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I love my dark eldar to pieces.. but I'm a little weary I'm going to be a little downtrodden when I lose my first few games with them, as I'm not only new to DE, but this ed of 40k.

I can see how dark eldar can best vehicles, 3+ armour saves, and the like, even though I think I'll struggle with tactical play initially. But as for horde, we don't seem to have that many multiple shots/blasts outside of splinter cannons, and our paper fliers? I'm more then likely being ignorant as I've never really looked into playing against a horde army, but since my friend is considering Tyranids with the new drop pods, it looks like that's a new threat! 5 str 4 ap 5 Ord blasts. That's insane!

Well, the learning curve of playing DE is not as steep as that for say Marines.
DE is very capable to deal with hordes armies.
Tell us you list and Dakka will surely help out.

Massed splinter fire does just fine for me. Wyches, Incubi, and Grotesques can all hold their own in melee against hordes, either through staying power or superior attacks at a higher initiative. Really, hordes aren't the problem. Armored core lists, with waves of metal boxes, THAT'S the army's Achilles Heel.

I would have thought with the amount of haywire, and lance the army can bring they'd have an easier time against armour then others.

Well what I have at the moment is!

1 Archon with 4 Medusa
1 Succubus
1 Haemonculus

1 unit of incubi
4 grotesques

30 Kabalite warriors
3 raiders

20 scourges
2 Razorwing jetfighters

1 Voidraven jetfighter
2 talos pain engines
1 cronos parasite engine

Thanks for the help

Liquifier Guns.

Grotesques would be money against Tyranids, as the wee buggers couldn't scratch them and they'd be able to hurt the big boys.

Other than that I give the solid edge in Nids vs DE to the DE-remember all those scary drop pods are relying on T6 to survive. They drop down, you say "Kay" and hit them with a wall of poison 4+ shots. It's not like a drop pod, it's worth as much as a dreadnought, might as well focus your fire and send your assault lads to take care of it.

Splinter cannons are assault what, eight? And a squad of batwing boys can take four....yeah I'm not afraid of hordes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Honestly against hordes it's just an attitude shift. Rather than the usual "alright I've identified my priority target I'll use my mobility and massed shooting to kill it ASAP before it can hurt me" you instead go "okay I'll use my mobility to kite away while I carefully whittle the horde down safely"

Venoms....lots of venoms.

Lots and lots of Splinter weapons, poisoned weapons in general vs the tougher bugs, as Poisoned 4+ ignores T6. Then you can use high ROF weapons and templates to blitz the Termagants and Genestealers. Hormagaunts are the perfect time to bust out the Wyches you have lying around as most of their problems (overwatch and durable targets) are negated against Hormagaunts, and to a lesser degree, Ravenors and Genestealers. Those units can't shoot at overwatch (except Ravenors who are expensive and rarely used anyway), Hormaguants and Ravenors are slower than you. Ravenors have numerous attacks and wounds but a max size of 9 and are costly, whereas Genestealers are the same speed as you and have attacks but you'll probably do an equal amount of damage.
Anything with blast/template or high number of shots is good. Grotesques are good because they are too tough for hordes to reliably hurt and can go toe to claw with the bigger stuff like Trygons and Carnifexes. Voidravens can help due to the powerful weaponry and keep the Flyrants and Crones from the skies, as can Razorwings.

The real thing you'll have to watch out for a as a DE player vs Nids is the bugs using entrapment tactics as I personally do. It involves lots of outflanking and deep striking units like Mawlocs and Trygons (who can help others to Pseudo-outflank/deep strike), Genestealers on the flanks, Devilgaunts or Tervigons on the flanks via a Hive Commander Tyrant or Deathleaper/Lictors popping up in the backfield. The main aim of this is to sow terror and give you target saturation, making you panic and not being able to focus and get rid of all the nasty threats. This causes you to panic because there is now a Trygon in the centre of your 3 Kabalite Squads with a Str 5 AP5 Assault 12 gun and a tunnel for Melee Warriors to get through, as well as the 20 hungry Genestealers looking longingly at your Archon. Not to mention the Flyrants charging up the field to meet them.
The other side of entrapment is that it can sometimes trick a mobile army like Deldar into using it's movement to escape. Big mistake. The issue now is that you are too spread out and vulnerable, unable to coordinate on a single target. easy pickings. Plus, in the Nid player does it right, you now have nowhere to go but straight towards the bulk of his army: the Flyrants and hordes.

