Dark Eldar 2500 Competitive

Hey guys! New to the forums and the gaming club.
My name is Aaron Katz, Im running a Dark Eldar Army and looking to play Imperial Gaurd soon. I had my first 2500 Tournament this weekend and got creamed. My main mistakes were deployment and frankly my build needed work. So I've created a Dark Eldar 2500 Point list Id like some feedback on. A few key notes- Dark Eldar are made of paper, and if your lucky, cardboard. So spending 245 points on a delicious looking Voidraven Jetbomber or Asdrubel Vect commander may look beautiful. But at AV 11 and T 3 they are going to die. Alot. Easily. Get used to it. Your strengths at Dark Eldar lie in three places. Your speed, your combat, and your opponents ability (or inability) to prioritize targets.

3 haemunculi, allowing me to decide upon deployment whether to place them straight into raiders with wyches or into another squad to give them the pain token (and then obviously breaking off). And power weapons to give them some use in close combat.
Even better is the versatitlity of the Arch-weapons they get. Strength 10 large blast, Psyker killer, and an initiative/WS reducer are going to make my opponent very unsure of whats the bigger threat.

10 incubi in a raider, most expensive part of the entire army, 340 points, obviously going to do my best to keep them safe.

10 kabalite trueborn in 2 squads of 5 each in a venom, with 4 blasters each, making them (along with every raider and my heavy support), my main tank hunters, even better is the venom is able to target a different squad with its 2 splinter cannons

47 wyches each in a raider (3 less for the haemunculi) with hydra gauntlets across the board. Mass troops. Like it or not I'm a horde army. Might as well play like one.

1 Cronos Parasite Engine. WHAT? WHERES YOUR TALOS? Well Im still considering running one, but against your average space marine squad, a talos pain engine is going to be able to kill most of them, easily make its points back, lock a squad in close combat forever, all the while pumping out pain tokens.

1 Ravager- Dark lances are my tank, MC and IC killers. for 125 points this beauty is hard to pass up.

1 Razorwing Jetfighter. I know. 195 points is pretty expensive, then again its less than every wych squad and their raiders, and the incubi, and trueborn. With deep striking ability, and the potential to easily triple its points, im still deciding if I like it or not.

Thats the army list, defenitly look at the link for specifics. I have played reavers and scourge. They are good when played correctly. But I personally don't like them, I think that the reavers are a suicide run meant to distract (thought sometimes effectively) the enemy.

The tactics are pretty straightforward, with slight differentation based on who I am playing against, but pretty much against a shooty army I will either hide behind alot of cover and pray for first turn, or start off in reserves, and either way when my stuff comes on the field Ill flat out everything for a 4+ cover and be in combat next turn with most of my army, and again one of my strengths, combat.

The last and one of my favorite parts of the build, is if you look at the point values of everything, my trueborn, wyches, Heavy Support (minus cronos), wyches with haemunculi, are all within about 50 points of eachother. So even if I get unlucky and an opponent seizes initiative to start shooting, hes got 8 5+ invuln targets all at roughly the same points to decide what is going to be the biggest threat.

So please let me know what you think of this build. I plan on using it in singles tournaments, 2500 points, and I will be posting an 1850 list soon.
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2500pt Dark Eldar 5th Ed (2010) Roster (Standard)
Selections:
HQ (255pts)

Haemonculus (255pts)

Altered Physique, Independent Character, Night Vision, Power from Pain

Haemonculus (80pts)

Archangel of Pain (15pts), Power Weapon (15pts)

Haemonculus (90pts)

Dark Gate (25pts), Power Weapon (15pts)

Haemonculus (85pts)

Crucible of Malediction (20pts), Power Weapon (15pts)

Elites (760pts)

Incubi (340pts)

10x Incubi (220pts) (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain), Klaive

Klavex (45pts)

Bloodstone (15pts), Onslaught (15pts) (Onslaught)

Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Kabalite Trueborn (210pts)
Dracon (25pts)
Pistol and Close Combat Weapon (20pts)

Blast Pistol (15pts), Venom Blade (5pts)

5x Trueborn (120pts)

Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain

4x Blaster (60pts)

Venom (65pts)

Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)

Kabalite Trueborn (210pts)
Dracon (25pts)
Pistol and Close Combat Weapon (20pts)

Blast Pistol (15pts), Venom Blade (5pts)

5x Trueborn (120pts)

Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain

4x Blaster (60pts)

Venom (65pts)

Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)

Troops (1065pts)

Wyches (225pts)

2x Hydra Gauntlets (20pts), 10x Wyches (100pts) (Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)

Hekatrix (30pts)

Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Wyches (225pts)

2x Hydra Gauntlets (20pts), 10x Wyches (100pts) (Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)

Hekatrix (30pts)

Agoniser (20pts)
Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Wyches (205pts)

Hydra Gauntlets (10pts), 9x Wyches (90pts) (Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)

