Dark Eldar Specialist Tactica

[Mecha]

Dark Eldar players are few and far between, and all the information about DE tactica and such is very limited, mainly revolving around a few strategies:

Raider Rushing
Wytche Cults
Webway Portals

also, its pretty common to see people saying that special units such as Grotesques and Mandrakes have no practical use, and Scourges are just too expensive to be effective... but I am trying to debunk this slander that has been taken as fact.


I am currently building a small game DE list that uses no raiders, no wytches, and no talos. (I am, however, going webway because it alone is pretty rare)

Ill post my findings and experiances as they come.


(as should you if you do this)

[Ikarus]

Wow that sounds like a very challenging task. It is true though, to some extent that the useless units are deemed useless for a reason. It is how the units are made, and the codex is constructed which dictated the most effective ways to play dark eldar, and that is why those three common types are played out. Though I will agree on the point that Webway portal is actually one of the greatest things to happen for Dark Eldar, seeing how I have had previous experience with Ulthwe Strike Force, Dark Eldar does a much better job then their bretheren!

Keep us updated with what you find and learn, it seems as if it is a very challenging way to play dark eldar, big point games will not provide much if you take those solid hitters out though in my oppinion. But what do i know? I don't play dark eldar.

[Mecha]

well, once i get this list hammered out, we should play. youre in seattle, right?


(im in tacoma)

[MarkedByChaos]

I don't think any unit in any list is "useless" there are simply some units that are more challanging to play with than others. I have alot more experiance playing against DE than with them even though I have a DE army and scourges scare the bejebus out of me and I have seen/been the victim of the Grotesques under a smart player.

its how you use them. once you figure out how to let me know cause I need help with my DE tactica

[Mecha]

ok, so, played my dark eldar, with a few new things (namley, hellions)

it was interesting,

my hellions dropped a webway portal, then suicided on a necron destroyer lord.

few turns went by, moving up with my fatty lord and his renuite,

then i popped all 2/3 of my troops out of my portal,

there was shock, awe, and rape.

killed alot of necrons


more turns went by, popped my last squad

necrons phased out, winner was me.

[Steellegioncpt]

Do many people still raider rush. I noticed that it was mentioned in the first post. Correct me if Im wrong but wasnt raider rushing outlawed, just like rhino rushing?

[Dan296]

well rhino rushing is harder, but still doable. however the thing that made rhino rushing so effective was that you could drive up, pop out, double tap, and assault. but now you cant do that out of a sealed transport. raiders are open topped so you CAN jump out and assault.

[Ikarus]

Originally Posted by Dan296

well rhino rushing is harder, but still doable. however the thing that made rhino rushing so effective was that you could drive up, pop out, double tap, and assault. but now you cant do that out of a sealed transport. raiders are open topped so you CAN jump out and assault.

Yep, same with Ork Trukk, theres some tricky power in that, and its scary if someone dumps some serious CC units in your face.

[Mecha]

what i forgot to mention was, the turn the necrons phased out, i had a total of 116 close combat attacks.

DE are amazing.

[Ikarus]

Originally Posted by Mecha

what i forgot to mention was, the turn the necrons phased out, i had a total of 116 close combat attacks.

DE are amazing.

Wow, wait what in the world did you use? Well, those are some pretty crazy figures. I am just interested what you got to beast the Crons.

[Mecha]

i was using the basic warrior, well, alot of them, and my lord +5 incubi

charged for 2 attacks per warrior, up to 5 per syrabite/incubi

multiply that by, alot.

and there you have it.


as for beating the crons, it was alot of splinter cannons (assault 4) and stuff.


not too difficult.


PS: i may be getting about 4000 points in dark eldar fairly soon, so i can make my mechanized dark eldar.

thats 6 transports, 3 'tanks' and the HQ vehicle.

itl be hot.

