New Dark Eldar Player List

Greetings and salutations my name is Rhivan, and I am brand new to the Dark Eldar and Warhammer in general. I had been looking into warhammer for a while now when a friend of mine invited me to go to a Warhammer store. I went to play magic the gathering but ended up buying a load of Dark Eldar stuff that was prepainted and on sale (I had been looking into the Dark Eldar among a few other factions so I thought it was perfect).

But enough of the background here is my army list.
x1 Archon
x3 Venom
x1 Raider
x21 Wyches

Now I'm not sure if this is a full 500 points or not but I did play it against my friend who plays Tau and I won the first game which I had a blast with. I would like advice on how to build my army further and maybe tips on how to play Dark Eldar in the future?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to The Dark City!

My advice would be to go through several of the army list threads here and see how people build them, and see what advice they generally get. There are so many different ways to build, you really should look at what's available in the book have some basic idea of what sort of things appeal to you that you want to do with your army.

If, after that, you come back and ask here with more details as to what you're trying to accomplish, I myself, and I'm sure others as well would be happy to help you optimize it. Details you'd want to provide are things like:

1. Points value you're looking for.
2. What you'd like to do with the list.
3. Tournaments or casual play.
4. What kind of opponents you generally play.
5. House rules on army list composition
6. If you're interested in using allies
7. etc.

Good luck, and again, welcome to the community!

Hello again I know i'm kind of necroing this topic but I didn't think a new one was necessary. I have done as you said so here we go.

1. I am shooting for 1000 points of Dark Eldar but my group would like to play with 2000 points.
2. I would like to be able to have a nice balanced Dark Eldar army and then continue to learn my preferences as I add more points.
3. Currently casual play is the focus although I plan on getting into Tournament play as soon as possible.
4. My little gaming group has Chaos Marines, Necrons, Space Wolves, Tau (The other new player in our group). (Someone else is going to join later and they will be playing Blood Angels)
5. No house rules.
6. I plan to use allies (eventually not sure if they would be good now) and I don't know what would be best for me.
7. My gaming group is full of new players in general (The most "experienced" of us has only played 3 months) so we are all still getting used to Warhammer and have not really gone against others in the shop yet.


Now that I have that out of the way I have expanded my list sense my last post and will post the 1000 points list I have currently.

x1 Archon (I gave him the Animus Vitae, Haywire Grenades and a Shadowfield)
x9 Bloodbrides + 1 Syren
x5 Kabalite Trueborn with 2 heavy weapons and 1 special weapon (I'm currently having difficulty telling the difference between heavy and special weapons)
x10 Kabalite Warriors (Each is a squad of 5)
x10 Wyches
x2 Raiders Both raiders have Nightshields (1 has Aethersail) (1 Darklance)
x3 Venoms (All are running the extra Splinter Cannon)


while I haven't played a game with my 1000 points list thsi is my strategy is to keep everything in a group bombarding the enemy behind cover and when they get close enough throw my Wyches at the giant creatures and pump them full of bullets. This is of course including running away and adapting to what I can.

Tell me what you think, what I can improve on and if you could link some strategy guides and good people to towards for good Dark Eldar games I would appreciate it. Ty in advance.

EDIT: I have some more Kabalite Warriors that I have not put together yet but I'm not sure if I should paint first than glue or glue first than paint... So I would not mind if someone gave me tips there either.

Generally you glue first, then paint. Some people paint before they put the arms/weapons on so that the guns don't make it tough to get to the chest. If you do this, put a piece of putty on the end of the arms and arm sockets to ensure you don't paint on the contact points. Paint can make glue not hold very well.

As for your list, I suggest getting some more experience with your current models before considering buying more. It sounds like you're pretty new, to the point that many of the types of strategies and tactics I might tell you wouldn't be useful to you yet.

What I CAN say is that both wyches and bloodbrides are generally not good right now. I love the models, but their rules are terrible. I'd suggest doing some reading of existing threads in the tactics section, and army list sections to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Once you have a decent grasp of the basics, if you have further questions, feel free to ask and I or others will be happy to help!

Good luck!

BetrayTheWorld is right, wyches (and bloodbrides) are not very good. They have low strength, no AP, and generally die if you look at them too hard. On the other hand, if they make it into CC, they can tie up a squad for a fairly long time with their 4++

Other than that just make sure your using transports for all your squads (raiders/venoms), and that any venom you use has the double Splinter Cannon upgrade. Under the Tactics forum there are a lot of useful stickied threads about movement, etc.

Just make sure you read up on open-top fast skimmers. They have a lot of good rules, and a few bad ones. Make sure you know their movement, jinking, shooting, etc rules.

Oh I know Wyches (and Bloodbrides) are terrible I've looked into the subject but I simply don't have the models in order to NOT field them, I have to if I want to meet my groups point limits as of now. I'm going to be getting more Kabalites soon to replace the Wyches but this is currently what I have.

As for strategies I just want to know some things people do and ideas to start using tactics by experienced players to give me a better edge. I have been learning rules and what I can do, as well as what others can do but I wanted to learn from some people with experience.

Double post

I find that the Dark Eldar codex is so good in melee yet so under rated for it. Everyone wants to turn it into the O.K. Corral with the Dark Eldar and i think they are missing the boat.

