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Just coming back into 40k after years of being away. Last time I played, I played tau and it was 2002. I've decided on dark eldar. Im looking at doing a 1750 pt army to start. What do you think of this list. Im sure it will be horrible, but from my memory of the game and reading the new codex I think I came up with something that might work.

Archon 60 (attached to wyches)
Venom Blade 5
Shadow Field 30
Webway Portal 35
130

Archon 60 (attached to Incubi)
Webway Portal 35
Shadow Field 30
Soul Trap 30
Husk Blade 35
190

5 Incubi 110
Klaivex 15
Demiklaives 20
145

5 Wrack 50
Liquifier Gun 10
60

10 Warrior 90
Dark Lance 25
115


10 Warrior 90
Dark Lance 25
115

10 Warrior 90
Splinter Cannon 10
100


9 Wyches 90
6 Haywire Grenades 12
Hydra guantlet 10
112

5 Scourge 110
Splinter cannon 10
Splinter cannon 10
130


3 Reaver 66
Heat lance 12
78



Raider 60 (incubi)
Night sheilds 10
70

Raider 60 (wyches)
Night sheilds 10
70

Raider 60(warriors w/ dark lance)
Night shields 10
70


Ravager 105
Night shields 10
115

Ravager 105
Night shields 10
Enhanced aethersails 5
120


Talos Pain Engine 100
Additional close combat weapon 15
Twin-linked liquifer gun 5
120

total is 1750
Let me know what you think and if you have any questions or sugestions on how to use/better this set up. You can also tell me to scrap the whole thing and I wont be offended.

first I would drop the wwp off the archons as there isn't much that will benefit form it and you cannot charge the turn you come out of it (and maybe dropping one of them as well) . as for the wych squad they all have to have haywire grenades or none of them do. as for the incubi they are not my cup of tea considering that they don't have assault grenades so giving your archon a pgl would help them out immensely. also just as a personal thing can you remove the individual point costs and put the transport next to the unit they will be with it would help me read your list better.

~the count

as previously said, drop the webway and give the archon a phantasm to go with the incubi.

I would suggest swapping the night shields for enhanced aethersails on your assault based raiders you want them in the enemies face before you get shot down, as this gives you an extra 2d6 movement and you will be getting a cover save from moving anyway. have night shields on your shooty vehicles.

also I would mount the warriors with the splinter cannon in the raider instead of the ones with the lance, as you need to keep moving therefore your warrior will be firing his lance at BS1. splinter cannon is assault 4 heavy 6 so you have the option to snap shot 6 or fire 4 at full BS. if you can, get splinter wracks for that raider too.

personally I would drop the first archon and have a succubus go with the wyches instead,

succubus
venom blade
haywire grenades
75 pts

she fits in much better I think.

just my thoughts.

a few things I have learnt since playing dark elder have been:

Pain tokens, combat drugs, dark lances and movement are your best friends!

Try and get pain tokens wherever possible, whether from preying on units that have been whittled down, from combat drugs or from units that have altered physique (coven units)

try and get combat drugs on your characters wherever possible!

I hope I haven't waffled on too long

Ok, Thanks for the advice. Here is the new list taking in the advice and I do like the idea of this better. The only reason I had the webway portal was to call in the pain engine. Ill just have him move up with wracks now.

Archon (attached to Incubi)
Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Shadow Field
Soul Trap
Husk Blade
Combat Drugs
190

Succubus (attached to wyches)
venom blade
haywire grenades
75


6 Incubi
Klaivex
Demiklaives
167

Raider (incubi)
Night sheilds
enhanced aethersails
75


5 Wrack
Liquifier Gun


10 Kabalite Warriors
Dark Lance
115


10 Kabalite Warriors
Dark Lance
115

10 Kabalite Warrior
Splinter Cannon
100

Raider (warriors w/ splinter)
Night shields
Enhanced aethersails
75


9 Wyches
Haywire Grenades
Hydra guantlet
Hekatrix
Venom blade
133

Raider (wyches)
Night sheilds
Enhanced aethersails
75

5 Scourge
Splinter cannon
Splinter cannon
130


3 Reaver
Heat lance
78


Ravager 105
Night shields 10
Enhanced aethersails 5
120

Ravager 105
Night shields 10
Enhanced aethersails 5
120


Talos Pain Engine 100
Additional close combat weapon 15
Twin-linked liquifer gun 5
120

total is 1748

Second list looks a lot better than the first. A webway portal works well for the talos setup you have, but it is expensive to bring a single unit in. However, dropping the TL liquifier and tl splinter cannon in with those incubi is nasty.

