Dark Eldar Full Army Shots!

After much help from my friends Nathan and Teri I finally was able to get some decent shots of the army now that it is all finished. So without further adieu, here it is! (Warning! 8 Million Pics inbound!)

Progress

2 more marines completed; almost have a legal squad built.
I tried out a new technique for the rusty bits on the green part of the armour; rather than inking chestnut, I just lined with Dark flesh. Which do people prefer? The first few models, or the latest 2?

Waaagh GT 2011 USS Hornet

That was an interesting tournament. It had its ups and downs. First of all, here's our venue, the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier in Alameda, CA. Awesome stuff.

No we weren't on the deck but I was able to sneak up there on Sunday to see what they had. An F-4 Phantom, an F-14 Topgun Tomcat, and ... I think a Skyhawk or a Raider. I forget which. Its at the front on the steam catapult if you can see it.

But enough of that. Down in the storage hanger, we did battle...

Battle 1: Orks.

Highlights: Playing against Orks for the 1st time. Some REALLY cool conversions and builds. This guy actually won player's army choice at the end, so I was glad I got a good up close (too close) and personal look at it. A really cool Godzilla theme. Also neat was that Orks are an even crappier shot than my IG, so it was a nice change... until they got into H2H with me.

Lowlights: Well... I wasn't as aquainted with the rules as I thought. The guy was very understanding and nice, which was cool. But it was really hard to figure out how to defeat a battlewagon with an invulnerable save and a pile of orks around it. Also hard to know how to defeat motorcycle nobs. They are just plain complicated and kind of cheesy frankly since they can put wounds on each individual model etc. etc. Either way, I got kicked to the curb.

Lessons Learned: I need more horde control? Learn the rules AND play a game or two BEFORE attending a tourney.

These squigs are in fact boyz in the buggy. Cool idea I thought, and he was true to fluff and didn't shoot them once! Also notice those accursed Nobz. I didn't know how to unload my Ogryns properly for the all important charge, so they did crap all, as did the flamer.

What happened to that lovely blob of 30 infantry?

Game 2: IG Vendetta Squadrons of Death!

Hightlight: Able to play against another Guard player so see what he was going to do. Also a nice player.

Lowlight: The entire game. This was the lowpoint of the tourney actually. The guy was nice enough although he was a bit snippy about bases. Really cool paintjobs on the Vendettas though.

My army started getting blown to crap, and I after turn 2 I sat there wondering if my poor little army that I'd spent so long painting was going to be able to do anything more interesting in this tourney than just die. It was to the point where my army took more time to setup than it did to get killed. We can't shoot, we can't assault, we can't move... If the rest of the tourney was going to be like these two games, what's the f*@&$ing point of me playing 40k? I obviously don't "get it", and never have... blahdie blahdie blah.

Lessons Learned: Don't shoot with Ogryns if you are about 4-6" inches away or you may not be able to charge if you gun the front row down. Also, after speaking with the guy afterwards, 2 Valkarie/Vendettas might be useful. Vendetta is dedicated gunship. Valkarie carries the veterans to deploy.

Holy crap! 6 Vendettas and a whole pile of melta guns!
The Ogyrns exit their burning wreck of a Chimera to shoot ripper guns at those juicy veterans. Alas they were too effective and shot them out of charge range! A good lesson there.
Oh dear. That fact that he insisted on putting lots of flame on my vendetta kind of ticked me off, but I tried to keep smiling.

Game 3: Gray Knights

Highlights: Best game of the tourney. This guy pulled me out of my funk from the 1st two games. We voted each other most fun player. Again I got blown to crap, BUT NOT TABLED. I actually make this a 6th mission for the tourney. I did not want to get tabled by ANYBODY no matter how badly a lost points wise. I look forward to playing this guy next year. I really hope I can make it. We pronounce this game "the party table" since we were both 0-2 and sure as hell weren't going to win any prizes. Just there to have fun. Oh, and my battlecannon missed and blew up my entire platoon commander. We high fived on that one as a sign of how fun the game was.

