Newcomer to DE, 1500 pt list

Hi all!

the DE models are so nice, that I have to start an army...
I'm planning on basing the army on 2 battleforces, and slowely collecting over the next 6 months or so.
Plan to do a bone and purple colour scheme, but it might look rubbish.

I actually hate the torture/soul feed fluff, so my plan is for my kabal to be based more on luxury and hedonism than only pain. (not saying there can be no pain!). I'll write something up when I feel I have a good idea which can marry into the general racial fluff of DE. I don't really want to use a haemy, but feel it is a must.

Also, my main opponent plays grey knights. He doesn't have a super optimised list (no psyflemen for starters!) but psycannons and fortitude and incinerators upset me anyway, so I probably want quite a strong list to combat him.
No incubi because the halberds would ruin them.
And i'd love to fit in a bloodbride unit with shardnets, to go and tie up his purifiers, but unsure how. (he tends t take only one unit of purifiers)

anyway, here's the list, thanks for your help.

Archon, agoniser, shadowfield. 110 pts
Haemy, liquifier 60 pts

3 trueborn, blasters, venom with extra SC 146 pts

9 wyches, Hydra Gauntlet, haywires hekatrix with agoniser, PGL raider, ns, torment grenade launchers 232
9 wyches, Hydra Gauntlet, haywires hekatrix with agoniser, PGL raider, ns, torment grenade launchers 232
5 warriors, blaster, venom with extra SC, 125 pts
10 warriors, splinter cannon, blaster, raider, FF 185 pts

3 reaver, heatlance 78
3 reavers, heatlance 78

Ravager, FF, NS 125
Ravager, FF, NS 125

i'ld suggest getting rid of the night shields on the wyches' raider, you'll want flicker fields on a CC raider.

where are you putting the archon and haemy?

I put NS, because I was assuming I'd have the 4++ on turn one, and then assault in turn 2.

archon and haemy go in either of the wych squads.

I'm not sure about the raider warrior squad. Moving only 6 inches so I can fire the warriors doesn't sound appealing!

And I only added the warrior blaster, and the TGL, because I had some spare points left. I don't really get why you'd have splinter weaponry and a blaster in the same squad. You're either wasting a blaster shot, or 8 splinter rifles and a splinter cannon.

drop the PGL for flickerfields on your raiders, they will do more good there as that 5++ is invaluable.

Also I would drop the reavers and add another ravager, your get more mileage out of it than two squads of 3 reavers (Im a big advocate for reavers btw, but you should max your ravagers first before looking for AT in FA)

Also I would get haywires for your Archon, wouldnt want his squad haywiring something, only to have him left out.

As for the warrior blaster, there are several reasons to always inlcude one. In a 5 man team, you will find that shooting the blaster at a tank is your best bet. Yah it seems counter-productive, but that one blaster shot over say... 2 or 3 troop choices helps out in the long run.

As for them in 10 man squad, well for 15 points you not only do better than your splinter rifle, but have the ability to take oppotunistic side armor shots (always shoot at infantry if you can though, thats what the 10 man squads are made for after all) Look at it this way, if that blaster kills one marine, then you have made your points back already

Aren't the PGL really useful?

they deny the opponent +1 attack for charging, no? So a squad of GK charging only has 10 attacks, 5 hits, 3 wounds, 1.5 dead wyches.

I know 3 ravagers would be best, but a) they are a pain to transport. b) they are expensive c) I will have 6 reavers if I buy 2 battleforces (which gives me all my warriors and wyches)


In the 5 men squads I can see a blaster being useful.
I guess in the 10 men squads I have to be strict with myself about not trying to shoot tanks, unless it's in side armour.

notts wrote:

Aren't the PGL really useful?

they deny the opponent +1 attack for charging, no? So a squad of GK charging only has 10 attacks, 5 hits, 3 wounds, 1.5 dead wyches.

