Not Now, I'm Busy

Dark Eldar

- The Kabal of the Red Death. Part 1.

 

The dust settled unevenly over the ashen ruins of Pasendora valley. The reports had been sketchy for the imperial guard detachment from Battle group Atlas as they followed the weakening signals of the settlements distress beacon. They knew they were looking for an Outlying commune of mostly monks, and there serfs, with a single Monastery overseen by a small collection of Adeptus Sororitas. What they found was nightmarish and obscene. Desecration not fit for the human eye. After some hours clearing the more disturbing reminders of the attack, the guardsmen prepared themselves for the hunt.

Last instalment I outlined some of the major changes to the Dark Eldar in 40k. Since then I have planned, themed and collected my first 1000 or so points of Dark Eldar goodness. Without the willpower to wait around for models to be painted, or tactics to be refined, I simply had to put these guys to the test against their oldest and most despised rivals, the imperium of man. So how did they fair?

Before we get to that let me first discuss with you how I began this journey from new codex, to the history, character and set up of The Kabal of the Red Death.

As I mentioned previously I take particular delight in the minute details that add real character to a force. Having lacked really in-depth background with my last Dark Eldar force this time around I had to have a truly unique and despicable army of unreasoning mayhem. Perhaps it was coincidence (or just a window into my inner Archon) that I was recently reading over some of my favourite tales of one Edgar Allen Poe. Whilst juggling between the new Codex and these tales, one caught my attention almost immediately, The Masque of the Red Death.

In this tale of woe and decay the land is ravaged by a plague that goes by the name of the Red Death. The entire population lives in fear of this stalking contagion that kills in minutes and horribly distorts the victim. While all this is going on a particularly callous Prince decides that instead of attempting to fight  this disease or to save his people, he will instead lock himself away in his palace, along with 1000 of his favourite friends and light hearted courtesans and leave the rest of the world to rot whilst enjoying parties and banquets and otherwise riding out the plague. Eventually as with all Poe tales the evil-doers get their just desserts when during a masquerade ball, the Red Death enters the palace in disguise and they all become doomed, locked inside with the horrible epidemic.

This was too good! It is well known even from the previous Codex that Dark Eldar have an all consuming dread of Slaanesh, the chaos god they themselves created through their debauchery and excess. This looming fear was quite similar to that of the Red Death. The character of the prince also rang true, a Deeply self-serving Aristocrat that cares nothing for his subjects. So that’s where It all started.

The Kabal of the Red Death is a Kabal by name alone. In reality it is one of the ancient houses of a Dynastic family that has survived the purging of Asdrubal Vect and his new insidious half blood Kabals. When the great Cataclysm came and the Evil one was born into life the Kabal of the Red death found a unique way of escaping destruction. Locking the gateways that pass between realms the Archon Prosidius and his court slunk away into the shadows. Safe behind their Castellated walls and collapsed webways they carry on in they same way they have for centuries. Grand banquets and festivities of debauchment and depravity beyond the comprehension of the upstart Kabals that now infest Commoragh. Masquerades and competitions echo through the halls accompanied by the screams of prisoners kept alive for hundreds of years by the twisted Archons Heamonculi servants.

Only rarely, on the night of the Red Death, when the crescendo of pain invigorates the Kabal to an unrestrainable bloodlust do they venture beyond the walls, into the realm of realspace to inflict their macabre entertainments on the creatures of the 41^st millennium. Tales are told of this mysterious Kabal in whispers in the highest circles of Commoragh. Of a palace where untold cruelty is served as an appetiser, and thousands of the most ancient Dark Eldar rub shoulders in an eternal feast. Most shy away from seeking it out, for once a Dark Eldar enters the Palace of Prosidius, there is no way out, save for the nights of the Red Death. Only the mandrakes know the secret of its location, and for whatever reason they guard it well, almost as closely as they guard the “guests” of the Archon, just in case the walls themselves aren’t enough. In fact the only guests with permission to come and go as they please are the Harlequin troupes. They frequent the Palace of Arhon Prosidius in their hundreds, nowhere can a larger collection of these mysterious Eldar be found, Drawn to the unending revelries of the Palace of the Red Death.  

It is rumoured that Asdrubal Vect himself has put a reward out in secret for the Dark Eldar who can find him the way into the palace, and finally cast his iron dominion over this insolent band of aristocratic despots, and their debased followers.

