Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Dark Eldar (section)

===Fast Attack===
Dark Eldar fast attack! Fuck yeah!
*'''Hellions''' - The street gangs of the Dark Eldar. Unfortunately, these are the wyches that weren't good enough to ride jetbikes in Commorite Death Races. Hellions are inferior to Reavers in almost every way. They're slower, pack less of a punch, have a worse Toughness and Save, must move 6" to use their Hammer of Wrath (which hit like noodles compared to Bladevanes), can't take any anti-tank weapons, and the Arena Champion can take every upgrade that the Helliarch can (minus the Phantasm Grenade Launcher and Stun Claw). On the plus side, Hellions have 18" splinter pods (which is a moot point, because if you want to shoot with your Reavers, you can shoot and then Jetbike Move during the assault phase), and you can take Hellions in units of 20 (don't). One important note is that the hellions' helglaive is AP5 which makes them very effective horde sweepers, combined with their splinter pods, you can expect around 10-15 kills depending on the enemy you fight and the combat drugs you roll. So while not competitive in the least, they're fun and great against nids, orks and guard.

*'''Scourges''' -Versatile units that can easily shred lighter units with their default weapons, and can be deployed in smaller squads with Dark Lances or Splinter Cannons for troubleshooting vehicle, infantry, or independent character targets. As tempting as it may be to take dark lances, they should be ignored. Point being, take the heatlances or blasters for tankbusting (and their mobility and good accuracy does support this), but the short range of these weapons mean that you will be quite vulnerable. On the plus side, they've got excellent armor for Dark Eldar, with a 4+ armor save and 6+ Invulnerable save due to their Ghostplate armor and now have Trueborn-tier levels of options for weapons. With their mobility, they can be complete pains in the ass - they are now just 16 points a piece. Try to keep them out of melee, though - with one attack each and no pistol they're not all that good unless you splash out for the Solarite. However, since you get Hammer of Wrath if you moved 6" the turn that you charge, you might get enough volume of dice to polish off weakened units.
** '''Tip: BEWARE SCENERY!''' Scourges have an unfortunate habit of failing Dangerous Terrain checks (1 in 6, same as everyone else unless your dice hate your guts), and when they do, they only have 4+ armour to save them. There's nothing more frustrating than Deep Striking a unit of Scourges behind a nice juicy tank, only to have two of your avian horrors skewer themselves on a nearby ruin on the way down, or faceplant into a wall when leaping up onto the roof of a building to get better line of sight! Only use their jump move if you are feeling lucky or when moving them across flat terrain. If you want to move them into cover, then consider just running them into it like normal infantry instead unless you want to risk embarrassment.
** Weapon Analysis:
*** '''Haywire Blaster''': Hell on wings against vehicles. Better against all but the squishiest of vehicles compared to Blasters or Dark Lances, and better than Heat Lances except at extreme close range. Unfortunately, it's of limited value against most anything else, being just an Assault 1 AP4 bolter.
*** '''Blaster''': Overall a good choice combined with Scourges' high mobility as Jump Infantry. Blasters are by far the best choice for hunting Monstrous Creatures, while being fairly effective anti-tank. Since you can take four, that's enough volume to be a threat to heavy (TEQ) infantry, and utterly unfazed by the high toughness of things like Wraithguard, Tyrant Guard and Szeras-enhanced Immortals, and at S8, they deal Instant Death to T3/4 multi-wound guys.
*** '''Shredder''': These would be awesome if they launched pie-plates, but with only muffin-tins, they're marginal compared to Shardcarbines. Shredders have the shortest range out of all the possible scourge weapons (only 12 inches) meaning that you have to get really close to even shoot. They're good for hordes while also having the capability to glance transports to death, but if that's what you want, the codex offers lots of better options. They are also the cheapest of all the scourge weapons so keep it in mind if you going for a cheap anti horde unit.
