How do you feel about the current state of Dark Eldar?

I'm somewhat torn, to be honest.

On the one hand, claiming that the Harlequins have gotten new rules when the only thing in PR for them was the godawful Ynnari stuff seems low even by GW's standards.

However, if Harlequins do get a separate release, then it'll be pretty insulting for their tiny faction to get more stuff than Dark Eldar did.

Soulless Samurai wrote:

I'm somewhat torn, to be honest.

On the one hand, claiming that the Harlequins have gotten new rules when the only thing in PR for them was the godawful Ynnari stuff seems low even by GW's standards.

However, if Harlequins do get a separate release, then it'll be pretty insulting for their tiny faction to get more stuff than Dark Eldar did.

I'd rather see the Quins get a decent release, tbh. Someone else getting shoddy treatment from GW doesn't make the Dark Eldar psychic awakening rules any less disappointing.....

yellabelly wrote:

Soulless Samurai wrote:

I'm somewhat torn, to be honest.

On the one hand, claiming that the Harlequins have gotten new rules when the only thing in PR for them was the godawful Ynnari stuff seems low even by GW's standards.

However, if Harlequins do get a separate release, then it'll be pretty insulting for their tiny faction to get more stuff than Dark Eldar did.

I'd rather see the Quins get a decent release, tbh. Someone else getting shoddy treatment from GW doesn't make the Dark Eldar psychic awakening rules any less disappointing.....

You're right, of course.

It's just rather tiresome to see the treats lavished on other factions whilst DE are left in a state of perpetual neglect.

But yes, I hope Harlequins don't get completely shafted by GW.

amishprn86 wrote:

GK's are twice the size as Quins, so i wouldn't call them small/niche.

Not saying Quins isn't, just not getting hyped lol

Twice the models I suppose, I'd still throw them in the smaller range of models, less played armies category. Course that may change with their new PA rules...

I'm not holding out hope for some massive, amazing release for the clowns. I just expect something, even if it's very little.

I just read through whole the tread and I must say, it feels like 7th edition all over again.

7th Made me walk away from 40k but my local crew has picked it up again and I am looking forward to play 40k again.

We'll see how much fun I can have.

Yet I would advise you guys to start a venting/salt channel because it feels like I have been swimming in the Black Sea.

El_Jairo wrote:

I just read through whole the tread and I must say, it feels like 7th edition all over again.

7th Made me walk away from 40k but my local crew has picked it up again and I am looking forward to play 40k again.

We'll see how much fun I can have.

Yet I would advise you guys to start a venting/salt channel because it feels like I have been swimming in the Black Sea.

I fully understand that. But always remember the venting is out of love not hate. We all love the game so much and invested many hours into it so emotions are easily shown.

With that said, there are at least rules in place via CA books (This one and the last one) that can make the game really fun! Cities of death, custom heroes, the new CA missions style, etc.. all are really good. Its mostly when playing house rules events and pick up games with no talk about "what power level to play at" (an by power level i mean how strong of a list) is when it really becomes a problem.

Some that is becoming more and more common (and my local has been doing from start of 8th) playing 1 Eternal and 1 Maelstrom mission at the same time. Sounds crazy at first, but its a lot of fun.

El_Jairo wrote:

I just read through whole the tread and I must say, it feels like 7th edition all over again.

7th Made me walk away from 40k but my local crew has picked it up again and I am looking forward to play 40k again.

We'll see how much fun I can have.

Yet I would advise you guys to start a venting/salt channel because it feels like I have been swimming in the Black Sea.

I think I agree with you, Dark Eldar as a faction are in a good place right now. We're high in the competitiveness ranking, we have good models, and there are distinct playstyles to pick and choose.

We're not perfect of course, no faction is. Every faction has reasonable and unreasonable complaints.
Overall Dark Eldar are in a good spot. It would be a bad thing if we didn't have any room to improve.

I will agree with @sarcron, we are in a pretty OK place. Sure, we are no pre-nerf Iron Hands, but we are also not pre-buff Grey Knights.

I remember the bad old days of 7th, before we got our Coven supplement. Without the Grotesquery/Dark Artesian, we were in a REAL bad place. Like through the bottom of the barrel and somewhere deep in the earths crust. Then after the supplement we were raised to solidly in the bottom of the barrel

With a solid D2 weapon like the Dissy mounted on most of our vehicles, we are actually fairly well suited to counter the meta.

