My Drukhari project and blog

[Galron]

I am just getting started in Dark Eldar. I finally have a paint scheme after almost 15 years of off and on attempts at doing it. Just need to practice the OSL a bit more but I can do that along the way and with my 3d printer and already having the files, the heads I prefer (the reaver dome heads) are much easier to get hold of than they were 14 years ago. So far I have picked up a pair of combat patrols, some scourges(and printed some extra dark lances), extra Kab warriors to practice my scheme on and a venom. For Christmas I have a bit on request as well. 

 

In my Meta I play against a lot of nid-zilla, some grey knights and some Voltan. I would say Nid-zilla is my most common opponent however with three different opponents playing different variations of the same style, rarely do they play the same list twice but they pretty much play the good stuff in numbers. One opponent is extremely competitive and I have lost far more against him than I have won, the only reason he doesnt win tournaments more often is his wife usually calls towards the end of game two and starts giving him a guilt trip about playing all day and he leaves after that game(not kidding, also why he doesnt travel to tournaments) or he gets bored with the lack of competition(also not kidding) and takes off leaving it for the other people. 

 

So I was thinking to just pile as many Dark lances in my list as possible, and throw in a squad or two of mandrakes for opportunistic objective capping.

This is my initial thoughts for 2k

Lelith

Archon with the no overwatch shroud

10 Kab warriors full loadout

10 Kab warriors full loadout

10 Wyches

 

10 Incubi

5 mandrakes

5 scourges dark lances

5 scourges dark lances

 

3 reavers

3x ravagers

Voidraven Bomber

3x raiders

2x Venoms

 

Throw the Archon and incubi in one raider. Lelith and wyches in another. The Anti-infantry kabs in the venoms and the AT kabs combined in the third Raider. All the Kabs will be opportunistic and will move according to my opponent. If I am facing Nid-zilla, the venom guys will be going after objectives while the AT guys stay at range sniping with their three dark lances and splinter cannons and likely sooner than not, the blasters. The scourges do their shoot and scoot while they can. The Bomber is something that Skari seems to love and I think they look really cool. I cant justify the points for two. 22 dark lances and a heat lance plus a myriad of lighter weapons. 

Edited December 23, 2024 by Galron

[Ulfast]

I like it. I´m not expert on drukhari but I do like that you have a mix of lot of diffrent unit, so every threat can be dealt with. Give it a try!

[Bouargh]

It is an interresting list, yet I feel than mandrakes per 5 is not enough. Ifound 10 is required to work well as late grabber as you have to survive up to the dirty trick...

 

I have not been conviced by reavers against monsters and hordes. They are great vs. Small elites but otjerwise they perform very low average I feel.

 

The voidbomber is an oddity for me, but more for lack of knowledge. Yet the model only is so gorgeous that it may be enough to justify getting it

[Galron]

Reavers are mostly there as objective monkeys. Very fast, small foot print and cheap and if need be, I can use them against other very light objective grabbers. if everything else is busy. They dont have enough fire power with three of them to really tempt me to use them to go after something instead of doing their primary job which I have a tendency to do in other armies.

 

As for the mandrakes, their entire job is to pop-tart around and again not be noticed doing secondaries. I think if I brought ten I would be tempted to actually shoot with them and they would have a bigger footprint and be harder to hide and squeeze into little holes. 

 

VoidRaven I actually havent bought yet. Its something I have been seeing Skarri use to great effect although he uses two of them. With the scyths they have a lot of shots and their bomb is no slouch either. Plus they also have Stealth making them ever so slightly tougher than a standard aircraft. Plus by T2, your opponent should have a pile of Drukhari in his face he has to deal with and if he is shooting at a fighter at the board edge then he isnt shooting at raiders filled with nasty assault troops and gunboats. At least that is my theory on the subject, we will see if it survives first contact. 

[Ming the Merciless]

Drazhar's +1 to wound would help out Incubi against big bugs.

[Galron]

I like him and love the model, I just dont have a unit for him. I think the archon with the no overwatch enhancement is a little more important along with Lilith and her much cheaper wyches. As my collection expands I might give him a try. While I have the main scheme down, I am still working out a kink here and there with it as well as trying to build it in a way that its not all black until I paint them completely. Plus balancing my other 3 forces I am currently working on. 

