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I am currently in the process of trading some DE. what I'm wondering is what units are good and bad. i play with friends but we all play very competitive. Searching lists here it seems that true born, warriors, and wyches are all good. It seems mandraks are terrible. so in the trade i have the option of jetbikes, hellions, and a beast master unit. are any of those 3 units good? Any help will be appreciated.

Here is a list of articles about DE (scroll down to DE section).

http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/p/armies-in-5th-edition-articles.html

Jetbikes and beast masters are the better unit, but it depends on what is in the beastmaster unit, you need a rather specific range of models to run an effective unit.

So without specific knowledge, the jetbikes.

Also, mandrakes aren't as bad as people make them out to be, but they are certainly the hardest unit to make work for DE, and it is definitely questionable if it is worth the effort to make them work (when they do work they are pretty decent, but not amazing).

Greetings!

Trying to make a bad unit not bad when you're first starting your army and have defined your play group as very competitive is a bad idea.

Reaver Jetbikes suffer from comparison to the 3rd Edition Reaver Jetbikes. They weren't great then, but compared to then, they're downright awful now.

Hellions...personal preference.

Beasts....personal preference.

I like a beast unit. I also run with Baron Sathonyx (who makes Hellions troops), but instead of taking him with some Hellions, I stick him with the beasts so that they benefit from his abilities.

I don't even use Fast Attacks with my 2000 point Dark Eldar. I like the 12 Jetbikes I own, but I find Wyches and Warriors to be better use of the points.

IMO, beastmaster squads are great (3 BMs, 5 dogs, 4 razors is cheap, versatile, fact, effective, and durable). You really need to understand and properly use wound allocation to make these guys good though.

Jetbikes are fine, and you may find them useful. I see a lot of lists with them, and that's fine. They're a good way to get heavy AT into side or even rear armor by turn 2, but are somewhat fragile in CC (and they WILL get charged by most armies).

In the same vein, hellions are a unit that I see somewhat less often, but frankly have a lot of potential. They're *great* for horde, and if you take Sathonyx, they're troops, which absolutely improves them. But you'd probably need a lot of these guys to run a full sathonyx army, but just because you take him, doesn't mean *all* your troops have to be hellions. Wyches and warriors, not to mention wracks, are all excellent troopers.

So....

Beast squads: Yes
Jetbikes: Maybe
Hellions: Maybe
Wracks: Probably
Wyches: Yes
Warriors: Yes
Mandrakes: Probably not

Just my two pennies