1850 Realspace/Aspect Army

Just got to sit down with the new Eldar book and put some ideas together and came up with this.  It's more of a fun list but definitely has the tools to handle all sorts of things (besides FMCs/fliers...).  It's got decent redundancy without spamming anything in particular which I definitely like about it.  I know it looks like a lot of Eldar (although I intentionally stayed away from scatterbikes and D-spam) but point wise it's still a DE list.  And I'm a fan of doing DE conversions for just about anything, so I actually like having some non-DE stuff in the army.

Realspace Raiders:
Succubus, Glaive, Armor of Misery, Haywires - 115
Succubus, Glaive, Helm of Spite, Haywires - 125
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
Venom, Cannon - 65
Venom, Cannon - 65
Raider, Night Shields - 70
Raider, Night Shields - 70

Aspect Host (BS bonus):
5 Fire Dragons, Exarch (go in Venom) - 120
5 Fire Dragons, Exarch (go in Venom) - 120
9 Swooping Hawks, Exarch - 154

Aspect Host (WS bonus):
9 Howling Banshees, Exarch, Executioner (go in Raider with HQ) - 137
9 Howling Banshees, Exarch, Executioner (go in Raider with HQ) - 137
8 Striking Scorpions, Exarch, Scorpion Claw - 176

14 points left, thinking about upgrading the Dragon's rides to Raiders w/NS for the extra HP and 3+ jink, but then they become pretty useless against armies without some kind of hard target.  For whatever reason I'm super excited about banshees and their no overwatch ability (gives me something to convert all my wyches into lol) so that explains them. I've got 2 obvious AT units (dragons), Hawks help, and the warriors can pitch in too (although aside from iKnights I don't see a whole lot of vehicles these days).  3 infiltrating units that start the game with Stealth and Shrouded, allowing me to reserve/DS all the vehicles if I want to.  Decent AI with Venoms, Mandrakes, Hawks, and CC units.  1 or 2 fliers I could probably handle with the hawks.  I think that's about it, let me know what you think. (oh and if you're wondering, Exarches are mandatory for the Aspect Host so that's why they all have them)

Although exarchs are mandatory they are actually pretty decent now too so it isn't really a tax.

My thoughts - drop a raider - try and get a wave serpent for one of the FD squads. Drop extra upgrades and maybe a hawk or two to afford it. Then your troops have Ob Sec. This might come in handy.

Agreed on the Exarches, for everything besides the Fire Dragons they add some seriously good rules.  Most other races get to pay 10 points for +1 Ld/A, Eldar pay 10 for +1 Ws/Bs/W/A/I and a likely awesome rule...  

If I were to go the CAD/Ob.Sec. route I'd probably just swap one Banshee squad + Raider + HQ for a different aspect that doesn't need a ride, and probably have enough points for another squad of some kind, probably Scorps to take advantage of the WS Boost.  But I'll probably have to playtest a bit to see if the Obsec is really necessary.  Since I feel like long range ignores cover is way less common these days (mainly cause of the Serpent nerf), I'd probably go with something like:

Realspace Raiders:
Succubus, Glaive, Armor of Misery, Haywires - 115
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
Raider, Night Shields - 70
Raider, Night Shields - 70
Raider, Night Shields - 70

Aspect Host (BS bonus):
6 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer (go in Raider) - 144
6 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer (go in Raider) - 144
9 Swooping Hawks, Exarch, Hawk's Talon - 164

Aspect Host (WS bonus):
9 Howling Banshees, Exarch, Executioner (go in Raider with HQ) - 137
8 Striking Scorpions, Exarch, Scorpion Claw - 176
8 Striking Scorpions, Exarch, Scorpion Claw - 176


10 points left, Hawk's Talon?  DLs or sails for 2 raiders? Not sure... With 6 Dragons I'm actually contemplating taking Heavy Flamers on the Exarchs, having trouble thinking of something that would stand up to 5 BS5 melta shots that wouldn't to 6 (keeping in mind the Dragon's extra +1 on the damage table, so +3 total).  If I go with DLs on their raiders it kind of evens out, although I'm more leaning towards the Hawk's Talon so their Exarch doesn't feel left out (and 3 S5 BS6 shots + a BS5 Haywire into the ass end of a vehicle is a reasonable threat). Having so many infiltrator/outflankers gives me a lot more flexibility with them (ie: I can outflank 2 Mandrake squads and still have 3 2+ cover units on the board.  On paper I think I like this better actually, hopefully next weekend I'll get to try it out.  I'm kind of spamming Mandrakes... but hopefully no one is really too bothered by that haha

Well, the duck loves mandrakes so ...

Been pondering different armies I might go up against.  I'm feeling a little lacking in the anti-MC department so decided to swap one Scorp squad for Warp Spiders (and because of points a hawk got shuffled to the spiders and the succubus lost her haywires). With smart play they should be just as survivable as the Scorps despite not having 2+ cover,  Also the Spiders bumped the Hawks into the +1WS Aspect host, which I'm totally fine with (WS5 I5 haywires are great for iKnights).

