Grimdark Future/Tactics/Dark Elf Raiders

Why play Dark Elf Raiders?

The dark elves are considerably more lightweight than their high kindred.

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Pros

• Almost your entire army is some shade of Fast
• Great tanks
• Plentiful Poison on the guns

Cons

• Your army is costly as hell
• Troops and Vehicles are even flimsier
• Very limited casting

Special Rules

• Dodge: This model increases their defense by +2 when in melee. This is just as well, since the models with this tend to have garbo defense otherwise.

• EMP: Rending +1. Rending now triggers on a natural 5+ to hit.

• Very Fast: Fast +1. Some of your models can move 12" and dash/charge 24". Your entire army can cover obscene distances without even blinking. You absolutely will be needing it considering your army's pretty lightweight.

• Veteran Infantry: Units with this roll add +1 to their hit rolls, regardless of if they're punching or shooting.

Psychic Spells

• Anxiety(4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -2 to their next morale check.
• Psych Grave (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits each, making it a bit more useful on chaff hordes.
• Drugs (5+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Regeneration when they next get hit. Absolutely worth using considering your army's flimsiness.
• Pain (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 4 AP 1 hits. Not much, but it can handle mobs.
• Blessing (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately charge 6" and gets to add +1 to hit in melee. You're only going to use this for the dedicated melee units.
• Curse (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take a 4 AP 2 hits each. Evil.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Dark Lord: The Dark Lord is pretty emblematic of the dark elf lifestyle: Fast and with high quality, but suffers defensively with only 5+ for defense. The big rule for the dark lord is Dark Strike, which lets the lord's unit add +1 to AP and defense when charging. This is quite useful for keeping an enemy under pressure for the first turn of a charge.
  • Shooting: The basic barb pistol is decent enough, granting Poison. You can swap it out for a grenade launcher if you're planning on dealing with mobs or a fusion pistol/rifle if you're keen on just punching holes in tanks.
  • Melee: You can replace that CCW with one of three weapons that grant different rules for 5 points: The agony whip (Poison and Rending if you plan on maximizing those 6s), the shell sword (for killing heroes and elites) and the energy sword (AP 2 and Rending).

• Succubus: The succubus is for the most part similar to the dark lord, but the succubus' defense is even more garbage...until you get stuck in, where Dodge then kicks in. You'll absolutely be wanting a transport to protect their entry.
  • Melee: Alongside all the weapons available to the dark lord, the succubus also has her own special weapons: The energy glaive (AP 1, discard because you can get the energy sword for the same price), crystal gauntlets (Rending. Again, you have better weapons), sword-flails (double your attacks, which isn't too bad) and the net+spear (an extra attack and AP 1 for 10 points? Eh, could be worse).

• Torture Master: A genuine freak, the torture master has Regeneration they can improve by buying Torture Master (how original OPR) as well as access to Psychic 1 or 2. The Torture Master rule also extends to any attached units, making it ideal to attach one to a unit of tortured warriors.
  • Melee: By default, the torture master only has a pair of CCWs. These weapons (yes, you're replacing the set rather than merely one of them) can be swapped off for the following: a venom sword (AP 1 and Poison) agony whip (Poison and Rending) a corrosive whip (+1 attack and Poison), leech gauntlet (4 attacks), scissor gauntlet (4 attacks and poison), and syringe gauntlet (AP 2 and poison)
  • Shooting: If you intend to keep enemies at bay, then you might want to buy a gun. You might do so anyway because you sacrifice nothing for it. Your options are limited to the barb pistol available to other heroes, the acid gun (Rapid-fire AP 1 Poison), the arcane rifle (A sniper rifle with the powerful Deadly 3 and AP 1) and the syringe pistol (A pistol with AP 2).

• Courtesan: The courtesan is another dedicated melee unit, though this one only confers three AP 1 Poison attacks with their poisoned katana. A courtesan otherwise has no reason to be the lone HQ.

• Medusa: Another cheap HQ to fill up a vacancy, the medusa provides a rapid-fire weapon in its gaze. This is especially helpful for witches or tortured warriors, as their shooting is likely the most limited.

• Ghoul: The bruiser. It's got Furious and quite a few attacks, but little else. Fortunately, its 3+ quality means that it's a good way to protect a unit from morale tests.

• Naga: The naga is the strongest hero, though that's not by much. It benefits from a 3+ to both quality and defense as well as a good mix of melee and shooting, though the shooting stands out by dual-wielding both a barb carbine and a barb pistol.

