Raiders

Sleek, baroque vessels of murder.

So I've been sick, but I'm back now! And I've been meaning to talk about these little guys. They clock in at 60 points, and 10 armor all around. Expect to get shot down by bolters seeing as you're open topped, making every god damn result +1 to the chart. Meltas will wreck your shit badly.

As with most vehicles, you can drop the Dark Lance and pick up a Disintegrator for free, giving you three S5 AP2 shots, perfect for assassinating heavy infantry if you so choose. But, sticking warriors with a blaster inside of it give you a very nice firepower platform, allowing you to target something at 36" with your DL, and something else at 18" with the Blaster. You really can put down a lot of threats with them, but they're incredibly flimsy for their downside. No options for extra armour, and once you get a gun shot off, or become immobilized, you are stuck there for the rest of your life.

The really interesting thing about Raiders are all the upgrades you can buy!

• Flickerfields for a 5+ invuln save against any attack.
• Night Shields reduce the range of any weapon shooting at them by 6", and it counts for working out melta and rapid fire bonuses. So a normal melta will have to be 3" away from you to get the extra dice.
• Torment Grande Launchers give a 6" bubble around your Raider, which reduce the leadership of an enemy unit by 1, and if a unit chooses to assault your craft, they have to make a Leadership test(not Morale!), and if they fail it, can't assault anything.
• Shock prows enable you to tank shock, and combined with the Enhanced Aethersails option, gives you a potential 36" tank shock, along with the TGL give you a pretty good chance to run a unit off the table on the first turn!
• Envenomed blades inflict a single S4 AP- hit whenever a model rolls a 1 to hit it in close combat, which may be effective for crowd control... But if you're in range for an assault by 30 boys, you've got problems that this thing won't help you with.
• Chain Flails allow you to inflict D3+1 S4 AP- hits whenever you pass over a unit, which is nice, but really is rather weak, considering the crimes against humanity you can cause with Reavers.
• Grisly Trophies allow you to re-roll any leadership checks you make within 6" of your Raider, which is a nice little thing for 5pt.
• Splinter racks allow any unit onboard firing with Splinter Rifles or Splinter Pistols(but not Cannons) to re-roll any failed to hit dice. Re-rolling 3+ shooting attacks often yield you an incredible amount of hits, making them beastly shooters.

The upgrades can really add up though, making the usual Raider I take around 90 points. Too many times the upgrades prove their worth though, disregarding 1/3rd of the penetrating hits you receive isn't something to whine about really. It's the difference between your Raider blowing up and killing all the Wyches inside, and your Raider moving up 12", the Wyches disembarking, fleeting, and tackling whatever you need them to.

It's not unusual for a list to have a Raider for every infantry unit they have, that can buy them. Though I hear they're starting to phase out a little bit for Venoms with 5 warriors and a Blaster inside of them, because people love being cheesy and playing internet lists. 

All in all, it's one of the coolest and most dynamic models released for a vehicle, and if I ever get mine finished, you can be sure I'll be posting pictures of them.

Haemonculi

The posterboy of the Dark Eldar

This nasty little guy can sport a Flesh Gauntlet. "A claw-glove crammed with syringe-like protrusions and vials, the flesh gauntlet can inject potent electrosteroids that force rapid and unnatural growth. Its victim will literally outgrow his own skin, bursting apart in a welter of steaming, heaving matter." This is just one of the ways he would enjoy killing you.

Something they'd like to turn you into.

These little guys can pack a surprising punch, scoring just one wound can turn into quite a few when these guys' touch is involved. The Haemonculous wears no fancy armor - the only save afforded to them is their grisly, mutilated flesh. So much mangled, stitched skin can be found on them they actually get a 6+ armor save. The real money though is they start with a pain token, giving them a nice save against everything that ignores that piddly 6+ armor save.

An unusual thing to be found on them is this - 4 toughness. You'll have to bring anti-tank weaponry to them in order to put the lights out on a Haemonculous. There isn't a whole lot you can give them to increase their survivability outside of putting them in transports or squads, but they're cheap, and you can get three of them in one HQ slot, which is really cool. 

They have a full compliment of wargear available to them - from a simple little poisoned blade, to a blade that - as it moves through the air, completely sucks the moisture out of the surrounding area. There's a big toxin trade in Commorragh, and there are sometimes antidotes. They're difficult to locate, and they're looked upon as a refuge of the weak.

One of their guns causes "Blood vessel explosion or implosion, pharyngeal contraction, extensive haemolysis, skeletal disintegration, sclerotic corrosion, intercostal spasms, hyper-reacted thermoreceptors, subcutaneous necrolysis, Eustachian collapse, cardiac and respiratory atrophy or wide-scale exsanguination - sometimes all at once."Antidotes are for bitches!

Poison factory hard at work?

They ride into battle upon baroque, elegant craft. Jump out of them, and open up a portal into a hidden dimension full of shadow monsters, having unimaginable terrors burst into realspace, much closer than anyone would like them to be.

Try going to bed now.

Incubi

Straight up murderous instincts right here

The perfect buddies for your Archon - Incubi fill up a terribly efficient role in your Dark Eldar army, packing all power weapon attacks at Strength 4. Initiative 5 ensures they hit off before the majority of forces they go up against, while their WS5 lets them hit most melee troops on 3s. Combine them with an Archon to take care of ICs, and you have a very murderous little gank squad. Mount them in a Venom for 55pt, and it's a pretty cheap, effective unit that can give most of any units a huge ass-whooping in close combat.

22 points a piece introduces you to the idea of having a save that isn't ignored by a stiff breeze. The only unit outside of a monstrous creature to feature the much feared and coveted 3+ armour save, Incubi can roam the battlefield without much fear for their saves being ignored - but the enemy will make them a high priority target. Every game I've used them, they always get shot down and killed, but it just lets my Wyches or other units go unmolested and do their dirty work. If you can drag a Homonculous into the mix, you can have a very resilient unit with 3+ and FnP.

These guys do have upgrades! A character with an extra attack, a sword that can either grant +2 attacks, or +2 strength, your choice. A S3 AP3 template, and a few powers. One that lets you re-roll to hit against Independant Characters, and one that allows you to roll an additional attack for each 6 you roll to wound with an Incubi. Can't get infinite attacks with them though, which is a real shame. How come that Blood Angels dreadnought can do it, but they can't? Weeeeak!

I think for their cost, they're one of the most cost-effective units in the codex - paying for Klaivex is mostly just for show. A fully tooled out Klaivex costs 97 points. You can get an Archon with a Husk Blade for his cost! Which, you know, might be good if you already have two Archons or some silly shit like that, but rarely will it do you any good to have so many points invested in a one wound model, unless you're playing Grey Knights.