Desperate Allies, 1850pts - DE + CSM

Greetings!

It is quite unusual to see lists with allies other than Battle Brothers. As a fluff player, I believe these kind of alliance would happen more often especially since DE are sinister, backstabbing and ruthless (at least my Archon is).

So the theme for this army is DE being the mastermind behind the battle and uses the CSM as meatshield/distraction. Since the CSM are khornes (except for spawns...), my Archon easily manipulate the blood thirsty CSM Lord with promises of great bloodshed and send them at my Archons enemies. While the enemy is busy dealing with the crazy berserkers, my Kabal lurks from a distance and strikes with surgical precision, crippling the enemies heavy weapons and removing any threat that could decimate my Archons pawns or his own Kabal. When the enemy is broken, if the crazed berserkers are still alive they will cut down stragglers by themselves while the Kabal secure their prize and goal in secret and hidden from sight. The Kabal will leave them alone and spare their pitiful lives for now, for those khorne worshippers might still be useful for future battle where more pawns as meatshields are needed!

So for the list!

Primary Detachment: Dark Eldar

Archon with Blaster (goes with trueborn)

3x Trueborn with 3 Blasters
Venom Dual cannons

5x Kabalite Warriors with 1 Blaster
Venom Dual cannons

5x Kabalite Warriors with 1 Blaster
Venom Dual cannons

5x Kabalite Warriors with 1 Blaster
Venom Dual cannons

9x Reavers with 3 Blasters
Arena Champ with VB

Ravager with NS

Ravager with NS

Allied detachment: Chaos Space Marines (Desperate Allies)

Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne and VotLW
Aura of DK, Axe of Blind Fury, mount Juggernaut of Khorne (total of T5, 4 Wounds and lotsa str6 ap2 attacks!)
The Lord goes either with Spawns or zerkers depending on situation, most of the time the three units should be close to each other.

20 Khorne Berzerkers as troops
Icon of Wrath (re-roll charge and furious charge)
Champ with Power Axe

5 Nurgle Spawns (T6 3 wounds each)

Total: 1849

First off, I've not played a single game for 10+ years. I've never played DE or CSM. But I've been stalking forums and buying codexes since a year back. So this list is mostly for fun. Though I might create this list in the future, if it sounds viable and fun for casual games/tournies.

The idea is to deploy the CSM centrally and get the enemy's attention. With huge berseker blob and T5 mutiple wounds units, I think they can survive enough rounds and shooting to take off the heat from my fragile DE gunboats. This allows my DE to outshoot the remaining elements of the enemy. I believe the CSM will be scary enough for most players and they will try to shoot them down early. Lord and Zerkers could cause alot of killing if they reach anything and the Lord and Spawns move 12'.

The trick is to keep my DE army away from the enemy AND my allies... I'ld most likely hide my DE army and play defensively and move all out and strike when the moment is right. At end game, i'll use reavers or venoms with embarked units to fly around denying objectives or taking. Deep striking armies and vehicle heavy armies will prove difficult for this army to handle I think, since I have few DL and counter-chargers. Also, armies with alot of flyers will make things worse for this list I think.

What do you think? Fluffwise and competetive wise? Is it fun? How can I improve the list? Any thoughts are welcome!

Personally, I would ditch the berserkers (way to many points in non scoring models) for a simple 10 man squad of cultists to pay the allies tax. Then get more scoring dark eldar models... You. Can also afford to drop 1-2 spawn... 3 shoud be enough to get the juggerlord to combat... Though I will point out they need khorne not nurgle for him to join

The berserkers are a scoring unit.

They become a Troop Chioce if you have a chaos lord with Mark Of Khorne xD

Love the idea and the fluff in it. Go ahead and try it out!
Post the results plz

the desperate allies rule means they cant score, so basically unless your allies are Eldar, DE cant have any scoring Ally model (except for janky stuff like say... Kantor making Sternguard scoring)

Oh... Forgot about that...

Thx for telling me

@ Massaen
You're right about the marks, I think I'll drop the marks on the Spawns and leave them markless, that way the Lord should be able to join him and the spawn benefit from his mark right? Also, you're right about getting in more scoring DE units. But where do I loose points for that?

@Andalit
The allied detachment won't be scoring (or denying) at all, I want them to soak damage and force players to focus on them. I chose the zerkers as troop choice because they're khorne and a huge blob of them should get attention.

But zerkers aren't that tough or cheap... They are 420pts right now. Perhaps I should swap in cultists instead and spend more points on more DE troops? But I still want something on CSM side that can survive 1-2 rounds of shooting and in the same time generate threat to the enemy.

Thanks for your inputs!

Have you had a look at the plauge Marines?

T5 in power gear, however they are not the most shootiest unit, but they will take a pounding and still stand tall.

If you are going for the chaos melle witch is cool as heck I would put them in a landraider. Only problem is I know where that drop pod with melta guns is going...

If you are not putting them in a landraider then grab the havocs and buy the autocannons of forgeworld. Those models look so sweet! And they are good.

I'm thinking of cutting down on berserkers to 10-12 man and but in another KW+Venom and something more. Or a 10x KW + Raider. I'll be tweaking a little bit more!