Lowlights: Well I was a bit tired, and sat down. He noticed and shouted "don't get down on me Chris!", and I realized. DON'T SIT down at a game. It lowers the whole energy level of the game. Even if you are tired, it just looks sh&@#ty.

Lessons Learned: Gamewise, was still getting used to flank moves with the sentinals and vendetta as well as how to charge with Ogyrns. They got eaten again. At least I killed his librarian. Also, terrain is really nasty for Guard. All the tables were terrain heavy and those cover saves KILLED me, since even my lascannons and battlecannons were less effective.

Ha! At least I killed 2 rhinos... SUCK IT!

Day 2. Game 4: Blood Angels

Highlights: The guy was really nice. He voted me his move fun player, which I appreciated. My Ogryns were running defense in the back row ready to try to intercept/counter charge an assault marine deep strike. They were too far from the objective though.

Lowlights: I think he took the true line of sight thing WAY too far shooting through 10 jungles and 3 units to try to hit my LR. Yes you can do it, but come on... He took me to the cleaners as was becoming usual (but DIDN'T table me. SUCK IT!) I still don't know how to handle Assault marines. Especially super hero Blood Angels. I also couldn't hit crap. I think I killed all of 1 unit the whole game. Things were threatening to repeat themselves from the previous day. But I kept smiling, because I'm here to have fun...... kind of.

Lessons Learned: Instead of holding my blob back where they would die, I decided to run them forward. This actually worked well.. except that his assault marines then dropped in behind them.... So perhaps not for this game.

Final Game: Eldar

Highlights: This was a fun game actually. The guy and I had met on Saturday and were looking forward to gaming against each other. Sure enough I was 0-4, he was 0-1-3 so we were fighting for the bottom. I'm happy about this one because I was able to pull off a TIE. The mission was to get your scoring units into the opponent's deployment zone.

Lowlights: The guy was a little silly with the true line of sight, but not really any lowlights. I felt like I had a chance with this game, and that really helps to make it more fun. Nothing sucks more than thinking that your army has no chance. My luck was SHITE this game, but that's ok.

Lessons Learned: Eyes on the prize. My blob just said screw it, and ran forward. The order "Move move move!" REALLY helps with this. My lascannons sat on a hill and hit zero. My vendetta swooped in, and tried to pick up both the senior and junior command squads to take them to the deployment zone for a win. The other guy only had a couple of scoring units so it was fairly easy for my Ogyrns to run interception (Which they ROCKED at). This guy was my skill level. Although his army wasn't painted totally, I voted him my player's choice because I'd already voted on my favourite player.

The blob moves into cover. They keep running. Next time I'm not taking any heavy weapons with a blob. Maybe I won't do a blob again. Time to paint up those Chimeras and melta guns...

Conga line of Ogryns running interception on those eldar. We sent that Warlock packing. Go Ogyrns. Pity their Chimera got a track blown off in the opening turn.

Junior command squad move move moves for the tie! The vendetta couldn't move after its engine got blown off, so it couldn't pick up the senior/junior command squads and fly them into the deployment zone.

Really nice guy's Black Templar army. Met him at the beginning. I didn't get to play against them, but if I ever get to paint my BT, I'll look for him.

Waaagh GT 2011

Ok, so tomorrow will be the Waaagh GT.

I couldn't play last year because of work issues, and my army wasn't ready anyway.

This year I finished the army back in February so we're good there, and work has been lighter so I can make it...

Anyway, since I don't attend tourney's like this EVER, I have 4 things to accomplish:

1. Win most fun player
2. Win best painted army (or maybe coolest theme since there are some REALLY good armies in there)
3. Get good idea of IG strategy that isn't just sit in gun line and blast away hoping to kill the inevitable space marine charge in a land raider before they reduce my boys to jelly.
4. Defeat a player who is about my skill level or better.
5. Ok 5. Re-aquaint myself with the 40k rules so I know what I'm doing and won't look like a doofus.

I'll take lots of pictures of the aircraft carrier etc. That reminds me, I have to see the deck of that thing this weekend.

Purge Update

Just finished 2 more models for my Purge warband; A temporary commander and a standard marine.



Group Shot

Dark Eldar Tactica: Wyches!

