1000pts Dark Eldar list

Well, in a weeks time I shall be participating in my first 6th edition tourney against 4 friends of mine. They are all Imperium players and I hope to show them the true terror of the Dark Eldar! The tourney will be 1000pts and feature several games in which we play off against each other with the best players proceeding through to the next round and then the final. It has been described a a relaxed, friendly way to help us all get into 6th ed but with the inclusion of potential prizes, I would be surprised if it didn't end up rather competitive. 2 of them play Imperial Guard, one running a pure infantry list, probably with an ADL and the other I would imagine to be a pretty standard Guard list, likely with the inclusion of a Deathstrike Missile Launcher but I doubt to see any flyers. There is also a Blood Angel player who, if his previous games are anything to go by, will be using a squad of tooled up Death Company with a Chaplain supported by Assault Marines. The last player will be using Space Marines but aside from that, I don't know what his list will include.

My proposed list is thus:

HQ
Haemonculus with venom blade and liquifier gun

Troops
10 Kabalite Warriors with blaster and splinter cannon
Raider with dark lance

10 Kabalite Warriors with blaster and splinter cannon
Raider with dark lance

9 Wyches with shardnet and impaler, haywire grenades, Hekatrix with agoniser
Raider with dark lance

Heavy Support
Ravager with 3 dark lances

Ravager with 3 dark lances

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 disintegrator cannons, splinter cannon, 4 monoscythe missiles and flickerfield

TOTAL
998pts

The Haemonculus joins the Wyches but stays in the Raider when they jump out, giving them the Pain Token to help them survive Overwatch. The Haemy can then fly around liquifying things.

I'm not sure whether to drop the splinter cannon on the Razorwing and a Wych to give the Raiders the Kabalites are in splinter racks. I'm also considering swapping the dissies on the Razorwing out for lances in case a flyer does turn up and I don't have to hope I can roll 6s with my Ravagers.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Just one thing
Your only really effective tool against ennemie's Flier is the Razorwing ... and that's where you put dissies !!
Why don't you switch it for DL ? you can still replace 1 to 3 on one ravager if you feel like you really need those Dissies ( but imo you need that AT still )

Yeah, that's what I was thinking so I'll do that. If Termies show up hopefully mass poison backed up by dark lances should deal with them. I gave the Razorwing dissies as its role seems more geared up for slaughtering infantry but I do need a bit of anti-air. I wasn't aware that you could mix dark lances and dissies on Ravagers, I thought it was all or nothing? Either way, I'll be keeping them with lances for tank hunting. I think you're right in that I could do with a bit more anti-tank whereas my Kabalites and Razorwing's missiles can deal with infantry.

What do you think about dropping the splinter cannon on the Razorwing and the shardnet on the Wyches for splinter racks on the Raiders?

Oh, and I just found out that the player I assumed would be using an infantry Guard list will instead by using Grey Knights.

I managed to have a quick game with this list today so I'll post a brief battle report tomorrow.

You seem to have plenty of darklight shots, so what about putting disintegrator to the wych Raider - it will not stay back for shooting, and if it survives the transpot, the Dissie is better against rear armor (which can now reach with ease) than DL, not to mention against the marines/termites.

Goran wrote:

You seem to have plenty of darklight shots, so what about putting disintegrator to the wych Raider

You can never have too many darklight shots...

But seriously though, considering that the blasters are tied up into a gunboat squad... that dark lance is kinda needed

I appreciate the comments guys.

Shadows Revenge wrote:

You can never have too many darklight shots...

But seriously though, considering that the blasters are tied up into a gunboat squad... that dark lance is kinda needed

True, very true...

Yeah, I could do with some more long range anti-tank, those blasters may not always be in and the Wyches can only be in so many places at once.

Now, onto that mini-batrep I promised.

It was against Chaos Space Marines with 2 squads of Plague Marines loaded up with Plasma in Rhinos, a squad of Chaos Space Marines on bikes with a meltagun and a Chaos Lord with mark of Nurgle, Daemon Weapon and bike.

