Dark Eldar Tactica 2011

[karantalsis]

Hi guys, been a while, but I return. Well for a bit at least, not promising not to run off again like I have so many times before . I finally (nearly) finished writing the Tactica I started years ago, so I thought I would post it. So far I've got hte unit breakdown and tactics for use with web way portal lists. This is supposed to be a guide for new players and a little advice for older players who may have missed a few things. This is not the only way to play DE, nor is it the absolute final word, however it is good advice gained from experience. For now I will just post the unit breakdowns and follow that with army type tactica over the next week to two weeks. In addition I hope to add some tricks and tips, but that will come last and only if I have time. Hope you find this informative/useful.

[karantalsis]

Unit Breakdown

HQ

Archon

The Archon is a powerful unit that can more than make its points back when used properly, however in smaller games (<1500 pts) it is typically more expensive than it is worth. Even in games up to 3000 pts it is oftimes better to select a Dracon for point efficiency, however if you have the 25 spare points (in 2500+ you often do) then the upgrade is not bad, in 1500 or less it almost always could be used more efficiently elsewhere. For Archon setups see Dracon, they’re the same.

Dracon

The Dracon is your ‘standard’ lord for a Kabal army. It is also your best frined and first choice for the role as it comes at a low low cost and is powerful, with high weapon skill, initiative and access to the Dark Eldar armoury. Setups that are commonly used are as follows.

Monster Hunter
Agoniser, Shadowfield, Drugs

This is the perfect setup for hunting other characters and monsters such as Tyranid Monstrous Creatures. The agoniser allows for easy wounding whils the drugs and shadowfield help keep you alive by ensuring you have all the advantages in your favour. This is also relatively inexpensive. It can be useful to attach this lord to a raider squad to allow that initial 12” move before disembarkation and separation from the squad, this gives a magnificent 28-33” charge range allowing turn one charges against anything deployed to the fore. This set up will die to hoards or even squads of marines, however and will also die when shot with a large number of guns (of any stripe, basic guns will work fine) so remember to confine it to what its good at, taking out the big hitters one on one. This setup can also be used to carry a webway portal whilst being screened by a Large Assault Squad of warriors (see below).

Troop Hunter
Punisher, Tormentor Helm, Drugs, (Shadowfield), (Animus Vitae)

This lord comes in two distinct flavours, despite the similarities of the setup either as a solo troop hunter in which case an Animus can help enormously (and costs less than a retinue) or as a lord with a retinue, the far more common (and undoubtedly better) option. The retinue lord should, typically not bother with an animus as it inflates the cost of the model and is not guaranteed to do anything. Retinue lords should be equipped as above, without the animus, except when a Dracite is taken and then they should also leave the shadow field for their wyche counterpart.

Archite

This cannot be taken in a Kabal, don’t try.

Drachite

This wyche lord can be taken as a second HQ choice in a Kabal, provided they are not the general, therefore if you have a Dracon or Archon already investing in a Drachite can be a profitable choice. There is really only a single set up for the Drachite, the Monster Hunter, which is identical to that of the Dracon above, but has all the advantages of being a Wyche in addition to those of a being a lord. Drachites make excellent WWP carriers.

Haemonculus

The haemunculus can be a useful choice in certain armies, especially larger ones. With high toughness and a low cost, if the other lords weren’t as fantastic as they are the Haemonculus would look quite amazing. The use of Haemonculi falls roughly into two categories, as described below.

The Grotesque Shepherd
Destructor, Scissorhands

This setup is made to sit with some grotesques as they plod across the battlefield and keep them in line. It makes an excellent portal carrier as its retinue is so hardy, the only drawback is that its so slow. This can work well in very large games, but is not so useful in smaller ones, generally.

Biker Haemoncullus
Destructor, Stinger, Jetbike

On a jetbike and equipped with these weapons a haemonculus accompanied by a reaver squad is a truly scary creature, with T5 this makes the haemonculus a very tough proposition to take down unless a large amount of fire is concentrated on it, in addition having 3 bikers in attendance with 2 blasters means that this squad has a good chance of inflicting serious casualties on any target. It is quite pricey however and fragile to blast weapons.

