Let the Dark Eldar scheming begin!

Hey folks, Jawaballs here!

Ok, I've had the DE codex for a few days and yes I am making an army.  I love the new models and cant wait to get painting.  I think that the DE are going to be a painters army.  The models are simply way too detailed for guys to half heartedly have a stab at, and with the current evolution of the tournament scene, painting/army points are becoming much more important.

But being a DE noobie, I have no idea where to begin.  Most of the wargear names may as well be written in Italian. It is a journey of complete exploration for me, much like when I first opened up Codex: Space Marines.  Again, where to begin...

Well the starting point is easy for me. I will begin with what I love. And I love Harlequins.  In a painter's army, Harlequins are the top of the top.  I have a full squad of them sitting on my shelf that have been waiting 3 years for a reason to be painted.  I can't wait to finally get to paint all those different colors and play some true death dealing, dancing clowns.

What else?  At first glance I like the Warriors, Mandrakes and Incubi.  I dislike the Wychs.  Why and why?  I well there is a lot more that I like than dislike so I will get the dislike out of the way first. I hate top-knots.  I don't like 9 of the 10 heads in the Wych box set and won't use them.  That goes for all of the cornrows, and Latrell Spreewell braids too.  (hellions) If any one wants to trade, I am offering any DE top-knot or cornrow head for helmeted Dark Elf or Dark Eldar heads.

First of all, put on a damn helmet. You are at war!  The last thing you need is a stupid shard of ceremite splitting open your silly top-knot head you dopes.  If your hair gets in the way when you fight... shave it off. Don't pull it all up into a convenient pumpkin stem that your opponents can grasp onto to wield you like a cricket bat. Or braid it into rows that your opponent can palm like the ridges of a Basketball and dunk you through the hatch of a burned out tank.  Some of the other wychs have ridiculous anime looking cutsie pig tails and what not, all held in place by bones.  Blah.  I want all of my troops wearing malicious and evil looking visored helms.

Enough of that, you get the point.  My models will all be wearing helms.  Except the Mandrakes of course. I think those dudes look sorta cool like Emo Eddy Vedder from the Jeremy Video.  Every thing else about the Mandrakes is also cool. Their ink, their poses, their weapons... They look silent, brooding and deadly. Like the fart I surprised my wife with last night.

The Incubi look awesome. Enough said. I want a squad of 10 malignant goatboy looking eldar.  I love the visored masks.  Too cool.

The Warriors look exactlly how they should. Like evil, nasty guardians.

That gets me started!  Here is my first 2k list:

Archon
Lelith (hate her topknot but she is bad ass in combat)

Incubi x10 with Raider
Mandrake x10 with Raider
Harlies x10 with kiss', shadowseer and troupe master

 4 squads of Warriors x10 with upgrades in raiders
1 squadd of wychs x10 in raider

Competitive? Probably not. I have no idea what is.  But this is a great core for me to get started with, and paint.  7 raiders, 70 dark eldar, 10 harlies and a couple characters, all painted up to jawaquality is nothing to scoff at.  But it will give me everything I need to run just about any army I want as I figure things out.

Future lists will include a venom or two converted out of Vypers.  The fighter skimmers once they release models, an archon mutant squad just for the painting fun, and jetbikes and hellions cause they are pretty cool too.  The question here is, what is competitive?  If you are an experienced, competitive DE player and already drooling at the possibilities I am more than interested in having you write some articles for my blog.  Send me an email, jawaballs at hotmail, and lets get your point of view! Teach me!

More to come..

Jawaballs