Baby Evil's first Army

I'm developing an army list for a campaign that group of friends and I are going to run next Summer. I can expect to see Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Tau, Eldar, and Tyranids. Here is where my head is at so far.

HQ

Archon with Huskblade, Splinter Pistol, Ghostplate Armor, Clone Field, and Phantasm GL

Haemonculus with Power Weapon and Liquifier Gun

Haemonculus with Scissorhand and Liquifier Gun

Elites

9 Incubi w/ Klaivex (Demiklaives, Onslaught), on Raider (Night Shields, Flickerfields, Chain Snares) Archon goes here.

5 Trueborn w/ Dracon (Shardcarbine), 2 Shardcarbines and 2 Splinter Cannons, on a Venon (Splinter Cannon, Night Shields)

Troops

9 Wracks on Raider (Night Shields, Flickerfields, Chain Snares) PW Haem goes here.

10 Kabalite Warriors w 1 Blaster and 1 Splinter Cannon, on a Raider (Night Shields, Flickerfields, Splinter Racks)

9 Wyches w/ Hekatrix (Power Weapon) and 1 Razorflail, on a Raider (Night Shields, Flickerfields) Scissor Hand Haem Goes Here

Fast Attack

9 Reavers w/ Arena Champion, 3 Blasters

Heavy Support

Ravager w/ Night Shields and Flickerfield

Razorwing w/ Disintegrator Cannons, 4 Necrotoxin Missiles, Splinter Cannon, Night Shields and Flickerfield

That comes out to 1994 presently. Our group is debating a point total between 2000 and 3000 points, so there's going to be a lot of moving parts to any army. We're none of us tournament players, nor do we aspire to be. That being said, this will be my first full outing with the kids from Commorragh, so I'd like to avoid massive errors in my army's construction, at least.

All feedback greatly appreciated!

Edit: After reading Mushkilla's army lists and battle reports, I'm more sold on Succubi and Wyches. Since part of the theme of the army is the Kabal as a conglomeration of DE factions that barely holds together for all the intrigue, I decided to represent the haemonculus coven with some pain engines in place of the Razorwing.


Archon – 165 (Blast Pistol, Huskblade, GP Armor, Clone Field, and PGL)
Succubus – 90 (Venom Blade, Blast Pistol)

9 Incubi – 328 (Klaivex w/ Demiklaives and Onslaught) on Raider (NS, FF)

9 Wyches – 228 (Hekatrix w/ Venom Blade, Blast Pistol & PGL, Haywire Grenades) on Raider (NS, FF)
10 Wyches – 260 (Hekatrix w/ Venom Blade, Blast Pistol & PGL, Haywire Grenades) on Raider (NS, FF)
10 Kabalite Warriors – 220 (Sybarite, Blaster, Splinter Cannon) on Raider (Disintegrator Cannon, NS, FF, Splinter Racks, Retrofire Jets)
10 Kabalite Warriors – 200 (Shredder, Splinter Cannon) on Raider (NS, FF, Splinter Racks, Retrofire Jets)

9 Reavers – 268 (Arena Champion w/ Venom Blade, Grav-Talon, 3 Blasters)

Talos – 130 (Chain Flails, Add’l CCW, TL Haywire Blaster)
Chronos – 110 (Spirit Probe, Spirit Vortex)


The Retrofire Jets are a terrain-based option. If I feel I can get five Raiders into cover, they'll deploy. If I don't, they'll DS. Since they're shooty units, I don't lose the DS turn for action. The PGLs for my assaulting units mean I better brush up on my precision measuring.

I'm not yet sold on the Night Shields for the CC-unit Raiders, as I expect them to be up close anyway. I could swap them out to get a Sybarite and Blaster on that second K-Warrior troop. The Talos and Chronos are to roll forward slowly, doling out some pain tokens like the ice cream man gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Items I'm concerned with: Flyers (My wife plays Necrons and is unduly entranced by the Cron Air Model Army), AV 14 (I'm hoping the Haywires and Blasters can at least wreck them for me, but it seems chancy), any sort of empowered overwatch (The PGLs and Snap Shot are my friends, anything that disrupts that could lead to Pickett's Charge).

Please dont double post. Just use the edit button on the top right. -Your Friendly Neighborhood Mod SR-

Hsve you considered reserving your Warrior Raiders, then simply turbo-boosting Flat Outing them on the board 30" when they come in? I have played a good deal of Deep Striking Dark Eldar, and it is not the easiest thign in the world. Now that you can't even disembark, there is little advantage over simply zipping onto the battlefield. However, as you have relatively few units on the board anyways, it's probably best to start with everything and combine your efforts, especially with Night Fight- deploy outside of 36", possibly on 1 flank, then flat out everything so you are not mercy to the whims of Reserve rolls. With that being said- those Pain Engines are going to be left behind! I'm not sure they will ever make it to the fight before everything else is crushed. Especially against Tau, Marines, and Eldar, you have limited time before your transports are shot up.

