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hey all, i'm in the process of trying out a few different armies to figure out what i want to play and here is the dark eldar list that i've come up with, any input would be very much appreciated!

HQ
Archon w/ blaster & venom blade 80

Troops
10 warriors w/ dark lance, raider with flickerfield 185
10 warriors w/ dark lance, raider with flickerfield 185
10 warriors w/ dark lance, venom/shardcannon 135

Elites
4 true born w/ 2 dark lances, 1 carbine, 1 blaster, venom/shardcannon 183

Fast
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115

Total: 998

third warrior group is too large for a venom

aquaticrna wrote:Archon w/ blaster & venom blade

Agonizers are far deadlier than the Venom Blade, because Ags ignore Armor. And since an Archon is more likely to Run than shoot, the blaster is points best spent on other toys. I've tried 'em on Hekatrixes, but found them little used.

aquaticrna wrote:10 warriors w/ dark lance, raider with flickerfield 185
10 warriors w/ dark lance, raider with flickerfield 185
10 warriors w/ dark lance, venom/shardcannon 135

If these are gonna hang back and shoot, the NightShields will help with longevity.

aquaticrna wrote:4 true born w/ 2 dark lances, 1 carbine, 1 blaster, venom/shardcannon 183

For the Venom, do you mean 'SplinterCannon'? And for the TBs, why all the different ranged weps? Simply go all blasters.

Thanks for the feedback, i ended up revising the list before i used it to the following list:

HQ
Archon w/ blaster, venom blade 80

Troops
5 warriors w/ splinter cannon in venom with splinter cannon 120
5 warriors w/ splinter cannon in venom with splinter cannon 120
Elites Unit Cost/unit Misc modifiers Units Total
5 true born w/ 2 dark lance, 3 blaster, raider with flickerfield 225
5 true born w/ 2 dark lance, 3 blaster, raider with flickerfield 225

Heavy Support
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
Total: 1000

i used it against a kan ork force and ended up flying around shooting at them form a distance the whole game (i won! battle report should be up soon) i can see how nightshields would be useful, do you think it's worth having them and flickerfields?

Night shields almost never do anything for me. Also, dark lances aren't worth it for the trueborn because you can't move and shoot with them. Additionaly put them in a venom, would save you 30 points and you could throw extra splinter cannons on them.

You're putting a lot of wasted points into upgrades for things that don't need them.
Try something along the lines of this.

Archon, Shadowfield, Agonizer 110

5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom w/ 2x SC 125
5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom w/ 2x SC 125

4 Trueborn, Blasters, Venom w/2x SC 173
4 Trueborn, Blasters, Venom w/ 2x SC 173

Ravager, FF 115
Ravager, FF 115

That'll give you about 60 points left over to play with.

What is the purpose for the archon's equipment? he seems very setup for combat, but it doesn't feel like any of the other units can support him. Also why blasters in the warrior squads? It seems like one anti-vehicle shot in those squads isn't going to make much difference, why is that better than another anti infantry gun?

Try duke sliscus in one of the warrior squads as then they will have 3+ poisoned splinter rifles.

You can't take the Splinter Cannon unless you have 10 guys.
And believe me, Shadowfield/Agonizer Archon doesn't need support.

If your facing someone and their units are all in vehicles. Then you have 2 venoms flying around with nothing to do untill those squishy insides are forced out of their transports. Those blasters can hurt infantry as well.

The archon with a blaster is not a bad option. But at lower point cost games he seems somewhat overpriced, especially with a list like this that doesn't have anyone for him to go into combat alongside. Haemonculous is a great lowercost alternative, you could give him a hexrifle and drop his paintoken off with some trueborn making them more survivable. Having a 9man troop choice would give this benefit to more individuals.

aquaticrna wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, i ended up revising the list before i used it to the following list:

HQ
Archon w/ blaster, venom blade 80

I don't even see the point of an Archon in this list TBO. I'd take a haemonculus and be done with it. If you do take an Archon give him an agoniser (ignore saves and don't care about toughness) and a Shadowfield. Nothing else is needed.

aquaticrna wrote:
Troops
5 warriors w/ splinter cannon in venom with splinter cannon 120
5 warriors w/ splinter cannon in venom with splinter cannon 120

2 Troops? You need more before adding more to other slots. Drop the warrior SC and go back to the blaster. While one shot may not do much several of these guys can pop a tank. All your anti-infantry should come from the venom's splinter cannons.

aquaticrna wrote:
Elites Unit Cost/unit Misc modifiers Units Total
5 true born w/ 2 dark lance, 3 blaster, raider with flickerfield 225
5 true born w/ 2 dark lance, 3 blaster, raider with flickerfield 225

??? This squad is not good...sorry there just is no nice way to say it. Yes you have 6 shots but you cannot move and have to be within 18" to be using your full effectiveness. I'd either go with 3 Trueborn with 2 DL and use them as a mini sniper squad or preferably drop one guy and give them all blasters. Then put them in a venom with to splinter cannons. First I would drop one squad entirely for another warrior squad though...if you take my suggestions from before you can get 2 squads with more anti-infantry ability and more scorring options. 2/3 games are objective based.

aquaticrna wrote:
Heavy Support
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
Total: 1000

Don't touch these they are perfect.

aquaticrna wrote:
i used it against a kan ork force and ended up flying around shooting at them form a distance the whole game (i won! battle report should be up soon) i can see how nightshields would be useful, do you think it's worth having them and flickerfields?

