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So I dusted off my old Dark Eldar codex, looking to play some games with it when I dont feel like playing marines.
This list is basically getting as many raiders as possible on the field, I think it comes up to 720pts so 30pts left over for special weapons/wargear.

HQ:
Drachon
Retinue
5xWarrior
Raider w/Disintegrator

Troops:
3 Raider Squads:
5x Warriors
Raider w/Dark Lance

3 Raider Squads:
5x Warriors
Raider w/Disintegrator
=============================================================
Just wondering what peoples thoughts are, 4 disintegrators and 3 dark lances at this point level seems like a pretty heavy glass cannon.
Would it be better to drop 1 of the DL raider squads for a triple DL Ravager?
I was thinking its probably best to either have 2 or no ravagers, as 1 of them is almost certain to be dead after the first turn.

Well, the list looks good. Three dark lances should suffice at this pt level,
and four disintegrators should suffice to take care of infantry.
I'd keep it.

DEpends on what you are facing, either an Agoniser for armour, if you're really afraid of psykers upgrade one warrior to a sybarite and give her a Crucible or really really want first turn take a Nightmare doll... so on so forth. As for the list, you've slotted in 7 raiders at 100 points each basically, spam achived

My main opponent will be orks, so not too worried about armor/psykers.

Im thinking maybe add a splinter cannon to each of the Disintegrator raider squads, brings me up to 750 with a decent amount of extra firepower for the points.

Not really too worried about wargear for the Dracite, hes really only there to bring his retinue, I doubt hell actually get off the raider unless it pops

Hmm if you're already going the way of SC for extra infantry death, I might think about putting the two SC in the retinue despit the bullseye this paints and 'hide' it forcing shots if your opponent wanted to deal with that extra Anti-Inf.

But if you're thinking of that I personally would just hand out three more DL's across the squads... never been too impressed with SC performance... but most of my games with them have been KT not 40K

What is the Dracite going to do? You've given him no weapons, is he going to punch orks? =p I think you should swap him for a heamunculis with a destructor and scissor hand. same point cost, and a nasty flamer to deal with the orks, and the h2h weapon incase the raider pops. And you would have to drop the 5 man retinue, but for 40 points you can buy a haemunculis with a stinger + scissor hand combo. OR if you dropped the disintergrator on the HQs raider you can buy a 3 man grotesque retinue to go with him.

And what will happen if you dont shoot all the orks to death and they get into close combat with you? Your raider squads are sure to die, I think you're going to need a close combat squad in there as a "just in case".
Your close combat squad should be about 7 wyches in a raider with an agoniser OR a ten man raider squad with piosioned blades or an agoniser on the sybarite. I dont know where you would want to get the points from, I'm too lazy this morning to work that out for you =p

to be honest, i would drop the raider and the retinue and buy a ravager, and drop the dracon and get a haemy. i never use a lord until 1250, anything under that it's too expensive. Im also not a fan of tiny little warrior squads, as once your raiders die they're practically worthless.

That said, splinter cannons are always lovely, but consider dropping a couple of troops for ravagers. if you have 2 or 3 at 750, your opponent is not going to have a nice day (i love deldar at 500, oh, iv got this dis ravager. I just killed one of your squads.)

Actually the original list I was working on was based around 2 Ravagers, but thought it might be a little too nasty.

I guess if I drop the Drachon to a Haemy and two of the troops, I should have enough points for 2 Ravagers, as well as plenty left over for gear/extra warriors on the raider squads.

Then I could have 2 3xDis Ravagers, with 3 Dark lances and another Dis on Raiders.

Thats quite a bit of Dakka, especially since I believe my mate will be running Trukk Boyz mostly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Updated List:
HQ:
Haemonculus
Stinger
Scissor Hand

Elites:
7 Wyches
Wych Weapons
2 Blaster
Succubus w/Agoniser
Raider w/Dark lance

Troops:
3x Raider Squads:
5x Warriors
Raider w/Dark Lance

Heavy Support:
2x Ravager w/3 Disntegrators
=============================================================
HQ will roll with the Wyches as something of a hammer unit, itll be trying to get into CC asap
Im thinking I may deploy the warriors seperately to the raiders, and split up a bit to make him either split his forces or overcommit to a small target, otherwise keep them mounted up and just float around while my splinter rifles cause the occasional wound
Ravagers will hang around the 24" range, keeping my options open, plus firing all weapons after a 12" move is delicious (I'm thinking 8 S4 AP3 shots + a template is probably about as good as 3 S7 AP2 templates after scatter)

I think I've incorporated most of the suggestions, unfotuantely ran out of points for extra gear on the warriors, but they are really only there to bring the raiders anyway, any further suggestions?

That's a pretty solid list.

At 750 I disagree with whichever poster above noted a need for Wyches - at 750 your way of dealing with enemy assault units is to be so much faster and more maneuverable then the enemy so that they can never get into h2h with you.

I'd probably drop the Wyches, buy a Gunboat, upgrade the Stinger to a Destructor, and buy the Haemy drugs as well. Load the Haemy into said Gunboat and you have a potent short range shooting option that can also be a pretty solid assault option if you need it to be.

(you can buy Drugs and Destructor for the Haemy and have enough points to make a 5 man gunboat with S.Cannon, Blaster, and 19 extra points - maybe for a Sybarite with poison blades, or maybe just some extra bodies in the squad, et al)

I think that will serve you better overall then Wyches considering what the enemy is likely to field.

I'd leave your sniper squads in the boats (at least presuming you really want to win and don't care how much it annoys your opponent. The basic strategy is to pick a corner and put your forces in it shooting at the Orks. Rounds 1-3 you shoot him up, destroy his trukks, and force him to walk towards you. On round 4 the Haemy and his Gunboat rapid fire or assault into some Ork stuff while everything else in your army turboboosts to the other corner. ROund 5 the Orks may manage to kill the Haemy's squad and will have a moment of pure joy, before he has to try walking for another 2 rounds at your gunline which will still be shooting him up.

