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Dark Eldar Tactica – 6th Ed.
Posted on August 5, 2013 by R4gg3dym4n

So to kick off the month of August and my return to gaming, I’ve decided to go ahead and start with a little Dark Eldar Tactica. With the rule changes in 6th Edition, it’s apparent that Dark Eldar got the short end of the stick. I’m gonna go ahead and highlight some of the pros and cons of this nasty little army. Of course, as any good player would, I always try to tweak my lists and try new things – some times things work out great, other times..not so much. If their is one thing that holds true to the Dark Eldar army, it’s this – You either win by a landslide or you get wiped in Round 2!

The Hard Truth with 6th Edition

1/2 of the Dark Eldar army is garbage. What?! Why the hell would I say that? Well, their comes a point when us Dark Eldar players have to be logical about things and the truth is, a lot of the Dark Eldar army, specifically, assault units like Wyches, Incubi, etc., are completely useless with the 6th edition rules. Their are a number of important factors that go into this bold claim which I will highlight now!

Charging and Assaults - Ah yes…in GW’s infinite wisdom, they decided to give all charging units 2d6 inches, EVERYONE. Of course, Fleet of Foot special rule allows your assault units to reroll but often you will find that with proper placement and the ability to pre-measure, this rule is pretty much worthless. For an army built around pure speed and power, this is a nasty blow that cripples the majority of Dark Eldar units. Also, the inability to Run then charge for units like Wyches makes them a difficult unit to manage. However, if you do manage to get them into the fray, 6th edition managed to screw us over with my next point….

Overwatch - Overwatch is nice but not for your Wyches. Overwatch = instantly dead Wyches before they even get into assault. Dark Eldar forfeit their armor saves for pure power and speed – balance that with point cost and numbers and you will find Overwatch really hurts because it ensures that we don’t go into assault at full strength. You CAN mitigate this though however, with 1 Pain Token and my next point!

Feel No Pain / Pain Token - All Dark Eldar need Pain Tokens to survive now – their armor saves are generally not good enough to ensure that they survive enemy fire as you march them up into the fray. However, Feel No Pain got a nerf with 6th. edition @ 5+. This only ensures that getting Pain Tokens is a must. While it’s nice that FnP cannot be denied, you will find many armies rock higher strength weapons, and with DE being mainly at T3, you will find most weapons will instantly kill you because of that double strength – not a good thing, especially when most close combat weapons now increase strength, which brings up the next point!

Challenges - These can be amazing or the bane of our exsistence! In a game vs. Chaos, I charged a 10 man strong unit of Bloodbrides w/ Feel No Pain and my Succubus HQ into a 10 man Chaos Cultist w/ Dark Apostle. Issuing a challenge, I managed to wound the Dark Apostle down to 1 wound with my Syren. However, all it took to instantly wipe my Succubus HQ with one failed Invul. save from the Dark Apostle’s +2 Strength weapon. He lost many a cultists, but when his Dark Apostle was able to strike the unit, I ended up losing WAY too many Bloodbrides. The point being – many weapons offer strength bonuses and it’s really easy to be over Str6 so while FnP is nice, you will find that it is not as reliable as it once was. Don't be afraid to not issue/accept challenges. Losing a few attacks in the first round of assault is well worth not getting your HQ / Character killed outright.

Vehicle Movement - Perhaps the most annoying rule to 6th edition for the Dark Eldar is the change to vehicle movement. Not only are your Raiders going to get shot down, you can’t count on them to get you INTO the fight reliably now because ‘technically’, a Land Raider is now as fast as a Raider. However – the new Jinx rule and the Raider’s Flickerfield can possibly mitigate otherwise crippling blows, the fact that even small arms fire can cripple a Raider is nothing new.

Synopsis - While their are other small things that nerf the Dark Eldar army, those, from my experience, are the biggest ones that change the way the army plays. With the army mainly focused on assaults, you can see now why and how it got nerfed so badly with 6th edition. This is not to say you can’t run assault-oriented armies, when decked out right, Dark Eldar can pack quite a punch in assaults but as a player, you have to carefully focus on HOW you get them into assault. Their are however, a number of redeemable points that REALLY make the Dark Eldar worthwhile…



WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF PAIN! The Positive side of Sadomasochism!

Dark Eldar have ALWAYS been a high-risk, high-reward army and those players that understand this concept (the aggressive players) are the ones that make the Dark Eldar a sight to behold on the table. However, with such large nerfs in 6th edition, you’re probably wondering what on earth could possible make them a good army?! You’d be surprised to see how many people actually ignore the Dark Eldar because they were so badly nerfed with 6th Edition and that is a HUGE mistake – that and underestimating a Dark Eldar army. If played properly ( which is AGGRESSIVE! ), they still hold a stupid amount of potential to win games. This actually took some effect on my part to really DIG into the codex to find the strengths given the new rules…and it was in the most unlikely places that I found the true potential of this army!

