The most powerful armies in 6th

Only the strong will survive.

Well, 6th Ed. has been out for around a month now and it's pretty clear me which armies are the most powerful.  I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I'm just going to flat out say it (not in any order):

Necrons

Grey Knights

Imperial Guard

For me, these armies are by far the most powerful compared to everyone else.  Other armies have gimmicks right now, and that's pretty much it.  You have flying circus Daemons, deathstar Eldar + DE allies, Nob Bikerz, and other stuff out there, but these armies stand out above the rest.  Some armies saw more boosts, some saw some nerfs, but in the end, everyone made it out of 6th Ed. alright.  On a whole, every army improved in some ways, and lost in some ways and it looks like everything is going to be balanced at the end.  Except..

...These three armies that I listed above.  I'll start with Necrons because they're the talk of the town right now. Being the last book before 5th Ed., it's a no-brainer that the army was designed with 6th Ed. in mind.  In fact, it's such a no-brainer that this was their design philosophy that when the FAQs came out, Necrons received virtually no nerfs of any kind.  They were already a pretty strong and well-balanced army at the end of 5th (even taking home some serious tournaments), but they were nowhere near as strong as they are now.  A lot of their units saw incredible buffs in the way of Flyers, their Deathmark sniping is just insane with the new rules, their HQs/Wraiths and Destroyers saw epic boosts to their effectiveness, they can turn on the lights vs. Night Fighting on their turn, and their Gauss drops vehicles much better than they did in 3rd Ed.  In short, Necrons lost nothing, but gained everything they need to be a dominant force in the meta.  The entire book is strong, with virtually no bad choices and plenty of competitive options.  In a way, they remind me of Space Wolves in terms of sheer points to competitive options, except they're not as cookie-cutter as Space Wolves.  Instead of seeing RBs and Long Fangs, you will see a lot more WTF options all packed in one cost-effective list.  This is what sets them apart on top of their other little goodies.

However, I don't think Necrons are the strongest.  I think they are the army that benefited the most from the new rules and lost nothing, so that in combination with an already good book is what makes them powerful.

Next, I'll talk about a book that didn't receive as many buffs as the 'crons, but made it out just fine in the new edition.  That book is none other than Grey Knights.  The entire army turned from Daemonhunters to MEQhunters when the re-write came and that pissed me off the no end.  Everyone had Force Weapons, the Rifleman w/ Psybolts is just out of control and there's so many powerful psychic powers and unstoppable [grenade] effects that made assaulting the army impossible.  They are costed better, shoot better, assault better and just preform better than regular MEQ (especially in MEQ matchups), making GKs the best marine book out there.  Now that the entire army has access to the coveted 2+ armor save and sport one of the strongest psychic lores out there i.e. Divination, the army is still remarkably strong.  Their access to Stormravens also helps the flyer coverage of the army and it seems like there's nothing GKs can't do better than their MEQ counterparts.

With GKs being the best marine army, it's safe to say there's only one spot left among the most powerful armies of 6th Ed.  Ever since the book came out, it's viewed as one of the most controversially underpriced, maladjusted and powerful army books ever written in 40K history.  That book is none other than Imperial Guard.  With the coming of Hull Points in 6th Ed., a lot of people claim that that would be the death of armored IG units.  Oh man were they wrong.  Mech IG is the damn same; gaining greater mobility, the ability to Overwatch and bonuses to Rapid Fire Plasmas.  It almost seems like IG are there to break the rules of the game entirely, making 3rd Ed. Eldar seem tame in comparison.  There's orders for accuracy, denying cover and making enemy units drop dead in their socks.  They have access to the most underpriced piece of shit excuse of a unit I have ever seen in the form of the Vendetta, and now IG can take allies to compensate for their various weaknesses.  All across the board, large blast templates now fall with full effectiveness, reserves are denied or provided via Officers and enemy fliers can eat shit from the Hydra flak, in addition to the now purchasable Aegis Defense Line.  They shoot as good as marines, score better with more bodies, pour out 3x-4x the amount of heavy fire and seemingly have answers to everything you put on the table.  I read this somewhere on the internet a long time ago about IG, and I still think even after these long years the same feeling applies:  "No other army in the game makes your army feel as inadequate."

On that note, I'll close off this post.  To me, it's pretty clear which armies are just outright better in this new world of 40K.  The NOVA Open is coming up and its our first 40K major where players all over the world can try their cheese.  I can't wait to see the results as I predict my analysis here will be well-justified in the final standings of that tournament.  Of course, there's always the concept of bad draws and gimmicky lists coming up on top.  Only the future can tell if that's the case.

Some new Daemon stuff

Slaaaaaaaaneshhh.

Now that I've seen the new updated Daemon rules, let's go over some of this stuff right here.

The first thing is the Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh.  Comes with Aura of Acquiescence and Rending Claws, you have an Exalted Alluress on top that's WS5 with S3 I6 and 4 attacks.  Alright, not that bad.  The Seeker Chariot itself is AV11/11/10, Open-Top, Fast and comes with 2 HP.  This doesn't sound too good at first, but I'd like to point out that it's immune to Poison and Bolters because of the AV11.  Open-top is bad news, but if you're going to pen it, you're most likely going to kill it anyway.

