Email in: New Dark Eldar

"Hey Kirby, and everyone at 3++

I've been following your blog for the last two months or so and i must say it's pretty fantastic. My reasoning for sending you an email is I need help with my 1500pt dark eldar tournament list that I've rewritten four or five times now. Each time it just seems like something is missing that without which the list will just fall to pieces. I've stripped it down to about 1000pts which I like its just the rest i need a hand with. Any help would be fantastic.

Thanks,
Daemon

Haemonculus w/Hexrifle 65pts
Wyches x8 w/Hekatrix w/Agonizer, H. Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades
Mounted in Raider w/FF, Night shield 221pts x2
Warriors x10 w/Spinter Cannon, Blaster 115pts
Ravager w/Flickerfield, 3x Dark Lance, Night Shield 125pts x2
Talos w/Extra CCW, Chainflails 125pts

997pts"

The first of many DE emails... the only thing in that list I wouldn't really want is the Talos. It doesn't really fit too well with everything else you have so are you sure you want to use it :P? I'll assume you want to but if you are okay without it, just replace it with a Ravager. Everything else is alright but Wyches should always have shardnet/impaler. Less attacks at you is always better than more attacks or a couple re-rolls when you place them right. I'd also max out the squad for two weapons and not put the Haemon in their transport (why GW did you make it so difficult!). You can transfer the token as needed and drop Night Shields on their Raider (they'll be close anyway).

So with that in mind what can we do? Well you need to double up the Wyches at a minimum and we need to assess what the Warriors are going to do. If they are an objective sitter I'd lean more towards a Dark Lance and consider them making 20 men for double lances. Expensive but hard to remove especially once they start gaining some pain tokens. You then need to help support those two Wych Raiders flying forward and your best bet is Reavers w/Heat Lances and Trueborns w/Blasters in Venoms. This will help add some saturation and armor busting capabilities which allows the Wyches to eat up the goodies inside. The Trueborns also give you a good spot to put any Haemons you have to transfer pain tokens to the Wyches once they unload. So with that in mind, let's look at the points (again see how the Talos sticks out here? He's slow and to make sure the Wyches aren't exposed we need to get more stuff moving forward and a WWP for a single Talos is quite an investment).

With everything added in and 2 Haemos we have 1508 points so some work with the Haemon wargear will open up those points and leaves us with:

2x Haemon
2x3x Trueborn w/3x Blasters, Venom w/2x cannons
2x10x Wyches w/Shardnet, Hekatrix w/Agoniser, Raider w/flicker
10x Warriors w/DL
2x3x Reavers w/Heat lance
2x Ravager w/flicker, night shields
Talos w/chainflails, extra CCW

Totals: 1478 points (nothing on the Haemons)
6 tanks (7 if no talos)
45 infantry (6 jetbikes, 1 talos)

I think replacing the Talos with another vehicle of some sort such as a Ravager or Trueborn Venom is the best way to improve the list as it will add some saturation. Changing the Ravagers to Bombers/Fighters for more anti-infantry also has potential.