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I'm just starting to pick up Dark Eldar, and I was looking for advice on how to build my army. So far I have a succubus and a group of Kabalite warriors.
From what I've heard from people in my local game store and from forums, I want to build a Dark Eldar army that excels in dumping a ton of shots at the enemy. I also want to have air superiority too, but I don't know if its possible to build a list that does both well.

Starting off I'm just trying to get to 1,000 points. What should I look at getting next?

Welcome, dear brother! Always good to have another fresh face for the Dark Kin. In response to your post, theres quite a bit of units that are considered a mainstay of all DE lists. Raiders and Venoms being the probably the most important. Raiders are best kabalites, while nowadays you see wyches in venoms more often.
What to get next i would recommend:
1-2 Raiders
1-2 Venoms
Ravager
Razorwing
1-2 Kabalites
Wyches

In no particuliar order that is. Just a general idea, but thats just my 2cents :p

I'd say venoms are what you want if it's mass of shots that you want, go for the traditional venomspam list:

Cheap HQ - blaster archon for example
Anti-air - Razorwing/Voidraven x 1-3, razorwing are great for AI, while voidraven has their one of a kind lance for better anti-air/AT purposes, but more expensive.
Alpha strike - Ravager, DL for AT, dissie for AI, preferably not mixing the role of the unit if possible(ie 3x DL or 3x dissie)
The rest of your army - Any of the following:
1) 5 Wyches w/ HWG on venom, excellent AT on the best AI unit we got
2) 5 kabalites w/ blaster on venom, extra blaster is always welcomed in a DE army
3) 3-4 trueborns w/ blasters on venom, or commonly known as blasterborn, reason as above.
4) 3 trueborns w/ 2 SC or DL, sniperborn, more useful on small table.

Or lepermessiah10's suggestion is solid too, his allows for more flexibility, especially if you intend to eventually expand into the assault side or thing. I always consider raider to be more an assault thing, because of the larger capacity.

Thanks for the ideas so far guys.
So here's what I'm thinking for my troops and transports so far:

2x
10 Kabalite warriors
Raider with splinter racks and night shields

10 Kabalite trueborns
Raider with splinter racks and night shields

2x
5 Wytches
Venom

I figure that the Venom/Wytch combo will give me a good mix of firepower and an okay assault/AT force if I need it, plus a way to tie up bigger units and stop them from bearing down on my Raiders. The three Raiders with the splinter racks will give me a ton of very accurate shooting to play with, and the night shields will keep any pesky rapid fire off of me.

I was wondering, can you have 9 Kalabite warriors and a Syrabite in a squad, and have one warrior take a blaster and another take a dark lance? Or is that Illegal?
Also, would Incubi be a better choice for one of the Venoms?
Thanks again for all your help.

Trueborns are only worth taking if you're taking their weapon upgrades, so I'd either drop the splinter rack, give them shardcarbines, or keep the splinter rack, but make them warriors.

One thing you gotta remember about DE is that, our standard guns are useless against vehicles, so while incubi are amazing in tearing up most units(preferably in unit of 4-5), by replacing 1 of the HWG wyches units with incubi, you're gonna be looking at 3 DLs from 3 raiders + 1 HWG wyches unit to deal with vehicles, which is really, a bit risky as your opponent could simply shoot down all the raiders and wyches, then you'd literally have no way in hurting their vehicles, we're very fragile, afterall.

If you meant 10 warriors with 1 upgraded to sybarite, then yes, that is legal, but remember, you want your raiders moving to claim jinks save, so DL will be firing at BS1 unless you disembark them somewhere. Also, try not to mix AI with AT, if you were thinking of putting warriors w/ blaster DL on the racks boats, then don't, that'd be a waste of points for the already overpriced racks.

Welcome to the dark side!
For a list putting out a fairly extreme amount of firepower with air support, I'd go for something like

Haemonculi w/ Hex Rifle + 3xWrack w/ Acothyst w/ Hex Rifle + Raider w/ Dissintegrator Cannon, Flickerfield 190
2x 5xWarrior + Venom w/ Additional Splinter Cannon 220
2x 5xWyches w/ Haywire Grenades + Venom w/ Additional Splinter Cannon 250
2x Razorwing Jetfighter w/ 2x Dark Lances, 4x Monoscythe Missiles, Flickerfield 310
970pts (Could probably whack 2 blasters on the venom warriors?, alternatively go for 4x Wych Venoms instead, but it isn't as fun imo)

That'd be 2 Hex Rifles, a Dissie (3 shots), 8 Splinter Cannons (48 shots), 10 Splinter Rifles (10-20 shots), 10 Haywire Grenades, 2 TL Splinter Rifles (2-4 shots), 4 dark lances and 8 Missiles.

