Dark Eldar Shenanigans Wishlist

One of the primary complaints about our Index is a lack of flavor, which is usually a fair accusation.

I'd like to hear what you all think would get it back. What devious plots could we create, laughing to ourselves as our pitiful target falls into its trap? What opportunistic strikes could we take advantage of? What sort of trickery can our devious underlings wreck havoc with?

I'll start off.

I invision Hellions getting something akin to their 5th Edition Stunclaw ability back, morphed with 5th edition Blade vanes as an adaptation.

Snatched: After this unit has moved/advanced, select an enemy CHARACTER it has moved over and roll a d6. On a result of a 3 or higher, move the selected model to any point between its starting position and the end position of the Hellions that is more than 1" from any models. On a result of a 6, the target unit suffers a mortal wound in addition to any other damage.

I feel this would be a fun/fluffy niche for the Hellions, granting the ability to negate bubble wrapping of characters that we currently see, not killing them outright, but giving the ability for a charge/shooting attack from a well positioned unit.

My next, and final for the moment, one is for good old Rakarth, granting an Aura that I feel is rather thematic and powerful, but only with clever strategy.

A Terror Eternal: Any abilities that grant bonuses to another unit (Such as the Archon's Overlord ability), friend or foe, are negated while within 6" of this unit.

Archon ability: Just as planned.
Whenever a command point is used by an army containing a model with this ability, roll a dice. On a 4+, the command point is retained and the strategem goes off as normal.

Succubus ability: Queen of the Arena.
Whenever this unitl successfully wounds a unit with the Character or Monster keywords, that model takes a mortal wound in addition to normal damage.

Haemy ability: Death is not the end.
When a unit with this ability is reduced to 0 wounds for the first time in a turn, roll a dice. On a 4+ the unit remains in play with 1 wound remaining.

Archon - Master Tactician: when a stratagem is used, on a 4+ you retain your points as if they were not spent. If an Archon is within 3 inches of an enemy HQ, on a roll of 4+ enemy strategems cost 1 point higher. If a 6 is rolled, the points are lost and the stratagem is not used.

Succubus - Gods of the arena: Friendly Wych Cult units within 6 inches get +1A and always strikes first. Enemy units within 3 inches of a Succubus cannot fall back.

Haemonculus - Masters of flesh: All friendly coven units within 12 inches get +1T. Friendly coven units within 6 inches ignore the first wound each turn. This includes mortal wounds.

I want perks for fielding an all Drukhari force that showcase our speed and Webway use. But mostly I'd like to see Warlord traits and Strategems that are dependent on how our army is built and what Faction keywords it uses. Like an army exclusively composed of Asuryani would have its own set of Strategems, and so on and so forth for Drukhari, Ynnari.

But within those factions if you're specializing keywords even more then this opens up more or different Strategems and traits. So different Strategems and traits for armies that are Coven and not Kabal or Wych Cult, and so on

But mostly just something that rewards a pure Drukhari force, and for those who want to mix and match Faction keywords they get just the basic Strategems and Warlord traits (a fair price to pay for having a Farseer or Hemlock or Harlies or whatever sup0lementing your Drukhari).

A Webway Strategem instead of war gear would be awesome, just the ability to spend like 4 or 5 CP to deploy as much of the army as we like from the Webway or SOMETHING flexible like this that uses CP and not points.

Splinter Racks

A temporary nightshield or hard to hit augment stratagem that lasts for a round.

Coven 1CP Strategems that basically give an It Will Not Die type roll, 2CP Cult Strategems that auto win the No Escape roll off, 1CP Kabal Strategems that allow Deep Strike or something.

An army wide 2CP Strategem that treats all the PfP units as if it were a turn later on the PfP chart.

Just synergistic stuff like that.

Maybe something that makes it easier to wound people instead of all of our bonuses to hit that we don't really need as much? Or +1 to the Splinter To Wound roll or temporary use of AP ?

