JonSpencer14 wrote:I'm still reading the codex, but my LFGS is hosting a tournament in about a month and I was thinking about taking my wives Dark Eldar! She hasn't played them yet and is still in the middle of painting them. I want to teach her how the game is played , but I don't know her army well enough to start. So I f figured I'd play them and go from there.

So anyway, heres the1500pt list that I came up with. Thoughts and any changes are definitly welcome!

I'll start by individually breaking down your choices then i'll fill in the thinking, DE play style etc. later.

HQ: 125pts
Archon (Agoniser, Combat Drugs, Clone Field)
(Not sure about the choice of weapons)

Not a bad unit, as Caranthir said, generally Haemonculi are the go-to HQ due to their point/effectiveness ratio which far superceeds that of an Archon; but, as a starting point, the Archon is definately the way to go. There's a couple of builds that are good with the Archon, my personal favorites being the Agonizer+ShadowField archon, perhaps with Combat Drugs, to provide a slightly cheaper and much more reliable HQ or the Husk Blade, Soult Trap, Shadowfield and Combat Drug Archon, which has the potential to be a much more killy HQ but costs a lot more and isn't totally guaranteed those early kills that he so badly needs.

Elite: 193pts
3 Incubi + Klaivex + Venom;
Klaivex (Demiklaives and Onslaught)
Venom (Extra Splinter Cannon and Grisly Trophies)

Hammer this into your mind, and into that of your wife, squad leaders for the DE ARE USELESS! For the price of upgrading to a Klaivex and then giving him his fancy wargear you can get 2 extra incubi. What is the point of having an upgraded model when you can get two who will out-perform the situational one every time? Keep them in the Venom but drop the Grisly Trophies, this unit is attached to your Archon I presume? The Archon's Ld is more than enough and so the Trophies are a waste of points.

Troops: 250pts x2 (500pts)
Wyches: 9 + Hekatrix + Raider
Wyches (Razorflails and Hydra Gauntlets)
Hekatrix (Agoniser)
Raider (Dark Lance, Torment Grenade Launcher, Aethersails and Flickerfield)

Good. Only thing I would say is replace the Razorflails with a Shardnet and impaler, it may not seem that obvious but re-rolling to hit and to wound will double your chances sure, but won't really do you any good on a weapon that isn't a power weapon and a model that is still wounding on 5's most of the time. More attacks or denying your opponent's attacks when it comes to it is far more useful once this is taken into account. Drop everything except the Dark Lance and FlickerField on the Raider, these should only be taken when you have the spare points at the end and there is absolutely nothing to get. The Grenade launcher take priority if this is the case and the Aethersails are just a waste of points at all times, there are never of that much use practically.

Troops: 215pts
Kabalite + Sybarite + Raider
Kabalite (Splinter Cannon)
Sybarite (Ghostplate Armour, Splinter Pistol and Venom Blade)
Raider (Dark Lance, Torment Grenade Launcher, Aethersails, Splinter Racks and Flickerfield)

Standard raider kabalite set up is '10x Warriors, Blaster, SplinterCannon in a riader with Flickerfields and a Dark Lance.' Seeing as this is the tried and tested set-up that is universally accepted amongst all DE players you can see where your mixing of equipment goes wrong. Syrabite is a squad leader, and as i've already mentioned, squad leaders barring the Hekatrix are a royal point sink who should be turned into slaves for tricking many a starting Archon (Succubus) into getting them. If ever you get into CC it should be with your Wyches, Blood Brides, Incubi or other CC focused units, if you find yourself charging warriors into the fray or being charged consider yourself dead and plan for what happens next. Torment Grenade Launcher and Aethersails should never be considered on a Warrior raider and Splinter Racks will probably never see the glory of battle, only thing to have on raider warriors is a Flickerfield. Even once you've made all these changes 2x units of 5 warriors in a venom each with 1x blaster per unit will do MUCH more for you in game (your wife too when she plays them).

Heavy: 175pts
Razorwing Jetfighter (2x Dark Lances, 2x Monoscythe Missiles, Splinter Cannon, 2x Necrotoxin Missile and Flickerfield)

They're a good unit. Definately not the best Heavy Support (that position goes to the Ravagers) but certainly a close runner-up. Keep them but take them as they are given to you with 4x Monoscythe missiles and none of the fancy upgrades. Something that really worries me here is the lack of the most awesome vehicle ever to grace the Dark Eldar raids, the Ravager. Ask anyone here or elsewhere, ANYONE who has been playing DE for a while and has had any sort of success with them, and they'll tell you Ravagers are a necessity. Why? Because Dark Lances are a necessity and you have a very worrying low volume of them. You should have enough Dark Lances in enough units to be able to lock down every vehicle the enemy is fielding, right now with your list, that isn't happening. Get two Ravagers with 3x Dark Lances as a bare minimum, that's just how important they are. If you haven't got the models you really need to buy them for your wife, not an original model by any means and she won't have too much of a good time painting them but on the table top they're invaluable.