However, that's not what you should be looking at.  What you should be looking at is the Fleshshredder rule that comes with each one of these dudes.  They're basically impact hits, or Hammer of Wrath in 40K.  When you get smacked by one of these chariots, you're taking D6 S4 AP- Rending for each Hull Point it has remaining.  That means the normal chariot puts out 2d6 S4 Rending auto-hits at I10 when it smacks you in the face, and the Exalted Chariot puts out 4d6 S4 Rending auto-hits.  Statistically, you're looking at 14 hits on average from the Exalted Chariot and only 2.33 of those will be Rending 6s before the Alluress swings.  That's not that great, but then again, the Exalted Chariot only costs 90 points in the Heavy slot.

The other little contraption that Slaanesh gets is the Hellflayer.  It's basically the same thing as a chariot, but it gains Soulscent.  For each unsaved wound you deal with the impact hits, the Alluress on top gains that many additional attacks.  Not that bad, but not that great either.  The only plus side is that the normal chariots (Heavy) can be taken in 1-3 for 40ppm, the Hellflayer from the FA slot at 60 and the Exalted Chariot in the Heavy slot for 90.  Whenever I compare the cost of these dudes, I always look at the cost for 6x Fiends at 180 or 10x Seekers for 170.  The Fiends put out 36 WS4 S5 I5 Rending attacks on the charge with Beast movement, the Seekers put out 50 WS4 S3 I6 Rending attacks with Cavalry movement.  The only real difference is that with more attacks comes a greater variance of Rends, but S5 over S3 gives better reliability in terms of actual wounds dealt to MEQ.  Oh, and I guess the fact that Seekers get pseudo grenades also help.

Another thing I look at is the imprint the model has on the battlefield, both in sheer size and accessibility and perceived threat.  I would never take a normal chariot simply because you want to take 3 to get max mileage out of it.  However, the size of these bases makes it a nightmare to place via DS and even a bigger nightmare to get them in combat.  That's why I think the Exalted Chariot is the best one if you were to take one.  It's the smallest out of them and has the best cost to damage ratio.  If you look at the size of the model compared to the other two units I suggest (the Fiends and Seekers), you'll get the same size unit model wise, but it'll cost half the points and therefore, will put out half the damage.  However, and this is big, the chariot is AV11 and therefore doesn't die nearly as fast as the other two and is half the points.  The downside to this is that you're basically charging into melta range because you can never be stuck in combat as a chariot.

Lastly, we'll briefly cover the Screamers and Flamers because they got new rules.  They both got better:  Flamers are now 2W, 5++ instead of 1W, 4++.  They lose their Bolt but got a decrease in points, so I think that's much better considering their main purpose:  To light up MEQ like the 4th of July with Breath of Chaos.  Screamers are now pretty ridiculous.. their Lamprey bite is S5 AP2 with Armorbane and each of them puts out 4 attacks on the charge with WS3 I4.  Let's put it this way, 9 of them charging kills a 10-man MEQ squad on their own and do something like 17 pens to a Rhino.  It looks like if you want anti-armor, Tz is the god to do it.

Depending on what my CSM army needs in the new book, I'll probably get myself some Daemon allies.

Random Fact:
Did you guys know that I had a Khorne Daemons army for WHFB?  At the start of 7th Ed, I went 8-0 (yes, I stopped at 8 on purpose) with the army and sold it immediately.  I literally did nothing but push models forward on turn 1, charged on turn 2, and won on turn 3.  As much as the 7th Ed. Daemons of Chaos army book is my favorite book to read, it was the single-most overpowered book I have ever seen, played or will probably ever see from Games Workshop.  They're not nearly as bad in 8th Ed., but the horrors they inflicted in 7th Ed. will never be forgotten.  And yes, it is written by Mat Ward, the same guy who wrote GKs and Necrons.

New Daemons are here

Daemons are here!

Youtube video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5VN90Ftxg

Check out the main website for more info!
Rules to come in the next White Dwarf I hear.

Expand to see more!

CSM Live Q&A being reported!

Do you hear the voices too?!

Well, not on my blog, but on Faeit 212's site he has a person there who has all the info it seems.

I don't know what else to say, but I've been spamming updates as we go.  I'll have all the compiled info here.  Refresh the page if you don't want to sort through all the unanswered questions since I'll only post what he answered here!

Update: 10:57pm PST - The guy went to sleep, so I have everything updated below.

+++++GIANT WALL OF TEXT INCOMING+++++

More Death Guard on the way!

My Death Guard on the table.

Well, the CSM codex is expected to drop in September and I'm happy to report that my Death Guard are ready to go.  In fact, they're so ready that I placed an order today from FW to get more DGs.  Right now, I have 35 built and ready:  4 of them are Champs w/ Fists, 2 of them have banners which might need replacing, 4 of them have Plasma Guns, 4 have Meltaguns and rest are Bolters.

I have to remake some of my Death Guard Terminators so they'll be ready for the new book.  From what I read from the rumors, there are no Cult Terminators in the game.  However, you are able to mix Marks and Icons on your units so they can potentially gain +1T and FNP.  I really hope this rumor is true because that'll mean all the DG units I have will be well-represented on the battlefield.