Strategems are supposed to represent everything from actual tactics to arcane war gear or special equipment, so yeah spending a CP to load Shatter Splinters for a unit or units and have a round of rerolling wounds and AP -2 or something....that'd be cool.

And there's only so much CP one can wrangle up, so a small perk here and there (much like a universal reroll) is great and can change a game but won't or shouldn't break it.

I'll hop on this brainstorm train...

Buffs

3CP Twilight Zone/At Dusk: All transports get a +1 armor/cover save for the first turn.

1CP Nourishing Agony: On the death of an enemy unit in CC, roll a d6, on a 4+ advance Power from Pain by 1 level for the entire army.

2CP Agony Orgy: Target Unit's Feel no Pain is increased to a 4+ for a turn.

Debuffs:

2/3 CP, Overwhelming Terror: The opponent rolls 2d6 and takes the higher result for morale tests.

1 CP, Friends of the Darkness: -1 to hit for target ally unit.

2CP, Virulent Concotion: Any poison weapon wounding target unit causes a mortal wound on a wounding roll of 6+ (Mandrake power on poison weapons)


In terms of our HQ's

Drazhar getting his teleport ability would be cool, he'd be really awesome for wicked consolidation and wrecking daisy chains by getting next to the important models.

Lelith, Counter/Parry would be kinda cool. For Army wide Leadership ability, if she kills an enemy charcter or sergeant, enemy models within 12" get a fear debuff? or maybe wych cult get +1 A or something.

Archon: Know Thy Enemy, Kabal units can reroll to wound in CC against an entire faction within 6 or 12" or something.

Succubus: Lead by example, Wych cult units get an additional -1AP to their attack if within 6" of model. Or, on rolls of 6+ to wound, ignore armor saves.

I would hope Vect gets bonus command points assuming we are lucky enough to get a model. It would also be cool given his dickery that once per game, any unit that arrives on the battlefield in your opponent's movement phase rolls a d6 for each model in the unit. On a 6 it suffers a mortal wound.

Sliscus could come back and give an aura of poisoned weapons within 3 or 6" reroll wound rolls of a one, and allow you to take a combat drug that you have already taken, even if you haven't met the requirements to do so eg take the other 5 drugs first. Those are rules you could easily build an army around.

Also I would love a model that was a multi model kit, that could either be made as a coven, wych or kabal vehicle. It would be a small skimmer, maybe a more chariot bigger version of a venom and depending on the option made it more to your army. The wych one would be good in combat, the wrack one would be tougher and have strong short range potential. The kabal one would be a mix of mid and long range. It could also have a special rule depending on what keyword you took. Picturing this in my head is hella sweet

I like the idea for the hellions to remove characters from their bubblewrap. (although I am unsure if this should be the hellions or the reavers, even if traditionally it was the hellions)?

I think the archon ability mentioned above, just as planned/master tactician should be the opposite.
If an enemy commander uses command points roll a dice, on a 4+ the stratagem fails but he cannot use it again this turn, on a roll of a 6 he must still pay the cost. We are known to plan ahead and see the tactics (and undermine them) of our enemies. But we do not have to be close to their HQ, for then it won't happen often.
Or maybe something like "plans within plans within plans": If the enemy uses command points, roll a dice for each command point used, for each dice of 4+ you gain an additional command point.

Bonus stratagems (or possibly special rules) only usuable if you have only one faction units in your army is great. But make sure that they help the strengths/ overcome weaknesses without becoming mandatory. Sort of like the space marine factions, give different wych cults and covens their own bonusses, and then you could even make some quite good, but with the stipulent they do not share the pain: all units in the army must be of that cult (possibly with a few unit exceptions, scourges in  a kabal for instance)

Our vehicles get another transport spot so we can mix HQ with their bodyguards.

A stratagem (or just a general rule) that let's us ignore night fighting is a must, probably also one that makes it night fighting the first round.

