What units to buy for starting an army of Drukhari

Hello, I am new and trying to figure out what to buy to have decent results and avoid resin at all cost, but so far the start collecting seems to be full of wyches, that I don’t find very appealing myself.

So I’ve heard Haemonculi Covens vemons with kabalites or raiders with kabalites work pretty well, dont they? Maybe some talos here and there? Heard they are good too.

My Bday is soon and so far I am getting the following:

X1 Haemonculi/Archon (depends on what people recommend)
X1 Kabalite warriors
X1 Venom/Raider (depends again on recommendations)
X1 Ravager

Is this any good to start with?
Any cool ideas you wanna share? Feel free to speak em!

Thanks beforehand.

One thing for sure, it really depends on the game play you want to have.
Also, do you intend on playing competitive or just kitchen table?
Wyches are not to be ignored, they can do some neat stuffs, and they have by far the most mobility of our army. Indeed though they lack the staying power (well...other than Coven everything in our army is missing the durability).

In the list you have above, you can't go wrong with anything there.
Talos are really great, but as of late some people talk about switching them for Grotesque, but if you hate Resin, it will only validate it if you try to build a Grotesque.....so Talos are really good....and seriously one of my favourite model to build, with lot of options and design features.

Venoms and Raider are almost auto include, so feel free to have some.
If i were you, and you don't intend on playing competitive, i would go:

1x Haemonculus (HQ for Coven Detachment)
1x Archon (HQ for Kabal)
10x Kabalites
1x Raider
1x Venom
5x Wracks

maybe 1x Talos or Ravager if the wallet can allow it

that way you will have 2 average detachment ready to play for small skirmishes.
After that, it will be easy for you to slowly build an entire army after seeing what you prefer and love.

Note that you may also want, for a start, to only do one detachment, if you do so, just focus on the faction you prefer most.

Kalmah wrote:

One thing for sure, it really depends on the game play you want to have.
Also, do you intend on playing competitive or just kitchen table?
Wyches are not to be ignored, they can do some neat stuffs, and they have by far the most mobility of our army. Indeed though they lack the staying power (well...other than Coven everything in our army is missing the durability).

In the list you have above, you can't go wrong with anything there.
Talos are really great, but as of late some people talk about switching them for Grotesque, but if you hate Resin, it will only validate it if you try to build a Grotesque.....so Talos are really good....and seriously one of my favourite model to build, with lot of options and design features.

Venoms and Raider are almost auto include, so feel free to have some.
If i were you, and you don't intend on playing competitive, i would go:

1x Haemonculus (HQ for Coven Detachment)
1x Archon (HQ for Kabal)
10x Kabalites
1x Raider
1x Venom
5x Wracks

maybe 1x Talos or Ravager if the wallet can allow it

that way you will have 2 average detachment ready to play for small skirmishes.
After that, it will be easy for you to slowly build an entire army after seeing what you prefer and love.

Note that you may also want, for a start, to only do one detachment, if you do so, just focus on the faction you prefer most.
 

In this case I am not playing competitive, but marines, that is what most people play are extremely powerful even if you just pick random primaris units,but yeah,I think I’ll get a haemonculi, kabalites and a venom, and the next month another venom, more kabalites and the archon and I’ll keep seding.

In this case my main focus will be kabals with some support haemonculi detachment,cvenoms look a bit better than raiders because of the extra dakka even if you need to kitbash a bit to get the kabalites to fit in the raiders!
Thanks for the info though

are you new to the game or only new to the Drukhari?
If youre going in 2 batch of purchase, i'll suggest to buy All Kabal units only and on your second purchase go with the Coven.
So for the 1st HQ, pick the Archon if you intend on playing Kabal.

So go for:
1x Archon
1x Kabalite (the box contains 10 models)
1x Venom

next purchase:
1x Haemonculus
1x Wracks (box of 5)
1x Venom (or raider)

That way, you will be able to play a quick game or two with a complete detachment before your second purchase.
And the best way to learn, is to play, so the quicker you can play a game, the quicker you will know what you love best.

Dont forget that for our army, a Kabal detachment can only have Kabal units, and the same goes for Coven, so it would be useless to buy a Coven HQ if you intend on playing Kabal.

