Why Dark Eldar?

[Zamtro]

Pretty sure when my older brother won a 3rd edition box back when i was like 9 or 10.... I managed to sneak the Dark Eldar for myself, and over the following years via 2nd hand and a few new models I'd built up a collection... they were/are the true villains. They gives 0 :cusss about anyone else! Honestly I LOVE the new models, and would love to replace my entire army with new, but financially it aint going to happen. What I will do is strip them all down and repaint them, bring them back to the glory days!

 

I have something along the lines of (Old models) 4 Raiders, 2 ravagers, 1 talos, 10 jetbikes, around 60 warriors, 7-8 Incubi, 10 wyches, couple of old characters, Drazhar/archon/Dracon/Urien Rak. Recently I decided to grab a Venom, Razorwing and box of scourges + mandrakes, because I loved the models so much!

[Studio Silvernale]

I'll be honest here. I mostly got into dark eldar because of Raging Heroes' lust elf and void elf miniature lines. This way I can build an entire army of half naked elf girls.

[E_50_Panzer]

I'll be honest here. I mostly got into dark eldar because of Raging Heroes' lust elf and void elf miniature lines. This way I can build an entire army of half naked elf girls.

 

I wish some of GW's wyches had options to be like that. 

[Cpt_Reaper]

I started Dark Eldar with the 5th Edtion rework. Giftmas dropped and so did a shiny new army for me.

 

They were another evil army for me to play (at the time balancing out my good/evil ratio) and were very different to my existing armies (Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Daemonhunters).

 

I originally went pure Kabalite for my army, but eventually I added a unit of Mandrakes, Reavers and 15 Hellions (as a 5-man and 10-man squad).

No wytches and no Coven units.

[Scribe]

Bought in on the reboot as well, though it took me a long time to figure out why I really liked them.

 

1. Was the play style, I enjoyed the Venom/Trueborn Spam builds, so much so I want to try it again in 8th (is it workable/good?)

 

2. They are the most Cyberpunk faction in the game by far. I dont know how well its been held to in later versions/fluff after 5th, but the 5th Edition Codex, the Art, it just put out this serious cyberpunk vibe, and I loved it.

[Legionnaire of the VIIth]

1. Fifth edition dropped with the reboot resulting in the release of models that I liked the design for (the older ones just didn't do it for me and I think that the 5th edition miniatures are the best Eldar miniatures GW has ever produced) and the rebooted lore got my attention even more than their previous lore had (I had an interest in them prior to 5th edition but I couldn't stand the older miniatures).

 

2. I love playing a faction that I could be a self serving space pirate who was only out for his own gain that was enslaved to nothing but his own vices and his own continued existence. He owes nothing to gods or society only to himself and his own preservation. The Dark Eldar have a level of independence no other faction outside of Renegade Space Marines can claim.

 

3. The nature of the Dark Eldar allowed me to form them around any idea I really wanted to as each Archon, Succubus, and Haemonculus operates as they wish as long as they have the ability to hold on to their power. Want an Archon who is militant to the core, that is fine that is how he forms his Kabal.  Want an Archon who says to hell with Vect and the majority of the scheming in Commorragh, that is fine he is now a space based pirate (similar to Duke Sliscus) who only maintains enough ties to keep himself supplied and to sell off the goods he doesn't keep for himself.

Edited December 27, 2017 by Legionaire of the VIIth

[Lord_Caerolion]

I'd always wanted to like the Dark Eldar, back from when I saw them in 3rd, but the models were just so horrible, and the fluff so sparse. When their update was done I fell in love with them.

 

I love the fae elements to them, the creepy beings that creep out from the shadows to steal away the children. However, the thing I love most about them is their aristocratic, arrogant self-assuredness. They don't see themselves as evil, they just see the rest of the galaxy as literally cattle. Barely-sentient, upstart cattle to be preyed upon at their whim.

