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Starting a Dark Eldar Army! I need some advice on a good core of 1000 points to build off of.

So far I Have 10 Kabalite Warriors (1 Blaster and 1 Splinter Cannon) and 5 Hellions (1 is a Baron Sathonyx Conversion).

Whats next?

Depends on where you want to go with it.

If you are after the 'best' units Venoms, Reavers and kab warriors/trueborn are good.

If you want a themed army, pick a theme.

My core DE are Coven, so Urien, Haemonculi, Pain engines, Wracks, Scourges and Grotesques are the main sections. Not the most competitive army in the universe, but i enjoy it.

Hey, good luck on starting a Dark Eldar army. They are very rewarding to play tactics wise and have amazing models, but i agree with you in that you need a good base to expand upon, i'll see if i can help you out there.

**1000pt Dark Eldar Battle-Forged Single Force Org**

-HQ-

Baron Sathonyx 105pts

-Troops-

5 Warriors w/ Blaster. 60pts

5 Warriors w/ Blaster. 60pts

Venom w/ Double Cannons. 65pts

Venom w/Double Cannons. 65pts

-Fast Attack-

4 Beast Masters, (48) 8 Khymerae (96) and 4 Razorwing (40) Flocks. 184pts

6 Reavers w/ 2 Cluster Caltrops. 172 pts

-Heavy Support-

Reaper. 135pts

Reaper. 135pts

This list combines everything that is good about the Dark Eldar codex at this moment, e.g Sheer Speed (Reaver Jetbikes), Volume of Poison shots (2 Venoms), A Baron lead Beastpack and Haywire (Reapers). The Reapers may seem different to you, as most Dark Eldar swear by Ravagers, but i have been nothing but disappointed with Dark Light weaponry this edition. With the reduced chance of causing explosions, it seems that hull pointing a vehicle to death will become the norm, and the Reaper is quite simply better at it then the Ravager. If you don't know the Reaper, i will post a link top it's rules, but it's basically a Ravager that has a massive Haywire Blaster that causes D3 Haywire hits in addition to a Strength 7 hit, so it has the potential to do up to 4 glances on Av 10-13!

As for the Beastpack, you will be wondering what to use as Khymerae considering the real models are disgusting in both model and cost, but i found the best alternative model can actually be found under a GW roof in Fell Wargs, which are great and suitably nasty looking.

Good luck and hope i could help.

**Reaper rules**
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/r/Reaper.pdf

Ascalam wrote:Depends on where you want to go with it.

If you are after the 'best' units Venoms, Reavers and kab warriors/trueborn are good.

If you want a themed army, pick a theme.

My core DE are Coven, so Urien, Haemonculi, Pain engines, Wracks, Scourges and Grotesques are the main sections. Not the most competitive army in the universe, but i enjoy it.

I play CWE for my competitive games. I looking to get a nice fluffy army that i can both use as allies to my Eldar force, and as a stand-alone army. As for theme, I'm not very well versed in DE fluff. What themes are there? What units fit which themes?

ALEXisAWESOME wrote:Hey, good luck on starting a Dark Eldar army. They are very rewarding to play tactics wise and have amazing models, but i agree with you in that you need a good base to expand upon, i'll see if i can help you out there.

**1000pt Dark Eldar Battle-Forged Single Force Org**

-HQ-

Baron Sathonyx 105pts

-Troops-

5 Warriors w/ Blaster. 60pts

5 Warriors w/ Blaster. 60pts

Venom w/ Double Cannons. 65pts

Venom w/Double Cannons. 65pts

-Fast Attack-

4 Beast Masters, (48) 8 Khymerae (96) and 4 Razorwing (40) Flocks. 184pts

6 Reavers w/ 2 Cluster Caltrops. 172 pts

-Heavy Support-

Reaper. 135pts

Reaper. 135pts

This list combines everything that is good about the Dark Eldar codex at this moment, e.g Sheer Speed (Reaver Jetbikes), Volume of Poison shots (2 Venoms), A Baron lead Beastpack and Haywire (Reapers). The Reapers may seem different to you, as most Dark Eldar swear by Ravagers, but i have been nothing but disappointed with Dark Light weaponry this edition. With the reduced chance of causing explosions, it seems that hull pointing a vehicle to death will become the norm, and the Reaper is quite simply better at it then the Ravager. If you don't know the Reaper, i will post a link top it's rules, but it's basically a Ravager that has a massive Haywire Blaster that causes D3 Haywire hits in addition to a Strength 7 hit, so it has the potential to do up to 4 glances on Av 10-13!

