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For the sake of having another army I just bought a Dark Eldar force of
Urien Rakarth, Archon, 2 Haemonculus, Drazhar
7 Incubi, 6 Grotesques, 6 Mandrakes, 8 Wyches
Warp beast pack (1 beast master, 4 warp beasts)
68 Warriors, 3 Raider transports, 10 reaver jetbikes
9 Scourges, Ravager, Talos.

Now if anyone is feeling super nice and wants to give me some direction of certain units possibilitys that would be amazing, I'd like to play 1500 lists for a little while to get the hang of them but I haven't been finding the opportunitys of late :( and it's all a bit much to take on, blah blah blah.
So what's golden in there? How to apply the woosh, zapp, dakka dakka?

Asking for alot, but really just want to know people opinions of units and what applictions people have liked in the past~! Please ^_^

As many Lances/Raiders as you can.

Looks like you got 4 of them. I like jetbikes as well, some don't.

I've heard big groups of warriors with some cover and lances are pretty decent as well.

Mmm looking at some battle reports now, raiders seem key again and again. Getting the impression they are like Paper Tigers dressed up as Shooty Mek orks =\ but that can't be right...

Here's what I'd do with what you have:

HQ: Archon+4-5 Incubi+1 warrior; possibly consider Drazhar, but he is *very* expensive, inside Raider with a Dark Lance and Horrorfex

HQ2: 2x Haemonculi with Destructors (inside each of the wych raiders)

Troop1: 10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances

Troop2: 10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances

Troop3: 10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances

Troop4: 10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances

Troop5: 10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances

Elite1: 5 Wyches, plasma grenades, wych weapons, succubus+agonizer, 2x blasters inside raider with dark lance+horrorfex
Elite2: 5 Wyches, plasma grenades, wych weapons, succubus+agonizer, 2x blasters inside raider with dark lance+horrorfex
*paint two warriors to look like wyches for now, until you come up with more; ideally you should have wych units of 7-8*
*Haemonculi each go in one of these raiders*

Fast1: 3x Reaver Jetbikes with 2x Blasters
Fast2: 3x Reaver Jetbikes with 2x Blasters

Heavy1: Ravager with 3x Disintegrators


Beyond that, the warp beast pack has potential. Urien, Grotesques, mandrakes, scourges, and the talos are useless. Trade them out for more wyches and raiders. The warrior squads give you mini-sniper squads to snipe at enemy transports, the wyches give you tarpits to tie things up in CC until your Archon can show up and crucify them, and the horrorfexes literally let you keep several units pinned for the whole game, providing those raiders live. Since you only HAVE three....that's going to be difficult for now - the ideal list (I think) is actually more along the lines of 12-15 raiders. I've got 3-4 spares (above and beyond my 14, counting Asdrubael Vect), and a spare Asdrubael Vect as well, which can count for a raider if you leave off the special stuff.

ChrisCP wrote:Mmm looking at some battle reports now, raiders seem key again and again. Getting the impression they are like Paper Tigers dressed up as Shooty Mek orks =\ but that can't be right...

No its right.. DE has had the same army list for 10 years.. Nothing has changed. Might get a bit boring!

ChrisCP wrote:Mmm looking at some battle reports now, raiders seem key again and again. Getting the impression they are like Paper Tigers dressed up as Shooty Mek orks =\ but that can't be right...

Paper tigers - Dark Eldar *are* glass cannons. Wyches have a 6+ armor save, and a 4+ invul in close combat. They *need* to be in a raider not being shot, or in close combat. You have a plethora of Dark Lances mounted on AV0 vehicles. Eldar players whine about how cheap our lances are, but those same 10 point lances are on an AV10 open-topped vehicle that explodes if you throw a snowball at it. I'd be happy to pay 5-10 more points per lance in exchange for those raiders having AV12 or AV13 and holofields.

Dark Eldar have Alpha Strike and speed - using the two of those is what will win your games. You're not going to win *all* your games - your list is going to suffer against things like horde orks - you only have one ravager, you can't pin a mob with a horrorfex, and you don't have enough wyches to really make a dent in them. Squads of warriors with dark lances are going to shoot and kill 1-2 per turn (provided the horde isn't getting cover from your snipers) and they're going to laugh about it. =p

But you've got a good start here. If you were to expand, I think you need more wyches (first) and more raiders.

In the articles section there is a very solid DE tactica. It's full of win.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dark_Eldar_Tactica

Urien Rakarth, Archon, 2 Haemonculus, Drazhar
7 Incubi, 6 Grotesques, 6 Mandrakes, 8 Wyches
Warp beast pack (1 beast master, 4 warp beasts)
68 Warriors, 3 Raider transports, 10 reaver jetbikes
9 Scourges, Ravager, Talos.

