1000 pt beginners list

Greetings everyone. In case you didn't catch my post in the Port of Lost Souls, I'm new to 5th ed. 40k (played a little 3rd ed back in middle/high school) and entirely new to the Dark Eldar. I'm coming from Malifaux and Warmachine where I play very melee centric factions (Neverborn and Cryx) so with the Dark Eldar, I figured I'd give the wicked looking Splinter and Darklight weapons a try.

I'm looking for input and advice on this list, as I haven't bought anything other than a Haemy, an Archon, and a Raider. I'm waiting until I have a solid idea of what I'll feel comfortable with playing. While I'm not looking to play super competitively, I'd like to have a good foundation to start off with as buying the wrong thing in 40k can set me back a lot more than buying the wrong thing in Malifaux.

Without further delay, here is my 1000 pt starter list:

HQ
Haemonculus- Liquifier Gun and Scissorhand, in Raider with Wyches 75 pts

Troops
8 Wyches- Razorflail, Haywire Grenades 218 pts
1 Hekatrix- Agonizer 42 pts
1 Raider- Flickerfield 70 pts

5 Warriors 110 pts
1 Venom- Additional Splinter Cannon 65 pts

5 Warriors 110 pts
1 Venom- Additional Splinter Cannon 65 pts

Elite
6 Trueborn- 4 Blasters, 2 Dark Lances 252 pts
1 Raider- Flickerfield 70 pts

Heavy
2 Ravagers- Flickerfield 230 pts

Total: 995 pts

I was definitely going for more of a shooty list. I brought the Wyches and the Haemy to act as tarpits of sorts (maybe even taking out some people with them), while the Trueborn and Ravagers crack open enemy tanks and the Warriors collect the prizes inside!

Is this a good starter list? Comments and criticism are most welcome.

Well, lets see. I don't want to remake this into the cookie cutter list so here goes, first I will try and just tweek your list.

HQ
Haemonculus - Drop the Scissorhand, imho its not worth the 10pt premium for 1 more so-so attack at 3+ vs. a simple Venom Blade at 2+.

TROOP
Wyches - Drop the Razorflail, Wyche weapons are meh to begin with especialy when only taking 1 and if you look at this unit as a tarpit the RF doesn't help.

Warriors - Don't leave a special weapon on the table, pick up at least a Shredder for 5 points for each of these units.

ELITE
Trueborn - Im not a big fan of mixing asualt and heavy weapons, and even more so when they don't share the same range (which is typical). It's very unlikely you will be able to stay in place due to the blasters 18" range so you will not be firing those DLs. I think here they are best served as 4 with blasters in a venom (cookie cutter as it is) but they have great synergy especially if you target a transport with troops inside. Blasters crack and Canons kill.

HVY
Ravagers - Typical and nothing wrong here.

So thats roughly 89 points back in the piggy bank if you go with my suggestions and it really hasn't changed the look or style of your army that much. Thats enough points (with the other leftover 5) to do a lot.....add a Succubus with Agonizer and Haywire to the Wyches, or Archon with Blaster, Ghostplate, and Venom Blade to your Trueborn, or a Cronos Parasite Engine, or a small unit of 3 Reavers with Heatlance or Blaster, or pick up another unit of 3 Trueborn on foot with those 2 Dark Lances, or even upgrade a Ravager to Razorwing and some of these option still leave points left to upgrade vehicle options or special weapons etc. Lots of choices.

You may also want to check out my earlier topic in this sub-forum titled "1000 point list (challenge)", where I try and build a competitive list for the least amount of money; something I'm sure most Warmachine or Malifaux players would appreciate.

I've been debating on replacing the Wyches with a Unit of Wracks (9 with a Liquifier). Reason being is they bring a pain token of their own, with the Haemy joining them, they'll start with Feel no Pain and Furious Charge. Since I'm using them primarily as a tarpit unit, I was wondering if the Wracks would be better suited for the job. It also frees up the points for me to add a third Ravager. But this also makes me wonder, with this list, will I have enough anti infantry?

