3 Weeks to MAD II Tournament - DE List, DE Quad Gun & Blasterborn concerns

Hi,

The Eldar support platform base I ordered arrived, and although I partially agree with some of the comments that it looks a bit to eldar-ish rather than dark eldar-ish I'm going to use it for the MAD tournament in 3 weeks, as I probably haven't got the time to order and paint up anything else.

The only change I made to the base is to raise it up with an old flying base, so it is more in line with the height of the imperial quad gun base.  The flying stem glued straight into the base, and drilling a hole into the bottom of the platform with the drill I use for my small magnets was a nice snug fit for the top of the flying stem.  Below is the platform just before I undercoated it:

I will either pin and glue one of the new flying stems to the top of the platform so that the Quad Gun I previously made can be attached:

As I didn't have time to start filling the gaps on my Voidraven with putty I also undercoated the Imperial Defense Line.  I would like to use something that wasn't imperial looking, but I don't think I can source (and more importantly paint up) anything in time.  Anyway the imperial defense line will be fine for my space wolves, and I'll have plenty of time over the winter to come up with something nice.  I've seen a few good things on the web, so I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something good given time.

One of the reasons that my painting/converting has slowed, apart from manic work and family life, is that I've come to the conclusion that I will not be able to paint up a hellion squad for the MAD tournament as well.  This has made a significant cut it what I have to get done for the tournament.

This leaves my proposed list for the next tournament (assuming everything is painted) as:


Baron Sathonyx - 105

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer – 55
  with Venom Blade

4 Trueborn – 116
  with 4 Blasters & Haywire grenades
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

4 Trueborn – 106
  with 2 Blasters, 2 Splinter Cannons
  & Haywire grenades
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

9 Wracks - 90
  in Raider with Disintegrator Cannon - 60

9 Wyches with Haywire grenades - 108
  in Raider with Disintegrator Cannon - 60

5 Wyches with Haywire grenades - 60
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

5 Wracks - 50 [mans Quad gun]
  in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Wracks - 30 [goes in reserve]

4 Beastmasters - 183 [joined by Baron]
  with 5 Krymerae and 5 Razorwing Flocks

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Voidraven Bomber - 165
  with 2 Void Lances, Void Mine
  and 2 Shatterfield Missiles

Razorwing Jetfighter - 145
  with 2 Dark Lances, twin-linked Splinter Rifle
  and 4 Monoscythe Missiles

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun - 100

Totals: 1798 Pts, 64 Models, 19 Units, 5 Troops

The main changes since my previous lists are the addition of a defence line & quad gun, an extra troop unit (5 wracks), and changing a ravager for a voidraven.  This has been afforded by losing a 3rd unit of trueborn.

I will go into my army performance at Starsmash and my thoughts on why my previous lists (and my tactics using them) needed to change in a further blog post, but the unit I am most concerned with is the trueborn.  They are very expensive, 29 pts a model for the a blasterborn with haywire grenades, for example I could lose the second unit of trueborn for either*:

• a second unit of 9 wyches with haywire grenades in a raider
• 5 wyches with haywire grenades in a venom, plus expand the beastmasters with an extra beastmaster and 3 krymera

[Who needs guns, I'll just charge them all, overwatch be damned !!]

These changes sound fine and give more resilience to my assault push, but it reduces my anti tank shooting to woeful levels, especially when you consider that over half my long ranged lances will be off the board on turn 1 (flyers), leaving just the single ravager and the quad gun for early long range anti tank.  Haywires are great but they are on very fragile troops that die in droves when their transport blows up and/or they are left in the open.

Are blasterborn the necessary evil that is still required to give enough anti tank ?  A lot of people are reducing their mech, not completely getting rid of it.  If haywire grenades are used to get units out of their transport the following turn's rapid fire response is normally enough to remove (or render useless) the dark eldar unit.

What's your opinion on anti tank requirements in 6th ?  Are blastborn still needed, and in what volumes ?  With Wracks, Wyches and Beastmasters going forwards into assault is my problem that I have an assault based force in the shooty environment of 6th edition ?

Rathstar

* My hellion idea is to also lose the small unit of 3 wracks and the haemonoculus venom blade (as he would now be giving his pain token to the hellions and joining the wracks manning the quad gun) to afford 13 hellions including a hekatrix.  However that's an experiment for later when I can get the hellions assembled.