Starting purchases

Hey y'all, I am really serious about getting into DE with the new book coming out and I am curious y'all's opinion with these 4 purchases to start (including the 'dex and datacards)

2x start collecting
2x venom
scourge
voidraven (fav model ever)

So my thinking is to go with 2 squads of blasterborn in venoms, 1 squad of 10 kabalites with a blaster in one of the raiders, the other raider carries the 2 archons (I could split the squad of 10 down to 2x5 with a blaster each?), the scourge with 4 blasters deep striking, two squads of reavers with blasters and a grav talon each, and the voidraven because it's a boss and probably my fav GW model to date. So here's how it'd look:

archon - blaster
archon - blaster
10 warriors - blaster
5 trueborn - 4 blasters
5 trueborn - 4 blasters
3 reavers - blaster, grav talon, arena champ agoniser
3 reavers - blaster, grav talon, arena champ agoniser
scourge - 4 blasters
2 raiders - lance, shock prow
2 venoms - double cannons
voidraven - void lances and missiles

What do y'all think? I'd probably run it as an outrider detachment to get an extra command point. Do you reckon it's enough darklight? Thanks for the critique!

I would wait. A lot of those choices will leave you disappointed in the index, so wait until the codex drops before deciding anything.

That looks like a really solid basis for starting a Dark Eldar army, and it's difficult to imagine that the Codex is going to shake things up to the extent that it would be a bad foundation.

I'd caution against some of the options that you're planning, however. Dark Lances are (possibly arguably) better than Blasters on Scourges and basic Warriors are probably a better option than Trueborn; running four groups of five Kabalites with a Blaster each would enable you to field a Battalion detachment and get + 3 Command Points. Reavers are also on the very weak side at the moment and special weapons on them are excessive, but that could change in the Codex and it's pretty easy to magnetise their weapons.

How I'd build the models you'll have;

Archon - Splinter Pistol (Parasite's Kiss), Agoniser
Archon - Blaster, Agoniser
5 Warriors - Blaster
5 Warriors - Blaster
5 Warriors - Blaster
5 Warriors - Blaster
3 Reavers
3 Reavers
5 Scourges - 4 Dark Lances
Raider - Dark Lance
Raider - Dark Lance
Venom - 2 Splinter Cannons
Venom - 2 Splinter Cannons
Voidraven - 2 Void Lances and Missiles

That gets you to 1275 points and 6 Command Points total, and gives you a really strong core to an army. You do need more darklight at some point and eventually picking up another unit of Scourges or some Ravagers would help with that.

@burnage thanks man! I am just spitballing at this point, as the codex will probably blow up most of the ideas lol

Hey man, solid starting kabal list. like you said and others have warned, that codex is gonna change all the advice we can give you here.

My 2 cents: Buy yourself that voidraven and take the next two weeks to make it a gorgeous centerpiece for your army. B/c by the sounds of it, good or bad, youll want to bring that 9/10 times. By the time its ready, youll have a dex to make the rest of your decisions with

Hold off until the codex comes out. Best advice you can get here. That's both from the perspective of being strategic with your purchases as well as to simply see if we will be a tier D army

@SushiBoy013 wrote:

Hold off until the codex comes out. Best advice you can get here. That's both from the perspective of being strategic with your purchases as well as to simply see if we will be a tier D army

Tier D stand for "Tier Disaster"?

@dumpeal wrote:

@SushiBoy013 wrote:

Hold off until the codex comes out. Best advice you can get here. That's both from the perspective of being strategic with your purchases as well as to simply see if we will be a tier D army

Tier D stand for "Tier Disaster"?

Why don't I have a finger gun emoticon? Anyway *Finger gun emote*.

I don't think your purchase plan is at all bad for starting a new Dark Eldar force. It's a well rounded start to a kabalite force. You might want to leave heavy or special weapons off your dudes in case the codex changes what has been our common loadout or you can magnetize them I suppose.

That being said I wouldn't build much past that until the codex drops.

I would also caution against big purchases right now ahead of the codex (great business strategy GW...) but I will say that if the voidraven is your favorite model it's probably worth it no matter what the codex is like.

Well consider that getting 4 blasters means getting 4 boxes of warriors. Same for Scourges. If (gods willing) haywire and heatlance gets reasonable in the codex, you will have this aspect a bit easier, but if you want to get ahead with painting a bit, I would personally start with warriors and few vehicles, Raider, Ravager and the VRB perhaps. That should give you some fun while you wait.

@RedRegicide wrote:

Hey man, solid starting kabal list. like you said and others have warned, that codex is gonna change all the advice we can give you here.

My 2 cents: Buy yourself that voidraven and take the next two weeks to make it a gorgeous centerpiece for your army. B/c by the sounds of it, good or bad, youll want to bring that 9/10 times. By the time its ready, youll have a dex to make the rest of your decisions with

This, start with a voidraven since you really like the model the rules matter less for it, since you will probably field it anyway.
One start collecting box might also be an idea if you finish the voidraven very fast, but as others mentioned the special/heavy weapon loadout might be subject to change.
Don't buy it all now, buy 1 thing paint it and soon the codex will be out and we/you can make a better judgement on what you want in the army.