I know 3 ravagers would be best, but a) they are a pain to transport. b) they are expensive c) I will have 6 reavers if I buy 2 battleforces (which gives me all my warriors and wyches)


In the 5 men squads I can see a blaster being useful.
I guess in the 10 men squads I have to be strict with myself about not trying to shoot tanks, unless it's in side armour.

A lot of people on this site are down on the PGL. I've used it a couple of times without them doing anything memorable. I would use them if I had 10pts to kill, but I usually find a FF or something more useful to blow the pts on. If you give them HW grenades with the pg's that they already have the PG becomes a waste. I just don't get my wyches charged at all that much.

so your buying battleforce boxes for a starter army??? Well I have the list for you

2 battleforces, an archon blister, 2 raiders, and 3 ravagers gains you

150- Archon w/ Huskblade, Soultrap, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, Haywire Grenades
223- 9 wyches w/ haywires, Shardnet, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
245- 10 wyches w/ haywires, 2 guantlets, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
190- 10 warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
190- 10 warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields

Total- 1499

Its a great list to learn on, and gives you probably the most bang for your buck you can get. You have 17 lances on 11 platforms, and a ton of haywires for AT. Your AI comes in the form of your warriors and the loveable wyches. Pretty much the whole army is send your Archon after the enemies HQ, while everything else worries about other units. Get your warriors midfield by T2 and start unloading them on enemy infantry, while your Ravagers target transports and your Reavers hit any tank you have to kill.

As for the blaster, well lets look at it statistically. Against a marine your rifle has an 11% chance of killing a marine, or 22% chance of killing them in double tap range. The blaster on the other hand 55% chance of killing a marine, and like I said before killing one marine makes the blaster's points back. Having this also gives you the chance of shooting tanks (although you rarely should do this with a 10 man squad, as your wasting all that splinter fire) and it also helps against MCs and high toughness things as it almost always wounds on a 2+ (and goes through armor and FNP remember) which is something your splinter rifle doesnt do. Its a good investment and should be looked into every time you take warriors.

As for transporting our stuff, a Ravager isnt any harder than a raider, but for convenience you could not glue in the gunners on the side (I magnetize mine, but they stay in fine buy just sticking them in) or by not glueing in the mast, which allows you to take the sail off for easier storage.

And PGL is pretty much useless on wyches, as they tarpit already like a boss. They really are only good on things that need assault grenades but for some reason dont have any (incubi, hellions, beasts) the defensive grenades arent really THAT good, as if we get charged it normally means we are breaking anyway (except for wyches) Its really that the price tag (10 points) = another wych, a wych weapon, or a flickerfield, which all of these are vastly better than the defensive grenades.

^^^
I approve of that pretty aggressively.

No venoms?

Also, are pick and pluck trays fine for raiders and ravagers? Or do I need to get one of those fancy battlefoam or kaiser rushfort trays with custom holes?
Or do people jhust put them in shoeboxes with bubblewrap!

lol venoms are kinda a mix bag really. They are amazing for what they do, but many new players use them wrong imho, and they take some getting used to. A 10 man warrior squad in a raider is more forgiving and allows you to make mistakes and not completely lose the squad (like the 5man venom squad) While your 10 man can continue to function well after the raider goes down. If you are learning, its best to learn off of raider squads, then move on to venom squads.

Fair point.

The only thing I prefer with venoms is they could fire both splinter cannons if they move 12, where as a raider could only fire one darklance if moving 12, and none of the warriors.

I don't really want to take 3 ravagers, even though I know in terms of power it is wise.
How about 5 scourges with 2 haywires instead?

I thought you could always fire defensive weaponry unless you went flat out. or fired ordnance.

as far as I can tell, fast open topped skimmers can shoot everything at 6 inches, one gun, plus defensive, at 12 inches and nothing when going flat out.

And the embarked troops can only fire if it moves 6 or less.

Huh, I thought that fast vehicles counted cruising speed as combat speed for shooting.

You're correct, just have written it in a different way.

Fast vehicles can move at Combat speed and still fire all weapons, move at Cruising speed and fire 1 weapon, plus all defensive weapons.


