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I hadn't read the book yet, can anyone tell me the plot in short? Does Imperium lose/pyrrhic win like always in IA?

By several he means like sixty major worlds in a hundred days.

 Kain wrote:
By several he means like sixty major worlds in a hundred days.

Holly , and I thought Swarmlord's Hodur Sector gambit (dozen worlds nommed in 3 months, including one SM homeworld) was major Imperium rape...

The Orpheus sector gets gutted by the Necrons in 100 days. An Imperial campaign called the Orpheus Salvation campaign is launched but it fails since 7 years later, in 999.M41, the Orpheus sector is officially dissolved and the region re-classified again as wilderness space.

Problem I find is its putting the Necrons further up on a pedestal of invincibility as they are shown as both tough, fast, technologically advanced, and numerous (i.e. virtually no weaknesses). Abaddon fights for literally decades in the Gothic sector for the sake of acquiring Blackstone Fortresses, yet the Necrons essentially tear through an equivalent amount of worlds in under a year, with the remaining time really just mop up. If one Necron dynasty can do that, it really starts to raise issues for why earlier active Necron dynasties haven't torn down the Imperium already if a dynasty can take out 60 worlds in 100 days.

 Mezmerro wrote:

 Kain wrote:
By several he means like sixty major worlds in a hundred days.

Holly , and I thought Swarmlord's Hodur Sector gambit (dozen worlds nommed in 3 months, including one SM homeworld) was major Imperium rape...

To be fair, standard Maynarkh fleet tactics are to cause the system's sun to ignite into a massive solar storm so powerful that nearby planets have all dayside assets flash fried while everyone else's electrical systems are toasted until the AdMech gets them working again, then nuking the fleet with chunks of dead stars (implying white dwarves and neutron stars) accelerated to a hair's breadth under light speed, then bullrushing through the now crippled enemy and depositing their forces.

 Kain wrote:
To be fair, standard Maynarkh fleet tactics are to cause the system's sun to ignite into a massive solar storm so powerful that nearby planets have all dayside assets flash fried while everyone else's electrical systems are toasted until the AdMech gets them working again, then nuking the fleet with chunks of dead stars (implying white dwarves and neutron stars) accelerated to a hair's breadth under light speed, then bullrushing through the now crippled enemy and depositing their forces.

Well, at lest someone in the 40k get what is the space level ruthless Scorched Earth policy. It's a shame it wasn't CSM's.
Though I couldn't imagine Sauthekh or Solemnance legions using such a tactics - they fight to conquer the worlds, not to destroy them.

 Mezmerro wrote:

 Kain wrote:
To be fair, standard Maynarkh fleet tactics are to cause the system's sun to ignite into a massive solar storm so powerful that nearby planets have all dayside assets flash fried while everyone else's electrical systems are toasted until the AdMech gets them working again, then nuking the fleet with chunks of dead stars (implying white dwarves and neutron stars) accelerated to a hair's breadth under light speed, then bullrushing through the now crippled enemy and depositing their forces.

Well, at lest someone in the 40k get what is the space level ruthless Scorched Earth policy. It's a shame it wasn't CSM's.
Though I couldn't imagine Sauthekh or Solemnance legions using such a tactics - they fight to conquer the worlds, not to destroy them.

An undead regenerating robot's definition of a livable world differs from a human's.

Re: OP:

The story of the book deliberately ends with the situation unresolved. The Necrons have taken a lot of worlds, but the Imperium is preparing to counter-attack. The intent was to provide a foundation for you to use but then leave it open-ended so you can create your own stories. It even specifically says that the campaign has no "canon" outcome and you decide the fate of the sector through your games.

And of course the introduction hints that FW will be returning to the Orpheus sector in the future. So this could potentially mean continuing the Necron war, or even a story set sometime after its conclusion where (presumably) the Imperium still has a presence there.

Iracundus wrote:
Problem I find is its putting the Necrons further up on a pedestal of invincibility as they are shown as both tough, fast, technologically advanced, and numerous (i.e. virtually no weaknesses). Abaddon fights for literally decades in the Gothic sector for the sake of acquiring Blackstone Fortresses, yet the Necrons essentially tear through an equivalent amount of worlds in under a year, with the remaining time really just mop up. If one Necron dynasty can do that, it really starts to raise issues for why earlier active Necron dynasties haven't torn down the Imperium already if a dynasty can take out 60 worlds in 100 days.

