Adding Grotesques to the Kabal of the hope betrayed

First i kind of want to do a shoutout 

One of the main youtubers that i watch to get some Dark Eldar inspiration is SkaredCast, he has a solid youtube channel that was invaluable for me when i got started with my Dark Eldar army. He has a couple of "where to start" videos that are especially good, and i can heartily reccommend watching his battle reports, win or lose they are always a joy to watch.

Now, on to the post proper.


As i have covered before, one of the banes of the Dark Eldar is Assaulting, on paper they look pretty good at assaulting, higher than average Initiative, WS4 all around, army wide fleet and possible Furious charge, FnP and Rage when power from pain starts rolling in. What is NOT to like?!

Oh yeah, overwatch. We have a 5+ as a rule, and when our cover save is taken away we wilt faster than snow in summer. So, the options are to
I) Give up on assaulting and go for a shooty army. With LOTS of poison and blasters
II) Add some Battle brother allies.

Why only Battle brothers? Because, at least for me, it gives a more cohesive feeling for my army proper, you can use the same bonuses, you can actually be within 12" and it means agreater width of tactical placement. In my amateur mind at least. Now most people go for the Eldar for some Good Assault or even a Distort weapon or two, which is neat-o and all. But i have too damn many armies already, and getting a "small taskforce" is what got me into my current FIVE armies. (more on that later) so i am going for a Coven addition, with which i can at least fool myself to thinking it is of greater benefit.


So, i will do a "tactical" analyses (the quote signs referring to my lack of tactical acumen) but here and now i want to adress the elephant in the room.

Let's slang some troof' the grotesques are EXPENSH BRAH'.

STOP

Yes, Plastic crack is a luxuary hobby, YES i know that by defintion GW is expensive. I am not getting into a discussion on the inherent justification for pricing on the GW range. Not right now at least, i am referring to the fact that a unit of grotesques are a minimum of Three Grotesques.

That equals approximately 75 USD$, which is almost a riptide, or one and a dreadknight or one and a half unit of Wraithguards.

So, like so many Dark Eldar players i started looking for options, now one of the forums i frequent gave the advice of using Crypt horrors, as you get three for the same price as one grotesque (again approximately) and they are about the same price. Looking through my bit box and looking at other pictures online i seemed to find an easy solution.

What you will need is the following

• one box of crypt horrors
• three 25mm bases (Terminator size, for easy reference)
• modelling tools- Ie Glue, clippers and modelling knife 
• a Talos/chronos box, preferably bits from two. 
• greenstuff

1. First of, build the main body and legs into one whole part. Do not attach head or arms at this point 
2. Now, the heads for the Crypt horrors are the same "nub" that you have on the "talos/chronos" kit, so the separate masks that you get six extra in each talos kit goes on just perfectly on the Crypt horror body. 
3. in each Talos kit you get a spare CC weapon that looks like a metal hand, and several spare bracers, one of the bracers has syringes and vials attached, like on the flesh gauntlet on the Grotesques proper. You also get a HOST of spares of loose vials, syringes, tubes and bony protrusions and vestigial arms you can attach, basically anything that detracts from the flat body of the crypt horror. 

 Now, you can use greenstuff and the bracer to easily create expanded musculature, if you are a skilled modeller you can probably "bulk up" the model proper. I however, Am not. For some diversity i used a scythe blade from the talos kit to make a CC weapon arm with a hooklike protrusion.

4. If you want to simplify the process, you actually get a coupe of extra arms for the talos kit, that easily fits into the hole for the Crypt horrors. I used it below, to make a recognizable agonizer weapon for my Aberration.

4+ poison AP3 that rerolls to wound on everything that has > T5? YES PLEASE

Now, i actually bought a Grotesque, to use as an aberration, but i was actually pretty happy with the way these turned out. So it became my liquifier holder. 

