Dark Eldar Troop "Sword and Pistol" Tactic

Hi Guys.
I've decided that Mondays will be tacticia day. And for my first one, we have Dark Eldar Troops.

Now this is a very specific tactic and one thats hard-ish to pull off if you don't plan what your going for. But when executed right, it will destroy (or cripple if your unlucky in dice rolling) most squads, monstrous creatures and characters. In fact, the only thing its not going to maul is vehicles, but you should use another unit for work like that.

Equipment:


Right, many people say take units of 20 Warriors and 15 Wyches, but don't do this, if you do this, they have to slog it on foot or take the really unreliable Webway portal. Instead, take 10 Kabalite warriors and 10 Wyches (or 9 and a Succubus if you want a devastating close combat unit), equip the Kabalite warrior unit with a blaster and a splinter cannon (don't need to get a Sybarite, there good but not for what you want them for), then put them in a raider with Splinter Racks, a Flickerfield and a disintegrator cannon.

With the Wyches, take Hydra Gauntlets, Razorflails and a Hekatrix with an Agonizer. And put them in a raider with chain snares, a dark lance and a flickerfield.

Set up:


Pick a unit to do this to before moving on to another 1. What you have to do is keep both the warrior raider and the wych raider moving 18" every turn, the reason you have to do this is because you get a cover save from the speed which does sort of counter the crafts armour 10. Also, Due to the fact that the kabalite warrior unit in the tank can fire from all sides (and their weapons count as defensive weapons due to being poisoned), you've more or less got a light skimmer (although expensive) that can mow down small squads and give big units a hard time. After you thin out the target unit of choice a bit, fly your wyches over the unit, hopefully taking a few enemies down with chain snares, drop your wyches out and they will mow the whats left of the squad.

Watch out for:


One of the man ways this tactic can be spoiled by over confidence or a "that'll do" approach. Say your doing this on a unit of 20 boyz, and you kill 5, don't charge the Wyches into 15 Ork boyz, they wont make it (I'm aware that Orks initiative is lower so the Wyches could take a lot of the orks out in close combat before they started attacking and I know that wyches have a 4+ dodge save but still), re-do the drive by stage again until there are at most 10 left.

Another thing that will upset your tactic is tank hunters, if your transports shot out the sky, you have just lost A) your mobility, B) your relentless (due to being in a vehicle you can move and shoot like nothing ever happened), C) your cover save from the speed and D) smaller footprint. It also means that your unit could be left sitting ducks.

So heres a recap.

The Tactic:

Warriors in raider move 18" and fire all poisoned weapons +1 normal (disintegrator cannon) and get re-rolls to hit due to splinter racks. Use this on a big unit to thin it out (say a unit of 20 or boyz, try doing the drive by shooting part a few times to get it down to 10 at most) for your Wyches to fly in and wipe it out completely. Then re-embark your Wyches and do it again to another unit/character/monstrous creature.

Useful Against:

• Large units (Like Ork mobs or Imperial Guardsmen Squads)
• Monstrous Creatures (Carnifexes or Undivided greater daemons)
• Small multi wound units (Tyranid warriors and Grotesques)

Watch out for:

• Tank hunters (Space Marine Devastators or Dreadnoughts)
• Units with higher initiative (Howling Banshees and Slanneshi Daemons)
• Your Own Confidence (None to put here really)

Any questions, stick a comment below or email me at the address below my Blog's Name.

Dark Artisan