Aswell as being 1 Raider, 4 Venoms and 2 Razorwings. Making an incredibly mobile, hard hitting force, that covers most every base and has air superiority covered.

Bumping up to 1500pts - a Voidraven Bomber, another Wych Venom, then you've got 200pts for something from the Elites / Fast Attack slots (be it Incubi or whatever)

I know its been dead for a few days, but I'm back with some new ideas for my DE army.

I'm waffling on which HQ choice I want to go with. Want him to be relatively cheap, and I'm flip-flopping between an Archon w/Huskblade, Ghostplate armor and WWP,
and a Heamie w/ Hexrifle and one of the other fun tools he can take.

For troops so far I have:

x20 Kabalite Warriors, w/ 2 blasters
-In reserves to enter by WWP

x10 Kabalites, w/ Splinter Cannon
-In x1 raider with dark lance and nightshields

x10 Witches, one with shardnet and Impaler
-In x1 raider with nightshields and dark lance

x5 Kabalite Trueborns, w/ 3 blasters and 2 splinter cannons
-In x1 venom

x3 Reavers, w/ blaster, and cluster caltrops

x1 Void Raven Bomber


What do you think a good load out for the bomber would be? Also, am I wasting too many points of special weapons? Lastly, which HQ ends up being better. I would like to take pain engines and wracks eventually, but does that exclude the Archon altogether?

An Archon with a Huskblade is a MASSIVE points sink, and frankly outside of maybe an Incubi squad, I wouldn't run one.

Also, my view on Haemonculi is they shouldn't really be more than 65pts, which means a Hex Rifle, or a Venom Blade + Liquifier Gun. The exception to this is of course with a WWP, in which case it's a 100pts max.

Alternatively, for this list, taking a Haem with a WWP, then having the other HQ as The Duke will make your 20 warrior blob nasty as hell. (though ultimately, I'd stick a 20 warrior blob behind an Aegis with 2 Splinter Cannons)

The Reavers should really be kitted out for either A: Tank Hunting (Heat Lances / Blasters) OR B: Infantry Hunting (Caltrops).
Both is really expensive, and each prevents the other from being used.

Talos are always great - though if you want to run them, I recommend using 2.
1 is going to die a little quickly, or not do a huge amount. 2 on the other hand, people wet themselves over... 2 S/T 7 monstrous creatures will be a force modifier - people will send their army after them, every anti tank gun will be pointed at them. With 2 one should make it to the enemy regardless, and they've soaked fire letting the rest of your army do as it likes.
Alternatively, they ignore the Talos until it's too late, and you have 2 full health Talos raping face.

As for the Voidraven, it wants a Flickerfield. You can pretty much leave it naked otherwise, though if you particularly want to, give it 2 Shatterfield Missiles for a bit of extra kick.

Does the Duke's ability make every poisoned weapon in the army wound on 3+?

No, just the unit he starts with (though he doesn't have to stay with that unit, and it retains the Poison(3+) for the game)

What point level are you looking at?

In any case...

Ghostplate is terrible on its own, it can look great for us 5+/6+ army, but on the global scale, 4+/6++ won't save a high priority unit when he's rolling with T3... You'd want combat drugs to up your archon's killability, and shadowfield to up his survival, if you want to use ghostplate, at least give him a clonefield... But there is some talk about clonefield being not as good with the changes of assault rules, something about not having an effect if he's not fighting one on one(I haven't been following, so I'm not sure what's up). I'd hardly ever consider archon a cheap HQ choice, but if you want to run him cheap, consider blaster archon.

More than one WWP is often recommended, because if there is only one, your opponent could simply avoid the WWP or block it if they're fast and you're terrible with reserve rolls. On the topic of reserve rolls, since it got buffed to be easier to bring reserves in early, you're gonna be very hard-pressed to put the WWP down quickly, often putting your warlord(VP) in danger for the sake of a not-very-surprising surprise attack. Give it more thought, WWP is near impossible to run these days.

