Comments on Yes The Truth Hurts: Re: Dark Eldar

My most recent game had my opponent steal the init...

2010-08-08T18:01:22.147-06:00

My most recent game had my opponent steal the initiative (he was fielding an all raider army)
hit with every single dark lance and heavy weapon he had, and then penetrate every one of my vehicles either wrecking or stunning them. The next 4 turns was him pounding my transportless army in a forest with raider after raider of weapons and troops.

Wyches are no way 'ass' in close combat! In my mos...

2010-03-20T13:21:25.000-06:00

Wyches are no way 'ass' in close combat! In my most recent game my Wyches were charged by a unit of Blood Letters and completely wiped them out without suffering a single wound. Fair enough they are only str3 but with the right combat drug result and a Succubus with Agoniser they can wipe out a lot of nasties.

Another reason why Dark Eldar are commonly feared ...

2009-07-16T10:11:48.587-06:00

Another reason why Dark Eldar are commonly feared is that Dark Eldar players tend to be very good players. There are two primary reasons for this. First of all, they've been playing the army for ten years and have found out what works and what doesn't. Second, Dark Eldar are not the type of army that can be played by an incompetent general to good effect. Newbs that pick up Dark Eldar either become good players quickly or get tired of being massacred and sell their armies in favor of Marines, Orks and now Guard.

Once you get people out of their transports, Dark ...

2009-07-15T22:18:42.078-06:00

Once you get people out of their transports, Dark Eldar armies tend to obliterate enemy armies quickly.

Getting them out is usually not difficult with lots of Lance fire.

Now that I'm actually getting to play with my Dark...

2009-07-15T21:07:43.254-06:00

Now that I'm actually getting to play with my Dark Eldar, I can see how they can be nasty...or just suck. 3 games in it seems that I might as well roll a single die at the beginning of the game to determine if I win...4+ its a victory, cuz that is what I need all the time...4+ to GLANCE most vehicles, 4+ to Immobilize them...so really I want 5+...since that's what I need to wound anything with my splinter weapons...but the weight of fire and still succeed. I'm running a series of battle reports for my DE from the small Escalation League I'm playing in ATM, at http://www.40konline.com/community/index.php?topic=186447.0 if you want to follow; 3 games in and 2-1.

In 3rd ed, fugly Squats blossomed into the beautif...

2009-07-15T18:30:52.754-06:00

In 3rd ed, fugly Squats blossomed into the beautiful lithe Dark Eldar we see today.

It's just how old they are is all. ;)

2009-07-15T18:14:40.116-06:00

It's just how old they are is all. ;)

Dark Eldar didn't exist in 2nd. I'm baffled by ho...

2009-07-15T18:06:27.096-06:00

Dark Eldar didn't exist in 2nd. I'm baffled by how common a misconception this is...

As Stelek mentioned in his post, #1 is probably th...

2009-07-15T12:39:42.044-06:00

As Stelek mentioned in his post, #1 is probably the biggest factor of all. It comes down to the enemy not being able to prioritize threats or how to judge our charge range or potency in combat.

I think one style of DE list that even scares a fellow DE player is the "Raider Spam" (or Air Force) list by putting as many raiders into the list as possible and then putting nightshields on all of them. Just start them on the table and you will simply overwhelm your opponent with 14 skimmers (11 raiders and 3 ravagers).

I noticed in a lot of 'Ard boyz lists that those who took 1st or 2nd in their tournament was some sort of Raider Spam. Its been in existance since 2nd or 3rd edition and its still viable to this edition. You just have to pick up the raiders for such a list.

"Why are Dark Eldar so scary?" Another point that...

2009-07-15T08:59:14.136-06:00

"Why are Dark Eldar so scary?"

Another point that Stelek didn't mention: DEs have the ability for every unit to be strong anti-tank. Even Wyches have 2 Blasters available, and with a Dark Lance on the Raider, that's 3 lance weapons out of an anti-infantry CC unit.

Conversely, every unit has the potential to be scary to infantry, pretty much everything can take anti-infantry weapons (Dissies, Shredders, Splinter Cannons).

Oh, and every commonly-taken unit in the army except Ravagers has the ability to be dangerous in CC. Not overwhelming like SS/TH Termies or Berzerkers, but strong enough to get out of a Raider and decisively finish stomping a unit that got weakened by their shooting. Unlike IG, they are not limited to hurting you in the shooting phase. They can enter Rapid Fire range, knock your unit down to half strength (but you keep your 2-3 specialist/leaders)... and then they assault you and your 5 survivors get killed instead of getting a turn to shoot back. Yes, if they do this with a first turn charge they are asking for it, but if they shoot for a few turns, they have the ability to finish off armies in melee.

So... anti-tank from all units so you can't ever get rid of all their anti-tank with tabling them. Anti-infantry, same. Ability to fight in CC tolerably well and with excellent assault range so that soon as you leave a unit out unsupported they can finish it off piecemeal. Their survivability is crap, but their offensive abilities are great and well balanced, and too spread out to shut down.

Not having specialist "anti-tank" and "anti-infantry" units is a weakness if the generalists aren't good at the tasks. But DE generalist units can be very good at anti-tank and they can be very good at anti-infantry, so they end up with a great advantage in having every unit that they take be able to threaten (almost) every single unit that anyone else can field.