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So i've been having mixed results with this. I'd say it's not great or super good but fairly decent in some situations.

I've been doing Scourge with just straight up shardcarbines.

At first it sounds meh but it's ok. They each have jump packs so they can move 12" and shoot their 3 shot 18" range 4+ poisoned shots and a ten squad at 160 points is alright. At first i thought of it as just a shooting unit but that's only a small part of how to use them. You move, shoot and then you charge as their guns are assault 3. If you don't move 12" on the move with their jump packs you can even use them on the charge and get a crap ton of hammer of wrath attacks. Combine hammer of wrath, the grenades (so you strike an your initiative for once regardless of cover), fleet (for re-rolls and such) and the charge and it's not too terrible. Not great in melee and alright at shooting but combine all these things i mentioned esp. by turn 2-3 when they have 'feel no pain' and they're somewhat durable. Venom spam might be better but it's not too shabby sometimes. Also consider when i faced ratlings today with like 2+ to 3+ cover saves i just moved, shot and then assaulted them. Once again not great but it can do ok vs some weaker combatants. Not sure if i'd use this vs ork boyz but charging them before they do you esp. with hammer of wrath might push the combat in your favor a bit.

Unfortunately, their HoW isn't that impressive. It's still a maximum of 5 S3 hits, without the benefit of AP. Most of the Scourge weapons are Assault, so the ability to charge into combat is a nice bennie for polishing off a critically wounded target, but I don't think it's got the reliability to be a principle tactic.

However, the larger issue here is that Scourges take up a FA slot (easily the best slot for DE). Expending this slot (our most reliable method of getting anti-armor units into the army) on an anti-infantry unit does you a disservice. For the same price you could get a unit of Warriors in a Venom (giving you more poison fire at greater range, in a less critical slot) and still have 40 points left over.

However: kudos for keeping your eyes open, especially regarding under-utilized abilities. Scourges charging single models has won me games before, and for a largely sacrificial shooting unit, it's a move that people commonly forget.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Unfortunately, their HoW isn't that impressive. It's still a maximum of 5 S3 hits, without the benefit of AP. Most of the Scourge weapons are Assault, so the ability to charge into combat is a nice bennie for polishing off a critically wounded target, but I don't think it's got the reliability to be a principle tactic.

However, the larger issue here is that Scourges take up a FA slot (easily the best slot for DE). Expending this slot (our most reliable method of getting anti-armor units into the army) on an anti-infantry unit does you a disservice. For the same price you could get a unit of Warriors in a Venom (giving you more poison fire at greater range, in a less critical slot) and still have 40 points left over.

However: kudos for keeping your eyes open, especially regarding under-utilized abilities. Scourges charging single models has won me games before, and for a largely sacrificial shooting unit, it's a move that people commonly forget.

Unless of course you run unbound as you really should run unbound with DE. I talked to it with a player at the shop that played DE for years and he said bound doesn't help. I mean the only conceivable benefit to the turn 1 5+ and 6+ cover save bonuses is if you run lots of warriors esp. in raiders with night shields.

I mean is Bound really needed? Do they force you to do it in tournaments?

^A lot of tournements will require you to run a battle forged list. Personally I tend to favour the CAD with Covens formations, Objective Secured has proven to be extremely useful to me in games before.

I've thought about doing this before, but like Jim said Warriors in Venoms are better for anti-infantry duty and capturing objectives whilst Scourges are amongst our better anti armour options.

Honestly, going Bound with DE is better.
Grotesquerie, Dark Artisan, Corpse Thief Claw all have great bonus's, and ObSec is great on something as mobile as Venoms. Need more FA slots? Just run another CAD, you should have enough venoms and warriors to do that anyways!

The tax to run a bound army is tiny for DEldar. I mean, we can literally run a 90 point CAD if needed.

I have never seen a structured event allow Unbound.

Fair enough but when i play a game at the local GW they don't force bound or unbound on us.

I haven't done Covens formations or even have the book or ebook. However i'm also thinking about taking a raider with a succubus and 4 grotesques inside and speeding them across the board. The general idea is that the grotesque can absorb overwatch and do damage but the succubus can murder anything armor 3+ or 2+ if the grotesques struggle against it. Probably couldn't kill everything but it should do nicely. May also make her the warlord since dark eldar warlord traits help close combat specialists the most.

^You really should get the Covens book, you can run the Succubus with a Grotesque squad from the Grotesquerie and they will do plenty of work, particualrly since the Grotesques will have a nice boost in some way.

I somewhat like the idea of running a large Scourge flock, actually. 4 Scourge put out the same firepower as a doublecannon Venom (at half the range and a negligible one point less), but depending on what you're fighting may be more survivable - and, as you said, can engage in close combat in a pinch.

Still, the range may not be too big a concern if you deepstrike them, and because 12" movement and 18" range is still quite a fair threat bubble regardless. If I were to do that, I'd try a unit of 10 with 4 heat lances for versatility, and grab a Solarite with an Agonizer as the codex lets him get his at a 10pt discount.

DE have a lot of strength in their ability to go MSU easily, but if you were just running an allied detachment or wanted a friendlier list I think they'd be a good choice.

I like scourge, but I seem to lean towards the heat lance. Deep striking them to blow up a tank... or deal some damage on heavy infantry.

The venoms are awesome for poison because of their range, and how small they are.