For the second article I am primarily going to focus on Wyches and Bloodbrides. As I mentioned in the last article Wyches are probably my favorite unit in the Codex. For me they are consistently the best performing unit in my army, pretty much every game and they have some of the nicest models Games Workshop produces. Like Warriors there are tonnes of different ways to run these ladies to tailor them to specific roles. Once you start adding in HQ choices it gives you just that many more options.

The main role for Wyches is to tie units up enemy units and pin them down while you whittle down the rest of the enemies army with shooting. They are fairly resilient in close combat with their 4+ invulnerable save and once they get their first pain token they are downright impossible to move. Their role (like anything I suppose) also changes slightly depending on how you arm them. You can turn them into character/monstrous creature assassins but adding in lots of shardnets and impalers, or you can turn them loose on crowd control with Hydra Gauntlets. The biggest thing to focus on is making sure these guys get into combat and stay there. You pretty much want them locked up for as much as the game as possible since they go from being one of the most fragile units in the game to one of the most maddeningly durable units in the game.

Like everything in the Dark Eldar Codex even though they have some awesome up-sides they have some serious weakness too (which is partially what makes this Codex one of the best Codices’s ever made). The big one is their durability out of combat. With only being T3 and a 6+ save they are probably the second most vulnerable squad in the game to shooting after Grots (without a pain token or cover of course). Flamers are your bane and will just remove these guys from the table effortlessly. Another thing to note is how many will typically die when their transport crashes. I had one unlucky game where my opponent wounded 8 times out of 10 on that 4+ to wound and I failed all those saves so the squad was left with a Hekatrix and a Hydra Gauntlet. Painful Stuff. Another thing to really think about is since they are only Str 3 they do have a hard time really putting “the hurt” on enemy units, so they aren’t really your big heavy hitters in combat (although, with some lucky rolls you can do some damage). With all this in mind lets get to it!

The Two Main Wyche Load Outs:

The Crowd Control Squad: This build would be focusing on having Hydra Gauntlets in the squad with maybe a special character to get as many attacks as possible. For the troop version I normally run either a max squad of 10 with a Hekatrix that has an Agonizer and 2 sets of Hydra Gauntlets or 9 with 1 Hydra Gauntlet, the same Hekatrix and a Succubus with just an Agonizer (so 10 Agonizer attacks on the charge). It gives you a fair amount of attacks and is fairly cheap (between 210-220pts with a Raider, depending on upgrades plus another 85 for the Succubus if you take her). I have had this unit do 17 wounds to an Imperial Guard unit in one round of close combat as well as taking out an 8 man unit of Death Company (obviously got lucky on that one and also already had a pain token but it happens…a lot). You will notice that I haven’t included Razorflails for weapon upgrades for this squad since, for me, Hydra Gauntlets win out every time. This is for three reasons. The first is you can get “re-roll to wound” for your combat drugs so that negates half of the flails benefit right there. The second is its just plain old fun rolling a bunch of dice (they can literally triple the amount of attacks that one model gets). The last, and most importantly is I have an obsession with yelling out “SHORYUKEN!” (and sometimes even make the motion) every time they get to attack.

The Blood Brides version of this squad really pushes the envelope for the amount of attacks this squad generates. If you have 9 Blood Brides with 3 Hydra Gauntlets and throw in Lilith you could have a possible 82 attacks on the charge if you get the +1 attack combat drug and roll perfectly with the Hydra Gauntlets. Not bad for a 10 man/woman unit. Even just putting in a plain old Succubus for almost 100pts less then Lilith adds another 6 Agonizer attacks which is still fantastic. You can take these squads from being irritating in combat to being deadly. If I wanted an elite Close Combat squad I would actually take this unit over Incubi every day of the week. Invulnerable saves, assault grenades, base initiative of 6 and being almost half the cost per model just push them over Incubi in my mind as their huge increase in close combat durability and grenades makes up for in their slight decrease in offensive power when compared to Incubi.

