Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Before you read my lengthy introduction, I would just like to say hello to all the fine people on this website. I have scoured the internet looking for what could be perhaps the "end-all-be-all" competitive Warhammer forums and this site, in addition to http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/ and http://tauonline.org/ I believe are indeed my grails.

That said let it be known that I have only played around five or so games of 40K. I don't own any models, but played low point games using Guard (2 games) Necrons (2 games) and Dark Eldar (1 game) against mediocre players playing mediocre armies. Dark Eldar was the only army I lost with. This, in addition of them being seen as "underpowered" and "high stakes" gravitates me toward them.

As said, I have never really played a table-top game in my life. Not even DnD. I am however an accomplish Magic: The Gathering player for what that is worth.

At the behest of a friend who plays both games, I have caved into the Warhammer 40k craze going on in my local gaming store/group of friends (I have always sort of wanted to play, cost was too prohibiting though). As I poured through the pages of fluff and different armies it quickly became apparent that the Dark Eldar were the only faction I found favorable. Allow me to make some broad completely-uneducated statements from what I have observed:

I do not want to play Marines. Too boring and not enough finesse required.
I do not want to play Tyranids. Hive mind shenanigans do not impress me.
I do not want to play Imperial Guard. Zero finesse required and a "sit and shoot" playstyle does not poke my interest.
I do not want to play Orks. They are orks.
Etc, etc.

I feel that most armies do not contain enough character flaws to make them interesting to my palate. "Advance 6'' in the open, fire" is not my idea of a strategy game. I love unforgiving characters in fighting games etc, the feeling of beating someone with them using a "superior" army is the biggest rush I can image.

I know what most of you are thinking, I have skimmed and read through many of this forum's countless pages dedicated to the Dark Eldar. Many people in this thread started DE and soon lost interest do to the "high learning curve" and "glass cannon-esque" of the army. Allow me to state some facts I learned about gamers from playing Magic at a high level of competition:

Most people who play Magic are rather horrible at it
Most people play severely suboptimal lists and then when they lose, get discouraged or get mad. The former is fine, the latter is not.
Most people don't bother to learn from their mistakes.

I cannot see where these wouldn't apply to Warhammer 40K. I know this makes me come off as an elitist, good, I like that. I will show up to your door, hold my pinky high, and enslave your populace. All as planned.

II. What I have Learned so Far:

In addition to this great site (which was suggested to me by the local 40K guru, good PR guys) I have completely read through the following:

http://www.damommasboyz.com/articles/40k/cbdarkeldar.html
http://dark-eldar.blogspot.com/2010/03/wip-1500pt-chaos-day-tournament-list.html
http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/02/dark-eldar-adepticondeep-thoughts-by.html (among many other things on this site)
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dark_Eldar_Tactica

I am also in the process of reading through the Dark Eldar codex (for the 3rd time) and shadowing more games to get a feel for how things work. It seems that a lot of Dark Eldar's bad rap comes from new players turbo-boosting all units 24'' on turn one and getting wiped. I am not brain dead. I do my homework. I am willing to put the work in to be good. I just need guidance, thats where the fine people of this site come in.

I believe that with the help of sites like this I have the potential to become a great 40K player. That said it is obvious I am what is considered in Magic lingo a "Spike". I play to win. Painting and fluff are great and all (and I have some awesome ideas for it) but I am mainly concerned with winning. I know that means I should probably play another army, but I guess I am a little of a "Johnny" too; I win on my terms.

Please help me, and others like myself in the community, who wish to became great, do so. Thank you all.

So you like winning...you will fit in here just fine. If you want another army that takes finesse to play try a pure GKs army. Try to hold off on buying too much DE as they are due for a codex update sometime this year or early next. Last but not least welcome to dak dak¡

Welcome to Dakka!

Welcome to Dakka. Good luck with DE They are not easy army, but if You use a good tactics You can annihilate the enemy jumping from above on theri rears and fireing salvos from Yer dark lances!>:]

Welcome

Welcome to dakka!

Welcome to Dakka. Always nice to get a fellow Archon on board. I'm a relatively accomplished DE player of 4 years, and I've scored decently with them at GT's and the like.

If you've done your homework properly, then all you need to acquire is the ability to build optimised lists, and the experience to use the tactics you'll read about in those guides.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have. Between myself, Thor, and Clthomps, I think we probably have the sum of all DE playing experience and knowledge that exists.

Welcome to dakka!

What ho!