Dark Eldar Rumour Summary + new info!

After ordering my Archon edition last night I thought I'd pull together all the rumours into one place so we can see how accurate they have been once the 'dex is released.

Green means it is likely to be true

Orange means I'm sitting on the fence

Red means it's dubious at best

Universal

Pain token changes to DE: this has been confirmed by White Dwarf #35

Changes to combat drugs: I'd imagine this is true as it would fit with the overall simplification of rules we have seen.  1+ to each of the attributes has been rumoured.  +1 toughness would be very nice indeed! t5 Reavers... Also s5 Hellions is always a positive.  Especially when furious charge (if still included in PfP would make them s6 vehicle hunters).

HQ

New Archon Model: all but confirmed by WD 35 during the battle rep.

New Succubus Model: The best image of this has come from the previews of the enhanced codex on Apple's iTunes store. 

No Vect/Duke/Lady Malys/Baron in the Codex: This looks very likely judging from another screen shot of the enhanced codex.  Interestingly it also doesn't display a slot for LoW.  All we have listed here are the characters which already have models (Lelith, Drazhar and Urien).

However, see this week's WD for a mention of Vect in the codex description.

This points to Vect being a later release.  My money would be on him appearing as part of a Campaign (I have seen unconfirmed rumours of a DE v BA box approaching).  These would also tally with the false rumours of DE being part of the new DV boxset.  This also means that....

Vect is a week 3 release: this now looks false according to the above image.

Lelith and Drazhar have rampage: yet to see anything confirming this.  It doesn't seem ridiculous though.

Vehicles

Void Mine is now a 5" Blast: again this looks to have been confirmed in today's WD.  It's hard to imagine anything other than a large blast doing this.

Raiders + Ravagers have Deep Strike: this has been posted inter alia on Faiet 212.  I've soured the photos and haven't seen any confirmation of this.

Flickerfields only for Venoms: again, no confirmation of this anywhere.  Iff the rumour about night shields granting stealth is true, this may hold some more credence.

Razorwings moved to Fast Attack: the only source I can find ton this to confirm the anonymous post on Faiet 212 comes from the Batrep in WD.

Here we have a detachment 'Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue' fielding 3 Void Ravens and 1 Razorwing.  This points to one of two possible (actually three) things.  The first is that the VR can be taken in squadrons, the second is that the RW is now fast attack.  The third is that this is an unbound army.  Included for completeness is the Guard army they faced.

To me this looks like a battle-forged list.  Of course it could be that DE are playing unbound against them, however given that both armies are split up into 'detachments' of sorts, this seems unlikely.  See also the related rumour below (Beast Squads).

Fast Attack

Beast Squads now have a minimum of 12 models: in the list given above a slightly odd beast pack of 3 beastmasters and 4 khymerae are fielded.  Unbound or bound this points to this rumour being false as even in unbound lists basic squad requirements remain intact.  The only counter to this is that WD sometimes use illegal combinations in their lists.

Hellions have been reduced by 3 points per model: In the images for the datacards included with the Archon & Dracon codex sets the Hellions datacard shows a squad cost of 65 points in the corner.  Given a minimum squad size of 5, this points to 13 points.  A 3 man squad comes out at a non-integer with this points cost.  Of course the minimum could (unlikely) be more than 5, but this would just represent more of a points dip.  I haven't seen this posted anywhere else.

Elites:

Mandrakes reduced in points cost, gain stealth and shrouded, lose their invun and can baleblast as standard: I haven't seen this supported by any evidence and it smacks somewhat of wishlisting.  It's still a possibility though.

That's all for now... if you'd like me to look into any other rumour let me know in the comments!

Best,

Starkadder

Dark Eldar Wishlisting.

I am a longtime DE player and with the new codex imminent (judging by reports on Faeit 212) I thought it was a good time to do some wishlisting for the new release.

Wyches: +1 WS

I used to run a full wych cult army back in 3rd edition when wych weapons halved the weapon skill of all models you were in combat with. With the right combat drugs you could reliably pull of a 24" charge from a Raider!

Sadly wyches in their current form mainly see playtime as expendable tank busters riding in venoms.  This is a great combo, but it would be pleasant to see them used in a wider variety of ways.

Making them WS5 base fits with the fluff (I've never understood why years after years of training they are less dexterous than your average Kabalite) and doesn't mess up the crunch.  10 Wyches charging 10 Smurfs will go from killing 1.7 to 2.2 marines on average with no change to the number of wounds in return: hardly an earth shattering increase.  It also means your average guardsman will need a 5+ to strike in return.  This is hardly Wardian and fits with the fluff.

Wracks: More ranged weapons @ 12-18"

Wracks have the potential to be a great fun medium-to-short range assault choice.  I have previously used a squad in a Raider with a Haemonculus for this role - they would zoom forward (usually at a target in cover I wanted to clear) and apply searing acid liberally to their opponent before charging in.

I'd love to see this arsenal expanded to include some 12-18" shots which could weather an opponent slightly before they charge in.  The Ossefactor may well fill this role: we shall have to wait and see.  From the description of it, I suspect it may be a blast weapon (as it mentions causing damage to models surrounding the one it hits).

Power mauls for Wracks is something I would welcome.  I've seen scepticism about how competitive it would be for the price point, but if nothing else it will give us access to a reasonably mobile and tough unit who can pop open AV11 (and maybe up to AV12 if we still get furious charge) while still posing a nightmare to most infantry (SMurfs excluded).

Anti-Armour Options

MEGAZORD GO!

In general I think we are one of the better armies at taking on heavy armour.  Haywire wyches are deadly but require a bit of skill to use.  One of my favourite lists is 6x HW wyches in venoms backed up by the Duke + some bloodbrides on a Raider with a dissie.  Fluffy, fun to play and reasonably competitive against most things (wyches for tarpitting / vehicle smashing; venoms for infantry shredding).

However it would be nice to have a few options when it comes to dealing with armour.  Dark Eldar excel in taking out one or two very heavy vehicles, but when faced with a field of relatively low cost vehicles it becomes a bit more different.  A lot of this is down to our reliance on poison: where other armies can spam s4 shots into light armour we don't really have an option to do this.  Lance spam is an option but is unreliable unless backed up with farseer support.

Wracks with power mauls is one way in which this gap could be filled as derailed above. The unit could threaten most things on the board (fliers excepted) and has no major redundancy.

Another option I'd like to see is a wider availability of haywire blasters. If trueborn got access to these it would open up a lot of options for us. A second improvement here would be in the Scourge load out. Currently 10 winged aristocrats gets you 4 haywire blasters with the other 6 shardcarbine shots being wasted whenever you fire at vehicles. I think this is the single biggest reason Scourges don't see much competitive play. 

Scourges: Skyfire

Previously I've mainly relied on presienced Ravagers to take on enemy fliers or failing that used our speed to stay out of their LOS. 

With a new codex I am strongly hoping we will have decent options within our own codex to deal with flying threats. 

Obviously our own fliers present one solution to this conundrum. However I'm still on the fence when it comes to using planes. 40k was always a skirmish game (Armageddon for big battles) and having significant air support seems to counter that. Most new codexes have had some land based anti-air support and I'm.hoping ours is no different. Scourges may be in with a shout here - perhaps some sort of wargear that grants them skyfire? This would again fit with the fluff and provided it was costed correctly (most land based AA has come with a hefty points cost) wouldn't be OP.

My thoughts... Any suggestions for what you'd like to see?