This is the size difference. Do not that these conversions ARE slightly bigger than the "ordinary" grotesque. But this way you are spared the indignity of building.....Finecast *shudder* 

And you are done. You can add bitz to your hearts content, there are plenty of Wrack bitz and taloz bits that fit these conversion perfectly. 

remember

If you want to be fluffy, after fighting your friend/enemy ask if you can hit up their bitbox, add some helmets, arms, weapons or the likes to the base, it adds a bit of local flavor. 

I actually painted everyting yesterday as well. So here are the "finished" look. 

The gang's all here. I am really fond of the predatory hunch of the front modell, it gives a slightly canine look. 

the "finecast" grotesque in front. remember. no torrent if he is behind your own models. 

Schwiggity schwooty, he is coming for you.

And one last for my "abberation" LD4 be damned. he got his own whip. 

Painting up my first talos. Getting 'ardcoating right

I've been trying to catch up with all the Dark eldar modells i bought on the cheap towards the end of last year. With the release of their 7'th ed Codex, a lot of ads went up regarding sales of unpainted, and even unbuilt modells started to flourish. Now this is not all that uncommon, but it tends to happen a lot less with the release of codexes that are considered immediately powerful (Eldar, Tau, Necron) but it does keep happening with some of the releases for codexes that are a bit more niched (Ork,Dark Eldar,Tyranids) one immediate assumption is that all of the codexes that are not immediately considered powerfull is that people are jumping ship, but i rather think that it has to do with the fact that a lot of people on the fence have a "one day" project. 

You know, the kind most miniature painters have, "oh one day i will paint up that Forge world model" or "one day i will start a new mini-force of 750 pts" and then a new codex is relased, and the final stress of buying another codex for something you have not even started with gets to be to much, and the ads go up. And when it comes to immediately powerful armies, you do not have to look too far to sell your armies, so even getting an ad up might not be needed. You just ask around in your immediate circle of friends/players.

Still, needless speculation aside.One of the models i bought was a Talos, now as a rule i had the ambition of keeping a straight Kabal army, with the exception of a Haemonculus with Wrack assistents (the pull of victorian horror beeing to strong a notion to ignore), but i got the Talos at about 1/3 the price, so i have played it twice. Both times against Tau. And let me tell you. The look on somebodys face when they don't know what a Talos is. Priceless! 

So, at T7/S7 and MC status, you generally laugh at tanks, you move through cover, you strike at AP2, and with a 10 point upgrade you get the chance to reroll all "To wound" rolls. Mix this with six attacks on the charge, and a HoW strike, and you have a GREAT line breaker.

Downsides then, you are slow. Very slow. You might move trough cover. But you still have a 6" move, and no fleet for you, oh my no. I have given my Talos a TL heat lance, and a Stinger pod(two blast templates, S5AP5) the stinger pod means you are pretty much shooting at infantry, and charging infantry on that turn, so if you have a TEQ to get at? Good for you. If not, it is something of a waste to spend you 120+ points on. So the Twin linked heatlance is pretty good, it has let me take down riptides, suits, and vehicles. You talos also rolls with a 3+ and a FnP base. So i am VERY happy with what it has done so far. I guess D-weapons would mess up it's day, but whose day wouldn't it mess up?

When it came to the painting i had a few ideas to try, i wanted to get the blank masks on the Wracks i had done, and i wanted to get a pale pinkish hue on the skin, beyond that i wanted to do a lot of Varnishing (for which i had gone full consumer ho' and bought GW's own) so as to give it a shine that was reminiscent of the glistening carapace of a beetle. 

Now i had never used 'ardcoat on this big a surface before (this was before i finished up my Venom)

This will not be fast, but i am gentle on the brushes. 

So i assumed that i would take maybe two, three coats? I ended up doing about seven. Now this may be because i am "a shit" and not in the know on what i am doing. But seven seems to be about right. I also made sure that the Heat lance comes off real easy loike so that i can swap it for a Pod or even a Haywire blaster. But the end result ended up being 

To my actual satisfaction, it is difficult to get a good detailed picture with my cell-camera. But i did some "blood splatter" with drybrush korne red on the blades, and with the pleasure of doing a big base i could add-on an old marine backpack, and did two "smaller" terrain pieces from the basing kit for skull piles. The "spine" tail that runs the length of the body to the weapon option was done with "druchii" shading on bleached bone, to make sure it was visually distinct from the body. 

