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I think DE is by far the coolest looking army GW has produced and I'm really tempted to try them out. Before I start buying a 500pts skirmish force to give them a go I wonder if there are any units I should avoid or really shines in a very Tau and IG heavy meta.

If you are just starting the army, don't worry to much about what armies you are facing. Assuming they are starting there armies too that means they will spend some time getting to know there armies before any real cheese comes out. So in a 500pt list I would suggest

Archon w/ venom blade + shadowfield 95pts

5 Warriors w/ blaster in raider
5 Warriors w/ blaster In raider = 240pts
( This is so you only have to buy battle force and an extra raider which you would need anyway)

6 reavers w/ 2 blasters or heat lances, bring you up to 501 pts or 495pts respectively. With battle force you only need to buy 1 more unit of reavers.

You could probably kit bash the archon using wyches and warriros, warrior bodies + wych heads and weapons meaning you don't have to buy him. This list runs around the reavers being a really fun and strong unit. It also steers you away from the common venom spam list which everyone does but I don't like. Both tau and IG are vulnerable to reavers, especially tau pathfinders. Flying over them is an instant pain token waiting to happen, so then on that turn you have a 3+ cover and a 5+ feel no pain, NASTY! They are also no slouches in CC, as they, unlike other stupid bikers, remembered to bring there knives.

My 2 cents, reavers are fun!

Thx for the reply. The others (2 IGplayers, 1 DKoK player and 2 Tau players) have played their armies for a while so they have a lot of stuff. I'm thinking that DE's quantity of jink can be a thorn against the barragespam from IG and DKoK atleast.

There is another option, but I didn't add it because it costs more money and I think when advising a new army its best to start cheap. With keeping this list you'd swap archon to a haemonculus with liquefier to start with reavers, gving them FnP from the start and also give you points to upgrade on reaver to an arena champion with V.Blade for CC punch. So that's your call, it would make them more survivable first turn and makes them less reliant on wiping a unit first turn.

reavers are amazing against DKoK because of there reliance on artillery. Those artillery don't like being in charge range turn two or having splinter fire poured into them ( only as tough as 2 marines, T7 be gone!) and they fold in combat. Against tau just be sure to kill pathfinders ASAP. If they remove your cover you are as good as dead. But that shouldn't be hard as they usually come in units of 5, while a unit of reavers boasting over them does 12 hits, 8 wounds, five dead. If tau runs a lot of battlesuits use blasters instead of lances, because strength 8 ap 2 really scares battle suits with insta death.

I'd advise against venom spam, for your meta is like perfectly tailored to kill them.

Excellent advise, thank you. Reavers look awesome and seems quite versatile in what you can do with them as well. And giving them feel no pain first turn is just nasty.

athedge wrote:
I think DE is by far the coolest looking army GW has produced and I'm really tempted to try them out. Before I start buying a 500pts skirmish force to give them a go I wonder if there are any units I should avoid or really shines in a very Tau and IG heavy meta.

Unfortuneatly you fight them differently.

Against most IG, cover is your friend and their infantry is T3 5+ covered by masses of vehicles. So you need a lot of cover and things that destroy vehicles.

Against Tau, cover is of little use and a lot of their nasty stuff has T4+ and 3+ save or better. You want your DE patented anti infantry here.

Good job reavers can do both.

Oh, for an example i'd advise you to look at Mushkilla's battle reports. He is the person that almost single handily convinced people reavers where awesome.

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t4204-the-big-thread-of-illustrated-battle-reports

Both are probably going to give you fits, to be honest. The good news is that Riptides aren't much of a problem for you if you're spamming Splinter Cannons.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
Good job reavers can do both.

Oh, for an example i'd advise you to look at Mushkilla's battle reports. He is the person that almost single handily convinced people reavers where awesome.

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t4204-the-big-thread-of-illustrated-battle-reports

I have thought reavers were awesome since 3rd edition when they were 30 points a model and lacked basically all the special rules that make them awesome today. Before 6th offically hit I could tell reavers were going to be awesome, and have been running as many as i can ever since.