Retinue

The retinues of Dark Eldar Lords are themselves powerhouses in close combat, armed with the fearsome Punisher and clad in power armour Incubi can be truly terrifying. They can, however, also be a terrible point sink and are vulnerable to concentrated fire, as well as magnets for it. Typically a retinue should consist of 2 warriors with splinter cannons, and 3-5 Incubi. A master is typically a waste of points as the extra damage output is both unnecessary and negligible, whilst the cost is high. Larger retinues can be considered in larger games, however it should be remembered that Incubi do not want to kill things on the charge they want to ‘mop up’ in the enemies turn, so too large a squad can be detrimental.

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Troops

Warrior Squad

Warriors are the backbone of the Dark Eldar force, they have strong stats and cost a small number of points for what they can accomplish. The ability to take 2 heavy and 2 special weapons in a squad is fantastic and should not be underestimated. In addition the freedom granted by the Dark Eldar armoury allows a sybarite to be equipped with an agoniser, a powerful addition to any unit.

Warrior squads are commonly used in the following configurations, the first two are by far the most common and most effective in <2000 pts.

Sniper Squad
10 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Dark Lances

This is a unit configuration designed to hunt tanks, it is cheap and very good at its job, it also makes an excellent decoy unit. Find a place to set this up with a good field of fire, you don’t want to be moving these guys.

Large ‘Assault’ Squad
15 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
2 Blasters
1 Sybarite
1 Agoniser

This unit is cheap, efficient and capable, both in mêlée and ranged combat. It is an excellent escort for solo characters, a good webway portal delivery system (its size lend it resilience, whilst the ability to fleet lends speed) and a disposable decoy unit that, if left untroubled, can wreak havoc with its powerful guns and strong close combat abilities.

Small ‘Assault’ Squad
10 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
2 Blasters
1 Sybarite
1 Agoniser

For smaller games this fills the same role as the large assault squad (in 500-1000 pts) in larger games if you have too few points for a large assault squad or raider squad this squad can be a useful addition as a means of drawing fire from more important units or stalling an enemy unit as it advances. This squad is not optimal for escort duty or portal deployment in games >1000pts as it is too fragile dues to its low model count.

Huge ‘Assault’ Squad
20 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
2 Blasters
1 Sybarite
1 Agoniser

This is generally too expensive for the extra 5 wounds gained over the Large ‘Assault’ Squad, however in particularly big games (2500+) this may well be worth substituting for Large squads, otherwise they are functionally identical.

Raider Squad

Although highly similar in base appearance to the warrior squads raider squads tend to fill a different role, smaller by necessity, they are not so well suited to the bullet soak/defensive roles assigned to their foot slogging counterparts. Raider squads typically function as either decoys or fast strike units, with the same squad capable of performing either function. Below I detail common setups, all come with a raider.

Assault Boat
10 Dark Eldar Warriors
1 Splinter Cannon
1 Blaster
1 Sybarite
1 Agoniser

This set up allows a great versatility to be achieved with the unit as it can function as an artillery platform against those armies unlikely/unable to shoot it and can also be used as a supporting unit for assaults, being capable of dispensing a large amount of damage on the charge and having an impressive charge range (21” without fleeting). Even though this is the most expensive raider squad option it is still relatively cheap and thus relatively disposable making it a functional decoy unit where necessary.

Gunboat
5 Dark Eldar Warriors
1 Splinter Cannon
1 Blaster

This is used purely for shooting, getting within 12” and unloading with rapid fire and heavy and special weapons is the order of the day, it is very cheap and easily used as a decoy.

“Mini Sniper”
5 Dark Eldar Warriors
1 Dark Lance

This set up allows the positioning of a small dark lance squad (exactly ½ a standard sniper squad) and the use of the raider as a mobile lance platform. The warriors should never be mounted in this setup.

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Elites

Wyches

Ahh wyches. Feared? Check. Useful? Check. Capable of taking out other combat units? Check. Ultimate killing machines? No. Wyches are good at wars of attrition against other high price combat specialists and HQ units, because they turn off special rules. Power weapon? Don’t care. High weapon skill? Not anymore. Two close combat weapons? None for you. This means when fighting ordinary troops they are effectively being wasted as they are no better at it than warriors. Wyches should be carefully aimed at specialist units because, unlike most combat specialists their specialism is defense. Don’t be afraid to play up how ‘scary’ they are though. If someone wants to over focus on the wyches, encourage it, make sure they know how they have to wipe this killer unit out before it destroys them, then drag them out of position and hit them with the rest of your army. Wyche set ups come in really only one flavour, as described below, but I have separated them into two for clarity.