Here is what I would field:

Archon, 6 Incubi, Raider
Wyches, Raider
Beast Master + 4 Warp Beasts
2x 10 Warriors, Raiders
4x 10 Warriors w/ dark lance x2
5 Jetbikes
Talos
Ravager

Thanks guys, looks like I'll get some games in this weekend - fingers crossed! Goignt o read that Tactica a couple of times too.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Mellon, the check is in the mail for your excellent advertising service.

Looking at the list of what the OP has and considering his question of what to get next I would say;

First thing is, unfortunately, more vehicles. I would say that I disagree with the calls for more Raiders first simply because, though Raiders are awesome, I could build you a pretty decent 1500 force using only 3 Raiders.

I couldn't do it using only 1 Ravager.

2 More Ravagers is pretty much obligatory for anything over 1,000 points (and hell, maybe even at 1,000) Their potential damage output and their role in serving as tank hunters or horde thinners is vital to an effective DE list (unless you want to try to run Webway, in which case I would say 2 more Talos is what you need...I recommend the Ravager route)

The next biggest thing you really need is about 2-4 more Wyches so you can field two squads of 5-6 which will serve you well as your elite choices up to 1750 and even into 1850 depending on your direction. Make sure you have the models for 2 Blasters and 1 Succubus w. Agoniser per squad as that is the very much accepted default equipment load-out. You can change this up depending on the type of list you want to build but it is the safest path.

Finally after that is when you should start eyeballing your Raider and Warrior situation. 3 more Raiders will serve you very well at 1500 and to be perfectly frank you could easily be fielding a total of 8-9 Raiders at 1500.

For the Warriors a primary goal for you to figure out is how many of each type of Warrior you have.

There are;
Splinter rifle warriors (the basic small rifle with 0-2 blades on it - plastic)
Splinter cannon warriors (big under-slung weapon - plastic)
Warriors with Blasters (metal, kneeling or standing, looks like shoulder mounted plasma pistol sorta)
Warriors with Shredders (metal, kneeling or standing, looks like shoulder mounted rocket launcher with mace head)
Warriors with Dark Lances (metal, kneeling or standing, looks like shoulder mounted weapon that you'll have on the front of all your Raiders)
Splinter pistol and ccw warriors (usually used as Sybarites - there are also some official metal ones that have Agonisers, or you can mod these easily)

Modifications can of course be made fairly easily (Splinter Cannons are great to become Dark Lances, Blasters and shredders are easy to change from one to the other, ect.)

Warrior squads are strong because of their special and heavy weapon options - so which ones you can take will be important to know.

I approve of Dash's list as a good option for you to consider at 1500 and with your current models. It would be fairly competitive and at least give you a basic understanding of what the DE list acts like.

There are also some good DE batreps on the site you might wish to look at. Messiah(insert random numbers here) has a good Gunline batrep, and I recall seeing a good one Dashofpepper did vs. some Orks. I have a couple of mixed forces Gunboat batreps up that also show some basic tactics.

Welcome to the dark side of the rainbow, best of luck, and I'll agree with Mellon that the DE community here will want to know how it works out for you.

(P.S. if Clthomps shows up he'll have good advice too, just be mindful of how he'll talk about Warp Beasts )

just some random help, that being my 1k DE list. hope it helps as i've lost only 1 game so far with it sadly though every game ends up being about the ravagers being alive.


H.Q. 265

Dracon 265
Mounted in a raider
Incubi retinue(5)
Tormentor helm
Punisher
Shadow field

Elites

N/A

Troops 375

Raider squad (5) 125
1 dark lance
Night Shields
1 blaster

Raider squad (5) 125
1 dark lance
Night shields
1 blaster

Raider squad (5) 125
1 dark lance
Night shields
1 blaster

Fast Attack

N/A

Heavy Support 360

Ravager 120
Disintegrators x3

Ravager 120
Disintegrators x3

Ravager 120
Disintegrators x3

Thor665 wrote:Mellon, the check is in the mail for your excellent advertising service.

No need for that. Being able to refer people to your tactica makes me look smart, so we are even ;-)

If you want to try a more mobile gunboat list, you can do it very well at 1250 from what I've found.

2 dracons with no upgrades with 2 warrior retinues with splinter cannons, in raiders.
6 5man raider squads with splinter cannons in raiders
3 ravagers, 1 with 3 disintegrators(anti meq and horde), 1 with 2 disintegrators(all around useful and can move 12" and still fire 7 anti MEQ shots) and 1 triple lance(heavy anti vehicle/MC)

From personal experience, this can rape 5th ed. nids, with their lack of immunity to instant death. It just destroys warriors and an unlucky zoanthrope.