Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The Dark Kin always looked good to me, I know they arent a real match for a strong Tau/Eldar list but since I dont have any friends that play Tau or eldar I dont mind too much.

the idea is to move fast into close combat (flat out with raiders and running with Beasts) on first turn while the rest of the army stays 36" away and shoots. Then second turn is closing the deal time. anything that is still alive charges in and captures slaves for the Coven.


310 1x Haemonculi / 1x Liquifier / Venom Blade
4x Grotesque / 1x Liquifier / 1x Aberation / Scissor Hand
- Raider / Flickerfields / Dark Lance

180 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance
180 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance

125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon
125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon

100 1x Aegis Defense Line / Quad-Gun
140 5x Scourges / 2x Dark Lances

216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster
216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster

115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
115 1x Ravager / Night Shields

175 1x VoidRaven Bomber / Flickerfields / 2x MonoScythe Missiles

1997 Total

what do you think?

seems very dark eldar-like.
lots of maneuverability
good amount of troops and bodies (20 wracks, 30 Khymera with 6 Beastmaster, 10 warriors, 5 Scourges and 4 Grotesque with Haemy) total 76 Bodies
Fairly saturated in vehicules too (2 Ravager, 3 Raider, 2 Venoms and 1 VoidBomber)... 8 Vehicules...not bad.
lots of anti tank shooting (11 Darklances, 2 Blaster, 2 Voidlances and a quadgun)
Good anti infantry (6 liquifiers, the monoscythe missiles, the 4x Splinter Cannons from venoms and the strong and fast close combat fighters I have in this list).

All sorts of the funky stuff only dark eldar have access to like night shields (on Ravagers only since they stay in the back) and flicker fields (on most important Raider carrying Warlord and the important Voidbomber), lots of Darklight and Liquifiers, Scissorhand on Aberation and a VoidBomb.

And im really happy I could fit some scourges in there since they look great.
I really needed a bit more anti air in this list and really the only option was an ADL, and a cheap team of scourges is a good way to man the gun as it also adds 2 more Darklances.
I think this could be worthwhile as a cheap Aegis defense line that I could leave in the back and hopefully the opponent will be too distracted by the rest of the stuff coming at him quick that he can leave them to do their thing for a bit longer (hopefully taking out a flyer or two and a few tanks)

MIght want to check out the entry for the beastmasters again. You need to take a certain amount of masters to unlock beasts. So you might need either smaller squads or find more points because your setup right now doesnt work out with math.

Otherwise looks pretty fun. FOr the scourges I would look at some of their other options then dark lances. Maybe haywire. Lances are heavy so they cant use their speed.

oops, thats a typo, I meant to take out the clawed fiend and leave the Beastmaster(made this list from another list)

I fixed it on OP

the Scourges are a platform for cheap Lances, they are meant to stay with ADL until the quad gun dies. so arent meant to use their movement unless really needed.
Choosing lances instead of other weapons as they are cheap on scourges and have good range, particularly usefull being as they are meant to stay in the back.

Looks okay - although the warriors on the venoms i would drop the blaster from, this turns them into a suicide unit in which they will just die horribly.

I prefer wracks in the venoms and warriors in the raiders. but that is just my preferance. But i dont feel you have enought weight of fire in the army ( you have a resaonable amoutn of AT though)

Also what i would try and do is get a succubus to go with the Heamculi and the grots. The grots win the combat and then you can use her initiative of 8 to almost guarentee that the opponent will be charged down.

For anti infantry im kinda depending a bit on my close combat dudes to deal with what left over from the liquifiers, missiles and splinter shots that I do have.

I do like the idea of a succubus to help catch up to broken troops but I dont like the idea of making that raider even more of a point sink, its already almost twice the points compared to the other wrack filled raiders. I dont know if I want to add another 100ish points or where I could get the points for it.

the wrack in the Venom is a decent idea but i guess I want Kabalite warriors too in this list and it help to have a bit more AT and even a bit of anti infantry. And 5 warriors is still tougher than 3 wracks, I suppose I could shave 60 points by using min wracks in the Venoms tho, this would get close to the price for the Succubus.

I also like the succubus idea. Even if they are fearless or soon to be fearless, Ld8 is a huge weakness. If the raider pops and they get pinned, lose a combat, etc. Until you hit fearless your running a risk of your expensive unit being hindered or breaking, which is not ok. The succubus also serves as a second IC to help prevent bezerk. A succubus with a venom blade is cheap and will add a lot more punch to a squad that works by heavy dice throwing.

Speaking of leadership, I assume your taking the acothyst for the wracks with this in mind. I would strongly suggest taking a venom blade on him for challenges, although the 4+ is ok if you really just want the Ld and challenge chump. It all depends.

On my assault raiders, I like aethersails. That extra little bit of movement really helps set up for a nice T2 charge. They have saved my bacon in hammer and anvil, if the raider wrecks, or your opponent runs. None of these are mutually exclusive, all the more reason to take the sails.