Raider Wyches
6 Wyches
Wyche Weapons
Plasma Grenades
2 Blasters
Succubus
Agoniser
Raider

This configuration is strong and not overly expensive, capable of handling targets you need handled (assault marines etc) whilst being expendable. Larger squads are useable, but typically this is about as big as is necessary, if you want more wyches aim at 2 squads.

Foot Wyches
6 Wyches
Wyche Weapons
Plasma Grenades
2 Blasters
Succubus
Agoniser

Only for use in a webway portal army these can be useful, but more often tend to come unstuck. The Raider variant is typically superior.

Grotesques

Grotesques serve reasonably well at babysitting WWP carriers, this can be very worthwhile in large games, but they are often too expensive to be used in smaller games where a Large ‘Assault’ Squad of warriors would serve you better in this role with greater ability to be channelled into other areas later. When you do use grotesques for this purpose it is often best to team them with a Heamonculus carrying the portal and to take 10 of them, as this is a very large obstacle for an opponent to overcome in one turn to stop you using the portal. If you wish to deploy them from a raider (a somewhat more risky strategy) obviously only take 9 and leave room for the Haemonculus.

Mandrakes

Mandrakes are definitely cool and can be very useful, the lack of a seargent however cripples their effectiveness as they have no access to any sort of power weapon, let alone an agoniser. Mandrakes shine against armies with low armour saves (such as ‘nids and guard) as they can leap out of cover, deliver 10 splinter pistol shots at good BS then charge to bring the pain of 30 attacks at good initiative and weapon skill. This will often lead to around 10 casualties for the charged squad (a significant number even if you charge gaunts). Mandrakes also do well at holding objectives in cover as even woods will give them a 3+ cover save, whilst harder cover will make that 2+. All that being said I would recommend mandrakes only in large games due to their lack of a character, it is often worth taking them for their surprise factor and objective holding ability in large games, but in smaller games they are almost always outshone by wyches, their direct competition.

Warpbeasts

Warpbeasts are one shot wonders, charging out of a WWP they will bring the pain. Then they will die, at their ridiculously low cost though this is often more than worth it in any WWP list 2000+ pts as chances are the squad will make its points back easily before being wiped out (and causing your opponent to redirect fire from more pressing targets in the process)

Fast Attack

Hellions

Frankly I see no use for these in a competitive list, you can use them if you like and, if you do, I would suggest attempting to co-ordinate them as a support assault unit for your wyches/raider squads. I would recommend giving the succubus a punisher and T. Helm, other than that I would say keep the squad small and hope it doesn’t get shot. Or better yet, leave them at home.

Reaver Jetbikes

The Reaver Jetbike is an excellent bike. The increase in its riders strength in addition to the increase in toughness make it a useful addition to many armies, where it can perform a variety of roles.

Tank Hunters
3 Reaver Jet Bikes
2 Blasters

This set up is cheap, efficient and really good at killing tanks, the only problem is its relative fragility, however with boost and good use of cover getting into range shouldn’t be too hard. In addition this is slightly cheaper than a darklance squad if you are squeezing points.

Squad Hunters
5 Reaver Jet Bikes
2 Blasters
1 Succubus
T. Helm
Power Weapon

This set up allows a good deal of damage to be dealt to a squad on the charge, with high initiative, high strength and a power weapon wielding succubus in addition to 3 splinter rifles rapid firing and 2 blaster shots casualties in enemy squads usually number between 3 and 6 depending on the target, this means that as an auxillary assault unit they perform admirably.

Heavy Support

Ravager

The ravager is a very useful vehicle, it is particularly adept at crushing marines, due to its high strength and low AP, however with its high rate of fire and blast weapons it can also do well against horde armies. It is generally best to fit a ravager with 3 disintegrators or, if you are short on points or lances, 1 dark lance and 2 disintegrators. Both these setups allow you to move at full speed and still make use of all of our guns (using the disintegrators in sustained mode) or to move less than 6” and fire the disintegrators in maximal against bunched targets. It is rarely worth adding night shields and other war gear to a ravager, as this ups the cost for little real benefit, most guns that will be targeting a ravager are long enough range to ignore the shields effect, and if your opponent really wants it dead he will move into range. Again in very large games it can be worth adding the shields.

