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Hi guys,
So, I have a local round robin coming up, and the one opponent I'm particularly worried about is a guy who plays Demons. I've only played him once, and he made mincemeat out of me. Because of the structure of the day, I can't really make an anti-Demon list, but I know basically what he'll be taking. What I'm after is some advice on how to beat him once the game actually starts. It's 1750 pts, and while my list hasn't been finalised, it'll look a bit like this:

2x Archons, Shadow Field, Agoniser, Combat Drugs
2x 9 Wyches, Hekatrix w/Agoniser, Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades - in Raiders (w/Archon ridealong), Flickerfield/Nightshield
2x 10 Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Shredder, Syrabite
5x Incubi, Klaviex, Onslaught - in a Venom, 2x Splinter Cannon, Nightshield
2-3 x Ravagers, Dark Lances, Flickerfield/Nightshield
Extra points will go into either Reavers or Scourges.

The Demon list is as follows:
1x Demon Prince
1x Bloodthirster
6x (Whatever the new Juggernauts are called - Bloodcrushers or something?) led by (the relevant special character? Skulltaker, is that his name?)
As many bloodletters as he can get for the rest of the points.

So, yeah. That's what I'm up against. How would you play it?

1x Demon Prince
1x Bloodthirster
6x (Whatever the new Juggernauts are called - Bloodcrushers or something?) led by (the relevant special character? Skulltaker, is that his name?)
As many bloodletters as he can get for the rest of the points.

Daemons should be an easy matchup for Dark Eldar, the problem is that you have only one Venom. It's hard to rely on CC to beat an army that entirely relies on CC.

As for what you can do; play to win. If it's kill points, then don't get close. Just shoot him. The Thirster (and maybe the Daemon Prince) are the only two things he has that can catch you. Kill them first. Kite him the rest of the time. Don't be afraid to turbo boost away. It will be worth it.

That's an almost all melee army, dark eldar are one of the most mobile armies in the game, just kite him. The bloodletters have power weapons but your wyches have invulnerables, as far as taking out the daemon prince and bloodthirster, just keep moving and shooting with your ravagers they have invulnerables but will fail sometime, overall his army seems slow other than the prince and bloodthirster, which should be playing to your advantage

You have no ability to change your list?

Daemons are sort of an....automatic loss against almost every iteration of Dark Eldar, except the Dark Eldar that don't take advantage of....being Dark Eldar.

It wouldn't be tailoring for daemons if you dropped your foot-slogging warriors, reavers and scourges, and meched up, adding trueborn instead of...whatever you were thinking about adding.

Daemons are a reasonably easy fight for DE. Because of his almost total lack of ranged weapons he will have real trouble dealing with vehicles as he hits on 6 (and you really should be moving over 6). Because of this and your speed you can pretty much pick your fights. His blood thirster has an 18" charge so keep over 18 away unless you can kill him or are attempting to draw him away from some tasty wych/ splinter bait (also known as bloodletters). Your incubi are kind of useless vs Khorne Daemons with their power weapons and inv saves negating most of the Incubi's advantages so keep them in the venom and if needed send them in in support of a unit of wyches jumping on some bloodletters. Dark lances hit the Bloodthirster then Prince then Crushers. Essentially knock out the thirster and his units have a threat range of 12". Only go within this distance if you are charging.

Kill the Thirster, splinter/wych his Bloodletters and flit away from the crushers. If the prince has wings then he's a threat, if not then treat him like the crushers.
Ohh and don't go rapid firing your warriors. Keep em about 24" away and just pick away at him. Going within 12" will make them dead unless you kill everything within threat range.
That's just some advice based on your list .

If you want some advice on tuning the list, then I would advise dropping all the Incubi upgrades and running 5 naked in the venom. Would also advise more venoms but if you don't have them then Dakka scourges (2 splinter cannons) will do in a pinch. Also maybe more lances.

Just play keep away, and shoot anything that has an assault range longer than 12 (so just the bloodthirster), and stay more than 12 away. All in all, his list is fairly wretched, so as long as you don't expect to win every assault (only your witches should be assaulting, and only the bloodletters) you should beat him.

I play daemons, competitively at times, and that list is just all sorts of fail. You shouldn't have any issue against beating that list. No fiends or flamers at all? Easy-peasy. Just shoot him up.

Hummm...

So that Daemons players list is really bad.

He has no ranged attacks. I mean. At all.

DE's paperplanes should be eating bolt of tzeentch and getting their squishes inside charged to death.. but.. lucky you.. he isn't bringing any guns.. at all.

Just play keep away... most of his army is 5+ invulnerables. He'll fold like paper.

Hogan Van Monsterband wrote:Hi guys,
2x Archons, Shadow Field, Agoniser, Combat Drugs
2x 9 Wyches, Hekatrix w/Agoniser, Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades - in Raiders (w/Archon ridealong), Flickerfield/Nightshield
2x 10 Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Shredder, Syrabite
5x Incubi, Klaviex, Onslaught - in a Venom, 2x Splinter Cannon, Nightshield
2-3 x Ravagers, Dark Lances, Flickerfield/Nightshield
Extra points will go into either Reavers or Scourges.

Question:
Why are you using two Archons?

Dash is 100% right, I even play 'fast' Daemons even if it is not the most competitive (Mono Slaanesh w/ 12 Fiends, 12 Seekers, 2x SG) and Venoms just made mincemeat out of me. They are simply too fast and the invulns on the Wyches are brutal against an army that in general relies on ignoring armor saves.

As a daemon player there is not much that scares me more than a mech DE list. Just play keep away, dont ever assault and shoot the living daylights out of everything and you will win.

About the don't ever assault. You can assault just know that whatever ends up in assault will be mauled by my xxx points that can't reach your paper airplanes.