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So my order from GW finally came in. Here's what my DE list looks like now...

HQ (305)
1) Archon (170)
- Punisher, Tormentor Helm, Combat Drugs, Reaver Jetbike, Shadowfield
2) 3x Haemonculus (135)
- Destructor, Scissorhand

TROOPS (335)
1) 5x Dark Eldar (55)
- 1x Splinter Cannon, 1x Blaster
- Raider (55)
2) 5x Dark Eldar (55)
- 1x Splinter Cannon, 1x Blaster
- Raider (55)
3) 5x Dark Eldar (60)
- 1x Splinter Cannon, 1x Shredder
- Raider (55)

FAST ATTACK (200)
1) 3x Reaver Jetbikes (95)
- 2x Blaster
2) 3x Reaver Jetbikes (105)
- 2x Shredder

HEAVY SUPPORT (120)
1) Ravager (120)
- 3x Disintegrator


This isn't my first DE list, but it's the first time I've had some new models to play with. Pretty straightforward (if such a thing applies) to Dark Eldar. Hit hard, hit fast, hit often.I don't know where to shove in the last 40 points, maybe on Horrorfexes for the Raiders and a Horrorfex for the Ravager?

One other point - I still have 3 Sniper Squads (10x DE warriors, 2x Dark Lance) sitting on the shelf, and a Talos, I left them out because they didn't fit in with the mobile-ness of my army, but would including these in a 1500 list be a decent choice? - Offering a static element to complement my fast element.

Well, the small RJB units are a gamble.
One casualty from shooting and they might be gone.
Horrorfexes might be a decent choice.

I know the RJB's are a risk, but I really do love the models, so they'll be staying.

I was considering Horrorfexes and a Night Shield on my Ravager - leaving me with 10 points to throw around somewhere.

My first thought looking over your list is each individual piece of the army I have no issues with (aside from not being a fan of Shredders with RJB units - I always give them Blasters). However, when I sit back and look at your army as a whole I find it to be lacking proper synergy.

I think my first issue is your lack of anti-tank tools. For anti infantry you have 1 Archon 3 Haemys with templates, 3 gunboats, 1 RJB squad (w. shredders) and a Ravager. 9 options.

For anti tank you have 3 lances on gunboats 2 blasters in the gunboats (though with the attached Haemy and S.Cannon using them as anti tank is a waste of resources and a lot of firepower) and 1 RJB squad (with blasters) 6 options (4 of which are located in 2 places - hmmm, if I am playing mech I wonder where 90% of my opening shots are going?)

As I noted - as soon as you attach the Haemy to the gunboat squad you are clearly accepting that the squad is going to be best for gunning down infantry. The addition of a Shredder or blaster helps this goal as does the S.Cannon and even the rapid fire s.rifles. The Haemy allows you to threaten armored and high toughness opponents. The shredder helps threaten high toughness opponents but is terrible vs. heavy armor infantry. I personally prefer the blaster because while it also lets me threaten high toughness, it also allows me to threaten armored infantry and even shoot at vehicles if I need to, though of course gunboats don't want to have to. Therefore 2 of your anti-tank options are going to be wanting to fire almost every time at infantry - not at mech because every time you fire at mech you're wasting the points you paid for the Haemy much less the Splinter Cannon). I would advocate working in a few more Lances - you could drop the Ravager into an anti-tank build by leaving it all lances and it could still move 6" each turn and fire its weapons to maintain mobility with the rest of the army. Also, since you only have the one - you could go with the 'Vect' setup and field 1 lance and 2 Dissies. It's a little more affordable, gives you some more anti-tank, and still has solid anti-infantry options. As a generalist it's okay at everything and excels at nothing, but it is an option available to you.

