dramatt's Dark Eldar Review Part 1

Alright I promised a review of the Dark Eldar codex from my own unique outlook and here it is. In this first part I’m going to look at the fluff, army wide special rules, and the some of the more basic infantry units. The next part is going to look at the rest of the infantry, the vehicles, and the weapons, while the last part will focus on each of the special characters.

Fluff
Hedonism, blah, blah, blah, fall of the Eldar, blah, blah, blah, Warp, blah, blah, blah, raids, blah, blah, blah, rape, pillage, loot, poison, destroy, terrorize, blah, blah, blah, intrigue, blah, blah, blah, Asdrubael Vect.

Army Wide Rules:

Power From Pain: This is the new bread and butter special rule for the dark elder. That first pain token that gives them FNP that will constitute pretty much all the save they have. A 6+ or 5+ sucks less when you get a 4+ after you fail it. You have to get that as soon as possible or be ripped to shreds as soon as someone points a gun at you. Even with it you are going to lose a lot of guys, especially since anything strength 6 or above will rip right through it. The second pain token giving you Furious Charge will be handy, but unless you somehow start with a token or use a Chronos, only your heavy hitters are going to get to this point. Still any unit that does get to this point instantly becomes much more deadly. The third token gives fearless, but I doubt it is going to be that useful as the DE have a decent enough leadership to keep them from running from shooting losses, and if they start to lose combat they are thoroughly screwed anyway.

Night Vision: Yeah, this will be relevant in about 1 in 20 games.

Fleet: Of course the DE still have fleet. It’s what makes them tick. Without it they would be crippled as they desperately need the extra bit of movement to let them get into assault safely, cause if they fail to get into combat they are just sitting ducks asking to be slaughtered.
Combat Drugs: These are handy and awesome. This time around every one of the drugs is strictly helpful. The worst of them practically guarantees you a good fleet role to make sure you get into close combat. The middle four make you much better in close combat by increasing, either your WS, S, A, or letting you reroll to wound, all of which are great advantages. The last one lets you start with a pain token that makes you more durable and that much closer to getting Furious Charge. The only downside is you obviously don’t get to choose which one you get. Still since all of them are handy it is that much of a problem.

The Infantry

Kabalite Warriors: The average Joe of the army. His stats are what you would expect and his armor is paper. They will kill IG and Tau in close combat, but anything past that is just going to look at their 3T and 5+ armor and laugh. Fortunately, close combat isn’t what there were meant for. Their poisoned rapid-fire weapons can do some damage, especially with open-topped vehicles. Cannon fodder, but cheap cannon fodder with a decent gun. Also come in a Elite version that has an extra attack and can buy more special weapons or even switch everyone to shardcarbines, but cost more per dude (especially once you pay for some upgrades) so you just end up with expensive dudes that die like they were cheap dudes.

Wyches: Now this is the unit that I like. You are going to run them into your enemy and watch them kill things. But if you screw up and let someone shoot at them they are going down faster than a drunk cheerleader at a frat party. That 4+ invul save on everyone is going to make a lot of people with expensive power weapon only units cry. The boost from combat drugs is random, but always helpful. Their fleet is going to help them get into combat or at least some cover. One pain token will greatly increase their survivability and if you get two they can hit ridiculously hard. Also comes in an elite version with an extra attack and a higher price tag.

Hellions: If you are confident in your ability to hit an enemy without taking too many shots these are the guys for you. With both jump packs and fleet they can move ridiculously fast. And they hit much harder than they look because of their weapons. The hellglaives they come with gives them an extra attack (making up for the one they lose due to it not dual-armed) and gives them +1S. All this plus combat drugs and assault 2 guns that you don’t want to underestimate make them a good threat. Only problem is 16 points a pop is a lot for 5+ armor. You are going to need at least one pain token or some good cover otherwise you are going to watch your investment go up in smoke.

Reavers: This is what happens when the elder build their bikes out of paper. Their shooting isn’t good, their close combat is no better than a wych or hellion, but they cost just more than twice the price of a wych. The way people are going to end up using them is by using their bladevanes to run through enemy units and cause hits when they turbo boost. This way they get the cover save and inflict some hits, but D3 S4 AP- per reaver probably isn’t going to justify their price tag, especially since you have to move at least a certain distance in a straight line to do it.