Thats my $0.02 for wahtever its worth

amishprn86 wrote:

Some that is becoming more and more common (and my local has been doing from start of 8th) playing 1 Eternal and 1 Maelstrom mission at the same time. Sounds crazy at first, but its a lot of fun.

Cool tip, I'll keep that in mind!

fisheyes wrote:

I will agree with @sarcron, we are in a pretty OK place. Sure, we are no pre-nerf Iron Hands, but we are also not pre-buff Grey Knights.

I remember the bad old days of 7th, before we got our Coven supplement. Without the Grotesquery/Dark Artesian, we were in a REAL bad place. Like through the bottom of the barrel and somewhere deep in the earths crust. Then after the supplement we were raised to solidly in the bottom of the barrel

With a solid D2 weapon like the Dissy mounted on most of our vehicles, we are actually fairly well suited to counter the meta.

Thats my $0.02 for wahtever its worth

Dark Artisan. *Sigh* That brings back memories.

I do think we have been given a boost on two fronts now. Marines had so much super efficient firepower, and drukhari just aren't built to survive it.
The nerf to devastator doctrine is a massive boost for Drukhari imo. Iron Hands lose their re-rolls and suffer movement penalties again. Fists lose their +1 damage against our vehicles. All marines lose that extra AP on heavy weapons, thunderfire cannons etc. That stops the prevalence of artillery that killed us easily but couldn't be hidden from too.
The second change is if you play ITC. The new mission format steers people away from massive gunlines towards are more all round force that can contest for board control. That again makes life much better for Drukhari, as it rewards board control and steers list design towards something drukhari can handle better.

Hey all! I remember when the 5th ed book came out. I could finally play this beautiful army and at least win some. Then 6th hit a few months later and a few months after that, they got shelved. 7th came out, I thought I'd give them another go only to shelve them again. Now I play my Dark kin and have a great time with them. We've lost most of our characters but we do have great HQ choices (I play a lot of other armies). I even use mine in kill team and apocalypse even without any LoW. My 2 cents.

6th came out a few years after DE were released in 5th. I got to play MANY games with that beautiful 5th edition book.

6th and 7th were dark days, but mercifully, they did not come only a few months after DE released.

Lucky guy. I was still mucking about with the filthy Mon-Keigh Astartus at that time.

We did get to keep the amazing models released with 5th though. And IMHO we still have some of the best looking models in the game. Wyches are still sexy AF with their dynamic action poses

DE dex dropped Nov 2010 and 6th ed came June 2012. I'm old and time runs together for me. It felt like just a few months. On 7th I meant that I played them a few months after it dropped but the rules still sucked as bad as 6th. 8th is a blast, I can actually play any of my armies and have a good game without being slaughtered.

Hey all, how are people dealing with Knight Equivilents? Have been playing against Tyranids, and their Hive Tyrant spam is giving me trouble. T7 with 3+/4++ and then upgraded to 5+++ (psychic power) and -1 to hit (Relic/Warlord trait) means that Dissies dont do much.

Actually thinking of swapping out to more Lances or just ignoring them and focusing on the rest of the army.

Splinter those fools. Surely there are better targets for dissies.

Also, Test of Skill Cult.

I went thru this against ad mech robots. Just couldn't bring them down with dizziness or lances but took a 20 man unit of warriors at half range and made him work for his saves, that's how I managed to finally do it. It might work for that too.

fisheyes wrote:

Hey all, how are people dealing with Knight Equivilents? Have been playing against Tyranids, and their Hive Tyrant spam is giving me trouble. T7 with 3+/4++ and then upgraded to 5+++ (psychic power) and -1 to hit (Relic/Warlord trait) means that Dissies dont do much.

Actually thinking of swapping out to more Lances or just ignoring them and focusing on the rest of the army.

Hive Tyrants are really more of a vehicle equivalent, and shouldn't be that terrible to deal with. If he's spamming them, then he's got a maximum of 3. He can't give all 3 the -1 to hit relic, and he can only cast Catalyst (5+++) on a single tyrant too. Choose your target wisely. With the 4++ I think dissies math out on top of dark lances. Do you have Black Heart for re-roll 1's to wound?

