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I have been lurking for many weeks on this splendid forum and am proud to now join its ranks.

I have built an army list that has performed well for the first few games. It is over-due for some tweaking though. It performs very well against MEQ (yes, AP2 is a bitch). I am trying to squeeze in some games against Tau and Tyranids (which I think are the most difficult to beat with this list).

I am fairly new to the game and have acquired most of what I know through reading, having played about twenty games till now. I kindly ask for the arcane advice of this community.

*************** 1 HQ ***************

Dark Eldar Lord
- Archon
+ - Punisher
- Animus Vitae
- Combat Drug Dispenser
- Shadowfield
- Tormentor Helmet
- Trophy Collection
- - - > 155 Points


*************** 1 Elite ***************

7 Wyches
- 3 x Wyche Weapons
+ Wyche Succubus
- Argonizer
+ Raider
- Horrorfex
- Nightshield
- - - > 190 Points


*************** 3 Standard ***************


5 Warriors
- Dark Lance
+ Raider
- Horrorfex
- Nightshield
- Dark Lance
- - - > 125 Points


5 Warriors
- Dark Lance
+ Raider
- Horrorfex
- Nightshield
- Dark Lance
- - - > 125 Points


5 Warriors
- Dark Lance
+ Raider
- Horrorfex
- Nightshield
- Dark Lance
- - - > 125 Points


*************** 2 Heavy Support ***************

Ravager
- 3 x Disintegrators
- Nightshield
- - - > 140 Points

Ravager
- 3 x Disintegrators
- Nightshield
- - - > 140 Points


Total: 1000 Points

Night shield is garbage. Drop it and use the points elsewhere. Drop the Lances from the warrior squads, you'll never use them because you're going to be on the move, and give them blasters.

I'd say blasters / Splinter cannons if you want to make them gun boats or just keep them stationary at 36 and just take lance shots off. You can do a gunline army with DE if thats what you want, I'd say keep them if you want that or take the blaster / cannon combo if you want to get up in peoples faces.

When I see the ravagers I think you mean disintegrators which are great and all but having 3 disintegrator boats can be a downside, it sucks trying to hit stuff with av 13+

Yeah drop the nightshields.. all of them. Give all of your wychs wych weapons and plasma grenades and haywire if you can because trust me charging someone in cover sucks if you dont have the grenades and haywire are good if you want to charge a vehicle first turn if you get the 12' charge or 6' fleet + 12' move and 6' charge

Forgot to mention: Archon attaches to the Wyche-Squad.

Shatter.proof wrote:When I see the ravagers I think you mean disintegrators which are great and all but having 3 disintegrator boats can be a downside, it sucks trying to hit stuff with av 13+

Politely disagreeing. That's what the dark lances are there for. They treat AV13+ like AV12. Disintegrators are - at least in my experience - all that and a bag of chips. Pure AP2-template-goodness.

Shatter.proof wrote:Yeah drop the nightshields.. all of them. Give all of your wychs wych weapons and plasma grenades and haywire if you can because trust me charging someone in cover sucks if you dont have the grenades and haywire are good if you want to charge a vehicle first turn if you get the 12' charge or 6' fleet + 12' move and 6' charge

I see that on the Wyches.

Why are Night Shields garbage? Not to doubt your experience here. Just curious why. Aren't they pretty helpful when you're not going first or for example against melta spam?

Why would I use my Wyches to charge a vehicle? I can shoot seven Dark Lances first turn, while Wyches would get shot to pieces if I tried to pull that. On the other hand, I guess it depends on the list I am facing. IME Wyches shine when tarpitting out-dakkad HQ/Elite-Units. Halfing WS, 4+ Inv save in CC ("So you got a power fist? How cute.")

First off, welcome to the forums. Second on matters of Dark eldar, ignore 90% of the people that offer advice. Off the top of my head DashofPepper, Thor, and Seven offer good advice.

Now that thats done, here is my advice. First the at the archon is overpriced for 1000, if you still want to run him give him a shadowfield, agoniser, plasma grenades, and splinter pistol.


After that you need to take wyche weapons on all of the models or none at all, otherwise its illegal. Second take 6 models total in the wyche squad for more info why check out Thors tactics page.

Once your done with that drop all the night shields, while they are ok in lager games, but in 1500 or less it's much better to have more boats.

Here is the list I would run.

1000 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster

1 Archon @ 108 pts (Independent Character; Agoniser; Splinter Pistol; Fleet; Shadow Field; Plasma Grenades)

5 Wyches @ 202 pts (Close Combat Weapon; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons; Blaster x2; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades)
1 Succubus (Agoniser; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons; Crucible of Malediction ; Plasma Grenades (Squad))
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 110 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 110 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 110 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)
1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)
1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)

Total Roster Cost: 1000




If you don't mind dropping the Archon This is what I run at 1000pt. I just won a tournament two weeks ago with this list.