SPEED AND POWER! - So it appears GW took the speed out of our army…guess what, we’re still powerful as HELL. Dark Lances, Dis. Cannons, Blasters, we rock a LOT of mean weapons meant to make the biggest and nastiest Tyranids and Daemons shake in their little boots! With 6th edition placing more emphasis on shooting armies, this turns our Kabalites into REALLY nasty opponents. This only gets worse when packed in a Raider with Splinter Racks, or even coupled with most glorious HQ we can rock – Duke Sliscus! Focus on Kabalite Warriors and/or Trueborn and you can’t go wrong. To make up for our lack of speed…we got to think Fast Attack…

FAST ATTACK = PURE AWESOME!!!! - Keep this in mind – Turboboosting happens in your SHOOTING Phase – seperate from Movement…..I’ve had many a rule argument about this one but the fact is clear – Reaver jetbikes are possibly the BEST unit in your army because of their massive 48 inch kill range ( 12 inches in Movement + Turboboost 36 in Shooting!!!!). A full squad is pricey as hell – well over 200 points – but when decked out and positioned right, this unit alone will wipe 1/2 an opponent’s army and they will barely be able to touch them. Stick to Cluster Caltrops (1 per three bikes can take it so focus on 9-10 bikes) and you’re gonna be overwhelming the enemy with so many wounds, even at the best save, it will be impossible for them to recover. Reavers aren’t the only ones that carry speed and power – Scourges and Beastmasters with Khymera’s make just as power, if not, more powerful combinations. Scourges can reliably move into favorable positions and have the firepower to really put the hurt on ANY enemy, while Beastmasters with Khymera ignore all terrain effects and overwhelm the enemy with number of attacks and invulnerable saves. Hellions are also a nasty combination but only in larger numbers and with the Baron so they become troop choices.

The Carnival of Flesh - If you haven’t tried a Haemonculi coven based army – you’re missing out on perhaps the BIGGEST strength of the Dark Eldar in 6th edition! Since most Dark Eldar units have lost their speed – Wracks and Grotesques not only give you the survivability needed to get into the fray, but also pack your BEST wargear. As terrifying as a Haemonculi Coven army looks on tabletop, most players realize just how truly terrifying they are when they start bringing the pain! Wracks are the best assault oriented troop choices (if taken with a Haemonculi HQ) because of a little overlooked rule – they pack TWO POISONED CLOSE COMBAT WEAPONS! This is easily overlooked because they are the only thing (outside of special wargear) that has poisoned close combat weapons. Also, they start with a pain token and adding a Haemonculi with them just grants them another – this is when gak gets messy and you can utilize the Poisoned close combat rule that allows you to reroll wounds if your toughness is equal or greater – making that 2nd pain token a must – Now you Wracks can safely contend with Space Marines. Grotesques work in much of the same way – amazing when augmented with a Haemonculi or even Urien Rakarth. Because of their high toughness, you can reliably march them up to the board or use them to lock large units and widdle them down to nothing over a turn or two. Packing a huge 3 wounds and Toughness of 5- Grotesques are straight up mean as gak and get around the majority of Dark Eldar’s Toughness of 3. Haemonculi and their wargear they can bring to battle can easily turn the tide of battle as well – while not a powerhouse HQ, the fact you can take up to 3 per 1 HQ choice, and their fairly cheap makes them powerful as hell as well as handing out much needed pain tokens. Utilizing a Haemonculi coven army yields awesome results but keep this in mind – you have to tailor them to the army you are fighting. (See Synopsis)
Eyes to the Sky - 6th edition placed an emphasis on the new flyers and while the Voidraven / Razorwing got nerfed (check the FAQ, I know…it fething sucks….), they are still not without their use. Not being able to dump all your missiles into your enemy when they fly onto the board still sucks, but the Dark Eldar don’t have anything that can contend with enemy flyers (unless you get lucky hits with your Dark Lances, but chances are the shots will be Jinxed) so packing a Razorwing with Dark Lances is a viable option. Also – an Aegis defense line – of course, you better custom build it to be totally Dark Eldar, but having a Skyfire interceptor PLUS something to hide your troops behind makes this a killer option for any Dark Eldar army.

Synopsis - You have to really dig into your codex and tailor your army to your enemy – Dark Eldar are far from stupid and if you think taking the cookie cutter wargear into battle will give you wins, you’re going to be gravely disapointed. If you plan to be competetive with your Dark Eldar, you need to take your time while designing your lists to deal with different threats. Packing 2 Ravagers with Dark Lances against a horde army just ain’t going to cut it. Also, read into the fine print of all your wargear – Dark Eldar pack a LOT of instant death / ignores toughness weapons and utilizing them to their full potential just requires some reading and experimenting. You’d be surprised how many wounds a Grotesque w/ Scissorhand will put out, or how potent a Acothyst w/ Hexrifle can be towards picking off enemy special units before you charge into battle. 6th edition might have taken away the Dark Eldar’s bark, but their bite remains as potent as hell.

THE SUM OF PAIN – Tips and Tricks!

10 Reaver Jetbikes – 3 Cluster Caltrops. Massive kill range and high number of hits using Bladevanes – high point cost (200-250)

3 Grotesques + Haemonculi – 1 Liquifier gun, Abberation with Scissorhand. Haemonculi with Mindphase Gauntlet (for locking enemy in challenges while Grotesques rip apart the accompanying unit) or Venom Blade. Starting with 2 pain tokens, this can be a potent locking or assault unit.
Full Harlequin troop – Shadowseer is a MUST, since they have been changed (See the Errata or Eldar 6th ed. rulebook) – they now get Stealth and Shrouded, so a 4+ cover save to the unit in open ground. Harlequin Kisses and Fusion Pistols make this a beast of a tank hunter/assault unit but the trade off is their HIGH point cost. Don’t bother taking them without a Shadowseer. Dip in and out of cover since they ignore difficult terrain to increase that cover save.

