850 pts tournament

Hi there,
I just read Offe's tournament report for 800 pts. I have a similar task to do next week, 850 pts, five games, only one heavy support allowed and the small 48" table. Every game must last not longer then 90 minutes, so it is possible that it ends after less than 5 turns, maybe even having one player first and last turn. Also, it is an old tournament series and therefore pretty competitive, there are about 20 players up to now, 10 space-marines of any kind, 5 or 6 eldar and some lost necrons, chaos-SM, nyds (edit: 2 tau) and sisters ... aaaand DARK ELDAR (that would be me).

My list is what I have an made of:
the one ravager I am allowed to take, wyches with haywire (byches love haywire), two or three groups of warriors and four to five inccubi. Warlord is Haemonculus with liquifier, he is supposed to give one CC-Unit FnP and fly around liquifying stuff. All in Raiders, one Venom.

Consider that in three of five games we play vanguard I think it is, deployment in the corners anyway. So there is NOWHERE to hide on the small maps unless it is nightfight.
My testgames so far with GK/DA friends went very hard, all lost, some close. I never got first turn nor nightfight, so I only could hide from the omnipresent dakka-bot in table-edge deployment games. Still, there are always predators and razorbacks in raw numbers.
You see, I have troubles with the worst-case: no first turn, no night fight, lots of 48" AT threat from SM.
I deploy everything in cover, but still loose 2 raiders in average befor it is my turn.

I have tested many combinations of that army, and my general question to your superior experience is: night shields and 4 transports or no night shields and five transports?

Also I don't know if I can deploy empty transports, if I can I now would embark my CC-units turn one into the surviving transports and assault, using the troops on foot to occupy maybe one objective on the way.
Also I think about one Dark-Lance trueborn-sniper unit ever outside of a transport, DL on the Raiders and the Dissie-Ravager.
I don't know about Blasters, they tend to be flexible but kind of negate the nightshield advantage, and with so many SM I think about taking one/two wyches less and givin them a hekatrix with Powersword.

Any suggestions/experiences with the use of nightshields on the small table? Or anything else?

Edit: I also got scourges that could be in for the inccubi.

I figured, since I put this into "Lists", you might want to see a list

Number one, without Nightshield:


Haemonculus with Liquifier

4 Inccubi in Venom with Cannon

3x 5 Warriors with Blaster, bringing a Raider with DL each, one has Trophys

7 wyches with grenades, hekatrix and powersword
in a Raider with DL

and one Dissie Ravager, naked

total: 847


versus

number two, everything has them:

Haemonculus with Liquifier

5 Inccubi in Venom with extra Cannon and Nightshield

5 Warriors with Blaster in Raider with DL, Nightshield, Trophy

10 Warriors with Cannon in Raider with DL, Nightshield

7 Wyches, Haywire-grenades with Hekatrix with Agoniser in a Raider with DL and Nightshields


Ravager with DL, Nightshield


total: 849 pts


So, there are alsways some deals to be made, like adjusting the number of wyches and therefore get trueborn instead of one small warrior squad etc.
on a small field, half of all opponents are SM of any kind ..

incubi IMHO have no place in this low of pt game. They're  a semi-competitive/novelty unit thats fun to play when you have the points. at 850 you need every bang for your buck. As you're only allowed 1 hv I almost wana say that eldar are going to be an auto loss if they stock up on wave serpents (not exactly sure how many you can get at this level). I'd exchange them for 3-4 blaster born in the same venom. Also, at this pts level HQ's seem like an unfortunate tax as you can't really fit them in to get all there milage. I'd probably just take a naked haemonculus and high him with the blasterborn, or maybe a sucubus with haywire&venomblad and put her with the wyches. nock the wyches down to 5-6. I tried using a split between wyches/warriors in this low of a game back in 5th when wyches were (IMHO) better in combat, and it just doesnt work. They've got no support and they need to get stuck in before they soften units up. I'd reserve the unit almost exclusively for vehicle hunting or maybe tieing up a dreadnaught (though nets would help there.).

I supose i would also say go MSU venom squads, but like a said only 1 hvy support means mech at this level is going to be an issue, so raiders maybe the better choice for the extra lance shot.