ALso remember to watch out for Hive Guard with Impaler cannons, those are a priority target as they are very good at taking out Paper-Airplanes the DE field. They have 2 shots with a Str 8 gun that ignores your cover and needs no line of sight. AV 11 Raiders that rely on Jink and Night Shields for protection is going to suffer.
Besides that single tactic you should have little problem besides bad dice. The entrapment relies heavily on getting the reserves in on turn 2 via reserve roll manipulation (Hive Commander Tyrants, Deathleaper, Swarmlord) so target those to disrupt things, as well as letting you face a below strength force T1.



Source: I'm a Nid player. Deldar feature regularly in my nightmares.

Yeah, my foot guard armies regularly got shredded by DE. The vast, vast quantity of Ap5 BS4 firepower is more than enough to down guardsmen, and even basic warriors aren't that bad against them in close combat either, much less some of the scarier options.

You're playing a glass cannon army against a only slightly less glass cannon army. Keep up the offense, and they'll fold.

Ossefactor
Shredders
Liquifier guns
Stinger pods
Venoms

There is a list of stuff to kill horde army's and against nids dark eldar has to be one of the best dark eldar can be a hard army to play but they have some nice tricks up there sleeves

Some armies use eldar ally. DA and WS are good anti horde units. Lots of shots, some cover ignoring some , some pseudo rending and very nice range on the serpents guns.

Don't worry yourself too much over the nids drop pod weapons. I've played a couple games against them and at BS2, they arent exactly reliable.

 Andy140491 wrote:
I would have thought with the amount of haywire, and lance the army can bring they'd have an easier time against armour then others.

Well what I have at the moment is!

1 Archon with 4 Medusa
1 Succubus
1 Haemonculus

1 unit of incubi
4 grotesques

30 Kabalite warriors
3 raiders

20 scourges
2 Razorwing jetfighters

1 Voidraven jetfighter
2 talos pain engines
1 cronos parasite engine

Thanks for the help

This is a perfectly serviceable army that can deal with Horde armies very well.

First off right off the bat you have a formation already from the Coven Codex

Dark Artisan
1 Talos
1 Cronos
1 Haemonoculus

Probably the best formation you can actually get from the Coven Codex as it can deep strike, and the Talos and Cronos get +1 WS. So really great!!

You've got a great Flying force!!


1 Void Raven ( Can have 4 Missiles )
2 Razorwing ( Can come out to 8 Missiles)


Medusae are excellent!! ST4 AP3 Template! , put them in a unit with a Archon or Succubus in a Raider and have fun.

You have 2 Raiders , with 10 Warriors in it! That's great, give them Shredders and S Cannons and you're good to go. with Splinter Racks giving Twin Linked a squad of ten can with in 12 inches put out something like 20 Twin Linked poisoned Shots.

You'd got a lot of Scourges, which is great, not sure what heavy weapons they hve but they come stock with a Assault 2 Poison 4+ weapon.

Finally you have Grotesques! The best unit to use against Horde as your going to be out numbered and they get Rampage.

Brilliant I really appreciate the response you guys give. It can be quite daunting reading a book like dark eldar and my friend comparing it to his tau alot.. or even space marines!

