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Hi everyone. Recently I've been building a series of army lists as plans for actually buying an army - lack of indispensable income meaning unplanned trips to GW are unlikely to go well. The one I've been mostly working on is this one, and built mostly around the theme of confusion and deception - fighting a very fast paced battle based around webways and vehicles, as well as taking many debuffing units in order to capitalise on most Dark Eldar's lack of staying power. I haven't play tested it yet, although will likely proxy something up sometime soon.

Any advice would be brilliant, thank you.

HQ - 265

Archon - 165 Points
Clone Field
Ghostplate Armour
Combat Drugs
Electrocorrosive Whip
Soul Trap
Webway Portal
Team Red


Haemonculus - 100 Points
Liquefier Gun
Webway Portal
Team Orange

Elites - 495 Points

Seven Harlequins - 200 Points
Five Harlequin's Kisses
Shadowseer
Troupe Master with Power Weapon
Held in reserve for Webway deployment

Nine Hekatrix Bloodbrides - 187 Points
Three Shardnets and Impalers
Syren with Phantasm Grenades and Agoniser
Team Red

Four Kabalite Trueborn - 108 Points
Four Blasters
Team Green

Troops - 450 Points

Ten Kabalite Warriors - 115 Points
One Blaster
One Splinter Cannon
Team Yellow

Ten Kabalite Warriors - 115 Points
One Blaster
One Splinter Cannon
Team Brown

Ten Wyches - 150 Points
Two Razorflails
Hekatrix with Agoniser
Held in reserve for Webway deployment

Four Wracks - 70 Points
Acothyst with Agoniser
Team Orange

Fast Attack - None

Dedicated Transport - 335 Points

Raider - 65 Points
Advanced Aethersails
Team Red

Raider - 70 Points
Night Shield
Team Yellow

Raider - 70 Points
Night Shield
Team Brown

Venom - 65 Points
Splinter Cannon
Team Green

Venom - 65 Points
Splinter Cannon
Team orange

Heavy Support - 455 Points

Ravager - 125 Points
Flickerfield
Night Shield

Ravager - 125 Points
Flickerfield
Night Shield

Voidraven - 205 Points
Two Necrotoxin Missiles
Two Shatterfield Missiles
Night Shield
Flickerfield

Total - 2000 points

I know I've picked a few units people usually frown upon, but from playtesting those units they seem to have worked okay. The idea is to place two webways, one on either side of the map, which forces the opponent to either divide or expose themselves. Alternatively, one can be placed as a forward position and another by an objective, allowing for pressure to be applied both at the enemies deployment or any contested objectives. The harlequins I've found work brilliantly as trouble shooters, and the three net hekatrix + Electrocorrosive Arcon are in incredible tarpit/hero slayer unit. The wracks with their haemonculi are for taking objectives more securely than other, more fragile DE. The dakka venom w/ blasterborns can either be deployed at the start or through the webway gate and take their role as a time honoured anti-tank, along with the two ravagers and the voidraven, which is mostly for anti-blob and ant-tank rolls.

One question about the voidraven, can it be deployed from the webway gate? Because if so it could potentially be a safer method of mining an enemy.

As I said, any advice would be brilliant, and thank you so much for taking your time to read this.

The Voidraven is a vehicle.

Per the WWP rules - vehicles can't enter by WWP.

I actually think your biggest misstep is the Voidraven. Specifically the missiles. By the time you're paying that much to get Voidlances on the board to hunt vehicles...do you really want to pay extra to have missiles to go hunting infantry with?

I'd say take a Ravager and save about 80 points.
If you want the Voidlances because you think that's better than what a Ravager does than at least avoid the missiles and save the odd 40 points.

The other "misstep" is you're paying out around 200 points to help you have 350 points come out of a WWP.

For...y'know, 200 points, you could probably just put those units in Raiders - it'd be cheaper *and* faster *and* would make your Archon not waste time getting in and out of a Raider to deploy a WWP when he could be assaulting turn 1-2 instead. That's really the biggest crime, that Archon is way too expensive to waste time dorking around deploying a portal. He should be assaulting stuff right away.