Now, our vehicles are a little different for the following reasons:

Venoms - only weapons they have are Str X = defensive, so can move 12" and fire all (Yes, BOTH Splinter Cannons can fire )

Ravagers/Jetfighters - have Special Rule re: firing weapons (read Codex)

Raiders - Aren't Str X nor have the same Special Rule as above, but they are Fast, and they only have 1 gun. So can still fly 12" and fire

The issue is firing the pair of splinter cannons and shard carbines inside the raider . I thought that you culd cruise in a fast vehicle and still fire with the embarked squad.

Sadly no - check out the embarkation rules and its very clear... 6" is the max you can move in ANY vehicle and still use the fire points...

Which is one reason why I'm a bit unsure on raider mounted warriors.

If they are shooting, it means they are getting shot back, and therefore dying!

Well, the key is to make sure you're charging anything nearby with wyches/grots/Chronoi to ensure no countercharge. None of us are going to be big enough dolts to fly a raider up to the center of a battle line for a minor amount of pewpew.

Let me explain the correct way to use a full 10 man warrior raider squad. All you need to do is get up to the 24" mark with them, then let them sit there and shoot with relative safety of their vehicle. Remember that you have rapidfire weapons, and are in a AV10 transport, so you want to stay out of battle, but close enough to still shoot. Staying at the 24" mark gives you 8 rifle shots, 6 cannon shots, and 1 dark lance shot.

Now if you really need to bring the pain, remember a raider squad has an effective range of 18" (6" move + 12" range) this brings to bear 18 rifle shots, 4 cannon, 1 blaster, and 1 lance. This gives you some flexability in how you run your army. Most of our assault elements need to be in the enemies face, and its hard to react to new threats (lets say... a DS termie squad, or reserves coming in) with an ungodly amount of fire.

125- Archon w/ Agoniser, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, Haywire Grenades
223- 9 wyches w/ haywires, Shardnet, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
245- 10 wyches w/ haywires, 2 guantlets, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields,
190- 10 warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields,
190- 10 warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields,
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
155- razorwing w/flickerfields

Based on Shadows Revenge list- but using a razorwing- hence slightly cheaper archon, and less shock prow.

a good change. Ive never been a fan of our fliers, hence why I dont even think of them when building a list, but I will admit my list had some fat to trim (like all those shockprows, but they do help and it makes it easier for someone who came with tanks everywhere, to having none.)

On a side note, a friend of mine who is interested in getting DE played my list yesterday, and it did absolutely amazing. We did a 2 v 2 1.5k points a piece, with him using my models for the list, and I used my Eldar (just started btw, and having a blast with them). He alone killed all of the opposing ork army, and took out two squads and two razorbacks of the SM army, plus his archon got S10 with a Big Mek and Captain soul, was hilarious to watch. I sat back and took objectives, while I took pot shots with my S6 overload. Funny part my 4 man seer council + autarch almost had the same amount of success as his archon + wyches, killing 3 SM squads, a Ironclad, a drop pod, and a scout squad to a man, but I think his Archon slaughtering a 15 man loota squad w/ big mek and a 30 man boy squad in two turns took alot of attention off of them

New list, designed on the christmas megaforce, plus a venom.

I lose lances, but gain blasters and a transport. Also, 16 points left. wondering how easy it would be to get a haemy in there, I'd only need to clear up 34 more points (16 spare + 10 losing a wych).

125- Archon w/ Agoniser, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, Haywire Grenades

156- 3 trueborn with 3 blasters, venom with extra SC, night shield

223- 9 wyches w/ haywires, Shardnet, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
245- 10 wyches w/ haywires, 2 guantlets, Hecatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields,
190- 10 warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields,
135- 5 warriors, blaster, venom, extra splinter cannon, night shield

80- 3 Reavers w/ Haywire blaster
80- 3 Reavers w/ Haywire blaster

125- Ravager w/ Flickerfields, night shield
125- Ravager w/ Flickerfields, night shield