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Hey guys,
my FLGS has some 500 points games going on in the near future and I´m looking forward to become the one and only DE player in my club. I want to aim for a more or less strong 500 points army with the possibilitie to raise the point limit but not focussing on making it my new main army. I´d like to create a more or less solid shopping guide instead of getting whatever looks neat on a random base... I´ve bought the codex today and started browsing through stuff in addition to some beginning research online and came to the conclusion that there are more or less 2 viable HQs: Archons and Haemonculi. Those would pair up with a mix of wyches & kabalite warriors. Is the battleforce + hq a viable start or would you suggest to get the "good stuff" seperatly?
I want to have force that hits swift and deadly!

ok, a few things:

At 500 points you are pretty close on HQs. Baron, and Duke are both great, but are more useful once you start getting higher in point value. Haem are usually the best due to wargear and the pain token, but archons are combat monsters if equipped.

Melee dark eldar took a pretty hard hit this edition. The CC choices went from Wyches and Incubi to Grotesques and beast packs. Wyches have devolved into an anti-tank only unit due to their inability to reach melee or do much in it. Incubi are just expensive now that their transports have hull points and are prone to overwatch casualties (even 1 down is a pretty big loss).

The units you will want for 500 points:

archon with venom blade and ghostplate
2 Venoms
2 5 man wych squads with haywire
Raider with splinter racks and 9 warriors with blaster.

Pretty basic DE list that leaves a lot of room to expand.

Nice, that really helps.
Could you give me a short runthrough on how to use this list? I assume the HQ joins the warriors and then you´d hope for first turn and just push forward, right?
Sadly I´ve got a localized Codex and I don´t know why but they didn´t translate the unit names but made up some wierd new ones... I assume that Venoms (translated as something like "shadow vipers") are the small dedicated transports but what is the blaster that you equipped your warriors with? Is it the 5 or 15 points weapon upgrade? The german words are "shredder" and something like "shadow catapult" and i really can´t decide what would be the better "blaster"

The hard part is always balancing the anti-tank with the anti-infantry.

If I were doing 500 points of DE, I'd probably go with

Haemonculous - Naked (keep him cheap as possible. Your warlord is just a pain token really.)

3 trueborn with 2 splinter cannons.
4 trueborn with blasters with a Venom

2x 5 man warriors with a Venom. Give one a blaster.

This gives you an astonishing amount of long range splinter fire. You will need to rely on your maneuverability to keep at long range and kill a ton of models without them being able to return fire. This is 48, BS4 poison shots at 36 inch range.

Your blasterborn can be rushed in to kill a tank. But I'm not going to lie, if your opponent brings several vehicles, particularly ones with big guns, you're hosed. Its way to easy to kill the blasterborn, or at least blow up their ride. Then the guy's tank is virtually invulnerable. Its up to you to determine your meta, as to what other people will bring.

You can trade the blasterborn for a ravager if you want longer range lances, and that will leave you more points to play with elsewhere. Another option is to also drop the trueborn with the cannons and get some Reaver jetbikes. These guys will absolutely shred low tough/low armor troops, and can bring heatlances to help kill tanks. They are very survivable in low point games because you can almost always blade-vane troops and hide somewhere safe.

I'd take

Haemie, with 3 wracks, in a venom with SC ~145
5 Warriors in a venom with SC = 110
Ravager with Night Shield = 115

That leaves about 130 points left.

I'd add your choice of a Ravager or another Venom unit, then with any points left either add to the wrack squad, put night shields on some venoms, or maybe give the Haemie a Liquidfier.

I've run a similar list at 750 and was very successful. At 750 I was able to fit in a beast pack with baron, and dropped the haemie/wracks for another min unit of warriors.

The important thing is to keep your troops and HQ cheap so you can bring multiple flyers and exploit everyone's lack of AA. DE can't do this kind of list as well as IG since their flyers are kind of fragile, but you can bring two of them in a 500 point game and many people will simply not have any counter to it.

