Unit by Unit Videos

Hello everyone! Fancy Archon Skari here. I have been creating a tactical video breakdown for each and every unit in the Drukhari Codex. Here they are listed for your ease of watching!

Each video is split up into two parts, first is a mini dive into the lore, the second is the unit review (stats, rules... etc)

= HQs =
The Archon
The Succubus
The Heamonculus

Lelith Hesperax
Urien Rackarth
Drahzar

=Troops=

Kabalite Warriors
Wyches
Wracks

=Elites=

Lhamean
Medusae
Sslyth
Urghul
Incubi
Madrakes
Beastmaster

I still have alot more to go! If you have any requests... or anything let me know. I hope you find this of use, fellow archons.

This reminds me, I just got back from a doubles event where I ran a Cult list and I maintain the opinion I had of the Succubus when I commented on the video. It's about as useful as a 50 point bag of walnuts.

TeenageAngst wrote:

This reminds me, I just got back from a doubles event where I ran a Cult list and I maintain the opinion I had of the Succubus when I commented on the video. It's about as useful as a 50 point bag of walnuts.

Could you give some more details? I'm curious as to the specifics. Was the problem a lack of melee ability? Survivability? Mobility? Something else?

The Succubus was Red Grief so mobility wasn't an issue. Survivability wasn't too big a deal either because of the invul saves. The clincher was the lack of any and all killing power. One Succubus had the blood glaive or w/e it's called and the other had the regular Archite glaive and both were pretty underwhelming against most foes. I was whacking things at S6 and hitting on 2s but with only 4 attacks it wasn't enough to kill anything effectively, especially when you're rolling into things like Orks and big fat squads of Warp Talons. 6 attacks would have made a lot more sense, or at least 5 like what the Archon has. IMO it should be possible to build a Succubus into a blender.

Thing is, you can build a Succubus into a Blender, you just need to sink Relics, Warlord Traits and your good Drug options into them to do it - potentially hamstringing other sections of your army to minimal benefit.

For example, we give a Succubus the Stimm Addict Warlord Trait (probably via Alliance of Agony), give her the +1 Toughness and Attacks drugs and then give her the Triptych Whip. Congratulations, you have an 8”, T4, 6+/4++/6+++ chassis packing 8 (9 with a Stratagem) Attacks at Poisoned 4+, AP-2, D1.

Better, but not phenomenal and certainly not worth the cost of it, even if it’s only a 54 point model.

I have been running Red Grief Succubi and have been enjoying them quite a lot. They have been getting a lot of work done for me. Especially with the blood glaive and blast pistols.

Ikol wrote:

For example, we give a Succubus the Stimm Addict Warlord Trait (probably via Alliance of Agony), give her the +1 Toughness and Attacks drugs and then give her the Triptych Whip.  Congratulations, you have an 8”, T4, 6+/4++/6+++ chassis packing 8 (9 with a Stratagem) Attacks at Poisoned 4+, AP-2, D1.

Is Stimm Addict what you really want for the Triptych Whip? Or Mortal Wounds on 6s?

Or if you really want to go all in, Blood Dancer+Triptych Whip. Cult of Strife Succubus charging with 8 attacks that are triple hits on 6+ (or 5+ on turn 3 (or even 2 if you spend a CP!)) is a good blender.

A mere example - I often use Alliance of Agony to give my Succubus the Ld and Movement Drugs, as this frees me up to have 2 units of Wyches with double Attacks.

In all cases listed, I see the limiting factor to be ‘you need to give them a RELIC and a WARLORD TRAIT and then they’re good.

This doesn’t help if you have a Wych Battalion and want to bring two GOOD Succubi.

I am strongly in the camp that the Succubus could have been 10-15 points more expensive in exchange for having some more fluff-friendly stats, namely as @TeenageAngst has stated giving her 6 Attacks.

I also would have liked to see the option to swap the Archite Glaive out for some other weapon. And for it to lose its frankly ridiculous -1 to hit, or perhaps gain a Damage stat to justify it.

None of these things happened, though, and instead we got an amazing Codex that falls short in a few places but overall reads as nothing but high notes and a well designed and internally balanced army.