Talos

The Talos is a strange beast, being slower than anything else in the Dark Eldar army and having no control over its gun it is somewhat difficult to use well. It is, however good in a WWP army as the deliverance of this war machine close to the enemy (1 turns movement away, usually) can be extremely potent, either by diverting a lot of firepower or damaging the enemy should it be allowed to close. I would recommend using a talos in reasonably large games (2000+ pts) only though as your points are oftens spent better elsewhere in smaller games.

Scourges

Scourges are a poor unit, which is rather confused about its role, is it a fast moving kill squad with wings or a stationary tank hunter? I don’t know, neither do they. There is absolutely no reason to ever give a scourge a dark lance, you don’t need the extra lances, as you can get them elsewhere (if you are really in need of extra dark lances a Ravager is a better Heavy choice for this purpose). Scourges can perform, a bit, with splinter cannons, but for what they can do and with their inherent fragility it is rare indeed for them to make back their points. I would suggest leaving these with the hellions, but, if you need to use them then equip them with Cannons, don’t bother equipping a sybarite for close combat, it shouldn’t come up.

[karantalsis]

Lists and their construction

Dark Eldar are a great army to play with for list building as they take quite a lot of thought, simply throwing any old thing together will see you roundly beaten every time, so here I will outline a number of list building considerations that any good Kabal Lord should take into account, some of these are general and an be applied to other armies too, but they are all geared towards making the most of a Dark Eldar Kabal.

The first step in choosing a Kabal list is deciding what kind of list you want to go for, a Web Way Portal (WWP) list, a Fast Assault list, a Shooty list or something else of your own devising. (A quick aside, I didn’t include Torrent lists here, because they are not very good against non mech lists, which are the majority of your opponents, I would not recommend a torrent list ever really.)

Once you have decided what type of Kabal list to make you then need a points value, as this alters the way you play I will talk about each list type separately and talk about choices in different size games below.

Redundancy. Not quite a heading, but I believe the word fully deserves its own sentence. Redundancy is a concept that should be dear to any Dark Eldar players heart, multiple redundancy even more so. This concept means that you should have multiple squads that can adequately fill each role that you require for your overall game plan. This then leads to a great freedom in that no one squad is essential to your winning the game and any squad can turn out to be bait, or the finishing blow. Dark Eldar units are fragile so redundancy is not only desirable, but necessary. Fortunately the army is good at supplying it. Dark Eldar Warriors can serve as tank hunters, close assault troops, tar pits and pretty much any role needed. Setting them up in economical fashion whilst still allowing them to fulfil multiple roles is possible due to their low points cost and allows a large amount of redundancy to be built into the list. I’ll talk more about redundancy where its relevant to each list type and/or size.

500 Points, all list types

The first consideration in a 500 point game should be how to maximise options that your opponent won’t be able to deal with. This means that it is often disadvantageous to take a set up that most people will instantly recognise as the core of a 500 point force (HQ and some foot units) With the very cheap nature of Dark Eldar units it is possible in a 500 point list to go one of several ways, unlike many other armies who are strait jacketed by the points requirement. A troop hunter Dracon at the low cost of just over 100 points can be a force to be reckoned with if you are willing to put that many eggs in one basket, coupled with either small assault squads for screening or Raider squads (I would suggest Assault Boats here) to be used as a Dracon delivery system it is possible for this lord to win most 500 point battles almost single handed. There is always the very real chance of them getting killed however and 100+ points on one model is a lot in a 500 point game. For those who prefer a safer course a Haemonculus can serve as the obligatory HQ choice in such a game with a Jetbike and destructor he is still much cheaper than the Dracon and has a far higher toughness with reasonable killing potential, or if he is simply equipped with a pair of scissorhands he can be used as an addition to a squad for very little extra investment. An example of a strong 500 point Dark Eldar list is shown below:

HQ

Haemonculus, scissorhands

Troops

Assault Boat

Assault Boat

Heavy Support

Ravager, 3 Disintegrators

The strength of this list is in the fact that it is highly manoeuvrable and has 3 vehicles, very few 500 point forces are equipped to deal with 3 vehicles and certainly not 3, which are each capable of doing a large amount of damage in a single turn. Fairly obviously with such a list targeting your opponents heavy weapons and any vehicles controlled by your opponents should be a prime priority, either by engaging them in combat with your assault squads, reducing them to nearly nothing with a ravager salvo or blowing them up with dark lances in the case of vehicles. Whichever you choose always try to ensure that you bring enough force against a single point to eliminate it as a threat before moving on to the next target.

