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Hi,
everytime I try to post a new batch of Dark Eldar rumours, the previous Dark Eldar thread is already closed due to spamming. Let's try to keep this one alive until Games Day UK, when the official pics and informations will come. This post is just the already updated summary. You find the new batch of rumours in the third post of this thread to keep this post just the summary. (and to avoid it being automatically attached ).

Rumour Summary

Release in November (confirmed by GW). Preorder on 13th October.
First official presentation by Jes Goodwin on GD UK (26th September), models also on display at GD Germany (17th October).

GW wrote:Veteran miniatures designer Jes Goodwin will be talking about the forthcoming range of Dark Eldar miniatures and showing an exclusive preview of the new models.

First wave:
Codex (written by Phil Kelly)
3 metal blisters
3 metal boxes
6 plastic boxes
1 Special item.

5 of the 6 plastic boxes are, as confirmed by Harry:
Warriors (male and female, no top knots )
Wyches (male and female, include at least one head with a blank faceplate like the Shadowseer)
Raider (including crew hanging from its side adding to the offensive capability of the ship, modelled by Aly Morrison)
Ravager/Slaughterer (! new variant)
Hellions

Strongly expected to be the 6th box is the Reaver jetbike.

Metal Boxes seem to be Mandrakes, Incubi and maybe Talos (can also be plastic or later).

Metal Blisters may be new character, Archon and Wych Lord.

There will be a 1.5 and 2nd wave next year, maybe including a battleforce, maybe not. Avian heard a long time ago that these will be January and March, but this seems unlikely now.

Most miniatures done by Jes Goodwin over the last few years, but Juan Diaz, Seb Perbett and Aly Morrison also made a few. Aly Morrison made the warriors hanging from the Raider.

Here a first hand description by our Waaagh_Gonads :

After seeing (some) of the warriors that were assembled from the new DE warrior sprue (I did not see the bits on the sprue) last weekend and having been given the all clear to talk about them by my source:

Best start point is to use this pic as a reference.

The warriors are not striding forward and hunched over like they are about to tip over- legs are laid out in a wide stance and the models are much, much better proportioned than the old ones, so no more legs that go all the way up and tiny torsos.
Helmets and non helmeted heads included.
Non helmeted head has a high ponytail.
Ribs/shards of bone poke through loincloths and the ponytail.
The helmets are pretty much identical to the above pic, but with lumps/gems over the ears/temples.
From behind the helmets look exactly like eldar guardian ones.
There is a gem/soulstone on the left chest armour- not the shoulder armour piece as per the above pic.
This is where you have to use your imagination as the pic doesn't show it: On the back there is a backpack that looks like it started as an eldar backpack but does not stick out as far, has vestigal 'vanes' compared to the eldar one (so doesn't stick up above the shoulder) and most excellently down the centre of the backpack, it is recessed with scaled armour over the spine (triangular scales with points downwards)
A high collar that flanges out
Rifle is almost exactly the same as the pic for the base model, even down to the jagged bit that pokes up in front of the warriors abdomen in the pic. There is a variant with what looks to be crossbow arms sticking out laterally (ends up looking like a mini anchor)
Attachable Loincloths (variable designs) One has a skull, one a hook on them.
As per the pic, greaves over the lower legs, then knee pads and scales over the upper legs, with points upwards.
Knife scabbard, 2 'rods' and 2 small sachels on the 'utility belt' posteriorly
Blades of differing lengths and size on various armour parts, primarily lower legs and shoulder pads.
Curved knife HW available.
Attachable blades for the end of splinter rifle.

This pic leaked a few days ago. Harry said that this miniature was one of the first concept sculpts by Jes, on which the warrior art was based. Since then, the warrior sculpts evolved a bit and became more detailed, esp. the helmet.


Three more pieces of art:

(see the Hellion on the left in the background)





Concerning rules:
Harlequins are in, Avatar not so much.
Talos will be bigger and have more variants, so probably will be a later plastic kit (<- rumour by Frgt/10 ).

Yakface wrote:I have, from a very reliable source, that these rumors are a bit wrong.