[MarkedByChaos]

I have been sitting on my Dark Eldar now trying to figure out how I am going to form the main force. I have 5 Raiders and 3 Ravengers, tons of Warriors, Wyches and Jet bikes. Raider Rush seems somewhat generic but I want to get them done and fielded, any recomendations?

[Mecha]

thats a good force right there.

fill 2 raiders with wytches, 2 with warriors, 1 with your lord/retunite

rush them, have your warriors disembark in front, wytches in back, when your lord gets out, have him set up a webway portal to warp any reserve things you have into play, all the while running around with your ravagers, drawing fire/shooting.


another good thing to do is take two ravagers, and a talos. the talos is strong (toughnes 7, 3 woulds, 3+save), and everyone wants to shoot it before anything else, so yeah.

your bikes are good raider escorts, or diversions.

[MarkedByChaos]

what weapons combo works best with the Ravengers/Raiders? should I just stick with the Dark Lance or swap it out for the other? right now I am hoping to start with everything on the field to start with, and I am still not sure how to work up the lord. I know everyone uses Shadow Field and I am planning on using it (although I tend to like keeping him an Independent Character, I like the rules and variability he offers to an otherwise specialized force) but beyond that I am still thinking things through.

I have been reluctant to field the Talos, I know it is tough and all but it isn't a Ravenger with 3 Darklances. does the Talos usually make its points? the only guy around these parts that plays Dark Eldar quit about a year ago and he sucked to begin with, I have little experience...

[Mecha]

darklances are cool and all, but i really love the dissie for laying down some seious hurt on troops.

as for starting with everything on the feild, i think its kind of a bad idea. dark eldar are weak, thats whey they have 3 deployment methods:

raiders
webway
normal

normal just fails for DE.

webway is a nice surprise, but if the modle carrying the portal dies, then everything comes in as normal reserves. (and for a harsh 55pts, the webway is one expensive piece of wargear)

raider rushing is fun, and dependable.

i run webways in conjunction with raiders.

[MarkedByChaos]

note to self: Webway/Raider combo = good, normal = bad

just don't think of it as a piece of wargear, its a deployment method like a cheap vehicle. and more reliable than a normal raider.

disintegrators are nice.

[StarEagle]

wow, i've never pl;ayed against the dark kin, but once i've expanded/ updated my eldar force i'm tempted to start a small army of my dark kin (most infantry converted though from eldar/ dark elf/ de bits)

[Houder]

Good to see dark eldar players, I’ve personally only seen one dark eldar player and he was a noob I hear their absolute monsters if played right.

[SebbyTheFreak]

I dunno, a guy I know uses his dark eldars basically as imperial guards. He just max out his amount of footslogging warriors and makes a walking fire line. The pure amount of firepower he can spew out is amazing.



Something I want to try is a min-maxed raider squads (splinter cannon+shredder) [2 HQ with splinter cannon warriors in raider and balster incubis] and ravagers with desintegrators, all with screamign jets, and all you put on the table are mandrakes. you have three free turns until you succeed your reserve roll, at which point you dump everything. Open-topped = everyone aboard the raiders can attack, fast = ravagers can fire all their weapons.


Any idea how this would work?

(and I don't beleive scourges to suck, 4x assault4 deepstriking jump infantry at only one point more than a standard space marine!)

For Grotesques, they shine against the Tau, but they mostly shine in Kill-Teams

[MarkedByChaos]

OK, I haven't been looking at the forums too much lately but...
I have been playing the Raider/Webway combo and it works great. I was worried about the playing style too much cause I play nids and CSMs and didn't want to get too asaulty with another army but, if done right these kids are a healthy mix and effective either way.

I have the blessings of dice it seems with these kids too so that doesn't hurt.

being the minimalist that I am, the HQ is kept simple and versatile. I use him to back up other units or to intercept assaulting units.

the raiders so pay for themselves it isn't even funny.

I do use a lot of troop as is my habit and preference and with a few exceptions I am always happy with the productivity of each unit I take.