Expect your Raiders to blow up, but remember to use their weapons! You’d be surprised what a few extra Dis. Cannons or Dark Lances can do. Don’t invest too highly into them, try to keep them cheap.

Get to know Duke Sliscus – he’s your best HQ – pure utility and comes back with venom blades (poisoned close combat weapons!) and Blast Pistol (excellent for tank busting!) Rerolling combat drugs is ALWAYS fun!

Duke Sliscus + 9 Kabalites + Raider w/ Splinter Racks – A very basic strategy but one of the most deadly – zip this bad boy around and rapid fire everything in sight and watch everything from full 30 man Ork squads and Monsterous Creatures drop in a heartbeat.

PLAY AGGRESSIVELY! The best tip I can give any Dark Eldar player – you’re army is meant to be played fast and mean, and though 6th edition made us slower, we still hit hard as hell. With our speed, we were once able to choose where we strike and when but because of the speed nerf, we just need to get into the fight as fast as possible.

Don’t be scared of assaults – I know I preached about the hit’s we took in assaults earlier but that doesn’t mean you should avoid close combat at all – you just need to be smart about it. Get your Wyches pain tokens (atleast 1) prior to rolling into an assault – this can be done through combat drugs or pain tokens. Think of taking a Cronos Parasite Engine!

Cronos Parasite Engines are a little more potent than people tend to think. They make large targets and the enemy will surely focus their shots at it. Don’t take one if you’re running a Haemonculi coven based army – you will already start with several pain tokens among your troops so it makes the CPE somewhat worthless if not a large shot magnet. Instead, place him into the heart of battle with some surrounding Wyches so they can get the free pain tokens.

Share the Pain – Haemonculi are great for this so keep them attached to Wracks or Grotesques so you can start with 2 pain tokens and you’d be surprised how fast you get that 3rd pain token! Don’t break them away though, Haemonculi can go down rather quick.

Aggressive but not stupid – Don’t run your assaults based on whatever is closest. The assault nerf our army got is very big in terms of play, so take your time to choose the assault that is right for you. You’d be surprised to see how even basic units now can instantly kill your Wyches or Incubi because of special wargear upping their strength.

Don’t be afraid to decline challenges. It’s not worth getting your HQ or sarge killed over. Bloodbrides and Wyches come with a stupid number of attacks and chances are good that you will clear the majority of the unit in the first round of assault so loosing a few attacks isn’t that big of a deal in the long run. It fething sucks seeing your decked out Succubus getting instantly killed because of one failed save. You will be able to return the pain in the next round of assault.





I hope this was helpful for you budding Dark Eldar players. Feel free to comment and throw out more suggestions. I don’t claim to be the greatest Dark Eldar player ever and I am always open to new tactica and ideas to try out on the board! Remember the most important rule – DON’T EVER STOP LEARNING! If you tell me you know everything their is to playing Dark Eldar, then you should just sell your army and pick up another because you’ve learned nothing. Like the good lil’ haemonculi you are, keep experimenting! Dig into that codex and roll with any/every idea you have and share them with the rest of us!


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Also, for any of you Dark Eldar players, you can follow my Dark Eldar blog. I hope to add more content and I hope you guys come up help me out! I wanna make this blog a community effect and rally those Dark Eldar players!

http://denizensofthedarkcity.wordpress.com/

Nice to see some love for the Dark Eldar!
But you forgot one of the most important things about this particular army;

They have the best looking models in the game.

NEVER underestimate the cool factor.

Well, nice read. However, I'm missing the Venom spam which is still viable in the 6th ed especially against nasty MCs like the new Wraithknight.

There are some very nice ideas, here. I'm more of a fan of allying in some AA support, but your tips about which units are now good in 6th edition and which ones aren't is spot on, I'm finding.

I haven't been having any luck with Wyches, so I'll switch them for Wracks and see how things work out. While venom spam may still be viable in 6th edition, I was hoping someone could come up with a way for my old WWP list to work!

I was always a huge fan of the fast attack, hard hitting, I'll annoy your elite unit wyches but as soon as you hit the wall of death it is not a pretty sight to hold.

I've shifted into the Hellions with the Baron and Reaver jetbikes being backed by what I believe to be the second best flier in the game behind the Heldrake of course.

A lot of people are not taking their Flickerfield and Night shields which I still think are worth the points since we can be taken down by small arm gun fire and the fact that ignore cover weapons have no effect.

I like the point about the Carnival of Flesh, I might have to give that a whirl sometime soon.

I'm not sure this is a complete tactica or that it is offering much new from the 20 page 6th edition DE tactica that is still going around.


It certainly is sad that GW implemented 6th edition without much are as to what would happen to poor DE, but ehh with models like these eventually there will be enough DE players to influence things.

 Laughingcarp wrote:
Nice to see some love for the Dark Eldar!
But you forgot one of the most important things about this particular army;

They have the best looking models in the game.

NEVER underestimate the cool factor.