One of the things that excites me the most is the ability to take allies with CSM.  I'll be shifting heavy focus to the CSM codex once the book comes out so I can unlock the book's true potential.  As for what kind of lists I'll make, here's what I plan on doing:

• Typhus or Chaos Lord w/ MoN (this really depends on who's the most cost effective choice)
• Zombies if I take Typhus as a huge unit of fodder (supposed Fearless, FNP and cause Fear)
• Death Guard Plague Marines (if the lord unlocks these guys as troops)
• Some regular CSM troops w/ MoN
• A unit of 7x Terminators w/ assorted combi-weapons, MoN and hopefully FNP
• As for heavy support, I hear Havocs w/ MoN will be back so I'll probably do that
• That reminds me, I'll probably need to buy an Aegis Defense Line..
• I don't think Oblits fit the Nurgle theme, but I need to find some cost effective AT options.
• Last, but certainly not least, I'll take Plaguebearers and Epidemis because the combo is just too good not to.

There are 3 rumors that really scare me:

• Plague Marines going up in price, but gain Poisoned Weapons.  I'm not sure what this means, but if its 25ppm, I would be fine with that.  If it's more like 30, they better be freaking godlike or else I won't be able to justify the points.  And if the Poisoned Weapons mean Poisoned in shooting and in close combat, that's just utterly ridiculous.
• The second thing is the Chaos Lord with a specific mark being able to unlock "cult" units as troops (since they're going to be Elites).  If this is not true, well, that freaking sucks because it means I'll have to take Typhus every game.  What if I don't want to take Typhus and want to build my own Lord of Nurgle?
• The last thing is the Marks being meshed with Icons (if true); or rather if +1T and FNP on regular CSM will be most cost effective than Plague Marines.  I'm a little worried how this will turn out because it's really up in the air how good or bad this can be.  I hate the idea that units have to hold a stupid Icon, that once you kill that model you lose the FNP or whatever.  That's just ridiculous.

Alrighty, it's time for me to ask some questions:

• What is the most cost effective and fluffy option for heavy support choices for Death Guard?  Let's take some wild stabs in the air shall we?
• What kind of allies (outside of Epidemis) do you think will help Death Guard the most?
• What do you think about all the new CSM units? (check my last post for the actual rumors)

Random Fact:
Did you guys know that Seekers of Slaanesh are one of the most underrated units in the game?  10 of them costs 170 points, but on the charge they put out 50 WS4 I6 S3 Rending attacks!  Even though they are T3 and only sport a 5++, they have cavalry movement (12" move, ~7" charge), Fleet, have offensive and defensive grenades, and have Hammer of Wrath.  With a combined threat range of 19" charge that's not slowed by terrain, they can murder entire squads of MEQ at a time if left unchecked.  Talk about getting your money's worth.

Chaos Space Marine rumors!

My Death Guard will finally return to the table!

This is originally from Blood of Kittens, I'm just relaying the info!

-Release date: September 1st (my guess as well)
-Hard back (my guess as well)
-There is an Eye of the Gods-like table ~like the WFB  Warriors of Chaos table.
You get to roll on whenever a character kills another character in a challenge, or a Walker or Monstrous Creature. There is a multitude of gifts (and curses) that your Characters can acquire which range from +1 Save, +1 Toughness, or becoming either a Spawn or a Daemon Prince!!! (Sorta True — trying to lump all the funky stuff into one table  is not totally accurate. CSM codex is table land. Expect many random charts and upgrades it will be hard to keep track.)
-Chaos Cultists are in (true– said this and others before)
-The Dragon flyer is in  – think Necron Night Scythe with the main chassis replaced by a massive mechanical dragon head with segmented wings sweeping forward and around from it. (True – The thing looks like a dragon head attached to the Owl from Clash of the Titans)
-Dark Apostles – ~Word Bearers rejoice!!! (True– but more of cultist leader/moral buffer)
-Warp Smiths – Chaos Techmarines that can curse vehicles and degrade terrain. ~maybe they’ll have anti-psychotic grenades ( True -Think Doc Ock )
-New Daemon Engine – half way between a Dreadnought and a Defiler. (True -I would say halfway between Defiler and Trygon)
-Defilers are Daemons and have a 5+ Inv save. (Yes a Demon, and some extra lovin…)
-’Cult’ units are all Elites and are unlocked to Troops by appropriate HQ choices (True- Said this before, but have some good news on that front)
-No Cult Terminators ~boo hiss!!! (-True, boo hiss!!!)
-Obliterators are exclusively for shooting – so no powerfists. (-False they will shoot, but still have a powerfist)
HOWEVER there is a new unit which is basically a close combat Obliterator. (True)
-There are 2 types of Raptors now: regular CSMs with Jump Packs, and Possessed Daemonic Raptors with Lightning Claws. (True)
-Possessed take multiple benefits from the Eye of the Gods table. (not sure)
-NO Daemons in the Codex. (true, but allies FTW!)

Rumor: Eldar spotted in warhouses

Please be plastic.

Kirby just reported this from 3++ that Eldar has been found in some warehouses.

