New to Warhammer 40K

My name is Stephen and I have done a lot of different RPG's before and am venturing into 40K. I chose the Dark Eldar because they are in and out quickly and deadly. The more pain inflicted the greater their power, but I am still learning their true tactics and Army make up. I believe that they fit me better than any other race out there. I have not bought any miniatures yet, but am looking to buy soon. A buddy has a necron army that I will fight, and he has been doing this for a while, but he knows little of the Dark Eldar. Any help from the forum would be greatly appreciated and welcomed.

Hi there Stephen, my names Mitch ive been playing 40k for nearly 8 years now, and ive probably collected all of the races at some point, and so id love to help you with tactics, as dark eldar are my favourite race to game with!! (ive collected Necrons too, but they didnt last as long)

What would you like advice on?

I was looking to put together an army, but was unsure of what worked well together. I was looking at: Haemonculus, (2) pain engines, (3) Grotesques, (10) Wracks, (10) Scourges, and (5) Mandrakes. Do these work well together or should I go for more conventional units? Also I know that the units are a close combat tactic units, but what do they have for ranged combat? Is there a better configuration for an army? Thank you for the response.

ahh well, this is a problem i also faced when i planned my haemonculi coven. the choice to have three haemonculi as one hq choice is a big help, as you need to start the game with as many pain tokens as possible for that all important feel-no-pain roll.

Id recommend taking a haemonculus ancient tooled up with the rarer objects (such as a webway portal or dark gate) and two cheap haemonculi given basic fairly basic upgrades (stinger pistol, venom blade etc.) with perhaps on cool thing each (casket of flensing, shattershard). this means you can put the two lesser hq's in units of wracks to award them wih the pain tokens, and mount them in raiders or venoms depending on the size of wrack units. It also means that should those haemonculi be destoyed its no biggie as they were fairly low costing.

While kabalites and wyches are great troops choices, when you take haemonculi wracks become troops too, and due to their starting pain token, they can withstand surprising amounts of fire when on an objective (remember you need to take two units of troops at least to have a legal army). adding in the poisened close combat weapos and haemonculi joined to the unit they can be nasty in assault too.

Elites wise, id avoid madrakes if your just starting out. in the latest codex, they are very flukey and more often than not get shot to peices very early on, or simply fail to have any real effect on the game.

Scourges i would highly recommend. They can get a bit points pricey, but havent let me down yet. what i will say is tailor the squad to a certain role. (shardcarbines are very anti-infantry, making the squad shock troops, whereas a heat lance or blaster are very powerful tank hunting tools. Decide what you want the unit to do before you equip them)

On a fianl note, i have a NASTY tactic to keep those pesky necrons on their toes. When you read up on the Webway portal rules, it states vehicles cannot be deployed via webway portal... good thing neither pain engines are vehicles huh Tool up a talos for combat, and have a chronos follow it through the webway portal and those necrons have two very Large, very nasty models in their face!! if the grotesques follow with the haemonculus ancient joined to the unit they will really hit the nail into their shiny coffins too.


This is merely how id run a haemonculus list. Lots of wracks in raiders, and a couple of specialised units to do anything the wracks cant handle.

Welcome to Commorragh.

I would drop the Mansrakes and get a Squad of Wyches with one of your Haemonculi attatched to make them more resiliant. Also, if you are determined to have an army that is majorly Coven then I would suggest having at least one Ravager with Dark Lances for AT. I definately agree with the Scourges, they can earn their points back easily.

I have never tried that tactic with the Talos. Thank you for the idea, twin-Souls.

If there is anything else you need advice on, don't be affraid to ask. We have some real DEldar veterans here.

Did the rules for mandrakes change with the updates of the codex? Are they not as good as they used to be? I thought that they would be good in the role of scouts or something?
I will re-look at what I was going to get, and I will have to do some more reading on the rules for the web portal or dark gate. Again thank you for the help on putting together an army.

Why is it that when there is something fun to get into it is expensive? I am not sure how well I will do at painting the figures, but I will do my best to make them look good.

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t2965-old-vs-new-battle-of-the-mandrakes

This may help. Nothing personal against Mandrakes, but I hate their rules, I hate their models, I hate their weapons and I hate their skin trousers. So, nothing personal.

I just see them as a waste of points. You could buy nicer, more sparkly things instead.

Welcome to the Dark City. A sensible man if he who chooses the Dark Eldar, glad to have you aboard.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dark_Eldar_Tactica_Part_1 < Follow this link for possibly the best way to start. This will give you a lot of useful information and allow you to make your own informed decisions on what you'd like in your army. I look forward to seeing what you come up with

New mandrakes aren't that great.

You'd be better with an ancient + 2 haemonculi, 2-3 units of wracks, talos/cronos nastyness and some grotesques. Essentially run a large stompy army. your only issue would be dealing with tanks/armor. For that you could have scourges as they fit the haemy theme but twould be fragile.