Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Dark Eldar (section)

===Kabals===
"Normal" dark eldar. Apparently they are the only ones in the Dark City who wear armor, and they are half of your sources of cool guns. As such, whether you are using Raiding Forces or Realspace Raid, they'll be the core of your army.
====HQ====
<tabs>
<tab name="Archon">
Your warlord more often than not since he is <u>the only HQ that can lead more than just his subfaction</u>, as his re-roll 1s to hit aura for {{WH40Kkeyword|kabal core & incubi}} becomes re-roll 1s for all {{WH40Kkeyword|core}} when leading a '''Realspace Raid''' detachment. His unique 2++ cannot be re-rolled for any reason and shuts down after the first fail, leaving him with the usual 4+ kabal armour save. Starts with a splinter pistol that can be swapped for a nasty blast pistol, and his power sword can be exchanged by either a venom blade, agoniser or huskblade. With okay weapon options the Archon is a decent fighter, but any serious plans for melee should be left to a Master Archon.
*One of the things an Archon can do that a Master Archon would be wasted at, however, is using that aura to buff your ranged units, especially your Kabalites, which requires him to leave the safety of a transport. You can use Index options to give him a Blaster and/or Phantasm Grenade Launcher and contribute to firefights/drive-bys. His invuln can protect him from snipers, and he's got a Court bodyguard unit that is cool and also has nice guns.
*The blaster is better than the blast pistol, if you can afford it and you're okay with taking an index option, as pistols are usable in melee only during ongoing combats that happen during your turn.
</tab>
<tab name="Master Archon (Upgrade)">
Akin to a Chapter Master upgrade, you can upgrade an Archon to Master Archon, unlocking one unit of Kabalite Trueborn warriors and an exclusive relic and warlord trait. His place is in melee, with '''Splintered Genius''' allowing him to fight twice once per game.
*'''Relic - Soulhelm:''' All attacks against the Master Archon take -1 to hit, and he receives a 5+++ FNP. Unlike other relic armours that basically don't exist up until your 2++ fails, the Soulhelm works in tandem with the Archon's abilities: the -1 to hit helps preserve the invuln against most things, as fewer hits equal fewer chances to fail (except vs already unwieldy weapons like fists). Additionally, the FnP helps protect against MWs that would normally pass unfiltered.
*'''Warlord Trait - Consummate Weaponmaster:''' +1D for the Master Archon's non-relic melee weapons, fixing his main problem: a lack of multi D blades with good to-wound rolls. This frees the Archon to take a non-blade relic, like the Animus Vitae or Soulhelm. Otherwise you'd NEED the Djinn Blade for his melee to be relevant at all.
Upgrading to a Master Archon is ubiquitous if you're seriously considering sending him into melee at the head of his henchmen. The basic power sword is fine vs GEQ, the agoniser is fine vs armored infantry, and the venom blade is good against things that don't rely on armour saves, like harlequins. All of those can be upgraded to D2 to kill marines with the WT. Meanwhile, the huskblade's natural D2 is wasted on S3; swap it for the Djinn Blade if you can afford it, turning your Archon into something comparable to a named character.

</tab>
</tabs>

'''Ynnari note:'''
A thing to keep in mind with an Ynnari Archon is you get a quality of life bonus. Simply put, your re-roll 1s bubble will not only affect your Kabal units, but your other Ynnari Drukhari too! Kabalites, Wyches, Incubi, etc. This opens up a wide variety of opportunities, so be mindful of the tricks you can pull that the others can't.