The "blank mask" is pretty iconic of the talos, so was wondering if i was going to draw some flashes or similar, but in the end i settled for a nice blank look. 

All in all, i was pretty happy with this modell. 

Basing done easy, done right.

I got some positive feedback on the basing of my Talos and Venom (the HQ one) and i really cannot claim any credit for it, i started experimenting in buying bases and the best one so far are probably the skull bases that i have for my wannabe succubus and the "wrack" i built from spares to get nine.

Black cat bases in demonstration. If interested, check it out

I've bought a couple of bases from black cat, and they probably have the best bases for skulls, there are different sizes, randomization and as far as i have experienced no mold slips.

It is realy easy to make them look good too, black base colour, drybrush, and nuln oil. If desired, flock. All the allure of doing Undead skeletons, but for a higher purpose, or rather.....a BASE purpose :D


*ehum* I was pretty happy with my Grey knight terminators from a way back. As you are sometimes, but when i picked them up from their foamed suspension, i started finding faults, missed highlights, large areas that were not shaded, and so forth. I doubt i am the only one who has that issue, you focus on painting something, get at it, feel finished and when you look at it the next day it is not as good as you remember it. it might the fatigue meaning that you start missing details but i prefer to think of it as your sense of self preservation lulling you into a false sense of completion so as to get you do less meaningfull stuff, like eating or sleeping.

On to the pudding.

The base foundation for is Devlan mud, you could probably get the same material cheaper if you mixed dark mud colour with fine grained sand, but i have to say that as far as the GW technical range goes, this has been a real treat to work with. In the video you are advised to not use a brush, it will obviously wear down the brush, but it also means that you get less "whorls" that give a better visual impact. So using a cut up piece of sprue to spread it out really is better.

The dawnstone is what(in my opinion) really ties it together, and if you wanted more of a winter wonderland look, then simply using dawnstone, and white scar might work better, i tried the Praxeti white (again, because i simply had it available) and it worked out prety great, if you want a more "sandy" touch, then skip it.

The new Talos i recently painted, the basing scales pretty well for larger bases, and i will definetly use it for "dreadnight" sized modells.


I followed the Walkthrough from winters SEO. It really is a great channel with good batreps, and the walkthrough is in five easy steps and with a great return on your work investment.

The link for his scheme is below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWOpNPZES1Y&list=WL&index=4

Angels of vengeance conversions

So the fun thing with painting my Dark angels as the angels of vengeance was me talking to a friend asking what the deal was with etched brass.

Now, he has played for decades, and painted for decades. So he just did NOT understand the question.

me: But seriously mang, what is the deal, why is everybody in love with etched brass?
him: what, but, what is even the point of not using it, there are no options really. 
M:but transfers, what about using simple transfers?
what followed was a hallowed silence that made him look like a veteran suffering from PTS, he just...stared into oblivion and let his being become one with nothingness. When he spoke it was with the weight of ages. 
H:transfers are to modelling what gourmet cooking is to camping. A good idea,but hell on executing.
M:Ok, so you don't  think i should get some?
H: if you do, you will understand what i mean, and appreciate that the options to transfers are forged with the blood of exper modellers.

Shit, that was dramatic as hell. And here is the thing. I got this

Which is, in my opinion, A WONDERFULL way to differentiate "your dudes" i was surprised that Geedubs had it. And was glad to throw money at them.

I have always had black DA, as i preferred it to the ordinary dark green one, you know, 'cause i'm unique, and you can't DEFINE me, MAAAAN. Also, the robes are dope.


Now, in the different codexes the old Angels had red robes, and then grey, and then black. And now they are black again, but as far as i am concerned a lynchpin of my painting DA is
Black, red, and silver. The black and silver just marries beautifully.

So this is what i wound up on.

