2000 Point Take all Comers (with allies!)

Greetings fellow Commorites!

Ive been playing Dark Eldar since the twilight of 5th edition, and have been really enjoying the uniquely DE playstyle ever since.

Here is my 2000 point list that I usually take as a take all comers list at local tourneys and friendly games.

The basics of my list havent changed much since the end of 5th, except for the inclusion of Eldar allies in order to provide somewhat decent AA and anti psyker defense.

Ive found that Eldrad chilling with the fire dragons and rangers in the back field have been pretty dang successful against armies like Drop Pod marines or Tyranid Pod lists, as I generally roll Misfortune on the Divination table for Eldrad and proceed to sweep bugs off the table with Raid-esque efficiency

The list is mildly successful, as I built it with a mix of Fluff-mindedness as the primary motivation, but with allowances to tactical considerations thrown in as well.

HQ

2 Haemonculi 100

Troops

9 Wyches w/ Haywires; Hekatrix w/ Venom Blade, Phantasm Grenade Launcher 133
Raider w/ Night Shields, Enhanced Aethersails 75

9 Wyches w/ Haywires; Hekatrix w/ Venom Blade, Phantasm Grenade Launcher 133
Raider w/ Night Shields, Enhanced Aethersails 75

10 Warriors w/ Splinter Cannon, Blaster 115
Raider w/ Night Shields, Splinter Rack 80

5 Warriors w/ Blaster 60
Venom w/ Night Shields, Splinter Cannons 75

5 Warriors w/ Blaster 60
Venom w/ Night Shields, Splinter Cannons 75

3 Wracks 30
Venom w/ Night Shields, Splinter Cannons 75

Heavy Support

Ravager w/ Dark Lances, Night Shields 115

Ravager w/ Dark Lances, Night Shields 115

Razorwing w/ Dark Lances, 4 Monoscythe Missiles, Splinter Cannon, Flickerfields 165

Allied Detachment: Codex Eldar

HQ: Eldrad 210

Elites: 5 Fire Dragons w/ Exarch and Exarch powers 112

Troops: 5 Rangers 95

Fortification: Aegis Defense Line w/ Quad Gun 100

Total: 1998

Looks like a strong list that'll do well against most foe. You have plenty of AT and plenty of AI. The only thing I could think of changing would be adding Venom Blades to your Haemies, but even the I wouldn't say that's needed.

liquifers first Cavash, so they can alteast do something once the wyches get out and steal his pain token

Personally its not a list I would run, but I think it an do very well in the right hands. i feel you have all the tools you need. A quick suggestion is maybe droping the pathfinders and getting GJB instead for 66 pts, its cheaper (so you can get those liquifiiers) and they provide a better scoring/objective grabbing/line breaker solution in my oppinion than pathfinders which sit there and do nothing all game.

Cavash: thanks man! Yea, I ran the haemies with Venom Blades for a while, but the fact that Haemies dont have Fleet is a real downside to having them stay with the Wyches, as Fleet really saves my bacon most of the time. Ive also found that using the Haemies as an Overwatch soak for my Wyches is the main way they achieve any usefulness, aside from running them with Liquifiers occasionally.

Shadow: Good ideas dude! The switch to GJB has been sitting on my mind lately, as I really want to do it! Especially since one of the local DE players converted up his Eldar allies all from DE models, and has really awesome looking GJB built from the Reaver kit. I just gotta get around to buying up the jetbikes in either Reaver or Guardian form lol. Ive been running liquifiers on and off over the course of ironing this list out, and ive been impressed but not overly wowed by them. I will try em out in this new configuration though

The main reason I wanted to get input on this army list is the fact that I am really thinking of changing it up into some different setups; this is mainly due to the fact im getting tired of my Wyches being merely adequate for the amount of points I pour into em, and the desire to increase my firepower.

I was thinking of subbing out the Wyches, Raiders, and Haemonculi for the Baron and a fully kitted Beast unit, and then using the points left over to buy 3 man AI or AT teams of Trueborn with Splinter cannons or Dark Lances.

By dropping the Wych combo units and doing the Ranger/GJB swap I would have about 535 points left over for buying up a Beast/Baron unit, and probably 1-3 Trueborn footslogging fire support teams as well.

I really dont know where to go from this! I feel like ill have to try em out one by one.

Thanks again for the input guys!

I'd drop 1 Haemonculus and use the points to kit out those Hekatrix's with agonizers. That would leave you 10 points leftover.

I'd also consider removing the enhanced aethersails. Since they prevent you from shooting or disembarking anyhow, you can already move them pretty far as fast skimmers. That clears up another 20 points.

And finally, I'd consider swapping out Eldrad for a normal farseer with all the goods. This gives you 1 less psychic power used per turn(2 instead of 3), but opens up another 25 points and still fulfills the role that you have him there for(misfortune).

So it gets you 2 agonizers for your wyches, and 55 free points. I'd spend the other 55 points like this:

Flickerfields on the Raiders - 20 pts
2x Shardnet & Impaler on wyches(1 in each) - 20 pts
Shattershard on Haemonculus - 15 pts

Doing this will make your wyches far more effective in CC. The tradeoff being 1 of the 2 squads will be slightly less survivable unless they kill something. But even if half of them die when your raider explodes, those remaining 4 wyches with an aggy and shardnet will be more effective in CC than the other 9 would have been.

