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HQ:
Archon
- Haywire Grenade

Troops:
2x5 Kabalite Warriors
- Blaster
- Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons

HS:
Ravager
- 3 Dark Lances

Total: 495/500

Going to join a beginner's league in April, hoping I can figure out the intricacies of dark eldar. Blasters and lances for anti tank, poison for anti infantry. Didn't have enough points for night shields on the ravager or a blaster on the archon, so I gave him a grenade to throw out of his venom. Planning to expand to 750 and 1000 eventually, probably with more venom squads, another ravager, and maybe a scourge haywire squad cause i heard that they're fantastic.

I assume the Archon has a Venom too? Because that's 430

You could drop the Haywire on the Archon and change the Ravager into Haywire Scourge. That would be enough for a Blaster on the Archon

In small games around 500 this is what I normally run.

Hq

Court of the archon
1 x laemean 10pts

Troops

5 x kabalites with blaster and venom (double cannon on venom) 120pts

5 x kabalites with blaster and venom ( double cannon on venom) 120pts

Fast attack

Beast master pack with 6 razorwing flocks and 1 beast master 130pts

5 x scourge with 4 haywire blasters 120pts

Comes out at 495.

Laemean for cheap hq which doesn't give up warlord. Venoms for anti infantry with warriors able to either target infantry or tanks in a pinch. Scourges for dedicated tank removal. Razorwing flocks to rend almost anything to death. 5 rending attacks per base on the charge is brutal. They can take infantry squads, tanks and monstrous creatures. Beast master is there purely for leadership purposes. If your opponent is worth his salt he will target them first otherwise they will mop up his back field and keep munching until the game ends.

I like Ape's list but I'm not a huge fan of beasties (probably from lack of use, although I am buying a few more). Here is another option.

HQ:

Lhamaean
In a Venom with Splinter Cannon Upgrade

Troops:

5 x Kabalite Warriors with a blaster
In a Venom with Splinter Cannon Upgrade

5 x Kabalite Warriors with a blaster
In a Venom with Splinter Cannon Upgrade

Fast Attack:

5 x Scourges with 4 haywire blasters

An empty Venom with Splinter Cannon Upgrade

500 points on the nose.

Plenty of anti-infantry and some mobile anti-tank. MCs are useless against it. Keep your range and own the field.

yup the archon had his own personal venom in my list, sorry I forgot to include that.
Personally I'm not a huge fan of beastpacks, cause thats a lot of models to buy for one cheap squad.
Right now I'm stuck between Frozocrone's idea, and 0s0ldier615's list. What is the upside of the lhamaean? I know they're cheap but what exactly do they bring to table?

They fulfil the HQ requirement for 10 pts - giving you more to spend in other areas. HQ is generally the worst section for DE, so spending 10 pts and being done with it is a boon.

Note that the Lhamaean is not a character, so you wouldn't have Warlord Traits if she was your Warlord (you can of course, have a character in another unit to access Traits).

Plus, if the Lhamaean goes down, no slay the warlord point for taking her out. In a small army list like this, every point counts, HQs just cost too much. Their purpose is to support an army type, but when your army type is "small", then no go for what I think is a huge upside to the new codex and get quite possibly the cheapest HQ in the game. Give it a venom and now it is 12 more poison shots at 36".

0s0ldier615 wrote:
Plus, if the Lhamaean goes down, no slay the warlord point for taking her out. In a small army list like this, every point counts, HQs just cost too much. Their purpose is to support an army type, but when your army type is "small", then no go for what I think is a huge upside to the new codex and get quite possibly the cheapest HQ in the game. Give it a venom and now it is 12 more poison shots at 36".

Actually it would give up StW, she still counts as a Warlord for all other rules purposes - it's just if your Warlord isn't a character then you don't roll Traits.

You still need a character in your army to be your warlord, all armies must have a warlord. Even if it's just a syrabite in a warrior squad. So yes you can still give up slay the warlord.

Also your warlord has to be a character, and the lheaman is NOT a character.

But other than adding in a character to be your warlord, I think dark eldar is a good choice for 500pts army. They're really good in small points games, so as you practice and build up the points, you should be alright when you play 1500/1850pts where they begin to struggle (eg too many kill points)

Just on the note of buying a lot of models for the beast pack. It's only 7 models. The razorwing flocks are swarm bases, just like rippers so you have 6 bases and a beast master. You guys should try them out, you'll be surprised how delicious they are. Especially in big point games where they get left unchecked. Mine have chewed through riptides, wraith knights, dread Knights, the lot. If you don't feel confident using them then go for some thing like 0s0ldiers list.

Minimanj wrote:
You still need a character in your army to be your warlord, all armies must have a warlord. Even if it's just a syrabite in a warrior squad. So yes you can still give up slay the warlord.

Also your warlord has to be a character, and the lheaman is NOT a character.

But other than adding in a character to be your warlord, I think dark eldar is a good choice for 500pts army. They're really good in small points games, so as you practice and build up the points, you should be alright when you play 1500/1850pts where they begin to struggle (eg too many kill points)

This is incorrect - you don't need a character in your army to have a Warlord. If you do have a character, then you must select it (or another character if applicable to be the Warlord). If the character is a Warlord, then you can roll for Warlord Traits. (BRB, pg 124).

^exactly. Hence laemean is boss

Crap, your right, I just looked it up. It says if you don't have a character in your army then you nominate one "model" to be the warlord. Which is funny, because your empty Venom could be your warlord, maybe even the Venom that the Lhamaean is in. Lol. I thought it would be the model with the highest Ld, but it says any model. That opens up so many funny possibilities.

Ah ok, I might be thinking of the FAQ that tournies use (non-official) I never realised thanks for pointing that out. I just assumed it had to be a character, and also since you always have to take the mandatory hq for cad/alternative all are characters. That does make DE hq go from terrible to alright. I don't think there's another army that has a non-character hq that can be used to take up the madatory slot is there?

Yeah, you could have a Revenant as a warlord lol.

Tervigons can be non-character HQ but you'll probably be seeing Flyrants before you see that (low point games might be different).

There's not so many, what's the crack with iyanden Eldar? Don't they get wraith Knights/lords as hq if they want? Not 100% sure but I think so

 Pheonix Lord Asurmen wrote:
HQ:
Archon
- Haywire Grenade

Troops:
2x5 Kabalite Warriors
- Blaster
- Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons

HS:
Ravager
- 3 Dark Lances

Total: 495/500

Going to join a beginner's league in April, hoping I can figure out the intricacies of dark eldar. Blasters and lances for anti tank, poison for anti infantry. Didn't have enough points for night shields on the ravager or a blaster on the archon, so I gave him a grenade to throw out of his venom. Planning to expand to 750 and 1000 eventually, probably with more venom squads, another ravager, and maybe a scourge haywire squad cause i heard that they're fantastic.

Personally, i wouldn't change a single thing.