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So as far as I have been able to find there is currently no tactica available so I've decided to go ahead and do some for dakka.
As I'm new to dakka, please excuse any formatting issues, please feel free to criticize, and please feel free to tell me im an idiot haha. I am your humble servant =).

Please be aware that this is NOT a mathammer based guide. It comes from in game experience on what does and does not work, and anybody that quotes statistics to me will be flamed hard =)

SO firstly im going to give a good rundown on all of the different army choices and each unit availible in the codex, and will then move onto some good, solid, general advice on army composition and tactics for each and every mission type and table setup.

PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE A COPY OF THE CURRENT DARK ELDAR CODEX TO USE THIS GUIDE!!!! can I be clearer? Read it, love it, sleep with it and feed it regularly. Know your rules and stats for each and every critter and piece of kit and cabootle included therein, and it will repay you many times over.

1. HQ
1.1: The Archon.
This fellow is your meat and potato HQ of any list. For 60 points you get a ws, bs and int of 7, with 3 wounds and 4 attacks, ld 10 and point for point, one of the best statlines of any basic hq unit available in the game. With access to a profusion of wargear, this guy can quickly become a real cc monster, while at the same time becoming a real monster in terms of points. There is only so much one basic character can possibly do. That does not include killing mephy the vampire jesus. Sorry. Therefore, don't overload on gear that one character on his own simply cannot use all in one game.
One of the two options available to you as a method of playing a webway portal, he fulfils a vital roll in any dark eldar army that chooses to use one of these interesting items of wargear (more on this later).
In terms of wargear, there are several items that really shine. Monstrous creature and independent character hunters will love the ability of an archon to take a huskblade, paired with a soultrap for awsomeness, as well as either a shadowfeild (SF) or clonefeild(CF), you'll be strength 10 in no time, and have earned the unending enmity of any tyranid, blood angel, space wolf of vanilla marine player you happen to play.
Other good loadouts include agonizer with SF/CF+ gostplate + phantasm grenade launcher (PGL) with retinue(excelent for incubi who lack grenades of any type), and electrocorrosive whip + PGL in a unit of wyches with shardnets as one of the most irritating and effective tarpit units availible.
As a side note, anyone NOT taking combat drugs for a measly 10 points deserves to be smacked on their skinny white dark eldar arse. Seriously. They're that worth it. Potential to reroll wounds with agonizers and huskblades is pure win.

1.2: The Succubus.
This friendly girl is the wyche version of an Archon. With an extra point of WS and Initiative, and one less BS, a built in iron halo in combat, and free combat drugs, she has a whopping 6, Int 8, WS 8 attacks on the charge, all with the added bonus of combat drugs. For 65 points. Throw in an agonizer for 20 points and haywire grenades for 5 points and you have a 90 point character with a combat statline blood angel players only dream about. Without doubt one of the best value HQ choices availible to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
One of her best uses is to put her with a wyche unit in a raider and use the wyches as a delivery system for and extremely aggressive agonizer.
This girl however, doesnt have the access to the higher level gear that the archon can take, and will therefore never be quite able to compare the lord of the kabal in terms of both survivability and pure close combat chop

1.3 The Homunculus
This interesting and quirky character is the lord of covens, and has access to a wide variety of interesting and powerful wargear, including webway portals. This makes him the second of 2 characters able to drop webway portals in this edition of the dark eldar codex. The other interesting thing about homunculi is that you may buy 3 for the price of one, and that they make wracks troops choices. He also starts the game with a pain token, and is relatively cheap, at only 50 points. Having had limited experience with the homunculus I cannot personally give to much advice pertaining to his use in game.


