Thursday, March 12, 2015

DE: Maximizing that firepower

When life throws you lemons.. wait for it..

As most of you know, I run a very shooty version of Kabal-only Dark Eldar and have been playing roughly the same for years.  Just recently, I made some revisions to my pure Dark Eldar army and I'm pretty satisfied with the results.  I cut down the total number of Venoms to 2 since I only really need them to drop an Quad-gun in one round of shooting, or to put pressure on minor units hanging out in cover.  I never really liked taking too many Venoms because I'm a lance-heavy player at heart.  They're just such a better weapon in most cases despite what other people think of them.

The key changes to the list comes mainly in the form of re-distributing points.  I dropped my WWP Archon for more firepower on the table and greater perceived threat overall.  This allowed me to fit in another Trueborn unit with some minor points adjustments while greatly increasing my overall number of Dark Lances.  The extra unit also gives me two pseudo Ravagers and often times people get confused which one to concentrate on.  Hint: You're probably closer to the Trueborn Raiders and they don't care if I Jink.

So what do we have now?  We have this masterpiece of deathly delight:

1850
DE CAD*

HQ:
Llama = 10

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170

ELITE:
5x Trueborn, 3x Blaster, Venom SC = 165
5x Trueborn, 3x Blaster, Venom SC = 165

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances = 140
Razorwing, Lances = 140

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125

Firepower Analysis:
  • Opening salvo sees 24 Poison shots and 15 Dark Lances from 36-48".
  • Secondary salvo within 18" Blaster range brings my total number of lances to a ridiculous 31 if both Razorwings decide to come on.  The Razorwings also gives me 8 S6 AP5 large blasts to take care of enemy infantry, or some airborne lances to force some FMC jinks/grounding tests.  At this range, the Warriors inside the vehicles can also add their firepower, for 27 twin-linked Poison shots with the help of Splinter Racks.  Otherwise, we add a few more Poison shots from the Trueborn and smaller unit of Warriors.
  • Tertiary salvo within Rapid Fire gets pretty ridiculous because 3 full gunboats with Splinter Racks puts out 54 twin-linked shots by themselves.  By this point in the game, if 31 lances and all that Poison can't kill the opposing army, then we have bigger problems to worry about.

The fact that this list can bring 31 lances makes my Archon heart smile like you wouldn't believe.  Another option was to drop one of the Trueborn units for another Razorwing, but I don't like the idea of keeping too much firepower off the table and relying on lucky rolls to bring them in.  This is why almost all my lists tend to look really similar.

..shoot more Dark Lances!

17 comments:

Malduran said...

My only question, where does the Llama hide? shes not an independent character so does she just wait off table trying not to die?

Steve said...

Nice list, I would have paid for a transport for the Llama, I am not a fan of fliers so I would drop both for reavers with heat lances. Dark Lances or Ok anti tank weapons but that's it they are "ok" the vast majority of tournament vehicles I seem to see are Objective secured drop pods (my pet hate), wave serpents (everyone's pet hate) and superheavies.


Against drop pods your DL's seem to be a bit of a waste and against wave serpents they are not great (only glancing on a 4+ and they have their 3+ cover save from jink), superheavies DL's are Ok bu again only being AP2 does hurt them.


In my lists I prefer to spam heat lances instead (scourges, reavers it is pretty easy to do) they are more painful to superheavies, reavers can charge wave serpents using hammer of wrath help knock off hull points.

HERO said...

Yup, that's exactly it. She means absolutely nothing to your plans for world domination.

HERO said...

I don't like getting too close in this edition and have always enjoyed the playstyle of playing at max range with my Dark Eldar. Good to see another point of view and thanks for the list!

Steve said...

I have always been more aggressive, the thing is on average your 3 ravagers will cause 1 hull point of damage to a wave serpent, whilst my unit of 3 reavers will do at least the same with their heat lance and charge with hammer of wrath, that's my point. most of the other vehicles I see are Drop Pods or super heavies and I would rather use cheap reavers for drop pods and scourges for the heavier stuff.

HERO said...

Not a fan of either unit, but I know other people are.

greggles said...

I do think reavers are one of the best units in the codex. I have seen them absolutely annihilate things. They are far more effective on the table then paper would suggest.

HERO said...