I am new to the game in general, before I only read the books and nothing more, I started playing in TTS a month ago or so.

What you proposed sounds good and cheap, in my LGS the first batch would be only around 55€ And the second 45€ or so, I think I’ll go by your plan

Another option is to watch people selling their armies, or parts of army. You would have a basis to upgrade to your will. Of course, it would depend on the aspect of the hobby you are interested in.

For my $0.02, I would recommend keeping to the Coven units for now. They are the most competitive, and are nearly as fun to build/paint as the Kabal.

Haemonculus
5 Wracks (1 box)
1 Venom
1 Talos

The Talos kit has a LOT of extra bits which are nearly essential to playing Coven. Most people (myself included) have used the extra bits to create 3 Grotesques when combined with the Crypt Horror (?) box from Fantasy. There are many pics/tutorials online on how to do this.

The MAIN play for Coven these days is either using Profits of Flesh (4++ invulnerable save makes them really tanky) or the <Custom Coven> combining Dark Technomancers (with a second trait) to trade your toughness for great shooting damage.

The MAIN play for Kabals right now is to spam Venoms and Ravagers armed with Disintegration Cannons, or Flyers. Neither are as good as the Coven builds.

If you like the Coven asthetic, and enjoy converting models, or like being "competitive", that would be my choice. At higher point games you can combine the two, but when you are just starting out with small armies the Coven have a lot more to offer IMHO.

The comment of fisheyes is really valid, indeed, right now the Coven is the best faction in the Drukhari Codex right now.
Personally, if you're not playing competitive, go for the fun factor (especially regarding your first games) and i think that the Kabal are the funniest to play and they play well the ''Drukhari game plan''.
I mean, the Coven are great, but do they really feel like a mobile army? not at all (well, not in comparison to Kabal or Cult unless you put everything inside Venoms).
I think anyway the Coven really shine if combined with Kabal or Cult, but alone with only 2 or 3 units, i'm not sure of the result, especially in the fun department.
Note that all i'm saying is only valid in a context of ''fun factor matters most''.

@Kalmah, you are correct on a number of points, but I would argue that Coven are not terribly slow.

3 Talos move 8", Advance 4" (re-roll on Turn 2 due to Power from Pain), shoot their Assault weapons then Fire and Fade another 7" = 19" movement. That is a Turn 2 charge unless A LOT of firepower is directed at them.

Pretty scary stuff if you are not expecting it XD

can't argue with you on those points fisheyes
My big point was more to play something that ''feel'' Drukhari.
I mean, a Coven exclusive army feels more like a ''Death Guard'' army than a Drukhari army with dark elves.....but that's my opinion.

Also, i'm taking into account that from what i read, he don't have an endless wallet to purchase everything, and each Talos being 60$ (here in Canada) can be hard to swallow.

So playing with only 5 wracks, an Haemonculus and a Venom with (if possible) a Talos can quickly become boring in my book. I'm not talking efficiency here cause i admit that Coven are indeed the best faction in the book right now.

after some thinking, i gotta admit that, if you can afford the Talos, the Coven list could be a lot of fun but the price will be higher!

you can save some money on wracks by using some fantasy miniatures mixed with a couple wrack kits for the heads/weapons since the box has loads of extra arms and masks. I'm personally thinking of using a bunch of Unmade warcry bands for my wracks but i've heard crypt ghouls or khorne marauders are popular for wrack conversions. Unmade are around 80 for 18 models

I saved lots of money by buying 2 "Start Collecting" boxes and the "Poisonblade Raiding Party". This is a lot of content for a decently discarded price. If you buy them from 3rd party companies, you usually get a 10% or 20% discount on top.

This gives you a Wych Cult Batallion (or 2 Cult patrols) and a Kabalite Patrol. It's perfect for the "Raiding Party" rule which lets you play 3 Patrols at no disadvantage. I would also buy 2 Raiders (or Ravagers which you can use as Raiders or Ravagers, depending on the circumstances).

Arguably, Coven is the most competitive choice but much of their stuff is "webshop only" (and don't come with bundles).