Noob with no idea where to begin

Hello all,

I started 40k back when the starter box was space marines vs dark eldar and at the time i chose space marines. Now i am returning to the eldar as I'd like to create my Dark eldar coven/Kabal. The problem is, i have no idea where to start.

I know i want to have a grotesquerie in my army and i know i want all of my units on transports (footslogging seems unfluffy), but i have no clue what to use to make it at least semi-competitive, fun to play, and what wargear to use.

If you could give me some advice or give me an idea of what i could start working towards for my 1850 list that would be awesome!

i guess it might be worth adding that i got in on the TGG2 kickstarter because i want to make an all female dark eldar army, and i for sure will be having quite a few DE units coming in

i just have no idea what i need

So far what i have come up with is a Grotesquerie

2x3 Grots in raiders (should i go disintegrators or DL?)
haemy with sump (Urien any good?)
perhaps add a succubus or another haemy to add to the other squad of grots

4x5 warriors in venoms with blasters

and 2 ravagers with x3 DL and possibly a Reaper since it seems cool (not sure about this one)

my space marine army had good luck with bikes so i was also considering 2x3 caltrop bikes

This is what i have picked up so far going through the boards and playing around with battlescribe, but i would love some experienced voices on the issue

Start with like 500 points of 5 Kabalites/1 Blaster in venoms with 2 Splinter Cannons. (120 points each)

5 Scourges/Haywire Blasters (120 points)

360 points

Then with the last 140 probably just an archon with some incubi or something in a venom. I'm new to 7th (played 6th) so you'll need other advice too

thank you! i havent seen scourges too much in board armies but ill have to consider that now.

Maybe just 1 squad.

It'd leave room for a ravager

what else should i go with? i am aiming to build an 1850 list right now

Lord Alino shared some good advice, 500 or even 750pt games are a great way to get started with learning the new army. You've already answered you're own question with what you want but sometimes knowing what you want comes with playing games, developing a playstyle and working out what units are good for you and especially the armies you fight against.

As for what's good in 7th (my advice) is Haywire Scourge, Venoms, Dark Lance Ravagers, Grotesques and pretty much everything else is used as "filler" and as for Kabalite Warriors the "default" is 5 with a Blaster in a Venom or another good build is 10 with a Splinter Cannon in a Raider with Splinter Racks....or you could run a mix of the two in your army

Succubus with a glaive goes awesome with a grot squad, puts out some nasty hurt

1++ wrote:

As for what's good in 7th (my advice) is Haywire Scourge, Venoms, Dark Lance Ravagers, Grotesques

I don't run Grotesques (not my theme) and I don't use Dark Lance Ravagers (I have scourges, a razorwing, and 3 blaster/2 cannon trueborn in a venom with 2 cannons for Anti-tank) I run Disintegrator Cannons on my Ravagers (All those 2 up saves mean nothing!)

thanks all

So far the list i have come up with is:

Grotesquerie 500pts

2x4 Grots in raiders w/ nightshield and disintegrator

Haemy w/ sump, splinter pistol, and x2 CCW

CAD

Succubus w/ AoM, Archite Glaive, and Haywire Grenades (goes with grots like Haemy)

5x5 Kaballite warriors w/Blasters in Venoms w/ x2 Splinter Cannons

1x5 Scourges w/ Haywire blasters and 1 splinter carbine

3x3 DL Ravagers

and that puts me at 1755 points, 95 points left to play with. What would be good to get with that final 95 or should i make changes?

With the extra points you could change 2 Warrior units to become 10 in Raider with Splinter Racks....more firepower there or could buy an empty fast attack Venom

Or get a squad of Reavers?

Since you are interested in coven a dark artisan or corpse their claw are both options you could add to spice up your force

First, you need to know what amount of money you want to put in them. Some units, while awesome, are pretty expensive. Real grotesques are expensive, so most of us convert them from other thing. Corpsethieft claw is strong, but, it's still 5 talos. Which is far from free.

Start with 2 squad of kabalite with venoms. But if you're tight on money, go with 10-kabalite on raider. Because raiders are much easier and cheaper to find on ebay and everywhere.

You should watch people selling their oldschool dark eldar. It's the olders models, and not the type you generally want (raiders instead of venom spam), but you'll be able to get an OK army to begin.

Then, you can add some flavour and your own touch.