1500 pt Dark Eldar with allies - Beating the enemy with its own tricks

Right. So I have this game against a buddy of mine on sunday. Pretty important game for our campaign. He plays CSM and will be bringing 1750 points against my 1500 points (I'm currently holding most of the tiles and we're playing with 50 points of handicap for every controlled tile more than your enemy's). He is a good player and my fiercest rival in said campaign, constantly beating me except for one time where I surprised him with an Eldar alliance, fielding 3 Taloi, a Wraithlord, an Avatar and 10 Wraith Guardians.

And this is where I'm at now: I want to surprise him again and catch his army off-guard. He'd never expect me using parts of his own rmy against him!

My basic Dark Eldar part of the force should look something like this:

110 - Archon with Shadow Field, Blaster, Venom Blade
130 - 5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider with Dark Lance and Night Shield

120 - 5 Kabalites in Venom with two Splinter Cannons and Night Shield
135 - 5 Kabalites with Blaster in Venom with two Splinter Cannons and Night Shield
135 - 5 Kabalites with Blaster in Venom with two Splinter Cannons and Night Shield

56 - 3 Trueborn with two Splinter Cannons

115 - Ravager with 3 Dark Lances and Night Shield
115 - Ravager with 3 Dark Lances and Night Shield
155 - Voidraven Bomber with Flicker Fields

TOTAL: 1071 points


On top of that I'm calculating 35 points for an Icarus Lascannon on top of the free Bastion I get for holding certain tiles on the campaign map. So actually it's 1106 points that are used. What to do with the remaining 429? It has to be something chaotic, i.e. CSM or CD. In the theme of using his weapons against him, I was thinking of taking a Heldrake with Baleflamer along with a flying DP with the Burning Brand (gawd how he destroys me with that all the time). But somehow I feel that would be too many eggs of doom in two barbed baskets of damnation. Then I thought about a Chaoslord of Nurgle with the Burning Brand and 6 Nurglebikers. Or a Mastery 3 Sorceror with a Cultist Horde along with Obliterators.

Then I discovered the Daemon Codex and fell in love with the Bloodthirster and a few Screamers. Or a flying Bolt Prince? (If you haven't grasped my indecision by now, than I can't help you. )

So basically I'm looking for one or two hard-hitting units to throw at my enemy and forget. Can you help me?

Herald of Tzeentch on a disk, 4 Nurgling bases, 6 screamers, 7 flamers - 428 points

I like that idea. But isn't Bolt of Change missing? I could drop one Nurgling base (no point in having more than the minimum) and two Flamers, then put the Herald on a chariot and give him Bolt.

And would this force be meaner than a Heldrake & Co.?

By Sunday the new daemon codex will be out, if i'm not mistaken.

Really? Oh well, that's that then.
But considering the old (current) rule set, would you rather field the Daemon force or Team Heldrake?

team helldrake...

I would take an cheap CSM lord and some CSM to pressure the opponent. Remember when going outside our only battle brother for allies, you need the HQ and Troop Tax to be as low as possible, while still being effective.

I agree on the troops, but the HQ doesn't necessarily have to be a tax! Consider my first idea: a flying Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Power Armour and the Burning Brand of Skalathrax, along with 10 Cultists and a Baledrake. The cultists are thrown against the enemy lines as a distraction, the two flyers cause utter destruction! The other possibility was taking a Warpsmith with the Burning Brand and put him with the cultists to hold the bastion and fire the Icarus, while adding a single Obliterator for the left-over points.

A level three telepathy sorcerer is always fun, can stay safe at 24" away, most of the powers are malediction and they are really fun.