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Greetings everyone..new to Dakkadakka but something of an old hand at 40k.

I do however have a conundrum. I am a fierce Imperial Gaurd player and love the army..however my friend has invested in a Dark Eldar army which he is feverishly painting up. His army list seems to be based around as many raiders as you can shake a squig at all deep striking behind my lines and wiping me out via assault. Now I don't believe for a second that this tactic is dead cert to win everytime. But I do worry that the new Dark Eldar codex seems to make the Dark Eldar 'very' effective at this and I'm not sure how to counteract it exaclty.

I've never fought DE so I'm not sure how to beat him, he is however absoloutley certain he will win everytime and he needs a kick in his arrogance.

Regards
Vacitus

First off welcome.

Second. As an avid DE and IG player let me point some things out. First Mech IG should have litterally zero problem with DE. Multilasers, melta vets, plasma vets, HF, TL LC Vendettas, Manticores, and Hydras. Pretty much fitting these in an 1850 game should give you enough fire power to kill them. Keep in miind that he cannot assault you after the DS, even with Duke Sliscus. The only difference between him and the retrofire jets is that he can get out to shoot, in neither case can he assault until his next turn.
DL/Raider spam has been around for a while so basically I would castle. He can't get behind you if you don't present an opening. Normally this would be sitting in a corner so he has to shoot at the AV 12 of chimeras, or 12 with lance of russes.

Third. If you are still having problems make him come in piece meal. A lot of people don't like the officer of the fleet but this would be a great spot for him. You force the DE to only get 1/3 of their army in turn 2. Kill that should be fairly simple. Turn 3 1/2 of what's left should come in. Kill as much of that as possible.

Fourth. Keep moving. Don't let them trap you in said corner or inbetween two waves. You want to keep moving since a shaken/stunned raider is much less scarry but the guys inside can still hurt. Don't let the wyches get free hits with haywire grenades or the vehicle is most likely toast.

Fifth. Don't run blob armies at the DE. Blob lists are good they work, just not against DE. As a DE player I get a little smile when I see that my opponent has a blob list in a tournament. Poison 4+ base weapons that AP guardsmen! Don't do it.

Hope these help. If you have any questions...let me know!

Deep striking with DE isn't a great idea, I wouldn't be too worried. I assume he'll be using the Duke to allow him to deepstrike his skimmers? If they deep strike they can't assault when they arrive and will be coming in piecemeal.

This should give you a turn to pop the vehicles and kill the goo inside before the next lot arrive. Almost everythign is armour 10, so anything S6+ will cause him a lot of trouble.

Stop his vehicles soon enough and he'll be in all sorts of trouble.

Thanks guys, great advice. I wasn't sure if he could assault from deep striking but if that the case I'll let him deep strike in and then rip him apart with autocannon fire.

OP:

I'm a Dark Eldar player. Perhaps the most successful one in the world.

I say that to say this: If I were to deep-strike my mechanized DE skimmer army in front of or behind an IG army....*any* half-decent IG army (not even tournament hard), then I've just lost the game.

This is a time for you to learn. Let him bring his army to the table and experiment. He'll learn what works and what doesn't, and as an IG player, you have an incredible advantage over him. Relax, and enjoy the experience. Learn the codex and its abilities with your friend.

Dashofpepper wrote:OP:

I'm a Dark Eldar player. Perhaps the most successful one in the world.

I say that to say this: If I were to deep-strike my mechanized DE skimmer army in front of or behind an IG army....*any* half-decent IG army (not even tournament hard), then I've just lost the game.

This is a time for you to learn. Let him bring his army to the table and experiment. He'll learn what works and what doesn't, and as an IG player, you have an incredible advantage over him. Relax, and enjoy the experience. Learn the codex and its abilities with your friend.

This.

Deep striking is nifty for certain circumstances.... for other armies. DE should NEVER do it to be completely honest. Just do what IG does best; blast the vehicles, mow down the troops with mass lasguns, and.... profit!

Dashofpepper wrote:I say that to say this: If I were to deep-strike my mechanized DE skimmer army in front of or behind an IG army....*any* half-decent IG army (not even tournament hard), then I've just lost the game.

Though, of course, if you were going Deep Strike you'd have a different army. I think there's a functional DS DE build nowadays. I've certainly had it work excellently versus BA and SW thus far - though I'll admit I haven't faced mech IG yet, but I don't think it's inherently problematic any more or less so than the others. I still think BA is the nastier matchup for it, personally.

Yea guard can pretty much wreck DE like nothing. You can spam out to many auto cannon, lazcannn, etc to just ahnialate armor 10 open topped skimmers. Infantry platoons with hev weps are your best friend. Combine that with the large amounts of Russ tanks, and hellhounds available you can pretty much crush them at range. Things to watch for:

- true born units. They have lots of special weapons usually 18" blasters.
- ravagers. 3 lances and can fire all 3 while moving 12. Usually the DE primary tank buster.
- venoms if done the "standard" way, will be pumping 12 poison shots a turn.
- wyches can tie up a unit in CC for a while and might even kill IG infantry squads.

Basically just fit as many Russ tanks, hellhounds and hev weapon teams as you can and you'll have no problem.

Well, the bane of DE are heavy bolters, multi lasers, and autocannons in the first place. They can take down their skimmers quickly. I'd stay away from blast weapons against tanks as they can eventually bounce off. I'd use the template weapons vs. their infantry or stranded passengers.

Thor665 wrote:

Dashofpepper wrote:I say that to say this: If I were to deep-strike my mechanized DE skimmer army in front of or behind an IG army....*any* half-decent IG army (not even tournament hard), then I've just lost the game.

Though, of course, if you were going Deep Strike you'd have a different army. I think there's a functional DS DE build nowadays. I've certainly had it work excellently versus BA and SW thus far - though I'll admit I haven't faced mech IG yet, but I don't think it's inherently problematic any more or less so than the others. I still think BA is the nastier matchup for it, personally.

Players roll for deployment. Someone wins. Doesn't matter, we'll say IG does.

IG deploys their parking lot.
DE reserves for deep strike.

IG Turn 1: IG spreads out towards the middle, Vendettas scoot across the board.
DE Turn 1: Nothing

IG Turn 2: IG Spreads out more - leaving gaps for potential deepstrikes that will mishap if they scatter. The edges are free as well, Vendettas scoot back across the table. The entire army smokes (except for Vendettas)
DE Turn 2: DE starts deep-striking onto a crowded board with little room for a unified strike, huge deep-striking dangers, and an enemy army that is entirely covered by 4+ cover saves.

IG Turn 3: Everything that came onto the board dies.
DE Turn 3: More deep-striking; smoke is gone, so some IG targets may die.

IG Turn 4: Everything that came onto the board this turn dies too.
DE Turn 4: Dark Eldar concedes.

@Dash - The real question is about how well he can refuse the board for deep strike and how much lance firepower I can or can't bring to bear to punch through 4+ saves.

The DS list I use brings a lot of lance weapons, and though I accept scattering as potentially dangerous - it's not as risky as I feel you're making it out to be.

We might as well say;

IG Turn 1: Half the DE Army that deployed on board dies.
DE Turn 1: Zip forward, get a few cover saves from flat out, shake/stun about 3 vehicles.

IG Turn 2: The other half of the DE army dies.

I know lots of players who believe that's how it goes, and you and I know that isn't always true. Can your outline happen? Certainly! Do I think, in an absolute competitive sense, that Raider/Venom spam is superior to Deep Strike? Certainly! Do I think DS is auto lose versus any half competent IG commander? No - I really don't.