Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I haven't heard much about dark eldar in a long time. Are they still being played? If so, are they any good?

Dark eldar rely heavily on tactics and careful planning, they are playable and in some cases powerful, but are hard to use.

They are still around, and thanks to the last update to the model range, they have the prettiest figs out of any of the Games Workshop factions.

If the actual rules for them held up to that standard, they'd be the most popular army.

Unfortunately, they are in kind of a rough spot with regards to other codexes. No power combos, no LOW selections, no GMCs, no Superheavies, no psykers, essentially no anti-psyker defense, no power formations, and no decurion-style detachment.

Fortunately, they are Battle Brothers with Harlequins, Craftworld Eldar, and Corsairs, making it easy to fill in some of the gaps in your army or to slot allies in to make a combo work.

Two of the top tables armies at the Gen Con ITC event were Dark Eldar armies. They aren't winning any GTs, but they definitely aren't in danger of getting squatted anytime soon, either.

My dark eldar are out again on Wednesday, aiming to take apart my local eldar opponent.

Curiously enough, one of the reasons I like them (apart from being my first army back in 1995 or thereabouts) is because they don't have Lord of War, Gargantuans, Superheavies and none of this namby pamby pyscho mumbo jumbo nonsense.

Sure, they take a little care and skill to use well, but when that plan DOES come together......

Their model range now is very good, although a lot of the stuff they released only 6 years ago needs replacing already because it's failcast.

They can "technically" be competitive but are very difficult to use properly. One feth up and you're done.

If we are talking honestly, they have one of the worst (in my opinion it is the worst) codex ever written. Yes, even worse than the last two chaos marine codexes, and thats saying something. That codex completely gutted them as an army to their point where about 75% of the book is completely useless and the other 25% is the only thing you could take to a game to actually stand a chance of not being tabled by turn 2 or 3.

About half of their units are assault units that can't get into assault because they are too fragile.

When the default HQ to take is a 10 points Lhamian so that you don't have to actually purchase one of the main gakky HQ's. Then there is a problem with the codex. Either that or you buy a cheap haemonculus so he can buy a web way portal for your wraith guard and ally them in to your eldar army.

They are still around but they are for nice players play since:
- They don't have real easy win buttons, and are inferior to the other eldar army. -> So most tournament players will not flock to them.
- They look fragile and harder to paint -> So most beginners will avoid them
- They are bad guys not everybody likes to play them.

But hey aren't bad, they can still crush most lists if played right.
The same goes for other obscure armies such as sisters and inquisition.

Yep, and they're probably my favourite faction. Sure, thin as paper, but they have so much speed you can almost always out maneuver your opponent. They'd be AMAZING if they had some better CC units and some more variation and a better HQ slot, but I just really like the playstyle and the models. (maybe some better armour too)

They vary between incredibly squishy units that hit hard and fast (or wish they did) and slow incredibly durable units that laugh at shooting, hopefully taken from Haemonculous covens formations, which are amazing.
They are still usable, and quite fun, but they don't have really strong stuff like riptides, grav, skatbikes, WK's, or any other stuff.

Most important... are they fun to play with? Against?

I am tired of my space marines and am going to sell off my blood Raven Gladius strike force... just not my play style. Looking at Xenos armies to start, and am really thinking about the dark eldar.

I think they might be fun in Kill Teams.
I am looking at a wych team with Venom and a team of Scourges.

Having a dark eldar force that I adore, they are a fantastic army.

If you decide to start playing them, hold off on selling the gladius if you're having a bad week and need to win easily xD

Jokes aside, they are quite strong if played correctly, but playing correctly is the hard part as it takes a long time to feel out.

They have so many cool options in their codex, beastmasters, reavers, Courts of the Archon, Urien Rakarth, but majority of their units are best used in casual games.

With allies (Eldar or Harlequins) they can get a lot better, but that's not playing the full army is it?

If you love the way they look, or their lore, then definitely go for it, you'll have a blast, but if you have a little bit of doubt then hold off as they are quite frustrating and hard to have fun with outside of a casual setting imho.

~Mikey

But thats the thing though, they don't really have options. All of their options are gone as of this codex. like 3/4 of that book is almost unplayably bad, even in casual games.

I suppose we have different local metas then.

I played a game with my DE on Sunday at my local GW store and my opponent suggested we play planetsrike, in the end we were having such a goofy game the we got three turns in before the shop closed and so we just battled it out with our HQs before the shop closed.

That's just an example, but generally my local meta is really relaxed, everyone only wants to have fun and nobody really cares if they win, but that's just me.

I'm by no means an amazing DE player, I'm actually pretty low on the spectrum but I've had very good games with Beastmasters, wyches, bloodbrides even but honestly YMMV.

Cheers
~Mikey

The good/passable units in the DEldar codes are, in no particular order, Talos, Grotesques, Venoms (dual cannon every time), Scourges (Heat Lance or Haywire are best, but I love blasters), Reavers, Succubus (glaive and stick with grots), Triple lance raiders, and lahmians, if you have no soul and don't want to use the awesome Succubus.
Haemonculous Covens makes the Cronos good in Dark Artisan, and makes Grots and Talos go from kinda meh (better than most of the codex still) to pretty damn good in CTC, DA, and Grotesquerie.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
I suppose we have different local metas then.

