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How would you guys crack my Dark Eldar army?

Started by crisis_vyper, January 07, 2013, 11:56:49 PM

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crisis_vyper

Heya all, I would like some serious opinions about how you would go about cracking my army (Barring IG of course, as their guns are just way more numerous, cheaper and has a longer range than my own guns which puts them at a considerable advantage over my Dark Eldar). The reason why I ask this is because I noticed that a lot of players are quite overwhelmed by what I have and personally as a player I feel that they are not truly looking at the right places. Of course, since I played Dark Eldar for so long, it feels that sometimes it is not obvious to me as to how people tend to not see the seams of my army.

Here is my list for 2000 pts, which is the norm in my area.

Archon with Huskblade, Soul-trap, Combat Drugs, Phantasm Grenade Launcher and Shadowfield
Haemonculus with liquifier gun
5 Incubi with Klaivex upgrade on Raider with Dark Lance*
2 squads of 3 Kabalite Trueborn with Blasters on Venoms with second Splinter Cannons
3 squads of 5 Kabalite Warriors with a Blaster on Venoms with second Splinter Cannons
2 squads of Kabalite Warriors with a Blaster on Raide with Dark Lancer*
2 squads of 6 Reaver Jetbikes with 2 Heat Lances
2 Ravagers with three Dark Lances*
1 Razorwing with 4 Monoscythe missiles, 2 Dark Lances, a twin-linked Splinter rifle and Flickerfield

*Bare bone, no defensive upgrades whatsoever unless it is provided in the rules as in the case of the Venoms with their Flickershield

Apparently this list is causing a lot of headaches from everyone except IG, and even the IG players said that if I got the right moment I could win (Really? :-\). So I guess I would like to ask you guys about what you think are the strengths of my Dark Eldar, weaknesses, and what would you do against me as I would like to see from another player's perspective as to how they would actually negate my strengths and such. The terrain in my area tends be balanced, with a 55% ruins and 45% everything else.

C&C is much appreciated for this simulation.

Waaaghpower

I'd do what I always do: BIKER NOBZZZES RAAARGH!
Seriously though, I've never seen my biker nobz get successfully shot up before they reach you and tear apart all of your tanks and ranged units. With 4+, 5++, automatic 4+ cover, and FNP, plus T5 and a T6 Warboss, it takes massed S10 shots that deny cover in order to really put on the hurt. And even then, I only need to get 2-3 guys across (That is, my 2-3 power klaws) in order to rip you apart.
Beyond that, I'd take lootas in order to shred your flyers (They do take a BS penalty, but since we are only BS2 anyways that doesn't matter much,) with anywhere from 15-45 S7 shots, and hordes of dirt-cheap boys to soak up firepower.

One problem I see with your list is massed killpoints. It's lots of units, even for 2000 points, so on certain game types a power-unit (that is, few but powerful units instead of lots of cheap cannon fodder) enemy will easily win if you can't wipe them off the board. Admittedly I don't know much about Eldar specifically, but from what I know they aren't the hardest guys to kill when it comes to survivability.

Then again, I haven't played Dark Eldar in a long time so I could be completely off on that, it's just my 2 cents.
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.

Scout Sergeant Mkoll

Ok, 2 questions: 1) Dark Lances or Disintegrators on the Raiders? 2) No Night Shields on the Venoms?

My personal opinion would be to focus fire on the venoms, bring them down as quickly as possible. Once they're gone you have precious little anti-infantry for a 2k list, and your highly vulnerable warriors would be slowed considerably. A well written force should be capable of inflicting damage on at least 3 Venoms first turn. (Apart from my Khorne force but they're pure combat :P )

After that I'd probably target the Ravagers and Reavers and from there on in there shouldn't be too much of a threat.

Admittedly, that makes it sound far simpler than it actually is to do these things, but that would be my personal target priority. I find myself wondering how a hypothetical SMurfs list I was working on would do against this. I may have to find a way to write it up and then face you via Vassal if possible.
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Quote from: Mabbz on June 03, 2011, 10:43:53 AM
Mkoll wins.

