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By Dan Moore, December 23, 2002
Contact me
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Introduction:
Lately, there have been several inquiries on the Commorragh group about
making a wyche cult army at various point levels. A wyche cult army
is fundamentally different from a standard dark eldar army because the focus
is primarily on hand-to-hand combat with little emphasis on shooting.
The following are my preliminary efforts to make a workable 1500 point army
list using the wyche cult rules. This list is a work in progress, so
I would welcome any input or feedback from anyone with experience playing
the new wyche cult army list. The 1500
pt roster
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A few guidelines to remember:
Dark eldar should outnumber their opponents when possible
Wargear should be kept to a minimum
You should either take many raiders or none at all
Warp beast packs are a bargain at 75 pts. Take as many as you can
Wyches cannot survive shooting. Get them into HTH as quickly as possible
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Unit choices
HQ
After reviewing the HQ options, Lelith looks like the best value for the
points. She comes standard with agonizer, pistol, wyche weapons and
shadowfield for 90 points. A similarly equipped Dracite or Archite
would cost as much or more.
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Troops
Wyches are the only troop options for the list so the key choices
are whether or not to put the squads in a raider, what size squads to use,
and what upgrades to give the squads?
Remembering the guidelines above, I would choose to put all of my wyche
squads in raiders. The raiders offer the wyches some protection from
shooting, while allowing them to close for HTH combat as quickly as possible.
As an added bonus the raider has either a disintegrator or dark lance for
dealing with power armored troops or vehicles.
The next thing to decide is squad sizes. Initially, I had considered
maximum sized squads, but that limits how many squads and raiders you can
take at 1500 points. My solution is a compromise of sorts. I
would rather field more squads with a few less models per squad. In
this case I will use 8 man squads and take 4 of them as opposed to three
10-man squads. My feeling is that 8-man squads will deal out nearly
the same amount of damage as 10-man squad on the charge as it may be difficult
to get 10 models in base to base contact initially.
More squads will give more rolls on the combat drugs table and possibly
more flexibility in force configuration. Each wyche squad is essentially
unique depending upon their combat drug roll. The key will be to best
utilize the abilities of each squad to maximum effect.
The extra wyche squad will allow me to take an extra warp beast squad.
More importantly, my opponent will have several more targets (wyches, raider,
& beasts) to deal with. The goal is present your opponent with
far more targets than he/she can handle. This forces them to make tough
decisions in the heat of battle. If they focus their firepower on the raiders
for instance, then the warp beasts swarm their positions and vice versa.
Generally it is not a good idea to have lots of smaller squads. In
the case of dark eldar and wyche cults however, their speed and mobility
allows you to pile in extra bodies as needed for an assault. Consequently
you can spread your forces around so that all of your points are not dedicated
to just a few large units. Your opponent can only shoot and engage
part of your army while the remainder attacks when and where they will.
Squad upgrades for wyches fall into two categories. If the squad
is intended purely for HTH fighting then it should have wyche weapons and
a succubus with agonizer and pistol. If the squad is intended to deal
with vehicles or heavily armored foes then it should be equipped with 2 blasters.
I chose to use only one squad of wyches for an anti-vehicle role and took
the minimum number of models, five, to save points
The transports for each type of squad should have armaments that match
their function. The wyche squad with blasters should have a raider
with dark lance. The wyches used for assault should have a raider
with disintegrator, which is more of an anti-infantry weapon.
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Elites
Mandrakes, warriors, and raider squads are your choices for elite units.
This list was configured to use only wyche units so no elites were chosen.
One possible substitution would be to use a raider squad with dark lance
as an anti-vehicle unit instead of a wyche raider with blasters. The
dark lance/raider combination would have better range than the wyches however
the squad would need to be stationary to fire its dark lance.
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Fast attack
A 5-man squad of jetbikes with 2 blasters was chosen because jetbikes look
too good to leave off the battlefield. With blasters the unit could
attack enemy vehicles or heavily armored models. The jetbikes can also support
assaults, crossfire fleeing enemy units or claim table quarters. The
jetbikes could just as easily be substituted for another raider-mounted
wyche squad with blasters at the same points.
Hellions were not chosen because I am still not convinced that they are
a good value for the points. They are certainly not as fast or as durable
as jetbikes so I left them off the list.
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Heavy
Scourges and ravagers are the choices for heavy units. Neither was
chosen because they are not wyche units and they both are geared for shooting
as opposed to assault.
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Putting it all together
My preliminary army list totals 78 models at 1498 points. The army
consists of 16 units that can claim and hold table quarters. There
are 5 skimmers, 5 jetbikes, 3 disintegrators, 3 dark lances, 4 blasters,
and 10 agonizers. The agonizers should prove to be a great equalizer
when fighting armies with power armor or lots of vehicles.
The key to using this army effectively will be to move and assault the
opponent's forces as quickly as possible. Every unit should take a
maximum move whenever possible. Warp beast packs and wyche assault
squads should fleet of foot during their shooting phase. The bulk
of the army should be thrown at one of the enemy's flanks to gain local
force superiority. The army can then attack along the enemy lines
and roll up them until there is nobody left to fight.
The combat drug rolls for each wyche squad will need to be determined before
the battle so that each squad's role can be assigned. If a squad gets
a 12" assault then they should lead the charge as they can cover 27" - 32"
on turn one (12" assault + 12" raider move + 2" disembark + 1d6" fleet of
foot). These squads should engage forward enemy units
so that the resulting HTH combat will block LOS for enemy units behind them.
Wyches squads that get the "always goes first" drug result should be assigned
to attack enemy units in cover or units that also always strike first.
Raiders should always be moved to screen enemy fire lanes when possible.
Lead raiders should be used to screen raiders behind them from enemy fire.
Warp beast packs follow behind in a second wave using forward units, HTH
melees, and raiders for cover from incoming enemy fire. By turn
two the warp beast packs should be assaulting enemy units or joining existing
HTH fights.
The jetbikes should turbo whenever possible to get the 4+ invulnerable
save. They should turbo forward on an enemy flank so that they are
in a position to assist in assaults or crossfire enemy units by turn 2.
Lelith can be deployed with any of the wyche squads as needed. She
should probably be deployed with squad that is intended to engage a tough
or difficult target like terminators. Her superior weapons skill,
wyche weapons, and agonizer could well make all the difference in whether
or not the squad achieves its objective.
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