The actual stats are as follows:
All poisons are 4+
Splinter Rifle 24" SX, AP5, Rapid Fire, Poisoned.
Splinter Carbine 18" SX, AP5, Assault 3, Poisoned.
Splinter Cannon 36" SX, AP5, Assault 4, or Heavy 6 Poisoned.
Spllinter Pods are an underslung weapon for the Hellions, essentially similar to the carbine.

reds8n wrote:I did hear something odd t'other week about them having "special" poisoned weapons -- at least fluff wise -- which had a normal S score but then got a reroll to wound. Poisoned lite I guess ? *shrugs* Not terribly convinced by that, not least as Mr. Kelly -- bless him -- tends to stick more to existing USRs and the like.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:HBMC has pointed out many times before that GW is loathe to fine tune a list, make crappy units (or items) better and tone down the OTT ones.
Rather they seem hell bent of re-inventing the wheel for each codex and making a whole pile of new units lame, and others super +1 awesome for no particular reason other than they can.
The army as a whole often ends up fighing in a similar way, but with vastly different lists.
This army will still be High initiative, low toughness and fast, fast fast, fast with light vehicles.
But as this is almost a complete overhaul from scratch expect almost everything else to change.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:DE don't particularly like psykers, but they do like sucking the souls out of them...
Expect anti psycher wargear.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Apart from the names of units and wargear, pretty much every special rule and item stat has changed.

Concerning background:

So on the 26th september this happens at GD UK:

Veteran miniatures designer Jes Goodwin will be talking about the forthcoming range of Dark Eldar miniatures and showing an exclusive preview of the new models.

Then we wait until 13th october to pre-order?



(and finally a certain GD at 17th oct won't provide anything we don't know already)

Here is the latest batch of Dark Eldar rumours that I added to the existing set of rumours above. This batch comes from Prince Sliscus over at 40k Online:

The models are amazing and i have permission to post my pics as soon as uk gamesday arrives.

I've also heard the fluff and it was abit different to the rulebook.

Spoiler:

If i remember correctly basically before the fall Commoragghh was the scum shack of the empire where all the criminals went etc... redlight discrict watnot... anyway, when it survived the fall (not just because it was in the webway but i cant remember the other reasons), they realised that even though their bodies didn't age (as such) thier minds did (or something along those lines), and to stave off slaanesh they found a way to capture the suffering of other beings with their technology, therefore staving off the thirst abit longer, hence why they need constant slaves.

Now i would have posted this bit in the rumours forum but its not officially an announcment so if its in the wrong place feel free to edit or move this mods!

They will be up for october pre-order on the 13th.

Now i had 3 sources, one of which conflicted with the other 2 but this is taking into account what they all said...

The first wave consists of 6 plastic boxes for sure

Raider - plastic
Ravager/Slaughterer - plastic
Wyches - pastic
Warriors - plastic
Hellions - plastic
Reaver Jetbikes - plastic

3 Metal Boxes
Talos
Incubi
Mandrakes

3 Blisters
New Character
New Archon
New Wych Lord

The only thing that is abit sketchy here is that 2 told me talos is metal, one told me plastic but that was probably a simple mistake. And also one told me that the new reavers if not with 1st wave (apparently they were still deciding at the time) will come out with the new eldar jetbikes and super heavy plastic kit around xmas/january before the new kemri early next year. Scourges and warp beasts etc... are 2nd wave and i think the current heamy models are staying the same for a time.

Do we know if anything has been cut?

Highly likely with all those blades and spikes
Or what do you mean? Above is about all we know ATM.

I just see no mention of Grotesques. That doesn't mean anything of course, but I do note it.

Well, some units have to wait for wave 1.5 and 2, like Warp Beasts. I find it highly unlikely that established units are completely dropped.

The comment about a possible metal Talos is worrying. The old one is a pain in the a** to put together. I hope we'll get a plastic kit.

And folks, please no spamming. The fact that you're totally going to buy a 2000 point army when this comes out is not News or Rumors.

Just discuss the actual rumors that have been put forth here.

Thank you.

I've been highly impressed with the work Jes did on the Dark Elves. The quality in the plastic kits has really increased, a range with almost no metals is definitely a plus.

The news of new jet bikes is the most exciting thing for me, they desperately needed an update and hopefully they include all the options for riders

The Dark Eldar Warrior in the rulebook always reminds me of a Cylon.

I have looked at that piece of artwork depicting the Raider assault many times, and I still can't work out what is going on with that sail. It doesn't look as though it is mounted in the centre of the Raider, but it may just be slightly botched perspective (on what is otherwise a great bit of art). It's a good reworking of the original Raider, but I hope they don't add all those random spikes on the final kit version. The excessive application of spikes that helped to make the most of the Dark Eldar look corny rather than scary. Hopefully too the final version is less ship-like than the Raiders in the second piece of artwork.