The Neutralizing Squad: This squad is made up of focusing on Shardnets/Impalers as your special weapon. While the Crowd Control Squad has a very specific purpose that it is designed for this squad a little bit more of a “Jack of all Trades” type squad. First off how I typically arm this squad (for Wyches specifically) is 10 Wyches, 2 Shardnets/Impalers, a Hekatrix with a Blast Pistol and Venom Blade all armed with Haywire Grenades. As you can see with these options you are quite a bit more versatile than their Hydra Gauntlet wielding cousins as you can literally affect every unit in the game. They are still great in regular close combat (maybe lacking a little bit of the “punch” from not having an Agonizer), but they can take on a much wider variety of targets.

The first main target I focus on with this squad would be Dreadnoughts which as I mentioned in the Warrior tactica is one of the biggest banes of this army now that Agonizers can no longer glance vehicles. With this squad you can now tie down virtually any Dreadnought and reduce its attacks to 1 which means you should only take 1 wound every 4 rounds of close combat (On average). You also have 10 attacks that hit on 6s but glance on a 2+ which means you can nickel and dime it down over a turn or two without much fear of taking any damage. They are also another great tool for anti armor, especially on pesky things like Monoliths since the most you will ever need to hit one is a 4+. Also, because of the Shardnets this squad is great at taking out Monstrous Creatures. With this lone squad I have taken out Trygons, Demon Princes, Warbosses, you name it, they have done it.

Like the Crowd Control Squad the effects ramp up as you turn them into Blood Brides. You can really turn them into great character assassins. One of the more interesting builds is having 3 Shardnets with Urien. You effectively have to have a minimum of 5 attacks base just to get ONE hit on Urien (-3 attacks for the Shardnets and Urien’s clone field negates D3 attacks which can reduce you to 0 attacks). Urien’s attacks also all cause instant death and always wound on a 3+ so it is just a matter of time before he does in whatever it is you want to kill especially since he regenerates a wound after every round.

Alternative Builds:

Blob Squad: Like the Warriors you can take Wyches in larger squads up to 15 strong which also allows you to take 3 special weapons. The great thing about this squad is it becomes a bit “hordey” and has the bodies, attacks and special weapons to actually do some serious damage to whatever they might charge. The only real issue is they are now too large to put in a transport and WAY too fragile to just walk across the board so you pretty much have to have them come out through a Web Way Portal which is actually a great unit for that purpose.

Venom Squad: If you are running a Wyche cult army one of the biggest issues you will run into is anti tank and ranged anti infantry. This squad is 5 Wyches armed with haywire grenades and they have a Hekatrix with a blast pistol and venom blade loaded up in a Venom with an extra Splinter Cannon. This squad comes in at 155pts and serves the same purpose as the Warrior Venom squad except it just goes about it in a slightly roundabout way as you really have to get into people’s faces (which is what Wyche cult armies are all about).

Succubus Hit Squad: This squad is made up of 4 Bloodbrides armed with a Hydra Gauntlet, a Hekatrix with an Agonizer and a Succubus with an Agonizer all in a Venom. It may look a bit wimpy at first until you realize how cheap this squad is (245pts total) and you get 11 Agonizer attacks minimum on the charge as well as at least 12 regular attacks (up to 21 attacks with the right drugs/hydra rolls). The vehicle has a small profile and the squad itself is very small so it’s very easy to hide until you can get it into position to snipe smaller squads like Long Fangs, BA assault squads, etc.

Bloodbrides and When to Use them:

A big question many people have is when to actually use Bloodbrides over standard Wyches. Unlike Trueborn which have vastly different weapon options available to them then Warriors, Bloodbrides are actually very similar in many ways to regular Wyches in how they are armed and the options available to them. Despite having more attacks and ability to get slightly more Wyche Weapons into a squad they do have 2 major draw backs over Wyches. First off they are more expensive then Wyches (obviously) without that much of a benefit. With the extra weapons and the fact that they are 3 points more per model you are paying 47points more for a 9 strong squad with a Hekatrix. The other issue which is way more important is the fact that Wyches are scoring and Bloodbrides are not. In the current climate of 40k you have to have lots of troops to win since 66% of the missions you play are based on capturing objectives which of course only troops can do. This fact alone makes me take Wyches most of the time over Bloodbrides.

