Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Dark Eldar (section)

==Why Play Dark Eldar==
Do you want to be a [[Twilight|unique snowflake]]? Do you like drugs, excessive body modification, pillaging and raping? Do you like instilling fear into your opponent with lightning fast speed and devastating weaponry at the expense of armor? Then DE are for you. This is 40k on hardcore mode. If things don't go [[Just as planned]] you'll be going down like a ten dollar hooker. This is not a forgiving army and not for the faint of heart; it is riddled with drawbacks and is damned tough to play. If things go your way, however, your opponents will be torn to shreds in record time without even knowing what just hit him.

Welcome to the world's most elite club.

[[Matt Ward|Penis]] jokes aside, the Dark Eldar are indeed one of the (if not '''the''') [[Sisters of Battle|least-played armies in games and table-top]] - and it's not hard to see why. Up until the recent edition upgrade, they were even more unforgiving of mistakes in gameplay than the Eldar were, had exceedingly fragile armor for the bulk of their forces, and focused almost entirely on a mix of blinding speed and raw, balls-out firepower. They packed dozens of ways to lower an enemy's morale and plenty of weaponry that sprayed massive barrages of undiluted [[Exterminatus|rape]] in the general direction of their opponents, but this really wasn't enough to make them all that viable until more recently.

After 12 years (or 7, if you choose to count the revised edition), [[Games Workshop]] finally gave the Dark Eldar an update. And what an update it was.

The new codex, simply put, was a godsend, giving their forces much-needed staying power and considerably higher flexibility. Whilst most of the Dark Eldar remains pretty fragile, they can field significantly tougher army lists with much more durable troops, too - almost every unit, barring a few of their Special Characters, can find at least ''some'' use in a competitive Dark Eldar army, in no small part because of their ability to load anti-tank weapons in anti-infantry transports - and vice versa, backing this with versatile fast-attack and heavy support choices that can attack damned near anything to some degree. This compartmentalized army design means that the new Dark Eldar lessens how severe losses used to be for this army, and generally makes it more consistent (previously it was an army that either steamrolled you or got kerb-stomped).

Creating a solid Dark Eldar army is a balancing act, and involves setting things up so that you have redundant units and failsafes. The general gist is that this ensures that if you lose a squad, you're still in the fight. Paired with the Dark Eldar's heavy firepower, this makes them a daunting thing to face.

One last thing of note is the sheer quality of their models - Dark Eldar models of both Infantry and Vehicle flavors are amongst the best that Games Workshop makes, period, and they have some truly stunning and impressive designs. When contrasted to the ramshackle look of the Orks' vehicles, the boxy look of the Imperium's vehicles, or the simple elegance of the Eldar or Tau's vehicles, the Dark Eldar vehicles have sleek, predatory looks and their models have this cruel look that all but oozes with malevolence. Their army also offers a wealth of customization options, and just as many conversion opportunities. In a great many ways, this is the army for those who want to boast both a tough army to use and one that looks just as good.