Much love for Dark Eldar! I agree whole-heartedly, they really do have the coolest look on the table! Hence why I didn't pick up DE until the new models came out. I cant soil my army with gakky looking oldschool DE figures! The new ones are just too sexy!


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 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, nice read. However, I'm missing the Venom spam which is still viable in the 6th ed especially against nasty MCs like the new Wraithknight.

I'm gonna have to try the venom spam, they are really nice for point cost for what they come equipped with! Saddly, I only have 1 venom..... :(

But that 1 venom has always been a bad mother fether on the table top!

Venom + Archon + Archon court = rape sauce if played right!


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Dastrike wrote:
I was always a huge fan of the fast attack, hard hitting, I'll annoy your elite unit wyches but as soon as you hit the wall of death it is not a pretty sight to hold.

I've shifted into the Hellions with the Baron and Reaver jetbikes being backed by what I believe to be the second best flier in the game behind the Heldrake of course.

A lot of people are not taking their Flickerfield and Night shields which I still think are worth the points since we can be taken down by small arm gun fire and the fact that ignore cover weapons have no effect.

I like the point about the Carnival of Flesh, I might have to give that a whirl sometime soon.

Fast attack is the way to go! I have 12 Reavers and though the point cost is up there, they really do pay for themselves when i zip them around the table and just wipe full squads. Once they get that first pain token, and the Jinx from turboboost....GAME OVER!

I've shifted my entire army to a Haemonculi coven army and honesty, I've not noticed a lot of play differences. Of course, they are suppose to be slower, but the whole army got slower because of 6th Ed., so Wracks are just as fast as wyches if played right.

The biggest thing I've noticed was their survivability and the ability to take some insanely helpful wargear - i.e. having 2 poisoned close combat weapons and gak like Hexrifles - you can pick off all the important figures and really piss the other player off.

'Removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed!' HEHEHE I fething love seeing phil kelley's approach to getting around gak rules


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 Exergy wrote:
I'm not sure this is a complete tactica or that it is offering much new from the 20 page 6th edition DE tactica that is still going around.


It certainly is sad that GW implemented 6th edition without much are as to what would happen to poor DE, but ehh with models like these eventually there will be enough DE players to influence things.

I appreciate ya give my tactica a read even if their is a 20 page 6th ed. tactica floating around. But who wants to skim through 20 pages when all that's needed to be said about 6th Ed. Dark Eldar can fit in 2-3 pages?

Nice guide.

I would disagree with Dark Eldar being worse off in 6th than they were in 5th. Our army got buffed in 6th.

-Move and shoot 24" rapide fire weapons!
-Hull points mean we don't explode to a glance.
-Movement range increased massively.
-FNP being a psudo invulnerable save is a buff to reavers, pain engines, grotesques, etc
-We have fleet, which makes us more reliable at charging through cover than non fleet units are at charging in the open. With our mobility we should almost always be getting a cover save against overwatch when charging into assault (with a PGL that tends to be a 4+ or a 3+ if charging through ruins).
-Jink saves.
-Night fight became a relevant rule and as a result night vision is an awesome special rule to have.
-Haywire is now amazing.
-Hull points make our AT more reliable, as we can now glance stuff to death (no endless stunned results on a lucky rhino).
-The challenge system makes archons even more deadly (one of the best character killers in the game).
-Husk blades are deadly.
-Our flyers are better than they were, now that they actually fly.
-Our assault units can now actually shoot before assaulting (because of the changes to fleet).
-Look out sir is amazing for our more fragile HQ choices.
-Beasts got a lot faster.
(the list goes on)

I can't think of any Dark Eldar units that got worse in 6th, other than wyches, who are now not as good in assault but absolutely brutal against vehicles.

If you want some tactical resources I recommend checking out The Dark City.

If you like reavers you might also want to check out these battle reports.

Thanks for sharing the pain.

I'm gonna have to try the venom spam, they are really nice for point cost for what they come equipped with! Saddly, I only have 1 venom..... :(

Well, I'd consider 6 Venoms with 5 men Warrior squads as a core.

I don't play DE but enjoyed this. I've always like DE, it wouldn't surprise my I i picked up a force at some point.

D

I am just starting a Dark Eldar force, so thank you for this article. It's really interesting.

Good article.

In my not-so-humble opinion 3 Raiders with Splinter Racks, FlickerFields and maybe Nightshields each with a full 10 man Kabalite squad with Splinter Cannon and, a Sybarite with a Venom Blade just in case, is a solid set-up for DE troops.

Venoms, because Venoms. They are listed as "dedicated transports" but they are so good it's like their passengers are the tax. I put non-troop things in here like Incubi and Trueborn.

So. Many. Shots.

Nice stuff.

But as usual I have to agree with Mush. Dark Eldar got much much better in 6th then in 5th. Mainly with changes to core rules making some of our stuff flat better, but also with a shift away from massed mech from other armies, and making it easier to kill vehicles with glancing hits and close combat.

The move away from mech is huge (I always forget that one), considering 5th was wall to wall rhinos.

The other big one for me is pre-measuring. Because we are a very mobile army and often rely on positioning for survivability being able to make sure your ravager is exactly 36" away from it's target, or being able to make sure your reavers won't get hit by a flame template or assaulted is massive.