 

Plus, as others have mentioned, it's so much fun to come up with characters for them. I've got my three characters (well, technically 5, but I'll explain that soon). I've got the Kabal of the Radiant Abyss, led by the Archon Aroshamash, who I like to imagine as a cross between a Tzimisce Elder from VtM and an old-style Russian mobster like Nikolai from Firefly. Incredibly polite and charming, will not harm a guest (so long as you follow decorum), but will laugh as he demonstrates his latest toxins on some luckless slave to you.

Secondly, I have the Cult of the Bloodied Thorn, or to give them the direct translation, the Cult of Screams as Thorns Slice Through Flesh. This Cult is led by an unnamed male Succubus, who goes by the taunting nickname the Male Bride, whom Lelith very much wants to see dead, given what he is, but won't deign to acknowledge enough to list a bounty or challenge. Instead there's just "an understanding" amongst the Cults closest to the Cult of Strife that if the Male Bride happens to be defeated, then Lelith will be quite generous.

Lastly, we have the Coven of the Dragon Ascendant, comprised of 3 Haemonculi, all of them being Azhdahak, the Dark Trinity of Mother, Maiden and Crone. You see, Azhdahak has been very interested in experiments regarding bodily regeneration and the soul. Is it truly the same soul as before, etc. To that end, their current experiments have led Azhdahak to regrow her own body while still alive. Currently, they have managed to create two fully-functioning entities, with a half success capable of thought and some movement, but dependent on an attached slave-creature to handle the other organic functions. They also implant a piece of their flesh into each Wrack, a parasite ready to consume the host should something happen to one of the Trinity-Who-Is-One.

[Knight of the Raven]

Kabalites are fully-armored elves, did you really expect more reasons to be necessary for me? I must say I don't like their female torsos and would rather have them all wear breatsless armors with only the heads to show whether they're men or women, but at least they're not so ridiculous as the previous dark elf warriors'...

 

Incubi are lovely too, hopefully their eventual plastic update won't improve their helmets like Games Workshop did the dark elf executioners...

 

I'll be honest here. I mostly got into dark eldar because of Raging Heroes' lust elf and void elf miniature lines. This way I can build an entire army of half naked elf girls.

I never understood why Raging Heroes called them 'lust' elves. They're walking nightmare fuel.

[Teetengee]

-snip-

I'll be honest here. I mostly got into dark eldar because of Raging Heroes' lust elf and void elf miniature lines. This way I can build an entire army of half naked elf girls.

I never understood why Raging Heroes called them 'lust' elves. They're walking nightmare fuel.

Lust is a larger term than just sex. Even though I am normally against the gratuitous t&a, these definitely work as a subset of sex and lust taken to, as you say, a nightmarish extreme. Still not sure they are things I would buy, but I can definitely respect the concept behind many of them, particularly the centaurs.

[micahwc]

I got to a point where I was happy with my other armies, I have always liked the 5th edition onward Dark Eldar aesthetic, they are a completely different play style from my other armies, and they look like a lot of fun to build, paint, and play. Plus they are the baddies.

[Rhivan]

Well I always liked Dark Elves in games and one of my friends knew that. One day he invited me over to our FLGS to play Magic the Gather Commander, little did I know it was to actually get me to play warhammer 40k xD There was a used Dark Eldar army for sale and the first thing that he did when I walked in was confirm I liked Dark Elves in games and when I said yes next thing I knew I had 1 raider, 4 venoms, 20 wyches, and a metal archon... At that point I felt like I had no choice but to learn how to play Warhammer 40k xD (I have been looking into fantasy/AoS but didn't know about 40k)

 

After I was forcefully recruited to 40k I knew that Dark Eldar fit what I'd want to play as Dark Elves and Vampires are some of my favorite aesthetics in fantasy. Along with TONS of plate armor that made me really enjoy the Kabalite look. Not to mention playing a glass hammer faction is super fun.

 

(I always feel like a jerk when I share this story xD)

Edited February 1, 2018 by Rhivan