Rise of the Dark Eldar

It seems that after the massive glut of Space Marine variant codex releases in the past two years, GW has not only decided to release a xenos codex, but a codex that hasn't seen a revision since 1997. That's right - thirteen years is by far the longest that we've had to wait for the revision of an old faction. And I don't care what you may have heard about it; it's a ridiculously good army.

When I first heard about the new Dark Eldar I wondered if it would be drastically different from their older iteration. Let me clarify. When looking over old Dark Eldar army lists there were four questions that came to mind: How many dark lances are there? Is there an Incubi retinue? Which Raiders are carrying the Wych squads? And finally, which Wyches have which combat drugs?

The older book had very little in the way of effective units, and those were so effective that they completely eclipsed all others (the 'others' were simply far too underpowered for their points cost). Its wargear selection was infuriating, for once again, the only selections were either over- or under-powered. Nothing seemed balanced or generally effective. They were a do or die force that often died in the hands of an average player.

The new codex offers a massive variety of options, a vast majority of which are effective in their own way. It might have been an overly bland book had the new Power From Pain rules not existed. It could have faltered if poisoned weapons weren't a staple for many of the book's units. I probably wouldn't have bought the codex if its independent characters could have purchased Jetbikes or Skyboards... But thanks to good development, foresight, planning, and a willingness to segregate and pare down the army's capabilities, the Dark Eldar are far, far better and more balanced than they could have been. I love this codex. It doesn't go the distance that Codex: Imperial Guard went with its ridiculous level of firepower. It doesn't lend itself to outlandishly buffed up units like Codex: Space Wolves. It doesn't have the ability to do EVERYTHING, which is the sign of both good design and good development. It has two horrible, glaring flaws (at least to me). One is the disappointing inclusion of Power From Pain on Beastmasters. This is the one instance where I have to say "Just throw out your consistency and write the rules as you want them to be played." The second is the frightening effectiveness of the Ravager that nearly invalidates the inclusion of any other heavy support selection.

When I began building this army I immediately wanted to set to work maximizing the potential combination of dark lance spam and amazing close combat capability. Beastmasters, Incubi, Wyches and Kabalite Warriors (not to mention the all-powerful Ravager). The force organization slot I utilized least was, surprisingly, HQ.

After a few heavy modifications of the list (and the removal of the Beastmasters), I was fairly confident that I'd found my stride and was ready to start bashing heads together.

HQ

Archon - 185
ghostplate armor, soul trap, clone field, combat drugs, phantasm grenade launcher, blast pistol, huskblade

Haemonculus - 70
crucible of malediction

Elite

Hekatrix Bloodbrides (10) - 275
syren, blast pistol, agoniser, phantasm grenade launcher, 3x hydra gauntlets, raider

Incubi (10) - 280
raider

Troops

Kabalite Warriors (10) - 130
dark lance, blaster

Kabalite Warriors (10) - 130
dark lance, blaster

Kabalite Warriors (10) - 130
dark lance, blaster

Kabalite Warriors (10) - 200
dark lance, blaster, raider, shock prow, torment grenade launcher

Wyches (15) - 255
hekatrix, blast pistol, agoniser, 3x shardnet & impaler, haywire grenades

Heavy Support

Ravager - 115
night shields

Ravager - 115
night shields

Ravager - 115
night shields

This particular configuration was difficult to settle on, but in the end the sixteen dark lances, four blasters, three blast pistols, a slew of poisoned weapons and the potential to kill just about anything in the game in hand-to-hand combat (including a C'tan, TH&SS Terminators, etc.) won me over. The only other modification to this list I have made was swapping out the Bloodbrides for a unit of Beastmasters (5 masters, 20 kymerae and 1 clawed fiend). After doing some points juggling with vehicle upgrades that I don't like taking, it's a good possibility.