 I still need to clean up the dramatic base for the veteran sergeant with the power fist, and brother ignacio is working his way with the emperors blessed promethium, so as to bring salvation to those who have not enjoyed the emperors warmth.

The picture is not great, but it is the old sort of rhino ( what FW lovingly calls mark III) that you can pickup cheaply on your Ebay. Hilariously it is a bit smaller than the new boxier one, and the size means that i can get better cover.

Brother Encio leads second squads advance to ensure the imperiums safety against the perverted xeno

To lead by example is to embrace the emperors sacrifice
"the Deus exemplaris XXI'th verse" 

So my second squad got the Angels of vengeance transfer on the shoulder, but it when it comes the Dark Angels veterans sprue "special" shoulderpads, you have to either trim the entire shoulder pad, OR put it a bit more on the front. I chose the latter, as i imagine myself a decent painter, but a flat out horrendous modeller. Practice may make perfect but self-loathing makes the artist.

With all the DAAAMN suffering i got from these tiny cardboard like, fragile as hell serran wrap transfer i now do indeed appreciate the self contradiction of transfers. Great as an idea, horrendous as implementation.

Next up is my Mortis pattern contemptor with Kheres assault cannons, i have been pushing it in front of me for over a year and a half, but i now feel confident in starting up on them.

A venom worthy of a leader

As i have mentioned in previous posts i have always chosen to glue shut the cockpit of my venoms, paint them black and then use 'ardcoat to make them pop a bit.

The choice was utilitarian (could not be arsed to paint cockpit) by style (GLAS? on a SPACE worthy vessel) and by look (I just wanted to).

But on this, my third Venom i felt that it was time to stretch my wings a bit, emboldened by what i deemed to be a success on the wracks, i decided to try some new things. So on the new venom i wanted to

• have a vessel that immediately identified as for a HQ
• have a green HUD 
• paint the operator and inside of cockpit. 
• use 'ardcoat and technical highlighting to make it look a bit more swish. 
• actually base a flying base for a skimmer. 

The HUD was the easiest one, i used the Waywatcher green glaze and basically soaked the glase ( i have spares so i figured i'd test it) i saw a highly instructive youtuber reccommend Tamiya clear green, but as i didn't have any, and could not seem myself using it more than once or twice, i figured i'd give waywatcher a swang.

It worked out, but i do reccommend touching up with some nuln, and highlighting with some green, to define the features.

The operator and cockpit was easy enough, as long as i had the desired Daftpunk head available. 

The basing was done to my satisfaction (praise be to mordheim turf!) 

The 'ardcoat was the real killer, for some, naive, unspoken reason i thought two layers would do. Nope. I'm at five now, and i'm decently happy now. I also decided to do the "middle" and wings with some 'ardcoat. To give it some P-zass!

and this was the result. 

The red on the nose and body corresponds to the colour i did my new succubus in, while the greener on the back part matches the overall scheme of my kabal. I tried to come up with how to do a base that denoted some movement, but i resigned myself to the wateland one you can see. 

Still, i am pretty happy overall. 

Settling on a colour scheme for the wracks.

I have had very varying results when i actually go ahead and deploy my wracks. Probably becuase i tend to use them as a "hammer" unit, the kind that you gladly take advantage of, and for granted when you play Marines in general. The problem is that the Wracks might roll with T4, which is a rarity for the Dark eldar army, but the 6+ save, S3 and the straight lack of shooting (Except for two flamers or fleshbane guns per ten bodies) means that they will have a hard time surviving overwatch. And AP5 and Instant death will laugh at your measly save and Power from pain rolls. 

Still the Wrack's as a model is probably the only unit that has gotten a lot of my Non-40k playing friends to stop for a moment, hold it up and ask what is this guy's deal. I mean the variation on the kit is amazing. You have double arms, double heads, and a spine that grows over your head like antlers and gives you the drugs you need to beat shit to death. And i guess that 10pts a pop for two 4+ poisoned CC weapons, plain FnP and T4 is pretty ok. Particularly when you start shenanigans with Coven formation. 

still looks a bit Dark Eldarish somehow.

