1000 point beginner list

Hello, i've recently been getting into 40k from aos and want to start my first army. I've chosen dark eldar because i've really enjoyed painting and playing dark elves in aos and love the more brutal style of the design and tactics this army has. This is the first army list i've made for 40k and any criticism would be grearlty apreciated.
HQ
Archon 120
Blaster, haywire grenades, shadow field
Succubus 150
Archite glaive, haywire grenades, armour of misery, wwp
Elites
5 Incubi 110
X4, klaivex, joining succubus
7 Kabalite true born 202
X2 blasters, x1 splinter cannon, dracon w/ splinter rifle, raider w/ disintigrator cannons & splinter racks joined by Archon
Troops
5 kabalite warriors 105
Venom w/ splinter cannons
5 kabalite warriors 105
Venom w/splinter cannons
Fast attack
3 reavers 98
Areana champion w/ agoniser, cluster caltrops
5 scourges 115
2 haywire blasters, 1 splinter cannon

Ok, some things to note:

1. all your troops that can take a transport should take a transport (looking at those Incubi)

2. Try to keep your units as small as possible (point wise). We excel in "death by a thousand cuts", not a big "Deathstar" build. Anything we field can be easily killed by the enemy, so we take a lot of redundant cheap units to make up for our expected losses. So this means dropping sargents if they are not explicitly needed.

3. 40K in general rewards you for specializing squads for a particular duty (anti-tank, anti-infantry, tanking up the field), so dont mix special/heavy weapons (looking at those scourges and Trueborn). Pick a particular task, and put the whole unit behind that. Nothing worse than shooting at a tank, and wasting your 15 pt splinter cannon for that turn (which cannot damage a tank).

Otherwise, play a few games and let us know what works for you. There are a few sub-optimal units in your army, but if you are playing some other begginers it could still work out well for you

^ Pretty much all that.

I'd drop all of the sargents except maybe the arena champion, the SC on the Blasterborn, the splinter racks on the Raider, and the SC on the scourges and the WWP from the Succubus. Probably 2 Incubi as well.

I'd add in a venom for the Incubi unit, move the WWP to the Archon, two more blasters to the Blasterborn and 2 more haywire to the scourges if possible. Then you'd be in pretty good shape, although there is a lot of points sunk into HQs, so be weary.

Indeed, the general consensus is that the only Splinter Cannons to use are on venoms, because they are relentless.

Also i agree to don't mix squads in most cases (a Blaster in 5 Warriors is advised by some, i can't say, haven't tried them) so either go all Splinter Rifle Kabalites and Splinter racks(cheaper), or use min trueborn(5) with max Blasters(4) and drop the splinter racks. Or put them in a Venom instead.

I used a 5 man trueborn squad with 3 blasters and 2 SC a couple of times, turns out deamon prince don't like them, but can't really do anything else.
A blaster in a 5 man squad really helps in my experience, sacrifices a single poison shot in close range, but is useful if you need to shave that last hull point. And it keeps your opponent's vehicles on a safety distance most of the times.

The single blaster may be a nice deturant, but in my experience even a triple lance ravager will usually wiff

Hi there,

I'm going to carry on with the trend of agreeing in general with those above me.

I find 1k is an awkward number for DE, at 750 we can pull efficiency tricks with Courts & @ 1250 start to be able to afford a Grotesquerie, worst case plain Grots.

Your list seemed like you bought the start collecting, then added to it?

If you put the Purge Coterie back together with a CAD, you would loose nothing & gain PE here & there for free

Also, again for free, I would swap the WWP to the Archon. Your 5 Blasters will be guaranteed to do something, WHEN they arrive from reserve. Turn 3 Succubus & Incubi, that then can't assault till turn 4? You'll never in use those points.

Best case you get them turn 2, they still can't assault till turn 3 & they don't want to be shot @ period .

So after looking it over for a while ive decided to bump the list up to 1250 points

Archon 150
Blaster, haywire grenades, shadow field, wwp
Succubus 115
Archite glaive, haywire grenades, armour of misery
Haemonculus 80
Flesh gauntlet
Elites
3x grots 105
3x grots 105
3x Incubi
Venom w/splinter cannons and Succubus
Troops
(3) 5x kabalite warriors
Venom w/ splinter cannons
5x Kabalite warriors
Raider and archon
Fast attack
3x reavers
Cluster caltrops
5x scourges
2 haywire blasters

This isn't a legal list as presented but could be a grotesquerie and CAD. I'm going to assume that for my criticisms. please reformat so that your macro structure, that is the detachment level decisions you have made are clear.