It's a good question whether Grotesques are in. They almost never appear in DE army lists, yet they have a lot of potential as a unit, and there's something very appropriate about a bunch of horrifically modified warriors.

I'm also hoping the Talos isn't re-done in metal, as an up-sized version in plastic would be a great model and, I think, a good 'hook' for getting people into the DE range. But then I've always liked the look of the Talos.

While the subject of hair styles matters little to me one way or the other in my opinion of how these models look, there's a whole lot of geek-emotion apparently tied up (pun intended) in whether or not they have top knots or not.

That being the case, I find the two clearly contradictory comments from different sources "Non helmeted head has a high ponytail" and "no top knots" quite amusing. As a great bard once said, "a rose by any other name..."

Hearing that the new Talos is still metal at least reassures me that I won't have to add to my backlog to replace my existing one, but some of the plastic sets might be tempting.

Kroothawk, great job pulling all this info together in one concise topic thread. Thanks!

Odd that they'd redo the Talos in metal. Then again, they only have a certain amount of frames they can do a year. Maybe they had other more pressing plans?

It would be great to have Talos in the first wave but I'd wait for it if it meant it being in plastic. The current metal one is always falling apart.

We could always get a Bloodcrusher situation. Metal model and then 2 or so years later, plastic!

Kroothawk,maybe you should suggest this thread be stickied and/or locked until you get more rumours, otherwise I'm going to be putting money on this one going down the off-topic drain like the rest...

How in the hell is GW keeping such good wraps on the DE? I would have thought we'd have some pictures by now.

That fluff, if true, is extremely bad.

Probably through fear and threats to life and limb.

oni wrote:That fluff, if true, is extremely bad.

Which part and how is it bad?

I don't think its any worse than other GW fluff.

All i'm looking for is if Harlequins are in for a rules release and you have that.

Also Wyches and Raider in plastic excite me too.

oni wrote:How in the hell is GW keeping such good wraps on the DE? I would have thought we'd have some pictures by now.

Because no one could believe it.

If grotesques are anything more than T4 w/ FNP, I'd be surprised. They have some potential in fluff and application, but I doubt they are a priority. Frankly, the only thing that's really disappointing about all this speculation is the utter lack of NEW stuff. Yes, the models will be new and radiating of Jes Good-ness, and yes the "familiar" units will all be redone rules-wise, but the unit concepts are not new. Where are the completely original new skimmers/flyers? Where are the new fast attack options? While after 12 years I appreciate an updated codex and cosmetic overhaul, I do hope they go full-tilt and add in some new, sexy, game-changing type units. I mean, hell, if the Blood Angels can have the Storm Raven, imagine what the actual "fast attack" army can bring to the table.

Anyway, I hope they are just keeping it under wraps and we'll get at least 3+ brand new unit types as well as overhauls of the rest of the dex.

I'd be very surprised if the Talos is metal, all of the 'dreadnought type' models are plastic now. I could see a 'named' Talos as being metal but even that would be stretching it.

The Avatar is still metal, the Talos might be more in that vein, we obviously don't know how it fits with the new codex.
If they don't expect any army to field more than one of them then...

all of the 'dreadnought type' models are plastic now

Almost, but not quite. Chaos Dreadnought, released 1996, metal model, still the current model for that range. If the Talos is still metal then it's not alone.

BrassScorpion wrote:

all of the 'dreadnought type' models are plastic now

Almost, but not quite. Chaos Dreadnought, released 1996, metal model, still the current model for that range.

All standing outside in the rain forlornly scratching at the window with it's terrible "spiked tent pole arm" while plastic Imperial Dreadnoughts dance and play inside.
You are not welcome here Chaos Dreadnought.

Ha ha ha! thats perfect... In all fairness though, chaos dreads are easy to convert from imperial ones, you cant whip up a Talos from the wraith lord kit.... at least not with as much ease.... I would be psyched if they over hauled the talos and gave it a new look, even if it becomes a walker.

I wouldn't be upset with a re-imagined Talos as I have no particular fondess for the scorpibot. But I doubt it will end up as a Dark Wraithlord. On the other hand, Eldar have just as strong a "floaty things" theme as their Dark kin but that doesn't prevent them having walkers.

There may very well be new units that just don't have kits coming out yet. Check out the Stormraven, for example. If there are new units, expect them to possibly be cross-compatible with the next Eldar codex as well, especially if they involve Harlequins.