Blog Wars 3 Dark Eldar Army List Ideas

As any of you who read From the Fang will know, I'm planning on taking Dark Eldar to Blog Wars 3. My only other tournament experience with DE was the Summer Skirmish where I came away with the "Golden Spoon". I think that pretty much sums that up!

When you look around the internet there are plenty of DE tournament lists out there and they mostly revolve around venom-spam backed up by the usual trio of ravagers. If I were to go down this route I'd take something like the list that Venerable from Sons of Sanguinius took to the original Blog Wars (and won!).

However, I'm never a fan of what the internet tells me I should like (yes, I can see the irony in writing this on a blog). Venoms are great, awesome in fact, but I simply wouldn't enjoy playing a spammy army like that (sorry Andy). I like to try something a bit unconventional. When your opponent sees they're facing a DE player they'll be ready for venom-spam and then you drop something totally different down. I don't think you can get more different than a webway list. I'll talk about webways and their pros/cons in a later post but for now let's try and make a list that works.

Well firstly this is Blog Wars so I have to have a special character. I have to say I like most of the characters in the book but there are a couple that stand out. The most obvious choice here is Baron Sathonyx. I'm going to want some hellions in my list so why not make them troops and have them with Stealth and super hit and run.

Next we need some haemonculi. They're the best way to get webways as you can have two webways for 170pts. The haemonculi are fairly expendible too which is handy since they're just going to sit there for a turn. Archons are obviously a lot hardier but I'd only get one portal that way and frankly they're too pricey to sit doing nothing for a turn. They'll need a venom each too and since we're blasting forward into the enemy's face why not give them some trueborn and get their blasters up close and personal early on.

Now we need a core of troops. Kabalites won't be as useful coming out of a webway so I think it's got to be wyches all the way. Why not take advantage of the ability to have larger squads and take 3 lots of 12 with haywires and hekatrix with an agoniser.

A unit I'm starting to like a lot are incubi. They seem perfect for a webway list to me with some survivability and fleet to help them get into the enemy's face. They'll make a mess of most marine squads before they even take hits back (more on them later).


Finally, we'll throw in the obligatory 3 ravagers with flickerfields to pop open some tin cans. Here's what we've got then:

1,748pts of Dark Eldar
Baron Sathonyx
2x Haemonculi (webways)

2x 3 Blaster Trueborn (Venom w/ cannons each)
5 Incubi (Klaivex w/ demiklaves)

9 Hellions
3x 12 Wyches (haywires, hekatrix w/ agoniser)

3x Ravagers (flickerfields)

So there we go. Webway nastiness. It's a pretty straightforward army to play. Blast the venoms 12" first turn, haemonculi get out and drop the webway leaving the trueborn inside with a pain token. Ravagers do their thing and try to blow up a few vehicles. Your opponent now probably shoots the shit out of these few units and then the fun begins turn 2.

It's by no means a perfect list and I'm certainly not finished testing and modifying it. It definitely ticks the fun box for me though. I love the look on your opponents face when they realise they're not far enough away from the webway like they thought they were!

My biggest problem with the list at the moment is that I don't like the obligatory ravagers. They often struggle to take out vehicles and die pretty quickly anyway. Not only that but I like the idea of just deploying two venoms and having everything else come out of the portals. I'll have to explore some alternatives but I'll stick with them for the moment.

Dark Eldar Units - Beastmasters

As I'm never a fan of following the crowd with my armies, instead preferring to try something different and prove it can be successful, I don't want to run a Venom-spam DE army at Blog Wars 3. The other popular option is a ton of raiders and, whilst I've had some success with that kind of army, it doesn't really feel very different. Therefore I'm keen to run a dual-webway list. The ideal situation would be that the only units that start on the table are the two venoms with the webway droppers.

This leads me to consider the options available to me for nasty stuff to come out of the portals. Now I'm going to discuss the more obvious choices in later articles but I've never really considered Beastmasters before. I find the best way to figure out what I think about a unit is to write a post about it so here goes.

