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I've found my Dark Eldar army to lack ranged anti tank fire power. In those first turns when Venoms move up with the blasters I find I need something else besides the Ravagers, which have limited fire power. So here come the Scourges!

**UPDATED LIST**

Dark Eldar

HQ

Haemonculus - venom blade

Elite

3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Kabalite Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon

Troops

5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon

Fast Attack

5 x Scourges - 2 x dark lances
5 x Scourges - 2 x dark lances
Beastmasters - 3 x beastmasters, 3 x khymerae & 4 x razorwing flocks

Heavy Support

Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield

Total:2,000

I like this list. It's got alot of fire power to deal with both infantry and vehicles. As much as people are always puting down scourges they've seemed to work out pretty well for me

Thats...alot of shooting. Enough to make the tau proud. As a pure Kabilite theme I like it. I like for my lists to have an edge of CC just in case that one pesky mob or those vanguard make it to my shooting units. I love having a squad of DL Scourges. I know people bash them but they have always done right by me and yes you can't move and shoot but putting them in a building then hopping out at the last second is a good tactic. I view them more as the new sniper squads not trueborn.
Biggest uh-oh I see is that you went over a little. Swaping out a DL Scourge squad for some HL or Haywire Blasters will put you under by just a little.

I would get 2 CC squads in there, for the reasons already posted + If you get wyches, then there haywire grenades will help deal with blessed hull and monoliths. I haven't tried scourges with DL. But I don't like units just sitting there. I prefer all my units to be mobile. I also like all my units to have a purpose, not just being there because they have to be. I'm looking at you Haemie.
Other than that it's pretty decent.

I'd never get Scoruges with Lances if you can have them with Haywire Blasters/Blasters for cheaper and still shoot on the move. They're one of the very few units able to take a Haywire Blaster, use that.

Honestly I'd rather have the heat lance over a haywire blaster. If I want haywires I'll run up with wyches. I'd suggest tossing the DL for HL on two of the scourge squads, and see if you can find the points for a WWP for saftey. If you can't I'd turn them into blasters. I don't see alot of room for other upgrades since you really need to turn one of those warrior squads into wyches for that little bit of CC. If you can't do that either and you've exausted other options for the list this is when I would go with NS. I know I don't advocate them but you have FF already so a little more protection couldn't hurt right?

Hmmmmm. . .interesting list. Saving points on HQ's to cram in more firepower isnt a terrible idea. It's a decent thought, though I do think you lack an essential speed bump. Your army lacks an essential CC/Counter Charge/Speed Bump element to it and I believe it will hurt you in some games. It's always been my experience, when running Kabalite spam, that I wish I had a speed bump. In regards to Haywire Blasters, I love them. They do well, though in a meta filled to the absolute brim with GK, lances aren't a bad idea. Good luck, sir, good luck.

Scourges with blasters have almost the same threat range as they do with Dark Lances, so long as they move first. Heavy weapons on jump infantry isn't going to do much for you other than leave your expensive scourges stuck in place, either unable to fire or unable to survive.

The reason that you lack "crucial anti-tank" is because all of your vehicles except the ravagers are dedicated anti-infantry. That's the primary downside of Venoms. You could probably improve that by swapping some of the Venoms out for Raiders.

CaptainHonkey wrote:I like this list. It's got alot of fire power to deal with both infantry and vehicles. As much as people are always puting down scourges they've seemed to work out pretty well for me

Never tried Scourges before, but on paper they don't look too bad. I did try them in a game last night with heat lances. Manticore landed on them and you can imagine the rest, splat

Akroma06 wrote:Thats...alot of shooting. Enough to make the tau proud. As a pure Kabilite theme I like it. I like for my lists to have an edge of CC just in case that one pesky mob or those vanguard make it to my shooting units. I love having a squad of DL Scourges. I know people bash them but they have always done right by me and yes you can't move and shoot but putting them in a building then hopping out at the last second is a good tactic. I view them more as the new sniper squads not trueborn.
Biggest uh-oh I see is that you went over a little. Swaping out a DL Scourge squad for some HL or Haywire Blasters will put you under by just a little.

I ran this list last night and I took a single unit of Beastmasters which was my unit of the match. I'll be keeping a single unit of these. With these adjustments and no wargear on the Haemonculus the list is under 2k .

woodbok wrote:I would get 2 CC squads in there, for the reasons already posted + If you get wyches, then there haywire grenades will help deal with blessed hull and monoliths. I haven't tried scourges with DL. But I don't like units just sitting there. I prefer all my units to be mobile. I also like all my units to have a purpose, not just being there because they have to be. I'm looking at you Haemie.
Other than that it's pretty decent.

