Its about damn time!

First of all I'd like to thank Ven for letting my post even if I am a few weeks late, can't resist a good metal show to take up my weekends.

            Welcome to my all things Dark Eldar blog, DE are seriously unrepresented. For being a new codex, lots of new units and lots unreleased - It’s very rare I see a Dark Eldar army, much less one that can put up a fight. 


So I'm here to shed some light and strategies on (in my opinion) the best army in the game.


 I'll cover all things from individual units to using your army to pick apart the weaker races in a hail of lance fire and slashing blades, with lots of sarcasm and probably a rant or two, even throwing in some painting and fluff now and again. 


Little about myself, been playing 40k for about 7-8 months now, and my main focus has been Dark Eldar, I painted some Blood Angels before then but never filled out the army properly. 


I Picked up DE about the time they were released and fell in love. They're malicious, brutal, and extremely pissed off. The grittiest of the gritty, drugs, sex, and disemboweled space marines. So here goes, keep a strong stomach and the wits of Vect and you may make it out alive!! 

Army Overview

                I'll be mostly talking about units and the army as a whole, and how I've played it. Because as much as you can go over stats and builds for models you can't give real advice until you've played them as a whole. I've given every unit that’s currently released except from Beastmasters playtime. As well as venoms and a few of the unreleased HQs.

                First and foremost, Speed! We are fast! And that needs to be used to your advantage, none of our vehicles touch foot on the floor, everything is skimmer, fast.  Making it great for switching targets in a turn, getting troops in assaults second and possibly first turn if you’re crafty, but that’s for another topic. Our vehicles are not only fast but most of our CC units have fleet barring the Haemonculus' and his pals. Jetbikes that can blast 36" across the map and wreak major havoc along the way on infantry. That speed needs to be used to control the game. With a proper list you can keep an army back pedaling or locked in their deployment zone. Though for all your speed and tricks you are the most fragile army in the game, when played foolishly. AV 10 transports and AV11 HS are not resilient. Get used to losing them and make sure you make them worth their points before they drop. The best way, use EVERYTHING to your advantage, positioning, reserves, pain tokens, drugs and most importantly, Target Priority. Which will all get covered here.(...surely not in one post! lol Ed.)

                Let’s get started with our troop choices. You have your 2 stock troop choices as well as others that can be taken as troops with certain HQ choices. I'm just going to cover the 2 basics today to pop my blog cherry, as it’s been so eloquently put. Lol.

                First and foremost, your Kabalite Warriors, the best of the best, the vicious, ruthless, moral degenerates that have been purging worlds and snuffing out suns before most Imperial "Heroes" were a glint in their daddy’s eye, and of the some of the best point for point shooting troop choices in the game, if not the best. BS4, WS4, LD8, I6, and best of all, AP5 poisoned 4+ shots. Cheap, reliable, good weapon options. Great transports! One thing they are not, like most DE, is hard. Still T3, Ar5. So, how do we run them? I run them 2 ways, the first 10 man strong with a cannon and a blaster, toss them in a raider w/FF and Racks to reroll misses and you have a unit that can punch holes in squads from range and staying still, or get them in close early, and have 20 poisoned shots w/RR to hit, and 2 S8, AP2 Lances from a raider. 


Power armor or hordes, not many units will stand up to that fire power. Or the more preferred way of running them from a competitive edge, 5 Warriors w/ a Blaster or Shredder in a Venom w/ an extra Splinter Cannon. Squeeze 4 of them into a 1750 list and sit them back, 12 shots at 36" per venom make them great from killing MCs, Longfangs, troops on home objectives, etc. 


You can also sit the squad on a rear objective and let the venom push forward, moving around 12" and firing its payload.  The blaster in each group isn't much an anti-tank as much as an easy kill on any armor and a deterrent to TS from most armor. There are a few other upgrades on that can be swapped around depending on your list and preference.


