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Currently I'm guessing the top armies are something like 1. Space Wolves 2. Imperial Guard 3. Blood Angels... are DE a 2nd tier army or are they top tier? I know its assumed Eldar are 2nd or perhaps even bottom tier due to everything being overpriced and they are non-competitive not as bad as Necrons or Tau but almost.

Around here it seems everyone around here are WAAC gamers that power-maxes their list running 10 Chimera Vendetta/Melta spam IG leafblower lists or Space Wolves. The other day I saw a new kid who just started 40k with Tau get tabled on turn 3 by some 20 year old veteran playing his tournament wolves list and smacking high-fives with his buddies at the store. The kid cried. I guess that's just how some people roll.

I myself started the hobby with Eldar and lost a lot of games and got used to Space Marine players always joking about how pretty much anything kills my Dire Avengers or Guardians so I'm wondering if the new Dark Eldar are competitive against the top-tier armies. I'm looking to start another "finesse" army and something good against space marines/spiky space marines that everyone and their mom seems to play around here. Even players with a Xeno army seem to have a space marine army they started out with.

I appreciate some feedback!

As with most (not all) armies, certain builds of dark eldar are very good, personally i would put them in the top tier (4th maybe 5th), but if its finesse you want... then yup, they are for you. I'm currently toying with a Webway list (no vehicles) and run alot of Incubi and Talos..ees? but running a Raider list can be quite good, But remmeber alot comes down to the player, last week i watched a Craftworld eldar player tear a DE army up, both people are very good players, twas a pleasure to watch the game won in the movment phase for a change

Can Dark Eldar stand up to cheese Space Wolves lists or a IG leafblower list at tournaments?

DorianGray wrote:Can Dark Eldar stand up to cheese Space Wolves lists or a IG leafblower list at tournaments?

Every army can.

as happygaunt so expertly said "every army can", well .. thats not true, Necrons cant.. lol

anyway, yes they can, if you are going to face the wolf missile list take flickerfileds or just flat out move everything asap, vs leafblower, you shouldnt have trouble getting those side armour shots. this is assuming you are running a raider list

DE are pretty good, however it's very apparent that Mech IG are an absolute nightmare for them, although this is nothing new, this was true even with the old codex. Aside from that however, DE do fairly well against most other armies, especially MEQ armies or footslogging lists.

IS it true that DE are one army that doesn't need to constantly need to worry about AT like my Eldar?

It seems everyone spams Rhinos and AV11 transports these days.

Depends. Individually DE transports get eaten alive by AT. However, spammed AV 10 skimmers can overwhelm AT fire. The key is target saturation.

DorianGray wrote:Can Dark Eldar stand up to cheese Space Wolves lists or a IG leafblower list at tournaments?

Yes, quite easily.

I take 3x Razorwing Jet Fighters with Vect and the Baron. I have roughly an 85%ish chance to go first, and when I do, I destroy Space Wolves dumb enough to take Long Fangs against me. This isn't even an exaggeration. Seeing 4 Missiles and 2 Dissies slam into a Long Fang unit is not fun. I have wiped out all the long fangs in all three of my 2500 test games versus wolves on the first turn. After that happens, the rest is a cake walk.

IG, on the other hand, is a different beast all together. I do win against MECH IG, but it is nearly always a close game, and rarely a blow out.

I would put Dark Eldar as number 2, with IG as number one. Any MEQ based army doesn't stand a chance against an experienced DE Archon.

Formosa wrote:as happygaunt so expertly said "every army can", well .. thats not true, Necrons cant.. lol

anyway, yes they can, if you are going to face the wolf missile list take flickerfileds or just flat out move everything asap, vs leafblower, you shouldnt have trouble getting those side armour shots. this is assuming you are running a raider list

Necrons can as well. Spam is a delicious food, and the best tactic in this case.

BuFFo wrote:

DorianGray wrote:Can Dark Eldar stand up to cheese Space Wolves lists or a IG leafblower list at tournaments?

Yes, quite easily.

I take 3x Razorwing Jet Fighters with Vect and the Baron. I have roughly an 85%ish chance to go first, and when I do, I destroy Space Wolves dumb enough to take Long Fangs against me. This isn't even an exaggeration. Seeing 4 Missiles and 2 Dissies slam into a Long Fang unit is not fun. I have wiped out all the long fangs in all three of my 2500 test games versus wolves on the first turn. After that happens, the rest is a cake walk.

IG, on the other hand, is a different beast all together. I do win against MECH IG, but it is nearly always a close game, and rarely a blow out.

I would put Dark Eldar as number 2, with IG as number one. Any MEQ based army doesn't stand a chance against an experienced DE Archon.

This^,
Though I tend to have some trouble with eldar, there are some pretty nasty lists out there, mech IG is always a good challenge, against Marines, it's normally a 70/30 win ratio with my DE. They are defiantly not a tier 2 army..in the hands of an inexperienced player, worse than necrons, in the hands of a person with a tactical mind and experience, the number 1/2/3 army out there

I could write something long and extensive, but instead will just write this:

In the old codex, my Dark Eldar feared Mech IG on a scale of 8/10, Triple Long Fang Spacewolves with razorback spam 8/10, and Blood Angels 6/10, with absolute disdain for everything else.

In the new codex, my Dark Eldar fear Mech IG 9/10, Black Templar Blessed Hull landraider spam 6/10, and have disdain for everything else - including Space Wolves.

Formosa wrote:As with most (not all) armies, certain builds of dark eldar are very good, personally i would put them in the top tier (4th maybe 5th), but if its finesse you want... then yup, they are for you. I'm currently toying with a Webway list (no vehicles) and run alot of Incubi and Talos..ees? but running a Raider list can be quite good, But remmeber alot comes down to the player, last week i watched a Craftworld eldar player tear a DE army up, both people are very good players, twas a pleasure to watch the game won in the movment phase for a change

While I'm enjoying my mixed DE list, I've begun toying with a WWP list with no vehicles also. I've come to the conclusion only certain units will work with it and I keep going full circle in the composition. I'd love to discuss it with you.