Wyches are disadvantaged of course, but even they can shine as "wingman" chargers. You take a unit that matters and a unit that doesnt. you multicharge the Tau with the unit that doesnt. Absorb their overwatch. then multicharge wuit hthe unit that does matter. its a GIVEN that something is going to get hit. why not control what that something is?

So Wyches are decent as wingman chargers if Tau is the enemy du jour. Just food for thought..

Alright so I'm trying to get to 1500 points with my army and I know that I shouldn't run Wyches as stated but i'm trying to get to 1500 points fast. If you all could give suggestions on what I should get and what I should replace the Wyches and other things in my list with that would be great. Most of this list so far is from used Dark Eldar stuff I've bought at my store so it may seem haphazard.

HQ

x1 Archon 220 points
Armor of Misery 15
Venom (double cannon) 65
Huskblade 25
Haywire grenades 5
Shadowfield 40
Soul-trap 10

Elites

x9 Bloodbrides 132 points
Syren 53
Haywire Grenades 5
Agonizer 25
Raider 55

x5 Kabalite Trueborn 245 points
Dracon 36
Haywire Blaster
x4 Special Weapon Blaster 104
Venom (double cannon) 65

Troops

x10 Kabalite Warriors 208 points
Sybarite 23
Haywire Grenades 5
1 heavy weapon (Splinter Cannon) 23
Raider (Dark lance) 60
Nightshield 15
Splinter Racks 15

x5 Kabalite Warriors 105 points
Venom (double cannon) 65

x5 Wyches 130 points
Hekatrix 25 points
Haywire Grenades
Venom (double cannon) 65

x5 Wyches 130 points
Hekatrix 25 points
Haywire Grenades
Venom (double cannon) 65

Fast Attack 165 points
Razorwing Jetfighter
x2 Dark Lance 10
Nightshield 15
Splinter cannon 10

Like I said previously I will take any suggestions and want input on what I should get, strategy I can use for this list and remember this is just what I have. I will try to get more in the future and would like your advice about what I should purchase and the order.

Thank you for your time.

If you're going to take a hekatrix, you should have an agonizer on them. Generally speaking, a sybarite isn't worth upgrading to unless you have a very specific reason to do so. He's a 10 point upgrade to give an 8 point shooty troop 1 extra CC attack and 1 Ld. Same with dracons.

Overall, you're using upgrades to rush yourself forward in points, in an army where most upgrades are widely viewed as traps that people shouldn't take, while using the least recommended troops in the book.

Things are rapidly changing with GW finally putting out FAQs after 2 years of silence, so I'm hesitant to take a hard line against any specific troop right now, but at the same time, it makes me hesitant to give a great recommendation of a particular troop.

If I had to guess 1 unit that would survive the onslaught from the FAQs, it would be grotesques. I'd consider adding some grotesques to your army if I were you. Enough to make a grotesquerie with 1 haemonculus. And you'd want 2 raiders to carry them into battle if you don't already have 2.

Alright so I'm considering grabbing Eldar allies, but I know I need to improve my current list. So I would like to ask what you all think I models I should get and a recommended list.
I'm going to list what I have and would like help with making a goal for my army.

20 Kabalite Warriors
20 Wyches
1 Archon
4 Venoms
3 Raiders
1 Razorwing Jetfighter

So as mentioned above this is what I have, I would like to know what you all think I should get, and a general idea of what I should get. I'm asking because I don't have much money to spend on this currently and want to make my cash count.

Ty in advance.

What is your cash budget?

I can put about 80$ into it currently I know not much at all, although I may be able to get more within the next few months.

One way to inexpensively begin to transition into using Eldar Allies is to purchase a minimum necessary to run an allied detachment, along with a good place to put your eldar HQ. This is the method I used when I first started collecting Eldar:

Buy 1 farseer, 1 Unit of windrider jetbikes(that's enough for an allied eldar detachment)
And put together a unit of 10 Khymera to put your farseer in. I'd convert 10 khymera using vampire counts dire wolves and hormagaunt scything talons as shown here:  
I would roll on sanctic with your farseer, hoping for sanctuary and hammerhand. The other items on the sanctic table are 2 good witchfires, 1 OK witchfire, and a teleport(useless for this build), so even if you don't get exactly what you want, you're guaranteed not to end up with more than 1 useless power. Other people might suggest taking at least 1 roll on telepathy for the possibility of invis, plus guaranteed access to shriek. Not a terrible idea, but I really like getting sanctuary and hammerhand on my khymera so I normally put all 3 to that end if I was only using 1 farseer.

Anyhow, this would get you started on adding some eldar to your collection, and the total retail cost for all of it is about $100. If you can get your model from one of the many retailers that offers 20% off, or on ebay, you should be able to get what you need for 80 bucks, except paint.

Make sure if you buy scything talons that you get the HORMAGAUNT scything talons. Many others don't have a frame of reference for size, and you can end up buying talons that are far too large if you're not careful. The link below shows about how many you should get for 11-13 dollars. That seller is out of stock though, so you'll have to search around on the web.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Eldar-Farseer
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Eldar-Windriders?_requestid=3826712
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Vampire-Counts-Dire-Wolves
http://www.hobbytitan.com/warhammer-40k-bits-tyranid-hormagaunt-brood-arms-with-scything-talons-12x/

Good luck, and let us know what you decide!