Starter list - help needed!

Hi all, I am just starting out with my Dark Eldar army, and have bought myself a couple of the 'start collecting' box sets. I'm trying to put together an army list using the contents (i.e. 2 Archons, 2 raiders, 20 warriors, 6 Reaver Jetbikes) but am a bit stumped. This is what I have as the core of the force:

10 Kabalite Warriors w. Shredder in a raider with Disintegrator Cannon
9 Kabalite Trueborn w. 2 splinter cannons, 4 blasters in a raider with Disintegrator Cannon

My idea is that the warriors will put out some standard anti-infantry firepower and can grab objectives. The trueborn are there to try and put the hurt on tough units like Terminators and to help deal with vehicles. The raiders are equipped with Disintegrator cannons in order to fill multiple roles - killing tough infantry and vehicles.

In my first games I will probably run the Archon with the trueborn, but I don't know what to give him. I also have no idea what role I should get the jetbikes to fill. The heat lances look tasty against vehicles as they should be able to get nice and close, but I don't know if that is a waste of them. In future I would like to add some ravagers to fulfil anti-tank roles so it could be short sighted spec'ing the reavers for anti-tank.

Could you guys please assess the thinking behind the 'core' of the force and let me know if it holds, and could you help out with the Archon loadout and the reaver roles? What do you guys use them for?

Thanks!

I'd advise putting some more lances in that list of yours, Disintergators wont be much good vs any kind of heavy armour, though I suppose you'd have to find out what your local meta is.

With units being able to split fire there isnt much need to dedicate one unit to anti-infantry or tank so I'd take a lance on the warriors if you can afford it, it will also allow you to have your anti-tank spread across the army so it cant all go up in smoke with your vehicles and those units can then also provide support while holding objectives even if they are out of range of most infantry.

I personally run both my archons with agoniser and blaster and use them as another near-garenteed to hit anti-tank shot.

Again reavers I'd equip with anti-tank or heavy infantry weapons.

My local meta has shifted towards mechanised guard these days so I may be biased in favour of Lances as far as the eye can see but I've found them to be highly useful.

I've started recently, so here's some of the most useful things I've been told and/or discovered through trial and error:

- Shredders are Trash. Ignore them, Blasters are far more useful.
- Lances on vehicles are the best. On (non-scourge) infantry they mostly just miss because you keep moving all the time. Disintegrators are nice, but you need a decent number of Lances first.
- Ravagers are the best. Buy one (or two, or three) next, they'll never let you down.
- Everything wants a transport. Venoms are better than Raiders, but Raiders are fine in casual play. If you start buying Venoms, convert your Raiders to Ravagers.
- Archons are pretty weak, don't expect your 2++ to save you from much before it pops. Never go into a fair fight with one and expect it to live. They work fine when kept nice and cheap with Blaster+Agoniser.
- Reavers are very expensive for what you get, but fine for casual games. They're pretty fun when used as a sudden-strike turn 1, dashing in to assassinate characters. Ignore the Heat Lance, it's 25pts for a single shot that will miss or fail to wound. Blasters are cheaper and better, Grav Talons are mandatory. Choose either +2move drug or +1T drug depending on how far back the targets you want are. In higher points games you'll probably move away from them though, because they're 200pts for 6 and die rather easily to high-strength shots.
- Two Squads of 5 Warriors costs the same as 1 squad of 10, and is better cause you can bring two Blasters and don't care about Morale.

Beyond that, alot depends on what the other players in your meta are doing. In general you can't go wrong with just adding more Dark Lances and Splinterfire though.

Here's a typical Battalion base:

2x HQ - Archon, Blaster, Agoniser - 73pts each
4x Troops - 5 Kabalites, Blaster - 50pts each
5x Transports - Venom, 2 Splinter Cannons - 95pts each
3x Heavy - Ravager, 3 Dark Lances - 155pts each
Total: 1286pts

Im not sure how good venoms are these days, there is a whole thread on the problems with splinter weapons this edition, splinter cannons especially on warriors are over costed. The minus one to ballistic skill for moving with the lances still seems worth it to me. And I've always taken raiders over venoms so perhaps I'm biased on this.

Thanks for the comments guys. Would you say the Trueborn unit is worth it at least? Regarding the dark lances on the raiders, I was thinking about doing that but am trying to build this with an eye to the long term. I thought that buying 3 ravagers and having them equipped with Dark Lances would free up the Raiders for something else - is that a fair assessment or is it better to equip the Raiders with Dark Lances too?

Thanks again!

@Diurach, I am starting out with DE as well (I'll be picking up my first models this week) and my lists seem to roughly the same as yours, with subtle differences. Piggy-backing on what the above posters have said, morale is rough this edition and DE with 5+ saves will die in droves, so I think 5-man squads are better. Raiders and venoms have their place, and you can get a character (or 2) in a raider with a 5-man kabalite squad w/blaster for a psuedo-blasterborn boat. I'm going to start with something like this (just as a reference, don't think this is 'better' than your list at all)

2x Archon w/blaster
3x5 kabalites w/blaster and sybarite w/blast pistol and PGL
5 trueborn 2/4 blasters
4 reavers - blaster, grav talon
Ravager - 3 lances
2x venoms stock
raider w/lance

So I think I'm going to take one of the raiders from a start collecting box and convert it to be a ravager to bring more lances to the list. Darklight seems to be the way DE can deal with just about anything this edition, so I tried to cram as much of it in there as I could. I'll have to be buying bits of blast pistols and blasters for sure, but I think I can make it work lol

Hope this helped

Yeah definitely, thanks!

I have been sat doing some serious reading and thinking over the last few days and, together with the help you guys have provided, this has led to a serious re-design of my 'ultimate' list - i.e. what I am aiming for. This list was intended to use the models I have, and this too is going to undergo some rethinking. At the minute I am in agreement that 5 man kabalite squads are the way to go. I'll be giving them a blaster each and that's it - cheap and cheerful! They are there to provide a solid core of splinter fire.

I can't really think how to use the rest of my models, although I am thinking that using the Reavers as a tar pit might be a good idea. What are your thoughts?

Ya reavers are a tad expensive for how flimsy they can be, so I'd say units of 3 or 6 either as harassers or tarpits (unit of 6 here) with exclusively blasters and grav talons, with maybe an agoniser on the champ. I'll be expanding with some scourge, mandrakes plus flyers and more bodies and boats Void raven is probably my fav model GW has come out with so I must have one of those, but razorwings are so good I might see myself getting a couple of those first haha

When you get your stuff built up let me know how some games go! I'll do the same boss