Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Dark Eldar (section)

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*'''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 within melta range. 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.
**'''Note''': Scourges can't be taken in Raiders or Venoms, but they ''can'' be taken in the Tantalus. 3 Squads of 5 with Carbines, Blasters or Dark Lances, or a mix of the three? Congrats, you just became [[That Guy]].
**'''Melee Note:''' If you do want to take a Melee weapon on the Solarite, 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 Maul and the wielder being S3, and you should always expect to have to fight MEQ. If you want to abuse Shoot, Charge, Fallback, Shoot shenanigans to stop an enemy unit from shooting for a turn, then there are other units that do it better; however, your Scourges' mobility does let them easily support Reavers or Hellions with a follow up charge. If you are going to do this, however, in Matched Play it's best to keep the unit as cheap as possible. In Open/Narrative Play you're probably having a Casual/Fluffy game anyway so go nuts.
**'''Scourge Weapon Analysis - Short Version:'''
***'''Shardcarbines:''' The cheapest option and the one that gives the most mobility, at 18" Assault 3.
***'''Blasters, Dark Lances, Haywire Blasters, and Heat Lances:''' The weapons for fighting Vehicles and Heavies. 
****'''Dark Lances''' are 36" Heavy but deal as much damage as blasters; since you have mobility anyway, there is limited utility in paying the extra points for having more range.  Plan on your Scourges moving every round they can.
****'''Heat lances''' are very efficient when in melta range and awesome for sniping out characters that are badly wrapped, but when you Deep Strike, they're outside of melta range - you'll have to get aggravatingly close (for Scourges) to really use them properly.  Their point cost is fundamentally fair for their performance, but be aware of what you're buying.
****'''Haywire Blasters''' are the cheapest (the same cost as a Shredder) and extremely effective at dishing out mortal wounds to vehicles now that they are Assault 1d3 (which you ''really'' want against Quantum Shielding, Invuln Saves, and other defenses where the best bypass is mortal wounds).  Very type specific - they're ''terrible'' against {{W40Kkeyword|MONSTERS}} or any other heavy without the {{W40Kkeyword|VEHICLE}} keyword.  In a big way, consider this the opposite of the Poison Weapons you're used to playing with.  One valid way to field Scourges is using Haywire squads to solve your vehicle problems while you use Poison everywhere else to solve all of your other problems, but be aware doing that largely means you won't have any good solutions for monsters, since most of the poisonous weapons you can field have terrible AP and many of them have terrible damage. 
****'''Blasters''' are quite expensive - nearly 1.5 times the cost of the elf carrying it - but avoid all of the above headaches: you can move and shoot with them at no penalty, they don't care about typing on the target, and they don't need to be closer than your Deep Strike distance for full functionality.  This ease of use is probably why they're such a popular choice as the default option for a heavy-hunting unit.
***'''Shredders and Splinter Cannons:''' Splinter Cannons now give more shots per point (3.7) than flat carbines (4) but give up being assault weapons for more shots at the same range. Shredders are also more efficient in terms of points per wound inflicted against GEQ, MEQ AND Light Vehicles, but give up 6” of range, leaving them vulnerable to Rapid Fire and being charged.  Both weapons are type sensitive, but the Shredder is worse - there are far more non-Infantry targets you can face than non-Vehicle - and while both weapons work at full functionality at minimum deep strike range, your Scourges are kind of terrible in melee, so you'd better off using the Cannons and just deep striking farther away to avoid being charged.
**'''Scourge Weapon Analysis - tl;dr Version:'''
***Your safest defaults are a Shardcarbine/Power Lance Solarite (pistols suck) with 4 Splinter Cannons for hunting light targets or 4 Blasters for hunting heavy targets.  Every other option you can take is more complex and requires more thought.