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Looking into starting a DE army, I can't decide on good Fast Attack options. The rest of my army consists of an Archon (who can proxy as the Special Characters like Vect and the Baron guy also) some Incubi, Kabalite Warriors, Raiders, Ravagers, a Talos/Chronos and maybe a Jet Figher. Anyway, I'm leaning toward the bikes as I like bikes and they're super fast. Which is the better FA option though?

P.S. I'm going to get a Beastmaster just because I love the model. If he's any good, I'll use him as a FA choice with some pets.

Thanks

Hey man, good to see another DE player out there.

That being said, your army looks to be a little all over the place. Without seeing an actual list you plan on using, I can't give you real specific advice, but I can tell you that redundancy is the name of the game with Dark Eldar and you really want to field multiples of every important unit type. That, and our monstrous creatures don't tend to mesh well with our speedy vehicle-heavy lists.

That being said.

The fast attack slot is actually the most disappointing of the FoC for us. You'll hear a lot of people talk poorly of Scourges and Jetbikes due to the fact that they both fill a niche that can be better utilized in other places.

That being said, I frequently field Reaver Jetbikes out of love for the model. I have found my most success by using them in units of 3 with one special weapon. Yes, it's fragile, it's so fragile in fact that this weakness is actually its greatest strength. No matter what your enemy shoots at it, it's wasting firepower. You have a 78 point unit (if you take a heat lance, which I always do) that will surely pop an important vehicle on turn 2 if not dealt with, yet is so cheap and flimsy that it's almost a waste to fire even a single squad's whole arsenal at it. I like to fill up my FA slots with bikes in this way, because not only does my opponent have to grapple with wasting their firepower on one such nuisance unit, but three.

Scourges are alright. Give them a blaster or a haywire blaster and they can do some nifty things to enemy armor. They aren't as effective in anti-infantry or anti-tank firepower as a trueblaster squad, but their models do look cooler. I wouldn't give them heat lances as the short range really exacerbates the scourge's inherent fragility (And they are not cheap, like jetbikers) and makes them prone to getting charged. Heavy weapons like the splinter cannon or dark lance kill your mobility, and as such are wasted points as well.

Beast squads are actually a very competitive unit, and the golden boy of the FA slot. Load up on 5 Khymeras, 4 razorwing flocks and 3 beastmasters and you have one hell of a close combat punch. One that can keep up pretty well with your vehicle force too. Definitely recommend them.

Thanks for the advice. I havent actually purchased any models yet, as I want to save up and buy a whole bunch all at once, but those that I listed are the ones that I was most interested in. I will surely consider that bike tactic of yours as I too love the model, and hearing that Beastmasters are a good unit is awesome as he's probably my favorite model that GW makes outside of the Chaos Terminator Lord plastic kit. Anyway, thanks for the advice!

The good thing about DE is that while the fast attack slots may be considered to not be as good as the rest of the codex, those units are still pretty damn good at what they do.

Other units may be able to do things better, but DE are also able to fill up their other slots pretty quickly with cheap units, so then your fast attack gives you access to even more of what you want to do. Also consider that DE have some of the most beautiful models so you cna select good looking models that might not be the best in the codex, but are still good at kicking butt.

As lokas said your army idea so far is pretty much all over the place, so you should probably focus it.

I have 6 reavers that i typically field with caltrops and heat lances...the caltrops tear through any footsloggers and if you close enough you can smash open a vehicle. If you are lucky you can do it in one go by turbo boosting the jetbikes across the footsloggers and right into the tank

DE fast attack slots really kind of depend on your force. first and foremost, your army seems to be a bit all over the place, as suggested, try to focus it a touch more.

as for the actual fast attack slots i have played all of them in numerous games with multiple builds and heres my take. YMMV

Hellions: nice unit, and aside from beasts the cheapest per model unit you can get in the FA slot. the hit and run ability is nice, as is the jump packs. they can also contribute some decent shooting while they move up, and fleet helps with the charge. however, the lack of invuns, armor or cover saves or abilitys like move through cover or stealth make them less attractive. they also lack any serious damage in CC. str 4 is better then most DE, but no power weapons or rending or anything means they generally dont hit very hard. they are also likley to get shot to pieces before acomplishing much.

scourges: expensive, jump infantry and lots of special weapons. they are probally an average unit at best, and certainly better then the previous dex version. they can provide a respectable amount of splinter fire, but are more vulnerable then venoms. blasters are always nice (avoid lances...why take hev weapons on JI???) - but you can get 4 per squad in trueborn, while with scourges you have 3 still packing splinter weapons... kind of unfocused. in my expierence they tend to get close, shoot some stuff then take a boat load of return fire and die. probally better options, since other stuff can do the splinter thing better (venoms) and others can do the lance/blaster/ AT role better (ravagers, blaster born)

beastmasters: these guys are just pure awsome in a can. dirt cheap for a full unit. great wound diversifacation, in that you can have 5 wound models, invun saves, and so on. they move quick, have fleet, and can actually do very nice in CC. i currently run 3 beast masters, 4 kymarae, and 3 razorwings and they are usually the game stars. you can allocate simple bolter fire on birds, apply harder hits to invun save kymarae, or simply kill off the BM if you need to take a hit someplace. low LD makes them a touch tricky, but add the baron to the squad - you get better LD, stealth, and a character with a str 6 (7 with FC) 6 attack charge. not a power weapon, but the unit can force alot of saves, and generally tie a unit up in CC for a few rounds. definitly the best of the bunch. even better with the baron.

reavers: kind of useless. yea bladevanes look cool, and are decent for horde control, but really splinter fire (venoms) can do it better and at range. bikes are expensive, low number, low toughness, no save, and tend to get targeted fast. every game ive brought them they die without much fight. the models are great, and they have an interesting theme with the bladevanes.... but are simply not reliable. they lack any real AT, and like scourges you have other units to do the same job better. they arent that good at infantry killing either, and again other units work better. CC they just wither, and really... wyches or incubi are better at it anyway, and cheaper. the other issue here is the reavers are some of the most expensive models in your army... and they are generally a "suicide" unit. save your points and get something more reliable, that wont die when something looks at it, and can actually kill something.

therefore i would suggest taking the baron and a unit of beasts. the clawed fiend is kind of useless (and super expensive) but the rest is straight awsome. if your worried about the finecost $$$ amount
- i converted hellions using the spears from raider kits, and a large amount of chains
- the kymarae i bought a box of vampire count dire wolves. no conversion needed... they do alright, and are about the same size... (plus 10 to a box for almost the same cost as a single finecost pack) unfortunitly i ate the cost on the birds, but you get enough birds (4 of them in 3 pieces) to make 4 bases from 3 packs. plus, you can convert a baron model from the hellion box.

hope that helps.