1000pt Grotesquerie + MSU

Hi guys this is a list for a tournament.  The logic of the army is to play to the mission rather than trying to fight the enemy directly, tarpitting anything scary and using speed to focus force and score objectives.

The grots are the tar pit - their job is to tie down the enemy units and allow the rest of the army to fly around and operate more freely.
The reavers give speed to grab early objectives and can potentially dogpile dangerous enemy units mid game.  The heat lances are a small insurance policy against mech but could be dropped.
Madrakes/Lhamean are there to sit on objectives and waste enemy turns.
Troops are obsec, which is their primary value, especially in fast skimmers.

I've been out of the game for quite a while so I think I'll need some feedback to get this right:

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Grotesquerie:
Urien Rackarth
3x Grotesques in Raider w/ enhanced aethersails
3x Grotesques in Raider w/ enhanced aethersails

CAD:
HQ - Lhamean

Elites -
5x Mandrakes

Troops
5x Kabalites in Venom with 2x cannons
5x Kabalites in Venom with 2x cannons

Fast Attack
3x Reavers, Heat Lance, Cluster Caltrops
3x Reavers, Heat Lance, Cluster Caltrops
3x Reavers, Heat Lance, Cluster Caltrops


999pts
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I'm not totally set on the reavers.  The heat lances are the only anti-tank I have right now but nearly 50% of the unit cost is upgrades which feels steep.  The grotesquerie is a substanital % of the list at this kind of points level too although it seems important for the tarpit side of the strategy.  Going down to one grotesque squad gives more points for other things though.

I could drop the mandrakes and take a barebones reaver squad which might be useful.  It means changing over to a realspace raiders formation which loses obsec value on troops though.  Without a good sense of what's out there it's hard to really know where to place the emphasis of the list.  Keep the strong tar-pit or strip it down for more speed and mobility?

ObSec is one of the few advantages that we have (and by advantage I mean we dont have a Decurion worth considering).

I would vote to remove the heat lances (you are using your skilled riders to jink on 3+ every turn), change out Urian for a regular Haemi (he just isnt that good, and costs a buttload), and try to fit in a triple lance ravager.

You are playing low points here, so hopefully people wont be a D bag and bring 3 knights, lol.

-Fisheyes

Haha yeah only 1 LoW so that limits the risk of facing a min-max army. Apparently they're playing eternal war though which really sucks. I like the cards and think they work well for Dark Eldar.

Thanks for the feedback. I've found Urien is actually pretty good, mostly because he can't be insta-killed by power fists (he's really hard to take down in general). However taking the extra ravager does open some nice options and makes it less finickey to try and get the bikes in position to heat lance stuff.

If I drop all the heat lances and bring the mandrakes down to 3 models I can fit the tri-lance ravager in. Then it's a decision between aethersails and a flesh gauntlet for the barebones haemi. Mobility is really nice but 10 points for more potential ID wounds seems awesome too.

Hi there,

I would second most of what @fisheyes has suggested, however personally I don't like seeing Lhameans without Venoms. Assuming you weren't trying to have her join the 2nd unit of Grots, which she can't as not an IC. So, would suggest also dropping some Reavers Mandrakes for this:

Grotesquerie (425)(400)
Haemonculus, Agoniser SH (95) (80)
3 x Grots, Raiders, Aethersails (330)(320)
CAD (572)(599)
Lhamean, Cannon Venom (75)
3 x Mandrakes (36)
2 x 5 Warriors, Cannon Venoms (210)
2 3 x 3 Reavers, CC (126) (189)
1 x Triple Lance Ravager (125)

997pts
999pts

Edited By: Rewind Services
Good luck & let us know what you take & how it goes!

Hm nice angle, you're right that squeezing in another venom is a really powerful option.

How about dropping the agoniser down to a flesh gauntlet and cutting the aethersails?
That would let us cut the mandrakes instead of the reavers and keep more mobility for objective grabbing in the late game. It's a shame to lose the blasters but the reavers can run emergency duty popping vehicles with cluster-caltrops and even furious charge in later turns.

I'm rusty as hell but I'll definitely post up an AAR, the tourney is in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll get a chance to practice beforehand!

As your happy to drop the Mandrakes I have edited my original.

Good Luck!

So the tournament went fairly well here's the writeup:

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t14485-1000pt-local-tournament#167720