Hekatrix (30pts)

Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Wyches (205pts)

Hydra Gauntlets (10pts), 9x Wyches (90pts) (Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)

Hekatrix (30pts)

Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Wyches (205pts)

Hydra Gauntlets (10pts), 9x Wyches (90pts) (Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)

Hekatrix (30pts)

Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)

Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Heavy Support (420pts)

Cronos Parasite Engine (100pts)

Fearless, Move through Cover, Night Vision, Power from Pain

Close Combat Weapon, Spirit Syphon, Spirit Vortex (20pts)

Ravager (125pts)

Aerial Assault, Night Vision

Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Flickerfield (10pts), Nightshield (10pts)

Razorwing Fighter (195pts)

Aerial Assault, Deep Strike, Night Vision, Supersonic

Dark Lances (x2), Flickerfield (10pts), Necrotoxin Missile (5pts), Necrotoxin Missile (5pts), Nightshield (10pts), Shatterfield Missile (5pts), Shatterfield Missile (5pts), Splinter Cannon (10pts)

you need bikes and dont take a razorwing just ravagers

Here's my feedback from reading up on playing Dark Eldar at 1500 points for about a month and a half now. This all my opinion, but I have a definite vision of how Dark Eldar play at my point level, which should scale decently to yours. I'll go unit by unit.

Haemonculi

Mostly wargear issues here- for 5 more points you could turn your Power Weapons into Agonizers, which would let them wound so much more. I personally run mine with Liquifiers and Venom Blades. For 15 points, they get a flamer that pierces Marine armor 50% of the time and a consistent source of wounds in CC. I would suggest stripping down most of their wargear and adding in another unit of Haemonculi to give to your other Wyches and Incubi. The Shattershard is a nice Instant Death flamer, so don't forget about it.

Incubi

10 Incubi is a fuckton of badass, and will draw so much fire. They need a Haemonculus for the pain token. The Feel No Pain is so worth the 60-75 points, and will be needed when they inevitably annihilate their opponents in one assault phase, or if they have to walk early on. You can always split the Haemy off in the Move phase so they can Fleet while he tries to find people to flame, or dies heroically and cheaply.

Trueborn

I will point out that Blast Pistols kinda suck. It's hard enough sometimes getting the Trueborn into range safely 6-12" at a time. The 6" pistol ain't gonna happen. Then, when the Venom dies, if they shot at all they're dead, so the Dracon and Venom Blade will almost never see action. Same with the 5th Trueborn in the other squad. Extra wounds don't help that much.

Wyches

Looks good. I take Shardnet+Impaler, but it's really personal preference, and you probably want more damage. I would definitely take Haywire Grenades where you can, as the ability to threaten vehicles after your Raiders and Ravager are shot down seems critical. Living the dream and getting the multi-vehicle assault is also totally doable with a 10-man squad.

Cronos

I have zero experience with the Chronos...but it looks bad. You want all of the Dark Lances you can to threaten enemy anti-tank and transports- Blasters take a turn or more to get into range and fire. The Spirit Vortex is pretty cool, but it really only starts going Turn 2, and wants to have a Wych squad hang back with it. If this was a Ravager, you would have much more game against armies that start in their Rhinos and Razorbacks and plink away, or armies that have 3 Dreadnoughts that need an answer. This won't even draw fire from vehicles, which a Talos with a Haywire Blaster might. So, seems fine against hordes, but your army doesn't lack tools to deal with hordes.

Razorwing

I actually like the Razorwing. I just use Monoscythes, but you have more points to play with so go for it. Effectiveness increases if another Ravager to improves the odds of popping a meaty transport Turn 1, giving it a target for those 10 point missiles.

Ravager

Looks great, but it's so lonely...

To sum up- more anti-tank, especially long range. 6 Reavers with 2 Heat Lances start killing vehicles Turn 2 and are a great distraction, for 156 (preferably split into 2 units). 5 Scourges 2 with Haywire Blasters tend to lock down dangerous vehicles more than destroy, but for 130 it's a decent bargain to operate at 36" range without dealing the vehicle problem of being Shaken by a stray shot. 5 Warriors 1 Blaster in a Raider is 115 points for one Dark Lance and a bonus Blaster, or 3 Trueborn gives you 2 Dark lances for 86 points (and replace some Blasterborn) Give those Incubi a Haemonculus for sure, and I would strip those Haemys down, even at 2500. There's no guarantee they can get their One Shots off, and all the savings could add up to another small anti-tank unit.

Alternately, keep it all short ranged and go Webway Portal, but that's outside the realm of my experience.