The scalpel squadron is probably a good "minimum investment" you need two groups of wracks deployed in a Venom each. They Deep strike in on Turn one automatically. If they score first blood, you get D3 Victory points. I know i am late to the party, but if you are not playing Maelstrom, that is pretty good. The unseen point is also that, as Dark Eldar, you will probably be giving away First blood on a semi regular basis, so just denying that, while possible negating a slay the warlord that your opposite will score (if you do have a living HQ at the end of the game semi-regulary, PLEASE tell me how you do it). That is pretty wicked as far as i am concerned.

Still. Moving on. I couldn't really decide on what scheme i wanted, Gw's paint channel is the pink of raw muscle tissue exposed, or the pale'd gloom of a long abused tool that has gnarled skin that has paled whilst dwelling in the forgotten laboraties neath the hellish portcity of Commorragh. 

But i wanted to try something new, to stretch my proverbial legs. So i went ahead and tested out two Schemes, that first one, the Druchii violet shading, that has been paled a tad more, is consistent with what i use on the exposed skin of my other DE. But i also chose to try using the P3 Turqoise ink, and it gave a beautiful result. 

The Wracks i  painted were probably the first set of modells that i was very happy with, a simply astronomican grey watered down for skin, with the P3 ink, and then some highlighting on the torso, some null shading, and the some more P3. The silver on the bracers and the valve his chest blends in nicely in my opinion. 

The Purple ones wound out ok, but i was pretty set on the Turqoise scheme, yes, that wrack is using a human head for an IV stand, not to weird when you remember the post gothic "skull" fetisch that the empire has on a whole 

Following my instincts yielded a pretty good result with the turqoise, so i went ahead and did the "red" scheme that geedubs has on their youtube, but it just would not take properly i think one of the reasons is that i had a grey undercoat, and not rakarth flesh (which is paler) so in the end i did the same as above, but highlighed and drybrushed some khorne red (befitting my mood a the time) but it worked out pretty ok in my opinion. 

I did a few turns of 'ardcoat on the bracers and mask, and and in my opinion that made all the difference. 

Finally, a group shot with my newly painted Haemonculus, meaning that i now have one of EACH Hq selection, except the named ones, maybe Drazhar is next? getting me some o' dat sweeeeet 2+ save that i hear is all the rave for the lesser races. 

Chaining myself back to the painting station

So yeesh, it has been a godly time since i sat down and actually documented what i have been up to.

The reason is pretty much Two-fold.

New family situation, new Job. And, to be completely honest, a new sort of absurd obession with 30K. That recently resulted in me treated myself to about 500 bucks worth of Forge world. Damn, dem sicarians don't come cheap. But still, as my spirit animal advised

The thing about playing miniatures is that there is always an unspoken assumption that, no matter what system you game, you wish there was a higher quality of merchandise, even if it does cost a bit more. I suppose that equates to 40K being the cheaper mans choice, which is such a ludicrous statement that frost is forming in Dis as i write this.

Still, carrying on, when my package arrives i assume i will be so taken with it that i'll immediately buy an airbrush to give it the lavish attention it deserves.

As i left off, i was having some issues deciding on a point efficient HQ unit, playing against my buddies Tau, and against another mates Orks, i found that a cheap-o Succubus with the armour of misery and an archite Glaive in a group of incubi does alright. Just over a hundred points for AP2 and a 4+ 6++ (with the succubus getting a 4++ in CC) with the added benefit of a FnP roll on the turn that you (usually)get into combat.

But paying for a new modell was something of an aversion of mine, so i decided to simply kitbash one.

the end result was pretty satisfactory to me.

The body,arms and legs are all from spares you get from the venom kit. I rarely modell the "angry wyches hanging on the side of your ghetto-gunship" so i had a lot of little pieces to use. The Head is the much Coveted "daft punk" helmet you get for your reavers. The only difficulty is getting ENOUGH heads, as you usually want as much head as you can get from the reaver box......sorry, i couldn't resist.
The "archite glaive" is just a spare demiklaive that you get two from the Hellions sprue. I put it together with a custom Skull base that i give my Char's when i remember to and we're off to the races.

