Wargamescon - Dark Eldar Lists that made the cut

Hello and welcome back to the webway.

As most of us know, Wargamescon had just concluded and some interesting listing came up and this in a sense also shows the current meta. The Grey Knights are now entering with full force into the competitive circuit, and some armies have a surprise strong showing, such as the Orks. But I tend to always believe that Orks always got the solution to almost every list out there.  But my interest is mainly with the Dark Eldar players.



Two Dark Eldar players managed to make it to game 7, with one of them getting the Best Overall.


The Dark Eldar that managed to get the Best Overall's list is a particular favourite of mine.

HQ1: Archon with Huskblade, Soul-trap, Combat Drugs and Shadowfield Generator
HQ2: 1x Haemonculus with Shattershard, 2 x Haemonculus


Elites 1: 7 Incubi with Klaivex upgrade inside a Raider with Shock Prow and Enhanced Aethersail
Elites 2: 4 Trueborns with Blasters inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons and Nightshield


Troop1: 8 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades with  1 x Hydra Gauntlets, 1x Hekatrix with Phantasm Grenade Launchers and Venom Blade inside a Raider with Shock Prow , Grisly Trophies and Enhanced Aethersail
Troop2: 8 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades with  1 x Hydra Gauntlets, 1x Hekatrix with Phantasm Grenade Launchers and Venom Blade inside a Raider with Shock Prow , Grisly Trophies and Enhanced Aethersail
Troop3: 8 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades with  1 x Hydra Gauntlets, 1x Hekatrix with Phantasm Grenade Launchers and Venom Blade inside a Raider with Shock Prow , Grisly Trophies and Enhanced Aethersail
Troop4: 3 Wracks inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons and Night Shields
Troop5: 5 x Kabalite Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons and Night Shields


Heavy Support1: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support2: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support3: Razorwing Fighter with 2x Dark Lances, 4x Monoscythe missiles, 1 x Splinter Cannon, Flickerfield, and Night Shields


The reason why I particularly like this list is due to the fact that there are a lot of interesting units and some interesting upgrades. I particularly like the idea that the three elements of the Dark Eldar are represented in this list somewhat, and the fact that the flexibility of this list is quite good. The synergy of the list works quite well as well as there is enough anti-infantry firepower in the form of the Venoms, Wyches and Razorwing and the anti-tank is also of sufficient strength. The idea of the Shock Prow also gives the raiders more utility whenever their weapons got destroyed or when they want something off the objective. Lookwise, this army is quite stunning and is less dull than some lists out there, as the purple is quite striking and the freehand is amazing.


There are only two things that I feel is rather odd with the list; the grisly trophies and the venom blades. The Grisly trophies is something that I do not really like about the list, but nonetheless a leadership reroll can help in some parts of the game, though I will be amazed if any of the raiders even survived turn 3 even with cover and some deft maneuvering. The Venom Blades on the wyches may be cheap and they can do something, but sometimes I feel that a power weapon always help when things are rough.


Thus I would give this list a high score on originality and flexibility.


Now let's look at the second list.

HQ: Baron Sathonyx
HQ: Haemonculi with Shattershard and Crucible of Malediction

Troop1: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop2: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop3: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop4: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop5: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop6: 9x Wyches with Haywire Grenades inside a Raider with Torment Grenade Launcher, Grisly Trophies, and Flickerfield

Elite1: 4x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Elite2: 4x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Elite3: 3x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons

Fast Attack1: 3x Beastmasters, 5x Khymerae, 4x Razorwing Flocks

Heavy Support1: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support2: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support3: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield

This list is particularly spammy, but nonetheless quite effective against a number of opponents. From the looks of it I can safely assume that the Baron is there mostly for his 1+ rolls and also the Stealth rules which he confers on the Beastmasters. The list is a mainly shooting army with a small but hard assault unit. The Crucible I would assume is there for the Grey Knights and the Librarian meta. The Venoms are there to just shoot anything that is not in a transport to death, and will be particularly effective against the Long Fangs Spam that is apparent in the scene, and also would be a good way to force those Thunderwolves to just die painfully. Of course with 108 poisoned shots, it is also a good anti-infantry weapon. The lances are mostly shortranged and the people inside will only be exposed when there is a true need for them to come out, otherwise they would be inside their transports doing two things; shooting from inside the Venom or just stay silent in there and make the Venom scoring (for the troop Venoms at least).

The beastmaster unit will be the unit that willl deliver the main (and only) Close combat punch, and with the allocation and the invul saves of the Khymeara, they will stick for a time. The rending of the little birds will be run as well to AV 10 back-armoured vehicles and troops alike. It is an effective list, but nonetheless a little too boring for my own taste and does not have a particular backup plan other than 1) shooting even more and/or b) run like hell. I could see a list like this suffer with Njarl's funky rules (that 5 + invul will not do too much to save their asses from dangerous terrain). Not to mention that if the Ravagers are out, then the only anti-tank are all relatively close-ranged, and this often means that it is not good when the other side outranges and outguns you like a Mech Guard list.

Nonetheless there is a particular trend when it comes to both these lists that perhaps some player such as myself already knew;

1) Haemonculi:  Whether you take one or you take a bunch of them, their ability to give you a pain token and the accessibility of perhaps the best flamer in the game helps an army.

2)Wych squads: Wyches proved to be one of the best units around for the idea that they could tarpit anyone and anything to your hearts desire. Haywire grenades are also a must for they help in a lot of sticky mechanized situations.

3) 3+ Venoms: A list needs Venoms as they are our equivalent to a Vyper/ Land Speeder/ Razorback. There is little reason why one should ignore them.

4) minimum of 5+ Vehicles: Dark Eldar and their vehicles have a symbiotic relationship. They need the speed and maneuverability to dictate their battles, and the vehicles can protect the fragile guys inside.

5) Minimum of 9 Dark Lances: You need some long-range lance weaponry as they will always do good.

6)Trueborns: Yeah, the blaster-totting trueborn is just too valuable to ignore and one should use at least one squad.

I would expect that more people will use the second list more, as it is much more easier to think and has a good rate of success. But I believe that the list is inherently too focused in its view, and thus have limited flexibility. Thus I am an advocate of making lists that are more balanced and have more contingency plans to fall back to. In a game anything can happen, and in a tournament players would prefer to have more solutions to all the lists that one will encounter out there.