Quote from: LordDemon
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crisis_vyper

#3
Quote from: Warmaster Russ on January 08, 2013, 01:16:53 AM
Ok, 2 questions: 1) Dark Lances or Disintegrators on the Raiders? 2) No Night Shields on the Venoms?

My personal opinion would be to focus fire on the venoms, bring them down as quickly as possible. Once they're gone you have precious little anti-infantry for a 2k list, and your highly vulnerable warriors would be slowed considerably. A well written force should be capable of inflicting damage on at least 3 Venoms first turn. (Apart from my Khorne force but they're pure combat :P )

After that I'd probably target the Ravagers and Reavers and from there on in there shouldn't be too much of a threat.

Admittedly, that makes it sound far simpler than it actually is to do these things, but that would be my personal target priority. I find myself wondering how a hypothetical SMurfs list I was working on would do against this. I may have to find a way to write it up and then face you via Vassal if possible.

Dark Lances on raiders, and no nightshields for Venoms. You are right that the venoms are perhaps my best anti-infantry and if they are gone, I only got my Reavers, Incubi, Archon, Haemonculus, and Razorwing to handle infantry. Need to edit the first post to point out the lances and the lack of nightshields.

Of course I could always take Nightshields, but the question is what I should take out to arm every vehicle in my army with Nightshields. Not to mention that I am often really far away, so I am not sure if I really require Nighshields all the time.

Quote from: Waaaghpower on January 08, 2013, 12:16:55 AM
I'd do what I always do: BIKER NOBZZZES RAAARGH!
Seriously though, I've never seen my biker nobz get successfully shot up before they reach you and tear apart all of your tanks and ranged units. With 4+, 5++, automatic 4+ cover, and FNP, plus T5 and a T6 Warboss, it takes massed S10 shots that deny cover in order to really put on the hurt. And even then, I only need to get 2-3 guys across (That is, my 2-3 power klaws) in order to rip you apart.
Beyond that, I'd take lootas in order to shred your flyers (They do take a BS penalty, but since we are only BS2 anyways that doesn't matter much,) with anywhere from 15-45 S7 shots, and hordes of dirt-cheap boys to soak up firepower.

One problem I see with your list is massed killpoints. It's lots of units, even for 2000 points, so on certain game types a power-unit (that is, few but powerful units instead of lots of cheap cannon fodder) enemy will easily win if you can't wipe them off the board. Admittedly I don't know much about Eldar specifically, but from what I know they aren't the hardest guys to kill when it comes to survivability.

Then again, I haven't played Dark Eldar in a long time so I could be completely off on that, it's just my 2 cents.

Poison takes away the toughness equation for Dark Eldar, and the combined might of splinter cannons and Dark Lances would at least the Nobs and Warboss to take a leadership test. Of course, I personally would prefer to gun down lootas before Nobs, but it depends on the situation.

As for the kill points, Dark Eldar is not known to have less than 10 KP to begin with, so it is a given more or less and something that I will have to take like a man.

Scout Sergeant Mkoll

Quote from: crisis_vyper on January 08, 2013, 02:01:13 AM
Dark Lances on raiders, and no nightshields for Venoms. You are right that the venoms are perhaps my best anti-infantry and if they are gone, I only got my Reavers, Incubi, and Razorwing to handle infantry. Need to edit the first post to point out the lances and the lack of nightshields.
Ok. so you have more anti tank than I first thought, though admittedly less anti-TEQ. The other advantage of taking out the Venoms quickly, apart from the loss of the splinter cannons, is the mobility. Blasters are mid-range and need to be up close for maximum effectiveness, without the Venoms that would be difficult to manage, especially with such small squads.

I think, depending on the terrain and dice obviously, my 6 Tactical 3 Devastator SMurf list could do ok against this list. The lack of Night Shields means your vehicles can't kite the heavy bolter-toting Devs. Could be an interesting match.

