|
Forget Finesse, this is raw power, baby! I am including a few extra pictures today because I found the ones from the battle where I really gave the Webway portal it's first try. I mentioned it a few weeks back, but I couldn't find the pictures at the time. I will include them now so you can see what it looked like in action....I believe this was the setup and terrain picture.
When I first started playing Dark Eldar, I used them (rather effectively) as a mostly static shooting force. Later, I saw how mobility and close combat potential could help and went the Air Force route. Most people ignore their shooting, but they have tremendous potential as a shooty army. They are limited by their inherent fragility, but they can bring an awesome number of powerful weapons to bear and can do a staggering amount of damage. I remember reading about somebody that had created a Dark Eldar army with 20 Dark Lances in 1500pts and how powerful that was. I thought about it, sat down and looked at the numbers and realized I could do quite a bit better than that. The first step was to take a look at all the units that can include Dark Lances and work out how efficient each unit was in terms of points per Dark Lance. That gave me these numbers... Turn 1 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
After a little bit of thinking, I realized that there were a couple of units that I regularly used as mobile fire support. Both Reaver Squadrons and Wyche Squads can take 2 Blasters as an option. Although the Blaster has a short range (12") on a platform that can move 12 inches and still shoot, that's generally enough range for just about anything you might need to hit. Looking at the Reaver Squadron and the Wyche Squad that gives us...
95pts Reaver Squadron: 2xBlaster, 1xRifle 47.5pts per Blaster Some of these units are easier to use than others. The Retinues require a Dracon or Archon, which can be handy for assaults, but are fairly expensive and don't bring any more Dark Lances to the table. The Sniper Squads are Troops (which are, of course, mandatory) and are also more resilient than almost anything else in the list. While 10 T3 models are not normally what I'd call resilient, their long range allows you to make better use of cover for them, and remember that we are comparing them to the rest of the Dark Eldar army, not Necrons or Plague Marines. Turn 2 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
With all those things considered, I started with the cheapest Dark Lances in the army in the form of 3 Ravagers. My next stop was a full 6 Sniper Squads to fill the troops selection and give the army a little resilience. After that, I threw in three Raider Wyche squads, since their mobility can keep them out of harm's way for a turn or two and can then give them choice targets for the three Dark Lance equivalents they bring. For more mobility, I added a small squadron of Reaver Jetbikes. That left me with 115pts and needing an HQ. A Dracon could work well here, adding a bit of counter assault capability, but then I remembered how I originally fielded my Dark Eldar when I used the static, shooty force. I gave them Haemonculi, partly because they were cheaper to field than a Dark Eldar Lord, and partly because of the fantastic weapons they have: Destructors. A flamer template weapon with variable AP can really cook a lot of Space Marines and acts as a great counterattack when they close with you. With only 25pts left, I gave one of them a Hellion Skyboard (just as I used to do) to give him greater mobility to work his Destructor. All that being said, let's have a look at the list itself... Turn 3 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
1500pt Dark Eldar Static Shooting list, AKA Dark Lances A go-go! Turn 4 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
So, what do we get for our 1500pts? A grand total of 24 Dark Lances and 8 Blasters! Heh, I've heard Space Marine players whine when Imperial Guard take 15 lascannons, and that's with the Guard having BS3! This is a nasty list, though it's fragility reduces some of that nastiness a little bit. Any vehicle is going to be going down in flames immediately. (I did the math, and I'm pretty sure my old Deathwing list with 3 Landraiders would lose all three on the first turn!) Even against heavy infantry this list will do pretty well: That's 17.6 Dead Space Marines per turn. That would also be a little more than 4 Dead Monstrous Creatures per turn. The only things that will give this list trouble are forces that can keep you from shooting or hordes of models without heavy things to back them up. (So, some Guard lists, some Ork lists, some Tyranid lists and a few specialized fast assault lists.) Turn 5 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
If I were going to make this army, I'd need 15 Wyches, 3 Reavers (I traded my Wyches and Reavers away to a friend who was helping his girlfriend at the time start an army) 4 Blasters and about 12 Dark Lances. I might also need to make some armor plating to go on one of the Ravagers. (When I assembled my Raiders, I realized that I could set up the armor plate bits for the Ravager to be taken on and off. That way I could use them as either a Raider or a Ravager. I also put the Dark Lances on Warriors, instead of gluing them to the Ravager. Again, more flexibility there.) Oh, I'd need about another 20 or so Warriors as well. One of the great things about this list is that there aren't any linchpin units. There is no unit that if you lose it will totally mess up your game. Sure, it'll cost you 2-3 Dark Lances, but there's so much overkill here anyway that it doesn't really matter. Turn 6 of a Dark Eldar Webway Portal army taking on two other armies. 1000pts per side.
If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