I have no idea whether or not this is true, but something is off from our current 40K release schedule.  From what I know, CSM is next, followed by 6th Ed. Starter sets, with Dark Angels after that.  Tau was rumored to get a new book before Eldar, but with GW's track history of book priority (more popular armies gets priority), I wouldn't be surprised.

Anyways, here's what's reported:

• plastic Warpspiders/Everguard
• plastic Skycharriots/Shining Spears
• plastic Phantomwaechter  - these might be the shadow spectres? Some sort of Dreadnought-like construct potentially larger than Wraithlord.
• plastic Jetbikes
• plastic Wraithguard/Cataphracts
• plastic flyer combi-kit - The flyer is pretty large and has a crossbow shape, two canopies, one fin. The main variant on the cover has some lances and a large dorsal distort cannon. The other variant has extra downward/sideway thrusters, but I don’t remember if it has a different weapon loadout. No idea what these could be as I'm not familiar with Imperial Armor - anyone want to chuck ideas out?
• plastic phoenix lord niadhau  - For Shining Spears, appears to be on a Vyper jetbike. 
• plastic webway gate
• resin box Avatar
• resin Black Warden - The Black Warden looks like an female Autarch. She has a shurikencatapult and a feathered guardian helm with an eye on it. 
• resin Dire Avenger Xentarch - Appears to be a new English name for Exarch?
• resin Howling Banshee Xentarch
• resin Fire Dragon Xentarch
• resin Striking Scorpion Xentarch
• resin box Dragon Riders
• resin box Eldritch Raiders - They look like guardians but have no helms and wear scarfs around the lower head and swashbuckle belts. They are very individually equipped, have all sorts blades, pistols and/or rifles. (potentially Storm Guardians?)
• resin box Halcones Cazadores - no idea sorry Potentially Swooping Hawks
• resin Warlock

A pitcher of salt is needed for this one..

To make things a little weirder, I had a dream last night that the Eldar book came out before the CSM codex.  And today I read this.  I might be a Farseer?

BR: 1500 DE vs. Orks

Get dat cover!

Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Warlord Trait: Strategic - Re-roll reserves
Drugs: 6 - Pain Token

My list:
1490
14 VP

HQ:
Succubus (Agonizer, BP, Haywire) = 105

TROOP:
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
9x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL, Haywires) = 210
10x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL, Haywires) = 220

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS) = 115
Ravager (NS) = 115
Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

His List:
10 VP
2x big ass squads of Shootas w/ Nob on foot
2x 12-man units of Shootas w/ Nob in Trukks
2x 15-man squads of Lootas, one with a Mekboy w/ Shokk
1x 11-man unit of Shootas
1x unit of 3 Kans

Some Eldar thought patterns

Some people just don't get it.

I don't know why I did, but I read through some Eldar wishlist threads the other day and my head nearly exploded.  I can't believe how delusional some people are.  It's almost as if they're incapable of logical thought, and they're unable to put together the pieces to better predict the future.  That's when I wonder if they're playing the right army in the first place!  It's just not very Eldar behavior.

The new Eldar book probably won't come until CSM, Dark Angles and Tau gets their books.  I'm predicting Eldar in the latter half of 2013, or maybe even 2014.  That means we've got a good amount of time to speculate what's going to happen with the army.

Here are my predictions for the Eldar book:

• A lot of things will be streamlined to fit with 6th Ed. USRs.  I'm talking about things like Holofields giving Shroud, Bladestorm giving Shred and War Shout giving Fear.  My prediction is that only a few Eldar abilities will retain any resemblance of what they currently are.  GW is huge on streamlining things according to their BRBs:  It happened to Fantasy, it's happening to 40K and it will happen to the Eldar codex.
• In terms of Exarchs and unit abilities, I think they'll still provide awesome benefits to the squad either in the form of superior weapon choices, abilities (possibly streamlined) and stat lines. If you look at the Dark Eldar Incubi, their "Exarch" still packs Exarch abilities and a buffed stat line.
• We'll probably see a points decrease across the board with mostly the same rules and functionality.  I do not think we'll see any stat increases aside from the universal BS4 on things that can shoot.  In the case of the Farseer, I can see them being bumped up in price for the ability to choose skills in the same way as SM Librarians.  Autarchs will probably not see a stats bump but will retain their Master Strategist rule.  The reasoning for this is that Dark Eldar is considered more martial prowess by fluff whereas Eldar kept their psychic disciplines.
• Another reason why I don't think Phoenix Lords will see a stats bump is because Drazhar did not.  He still shares the same 7s line that Eldar Phoenix Lords have and that's proof  to me that GW likes it there.
• Speaking of psychic disciplines, if you look on the BRB's chart for who can take what psychic abilities, it's pretty obvious that Eldar will have their own psychic abilities.  I think the Eldar will receive their own lore of psychic abilities, but even so it'll seem like that's on the small side considering Space Wolves can take 5 if you include their own book's lore.  That's a fairly tough one to analyze because the Divination tree from the current BRB looks like its written for the Eldar.  Who knows, maybe Farseers will be able to choose whatever they want as an extra bonus.  In fact, I'm pretty much banking on it.
• Eldrad will probably be some kind of epic psyker badass, and that might lead to the first Lv.4 Mastery Psyker in the game.  It would be fitting for sure.
• Some weapons might be tweaked:  Shuriken Catapults might see a range increase to 18" and Avenger Shuriken Catapults might see 24".  I think consistency plays a huge role on how certain things are designed, and this will only make sense for development.
• As for FOC changes, I don't think there's going to be a lot of moving from the units mentioned here.  Dedicated transports may allow the use of Falcons and War Walkers might move to Fast Attack slots.  Who knows?  The only one I think will happen is the Support Weapon Batteries being merged in with the Guardian squads somehow.
• Lastly, for new unit additions, I'm not sure if there's going to be room for a lot of expansion.  Eldar have a good amount of unit entries but there is room to grow.  They definitely need a Flyer (Nightwing and Phoenix are obvious answers), and they could incorporate more Corsair elements or even stuff from other Craftworlds.  I read through IA11 this weekend and they had some pretty juicy stuff going for them.

