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Hi Dakka,

I have a friend who is a new 40k player. He has chosen Dark Eldar as his army and he has played several games to learn the rules. However, he is strongly feeling that Dark Eldar are underpowered and armies containing good armor saves (MEQ) are just overpowered and impossible to beat. While I can kind of see how that happened (he has lost most of his games so far - most of his opponents happened to be MEQ armies), he is just not convinced that DE is not a viable army for winning, contributing to the fact that they are too fragile without high damage output.

I, along with several other veteran players have tried to explain to him that DE are naturally fragile and requires much skill and planning. Unfortunately none of can offer him too much constructive feedback since quotes such as "your troops are fragile" or "speed is your friend" doesn't actually doesn't help too much to a new player.

Is there a simple way to understand and be good with Dark Eldar for new players? Perhaps guides or videos? Also, how should I go about explaining to him that Marines are not necessarily overpowered and DE underpowered?




Thanks,
Zaki

DE are a hard army to learn. Against power armor they have poison to force saves and darklight to punch through elite armor. Dark eldar laugh at terminators, land raiders and predators. That said, kabalite warriors die to bolter fire. Marines are not OP, but their codex is newer and stronger. Their army is very basic, balanced and for the most part forgiving. DE are a very finesse army, glass cannons and require a lot of skill to pull off.

The main thing DE need is to mech up. On foot, MEQ can easily shred dark eldar. Eldar transports bring splinter cannons or darklight. If your friend is having problems with power armor but not tanks, consider adding some disentegrators to the front of the raiders and watch power armor shred.

Dark eldar need night shields on everything but fliers. The extra 6" buffer range stops marine rapid fire and some long range dakka. Autocannons, lascannons and missiles can still drop the skimmers, but the range still helps.

WIth DE, use speed to find and focus on specific threats. DE can't win by attrition, and in a straight up gunfight marines always win. Pick off one threat at a time with mass poison. Take out the mech and heavy stuff with lances.

Some units that are rarely a bad choice
Duke
Baron
Venoms
Raiders
Warriors
Wracks
Hameys
Archon
Trueborn with blasters
Warriors
Ravagers
Reavers
Razorwing/voidraven
Beastpacks

Avoid
The decipatator
Mandrakes
Chronos

Everything else falls in between. Can be used, but must be used carefully and correctly(i.e. not for new players)

What points level does your friend play at? What does his list roughly look like? That info would help.

Well. DE are a delicate army. I would direct him to my blog, and youtube channel. SkaredCast

Shameless plug aside. What does he own model wise? What armies has he played?

DE are somewhat below the curve powerwise.

Best way to play them is balls-out aggressive, and with good target priority. They have to deliver a crippling strike first, as they have absolutely NO durability as a whole.

They are not very forgiving, and can expect just about anything to ignore their armour or pen and kill their vehicles.

The best army list for Dark Eldar right now is probably an allied contingent with grisly trophies to support a seerstar.

The best advice for a primary contingent is "good luck." 6th edition was not kind to that codex.

Here is his approximate army list:


Kabalite Warriors X 2
- Splinter Cannon
- Shredder
- Blast Pistol on Sybarite

Wyches X 2
- Hydra Gaunlets
- Razorflails
- Agonizer + Blast Pistol on Hekatrix

10-man Incubi X 1
- Klaivex
- He has been experimenting with Blood Stone, Onslaught and Murderous Assault

3 Reaver Jetbikes
- Heat Lance

1 Raider
- Dark Lance

1 Ravager
- 3 Dark Lances




As for HQ and other models, he has been proxing them and trying out various things. Here are the recent battles he fought:

Against CSM in The Scouring
Against Necrons in Crusade
Against CSM in The Relic
Against IG in The Relic

He need transports. Raiders with splinter racks and night shields for the warriors.

Venoms are great, he could put trueborn squads with 4 blasters in them or cheap scoring units.

Incubi are good, but 10 man units are overkill.

First things first are to drop the blast pistols. You really only take these if you have an HQ that comes with one(duke). They are never worth it on 1 wound models, ever.

From the list +HQ, it looks to be about 1000-1250 yes? 4 troops are not needed at that level, 3 will do. Wytches on foot are as good as dead, and are really pretty bad these days. In a raider/venom with haywire grenades required. Assault is doable, but not easy.

Kabbies can work on foot, but work better in raiders. Shredders are pretty bad due to short range and small blast. Your friend could join the squads into 1 large squad with 2 shuricannons and the duke. Lots of lethal poison dakka.

Incubi need a transport(no exception) they will murder marines, but only if they get close. Raider or venom, both work well. As said, 10 is way overkill. Klaivex is also usually overkill as well.

Way too many points on upgrades. Shredders are meh, unless run on a trueborn squad with 4 of them. More transports, couple of venoms... And another ravager is where I would start.

Dark Eldar are probably one of hardest armies in 40K to learn with, but they are by no means underpowered, and in fact will give many other armies nightmares (i'm looking at you Tyranids and spawn based chaos lists).

I'll happily take anybody on with DE, with the exception of Tau (my second army).