A few stratagems based on movement, either ours or the enemies.
Webway portal. 1 or 2 cp at the start of your movement phase remove a unit which is not within 1" of any enemy model from the board. It is now in the webway and must be redeployed at the end of your next movement phase more then 9 away from any enemy models.

Death from above: 1 command point. Unit with the Fly keyword can deepstrike.

Well the things we draw heavily from other factions are Farseers for Doom, Warlocks for conceal, Soulburst, Hemlocks for the best fliers, and clowns for good melee. So how about strategems that give us those advantages without requiring us to take other factions. Like a stratagem that lets any unit with Power from Pain get a free action or reroll to wound or something.

2 CP, The panic attack (moral phase) : at the end of the moral phase, roll a moral test for each enemy unit that hasn't rolled one yet but is within 6" of an ally unit that suffered losses from moral this turn. Each unit adds to its moral test the highest amount of models lost by moral in any ally unit within 6".

1 CP : Sabotage : when you deep strike a unit of Scourges, you can use this stratagem to inflict 1d3 mortal wounds to any vehicle in the enemy army.

1 CP : Webway portals : one unit from your army can be deployed in the webway. At the end of any movement phase, you may deploy it at 9" or less from any enemy unit.

3 CP : Twilight assault : hard to hit for the entire army for the entire game turn. Can only be used on the first turn, or if Twilight assault was used on the previous game turn.

lcfr wrote:

I want perks for fielding an all Drukhari force that showcase our speed and Webway use. But mostly I'd like to see Warlord traits and Strategems that are dependent on how our army is built and what Faction keywords it uses. Like an army exclusively composed of Asuryani would have its own set of Strategems, and so on and so forth for Drukhari, Ynnari.

But within those factions if you're specializing keywords even more then this opens up more or different Strategems and traits. So different Strategems and traits for armies that are Coven and not Kabal or Wych Cult, and so on

But mostly just something that rewards a pure Drukhari force, and for those who want to mix and match Faction keywords they get just the basic Strategems and Warlord traits (a fair price to pay for having a Farseer or Hemlock or Harlies or whatever sup0lementing your Drukhari).

A Webway Strategem instead of war gear would be awesome, just the ability to spend like 4 or 5 CP to deploy as much of the army as we like from the Webway or SOMETHING flexible like this that uses CP and not points.

Splinter Racks

A temporary nightshield or hard to hit augment stratagem that lasts for a round.

Coven 1CP Strategems that basically give an It Will Not Die type roll, 2CP Cult Strategems that auto win the No Escape roll off, 1CP Kabal Strategems that allow Deep Strike or something.

An army wide 2CP Strategem that treats all the PfP units as if it were a turn later on the PfP chart.

Just synergistic stuff like that.

Maybe something that makes it easier to wound people instead of all of our bonuses to hit that we don't really need as much? Or +1 to the Splinter To Wound roll or temporary use of AP ?

Strategems are supposed to represent everything from actual tactics to arcane war gear or special equipment, so yeah spending a CP to load Shatter Splinters for a unit or units and have a round of rerolling wounds and AP -2 or something....that'd be cool.

And there's only so much CP one can wrangle up, so a small perk here and there (much like a universal reroll) is great and can change a game but won't or shouldn't break it.

I like your ideas, but dislike the ties they have to army building. They unnecessarily punish lists that bring non-conforming armies together. What I think would be better is a list of stratagems that ONLY effect Drukhari, Kabals, Cults, Covens, so on... But tie the Drukhari ones to having any Drukhari HQ or LoW (Vect. Vect. Vect. Vect) in the army. And then buffs for Kabals being tied to Kabal Characters (Court), Cult ones tied to Cult characters (Beastmaster) and Coven one's tied to Coven Characters (uniformity).

Similarly; Strategems for Aspect Cults could be unlocked by an Autarch, while Phoenix Lords could unlock specialised Stratagems (or, to avoid bloat, the same Strats as an Autarch, but they get to use their Aspect's one at a lower cost/ once per game at no cost).

