The Razorwing Warlord

That's right, the Razorwing is the warlord. In a totally pimped out aircraft, flying a top of the line fully upgraded monstrosity. The little guys below only dream of nightshield upgrades for their Raiders, as they watch their hero warlord rocket above them, showing off the newest of air stunts. In the heat of battle he is only seen phewing the latest and greatest of weaponry, leaving rows of dead in his wake.

In all seriousness now I'd like to credit Skulnbonz, since this list was inspired after reading his Raider spam list he posted over in one of the tactics forum discussions. He played it and won "best Dark Eldar" at adepticon and he left this web address http://www.thedarkcity.net/t13716-adepticon-overview

Anyways this is my twist on his list....

----------Dark Eldar ASD (350pts)----------

~Flyer Wing (350pts)
          ·Razorwing Jetfighter with Dissintergrator Cannons, Splinter Cannon, Shatterfeild Missiles, and Nightshield.
           Razorwing Jetfighter with Dissintergrator Cannons, Splinter Cannon, Shatterfeild Missiles, and Nightshield.

----------Dark Eldar RSRD (750pts) x 2------------

~HQ (150pts)
     ·1xLhamean and Venom with Splinter Cannons.
      1xLhamean and Venom with Splinter Cannons.

~Troops (240pts)
     ·5x Kabalite Warrior with Blaster and Venom with Splinter Cannons
     ·5x Kabalite Warrior with Blaster and Venom with Splinter Cannons

Fast Attack (360pts)
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.
     ·Raider with Dark Lance.

----------1845pts Total-----------

Make sure you double the Dark Eldar Realspace Raider Detach, and add the Air Superiority detach

No characters, one of the Razorwing may then be chosen as the Warlord. 20 skimmers and two flyers, what do you think?

A huge part of his success with his list was his ability to use objective secured on basically everything. When he says, "tabled opponents", I -think- he's including guys who conceded, since the rules for that particular tournament gave you points as if you tabled your opponent if your opponent conceded.

Using objective secured, it basically forces your opponent's hand. Where he might otherwise keep units in a fortified position, by using obsec, if he wants to compete on points, he may have to move out weaker units from fortified positions, making them more vulnerable and HELPING towards the goal of tabling him. It all works together. I'm not nearly as big of a fan when you take obsec away in the RSR detachments.

Yeah I was worried the obj. secured was playing a big role in his army. Its just when I read his overview of the battles (found in the link I posted above), he literally explained it like he was decimating his opponents, to the point of the enemy only having a few units quite early on in the game turns. That's why I started to believe obj secured wasn't as important, especially since he was crippling the enemy early, and the extra troops only hurt him in the Kill point game.

Its interesting how you explained the threat of CAD drawing people out from hiding. But still, I think such a mobile force of skimmers, could score quite a few points if your opponent hid, even without obj secured. Which would in turn have the same effect, as to draw them out, no?

But yeah, I understand your point, people concede once the VP lead is too great. He probably shoulda credited the Warriors a little more, my impression was just that of overwhelming firepower hidden in target saturation. Even if you can't table your opponent, you should hopefully be able to kill/cripple their obj secured units so you can at least contest if you need to. Hopefully this list could be somewhat competetive, I don't have near the models to test these sorts of lists out though, so all I have are my theories.

If you take anything from this... Consider flyers as your Warlords maybe? DE have an easier time doing this then most, even Eldar with their Exarch Crimson Hunter (he's a character to boot (he gets the warlord trait woot)) makes for a great Warlord in a few games I've played at low point values. Also it wouldn't be such a bad army to invest in, cause even if it doesn't work all you need are a few more boxes of Kabalites warriors if MSU sounds fun to you.

Æther wrote:

But still, I think such a mobile force of skimmers, could score quite a few points if your opponent hid, even without obj secured. Which would in turn have the same effect, as to draw them out, no?

Not necessarily. What is drawing them out in my scenario is that often they might have their weaker obsec troops sitting in their deployment zone on their own objectives, never having had an intention to move them out, instead capturing objectives with much tougher, yet non-obsec things like T5 3++ reanimation protocol(from spiders) necron wraiths, an obelisk, or even a series of small, cheap vehicles like drop pods or rhinos.

Without obsec, you can contest the points the enemies are on, but you can't SCORE it. With obsec, you're actually scoring the objective despite the wraiths being there, which means your opponent either needs to kill all the obsec units that could do that(difficult with target saturation), or move their own obsec units to the area to keep you from creating an insurmountable lead in points early in the game.

I was busy playing my own games at adepticon, so I unfortunately didn't get to see any of his games, but looking at his list, I imagine it working so well because it completely frustrated opponent's options. They couldn't kill his many units fast enough to stop him from scoring or contesting every objective on the table, and his army continuously whittled away at theirs while their points deficit grew ever larger to the point where it FELT insurmountable, even if they were killing a fair bit of his army. They likely wouldn't have felt like they could catch back up, even if they got his army to a point where he couldn't cover all the objectives with obsec in the later rounds(and for good reason, it's very difficult to do).

Æther wrote:

If you take anything from this... Consider flyers as your Warlords maybe?

It's been awhile since I've looked at the warlord selection rules. I didn't think you could do this, but I might be wrong. I thought it said you need to pick a character, and if you don't have any characters in your army, to choose a non-vehicle model.

BetrayTheWorld wrote:

It's been awhile since I've looked at the warlord selection rules. I didn't think you could do this, but I might be wrong. I thought it said you need to pick a character, and if you don't have any characters in your army, to choose a non-vehicle model.

I recently checked the rule again, it allows any "model" to be selected as your Warlord. You have to choose from characters first, but if you don't have any, you may pick any model. So yeah, my list above may take the Razorwing as Warlord, nothing on pg124 of the rulebook says anything about a vehicle being unable to be chosen.

But yeah I guess what I was aiming for was a killy list, I've always loved flyers also, and they have some sweet rules now. Seemed like a fun combo, and who knows maybe drawing out the toughest of units first could be part of your game plan? Haha Lists focused on killing just bring me such joy, my plan is to mess up your plan muhaha. Plus if they brought out the tougher stuff without obj secured, I know I could atleast contest.

I don't have any tournament experience though, and it sounds like obj sec is just too good to pass up. Since you devalue their obj secured units with your own, was just hoping to forego worrying about that challenge by killing everyone instead haha. Perhaps I took his wording "tabled" a little to literal.

Ah well, I'd mess around with both types of lists, if I had the models. You could also just play something more akin to his list, a couple CADs packed with Warriors and Venom/Raider spam, then just add an ASD with a Razorwing for Warlord (Exarch Crimson Hunters best though ).

I've been thinking about ways to use the Blackheart Talon formation as well. Using Raider/Venom spam I think is the best way to try to get it in an 1850 list, something like this:

2xCAD
-4xLhameans and 4x5manWarriors
-8x Dedicated transport Venoms
-6xLance Raiders

ASD
-Blackheart Talon Formation

Should come to around 1850 after upgrades. Mine was 1850 on the dot. I had everyone upgraded with Shatterfield missiles. One of the Voidravens makes for a nice Warlord as well.

I had to Edit this list, cause I recently realized Flyer Wings must be taken in a minimum of two flyers, 2-4 to be exact, so I changed this list, since it was Illegal before. Sould be all good now.

The new breakdown....

8xVenoms
12xlance Raiders
2xRazorwing
4xWarrior units each with a Blaster
4xLhameans

Also I do like the addition of Blasters for Warriors in lists like these.

If you want more Venoms just drop the ASD all together and add the Razorwing in as Fast Attack choice.