A recently successful 1500 list.

Yesterday I got a game in at Beholder's Eye in Blacksburg, Va, the same shop I used to go as a kid when I lived in VA. The owner runs DE and Chaos, so I borrowed a Ravy and a Raider, and put this together against his fairly straight forward all mech Chaos Night Lords on a city fight style table crowded with buildings.

Dark Eldar Army 1,500 point list.

Raider Unit 1

Haemonculus
Close Combat Weapon, Liquifer and Splinter Pistol
60 points

Incubi (9)
Klaives, Klaivex with Demiklaives, Onslaught.
248 points

Raider (Dedicated transport)
Dark Lance and Flickerfield.
70 points

Raider Unit 2
Haemonculus
Close Combat Weapon, Liquifer and Splinter Pistol
60 points

Wyches (9)
Hekatrix with Blast Pistol and Power Weapon, one Shardnet and Impaler, Haywire Grenades for all.
153 points

Raider (Dedicated transport)
Dark Lance, Shock Prow, and Flickerfield.
75 points


Raider Unit 3

Kabalite Warriors (10)
Eight Splinter Rifles, One Blaster, one Splinter Cannon
115 points

Raider (Dedicated transport)
Dark Lance and Flickerfield.
70 points

Raider Unit 4

Kabalite Warriors (10)
Eight Splinter Rifles, One Blaster, one Splinter Cannon
115 points

Raider (Dedicated transport)
Dark Lance and Flickerfield.
70 points

Elites

Trueborn (5)
Two Dark Lances
110 Points

Heavy Support

Ravager (3)
Dark Lances, Flickerfields
345 points


Total points cost of army: 1491 (Yes, that's 1491, I made a minor miscalculation cobbling it together, so there's actually some points left over to play with)


It's a very straightfoward, basic, and synergistic list, boasting 15 Dark Lances, 2 Blasters, and 1 Blast Pistol for a total of 18 Dark Matter weapons. Haywire Grenades on the Wyches give you more Anti-Tank, but obviously Blessed Raiders would still be a problem. The Incubus unit is obviously an anti-heavy infantry death star, Wyches are more for anti-tank/polishing off weakened foes, etc. Haemonculi in both squads to provide a pain token and a good template weapon. The Raider squad Warriors give you the option of tank-hunting, or delivering solid anti-infantry firepower to soften up a foe for the Incubi/Wyches. Finally, the camping Trueborn and Ravagers provide the bulk of your anti-tank. (People tend to completely ignore the TB, in my experience)

So how did the game go? We played annihilation with spearhead deployment. I stole the initiative, and managed to immobilize and stun a couple Rhinos on my first turn. From there the next two turns consisted of me hovering around in my deployment zone trading shots, finally popping a Rhino, while his Defilers and Predator failed to do any significant damage. (Lots of cover saves, and with only three ranged units, neither of us were inflicting much damage) However, I had stalled his right flank, and he pushed forward with his left, finally jumping out to attack my right flank with his Daemon Prince and Chaos Marines. (double meltas, full size squad) Failing again to do much significant damage, I returned the favor next turn by mowing down his Prince with splinter fire, and then my Incubi butchered his Marine squad and consolidated away from the killing zone running inbetween the buildings. From there I cleaned up another Rhino squad, finishing off his left flank, and despite failing to destroy any more vehicles, my Wyches managed to hop out and finish off a Chaos Marine squad left stranded outside their Rhino from earlier shooting. In the process of the game, I lost one Haemonculus to shooting (sacrificed him to save an Incubus), one raider, and one Ravager. In return, I killed his Daemon Prince, one Rhino, and three squads of Marines, leaving me with 5 kill points.

Very pitiful shooting from both armies much of the game, I held my force back, kept everything milling around or in cover, and stalled out his right flank. For some reason he kept pushing forward from the left with his Rhinos and Prince, and let them get overwhelmed once they closed in. Highlights of the game included a single Warrior squad shredding his prince, and the Incubi butchering both squads of Marines without taking a single swing back.

Overall I liked this list, it keeps the kill points down, plays much more like a Marine list, but it is on the simplistic side.

Oh yeah, the opposing army was 4 Rhinos packed with CSMs and double meltas, one winged Daemon Prince, and two Defilers and a Predator. (Similar slot choices to mine)

Hey.

Thats a crazy big Incubi unit you are using, how does that work for you? Of course they will do wonders vs Marines, thats what they were borned to kill. But you don't find them being a little to killy? I mean 9 men strong could probably be dropped to about 6 and still be dangerous as hell.

Just curious since i am all for seeing different type of units being used.

No such thing as "too killy". That's like having "too much power" in a race car. (If it spins tires in top gear right before the braking zone in the longest straight away, then it has enough power)

I run Marines, so to me, 22 points a model for a marine like unit with a power weapon and I5 is an absolute steal. That's what got me started on using them like that. In actual play, I've had them butcher 60+ Imperial Guard, somewhere around 20 marines, squads of termies, etc. They have FNP off the bat, once they get a kill, they're even better.

Usually in the course of a game you'll lose a handful to shooting, but by then, they've got a 2-3 pain tokens, and you can always sacrifice the Haemonculus. I have also had them BOUNCE off standard terminators before, hence why I don't consider them unstoppable. Matter of fact, I can think of a lot of units I wouldn't charge them with...

Arrex wrote:

No such thing as "too killy". That's like having "too much power" in a race car. (If it spins tires in top gear right before the braking zone in the longest straight away, then it has enough power)

I run Marines, so to me, 22 points a model for a marine like unit with a power weapon and I5 is an absolute steal. That's what got me started on using them like that. In actual play, I've had them butcher 60+ Imperial Guard, somewhere around 20 marines, squads of termies, etc. They have FNP off the bat, once they get a kill, they're even better.

Usually in the course of a game you'll lose a handful to shooting, but by then, they've got a 2-3 pain tokens, and you can always sacrifice the Haemonculus. I have also had them BOUNCE off standard terminators before, hence why I don't consider them unstoppable. Matter of fact, I can think of a lot of units I wouldn't charge them with...

You are correct there, nothing can be to killy. My concern how ever when thinking about bringing larger units of this wonderful choice is the overkill. I often find other holes to invest points in insteed. 5-6 Incubis have been the golden numbers in my experience, but it is nice to see people playing larger units since they are awesome.

The same really goes for my Harlequins. Ive tried out bigger units and the smaller ones is often performing better and eating less lead, but i'm not giving up on the larger ones yet.

Yeah, the larger unit can take more casualties and still be effective. If I could, I'd try a pair of 9 man Incubi squads... LOL