Having a blaster on the kabbies in the venom is handy, as DE are fragile and there is no such thing as too much darklight. The blaster is a secondary role, however. Venoms are excellent at kiting/flanking, which is why I always take mine with night shields. They can skirt your opponents ranges, picking off key targets and maneuvering towards objectives or what have you. If you need to get close for an emergency, it is nice to have the blaster. Good to pick off heavy armor lurking in corners. If you fail, the tank has to divert fire to the venom, drawing fire away from the rest of your list. That said, rifles are fine, and you could equally go with 5 haywitches, or 5 wracks and a liquifier gun. These all cost the same amount of points, so weigh your options and pick your favorite.

I seemed skeptical about your scourges behind the ADL, even more so about dark lances. Then I ran the numbers. A squad of trueborn kitted out the same(3 shardcarbines, 2 dark lances, plasma grenades) costs only 10 points less, but have a worse save and are not as mobile. They do have better leadership though, and behind an ADL your using the wall more often than not. You could also get away with 3 trueborn, 2 with lances and get the job done. Dark eldar are really fragile as is, and 3-5 models makes little difference in this case. It comes down to having the mobility option if the gun is lost, and the shardcarbines/armor. Also, as far as anti air, a voidraven is pretty good against a single flier, and your list is fast enough to ignore most. By turn 2 you could easily be in combat and fliers mean little.

I will give you the point of looks. Scourges are fantastic models.

Your beastpack hits hard, but it is more mass wound throwing as the rest of your army. A couple of razorwings can give you the rending you need, cause even with weight of dice, sometimes your opponent just won't fail saves. It also helps against armor, as your puppies are powerless against rear Av11.

Voidravens are usually fine with just a flickerfield. If you want missiles, shatterfields are the way to go unless you REALLY want that Ap5. The re roll to wound usually compensates for that against weak enemies, and makes you more effective against things like armor, bikers, MC's, etc.

Another HQ to consider for your list is the baron. He is perfectly at home with a beastpack. He throws out more mid strength attacks, provides high(er) leadership, offensive and defensive grenades, a challenge chump, stealth and most importantly hit and run that can be re rolled. Now, stack on his +1 to go first which helps you get that alpha strike to set up that nice T2 where your list collies with the enemy like a mack truck. He is right up there with Inquisitor Coteaz for being criminally undercosted.

Nice list, have you tested it yet?? would like to know how it fairs

Thx Dr Serling, that was a great post.
Acothyst are indeed just challenge chumps and scourges mostly there to look cool and get some more AA with the ADL
I suppose I could scratch that option and get some points for a Succubus and the Baron (which I hadnt noticed the FAQ before changing his +1 to deployment choosing to +1 to choosing who goes first, making him way awesomesauce!)

hum...
list rewriting...

I would be tempted to take Haywire Blasters on the Scourge to be honest.

Aside from the Strength 4 hit they are fantastic against vehicles.

Plus they actually hit vehicles twice, the haywire effect is an extra effect if you hit a vehicle, you still get the S4 hit as well so if its armor 10 you can actually kill a vehicle with 1 of them nevermind 2.

And they are cheaper than a DL. Just slightly shorter range but as they are assault you can easily move up 12" in movement and still use it, you would have to snap shot with the DL.

but if the Scourges move forward to make up for shorter range on haywire blaster then they get closer to the guns of the ennemy which is putting them at higher risk and then they arent manning the Quadgun anymore (so its dropping to Bs2) and on top of that arent in the ADL so less protected too.
Also the dark lances are gonna be usefull against MC and heavy infantry whereas the haywire blaster kinda fails in this area.
yes they are a bit better against vehicules but the other drawbacks seem too high to me, especially since I have enough anti-vehicule in this list I think.

Im a bit of a Darklight junky so its gonna be hard to move me from the Darklances.

I actually have a 2 man Incubi squad with a Klavex on my ADL Gun as the Klavex is BS 5 despite the fact he cant even use a gun.

I actually use the Lascannon though rather than the Quad Gun.

here is a new version of this

105 1x Baron Sarthonyx
320 1x Haemonculi / 1x Liquifier / Venom Blade
4x Grotesque / 1x Liquifier / 1x Aberation / Scissor Hand
- Raider / Flickerfields / Dark Lance / Chain Snares / Enhanced Aethersails

190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance
190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance

160 10x Mandrakes / Nightfiend

125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon
125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon

216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster
216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster

115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
155 1x VoidRaven Bomber / Flickerfields /

1997 Total




Now the interesting part of this is that took out the ADL and Scourges and I added Mandrakes and I believe it can make the list a bit better.
I am resting on the Voidbomber for my AA.
I got The Baron now so a healthy +1 to who goes first (so important for Dark Eldars).
He's in the raider with the Haemie and the Grotesques and actually leads the Grotesques very well allowing them not to beserk and giving them a much needed cover save bonus.
This allows the Haemonculie to leave the Raider once it taxied him to the Infiltrating Mandrakes giving them their shot and feel no pain with his pain token.
I love the Mandrakes models even more than the Scourges, I believe this is a list that can take advantage of all of their abilities including scouts
This gives the list more close combat than before but keeps some of the shooting and evilness.
I think this is truer to the spirit of the list since the ADL isnt really a Dark Eldar raiding thing, its the only thing staying behind, everything else in the army is moving forward fast.

