1650 tournament army list

This is the list im fielding in a tournament in southern spain the 15th of august.

Haemonculus Covens - Grotesquerie Formation (primary detachment)

Haemonculus (Warlord)
x3 Grotesques
-Raider, nightshields dissintegrator
x3 Grotesques
-Raider, nightshields dissintegrator

Haemonculus Covens - Corpsethief Claw Formation

x5 Talos, twinlinked heat lances

Dark Eldar - Combined Arms Detachment
HQ
Court of the Archon. x1 Lhamaean
-Venom, x2 splinter cannons
Troops
x5 Kabalite Warriors
-Venom, x2 splinter cannons
x5 Kabalite Warriors
-Venom, x2 splinter cannons
FA
x9 Reaver jetbikes, x3 Cluster Caltrops
HS
x1 Chronos, spirit probe

Very little AT. You only really have the Talos and assuming transports, the Grotesques to some extent.

Hellstrom wrote:

Very little AT.  You only really have the Talos and assuming transports, the Grotesques to some extent.

Yup, is a Dark Eldar list.

Jokes aside, every unit in this army except kabalite warriors, llhamaean and venoms can hurt vehicles.

BizarreShowbiz wrote:

Jokes aside, every unit in this army except kabalite warriors, llhamaean and venoms can hurt vehicles.

But the question is can they get close enough to hurt said vehicles.  Taloi are slow as dirt, and they need to be within 9" to use those heat lances effectively.  if you need to make them AT just give them Haywire Blasters.  They have better range, still twin linked, and if they look at a vehicle it dies.

On the other hand I would put AT somewhere else and just run with Cannons. here is where I would start.

*DE test (1650pts)*

Formation: Corpsethief Claw (600pts)
Talos x5
Close combat weapon, Twin-Linked Splinter Cannon

Formation: Grotesquerie (395pts)
Grotesque x3
Close combat weapon
 Raider
  Disintegrator

Grotesque x3
Close combat weapon
 Raider
  Disintegrator

Haemonculus
2x Close combat weapon, Stinger pistol

*Dark Eldar: Codex (Combined Arms Detachment) (655pts)*

HQ (70pts)
 Lhameans x1
  Raider
   Dark Lance

Troops (460pts)
4x Kabalite Warriors (115pts)
 5x Kabalite Warrior
 Blaster x1
  Raider
   Dark Lance

Heavy Support (125pts)
 Cronos
 Spirit Probe

How have you found the CCF to be? My 2 taloi never really did much due to 6" move mostly but I've never tried the formation. Maybe the scout and large footprint they present makes them much better idk. I do like the potential scoring that 'let the harvest begin' brings to the table not to mention the 5 heat lances (I agree HWBs are preferrable though). Might have to tinker with that myself.  

I gotta agree with Hellstrom though. I would at least want one unit of heat lance scourges for some dedicated and MOBILE/DS anti tank. I would say lose the chronos for these guys. The CCF is more than sufficiently durable already and the chronos just adds a lynchpin to the unit which enemies should have no problem removing on his own if they feel like it.
On the flip side the rest of the army will just leave it in the dust or be forced to crowd around it to benefit. Not worth the loss in flexibility or movement IMO, or the increased susceptibility to blast weaponry.

Other than that I have just one more suggestion since points are so tight.. lose the lhamaeans venom.
With those pts +5 from the chronos I would give both abberations an agonizer and the haemie the sump and scissorhand, although I prefer agonizer here too if pts allow. Ya ap3 doesn't break the TDA barrier and all that. My experience is aberrations with agonizers are like rampage warbosses.. absolute death dealers with an agonizer in hand. 25 pts to make these guys the bane of everything not in 2+ is well worth it. Let volume of attacks and ID sort out 2+ armour, IF your forced to deal with it.

Anyway thats what I got good luck.

Thanks for the reviews guys! Youre really helping me improve this list. Ill try to reply to all your advices.

AT lack:
In my experience in the current meta, grotesques are better AT than their cost in Dark Lances. The Dark Lance had its glory days in pre-GK 5th, but nowadays its almost useless. Its a S8 AP2 non-twinlinked sigle shot lance weapon that doesnt ignore cover. Basically a glorified missile launcher. Nowadays every vehicle in existance has some sort of save and standard frontal AV12-13, so in order to reliable kill vehicles, you have to:
-Ignore cover
-have a high fire rate

Lance Ravagers are the most optimal way of fielding dark lances at 125 points (not counting nightshields) each. Notice they dont have any of the factors stated above. To put things in perspective, you need 8 dark lances to reliably pop a razorback (AV11) without cover. Factor in a superior AV, cover saves and the fragility of the ravager, that the enemy will priorize, and you will quickly realise you're expending points on smoke.

Melee not only removes cover, also makes you hit against the rear AV of the vehicle. Yes, its harder to get there, but by any means impossible. Also, grotesques are not AT only, they can also function as AI except obviously against deathstars or cannon fodder. thanks to their raider 3+ cover and their natural resilience.