Wyches are terrible in assault, even more so when you're not giving them a hekatrix, to be an efficient tarpit, they'd first need to be able to do some damage, we don't get to be like the marines or fearless armies and deny sweeping advances, if your wyches got assaulted, inevitably killed, your opponent is only gonna consolidate closer... Put in a hekatrix w/ venom blade if you want to go assault wyches, though personally, I'd just say drop assault wyches altogether, but if that is what you want...

Try not to mix trueborns' role, if you fire at a tank with those blasters, you're wasting 2 trueborns and 2 SCs, our units generally don't last long enough to multitask, so it's best to keep them specialised very well in one task. 3-4 blasterborns or give them shardcarbines, though I'd probably go with blasterborns as you're really lacking in AT.

I think you're spending too many points on the reavers as well, 3 of them will get shot down really quickly even with their amazing jinks save, so you should consider dropping either the shooty upgrade or bladevanes upgrade.

As for voidraven, best to give it a flickerfield so it doesn't have to go into dodge against any fire coming its way, and then it depends what you want it for, it's decently well as a AT unit on its own, but if you want to give it some more power, missiles can help too, though most would consider missiles to be AI rather than AT... And the unit of course can function well for AI as well, but I might say if you want an AI flyer with missiles, get a razorwing.

Lastly, on the topic of bringing wracks eventually, we have 2 HQ slots, feel free to bring an archon if points allowed.

Your choice of HQ varies on the list you run. If you want a cheap and effective HQ for venom/raider spam list, I would highly recommend taking an Archon with configuration that goes well with his group.

Since you're making a wwp list I would take a Haemonculus as he's just there for dropping the portal and probably ending up dying.

Though I must warn you, wwp list are kinda of meh this edition compared to the spammy list Dark Eldar are used to but if you're playing for fun - by all means. Personally I think running 40+ wracks (with pain tokens) through a wwp right on front of you're opponent's face hilarious.

For the voidraven you must take a Flickerfield and I wouldn't take missiles as they are overcosted. And if you wanted those missiles, you should just take a razorwing.

Baronyu wrote:


Wyches are terrible in assault, even more so when you're not giving them a hekatrix, to be an efficient tarpit, they'd first need to be able to do some damage, we don't get to be like the marines or fearless armies and deny sweeping advances, if your wyches got assaulted, inevitably killed, your opponent is only gonna consolidate closer... Put in a hekatrix w/ venom blade if you want to go assault wyches, though personally, I'd just say drop assault wyches altogether, but if that is what you want...

I forgot to mention this earlier, but I was planning on giving the Wyches haywire grenades and having them function as AT, with the blasterborn as backup.

I am also considering another pair of Venoms, one loaded with Incubi and another for the HQ and a troupe of bodyguards.

EDIT: For total points I'm looking at a max around 2,000, but for now I'm just trying to get up too 1,500

10 is overkill, I got told by other DE when I thought I needed 7-8 wyches to take down a tank... 5 HWG wyches is all you ever gonna need against any vehicle, throw one during shooting, then assault, unless you're rolling super bad, you should be able to take down HP4 vehicles with them alone. Not as "multitasking", but as I've said earlier, we aren't gonna last long enough to multitask anyway.

At 1500pts, I think you're a bit short on AT, may be consider a ravager or two? Or talos.

Baronyu wrote:
10 is overkill, I got told by other DE when I thought I needed 7-8 wyches to take down a tank... 5 HWG wyches is all you ever gonna need against any vehicle, throw one during shooting, then assault, unless you're rolling super bad, you should be able to take down HP4 vehicles with them alone. Not as "multitasking", but as I've said earlier, we aren't gonna last long enough to multitask anyway.

At 1500pts, I think you're a bit short on AT, may be consider a ravager or two? Or talos.

Can you throw HWG in 6th? I only ask because I'm always getting which grenades and bombs you can toss and which have to be used in an assault confused.
Also, Talos seem badass, and as suggested above I may take two of them. Any suggestions on how to load them out?

Yup, S2 AP-, so only useful for vehicles, as they should be, same as plasma or assault grenades otherwise.

