Odd Tournament Format

I am curious as to how other Dark Eldar players would handle the tournament format that my new FLGS (I just recently moved) uses. While I do not have access to more than a single venom and have no access to beast-masters please feel free to mention whether or not you would use them.

The format uses composition as follows:

1000 Points

1 HQ
1 Elites
2-6 Troops
1 Fast Attack
1 Heavy Support

The mission used is also the same every game. One objective in the center worth two points and two objectives placed by you in your own deployment zone worth one point. At the end of each player turn you score points for objectives that you have a scoring unit on. Note that being in a transport means you can not score an objective.

Terrain is pre-set by the TO on a 4'x4' board and deployment is always pitched battle. The direct center of the board is very unlikely to have any terrain at all on it.

My Thoughts: I am having some trouble coming to terms with this format. Normally I ignore objectives until near the end of the game, but I can not afford to do so now.

Local Meta: Tau, Eldar, and Space Marines seem to be the common. With Tau easily being most popular and constituting roughly 25% of the player base.

Weaksauce! With that format I'm surprised guard isn't favored there as well. Honestly I would try to get the rules changed. Alternately pick up an army that can camp and shoot although that's no fun.. Hmmm maybe tau.

I'd say the "only one venom" is what kills you here. I play a lot of 1000pt games with weird rules. One was similar to this... (lucky for you its objectives, Im usually stuck with kill points!)

I'd spam Venoms/warriors if I could. 500pts gets you 4 venoms w/2x spcannon and a warrior squad with a blaster.

I dunno if the heavy support/fast attack/elite are mandatory, but here's my top pics for those slots:

Heavy- Ravager
Fast Attack- Reavers
Elite- Trueborn for anti-tank, or incubi to escort your warlord

Hope that helps!

I'd use a big blob of warriors with The Duke. This squad has the option to hold your home objective, or advance to hold the middle objective, has a ton of fire power, and is very survivable behind an aegis.

Beyond that, its what is best for each slot. For Elites, you could consider Grots, but they are expensive. They would be very tough at 1k points, though. I would probably go with blaster born. With only one heavy slot open, you need the anti-tank. Put some haywire on them for cheap and for the back up.

For fast attack, I'd REALLY suggest a beast pack. It'll overwhelm people at 1k points. However, you aren't going to be using the baron, so using reavers would be nice, too. I think this slot is optional.

Heavy sounds obvious at first (ravager), however, a Talos would be VERY tough to kill at 1k points. And he's cheap.

Since you don't have the venoms, the big blob will be the bulk of your poison shots. Perhaps use raiders (1 lance) with wyches and haywire for anti-tank.

Sounds very odd. Perhaps you should ask if anyone fancies playing 40k, because that seems a significant enough change to totally unbalance things to me.

I'd second the idea that a Talos can be very useful on a 4x4 board at low points, since lack of speedis less of an issue.

Given the objective rules, and the fact you're likely to lack anti-tank, I'd consider trying Warrior units with Dark Lances. They can camp on your home objectives while threatening enemy vehicles. I don't know whether this is a good strategy, but maybe worth a shot.

I appreciate the responses. I know the one other person at the store that does play Dark Eldar uses venoms when he goes to the tournament. He drops off two cheap units on his objectives and pushes in a multiple threat overload fashion with four venoms, reavers with cluster caltrops, a ravager, and another small squad in a raider. One of the venom units is a splinter-born squad.

My list was almost identical, but instead of multiple venom warrior squads I ran two large squads in raiders with splinter racks (I know they do not work for everyone, but for me they are amazing), a small squad of wracks on foot, and my true-born had blasters. The wracks were on foot as I had thirty points left over that I could throw into a cheap walk-on scoring unit. My biggest issue is that I paid a lot of points for non-scoring splinter-boats.

I would definitely use 3 grots with abberition and a liquifier in a raider with sails. On a 4x4 board it will be able to get anywhere turn 1, Their whole force would have to shoot at them to get rid of them.
If they are with a huskblade archon they will do very well against most units.

..Consider 9 reavers heatlances with VB on AC for your fast if you aren't doing beasts..these will crush vehicles and troops a like.. consider take a dissie ravager.. can pop transorts glancing.them to death and also makes short work of MEQ..
Don't agree with warrior blob or wasting points on dark lances... It's a small board.. ive had success with MsU 5 man's with blasters.. on a small board DL is very ineffective points wise seeing as a blaster has 24' threat range on turn one.. also removes the 'eggs in one basket' approach a blob has which one large blast can trash and flee with bad rolls..

Personally wouldn't bother with raiders either unless you're flatting turn 1 with archon grots.. or haem with wracks.. poor armour within bolter range..and especially fire warrior range.. if you don't get turn one..wasted.. especially with explosion on troops..

just what works at my meta anyway.. which is MEQ, nids & tau..& one ork guy who runs his army in a RP style which is highly entertaining I must say..literally nothing else lol.

panic wrote:

Don't agree with warrior blob or wasting points on dark lances... It's a small board.. on a small board DL is very ineffective points wise seeing as a blaster has 24' threat range on turn one..

This is a fair comment about small boards, but I suggested that the DLs may be worth trying because of the need to have squads camping on objectives, not because of the small board. If you're going to sit on an objective in your deployment zone and not move anyway, then the Blaster is less likely to be in range, while the move or snap fire nature of the DL is less of a problem.

Once again though, I'm not saying this is definitely a good idea, only that it may be worth a try.