Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello,
New to Dark Eldar & currently building a 1k list. I'm currently thinking of running duke, a unit of warriors & wyches in raiders, 2 ravagers & a unit of trueborn in a raider.

My current setup for the trueborn are 9 w/ 7 shardcarbines & 2 s.cannons + duke + raider. Is this too many pts in 1 unit at 1k? Is just asking to die? Should I lower the number of TB so it's not an all egg in one basket unit?

Would appreciate any helpful suggestions.

Yeah, not a good use of trueborn. Having so many points in one unit considering the fragility of DE isn't particularly good.

At 2k its ok, but then your run into the fact that it cuts into your blaster born. At high levels DE have some issues with tank hunting so it kind of hurts your list.

Honestly the duke doesn't give much benefit here. One squad of wyches and the squad that gets his poison buff? Personally I would run a haemy instead and then drop the trueborn down to make some blasterborn or maybe 3 guys w/ 2 DL. 2 Troops is extraordinarily light for 1K. I'd try to get 3-4 troops in there.

The Duke's poison ability is decidedly mediocre. Splinter racks do pretty much the same thing and dont require you to take a subpar HQ. Also shard carbines on trueborn are way too expensive, if you really want an anti infantry killer take Venoms with an extra cannon or scourges with splinter cannons.

The only good thing about the duke is getting better combat drugs, otherwise he is poorly outfitted, stat poor character.

Yeah the Duke's Poison buff is a bit of a trap, you get better anti infantry damage output with more flexibility and range from Venoms. At 1000pts he is way too expensive, he is primarily a support character and he doesn't have enough to support until 1500pts.

The Duke is hardly a sub par character though. Sure he isn't an Archon, but he has the stats to fight just as well against anything short of a beatstick character. The loss of a wound is the only annoying thing, but that doesn't actually come up that often since you tend to get hit in the head with S6+. In combat his weapons are the best you can get for Dark Eldar, its better than an Agoniser since it is going to get a few non power weapon wounds in there and since its Poisoned you can potentially get re-rolls as well. Interestingly enough he can actually get more use from Drugs than an Archon, since all of the results give you something meaningful (i.e +1WS for an Archon doesn't do much). The only thing better would be an Archon with Soul Trap/Huskblade, but only after it kills an IC (i.e not often). He still has a Shadowfield, gets Ghostplate in case it drops and a Blast Pistol for added flexibility. As a support character he single handedly makes Deep Strike based armies work and provides a serious boost for any Wych based armies. For 150pts he is a bargain for properly built armies.

Thanks everyone for all your help, its back to the drawing board until I can get some more cash for venoms.

Not the best use of trueborn, IMO. When I played DE, I would throw five of them in a venom with a total of four cannons and three carbines. Super killy unit for relatively low cost.

I never liked mixing roles with dark lances and scannons.