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I am relatively new to Warhammer 40K, and I decided to play with Dark Eldar. Everyone seems to laugh and says that the army is just not capable of competing. That makes me love my Dark Eldar army even more... what better way to reap joy than to bash a few space marines or crush a necron force with an army that is touted as being inferior? I love when someone expects an easy victory, but ends up having a tough game or even a crushing defeat!

So, this thread will be dedicated to Dark Eldar armies, tactics, equipment, techniques, etc.

Lets have fun with it.

Erm... those people are idiots. DE are pretty nasty. Fragile. But nasty. Blasters, wyches ravagers. Go from there :-)

I've lost ONCE with my DE.

If these clowns in your FLGS think DE are weak they are in for some massive shock and awe when you start getting your list up to COMP STANDARDS.

Take 3 Ravagers STANDARD for 9 DARK LANCES that can move 12" and shoot them ALL.

Take 3 Venoms filled with 4 Trueborn Kabalites with BLASTERS.

That is 21 Dark Weapons... Just to start....

Wracks become troops choices with Haemy... Most likely the best bang for your buck HQ unit.. Buy him a Liq Gun.. also this unit comes with a Pain Token so load him up on a Raider with Wyches....

I love Incubi... I know it takes away 4 Blasters but something about hitting with 15 Power Weapons a turn makes me smile =]


Check out some of the good ARTICLES here on DakkaDakka... most Tactics and units are discussed to death...

I would say the DE are a top 3 army right now.... Your friends are in for a dose is reality soon.

Just not capable of competing?

Every single Dark Eldar player would smile cruelly at that. They are a very frightening codex. They are a GOOD codex: They have their strengths and their weaknesses, and it balances it out quite fantastically. They are designed to work to their strengths, and avoiding their weaknesses, or at least pushing their strengths before their weaknesses become an issue.

They are extraordinarily fragile when they get hit, and they are completely unable to play attrition games. As such, they are completely built around the idea of hitting first, and destroying their target before it can hit/fire back. They rely extraordinarily on going first, to maximise this fact.

So, a very tricky race to play (more so than, say, Space Marines), but they can be excruciatingly cruel

As I read many reports and tactic entries, I seem to find that many people don't have much love for the Reaver Jet Bikes. This confounds me in many ways.

The Reaver Jet Bike is a very useful tool. If used properly, it appears to be a constant thorn in your opponent's side, and small squads can also draw lots of attention away from your main army.

The Reaver Jet Bikes are amongst the fastest models in the game, and therefore, it is very important to use this speed. Does your opponent have tanks? Reavers can manage. Does your opponent have units of infantry in the open? Reavers can manage well. Does your opponent have control over their units or are they 'out of synapse' or 'blood thirsty'? Reavers can really assist.

Tanks versus Jet Bikes. The Reaver Jet Bikes can be armed with tank popping weapons. Some like the heat lance, while others prefer the blaster. Personally, I would always go with the blaster. You can have 1 blaster per 3 jetbikes in the squad, and the blaster is only 3 points more expensive than the heat lance. So, why a blaster over a heat lance? The blaster has the Lance rule, which reduces any attacked armour to 12. The range of the weapon is 18 inches, strength is 8 and the AP is 2. The heat lance has the Lance rule and the Melta rule, which allows a second D6 to be rolled when penetrating armour IF AT HALF RANGE OR LESS. The heat lance strength is 6, AP is 1 and range is 18 inches. Therefore, while the extra dice is nice for armour penetration, keep in mind that the strength is already lower than the blaster and the your bikes must be 9 inches away from the enemy or closer in order to apply this rule. Further, consider that you also have a chance of rolling a 1 or 2 on the extra dice, which really means that 1/3 of the time, you will simply end with the same result as if you had hit with a blaster, but now you are CLOSER to your enemy.