*** '''Heat Lance''': At close range, the combination of Lance, Melta and AP1 eats vehicles for lunch, but outside of Melta range they're less reliable than Blasters. Lower Strength makes them less suitable against MCs, but they're by no means bad weapons. Generally speaking they're just as good against heavy infantry as Blasters, except against the few T5/T6 guys, and even then, they still work fairly well. In short, Heat Lances are far more versatile than Haywire Blasters and cheaper than Darklight Blasters, so they're a good option for a TAC army.
**** '''ALTERNATE TAKE:''' Not that they're an option in this army, but these are directly inferior to the Melta weapons. At best the Lance quality will reduce armour 14 to 12, an increase of 2... making the 6 strength equivalent to 8. In NEARLY (AV 15 also exists, if you want to get even more niche) every other case (Creatures, lower armour vehicles), a melta would be better. That being said, they will out perform Blasters vs Vehicles at close range, but it's hard to justify it. Take if you know you can get close enough to the enemy vehicles to grind on the windshield.
*** '''Dark Lance''': A Blaster with twice the range? What's the catch? Heavy weapons on Jump Infantry? Oh. I suppose these could be nice if you plan to castle up in a ruin and pretend to be Devastators, but with Jump mobility and better armor than most Dark Eldar, why in the nine hells would you do that?
*** '''Splinter Cannon''': See the main objections to Dark Lances above, though slightly less so. Salvo rather than Heavy is a bit less bad, but now you're firing four shots at 18" - 10 points for a slightly faster Shardcarbine that stops you from charging? Nope.
**** '''ALTERNATE TAKE:''': You aren't going to want to charge a squad of scourges into '''anything''' (except maybe Tau or IG) when they only have strength 3. Take 4 splinter cannons, and you can shit out 30+ poisoned shots on the move, and 39 staying still (why would you stand still?). Capable of killing just about any high-toughness things that get in your way, both via the poison and the sheer number of shots that will get through their armour.
*** '''Final Analysis''': If your main target is tanks, and only tanks, the Haywire Blaster is unreasonably effective, but it stinks on ice against pretty much anything else. Heat lances tackle tanks, heavy infantry and MCs in that order, while Blasters are good for hunting MCs with heavy infantry and tanks as targets of opportunity - deciding between the two comes down to which of the three you'll see the most of. Shredders might be good for hordes if your luck with small blasts is better than average while Dark Lances and Splinter Cannons are generally best avoided unless you're using them for long-range fire support. The default Shardcarbine is pretty effective for mobile anti-infantry, and if that's your intended use, it probably pays to keep it cheap rather than splashing out for Splinter Cannons.
** '''Solarite Weapons''': If the Solarite trades out his shardcarbine for a splinter pistol or a blast pistol, he can take one of three upgraded melee weapons.
*** '''Venom Blade''': 2+ Poison, but no AP. Possibly a reasonable choice for dealing with high toughness models, but since you only get the one, it's not that impressive. It is cheap though.
*** '''Power Lance''': S +1 AP3 on the charge, S user AP4 thereafter. Possibly interesting for challenge-sniping MEQ characters, but mostly useful because it's cheaper than the Agonizer.
*** '''Agonizer''': The same weapon the Reaver Arena Champion, Hekatrix and Archon can take, and just as useful here as there. Easily the best choice you have, but also by far the most expensive.
*** '''Blast Pistol''': As with everyone else who can take it, pretty marginal.
** '''ALTERNATE TAKE:''' It's not exactly elegant, but one way that Dark Lances can be useful for Scourges is for IC hunting and ripping open transports. Dark Lances are meaty enough to threaten most units with instant death, and their range is infinitely better than either the Haywire or Heat Lance. If you want a slightly more flexible option, they're worth considering.
** '''ALTERNATE TAKE:''' In the new Eldar codex, Baharroth, the Swooping Hawks phoenix lord, got a point reduction and now makes any DS unit he joins not scatter. Join him to a unit of heat lances scourges and finally get rid of the one thing that made me personally never run them: scattering away from the vehicle you want to blow up. He can tank shots for your Scourges with his 2+ armour and wounds, making them far less of a throw-away unit, and is even faster than they are. Whether they're attacking tanks or MEQ, he can participate using haywire grenades, plasma grenades or his S5 AP5 Assault 3 24" weapon.