2. TROOPS:
2.1: Kabalite warriors
At 9 points a model, these high initiative, GeQ infantry wjth WS and BS 4 come with a 4+ poison rapid fire weapon. Ill restate that so its very clear. POISONED WEAPON. These bad boys are positively itching to kill any form of infantry regardless of their toughness, and are the bane of all monstrous creatures. Tyranofex, here we come!. They are however, completely useless against vehicles. No, you cannot stun that rhino/ chimera/leman russ/ whatever by firing at its back armour. Your brightly coloured crystals bounce off making pretty rainbow unicorns come to life. Despite being pigeonholed into being infantry lawnmowers,they can do this exceedingly well, being able to take a splinter cannon for every 10 men in the unit, and a shredder for strength 6 blasty goodness. They can, however, form 10-man stationary sniper units armed with a single dark lance for vehicle popping, or 2 in a 20 man squad, making them not half bad at killing that land raider, in addition to taking a blaster for even more close range lancing.
Best uses include popping out of webway portals on the enemy deployment zone and rapid firing all over that contesting(not for long) nurgle marine unit; getting into raiders with splinter racking for rerolls to hit (just absolutely ridiculously effective with BS4) while driving up and broadsiding( always reminds me of old ships cannonading each other) units and then driving off to rinse and repeat, and objective camping in cover and spamming shots into everything that comes close.
Either way, at 9 points a model, you get one of the best value for money units in the game, able to drag down a bloodthirster without problem in a single round of shooting. I simply cannot overstate the power of poisoned weapons. Use and abuse gentlemen and ladies, use and abuse.

2.2: Wyches:
These fragile female warriors are our second availible troops choice, and are, if anything, better than kabalites. With WS 4 and initiative 6, 3 attacks on the charge, a 4+ invulnerable save in combat and combat drugs, plus access to a host of special weapons, these babies will go toe to toe with genestealers in combat and come out smiling. With a pain token. After loosing 3 models. Seriously. With the right combat drug roll, you can reasonably expect to beat just about anything in combat, and do it stylishly. For 10 points a model, these girls are excellent value, and if used prudently will not disappoint.
Wargear options include a hekatrix that can take an agonizer and PGL, haywire grenades on the whole squad (very useful, more later), and for every 5 models in the squad; razor flails, which give re-rolls to hit and wound for the equipped models, hydra gauntlets, giving D6 extra attacks in lieu of extra close combat weapons, and shardnets and impalers, which remove an attack from every model in base contact down to a minimum of one.
The first two options are designed simply to wreck everything within reach, and while I've been told the mathammer shows razor flails statistically coming out on top of hydra gauntlets, nothing gets in your opponents head like rolling double six's on your 2 hydra's rolls for extra attacks and requiring small earthmoving equipment to pick up the bucket of dice your about to roll. Shardnets and impalers on the other hand, are designed to make your wyches into massive tarpits. With two of these babies on a carnifex/dreadnought/other large intimidating critter, they're generally reduced to a measly one attack, which then has to hit, followed by your excellent 4++ save. Even terminator or ravener units suffer at their hands, as having the majority of your 40+ point models swinging once per combat is not your ideal situation. With an agonizer on your hekatrix, your more than likely be beating whatever your up against in combat resolution, and is ideally suited to delivering a huskblade equipped archon to his intended target.
Best use of your girls include raider rushing for possible turn one assault (can charge between 21' and 26' out of a raider), and webway portal pouncing on pretty much anything, and thats about it. DO NOT walk these up the board unless masochistic. 6+ saves to shooting at toughness 3 is not your friend, and you can proceed to appreciate your unit being reduced to mulch and red splatter in one round of bolter fire if you foolishly decide to walk. If your flying cardboard box has been blown to hell before you get there (wherever there is), which given that its a cardboard box is unsurprisingly likely, hug cover like its an old pal, and try to minimise the amount of time spent out of assault at all cost.
As a side note, again on combat drugs, the effectiveness of these girls changes markedly depending on what drug your roll got you. Just about anything but a 1 is fine, unless versus
eldar or a bike/jump infantry heavy army, and even then id prefer just about any other result


2. ELITES:
3.1: Incubi
The biggest bunch of badasses in combat available to you, for 22 points you get a 3+ save, strength 4 power weapon with ws 5 and 2 attacks on profile. Suffering from the problem of not having grenades in combat and having no method for taking them aside for archons with PGL's, these cheerful folk best serve as a retinue for a combat archon, able to wreck anything they get their hands on in a single round. Use them as a “point-and-click you die” unit, loaded into a raider and flown strait at the toughest most intimidating CC unit your enemy possesses, he will soon appreciate that your eldar are better than his khorne terminators at taking skulls. Klaivex's are optional, the same being true of the demiklaves, which together with onslaught works out at a whole 2 more incubi. Use at the users discretion. Wether you do or not, it works out to about the same amount of killyness, you just have 2 fewer bodys in the unit.
In my personal opinion, save these boys for 2000+ games as you'll find that other area's of your army are now short points and struggling to fulfil their purpose. Other than that, an excellent unit to klaive the crap out of anything that gets in the way of sadistic murderers with two handed power slicers.

