1000 PTS List

Greetings,

You might have seen i posted an earlier list to which i received no reply. Perhaps it was a bit too much text or it had simply been overlooked. None the less after alot of more reading about Dark Eldar tactics i decided to revise my list. I hope to receive a reply or some tips, wether or not i`m on the right path with these choices.

Archon - 180 points (added to The Court of the Archon)
Splinter Pistol, Huskblade, Ghost Plate, Combat Drugs, Shadow Field, Webway Portal


The Court of the Archon (including Dedicated Transport: Venom) - 140 points
Lhamaean x1
Meduasae x1
Sslyth x1
Ur-Ghul x1
Venom x1 (with 2 Splinter Cannons)


Haemonculus - 65 points (added to the Wyches)
Splinter Pistol, Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun


Wyches - 180 points (entering through the Webway Portal)
Wych with Haywire Grenades
Wych with Haywire Grenades, Shardnet and Impaler x2
Hekatrix with Haywire Grenades, Agoniser and Phantasm Grenade Launcher


Mandrakes - 160 points (will infiltrate to charge (heavy) ranged infantry from cover)
Mandrake x9
Nightfiend x1


Wracks - 145 points (entering through the Webway Portal)
Wrack x7
Wrack with Liquifier Gun x2
Acothyst with Scissorhand x1


Scourges - 130 points (entering through the Webway Portal)
Scourge x3
Scourge with Haywire Blaster x2


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That`s the list i have in mind, using the Archon and his Court to disembark from the Venom after having unleashed a salvo of Splinter Cannon poison, then place a Webway Portal, let the rest of the court shoot, eyeburst etc and then charge into combat. Having the Huskblade wound on 2+ because of Lhamaean should work really well against basically everything. The Venom however will need to start out the line of sight (should i not be so fortunate to start the first turn), or my entire tactic will probably fail.

The Mandrakes are there to quickly charge a ranged squad, preferrably a Heavy Weapon oriented squad. I`m placing them 13"/14" away from their desired squad, and if possible, in cover so i can benefit from Stealth. The Fleet rule should allow me to charge them, even if i throw a 1 on the D6 for running. I`m not counting on the Mandrakes to decimate these guys, but tying them up untill the Archon, Wyches or Wracks can join the fight, seems like a good choice, but please correct me if i`m wrong. Even if another squads helps the Mandrakes out, i`ll give them the paintoken for the Baleblast option.

After the Webway Portal has been planted (trying to keep in mind that those emerging from it should need to charge 13" to get in close combat with the enemy) i`ll place it accordingly, allthough my Wracks really should be able to use their Liquifier Guns before assaulting for extra casualties. The Wracks will count as my Shocktroopers and should get alot of attention from the enemy, since they have the potential to completely wreck a squad within one lucky turn.

The Wyches, armed with Haywire Grenades and accompanied by the Haemonculus, will first target vehicles to stunlock them, or the closest most threatening enemy with weapon that ignore armor saves. With feel no pain and their dodge move, they should hold on long enough for my Archon to charge in and mop it all up.

Last but, not least, the Scourges with the Haywire Blasters emerge from the Portal to quickly stunlock remaning vehicles, a role in which, according to mathhammer and because of the Haywire Blasters, they excel. All in all, i think this setup might be a great choice for a 1000 pts army, being very versatile and having an element of surprise, shock and ambush.

I could have taken the Incubi instead of the Court, but despite that all the Incubi are armed with Power Weapons, have higher strength and better saves, they court provides me with a 2+ on my Power Weapon, which seems kinda priceless, besides the fact that the Court is cheaper in point cost as well. The Sslyth and Ur-Ghul count as meat shields.

Instead of the Wyches, i could have chosen for 10 Kabalite Warriors hanging in the back with a Dark Lance, mounted in a Raider with a Dark Lance, but i`m affraid it will get blown to bits way to quickly. And the Wyches seem more versatile, because they can stunlock tanks and take a beating in melee combat, where as, due to their fragile nature, a small squad of 10 warriors is something i`d rather keep in the back, far enough to not be shot by Bolters and the like, but rendering their shooting range equally useless.

