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.

Getting invisibility on this unit is game over.


This unit will absolutely brutalize a Imperial Knight on the charge. It'd take multiple Knights and the Knights straight up would not kill this unit at all if it had a buff.

 koooaei wrote:
Don't forget - it's a single squad that costs 600 pts. And it ain't amazingly fast. Better avoid and bauble wrap. Or kill it with something like a stompa or a knight.

Very true. But it also has Scout so it can be on top of you fairly quickly. And its board control presence is great. Even at 600ish points, you still have room for Venoms, Ravagers, Scourges, and/or a Dark Artisan formation to run along behind it to buff it even more at 1850-2000 points. Every unit can be countered and so can this one, but I sure wouldn't want to see an Invisible pack of Instant Death-dealing, twin-linked AI/AT gun, T7 MCs marching up the table towards me.

I don't argue that it's a strong formation. Just not a "game over" thing.

bubbl wrap will be gone by the time it matters.

So, you tell me it's an auto-win formation and nothing can be done against it.

I would argue that although Corpsethief Claw could take on a Imperial Knight, the Imperial Knight would cause heavy casualties with it's D Weapon

 koooaei wrote:
So, you tell me it's an auto-win formation and nothing can be done against it.

Perhaps, saying "game over" right away was a bit of an exaggeration. I was mostly referring to if it is buffed with Invsibility. If its not Invisible, it has several hard counters: Grav weapons, mass poison, Force weapons, mass Rokkits, etc. Still good but nowhere near as scary as if you can only hit it on sixes. Of course you could say that about almost any unit in the game. So perhaps this was really more of a comment about how ridiculously good Invisibility is.

 koooaei wrote:
So, you tell me it's an auto-win formation and nothing can be done against it.

Nope. Just that bubble wrapping will do little for you.

From what i can see, this formation WANTS you to bubblewrap.

Every unit it destroys nets it another VP.

Not a cheap unit though. You'd be banking a good chunk of the army on it's abilities.

Well it is like any deathstar, right? But this one has both ranged and melee capability that is very impressive. Wanna fire 30 Poisoned shots? OKAY! 10 wounds on any unit you want. I'm looking at you, Wraith Knight! A couple rounds of that is all it takes to knock the big fella out. On the other hand, if you want it to do anti-tank work, sure. Add on the TWIN LINKED Haywire Blaster and end Land Raiders in no time.

And if it wants to rumble with someone, cool. It can do that too. No melee upgrades needed when you're hitting that hard, with that many attacks.

The sick way it can benefit from Invisibility is just a bonus. It doesnt strictly need the help. CERTAIN armies do have enough Instant Death in them... very few but still... That okay, being invisible might really be necessary. Buuuut... It's not like the unit is acting in a vacuum.

 Jancoran wrote:

Buuuut... It's not like the unit is acting in a vacuum.

This is a very good point. Yeah, it's an expensive deathstar, but in a 2000 point list, you still have roughly 1350 points left over for other stuff. So you can either focus everything on killing the MCs while the rest of the army whittles you down or you can try to kill the Venoms, Scourges, Grotesques, Reavers, Razorwings, etc., that are also gunning for you and let the Taloi collect VPs as they kill their way across the table.

Yeah pretty much a beta strike list with this as the core is pretty boss. There's first off pretty much almost nothing that can remove this on turn one with shooting only. 2nd there's units that synergise with this incredibly well specifically the Scalpel Formation, which deep strikes first turn and adds another 24 poisoned shots. You can use the Talos to soften up your target then the Scalpel squadron to clean up for first blood for D3 victory points and possibly claim some additional Maelstorm objective missions in the process.

That's about 850 total, but it's going to push you ahead by D3 points starting off. Turn 2 it'd be strange if you did not get into CC with something and if it's a unit that is an additional VP.

It's very easy to pull ahead in VPs with this unit and additional VP units in the secondaries.

I played the army two nights ago. Faced 12 Chimeras and their occupying Melta/Plasma storm. Deployed just five Raiders to start the game.

Final Score: Dark Eldar 17, Astra Militarum 7.

The player is a very good player so I was pleased. He says his Daemons will eat me. So he plans to rematch me with them. Lookin forward ot the challenge as always.

As an aside, the Corpsethief Claw took out 5 units total, clearing the way to take 6 points in objectives. Like a bull dozer.

 Jancoran wrote:
I played the army two nights ago. Faced 12 Chimeras and their occupying Melta/Plasma storm. Deployed just five Raiders to start the game.