Obviously this is by no means the only good 500 point list available to Dark Eldar, but it does adhere to one rule that I think is important in any of them, make sure you have a good number of warriors and that they are properly equipped (3 Small assault squads is also good, or any other combination) skimping on the warriors will lead, ultimately to your defeat as nothing else is as efficient and effective in such a small game.

Web Way Portal Lists

1000 Points

A 1000 point web way portal list has to play like a well oiled machine as it is in fact a 900 point list with 2 web way portals. Take into account the 350 points of portal delivery system and the business end of the force is a tiny 650 points and this is often all you have available to take on your entire opponents force, so it better be good. That said the delivery method does ensure that your force will reach the enemy lines almost entirely intact so focus on maximum punch rather than survivability, not a hard mandate in a DE force.

First lets look at the web way delivery system, there are a number of choices here, but they all boil down to having 2 portals (never take a webway force with just one its way too risky) two characters to carry them (sybarites work here) and enough wounds to not die before you deploy. This means that raider bourne portals are, generally, not that good as the raider is far more fragile than a foot based squad and with it being the only thing on the board you can be assured your opponent will shoot it. He’ll find a way most of the time to down it, entangling your squad and giving him a turn to get into position and finish them off… not pleasant. I would therefore strongly recommend using foot troops to place portals. That leaves us with the options of either Grotesques or Warriors, realistically, as no other unit is capable of absorbing the punishment. Grotesques will set you back 150 points for a full unit and then be fairly useless afterwards, they can’t fleet, require a character to babysit them, take up an elites choice. They are, however much harder to kill. I would not recommend Grotesques in this scenario, personally as I find the added utility of using Large Assault Squads for this purpose in this size of list to be very beneficial, however a LAS and a squad of Grots, plus a Haemonculus are almost exactly the same price, so use what feels best to you, or try out both and pick one.

Now lets look at the punch of the force we are delivering through the web way, 650 points of deadly dark eldar goodness buys us a fair bit. If you are willing to leave vehicle hunting to your raider mounted dark lances and squad blasters an Assault Boat, a raider mounted Wyche squad and a Dracon with retinue can perform this function admirably, whilst providing 6 targets once disembarked (which should be immediately, you want to charge straight away). This then increases your threats on the board from 2 (probably pretty badly damaged) squads to a full eight targets, the sudden influx often leads to opponents ignoring the squads used as the delivery system allowing them to close and add their remaining weight to combats to tip them in your favour, or spray down opponents with cannon fire to weaken them, depending how far they are from the action.

Once you have built your force you need to ask yourself some questions:

Are there any types of threat you can’t deal with?
This often means tanks, in which case make sure you remember your raider dark lances and squad based blasters when making this assessment, however if you decide you are weak against tanks then add a sniper squad, or a ‘mini’ sniper squad with a raider. Other important considerations for Web Way Portal armies are ordnance weapons, if you don't think your delivery system can sruvive if the enemy has ordnance consider addding something like reavers to go hunt it.

Do I have enough punch?
When you have answered question one there is a chance you will have diluted the punch of your main thrust, make sure you still have enough and if not consider rearranging your units, do you have too many elites, too few? Is your HQ too expensive, too weak?

How do I deal with MEQ?
This is a massively important question as the majority of your opponents are likely MEQ. Think of a plan for dealing with MEQ based on your list and if you can’t think of a plan go back to the drawing board and modify the list until you can. Remember though this is not the only type of enemy you will face.

How do I deal with Horde armies?
Your also going to come up against hordes, what will you do about it, similarly to the MEQ question this is essential to answer, you need a plan or you will lose.

How do I deal with Eldar?
Eldar are different to both the above armies and need their own plan, think this through.

Try writing down all your plans, from deployment through to victory, be prepared to deviate, but know what each of your units is for. Also know which units can step in to take over when a key unit falls. Redundancy is essential in all dark eldar lists so keep it in mind.

1500 Points

With a 1500 point list you have little more latitude for ‘fun stuff’ and also for redundancy (talked about earlier). The prime difference from the 1000 point list is that the 1500 point list has effectively the same needs for the delivery system and therefore has many more points for the hammer blow, tipping the balance of power in your favour. The only difference worth considering as far as the delivery system is concerned is, in a dracon led army, using a Drachite with shadow field (or a pair of haemonculi) as one (or both) webway portal carrier(s), this means that not only does the enemy have to kill two entire warrior squads, but also a shadow field protected model (or a pair of T4 models) in order to remove your portal, a virtually impossible task in one turn and a difficult one in two. The Drachite approach also has the advantage of giving you 2 characters, one a monster hunter and the other a troop hunter with a powerful retinue (theres no point taking two monster hunters as the dracon will have no shadow field). The cost of a drachite so equipped is a mere 91 extra points, the haemonculi a mere 50-70 depending on equipment (remember you are moving the portal and shadow field so they are not additional costs on the character).

