Dark Eldar painting under way

Well i have completely figured out my Tournament 1850 list. Here is some pictures of it. I am slowly completeing the painting, so far the only thing done is the majority of the raiders. I seriously feel like im painting a horde army.

DARK ELDAR GROTESQUES

Captain Obvious here with another installment of Dark Eldar unit break downs.

GROTESQUES

These units have some pretty special rules. To start it off they have feel no pain, but it’s not your normal feel no pain. Grotesques ignore shooting attacks that aren’t STR6 or higher. So basically you can not kill grotesques from a shooting attack that doesn’t already insta kill them. This works out pretty nicely because STR6+ weapons aren’t usually a huge volume of shoots, and usually won’t be wiping entire squads.They also have some other rules which apply to them as well. Given their unusual tolerance to pain, grotesques are stupid. In game terms it means unless they are accomplice by and Independent Character they must pass a LD test to even move in the movement phase, they need not test for assaults.

Grotesques have one more VERY nasty rule. When ever grotesques win in close combat the enemy automatically falls back with out taking a LD test. Grotesques however do not have a save in close combat, but do benefit from 2 wounds and 2 attacks a piece.How to run them? Well I have been trying a couple ways to run these silly beasts. I mainly use them as a web way delivery system. Ill cover web way later in my posts but a quick run down: Web Way Portal is a portal that we can deploy from a character on the table and lets our reserves come in from the portal as if it were the table edge.

Is what you do is you take a cheat HQ (Homunculi) and give him a web way portal and what ever war gear you way (preferably cheap). Put him in a raider with a squad of 8-10 grotesques. Now u have a tough unit delivering your web way. Seeing as grotesques can be hurt by shooting attacks of STR6+ when that raider blows up unless your opponent wounds every single model that falls out they suffer no wounds, just don’t fail the pinning test. Next turn hopefully you got that raider where it needs to be and u can release that portal. Your opponent can NOT destroy it. Now your entire footslogging force that was kept in reserve can start to enter the table from the portal right on the front line of your opponent. This means TALOS. This is the only time I will ever run Talos because now they will be getting into assault and will become useful. When running a web way list I will usually run 3 squads of grotesques and 3 homunculi, one for each squad all with web way portals. This is to ensure that I get at least 1-2 portals open and to ensure I get my forces there. I also will run warrior squads with 2 splinter cannons and 2 blasters so I can lay down some fire power when they walk through. Obviously you can run it how you want, but this is how I have found it successful.

A small pointer on this list………it has not proven itself to be very competitive for me. I will run this list for fun, or against a gun line list….Like tau or guard just to mess with them. Once again IT IS NOT COMPETETIVE you may get tabled, so be ready lol.

Dark Eldar Squads of Death!

Captain Obvious here,

Ok, so I took a small break, Captain Obvious is back once again to fill you in on some Dark Eldar info that I stumbled across last night. It’s almost as if Games Workshop has some Nostradamus person working for them because this almost seems as if it was designed for countering and detouring drop pods.
After fully re-reading my codex, which I have done about 100 times now, I came across something inside the warrior squads that I never paid much attention to before. This addition, well not so much an addition, makes our little 110 pt warrior squads a serious glass battle hammer.
All you have to do is put 2 blasters in each warrior squad along with the 2 dark lances. So now basically anything that gets with in 12" of that 10 man squad will be taking 4 S8 AP2 lance hits. This is extremely effective against drop pod armies. Most people with their drop pods will want to get close because most drop in dreads on turn 1 to pop vehicles and heavy flame stuff. Most players will reconsider how close they position their dreadnaught to your dark lance squads seeing as just one squad has 4 chances to pop anything.
Most people who drop pod a few dreads in turn 1 claim that they expect them to be 1 trick ponies. Drop in turn 1 pop a vehicle and die the next turn. Reality is that only like 25% of them actually plan on them being dead in the enemies following turn. They always (most of the ones I know) still bank on them being alive to wreak havoc on your front lines a few turns while his force moves up and eventually smashes into your already weakened force.
When you throw 2 blasters in your sniper squads it basically puts a 12" circle around your warrior squads that no vehicles or MC wants to step into. No one likes an army that can dump of 20+ S8 AP2 Lance weapons and multiple targets. As normal and questions, complaints, and comments are welcome.