I feel this places less restrictions on list building. If you want the Strat, you have to bring 1 model. If you want to benefit from it, you'll hopefully already have brought the relevant Units.

This way the cost is in Points and Power Levels, not oppurtunity.

It also allows things like an Archon leading a small contingent of Trueborn into the midst of a Craftworlds battle to steal something from the fray without immediately shutting down all benefits the Craftworlders would otherwise have received. Or vis versa: a desperate Farseer leading a company of Windriders into the madness of a Wych Cults performance, using the bloody chaos (with a lower-case 'c') to twist the strands of fate and avoid calamity.

I don't think going down the Fantasy Route would be helpful here. I have seen entire tournaments of grey being fielded because: "The game is fun but I could care less for the army's fluff."

Cheers for reading.

TL;DR: Plz no Fantasy. I like playing against painted armies.

Ikol wrote:

lcfr wrote:

I want perks for fielding an all Drukhari force that showcase our speed and Webway use. But mostly I'd like to see Warlord traits and Strategems that are dependent on how our army is built and what Faction keywords it uses. Like an army exclusively composed of Asuryani would have its own set of Strategems, and so on and so forth for Drukhari, Ynnari.

But within those factions if you're specializing keywords even more then this opens up more or different Strategems and traits. So different Strategems and traits for armies that are Coven and not Kabal or Wych Cult, and so on

But mostly just something that rewards a pure Drukhari force, and for those who want to mix and match Faction keywords they get just the basic Strategems and Warlord traits (a fair price to pay for having a Farseer or Hemlock or Harlies or whatever sup0lementing your Drukhari).

A Webway Strategem instead of war gear would be awesome, just the ability to spend like 4 or 5 CP to deploy as much of the army as we like from the Webway or SOMETHING flexible like this that uses CP and not points.

Splinter Racks

A temporary nightshield or hard to hit augment stratagem that lasts for a round.

Coven 1CP Strategems that basically give an It Will Not Die type roll, 2CP Cult Strategems that auto win the No Escape roll off, 1CP Kabal Strategems that allow Deep Strike or something.

An army wide 2CP Strategem that treats all the PfP units as if it were a turn later on the PfP chart.

Just synergistic stuff like that.

Maybe something that makes it easier to wound people instead of all of our bonuses to hit that we don't really need as much? Or +1 to the Splinter To Wound roll or temporary use of AP ?

Strategems are supposed to represent everything from actual tactics to arcane war gear or special equipment, so yeah spending a CP to load Shatter Splinters for a unit or units and have a round of rerolling wounds and AP -2 or something....that'd be cool.

And there's only so much CP one can wrangle up, so a small perk here and there (much like a universal reroll) is great and can change a game but won't or shouldn't break it.

I like your ideas, but dislike the ties they have to army building.  They unnecessarily punish lists that bring non-conforming armies together.  What I think would be better is a list of stratagems that ONLY effect Drukhari, Kabals, Cults, Covens, so on... But tie the Drukhari ones to having any Drukhari HQ or LoW (Vect. Vect. Vect. Vect) in the army.  And then buffs for Kabals being tied to Kabal Characters (Court), Cult ones tied to Cult characters (Beastmaster) and Coven one's tied to Coven Characters (uniformity).

Similarly; Strategems for Aspect Cults could be unlocked by an Autarch, while Phoenix Lords could unlock specialised Stratagems (or, to avoid bloat, the same Strats as an Autarch, but they get to use their Aspect's one at a lower cost/ once per game at no cost).

I feel this places less restrictions on list building.  If you want the Strat, you have to bring 1 model.  If you want to benefit from it, you'll hopefully already have brought the relevant Units.

This way the cost is in Points and Power Levels, not oppurtunity.

It also allows things like an Archon leading a small contingent of Trueborn into the midst of a Craftworlds battle to steal something from the fray without immediately shutting down all benefits the Craftworlders would otherwise have received.  Or vis versa: a desperate Farseer leading a company of Windriders into the madness of a Wych Cults performance, using the bloody chaos (with a lower-case 'c') to twist the strands of fate and avoid calamity.

