Archon:
At a base 60 points this guy is going to be the main HQ you will see if you want the goodies that a Dark Eldar HQ can boast. The only problem with him is his T3. With no way to get him eternal warrior it is very hard to keep this guy alive and allow him to kill things like he is suppose to do. If you do run him, I recommend the Huskblade and a shadow field. Providing him with the 2++ is going to be key as a 4++ from the clone field just wont cut it. A good use for an archon is taking the webway portal to drop in some battle brothers or blasterborne to shoot up something that needs to be gone.
Succubus:
At a base 75 points, the succubus is a HQ choice that I would probably leave on the shelf. With only a 6 plus save outside of Close combat and a 4 plus invul save in CC and at T3. She will most likely get double toughed out most of the time. She does swing at I8 with 4 attacks base. With the Archite glave she will be str 4 ap 2. The problem is getting her into combat. If she does...she could be a beast. But my verdict...leave at home.
Lelith Hesperax:
At 150 points Your getting a CC oriented HQ that boast a 4 plus save in any other phase and a 3 plus save in CC. Her blade ignores all armor saves and that is about it. She does get to reroll at failed to hit and to wound rolls but at str 3...not very good. Leave on the shelf.
Haemonculus:
At 70 points your getting a very underwhelming HQ that is more of a force multiplier then shooting or cc killer. His main uses are going to be in the Haemonculus coven books. The main use for him would be a Webway portal so you can drop in some battle brothers or other units from the Dark eldar.
Urien Rakarth:
At 140 points your getting a guy that really is just another buff to your units around you giving everyone with power from pain a plus one to the chart that is within 12 inches of him. His casket of flensing is a 12 inch range str 3 ap 3 assault 2D6 one use only. Not very useful in my opinion. Leave on the shelf.
Drazhar:
At 190 points you are getting a CC beast. With I7, 6 attacks on the charge at STR 5 ap 2. He does have eternal warrior which helps out but.....he has no invul save. He does boast a 2+ armor save. He also gets a bonus attack at the same initiative step for each to wound roll of a 6 in cc. His big downside......he has no GRENADES!!!! so if your opponent is smart...he will keep his units in terrain and get the attack off first.
Elites:
Kabalite Trueborn:
So at 55 points base for 5 guys, your getting a plus one to leadership and plus one attack from the stock warriors of 40 points. Your paying 15 points more for just plus one leadership. The one thing about these guys is they can take up to 4 special weapons or two heavy weapons. They can take a venom as a dedicated transport. A popular build with these guys is 4 blasters deepstriking in with a venom. I wouldnt waste your time with the dark lances because if you move with them...the dark lances are snap firing.
Bloodbrides:
This is going to be short but leave them at home. Not worth it. The models look awesome. They really do...but totally not worth it. They have a 6 plus armor save and only get their 4 plus invuls in the fight sub-phase.
Incubi:
At 60 points for 3 of these guys they are ok. I leave them at home because of one reason and one reason only.....NO GRENADES...most of the time they are swinging at I1 and because of that they die really quick to simple marines. They do boast a 3+ save but still....those fail at times.
Mandrakes:
Ive always wanted to run mandrakes and at 36 points a pop with stealth and shrouded as well infiltrate...I can see these guys sitting on an objective in ruins or on a 5 plus area terrain and instantly making it a 2 plus. So I can see the use in these guys.
Wracks:
All CC attacks have poison so great monstrous creature killers....but oh wait...no grenades...so swinging last if opponent is in terrain.....leave at home....(unless you are running them from the haemonculus coven)
Grotesques:
Now these guys can be of some use. Str 5 T5 with 3 wounds each. At 105 points each you get 3. This is a great unit to throw in a raider with an HQ of your choice and speed them directly at your opponent and let your HQ and these guys go to town. They have 3 attacks base with rampage and stock FnP. One model can be upgraded to an abberation making him a character to accept a challenge so your trusty archon can stay out and slay the chumps.
Thanks for reading. If you have any thoughts or disagreements, let me know in the comment section. I am always down to get other ideas and opinions.
~Beer Apostle~
Beer For the Beer God
A few alternative ideas I'd like give an airing to:
ReplyDeleteAn Archon is not that competitive, once he's given equipment to be ok in combat (eg. husk blade, shadowfield) he quickly gets expensive for what he does. He best ability is baby sitting grotesques as they have terrible leadership 3/4. Its worth just keeping him cheap in that role, also in that role a Haemonculus or Succubus can be as good. As you said the Haemonculus buffs Feel no Pain, and the Succubus brings more attacks, and the option of AP2 weaponry. For less than 100 points the Sucubus with a Glaive beats any Archon you can build for the same points.
A key point about the DE characters is that they can rarely go toe to toe with other races close combat characters, so let them kill rank and file while you shoot, outmaneuver, and feed cheap units to, the enemy deathstar.
Although I agree that Incubi aren't super-competitive the lack of grenades (although an annoyance) is not the reason. The incubi are best in smallish units as they are almost too good in combat. I recommend 5 in a venom. Easy to hide, and also effective as a counter attack unit. Lets also take the example of 5 charging 10 marines (for the moment I'll ignore overwatch, but then the incubi are charging double their number). When in cover the marines will go first and on average will kill 1 incubi. The remaining 4 incubi will kill 4 marines on average. The following turn the incubi go first and will kill another 2-3 on average bring the marines down to only 3-4 left.
There are also ways to mitigate having no grenades, such as placing objectives outside cover, charging into on-going combats, and using them more as a counter attack unit.
Overall the reason Incubi aren't super-competitive is that they are overshadowed by the other close combat units we have, and are too specialised to heavy infantry, rather than their lack of grenades.
With Grotesques it's worth mentioning you have to include a character to baby sit them due to their terrible leadership, and that they get even better in the Coven's Grotesquie formation.
When you cover the Court of the Archon, as well covering the common single Lharmian or Medusa in a Venom, could you consider a unit made up of Lharmian and Sslyth. Together they cost the same as a Grotesque, have majority T5, don't need a babysitter with Ld9, and if you run the numbers do the same damage that Grots that are outnumbered. I'd be interested to read your thoughts on the Court.
Rathstar
I agree that the Incubi can be useful in certain instances but a smart player also will not go toe to toe with them. I have found that most of the time my incubi get shot off the table as soon as they are in range. I tend to run spammy list with lots of dakka. I try to fit atleast 8 venoms in my lists with ravangers as support and lots of blasters from warriors in said venoms.
ReplyDelete