Fleshing out the Sub-factions

So I was leafing through the old 3rd edition codex, and I spotted something that I'd not really paid much attention to before; nestled away in a sidebar and Lelith's datasheet are some rules for running a Wych Cult army instead of a normal Dark Eldar army. This surprised me a bit! I'd forgotten that there was much of a distinction made between the sub-factions back then at all. The rules were pretty straightforward;

• Wych squads count as Troops instead of Elites (as they did for normal DE lists in 3rd)
  
• Kabalite Warriors counted as Elites instead of Troops
  
• Archons, Haemonculi, Grotesques (equivalent to Wracks) and Talos could not be taken
  

Now, this intrigues me. Codex supplements are finally hitting 8th edition, and I think the odds are pretty good that we're going to get some eventually - presumably one for each of our sub-factions. Without new models, I've been thinking they might be a bit thin on the ground. But what if they embrace the slot swapping that the Wych Cult had way back in 3rd Edition, or Covens had in 7th and enable each sub-faction to take some out-of-faction mercenaries?

We could wind up with something like this;

Kabals

• Wyches and Wracks may be taken as Elites
  
• Reavers may be taken as Fast Attack
  

Cults

• Kabalite Warriors may be taken as Elites
  
• Scourges may be taken as Heavy Support
  

Covens

• Kabalite Warriors may be taken as Elites
  

It's a pretty straightforward and simple change that would open up list-building options a bit, and also have a pretty strong basis in Dark Eldar tradition from past editions. It seems like a nice stop-gap measure to make each faction feel a bit more expansive, assuming they're not getting any actual new units.

If that was the case, we would bring 3 brigades!

dumpeal wrote:

If that was the case, we would bring 3 brigades!

We still wouldn't have the points for that - the cheapest Kabal Brigade would be over 1000 points, without any upgrades or transports. At least Wych Cults would have the option to run a Brigade, though.

Add in rules for old units that don't necessarily require models like Dracons, Wych Archites and Haemonculus Ancients and suddenly our factions look a lot more feasible as standalones.

I would love a haemonculus ancient, the only problem is Urien.

Because he's one of the oldest haemonculi, and his stats and such aren't too much greater than a normal haemonculus (other than +1 T and the strength aura). What would be so special about an ancient?

They would have to revise Urien's rules, or else the new ancient seems kinda weird being better than Urien

Sarcron wrote:

I would love a haemonculus ancient, the only problem is Urien.

Because he's one of the oldest haemonculi, and his stats and such aren't too much greater than a normal haemonculus (other than +1 T and the strength aura). What would be so special about an ancient?

They would have to revise Urien's rules, or else the new ancient seems kinda weird being better than Urien

Give Urien's stat to haemonculus ancient, and for Urien, add the rule "I'm still here. When Urien is killed, don't remove him from the board. Instead, at the beginning of the next turn, bring him back with 1D3 W."

As well as "Perfector of Fleshcraft: All (Prophets of Flesh) models within 6"of Urien add 1 to their "inured to suffering" roll (damage is ignored on a 5+ instead of a 6+)" ... or something like that ... though for this to happen we are going to have to get more HQ units ...

Yeah that sounds pretty very great