Tactics overhaul: Things that work in 4th ed

[Lomendil]

The change from 3rd to 4th edition 40k affected the Dark Eldar more than some people realize. I still keep seeing people on the net posting up lists or advice that would have been great in 3rd edition but is poor or even useless in 4th edition. This thread is designed at debunking old tactics and strategies that don't work anymore and promoting the ones that do work, so that the Dark Kin can rule yet another edition of 40k!

The Raider Rush

Old: This was the classic 3rd ed strategy for Dark Eldar. The majority of our Kindred used this, including my own mighty Kabal. It revolved around a strong strike force of powerful assault units (Incubi, Wyches, Lord+Grotesques) in Raiders supported by two to four Raider Squads. The speed of the Raiders meant that the assault units could usually get into close combat on turn 2, and by turn 3 at the latest. To protect the Raiders carrying the assault units from shooting the Raider Squads would be positioned in front of them, blocking LOS. It didn't matter much if the Raider Squads were shot down because they would only take a couple of casualties and would be able to carry on on foot next turn with only a slight reduction in their hitting power.

Using the exact same strategy in 4th edition is a bad idea, for the following reasons.

- Skimmers no longer block LOS, so the opponent can target whichever Raider he wants (assuming nothign else is blocking LOS). It is impossible to screen the valuable assault unit Raiders with expendable Raider Squads in 4th edition. Although the 'A note on secrecy' rules mean the opponent won't know which units are in which Raiders, if you have 3 assault units and 3 Raider Squads he still has a 50/50 chance of downing your expensive close-combat specialists before they can get into assaults.

- To make things worse, a unit whose transport is destroyed suffers extra penalties. Firstly, if the transport was moving fast (as Raider Rushes must) they will almost always take twice as many casualties from crashing than normal. Second, they suffer 'Entanglement', automatic pinning. These things combined practically spell the end for any Dark Eldar unit shot down. They will almost always be reduced to less than half-size, and then in the following turn they can do nothing. The chances of them ever getting to grips with the enemy are extremely low, while the chances of them being wiped out completely by enemy fire are high.

New: It's still possible to do a Raider Rush in 4th ed, but it needs to be done differently. In a 2000pt list you'll want 3 or 4 powerful assault units in Raiders, and to help these get to their target you'll need to take 6x 5-man Raider Squads (arm them with a Splinter Cannon and Blaster so the ones that survive can do some good). You'll now have 9 or 10 Raiders, the majority of which are cheap, expendable 'decoys'. The idea is that because the opponent can pick and choose which Raider to shoot at, you reduce the chance of him picking a 'valuable' Raider by increasing the number of expendable Raiders. Naturally, there is still a chance that he'll get lucky and down your assault units, but this way you reduce the odds of that happening.

Supporting units for this army would be an assortment of Ravagers and Reavers and possibly characters on Reavers. In fact it may be a good idea to swap one of your assault units in a Raider for a powerful assault-oriented Reaver Squad. This further reduces the ratio of expendable Raiders to valuable ones, and gives your opponent something else to worry about - i.e a unit that moves 24" in the first turn, has invulnerable saves, carries a pair of deadly tank-busting weapons and will almost certainly be in range to use them or make an assault next turn unless the opponent concentrates a hell of a lot of firepower on them. Ideally, this will cause the foolish enemy to split their firepower. Sadly you won't be able to take any 'Sniper Squads' because you'll have used all your Troop slots, but Ravagers and Reavers can make up for this (as well as the unGodly number of Raider Dark Lances in the army!).

I've heard people suggest before that old style Raider Rushes could work if "there is good terrain for it". Given that terrain capable of blocking LOS to a Raider is very rare, I would advise you not to succumb to such foolish optimism. Leave that to the mon-keigh.

Be warned though - the 4th Raider Rush is still NOT as powerful as it used to be. It requires care and a certain amount of luck. A flank attack is often a good idea.