I don't think going down the Fantasy Route would be helpful here.  I have seen entire tournaments of grey being fielded because: "The game is fun but I could care less for the army's fluff."

Cheers for reading.

TL;DR: Plz no Fantasy.  I like playing against painted armies.

As far as I know the set of strategems you can use is determind by the number of faction keywords. You can only use Kabal Strategems, if your force ONLY consists of Kabal units.

Yep, i think that's how the system currently works, so our suggestions tend to use the rules already established.

So they went fantasy?

Unduflave.

Strategem, 2cp, Webway Portal: place any unit in Tactical Reserves.
Kabal Strategem, 1cp: Reroll shooting hit rolls.
Cult Strategem, 1cp: Unit can Advance and Charge.
Coven Strategem, 1cp: Ignore a Mortal Wound on a 4+.

Special rule, Take Prisoners: 1d6 for each model fleeing in Morale. 4+ to capture. 1vp for every five.
Maybve scrap the roll, and make it an automatic effect for a cp cost as a Strategem.

Lords: options for Reavers, Skyboards and Scourge Wings.

Wyches: be mediocre, which would be better than now.

Incubi: hat guns. always strike first when victims of a charge (because they're bodyguards).

Trueborn: Ghostplate Armour.

Vect, Sliscus, Malys, Decapitator, Sathonyx, Ahrah.

LoW: Big tank, Tantalus scale, probably a Dias Of Destruction, NOT a Coven monster.



Whole Codex: tested and proof-read.

One suggestion might actually be to also have some opposite stratagems.
INstead of just having if your army consists only of keyword X you get stratagem 1 and keyword Y gives you stratagem 2, if your army includes at least X Y and Z you can use the stratagem 3 (possibly 3 being slightly weaker since you already have more variations in units).
But this could also be usefull for a stratagem that is slightly more powerfull if your army includes for instance hellions, reavers and wyches and beasts so promote a diverse plentora of units.

Perhaps if stratagems were tied to detachments?

Whole army seems far too restrictive for me.

Yeah I'm not going to be sad if they're detachment specific strats, but given that they've radically changed the way armies organize in this edition and are giving rewards based on how you organize, it only makes sense to follow through with the carrot all the way.

Definitely need a Jetbike option to make our characters viable. I'll take them exactly as they are if they can just hop on a bike.

Quote :

I don't think going down the Fantasy Route would be helpful here. I have seen entire tournaments of grey being fielded because: "The game is fun but I could care less for the army's fluff."

Haha, I knew I wasn't the only one who did this!

TeenageAngst wrote:

Quote :

I don't think going down the Fantasy Route would be helpful here. I have seen entire tournaments of grey being fielded because: "The game is fun but I could care less for the army's fluff."

Haha, I knew I wasn't the only one who did this!

You think the game is fun but you don´t care for the fluff, thus you field grey armies?

What would you guys prefer? Wings or a bike for the archon?

Vastly prefer a skyboard for my Archon.

Bloodbrides to be to Wyches what Trueborn are to Warriors: better equipped.
All brides may take Wych weapons, 1in5 or 3in10 may take PS/Agoniser.

Quote :

You think the game is fun but you don´t care for the fluff, thus you field grey armies?

Yeah my Sigmar army is 100% grey plastic.

ouch, their wallet, you showed them.

Back on topic.

Having an HQ for unique units would again would be pretty cool. I mean we have the 3 standard troop choices and their HQs, Kab - Archon. Wych - Succubus, Wrack - Haemonculi.

I'd really like to have our long forgotten HQ's back and maybe others as well.
Incubi - Drazhar, Bloodbrides - Lelith, Trueborn - Vect, Hellions - Baron Sathonyx,

uhhh, Scourge - Sliscus?

I dunno. Either way, I feel like we're lacking, here's hoping the codex fixes that.