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Meow Mix
11-04-2010, 01:59 AM
Hey all... new here on the BoLS forum but I've been playing 40k for about 4 years now. Since Dark Eldar were my first army I have been obviously very excited about the new codex. My group usually plays smaller games, with 1k-1.5k battles being the norm, and I haven't seen many of those posted so far. I've always enjoyed Raider spam and a balanced mix of kabalite, wych and haemonculi elements in my lists. I also have a distaste for special characters as a rule- I very much prefer the conversion and storytelling opportunities afforded by creating my own leaders. Finally, this is a list made to fight any army in a casual setting against players who have been throwing dice anywhere from a couple weeks to many years, so I tried to make one that would be fun to play as or against for a variety of skill levels and armies.
So, with that long-winded introduction out of the way, here's the main event:

HQ:
Archon w/ Shadow Field, Huskblade, Soul Cube, Combat Drugs. -145 pts. An obvious configuration but still scary. I'd like him to hunt enemy ICs and MCs, of course, but I think he'll be much more effective as a "boogey man" that keeps the enemy afraid of getting too close with their big guys.

Elites:
8X Mandrakes w/ Nightfiend. -130 pts. I love the models, and though they are a bit of a lackluster unit, I can see them being useful for bunching enemies together with outflank or tying down pieces of terrain with Infiltrate. You never know when they'll surprise you, too! Oh, and the Nightfiend is purely for the +1 Ld- an absolute necessity IMO.

Troops:
2 units of 8X Warriors with Shredders, Sybarite with Venom Blade in Raider with Splinter Racks. -164 total each, 326 all told. Pure offense (none of this Flickerfield stuff! Splinter Racks, rar!), the way I like my DE. The Sybarite is purchased for the +1 Ld, and the Venom Blade is one of the best 5 point upgrades in the game in my opinion- they're cheap and give me a good chance to scratch almost anything that tries to run through the warriors! Likewise, the Shredder is a cheap upgrade that gives the unit some good anti-horde potential while on the move.

8X Wyches with Haywire Grenades, Razorflail, and Hekatrix with Agoniser on a Raider with Grisly Trophies and Torment Grenade Launchers. -206 pts. all told. The Raider is built to be scary and the Wyches are built to tear through things. The Agoniser is very overpriced compared to the Venom Blade in my opinion but gives the gladiators a much needed sting, and the Razorflail is just the killiest wych weapon around. Most of the time, the Archon will be riding with this group, but that may change according to the opponent and deployment

Fast Attack:
6X Reaver Jetbikes with 2 Grav Talons, 2 Heat Lances, Arena Champion w/ Venom Blade. -201 pts. These guys go where they're needed to support where they can. I was unsure on Grav Talons until I realized that they gave +d3 S4 pinning attacks to the Bladevanes instead of replacing them, and so took them as the cheaper alternative to Caltrops. Their role is to support wherever and however they are needed, boosting around as a distraction early game until the enemy is (hopefully) looking elsewhere so they can bring their guns to bear. Again, the Champion is essential for the +1 Ld and the Venom Blade is a nasty fall-back weapon. Plus, you never know what you'll roll for drugs, so in a pinch they can act as a secondary close combat unit!

TOTAL: 1000 points

I've been toying with the ideas of going with an Agoniser Archon to save points and add flexibility, and swapping out the Hekatrix's Agoniser for a Venom Blade, and perhaps slimming down the Mandrake unit, but can't quite decide on what I'd do with the extra points. Another focus of the army is that hit volume > high strength, good AP hits, but I hope I haven't sacrificed too much anti-tank ability by going that route. In 1500 pt games, I'd use Haemies, Wracks and maybe a flier. I'm trying to stick to models in the first or second wave for the time being- I'd hate to make my own and then see gorgeous new models come out for the guys I just slapped together!

Whew! Done! Commenters, go!

Mal
11-04-2010, 03:59 AM
I don't like the huskblade... its simply a power weapon that causes ID, but most IC/MS have eternal warrior and a decent inv save so basically you'll be wounding on a 5+ and hoping they fail their inv save so you can take a single wound off of them.
Its really not that impressive, sure if your lucky enough to find a mc/ic that doesn't have an eternal warrior then it becomes a great weapon, but until then its very lackluster.
You may get away with using his fear factor, but once your opponents become familiar with the rules for him, they will cease to fear him as much.

Mandrakes actually have a lot more potential than the intrawebz is giving them credit for, espically if you can use them to pick off a small fragile unit early on, once they get a pain token then their effectiveness rises by an order of magnitude.

The shredder is a nice upgrade for your troops, espically at only 5 points, but remember its a 12" range blast weapon that scatters (and can scatter 8", so be careful as it can kill your own raider). Im more a fan of the trusty splinter cannon myself, 4 shots on the move or 6 if stationary, all poisoned... pure awesomeness, ofc this is just my preference.

For the wyches i'd suggest swapping the razorflail for the shardned and impaler, I agree that the razorflail is nastier on the charge, but you can't expect to always win combat and the shardnet can reduce those high Str power weapon hits comming back at you, if you put her next to the archon aswell then you can use the shardnet to reduce the chance of your archon getting id'd in combat.
Essentailly the shardnet is the primary upgrade for wyches who want to stay alive for longer.

Your reavers are pretty much right on the money for the way i'd run them in the new book, basically tb around everywhere until your in a position to hit some armour without taking too much return fire.

eldargal
11-04-2010, 05:14 AM
I disagree about the Huskblade, up to a point. If your opponents field lots of special characters then yes, it might not be so good. But if like my group you encourage people to make their own characters, very few of them have Eternal Warrior. Come to think of it, most of the SCs in the latest codices don't have it either, I think only the Sanguinor has it for Bloog Angels.
I absolutely agree with Mal on the Shardnet and Impaler, this should be number one priority. I'd bump the Wyches up to ten to try and get itan the Razorflail personally.

gcsmith
11-04-2010, 06:05 AM
Actually more characters don't have eternal warrior than do. So if you can score a wound on something there is a chance you will kill it, steal its sould and get stronger, Once your strength 10 the huskblade isnt much good against most chars, but it got you there. Watch out for MC though since s3 cant hurt t7 things like the talos.

These are the things I would charge your guy with. That or dreads.

Meow Mix
11-04-2010, 01:34 PM
Yes, Splinter Cannons are usually much better than the Shredders, I left it out because I wanted to give the Archon the ability to ride with the Warriors should the need arise, and because the Shredders cost half as many points, often wound on 2+, can hit more and, in times of utter desperation, can be used against armor.
The reason for taking Razorflails over the Shardnet is that I'm just not afraid of power weapon attacks, wyches' Dodge makes them much less scary. The Shardnet is good but when most enemies will already be wounding on 3+ and power weapons make no difference, my main hope is to reduce the number of those attacks by killing as many enemies as I can before they get to go. I won't fill the Raider with 10 Wyches both because of points and to leave room for the Archon.
In my group, I very, very rarely see Special Characters or Eternal Warrior. My hopes for the Huskblade aren't sky-high, but I think it should be able to do its part.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm always interested in hearing more, especially if I'm making logical mistakes I'm unaware of above.