Mission was Big Guns Never Tire with Hammer and Anvil deployment but we were playing on a 4'x4' board so it was basically pitched battle. His Warlord trait conferred a penalty to my reserve rolls while I got Night Fighting. 5 objectives and he won the roll off for placement, giving him 3 in his half while I got 2 in my half, all deployed in or behind terrain, of which there was quite a lot (mostly ruins). Drugs gave the Wyches an additional Pain Token. After he deployed I placed most of my units far enough way to be safe thanks to Night Fighting although I left the Wych unit further forward to try and draw him forward and into what I hoped would be a killing field. I failed to seize the Initiative.

He kept 1 Rhino back with its squad disembarked on an objective while his other squad moved forward onto another objective. The bikes moved forward toward the Wyches. He got some lucky rolls while I rolled poorly and the Raider and all but 3 Wyches were blown apart. The Wyches managed to retreat while I moved everything else forward, killing a few bikers but little else. The Haemy advanced to draw his Lord into the open, which he did in his turn, leaving the unit and killing the Haemy with ease while his meltagun in the bike squad immobilised a Ravager but little else happened. The Razorwing failed to arrive. Finally being able to get the best lines of sight and bring all my guns fully to bear, I killed his Lord and all of the bikers. Aside from one Kabalite Squad losing their Raider, I managed to survive mostly unscathed in his turn. The Razorwing arrived and failed to kill the Plague Marines camped on the closer objective but 1 monoscythe scattered onto the Rhino and removed a hull point. My immobilised Ravager then finished the job. His other Rhino was reduced to 1 hull point and lost its gun. My rapid firing Kabalites had more success than the Razorwing and reduced the closest Plague Marines to 2 models. His turn involved throwing his damaged Rhino forward at the disembarked Kabalites and trying to get out of line of sight. Thanks to my manoeuvrability though, he was unable to escape and the last 2 Plague Marines were felled while the footslogging Kabalites moved towards the as yet unclaimed objective. The Razorwing moved forward to his back table edge, firing at his last squad but to no effect. The Rhino was finally taken out by a dark lance although it exploded, killing a few Kabalites. My still mobile Ravager and 3 remaining Wyches held 2 objectives to his 1. In his turn the Plague Marines rolled a double 6 with their plasma gun against my Razorwing and took it down but that was it. The Kabalites on foot grabbed 1 objective while the Kabalites in the Raider claimed the one his Plague Marines had been holding. I killed a few Plague Marines from his last squad in my shooting phase. At the end of that turn I was firmly in control of the board and he surrendered.

So there we go. My plan seemed to work and although I took an early scare with most of the Wyches, Haemy and a Raider going down and a Ravager being immobilised, I was able to hit back hard and keep the momentum going. I'm happy with how this list plays and will keep everything with dark lances although I'm still undecided on whether to drop the Razorwing's splinter cannon and the Wyches' shardnet for splinter racks. I'll try and get another game in tomorrow, using the splinter racks and see how I do.

Ok, I think I'll be finalising this list today.

I had another couple of games yesterday using the splinter racks. The first game was a complete disaster while the second game was a slaughter.

The first game was against Imperial Guard. Purge the Alien with Dawn of War deployment. Neither of our Warlord traits were useful at all and I got +1 attack from drugs. It was night fighting turn 1 and I deployed second, using all available cover and Shrouded from night fight to get 2+ cover saves on my vehicles. I failed to seize and was subject to the full fury of an Imperial Guard shooting phase. I hoped my 2+ cover would help me weather the storm but it wasn't so when I rolled multiple 1s, resulting in a Ravager, the Wyches' Raider and 6 Wyches being blown apart. Not a great start. I advanced with what I had left but my dark lances failed miserably to damage his Leman Russ while he made all but 2 of his cover saves against my splinter fire. For the next 2 turns, my Razorwing failed to arrive while I quickly ran out of dark lances and my splinter fire was just unable to cause telling casualties. In desperation, after all I had left on the board was a Raider with Kabalites inside and a few more Kabalites fleeing off the board, I threw my 10-man squad into combat against a squad of Veterans who proceeded to beat me in combat and run me down. I then promptly lost the Raider and the Kabalites ran off the board but thankfully the Razorwing arrived automatically, saving me from an auto-loss from having nothing on the board. I managed to almost wipe out the Veterans who had killed my Kabalites in assault and survived return shooting. Unfortunately I was forced to fly over the squad, unable to finish them off. The game then ended, 10-0 to the Imperial Guard. Not great.