AndrewMain I want to thank you for the legitimate and comprehensive response. I agree with the points you make about running dark lances as much as possible. I fear however by removing too many of my multi-shots and templates, a horde army will take the best of me, that being said I haven't had the opportunity to run against a true horde so I will have to playtest. Here is my revised build. I am still only running three haemunc and I am giving them all hexrifles and nothing else. My thought process behind this is to remove them from their respective squads turn one (giving them their pain tokens) and getting into cover where they will snipe. This is for several reasons. One- the hexrifle is a fantastic IC and MC killer, so in certain scenarios I will be able to utilize them. Furthermore, running 3 HQ's is 3 more kill points, something that I believe to be broken simply because horde armies are at such a disadvantage against it. So putting them in the far back whilst my entire army charges into you, is going to make 3 65 point models seem trivial. Keeping them alive and saving me killpoints. Here is a revised list.

Another key change is each raider is running 1 less than its maximum, 9 incubi, 9 wyches, and 2 raiders with 4 trueborn. I like blasterborn simply because them and their ready pose a significant threat without costing many points. The reason each raider is taking one less is that it allows me to asses each situation presented to me, and decide where I want to put my haemunculi depending on my opponent and scenario. Along with including Reavers (which I still need to playtest especially with squad size). Here is my revised list based on your thoughts and what i agreed with. Again this is meant as an adaptable dark eldar tournament list.

HQ (195pts)
Haemonculus (195pts)
Altered Physique, Independent Character, Night Vision, Power from Pain

Haemonculus (65pts)
Hexrifle (15pts)
Haemonculus (65pts)
Hexrifle (15pts)
Haemonculus (65pts)
Hexrifle (15pts)

Elites (684pts)

Incubi (318pts)
9x Incubi (198pts) (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain), Klaive
Klavex (45pts)
Bloodstone (15pts), Onslaught (15pts) (Onslaught)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

Kabalite Trueborn (183pts)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

4x Trueborn (108pts)
Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
4x Blaster (60pts)

Kabalite Trueborn (183pts)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

4x Trueborn (108pts)
Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
4x Blaster (60pts)

Troops (892pts)

Wyches (223pts)
Hydra Gauntlets (10pts)
Hekatrix (30pts)
Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

9x Wyches (108pts)
Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
9x Haywire grenades (18pts)

Wyches (223pts)
Hydra Gauntlets (10pts)
Hekatrix (30pts)
Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

9x Wyches (108pts)
Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
9x Haywire grenades (18pts)

Wyches (223pts)
Hydra Gauntlets (10pts)
Hekatrix (30pts)
Agoniser (20pts)

Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)

9x Wyches (108pts)
Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
9x Haywire grenades (18pts)

Wyches (223pts)
Hydra Gauntlets (10pts)
Hekatrix (30pts)
Agoniser (20pts)
Raider (75pts)
Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails (5pts), Flickerfield (10pts)
9x Wyches (108pts)
Dodge, Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain
9x Haywire grenades (18pts)

Fast Attack (294pts)

Reaver Jetbikes (98pts)
Close combat Weapon, Cluster catrops (20pts), Combat Drugs (Combat Drugs), Heat Lance (12pts), 3x Jetbikes (66pts) (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain, Skilled Riders), Splinter pistol
Reaver Jetbikes (98pts)
Close combat Weapon, Cluster catrops (20pts), Combat Drugs (Combat Drugs), Heat Lance (12pts), 3x Jetbikes (66pts) (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain, Skilled Riders), Splinter pistol
Reaver Jetbikes (98pts)
Close combat Weapon, Cluster catrops (20pts), Combat Drugs (Combat Drugs), Heat Lance (12pts), 3x Jetbikes (66pts) (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain, Skilled Riders), Splinter pistol

Heavy Support (435pts)

Ravager (125pts)
Aerial Assault, Night Vision
Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Flickerfield (10pts), Nightshield (10pts)
Ravager (125pts)
Aerial Assault, Night Vision
Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Flickerfield (10pts), Nightshield (10pts)

Razorwing Fighter (185pts)
Aerial Assault, Deep Strike, Night Vision, Supersonic
Dark Lances (x2), Flickerfield (10pts), Monoscythe Missile, Monoscythe Missile, Nightshield (10pts), Shatterfield Missile (5pts), Shatterfield Missile (5pts), Splinter Cannon (10pts)

Looks great! Honestly, I am coming around to the Blaster slowly but surely. It's just harder to use, and requires more planning that the Ravager, which is easy-mode. I've been trying out a Blaster+Djin Blade Archon and it's nice to threaten nearby vehicles without resorting to Haywire Grenades.

The Hexrifles seem okay. On average, the three firing together should inflict a wound a turn against light armor or every other turn against power armor. But you've explained your purpose, so Hexrifles are probably the best way to deny kills and still do work.

The Cluster Caltrops look out of place on the tank-hunting bikes. Is this to multi-task the Reavers?

Finally, the easiest change to tune your army vs. horde is to give your Razorwing Disintegrators for free. It would take away its ability to serve as a backup Ravager but makes it a focused anti-infantry platform after its missiles are gone.

Keep on testing and tweaking, and let me know how you do in a tournament!