Campaign Tactics/tips needed

My gaming groups annual post Xmas campaign is looming so i thought i would ask for some tips and tactics to help me along.

I will be facing 7 Armies which i will list here along with any concerns i may have and what i will most likely facing for each so any help will be awesome

Grey Knights - Not too worried about these guys as I already have a decent record with them (3 wins, 3 draws, 2 loss)

Black Templars - see above altho my record with them is 1 win, 4 draws, 2 loss

Eldar - Never faced these guys before with any army so they are completely new to me. Not even read the codex yet but i am looking to be facing Jetbike Seer council, fire dragons in transports, an autarch and farseer and dire avengers......Really need some advice on this one.

Sisters of Battle - Only played these once as DE and one word scares me FLAMERS!!! Looking at Flamers in every squad (4 or 5 squads i think) St Celestine Oh and 3 Exorcists

Deamons - Tzeentch themed by all account so lots of horrors, 1 herald of Tzeentch and Fateweaver. 2 soul grinders aswell. Played these guys a lot as Tau and did ok but it will be my first outing with them as DE so any experiences you guys have will be helpful.

Salamanders - Am pretty ok with these guys will do the same for them as against GK and BT. But Vulken worries me slightly.....Twin linked Flamers!!! Plus hes hard as Nails

Ravenwing Dark Angels - There speed worries me as they can close with me just as quick as i can them and they are near enough all T5 or a landspeeder. Have played them twice and got tabled both times so Help is needed badly.


I will be fielding 40 Wyches in raiders, 5 Incubi and an archon in a raider, and 2 DL ravagers.

I think you are going to struggle with your list.

Against GK, BT and Ravenwing and probs the Sisters you will want to have some dissies (assuming their are terminators) The 6 DL will probs be enough, put 4 dissies on your other raiders. Your list isn't all that balanced I fear. You need to be able to put down a lot of splinter fire at these armies to weaken them pre-assault and you can't do this with your current list.

Ravenwing- I've played these guys 6 times now (1500 points), 4 wins 2 losses. And in this case you need 3 things 1) Plenty of warriors in raiders with nightshields and FF- splinter weapons rob these guys of their massive toughness 2) Reavers- some CC quicker then you anti tank- heat lance is a must and will be very helpful 3) A DL ravager and a Dissie ravager. DL for armour, dissie for thinning out their anti tank.
The worst thing to do is to assault them. They will hit + run you, you won't cause many wounds and he will hit you hard back. Mobility is key against this army.

As an old-eldar player- FEAR BLADESTORM If you get within 18" on foot of a dire avenger squad then you are mincemeat, that will be 40 shots wounding on a 3+ with no armour saves for you. And don't underestimate their cc potential. Keep mobile in raiders, use warriors to spam the seer council and troops. Bring lots of DL, take down the transports as quick as possible or those firedragons will turn your vehicles into slag- i would advise Nightshields and Flickerfields to prevent this- would at least give you a 5+ save. Seer council can only be effectivly taken down with lots of splinter fire and DL insta-kills. The farseer can also be painful if he uses doom and guide (re-roll all shooting and to wound on a unit). Your wyches will win in combat but you have to make sure that they are not in the open after- that would be catastrophic. DE vs E is usually a good fight, very similar armies- DE V.fast and hard hitting especially in CC/ AT, E- Fast, well protected and lots of shots.

For the Chaos army, personally Soul Grinders look big and scary but they aren't, don't worry about them. The issues will be flamers of Tzeentch and the horrors. If he deepstrikes well you might be in trouble, if not it could be very easy for you. Take horrors down in CC, they are not that good. Running everything in vehicles is also a good way of dealing with Chaos.

In conclusion, your list needs a few tweeks to make it competitive:
1) Swap 20 wyches for 20 Warriors with blasters and Splinter cannons
2) I would make sure your wyches have haywire grenades and put Dissies on their raiders, and DL on the warriors
3) Reavers may be useful in your army to have some rapid AT, personally I would swap them for the Incubi, you have a lot of Assault only units already and put the Archon with a wych squad.

If you can't change your list then you may struggle unless you get lucky/are a tactical genius. You might find that if you can get in close, and can chain together assaults you might grind the enemy down enough to win but certainly against the Ravenwing- this won't work. The other armies, getting close (aside from chaos) is the hard part and if you miss judge it you will get demolished. Best of Luck.

I was toying with the idea of some warriors so that can be changed, would 10 in a raider or 2 lots in venoms be better? I havent really used Warriors all that much so not that wise as to how they play.

The good thing is the guys i am playing against arent looking forward to facing so many Wyches as they know how good they can be so i should be able to use that to my advantage in the mind-game stakes just like a good Archon should .

Personally I prefer using 10 in raiders, I think 5 in venoms is better suited for Kabalite Trueborn squads. 10 in a raider is a great way of putting down firepower and protecting your warriors. If you can stretch to 2 squads of 10 I would do it, I think you will appreciate the added firepower

Scourges with Haywire blasters for Landraider Crusaders. Haywire grenades cam work too, but they're also potentially suicidal. Black Templar can field some pretty nasty lists against DE.

So I will drop 10 wyches for 10 warriors with a full load out ie Blaster and SC, and drop an incubi and swap the raider for a venom with extra SC. Does that make a bit more sense? plus i will have a few extra points to play with aswell

I like the standard 10 man with SC and Blaster in a Dark Lance Raider. It's good at putting out a points effective mix of anti-tank and anti-personnel.

me to, some extra firepower will always help

So my list roughly now will be

Archon + 4 incubi in a venom with SC, 30 wyches in raiders, 10 warriors in raider with blaster and SC, Dissies on the raider and 2 DL ravagers.

Thats still a lot of CC punch with a little extra supporting firepower will have to write out a full list and see what points that brings me up to

Dissie Razorwing, you mean? I run one of those in reserve, it usually earns its paycheck.

dissie razerwing is good, but if you can't get one/use one then I think that 3 dissies on raiders will be sufficient, if you can get one though, they are pretty effective

I'd take as many DLs as possible, no dissies ever on Raiders. Dark Lance open the vehicles, then kill the occupants with splinter fire/charges.

Maybe 6th edition will make Dissies more useful, since I have a feeling we'll see mech lists getting the nerfhammer.

Agreed with arrex. You have plenty of infantry killing potential in your list, DO NOT replace those lances with Disintegrators. The sole exception is the Warriors. 5 in a Venom with an extra cannon and a blaster is essentially the same cost as one 10 model squad with a decent weapon loadout before adding the Raider, and will cause almost as many wounds (may even cause more).

Daemons: lots of prior experience vs. these guys. Poisoned shooting is your friend, close combat less so but it can be done. Shoot anything that wants to engage, engage anything that want's to shoot. If possible, force your opponent to deep strike in a spread out position so you can rapidly relocate and consolidate your firepower into a more limited area. Use your skimmers as an extra set of armed wounds, even the Wyches should probably be firing out from the top unless you are dealing only with weaker shooting models. I'm sure you know that if Fateweaver is on the table, killing him first will make your job much easier, so DO IT. With all your lances and poisoned shots, it should be relatively easy compared to doing the same with many other armies.

Yeah I think these guys are right, looking back on it I think you do have enough anti infantry, I only suggested the dissies if you still didn't have much firepower, I still think that they may be useful against the marines but splinter-spam should be sufficient.