So to reiterate, the Blaster gives you the same chance of 'hitting' (BS remains same), and with S8 and Lance rule, you need to roll a 4 to Glance or a 5+ to penetrate (against most armies). Also, you keep your unit 18 inches away from the enemy. At 18 inches away from the enemy, the heat lance hits require a roll of 6 to Glance and Penetration is not possible against most vehicles (unless you are playing Dark Eldar! with armour 10s!!!). Given that the heat lance has an AP1, you would get to add a +1 modifier to the damage chart roll, but you are already at a -2 modifier due to the Glance, so your net is still not as good as the blaster damage chart roll. Now, if you are 9 inches away from the enemy, the heat lance hits would have a 13.89% chance of glancing and a 58% chance (approximately) of penetrating (versus the blaster's 66.7% chance of glancing and 33.3% chance of penetrating from 18 inches away). At 18 inches away, the heat lance only has a 16.7% chance of glancing a typical non-dark eldar vehicle and there is no chance of actually penetrating.

I like my jetbikes to stay alive, therefore, I prefer having better results from a greater distance away. Yes, the heat lance can be more destructive when closer to your enemy, but I would rather use my bikes to disrupt the opponent's tactics, take out a few infantry here and there, pop a vehicle or two, etc, before dying.

Remember as well that the heat lance and blaster are both assault weapons and the dark eldar jetbikes are 'relentless'.

Use speed as your ally. Turbo-boosting the Jetbikes will eliminate your use of ranged weapons, but it is the best way to pound infantry with bladevanes and cluster caltrops, both offering instant hits (D3 per bladevane model and D6 per cluster caltrops model). Also, sometimes this technique may bring you to within range of an enemy, but at least the turbo boost will confer a 3+ cover save.

Finally, the Reavers have a wonderful rule that allows them to move 6 inches in the assualt phase, regardless of whether or not they are assaulting. Sooooo.... turboboost across an enemy squad of infantry to soften them up with bladevanes and caltrops, landing behind cover and getting your 3+ cover. Next turn, move out from behind cover slightly and shoot all weapons (blasters and splinter rifles, for example) at the enemy and then in the assault phase, simply move back into cover. The Jetbikes have good toughness (4) and they also use combat drugs! (wyches).

I like to run squads of 6 with an Arena Champion (the extra leadership can be really helpful) or squads of 4 with no Arena Champion (they are going to die after serving a focused purpose anyway, so no sense wasting the extra points). In a squad of 4, I don't upgrade to cluster caltrops, because I really just want to hide and pop one shot from a blaster at a tank, or use them late in a game to jump onto an objective and contest.

Any thoughts or comments? Hope this has been helpful. The more we learn and read and discuss, the better our Dark Eldar become. I am not an expert, so please excuse any inaccurate assumptions. Let's all be pleasant and courteous in this thread so we can be constructive and learn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wow!!! Before my very first entry into the thread there were already replies!!! Love the Dark Eldar players! Kudos for being so prompt and astute!

I was thinking about getting some reavers. I'm still conflicted. For a few points more I can get 4 blasterborn and a venom. Your reaver post is making me think though, it would also be a nice change from the venom spam.

My recommended tactics for Dark Eldar?

Read Thor's tactica's in the article section.

For reavers, I think their largest potential criticism is what happens to them AFTER they blow up a vehicle, if you're using them for the Heat Lance.

Many fear that they will simply be shot out of the sky.

Yes, but with the boosters, you usually can find cover within 18 inches of a targeted vehicle. People tend not to know what to do when Reavers come flying by, cutting and hiding. Also, if a blood angels walker or tyranid feeders have to go towards the nearest enemy unit, there is nothing more satisfying than leading them away from your army with fast, nimble jet bikes. Also, they are really cool looking models.

Finally, they are awesome when they exit the web way portal.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/357250.page

Is probably your best source.

Oh, and they are exceptional during objective matches, especially if they can survive until the 4 th and 5 th turns, when enemy infantry are either bearing down on your objective, or covering their own.

DE struggle against certain builds...primarily heavily mechanized IG. They can do very well against most armies, but those few matchups make taking DE to a large-scale, competitive tournament, and expecting to win, virtually impossible.

