1750pt First DE list ever

Hey guys, first post here. I've been playing on and off for... damn, 16 years now. Mostly CSM, with side excursions as Tau. In all that time, I've never once played against a DE army. Never even seen one in person. So I thought it'd be a nice surprise for everyone I play with to show up one day with a box full of poison loving sadists.

I read through Plastikentes awesome guide, and liked a lot of tactical ideas I saw there, so I'm basically jsut copy and pasting some of that stuff into here. Any advice would be great.

A few quick notes:

1. I know the Archon is a little overloaded, but I was just kind of looking at placing to fill out points without spending any more actual money.

2. As tactically unsound as it may be, I don't play with allies.

3. I threw disintegrators on all the raiders because it seemed like with the blasterborn, three ravagers, and the HWG Wyches i should have enough anti-tank, but if I'm wrong, feel free to point me in the right direction.

HQ - 240pts
Archon - huskblade, soul trap, shadow field, ghost plate, PGL, combat drugs. 180pts
Haemonculus - Liquifier Gun. 60pts

Elites - 502pts
Incubi x4 - Klaivex, Blood Stone, Onslaught, Venom. 189pts
- Joined by Archon

4 Kabalite Trueborn - 4 blasters. 108pts
- Venom - Night shields, extra SC. 75pts

3 Kabalite Truborn - 2 SC. 55pts
- Venom - Night shields, extra SC. 75pts

Troops - 660pts

10 Kabal Warriors - Blaster, Splinter Cannon. 115pts
- Raider - Disintegrator, Splinter Racks. 70pts

10 Kabal Warriors - Blaster, Splinter Cannon. 115pts
- Raider - Disintegrator, Splinter Racks. 70pts

8 Wyches - Hekatrix, Venom Blade, Shardnet/impaler. 105pts
- Raider - Disintegrator, Night Shields. 70pts
- Joined by Haemonculus

5 Wyches - Haywire grenades, Venom. 115pts

Heavy Support - 345pts

Ravagers x3 - Nightshields. 345pts

Total: 1747pts

I like this list, it all seems like a nice solid start   Your warriors are kitted out in a similar fashion to mine too, those splinter racks are so much fun!

I like using disintegrators myself, and wish I'd assembled more stuff with them - at some point I will be replacing my utterly useless Razorwing with a triple disintegrator Ravager, they are really good at hurting units like Grey Hunters with a Wolf Guard, or anyone else in 2+ armour that wants to tank wounds for their squad.

The shardnet isn't as useful as it used to be unless you're attacking monstrous creatures or single characters with the squad, as to guarantee the wielder gets into base contact you'll put them near or at the front where they'll be picked off by overwatch. I wouldn't say drop it completely, but losing that and maybe a splinter cannon of one warrior squad would let you afford haywire grenades for that squad too. I still like shardnets, but use them less and less, as my wyches tend to be tank hunters more than anything else.

It's not necessarily tactically unsound to play without allies. Yes, they are some very powerful combinations out there, but just because you're not putting Baron Sathonyx with a seer council on jetbikes doesn't mean you can't do well. Most allies, for a start, can't keep up with you, and nobody else out there plays like Dark Eldar - synergy between them and us is difficult to obtain unless they're Eldar, and then you start paying through the noise in terms of points. Wow, do they ever kill stuff quickly though...

All in all, I think you'll have a lot of fun with this list, and hope you enjoy using it! Welcome to our dark corner of the internet too   

whiskeytango wrote:

HQ - 240pts
Archon - huskblade, soul trap, shadow field, ghost plate, PGL, combat drugs. 180pts
Haemonculus - Liquifier Gun. 60pts

I would dump the Ghostplate at the very least to give your Haemonculus a Venom Blade and stow away 5pts for elsewhere.

whiskeytango wrote:

Incubi x4 - Klaivex, Blood Stone, Onslaught, Venom. 189pts

I would dump the Onslaught upgrade.

whiskeytango wrote:

5 Wyches - Haywire grenades, Venom. 115pts

Using spare points from the options I've suggested to scrap, I would put the additional Splinter Cannon on this Venom; you may as well always count the Venom as a 65pt transport with 2 Splinter Cannons.

Interesting points.

What would you guys think of this instead? (Just including the changes here)

Archon - huskblade, soul trap, shadow field, PGL, combat drugs. 170pts
Haemonculus - Liquifier Gun, Scissor Hand. 75pts
Incubi x4 - Klaivex. 103pts
- Venom - Extra SC. 65pts
- Joined by Archon
(Replacing the large Wyche unit) 9 Wracks - Acothyst, Liquifier Gun. 110pts
- Raider - Disintegrator, Night Shields. 70pts
- Joined by Haemonculus

and added an extra splinter cannon to the small Wyche unit.

Basically just dropped some of the upgrades from the Incubi and the Ghost plate on the Archon to get points to do other stuff.

Pretty solid, this is all nitpicking really   

I'd question the Blasters on the Warrior units. If you're having to shoot them at vehicles you're wasting the whole unit's shooting and if you're not shooting them at vehicles, you don't need them. They're not a bad choice, but I'd lean towards Night Shields for all vehicles, because the three un-Night Shielded vehicles are a horrendously obviously target. Particularly if you're planning on keeping the Warriors in the gunboat. Alternately, use points saved on the Archon and Incubi.

I'd also try and get Haywires on the big Wych unit (should you keep them) and would consider Flickerfields on the Ravagers.

Hmm... probably not a bad idea about losing the blasters. I was thinking they'd give some nice utility to the squads, but I suppose the ranges don't really match up well.

Flickerfields on ravagers kind of seem like a waste of points though, since they can get their jink save and still shoot all their guns.

whiskeytango wrote:

Hmm... probably not a bad idea about losing the blasters. I was thinking they'd give some nice utility to the squads, but I suppose the ranges don't really match up well.

Flickerfields on ravagers kind of seem like a waste of points though, since they can get their jink save and still shoot all their guns.

They can - the problem is the number of units that can deny that jink save. This said, I never get them on mine, but then I never get Night Shields either. I don't really care if they live or die. If you do, then depending on your local meta, Flickerfields might be worth considering.