No nightshields are a trap. Most long range things will be able to hit you regardless of nightshields. Anything with short range you will already be within that for blasters. Flickerfields are always the better bet.
Orks honestly have little hope against us. Even Kan Walls fall to our sheer volume of high S shots and enough of an ap to go through their basic armor, but you did justify my point on the trueborn. If you are flying around the whole time your not shooting the DL.

Thanks for all the input everyone, does something like this look a bit better?

HQ
Haemonculus w/ Hexrifle 65

Troops
warriors w/ blaster in venom with splinter cannon 125
warriors w/ blaster in venom with splinter cannon 125
warriors w/ blaster in venom with splinter cannon 125

Elites Unit
4 true born w/ blasters in venom 163
4 true born w/ blasters and plasma grenades (had 4 extra points) in venom 167

Heavy Support
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
Total: 1000

I had enough spare points that, by dropping the SC, from the true born venoms i could get another squad of trueborn. Think it's better to go that route or add anther squad of warriors?

That's looking a lot more rounded out. But I'd honestly rather have a ravager than 4 blasters in a venom. You are paying 50points for worse range, one extra dl and splinter cannon fire.


If you cut those points you might like to put that pain token to better use by getting a small squad of wyches. Turning hexrifle to liquifier. and giving up one warrior squad may give you 7 wyches in a raider w/ a flickerfield. (not sure)

But the list as is will do well for a shooty kabal.

I shuffled my points around like you suggested and ended up with this. Are the wyches good enough that it'd be worth having another one of them or some upgrade over the agonizer for the Haemonculus? I can certainly see the advantage of another ravager over the trueborn squad. Is the idea with the wyches/haemonculus to fly up really close and drop the troops off on top of the group you're after? How do the wyches actually fair in combat? the high initiative and 4+ save looks really nice, but that 3 strength and only 2 attacks each looks pretty impotent. I also picked out a shardnet and impaler, the defensive bonus of putting that model front and center is pretty snazzy, but the razorflail also looks really nice (and rerolling those s3 wounds would be killer). Seems like it might be a matter of personal preference. As it is the wyches seem to basically be serving as hard to kill extra wounds for the haemonculus with his agonizer, are they basically just a squad of boys around a powerfist?

HQ
Haemonculus w/ liquifier and agonizer 80

Troops
5 warriors w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 125
5 warriors w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 125
7 Wyches w/ shardnet and impaler in raider with flickerfield 150

Elites Unit
4 trueborn w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 173

Heavy Support
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115

Total: 998

Razorflails mathhammer wise are your best bet. The best way to run wyches...despite the haemonculus is to have a hekatrix with an agoniser. Pretty much wyches are the delivery system for her much likes orks are a nob delivery system. I would drop the agoniser and the haemonculus you have since he should never be in CC. He needs to give his pain token to the wyches when they hop out and then stay in the boat putting templates on stuff.
That is alot of AT for 1K. Honestly I'd drop the trueborn and use the points to buy another warrior squad for the scorring and spend the rest on the Hekatrix with agoniser, round out the wych squad to 9 girls and give them haywires.
That should still leave you 13 AT shots a turn which should be enough.

Sorry I forgot to include a hekatrix with an agonizer as necessary for the wych squad.

so something like this? I don't understand the logic of flying around with the liquifier in a raider, those raiders are so fragile and the template has to get pretty close to fire. Is the liquifier so good that it's worth putting a raider right in the thick of things? s4 ap d6 just doesn't seem like it's going to knock out whatever you're shooting at. Is it just a matter of using it in such a way that it's not going be close to things that can kill it? oh also the battle report is up from the game i played with the early incarnation of this army, let me know if i made any serious tactical errors! http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/393770.page

HQ
Haemonculus w/ liquifier 60

Troops
5 warriors w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 125
5 warriors w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 125
5 warriors w/ blaster, venom with splinter cannon 125
9 Wyches w/ razorflail, haywire grenades, hekatrix with agonizer, raider with flickerfield 218

Heavy Support
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115
ravager w/ flickerfield 115

Total: 998

Liquifiers are one of those things that I take if I have points floating around and nothing to spend them on. The Haemonculus is not fleet so he will only slow your girls down. The liquifier has a 50/50 shot of being powerful enough of dropping marines. It does seem counterintuitive at first but you have to get the wyches close enough to fleet and charge, so if your that close why not atleast have something that could potentially wreak havoc on your opponenet. You never know till you try.