I certainly think Reavers are good, in the right kind of list. I think you need RSR like what Steve has and you need to be able to MSU and overwhelm your opponents with multiple units to shoot from. This dictates that you need the extra fast attack slots and the right type of list to pressure hyper aggressively. However, it does draw some bad matchups that require a lot of long-range shooting to be effective. I need lances to be able to threaten Tau T6 and Broadsides with Instant Death, there's a good amount of MEQ in my area so my lances are very threatening to those models. Tyranids too, pose a huge threat and I just don't see Reavers are being too good in a matchup vs. Flyrants and beefy T6 bodies. It's a different kind of playstyle and approach, and I respect that. I think it shows that the DE book can be ran in different ways (really beefy, very shooty (mine) and hyper-aggressive MSU).

greggles said...

All valid points! And I agree with multiple ways to play the codex. My friend has been ecstatic ever since it came out, always coming up with new combos. His absolute favorite thing is assaulting something with a talos to hold it, then nailing it with the reavers. I hate that!

HERO said...

It's just for me..
S8 AP2 Lance is not just our answer for vehicles, it's the answer to everything in life, Terminators, Bikes, Riptides, Dreadknights, Wraithknights that are exposed, basically anything T4 multi-wound (Oblits, Broadsides, Nobz), the list goes on and on.


We have plenty of anti-infantry in our army, and while that can be a good thing, it can be misleading when designing your list. We have to maximize on our lances if we're to make a big impression on targets with 2+ AS because we don't have reliable melee solutions to those. Poison is good, but not enough to punch holes in what we really need to down in most cases. That's why you must have a healthy amount of lances in your army.

Which is another reason why I don't like Scourges with HWB. They do absolutely jack shit to a lot of the targets I listed above.

Sir Bones said...

This looks fantastic, has tons of firepower, will take a while to mulch through for many lists and gives me a strong space fleet vibe. The Lhamaen would then be the fearless admiral, overlooking the fleet going into battle from a safe distance. The only downside is probably the footprint this massive boat fleet leaves on the table and might be easy pickings for roaming fast deathstars performing multi-charges. But even then, it seems like it can shrug off some losses every turn without a problem.

Steve said...

I have scourges with heat lances that can put in some work vs 2+ sv, the Dark Lance is just not good enough in this edition of the game, as AP2 is just not enough (which is why most anti tank in other armies involves glancing people to death or melta), that extra help on the damage table as well as a good chance of causing mutliple penetrating hits is key.

5h4m3 said...

From looking at this list I do like it, but there is still more potential for min/maxing that firepower and to bring more to bear first opening salvo with a higher range while maintaining total firepower and the core of your list. So go with me here...

HQ:
llama = 10

Troop:
3x (10x warriors, blaster, SC, raider, lance/SR = 185) = 555

Elites:
5x trueborn, 3x blaster, venom, SC = 165
2x (5x trueborn, 2x lance, raider, lance =155) =310

Fast:
2x (razorwing, lances = 140) = 280
5x scourges, 3x dark lances = 140

Heavy:
3x (Ravager, lances = 125) = 375

1735 pts...15 for you to play with...

And the numbers...
from 36" to 48" = 21 lances, 30 poison(18 twinlink)
within 18" = still 31 lances with both razorwings, 42 twinlinked poison from gunboats alone.
Then 3rd shot with the rapid fire you may have a bit more rounds on your list but not by too much if any and there will still be more twinlinked shots to make up for it. I know you dont like scourges but you dont have to deep strike them and let them jump around being a moblie lance battery and you have at least 2 scourges to throw in front of the other 3 for some return fire. But all in all more firepower at longer range but loosing one raider and venom in the process so less targets but also less of a potential train wreck.

5h4m3 said...

I did wanna do 4 trueborn units instead of scourges for another 155 pt sudo ravager but went with scourges to maintain the combined arms detachment. So had to turn that 4th elite slot into a fast attack.

5h4m3 said...

So with salvo and moving my poison shots may be off but you can use that spare 15pts to throw another SC on that venom to balance out the shots to make them correct just not the same amount of twinlinked but still more than the original list so the purpose of this post being still valid. Sorry for so many comments. Just a bit inebriated at the moment.

Ask me anything ;) said...

Nice blog buddy!I can see that your a great gamer!

Ask me anything ;) said...

Can i share your blog on my blog? Awsome for Dota players http://www.dotaproobs.blogspot.com

Post a Comment