sniper squads aren't really my favourite but it depends on your game style. Regardless i would not take 3 of them in 1k because it pretty much means you are stuck with 30 static guys in your back line for an offload of 6 lances. I'd really only take 1 of these to hold objectives and give a target to lure opponents towards. Seeing as you are going mech everywhere else then perhaps make them into Raider squads because you get the option to still put them deployed on the ground and free yourself up to fire the Dark Lances at different targets if needbe. Plus the additional Raiders will come in handy to protect your wyches rather than just being the solatary target for opponents dedicated AT. If you go with this I'd only take minimal 5 man warrior squads though just to max output.
Your Raider Squad weapon selections don't really mix either... you are putting in an anti-troop Cannon with an anti-tank short range lance? Since you are pumping lances out everywhere else i would switch this blaster to shredder to make the unit more of a dedicated anti infantry squad.

Your Raiders are also over wargeared for 1k matches. To fire those Horrorfexes you can not fire the main weapon lances, although it is handy to have a 5pt weapon to make sure double weapon destroyed doesn't leave you immobilised. Also the Trophy Racks are only 6" range... so 30pts for 3 smallish areas of -1 Ld. I would consider not really taking them because even if you keep the Horrorfexes that additional -1 Ld hardly will do much, and forces you to keep those fragile Raiders in charge range of units.

With all the points cost saved everywhere then you could take an additional Wych squad+Raider squad, or if you fancied beingly *very* nasty then shove in double Ravagers (triple Disintegrator) and watch in glee at the punishment those babies can do. No DE army should leave home without one...

Well...first, thanks for everyone's responses. Second, I didn't know I was so far off base for an effective force.

I've played against a raider-heavy list with my (highly unoptimized) guard before, and didn't have any trouble shutting it down, so I thought it would be best to at least water down the list with some cheap sniper squads - but then the dark eldar are far different from anything I've ever used myself.

I'll look over the comments and see what I can come up with - I really do appreciate the input, and would appreciate any more before I can post again.

I remember winning a local tournament @ 1k points by just pumping out too many targets for an opponent to deal with. As a handy help I'll post a starting draft for any tournament 1k list i'd ever make and you are welcome to use it to work off...

HQ:
Hermonculi + Destructor
Hermonculi + Destructor
80

Troops:
Raider Squad: 5 warriors + Dark Lance
Raider Squad: 5 warriors + Dark Lance
Raider Squad: 5 warriors + Dark Lance
Raider Squad: 5 warriors + Dark Lance
420

Elite:
5 Wyches: 5XWych Weapons, 2 Shredders + Raider
145

Heavy Support:
Ravager: 3XDisintegrator
Ravager: 3XDisintegrator
240

Total = 885

So with 115 points left with this list you'd have:
9 lances, 6 disintegrators, 2 Str6 Blasts and 2 Flamers. Along with 4 troop squads to hold objectives with.
You could fit in another Raider Squad for extra lances, or feeling beardy would see another Ravager with double Disintegrator sliced in (but don't expect many people to be happy about playing you)

I would go with a list like this.

HQ:
Homonculus with Destructor
Homonculus with Destructor
80

Raider Squad: 9 man Splinter Cannon Blaster 142
Raider Squad: 9 man Splinter Cannon Blaster 142
Raider Squad: 10 man Splinter Cannon Blaster 150
Warrior Squad: 10 man 2x Darklance, 2x Blaster 110
Warrior Squad: 15 man 2x Splinter Cannon, 2x Blaster 150
694 points

Heavy Support:

Ravager
Ravager 3x Disintegrator
225
999

The homonculi go with the two nine man raider squad obviously, providing some nasty close range flamer. The splinter cannons give some good on the move firepower for anti infantry, and the blasters will help against vehicles and MEQ.

The goal of this army is to spread out a bit, but be able to reconsolidate quickly, your first goal is to wipe out any anti vehicle weapons the enemy has to minimize raider loss.

You'll have two main sections of your army, the attack team and the defend team, With the ravagers somewhere in the middle.

