200pt DE Killteam - Troops or Toys?

[RebelGrot]

Happy New Year all!

Im my attempt to play more in 2011 I want to build a Killteam so that when theres no chance/time for a 'proper' game I can still get some fighting done. My local GW plays it at 200 points, troops only which is obviously pretty restrictive.

I want to try something different so decided to treat myself to some new Dark Eldar. I was tempted to go all Wyches but then watched a couple of games recently and decided some guns were required too.

The only other Teams so far I've seen are Genestealers with Broodlord, IG kitted out Vets, horde Gaunts and good old Necron warriors.

For the points I can have 10 bare bones Wyches and 10 Warriors with a splinter cannon (IIRC). Here's my questions:
~ To the DE generals out there: Should I be looking to drop a couple of the Wyches to be able to afford a) a Hekatrix/Syrabite to bring in a power weapon or similar or b) any of the Wych weapon upgrades (shardnet, razorflail etc) - is there anything I shouldn't leave home without?
~ To the regular Killteam-ers out there are squad upgrade toys worth sacrificing a few bodies for? Are my 'special' load out guys just going to get shot at first and never reap their rewards?

Thanks all :)

[DrLove42]

Remember that in Killteam all models count as individuals, so 1 kill = 1 pain point for a model

With Wych weapons, on troops only i don't see a shardnet being overly useful....1 on 1 a Hydra gauntlet might be a good call...

Vis a vis Hekatrix...not worth it. For the extra attack, and then furthur cost for a special weapon, given you've already got a small force isn't worth it. She still gets shot to pieces outside of combat. Maybe give the warriors a blaster to take out big stuff though

[shrike]

I play kill-team for the fluff. I could just take some blob guard and be done with it, but I chose to have 10 veterans, with camo-cloaks, carapace armour and shotguns (a couple of flamers and such) to make it more fluffy. They don't do well, but they are fun!
GO FLUFFY!

[Mr.Pickelz]

Here's my Gk killteam

4x gk's 1x psycannon 1x incinerator
1x justicar with unguents of warding and frag grenades, auspex, and targeter

[GrenAcid]

Dond go with wyches...bring more Warriors and blasters and splinter cannons....mow down your enemy with poison shooting.

Its shame you cant take some wrack.

[godzy]

target saturation and make the dice count. wyches are more survivable in CC, but I don't think they'll get stuck in one for long. 30+ poison sots a turn against marines= 20 hits= 10 wounds = three dead marines~50 points. a blaster and/or dark lane, and stuff will fall down. the more models you have, the more aren't getting shot at by you'r opponent. stay in cover, concentrate fire.

[somerandomdude]

Don't play a lot of KT, but:

Take a Blaster, mostly to deny any FNP available. The S8 is nice, as is the lack of armor save, but if you play it like any of the games I've seen everything will have cover anyway, and cover + FNP is annoying (as anyone who has played against the new DE can tell you). :D

Does your club play that you're allowed three USRs for your army? If so, I'd take Relentless on the SC Warrior (for a couple more shots). You could alternatively take a DL Warrior to deny more FNP, but the SC will probably help more.

With who you are playing against, a PW won't be too important. Extra attacks will make a difference, however, so if you go with some Wyches Hydra Gauntlets would be nice. You can keep the Wyches at the minimum 5 though to pack in more Warriors. Splinter shots will be better for you than Wych assaults. You could also give another Wych Preferred Enemy as your second big hitter. EDIT: Was too concerned with getting multiple threats I forgot what made KT so much fun was crazy cool single models. Give the Hydra Gauntlets Preferred Enemy instead. 1+d6 with rerolls to hit? And possibly rerolls to wound? That would be a fun model to make because of the character you can give her. I'm tempted to start up a DE KT now (I have so many leftover weapons as it is).

For your last USR, I'd probably go with Stealth on your Blaster. Not many other options stick out as useful for an army like that, so you might as well give your heavy hitting gun some more protection. FNP would be better against small arms, but they can take care of that with Plasmaguns. Stealth will only fail you against flamer templates, but the Blaster has an 18" range, so if you get that close to a flamer you're either A) doing very good or B) doing very bad.

And as was said before, focus on splintering everything to death as much as possible. Take out models in the center and then assault one side to isolate. As the others move over to join the fight, splinter them some more until your Wyches have cleaned up. The classic "Divide & Conquer" strategy is much easier to implement in KT than in regular 40k because in full games you can't as easily remove whole units AND engage in the same turn.

EDIT: One more thing, I ran the numbers and you could get 17 models: 10 Warriors, 5 Wyches, and the other two your choice (but I'd go with Warriors) with the upgrades I mentioned. If only you could bring Liquifier Guns.

[RebelGrot]

Thanks for the pointers all.

I've got the 'final' 200pt list now, so here you go:

6 Wyches; Hekatrix w Venom Blade, 1 Wych w Hydra Gauntlets
10 Kabalite Warriors; 1 w Splinter Cannon, 1 w Blaster

I was restricted by already having one box of each, otherwise I might have been swayed by the Warriors only idea. Those Wych models are too nice to leave out though.

The Hekatrix is in there for fluff really. Also after buying the Blaster there was a spare 5pts rattling around so the opportunity for her with a Venom Blade as a leader conversion (using Lilith) wasn't worth passing up.

Thanks for all the other tips, especially that big break down Somerandomdude. I don't know about the USR's yet so I'll wait and see.

Finally, at Shrike, fear not! Fluff was always at the heart of this - a straggler band of DE, left behind in an underhive after a raid, sneaking round the shadows terrorising the populace until either the Imperium respond with a hunting Kill Team or they creep a bit to deep and stumble across some dangerous nest of Xenos!

Thanks again guys, I'll see if I can put up a WIP in the modelling and painting forum sometime soon.

[Fellend]

Looking forward to hearing the battle report from the brave marines and guardsmen that will cleanse your xeno scum...