Gav Thorpe

Gav: I have always liked Eldar, and I probably always will. They've fascinated me since their earliest days as pirates and mercenaries in Rogue Trader and The First Book of the Astronomican, through the introduction of Harlequins and Exodites, to their present incarnation with the Eldar Path, Avatars of Khaine and Aspect Warriors. I started my first proper Eldar army with the army list presented way back in WD127 (with the Dragon on the front), although I did have a Harlequin force before then. Anyway, suffice to say I was pretty keen to bring my own spin to the Craftworld Eldar army and background. The following are my thoughts and comments on some of the points raised by players during the time I was writing the Codex.

A 'TYPICAL' ELDAR ARMY

First of all, the army list in Codex: Eldar is intended to represent an average craftworld's army. By average, I mean that the bulk of its fighting forces is made up of Guardians and their vehicles, with some Aspect Warriors to support them. I've heard people argue that surely the Aspect Warriors would be the craftworld's first choice of fighters, backed up by the Guardians. Well, in my view it comes down to simple numbers. Even in the largest of craftworlds there are relatively few Eldar actually on the Path of the Warrior at any one time. The vast bulk of Eldar will be Guardians, thus it follows that the greatest proportion of their army will be made up of Guardians. In fact, with Dire Avengers in the Troops section, people can have an all-Aspect Warrior army if they so desire. That said, the army has been designed and balanced with the idea in mind that a fair number of Guardians, Jetbikes, Falcons and so on will be present.

Of course, not all craftworlds follow the same military organisation that underlies the Codex army list, and therefore special considerations must be made for the likes of the Saim-Hann and the Iyanden. I hope to write some short army lists for these craftworld variants, which may appear as Chapter Approved army lists or even as mini-Codexes. I see these types of armies (along with the all-Aspect army of Biel-Tan, the Rangers of Alaitoc and so on) as special cases, and if I'd written an army list so flexible that it allowed any or all of these types of 'specialist' army to be chosen, it would have been open to severe abuse by less conscientious gamers.

Next: Guardians