Fast Attack: 292pts
9 Scourges + Solarite
Scourges (2x Splinter Cannons, Haywire Blaster and Heat Lance)
Solarite (Splinter Pistol and Agoniser)

What am I going to say about the squad leader? I'll let you figure it out. These are one of the units you never want in CC. Also, split them up into three squads of three and give them all Haywire Blasters. Every single one of them. In my honest opinion, and i've run these guys in over 30 or so matches, haywire blasters are the only way to go. Splinter cannons are a waste of their deep striking ability and Hay Wire Blasters give more utility than the Heat lance and are a mile better than DLs on just this one unit.

1500/1500

Basically, kick all the Squad leaders out, dumb down all the upgrades on the units and get Ravagers at least one but you should REALLY try to fit in two. They're only 105 pts a pop and if you have to remove Flickerfields from raiders to make the points for them, do it without any hesitation. Otherwise, it's a solid list.

Now some basic knowledge on DE before you go into your first game blind and get an ass whooping like no other:

1. Dark Eldar are precise, they are fast, they can hit hard and they can knock out an opponent in one turn, BUT they are soft, fragile and can't take a good punch. Meaning they have units that can destroy the enemy in seconds but likewise if enough survives the DE onslaught, the elegant craft will fall and your wife's, no doubt, beautifully painted models will be landing in the death pile faster than you can imagine at this point. Think of the DE as a Veteran Army Women with a razor sharp spear that can kill a man in one blow, but if she miss-targets or the man is the hulk and she doesn't do enough damage one punch in return will knock her out of commision.

2. The only defence the DE is their offence. The way to survive and not get killed in the case of the Dark Brethren is to kill the opponent first there's a reason they have such menacing guns and fast craft. They need to get in your opponent's face and kill him until any counter-attack won't do any damage on your forces.

3. The Dark Eldar are fast, use it to your advantage. If you can kite assault units around, DO IT! Soften them up with your bewildering amount of fire power then charge into them with all you've got and wipe them out quick and effeciently. Never get caught in an engagement you don't want to be in, you pick your fights, your faster than your opponent is, so you have no excuse.

4. The Dark Eldar are squishy little things despite all their spikes and menace-filled faces, you cannot hold objectives, you will have more KPs than your opponent does and you will likely give away more victory points than your opponent will. The only game mode you have an advantage in to be honest is Table Quarters, at which point your superior speed comes into play. What does this mean for the poor old Archon (Succubus)? Caution will have to be thrown into the wind and you'll have to go for a crushing victory every single time you get out there. If you focus on the game mode, contrary to every other army out there, you will not be winning any time soon, they're tactical in every sense excluding objectives...

A little note on unit usage:

Wyches should not be seen as super killy death machines, rather they should be seen as a meat grinding unit to lock-down a unit for a good time at worst and slowly pick away at scabs until they bring a unit down at best. This is because only the Hekatrix will have a power weapon and generally be hitting on a 4+ and that means that it's likely only she will be getting kills. Which is why the best option for Wyche weapons is generally Shardnets and impalers to compliment their role.

Incubi are the super-killy death star unit, but that doesn't mean you should go all out on them. Anything more than 6 incubi + an Archon is sure to wipe out everything it touches in one turn, and thats bad. If you could destroy a unit and sweeping advance into another anymore that would be a different story but you can't so killing a unit outright will generally do nothing more than leave you in a position to get shot up. To resolve this either multi-charge units all the time or make sure to have 6 incubi at the very most.

Warriors are your all purpose support unit, they can do everything except charge into units and that's what's great about them. Use them to soften up enemies before a wych charge, wipe out small straggling squads, pick off tanks with their blasters, bring down MCs with their poisoned weapons and much, much more!

Not an infinite amount of experience with razorwings but in the games that i've run them I find them great four taking out hordes or large groups of inantry and popping armor in a pinch with their DLs. Generally, you'll want to be firing all your missiles before you move onto the tank hunting role.

Ravagers. One role. Take out every tank the enemy has from the equation. Blow them up, stun lock them, remove their weapon, immobilise them, that's what these things were made to do!

Scourges: Deep strike next to Land raiders or other heavily armored vehicles, put a couple of haywire grenades in their hulls and hopefully see them go boom! If deep striking is too dangerous and you know they'll be wiped out after the shooting with a good chance they won't do anything. Walking them on and using their longer ranged Haywire launchers to do the shooting is a great way to play them, too.

Good luck to you, and your wife!