Built: 15 or so Kab warriors, 5 Scourges mostly(3 need 3d printed dark lances) and a venom. I wont be getting a game in until at least the New Year so there is no rush. These being the relative core model types of the army I am going to finish painting them to get the recipe down and then build the rest so I dont get overwhelmed. The OSL is the part I am having the most struggle with as the basic scheme is well pretty basic, black with some silver plates, then some teal gem stones on the chest plates that create the light effect. Bloody bases. Its a scheme from 2012 or so that the original creator gave up on less than a year into it. So silver and black with some teal highlights. I have the wet bloody base down pretty good if I remember to follow my own steps that I have written down that I seem to keep forgetting despite them being right in front of me when I am working. Valejo velvet red base, mephiston red general big highlights, wild rider red lesser highlights, blood contrast paint, valejo blood effect and 'ard coat over the flat base. Ill post a pic when I completely finish a model to make things easier to understand. Everyone loves pics except the people posting them :P   

[Galron]

Still need to do some work on the silver and on the weapons. Managed to spill paint on me and my work clothes before I could finish so I needed to rush and try to clean that more than do highlights for pictures in here.

[Galron]

Ug price went up on both scourges and the bomber. Maybe I'll drop the bomber and toss in another scourge squad with haywire, mandrakes and reavers. Really curious what the Christmas detachment will be and if this will be the last codex of the edition.

[Galron]

Is there a purpose for the Corsairs? They are really nice looking models but I dont see any reason to bring them. 

[Bouargh]

3 hours ago, Galron said:

Is there a purpose for the Corsairs? They are really nice looking models but I dont see any reason to bring them. 

 

If I go to the short answer: beside rule of kool, nope.

 

For more input you can get an eye on this thread though:

 

 

[Galron]

So I now have a full squad done. Starting to get the OSL down. I switched to using Vallejo air paints for the reflected light.  Slowly working through my loose stuff I have before opening the two patrols I have. I will finish off three more warriors and some scourges as well as a venom then put together an old warriors box I have had for years that will fill out my second squad.

Spoiler

 

Edited December 23, 2024 by Galron

[Pearson73]

Ooh that's a really cool scheme, the glowing blue really pops against the dark scheme and the gorey bases are very Warhammer.

[Galron]

After my marine battle with nidzilla, I have redone my list there and am working on it. I am finishing a venom before I do a massive cleanup effort on my workbench and my hobby room in general as part of a new Years resolution. So that will take a few afternoons. Building a paint rack(given to me last Christmas) and hopefully throwing some things out. I am wanting to make a Wagers list but I dont think it will be very effective against nidzilla so I am going to finish out a Splinter list and yes I am tailoring for nidzilla since two of my primary opponents play competitive nidzilla and Tac lists will get stomped by them. If I am playing someone else I will eventually have a Wagers list. I am nixing the list up above due to points changes. 

 

SkySplinter Assault 2k

Archon-nightmare shroud

Death Jester

Drazhar

 

10 Kab Warriors

10 Kab Warriors

 

5 Incubi

5 incubi

3x5 scourges with dark lances

5 mandrakes

 

cronos

 

3x ravager

voidweaver- prismatic cannon

 

3 venoms

2 Raiders

 

I would drop a raider and bring an extra venom but I would have to pick up a 4th venom which I may do in the future. 

This will still be a rough fight vs Nidzilla with the crazy toughness his stuff has and all the FNPs, 4++s and other shenanigans they can pull, not to mention the weapons on his gun bugs mostly have the same range as ours and his big bugs are just as fast and configured right, can move advance and shoot and can take and hold midfield objectives much better than we can. I just dont see a wagers list having much of a chance unless its a very shooty wagers list. 

[Galron]

My newest completions. Next up is 6 more kab warriors to finish up some loose models. Just built some mandrakes so they are next in the queue after that.

[Pearson73]

The Scoures look really striking with those red wings.

[Galron]

Thanks! I wanted some color for my guys without going too out of the palette. Same with the gold masks. Trying to do something similar with my Incubi that I suddenly had to put together and work on for a surprise combat patrol set of games last weekend. My Harlequins are going to be the riot of colors. Trying to do each one in a different set of colors with their sashes tying them together with their squads.

 

Looking forward to using the Wagers detachment with the new and improved Quins

[Galron]

All of my completed kabalite warriors and Scourges. Also finished the Archon. I love how the skin cloak came out. 

Next up, 5 incubi that are started from last weekend's combat patrol games. They shouldn't take too long since the main colors are already blocked in.

[Galron]

My incubi finally done. Holy crap they took forever. And I could still work on them for another few hours. Not happy with the OSL on their masks, I might just go back and paint them white again and leave them at that. Onto some mandrakes, something much easier to make forward progress on.

