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no sure where to put it, so I put it in GD. Admins, move it if you find it better in any other place.

So I decided to switch from my space marines to a dark eldar army, as I like the idea of space pirates.

So I traded some sterguard and a land raider for the following dark eldar models

20 ish (give or take a few) wychs

venom

raider

5 custom guys made from hellions ( don't know what to use them as)

5 hellions

Talos Pain engine


Im waiting to get my codex of the webstore, so I was wondering, what should I get?

Obviously an archon, and I really like the new model so I would get it no matter what

I want some kabalite warriors, are they good or wychs better?

Incubi, obviously

a few more venoms and raiders

a few flyers

a succubus

and a few other things. Its gonna hit me hard going from space marines (one of the most survivable codexes out there) and then to t3 5+ save deldar.


and then any basic tactics to go with, they don't get much coverage so its hard to get tactica

first of all, that was an awesome trade you made.

2nd, you will definitely want to get some Kabalite Warriors. They are going to be a more effective troop choice than wyches. Wyches used to be able to all take haywire grenades, but now that they lost that ability, they really lost a lot of their usefulness.

Kabalite warriors and their standard poisoned guns are awesome. Load them up in raiders and prepare to roll tons of dice hitting on 3s, rerollin all misses and wounding on 4s. The hellions are a more unique unit and will be tougher to see them be effective.

Scourges, on the other hand are awesome with their ability to take 4 special weapons out of 5. And they can take haywire guns. So I would recommend getting kabalite warriors, a couple more venoms/raiders and some scourges.

Kabalites are way better than Wyches. All the way.

Wychs are great for converting to Harlequins. Blasterborn with a Blaster Archon in a raider are awesome for deep strikeing in the backfield against stuff like guard and tau that get squishy up close.

Archons can tank reasonably well (for a time) with their 2+ invuln from shadow field. Succubi are great Non Warlord HQs because they can carry assualty units where they need to be with the wwp.

If I can piggyback on this thread a bit, how do Dark Eldar rank in terms of playability as a viable 40K force? I've been thinking of getting into 40k, and was considering the Dark Eldar since I like most of the models. Are DE forces competitive enough on the tabletop to be fun?

I don't need a force that crushes all others due to unbalanced rules, I just want one that has a fair chance. In my view, close games are the best.

DE are very strong when used well. We are not a stand up and fight army we are fragile and need to use any tricks we can find to gain advantage. Codex forces mostly depend on Raiders and Venoms to get out dudes around onto objectives and help out with shooting, Reaver Jetbikes are awesome.
If you want something a bit more durable, DE have that too with the Haemonculus covens supplement. If you want to bring allies to the party DE are Battle Brothers with both Eldar (one of the best psyker armies in the game) and Harlequins the new hotness. Basically if you can be patient and learn from your mistakes DE can be very strong.

AWESOME! thanks for the great feedback in such a quick time. I really like the succubus model, so I might use wychs just for fluffy wounds that are decent in CC.

I really like the fluff and models for the hellions, and I think they might be useful for horde control in large units. But ya, scorges are probably sooooo much better

and are the courts of the archon useful at all?

and Is there a reason not to use the DE detachment? I think it is great, but is the regular CAD better?

The courts can be good, though most people I've seen use either Ssylths for ablative wounds, or Lhameans to kill something quickly in melee. Grotesques are better there though. the DE detachment is pretty awesome, you want to reroll into warlord trait number 2 to manipulate your reserves. Nightfighting is also your friend.

hmmm. Awesome, I say this because you can take like 7 fast attacks right?

What is your opinion on the Coven side of things? The Coven side of Dark Eldar is actually one of their strong points, with the Talos being one of the best MC's in the game easily (2+ poison AP 2 insta-kill on 6's re-roll to wound at Ws 5 T7 anyone on a 3+/5++ shell?). I would consider picking up another Talos and running them in a unit of two, i have been doing so and they work as an amazing bully unit.