3.2: Grotesques
These unstoppable meat machines of death are, surprisingly, not good value for points. T5 S5 with 3 wounds and attacks plus a pain token, they fill up 2 slots in a transport, and require an IC with them in order to not blow up and kill everything within (very long) arms reach. The lack of power weapons makes them lacklustre, as marines laugh at your ineffectual battering, and being able to take only 4 and an heamy in a raider means they lack the punch to force wounds through amount of dice thrown. The only viable option I can see is as a tarpit unit, or as 10 walking through a webway portal, and for the same points you could be taking 10+ incubi and laughing as your opponent struggles with multitudes of power weapons. If you plan to take them anyway, get urien and make them strength 6, but by now each one is as expensive as a terminator and to my mind, less effective.

3.3: Mandrakes
These shadowfiends are an intersting unit, as they provide the only means to either infiltrate or outflank in the dark eldar army. At WS, BS, S and T 4, Int 5, with one attack, all for 15 points, plus stealth, scout, and move through cover, they are useful for surprise attacks on the enemy. Once they get a pain token they automatically receive a assault 2 ap4 gun, but to maximise the efficacy of this plan first they have to kill something, and with a poor assault statline, with no access to real special weaponry, points better spent elsewhere in my opinion.

3.4: Wracks
The homunculi's bitch's, these guys are possibly one of the best value elites units in the codex. With a marines toughness, a pain token automatically, and 2 4+ poisoned weapons, they have access to liquifyer guns, the most brutal flamer in the game, and unusual and interesting wargear. For 15 points a pop, they make an excellent assault unit for assaulting just about anything, and with a homunculus on the table, they count as scoring units.
Load them into a raider and zoom at whatever you feel like and profit, particularly high toughness units, or walk them up the board and laugh as they shrug of anything short of plasmacannon spam. An excellent unit to accompany the homunculus as he drops his webway portal, but be advised that neither they nor homunculi have fleet, and as a result will be slower than the rest of your army

3.5 Hekatrix Bloodbrides
These girls are the handpicked elite of any wyche cult, and for 3 points more, you get a wyche with an extra attack on profile, and more access to wyche weapons, and with hydra gauntlets, throw a staggering amount of dice. The syren with agonizer now has 5 attacks on the charge. Give her a agonizer for excellent win. Perfect retinue for a succubus. Use as for wyches, but even more aggressively. Use as preferred. I personally love them.

3.6 Kabalite Trueborn
The cream of the kabal's crop, these guys are the same as warriors, but with one more attack and a point of leadership for 3 points. They do however, have access to a dizzying profusion of heavy weapons, and can lay down a veritable storm of firepower. Being able to take 4 blasters in any given unit size, plus 2 dark lances for every 10 men means that a raider with these boys in it can potentially give 7 lance shots per turn. Alternatively, buy a venom and put 5 in with 4 blasters and watch your opponents face crumple as his landraider dies on turn 2. Also useful for spamming shredder, as 4 str 6 pie plates in one unit is nothing to sniff at, especially when said pie is 5 points a go. Exceedingly good value on large swarm units.
I personally prefer to just take raiders full of cheaper warriors and rely on the relatively large amount of lances already available in my army to pop tanks, and I can assure you that with as many raiders on the field as you should be taking, you WILL have enough dark lances.

4. DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
4.1 The Raider
The most iconic dark eldar vehicle ever, this ubiquitous skimmer is the living breathing heart of your average dark eldar army. At a standard 60 points, it comes for free with either a dark lance or a disintigrator. This gunboat is a fast open topped skimmer, allowing a 24' turbo boost, and additionally allows the entire crew to disembark after moving 12 and assaulting, or moving 6 and firing everything. Depending on what is inside the raider dictates how it should be outfitted, however, if one is points short, it is fine to skim points by de-upgrading your raiders. After all, it is just a wet paper bag on wings, which brings us to the major problem associated with raiders. They die. All the time. Always. I cannot overstate the fact that by the end of the game, they will nearly all be dead or out of action. Out of 6 or 7 raiders, realistically one should expect that only one will be alive, or none will be alive. They're av10 open topped for crying out loud. A good round of massed bolter fire can and will bring one crashing down around your sadistic pointy white ears. Expect it, live with it, get over it and move on. If your opponent gets lucky, and rolls an explode result, whatever comes out will also be nicely crisped and under half strength. “Oh well, it was only 100 points of squad.”/sigh. Run to cover and objective camp. If it was a warrior squad, try to sit there and quietly snipe lone tanks, MC's and IC's depending on your weapons loadout.
If a wyche squad, you run them at either an objective, or try to get into a big mixed combat and score a pain token.
When upgrading raiders, there are only 4 main upgrades to be considered, which are in order of usefulness, night sheilds, flickerfields (i roll a lot of 5's haha), splinter racks, and chain snares. Night sheilds reduce range or weapons that target them by 6, thusly a bolter shooting at you has 18' long range, or a 6 inch rapid fire, and melta guns cannot melta you at all. This vastly reduces the amount of small arms, plasma gun and melta shots hitting your raiders. Flickerfields give you a 5++ save, which mitigates 1/3 of all damage coming your way. This is self explanatory. Splinter racks give you reroll to hit with splinter rifles and pistols, which for warrior squads is ungodly and ridiculous. I've watched a single unit with splinter racks kill 10 marines with one salvo. Lastly chain snares cause D6 str 4 hits on all units they fly over. Turbo boost 5 raiders over a guard gunline and see how many are left afterward.
Other than that, not much else to say on raiders other than use them fast and aggressive, as they will not be with you for much longer than it takes to read this sentence.

4.2 The Venom
Basically a smaller raider, this is the lapdog to the raider's pitbull, coming with a splinter cannon and twin linked splinter rifle, flickerfields and a transport cap of 5. Generally useful for putting a unit of 5 trueborn with 4 blasters in and cracking a landraider turn 2, transporting an archon and 4 incubi to that devestator squad, or contesting objectives on turn 5 with its turboboost. Will generally live slightly longer than a raider, as people worry more about that dark lance than a splinter cannon, but not by much. Use as for a raider, but seriously, for 5 points less than a raider, get a raider and enjoy the dark lance over the splinter cannon.

5. FAST ATTACK 5.1: Hellions
Sk8ter boi wyches. The dark eldar armies basic jump infantry unit, these fellows are exceedingly good value at 16 points a model, coming with a 18' assault 2 splinter rifle, helklaives and combat drugs, plus extra goodies. Incredibly, with the right combat drug roll, these fellows are able to reach strength 6 on the charge, which for any dark eldar unit is rediculous, not to mention they're jump infantry and so go places fast. With hellklaives giving the bonus for eccw and also +1 str, they're baseline 3 str 4 attacks on the charge, throw in 2 pain tokens and 3 result on the drugs table, you have all you need to ever rip up light- medium tanks, not to mention all infantry. Lacking the dodge save of wyches, but with an improved 5+ save, they are marginally better at taking the hits while jumping across the board, but less tough in combat. Thankfull at str 5/6, int 6 in combat, you should be able to get the jump on most other units out there.
The ability to hit and run is also very useful, as being locked down in combat with t3 models is not ideal, and combine with a stunclaw to snatch IC's out of combat and you have an ideal unit for assassinating most enemy independent characters. Combine with a counter charge with a huskblade wielding archon.
As with all your lightly armoured squishy dark eldar, hit hard and fast, but dont expect results in protracted combats. Hugging cover is especially important, as at 16 points a pop, your investment is being rapid-fired away at an alarming rate. Can be taken as troops choices with the addition of the Baron, making them a good unit for last minute objective caps.

5.2 Reaver Jetbikes
ZOOM is about all I have to say. These speedfreaks can move 36 inches per turn with turbo boost, and still inflict horrendous damage with their bladevane, before popping out from behind cover with multiple heat lances and wrecking that rifleman dread thats plaguing your raiders.
Cluster caltrops and a gravtalon ensures that whatever unit you choose to zoom all over will both take heavy hits and stay put, and the best part is your claiming your 3++ turbo save the entire time. Be wary of anyone with a flamer lurking close to where you finish your move, as this will make your 22 point reavers go all crisp and delicious. Play aggressively but use your speed to hug cover like its your soulmate. Be warned that anything with an anti-aircraft mounting such as a lot of the newer forgeworld products, and hydra flak tanks make these guys go splatter at an alarming rate, and as such, respond appropriately

5.3 Beastmasters
Having had no experience whatsoever with this unit in game, I cant recommend anything at this time. Apologies in advance.