Bring on your Ironclads and your spore transported fexes!

The pic is a photo of the new sculpts by Jes Goodwin.

Dark Eldar and the need ... the need for speed!

Captain obvious here with another installment of DE info. In this brief post I will cover DE tactics.

One of the main factors of DE is our over all speed. We are by far one of the fastest armies in the game and that is hard for some armies to counter. Proper usage of our speed can win us games or help turn the tide of a failing battle to our favor.
Ill will post the list I have been running quickly and run over some of the tactics I have used with it and how they were successful and how they…….weren’t.

HQ
Archon Agonizer, Shadow Field, Combat Drugs
Retinue- 4 incubi, Drazhar, 3 warriors, Raider Scaling nets
Drachite Agonizer, Combat Drugs

Troops
2 10 man Dark lance squads
2 10 man raider squads Blaster, Splinter Cannon….Scaling nets on raider

Elites
10 wyches raider Succubus, Agonizer….Scaling nets on raider
10 wyches raider Succubus, Agonizer….Scaling nets on raider

Heavy
Talos x2
Ravager 3 Dark Lances
1750pts

This is a quick post of the list I have been running… The way I have been running this list is by basically running 2 teams. Both teams consist of a Wych Squad, a warrior squad (Covering their movement lane), a raider squad, and a Talos. I usually always put the ravager in the center and it redeploys to either flank as needed. The HQ sits back and usually won’t be seen until turn 3 when they are needed to help clean up a fight that is going sour. The Talos keep pushing up and hopefully all is going well with your wyches, which should be in combat by turn 2, and the Talos just floats his way into that combat and helps clean it up. If your opponent is running a hard hitting squad….like a bike command squad or something along those lines, you will want to charge your retinue into that, seeing as you don’t want that command squad charging anything of yours.

When you run a formation like this most people tend to push themselves into the center of the table in attempts to avoid your wyches and the Talos and the game turns into a huge blood bath that usually swings to the DE favor. People are afraid of Talos, wyches, dark lances, and are VERY afraid of the DE retinue.

Another way to setup your forces is to mass your dark lances and Talos in the center of the battlefield. Keep your wyches and raider squads on the flanks; keep your retinue on a flank and re deploy it as needed through out the battle. When you deploy like this it causes your enemy to split his forces or makes him mass up onto one of the flanks. Most people don’t have the balls to run dead on into all your dark lances. If they do for some reason that works out perfectly for us. They will take heavy loses charging into those lances and your flanking squads will be hitting them before they even get to those lance squads, not to mention they will be having to deal with 2 Talos running up the gut of the battlefield as well. This setup works well against most armies except those that have a lot of outflanking units……IE Un-Phasable’s White Scares. Getting hit all on one flank with 1000+pts of bikers hurts and hurts BAD……personal experience.
As usual please comment and suggestions welcome.

Here is a picture of one of my common setups. It is a team game so its not my regular list, but you can see the 2 raiders on the flank...These are the Wyches and the Raider squad....You will also notice i have 2 Dark Lance squads covering this lane to ensure a clear path for raiders to move down with out taking massive fire. You can also see Mr. Talos pushing up this flank as well. Is what ended up happening was our right flank was covered by a ravager, Dark Reapers, and a talos. This caused the bikers to push into the middle and attempt to take the 2 center Objectives. PLaying right into both of of our armies. Over all is was a good game, but we soon discovered that Dark Eldar teamed up with Eldar is not fun to play against.

Dark Eldar Army Breakdown 5: Retinue

Captain Obvious here with another installment of Dark Eldar knowledge.The next unit I will cover will be the Dark Eldar Retinue. The power of the DE Retinue is never to be underestimated. Some say it's over priced and not worth it, but I on the other hand have had great success with it.