As for the Beastpack, you will be wondering what to use as Khymerae considering the real models are disgusting in both model and cost, but i found the best alternative model can actually be found under a GW roof in Fell Wargs, which are great and suitably nasty looking.

Good luck and hope i could help.

**Reaper rules**
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/r/Reaper.pdf

Thanks for the help! That list looks pretty interesting! How does the Beast Pack play? I have never seen one in person.

The usual Dark Eldar themes are Kabalites, Wych Cult and Haemonculi Coven. A good catagory is anything with combat drugs + Reavers and Beastpack fit into Wych cult, anything that comes base with a Shardcarbine or Splinter Rifle + Incubi and Ravagers is Kabalite and no awards for guessing what units are part of the Coven, i'll give you a clue, they are butt ugly

As for the beast pack, it is extremely fun and effective to play. The joy is they are simply so fast, 12'' movement that ignores terrain plus fleet and they are moving 16'' a turn on average, charging 20''. That is scary! Then you consider how large the unit actually is, it contains 17 models including Baron and when spread out that covers a lot of ground. So you basically just move it up, fast as you please, and laugh as the enemy shoots *everything* into this unit to try bring it down to size, which is harder to do then first thought. Those 17 models are packing 34 wounds, some with Invuls and all with a cover save at least thanks to stealth.

The closest thing i can compare it to in an Eldar army you'd be used to is a non-Psykic Seer star, only much cheaper with more wounds but slightly better in combat. In the unlikely event they ALL make it to combat, you get to roll a lot of dice. Like 68, to be exact.You can't say that won't be fun

Interesting. I think might go for a Wych cult type army then. Beast Pack sounds pretty gnarly, and I love the models for Reavers + Hellions. How will I deal with fliers though?

I may be the odd fellow, but I use an identical setup to your kabalite warrior squad and have had a lot of success with them. The list I provide below is the modified version of my standard list that I used for an apocalypse game recently. It is a little heavier on anti-tank than I usually go. I typically drop the Trueborn and venom for a unit of Wyches (to make a fourth scoring unit) for friendly games. My Archon is also a lot of points for little return, but when he does work he is amazing.

Back to Kabalite Warriors. In my force they are usually the fulcrum of the army and are capable of threatening multiple targets. They have a high splinter weapon output (especially when rapid firing) and their blaster (in addition to the dark lance on the Raider) makes them potentially lethal to enemy tanks and tough infantry (like terminators, manz, or nobz with multiple wounds).

Headquarters:

Archon: Husk Blade, Splinter Pistol, Soul Trap, Combat Drugs, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow Field

Haemonculus: Splinter Pistol, Agonizer, Liquifier

Elites:

Incubi: (x5) Klaives [Raider: See Below]
Raider: Dark Lance, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

Kabalite Trueborn: (x4) x4 Blasters [Venom: See Below]
Venom: 2x Splinter Cannons, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

Troops:

Warriors: (x10) 8x Splinter Rifles, 1x Splinter C., 1x Blaster [Raider: See Below]
Raider: Dark Lance, Night Shields, Flicker Fields, Splinter Racks

Warriors: (x10) 8x Splinter Rifles, 1x Splinter C., 1x Blaster [Raider: See Below]
Raider: Dark Lance, Night Shields, Flicker Fields, Splinter Racks

Wracks: (x7) 1x Liquifier; Acothyst w/ Scissorhands [Raider: See Below]
Raider: Dark Lance, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

Fast Attack:

(196) Reaver Jetbikes: (x6) x2 Heat Lance, x2 Cluster Caltrops

(196) Reaver Jetbikes: (x6) x2 Heat Lance, x2 Cluster Caltrops

Heavy Support:

(125) Ravager: 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

(125) Ravager: 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

(125) Ravager: 3x Dark Lances, Night Shields, Flicker Fields

Wych Cult?! Awesome

Here's my plan for a Wych Cult with the Duke and his harem. I do like the Hellion models though and would consider swapping some of the reavers out for them. Or even adding them if I make the jump to 2000 points.

HQ
Duke Sliscus

Elite
4 Bloodbrides in venom w/ splintercannon

Troops
5x 5 wyches w/ haywire grenades in venom w/ splintercannon

Fast Attack
6 reavers w/ 2 blasters
6 reavers

Heavy Support
Razorwing w/ NS, FF, splintercannon
Ravager w/ NS, FF

Total = 1501