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When it comes to the Dark Eldar, there's a sliding scale for what could happen with their 'dex:

- Finecast units removed, the Lady added in
- Finecast units remain, the Lady added in
- Finecast units replaced with plastic sets, plus the Lady added in
- Finecast units replaced with plastic sets, with the Lady and other units/characters added in
- Finecast units replaced with plastic sets, plus the Lady added in, DE get the Bad Guy slot in 11th ed starter set (with all the releases that entails)

Until we get evidence to the contrary? I'll keep my expectations set to the worst of those options, then GW will find it hard to disappoint me.

 Dawnbringer wrote:
I note the sprue says 2023.

So did Asurmen's when he released this year.

There was a sixth Arks of Omen book cut due to the release schedule for 9E being so messed up by covid. I wonder if Asurmen & Malys were originally planned for that but held back.

 xttz wrote:

 Dawnbringer wrote:
I note the sprue says 2023.

So did Asurmen's when he released this year.

There was a sixth Arks of Omen book cut due to the release schedule for 9E being so messed up by covid. I wonder if Asurmen & Malys were originally planned for that but held back.

They do have matching ruined terrain bases, like when Drazhar and Jain Zar released together...

I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

She tore her own heart out to replace it with one made from an extra-dimensional crystal. She's described as being the only person capable of out-witting Lord Vect. She fights with a fan, like a boss.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Duke Sliscus, Decapitator, and Baron Sathonyx are too much to hope for. Vect has been elevated to such NPC status that we may never see him on the table again.

Vect seems the obvious choice for unique centrepiece model, and the current unified system of T, W etc for vehicles and non-vehicles means he might even be viable to use lol.

 Shakalooloo wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

She tore her own heart out to replace it with one made from an extra-dimensional crystal. She's described as being the only person capable of out-witting Lord Vect. She fights with a fan, like a boss.

She's also Vect's other half, as a way of showing that she can put that into practice. Though the heart she stole and replaced her own with was originally Cegorach's.

White Dwarf 511 has a new Emperor's Children Combat Patrol.


Depraved Coterie
Emperor’s Children + Slaaneshi daemons.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:
The new front runner in the contest for least practical footwear in the 41st millennium.


'Grats on your model for this decade, Dark Eldar players

It's a named Archon and a character being added back into the codex rather than being removed. Win all around.

No, just a potential win - because we don't know if we're losing anything. If we lose anything (especially something I use) then it's at best a wash.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

Before Yvraine was introduced, she was the most powerful living woman in the Warhammer 40k universe.

Her character is somewhat comparable to Princess Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender—a highly manipulative genius teetering on the edge of madness, an exceptional fighter, and relatively young considering the lifespan of her people. Malys is under a thousand years old; for comparison, Asdrubael Vect witnessed the Fall of the Aeldari, placing his age at over 10,000 years.

Malys leads the Poison Tongue and is Vect’s greatest rival. She’s often interpreted as a progressive force in contrast to Vect’s stagnant rule (as the supreme leader, any change would threaten his power) and the reactionary ambitions of the old Aeldari nobility, who wish to restore the “glory days” when they ruled all Aeldari.

Adding to that, Malys has the heart of Cegorach, the Laughing God —making her a strong candidate for a tie-in with the Harlequins. She’s a character with potential, beyond being a one-off relase. If explored more deeply, she could drive changes not only for the Drukhari but possibly even the Harlequins as well. But I guess, that is expecting too much from GW.

And on a simpler note, she’s considered a “new” unit—at least in the sense that her most recent rules date back to 5th edition. Drukhari players aren’t exactly used to getting new units; in fact, the last real addition to their roster was also back in 5th edition, as far as I remember.

And to represent that awesomeness? I predict she'll be a t3, w5, character with a ++ save that's inexplicably worse than a basic Archon. Oh and some sort of Fights First ability - that only works if she's leading a unit.

ccs wrote:
And to represent that awesomeness? I predict she'll be a t3, w5, character with a ++ save that's inexplicably worse than a basic Archon. Oh and some sort of Fights First ability - that only works if she's leading a unit.