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My current list does include a 10 man retinue and so far the few games I have ran with them they have proven to kill their points cost......and one game even had a player deathly afraid of them. So much that it detoured an entire drop podding squad of grey wolves from an objective.

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In order to even field a retinue you have to have an Archon or Drachon as your HQ choice. Granted its not a Nob Squad of bikers, doesn't have multiple wound allocation, but it will out initiative most every unit in the game and is filled with A LOT of power weapons.

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The power of your retinue comes from the Incubi in it. Incubi with the weapons they get are S4 with a 3+ save and 3 attacks on the charge at WS 5, not to mention they are all initiative 5. Ill give a quick run down of what my retinue is and how it had proven itself successful. My retinue consists of my Archon (Agonizer,Shadow Field, Pistol, and combat drugs), 4 incubi, Drazhar, and 3 warriors. I also attach a wych Drachite to it, because according to the wych weapon rules, as long as she is attached to that squad attacking units do not get +1 for having 2 close combat weapons. Granted Incubi can not fleet, it is still a very effective unit. This is a different retinue than I have seen most run but given the fact that the wych Drachite can break off from it and help assist other combats I find that it fits my play style very well. Most people do not expect a Wych to break off.....run then charge 12 inches because of combat drugs right into a combat they may have thought they were going to win. I gear her just like my Archon just with out the shadow field. Granted your Retinue is in a raider they are not as flimsy as your Warrior Squads or your Wyches. And if you built it with some warriors in it you have a chance to drop some wounds before you start eating into your beastly Incubi.

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The way I have found that makes this unit effective is to keep them back unit they are needed. I use them as a hard hitting clean up until and an objective clearing unit. I clear out unit on an objective then drop a raider squad on it to hold it. This squad can easily cleanout a squad of space marines in 1 turn most of the time before they even get to attack. If you play it safe on your Archon and just take Re-roll misses and +1 attack for combat drugs this squad has 22 power attacks onthe charge all at I5+ and WS5+. Enough to clean out any unit fast, especially if they do not have any inv. saves.

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With Drazhar in there you have the possibility of him causing 8 wounds on the charge powered because of his special rule, which turns all of his successful hits into 2 wounds. So if he hits all 4 attacks on the charge they turn into 8 wounds. Drazhar by himself can basically clean out a squad. For 90pts! I'll gladly take him every time.

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When people see what your retinue can do they have are basically left with 3 options. They can dump all they have into it, which your retinue can handle with ease (mine cleaned out a 7 man Marine biker command squad.....then got hit by 20 boys with a power claw buried in it during a team game and still came out the victors). Their other option is to get the hell away from it; you can use this to your advantage because now you can basically corral them where you want them. And their last option is to dump all their shooting into it (if they even can); this opens up yet another good thing for you. They are focusing so much on your HQ and not dealing with the numerous other major threats you have, IR Ravagers, Talos, Wyches and so on. Well that's all I have today.Other DE players post some comments on what you run for HQs I'm veryinterested in seeing what other players are running.

Dark Eldar Army Breakdown 4: Heavy Support

Captain Obvious here with another installment of Dark Eldar units; theHeavy Support choices.

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First off ill knock one Heavy support choice right off because it is by far the biggest waste of points, money and would even be a waste of time spending 2 minutes priming them. This unit is Scourges. They are extremely overpriced warriors with extremely over priced heavy weapons. If someone has a viable way to actually field them please chime in and post a comment because i'd seriously love to see it.

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Ok now that we have that out of the way lets move on to some real heavy support choices. The second choice I will cover will be the Talos. Talos are about the coolest thing in the Dark Eldar list. At least to me they are, especially considering they are considered monstrous creatures now (read your FAQs haters) and STILL follow their special rules for armor penetration. For every successful hit a Talos does on a vehicle after the first hit he adds +1 to the armor penetration roll. So basically if you hit 6 times you would basically be at S12+2D6 pen. Granted it will rarely happen...but you never know. Talos are basically the Wraith Lords of DE. For me they fill two major roles.