You are one brave soul to be putting mandrakes in your list. I have NEVER heard anybody say mandrakes make a list better...

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the baron can't ride with the grots. See p. 78 of the rulebook... jump infantry can't ride in transports. But having the baron in a beastpack is perfectly fine as well.

If you have to use the drakes, I suppose a forward infiltrate position may be of use for that turn 2 charge. However, mandrakes die VERY easily to bolter fire and don't put out that much damage in assault.

Overall I agree that dropping the ADL for a more in your face stragety is good, but I question using mandrakes when you could have another wrack squad, etc.

You need a haemo with the mandrakes otherwise they are useless.

Damn It!!!
Mandrakes are just like Nid Lictors, look awesome, great fluff, made stupidly so no one ever wants to use them.

So this list idea could still stand since I could just lose the Baron for an Archon, another Heamy or a Succubus. Really dont want to lose the +1 to start but I want to see how good this list could be.

Mandrakes can survive bolter fire well enough if they stand in ruins allowing them a 3+coversave and getting a haemy in the team would give them feel no pain on top so very decently tough, I believe that they need to wait for the right moment so even going to ground could be needed, once the rest of the army hit the enemy front line he should be too distracted to worry about the mandrakes sneaking up on the side.

So I got 105 pts thats not really enough for a good Archon (Soultrap, Huskblade and Shadowfield adds up to 135pts)

so what do you guys think I should get with these 105 pts?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
hows this?

440 1x Haemonculi / 1x Liquifier / Venom Blade
1x Archon / Huskblade / Shadow Field / Combat Drugs / Soultrap
4x Grotesque / 1x Liquifier / 1x Aberation / Venom Blade
- Raider / Dark Lance / Enhanced Aethersails

190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider / Dark Lance
190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider / Dark Lance

160 10x Mandrakes / Nightfiend

125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon
125 5x Warriors / Blaster
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon

216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster
204 14x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster

115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
155 1x VoidRaven Bomber / Flickerfields

total 2000pts exactly

Took out the Missiles on the VoidBomber, 1 Kymera and the chain snares on the main Raider to make up points for the supped-up Archon.
the Archon leads Grotesques, giving them full 10 ld and good Ini to catch up to broken foes, I like the idea of a retinue of huge Grotesque protecting the prestigious Archon.
Haemy gets taxied to infiltrating Mandrakes, who are sitting around close to the enemy in ruins hopefully.

To shoot the Mandrakes Baleblast you need a pain token so a Haemo is a must. Problem is he cant infiltrate with them so you either have to stick them all in a transport to get them where you want them or footslog it.

You could of course stick an extra Haemo in another unit and fly up and drop him off with them but its a pain in the ass.

Take the Lances off the Raiders, Dissies are much better.

the Haemonculi in the Raider is gonna be taxied close to the mandrakes so he can join the mandrakes who will have infiltrated.

here is another version of this list

105 1x Baron Sarthonyx

290 1x Haemonculi / 1x Liquifier / Venom Blade
4x Grotesque / 1x Liquifier / 1x Aberation / Venom Blade
- Raider / Dark Lance

190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance
190 10x Wrack / 2x Liquifiers / 1x Acothyst
- Raider /Dark Lance

105 3x Wracks
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon / Night Shields
105 3x Wracks
- Venom / Double Splinter Cannon / Night Shields

198 3x Clawed Fiends / 2x Razorwing flock / 4x beastmaster
216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster
216 15x Khymera / 3x Beastmaster

115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
115 1x Ravager / Night Shields
155 1x VoidRaven Bomber / Flickerfields

2000 Total

Im adding the Baron to the equation and giving him a team of big boys Clawed fiends and Razowings, he gives them a cover save and grenades and they take alot of punishment, especially if I can get all the Beastmasters dead first. This would make the clawed fiends have majority toughness and let the Baron and Flocks have T5, making them much less afraid of str6+ shots, only Str10 hits would insta-kill them.

this list is more optimized I think.
more fast beast units,
Venoms should survive more now since they have night shields and no reason to get closer than 36" away from enemies, they should drop off the wrack on an objectif.

what do you guys think?

i still think that if you have warriors on the venoms you shouldn't give them a blaster- it means you have to get to close to use them and most likely the squad dies next turn.

the beasts look good and the list looks more focused though

edit - just saw you took the warriors out !!

Looks a lot stronger the list does now