Id probably go something like-


1 Haemy barebones

3 Trueborn
-2 splinter cannons
-Venom, Splinter cannon

2x 5 warriors
-Venom, Splinter cannon

Ravager- Dark Lances

496pts total



Play to the mission, they cant hold objectives if the troops are dead. Get your warriors to objectives and hug cover while the venoms and trueborn do the work.


I think close combat units aren't worth it at this pts level, you cant spend enough pts on them to give them enough damage potential.
5wych squads with haywires are a waste because even though they will likely kill a vehicle they will die in return, you cant afford to lose your troops.

Blasters are 15 points on warrior squads.

If the wyches get in contact with any vehicle, its almost assuredly dead. Normally armies wont have more than 2 vehicles in 500 points. Also the wyches can throw a haywire grenade in the shooting phase to strip another HP. Wyches are largely suicide squads, but draw the enemy's fire. Just Go to ground with them if they get shot, make them waste the shooting on them. Even 2 wyches can be a serious threat to a vehicle.

Archon is there for when the raider is destroyed. He can take some of the wounds for the squad and go hunting smaller squads. You can also disembark the Archon to deal with smaller squads that may threaten other units. You can even throw haywire grenades on him if you have 5 points.

I find Ravagers unreliable. only 2/3 chance of getting a single pen, then possible cover, and then needing 5 to kill means you could be spending many turns destroying a vehicle. 500 points often sees more horde too, which ravagers do nothing against.

I find Haems dont have enough to support in 500 points. You really need them in a 10 man+ unit to get good use of that FNP they give. And in 500 points you need to make the best use of all the points in your army. Archons are I7, WS7, 4A. Thats pretty effective for the 75 point body i gave him.

Fliers are nearly useless in 500 points unless they have hover or vector dancer (DE fliers STILL dont have that). Not only do you risk being tabled, but a 500 point army has a tiny footprint and can avoid you in consecutive turns if you didnt move perfect. Also, its not like AV10 fliers require heavy AT weapons like IG ones do.

Thats the problem with using Wyches in low point games though. They are your troops. You can't have your troops as suicide units.

The archon is expensive and is just going to die horribly the moment your opponent can shoot at him. The hammy is also largely useless, but at least he's cheap useless rather than expensive useless.

I agree ravagers are unreliable, but at least you aren't feeding you opponent an easily murdered squad like wyches.

Wyches are no less survivable than Warriors. They also actually have the potential to do something. 5 warriors rapid firing kills 1 marine. 1/2 if not in rapid fire. That isnt meaningful when you consider it would take the whole game to kill a single 5 man tac squad when in rapid fire.

500 point games are often determined on tabling, especially with DE. You also have 3 troop choices here. Also, why would they target the wyches when they can shoot a venom. Most players dont value the wyches as a real threat anymore, allowing you to survive past the turn they destroy a vehicle.

Base Haem is 25 point less than the kitted out archon. Archon can survive a tactical squad rapid fire, especially if able to LOS a wound or two away. Then assault, kill the Sergent in a challenge, then chip the squad down and eventually kill it. Haem... does nothing. Hell, the archon even has a S4 AP4 blast plasma grenade he can throw.

I would plan on my 1500 or 1850 list - whatever is most common in your area - and then just field the parts you want to meet 500 pts..

Personnally, I like kalabites in a raider with splinter racks and night shield for my core troop choice.

Wyches - in 6th - are almost suicide units but give you the excuse to field the excellent venom.

My core is kalabites in raiders.
Wyches or blasterborne in venoms.
Elite + Hq in raider or venom.
2 or 3 units of reavers with caltrops and heat lance.
1 or 2 ravagers
1 or 2 razorwings.