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Role #1........Bullet sponges.....people see a couple Talos on the table and they are an instant threat to them. People will spend turns popping big guns into the Talos attempting to kill them, but while doing that they are neglecting your raiders and allowing you to get your raiders within combat range. Since raiders can move 12....disembark and then your troops can assault it usually pans out to be a big mistake if the enemy focus fires too much into the Talos.

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Their 2nd role is as close combat beasts. Talos in cc are just nasty. D6+1 attacks on the charge powered at WS5 S7 T7 is something that most units can't deal with. Granted you don't have an inv. save on them you still can not be insta killed so it usually takes a lot to drop those 3 wounds and most units are wounding them on 6+. Granted Talos are somewhat slow, they still have a niche in a full raider army. Usually Talos play out like this. People focus fire them and drop them down to 1 or 2 wounds each. Your main force hits their front lines and a huge combat begins. If you suffered losses on the way into combat you may not win a full out 4 turn battle, but with your Talos slowly creeping up they make the perfect clean up units. A Talos charging in with usually 4-5 attacks usually is enough to assist in routing a squad and helping turn the fight back to your side.

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The last heavy choice I will go over will be the ravager. These are armor 11 raiders with a lot of big guns. I prefer the 105pts version with 3 dark lances (S8 AP2 Heavy 1, Lance). Ravagers have the ability to pop any tank in the game with ease, granted you roll half way decent,which I haven't been doing lately. The other weapons setup on Ravagers is the 3 disintegrators (Dizzies). These have 2 firing options. They can either be 36' S7 AP2 blast (Basically plasma cannon) or they can shoot 24' S4 AP3 Heavy 3. The nice thing about this weapon setup is that you can move 6' and shoot the template OR you can move 12 and still shoot all three weapons at S4 AP3 Heavy 3(Defensive Weapons).

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If I make a list with a Dizzy Ravager I will almost always take 2 other ravagers with the x3 DL setup. This gives me the tank busting I need and the horde killing power of the dizzies from the other ravager. I have found from experience that you do not want to mix the weapons on ravagers. You want all 3 of the same. A ravager is either a tank popper or a troop killer, there is no in-between.

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Quickly i'll go over how I setup up my DE force that usually proves well for me. If I win the roll for table edge and first turn I will ALWAY Stake it. I set up my force so that my opponent is afraid of the center of the table. I will always stack my 2 dark lance warrior squads in the center in cover and spread my ravagers in the middle with them covering open lanes on the table. The rest of the force is up to you; given our speed you can completely redeploy your force in one turn and be ready to combat any setup that your opponent has thrown at you. Seeing as you have so many dark lances in the center of the table most people will stray away from setting up in the middle for fear of getting dark lance spammed. This works to your advantage because they will either bunch up in one corner or split their forces. In my opinion, I have found that splitting a dark Eldar as a horde seeing as we will out number most armies (Chaos, Space Marines, Eldar) well that is it for now.

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Any comments are of course welcomed and encouraged. I'd love to hear some feed back from some of the other dark Eldar players (we know you're there, you voted!). Let me know what you think.....fill me in on some stuff if I haven't covered it yet.

Captain Obvious's Dark Eldar Army Breakdown 3: Warriors

Hey all,
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Captain Obvious here with another installment of Dark Eldar units; the troop choices. Unfortunately we do not have a wide selection of choices to choose from. We basically only have 1, but they split it to have one be on foot and one to be mounted in a raider. Each has different weapon options and number variances.

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The first variance I will cover will be the sniper warrior squad. This is a simple troop choice that accomplishes a simple mission. This squad’s whole purpose is to shoot tanks and/or monstrous creatures. I find the best number on this squad is 10 warriors with 2 dark lances. Granted you will have to take a leadership when you loose 3 warriors, but it’s not that bad. I have proven many times that rolling 1s and 2s constantly is good for one thing…..LEADERSHIP TESTS lol.