Dreadblizzaard wrote:

I went thru this against ad mech robots. Just couldn't bring them down with dizziness or lances but took a 20 man unit of warriors at half range and made him work for his saves, that's how I managed to finally do it. It might work for that too.

Do you mean the Kastelan Robots? If so they are vehicle keyworded - Kabalites wound them on 6s.

Exactly. With 2 dark lance and 2 blasters in a 20 man squad and a blast pistol on syberite.

yellabelly wrote:

fisheyes wrote:

Hey all, how are people dealing with Knight Equivilents? Have been playing against Tyranids, and their Hive Tyrant spam is giving me trouble. T7 with 3+/4++ and then upgraded to 5+++ (psychic power) and -1 to hit (Relic/Warlord trait) means that Dissies dont do much.

Actually thinking of swapping out to more Lances or just ignoring them and focusing on the rest of the army.

Hive Tyrants are really more of a vehicle equivalent, and shouldn't be that terrible to deal with. If he's spamming them, then he's got a maximum of 3. He can't give all 3 the -1 to hit relic, and he can only cast Catalyst (5+++) on a single tyrant too. Choose your target wisely. With the 4++ I think dissies math out on top of dark lances. Do you have Black Heart for re-roll 1's to wound?

Dreadblizzaard wrote:

I went thru this against ad mech robots. Just couldn't bring them down with dizziness or lances but took a 20 man unit of warriors at half range and made him work for his saves, that's how I managed to finally do it. It might work for that too.

Do you mean the Kastelan Robots? If so they are vehicle keyworded - Kabalites wound them on 6s.

Don't forget that there is the Swarmlord and other units like Maelceptor that all have invuls, also there are new traits that gives an Invul (5++) to all MC's.

We are amazing at dealing with nids, he most likely wasn't bringing tools to deal with them.

Dreadblizzaard wrote:

Exactly. With 2 dark lance and 2 blasters in a 20 man squad and a blast pistol on syberite.

No need for DL's or 20mans lol, 5mans or 10mans in vehicles work fine. Nids are stupidly fast and has lots of shoot Str 4-6 shooting, having large amounts of warriors is a easy threat for them. And DL on kabals? Umm....

yellabelly wrote:

Hive Tyrants are really more of a vehicle equivalent, and shouldn't be that terrible to deal with. If he's spamming them, then he's got a maximum of 3. He can't give all 3 the -1 to hit relic, and he can only cast Catalyst (5+++) on a single tyrant too. Choose your target wisely.

Once again I find myself advocating Helm of Spite. Catalyst is the most powerful ability and casts on a 6. It is a perfect candidate for Deny, and Mortal Wounds cut through invulnerable saves.

Dreadblizzaard wrote:

Exactly. With 2 dark lance and 2 blasters in a 20 man squad and a blast pistol on syberite.

Kabalites get 1 DL per 10 models, 1 Blaster per 5 models. I'd go 4 Blasters before 2 and 2. DLs are nice and cheap, but mostly as an addition to Blasters. This is a situation where Splinter Cannons might be the better option overall.

I think one of best, if not our best match up is Nids. The invulns and such shouldnt bother us much because we should be poisoning down their big stuff and actually using our Blasters, DLs, and Dessies on the medium creatures. The Hive Guard, Warriors, etc should be shot with those weapons.
He can only give some of his big creatures a 5++ and if he is making those left and right it won't matter.
Down the Gaunts and Stealers they throw forward and just focus fire one MC at a time. Nids overall, especially against us are not in a good spot and we should want to play them almost every game.
I do think having some DLs is nice because you want the different damage bands across your army, so I would throw some in if you have zero.
@Dread
I like 20 man squads, but it depends on the list. I think they are definitely viable as a WWP unit. 20 guys coming down with x4 Blasters and either x2 DLs or Cannons are deadly. And with being Vect (hopefully) wait until Turn 3 and they will be Fearless so your opponent has to kill them all. I liek them, but would not advocate for them in every list.

Oh I agree. My normal lists are 10 in a raider x3, the troop tax for a battalion. Unfortunately around here, I mostly just get imperial armies to face, it's been awhile since I've got to face bugs.