Then just field what you want to make 500 points... I could recommend - if your end list is going to be raider heavy- just go 3 raiders with 5 warriors with blasters and then whatever you can for an HQ at 500.... That is going to provide you with 6 S8 AP2 shots and some incidental poison casualties. As you expand, the 3 with blasters turn into trueborne and get a venom for a ride.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you want to be mean, add allied Eldar... 1 Farseer with Doom on a bike and 3 jetbikes to escort him... Doom is a real pain with all of your poison weapons.

Give a think about reaver jetbikes. I am not sure how they would fare in 500 points, but they are some of the most resilent troops that DE have. (T4 and 3+ cover when you boost) They can get their blasters in range pretty much anywhere and the bladevane attack can be insane. Also you can move 2d6 with them AFTER you shoot. (This is amazing!)

Unfortunately, Reavers arent troops. They are FA. If they were troops they would be amazing.

Most of the problem with them is that they are marine stat line even if they turbo boost. T4 3+ save. Also, they must turbo in a strait like to use bladevanes, so a smart enemy can sit on the back line. If they dont turbo, they are only 4+ saves and their firepower is mediocre. Good in larger games as a distraction, but kind of expensive in 500. They could certainly work, and you could even build a list around them for target saturation, but they are also expensive to buy in quantity. They are one of the many usable combinations DE have at 500 points. I think DE have the most 500 point viable lists of any codex.

Oh its troops only? Guess I missed that part! Sorry!

Believe zephoid meant that they're a bit expensive for 500 pts, after paying for the reavers to be at a reasonable size and reasonably upgraded, then paying for the troops, tommse wouldn't have any points to spend. Reavers are great, but you really need a list to work with them rather than just throwing in a load of reavers and calling it a job well done, high five all around and champagnes, etc.

@tommse

If you have a good idea on what DE you want to run, then DAaddict's suggestion is obviously the most cost efficient. I started DE as my 1st army, having no idea how DE or WH40k is played, I now have a pile of models I just never use...

Though, if you haven't any idea, then battleforce is indeed a good place to start, warriors and wyches are the backbone of the army, and if you have no interest in running kabbies as troops, they can be played as trueborn -a very popular elite choice-, as well. The raider is... well, it's a good transport, but some might say it isn't as good as venom, it's necessary if you want to bring a large unit(obviously), but DE can function decently without any large unit, so... I hope that explains it well. And the reavers, great unit, as mentioned, but 3 just aren't enough to be played well, though if you want to use those EJBs in the future, they certainly aren't going into the useless model pile.

But to offer some alternatives, if you want to go pure kabal, then the wyches and reavers would be unwanted models, and unless you plan to go gunboat as well, that raider is also wasted money... Then you've paid for the battleforce for only the kabbies... Not cost-efficient at all... It might be cheaper to just buy a box of kabbies and 2 boxes of venoms, and you'd have your troops sorted for cheaper!

What I'm saying is that the battleforce is a good deal if you want all the models in there, if not, it's... not..?

As for our HQs, well, archon and haemy are the obvious choices. At 500 pts, and if you consider future expansion and trying to save as much money as possible, then haemy is the best choice, he won't eat up a huge chunk of your points as an archon would, and he still has uses no matter how your list grows. Archon, on the other hand, is an expensive HQ, he's amazing for his price, but quite a point sink once you considered all his upgrades and the necessary retinue unit for him, my archon runs at 170pts! If you like an assault DE list however, succubus is plenty good at lower points, or even higher points game(if you have the spare HQ slot), she is still amazing in taking down MEQ or even MC, and she is 1 of our most point-efficient HQ!

Yeah, you had said they were one of the more resilient troops. I guess you were referring to infantry rather than the slot.

The nice thing about DE is that there are many different tourney lists for them. They are often variations on each other, but their are 4-5 maybe-take units that different tourney players will all swear by (grotesques, wracks, reavers, raider boats, ect). The core is often ravagers, venoms, and razorwings, but beyond that there is a lot of flexibility.