Out of interest, how soundly do you tend to win? Are you regularly tabling opponents without much trouble or are you just snatching victory but often enough that it seems to be a matter of course?
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Quote from: Mabbz on June 03, 2011, 10:43:53 AM
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Quote from: LordDemon
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crisis_vyper

#5
Quote from: Warmaster Russ on January 08, 2013, 02:09:43 AM
Ok. so you have more anti tank than I first thought, though admittedly less anti-TEQ. The other advantage of taking out the Venoms quickly, apart from the loss of the splinter cannons, is the mobility. Blasters are mid-range and need to be up close for maximum effectiveness, without the Venoms that would be difficult to manage, especially with such small squads.

I think, depending on the terrain and dice obviously, my 6 Tactical 3 Devastator SMurf list could do ok against this list. The lack of Night Shields means your vehicles can't kite the heavy bolter-toting Devs. Could be an interesting match.

Out of interest, how soundly do you tend to win? Are you regularly tabling opponents without much trouble or are you just snatching victory but often enough that it seems to be a matter of course?

Yeah it could be interesting when I face off against 90 Marines (unless your Devastators are 5-men squads). That will take a while to kill off.

I noticed that players often take only one large TEQ squad and then spam on the rest or at least that is the trend among those that could take a TEQ squad. But that saying, they are often close combat-oriented, so I tend to fly around and ignore them with my speed. I am seeing more and more infantry though, so even I believe that perhaps a pure Venomspam is more powerful. However, I tried to keep my list as balanced as possible just in case I face off against some stupid Land Raider list or something. My Raiders and Ravagers I think are somewhat my anti-air too come to think about it.

If it is not IG, I often table or cripple at least 60-80% of their forces, especially when they are Marines I guess due to my preference to  killing/crippling long-range multiple shot weaponry units first and with Marine armies they could only put so much into one army at a time. If it is IG, it is either I am dead fast, or I am pulling a victory from the teeth due to me playing to the mission. But that saying IG is the most powerful army in 40k when it comes to shooting and even the most stalwart Marines would cringe at them and Dark Eldar has little protection from their onslaught.

Chicop76

With Daemons I would hate going up a list like that. With guard when I went against a list like that is I pop the vehicles and flame what pops out.

My combat experance would say a foot heavy swarm army that have shooting and flame would give that list problems. Multi poison against hordes of 6 point models is realy nottoo effective. Average venom with 12 shots would hit 8 times and kill 4 models with poor saves. Against Tau that's two models and against nids on orcs it's 4 with causing 20 points woth of damage.

Be that as it may I would say pop the flyers and flame what is on the ground. I think a well pu together sister force would do well against that. The only armies I see really strugglig with it is armies in the 50 models and below.

Lack of lang range and mobility and low model count would be owned by that list.

I will say that armies that can field a lot of str 7 and higher fire power would do realy well. Especailly if they have long range capabilities. Orcs is a good example and Tau as well. Grey Knights is one, but that 24" range is going to hurt that army type.

With my daemons I can roughly dish out 8 str 8 shots which I would be able to down 3 flyers or maybe 4.  If I can't put a good showing first turn I would have seroius problems with that list.


BigToof

Hi Crisis,
Well, I've been thinking on this one, and I think one list that would give you a lot of problems would be Necron Air Force with Wraithwing backup.

6 Night Scythes with Warriors
18 Wraiths
Overlord, Stormteks and Doom Scythes to flavor

Basically, you can't kill all 18 wraiths in 1-2 turns, and then the Scythes come in, which will down 2-3 vehicles a turn, meaning that you can't really protect yourself from Warriors who will drop in on turn 5 to take objectives anywhere they please on the board.  The idea is to saturate the area with Flyers and use them to block movement from any infantry, as you can't end your turn under a flyer.

But, granted you need someone who's skilled with a large Flyer army, as you could outmaneuver them if they let you...

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

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Chicop76

Quote from: BigToof on January 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
Hi Crisis,
Well, I've been thinking on this one, and I think one list that would give you a lot of problems would be Necron Air Force with Wraithwing backup.

