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

====Heavy Support====
*'''Cronos:''' The support Engine. The Cronos comes stock with a spirit syphon, an Assault heavy flamer with AP-2 that does +1 damage (2 total) on 6s to wound. For 10 points you can add a spirit vortex that does nearly the same but without the auto-hits, in exchange for being Blast and having extra 6" of range. More importantly, it can also take a spirit probe for measly 5 points. This lets {{W40Kkeyword|DRUKHARI CORE}} and {{W40Kkeyword|DRUKHARI CHARACTER}} units within 6" re-roll 1s to wound in melee, which makes your Grotesques even scarier. In addition, each time it kills any model in melee with its spirit-leech tentacles, you can choose one {{W40Kkeyword|DRUKHARI CORE}} unit within 6" to either heal 1 Wound or restore a lost model at 1 Wound. A4 WS4+ S5 AP-1 per model (so A12 for a full unit, since you only need 1 probe for the whole unit) isn't ''that'' bad, but the Cronos won't exactly blend entire hordes into spirit-juice. Still, it ''can'' resurrect a Wrack if you're worried about it falling below half-strength.
**'''Dark Technomancers:''' Because Dark Technomancers doesn't work on Liquifiers (Twin or not), the Cronos is the best use you have for Dark Technomancers: the base gun can't cause any mortal wounds but works with the Obsession, and you can add a second gun for a decent price - plus, you have immediate access to healing any wounds you do suffer by murdering things in melee.
*'''Talos:''' The killy Engine. Can serve both as an anvil and a battering ram of your army, with more emphasis placed on one of these roles depending on the choice of Obsession and wargear. The standard load-out of 2 macro-scalpels and 2 splinter cannons offers decent MEQ-removing capability thanks to multiple D2 attacks. However, each arm and the tail weapon can be swapped for a variety of anti-infantry and/or anti-armour tools depending on its designated role. Only the Talos gauntlet and twin liqufier gun cost any additional points.
**'''Melee weapons''': Chain-flails grant each Talos 10 S6 attacks, which sounds nice until you notice AP0. This amounts to hitting enemy units with big, heavy pillows, although that is indeed a lot of attacks to potentially proc Blade Artists with, for what it's worth. The default pair of macro-scalpels can do some solid work against heavy infantry as well as light vehicles and monsters, especially if you boost their Strength. However, despite some disadvantages, the Talos gauntlet is a superior weapon; for +5 points it can easily destroy Gravis marines and crack some big, tough targets. The Talos ichor injector is also an interesting option to add some mortal wounds to the damage output. All in all, the macro-scalpels shouldn't disappoint, but if you want to send your Taloses against the most durable foes, gauntlet + ichor injector is worth considering.
***'''1 Melee Weapon + 1 Twin Liquifier''': There's a strong argument to be made that a twin Liquifier will do more work than an extra scalpel. They got buffed during the codex update to S4 AP -2, making them a bit killier than they were, and +1 attack from having a second Scalpel is unlikely to have the same impact as on average ''seven'' autohits from the liquifiers. You will be dishing out 15 extra points for the privilege, however.  Unless you're doing this to keep the unit as cheap as possible, you should still always shell out to upgrade the 1 melee weapon you do have from a Scalpel to a Gauntlet - the Twin Liquifier will do plenty to murder hordes, you'll want the Gauntlet for punching anything heavy.
**'''Choosing tail weapons:''' Pain Engines suffer from BS4+, so their shooting weapons should be chosen with care depending on what role you want your big bois to play. Luckily, with the new Codex they're now all free! Splinter cannons give them some extra anti-infantry firepower, but reduce their effectiveness against vehicles. Haywire blasters are effective against vehicles: a squad of three Taloi puts out 6D3 S3 AP-3 D1d3 shots which successfully wound vehicles on 4+, and on 6+ cause additional D3 mortal wounds. The odd inclusion of Blast makes them not-terrible against most infantry, but be mindful of the low Strength. Heat lances are basically super-blasters that grant the ability to pop units that are big and sturdy from afar (or up close, you can shoot in melee now). The stinger pod is probably the worst choice out of all, potentially giving your Talos the most shots per gun (2D6) if you roll well, but with a worse statline compared to its closest competitor: the twin splinter cannons.
***You can turn these fellows into nice DISTRACTION CARNIFEXES by giving them an Ichor Injector, Talos Gauntlet, and Haywire Blasters. A jittery imperial with his Knight Crusader will shoot at it until this thing is totally dead, giving your real units all the time they need to move in.
**'''Artists of the Flesh''': The anvil. With native defensive stats of T6 W7 Sv3+/6++/5+++, the Talos is durable for a Drukhari unit. As for Obsessions, the Prophets of Flesh are not quite what they used to be: regenerating 1 Wound ''per unit'' at the start of your Command Phase is underwhelming, and the defensive buff against weapons that are below S8 is useless to a boosted Talos. Pick Artists of the Flesh if you intend to rely on the big guys as the damage sponges in your army: reducing incoming Damage by 1 (to a minimum of 1) will increase their survivability a great deal - they ''will'' attract lots of high-damage attacks, only to laugh them off a lot of the time.
**'''Experimental Creations''': The battering ram. S8 macro-scalpels become significantly more effective against vehicles and monsters, and the Talos gauntlet also enjoys S9 against some of the hardest opponents. This is merely half of the build, though, because you pick another custom Obsession to accompany this one. Hungry for Flesh provides a useful re-roll to charges; Master Torturers reduces the CP cost of the Torturer's Craft stratagem (re-roll melee wounds) to 1 CP; Splinter Blades generates an additional hit for each unmodified hit roll of 6, which is +1 WS but better since it stacks with round 3+ Power From Pain.  In fact, if you were serious about being good at melee and took a Talos gauntlet, Splinter Blades is better than Experimental Creations in practice against almost everything in the game - you can take both, or you can just go with Splinter Blades + Hungry for Flesh.