Topic: First Dark Eldar List, 1000pts

[CommonCold]

So this is my first attempt at making an army list in about 8-9 years! Obviously there's been a lot of changes since I was last around. I've tried my best to double check everything to make sure I haven't made any mistakes, but I'm sure I still will have so forgive me for that
I'm trying to get a good balance in the list of minis I'd like to build and paint, but that would also work well on a casual list at some point.
I'm currently at 918 points, and I'm kind of stuck so looking for any and all suggestions!


Archon w/ Huskblade, Parasites Kiss, Clone Field
4x Incubi
1x Klaivex w/ Demiklaives
In Raider w/ Night Shield, Dark Lance


9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser

9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser


2x Reavers, w/ Blaster, Cluster Caltrops
1x Arena Champion, w/ Agoniser

4x Hellions
1x Helliarch, w/ Splinter Pistol & Agoniser


Talos, w/ Twin-linked liquifier gun, Twin-linked haywire blaster


Total: 918

[Wyddr]

My initial critique here is that is one *dead* raider. You need some better target saturation if you hope to deliver that unit. Not sure the Talos helps, here, and the Helions don't have a clear role. I'd be inclined to swap them out for more Reavers or maybe Raiders for the Kabalites.

[CommonCold]

Honestly the Hellions and Talos were in it just for variety as I'm mainly getting back into the game for the building, converting and painting aspect It'll probably be quite a while before I get back to actually playing the game.

How does this list look?


Archon w/Huskblade, Parasites Kiss , Clone Field
4x Incubi
1x Klaivex w/ Demiklaives
In Raider w/ Night Shield, Dark Lance


9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser

9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser
In Raider w/ Night Shield, Dark Lance


2x Reavers, w/ Blaster, Cluster Caltrops
1x Arena Champion, w/ Agoniser

2x Reavers, w/ Blaster, Cluster Caltrops
1x Arena Champion, w/ Agoniser


That would bring me to 861, what would you recommend using the remaining points for? 

[Cavalier]

Hey Commoncold, glad to see you list building so quick after jumping back into the game. I think you are off in a good direction so far. Just a few points where I'd change things up.

First off on the Archon, if you are gonna give him a lot of gear, go full force and give him the Shadowfield every time. While the Archon is derided by some, I love him to death. He's often times been a huge a dark horse MVP for me and the Shadowfield and the Agonizer has been the key for me. I love getting him stuck in with bigger units and just chewing through them over a number of turns. I love him and using the Incubi who can be very good for mulching Marines and their equivalents... especially as the game scales up. Challenging to play but very rewarding.

On the Kabalites I'd drop the cannons especially if they are going in raiders or venoms in the future as they'll constantly be on the move. I wouldn't waste those precious Kabalite models as you'll be spamming them

I love the mini units of Reavers but the Cluster Caltrops are a must! If you want proof check out Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics Triple-Tournament winning DE list. Its all about those Reavers!

Vox Cast Transmission 13: No Retreat III Tournament Report - YouTube

I wouldn't go completley into Lawrence's mode of list building, but the core principals are undeniable!

Also I really liked the presence of the Talos. They are invaluable especially as you scale up in points. With a Cronos and a Haemonculus they make the always valuable Dark Artisan Formation which can WWP in, but also it opens up the road to the  Corpse-Thief Claw which is a beast of a formation and the best the DE get.

Other than that I love the core selection of models. Its just about tweaking those upgrades. Let us know what you think and make sure to take some photos and share your hobby progress if you get a chance. Always stoked to see another Eldar player on the forum. 

[CommonCold]

Thanks for that Cavalier! Lot's of great advice to take on board.
What weapons would you recommend taking with the Kabalites? Any other suggestion on upgrades to take would be brilliant too, need all the help I can get

[Cavalier]

Hey bud. No prob always happy to help a battle-brother out 

My advice for the Warriors is Blasters. Load up on those little suckers. I'm really a fan of MSU Kabalites in Venoms with a blaster, Sybarite and haywire grenade per unit. Its a great versatile load out for the entire unit that I've seen do very well and enables death by a thousand cuts whatever army you face.

 Whether its personal experience in my own games, seeing Skari from Skaredcast's endless DE bat-reps or Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics... I've seen it work again and again.

You have 5 units of Warriors in Venoms with blasters, even a Wraithknight is gonna think twice about getting out in the open. Everything short of that is in big trouble... vehicles, infantry or monstrous creatures are all under threat.

Supported by Reavers with their cluster caltrops, you've got tons of AP2.

The Haywires on each of the Sybraite means you can throw a grenade, then assault and place another one. With 4-5 units doing that you could even take out an Imperial Knight! A stretch perhaps but it is possible, and anything short of that is in trouble, especially with the blasters.

Anyway bud those are my recommendations for Kabalites. Let me know what you think! Always happy to help

[Wyldhunt]

I agree with 90% of what Cavalier said.  MSU warriors with blasters and haywires are a surprisingly flexible and effective option.  You have to get close to make the most of their anti-tank ability, so use multiple squads to "pounce" on a single vehicle target when you're confident you can finish it off.  Then use the venoms' firepower to kill whatever comes out of said vehicle.  You can even consider throwing these squads into melee if you're in a tight spot.  Disembark, toss a blaster and haywire shot at the target vehicle, then charge in and treat your non-upgraded warriors as ablative wounds for the sybarite.  This is rarely worth it in the context of a single warrior unit, but having three sybarites doing this in a given round means you're making 3 extra haywire attacks against a target that round.  It's not a reliably way to kill a knight, but it's an alright way to weaken one or to finish it off! 


The talos is pretty slow compared to the rest of the list you've posted, but he's a solid choice for when you scale this list up.  The dark artisan is a good option as is pretty much any method of fielding some combination of taloi and croni.

