1850 Coven army w/ elder allied detachment

1850


HQ
2x haemonculus -140 pts
no upgrades

troops

5x wracks -155 pts
w/ acothyst
2x liquifier
venom
w/ cannons

5x wracks -155 pts
w/ acothyst
2x liquifier
venom
w/ cannons

Allied detachment

HQ

eldradulthran -205 pts

troops

5x rangers - 60 pts

fast attack

hemlock wraith fighter -185 pts


scalpel squad -310 pts

5x wracks
w/ acothyst
2x liquifier
venom
w/ cannons

5x wracks
w/ acothyst
2x liquifier
venom
w/ cannons

Corpsthief squad -640 pts

5x talos
w/ 4x haywire blasters


So my idea behind this list (and its my first list with both eldar codex's of any kind) is to play around with moral effects.


units in range of the coven army suffer -1 to moral
same with the talos squad -1
and the scalpel squad -1

with the hemlock being able to cast terrify forcing a unit to take a morale check
+ it has mindshock pod which gives it “All successful Morale or Pinning tests made within 12" of a Hemlock Wraithfighter must be re-rolled.”

and eldrathron taking powers from telepathy disciplines to get stealth for the Talos unit (can only hit them on 6s) and several other tasty spells from that line, really the only ability i wouldn't want is mental fortitude since almost my whole army is fearless anyways.

Rangers will sit on an objective an take pop shots at enemy characters, The talos get a free 6 inch move at the start, and i will have the haemonculus join them. I will keep invisibility up on them and have them busting any tanks as they move up the field. with the 2 wrack venoms zooming up to tie some units up that could be dangerous (the fact that they are fearless on turn 2 makes them perfect for this) and the scalpel squad coming in with surgical excision also to get the early victory points, and help the other wracks. venoms will harass any units not in combat once they drop their wracks off, and once the talos get in close enough i will mop up the remaining army.

if i have the talos, scalpel, and any of the other coven units within 12 inches of the same unit they are taking a -3 modifier to moral tests, and the hemlock forcing any passed tests within 12' to reroll... plus the standard modifications for losing combat and the psychic powers in the army potentially bringing another -2 to moral thats a potential -5 to LD with passed tests rerolled and the -1 ld per wound a combat was lost by can make just about any unit run (or at least be fighting with ws1) with some good roles for sweeping advance, or fearing units off the table i think this can be a really killy army.

if you guys have any ideas of what i can do with these haemonculai let me know, i had to take 2 mandatory for hq choices. personally i just thought the idea of invisible talos was really cool.

also read this on the internet which i think is worth tossing out there, some soul fright play..

Main codex pg 105: "At the end of the Shooting phase...unit...must make a Leadership test...Wounds cannot be allocated to models with the Fearless or ATSKNF special rules (any excess Wounds are lost)"

[Games Workshop Design Studio, Codex: Dark Eldar, (GW: Nottingham, 2014)]

The important bit here is that only models with the fearless /ATSKNF special rule are unaffected. There are a few repercussions here.

Models with the 'Zealot' USR can be affected by the test. The counter argument to this is that their unit automatically passes the 'Leadership' test imposed by Soul Fright. To counter this, point out to your opponent that what it's asking them to do is take a 'Characteristic test' based on their Leadership. Zealot means you automatically pass Morale tests; if GW wanted you to take a Morale test they would have specified. Instead they used the capitalised form of Leadership, which has a specific game meaning.
If you follow the above, you'll also now see in a big unit with one Fearless model, only the individual model with the Fearless USR is immune. The whole unit may automatically pass Morale, Pinning checks etc., but Fearless does not confer the USR itself to the rest of the unit. Again, this is not a Morale test (which they automatically pass) but a Leadership characteristic test. Hence a big blob of Guardsmen are vulnerable (even if they have a Zealot-priest).
This also means that Daemons are vulnerable to Soul Fright, as are any units (i.e. Orks over 10 men) that "automatically pass Morale tests". To state it one more time: Soul Fright doesn't ask for a morale test, it asks for a characteristic test based on "Leadership". Say it enough times and you might start believing it yourself.
Here are the key passages from the BRB:

Morale Tests
"Morale represents the grit, determination, or (sometimes) plain stupidity of warriors in action. Morale checks are a specific kind of Leadership test."

