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Slaves have a bad tendency to revolt. When they’re armed and your not, that makes it even worse.

That even goes for advanced technology turned AI, as the Tau will eventually learn.

As children of the old ones, they are essentially pointy, pink orks. As much as they may think they are above it, they just love a good scrap.

And they know it , there's a witch elf/warlock/ exarch in every eldar/elf.

SirWeeble wrote:
I'
I always thought this was doubly true for Guardians. Guardians seem like they should come out only in desperate times. If any civilized country rounded up the poets and artists and gave them a pewny gun, you know they're in trouble. However, in the game, they're just basic troop grunts.
#.

Whilst most guardians are civilians the fluff is generally they are those who have previously been on the Warrior Path (ie been Aspect Warriors) which is why they have above average in-game stats for 'grunts'

 CadianGateTroll wrote:
Eldar use their dead as meat shields Which are wraith constructs.
Not sure why they dont use drones. They have the tech.

Maybe they don't. I think the base intelligence of most races is wildly overestimated. Hell, the Imperium spent 6,000 years trying to weld a radar dish and some anti-aircraft missiles onto the top of a Rhino and failed the entire time.


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 Stormonu wrote:
Slaves have a bad tendency to revolt. When they’re armed and your not, that makes it even worse.

That even goes for advanced technology turned AI, as the Tau will eventually learn.

The Tau don't treat their drones as expendable meat-shields. They have self-preservation protocols. Just because himanity fethed that up doesn't mean the Tau will.

I'd actually like Tau AI to become fully self aware like the Iron Men but have a nice split between those who want to go it alone and those who think they're treated well enough.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 CadianGateTroll wrote:
Eldar use their dead as meat shields Which are wraith constructs.
Not sure why they dont use drones. They have the tech.

Maybe they don't. I think the base intelligence of most races is wildly overestimated. Hell, the Imperium spent 6,000 years trying to weld a radar dish and some anti-aircraft missiles onto the top of a Rhino and failed the entire time.

I think people do underestimate just how much the Eldar have lost. Their civilisation-extinction event was orders of magnitude bigger than the Heresy. Hell, it was probably bigger than the Age of Strife.

I'd put mo ey on the idea that the Eldar are just as technologically backwards compared to their forebears as the Imperium is to the DAoT, it's just that the Eldar still have a slight edge and are arrogant enough to think themselves perfect.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 CadianGateTroll wrote:
Eldar use their dead as meat shields Which are wraith constructs.
Not sure why they dont use drones. They have the tech.

Maybe they don't. I think the base intelligence of most races is wildly overestimated. Hell, the Imperium spent 6,000 years trying to weld a radar dish and some anti-aircraft missiles onto the top of a Rhino and failed the entire time.

I think people do underestimate just how much the Eldar have lost. Their civilisation-extinction event was orders of magnitude bigger than the Heresy. Hell, it was probably bigger than the Age of Strife.

I'd put mo ey on the idea that the Eldar are just as technologically backwards compared to their forebears as the Imperium is to the DAoT, it's just that the Eldar still have a slight edge and are arrogant enough to think themselves perfect.

In fairness Craftworlders are pretty negative about themselves. They still lost most of their civilisation and the closest they come to not being banished to eternal suffering after death is crazy clowns.

 Stormonu wrote:
Slaves have a bad tendency to revolt. When they’re armed and your not, that makes it even worse.

That even goes for advanced technology turned AI, as the Tau will eventually learn.

Will they? So far, we only have one example of AI technology leading to rebellion, being in human technology. I'm pretty sure the ancient Eldar Empire had robots in their Empire, they never rebelled. It seems far from certain that this is the way ALL AI technology goes, rather than just it's a way it can go.

pm713 wrote:
I'd actually like Tau AI to become fully self aware like the Iron Men but have a nice split between those who want to go it alone and those who think they're treated well enough.

