Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Okay, here's my first Dark Eldar army. Up front, this is not a well-rounded, take-on-all-comers army, this is a themed army. The theme is wings; murders of hellions, shrieks of scourges, Razorwings for fire support. With the exception of Haemonculi, no foot-sloggers, no transports, no ravagers (Largely 'cos I'm just not gonna buy the model). This army will probably take a bit of finesse and good dice rolls to succeed with, but I've been thinking through my tactics, trying to use what I have to it's best advantage.

The Fluff:
She is called Golden, The Soaring Prophetess, Herald of an unnamed Dark Muse.

Her sermons are given on the wing, to those in flight. Her message is simple: Murder, terror, pain, all are best savored from above the ground. To soar above the carnage, to swoop down into it, to circle it like predators herding prey into a tighter and tighter ball before diving in to feast, this is the exalted way.

For too long have the Hellions been treated with less dignity than is rightfully theirs. Allowed to tag along after Kabalite realspace raids, allowed to entertain the masses in the Wyches arenas, but always the rabble. The Scourges, those beautiful, proud creations so beloved of the Dark Muse, they are seen as mercenaries rather than the luckiest of the dark kin.

The members of Golden's personal murder fly through the middledark, their glittering gold blades flickering in shadows. With this silent summons, murder after murder of Comorragh's hellions are called to her her sermons, high above the corpse-strewn spires , where Scourges who have also heard The Golden Word gather.

Golden has made a pact with a small coven of haemonculi. In exchange for taking their members "hunting", they open the webway portals that allow Golden's hellions to raid realspace without having to access one of the larger Kabal/Incubi controlled gates.

HQ
-Golden (Baron Sathonyx rules): 105

-(2) Haemonculi, (2) Hexrifle, (1) WWP: 165

TROOPS:
-(13) hellions, helliarch, stunclaw: 223 [The Golden Murder]
-(9) hellions, helliarch, PGL, stunclaw: 179 [Murder Haq'lith]
-(5) hellions, helliarch, PGL, venom blade: 110 [Murder Contoq]

FAST ATTACK
-(5) Scourges, solarite, (2) blasters: 150 [Shriek Hat'tah]
-(5) Scourges, solarite, (2) blasters: 150 [Shriek Tyctyc]

HVY SPPT
-(1) Razorwing, Flickerfield, splintercannon: 155

TOTAL: 1248

TACTICS:
-Crowd the opposing side of the board with objectives as much as possible.
-Focus on killing the enemy, not defending objectives. They can't win if all their scoring units are dead.
-Stay on the move. Hit-&-run at all times.

First off, I think it was the DE Tactica here that suggested placing objectives as far forward and as close together as possible. Since I'm not going to be defending objectives but killing those trying to take them, I want objectives out int he open with no cover, 12" from each other. You want it, you gotta eat splintery poison deathmurder to hold it.

The two biggest murders will deploy as far forward as possible. Each deploys with a Haem. First move, haem 1 moves forward and deploys his WWP. Separating from the hellions, he leaves his pain token with them. They fly forward to engage in killity deathmurder. Bearing the brunt of the fight is why they get the pain tokens to start. Always detaching to H&R so they can turn around and come back shooting. If the helliarch can claw an IC to drag along, not only can't they be shot at next turn, but if they can swarm in and kill it, PAIN TOKEN.

The other haem 2 similarly detaches from the hellions he deployed with and goes right into sniper mode. The Haemonculi's job is to get height if they can and shoot MCs, multi-wound figures, or large mobs of infantry they can pin. They can shoot on the move so that won't slow down their ROF. Since they don't have fleet, they're not going to try & keep up but be leisurely strolling fire support.

The smallest murder deploys via WWP. The first two are geared to get in and start slashing, the small will patrol the perimeter of the battle and play a backup roll. They'll be more shooty as they have smaller #s.

The Razorwing will deploy from the start. It has to go right for enemy armor/long fangs/ big hitters. Move it at cruising speed every turn and it gets a 5+ obscured save, 5+ flickerfield, and can fire all weapons. When firing on high-value infantry, probaly gonna drop all 4 pie-plates on them at once. As Musashi once said while advocating a two-sord style, "It is regrettable to die with ones sword still in the scabbard".

