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!