I'm still head-cannoning that the Tau vast jump in tech is down to some Cylon like shenanigans with some other races lost AI bio-engineering the Ethereals to 'control' the meat sacks, hence Farsights split from the Greater Good once no Ethereal present

The Xenology book from Black Library hinted at the Ethereals being engineered by the Eldar. Take that as you wish.

Even though it is never mentioned, the Eldar SHOULD use other races as mercenary. The lore is a bit unclear about this, but theoretically and realistically, it is very likely they can hire other armies to fight for them.

Dark Eldar have the Sslyth who are above the normal slaves. Chaos use Loxalt and the Imperium sometimes use the Orks from the Bloody Axes clan despite both being extremely xenophobic. The Kroot is employed by almost every advanced faction in the galaxy and not just the Tau. The Imperium also make use of the Jokaero, but these are treated better than just cannon fodder due to the technological value they bring.

What would they pay them with?

Eldar don't seem to have any currency much less any currency for another race. Plus why go to the risk of hiring someone when you can just subtly move someone into the firing line without them knowing?

pm713 wrote:
What would they pay them with?

Eldar don't seem to have any currency much less any currency for another race. Plus why go to the risk of hiring someone when you can just subtly move someone into the firing line without them knowing?

Well, knowledge would be something they could pay with.

"If you will fight for us, I will inform you of the location of a planet which contains some lost technology/valuable minerals/etc..."

But yeah, in the fluff the Eldar use other races as pawns simply with subtle manipulation so that they don't even know they are working for the Eldar.

They could but they don't seem like the kind of race to give away their technology and most races seem to lose tech like that.

And you can't just give them a location as a reward considering it's probably inhabited at that point.

Although I can see Eldar saying there's a planet ripe for settling when it's just an Imperium planet the Eldar want and that cleans up loose ends and helps with the next objective.

The currency issue is meaningless. If you were a Kroot, and you a paid Tau credit, where are you going to spend it if not on Tau goods? But if the Kroot wants to earn money to buy goods from the Tau, they can simply ask the Tau to skip the cash delivery and just bring them the goods they want.

If the two species are not dependent on one another, the payment should be in precious minerals, technology, food, medicine, and artefacts. All of these the Eldar have an abundance of, more than enough to sustain 100 times their small population (imagine Venice during the Renaissance). Orks can be paid with teef and Kroot with meat (though they will likely take the meat from their enemy anyway).

There's a difference between having a lot of something and being willing to trade it away. Artifacts, knowledge and technology aren't really things Eldar trade.
I don't see where Eldar get minerals from seeing as they live on their Craftworld and make their technology from things like wraithbone.
Anybody worth hiring probably has enough food of their own and the only mention of Eldar medicine I've ever seen involved them being on the Craftworld itself which is a nono for non Eldar.

bibotot wrote:
Even though it is never mentioned, the Eldar SHOULD use other races as mercenary. The lore is a bit unclear about this, but theoretically and realistically, it is very likely they can hire other armies to fight for them.

Well, (semi-)canonically they do, just not openly. Mission ... 3 or 4 of original Dawn of War 2 shows that the reason the Orks have kicked it off is because the Eldar are using them to do so. Now granted, the Eldar are wearing a psychic illusion to fool the Orks that they are another warband with a good plan to smash some ‘umies, but it’s there.

But does it belong ‘formally!? I’d say not. It’s hardly a regular thing, so far as we know (though probably more than we think) and I don’t believe that the intent was for any Eldar to do any actual fighting, just act as bodyguards for the seers in case (as it does) something goes wrong. In fact these instances are probably better described in tabletop terms as an Ork/Tau/whatever army having Eldar seer ‘mercenary’ advisors! But does it sound like a cool idea? Then great, ask your gaming group to give it a bash and go for it. Narrative mode ahoy!

pm713 wrote:
There's a difference between having a lot of something and being willing to trade it away. Artifacts, knowledge and technology aren't really things Eldar trade.
I don't see where Eldar get minerals from seeing as they live on their Craftworld and make their technology from things like wraithbone.
Anybody worth hiring probably has enough food of their own and the only mention of Eldar medicine I've ever seen involved them being on the Craftworld itself which is a nono for non Eldar.

