New Player with 500 points looking for advice on what to add

Hi,

New Dark Eldar player (played tyranids last year) here. I have created a 500 point list that I have tested with my local gaming group as follows.

Archon (shadowfield, blaster, webway portal)

joins

5 scourges (1 shardcarbine, 4 haywire blasters)

2 units of 5 kabalite warriors (splinter rifles)

each unit of kabalite warriors in a venom (twin linked splinter rifle upgraded to splinter cannon).

This list has been fun but I'm a bit unsure what to purchase next. My ultimate goal is to be able to field 2000 points. I have so far avoided CC units (because I wanted a different experience to tyranids) and really like the kabal aesthetic (as opposed to a haemonculus coven or wych cult).

What should my next 500 points be to create a balanced list in a meta with Deathwing, CSM, orks, tau, eldar and necrons?

Probably more Warriors in transports and some Ravagers or perhaps Razorwings would make logical sense as an extension of the shooty Kabal theme.

I'm struggling to figure out what my best choices for anti-tank are. Should I have a mix of Ravagers and Raiders or is it better to take the flyers as they are harder for most lists to take down?

At the end of the day, darklight weaponry is really just like shooting missile launchers at Chimeras - they are not bad, but neither are they amazing. Weight of fire is, in my opinion, the best way to maximize their effectiveness.

To answer your question in a more helpful way - I would try to take all of the units you listed, quite frankly, as all of them can provide lances. Of what you listed, the Ravager is, overall, the most 'bang for your buck' while the Razorwing is the most 'durable' and the Raider is a useful troop transport. All three of them are good units in their own unique ways - for the specific job of getting lances on the board, the winner is clearly the Ravager - but the question then becomes, is that really all you're looking to do? If you have other needs maybe the other units would be better (the Raider will bring tools to help assault troops or to help you field ObjSec units, and the Razorwing is actually bloody good anti-infantry with a solid anti-mech support option, the Ravager, as stated, is quite cheap for long range lances on the field. ALl are good - take the one that helps your need.

Thanks, your discussion frames my choices nicely. I think raiders will work as the next purchase, as I can get a second dark lance out of the kabalites embarked on it. I like that idea because I can jink and keep the kabalite with the dark lance firing at his full BS.

I would not put a dark lance on the warrior squad. You would have to buy ten warriors plus the dark lance. That is a lot of points doing nothing if u fire just at a vehicle with that unit. The other problem is that raider is going to be moving a lot so that DL is going to be snap shooting most of the time.  Go with a ravager  if u need the lances. It is cheaper and u get 3 DL instead of 2. I would suggest using a 5 man squad with a blaster in the raider. It's cheaper and  can fire at full bs when you move. If you want a ten man squad go with the gunboat and splinter racks. Could run the unit with blaster still or with no upgrades (is how I would run them). The gunboat build is fun fluff wise but the 5 man unit is (I feel) more competitive.

I am no expert. But if you are looking for Anti Tank guns with a Kabalite theme I would think of adding Trueborn. You can get 4 blasters in a squad ( plus a dracon with haywire and a blast pistol?). Toss them in a Venom. I forget the squad size of Trueborn now - if its four you could toss your Archon in the squad and drop the Venom if you like.

Also seeing as Trueborn are upgraded Kabalites you can add cool little extra stuff to them to have them stand out - alot of people use capes or different helms.

Hope somewhere in that rambling something helped.

pehldog63 wrote:

I would not put a dark lance on the warrior squad. You would have to buy ten warriors plus the dark lance.

This is a good point now that I think about it.

Is there really any point to paying for a blaster in a five man kabalite squad then? It's not like I can split fire the blaster at a high toughness target.

The Blaster in a Warrior Squad is still primarily an anti-infantry unit. The Blasters damage output against these are slightly better than with the regular Splinter Rifle. But what is added is the ability to do SOMETHING against vehicles too.
I usually find myself running out of Infantry models to fire at around mid-game, but still have Tanks to "clean up" late game, or the complete opposite: Having the infantry models locked up in anoying poison-proof metal boxes in need of opening early game.

Sigmaril wrote:

The Blaster in a Warrior Squad is still primarily an anti-infantry unit. The Blasters damage output against these are slightly better than with the regular Splinter Rifle. But what is added is the ability to do SOMETHING against vehicles too.
I usually find myself running out of Infantry models to fire at around mid-game, but still have Tanks to "clean up" late game, or the complete opposite: Having the infantry models locked up in anoying poison-proof metal boxes in need of opening early game.

Quoted for truth.

Ok, I'll give the 5 man kabalite squads with blaster a go. Thank you all for your help.