New to DEldar

Greetings all. After years of slaving away under the oppression of the Imperium I've found my way into the freedom of the Dark City.

Anyway, I've made up a 2k list that has been revised a couple of times after playing a few proxy games and I'm now ready to offer the list up to the insubstantial mercy those who dwell in High Commorragh.

Basically like the list to move fast, hit hard and be a mix of everything the DEldar have to offer: my yet-to-be-named Kabal has close ties to a yet-to-be-named Haemonculus Coven and allow a small number of Wyches to join them in battle as a concession for services rendered and goods supplied... which is all to say I'd like to keep my list mostly Kabal/Coven with as few Wych Cult elements.

(PS. yes, there's a 2nd Force Org in there)

2000 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster

Archon's Unit
Archon: Huskblade, Combat Drugs, Soul-Trap, PGL, SF  -- 170
Haemonculous: Venom Blade  -- 55
4 Grotesques: Aberration w/Venom Blade  -- 235
--Raider: Disintegrator, Torment GL, Enhanced Aethersails, Flickerfield

Objective Holders
Haemonculous: Liquifier  -- 60
10x Wracks: 2x Liquifier  -- 120

Haemonculous: Liquifier  -- 60
10x Wracks: 2x Liquifier  -- 120

Backfield Threat (we get a lot of Deepstrikers in our Meta)
Talos Pain Engine: Chainflails, Extra CCW  -- 125

Forward Strike
5x Trueborn: 4x Blaster  -- 185
--Venom: Extra Splinter Cannon

5x Trueborn: 4x Blaster  -- 185
--Venom: Extra Splinter Cannon

Haywire Patrol/Chaff
5x Wyches: Haywire Grenades
--Venom: Extra Splinter Cannon
5x Wyches: Haywire Grenades
--Venom: Extra Splinter Cannon

Heavy Support
2x Ravager: Flickerfield, Nightshield  -- 250
Voidraven Bomber: Flickerfield, 3x Shatterfield Missiles  -- 185



Any feedback is welcome as I'm looking to order the first ~1k of this army very soon

Greetings and welcome to a real tacticians army. Speaking from the perspective of someone who played meq in many forms for nearly a decade you will need to toss out much of the list building methodology that meq ingrains into you and reabsorb the rules.. especially as they pertain to cover and movement.
Also put more consideration to your approach on objective placement and capture, and to secondary objectives. We like to take not hold as a general rule. Backfield protection units arent usually as valuable to us though unless its something special like say vect + haemie in 20 warriors for example, or else something that can reverse direction quickly and control the board like beasts.

Haywire tends to work better when its overwhelming IME but is also very fragile so if you do go that route I would recommend increasing the number of troops since they become suicide units.

On your list I think its a good start but has a few too many upgrades and some elements that I feel wont be worth their salt. In order:

Quote :

Archon's Unit
Archon: Huskblade, Combat Drugs, Soul-Trap, PGL, SF  -- 170
Haemonculous: Venom Blade  -- 55
4 Grotesques: Aberration w/Venom Blade  -- 235
--Raider: Disintegrator, Torment GL, Enhanced Aethersails, Flickerfield

the archon is overtooled. Grots dont care about initiative so the PGL isnt needed since the archon already has grenades of his own. Combat drugs can be worthwhile but mostly unnecessary. The soultrap too is really another extraneous kit. Rule of cool mostly. However I would add a venom blade. You will find it invaluable if you face any kind of fodder units like those nids orks or IG can field and it keeps wraith knights honest. Also consider HWG on the archon. It does open you up to getting trapped in combat with a walker but having a BS 7 thrown grenade is nice (and ap4 plasma blast grenade dont forget) and this upgrade helps the grots be able to successfully assault armour.

The haemie you will find is also not necessary. The unit is plenty hard to kill without him and the grots already provide a pain token.

Lastly the raider can stand to lose the flickerfield.. you will be boosting turn one into their face with 4++ save anyway after which the raider WILL die. The other upgrades can be useful especially the sails and even the TGL in more specialized role but again shaving these wont hurt the plan. Definately try the latter two out though.

Overall welcome to one of the premier assault delivery systems in the game, you will enjoy this unit.

Quote :

Objective Holders
Haemonculous: Liquifier  -- 60
10x Wracks: 2x Liquifier  -- 120

Haemonculous: Liquifier  -- 60
10x Wracks: 2x Liquifier  -- 120

Backfield Threat (we get a lot of Deepstrikers in our Meta)
Talos Pain Engine: Chainflails, Extra CCW  -- 125

Here is the glaring fault of the list IMO of course. Thats a lot of points spent being very slow and unthreatening. DE absolutely need to concentrate force and this makes life very easy for your opponent. Taloi are better in pairs being aggressive but again backfield units are not our forte. On the wracks I would suggest using pts from the talos to get a couple raiders to allow for a full frontal assault with the grots if it suits and which also adds dark light and mobility. Remember raiders are excellent assault vehicles but they drop quickly so multiples of everything is good. The other benefit is if the grots raider gets destroyed before it moves they can embark into one of the "spare" raiders.

On nightshields, these are more a metagame decision than anything. Very frustrating for midfield armies like crons very welcome vs tau and mostly worthless against IG, loota spam, eldar etc.
The main thing to consider is HOW you include them. I think the general consensus is all or nothing. When I take them its usually on everything which then hugs the back edge. Otherwise you are just writing your opponents target priority for him.. i.e. shoot the wyches and blasterborn, the close up units. You can pull tricks like deploying night shielded ravagers in front of raiders which then get cover from a unit 6" behind them due to the shield but overall Ive found it awkward. Try it out though and form an opinion.

