Tuesday 7 October 2014

First Dark Eldar List Ideas: 7th edition


Now that the codex has been out a few days I have had a few ideas about different dark eldar army lists. Not all of them are good, but a lot of possibilities are in the codex, and while I have seen a few people have similar ideas, I generally work around 1500 points so these are a little more restricted than 1850 or 2k.


First of all when looking at the book I initially though about taking a similar list to what I used to take, a combined arms detachment with a rather mixed unit selection. Its a little dull with no gimmicks but it can probably get the job done. Its primarily based on what I took with the 5th edition book with a few new tweaks.

List 1: Combined Arms detachment

Archon - 125
Shadow field, huskblade

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

10 Warriors – 95
splinter cannon
Raider – 60
dark lance

8 Incubi – 160
Raider – 55
disintegrator

3 Mandrakes - 36

8 Reaver jetbikes – 158
2x caltrops

Beastmasters – 100
beastmaster, 9 x khymera

2 Talos – 250
Chain flails

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

This list will use the ravagers to take down any tanks, the Talos should be quite a tempting target leaving the ravagers alive and might hopefully make it into combat. Incubi should take down anything in armour while the venoms take down lighter or monstrous creatures. The beast pack and bikes, will hopefully take down a flank in quick order, but we shall see. Unfortunately it lacks anti-air.


List 2: Pack mentality


When writing the list above I started looking at the beastmasters and though about the dark eldar detachment. As the beasts are rather cheap and you can take up to 6 fast attack choices. This could be a bit of a dicey move as you are placing a lot of points into a fast but fragile combat unit. But this is what I can up with, again weak in the anti-air department.

Succubuss – 100
archite glaive, haywire grenades

5 Incubi – 100
Raider – 55

4 Mandrakes - 48

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

Beastmasters – 120
Beastmaster, 7 khymera, 2 razorwing

Beastmasters – 120
Beastmaster, 7 khymera, 2 razorwing

Beastmasters – 120
Beastmaster, 7 khymera, 2 razorwing

Beastmasters – 120
Beastmaster, 7 khymera, 2 razorwing

Razorwing jetfighter – 130
dissintegrator cannons

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Total: 1498

By having so many beastmaster packs, you will be on your opponent turn 2 and they have to deal with them otherwise they have 22 attacks and 8 rending attacks from each unit. Plus the ravagers and razorwing jetfighter will be pressuring the enemy as well. The succusbus will join the incubi as it makes it a nice ap 2 unit which can take out a large number of targets.


List 3: All the Air!


As the other lists lack in the air department this list can really make up for it, and indeed can do a lot of damage to all targets, but your ground forces are very weak and have to survive the first turn.

Haemonculus – 80
scissorhand

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

3 Grotesques – 105
Raider – 60
dark lance

Razorwing jetfighter – 130
disintegrator cannons

Razorwing jetfighter – 130
disintegrator cannons

Razorwing jetfighter – 130
disintegrator cannons

Razorwing jetfighter – 140
dark lances

Razorwing jetfighter – 140
dark lances

Razorwing jetfighter – 140
dark lances

Ravager – 110
3x disintegrator cannons

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Total: 1500

This is a very flier heavy list, as you can tell from the 6 fliers, unfortunately it means the ground force is rather weak and is in danger of getting killed turn 1 so you lose the game straight away. That is why I have added units like the grotesques in raider, so hopefully they will survive. I have seen a similar list online but they had a comms relay... just saying, you can't have fortifications or lord of war in the raiding force detachment. So that's out the window, just pray your reserves come in.


List 4: web way


Something that surprised me was the change to the court of the archon which could hold something great. So combined with the webway portal I think it could be very dangerous.

Archon – 95
webway portal

Court of the Archon – 125
5x medusea

Archon – 95
webway portal
Court of the Archon – 100
10x lhamaean
Raider - 55

5 Warriors – 40
Venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

5 Warriors – 40
venom – 65
2x splinter cannon

5 Trueborn - 115
4x blaster

7 Incubi – 140
Raider – 55

Razorwing jetfighter – 140
dark lances

Razorwing jetfighter – 130
disintegrators

Ravager – 125
3x dark lance

Ravager – 110
3x disintegrator

Total: 1495

This list uses the archons with web way portals to get both the trueborn and medusea landing where they are needed to either destroy a priority target or help the flank that needs it the most. The rest of the force is built around the idea of being fast and getting to where they need to be. The other court is full of the poison mistresses, having poison 2+ and instant death on a 6 could be a nasty surprise when they jump out of the raider and charge some thing.

These lists are all rather different and hopefully would do well on the table. I will be testing out list 1 soon, as unfortunately I don't have all the models to try out any of the other lists (how I wish I had that many khymera!).

What do you guys think of the lists? And which do you believe is the most competitive?

3 comments:

  1. All the lists look good, however it seems you are mainly taking the units that were good in the old codex that are still ok. To be fair that's what I'm doing as I want to get gaming as soon as possible with the models I have, however I think you should look at some of the previously less used units in more detail, such as scourges (with 4 special/heavy weapons) & other members of the court.

    I like the idea of the webway portal, however it seems too much of a one hit wonder with the medusa. 220 pts with the archon and I can see the unit dying the following enemy turn, so will it have had a big enough impact on the game for it's points cost in one turn ? The same goes for the trueborn, would they not be better being in a raider that jinks every turn. For a webway portal I was considering a big Sylith or Grotesque unit, the grotesques are tougher but the Sylith can put down some fearsome shooting the turn they drop with 3 poison shots a piece plus they can have some ablative Ur-gul to take any str10 hits in combat.

    Can you see anti tank being an issue with the loss of haywire wyches ? I used to run 2 ravagers and a voidraven bomber, and still supplemented that anti tank with haywire wyches. Replacing the wyches with other anti tank seems so much more expensive (ie. blasterborn, scourges, razorwing) that my army seems smaller and less effective (but maybe that's because I did lean on the crutch of haywire wyches, which were a bit too good at killing vehicles - 100 pts of wyches would nearly kill an Imperial Knight in a turn; average is 5 hull points for 9 wyches).

    Looking forward to your battle reports with the new codex :)

    Rathstar

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  2. You need to take a army which goes down a balenced path. All the lists are good but an over reliance one one type of fast attack will hurt you baddly. The best here was the webway but i would make some changes.

    First get rid of the medusa and archon the will decimate orks and tyranids but unless your freind usaly brings them give it a miss
    Drop 3 incubi and give them a venom insted 7 incubi wipe out a squad to quikly and leave you exposed you want to aim to wipe them out on their turn or have cover to consolodate into.
    With the new points add 10 medusa in a raider with splinter racks and maby a ram and sails. Just charge it right at the enemy. This is amazing. To put it into perspective that is 30 poisen shots at BS 4 re-rolling!! Your enemy will even cry if he has ultra marines as you aim to destroy any transports first. Take that mat ward, bloody ignore our cover again!
    Over all though liked all the lists, but always give raiders and ravagers night sheilds.

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    1. Sorry about my spelling+ layout i wrote this on my kindle

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