Final Score: Dark Eldar 17, Astra Militarum 7.

The player is a very good player so I was pleased. He says his Daemons will eat me. So he plans to rematch me with them. Lookin forward ot the challenge as always.

As an aside, the Corpsethief Claw took out 5 units total, clearing the way to take 6 points in objectives. Like a bull dozer.

Wow, great job! Would you mind sharing the rest of your list? I'm curious how your bull dozer synergized with the rest of the army.

Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing your list as well. Show us your list *throws beads*.

Hollismason wrote:
Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing your list as well. Show us your list *throws beads*.

Sure. Please note that I made last minute changes before my game. I added a Grotesque to one unit, eliminated the second haemonculus and gave the remaining Haemonculus cool wargear so i could change the Coterie into the Formation that gives Wracks within 12" of the Haemonculus some cool buffage (which never ended up mattering in the game but still, a good change). Otherwise this was the list:

I outflanked the Claw Formation.

Grotesquerie Detachment (Freakish Spectacle and Latest Experiments Special Rule)

140pts Urien Rakarth

190pts 4 Grotesques (Aberration W/Agonizer, Liquifier Gun)
60pts Raider (Aethersails)

190pts 4 Grotesques (Aberration W/Agonizer, Liquifier Gun)
60pts Raider (Aethersails)

Corpsethief Claw Detachment (Freakish Spectacle, and Scout Special Rules)

650pts 5 Talos (Feel No Pain, TL Haywire Blasters)

Covenite Coterie Detachment (Freakish Spectacle special rule)

85pts Haemonculus (Liquifier)
85pts Haemonculus (Liquifier)

120pts 7 Wracks (Acothyst w Flesh Gauntlet and Liquifier, 1 x Liquifier)
60pts Raider (Aethersails)

120pts 7 Wracks (Acothyst w Flesh Gauntlet and Liquifier, 1 x Liquifier)
60pts Raider (Aethersails)

120pts 7 Wracks (Acothyst w Flesh Gauntlet and Liquifier, 1 x Liquifier)
60pts Raider (Aethersails)

2000 Points

How'd you feel about your Wracks, I think they're excellent units from the Coven side of things, not worth taking for normal Dark Eldar.

I ran a Corpsethief centric variant of my Freakshow list this Sunday, since people seem to be interested.

2500 points
Corpsethief Claw 5 Haywire Blasters, 5 Ichor Injectors

Eldar Allied Detachment
Farseer (both Runes, Jetbike, Singing Spear)
Windriders (3) - 1 Shuriken Cannon

Eldar Allied Detachment
Farseer (both Runes, Jetbike, Singing Spear)
Windriders (3) - 1 Shuriken Cannon

Scalpel Squadron
Wracks (5) - 1 Ossefactor, Venom (2xSplinter Cannon)
Wracks (5) - 1 Ossefactor, Venom (2xSplinter Cannon)

Grotesquerie - Primary
Grotesques (3) - Raider (D. Lance, Night Shields)
Grotesques (4) - Raider (D. Lance, Night Shields)
Urien Rakarth

Dark Eldar allied detachment
Archon - Huskblade, Clone Field, Webway Portal, Armor of Misery
Incubi (4)
Venom (Splinter Cannonx2)
Warriors (10) - Raider (D. Lance, Night Shields)
Ravager (D. Lance x3)

The list did AWESOME! I made a critical error that almost cost me the game when I charged the Taloi into combat with a Greater Daemon who killed them all in a single combat round, but that wasn't until turn 4. The allied bikers helped a lot with their Objective Secured, but the salient point is the Talos unit, which rocked socks until I killed it with my bad leadership. I ended up having to charge them into two different units at one point, both of which I'd never face before and was unsure of my ability to defeat, but I crushed both, even at a reduced Initiative for charging through difficult terrain.

The Invisibility from the Farseers REALLY helped. If I hadn't lost access to it, I'd have killed the Daemon too.

Allies don't get objective secured.

My bad. I just meant 'securing objectives.'

Hollismason wrote:
How'd you feel about your Wracks, I think they're excellent units from the Coven side of things, not worth taking for normal Dark Eldar.