The one area where Bloodbrides do shine though is filling the role of the Elite Close Combat unit in the army. The main reason for this is because you only need 9 Bloodbrides to max out your unit options which leaves that one space for your General so you can really maximize their efficiency. I also like the fact that they can act as a total throw away/distraction unit as they can’t score so in those missions it 100% doesn’t matter if they die. The last main place for this squad is if you are running a Wyche cult army and want to add some heavier hitting, offensively minded Wyche Squads.

Characters and Wyches:

Haemonculi: This is going to be the single most common character to throw in this squad as it helps negate their single largest weakness and that is their durability. The reason for this is the Haemonculi transfers his pain token to the squad so they now have Feel No Pain which is huge. He is also really cheap and you can get 3 of them per slot choice so it’s really easy to spread out the pain token love. As far as arming your Haemonculi I would suggest wasting as few points as possible since they are brutal in close combat. I typically just give him a Liquifer (which is worth its weight in gold) and maybe a Venom Blade and maybe the occasional shatter shard and call it a day. It does work really well so I would definitely try it out. One thing to also mention is that you will notice that the Haemonculi doesn't come with fleet of foot and will naturally slow the squad down. For me the best way to get around it (and the main reason why I normally only arm him with a Liquifier) is to just leave him in the transport and have your Wyches "steal" his pain token. That way you still gain his benefit while not slowing yourself down at all meanwhile the Haemonculi is free to zoom around the board liquifying things.

Archon: As long as you give your Archon combat drugs you are golden. As I mentioned before just due to their assault grenades and invuln saves in close combat Bloodbrides in particular can be much better suited for your Archon’s body guard then Incubi. They also save your Archon 25 points as he doesn’t have to purchase a Phantasm Grenade Launcher. In my mind the best load out for your Archon in this combo would be a Husk Blade, Soul Cube, Combat Drugs and a Shadow Field. Cheap, simple and deadly.

Succubus: Like the Haemonculi she really is a no brainer choice and one that I really LOVE using. In my style of list building I almost never spend points on HQ. No idea why, I just don’t. I like spending my points on more units instead which is one of the main reasons I love this HQ so much (kind of like a Prime for the Tyranids). She is only 85pts has 6 x WS8, Init 8 Agonizer attacks on the charge. If she dies it totally doesn’t matter as she cost virtually nothing and your game plan doesn’t even really factor her in to win.

Duke Slicus: Ah, the Duke. This guy is 100% MADE for a combat drug heavy army and in my mind is probably the most important character you can take to get the most out of your list. If you want to throw him in with your Wyches there is a catch though. In order to have him actually join a Wyche squad you can’t have ANY Warriors (Kabalite or Trueborn) in your army as he MUST join those squads first. The main reason why he is so great for this type of list is his ability to roll two dice for combat drugs and choose the one you want so the chances of getting Painbringer (best drug by far…re-roll wounds) or Splintermind (pain token) is that much greater.

Lilith: The strange thing about this character is that the Lord of the Wyches just isn’t very good (in my opinion of course because there are a lot of people out there who love her). The reason I say this is because she DOESN’T come with combat drugs. In my mind that is one of the biggest mistakes in this entire codex. The reason I say this is specifically from a game balance point of view since she is 175pts and is only str 3. Even with her 11 attacks on the charge she only (on average) kills 2 Space Marines. Combat Drugs would really help to make her worth her points and would allow her to actually keep up with her fellow Wyches when the roll the dreaded “1” on the combat drug table (roll 3d6 and pick the highest for fleet).