In contrast, the next game was infinitely more successful. Playing against Blood Angels, The Relic was the scenario and Dawn of War was the deployment. His Warlord trait gave him nothing of note while I got night fighting for mine and the Wyches got +1 attack again. I deployed first, rather cautiously after the last game and he failed to seize the Initiative. My first turn began with the Ravagers hanging back in a corner while the Wyches went down a flank, supported by Kabalites towards the centre. Normally, I go straight for The Relic but was very much aware all his squads had clear line of sight to it and his Death Company and The Sanguinor could be there equally quickly. I commenced the shooting phase by focus firing on the Death Company with the Ravagers, able to pick out and quickly eliminate the Chaplain along with a couple of other members. The Kabalites fired at his combat squad with the multi-melta overlooking the objective, causing 5 wounds, of which he failed 4, including the multi-melta. Remaining shots went at the Sanguinor who passed his saves. The Death Company and Sanguinor advanced while the lone surviving Tactical Marine got out of line of sight behind a wall and his other combat squad supported the Sanguinor, who then attempted to charge the Wyches' Raider but failed due to difficult terrain and lost 2 wounds from the Wyches' and Haemy's overwatch. My Razorwing turned up and, along with the Ravagers and a Kabalite Squad, finished off the Death Company. The other Kabalites killed the Sanguinor. The Wyches assaulted the combat squad, at which point my opponent surrendered. The game was over in 20 minutes with the Dark Eldar easily winning.

I don't think I've ever had 2 games in the same day in which the dice so clearly favoured one side over the other and the results were so different.

So, in response to this, I think I shall indeed swap out the shardnet and splinter cannon for splinter racks. I've yet to see the Wyches get into combat other than against a combat squad so no comment there. The splinter cannon on the Razorwing was rarely used, instead favouring 2 missiles and the dark lances, and when it was used, caused little impact so I've no issue dropping that. The splinter racks also helped a great deal in the second game, adding a great deal of potency to their shots. Notably when every single rapid-firing splinter rifle shot hit the Sanguinor thanks to the re-roll, taking him down and further more against the combat squad and Death Company. In the heat of battle, many people seem to forget about being able to overwatch with the passengers out of an open-topped vehicle so hopefully the splinter racks will give anyone assaulting my gunboats a nasty surprise.

As I said, I will likely be finalising this list today for a series of games using The Relic scenario being run at my local store tomorrow, allowing me to get some more practice in before the tourney on Monday. Even so, any more thoughts on my list, these small batreps and any tips or warnings when facing my opponents on Monday will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

if you are up against anything but necrons, i would use disintegrators on the razorwing, but thats me, and you know how different metas require different lists

i just had a game early this morning with a childhood friend of mine, living in the other part of the country, and it was DE vs DE! Shooters vs Assaulters - mostly that is - this was a friendly idk make a list game, no points barred. It was interesting to say the least, but the two detachment of dark eldar baccked up by my archonesses farseeress lovers saim hann jetseer council - what i got back this very morning!!! - well...i only got about 5-10 pts more in my list than he did.

and the 6 razorwings with shatterfield made my day all the more pleasant!
but sadly, he placed better, although game ended in a draw after turn 7!!! This was my only draw in half a year.

there is no perfect list though, just a list that with good tactics and strategy, placement...and dice rolling ftw...can take on a lot of opponents.

On what to drop: i would drop the agoniser, let hekatrix snatch the venom blade from the haem and you have the most needed racks for your warriors.

Dark Eldar vs. Dark Eldar eh? That must have been one bloody, fast-paced game! 6 Razorwings must have also been a sight to see!

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. Many of the newer, younger gamers at my local store don't have a great grasp of tactics yet and so their games come down mostly to who has the best list and, of course, luck. However, with the more experienced gamers, you can see how tactics come into it a lot more with some lists featuring rarely used and some would say, non-competitive, units and they still do well due to superior tactical acumen. I've faced many opponents with lists I expected to struggle against but was still able to outplay them and get a comfortable win. Of course, this tourney should be challenging for all of us as we all know each others' armies and gameplay quite well and all play very tactically. It should be fun and I'll be sure to post how I get on.

