Dark Eldar Tactics: Troops.

Carrying on with the series of Dark Eldar tactics, we bring you troops!

Kabalite Warriors
Three ways you can play this unit:
1. MSU Venom's.
2. Gunboats.
3. Blob.

Personally I am a fan of MSU Venom's as they are smaller, have a free flicker field and are relatively cheap in comparison to our other options. 5 warriors, blaster and a Venom with night shields is the usual configuration. Spam this and you are pumping out 12 shots from the venom, 4-8 splinter shots and a blaster (from the occupants). Usually take 4 at 1500 and 6 at 1850.

Gunboat tactics are nice if you have a lot of LOS blocking walls hanging around the board. Remember that firing from the transport can be done from anywhere on the vehicle (as it is open-topped) essentially making it possible to hide 90% of it sideways for the +1 cover save and still be able to fire. 10 Warriors and a splinter cannon, blaster, Splinter Racks and Night Shields are the usual requirements for this unit. My argument against this unit is that it is much harder to hide and only has an effective range of 30".

Blob is by far one of the worst options for DE. If you want to run blob then you need an Aegis line, 20 Kabalite warriors, Sybarite with PGL, quad gun, two Splinter Cannons and Duke Sliscus. He can man the quad gun and give your blob a very hard hitting amount of poison. Alternatively, take a Skyshield landing pad and just troll around the top with 4+ Invul and 3+ cover. My issue with this unit is the face that it costs so much and is largely immobile. If you are facing an Ork horde on foot then maybe this will do some heavy damage but overall there are far better options.

Wyches
1. Suicide anti-tank.
2. Tarpit.
3. Damage.

Do not under ANY circumstances think about running this unit for scoring purposes. If you are, then pack your army up as you have already lost.

Best option for these boys and girls is as a small Haywire Grenade assault unit. 6-7 of them in a raider with Enhanced Aethersails is equivalent to a tactical lance strike. Once they get out of their raider though, they are pretty much dead. There are better anti-tank weapons but this is still a decent option.

The Tarpit role is largely extinct. There are far fewer death stars rolling around the board these days but if you know your opponent is running a squad of terminators and you have no anti TEQ weapons (get out if you don't) then a squad of wyches can hold them up for a turn or two.

Damage Wyches...........are pretty useless. Their damage output is seriously dependent on the roll for combat drugs in which only 3/6 are decent. If you are new to Dark Eldar, you will soon learn that an exploding raider will kill more of your own troops than anything else and since they are a CC unit with 6+ armour, their chances of surviving being fairly close to your enemies guns are pretty low. If you do want to run a damage unit. make sure to take an Agoniser and a bunch of Hydra Gauntlets/Shardnets in a Raider with Aethersails and pray for the best.

Wracks
Let's face it. These guys are essentially troops.

Wracks provide two key abilities:

Firstly, cheap Venoms. 3 Wracks and a venom is under 100 points which makes them a fairly decent option in smaller games.

Secondly, semi-reliable scoring. 5-10 Wracks constantly going to ground on an objective means a 3+ cover save followed by 5+ FNP most of the time.

Lord Hellions
Hellion blob is situational. This unit is far better in assault than Wyches and the Baron's stealth means you are getting a slightly better save. This unit needs to be behind or in cover at ALL times (remember they re-roll dangerous terrain). Take at least 15, a Helliarch with PGL and Ally in a Doomseer on jetbike for extra shenanigans. Don't expect much if you are facing an MEQ squad and only use them for late game scoring.

Up next is Heavy support.

Cheers.