First 1K army

Hi all,

My current model list is thus:

20x Kabalite Warriors
1 x Archon
1 x Raider
3 x Venom
6 x reavers

I am looking to create a 1K armylist from this and have decided upon the following:

Formation: Purge Coterie
Total Points: 999pts

Archon with 3 Incubus and a venom transport (260 pts)
Arcon: Huskblade, webway portal, armour of misery
Venom: Splinter Cannon

5 Kabalite Warriors with a venom transport (120 pts)
Kabalite Warriors: 1 with blaster
Venom: Splinter cannon

5 Kabalite Trueborn with a venom transport (180 pts)
Kabalite Trueborn: 4 with blaster
Venom: Splinter cannon

5 Kabalite Trueborn with a venom transport (180 pts)
Kabalite Trueborn: 4 with blaster
Venom: Splinter cannon

3 Reavers, 1 with cluster caltrops (63pts)

3 Reavers, 1 with cluster caltrops (63pts)

3 Reavers, 1 with cluster caltrops (63pts)

1 Raider with Nightshields and Disintegrator Cannon (70pts)

-------------------

I'm still quite new to Dark Eldar and warhammer 40K so I'm not too sure what the other troops are like or what would be a good, worthwhile addition to the force. I also know that Purge Coterie isn't really that great but I'm not too sure what else is out there!

Any advice on improvements would be great.

If I went with this list, I would only need to buy the following:

Incubi squad
3 Reavers
1 Venom

This to me is quite cheap, so any recommendations would also have to follow this train of thought - I don't want to suddenly have to buy several new units!

My main opponent is stealth cadre tau which are played incredibly aggressively.

I think Kabalite Warriors are different to Trueborn for the purposes of the Purge Coterie rule, alas - but you could make it work. Still, the Coterie's problem is that the units that get to attack in question aren't always that great for that role - the Warriors could potentially be a pain with Splinter Racks spraying death from a Raider though (take the full 10 capacity), and a massive Reaver squad could be entertaining in combat.

The Archon also doesn't benefit from the Coterie's rules, so he's needing a bodyguard - but I'm not sure on Incubi since they lack offensive grenades, which could hamper you if you're not careful.

Am I right in assuming you're taking a regular CAD as well as a Purge Coterie? Then you could put the remaining 10 warriors in 2 groups of 5 riding Venoms (though to be honest Venoms function fine as shooting platforms - but ALWAYS buy the cannon upgrade) and you could try an Archon Court as HQ with Venom there, and put your main Archon in there.

Quote :

I think Kabalite Warriors are different to Trueborn for the purposes of the Purge Coterie rule, alas - but you could make it work.

The FAQ confirmed that since Trueborn share a page with Kabs, they count as Kabs for the Realspace Raider Formation. (Is that what's it's called? It's the one no one uses). I don't see anything against applying the same logic to another formation.

The purge coterie only contains:
1 Archon
1 unit Kabalites or Trueborn
1 Raider
1 unit of Reavers
+ dedicated transports and such

So... how do you want to run the rest?
For a Combined Arms Detachment you'd need another HQ.
Cheapest would be a Lhamaean for 10 points.
And a second troops unit, if i read correctly and you have 2 units of Trueborn and only one of Kabalites.
Also only one Trueborn unit would be part of the Formation and gain Marked for Death.
On the sunny side though if you take Venoms as dedicated transport for units of the Formation, they also get Marked For Death

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies.

I should have confirmed, for the purge coeterie I was going to have, as Marrath has pointed out, only a few of the units are valid, meaning the following aren't included:

2 x trueborn with blasters in venom
2 x reavers with cluster caltrops
Incubi

The reason for the incubi as bodyguards was because I couldn't find another decent melee bodyguard unit and with the webway portal, I could drop him in anywhere I want and hopefully charge the turn after.

I have looked at the other formations and don't really see them as useful enough to drop a unit of trueborn for.