*'''Beast Packs''' - A surprisingly flexible choice, that sadly usually gets edged out by Reavers. The entire unit is composed of Beasts, so they move fast and aren't slowed down by cover, though you will notice the lack of Grenades. You can have anywhere from 1-12 models in this unit, mix and matched from the below options. 
** Clawed Fiends are OK, decent at dishing out strength 5 attacks and absorbing wounds, but they're expensive. That said, a solo Clawed Fiend makes for a surprisingly passable [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]!
**Khymerae are decent filler, not bad on the charge, and can usually eat face.
**The Razorwing Flock is arguably the real MVP of this formation - 5 rending attacks and 3 wounds are amazing when taken in large numbers, even if they're WS2. 
** This unit can also be used as a cheap fire magnet. Two Beastmasters with 4 Razorwing Flocks comes to 100 points, 22 Wounds, and 24 Rending attacks on the charge. Doesn't make a bad for a throw away unit as long as there's no pie-plates or templates out to ruin you, as the Razorwings are now Swarms.
*** Mathhammer dictates you to always use Khymerae over Razorwing flocks for sheer damage output. Against MEQs and TEQs they are much more effective on the charge (and even slightly more afterwards) and more than double the effectiveness against GEQ. Only against vehicles with Rear AV 11 or 12 it's better to take Razorwing. Also your Khymerae are harder to kill with templates and (nearly) always have their 5++.
** New rules for the unit no longer actually require you to take beastmasters at all, just 1-12 models chosen from the list. So while you can mix it up to create nicely utilitarian squads, you may be better served by taking big units of a single type to fill out a certain role, such as tar-pits of fiends or mass rending attacks from razorwings. The beastmaster need only be added to bump up the LD of the rest of the unit.
** Hilariously, you can also take nothing but the Beastmasters themselves, resulting in essentially cheaper Hellions. This isn't ''good'' as such, but it's a barrel of laughs. For even more lols, you can give all the beastmasters agonisers, making them the same price per model as a clawed fiend. Pretty pricey, but absolutely hilarious. 

*'''Razorwing Jetfighter''' (Fighter) - Two Disintegrator Cannons and an available Splinter Cannon make the jet a very strong option for both tank and infantry hunting, and the four free Large Blast missiles are excellent against infantry squads; Necrotoxin missiles have fleshbane while Shatterfield are strength 7 with shred. Both lose the AP 5 that the monoscythe missiles have, so those guardsmen and gaunts are getting their armor save, but these kill non-GEQ units better. Generally Shatterfield missiles are better because they make sure things get wounded with shred, whereas the fleshbane on necrotoxin missiles is largely useless except in rare cases of blobs of high-toughness units, since the base option is already strength 6, and even then shatterfield missiles still have a great chance at wounding. Deploy it quickly against footsloggers and horde armies - four basic missiles, a splinter cannon, and 6 disintegrator shots supporting swarms of trueborn and warrior venoms can cripple an Ork or Tyranid army in one turn and table them in two. For the cost, it's a rather flexible model and you should always take at least one against horde armies.  
** It also might be worth your time to purchase the Dark Lances on to go Flyer Hunting, a role that's not very well filled in the Dark Eldar codex as of right now.
** New Information: now that 7th Ed has landed, flyers are no longer restricted as to the amount of missiles they can fire - up to four. The Razorwing is back! Also sporting supersonic, just because, fly on, blast the hell out of a unit with four S6 large blast templates, then spend the rest of the game flyer/vehicle hunting with the dark lances!
*** Your weapon choice is going to be based around what the rest of your army is doing. Typically you'll be looking at blasterborn as your anti-heavy infantry because they're just so damn good at it while your anti-armour and AA choices are less easily filled. In that case a platform that handles both well is nice and you get missiles too to support against infantry. The blaster cannons are really nasty guns against the right opponent but your army is really well served by a unit who can threaten vehicles like artillery and transports who are likely manoeuvring to deny your typically short ranged AT weapons a good shot. 