I could also have chosen to swap the Mandrakes for a Ravager, but i`d still have the feeling these devices are destroyed way too quickly. I`d rather go with the two squads, Wyches and Scourges, that can stunlock vehicles, which might eventually lead to a destroyed vehicle as well. I`m already happy if it can`t shoot

Well thats it, i appreciate any input!

Kind Regards,

Z405

Ok, first off weclome to the Dark City!!!

Secondly let me start by saying if you are trying to make a dedicated WWP list then you are far off. Let me go through each entry and explain.

First off we will start with the Archon. He isnt kitted out badly (except for the ghostplate, as if your shadowfield fails, that 4+ isnt going to save you) but a haemie makes a better WWP deployment model. the Reason being is the haemie just just cheaper, and when you start with nothing on the field except for a unit or two to deploy the WWP, they are almost always guarentee to die. Its just simple that a unit or two cant take the weight of an entire armies firepower. That is why most people use cheap units to deploy their WWP, like a haemie w/ WWP and 3 wracks in a venom, 180 points dont break the bank, and allow you to field all type of goodies for your list.

Next is the court. First off the Huskblade is not a poison weapon, so the Lhamaean does not make it a 2+ to wound. Actually the only poison weapons an Archon can get is a venom blade (which is 2+ already) and his base splinter pistol. She isnt bad persay (she is an Sybarite w/ a venom blade for way cheaper) but her ability just doesnt help.

Actually the whole court is a derp unit, just drop them and save yourself the trouble.

Your haemie isnt a bad option the problem is at 1k you really should only have 1 HQ, two just wastes points that could be used elsewhere. Also adding him to the wyches makes it so they cant fleet, which means those wyches arent a threat out of the WWP, which is really bad, as even with FNP they will get shot up easily.

Elites: Mandrakes are just terrible, dont use them... ever... They will not make up the points, and there are better things to tie up Devs and the like (like wyches out of a raider). Also they do not have assault grenades, which means if you assault out of cover (so you are in cover, and they are not) you still will be going last. Mandrakes just dont have the survivability to do anything. Just drop them and use those points elsewhere.

Troops: Wyches are ok out of a WWP, the problem being is that with the haemie they dont have fleet, which means they only have a 12" threat range out of the portal. A decent player will stay 13" away from the portal, and just shoot whatever comes out. That is the reason the only good troops coming out of the portal are those that are fast enough to make it into the safety of assault, and...

Wracks: Those that can take the punch and keep on moving. Wracks are excellent troops out of the the portal, the problem is they will probably never see assault. You will probably just trod these along to get onto an objective and call it a day. Its not a bad thing, just remember that you have to be careful with them.

FA: I like scourges, but if your going for a portal heat lances are better. Also the Ravager > Scourges anytime. Just remember that.


Ok, how I would make the list... lets see...

Drop the Archon, drop the Court, give the haemie the WWP, and make a squad of 3 wracks w/ venom to transport it.

Use the extra points to buff up the wyches to 15 atleast

Drop the mandrakes, add another squad of wyches or wracks

Drop the scourges, add atleast a Talos instead, a Ravager would be better

Thanks for the Welcome Shadows Revenge and your comments!

If i do not start the battle in the first turn, i`ll place my Venom in a good hiding spot, there`s got to be a useful location on the table where i can place it out of the enemies shooters. If i can manage that, there should be no problem at all, since i can then fly towards a location which still provides my Venom with cover, but most importantly allows the Archon to disembark, walk 6" towards the location where i want to plant the Portal and then charge into combat. That should work? There`s no real reason to asume that he`ll be killed right away if he jumps into melee combat when he has a couple of meat shields.