6. HEAVY SUPPORT
6.1 The Chronos Parasite Engine.
One of 2 of the pain engines, this fellow is the smaller brother to the talos in terms of statline but definitly makes up for it in terms of in game effect. Ever fancied a few more pain tokens on your incubi unit? Does furious charge on your hellions make you moist and wanting? If so this is the unit for you! Able to generate tokens by dealing a single unsaved wound, it is a T7 monstrous creature, 3 wounds and a 3+ save. However, its real strength lies outside combat, with it having a weapon called a spirit vortex which is an AP3 flamer. Bring through webway portal, point, shoot indiscriminately, profit. Keep this bad boy standard out of the book. For 80 points, this miracle of the homunculi's art is some of the best value for money in the heavy support slot. Any opponent with an idea of what this thing can do will shoot everything he has to stop it flaming his tac squad on the objective, so if facing a gunline, walk it up the board, talk it up to your opponent and paint a big bullseye on its head. You just bought your raiders a turn of saftey. Net profit: High.

6.2 The Talos Pain Engine
Similar to the chronos above, but without the ability to make pain tokens quite so readily, this engine of destruction is none the less quite a formidable uni when used correctly. Able to poentially dish out a whopping 8 strength 7 MC attacks on the charge, it more than holds its own in the field of MC, and is able to cause instant death to whatever it caused an unsaved wound to, it also has the ability to take a twin-linked liquifyer gun for flamage. Be aware that sometimes you will roll a 1 with your random attacks characteristic and then feel sad. Charge it up the centre of the board as a fire magnet, or webway it, allowing it to get to grips with that land raider and carve it a new one with no questions asked, and then proceed to take apart the squad inside.

Very nice tactica! I've been waiting for one of these for a while. Keeping an eye on this.

Thankyou, will be adding more soon. wrote all 22000 words of this first part in one sitting haha. my brain is fryed. ta for props

I think that the option to take blasters on archons is worth mentioning. BS 7 gets over looked, but getting a 2+/4+ to hit with a S8 AP 2 lance is very attractive, especially if you don't rely on the archon to be a beatstick.

The harmies are a must in many list. The pain tokens the provide are gold for fragile units looking to survive a turn or two of shooting. You don't even have to keep him attached, break him off and leave the token behind. I recommend trying 3 + whatever beatstick/special character you choose. Load out is just a liquifier gun most of the time. He is also a good webway delivery system. Since he makes wracks troops, he opens FOC options.

The mandrakes can be made useful quickly by speeding up a harmie to their squad and having him join. Next turn he can break off and do his own thing if he must.

The kabilite warriors also can be taken as a 5 man venom squad. Give the guys inside a blaster and the syberite a blast pistol, and you have a somewhat efffective and very cheap tank hunting squad riding in a great anti infantry transport. I personally take my big squads with blaster, blast pistol, and splinter cannon. The size of the squad + cannon can handle anti infantry duty. The 2 dark light weapons can damage tanks pretty well. I put this unit in a lance raider. So that is 3 anti tank shots.

As for the wyches, you can walk them if you start them with a pain token, either rolled for or a harmie. The PGL is kinda bad in this squad, as they come with plasma nades already. Haywires are amazing with them though.

Incubi in venoms are amazing even at 1500-1850. With or without archon support. 175 points unit (including upgraded venom) that your opponent doesn't want anywhere near him.

Reread the weapons options on the true born. You don't need 10 to take 2 heavy weapons. A 3 man 2 lance squad is possible. These guys plug wholes in your lists wargear. They can bring tons of poison shots, tons of dark light shots, can be outfitted to be versatile, and can be outfitted to be specialists. A great unit if you have the elite slots open.

I think that you dismiss the venom too easily. For 10 point upgrade you get an additional splinter cannon. That is 12 wound on 4+ 36" range shots (and Splinter weapons don't have S value... so are defensive) Add in the FREE flicker field, and this is decently resilient vehicle for transporting small squads of ANY type. The blaster suicide unit and archon/incubi boat is the only the obvious application. There are many other possible uses.

I agree with most of your points, but venoms provide awesome anti-infantry firepower. For 75 points you get a fast skimmer that can move and fire everything, with 12 36" poisoned(4+) shots, that ignores 1/3rd of hits, and reduces the enemy's range by 6" when shooting at it. Its only problem is that its ideal role is sitting in the backfield sniping things, but it's a dedicated transport that will only ever be carrying something that wants to get in fairly close.