Well, what isn't stated is how long it took to prepare for taking those 60 worlds. For example, if it takes a century to build up the forces for an all-out attack then that 60 worlds figure isn't so impressive. It just means that Necrons can really hurt you when they concentrate on a single objective.

 Peregrine wrote:
Re: OP:

The story of the book deliberately ends with the situation unresolved. The Necrons have taken a lot of worlds, but the Imperium is preparing to counter-attack. The intent was to provide a foundation for you to use but then leave it open-ended so you can create your own stories. It even specifically says that the campaign has no "canon" outcome and you decide the fate of the sector through your games.

And of course the introduction hints that FW will be returning to the Orpheus sector in the future. So this could potentially mean continuing the Necron war, or even a story set sometime after its conclusion where (presumably) the Imperium still has a presence there.

Iracundus wrote:
Problem I find is its putting the Necrons further up on a pedestal of invincibility as they are shown as both tough, fast, technologically advanced, and numerous (i.e. virtually no weaknesses). Abaddon fights for literally decades in the Gothic sector for the sake of acquiring Blackstone Fortresses, yet the Necrons essentially tear through an equivalent amount of worlds in under a year, with the remaining time really just mop up. If one Necron dynasty can do that, it really starts to raise issues for why earlier active Necron dynasties haven't torn down the Imperium already if a dynasty can take out 60 worlds in 100 days.

Well, what isn't stated is how long it took to prepare for taking those 60 worlds. For example, if it takes a century to build up the forces for an all-out attack then that 60 worlds figure isn't so impressive. It just means that Necrons can really hurt you when they concentrate on a single objective.

Well, the Maynarkh dynasty only seemed to have awakened following the Supernova that got translated into the warp via Dolmen gate. So that could be used as a starting point to figure out when they started preparations for their assault.

Actually it is stated how long it took to prepare for the attack. The awakening trigger was the supernova of a pair of stars. That was stated by FW to have occurred in 990.M41. The attack that gutted the Orpheus sector took place in 991.M41. In other words, the Necron dynasty had 1 year of preparation before their attack.

A: It's a single dinasty which is displayed as that powerfull.

B: Said dinasty is rather rapidly devolving into mindless zombie-space-robots.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
A: It's a single dinasty which is displayed as that powerfull.

B: Said dinasty is rather rapidly devolving into mindless zombie-space-robots.

The maynarkh dynasty utilizes primarily standard technology.

Pretty much every Necron Dynasty with a Phaeron is roughly on par tech wise, including the Sautekh dynasty.

 Kain wrote:
Well, the Maynarkh dynasty only seemed to have awakened following the Supernova that got translated into the warp via Dolmen gate. So that could be used as a starting point to figure out when they started preparations for their assault.

But how much was done before they awoke? For example, did they burn through stockpiles of weapons/troops from thousands of years ago that will need to be replaced? Maybe they went to sleep with preparations in place for an awakening war?

 Peregrine wrote:

 Kain wrote:
Well, the Maynarkh dynasty only seemed to have awakened following the Supernova that got translated into the warp via Dolmen gate. So that could be used as a starting point to figure out when they started preparations for their assault.

But how much was done before they awoke? For example, did they burn through stockpiles of weapons/troops from thousands of years ago that will need to be replaced? Maybe they went to sleep with preparations in place for an awakening war?

The last time they were awake was when the War in heaven was dying down some sixty million years ago following the death of the Old Ones and the sharding of the C'tan. This was the point where they got cursed by a butthurt god to be coocoo for cocoa puffs so they may have decided to stockpile for the day when they'd go out and murder everyone out of spite. Or they may just have gone to sleep ASAP to stave off the madness for some time.

 Kain wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Kain wrote:
Well, the Maynarkh dynasty only seemed to have awakened following the Supernova that got translated into the warp via Dolmen gate. So that could be used as a starting point to figure out when they started preparations for their assault.

But how much was done before they awoke? For example, did they burn through stockpiles of weapons/troops from thousands of years ago that will need to be replaced? Maybe they went to sleep with preparations in place for an awakening war?

