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Hey everyone, I was just curious on what would be a good way to start Dark eldar, I already have a person that I am going to buy some Dark Eldar from, but i am most likely going to add more to what I am buying. But overall, this post was intended for hearing what other's opinions were on starting DE, a few ideas that I have cme up with, were a jetbike (Reaver) army idea, or a venom/poison idea, that came up while I was searching the internet. Just curious on what might be the best option on how to successfully start with Dark Eldar. Thanks for any suggestions!

A pretty standard list is spamming Venoms and/or Raiders with ravagers as HS. I like to run my venoms with X4 trueborn with blasters. I use Duke Sliscus, he gives the unit he is with 3+ poison and all your raiders/ravager/venoms deep strike.

Spartak wrote:
A pretty standard list is spamming Venoms and/or Raiders with ravagers as HS. I like to run my venoms with X4 trueborn with blasters. I use Duke Sliscus, he gives the unit he is with 3+ poison and all your raiders/ravager/venoms deep strike.

And he lets you re-roll your Combat Drugs... I think.

ok....yes, I did come across a lot of talk about Venoms, and tips on how to use the raiders, etc, but which DE HQ is Duke Silscus? Or would I just buy a DE HQ, like an Archon or something, and use the Duke Silscus stats from the codex for him when he is on the field? And Re-rolling the combat drugs (if he does let you do that), that would be cool.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thanks by the way!

There is no official model for Duke Sliscus, it's either a conversion, or a count-as(using archon or other 3rd party model).

The best option on starting DE is transports, whether you're going reaver, venomspam, beast pack, coven, etc, you'll always need transports, almost everything DE should be in a transport. Raiders allow for bigger capacity, but not as aggressive as a venom, which, using standard setup, would mean 12 36" poisoned shots on a fast skimmer... that's also a transport. Assault wyches, grotesques, assault wracks, or gunboats, raider is your friend. MSU kabalite warriors, MSU trueborns, HWG wyches, incubi, MSU wracks, then venom is your friend.

After you've got sufficient transport for your army, look into getting ravagers, cheap AT fast skimmer, or if you like the idea of a reaver-force, you could even skip the ravagers! Though ravager is often to default go-to for most DE, it's just a cheap easy way to bring those much-needed DLs.

I agree completely. I've got a shed load of wyches for buckets of dice, and some wracks, and 6 raiders to get them right up into whoever's face. Transport is a total starting point (other than deciding your troops)

Been into the hobby since 1991 and the new dark eldar have alround been the most pleasing project/army I've been involved with. Enjoy

I believe the most optimal list is a ton of venoms with warriors with blasters and trueborns with blasters as well as many Ravagers you can take, filling out the rest with razorwing swarm beastmasters and some Reavers. I find this list boring, however.

Others have mostly covered the importance of transports. I like to take two Raider gunboats and a Raider full of assault Wyches and a venom of tank-hunter Wyches (though all Wych squads should always come with Haywire grenades unless your meta completely lacks vehicles). I also like the less favored units like Scourges with Haywire Blasters and Hellions, but these certainly aren't optimal choices. I just find them a lot of fun and some of the best models in the game. I'd definitely recommend a Voidraven Bomber for anti-air, though I use a Razorwing myself as I like the kinda-free missiles.

If you take Hellions or Beastmasters, I'd recommend Baron Sathonyx. He can be easily converted with some leftover Reaver parts melded with a skyboard and an Archon body with a Hellion weapon. Duke Sliscus is also good for heavy drug using armies (Reavers, Wyches, Hellions) though he HAS to start with Warriors or Trueborn if you have them. Also, he doesn't allow you to re-roll drugs, even better - you roll twice and then pick which you want.

It's also possible to make pretty strong lists featuring Coven type units like Haemonculi, Wracks, Grotesques and the two pain engines, but I don't have any experience with that. I have seen them in battle reports, though, and find them to be quite amusing.

Ok, should i also use theKabalite warriors? or Wracks?

Not buying mandrakes. Also, Kabalite, Wyches are not that good, maybe just a Haywire Grenade suicide squad.

Kabalite warriors are great, blasters and all that, so yes.

Wracks, well, they're only really good if you're planning to run haemonculus and/or Urien as HQ, so you could make them troops and scoring, the elite slots have too many good choices to be wasted on wracks.

I came second at a weekend event recently with a DE army that was borrowed from a friend and the army list built on the fly.

I haven't played DE since 3rd and was shocked at how much fun they can be.

I used Sliscus, a bunch of Kabalite and Trueborn Venom squads and a Razorwing at 750. The only army I lost against was Cron Air.

Sliscus is probably the most efficient hq in the book. Cheap too.

Baron, provided that you also plan to run the typical retinue unit for him; why wouldn't you? Cheap durable unit with lots of rendings.

Succubus, cheap solid combat HQ who comes with free drugs, against anything not TEQ, she can outperform archon in damage output per point.

... I think the "most efficient HQ in the book" is still contested.

An archon with 4 incubi is kinda boss. Just be sure he gets a grenade launcher.
Also, how are grotesques? I have a cool conversion in mind using dragon ogres

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
An archon with 4 incubi is kinda boss. Just be sure he gets a grenade launcher.
Also, how are grotesques? I have a cool conversion in mind using dragon ogres

Dragon ogres? Link please. I'm looking to convert some grotesques as well.

From what I've read up, they're the other transport-boarded HQ retinue choice, many wounds, high toughness and FNP, throw in a haemy and you could easily start with FC. Their high strength also make them quite killy in combat. Also the massive grotesque marching unit idea I read, that sounds like all the fun in the world!

Ok, so mabye just use kabalite warriors, with wracks, and Uriel?

Really, Someon told me that DE are one of the armies where you just have to learn it yourself. There are back bones, but there are very few "Bad" units, with the exclusion of mandrakes and their HQ. There are shiners, but alot can be good in re right hands.

Battleforces are an excellent addition to the army. Everything in it is useable, unlike other armies' battleforces. Archons and Haemonculi are stand-bys for HQ, ravagers for HS. Venoms are excellent as they can take two splinter cannons.

ok, thanks! anything else?

I would recommend the Razorwing Fighter. If you have players that use flyers in your meta, this thing will be gold.

Keep the Dark Lances so it can hunt vehicles. Upgrade the Splinter Rifles to a Cannon and add a Flickerfield and you haveva good all round unit.

My wife plays DE. She first started with Kabalite being a good chunk of her force. Then she went and blew almost 1k in 30 days building her "Carnival of Pain"....