The Game

Super friends - assemble!

So, played a mock game last night with my 500pt army. It took like 10 minutes and we were done. Playing against daemons, my friend hate a Greater Daemon, Daemon Prince, and 8 Daemonettes. My list is an Archon(pictured above), 10 warriors with a Blaster in a raider, with Night Shields and Splinter Racks. 6 Bloodbrides, two Hydra Gauntlets, in a raider with a Shock Prow, Torment grenade launchers and a Flickerfield. So, I sit down two raiders, he gets first turn, and deepstrikes his two daemons next to me. Shoots a bolt of change to my Wych raider with the Archon, and pop. Blows it up! Luckily I rolled a 6 on my combat drugs, and didn't lose any precious Bloodbrides thanks to Feel No Pain. That was basically his turn though, so it went to me. Archon and Brides crawl out from the wreck, and position themselves for a nice assault to the Daemon Prince. Warriors raider moves up 6", and blasts the Daemon Prince with all their stuff. 18 re-rollable shots land me no misses, and I put around 11 wounds on the little dude. He goes down real quick, and I wasn't expecting that sort of outcome. Archon and his Brides are standing out in the open. Next turn - his Greater Daemon flies down, shoots his bolt of change at my last remaining Raider, and doesn't do anything. Proceeds to assault it, and since I only moved 6", hits it on 4s. Luckily, he only gets 1 hit! I think I'm doing good, but I don't make my Flickerfield save. He rolls the damage result - and guess what?

Explodes! My warriors have a pain token though, and only take one casualty thanks to Feel No Pain again. So opens my next turn. The warriors open up a big volley on the GD, and only end up putting two wounds on it since they did miserable with their hits. Archon and his Brides swoop down to the rescue, my hydra gauntlets giving me an extra 8 attacks. Wyches put 9 wounds on him, Archon deals none. Out of 9 saves, he luckily fudges two, and goes down. Second pain token for the Archon and his Brides! All that's left are some Daemonettes, who are still in reserves.

Turn three - he doesn't get his Daemonettes.

Turn four - he doesn't get his Daemonettes.

Turn five! They come in automatically. He hits with his scatter die, and lands them right next to the Archon and his Brides. He runs, a 6! Just enough to get within 3" of my objective where the Warriors are standing, and contest it. My turn. I don't shoot my warriors - there's no honor in that. The Archon and his Brides make a move down for them, opting to fleet for good positioning. 1! They really don't get anywhere better than where they were, and just lose the option to fire their pistols. The assault!

Normally, these harsh bitches go off at the same time - with a staggering initiative of 6! But, with my second pain token, my Brides are soaking in some funky daemon hurt, so they pop off at initiative 7. They lose their bonus attack for assaulting due to the Daemonettes defensive grenades, so they're at a base of 3. Hydra gauntlets! 7 extra attacks. All together, I have 23 attacks from my Brides, and I end up scoring something like 8 wounds, with the Archon contributing 3. 8 Daemonettes, with a 5+ save. I figure they'll all go crying to Slaanesh, but they end up making a nice amount of save, with 3 left to swing back. They throw their 9 attacks outs, get 6 hits, and 3 wounds from it. 3 Brides take the wounds, but have a 4+ invuln save, and a 4+ FnP save. None of them take any damage, and the Daemonettes lose by 5, and take 5 fearless wounds. This time, they all die! Third pain token for the squad, and the end of the game.

I didn't think my Warriors would do so well, managing to put around 15 wounds on two seperate MCs, and be the deciding factor in killing them both. 200 points is well spent on them! It was a short match, though. I wonder how I'll do against things that CAN suffer instant death!

The Razorwing.

Doing what it does best - delivering missiles.

