Hope and fear of the new codex

I've seen some various rumors in different places about glimpses and peeks of new Dark Eldar models, no pictures yet, but it gives that hope that we are not forgotten.

The fact that we seem to get a full treatment spread in the new battle missions book helps to almost convince me that we may see a codex in the next year. That fact gives me hope and fear both.

Now make no mistake, I like the codex we have currently, and I definitely hope it doesn't get the drastic surgery that the Tyranid book has seen. I worry of course is that all the units that I love to use, like the Haemonculus and Combat Drugs, will be streamlined into boring predictability.

More than anything, I'm afraid that some of the best parts of what little back story we have will be glossed over and given the Highlander 2 treatment(Didn't happen, pretend it never existed). No longer will we be the soul stealing raiders from the web, but perhaps just a 'evil' Eldar with goth sounding aspect warriors, and no psykers. Regardless of how they reflect it in rules, I want to be that soul stealing lord, who want's the victim tortured to just the right level of pain, agony, and frenzy.

Beyond all of those fears though, I have hope. Why? Because some of the plastic kits coming out over the last 8-12 months have been extraordinary.

I've watch my girlfriend put together a number of the amazing Ork plastic kits, most recently her Stompa, and utterly enjoyed putting together the Skaven models that I recieved for Christmas(I've tried to figure out how to include a Doomwheel in my Dark Eldar army because it is such a sharp kit). These kits are so full of detail, and options, that I long for a new warrior box, or plastic wyches. That gives me hope that I'll get my chance to build some awesome kit for the army I want to be playing, not the models I'm assembling for fun. The new Ork dreads/kans look even more amazing, and I may have to get one of those for fun next

So if there are plastic gods, please turn your gaze upon the true kin, let the masses marvel at the malice and ambition that can be sculpted into a piece of plastic.

More Slaves

So I got dragged into another impromptu team game this weekend.

Two 1500 point armies, vs 3 1000 point armies (with about 400 points extra between the 3 of them)

So it ended up being Tau/Dark Eldar vs Space Marines, Chaos Marines, and Chaos daemons, with a Dawn of war setup, and Capture and Control as the objective.

Since there weren't alot of vehicles(one lone dread) on the other side of the table, I dropped a squad of wyches and a squad of warriors to add Drazhar and the incubi to my normal 1500 point list.

We were given first turn, and deployed only a squad of Warriors and a Haemonculus on a jetbike. They countered by setting up alot opposite my warriors who were on our objective. While their objective was alone towards the middle.

The Tau moved to keep the opponents objective clear, while I tried to whittle down the marines opposite me in cover. My Haemonculus was all set for a lovely destructor template the next turn, when he caught a bolt of change in the head. 1 save, 1 fail, 1 dead haemonculus. It happens.

The rest of the game went pretty well. We ended up just being out from a tie, because a Keeper of Secrets and a Summoned Greater Daemon beat my poor warriors off our objective and the game ended before I could move a Raider back there, and the Tau Devilfish was just a bit too far away from the other objective with the handful of bloodletters that survived shooting.

So a loss overall again, but a good day of slaves.

6 Berserkers, 5 Chaos Marines, 4 Bloodletters, 1 Space Marine, and 1 Chaos Sorceror.

Remodelling the Raider

Lots of people talk about how they don't like the Dark Eldar models which is fine, it's all a matter of preference anyhow. I myself like the models for the most part, except for the Raider. Part of this is because of looks, it just doesn't look sleek enough, but the majority is thee awkward bulkiness of the model. The odd size makes them hard to transport, and very prone to damage. As you can see from the picture above and below, I'm having that problem.


When you are transporting between 5 and 9 of these things, space becomes a premium. God forbid if you are trying to use one of the GW cases. In my case, I use a couple large toolboxes. The infantry models are all on egg crate foam on the bottom with the raiders on the top.

My problem comes because of the clam shell type action of the tool boxes. As hard as I try, the raider tails always manage to get caught. If I watch the front they get caught in the back, if I watch the back, they get caught in the front.

The largest majority of my Raiders and Ravagers look like this one, some aren't as bad, some the pieces are just broken and have been re-glued. The worst part is I don't even have them completed (mostly because I'm indecisive about how I want them painted.

So the time has come to change them. I'm thinking I'm going to remove the cross fins, and try and put something else on them. This won't be the first unique Raider in my force, as you can see in the pics above and below I have a Raider that I commonly use for my HQ that was scavenged together from a partial Raider and some leftover parts I got in a trade with a friend. Obviously, I'm not going to cannibalize 3 Raiders for everyone I want to put together, but I do like the look.


I haven't made a final decision as to what I'm going to do exactly and may not for a while. I do know what elements I want to incorporate.

• First, the driver stays towards the rear, I picture the Raider as moving forward with the bow pointing slightly down, sort of like a helicopter, so that means the driver at the back looks over the pointed hull to target his victims.
• Second there has to be some sort of horizontal fins to help stabilize and control direction.
• Third, the horizontal component has to be above or below the plane of the basic fusilage. Even if I end up just using an angled piece, similar in shape to the Reavers, it has to look like it helps stabilize the craft.
• Last, I have to either finish before March, or start after March. Why? Because I need the Raiders playable for the Apocalypse game the club is having in March. I need as many Dark Lances to dish out my jealous vengeance upon my girlfriends latest WIP, shown below.

Feel free to post links in the comments to any interesting Raider conversions you've seen, I'm always looking for fresh inspiration to borrow.