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There really isn’t a huge tactica to go along with this simple 100pt squad other then post it on and objective in your deployment zone if u can and keep them in cover and make sure they have some good firing lanes. If you’re bad at LD tests you can up the number to 13-15ish depending on how much you want to spend per squad. Last pointer on these guys is KEEP THEM IN COVER as much as you can, our entire army wears cardboard and paper armor, milk any cover save you can.

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The next variant of the warrior squad is the raider squad. I love these, I usually run at least 2-3 of these bad boys. I number my squads from 7-10 warriors and always run the Splinter Cannon/blaster combo for weapons. These are very versatile units. You can rush and hold far objectives or fly around causing havoc with a 36” dark lance and a 12” dark lance. For around 140pts you have a squad that can pop tanks and rape hordes. I try to keep these squads naked. I never see a point in pumping them up when all they are going to do is die or crash……then die.......Its going to happen there is no way around it….face it.

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When I move these squads I always move them as if they are going to crash and be difficult terrain for my enemy….or cover for me. One of my favorite tactics for this squad is to run them up 12” right in front of an enemy unit, rapid fire all my splinter rifles and pop the dark lance and the blaster. Then when they shoot it down it is providing cover for the other….more important raiders moving up behind them…that way I don’t have to move flat out with them and will still be getting cover….and still getting that dark lance shot. It’s the gangster Dark Eldar drive by.

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When doing this drive by keep in mind that when you shoot the Dark Lance from the raider you can also shoot the squad at a separate target. I usually attempt to pop a transport then rapid fire the hell out of the troops that fall out…and the blaster being S8 AP2 is a nice way to almost guarantee a dead model.

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I made a list that revolved around warriors and raider squads and it was a NASTY list. Tabled a Tau player with it. It is just too many transports and big guns for people to worry about. And seeing as Str3 weapons are usually wounding Tau on 4+ it’s a nice way to force a lot of armor saves.

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It is a nice tactic and when played correctly it can be a very good list. Only draw back is in annihilation missions you have to completely table your enemy or else they will win just by the fact that you have around 19 Kill Points. An up side is you will rape people in objective missions.

Dark Eldar Army Breakdown 2: Wyches!

Wyches are by far one of the beastly close combat units in 40k, at least in my opinion they are. When geared correctly they are just insane in close combat. I always run at least 2 Wych squads in any of my army lists, given their power you can’t not run them.

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Even though wyches are devastating in close combat you still have to be very careful with them. In almost every list, wyches will need to be in a raider. If they are not in a transport they are EXTREMELY flimsy. Wyches only have a base armor save of 6+, meaning that even las pistols blow right through their armor, however in close combat they have a 4+ inv. Save.

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Gearing wych squads is very easy; they basically have a set list of gear you need to give them. Wych weapons are well worth the 1pt per model. Not only do they ½ the attacker’s weapon skill but they also drop the attacks that most CC units get from close combat weapons. Dropping most units down to 1 attack and 2 on the charge, but you should be doing the charging and counter charging with them.

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Always take a succubus in the wych squads and ALWAYS give her an agonizer. The power of the agonizer is never to be under estimated. A power weapon that wounds on a 4+ regardless of toughness is just insane, granted you pay 20pts for it, that’s 4 attacks on the charge at I6.

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Like most DE units wyches take advantage of combat drugs. These drugs, however, are different from the drugs that go on your HQ units. These drugs have a set table that you roll on and the squad keeps the effect for the entire game. Some are good some are bad, they are as follows:

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On a D6 roll….1 may make a 12” assault….2 +1 WS….3 +1 str…4 Always strike first….5 Re-roll any misses in close combat….6 +1 attack. I love getting any of them but dread getting a 4…..wyches basically always strike first on most anything anyways so getting a 4 is basically a waste.

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Now comes down to the tactics on wyches. I will usually hold them back until I see a unit that they can clear in 1.5 turns. You want to either keep your wyches in combat or have them finish up an assault on your opponents turn; otherwise your wyches will clear a unit in one turn and get shot to crap in your opponents next turn.