I hadn't thought about playing around with the venom blades to get in the splinter racks and I shall consider that, thanks for suggesting it. A Haemy with venom blade and liquifier gun seems to be a pretty standard load-out but whenever he ended up in combat, he died very quickly, inflicting next to no damage in return. Therefore, I wouldn't really miss his venom blade at all but I would miss the agoniser I think. They've always been a favourite weapon of mine. I'm not sure but I'll bear it in mind.

Ok then, I shall be using the list I posted at the start of this thread with the shardnet on the Wyches and the splinter cannon on the Razorwing dropped for splinter racks on both of the Kabalite Warrior squads' Raiders. The Razorwing's dissies have also be exchanged for dark lances. I decided not to go with your idea with the venom blades Enfernux partly because I hadn't practiced with that list while I'd already had a few games with the other list so I felt more comfortable with that. I also enjoy killing sergeants with the agoniser.

I had several more games today but I won't bore you with another load of batreps. Safe to say, the first game was against a Chaos Space Marine list featuring 2 10-man CSM squads, Abaddon with 5 Termies and 2 Obliterators, which I comfortably won. The second game was against Space Wolves allied with Dark Eldar. The Space Wolves had a Blood Claw squad with a Rune Priest in a Rhino, a squad of Long Fangs, a squad of Grey Hunters, Thunderwolves, an Iron Priest on Thunderwolf and Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf. The Dark Eldar allies consisted of the Baron with Hellions, Mandrakes and a Voidraven Bomber. I managed another conclusive win with minimal casualties. The Chaos player than challenged me again, swapping out Abaddon and the Termies for a cheap Chaos Lord and Havocs. He also managed to fit in another 10-man CSM squad. The gameplay was rather different from the first game but the end result was much the same, another comfortable win. Finally I played against a Tau list with 2 Hammerheads, 2 squads of Fire Warriors, a squad of Broadsides and a Tau Commander in a battlesuit, allied with a Terminator Librarian and Scouts. Unfortunately we were unable to finish the game so we called it a draw.

I learnt from these games just how prominent shooting is in 6th ed, even more so than I first thought and combat now seems to be more a case of tying a unit up so you can focus on shooting at other stuff. If you're able to keep a close eye on your enemy and use terrain to your advantage, it is surprisingly easy to run rings around your enemy, pulling their units out of position with bait before rapidly withdrawing out of range, pounding them with firepower all the while. If you can master this, you should be able to have many successes against the lesser races.

After a dodgy start, I'm very happy with my list now and my early fears of Dark Eldar struggling in 6th ed have been left far behind. Fingers crossed the tourney proceeds smoothly and I get to take many slaves back to Commorragh!

Thanks for the suggestions and advice and I'll let you know how I get on.

Right then, as promised I shall now let you know how I got on at the tournament yesterday.

The first round consisted of everyone playing games against each other with the bottom 2 playing off and then the top 3 having a 3-way game with the top 2 going through to the final. There was a Grey Knight player based around Coteaz and Strike Squads in a Rhino and Razorback supported by henchmen and a pair of Dreadnoughts. He had also taken an Aegis Defence Line with quad-gun. There were 2 Imperial Guard players, 1 with a large amount of infantry accompanied by a Leman Russ and Deathstrike missile launcher, the other with 3 separate Vendettas, a Leman Russ and a few Veteran Squads. Both had primaris psykers as HQs. The other player had taken Blood Angels. A Tactical Squad, an Assault Squad and 2 Devastator Squads led by Dante with Sanguinary Guard. I'll try to keep these batreps brief as I played 6 games in total. This will be a long post so just bear with me.

