1500 pts Dark Eldar CC Vanguard

I've had trouble killing T3 hordes (like eveyone else I assume) and I thought I'd try killing them in close combat with this list. It expects to face either IG or marines in a competitive setting.

The premise is that a unit of Incubi with Demiklaives will deliver 7.83 wounds or about equivalent to 35 splinter shots vs. GEQ (more from turn 3 on), while also doing well vs MEQ, and being highly mobile and pretty resilient when in transports. Demiklaives seem worth it for this use since 48 pts of them buys you 3.5 dead guardsmen per turn on average. So Incubi kitted this way are way more economically efficient than cannonborn or scourges in this use. 10 basic kabalites firing rapid fire and then charging would be 4.44 + 2.44 wounds so they are more points efficient but you would need more transports for them. 5 kabalites firing rapid fire in a twin splinter cannon venom firing rapid fire would be slightly less damage for a slightly higher price with more survivability, but less utility vs other targets.


Vanguard detachment

-- HQ (80p)
Haemonculus, Crucible of Malediction, Venom Blade (slightly more efficient vs GEQ, should probably be Agonizer really)

-- Elites (590p)
4x Incubi, Klaivex, Demiklaives x 6

-- Heavy Support (300p)
Reaper x 2

-- Flyer (194p)
Voidraven, Dark Scythes, Voidraven missiles

-- Dedicated Transport (346p)
Raider, Dark Lance, Shock Prow x 1
Raider, Dark Lance x 2

1500

The goal here is to have enough can-opener firepower to be able to probably kill a stormraven or a tank T1 so that means at least 8-10 lance type weapons, preferably more. Here we have 10 since dark scythes count as about 1 lance a piece. Voidraven was chosen mainly as a points sink, I think it's not that much better than a 2 DL RWJF (it will typically do 0.56 more damage to a vehicle without using the bomb). But it has less low-rolling potential and this list only has 4 command points which I will let the reapers have. Typically I would prefer RWJF w/dissies but this list already can kill MEQ and will struggle more vs armour.

Haemy sits back and buffs the vehicles in case we don't go first. Raiders move in. Reapers reap from backfield. T2 we charge and hopefully kill a lot of dudes, and live to fight again.

Thoughts, improvements?

That is a crapload of Incubi! I can't wait to hear how it pans out - please update us after a few games!

I truly do love the idea of going all-in on incubi, however I might drop the 5th and 6th squads in favor of more threat diversity. Maybe a big unit of Hellions to help gum up the board for a turn or two while the main feature (Incubi) get into position. The longer you can hold off, the better they will be in combat with PfP. Hopefully you can land a huuuuuge void bomb T1 and get the enemy to focus down your voidraven and ignore the rest of your army.

Ravagers have been so consistently excellent for me that I'd try and shoehorn at least one into any list - but I haven't played with Reapers yet so they might fill a redundant role.

There was a squad of pre-owned finecast incubi at my local shop the other day. Might have to go pick them up now ...

Well, tried it. The list was illegal since I had forgotten to pay for 1 demiklaive so I had to switch it, so I dropped Voidraven and the Haemonculus and took Urien Rakarth (funny guy, like him) and RWJF/lances instead to pay for 1 demiklaive

Opponent today was actually playing DKoK with Leman Russes w/ punisher cannons, and Chimeras full of troops with plasma guns and hot-shot lasguns, as well as some 10s of foot slogging guardsmen and an Elysian Imperial Navy Avenger as well as some forge world quad gun artillery in the backfield.

The Incubi really did a number on any guardsmen, 1 unit charging was enough to kill 1 squad of 10 basically as expected, and also worked well enough at killing chimeras. Urien Rakarth was an absolute boss vs Guard, the aura buff was great vs s5 punisher cannons and t3 and after he was crippling 1-2 tanks per turn because the opponent let him get close and just couldn't do damage to him with his saves, so he kept charging them every turn and also took 5 wounds off a Leman Russ with his ichor injector during the game. I'll actually include him if I have spare points now, that was hilarious although probably not worth more than an extra squad of something. The list really struggled against opponents armor unfortunately and the avenger lived until t4 despite my firing everything at it (cloak of shadows mission and low cp to fix bad rolls didn't help). Incubi unfortunately are really not tough enough to survive fire, punisher cannons and quad guns decimated them with disappointing ease. In the end both armies were crippled and it was a close game that I narrowly lost on points when it ended T7.

It was actually not that good of a list, and it would probaby be better with -2 incubi like you suggested and +1 reaper or rwjf. Felt like too many Incubi. Still, I liked wiping out those guardsmen a lot, and it was much easier than with our shooting, so I will be keeping incubi around. Don't know if they can be any good vs actual spam since that didn't occur this game. Sadly its also hard for them to make their points back by killing cheaper squads.

Thinking about simiar list but mandrakes replacing incubi now.