1850 - Kabalite Warrior theme with a sprinkle of Coven for flavour

The Theme

HI! Okay! I love troops. Lots and lots of em. Oddly enough I've been playing an army that is considered to be at its best when completely mechanized! None-the-less with the new WWPs one idea has been floating around that has caught my attention.. 20 Warriors with Splinter Cannons exploding from the webway led by a Haemonculus.

  The main drawback is of course they can be shot to pieces after arriving. Well so can every other unit of ours so whats new about that! However with the Haemy they'll have feel no pain at the very least when they arrive, plus having the ability to place the unit anywhere on the board is a great strategic advantage (IMO) to help mitigate their "squishiness".

  I know its not the most competitive option but if you gotta play a 20 man blob (and i want to) this is the best way I can think of.

  Lets build the list around this idea to best make the strategy work. My initial thoughts are to use two of them. Expensive i know but with two massive squads coming onto the board anywhere and unleashing a massive amount of firepower...well, its exhilarating. With one squad I feel the opponent might be able to isolate them easier. Not to mention with their large footprint we can utilize more board control tactics. But like always, two of anything is better than one! Live in excess.. We're Dark Eldar.

The Building Process

So to start, we'll use two squads of:

 - Haemonculus (WWP)
 - 20x Warriors (Sybarite, 2x Splinter Cannons)

NEXT! We're gonna need anti-tank. Obviously. I like Ravagers because they're a threat from turn one. I feel this list needs to take out as much armor as soon as possible for those Warriors blobs to make the best use of their splinter weapons.

 - 2x Ravagers (Dark Lances)

Not enough? Ya I kinda thought so too. This is where I figured I'd use some MSU Raider squads. They're great for bringing in more lances and having more objective secure units is a great bonus. Not to mention Raiders are great for blocking and controlling the enemy movement. Lets add 4 of em.

 - 4x Warriors x5 (Blaster), Raider (Dark Lance)

Thats about or close to 1500.
Now I always like to have some assault units in my armies. Whats the best we can do in that arena? Grotesques! Lets add a Grotesqeurie. Having two more Raiders is never a bad thing plus these guys can lay down the hurt up close, forcing our opponents to have deal with them. They can also tackle light armor. More anti armor you say? Yes please. Thank you very much.

  - Haemonculus (Scissor Hands)
  - x3 Grotesques, Raider (Dark Lance)
  - x3 Grotesques, Raider (Dark Lance)

Lets throw in a Succubus to join that second Grot boat to finish things off.


Alright what do we got:

The List

HQ
Succubus (Archite Glaive, AoM, HWG)
Haemonculus (WWP)
Haemonculus (WWP)

Troop
Warriors x20 (Sybarite /w Agoniser, x2 Splinter Cannons)
Warriors x20 (Sybarite /w Agoniser, x2 Splinter Cannons)
Warriors x5 (Blaster), Raider (Dark Lance)
Warriors x5 (Blaster), Raider (Dark Lance)
Warriors x5 (Blaster), Raider (Dark Lance)
Warriors x5 (Blaster), Raider (Dark Lance)

Heavy Support
Ravager (3 Dark Lances)
Ravager (3 Dark Lances)

1435

Grotesqeurie - 410

Haemonculus (Scissor Hands)
80
3x Grotesques, Raider (DL)
165
3x Grotesques, Raider (DL)
165


1845 Total


Huge post I know. Maybe you read it all maybe not. If ya skipped right to the list let me summarize:
How would you build and army around 20 man Warrior squads? This is my idea. Let me know what you guys think or if you have any ideas of your own.

I always wanted to try the 20 Warrior WWP, and I think you've got a good list for it. Just a couple things. I don't think there is a detachment that lets you take 3 HQs, unless I missed one somewhere. So you might have to drop the Succubus. The points will let you beef up the Haemonculi for combat though which I think will help in defending the Warriors. And the other thing I'd think about is swapping a squad of Warriors out for a 3rd Ravager and maybe giving them Night Shields to keep them alive till you can throw the grotesques and Warriors in they're face. I think you'll need the long range firepower to kill anything with a blast template. 20 warriors in a nice deep strike cluster is a perfect target for blasts.

If you really wanted to keep the Warriors alive I think a Cronos with a probe would help a lot. The downside would be any smart opponent will know that where the Cronos is, is where the warriors will come in. Maybe a Dark Artisan with WWP and try to bring them all in together.

But definitely give it a shot and keep us updated. I just scooped up a bunch of Warriors on Ebay so I might have to try it as well.

Quote :

I don't think there is a detachment that lets you take 3 HQs, unless I missed one somewhere.

Ugh! Cant believe I missed that.. I wonder if I could take one of those WWP Haemonculus from the Coven Supplement, or would I have to include two troops as well I wonder.. Funny enough trying to make a Dark Eldar list and not having enough HQ slots !