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More to come tomorrow! Strategies for a new style WWP army for Kabals and Wych Cults, a balanced Raiderless army concept, and of course debunkings of some of the more stupid ideas I've seen. I'd do it all now, but my bed beckons. Must sleep.

[Lomendil]

The Webway Army


The Webway is a powerful asset for a Lord of the Dark Kin. Used correctly it can deliever your deadliest minions right into the heart of the enemy army, without them having to be exposed to enemy fire. No more first-turn dependancy, no more Raiders shot down still laden with Wyches or Incubi - now your best units can arrive in combat completely unscathed, and can more easily choose which units to shred to ribbons.

The best way I've found to use the Webway Portal (WWP) is the following basic strategy: footsloggers run the Portal into position, then deadly assault units rush out and slaughter anything within range.

The best units to carry the WWPs are Sybarites in large Warrior squads, Haemonculi, or Lords, all on foot. Putting them in Raiders is not wise, as will be explained later. You want at least two WWPs, it's too risky to just take one. Mind Wars, Vindicare Assassins, fast Infiltrators, ultra-fast assault units and lucky ordnance can all ruin your day if you only take one Webway Portal. It's usually a good idea to have an Independant Character carrying at least one of your Portals - the enemy will find it extremely hard to kill them before the portal is opened provided you always make sure another viable target is closer to shooters.

Accompanying the WWP carriers will be 'escort' units. In a 2000pt game you want at least two fast escorts; Hellions, Reavers, Warp Beasts and Lords on foot or mounted on a Skyboard or Jetbike. A minimal fast escort element of a tooled-up foot Archon and a full squad of Warp Beasts is enough, but more can be helpful and they do allow you to take the fight to the enemy in the first two turns. A couple of Sniper Squads (10 Warriors with 2 Dark Lances) can also be very useful to start with. Large Warrior squads (17+) make great escorts for Independant Characters. You might consider using Grotesques as a guarding squad for an IC. They will certainly be able to ignore a lot of incoming fire, though they are slowish as they cannot make Fleet-of-Foot moves.

All the WWP carrying units or characters are set up as far forwards as possible, making use of any available cover. On their first turn the WWP characters and guarding squads move and Fleet-Of-Foot forwards, the other units either run with them or attack anything nearby. It's vital to keep the WWP squads out of assaults.

On the second turn, it's a good idea to open at least one of the Portals. However, if you are playing against an assault-oriented army that is rushing towards you, you may as well open one or both portals on the first turn, or stand still and open both on the second turn. Opening one on the first turn is the most safe - but does mean your Reserves will arrive piecemeal. However, if you wait until the second turn, then most if not all of your units in the Webway will arrive together on turn 3 in one massive wave to overwhelm the enemy.

In 2000pts, you should have 3 strong fast assault units as a minimum in the Webway. Of course, the more points you spend on escorts the less you'll have for units coming from the Webway and vice versa, so a good balance is essential. You'll want some good assault units in Raiders - Grotesques, Incubi, Wyches, Raider Squads with an Agonizer wielding Sybarite. Mounted in Raiders, they can strike anything within 20" of the portal (12" move, 2" disembark, 6" assault) and Wyches and Warriors can Fleet-Of-Foot too if need be. Taloi are very powerful when deployed from a Webway Portal. Using two in tandem assures lethal effectiveness - no vehicle or armoured squad is safe! A Ravager or two can be handy as well for blasting at units out of assault range, or softening up tough opponents before your units assault.

Now that your main attack units are on the table, your surviving 'escorts' pitch in to tie up unengaged enemy squads, support the main assault units and blast away at anything in range.

This works with a Wych Cult too. I would use a Dracite to carry one portal, and a Warrior Squad Sybarite to carry another. A foot Archite provides a deadly-fast unit (6"move , d6" FOF, 12" combat drugs charge) that can act as both a guard for the WWP carriers and has the speed to join in the main melees that will develop once units come through the portal. Warp Beasts are also great at this role! They are utterly cheap but menacing, if they get destroyed it's only a mere 75pts gone, if enemies draw close then at a bare minimum they can tie them up for a turn and do some good damage in the process.


