Dark Eldar Play Day Results

So last weekend I had the opportunity to playtest the new Dark Eldar codex. My friend Shawn Rogers had a lot of the old models, so we threw down with broken/old stuff to see how it worked now.

I was impressed, and I think so was everyone else.

I think that I may have it a bit easier, as I have never played Dark Eldar before, so I am not going in with any preconceived notions. I want to see battlefield results, and that's all that matters. Someone asked me what my theme was, my theme is that my Archon is a winner, and he surrounds himself with winners. If you aren't a winner, you will not make it into the list.

Now, the first game I played was againay Ryan Graham's tournament blood angels list. Mephiston, 2x10 Assault marines, 1x Sanquinary priest w/jump pack, 2x razorback w/assault cannons with 5 man RaS, 2x Baals, 2x Vindicators, 1x Predator, librarian dreadnought.

I ran.
Archon w/Husk Blade, Shadowfield, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Sul Trap

9x Incubi w/Raider w/Aethersails

Two:
10 Warriors w/Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Upgrade Sergeant w/Venom Blade and Blast Pistol
Raider, Aeithersails, Torment Grenade Launcher, (the -6 inch range ability), Shock Prow

Two
Wytches w/Hekatrix, Agonizer, Blast Pistol. Haywire Grendades, 2x wytch weapons (one squad of Razorflails and one squad of Impalers and shardnets).
Raider, Aethersails, Torment Grenade Launcher, Shock Prow (-6 inch range ability)

Scourges, 2x Haywire blasters

2x Raiders with 3x Dark lances, -6 inch range ability, Flickerfield

1 Razorwing Fighter with 4x Monosythe Missile, Flickerfield, -6 inch range ability.

My list isn't to the letter, but that gives you a good idea.

I'm not going to go through with a complete battle report, but here are my thoughts in general.

Archon + Incubi - I hated putting them in the same unit, but I put them in reserve, and they were powerful enough to make sure that Ryan's assault marines didn't really want to even cross the board at me, or face being destroyed when they arrived. When they did arrive they blasted 33 inches onto the board, near his objective. Sadly, when the had their ride blown up, they loaded out pinned (11 on pin check). Made me wish I had taken grisly trophies on that vehicle. I didn't get a chance to see them in action, but the fear they generated in my marine opponent was worth their point value.

Warriors - I can't say they did that much actually. The Aethersails +shock prow is amazing, as is the -6 inch range ability. The raider performed better then I had anticipated throughout the game. the move 12 disembark 3 fire two darklight weapons was nice. I didn't notice not having the darklance in the squad.

Wytches - Amazing. I got outflanked by two baal's on turn two, and they jumped on them with haywires and destroyed them both almost effortlessly. They then reboarded their vehicles and dealt with some small squads of blood angels later. I've done the math though, don't take the razorflails. When you roll the re-roll wounds it will suck, go with the +2d6 attacks of the 2x hydra guntles. I liked the shardnet and impaler... but it's selectively useful. Make sure to place them in base to base with people he doesn't want to remove, or he will just remove them in combat resolution and the shardnet will not matter. So sergeants/characters/special/heavy weapons. I love taking haywire genades on them.

Scourges - I do NOT understand why no one talks about the Haywire Grenade Luncher. The math on fire suppression is amazing. The unit, for 130 pts for 5 and 2x haywire can suppress a vindicator almost every time, and any other weapon. It doesn't destroy a lot, but it's ability to suppress the most damaging vehicle is nice. They guys also have a 4+/6+ save (read GhostPlate, it has the 6+ under that). I like the unit, I will be playtesting them some more

Ravagers - No bad comments. I lost one on the second turn to a flamestorm baal, but the other was golden, able to knock vehicles out easily.

Razorwing - Needs more playtest. I didn't see anything on turn one, so I lost my firing (night fight), and his baal blew it up on turn 2 before it could shoot. I think it is a great way to deal with hoards and also longfangs (4 str6 blast templayes hurt). Problem with it is lack of model.

I played a second game with some other units and here are some other thoughts.

Beastmasters are pretty bad news. They obliterated a 30 man squad of ork boys, and while I ended up taking 4 wounds, I lost no models.

Cronos Parisite Engine - My first test game I generated a few pain tokens during the game, but I think I had one unit that got 2. In game 2 when I tested this thing, I ended up with every DE unit having 2-3. I was actually running out of units to give them to and I only had one of these. I charges a unit of Ork boys and gained 4 tokens and gave them to nearby units. My units got so charged up, that when it came to my turn again, my opponent coseded because of the math (beastslayers/2x Wytches all with FNP and Furious Charge) and the wytches had re-roll all wound rolls.

Talos - Not bad for 100 point, makes the Trygon look like crap. Sad when this thing will probably kill a trygon if it assaults, and is half the cost. I puta haywire blaster on it, I love those things.

I tried Duke Siliscus out with 20x warriors with splinter cannon, and didn't like it much. I just like the death dealing archon, and the duke for his abilities, isn't that great. I think that if I was going to go with some of the special characters, I like the Baron (attach him to 10 scourges... they get stealth, and become decent in hth), and I like Lady Malys, who I think for her abilities is appropriately priced. Drazar, to expensive, Lilith, too expensive for her failure to deal with toughness 5+ and vehicles.

I'm actually a litter interested in drying out the decabitator, I'm not sure he sucks quite as much as everyone thinks. I think he would be interesting to scare the crap out of a pack of longfangs, but his T 3 means that he will be instant killed so quickly, even if he deployes into terrain (3+).

Units I still want to playtest:

Trueborn
Mandrakes (??!!!)
Hellions
Voidraven
Razorwing(more)

While I don't have a problem with wracked or grotesques, i think that a homoculi army works very differently. I am going to focus on a army in the first list, and get it up and running and painted, and after that is completed see what other units I want to add.

Rogers game my all his banged up guys, that I have since stripped, which gave me the following (old models)

1 Old Urian Rakarth
1 Old Homoculi
1 Drahzar
6 Old Incubi
10 Old Wytches (not stripped... doubt I use)
9 Scourges
5 Hellions (will be coverted to Beastmasters)
10 Metal DE with mixed heavy weapons
2 Old Raiders (converted to Venoms?)
1 old Ravagers (Converted to Venom?)

I also have purchased the following:
20 Warriors (put together, ready for basing)
20 Wytches (put together, ready for basing)
1 Archon (put together, ready for basing)
5 Incubi (put together, ready for basing)
3 Raiders (in boxes, will put together tonight)
2 raiders (ordered, in the mail)
3 Ravagers (ordered, in the mail)

So far my assessment of the army is not that it is a steam role of epic proportions. Some people will pick this army up and not be able to get it to work. I picked it up, and I can tell you that it felt more right playing the games, then it ever did playing my marines. I was never able to make my marines do what I wanted them to in my mind. These, while playing different then my Tau, felt more like my Tau. Lots of movement, combined with firepower. These guys just have some HTH to fall back on when everything hits the fan.

I've modified the first list above now and lost the Razorwing (no model), added a Ravager, and added a homoculi with Animis Vitae, Agonizer and Crucible of Malidication to play test. I can't wait to play against a psyker and drive 5 raiders on top of him and watch as he fails a LD test at -5. That will be funny, as will tank shocking space wolf cavalry off the board doing the same thing.