Quote :

If you really wanted to keep the Warriors alive I think a Cronos with a probe would help a lot. The downside would be any smart opponent will know that where the Cronos is, is where the warriors will come in

If I ran these guys on the board and not in the webway this is what I'd do.


There is also the option of removing one WWP Haemy and Warrior Squad. Replacing it with two Razorwing Jetfighters

You could take the Epicureans and swap 2 squads of Warriors for Wracks in a Venom. Gives you a Cronos and a Haemon as well.

I think the Razorwings would be a good support for 1 unit. I think 2 needs to have the list built around it. I made a list with 2 for fun

Haemon w/WWP,SH-115
Haemon w/WWP,SH-115
20 Warriors w/SC x2 Sybarite w/HWG-205
20 Warriors w/SC x2 Sybarite w/HWG-205
5x Warrs w/Blaster in Ven w/SC 120
5x Warrs w/Blaster in Ven w/SC 120
Scourges w/4x HWB-120
Scourges w/4x HWB-120
Ravager w/3x Dark Lance-125
Ravager w/3x Dark Lance-125
Ravager w/3x Dark Lance-125

Dark Artisan
Haemon w/WWP-105
Talos w/CFs-125
Cronos w/Probe-125

Turn 2 odds are you're getting 40 Warriors whenever you want or 20 Warriors w/4+ FNP and if you get the reserve reroll trait is near GG. The rest of the army can be used to zone out the other army and push them where you want.

I love the Dark Artisian idea. I like your list! Im excited to see what these massive Warrior blobs can do.

I thought of another idea as well..

Drop the Succubus and Grotesquerie. Replace with a third Ravager, Scourges and two Razorwings. Takes a little of the flavour out by losing the Coven units but I think it adds more firepower and versatility.

Haemy WWP
Haemy WWP
20 Warriors (2 SC, Sybarite + Agoniser)
20 Warriors (2 SC, Sybarite + Agoniser)
5 Warriors (Blaster), Raider (DL)
5 Warriors (Blaster), Raider (DL)
5 Warriors (Blaster), Raider (DL)
5 Warriors (Blaster), Raider (DL)
Razorwing Jetfighter (2 DL)
Razorwing Jetfighter (2 DL)
5 Scourge (4 HWB)
Ravager (3 DL)
Ravager (3 DL)
Ravager (3 DL)

I know there arent any venoms but i think that the 20 man squads plus the two Razorwings is plenty of anti infantry. I now also have a good amount of lances, scourges for variety against armor and a healthy amount of obj sec/contesting units.

I like that list a lot. Very mobile for Maelstrom missions. And I think with the warriors in the opponents face it will draw fire away from the smaller squads. 17 Lances is pretty impressive, only thing I'm unsure of is the agon
On the Sybarites. I went with HWG in case they get charged by a dread. But I think of you do keep it to give them to the Haemonculi. Almost same stats but Haemon is tougher.Then you can let the sybarite take a challenge while the haemonculus hits the unit.

I don't have my codex's in front of me but I wonder if you could pull 2 Warrior units and scourges and add an Autarch and some troops. The reserve rerolls bringing on both warriors and Razorwings would be some big turn 2 damage. That may be a 2000 point idea though.

I love your thought process. It reminds me of my own occasionally. Question, why not 2 20 man blobs?

I do have two of them... I'm gonna assume you may have meant that with a different inflection haha

you used to see warrior squads on foot in older editions. I know with the old codex you could have two dark lances in a ten man unit for 100 points.

it's still a viable choice; big blobs of warriors. the main argument being that they're immobile and expensive so it isn't worth their insane amounts of firepower when you consider how frail they are. but with the new WWP and Power from Pain rules it kinda balances out. almost.
the only thing is they compete with MSU squads in Venoms or Gunboats with splinter Racks.. both of which are cheaper, more durable and highly mobile. one on one the warrior blob wins in terms of firepower but the cost with a WWP delivery system, well you can almost get 3 venoms or 2 gunboats for the same price.

so why even take them if they lose in comparison to our other troop loadouts? I dunno. because it gets stale having every list be practically the same. also it's like a hail Mary surprise play that can pay off immensely or go pretty wrong. sounds like fun. either way you're gonna get to shoot them at something when they land on the table, and there is a very good chance whatever you point that squad at will be dead afterwards. sounds like Dark Eldar scheming to me!
afterall doesn't Vect himself love big destructive weapons that get pulled out of no where to catch the enemy by surprise and blow them to smithereens, winning the day? I like to think of these squads as something like that.

Haha just noticed it. I love running the 20 man blobs when I get tired of pulling 10+ vehicles out of the case. It always surprises my opponents.