Fearless
"Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear, Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons Are Useless rule. If a unit has Gone to Ground and then gains the Fearless special rule, all the effects of Go to Ground are immediately cancelled."

Zealot
"A unit containing one or more models with the Zealot special rule automatically passes Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons Are Useless rule. If a unit gains the Zealot special rule when it has Gone to Ground, all the effects of Go to Ground are immediately cancelled."

[Games Workshop Design Team, Warhammer 40K: The Rules (Digital Edition), (GW: Nottingham, 2014)]

One point it is worth noting here is that the Fearless special rule does talk about the 'unit' gaining fearless in the second highlighted section...

This list looks super fun. I wanted to run the "Mind-Frag" Eldar/DE combo ever since it came out. I think you can really drive your opponent nuts with it. You've got a variety of troops, all the pinning/morale shenanigans you'll need to make it worth it, though precious little ranged anti-tank which could be a big problem. The inclusion of Eldrad could be huge for this list as well... Not sure how it'd work as a TAC list... but the presence of the Corpsethief formation could balance things out that. I heard from Frankie from Frontline Gaming (of BAO, LVO fame) that he's been obliterating dudes with the Corpsethief formation. Regardless I think this is a list you could do well with. I'd love to hear you do with this list.... make sure you let us know!

ya corps thief looks extremely scary. with them getting invisibility making people roll to hit like they are shooting snap shots need 6s, feel no pain ignoring wounds, it will not die regaining wounds, and the fact they are toughness 7 3 wounds and a 3+ save will make them an extremely hard unit to crack, its almost guaranteed to force them to waste shots on eldrad before they can even think of shooting the talos.im gonna make some variations of this list and post them later. i really want to run some scourge or 2 razor wings in one of my lists, I'm just not sure what works yet since i haven't fielded any DE or elder. last time i played was probably 6 years ago and i played chaos marines and was never really that good at the gaming part, i just liked painting mostly. but i want to come back an be really competitive, i feel like dark elder can be a total face roll with all the sneaky tricks they have. thats why i like this list. on turn 2 when most his army stops functioning properly il sit back and engage troll face until i see tears and soak up that pain like a true dark elder player would lol.

Cavalier wrote:

This list looks super fun. I wanted to run the "Mind-Frag" Eldar/DE combo ever since it came out. I think you can really drive your opponent nuts with it. You've got a variety of troops, all the pinning/morale shenanigans you'll need to make it worth it, though precious little ranged anti-tank which could be a big problem. The inclusion of Eldrad could be huge for this list as well... Not sure how it'd work as a TAC list... but the presence of the Corpsethief formation could balance things out  that. I heard from Frankie from Frontline Gaming (of BAO, LVO fame) that he's been obliterating dudes with the Corpsethief formation. Regardless I think this is a list you could do well with. I'd love to hear you do with this list.... make sure you let us know!

about the lack of anti tank, 4 of the talos have twin linked haywire blasters shooting at one target each round will pop most vehicles in a volley (at least the way i roll they will I'm one lucky sob) and they can sac their extra attacks and have a total of 5 str 10 smash hits for being monstrous creatures. idk, just a thought, i think anyone who hasn't fought a talos will be surprised at how effective they are all round from shooting to cc to just soaking up shots like its nothing. I'm still playing around with the list though, the only units i even have right now is 1 10 man lab squad with blast pistol and shredders and a scourge squat with blasters lol so it will be a while before i can tell you how well this worked out. I'm just worried about having to move my army like a giant death ball being so close together ordinance weapons will ruin me.