I've learned with the DE that you have to use the dirty tricks that the codex offers along with some on the fly action.

I usually spot my Wyches with a Homunculus for the free pain token all in a raider with the night shields and flicker fields. When I get towards that assault range, break off the Homunculus to charge first to either force the over watch one way or another and then bring the wyches up second to cause the mayhem.

I am planning on using the army for a 1250 team tournament using The Baron, Hellions, Reavers and a Jetifghter.

Worse can be a subjective term. I feel as though Dark Eldar are worse because while some units have been buffed many others have been dealt fairly crippling nerfs, require crutches to work, or have been knocked completely out of their intended role within the army. Wyches for instance are now no longer a decent assault option and instead see use as almost purely as anti-vehicle, hellions on the other hand just about require the Baron to work to a passable degree, and bloodbrides have gone from passable to "why bother". Wracks are kind of still usable, but tend now to see play only as minimal squads of throwaways or objective grabbers.

Perhaps I am being a negative nancy, but these are not the signs of a healthy codex in my honest opinion. Sure we can spam kabalites, venoms, ravagers, and reavers to build lists, but the loss of coven and wych cult viability tears out two thirds of the codex's essence. You lose a lot of the flavor of what it is to play Dark Eldar.

Can you still use Dark Eldar to win? Yes.

Does the army function as intended? Not really.

Considering that the answer to the second question was a "yes" in fifth edition I would say they have gotten worse. Even if only from a thematic and fun standpoint.

Coven got stronger, wracks, grotesques and talos got the psudo invulnerable save they always needed thanks to FNP now only being ignored by weapons that cause instant death.

Wyches I agree did change role, but they still have a purpose (fantastic AT). Blood brides were always mediocre. Hellion lost out on only 50% of the unit needing cover. However they now get their 5+ armour against dangerous terrain, get hammer of wrath, the power spear has fantastic synergy with hit and run, and most importantly thanks to the changes to fleet they can now use their awesome shooting profile before they charge. They were never a super competitive unit, but they are far from unusable, 6th just changed how you use them (they are more fragile, but put out a lot more damage).

Coven got stronger, wracks, grotesques and talos got the psudo invulnerable save they always needed thanks to FNP now only being ignored by weapons that cause instant death.

Wyches I agree did change role, but they still have a purpose (fantastic AT). Blood brides were always mediocre. Hellion lost out on only 50% of the unit needing cover. However they now get their 5+ armour against dangerous terrain, get hammer of wrath, the power spear has fantastic synergy with hit and run, and most importantly thanks to the changes to fleet they can now use their awesome shooting profile before they charge. They were never a super competitive unit, but they are far from unusable, 6th just changed how you use them (they are more fragile, but put out a lot more damage).

Feel No Pain: I personally liked the old feel no pain better. A 4+ makes a huge difference against small arms fire and exploding vehicles (typically their own) for a unit that only has a 6+ armor save to begin with. I also never saw power weapons as that much of an issue before, but then again I used wyches on units where that might have been a problem. The new feel no pain evens out better on units that have it as an additive to their save (ala Space Marines).

Wracks: Feel no pain is designed to be their armor save and when it was made worse they were directly affected. Wracks also suffer from overwatch, random charge distances, and the increased damage output of their own exploding transports in much the same way wyches are. All they get in return is a 5+ save against power weapons. I am not sure that this is a good trade off.

Grotesques: These are viable now because they are tough and have multiple wounds. They can take a round of shooting from most small arms and still make it into close combat. Although they are extremely expensive and will not last long if they get caught in the open or in mid-field. They too are hurt by a worse armor save (FNP) and random charge distances.

Talos: Truth be told I am not sure that I see how these have gotten better. It is entirely possible that I have run them incorrectly (I do make my share of mistakes), but I have found that they get chewed up and spat out in a bad way by most of the armies that I face. Terminators rip them open, missile launchers destroy them, and Tau and Eldar do horribly unspeakable things to my lovely giant monsters. They also do not get the benefit of feel no pain unless accompanied by a successful chronos or until after they have killed an entire enemy non-vehicle unit.

All of these units have also been impacted, due to their largely close combat oriented nature, by the change to how reserves work. The inability to charge out of a webway portal and the 3+ instead of 4+ on turn two for reserves to enter the table have greatly impeded one of their primary delivery systems.

Wrack I can agree on, losing I5 from furious charge was bad for them. But now that the accompanying haemi can't get singled out because of look out sir and brings a power axe (S5 Ap2 is great for the unit), they are still a good assault unit.

Groteques and talos are units I use regularly.

Grotesques are amazing this edition the 5+ FNP is miles better as they were generally targeted by high strength weapons that were AP2 any way. The same for close combat the things that hurt them most were power fists and power weapons, because they ignored their saves. Also now that transports can move flat out after a unit embarks, they are almost always going to be in your opponents face turn 1. They don't lack for cover either as transports leave craters when they are wrecked. They also no longer need 6s to hit moving vehicles, combined with hull points and this makes them a lot better against armoured threats. They are a very cheap unit for what they bring, an are a fantastic bodyguard unit for DE characters. If you want to make them even tough in assault add a cheap succubus to the unit and she can tank S5 or lower hits with her 4+ ward and 5+ FNP and use look out sir if she gets down to a wound, she also gives the unit I8 for sweeping advance and of course benefits from majority toughness 5. Grotesques were a novelty pick in 5th, now they are a serious contender for the elite slot.