The last time they were awake was when the War in heaven was dying down some sixty million years ago following the death of the Old Ones and the sharding of the C'tan. This was the point where they got cursed by a butthurt god to be coocoo for cocoa puffs so they may have decided to stockpile for the day when they'd go out and murder everyone out of spite. Or they may just have gone to sleep ASAP to stave off the madness for some time.

Its actually implied that they destroyed a huge Chaos SM force, an Ork Waaaagh and maybe a large chunk of another less organized sector. Before reawaking and noming Orpheus.

It should also be noted that the Necron fleet destroyed 90% of a fleet larger then Abaddon's own fleet in the 13th black crusade in a single (very short) engagement.

 Stonerhino wrote:


It should also be noted that the Necron fleet destroyed 90% of a fleet larger then Abaddon's own fleet in the 13th black crusade in a single (very short) engagement.

Really? That seems rather extreme as Abaddons fleet, I can imagine, would have used most of the ships available to the Chaos Forces at that time. How soon before the 13th BC did this happen, would they have had sufficient time to replenish their numbers to be able to launch the 13th BC?

It sounds very interesting though, I've not heard about the Fall of Orpheus before.

 Pilau Rice wrote:

 Stonerhino wrote:


It should also be noted that the Necron fleet destroyed 90% of a fleet larger then Abaddon's own fleet in the 13th black crusade in a single (very short) engagement.

Really? That seems rather extreme as Abaddons fleet, I can imagine, would have used most of the ships available to the Chaos Forces at that time. How soon before the 13th BC did this happen, would they have had sufficient time to replenish their numbers to be able to launch the 13th BC?

It sounds very interesting though, I've not heard about the Fall of Orpheus before.

The Imperial estimate of Chaos fleet strength during the 13th Black Crusade is given in the Eye of Terror Codex, p. 16. There it is given at an estimated 38 "battle fleets". Abaddon's personal fleet would be just 1 of those, and the Imperial estimate for that was 7 battleships, 13 heavy cruisers, 23 cruiser squadrons, and 30 escort squadrons. Leaving aside for the moment the potential unreliability of an in-character intelligence report on the enemy, BFG rules give squadrons as anywhere from 2 to 6 ships. So that would yield something like 46 to 138 cruisers, and 60 to 180 escorts.

In the Fall of Orpheus FW book, the reinforced Imperial sector fleet was shown to comprise 7 battleships (including 1 Retribution and 1 Apocalypse class), "more than 60" cruisers and capital ships, "several hundred" escort class vessels, 4 Space Marine battle barges, and 8 Space Marine strike cruisers. In BFG rules, the Space Marine capital ships would be 2860 points already. Sixty cruisers assuming the standard Lunar class as a benchmark would yield an additional 10,800 points.

Facing them, the Necrons are described as fielding less than a quarter of the Imperial ship numbers. The breakdown was 2 Tombships, 20 harvest ships, and the rest escort class vessels, with some later confirmed to be Dirge class raiders. In BFG points, the capital ships alone would have been 6500 points.

Though the breakdown of Imperial losses was never completely given, the narrative showed that Imperial losses as at least 2 battleships, 1 battlecruiser, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 battle barges, 3 strike cruisers. In the end, less than 10% of the Imperial fleet was still fit for combat. Little detail was shown of Necron losses with the only definite details being 1 destroyed harvest ship and damage to 1 Tombship. The other Tombship was shown to remain operational at the end.

In terms of size, FW has definitely taken to upping everything to ever higher limits. The BFG supplement Warp Storm gives the Battle of Callavell in the Age of Apostacy as one of the largest "set-piece" battles in Imperial history, In that, the Imperial force fielded 8 battleships, 5 grand cruisers, 6 battlecruisers, 5 heavy cruisers, 9 cruisers, and 6 light cruisers for a total of 37 capital ships. The renegade forces in that battle fielded 6 battleships, 4 grand cruisers, 6 battlecruisers, 9 heavy cruisers, 11 cruisers, and 8 light cruisers for a total of 46 capital ships.

Considering the magnitude of how badly the Imperials got pasted, it would have been nice if FW had explored the battle in more detail, and to be honest spent less on yet another Space Marine character challenge/duel. Sometimes it just seems FW just pumps the numbers up just to have everything be destroyed in the background in order to make it seem "epic".

Ah sorry, I glanced over 'own' .

