The Path of the Archon

Hi All:

This is a rather strange question but how does one go about "teaching" Dark Eldar? I ask because several new players have expressed interest in picking up Warhammer 40,000 (or Fantasy) and they both stated that they would like to go with Dark Eldar (or Elves). The potential problems I see are:

(1) I did not have a mentor and was entirely reliant on forums (like the Dark City) to learn the game before I bought a rule book/box of warriors;

(2) did not have a crushing series of defeats when I began;

(3) I do not like the idea of spoon-feeding;

(4) I do not want to box these potential players into certain ways of thinking that are unimaginative (only ever do all mechanized. Ever!); and,

(5) Dark Eldar versus Dark Eldar are very strange matches that are unrepresentative of a 'typical' game of Warhammer 40,000.

There are many different pieces of tactical advice, such as Thor's classic piece and the Pages of Pain, but I do not want to make the game tedious or overwhelm the potential Archons in training. What should I do?

Direct them to this post? You lay out your concerns while providing a strong rationale, and you even include a few resources. Seems like a good start to me!

^

Also, introduce them to this forum and whichever other ones you think will help. They don't even need to make accounts and post; reading army lists, tactics threads, and the like are how I learned to play.

As a new dark Eldar player I'd agree with eohall, This post is good start. This forum is brilliant for tips and tactics and lists, It's an absolute goldmine. I've also found youtube brilliant for watching Dark Eldar batreps. Have picked up the core army basics and tips and from this forum. And have found the videos on youtube have really helped. But the real lessons I've learned is by playing games. Been a steep learning curve and really really tough. Have had 4 games. With 3 brutal tabling thrashings. Found myself into bad habits and thinking I'm still chaos marines, was very disheartened. But last game it's finally starting to click. Lost 6-5 hammer anvil, scouring and it was a last move by storm talon in 7th turn. That denied my Wyches their objective and my first victory. But this forum will help them so much. Agree you don't want to dictate to them their lists etc. Creativity is key, we don't all want same lists. Make it theirs. I love to use units that's are seemingly awful. . My army, thoughts, lists and tactics is ever evolving. But this forum is perfect place to start.

I've taught a few people how to play, and use the same approach every time - start with a small game, with one HQ and one basic squad of troops (use warriors, there aren't as many special rules for them) versus the same on the other side. Explain about points costs, etc. Play through the game as you would with any larger sized one, with you taking first turn so they can see what you do first. From there, you can introduce them to forums and youtube battle reports and instructional videos (miniwargaming in particular upload lots of useful teaching videos). It's pretty difficult not to at least spoon feed a little, because a basic grounding in the game is pretty essential before they start on anything else. If you can get all of them there watching the basic games you play, they'll learn quicker too through the repetition. The game summary at the end of the rulebook is also a really useful teaching tool, allowing you to just refer back to the special rules every so often.

This might sound strange or might even be way off base, but in my opinion dark eldar are a force that one cannot fully appreciate until they have played another more conventional army.
So many aspects differ from the typical methodology of that of meq or geq warfare or even horde. DE are to me the most ruthlessly punishing unforgiving army to play, both with and against, and therefore also the most rewarding. While marines are a baseline around which other armies fluctuate, resilient and forgiving and spoiled with core rule breaking gear and USRs, dark eldar are something altogether different, far more fragile but incredibly efficient and ultimately lethal. The very definition of offensive power in exchange for entirely expendable resources, and thus the tendency for redundancy. All the catch phrases that get thrown around loosely by other armies dark eldar embody, from concepts such as concentration of force, take vs hold, target saturation, resource denial and kiting to torrent of fire. You must have a strong grasp of the core game mechanics to win with this army.

IMO if these players wish to pick up dark eldar I think personally I would first introduce the game from a more conventional perspective.. I.e. that of some of the "lesser" races. The contrast will be a nice transition to dark eldar that may help to highlight the many strengths of our army. Definitely direct them here to TDC though because there is no substitute.

Either way I wish you good luck in your endeavor. From what I have read I believe you have the tools to accomplish the task.

Could someone please enlighten me on what MEQ, GEQ and maybe other ...EQ abbrevations mean?
I slowly get a grip of PGL, FMCs and so on but the above is a riddle to me xD

Edit: On topic?
A thread with the most important abbrevations could help freshborn like me.

MEQ is an abbreviation for "Marine Equivalent," so any model with a marine statline - 4 4 4 4 1 4 1 8 3+
TEQ would be "Terminator Equivalent." I don't know about GEQ, don't think I've seen that anywhere. But the EQ will always stand for equivalent. Exactly what part of the statline that's being referred to will depend on the context, but you can construe that as necessary.   

GEQ is Guardsman Equivalent. It generally stands in for T3 5+ armor save models (Eldar and Guardsmen)

Thank you very much ^^

When I teach people to play the best thing I've found to do after the very basics have been learnt is to let them play a game without telling them what to do (although guidance is given when asked for). At the end of each phase run them through other possibilities they had during that phase both bad a good and tell them about their relative strengths and weaknesses. After a few games like this they will start to see patterns with units and play styles and from my experience has led to some very good results from the new players very quickly.

This style teaches them without spoon feeding them the answers and also helps you as a player realize other options they might point out to you. It works with all armies and helps the new player learn how to act to every army without playing against every army as the ideas are transferable across the board.

Hope that's helpful.