Without making drastic changes that would make Dark Eldar OP, What small additions or changes would you make to give Dark Eldar a much need boost this glass cannon army?
I have found that in order to take on AMTL, and AMKnights, you need to take as many vessels of pain and Barges of Pleasure as you can. Not a good option since in tournaments you can find yourself facing other armies that have way more activations and a huge amount of foot troop units. (Unless you get a poor start, and face off against 2 Imperial Guard artillery heavy, and 3 AMTL armies because of the Swiss scoring system used). Yess I did not enjoy that tournament. I would loved to have faced off against a Necron, Tau, Space Marine or even an Ork army - Oh Well.
But regardless of that Dark Eldar only have a number of things going for them. Most of their force3s are fast, or have access to fast transports. They have a lot of skimmers. They can move shoot and move. They can provide support for an Engage action made by another formation, even if the units formation triple moved. The have a decent amount of lance weapons through out the army.
Now the weaknesses. They have far too many light vehicles. Their transports get shot up by every weapon that can make range to them, and they can choose whether to shoot at them as infantry or vehicles. The army has very little in the way of ranged weaponry. Not many units have weapons with a range greater than 30cm. Those that do are War Engines, and these cost a lot of points for a single model (normally with 2 shields and 3 DC). Their formations can not have any more than 8 infantry units in them. Guard, and other races can get far more infantry, add heavy units to these formations and then add AV transports to provide speed, cover and extra fire support. The only Ranged indirect artillery they can take is Perditors - 2 only at 150 points each with 2DC - AV skimmer with EA MW, and a Rnge 30 2BP Indirect Disrupt and Fearless. They tend to get targeted and die really quickly.
Now Dark Eldar are a fast assault force., however they do have deadly weapons in 40K. And they can take more transports than the humble Raider.
Here are the changes I propose.
1. Add in the Venom LV Transport to the Transport options at 10 points for 2 (replacing a Raider) They have a 5+ save with an invul save. Move of 35cm, skimmer, can transport 1 infantry unit (non jump, non mounted), and are armed with a ranged 30cm double Splinter cannon AP 4+.
2. Increase the range of the Dark Eldar basic Kalabite Warriors Splinter cannon to 30cm.
3. Allow you to field formation of up to 10 infantry units to allow for additional units like Warp Beasts, Mandrakes, etc to boost a formation.
4. This one might be pushing it a little, however move either or both the Wych Cult and Haemonculi Coven to the Kalabites section of the army list.
5. I think this change would make the list stronger overall. Give the Dark Eldar an AV skimmer that is not a War Engine to supplement their Flotillas and Kalabite Syndicates. This unit would not be a transport, but in all other respects would be the equivalent of a Falcon grav tank. Thus it could not be shot at my AP weaponry.
Overall your Dark Eldar tactics would still be the same, you will just be able to make the enemy choose between the raider, the Venom, or the AV skimmer tank. Your infantry could now be used to sit on overwatch, and have a fair chance of having the range to shoot the enemy before they moved into engagement range.
Right now Dark Eldar tend to have a pre-set way they work. Move around using cover and speed to get close to the enemy and gang up on the isolated formations. Hit them with FF or close combat, or use the move snipe/shoot, and then run away/move tactic. Keep spread out to avoid artillery killing off too many, and in the last turns, rush to either grab objectives or deny them to the enemy (providing you have the formations left to do this.
I usually find the transports are long since blown away, and the Ravagers get the same treatment. The fast Reaver bikes are targeted early so are generally destroyed or shot at until they break each round as enemy know they are the one that can rush to deny objectives.
I think the first 2 proposals are mandatory, while the last 3 are not so necessary to make the list a viable balanced force.
_________________ 6mm wargaming is just like 25mm wargaming with more units fitting on the same size table. Thus bigger games to get lost in and avoid the hassles of everyday living, and offerings for the dice gods.
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