Darkwynn’s Corner: Dark Eldar Units Synopsis
Darkwynn here folks. I have been looking through the new codex for combos and there are some nasty ones that you would have to watch out for. Lets get going.
FNP is super important to the army as once units start getting FNP they turn into MEQ saves which will allow them to stay around. That being said I walked through the codex messing around with point cost of each unit and different builds and this is what I found out.
HQ’s Worth Anything
Ancient Hamonculus with Husk blade, Soul trap, Shattershard:
He can run out and make any MC or IC take a toughness test with the shattershard or die with no saves of any kind allowed. Then if he kills one he turns into STR 6 on the charge with furious charge. So he will have a power weapon that inflicts instant death at INT 6. Yes please can I have another!
Hamonculus with Anmis Vitae and Venom Blade will be cheap PainToken batteries.
Hamonculus with Shattershard or a Liquefier gun and a Webway portal will be common also.
Da Duke: Allows you two rolls on combat drugs and low orbit raid to deep strike your transports. He will be in a lot of combat drug heavy armies.
The Baron: One of the other strong characters, +1 to go first and stealth to a unit is huge. Also makes Hellions troops which is great.
Archon: I think will be okay but for the cost of the other characters I just don’t see him getting played a lot. If you do you are more than likely going to take a Huskblade, Soul trap, Shadow field, and Combat drugs which makes him 145 points.
For HQ’s in general I think it will be common to see one Special character or Archon followed by 1-3 Hamonculus to spread out pain tokens.
Vect: I think he is too expensive and will suck. For me to seize the initiative I have to go second, and if I lose I have set myself up to get boned. We won’t see any Vect builds at the top. Because in a 5-7 game format you are going to fail that seize roll and depending on what your playing you could get crippled pretty quick. Vect is too much of a risk to hedge against.
Elites
Incubi: Awesome but do you really need more death and killing at 22 points a pop? You take them bare bones without the Klavix upgrade.
Grotesques: I think they will suck in more ways than one on the table top. Too expensive and with the bulky rule makes them kind of hard to field unless you’re going to web way portal and if that is the case you have to worry about rampage. Let’s just leave these at home.
Wracks: Are awesome, with a bunch of poison attacks and can be made troops. Liquefier guns are great also because of d6 AP which means you have a good chance of making most things die. Plenty of weapon options for the upgrade character also. Oh they also start with a pain token which is great too.
Mandrakes: I still like but I need to play test them. I think they are the ultimate harassing unit but you need to get a pain token on them fast or they are going to die. They suck in combat also, but they really look super cool!
Harlequins: They are harlies nothing different. You can give them pain tokens but you would only give them one for FNP. You will see people with a shadowseer in front giving cover to the rest of the army.
Trueborn: Are great too and I think you will see a lot of common builds with them such as 4 blasters in Venom.
Bloodbrides: Also great but I don’t think you will be seeing them mainly because they are not troops and they can only come in ten man sized units which mean people will want to put them in Raiders.
Troops
Warriors: These are okay. Dirt cheap with loads of poison weapons and they can get Dark lances.
Wyches: Awesome as always, I think you should take Shard nets every time with them as if you charge some MC or other tough units taking two attacks is huge. The Hetrix has to have an Agnoizer otherwise she won’t kill anything and they will be in combat the whole time. Once the Wyches have FNP though they will be close to a 2+/3+ save in game system terms. Either you take them in a Raider of 10 but the problem is you can’t get a Hamonculus with them to get FNP. You could also run them in 15 man squads for Web way portals.
Fast Attack
Hellions: An awesome and super all around great unit. 16 points, with the Baron above they will have a 3+ stealth save and then you give them FNP they are going to take a long time to kill. The STR 4 and two attacks base is great. They have 2 poison shots apiece at 18 inch range which means they will kill most MC in large numbers. With Jump infantry they also have fleet which means you can get them where you need them pretty reliably. Stun claws are awesome but get ready for your opponent to yell and cuss at you when you take their IC out of combat with them on their hit and run move then next turn you leave him there only to shoot him with 8 blasters so he dies. Also, FC with combat drugs can get them up to STR 6 which means they can break down vehicles pretty well at that point – especially with the Baron who will be STR 7 on the charge.
Scourges: A disappointment to me in a lot of ways. 22 points for that model is too expensive. You want to take them for the anti tank but then they just get more expensive and you have to take them in a ten man unit to get some decent anti tank. Your best bet is to take Haywire blasters so you can shoot at a vehicle in hopes to shake it or you can get other weapons but at 260 points for the unit, I rather take a Trueborn squad. They have hamstringed this unit pretty heavily.
Beastmasters: Here is another unit that can be really nasty. You can have 5 beastmasters with 5 Khymerae each which is a total 30 models that will have a 4+ INVUL and FNP that moves like beast so they will have great movement to keep up with the rest of the army and they can put out a lot of attacks in close combat. I think Clawed fiends are meh but Razorwing flocks can be awesome with 6 attacks on the charge with rending. You take a full size unit and you have 60 rending attacks
Full unit of khymerae is 348 points
Razorwing unit is 210
Reavers: I am just going to say great on paper (and utterly off the chart models) but they suck for everything else. If you are going to use them for anti-tank you need to take 9 so you can get three heat lances in there which is 234 points and they will die afterwards. It’s cool they can turbo boost 36 inches but once they get assaulted they are going to crumple like a dixie cup. You can run a 9 man group by themselves and wait for the Land Raider to come up close but I don’t think these guys are really worth it.
Raiders: Okay but Aether sails is cool for the 2d6 extra movement
Venom- Awesome for MSU units and you always take the splinter cannon upgrade. That way you can put 12 shots of poison on anyone all the time.
Heavy Support
Ravagers: Okay but moving 12 and firing everything is great plus they could deep strike and fire everything. Don’t bother buying Disintegrator cannons they are useless.
Talos: Can be cool but I am worried about all the Long Fangs out there. I think it’s great to put a haywire blaster on the Talos instead. It keeps it cheap and you can shoot it at certain tanks to shake them and if you get lucky you can always immobilize or destroy it.
Cronos Parasite Engine: These are a must have. Either you take one or two but having the ability to flip out two pain tokens a turn is crucial to scale the army quickly. I think keeping them at 100 points is the way to go so you have the large template and the flamer. That way you’re able to pass out two pain tokens out if the Cronos is in the ideal position.
Razorwing: Haven’t messed with but seems great
Voidraven: Haven’t messed with but seems great. I would take the Razorwing before I take the Voidraven as the Voidraven is too expensive.
How are your real-space raids faring my fellow Archons? Darkwynn out.