You`ve got a good point that a 4+ armor save isn`t going to help alot, though i envisioned the Archon to also help a battling hand with destroying regular (non HQ/Monstrous creature) troops and when the situation arises that my meat shield (Sslyth and Ur-Ghul) have perished, i could use the 4+ save, not wasting the Shadow Field on regular enemies, to which i accidentilly throw a 1 and lose the shield. I`d rather keep that shield for battling against HQ/MC units.

That being said, that is entirely focussed on my idea that the rule supplied by the Lhamaean (Misstress of Poisons) provided my Archon`s weapons with 2+ poison to hit rule. What i recall is that i read "all close combat and shooting weapons carried by the Lhamaean and the Archon she belongs to are upgraded to Poisoned. (2+)"

find it rather strange to provide Dark Eldar players with such a rule, when all it would do is give a useless Splinter Pistol a 2+ poison shot. I`ve read nowhere that i could only be applied to the Pistol as it sais "all" close combat weapons/shooting weapons. A poisoned Huskblade makes sense- negates his useless Strength of 3 and does not require me to take along a Soultrap in hopes of doubling my Strength after i finish of an IC. That`s way too many "if`s" for me

Why else would one be tempted to take the Court, if not for this ability alone...

The Haemonculus not having fleet and thus slowing down the entire Wych unit is indeed something that i`ve overlooked, allthough, i could very keep this in mind when placing the Webway Portal, to make sure it is placed within 12" of that which i want to charge. Have to say that even when opting to run, there`s always the chance you do not roll enough to actually go the distance, making running in itself, a risky feature that i wouldn`t use very quickly, unless i only need to cover 1" or 2" to be honest.

Have to sadly agree though that the Mandrakes needs some love, attacking with an initative of 1, kinda takes out there mild awesomeness. The only thing remaning are their looks, which mean nothing if they can`t perform. So but if i get this correctly, even when charging out of cover towards units that are not in cover, i still attack at an initative of 1 without any form of grenades?

Considering my Webway Portal tactics might be flawed due to no experience with Dark Eldar, i`m under the impression that i`d better use a Raider, a couple of them actually, but the only problem would be that these are so damn squishy. Chances are just as well, that the Raider with the Wracks will get blown to bits due to lack of cover in my deployment zone and then they`re just as useless or even more useless than when i let them enter through a portal.

About the Scourges, i was under the impression that those Haywire Blasters do a great job of stunlocking enemy tanks as the chances to make sure of this are pretty high, even at 24" while using the melta function of the Heat Lance, requires me to stand within 9" of a tank, while i`d personally try to keep those Scourges away from possible danger as far as i can.

Well thats all in theory though...

edit - Damnit, you`re right, i completely overlooked that it sais all POISONED weapons and not all weapons. Well that effectively makes the court completely useless :/

back to the drawing board.

Double Post merged - Baron T

You must aways use your best possible save. You cant pick and choose as you feel fit.

Allright, i made a new list. My goal is, while finding it important to have a list which is challenging and useful, it`s also important to me to have a list with a large variation in different types of units so that is visually appealing to me. Might be weird to some, but the painting aspect and the beautifully detailed models play an important role to me. I even detest playing on crap looking tables with crappy scenery...


1 Archon 200 points
Huskblade, Haywire Grenades, Soul-Trap, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow Field, Webway Portal

1 Haemonculus 70 points
Mindphase Gauntlet, Liquifier Gun

4 Incubi; 1 Venom 153 points
2 Splinter Cannons

9 Wracks; 1 Acothyst 145 points
2 Liquifier Guns
1 Scissorhand

10 Kabalite Warriors; 1 Raider 180 points
1 Splinter Cannon
1 Disintegrator Cannon
1 Night Shield
1 Flickerfield

5 Scourge 130 points
2 Haywire Blasters

Ravager 125 points
3 Dark Lances

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Despite being advised only to take 1 HQ choice due to the relatively small army, i can`t resist taking both the Archon and the Haemonculi. I just had to pick the Archon, but also need to outfit him accordingly. Everything has it`s purpose though, and also while advised to provide the Haemonculus with a Webway Portal, i just want to add that guy to a full Wrack unit which emerges from a portal, making use of 3 Liquifier Guns, i`ll have to keep in mind that placing this Portal should be close enough to hopefully multiple squads, otherwise, i won`t be able to use those Liquifier Guns if my Archon is in melee combat with the only squad nearby. (could decide not to get him in melee combat, but that just gives him a big -shoot me- sign over his head).

