The Dark Eldar have been out for a month or two now. Anybody here play them? How do they stack up against other armies like space marines? What are their strongest units, weakest units?
And yes, they look awesome!
I played them right when they were released for 3rd Edition 40k, and they were my first and only army. I’ve been out of the hobby for about seven years, but the new models and codex have sucked me back in.
I haven’t had a chance to play any games yet, but I’ve been making army lists for when I come home and can play my friends’ Marines and Tau. With the old codex I often tabled Marine Armies of any variety, but usually had more trouble with the Tau. I think the new “power from pain” rule will go a long way towards keeping your squads alive after they’ve wiped out a unit of firewarriors in hand to hand. I’ll miss being able to field cheap footslogging squads with two dark lances, but the name of the game now is infantry killing infantry (and you get a pain token to boot). Also, I usually fielded my archon with a punisher, but aside from those two differences, my army will be largely unchanged, though I will begin the process of slowly phasing out old models for the new ones.
I think the difference between the old archon and the new one represents the greatest leap in miniature quality that GW has ever produced. Man, that thing was terrible.
Are wyches still the most lethal close combat troops in the game to the point where genestealers look like arthritic guardsmen?
Wyches have an invulnerable dodge save in hth combat, but still only 1 attack (+1 for an extra hand weapon, +1 if you charge) and a strength of 3 (unless you get an extra point for combat drugs). They are really best for tar pitting enemy elites like terminators or assault marines, slowly whittling them down while taking little damage in return, or holding them in place until your incubi can charge in and finish them off. The incubi remain your best shock troops, with high strength power weapon attacks; but now we also get harlequins, which can dish out a high volume of rending attacks.
The incubi are now also elites instead of retinues, and can take a leader similar to the Eldar exarchs.
I like that Harlequins will fight for dark eldar too. It completely fits with their image of walking the thin line between good and evil.
Ah, I always wanted to play WH40k. Never had the time or money ro buy and paint models, though. C’est la vie. Dark Eldar do look cool, though. I take it Power from Pain gives you abilities to use in exchange for losing models?
No, it gives power from killing enemy models, IIRC.