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I'm playing Imperial Guard against Dark Eldar this weekend for the first time, so I'm asking all you experienced Dark Eldar players out there if you could tell me the general characteristics of the corrupted cousins. You know like; is it a generally fast or slow army, assault or gun lines, vehicle heavy or marathon infantry etc. just to get some kind of idea so I won't be tabled in the first turn. If you're willing to share your knowledge and views I'd be a happy guardsman

It is the fastest army in the game. period. if he isnt in your face turn one he isnt playing right. (wych cult enthusiast here).generally though it will be a mix of assault and gunline support, generally mostly in vehicles, if you play blobgaurd, reavers make you a sad panda, if you play mech, well, he may have enough dark lances to kill your tanks, and then hise you with anti infantry fire. they don't like being shot, so shoot them. most fo your heavy weapons will glance on a 1-2, and dark eldar armour is not very good. good luck with the match.

 Commissaurus Rex wrote:
I'm playing Imperial Guard against Dark Eldar this weekend for the first time, so I'm asking all you experienced Dark Eldar players out there if you could tell me the general characteristics of the corrupted cousins. You know like; is it a generally fast or slow army, assault or gun lines, vehicle heavy or marathon infantry etc. just to get some kind of idea so I won't be tabled in the first turn. If you're willing to share your knowledge and views I'd be a happy guardsman

DE use to be fast, deadly in the shooting phase and in the assault phase. In 6th they have a lot of trouble though.

Things to consider
AV12 is the hardest thing for DE to take out. Why take a LRBT when a colossus is going to do better.
vehicles in general are easy for DE to take out if there are few of them. A few lance shots or haywire grenades will wreck a landraider easily, but if you have 10 chimeras the DE might not even get close to them.

DE armor sucks, dont spend too much on lascannons, meltaguns and plasma guns. Autocannons, heavy bolters, and multilasers are DE bane.

Take a vendetta and find a way to take out any Razorwing bombers they might have. Guard do not like mass pie plates coming in on themselves.

1 vendetta is enough, you dont want to overdo the anti tank.

Cover ignoreing is great. Collosus are great.

Don't blob your guardsmen. Yes their overwatch would be deadlier, and DE hate overwatch, but the worst thing for a Dark Eldar player (in my experience) is to face multiple mutually supporting infantry units in a defensive block. As long as they don't have any flyers with missiles/bombs (large blasts), you should keep your squads close together - the first line of units will die easily in melee and the next few squads will shred their Wyches with shooting. Also be sure to bubble-wrap your tanks with infantry, because their haywire bombs will make short work of any armor if they get a chance to assault.

Edit: Also a command squad issuing the "on my target" order to an autocannon squad is an excellent way to take down their skimmers or jetbikes. You'll score penetrating hits or wounds easily and they'll have to re-roll successful jink saves.

AV12 spam should pretty much win you the game since none of the poison can hurt you so there goes half his army's effectiveness.

AV12 spam is their hardest match up.

IG are the only army that I really struggle to do well against.

The other posters pretty much covered the essentials.

Thanks for your help guys, I appreciate your advice!

For those claiming AV12+ is difficult for DE. It really depends on what the DE player brings.

Dark Lances ignore armor values above 12. So they are hitting on 3s and glancing on 4s; it's AP2 so +1 on the damage table. Vect with a Dias of Destruction is incredible, but very pricey. So points value of the game depends on whether you bring it. I do when it's a 2k game. Also haywire grenades ignore armor values altogether. So if he has a bunch of kitted out wyches or similar with them you can say good bye to any armor. For them taking out a Land Raider is just as easy as taking out a Rhino.

Regardless, if your opponent is playing it right they will be on your side of the board turn 1 and you will be playing defensively from that point forward. DE is an army that will either table you or completely crumble. One combo is using Baron with Hellions in order to pull your warlord out of a unit that might be protecting him. Incubi are a great close combat that I often use as HQ hunters.

Reavers are nasty. They cause D3 S4 hits in the movement phase. Skilled Rider gives them a 3+ save.

I don't run a beast pack; but watch for it. Great close combat options.

DE are meant to be played very fast. They don't typically walk across a board and their transports are generally known only to last the first round or two. A good DE player doesn't try to protect them beyond getting the units to where they are needed. Things DE hate: not going first. Things they love: night fight first round especially when they don't go first. The last game I played was against a SM army with IG allies that was heavy on the vehicles. The fighting was completely on his side of the board and his units never made it out of their DZ. Point is a good DE player will control the flow of the game and location of the fights.

Notes about deployment: because a DE army can essentially do a full redeploy in their first movement phase, due to distances their units can move, be prepared to be hit from anywhere. A DE player will either deploy aggressively (if they won the initial roll) or deploy as out of sight as they can (if they didn't). Try to deny them any out of sight deployment.

 CalgarsPimpHand wrote:
Don't blob your guardsmen. Yes their overwatch would be deadlier, and DE hate overwatch, but the worst thing for a Dark Eldar player (in my experience) is to face multiple mutually supporting infantry units in a defensive block. As long as they don't have any flyers with missiles/bombs (large blasts), you should keep your squads close together - the first line of units will die easily in melee and the next few squads will shred their Wyches with shooting. Also be sure to bubble-wrap your tanks with infantry, because their haywire bombs will make short work of any armor if they get a chance to assault.

assuming that DE are going to be coming at you in close combat might be a bad idea. If you unblob your squads and the DE are mainly shooting then you are just giving them a lot more pain tokens to play with.