2nd Ed Saturdays - Dark Eldar

Last weeks article on the 3rd edition “starter box” got me thinking about Dark Eldar. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Eldar have been around from the earliest concept of 40k. Their dark cousins however were not a fully developed army until 3rd edition. Last year saw the update of their codex since 3rd edition, and rightfully so. (Though they were still competitive, they did need an update. Necrons however are in more need of an update than Dark Eldar were, but that is an article for another time.)

So, we know what Dark Eldar came in the starter box, and we know the current line. But how did they develop? What were the early days of Dark Eldar like? Read on inquisitive 40k history student, and learn of the brutal race!

From Wikipedia - Games Workshop decided to make the Dark Eldar as a separate army, after it became fairly common to see gamers collect "Dark Eldar" armies, which are total conversions/customizations of Eldar miniatures while still retaining the standard Eldar rules. It was also relatively convenient to add the Dark Eldar to the existing Eldar storyline without any conflict, right at the catastrophe that destroyed the Eldar home-world.

Upon further research, this is 100% accurate. (So my reliable sources say.) The Eldar in the age of Rogue Trader were pretty dark, wild, and basically like the punk-rock race of space elves that they are a far cry from today.



Early Eldar Rock it out!

 While the Eldar developed into what could be considered 2 separate races, the other armies remained virtually unchanged at the time. (Gone were the days of Squats, but we got Tau to replace them…and rumor has it the Squats are returning!)









So, in essence –
Orks were still green skinned war-like race bent on a good scrap.
Imperial Guard were still mass number of “normal” guys and lots of tanks fighting incredible odds.
Space Marines were still mutated warriors that turned everything they touched to gold.
Chaos was still daemonic/warp influenced band of warriors bent on the destruction of the universe to please their patron god.
Eldar however enjoyed a time of change. (Fitting since their race “created” the lord of change.)

Thus, the Dark Eldar were born.  It wasn't until 3rd edition that they received their own codex.  (And a big boost from the starter box!) 

So, after the codex release players were clamouring to get their hands on the Dark Eldar right?  Well, not exactly.  I can only remember there being 1 maybe 2 Dark Eldar players at any tournament I attended.  4th edition saw many codex revisions, but not for the D.E.  They got what was called a "Second Edition" update to their 3rd Edition codex.  What this meant was they had access to some new wargear, list options, and vehicle upgrades, but no new units or rules that were significant.  So again, though a few more players picked up Dark Eldar, they did not receive much love.  I can attribute this to a couple of things.  A.) the models - there was not a whole lot of selection to choose from, and a lot of them were metal increasing the price.  and B.) the style of play that the Dark Eldar required was what I can only term as swift finnesse - the army on the whole needed mobility and a tactician who would excel at sneaky tricks, and strange combos.  (Not a beginner army for sure!)

That brings us to 2010.  GW released a brand new Dark Eldar codex with a slew of new models and lots of love.  Sure, they still require some finesse to play, but now they have more players sprinting down the learning curve, and look cool losing while they do! 

Remember the old 40k 3^rd Edition Starter box?  Seen by some as the set that started it all.  40k was at a new high in the hobby world, and this box set was just the thing to get geeks clamoring for 40k.  The third edition of the game was released in 1998 and, like the second edition, concentrated on streamlining the rules for larger battles. Third edition rules were notably simpler and were less prone to give characters abilities only on the roll of a die.The rulebook was available alone, or as a boxed set with miniatures of Space Marines and the newly-introduced Dark Eldar. The system of army 'codexes' continued in third edition, enjoying some popularity. Although, you didn’t need the codices to play third edition, they did allow for more unit choices later on.

Contents:

1 Tactical Space Marine Squad consisting of 10 marines. This is the basic squad which consist of the models available today but as, with the older command sprue. Therefore you only get the bolt pistol and chainsword, flamer and missle launcher as weapon options.

1 Landspeeder. This is the basic Spacemarine Landspeeder which can be equipped with either a heavy bolter or multi-melta. Both weapon options are included.  (And IMHO, the absolute worst model to put together!  I glued mine together, and put rubber bands on it to keep the sides from popping out, 3 days later, I took the rubber bands off, and “plink” the sides still popped out. It ended up finding new life on the back of my Looted Russ as a turbo-boosta.)

20 Dark Eldar Warriors.  Including 2 Splinter cannons and perhaps 2 or 3 pistol configurations, the remaining weapons are all rifle.  (I had a ton of these guys, at one point, I thought it would be cool to do a 1000 point army consisting of an Archon, and 100 warriors... think of all that dakka!)

The terrain included was some ruins, and jungle trees. 

You also got a few dice, 2 red measuring sticks, plastic blast templates and of course, the 3rd edition rulebook. 

 You know the big one.  (This was also known as the BBB or Big Black Book.)

All this for a mere $75.00 USD, which today is roughly the same as $103.86 utilizing http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ with a calculated inflation rate of 38.7%  For my European readers, that is the same as appox. 53€ in 1998 and 73.04€ today.

Not bad considering everything you got in the box.  Let’s break it down in today’s pricing terms just for fun, shall we?

                                                                      

Landspeeder = $27.00 (note: the model today includes parts to make a Land Speeder Tornado, where as the old one didn’t.  An estimate of -$3.00 was applied to reflect this.

10 Marines = $35.00 (note: the models in the tactical squad now give you more options, so I applied -$2.75 from the standard price.)

20 Dark Eldar Warriors = $52.00 (note: the Dark Eldar warriors then were less detailed, and only included a pistol/close combat option for one in every 4 warriors (to make the Sybarite) and one of every four on the sprue had a Splinter Cannon, the rest were just rifles.  To reflect this -$6.00 was applied.

Jungle Trees = $8.25 these have not changed at all!

Ruins =  (No longer available) But if we take the standard inflation (38.7%) and apply it towards the 1998 price of $9.99 we come up with $13.85, and since GW almost NEVER prices things like that, we round up.  (Why would GW round down?) to $15.00

Big Rulebook = $57.75  Wow, for a better quality book, if you took the 1998 price, and ran it through the inflation calculator, you come up with $69.24 so GW has actually lowered the price on something for a better product?  I don’t believe it.

So, that leaves us with a total of  $195.00 USD in today’s pricing terms.  In 1998, the equivalent was appox. $140.00 USD.

I know the math isn’t perfect, but it is what it is…

Now I want to get one of these old box sets…darn it!