There are several more, very valid, choices to be made this time. An important consideration is the question of Sniper Squads, do you want them or not? If you take any you will probably take 2 (there is little point in a lone sniper squad, its too easy to avoid the field of fire) so that’s 200 points away from your attacking force in the web. On the other hand if you don’t take them you give your opponents vehicles free rein until your main force turns up, potentially compromising your ability to survive long enough to deploy the portal, there is no easy answer to this and I would suggest testing out both styles to see which suits you better. Depending on these choices you will be left with between 850 and 1150 points to spend on your web borne assault force, this buys you a lot. The core of this assault force, in my opinion should be a raider mounted dracon plus retinue and two assault boats, this is a versatile force that can do a lot of damage against virtually any target, and doesn’t cost the earth coming in at around 600 points this still leaves you enough to buy several more units, if you only have 250 points remaining it may be worth considering some wyches and a warp beast pack, or, alternatively some heavy support choices, either ravagers or taloi. Multiple Talos delivered at a relatively close range can pose a large threat to an enemy army, but it is important to remember that even deployed through a portal they are unlikely to charge the turn the come in, meaning that your initial thrust will be weaker and less decisive than with faster units. Ravagers, whilst excellent choices as weapons platforms can be rather a waste in a webway portal army as with their high manoeuvrability and long range weapons it is often better to begin a game with them in play. That said ravagers emerging from portals can generally position themselves to take out any squad of their choosing (particularly against MEQ), which can be a powerful tool. With 550 points left open the world is your oyster, a typical configuration would be to take 2 wyche squads and, perhaps, a third Assault Boat. This is by no means the only configuration for such a large part of your force though. The important thing with any webway assault force is to remember that it is that first turn where you can strike with impunity that wins the game, that is the turning point and your assault force should be set up to take best advantage of it.

2000+ points

For webway portal lists the lessons learned in the 1500 point list will stand you in good stead in larger games, however, there are one or two strategic choices that the larger games allow you to play with. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is deciding how much stuff to have on the board at the start of the game and how much in the web. It is quite possible to take two lance squads, two ravagers, your webway delivery system and still have plenty of punch left to throw out of your portal, this though becomes less a webway portal list and more of a hybrid. It is also possible to commit all but the standard webway delivery system to the web, making a truly formidable ‘punch’ but leaving you with a relatively high risk of losing the portals.

An Example List with Tactics

1500 points

HQ

Troop Hunter plus Retiinue (252 points)
Dracon, Punisher, Drugs, T.Helm, gruesome Talisman
3 Incubi
2 Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
Raider

Drachite (168 points)
Agoniser, Shadowfield, WWP, Drugs, S. Pistol

Troops

Large Assault Squad + WWP (226 Points)
15 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
2 Blasters
Sybarite, Agoniser, WWP

Large Assault Squad (168 Points)
14 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Splinter Cannons
2 Blasters
Sybarite, Agoniser

Assault Boat (168 Points)
9 Dark Eldar Warriors
1 Splinter Cannon
1 Blaster
Sybarite, Agoniser

Assault Boat (168 Points)
9 Dark Eldar Warriors
1 Splinter Cannon
1 Blaster
Sybarite, Agoniser

Elites

Raider Wyches (176 points)
6 Wcyhes
Wyche Weapons
Plasma Grenades
Succubus, Agoniser
Raider

Raider Wyches (176 points)
6 Wcyhes
Wyche Weapons
Plasma Grenades
Succubus, Agoniser
Raider

Total: 1500 points exactly

Breakdown
HQ: 28%
Troops: 48.5%
Elites: 23.5%

Principle Firepower
Dark Lances: 5
Blasters: 6
Splinter Cannons: 8
Agonisers: 7
Punishers: 4

Things to note about this list are the slight departures from the ‘standard’ squad layouts (no blasters on the wyches, slightly smaller squad sizes in the troops) this is because it is necessary to ‘squeeze’ points by trimming units down in order to fit everything you need into a list. Choosing what to squeeze is important, in this case as it is a WWP list the balsters on the wyches are less necessary as you will be more able to co-ordinate assaults to avoid the need for those shots before attacking and with the Drachite in place (the primary reason for having to squeeze the squad sizes) a slightly smaller squad size on the ‘minder’ squad is less important.

