A comprehensive Summary. Sort of.

Deep breath. This is going to be a long one.

So I played a 3500 point game today with my buddies with one aim. To try and play as much from the new dex in one game. Because, why not!

So we split it into two 1750 lists. Two of my dark eldar lists aganst 1750 of Grey Knights and Blood Angels. Long Story short. Tabled them both turn 5 and it wasn't that difficult.

List was as follows:

Relish-Raiders

Archon w/animus vitae, shadowfield, Agoniser
-in Venom w/cannon

4x Incubi w/Klaivex

5x Trueborn w/4 Blasters
-in Venom w/cannon

10x Kabalites w/cannon, blaster
-in Raider, NS, SR, Disintergrator

10x Kabalites w/cannon, blaster
-in Raider, NS, SR, Disintergrator

6x Reavers, Arena Champ, Power sword, 2 HL, 2xCluster Caltrops
6x Reavers, Arena Champ, Power sword, 2 HL, 2x Cluster Caltrops
5x Scourges, 4x Haywire Blasters
5x Scourges, 4x Haywire Blasters
Razorwing, Dark Lances, Nightshields

Ravager, NS, Dissies

Wych-ever way next?

Lelith Hesperax
Haemocules, WWP, Crucible, Scissorhand

10x Wyches, Hekatrix, Agoniser, Razorflails
-in Raider, NS, EA
10x Wyches, Hekatrix, Agoniser, Razorflails
-in Raider, NS, EA

5x Trueborn w/2 Cannons
-in Venom
5x Mandrakes
10x Bloodbrides, Hekatrix, Agoniser, 3 Hydra Gauntlets

5x Hellions, Helliarch, Agoniser

Voidraven Bomber, 4 Implosion Missiles, Void Lances, NS
Chronos, Spirit Probe, Spirit Vortex
Ravager, NS, Dark Lances

The opponents had 3 dreadknights, stormravens, dreadnaughts, assault marines galore, interceptors etc. Lots of tasty marines trying to hide in cover.

So yeah. Pretty fortunate to come up against two marine lists which had a lot of infantry and not a great amount of anti tank. Rolled  a 2 on each for combat drugs (=1 Strength). Went to keep as much as possible on the board from the start, which was daft but I wanted to try everything out from the start. (Thought I was going to be up against Tau and Mech Guard...)

So lets jump into it. Variety is the spice of life and I really think it helped in rinsing through this game. I lost 10 Reavers through me sucking, a venom and a raider. That was it. So to quickly summarise each unit:

HQs

Archon
-No doom saying, this guy is still good. Agoniser over huskblade and popping him into marines. But the loss of AP2 really hurts when trying to run him with incubi. The Archon killed 5 Deathguard and the incubi killed the rest. But that 2++ is still good and he is a fire magnet.

Lelith Hesperax
-Not bad at all. Suffers from being Strength 3 but with furious charge she can be painful. Good with a bunch of bloodbrides and a Haemocules to WWP them down into the backfield cover. Late game they worked well to mop up stragglers and take down the backfielders.

Haemocules
-Meh. Crucible is a waste. He rolled 11 " in the middle of a grey knight army. Killed 3 guys. Wow.
Scissorhand is alright though

ELITES

Incubi
-Workhorse. Cut through everything. with rampage and furious charge these guys teamed with the archon (sitting out front to take the shots on the 2++) really tanked it. Especially with a nearby chronos. Pick your battles, I wouldnt ever charge them into cover, have to draw stuff out.

Blasterborn
-Yup. As always. Yup.

Splinterborn (cannons)
-Alright, not brilliant but the etc shots could be useful in some situations.

Mandrakes
-Ur. They finished off a terminator squad (one left ) Much better than they were, couldn't get worse, but taking up that Elite slot is not great.

Bloodbrides
-Yeah, the extra attack basically turns them in to what wyches should be, and I like it. Although taking up the elite slot again though...

Troops

Kabalites
Good solid choice. I'm still thinking about which is better, gunboats or venoms. The raiders survivability was good and the extra 5 men helped when pouring out dakka, but Im still not sure about wgich one is a more viable approach.

Wyches
They do serve a purpose, but you have to use them carefully. they kind of cant tarpit. They worked by staying in combat then winning in the opponants turn. Obviously the ideal situation. They hurt real bad not getting haywires. But hey ho, there you go. I wouldnt commit them to the shelf yet!

Fast Attack

Reavers
This was not a good game for them, both squads failed with their heatlances and failed there charge rolls and ended up being beaten up by assault marines and only limping away thanks to initiative. But these guys are normally good, I just suck.

Scourges
Yeah, haywire scourges are going to be the new thing I think. There weren't that many vehicles on the board but the two squads combined (I rolled a lot of 1s!) took down a contemptor and a storm raven. Not the best but hanging back and sniping they can be the bane. My mates have made it clear that they dont like haywire blasters.

Razorwing
Hasn't changed much, not bad but not great. Still 10000% better in Fast Attack though!

Hellions
Those boys be dead. Yeah the most effective thing they did was acting as bubble wrap to give the vehicles a cover save and stop jinking, high bases right! But I will convert 5 of mine into beastmasters with agonisers for a laugh!

Venoms/Raiders
Yup. Venoms still are nasty. Raiders as well. Cant complain, I think we have some really good transports you know. For the price and the firepower and the open topped goodness. I think were good.

Heavy Support

Ravager
Not dead, loss of aerial assault sucks no questions. Still a dissie ravager is just the bane of marines/terminators. Dark lance one is also still alright for popping light armour stuff. Not bad.

Voidraven Bomber
Sucks balls for its points. Just not worth it. Hands down, lovely model. But not worth it for the bomb (which has missed twice for me) and the expensive missiles, 4 of the implosion variety falied to kill 5 paladins and a librarian let alone cause a wound. Just not worth it to be honest. Better off taking different stuff.

Chronos
I like this. the strength 3 on the vortex and siphon thing sucks. But its still a nasty set of weapons. Even a single chronos can really soak up fire, 3 will be nasty. The boost to FnP as well would be nicer in a bigger bubble, but its useful, brings me back to 5th!


So in all, I think that there are some nice things in the dex (This is my 4th proper serious game with the dex). Some things have lost out but I think we still have a bunch of really potent stuff out there. Some nice combos that will be nice.

I will be taking more chronos I think. I like their style. Voidravens will not be appearing unless I play in a large game with plenty of mech guard or land raider-obj secured type games. The rest kind of speaks for itself.

You have come this far. So here is a little anecdote. After the smashing. The blood angels player screamed blue murder and that Dark eldar were way OP etc and that any idiot could play it. So we had a swap over. He got 1500 points of dark eldar, I took 750 points of Orks and the other guy took 750 of GK. Which included 5 terminators maybe paladins (they DS missghapped and died so i will never know) A contemptor and a 6 man squad. So obviously he got wiped 3rd turn. 750 points of shooty ork and a contemptor managed to make him eat his words. My 750 points of Orks got tabled turn 6, but against the 1250 that came at me, he lost most of his stuff. Would have been more but I have never seen one person pass so many FnP rolls. I mean a squad of warriors charged by 20 Ard'Boys and 1 dies. What. But he took it back. He realised we are not a point and click army.

Ta.

Cool report! I think DE are great against marines but certainly not point and click.