EDIT: missed the part about almost everyone being space marines. if terrain is sparse dont be afraid of using wych raid as nothing more then mobile terrain. Shoot with your venoms/raiders first, then flat out the raider infront of them. It's giving up a kill, but at least its trolling your opponents shots before they can start killing the things that are really threatening them. With such a small table once your opponent gets into rapid fire range stuff is going to die fast.

This is what I would run....

Quote :

850 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster - 850 Dark Eldar

Heavy Support: Ravager
1 Ravager, 105 pts ((C:DE, pg. 92); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); Night Vision; Aerial Assault; Disintegrator Cannon x3; Jink)

Troops: Wyches
4 Wyches, 150 pts ((C:DE, pg. 89); Infantry; Fleet; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Dodge (4+); Splinter Pistol & CCW; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades; Wychsuit; Hydra Gauntlets x1; Haywire Grenades)
1 Hekatrix ((Character); Splinter Pistol; Haywire Grenades; Plasma Grenades; Venom Blade)
1 Venom ((C:DE, pg. 91); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); 5 model capacity; Night Vision; Splinter Cannons (x2); Flickerfield; Jink)

Troops: Wyches
4 Wyches, 150 pts ((C:DE, pg. 89); Infantry; Fleet; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Dodge (4+); Splinter Pistol & CCW; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades; Wychsuit; Hydra Gauntlets x1; Haywire Grenades)
1 Hekatrix ((Character); Splinter Pistol; Haywire Grenades; Plasma Grenades; Venom Blade)
1 Venom ((C:DE, pg. 91); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); 5 model capacity; Night Vision; Splinter Cannons (x2); Flickerfield; Jink)

Troops: Wyches
4 Wyches, 150 pts ((C:DE, pg. 89); Infantry; Fleet; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Dodge (4+); Splinter Pistol & CCW; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades; Wychsuit; Hydra Gauntlets x1; Haywire Grenades)
1 Hekatrix ((Character); Splinter Pistol; Haywire Grenades; Plasma Grenades; Venom Blade)
1 Venom ((C:DE, pg. 91); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); 5 model capacity; Night Vision; Splinter Cannons (x2); Flickerfield; Jink)

Troops: Wyches
4 Wyches, 150 pts ((C:DE, pg. 89); Infantry; Fleet; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Dodge (4+); Splinter Pistol & CCW; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades; Wychsuit; Hydra Gauntlets x1; Haywire Grenades)
1 Hekatrix ((Character); Splinter Pistol; Haywire Grenades; Plasma Grenades; Venom Blade)
1 Venom ((C:DE, pg. 91); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); 5 model capacity; Night Vision; Splinter Cannons (x2); Flickerfield; Jink)

HQ: Haemonculus
1 Haemonculus, 50 pts ((C:DE, pg. 85); Infantry; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Independent Character; Altered Physique; Gnarlskin; Close Combat Weapon; Splinter Pistol; Warlord)

Troops: Wracks
3 Wracks, 95 pts ((C:DE, pg. 87); Infantry; Night Vision; Power from Pain; Altered Physique; Gnarlskin; Poisoned Weapon (4+) x2)
1 Venom ((C:DE, pg. 91); Vehicle (Fast, Open-topped, Skimmer); 5 model capacity; Night Vision; Splinter Cannons (x2); Flickerfield; Jink)

5 troops, 1 with two tokens (haemi can split off and join wyches in combat to share the wealth)
5 dual cannon venoms
1 triple dissie ravager (can make dark lance if you think you need it... but you wont)
4 units of whyches with haywire, hekatrix with venom blades and hydra gauntlets.

Marines will be simply wiped off the board. Flying M/C's dont stand a chance, and heavy armor will pop 1-2 venoms before the wyches eat their lunch.


At low points, Dark Eldar are the best there is.

Thanks for the help!

I sadly don't have the models to go for venom spam and only wyches, so to some point I have to make a mixed list. Also I have only one venom, but dissies do about the same damage to SM. But the idea of opening tanks with the passengers is probably better as I don't have enough lances for massive vehicles anyway, and wyches are good infantrykillers as well. I think I go for 6 vehicles total instead nightshields and will field at least 3 CC units. More is difficult due to my lack of models so far. 4 Blasterborn and 5 inccubi cost about the same, maybe I still let them in just for fun. It's a beginnerfriendly tournament after all