1000 Point List

Hello everyone now that school is starting to wind down, 2 weeks then FREEDOM , I'm very excited about finally being able to play some 40K with my friends. This is my first attempt at a list from 6E and I've been doing quite a bit of lurking over the last several days which has brought me to this point. So without further adieu here is the list.

Baron Sathonyx - 105
I've read in several posts that this guy is one of our strongest HQ choices and lacking any actual in game experience i can say that on paper he looks pretty cool. The +1 to your deployment choice seems very helpful and the stealth makes him and whatever unit he is with more survivable. It also seems like he'll be able to hold his own in close combat as well as being inexpensive enough to fit into a 1000 point list.

3 Beastmasters, Clawed Fiend, 4 Razorwing Flocks - 136
My Barons escort(or perhaps its the other way around) is the Beastmaster unit I've seen some other people around the forums running to great success is seems. Stealth from the Baron gives them more survivability to make it to your enemy front line and if the unit gets into close combat I should make pretty short work of most enemies. I am a little unsure about a couple things for this unit however, first is the actual spread of beasts that i have chosen. Having never used the unit before i picked what looked good to me but that may not equate to in game success, if I could get some more experienced opinion on this it would be greatly appreciated. Second does the Baron confer the hit and run rule to the squad and if so is that something that i should be planning my assaults around.

3 X { 5 Kabalite Warrios, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon - 125 }
Pretty standard troop choices from what i can tell, i don't know if this is would count a "Venom Spam" but it seems like a very fun and effective way to run our troop choices. My only question about these is if a Nightshield is mandatory or not.

3 X { Ravager, Nightshield -115 }
From what I've read this is the only way to go heavy support wise and i plan on magnetizing my Dark Lances/Disintergrators so If im up against someone where I need the serious anti troop capability of the Disintergrator I can have it. I'm also unsure of how exactly to take advantage of the Nightshield, on paper it looks excellent but with my general level of inexperience i need some help with it. From what I have read there is premeasuring and some other things involved in their proper use so if i could get some help with that as well it would be appreciated.

Total - 961
As you can see im a full 39 points short of 1000 and frankly i have no idea what to do with it. I was thinking that i could give my Venoms Nightshields and one of the Beastmasters a Venom Blade or would it make more sense to buy another Beastmaster(or 2) and beasts to go along with him. Another option would be to buy Sybarite upgrades for the Kabalite Warrior squads but I don't know if it is worth the points for the +1 leadership or not. Many question as you can tell and please criticize the hell out of this, I like this list because its my list but that has probably left me a little blind to its limitations and problems.

General Tactics
My overall plan is to focus fire the Ravagers on important/threatening hard targets while the Venoms zip around shooting the snot out of over extended squads or units on objectives and being a general nuisance. The Baron and his Beastmaster/Beast escort is there to be scary and assault a unit that i foresee being problematic. No plan of course survives contact with the enemy and this is just a broad overview of what i expect to do with my units. With that being said I'm very excited about finally fielding a Dark Eldar force. Its totally unlike the Space and Chaos Marines of my past and i look forward to wielding the glass hammer that has made mince meat of me many a time before.

Be sure to read the FAQ before you start playing as there are some changes in it. For example the Baron no longer gives +1 to deployment he gives +1 to going first. As for your other questions:

I'm personally more of a fan of Khymera then I am of the Beast Fiend. If you dropped the fiend you could run 4-5 Khymera in his place giving you alot more attacks (at slightly lower strength) and 4+ invulnerable saves. And yes the Baron does give Hit and Run to the squad.

Night Sheilds are rather simple in how they are used. Find the enemies range (range of weapon + movement if applicable) and -6". That's their "threat zone." Now you can stay out of it or limit how many enemies can shoot you at once. Are they mandatory? No but they can be effective.

As for how to spend your last few points. Without changing your list much, I'd personally drop the beastfiend and run 5 khymera.

yah I would go with what Murkglow said, drop the clawed fiend for some khymera.

Also for nightshields to have their full effect, everything needs them. So I would spend your extra points on nightshields for your troops.

Okay so taking into account the suggestions from above the list would now look like.

Baron Sathonyx - 105

3 Beastmasters, 4 Kyhmera, 4 Razorwing Flocks- 144

3 X { 5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon, Nightshield -135 }

3 X { Ravager, Nightshield -115 }

Total - 999

I like the changes and being 1 point off of 1000 points does feel nice I do however still have a few more questions specifically about the Beastmaster/Baron squad. I should be running the Kyhmera in front of the Beastmasters, Razorwings, and the Baron to take advantage of their 4+ invul saves with how wounding during shooting works correct? I had also read some battle reports around the net where people directly before assault with their unit of Beastmasters detach the Baron back to being an independent character and go engage something entirely different that the Beastmaster unit. Is this advisable? With his high WS he should be able to stand up to most threats and he does have the 2+ invul save but after he fails it he seems pretty vulnerable to be on his own. I'm also a little in the dark about what you are supposed to target with your Beastmaster squad, massed infantry? light vehicles? use them as a tar pit against a threatening unit? or am i supposed to use them to handle all of those threats and it just depends on the opponents army list and the current layout of the battlefield? Thanks again for the feed back I'm pretty excited to get this going(my first venom arrived in the mail today we'll see when i get to build it though stupid thermodynamics)

You want to arrange your beast squad to best suit what your enemy has. If he just has alot of S5 or less shooting you can put some of your razorwings forward to absorb the shots with their 5 wounds. Khymera wouldn't be good in this case as they only have 1 wound and the 4+ save will only stop so much. S6+ shooting on the other hand you want to protect your razorwings from since it'll instant death them and waste their 5 wounds. This is where the Khymera come in. Beastmasters can also be used as protection for the other models since they don't provide much in the way of attacks and are thus expendable (Baron will cover leadership).

As for splitting Baron off to attack something else. It's possible but only if you really need to do it IMO. Remember Baron is giving your beasts Leadership and more importantly assault grenades, stealth, and hit & run. If you charge into cover without the baron leading your beasts they'll get mauled. And as you pointed out, while the baron is ok in a fight, he's nothing overly amazing and he's deceptively fragile/easily overwhelmed on his own.

Finally your beasts can target most things, and indeed because you've got 1/4th of your point total wrapped up in this one squad you're going to need them to. They have ample attacks to thin out hoards and between sheer number of forced armor saves and rending they should do alright vs marines too. In a pinch they can pop AV10 but beyond that you're going to need real anti-tank.

Alright thanks again for all of the help everyone. There's a chance that i will be playing a game tonight vs a friend of mine with this list and if it ends up happening I'll be posting a report about it in the Realspace Raids section of the forum.