First game was against the Grey Knights, Crusade mission with Dawn of War deployment on a 6'x4' board with a good third of the board covered in ruins. I got first turn while he failed to seize and there was no night fighting. The game started with both sides exchanging fire while my Wyches headed towards the central objective guarded by a Dreadnought and the henchmen. My Ravagers failed miserably in the first turn to take out any vehicles but my poisoned fire took out his Quad-Gun, giving me First Blood. We continued to exchange fire while camping on objectives, my Razorwing refusing to turn up. My Wyches assaulted his Dreadnought on the central objective with their grenades and blew it up, taking a few casualties from the blast. My Haemonculus eliminated the Henchmen. His return fire was rather lethal due to Coteaz's psychic powers enabling him to re-roll hits while denying me cover saves, wiping out the Wyches and slaying my Haemonculus, giving him another victory point. My Razorwing finally arrived turn 4 allowing me to put a bit more pressure on the Grey Knights. By the end of the game, we both were holding an objective as well as having achieved a secondary objective each, putting the scores level at 4 victory points.

Second game was against the Imperial Guard with the Deathstrike on the same board as before with the same mission and deployment. This time I went second and failed to seize while night fighting came into play. One of my Raiders was blown up first turn depositing the Kabalites in a ruin and earning the Guard First Blood. I struck back killing several Guard with splinter fire and also blowing up the Leman Russ, killing more Guard in the explosion. I decided not to fire at the Deathstrike as it was well hidden behind a ruin and had the camo netting upgrade, preferring to focus on less concealed enemies. I attempted a first turn assault with the Wyches and rolled high enough but my front 3 Wyches were slain from an overwatched flamer, putting me out of range. The Guard then advanced and killed the Wyches. The next few turns involved the Kabalites on foot using their splinter cannon to punish any Guard straying into the open while my Razorwing arrived swiftly and joined in with my vehicles causing widespread casualties across the entire Imperial Guard army, including my Raider instant-deathing his primaris psyker after the squad he had been hiding in was slain by splinter fire. My Haemonculus assisted in the destruction of 2 squads of Guard with his liquifier gun and finished off a heavy weapon team in assault before succumbing to weight of numbers as he was momentarily cut off from the rest of my force. This gave both of us Slay the Warlord. The Deathstrike launched turn 3, just before I could manoeuver my Ravager into a clear shot at its side armour. Fortunately all it achieved was the destruction of the Wyches' Raider, a Ravager, taking a hull point from another Ravager and several Guard who strayed too close. As the game drew to a close, the Kabalites still in a Raider were dropped off on an objective before the Raider flew off to pick up the other Kabalites in an attempt to get ferry them into his deployment zone and get Linebreaker. The question was whether the game would continue long enough for me to achieve my plan. Unfortunately, despite the constant harassing of my Razorwing, the surviving Imperial Guard managed to gather together on the central objective, effectively locking it down while they shot my Kabalites off the nearby objective. Despite this, the game continued long enough for my last squad of Kabalites to jump off the Raider and run into the midst of the Imperial Guard, denying them the objective whilst also earning Linebreaker. With neither off us claiming any objective and 2 secondary objectives apiece, the game ended in a draw.

I went into my 3rd game against the Imperial Guard with the vendettas determined to get a win. The mission was Big Guns Never Tire and deployment was Hammer and Anvil. The board was 5'x3' and although, again, a good third of it was covered in terrain of some sort, most of it was too small to grant my vehicles cover saves, forcing me to crowd up behind a small ruin in my deployment area. He deployed first, I failed to seize and night fighting came into play. I left my Wyches in the open as far forward as possible, taking a risk that I could wipe him out before the 3 flyers arrived, or if the Raider was destroyed, at least put pressure on him helping the rest of my force to advance across the board and take objectives. The Raider, as I expected was destroyed and some good rolling kept most of them alive but I was not expecting them to the fail their leadership test and fall back. At least nothing else was damaged and they rallied next turn. Leaving a squad of Kabalites on my home objective, everything advanced across the board, causing heavy damage to one squad of Veterans, including the lascannon and destroying the Leman Russ. 2 Vendettas then arrived and 1 Ravager was blown out of the sky while a Raider was immobilised. My Razorwing then turned up and my entire army, aside from the Kabalites holding my objective, moved over to his Vendettas. With our flyers back to back, I instead targetted the Imperial Guard with my missiles and lances, eliminating another lascannon. The Kabalites then disembarked onto the objective in the middle of the board while firing at the last squad of Veterans with a lascannon, removing it. Somehow, thanks to good run rolls, the Wyches had caught up with the rest of my force and would be able to assault the Imperial Guard next turn. The remaining Vendetta remained in reserve for now. Unable to draw line of sight due to how close I was to them, the Vendettas went into hover mode. One targetted the Haemy and Wyches but some LoS! rolls kept him alive. The Wyches were all wiped out though due to fire from the Veterans. The Ravager passed all its jink saves against the other Vendetta, before destroying it in my turn while the other one lost a hull point. The Haemy killed almost all of the Veterans on one objective. The last Vendetta came in and the next couple of turns was largely a case of trying to outmanoeuvre each other while our units on objectives traded shots with each other. In these couple of turns, notable losses were that of my Haemy, my last mobile Raider, his Vendettas and the last few Veterans on the objective the Wyches had been heading towards. With that, the game ended. The Imperial Guard had 1 objective and both First Blood and Slay the Warlord. However, I had managed to claim 2 objectives, putting me ahead by 1 point and a victory!

