Email in: Dark Eldar List Help?

"Hey, Kirby,



I've been following your blog for a while now, and I thought I'd write in asking for some help. After far too long of reading about the game, I'm looking to start it for myself with the race that appeals to me most: Dark Eldar (It was going to be Necrons, but the new book was just too good!). After some deliberation, I decided I liked Baron Sathonyx way too much to not include in my army, and Sliscus gave too many bonuses to not have. I spent a night or so hammering this list out, and I'd like your help fine-tuning it!

Baron Sathonyx= 105
Duke Slicus=150
9 Hellions, Helliarch, Stunclaw = 175 points (Baron goes here)
20 Warriors, 2 Splinter Cannons = 200 (Duke goes here)
10 Wyches, Haywire Grenades = 120
Raider with Night Shield, Enhanced Aethersail and Shock Prow = 80
6 Reavers, 2 Caltrops = 172
1002 points total

The Helliarch and Stunclaw are chiefly there because I had 15 points left over at the end and didn't know what to do with them. Thanks ahead of time!"

First off you're over points I'm afraid, you've got to be on the points or below the points allocated, no couple point leeway. Secondly, at 1000 points you don't need two HQs. Whilst both are excellent choices, the two of them aren't really going to do it for you. Next up you've got the issue of only having a single Raider. It's going to die and die quickly as there is nothing else to absorb the fire. So let's drop the Wyches and Raider and Duke which gets us 250 points. We'll take the Warriors and split them into two 10x squads with a DL (or you can just have them as a giant squad). These will be our objective holders and can pop some tanks for us. We'll then take the Baron + the hellions and flesh out the Reavers as our 'in your face' aspect of the army. Grabbing another Hellion squad would be nice but not really feasible at this points level and we need to be able to pop tanks which 2 DL won't do.

We'll add two squads of Reavers of 6 strong with two heat lances each and can add clusters if we wish as well for some anti-infantry goodness. We've still got 178 points left though so we'll add in another 10 strong Hellion squad so our single squad doesn't get shot up. Not too balanced but it has got lots of anti-infantry and enough anti-tank to give what you should see at 1000 points pause (especially so if you get S6 Hellions!).