If I scrapped the entire purge coterie thing - What would I change? I could drop the incubi for another 5 kabalite with blasters and put them into the raider, this would give me a CAD but would I miss the incubi? (Note: I've never used incubi)

So I've had a look at possible scratching the Incubi (Which I was quite looking forward to using and have determined that I can pull off the following:

1 x archon, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x kabalite warriors, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x kabalite warriors, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and venom with cannon
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and venom with cannon
1 x ravager, nighshields
3 x reavers, 1 cluster caltrops
3 x reavers, 1 cluster caltrops


Now, the ravager isn't there as anti-tank but as anti TEQ / MEQ - However, would I be better off removing the ravager for another 2 units of reavers?

I could do this instead of the ravager:
6 x reavers, 2 cluster caltrops
6 x reavers, 2 cluster caltrops

You don't really need to drop the coterie, you could put 1 unit of Trueborn in it, then you just need 2 units of Kabalites which you apparently already have and one Lhamaean for a CAD.

Marrath wrote:

You don't really need to drop the coterie, you could put 1 unit of Trueborn in it, then you just need  2 units of Kabalites which you apparently already have and one Lhamaean for a CAD.

The wording on the coterie list is pretty explicit - A unit of kabalite warriors.

This is in the Dark Eldar FAQ, that as trueborn is technically an upgrade for kabalite warriors you can take trueborn and fulfill that requirement

Anarchistscourge wrote:

This is in the Dark Eldar FAQ, that as trueborn is technically an upgrade for kabalite warriors you can take trueborn and fulfill that requirement

Whilst I believe you, I've had a look and can't seem to find it referenced and would probably need to confirm this with the player I'm playing against - Where is the FAQ stored?

All FAQ and errata can be found here https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Rules-Errata?_requestid=19076867.

Ok so it is not specific to the coterie detachment (references the Kabalite rading party formation.
right hand side of the FAQ "Q: As they are upgrades to kabalite warriors and do not have their own datasheet, do kabalite trueborn still count as kabalite warriors for the purposes of the kabalite raiding party formation. A: Yes"

I woud be surprised if this didn't apply to other formations with the same requirement. I would also be surprised if the other player wouldn't agree that this is how it is supposed to be ruled.

Anarchistscourge wrote:

All FAQ and errata can be found here *link removed due to restrictions on account*.

Ok so it is not specific to the coterie detachment (references the Kabalite rading party formation.
right hand side of the FAQ "Q: As they are upgrades to kabalite warriors and do not have their own datasheet, do kabalite trueborn still count as kabalite warriors for the purposes of the kabalite raiding party formation. A: Yes"

I woud be surprised if this didn't apply to other formations with the same requirement. I would also be surprised if the other player wouldn't agree that this is how it is supposed to be ruled.

That's fantastic! Thanks for sending that across, it looks like both the Purge Coterie and Realspace Raider Attachment formation use the same wording so one would assume that it would work for both.

My thoughts exactly

Marrath wrote:

You don't really need to drop the coterie, you could put 1 unit of Trueborn in it, then you just need  2 units of Kabalites which you apparently already have and one Lhamaean for a CAD.

As this is the case, what I propose the following list:

Purge Coterie
1 x archon, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and venom with cannon
1 x Raider with Dark Lance
3 x Reavers, 1 cluster caltrops

Combined Arms Attachment
1 x Lhamaean
5 x Kabalite warriors, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x kabalite warriors, blaster and venom with cannon
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and venom with cannon
3 x reavers with cluster caltrops
3 x reavers with cluster caltrops

Personally I would swap the Archons Venom over to the lhaemn. Give him a Wwp and put him with the Trueborn on the Raider. Take out their Venom and remove blasters from the Warriors (if you shoot at a tank your wasting the splintershots and vice versa for infantry). If you wanted to keep the blasters then you could stick them in the Reavers...its 5 points cheaper and not wasting as many shots. Also im not a fan of dark Lance on Raiders but that is just me and my 2 pennies worth

