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I've been collecting Codex Marines for a few months and I really enjoy them. However I got about 2,000 points worth and wanted to start picking up something else, so I got some Space Wolves. I really enjoy playing with them as well, but now I want to get something that's different from Space Marines entirely. I was looking for suggestions on what would be different feeling army and still fun to play as. I was thinking Dark Eldar. Opinions?

Lots of non-power armoured armies out there. Do you want horde or elite army? Shooty or close combat (or both)? Specialist units or swiss-army knives?

Tau are a super shooty army that can pack tons of str 10 shooting into a list. Their battle suits can shoot lots of high strength weaponry, and then jump into cover in the assault phase, allowing you to jump into line of sight, fire, then get back into hiding. Their biggest downside is their almost complete lack of close combat ability. Pretty much any one of their units will be wiped off the board by basically any other unit, and against a dedicated assault unit they're basically nothing more than a free consolidation move.

Eldar are extremely specialized, with units that excel at one role, but fold under other circumstances. They have some great shooting units, some very good close combat units, and some of the best psychic defence in the game. Unfourtunately, they haven't got the versatility of space marines in their squads, so you have to be careful what you put them against.

Orks are assaulty, and shooty, depending on the unit. Lootas are some of the best shooting units in the game, due to their potentially high volume high strength shots, and a big unit of boys can swamp basically any unit in close combat. They also have fast open topped vehicles, allowing them to get into assault quickly. Their biggest downside is their lack of ability to deal with high armoured targets without getting into melee with them, and they die in droves to templates due to their virtual lack of armour saves. Their codex has started to show it;s age, but it's still a fairly decent book.

Dark Eldar have recently gotten a codex update, and while it was quite strong in 5th, they've taken some big nerds in 6th. I don't play them, so I don't have tons of info on them, but my understanding is they can be quite shooty and pretty stabby too, but they are crazy fragile. They have fast open topped vehicles to allow you to get into cc right away, which is excellent for units like wyches and incubi. They are probably the most squishy army in the game, with lots of T3 units with no better than a 5+ save (except for incubi, which are elites), so you have to stick to cover as much as possible.

Necrons are currently quite powerful, with tough units, devastating flyers, and hull-point stripping weaponry. They have some neat tricks with their crypteks and c'tan shards as well. Their biggest weakness is close combat, with only wraiths really being able to wreck anything in a melee, but their shooting is strong enough that it can usually make up for it.

Tyranids have lots of monstrous creatures that can be supported by hordes of little bugs. I don't know much about them, but the general consensus on them seems to be that they're in need of an update. They do have some pretty neat models though, and hormogants that are in synapse range are an excellent tarpit unit.

Guard are another very powerful army right now, with lots of big guns, and an equal amount of infantry to back them up. They have lots of very cheap tanks and troops, as well as some very good and probably under-priced flyers. They're typically not great in combat, but they can stick a bunch of power weapons in there, so it's not all bad on that front. Possibly their biggest downside is having to paint that many guardsmen.

The dark eldar are good, but fragile- they'll be a shock to play after marines. I've seen DE completely decimate entire armies in one turn, but I've also seen them expose a single chink in their game plan and get slaughtered.

I can only really give advice on tyranids and while they need a bit of a boost, they can work very well if you know what you are doing. Units like the hive guard are amazing in the 6th but some things like pyrovores are just useless. tyranids are very good infantry killers but they lack a lot of tank busters besides zoanthropes and hive guard. They are a good cc army and the new flying monstrous creatures rules also help out quite a bit. However i've found that it can be very hard to make an all comers tyranid list. They tend be be more designed for you to have 3000 points of models and then make a new 2000 list to counter certain army, so you have to be able to and willing to change your list around quite a bit. also they lack allies in the 6th so if you fight an allied force, you'll be on your own. This is just my felling from having played them, not necessarily the only way to look at them

The concept that DE took a hit in 6th is a mistake. They got boosted in alot of areas, whilst losing in some that were not the strongest anyway.

Assault DE was not the best list in 5th and this is what got harmed (unless you play giant beast packs, these are still fine).

Shooty DE love 6th! Positional sniping? Yes please! With DE mobility you can ensure you remove the targets you want to remove, outmanouevre death stars and dance around like the space elves you are.

Reavers with extra movement and the ability to L-vane (move in the movement phase to get the best position then blade vane) got a real boost, as well as with Skilled Rider giving +1 cover and ignoring dangerous terrain becoming more survivable!

Warriors have good guns now, warriors in a raider with racks can move 6" and still fire at full effect out to 24" with rerolls or move 12" and hit on 6s with rerolls (approximately BS2 with high mobility).

Dark Eldar are overall a very fun army to play, although they take a few games to get the hang of and some things that seem good/bad at first glance turn out to be the opposite. List building is very important for DE, it is essential to make sure you have multiple redundancy as you will lose units due to their fragility.

Dark Eldar are also one of the stronger armies at the moment and capable of beating CronAir, Missile Spam Wolves, Paladins, Henchmen Spam with good reliability once you get the strategies down for defeating each (they can all be defeated with the same list as well, which is key for tourneys). They have a lot of problems with certain Guard lists, but you can get your win ratio against these up to 40-50% with sufficient practice. This will be higher against guard who don't practice against DE.

A key concept with Dark Eldar is that the game is yours to lose, make a mistake and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. If you play perfectly though your opponent (even with perfect play themselves) can not take victory from you.

the_scotsman wrote:
The dark eldar are good, but fragile- they'll be a shock to play after marines. I've seen DE completely decimate entire armies in one turn, but I've also seen them expose a single chink in their game plan and get slaughtered.

A shock is good. I'm not bored by any means with my marines, but I play a lot of games and I don't want to burn myself out on them. So I think a large change may be for the best.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Drager wrote:
The concept that DE took a hit in 6th is a mistake. They got boosted in alot of areas, whilst losing in some that were not the strongest anyway.

Assault DE was not the best list in 5th and this is what got harmed (unless you play giant beast packs, these are still fine).

Shooty DE love 6th! Positional sniping? Yes please! With DE mobility you can ensure you remove the targets you want to remove, outmanouevre death stars and dance around like the space elves you are.

Reavers with extra movement and the ability to L-vane (move in the movement phase to get the best position then blade vane) got a real boost, as well as with Skilled Rider giving +1 cover and ignoring dangerous terrain becoming more survivable!

Warriors have good guns now, warriors in a raider with racks can move 6" and still fire at full effect out to 24" with rerolls or move 12" and hit on 6s with rerolls (approximately BS2 with high mobility).

Dark Eldar are overall a very fun army to play, although they take a few games to get the hang of and some things that seem good/bad at first glance turn out to be the opposite. List building is very important for DE, it is essential to make sure you have multiple redundancy as you will lose units due to their fragility.

Dark Eldar are also one of the stronger armies at the moment and capable of beating CronAir, Missile Spam Wolves, Paladins, Henchmen Spam with good reliability once you get the strategies down for defeating each (they can all be defeated with the same list as well, which is key for tourneys). They have a lot of problems with certain Guard lists, but you can get your win ratio against these up to 40-50% with sufficient practice. This will be higher against guard who don't practice against DE.

A key concept with Dark Eldar is that the game is yours to lose, make a mistake and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. If you play perfectly though your opponent (even with perfect play themselves) can not take victory from you.

What troop choices would you recommend? Both types or just focusing on one?