What to play and different tactics

First let me say that this is my first post and I don't know if this is supposed to go here but I've got some DE but don't know any tactics or what to play because I'm really new to war hammer 40k. My friends usually play 1500-1000 p games and they play tyranid, space marines, tau , and Orc but from what I've heard I won't be good against many of them but I've got a ravager, a razor wing, about 14 warriors , about 10-13 wyches , no hq yet and a few scourges but I don't know what hq to buy or what attachments to play or specific tactics, i think the only one I know is attack fast and hard and then get away becfore they can fight back, and that's about it. Ask questions if you want to know more but any help would be really appreciated

Welcome to the Dark City!

First of all, your friends are wrong. Yes, the Dark Eldar are more of a mid-tier army right now but we can eat Orks and Tyranids for breakfast and with the right list we can also beat Space Marines and Tau.

My general advice is this:

Buy three Venoms (and a single Warrior, you need 15 to run three squads of five guys) and put the Warriors inside.

Wyches are pretty bad but if you put 10 of them in a Raider they can do some work.

Get some Grotesques and/or Talos or Incubi for close combat nastyness.

Get a Succubus or an Archon for your HQ choice. Or just get a Lhamean and use her as an HQ choice (Court of the Archon can fill the HQ slot).

There are also a lot of threads that deal with the same situation you are in. Just look around a bit I am sure you'll finde something helpful.

I'd agree with most of the above but personally I wouldn't even bother with Wyches, they're that bad.

Don't buy grotesques! Convert them from vampire crypt horrors by replacing the head with a talos mask. One talos kit has enough for several grotesques.

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Don't buy grotesques! Convert them from vampire crypt horrors by replacing the head with a talos mask. One talos kit has enough for several grotesques.

Agreed! I too am doing this. One Talos Kit has enough masks and weapons to outfit three Grotesques.

Causalis wrote:

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Don't buy grotesques! Convert them from vampire crypt horrors by replacing the head with a talos mask. One talos kit has enough for several grotesques.

Agreed! I too am doing this. One Talos Kit has enough masks and weapons to outfit three Grotesques.

I stretched mine a bit further than that. I have 12 converted Grots from, I think, 3 Talos kits.

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I stretched mine a bit further than that. I have 12 converted Grots from, I think, 3 Talos kits.

Yeah, I think I can manage to stretch the kit to 4 Grots if I somehow can fit the Liquifier Gun on the Crypt Horror mini. But I am too lazy to bend the little tubes and connect them with Green Stuff to the torso. What I really do like however, is that the Crypt Horros' faces are separate parts. I was fully prepared to have to shave off their faces etc but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that I could just fit the mask onto the part where the face goes. Looks really good!

Don't use the Liquifier anyway. It's not that good. At least not for the points you pay.

^Looks good though, which is the point, and I used it and the Ichor Injector arms for my Grot conversions.

And I agree with what Causalis said, get 3 Venoms, an extra Warrior and a Succubus. Wyches are terrible but can at least be used as ablative wounds for a Succubus, who can do real damage in combat with an Archite Glaive. Scourges are excellent and with Heat Lances will probably be a better anti-tank unit than the Ravager, as for the Razorwing the first thing to ask is whether your group uses the Death from the Skies suppliment, if not then make use of it. I recommend running it with Disintegrators, Splinter Cannon and Monoscythe Missiles, makes for an excellent anti infantry unit.

Firstly, you will never win Kill Point missions, so ask your friends to play Maelstrom (the one with the random cards). Maelstrom combines the best parts of the game, while penalizing players who "castle up".

As others have said, DE really need transports for our units. Because all of our stuff is T3 (generally with 5+ save), even bolters are scary when they shoot us. At least if we hide in our AV10 vehicles, those bolters require 6's to get glances, rather than wounding on 3's and ignoring our armour. People generally prefer the Venom to the Raider because of the Splinter Cannons, which have good range and rate of fire.

I would recomend playing a few 1000 pt games before you actually buy anything else. Make a fun list with a lot of little fast things (5 warriors in a SC Venom costs just 105 pts), and focus on grabbing objectives in Maelstrom. Our army isnt very good at shooting, or survivability, or even CC (although we do have a good couple CC units), but we are very fast. Just remember that this is a game about points, so even if you only have 2 units alive at the end of the game, you can still win in points.

Anyway, thats my $0.02

Transports are your priority. Playing DE troops without transport is just asking for trouble. Transports are a massive force multiplier for the DE.

In addition to what others have said about getting an Archon, Succubus, or Lhamaen, and three venoms, picking up one or two Starter boxes for the Dark Eldar isn't a bad value and it will give you plenty of warriors to work with, you also pretty much get the Archon for free at the cost. The two Raiders can be used to transport Grotesques to get them across the board quickly. Reaver Jetbikes aren't a bad unit either.

I would also recommend picking up the Haemonculus Covens supplement for a few of the formations and converting Grotesques instead of buying. Look around project logs and the internet and you will find several tutorials on how people have converted theirs.

Hi and welcome.
A lot of good advice so far. Here are my thoughts:
Never bring wyches. Not even as extra wounds for a character. Instead proxy them as Lhamaeans.
You don't need a character as HQ. Instead use the court of the archon as your mandatory HQ slot.
Jet bikes are good and fun to play if you are in to DE for the speed rush. Get some, then get more.
Venoms are good, but raiders with disintegrator cannons are also good.
Always insist on having as much scenery on the table as possible. There can never be enough. If your gaming group/friends don't have a decent amount, make and bring your own.

To cut it with DE you need to know the rules well. The base rules, your own codex rules and your opponents codex rules.
If you are new to 40K, start by playing really small games. I would recommend starting with a couple of games of 350 pts. You will be spending most of the time going through your codex and looking up the base rules anyway. Then move up to 500, and then 750 etc.
DE have a slight advantage in smaller games so it is going to be more fun for you starting out. You won't get tabled if you make a mistake, and the time investment is small enough to prevent it from becoming too frustrating if when you do get creamed. Happy hunting.

Thanks for all of the feed back from everyone, it has been a big help and I'm now thinking of getting a few more venoms and raiders, and maybe a court or archon and I'll be looking around for a grotesque conversion and buying some.