New to the Deldar...

[Frostglaive]

After running nothing but AdMech, along with the occasional Deathwatch and Knights, for the entirety of 8th edition, I figured it was time to start something completely new for me. So I decided to become a space pirate! Bought the Drukhari codex, a box of Kabalites and an Archon, going to build up my own kabal and prey upon the unsuspecting squishy humans of my local meta.

 

But... I need a little help before I start my raids and whatnot. When I started my Admech army, I literally just bought a bunch of random stuff that I thought looked cool and went from there. Spent A LOT of money getting more stuff that I actually needed later on though. I want to try and avoid that trap and start with buying what I need first... THEN splurging on all the shiny and cool looking toys.

 

Here's how I'd like to start: 1000pt list, preferably a battalion detachment, pure Kabal for the time being. So at the moment, that means I need 2 Archons and 3 squads of Kabalites. My questions for the moment:
- What else would you recommend I buy for a 1000pt Kabal list?

- Ideally, what is a good loadout for Archons and Kabalites?

- At the moment, I'm thinking of running them as Kabal of the Black Heart for that +1 to Power from Pain. Would you suggest a different obsession or is Black Heart a good choice?

 

I want to start small with these guys. Buy what I need, build and paint everything, and just get a feel for these guys right now. I'll expand later on (having a Haemonculus Coven looks like fun...)

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to the pointy ear space pirates :) Warriors are solid as a Troop choice I think, albeit squishy so a good number of these is a good idea (as is common with 8th, generally).

 

Are you thinking about mechanising your forces? That can go a long way with added firepower and mobility. Generally speaking DE want anti-tank help as poison means the rank and file can usually deal with non-vehicles competently. Though I've yet to field them I think Scourges are good, built in mobility and good guns plus they look great.

 

I'm sure someone with more experience can help you out with more information soon, but for moment you can't go wrong working on what you have ;) Speaking of which, what sort of colour scheme are you thinking of?

[Frostglaive]

Not sure yet on the colour scheme. I'm used to painting either metallic or dark/black armour. So I wanna do something more.... flamboyent(?). Less deldar paint scheme and more corsairs paint scheme.

[WarriorFish]

Sounds good to me, maybe more "traditional" pirate then? :P Red would work well I reckon, either a more crimson or brighter shade if you wanted more on the flamboyant :)

[Rhivan]

Welcome to the ranks of the True Kin! If we are looking at Kabals all of them are good in some form or fashion but the two that I tend to generally think best are the Flayed Skull or Black Heart.

 

• Black Heart is a go to for it's Agents of Vect (Counterspell) strategem, as well as a good WL trait, and relic (this relic you take and have the weilder babysit 3 dissy ravagers and laugh manically) 
• Flayed Skull while not having good all around relics or warlord traits (fun if you wanna make a CC beatstick Archon but no wider use) they have a very powerful faction trait allowing poison weapons to reroll 1s to hit, you get a +3" movement on all your fliers and ignore cover on all your guns (which is a psuedo AP-1 affect that splinter weapons appreciate) 

General units for a Kabals

 

Archons are a general all arounder that you can build to fit any role. Shooting (index version so I wouldn't recommend this JIC it is removed later) buff vector (espesially black heart) CC beastick, or distraction (People hate shadowfields)

 

Kabalite Warriors are tried and true and an overall solid unit but if you run them put them in a transport. Dark Eldar are a mechanized army be design and the only subfaction of us that can get away with not is Covens. (Also give the Kabalite Warriors a Blaster for anti tank and fun little tricks. Not required but I love doing it) 

 

Venoms are absolute allstars with 36" rapid fire 3 poison guns (you always pay 10 points for the extra splinter cannon). at 18" they can pump out 12 poison shots plus whatever is inside. Combine that with a base move of 16" no degrading profile a opened topped transport (5 man) a 5++ & a -1 to hit vs shooting they are the worst unit in our codex espesially with how cheap they are pretty solid.

 

Raiders are 14" open topped transports with a 10 man capacity and a variety of upgrades, and a 5++. They are generally considered worse than venoms (but I love my boats) and their biggest appeals are their transport capacity and their ability to have a dissy cannon (which are my favorite guns in the Dark Eldar codex) 

 

Ravagers I feel I have to demand you buy at least 1 of these for your army. Minimum. They have the same base profile as a Raider (T5, 14" move 4+ 5++ degrading profile) and have the same weapon options as the raider (Dark Lance and Dissie Cannon) but can take 3 of the guns in exchange for not being able to transport models. I highly reccomend taking 3 dissie cannons. This gives you 9 shots at S5 AP-3 2D. Park an Archon near them and they reroll 1s to hit. Have a Black Heart Archon with writ of the living muse (kabal relic) and you reroll 1s to wound as well. Take 3 of these with all of that and congratulations you are now a mustache twirling evil Archon. 

 

Mercs while not Kabals they can be taken in Kabal detachments with no penalty and later help you pad out a Vanguard detachment for another subfaction I'd highly reccomend looking into Scourges and Mandrakes (Scourges are a fantastic source of Haywire Blasters and overall VERY reliable and strong unit (also inbuilt deepstrike)) and Mandrakes are a unit that takes care of itself having good melee, ranged, inbuilt deepstrike, ability to deal mortal wounds, and a -1 to hit in all phases. 