Tactics

This list has two modes of play, aggressive and defensive. It is important to decide when you begin each game what mode you will be playing in, as a general rule of thumb against static or small armies go aggressive, against aggressive hordes (read many Nid/Ork lists) play defensive.

Aggressive Play (The standard model)

In order to play this list aggressively it is necessary to deploy with only your webway delivery system (two large assault squads and the drachite). You should deploy both squads in cover and the drachite with the squad with no portal of its own so that they have to not only kill both squads, but also the HQ in order to take out both portals. When I say to deploy the drachite ‘with’ the none portal carrying squad I don’t mean attached to it, but rather in proximity, slightly behind it. This means that the independent character rule (can not be targeted unless the closest target) protects your character until the squad is dead and prevents shots spilling over onto your HQ unit once the warriors fall. It is important to deploy your squads one to each side of the board if possible, this will tend to get your opponent to divide there forces, whilst at the same time allowing you greater range of attack with your strike force. Both these squads should then be advanced and fleeted, aiming to get as much of the squad (and most importantly the portal carrier) behind terrain. Fleet the squad without the portal before fleeting the drachite so you know the maximum limit to which you can move the wyche. Now your opponent will shoot you. It is turn 2 where you have to make some very important decisions (and remember to roll for reserves, they ‘back up’ and will come on the turn after you open the portal). You must decide if you want to open the portal now, or risk another turns shooting to advance it further, when considering option 2 remember that if you are shot to death or both portal carriers are engaged in combat the game is effectively over, so make sure this cannot happen. Opening turn 3, however, has the advantage of not only being closer to the enemy, but also almost guaranteeing your entire force will move on at once. Whether you decide to open the portal on turn 2 or 3 once it is open your force will come on at the beginning of the following turn (don’t forget to roll for reserves on the turn they arrive as well). You should bring your whole force on through a single portal and concentrate it to remove your opponents threats, prioritising long range or fast moving threats. Choose the side of the board which your opponent has the most units able to aid his force on the other side of the board (so long range weapons or fast transports) and attack that. Once you have destroyed this half of his army (which should, hopefully happen in his turn) then you can turn your attention to the other half, which he will hopefully have moved towards you to assist their beleaguered fellows. If his remaining force is not in range do not be afraid to retreat into cover and then manoeuvre over the next few turns into a position from which you can assault it. Remember that remounting your raiders is OK.

Defensive Play

This list can also play well defensively against horde armies, to use it in this style of play start with both HQs and all your troops on the board with just the wyches in the webway. Deploy your dracon and retinue on foot so that you can use their transport as a mobile weapons platform. It is generally best to use a refused flank deployment so that you can concentrate your fire power. If the horde army has little firepower it is often a good plan to keep your Assault boats fully manned and have them charge around the battlefield concentrating fire on vulnerable units (and most things are vulnerable to the amount of firepower these things can bring to bear) taking shots at monstrous creatures and vehicles with their lances, and generally disrupting your opponents advance. If you can get behind your opponent (not too hard, they are fast skimmers) he will either have to ignore them or turn around attack things he can only hit on 6’s which is, effectively, the ultimate goal with these squads. Doing this you will separate his army, kill a fair amount and in the end lose only 350 points worth of units in exchange for making him come at you piecemeal. The rest of your force should stay still and fire, until the enemy is with charge range, then the warrior squads should advance to cover the HQ squads, rapid fire and hose the enemy down with splinter cannons and blasters. The Drachite should then open her portal so that the wyches will come on next turn whilst the Dracon and retinue continues to shoot. Doing this cuase the enemy to have to charge your warriors, which act as dangerous, high initiative, agoniser wielding tar pits (which can take on many units and are certainly a bad choice for monstrous creatures to charge) and allows you to pick and choose where to deliver your wyches and HQs into the fight to finish it.