Grotesques probably aren't all that worth it. Sslyth are essentially the same, only they don't take up two transport slots, cost the same, get an additional attack, and have a shardcarbine. They even start with FnP too. Ur-ghuls get the same number of attacks as a grotesque, at S5 and I6 if they charged. They're not as tough, but they're just over half the cost, for just as much offensive power. They also start with FnP. Both Sslyth and Ur-ghuls also have fleet, unlike grotesques. The Archon court actually looks pretty good, even if its composition is a bit odd (which makes it look unappealing at first glance). Extremely varying unit makeup also means easy wound allocation shenanigans...

Grotesques start with FNP too. If you're taking Grotesques, chances are you're attaching an IC to them anyway so they don't explode (or if you're fighting enough Chimeras, you're ok with them exploding). This attached model is normally a Haemonculus due to the fact you probably are doing a coven list, or the fact that neither Grotesques or Haemonculi can fleet. This makes them S6 on the charge, which is useful. The unit wound-allocates (3 unique Grotesques+a Haemonculus=4 unique models), has 2 liquifiers...you see where I'm going with this.

An Archon Court is cheaper though, can have two liquifier equivalents thanks to the Medusae, has 1-2 poisoned(2+) pistols and close combat weapons, can have three shardcarbines, and a total of 35 S5 attacks on the charge. You can't fit all of that in a raider, but you can take whichever you think is most useful, or use a WWP to bring it out (and it's fleet, unlike Grotesques).

285 points gets you an Archon Court in a Raider with flickerfield and night shields, which will have 35 S5 attacks on the charge, 20 of which are at I6, all from models with FnP. You also have three poisoned(2+) attacks, an Sd6 APd6 template weapon (same model has two S3 attacks), and three shardcarbines. It's fleet, and has 16 wounds.

280 points gets you a haemonculus, four grotesques, and an equivalent raider. It'll have 16 S6 and 4 S3 attacks on the charge, at I5, and one S4 APd6 template. It's not fleet, and has 14 wounds.

You forgot to mention that the grots are majority T5 and that they are "slightly" better at wound allocation.

But yes, the court is alot more killy.

Actually, it would have 2 S4 AP D6 templates, (One Grotesque, and the Haemo), 15 S6 attacks (7 which are Poison 3+), and 4 S4 (Poison 2+ attacks). It would also be majority T5 and multiwound which gives it some degree of resilience against torrent of fire or S6 shooting.

Also, why would one take Night Shields on a Raider carrying assault cargo? Are you really that scared of rapid fire? If your Raider is being Boltered or meltagunned, chances are it already did its job.

MagicJuggler wrote:Actually, it would have 2 S4 AP D6 templates, (One Grotesque, and the Haemo), 15 S6 attacks (7 which are Poison 3+), and 4 S4 (Poison 2+ attacks). It would also be majority T5 and multiwound which gives it some degree of resilience against torrent of fire or S6 shooting.

With two liquifiers it would also be five points more than the Court. The court has three T5 models, each with two wounds (and FnP), as well as five T3s that start with FnP (and FC).

Also, why would one take Night Shields on a Raider carrying assault cargo? Are you really that scared of rapid fire? If your Raider is being Boltered or meltagunned, chances are it already did its job.

Raiders cost 80 points and come with Flickerfields and Night shields.

You always take Night shields unless it's a throwaway. With an assault carrier it's even more important: you want your precious cargo to get where it's going, night shields reduce the number of enemy units that are in range. Once it's delivered its cargo you want the raider to still be alive so you can use its dark lance.

Hers a thought, the court with 3 ssylth (sp?), 1 of everything else, Urien and an archon comes with T5 overall, FnP and is quite powerful.

Of course, I have yet to try this out so it may not work...

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:
Raiders cost 80 points and come with Flickerfields and Night shields.

You always take Night shields unless it's a throwaway. With an assault carrier it's even more important: you want your precious cargo to get where it's going, night shields reduce the number of enemy units that are in range. Once it's delivered its cargo you want the raider to still be alive so you can use its dark lance.

