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I'm starting a dark eldar army, and I know of several archetypes.  Which do you all think is the most effective?  I'm trying for competetive, not theme.

1) Raider army of Doom

2) Wych Cult

3) Infantry shooty

4) WWP MADNESSS!!!!

Thanks for the help

I have had a little success with a combination of 3 & 4. I use 5 sniper squads (10 warriors with 2 x DL) with two Haemonculi with WWP hiding with their IC status amongst the warrior squads on the table to start. In the portal are 3 x 8 wyches in raiders and 3 x ravagers. I usually throw in an CC archon/dracon as needed. That is 22 str 8 ap 2 weapons in the army, plus, this build runs 24 wyches. In RTT play, this sucker is running 9-1-2 against a variety of foes including SM, CSM, Guard, 'Nid and Eldar.

Sal.

try this out its a basis list that has been undeated for me for the past year
one dracon/ agioner and drugs in a raider with DL and drugs and incubi master with drugs with incubi squad
one wytch dracon with 8 wytches with weapons and haywire grenades mounted in a raider with Dl
four 10 man squads with 2 DL for sniper squads
2 ravagers with diss all around
10 mandrakes
thats a 1500 point army with some wargear not added on so you can teak it on how you want it
for 1850 you can add a few bikes or more wytches. the only trouble i ever had was against a all space marine sniper army and you can understand why there

The army I'm working on is a combination of 1, 2, and 4. Raider mounted wych cult deploying out of a portal. I haven't played many games with it yet, as I've been too busy to paint, but so far it's fun and effective.

I love Raiders. They're awesome as long as they are moving and empty. They're like BS-4 vypers; fast, cheap, and they pack a punch. What's not to love? I don't love the "Raider army of Doom," though. If your Raiders are starting on the board, and you are playing against a half decent shooty army, and they get first turn; you will lose. Most of the Raiders will get shot down, and half of anyone on board will die- game over. I know there are people who've made it work, but I can't see how. Lots and lots of terrain? I don't know.

That's what I love about the portal. The raiders start the game moving in out of the portal, so the enemy never gets to shoot at them when they're stationary. And you can deploy the unit inside (wyches or incubi or whatever) right at the enemy and into combat, so they never get shot out of their transport and entangled. It eliminates the main weaknesses of the raider rush.

I think there's potential to the infantry shooty idea, but it can't be purely that. DE shooting can be very effective. The basic warriors are cheap, BS-4, and can field two heavy weapons. It's great. But if you take 6 10 man dark lance squads, it's only 600 points. That's good because you haven't spent much, it's bad because there's not much else to take. You could take two DL armed HQ squads, but then you're stuck taking Scourges. I think Saldiven has the right idea here. DE shooting is great, but there's not enough to build an army around- so put the rest into brutal counter assault.

One of the problems with the DE codex is that it's so limited in what's good, that it's hard to make a super focused list like the ones you've mentioned. A combined arms idea is probably best; good shooting and good assaulting. And whatever you do, don't give your opponent something to shoot at.


Kultofthebonedragons, I don't think that list is legal. An army that has a Wych Lord in it becomes a Wych Cult, and then cannot field a Dark Eldar Lord.

Can you talk about how you use the mandrakes?  They're up there with hellions and scourges in terms of units the competitive DE players seem to think are awful.

no i use dracon and wych dracon lite Its legal I dont use lords i believe a lord is a waste of points were two Lower leaders can do the same job as a lord and cost less and give you more flexiably in your army and the way i use my mandrakes i just run them up the table and if i find a squard close too them i deploy them or i use them too take table corners in games But i have used them in a tactical sense to tie up units until my HQ or wychs get there

Archons and Dracons are both Dark Eldar Lords, and Wych Archites and Wych Drachites are both Wych Lords. The level of the Lord doesn't make a Lord not a Lord.

Actually, this is another grey area in the rules.

If I remember correctly, the restriction is on DE armies "led" by a Wych Lord, not on DE armies "containing" a Wych Lord. There is no restriction against a Kabal Lord led army having a Wych Lord, only against a Wych Lord led army having a Kabal Lord. By RAW, if I am remembering correctly, Kult could simply contend that the Dracon is "leading" the army thereby allowing him to take the Dracite.

My DE codex is on loaner to a friend right now, so I might have the wording of the rule incorrect; could someone post it for clarification?

Thx

Sal.

My wife has been playing herDE aginst for two years now. There are a number of factors to take into account if wish a highly competitive list. First off, DE are fragile. No they are not a weak army but they take alot of skill to play and win with consistently. When I borrow my wife' army I find that it is very easy tpo make a small tactical error and lose the game.
Overall, wyche cut armies are thematic. You will ave a very difficult time winning a tournament with them. My wife plays a wyche cult army often and desoite being quite skilled has difficulty against vet players with tuned armies. I would suggest raider armies as on of our best variants. however, if you think you will be facing a lot of meqs, jetbikes armies are the path to victory. Shooty armies with multiple small squads of warriors w/ DL moiunted in raiders also work well. And yes, scourges, hellions and mandrakes are not your best chices for a highly compeitive force.
Be prepared for a steep learning curve. Despite having played for ome time I find playing DE very challenging. I just do not play them often enough and there is no room for errors when playing them.

Locally, we have a Wych Cult + WWP player that does INCREDIBLY well - he is a very skilled player, and can beat pretty any of the armies at our store - including, if I remember correctly, the 9-oblit/3-pred IW army.

I think he has posted on Dakka acouple times, so perhaps he'll come by this thread and lend some tips on how to make a better DE army