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

15 comments:

Rathstar said...

Add in 3 ravagers with dark lances to give to you the volume of dark lance firepower to open up transports and kill tanks and it should be fine.

Rathstar

Michael Hogan said...

I personally love love love love LOVE the Incubi. I'm definitely using Drazhar. I like Mandrake models, but not their rules. They aren't useless, I'm just not fond of how you use them.

I also love Scourges. I don't know what you like out of the Fast Attack, but... Scourges just look so cool in their new art. In the end, my list will be kind of similar to yours.

Drazhar

3 x Haemonculi

6 x Incubi
Raider

3 x (8 x Warriors w/ Blaster + Syrabite w/ Blast Pistol and a Raider)

9 x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
Raider
2 x (4x Scourge w/ 2 Heat Lances and Solarite w/ Blast Pistol)

3 x Ravagers w/ Flickerfields

Unknown said...

You're going to want to drop a Wych so Lelith can fit in the Raider. Same goes for whichever squad the Archon is going in (Incubi, I assume).

Michael Hogan said...

Oh, and I agree with the heads thing too. Wear some helmets, damnit!

MadMedek said...

I'm pretty sure mandrakes cant take a raider

Rathstar said...

Yeah, I checked and mandrakes can't take raiders.

Rathstar

John Stiening said...

Normally I would agree with the helmet rule, but Dark Eldar are space vampires, who come back from the dead, so physical damage is not that big a deal for them! These guys are the walking dead (plug for a great series so far) so they don't need helmets.

Unknown said...

Not italian if anything more like chinese!But honestly you need to ask yourself what type of gamer you are, with the DE codex you have several options with real synergy to survive. For example if you take a haemonculus with lets say lelith, yes you see the auto feel no pain maybe your thinking to attach him with the incubi for the same reasons ,but believe me your declining yourself that fleet that he doesnt have.Speed is survivability and survivability is key with the pirate space elves or pain tokened haemonculus spreading the wealth all over to the wracks and grotesque etc. That is the slow paced DE or you can go the killy fast way and get you 2 Archon's and 2 incubi 5-8 men squads in raiders 2 huskblades on the HQ's for killing a IC (free pain token) and 20 plus I 5 some 6 power weapon attcks with fleet and 3 up on defense is sick and not to be ignored. I say all fellow DE strategist and Jawaballs you too, what type of gamer are you? Be ready for a different type of play style compared to lets say BA. I play puppies i know , these dude/chicks need finesse and are squishy. Just saying ,thanks for hearing me out.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile I like the punk-goth heads and am avoiding all the helmets but the fishbowl heads. Looks like there will be a thriving trade market.

Jawaballs said...

Dino I will happily trade them all. I have three box sets of wychs, a set of hellions, bikes, and currently 1 set of warriors with 3 more on the way. All the silly heads are yours, 1 to 1 for helmets.

Unknown said...

Foolish human, you think you know what it is to be dark eldar?

With your lack of webway knowledge your parts will surely end up in a wrack construct.

Feuermann said...

hi there, I'm ainting my DE raider =P
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7336/cimg1079.jpg
Reapers jetbike are mandatory against enemy infantry(I prefer them than witches)

Jawaballs said...

I am ready to learn about pain and fear! Teach me Archon.

Unknown said...

Helmets... Wyches. They don't wear helmets because they are meant to stare death in the face. They're meant to cause beautiful and intricate deaths in the arena's, they aren't designed for war. They just do well in war because of their great martial skill, and because they can collect a hell of a lot of slaves. Helmets on wyches would take away the excitement, the risk of death in the arena's, and would never satisfy any dark eldar. Helmets on wyches is a terrible idea.

Jawaballs said...

I dont care. I want helmets.

Post a Comment