August | 2013 | Denizens of the Dark City

So to kick off the month of August and my return to gaming, I’ve decided to go ahead and start with a little Dark Eldar Tactica. With the rule changes in 6th Edition, it’s apparent that Dark Eldar got the short end of the stick. I’m gonna go ahead and highlight some of the pros and cons of this nasty little army. Of course, as any good player would, I always try to tweak my lists and try new things – some times things work out great, other times..not so much. If their is one thing that holds true to the Dark Eldar army, it’s this – You either win by a landslide or you get wiped in Round 2!

The Hard Truth with 6th Edition

1/2 of the Dark Eldar army is garbage. What?! Why the hell would I say that? Well, their comes a point when us Dark Eldar players have to be logical about things and the truth is, a lot of the Dark Eldar army, specifically, assault units like Wyches, Incubi, etc., are completely useless with the 6th edition rules. Their are a number of important factors that go into this bold claim which I will highlight now!

Charging and Assaults – Ah yes…in GW’s infinite wisdom, they decided to give all charging units 2d6 inches, EVERYONE. Of course, Fleet of Foot special rule allows your assault units to reroll but often you will find that with proper placement and the ability to pre-measure, this rule is pretty much worthless. For an army built around pure speed and power, this is a nasty blow that cripples the majority of Dark Eldar units. Also, the inability to Run then charge for units like Wyches makes them a difficult unit to manage. However, if you do manage to get them into the fray, 6th edition managed to screw us over with my next point….
Overwatch – Overwatch is nice but not for your Wyches. Overwatch = instantly dead Wyches before they even get into assault. Dark Eldar forfeit their armor saves for pure power and speed – balance that with point cost and numbers and you will find Overwatch really hurts because it ensures that we don’t go into assault at full strength. You CAN mitigate this though however, with 1 Pain Token and my next point!
Feel No Pain / Pain Token – All Dark Eldar need Pain Tokens to survive now – their armor saves are generally not good enough to ensure that they survive enemy fire as you march them up into the fray. However, Feel No Pain got a nerf with 6th. edition @ 5+. This only ensures that getting Pain Tokens is a must. While it’s nice that FnP cannot be denied, you will find many armies rock higher strength weapons, and with DE being mainly at T3, you will find most weapons will instantly kill you because of that double strength – not a good thing, especially when most close combat weapons now increase strength, which brings up the next point!
Challenges – These can be amazing or the bane of our exsistence! In a game vs. Chaos, I charged a 10 man strong unit of Bloodbrides w/ Feel No Pain and my Succubus HQ into a 10 man Chaos Cultist w/ Dark Apostle. Issuing a challenge, I managed to wound the Dark Apostle down to 1 wound with my Syren. However, all it took to instantly wipe my Succubus HQ with one failed Invul. save from the Dark Apostle’s +2 Strength weapon. He lost many a cultists, but when his Dark Apostle was able to strike the unit, I ended up losing WAY too many Bloodbrides. The point being – many weapons offer strength bonuses and it’s really easy to be over Str6 so while FnP is nice, you will find that it is not as reliable as it once was.
Vehicle Movement – Perhaps the most annoying rule to 6th edition for the Dark Eldar is the change to vehicle movement. Not only are your Raiders going to get shot down, you can’t count on them to get you INTO the fight reliably now because ‘technically’, a Land Raider is now as fast as a Raider. However – the new Jinx rule and the Raider’s Flickerfield can possibly mitigate otherwise crippling blows, the fact that even small arms fire can cripple a Raider is nothing new.

Synopsis – While their are other small things that nerf the Dark Eldar army, those, from my experience, are the biggest ones that change the way the army plays. With the army mainly focused on assaults, you can see now why and how it got nerfed so badly with 6th edition. This is not to say you can’t run assault-oriented armies, when decked out right, Dark Eldar can pack quite a punch in assaults but as a player, you have to carefully focus on HOW you get them into assault. Their are however, a number of redeemable points that REALLY make the Dark Eldar worthwhile…

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF PAIN! The Positive side of Sadomasochism!

Dark Eldar have ALWAYS been a high-risk, high-reward army and those players that understand this concept (the aggressive players) are the ones that make the Dark Eldar a sight to behold on the table. However, with such large nerfs in 6th edition, you’re probably wondering what on earth could possible make them a good army?! You’d be surprised to see how many people actually ignore the Dark Eldar because they were so badly nerfed with 6th Edition and that is a HUGE mistake – that and underestimating a Dark Eldar army. If played properly ( which is AGGRESSIVE! ), they still hold a stupid amount of potential to win games. This actually took some effect on my part to really DIG into the codex to find the strengths given the new rules…and it was in the most unlikely places that I found the true potential of this army!

