Help with friendly escalation campaign

Hello fellow Archons and Succubi.

Brand new to Dark Eldar and looking to do a slow grow / escalation campaign starting at 500 points and moving up to around 2000.
My opponent will be my brother who will be fielding space marines (Black templar infantry / imperial fist vehicles and heavy support)
Apart from standard 40k rules there are no others and it will just be a friendly way to grow an army.

At 500 I was looking at something like this:
++ Dark Eldar (Combined Arms Detachment) (498pts) ++

+ HQ +
Court of the Archon (75pts) [Lhameans]
····Venom [Splinter Cannon]

+ Troops +
Kabalite Warriors (105pts) [5x Kabalite Warrior]
····Venom [Splinter Cannon]

Kabalite Warriors (105pts) [5x Kabalite Warrior]
····Venom [Splinter Cannon]

+ Fast Attack +
Reavers (88pts) [Cluster caltrops, 2x Reaver]
····Arena Champion [Power Sword]

+ Heavy Support +
Ravager (125pts) [Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance]


Plan is to have arena champion as WL.

So the question is how does this look for 500pts and where do I go from here upto 750 then 1000?

My plan was to add in some HWB Scourge, Razorwing and grotesquerie at some point as I love the rules and models.
I currently only own a Succubus (which I'll proxy for Lhamaen) a Venom and 10 Kabalite.

Any and help is welcome, whether it is to provide gentle direction or even to rip me apart (we dark Eldar enjoy the pain right =p)

I think this list looks pretty good at 500 points. You only have 1 dedicated anti-tank option, so you need to ensure you protect it long enough to be effective, but the reavers can be an effective stand-in should you require more AT at that points level. I find your list organization and choices to be reasonable and informed. Bravo!

As you increase in points, I think my first priority would be to add more ravagers. Mech domination is pretty important at lower point games. So if you went up to 750 next, for example, I'd simply add 2 more lance ravagers. After that, you can start to mix it up a bit, but I'd say just about every 2nd unit you add from that point as point values increase should be an AT role(counting troops+dedicated transports as 1 unit for the "every other unit" purposes). Might not be a bad idea to add another 3 reavers to your warlord unit once you get past 750 points too.

I hope I helped a little! Good luck against your brother, and let us know how it goes!

Hi, welcome to The City.

I'm in a very similar position, started @ 500 & slowly building against a SM player.

Obvious I think your list is solid (Betray helped me build my 1st 500 too )

Only advice I have is that, you may find they focus your Reavers a bit too much as it's your 2nd AT & your warlord. The option to slay your WL for VP & take out your other AT is very tempting.

A Warrior Sybarite as WL, lets you run 4 Reavers & means more targets for your enemy to think about.

Growth wise, again obv. Betray is correct, or for a 2nd option, grab a Ravager & a unit of HWB Scourges. Slightly more situational & maybe not as efficient, BUT, killing that one unit can make all the difference. Depends on the enemy list. If the Land Raider comes, I'm glad I have Scourges, if not, I wish I had 3 Ravagers

Good luck.

Thanks for all advice guys. The informed list comes from lurking around the dark city for months reading every post lol.

With regards the AT, do I really need that much? Obviously it's totally dependant on the opponent but every other unit as anti AV sounds like alot.
I don't think my opponent is likely to have much Armour. This will be the first time he's played astartes and I don't think he's one for lots of metal bawkes.
That being said I think for 750 I would add another ravager and then some Scourge with either HWB or more likely HL so they can take down some infantry

It's not just the fact that they kill other tanks, but that they ARE tanks, and so with AV 11 are immune to bolters, and their guns ignore space marine and terminator armour. When it comes to anti-tank, it's always better to have a little too much than not enough, to account for variance in dice rolls and the like.

As for the "every other unit" after that thing, it doesn't have to be exact, but in that ballpark, yeah. In 2 CADs, I'd generally put 6 ravagers. After that, you're able to play around within those CADs a lot more, but those 6 ravagers are fairly core, in my opinion.