I played a game with my DE on Sunday at my local GW store and my opponent suggested we play planetsrike, in the end we were having such a goofy game the we got three turns in before the shop closed and so we just battled it out with our HQs before the shop closed.

That's just an example, but generally my local meta is really relaxed, everyone only wants to have fun and nobody really cares if they win, but that's just me.

I'm by no means an amazing DE player, I'm actually pretty low on the spectrum but I've had very good games with Beastmasters, wyches, bloodbrides even but honestly YMMV.

Cheers
~Mikey

You can't talk about a "relaxed meta" during these conversations because you end up with nothing to discuss.

 Smotejob wrote:
Most important... are they fun to play with? Against?

I am tired of my space marines and am going to sell off my blood Raven Gladius strike force... just not my play style. Looking at Xenos armies to start, and am really thinking about the dark eldar.

I got bored with my Space Marines, and went to Dark Eldar.

I have never regretted it. They're like walking a tightrope: a little tricky to get the balance right, but once you get it, it's a total blast!

My problem with the army is that our scope of weapon options is rather limited; most decent lists end up with Dark Lances and Poison. We have also lack many decent options to take out GMC if our Lances die out (and they will).

Just tired of how easy it is for every other army to kill our vehicles and how difficult it to do so in return. If you face an army that spams vehicles, you'll have to protect your Lances and hope each Lance can take out a vehicle.

I play DE and Orks in 40k, neither army has done well in the last incarnation of the game, however DE have suffered a lot less than orks, remaining a finesse army that can do well, a lot of beautiful models, a lot of scope left to fill in MC/LoW etc slots and one very bright light.

8th Ed is on the way, I suspect sooner than we think, and I think it's going to be a massive and radical shakeup to the game. So, all bets will be off and armies currently languishing near the bottom rungs are likely to be back with a vengeance.

Honestly, the codex would be great if the changed the following

-Make splinter rifles assault not rapid fire
-make their blast weapons have some range
-Make sslyth llamaians, medusae, and urgul troop choices.
-Give the army/HQ access to better saves than a 6+ armor.

The last one is key, facing grey knights with an army at half strength is hardly fun.

That said, the codex has some fun rules to play around with
like random ap weapons, dodge special rule, and combat drugs

My apologies if someone already mentioned this above as I just scrolled to the bottom to post that...

A Start Collecting! Dark Eldar box was released not too long ago. So, they are definitely still around.

SG

Dark Eldar are a fascinating bundle of problems and solutions. THey have some unique playstyles but alas, some crippling problems. For example

1 - beautiful models - that are a nightmare to transport and very fragile

2 - a fast army - that has its firepower crippled, no means to disembark at high speeds, and drops like flies

3 - powerful characters - with no AP2

My army used to be less about zipping and zooming, and more about being a parking lot of raiders and venoms. As moving started to decrease my firepower so much, in the end they became turn 6 objective grabbers. The last codex wasn't kind but... as a collector, I adore my figures.

Please DE need a CSM style supplement. They got four and are still bitching. Send some love to the player base who will actually appreciate it.

 Gamgee wrote:
Please DE need a CSM style supplement. They got four and are still bitching. Send some love to the player base who will actually appreciate it.

it depends. If the solution is 30 pounds spent on a book that doesn't address codex issues, annoyance will intensify.

What would also be nice for DE is getting some of the characters that were taken away to be added back, such as Vect or the Duke.

 Gamgee wrote:
Please DE need a CSM style supplement. They got four and are still bitching. Send some love to the player base who will actually appreciate it.

They got 3 actually (black legion, crimson slaughter, traitors hate) believe you realm don't want these types of updates

oz of the north wrote:
What would also be nice for DE is getting some of the characters that were taken away to be added back, such as Vect or the Duke.

Seriously. Give me either 5e Baron or Duke back and I will never complain about this 'dex again. Give me both and I'll sing its praises to the heavens.

 Gamgee wrote:
Please DE need a CSM style supplement. They got four and are still bitching. Send some love to the player base who will actually appreciate it.

We got the Covens book. That's far better than any stuff CSM has gotten in a while.

 Jimsolo wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
What would also be nice for DE is getting some of the characters that were taken away to be added back, such as Vect or the Duke.

Seriously. Give me either 5e Baron or Duke back and I will never complain about this 'dex again. Give me both and I'll sing its praises to the heavens.

I never understood why they didn't use the Chariot rules for the Dais of Destruction. They seem tailor-made for it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gamgee wrote:
Please DE need a CSM style supplement. They got four and are still bitching. Send some love to the player base who will actually appreciate it.

If the 'Supplement' was an expensive book with one sentence of relevant material in it you'd be bitching too.

It has a cool story in it and no one posted about that or its psychic powers. I'm sorry if I like to see Dark Eldar lore okay. Geez.

I can't get my hands on a physical copy of Heamoniclous covens anymore and I prefer to read physical books.