The Razorwing is a unique unit - being that it can move 36" at any time, and can also move 12" and fire every one of its sickening weapons. Two dark lances, a Splinter Rifle you can upgrade to a Cannon, and four missiles. The missiles it comes with are S6 AP5 48" Large Blast murder sticks. You can fire all four of them any time you want, which means four large blasts that are wounding most troops on 2s, and insta-killing T3 models. If you get a good spot, you can get around 7-8 hits with each template, and with BS4, they really don't go too far. Combined with the dark lances and the splinter cannon, you're looking at stacking an AWFUL LOT of wounds on a single unit, effectively giving you the opportunity to point your finger at a unit and gimping it for the rest of the game.

You ofcourse don't have to take the Dark Lances, as with most things in the book, you can trade them out for Disintegrators, for free. So you get 6 S5 AP2 shots you can lay out on the unit too, and if you're going for the maximum amount of hurt, it may just be better than two Dark Lances. I haven't done it, because honestly, I can never have enough Dark Lances. Once you shoot your load with it, I don't think Disintegrators would be nearly as useful as them. 5th edition requires you to have a load of anti-tank, since everyone is mech'd up. This is why in a lot of lists, people opt for Ravagers over the Razorwing, since it packs an extra Dark Lance, and is 35 points cheaper, leaving the massed anti-infantry fire for Warriors, or simply relying on a strong core of Wyches for dealing with enemy hordes. The codex gives you so many options, and it's a blast thinking of all of the things you can do in it. None of the armies I've been able to think of, no matter how min-maxed they are, seem like they aren't something the Dark Eldar would do.

One of the biggest surprised with the Razorwing is this - Closed top! That's right, it doesn't go down like SUCH a cheap whore to bolter fire. They stay at -2 to the chart, so it can't be wrecked nearly as easily as a normal Raider or Ravager(Though they'll need to shoot the back of it) can. With the addition of Night Shields, you really don't have to worry too much about getting rapid fired by many guns, which lets you worry about getting shot by lascannons more and getting auto-glanced. Flicker fields can only go so far, but for 10pt, they can really save your bacon. I shrugged off 6 penetrating hits with them once, and went on to bugger the hell out of armor since I still had my gunboat alive, instead of blown up 4 times. They're a must-have.

Ofcourse if you don't think four S6 missiles are enough, you can exchange some of them for a Necrotoxin missile, a poisoned 2+ pinning missile, or if you're a true weirdo, you can take the Shatterfield. A really strange S7 AP- missile that re-rolls to wound. Not quite as practical as the Necrotoxin, I think. To be honest though, you can leave them all as the stock Monoscythe and do just fine. It's 5pt for any replacement and you're looking at 20pt for a rack of custom missiles, when you come with four great ones anyway. Its cousin, the Voidraven, can take some truly horrifying missiles though, which I might go into some other time. It's not nearly as good as the Razorwing in my opinion though.

I'm making a 500pt list for the next tournament I'm going to. That's the next one up! If you've started to develop a fledgling interest in 40k, check out Lexicanum, and you can pop in words you don't understand. It's a community maintained 40k wiki, and they really keep it up to snuff. Great place to learn about it.

Warriors.

Can we get some more spikes on this guy?

              Ladies and gentlemen - say hello to the bread and butter of any Dark Eldar force.
                                                                   Warriors!

They broke the mold of 5th edition by being the only troops to exclusively have poisoned shooting attacks. That Greater Daemon of Nurgle? Wounds it on a 4+. They wreck monstrous creatures big time, and are really just the same as Bolters against any other troop. The only downside is that shooting against low toughness models, like Gretchin or normal Eldar, it's the same chance to wound a puny Grot as it is to wound a Carnifex.With a normal bolter you get to lay out low-toughness hordes like Hormagaunts, but with splinter rifles - you have a little more trouble. That's what balances them though, they can assassinate high-toughness models, but they have trouble with big hordes of low toughness models. And they're completely ineffective against vehicles, which limits your tactical options once your Raiders get popped(Oh and they will!).

