Dark Eldar Warrior
From Lexicanum
| Part of a series on the: Dark Eldar Kabal Hierarchy |
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The Warrior is the basic soldier of a Dark Eldar Kabal. They make up the vast majority of the soldiers in a Kabal, and perform any and all tasks too important to leave to the slaves.
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Background
Origin
The innate danger of simply living in Commorragh gives its citizens training as warriors from birth, their entire lives a constant fight for survival leaving even women and children just as technically capable in armed combat as a Space Marine. Because of this, and because of the need for some form of a safe haven even just to sleep at, almost all citizens of Commorragh are Warriors in a Kabal. The small fraction left make up the Wych Cults, Incubus and Haemonculus sects.
The leader of a squad of Warriors is given the title Sybarite. Like all other ranks Dark Eldar can achieve, the Sybarite is simply the best warrior in the squad, and new Sybarites are decided by warriors of a squad killing their superior officer in order to take their title.
Combat Use
Dark Eldar Warriors are frequently dispatched in large groups of fifteen to twenty soldiers including Sybarite. This way they have the best chance of survival against smaller, but more heavily armored enemies such as Space Marines, allowing them to drown targets in Splinter fire or team up on enemies to ensure quick resolution to melee combat.
Raider Squads
Some Kabals perfer to send smaller groups of five to ten Warriors per squad, then assigning them a Raider transport in order to make them even quicker at traversing a battlefield, giving their enemies as little time to react to the situation as possible, thus increasing and exploiting even the tiniest flaws in their defensive strategies. Only larger Kabals are able to afford the number of Raiders necessary for this technique.
Lord Retinue
Kabals that are unable to afford Incubi, or do not wish to hire them for whatever reason, frequently assign squads of Warriors as bodyguards to Archons/Dracons.
Equipment
The Warriors of Commorragh, like the vast majority of Dark Eldar troops, focus more on speed and strength than they do on defense. This fact is reflected in their equipment
Weapons
Standard issue weaponry for Warriors is a Splinter Rifle. They're trained with a variety of weapons, however, in the event that their Archon/Dracon chooses to assign different weapons to their squad. These weapons are:
- Splinter Cannon - An even more rapid-fire version of the Splinter Rifle, equipped with a semi-fluid stabilizer system to negate recoil.
- Dark Lance - A heavy anti-vehicle weapon, which fires a beam of dark matter at its target, tearing through armor and vaporizing soldiers
- Shredder - A small pistol-sized device that launches monomolecular barbed wire nets at its target, digging into groups of enemies with well-aimed shots
- Blaster - A more compact version of a Dark Lance. Due to the reduced size, the accelerator mechanism is less effective, reducing the overall range of the weapon, though the devastating effects are the same.
Armour
due to the Dark Eldar's desire for speed and dexterity over defensibility, their armour is a thin, light-weight flexible bodysuit, pressurized to allow Warriors to traverse the vacuum of space. Just like standard-issue Eldar suits, they respond to neural impulses from their wearer and harden on command, allowing for the Warriors to shrug off civilian-grade firepower, but requiring they rely on their superior combat abilities and quick reflexes to survive more challenging targets.
Sources
| HQ | Archite • Archon • Dracite • Dracon • Haemonculi • Incubus |
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| Elites | Grotesque • Mandrake • Succubus • Warp Beast Pack • Wych |
| Troops | Raider • Sybarite • Warrior |
| Fast Attack | Hellion • Reaver Jetbike |
| Heavy Support | Ravager • Scourge • Talos |
| Special Characters | Asdrubael Vect • Decapitator • Drazhar • Kruellagh the Vile • Lelith Hesperax • Urien Rakarth |
