Mandrakes

I was wondering what the best method to use these guys is. Does anyone have any experience using them? They look amazing on the tabletop and despite the hate on a lot of the units in our codex at the moment I want to believe every unit has a purpose and aim to find out what that is.

Thanks in advance!

Are you looking for a tournament list or a friendly list? I tend to run less than stellar power lists, but have found the following to be useful:

A small 3x man squad (or multiple small squads)
A ten man squad with boss.

The small squads are relatively hard to kill without Ignores Cover and can be used as part of an MSU build or null deployment. A 3x squad is easy to fit outside line of site. It doesn't have much firepower but is really just to survive and claim an objective for a turn.

A large squad with boss is great for Outflank. With S4 weapons you can take out the rear of light vehicles. S4 base allows them to charge vehicles in later turns. Especially after Furious Charge kicks in. AP4 is also great against many xenos armies. Against horde armies, they can infiltrate on to a flank and shoot quite a bit. Especially if they can hide on the top floor of a ruin.

They aren't the most points efficient, but they look cool and are decent.

A question regarding these guys. In the Rules book it states that Cover Saves can't be used in Close combat. I imagine this overwrites Mandrakes Shrouded/Stealth ability where they have ALWAYS have a cover save? If this is the case that means they do not have any save in CC?

I made a tactica post about them not so long ago. Its linked on the grisly trophy named "Dark Eldar Guides" in this same section.

The tactica is a good read for ideas on how best to use them. They are useful for blocking scout moves, line breaker, units for null deployment etc

As for the cover save, no they won't but they have a 5++ I believe. Not really looked at them in a while though

They don't have an invulnerable save anymore.

All they have in terms of defensive traits in CC is FnP and Fear. Somebody decided giving more is too much.

Azdrubael wrote:

All they have in terms of defensive traits in CC is FnP and Fear. Somebody decided giving more is too much.

The designers of the current Dark Eldar codex seem to have a poor grasp on how to design good close combat units. Mandrakes, hellions and beastmasters are better at shooting that assaulting, except wytches. Wytches arent good at anything.