BTW that list looks really solid.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

aquaticrna wrote:oh also the battle report is up from the game i played with the early incarnation of this army, let me know if i made any serious tactical errors! http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/393770.page

Biggest thing tactically was not firing the venoms at the big meks. Grots are just a screen they don't do much. The Meks give cover to everything and they can repair kans. The ravagers were spot on stopping the kans and leaving the buggies be once they were stunned.
I like the bait as well. Nice move making him think he was ready for a charge. I didn't read anything about a Waaagh! though so I think had he called that he might have gotten you. So don't wait quite that long.
The biggest thing is that everything happened from shooting. That's why shooty DE lists are so gross. You can muster alot of high S low AP weapons for 1K as well as alot of poison shooting for anit-infantry. He thought that the split would doom you yet you executed the trap very nicely...yes go for those ravagers and ignore the volleys of SCs right behind you. Good job

That makes sense, once you've boosted in that far there isn't much point in wasting a turn boosting back out to save your paper airplane when it could be laying down some actual damage. Thanks so much for all the help!

The list looks great now. And your opponent will feel pretty silly shooting at a raider with a haemi, if there are Ravagers, warrior venoms, and wyches to be shot at.

Akroma06 wrote:
Biggest thing tactically was not firing the venoms at the big meks. Grots are just a screen they don't do much. The Meks give cover to everything and they can repair kans. The ravagers were spot on stopping the kans and leaving the buggies be once they were stunned.
I like the bait as well. Nice move making him think he was ready for a charge. I didn't read anything about a Waaagh! though so I think had he called that he might have gotten you. So don't wait quite that long.
The biggest thing is that everything happened from shooting. That's why shooty DE lists are so gross. You can muster alot of high S low AP weapons for 1K as well as alot of poison shooting for anit-infantry. He thought that the split would doom you yet you executed the trap very nicely...yes go for those ravagers and ignore the volleys of SCs right behind you. Good job

I realized my mistakes with the big meks mid game, but at that point felt like i had to prioritize the other targets, i was hoping that i could get rid of all the grots turn 1 and remove his cover screen (those grots would not go down!). Does Waaagh! apply to the walkers as well? If he had been able to do that i would definitely have been in trouble.

Ysclyth wrote:The list looks great now. And your opponent will feel pretty silly shooting at a raider with a haemi, if there are Ravagers, warrior venoms, and wyches to be shot at.

I can see that, putting a lot of fire into ~100 pts of guys with all the other threats on the board doesn't seem like it would be worth it... though if the raider/haemi is laying down some real damage pulling fire for a turn or two could be a very good use of those points.

It should as it makes all of them have the Fleet USR, and a walker should be able to run. I'm glad you noticed the mistake I was just pointing it out since you said anything. Future games even if you realised that you left them alone to long take them out then and there. Basic warriors should be able to use rifles and down grots left and right. Otherwise you seem to have acted rationally when they made it to your lines.

Try out the new list sometime and post that one. Venomspam took me a little while to get used to but once you get the hang of it it becomes a really powerful list.

I'm going to be playing against a friend who runs space wolves in the next week or two. He hasn't played against dark eldar yet, so hopefully i can catch him by surprise and send his wolves running with his tail between his legs! i'll put up the battle report as soon as we play.

Awesome can't wait.

Yeah, I always forget to Waaagh!

And it wasn't that I thought I would be able to destroy him once I had him in that corner. I just thought that once I finally had a few of his units separated I could focus all my fire on them and maybe if I stopped rolling 1's and 2's to hit with 90% of my shots that maybe I could make back some of the distance between our kill points.. I was hoping to tie it at best. Lady luck was just very much not on my side that game...

NakedBatBoy wrote:Yeah, I always forget to Waaagh!

And it wasn't that I thought I would be able to destroy him once I had him in that corner. I just thought that once I finally had a few of his units separated I could focus all my fire on them and maybe if I stopped rolling 1's and 2's to hit with 90% of my shots that maybe I could make back some of the distance between our kill points.. I was hoping to tie it at best. Lady luck was just very much not on my side that game...

are you serious?

Ysclyth wrote:

NakedBatBoy wrote:Yeah, I always forget to Waaagh!

And it wasn't that I thought I would be able to destroy him once I had him in that corner. I just thought that once I finally had a few of his units separated I could focus all my fire on them and maybe if I stopped rolling 1's and 2's to hit with 90% of my shots that maybe I could make back some of the distance between our kill points.. I was hoping to tie it at best. Lady luck was just very much not on my side that game...

are you serious?

About?

Battle report is up!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/396984.page#3319749

NakedBatBoy wrote:

Ysclyth wrote:

NakedBatBoy wrote:Yeah, I always forget to Waaagh!

And it wasn't that I thought I would be able to destroy him once I had him in that corner. I just thought that once I finally had a few of his units separated I could focus all my fire on them and maybe if I stopped rolling 1's and 2's to hit with 90% of my shots that maybe I could make back some of the distance between our kill points.. I was hoping to tie it at best. Lady luck was just very much not on my side that game...

are you serious?

About?

ehh your avatar??

Ysclyth wrote:

NakedBatBoy wrote:

Ysclyth wrote:
are you serious?

About?

ehh your avatar??

Oh right... I'm always serious!