The attack team is the 4 raider squads, with support from the disintegrator ravager, they move up and focus their fire on stray units, keeping somewhere near the defend team if possible. The raider squads want to move in and start blasting of course, going flat out first turn is a great way to get to the enemy quicker. This works even better in 1k points than higher points, because the enemy will probably not have a huge amount of anti vehicle. In 2k points when youre staring down the barrel of 4 leman russ and 3 vendetta's, a 4+ cover save doesnt help as much. If possible, it is good to use them as gunboats, moving 6" and rapid firing, although you may have move 12 and disembark to fire, try to do this in area terrain if possible. The disintegrator ravager follows the raider squads, staying about 24" away from the enemy, so they are able to fire, but can double back to help the defend team if necessary. When you start losing raiders, it's important to stick with the now transportless warriors. This is a great time to move slowly and gunboat your way along. If you leave a squad behind, not only are they going to get picked off, but then they have nothing to shoot at. Only leave them behind if the enemy is too far away and you have to go fast.

The defend team is the two foot squads, and the darklance ravager. The 10 man lance squad sets up on an objective, when placing objectives, try to place one about 8" from each long edge. This way, when you deploy, you can drop this squad on the objective, and still be able to provide some splinter rifle support when the enemy moves up. The 15 man squad moves about midfield, into cover. From here they provide supporting fire for the attack team on infantry, give some protection to the 10 man team from advancing troops, and provide a danger zone for vehicles trying to rush. A 15 man squad in cover isnt a piece of cake to kill in 1k points, especially when youve got raiders on your lines. The darklance ravager hangs around the 15 man squad, providing anti vehicle support pretty much all over the board with its range.

As you start to move the attack team after other targets, the 15 man squad can move along with them to continue providing anti infantry support.

If you don't want to have that many troops on foot, try dropping the foot squads, adding a raider squad and another ravager, that would give you a very mobile force.

That list seems too much all over the place. It forces you, with shorter range weapons on half your squads, to always advance forward to use them. That isn't neccessarily a good idea against things like Nids, Crons, Termies, Orks. Against some armies the tactic will work quite nice but i always find going into a battle and being forced to deploy a certain style of play will get severly limiting. With a pretty much fully mobile force (mainly long distance weapons) it allows you the chance to control the board more. To be honest taking Splinter Cannon/Blaster you are making your squads "alright" at taking our everything but not fantastic at taking out anything. You want Splinter Cannons/Shredders for troops and Dark Lances for AT, unless you intend to play all gunboat in their faces in which case Blaster. Also don't see any reason for putting 9/10 men in the Raider. If it goes down you can expect to lose 1/3 so it's wasting pts for a few extra Splinter Rifles... which are utter rubbish in the grand scheme of things.

Warrior squads on foot with Dark Lances *and* Blasters? You do realise that all units have a minimum a 6" movement and a 6" charge which means you will pretty much never get to use these Blasters unless you forefeit the right to fire the Lances? Drop the Blasters from any static holding unit. The other squad seems to suffer the same problem as Splinter Cannon/Blaster issue i have already addressed. Most DE armies have Lances aplenty so troops with Blasters seem a little bit of a waste... when the Shredder teams with the Splinter Cannon and Rifles much better. Not sure of the point in a squad being 15 men really. 20 points gone on 5 T3 guys with a 5+ save that you just want to stand around mid table for an occasional shot or 2...

As you state few people at 1k have much AT so what is the point of charging half your army closer to the opponent to fire range 12-24" allowing them charges/rapid fire? The key is keeping a distance and monopolising on an opponents lack of AT with your mass amounts of heavy weapons fire. Every 3rd shot with a Lance on an Arm 12+ vehicle will get a glance/pen, even better against troop transports with lower armour! So 9 Lances at a range is plenty @ 1k to stop most opposition on their board edge! Then you have 6-8 Disintegrators firing Str7 blasts... super scary! It's a long table walk for an opponent to take and by the time they have got anywhere you have punched massive holes in them and have 24" movement potential to capture/contest things.

Also don't see much point in a triple Dark Lance Ravager in 1k, or at all really. 3 shots that you are forced to take at a single target when you can already have around 9-10 Dark Lances on your line? Most armies at 1k will probably have 1 proper tank at best... that is going down turn 1 with the Lance firepower already in the army. Then you have numerous turns of an AT skimmer floating around wondering what the hell to do.