trouble with dark eldar

[shaman_stig]

ok so my freind has stolen my dark eldar codex and has been beating my boys ( wolves guard and tmeplars) all over the place. bob is a cheese player he's the best i've ever met ( in 5 years of gaming ive only beaten is orks about 4 times damm then green b*~#*ds ) but any ways back to the dark eldar. he brings a shooty list most of the time. shredder cannons make mess out of everting when taken in numbers on countless occasions now i have had both squads of long fangs wiped out to a man in the 1st turn which limits my reply in the shooting phase then as my assualt elements make there way across the board there met by huge packs of beasts with there sadistic masters. now this unit really is a problem for me you just cant put enough wounds on the unit to get rid of all those damm razor flocks and anything that would instant death th little critters he just allocates the wound to some thing else. so i guess my question is this ( or questions rather) how do i keep my shooty elements alive through the torrent of fire that comes there way turn one and how do you kill a unit with so many wounds and a mix of models all with diffrent saves and toughness valeus. any help apreaciated

[isotope99]

Vindicators should make a mess of beast units if they can survive the dark lances.

Drop pods will get your units on top of his infantry faster.

If you roll second turn, try deploying your long fangs where they can't all be shot turn 1 e.g close to walls that block LOS from part of the board.

[somerandomdude]

What are they being shot with? Are you running full squads of Long Fangs (3 squads of 5 LF + Leader + WG)?

Keep in mind that a unit with mixed toughness uses the majority (technically plurality but it doesn't matter for Beastmasters) toughness when working out wounds. So, most likely, you'll always be wounding against T3, even if he ends up putting wounds on the Clawed Fiends.

Do you run Rune Priests? Murderous Hurricane is fantastic to slow Beasts down, letting you get a few more wounds on them, and when they finally do assault they're counted as going through terrain so they'll go last. Mark of the Wulfen + Wolf Standard is a great combo to have for getting as many attacks through as possible.

Thunderwolf Cavalry/Wolf Lords on Wolves with Thunder Hammers will not only instance kill Flocks but instant kill Clawed Fiends as well.

These are just a few tips, but Dark Eldar is a pretty subtle list, so even if you include counters for everything it might not work. He has exact counters, and will work to make sure those get in the right place. Disrupt his plan as much as possible. Throw your Grey Hunters against the Wyches, don't let them assault the Thunderwolves/Terminators, for instance.

[Necron_Lord]

Just accept the fact that humans are a lesser race to be slaughtered and enslaved by the eladrith ynneas when they so desire. It's kind of like when you want to have a steak because it tastes good, that some cow has to die to satisfy your desire. That is the role the lesser races play when DE raid realspace. You might as well decry the law of gravity.

[somerandomdude]

Just accept the fact that humans are a lesser race to be slaughtered and enslaved by the eladrith ynneas when they so desire. It's kind of like when you want to have a steak because it tastes good, that some cow has to die to satisfy your desire. That is the role the lesser races play when DE raid realspace. You might as well decry the law of gravity.

Shh....

The pain is much sweeter when they think they have a chance going in...

[DarkLink]

Take Razorbacks or something to block LOS to your long fangs. He can't kill them if he can't see them.

[gcsmith]

and they cant kill anything if he cant see anyhing :) los is a two way street.

[Xas]

if you have a good dark eldar list and an expert player to orchestrate it into battle you have found the one combination that comes nearest to beeing unbeatable.

however blocking los to longfangs with rhinos is a good start. just remember to get reinforced armor upgrade so you can move if stunned or you can get into trouble (still both immobilized and wrecked will ruin your LOS).

also keep in mind that some things like their fliers can easily see over the rhinos and put you into touble again.


in all honesty I think the best you can do VS dark eldar is ditch the longfangs and replace them with masses of las/plas razorbacks. yes, lances are good against rhino chassis but if you ahve enoguh some might live to fire once or twice and dark eldar vehicles are made of duct tape and held together by hope alone.

[DarkLink]

and they cant kill anything if he cant see anyhing :) los is a two way street.

Luckily Rhinos can move.

You block LOS first turn so they can't get alpha struck. Then you open up small holes in the wall of Rhinos to target enemy units. As you only need to open a tiny gap to shoot out, it is difficult for the DE to return fire. You then continue to shift the Rhinos around as needed.

[Silver Drakes Legion]

Just in case you didn't know only the beastmasters can get power through pain so no feel no pain for them. Otherwise they are pretty easy to kill with a landraider crusader anything with a lot of shots which grey hunters can do quite well.

[Nosmo75]

When you say 'shredder cannon', do you mean shredders or splinter cannons? =S

[DarkLink]

Just in case you didn't know only the beastmasters can get power through pain so no feel no pain for them. Otherwise they are pretty easy to kill with a landraider crusader anything with a lot of shots which grey hunters can do quite well.

While you are correct that only the beastmasters themselves get the actual pain tokens, the entire unit benefits from the tokens regardless of whether or not they have the actual pain rule. The beastmasters gain the tokens, and the entire unit benefits.

[jorz192]

Just in case you didn't know only the beastmasters can get power through pain so no feel no pain for them. Otherwise they are pretty easy to kill with a landraider crusader anything with a lot of shots which grey hunters can do quite well.

Razorwing flocks have 5 wounds each. You would need allot of bolter rounds to take down all of them.

[thecactusman17]

It definitely was true that beasts could initially benefit from pain tokens throughout the beastmaster squad. It has since been FAQ'd. Only the PFP models (the handlers) benefit now.

[DarkLink]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.