Dark Eldar gaming philosophy (personal opinion with experience)

[thecactusman17]

There are a number of awesome abilities and units in the Dark Eldar codex. People are right to conclude that in many ways, it is perhaps the best-written of any modern codex in the way that it interfaces with the current edition of the rules and metagame. This topic is merely a bit of space for me to place forth some general ideas I've had that have brought me success from the time that I started playing them.

A minor preface: i have only been playing since 2008, since shortly before 5th edition hit the scene. I started with very generic Space Marines, quickly building out into Grey Knights (old) as allies, which eventually turned into a whole Sisters of Battle army thanks to the ally rules. Sisters remain my army since i fully adopted them into my game. and thankfully, theirs was a unique case: unlike many older codexes, Witch Hunters actually got significantly stronger as a codex with the switch to 5th edition, and remain an excellent codex despite a number of poorly performing units scattered throughout the book. Hopefully, GW will completely shatter expectations and give them the codex they deserve in White Dwarf later this summer.

I bring that up because of my playstyle, which I've jokingly referred to in the past as this: Play everything like it's overcosted, underperforming, and stuck in 3rd edition.

Dark Eldar are an army that does not play like others in the same general sandbox. Where so many others rely on tricks within the shooting or assault phase, Dark Eldar resort to some pretty amazing shenanigans throughout all six phases that pass over the course of a game turn. Some of these require little more than a rudimentary understanding of the larger 40k game and the rules, while others are an involved secondary game of forcing your opponent in to certain scenarios where you can unexpectedly take advantage at the right moment.

I like to think of Dark Eldar as the Judo or Aikido practicioners of 40k. Just like in those sports, Dark Eldar take the applied force of their opponent and turn it upon its head, turning their opponent's strengths into liabilities and stripping away control of the battlefield at crucial moments to achieve victory.

Like many martial arts, judo focuses on the idea of an opponent's center of gravity as his most vital weakness or strength. Any object which has that center fall or move out of that center is going to topple. And this is exactly what Dark Eldar do, forcing an enemy to lean too far one way or the other during their game to recover before the big fall.

So if our objective is to push or pull our opponent outside of their comfort zone so we can topple them, what are the tools at our disposal to do it with?

Nightshields are an often overlooked tool to do this with. These are one of the DE's few 'pull" mechanisms, forcing your opponent to come to you to bring all of their firepower to bear upon your vehicles. Midrange armies are often severely affected by this, as they find themselves so often just outside of effective range. Hellions are also an excellent pull mechanism when teamed with the Baron, as they can acquire maddening combinations of cover saves and FNP. A flock of Hellions sitting on a crucial objective a level or three above the rest of the match can hold it nearly indefinitely against all but a very few determined assaults.

Hellions, Beastmasters and Incubi are units that push opposed to a nightshields pull. In each case, they are amazing CC units which force your opponent to back away for fear of losing their center, which can often be described as a big or exceedingly tough enemy unit. It is my experience that my opponent is most ready to forfeit after a massive, overwhelming charge from one or both of these units.

Wyches and Bloodbrides are two units that could best be described as joint lock units. Potentially very painful when applied correctly, and more importantly they stop or freeze in place an enemy unit for the game, or at least long enough for a more crucial blow to take hold. These are also units that can go in for the pin at the end, putting your weakened opponent out for the count or holding him at arms length until the clock runs out.

Ravagers, Razorwing jetfighters, Voidravens, Venoms and Warriors are units that all are sort of like leg sweeps. They knock your opponent's support out from under them, by eliminating large blocks of infantry or tough as nails tanks. But a leg sweep is rarely giong to end the fight itself, you need to follow it up with a solid effort to keep your opponent down. Some players pile on the abuse until the whole opposition simply can't get back up, but this is a risky tactic because when you only have one move in your bag of tricks, it will only work so many times before your opponent learns to ignore it, or even worse turn it around on you.

So how does a typical successful game of mine go?

Turns 1-2: Pull! My units are maneuvered so that my opponent comes towards me, at my urging with reduced range on his weapons and priority targeting of his longest range units.

Turns 3-4: Sweep and push! As he draws near, I destroy critical supporting elements such as Grey Hunters or Purifiers with concentrated shooting and assaults, and engage his most important game objective units with my most powerful ones, gutting his army of all of most of its most important units quickly. Quickly is key here, an opponent who can respond is an opponent who can still disrupt my overall strategy. Even if everyone on my end pops back out into their shooting, it is better to give too many critical targets than too few. At the end, they are overextended and have lost units crucial to supporting their force through the end of the game.

Turn 5-6: Pin! Units that must capture objectives do so, while the remainder forces any surviving enemy troops into hiding or desperate measures to recapture lost objectives.


I invite other players with experience playing as or regularly against Dark Eldar to add their thoughts and contributions.

[Necron_Lord]

I like a mix of shooting and assault. Depending on the opponent, I like to have two foot squads of warriors in my backfield to hold objectives, preferably in cover, often with a squad of Wracks to lend cc support and for redundancy. I also like Incubi as a hammer assault unit to kill enemy troops, especially power armored ones. I also like wyches to tarpit MCs and cc deathstar units. I also have vehicles and scourges as predominately anti-mech, but also as additional anti-infantry if need be.

In short, I like 5-6 scoring units and a mix of low AP dakka and assault power. I typically only have 3 foot units max, so I'm pretty mobile and can use null deployment when necessary. Typically I go after the opponent's long rang dakka first, so my long range dakka can survive and attack throughout the game and then gang up on troops, to attempt to put the objectives game in my favor. I like both assault and shooting because it gives one something to use if the other fails. With my necrons, I cannot do that. Plus all the AP 2 is good for negating FNP, so Catalyst and Sanguinary Priests can have their powers rendered futile.

[davel]

What I like about dark eldar armies is the lack of a "head"

this edition of 40k has more than it's fair share of hammer units

there is in most armies one of these which you have to size up as either

I can take that or (more usal) being edar avoid it.

the put all your eggs in one basket/hammer unit approach does not work ell for DE.
and their speedy units are difficult to avoid.

It makes for a far more refreshing game , though i have yet to develop a counter to it.

davel

[slxiii]

I am much more aggressive in my play style. First turn I usually try to get an assault off if possible and prudent, and I take out the greatest threats to my army. Rinse and repeat in following turns, eliminating the highest threats each turn while staying mobile and lining up more opportunities of attack.
I find against many players that killing certain units will demoralize them and make them make stupid mistakes.
I'm not sure if there's a fighting style equivalent to this style, I guess it is similar to putting itching powder in your opponents underpants or kicking them in the groin.

[Ro'jero]

In truth my favorite technique is to misguide where my DE go. I start with only 2 Haemoculi on the board on Venoms with a squad of 4 Wracks. And the haemoculi have Web way portals.
My other leader is Duke Sliscus who allows Deep Strikes. Now dependin on how the board is set up is how I approach my surgical strikes...

[Xas]

It seams you have truly understood (or at least started to do) the way DE are meant to be played.
The codex is a masterpiece that makes the army work exactly as described in the fluff.
Therefore you have to think like a true Dark Eldar and work from there!

If you manage to break up their battleplan or even better seed them with fear you have made a major step towards victory.


If you want to learn new tricks you should try and play a few games against DE, useing another army (or switch armies with a friend when playing them next).

Thats all I'm gona say for now.

Let terror be your sword and arrogance be your shield!