New to Dark eldar

Hey guys!,

As the title states, im new to dark eldar as well to this forum so its good to meet you all!

Ive been collecting orks most of the time ive been in gamesworkshop, which is to say around 7 - 8 years, but ive not actually played that many games.

ive recently started playing and ive found orks to be abit tiresome; after spending so long with them i wanted to try something abit more 'exotic'

so here i am at commorragh's door!

Ive brought myself

Archon
5 incubi (models look so awesome )

10 kabalite warriors
10 wyches

1 raider
1 venom

1 razorwing jetfighter

i know its only a start, but i needed abit of help with the general dark eldar tactica, i know its a veterans army, and unfortunately with me being abit sketchy with the new rule book im not entirely sure on some of the dark eldars rules .

Ive heard somewhere that dark eldar tanks are more durable then id thought?,. i know poison weapons are decent and little rules like that. but its the army as a whole im struggling to grasp?

My main armies i fight are Eldar, Tyranids, and Necrons.

Can someone help me out with a future 1000 - 1500 point list?

thanks for any help in advance!

Well 1st of all... Welcome! Glad you finally ditched the green buggers.

2nd of all, your 1st post as a Dark Eldar Archon is wrong. You're asking fellow backstabbing generals to help you out... Just kidding.

I personally find these type of questions a bit generic and never really have an answer. But i'll try to answer to little questions in between you've posted.

Wrong, Dark Eldar do not have tanks, we have paper plains good sir. Expect your Raiders and Venoms to explode in turn 1 or 2 and you'll be fine. As long as it's deadly cargo is delivered you won't mind. With more durable I think people mean the 4+ cover save when you go flat-out, or the flickerfield (5++) and the nightshield (screw up their ranges). Plus it's less of a deathtrap than before. When they explode, they only confer a S3 hit (instead of S4), so usually 3/4th of your Wyches survive.

Poisoned weapons are indeed a very nice touch of mister Kelly. But it can also work against us. Our Splinter Cannnons hit the foolish-brethren (Craftworld Eldar) on a 4+ despite the fact that it's S4 against T3. But they kill their Wraithguard (T7) on a 4+ too! This army is all about remembering your pro's and con's.

Now about your army list. I personally think that a good DE player can pick anything from the codex and still make it work, that's how good of a dex I think we have. I don't know if my fellow DE players agree with me, but that's how I see it. As long as you keep your AI and AT balance in check ofcourse. So I'd say, pick any miniature you fancy and go with it. Just make sure you end up with enough AI versus AT.

Now if you want tutorials on how to fight each individual army, I'm sure we have threads about that somewhere in the Dark City. Sorry, my mind is too cluttered with inflicting pain right now... Can't find it.

Good luck and have fun!

I made you quick and easy generic Kabal roster.

https://rapidshare.com/files/438972267/Generic_Kabal_1500_points.pdf

You are gonna need 1 more Warrior Box, 3 more venoms , 2 more Ravagers and some special weapons for warriors.

Quote :

Ive heard somewhere that dark eldar tanks are more durable then id thought?,. i know poison weapons are decent and little rules like that. but its the army as a whole im struggling to grasp?

Army is very simple to describe, we are fastest army of all , we are very fragile , we have good amount of high strengh AV weapons, which are good at killing tough targets and bad at killing lot of medium armored targets. We have best and cheapest long range anti-infantry in the form Poisoned Splinter Cannon , which we can bring in abundancy. Poisoned weapon wound on a fixed number , so the more tough and expesnive living target we fire, the more effective it is. Say hello to Tyranids. Poisoned atack dont do crap against armor.

Therefore tactics for beginner is simple - learn how to neutralise things that can hurt our paper planes , learn how to destroy enemy mobility so we can dictate our way of killing , learn how to force enemy from their tranports so our poison weapons can mulch em. In that order.

Have solid counter atack melee units. Thats it for the beginner.

Do not try to play them like marines. I have seen people do this several times and it always ends badly, usually with them saying "DE suck". For the most part, we are not a "sit in midfield and camp" army. We have open topped skimmer transports for a reason.

Read the articles here and on 3++ is the new black, some very good stuff.

