Looking Toward 6th Edition

Not my plane. Taken from glaven.net.

Well, 6th edition 40k is here, and people are extolling its virtues left and right. Pre-measuring is in, fliers fly, and you can shoot at charging enemies. All that sounds cool and all, but what does it mean for my Dark Eldar?

I've been doing some pondering, and it has led me to a few conclusions.

First of all, I am afraid of fliers. Only being able to use snap fire to engage areal threats with my current army just seems a little sub-optimal. I'd have to dedicate pretty much every lance in my army to taking the thing down, and that seems like a bad idea. The alternative is to totally disregard the threat, which seems like a worse idea. Because of this it seems that one of my Ravagers will have to be removed from my army in favor of... Well, if you paid attention to the image up top it's pretty obvious- a Razorwing. I'm not quite sure as to the exact configuration of its weapons (do I go with a Splinter Cannon or a Night Shield?) but I am sure that I need a flier. Especially with a Stormraven kicking around Demitra's home somewhere.
Yes, I could use an Aegis Defense Line, but that's just so.. un-fluffy. I may not be a fluff Nazi, but I'm not going to go that far.

Second is that Dark Eldar were, have been, and always will be a harassing, evasive, mechanized army. I've seen players attempt to run their armies on foot, and that's just not going to work. They're fragile in melee, and now that they've lost the ability to run a true Webway Portal army to save them once they get up close, they need to play keep-away even more. I knew I was getting into a finesse army when I started buying these models, and I'm not upset that we remain fragile. It's the Dark Eldar thing. I'm a tiny bit miffed that they can be glanced out of the air now, but it's not all that far of from the days of 3rd and 4th edition where a glancing 6 would knock your transports out of the sky. Sure, now it's pretty much a given that small arms fire will knock your ride down, but you can pre-measure distances now, and with that up your sleeve you should be able to keep the enemy at arm's length until you swoop in for the killing blow.
This is not a Footdar army. We don't have Aspect Warriors to save our infantry (who have bad armor saves and poor leadership). Sure there are some backups (Beast packs, Grotesques), but they cannot be relied on. Keep moving, and if a squad gets downed, leave it for dead. Keep in the Dark Eldar mindset- kill them all, those too weak to survive are just as well dead.

Finally, and related to my last thought is this; table your opponent. You want him to have no models left on the board at the end of the game. This assures you a win, and is really quite fluffy. Ignore those silly objectives. You're here to inflict as much pain as possible. Do it.

Any way, those are my thoughts on how Dark Eldar will transition to 6th edition. I;m sure that there are much more wizened generals that myself who will cry foul at my tactics, and I will admit that this is based entirely on my loose understanding as to how the new 40k works. For now however I will focus on running my army throughout these last few months of 5th edition that Demitra and I will play.

Maybe Dust Warfare too.