1750 Venom Spam

I was playing around with different ideas, and came up with this list that I actually quite like:

Baron @ 105pts.

Haemonculus with webway portal @ 85pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades, incl. hekatrix with agoniser @ 90pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades, incl. hekatrix with agoniser @ 90pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades, incl. hekatrix with agoniser @ 90pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Total @ 1748pts.

A venom-spam generally has a lot of infantry in midfield (possibly disembarked to get t1 range) and I actually think the webway portal meshes in pretty nicely. All wyches and the baron deploy via reserves (most likely portal) and the rest try and lay down as much hurt as possible. Two empty venoms add firepower and ensure most guys have a ride when they need it. No nightshields on the venoms unfortunately, but the wyches can help against infantry targets. 21 darklight weapons and 15 haywire grenades for antitank.

Night Shields - when to use them

There are a lot of people who really see Night Shields as a bad upgrade. They are very expensive, but in my opinion, most people just don't use them correctly.

Night Shields aren't meant for those backfield tanks like ravagers, where the 6'' range decrease probably won't have a big difference. They are shooting 48'' range weapons at you, and you're shooting 36'' range weapons back at them. Instead, Night Shields are good on those tanks that are gonna be going upfield towards the enemy, namely your blaster tanks. -6'' makes a bigger difference to weapons that already have a pretty short range. Meltaguns become kinda lol, and it works well on 24'' ranges such as multimeltas, psycannons and plasmaguns.

You can cut down on the amount of shooting going into your venoms. That is really key in a list that uses ~100 poisoned shots a turn as a lynchpin. I've tried them out in my latest list (the one with the shockprows) and have been positively surprised by them.

Shockprows? Dark Eldar Anti-Tank

Hi guys,
So, I've been lately thinking about the controversial tactic of consistently ramming vehicles with my shockprow raiders to get damage results. The philosophy is to gain as much momentum and advantage early on in the game (something that imo dark eldar need to do well). You exchange your raider for a sure damage result on most vehicles.

I'm sure many have rammed a raider that lost its dark lance into the side of a rhino or land speeder. I've been lately trying out playing a list that aims to ram its raiders into opposing tanks right on t1.

Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

3 Trueborn with 3 blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons and night shields @ 75pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Wyches incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 70pts.
Raider with disintegrator, shockprow and enhanced aethersails @ 70pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields @ 75pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields @ 75pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x cannons, night shields, grisly trophies @ 80pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfield @ 115pts.

Total @ 1748pts.

Lets look at the cons of shockprow madness:

• You are giving away killpoints and vehicles early on
• You can't have any squads inside (means you have foot units in the army)

Then the pros:

• Ignores cover
• Easier to angle side shots
  
• str10 means sure results

In my opinion, the cons aren't even that bad. It's great to get some str10 hits into those dreads/predators that are hiding behind cover/other tanks.

Flickerfields would be pretty sweet, but in the end I decided that it wasn't worth it. Shockprows and aethersails are mandatory. aethersails give t1 reach. I went with disintegrators because your raider should be ramming on t1 until it gets wrecked (the str is reduced once your distance is reduced) and in a match where there are no tanks, the disintegrator is probably better.

Tau Battlesuit equipment options

The fireknife (plasma/missile/multitracker) suit configuration seems to be almost every tau commanders favorite option. I for one believed that the most versatile configuration would fit best in any tau list. In the new broadside list I've been working on, I tried out some other configurations.

When I playtested the burst cannon/missilepod/multitracker suits I was very surprised. In general, most sources will say that burst cannons on suits is crap. Those suits however, were on fire. I decided to crunch some numbers. It turns out the burst cannons are better then the fireknives at MEQs in cover when allowed into their "optimal" range of 13"-18". And the squad costed 36 points less.

This post isn't really about trying to sell burst cannons to you (although chainguns are freaking awesome!), but to motivate you to try different options. The broadside list I'm playing doesn't deploy its crisis suits, and thus needs to provide enough firepower in a couple of shooting phases. Fireknives are so effective because they are flexible, and can provide weight of fire at range that should over the course of the game destroy enemies. They wouldn't fit aswell into a list that utilises a positional relay,

Crisis suits are some of the most flexible options in the game, and every commander should look at the rest of their list to decide what kind of suits to take.

Chaos without oblits @ 1750pts.

Something a little different? I remember seeing something like this on stelek's blog.

Sorceror with mark of slaanesh, lash @ 125pts.

5 Chaos Space Marines with meltagun, champion with combi-melta and powerfist @ 135pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Chaos Space Marines with meltagun, champion with combi-melta and powerfist @ 135pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Chaos Space Marines with meltagun, champion with combi-melta and powerfist @ 135pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns @ 135pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns @ 135pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns @ 135pts.
Rhino @ 35pts.

5 Havocs with 4 autocannons @ 155pts.

5 Havocs with 4 autocannons @ 155pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

5 Havocs with 4 autocannons @ 155pts.
Rhino with combi-flamer @ 45pts.

Total @ 1750pts.

It would really require playtesting to figure out the right ratio of plague marines to CSM (they are the same amount of points). Basic idea is to rush forward (with two spare rhinos) and tanck shock/lash stuff for the flamers to hit. The havocs provide long range suppression and the double meltas pop tanks. That is, if all goes well. Now that lash is no longer a shooting attack, what are your thoughts: can you use lash out of a fire point?