I run the twinlinked liquifier and twinlinked splinter cannon talos. Talos has only gained from 6th edition. Random charge lengths have increased it's potential threat range by 6" and it doesn't care about overwatch. Monstrous creatures now benefit from area terrain, meaning more often then not it will have a cover save. Impact hits give it an extra S7 hit (great against vehicles). The twinlinked liquifiers give it a nasty overwatch. 5+ FNP is the invulnerable save that it always needed, last edition it hardly used FNP as most things shooting it were AP2 (now it gets FNP against missile launchers, lascannons, rail guns the lot). With the splinter cannons it's also pretty easy to finish off a weakened unit to get that pain token early. Smash attack gives it access to S10 and works really well with the random attacks and rounding up. Finally fear although not great doesn't hurt. Like the grotesque it also massively benefits from hitting vehicles on 3s. They are a fantastic unit this edition, their problem has always been they compete with the ravager our main source of ranged AT. The thing that can't be stressed enough with any MC is you should never take just one, always double or triple up.

Your points on grotesques have merit and, from what I can see, they work well in the multiple threat overload style lists that you use on The Dark City.

The Talos, however, I am still far from convinced about. Three wounds, toughness seven, with a three plus save does not go nearly as far as it used to when people are gearing up their armies to deal with the likes of wraithknights and riptides. How do you get them, even in multiples, to survive? I am honestly curious as I have some and would love to make them work. I have watched Tyranid and Daemon armies with more and faster monsters, using MTO tatics, get blown away by Imperial Guard, Tau, and Eldar.

Nightwolf829 wrote:

The Talos, however, I am still far from convinced about. Three wounds, toughness seven, with a three plus save does not go nearly as far as it used to when people are gearing up their armies to deal with the likes of wraithknights and riptides. How do you get them, even in multiples, to survive? I am honestly curious as I have some and would love to make them work. I have watched Tyranid and Daemon armies with more and faster monsters, using MTO tatics, get blown away by Imperial Guard, Tau, and Eldar.

In 5th edition, I would run 3 Talos' and you are right, they would die to Longfang fire quite easily with T7 Sv3+. However, with the introduction of allies, I now run 3 Talos' alongside an Avatar and a Wraithknight at 1850. The Talos' are behind a Beastpack for the intervening model save, and the Wraithknight has a scattershield, so all my MCs have a 5++. That is simply too much Monstrous Creature for most armies to deal with. I may lose the Avatar or the Wraithknight and perhaps one Talos, but the rest has been hitting my opponent's gunline with great consistency.

Talos are designed to draw fire, and they are the toughest unit in our book per point, meaning if you opponent is shooting them the rest of your army can do their job. If they are ignored they maul his army. Use terrain, cover and threat saturation from other units (beast, grots etc). They are not an easy unit to use but can really do well once you get the hang of them.

Can you still use Dark Eldar to win? Yes.

Does the army function as intended? Not really.

^This.

I love my DE army, but I recognize now that that 60% of the codex is unusable. Additionally, points costs for certain things are based on WWP portal delivery that doesn't even work anymore. The only thing left that is good in the army is Venoms, Beasts, Baron, Duke, and Reavers. Or scoring units are the most fragile units in the game...not good when the primary way of winning is claiming objectives. Some other things are "workable"...but completely uncompetitive vs. top tier builds. What pisses me off is that at the time of 6th Edition's release, the DE codex was only 18 months old. Having an army be essentially boned only after 18 months is dumb. Lastly, they could have easily FAQ'd the army to correct some of this...but they didn't. Now for DE to regularly compete with the top dogs...they need their Craftworld kin...which as a DE player offends my sensibilities. LOL.

 CaptKaruthors wrote:
What pisses me off is that at the time of 6th Edition's release, the DE codex was only 18 months old. Having an army be essentially boned only after 18 months is dumb.

It was boned after a lot less than 18 months. The release of Grey Knights made DE completely irrelevant to competitive play (much more so than other armies) in tail end of 5th edition. Neutering traditional mechanized armies just pigeon-holed them even further into the beast-centric mono-build.

 CaptKaruthors wrote:
Lastly, they could have easily FAQ'd the army to correct some of this...but they didn't.

I feel like they really dropped the ball on disallowing assaults out of a webway portal. That alone would have made a Dark Eldar army unique and competitive in its own way. Assaulting out of Reserves should be a main feature of Dark Eldar and Ulthwe Eldar.

 Oaka wrote:

 CaptKaruthors wrote:
Lastly, they could have easily FAQ'd the army to correct some of this...but they didn't.

I feel like they really dropped the ball on disallowing assaults out of a webway portal. That alone would have made a Dark Eldar army unique and competitive in its own way. Assaulting out of Reserves should be a main feature of Dark Eldar and Ulthwe Eldar.

they could have changed the way DE fnp, FC, disembarching from transports, fleet or soooo many things worked rather easily.


The flyers not getting vector dancer, when they had to rewrite so many of their rules to get them into 6th anyway.....