I've downloaded battle scribe and made a 1500 point list I'm quite happy with


Automatically Appended Next Post:
+++ New Roster (1500pts) +++
+++ 1500pt Dark Eldar: Codex (2014) Roster (Combined Arms Detachment)) +++

Selections:

Dark Eldar: Codex (2014) (Combined Arms Detachment) Selections:

+ HQ + (220pts)

* Haemonculus (125pts)
(Feel No Pain, Independent Character, Master of Pain, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
2x Close combat weapon, Gnarlskin, Splinter Pistol, The Animus Vitae (20pts) (Agonising), Webway portal (35pts)


* Succubus (95pts)
(Combat Drugs, Dodge, Fleet, Independent Character, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
Archite glaive (20pts), Plasma Grenades, Splinter pistol, Wychsuit


+ Elites + (140pts)

* Grotesques (140pts)
(Bulky, Feel No Pain, Night Vision, Power from Pain, Rampage)
Gnarlskin
* Grotesque (35pts)
Close combat weapon, Flesh Gauntlet (Lethal Dose)
* Grotesque (35pts)
Close combat weapon, Flesh Gauntlet (Lethal Dose)
* Grotesque (35pts)
Close combat weapon, Flesh Gauntlet (Lethal Dose)
* Grotesque (35pts)
Close combat weapon, Flesh Gauntlet (Lethal Dose)


+ Troops + (370pts)

* Kabalite Warriors (185pts)
(Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
Kabalite Armour
* 9x Kabalite Warrior (72pts)
9x Close Combat Weapon, 9x Splinter Rifle
* Kabalite Warrior with heavy weapon (up to 1 for 10 models) (23pts)
Close Combat Weapon, Splinter cannon (15pts)
* Raider (90pts)
(Deep Strike, Night Vision)
Dark Lance (5pts), Nightshield (15pts), Splinter Racks (15pts)


* Kabalite Warriors (185pts)
(Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
Kabalite Armour
* 9x Kabalite Warrior (72pts)
9x Close Combat Weapon, 9x Splinter Rifle
* Kabalite Warrior with heavy weapon (up to 1 for 10 models) (23pts)
Close Combat Weapon, Splinter cannon (15pts)
* Raider (90pts)
(Deep Strike, Night Vision)
Dark Lance (5pts), Nightshield (15pts), Splinter Racks (15pts)


+ Fast Attack + (405pts)

* Raider (75pts)
(Deep Strike, Night Vision)
Dark Lance (5pts), Nightshield (15pts)


* Razorwing Jetfighter (185pts)
(Night Vision, Supersonic)
2 Dark Lances (10pts), Nightshield (15pts), 4x Shatterfield Missile (20pts), Splinter Cannon (10pts)


* Razorwing Jetfighter (145pts)
(Night Vision, Supersonic)
2 Disintergrator Cannons, 4x Monoscythe Missile, Nightshield (15pts), Twin-linked Splinter Rifle (Twin-Linked)


+ Heavy Support + (365pts)

* Cronos (100pts)
* Cronos (100pts) (Codex: Dark Eldar 2010 p41)
(Fearless, Feel No Pain, Night Vision)
Armoured Carapace, Spirit Syphon


* Ravager (125pts)
(Deep Strike, Night Vision)
Disintegrator cannon, Disintegrator cannon, Disintegrator cannon, Nightshield (15pts)


* Talos (140pts)
* Talos (140pts)
(Fearless, Feel No Pain, Night Vision)
Armoured Carapace, Close Combat Weapon, Ichor Injector (10pts) (Lethal Dose), Twin-Linked Haywire Blaster (10pts) (Twin-Linked)

I bring 6 venoms in my list. They mow down infantry.

Also razorwing jet fighters are amazing vs infantry. And the void raven with missles and dark scythes isn't bad either.

Has no one mentioned Razorwing Jetfighter? It has S6 AP5 Large Blast missiles. And the Voidraven has S8 AP2 Small Blasts. That would kill a good bit of Nids or Orks.

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:
I bring 6 venoms in my list. They mow down infantry.

Also razorwing jet fighters are amazing vs infantry. And the void raven with missles and dark scythes isn't bad either.

Ah, okay, here we go. This^^