Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Spaguatyrine's Dark Eldar Portfolio after 10+ test games

by Spaguatyrine


After more than 10 games I have finally come up with the force of my Dark Eldar that I will be running in future local tournaments.  They are not up to the level of my space wolves yet, but I feel they will be in 6 months of constant play.  Unfortunately I will not have them back until after the The Indy Open Grand Tournament in March. 

Unfortunately I have not got in any games with guard players as now the gaming area has very little left.  Through trial and error, this is what I have found to fit my play style.  I drastically changed certain portions of my army the last 3 games, but I am happy with the results and plan on moving forward with only a few changes here and there.

So without any further waiting here we go.

HQ's
The Baron
Haemonculi with Webway portal

Elite
3 Trueborn with blasters in Venom with 2x Splinter Cannon
3 Trueborn with blasters in Venom with 2x Splinter Cannon
7 Incubi with Klavex with Demiglaves

Troops
15-20 Hellions depending on point level.  1  power weapon
10 Wracks with 2 liquifier gun, Acoste with venom blade
5  Wracks
5  Warriors with blaster in Venom with 2x Splinter Cannon
10 Warriors with 1x Splinter cannon and sybarite

Fast Attack
5 Scourges with 2 haywire blasters
5 Scourges with 2 haywire blasters

Heavy
Ravager with 3 dark lances
Ravager with 3 dark lances
Talos Pain Engine with Twin Linked Liquifier gun and Twin Linked Heat Lance

As you can see I don't have a ton of vehicles.  The idea is to not depend on so many easy kill point vehicles.  With this 2,000 point list I surprisingly only have 18 kill points.  Most Dark eldar armies have 20-25 at this point level.  As I have learned from being handed my bottom by Xaereth the Hellions are an amazing unit that is amazingly resilient and powerful if used correctly.  They are what my Thunderwolves are in my space wolves list.  

The Talos primarily comes from the webway portal but provides a twin linked liquifier gun for cooking marines and a twin linked heat lance or haywire blasters.  This unit also provides a toughness 7 creature that is great at popping vehicles at midfield.

The Trueborn are there with their venoms for the blaster and splinter cannon goodness of course.

The Incubi are only 7 strong but good enough to kill a 10 man tactical squad before they can swing back. They also can come from the webway portal or work as a counter assault unit. 

The wracks are something added halfway thru the list building process.  I have a small unit of objective holders and pain token sacrifice for the Hellions, and a larger 10 man squad with double liquifier guns, and an acoste with a venom blade.  The 10 man squad can also either enter via a webway portal or be deployed normally as their toughness 4 and feel no pain make them tough to take down in shooting.  The 10 man squad has 27 WS4 attacks on the charge with 4+ poison.  The acoste adds 4 more attacks with 2+ poison.  Against toughness 3 the wounds are re-rollable, and if they have 2 pain tokens they are re-rollable against toughness 4.  The 2 liquifier guns also take down MEQ fairly easy. A liquifier gun is a strength 4 flame template with a random d6 ap.  There is a 50% chance to cook ap3. :)

The Scourges are a unit that is seldom seen on the board.  I play mine with 2 haywire blasters in each squad.  Their purpose is to stunlock vehicles at a 24" range.  The haywire blaster is like a haywire grenade but with a 24" range.  After hitting you roll a dice; on a 1 nothing happens, on a 2-5 you score a glancing hit and on a 6 a penetration.  These work wonders against Necron vehicles because the AV13 means nothing to them. Them also being open topped means haywire blasters can pop vehicles fairly easily.  

So with only a few changes here and there this is the list I will be playing.  I have tested this basic list against the following lists:

Necron's x 5
Chaos Daemons x 1
Grey Knights x 2
Salamanders x 1
Space Wolves x 1
Space Marines x 1

To date I have been victorious on 10 out of 11 games with a tie to Dodger3.  I still have to get in games with Guard and more Space wolves and Grey Knights to  be completely satisfied with this list. I would also like to play some other dark eldar, Orks, Tau, and Eldar as well. 

