1500 Competitive List

I started my DE in 5th ed, and could mash pretty much anything with a random assortment of units in my army, but I never really used structured armies or tactics, so this is very new to me.

Army List:

- Archon - 125pts
Huskblade (35), Shadow Field (30)

- 4*Incubi (88)- 163pts
Venom DED (55), Splinter Cannon (10)

- 7*Trueborn (84) - 199pts
2*Splinter Cannon (20), 5*Shardcarbine (25), Raider DED (60) w/Splinter Racks (10), 1*Disintegrator

- 7*Trueborn (84) - 199pts
2*Splinter Cannon (20), 5*Shardcarbine (25), Raider DED (60) w/Splinter Racks (10), 1*Disintegrator

- 5*Wyches (50) - 135pts
Hydra Gauntlets (10), 5*Haywire Grenades (10), Venom DED (55) w/ Splinter Cannon (10)

- 5*Wyches (50) - 135pts
Hydra Gauntlets (10), 5*Haywire Grenades (10), Venom DED (55) w/ Splinter Cannon (10)

- 3*Reavers (66) - 98pts
Heat Lance (12), Cluster Caltrops (20)

- 3*Reavers (66) - 98pts
Heat Lance (12), Cluster Caltrops (20)

- 5*Scourges (110) - 130pts
2*Haywire Blaster (20)

- Ravager (105) - 115
Night Shield (10), 1* Disintegrator, 2*Dark Lance

- Ravager (105) - 115
Night Shield (10), 1*Disintegrator, 2*Dark Lance

Total: 1507pts

My Archon will ofc be grouped with the Incubi in a venom, which will turbo-boost straight in for the killing blow, with the ravagers and scourges moving up behind at cruising speed, and taking out any heavily armoured targets near the Archon and generally providing cover fire. The rest will be split into 2 equal groups, consisting of the wyches+venom, Trueborn+raider and Reavers. These will turbo-boost along the flank, hopefully catching my opponents flanks in a pincer movement, with the trueborn, venom, and raider pumping shots into the larger groups, with the wyches either mopping up what's left or tackling support groups. The reavers are around to deal mainly with large groups of infantry, providing those extra few caltrop/bladevane hits. After 2nd turn my army will basically just act like a clamp, forcing units in towards my Archon and picking off stragglers on the edges.

My only thought as to what might be wrong is that I have a fair amount of anti-vehicle, but am not sure whether I may have overdone it a bit?

You cant get enough AT in a DE list so dont vory about that.

I am not going to break the list down but there are flaws that need sorting out to make it competitive
- Few troops (easy to target out)
- I would use 3x Ravager with 3x Dark Lance. Drop something els
- You are over your points with 7.
- I would rather see Blastorns that the Truebornloadout you have

This list has a lot of potential but can be drastically improved:

- I think Darklight is right. You need more than two, weak, disposable troops choices or you'll struggle to hold objectives. The Trueborn units work better in venoms. If you want the raider gun boat make them warriors so they can score and sit on objectives. NSs should be taken on anything that is going to be a gunboat.
- The Archon could really do with having a ST if he has a HB and a PGL makes the Incubi able to assault through cover.
- The third Ravager will really up your anti tank and will be more effective and pretty much as durable as the Scourges. I don't rate scourges that highly as I think Reavers and more versatile and tougher.
- Keep thee DLs on all the Ravagers.
- Combine the Reavers into a bigger squad for damage potential. They'll all benefiting from PTs and can take more losses before LD tests. They also have the power to assault. At 9 strong they have a greater than 50% chance of popping tanks within Melta range and can Bladevane effectively without the need for expensive CCs.
- The Wyches at 5 troops per unit really don't need HGs, it won't turn the tide.

Something like this will be a lot more competitive I think.

- Archon - 160pts
Huskblade (35), Shadow Field (30), Soul Trap (10), PGL (25).

- 4*Incubi (88)- 163pts
Venom DED (55), Splinter Cannon (10)

- 10*Warriors (90) - 170pts
Raider DED (60) w/Splinter Racks (10), Night Shields (10), 1*Disintegrator

- 10*Warriors (90) - 170pts
Raider DED (60) w/Splinter Racks (10), Night Shields (10), 1*Disintegrator

- 5*Wyches (50) - 125pts
5*Haywire Grenades (10), Venom DED (55) w/ Splinter Cannon (10)

- 5*Wyches (50) - 125pts
5*Haywire Grenades (10), Venom DED (55) w/ Splinter Cannon (10)

- 9*Reavers (198) - 234pts
3*Heat Lance (36)

- Ravager (105) - 115
Night Shield (10), 3*Dark Lance

- Ravager (105) - 115
Night Shield (10), 3*Dark Lance

- Ravager (105) - 115
Night Shield (10), 3*Dark Lance

Total: 1492pts

That leaves you 8pts under so I'd fiddle around with things and see what you like. Perhaps a VB for the Archon so he can hurt high toughness enemies.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll probably try out that army list and see how it works for me, but any other advice is ofc welcome!

Okay, so how competitive do you want this to be? Like "occasionally get in the top 5, usually top 10" competitive, or "top 3 at best, top 8 at worst"? If it's the former then your list, with the critiques above, is fine. If you're looking to really do very well, though, you need to think a little more competitively. The process I go through when making a competitive list is ask myself "Are there any lists that I auto-lose to?" If the answer is yes, then your list is not truly competitive, simple as that.

For your list, your auto-loss matchups would be any kind of competitive Guard, Strike Spam GKs, Anything with more than 2 flyers, well-built DE and Horde Orks. That's a lot of matchups you're going to drop, and in a tournament you're going to see a lot of the above.

If I sound harsh, I really don't mean to. I had the same learning curve when I first started playing DE competitively. It just takes playing a lot of games, against good opponents, and soon you'll develop your own personal style of list, as I have. Best of luck to you!

I think most lists I can conceive of will auto lose to any flying circus.

You require more AT in your list try blastborn instead of your current trueborn loadout

mug7703 wrote:

I think most lists I can conceive of will auto lose to any flying circus.

It's honestly really easy to beat a flyer list if you don't give up before the game even starts.

At the moment, top 10 is fine with me. I don't plan on going to any tournaments any time soon, this is really to help me develop my list building skills, and should also help me further develop my play-style .

In essence, I want to be competitive enough to mash up anything an casual player could throw at me, but I want a challenge when it comes to experienced/competitive players which will allow me to think more into how I use each individual squad/model so that I can make the necessary tweaks that get me into that top 3.

I think that the list posted by mug seems to be a good starting point, I may have to try out some blastborn here and there as well to see how they work for me.

Yes, definitely go blasterborn. They honestly are the difference maker in my list to make it go from pretty good to able to take on pretty much anything.