1250 Brand new to DE

Hey guys, just getting back into 40K with some friends, the DE models are too awesome to pass up. I hear there's a high learning curve with them, but I'd love some advice on a TAC list I threw together.

Duke Sliscus-150 Points

Haemonculus-60 Points
-Liquifier Gun

Elite:
5 Incubi-175 Points
-Venom
--Splinter Canon

Troops:
5 Wyches-125 Points
-Haywire Grenades
-Venom
--Splinter Canon

5 Wyches-125 Points
-Haywire Grenades
-Venom
--Splinter Canon

9 Wyches-190 Points
-Hekatrix
--Agonizer
-Razorflails
-Raider

9 Kabalite Warriors-151 Points
-Raider
--Splinter Rack

Heavy:
Razorwing Jetfighter-155 Points
-Flickerfield

Ravager-115 Points
-Night Shield

Total: 1246

Duke goes with the Kabalites, Haemy goes with the big wyches, option of deep striking the incubi and wyches with HW grenades. Tried to balance anti-tank and anti-infantry. Let me know what you think! Any comments appreciated.

Thought I would reply as nobody else has. I'll give it a shot based on both my own experience/opinions and also the views I've seen on this forum. The deep striking vehicle thing is very risky in certain circumstances, it really depends on the deployment type, amount of terrain on the board and placement of the enemy units. For example, in a standard ( Dawn of War ) deployment against a static gun-line type army you would be just as well off using Flat-out moves to get right up in their faces, this would most probably be more effective than deep striking in most cases of this nature. On the other hand, against an army which moves towards you and leaves space behind this tactic might be very effective in forcing your opponent into a force-splitting decision. On to Scourges: personally I have a unit of 5 with 2 Haywire Blasters that I would never leave home without. They are pretty much 2 guaranteed Hull-points removed every turn they're alive. They are also surprisingly survivable with their 4+/6+ save. That unit has won many games for me, I've posted a couple of examples in the Battle reports section on this forum. My general advice would be to run that list against a few well-balanced, non power-gaming opponents and see how the various units perform for you. Best of luck, may the dice favour you!

3 reavers and scourges are no go - small units, would probably be inefective. I'd dump them and take some Ravagers.

If you do aimed to use Scrourges, best unit composition for them is basic shard carbines and more bodies. AT is better covered elsewhere.

As I said, I expressed my views as my opinions and based on my personal experience. I am a veteran player who bought Rogue Trader the week it was released. I am able to do great things with 5 Scourges with 2 HWB. They have been match-winners for me on MANY occasions. You do have to careful with them, using flat-out moves with empty Raiders to screen them is always a favourite tactic of mine. Earlier in the year the 5 scourges took the final 2 hull-points off a Hammerhead, ducked behind the wreck then next turn leapt into combat with a unit of Broadsides, locking them up for the entire game. A couple of months ago they wrecked a heavy-flamer-toting Hellbrute from the back then occupied a squad of Plague marines for the rest of the game, dancing back and forth before drawing them off an objective in turn 5, winning the game. Only last week, in a scouring mission, I kept them in reserve and used a deep-strike to plant them on an objective previously held by a unit of Warriors used as a decoy. Guess what? Yes, they won the game. The point of all this is: don't listen when someone tells you a unit is "no go". That just means that person has not discovered how to use that unit effectively; a very different thing. At my local Gaming Club last year I placed in the top quarter of a tourney against loads of super competitive and optimised lists with a fluff-based list with no Reaver jetbikes, no Ravagers and only 1 Venom. A list is far less important than the player using it. Every unit is useful with a bit of patience and practice.

Thanks so much for the input guys! I did a little shuffling around, and I ended up dropping the scourges, and the bikes (which were filler anyway) to add a ravager and the second wych squad. Mainly to utilize the 5 left-over wyches in the box, but also more venom, more happy. Thanks for your advice on deep strike Tim, I think with Jink I'll just run all my skimmers on the table. I think I'm going to run this list to get more familiar with the army itself, but my 1500 upgrade is definitely going to include a unit of scourges with haywire and probably another ravager. I was taking the blasters to kind of have them dual-role as tank hunters first, and then anti infantry after their armor was off the table (or if there was something that needed blasters to the face) but the idea of stripping 2 hull points at 2 feet sound really great.

Also, what do you guys think about dropping an incubus and shuffling duke turn one, disembarking from the raider and hopping on to the venom with them for grenades and (hopefully) FNP from his drugs, plus 22 extra points to screw around with?

Only the Duke would have FNP even if you roll it on the CD table. The effects of the drugs can't be passed on to units that don't have them. The thing is, I don't think the Duke is that amazing in combat is he? I've never used him myself but he doesn't strike me as being a CC monster. As your Haemie only has Ld 8 I assume the Duke's Ld is 9 or above; he would be your warlord then. I wouldn't want to risk him in the sort of assault you'd be committing your Incubi to, particularly because with no Klaivex your opponent just has to challenge to either potentially kill your warlord or remove him from the combat, either way, that's an Incubi's attacks out of the equation. Also , if you have one of the awesome warlord-traits like conquerer of cities ( stealth and move-through-cover in ruins ), losing the Duke loses you the special ability.

My thoughts on that were that 6 on the drug chart is a pain token, so FNP for the unit. He's approximately an archon in CC, with 2+ poison and AP2 1/3 of the time, plus a shadowfield. With the extra points I could afford to upgrade a Klaivex and put night shields on my fighter. It just seems like a waste to leave a CC character stuck in with a shooty unit that never wants to see assault, and gives the Incubi assault grenades which they're lacking. Per the book it seems like he can disembark one and embark the other without any movement penalty...I think.

I suppose is would be for the unit wouldn't it? A model/unit can only embark or disembark in a single turn, not both. I never noticed The serpents Bite special rule, pretty nasty!

Hm. Yeah just saw that rule. Maybe deploying the kabalites on foot next to their transport, then have them embark on their separate vehicles. Would also allow me to take 10 w/ a splinter canon, they'd all fit once duke left the unit.