6 Night Scythes with Warriors
18 Wraiths
Overlord, Stormteks and Doom Scythes to flavor

Basically, you can't kill all 18 wraiths in 1-2 turns, and then the Scythes come in, which will down 2-3 vehicles a turn, meaning that you can't really protect yourself from Warriors who will drop in on turn 5 to take objectives anywhere they please on the board.  The idea is to saturate the area with Flyers and use them to block movement from any infantry, as you can't end your turn under a flyer.

But, granted you need someone who's skilled with a large Flyer army, as you could outmaneuver them if they let you...

Best,
-BT

Forgot about necrons heavy tesla guns. Tesla guns and crypteks with their flamers.


Fhanados

I honestly think I would lose against this list almost 100% of the time if I were to use the models I own (or even if I owned all the models I'd like) :facepalm001:

12 quick moving vehicles is a LOT of targets, and each one is a threat in itself, and each one carries a threat inside!

I think I'd have to spam Autocannon havocs. Three units of them with 4 cannons and some ablative wounds. Chuck in a ADL with Quadgun and there's my main firebase.

Two Helldrakes would be nice as well. Hopefully Meteoric Descent will be dangerous enough to take out one or two things and then burninate the stuff stuck on the ground but that Razorwing looks scary.

Even with this foundation I think I'd struggle against the sheer volume of the Dark Eldar list.

Lord Sotek

#10
As a Necron player with a marked distaste for any flying circuses that aren't British television shows, I find myself wondering how an old school "appallingly huge Warrior phalanx backed by Monoliths" army might fare. It strikes me that this just might be enough durable infantry spam to sponge up lots of that firepower, and to threaten the large swarm of vehicles through sheer brute volume-of-fire generating enough Gauss autoglances to ping them to death. And Monoliths haven't stopped dropping nasty gauss pies or being AV14, even if Living Metal isn't as good as it used to be... Maybe some big Scarab swarms to screen fire and omnom targets of opportunity, too.

What do the rest of you think, am I onto something here or would this list get demolished along with my self-delusions?
Quote from: Saulus on March 17, 2011, 06:16:56 PM
Often I hear delusional ramble like "I painted and collected my army as ultramarine tyranid hunters....but Pedro is really good, so now I'm using him, but I'm just going to call him Jimbob-Fistpumper, cause that fits with my

crisis_vyper

Quote from: Chicop76 on January 08, 2013, 06:37:41 AM
With Daemons I would hate going up a list like that. With guard when I went against a list like that is I pop the vehicles and flame what pops out.

My combat experance would say a foot heavy swarm army that have shooting and flame would give that list problems. Multi poison against hordes of 6 point models is realy nottoo effective. Average venom with 12 shots would hit 8 times and kill 4 models with poor saves. Against Tau that's two models and against nids on orcs it's 4 with causing 20 points woth of damage.

Be that as it may I would say pop the flyers and flame what is on the ground. I think a well pu together sister force would do well against that. The only armies I see really strugglig with it is armies in the 50 models and below.

Lack of lang range and mobility and low model count would be owned by that list.

I will say that armies that can field a lot of str 7 and higher fire power would do realy well. Especailly if they have long range capabilities. Orcs is a good example and Tau as well. Grey Knights is one, but that 24" range is going to hurt that army type.

With my daemons I can roughly dish out 8 str 8 shots which I would be able to down 3 flyers or maybe 4.  If I can't put a good showing first turn I would have seroius problems with that list.

Very astute observation Chicop, as Guard is my bane as stated in the first post. Orks I can handle to an extent as a result of the normal template that is running around these days. Grey Knights, rarely so.

Sisters of Battle actually surprised me, and made me think a little as my Dark Eldar has not been tested against them before. I would be interested to know why and how actually.

Quote from: BigToof on January 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
Hi Crisis,
Well, I've been thinking on this one, and I think one list that would give you a lot of problems would be Necron Air Force with Wraithwing backup.