Easy win.
Usually not that fun for opponent.
::shrug::

If you like your opponent just don't turboboost away, stay put and rapid fire splinter rifles out of boats. The Orks are still probably doomed but they might not end up calling the army cheesy.

Thor665 wrote:At 750 I disagree with whichever poster above noted a need for Wyches - at 750 your way of dealing with enemy assault units is to be so much faster and more maneuverable then the enemy so that they can never get into h2h with you.

.

I'd actually agree with you there (I was the guy who suggested wyches..) I'm still quite new to 40k and I seem to think you need to bring at least one shooty squad and one assualt squad. I'll learn soon enough =) I also like the sitting in a corner and then boosting away idea, that really utilises the speed of the DE =)

i dont take wyches till i have at least 5 troops choices, under that they're just so many points that are unecesary. Same with lords, honestly. Shooty first, assaulty second

Updated List:
HQ:
Haemonculus
Scissorhand
Destructor
Combat Drugs

Troops:
1x Raider Squad:
5x Warriors
Splinter Cannon
Blaster
Raider w/Disintegrator

3x Raider Squad:
5x Warriors
Dark Lance
Raider W/Dark Lance

Heavy Support:
2x Ravager:
3x Disintegrator
=============================================================
This list gives me 6 Darklances that can all fire at different targets, 7 Disintegrators with up to 3 targets.
By my math (working from memory as I'm at work) I have 15pts left for a syrabite + weapon in the first Raider squad, or something else.
The Haemy will be with the first raider squad that will hang around 24" causing havoc while ravagers/darklances cripple his forces.
After all the vehicles have popped warriors/raiders will be used as shields for the ravagers mostly.

I'm pretty confident this list should be almost untouchable by the orks, although I don't know what hes taking in the way of long range, theres a good chance I'll see some lootas, although my ravagers should be able to make pretty short work of them.

On a side note, I read through your DE Tactica Thor665 (Great work btw!), and you said that Jetbikes give +1 to S and T, and +1 to armor save, but reading the FAQ/Codex/BRB it doesn't say anything about the armor save, is that in the Eldar codex?

I disagree with a few points of advice, such as tiny little warrior squads dying and becoming worthless.

Though as for the jetbikes. They have T in their profiles, without mentioning any bonus from the jetbikes, the bonus that comes from jetbikes would boost it to 5. There is nothing indicating they have the jetbike bonus, meaning that they would by RaW, have T5.

Also, having ten warriors as a close combat unit, the wyches are worth their weight in gold for that, and not necessary if you have a bunch of plasma cannons/fast skimmers.

Edit-The list should be fine against any army, and unless they take three units of lootas, you should be set. Even then, dark eldar have good times in lower points.

Yeah, I know that RAW the jetbikes are S5/T5 (I can't believe they erratad the description without changing that )

I was referring to Thor's Tactica - "On the bike he gains +1 to Strength, Toughness, and his armor save, all of which are pretty sweet."
However in the DE Codex/DE FAQ/BRB no mention is made of the +1 Armor save, so I'm thinking its either a mistake or its mentioned in the Eldar codex.

look at the faq. jetbikes are not 4(5) they are 3(4)

In the INAT FAQ they are 3(4), using straight codex + GW FAQ it doesnt specify that the stat bonus is already included, so RAW would be 4(5)

Of course I wouldn't actually play them as being 4(5), but RAW thats what they are

Not really. All bike entries have the bonuses built into the stat lines, as does this one. No where in the GW faq does it say (perhaps i was wrong in the post above), it makes it 3(4), just that it increases toughness. So really i don't think theres an argument for it... although it would be interesting to pull out when people are crying about pinning tests that aren't pinning tests.

Dark Eldar jetbikes are NOT 3(4) they are a flat 4. Were they intended to be 3(4)? Probably, but they are 4... meaning that they're tough mo-fo's.

The bonuses built into the stat line are displayed as such:

T4(5)

Dark eldar:

T4

Simple as that.

del'Vhar wrote:On a side note, I read through your DE Tactica Thor665 (Great work btw!), and you said that Jetbikes give +1 to S and T, and +1 to armor save, but reading the FAQ/Codex/BRB it doesn't say anything about the armor save, is that in the Eldar codex?

Actually I was wrong on the armor save point. Will have to remember to update that one on the Tactica.

I'll try to swing through and offer thoughts on your list sometime tomorrow.

Looking over the new list I generally like it.

I'm pretty neutral about the Dissie on the Raider - Dissies work best in batches and Lances work best separate, and it's hard to support paying for the privilege to not have a dark lance.

I'd definitely use the extra points to put at least one extra body into that Gunboat, whether you want it to be a Syb or a regular warrior all depends on whether you'd like to be a bit better at assault or shooting.

I will also add that the optimum range for a Gunboat is 12" not 24" especially if you have a Haemy in it.

My points calculations were off by 5 points on that list I think, I only have 10 points left.

Absolutely right on the 12" thing, I said 24" initially because I wanted to stay outside assault range, but I'll be heading closer to my prey, with the speed of the raider it shouldnt be too difficult to dance around his main force, especially after the trukks have popped.

Keeping out of assault was also the reason for taking the dissie on the close range raider, I figured the extra shots might make the difference between facing off against a Klaw and not being assaulted, and if I make sure to always shoot with the warriors/haemy first I can still fire the dissie at the rest of his army.
I'm also pretty sure that 6 dark lances at 750 pts will probably be enough to pop at least half his vehicles in my first turn of shooting, and they are a little wasted once I've taken out his armor.