Well, that's all I have to say about that.  Just keep in mind that this is not a wishlist.  It's an educated guess to what could happen given GW's history, track record and design philosophies.

DE: Getting the best out of cover

Class is in session.

To get the best out of Dark Eldar, you must understand 2 things:  Everything you have is paper thin, and everything you have is incredibly destructive.  This means that in order to play your glass cannon army effectively, you must know how to deal damage while denying damage.

Here's a cheat sheet:

Stealth is +1 to your cover save.
Shrouded is +2 to your cover save.
Skilled Rider is +1 to your cover save.
PGL and defensive grenades gives Stealth to units being shot at 8" and closer.
Well-positioned angle is +1 to your cover save, but only under certain conditions (pg.75, picture 3).
Stealth + Shrouded = +3 to your cover save.
Stealth + Shrouded + well-positioned angle = +4 to your cover save; this means that they stack.
Jink is a flat 5+ cover save.
Flat out is a flat 4+ cover save.
Most terrain is a flat 5+ cover save.
Ruins is a flat 4+ cover save.  Jink, Flat out, and all terrain cover do not stack.

The thing to take away from this is that there are some things that stack and some that don't.  Jink is the same as 5+ cover from terrain, so you can only use one or the other.  The same applies to Ruins and Flat Out.  However, there's some things that stack on top of cover, and there's a lot of different combinations that you can pull off to deny damage.

Check this out:

Most terrain + Stealth = 4+ cover save.
Most terrain + Shrouded = 3+ cover save.
Most terrain + Stealth + Shrouded = 2+ cover save.
Ruins + Stealth = 3+ cover save.
Ruins + Shrouded = 2+ cover save.
Most terrain + well-positioned angle + Stealth = 3+ cover save.
Most terrain + well-positioned angle + Shrouded = 2+ cover save.
Jink + Stealth = 4+ cover save.
Jink + Stealth + well-positioned angle = 3+ cover save.
Jink + Shroud = 3+ cover save.
Jink + Stealth + Shrouded = 2+ cover save.
Flat out + Stealth = 3+ cover save.
Flat out + Shrouded = 2+ cover save.
Flat out + Stealth + well-positioned angle = 2+ cover save.
...etc

If Night Fighting is in effect, you gain Shrouded from 24-36" (and Stealth at 12-24").  This is Lance engagement range.  I repeat:  This is lance engagement range.

So which ones out of this list is most common for Dark Eldar?

DE: Time to add in some allies!

I can't wait for the new Eldar book.

It's Friday! I hope everyone is having a pretty good week so far.  Next week, depending on how lazy I feel, I might get a game in with my DE with Eldar allies.  I don't think allies will be good for anything less than 1850 because even bare bones stuff takes a good amount of points.

Let's see now.. as Dark Eldar, we don't have many options for really good allies.  However, we gained one of the best armies in the game to partner up with and that's none other than Eldar.  Given that we're the same race, one can only accept that by the way fluff has advanced that Eldar and Dark Eldar are no longer hating eachother.

This is one of those rare times that I'll ever talk about fluff, but I think for this particular topic, fluff is important.  First thing's first:  Dark Eldar and Eldar are not like Dark Elves and High Elves.  They don't hate eachother to death, they just don't agree with eachother's life style.  If you read through the Dark Eldar codex, there's a section in there that says Dark Eldar even helped the craftworld Iyanden when they're about to be overwhelmed by Orks.  Regardless, the old idea of the Eldar hating on their over-indulgent cousins is being pushed aside and they are now Battle Brothers.

Now that fluff is done, we can talk about army lists.  Hmm.. what can I bring at <2K points that can incorporate the strengths of both armies?

Well, I drafted up an army list for you guys:

1999

19 VP

HQ:

Succubus (Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 105

TROOP:

5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130

5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130

10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195

10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195

9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 225

10x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 235

HEAVY:

Ravager (NS) = 115

Ravager (NS) = 115

Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

Allies:

Farseer (Jetbike, Guide, RoWarding, RoWitnessing, Spear) = 133

3x Guardian Jetbikes = 66

3x War Walkers (Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon) = 150

Dark Eldar units revisited

Arrogance and firepower.

