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So I am debating about starting a new army and I am leaning toward Dark Eldar due to physical appearance of they're models. Any chance you guys can fill me in on how the army works compared to a Drop Pod BA army or a Ork Kall Wall. Those are my current army. What are some of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the army? Any keystone units or HQ models? What about DE tactics and combat tricks? I guess I am just after a full review of them from skilled players.

I havent played with nor against them but from what Ive heard they are pretty much like eldar, hit hard and fast but cant take a beating themselves at all. Pretty much like a wreckin-ball on speed on the offense and like a little kitten on the defense.
Oh and they are pretty good on both CC (Wyches) and longer range (Poison weapon).

They're looking more and more tempting to me.

I'd love to do lots of raiders and ravagers armed with disintegrator cannons.

You can fit 10 Raiders and 3 ravages in 1500 thats 57 Str 5 AP2 shots!

You even have enough points left over to use Shock Prow to Ram Armour values. It'd be crazy

They are similar to Eldar in some ways (fast, lots of skimmers and can lay down a lot of hits very quickly) but are far from being the same.
DE vehicles get wrecked....a lot...by almost anything, nothing like the Craftworld Eldars vehicles, but in exchange they are even faster!

If you don't play on boards with the proper amount of terrain DE will be at a major disadvantage, so this might effect your decision.
There are several different ways you can go with a DE army: whych cult/Kabul/Coven and a mech heavy uber fast force, or a Webway portal list that makes use of an awesome piece of DE's wargear that lets you enter from reserve from pretty much anywhere!

Their strengths are:

Their insane speed, several of thier units can move 36" a turn!

Poisoned weapons mean you can kill MC's really easily.

The insane volume of S5/8 shots you can get into an army

Their weaknesses are:

Even S4 weapons can destroy your vehices in one shot!

They are really fragile, T3 and their armour saves are rubbish 5+/6+ in most cases

The way I see it they are a "kill or be killed" army, if you do it right its not hard to table your opponent, get it wrong and your vehicles will explode left right and center and your unit of wyches will either die in the explosion and/or get culled by bolter fire.

OP:

Couple of things.

1. Look up Ketara, search his "threads created" and look at the Unit Analysis he did for Dark Eldar. I don't agree with all of it, but its a great start.

2. There's a link in my bio called, "My DE advice." Read it. As you can see, I'm 56 wins, 2 losses on the tournament circuit with my DE. One of those losses was last March at the Socal Slaughter in Space during Game 5 against Dave Fay's Chaos Marines. There's a battle report in my signature (and to all the games I played during that GT), but basically, I was so drunk that we only made it through turn3, and I lost by one KP (didn't have any more turns to deal with weaponless immobilized rhinos or units of single gone to ground holding on to life by a thread plague marines. =p). My fault, but it was the most fun I've ever had playing 40k (which is why I look fondly on drinking and gaming). The other loss was in December against Alan Blakeborough's Mech IG in Atlanta at the "Win an 1850 army of your choice" yearly event. I won the roll to go first, deployed accordingly, and had the initiative stolen from me. It was harsh, and basically a turkey shoot. Nothing I could do about it. Every other game, every other tournament, everywhere I've been, I've won. So read my junk. But take it with a grain of salt, because I have a *very* rigid set of beliefs regarding what I believe should be fielded.

3. Most importantly, remember this: DE are perhaps the *most* unforgiving army in 40k. A space wolf rookie can put an army on the table, and do well with it, even if they make mistakes. A DE rookie cannot. It is an *extremely* powerful army, but requires an extremely competent general to pilot. I can't begin to quote you statistics like 90% or 99% or anything, but almost every Dark Eldar player I've met in person, and most of those I've met online fail to achieve with their Dark Eldar because they're simply not good enough. Either not good enough to write a competent list, not good enough to play a competent list effectively, or a combination of both. Take obsidianaura for example; a list full of raiders and ravagers with disintegrator cannons. Fun concept, but he should expect to lose every single game.

So for YOU who plays a BA army that can't mishap its deep-strikes because of gyrostabilizers, and who plays a Kan-wall that simply marches forward 6", takes 4+ cover against everything (I love a Kan wall; I play Orks too)....I ask you this: Do you make mistakes on the table? Are you a fast learner? If you're a good player and not prone to "Ah crap, I shouldn't have done that" then try out DE. If the idea that a mistake might just cost you the game is a painful idea, then its not the army for you. Here's some common ones:

-Aw crap, enemy reserves coming in and my ravagers are angled towards the middle of the board, presenting my rear armour to the flanks.
-Aw craw, I mean to flat out to get a cover save.
-Aw crap, I thought I'd be able to get into assault range.
-Aw crap, I should have shot that instead.

Those are deadly. Understanding target and threat priority, vehicular positioning, assault reach....if an enemy does something or shoots at something that you weren't expecting, you did something wrong. =p

If you've got those things covered, you will murder people with Dark Eldar. Its to the point where there are exactly *two* army builds in the entire 40k universe give me pause. One of them I fear, one of them I just respect.

SO! Nothing like your current armies. Much more powerful if you have the ability to put the reigns to that power and drive it well.

Dashofpepper wrote:OP:

Couple of things.

SNIP

As a Dark Eldar player who says, "Ah Crap" quite a bit, I couldn't agree more. Everything you listed I do when I play DE. I have been collecting and painting 40k Minis for years but I still consider myself a newer player. DE is not a forgiving army. Little mistakes cost you the game quite a bit.

Like all other armies, there's only so much you can learn via a discussion thread. You won't really KNOW anything until you play multiple games with multiple lists against multiple opponents and get a FEEL for them.

That being said, you can read the codex and see the awesome potential there. The only question is: how much of that potential will they reach under your command?