HQ
Haemy with Liquifier and Venom Blade, in Raider with Wracks

Elites
4 Trueborn With Blasters
Venom with additional Splinter Cannon

Troops
9 Wracks, 1 Liquifier
Raider with Flickerfield

5 Warriors
Venom with Additional Splinter Cannon

5 Warriors
Venom with Additional Splinter Cannon

Heavy
3 Ravagers with Flickerfield

This puts the list at about 983 points. Like I said, a concern with this modified version is that I'll definitely pop their tanks, but will 2 Venoms full of warriors and the Trueborn be enough to kill the infantry? I guess technically my Wracks and Haemy will be killing infantry as well. The only reason I didn't take Shredders on my Warriors is because I don't plan on taking them anywhere near 12" of an enemy.

Allidor wrote:

I've been debating on replacing the Wyches with a Unit of Wracks (9 with a Liquifier). Reason being is they bring a pain token of their own, with the Haemy joining them, they'll start with Feel no Pain and Furious Charge. Since I'm using them primarily as a tarpit unit, I was wondering if the Wracks would be better suited for the job. It also frees up the points for me to add a third Ravager. But this also makes me wonder, with this list, will I have enough anti infantry?

DE are very good at anti-infantry, and at a glance I think you're doing fine though I'll try to tighten that up too.
I, personally, think that Wracks and Wyches are both survivable - but they're survivable versus different things. In general I think Wyches are harder to kill - but are more expensive to get going like that since you need a Haemy to get them FNP. Wracks are inherently harder to kill, but suffer vs. power weapons and really all butt, they are tougher than Wyches versus shooting though.

Quote :

HQ
Haemy with Liquifier and Venom Blade, in Raider with Wracks

I like it.

Quote :

Elites
4 Trueborn With Blasters
Venom with additional Splinter Cannon

At 1000 points I think a VERY easy point saver is only taking 3 Trueborn. Just in case you want to free up more points somewhere for something...I'll probably have ideas for that too. Otherwise this is perfectly fine.

Quote :

Troops
9 Wracks, 1 Liquifier
Raider with Flickerfield

Fine with this, it's a solid little butt tool.

Quote :

5 Warriors
Venom with Additional Splinter Cannon

5 Warriors
Venom with Additional Splinter Cannon

I really don't like these.
Why?
Because you said this;

Quote :

The only reason I didn't take Shredders on my Warriors is because I don't plan on taking them anywhere near 12" of an enemy.

Okay, so you're not going up within 12" so...what's the point of the Warriors? Answer; to get the Venom, yeah? You're not really trying to get their s.rifles into play (except at 24" if you don't move...gak!) So, really, you're wasting a lot of points here.
Just get 3 Wracks - bam, done, the unit is now still a Troop choice and you have your Splinter Cannon skimmer and you save points and are actually probably tougher to kill if they blow up your transport than 5 Warriors.

Quite frankly, I'd probably try to free up points and just give the Warriors Blasters - but that's my army preference.

Quote :

Heavy
3 Ravagers with Flickerfield

Ravalicious.

Quote :

This puts the list at about 983 points. Like I said, a concern with this modified version is that I'll definitely pop their tanks, but will 2 Venoms full of warriors and the Trueborn be enough to kill the infantry? I guess technically my Wracks and Haemy will be killing infantry as well.

Killing infantry you have;
Wracks for butt w. 2 Liquifiers.
36 poison shots on 3 platforms.
vs.
8 Lance shots on 4 platforms.

I don't think you're unbalanced either way. If the list were mine you'd probably see more anti-tank, quite frankly...though honestly I'd drop the Wrack butt squad to focus more on a pure shooting list, since I think at 1000 nothing can handle DE shooting power.

Is the system actually editing butt?

Preview - yeah, it is. Um, everywhere I say butt I really mean a s s a u l t.

You should have seen me trying to understand the post:

Quote :

Quote:
Troops
9 Wracks, 1 Liquifier
Raider with Flickerfield

Fine with this, it's a solid little butt tool.

I thought it might be 40k jargon that I'm not familiar with yet

Anyway, as I said before, I'm new to 40k, and I forgot about the 2 shots at 12"/1 shot at 24" rule, so as it turns out they will be getting in to 12". So with that in mind, I do have the points to throw Shredders into the group.

I think what I'll do is grab some Wyches and then use them to proxy Wracks (my LGS owner has graciously agreed to let me proxy things while I'm trying to build my army) to see which one I prefer. In the end, I'll probably have both and switch them out from time to time, as my main focus will be on shooting things with my warriors (who most definitely will be moving up to 12" away from things).

Thank you both for your input.