Most of the time you just see how Games Workshop is quick to fix their "money maker" armies, and sadly we aren't seen as a money maker army. The only advantage we have over other armies like Sister of Battle is that we had a updated codex (which was outdated rather quickly). I was a Blood Angel player (like most at one time were) but I wanted faster, more agile and more thought and that led me to the Dark Eldar. More and more interesting things are coming to fruition (and frustration) as time progresses through 6th edition.

I may not be on the winning side of a lot of games as I continue to figure out new tactics and unit coherency to allow for survivability but with the lack of any good HQ choices outside of the Baron we are kind of boned.

I do agree with the fact we need support from our Craftworld Cousins being a spit in our face, but for the time I will except this indecency but doesn't mean I have to like it.

 Mushkilla wrote:
Nice guide.

I would disagree with Dark Eldar being worse off in 6th than they were in 5th. Our army got buffed in 6th.

-Move and shoot 24" rapide fire weapons!
-Hull points mean we don't explode to a glance.
-Movement range increased massively.
-FNP being a psudo invulnerable save is a buff to reavers, pain engines, grotesques, etc
-We have fleet, which makes us more reliable at charging through cover than non fleet units are at charging in the open. With our mobility we should almost always be getting a cover save against overwatch when charging into assault (with a PGL that tends to be a 4+ or a 3+ if charging through ruins).
-Jink saves.
-Night fight became a relevant rule and as a result night vision is an awesome special rule to have.
-Haywire is now amazing.
-Hull points make our AT more reliable, as we can now glance stuff to death (no endless stunned results on a lucky rhino).
-The challenge system makes archons even more deadly (one of the best character killers in the game).
-Husk blades are deadly.
-Our flyers are better than they were, now that they actually fly.
-Our assault units can now actually shoot before assaulting (because of the changes to fleet).
-Look out sir is amazing for our more fragile HQ choices.
-Beasts got a lot faster.
(the list goes on)

I can't think of any Dark Eldar units that got worse in 6th, other than wyches, who are now not as good in assault but absolutely brutal against vehicles.

If you want some tactical resources I recommend checking out The Dark City.

If you like reavers you might also want to check out these battle reports.

Thanks for sharing the pain.

Hey, thanks alot for the tips! You've definately highlighted some really big pros to the army and changed my perspective on it! I'll definately keep experimenting with my Haemonculi coven like the good little fleshcrafter I am!


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 Mushkilla wrote:
Wrack I can agree on, losing I5 from furious charge was bad for them. But now that the accompanying haemi can't get singled out because of look out sir and brings a power axe (S5 Ap2 is great for the unit), they are still a good assault unit.

Groteques and talos are units I use regularly.

Grotesques are amazing this edition the 5+ FNP is miles better as they were generally targeted by high strength weapons that were AP2 any way. The same for close combat the things that hurt them most were power fists and power weapons, because they ignored their saves. Also now that transports can move flat out after a unit embarks, they are almost always going to be in your opponents face turn 1. They don't lack for cover either as transports leave craters when they are wrecked. They also no longer need 6s to hit moving vehicles, combined with hull points and this makes them a lot better against armoured threats. They are a very cheap unit for what they bring, an are a fantastic bodyguard unit for DE characters. If you want to make them even tough in assault add a cheap succubus to the unit and she can tank S5 or lower hits with her 4+ ward and 5+ FNP and use look out sir if she gets down to a wound, she also gives the unit I8 for sweeping advance and of course benefits from majority toughness 5. Grotesques were a novelty pick in 5th, now they are a serious contender for the elite slot.

I run the twinlinked liquifier and twinlinked splinter cannon talos. Talos has only gained from 6th edition. Random charge lengths have increased it's potential threat range by 6" and it doesn't care about overwatch. Monstrous creatures now benefit from area terrain, meaning more often then not it will have a cover save. Impact hits give it an extra S7 hit (great against vehicles). The twinlinked liquifiers give it a nasty overwatch. 5+ FNP is the invulnerable save that it always needed, last edition it hardly used FNP as most things shooting it were AP2 (now it gets FNP against missile launchers, lascannons, rail guns the lot). With the splinter cannons it's also pretty easy to finish off a weakened unit to get that pain token early. Smash attack gives it access to S10 and works really well with the random attacks and rounding up. Finally fear although not great doesn't hurt. Like the grotesque it also massively benefits from hitting vehicles on 3s. They are a fantastic unit this edition, their problem has always been they compete with the ravager our main source of ranged AT. The thing that can't be stressed enough with any MC is you should never take just one, always double or triple up.

I've been falling into a mainly coven army - 3 grotesques with 1 Haemonculi or Urien Rakarth can be a complete rapesauce unit, especially decked out with Dark Gate or Shattershards, etc.etc. I really like the points you make on pairing with a Succubus and such and will try them out! The potency and potential of Grotesques is simply amazing and it's always awesome finding someone new to run with them. Even so, a nifty little tactic if they're pretty beat up is to let them run loose right in the heart of enemy units. No doubt they will be targeted, but im some cases you can possibly benefit from their Berserker special rule and cause a startling amount of hits/easy wounds to all enemies around you. I haven't tried this out yet, since it's a very situational move, but if you have, i'd love to hear about it!


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A note on Eldar Detachments - I've ran a Farseer and Warlock HQ, coupled with a Wraithlord and squad of Dire Avengers - most often to GREAT success. The psychic powers of the Farseer, coupled with the raw hurt of a Wraithlord and Dire Avenger squad easily makes any DE army list a contender.