I've played DE for a long time, and the new codex is a lot of fun, with a good balance of shooty, melee and mobility. Their overall fragility, combined with the expense the game tacks on to all things "lance" because they can be effective against AV13-14 (even though it doesn't help at all against the much more common AV 11-12 spam) and current mission types (DE give up KP very easily, and lose troops easily but can't take more than 6 scoring units) all combine to give DE some major issues.

Read Thors tactica.

That being said, Dark Eldar are highly competative when used by a smart player and using a smart list. DE is not an army that you can just throw a bunch of units together and win (like some armies *cough* GK *cough*). I recommend either webway lists or raider lists or venom lists

Milisim wrote:

Take 3 Ravagers STANDARD for 9 DARK LANCES that can move 12" and shoot them ALL.

Take 3 Venoms filled with 4 Trueborn Kabalites with BLASTERS.

That is 21 Dark Weapons... Just to start....

One of the dumbest builds out there, you have all that in 6 units, massive waste of points, and part of the reason why I dont like trueborn. You'll probably sweep your opponent of armor by turn 2 or 3 if you go with it and then all those darklight weapons will spend the rest of the game shooting at infantry, massive underutilization and incredibly inefficient.

I have over 10k of DE.
I've scratchbuilt a Haem Bio-Titan.
I run (as Dark Eldar go) a suboptimised Coven list.
It has Grotesques, Talos, Wracks with Hex Rifles, Talos and a Razorwing.

Last week I tabled 1750pts of marines with 1300pts of DE (450ish points of troops took a wrong turn, and the squads he had sitting on an objective dissapeared, leaving them too far away to do anything that game.)

I will say that they are very unforgiving of mistakes though.
Will take a little getting used to but is very rewarding once you do.

Large beast squads are great, mostly with razorwings and khymerae. They can threaten a huge area, kill most units in assault, and are fairly resilient.

Again, though, mech IG is going to be a nightmare match for you. Run the numbers on your raiders fighting his chimeras, or your ravagers against his vendettas. Points costs are nearly the same, but your stuff dies much more easily, and he'll quite possibly have more vehicles than you!. Your troops are better, but IG will have more, and will end up being more resilient through those numbers. Get close for blaster use or assault, and you're close to his heavy flamers and melta. A couple of hydras thrown in to completely ruin your day, and that's a wrap.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Milisim wrote:

Take 3 Ravagers STANDARD for 9 DARK LANCES that can move 12" and shoot them ALL.

Take 3 Venoms filled with 4 Trueborn Kabalites with BLASTERS.

That is 21 Dark Weapons... Just to start....

One of the dumbest builds out there, you have all that in 6 units, massive waste of points, and part of the reason why I dont like trueborn. You'll probably sweep your opponent of armor by turn 2 or 3 if you go with it and then all those darklight weapons will spend the rest of the game shooting at infantry, massive underutilization and incredibly inefficient.

Um, sorry to break it to you but 21 Dark Lance weapons is only par for the course, its pretty hard to take too much Darklight weaponry since its still burning through Marines and Terminators from 18" away (making it more useful than a Meltagun in that sense). Its hardly expensive either, 864pts still leaves you at least 1000pts for scoring units (which are dirty cheap for DE) and anything else you might want to bring.

Assuming you get the first turn, 3 Ravagers and 3 Blasterborn get 14 hits, which works out to about 4-5 pens and a couple of glances. Since you aren't AP 1 you are looking at maybe 1-2 dead vehicles and a couple of damaged ones (assuming AV12, its slightly better if you are shooting Rhinos, but not much) without factoring in cover saves (and against a decent opponent who deploys well he will get cover against at least some shooting), but against pretty much any competitive build this is still going to leave 5+ functioning vehicles. In return you should expect on average to lose about half of these Darklight shots, Trueborn get shot to pieces since they have disembarked within Rapid Fire range (after movement) and Ravagers are going to be the first target for any long range anti tank shooting. If you don't Alpha Strike hard enough then your ability to pop vehicles disappears, so need as much as possible to start with to maximise you chances of crippling them early, and then if things go badly you still need as much firepower as possible since its fragile and going to disappear quickly.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Milisim wrote:

Take 3 Ravagers STANDARD for 9 DARK LANCES that can move 12" and shoot them ALL.