I think the most important thing to look at when considering any unit choice is what it's competing with in its FOC slot. In this case we're talking Hellions, Reavers and Scourges. All of which are excellent units with some nasty weapons/powers. Therefore if I'm going to take beastmasters then they've got to be better than any of the above.

At 12 points each the beastmasters are pretty cheap but slightly cheaper than a hellion. The basic beastmaster has the same statline as a hellion and rides a board with the usual underslung splinter pod. The difference is that his board allows him to move 6", fleet D6" and charge 12" like a Beast. Other than that the beastmasters are pretty poor. They have a single attack and without an additional CC weapon they'll only get 2 on the charge. Not going to scare much with S3 and no combat drugs are they?

One beastmaster per unit has the option of a special CC weapon but frankly with a single attack it's a total waste of points.

Obviously the point of taking beastmasters is for to enable us to use the beasts themselves. Let's take a look at them then. It's worth noting that each beastmaster can only take one kind of beast i.e. you have to have more than one if you want both razorwings and khymerae.

Khymerae
At 12pts each they're the cheapest of the three beasts and put out a decent number of attacks (3 base). They have a reasonable statline most notably S4 (unlike a lot of DE units) and I6 makes them a reasonable CC prospect.

However, the reason people will want them in their unit is the 4++ save. Other than this they aren't very durable with T3 and a single wound but as an ablative wound for the other beasts they do their job nicely. Couple that with an adequate combat performance and they're looking pretty decent. You can take up to 5 of them per beastmaster and that'll only cost you 72pts including their controller.

Clawed Fiend
By far the most expensive of the three at 40pts they're going to have to be decent to justify the expense. You can only take one per beastmaster as well. They're pretty hardy with T5 and 4 wounds but with a 6+ save their sure to work through them quickly. They have I5, S5 and 4 attacks base so they're no slouch in combat.

Sound pretty good right? Well not exactly. Against MEQ they might score a reasonable number of wounds but they're just regular attacks so you'll be lucky if they kill a single marine per phase.

The main problem with them however is that everything else in the unit gimps them. Since shooting and combat attacks roll to wound against a majority toughness they'll spend most of the game at T3. That 6+ save and 4 wounds really isn't looking that good anymore and for the same price you can have 3 khymerae with points to spare!

Razorwing Flocks
Not much more than the Khymerae at 15pts but you can only take two per Beastmaster. Are they any good though? Well they're fairly flimsy with 5 wounds but 6+ save and T3 means instant death aplenty. They're nasty on the charge though with 6 attacks that, despite only being S3 are still good thanks to Rending. This means at least one MEQ killed per flock.

When you consider the average toughness thing, each base of razors is as durable as a Clawed Fiend too!

Unit Composition
So for the reasons above I'm not interested in the Clawed Fiend (that's £13.80 saved!). This means I'd like some combination of Razorwings and Khymerae. What we're aiming to do is create a durable unit that will worry units of marines (as that's going to be your most common enemy anyway). As I'll discuss in later posts, we don't really want to wipe out our opponent in one phase of combat but rather two phases meaning we come out of CC before our next turn. Therefore I don't think there's much benefit in having a massive unit. Here's what I'm thinking:

2 Beastmasters each with 2 razorwing flocks - 42pts x 2 = 84pts
2 Beastmasters each with 4 Khymerae = 60pts x 2 = 120 pts

That gives us 204pts in total. Far from cheap but let's see what we've got for our points. We're basing this on a webway list remember. We appear from the webway, move the maximum 6" and in the shooting phase we'll put out 8 poisoned (4+) shots. Then we'll make the most of our 12" charge and put out 8 S3 and 32 S4 attacks at I6 from the beastmaster and khymerae respectively. Then at I5 we'll throw out another 24 S3 Rending attacks from the razors. 64 attacks and around 13 wounds on MEQ! That's nasty in anyone's book. Funnily enough that's the same as 200pts of untooled wyches but we trade their invulnerable saves for Rending here. You could cut the unit in half or split it into two smaller units to make it more economical but I like the idea of a horrible torrent of attacks that's hard to shift.