 

The Army.

So what does this mean for the Army list?

Firstly the Archon has to have a court. Although I wont be able to afford this straight away this is a must for the overall theme of decadence and aristocracy. It would also have a big unit of Harlequins and plenty of troops and transports. In fact no self respecting Aristocratic house would walk anywhere. Eventually the whole force will be mounted, plenty of Raiders and Venoms. Then fighters and bombers, Scorges and haemunculi, a real spare no expense statement. No wyches, not much room for arenas inside the palace, or jet bike tracks for that matter, so scratch those.

Incubi would feature as an official palace guard. Detached from the Archon himself, sort of keeping an eye on his revellers, making sure no ones has a change of heart about returning to the palace. Mandrakes would also feature, more or less as the UN-official palace guards.

A lot of this stuff would have to wait for now. For the first run of painting and games the army would look something like this.

ARCHON        -w/raider

INCUBI x 5    - same raider as archon

Warriors x10 -w/raider

Warriors x10 -w/raider

Harlequins x10

Ravager                                                                                                           Approx 1000pts

 

CONVERSIONS.

Well i wouldn’t really call them proper conversion, but considering the theme of the army i raided bits boxes everywhere for unique looking head gear. 

As raids from the warband happen only during the night of the Red Death, many of the warriors (or revellers) would still be donning their masquerade gear. There for i have put deamon prince and bloodletter heads on many of the warriors and sybarites to tie in with this theme. Stay tuned for my Archon of two heads in a later issue. 

 

 

So how did the Kabal of the Red Death go on its first venture into realspace for a Millenia?

 

Fail fail fail!

As much as I would love to expound the minutest details of my own brilliance at this point I am instead faced with a classical case of the downside of fielding heavily themed armies.

Just because they look and sound cool, doesn’t mean they will function in the face of the enemy. Game one my entire army was eradicated without causing a single casualty. What 40k army could possibly withstand a Dark Eldar onslaught without so much as a scratch you ask? Space marines? Chaos Space marines?

No, you read it right the first time, the squishy ranks of the imperial guard. I know I know, my Archon will surely be spending the next hundred years fighting off rivals to his power after that shameful display.  As much as id like to say that after learning their lesson the Dark Eldar picked themselves up and responded with utter carnage in the following games, sadly it was not meant to be. After suffering this initial humiliation in what was a “Slave raid” mission! My Kabal made back some ground winning a “Seize ground” mission, only to go down again in an “Attrition” game hours later. So that’s 2-1 imperials over the Kabal. So what went wrong?

First of all I have to give full credit to a gamer who did his research before the match. Nothing, and I mean Nothing! In the Imperial army was not designed solely for splattering Dark Eldar with holes. All imperial platoons were packed tight into large single squads for protection, and to deny pain tokens. Every heavy weapon was an auto cannon, about seven in total, plenty of shots for taking out raiders. (and that’s exactly what they did, on turn 1 or if I was lucky turn 2) Two Leman Russ’s equipped with large cover save negating nova guns that laid waste to my units running like crazy trying to make combat range.

Fault, if I can shift it to any one problem with the force rested squarely with the Harlequins, and one tiny little oversight on my part. Harlequins don’t have a transport entry in the Dark Eldar codex. Something I only discovered after I had already settled on a large unit of 10 with shadow seer costing me over 200pts. This massive drain on my resources was then seen each and every game jogging leisurely across no mans land being shot to pieces. Never (and I am NOT kidding!) making it to combat or even shuriken pistol range before either being wiped out, or some other faster Dark Eldar unit getting there first.

The points eaten up by this one squad could have given me a whole new transported warrior squad, or a couple of smaller squads to play with. The big fix for the immediate future will be to creation or purchase of Venom transports. This is what the Dark Eldar really needed. More targets for the enemy to worry about, more units getting into their lines and sowing death and confusion.

The real winners in these “practice” games were the Kabalite warriors. These guys hit their targets often and when they earned their pain tokens (and they earned them with most guard squads being at least 25-30 strong!) they became the bane of my opponents life. Hard to kill, impossible to slow  machines of death.

Note to self, more raiders, more warriors, and some Venoms!

 

 

Next time…….

Insight into wargear and upgrades (what worked what didn’t)

Paint scheme.

More games.