That wych loadout was my normal loadout late 5th/ early 6th, but IMO i wasnt kicking that much more butt with the more expensive squads compared to my current loadout.

The Haemon with shattershard sounds pretty neat though, so i will definitely give it a spin in my next game!

Ill try the different loadouts and letcha know how it goes

Thanks for the input!

I agree that you should drop Eldrad, I reckon for a humble DoomSeer with only spear and RofWarding. He's soaking up too many pts that your not really utilising here. With this saving in pts, i'd be tempted to put a bastion in instead of your wall, with the added bonus of hiding vehicles behind it if your not going 1st.

On second thoughts a fortuneseer with the FD's may be better than doom!

GJB's are for the cheap win, and I am all about the cheap win

I disagree though on agonisers for hekas these days. With the proliferation in 2+ saves, a venom blade is much more consistent in just forcing people to take saves and better value imo. Also, I like aethersails on wych units raiders - in my experience it can really mess with your opponent's heads how far they can get up the board on turn 1.

Shattershards are super win in removing things like wraiths, oblits, any multiwound things actually. And eternal warriors for the lulz. The other day Lysander was the only model to fail his toughness test when I used it against a unit of sternguard haha!

I have played in quite a few big competitive tournies recently, and I have to say I have given up on 5 man KW squads with blasters in venoms. Completely underwhelming - I am now sticking to Wrack/Venom squads + wyches in raiders.

Caranthir987 wrote:

I agree that you should drop Eldrad, I reckon for a humble DoomSeer with only spear and RofWarding. He's soaking up too many pts that your not really utilising here. With this saving in pts, i'd be tempted to put a bastion in instead of your wall, with the added bonus of hiding vehicles behind it if your not going 1st.

On second thoughts a fortuneseer with the FD's may be better than doom!

GJB's are for the cheap win, and I am all about the cheap win

I disagree though on agonisers for hekas these days. With the proliferation in 2+ saves, a venom blade is much more consistent in just forcing people to take saves and better value imo. Also, I like aethersails on wych units raiders - in my experience it can really mess with your opponent's heads how far they can get up the board on turn 1.

Shattershards are super win in removing things like wraiths, oblits, any multiwound things actually. And eternal warriors for the lulz. The other day Lysander was the only model to fail his toughness test when I used it against a unit of sternguard haha!

I have played in quite a few big competitive tournies recently, and I have to say I have given up on 5 man KW squads with blasters in venoms. Completely underwhelming - I am now sticking to Wrack/Venom squads + wyches in raiders.

Yea, Eldrad is just too slow to utilize in my desired mobility list and whatnot, im kind of looking at taking a Serpent Seer (Jetbike seer w/fortune) in a Seer council or Shining Spear unit for fun and for fluff. (In my army fluff the Archon of my main Kabal has a marriage alliance to a Saim-Hann corsair/outcast clan, and I feel using the jetbike allies would be both fluffy and effective!) The main limiting factor on me buying the models is the fact that the new Eldar codex is coming out in June.

On the aethersails: yea, its alot of fun to be able to shove the Wyches down a gunline's throat turn 1 if i really feel like it, or just have em chill out for turn one or so and then shoot up all of the sudden and make the enemy react to em.

Huh, I will definitely have to read the rules for shattershards again, its been a while

Oddly enough I am coming to the same conclusion myself. Ive been playing with the little kabalite squads for a while, and they just arent cutting it as much as i would like them too. I think the wracks as replacements will definitely replace them in the venoms.

The warriors will be consolidated into a 2nd or possibly 3rd full Warrior unit in a Splinter Rack raider. The 10 man raider squads are pretty awesome, and consistently perform over their points allotment in every game i use them in. Heck, one game they finished off a bloodthirster, killed the special Khorne Hound character and a Juggerherald with combined shooting phase/overwatch!

Why no love for the small warrior squads? 45 pts for scoring with poisoned ranged weapons is good, maybe try losing the blasters and camping them instead? I wasn't pleased with them either until I made this change but terrain does play into that.

Brom wrote:

Why no love for the small warrior squads? 45 pts for scoring with poisoned ranged weapons is good, maybe try losing the blasters and camping them instead? I wasn't pleased with them either until I made this change but terrain does play into that.

Hmm, there is that too. Im not sure, I have mixed feelings about them right now. If I take the 2 squads out, that is 120 points pulled out of the list. If I swap them for two 3 man Wrack units, that allows for a remaining 60 points to be allocated elsewhere.

I also feel that the 3 Wracks will be more durable in the Venoms than the 5 man Warrior squads would be due to their T4 and FNP, since my Venoms rarely survive the game due to their overall danger factor. This swap would also affect the overall survival rate of my venoms, due to the fact that I wont have to get within 24/18/12 inch range for full shooting efficacy from the Warriors within: the Wracks wont be getting any shooting attacks, so I can just jet around with my 36 SC range and full movement unimpeded.

I was thinking of consolidating those Warriors into bigger squads in Raiders anyway, as it seems that Raider-borne Warriors do lots o' damage compared to the smaller squads, and can maintain scoring potential over longer periods of time.

Also, I edited the 5 man Warrior squads, as I had them at 65 points when they should be at 60. My bad!