I love the Dark Eldar.
They were my first, the army I learned the game on. I guess that 3rd edition package with DE and Marines paid off. The guys who introduced me to 40k all played Marines, so I chose Dark Eldar. I loved their sinister persona and embraced it as I played. My long time friends know, on a +4 you were coming home with me. (early Dark Eldar had a prisoner rule, roll a dice when a unit was wiped out and on a +4 roll the unit was/were prisoners taken back to Commorragh.) Ha! my friend Tim even made a menial labor guard army that took all the glory away. On purpose I think... Good times.
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| Give me a model! |
Like any army, I delve into the rich story line that Games Workshop does right. At the top of the Dark Eldar story has been and always will be Asdrubael Vect. The Torturers Tale by Gav Thorpe was the first story I'd read. It was really good, a poor guardsman sat and listened to Vect tell the tale of the fall of the Eldar and how the dark kin survived. It was a great little read, I'm sad to report I tried to find a link to the story but all seem not to work. Anyway, it was the first real good piece of fluff.
Fast forward to the next codex, came the story The Rise of Vect. It was all a long time druchii fan could hope for. I thought the story of the Dark Eldar hit a new all time high. Gone was my beloved prisoner rule (damn it GW! I didn't even care about the victory point..) but overall I was very pleased. I used Vect very little as the years advanced, only on special occasions. I still have the slave models, unpainted. But he was the apex of DE models, an Abaddon or Eldrad.
Asdrubael Vect is not in the new codex. What?What? WHAT? Many internet sources report the same troubling news. Gone, for good? I dunno, maybe he shows up in a supplement.
I don't like the direction GW is taking with special characters. It seems they are being reduced in every codex that is now coming out. What I have read on the internets says it's due to lawyers and lawsuits and such. As a veteran gamer of 14 years, I've always considered SC's a chance to flex some conversion muscle. Games Workshop makes money off me because I buy models. I'll buy GW troops, heavies, elites, fast. sure. Even most of the HQ's But often, shhhhhh. I go outside GW and use models from another company as a SC, especially one with no model. No amount of lawyer battles will stop me. All this removing beloved SC's will do is upset 40k's loyal base. We still buy most of your stuff, GW.
Control your brand GW, but don't forget who really gives you your profits. It's your veteran base. We are the ones who buy Forgeworld, read Black Library, and like to convert mini's. Removing the driving force (fluff wise) and greatest of the Dark Eldar was a big mistake. If he is hidden in some future supplement? He better be a new model and he better be fucking awesome. Commorragh is rumbling deeply right now.
