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Just curious as far as the most powerful way to field Dark Eldar are. Currently I mainly run a Kabal, warriors, venoms, raiders, archon, trueborn etc etc. Looking on expanding my army into either a coven or a cult. I'm wondering if all three mono builds are viable? If one's better than the other? This is my fluff army, and daemons are my competitive army. I'm just curious what people's thoughts are regarding this. Thanks in advance!

I go back and forth on Coven and Kabals (or the mix).

Coven is a bit tougher (mostly being T4 vs T3 everywhere else) which means you won't lose a ton of units when your Raiders explode. My Coven list uses a spearhead tactic of getting into my opponent's face as soon as possible using a raider (with aethersails) filled with 3-4 Grots and Urien. While my enemy gets caught up trying to take that out, I move my talos and wracks into position. The Coven list lacks a lot of anti-tank/range if you go true coven; however, some people classify Scourge as Coven so /shrug. They also don't really have any anti-flyer unless you bring a Razorwing or a fortification with a quadgun.

My Kabal list is a bit different. Archon or two. 2 Trueborn units in Venoms for anti-armor. I bring raiders with Dizzies instead of lances and leave them empty - they are there to provide cover for my warriors. I used to run the Raiders with splinter racks and fill them with warriors; however, too often my opponent would explode them and kill the majority of the troops within from just the explosion. I've got more mileage out of them by putting them in front of the warriors as a form of terrain and cover. I also tend to take a fortification (either ADL or Bunker) with a Quad Gun. Archon + Quad Gun makes your opponent squirm. Heavy Support I run with a mix of Raiders and Razorwings depending on how I'm feeling.

To me, Wych Cults is not very good right now due to their heavy reliance on close combat. They need a transport to get into combat and with T3, an exploding vehicle can make short work on the units inside. Because of this, multiple venoms is probably better than a raider. Hellions are decent but Reavers are REALLY good in my opinion in tihs type of theme list. There isn't really a cult themed heavy support option either though.

Thanks for the well thought out post. In your opinion, which makes the most competitive build? I'm leaning towards Kabals!

Dalymiddleboro wrote:
Thanks for the well thought out post. In your opinion, which makes the most competitive build? I'm leaning towards Kabals!

Sticking to just 1 - I would have to side with the Kabal since they have more options for heavy support units with range. If you consider Ravagers and the Flyers as "neutral" and are used by all 3 fluffy factions, then I would say Coven.

This is of course presuming 100% faction and no mix and matching the different units.

Kabals tend to make the most competitve build, of course saying that is just saying that and actually means nothing.

recently a player who won best Dark Eldar General at the throne of skulls using, its worth noting they won this title in both May and Novemeber with the same list:

Cabal/ cult mix is the best imo. Haywire, darklight, poison on fast units can hold its own fairly well.

i prefer coven for fun, but there are lots of viable builds as long as you pick your units and use them correctly there is no reason why you cannot use covem cult and kabalite.

I'd say kabal if you're only going for one, with no overlap.

If you're allowing one to be dominant with a little bit of support, I'd say kabal with cult support.

My army is a mix of all three only because the models are just so fun throughout the entire range.

However, I'll agree if only going single style Kabal is probably the strongest as that is where you can get the most long range firepower and can play the short range shooty game that 6th edition is geared for. Both Cult and coven require you to get right into their face and into HTH and if they decide to play the ranged shooty game, it can be difficult.