Take 3 Venoms filled with 4 Trueborn Kabalites with BLASTERS.

That is 21 Dark Weapons... Just to start....

One of the dumbest builds out there, you have all that in 6 units, massive waste of points, and part of the reason why I dont like trueborn. You'll probably sweep your opponent of armor by turn 2 or 3 if you go with it and then all those darklight weapons will spend the rest of the game shooting at infantry, massive underutilization and incredibly inefficient.

The 3 venoms do well at mowing down infantry. The problem with trueborn in venoms is it doesn't take people long to realize they have more firepower than the ravagers, a lower armor value, and they are a double threat (Trueborn to armor, venoms to infantry) compared to the ravager's single threat. It's also stupid easy to knock venom's out of the sky. A simple IG multi laser shot has a 50% chance of scoring a pen and a 25% chance of scoring a glance on a venom. Blasterborn are just the glass hammeriest unit of a glass hammer army.

Dark Eldar sub par? Boy are they in for a rude awakening, in my local club it's got to the point where people don't like playing against DE as they are 'overpowered'.

In my mind DE is a finesse army and not everyone will get on with them but in the right hands they become nigh on unstoppable, here are my tips to getting the most out of DE (This is for a shooty build the easiest style to get on with).

List Building

1) Haemonculus w/liquifier is all the HQ you need (this frees up points for your army and stops you falling into the point sink of shiny archons)
2) 3 Wracks and a venom w/2 cannons at least 2 units of make great deckchair units for sitting on objectives and still add plenty of shots.
3) 5 Kabalite 1 w/blaster in venom w/2 cannons is a good forward scoring unit and adds to your darklight total
4) 4 trueborn w/blasters in venom w/2 cannons is an awesome unit
5) Ravagers are the most efficent anti-tank you have access to.
6) The magic number for wyches is 6-8 w/agoniser
7) Wyches should ALWAYS have haywire grenades

Gameplay

1) You are going to lose units accept it and keep playing.
2) Go into reserve to avoid getting alpha striked
3) Read Thors tactica and visit the dark city (link in my sig)
4) would have been more have to feed my son!

Additional Haemonculus w/liquifier add pain tokens, and it's a good HQ for it's price.

In a tournament setting the big problems I see with dark eldar is their inability to alter reserve rolls, and the potential for the other side to steal the initiative.

I've played enough games against DE to know they can't go 2nd against IG. Starting on the table gets them blown out of their transports on turn 1. Starting from reserve means they come in piecemail on a 5+ turn 2 thanks to an officer of the fleet. When 33% of reserves make it in on turn 2 instead of 50% they really take a beating. Then when 66% of reserves make it in by turn 3 instead of 83% the beatings continue. If any army was in dire need of the ability to give themselves +1 on reserve rolls it's dark eldar.

schadenfreude wrote:Additional Haemonculus w/liquifier add pain tokens, and it's a good HQ for it's price.

In a tournament setting the big problems I see with dark eldar is their inability to alter reserve rolls, and the potential for the other side to steal the initiative.

I've played enough games against DE to know they can't go 2nd against IG. Starting on the table gets them blown out of their transports on turn 1. Starting from reserve means they come in piecemail on a 5+ turn 2 thanks to an officer of the fleet. When 33% of reserves make it in on turn 2 instead of 50% they really take a beating. Then when 66% of reserves make it in by turn 3 instead of 83% the beatings continue. If any army was in dire need of the ability to give themselves +1 on reserve rolls it's dark eldar.

Thats where the Baron comes in; +1 to go first is great. Honestly, DE has all the tools to take down IG. If you fear IG that much, honestly take some NS's. Chimeras are now only 30" range guns, so you can hide on a table edge and not get hit potentially. Plus turning IG;s most predigiously spammed weapon (meltas) into 6" guns is full of fun!

