DE: Is Black Heart The Best Kabal?

By Lawrence King | June 7th, 2018 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Dark Eldar Drukhari, Tactics

Think you’ve got everything you could want in your Dark Eldar list? HERO’s gaming blog is here to tell us why Black Heart might just be the best Kabal.

That’s right folks, you heard it here first. While I was deep in Flayed Skull in the beginning of all the rumors and previews, but now I think I might be some kind of Black Heart convert. OK, hear me out, I can justify it I think.

Here is my reasoning:

The 6+++ bonus literally affects everything, from flesh to metal, right from the get-go to the rest of the game. You always have it.
You don’t need additional Archon tax to access the best Strategems, Warlord traits and artifacts in the book. Instead of paying Archon tax, you’re one step closer to buying a Warrior unit in a Venom.
With the improvement to our weapons, our damage certainly went up for the points. However, one thing remains unchanged and that’s our durability. Spirit Stones on everything will help keep our important pieces alive longer so we don’t attrition as hard.
The Living Muse artifact makes that one Archon the single biggest damage amplifier in the codex (gives all Black Heart units within 6″ of the Warlord re-roll 1s to Wound). It affects every weapon type and is super good, but you have to walk around like a baller.
And they have the strat (Agents of Vect) that lets you turn off someone else’s. Potentially game breaking at this point as well.

Just one little note about Writ of the Living Muse: It’s a huge damage amplifier but keeping everything that I can within 6″ of the damn Archon might be a huge challenge. It also makes that particular HQ a huge pain in everyone’s butt and everyone is going to be gunning for him. However, I’ll just have to play him well and use all the long-range firepower that I have to really deliver some results in the opening phases of the game. Otherwise, I’m kind of screwed!

Now when I look back at Flayed Skull, I think that the 3″ extra move is the single best bonus it provides. The re-roll 1s for Rapid Fire only really kick in with Splinter Rifles and if I’m not taking many Venoms or Warriors double-tapping, I’m not getting the best out of it. The ignore cover part is also really nice since there’s always some crap out there like CW Rangers, but I’ve been thinking back to all the 8th games where cover was game-changing. Can’t really think of times where it decided the game if I’m to be honest.

With that being said, I could argue that Agents of Vect and Labyrinthine Cunning was enough to win me over, but the sustained durability of all our units really did it for me. Not paying additional Archon tax means that I can fit in more units and I think my next game will be full Kabal of the Black Heart.

Case in point, I’m going to roll with this in my game this week:

2000 // 7 CP
Black Heart Battalion +3 CP

HQ:
Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91
Archon, VB, Blaster = 89

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
Venom = 65
112

5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
132

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

HEAVY:
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125

+++

Black Heart Air Wing +1 CP

FLYER:
Razorwing, 2x Dinsintegrators = 135
Razorwing, 2x Dinsintegrators = 135
Razorwing, 2x Dinsintegrators = 135

>>>

Firepower:
15 Disintegrators at BS3+
9 Dark Lances at BS3+
10 Blasters at BS3+
2 Blasters at BS2+
1 Splinter Cannon at BS3+
44 Splinter Rifles at BS3+
3 Razorwing Missiles at BS3+

If you look at the firepower arrangement of this list compared to the other ones I’ve poured out over the last couple of days, I think this is the most optimized and most balanced. I got my command Raider where my Archons can go chill and I’m able to fit an extra Venom in there due to the points gained from not having a third detachment.

This also allowed me to take 4x full gunboats instead of the previous 3 while still having my 3/3 ratio of Ravagers and Razorwings.

I think tomorrow, I’ll talk about shoving Wyches into someone’s face at the start of the game because why not. It only costs 160 points for 20 of them and Succubi are much cheaper now!