I'm thinking of doing some small "engravings" with a babybrush to show that it is the "armour of misery" but we will see when i get around to that.

Still, waste not want not. And that's a few bucks i can spend on some other inane part of the hobby :D

Dark eldar. 2014's end=My current 1500

So, 2014 is over. And i've had approximately a year to build up a Dark Eldar Army.

Let's see what i play with now a days.

Realspace raiders detachment

 HQ 

Archon-blast pistol/huskblade/shadowfield/animus vitae- 160 pts 

Haemonculus-Crucible of malediction,Liquifier gun,Armour of misery,webway portal 155 pts

Elites

four Incubi, with a klaivex and a venom. - 175 pts

nine wracks, one liquifier 105-pts

Troops

ten kabalites, one splinter cannon, raider with dark lance, Night shield and splinter wracks -195 pts

ten kabalites, one splinter cannon, raider with disintegrator, Night shield and splinter wracks -190 pts


Four kabalites,blaster, one dracon with agonizer and splinter pistol -145 pts

Fast attack

Razorwing jetfighter 2*dark lances,4* monoscythe missiles,twin linked splinter rifles   -140 pts

five scourges 3*heatlances, 2*shardcarbine   -110 pts

Heavy support

Ravager ,night shields, 3*dark lances. - 140 pts  

All in all 1495 PTS. I haven't decided where the last five are, but i'll probably change my HQ to a succubus, and remove the Haemonculus and put him in a raider. 

As of right now the list is pretty straight forward, Aim for the "reroll nightfighting, reserves and seize initiative" warlord trait, with the detachment special rules you get a reroll on the Warlord trait list. And i have NEVER regretted it.

Raiders do a good job of killing infantry, i've had them seize First blood on turn one on two occasions. And rerolling Splinter weaponry helps against flyrants and EXCELS at taking on T4 Upwards, but it's like roulette with the armour saves (everybody gets a spin) AP5 doesn't impress anyone. 

The Archon goes with troops in the venom and are good harassing, getting of animus vitae shot on Turn two at the latest (you are Dark eldar, go FAAAASSSTT!) and hopefully nets you a +1 on PvP. The haemonculus cuddles up to my Wracks, and deepstrike murder psykers, or liquifies them. S3 ain't great, but 50% at AP3 or better could be a lot worse. A torrent weapon removes both cover and Armour saves which is nifty, the secret is to make the most of your non-scattering DS. You might not live another turn, where do you get the most exposure? 

Like most DE players i usually struggle with Anti tank, enter the Scourges, ravager and possibly the Razorwing. The archon and his "droogs" are multitaskers, the can take on most things, and are fast enough to just shimmy out of most places.

sorting this shit out. 

Anti infantry:

Shard-Raiders

Inubi in venom 

Anti tank:

Ravager

Scourges 

Psyker and Heavy infantry slayers 

Haemonculus

Archon

I try to go well rounded, and if the ravager is taken out the razorwing can shoot Dark lances at vehicles or missiles a units in cover. If raiders are taken out, the venoms can cover the slack. I usually discount the Lances on raiders, as the cannot be counted on, i look at them as bonus shots, that are good to have, but not to be trusted. 

Things to remember are 

• Always opt for nightfighting- we see in the fuggin dark. Best if saved to the OTHEr half of the game actually, see below. 
• Reroll warlord traits until you get a beautifull two. 
• Reroll ALL to hits on the raiders, Twin linked, even if you jink (only affects vehicles, not crew within) 
• The detachment rules gives me a 5+ cover save for all troops Turn one, AND during nightfighting, people seem to miss that part. But it actually means that if Night fighting takes place turn 5 and onwards, you have your5+ for troops then AND turn one. However, DE excel at alpha striking, so odds are.....you won't have a significant amount of units left, but if you do? RUN, RUN to those objectives. Also, a 3+ Cover save turn one ain't shabby. For you at least.
• Incubi EXCEL at striking terminators, high I, and AP, with a D3 extra attacks for the klaivex. Do not let them get bogged down.
• Put the ravager in cover, enjoy your +1 cover save with stealth, will usually mitigate the need for jinking, which makes you them useless. 
• Haemonculus needs to find psykers, or 3+ units to earn his due, don't be afraid to keep him in ongoing reserves if nothing is available on turn 2. 