Infantry

• Tortured Warriors: These guys aren't as good with morale compared to base warriors, but they have Regeneration to help tank blows. They can take all the same weapons as the torture master, but they can also sacrifice a CCW for bone gun (for mid-range Rending) or the acid gun (a flamethrower with poison).

• Tortured Brutes: Bigger and beefier with Tough 3 and Furious. They're especially deadly in melee with both a scissor gauntlet and a CCW. If you really want shooting, you can replace any of their CCWs with acid guns.

• Warriors: Your dedicated shooters. Out of all your troops, your warriors have access to the most guns out of everyone. Unique among them are the shred rifle (short-range blast with Rending), the EMP rifle (24" attack with EMP), the heavy fusion carbine (two fusion carbines strapped together) and the fusion cannon. You can also upgrade warriors with Veteran Infantry so you can make their shooting better.

• Witches: The witches are more focused on making many attacks in melee, as they get more melee weapons (though one of them is exclusive to witches and the succubus) and they have Dodge to protect themselves from counter-attacking. They can also buy Veteran Infantry, making them essentially a pack of succubi.

• Nightmares: These are your most elite infantry. Each one carries energy swords that hit on a 3+ and have a 3+ on defense. Put this on top of Fast and you have a unit that can quickly make mincemeat out of any peers and attract attention.

• Winged Warriors: Essentially warriors with jetpacks. While that is true, they get a 4+ defense and also get to carry around two special weapons. The fact that your guys are so mobile and able to fire those guns is a pretty important gift since other armies have to use vehicles or costlier units to perform such.

• Shadow Warriors: Super sneaky elves, carrying Scout, Stealth and Strider. They lack the armor however, so they need that cover. Fortunately, they don't need to really get up close - They also carry a ranged attack as well.

• Jetbike Riders: As with the high elves, your jetbikes are insanely quick with Very Fast and Strider. Their loadout makes use of Impact, and you can buy either razor talons to add more Impact hits or razor caltrops, which not only add Impact but also (presumably) make it AP 2. You could also make it shooty, but you're stuck with either barb carbine (refunding 5 points), fusion carbines or heavy fusion carbines.

• Hoverboard Riders: While not Very Fast, you can grab a bunch of guys with Strider who have some surprisingly long-ranged twin barb carbines. This can make them more of a nuisance with the right moves. You can get yet another gun, though only a barb pistol or grenade launcher. For melee weapons, you can give one guy an agony whip, energy sword or grapple claw (Deadly 3 like a shell sword)

• Clawed Beast: The beefy wall of meat, toting Tough 6, Furious and four AP 1 attacks. The beast's the cheapest but also has the most weaknesses. You can only get Fearless to offset one of those weakness.

• Crow Swarms: Not as tough (Swarm's only Tough 3, but you get three of them), but these crows fly and has rending. These are a bit more mobile and thus give you more incentive to use as a mere distraction. You might want Fearless if you want to keep them going.

• Blood Hound: A pack of Fast beasts. Each of them has 3 attacks that hit at 3+, but suffer defensively. Like with the crows, you'll want Fearless on these.

Vehicles

• Transport Bike: Your cheaper Transport, though you only get to carry 6 models and are fragile as hell with Tough 3. As with other hoverbikes, this thing's got Very Fast and Strider, and you can add onto it with an energy ram to improve its Impact by +3, a means for both Ambush and Stealth and a grenade launcher. It comes by default with a barb cannon and twin barb rifle, but you can replace that with a second barb cannon.

• Light Skimmer: Slightly tougher than the bike, but you get a full Transport 11 and a destroyer cannon. This isn't too much to think about, but you can replace the barb cannon with a fusion cannon if you're planning on ripping apart tanks - and you'd have a good means to do so.

• Heavy Skimmer: This skimmer can't carry anyone, but it's Tough 9 and carries three barb cannons, each capable of becoming a fusion cannon - You don't need three of them, and even two might be pushing it. Whatever you plan on doing, you now have something that can very easily ruin vehicles.

• Combat Walker: While not as fast as everything else, this walker's still Fast and comes with Scout so you can use those star cannons early. You can swap either of these cannons out of the list of heavy weapons available to the tank and heavy jetbike in any manner of combination. Again, Stealth will help as you will be grabbing attention pretty early.

