800 points tournament - need some help!

Hello guys,

so this weekend there will be a small tournament at a GW store in a nearby town. It will be the first time I participate in a tournament. The point limit is 800 points.

My list:

CAD

Lhamean

5x Kabalite Trueborn w/ 4x Blaster in Dual SC Venom

3x Grotesques, Aberration w/ Scissorhand in a Raider w/ Lance

2x5 Kabalite Warriors in Dual SC Venoms

3x Reaver Jetbikes w/ Blaster and Clustercaultrops

1x Ravager w/ 3x Lances and Nightshield

798 points


What do you think? The Lhamean will join the Grotesques in their Raider to assault MEQs or light tanks.
Kabalite Warriors will shoot up infantry.
Reavers will grab objectives an maybe annoy my opponent.
The Ravager will (try to) blow up tanks along with the Blasterborn.


Alternatively I could drop the Blasterborn and Reavers to get a Grotesquerie:

3x Grotesque, Aberration w/ Agoniser in a Lance-Raider

3x Grotesque, Aberration w/ Scissorhand, joined by a Haemonculus w/ Sump and WWP

That would add up to 800 points on the nose.

Lhamean isn't an IC, can't join the grots.

Blasterborn + SC Venom is good as its a lot of firepower, but at the same time, if the first shot kills something its also a lot of wasted points on the squad. Also if they have to jink, unit = useless. MSU is your friend.

2 Grots + Aberation is fine, but its going to run off the board with LD 4.

Kab's are great units and so are venoms, keep them

Reavers are sweet, they are real useful to get in and amongst your opponent quickly.

I'd go with something like this:

HQ
Succubus w/ Archite Glaive, Haywire nades 100pts

ELITES
3 Grots, 1 Aberation w/scissorhand in Raider w/nightshields 230pts

TROOPS
Kabs w/blaster and Dual SC Venom 120pts
Kabs w/blaster and Dual SC Venom 120pts

FAST ATTACK
Reavers x3 w/ cluster caltrops 63

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager w/ 3x DL 125pts

Thats 758pts so far
- Options to change it up include adding armor of misery to your HQ
- Nightshields on the ravager
- Blaster/Heatlance on the reavers

Adding those 3 brings it up to 798

OR

- Drop a grot
- Blaster/Heatlance on reavers
- Add a Dual SC Venom

Again bringing it up to 798

Plays like this:
Succ + Grots in the raider jinking the entire time (this is why you drop the lance) - she's got haywire if you meet something heavy + the grots can screw over most things. She's also ap2 which will help.

Both Kab squads stay in the backfield as much as possible staying alive, the blaster means you can take potshots at MC's, tanks etc where possible and make maximum use of ObSec on both Venoms and the squads, if you lose one its less of a blow to your army.

Reavers can flank, hold objectives, harass etc.

Ravager stays back and uses the venoms/stuff for cover and shoots.

The main thing is to make use of the venoms range and mobility to weaken some units, use the grots as the hammer to draw fire and try and manuever to get side/rear shots on armor where possible.


EDIT: Also, i think taking a grotesquerie might be too many points in one basket in an 800pt game.

- If you pass reserves and deepstrike in and then survive getting every single shot they have fired at you, and then survive overwatch, there might not be that much left of a squad of 3 grots + ham even with the 4+ FNP to be effective and in that case you've handed them 250ish points of a distraction which does allow you to keep other units alive, but at the same time you've lost a quarter of your army.

Just my 2 cents, grots are fun units though and depending on who you're up against, could cause some grief.

Hi,

Similar to Noctuabear, I think if I was going to run Grots at this pts lvl, I would definitely want the Succubus. My issue is that then it becomes almost half your points & limits what else you can run.

That being said, my variation would probably look like:

DE CAD 793
Succubus, Glaive, HWG (100)
3 x Grots, Incl. Abber, Raider (170)
2 x 5 Warriors, Cannon Venoms (210)
3 x Reavers, CC (63)
2 x Triple Lance Ravagers (250)

I know it's a bit standard, but you could also Triple Ravager:

DE CAD 796
Lhamean, Cannon Venom (75)
5 x Warriors, Incl. Sybarite (WL), Cannon Venom (115)
5 x Warriors, Cannon Venom (105)
2 x 3 Reavers, CC (126)
3 x Lance Ravagers (375)

3 x Venoms + Warriors for AI & 3 x Ravagers for AT. Reavers to harass, flank & distract your opponents.

Good luck & let us know how you get on & what you end up taking

Thank you for the input, I appreciate it!

About the Grotesques:

You are right. I either take them as a Grotesquerie, which is probably too many points in one place. Or I just take one squad of Grots. But then I need an IC to babysit them, as they won't be Fearless from Turn 2 onward.

I've never thought about giving the Kabalites a Blaster. In a bigger game I would probably go with Blasterborn but on this scale such a "dual-purpose" unit might come in handy. Even if I shoot at the tank, I only "waste" the 4 shots of the other Kabalite Warriors, since the Venom can fire at a different target.

I think I'll go with your first list. I love the Succubus model and she has performed really well with the Grotesques and her Armour of Misery.

@Rewind: I only own a single Ravager at this point. I just recently started to collect Dark Eldar.

So far I own:

1x Succubus
1x Haemy
1x Archon

20x Kabalite Warriors
4x Venoms

6x Grotesque

1x Raider
3x Reaver Jetbikes

1x Ravager
1x Talos
1x Chronos

Causalis wrote:

@Rewind: I only own a single Ravager at this point. I just recently started to collect Dark Eldar.

So far I own:

A nice little collection

With what you have you could easily squeeze a Dark Archon in if you decide not to Grots?

Dark Archon (325)
Haemy
Chronos, Spirit Probe
Talos, II

DE CAD (473)
Lhamean, Cannon Venom (75)
2 x 5 Warriors, Cannon Venoms (210)
3 x Reavers, CC (63)
Lance Ravager (125)

Without Grots or a DA your kind of a model short lol.

DE CAD (728)
Lhamean, Cannon Venom (75)
2 x 5 Warriors, Cannon Venoms (210)
3 x Reavers, CC (63)
Cannon Venom (65)
Lance Raider (60)
Triple Lance Ravager (125)
Talos, II (130)

I assume you don't have the bits to run the Raider as a 2nd Ravager? Would they allow you to proxy it?

If not, I guess add the remaining points into Blasters for the Warriors etc. shame you don't have 3 more Reavers

Quote :

With what you have you could easily squeeze a Dark Archon in if you decide not to Grots?

Dark Artisan*. Yes, I probably could do so and I've thought about it. But isn't that again too many points in one basket?

Also if I take the DA, the Haemy would need the WWP. Otherwise that squad is just waaay to slow. Dropping them right next to something important on Turn 2 is massive on this point scale.

Quote :

If not, I guess add the remaining points into Blasters for the Warriors etc. shame you don't have 3 more Reavers

Yeah, as always when starting out with a new army there is still tons of stuff I would like to have! More Reavers, some Incubi (love the models!), a Razorwing, more Ravagers, some Mandrakes, Scourges...

Causalis wrote:

Yeah, as always when starting out with a new army there is still tons of stuff I would like to have! More Reavers, some Incubi (love the models!), a Razorwing, more Ravagers, some Mandrakes, Scourges...

In that case you'll end up with pretty much exactly my collection

I personally don't like to WWP a DA, too often it's turned up too late to make a difference & I prefer to have it on the board acting as a 'bullet magnet' distracting attention from everything else which is squishier!