I'm probably going to get thrashed for saying this; but I think Dark Eldar are going to be a master-class army. I've read through the entire codex multiple times now and I'm convinced that only the best generals are going to have any success with them. Dark Eldar, by design are going to be the hardest army to play in 40K.
Everything they have is paper thin and in this edition, paper thin is just dangerous. Some say that Eldar is a delicate army to play but that's really just bullshit. Eldar is actually one of the most durable races in the game. They have access to 3+ re-rollable cover saves, Energy Shields on their transports and Holofields on their tanks. T3 means very little when everything is well protected and taken care of with re-rolls or staying power. Dark Eldar does not have this luxury. Not at all. They are built based on speed and precision. Since there's no staying power at all; you have to make things happen in perfect unison or fall apart. There's no sitting around and waiting for your opponents to make a mistake. If you make a mistake in any of your phases, you will die.
Movement and positioning is absolutely critical for being successful as Dark Eldar. You need to outrange your opponent's weapons, claim cover saves whenever you can, and know which units to move and which to commit. How you move your units will be the only way you will keep them alive and keep them successful. Two thirds There's no such thing as T4, 3+ armor saves or AV14 transports. There's only AV10 open-top and a bunch of T3 girls wearing battle-thongs. I know this more than anybody; I play Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Death Guard.
There is going to be a huge influx of Dark Eldar players, that I'm sure. I'm also sure that most of these players will crash and burn and sell their models within a year. I say this with confidence because that's exactly what happened years ago when Dark Eldar got their new book and players wanted to give them a whirl. After getting stomped, beaten and destroyed by other armies, they jumped ship and went back to their boring MEQ. How fitting that the weak get filtered out and only the most cunning, evil and arrogant remain. Natural selection at its finest.
7 comments:
We have been playing with the new codex for about a week or so now over at the studio and I can honestly say that any decent shooting based army will level any practical DE list in the new rule set. The meta game defenitly is there but its going to take a fair amount of tweaking (and more then likely hurt feelings) to get a decent competitive list. Right now we have come to a few conclusions, jetbikes are out, hellions are in and everything that's not shooting needs a raider. Also in anything short of 2000 points Vect is complete rubbish.
Cheers
Scott
BH Senior Editor
I disagree on bikes being out. I've been testing the codex and bikes for about 2 weeks now. They are quite excellent. I run them with an arena champ with an agonizer tho, as my bikes always see weak squads that need assaulting, or get caught up by late drop podding marines after a turbo boost.
Hellions, Only thing they have going for them in my opinion is the stunclaw. I like them, but they really should only go in a baron lead list to get those extra scoring units in addition to wyches and warriors.
*GASP* Space Wolves are NOT boring!
I agree with you. I have been playing DE for years and have had great success with them. This book has made DE *more* survivable than in the previous book but they are still very fragile, lets be Honest, the addition of LD 9 and FNP in my oppinion was a great boost. I love the fact that I can run the same army that I did all though 5th until now and that now my units do well when they kill stuff. There is no friendly when you play with DE. Because if you give your opponent a chance then it is very hard to come back from it. I think that the lack of propper terrain at many events will prevent DE from getting to the top tiers on paper. DE need the LOS blocking terrain and the avenues of approach to take advantage of their speed and their firepower.
Isolate and destroy.
"After getting stomped, beaten and destroyed by other armies, they jumped ship and went back to their boring MEQ."
Next codex after DE? Grey Knights. And people say GW is dumb.
I agree with you wholeheartedly HERO. The Dark Kin are going to be borderline impossible to play well when they first come out, barring opponent stupidity. It's going to be a tough, hard ride to the top, but it's gonna be sweet and totally unforgiving to your opponents when you get there.
On the benefits of being more resilient when you kill stuff, it's perfect. You can't perfectly predict what your opponent is going to do, but as long as your guys did their job they way they needed to, you'll be able to survive.
Excited Excited...
@Mr Syxx: Just curious what makes you think jet bikes are out?
If anything I find hellions far more unreliable. Reavers seem to have great re-deployment options and jump shoot jump with blasters is nothing to be sniffed at. As for assault as long as they pick their fights (pretty easy for a unit with such mobility) they should come out on top. Fly by attacks are just the icing on the cake in my opinion.
6 reavers, champion, pw, 2 blasters = 182pts
Sticks out as a pretty flexible and affordable unit.
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