My thoughts on the Dark Eldar troop choices here and what wonderful choices they are. We only have two and I think that is fine. That is a 100% increase from the previous codex (outside of wych cult silliness). I’ll be covering the Kabalite Warriors and Wyches. I know Wracks can be made troops, but they are essentially an elite unit and I’ll get to them in turn. I’ll start first with my old favorite choice.
Kabalite Warriors, the guardsmen of the Dark Eldar. They are quite a bargain for the stats they have. They are as skilled with ballistic and melee weapons as the Astartes, they are as fast as most Eldar aspects, but are only as strong, tough, brave and armored as Imperial Guardsmen. They also have the Dark Eldar rules of fleet, night vision and power through pain. The last rule being the best. A single pain token can add so much to these guys. You can also run as few as five dudes or as many as twenty.This gives you a nice variety of squad sizes to try. They also can run in Raiders for added mobility. So far they seem pretty descent. Let us look at their weapon load out.
They come armed with splinter rifles that have a nice 4+ poison attached to them, and have the standard 24” -12” rapid fire rules. This is a nice anti- everything save vehicle gun. Sure it gets no cool poison weapon re-roll like the close combat variety, but it can threaten anything that has a toughness value. It is also a huge boost compared to the previous strength 3 splinter rifles. Then there are the weapon upgrades they can take.
First is the shredder, which one warrior can take, but why? Sure it is a strength 6 blast with zero AP. It also has a 12” range so that isn’t stellar either. If the range was a bit farther it might be a nice addition. Strength 6 and blast will wound most models on 2+ and that is a nice little threat, the range makes it sub par. It is the cheapest weapon upgrade these guys can take.
Second is the blaster, the non-melta gun. Is a nice strength 8 AP 2 lance gun, but I find short range anti-tank bad on warriors. I think there are better anti-tank platforms out there besides the Kabalites. Yes it is lance, but unless you are getting super close to Landraiders or the front of Russ tanks, it really isn’t that great. A mostly 50%-50% to penetrate armor and at close range is not my idea of a good time. Then there are the gooey insides of the transport you blew open (hopefully) with the blaster. Warriors are not assault specialists, so don’t look for them to do much besides maybe die in the explosion or get beat down in the assault or following shooting phase. Wow, I spent a little more time here than I thought, but the intetrweb seems to like the blaster so I guess it was needed.
So call me crazy, but I wouldn’t bother taking this gun in the squad either. Why? Only one per squad is lame. You are just as likely to miss with it as you are to hit. Please don’t quote stats here. I am speaking from practical and years of experience. One shot to kill a tank or wound something usually misses or fails to wound, from my experiences. Why not let the squad take two blasters (or shredders) maximum?
Next is the first of two heavy weapon choices, the splinter cannon. This is another 4+ poison weapon, but it has range. It can both shoot as an assault weapon or a heavy. As an assault gun it cranks out 4 shots at 36” or as a heavy can do 6 at 36”. So it complements both the sit and shoot or move and shoot styles. It can also be taken by one in every ten models. It seems like a very viable option and cheap as chips.
Last is the dark lance. Oh the dark lance how you haven’t changed; strength 8, AP 2, 36” and lance. What isn’t known about you? You were once the greatest value in ten man warrior squads as they could field two of you. Well now it takes twenty guys to get two of these weapons and they run five points higher than before. Still twenty warriors and two dark lances isn’t super expensive game wise, just a bit unwieldy for the cover needed to keep them alive. I think the anti-tank that this can put out is nice, but the Ravager is, once again, a better, cheaper, and faster platform for this weapon.
Now we have the unit upgrade to Sybarite. It is cheap, gives you a +1 to leadership, and a guy with an extra attack. Leadership 8 is bad so if I can get to 9 with a few extra points I’m doing it. He can take the blast pistol, venom blade, power weapon, agonizer, and a close combat weapon and splinter pistol for weapons. The weapons are pick and choose, but the only real choices seem to be the venom blade and agonizer. The blast pistol is there for the people who want a 6” blaster. I don’t like the option, but many others do.
He can also grab ghostplate armor and a phantasm grenade launcher. These both seem like bad choices. Sure the armor will give your Sybarite some survivability at a point increase, but it really isn’t worth the cost of him and armor and weapons. The grenade launcher would help with assaults both for and against (it gives offensive and defensive grenades) however, there are better assault units and they can get these cheaper. Warriors are your shooty, not stabby choices.
Last is the option to transport warriors in a Raider. I’ll get to the Raider later, but for 65 points, armed with dark lance, fast, skimmer and open topped, it isn’t a bad transport. It is just added points to the squad and it will get shot down. It will also take Kabalites with it when it does. The transport option is purely a play style choice and not a bad one. It is there if you want, and it this will be discussed later.
So my ideal Kabalite squad would be……..? Well I would have to say at least one 20 man squad with two splinter cannons. This would be a nice back field objective sitter. Units outside of a transport and within 24” of these guys and units will crumble for the amount of fire they can put out, let alone the amount inside of 12". Hopefully, get a pain token on them (somehow) and they can stay around a bit longer than hoped.
A couple squads of 10-12 men with a splinter cannon, Sybarite and venom blade. These would be either moving to shoot where needed, or coming out of a webway portal. Why the venom blade? Well if I have to attack I would rather wound on a 2+ than hope for a 50%-50% agonizer. I tend to go for quantity over quality when it comes to wounding. It is also cheap and a squad like this needs to be cheap.
Last would be a ten man squad with a dark lance in a raider. This is a poor man’s more expensive Ravager. Yet, it scares marines with its two dark lances and movement ability.
So there are the Kabalite Warriors. They aren’t marines, but they shouldn’t be. They are effective, cheap and plentiful. They can be made to be anti-armor, anti-troop, and even anti-big gribbly. They are yet another multi-role unit in this army.
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