"Hey guys,
Congratulations on having possibly the best 40k blog out there - I really get a kick out of reading your articles.
Just sending you an email as I'm a bit lost when it comes to making Dark Eldar lists, and I wondered if you good folks would be prepared to lend me a hand. This is going to be my next project and will be a 'counts as' army using Kroot hunters (think pseudo-Predators here; slightly more tech than you're average Pech dwelling Kroot with a certain code of honour revolving around the Hunt).
As such, I'm trying to limit the types of units I take simply to better represent the various Kroot 'Kin'. I've had a few stabs at the list but I'm worried about it not being 'killy' enough and lacking the ever useful anti-tank.
Thanks re blog. Normally I'd send this to fester as he's the crazy idea/counts-as 'expert' but I don't think he knows diddly about Dark Eldar =D.
Units usable are below. My initial thoughts are to use the Wych stat line and wargear (e.g. combat drugs & 2 CC weapons) as the 'base' Kroot. Therefore, the Hellions will be a better representation of Vultures in terms of standardised stats, but I'd be very happy to use Scourges if they are a better choice for a given list (I'll just have to come up with a reason why their stats differ :) ).
Wyches and Scourges it is. Hellions are really only a good unit when the Baron is taken as they become Troops so become an annoying hindarance which has good anti-infantry potential. As Fast Attack they are pretty much just good anti-infantry.
First group are things that are a preference - this is a mix of how easy they are to convert/acquire and how closely they fit to the Kroot ideal.
Wyches - Kroot Carnivores [fast hunters that make up the bulk of the force - combat drugs likely represent natural drugs used to contact the Kindred's ancestors]
Wracks - Headhunters [resilient but slower Kroot who've devoured highly toxic prey and secrete their own poisons to hunt with]
Talos - Great Knarlocs [big, stompy monstrous creatures with a back mounted bolt thrower (stinger pod)]
Hellions/Scourges - Vultures [re-awakened their avian ancestry by consuming predatory birds. ]
Succubus/Archon - Master Shaper [leader of the Hunt]
Haemonculi - Shaman/Shaper Council [aged Kroot who commune with the ancestors and drive the Kindred into heightened states of conciousness (additional pain tokens)]
This group are things I would be happy to use, but will require some heavier scratch building or will need awkward metal models.
Raiders - Warskiffs [think along the lines of Jabba's skiff from Star Wars - used to hunt big game and transport the Kindred]
Beastmasters & Khymerae - Kroot Beastmaster mounted on a Knarloc (Beasts rule) & Kroot Hounds [enough said]
Ravagers - Heavy Warskiffs [modified Warskiffs that simply mount more weaponry and armour]
Basically you've got everything a good Dark Eldar list will need. You can run most list styles here since you're allowing Warskiffs but you can also easily run a WWP list with Talos/Scourges/Wyches/Wracks/Beastmaster.
Stuff that's usable but a distant third - pricey metal mini's or rubbish rules that happen to fit with the Kroot idea.
Mandrakes - Stalkers [Kroot that specialise in the stealthy kill - perhaps with chameleon-like skin. Would have a stornger honour code whereby they will not use ranged weaponry until they've slain prey up close (pain token fuelled Baleblast)]
Grotesques - Krootox [enough said]
Don't need these guys so all good.
Wargear & equipment shouldn't be too much of an issue - all but the wackiest of it would be easy enough to represent through a suitable counts as.
For example - an Agoniser would be an Eviscerator, Lance weaponry could be launchers with corrosive projectiles, Djinn blades as Ancestral weapons, etc.
Hell, most could even be used 'as is' with a simple 'they looted/traded it' explanation.
So, as a base I was initially thinking of Wyches, Wracks, Archon/Succubus and Hellions/Scourges to give a good feel to the army.
I'm happy to use units other than those listed above providing that I can justify them in the aesthetic of the army without too much shoehorning.
I realise that this initial core is a non-too brilliant selection of foot sloggers, and that they'd benefit from a good dose of Raiders and WWP's (any Krootified ideas for Portals?).
Thanks a lot.
Me :)"
I'll try and stick to your list of units but you will need to find a Krootified idea of a Webway Portal... stolen Tau something or other? lol
Let's start with the WWP list first. We need to take three Talos obviously to get maximum benefit and since we are going to be light on anti-tank I'd recommend the twin-linked heat lance. From there we'll need Scourges. I was thinking of running two units + a Beastmaster unit but I think three units will do as we really need to cover our anti-tank. Five strong and two heat lances gives us some pretty good anti-tank so far as well as combat ability from the Talos but everything is short-ranged. Nothing really we'll be able to do there with the units we have available...
We're going to be taking Haemonculi as HQs and to be able to hand out pain tokens to the Wyches when they come in. They'll carry the WWPs (we'll need at least two) and allow Wracks Troops. We'll take two full Wrack squads then with 10 guys each and two liquifiers. These guys offer some great anti-infantry ability with poisoned combat weapons and two templates and are pretty sturdy with T4/FNP. These guys can carry our WWP forward to midfield. From there we'll fill our Troops out with Wyches and we'll aim for larger squads than usual at 15. They'll be on foot and even though we've got the WWP they might have to survive a round of shooting. We'd like to give them FNP if possible be de-taching the Haemonculi from Wracks but we don't have four pain tokens. Shardnets will help reduce the damage they recieve and allow the Talos to hit the lines.
This will all add up to...1972 points. So let's look at what we are lacking in: fire potential against tanks. We've only got the six heat lance units, which whilst impressive, aren't really going to helps us deal with mech saturation. We've got a few options to us. We can cut back a bit on our Wych squads (two 15 strong, two 10 strong) and grab some Trueborn with Blasters and have them run out of the Portal as suicide units. This is the best option IMO but will require some fluff tweaking to fit the Trueborn into the Kroot theme. You could also run Archons instead of Haemonculi and have them run with Blasters but the loss of the FNP tokens for two of the Wych squads is pretty big so I'd rather not do that. Let's do the Trueborn option... A squad of three with three blasters costs us a paltry 81 points but three of them takes our total to 2215 points. If we drop two of the Wych squads down to 10-strong we sit at 2095 points which is still going to be hard to work with so let's drop one of the Trueborn as well. Now we only have 14 points to drop... so let's drop a shardnet from each of the larger Wych squads and gives us 1996 points and the following:
2x Haemonculi w/WWP
2x3x Trueborn w/Blasters
2x10x Wracks w/2x Liquifiers
2x15x Wyches w/2x shardnets, Hekatrix w/Power Weapon
2x10x Wyches w/2x shardnets, Hekatrik w/Power Weapon
3x5x Scourges w/2x heat lance
3x Talos w/chain-flails, TL-heat lance
Totals: 1996 points
96 models (3 MC, 15 jumper)
Pretty decent with 15 anti-tank shots but that will certainly be an issue. Grenades and blast pistols on the Wyches are always an option but you'd need to trim them to 10x each or drop a Wrack squad.
If you were doing a Warskiff type list I'd run something very similar to this but with everything mounted. The Wrack squads should be MSU style in Raiders, the Talos become Ravagers and the Trueborn can run around in Raiders as well and either go Dark Lance spam or Blasters for up close and personal use. I prefer the foot list in terms of fitting fluff however even though the Warskiff list doesn't have as many issues with anti-tank.
