Email in: Dark Eldar kabalite list

"Hi Kirby,
James here, been a reader of your blog for a while and found it a great help! Anyway I'm starting a Dark Eldar army, but want it to be purely kabalite themed - no wych cult or coven units. Yeah it's a bit limiting, but it should be fun. This is what I came up with at 1750;

HQ
Lady Malys (130)
Archon with Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Agoniser, Shadowfield (135)

ELITE
8 Trueborn with Plasma/Haywire Grenades, 2 Splinter Cannons, 5 Shard Carbines, Dracon with Agoniser (190)
Raider with Flickerfields (70)

5 Incubi, Klaivex (125)
Raider with Flickerfields (70)


TROOPS

10 Kabalite Warriors with Dark Lance (115)
Raider with Flickerfields (70)

5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster (60)
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons (65)

5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster (60)
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons (65)

5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster (60)
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons (65)

5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster (60)
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons (65)

SUPPORT

Ravager with Flickerfields (115)
Ravager with Flickerfields (115)
Ravager with Flickerfields (115)"

Kabalite theme is fine (are Reavers okay btw?) but only single squads of Trueborn and Incubi stick out and Lady Malys isn't really adding much to the list. You don't have much in need of re-deployment (i.e. foot DLs) and whilst she's good in combat she's not omg amazing. For the same points you get a similar Archon who also brings along a PGL and stick him with the Incubi. From there split the Trueborn into two squads with Raiders and shardcarbines for some dedicated anti-infantry and an extra Lance shot.

To do this you might need to drop the 10x strong Warrior squad down to a 5-man in Venom and then you have to ask with 5 Venoms do you really need the Shardcarbine Trueborn? Personally I think not and I'd look to make those 2x6x Reaver squads w/Heat Lances instead but if they were outside your theme at least make them Blaster Trueborn (boring but effective).

So, the plan is to deploy lady malys with the trueborn one one flank, the archon and incubi on the other, and with lady malys' redeploy ability, after the enemy has delpoyed move either unit to which ever flank I want to destroy. Hopefully this will also limit the amount of incoming fire heading their way.

What do you think? Is there anything I could do to improve this list, bearing in mind I only want Kabal units (although I imagine they would use miscellaneous units like Scourges, Harlequins and Mandrakes too)? I'd really like to fit in a unit or two of blaster trueborn, but would have to take out the incubi, which would leave me a bit lacking in the assault department. What do you think about taking Duke Sliscus with another unit of shooty trueborn instead of the incubi? My thinking is that with an agoniser in each unit, plus the characters power weapons, they should be able to mop up weakened units alright, and avoid/shoot those nasty combat units they don't want to engage, plus they should be able to get a couple of pain tokens via shooting easy enough for furious charge....

Woops didn't see you had an Archon + Lady Malys! I don't think you're gaining anything from having the two of them but if you turn Lady Malys into an Archon w/PGL + combat upgrades, you can run two Incubi squads in Raiders. With this in mind you can again go for Blaster Trueborn or Reavers with Heat Lances to supplement your anti-tank and turn the 10 strong Warrior squad into another 5 strong w/Venom.

Trueborn should never really be combat units so any upgrades in this regard are pretty meh. In the end they are T3/5+ which bodes ill for them, even if they have pain tokens. They are much better as shooting units. The Duke makes them a lot better at this though you lose the ability to take double Archons w/PGL + 2x Incubi though you could run them without Archons/PGL if you wish and then make a Trueborn + Duke unit with shardcarbines. This would be a pretty big anti-infantry unit so I'd look to grab some Reavers as well which at 1500 probably isn't viable. As a 1750 or 2000 upgrade though it has potential.

In the end I'd look to get in more anti-tank whether it's Blaster Trueborn or Reavers with Heatlances (or Scourges if you prefer them), double up the Incubi so they have redundancy and then fiddle with points around that. Don't be afraid to drop a Ravager either if it gets you access to multiple heat lances.