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

====Fast Attack====
*'''Scourges:''' Heavy weapon squads with wings, which somehow aren't in a Kabal, despite their fluff in the same book establishing that they used to be Kabalites and still work for the Kabals. Their stock weapon is a Shardcarbine, which is already a very nice gun, but let's be real here, you take Scourges for the clusterfuck of heavy weaponry they can schlep with them. With how specialized Haywire Blasters have become, Blasters and Dark Lances may be your best bet for general use against vehicles, but Heat Lances have received a point reduction that makes them by far the most effective anti-tank option. Splinter cannons have dropped 5 points each, and are cheaper than individual scourges. Shredders also received AP -1, so both are now valid weapon options to kit out scourges! Also don't be afraid to mix weapons as you can split your fire.  The Solarite in charge of the unit can't ditch his weapon for something you'd like better, so if you're ''not'' sticking with Shardcarbines, consider him an ablative wound.
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If you do want to take a Melee weapon on the Solarite - and you really, really don't need to - all the weapons perform about the same given the number of attacks the model has, with the Lance being best due to it actually being a Power Axe and the wielder being S3, and you should always expect to have to fight MEQ.
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*'''Scourge Weapon Analysis - Short Version:'''
**'''Shardcarbines:''' The cheapest option and the one that gives the most mobility, at 18" Assault 3.
**'''Shredders''' Decently cheap and the exact same gun Kabalites can take, Assault d6 S6 AP -1 D1, blast. Better against GEQ and other light targets (like Tzeentchian Horrors) than a normal shardcarbine with the exact same range, though of course being d6 shots means a bad roll can fuck it over. Aim it at hordes to avoid this and it'll work wonders, though. The strength on it also allows it to chip off the odd wound on lighter vehicles and bikes, too, though those will usually have better saves to shrug off its minimal AP.
**'''Blasters, Dark Lances, and Heat Lances:''' The weapons for fighting Heavies. 
***'''Blasters:''' Good if you plan on moving a lot, you can move and shoot with them at no penalty, though with the downside of d6 damage, meaning you could roll a 1 and wind up tickling your target.  Broadly inferior to Heat Lances against heavy targets, but provided you're moving, your best choice for fighting MEQ and TEQ.
***'''Dark Lances:''' are 36" Heavy but deal as much maximum damage as blasters, with a minimum d3+3 damage. Combine that with near double the range and it's an option between if you want your bird elves to have the mobility of a blaster or sitting back and enjoying the safety of sniping tanks with these.  However, you pay for the range - they're worse than Heat Lances against pretty much everything, ''even if the Heat Lance takes a -1 penalty to hit and the Dark Lance doesn't'', so you're reliably better off taking Heat Lances and just moving into range.
***'''Heat Lances:''' Almost a weird middle ground between blasters and lances. Heavy, with the same basic statline but with the possibility of even higher damage output to a maximum of 8(!) and a minimum of 3 (D1d6+2). Will outperform a Dark Lance even if it moves and the Dark Lance doesn't.  Will likewise outperform a Blaster even if the Heat Lance moves and the Blaster doesn't, but only against targets with many wounds - against TEQ or weaker, the Blaster will outperform a moving Heat Lance (the Heat Lance will still win if it doesn't move). Should be your default choice for Scourges if you want to murder hard targets.
**'''Haywire Blasters and Splinter Cannons:''' The weapons for fighting targets that specifically are or aren't Vehicles. 
***'''Haywire Blasters''' An interesting option, to say the least. 24" puts them between blasters and lances in terms of range, Heavy d3 shots means more possible damage than the others, while retaining the move penalty. Against vehicles, it auto-wounds on a 4+. They aren't mortal wounds any more but they've got a respectable AP of -3 and d3 damage, with 6s to wound doing d3 mortals in addition. Against non-vehicles, it's S3 while retaining the -3 AP and d3 damage. This makes it... questionable against other targets but the odd wound it might land will still hurt.  Unfortunately, can't compete with a Heat Lance against ''most'' vehicle targets that exist, although thanks to the fact that 1/3 of your shots that hit deal 1d3 mortals on top of 1d3 damage, against vehicles with good invulns and/or good T (e.g. a Knight), it will win out.  You should usually avoid this.
***'''Splinter Cannons''' Heavy 3, meaning you're taking the penalty to move and shoot with them while gaining -1 AP and D2. Better against marines than shardcarbines and shredders, but worse than Blasters, even if you don't move.  You do, however get the same range as a Dark Lance, so in theory you could use these as an option for scourges that wanna sit back and pick off infantry units.  Avoid these in general.
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<tab name="Combined">
Your safest defaults are a Shardcarbine/Power Lance Solarite (though why the fuck you would want them in melee I'll never know) with 4 Shredders for hunting light targets or 4 Heat Lances for hunting heavy targets. 
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