Problem I find is its putting the Necrons further up on a pedestal of invincibility as they are shown as both tough, fast, technologically advanced, and numerous (i.e. virtually no weaknesses). Abaddon fights for literally decades in the Gothic sector for the sake of acquiring Blackstone Fortresses, yet the Necrons essentially tear through an equivalent amount of worlds in under a year, with the remaining time really just mop up. If one Necron dynasty can do that, it really starts to raise issues for why earlier active Necron dynasties haven't torn down the Imperium already if a dynasty can take out 60 worlds in 100 days.

Exactly my problem too.
Whilst I like FWs work the last few IA books have been weak and not as good as the earlier ones, specifically Mymeara and Orpheus.
Compared to Taros (which is still the best imho, Siege and Badab they don stand up as well).

Mymeara had such a crazy strategy/tactical element coming from Eldar it was quite depressing to read and as you state Orpheus just seems to have pushed the Crons into the stratosphere lethality-wise(and thats a single Dynasty on the march).
Dont get me wrong, grave threats to Man/other races are what make 40k interesting, they just needed to reign it in a bit and keep some sort of fluff consistency with other background canon.

Actually the level of troops that GW usually quotes for these things are so ridiculously low that I'm not sure remaining with canon (whatever that is) is a good decision.

An example is a space marine chapter defending a planet...most fights in a single country happen at >10 locations. This means that in a planet you might be able to field ~0.5 marines per fight.

Orks attacking a planet with an army of 1 million and somehow manage a battlefront across an entire planet? That number is paltry if compared to the numbers in WW2 or WW1.

I enjoyed the fall of Orpheus, FW fluff is so much more satisfying than GW fluff.

As for Necrons being too powerful, I wouldn't read too much into it. Necrons are badass but Orpheus is no Cadia. The fluff have always made Necron fleets out to be very powerful and so they should remain IMO.

My beloved Kreig love getting killed, bring on round two we'll bury those robozombies in bodies...

Yeah, Orpheus was a system almost in chaos (in some areas in Chaos) before the Necrons woke up and the Imperials withdrew all their force to one or more staging grounds early on, so resistance wasn't so much futile as non-existant in a lot of places anyway.

The Necrons were still fairly badass but the Imperium gave them a lot of help.

 Ratius wrote:

Problem I find is its putting the Necrons further up on a pedestal of invincibility as they are shown as both tough, fast, technologically advanced, and numerous (i.e. virtually no weaknesses). Abaddon fights for literally decades in the Gothic sector for the sake of acquiring Blackstone Fortresses, yet the Necrons essentially tear through an equivalent amount of worlds in under a year, with the remaining time really just mop up. If one Necron dynasty can do that, it really starts to raise issues for why earlier active Necron dynasties haven't torn down the Imperium already if a dynasty can take out 60 worlds in 100 days.

Exactly my problem too.
Whilst I like FWs work the last few IA books have been weak and not as good as the earlier ones, specifically Mymeara and Orpheus.
Compared to Taros (which is still the best imho, Siege and Badab they don stand up as well).

Mymeara had such a crazy strategy/tactical element coming from Eldar it was quite depressing to read and as you state Orpheus just seems to have pushed the Crons into the stratosphere lethality-wise(and thats a single Dynasty on the march).
Dont get me wrong, grave threats to Man/other races are what make 40k interesting, they just needed to reign it in a bit and keep some sort of fluff consistency with other background canon.

Erm...most other fluff also paints the Necrons as largely being unstoppable.

In the Word Bearer's books, an entire Word Bearers' fleet could neither stop nor slow down a single tomb ship and failed to damage it even with a Nova Cannon.

In Cain's last stand, a small Necron ship pretty much blasted through and owned an entire small chaos fleet.

In the 3e necron codex, the entirety of the Terran defense fleet could not stop four Necron light cruisers from landing some ships.

In the 5e codex the Necrons have time travel, reality warping tech, and a device that can blow up every star in the galaxy and thus kill everyone in the entire setting. And we've only seen the tip of the iceberg for their tech.

In all accounts of the War in Heaven, the conflict was on a scale and fought with technology and power that would make present hostilities and the Horus Heresy look like a school yard brawl.

I mean, the Necrons fought the Old Ones and all their creations, including the reality bending and endlessly numerous Orks, the highly intelligent and massively psychic Eldar, the Time and space shattering Hrud, the living Darkness of the Umbra, the "pull a gadget, any gadget out of my rear" Jokaero, and who knows what else, then took on the C'tan who could individually destroy entire solar systems or rip apart planets with a thought and basically won.

