New Dark Eldar Starter Set

My meta has settled for obviusly RAI as "he can point while in a open topped veichle", but also because a very friendly rule lawyes stated something like that:
"The formation rules require a LOS from anywhere, and in the manual is right you use access port (wich open topped veichle coun as whole as) only when firing, but this not means that for every other use the veichle has not the access port(s). So is right saying that a model use LOS when firing but also that he maintain the ability to LOS also during other phases.

I dont know if in the english version of the manual this is a thing but in the italian is definitely written in this sense.

Hi All, I agree with RCZ. Rules seem to only apply to psychers, but the FAQ could make a difference. Though that would effect characters special rules from all armies, no leadership buffs or debuffs, etc

Speaking of the new formation, I was wondering if I could get some insight on it. As a new Dark Eldar play do you guys think the formation is worth running? Are Blasterborn worth it in the formation (I believe the general consensus is that Scourges and Ravagers are better Anti-Armor, but Preferred Enemy on a bunch of Blasters seems pretty cool for dealing with 2+ armor saves and rerolling ones to hit armor is nice) ?

I was thinking of taking the formation and my thoughts would be to take the Archon with an Agoniser and AoM, and toss him on the Raider with 4 grots from a Realspace Raiders detachment. The Reavers I'd run with a Heat Lance and some Cluster Caltrops, and I'm thinking of upgrading the Warriors to Blasterborn and throwing them in a Venom.

My play group will 98% be using the RAI for the Archon's line of sight issue. We tend to play pretty casually, and though we build somewhat competitive lists, we are all pretty fluffy players and I won't be seeing any Knights with invisibility or whatever the busted shenanigans are at the moment.
That said I'm playing against mostly books that have a lot more decent options, and thought I would ask some experienced advice on the formation.

Thanks for any help in advance!

As the archon must "point" at the start of your turn it has no value to me.

My opponents are not dumb. They would easily obliterate the skimmer and the passengers including the archon in their previous turn as it must be in LOS.

If I got first turn I would be able to point once and then die or hide, either way I would be VERY lucky to point again.

Painjunky wrote:

As the archon must "point" at the start of your turn it has no value to me.

That is very true. Unless you get a set up where you can deploy within LoS of your intended target (assuming you will not be in the range of their weapons) with other terrain intervening the LoS of their other units, AND you can manage to get your formation units to fire on that target the same turn, it seems rather hard to pull off.

Then each subsequent turn it becomes even more difficult to "point." Seems like you'd have to ether be really lucky or pull off a lot of very odd movements to make it work.

The FAQ basically says none of those AoE or LoS dependant things work from open-topped vehicles or fire points except specifically shooting weapons and witchfire powers. If your game chooses to rule a different way despite the FAQ, more power to them!

Draco wrote:

I for one will be parking my Archon on a very high terrain piece. If my opponent wants to waste his longest shots on my Archon who will have a cover save, That's a bonus. His venom will make up for his "binocular" tax, and I like the idea of my Archon surveying the battle.

I think this could work if you give him a few mandrakes to chill with. They give him some surplus wounds as well as Stealth and Shrouded to work with. I presume they can always opt to go to ground; by the sounds of it he can still provide his LOS buff to the rest of the formation if he's gone to ground the previous turn? So even in the open, they'd be fairly resilient to anything that doesn't ignore cover.

It's adding even more cost, sure, but it's possibly worth it if you do have a big pack of Reavers and some Trueborn to take advantage of the PE buff.

Yeah, putting him with mandrakes sounds like a good idea. A shadow field in addition would make the unit even more resilient, but I don't know if it'd be worth investing that kind of points into. The 36 point mandrake unit is probably the upper limit, unless you've got a plan to further use the Archon for something else.

BetrayTheWorld wrote:

The FAQ basically says none of those AoE or LoS dependant things work from open-topped vehicles or fire points except specifically shooting weapons and witchfire powers. If your game chooses to rule a different way despite the FAQ, more power to them!

Yeah, it definitely seems like that will be the final word on things officially. Fortunately, my group (all of about 6 people) generally just talks things out when rules questions arise and usually it comes down to whether we believe the units the models represent could realistically do something like that (assuming it is something not absolutely game-breaking). I think it's pretty fair to say an Archon could easily point to an enemy and say something into his Eldar advanced communication device to have his henchmen target something. While we play our best and don't bring terrible lists, we definitely have more of a beer and pretzels approach. My job is stressful enough .

Having an Archon spotter in a unit of Mandrakes definitely seems like it could be useful. I thought he might not be too bad with a unit of Grots shoved down the enemy's throat, as I imagine he could see quite a few of their units in melee on their side of the board (at least I believe that there is no rule against drawing LOS out of combat, but I've only read the rules once since my return). He would also bolster the horrendous leadership of the grots.