Rave Review: Dark Eldar Incubi

I must break you ......
Colour provided by Majesticchicken

Dark Eldar Incubi. If there is just one concept I had to pick out as my favorite in this book its these xeno blenders, they cut, they slice and dice, peel, wash and prepare....

Meq are as inanimate vegetables to these guys, hacking apart a squad of marines is all in a life affirming and fulfilling days work for these psychos. Watching a well executed combat go off is like watching a piece of paper being sucked into a paper shredder, you know that almost lazy, deliberate, efficient yet oh so final pace.....

Fungasm !

"Hi I'm Shard and I'm a Jes-aholic"

As you may have guessed I'm big time sold on these guys as a concept. The God-Win has gone above and beyond even his usual brand of genius. I have a rampant 'nerd on' for Mr God-win's work him being the father of  Eldar design after all (fap fap fap), a subject very close to my heart, ok I digress, time will come for my 'Ode to Jes in E major', but not today.....

The new fluff rocks, in-fact, so much it causes one of my issues with the rules, on that subject lets actually start with a look at  the stats.

Initiative FIVE,  Weapon Skill FIVE with 2 attacks and a 3+ save with +1 STR pow wep and FLEET ?!? yup its a drool fest, when you factor in that they have PfP so thats FnP then FC,  spelt out thats potential I6 str 5 power weaponed charges and they are actually tough, without crunching the numbers I would hazard a guess they are tougher than standard MeQ so as far as Eldar go, they are Ivan Drago, a whole unit of him ..... I have had a unit with FC chop up a Carnifex recently, because the noob Archon they were escorting lumped-with flubbed all of his 1 gajillion attacks...."errr, no boss, like dis" *slutch thunk chock splushh... thud*

I win for me, FOR ME!!

So the basic guy is a machine , and  I would largely recommend just squads of these as they are more than good enough by themselves also the squad leader has some issues.......

The Klaivex- Essentially the incubi equivalent of an exarch, he even has the same issues that exarchs suffer from and like exarchs will rarely appear in squads I fear.

The problem, points Raep, he IS indeed better than a standard incubi, maxed out and with two pain tokens he is capable of 6 str 4 attacks or 4 str 6 pow wep attacks on the charge, at initiative 7 and WS 6, he will re-roll to hit a nominated IC and allow himself and his squad to generate an extra attack for each 6 they roll to wound ..... he also cannot be singled out as he is a sgt option, sounds amazing does it not ? on top of all that madness he can also have a meq slaying flamer ......

Just soak that in for a second before I pop our bubble, bad ...ASS...

You will lose

Right, then we look at what that costs us, a standard Incubi weighs in at a very reasonable 22 points, thats good right ? a cheap and cheerful Klaivex will run you an additional 35 points, the powers he brings cost 10 and 15 points (comparable to exarch powers cost) , fully kitted out including the 'flamer' he comes to 97 points .... or more than 4 more Incubi , Im not really sure he can even remotely competes with that , the unit is so good by itself its better to leave him out most of the time, the one and only time I would consider using him is if you are running a five man unit to go in a venom it's essentially impossible to buy any more incubi to jack up the power , but the klaivex will increase their power without using up transport capacity, just a thought.

Last few bits to cover , the Incubi have no grenades , I'm not sure why , I think it's to keep points down but also reflects their martial nature. I actually don't have a problem with this, possibly because there is a way around this, An Archon can buy a phantasm launcher which will not only give them offensive grenades but defensive ones too, as a squad of incubi is a great escort for an Archon it is worth considering.

I come to my other gripe, its brief, the fluff mentions neural shock attacks with 'tormentors" when launching an assault, there is no rule mechanic for this ? I assume this is somehow covered in the stats ? dunno... feel a little short changed on that front, not that they actually need a boost of any description, I suppose its my need for fluff and mechanics to mesh where possible.

Transport- yay ! Im discovering a love for our paper planes, The final piece to complete the puzzle of awesome, a transport can turn these guys into something horrific, the ability to reach out upto a 29 inch charge range is simply staggering for a unit like this, plonk them in a suitable position in your line and they have a huge counter assault/assault threat radius, believe me, no one in their right mind wants to get charged by these guys.

If he dies, he dies

Small units are ideal for a venom and worth thinking about a klaivex to ensure the 5 man unit hits hard enough, you just need to be clear what you want from the unit.

The raider allows a larger squad and I feel it is a better choice as I like a squad of at least six, more than likely with  an Archon, this is usually enough to smash most meq 10 man squads but leave a survivor or two, so a good chance you can avoid being hosed in your opponents turn. the extra lance is always welcome as Incubi cut into the amount of Trueborn you can field.

Drazhar- Ok I'll keep this brief as he has no place in a competitive build, lots of points , lots and lots of points, and NO invun, Fail much ? thats all you should need to know.

However there is more, he takes an IC slot is sadly not an upgrade character but is essentially only any good leading a unit of Incubi, and only gets the benefits of his skills when in the unit, NO invun, even transports have a fething invun...

He is a carbon copy of the P Lords, not sure if thats a good thing, improved by dint of having PfP and a possibility for FC, he is a combat machine, as with alot of the DE characters, he excels at chopping up loads of rank and file, even though he is kinda presented as a character killer.

Darting strike is an ability he has that is unique and allows you to position him anywhere in a combat where there is room, he can hopefully avoid hidden fists til he has chopped up the rest of the unit with his 6-7 str 5 -7 attacks , he will only really fall down when he comes up against a character with an invun better than 5+

He has another skill called riposte that is so inconsequential I simply dont get it, every time he passes a save on a 6 in cc he gets an immediate attack back at base str .... wtf ? he needs an invun not more attacks ?!?! Fail more ?

So yeah another Phoenix Lord carrying on the tradition of Plord suckfail, the simple addition of a basic invun would have boded well for any future Craftworld release *sulk , just does my head in that they hand out 4++ or better wholesale to Meq characters and units and in the case of deamons, whole armies.

Final thoughts, when used well Incubi can win you the game, they hit like a ton of bricks and only get harder, be aware they are quite focused for slicing up Meq, they wont like protracted combats or power weps and its worth thinning out big hoardy units with support fire before ripping out their hearts in CC.

Maybe not quite the most utterly optimal choice in a competitive list but so much fun, meq players are going to hate them and I like the models too much NOT to take a unit.

*People Mareehns

 I have managed to arrange Something I am really excited about for this blog, hopefully be able to announce it soon ;o)

Also expect the next test Models for my DE very soon.

 I will also will be showcasing my old completely converted Spacewolves army (I came to my senses) over on Mind of the Daemon, the blog belongs to one of my oldest and dearest friends, El Diablo, a master of conversions and a great all round hobby guru (he has the answer), he introduced me to new ideas and techniques a few years ago and has continued to push me outside my comfort zone, which allowed me to reach the standard of painting I can now achieve. We designed built and painted the army together and as I wish to keep this purely focussed on the Eldar hobby there is no more fitting place to showcase the army as it is his as much as mine.