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Dark Eldar tactics
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Author:  carlos [ Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Dark Eldar tactics
Haven't seen much about these evildoers in Taccomms before. Any army lists out there, battle reports, general observations about dos and don'ts? Seems to me they are even more fragile than regular Eldar but even tricksier with their super-march move, excellent aircraft and very fast, movement. They also have a lot of MW weapons too, so army of glass cannons... but how to use them?
Author:  Moscovian [ Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Dark Eldar tactics
From Raiders 2.0 Appendix:

Quote:
The Dark Eldar in play: The Dark Eldar should play even
more fragile than the Eldar Craftworld armies. Your staple units
are light vehicles and subject to AP and AT fire, so expect them
to die when hit. At the same time the dark kin have tools that
are extremely powerful, from the drop capacity of the Executor
to the Wyches assault armor value. Playing the Dark Eldar
should feel like playing dirty poker - lots of tricks up your
sleeves but if you get caught you have four burly cowboys
beating you to a pulp. Whatever you accomplish you need to do
quickly because the Dark Eldar lack staying power. To achieve
victory you need to strike hard on turn 1 and keep that
momentum going without standing toe-to-toe. Hit-and-run
tactics should dominate your game play. Use the Fleet of Foot
special rule to set up crossfires and support your assaults.
Reducing your opponent's armor rolls will be advantageous and
supporting fire quite often helps turn assaults in your favor.
High activations may help you achieve this goal and there are
plenty of fast moving expendable formations to develop such a
list.


First you should note the lack of certain units that the Dark Eldar have:
Little AA - With the exception of the massive Executor, you have no anti-aircraft guns. So unless you plan on bringing the mother ship, plan on having Razorwings or Ravens. You may think you can do without aircraft, but I should point out that Raiders and Ravagers are light vehicles and a single pair of Thunderbolts can wreak havoc on them. Two pairs and you're in for an ugly game. You see while your fast moving light vehicles can hide from most everything, they can't hide from aircraft.

Few scouts - Hellions... That's it. They may not seem like much but when you recognize your lack of options they will get more and more attractive. Hellions have an added bonus in that you can attach them to non-scout formations. That can make setting up forced assaults much easier for a Dark Eldar player.

Few AVs - one in fact... The Talos. Every other vehicle is a Light Vehicle or a War Engine.
The Dark Eldar can take advantage of this in ways not even the Eldar can, however. Raiders and Ravagers can use Wraithgates! That is a tremendous benefit, especially when playing against an unexperienced player. Assaulting out of a gate with a 35cm move is tremendous. A march out of the gate can place that formation virtually anywhere on the board.

The Fleet of Foot rule won't help unless you make it help. Create situations where you are extending yourself from one side of the board to the other. No other player in Epic can do that and your opponent may not be able to deal with the sheer speed of your army. Think about it; you have a single formation in position to assault your opponent's [whatever]. Instead, you march your Reavers 120cm from the complete opposite side of the board, retain, and then assault with them in support. What was a questionable assault now is in the bag for you.

Hit-n-run is an easy one. If it works for the Eldar, it will work for the Dark Eldar. The saying use-it-or-lose-it speaks volumes here. You could perform a single maneuver with those Ravagers and shoot the living daylights out of that juicy tank formation, but then you'll be sitting there with your butt out in the breeze. Move-shoot-move will strike your opponent and leave him with nothing to shoot at.

Understand your shadowfields rules. Remember you are in cover automatically when your unit has them. That -1 can make all the difference, especially for a landing Slavebringer. Once you lose your fields they don't come back! Also remember they don't work in CC, so your Tormentor titan won't have that added benefit if EVERYTHING is in BtB contact.

Vessels of Pain seem like an obvious choice, but don't make them your only choice. Try diversifying your army and trying new things. Two Barges of Pleasure may seem like an overly expensive purchase, until you realize you've created a BTS goal that will be very difficult to hurt.

Ex. A Warrior formation with two extra warriors, a Dracon, two BoPs and a Ravager. That is a 650 point formation and will undoubtedly be your BTS in a 3000 point game. Is it a waste? Let's look:
*Major FF assault formation that moves at 25cm. 14 x FF4+, 1 x FF3+, 1 xMW FF4+.
*4 Shadowfields.
*Skimmers!!
Total Armament
2 x AP5+ at 45cm.
4 BP Disrupt at 30cm
6 x AT5+ Lance at 30cm
8 x AP5+ at 15cm
1 x AP4+/AT6+ at 15cm
1 x AP6+ Disrupt at 15cm
*15 total unit count
*Infantry can fire their weapons from within the transports or assault from within.
*Leader
*Commander

Now you won't run something like this every game, but you can see how this often unused combination can be ultra-deadly. Drop this on something like a large mechanized infantry formation or a 'Uge warband and follow it up with an assault. You'll get to fire with this BTS force and get its awesome FF in support on the retain. Whatever you are shooting at is going to go away...

This is just one example.

Be careful with your transported units in Raiders though. They are super-sensitive to enemy fire because your Raiders are LVs. But at the same time leaving your troops outside doesn't help because you can't claim a -1 cover modifier for being up against LVs.

Some things I rarely go without:
The extra Ravager. At 50 points they are a steal for any formation.
Kashnarak. It is fun and you can add a bit of chaos to a game. If you can manage the Wyches and direct the Kashnarak, even better. Remember Wyches can be added to Warrior formations.
Aircraft. See above.
Wraithgate. Good for your Ravagers, Raiders, and a must if you are going to bring the Kashnarak.

And above all, remember you are playing for objectives. As the Dark Eldar, you are an objective grabbing MACHINE. Remember your distances for movement and you'll find you have tremendous flexibility in turn 2, just as long as your formations aren't broken!
Author:  carlos [ Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dark Eldar tactics
Awesome, thanks a lot Mosc! Now, about those evil space elves minis...
Author:  Moscovian [ Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dark Eldar tactics
carlos wrote:
Awesome, thanks a lot Mosc! Now, about those evil space elves minis...


Well, not to derail the thread, but -in a completely unrelated note- the second batch of evil space elf infantry molds should be done and I will be ready to take orders soon. I am trying to coordinate them with the evil space elf vehicle release. Arrggh! Too much to handle at once!
Author:  Ulrik [ Sun Jan 23, 2011 5:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dark Eldar tactics
Moscovian wrote:
carlos wrote:
Awesome, thanks a lot Mosc! Now, about those evil space elves minis...


Well, not to derail the thread, but -in a completely unrelated note- the second batch of evil space elf infantry molds should be done and I will be ready to take orders soon. I am trying to coordinate them with the evil space elf vehicle release. Arrggh! Too much to handle at once!


How and where is it possible to order these evil space elves?

I'm broke myself, but I might have managed to hook a friend who's an avid evil space elf player...
Author:  nealhunt [ Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dark Eldar tactics
Could one of the mods with authority here move this to the Strategy and Tactics forum?
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