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the title is pretty self explanditory

proposed rules: mandrakes (making them useful)

a unit mandrakes may take one of these upgrades

feed on fear- 10 pts per model. whenever a opposing unit fails a fear test or rolls double 6s on a morale test, if a unit with this upgrade is in reserve, you may place it within 6' of the triggering unit. this CAN occur during your opponents turn. models placed this way may assault the turn they arrive (if they arrive on your turn).

shadow hunters- 15 pts per model- as long as the night fighting rule is in effect, during your movement phase you may place squads with this upgrade anywhere on the battlefield. that unit can assault the turn it arrives.


feedback would be appreciated.

will post more if thier is interest in the topic.

Shadow Hunters does little to change the fact that they're pretty mediocre in assault, another 150 points to upgrade the unit in this manner might give them a little boost, but when it's time for them to arrive and Night Fighting stops, that's a lot of points you've just wasted.

Yep, the models are awesome so i fully understand why you want to add extra something to make this guyz work. But inventing new rules will be harder to apply and ballance out in the case of such radical rules like allowing charge the moment you arrive and arriving anywhere you want without scatter. Especially when it's relying on nightfight.

What i suggest is adding some allready existing ones. Give them shrowded and assault grenades for no additional cost and here you go. A threatening unit that can infiltrate in some woods or ruins and get 2+ cover. They won't be super-effective and will fear ignore cover stuff like they should but will find some uses and noone will mind them! Try it.

It seems like you might actually get close to what you want from Shadow Hunters by saying there's no minimum distance from the enemy when deploying Mandrakes by Infiltration if Night Fighting is in effect turn one; that gets you the charge on the turn the unit deploys without needing to break with some of the established rules.

 OnlyWar wrote:
the title is pretty self explanditory

proposed rules: mandrakes (making them useful)

a unit mandrakes may take one of these upgrades

feed on fear- 10 pts per model. whenever a opposing unit fails a fear test or rolls double 6s on a morale test, if a unit with this upgrade is in reserve, you may place it within 6' of the triggering unit. this CAN occur during your opponents turn. models placed this way may assault the turn they arrive (if they arrive on your turn).

shadow hunters- 15 pts per model- as long as the night fighting rule is in effect, during your movement phase you may place squads with this upgrade anywhere on the battlefield. that unit can assault the turn it arrives.


feedback would be appreciated.

will post more if thier is interest in the topic.

Fear is one of those rules I'd consider iffy at best even if handed out for free due to how many high LD, fearless, or ATSKNF units are running around . Having a mechanic tie into this isn't really going to fix the mandrakes.

In fact, these rules don't really do much but make an already over-costed unit even more expensive without changing the fact that they're really, really mediocre in assault.

Other than the rule dissalowing you to charge on the first turn (player)

 Slayer222 wrote:
Other than the rule dissalowing you to charge on the first turn (player)

What rule is this? I know if you Infiltrate and/or Scout you cannot charge first player turn.

Oh, well, might as well get rid of scout/infiltrate than because you will never want to do it if its night fighting.

hmmm ... how about adding some sort of strength and/or toughness drain to the mandrakes balefrost(fire?) , you could also scrap Shadow_hunters and make it so that when mandrakes enter from reserves, the night fighting rule comes into affect , either until the mandrakes are killed or just after a set number of turns?

I've been toying with a Dark Eldar fandex for a few years now, just haven't released anything. They're such an awesome looking army and do have some good rules, but sadly still an underdog army and at the best of times are extremely difficult to play with limited competition-worthy builds.

You could make them be immune to flammers... (suck on that heldrake)

 Slayer222 wrote:
You could make them be immune to flammers... (suck on that heldrake)

Is there any reason for that?

The avatar of khaine is immune to fire because it's a supernatural entity made out of molten metal. The salamanders have resistance towards fire because they treat their armor and have geneseed mutations that greatly increase their resistance to extreme heat.

The mandrake would be immune to fire because...reasons?

The models hand is on fire. And it would stop all but a few ignores cover weapons.

mandrakes fire is supernaturaly cold, and in some of the black library books flamers are occasionally used against them. perhaps you could give them some sort of warp spiderish teleport, since they can do that sort of thing in fluff

how about this

mandrake melee weapons now have rending

shadow predators: whenever a enemy unit fails a leadership of any kind other than a psychic test or when they go to ground or become pinned, if you have a squad of mandrakes in reserve you may place them within 6' of the triggering unit. the mandrakes may assault the turn they arrive if they arrive during your turn.

feed on fear: whenever a enemy unit makes a non-psychic leadership test within 10' of the mandrake squad, the mandrake squad gets a pain token(if that is too broken than they simply get +1 attack).

baleflame has the following special rule: models that suffer a wound from balefame may not run during their next movement phase and get -1 strength and toughness until the begininng of thier next turn.

Just give them poisoned cc weapons and the problem is solved.

Shingen wrote:
Just give them poisoned cc weapons and the problem is solved.

And grenades, preferable shrouded but it's not necessary.