My friend's army list review

Hello all, welcome back to the webway. As the title of this particular post would already tell all of you, today's special of the day is a review of a list of a friend of mine.

Just a few days ago, my good friend and I who both started Dark Eldar around the same time decided to just sit in a McDonalds and brainstormed our way through the book in order to see what works and what does not. Initially we talked about Baron Sathonyx, which my friend wants to play but somehow the talk expanded and in the end, he decided that he would play with 10 Grotesque, led by Sathonyx coming out of a webway portal.

In more ways than one, he is bought on the idea that Grotesque are essentially a very tough unit to break, and also a rather big squad that can rampage through a lot of things, barring Land Raiders and monoliths. It is true that they do not break easily, but they would be a challenge to field with his build.

His list looks something like this (pending some tweaking and some idea on how to spend the remaining points);

HQ
1. Baron Sathonyx - 105 pts

2. Haemonculi with webway portal x 2 -170 pts

Elites
1. Grotesque squad
Grotesque x 10
Liquifier x 1
Abberation with flesh gauntlet

total pts: 390

2. Kabalite trueborn squad
Kabalite trueborn x 4
blaster x 4

Venom with 2 splinter cannons

total pts: 173 pts

3. Kabalite trueborn squad
Kabalite trueborn x 4
blaster x 4

Venom with 2 splinter cannons

total pts: 173 pts

Troops
1. Hellions
Hellions x 7
Helliarch with agonsier and phantasm grenade launcher

total pts - 157 pts

2. Hellions
Hellions x 7
Helliarch with agonsier and phantasm grenade launcher

total pts - 173 pts

Fast Attack
1. Reaver bike squad
Reavers x 3
Caltrops x 1

Total pts: 86 pts

2. Reaver bike squad
Reavers x 3
Caltrops x 1

Total pts: 86 pts

Heavy Support
1. Ravager
Flickerfield

totals pts: 115 pts

2.Ravager
Flickerfield

totals pts: 115 pts

Total pts for army: 1727 pts

Now his list is quite the glass cannon, and needs the correct timing for everything, but his list is essentially build around the Grotesque to bust through many things. The Baron, Hellions, Reavers, and Ravagers are things that he really wants to play with, but his grotesque obsessions (pun somewhat intended) shows its face in the form of the haemonculi and the trueborns mounted in venoms and most notably, the Grotesque themselves.

The main plan for the whole thing is basically deploy almost everything but the grotesque and the baron. The venoms will go and disembark the haemonculi in strategic locations, and while then, lay enough suppressive fire. On the second turn onwards, the baron with his grotesque bodyguards will come out from the webway and bash their way through, with a haemonculus in tow. Furious Charge + Grotesque = Fun times.

I have posted this list on a forum, and most agree that it is a rather fragile list, even for Dark Eldar as it is inherently offensive, with nothing to fall back to if things happen. Some of them suggested that my friend takes out 2 of the grotesque and with the points remaining, get a squad of wracks to boost up the body count, and also allow my friend to hold his objectives. Some even suggested that one of his squad of trueborns should be armed with two splinter cannons and 2 shard carbines to handle the horde stuff. Despite their diferent opinions, they all agree on one thing; with 8-10 Grotesque running around, it is bound to be a pain in the ass to take out unless they have a vindicator/demolisher spam, especially with Sathonyx in tow.

As for my personal opinion, I believe that my friend does not need so much grotesque, as this unit would be formidable, with the best number for the squad numbering around 5-8 models. I would prefer that his list got a lot more scoring units or some units that allow him to shoot things at range before the final, decisive blow (Kabalite warriors would be the best here, but a squad of trueborns is also viable). Otherwise, the list is actually quite viable.

Well, that's it for my friend's list review, and I guess I will go and take a nap or something.