Freakshow dilemma.

I am thinking of participating in a 1500 pt ITC format event.
I want to run the Freakshow,because let's face it,,,, it's awesome!

The Freakshow works best with at least 4 detachments, I have maximum of 3 Allowed.

A few things-

I want dark Eldar to be my primary.
I shall be running a basic core of:

Succubus, armour of misery, archite glaive, haywires

2 kabalite warrior units in venoms

Fast attack venom (for shadow seer)
Fast attack raider or venom (for other uses)

The secondary detachment is the heroes path formation. This formations is awesome! And I love it.
Shadowseer lv2 with mask.
Solitaire
Death jester

And then, the dilemma...

I LOVE my grotesques, so I would have the third detachment be a coven formation. This also adds another -1 ld to the Freakshow and of course some light AT in combat and staying power against hand to hand units.

The other option for the third section is an Eldar allied detachment this allows for a few options, an autarch for reserve manipulation or a farseer for more shrieks.
It also gives me access to Eldar jetbikes fast, obsec

I finally got a wraith fighter! This would replace my warp spiders and allow me to have another shriek and some more leadership shennanigans... Plus some str D blasts.

It also gives me access to war walkers that are decent anti tank weapons.

So! What third detachment would you take and why? Corsairs are not an option and there is no forgeworld allowed... So no hornets either.

Assist me fellow archons.

When it comes to efficiency, Craftworlds beat Covens by far. However, nothing Craftworld Eldar can field works really well for supporting your Succubus.

I would actually consider dropping the Harlequins in this situation.

I've been playing Freakshow lite lists (DE/Coven & Harlies only) recently, using Cast of Players over Heroes' Path and a Dark Artisan for the survivability (would love to run a Grotesquery but don't have the models to do so). I mainly play 1500 and what I'm finding is that having more than one formation that costs 200-400 points, with a relatively low model count just isn't feasible, particularly for Maelstrom games. As much as I would love to use my Solitaire (absolutely fantastic model), I just cannot justify his cost at that points limit, so I'd suggest reconsidering that formation.

I don't have and refuse to get CWE for ideological reasons, but in your position, I'd probably run a DE CAD (I actually use exactly what you listed for my 1500 Freakshow lists), Grotesquery and CWE allies opting for the Farseer over Autarch.

I concur that the hero's path would be better replaced with a cast of players. Unless you are particularly enamored of your succubus I would go with a list like this


Dark eldar CAD

Archon; wwp, armor, shadowfield, agoniser

2 Kabalite warriors in venom

Cast of players formation

Add ML2 and the mask.


Eldar allied

Eldrad

2 units of bikes

Hemlock fighter.


This leaves about 300 points to play around with.

Anti tank could be well covered by a fire dragon or dark reaper squad in venoms.

I'd take the grotesquerie to get some "in your face!" punch.

But I must admit it's also because of my dislike for Craftworld Eldar. But if lord of War are allowed, I'd take the Craftworld ones in Form of a Farseer and three scatter bikes to cope with the wraith knight and stuff like that.

Out of curiosity: the fighter got D weapons too?

CptMetal wrote:

Out of curiosity: the fighter got D weapons too?

Yes, the Hemlock has two Heavy D-Scythes. But since those are explosive weapons, they are useless against other fliers.

Considering the amount of D weapons, the Craftworld Eldar should be called D Eldar.

I have done some thinking. Because this is a competitive event I have chosen to run the Eldar.

Primary CAD
Archon, armour of misery, blaster, wwp

5 Blasterborn with a dracon with a haywire in a raider

Two units of 5 kabalites in dual cannon venoms

5 scourge with 4 haywire blasters
Venom with dual cannon

Harkequin formatio. - heroes path
Death jester
Solitaire
Shadow seer lv 2 and mask

Eldar allied detachment
Farseer with spear

5 rangers

Hemlock wraith fighter

2 war walkers with scatter laser and lance.

This is 1490 pts I have 10 points left . What would you spend it on?

Haywire grenades on the death Jester and Archon, just in case? Honestly the Spear has never been my favourite on the farseer, If you drop it you have 15- and spirit Stone of Anathlan could be useful dropping warpcharge costs by a point.

Good luck with it mate, Ive had a lot of luck with Cast of Players and a Harlie wrecking crew (not a Death Star, need better than T3 for that!) that includes a Spiritseer for BS5 shrieks so Id be interested to see how this works out!

I think I need to buy the harlequin codex to have a look at it.

@Skari have you thought about participating in one of the really big events?

Since you only have the armor and the jester, is this still considered a "Freakshow"? I assumed that you would need at least one Coven formation to get the larger freakish spectacle -ld bubble.

Ok no coven ? Still. Freakshow makes.

I would love to participate in a large event! Work tho limits my involvement.

Skari wrote:

Archon, armour of misery, blaster, wwp

5 Blasterborn with a dracon with a haywire in a raider

I can't help but feel like Fire Dragons are simply better in every regard to Blasterborn, especially when they're guided in with a wwp.

The Red King wrote:

Anti tank could be well covered by a fire dragon or dark reaper squad in venoms.

^

For Freakshow lists, all the Coven gives for the Freakshow part of the list itself is -1 leadership.

Combining the Armour of Misery + Mask of Secrets with a Hemlock, Farseer Death Jester and Shadowseer is definitely sufficient for a good Freakshow list, and I think this latest 1500pt one is good in that regard.

But again, I'd ask why Blasterborn over Fire Dragons.

Becausevthey are dark Eldar?

They are indeed Dark Eldar, but they're in a list that is already running an Eldar CAD so there's no penalty to taking them (except morally).

The puritan in me says if you're going all Dark Eldar, then Blasterborn are where it's at. I totally get that, and I prefer mono Dark Eldar lists for this reason too.

But when Skari has already given in to playing Craftworld Eldar in this list (he has), and is aiming for a competitive army (he is)...

Skari wrote:

Because this is a competitive event I have chosen to run the Eldar.

Then Fire Dragons are strictly superior.

I agree, there are already Eldar in the list. The Blasterborn are clearly in the list for tank hunting. I make it 130 points for that unit (excl the Raider). For the same cost you can get, near as dammit, 6 Fire Dragons who are superior in pretty much every way. I simply don't see the benefit of the Blasterborn.

If I had for dragon models the Blasterborn would be fire dragons 100%