*'''Reaver Jetbikes''' - With the removal of  the hax Bladevanes, these babies are now nothing better than a pack of HoW (Hammer of Wrath) goons to distract someone with, especially if you buy a Grav-Talon that gives them Concussive. They lost their former uniqueness and anti-FMC utility. However, they are still Dark Eldar Jetbikes that might take a few AT special weapons. Moreover, their Rending HoW starts to aggravate quickly when you upgrade them with the Cluster Caltrops. It's nothing to scoff at, really. Also, don't forget the improved Combat Drugs chart that may buff them noticeably. Of course using HoW requires them to get stuck in combat, but with Initiative 6 and Hit & Run it's easy to withdraw when necessary. Also don't forget to declare your 3+ Jink save against Overwatch. 
**'''Loadouts''': Cluster Caltrops are strictly superior to Grav Talons. Heat Lances versus Blasters are more debatable. On one hand, Heat Lances are undeniably superior versus vehicles, especially given the ease of getting in Fusion Blaster Range then moving to safety. On the other hand, Blasters don't depend on closing the gap, and are better at stripping wounds off Monstrous Creatures, including Riptides and Wraithknights.
**'''Squad Size''': The big question usually ends up being "squads of 3, or squads of 6?" MSU is fine and dandy, but the difference between 2 bullet catchers and 4 is dramatically noticeable, and chances are you will want to fire 2 AT weapons at a time anyway, since you don't get easy access to BS boosts. 
**'''Alternate Take''': 6 Reavers, 2 Caltrops and 2 AV weapons, with an Arena Champion with an Agonizer, and you have a toolbox unit for just about the price of old reavers with just the caltrops.
**'''Another Alternate Take:''' Unit of 6 with the aforementioned Caltrops and 2 Heat Lances will WRECK vehicles. S4 HoW with Rending, plus 2D6 S6 HoW on the rear armour facing in base contact = excellent tank hunting unit. Chuck in the 2 Heat Lances for insurance. 
**'''Yet Another Alternate Take:''' If you get lucky and end up with Painbringer for your Combat Drugs roll, you now have a pants-shittingly fast T5 unit that ignores dangerous terrain tests end enjoys a 3+ Jink save due to Skilled Rider, and gets the Power From Pain FNP against everything except S10 weapons. Combine this with Cluster Caltrops and you have one of the deadliest assault units in the codex!
**'''One Last Alternate Take:''' You know who can take a jetbike as wargear? An allied Autarch. You know who can take a Banshee Mask as wargear? An allied Autarch. You know what Banshee Masks do? Yeah, they cancel Overwatch. That's right - no more Overwatch on your Reavers. [[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-]]

*'''Raider''' - See Dedicated Transports.  Use this for allies if you want some big pack of Banshees to get into battle with your WWP Succubus.

*'''Venom''' - See Dedicated Transports.  Grab for small squads, like a Farseer and maybe a small retinue.

* '''Raven (Forge World)''' - An old as balls FW Flyer, now with strafing run and +1 cover on evade (to 3+). It can reroll the scatter if it's within 12" of another skimmer or flyer. Mounts two dark lances and a heavy 10 splinter cannon. Way overpriced at 205 pts (the much better Razorwing will be 195 when fully kitted out), but hey, it's fast attack now, freeing your HS slots - which would mean something if we didn't already have four good-to-great Fast Attack options. Despite strafing run USR, this flyer can actually do good as AtA fighter, especially against flying monstrous creatures - those flying Tyrants and Bloodthirsters would explode from the sheer amount of poisoned and lance shots this bird deliver. Air-to-Air may be its best use, since we're not exactly lacking anti-infantry fire (and Scourges do it much better for only a little bit more).