• Leech Engine: This is pretty durable with Regeneration, and it carries a good gun with the soul siphon. That said, it's role isn't simply to rip things up. True, its claws can do so, but it has upgrades that conflict with that somewhat. The Soul Conductor lets two friendly units within 6" gain Regeneration when they next get hit, which can go well in combat, but it's pretty valuable to just throw into combat when you could instead throw witches at your issue and make them die less easily. The Soul Vortex on the other hand makes the leech more like short-range artillery with a Blast 6 attack.

• Engine of Suffering: The more direct combatant with a twin EMP rifle. This can be swapped out for either a stinger cannon (for small blasts), barb cannon (rapid-fire poison) or twin heavy fusion carbine (for hating all tanks and titans so hard that they die to death) while the claws can be swapped out for shredder flails (Rending), a venom injector (AP 3 and Poison), or a twin acid gun (more shooty, but this is a bunch of attacks to trigger Poison with).

• Raven Bomber: The main draw here is the EMP bombs, which give quite a bit of coverage. For dogfighting, you've only got two EMP cannons (you can swap with two fusion cannons) that can be complemented with either EMP missiles (small Blast 3, but EMP) or Shatter Missiles (Blast 6 AP 3, but seriously costly).

• Razor Fighter: The real dogfighter and it's loaded to bear. A twin barb rifle (you can replace it for a barb cannon like with the bike), a pair of destroyer cannons (you can replace them with fusion cannons if you plan on blowing up heavy tanks) and scythe missiles for a blast that punctures light armor (you can replace this with toxin missiles if you want to add poison or the shatter missiles for high AP) make it so that you have a weapon for any enemy you come across. This does however make you a bigger target, so you should definitely go for the enemy's AA weapons and planes first if you find any.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Almost your entire army is some shade of Fast
• Great tanks
• Plentiful Poison on the guns

Cons

• Your army is costly as hell
• Troops and Vehicles are even flimsier
• Very limited casting

Special Rules

• Dodge: This model increases their defense by +2 when in melee. This is just as well, since the models with this tend to have garbo defense otherwise.

• EMP: Rending +1. Rending now triggers on a natural 5+ to hit.

• Very Fast: Fast +1. Some of your models can move 12" and dash/charge 24". Your entire army can cover obscene distances without even blinking. You absolutely will be needing it considering your army's pretty lightweight.

• Veteran Infantry: Units with this roll add +1 to their hit rolls, regardless of if they're punching or shooting.

Psychic Spells

• Anxiety(4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -2 to their next morale check.
• Psych Grave (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits each, making it a bit more useful on chaff hordes.
• Drugs (5+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Regeneration when they next get hit. Absolutely worth using considering your army's flimsiness.
• Pain (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 4 AP 1 hits. Not much, but it can handle mobs.
• Blessing (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately charge 6" and gets to add +1 to hit in melee. You're only going to use this for the dedicated melee units.
• Curse (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take a 4 AP 2 hits each. Evil.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Dark Lord: The Dark Lord is pretty emblematic of the dark elf lifestyle: Fast and with high quality, but suffers defensively with only 5+ for defense. The big rule for the dark lord is Dark Strike, which lets the lord's unit add +1 to AP and defense when charging. This is quite useful for keeping an enemy under pressure for the first turn of a charge.
  • Shooting: The basic barb pistol is decent enough, granting Poison. You can swap it out for a grenade launcher if you're planning on dealing with mobs or a fusion pistol/rifle if you're keen on just punching holes in tanks.
  • Melee: You can replace that CCW with one of three weapons that grant different rules for 5 points: The agony whip (Poison and Rending if you plan on maximizing those 6s), the shell sword (for killing heroes and elites) and the energy sword (AP 2 and Rending).

• Succubus: The succubus is for the most part similar to the dark lord, but the succubus' defense is even more garbage...until you get stuck in, where Dodge then kicks in. You'll absolutely be wanting a transport to protect their entry.
  • Melee: Alongside all the weapons available to the dark lord, the succubus also has her own special weapons: The energy glaive (AP 1, discard because you can get the energy sword for the same price), crystal gauntlets (Rending. Again, you have better weapons), sword-flails (double your attacks, which isn't too bad) and the net+spear (an extra attack and AP 1 for 10 points? Eh, could be worse).