6 Night Scythes with Warriors
18 Wraiths
Overlord, Stormteks and Doom Scythes to flavor

Basically, you can't kill all 18 wraiths in 1-2 turns, and then the Scythes come in, which will down 2-3 vehicles a turn, meaning that you can't really protect yourself from Warriors who will drop in on turn 5 to take objectives anywhere they please on the board.  The idea is to saturate the area with Flyers and use them to block movement from any infantry, as you can't end your turn under a flyer.

But, granted you need someone who's skilled with a large Flyer army, as you could outmaneuver them if they let you...

Best,
-BT

One of those nightmare lists huh? But that saying, you are right in a number of assessments........ :shifty:

Oddly enough my Necron experience actually pits me off against a lot of those smaller shooty skimmers with (I think they are called Annihilation Barges), with two flyers tops and lots of those Transports things with warriors. That one is actually quite fun to face off against, but once I noticed the range of their guns, I just decided to play my game of 36". But it would be definitely interesting to see what happens when they will be in their effective range.

In addition Bigtoof, based upon what you see how would you see my list work and its strengths, and how I play them? You are perhaps the only Dark Eldar compatriot that constantly plays with Dark Eldar often. Your feedback would be much appreciated.

Quote from: Isaac Baraqiel on January 08, 2013, 11:14:56 PM
As a Necron player with a marked distaste for any flying circuses that aren't British television shows, I find myself wondering how an old school "appallingly huge Warrior phalanx backed by Monoliths" army might fare. It strikes me that this just might be enough durable infantry spam to sponge up lots of that firepower, and to threaten the large swarm of vehicles through sheer brute volume-of-fire generating enough Gauss autoglances to ping them to death. And Monoliths haven't stopped dropping nasty gauss pies or being AV14, even if Living Metal isn't as good as it used to be... Maybe some big Scarab swarms to screen fire and omnom targets of opportunity, too.

What do the rest of you think, am I onto something here or would this list get demolished along with my self-delusions?

Monoliths are not amazing in the sense that Lances are their bane. But the infantry side of things would be interesting to face against. Scarabs......I am honestly not sure, as I do not see them anymore. They died with 5th edition, and the Flying Circus took their place.

Quote from: Fhanados on January 08, 2013, 09:49:59 PM
I honestly think I would lose against this list almost 100% of the time if I were to use the models I own (or even if I owned all the models I'd like) :facepalm001:

12 quick moving vehicles is a LOT of targets, and each one is a threat in itself, and each one carries a threat inside!

I think I'd have to spam Autocannon havocs. Three units of them with 4 cannons and some ablative wounds. Chuck in a ADL with Quadgun and there's my main firebase.

Two Helldrakes would be nice as well. Hopefully Meteoric Descent will be dangerous enough to take out one or two things and then burninate the stuff stuck on the ground but that Razorwing looks scary.

Even with this foundation I think I'd struggle against the sheer volume of the Dark Eldar list.

The facepalm reaction is something I see often these days with my Dark Eldar, which kinda sucked my enthusiasm about my Dark Eldar.

Just the other day, I was playing in an Apocalypse battle with more or less this list (with some upgrades of course) minus a Kabalite Warrior Venom squad, and instead put in two more aircrafts and two wyches in Raiders and I am apparently the only player that did not pick an Apoc formation and yet crippled an entire armoured formation by myself (Of course with the help of Flank March and a Hierophant Bio-titan placed under my command). Everyone was shocked (including myself) at how I killed off the main push into my team's deployment zone and they are forced to turn their Reaver Titan and Stormravens towards me to save their flank. Of course a few of my own vehicles and crews died, but fully 60% of my forces were alive by the end of the game and due to my team's efforts we are able to win the game overwhelmingly. There was a lot of facepalm on the opposing team when I did what I did.


Anyway back to topic....

Two Helldrakes could do a number on my force I would admit, but I may be able to gun them down. Of course the rest of the Chaos List could make or break a battle against my army though.

Chicop76

The reason I say sisters would be a good match for these reasons.

1. They can horde with marine saves. The amount of flame this army can dish out is rather nice. I mention flame and rapid fire death due to this army is rather good at it.

