1000 All Comers List - Cult of Empty Night

Hey guys, I'm new to the whole evil and darkness thing. In fact, up until recently, my sole army was Tau, the happiest and most smiley army in the game. It also happens to be the most able to get their butt handed to them in assault. But I liked the flavor of Dark Elder and I've put together this list with the models I currently have. Can someone give me a critique and point out some tips? Any help would be appreciated. This is an unbound army and total up to about 998 Points.

HQ:

Lelith Hesperax

Troops:

Nine Wyches - One with Hydra Gauntlet (Lelith Goes here), mounted in Raider

Elites:

Two Units of 5 Trueborn, each with Two Blasters, mounted in Venom

Nine Wracks - One with Liquifier Gun, mounted in Raider

Fast Attack:

Six Reavers, Two with Blasters

Transports:

Two Raiders, Flickerfield

Two Venom, Chain Snares, Two Splinter Cannons

Building a list is a very personal thing. Some people are focused on being competitive, while others just want an army that looks cool, or conforms to some sort of story or fluff.

If you're attempting to build a competitive list, my suggestion would be to completely forego any thoughts of the other things when you build your list. Rather than point out specific things you could do differently(there are a lot), I'll give you a few general pieces of list-building advice:

1 - Always be as efficient as possible. If a unit is "cool" primarily because 3 of them can get a special weapon, don't take 5 members of that unit when you're able to just take the 3 cool ones.

2 - Battle-forged is WAY better than unbound, unless you're going REALLY unbound. Try to stick to battle-forged for not only the "objective secured" rule, but also the ability to roll twice on the warlord traits charts.

3 - Build your army without upgrades, and add upgrades at the end. This will generally keep you from over-upgrading to the point of having significantly fewer units. As you get more comfortable with the units, you'll learn to know what upgrades are "always takes", such as the second splinter cannon on venoms.

Welcome to the Dark City, and good luck.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going for more or less a fluffy list with a decent chance of winning. Not going competitive at all. Had pretty good success with the Tau - even before the new codex came out - and I was just ready to play some bad guys for a chance. Plus, they looked awesome on the table.

I'd never thought of doing the upgrades later idea. I think I'll give that a try since I do seem to be having trouble getting everything I wanted into the list. Everybody says to take a Ravager but honestly, I hate those freaking things. It seems too much like a one trick pony to me. Of course, again, this is coming from Tau where almost everything has multiple uses. At any rate, thanks for the advice. Any more would be welcome.

Yeah, ravagers can be used in a couple different ways, based on whether you equip them with dark lances or disintegrators. But ultimately, you're right, they're kind of a one-trick pony.

But since that trick is BLOWING UP ALL THE ENEMY'S VEHICLES AND TERMINATORS, I think we can give them a pass.

They're good at what they do, and are the cheapest access to dark lances in our entire army, costing 35 points per dark lance shot. I actually made up a list not too long ago that utilized a triple force org specifically to bring 9 Ravagers into play. Wouldn't have bothered if I didn't think they were a good unit.

Have you ever tried five Wyches with haywire grenades in a venom? Crack open a tank transport and mow down those inside with the venom's cannons? I will have a Razorwing in the larger 1500 point list as well as some scourges with heat lances.