Also - Mindphase Gauntlet (I believe that's what it is called) can be simply WICKED for stopping enemy character's in their tracks. Stuff like Electrocorrosive Whips, often overlooked in 5th ed., become a surprisingly potent option with 6th ed.


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 Oaka wrote:

 CaptKaruthors wrote:
Lastly, they could have easily FAQ'd the army to correct some of this...but they didn't.

I feel like they really dropped the ball on disallowing assaults out of a webway portal. That alone would have made a Dark Eldar army unique and competitive in its own way. Assaulting out of Reserves should be a main feature of Dark Eldar and Ulthwe Eldar.

I'm very much inclined to agree with you. A small yet amazingly potent rule that would change the mechanics of the DE army completely. That and perhaps letting vehicles come through WWP - since they're going to get shot down, why not actually let them get into the fight!


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 Mushkilla wrote:
Talos are designed to draw fire, and they are the toughest unit in our book per point, meaning if you opponent is shooting them the rest of your army can do their job. If they are ignored they maul his army. Use terrain, cover and threat saturation from other units (beast, grots etc). They are not an easy unit to use but can really do well once you get the hang of them.

Very true, though i've had nothing but bad luck with every Talos I've put in my 6th ed. lists. They are tricky as hell to use and you MUST have them in some sort of cover - generally the sheer amount of fire they draw, coupled with many weapons easily ignoring their 3+ armor save, makes them go down fast as hell. Many times I've had my talos struck down before it could get remotely close to any viable cover and/or assault range. This is a unit that should be used exclusively with the WWP.

Parasite Engine, on the other hand, has had some mild success - again, a total shot magnet, but if you're able to dish out 2-3 pain tokens to kabalites, wyches, or HQs, they've payed for themselves, (in my opinion) since your surviability with said units takes a huge jump when you have the majority of your units rocking pain tokens.

You did point out earlier that the Talos is one of those units, that looks kinda gakky on paper, but the point cost is decent and playability is tricky - it's really the 6th edition rules that you have to take advantage of to get the biggest bang for your buck. This seems to be a BIG point with DE in 6th edition - not only do you HAVE to know the rules, you have to utilize them to really shine with DE. Things like the Hammer of Wrath with your Talos, the Jinx and Turboboosting rules for Reavers, etc., etc., make the DE one amazingly deadly, but tricky dicky army to play.

 r4gg3dym4n wrote:
A note on Eldar Detachments - I've ran a Farseer and Warlock HQ, coupled with a Wraithlord and squad of Dire Avengers - most often to GREAT success. The psychic powers of the Farseer, coupled with the raw hurt of a Wraithlord and Dire Avenger squad easily makes any DE army list a contender.

Eldar and Dark Eldar are like peanut butter and chocolate. They are great alone, and together they are awesome.


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 r4gg3dym4n wrote:
Very true, though i've had nothing but bad luck with every Talos I've put in my 6th ed. lists. They are tricky as hell to use and you MUST have them in some sort of cover - generally the sheer amount of fire they draw, coupled with many weapons easily ignoring their 3+ armor save, makes them go down fast as hell. Many times I've had my talos struck down before it could get remotely close to any viable cover and/or assault range. This is a unit that should be used exclusively with the WWP

MCs as a whole got better this edition. Fear, Hammer of Wrath, Move through Cover, and Smash are USRs they now enjoy.

To make a Talos work, you need to have a lot of MC threats. I would bring 3 of them, a wrathknight and an avatar. That...might... be enough.

 r4gg3dym4n wrote:
Very true, though i've had nothing but bad luck with every Talos I've put in my 6th ed. lists. They are tricky as hell to use and you MUST have them in some sort of cover - generally the sheer amount of fire they draw, coupled with many weapons easily ignoring their 3+ armor save, makes them go down fast as hell. Many times I've had my talos struck down before it could get remotely close to any viable cover and/or assault range. This is a unit that should be used exclusively with the WWP.

I personally always start them on the board, you need to have more than one though, like with all MCs, and it helps if you have some high priority targets in raiders like grots to make target priority hard for your opponent: "do I shoot that raider full of grots to stop it from being in my face turn 1, or those talos?". This is one of the reasons I use the raiders that come with my warrior squads as back up transports for my grot unit, as it means my opponent now has to shoot and destroy the 3-4 empty raiders next to my grotesques in order to stop them hitting his line in turn 1 (assuming I'm going second). This is possible in 6th as you can embark onto a transport and as long as it hasn't already moved it can then move and flat out in the same turn you embarked.

 r4gg3dym4n wrote:
This seems to be a BIG point with DE in 6th edition - not only do you HAVE to know the rules, you have to utilize them to really shine with DE.

To be honest this has always been the case with Dark Eldar, even with the old codex and in previous editions. You need to know all the rules in great detail and really leverage every inch of them. This also means knowing your opponents army better than he does.

For example Riptides are not fearless, use some reavers to pull off a disorganised charge (more complicated than it looks with jetbikes) against the riptide and a near by unit of firewarriors, kill enough firewarriors to win combat by a reasonable amount and cut down the riptide with sweeping advance, profit.

It's the little things like this that make all the difference.