• Torture Master: A genuine freak, the torture master has Regeneration they can improve by buying Torture Master (how original OPR) as well as access to Psychic 1 or 2. The Torture Master rule also extends to any attached units, making it ideal to attach one to a unit of tortured warriors.
  • Melee: By default, the torture master only has a pair of CCWs. These weapons (yes, you're replacing the set rather than merely one of them) can be swapped off for the following: a venom sword (AP 1 and Poison) agony whip (Poison and Rending) a corrosive whip (+1 attack and Poison), leech gauntlet (4 attacks), scissor gauntlet (4 attacks and poison), and syringe gauntlet (AP 2 and poison)
  • Shooting: If you intend to keep enemies at bay, then you might want to buy a gun. You might do so anyway because you sacrifice nothing for it. Your options are limited to the barb pistol available to other heroes, the acid gun (Rapid-fire AP 1 Poison), the arcane rifle (A sniper rifle with the powerful Deadly 3 and AP 1) and the syringe pistol (A pistol with AP 2).

• Courtesan: The courtesan is another dedicated melee unit, though this one only confers three AP 1 Poison attacks with their poisoned katana. A courtesan otherwise has no reason to be the lone HQ.

• Medusa: Another cheap HQ to fill up a vacancy, the medusa provides a rapid-fire weapon in its gaze. This is especially helpful for witches or tortured warriors, as their shooting is likely the most limited.

• Ghoul: The bruiser. It's got Furious and quite a few attacks, but little else. Fortunately, its 3+ quality means that it's a good way to protect a unit from morale tests.

• Naga: The naga is the strongest hero, though that's not by much. It benefits from a 3+ to both quality and defense as well as a good mix of melee and shooting, though the shooting stands out by dual-wielding both a barb carbine and a barb pistol.

Infantry

• Tortured Warrior: These guys aren't as good with morale compared to base warriors, but they have Regeneration to help tank blows. They can take all the same weapons as the torture master, but they can also sacrifice a CCW for bone gun (for mid-range Rending) or the acid gun (a flamethrower with poison).

• Tortured Brute: Bigger and beefier with Tough 3 and Furious. They're especially deadly in melee with both a scissor gauntlet and a CCW. If you really want shooting, you can replace any of their CCWs with acid guns.

• Warrior: Your dedicated shooter. Out of all your troops, your warriors have access to the most guns out of everyone. Unique among them are the shred rifle (short-range blast with Rending), the EMP rifle (24" attack with EMP), the heavy fusion carbine (two fusion carbines strapped together) and the fusion cannon. You can also upgrade warriors with Veteran Infantry so you can make their shooting better.

• Witch: The witches are more focused on making many attacks in melee, as they get the same weapons as the succubus and they have Dodge to protect themselves from counter-attacking. They can also buy Veteran Infantry, making them essentially a pack of succubi.

• Nightmare: These are your most elite infantry. Each one carries energy swords that hit on a 3+ and have a 3+ on defense. Put this on top of Fast and you have a murder machine that can quickly make mincemeat out of any peers and attract attention.

• Winged Warrior: Essentially warriors with jetpacks. While that is true, they get a 4+ defense for better defebse. The fact that your guys are so mobile and able to fire those guns is a pretty important gift since other armies have to use vehicles or costlier units to perform such.

• Shadow Warrior: Super sneaky elves, carrying Scout, Stealth and Strider. They lack the armor however, so they need that cover. Fortunately, they don't need to really get up close - They also carry a ranged attack as well.

• Jetbike Rider: As with the high elves, your jetbikes are insanely quick with Very Fast and Strider. Their loadout makes use of Impact, and you can buy either razor talons to add more Impact hits or razor caltrops, which not only add Impact but also (presumably) make it AP 2. You could also make it shooty, but you're stuck with either barb carbine (refunding 5 points), fusion carbines or heavy fusion carbines.

• Hoverboard Rider: While not Very Fast, you can grab a bunch of guys with Strider who have some surprisingly long-ranged twin barb carbines. This can make them more of a nuisance with the right moves. You can get yet another gun, though only a barb pistol or grenade launcher. For melee weapons, you can give one guy an agony whip, energy sword or grapple claw (Deadly 3 like a shell sword)

• Clawed Beast: The beefy wall of meat, toting Tough 6, Furious and four AP 1 attacks. The beast's the cheapest but also has the most weaknesses. You can only get Fearless to offset one of those weakness.

• Crow Swarm: Not as tough (Swarm's only Tough 3), but these crows fly and get Rending. These are a bit more mobile and thus give you more incentive to use as a mere distraction. You might want Fearless if you want to keep them going.

• Blood Hound: A Fast beast. Each of them has 3 attacks that hit at 3+, but suffer defensively. Like with the crows, you'll want Fearless on these.

Army Building

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult