Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Picked up some Eldar from a nice gentlemen getting out of the hobby and was gifted some DE to go. He gave me:

1. 10 Kabalite
2. 10 Wyches
3. Raider
4. What looks like a possible Succubus (?) and something he called a Baronness on a glider.

Would it be worth it to grab Gangs of Commoragh for the Reavers and Hellions to flesh out a starter force? I'd originally thought about getting that set and replacing the riders with Eldar riders for a Corsairs force. I'd do the same here but swap them back and forth depending on the army I'd be using each game.

I'd grab Gangs on principle as its a great deal even if you only use the bikers, plus we are on the cusp of an edition change so the Helions might be about to become useful again. I'd get "Start collecting" Dark Eldar as well so you get a lord, more bikers (so very very good) and a second Kabalite squad and Raider. That should keep you busy and act as a solid core.

Well, Baron Sathonyx (I think that's how you spell it) was a special character from the last book. He no longer exists and no Dark Eldar HQ can even take a skyboard. So at most he would just be used as a unit champion for a unit of hellions.

That being said, never take Hellions. They are some of the worst units in the game, period. One of the main reasons I personally wouldnt get Gangs of Commoragh.

Also, you could probably just put the wyches on a shelf somewhere, they are even worse than hellions.

More Kabalite warriors is what you want. Lots of Venoms and Reavers. Maybe some Grotesques and that Talos formation from the Haemonculus covens army. Those are basically the only good thing in the DE army. Everything else is either middling or down right terrible.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
...That being said, never take Hellions. They are some of the worst units in the game, period. One of the main reasons I personally wouldnt get Gangs of Commoragh...

Counterargument: Hellion glaives are useful for converting plastic Incubi, and the skyboards make for cool Eldar aircraft in Aeronautica Imperialis/Epic scale.

(Also on GW's website they're charging $60 for Gangs (6 Reavers and 10 Hellions) where three Reavers alone are $40, so you are getting the Hellions very free. And you might decide you like the board game, I've heard good things.)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
...More Kabalite warriors is what you want. Lots of Venoms and Reavers. Maybe some Grotesques and that Talos formation from the Haemonculus covens army. Those are basically the only good thing in the DE army. Everything else is either middling or down right terrible...

Reavers seem quite good, the only trip-up is that they're extra-hard-countered by people prepared to deal with White Scars/Ravenwing. And I've got a friend who's a more competitive player than I am who has taken up Dark Eldar as a challenge, and he swears by beastmasters. Can't elaborate much, I just know he likes them.

Free is always good.

Even though Incubi are failcast they are still good sculpts. I have a few because they are my favourite unit. And GW has gotten better at making failcast models without a lot of errors in the last couple of years. For the first little while they were horrendous. At least now they're salvageable.

I've never really used beastmasters, not really my thing. So I'll not comment on their effectiveness.

I believe the highest ranking DE player in the LVO (he placed 8th I think) used almost maxed out units of Reavers. Everything has a hard counter in this game for the most part, and Reavers are the bread and butter of the army, possibly one of the only units that is utilitarian and does what it claims to do, as opposed to basically 90% of the codex that falls flat even at what it's supposed to excel at.

I'll also say the Scourges aren't bad either.

Scourges are the subject of an annoying typo; swap one word in their unit entry (change "jump" to "jet pack") and they'd actually do what they're supposed to and do it much better. (They look incredible, though.)

My position on Finecast is that the quality is directly proportional to how thick/chunky the model is; skinny things (elves, space elves) tend to be fragile and not work that well, Space Marines usually work fine.

Yep, thats definitely an issue with finecast.

Scourges with Haywire launchers are pretty decent at tank hunting, but yea...they should be jet pack units.

15-18 reavers are present in almost any competitive dark eldar list... I love bringing five units of tre bikes, I change lists a lot but those 15 reavers are always in, sometimes even more.

Gangs of Commorragh is a good buy. It's a great deal for the reavers alone, and hellions aren't quite as useless as Brutus-Apex says, though they're close. Hellions...
* Actually put out a respectable amount of ranged dakka for their points (almost comparable to warriors without having to pay for a transport to be mobile)
* Can potentially stab things at strength 6 (glaive + drugs + furious charge from Power From Pain)
*Can deepstrike without needing a transport, and...
* Have hit & run (...I think).

On the downside, they...
* Are possibly the most fragile thing in our codex point for point. And that's saying something.
* Are only mediocre in melee, and that's assumiing they have some sort of buff (drugs or PFP) going for them.
* Don't dakka as well as more popular dakka options like venoms or trueborn (or true born in venoms).
* Don't melee as well as grotesques, lhameans, reavers, incubi, etc.
* Use up a Fast Attack slot, which is arguably our most competitive slot if you aren't doing covens. You have to pass up infinitely more durable reavers or much more shooty scourges or venoms to take those hellions.

Also, ynnari are a thing now. I'm playing around with finding a way to intentionally martyr hellions in order to allow other units to soul burst.





Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
Free is always good.



I've never really used beastmasters, not really my thing. So I'll not comment on their effectiveness.

They're not bad! Not amazing, but not bad. How they perform depends on what beasts you take. For similar points to a unit of grotesques in a raider, you can get a majority toughness 5 unit that moves 12" a turn without a transport, has some cheap invul save wounds in the front of the unit, can move through cover without worrying about hurting itself or being slowed down, and doesn't need an IC babysitter to avoid leadership issues.

Well thank you for the advice Gentlemen. So, would it be acceptable for friendly games then to grab:

1. Gangs of Commoragh
2. Starter Set

In that order. It would give me a second Raider and I could upgrade the Warriors while getting a significant boost in manuverability without spamming units.

I think it would also look thematic if I added the Beastmaster later since he's on a Glider himself.