There are a few more pieces of "fat"- options that add less than they cost, that I would advise trimming:
-The Archon's Ghostplate, and probably his Blast Pistol
-The Klaivex upgrade, a huge amount of points for +1-2 attacks and Str
-The Hekatrixes' Blast Pistols
-The Sybarite
-The Arena Champion, the Grav-Talon

Blasters vs. Heat Lances is personaly preference, and for a big squad of Reavers you're probably better off with the Blaster since it's harder to zip a big squad into close range. For that matter, I would recommend trying out splitting those Reavers into 2-3 squads: you can even afford 2 squads of 6 if you cut some of the items above.

As for Night Shields, I see it as an "everything or nothing" thing. It is worth it on assault vehicles for the Turn 1 deployment shenanigans alone.

AV 12 is the true enemy of the Blaster- cheap enough to have more than one vehicle with it ont he table! As for flyers, you may have to let your wife win. There is not enough anti-air in the galaxy to reliably threaten 6+ flyers. I recommend instead trying to get team games together- your boats serve as prime distractions while Imotehk and friends go to work. Should be fun!

First up, thanks for the feedback!

CaptainBalroga wrote:

Hsve you considered reserving your Warrior Raiders, then simply turbo-boosting Flat Outing them on the board 30" when they come in? I have played a good deal of Deep Striking Dark Eldar, and it is not the easiest thign in the world. Now that you can't even disembark, there is little advantage over simply zipping onto the battlefield.

The only thing that occurs to me on this is that I can shoot if I DS, where I cannot if we race halfway across the board.

I'm torn on the Archon's gear - dumping the pistol I can understand, but the Ghostplate is there since he's using the Clone Field, rather than the Shadow Field.

Good points on the Pain Engines. I'll take a hard look at them. In the end, fluff may keep one or the other in there, though not both.

Thanks again!

I agree with everything the Captain said. Spot on with where I would trim points too. Apart from ghost plate being good if you are using a clone field.

Deepstriking is questionable because you can only snapfire on the turn you deepstrike (I believe it counts as cruising speed). So your probably better off with a more accurate flat out move (that also grants you a 4+ cover save).

As for bikes heatlances are worth it if your army plays aggressively, blasters are more suited in a less aggressive list where range is more advantageous.

As for pain engines I have yet to experiment with them (but I will be soon).

Hope that helps.

My thoughts on the Pain Engines come from my experience playing Orks and Tyranids.

While my Ork force wasn't as zippy as the DE, it was still fairly fast (Trukks, Bikes, Koptas, and Stormboyz). Nonetheless, fire saturation tended to head towards my Dreads and Kans, who, of course, took forever to get anywhere. You tell your opponent, "This has Toughness 7 and hands out pain tokens to bad little elves" and it has an effect, especially if I'm moving Flat Out in the first turn (meaning those who moved flat out aren't doing much). I think the Chronos, at least, has the possibility of floating up to somewhere within 12" of a unit and handing out pain tokens, with more possible if I can keep him inside of the army's line of attack (that is, the army's advance goes towards him).

One question for the Captain - where are you getting 30" for a Raider's flat-out move? The fastest I can find for fast skimmers is 18.

Thanks again for your help!

Bookkeeper wrote:

where are you getting 30" for a Raider's flat-out move? The fastest I can find for fast skimmers is 18.!

He's combining the 12" move in the movement phase, and the 18" flat-out move in the shooting phase to make a 30" movement in a turn.

Rathstar

I did miss that the Archon had a Clone Field instead of a Shadow Field. In that case, yes, Ghostplate is fine. For the price of both, you could afford a Shadow Field, though!

CaptainBalroga wrote:

I did miss that the Archon had a Clone Field instead of a Shadow Field. In that case, yes, Ghostplate is fine. For the price of both, you could afford a Shadow Field, though!

If I did not take it as an article of faith that one of my first six rolls would be a "1," I'd consider it - you guys who talk about burning through 30+ rolls with no failures blow my mind.

While getting my son into 6th edition with a Space Marines vs. Orks game, a terrible thought came to me (might be worth a thread of its own, but it's related to the movement question from above). He had two units of 30 Orks on the table and they covered a tremendous amount of real estate. It seems to me that it would not be difficult for armies with available horde units (which will now include CSM and their 20+ cultists for pennies on the dollar) can create a no-man's land that drastically shortens up the ability of vehicles and bikes to jump around, because the movement is taken in two parts. If I can't go 12 or 18 inches on my first move, because there's a massive group of infantry covering a 10" x 6" block of the table, I'm watching one of my major tactical advantages get crushed.

I'll have another revision of the list up by the weekend, hopefully. It's almost payday, so it's time to commit to some more units!

Bookkeeper wrote:

f I can't go 12 or 18 inches on my first move, because there's a massive group of infantry covering a 10" x 6" block of the table, I'm watching one of my major tactical advantages get crushed.

Interesting concept, it's what some horde armies do against flyers. I think it would be more problematic for skimmers then reavers as they have a far larger move in the shooting phase (so should be able to circumvent the problem).