Alternatively, focussing on the razorwings and taking 3 x 2 of them and only 4 Khymerae would cost 186pts. Not much of a saving but it's a choice between offensive power and defensive saves I suppose.

An interesting prospect then. Coming back to my earlier point though, what do they offer that makes them better than Hellions/Reavers/Scourges? Well frankly they're a different unit to Reavers and Scourges who are more about the shooting and they actually make a nice complement to the Hellions.What they lose out on in shooting to Hellions they gain in the sheer number of attacks. Couple this with a maximum effective range of 24" and they seem pretty fun to me. The synergy between razors and khymerae is nice too. You can stick the saves on the 4++ and still maintain the flurry of rending attacks should you fail some.

Let's be critical though. Are they really doing anything that other parts of your army can't do better? The most obvious problem for them, particularly coming out of a webway, is that they lack grenades. You're going to rely on high initiative to thin out your opponent before he hits back so pick targets in the open if possible. Only the beastmasters benefit from Pain Tokens and as such FNP etc. This means other units will be more survivable long term. The major issue for me though is the monetary cost. Assuming we don't do any funky conversions or our own casting that unit is rather steep. At GW prices it's a whopping £135.20 for the genuine models, even with 25% off at Dark Sphere etc that's still over £100 for a single unit. That's around a third of the amount I've spent on the rest of my army!

What can we do to minimise costs then? Well for starters convert up your beastmasters from a box of hellions £15.50 for 5 is much cheaper than £7.70 each. The beasts are a little less obvious though.

Maybe Dark Elf Cold Ones from Fantasy without the riders could pass as Khymerae. A couple of boxes would be £37 not £61.60 like 8 genuine Khymerae. Perhaps even Vampire Count Dire Wolves since you get 10 for £15.50. For the Razorwings how about these cut up and shoved on flying stands?

Either way they're going to be a big time/money investment for the unit and sadly that has to be a consideration for whether I'll use them or not. The plan for now is to proxy some stuff (I'm thinking scarabs as razors, fen wolves/kroot hounds as khymerae and hellions as beastmasters) and give them a whirl.

Conclusion
With a maximum of 24" threat range from a webway they'll be able to strike out at most of the board assuming decent WWP deployment. They put out a nasty number of attacks (averaging 4 per model) with some Rending thrown in for good measure and have some survivability from the 4++ saves. They could be effective in two smaller squads but durability becomes an issue from massed S6+ fire. Assuming you can manage the incoming shots/attacks well your opponent has to chew through 32 wounds!

Ultimately though I'm not sure how they'll fit into my army. I'm a big fan of my wyches and my hellions to do combat for me so I can't see me using Beastmasters very much. That being said I'm going to give them a chance in some games and make a decision after that.

Writing this post has certainly given me a lot to think about though. I think they'd be a nasty surprise for any unprepared opponent but you've got to get them out of their transports first and hope they aren't in cover! I mean the unit could easily glance a vehicle to death (or even a cheeky penetrating hit from Rending) but I'm not so sure it could survive the angry occupants and their friends for long!

Rules Question - Power from Pain - Fearless

Dave and I played a 2K battle yesterday and something interesting cropped up. I've been testing out webway portal lists with my Dark Eldar with a fair deal of success. I'm hopefully going to take them to Blog Wars 3 once I've had a bit more practice and got them all painted up. Anyway, my wyches were cutting into Dave's Tau (well mine that he was using) and one wych squad had managed to gain two pain tokens. However, the sheer weight of Tau shooting severly dwindled their numbers and eventually they fell below 50%, failed a morale test and started running.

All pretty normal so far. Anyway, a nearby Cronos (which are awesome by the way - more on them later) opened up with it's spirit probe (AP3 flamer) and killed a nearby Tau unit. This generates a Pain Token and I thought "can I give this to those wyches to make them Fearless?". After a brief discussion we decided that since they were now Fearless they were no longer running and could immediately regroup.