The scourges still considering how to deploy. Deep strike is flexible, but WWP is not subject to mishap. Then again, they're 2/3 of my heavy guns. I'm not expecting to encounter endless armor in a 1250 list, but I think I probably want to start with at least 1 on the field and keep 1 in reserve. But their main role is to being the blasters to bear on anything that the hellions can't damage like vehicles and such.

Anyhoo, that's the general idea. Yes, I'm limiting myself. But Hellions @ S4, WS4, A2, plus H&R are not abject pansies. And Golden gives her murder skilled rider, upgraded H&R, and stealth, in addition to +1 when determining deployment zones.

Attack is the order of the day.

Who are you playing agianst that allows you to field 6 lances and win? Not IG, or razor spammed anything, h@ll. . .anything with armor. The only thing people have to due to ruin you is kill 10 dudes and knock a fighter with wet paper armor out of the sky. Both of which can easily be accomplished. After that, they'll just scoot around in their nice, air conditioned, armored boxes and blast you to death. The list isn't really functional, IMO. Unless, of course, your local meta involves dudes walking around all the time. . .

love the fluff, but this army will lose to anything really. scourges only get competitive at 2000+ points as they are a bit overcosted.

Ok, you have many a flaw in this list. As Grim Smasha Said, with only 6 lances in this army, mech armies and anything with armor will EAT YOU ALIVE. Second, small units oh hellions will do nothing for you, except maybe provide a free kill point to the enemy. Third, what in the world is the purpose of the solarite upgrade on the scourge squad? I see nothing that you have give the sloarite to seperate himself from the rest of the squad, is only using up precious points. Razorwing Jetfighter is good, but you still need more lances. I just don't see this list winning many, if any at all, games. If you really wanna take hellions, maybe try making a WWP List? Its a lot faster for assault, and will actually help your hellions survive, but they still need more numbers in their squads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grim Smasha wrote:Who are you playing agianst that allows you to field 6 lances and win? Not IG, or razor spammed anything, h@ll. . .anything with armor. The only thing people have to due to ruin you is kill 10 dudes and knock a fighter with wet paper armor out of the sky. Both of which can easily be accomplished. After that, they'll just scoot around in their nice, air conditioned, armored boxes and blast you to death. The list isn't really functional, IMO. Unless, of course, your local meta involves dudes walking around all the time. . .

They're attacking us with metal boxes?

At the very least reconsider the Stunclaws on the Hellions, Stunclaws are horrible. Your lack of power weapons will punish you when fighting MEQ.

Also, you could really benefit from dropping the WWP. Your entire army is fast, and the only unit you're commited to WWPing is the mini Hellion squad? So they come in a turn or two after game start and gain a whopping 6" to deployment? Oh gawds no, please don't.

In the DE tactica in the article section I have it on good authority that the very handsome and charming writer advises to spread out objectives in order to take advantage of DE's speed and maneuverability.

Love the fluff and suspect I'll love the look of the army once you paint it up - suspect you'll suffer hard trying to get it to work, but best of luck on that.

Thor665 wrote:At the very least reconsider the Stunclaws on the Hellions, Stunclaws are horrible. Your lack of power weapons will punish you when fighting MEQ.

Also, you could really benefit from dropping the WWP. Your entire army is fast, and the only unit you're commited to WWPing is the mini Hellion squad? So they come in a turn or two after game start and gain a whopping 6" to deployment? Oh gawds no, please don't.

I just realized that the WWP is a leftover from a previous wych-having army.

Good advice all around. Got more tweaking to do. The Solarite upgrade was to get the 9 LD, but maybe that's not the best use of 10 pts.

More tweaking...

^ not everyone has tonnes of transports. the list looks fun and played WELL it can be good. just dont run right up to the enemy and remember to pop their transports.

