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So my gal has been looking at my orks and has been painting the space marines that I received in the AoBR box and has very much taken a shine to the hobby. She was looking over the codices and thought that dark eldar would be the one she would want to paint the most due to the color scheme and the models, but she'd also like to be able to play with me.

So my question is this, what is the cheapest way to make a 500 point dark eldar force and make it legal? She's a fan of all the infantry and vehicle models out so far, except for mandrakes. She also says that she at the least wants to buy the archon, even if only for pure painting purposes.

Thanks in Advance, Dakka Dakka

idk if it's cheapest but I was able to get 500 pts out of 2 boxes of kabalite warriors, 1 raider, 1 archon, and a box of incubi.

Doesn't take much to get these guys to 500

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah, from the army lists I was researching these guys are expensive.

4 boxes of Hellions + 1 old blister of hellions(to play as the baron) = a little over $100USD.

2 10 man units of Hellions each with Helliarch with stunclaw and Phantasm grenade launchers

then Baron Strathonyx is 495 points

Can't do diddly vs vehicles but can do pretty good against enemy infantry.

Interesting!

The vague idea I had was as follows:

HQ-
Archon

Troops-
Unit of Wyches
Unit of Kabalite Warriors

Fast attack
Unit or reavers maybe?

Transports
A raider or two

Obviously I don't have point values but most of the armies I have seen have a similar disposition. Kabalites sit on the home objective, wyches try to capture others, reavers contest, and the raider drives the aforementioned wyches around. Once they disembark it becomes a contester as well.

best HQ as a point muncher is vect buy a ravager* and a archon rest is pretty much the same try to avoid anything with less than 6 model count or metal excluding vechs

Think I might just buy her a bit of what I listed already haha. A wyche squad, a kabalite warrior squad, a raider, and an archon.

1. eBay Eldar units
2. Simple Green
3. Add spikes
4. ???
5. PROFIT

Does she want a playable army, or does she want a GOOD playable army?

If you're playing small point games, I suggest shooty DE.
Pick up an Archon and a couple units of Warriors. Then, get a couple raiders and maybe a Ravager.

Assemble the Warriors with Blaster/Dark Lance options.

Not sure on points. No codex or AB available.

Eric

cheap? Buy everybody's 3rd edition warriors they haven't used in years (if ever)

I ran this through AB earlier tonight.
You can run
-One Archon with an Agonizer and Shadow Field
-One squad of 9 Warriors with a Blaster & a blaster/CCW on the Sybarite in a bare Raider
-One squad of 10 Warriors with a blaster, & Dark Lance, with a Splinter Pistol/Venom Blade on the Sybarite in a bare Raider

This comes to 496.

I'm sure there are more competetive builds, but this will be relatively inexpensive & allow her to use that Archon.

Eric

Baron Sathonyx

Hellions, 7
Hellions, 8, Helliarch with Stunclaw and PGL

Ravager, Flickerfield

495 points, enough for one of the cheaper upgrades to the ravager.

Four boxes of Hellions and one Ravager. ~$120-130 if you get it at a discount. Packs an anti-tank punch, and staggering anti-infantry ranged and melee.

Can she or you wait? Im personally waiting for Battle Force to come out before starting my Dark Eldars

I was thinking just about the same thing. I tallied up a wyche unit, a kabalite warrior unit, a raider, and an archon. They came out to about 98 bucks, the price of battleforces in general. Maybe the DE BF will have 2 raiders. That'd be sweet.

gpfunk wrote:I was thinking just about the same thing. I tallied up a wyche unit, a kabalite warrior unit, a raider, and an archon. They came out to about 98 bucks, the price of battleforces in general. Maybe the DE BF will have 2 raiders. That'd be sweet.

Im guessing 2 kabalite squads xD

My 500 points Dark Eldar army is, 1 Archon, 9 Warriors with a Raider (Archon joins them) and 10 Wyches and the Wyches come onto the board from a webway portal that the archon carries.

My best tactic at this point level is to get away enough from your opponant jump the archon out and use the webway, jump back on the raider and float nearby till the wyches come onto the board. Then join the archon into the Wyches who hopefully will then be able to charge into a unit if you have dropped the webway near enough

LunaHound wrote:Im guessing 2 kabalite squads xD

Yeah...I just got carried away

Stiyx wrote:My 500 points Dark Eldar army is, 1 Archon, 9 Warriors with a Raider (Archon joins them) and 10 Wyches and the Wyches come onto the board from a webway portal that the archon carries.

My best tactic at this point level is to get away enough from your opponant jump the archon out and use the webway, jump back on the raider and float nearby till the wyches come onto the board. Then join the archon into the Wyches who hopefully will then be able to charge into a unit if you have dropped the webway near enough

Sounds fair enough to me, and meets all the requirements as well.

