Vehicle Saturation [Dark Eldar]

[My 1500 Point army at Rapid Strike
The Razorwing Flocks were borrowed from a friend while I paint mine up]

In the current meta of 5th edition, vehicles saturation is very good. Not only are vehicles hard to kill, due to the vehicle damage table, but they also protect squishy troops and give them better mobility.

If you have too many vehicles for the enemy’s anti tank guns, you ensure than some of them will survive till late in the game, regardless of how weak they are. This is particularly true of Dark Eldar.

However as you increase the number of vehicles you normally are taking points away from the rest of your troops making them weaker, so in terms of kill points you have an increase because you have more vehicles and your other troops are weaker and easier to kill.

Dark Eldar vehicles are notoriously fragile, and at one point I used 12 at 1750 pts. I have since gone down to 10, and I’m now considering using only 9. This was done by using less kill point intensive options, eq. beastmasters rather than incubi in a transport, reaver jetbikes rather than another troops choice in a transport, and even losing the transport for a unit of 3 wracks that mainly hides at the back on an objective. However sometimes I still lose all the vehicles early, in my last 2 games against Grey Knights there were taken out extremely quickly.

Now the question comes should I weaken my troops further to put another vehicle in, with the idea that my vehicles will last a bit longer, or should I settle with 9 vehicles. In all things it’s better to look at an actual list:

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 55
  with Venom Blade

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn with 4 Blasters - 108
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
  in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
  in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30
  in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30

4 Beastmasters - 198
  accompanied by 5 Krymerae and 6 Razorwing Flocks

6 Reaver Jetbikes with 2 Heat Lances - 156

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Razorwing Jetfighter - 145
  with 2 Dark Lances, twin-linked Spinter Rifle & 4 Monoscythe missiles

Total: 1748 Pts, 19 Kill Points


The last wrack squad is crying out for a raider or venom to hide in, and give them some mobility, however all the infantry squads are nearly cut to the bone already. I could lose: a trueborn with a blaster, the wrack’s liquefier guns, 2 krymera to get a raider (or a venom if I lose the haemonculus’ venom blade as well), however each change slightly reduces the effectiveness of the squads affected:

• I have found 4 model trueborn units to be much more effective, because they remain more of a threat when their vehicle blows up
• Krymerae are essential not just for their multiple str4 attacks, but to intercept str6 shots that would otherwise instant kill a razorwing flock
• Liquifier guns are helpful against hordes, and help the wracks flush out units in cover or at least weaken them before they charge, as the wracks have no grenades

So how far is too far in trying to put more vehicles in, I currently have 730 points tied up in very fragile vehicles, is this too much already ?  What do you think is a reasonable ratio between vehicles and infantry to get the vehicle saturation to work ?

For my next tournament I will look at the performance of the tweaks I can make to fit in another vehicle, and consider whether I think it’s worth it.  I'm itching to put my 4th Venom into the list, but will it hurt the list overall ?

Rathstar


A quick note on kill points: Having a list 1 or 2 kill points less would have little if non effect on the result of the Annihilation games I have played. Although my list is more resilience than I used to play (eq. Feel No Pain on all troop choices) it is still a glass cannon. To significantly reduce the kill point total would require a rewrite of the style of the list, probably to Baron with WWP, which unfortunately I do not have the models to do that at the moment.