 The Sybarite is a good choice if you can spare the points but is in no means necessary. Ld9 can keep them from running. The only melee upgrade worth it if you NEED somewhere to throw points is the venom blade. 5 points for a 2+ wound, but your warriors should not ever make it to CC, though with a pain token they can hold their own for longer than expected. Warriors are great, cheap units to hold down an objective or slaughter squads.

 And the second, the seductive sirens that are the Wych Cults. Groups of drop dead gorgeous bombshells of xenos that will take the heads of a squad of guardsmen without breaking a sweat or putting a foot on the ground, and lock your 400 point units up for as long as we please, looking to you halberd knights!. Wyches are fun. 

They should be run in squads of 7-10, any fewer and you won’t have the attacks or wounds to do your job, I like running 10 strong with an Hekatrix, Agon, Shardnet and HWG. Do all you can to make sure your Shardnet is in base with the power weapon in the squad or IC to drop those FNP ignoring blows. And when you go after a transport with you haywires use fleet to setup your charge to block off the hatches on your target, stunning or immobilizing them before the charge is a huge help but not necessary. 

Getting 1-2 pens and 7-8 glances on a transport is sure to be enough to immobilize and destroy a vehicle. And keeping wrapped around so they can't deploy and enjoy the screams of the dying as they burn in their rhino. And collect that pain token.

 Next, your Hekatrix, the leader of these lovely maidens. She has a few prime options on her, first being the blast pistol. 15 points for a 6", S8 Lance shot is pricey, and IMO should only be taken in small lists and only if you have the points to spare, a lot of the time your witches will be fleeting into combat and not get to shoot. Second, you Phantasm Grenade Launcher, again, another very situational upgrade. Your wyches come with assault grenades stock so there goes half its usefulness. And 20 points for defensive grenades is also pretty expensive. If your using your wyches as a home unit holder or running out of the webway, then I can see it make up its points but YOU should be the one charging, never getting charged. Again, you have the mobility to control that and you need to use everything to your advantage. 

As far as close combat goes, you have 2 real choices, Venom Blade or Agonizer. There is the power weapon but a S3 power weapon isn’t going to hurt much. Venom Blade is your cheap option, 5 points for a 2+ poison wound, is good if you tight on points.  But it isn't a power weapon. The Agonizer is a power weapon the wounds anything on a 4+, so your guardsmen to your daemon princes, all are equal to the Agon. If you can afford it get it, if not, find a way! Because in the long run, this weapon will see you winning combats in the tar pit. 

My last point for the day. Forget what your mother told you! Forget the ads to scare your straight! Say YES to DRUGS! Damn right say YES! They are your friend, they will be there for you, and they do make everything all better! We're talking Hypex, Serpentin, Grave Lotus, Painbringer, Adrenalight and Splintermind. These little red pills do exactly what you would expect, make you faster, stronger, and increasingly more violent. At the start of your game you'll roll a D6 and depending what you roll you'll have 6 options. Roll 3d6 for fleet, +1 WS, +1 STR, +1 Attack, Reroll wounds in CC, or a free pain token. ALL of them are good, certain ones are much better than others but all give you a significant bonus. The first, 3D6 fleet gives no real in combat boost that the other ones do but it does give you the confidence and balls to go for that long fleet to get into combat. The second, +1WS is great in that you'll be hitting marines on 3's. The third and my favorite if not that best, +1 Strength, making your wyches S4 and once you get that 2nd pain token a monstrous S5 on the charge. +1 Attack, 4 attacks on the charge each, nuff said. Reroll wounds in CC, great for going up again those high toughness pricks like plague marines, bikes etc... And an extra shot on dropping those MCs with your Agon. And my second favorite, free pain tokens! FNP from the start and 1 closer to FC. Give em a pain token form a Haemonculus or your drugged up Archon and your set to destroy!

Hope that gave some personal insight and there will be many more to come. Keep it DARK!