Newest Fleshcrafter

wanted to give a shout out to everyone on the forum before i start posting questions and getting a blog started. I have recently acquired the Dark Eldar megaforce battlebox, a razorwing, 3 haemonculi (one of them being Urien), a talos, couple boxes of warriors, and an archon. So I have a relatively strong force to start off with.

My main concern with the Dark Eldar is that I do not see any Coven armies in competitive play, i've been collecting DE since 3rd ed, and remeber grots being situational at best, but skimming through the new codex a few times, grots, wracks, taloi and haemonculi all seem like great choices, so why then the lack of Coven units in even semi-competitve lists?

If I wanted to field a Coven-led force can i still be competitive? if not, what would a competitive hybrid list consist of?

oh and by the way, this looks like a solid online community, thanks for reading.

Welcome! Great to have a Veteran DE player returning to the City.

Nothing wrong with a coven this edition. FNP works against powerweapons which is great on wracks if you use them as an assault unit, though they no longer get +1I for furious charge. The poison rule got a nice boosts meaning that if you need a lower roll to wound then you can use that instead of the set value (and get re-rolls if your S is equal or higher then your targets T). Grotesque are great especially now that a character with them get's a 2+ look out sir, flesh gauntlets become an interesting option because of the changes to poison, also FNP against power weapons and powerfists is great. Liquefiers are still fantastic. Fearless is better because of the removal of no retreat wounds. All of these can be mounted in readers still making them a fast and highly mobile army. The higher toughness and starting with a pain token is also great as it makes the S4 hits from exploding transports a lot less scary, and really help reduce the damage from overwatch.

The one thing that you will need to consider is that Talos and Cronos are both slow compared to the rest of the army, and with the changes to Webway Portals (no assaulting out of reserve) fielding them can be a bit problematic, they are still a great distraction. Though they are good they don't really mesh well with the rest of the army, and seeing as you won't be running kabalites with blasters or wyches with haywire, this all makes ravagers hard to overlook.

I would consider, a haemi with grotesques in a reader, a few raiders with 10 wracks, and a bunch of ravagers to fill out your antitank (take as many liquifiers as you can).

All in all, I would say coven lists are in a good position this edition and can easily be competitive (especially if you stick to the three ravagers that most DE lists are built around).

Hope that points you in the right direction.

Welcome to the dark city of despair and anguish! Hopefully you enjoy

Btw, Mushkilla pretty much summed up everything Id have to say about competitive Coven lists (Though only 5+ FNP is still annoying)

Annoying in a way that i shouldnt spend 400$ on wracks as a troop choice? I appreciate that coven lists have a place, especially with the recent buffs to grots, but how does a new archon go about constructing a mostly coven list while maintaining his integrity? How do i build a coven army without it costing me an arm and my first born child? Or do i figure this out myself? Either way i would like to know what i should be equipping my haemonculi, and whether or not to make my 2 haemonculi that are not urien rAkarth haemonculi ancients.

And by the way thank you for the replies, i understand that cOven lists are not the best way to go but i really appreciate the support. A list and a background story for my coven will follow shortly.