Realspace Raiders:
Succubus, Glaive, Armor of Misery - 110
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
8 Mandrakes, Nightfiend - 106
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
5 Warriors, Blaster, Sybarite, Haywires, Venom, Cannon - 135
Raider, Night Shields - 70
Raider, Night Shields - 70
Raider, Night Shields - 70

Aspect Host (BS bonus):
6 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer (go in Raider) - 144
6 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer (go in Raider) - 144
9 Warp Spiders, Exarch, Spinneret Rifle - 196

Aspect Host (WS bonus):
9 Howling Banshees, Exarch, Executioner (go in Raider with HQ) - 137
8 Striking Scorpions, Exarch, Scorpion Claw - 176
8 Swooping Hawks, Exarch, Hawk's Talon - 148

please please please please forget that stupid flamer... its a free upgrade right but still a heavy flamer instead a realy nice Fusion gun for crack shots, that flamer is stupid, would be nice if dragons would come in stock with normal flamers for lets say 17 points and fusion would be upgrade.
Dont mix shooty/melee aspects in host tried it and wasnt that nice :/
try to avoid 9-10 man units of spiders cus than they will be worth the shooting(i.e.: gravcenturios, minimal spiders are waste maxed ones are sweet free points)
Would rather bring 2 units of banshees maybe 2x 6-8 they dont realy need the raider, never ever mix non aspect chars into specific aspects(like scorps banshees) acrobatic is a must now +3" charge is better than a Succi, rather get a retinue of Incubi for her.
IDK what modells you have but i would change the list to something like this
Succi misery glaive
4 Incubi+Klaivex Raider shields
7 Mandrake+Fiend
7 Mandrake+Fiend
4 Kaba blaster+Sybarite haywire  Venom with extra cannon
4 Kaba blaster+Sybarite haywire  Venom with extra cannon
4 Kaba blaster+Sybarite             Venom with extra cannon
1 Raider shields
1 Raider shields
Aspect host +1BS
4 Dragon+Exarch
5 Dragon+Exarch
5 Spider+Exarch spinneret
Aspect host +1WS
7 Banshee+Exarch executoneer
7 Banshee+Exarch executoneer
6 Scorpion+Exarch claw
its precisely 1850
maybe swap spiders for hawks if fear of flyers, love the mandrakes tho

Thanks for the comments! All valid points for sure, I'll probably make some of the adjustments you've suggested after a bit of playtesting, but for now I think I like where it's at.

Walking Banshees are awesome in a Warhost, but without the guaranteed 6" run I'm not totally sold on them. I like being able to DS a raider then flat-out 18" to get them into a nice position for the next turn (or just start on the board and move/flat-out if it looks safe enough).

I also totally understand what you're saying with the big spider unit, but I like to have something distracting to pull firepower away from the stuff that's busy accomplishing the mission, and with the new flicker jump rule they're that much better at it as long as there's a little LoS blocking terrain (GW ruins are great for this).

The Flamer in the Dragons is to give them some usefulness if I go up against an army with no hard targets, and aside from wraithknights and corpse-thief there's not much that'll stand up to 5 BS5 fusion shots. Crack Shot is pretty amusing with a heavy flamer (Flame 5 dudes, fail to wound one, re-roll), and against some armies (like DE or anyone with a building) lets the exarch cook passengers while the squad punks what ever they're in.

Regarding Acrobatic/Succubus, I've been playing units with mixed speeds for a really long time (I used a Beaststar in 5th Ed with Baron and Lady Malys when they would all slow eachother down). I'm pretty good at working around it and knowing when it's time to split out slower characters so that doesn't bother me too much, and it can catch people off guard sometimes (whereas if your banshees are running +3" all game, your opponent will keep that rule in mind).

Overall I'm not a fan of how many dedicated CC units are in that list you posted (and specifically how many Low AP CC units). I play against some really hard Daemon lists and they're more or less useless there. Also I still hate how Incubi lack any way of going at Initiative against units in cover (and I think they're overcosted).

As far as putting Hawks in the +1 WS group, well... hawks were good last codex at BS4 and they just got better for no cost increase. And I'm liking the idea of WS5 haywires carried by fleet 18" moving dudes. I'd prob prefer for them to get +1 BS, but I want Hawks and Spiders more than another CC unit so that's just how it goes.

All that said, I've got to test it in a few games to see how all this holds up in the real world!!

hawks dont realy need +1 WS still, all vehicles are WS1 and not many walkers running rampant these days
yeah wanted to switch kabas for wyches but tought thats too much
dont care for incubi, if your banshees get there first they are fine to go, tho some reavers would be nice if chargeing this much and usefull VS daemons
and yeah test it out, im intrested . I have tought for something similar just 3x6 banshees on foot coverd with reavers and ravagers