Dark Eldar 1750 "Meta-change" list

[thecactusman17]

In 5th edition, my tournament lists focused around a lot of close combat mixed with shooting and relied heavily on the Flyer kits for sheer turn-one power. Flyers of course have gotten even better in some ways but the game has obviously shifted away from close combat.

In response, here is my Dark/Eldar "6th edition meta" list. This isn't a list designed to copy others, but it is designed to capitalize on new strengths created by the rash of changes in the 6th edition rules. Naturally, I've exploited the powerful synergy between the Dark eldar and Eldar codices as well as used the Aegis Defense Line to beef up the surprising durability of what I've long referred to as the "plexiglass hammer" nature of the Dark Eldar codex.

Without further delay, here is the list!

Core Army (Dark Eldar):
HQ
Duke Sliscus (Warlord)

Troops
Kabalite Warriors (x20), Dark Lances (x2)

Kabalite Warriors (x5), Blaster
Venom Transport, Dual Splinter Cannons, Nightshields

Kabalite Warriors (x5), Blaster
Venom Transport, Dual Splinter Cannons, Nightshields

Fast Attack
Scourges (x10), Haywire blasters (x4), Solarite

Heavy Support
Voidraven Bomber, Shatterfield Missiles (x4), Night Shields, Flickerfield

Voidraven Bomber, Shatterfield Missiles (x4), Night Shields, Flickerfield

Ally Detachment
HQ
Eldrad (x1)

Troop
Rangers (x5), Pathfinders (x5)

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line, Quad Gun

When we examine the list, we have a number of strong (indeed, sometimes exceedingly powerful) units that work surprisingly well in concert. While a large portion of the anti-tank firepower is invested in the Bombers, it's worth noting that the Scourges in particular can cause remarkable damage to most tanks even on purely average rolls. If a unit of Scourges were to control a Skyfire Nexus random objective, there is a very likely chance that they would handily destroy any flyer in range before even the Quad Gun. Against ground vehicles, they free up the underwhelming Dark lances and Blasters to focus on weaker targets while the Scourges reliably knock down Leman Russ, Monoliths, Land Raiders and similar big bads with ease, or at least set them up for a swift dispatch.

The 3+ poison unit is where the fun really begins. With rerolls from Eldrad through the Divination chart, the unit rarely even needs the Foreboding power to cause massive damage against enemy units on overwatch. When combined with Foreboding, this unit will readily wipe out most enemy infantry units in one round of shooting, regardless of player turn. The Venoms are a pleasant addition, functioning as mobile harassment units that often win games by kiting around enemy shooting and vehicle assault units. They also tend to do great at sniping out that one character alone in the back corner with their high mobility.

The Rangers have proven to be game-saving all-stars on many occasions. In particular, they are excellent at picking out enemy gun emplacements and turrets before the opponent has a real chance to fire, saving my aircraft from a swift death on numerous occasions. They also have that wonderful "AP1 on a 5+", meaning that half my hits against infantry ignore armor saves and rends can do immense damage to vehicles.

Eldrad of course is the real "Warlord" here, but Duke also steps up with a nearly one in three chance of giving his unit Feel No Pain from the get go and otherwise almost always being a strong candidate for accepting challenges. He also benefits the big unit with a lot of nasty shooting, and gives delivery options for the Venoms when parking them behind the Aegis line is not good enough to avoid damage. Eldrad too is a good challenger choice against low-wound HQs or those with no invul save, especially if he gets the "Precognition" psychic power. This power can turn Eldrad into one of the finest candidates available for sitting in front of a vulnerable unit and taking the brunt of the enemy attack with his rerollable 3+ invul. If he goes to ground behind the Aegis Lines, of course, he becomes nigh-invulnerable.

[Archon Charybdis]

Generally like it, just a few thoughts.

-Dark Lances on warrior squads are a bad idea. They're overpriced to begin with, and using them means the rest of your squad is sitting idle and wasting Sliscus' 3+ poison. Splinter Cannons would be much cheaper and much better suited to purpose for the squad. The points saved here and a few other places could buy you a Ravager or some Blaster Trueborne.

-Basically same point about the Void Ravens. Every turn you use the missiles you're not firing the Void Lances at something meaningful. I think you've already got fairly solid anti-infantry with all your splinter weaponry, but if you want missiles a Razorwing comes with them included in the cost plus it can take disintegrators which are a lot better complement to the anti-infantry missiles. Otherwise if you take a Void Raven I'd forgo any missiles and just keep it aiming at other flyers or heavy armor. Dropping the missiles from both plus the Dark Lances from the Warriors gets you a Ravager.

