Chaos Demons v. Dark Eldar - Tactics and Thoughts?

[eagleboy7259]

Well I recently got my older brother back into playing 40k. The other night we had our first game in over 7 years between my chaos demons and his dated dark eldar army using the new 'dex. It was his first time playing under the 5th edition rule set so our 2000pt game went well over 4 hours. It was kill points and I absolutely murdered him, mostly due to his rustiness and neither one of us fulling understanding what was actually in the other's codex. Regardless, I can see Dark Eldar becoming an army that I'll have a lot of trouble with in the furture. Does anyone have any ideas on how to better shape a demon's list to compete with DE?

His army consisted of -
2 Hamonculeous & Urien
4x 10 Warriors in Raiders
2x 10 Wyches in Raiders
2x 6 Jetbike Squads
2x Ravegers w/ Dark Lances

He has a 10 strong squad of mandrakes, another 10 strong squad of Jetpack DE, another Raider and a handful of Lords w/ Retinues that he didn't field.

My army currently consists of -
Bloodthirster
Fateweaver
2x 3 Flamers
4x Bloodcrushers
3x5 Horrors & the Changling
10 strong Bloodletters
5 strong Flesh Hounds
Soul Grinder
Soul Grinder
Demon Prince

and that's fielding everything I own minus some flesh hounds and horrors. While I'm Khrone - Tzeentch right now, I'm willing to field anything you can suggest to get an edge. I have some ideas based on our game, but I'd like some outside input. Thanks

[DarkLink]

Shoot up the wyches, as they can tie up your big stuff. Take down the ravagers, as they make up a good chunk of his firepower and are pretty fragile.

After that just try and break his warriors. His jetbikes should be too much of a problem, as they'll get one turn of turboboosting, then you can assault and kill them.

[eagleboy7259]

By the start of his turn 2 the bikes were gone thanks to some decent deepstriking by the flamers and a poor moral test by the bikers.

I was wondering more aliong the lines of switching out Khrone for Slaanesh since all the poisoned weapons treat T3 & T4 the same anyway, the extra speed and rending attacks might help down Raiders?

[DaveLL]

By the start of his turn 2 the bikes were gone thanks to some decent deepstriking by the flamers and a poor moral test by the bikers.

I was wondering more aliong the lines of switching out Khrone for Slaanesh since all the poisoned weapons treat T3 & T4 the same anyway, the extra speed and rending attacks might help down Raiders?

Khorne -> Slaanesh may not be a bad idea in general, but don't count on it helping against raiders; they can outpace any daemon, even a Slaanesh one. (Except screamers, I suppose, but that doesn't really count since you can't charge after turbo-boosting.) For raiders, you realistically just want ranged weapons. Luckily for you, you can expect to glance a raider with a min-sized squad of horrors shooting, even without Bolt.

[Daemonette666]

I like using Seekers to suppport close combat. Yes they are only T3, and move 6", run/fleet D6", but with a herald attached to the unit, you can strike at the same time in close combat, and your assault is 12". They automatically get assault and defence grenades, and although the rending rule is not as effective, it can't hurt.

Just watch out in case you brother buys some of the new dark Eldar Characters like Lilith. They can really hurt you in close combat.

I would get more shooting troops to bring his units down, and the flamers and horrors have a 4++ save which is better than most of the 5++ most of the daemon army gets. Use more icons. I know they are expensive, but a guaranteed deepstrike is better than lots of deep strike mishaps. His poisoned weapons are going to hurt your army a lot, and his ravagers with their dark lances can make "mice meat" (hamburger in American lingo) of your soul grinders so kill them fast.

This is probably the best time to use Plague bearers. Their Feel no pain is not cancelled out by poisoined weapons, and with a toughness 5, 5++ with a 4+ FNP, they can ride out the dark eldar assault, and strike back. The only down side is they are slow, with low iniative, but most of your army has lower iniative against his troops. Avoid power and Rending weapon squads, and weapons with AP1. They would be good to place on an objective in cover and force him to come to you.

Also keep your army in groups of 2 or more units in one area if you can. This way he can not out number your forces too much in one location. It reduces your tactical flexability, but will force him to commit in one area, or be spread too far. You can always deep strike units as they come in later on to reinforce particular areas, or snatch new objectives from him (or contest them) and he then has to race across the field to keep hold of his gains or lose them to you.

Do not be afraid to send in a unit of Toughness 4 or 5 troops to bog down his forces. While he is locked in CC, he can not be attacking you elsewhere. This workls both ways, so be careful of this tactic.

As you are still learning the new rules, His poiisoned weapons most of which are a 4+ to wound can only get re-rolls to wound if the strength of the weapon is equal or higher than the toughness of your troops. vehicles are unaffected by poisoned weapons unless the weapon has specific rules stating it glances vehicle.

I hope this has helped you out.