Welcome to the Dark City. With your available models this is a good start:

Archon - PGL, (other gear)
4 Incubi mounted in venom with dual cannon

10 Wyches, HWG, Hex with agon 2 wych weapons mounter in raider (with FF)

10 Warriros, BL, DL

Razowing, FF, Splinter cannon

This list is about 833pts and its not that shabby. You can expand it with a variety of different things, the key is play testing...

Thanks for all the help so far, really appreciate it. So massed poisoned weapons deal with most infantry... and with the anti - tank weaponry available we can take out most vehicles.

Think is.... as i said with the overall rules. im a tad sketchy with main rules.... say if the necrons doomsday ark wants to fire its str 9 , ap 2 ord blast at my razorwing, venom or raider.... he'd hit me on a scatter, if it hits, it needs a 1 to glance and a 2 to penetrate with a range of like 60? how do avoid something like that.

You dont get cover saves from blasts? so my vehicles moving wont help me. and when i played the necron player with my orks, he hid the ark behind a bunker, and claimed he still had line of sight because its a skimmer?

How far can i move my raiders with all my guys inside still being able to shoot? and does it count them inside as stationary? or does it count them as moving as well ( for the rapid fire rule )

why do people seem to take kabalite warriors in units of 5? and are reavers worth taking with a heat lance?

thanks for all your help

1) With things like the Doomsday Ark, you pray to the Dark Muses that he scatters far enough for the template to NOT have the hole over your model, since that will halve the strength of the shot (rounded down, in this case to str 4, which isnt that dangerous)
2) Yes, you CAN get Cover saves from Blast Weapons - Flat Out saves always apply, except against flamer-type weapons (which are usually low enough strentgh to not be THAT dangerous to us) - however, in case you're trying to claim cover, it needs to be between the fireing model, and your raider/ravager/whatever to apply, same as always (i have seen people claim cover is determined from the centre of the blastmarker...)
3) Skimmers doesnt automatically have Line of Sight - 40k uses True Line of Sight, so if the model cant see, then it cant see, regardless of unit type. So you got cheated
4) If you want to fire with your passengers, you can only move at Combat Speed (1-6") - however, you can move up to 12", disembark and THEN shoot - but as soon as the Raider moves, the unit has moved, and therefore counts as moving (so Dark Lances in Raider-mounted Warrior units are kinda crap)
5) Kabalites are usually taken in units of 5 for one simple reason - being a Blaster Platform. Kabalites are pretty much only useful for carrying a Blaster around, and usually mounted in a Venom with the 2nd Splinter Cannon
6) I personally dont like Reavers, but if i were to use them, i would propably take them with a Blaster, which is more useful at range - for the Heatlance to be more effective, you need to get so close that if you pop a transporter with the lance, youll most likely get assaulted by whatever it carried in the next turn

I just posted a lengthy talk about reavers in this very forum!

The more i play my dark eldar, the move i move to a shooty force. I don't use wyches anymore and apart from the incubi and the duke, its all shooty.

DE excel at the shoot and scoot game with waves of fire torrenting things away.

if the necron player is using the DD Ark thank your lucky stars! For the same price he could have 2 anniahlation barges - thay are a real worry! As the ark can not move and fire with its nasty shot and needs LOS (you got robbed) its not scary at all. You simple leave it with little or nothing to shoot at by being more mobile and when he does have LOS by moving its the average shot, not the nasty one. Then you waste it with lance fire as a single weapon destroyed result maeks it worthless.

Remember you get your 4+ cover save for flat out if you move that far against everything except template weapons (the tear drop one) or failing that the 5++ flickerfield save which ALL vehicles should have.

welcome to the dark kin!!!

A good starter 1500 point list I wrote along time ago that I suggest most DE newbies try out is this:

SRs Patent Pending New Player List

150- Archon w/ Huskblade, Soultrap, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, Haywires
223- 9 Wyches w/ Haywires, 1 Shardnet, Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
245- 10 Wyches w/ Haywires, 2 Gauntlets (or two razorflails), Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
190- 10 Warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
190- 10 Warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfields, Shock Prow
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfields

Total: 1499

Its 2 Battleforces, 3 Ravagers, and 1 Archon blister. It also is a very balanced list and can be taken several ways when you start getting used to playing. Its not that competitve, but it helps you learn and lets you uses multiple different things that are important for DE forces.