Let's see what damage i can do. 

Dark eldar, Choosing a viable HQ.

                        

Cute or not, he's coming for that booty

So the foremost thought that has been occupying my mind when it comes to playing my 7'th Edition Dark Eldar against EVERYONE, is what HQ i want to run. 

It used to be so easy, didn't it? You took an archon, gave him a huskblade, a ghostplate armour,a shadowfield,possible a soultrap for some bling. Tossed him in the back of a venom with some trueborns that all had CC weapons. And tried to watch your opposing players reaction as he kept the hell away from it. It wasn't easy, it is never EASY, you were running a glass cannon into a wall of fire (and later, overwatch) but you had a AP2 badass that could easily get back his points in TEQ kills. 

Now, now you have no AP2 on your archon, you can't take a ghostplate (not that 4+/6++ was ever going to save your ass) and your trueborn are all stuck running one CC weapon with a splinterrifle. 

But is it all doom and gloom? Is it simply the old "New things suck, hallowed be the tenets of the old guard?".Hell if i know. I've played DE for less than a year. Two editions in one year, but still. 

But i do have difficulties getting a good working HQ. So let's see what my options are. 

ole' trusty

Your Archon

You know him, as a rule he/she/jaded-monstrosity-transcending-human-notions-of-gender is most DE players first HQ choice. And it is kind of hard to make it work. You get a stellar statline that epitomizes the fragile yet hard-hitting nature of "your guys". I7 is beautifull thing regardless, usually letting you hit faster than even craftworlder hillbillies. Bad things? you roll S3,T3 and have a 5+. Still with 60 pts base you have a few choices. 

• I WILL make you hit shit.

Get an archon. give him a shadowfield (2++ that, if you fail, you lose it after that phase) get a huskblade,take an armour of misery,add a soultrap put him with some incubi in a venom. Congrats, you have a 150pts DECENT beatstick. AS a comparison, that is the cost of a terminator Captain WITH some gear. Or a flyrant. Or a Jetseer. I'm not saying you are screwed, this is DE, you will have a chance. But 2+ is pretty common on HQ's so keep that in mind. The soultrap will increase your S by 1 with each unsaved wound in a challenge (it used to double it, but still 10 pts) so if you stab a 2W Char. You have S5, which is good against MOST things. The 2++ is a good insurance against overwatch, and CC hits. Look out for those 1's. And try to have a FnP. The Armour of misery does not only give you a 4+/6++ it gives your opponent -2 LD in 12". Which is handy for challenges and tarpits. 

• I came here to laugh at you. 

And you WILL. Get an archon, give him a webway portal, and a shadowfield (if wanted) with a blaster. Put him with about nine trueborns and a dracon with haywire grenade. 135pts for your archon and 163 points of Trueborns. Shoot your FIVE blasters and throw Haywire grenades for seasoning. Arguably you just take a venom and ignore the Shadowfield and Webway portal. But i feel that the troll factor is at MAXIMUM with the previous set-up. Jump in, BLAST EVERYTHING, Hide in a crater and let your wounds soak up damage as the rest of your army does everything. I've wiped suitsgroups, tyranid artillery, and Black templar LR parkingslots with this. And, granted, your HQ will die. It will happen. But as true comorrite it bothers you not, you can DRINK that sweet agony of your opponent. 

Or just put six trueborns in a venom, blasterborn are old but trusty ports in a stormy night. 

Front heavy joke. Ap2 is heavy :D

Succubi

Just making noise here, i haven't finished my succubi, so i'm just making assumptions here. But still this is what i'd do. 