Do you agree with this? I personally think it isn't unreasonable. If the wyches had greater numbers and were shooting at a unit as they fell back they could potentially kill it and gain themselves a pain token making them Fearless (assuming they had 2 already).

The question is, does it instantly regroup them? Does it regroup them at all? I mean this is obviously assuming that there are no enemies within 6". I checked out the GW FAQ but of course this was no help at all and I can't find a discussion about it on the net so I thought I'd post it up. The only other example I can think of is when a unit of craftworld Eldar is falling back and comes into range of an avatar which automatically regroups them. To quote the Eldar FAQ:

"Q. If an Eldar unit finishes its fall back move within 12" of a friendly Avatar (or he moves within 12" of a unit that is falling back), does the unit immediately regroup?

A. Yes, the unit immediately regroups, just like a unit that is assaulted when falling back (this means that it ignores regrouping restrictions and it does not move the usual 3”). Also note that regrouping as described above is the only thing that the unit can do in that phase."

It's a very similar circumstance. In my opinion the unit gets to immediately regroup and therefore will act as normal next turn (assuming it doesn't get broken again in the enemy's turn). I think, considering how ridiculous the rules are with Space Marine regrouping this just goes some way to helping the xenos out! Let's face it it's a pretty rare scenario.

What do people think? Should we have played it differently?

Am I missing something?

I've often found when shopping on eBay that people seem to be completely unaware of what things are worth! They regularly bid on auctions of GW stuff and end up paying more than their FLGS or sometimes even direct from GW!!

Certain items sell better than others and rare or limited edition things often fetch far more than they're worth. A good example of this are the Games Day miniatures which would be difficult to get hold of from anywhere but eBay (or the event itself of course). Fair enough, there's been some great miniatures like the Space Wolves Wolf Priest and some now extinct models like the 13th Company Wulfen squad.

However, sometimes people on eBay are just plain retarded! When GW released all the new Dark Eldar miniatures they produced a limited edition Webway Portal template. I can't remember exactly what they charged but it was something like £7.50 for what's basically a bit of tin with a nice design on it. These regularly fetch £10-15 on eBay. I've recently bought one at this price because frankly I just wish I'd got one at the time! Whilst watching a few items I saw this:

Seriously who would pay £31 each for them? I can understand people get carried away when bidding but really £62 for two?? I never cease to be surprised by the stupidity of some eBayers!! I'll get back to posting normal things soon but I had to share this!

Dark Eldar Units - Wracks

Moving onto the elites section of the DE codex brings us to the Wracks. These twisted creations of the Haemonculi can also be taken as troops in an army that includes their masters. They make pretty sturdy objective holders in this role too.

The Basics 
The main difference between Wracks and your standard DE infantry is that they're toughness 4. This already makes them more durable than other units but they also start the game with a pain token and hence Feel No Pain. Stick them in some decent cover and they'll be hard to shift at range. Charge them and find yourself coming up against poisoned weaponry that can bring down the toughest opponents. They aren't however, as durable in combat as Wychs since, despite their T4, they have no invulnerable save, just their 6+ armour save (and FNP) and are only initiative 4.

Weaponry
Their basic armament is a pair of poisoned (4+) close combat weapons. This means they need to be in combat to cause any damage and their lack of fleet might make this a challenge. The Acothyst can take a variety of nasty weapons though. He also has an extra attack and boosts them to Ld 9.

Options
Liquifier gun - essentially a flamer but with a random AP value determined each time it fires. Can be pretty nasty but you'll an attack to have one.