My thoughts,
Thor.

Ah I didn't know. In that case the voidraven just becomes an expensive, less dakka, ravager.

The only issue with using more raiders is real-life cost, as I'm on a fairly tight budget and so I won't be able to buy them in time for the campaign me and a few friends are setting up, although long term that is a definite option, thank you.

The webway portals are mostly there to help the Harlequins, although now I think about it, Veil Of Tears means they'll be safe until they're almost in combat anyway, So they could be done away with. That too potentially could remove the haemonculus and wracks (which were there mostly as a webway carrier and entourage), which all told would free up a lot of points. I don't know what I would spend those loose points on, however.

Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't take blasters and splinter cannons. Blaster is for firing at vehicles, splinter cannon cannot hurt vehicles. Also you will be moving in a Raider so you will not get the six shots out of the splinter cannon.

I don't think this is to bad. It actually looks like a fun list to play and not the typical WWP list or the venom spam shooty lists either.
I would be tempted to swap the archon out for a heamonculous as an archon on the ground with no Shadow Field will die very quickly. Although I do get the clone field/shardnets combo.
I'm not really sure if you need the Phantasm on the bloodbrides either...after all what in their right mind will assault that, and you come with plasma grenades on everyone anyway. BTW I have use bloodbrides before and they cost less than Incubi but do the same (if not more damage) at least for me.
Not 100% sold on the warriors with a blaster and cannon but I have used them before to great effectiveness and sometimes they die without causing any real damage.
Also you might want to consider FF on the transmports not NS as anything you can hit with a blaster or rifles will be able to hit you back next turn and anything that can hit you at range comperable to the DL has at least 48" range.
Personally I love the voidraven...yes yo have one less shot...yes it costs more, HOWEVER it is not open topped so a heavy bolter can't drop it in one go. You also proably don't need the missiles. Yes it can give you some anti-infantry but that is what poison shooting and our powerful CC units are for. Keep it as cheap as possible. Plus essentially having lascannons with lance (36" range + 12" move = 48") is gross.
I would drop all the NS from the heavy supports as you should be keeping these back anyway.
Personally I really like the Harlequin models and hope they work for you so ya gotta let us know!

mercer wrote:I wouldn't take blasters and splinter cannons. Blaster is for firing at vehicles, splinter cannon cannot hurt vehicles. Also you will be moving in a Raider so you will not get the six shots out of the splinter cannon.

I don't know. I was umming and ahhing as to whether or not to take a Dark Lance with them, instead of the Splinter Cannons. However, the Raider they are in already has a Dark Lance, and I have a fair bit of anti-tank. I'm going to see how they work in play-testing first, but switching over to Dark Lances could be a pain just for the 30 extra points needed.

Thank you for the advice.

Akroma06 wrote:I don't think this is to bad. It actually looks like a fun list to play and not the typical WWP list or the venom spam shooty lists either.

That was really my hope, as after playing the more 'standard' webway (and general Dark Eldar) lists I've found they weren't entirely to my taste, but close enough to be tweaked. I recognise that this list is as competitive as others, but I don't play to win, I play to have fun. :_

I would be tempted to swap the archon out for a heamonculous as an archon on the ground with no Shadow Field will die very quickly. Although I do get the clone field/shardnets combo.

Interesting, I hadn't thought of swapping, but then two haemonculi would free up a fair few points, plus easily pass a pain token onto my bloodbrides. Again, I'll see how play-testing goes.

I'm not really sure if you need the Phantasm on the bloodbrides either...after all what in their right mind will assault that, and you come with plasma grenades on everyone anyway. BTW I have use bloodbrides before and they cost less than Incubi but do the same (if not more damage) at least for me.

I didn't realise they had plasma grenades already. In that case I'll remove the phantasm. And finally, someone else who appreciates bloodbrides, my first opponent laughed at me for taking them over incubi, but their relative cheapness for such a small trade-off in power really makes them worthwhile.