That is pretty much all I have for now. As with all my Tactica Articles this should just be used as a jumping off point as there are just so many ways to run these squads and no way is really “wrong” per say. Next up will be either be the Heavy Support Section, Fast Attack or I might just get into some themed armies J

The Oh, Hello's + a start

Howdy friends

I Just wanted to start off with a big hello to all the followers of this fine blog, and wanted to introduce my self. I've been in the hobby almost 12 years now,and have worked as a Red Shirt for just under two years. I've played just about every single GW game, although have cut back and currently only play 40k. While I'm not a huge tournament goer, I have won my self a few best overalls and even more best painted. I've also got myself a Golden Demon (2006 Staff large Model, back when Canada had Games Days) and won Best Overall the same year at the 2006 Canada Staff tournament. My main armies are Tyranids, Space Marines and am just starting/redoing chaos.
Enough about me though, and onto the models(or talk of models)

The main reason I wanted to start contributing was to do a log of my chaos as I build it back up using my old chaos army(from about 9 years ago) and my 13th company army (7 years ago). I'm doing a Nurgle/Purge warband with an interesting twist - horde marine army. I'm not too sure on how it will work out, but it will be fun challenge in any case.

Onto the Models
Test Model and 5 man unit.



My goal is to convert up each individual model, along with actual dynamic poses(so sick of standard legs). My plan is to finish a model at least a week. ONWARD!

Legio Minimus welcomes Slopes as a contributing Legionnaire

Hello all,

I'm pleased to announce that Slopes is going to start posting here on Legio Minimus.  If you haven't seen his Tyranids or Space Sharks perviously featured here check them out.  His work is awesome and I know I will be looking forward to some of the awesome models that he will paint.

I can't wait to see his first post!

Wyches...part 2!

So, after a couple more really slow days at work I really pushed myself and managed to get this squad done in 3 days and it officially caps off my 1850pts army (well...pre design work on the vehicles anyways). I have modified the final army slightly so it is less spammy and has more utility.

HQ

Succubus - Agonizer, Haywire Grenades

Troops

Kabalite Warriors(10) - Dark Lance, Blaster
3 x Kabalite Warriors (5) - Blaster, Venom w/ Additional Splinter Cannon
Wyches (10) - 2 x Shardnets/Impalers, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, Haywire Grenades, Raider w/ Night Shields
Wyches (9) - Hydra Gauntlet, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, Raider w/ Night Shields

Fast Attack

Reaver Jet Bikes (6) - 2 x Heat Lances
Scourges (5) - 2 x Haywire Blasters
Beastmasters (2) - 10 x Khmyera

Heavy Support

Razorwing Jet Fighter - 2 x Dark Lances, 4 x Monoscythe Missiles, Flicker Fields
2 x Ravager - 3 x Dark Lances, Flicker Fields

1850pts right on the dot. I have played a bunch of test games and so far it is by far the most fun and versatile of all builds I have tried. Cant WAIT to play this in a tournament!





Next Up: A whole lotta vehicles gettin' a whole lotta design work!

Dark Eldar Tactica: Kabalite Warriors!

Alrighty, time to delve back into some good old fashioned 40k tactica articles. It has been a while since I wrote my Tyranid articles and have since then shelved that army (until a new codex comes out) in favor of the Dark Eldar. I can honestly say I have never had this much fun both painting and playing any army for 40k which is saying something since I have been playing for 20 years. I have held off starting this series of articles for quite a while (they came out almost a year ago) because there are so many viable options not just in unit choices, but the choices available within the units themselves. I had to do a lot of play testing to start getting the hang of how things work and I feel that I have still only just scratched the surface. The crazy thing is there is still so much of this book I haven’t even had a chance to use yet and I am still working out configurations for even just the basic units like Warriors and Wyches (which is what my first two articles will be about including their elite counter-parts). Writing Tactica articles for the Dark Eldar is such a different beast then the writing for the Tyranids. The Tyranid book all the choices are just so obvious as to what is useable and what is complete garbage (hint, most of the book lol). Virtually EVERYTHING in the DE codex is viable, yes, including Mandrakes (note: I am not endorsing Mandrakes, just saying they COULD be useful in the right circumstances).

The Dark Eldar troop choices are really versatile and very fun to use. It is also nice having options with your HQ to alter the force organization chart to give you an even larger selection of troops you can use like the Haemonculus making Wracks troops or Baron Sarthonyx making Hellions troops. Whichever route you chose though the one constant thing I would like to stress with this army is taking at least 4 troops in your army (this is for 1500pts+). With the way 5th edition is set up 66% of the time you are playing objective based game and when your primary troops are Toughness 3 with a 5+ armor save being the best you can get, your troops can disappear very fast. In my 1700pts+ list I always run 6 troop choices and it has yet to fail me, even in kill point games as they are some of the better units in the Codex anyways.

