Dark Eldar at the Sprue Posse GT

So I was going to go to the Ironman GT in Las Vegas last week to practice up for the Sprue Posse GT to learn and practice my Dark Eldar. The problem was that the War Store had a large sale and I did not get my box of goodies until a day before the Ironman. Since all models have to be painted, I did not even get to the point where they were even assembled.

Lucky for me, the Sprue Posse GT did not require you to have painted models. It did factor into a lot of points, but I was not going there to win the tournament.

My army:
 
HQBaron Von Hellion
 
Archon w/Agoniser, Haywire Grenades, Combat Drugs, Soul Trap, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Shadow
Field.

Elites9 Incubi
Raider w/Shock Prow, Enhanced Aether Sails, Grisly Trophies, Night Shields, Flickerfield 

Troops5 Kabilite Warriors w/Blaster
1 Venom w/2 Splinter Cannons, Night Shields

5 Kabilite Warriors w/Blaster
1 Venom w/2 Splinter Cannons, Night Shields

19 Kabilite Warriors w/2 Dark Lances, Blaster
1 Sybarite w/Agoniser

9 Wyches w/Hydra Gauntlets, Shardnet and Impaler, Haywire Grenades
1 Hekatrix w/Agoniser
Raider w/Shock Prow, Enhanced Aether Sails, Grisly Trophies, Night Shields, Flickerfield

8 Hellions
1 Helliarch w/Phantasm Grenade Launcher. Agoniser 

Heavy SupportRavager w/Night Shields, Flickerfield
Ravager w/Night Shields, Flickerfield

Razorwing Jetfighter w/2 Monosythe Missiles, 2 Shatterfield Missiles, Splinter Cannon, Night Shields, Flickerfield

So there you have it. I took a list with a little bit of shooting, and a little bit of assault. The army does not really dominate any aspect. I changed it around at the last moment because I did not get ten of my Hellions assembled in time, so I just added some wargear (which is never a good idea).

How I am planning on winning?

A lot of people know that you win by assault, shooting or a little bit of both. With the exceptions of the Hellions with a 3+ cover save, 20 Warriors in cover and the Incubi, everything else is pretty fragile. So I thought that I would use the one thing that I have going for me which is speed. The plan is to use the Night Shields to stay at range and limit return fire, and then move my whole army to concentrate on a small segment of my opponents army. For example, if you are going up against an army that is spread out across the board, you would move to the far right and work to eliminate the part of the army that is closest to you, while staying out of range of the units on the far left. Now I will prove that it is easy to say, but hard to do.

Dark Eldar go to the Sprue Posse GT

Well, I was unable to make it out to the Ironman GT. Funny thing was that I paid for it the week before and then ended up not going. I wanted to go to that event so I can get some practice in for the Sprue Posse GT and I could learn the army, and then tweak my list.

So I got to learn on the fly how to use my army, and that is never a good thing.

So my batreps of the event will be up soon.

Also be ready because in the next weeks and maybe even months there will be a lot of Dark Eldar talk!

Dark Eldar list for the Ironman GT

Here is the list that I am going to bring to the Las Vegas Ironman GT:



1500 Pts - Dark Eldar Roster - Ironman GT Allan Hernandez

  HQ: Baron Sathonyx ( 105 Pts)

  HQ: Archon ( 160 Pts)

Arcchon W/Agoniser; Blast Pistol; Haywire Grenades; Soul-trap; Phantasm Grenade Launcher; Shadow Field

Elite: Incubi ( 261 Pts)

8 Incubi

1 Raider W/ Dark Lance; Shock Prow; Night Shields; Flickerfield

Troops: Kabalite Warriors ( 135 Pts)

5 Kabalite Warriors W/ Blaster

1 Venom W/Splinter Cannon (x2); Night Shields

Troops: Kabalite Warriors ( 135 Pts)

5 Kabalite Warriors W/ Blaster

1 Venom W/Splinter Cannon (x2); Night Shields

Troops: Kabalite Warriors ( 120 Pts)

10 Kabalite Warriors W/Shredder (x1); Dark Lance (x1)

Troops: Hellion (169 Pts)

8 Hellions

1 Helliarch W/Agoniser

Heavy Support: Ravager (125 Pts)

1 Ravager W/Dark Lance (x3); Night Shields; Flickerfield

Heavy Support: Ravager (125 Pts)

1 Ravager W/Dark Lance (x3); Night Shields; Flickerfield

Heavy Support: Razorwing Jetfighter (1#, 165 Pts)

1 Razorwing Jetfighter W/ TL Splinter Rifle; Dark Lance (x2); Monoscythe Missile (x4); Night Shields; Flickerfield

Total Roster Cost: 1500

 
The biggest reason why I am going to this event is that I want practice for the sprue posse open in LA the following week. I need practice with DE and I hope this gives me an idea of what works and what doesn't.

The competitive tournament armies

Someone asked what the competitive builds in tournaments are right now.