2. Exorcist: with average rolling an exorcist should easily down a boat. The ap 1 on top of open topped will be nasty against boats. Was very effective against them last edition, although front 13 is not much help.

The army have acess to crusadrs and deathcult for counter charging and if Jacobs hops a long the unit is very nasty.

Now my experance is old sisters in 5th against dark eldar in 5th. The best part of the poison attacks is that they do the same thing against my sisters as they do marines. Meaning like in the above scenrio of 12 shots, 8 will hit, 4 will wound and 1 sister or 1 marine will die. This is where the sisters have a better advantage is that there is more sisters that marines than will be on the field due to a marine costing about 5 points more than a sister. With 10 marines I could have 13 sisters insteaed and against eldar shooting it shows.

The problem with sisters they are a medium range army like the grey knights. The huge differance however they specalize in hopping in and out of rhinos. They can get cross the field faster. Although lance hits do some damage against rhinos.

Tau weakest weapon can glance death your low hull point vehicles.

The best way to defeat that army is to pop the fragile vehicles and run circles around your guys and shoot them to death.

Personally this is where I see the Eldar being nerfed from last edition. You see less boats and less lance weapons from long range.


The main problem I see with this list besides the Incubi and Archon you have no bite in close combat. Also your lance concertration is more towards tougher armies. Example is marines which a few lance weapons will hurt them. While against sisters it will hurt but not as badly. Against. Hordes it's like you really shot me with that.

I think the list is geared for anti marine, death guard, terminator, and similar type list. Horde orcs for example with a ton of str 7 shots, mass orcs, and a few rockets here and there would give this list a hard run.

The problem is when it comes down to it a 6 point orc can shot twice wounding on 3s denying saves while a 10 point model does the same thing. However on hits on 5s compared to the other that hit on 3s.

90 points in orcs is 18 orcs, assuming they fire twice that's 36 shots with 13 hits, 9 wounds meaning 9 dead eldar that is 90 points.

On the other hand 90 points in eldar is 10 guys. Giving them double tap it is 20 shots, rougly 14 shots, giving them 14 rounding in their favor. 7 would wound killing 7 orcs which is roughly less than half of the eldar losses in points.

In essence just standard shooting vs shoting within 18" out in the open orcs will seriously out gun eldar. Homagaunts is just as deadly as the orcs.


crisis_vyper

Quote from: Chicop76 on January 09, 2013, 03:16:20 AM
The reason I say sisters would be a good match for these reasons.

1. They can horde with marine saves. The amount of flame this army can dish out is rather nice. I mention flame and rapid fire death due to this army is rather good at it.

2. Exorcist: with average rolling an exorcist should easily down a boat. The ap 1 on top of open topped will be nasty against boats. Was very effective against them last edition, although front 13 is not much help.

The army have acess to crusadrs and deathcult for counter charging and if Jacobs hops a long the unit is very nasty.

Now my experance is old sisters in 5th against dark eldar in 5th. The best part of the poison attacks is that they do the same thing against my sisters as they do marines. Meaning like in the above scenrio of 12 shots, 8 will hit, 4 will wound and 1 sister or 1 marine will die. This is where the sisters have a better advantage is that there is more sisters that marines than will be on the field due to a marine costing about 5 points more than a sister. With 10 marines I could have 13 sisters insteaed and against eldar shooting it shows.

The problem with sisters they are a medium range army like the grey knights. The huge differance however they specalize in hopping in and out of rhinos. They can get cross the field faster. Although lance hits do some damage against rhinos.

Fair enough, though horde sisters is kinda rare though especially with those metal ones. I also played SoB but I have not much experience with the new WD codex.

Quote from: Chicop76 on January 09, 2013, 03:16:20 AM
Tau weakest weapon can glance death your low hull point vehicles.

Another fair point, though I know how Tau works in and out to such an extent that I know how to kill them effectively.

Quote from: Chicop76 on January 09, 2013, 03:16:20 AM
The best way to defeat that army is to pop the fragile vehicles and run circles around your guys and shoot them to death.