The first unit I want to talk about is the most iconic unit in the codex and that is Kabalite Warriors. The main strength of this unit lies in its versatility of shooting. They have great weapon options which includes their basic weapon, the splinter rifle, which shouldn’t be overlooked. There are just so many ways you can run these units and still be effective and I will do my best to give you guys some ideas on different builds you can try.

Kabalite Warrior Basics: There are so many options and places to put your points for this unit. You can keep them cheap or really go nuts with fleshing out their Sybarites, special weapons and transports. I typically stay away from any of the close combat options, specifically anything for the Sybarite. In my experience they just aren’t that useful because if your Warrior squad is actually in combat then they are normally toast, Sybarite or not. The main thing (like anything I suppose) is figuring out what the main focus for this unit should be and sticking with it and obviously that is ranged combat. The main choice you have is picking where you want to focus: ranged anti infantry or ranged anti tank. Now here are a couple of different ideas for different builds for your Kabalite Warrior Squads (some competitive, some for fun):

3rd Ed Throw Backs: Everyone and their dog used to run 100pts DE warrior squads that had 2 Dark Lances in them. Obviously you can’t do that anymore but what you can do is a Dark Lance and a Blaster which comes in at 130pts. This is actually a squad I use quite a bit, basically in every army. Its main purpose is to be my static home objective holder as well as some resilient anti tank (well…when compared to Raiders and Ravagers of course lol).

Venom Spam: This is the most common build for Warriors. Virtually every Net List you will see spams these puppies. There is a reason for this as I have had nothing but success with them and I love running them (I normally opt for 3 in most lists). They are cheap, pack a huge amount of firepower for both anti infantry with some small amount anti tank. The basic set up is just 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom that has 2 Splinter Cannons and that comes to 125pts. I find these guys are a great in a supporting role but not much else. Due to my play style I would never make them the sole focus of my troops as your Warriors and Wyches have so many important roles they can and should fill. Their real strength comes into play as a harassment unit, taking on longer range targets that need softening up near the beginning of the game specifically units like Devastors, Long Fangs and Lootas and to overload your enemies with target priority.



Jack of All Trades: This unit would be 10 Warriors with a Splinter Cannon and a Blaster (or Shredder depending on your preference) in a Raider. It comes in at a cool 175 points (with a blaster) and offers some great anti troop shooting combined with some anti tank. The best way to think of it is it’s basically the first two options combined into one unit minus 1 splinter cannon. For their Raiders the 3 upgrades I would look into are Night Shields (I normally include these on all my Wyche Raiders as they are always moving flat out), Splinter Wracks and Flicker Fields (I would consider these for my Warrior Raiders as they will be more stationary). Doing that effectively turns the Raider into a really nice little gun boat. One thing to note is you do have to be very careful to not go overboard with the upgrades for your Transports as even just a couple of upgrades makes them very expensive for what they are (60 point Raiders die just as easily as 90+ point ones). Just make sure you really know what you want each squad doing and upgrade accordingly. The thing I like about this unit over the “Venom Spam” unit is it has the numbers to grab and hold forward objectives with the versatility to deal with most threats.



Warrior Blob Squad: Typically there are two ways of running this squad, both of which are fairly similar. The first would be with 20 Warriors with 2 Splinter Cannons and a Sybarite with an Agonizer (or no Sybarite if you want to keep it cheap). I ran this squad almost exclusively for the first little while and the only time I ever lost it was when it was charged by a Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons (did 17 wounds on the turn it charged nothing I could do lol). The second way, which is the one I would do now that I have quite a few more games in with the army, is running that squad same as above but take out the Sybarite and add in Duke Slicus and a Haemonculus with a Liquifier. Now if you don’t move you have 30 shots at 24” or 48 shots at 12” that all hit AND wound on a 3+. You can put a significant number of wounds on anything with a toughness and you have a unit that is almost immune to standard shooting when in cover.




