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So, I'm pondering a new army, I was thinking of a Imperium of Man army but I kind of like Xenos more then Imperium of Man... So I looked at the Xenos and i'm thinking Eldar, Or Dark Eldar.. But I realy dont like the sail boat look of Raiders and Ravagers.. The rest of the Dark Eldar range has grown on me, I dont disslike it as much as I used to.. So I was curious, Is it possible to play Dark Eldar well without Raiders or Ravagers? If not, Would they look better without the silly sails..? I'm trying to look into Dark Eldar more as we have a Eldar player, But our Dark Eldar player has moved away..

You can play Dark Eldar with a load of venoms and reavers.

For the bi-curious, try Dark Eldar with Eldar allies

I did manage to find a image of a half build Raider and a half built Ravager, Bo guns and no sails. And they did look much better without the sails. I think the saisl just look realy silly because, The vehicle has engines, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.. So I think I can use a few of them atleast.

I'm thinking of going for Dark Eldar since we dpnt have anyone who currently plays them ^_^

Merellin wrote:
, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.

the fluff reason for the sails is that they harness energy flowing out of the webway portal that the raider came from.

ThrashPower wrote:

Merellin wrote:
, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.

the fluff reason for the sails is that they harness energy flowing out of the webway portal that the raider came from.

And not the hot air venting from Matt Ward?

I guess if you want a lack of sails, you could argue that they are a deep striking / orbital raiding party? Perhaps even using Eldar and Wave Serpents as the vehicles?

But as ThrashPower said, the original reason was as he stated with webway portal energy to boost their speed towards their prey

*nods* Well, I guess that makes it a bit better.. I still think they look incredibly silly with the tiny sails.. XD And they seem to be so prone to snapping..

Anyways, The Dark Eldar models (Exept for the boat sails) are slowly growing on me, And we dont have anyone playing them so I'm considering starting them. How are they? In the power levels? Are they capable of winning a battle now and again, Or are they considerd to be Tyranid bad? (Or 5'th edition Tau bad)

Also, Are they fun to play against?

I'm part of two WH40K groups, both have a dark eldar player.

Its a thinking mans army. If I just deploy and kinda move up their superior movement and firepower will wreck me and it'll be totally one sided if my opponent thinks straight.

On the other hand, if you are familiar with the army and what each unit can do they aren't too hard to beat with some strategic firepower. They are like glass anyway, very fragile units.

They're cool enough

 Wulfmar wrote:

ThrashPower wrote:

Merellin wrote:
, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.

the fluff reason for the sails is that they harness energy flowing out of the webway portal that the raider came from.

And not the hot air venting from Matt Ward?

It's a Phil Kelly codex...

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 Wulfmar wrote:

ThrashPower wrote:

Merellin wrote:
, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.

the fluff reason for the sails is that they harness energy flowing out of the webway portal that the raider came from.

And not the hot air venting from Matt Ward?

It's a Phil Kelly codex...

Indeed it is, but he can't provide the wind required to propel such a craft - utilizing Ward on the other hand...

I'm sure Kelly wrote it down in the codex somewhere

DE's number one ability is mobility.

You can get away with not having Raiders by going MSU and having a large number of venoms. Trueborn can replace Ravagers, although Ravagers are more economical with the points.

So, yes, you can be viable but you are limiting yourself to smaller units if you want to keep the speed up. Also certain units like Grots basically require a Raider if you want to preserve their mobility.

A DE army should be pretty competitive in the newer missions due to their ability to essentially to reach out to any part of the board. As a DE player the only old mission I've had a tough time with is Relic - namely because it focuses both sides on a single point on the board.

So, my advice: focus on Venoms and Reavers.

I don't know about lately, but I remember at one time MSU venom spam was the hotness. Also, abbreviating grotesques as grots gave me a serious wtf moment as I tried to figure out what possible benefit you could get from loading a raider with gretchin.

I have heard lists jampacked with wracks and warp beast backs are alright (since they are both quite tough and have lots of pain tokens) maybe Grotesques, then have warriors in cover with dark lances a plenty!
Venoms carrying whatever could be good too, but if you don't want to paint tanks, give the above a try.

I always thought the sails were just decorative banners.


Things for the DE to write ''I love cutting off peoples faces and wearing them.'' and ''Go **** yourself, Slaanesh'' and other things like that on.

I kind of get the impression the Dark Eldar are similar to their fantasy kin - having nets on the wyches, transports like ships and so on.

Gives a nautical theme

 Wulfmar wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 Wulfmar wrote:

ThrashPower wrote:

Merellin wrote:
, And the sails are so tiny they wouldent be of any use for anything.

the fluff reason for the sails is that they harness energy flowing out of the webway portal that the raider came from.

And not the hot air venting from Matt Ward?

It's a Phil Kelly codex...

Indeed it is, but he can't provide the wind required to propel such a craft - utilizing Ward on the other hand...

I'm sure Kelly wrote it down in the codex somewhere

Really, you went with Ward Hate when Kelly has written several even more OP codex's then him?

Like Wulmar said you could use venoms.

Just don't put the sails on. Will make them 100 times easier to transport too.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:


Really, you went with Ward Hate when Kelly has written several even more OP codex's then him?

Really? This matters to you?


Priorities...

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Just don't put the sails on. Will make them 100 times easier to transport too.

So does magnetizing them. My raiders have magnetized sails, gunner and that center bar thingy the sail sits on. By far the easiest magnetizing job out there. I also don't glue the prows in as they fit snugly anyway.