The technology that they trade away doesn't have to be anything that's advanced for the eldar themselves, just something currently very impressive to whoever they're hiring. Sure, they're not gonna hand out the secret to wraithbone but teaching someone to go from flintlocks to autoguns is feasible. Minerals would be simple to scoop up from space rocks or some planet or whatever. Medicine should be easy enough for the eldar to replicate (never mind drugs! most any pirate would fight for two tons of space cocaine). Throwing in good variety of canned food that will keep forever should help sweeten any deal. Anyone who runs a ship would also appreciate a better and longer-lasting water or air purification system.


There's a lot of things that armed people with a space ship would need to continue that particular existence, and it doesn't even have to be anything dramatic.

But if you need upgrading from flintlocks or giving canned food why on earth would you hire them to do things for you? They're not people good enough to help you and in the time you spend finding someone who is you can do it yourself better.

pm713 wrote:
But if you need upgrading from flintlocks or giving canned food why on earth would you hire them to do things for you? They're not people good enough to help you and in the time you spend finding someone who is you can do it yourself better.

The whole deal with contemporary eldar is that they'll spend any number of alien lives to save even just a few eldar lives. If the cost of getting some warm bodies to throw at a planetary governor in order to disrupt a resource chain is getting them equipped with some halfway decent weapons, that's a bargain. The eldar should by all accounts be one of the larger supporters of terrorism in the galaxy.

Rosebuddy wrote:
The eldar should by all accounts be one of the larger supporters of terrorism in the galaxy.

We prefer to call it “surprising rolls on the Random Galactic Events table”, if you don’t mind.

They do.

All those Imperium vs Imperium matchups you have? It's really Eldar vs Imperium, but so subtly that neither side knows it.

Oh they do, they just don't inform them of it.

Along these lines why not buy tau drone technology abd manufacture vast numbers of drones?

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Along these lines why not buy tau drone technology abd manufacture vast numbers of drones?

Tried that before (Psychomatons). Contributory factor to the utter annihilation of their civilisation and potential extinction of their species.

2/10 would not recommend.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Along these lines why not buy tau drone technology abd manufacture vast numbers of drones?

Tried that before (Psychomatons). Contributory factor to the utter annihilation of their civilisation and potential extinction of their species.

2/10 would not recommend.

Yep, Craftworld Eldar believe performing menial tasks keeps them busy and focused enough so they don't fall prey to their urges. They're the Amish people of 40K, but they still keep the sweet tech when it comes to battle.

fresus wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Along these lines why not buy tau drone technology abd manufacture vast numbers of drones?

Tried that before (Psychomatons). Contributory factor to the utter annihilation of their civilisation and potential extinction of their species.

2/10 would not recommend.

Yep, Craftworld Eldar believe performing menial tasks keeps them busy and focused enough so they don't fall prey to their urges. They're the Amish people of 40K, but they still keep the sweet tech when it comes to battle.

Exodites are the Amish. Craftworlders are a weird middle ground where some of it's automated and some of it's not. I'm pretty sure they have servants as well.

All games are Alpha Legion pawns struggling against Craftworld Eldar pawns. The background is very clear on this.

SirWeeble wrote:
Why don't Eldar use other races as fodder?

As Regulars no they don't like them and don't want them.

As proxies, they absolutely do use other races. The use of Farseers to guide events so that others races indirectly fight their battles is a time honored tradition of the Eldar. 3rd War for Armageddon was a direct result of the Eldar forcing the WAAGH towards the hive world so that they would be spared the bulk of the war. There are others and many short stories where Farseers do surgical strikes to affect the future, turn the Orks this way, force the Nids that way, trick the Inquisition to do X.