Okay, the revised 1250 list looks like this

HQ
-Golden (Baron rules): 105
-(2) Haemonculus, (2) hexrifle: 130

TROOPS
-(12) Hellions, Helliarch, Agoniser: 217 ("The Golden Murder")
-(10) Hellions, Helliarch, PGL, Agoniser: 205

FAST ATTACK
-(5) Scourges, (2) blasters: 140
-(5) Scourges, (2) blasters: 140

HVY SPT
-Razorwing, Flickerfield: 155
-Razorwing, Flickerfield: 155

TOTAL: 1247

Got rid of the WWP & the mini-unit, added a second razorwing. Also gave the Helliarchs each an agoniser. Much better than a stunclaw for the bringing killity deathmurder. I may put a stunclaw in the Golden Murder for a 2000 pt version of this army: more likely targets and it would make for great style on the battlefield for Golden's personal escort to drag an IC out and choppity slash it above the battlefield.

Yes, the not-sprouting-darklight-out-of-every-spare-orifice aspect of this army is a limiting factor. But this is a 1250 list, and there's only so much in the way of vehicles my opponent can take. And they do have to dismount to claim objectives. If they Mech up against me, that's a bizzle. Hordes of 'Nids or footslogging greenskins, much better.

Plan to start the two murders of hellions off deployed with the Haems and split them off with a pain token each remains. Without the WWP, my leisurely strolling sniper support gets both guns shooting from the get go.

Only (2) scoring units is also a risk, my goal is to focus on bringing the killity deathmurder to my opponent as opposed to defending. So killing off his troops options is mission critical.I'm seeing the benefit of Hellions in large murders; 2 poisoned shots & 2 attacks becomes a serious fistful of dice as the unit numbers go up. And there's always drugs for that extra bit of boost. But they have to survive the game to score, so large numbers and starting with a pain token. In the event of DoW, I'm gonna have to deep strike the Golden in on her lonesome. A risky ploy, but walking the Haemonculi on from the table edge is a non-starter.

Considering the upthread advice, I now see the advantage of spreading out the objectives, but I still want them out in the open away from cover; clear fields of fire and smooth approaches for the charge/H&R. If I gotta take a round of shooting before I come back in on the assault... getting shot at is kinda part of the game. That's what the pain token is for. And if the dice go my way and I can pop his transports/tanks, the surviving scourges & razorwings switch seamlessly into anti-infantry to go after his scoring units. They're both deep strike capable, so that's further flexibility.

Yes, this is not a wind-it-up-&-let-it-fight-on-autopilot army. But DE out the gate are a finesse army. They're an army that punishes careless play. But I'm also playing a theme here. And raider/ravager spam is boring to me. From what I read, a lot of DE opponents find it boring too. So I'm also doing a bit of a public service by bringing them something the flock else to fight.

And the up side... I learn how to work this army and finesse it to victory, how much of a blood-soaked rock star am I then? ;-)

Iron_Monkey wrote:But this is a 1250 list, and there's only so much in the way of vehicles my opponent can take. And they do have to dismount to claim objectives.

*cough* No, they don't.

As you're mostly aware - a mechanized army is going to eat your face pretty hard because they won't need to get out and should just shoot you for a while from within the safety of their metal boxes. I do like th echanges you've made, but still worry about what you'll be able to do if faced with a number of basic semi-competitive lists.

As a consideration - Razorwings are good at eating infantry - something your army doesn't desperately need because theoretically that's what the Hellions should be good at. I understand you refuse to field Ravager models. However, since Razorwings lack models clearly you're okay doing some modding/conversion. What about getting some 'counts as' Ravagers? Build them to look all wing-ed death-y, but give them a Ravager weapon loadout (honestly, with a bit of magnet work you could probably be able to modify them to be fielded as either Ravagers or Razorwings). Ravagers would aggressively up your ability to deal with armor (it'd still be weak, but anything's an improvement) and 2x Ravagers w. FF would still leave you with an extra 80 points to play with.

The 2 troop slots is a major issue too, but your chosen troops and support elements are stupid pricey and are sort of locking you down. As long as you're burning 100 points to get them FNP you could burn some of that 80 points beefing up the squads more. 2 Troop options is weak, but at least if there's a lot of them they'll be slightly harder for your opponent to mow down with a pair of tac squads rapid firing.

@Lou - played WELL I foresee it doing acceptable versus inferior lists and generals. An okay general with a competitive list should be able to eat this army's face by about turn 3 regardless of how skilled the player of this list is. I'll certainly concede it looks fun, but my focus is trying to give the OP the best chance she can get within her self imposed confines of choosing to field an inferior army.

*cough* No, they don't.

C'est la vie, I guess.