Topic: 1500 point tourney list, any situation possible

[syth773]

Ok, there is going to be a small local tournament this weekand at the local gamming store, nothing big, probably only about 20 people involved.  All the information we have is that armies must be 1500 points and have two troop choices.  Other than that, i know nothing.  The store owner who runs the tournaments likes to spring suprise missions (in the last tournament our strongest HQ character was held captive by an enemy squad at the beginning of the game and we had to rescue it, screwed over a couple of chaos armies who had tooled up daemon princes).  My opponents will consist of almost every army in the game (or close to it).  So, there is a huge array of options, every mission from clense to nightfight and every army from necrons to orcs.  So, here is my list.

1500 Pts  -   Dark Eldar Army

1 Archon (HQ) @ 181 Pts
     Agoniser (x1); Splinter Pistol (x1)
     Shadow Field
     Combat Drugs
     Reaver Jetbike
     Animus Vitae

1 Haemonculi (HQ) @ 95 Pts
     Destructor; Scissorhand
     Webway Portal

14 Warriors (Troops) @ 171 Pts
     Splinter Rifle (x11); Splinter Cannon (x2); Blaster (x1)

     1 Sybarite @
          Agoniser (x1); Splinter Pistol (x1)

10 Warriors (Troops) @ 100 Pts
     Splinter Rifle (x8); Dark Lance (x2)

10 Warriors (Troops) @ 100 Pts
     Splinter Rifle (x8); Dark Lance (x2)

10 Warriors (Troops) @ 100 Pts
     Splinter Rifle (x8); Dark Lance (x2)

9 Wyches (Elites) @ 245 Pts
     Splinter P. & CCW (x7); Blaster (x2); Wych Weapons

     1 Succubus
          Agoniser (x1); Splinter Pistol (x1); Wych Weapons
          Gruesome Talisman

     1 Raider @ [75] Pts
          Dark Lance
          Horrorfex
          Night Shield

9 Wyches (Elites) @ 243 Pts
     Splinter P. & CCW (x7); Blaster (x2); Wych Weapons

     1 Succubus @
          Agoniser (x1); Splinter Pistol (x1); Wych Weapons

     1 Raider @ [75] Pts
          Dark Lance
          Horrorfex
          Night Shield

1 Ravager (Heavy Support) @ 125 Pts
     Dark Lance (x3)
     Night Shield

1 Ravager (Heavy Support) @ 140 Pts
     Disintegrator (x3)
     Night Shield

Models in Army: 71


Total Army Cost: 1500


ok, my basic strategy is this.  if facing an army that will assault me i will keep my 3 dark lance warrior squads near my board edge to fire on the enemy as they get near.  The ravagers will do the same.  the larger warrior squad with splintercannons and the blaster will be in front of them to spray the enemy as they get near and then engage them in assault.  When the enemy hits that large warrior squad my two wytch squads and archon will swoop in (they will have been safely out of the range of enemy fire up until now).  they will engage the enemy and hopefully kill them.

against a shooting army my 3 dark lance squads will take out as many juicy targets as they can while the large warrior squad moves up with the haemonculus right behind it ( the warrior squad makes sure that he doesnt take any fire).  the haemonculus will open up the web way portal and my two wytch squads and archon will jump out to attack the enemy.

anyway, that is the basic strategy of the army, i designed it so that it should be able to cope with most situations, since any type of mission and any type of army is a possibility.  anyway, any comments on it?  i know the archon is rather overloaded with wargear but animus vitae will be useful in slave capture and the rest is mostly neccessary.

[The Spaceman]

Hi all

I would drop the 2 raiders and the WWP. all too risky

Then spend the 200 pts on a jetbike squad with blasters to act as a bodyguard for your leader and try to take another assault type warrior squad.

[Mahahelel]

I would try to add another WWP taking just one is very risky.

I might drop the AG on your Archon for a PW as you will be wounding most models on 4's anyways. Also drop the Animus Vitae and get a T-helm insted +1 attack is much better that the effects of the Animus, which if you keep the AG are pretty much useless. Add a HG in there and your lord can take out pretty much everything on the board.

But other than that your list looks pretty good.

[Scorn]

Mahahelel's suggestions about your Lord are spot on.  Drop the splinter pistol, animus vitae and agoniser; take a power weapon, tormentor helm, haywaire grenades (technically optional), and plasma grenades.  You just saved 10 points.

A second WWP is a necessity in 1500 point games you can maybe get away with one in a 1000 point game but you need two.  I would advise dropping the night shields on the Wych Raiders as they are sort of well...useless.  You want the Raiders up close so 6" won't make much of a difference.