This was a relatively poor game to really illustrate the Wracks strengths and weaknesses. They were very valuable for their Liquifiers to clear away extra guys and make room for Grotesque charges. He used his men to try and shield the tanks from harm but the Liquifiers did JUST enough in most cases to clear the path. And honestly, making those STR 3 wasn't my favorite change in the codex, as I was willing to gamble on a 1 or 2. aq 3 just means its "okay" at killing Xenos. However... The Wracks were absolutely critical in clearing just enough space.

So the trick with them was to angle them so the casualties came from the right place. I angled one unit incorrectly and ended up having to make a longer charge because of it. So that was a nice little pro tip. Obviously any idiot knows to do it but it was a reminder to me I guess that I need to be thinking ahead to that when I use them this way.

Fortunately I wont always BE facing 12 Chimeras. They took away the STR of the Grotesques in this Edition and so you REALLY needed the volume of attacks to make up for it. On the other hand... they HAD the volume of attacks. So hooray. Bad news was that I multi-charged so often that I rarely got the extra attacks and that could have been a bigger deal. In any event I squeaked out the vehicle kills consistently and that was the important thing.

The Wracks kinda ran around like little buddies for the Grotesques. I shoulda made them signs that read "Make way for the Bandit Kings!".

I had my first match-up using this formation, today. Played a 1500 point game against CSM. Mission type was Crusade. My list was:

Archon (blaster)
Trueborn (blasters, dark lance)
Raider (dark lance)
2xWarrior squads (blaster)
2xVenoms (dual splinter cannons)
Corpsethief Claw formation (haywire blasters)
Dark Artisan formation


CSM list was:

Abaddon
Kharne
8xKhorne Beserkers
Land Raider
3xCSM squads (melta guns)
3xrhinos
Vindicator

Long story short, he conceded at the top of turn 4. I won the roll-off to go first, and popped the vindicator immediately with the taloi after scouting them into range. He assaulted the taloi with his beserker-star in his turn, killed 1 on the charge, then lost all of his beserkers and 2 wounds on kharne from the taloi counter-attack.

The Archon and venoms popped a rhino and put some pretty ineffectual fire down on marines, killing a handful, while the taloi finished off abaddon and kharn after taking only a wound. The rest of the game was pretty much just mop up, with the CSM managing to wreck one venom while the taloi ate a couple more squads. He did manage to challenge out and kill my haemi warlord after i let him assault the Dark Artisan squad with some CSM'S, but the game was pretty much over by that point. He conceded at the top of my turn, and I won 5-1.

The Taloi absorbed at least a thousand points of damage over the course of the game, easily earning their points back. 15 T7 3+ 4++ wounds re-rolling the 1's on the 4++ are nothing to slouch at.

The archon/blasterborn and the venoms were almost completely ineffectual though. They managed to destroy one rhino and about 8 marines over the course of the entire game. My gut is telling me that ~600 points just can't buy enough dakka for warriors in venom/raiders to reliably focus down MEQ.

So, back to the drawing board on that end. Dark Artisan+Corpsethief is a solid core, but I need to figure out how best to support it.

OK, any reports of someone sucksessfully countering it instead?

Ha! There's a better question for sure! Black Mace Daemon Princes or what have you?

Seems like a Balesword Nurgle Prince could put a serious dent in that unit

Don't they get eternal warrior on a 3-d turn or something?

Maybe stompa?.. But what to do about all the blasters?

It's a tough one to kill.

What's even cooler is that you can run three of these formations under 2000 pts (barebones) or 2 kitted up.

Assuming you have a ton of pain engines, that is...

 koooaei wrote:
Don't they get eternal warrior on a 3-d turn or something?

Maybe stompa?.. But what to do about all the blasters?

Eternal Warrior comes turn 6

 koooaei wrote:
OK, any reports of someone sucksessfully countering it instead?

Yeah. In my Freakshow thread nobody likes I mentioned losing the entire formation to a single attack round from a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch. Happened two weeks ago. I wept in a manly fashion. Lesson learned is don't charge an enemy with ID unless you're invisible.

Also, that the rule for multi combats about having to fight the guys you were engaged with previously isn't a rule in 7th.

 Jancoran wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Don't they get eternal warrior on a 3-d turn or something?

Maybe stompa?.. But what to do about all the blasters?

Eternal Warrior comes turn 6

But they don't get it; Taloi lost PfP I this codex.

 koooaei wrote:
Allies don't get objective secured.

And as a side note, they do. At least, if they come from the Allied Detachment they do.

Hey...and what about killchoppa? Is it gona be any better than a dls+PK in this case? Or toying around with wound allocation is gona be a bummer?