Some bad ideas for deploying WWPs:

Units in Raiders as carriers: The Raider is now a liability to the squad inside if deployed on the battlefield at the start of the game. It's very hard to hide them, they have very light armour and are open-topped, Night Shields are ineffective against many weapons, and if shot down the squad inside is automatically pinned and suffers a lot of casualties if the Raider moved fast. Opponents tend to concentrate fire on them as they frequently carry dangerous assault troops. This combines with the extreme vulnerability of units in Raiders to make them extremely risky to use to carry WWPs. What you don't want is your squad pinned and damaged in the middle of the board - but it's very hard to stop this happening. If you used a lot of squads in Raiders starting on the table then your opponent might shoot at the 'wrong' ones - but it's no guarantee and all those points spent mean less troops in the Webway. All said and done, footsloggers can get the portal as close as you need it to be, there simply is no point in using a faster but far riskier method.

Deep Striking Scourges/Raider Squads as WWP carriers: It is an extremely foolish tactic to try to Deep Strike WWPs using Scourges or Raider Squads with Screaming Jets. Both of these units are very vulnerable to enemy shooting and if Deep Striked anywhere near the enemy are likely to be destroyed in a turn. If Deep Striked far away to avoid enemy fire then that defeats the whole purpose of having the WWP! Lastly, even assuming that the squad could survive, they'd have to wait until turn 3 to open the portal at the earliest (the earliest possible they can arrive is turn 2, and they can't Deep Strike and deploy a portal on the same turn) with your Webway units arriving on turn 4, a whole turn later than with footsloggers. There's just as much chance that Deep Strikers would only arrive on turn 3, thus only being able to open the portal on turn 4, so finally on turn 5 the units in the Webway would be able to enter play. This is ridiculously late and they'd have hardly any time to achieve anything in the battle. An all round bad idea.


Some Sample lists:

1500pts Kabal list

Starting on the board

Archon - Punisher, Tormentor Helm, Shadow Field, Combat Drugs, Hell Mask, Haywire Grenades, Gruesome Talisman, Animus Vitae, Trophy Rack

Haemonculi (2) - Scissorhands, Webway Portals

Warp Beasts (5 + Beastmaster)

Warriors (12) - 2x Dark Lance

Warriors (12) - 2x Dark Lance

Warriors (20) - 2x Splinter Cannon, 2x Blaster

Starting in the Webway

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Talos

Talos




2000pts Kabal list

Starting on the board

Archon - Punisher, Tormentor Helm, Shadow Field, Combat Drugs, Hell Mask, Haywire Grenades, Plasma Grenades, Gruesome Talisman, Animus Vitae, Trophy Rack

Haemonculi (2) - Scissorhands, Webway Portals

Warp Beasts (5 + Beastmaster)

Warriors (10) - 2x Dark Lance

Warriors (10) - 2x Dark Lance

Warriors (17) - 2x Splinter Cannon, 2x Blaster

Warriors (17) - 2x Splinter Cannon, 2x Blaster

Starting in the Webway

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Talos

Talos

Ravager - 3 Disintegrators




2000pts Wych Cult list

Starting on the board

Wych Archite - Punisher, Tormentor Helm, Combat Drugs, Shadow Field, Animus Vitae, Haywire Grenades

Wych Dracite - Agonizer, Splinter Pistol, Combat Drugs, Hell Mask, Webway Portal

Warriors (17) - 2x Blaster, 2x Splinter Cannon, Sybarite with Webway Portal

Warriors (10) - 2x Dark Lance

Warriors (10) - 2x Dark Lance

Warp Beasts (5 + Beastmaster)

Warp Beasts (5 + Beastmaster)

Warp Beasts (5 + Beastmaster)

Starting in the Webway

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex and Trophy Racks

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex

Wyches (10) - Wych Weapons, 2x Blaster, Succubus with Agonizer, Raider with Horrorfex

Ravager - 3 Disintegrators

[Archon No'ki]

WOW. There are some good ideas there, I espiccly like the new version of a WWP Army and think I'll have to try it out. Thanks

[Lomendil]

It's being revamped into a new uber-site. It's taking longer than expected, but rest assured that it will be back.