Acothyst options:

Stinger pistol - just a poisoned (2+) pistol, isn't really going to add much
Venom blade - cheap but since you're already poisoned (4+) there's probably better things to spend 5pts on
Mindphase gauntlet - lose your poisoned (4+) for a chance to stop an IC/MC from attacking isn't worth it in my opinion
Hexrifle - could be a nice MC kill but you'll sacrifice an attack for the rare chance you'll get to use it, expensive for what it does
Scissorhand - good but pretty expensive, if you have the spare points then feel free
Flesh gauntlet - cause instant death for 20pts, could be devastating at the right point
Agoniser - 20pts seems over priced for a power weapon when you're already poisoned (4+)
Electrocorrosive whip - expensive and very situational

Sample Loadout
The main problem with Wracks is their compartively low initiative. You'll be going at the same time as Space Marines and any power weapons will really hurt you. Against normal attacks 6+ then 4+ FNP is actually almost as good as power armour but you don't really have an edge on them. To solve this you really need that second pain token and hence Furious Charge. To my mind the best way of doing this is by taking an Haemonculus (you'll want one anyway to make Wracks into Troops). By having an Haemonculus in the squad you'll get I5 and S4 on the charge. Doesn't sound all that exciting until you realise that at S4 you'll now get to re-roll to wound with your poisoned attacks.


4 Wracks, Haemonculus w/ Liquifier Gun in a Venom with extra Splinter Cannon - 165pts

I really don't think the Acothyst is worth it as his upgrades mostly detract from the basic weapons he has. Potentially a stinger pistol is a cheap upgrade that doesn't hamper him but realistically the points are better spent elsewhere. By taking the Liquifier Gun on the Haemonculus you aren't losing an attack (he has extra arms or something meaning you don't replace a weapon to take it) and I think it's a nice weapon for those times when you roll low for it's AP and kill off some terminators. For another 5pts you could give the Haemo an Animus Vitae so he'll quickly make the unit Fearless. If you're feeling really generous throw on an Agoniser to make up for his low strength but remember you can't use both at once (see FAQ). Since you can take 3 Haemonculi per HQ slot you could potentially have 6 of these squads (thought I can't recommend it.

How to get the best out of them
Bear in mind at all times that these guys haven't got fleet like the majority of your army. This means you'll need to blast those Venoms the full 24" in the first turn to get them into the fight and give the vehicle a 4+ cover save. In the subsequent turns the Venom moves 6" the Wracks get out close enough to charge. The Haemonculus liquifies a few (hopefully) and then the Venom lets rip with 12 poisoned (4+) shots before the Wracks charge in to finish them off at initiative 5. If they win out in combat they'll be Fearless so they'll take a turn of shooting before hopefully mounting back up in the Venom to rinse and repeat. Swoop them onto objectives late on to really upset your opponent.

They can easily deal with hefty monstrous creatures as well so don't be scared to charge them at a Carnifex and force a lot of armour saves. Just remember if you haven't softened them up first they'll have no problems bringing your Wracks down when they attack back.

If you don't want to take the Haemonculus then a 10 man unit staying back as an objective holder is a fairly solid choice. In this case take an Acothyst for Ld 9 and give him a Hexrifle for some cheeky kills. They'll be pretty hard to shift.

Bringing the Hurt - Using Power from Pain Effectively

If you're starting out with a Dark Eldar army there's one rule in particular you need to get to grips with, Power from Pain. It's a pretty simple mechanic, kill a unit and get a pain token giving you a bonus special rule. The first token gives you Feel No Pain, the second Furious Charge and the third Fearless. There aren't any further benefits for getting 4+ pain tokens and to be honest in most games you'll struggle to get that many anyway. This process is vital to the success of your Dark Eldar army so understanding how to get the most of it is crucial. The vast majority of DE units have the Power from Pain rule with the only exceptions being Harlequins and the creatures controlled by the Beastmaster. Remember that you don't get a token for killing a vehicle though.

Sharing the Pain
Whilst the most obvious way to get a pain token is to kill an enemy unit there's also the option of the units which start with a pain token namely Haemonculi, Wracks, Grotesques, etc. Whilst you might not consider taking these units in your army (though you really should), they benefit from Sharing the Pain which is described in the codex. Essentially if a unit has a pain token or tokens it can join another unit which then gains the benefit of the token(s). The most obvious example of this is the Haemoculus as an independent character. Sharing the Pain means that when the character leaves the unit you can choose who is left with the pain token(s). You must split them equally if possible but in the case where there's only a single token it's your choice who gets it.