Not really an accurate statement. There are fairly few guns in this game that a Nightshield is truly effective against: Boyz, Boltguns, and Hive Guard offer the few pluses a Nighshield gives. Most anti-tank comes in the form of things such as lascannons, railguns, missile launchers, etc. These things all have a minimum of 36" to shoot, meaning they are reduced to 30". Big deal. Your opponent's vehicle gets to move as well in their turn, meaning they can easily move up slightly to get you in range again. If you're being rapid-fired by small-arms fire, your Raider is already close enough to drop its cargo, in which case, a Flickerfield is going to be nicer to have to hopefully stop the Raider from killing all the units about to eat the rapid-firing MeQs. Hive Guard are one that it is truly a godsend against, but they should never live long enough to be a threat to your Raiders anyway lol.

Flickerfields should be an autoinclude. Nightshields are rarely useful. If you want to get an assault unit to their goal, you turboboost and rely on that 4+ cover save and 5+ invuln to do its job, then eat your opponent next turn. You have a maximum of 51" to assault to in two turns, so I don't see how you should have any issues attacking something.

Hmm... Interesting. I just ran the numbers for Flickerfields vs the cover save from moving flatout, and realized both have the same chance of leaving the raider wrecked on a hit. At flatout you get wrecked on a damage roll of 3+ (2/3rds chance), and ignore it on a 4+ (1/2 chance). With a Flickerfield, you get wrecked on a damage roll of 4+ (1/2 chance), and ignore it on a 5+ (1/3rd chance of ignoring it, or 2/3rds chance of it not being ignored). Technically, moving flatout gives less chance of exploding, having it as two of four results, instead of two of three... I suppose this says Ravagers should never turboboost if they have anything to shoot at, and Raiders... if they feel like it? It's not a very big boost for them, and it precludes them from firing...

Nightshields mean you can be in range of your target, while your target's buddies on the other side of the table can't hit you. Even if they can just move to get in range, that's already forced them to react to you, and is probably reducing the amount of fire they can bring, with infantry with heavy weapons left unable to fire at all. Meanwhile, all short and medium range anti-tank is effectively castrated by the reduced range, especially melta, which will never have a 2d6 range better than 6", and in the case of normal meltas won't have a range more than 6". Since they reduce the unit's range, instead of their weapons' range, it should also apply to Night Fighting rules, since that sets the maximum range at which a unit can target an enemy.

So yeah, for ten points, night shields are an automatic buy too.

The weapons nightshields are good against are ones not often taken. 24 range? Assault cannons, multi meltas, 36 range? Heavy bolters.

48 range? ML, Autocannons, railguns.

Most common anti transport weapons right now are ML and autocannons.

I would rather take the 5+ save and not HAVE to turbo boost to keep them alive.

It's not an either/or situation. They're both worth their points on a Raider, especially the Flickerfield. On anything more expensive they're more than worth their points.

I wouldn't consider either mandatory. It would depend on the situation. Raiders worked just fine in the last edition without flickerfields and night shields have always been argued for and against.

I still don't field all of my raiders with either one of them. Sometimes it's good to go cheap since you can use those points to add something else. You can get a 4+ cover save without either of them. Good point use depends on play style.

Looks good, although the Venom section discounts that the 5 points less includes the Flickerfield, so the gap is a little wider than this suggests.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:It's not an either/or situation. They're both worth their points on a Raider, especially the Flickerfield. On anything more expensive they're more than worth their points.

If you don't want to suffer from upgrade bloat, it is.

The FF work on a 5+.

The night shields work if your opponent is using short range weapons and if you are better than your opponent at gauging ranges.

Laichzeit wrote:
5.3 Beastmasters
Having had no experience whatsoever with this unit in game, I cant recommend anything at this time. Apologies in advance.

While I spent the first few months of the codex release ignoring them and discounting them as useless, they are in fact one of the best, if not the best CC unit in the codex. Consider this:

Beastmaster x 5, Clawed Fiend x 1, Razorwing Flock x 4, Khymera x 10 is 280 points. This unit has 79 attacks on the charge (19-24" range), 39 wounds, and if you start off the game with a Haemonculus attached to the unit it has FNP. Easily the most resillient unit in the Dark Eldar arsenal. You can take wounds on the toughness 5 model and he gets stronger, 10 models that give you a 4+ invul, and with the sheer number of attacks you can take out anything with 10 rear armor with ease. Khymera are like Bloodbrides on crack (the unit above provides 40 attacks from them on the charge). Razorwing Flocks add 5 wounds for only 15 points and they have rending (the unit above provides 24 attacks from them on the charge). I'm not saying you have to build this unit this way, it's completely customizable. The formation above has been discussed a lot in other forums and the consensus is this is the most effective.

