The Sirens by James O' Shea
Many of the Themed Army Ideas you'll find here in the Jungle are based on different combinations of units from army books or on certain "fluff" (or background story) ideas. This one takes its inspiration from an often-overlooked terrain element: water. What if there was a 40K army geared toward amphibious warfare? What units would it use? What conversions would it require?

An aquatic theme presents you with a lot of possibilites. How about underwater Space Marines? An Imperial Coast Guard? Seaborne Tyranids? Craftworld Atlantis? 

James O' Shea tries his hand at a Dark Eldar version: the Sirens, named after the deadly monsters of myth that lured sailors to their deaths. 

Background
About 92% of the surface of the planet Cyrus is water: the other 8% is fertile farmland. For centuries, the Imperium used Cyrus to supply neighboring worlds with foodstuffs. When shipments abruptly ceased, a detachment of Ultramarines was sent to investigate. They found every farm destroyed, every agri-worker missing, indeed, every livestock specimen butchered and left for the scavengers. 

The detachment was lost before it could determine the culprits responsible, and to this day, no one within the Imperium knows the awful truth: that in the depths of the oceans of Cyrus lays an enormous alien city, an underwater version of the nightmare Dark Eldar realm Commorragh. 

The Sirens (as they known to the few survivors of their attacks) appear to be a sub-race of Dark Eldar, genetically modified to be able to live underwater. While based on Cyrus, they have an extensive system of webway portals that have allowed them to infiltrate the oceans of scores of worlds. Many Imperial and alien worlds have defenses erected against threats from space: few have any defenses erected against threats from the sea. Thus, the Sirens almost always strike by surprise directly against the soft underbellies of their targets. 

Philosophy
The Sirens are a pirate force, just like regular Dark Eldar. Given their adaptations to live and fight underwater, the Sirens prefer to attack targets at or near a shore. No extended forays into the deserts for them!

HQ
As per Codex: Dark Eldar. Lords and Haemonculi must be mounted on a Raider or jetbike.

Elites
Mandrakes are often used to scout out targets, swimming undetected into harbors. Each Haemonculus can have a unit of Grotesques (mounted on a Raider) for a bodyguard.

Troops
Raider Squads only (for mobility).

Fast Attack
Reaver jetbike squadrons only. Skyboards are not very hydrodynamic, so Hellions are not used.

Heavy Support 
Scourges can “fly” through the water and thus are included. Most forces of the Sirens make extensive use of Ravagers. Talos are usually too slow but may be included if brought through a webway portal.

Modeling and Painting
For this army I suggest using a metallic blue and gold scheme. Sirens would probably use a lot of nets, tridents, spears, and spear guns--plenty of these bits are available from GW Mail Order. Also note that Sirens tend not to have spikes on their armor (spikes tend to slow down swimming).

For vehicles, convert away to make them look like they could go underwater, but leave them open topped, though, as Sirens can breath underwater and don't mind holding on! Appropriate touches for Raiders might be "air tanks" that prisoners can use en route to the Sirens' lair, scaling nets, or even transparent "air globes" to haul captives away.

General Tactics
Get into close combat quickly. Before you get into close combat blaze away with all those guns! Take as many prisoners as you can regardless of whether Victory Points are being used! 

Optional Rules
Sirens should not be armed with poisoned blades, shredders, disintegrators, or destructors as these weapons would tend to be ineffective underwater. 
 

Related Pages
Other Dark Eldar Themed Army Ideas
From Idea to Reality: Creating  Dark Eldar Army
 

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© Copyright James O' Shea April 2002. Used with permission.
 

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