So off of the top of my head in alphabetical order (Note: Some are better than others):


 
Blood Angels:

Hard to say because the codex is still to new. My guesses:

Mech armies with razorbacks and Predators

Land Raiders+ Terminators

Assault troops


 
Chaos Demons:

Skittles (cherry picking the best units out of all of the Gods)

Armies based around Bloodcrushers

Armies based around Fateweaver


 
Chaos Space Marines

Plague Marines + Obliterators


 
Demonhunters

3 Land Raiders+Terminators


 
Dark Eldar

Way too early to know


 
Eldar

Mech

Seer Council

Foot Eldar


 
Imperial Guard

Leafblower/Mech Guard

Blob w/Straken/Harken/Commissars


 
Necrons

Build around Destroyers

Build around Monoliths


 
Orks

Battlewagon Rush

Loota /Shoota

Kan Wall



Space Marines

Army built around Vulcan

General list with no signature units to build your army around.


 
Space Wolves

Loganwing

Thunderwolves

Razorspam


 
Tau

Mech Tau

General list with no signature units to build your army around.


 
Tyranids

Lots of Tervigons

Little Bug swarm? (Swarmlord)

Flying Circus (Gargoyles)

Genestealer Rush?

General list with no signature units to build your army around.


 
WitchHunters

General list with no signature units to build your army around. 

1500 Points of Dark Eldar for the Ironman GT in Vegas

On January 14^th they have having the annual Ironman GT up in Las Vegas.

http://lasvegasgamersclub.com/ironman-xvii.aspx



I have never gone to one before, but I have had friends that have gone up to Vegas for this and they say that the Las Vegas Gamers put on a good tournament.


The details are:

1500 points (Low, but fine for semi-quick games)

4 Games in one day (Not a full GT, but more time for Vegas!)

Throne of Skulls scoring (Um…what is this again? You are comparing your scores to everyone else with the same army? What if you are the only one that is playing that army?)


So I thought I might be able to get my Dark Eldar done in 2-3 weeks. Lucky for me it is only 1500 points, but DE are cheap, so that is a lot of models still.

This is what I was thinking about taking:

First match against the new DE

I played against the new DE today at one of my rare local RTTs with my foot Eldar.

Thoughts:
DE can dish out the shots.
Repeat the mantra over and over again: 3s to hit, 4s to wound.
Practice your dice counting skills, because it takes a long time to play the games when you are always counting out handfuls of dice (My foot eldar have prepared me well for quick counting, but not my opponent).
The DE army moves so fast that on turn #2 it seemed like a lot later in the game.
That move, disembark, fleet, and assault is brutal if you are not careful.
Lack of grenades hurts a high Initiative, but fragile army.
If you are playing DE, bring lots of craters to make your own terrain because your raiders are going down, and you need a place to hide.
I liked Blasters. They increased their range to 18" in this edition (up from 12") making them a lot more effective.
We only did get to about turn #3 though because all that shooting slows down the game if you are not practiced with it.
I liked Venoms: 12 shots at 36" and moving 12"
Foot Eldar are a bad match-up for DE. Strength 6 let me ignore all of their FNP, and whenever a Shadow Field dropped, their HQs were goners. I also think all eldar builds might give them trouble.
He did not take any night shields, and he sure could have used them. I was on the fence about them after reading Stelek's article saying why they suck, but I am becoming a convert with the speed of the DE vehicles I think it will greatly help them refuse-flank.

It seems like the army struggles against a few things:
MEQs
Anything with high saves.

For an example they did a number on one if my Wraithlords and killed one quickly, then after that I cast fortune on my other Wraithlord and my Avatar, and it really slowed down the damage. He also had trouble killing my Warp Spiders. Their 3+ save kept them around for a long time, and here is something else I noticed...he wounded me only on a 4+ so toughness 3 was not such a liability as it normally is. He was wounding my guardians on a 4+ and I was wounding him on a 3+. That stalled his killing a lot more than I thought it would.

I am trying to build an army for tournament play, (I got a couple of boxes with my RTT winnings) and I have a few old DE Raider hulls that I am going to add to some Vypers to make some Venoms. I like the idea of having Trueborn in Venoms and I want to see how they will play out.

Were in the world is Blackmoor?

I just had 3 wonderful weeks of vacation, and as they say, all good things must come to an end. 


During my vacation I:

I played at a GT in Las Vegas, NV

Played in a GT in Rochester, NY

Played in an RTT in Brea, CA

And another RTT was canceled in Mesa, AZ so I did not get to play in it.

So I came close to 4 tournaments in 4 states in 3 weeks. Of course the local RTT is the one that crapped out because the 40K gaming scene here sucks. Of course if I played LoTR, I would be in great shape for getting in some games. That is what I get moving to a place that has everything backwards.


I received some news recently that I will be buying and playing a Dark Eldar army. I was thinking that I was going to take a pass on them and skip on over to the Grey Knights since my specialty is small and durable armies, but just like the mafia, each time you think you are out, they pull you back in!

So know I have to build a DE army without using any raiders or ravagers so I do not know how that will go. I will try to get them ready for an RTT in LA on Dec 26^th, and depending on how my painting is going I might take them up to the Ironman GT in Vegas in January on MLK day, as well as the Sprue Posse Grand Prix in LA the following weekend.