Trueborn Basics: It’s all the exact same as the Warriors just pushed that much further due to the incredible number of weapon options this squad has. This squad also a number of options to make themed “fun” units (I will go into one of those below). The reason why I love the Dark Eldar book as much as I do is unlike almost all the books for 5th ed it is the only one I can think of where the rules mimic what the fluff says, which is fantastic and its one of the main reasons why the Tyranid book is so horrendous. Here are a couple different ideas on ways to equip this squad:

Blaster Trueborn: Basically if you ever post a list for critique on any of the main forums the first comment you will see is “take whatever option you have and replace it with 4 Trueborn with Blasters in a Venom!”. It is obviously an effective unit that is perfectly geared towards a dual role on the battlefield. Once you start getting into larger games it is a great way to add some much needed Dark Light firepower into your army. An alternative way of running this tried and proven squad is 4 Blaster Trueborn and 2 Dark Lance Trueborn in a Raider. Doing this turns it into a very focused squad that gives you 7 Dark Light shots per turn. You are now effective at longer ranges as well as being mobile if need be as you can still move 6” and fire your 4 blasters and the hull mounted Dark Lance. If you want to go really crazy you could also add in an Archon with another blaster to bump your blaster shots up to 5 (so 8 Dark Light weapons). At this point it is getting very expensive and verging on overkill…although…in my opinion there just isn’t such a thing as overkill as I ALWAYS roll horribly for these weapons lol.

Dakka Trueborn: I am referring to the Splinter Weapon based anti troop options for this squad. Your basic squad would be 3 Trueborn with 2 Splinter Cannons in a Venom. This unit costs 121pts gives you 20-24 shots a turn but evaporates in the blink of an eye to any enemy resistance. The variation that I have been trying out with much success is bumping that squad up just a bit and turning it into a 5 man squad with 2 Splinter Cannons and 3 Shard Carbines in a Venom with an extra splinter cannon for a possible 33 shots at 160pts. To me this is the sweet spot for this squad as the cost is still fairly cheap for their output and there are no wasted bodies in the unit plus it just looks awesome lol. The maxed out variation of this squad which I have been working towards is 9 Trueborn with 7 Shard Carbines and 2 Splinter Cannons with Duke Slicus in a Raider. Same amount of shots as the previous Trueborn Squad except you wound everything on a 3+ and actually have some staying power because your numbers are doubled.

Template Trueborn: Another fun and very effective way to run some alternative Anti Troop if you really enjoy getting into people’s faces are having a 4 man Trueborn Squad all armed with Shredders in a Venom which comes out to 133pts. It gives you 4 x str 6 blast templates which can really put some hurt on units. You can also add in a Haemonculus with a liquifier for even more templatey goodness and additional staying power. Doing that though does up the price of the squad which almost defeats its purpose in a way which is having a cheap squad that can dish out a whole wack of wounds.

Themed Trueborn: This last one totally goes against their primary role but I wanted to include it as something to think about if you ever plan on running a fully themed Kabalite Army and wanted some hand to hand combat Warriors. These guys can switch out their splinter rifles for close combat weapons and pistols for free. You can also include some Shredders to soften the enemy up before you charge. They also have the option of taking assault grenades and haywire grenades for 1 and 2 points respectively which is another nice bonus (something I wish Incubi had…sigh lol). Going with this set up gives each Warrior 4 attacks on the charge which is pretty decent and your Dracon will have 5 attacks on the charge with an Agonizer. As I said before, definitely not the most competitive unit out there (as Wyches cost the same and are significantly better at this role) I just think it is really cool that Phil Kelly gave Dark Eldar the option to do this if you want to go for something fun and different.

There are definitely more builds out there for these two core units. I just wanted to point out some examples of the ways you can run them (some competitive, some not as much). The next article in the series will be the Wyches and Bloodbrides which I am looking forward to as they just might be my favorite unit in the codex. If you guys have favorite builds of your own for Warriors and Trueborn that I didn’t list here I would love to hear them as I am always on the lookout for fun and different builds. As always thanks for reading!