1850 Dark Eldar Looking For Critiques

[L'Etat Cest Moi]

This is the current list I have that I plan to run competitively at 1850. It needs you to rip it to shreds so that it can be made better.

Baron Sathonyx
3 Haemonculi - 1 with Darkgate/1 with Shattershard and Venom Blade/1 with Venom Blade

4 Grotesque - Raider (FF)/Haemonculi
4 Grotesque - Raider (FF)/Haemonculi
4 Grotesque - Raider (FF)/Haemonculi

5 Warriors - 1 Blaster/Raider (FF)
5 Warriors - 1 Blaster/Raider (FF)
10 Wracks - Raider (FF)
10 Wracks - Raider (FF)

Ravager - FF/Dark Lances or Disintegrators?
Ravager - FF/Dark Lances or Disintegrators?
Ravager - FF/Dark Lances or Disintegrators?

The Baron gives a +1 to the deployment roll. This is a great chance for an alpha strike army. His 2+ also makes him a useful distraction unit. But - for his points I could add another blaster squad, which is two more dark lances and another scoring unit.

The Haemonculi give the Grotesques a huge Ld boost. the Darkgate can smash vehicles big time and the Shattershard will eat things hardcore with its toughness test or remove model rule. They also give Grotesques a +1S from furious charge. Venom blades are in place to use 10 loose points.

Grotesques punch tanks. Tanks blow up. People in tanks come out to play but high toughness and number of wounds mean they also are eaten.

Warriors shoot side armor and assist in unmeching the table.

Wracks can either assault or hold an objective in cover with FNP.

Ravagers are always key. I have never used disintegrators, but I am tempted to. Nine AP2 shoots is nothing to sniff at. With Grotesques and seven raiders (plus blasters) doing vehicle destruction a MEQ killing machine like S5 AP2 is very nice. Not even to target terminators, as they have stormshields for their stormshields, but rather to destroy anything that thinks about getting in range. Think what they could do to long fangs? The average number of damage rolls a dark lance gets on AV12 is only one, and even then who knows what result you will get. I think that going with the infantry slaughter is a better choice.

What are the strengths, the weaknesses, thoughts on Baron, and are you on team dark lance or team disintegrator?

[BlindGunn]

I'm afraid I'm for Team Lance.

I loved Disintegrators in the old codex. With two settings, you could blast multiple marines or power-up to take a shot at a light vehicle. It gave you a chance to prioritize your shooting and targets and was good in either mode as long as you understood the limitations. My Ravagers had a mix of lances and Dis.

Now - I find it's strictly Anti-Infantry. With the loss of the "Warrior Double-Lance Sniper Teams", I need more AT, that means more lances.

If I'm worried abbout needing more anti-infantry weaponry, I'll take the Razorwing for the Missiles, upgrade to Splinter Cannon, and keep the two Dark Lances so I can still go after tanks. Haven't tried the bomber yet.

Just IMHO - as always.

Good Luck

[drwholives]

I personally dont think that grotesques are worth the points. If you like them though then see how they go.
As for 3 ravagers i would make 2DL and 1 disintegrator. That way you have 6dl to deal with tanks and 1 ravager to deal with Terminators or Monsters.
Also the Baron is useless without a group of Hellions, but Hellions suck too, so....

Hope this helps.
I would have to say i am neither as i like both DL and disintegrator cannons.

[thecactusman17]

Not sure why you are taking the Baron. Being jump infantry, he can't embark in any of the vehicles so he is going to be exposed in the open while everything else is meched up. Even at +1 to deployment, you are going to lose the investment almost immediately ESPECIALLY in a kill points game.

Drop the Baron, and replace him with one of the following:

-upgrading two of the Ravagers to Razorwings
-filling out the Warriors and maybe giving them a Sybarite (if you need 5 extra points pull the venom blade off the Haemo with the Shard)
-A squad of 10 Wyches, then replace the Dark Gate (which is actually going to rarely hurt much of anything due to AP-) and the venom blades with a Webway Portal for them to come in through.

[Ahrimaneus]

The Baron seems really out of place here. Despite his +1, if you're not taking at least one squad of Hellions as troops, i'd drop him.

With the points, I'd first and foremost put 2x liquifiers on both wrack squads. This brings them from annoying objective holders to frightening APd6 flamer-toting badasses. Additionally, without a second pain token for rerolling wounds on the assault, they're really not all that scary. Sure 4+ cover 4+ FNP is nice, but someone will eventually come along and either flamer/assault them and they'll start dropping like flies.

I'd also consider upgrading 2 of your haemonculi to ancients for the +1 Ld. Ld 8 is tough if you lose combat or take a casualty in shooting as you're not fearless yet without 3 pain tokens. Dark Gate AP- is garbage. you'll damage a vehicle, but only a 1/6 chance to actually destroy it. Not worth the points in my opinion.

It's almost there I'd say, just needs a little extra tweaking. I'd also consider going the reserves route with 2x grotesque squads on foot, one in a raider with 2x WWP Haemonculi to drop the two portals near midfield and quite far away from one another. Then have 2 more units of Grotesques and/or some Beast Packs or Taloi come screaming out of them.