Dark Eldar for 'Ard Boyz: 38 Dark Lances

Well, 'Ard Boyz is officially happening August 13 and I'm sure in the coming months I'll starting practicing with both my Eldar and Dark Eldar to come up with the best list possible.

My first idea is a Dark Lance spam Dark Eldar list, designed to hit with a nasty alpha-strike.  I have the Baron in there to help ensure the first turn, and I could easily fit Vect in by dropping a big Scourge squad or reducing the size of the Warrior squads. 

Dark Lance Spam:
Baron - 105

3 Trueborn (2 dark lance) in Raider - 146
3 Trueborn (2 dark lance) in Raider - 146
3 Trueborn (2 dark lance) in Raider - 146

10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175
10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175
10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175
10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175
10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175
10 Warriors (dark lance) in Raider - 175

5 Scourges (2 dark lance) - 140
5 Scourges (2 dark lance) - 140
10 Scourges (4 dark lance) - 280

Ravager (night shields) - 115
Ravager (night shields) - 115
Ravager (night shields) - 115

Total: 2,498

Obviously 38 Dark Lances is more than enough to handle most opponents, so the final version of the list will likely substitute some Venoms in for Raiders and 5 man squads of Warriors.  Just wanted to throw this list out there to hopefully generate some creative juices.

Can anyone out there cram more than 38 Dark Lances into a 2,500 point list?

Post RTT Thoughts: Dark Eldar

Post Tournament Thoughts:

• Night Shields and Flickerfields proved to be absolutely worth it.  In my first game they were huge.  My second game he just wanted to ram me, so Night Shields didn't matter but Flickerfields did.  When you have massed Orks charging you with S4 and you can mitigate 1/3 of their damage, you're in a good spot.  With Guard,  Flickerfields and Night Shields don't play a huge role, but it did prevent his Veterans from shooting at me.
• Overall, close combat is still lacking.  Wracks and Wyches can certainly mop up units, but they're not especially "scary" for the vast majority of close combat units.  I'm considering running a list that has 5-man Warrior squads in Venoms and Raiders exclusively as Troops, and adding in a unit or two of Beasts.  I lose the survivability of the Wrack troops, but gain some CC nastiness.
• Dark Eldar should follow the mantra; if your opponent can out-shoot you, reserve (even if you get first turn).  By shortening the game, and playing to the Eldar advantage of speed I believe Dark Eldar can compete with the likes of Space Wolves and Imperial Guard.  They just can't win in a strait up slug fest.
• AV12 is still a pain.  Even with 12 Dark Lances and 11 Blasters, I have trouble with AV12.  I might considering adding in a few Dark Lance Trueborn squads for more of a ranged threat.

RTT with Dark Eldar: 3 Games

I'm going to do my best to make an accurate recount of my three games at the Realm RTT.  I don't have pictures or notes, so many things are going to probably be off but it should provide a "close enough" overview of each game.

Dark Eldar at the Realm RTT

Well the Realm RTT has come and gone and once again I had a blast.  There's always a great mix of opponents there ready to have fun and take your game to the limit.  There was a fairly good mix of armies there too with 3 Orks, 2 Dark Eldar, 2 Blood Angels, 1 Tyranid, 1 Eldar, 1 Daemonhunter, 1 Imperial Guard and 1 Chaos.  

My army was:
Succubus - 85 (agonizer)
Haemonculi (stinger pistol, venom blade) - 60

3 Trueborn (3 blaster) - 156 (Venom +SC, NS)
3 Trueborn (3 blaster) - 156 (Venom +SC, NS)
3 Trueborn (3 blaster) - 156 (Venom +SC, NS)

10 Wracks (acothyst, 2 liquifier) - 210 (Raider FF, NS)
10 Wracks (acothyst, 2 liquifier) - 210 (Raider FF, NS)
8 Wyches (agonizer) - 190 (Raider FF, NS)
5 Warriors (blaster) - 125 (Venom +SC)
5 Warriors (blaster) - 125 (Venom +SC)

1 Ravager - 125 (FF, NS)
1 Ravager - 125 (FF, NS)
1 Ravager - 125 (FF, NS)

Total: 1,848

This list is becoming pretty familiar for me.  It has the same elements as my 2,000 point list, only I dropped Vect for a Succubus.  I also filled out the Wrack squads with Liquifiers, dropped the Agonizers and added in some additional vehicle upgrades.

The three armies I faced were:
Mike's Kan Wall Orks (9 Killa Kanz, 2 Big Meks, 2 Deff Dreadz)
Chris M's Battlewagon Orks (Ghaz, Big Mek, 5 Battlewagons)
Erick's Imperial Guard (Hydras, Manticores, Vendettas, oh my!)

I'll be looking to post some more details about my opponents, their army lists and the games sometime this week.  All in all it was a great tournament - thanks to my opponents for the games!

Weekly Update

Not too much new to report.  I've mainly been preoccupied with the hobby aspect of the game lately.  I'm working on getting the majority of my Dark Eldar primed red and ready for speed painting.  Ditto goes for my Eldar - I've been enjoying using a very basic Footdar list in 1,500 games so I figure it'd be worth the effort to get them to a tabletop standard as well. 

I'm also working on putting together a 1,500 Space Wolves army *gasp* from excess Marine stuff.  I've used it once, and played against it once and am just shocked at the sheer amount of firepower Space Wolves can put out.  For now, it's not a list I plan to use competitively, as it's so much more satisfying to get a win with Eldar or Dark Eldar.

I am getting ready for a number of tournaments and have actually mapped out five I'm hoping to attend in the coming months (school, work and significant other permitting...):

2/19 - 1,850 Realm RTT; Brea, CA
3/26 - 1,500(?) Pair-A-Dice Games RTT; Vista, CA
4/16(?) - 1,850 Realm RTT; Brea, CA
5/21 -  1,500 Sprue Posse RTT; Santa Monica, CA
5/27-28 - 2,000 Slaughter in Space GT; Ontario, CA

Dark Eldar: Missions, Mistakes and Lessons

So as mentioned in a previous post, while Dark Eldar generally have all the tools they need to win games, the army itself is so fragile that a small mistake can often result in a loss.  Over the past two tournaments I've made a fair number of mistakes, hopefully writing them out will help me (and you!) learn from them.

My Dark Eldar Army Unit Tactica

After playing numerous pick-up games and in a handful of tournaments, I'm very happy with how my Dark Eldar army has evolved.  In all of my losses I can pin-point mistakes that swing the game in my opponents favor.  I take the full blame for these mistakes, and am fairly confident my current army has just about all the tools it needs to take on most tournament armies.  The hard part with both Eldar and Dark Eldar is that it's such an unforgiving army that one mistake, small or otherwise, can often cost you the game.  All you can do as a gamer is keep practicing, learn what to do in specific situations, and continue to evolve your tactics.  It doesn't help that I'm relatively new to the competitive scene, and the first time I see some of these units / unit combinations is during a tournament game. 

Having said that here's a breakdown of what I've learned about my army composition in the past two tournaments (Sprue Posse Grand Prix and LA Battle Bunker Mini-GT).