Topic: a friend in need of help

[-V-]

ok so ive got a friend here who for some reason cant actually register to this forum... net problems or something i guess.

anywho hes wanting to start a DE force, now i dont have a clue about DE not even the slightest bit of knowledge so im in no position to help him.  he also knows pretty much nothing about them but thinks theyre cool and likes the sound and look of them.

what he needs is for you guys here on the DE forum to tell him everything he would need to know to make a DE army, why its a good idea for him to, any modelling/painting advise etc anything that will help him to create a decent army.

thanks guys

[Mahahelel]

What is his general level of experiance with 40k?

Regardless of his level it would be a good idea to pick up the codex and browse through it before asking to many questions on the forum.

What i would recomend is to buy a battleforce, this will give him 20 warriors, a raider, and 5 bikes. A good adition to this force would be a squad of wychs and a lord., with the wychs and lord he would have around 5-600 pts. A few games at that level would give him a feel for the army.

[-V-]

he relativley experienced having collected numerous other armies i wouldnt say hes the best tactician but with help he is ok

[Kritik]

ok so ive got a friend here who for some reason cant actually register to this forum... net problems or something i guess.

You should bring that up questions/suggestions forum.

What are his other armies?

[Archonbjorn]

who cares about other armies. It is his playing style that really matters. Keep iin mind that our race is not like other races of 40k, its meant for advanced players.

Now I DISAGREE with buying the battleforce. As I find the bikes rather useless. [you don't get them with blasters and all.]

This is what I always recomend to newcomers.

1 lord
16 wyches
40-50 warriors
2/3 raiders.

Those are the basics of everything and pretty much makes sure he is able to go shooty or CC. It also contains unit that he will use in almost ANY list he has. As I always field the above in every list I make [or I don't have the pts for them.]

If I were you I would print out some DE tactica's. There are already decent tactcia's out there covering warriors. ArchonCryx made one in my kabal thread to and I wrote a couple of tactica's. [I am kinda waiting till the others ones get uploaded].

Research is the key, if he doesn't want to invest time with reading tactica's or the board then his chances of winning are significanly reduced.

[CODEXsc]

Ok here is the melt down of everything you need to make a good list.

1 archon
1 dracon
1 bike
14 wyches
4 wyches with blasters
2 wych succubus
40-60 warriars
about 3 sybrites
about 6 dark lances
about 6 splinter cannons and blasters
atleast 4 raiders
2 taloi
1 ravager

The taloi and ravager are not nescacary but they are always good to have.

[Sir Sam Vimes]

Valar, you don't need to feel ashamed of liking Dark Eldar, we can all understand that. You don't need to say that it's your 'friend' that's starting a DE army, we've all walked that road 

Anyways... Many DLs, wyches and a very tooled Archon is the best cure for your 'friend'. Also, never forget your raiders, kids! It's what keeps the world spinning!

[SeriousCallersOnly]

I'm just starting also and I strongly recommend the tacticae available through the site homepage. I'd go for the beginners one, the ones on lords, warriors, wyches and WWP first. I'm buying up warriors, wyches and raiders off ebay. I'm finding that the metal sybarites and heavy weapons are unnecessary, as you can convert them from plastic warriors are they are dirt cheap. Personally I think the male lord looks dreadful, so find the female one.

[nesbitt_bub1]

ebay your models if you can... DE are probably the cheapest army to buy second hand.... DE Warriors were in the 3rd ed started box... and not a lot of people wanted them so they sell for peanuts.

Full army deals (NOT the army box) also tend to be good value... The GW army box is very lame tho.... and should only ever be purchased if you need jet bikes, warriors and a raider.... even then it's very expensive!

You have to get the second edition codex.... it has second edition printed on the front cover.... It's the latest version of the DE rules and it also has a few changes over the first edition.


Because of the generally low quality of the DE mini range don't be afraid to use other GW models. Personally i use harlequins instead of wyches, WHF zombies for grotesques, WHF corsairs for mandrakes. A lot of people also use chaos hounds, Eldar models, and dark elf models to make their armies look better.

Raiders are very important to DE your going to need a few. Personally i have 5 raiders and 3 ravagers.... and i still need more raiders. We play big games tho. Anything under 2K points 5 raiders and 2 ravagers will hopefully be enough. Also get 2-3 taloi at some point.... I know it sounds very silly having 5 heavy choices, but there a world appart, and in city fight, the talos shines... But on an large table the ravager is better....


