Friday, July 13, 2012

DE: Time to add in some allies!

I can't wait for the new Eldar book.

It's Friday! I hope everyone is having a pretty good week so far.  Next week, depending on how lazy I feel, I might get a game in with my DE with Eldar allies.  I don't think allies will be good for anything less than 1850 because even bare bones stuff takes a good amount of points.

Let's see now.. as Dark Eldar, we don't have many options for really good allies.  However, we gained one of the best armies in the game to partner up with and that's none other than Eldar.  Given that we're the same race, one can only accept that by the way fluff has advanced that Eldar and Dark Eldar are no longer hating eachother.

This is one of those rare times that I'll ever talk about fluff, but I think for this particular topic, fluff is important.  First thing's first:  Dark Eldar and Eldar are not like Dark Elves and High Elves.  They don't hate eachother to death, they just don't agree with eachother's life style.  If you read through the Dark Eldar codex, there's a section in there that says Dark Eldar even helped the craftworld Iyanden when they're about to be overwhelmed by Orks.  Regardless, the old idea of the Eldar hating on their over-indulgent cousins is being pushed aside and they are now Battle Brothers.

Now that fluff is done, we can talk about army lists.  Hmm.. what can I bring at <2K points that can incorporate the strengths of both armies?

Well, I drafted up an army list for you guys:

1999
19 VP

HQ:
Succubus (Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 105

TROOP:
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 225
10x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 235

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS) = 115
Ravager (NS) = 115
Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

Allies:
Farseer (Jetbike, Guide, RoWarding, RoWitnessing, Spear) = 133
3x Guardian Jetbikes = 66
3x War Walkers (Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon) = 150

By some form of insane luck, I ended up with 1999 points on the nose.  That's pretty hysterical, it's almost like the two books were made for eachother.

Here are the changes I made to my original 1750 army list:
-Dropped a Succubus to make points for allies.
-Dropped the PGL and re-added the Agonizers just because it's more all-comers.
-Kept everything else the same, the units, the upgrades, the Voidraven, everything.
-Added a Farseer on a Jetbike to fly around with Guardian Jetbikes.
-Decided to take 3x War Walkers with dakka dakka.

The idea behind this list is to supply my army with some well-needed psychic defense.  In my last game as Chaos, I noticed how devastating how certain spells can be.  There was Hallucination, which thankfully he rolled poorly for on the table, and then there was Invisibility.  Now these were spells he were able to get off because I had nothing to stop him.  His Sorcerers were really well protected (either by strong cover or 2+ armor saves), so they were able to cast their spells without any issues.  That's just unacceptable once the games go into larger point ranges.  I mean, can you imagine the pain and frustration of having your shit not striking your enemies in combat because they're too busy swinging at themselves?  No way man.

So with that said, I've added a Farseer to hang out with some Jetbikes.  Jetbikes are scoring and they move really fast so they can keep pace with my mechanized army.  The best thing about Jetbikes is that they can get an outrageous amount of cover from my LoS-blocking and cover-hugging Raiders.  The Farseer will swap out Guide for Prescience (which is a 12" better Guide) and he'll cast this awesomenesss on anything that needs it.  Some common targets include the Voidraven when he needs to dogfight or place his templates down more effectively, Warriors who are out of their Raiders and need to fire more accurately, Wyches who need a little more combat potential (imagine Guide + re-roll wound drugs), and the War Walkers, who can Outflank and put out 21 S6 shots on the turn they come in.

Speaking of the War Walkers, they are actually one of the most effective Eldar units for their points.  You take with them Scatter Laser and Shuriken Cannons and they absolutely shred shit with S6 shots.  Outflank a Aegis Line emplacement and cast Prescience on them.  Your Farseer will have to be in a good position for him to cast Prescience because it's a Blessing and you must do it at the beginning of your movement phase.  After you cast, you can GTFO because Eldar Jetbikes have an insane amount of coverage now.  The fact that he's traveling with a unit that's scoring is just more gravy.  I guess you can also opt to take Doom, which is a fantastic spell because of the range and awesome effect (re-roll wounds).  Doom on a unit that's being shot at by Splinter Rack gunboats just scream agony.. which is exactly how the Dark Eldar like it.

As most of you know, Runes of Warding is the best psychic defense in the game.  You don't even need to do anything, you just need to be alive.  Runes makes all psychic spells cast to roll 3d6 instead of the normal 2d6.  Anything that scores 12 or above takes a Perils of the Warp.  Perils got even deadlier this edition because you get no saves of any kind, you just die if you're a 1W model.  The average dice roll from 3d6 is a 10.5, which statistically should auto-fail every psychic spell in the game.  It's pretty fucking amazing, and one of the reasons why Eldar is considered the king of psychic defense.  My other wargear is just the standard Guide, which I will sub-out for Prescience, Runes of Witnessing witch will increase my chances get my spells off, and a Singing Spear just because I can.

If you guys are big on Forgeworld stuff, I also suggest looking into a Warp Hunter as a Heavy choice rather than 3x War Walkers.  The Warp Hunter can take Holofields for 160 points of raw badassery:  A 36" Large Blast, D-Cannon is just nothing to fuck around with.

Alright, that's it.  Let me know what you fellas plan on taking for your allies, I'm eager to hear how effective mixed armies will be.

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