That being said, FF's are always better either way. I've seen FF's win games. 33% chance to ignore hits is better than most people think.

Nightshields don't really help that much...to shoot a chimera, you've got to be within 36". The chimera can still move 6" and fire 30", so if you don't stop it on your turn, it'll shoot back on its turn. It may help prevent one of your vehicles from being targeted by several chimeras, but 30" is still enough range to cover a large chunk of the board, and the IG stuff will be moving forward. You can't win by hiding in the corner as DE! Plus, adding FF (a must, really) and NS really bump up the cost of things, reducing your number of units.

What is normally fairly mediocre in the IG army (lots of multilasers) become a major problem for DE. They shred open-topped AV 10 vehicles, ignore FNP on T3 models, insta-kill T3 stuff, etc.

I am relatively new to DE, but am finding them an enjoyable army to play. I started with losing every game (I had some pretty terrible lists, and did not make the smartest moves) but am now beginning to put up a decent fight when playing with friends. I think a powerful, but often overlooked build is a webway portal list. The other night I had my GK roomate jump his dread knight up to my portal, ahead of the rest of his army, only to be assaulted by incubi, wyches, talos pain engine, and my archon for free consolidation! (that was a terrible decision on his part, but I don't think he realized I could have so much of my army attack like that.) It also tends to "herd" opponents. They do not want to be within assault range of your portals, limiting where they can move on the boards. I do tend to lack anti-tank, something I need to work on.

Dark eldar elite wrote:As I read many reports and tactic entries, I seem to find that many people don't have much love for the Reaver Jet Bikes. This confounds me in many ways.

The Reaver Jet Bike is a very useful tool. If used properly, it appears to be a constant thorn in your opponent's side, and small squads can also draw lots of attention away from your main army.

The Reaver Jet Bikes are amongst the fastest models in the game, and therefore, it is very important to use this speed. Does your opponent have tanks? Reavers can manage. Does your opponent have units of infantry in the open? Reavers can manage well. Does your opponent have control over their units or are they 'out of synapse' or 'blood thirsty'? Reavers can really assist.

Tanks versus Jet Bikes. The Reaver Jet Bikes can be armed with tank popping weapons. Some like the heat lance, while others prefer the blaster. Personally, I would always go with the blaster. You can have 1 blaster per 3 jetbikes in the squad, and the blaster is only 3 points more expensive than the heat lance. So, why a blaster over a heat lance? The blaster has the Lance rule, which reduces any attacked armour to 12. The range of the weapon is 18 inches, strength is 8 and the AP is 2. The heat lance has the Lance rule and the Melta rule, which allows a second D6 to be rolled when penetrating armour IF AT HALF RANGE OR LESS. The heat lance strength is 6, AP is 1 and range is 18 inches. Therefore, while the extra dice is nice for armour penetration, keep in mind that the strength is already lower than the blaster and the your bikes must be 9 inches away from the enemy or closer in order to apply this rule. Further, consider that you also have a chance of rolling a 1 or 2 on the extra dice, which really means that 1/3 of the time, you will simply end with the same result as if you had hit with a blaster, but now you are CLOSER to your enemy.

So to reiterate, the Blaster gives you the same chance of 'hitting' (BS remains same), and with S8 and Lance rule, you need to roll a 4 to Glance or a 5+ to penetrate (against most armies). Also, you keep your unit 18 inches away from the enemy. At 18 inches away from the enemy, the heat lance hits require a roll of 6 to Glance and Penetration is not possible against most vehicles (unless you are playing Dark Eldar! with armour 10s!!!). Given that the heat lance has an AP1, you would get to add a +1 modifier to the damage chart roll, but you are already at a -2 modifier due to the Glance, so your net is still not as good as the blaster damage chart roll. Now, if you are 9 inches away from the enemy, the heat lance hits would have a 13.89% chance of glancing and a 58% chance (approximately) of penetrating (versus the blaster's 66.7% chance of glancing and 33.3% chance of penetrating from 18 inches away). At 18 inches away, the heat lance only has a 16.7% chance of glancing a typical non-dark eldar vehicle and there is no chance of actually penetrating.

