Need advice on building an army to fit modeling & lore (rejoining for 9th)

Greetings! I've recently decided to get back into 40k after sitting out most of 7th and all of 8th edition. I sold off my Space Elves army a couple years ago, and I want to rebuild it. The lore is that they are a corsair fleet comprised of remnants of a destroyed craftworld. I really love the Drukhari kits, so I use a lot of Kabalite and Wych bodies and weapons with some Craftworlds and fantasy bits tossed in. I love to kitbash and convert, so that's my main focus. RULE OF COOL always!

The problem I'm having is deciding how to run them. Currently I have about 10 models built that could be easily run as Guardians/Dire Avengers or Kabalites, and about 10 that I could say are Storm Guardians/Wyches or whatever. I bought a Drukhari Start Collecting box and a Raider before really thinking about this much...

- First, I want to build a couple forces to introduce the game to some friends and family, and I know the whole drugs and torture thing WILL NOT go over well with a few people.
- Second, I played a pretty defensive Eldar force in 6th with lots of psychic buffing and kiting. I think Power From Pain sort of works for this, but I certainly will miss the psychic phase.
- THIRD (And this one is important)!!! I currently built my Dire Avenger/Kabalites with splinter rifles. Back in the day, everyone was very WYSIWYG and I don't want to cause confusion if I go take this army to the LGS and play.

Anyone have thoughts? Should I just make a soup force or go Ynnari? I like the look of the triumvirate but I usually avoid named characters.

We have a new book coming out in a couple months (6-9 weeks maybe? might get pushed back 2 weeks b.c of Covid) so i would for sure wait to build anything that isn't generic for now.

For now just get an HQ of each, some troops, and some transports, get them at least built and primed while you wait. DE will always need HQ, troops, and transports (a couple venoms and a Raider is fine).

amishprn86 wrote:

We have a new book coming out in a couple months (6-9 weeks maybe? might get pushed back 2 weeks b.c of Covid) so i would for sure wait to build anything that isn't generic for now.

For now just get an HQ of each, some troops, and some transports, get them at least built and primed while you wait. DE will always need HQ, troops, and transports (a couple venoms and a Raider is fine).

Pretty much this. I wouldn't lean too much on a theme yet, but there are "core units" which you will want regardless.

As for your questions:
1) If you want to show off some nice minis which are "safe for work", I would recommend to just build some stock Incubi, Scourges and Reavers.
2) If you want a more durable playstyle, you really want a heavy-Coven army. But if you really want Psychic Powers you can of course go Ynnari for psychic power access. But I think you don't need to decide this up-front.
3) Don't think this is a huge issue. As long as you are not mixing Craftworld and DE detachments I don't see why this could cause confusion. Especially if you are going for Craftworld aesthetics in general.

Awesome! Thanks for the input!!

A few tips on presenting Drukhari that are family friendly:
Paint Wyches in leotards. They are lithe, balletic, and so wear costumes like dancers in The Lion King.

Combat Drugs are actually just a game mechanic, so write out your stats with the numbers modified, and simply don't mention why the Wyches are S4, the Hellions an extra attack etc.

Any other pain/torture mechanics can be attributed to Zen warrior prayers, the adrenalin of battle, or maybe cybernetic enhancements with battle data pouring in from the fight giving them better attack information or boosted confidence.

I personally have a Proxy army of Raging Heroes humans with steampunk robots as Coven, and don't think of my army as Eldar or sadists; I just use C:Dr as the best fit for the sort of army and playstyle I like.
Coming up with new crunch to explain why your army is different is the most fun part or running non-standard armies, so have fun with it!

I like this idea! It's difficult to do. I would just like to not alienate my conservative people...