They can footslog it with two Dark Lances, or get nice and snug in a Raider with a Blaster and Splinter Cannon, and sit back on your table edge and spit hate. The only thing they suck at is assaults, but if you manage to make it to pain token number two, WS4 S4 will start scaring people. Six initiative with Furious Charge ensures they go off before loads of other things, which makes getting hit back a much more lucrative prospect than you'd first think, having a look at your target to assault. Options for plasma grenades, or a Phantasm, you can actually assault with these guys. But, thinking of it as anything else than a desperate measure, and I'll start to wonder what's wrong with you. These guys have some of the best guns in the game.

Coming in at 9 points, they're a solid investment for a core of troops. Their models are superb, and you can really get some interesting poses from the little guys. The sets were made so that you could nab an arm off a Warrior, and put it on a Wych, or Reaver, and have them all be backwards compatible like that. A really smart move, and a great use for whatever little bits you'll have left over after you get done making them. Mostly just a sprue full of spikes after you make 10 of them.

I really love the little dudes, but the 5+ save on them is just plain hurtful - everything outside of lasguns and shootas are going to be stretching your ass open like you've never had it done before. You'll be pulling handfuls of these guys if you get hit by Bolters out in the open! Don't let them out of the protective womb of that Raider, otherwise Bad Things(tm) will start happening, and very quickly at that.

All in all, they compete very well for being picked as a troop. Against Wyches and Wracks, they offer something that neither of the two can dish out - sweet, sweet firepower. 10 in a Raider with a blaster give you a great tank hunting unit, letting you use the 18" range of the blaster for more immediate threats, and allowing you to target a seperate vehicle that might be camping with its 36" range. You won't be getting pain tokens by tank hunting though, so if you lose your Raider, say goodbye to the squad. They won't have any staying power at all.

A lot of people use 9 of them in a Raider with an Archon, to deliver him with a Webway Portal. The Warriors really add nothing to his combat capability, and also it puts your Warriors sometimes wayyy too close to the front lines, since an Archon is most comfortable in the thick of it. I think it makes more sense to stick him in a Venom with a few Incubi, personally. Or take Trueborn with blasters, for a little gank posse to bugger whatever is threatening your Archon.

They're a real multi-purpose unit, but they excel the most at shooting. Set them up in a Raider with Splinter Racks, and go to town.

Wracks.

Beautiful! Just beautiful.

After a good one over on these guys, you can see why they're four toughness. Take a Homonculous, and you'll quickly see that 10pt troops at a minimum size of 3, is min-max heaven. Even if you aren't taking them for cheap troops, their 4 initiative and 4WS - coupled with two attacks base from their two poisoned close combat weapons, make them pretty slick. You might take a look at that 6+ armor save and throw up, but don't worry. These little boys come with a pain token, giving them a 4+ to everything but S8, or AP2 weapons. So unless the enemy wants to bring their anti-tank fire to the little fellas, sit them in cover and enjoy your 4+/4+.

You can make the squad bigger, take a few liquifiers, sure! But mainly you want to nab an Acothyst, and take a Mindphase gauntlet. Throw them into a monstrous creature! Don't worry about wounding it, all you have to do is hit that bad sucker. With four attacks on the charge, at WS4, you'll get two or maybe 3 hits. Then that MC has to take a strength, and a leadership test for each hit. Fails any of those - can't attack! Not to mention, you still get to roll to wound with it, if worse comes to worse. But the rest of your Wracks will pile up so much hate on it, unless it has an amazing save, they'll tackle it, before it even gets the chance to hit back.

These guys make a great accompaniment to your Homonculous with their T4 and FnP, they can suck up some hatred intended for your little menace. They can take a flamestorm cannon and still get a FnP save. Think about it! In a lot of ways, FnP is almost better than a normal armor save, though it rarely goes below 4. The fact that these guys come standard with it is really great, and even in lists without Homonculous', you can join an Archon to them to grab a quick, cheap pain token without any fuss.

Not only do they make good troops - but they can take the usual Venom or Raider to ride into battle with. So you can get an accompanying 12 poisoned shots, or a dark lance to pop vehicles with. Raiders are real nice, but I fancy some dakka venoms too sometimes. The sheer amount of hate you can lay out with it sometimes is staggering. The shock prow, and the torment launchers are incredibly useful too; but I'll get into that on the entry for Raiders later on.