Lasty when you play the army especially with nightshields against shorter ranged armies, but also just in general and with proper play your opponent will often feel like its a one sided ass kicking at first. This is an aspect of our army but dont let that make you overconfident because games are very swingy with DE and usually involve tempo shifts but make no mistake this army is unforgiving. You eff up one time and you will be looking at a remnants of a fleet wondering what happened.

Good luck and welcome to TDC.

That's a lot of advice! Where to start... I guess in order?

The Archon. The PGL is a good point that hadn't even occurred to me--I originally wrote the Archon with Incubi so the PGL was stuck in my head as "necessary". Consider it gone and Haywire added. I really would like to keep the Huskblade/Soul Trap/Combat Drugs though as they are just so very cool and things like that are part of what brought me to DE...

And it's probably not what you intended, but I might replace the Splinter Pistol a Venom Blade to keep those Wraithknights honest.

Oh, and consider that Flickerfield gone, too. Another good catch. The sails are staying, I love them so far. The TGL has done nothing thus far and was really only there because I had 5 points spare.

The Archon's Haemi. I'm not sure on this one. On one hand, having S4 on the charge makes the Huskblade a lot more dangerous against those MEQ and beyond ICs the Archon is hunting, but on the other he IS 55 points just for that... this might bode further testing. Definitely food for thought though.

The Wracks/Talos. This is certainly an idea. The whole 'take a transport and only maybe use it' idea that DE seem to use is not something that's come up in IG play. I think I'll try the list after swapping the Talos for the Raiders and see which I prefer.


All in all thanks for giving me a lot to think about! Some of your advice might filter through after the novelty wears off (Archon kit) but for now you've trimmed a bit of fat and given me a lot to ponder. Thanks!

Why not use a shadow-, or clonefield on your Archon? In combination with huskblade and soultrap,
it should make him a potent duelist. Or a jinnblade?

Brom is right and Zenotaph brings up a great point!

Archon with Huskblade, shadowfield and soultrap is a potent killing machine for not a huge amount of points. I don't think you ever need more upgrades than that IMO, perhaps combat drugs if you have the points available.

I think the most important part of a DE force is the need for transports. Think of them as pirates and play them as pirates. Drop the Haemocules in the wrack squads and find some points to get the Wracks each a raider. Don't worry about holding objectives, its never a good move for DE. Get everything in transports and hit half of your opponent with the whole of your army. Overwhelm and annihilate is the DE weapon of choice. If its a fair fight you are doing it wrong!

The trueborn work better as a unit of 3 with 3 blasters or 4 with 4 blasters depending on points. The extra man is a waste of points. Use those extra points to get Nightshields or Flickerfields on the wracks raiders.

With that many wracks though you will want a haemocules just to make them scoring, I think the one with the Archon is fine as it is. 55 Points for furious charge, an extra 2 wounds and an extra bunch of attacks + making wracks scoring is a bargain!

Best of luck and feel free to pester the forum if you need advice, theres plenty on there if you need a read although with the new rule book coming out some things may subtly change!

Just a small extra comment. The Talos is also a heavy support choice so, unless you are using the double organization chart (most people don't accept it at 2000 points), your list is illegal.

I think he says there is a second force organisation in there

Zenotaph; he does have a Shadowfield, I just marked it down as "SF". I've been considering the Clonefield but I just can't bring myself to have a 1/3 chance of only stopping 1 hit in a round against an enemy IC. Seems like suicide! The Djinn Blade doesn't stack with the Huskblade so that's out--way too many characters around here have a 2+ for me to count anything less than Ap2 as a duellist (... I think mine are usually the only ones that don't!).

So far with the ridiculous amount of kit he has he's managed to end up S10 with 4+ Pain Tokens in his unit in 2/3 games... the other game he was in a Venom with some Incubi and took half a Tyrannid army's shooting at close range Turn 2... after which I decided majority toughness 3 was a bad plan >.<

Grub; if I lose the Talos I have points for a Raider for each of the squads of Wracks which I'm thinking might be the best idea. Using Brom's advice that means I can keep them backfield or embark and boot it across the board Turn 1 depending on how the match-up looks.

The extra Trueborn is an ablative wound, but I suppose at 12 points he's (they're) probably not worth it. Flickerfields for the Raiders it is.

I think for now the Haemonculi with the Wracks will stay. Maybe once I'm a bit more confident in the All-or-Nothing approach of DEldar I'll lose them to get my Talos back.

_Flip; the is indeed a second FO in there. We play by the book rules at my group so it's allowed.


Cheers to all three of you for the help. I'll be sure to send some slaves your way after my next raid!

Haven't seen the sf, sorry. Clonefields have their use, because they negate attacks totally.
No save roll needed. But the ghostplate armor is a must, when you use it,
for all the other attacks. I plan to try that combo against the necrons,
since the overlord has a total of 3 attacks. I don't think, it will work,though...

Normally, I use a shadowfield, husk blade, soul trap and combat drugs.
When I got some points to spare, I add haywire grenades.

Yeah I really want to try the Clonefield... but it just seems worse than the Shadowfield in the situation I want my Archon: chopping up the choppiest enemy like so much ground meat!

Maybe I'll make a second Raider full of Grots with a Clonefield Archon and run them together to scientifically test who is best? Haha, this will be fun!

Why not use Urien? He has a clonefield and adds extra strength to your grots...

That is also something I could try. Urien would do the job of all 3 of my Haemonculi and more... that... OK, Zeno, I like your ideas! I will try this.