I like my jetbikes to stay alive, therefore, I prefer having better results from a greater distance away. Yes, the heat lance can be more destructive when closer to your enemy, but I would rather use my bikes to disrupt the opponent's tactics, take out a few infantry here and there, pop a vehicle or two, etc, before dying.

Remember as well that the heat lance and blaster are both assault weapons and the dark eldar jetbikes are 'relentless'.

Use speed as your ally. Turbo-boosting the Jetbikes will eliminate your use of ranged weapons, but it is the best way to pound infantry with bladevanes and cluster caltrops, both offering instant hits (D3 per bladevane model and D6 per cluster caltrops model). Also, sometimes this technique may bring you to within range of an enemy, but at least the turbo boost will confer a 3+ cover save.

Finally, the Reavers have a wonderful rule that allows them to move 6 inches in the assualt phase, regardless of whether or not they are assaulting. Sooooo.... turboboost across an enemy squad of infantry to soften them up with bladevanes and caltrops, landing behind cover and getting your 3+ cover. Next turn, move out from behind cover slightly and shoot all weapons (blasters and splinter rifles, for example) at the enemy and then in the assault phase, simply move back into cover. The Jetbikes have good toughness (4) and they also use combat drugs! (wyches).

I like to run squads of 6 with an Arena Champion (the extra leadership can be really helpful) or squads of 4 with no Arena Champion (they are going to die after serving a focused purpose anyway, so no sense wasting the extra points). In a squad of 4, I don't upgrade to cluster caltrops, because I really just want to hide and pop one shot from a blaster at a tank, or use them late in a game to jump onto an objective and contest.

Any thoughts or comments? Hope this has been helpful. The more we learn and read and discuss, the better our Dark Eldar become. I am not an expert, so please excuse any inaccurate assumptions. Let's all be pleasant and courteous in this thread so we can be constructive and learn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wow!!! Before my very first entry into the thread there were already replies!!! Love the Dark Eldar players! Kudos for being so prompt and astute!

Reavers are awfully expensive and awfully fragile. 22points a model, 5+ save, die in droves to flamers or in assault.

I find they are not a good blaster option, you can take blasters elsewhere.
Heatlances are nice, when you have to have a tank die, but that leaves you 15" away from the tank and with 2" disembark and then 6"move 6" assault perilously close to getting assaulted by the contents.
A nice trick is to JSJ into terrain. You have to take dangerous, but skilled riders means you have a 1/36 chance of dying.
Against infantry the caltrops are nice, But they are rarely going to do better than a venom with additional cannons.

Reavers are not the most competitive choices in the book.
That said, they are one of the most fun units in the book. I often take them in casual games. ZOOOM ZOOOM ZOOM

Dark eldar elite wrote:
SO? What do people feel about fielding Vect and his Dias of Destruction? I must say, I only played with him twice and I did win both games. The first game I used him with a squad of 8 wyches and a Homonculus. I ran two venoms up into the enemies face and between them was the dias of destruction. Meanwhile, I had two RazorWings on the enemies far flank, but in range of his vehicles. He didn't know what to do... the venoms were easy targets and he was threatened by the RazorWings. On the second turn I had already lost 1 Razorwing (failed flickerfield roll) and one venom, but I was ready to pounce. I dropped out of the Dias, which survived a few shots in turn 1, moved 6 inches, ran 3 inches and assaulted 6 inches to multi-engage a squad of Immortals (Necrons) and a squad of Warriors. He was not prepared for the pain I brought. Vect nearly depleted his warriors, while the wyches finished them off and made a good dent in the Immortals. I lost 3 wyches to failed invulnerable saves and then the next turn destoyed his ramaining Immortals. Meanwhile, as he realized that the squad was not to be messed with, his heavy units become less concerned with my remaining RazorWing, Dias of Destruction and Ravager, and tried to pound Vect. Given that I had consolidated into cover, I managed to survive a leadership test after losing a few wyches and I was able to move, run and assault one of his Ghost Arcs with Haywire grenades - WRECKED it and then was able to enagage the troops from within. This one squad was so powerful and awesome, my opponent could not focus on the remainder of my army. I had two squads of 4 Reavers hiding in cover, but within range of jumping on 2 of the objectives being held by him, and he was not even attempting to approach the 2 objectives that I held due to his attention being focused on Vect. Vect did die on turn 4, but by then, his squad had already contested an objective, destroyed 2 warrior squads and a squad of Immortals and wrecked a vehicle. I was able to Raider a squad of Wracks over to one of the opponents objectives, and take it. I was also able to zip over a squad of Reavers to contest one of his objectives in turn 5. Won the game holding 3 objectives and contesting 1.

