The anxiety about new Aeldari rules has slightly gone down, so it’s high time for the first tests! New Triumvirate, in fact, isn’t really powerful. But I still hope to find it a good use on the battlefield. Today we’ll build a roster for this Triumvirate.
We need note that there are some obligatory things about it: Craftworld Eldar don’t need the Triumvirate very much and feel comfortable themselves. So – we can only use Dark Eldar units for this roster. Maybe new rules will match well and improve this army. Also, it's 2500 pts army – Games Workshop are really into this size, which is obvious from the cost of new units and formation. It’s a funplay roster anyway, so, 2500 pts is quite OK.
We have to use new Reborn Warhost detachment, if we want (We want) to use benefits from the new Strength from Death special rule. It’s not convenient for Dark Eldar, since it’s almost usual CAD and doesn’t give 6 Fast attack choices like their own detachment. Also, we’ll take the Triumvirate formation, which leaves us 2000 pts for pure Dark Eldar. By the way, Triumvirate formation is nice – it grants makes friendly units fearless and improves its own regeneration by 1.
Let’s start with the main issue – Avatar of Ynnead comes out only after the death of a friendly unit. So, we need a unit, which can be sacrificed as soon as possible. Reaver jetbikes are perfect for it. They are cheap, they can get to your enemy’s deployment zone by the end of the 1st turn (You surely want the Avatar to come out close to the enemy). Also, you can save them if you want, just using their improved jink, or sacrifice all, avoiding it. Also, 6 bikes with 2 cluster mines can be quite threatening, so if your opponent decides to ignore them, he may lose some of his valuable units.
The whole army concept is about dying, so there’s a reason in taking a lot of similar units, which you won’t be afraid to loose. They should be effective, though. So, we take 2 squads of Blasterborns on Venoms and 2 squads of 10 Kabalites on Raiders with Splinter racks and Night shields – classical boats of death. If you lose one of them, the similar unit will be activated, so you don’t lose this shooting attack.
These squads are quite solid, since they have transports, and they are still quite valuable to loose, so we need something for a suicide squad – Scourges with Meltas (or Haywire stuff, if you like) will do great. They come via Deep Strike, destroy (or not) a tank, and then die activating the nearest unit. So, you’ll have to keep all your units close to each other to use this benefit as much as possible.
DE are traditionally bad in dealing with enemy’s vehicles, so, a couple of Ravagers with Dark lances will be great. Also, I always take planes – sometimes only they save me from being wiped out. Also, they make the enemy fear the blast markers and adjust his deployment to it. One Razorwing and one Voidraven is what you need. I’d take the second Razorwing, but there are no Fast attack slots left. Sure, you need to take lances and shields to both planes. Missiles depend on the situation.
We’ve almost filled in all the slots, and haven’t chosen a company for Visarch and Yvraine. It’s not an easy tack if you ask me. You can’t take Grotesques in this detachment. First I wanted to take Incubi (just imagine, how they’d look near Visarch), but then I had to choose effectiveness and Sslyts. They will greatly improve the durability of these T3 heroes and provide a lot of attacks (High AP isn’t needed since Triumvirate guys have a lot of it). Also, they provide a lot of shooting. 7 is enough. (And a Raider with shields, of course).
Also’ we’ll take an Archon on board. 2++ is always useful. Concerning his uselessness in comparison with the Triumvirate, you can freely allocate the deadliest wounds at him. Also, you can take an armor with -2 to Leadership, so that Visarch’s ability would be more effective – enemies will always pass maximum 8th LD. Ynnary artefacts are useless if you ask me. The lost Shroud is fun, but a good save is needed more here.
So, what do we have? Classical mobile DE roster, but adjusted to maximise the effectiveness of the new Triumvirate. Besides, you can easily lose any (except for the death star) unit for activating another one. You have effective ways to fight infantry, vehicles, planes, and even to do some magic. Let’s wait for the test!