A shooting succubi isn't just NOT viable, it is simply not possible. And why would you have one?

with 75 base you have WS8(!) I8(!!) and a 4++ in CC base. Also a 1/6 chance of getting +1T/+1S/+1A. Which are the ones i can see being actually usefull. Still, no Archon's retinue, a 6+ save and no shadowfield or clonefield availability. You can buy a armour of misery. Which is kind of it. If you run a Succubus, put her with something heavy. You can Deepstrike with a WEbway portal, but with no shooting you're an even GREATER sitting duck than the Archon. 

still, all is not shatner. 

Succubus, Archite glaive,armor of misery, and an agonizer? 

135 pts for a minimum of five attacks AP2, or six attacks with the agonizer poisoned 4+ (as opposed to the S3 hits on archite glaives that will limit you to averaging on 5+ against MEQ) it is pretty cheap, and I8 will usually let you hit first, and with average i means that 60 percent of the time, it works ALL the time. 

I'll try to put her in an venom with some incubi, and charge EVERYTHING. It will probably work even better if she is underestimated.

The Friend nobody everybody likes 

Hugging you or measuring out his new organ bank?

BOTH!

The noble horrifying Haemonculus. Or haemonc. A viable alternative anyday. HQ tax, unit improver, special tool. The Haemonculus can do most of it. 

statline is....meh, if compared to the other two. Toughness 4 and 3W means you will probably survive three turns. Probably. You get a FnP Base, which kind of mitigates the 6+ save. He also hands out PvP +1. Which doesn't mean that he can PvP someone, but rather that your unit has one better on the Power from pain. IE. 6+FnP for the unit on Turn 1, Straight FnP on Turn two, and so on. If you manage to succesfully get a animus vitae hit on turn one or two, good for you. It, like so many other succulent tidbits of DE trolling has so far eluded me. But it would mean furious charge on turn two, instead of four,which sounds nice. Still 70 pts base.

Running a coven list makes him your ONLY choice, but on turn two you get fearless. And on turn four you get "it will not die" which is... cute, or GREAT on a grotesque, talos or chronos. Want to know more? Buy the book, yes it is annoying, yes, it makes your army viable on a different scale, but the covens book is damn good. And worth your money, plastic crack is going to ruin your life, but with DE you at least know HOW it will ruin your financial freedom. 

• 'Mandatory tax. Hexrifle. Yes. That is it, yes it is a sniper rifle that has ID on a six to hit. Yay. But still. Put him in a boat that rides around and let something live a bit longer. It lets your army have more points. DONE
• Anti-Psyker hilarity-ensues: Haemonculus, with a crucible of malediction,webway portal, and something to soak wounds. Preferably Grotesques, in a Grotesquerie (which have a 1/3 to get +1T) Deepstrike without scattering. Open your "kin-gift" ALL Psykers, brotherhood of psykers, and sorcerers within 3d6 get a S6 hit, NO-SAVES-ALLOWED. Yes, this is the chance that manages to elude me. Kill that seers council, Kill warlocks, kill all eldar psykers with your ID Gift. And wound MEQ on a 2+. And laugh, add a Liquifier to get a good "wall of death" when they inevitably charge your pale ass. 140 pts of hilarity added.
• Bitey-tax: Get a haemonculus, give him a liquifier,a scissorhand(4+ poison and rending) and an agonizer (ap 3,4+ poison) add an armour of misery. 135 pts, for 5 attacks with rending or AP3 after flavor. Screw the scissor hand (possibly) enjoy.

Regardless i usually pick up a animus vitae for my archon, it means that i get a S4 AP2 8" that (if wounding) gives the ENTIRE army +1 PvP for 20 pts. Goes well with the Shadowfield or clonefield, meaning that i have no GREAT need of a Ghostplate.

Now, since what i usually do doesn't work, i will probably try a succubus next time ,throw her in a Venom. Have her assault something with a bunch of Incubi, i'll tell you what happens :D