Ashenshugar wrote:
and if you start off the game with a Haemonculus attached to the unit it has FNP.

Actually go back and look again. ONLY the Beastmasters gain FNP, as they are the only part of the unit with the Power From Pain rule. Not that it really rules them out...the Khymera already have a 4++ save, PERIOD, making them one of the most solid choices IMO, with the Claw fiend a close second because of it s high toughness and gaining more attacks as it gets wounded.

However, on the attaching of Haemys to units...try this one on for size: Unit of Scourges with some assortment of assault weapons (blasters/haywires/heat lances) that start with a Haemy attached...within 8" of a Raider with Wracks in it. Turn 1, detach the Haemy, board the Raider with him, and ZOOM ZOOM! Off they go, and still all have FNP at least. And now your Scourge unit just became that more resilient because you left the Haemy's Pain Token with them!

DraconicGuardian wrote:

Ashenshugar wrote:
and if you start off the game with a Haemonculus attached to the unit it has FNP.

Actually go back and look again. ONLY the Beastmasters gain FNP, as they are the only part of the unit with the Power From Pain rule. Not that it really rules them out...the Khymera already have a 4++ save, PERIOD, making them one of the most solid choices IMO, with the Claw fiend a close second because of it s high toughness and gaining more attacks as it gets wounded.

However, on the attaching of Haemys to units...try this one on for size: Unit of Scourges with some assortment of assault weapons (blasters/haywires/heat lances) that start with a Haemy attached...within 8" of a Raider with Wracks in it. Turn 1, detach the Haemy, board the Raider with him, and ZOOM ZOOM! Off they go, and still all have FNP at least. And now your Scourge unit just became that more resilient because you left the Haemy's Pain Token with them!

There is some arguement over this, and its pretty legit too. It is the token that grants the abilities, and doesn't say anything about what gets it. Only units with power from pain GENERATE tokens though.

If it is intentional or not, hopefully (read, yeah right) will be cleared up in an upcoming FAQ

notabot187 wrote: There is some arguement over this, and its pretty legit too. It is the token that grants the abilities, and doesn't say anything about what gets it. Only units with power from pain GENERATE tokens though.

Well...just check and I stand corrected! :-) I had figured that only units that had the rule could generate them OR benefit from them! Personally though, until the FAQ states otherwise (doubtful...that would be just a bit TOO evil...) I will probably continue to play it as I stated. It just clogs things up otherwise...like what about the Court units that start with FNP already? No benefit from the first pain token? Or do they jump to FC immediately? Yeah...easier just to keep it simple IMO.

The INAT FAQ rules in favor of the entire Beastmaster unit gaining benefit from the tokens.

I expect not for much longer as the Dark Eldar FAQ says differently

Ashenshugar wrote:The INAT FAQ rules in favor of the entire Beastmaster unit gaining benefit from the tokens.

I know this is the home of INAT... but it is isn't an official ruling.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Arakasi wrote:I expect not for much longer as the Dark Eldar FAQ says differently

I really wish that GW would have some sort of way to notify people when the ruling eventually comes out. Anyways, here is the link:

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1620226a_Dark_Eldar_Version_1_0.pdf

And with the FAQ being out, I now return to my previous assessment of Beastmaster packs:

#1 beast to take is Khymerae. #2 Clawed fiend #3 Razorwings.

I have found myself to be a fan of hekatrix Bloodbrides. W/ an agonizer syren and 3 razorflails, they will hit terminators with force and drown them in armor saves. A bit pricey, yes... But for what the unit does, eat anything with a T value, it is good.

Brother-Thunder wrote:I have found myself to be a fan of hekatrix Bloodbrides. W/ an agonizer syren and 3 razorflails, they will hit terminators with force and drown them in armor saves. A bit pricey, yes... But for what the unit does, eat anything with a T value, it is good.

S3 is a problem... Against T5-6 they really struggle, and can't hurt T7+ at all (not much in that category Talos/chronos, wraithlords, and C'tan) without agonizers. I prefer going with shardnets, as the squad itself has enough attacks to kill anything reasonable. The shardnets lets you bog down the big things that might not have been so reasonable (like dreds and MCs). Always bring haywires.