====Troops====
*'''Kabalite Warriors:''' Your '''only ranged troops''' in your entire army, now with base 2 attacks and 4+ armor! Placing them inside transports turns them into mobile firebases, but do keep in mind that in cover they are 3+ save models that cost only 8pts. Their sybarite sergeant can swap his splinter rifle for a pistol and/or get a melee weapon, but you shouldn't really bother. Do consider the phantasm grenade launcher, which stacks with the serge's rifle, meaning for 5 points you get some mortal wound output from every unit.
**They can take one blaster or shredder for every 5 models, and a dark lance or splinter cannon for every 10 models, but shredders and splinter cannons are ''bad''.  Notice these are ''separate lists'', meaning a 5-elf unit can have 1 special gun + 1 grenade launcher, but a 10-elf squad squad gets 3 + 1 launcher (and a 20-elf squad gets 6 + launcher). Heavy guns are ''locked'' to big squads.  Ordinarily, the best loadout a squad can take will be either 5 elves with grenade launcher and blaster or 10 with grenade launcher, 2 blasters, and 1 dark lance.  Also keep in mind that none of those weapons share the Rapid Fire 24" type of their splinter rifles, being either Assault 18" or Heavy 36".
**'''Kabalite Trueborn''': For each Master Archon present, one Warrior unit in that Master Archon's detachment can be upgraded to Trueborn. With BS 2+, improved LD, and the ability to ignore all modifiers to their BS and hit rolls, but a unit size cap of 10, they're the ideal choice for your heavy weapon (''singular'') wielders (i.e. if you take a Trueborn unit, it should be the 10-elf type with 2 blasters, a dark lance, and a grenade launcher). They're valuable and often times you only get one of them, so either keep them in cover or give them a Raider as a dedicated flying firebase.

====Not Elites====
Because they are Elites but can only be taken when there's an Archon, which makes them use no actual slots. So, "not elites".
*'''Court of the Archon:''' Rather than being a bunch of solo models these guys are back to being a unit (which foils Ynnari shenanigans).
**'''Lhamaean:''' A lady with a poison 2+ blade that does a mortal wound in addition to the normal damage on a 6+ to wound. So, once every 9 attacks. She has 2. So much for the only Blade Artist of the court. If she's in the squad, the Court gains an aura that makes {{W40kKeyword|<kabal> Archon & Kabalite Trueborn}}s' poison weapons automatically wound the target on a nat 6 to hit. Only problem is, you usually get only one unit of Trueborn, 3 of them will probably be using special weapons instead of splinter rifles, and the Archon is probably not wielding a Venom blade.  Plus, this actively makes Venom Blades ''worse'' against some Sv2+ targets: autowounding on 6 to hit isn't a big step up from 2+ wounding, but the aura is mandatory and shuts down Blade Artists.
**'''Medusae:''' Their eyeburst is back to being a warpflamer/liquifier at Pistol d6 S4 AP-2, autohits. Good against any infantry that gets too close.
**'''Sslyth:''' With good stats: T3 W3 5+/5+++ and 3A WS3+ S5 AP-2 as well as Shardcarbines (& pistol), they are the general combat members of the squad. They're also the only actual bodyguard models of the court, as a unit without a Sslyth wouldn't be able to stop snipers from targeting the Archon. But they no longer take the actual wounds for him, though. 
**'''Ur-Ghul:''' 16 Points and a crapload of S4 attacks for a single model, particularly on the charge, and the new codex grants them AP-1. It has no access to Power from Pain, though. That said, 3W and a 5+++ does make them excellent Smite shields to protect a more important character.
***The new 40k Warhammer Quest game comes with 4 plastic Ur-Ghuls. There may be separate rules for those, but at the very least it'll be easier to get some models without having to buy the old resin model separately.

====Heavy Support====
*'''Ravager:''' Raider gunboat, with +1W and triple the cool guns. Disintegrators for heavy infantry, Dark lance for bigger stuff. Many armies would like to have the guns and mobility this boat has. This mobility makes melee an option worth considering. If you are in range, <u>do not hesitate charging either a vehicle or a ranged troop</u>:
**Enemy vehicles are either forced to fire at the 5++ Ravager at -1 to hit (no blast weapons allowed) or fall back and be disabled even worse than being damaged down to their worst bracket, as vehicles can sooner have strats for ignoring damage than to be able to fall back and re-engage. 
**Ranged troops often cannot deal with vehicles, certainly not in melee, yet the Ravager is the one of the few non-dread vehicles in the game with melee options. Six S7 AP-1 attacks and nine Disintegrator cannon shots you can fire in melee. No need to use all that on a squad (unless?), but it does highlight the options you have.