You currently have 9 Dark Lances for anti-tank, this is somewhat over-kill.  Drop 1 Sniper squad, now you have 140 points at your disposal.  Give the Sybarite in the Warrior Squad a WWP and bring the squad up to 20 men and give it a second blaster.  You've then got just under 70 points left to play around with.  You might consider upgrading the dark lance armed Ravager to have 3 Disintegrators or taking a couple more Haemonculi.  But hey, take whatever you want.

[Darkwaters]

Archon with a animus vitae and agoniser together?!?!??? The extra strength is wasted and an Archon has a high enough WS as it is (use the drugs if not)
Secondly, what's the point of the splinter pistol? In combat the Archon will be holding the jetbike and agoniser (thus negating any benefits of the pistol). Two words mate - Tormentor Helm.

[ArchonCryx]

Good advice given re the Lord. SInce one cant afford the fully loaded lord, with RJB, SF< CDs, and an Animus, and leave room for the Torm Helm without going over. For me, I like my archon to be able to take on anything, so I go for a Reaver lord with CD SF TH andan Agoniser. If I have spare points, I take a Trophy Rack _ i dont want him fleeing from combat - even with I7 he cou;ld lose the overrun roll off. Plasma Grenades are another favorite, I dont want to use the always strike first dru unless I really have to. Gruesome Talismans also help.

Same goes for Wych Succubi - Trophy Racks for Both. The points come from what you saved on HQ.

And there's more points to be saved with those Night SHields on Raiders. WHile on Ravagers it can make sense, Raiders coming from the webway will be so close to the enemy as to not matter - they can often get their Meltas within an inch anyway. SInce the raiders should be empty (Wyches jump off after a 12" move to manage a 21"-26" charge! - that ought to see them safely into combat, and if they rolled 12" assault -well, its practically inevitable!)

Taking all those off gives you enough for a warp beast pack (4 beasts and BM) - very handy coming out of the webway - their 19-24" charge radoius should see them reach assault rapidly as well.

You realise it's takinga big risk having only one WWP, right? Still, keeping the Haemonculus unattached but hidden amongst the 14 man warrior squad should see him safe for at least one turn. I have lost one WWP frequently, which is why I always take two. Since you dont plan to use it al the time, perhaps you'll get away with it, but I certainly wouldn't like to open the Portal any later than turn 2. And be prepared to open it turn 1 if neccessary... Ravagers are great in the webway - if opponent manages to surround it you can shoot him with ravagers which can pop outthe wwp regardless of whether its surrounded and blast away!

Good luck, looks like a fun list. Good luck and let us know how you perform in the tournament.

[syth773]

sorry, i couldn't check the board in time before the tournament, too many things going on.

anyway, there were 4 sets of games, winner was determined purely by victory points.  I won 3 games out of 4 but didnt have enough victory points to get into the top 3 places (got 5th place out of i think 18 people).  Anyway, played against codex marines, ravenwing, tau and kroot.  I lost against ravenwing.

against ravenwing it was recon in cityfight terrain (regualar rules, just very filled board with buildings).  basically my opponent had almost all the lanes of sight filled with lascannons and plasmacannons with landspeeders and other squads around every corner.  I simply couldn't get close to the guy because all the routes were covered by his guns AND when i finally got into assault with him my archon failed his shadowfield save on his very first roll, against a powerfist wielding veteren sergent no less.  was really just a lot of bad luck in that game.

against tau and kroot i totally wiped them out, actually got quite a few points through slaves as well with both (that was the main reason i took animus vitae).  Against tau it was patrol and i had my whole army out by second turn and was in assault by turn 3.  my lord failed his shadow field save again early on but lived through the game by constantly beating up tau in close combat.  against kroot i pretty much just blew them away from long range (escalation game) and then finished them off when they got up close, not much of a challange.

against the codex marines it was actually a pretty good battle.  was clense mission with a about a 1 1/2 to 2 foot square in the center made of cover which blocked LOS.  I held the center early on because i got to deploy first and then moved around the edges engaging the enemy forces.  he assault squads, an honor guard, whirlwing, vindicator and some tactical squads in razorbacks.  my archon singlehandedly took out a 5 man tactical squad, 5 man jump pack squad and almost took care of some really powerful special character along with my wytches (he finally died at the hands of the special character who then beat my wytches and forced them to run, but he was all alone then so i pegged him with a dark lance and finished off the rest of his forces little by little.  the guy's whirlwind survived to the very end of the battle and his vindicator almost did as well, i was blasting each with like 3-4 dark lances a turn but could not kill them!

anyway, i figured i did pretty well.  the wytches actually did very well (except in the first game) and owned in the last 3 games.  I never actually got around to useing my web way portal at all as none of the situations requiered it, even against the tau.  the list could have used improvements but i was pretty happy with the results.