This will be my 6th Ed. review of all the Dark Eldar units.  I'll probably do a complete army primer for my Kabalite army sometime in the near future, so stay tuned.  This is a review of the entire book in the new edition, my army primer will be similar to my Pure Grey Knights tactica where I only focus on Kabal units (no coven stuff).

Alright, let's begin.

HQs
Asdrubael Vect - Still good, just not as good as he was.  Preferred Enemy and Fearless now confers to the squad that he's with, so that's always good.  I say that alone makes him worth his points despite his Power Weapon being only AP3.  Well you know what, tough shit.  All of our power weapons are now AP3, at least he still wounds on 3+ and now you get to re-roll all 1s.  This makes him a beast at killing tactical marines, but a complete waste if you throw him into combat vs. Terminators.  Seize on 4+ is still good too, especially when you can take advantage of Night Fighting.

Lady Malys - Not much to say about her.  Making a squad immune to psychic abilities in an edition where psykers are everywhere is pretty promising.  The best thing about her is her 130 point price tag and the fact that she can relocate bits and pieces of your army.  No Shadowfield is a bit of a let down, and the AP3 on her weapon is also pretty sad.

Drazhar, Master of Blades - Now holds one of the only options for AP2 in our entire book, and that alone makes him attractive.  What makes him unattractive is his points cost, his lack of grenades and the fact that he has to join Incubi, who also don't have grenades.

Lelith Hesperax - Lelith got a bit of a boost this edition because her weapons now completely ignore armor. This is great and all, but I would still prefer a 2++ on her because of her points cost.  You can literally buy 2 Succubi in place of her and that's just a ton more cost effective in every way, shape and form.  Some people still enjoy the ignore armor saves thing, but to me, she's still S3 with no drug modifications.

Urien Rakarth - Sees a buff this edition with the addition of challenges.  Urien is actually really good in a challenge, but your opponent is probably not going to want any of that.  He's carrying a Flesh Gauntlet that's poisoned 3+ and has a built-in Clone Field.  I mean, come on.  For that reason, he's a decent buy for any coven list because he also provides army-wide buffs and bonuses.  Overall, a good choice in a coven list, but I wouldn't say he's completely cost effective.

Duke Sliscus the Serpent - Great buy as always.  I've always said he was a good buy for 150 and I still stand behind him with that.  His weapon also got buffed because it still ignores armor saves on a 5+.  Duke comes stock with a Blast Pistol and Shadowfield, and has great army-wide buffs for drug heavy lists.  He's great for armies using a lot of Splinter shots and even better with an mechanized list that can take advantage of his near army-wide Retrofire Jets.

Kherdaruakh, the Decapitator - I've literally given up on trying to say his name, so I just call him the Decapitator.  It doesn't really matter anyway because he's crap.  Not worth the points in any way.  Just terrible.

Baron Sathonyx - The only other great buy for special characters.  He's dirt cheap, gives whatever unit he joins Stealth, a free PGL and Shadowfield.  Hellions also become troops when you take this guy and since he's an IC, you can attach him to anything you want.  I don't know about you guys, but this guy is simply outrageous for the cost.  To make things even more interesting, you can also take him, another Shadowfield Archon with Eldrad and a big unit of Wraithguard with Conceal.  Attach both the Baron and Archon to the unit and place them in the front and Fortune the unit with Eldrad.  You now have a T6 unit with 4+ cover walking across the field with 2x 2++ re-rollable characters to take shots and transfer wounds.  Oh, and they have Hit and Run.

Archon - A fantastic buy still, but a little nerfed because of his weapon choices.  Both the Huskblade and Agonizer lost a lot of their killing potential, but the fact that he can still sport a Shadowfield in challenges is very nice.  He can challenge with confidence and you can gear him out however you want.  Agonizers are great vs. normal marines, Venom Blades are better vs. Terminators (and also much cheaper), and BS7 Plasma Grenades and Blaster shots are always good.

Succubus - My favorite HQ under the new rules.  She has built-in drugs, outrageous WS and I and is only 5 points more expensive than the Archon.  Her 4++ dodge is't as impressive as the Shadowfield, but it comes stock and costs nothing.  Besides, if you roll for +1WS, she is now WS9 and all units WS4 and under will need 5s to hit her.  That, in combination with her speed and wide range of weapon choices will give you plenty of options.  One of the biggest things to note about her in this edition is that you now use the highest I in the unit when rolling for Sweeping Advance.  This makes her I8 extremely deadly to anything she wins combat with.

Haemonculi - Not much changed with these guys.  They're still the points effective, Liquidfier-totting, Shattershard sharting weirdos that get all kinds of funky ass weapons.  I guess they got buffed a bit because Haemonculi alone hold the keys to Arcane weapons and thus, the ability to instantly remove Terminators, characters and character units.

BR: 1750 DE vs. CSM

Takin' some slaves.

