Wednesday 21 September 2011

Army List Considerations ~ Dark Eldar

I've been fond of my fluff-based semi-competitive Dark Eldar list for awhile, it has performed really well in the past and while I haven't used it enough to master all the little nuances and tricks I still do alright.
My standard list thus far has consisted of the following:

Lelith Hesperax

Haemonculus ~ Shattershard

9 Incubi
> Raider ~ Chain Snares, Shock Prow, Torment Launchers, Night Shield

9 Wyches ~ Hydra Gauntlets
> Raider ~ Chain Snares, Shock Prow, Torment Launchers, Night Shield

4x
10 Wyches ~ Two Hydra Gauntlets
> Raider ~ Chain Snares, Night Shield

7 Reavers ~ Two Heat Lances, 2 Cluster Caltrops

Razorwing Jetfighter ~ Disintegrator Cannons, Splinter Cannon, Night Shield, Flickerfield

Ravager ~ Night Shields

As mentioned the list has performed rather well, providing enough mobile models to threaten where needed. However there are two things which cause the army a lot of trouble, firstly I'm unsure that nine Dark Lance (and two Heat Lance) are enough anti-vehicle firepower. I've yet to face another list with massed vehicles to be sure of this, the closest I've faced is a Storm Raven & three Razorbacks which my Dark Eldar dealt with rather well. As such I've accepted this flaw in the list.
The second flaw and one that has got me considering alterations is high-toughness / FNP units. I've always been hesitant against high toughness creatures, typically keeping aboard the Raiders and dropping them with mass pistol and dark lance fire. The other day (using a much smaller version of the above list) however I faced a chaos army with a very large Plague Marine unit which just proved impossible to remove.
We had squeezed the game in quick and was rushing it somewhat (skimping on some rules unfortunately, such as rolling all his melee attacks against my units without FNP when at least a third of the unit should have been making their attacks against units with pain tokens), so perhaps that was the cause but even with over thirty Wyches I was losing combat each round.
If the game was 2,000pts as above I've have the Razorwing Jetfighter but relying on that doesn't seem good.

Here are my thoughts then:
* Is Lelith efficient enough for her cost? A number of my regular opponents really fear the number attacks Lelith is capable of, yet realistically I don't think she performs well enough usually.
* I've likely too much wargear on the vehicles. Night Shields have saved me a few times, tho are expensive (80pts total) and rarely get a chance to make use of the Chain Snares since combat is bound to ensue the moment the Raiders get close.

I'll write up the result of my considerations thus far, downgrading Lelith and stripping most of the wargear from the Raiders. In exchange I've added numerous Agonisers and against my usual preference Haywire Grenades. Here we go:

Succubus ~ Agoniser

Haemonculus ~ Shattershard

9 Incubi
> Raider ~ Torment Launcher

9 Wyches ~ Hekatrix w/ Agoniser, Hydra Gauntlet
> Raider ~ Torment Launcher

2x
10 Wyches ~ Hekatrix w/ Agoniser, Two Hydra Gauntlets, Haywire Grenades
> Raider


2x
10 Wyches ~ Hekatrix w/ Agoniser, Two Hydra Gauntlets
> Raider


7 Reavers ~ Two Heat Lances, 2 Cluster Caltrops

Razorwing Jetfighter ~ Disintegrator Cannons, Splinter Cannon, Night Shield, Flickerfield

Ravager ~ Night Shields

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