I'm not a huge fan of hellions in most situations (we already have plenty of poison, their melee is lacklustre, and hit & run isn't all that helpful on a unit as squishy as they are), but I actually sort of like them at 1,000 points. They have half-decent shooting, can deepstrike, and can move quickly enough to score you some objectives or to tie up a shooty unit for a turn or two to distract away from the rest of your army.  So... make of that what you will. 

I'm not a huge fan of having agonisers in most of the places you have agonisers.  They're simply too expensive on sybarites, and sybarites rarely want to be in melee anyway.  Three-man reaver squads are squishy enough that you might struggle to stay alive long enough to use them on that platform, though I could see them working in larger reaver squads.

I actually kind of like splintercannons on large warrior squads (if you're going to go big on the splinter thing, you might as well go really big), but splinter wracks should always be a higher priority than splinter cannons.  I sometimes do 10 warriors in a gunboat with with splinter wracks and splinter cannons, but I'd go without the sybarites in that case.  Also, MSU warriors will almost always be more competitive than large squads of warriors. 10 man gunboat splinter squads are fun in friendly games, but I don't recommend them in tournaments.

I like your incubi setup, and I'm okay with your archon setup.  I'd actually consider going agoniser rather than huskblade to help out against MCs as the incubi struggle against such targets, but you're okay as is.  I normally favor the shadowfield over the clone field, but A.)  It always stinks when the shadowfield gives out, and B. the parasite's kiss is kind of worthless if you've lost your invul save by the time you get to benefit from it.  So your archon probably isn't optimized as is, but he's fine and interesting. Mostly a personal taste thing here.


Oh! Another gimmicky-and-fun-but-not-really-competitive option since you seem to be missing a raider for your second warrior squad (typo?) is to make a huge blob of warriors and then webway portal them in with your archon.  It will get blown to chunks by most enemy lists, but not before your 18 splinter rifles and 2 splintercannons tear apart any non-GMC with a toughness value. XD Dropping the agonisers from your warriors and reavers would probably give you enough points to pull such a gimmick off...

[CommonCold]

You guys are being a crazy amount of help! I've reworked the list again slightly, and dropped the Hellions for now. I think it still needs some fine tuning with the upgrades and such, but let me know it it's at least a step in the right direction:

Archon w/Huskblade, Parasites Kiss , Shadow Field
4x Incubi
1x Klaivex w/ Demiklaives
In Raider w/ Night Shield, Dark Lance 

9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser, Haywire Grenades

5x Kablaite Warriors, w/ Blaster
In Venom, w/ Splinter Cannon, Splinter Racks

5x Kablaite Warriors, w/ Blaster
In Venom, w/ Splinter Cannon, Splinter Racks 

2x Reavers, w/ Blaster, Cluster Caltrops
1x Arena Champion, w/ Agoniser

Talos, w/ Twin-linked liquifier gun, Twin-linked haywire blaster


Total = 968

[Cavalier]

Hey Common Cold, no problem bud. Thats what we are here for 

Yes I think you are definitley going in the right direction. The foot warriors with Splinter Cannon and Sybraite with all the weapons is the only unit that I'd reconfigure. I don't think the close-combat weapons really have a role in a unit thats gonna be hanging back and shooting, especially with them being on foot.

But other than that I think you are spot on. Warriors with blasters in a venom are a must. I like the Incubi+Archon combo and think while challenging is totally worth trying to master(though I'm an agonizer man myself). I like the Talos too though the ichor injector may be a better option especially if you can somehow nab something like a Wraithknight in combat.

Other than that the core concept is excellent. Nice spread of units, mix of Venoms and Raiders right off the hop, 3x Reavers with caltrops, and blasters with your warriors which I'm a strong advocate of. Plus you've got the fun challenging unit with the Archon and Incubi which are great. I like it! Make sure you share some photos when you start assembly. Always stoked to see more Eldar players in the project logs!

[Wyddr]

Of note, Venoms *cannot* take Splinter Racks. Buy yourself another bike. 

[Wyldhunt]

You guys are being a crazy amount of help! I've reworked the list again slightly, and dropped the Hellions for now. I think it still needs some fine tuning with the upgrades and such, but let me know it it's at least a step in the right direction:

Archon w/Huskblade, Parasites Kiss , Shadow Field
4x Incubi
1x Klaivex w/ Demiklaives
In Raider w/ Night Shield, Dark Lance 

9x Kabalite Warriors, w/ Splinter Cannon
1x Sybarite, w/ Blast Pistol, Agoniser, Haywire Grenades

5x Kablaite Warriors, w/ Blaster
In Venom, w/ Splinter Cannon, Splinter Racks

5x Kablaite Warriors, w/ Blaster
In Venom, w/ Splinter Cannon, Splinter Racks 

2x Reavers, w/ Blaster, Cluster Caltrops
1x Arena Champion, w/ Agoniser

Talos, w/ Twin-linked liquifier gun, Twin-linked haywire blaster


Total = 968

I'm still worried about how you're getting that 9-man, expensive kabalite squad where it needs to go.  Between the points you'd save by dropping that sybarite's wargear and the points you'd get by dropping the (illegal) splinter wracks from those venoms, you can afford a raider to transport them. If you really don't want to/can't afford to put them in a transport, drop all of the upgrades on the sybarite.  He's not going to get much use out of short-ranged and melee weapons when he has to jog across the table to reach the enemy.

EDIT: Alternatively, if you're dedicated to leaving them on the ground, footslogging squads are one of the few situatiosn where infantry-mounted dark lances are slightly less of a bad idea than normal.  It's far from cost effective for what you get, but at least you can reach out and lance someone while holding an objective.  PFP also makes warriors going to ground in cover surprisingly durable for their points.