 

If you plan on expanding past Kabals I HIGHLY reccomend Covens (prophets of flesh specifically) Talos Pain Engines and Grotesques are absolute monsters in melee (something that your kabals would sorely appreciate) and also very tanky. I won't go into them as much because you specifically mentioned being interested in Kabals but trust me you want to look into Covens once you have the base of your army built

 

Hope I was helpful! If you have any other questions lemme know I'm always happy to help Drukhari players!

 

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EDIT: And for schemes bright red or purple (you don't really see purple on the tabletop that much) and if your willing to convert a little bit order empire bits with the feathers and stick them everywhere :P Than you'll certainly come across as a bit more flamboyant (I'm a huge fan of the feathers if I'm being honest xD )

[Frostglaive]

So the bright and obnoxious paint scheme I was originally planning.... yeah, I'm not doing that. Tried it out last night on a test model and I hated it. HOWEVER, I am still going to do a purple paint scheme though (I have three different shades of purple that I barely get to use, and I love the colors. I'm using them dang it!). Still working on the model, but I should have it done tonight.

 

Black Heart and Flayed Skull both do seem pretty awesome. I'm leaning more towards Black Heart for my kabal though. I do appreciate the relic a lot, and I like the idea of having +1 to Power from Pain. The WL trait though... while I recognize the usefulness of CP farming, I'm going to shy away from that one and use a generic Kabal WL trait instead. Personal preference. The Vect Strat... holy crap that is awesome. Expensive, especially with the Big FAQ making it 4CP now... but DANG! Me like.

 

Will pick up at least 1 Ravager in the near future. Definitely a squad of Scourges, probably with Haywire blasters. I did buy a second box of Kabalites. The 10 I currently have built I gave 2 Blasters and a Splinter Cannon. I'll probably build this second box pure Splinter rifles. Couple Venoms, couple Raiders, some more Kabalites and another Archon. Going to hold off on the Mandrakes for the time being (I will get them in the future though).

 

Another question I have: the Voidraven Bomber and the... I forgot the name of the other flyer, but that one too. The models alone are absolutely gorgeous and I want them, but how worthwhile are they in game? I love the idea behind the Void Lances being AP-4 lascannons, and the bomb just sounds funny. But is it truly effective, or just looks good on paper?

[Rhivan]

Post pictures when you've finished. I'm a fan of the purple myself as it's one of the three main colors of my Drukhari :D 

 

I tend to favor Flayed Skull if your not running tons of ravagers. Reason being is PfP doesn't really buff Kabal units that much, as PfP benefits melee and being out side of transports (something you honestly don't want to do with your kabalites) 6+ fnp? Not bad and probably the most useful to the humble kabalite but you get that turn 1 nomatter what. Reroll advance and charge rolls? You are in a vehicle 90% of the time. +1 to hit rolls in CC? Your Kabalites wanna shoot... Not taking morale checks? Your kabalites will generally be 5 man units and have leadership 8... -1 to enemy morale within 6" cool I guess? Better for melee still?

The things Black heart wants to do is the CP farm, + Vect + buff ravagers (with the writ). Beyond that the biggest buff it gives is your vehicles get a 6+ FnP which while nice I view as inferior to Flayed Skulls bonuses overall. (IMO if your using BH you wanna run 3 Ravagers otherwise your simply not making the most of the faction but that is my humble opinion) (Important Note: The auras from Writ and Overlord will not affect models inside transports as they are not on the table. Meaning rerolls of 1 to hit and wound will not affect any of your models inside your transport which is HUGE in my opinion and a reason to go FS)

 

You can always run 2 detatchments of Kabals as well with 1 being BH (Ravagers, Mercs, and an Archon) and the other being FS (Kabalite Gunboats) which is what I'd reccomend if you want the best of both worlds. 

 

Good choices (although I don't really reccomend the splinter cannon. Although I tend to find myself putting all of my Kabalites in 5 man squads even if I put them in a raider) as for Mandrakes they are something you can safely hold off on till later.

 

Dark Eldar have some of the best fliers in the game. The Razorwing Jetfighter is the better of the two (I'd reccomend the dissy cannon variant on that as if you go for Dark lances on the thing for 10 more points you can get the Voidraven and the void lances instead) The bomb is solid enough imo. If you wanna run the fliers they are quite good (I'd favor Razorwings over Voidravens though) 

[Frostglaive]

So tonight, I'm going to trade off my Deathwatch stuff and one of my Knights for a good chunk of my friend's Drukhari stuff. Going to be picking up 4 boats (Raiders/Ravagers), 2 Razorwings, 1 Voidraven, and an old metal Archon. Which actually finishes up the 1,000pt list I was planning and then some.

 

Here's what I've come up with for a 1k list:

 

Kabal of the Flayed Skull

Battalion detachment

 

2 Archons

- WL Archon w/ Obsidian Veil relic and Famed Savagery WL trait

- Both w/ Huskblade and splinter pistol

2 9-man Kabalite squads w/ Blaster

1 10-man Kabalite squad

3 Raiders w/ Disintegrator cannon

1 Ravager w/ 3 Disintegrator cannons

1 Razorwing w/ missiles and Dark Lances 

5 Scourges w/ 4 Haywire blasters

Plus a few random upgrades for the extra points left over (I forget what all I gave)

[Rhivan]

Well I took forever and a day to reply but, what you have looks good. I tend to like running MSU kabalites for morale saftey (and if you run raiders 2 squads can go in) but I see why you chose the setup you did. 

 

Have you had any luck with it?

[Frostglaive]

Haven't finished building/painting yet. Been gone for a couple weeks. And I want this army to be 100% finished before it hits the table, unlike my AdMech.