Meangreen98 wrote:

Archon 150
Blaster, haywire grenades, shadow field, wwp

Blaster or HWG both together is inefficient, this unit is very expensive and I'm going to criticize your choice of use later.

Meangreen98 wrote:

Succubus 115
Archite glaive, haywire grenades, armour of misery

Cool.

Meangreen98 wrote:

Haemonculus 80
Flesh gauntlet

Where am I from? If I'm from a grotesquerie I should probably be with the incubi with a sump

Meangreen98 wrote:

Elites
3x grots 105
3x grots 105

We want sergeants with agonizers and either a raider or an IC with a web way portal.

Meangreen98 wrote:

3x Incubi
Venom w/splinter cannons and Succubus

We want a sergeant and gain absolutely nothing from having a succubus join us. She should be with the grotesques so that they can actually kill things with a 2+ and the haemonculus should be with us so we're fearless and have furious charge turn 3.

Meangreen98 wrote:

Troops
(3) 5x kabalite warriors
Venom w/ splinter cannons

Super standard. No comment.

Meangreen98 wrote:

5x Kabalite warriors
Raider and archon

I'm bad and a waste of points. Cut the squad buy the raider on one of the units of grotesques and put the Archon in there.

Meangreen98 wrote:

Fast attack
3x reavers
Cluster caltrops

I like sergeants here to drop the CC into a challenge. that's totally preferential tho.

Meangreen98 wrote:

5x scourges
2 haywire blasters

All 4 special weapons or don't take the unit.

Generalising recent popular advice:

1242

Grotesquerie 495
Haem, Agoniser, Sump - With Grots
2 x 3 Grots, incl. Abbers, Agonisers, Raiders

DE CAD 747
Succubus, Glaive, AOM, HWG - With other Grots
3 x Mandrakes - spare points
3 x 5 Warriors, Cannon Venom
3 x Reavers, Incl Champ, Agoniser, CC
3 x Reavers, CC
5 x Scourges, 4 x HWB

Worth a thought, in my humble opinion!

Thanks for all of the input, it is very much appreciated. I think i'm going to try and make the last list from Rewind

Just to weigh in, here is the beginner 1000pt list from Splintermind's realspace raiding for noobs episode. I would highly recommend listening to the podcast if you haven't already. If you want to listen to Brian talking about the reasoning behind this list the section is in the last 30 minutes of that episode. The idea is to get a feel for the army and how to make use of the various key characteristics without getting bogged down in special rules (e.g. different power from pain tables for the CAD and the formation in your list above) and to avoid potentially gimmicky items like the armour of misery until you are more comfortable with the basics of how the army works.

Dark Eldar Combined Arms Detachment (1000pts):

HQ
Succubus w/ Archite Glaive, Haywire Grenades - 100

Elites
3 x Grotesques w/ Aberration w/ Scissor Hand in Raider w/ Dark Lance - 185

Troops
5 x Kabalite Warriors in Venom w/ Splinter Cannon - 105
5 x Kabalite Warriors in Venom w/ Splinter Cannon - 105
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster in Raider w/ Dark Lance - 115

Fast Attack
Razorwing Jetfighter w/ Dark Lances - 140

Heavy Support
Ravager w/ 3 Dark Lances - 125
Ravager w/ 3 Dark Lances - 125

hekatrixxy wrote:

Fast Attack
Razorwing Jetfighter w/ Dark Lances - 140

This should be a Splinter Cannon right?

Or, has some random new logic turned up, meaning Razorwings don't suck @ AT?

Seroiously if your going to spend that many points on it might as well cough up the last 20 for a voidraven.

Ya, razorwings are Anti Infantry. They suck at tanks (although they were fun while the draft FAQ allowed flier blasts to target other fliers)

@Rewind You'd have to ask Brian and Thor. I just transcribed the list they recommended. For 10 points though the extra dark light shots aren't going to hurt but of course they're not going to magically start busting up tanks all over the place either.

The point is that for the same 10 pts you can get 2 Dissies, 2 Splinter Cannons & 4 missiles on 1 platform, all effective AI weapons.

2 Lances, 2 Splinter Rifles & std missles is just an awful mish-mash when you try to actually shoot anything.

Would just like to clarify, the Razorwing has either TL Splinter rifle or a Splinter Cannon. Not two.

The dissies are actually quite scary to TEQs, and the S6 missiles are OK at killing TEQs and MEQs. The splinter cannon really compliments the dissies, as they both are targeting infantry, and have 36" range.

The DL just dont synergize well with the S6 missiles, and have NO synergy with the splinter weapons.

I know people like to put the lances on them, but please just spend the extra points and get the Voidraven. It looks much cooler and rarely makes it onto the table-top