My last game before we would tally up the scores of the first round was against the Blood Angels. Same board as the previous game with the Emperor's Will as the mission and Vanguard Strike as the deployment. I deployed first, this time keeping my entire army behind a ruin. He seized the initiative but night fighting was in play once again and my 2+ cover saves protected me from any damage. The second turn and the remainder of the first turn of the game were brief and bloody. The assault marines were wiped out by my firepower, earning me First Blood and I also achieved Slay the Warlord when my Haemonculus got an AP of 2 for his liquifier gun, killing most of the Sanguinary Guard, allowing my darklight to swiftly finish off the last couple of them and Dante. My Wyches also assaulted and killed his Devastators but my Razorwing didn't turn up. At the end of game turn 2, all that was left of the Blood Angels was a Devastator and Tactical Marine squad whereas, aside from a Raider, a Ravager, a couple of Wyches and a few Kabalites from each squad, I was unscathed. My opponent then surrendered.

With that, I was through to the 3-way play-off against the Grey Knights and Blood Angels, back on the first, larger board with the ruins. The scenario had been devised by the TO and a large, tiered ruin was added to the centre of the board. The mission was to get your Warlord as high up the ruin as you could, with the highest 2 going through to the final. Wherever on the ruin your Warlord was ether slain or stood at the end of the game was recorded as the position you reached. The mission used the old rules for 3-way games meaning the turn order could potentially flip back and forth, with usual random game length and the ruin also counted as an archeotech artefact. You were not allowed to Deep Strike or Infiltrate onto the ruin, instead having to be placed at least 6" away and you were also not allowed to approach to within 6" of it in a transport. We deployed 18" away from the central ruin and each other. I have to admit I was rather nervous since my Haemonculus would likely have to get rather close to Dante and Coteaz, both able to quite easily splatter him all over the ruins we would be fighting over.

The Grey Knights went first and shot down a Ravager while Coteaz and the Strike Squad in the Rhino, supported by the smaller Strike Squad in the Razorback headed for the ruin. Dante prepared to Deep Strike near the ruin while the Assault Squad made their way there in the meantime. Thanks to some good positioning and rather dirty pivoting coupled with a nice run roll, the Haemy and Wyches made it onto the first floor of the ruin while I moved my rest of my force round to cut off the Blood Angels and draw LoS to the Grey Knights, taking down the Quad-Gun as I did so. We rolled for the artefact and got nothing. Due to the weird way the turn order went, I got another turn straight away and my Haemy made it the the floor second from the top of the ruin. I fired off some shots at the Blood Angels and Grey Knights, taking down a Dreadnought and most of the Assault Squad. I then braced myself for 2 turns from both the Blood Angels and Grey Knights before I could act again. The TO decided we should each roll for the archeotech artefact when one of our units got close enough. So it was that the Blood Angels triggered a Sunkiller engine, mercifully bringing night fight into play. Thanks to this, I was able to withstand a good deal of punishment from both of my enemies. The Grey Knights triggered a Psyceneunen Hive which killed a Justicar. They began making their assent. Back to the Blood Angels and Dante turned up next to the ruin but out of sight for now, the Assault Marines continued their way up. I wasn't sure if they were trying to reach me or cut off the Grey Knights but, either way, the Grey Knights assaulted and killed them while Coteaz reached my Haemonculus. The Wyches dead from shooting, he had no trouble killing me. The turn sequence finally came back to me and my Razorwing failed to arrive. Despite this I ignored the Grey Knights and instead moved everything I had left (surprisingly a lot) round to Dante and felled the Tactical Squad in between my forces and their target as well as a few Sanguinary Guard. Thankfully, I once again received another turn and knew this was my last chance to take Dante down. My Razorwing arrived, adding to my firepower which just about managed to do the job, killing the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels and making it impssible for him to beat either myself or the Grey Knights, putting us through to the final.

