Starting up!

Hey guys!

I'm relatively new to dark eldar, I have collected them since the new book but I ended up selling them for a couple of reasons.

I started by not really reading through the book enough to grasp a concept of them and just brought them due to their awesome lookin models, silly mistake I know, I then went on to do awful with them, as my army had serious synergy problems.

The only army Ive ever played is orks, which I've done well with but now I want a challenge, and I wanted to go with a flexible shooty army, so I thought DE would be the way

So I don't make the same mistake again can I get some advice on how to build a 1500 pt army to start, with a decent amount of firepower, which I assume is mainly kabalite??

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks all

Weirdly the firepower comes from the viechles rather than the kabalites themselves, they still can add to it and are useful but you'll find a lot of firepower comes directly from the venoms, raiders and ravagers in most armies.

For building the army, i'd definitely invest in a couple of battleforces and at least 2 ravagers. If you're building the army up bit by bit then that's a much easier way of getting everything but those 2 things make a great foundations for an army to be built around.

This is a list which is based all around firepower, this is just a suggestion and it's easy enough to tweak by moving something and replacing them with others anyway here's a 1500pt shooty list

Archon - 95
- Clonefield, blaster

3 Blaster born - 146
- Venom w/second splinter cannon

3 Blaster born - 146
- Venom w/second splinter cannon

3 Blaster born - 146
- Venom w/second splinter cannon

5 Kabalites w/blaster - 125
- Venom w/second splinter cannon

5 Kabalites w/blaster - 125
- Venom w/second splinter cannon

10 Kabalites w/blaster and splinter cannon - 185
- Raider w/flickerfield

10 Kabalites w/blaster and splinter cannon - 185
- Raider w/flickerfield

Ravager - 115
- flickerfields

Ravager - 115
- flickerfields

Ravager - 115
- flickerfields

in terms of shots you're looking at
23 Dark Light shots
Between 68/72 Splinter cannon shots
24/48 splinter rifle shots

What it lacks in CC it more than makes up for in terms of pure firepower. I've run something similar to great effect as it puts out a lot of damage and is fast enough to move and then continue to pick off your opponent.

Like i said, this is just a list focussing solely on firepower, there are a number of goods builds out there and i'm sure others will be able to help you out as well

Don't just spam out the same units, it may be effective but it can be boring to play with/against. Try to make a list that you'll find enjoyable to play/win with. Dark Eldar don't do well in the open, keep most your troops in raiders/venoms. A good start would be to buy 2 venoms, 2 raiders, 2 ravagers. A couple of boxes of warriors, some wracks/wyches and you should be sorted!

AdaptUK0 wrote:

Don't just spam out the same units, it may be effective but it can be boring to play with/against. Try to make a list that you'll find enjoyable to play/win with. Dark Eldar don't do well in the open, keep most your troops in raiders/venoms. A good start would be to buy 2 venoms, 2 raiders, 2 ravagers. A couple of boxes of warriors, some wracks/wyches and you should be sorted!

If he's planning on playing competitvely then venom spam is probably the way to go. If however tournament play is not a consideration then I totally agree with your comment.

First off the question should be what models do you have already??? that would be a huge help.

My first advice to new comers is prepare to lose... alot. DE are a very finess army, even with the newer codex. Sure atleast now we can make mistakes and pull out a victory, but you can really make more than a couple. Your first few games will either be massacres of the enemy, or your own forces. But with time and experience you will start to get the hang of them, and start rolling with the best of the Archons.

As for a starter list I normally give them the Patented SR Starter Army!!! It goes like this

150- Archon w/ Huskblade, Soultrap, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs, Haywires
223- 9 Wyches w/ 1 Shardnet, Haywires, Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfield, Shock Prow
245- 10 Wyches w/ 2 Wych Weapons (your choice) Haywires, Hekatrix w/ Agoniser; Raider w/ Flickerfield, Shock Prow
190- 10 Warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfield, Splinter Racks
190- 10 Warriors w/ Blaster, Splinter Cannon; Raider w/ Flickerfield, Splinter Racks
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
78- 3 Reavers w/ Heat Lance
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfield
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfield
115- Ravager w/ Flickerfield

Total- 1499 points

This is easily put together with 2 Battleforces, 2 Raiders, 3 Ravagers, and an Archon Blister. It shows you what the strengths of DE is, and shows you what most of the basic units do. It also provides you a base to build from.

Again though this is for players without any models. If you have a ton of models, we might be able to make something better for you

This advice so far is extremely helpfull! I don't currently have any models at all so it's all from scratch! Can i just ask, why don't people like using razor wing jet fighters, or the pain engines??

I find that people don't tend to use Pain engine or Razorwings because they use up valuable points that could be spent on Ravagers. Three Ravagers with D.Lances and a couple of Wyches with Haywire Grenades is sufficient AT, leaving the rest of the army ready to massacre troops.

I, personally, have found the Talos to be a nice addition to my army, and I have a Razorwing that is yet to be tested. I purchased the Razorwing pretty much just for the awesome model, however.

I run a razorwing in my army, because it's awesome!
I'd like to run an army with 3 of them, because i can, maybe 2 and a bomber instead.

I think the reason the parasite engine doesn't see much love is because it's incredibly slow and that's a bad thing when it comes to such a fast flowing army like the DE. They can be made to work and that's awesome but there are just better options.

A razorwing can carry a tonne of AI but it suffers from like Cavash said, being pricey, A Venom and a Ravager combined come to just about 15pts more and for that you get your AI and AT.

If you can put enough anti tank in your army then a razorwing makes a great addition to help your anti infantry, it's just a matter of finding the balance

Yeah, parasite engines are nice, especially if you are going for a Fluff oriented army, but otherwise they ruin the lightning strike that the DEldar ar capable of. If deployed via WWP, however, I find that both the Pain and the Parasite Engines have their uses.

On the Razorwing however, I'm not too keen. I've overlooked the rules, and yeah, they are cool, but I would rather keep the rest of my army for infantry killing. That's why I'm not fond of having D.Lances in my Warrior Squads. I suppose, however, that if you had Scourges then a razorwing could be justifiable. I know that some people don't like Scourges, but I've found that they usually earn their points back. Having Scourges with a Razorwing could lead to quite a small, expensive army if you travel down that path, though.

A good balance is to take 2 ravagers and a razorwing, if you take wyches with haywires and stuff and put DL weapons where you can you end up with a use for it. The razorwing can annihilate large blobs thanks to its missiles and disintergrators.

Andy140491 wrote:

This advice so far is extremely helpfull! I don't currently have any models at all so it's all from scratch! Can i just ask, why don't people like using razor wing jet fighters, or the pain engines??

The reason being is the Ravager point for point is the best AT we have. On top of our basic transport (venom) being amazing at AI, and the Razorwing and Chronos both being AI... hurts them in the long run.

The Talos isnt used often because of it being a slower element than our skimmers. That doesnt mean they arent good, or that they cant be made useful in a all skimmer list, its just that you have to know what you are doing with it, and what to expect out of it. 1 talos in a raider rush list can be useful, but useually your better with just a Ravager