I can't argue here. Agreed.

Quote from: Chicop76 on January 09, 2013, 03:16:20 AM
Personally this is where I see the Eldar being nerfed from last edition. You see less boats and less lance weapons from long range.

The main problem I see with this list besides the Incubi and Archon you have no bite in close combat. Also your lance concertration is more towards tougher armies. Example is marines which a few lance weapons will hurt them. While against sisters it will hurt but not as badly. Against. Hordes it's like you really shot me with that.

I think the list is geared for anti marine, death guard, terminator, and similar type list. Horde orcs for example with a ton of str 7 shots, mass orcs, and a few rockets here and there would give this list a hard run.

I kinda took the odd evolution I guess for 6th edition, as almost everyone decided to take a whole lot less vehicles and it plays to the Dark Eldar strengths. I instead actually changed my list very little other than to take out two wych squads, a Blasterborn squad and a Haemonculus for two Reaver squads and a Warrior squad in Venom. Of course, I could always do a Venomspam with three Voidravens as my army, but I knew that such a list would earn so much hatred from both myself and my opponents. Right now my list is somewhat in that zone where it is powerful enough against most opponents I meet, but has a hard counter to it. Not to mention that in a general tournament or normal play in the US, Marines are perhaps the predominant army around which shaped the evolution of this list as this army was build in the US rather than back home in Malaysia, where I have a myriad of opponents from many different races.

The Archon and the Incubi are not so much a crack assault unit, but are more or less an unit which hunts down weakened units or IG blob killers. The Reavers act as supporting units for the Archon and Incubi if they are able to. I will of course have to remedy this if I once again prowl the tabletops of Malaysia or a place where there is a more balanced presence among the races.

Chicop76

It's not a bad list. Just my thoughts about Dark Eldar come down hard on them more than other armies. The advantage of the army is lance technology and mobility as an over all army advatage. The ranged poison is an advantage as well as a disadvantage depending on who you face, against marines it is ok due to majority of everyone else has str 4 weapons and does the same thing, against toughness 3 or lower it turns into a drawback, and against toughness 5 and higher it turns into a boon. I rank poison as ok due to it is not an advantage all the time, not to mention your higher output and heavy weapons also happens to be poison.

Although they do not have the range lance death of old. They do have a huge number of lance weapons they can take. Most players will field vehicles are some sort of elite models where the weapons are indead a boon. From warriors, swarms, or any toughness 4 model with mulitiple wounds without eternal warrio will be turn into paste. Tau Crisis suits cry foul as they get lance shots square in th chest. No other army can dish as much lance output and even most armour 14 vehicles are reduced to armour 12, although crons can do the same, but not as effective.

My gripe with the army is when it comes to troops they are not really threating are have real bite. The reason why I say this is half of the other armies troops you actually fear. Orcs and guard for example with their huge 30 plus model mobs, tyranid gaunts that can re roll hits in shooting and combat and re roll wounds in combat, bike troopers, grey knights any troop option, terminators, etc.  Tau falls in the same line as dark eldar.

Not saying wracks and wytchs are not scarry. Just saying a basic marine squad with a power sword sarge can give the squad a run for their money. Either can win depending who charges who. The problem is a basic marine squad can't deal with 30 orcs with da powa fist em dem. I use marines as a guideline since 1/2 the armies are a marine type army and it seems everyone plays marines. In my opnion table top marines are not that threating and I find them easier to beat than let' say Dark Eldar. Not saying Marines suck. Just saying I rather fight 50 marines than 200 orcs. Also add in that marines luck is a big factor while with orcs you have so many that luck is not abig factor. If you roll five ones for marines it's the end of the world, with Orcs it doesn't matter, it matters for dem 2 wound terminators, which the extra wound makes up for bad rolling.

Dark Eldar is what I call an inbetween army. It is more forgiving than a marine army, but like a marine army you fell your losses. While nids, orcs, guard, tau( I fielded horde type Tau before), Chaos Marines now, sisters( going horde) laugh at bad rolls and losing a handful of models.