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I'm wanting to run a MC-heavy (Dark)Eldar army, but am not really sure which should be the allied detachment. Pros and Cons?

Dark Eldar (Eldar allies)
- 3 Talos'
- Avatar
- Wraithlord/Wraithknight

Eldar (Dark Eldar allies)
- Avatar
- 3 Wraithlords/Wraithknights
- Cronos/Talos

I usually like to run a large beastpack led by the Baron to screen all these MCs, which can be done in either version. With Eldar as the main army, I could also add a Farseer on jetbike to boost the beast pack. With Dark Eldar, I can get more beasts and play around with Wracks as scoring units. What are other reasons to choose one army as the main detachment over the other?

I would go eldar. The farseer offers alot to the entire army and 1 wraithknight (stock) is a pretty excellent addition.

You can use the Iyanden supplement and get the healing item on your farseer (3+ to regain wound on wraithknight/lord). You can also make the wraithknight your warlord, which is awesome (they are super tough to kill if used right).

you could add a bunch of wraithguard and grotesques to add to the high toughness pile heap

Ummm why the Talos/cronos? what do they add?

qballony wrote:
Ummm why the Talos/cronos? what do they add?

Another threat.

but they don't accomplish the goal of threatening anything. They don't really do too much for the outline of the list. If anything run avatar 3x wraithknight and then venoms...lots of venoms...your MC eldar will take care of any other MCs or tanks.

My thoughts

If you want to go with the fast, mobile force, go with Eldar and take:
* 3 Wraithknights (jump pack MC)
* Spiritseer(s) to make Wraithguard troops
* Wraithguard with or without d-scythes in Wave Serpents
* [DE] Archon with [DE] Grotesques in a Raider
* [DE] Talos for extra MC goodness

If you want to go with the slower, walking force, go with Dark Eldar and take:
* Archon and Haemonculus with a large number of Grotesques
* 2 units of Wracks with Liquifiers for troops
* 2 Talos/1 Chronos
* [E] Spiritseer(s) to make Wraithguard troops
* 2 large units of [E] Wraithguard for additional troops
* [E] Wraithlord

Before the new dex dropped, I ran 5 monster eldar/deldar. Avatar, 3 lords, talos. Still viable. Without fortune and Eldrad classic the list is a bit less durable, but with no more wraithsight and fleet on the avatar you can be more mobile and aggressive.

The avatar is a fairly easy target and with all the S8 around that cant be touched he usually dies first. However, you just run him at things breakneck speed. That said, he is expensive and takes up an HQ slot and you probably want a farseer and spiritseer, not as critical as he used to be.

Wraithknights are absolute thugs and with their jump ability you can get them in close, or kite them around as needed. Stock is fine.

Wraithlords are not as good as knights, but they still have a place. More than 2 knights is prohibitively expensive and a single lord offers 2 wrist flamers and dakka or AT as needed. Without wraithsight and more attacks than before, they can be pushed forward agressively. Swords are great for spare points but not required.

Wraithguard are good troops in foot mobs or serpents. The same works for guardians.

The deldar bring lots of goodies to the table. 1-2 venoms with scoring units inside, beastpacks, the baron, grotesques for more high T nonsense. The talos is just a cheap MC that you can rush at the enemy. Put a TL liquifier on it and run it at something. If it dies, who cares it did its job of being a fire magnet. It is a nice expendable threat. Combine it with the avatar rush and now you have something nasty.

The wraithforge stone is critical, and on a jetseer all the better. Could be on a spiritseer as well, and the nice thing about a spiritseer is the possibility of having destructor/renewer...which combined with the stone is borderline cheat codes. Until this model drops, shooting at your wraith units is a joke.

 ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:

qballony wrote:
Ummm why the Talos/cronos? what do they add?

Another threat.

Talos add number of attacks. A wraithknight can be tarpitted pretty easily, wraithlords as well. A talos with chain flails adds a lot of WS5 attacks that will hit and will wound. They can also be fun taking FNP againt lascannons.


They arent great, but if you were going to run an Elfzilla army, you would probably want to use it to back up your other MCs and save them from tarpitts with the counter charge.

I think the decision has more to do with what your Troops choices are doing. The Avatar will only give the Fearless bubble to units chosen from Codex: Eldar (p26 CWE) so if you plan to fill your other options with Eldar then you might consider Eldar as the main detachment. Cheap Dark Eldar units or Venom spam is quite effective with few points and you could take a Cronos to add a little ranged support and give pain tokens which will add resilence to your Dark Eldar units (and eventually Fearless as well).

I wouldn't normally take more than one Wraithknight but you might need at least a pair in this list just so you can get enough ranged firepower to thin the enemy and reduce the chance of getting tarpitted in later turns. I think that if you go DE with Allied Eldar you might be able to supplement enough firepower with Kabalite Warriors to mitigate the need for a Wraithknight. I'm not sure how many points are left over after taking the MCs, but you should be able to get a few. If you go Eldar main then taking a Spiritseer for Wraithtroops for target saturation could increase the survivability of your MCs because the enemy needs to use their plasma/melta on those too. Iyanden will let you take more than 1 Spiritseer and the Renewer power can help you retain your MCs into later turns.

I'm not sure what point level you're playing at, but I would prefer Dark Eldar main detachment and some combination of:

Dark Eldar
- Baron Sathonyx
- up to 6 Venoms with double splinter cannon
- Beast pack (stick Baron in here)
- 2 Talos, 1 Cronos

Iyanden Eldar Allies
- a bunch of Spiritseers
- 5+ Wraithsomethings as a bunker for some Spiritseers
- 1 unit of Windriders to rush an objective in the late game
- Wraithknight with Suncannon

The goal is to use target saturation to keep the enemy off your Venoms. Use your guns to thin units out so you don't get tarpitted and your MCs can clean them up in assault. Everything's on foot so you'll have to move up every turn and hopefully you can do a lot of damage when your charges go off.