The final itself was Firesweep from Cities of Death. For our stratagems we both took Booby Traps and Preliminary Bombardment. However, throughout the game these achieved very little, only killing a few models, taking off a couple of hull points and making a ruin dangerous terrain. I deployed first and began the game, the Grey Knights failing to seize. Both squads of Kabalites instantly set about securing buildings while the Wyches flew down the flank to reach a couple more in future turns. My shooting was effective, destroying the Quad-Gun in the first turn once again as well as damaging a Rhino, removing a hull point from a Dreadnought and killing a few Grey Knights. The Grey Knights then began securing all the buildings in their deployment area, destroying a couple of Raiders, including the Wyches', and causing enough casualties for a squad of Kabalites to fall back. Thankfully they rallied and resumed securing buildings, as did the other Kabalites and Wyches. My Razorwing arrived and killed several Grey Knights while his damaged Dreadnought was felled by a Ravager. The rest of the turns continued in a similar way, with both our troops running around grabbing buildings while our vehicles shot at the enemy force. I lost both Ravagers and my last Raider but his Razorback was destroyed by a death or glory Wych with a haywire grenade and a Kabalite Warrior with a blaster also took out his Rhino in a death or glory. Most of the Grey Knights and henchmen were killed but the Wyches were wiped out, the Haemy falling with them. As the game drew to a close, we counted up the buildings, having secured an equal number. The final was a draw between the Dark Eldar and the Grey Knights. I had finished the tourney in joint first place!

So there you have it! Lots of ups and downs and a great deal of fun, managing to pull out a result in the end with which I was very happy with. I hope you enjoyed reading these batreps. If you have read this post all the way through, give yourself a pat on the back! Thank you once again for the advice you gave me on my list.

Sounds like fun, congrats on drawing first with the Grey Knights! I hate that army with a passion.

I have a similar set up for my wyches, I guess it really is a matter of if you get first turn so they can turbo boost forwards.

Was the wyches raider upgraded in anyway? I was thinking of adding aethersails or something to mine so they can get really close.

Thank you! Yes, I too hate all things Grey Knights and was very happy on getting a draw against them.

Unless you get night fighting, first turn is very important to Dark Eldar as, with being such a glass hammer army, who goes first, gets First Blood the majority of the time as well as whether or not you can flat out if needed before being shot down. However, I very rarely go flat out, preferring instead to either go for the first turn charge if they've deployed as far forward as they can or jump behind cover closer to your opponent, keeping your dark lance stuck out so you can fire at the enemy and try to eliminate their big guns, before comfortably assaulting them second turn. Of course, this is reliant on there being cover near the middle of the board and if you are lacking in terrain, then a flat out move may be your best bet.

And no, the Wyches upgrade lacked any upgrades whatsoever. I gave them flickerfields in 6th ed but since I'll usually always have cover either from terrain or jink, I don't find it worth it anymore. I know it can help in combat where cover can't but with vehicles being easier to hit now in combat, if you find yourself in that situation, you're pretty much guaranteed to get destroyed, flickerfields or not. I've also never really been a fan of night shields although I can see them becoming more useful in 6th ed thanks to pre-measuring and by preventing boltguns rapid-firing and glancing you to death. I've never used enhanced aethersails as they just seem too situational and unreliable to me. In case you haven't already gathered, I like to keep my guns firing, jumping from cover to cover as I close with the enemy or either cruise everything straight towards them, hoping my firepower will minimise return fire. If I do want to go faster at the cost of shooting, flat out has always been enough for me. You also have to be careful of getting too close to them as even a good cover save won't help if you're in range of every gun in the enemy army.