[Pearson73]

The force is looking great together! You're right to be proud of that cloak, it looks ace. I think the Incubi look pretty solid too, the gold works nicely to differentiate them without going too far off pallette, as you mentioned..

[ThePenitentOne]

These guys look great!

 

I love the glossy reflective surfaces- especially face plates.

[Galron]

For some reason I have been motivated to work on these guys again. So I have been building the heck out of my pile of DE shame and gotten 3 scourge squads, another incubi squad, a Venom, a raider and ravager and Lady Malice. In the mail today I should have 10 reavers, 4 sky weavers, another chronos, and a second Void weaver. I'll hopefully get everything built and primered before the event starts. 

 

I played a game over the weekend against a very elite Dark Angels Gladius force with 3 Dark Knight squads(5 man each), 2 heavy intercessors(5 man), 1 eradicator(6 man), Companions(6 man), a repulsor, a terminator chappie with one dark knight squad, a captain with one heavy intercessor squad, Azrael with the companions, another terminator captain with the other dark knight squad.  Biologis with the good shooty enhancement with the eradicators.

 

I fielded a force I built on the way to the store at a couple stop lights :P

Kabalyte Cartel

Archon- deep strike enhancement

Malice

Drahzar

Lelith

 

2 Kabalyte squads split up with venoms

2 Venoms

1 Raider (with all the special weapon kabs)

2 Ravagers with Dissies

2 Scourges with darklances

1 Scourge with haywire

1 Shardcarbine Scourge squad

1 Talos(subbed in a chronos)

2 5 man Incubi

1 10 man Hand of the Archon with all the bits

Mandrakes

 

He got first turn, we played the one across the long end of the board with one end being wider than the other. 5 objectives, a twist that allowed extra secondary draws with a swap and we played Terraform. He spread out across the board and had two of his knight squads in deep strike and Azzy and his companions on the far right with the lone characterless character on the right to go stand on his expansion objective. Characterless heavy intercessors were in the center. I left the Archon and his Hand in deepstrike. I weighted heavily on the left with a single Kab squad in a venom next to malice and her incubi and a scourge unit in the far right corner. Had another 5 man kab squad on my home objective in a venom next to Draz and his incubi. Lelith was behind left end building with 2 of the heavy scourges and both ravagers. Home venom was in the open and wide open to the Repulsor. As usual I never remember the secondaries.

 

T1: He basically moved everything forward with his eradicators in the repulsor. He was hoping to blow up my home venom with it. I deceived him and gave the venom lone op. His knights terraformed his expansion objective. His captain/heavy intercessors were in a ruin on the far right but forward of his home objective which he left unguarded. MY T1: Scourges hopped up on a building to fire at the repulsor. Carbine scourges moved up to get the left corner knights in range. Both ravagers moved up to get them in LOS. Incubis all swapped places with the Kabalytes in the venoms and Malice's ride went to the center of the board while Draz's hid behind the left corner building. Moved the Raider close enough to get the right side Heavy intercessors in range. Right side scourges and chronos had the companions in range while the now foot kabs ran up to my expansion objective. Shooting went ok. I managed to kill a couple companions(and forgot to terraform). Killed 3 of the right side heavy intercessors. Killed 2 of the knights in the left corner ruins. Dropped the repulsor down to 3 wounds. I did sooo bad on getting dev wounds this game. It was pretty stupid how few I rolled for both shooting and hand to hand. 

 

His T2: Dropped both death Knight squads. One 9" from my right side kabs, the other in the center. Repulsor for some reason moved slightly and the eradicators got out. He managed to kill a ravager who promptly Deadly demised and killed 2 scourges and did 3 damage to the other ravager. Eradicators killed two of my scourges inside the left corner building since they were able to get enough moved to get out. Once again forgot Plunging fire rule now that I think about it for the entire game. Carbine scourges got knocked down to 2 guys. His right side knights charged and killed the kabs on my expanision. Azzy and boys charged the Talos and killed it.  MY T2: Venom squads got out and got into positions to charge. Lelith moved into the building so she could get a charge next turn on anything still alive in range. Ravager and empty Venom moved up to shoot the remaining Death Knights. Scourges moved up to their objective as I was expecting to wipe the last guys. News Flash, it didnt work out that way. I also dropped my archon and his hand on my opponent's home objective. Between the carbine scourges, a ravager, a venom, the lone dark lance scourge, I managed to kill a single Dark Knight leaving two. Archon and his squad after losing 2 guys from overwatch, shot up the remaining 2 heavy intercessors and captain killing both dudes and doing one wound on the gravis captain. Haywire scourges killed the repulsor. Drahzar and his boys charged the Eradicators. Malice and her boys charged the center death knights, Mandrakes charged the center heavy intercessors, and Archon and his boys charged the Captain. Soo, lets just say we pretty much bounced. I did kill the captain and 2 Eradicators and 2 death knights. I didnt know about the stupid -1 damage thing that apparently applies even to mortal wounds which thanks to the chaplain he has a 4+++ against. In return I lost 3 of Drahzars incubi, all of Malice's, 4 mandrakes,(who didnt roll a single dev wound). Archon consolidated behind the building back onto his home objective.

