First list, 1000pts

Hi all

I finally bit the bullet and started a small DE army to complement the larger Harlequins force I'd assembled.  I was aiming for a Combined Arms Detachment because Harlequins have no access to Objective Secured or anti-air, but ready access to haywire and shuriken weapons.

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Target Practice
1000pts Dark Eldar
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Archon - blaster, webway portal, shadow field, agoniser and soul-trap (Warlord)

10 Kabalite Warriors - splinter cannon

10 Wyches - Raider with dark lance and night shields; Hekatrix with agoniser and haywire grenades; one of each Wych cult weapon (they're really for Rule of Cool, not super-serious play)

5 Kabalite Trueborn - 2 dark lances

5 Kabalite Trueborn - 3 blasters (to be joined by Archon)

5 Scourges - 2 blasters, haywire blaster, heat lance

Razorwing Jetfighter - 2 dark lances, night shields, 2 monoscythe missiles, 2 shatterfield missiles


I realise that I could drop the Wych weapons, the Hekatrix's agoniser, the soul-trap and the Razorwing upgrades (other than the dark lances) to squeeze in a dual-splinter cannon Venom for the Trueborn with dark lances or a Raider with splinter racks for the Kabalites, so that's one further option. I also have a few Mandrakes stashed away, who could replace some of the Trueborn if I wanted a null deployment option.

Thoughts on the composition, ideas for expansion, et cetera all welcome.  I'd prefer not to go into Craftworld Eldar or Haemonculus Covens options, but if they're good ideas, I'm all ears.

...I hope that last comment didn't give the Haemonculi any ideas...

In my opinion, in a 1000pt list, your archon is way to expensive. Drop him to 100pts with wwp and he grenades. The other major problem I see is no raiders or Venoms. DE are already very fragile, not having any boats to give yourself some mobility is playing at a big disadvantage. Also, too many upgrades on your razorwing. Keep it cheap and keep it focused on a single task. Lastly, find the points to max out blasters on your Trueborn. Stay away from lances. And one more lastly, I'm sure you have heard, wyches are terrible this edition. Have fun giving them a try but understand points are usually better spent elsewhere

Much appreciated, thanks Nariaklizhar. I'm limited by model availability at present, but more Venoms and Raiders definitely seems like a good idea.

I've managed to land a game tomorrow, so hopefully I can report back on how this list fared and what refinements can be made.

Cheers!

Good luck

I think transportation is your biggest problem, then maybe the Archon cost as Nariaklizhar pointed out but it isn't a horrible thing. You just need utility for it and the Transportation fix.
I would run both the Warriors and Wyches as a squad of 9. Mostly cause your Archon can join ether or in a raider and rush the WWP where you want. It also can mess with your opponent cause they don't know if your going with the Warriors or the Wyches. If your going second... then you can react to their movements and choices with what squad you join. Granted running a squad of 9 with Warriors/Wyches you loose certain weapons. Having an extra Agonizer paired with a Hekatrix Agonizer is awsome. You would deploy it packed like this...
:+:Terrian:+::+:Terrian:+::+:Terrian:+:
Warrior Raider /  Archon / Wych Raider

Shifting points around in your list...

Archon: WWP, Ar o' Mis, Agonizer, Blaster
8x Warriors x1 Sybarite, Haywire in Raider: Nightshields, Dark Lance, Splinter Racks
8x Wychs, Hydra Gunts. x1 Hekatrix, Haywire, Agonizer in Raider: Nightshields, Sails
5x Trueborn, 4x Blasters, 1x Splinter Cannon in Venom: Splinter Cannon
Your Scourge Squad
Your Razorwing
(This list is 1027 your original point value I counted 1010)
Removed: 5 Trueborn, x2 Dark Lance squad

Scourge layout is interesting! Usually see 4 of a kind. But in a small game they might do well against a variety of targets, is that the thinking? You'll have to let me know how it goes!

Agreed as above that Archon is too expensive. You're a shooty list, and complementing Harlies means you won't be lacking CC in bigger games. I'd just leave him as a cheap blaster shot. Drop the agoniser and soultrap, the missiles and the wych weapons (but model them on anyway because they do look sick!) and buy a venom, is what I'd do. I feel ya about model availability though, and good look raiding!

So, I *finally* got a game in yesterday with this list, plus 250 points of Harlequins (my opponent wanted a 1250pt game).  I dropped the Archon's cost substantially, but the rest of the force was broadly the same (basically, a few haywire grenades here and there instead of the Wych weapons) and I put 5 Mandrakes in to fill out the list.  I couldn't get more transports, on account of monetary restrictions... this will be remedied.

My opponent was playing Tau, and we rolled the Deadline mission.  I kept as much as possible in reserve, hoping to deprive him of targets on his first turn.  I seized the initiative, but after that it got... ugly, not assisted by poor luck with reserve rolls from turn 2 onwards.  By some miracle, the game ended on turn 5 with most of a Tau army and one Razorwing on the table.  Somehow, thanks to a dark lance shot which inflicted Instant Death on his Warlord that netted me 5 VPs on turn 1 (First Blood + Slay the Warlord + Kingslayer, rolling 3 VPs), I was up 9 to 5 at the end.

Highlights:
Sniping the Coldstar Battlesuit on turn 1 with a Trueborn dark lance.

Somehow squeaking out a win against all sense and reason.

Lowlights:
The near-complete annihilation of my army in short order.

Losing the Mandrakes in close combat with Pathfinders.  Seriously.

Firing six blasters, a heat lance and two splinter rifles at the Ghostkeel (at point blank, after killing both drones) and doing two wounds, followed by the swift obliteration of the Scourges, Blasterborn and my Archon.

Observations:
My Scourges really need to be more single-purpose (i.e. anti-tank with heat lances and haywires, or anti-armour with blasters).  A second squad should resolve this issue, as I'll have two groups to use.

The Blasterborn desperately need a Venom transport, if only to free up the Archon's webway portal and to give another null deployment option.  The Kabalites could do with a Raider, too.

The Lanceborn won me this game, even though they died on turn 1.  For now, I'll keep them and try to snipe with them, but they'll get pushed out for the next unit of Scourges when they arrive, or to make room for the transports.

5 Mandrakes are not enough to be useful.  10 might be worthwhile.

Tau are ludicrously hard to assault when they're bunched up in a diagonal corner of the battlefield (thanks to the mission layout) - that Supporting Overwatch rule is hideous.  He hadn't taken any of the new formations, but he still absolutely flogged me thanks to the ridiculous power of markerlights.  I still don't understand why you don't get cover saves against their laser pointers...

A Leadership-bombing Webway Portal strategy would have absolutely crippled his army.  I may try this in the next game I play, taking a Succubus or Haemonculus with the Archangel of Pain, giving the Archon the Armour of Misery, putting them in a Cast of Players formation unit with a Shadowseer with Psychic Shriek and hallucinogen grenade launchers.  Sure, the Archangel won't hurt Space Marines or Fearless opponents, but the Shriek and the Pinning tests from the hallucinogen grenades should be worth a try.

Once again, thank you all for your advice.  I will patiently try to set aside time for another game while my Archon is painfully regenerated.