I'd like to defend the Succubus here...but in my own experience, I cant.... I took a Red Grief succubus with +1 attack, blood glaive, and 3+ Invul in a friendly game against marines. She got into combat with a squad of Primaris marines (intercessors? I dunno the name...deep striking shooty unit) and proceeded to kill 2 in 4 rounds of combat... now it was pretty bad rolling on my part, I'll admit... Rerolling 2's to hit, then 3's to wound...should have done better. Now, in a past game, she absolutely murdered a few squads of cultists....but you really dont need THAT much investment to murder cultists...

I've actually been appreciating the succubus for her high strength. High strength values in close combat are hard to come by with Dark Eldar.

I've been taking 20 Cursed Blade wyches and a succubus for my patrol in a Raiding Force list. Obviously, the 20 wyches are getting the +1 attack drug, because 20>1, so I've started giving her +1 strength, which makes her glaive str 7. She's never going to just wreak havoc, but it's fairly cheap, reliable attacks and a good aura for buffing a unit with 80 str 4 attacks.

sekac wrote:

I've actually been appreciating the succubus for her high strength. High strength values  in close combat are hard to come by with Dark Eldar.

I've been taking 20 Cursed Blade wyches and a succubus for my patrol in a Raiding Force list. Obviously, the 20 wyches are getting the +1 attack drug, because 20>1, so I've started giving her +1 strength, which makes her glaive str 7. She's never going to just wreak havoc, but it's fairly cheap, reliable attacks and a good aura for buffing a unit with 80 str 4 attacks.

Depends on what you're fighting but I'd consider switching those drugs around. +1S and +1A are pretty much identical in effect for Wyches but +1S does very little for a S6 Succubus, so you might be better off with +1A on her.

I like 4 str 4 attacks on the wyches a lot more than 3 str 5, but in certain matchups I might. I don't always take +1 str on the succubus either-- often +2 mov, but it is handy being able to wound most vehicles on a 4+ with str 7.

just a suggestion skari.

i mean its late now for the ones you've already done but doing a tactics section on each unit showing how they move on the board and some positioning type stuff would be a really good addition.

using something like a unit of imperial guard as the enemy and showing different way that unit could engage them or make use of special weapons/stratagems would be cool (patreon idea!)

I do alot of tactical stuff more for the patreons Nogrim (there are already some in depth movement tacticas as well as others)

However I would love to make something to help you out!

These are just a unit by unit review...

@Skari are you going to turn into Nick Brown and charge us $20 for a 20 minute Skype call where you tell us how to list build?

I’m interested in the content, but not enough to watch a 15+ minute video on each topic. Hopefully these will get transcribed at some point. And while I think anyone who pays for tactical or list-building advice is a colossal fool, more power to those attempting to get some money back out of this expensive hobby. Fools and their money are soon parted, after all.

That all aside, she got poopoo’d during the initial codex release when everyone was throwing around Succubus ideas, but I really like my shardnet/impaler load-out. She’s quite survivable so can tie down infantry as well as a Wych squad, and that D2 comes up more often than you’d think. Best part, no need for relics or Warlord traits. She usually causes enough disruption to pay for herself even if she doesn’t kill that many points worth of stuff.  The other succubus if I’m bringing a Battalion is Lelith, so I don’t have to make any difficult choices.

I don’t really run Red Grief outriders anymore, because I’m kind of over Reavers in general in light of Harlequins. I want to try a big squad of 12 in the main Strife battalion for that +1 attack, but that’s about the extent of my future plans for them. I’m salty we don’t have a charge after advancing stratagem, or I would have been doing this all along.

I do not charge to help people

Patreons support what I do for a variety of reasons.

You can call me any time , for free !

Alright, so what's your opinion on how to beat the now prevalent Guard/Knight combo?

Well, the Knights are tough you have to kill one at a time but wracks and talos have been my favourite!

Skari wrote:

Well, the Knights are tough you have to kill one at a time but wracks and talos have been my favourite!

I get Talos but what are Wracks doing against Knights?

@soulless - the wracks move up and create a screen to move block the knights, the knights stomps have a harder time getting though the T5 and the 4+ invul save and any of the D3 damage that rolls a 1 can be stopped with the FNP.

JUst allows you to attack what you want with your talos when you need to.

@Skari - even better, it's not just rolls of 1 on a D3, you get to save against each point of damage. It's unlikely, but not impossible!

Loving the videos btw, my only issue is that the lore section can be a bit too exhaustive - I would prefer a briefer overview of how each unit fits into fluff, and getting into the crunch earlier, but that's just me. You do have a great reading voice though!