Even back in the 3e version of the War in Heaven the Necrons were winning despite the Old Ones throwing everything and the kitchen sink at them until the Enslaver plague made the galaxy unsuitable for the harvest.

The Necrons are Antedeluvian gods who have awakened to find that their domain is full of squabbling children (mankind, most minor xenos, the tau), uninvited guests (Tyranids and the Slaugth for example), and the remnants of their old foe's legacy (Orks, Eldar, Hrud etc). And they're not happy.

That's been the Necron's thing since day one.

And what that equates to is a Mary Sue faction that is built up to be virtually only strengths and no weaknesses (or only cosmetic weaknesses of little real significance). It makes the reader why they haven't already wiped out the galaxy or why other factions can even hope to stand any chance at all against them. Yet at the same time it seems Necrons can know defeats too such as the World Engine being destroyed. So that causes discrepancy between their seeming omnipotence and any setbacks they suffer. Either the Necrons have to hold the idiot ball and be stupid, or their technology is less invincible than it is made out to be.

Iracundus wrote:
And what that equates to is a Mary Sue faction that is built up to be virtually only strengths and no weaknesses (or only cosmetic weaknesses of little real significance). It makes the reader why they haven't already wiped out the galaxy or why other factions can even hope to stand any chance at all against them. Yet at the same time it seems Necrons can know defeats too such as the World Engine being destroyed. So that causes discrepancy between their seeming omnipotence and any setbacks they suffer. Either the Necrons have to hold the idiot ball and be stupid, or their technology is less invincible than it is made out to be.

Only a small fraction of the Necrons are awake and each time the Necrons were defeated, it took a colossal amount of effort.

View Necrons in the same light as the other three Doomsday factions, Chaos, Tyranids, and Orks.

If one gets going at full force/unity, everyone else loses.

If all four went all out as a unified force, then the galaxy would only consist of those four factions battling it out forever.

 Kain wrote:

Iracundus wrote:
And what that equates to is a Mary Sue faction that is built up to be virtually only strengths and no weaknesses (or only cosmetic weaknesses of little real significance). It makes the reader why they haven't already wiped out the galaxy or why other factions can even hope to stand any chance at all against them. Yet at the same time it seems Necrons can know defeats too such as the World Engine being destroyed. So that causes discrepancy between their seeming omnipotence and any setbacks they suffer. Either the Necrons have to hold the idiot ball and be stupid, or their technology is less invincible than it is made out to be.

Only a small fraction of the Necrons are awake and each time the Necrons were defeated, it took a colossal amount of effort.

View Necrons in the same light as the other three Doomsday factions, Chaos, Tyranids, and Orks.

If one gets going at full force/unity, everyone else loses.

If all four went all out as a unified force, then the galaxy would only consist of those four factions battling it out forever.

The other factions have other critical weaknesses, such as Chaos and its infighting and reliance on warp rifts/storms for daemons to have any foothold on reality. Orks have their constant infighting. Tyranids have the fact that their hive fleet ships are individually outperformed in most aspects by ships of other races.

The easiest way to deal with these issues is simply to have these forces neutralize each other to bring them all down to a level that other factions can deal with. To some extent this is already shown with Tyranids vs. Orks on Octarius. But Tyranids vs. Necrons or Chaos vs. Necrons would be other matchups that can be shown more to explain why none of these factions are truly unstoppable.

Even more examples of things like successful Eldar strikes on unawakened tomb worlds to destroy Necrons before they wake or activate their super war machines would help explain why the Necrons haven't overwhelmed the galaxy already. Unfortunately so far it seems GW's exploration of Eldar anti-Necron efforts has been restricted mostly to showing the Eldar being bumbling idiots and being slaughtered.

Iracundus wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Iracundus wrote:
And what that equates to is a Mary Sue faction that is built up to be virtually only strengths and no weaknesses (or only cosmetic weaknesses of little real significance). It makes the reader why they haven't already wiped out the galaxy or why other factions can even hope to stand any chance at all against them. Yet at the same time it seems Necrons can know defeats too such as the World Engine being destroyed. So that causes discrepancy between their seeming omnipotence and any setbacks they suffer. Either the Necrons have to hold the idiot ball and be stupid, or their technology is less invincible than it is made out to be.