-Scourges aren't bad, but don't overestimate them. On average you'll do 2.2 glancing/penetrating hits--from a fragile 260pt unit. They used to be a really nice suppression unit in 5th, and while the chance to actually kill vehicles is nice now, if they don't they're liable to suffer return fire and take a lot of damage. You might consider splitting them in to two squads of 5 so they're less of a target, and they can work independently to pick off weakened enemy armor.

-You mentioned using Fortune and Divination powers at the same time, can't do that. You can take take powers from multiple different disciplines, but you can't mix discipline powers and book powers.

[Archon Charybdis]

Double post

[thecactusman17]

I ran Splinter cannons for a while, before the Scourges. The simple reality is that even with the rerollable and numerous blasters and lance weapons elsewhere in the list the giant unit is essentially useless until something trips (or is forced) into the 24" range. 2 Dark Lances fixes the issue by forcing my opponent to walk into range, or by killing the Dreadnought in the back, or the Paladins that just DS'd on the other side of the defense line, etc.

And no, I can't do Fortune and Divination. But Divination includes the Precognition power, which allows the psyker himself (3++, Eternal Warrior Eldrad) to reroll his own save. Shove him up front, watch as numerous nasty shots just seem to disappear. Especially behind that Aegis Line.

I will test the Scourges tomorrow. I am just a tad worried that they will die too easily with only 5 man units. A 10-man squad doesn't worry nearly as much about missing with 1 model, as the 2+ Glance for each successful hit pretty much guarantees a reliable vhicle kill every turn.

[Learn2Eel]

Just a note mate, Eldrad is not an Eternal Warrior. Otherwise, I like the list for the most part, though I agree with Archon's suggestions mostly. Here's an army list I came up with that is quite similar to yours that I feel would work better;

Dark Eldar 1500

HQ
Duke Slicus – 150
Haemonculus w/ venom blade, liquifier gun - 65

Troops
Kabalite Warriors (20) w/ two splinter cannons – 200
Kabalite Warriors (5) w/ blaster, Venom w/ dual splinter cannons, night shields – 135
Kabalite Warriors (5) w/ blaster, Venom w/ dual splinter cannons, night shields - 135

Heavy Support
Ravager w/ night shields – 115
Ravager w/ night shields – 115
Voidraven Bomber w/ flickerfield – 155

Allies

HQ
Eldrad Ulthran – 210

Troops
Rangers (5) w/ pathfinders – 120

Fortification
Aegis Defence Line w/ Quad Gun - 100

[ContemptuousAngel]

I run a similar list with gunboats instead of massive ground troop units. I use Sliscus with a group of Trueborn, usually 5-7 (depending on the points level of the game) all with either shardcarbines and splinter cannons. They ride around in a tricked out raider with the disintegrater cannon. This puts a lot of hurt on anything it touches.
Its nearly as many shots at 18" with the 3+ poison/plasma combo as your big squads and more mobile.
Takes out nearly everything it touches.

[ContemptuousAngel]

Generally like it, just a few thoughts.

-Dark Lances on warrior squads are a bad idea. They're overpriced to begin with, and using them means the rest of your squad is sitting idle and wasting Sliscus' 3+ poison. Splinter Cannons would be much cheaper and much better suited to purpose for the squad. The points saved here and a few other places could buy you a Ravager or some Blaster Trueborne.

.
This.

[Pater Sin]

I would give the Scourges haywire blasters, they have a shorter range but I find they cause damage more reliably when you need them to.

[Archon Charybdis]

I would give the Scourges haywire blasters, they have a shorter range but I find they cause damage more reliably when you need them to.

Do you mean Heat Lances? He has Haywire Blasters equipped already. I think it's a matter of taste really. While more damage potential is nice, I don't like Heat Lances because it basically turns you into a very expensive suicide (likely Deep Striking) that's almost guaranteed to die the turn after attacking. Unless you can pop a Landraider, which isn't necessarily a guarantee, there's a pretty good chance you won't even come close to making your points up.

[Pater Sin]

Yes, I meant heat lance, I think I just had a brain freeze.

[thecactusman17]

I do need to point out that after dumping something out of a Land Raider far from it's target, you've typically made back points no matter how quickly they kill you afterwards.

Having said that, the unit simply doesn't kill tanks fast enough.