This means that, for example, you could start the game with an Haemonculus attached to a unit of Hellions or Reavers and then in your first movement phase the Haemonculus leaves the unit but doesn't take his token with him. Now I'll be honest, it's a bit of an underhand way of giving a unit a pain token but it's a perfectly legal game mechanic. The benefits of a unit, which might struggle to get a token in the course of the game, having one from the outset are huge. Reavers for example gain a 3+ invulnerable save when they Turbo Boost and with a pain token courtesy of an Haemonculus they'll get FNP on their failed saves. That's gonna make them pretty hard to bring down and they're still using their bladevanes/caltrops to hurt the enemy.

Masters of Pain
As I've mentioned some units already start the game with a pain token. Combining these units can make for some devastating results. Wracks led by an Haemonculus will have both Feel No Pain and Furious Charge. Might not sound that impressive but it can really make the difference since they're armed with a pair of poisoned (4+) weapons and only have initiative 4. Furious Charge means that they'll be getting the first hits against those pesky Space Marines and since they'll be S4 on the charge they'll be able to re-roll to wound with their poisoned attacks. This more than makes up for their limited number of attacks. It's then pretty straightforward to get them a 3rd token and make them a nice Fearless objective holding unit!

Grotesques can be similarly devastating when joined by an Haemonculus. S6 on the charge and I5 will help them make light work of most units. They're also toughness 5 with 3 wounds and Feel No Pain so they're by no means easy to bring down.

The Haemonculus can also take an Animus Vitae. This allows him to gain pain tokens with ease. Basically if he kills at least one model (including vehicles) in combat he can take a leadership test to give him a bonus pain token. Bear in mind, however, that he can't use this AND an agoniser so it's only his basic attacks that count. Still worth it for 5 points I reckon.

The Cronos Parasite Engine is also a great source of tokens. If his Spirit Syphon, which is basically and AP3 flamer, kills a model (quite likely) then a unit within 12" gains a pain token. This means you'll want him pretty central in your army and hopefully. You could go overboard and give him a Spirit Probe and Spirit Vortex and gain several tokens per turn!

First Things First
As I've mentioned the first token is the most important. As a Dark Eldar player its important to learn where you can gain an easy token straight off. Try and pick on a small squishy unit initially and then you'll be better equipped to deal with the heavier stuff. When charging a unit with an independent character try and kill them first to give you a pain token for the rest of the combat.

Timing the Agony
Whilst it's obvious that you'll want to get that first pain token as quickly as possible, understanding when to get the subsequent ones isn't as simple as you might think. This is particularly important for Wyches. You'll often find yourself in combat with multiple units or units that are joined by an indepent character. You might think it's important to kill off that character ASAP and get another token. This may be true if you haven't got one already but if you have I suggest ignoring the character. Obviously it depends who they are but most of them don't have a huge number of attacks and they rely of power weapons to do their damage. Couple this with the fact that a lot of them have invulnerable saves and you're really better off killing his unit before you deal with him. They're the ones who are going to be forcing the most saves from you and chances are they're easier to kill off. I hope that makes sense.

Basically, if you're confident of winning the combat and you already have a pain token for FNP then kill the squad before the character. If you're already engaged then Furious Charge is of no benefit. Deciding on the biggest threat is important in combat. Obviously the exceptions to this are ICs with a crapload of attacks and those pesky Sanguinary Priests. In their case I'd introduce them to an agoniser early on.

Conclusion
Whilst it's by no means a complicated system, using it to full effect can be the difference when using Dark Eldar. Don't forget to give your units their tokens when they kill something as your opponent isn't likely to remind you. Make the most of units which get a pain token from the outset and units/weaponry that can help you gain tokens faster.