~~SPEED~~ AND POWER! – So it appears GW took the speed out of our army…guess what, we’re still powerful as HELL. Dark Lances, Dis. Cannons, Blasters, we rock a LOT of mean weapons meant to make the biggest and nastiest Tyranids and Daemons shake in their little boots! With 6th edition placing more emphasis on shooting armies, this turns our Kabalites into REALLY nasty opponents. This only gets worse when packed in a Raider with Splinter Racks, or even coupled with most glorious HQ we can rock – Duke Sliscus! Focus on Kabalite Warriors and/or Trueborn and you can’t go wrong. To make up for our lack of speed…we got to think Fast Attack…
FAST ATTACK = PURE AWESOME!!!! – Keep this in mind – Turboboosting happens in your SHOOTING Phase – seperate from Movement…..I’ve had many a rule argument about this one but the fact is clear – Reaver jetbikes are possibly the BEST unit in your army because of their massive 48 inch kill range ( 12 inches in Movement + Turboboost 36 in Shooting!!!!). A full squad is pricey as hell – well over 200 points – but when decked out and positioned right, this unit alone will wipe 1/2 an opponent’s army and they will barely be able to touch them. Stick to Cluster Caltrops (1 per three bikes can take it so focus on 9-10 bikes) and you’re gonna be overwhelming the enemy with so many wounds, even at the best save, it will be impossible for them to recover. Reavers aren’t the only ones that carry speed and power – Scourges and Beastmasters with Khymera’s make just as power, if not, more powerful combinations. Scourges can reliably move into favorable positions and have the firepower to really put the hurt on ANY enemy, while Beastmasters with Khymera ignore all terrain effects and overwhelm the enemy with number of attacks and invulnerable saves. Hellions are also a nasty combination but only in larger numbers and with the Baron so they become troop choices.
The Carnival of Flesh – If you haven’t tried a Haemonculi coven based army – you’re missing out on perhaps the BIGGEST strength of the Dark Eldar in 6th edition! Since most Dark Eldar units have lost their speed – Wracks and Grotesques not only give you the survivability needed to get into the fray, but also pack your BEST wargear. As terrifying as a Haemonculi Coven army looks on tabletop, most players realize just how truly terrifying they are when they start bringing the pain! Wracks are the best assault oriented troop choices (if taken with a Haemonculi HQ) because of a little overlooked rule – they pack TWO POISONED CLOSE COMBAT WEAPONS! This is easily overlooked because they are the only thing (outside of special wargear) that has poisoned close combat weapons. Also, they start with a pain token and adding a Haemonculi with them just grants them another – this is when shit gets messy and you can utilize the Poisoned close combat rule that allows you to reroll wounds if your toughness is equal or greater – making that 2nd pain token a must – Now you Wracks can safely contend with Space Marines. Grotesques work in much of the same way – amazing when augmented with a Haemonculi or even Urien Rakarth. Because of their high toughness, you can reliably march them up to the board or use them to lock large units and widdle them down to nothing over a turn or two. Packing a huge 3 wounds and Toughness of 5- Grotesques are straight up mean as shit and get around the majority of Dark Eldar’s Toughness of 3. Haemonculi and their wargear they can bring to battle can easily turn the tide of battle as well – while not a powerhouse HQ, the fact you can take up to 3 per 1 HQ choice, and their fairly cheap makes them powerful as hell as well as handing out much needed pain tokens. Utilizing a Haemonculi coven army yields awesome results but keep this in mind – you have to tailor them to the army you are fighting. (See Synopsis)
Eyes to the Sky – 6th edition placed an emphasis on the new flyers and while the Voidraven / Razorwing got nerfed (check the FAQ, I know…it fucking sucks….), they are still not without their use. Not being able to dump all your missiles into your enemy when they fly onto the board still sucks, but the Dark Eldar don’t have anything that can contend with enemy flyers (unless you get lucky hits with your Dark Lances, but chances are the shots will be Jinxed) so packing a Razorwing with Dark Lances is a viable option. Also – an Aegis defense line – of course, you better custom build it to be totally Dark Eldar, but having a Skyfire interceptor PLUS something to hide your troops behind makes this a killer option for any Dark Eldar army.

Synopsis – You have to really dig into your codex and tailor your army to your enemy – Dark Eldar are far from stupid and if you think taking the cookie cutter wargear into battle will give you wins, you’re going to be gravely disapointed. If you plan to be competetive with your Dark Eldar, you need to take your time while designing your lists to deal with different threats. Packing 2 Ravagers with Dark Lances against a horde army just ain’t going to cut it. Also, read into the fine print of all your wargear – Dark Eldar pack a LOT of instant death / ignores toughness weapons and utilizing them to their full potential just requires some reading and experimenting. You’d be surprised how many wounds a Grotesque w/ Scissorhand will put out, or how potent a Acothyst w/ Hexrifle can be towards picking off enemy special units before you charge into battle. 6th edition might have taken away the Dark Eldar’s bark, but their bite remains as potent as hell.