Tried double Beastmasters coming out of a portal before, and they work nicely but I need the more shooting power. Can't get Wytches as the troop slots are full with blasters, Monoliths and blessed hull Land Raider I'll have to avoid. True about Scourges and while they cannot fire they can be mobile as they are jump infantry.

Alkasyn wrote:I'd never get Scoruges with Lances if you can have them with Haywire Blasters/Blasters for cheaper and still shoot on the move. They're one of the very few units able to take a Haywire Blaster, use that.

Tried heat lances on the move and failed - got gibbed by Manticore in last nights game. Dark lances in this game may have done better.

Akroma06 wrote:Honestly I'd rather have the heat lance over a haywire blaster. If I want haywires I'll run up with wyches. I'd suggest tossing the DL for HL on two of the scourge squads, and see if you can find the points for a WWP for saftey. If you can't I'd turn them into blasters. I don't see alot of room for other upgrades since you really need to turn one of those warrior squads into wyches for that little bit of CC. If you can't do that either and you've exausted other options for the list this is when I would go with NS. I know I don't advocate them but you have FF already so a little more protection couldn't hurt right?

If a option of one or the other I would definately take heat lance. Haywire blasters just don't do it for me. As mentioned tried the heat lances last night and no go :(.

Grim Smasha wrote:Hmmmmm. . .interesting list. Saving points on HQ's to cram in more firepower isnt a terrible idea. It's a decent thought, though I do think you lack an essential speed bump. Your army lacks an essential CC/Counter Charge/Speed Bump element to it and I believe it will hurt you in some games. It's always been my experience, when running Kabalite spam, that I wish I had a speed bump. In regards to Haywire Blasters, I love them. They do well, though in a meta filled to the absolute brim with GK, lances aren't a bad idea. Good luck, sir, good luck.

TBH I've ran the Haemonculus in all my games and only used the liquifier once and hexrifle twice, hexrifle was rubbish and liquifier never gets in range. Annoys me taking a HQ unit just to fill the slot but I guess that's how it is.

Tried a single unit of Beastmasters in game last night (used to run double units) and worked nicely.

thecactusman17 wrote:Scourges with blasters have almost the same threat range as they do with Dark Lances, so long as they move first. Heavy weapons on jump infantry isn't going to do much for you other than leave your expensive scourges stuck in place, either unable to fire or unable to survive.

The reason that you lack "crucial anti-tank" is because all of your vehicles except the ravagers are dedicated anti-infantry. That's the primary downside of Venoms. You could probably improve that by swapping some of the Venoms out for Raiders.

The problem with my list is first turn I have to move all Venoms flat out to get into range and this leaves just the Ravagers to fire, which isn't enough. With the Scourges I can get 4-6 dark lances which should cause some damage. I know it sounds weird etc but I think will work nicely and a cheap unit too only 140 points. Once the anti tank has been done they can switch to anti troop with those shard carbines.

Swapping a few Venoms out for Raiders may be a option.

You ran into Mech Guard. That will happen, its not the scourges fault it was your opponent. That's why I suggest running them out of a portal. It ensures that they get to shoot first without being shot at. The bigget difference between the range between blaster and DL with them is that you are closer to the enemy with blasters. Yes you have almost the same effective area but your shooty units are closer to the enemy which could be horrible. 12" LR move hop out termins 6" charge = dead blaster scourges. Scourges take alot of practice so don't get discouraged.

Originally when starting D.E I did think of running the Scourges out of a portal with heat lances. As it stands atm I haven't got enough points for a portal.

Deep Strike works you just have to have good starting placement and just not get unlucky with the roll. Don't get me wrong DL Scourges are still really good. People underestimate them because they can't move and shoot, but then again neither could the old sniper squads, and these guys can move fast enough to be able to redeploy in one turn.

I did give deep strike a thought too but I am not a fan of it. I'm properly going to stick with the dark lances or try them out because it's the long range I need to give my army some more punch first turn. If those 4 lances could even cripple a unit they've done well.

mercer wrote:I did give deep strike a thought too but I am not a fan of it. I'm properly going to stick with the dark lances or try them out because it's the long range I need to give my army some more punch first turn. If those 4 lances could even cripple a unit they've done well.

And they very well may, had one pop a LR with abby in it in this years 'ard boyz.

I'm sure the heat lance works. And believe me I do rate them, but out of a portal only. What this list needs is more ranged support besides the Ravagers for early turn shooting. After that it doesn't matter.