Dark Eldar in 6th

[eldargal]

I've written a few times that I think DE are going to be hit hard by 6th until they get a FAQ, reading the rules again and seeing what some other people are saying on other forums I may have been too hasty. So I've written out a few thoughts below:

Flickerfields: with all skimmers getting the 5+ cover save Jink rule, FF seem to be useless. But you need to move to get jink, FF gives you a save if stationary. Could be handy for keeping an immobilised raider alive and denying kill points? It also still provides save agaisnt CC attacks and templates. FF are useful on flyers though, 5+ save against skyfire shots.

Raiders can now move 12" and fire their Dark Lance at full BS, not sure they could move more than 6" and shoot before? Trying to forget 5th, doing a good job so far. You can't disembark if a vehicle moves over 6" now, but you can move 6" after you disembark so our charge range is much the same. Our raiders can move 12", shoot their dark lance AND troops inside can snap fire and BS1. Give them a splinter rack and you can re-roll misses. This gives us a bit more damge output while increasing our mobility.

Nightshields: With premeasuring these can be used much more precisely.

FNP: as gone a 1/2 chance of ignoing a wound to 1/3, a big blow BUT it now works against AP1/2 weapons so our troops are much more durable against certain armies abundant with such weapons (GK)

Wyches: Wyches are problematic. With overwatch they will suffer casualties against most shooting BUT with the changes to defensive grenades giving them a PGL and charging from behind cover could give them a decent cover save (defensive grenades grant stealth to a unit if it is shot at by another unit with 8"). With the boost to haywire granades and the ease of striking vehicles these girls can now pop vehicles and dreadnoughts much more easily and still perhaps weather overwatch fire with a bit of luck. Still hoping the FAQ boosts them a bit but they may not be as useless as I thought.

Incubi are now just AP3, unless klaives get FAQed. Still great and likely to weather overwatch fire well, but expensive for a unit that can no longer go toe to toe with terminators.

Flyers: Our two flyers are pretty great now, only being hit on 6s apart from the quite rare skyfire ability. They can only fire two missiles a turn, though. Now that the voidraven has to move and can weather great volumes of fire while dropping its void mine actually makes said mine useful.

The Talos is still a beast, perhaps more so with the boost to monstrous creatures.

That's all I can think of at the moment, still a bit of a mixeed back but perhaps not quite as negative as intially suspected.

Edit: Beasts are still very fast and can assault through difficult terrain. Khymerae packs will be quite powerful against overwatch fire, keep them in the front to absorb wounds, pile in with the rest later.

Webway portals really seem useless now, unless FAQed to allow units to assault out of them. If so Wyches become useful again, take squads if 15 through a WWP for some more ablative wounds.

[alshrive]

how does a ravager do in the new rules? i am sure i will learn soon enough but was curious as to whether any light could be shed? how far can it move and still fire effectively?

[eldargal]

Ravager can still move 12" and fire all three weapons, HP may be a buff or a nerf depending on how you feel about them. Personally I'd say ravagers are much the same power level they were before.

[DrLove42]

I do think i'll be dropping Flickers though and using Nightshields instead. The ability to premeasure will help them.

BUT i'll still take them on fliers. They can jink and get a 5+ save to avoid fliers fire....wheras a DE flier get it without the sacrifice of BS for the next turn.

And as you say Splinterracks will make embarked troops better. And with the loss of AP2 power weapons, we might need to see dissintergrators to deal with Terminators....

WWP portal lsits have taken a boost and a nerf. You can't assault out of reserve which sucks. But you can infiltrate a hemonculus with a WWP in with mandrakes now and get it in the other half REALLY fast

[eldargal]

I'm still on the fence about FF. It will be useful against templates and CC, but the only tiem my raiders get near enough to assault ideally is when they are dropping off wyches. Do you assault the wyches or the raider? Assault the raider and the wyches charge in without overwatch so I can't see that happening much.

I just hate bringing things out of a WWP and not being able to assault right away, to me it seems asking them to be shot to pieces. I only ever bring assaulty things out of WWP so maybe I'm doing it wrong? Even a relatively durable talos I don't want floating about doing nothing for a turn while it can be shot up.

[alshrive]

i am dropping FF for NS as well i think (i have wrote a small 500 point ally list for DA- i have been looking for an excuse to do an army and that is it. plus i can justify to the fiancee! no darling, its not a new army- look- it's a perfectly legal expansion of my current army!) mwahahahahahaahahaha

[The Shadow King]

Wasn't there something about you can infiltrate a haemi if it joins a unit of infiltrating mandrakes? That's a boost if true.

[Krayd]

Assuming that the 'aerial assault' rule is still in effect (and it would need to be, in order for Ravagers to be as good as they were before), then would that rule override the '2 missiles' limitation on flyers, or is that limitation stated in the rulebook to be in place regardless of how many weapons the flyer can fire that turn?

[Krayd]

I'm still on the fence about FF. It will be useful against templates and CC, but the only tiem my raiders get near enough to assault ideally is when they are dropping off wyches. Do you assault the wyches or the raider? Assault the raider and the wyches charge in without overwatch so I can't see that happening much.

I just hate bringing things out of a WWP and not being able to assault right away, to me it seems asking them to be shot to pieces. I only ever bring assaulty things out of WWP so maybe I'm doing it wrong? Even a relatively durable talos I don't want floating about doing nothing for a turn while it can be shot up.

Well, it would make pinning more important (which would probably have to be done via bladevanes or necrotoxin missiles. Unfortunately, everything that I have read seems to indicate that pinning is no easier to accomplish than it was before.

Without the ability to assault, I would guess that reaver jetbikes will be the best unit to come out of a WWP. The Talos does have some formidable shooting options, so that could be feasible. It's unfortunate that they never specifically allowed venoms to come out of the WWP even though the fluff suggests that they are supposed to be able to.

Flickerfield is still useful, but could use a reduction to 5 pts instead of 10 (with a respective decrease in the cost of the Venom).

[MaltonNecromancer]

Flickerfields: with all skimmers getting the 5+ cover save Jink rule, FF seem to be useless. But you need to move to get jink, FF gives you a save if stationary. Could be handy for keeping an immobilised raider alive and denying kill points? It also still provides save agaisnt CC attacks and templates. FF are useful on flyers though, 5+ save against skyfire shots

I like to run a 10 woman Trueborn unit with 6 Splinter Carbines and 4 Splinter Cannon. Combined with Splinter Racks and Flickerfield, I still say Flickerfield is good in 5th.