THE SUM OF PAIN – Tips and Tricks!

10 Reaver Jetbikes – 3 Cluster Caltrops. Massive kill range and high number of hits using Bladevanes – high point cost (200-250)
3 Grotesques + Haemonculi – 1 Liquifier gun, Abberation with Scissorhand. Haemonculi with Mindphase Gauntlet (for locking enemy in challenges while Grotesques rip apart the accompanying unit) or Venom Blade. Starting with 2 pain tokens, this can be a potent locking or assault unit.
Full Harlequin troop – Shadowseer is a MUST, since they have been changed (See the Errata or Eldar 6th ed. rulebook) – they now get Stealth and Shrouded, so a 4+ cover save to the unit in open ground. Harlequin Kisses and Fusion Pistols make this a beast of a tank hunter/assault unit but the trade off is their HIGH point cost. Don’t bother taking them without a Shadowseer. Dip in and out of cover since they ignore difficult terrain to increase that cover save.
Expect your Raiders to blow up, but remember to use their weapons! You’d be surprised what a few extra Dis. Cannons or Dark Lances can do. Don’t invest too highly into them, try to keep them cheap.
Get to know Duke Sliscus – he’s your best HQ – pure utility and comes back with venom blades (poisoned close combat weapons!) and Blast Pistol (excellent for tank busting!) Rerolling combat drugs is ALWAYS fun!
Duke Sliscus + 9 Kabalites + Raider w/ Splinter Racks – A very basic strategy but one of the most deadly – zip this bad boy around and rapid fire everything in sight and watch everything from full 30 man Ork squads and Monsterous Creatures drop in a heartbeat.
PLAY AGGRESSIVELY! The best tip I can give any Dark Eldar player – you’re army is meant to be played fast and mean, and though 6th edition made us slower, we still hit hard as hell. With our speed, we were once able to choose where we strike and when but because of the speed nerf, we just need to get into the fight as fast as possible.
Don’t be scared of assaults – I know I preached about the hit’s we took in assaults earlier but that doesn’t mean you should avoid close combat at all – you just need to be smart about it. Get your Wyches pain tokens (atleast 1) prior to rolling into an assault – this can be done through combat drugs or pain tokens. Think of taking a Cronos Parasite Engine!
Cronos Parasite Engines are a little more potent than people tend to think. They make large targets and the enemy will surely focus their shots at it. Don’t take one if you’re running a Haemonculi coven based army – you will already start with several pain tokens among your troops so it makes the CPE somewhat worthless if not a large shot magnet. Instead, place him into the heart of battle with some surrounding Wyches so they can get the free pain tokens.
Share the Pain – Haemonculi are great for this so keep them attached to Wracks or Grotesques so you can start with 2 pain tokens and you’d be surprised how fast you get that 3rd pain token! Don’t break them away though, Haemonculi can go down rather quick.
Aggressive but not stupid – Don’t run your assaults based on whatever is closest. The assault nerf our army got is very big in terms of play, so take your time to choose the assault that is right for you. You’d be surprised to see how even basic units now can instantly kill your Wyches or Incubi because of special wargear upping their strength.
Don’t be afraid to decline challenges. It’s not worth getting your HQ or sarge killed over. Bloodbrides and Wyches come with a stupid number of attacks and chances are good that you will clear the majority of the unit in the first round of assault so loosing a few attacks isn’t that big of a deal in the long run. It fucking sucks seeing your decked out Succubus getting instantly killed because of one failed save. You will be able to return the pain in the next round of assault.

I hope this was helpful for you budding Dark Eldar players. Feel free to comment and throw out more suggestions. I don’t claim to be the greatest Dark Eldar player ever and I am always open to new tactica and ideas to try out on the board! Remember the most important rule – DON’T EVER STOP LEARNING! If you tell me you know everything their is to playing Dark Eldar, then you should just sell your army and pick up another because you’ve learned nothing. Like the good lil’ haemonculi you are, keep experimenting! Dig into that codex and roll with any/every idea you have and share them with the rest of us!

Denizens of the Dark City

"Fetch me another play thing, this one seems to have broken," Urien Rakarth

Monthly Archives: August 2013

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Train of Flesh Fluff and Modelling Guide!

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Train of Flesh (Custom Haemoculi Coven Raider – WIP)

Dark Eldar Tactica – 6th Ed.

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