Do you have other armies that you’ve collected before? I’d highly suggest taking the time to learn and buy everything needed to magnetize your minis

I'm going to agree with The Red King and say go buy yourself a beautiful Voidraven, because you will want that regardless of whether the Codex makes it great or so so.

Warriors are probably fairly safe.

Transports could end up either advantage Venoms, advantage Raiders or fairly even. Generally a good bet for Drukhari.

Reavers and Scourges (and possibly the Archons) are riskier picks, and could be worth waiting until post-Codex.

WOW great responses all! My birthday is coming up here end of next month, and I was just looking for some overall advise on my purchase strategy, that'll probably take the better part of this year :/ I would love to run out and snag a voidraven and build/paint it up, but I just don't have the $ right now. House, kid, and budgets somehow steal all my hobby money

Thanks again y'all!

Sounds like perfect timing for your birthday, our codex should hopefully be out by then.

I really am stoked to get started with them. I love the speed and brutality of the army. The epitome of glass cannon.

I also really hope reavers get some love, I feel like I'm going to be running them regardless of their power, because the models are dope and I love the idea of the unit as well.

I was thinking of painting my guys up in the colors of the Broken Sigil. I love the terror tactics thinking of Xerathis. Plus that metallic teal and bone will look dope together!

Ok, so I'm back and I have some more questions. I am going to be selling my GK army here shortly and if all goes well, I'll have $325 to play with (pun intended ). Now, I made my plans above before the switch of the start collecting box to wyches, and buying the older box (for the correct models) will cost me about $25-30 more than if I could get those on amazon.

Now, if I could manage to get the models for this list of models below, could it still be worth it?  If I had:
20 warriors (kitted how I needed them)
6 reavers
2 archons
2 venoms
2 raiders
1 voidraven
5 scourge

I need to listen to the newest splintermind episode (forgive my laxity) to get some more insight into the correct purchases, I just want to spend my money where I can get the most bang for my buck. Appreciate the help y'all!

With the way the <kabal/cult/coven> units are made up, you want to aim to build two battalions of a single <kabal> and a single <other>.

Hard to say what the allstars are, with the codex just getting released. Off the top of my head, I would say you cant go wrong with warriors, ravagers, razorwings, mandrakes.

Nothing you posted is Bad, all can be used in a good list

Alright, if I can get all the models I am wanting to sell, sold, I should have around $500 to kickstart my new raiding force. My thoughts for purchases are this:
3 kabalite start collecting boxes
1 wych start collecting box
2 venoms
codex
datacards
$ I have left start making a flyer wing of a voidraven and razorwings (2). I don't think I'll have enough to get all 3 flyers but getting a voidraven at least should be doable.

I was thinking of something looking like this:
black heart battalion:
archon - relic pistol, huskblade
archon - blast pistol, huskblade, cunning warlord
3x5 warriors w/blaster in venoms
2x10 warriors w/2 blasters & dark lance in splinter rack raiders

red grief (advance+charge, reroll charge obsession - i think that's red grief right?)
succubus - relic glaive, adrenalight
10 wyches - shardnet in raider
2x6 reavers w/2 specials (haven't nailed down heat lance or blaster yet) and maybe a weapon on arena champ

flyer wing
voidraven - missiles and lances or scythes
razorwing w/lances
razorwing w/lances

That's the general idea, what are your thoughts? I don't have the codex so I don't know exact point value yet, but I am thinking this would be a solid base, ya? Thanks!

Ordered my codex off Amazon last night, should be here thursday! Also, I saw that on amazon they have the 2016 start collecting up! I am going to ask the wife if I can order my 2 sets now and pay back the account when I sell my guard stuff off

Exiting times!

Anyone here paint their kabal up in the lords of the iron thorns? I am tempted to give them a go (I love their scheme)

I haven't, but I play Iron Warriors primarily and have drybrushed enough Leadbelcher/Necron Compound/Stormhost Silver to last a lifetime! And Nuln Oil... It haunts my dreams.

My entire army is painted as Lord's. I used the dark eldar painting book that came out with our 7th dex. For things that are not vehicles I base coat spray incubi darkness, then you use lead belcher for the armor. Wash everything in druchii violet. Use hashut copper for the brass colors and highlight with a gold. Highlight the lead belcher with a bright silver, I use p3 Quicksilver. For their red cloth/cape and markings use lhorne red and highlight with evil sunz scarlet. Wash the red with abrax earthahade. I can post pics if you like from the book or my models. I just use brushes.

Edit: wash the brass with nuln

I'd love to see your army buddy! Great recipes! I am thinking of having my main warlord archon going with the moniker 'the pale king' and painting his helmet white, while having the cult/coven units I use with them have a white hand marked somewhere on them as them paying homage to the archon. I painted up some uruk-hai for lord of the rings minis awhile back and did some white hands on them and they looked pretty damn cool, so I might follow through with that.