Overall I feel this army is:

Fast,
Hard hitting in close combat,
Has medium level firepower,
More resilient than other DE builds due to not depending on a lot of paper airplanes,
Able to stand toe to toe with MEQ armies and beat them in a firefight and close combat,
An overall good all comers list so far.

15 comments:

  1. of note, since the acoste comes with 2 poison weapons, giving him a poison blade doesn't grant the bonus attack... you're still wielding 2 weapons with special rules.
    Any time you want to test vs some other de let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would love to. When are you available? I am not sure I agree on that. A venom blade is a poison weapon. 2 poison weapons should give the +1 attack. Good thing to think about. What are your thoughts on the list?

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  3. It feels a little light on Str8 Ap2 weapons. Against Tau and now Paladins those are pretty critical.

    I'm sort of unsure as to what the 10 man warrior squad is doing? backliners?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes. The splinter cannon is a very good weapon, and I found towards the mid to end of the game all my venoms were dead, so a unit to sit back and shoot 6 splinter cannon shots is harder to kill than 1 missle shot to a venom. Plus is something gets close, I have massive fire and close combat potential with the webway portal.

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  5. The Acothyst would lose the bonus attack--it's basically the same as having a Power Fist and a Thunder Hammer. Even though a Thunder Hammer uses the Power Fist rules, they're still not the same thing, which is the requirement for gaining bonus attacks with special CCWs.

    Even if the Dark Eldar Codex had two different 2+ poison weapons with different names, using the pair of them wouldn't grant a bonus attack--they have to be the same weapon, not have the same rules.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is of a very different style than my own DE, so it'd be interesting to see them both in action. As far as when? After super bowl >.< ... my catering is relatively out of control for the next couple of weeks. Bye, world... see you after a bit.

    Other note - Do remember that the Helliarch's power weapon is only S3, making in a somewhat odd choice over an Agoniser (or just more S4 beats).

    Also, how are you getting your heamy into position? Or do you just plan to set up the portal near your starting deployment edge?

    ReplyDelete
  7. If this is working for you, than keep it up. But I'm not seeing anything in this list that is overly concerning. Only 4 anti tank threats, some foot squads, there is some serious lack of mobility.

    I've been unimpressed with Hellions thus far. They simply do not scare me as much as wyches. Honestly, my Tyranid gargoyles have one less attack, but are much more lethal in combat, and cost 8pts per model instead of the 16 for hellions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gravemind,

    Then let's play and find out. :). Ask dutin about hellions when you play them correctly. This list does exactly as you say, let's people think they have very little tank busting ability. It is deceptive in its build. Are you playing next weekend?

    The webway portal works in 3 different ways depending on my opponent.

    Deployed with the hellion unit as they are spread out to the middle of the board with cover. He goes independent and drops the portal near the centerm

    He rides with the trueborn as they move 12" jump out and drop the portal.

    He rides with warriors and moves 6 or 12 jumps out and joins the hellions while dropping the portal.

    I want a test game against you, and gravemind.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I had just played Dustin's version earlier today. He deployed them mid way behind cover with webway on dawn of war. The game was basically over by Turn 2, with me tabling him on T5. 21-2 on KPs.

    Yes, I'm playing on the 4th, but between work and school I'm not sure how much free time I'll have for practice games. But I definitely want another game against you. You still have my email? Let me know what days work for you and I'll see what fits.

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  10. Well haven't been able to catch a game with guard just let me know.

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  11. I would love to get a game in. I am not sure who you are, but let me know where and when you can play.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hard to catch a ride with the warriors when their transport is full, no? Haha... Do you usually plan on dropping turn 1? Or holding off until turn 2 for better position at the risk of reserves hitting before it's open?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I always drop on turn 1. Yeah you are right. I meant to say either trueborn. This army is so fast even without vehicles it is scary.

    No Kabs?

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  14. @Gravemind,

    I actually dont have it anymore. Could you email me at aleongs@att.net?

    ReplyDelete

out dang bot!

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