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So, I've got a 1500 point game against some GK/DA MEQs next week, and I'm trying to work out a decent army. My DE have not had tons of luck against them in the past. Here's what I have so far:

Archon with blast pistol, huskblade, ghostplate armour, combat drugs, phantasm grenade launcher, and clone field;
One each of the entourage (Lhamaean, Ur-ghul, Sslyth, Medusae)
Venom with splinter cannon
-315 pts

Lelith Hesperax
-175 pts

10 Kabalite Warriors
Blaster, Splinter Cannon, Sybarite (Ghostplate)
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon, Splinter Racks, and Flickerfield
-215 pts

9 Wyches
Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix (Blast Pistol, Agoniser)
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Flickerfield
-215 pts

Reavers x6
Heat Lance, Blaster, Grav-talon, Cluster Caltrops, Arena Champion (Power Sword)
-209 pts

Razorwing Jetfighter
Splinter Cannon, Shatterfield Missile x4, Flickerfield
-185 pts

That leaves me with about 186 points left to work with. Suggestions for paring this down and maybe squeezing in some Eldar allies?

I don't know all THAT much about DE, but in an army that isn't based on a deathstar formation, ~500 points on HQ seems like a lot mate.

LinkXx wrote:
I don't know all THAT much about DE, but in an army that isn't based on a deathstar formation, ~500 points on HQ seems like a lot mate.

Well, the idea is that both are close combat monsters. Their respective transports (Lelith with the Wyches in their raider) zoom them in, they assault into close combat, and murder the hell out of some termies. I've seen either one alone carve through three or four in a turn, so with some unit support (to absorb overwatch if nothing else), they can put some serious hurt on them. The razorwing is a tank hunter, and the warriors provide fire support for entrenched enemies. The reavers are most flexible, and can fill whatever role I need, whether it's hunting down tanks, infantry, or HQs.

I only see two troops which may be a problem if you roll an objective mission. I'm sure you know how durable most DE units are. When I hear GK and DA I think "terminators". Disintegrator Cannons are great against both TEQ's and MEQ's and I see you have a couple. Adding a dakka ravager (Ravager with 3 Disintegrator Cannons) or two will put the hurt on GK as they're a medium to short range army in terms of shooting. The Ravagers have a decent chance of staying out of range.

General stuff:
I see lots of upgrades on characters, i.e. Ghostplate armor on the Sybarite and blast pistols on the Hekatrix and Archon. I feel that DE have better ways of working AT into a list. Dropping those upgrades alone nets you around 40 points.

Specific stuff:

The Reavers cannot use both their Heat Lance/Blaster and Cluster Caltrops on the same turn, so each turn you're wasting some points on unusable wargear. I recommend picking one role for the unit: turbo boosting around and slashing folks or doing JSJ with the shooting weapons. If you choose the latter removing the power sword may be a consideration.

Not sure about the Archon and his entourage. I'd take either the Archon or Lelith. If you stick with the Archon the shadow field is always a valid contender for wargear. I like clone fields but they're only useful in the Assault Phase. Also note that Incubi weapons are +1 Str and AP 2. Running some Incubi instead of the entourage is something to think about.

The warriors are packing a Blaster, which is a great piece of wargear but doesn't mesh well with the Splinter Racks on the Raider. Picking an AI or AT role for this squad will help optimize the list.

Razorwing: Maybe remove the splinter cannon. If you're zooming (and tank hunting) you're not going to want to shoot it anyway.

Eldar:
I don't have any. That being said, folks have success with casting Fortune on Eldar units with an attached Dark Eldar Archon sporting a Shadow Field. Eldar can also get Runes of Warding which can mess with GK's trying to cast powers and have access to Divination so you can cast Prescience on the aforementioned dakka Ravager and shoot the crap out of some terminators.


TL;DR:
Only two fragile troops.
Distintegrator Cannons are good against MEQ and TEQ.
Maybe too many upgrades on characters.
Pick a role for Reavers: turbo-boosting slashers or JSJ
Tweak Warrior squad.
Remove an HQ.
Most important: Play what your like.

Second a lot of what billboard said.

For a court, I would try to max sslyth and take the manditory one of the rest. For a venom, incubi would be better bodyguards and shred through terminators.

Drop the upgrades on your sarges. Also consider dropping your sarges from the kabbie squad. The trix is good for lilly to have a challenge eater, but even then, a venom blade or aggy is sufficent. Consider night shields over flickerfields for the dakka kabbie boat. Most GK and DA are short ranged shooters, so it can help.

Give the wytch squad a shardnet. Combined with lilly's hair, you will ensure minimum attacks hit your wytches, great for fighting big nasty terminators and such.

I would go dual heat lances or dual blasters. Blasters can double out paladins, but heat lances are cheaper and better all rounders. Grav talons are crap, but caltrops are good. You can force a lot of wounds. Use mobility to keep the bikes away from combat, the champ could probably be left at home.

Second dropping the splinter cannon, you wont be using it till you run out of missiles anyways.

Runes of warding will shut down the GK. A farseer on a jetbike works well with reavers. Give him a singing spear, and now you have a third AT weapon when you go in for the heat lance kill. Take doom as your power, or a bunch of cheap powers hoping to roll invis. Doom works well with bladevanes and dark eldar poison spam, while invis makes the bikes nearly unkillable.

A squad of eldar jetbikes makes a good cheap troop. Dont take rangers, you have poison that does the same thing. 5 avengers can get you a wave serpent, load it up with scatter lasers and a chin cannon for a decent dakka tank.

And if you reserve the dire avengers they can come on for late game objective stealing.

This is all really helpful! We always play Purge the Alien, so I'm not worried about objectives, just maximizing kill-factor. I can drop a lot of the upgrades (most of them are just there because that's how I modeled the troops). I don't have Incubi, though I could proxy. I could also drop a quartet of Bloodbrides on the Venom instead of the entourage, though I doubt that's cost effective.

The Eldar I have to work with are Eldrad Ulthran and five Rangers, because Rangers are seriously cheap.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, updated plan of attack.

Archon with Blast Pistol, Huskblade, Ghostplate Armour, and Shadow Field
-150 pts

Lelith Hesperax
-175 pts

Kabalite Warriors x10
Splinter Cannon
Raider with disintegrator Cannon, Splinter Racks, Flickerfield
-180 pts

Wyches x9 (Lelith goes here)
Shardnet and Impaler
Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Flickerfield
-170 pts

Reavers x6
Cluster Caltrops
-152 pts

Razorwing Jetfighter
Shatterfield Missile x4 and Flickerfield
175 pts

Hekatrix Bloodbrides x4 (Archon goes here)
Venom with Splinter Cannon
-117 pts

Eldrad Ulthran
-210 pts

Rangers x5 (Pathfinders)
-120 pts

Leaves 51 points unaccounted for. This has definitely helped thin some of the chaff from my list and lets me add a couple more tricks. Further suggestions?