Only a small fraction of the Necrons are awake and each time the Necrons were defeated, it took a colossal amount of effort.

View Necrons in the same light as the other three Doomsday factions, Chaos, Tyranids, and Orks.

If one gets going at full force/unity, everyone else loses.

If all four went all out as a unified force, then the galaxy would only consist of those four factions battling it out forever.

The other factions have other critical weaknesses, such as Chaos and its infighting and reliance on warp rifts/storms for daemons to have any foothold on reality. Orks have their constant infighting. Tyranids have the fact that their hive fleet ships are individually outperformed in most aspects by ships of other races.

The easiest way to deal with these issues is simply to have these forces neutralize each other to bring them all down to a level that other factions can deal with. To some extent this is already shown with Tyranids vs. Orks on Octarius. But Tyranids vs. Necrons or Chaos vs. Necrons would be other matchups that can be shown more to explain why none of these factions are truly unstoppable.

Even more examples of things like successful Eldar strikes on unawakened tomb worlds to destroy Necrons before they wake or activate their super war machines would help explain why the Necrons haven't overwhelmed the galaxy already. Unfortunately so far it seems GW's exploration of Eldar anti-Necron efforts has been restricted mostly to showing the Eldar being bumbling idiots and being slaughtered.

The Necrons are far from a united race themselves you know...

Erm...most other fluff also paints the Necrons as largely being unstoppable.

In the Word Bearer's books, an entire Word Bearers' fleet could neither stop nor slow down a single tomb ship and failed to damage it even with a Nova Cannon.

In Cain's last stand, a small Necron ship pretty much blasted through and owned an entire small chaos fleet.

In the 3e necron codex, the entirety of the Terran defense fleet could not stop four Necron light cruisers from landing some ships.

In the 5e codex the Necrons have time travel, reality warping tech, and a device that can blow up every star in the galaxy and thus kill everyone in the entire setting. And we've only seen the tip of the iceberg for their tech.

In all accounts of the War in Heaven, the conflict was on a scale and fought with technology and power that would make present hostilities and the Horus Heresy look like a school yard brawl.

I mean, the Necrons fought the Old Ones and all their creations, including the reality bending and endlessly numerous Orks, the highly intelligent and massively psychic Eldar, the Time and space shattering Hrud, the living Darkness of the Umbra, the "pull a gadget, any gadget out of my rear" Jokaero, and who knows what else, then took on the C'tan who could individually destroy entire solar systems or rip apart planets with a thought and basically won.

Even back in the 3e version of the War in Heaven the Necrons were winning despite the Old Ones throwing everything and the kitchen sink at them until the Enslaver plague made the galaxy unsuitable for the harvest.

The Necrons are Antedeluvian gods who have awakened to find that their domain is full of squabbling children (mankind, most minor xenos, the tau), uninvited guests (Tyranids and the Slaugth for example), and the remnants of their old foe's legacy (Orks, Eldar, Hrud etc). And they're not happy.

That's been the Necron's thing since day one.

You're very much correct Kain, and well backed up.
I suppose I should have said "keep fluff consistency with other races background canon".
It just seems that every so often GW/FW release a fluff piece that elevates Race X into the "next big thing". Fully acknowledge the sales driver aspect to this, just gets a bit tedious having been reading fluff for years.
For example Necrons seem like a truely unstoppable force as assessed in Orpheus, Nid Codex states that a 500% increase in IG forces are required to stop them, if Orks ever unite, they'll wipe the whole Galaxy out etc etc.
They are fun thought experiments and do generate ideas and discussion but for me having read fluff since 2nd I'd like if GW locked it down a bit more (however Im not sure how likely that is).

I do take on board different authors having different perspectives on things and having on overall fluff "overseer" might well stagnate or limit things but I'd still like to see a touch more realism and hard fact rather than race hyperbole.

...well, on the bright side, there is still the Tau, so not EVERY addition to the galaxy is "OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE"

But yea, Eldar really need to be shown as more competent at stopping these sorts of things instead of always getting owned in any fluff story that comes up. Maybe GW is too worried about people seeing Eldar as good guys again or something and the idea that a race that's only kinda donkey-cave-ish beating the more horrid races isn't grimdark enough or something.