Dark Eldar Units - Kabalite Warriors

Kabalites are one of only two (standard) options for troops in the DE codex along with Wyches. It's pretty fair to summarise them as the shooting unit to complement they combat prowess of the Wyches.

The Basics

Considering their statline I reckon 9 pts is pretty cheap. For that you get BS/WS 4, S3, T3, W1, I5, A1, Ld8 and a 5+ save. When you compare that to their Eldar equivalent, the guardian, and for an extra point you get a much better statline. What's more is that these benefit from the Power from Pain system (which I'll cover in more detail in a separate post). They also have night vision for the rare occasion that it's useful!

Weaponry

Their basic weapon is the splinter rifle which is essentially a boltgun but with 4+ poisoned instead of strength 4. Whilst this is an advantage against high toughness, particularly MCs, it does mean that you won't be glancing AV10 and given your S3 you won't be doing it in the assault phase either. Mind you that isn't what the kabalites are designed to do. You get a number of options so I'll summarise them and say what I think:

Options

Shredder - not bad anti-infantry for 5pts but small blasts aren't reliable

Blaster - great anti-tank weapon and good to add some more darklight weapons to your army

Splinter cannon - brilliant anti infantry with 2 fire modes giving you a maximum of 6 shots when stationary

Dark lance - great anti-tank weapon but expensive and limits your mobility (more on that shortly)

Sybarite options:

Ghostplate armour - not really worth it since it's only slight better than your standard armour

Phantasm grenade launcher - expensive but defensive grenades could come in handy for holding objectives

Blast pistol - expensive but adds more anti-tank

Venom blade - cheap but doesn't really add much

Power weapon - only 10 pts so perhaps worth it if you've got some to spare

Agoniser - brilliant but pretty costly for a unit that won't be assaulting as it's primary goal

Loadouts

As far as I'm concerned I think Kabalites should ALWAYS be given a raider. Venoms aren't really suitable as 5 man squads aren't going to achieve much (you'd be better with 5 wyches). Given that a raider is open-topped you can advance towards an objective firing at full capacity. I'm planning on taking my kabalites in the following loadout:

10 Kabalite Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider (Disintegrator Cannon, Flickerfield & Splinter Racks) - 180pts

I wouldn't bother with the Sybarite. The agoniser is nasty if you get caught in combat but it's unlikely to save you. Keep things nice and simple. These kabalites are anti-troop monsters. Swooping into 12" range they'll put out 22 4+ poisoned shots, that means 7 wounds (give or take) with the raider adding 3 S5 AP2 shots into the mix. The splinter racks should boost the wound total to nearer 10.

You might want to leave the dark lance on the raider and throw in a blaster for some anti tank but to be honest there are better anti-tank units in the codex and you're turning into jack of all trades but master of none. I'll discuss vehicles options in a separate post though.

How to get the best out of them

It's pretty easy to find space for a handful of these squads in any army list and although the transports won't last long the occupants are pretty reliable, cheap and with the addition of a pain token, and hence FNP, they make great objective holders. All in all they're pretty decent and unless you're going pure Wych cult I'd throw a couple of these in.

Try and keep the raiders moving as quickly as possible. If you're not going to be in range to get a good volley of shots off then consider moving it 18" or more to get your 4+ cover save. These guys aren't awful in combat since they're initiative 5 but with only 2 attacks each and S3 you need to be sure you're going to finish off a unit with a charge. Remember their splinter rifles are Rapid Fire so don't get out of your transport if you can help it as you aren't likely to be assaulting.

When using them as objective holders you obviously want to make sure you've found some decent cover. Try and kill a soft unit early to get a pain token and FNP will help keep them alive. Realistically I think most people will go with wyches instead of these guys purely for the 4+ invulnerable save in combat but there's definitely a place for them in your force.

Don't forget their 4+ poisoned shots are great for bringing down high toughness targets. They've got a very good chance of killing monstrous creatures and characters like Mephiston with sheer weight of fire. Combine a couple of raiders worth of warriors and their firepower can easily bring down an entire unit or at least significantly thin one out.