Not 100% sold on the warriors with a blaster and cannon but I have used them before to great effectiveness and sometimes they die without causing any real damage.

Two people pointing out an issue, maybe this will be interesting in play-testing.

Also you might want to consider FF on the transmports not NS as anything you can hit with a blaster or rifles will be able to hit you back next turn and anything that can hit you at range comperable to the DL has at least 48" range.

I hadn't thought of that, although FF is mostly absent due to points restrictions, which with some of the revision you, mercer and thor have suggested shouldn't be an issue.

Personally I love the voidraven...yes yo have one less shot...yes it costs more, HOWEVER it is not open topped so a heavy bolter can't drop it in one go. You also proably don't need the missiles. Yes it can give you some anti-infantry but that is what poison shooting and our powerful CC units are for. Keep it as cheap as possible. Plus essentially having lascannons with lance (36" range + 12" move = 48") is gross.

I like the Voidraven too, it needs more love, although I'll likely remove the missiles as you and thor suggest.

I would drop all the NS from the heavy supports as you should be keeping these back anyway.
Personally I really like the Harlequin models and hope they work for you so ya gotta let us know!

I'm rather fond of night shields, but I'll see how play-testing goes. And I love harlequins too, they're severely underestimated a lot of the time, right up until they bounce around the enemy's army after avoiding fire all the way there.

My friend has a whole kabal of DE he's lending me for a friendly tournament we're having soon, so I'll be sure to write up on how it went.

Many thanks for the advice.

Edit: Revised Army List



Basically; my Archon has been given a shadowfield, switched his electrocorrosive whip for an agoniser and removed his soul trap; the bloodbrides no longer have a phantasm; the kabalites now have dark lances; vehicle upgrades have been switched around/changed; the voidraven has no missiles and a beastmaster has been added to give more reason to have the webway and provide more punch.

Ok I like this list alot better than the first, but I have a couple of questions/concerns.

1. Why does the Archon's Raider have aethersails and no shields? Him with the bloodbrides will have a huge target on them so they need something. Plus if you turbo boost you can't hop out to drop off the portal or assault. I would rather give that to one of the warrior squads so that they only have to spend one turn repositioning/claiming or contesting.

2. How many beastmasters do you have in that squad. It looks like only 1 but you need 2 with this setup.

Other than that I like it. I still think you should be able to use the shardnets to minimize the number of 2++ you have to roll.

1. It seems I misread the rules, I only flicked over them and I assumed you could jump out of the vehicle after the movement, just not shoot (I must have skipped over a line).

2. Again, I didn't read the part about 'Each Beastmaster may take one of these options. I guess it'll have to be 3 Khymera and 2 beastmasters then.

The only issue with this is that giving the aethersails to the kabalites could be just as detrimental, as it will stop them firing from the raider for two turns, and they're kitted out poorly to take objectives. Potentially switching one squad to a shredder and splinter cannon could help this, but that'll remove two AV weapons. Hmm.

The shardnet bloodbrides are one of the few things I've been able to try properly, and they're frankly brilliant at tying up and killing pretty much everything that otherwise threatens the army.

Thanks again for the advice.

If you're going to dump 200 pts on an archon why not get the awesome huskblade/soul trap combo?

Kehm wrote:If you're going to dump 200 pts on an archon why not get the awesome huskblade/soul trap combo?

Well with the Archon paired with the bloodbrides, a huskblade would be overkill, in my opinion. I'll see how it works out, but adding the huskblade/soul trap would also mean rearranging my list in other places, which is becoming more of a pain as the list becomes more refined.

Thank you for the advice, though.

Huskblad/soultrap combo could work and it does allow you to benefit from the +1 S result from drugs, however you have to get him in base to base contact with an IC or MC. Most ICs you will need 5s to hurt and they might have an inv. MCs are going to need 6s if you can wound them at all. Granted if you can double his strength once or twice he will slaughter everything, but this too can be a double edged blade as the Bloodbrides will negate enemy attacks and you can win too quickly (on your turn). The agoniser only ignores one drug result so it isn't that bad but it wounds consistently.