1000 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster - 1000 DE

1 Haemonculi @ 47 pts (Scissorhand; Destructor; Plasma Grenades)
4 Wyches @ 163 pts (Close Combat Weapon; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons; Blaster x2; Combat Drugs)
1 Succubus (Agoniser; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 110 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 110 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance; Horrorfex)

5 Raider Squad @ 105 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance)

5 Raider Squad @ 105 pts (Splinter Rifle x4; Dark Lance; Raider)
1 Raider (Dark Lance)

1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)

1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)

1 Ravager @ 120 pts (Disentegrator x3)

Total Roster Cost: 1000

Clthomps wrote:First off, welcome to the forums. Second on matters of Dark eldar, ignore 90% of the people that offer advice. Off the top of my head DashofPepper, Thor, and Seven offer good advice.

So I should ignore everything you just wrote? ;-P


I completely agree with you on every point. I especially like the second list, because I was at the dilemma of wanting three units of Ravager-goodness but just taking two scoring units didn't seem wise.

Let's see if I got your overall strategy right.
- Place the Warriors into the woods and the Ravagers as far away from them as possible.
- Put the Haemonculus in one of the 'fex-Raiders and go kill some MEQ/Horde with him.
- The Wyches are for pesky HQ and Elite units.
- The Ravagers unleash bloody hell unto my enemy.

I was a big fan of night shields. However I do agree that they are kind of pricy in 1000 points. Is that the main reason for not taking them?

Thank you for your elaborate advice.

Both lists of Clthomps are strong and hard to beat at the 1000 pt level.

At 1000 pts you will see a lot more missile launchers, and other str 7-8 48" weapons, the trade off is a lot less melta.

Nightshields are only good against weapons with 36" range or less. That coupled with the fact that many 1000pt games are on a 4'X4' giving you even less area to move around in.

As for you strategy I would not empty all the boats, only 1 or maybe two. Having the warriors sit on a boat and shoot will keep them alive for a lot longer, and will help you capture objectives late game. The only reason I empty boats is to give a sacrificial raider to the wyches for cover.

Thank you for your advice. You have helped me a great deal.

I see no problem with taking nightshields at 1000 points.
I've won a 1000 RTT with a wych cult list that had all nightshields on them on a 4x4 table. If you can't see the benefits of the upgrade then I can tell that you never really tried them out and you are not speaking from experience. It's one of those things you have to try in order to realize they do make a large impact on the game.

In 1000 point games there will be some long range guns that you can not avoid but face it, you can't just place raiders in plain sight and hope the nightshields will make you untouchable - you still have to be smart about it. Making marines to get within 6" to rapid fire a raider is a huge benefit. Moving your raider out of Blade Storm range is also a nice thing. The advantages of having nightshields isn't just realized by playing with the 36" long range guns, it causes the opponent to either change his target priorities or decide not to guess ranges and not fire at all. You will still lose a raider or two and by no means does the nightshield make you invisible or save every raider but what it does do on average is save 1 raider per turn. Even if it only saves one raider on one turn then that raider's cost just paid for 4 nightshields. If that raider had wyches on it then the cost of saving half the wyches and the raider in question just paid itself off for all the nightshields in the list. I dunno about you but having an extra raider on the next turn can be a game breaker and couple that with going flat out and I like my chances on that last turn when all your opponents long range guns are dead (or at least should be).

I think its very short sighted to say night shields do not work or they are a bad upgrade - if you give them a chance, move your raiders knowing what is in range and what is not and you will find that nightshields will have a definite affect on the game in just about every turn and it doesn't matter if you are moving closer or just hanging back.

I do in fact listen to everybody and make up my own mind. No matter how much street cred might be attached to their name.

Personally I am - like kwi - a big fan of nightshields. However I do see the cost of them in 1000 points and the additional troops I could buy for those. More bodies is rarely a bad idea.

I will just playtest the lists. A lot. And then see how all of this turns out. No amount of preparation beats actual field experience IMO.

Edit: And kudos for playing Wyche Cult in a tourney. You're a badass in my book!

Listening to Thor is the best thing you could do here, I learnt tons from him.

He is the DE God.

The advice here is good, you could do worse.

Thanks radiohazard, the cheque is in the mail

Let me first off state that I always believe you should be willing to listen to everyone, but be aware that not all advice is good. I hate to name names, but I will point to Grim Smasha, whose advice of avoiding N.Shields and Dark Lances on Raider squads is not exactly optimal advice and certainly shows a narrowness of what he considers a functional DE build. I'll then further clarify by noting that I consider both Kwi and Clthomps to be well worth listening to. Clthomps has given me a lot of good insight into mini sniper builds, and Kwi is trying to pull me around on my stance on N.Shields and has given some wonderful tactical thoughts to me in that regard. I also probably consider him the best advice available for Wych Cults if that's your speed.

In general I'll note that I usually advise new players to try N.Shields and to try not having N.Shields as well. I find this particular topic to be one of hot debate amongst experienced DE players as there are a lot of good points both for and against their use. Generally speaking you'll be able to decide for yourself whether they help or hinder your list and playstyle.

At 1000 points I strongly suggest avoiding the Archon. If you want a Lord use the Dracon - same basic thing at half the cost. Whether or not you prefer Haemys or a DE Lord really comes down to playstyle. Haemys are better shooting support with minor assault capability while the Lord is a dedicated assault piece. Usually the big advantage to taking a Lord over taking Wyches is to get a Shadowfield on the board, and at 1000 points I'm not sure that's worth it.