Friday, May 16, 2014

40K Friday - The Eldar Expansion



Eldar were the first figures I bought for 40K. They didn't look like anything else out there and I thought those helmets were really cool. I still have them:

I painted these guys around 1988-89.
I had an Eldar army back in RT & 2nd Edition, then ended up trading most of them to a friend in 3rd to really build out his Eldar army and my Ork army. As far as I know he still has them too. After letting them go for a few years I decided I ought to have at least a small Eldar force, especially as the Apprentices were starting to get interested. I picked up a few here and there and had a force in a box but never sat down to get it into playable shape. It's been a back-burner project for about 5 years now.

The Harlequins are of a similar vintage
Once Apprentice Blaster dug into the new Eldar it occurred to me we might be able to ally if I built out my space elves, so I started playing around with the options. While acquiring some new bits I ended up with some units painted in the Iyanden paint scheme and decided I could do that. I also decided to make this an all-new force - none of my old legacy metal stuff, unless that's still the current model. Much like my Dark Angel force, I wanted a fresh start.

At the moment it's still fairly small - a wraithseer, some wraithguard as my 2 troops units, some fire dragons in a falcon, some dark reapers, and a wraithlord. I have also added some jetbikes to give me an additional troop unit and some speed. Down the road I see more wraithguard, another wraithlord, some warp spiders, and a wraithknight as important additions. I will probably end up with a pair of wave serpents too. It's a rough plan, but it's a plan. I see it as a wraith-heavy force with a few aspect warriors and bikes thrown in.

My old alien paint-scheme Eldar are still around as a separate force. They have a more traditional structure of farseer, warlocks, guardians, jetbikes, wraithlord, dark reapers, and harlequins. That's all stuff I already have, and a lot of it is already painted which is why I'm not combining it all into one force. It did suffer somewhat because I gave a lot of the unpainted stuff to Blaster when he started his army, which meant I needed to start acquiring units again and that's when the whole Iyanden thing came up. I see this one as a guardian and aspect warrior heavy force with a few tanks added in.

It's a teal-turqoise-ish color plus pink. It's a little different.

It's stupid, frankly, to have two smallish Eldar armies like this sitting next to each other in the cabinet.  I originally started writing this earlier in the week and was still thinking I would do them as two separate forces but as I thought about it more, I started to change my mind. I may have to sacrifice a nicely painted Iyanden model or two, but the last thing I need is two Eldar armies. So after working through the thoughts above I have come to a different conclusion: unification!

Old-School Eldar Dreadnought. He just needs a little glue and he's all good!
I'm trying to learn from my Space Marine example: I have marines painted in five different schemes, all with a different mix of units. If I had stayed with, say, two marine armies, I would have a whole lot more options in each than I do with any one of them right now. There's no easy way to change that situation so I'll live with it but I can at least learn from it.

So the priority list shifts around a bit. A Wave Serpent or two is pretty high on the list to allow me to go mechanized, while an Avatar would help if I go foot-dar. Options are good, right? This will ensure I have everything in one big pile rather than silo'd off in separate teams.

Further updates to come!

3 comments:

thekelvingreen said...

Excellent. The Eldar were my Space Marine army and although I wanted to play them in 40K too, I already had a genestealer cult and couldn't afford two armies.

I've been collecting 80's/90's era Eldar over the past couple of years and now I have enough for a modest army. All I need to do now is paint them all! I've also chosen a bizarre paint scheme, as it seems appropriate somehow for the Eldar.

Blacksteel said...

Hey they're supposed to be alien, right? Oddball colors should be involved. Some of my Epic Eldar are painted in this same scheme - as you can see from the Phantom titan.

Space Marine turned into our main game for part of the 90's, we played it more than 40K for a few years. I have a pile of mini's for it, most of them painted. Maybe I can dust those off for June. I've been meaning to introduce the Apprentices to it anyway.

thekelvingreen said...

Alas I lost all my Space Marine stuff -- or rather it "disappeared" while I was away at university -- and I'm sad as it was my favourite GW wargame by far. There are always rumours of a new edition; I hope one day they come true.