If you don't have a hamey to make wracks troops, don't run them on foot. They need a venom to do anything besides score. Since you have no venom or no scoring...they are just targets.

Aethersails are great for assault raiders, but not needed anywhere else. Drop from the ravagers, and kabbie raider. Get splinter racks on the kabbie raider for plenty of poison dakka. However, be warned if the raider explodes your probably going to lose 4-5 kabbies in the explosion(without a pain token).

Personally I dislike splinter cannons on scourges. Mobility is key, and having extra AT power is always good. Scourges in my mind are for hunting elite small targets, usually where low AP high S matters(blasters and heat lances). I know some people like the dual cannon load-out, and it is not terrible, but you may find you want/need more AT.

A talos is a great cheap distraction, with lots of good close range dakka and stuff. You generally want to run with it every turn, unless you are in charge/liquifier range. If you see 1-2 easy pick models left in range, use your splinter cannon and try to off them for a pain token. Once you have it, you can just go murder everything. The extra CCW is overpriced, and in your case pointless. Since the TL liquifier replaces the CCW, the extra CCW gives no bonus to attack. The only time you even consider the extra CCW is if you take chain flails, but then you generally have plenty of attacks to murder and destroy anything. Overall, the talos is really a great fire magnet/distraction, and splinter cannon opportunist. If it dies, it dies and so be it. If you get close, prepare to cause mayhem.

With DE, your army is fragile so you want extra/redundancy, and lots of bodies. Try to cut on super extra frills and just get models on the table. One cheap, and generally undervalued option for skimmers is the torment grenade launcher. It is never required, but cheap enough to be warrented on assault raiders and sometimes ravagers. Even Ld10 can sometimes fail the charge, giving your skimmers borrowed time, and up close, it helps your assault units win combat. Strategically placed, it can be used to reduce psyker leadership, generally to help combats. These are far from required, but a great place to spend extra points if you have them.

Thanks for going in-depth on your advice. Everything you said makes complete sense to me. If I do change to dark lances on the scourge should I cut back on one in my warriors?

The talos seems like it would draw the majority of the enemies attention until its dead, but like you said if I can get it to range it seems like it would cause mayhem.

My plan would be to have the talos and the assualt raiders try and terrain hop as quickly as possible down the table. I was thinking of getting rid of the wracks and adding incubi, or reavers. Not entirely sure yet. Probably reavers to harras and try to keep attention off the talos while its running down the table.

I'm not a fan of warriors or any DE on foot except beast packs. You need at least venoms for transports, if not raiders. Also reaver jetbikes are good but you will want a squad size of at least 6 otherwise they won't be massively effective. I'm a big fan of the talos however 1 at 1750 won't last long. I run 3 in 1500 . Overall your list is coming togeth. DE are about speed and maneuverability, you use these to apply a large amount of force against a specific target.

So I have made some final adjustments to the list. Time to finish buying and making them and then try it out. Here it is

HQ

Archon (attached to Incubi)
Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Shadow Field
Soul Trap
Husk Blade
Combat Drugs
190

Succubus (attached to wyches)
venom blade
haywire grenades
75

ELITES

6 Incubi
Klaivex
Demiklaives
167

Raider (incubi)
Flickerfield
Enhanced aethersails
Shock Prow
80

TROOPS

10 Kabalite Warriors
Dark Lance
115

Raider( Kabalite Warriors)
Enhanced aethersails
Splinter Racks
75

10 Kabalite Warrior
Splinter Cannon
100

Raider (warriors w/ splinter)
Enhanced aethersails
Splinter Racks
75

9 Wyches
Haywire Grenades
Hydra guantlets
Hekatrix
Venom Blade
133

Raider (wyches)
flickerfield
Enhanced aethersails
75

FAST ATTACK

5 Scourge
Splinter cannon
Heat lance
132

3 Reaver
Heat lance
Custer caltrops
98

3 Reavers
Heat lance
Cluster caltrops
98

HEAVY

Ravager 105
Night shields
115

Ravager
Night shields
115

Talos Pain Engine
Twin-linked liquifer gun
105

TOTAL=1748


I kept the flickerfields on the two raiders that are have my hq to try and give them even a slightly better chance.