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Your biggest goal with 5th edition wyches is trying to keep them in combat. It’s very rare that your wyches will lose combat; it’s almost guaranteed they will win; you will want to keep this in mind. I usually try not to throw them into a weak squad. I almost always throw my wyches at the enemy’s power unit. Nobs, Command squad, ect. If I have to double them up on them I will because over time I will whittle that expensive unit down and tie it up in close combat.

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Just like a squad of 20 boys packing a power claw, a wych squad is the same effect. Granted we aren’t rolling 20 deep but were rolling 10 deep with an agonizer and a 4+inv save. Don’t be afraid to throw you wyches at a monstrous creature as well. That one succubus will kill most anything….almost always hits on 4+ and will ALWAYS wound on a 4+ with a power weapon.

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On your wyches' transport you will want to give it scaling nets. Scaling nets let you embark/disembark anywhere in the vehicles 12” movement phase. Use this to your advantage. Fly in…drop the wyches then attempt to block LOS just in case you get out of combat too soon….you'll be happy your getting that 4+ cover save from you opponents shooting. Happy hunting!

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-Captain Obvious

Dark Eldar Unit Break Downs: Part 1, HQ Choices

Over the next couple weeks I will go over some of the useful and not so useful units in the dark elder list. I will be sticking to and going more in depth on the actual units that I field and have had success fielding. The first unit I will cover will be our HQ choices. Depending on the type of army your going to play will decide who your main HQ will be. There are 3 main HQ choices you can field. Your choices are: Archon, Wych Archite, or Haemonculus. Archons and Drachons are the leaders of a Kabal list, which is the "Standard" Dark Eldar list. Wych Archites and Wych Drachites are the leaders of Wych cult lists. And Haemonculus arefill in HQs in my opinion, never used them, but will be fielding a few to see how they play out.

The main lists that I run usually always have an Archon as the main HQ. I do run wych heavy, but I don't run an all out Wych cult list. In my experience Wych cults are extremely flimsy and extremely unforgiving tothe inexperienced player. One bad move or one skipped assault will 95% of the time cost you the entire game. There are numerous ways you can gear your HQs. Just like in most armies you can gear them to kill monstrous creatures or be troop killers. I prefer the troop killers over the monstrous creature killers because I tend to stack agonizers(power weapon that always wounds on a 4+) in every squad.

Quickly I'll go over some gear setups for decent HQs. Troop killing HQs will always have a punisher and the other wargear to compliment it. Punisher is a 2 hand power weapon that adds +1 str, when paired with a tormentor helm you can use that 2h power weapon and also get +1 attack for close combat weapons. Another good addition to a Archon/Archite is combat drugs and a shadow field. Combat drugs allow you to beef up your lord even more in every assault phase. Granted the more drug options you take the more likely you are to be taking wounds or even insta killing yourself. Shadow field is a 2+ inv save, but the one time you fail it, its gone. So basicly it pans out to one failed 2+inv usually equals death for your lord. One last piece of wargear I throw on my troop killer is the Arcane wargear item called the AnimusVitae. This nifty piece of gear bumps your archon's WS and Str by 1 after they successfully run the enemy down. So now your lord after afew rounds of combat is running around with a stat line similar to this:WS7 BS6 STR5 T3 W3 I7 A3(4) LD9, which can be further enhanced by the use of combat drugs.

The next HQ wargear setup would be the monsterous creature killer. Most of the same wargear applies, but there are a few changes. Instead ofthe Punisher/Tormentor helm combo you would replace that with a splinter pistol and an agonizer. As stated above a agonizer is a power weapon that always wounds on a 4+. You would also drop the Animus Vitae because seeing as your not using your str as a factor with an agonizer. I've ran Archons like this before and have had no fear when charging them into a Carnafex, Wraithlord, or even a nightbringer. It always makes someone mad when you kill their 250+pt HQ with a tiny 135pt toughness 3 hq.

This is the first installment of my Dark Eldar unit breakdowns. In later posts I will go over what HQs to run with what squads and when and when NOT to run HQs solo.