Throw them down the middle of the board, the enemy will shift either side of them. Then since you are so fast you can reposistion to have ALL your army vs half of his, with the Talosi between that side the reinforcements.

Just something to consider, being fast and hitting hard is nice, but having at least one unit that can take a hella beating is always nice, especially when it gives it out as well.

**EDIT** And the custom guys are probably Beast Masters

Dark eldar are a hard army to use but well worth it.
Scourges are a great unit found blasters or heat lances are best for them.
Always remember that dark eldar get better as the game goes on power from pain baby
Pain engines are your tanks and evil in combat a group of 3 is devastating but group of 5 from the coven supplement is game winning.
But mostly dark eldar models are great to paint only problem is grotesques, beasts for beast master and court of archon are very expensive to buy fine cast and £15 a model for a grotesque so be prepared to pay a lot or convert alot.

But greatest units in your army are the transports venoms and raiders just stay away from flamers and always remember synergy is key without it they can be the easiest army to kill

Well, I don't really like the coven side of things, I might bring a bit of stuff, but not the supplement. I don't like the vulgarity of the models, but its a strong part of the codex so I will bring a bit of that stuff.

I understand that the pain engines are good, but I don't really like the models or the fluff.

and no, the custom models weren't beast masters, because the were on regular bases, I will use them as incubi until I actually get some incubi.

Incubi are kind of meh. Fun but easy to counter. I recommend warriors and venoms. (Also some raiders, but less of those.) If you don't use the Covens supplement, I wouldn't bother with covens units, except maybe grotesques.

Reavers, scourges, grotesques, Warriors, venoms, and the pain engines are the really good units.

Mandrakes, wyches, and hellions are not good in this codex. I highly recommend not buying them.

I have been toying with the idea of the scalpel squadron formation from the covens book. I don't like the models or fluff, but it seems REALLY strong.

I want to use reavers because they seems SUPER fun to convert.

Im just curious, why are hellions and wyches bad? And mandrakes seem pretty good with stealth and shrouded area denial units, enlighten me please.

Forget Incubi, they will outright trash anything you they actually hit, but everyone knows the threat they pose and annihalate them with guns. Forget Hellions, they're fun to use generally but I've never had them do anything, not even in a fun game back under their old codex, and they got worse.

Your bread and butter are Kabalites, Talos, Raiders with nightshields and splinter racks for your Kabalites, and personally I take 5 man wracks in Venoms + extra Splinter canon for moar DAKKA. Always take dark lances on yor venoms. Trueborn with blasters are good in a venom, but venoms are 36" range shooting so havin a 18" blaster is sort of silly. Scourges do it better with the ability to have Haywire, melta/lance, or blasters(pick your favorite AT) and drop a archon in for Deepstrike WWP love. Plus they have their own invuln, not substantial but most times you won't get a save on your trueborn anyways so having that 6++/ FNP (which can be boosted to a 4+ if a cronos is nearby) is simply better. And they're faster once they ditch the archon or if you wanna daisy chain to keep him with them.

My favorite thing so far is the Dark Artisan covens formation that makes 1 cronos, 1 talos, and a haemy one unit. So you have a T7, 3+/4+++ melee shooty unit of nightmare proportions that deepstrike without scatter wherever you want. My opponents have no easy counter for it and it ALWAYS shows up where they don't want it.

ya, I think I would agree with you, because I don't really like deathstar(ish) units. And whats so good about wracks, they seem good with the scapel squadron, but otherwise, what do they bring to the table?

my FLGS is a SUPER casual meta, so it doesn't really matter whats good or not, just whats fun.

if I bring a heami, what should I give him? I think just a WWP, but why not take an archon, the squad he is with will prob make him T3, and anything that wont will make the archon T4, and the archon is cheaper, so really whats the points (oh, and the archon has fleet).

and ya, scouge are sooo epic looking, and seem pretty good in game.

although the DL on a raider is good, they will always jink, so why not make it 50% for one shot to hit, or a 1/6 chance to hit. I don't think AT will be that big a problem.

again, thanks for all the advice, ill need it once I can get playing.