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Im wanting to start a DE army and wanted opinions on either starting off with their battleforce collection or would it be best to custom build it? Im brand new to 40k so i have lots of Qs. Originally i started out gathering chaos units but further looking into 40k DE really gets my attention. Also , which scenario and or missions involving DE would be best for me to start with? Thanks in advance

The battlefore is fairly decent, but the reaver jetbikes are one of those units that some like, and some don't. I just started the army, and personally I bought everything I thought I'd use individually.

Are you looking to get into the competitive scene of 40k? If so then I would avoid the battleforce and grab msu of kabalites in venoms, then back those up with a trio of ravagers with dark lances and have it lead by the Baron in a beast pack. I can go deeper into the details of what I feel makes the best competitive deldar list if you would like.

If you are just looking to play casually and not get into the competitive scene then the battleforce is a great place to start

Howdy Sammy. I've begun working on my DE war host and I have been trying to get tactics down as best as possible, so hopefully my advice will be helpful.

The battleforce has all good core elements, there is certainly nothing in the box that is particularly bad. DE are a very mobile force, and as such all troops will need vehicles (raiders serve anti-tank roles while Venoms serve anti-infantry roles). Squads tend to be very small, usually to boost the number of vehicles you have (DE vehicles aren't very strong and so having an abundance helps).

As such, you will definitely want the warriors; you can break them into two squads of 5 for anti-tank roles using blasters (though you will need to pick up bits for a second blaster if you do that). The wyches are good in small units since they are typically employed with haywire grenades to suicide-bomb tanks.

If I understand their use correctly, the reavers tend to be good in high numbers; I am not sure of their abilities when you only have a few available. I think if you want a lot of reavers then the battleforce box is a good place to start. If you don't have any plans to use many reavers, then I'd just pick up the kits individually.

I'm no Tournament hack and smasher, but I play a lot of friendly and competitive games. The battleforce has units that see a lot of time on-table for me. It'll all depend on your personal play style, but I'd absolutely recommend it as a starting point.

For more concentrated Dark Eldar tips, tactics, advice, and everything else you'd want, check out the DARK CITY forums.

Thank you all for the input

Generally speaking, the way to think about battleforces is that you buy ~3 units for full price and then you get an extra one free. If you're not going to actually use one of the units in a battleforce, then you're usually not THAT much better off than just buying what you actually wanted in the first place.

 Ailaros wrote:
Generally speaking, the way to think about battleforces is that you buy ~3 units for full price and then you get an extra one free. If you're not going to actually use one of the units in a battleforce, then you're usually not THAT much better off than just buying what you actually wanted in the first place.

100% on point

I started with the battle force, I learned right then and there I needed another raider at least. But I found it as a nice little sampler to see which aspects of Dark Eldar I liked and which ones I didn't.

I also started with the battleforce. It gives you a nice variety of units.

The dark eldar battle force is very good!

The DE battleforce was the most fun I've ever had assembling and painting models. I'm iffy on Wyches, but I think I'm just not using them correctly.

[edit] also, you can easily make an Archon out of the leftover bits if you are crafty.

 melkorthetonedeaf wrote:
The DE battleforce was the most fun I've ever had assembling and painting models. I'm iffy on Wyches, but I think I'm just not using them correctly.

[edit] also, you can easily make an Archon out of the leftover bits if you are crafty.

Dont worry about being iffy on wyches, now days they are a fairly subpar unit. The only main use for then is taking them with haywire grenades for cheap AT and sticking them in a venom. The problem with that though is they need to fully expose the venom if you want to utilize that AT they have so you are better off leaving naked kabalites in venoms and let the more specialized units take care of the roles wyches fill (Ravagers cover AT, beastpacks cover CC beatstick, venoms cover anti-infantry)