The second game saw my Dias of Destruction be the main target. It was destroyed in Turn 2 and with lots of open ground to still cover, I chose to run my squad (Vect, wyches and a Homonculus) into cover and on my only objective (capture and control). I built a wall with my Heavy units and managed to drop a webway portal from a Homonculus on a Venom in the middle of the table. Reavers and Beasts (large squad of 5 masters, 2 clawed fiends and 15 Khymerae) exited the portal and clogged up the middle of the board, engaging most of his ground units, while Incubi and Wracks made their way over to his objective. He did challenge my objective, but was not able to overcome my Vect squad, or draw them away from my objective. But that only happened once. The rest of the game was him playing defence. I flew Reavers over the squad protecting his objective twice and then finished them off with the Wracks and Incubi, taking his objective with Wracks (troop choice because of Homonculus). He wasn't able to unengage from the middle of the board to contest his original objective.

So, both games were very largely affected by the presence of Vect. Yes, his squad was ridiculously expensive... but two times fielded and two times victorious, even after having put out the big expense for the squad? I would say he was well worth the points. Any thoughts?

Vect is a beatstick but a single str6 wound getting past his shadowfield will gib him for good. His dais is over priced and cant have vehicle upgrades, it is almost not worth taking.
vect is like 240 points, his dais is 200, and you have to fill it with 9 other guys. Minimum cost of 120 for wyches. That ends up being 560 points in one basket that can be stunned, tarpitted, or blown out of the sky pretty easily.

If your oppenent doesnt know what he is doing then yes it can be effective but otherwise Vect is probably best saves for REALLY high point games.

I just played a game against space wolves today and I did bring Vect along for the ride. He and his squad were royally demolished by a squad of terminator like space wolves. I literally did 1 wound to his 5 man squad and he wiped me out. Wow. That was not pretty. Luckily, I played well enough with the rest of my army to tie the game.

Dark eldar elite wrote:I just played a game against space wolves today and I did bring Vect along for the ride. He and his squad were royally demolished by a squad of terminator like space wolves. I literally did 1 wound to his 5 man squad and he wiped me out. Wow. That was not pretty. Luckily, I played well enough with the rest of my army to tie the game.

Did he assault you, or did you assault him?

Vect, by himself, on average should kill about 2 normal termies if his unit assaulted. No idea what his unit was, though. Had it been Incubi, would have likely dealt another four wounds prior to that 5+ invul save, which would have (on average) knocked down another two terminators - all before the termies could hit back. SS termies on the other hand...

I assaulted him. However, these space wolf termies had a 2 or 3++ Invulnerable save. I hit him 16 times and did 13 wounds (3 from Vect's power weapon), but he turned all but one away with his invulnerability save rolls. It was crazy. Then he just squashed me. I can't believe Vect doesn't have 'eternal warrior'. His toughness is weak.


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My Incubi assaulted his heavily armed guys (the squad with the rockets and las cannons) and totally wiped him out with no return attacks.

Any opinions on who the best independent characters are in the Dark Eldar list? I have used Archons, Homonculae, Vect and Lelith. I was wondering if anyone has played with The Decapitator, or Dhazar or Urien Rakarth (sorry if any are spelled wrong... don't have codex in front of me). Let me know your thoughts.