As mentioned above, the list is very weak, so it is little wonder that your mate is having issues, but thats to be expected when he is just starting.

He needs to play to the Dark Eldars advantages which are speed, fire power and aggression.

If your going pure Dark Eldar there are a number of builds that you can collect towards. I'd take a look at Venom Spam (the second best transport in the game)? Don't forget the Ravagers and haywire grenades for anti-tank; then fill out spare points with what you want (Reavers for me).

This army will be throwing out 120+ poison shots per turn, the key is to focus your whole army on single point of the opposition and kill it, then move to the next. Don't forget you have a 36" range which will be better than almost any other infantry in the game so make sure your using your extra range to your advantage.

You'll still lose games, but you'll win more and when you win you'll often smash them so bad that they will be crying like a little girl about how broken Dark Eldar are.

Don't forget, be aggresive, be quick, and be a bully (pick on one part of the opponent at a time).

If your buddy can stick with it he'll learn how to be a good 40k player, and have the benefit of playing what is in my opinon one of the most fun races in the game.

Skaredcast are great vids for how to be successful with Dark Eldar and they have helped me figure out some puzzles to my Dark Eldar.
everyone on here has given great advice, Mech Deldar are where it is at, venoms oppress even the hardiest of foes (like little hornets running around the field) ravagers are by far my favorite vehicles in the game for their nasty 3DLs or 3Dissies.
Duke Slsicus is currently my main man right now as I love his abilities and able to deepstrike the vehicles if wanted is very nice.
Dark Eldar can be one of the most lethal foes on the battle field but you must know what you are doing. you keep practicing and practicing with them and you will have an army you can treasure and have a blast playing.

Good advice in this thread.

To to emphasize what's already been said..

Tell him to get Venoms and Ravagers.

I think those are the two best units and easiest to use for a new player.

Also...

Consider getting an Eldar allies force.
-Farseer+shard+jetbike
-one or two Wavesperpants+SL with Dire Avengers

Then in your main DE list, add in a beast squad for some good Farseer+Beast squad goodness.

Here's some things to ask himself as he is playing. Feel free to cut and paste this into a doc and print it for him. Stick it in the codex or something:

1. Did I clump up? Use the TAC template from Gale Force 9 religiously to spread out, and make sure that you do not make this silly error. This is rule one of movement if the enemy has any kind of blast or template...which is most of them.

2. Did I Premeasure and put myself at maximum firing distance from the target? If not, beg your opponents forgiveness and do so now. Unlesss it's an assault unit, it needs to be in range of only it's target when it can be helped. that means knowing what each thing will fire at this round. Take the time to plan your target priority and be at or near maximum distance from it. Use common sense: if multiple units are hitting one target, make sure they dont take you out of range. Get as close as necessary to avoid that BUT...otherwise...max it.

3. Did I put Disintegrator Cannons on my Raiders/Ravagers and Dual cannons on venoms? This is so highly recommended (by me) that i can't even put words to it. If you want Lances, put em somewhere else that DOESN'T have the option of Disintegrator cannons. Not on your Raiders/Ravagers.

4. did you remember that the only kind of kill worth talking about is overkill? Waste entire units at a time, preferably the closest. Don't tap away at things. End them. Dark Eldar can most definitely do this and once a flank starts to crumble, close combat from that flank is not going to happen. So keep firing.

5. If someone can charge you next round and you're not 100% certain you can kill them all with shooting...back away or zoom past them. Giving up a round of shooting tio stay alive while your buddies do some work is okay. Sometimes the shot you dont take is worth 10 that you did. Don't sell your lives cheaply. Make the enemy work for it. The more time the enemy is out in the open, the less chance he survives for dinner tonight. Dont call it retreat. Call it retrogade action if it makes you feel better.

so in summary:

1. More boats
2. Even more boats
3. Drop/take certain upgrades
4. Don't run 10-man Incubi

 Zaki66 wrote:
so in summary:

1. More boats
2. Even more boats
3. Drop/take certain upgrades
4. Don't run 10-man Incubi

Pretty much, with regards to upgrades, the only thing I ever take is Nightshields on my Ravagers (Venoms get Flicker Fields for free).

Dark Eldar have plenty of upgrades that look cool, but the points add up quickly, and I'd rather take the extra shots that I can have adding in another Venom and dropping the toys from everything else.

Less upgrades. Hand to hand is kind of blah in this edition. I would skip wyches and simply keep a half squad of incubi in a Venom, and only that if he really likes the models.

Transports for everyone. I would go 50/50 on dark lances and disintegrators, and replace the shredders with blasters. Also adding in a Blasterborn squad would help. I like Splinterborn as well in a Venom. That's a lot of dakka and forced saves even on MEQ/TEQs.

The only time I would add any upgrades to a transport is the transport for the Duke and I field mine with a Warrior squad with 2 splinter cannon and a blaster(I think) in a Raider which is over costed but effective with Nightshield, Flickerfield and Splinter racks. Half the reason I do that is his ballin' pimp mobile and should be better than the normal guy's rides.