Mission: Crusade (4 objectives)
Deployment: Dawn of War

My list:
1745
17 VP

HQ:
Succubus (Agonizer, BP, Haywires) = 105
Succubus (Agonizer, BP, Haywires) = 105

TROOP:
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL/BP, Haywires) = 225
9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL/BP, Haywires) = 225

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS) = 115
Ravager (NS) = 115
Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

His list:
Sorcerer in TDA
Sorcerer in PA on foot
2x 7x Plague Marines w/ 2x Plasma Guns in Rhinos
7x Terminators, 2x combi-meltas, Reaper AC, MoNurgle
2x 2x Obliterators
1x 10x CSM squad on foot w/ Plasma Guns

6th Ed. Wound Allocation.. why?!

Look at this shit.

I mean honestly, why?
Look at the god damn flow chart for a second.  I didn't make it, some other dude did.
Check it out by clicking on this link.

Why can't it be like 4th Ed.?  I played 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th and I honestly think 4th Ed. has the best wound allocation system out of all of it.

Look at the flow chart above and observe my 4th Ed. wound allocation flowchart.

This flowchart took longer for me to make in paint than it takes to resolve a shooting phase.
This took about 10 seconds to make.

6th Ed. DE vs. Army Predictions

RPS is a real man's game.

You know what I think?  I think even though 6th Ed. is one of the better editions of 40K I've ever played, it's still got some balance problems.  I know, you're probably thinking no shit, but things got very complicated this edition with allies, fortifications and flyers.  Most of these problems are not because of the actual edition (some parts is), but the fact that certain army books benefits too much from the rules.  For example, Dark Eldar gain Jink on all of their vehicles and love the hell out of Night Fighting, but there's a lot of horrible nerfs to the army as well just from the general rules.

Let's see how many armies there are for 40K:
Blood Angels - Buffs
Chaos Daemons - Buffs
Chaos Space Marines - Nurgle buffs up the ass
Dark Eldar - About even
Eldar - About even
Grey Knights - Buffs
Imperial Guard - Buffs
Necrons - Unbelievably good
Orks - Buffs
Sisters of Battle - Buffs
Space Marines - Buffs
Space Wolves - Even, the lack of anti-Flyers is pretty sad
Tau Empire - Buffs
Tyranids - About even

You know what I think is going to happen next 40K Major?

The top armies will be:

1. Necrons - Just out of control right now.
2. Imperial Guard - Still a force to be reckoned with, and access to the best Flyer (Vendetta).
3. Grey Knights - The best MEQ force with a lot more options.

BR: 1500 DE vs. Orks

Might is right!

Hey guys, I didn't take pictures this time around so I apologize ahead.  This BR will be summary form, taking vital information gathered during the game and sharing it in bullet point format.  The one thing to keep in mind from these BRs is that they're not actually BRs, they're self-reflections on the pros and cons of my play.

My army list:

1500
14 VP

HQ:
Succubus (Agonizer, BP, Haywires) = 105

TROOP:
5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
10x Warriors (Raider, NS, SR, Blaster, SC) = 195
9x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL, Haywires) = 215
10x Wyches (Raider NS/AS, Hekatrix/VB/PGL, Haywires) = 225

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS) = 115
Ravager (NS) = 115
Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

Notable changes:
-The Wyches' Hekatrix were trying out Venom Blades and PGLs with the 20 points I would normally spend on Agonizers.
-I dropped Blast Pistols because I didn't have the points.
-10 points remaining means I took Aethersails for both of my Wych Raiders.

DE: Taking advantage of 6th Ed.

Death is my meat; terror my wine.

I'm going to briefly cover some 6th Ed. rules that I want everyone to learn and utilize to their game.  There's a lot of things that 6th Ed. brings that greatly favors Dark Eldar and I want to share them.  Sure, there's some nerfs too, but I'd rather concentrate on the good stuff.

Night Fighting and Night Vision
Know that your entire army has Night Vision and that Night Fighting doesn't affect you at all.  Also know that your enemies are in a world of shit if they're fighting Dark Eldar in the pitch dark.  They literally cannot engage you if you're more than 36" away and this should effect how to deploy.  Pre-measuring is in all the time now so you can deploy to best take advantage of these rules.  If your opponents can only engage you by moving his vehicle 6", know that his threat range is then 42" away.  Also understand that if you have Night Shields, the effective range of his weapon is also shortened, so you can pile all these on top of each other.

Another big deal about Night Fighting is that 24-36" makes you count as Shrouded, and 12-24" means you gain Stealth.  Put this on top of the fact that you have 5+ to Jink and your Lances can negotiate enemy vehicles at 36" and gain 3+ cover save under Night Fighting if you move.  This basically makes Dark Eldar the most effective army in the game when it comes to Alpha Striking with heavy weaponry under the Night Fighting rules.  If you Turbo-boost your Raiders to get to a better location (say.. a distant corner that's near an objective), you will gain 2+ cover.  If you find some nice cover for your Raider to shoot from, you can get up to a 2+ cover save from Night Fighting.  That is huge.  You must utilize the darkness to your advantage and that's one of the reasons I always take the Strategic Trait on my Warlord.

My 6th Ed. DE army list

Challenge anyone?

Alright fellas, I got enough 6th Ed. jammed down my throat that it's officially time to revise and update my army list for Dark Eldar.