The problem with stiyx army and tactics are that neither works.
1) You jump the Archon out of the Raider. He drops the WWP. Now, he's got to sit out in the open until his next turn. Hope he lives.
2) At 500 points, most armies you face are going to be backing WAY better heavy hitters in HtH than you. You aren't likely to make it into HtH with youw full wych squad and those that do make it will be seriously outmatched much of the time. Your best bet is to try to win by superior Firepower.

Of course, that's just my opinion, and you know what *those* are like. : )

Eric

I see your point. So instead I should perhaps get two full squads of kabalites or kebabs...I like kebabs. So two full kebab units, Archon, and two raiders? That could work. Then I might just get her some wyches for painting on her b-day.

The Baron and 15 hellions means 32 18" poisoned(4+) shots, and 42 S4/S5 with two pain tokens, 4 S3/S4, and 5 S6/S7 melee attacks on the charge, all at I6. And everything is on an awesome skyboard. Throw in a ravager and you can probably outshoot anything they'd be taking at that point level, barring Vendettas (of which one can take two at 500 points while still having enough to field two vet squads and a command squad...).

I run a wych cult list myself, but I don't think that's too good at low point values, and kabalites have never seemed worth it to me...

Those hellions sound like bonafide asskicking. Could I ask you what you find lacking in the Kabalites? I checked up on stats from GW. Hitting and wounding on 4's doesnt sound so bad. And can't a 10 man squad take a dark lance or splinter cannon? Wouldn't that help their dakka?

I don't know, I've just never really liked rapid-fire weapons, aside from the insanity of blob Guard with FRFSRF, and DE have other things that can do what kabalites do better. Hellions have about a 30" range with their weapons when you factor in their movement, cost just a little bit more than kabalites with a bare raider, and throw down an insane number of S4/S5 attacks in melee (although you need a phantasm grenade launcher to make the most out of that). With Sathonyx, they become scoring troops instead of Fast Attack, and Sathonyx also buffs up one unit of them with his twilight shroud (grants stealth to his unit) and master of the skies rule (reroll failed dangerous terrain test, can reroll the hit and run initiative check and the dice to determine how far they retreat when using hit and run).

Waiting for a battle force deal might be a good option. Also depends what they put in that battle force.

Cheapest and having an effective competitive force really don't go to well as an effective force usually means mechanized which costs you for squads and vehicles.

If your girlfriend does not mind the older models the cheapest way would be to get older models off of ebay. The newer models are a bit nicer looking for sure.

As far as a 500 point list. Archon is a bit expensive for a 500 list but if she insists on having it.

Archon
- shadowfield
- agonizer
110 points

7 wyches
- helatrix with agonizer
- raider

5 warriors
- blaster
- raider
120 pts

ravager with 3 darklances
105 points

Not exactly the cheapest moneywise but it would be decently effective and includes the archon. A haemoculus instead to give feels no pain from a pain token would be cheaper and let you have more wyches.

This is assuming you don't want to convert anything. Wracks and Venoms make for a more effective list but require conversions at this time and cost more money.

gpfunk wrote:I see your point. So instead I should perhaps get two full squads of kabalites or kebabs...I like kebabs. So two full kebab units, Archon, and two raiders? That could work. Then I might just get her some wyches for painting on her b-day.

That's the set up I'm partial towards. It allows you to take full advantage of the shooting you'll have @24+ inches.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:The Baron and 15 hellions means 32 18" poisoned(4+) shots, and 42 S4/S5 with two pain tokens, 4 S3/S4, and 5 S6/S7 melee attacks on the charge, all at I6. And everything is on an awesome skyboard. Throw in a ravager and you can probably outshoot anything they'd be taking at that point level, barring Vendettas (of which one can take two at 500 points while still having enough to field two vet squads and a command squad...).

You're definitely looking at a tough-as-nails HtH army there (for DE, anyway). There are a few issues I see with your list.

1) There is no Baron model. So, there will be conversion or "counts as" involved. I don't get the impression that's his intent.
2)Your ranged shooting is weak. IMO, you can't say they have an effective shooting range of 30" including movement, because movement is not shooting. You need to know *just* how close you need to be to fire.
3) You're not outshooting much (at range) when you've only got 1 model toting Dark Lances. It'll be the immediate target of anything that can see it & has range until it dies a fiery death... probably on Turn 1. Even if it lives, you're taking out 1 target per round with it, at maximum. Compared to the list I posted, which can take out up to 4 armored targets, potentially.

Avariel wrote:As far as a 500 point list. Archon is a bit expensive for a 500 list but if she insists on having it.

Archon
- shadowfield
- agonizer
110 points

7 wyches
- helatrix with agonizer
- raider

5 warriors
- blaster
- raider
120 pts

ravager with 3 darklances
105 points

Honestly, I like the Hellion list more. It takes better advantage of the army's strengths. With the list above, you're totally missing out on all the "good" options on your units by not making them full strength.


FWIW.

Eric