[karantalsis]

Fast Assault Lists

1000 points

Fast Assault lists have several things in common with webway portal lists, they each aim to deliver one massive fatal hammer blow. Unlike webway lists, however, the fast assault list sacrifices nothing to survivability, it is all hammer blow. The aim with a list of this type, of any size, is to win by turn 3-4, if you haven’t won by this point you are likely to be drawn into a battle of attrition, which you will lose. The main consideration in the fast assault list is closing the distance to the enemy with as many units as possible as quickly as possible. One key thing to realise with this strategy is that you are going to lose units, don’t worry about it, press on. As can be surmised from the name of this list the main objective is an assault, however this does not mean you should necessarily preclude all shooting strategy from its construction. Any shooting components added, however, should be added for a specific goal that is not fulfilled by the assault army (or not fulfilled quickly enough), as they dilute the power of your main attack.

In order to effectively close the distance with a shooting list it is essential to insist on the mandatory 25% board cover, don’t let your opponent try to claim that its OK to play n a table without the 25%. Also ensure that you place the terrain before the game (obviously alternating placing pieces with your opponent as per the rules). I’ll write a little more on this in the more advanced section so just remember that cover is essential to this style of list and make sure you aren’t cheated out of it and forced to play on a clear board.

The first part of the list to focus on building is the ‘punch’ of the list, which might be the entire list if you don’t decide to add any shooting. Its important when designing this, particularly at 1000 points, not to get distracted by the ‘pretty’ units with there promises of power. Archons are right out. Wyches, whilst useful and a very valid inclusion, should not form the main thrust of your attack, they are too expensive for this role and are better suited to tactically countering your opponents elite assault units so that the rest of your force can deal with his. In short the majority of your ‘punch’ in a fast assault list should come from warriors and a solid HQ. This HQ need not have a retinue, but, if you choose to leave them retinue free, they should board a raider with one of your raider squads. Which brings me to raider squads, the meat of this type of army, foot squads will do you little good as they are too slow to keep up with the rest of your forces, therefore raider squads are the way forward, they provide ant tank fire power (the raiders dark lance) and ‘punch’ (the squad on board). I addition they are cheap and versatile allowing adaptation to defensive play if necessary. Reaver jetbikes and other units are good choices for a fast assault list in general, but in 1000 points should be kept to a minimum due to their cost.

Once you have built the punch of your force you need to ask yourself some questions:

Are there any types of threat you can’t deal with?
This often means tanks, in which case make sure you remember your raider dark lances and squad based blasters when making this assessment, however if you decide you are weak against tanks then add a sniper squad, or a ‘mini’ sniper squad with a raider. Other threats that you may have difficulty countering are heavy weapons squads due tot hem being able to take down your raiders quickly and efficiently, consider whether you should upgrade some dark lances to disintegrators to counter the threat of these squads, or possibly even invest in a ravager or some reavers for the purpose of shooting/hunting these squads. If you decide to upgrade some dark lances be aware that it is generally best to upgrade dark lances on your warrior transports rather than those that contain your HQ or wyches, this makes targeting decisions for your opponent that much harder, as all of them appear wrong.

Do I have enough punch?
When you have answered question one there is a chance you will have diluted the punch of your main thrust, make sure you still have enough and if not consider rearranging your units, do you have too many elites, too few? Is your HQ too expensive, too weak?

How do I deal with MEQ?
This is a massively important question as the majority of your opponents are likely MEQ. Think of a plan for dealing with MEQ based on your list and if you can’t think of a plan go back to the drawing board and modify the list until you can. Remember though this is not the only type of enemy you will face.

How do I deal with Horde armies?
Your also going to come up against hordes, what will you do about it, similarly to the MEQ question this is essential to answer, you need a plan or you will lose.

How do I deal with Eldar?
Eldar are different to both the above armies and need their own plan, think this through.

Try writing down all your plans, from deployment through to victory, be prepared to deviate, but know what each of your units is for. Also know which units can step in to take over when a key unit falls. Redundancy is especially important in fast assault lists even more than other DE lists as you will lose something and you never know what.

[Mongooseo]

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*Jaw Drops*
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Nice to have you back, even if it is only for a short amount of time. Looking forward to the rest of it.

[WraithGuardian]

HE IS ALIVE. Where have you been man, I though you left us for good?

Nice tactica, I'll pm the nearest moderator so we could perhaps get it stickied on top of the page.

[Mongooseo]

Or added the current tactica thread at the top, either way, but this should definitely be preserved somehow. Like I said, looking forward to the final portions of it.

[Kabbala]

awesome, this is a great comprehensive summary of the DE. Great Job and thank you!