 

His T3: Instead of keeping my expansion objective, he moved his right side knights 7 inches from my raider. Companions chased the scourges over there. He popped tactical doctrine and stepped his eradicators back from the incubi. He split fire with them and killed the other ravager who also deadly demised and did a wound to the venom. He also killed both of Drahzar's bodyguard but made his invul save vs the one shot that hit him and took a Biologis pistol to the face. Malice as predictable went down to the Chaplain. Eradicators charged Drahzar but bounced and he killed 2 of them. The Deathknights charged and killed the raider with their 4+ critical vs vehicle maces and both teams got out losing both their splinter rifle dudes. Azzy made an 11 inch charge and caught up and killed the scourges there.  MY T3: Lelith moved up to charge the 2 remaining death knights. Both Venoms were miraculously still alive. They and the lone lance Scourge and the haywire scourges managed to kill the heavy intercessors. My Kab weapon teams moved back away from the full captain led death knight squad and even spread apart but failed to do a single wound to them. Archon and the hand did farming. Lelith popped her PCP and ginsued the two knights barely and that was after they got tank shocked and lost two wounds from a venom. She then jumped inside. Drahzar managed to not die and killed all of the eradicators and biologis. 

 

His T4: He popped the assault doctrine, and had no issue catching both Kab weapon teams and we didnt even bother rolling. The center Deathknights left his home objective and managed to get to Drahzar. He only had those three, Azzy and the full death knights. Drahzar with the help of a reroll actually managed to survive the knights on 1 wound and killed one in return. I should have precisioned out his chappie but didnt think of it. The death knights moved into the semi-center terrain towards the center objective. MY T4: Draz left combat to get away from the knights. Lelith leap frogged out of her venom and both got ready for a charge. Lone scourge landed on his expansion objective after passing a battle shock and terraformed it. (I'll get back to that) Archon also terraformed his objective(Again, I'll get back to that at the end). Lelith and her venom charge and tank shock and kill the last two knights and jumps in her venom.

 

His T5: he takes the center objective with his full squad and kill the Venom I had there(Forgot to mention that). Azzy doesnt quite make it to his expansion objective. He could have made it to my home but he forgot I had it stickied so he didnt try. My T5: We realized at this point we were playing terraform wrong but decided to keep playing it that way since we had been doing it all game. Lelith and draz and moved up to set up a charge on the center objective hoping on the long odds I could kill enough to out OC him. My archon decided he had had enough gardening and stepped out from behind the building to have his squad shoot the knights. It was at this point my opponent counted up his score and told me it was only 57. I did my shooting and managed to kill 2 of the knights. Then my opponent's score got me thinking as I had been doing pretty decent the last couple turns on primary so I counted my score, 58. My feet were killing me at this point so I called it there rather than give him some kind of points in close combat with Lelith, Drahzar and an angry Venom literally 1" away from engagement lol.  

 

I had listened to him on the terraform since I havent played really since before December so we didnt know you couldnt keep terraforming objectives. I say we because we were both doing it. Anti-infantry is a great ability versus this army even with his 2+ armor. He only had the Companions who were T4 and everything else was T5 and 6. This was the closest game of 40k I think I have played in modern points counting. I forgot a butt load of abilities and such. I need to make a quick sheet with each units name and power from pain and other abilities as quick reference. I dont like cards. But yeah, for example, if I would have remembered the Archon's unit at the end could have probably killed one more knight. I should have used my two combat strats on round two for Drahzars unit instead of Malice's and I probably would have had better results, but I figured he had some chode shooty marines in hand with his basic unit buffs and PFP. Again, I can count the numbers of dev wounds I scored on two hands(not counting the haywire vs vehicle) and even those were limited by the -1 damage thing. 

 

I hope one day they bring back the weapon skill chart, preferebly the HH one. I hate that some chode has the same ability to hit a combat master as he does a gretchin. It doesnt take many brain cells to use and like the toughness chart, you memorize it pretty quick.