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Friday, March 18, 2011

Email in: Dark Eldar at 2k



"Hey Kirby,

So I played a lot of Dark Eldar (with and against) in previous years and am only now getting back into the army. I've been mainly playing WHFB since the end of 3rd ed 40k, but have decided to give 40k another go now that 8th ed Fantasy is here (not a fan of playing My Little Ponies). This isn't to say that I don't understand 5th ed 40k in a general sense, but instead just to give a bit of background into why I wrote the list the way I did so, without further rambling, here it is:"


My little ponies?

"2000 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1999

HQ: Lady Malys (1#, 130 pts)
1 Lady Malys, 130 pts

HQ: Haemonculus (2#, 105 pts)
1 Haemonculus, 55 pts = (base cost 50 + Venom Blade 5)
1 Haemonculus, 50 pts


Elite: Kabalite Trueborn (4#, 146 pts)
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 81 pts = 3 * 12 (base cost 12) + Blaster x3 45
1 Venom, 65 pts = (base cost 55 + -10) + Splinter Cannon x2 20

Elite: Kabalite Trueborn (4#, 146 pts)
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 81 pts = 3 * 12 (base cost 12) + Blaster x3 45
1 Venom, 65 pts = (base cost 55 + -10) + Splinter Cannon x2 20

Elite: Incubi (6#, 132 pts)
6 Incubi, 132 pts = 6 * 22

Troops: Wyches (9#, 181 pts)
7 Wyches, 84 pts = 7 * 12 (base cost 10 + Haywire Grenades 2)
1 Hekatrix, 32 pts = (base cost 20 + Haywire Grenades 2 + Power Weapon 10)
1 Raider, 65 pts = (base cost 60) + Shock Prow 5

Troops: Wracks (6#, 125 pts)
5 Wracks, 60 pts = 5 * 10 (base cost 10) + Liquifier Gun x1 10
1 Venom, 65 pts = (base cost 55 + -10) + Splinter Cannon x2 20

Troops: Kabalite Warriors (6#, 135 pts)
5 Kabalite Warriors, 60 pts = 5 * 9 (base cost 9) + Blaster x1 15
1 Raider, 75 pts = (base cost 60) + Shock Prow 5 + Flickerfield 10

Troops: Kabalite Warriors (6#, 125 pts)
5 Kabalite Warriors, 60 pts = 5 * 9 (base cost 9) + Blaster x1 15
1 Venom, 65 pts = (base cost 55 + -10) + Splinter Cannon x2 20

Fast Attack: Reavers (6#, 162 pts)
6 Reavers, 162 pts = 6 * 22 (base cost 22) + Blaster x2 30

Fast Attack: Beastmasters (10#, 126 pts)
3 Beastmasters, 36 pts = 3 * 12
5 Khymerae, 60 pts = 5 * 12
2 Razorwing Flocks, 30 pts = 2 * 15

Fast Attack: Beastmasters (10#, 126 pts)
3 Beastmasters, 36 pts = 3 * 12
5 Khymerae, 60 pts = 5 * 12
2 Razorwing Flocks, 30 pts = 2 * 15

Heavy Support: Ravager (1#, 115 pts)
1 Ravager, 115 pts = (base cost 105) + Flickerfield 10

Heavy Support: Ravager (1#, 115 pts)
1 Ravager, 115 pts = (base cost 105) + Flickerfield 10

Heavy Support: Talos Pain Engine (1#, 130 pts)
1 Talos Pain Engine, 130 pts = (base cost 100 + Close Combat Weapon x1 15) + Chain-flails 10 + TL Haywire Blaster 5"


There's a lot of good units and setups here but it doesn't really seem like it has a focus. I feel most of it can work together except the Talos who really isn't going to work in a mech + beastmaster type of list IMO. Anyway let's look at some of your rationale before we start changing things to see what you were aiming for!

"I know it seems like a bit of a hodge podge, but I find that only hybrid lists hold any enjoyment for me as I need the full spread of movement possibilities to make a movement system as simple as 40k's enjoyable. Lady Malys is there as I found I was running a similarly built/costing Archon instead of her and thought I could abuse her redeploy to trap opponents into over committing in areas that I intend to leave (such as in DoW). She is able to either join the Wyches or Incubi based on my needs at the moment.

The anti-tank is a little on the low side, but a third Ravager just isn't as interesting as the suppressing force a Talos represents. In fact, earlier builds saw me running two Talos, but I feel that's a little unnecessary given how they operate. Furthermore, I've tried again and again to use a full 10 man Wrack unit, but it always ends up either failing in combat or getting left behind on some objective anyway so I don't see much reason to build the squad any bigger. The Incubi are a bit odd, but I feel that there are enough threats represented in the list that they shouldn't be too worried about early turn death even when slogging it.

Anyway, your thoughts would be much appreciated,
Kremmet"


Mmmkay if you were looking for Hybrid well the Reavers and Beastmasters are fine. I'm a bit eh @ the single Reaver squad (two are better) but we can work with it. I really think the Talos needs to go however. It does have some excellent suppression ability but I feel any high strength shots without rate of fire are just going into it whilst the rate of fire guns are going into your tanks. If you were running three, perhaps but just a single one... If you wanted to run a webway this would be more viable...


That being said we still need to do something about the single units of Wyches, Wracks and Incubi. You've already got Beastmasters as a pretty scary combat unit so the Incubi aren't as necessary. However, to keep with the Hybrid theme you want perhaps running Harlequins on foot? You won't be able to give them a pain token but they are still pretty evil in combat and can keep up with the Beastmasters due to ignoring cover and fleet. You could also add some fusion pistols for some extra AP1. From there I'd not run Wyches and run Wracks in Raiders as either bigger assault units or simply small scoring squads which give you access to more Dark Lances which the army would benefit greatly from. 


Anyway I think you overall need to focus the army a bit more in terms of unit selection. Whilst repeating the same unit can be a bit boring, Dark Eldar units are generally quite distinctly different in what they do so it's hard to create redundancy and saturation with particular units (i.e. Wyches = tarpits, Talos = MCs). The core is good and Beastmasters + Mech is a fine concept, I'd just work with the fringes of the list and make sure you've still got solid scoring.

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