Help me understand the Incubus

Hey all, I ended up with 10 incubus in a trade a while ago. No idea what I should be doing with them. In 5th/6th I ran haemonculus covens, still do. No idea what I should do with them, I feel they are totally outclassed by much of my army. For reference I use the following (in various combinations)

6 raiders
4 venoms
2 wave setpents
12 reavers
30 wracks
10 grotesques
60 kabalite warriors
20 wyches (mostly converted to being clowns)
15 scourge

" +10 real clowns
2 deathjesters
2 shadowseers

10 Talos + Cronos
5 haemonculus
1 urien

2 clawed fiends
10 khymerae
4 razorwing flocks
6 beastmasters


The incubi just do not seem to look good on paper to me, has anyone got some suggestions?
is it some synergy that i am not seeing that is the issue?

Incubi are basically MEQ/TEQ killers but they suffer the huge drawback of not having assault grenades. In the 5e codex this was solved by putting an Archon with a Phantasm Grenade Launcher with the Incubi, as it gave grenades to the whole unit. Apparently this was something GW didn't agree with though (god knows why, as it's fluffy and hardly overpowered) and in the 7e codex they removed the grenades from the grenade launcher. Which left Incubi without any viable means of assaulting into terrain. Which, in turn, left Incubi on the shelf.

Even with grenades I wouldnt chuck Incubus against Terminators without numerical superiority, the bloody things would get wrecked fast. Termies have such nice tools to work with compared to a +1S ap2 weapon.

I suppose they would do well against Trukks/Ork Boyz, Nid warriors, necron warriors-ish (wounding on 4's), grot/firewarriors

might assasinate HQ's and other IC's with bodyguards that have low toughness high saves.

S4.5 only gets a person so far in 40k

I still use them. I use the smallest unit with Klaivex as backfield hunters, counterchargers, so they do not need grenades or tankshock units out of terrain or charge DSing stuff that ends up being out of cover. Plenty of opportunities for them to kill stuff. As long as you kill expensive units with them, they are OK. Their main problem is that since Archon lost AP2, he can just tank for them or hunt MEQ with them. Succubus uses them as meatshields. Each can take much more punishment than 2 wyches while costing similarly, have a very dangerous champion for challenges, but dont have nades.

All in all - they still kick ass, but are in no way just point and click unit. But then again... I play things most people dont. It depends on whether you learn to use them or they just dont tick with you.

They do fill a roll in our army, just not what their fluff implies.

You can take them in units of 3 for a whole 60 pts. That means for 20 pts more than a squad of warriors you can use these guys to unlock your extra Venom.

They have good LD unlike Grots, so they dont NEED an expensive IC to join the unit (and drive up the unit cost and making it more tempting for the enemy to kill first)

They have AP2 which we lack

I basically use them for their Venom, sitting at 36" and shooting stuff. If I need to grab an objective (and dont want to waste my ObSec warrior venom) I can boost them up and potentially charge next turn (if the enemy is being sloppy). If the enemy has the Raptor Talon (Drop Pods/ any DS threat really) you can just sit back and wait for them to come to you and support your Grots charging in (who lack reliable AP2).

Thats my $0.02 anyway. These guys are still in my 1500 list as a 3 man squad. They occasionally get some utility, but generally just act as passengers in their gun-boat. Maybe making a turn 4 charge if something presents itself.

Here's a series of batreps by Skulnbonz using incubus effectively:

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t12655-dark-eldar-versus-the-universe-at-the-atc-tournament

having 2X3 and a 1X6 squads absolutely fascinated me the first time I read through it.

Thanks Barrywise, I enjoyed that. And learned that a unit of 3 can never fall below 25% casualties...
I mean, that should be obvious, but I just never thought about it.

Unit of 4 cannot fall BELOW 25% either... Just thought to say it out loud...

lol