I'm still on my way to getting my talos, so I don't have enough experience on that, my plan is to have TL liquifier + TL HWB, though from what I see, most people prefer chainflails(at the very least) and may be a TL HWB/HL if they have the points, chainflails allow for more consistent assault result, and that's where talos shine.

Then what about x2 venoms with x5 wyches each, keep the wyches bare bones except for HWG?

Also, I'm sure this pops up all the time on DE forums, but where the hell do you get Blasters? I know you get one and can convert one from a warriors box, but is there a box that has an abundance of them?

for a HQ no matter which army i play against i always use an archon with with a blaster, agoniser and shadow field with 4 true bor also with blasters, these fly around in a venom with the extra splinter cannon.

this always wives me 1 unit that is fast moving and can take on fair amount and they generally kill what they shoot being high strength and AP2 , good anti armour, good anti MC.

Troops i will always say 2 units 10 warriors with a splinter cannon in a raider with night shields and splinter racks. this gives lots of shots and allows re rolls of your rifles.

finally this is my personal preference but i always take a ravager with night shields and flicker fields and 3 dark lances, reason being its an awesome piece of gear to have and it will always deliver until its dying breath.

since my earlier games ive started using CC less because the dark eldar dont have much of an armour save and if they get caught in the open they will die, wyches with haywire grenades are good but you have to hit the tanks then deal damage, if the tank survives...... then the wyches die in my experience, ive turned to shooting haywire with scourges. 1 squad of 5 with 2 haywire blasters does work because you opponent has other things to worry about.

last thing, have you considered using any of the forge world pieces? i use a reaper in a 1000 point game very effectively with its solid shot giving D3 haywire hits that glance on a 2-4 and pen on a 5-6, also inflicting instant death on a 5-6 it costs 135 points base, i give it NS,FF for safety.

 jetstumpy wrote:
Then what about x2 venoms with x5 wyches each, keep the wyches bare bones except for HWG?

Also, I'm sure this pops up all the time on DE forums, but where the hell do you get Blasters? I know you get one and can convert one from a warriors box, but is there a box that has an abundance of them?

5 HWG wyches on venom is the preferred setup for wyches this ed, so yup, that will work.

Nope, they're 1 of the most sought after bits of DE, warriors: 1 blaster, 1 shredder(for conversion); scourges: 1 blaster, 1 shredder(for conversion); reavers: 2 blasters(need conversion)... I mean, both those FA units can be played without blaster, so you can get some spare blasters for your warriors/trueborns that way... But aye, if you want to WYSIWYG your blasterborns or something, you'd have to go bits shop hunting(for blast pistols and shredder to convert, that is), or buy a load of warriors box...

Baronyu wrote:

 jetstumpy wrote:


5 HWG wyches on venom is the preferred setup for wyches this ed, so yup, that will work.

Nope, they're 1 of the most sought after bits of DE, warriors: 1 blaster, 1 shredder(for conversion); scourges: 1 blaster, 1 shredder(for conversion); reavers: 2 blasters(need conversion)... I mean, both those FA units can be played without blaster, so you can get some spare blasters for your warriors/trueborns that way... But aye, if you want to WYSIWYG your blasterborns or something, you'd have to go bits shop hunting(for blast pistols and shredder to convert, that is), or buy a load of warriors box...

Just out of curiosity, why does no one every mention shredders as a viable option. Are they that bad?

Shredders are semi-awful, and generally completely outclassed.
5 points for a 12" range, Str6 AP- Assault 1 Blast weapon. On paper it looks alright apart from the rather short range, and in 6th it's marginally better with AP- not being a -1 on vehicle damage... but it's still reasonably bad.

Ya shredders have always been pretty bad, the only time I've ever used them is when I had 5 points leftover and would just add one to one of my kabal squads. I would just convert it to a blaster.

In response to the talos loadout, I always go with chain-flails and a twin-linked HL, HWB's are kinda more meant for people trying to keep a safe distance from the enemy, and HL's are great once your in that 9'' range. Have you considered maybe running the baron with a beastpack along with your talos's. Beasts are super survivable and having that extra tough cc unit would really help your talos's get across the board before their gunned down. hope this helped

I always run TL-Liquifier Gun + TL Haywire Blaster on my Talos because it makes them nice and versatile, and a good, cheap, all round kill unit.