Back to Wracks, they really fill a nice niche in the codex, cheap high toughness troops that fair well in combat. A lovely addition to any force, and their models are coming out soon too! Most likely pewter, but I can deal with it. They're cool little guys. Mainly I think people are gonna use them to camp on objectives - and that's a fine use for them, but I think they'd do well offensively too. Poisoned 4+ can really give people headaches, and with 4 initiative, 5 with your second pain token, some terrible things can begin to happen. If you throw them against models with the same toughness as their strength, you gain a re-roll to wound too! It's the same thing as Hormagaunts with toxin sacs and adrenal glands at that point - something you don't want to run into in a dark alley. AT ALL.

Mandrakes!

Good god, mandrakes. That statline is typical DE, but you get four fucking strength!

^Yeah, maybe that's why.

What I like to do is infiltrate them, and have a homonculous in a venom(Night fields ofcourse) scoot up 12", disembark near the mandrakes, move the mandrakes up so that they're within 2", and bam. Pain token number one. Now, you won't get any assaults, but you will get some delicious S4 AP4 pinning shots. 18" assault 2 guns will deliver Dire Avengers to Craftworld Cowardice in no time flat. Not only are you going to most likely cause a pinning test, even against MEQs, but against everything else? Morale test too. And you've got FNP on your drakes, so if you get shot back, you got a 5++/4+ to hide behind. Stick them in cover for some very funny 3+/4+ saves, and no one will even bother shooting, half the time. When you get to an assault, their 2A base, 5 initiative, and 5+ invuln come in real handy. You can tarpit an IC for a pretty good amount of time with them, too. Shrug off S10 powerfists all day long pretty much.

With shooting, give your homonculous a Casket of Flensing for some added lulz. I've never had luck with it, but you can potentially get an Assault 12, S6 AP1 gun. It's only like 10 points, so why not? You'll be getting another pain token pretty quick if you can roll well with that. If you paid the points for an Ancient, they're hitting on 2s, also.

Worst case scenario(The one I usually get), you get a S1 AP6 assault 5 or 6 gun, but can't really do much with it. The Mandrake's shooting however is very constant. Hitting on 3s all day, wounding MEQs on 4s. Thing is, every troop that has a 4+ save, always has T3 also. So when you're shooting against prime targets, you'll hit on 3s and wound on 3s also. Then they don't get any saves, and go crying for their mothers.

Five Mandrakes is 75 points, and a Nightfiend is only 10 more. 85 points for these little guys is a good deal, but they don't really scale up around 1500+ points or more, since that little 85pt unit takes up a WHOLE elites slot. You can make them bigger, but they go down easy to small arms fire unless infiltrated properly, which you have to make SURE to do. Even if you get the first turn, if your enemy seizes and they're sitting out in the open - say goodbye.

The homonculous+drake combo is real neat, but if you are taking webway portals - even better! Drop that webway portal out so that you can block off other potential shooters from line of sight towards your drakes. Next turn, you have a safe entry way for your reserves too, with your drakes at the foothill, or tying up an enemy unit. With move through cover AND fleet, they can get from that webway portal, and tie up a tac squad really easy. Just detach the homonculous from them, give them the pain token, and they'll last in combat. Since they're I5, they go off before almost all of their prey, which makes the retaliation less harsh since you only typically have 5 members.

Try them out!

Ravagers

105 points for this? I think so. With a shock prow, torment grenade launchers, night shields and flicker fields, you have a really, really nice vehicle. 135 points with the upgrades, but you get to move 12", tank shock, reduce leadership by 1, make the enemy take a leadership test if they want to assault, gimp range by 6", and to top it off, you have a 5+ invuln against ANYTHING. Flamers, power fists, meltas - doesn't matter. Any phase. 5+ invuln. One of the best choices in the codex.

Why hello there

Just starting this out. 40k lists, critiques, and stuff in general, I'll write about it.