Buy some terrain..... make sure it's level 3 high. I cannot recomend the new ciy fight terrain highly enough. DE also rock at 400pnt combat patrol using city fight. It's a good entry into the DE as well. I'd advise a 3 raider list using all warriors, max out blasters, DL's, and use dissies on the raiders. You can also make good use of night fields if the enemy decides to take snipers.



Be prepaired to loose..... I know it's not what you want to hear but the DE are a fiddley race to get the hang of. Once you work out in your head how they work you'll be winning easly. ( then come the cries of cheese from you mates )


 

[-V-]

Valar, you don't need to feel ashamed of liking Dark Eldar, we can all understand that. You don't need to say that it's your 'friend' that's starting a DE army, we've all walked that road 

lol alas it is that i cannot collect DE for two reasons, 1 i have way too many army projects going on at the moment im counting 5 WE, orks, Eldar, blood bowl human team and the mandatory smurf army that evryone secretly has shamefully hidden out of sight.

in 100% honesty this is for a friend, but that doesnt mean i wont be taking in the information if the urge to convert to DE ever arises in the future

[Sir Sam Vimes]

lol alas it is that i cannot collect DE for two reasons, 1 i have way too many army projects going on at the moment im counting 5 WE, orks, Eldar, blood bowl human team and the mandatory smurf army that evryone secretly has shamefully hidden out of sight.

in 100% honesty this is for a friend, but that doesnt mean i wont be taking in the information if the urge to convert to DE ever arises in the future

Hehe, I know what you mean... There's to many cool armies out there!
Although I dislike SM a bit I always had a soft spot for Black Templars despite my Dark Eldarness 
(I actually have the Emperor's Champion and some Sword Brethren at home, but don't tell anyone...)

[Gwaihir]

the mandatory smurf army that evryone secretly has shamefully hidden out of sight.

Not me.  Right now I have eldar and dark eldar.  I don't plan to get any new armies soon, but if I did it would be in this order:
1. Orks
2. Imperial Guard
3. Tau
4. Nids

I despise everything about marines and have no desire to play them.  All of the above armies offer far more than marines do.  If I ever toyed with the idea of any kind of marine army it would be in the vein of witchhunters or daemon hunters.  The only marine models I will ever need are heads for my trophy racks and maybe half a marine in each hand of my wraithlord which just pulled him apart.

[-V-]

hey i agree with that, smurfs have little or nothing interesting to offer, they are noobish and boring and phh well.... smurfs sums up well really.

im afraid i do have the hidden shame of smurfs and i wish i didnt but i needed an easy army built as quick as possible so i could play.. i got bored soo quickly tho and now i dont let them see the light of day lol hidden away in my box

[Ghail]

Now, to be told by a big guy that your going of subject is one thing... to TELL some one bigger then you is another thing all together, You are going of subject!!!

So I'll get us back on, Basically you "Friend" Needs to start playing games, Squad bashes(if you don't know what they are there a 100 point Squad vs Squad game) are IMO the best way to get use to playing with Dark Eldar, they get you use to using the ubiquitous Warrior(or wych) in one on one games, and there a lot of fun .

Once you've done a few Squad Bashes then go on to 300 to 600 point games, slowly getting use to using the many(OK not THAT many ) Choices Dark Eldar have.

SO that about from 6 months to a year you might want to start playing bigger games, like 1000 point games, experiment with your dark eldar, find out what good combos work with what army's(if i forgot to mention, face as many different army's, as much as possable) and what tactics you like and don't like.

The thing you need to remember with DE is they don't take well to stuff ups , there have been multiple times where i have stuffed up ONLY once and lost the game... they are that challenging.

Thanks, Stay on topic guys, and Cya

[IncubiLord]

So I'll get us back on, Basically you "Friend" Needs to start playing games, Squad bashes(if you don't know what they are there a 100 point Squad vs Squad game) are IMO the best way to get use to playing with Dark Eldar, they get you use to using the ubiquitous Warrior(or wych) in one on one games, and there a lot of fun .

Once you've done a few Squad Bashes then go on to 300 to 600 point games, slowly getting use to using the many(OK not THAT many ) Choices Dark Eldar have.

SO that about from 6 months to a year you might want to start playing bigger games, like 1000 point games

If I started each army by playing 100-points games, I would have opened a vein down my entire arm before I really got started with Dark Eldar.

500-points games are almost too small to try out new ideas, though it can be done. I'd suggest 500-points games with 1-5 troops and up to 1 of each other slot. Nice and small, and still able to try things. You might even go down to the combat patrol rules, but that gives an unreasonable impression against armies like the IG.

If your friend has any experience with 40K, Fantasy, or tabletop games in general, I wouldn't play more than a couple of introductory sessions with anything less than 400 points.