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.

To start, I've had poor luck with my pretty pretty DE vs drop pod lists in the past, and am hoping to change that. Either this week or next I'll be playing against a buddy's Salamander list off the new 'dex, and I expect he'll use 3-4 drop pods with Vulkan and a tfc.
Wondering, will this work? Or, heck, will this even stand a chance?

HQ -
2x Haemonculus, Power Weapon, LG, one has Casket of Flensing - 70/80pts

Troops -
2x 9 wracks, LG, Raider w/DL - 160 (DL vs Dissies?)
4x 5 wyches, hwg, Venom w/2 SC, NS - 135

Fast -
6 Reaver Jetbikes, 2 blaster, grav-talon - 172 (Grav-talon vs Arena Champion)

Heavy -
3x Ravager, 3 DL - 105 (Vs 2x Ravager, 1x Talos w/TL-LG?)

1497pts

Reavers in reserve, use 'em to try drop/pin targets of opportunity. Sternguard or Command Squad, most likely. Then get into position to take out any armour he's got backfield, or a thunder fire cannon.
Wracks for point defence, tie up some of his marines after using LGs for a while.
Wyches for feeding MSU 4++ to Vulkan, maybe dropping nearby vehicles/pods if necessary; hope to tie him up all game long!

For deployment, I'm feeling it'd be better to spread 'em out all over the place rather than castle, since I don't want to be locked in a corner and flamered to death.

Am I approaching this the right way?
Cheers for your time!

PS- Pete, if you read this, no helping Finch with his list please

Drop pod sallys are tough matchup for dark eldar. Going coven troop heavy is a good call, as they have a chance of surviving the torrent of flame that will otherwise roast your army.

Liquifier guns are a great weapon against the sallys, as their special flame resistant armor wont matter against liquifying acid. With a 50/50 shot to ignore their armor, you want to put as many of these on the table as possible. They drop pod nice and close, then you template the crap out of em.

As far as assault, I would not count on getting into combat unless you are charged. All of those flamers will stop any charges you plan on making. Wytches will never make it to Vulkan because AFAIK he still has a heavy flamer in his gauntlet. He is also going to have buddies unless you gun them down. Because of this, also toss your power weapons from the hameys for venom blades. Cheap and dirty way to force wounds if it comes to melee. Vulkan also has a 3++ so your power weapons bounce off. His trait adds +1 to combat resolution, meaning your liable to break and open to burning. Long story short, shoot them to death and kite your survivors away.

With twin linked flamers, meltas and multi meltas you need all the defensive tech you can get. Night shields to buffer melta range, and dakka bolters. Flickerfields for the flamers, assaults, thunderfire cannon. Get something on your ravagers.

A grav talon is pretty meh against marines, with Ld9 they are not liable to pin. Better to spend points on killing more of them than try and pin. If you want to inflict some serious wound, cluster caltrops are expensive but very lethal.

Keep lances on your ravagers, but dissies on the raiders as you are not expecting a lot of tanks. A talos is a good counter assault, but if he stays away from it then you lose a lot of effect. Massed melta/bolter/flamer fire from a pod unit can take it out pretty quick, but same with a ravager. Its up to you on that one.

Overall, its really going to be determined by who goes first. Both armies want the alpha strike, but if he starts nothing on the board 1st turn is a bit meh. If he does try and table 1st turn.

Makes sure you have ff on all your vehicles, a couple of raiders full of kabalites and toss haems and wracks with liquifers in the rest. I played a drop pod space wolves list last week and they stood no chance.

Thank you Dr. Serling & Shingen! I've written up a revised list, but am still worried.
1499
HQ - Haemonculus, plain as butter on toast.

Troops -
2x 10 Kabbies, SC, Raider with FF/NS/SR
10 Wracks, LG, Raider with FF/NS
2x 5 Wyches, Venom with NS

Elite -
3 Trueborn, 2x SC, Venom with SC
4 Incubi, Venom with SC (Haemy goes here)

Heavy -
Cronos, spirit vortex
Talos, TL-SC, TL-LG
Ravager with FF/NS

The idea is soak overwatch with the wracks or wyches, then toss the incubi in on his Vulcan squad. But it goes back to what you said, Dr. Serling, that I shouldn't count on getting into CC unless he wants to.
I'm thinking about swapping the Incubi boat to another Trueborn, the wych venoms to wracks with LG, and the wrack boat to another kabbie. The Cronos and Talos can stick around and play with the drops while the rest of my army boosts to his other end and poisons his artillery. Then his melta and flamer boys have to foot slog to be useful.
That list looks like this:
1497
HQ - Haemy

Troops - 3x 10 Kabbie, SC, Raider with NS/FF/SR, DL
2x 5 Wrack, LG, Venom with NS/SC

Elites - 2x 3 Trueborn, 2 SC, Venom with NS/SC (Haemy goes in one of these & they hide forever.

Heavy - Ravager, 3 DL, with NS/FF
Talos, TL-LG, TL-HL
Talos, TL-LG, TL-SC

Keeping one or two boats of kabalites in reserve lets me make sure I've got some firepower left after he melt drops. Worthwhile? Or too dangerous, should I just boost them with everyone else?

Regardless of list, I'm hoping to set up some multi-level buildings/ruins in my deployment zone, and starting a couple skimmers on top to keep them out of melt range. Yeah I've gotta roll for dangerous terrain, but I think worth it.
Is that super cheesy and not a cool move, or a legitimate risk-reward scenario?

Both lists look pretty good. 2 MC's is going to cause some issues, but watch out for melta spam. Granted, if they take the shots the transports wont...and with even a single wound they are deadly. I like the second list a bit more, a talos is just a bit better than a chronos even with the AP3 and pain token fun. If you play your cards right, you can get pain tokens fairly easily, just shoot your infantry weapons last, tank weapons first.

Second list should be solid, but a plain jane hamey is a waste. Drop the heat lance from the talos to give em a liquifier. A nasty little surprise for any sallys that get close to that venom. Remember, you can overwatch from your transports! Also, the talos is a fire magnet/dakka machine. You can drop troops by weight of dice, and if you need to take out armor just assault.

Going on top of ruins is OK, and you have your flickerfields to mitigate the impact of dangerous terrain. With night shields, melta guns should have a difficult time getting too close, particularly if your opponent does not factor them into the equasion.

Good thoughts, I agree with the 2nd talos being better than the cronos. If nothing else, I'll have trouble fitting a large blast due to his units dropping in so close to mine.
I'm leery of swapping out the heat lance for a LG on the haemy. Optimally, I'll be keeping that venom waaaaay away from combat anyway so hopefully they'll never need to have an LG. Also I'm feeling some serious lack of AT in this list, and that should shore it up a little. Plus the heat lance will drop an extra marine before I charge, maybe even instant death vulcan. It also helps guarantee vehicle kills by adding a hill point of damage before the charge. And that's something a SC can't do.
Plus I've never used a heat lance so gotta try it at least once.

I agree that the 2nd list feels a little better suited. I'm liking the wrack venoms, and the LGs therein.

I'm concerned as to how to deploy for this match. I've read batreps where a castle deployment has successfully countered drop pod lists, but I've also been thinking that scattering my army across my zone gives him too much to focus on and will hopefully lead to him stranding his troops.

And do you think I should start the haemy in cohesion with one of the warrior squads to give them FnP, as they're my main fire support? Or keep it for himself and the trueborn? Decisions, decisions.
What about my thought of leaving the taloi alone while I turbo-boost the rest of my army to his half of the table?

Thankee again for your time!