CCF

Previously I used a 3 Talos unit, but as Brom said, they are pretty slow. The Formation gives you not only freakish spectacle for the fear tests and +1PV every time they kill a non-vehicle unit in cc, but more importantly scout. That guarantees that against shooty static edge-of-the-table armies I will me more than halfway there in turn 1. Those extra 6" really make a big difference. I also field them as far apart of each other as they can be, so their threat range is maximized, creating a control zone midtable (where I place my 3 objectives) that the enemy player has to come close to if he wants to score.

As the AT choice for them, I went for heat lances for two reasons: they cost 5p less each (total 25p less, have duality, as they can hurt heavy infantry as well and Ill be mostly moving and running with them. The point of the CCF is to get into asssault range. They cant afford losing movement in staying still and shooting, what means I will only fire the tail weapons once im really close to the enemy, thus melta seems a more reasonable option all around.

Chronos
You are right. Now that I think of it that points may be better employed elsewhere. I could for example fit 2 venoms there if I squeeze 5p somewhere or go with 2 smaller reaver units instead of a bigger one... The thing is the 6" +1FNP bubble will be always there tempting me to play more defensive with my reavers, grotesques and whatnot. Ill try keeping in mind that the chronos priority is to support the CCF and not limit my movements with my other units.

Scourges
Ive fielded FLOCKS of scourges again and again and I ALWAYS have bad rolls with them. And I mean constant 3-4 misses to hit and them being a throwaway/suicidal unit doesnt help either. I know guiding my list-making by previous results is silly, but I swear, not one game in this edition have they been of use for anything to the point I feel like wasting points fielding them so I no longer include them.



Grotesques
You are absolutely right. Aberration with agoniser is frak badass and hits like a truck against 3+/4+ armor saves, and now that Gladius strike force/lions blade strike force are all the rage at tournaments I think I really should start including them again. Problem is, points are so very tight, and being a maelstrom-based tournament I valued more having an extra venom to zoom around jinking and taking objectives than beefing up my grotesques squads a bit. ¿Am I wrong? Probably.

Well, that ended up being a wall of text. Sorry, I guess my WH40k blogger vein is showing a bit in this first few posts   Thank you for all advices fellow archons, they were really useful. I included some pictures of my army to make the post less dull and easier to read.

Hey your army looks great man!

On current meta AT and dark light your preaching to the choir brother, at least to me. Its really the main reason that eldar are attractive (for my purposes). Melta otoh is still great and I see your reasoning on the CCF, can't say I'd do different. Only thing is that leaves you without a pinpoint application of dedicated AT. Which leads me to..

Grots as anti tank I agree on, to an extent, mostly due to lack of long ranged alternatives. IF they get there and IF its got av10 then they are functional AT (and if its a transport they want it cracked before combat obviously). However IME full mechanized armies, those with fast skimmers, crons with all av11 rear, IKs and so on are all beyond the means of grots unless they roll 1 on the latest experiment due to lack of furious charge inevitability. Haywire grenades doesn't really change that either sadly. I'm really just thinking out loud btw about my usual conundrums. The CCF is interesting because it can dominate real estate and thus dictate movement pretty heavily making them decent at AT duty maybe? I'm starting to warm to these guys.

Anyway on your proposed changes you hit the nail on the head with gladius and agonizers but I can't argue with more venoms either in maelstrom missions. Check this though, I've recently innovated lone clawed fiends into my lists. The results vary and at some point they suffer from diminishing returns but otherwise I've found many uses for these guys. Note that I also frequently play maelstrom btw.  Just an idea to flesh out your MSU options while still getting some toys in there.

Either way from my perspective that chronos is better off as more mobile MSU units or else upgrades to keep those grots from getting bogged down. I also agree those bikes should be split if your not joining an allied autard to them. 6 and 3 or even 3x3 depending on where you go with the rest. At 3 man squads the option for a heat lance opens up too. Its something I do at low points like 1250 or below and I usually wont do it in units above 3 but it can be really useful to have some fast expendable melta running around.

Just some quick thoughts I had...

I would take multiple units of 3-6 reavers (with CC of course) instead of 1 big unit. Its way more flexible, is easier to hide, adds msu and dominates malestrom.

A single cronos just stikes me as an obvious and not too hard to kill 1st target for ur opponent to stop it buffing everything around it. I just think those points could be better spent on another warriors + venom unit or more reavers or grots.

Anyway I really want to know how u made ur grots? They look great!
Do you have any close up pics?... Please?
Im currently trying to figure out how to build mine.

@Painjunky try converting them by using crypt horrors. They are excellent combined with talos kits. You can do an easy conversion like me, or something more massive.

https://goo.gl/photos/6MVti6A9H383tGqk9

Thanx for the tip CptMetal! I may go that way.

You are absolutly right about the chronos and jetbikes. I will fix that in my next list trying to fit the agoniser wielding aberration crazyness.

To not go offtopic here, Ive made a thread with a step by step tutorial on how to make grotesques like mine In the workshop section. Hope it comes in handy!