Greetings everyone, I’m back here today to show off my first tournament list of 10th edition! It’s only a 1k but that’s fine with me, I enjoy playing the smaller games. I feel it helps me figure out more of the core mechaincs in the game. We are going to roll with Drukhari this time, as they are my bread and butter. This list is going to skew a little into shooting, but I didn’t cram in all the dark lances like I had first intended on doing, I’ll get to reasonings why here in a little. 

1k Dark Eldar Boot Shoot Boogy

Lelith 105
Wracks x5 All the fixings 65
Wracks x5 All the fixings 65

Venom x2 Cannon, Rifles 160

Cronos All the Fixings 50
Mandrakes 70
Ravager x3 Dark Lances 385
Voidraven Bomber Dark Scythe, Missiles 195

I have a busy week of play testing this list, I believe I will get a Dark Angels match up and possibly a Tyranids match up with my son, depending on what he brings to the tournament. We should get him to share his thoughts about his two different armies! I really like how this list has a lot going for it, if we just look at what all it brings as a whole and then we will break down how each individual unit will work. The basic working theory of this list is to give the Ravagers at least two turns to take down anything that can just one shot the voidraven bomber. While the ravagers are working on bringing down the armour side of things, we have the rest of our forces on the ground to be mobile and reactive to what kind of secondaries we get. Once we have freed up the board from any major threats to the Bomber, we will bring it in and it’s there to hunt big blobs of infantry. While mandrakes are being annoying and ravagers will go to help hold points and do objectives.

Lilith is in here to provide some melee punch when I need it, she looks like she can blend some infantry, perhaps she can mess up some characters. Then with her once per battle ability I can hopefully spike damage or saves where I need to and turn the game in my favor. She is going to go in a venom with a squad of wracks positioned to take out something in the back field hopefully. 

The two squads of wracks are going in the venoms and they are going to fly around shooting all their different crazy guns at the right targets. I also have a lot of synergy between these guys and the venoms, they will be able to perform actions all over the board, the wracks can hop in a venom after they are done. They can also be used as a make shift screen if my opponents are looking like they are going to be able to close the gap on our army. Mostly here to hold objectives, maybe tickle a character or pick up some chaff, really just let the opponent pop them for a free Pain Token as well.

Venoms, we can’t leave home without these little guys, they are fast, small and can score secondaries while providing a nice warm bench for units that need to hop in. Leaving the twin splinter rifles on here for the assault keyword, now I can advance and still perform those actions, which is nice since I have a lot of options for whatever the heart of the cards shows me.

Cronos, he is just the glue that holds all this nonsense together, primarily going to keep up with the ravagers, providing them with plenty of pain token refunds, and there to screen out potential charges. He will be holding down home objective when the ravagers have finished their jobs, so much value in such a small package.

Ravagers, these guys are going to rip apart anything that is a tank or transport. We are going to kite around the field, probably strike into a flank and just keep our opponent exposed all game. These guys need to remain alive as long as they can, once we get all the tough targets up, they can go to playing the mission while cleaning up anything that needs it. I don’t feel like I have enough Dark Lances in this list, but when I built a list with a bunch of dark lances in it, I didn’t feel like I had any horde clearing abilities. So I might be in a tough match up if there is two big knights down the table for me, as the average of ravager damage to a knight is one Damage roll goes through on average. So we’re looking at 15 wounds a turn, which may not be enough.

Mandrakes, start on the board, jump up in deep strike in opponent’s turn, drop down, do a mission, jump back up. It’s finally time to break out these yo yo tricks I learned as a kid! Seriously these guys are going to be the key to scoring all the different tactical missions out there, they also pack a little punch with shooting if they find themselves in a pinch.

Voidraven Bomber, I am so excited to be trying this bad boy out, I was put off by aircraft at first, but after getting a feel for the game, rapid ingress is going to be the key way to play aircraft. This just means that we are aiming to bring in our aircraft on turn 2, but if it’s not safe for the bomber to do it’s thing then we can save the command point and delay the nuking another turn. The options on this guy pretty much has two builds, you’re hunting vehicles or you’re hunting elite units. This option I am going for the Dark Scythes, these guns slap so hard, 6 shots a peice str 8, ap 4 2 damage. It is going to pick up anything without an invulnerable save, not to mention I have the bomb if I need to, but I am not relying on any damage output from it’s ability.

The main purpose is to take out any major threats to holding the objectives, or to just start clearing objectives for the opponents. It will also threaten any units with the lone operative keyword, as we can just move and park within 12” and just unload. This guy won’t have his time in the light if their is not a safe battlefield for him to enter, looking at knights we will need to delete the armigers to ensure his safety. After that, if they shoot him with the big knights then that means my ravagers are safe.

Secondary Thoughts

I plan on running tactical missions as I feel this is the best way to play the game, I just need to focus my attention on staying out of line of sight, not getting into the center of the board until it has at least 2 turns of shooting into it. I’m going to forego the primary in the first two turns to focus on clearing opponents, they will want to capitalize on being on more objectives than me, which will in turn hopefully leave them exposed to shooting. 

If I play against Knights I might go with fixed secondaries, and I’m thinking Bring it Down, but I would have to consider that because I don’t think I would max it. The other fixed I would probably take is cleanse, as I have enough stuff to bounce around while we try and bring a knight down.

A super strong alpha is what we are going for, but I believe the true strength is to just keep the alpha pressure going as long as you can. At the start of the battle if there is only one target, that will be the target we hit, and position ourselves to where our opponent will have to be exposed greater to punish us. Cat and mouse, we are going to annoy our opponents, once we see that we have an advantage we will then begin to move into scoring primaries.

Closing Thoughts

I feel this list will do well into what is out there, I do still feel I am a bit light on the anti-tank, however if I go anymore then I will just lose if there are no tanks! There are a lot of units to capture objectives and do missions, so I have a very good feeling about this list. I will take pictures of my practice games and try and get them posted on here so I can get used to making battle reports! Thanks for reading, make sure to follow the blog, comment if you see anything you like, or join the new 40k Warcasting discord group!

Stay classy,

Derek