I made a new dark eldar army roster for a Rogue Trader tournament late last year. My goal was to create a versatile force that could handle a great variety of challenges since you don't know what opponents, terrain, or scenarios you may be facing. I had used an all-skimmer shooty style army for a previous tournament, so I was keen to try something different I decided to keep some firepower for the new army list but add some close combat capability to balance things. Following is a list of what I chose and why:
Headquarters:
I gave this choice considerable thought before deciding to use an Archon with a full complement of wargear: including shadowfield, combat drugs, trophy racks, hell mask, agonizer and pistol. I opted for the lone archon instead of archon/dracon with incubi retinue because I wanted the flexibility to attach the Archon to any number of different units at the start of the game. This way I could put him where he had the most potential to harm the enemy.
I also chose a haemonculus with destructor as a HQ choice because I decided to bring along a talos and squad of grotesques. I thought it would be more in theme if the haemonculus would lead the grotesques. Another consideration was that the destructor would be a good template weapon to use if the game board had lots of woods, bunkers or cover.
Elites:
As I mentioned above I chose an 8-man squad of grotesques as my first elite choice. I put the squad on a raider and assigned the haemonculus to lead them. This unit was chosen to give me maximum versatility. If necessary I could dismount the grotesques and march them down the field as a living wall to screen light arms fire. The raider could then be used to flank the enemy, screen other raiders, or provide supporting fire. Alternately, I could use the unit as a rapid assault force. I intentionally left room on the grotesque's raider for the Archon in case I wanted him to enhance the assault capability of the squad to insure that they caused an automatic fallback of any enemy units. One final consideration was that the grotesque squad would be extremely useful if I should happen to play against a necron army. The grotesques are ideally suited to neutralize necron weapons fire while closing for assault.
My other elites choice was a squad of 10 mandrakes. Once again I was going for maximum versatility with my army. The mandrakes always deploy on the battlefield regardless of scenario, and they deploy in three possible locations. This creates uncertainty for my opponents while at the same time giving me lots of options on how and where to use the mandrakes. One possibility was to coordinate the mandrakes with the grotesques to set up a deadly crossfire when the grotesques defeated a unit in close combat. Alternate possibilities were to use the mandrakes to take and hold table quarters or add their numbers to assaults, especially in concert with the lone Archon in case he was overwhelmed. The mandrakes are ideally suited to combat tau fire warriors, imperial guardsmen, and other eldar.
Troops
I decided to use a mobile force consisting of 5 raider squads. Three of the squads were equipped with splinter cannons and blasters, while the remaining two squads were given dark lances. The dark lance squads would serve as sniper squads to target enemy armor, while the remaining squads would shoot and assault everything else. The raiders for the dark lance squads were equipped with dark lances so that the 2 sniper squads and their raiders had a total of 4 dark lance that could be independently targeted. One of the splinter cannon squads and one of the dark lance squads were at maximum unit size of ten while all the remaining squads were at a unit size of nine. One of the raiders for a nine man splinter cannon squad was equipped with screaming jets so that I would have the option to deep strike them if the scenario allowed for it. Likewise I could attach my Archon to this squad or either of the other 9 man raider squads to give me plenty of options for placing my HQ at the beginning of the games.
Fast Attack
My army had a distinctly haemonculus theme to it so I opted not to use any fast attack options because they are all wyche-based units
Heavy
My first heavy choice for the army was a talos. Admittedly, the talos is a very slow unit compared to other units in the army, but if offers versatility and is in keeping with the haemonculus theme. The talos is an excellent diversionary unit for drawing heavy weapons fire away from your skimmers. Likewise, the talos is useful in missions like Cleanse where you can place it in the middle of the battlefield to push back enemy units. The Talos is also great for holding table quarters and destroying marines in close combat. Finally, the talos sting provides fire support albeit erratic.
My other heavy choice for the army was a ravager with 3 disintegrators and night shield. This unit was chosen purely to provide extra firepower, particularly against power armored units (marines in particular) and light vehicles. The night shield was added to improve the ravager's survivability.
How did this Army do in the Tournament?
The complete army Roster