[Archon Zaco]

This is some great stuff. Before I read this, I had recenly played a game using my old raider army, pretty much the same as you described in the old 3rd example. I found that this army didnt work, i managed to tie my oppent, its was a 2 point difference. But I began to revamp my army. I decided to take a foot slogging army. 4 "sniper squads", Two strong attack squads(15-20 warriors, 2SCs, s Blasters, a Sybarite) i was going to take three Haemonculae, one in each of my attack squads an the final leading a squad of grotesques. the grots along with a full unit of hellions will be my cc units, and the attack squads could back them up too. additionally i am going to take two ravagers for fire support. about 1500pts
I think that I will try this list out. although i will have to buy a bunch of guys to do this. i also like the idea of the new raider rush. But in 1500pts, its not nearly as effective and that what i normaly play. the wwp army is also a great idea, i might consider doing this if my current one doesnt work out.

-Zaco

[Lomendil]

In 1500pts you'd need to drop the numbers but keep the ratio. 2 good assault squads and 4 Raider Squads should do the trick, instead of 3 and 6. In these smaller games it can be a good idea to use an Archon on a Jetbike with 5+ Reavers, and use two Wych Squads (or a Dracon + Grotesques instead of one of them if you're feeling original) as your Raider assault troops. In smaller games the Archon's power is magnified, so you'll still have 3 deadly assault units this way.

[Archon Zaco]

Yeah, i still might try the raider army with the smaller ratio. i really need to try it out against a range of opponents. the main person i play wiht has a mechanized guard army, so standard DE tactics dont work as well. He only has about 40-50 guys, and they have to be cracked out of their shells first. so cc is not always the best way. I still love the idea of a raider rush army, and will definately continue to use one.

[Hellbrass Odesseron]

I never really had much love for the raider rush idea, it always relied very heavily on the first turn (although all Dark Eldar armies do to some extent). In the 3rd edition my favourite tactic was to bring 3 squads of 7 wyches mounted on raiders screaming out of the Webway right into the enemies firebase. Although it's become much harder to get the Webway portals into position quickly I've found that generally this tactic still works most of the time although there have been occasions when my entire army has been eviscerated.

The other thing is in 4th edition where the emphasis is very much on fight or shoot but not both I've found that my Archon has played an even more vital roll than usual and I have found that I'm risking his neck more and more. At the moment I'm in the process of buying a reaver for him so he can get into combat that little bit faster.

[NotFred - Dracon Khirareq]

*fires up army builder*
right then, lets get me a webway army...

Never thgouth of it ebfore, i used an all raider mounetd force, actually not ebucase i thgouth it was good tactically (thgouth it turnred out to be! 9 odd disintegrators? most of my opponents marines. Never lost a game and usualyl wiped the floro with all my friends lol) but beucase i thoguth it woudl make a good theme, and yes it doe slook impressive.

but now i think i will try a footslogging army with a webway portal. Just out of interest can you give it to a mandrake unit? they coudl just walk up to the enemy then deploy it turn 3 lol.
Also with some sniper squads i will be better in the increasingly popular cityfights, my group is workgin on a tabel for that right now.

[Hellbrass Odesseron]

NotFred said:

Just out of interest can you give it to a mandrake unit?

It would be an extremely good tactic, unfortunately the wwp is a piece of special equipment so you need a squad leader or HQ to buy one, which for some reason Mandrakes don’t have

[NotFred - Dracon Khirareq]

One word, rats....

[Archon No'ki]

I hope no one minds but I've decided to make this topic sticky as it is very helpful.

[Hellbrass Odesseron]

Good idea

[Lomendil]

I updated the Webway army section to the latest version I've made of it.

[LesserEvil]

Oh thank God, i thought i would have to do it... i was not looking to that. Good article, it will be very helpful.