The Duke (Sliscus) and some Bros 1000pt

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**Rsma77**

Duke Slicsus
w/9x Kabalite w/ blaster
+ Raider w/flickerfield and splinter racks

10x Wyches
+ Raider w/ Flickerfield

4x Trueborn w/(you guessed it!) 4x Blaster
+ Venom

1x Talos w/ Liquifier gun

5x Incubi
+Venom

1x Beastmaster
+ 2x Razorwing Flocks
+5X Khymera

1x Beastmaster
+ 2x Razorwing Flocks
+ 5x Kymera

I'm hoping the Talos will either absorb a ton of shots or not have enough shots fired into it therefore allowing it to kill some things. My friends and I usually play annihilation so that is why I only have two troops choices. Comments are always welcome.

**Thor665**

Troop options are still good for Annihilation games considering we have some of the best Troops in the game...

Okay, let's see, quick thoughts;

1. Your Beastmaster builds are illegal. Each Beastmaster can only take *one* of the listed options - so to have 0-5 Khymarae, and 0-2 Razorwings, will require 2 Beastmasters, not 1.

2. Your Incubi lack grenades and are thus dramatically limited in optimal assault choices, make sure you understand that if you're fielding them like that. Also, frankly, they're probably not desperately needed at 1k. Considering you're paying out for the Duke, and aren't using DS, why not field more Wyches so you get more benefit from your Drug re-roll?

3. At 1000 points I question the need for 4x Trueborn as opposed to 3x. Frankly I'd sack them to get a Ravager for overall better anti-mech shooting and use the extra points with some other shaved points (Wyches, Incubi, et al) to field yet an additional unit for extra anti-mech and anti-infantry.

**Rsma77**

Oh I see with the Beastmasters! I honestly didn't know that. You're probably right about the Incubi, but isn't it extremly risky to just deep strike a bunch of raiders? I'll probably add some more wyches, but deep striking them seems like just asking for free kills.

**Zid**

If your running the Duke, you need more wyches... aka his byches. haha

Pun aside, do a few wych squads and some ravagers for heavies.

**Corollax**

As usual, Thor's advice is spot on. If you're wanting beastmaster goodness, you need an IC to give them assault grenades. Defensive grenades are a bonus, and the stealth rule is a massive boon to your 5-wound Razorwing models. The Baron gives all three, along with a +1 to your initiative rolls.

Here's my take on 1000 point Dark Eldar. It retains one of your beastmaster squads as an escort for the Baron, but brings sufficient beastmasters to make it a legal selection. The Trueborn squad has been retained, but I've dropped it to 3 blasters to accommodate the beastmaster squad.

I've dropped the Incubi squad in the interests of getting you more troop options. Venoms are amazing, and troops are always a useful asset. I try not to field lists with fewer than three, and Kabalites are much cheaper than Incubi.

The Talos really needs a WWP to be effective, so I've dropped it in favor of a pair of flickerfield Ravagers. You'll get more AT out of the bargain and it will get to the target much sooner.

Spoiler:

**Rsma77**

But then its no longer the Duke and his Bros D:. The Duke is gonna miss out on all the partying which never makes him happy.

**Thor665**

To clarify - I wasn't saying you have to DS (in fact with this list I'd advise against it) - I'm saying that since you're not DSing you should maximize his Wych drug roll by taking more Wyches. If you don't want to do that then you're paying an extra 20 points for an Archon with a weaker statline and lesser wargear in order to get 3+ poison shooting on some Warriors, and that's not worth it.

The Duke is amazing, but you need to be taking advantage of one of his army-wide effects to make him worth taking, that 3+ poison shooting is just a minor bit of flair, it's not a reason to take him.

**Rsma77**

Hmm I guess i was just enamored by how cool the Duke was. Would the list perhaps work better with a regular archon with Agoniser and Shadowfield? Of course i would drop the splinter racks since the racks are useless at that point. I could use the extra points for some nice extra units, perhaps Wyches.

**Corollax**

Since you aren't set on the Duke anyway, why not look at the Baron? You've already got Beastmasters to escort him -- just consolidate them into a 3 or 4-man unit with 4-razorwings and whatever you deem to be sufficient khymerae and you've got a very cheap but affordable beast squad that gives you +1 to the deployment roll.

**Thor665**

(The racks have probably always been useless...or rather too expensive

)

You're talking about freeing up points for Wyches via dropping the Duke, which is kind of inverse of what I've advised.

Look;

1. You can build a good list with either Duke or a vanilla Archon.

2. For a list to use Duke and make sense you should take advantage of at least one of his army-wide rules (drug control or DS).

3. If you don't take advantage of either, then it's cheaper and more logical to just use a nilla Archon.

I would tend to advise Incubi becoming Wyches if you want to keep the Duke.
If you go for the vanilla Archon I'd probably advise getting him a PGL and sticking him with the Incubi so they get grenades, and turning the Duke's gunboat into something more affordable and useful to your list.

**Rsma77**

You are right that dropping the Wyches without the Duke was a dumb idea. But I'm not quite sure how deep striking non drop pod is all that useful. I realize that this army was said to not work too well with deep striking, but I am curious as to what would be a good list for deep striking vehicles. Would it be like lots of venoms/raiders filled with kabalite with shooty weapons or is that just dumber? I am curious on what list would actually be strengthened by vehicles falling from the sky

. Thanks Thor and everyone who has posted to help me out. I'm used to running Tau so I do not use special characters or dark eldar that much. I just love the idea of a highly mobile army that shoots and is not too shabby in the assault as well. Plus torturing people is cool.

**Thor665**

If you click on the link in my sig for battle reports one of the ones near the top is a batrep I did featuring a Duke Sliscus DS based list - it's certainly in the ballpark of what I consider an optimal build (though I currently field it with more Dissies and 2 less Raiders for 2 more Venoms now).