I've dropped the poor scourges, and I'm instead putting in two units of Dark Lance Trueborn (3x model units) and a Ravager with Darklances and a Night Shield. I'm hoping that the extra DLs (and yes, I KNOW the Trueborn are extremely fragile) and re-upping to the Quad Gun will help me better weather the turn 1 storm. Right now, I simply find myself unable to kill transports fast enough to start shooting the meat. Once units are disembarked, I typically find it rather easy to mop up with all the poison and Psychic shenanigans.

[thecactusman17]

So I want to offer a quick but important update:

I played what I thought would be my last game tonight with the original build. I would like to briefly point out that there was a minor points issue, and I could not legally run a solarite or any other squad leader in the list, so please ignore any that you find there.

My opponent was a highly durable mix of Plaguemarines, Typhus, Zombies (over 100 of the things!) and worst of all, 3 Baleflamer Helldrakes. As you can imagine, I was rightly concerned about my lists ability to counter these threats.

Well, I needn't have worried, though at least some of the credit goes to ridiculous luck with the dice in a few key areas.

First was the rolls of Forewarning and Precognition on the Divination chart for Eldrad. the 4++ saves on the mega-unit are what allowed me to survive until the flyers were dead.

Second was popping a Skyfire nexus close to my base. As you can imagine, this proved to be a critical element to my victory.

On turn two, my opponent brought all three of his Baleflamers in at the same time. For most armies, this would have essentially ended the game. I lost a Venom immediately to Vector Strike. But I had been lucky enough to get turn one, and was well-prepared for the scenario: Duke Sliscus manned the Quad Gun alone, and Eldrad sat in front and to one side of the Warriors, ready to lay down his life with rerollable invulnerable saves as necessary.

Duke returned fire on the Vectored Drake, which had come in on my "vulnerable" side opposite Eldrad. He managed to kill the beast with an interception, and suddenly both flyers were putting all their shots into a Fortuned Eldrad Ulthuan. Eldrad, of course, is a dead man to begin with, so what worry had he for the onslought? The flames passed around him harmlessly, some 16 in total. The last Drake tried to shoot off the Quad Gun and Sliscus, but neither succumbed.

Turn 3 and my Voidravens finally arrive, flying along the narrow strip of my back field to draw target on the remaining Drakes. The enemy Quad Gun had been destroyed by volleys from the surviving Venom and the Eldar Rangers in the first turn. The first heavy bomber cored a second Helldrake, leaving a single dragon who proved too agile to draw a proper bead on and the second Voidraven missed.

Typhus and his Plaguemarine squad entered from reserve and proceeded to kill the Warriors dropped from the Venom killed by my opponent. This meant, however, that he was unable to run. Typhus twice succumbed to the very power he represented as Eldrad's Runes of warding protected the pirate host.

The Voidravens, both heavy vehicles, proceeded to move forward on what ended up as the last turn (with a two hour limit my opponent had taken too long moving his numerous forces while my more compact, stationary force maneuvered around him). One caught The Relic in a multi-objective game of Big Guns, while the other moved to deny a unit of Zombies from holding the objective in his back corner. As this was the final turn, and with a hard two-hour limit, he proved unable to reach The Relic and equally unable to blast away the bomber. The Dark Eldar holding the Nexus and Duke Sliscus moved into range and managed to glance the final Helldrake three times in hover mode, barely overcoming its 5++ and sending it crashing to the ground. As the last few equipped models failed to do any damage to the Voidravens, the 2 hour buzzer for the match went off and the game was over as his turn came to a close, with us tied on Big Guns (1 to 1), my victory on The Relic (4vp), and with my holding Linebreaker while he got First Blood.

[WarlordEXE]

The list looks fun to play, but i get a feeling that Tau are gona wreck your face. Especially if you get Hamer and Anvil against mechy tau. They'll outrange everything, and you have so few units that offer a threat that by turn 2 or 3 you have nothing but cannon fodder on the table. Really your only hope against Tau, or even mech IG for that matter, is to get turn one and hope both ravagers get a vehicle each. Then from their kill his troops and win by bonus points. Cause chances are your gona loose a lot (deepstrike flamer suites wound like to have a word with your 20 man blob squad), and more importantly all your scoring units.

[thecactusman17]

Tau are an odd thing but yes, SOME Tau units cause me headaches. Not the firewarriors obviously. But the Suits and especially the Drones are a big problem for me. I played a wild list at BAO that involved Tau with Horde Orks. The firewarriors were blown away, but the sheer number of bodies and the range of his Broadsides and missile suits was a far greater hinderance to me. Flamer deepstrikes are very risky, especially when you have the Quad Gun.