Even though i`ve been hinted that the Archon, being the only one to have the Webway Portal at hand, might be killed as soon as possible, i`m willing to test this, because with 4 sturdy Incubi meat shields and tactically placing the Venom out of sight untill i can at least move one turn and disembark, i`m pretty confident that i can have the Archon use the Webway Portal.

The Ravager in the background serves a logical anti-tank/vehicle role, though i`m not to sure about its surviveability, but i guess thats just part of playing Dark Eldar. The glass cannon effect. The Raider gunship will fulfill an anti-infantry role as well as killing anything trying to get closer to both the Ravager and the Raider itself. Still, as well as with the Ravager, the Raider won`t probably last that long itself either, so i`ll try to pick my battle carefully on a table which provides me with more than enough cover.

The Wracks and the Scourges are the ones that are going to emerge from the Portal. Placing the portal in a strategic location should help alot with getting the Scourges as soon as possible where i need them, well, if the Reverve dice throws turn out right. I armed the Scourges with Haywire Blasters, because they are one of the few units that can take them and i like how they work, besides, in such small point based armies, i doubt i will run into a lot of tanks, but to somewhat counter that, if only a little bit, i gave the Archon the Haywire Grenades as well.

Well thats it, might not be the best list, but i think it will keep me and my enemy amused...

lol yup the court is useless

As for your Archon dying. Remember he is an IC, and can have attacks directed at him. This isnt bad persay as you have a 2++, the problem is that he wont die in combat, but from the torrent of fire that he will recieve since him and his unit are the only thing on the board at the start. If you go first, he is going to open his portal, and then die to gunfire. Its just law of averages that he will fail one save sooner or later, or he will still have one member of the court alive, and you will fail your morale, having both run away.

And like Baron said, you always have to use your best save allowed.

Yes, if you charged out of cover into open terrain without grenades, you go at I1

Scourges w/ Haywires are good, but the difference here is that you have the ability to get those heat lances close enough to melta something (half distance, so 9") also, you have no way to kill tanks. Sure those scourges can stunlock all day, the problem is when you fight someone at 1k that is in 4 razorbacks, your not going to have the ability to get them out. You need something that can crack armor, as armor is now pretty much the only way to play this game (unless you are playing Orks, Nids, Daemons, or Blob IG)

Hmm Shadows Revenge, there`s one thing i don`t quite understand. The following sequence:

Wether or not i can begin the first turn, i`m assuming my Venom can be placed out of sight so that i cannot be targetted the first turn. Also, along with the Venom, there will be both a Raider and a Ravager deployed, so he won`t be the only thing to shoot at. (at least, not with the new list i posted above your reply )

In my turn i will move the Venom to the point where i can disembark and drop the Webway Portal (which is done in my shooting phase if i recall the rules correctly) and then directly charge into melee combat. I`m not sure when or how my Archon could be targetted out of anything else or are you referring to the melee combat itself, because i was under the impression that, as a unit, i can have my Incubi play the role of a meatshield while ofc dealing out some nasty dmg themselves.

The Scourges are now supported by the Ravager, assuming it will survive long enough to experience the Scourges emerging from the portal in the first place, but the Ravager can destroy while the Scourges stunlock. The only important thing now is for me to drop the Webway Portal in the correct location so that the Wracks + Haemonculi can charge and the Scourge can jump within 24" to begin the stunlocking. At least, thats all in theory ofc.