Starting Brand New Dark Eldar Army

Hey, I am looking to start a Dark Eldar. I am very familiar with 40k and 8th, but not with all Dark Epdar as much. I really like the start collecting models and seem to lean more towards Kabal models in general, but what kind of starting army does that offer me?

The core of using Dark Eldar is mobility, and what bthat usually means is making sure that any units which can be on a Transport, is on a Transport.
A decent rule of thumb is that as much as your army should be on flying bases as possible.

If you go the LKabalite route (a good idea in my opinion) Warriors in Raiders or Venoms are a great choice. mobility and Firepower are yours, though expect them to fold if they get hit back. Hit hard and fast.

Start Collecting gives you a decent first Troops unit, but you'll want at least one more for a standard army, two more for a Battalion Detachment. For a starting force, I'd probably say use your existing Raider, and get two more five man units of Warriors in Venoms.
From there, expand with a Ravager, and maybe something like Incubi (also in a Venom). They are a very good combat unit, and we have the speed to deliver them where they are needed.



And welcome!

Those were the inklings I had, How do I best make use of the Archon? With a start collecting , a ten man squad in a raider sounds great but then the archon is foot slogging and obviously not keeping up with bikes. Was thinking maybe some court of archon and slapping them in a venom?

That would be the best idea ... Another would be to give him a Tantalus and load him up on that with about four sslyth, five medusae, and five Incubi (fluffy body guard unit) this would give his leadership to any and all Dark Eldar units the archons leadership (if he's the warlord) that can draw line of sight to the Tantalus ... Basically making his aura go from 6" bubble to board wide bubble also adds a decent amount of firepower to your army for the cost of 350 points and a heavy support slot. And welcome to the depths of the webway, you won't find a more retched hive of scum and villainy ... Wait ... That sounds familiar ...

The Archon can always just take a Venom all by his little bitty lonesome. (Which isn't a bad pick.)

Grabbing another Raider and some Incubi to go with it is an even better option.

I personally usually only run a battalion with an airwing detachment with one hq always being my farseer sky runner because our hq options honestly leave a lot to be desired. Both of our fliers are absolute studs and will do well in any army. For transporting the other hq I usually throw her into my tantalus with other units since it has a 16 troop capacity, but I wouldn't recommend getting one of those unless you really want to commit to the faction due to its prohibitive cost money wise. However, the court of the archon has a couple of good units in it, and putting them in a venom with the archon isn't a bad idea either just avoid ur-ghul though. As for your next pick ups after the start collecting I would definitely get either a ravager, a razorwing fighter, or a voidraven. You can't go wrong with either of them and they are probably the best three units in our faction. From there I would agree with squidmaster and either get some incubi and a venom, or get a unit of scourges. Incubi are IMHO tied with clawed fiends for the best cc unit we have. Meanwhile scourges can strike from reserves exactly when you need them. They can either be kitted for anti infantry with their stock weapons, or you can give four of them dark lances and have anti armor unit that's debatable on par with the ravager.

I am planning to build relatively slowly and completely paint at steps before getting the next set of kits, otherwise I will never paint lol. If I want to make a fairly solid army with 1-2 additional boxes after the start collecting, what would they be? Ideally being able to run like 750 point games, I dont imagine I could get to 1000 without really stretching it?

A second start collecting box and a venom, or a ravager and either a Razorwing or a Voidraven would do the trick then.

I whipped this up real fast in battlescribe but it adds up to exactly 750pts. You could switch the the ravager with a jetfighter with darklances if you wanted they're the same amount of points. I have it at 9 kabalite warriors and the archon in the raider, and the incubi in the venom. The ravager and scourges are standalone units that don't need transport. the scourges will work best by dropping them into cover and sniping vehicles and other high armor units with them. All together, you'd need to buy the start collecting box, the venom, incubi, scourges, and ravager to get this list.
++ Patrol Detachment (Aeldari - Drukhari) [38 PL, 750pts] ++

+ HQ [4 PL, 67pts] +

Archon [4 PL, 67pts]: Huskblade [10pts], Phantasm Grenade Launcher [3pts], Splinter pistol

+ Troops [5 PL, 85pts] +

Kabalite Warriors [5 PL, 85pts]
. 7x Kabalite Warrior [49pts]
. Kabalite Warrior with special weapon [22pts]: Blaster [15pts]
. Sybarite [14pts]: Agoniser [4pts], Phantasm Grenade Launcher [3pts], Splinter Rifle

+ Elites [5 PL, 98pts] +

Incubi [5 PL, 98pts]
. 4x Incubi [72pts]
. Klaivex [26pts]: Demiklaives [8pts]

+ Fast Attack [6 PL, 150pts] +

Scourges [6 PL, 150pts]
. Scourge with Special / Heavy weapon [34pts]: Dark Lance [20pts]
. Scourge with Special / Heavy weapon [34pts]: Dark Lance [20pts]
. Scourge with Special / Heavy weapon [34pts]: Dark Lance [20pts]
. Scourge with Special / Heavy weapon [34pts]: Dark Lance [20pts]
. Solarite [14pts]: Shardcarbine

+ Heavy Support [8 PL, 155pts] +

Ravager [8 PL, 155pts]: Dark Lance [20pts], Dark Lance [20pts], Dark Lance [20pts]

+ Dedicated Transport [10 PL, 195pts] +

Raider [6 PL, 115pts]: Dark Lance [20pts]

Venom [4 PL, 80pts]: Splinter Cannon [15pts], Twin splinter rifle

++ Total: [38 PL, 750pts] ++