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Hello all, I want to start a new army and cant decide on the two. I have a few questions maybe you dakka users can help me with.

1. which is the army with the least finecast

2. Ease of assemble who wins

3. ease of paint

4. better average table top army (wins?loses)

5. army that models will more likely be updated sooner.

6. Your personal favorite

7. best way to start one or the other

8. Blood of the phoenix worth it?

9. can they actually play as allies effectivley. Maybe I mix the forces.

ballzonya wrote:
Hello all, I want to start a new army and cant decide on the two. I have a few questions maybe you dakka users can help me with.

1. which is the army with the least finecast

Dark eldar has less finecast.

ballzonya wrote:
2. Ease of assemble who wins

Depends on the specific unit. Eldar are probably more consistent. Dark Eldar have some super easy to assemble and some absolute nightmare. Eldar are genrally middling with one or two outliers each way.

ballzonya wrote:
3. ease of paint

About the same.

ballzonya wrote:
4. better average table top army (wins?loses)

Craftworlds are consistently one of the strongest factions. Dark Eldar have been strong a few times, but mostly middling or pants.

ballzonya wrote:
5. army that models will more likely be updated sooner.

Probably Eldar, DE are typically just ignored, but CWE don't get much model love either.

ballzonya wrote:
6. Your personal favorite

Dark Eldar are the best army. I play both though.

ballzonya wrote:
7. best way to start one or the other

Not sure at the moment, not been a new player in a long time.

ballzonya wrote:
8. Blood of the phoenix worth it?

Nopedy nope. And that's from someone who likes and can use both the Incubi and banshee models...

ballzonya wrote:
9. can they actually play as allies effectivley. Maybe I mix the forces.

Yes they often work best together. Through most of 8th mixed DE/CWE has been stronger than either force mono.

1. which is the army with the least finecast
Drukhari.

2. Ease of assemble who wins
Craftworlds. Older models tend to be more robust and parts are bigger.

3. ease of paint
Craftworlds. Drukhari has a lot of armor plating and detail that you really don't see much in the Craftworlds.

4. better average table top army (wins?loses)
Craftworlds, but to be fair people are playing a lot of soup with Aeldari so the real answer would be both.

5. army that models will more likely be updated sooner.
I am pessimistic about any army updates. However, I am optimistic about seeing plastic Grotesques. So Drukhari

6. Your personal favorite
Craftworlds, but mostly because it was one of my two first armies I collected.

7. best way to start one or the other
The SC for Craftworld is a nice deal. Won't autowin you games, but you will have some fun. The Drukhari one is a bit tricky as the venom is a must have but the reavers are trash and the wyches are meh. If you can find the Drukhari Battleforce you have a good collection and deal there.

8. Blood of the phoenix worth it?
Yes for Craftworld, maybe for Drukhari. Drukhari has some nice traits, but depending on the sub-faction you may or may not pick one.

9. can they actually play as allies effectivley. Maybe I mix the forces.
Resounding yes.

1) De for sure
2) I'd say DE again. A lot of eldar stuff is ancient.
3) Eldar wins this one. Lots of monochrome while DE is very detailed.
4) Hard to say since eldar soup has been the norm throughout 8th. I would say DE are looking pretty solid for 9th - MSU playstyle, solid vehicles+flyers, still gets to soup thanks to Raiding Party, never needs to take more than 6 models in a squad.
5) Eldar for sure. DE never gets updates. You can view this as a pro or a con tbh, as someone who plays a bunch of factions not having to buy new rules/models all the time is kind of nice.
6) Dark Eldar between the two.
7) Best way to start DE is either SC box, or grab stuff on sprue off ebay. There have been a few super crazy deals on DE stuff and 2x SC boxes, so there's some good prices on NOS ebay stuff. No clue for eldar tbh.
8) Nuuuuuuuuuuuuupe never in a million years. That deal sucked ass.
9) Sure, they work pretty well together. DE works best allied with itself tho especially in 9th.

1. Dark Eldar

2. Dark Eldar. The Kabalite and Wych infantry are very forgiving to put together, as are Venoms.

3. Craftworld Eldar. That said, Contrast paint make Dark Eldar infantry easier to paint than they used to be.

4. Craftworld are more consistently good, neither army is easy to use.

5. Craftworld. Dark Eldar don't need much updating at all.

6. Drukhari (Dark Eldar )

7. Two boxes of Kabalites, and a couple of Venoms off Ebay.

8. Absolutely not.

9. Yes you can, if you are so inclined.

Thanks all for the advice. I was thinking of gong Dark eldar. is the Drukhari: Poisonblade Raiding Party battleforce worth it? my store has two thinking of buying both.

It depends on how much you are paying for the boxes, and what you want to play. The contents are good (the Reavers being the weak link), but they are really all over the place, with bits of Kabal, Coven, and Cult.