Also, as mentioned at the beginning of the post I'm not a fan of the shredders on the bikes as you currently have them. Why? Well, as currently configured your shredder bikes are pretty obviously the escort to your DE Lord. However, they are more of a risk to him in combat then a help. Yeah, they can fly up and fire shredders prior to an assault (something I hate doing as I always fear the things scattering back onto me when I'm close enough to assault) then they charge with him. Whoo-hoo, they add 6 additional swings at Str 4 that allow armor saves. They'll be okay vs. Orks and GEQ but pretty useless vs. any MEQ. Meanwhile, when your opponent swings back he can ignore your lord and target the very easy to kill RJBs - that's 3 wounds in his favor come combat resolution. Your lord will be doing most of the killing anyway, so you should separate him from his escort (they're there to soak bullets, not to kill stuff in h2h). Let him solo charge where his 2++ and high WS can cause problems for the squad he's assaulting and they are forced to try to deal with only him. Meanwhile the RJBs he broke off from can use their blasters to shoot up mech or heavy armored infantry.

Finally, just a general note - I personally feel at 1,000 points you'll get pretty much the same bang for your buck with a Dracon as you will with an Archon and at a substantial savings (I may be doing the mental math wrong, but I personally think if you change the RJBs to Blasters, switch the Ravager to lances, and take the Dracon you'll have enough points to put in an additional Troop option. You didn't say if you had another Raider (which would be an optimal choice), but even one of your sniper squads to sit on a home objective and fire off lance pot shots could help the army out quite well. If you have Wyches that could be quite helpful too as your army really has no units that can really tie up and deal with an elite assault option that gets to your lines - at the moment you're going to have to rely on pure speed. Not an impossible option, certainly, but one that could do with the backup of a counter charge unit. If you weren't so set on RJBs I would really advocate dropping one of them totally to help you afford better stuff.

As for your extra points, if you don't want to try to afford an additional troop slot (which I do advocate considering how fragile Raider squads are) I would agree that Horrorfexes on the Raiders is a good idea. A Horrorfex on a Ravager is pretty questionable because there's no reason for a Ravager to be that close to an enemy unit. I wouldn't advocate that. Nightshields on your Ravager can be fairly useful to help weaken melta and also 36" range or less armies you fight. Personally I'd go with the Horrorfexes or maybe try to beef up and equip some plasma grenades to your Lord and RJB escort to allow them to assault into cover (which as your only assault unit they might have to) and to allow enough RJBs to maybe let them be more of a help then a hinderence in assault.

Edit: for some reason I read your list as 3x Ravagers...I blame personal stupidity. Edited to adjust the advice slightly.

I wouldn't be adverse to switching out the Shredder RJB squad for a Sniper squad camping on my home objective. The lack of anti-tank was definitely an issue building this list. Would you suggest switching the Splinter Cannon/Blaster to a Darklance instead? - that was my initial set up, but I realized it didn't synergize well with the Haemies in the Raiders, unless I just dropped off my mini Sniper squad, leaving them pretty vulnerable. And yeah, at this point, I'm using all of my Raider models.

The RJBs were never meant to join my Archon in assault (who I could probably switch down to a Dracon).

The Shredders are there more because I have the models and I'm pretty big on wysiwyg, if I could I would switch them out for Blasters, but I haven't found a cheap alternative thus far, so they'll be staying.

orchewer wrote:I wouldn't be adverse to switching out the Shredder RJB squad for a Sniper squad camping on my home objective. The lack of anti-tank was definitely an issue building this list. Would you suggest switching the Splinter Cannon/Blaster to a Darklance instead? - that was my initial set up, but I realized it didn't synergize well with the Haemies in the Raiders, unless I just dropped off my mini Sniper squad, leaving them pretty vulnerable. And yeah, at this point, I'm using all of my Raider models.

I would support switching the Shredder RJBs for a footslogging sniper squad. I think it would boost your anti-tank and serve you better overall.

As for turning the Splinter Cannon/Blaster to a Dark Lance? Well...that depends on what you're looking to accomplish. I think the Shredder rJBs are weaker then the gunboat, so do recommend dumping them first. I'm also a huge fan of the gunboat build overall so tend to like keeping them in the army since they provide a nice mix of abilities to the force. If you do want to change one to a mini sniper build then you're right in noting it weakens the functionality of the Haemy. Overall I would advocate leaving the gunboats as gunboats, they are very useful units and in 1,000 points their ability to be dual role anti infantry/mech if you need it can be helpful.