Needless to say, I kept things very straight forward and maybe even a little boring.  The metagame around me actually looks kinda funny.  There's a couple of CSM players, 3 Necron players (FML), maybe Tyranid player once in a while, another DE player who doesn't really play, a BA/GK player, a few Ork players and some SW players.  There is a single Guard player and a CSM player who's thinking about including traitor IG in his Allies list, but there aren't any serious talks of beard or cheese.

I'm the type of DE player who barely took Blasterborn last edition and even less Venoms.  I love myself some Trueborn, but I was never a fan of Venomspam and thus didn't bother building any!  OK, that's a lie because I actually built one, but I have 2 more NIB that I haven't touched yet.  In fact, I only proxy'd and Vassal'd with the Flyers last edition and didn't really find them enjoyable or worth their points compared to the Ravager.  With this edition, things might change because I can definitely see the use of a Flyer; both as a counter-flyer and as a straight up damage tool that can apply damage without fear of retaliation.

Another thing about me as a player is that I love Kabal Dark Eldar.  I don't like the fluff, mechanics and playstyle of the Haemonculi and thus, I keep all of my units Kabal-themed.  In a way, most of my units are not the typical MSU Venom heavy lists that you'll find elsewhere.  My lists are designed to be specialized over target saturation, built for quality and not for quantity.  This caters to my playstyle and I must say, it's been working out quite well for me.  Most of my wins with Dark Eldar depends on precision tactics where I use terrain to my advantage as I pick off high priority targets.  I place my models in a way that LoS is difficult and retaliation is even harder without a handsome cover save.  I'm a Dark Lance heavy player and I view precision and firepower as the hallmark of my playstyle.

A look at DE HQs in 6th

Here I go again!

In 6th Ed, DE power weapons become AP3.  This means that the Agonizer and Huskblade are basically ass vs. anything with a 2+ armor save.  I don't know how your meta is guys, but mine is still obsessed with Grey Knights, Artificer Armor and MEQ in general.  The better question to ask yourself is whether or not is how many Librarians are out there that can't sport a 2+ armor save.  Since Librarians will be all over the place because of the lovely new Psyker rules, I tend to hate on them a lot as Dark Eldar.  Space Wolves have Runic Armor for theirs and Grey Knight Librarians come with TDA.  I still can't for the life of me figure out how Dark Eldar, in all their arrogance and technology haven't figure out a way to cut through Imperial trash.  It blows my mind.

Anyways, let's talk about the cheap HQ route.  I like the combat route for my characters so I never take any Haemonculi in my lists.  The HQs I like to concentrate are Archons and Succubi.

Here are some configurations I'll be playing with the next couple of days:

6th Ed. First Impressions

Pen and paper, keeping it old school.

I played a 1500 point game today against my friends Blood Angels and here's what I learned.  Once again, this will be done in bullet points, so it's easier to follow.

Dark Eldar was the army I used and here is the army list:

1500

14 VP

HQ:

Archon (Huskblade, BP, ST, SF, Drugs) = 160

TROOP:

5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130

5x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster) = 130

10x Warriors (Raider, NS, Blaster, SC) = 185

9x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 225

10x Wyches (Raider NS, Hekatrix/Agonizer/BP, Haywires) = 235

HEAVY:

Ravager (NS) = 115

Ravager (NS) = 115

Voidraven (NS/FF, 4x SF) = 205

Here are the changes I made to my Dark Eldar:

• Dropped Flickerfields on transports.
• Added Haywires to the Wyches because they're amazing.
• Dropped my normal 2 unit of Wyches for more Lances because Wyches are more utility now.
• Added a Voidraven with Flickerfield because then he doesn't need to take any Jink saves.  The 4x Shatterfield Missiles are there because they're awesome.
• Switched the Archon to my Huskblade setup because I wanted to play with him this game.

Here is what I learned from playing my first game of 6th Ed:

6th Ed. Challenges and other stuff

Learn it, use it.

For one, I like challenges in 6th Ed.  This is somewhat of a double-edged sword sometimes, but I think for the majority of the time, it'll be a strong mechanic.

Let's look at the Huskblade, Shadowfield, Soul Trap build for the Archon.  Right now, it sucks ass because being an unusual power weapon, it's AP3.  With almost every Space Marine IC in the game having 2+ armor, this makes for a very lame time if they challenge you to a duel.  Or would it?  It's one of those things those double-edged swords because you'll probably go first as the Archon being I7, and you'll hopefully force some ID wounds down your opponent's throat.  Sure, he'll have to roll a 1, but there's no FNP involved and if he fails and doesn't have EW, he dies.  Not to mention he'll be stuck in combat with you and the chances of wounds getting through your 2+ invul is also lower.  In short, you are better in duels than most ICs, because the threat of Instant Death is always there, and a 2+ invulnerable save is just bullshit for duels.

Would I always challenge with my Huskblade Archon?  Fuck yes.  The reason why is because you literally shit on every SM Sarge in the game (aside from 2+ ones like Termies or Sanguinary Guard).  You get in combat, issue a challenge, and if they decline, they can't attack.  If you charged a unit of Space Marines and the sarge is carrying a Power Fist, you issue a challenge and either force him to fight, or not use his Fist.  This allows faster ICs like Archons the ability to pick out Power Fists and slay them before they get the strike and therefore, saving your IC from all sorts of ID threat.