MY DARK ELDAR ARMY
With a new Wh40K, and my Chaos army largely finished, I felt it was time to start a new army. I was in no doubt which to choose, it had to be the Dark Eldar. A Dark Eldar host dedicated to Slaanesh would also make the perfect allies and opponments to my Chaos force. This will be my diary of a new army, covering collecting, painting, battling and general progress. Here goes!
Friday May 28th, 1999
I haven't updated this section for ages, but that's not to say I've abandoned the Dark Eldar- in fact, i've been so busy playing i haven't had a chance! My gaming group has expanded to include a number of friends with the facilities for 4 player games, so that's what i've been doing most weekends. From these, i have learnt a few things. One, Bolters hurt, seriously. Stick yourself in some cover! Two, Disintegrators rock- One shot pretty much did for a deep striking squad of terminators. Three, Grotesques are great as bodyguards for a Haemonculus when you're running straight into missile launchers. Look out for S6+ weapons with a high rate though- Scatter lasers can make a real mess of them. Finally, suicide tactics are just that- charging at said missile launchers with a raider moving 24" in one turn is on the surface a good idea but one shot mayt well do for it and leave you stranded.
Sunday February 21st, 1999
An intersting discovery in the wargear section has lead to some frantic conversion work- I must have overlooked the Agoniser before as it's ability to always wound on a 4+ without armour saves is much cheaper than the powersword/combat drugs combo on my lord, which only works against foes of T4 or less anyway- no use against Nurgle Chaos Hordes (guess what my m8 is about to start collecting...). As such, I have replaced the Archon's Sword with an Agoniser, though I shall be keeping the combat drugs as I can safely now take an extra attack, or go for +1A and either striking first or re-rolling misses, depending on the initiative of the other models. Oh, and I got two more plastic warriors for a pound (White Dwarf Clearance), which have become Sybarites, one with an Agoniser and another with a Powersword (from the lord, obviously). The army is starting to appear distinctly character heavy, so next on the list is the Grotesques.
Sunday January 31st, 1999
I got two haemonculi yesterday, and have finshed the one on the hellion skyboard- made from a pair of sycthes from the Raider and mounted on a 40mm base with a spare transparent flying base pin, again from the raider. Amazingly he stands up well and didin't need half a tube of superglue to keep him on the board! The six man Raider squad is also complete, leaving me with just a single Haemonculus to paint up.
Tuesday December 29th, 1998
I've got hold of a DE warriors boxed set, Raider and the DE Codex and so have planned out my whole army as promised. To see it, click Here I've also been painting furiously and have completed a 10 man warrior squad, the Raider and a converted Archon which can be seen above.
Thursday December 24th, 1998
Ok, so I haven't updated in ages, but with spare time and the prospect of christmas I felt it was time to plan out my army. This is only a provisional force until I get CODEX:Dark Eldar, but should still fit with a few tweaks.
HQ 1- Archon with Incubi Bodyguard
You have to have at least one HQ choice, so I went for an Archon to get that lovely I7 and WS6. To stop him getting shot to pieces I thought he could do with a Retinue, and was going to regular DE warriors, but then I realised that the only way to take Incubi is through a retinue. I'll give the Archon a power weapon to complement those of the Incubi- half a dozen power weapons which strike first against Space Marines should scare away my opponent's attempts at killing him in a wave of Power-armoured assault marines, and their save is good enough to survive most gunfire. Why oh why can't these guys be taken as Elites?
TROOPS 1- Warrior Squad
You need at least 2 Troops choices, yet I wasn't planning on purchasing 2 boxes of DE, yet there aren't enough to split them into two Warrior Squads. I hit on the solution on using 10 as a minimum-sized Warrior Squad, with two Splinter Cannons to make up for the lack of numbers (4 shots each!). At a later date I may add a Shreder and/or a Sybarite.
TROOPS 2- Raider Squad
The remaining 6 DE from the boxed set are enough for a Raider Squad, so I'll just purchase one of these instead of a second boxed set. This has the advantage that it considerably increases the mobility of my force, something which will provide a contrast to my somewhat static Chaos Army- the DE will emphasise speed over armour.
ELITES 1- Wych Cult
To be honest, neither of the Elites appeal that much to me ( I want Incubi!), but the Wyches are that much cheaper than the Mandrakes so I'll take a small unit of them. They are in fact even cheaper than warriors, yet they have two saving graces- they're an easy way to include a pair of Shredders and their Initiative of 6 virtually guarantees that they'll strike first and hopefully down a few foes before getting slaughtered.
HEAVY SUPPORT1- Scourges
Another Grey area- the Talos isn't mentioned in the 3rdEd rulebook, but I imagine it's heavy support. But for now, I'll take a 10 Strong unit of Scourges, 4 with Splinter Cannon, to provide a devastating arsenal of weaponry- as they have Jumppacks, they only need move half the time so can squeeze the most from their rapid fire. The idea of taking four Lascannons appeals yet does not really seem practical on the battlefield- jumppack troops shouldn't be tied down by heavy weapons, and the vaguaries of Deep Strike mean they might be a waste of points. I think it's best to get the Codex before deciding on my Elite and Heavy choices.
FAST ASSAULT 1- Jetbikes
Now this is easy, there's only one choice yet that's fine by me, as it was the jetbikes which attracted me to the DE in the first place. However, they'll probably be the last unit I start as they are not essential for any of the missions. A nice big unit of 10 would be great, but I'll probably settle for 4 or 5 due to cashflow limitations (translation: I'll be broke)
Saturday October 3rd, 1998
I begin my new army by acquiring a single dark Eldar from White Dwarf. I'm going to take a new approach to collecting- with my chaos army I just bought things that i liked and fitted them in with no overall theme. This army will be planned. However, I won't know what's hot and what's not until I get the new WH40K and the Dark Eldar Codex, so these will first on my list of purchases. I do know that I'll want a Talos whatever, though, because it looks amazing!
One thing I have decided on is the colour scheme. For the bulk of models it will purple armour with black everything else. On the leaders (I think they're called Sybarites) the purple will be metallic rather than regular. To break the monotony a couple of elite squads will have the colour scheme inverted to create a far darker look. One other squad will be entirely metallic purple, like the leaders. Vehicles will follow the same principles.