What is Aggressive playstyle?

Hey guys, I just read through the thread 'New Faith in the Dark Eldar'. I've had a similar experience where it feels like I win maybe 1 in 10 games. People keep saying that to play Dark Eldar you have to be aggressive. What exactly does this mean and can some give me some examples?

I feel moving across the battlefield as fast as possible hasn't worked at all for me. Our boats exploding with strength 4, almost wipes the unit that I'm moving forward.

Thanks, guys.

I guess some examples are a Beast Pack hurtling forward straight away, lining up a second turn charge, Haywire Wyches in Venoms doing something similar - essentially getting in the enemy's face so that you give them tough choices to make. You're looking to kill stuff before you yourself are killed.

I've had the same problems in games. I think what you want is to be aggressive to part of the enemy army so you avoid a big chunk of the enemy's shooting. Not just pile everything straight forward like a Tyranid. Vanguard strike can make this difficult sometimes but use your movement.

Also, don't take aggressive play to mean reckless. Don't run that beast pack against something that is going to wipe it out before it gets there. The Dark Eldar are truly a difficult army to play. I was lucky starting out because I only faced one type of list (not kidding, I was the only non-SM player in the area), and they all had shiny-object syndrome (no bolter drill lists), so I got a lot of practice against one thing to start to understand my army.

If you really are having issues, want to get better, and are ok with things getting a little boring in the short run, grinding it out against similar opponents is not a bad idea.

Aggressive simply means stay on the attack. Don't run the ball to run out the clock with 15 minutes left and a two touchdown lead. Dont slip into a 1 - 5 - 5 attack because you're up 1 - nil and stoppage time is closing in. Don't turtle in the 15th because you've crushed the guy on points.

TO THE POINT:
To play aggressive, you have to be able to decipher between a Primary Objective and a Secondary Objective, and make your decisions based on that. For most armies, your Primary Objective is to win the game. For Aggressive armies, your primary objective is to table the jack*** across from you, and the Secondary Objective is to win the game by other means as well.

If you keep this in mind, you'll be alright. But as I said, aggressive doesn't mean reckless. Don't rush your boats ahead at full steam, deploy first, deploy across the whole width of the board to spread your opponent out, and then use your speed to move everything laterally hard to one flank, and blow half of your enemies' army to kingdom come while the rest of his forces are trying to foot slog after you-- and the rest of the fight isn't a fair one.

You just have to find ways to kill them before they kill you --> not turtling around some large piece of area terrain and hoping they come to you (though that being said, I have won games that way when the board and the opposing list were appropriate....)

.....does any of that help at all???.....

That does help. Mainly, deploy spread out across the board. I've been packing my stuff together on one flank hopeing I can put all my strength against a section of his. But I guess I get closed in. Spreading out first trying to make him spread out may be a better plan, then afterwards using our mobility to get my units back together and focused.

I also do spend time hiding behind cover first and second turn, which probably gives him time to set everything up for himself.

This has been helpful, thanks.

Especially now with so many things that ignore cover, you're trying to exploit things that block LOS, as opposed to merely granting a cover save.  But you're not using this to merely hide; you're using this to hide from all his units except those that you're utterly destroying in this shooting phase, so they won't be there next turn.  Move fast, play fast, and exploit every single mistake the other guy makes.  Failed charge leave his Warboss out in the open?  Don't count on one Ravager, move to have him within targeting arcs of two, and a Venom.  He's huddling behind an Aegis line?  If you're on the same side as he is, he doesn't get that cover save - and Venoms fire at full BS after moving 12".  Big, ugly, scary MC on the table?  You wound on 4+, and even if he's got a 2+, he rolls a one on 1 of every 6 dice rolled. That's one Raider full of Warriors with one SC, splinter racks, and DC inside 12".

While you can certainly make the argument that we have a difficult army to play, more than any other 40K army our job is to go really fast and kill everything.  What's not to enjoy?