Anarchistscourge wrote:

Personally I would swap the Archons Venom over to the lhaemn. Give him a Wwp and put him with the Trueborn on the Raider. Take out their Venom and remove blasters from the Warriors (if you shoot at a tank your wasting the splintershots and vice versa for infantry). If you wanted to keep the blasters then you could stick them in the Reavers...its 5 points cheaper and not wasting as many shots. Also im not a fan of dark Lance on Raiders but that is just me and my 2 pennies worth

I was under the impression you weren't able to use the raider as a dedicated transport within the purge coterie?

You dont use it as a dedicated transport, but you can still load the trueborn and Archon into it.
Dedicated transport only means that it counts as part of that unit for force orginisation (which doesnt matter for the formation) and that only the dedicated troops can deploy inside when setting up.

Anarchistscourge wrote:

You dont use it as a dedicated transport, but you can still load the trueborn and Archon into it.
Dedicated transport only means that it counts as part of that unit for force orginisation (which doesnt matter for the formation) and that only the dedicated troops can deploy inside when setting up.

I don't have my rule book on me, so please forgive my ignorance.

Does this count even if the unit comes in from reserves?

Anarchistscourge wrote:

Personally I would swap the Archons Venom over to the lhaemn. Give him a Wwp and put him with the Trueborn on the Raider. Take out their Venom and remove blasters from the Warriors (if you shoot at a tank your wasting the splintershots and vice versa for infantry). If you wanted to keep the blasters then you could stick them in the Reavers...its 5 points cheaper and not wasting as many shots. Also im not a fan of dark Lance on Raiders but that is just me and my 2 pennies worth

the dark lance was there mostly as anti-tank, however, based upon your suggestions (Which I agree with) I can create the following list which gives me another reaver so I should be fine for tank busting (4 units of reavers makes me very, very happy!):

Purge Coterie
1 x archon, blaster and webway portal within trueborn unit below
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and raider with disintegrator cannon
3 x Reavers, 1 cluster caltrops

Combined Arms Attachment
1 x Lhamaean with Venom and Cannon
5 x Kabalite warriors and venom with cannon
5 x kabalite warriors and venom with cannon
5 x trueborn, 4 blasters and venom with cannon
3 x reavers with cluster caltrops
3 x reavers with cluster caltrops
3 x reavers with cluster caltrops

I must agree that 4 units of reavers is rather tasty . Sates the wych cult side of me.
The list also looks much better (again personal opinion).

The Trueborn in the CAD are they for AT / MC hunting?
If you don't often face high T MC's in your meta (like me) then it might be worth swapping the trueborn for haywire blaster scourge. you would have to make the coterie reaver squad a 6 man and removing one of the units from the cad to fit them in, but against AV i find scourge are better.
Again this is down to local meta though and personal preference. This would also give you some free points (around 60) so you could put an Arena champ in the reaver squads (reason for this is so you can put cluster caltrops on them and then look out sir off of them) or you could put a blaster or 2 in there

My main opponent is a stealth cadre Tau player and space marines - I haven't come across many tanks yet but I don't think I've played enough to really commit to it - It's worth a thought and I'll keep it in mind for later.

Thankyou for your help, looking at the list above and comparing it to my original - I believe it's a really good list and I'm looking forward to giving it a go, especially as all I need to buy now are 2 more units of reavers and a Lhamaean! Cheap as chips.

Deffiantly keep the blasterborn in that case, your not likely to come up against high enough AV to warrant haywire and the Str 8 Blasters will work well against Tau (looking shooting fish in a barrel) and instant death the Space Marines

The Gangs of Commoragh box is the cheapest way to get 6 reavers, and the Lhamaean can be converted pretty easily from the spare parts you get with the venoms (or from some of the hellions you get in the aforementioned gangs of commoragh box).

All the best with your games buddy