Five wounds? That’s optimistic—Lelith only has four.
As for her abilities, I’d expect the standard two. One will likely be a variant of Master of Deceit, the Captain in Phobos Armor's ability, since that closely mirrors her 5th edition rule, just adapted for Marines. The other ability tied to leading a unit, will be, in the worst case, feel no pain against psychic attacks. Back in 5th edition, she made her entire unit completely immune to all psychic powers.

I hate to be a negative Nancy, but if there is any truth at all to how the model was acquired, then there is a slim chance it might never be a production model.

I'd wager being a random sprue in a pile it could be a factory cast off or failure box, or just the spares that were meant to do into recycling etc.

There's no guarantee it's from a release pile or box, they may have chosen not to mass produce this one.

Dudeface wrote:
I hate to be a negative Nancy, but if there is any truth at all to how the model was acquired, then there is a slim chance it might never be a production model.

I'd wager being a random sprue in a pile it could be a factory cast off or failure box, or just the spares that were meant to do into recycling etc.

There's no guarantee it's from a release pile or box, they may have chosen not to mass produce this one.

At the very least, they’ve made a mold, as far as I know their prototypes are 3D printed. Plastic molds are quite expensive, so reaching this stage already represents a significant investment. I’m not sure how often GW scraps a model once it gets this far, but I’d imagine it doesn’t happen too often... then again, who knows.

GW makes moulds for the free models they give away in stores each month. The prices really aren't that prohibitive.

This isn't the first time an unreleased or unannounced model has made its way into an order erroneously. There's no reason to believe that this one is any different, although the way Dark Eldar have been treated I can appreciate being skeptical until GW makes it official.

Which they might. Hopefully GW reacts to it with a reveal article.

 Geifer wrote:
This isn't the first time an unreleased or unannounced model has made its way into an order erroneously. There's no reason to believe that this one is any different, although the way Dark Eldar have been treated I can appreciate being skeptical until GW makes it official.

Which they might. Hopefully GW reacts to it with a reveal article.

It's different in that it hasn't come from a GW order.

Discount Dracula wrote:
At the very least, they’ve made a mold, as far as I know their prototypes are 3D printed. Plastic molds are quite expensive, so reaching this stage already represents a significant investment. I’m not sure how often GW scraps a model once it gets this far, but I’d imagine it doesn’t happen too often... then again, who knows.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
GW makes moulds for the free models they give away in stores each month. The prices really aren't that prohibitive.

Plastic injection molds are typically made from high-quality steel and are expected to be used for around 100,000 cycles. For lower-volume casts (like limited event models) GW will use aluminium molds that require less tooling time & cheaper material, but only last for 5,000-10,000 cycles.

While costs have come down substantially compared to a decade or two ago, steel molds are still a major investment. We know that GW use 3D print prototyping to review new models and often paint them before the final mold is ready. It's highly likely that once a kit has reached the plastics stage GW have a plan in place to release it and recoup their costs.

My best theory for this case is that this is a model originally planned for Arks of Omen (as discussed above), but held back before going into full production (either just before or just after the injection mold was tooled).

Then either:
a) It is now being actively produced for a release later this year and as part of that someone in the warehouse has misplaced the sprues; likely dropping some in the wrong tote/stillage. The minimum-wage staff doing picking & packing are unlikely to notice things like that.
b) Studio staff had pre-release copies of this model and sold it on with others they recieved for free

So do we reckon we’ll get a “oh no, not again’ emergency reveal today?

GW are normally pretty swift, unless there’s an upcoming reveals show.

As for those pondering whether Dark Eldar might get more? Remember that Fuegan got a similar leak treatment, and was just the tip of a pretty solid iceberg for Craftworlds.

Dudeface wrote:
I hate to be a negative Nancy, but if there is any truth at all to how the model was acquired, then there is a slim chance it might never be a production model.

There isn't. Dante was acquired from "a car boot sale", too.

xttz wrote: My best theory for this case is that this is a model originally planned for Arks of Omen (as discussed above), but held back before going into full production (either just before or just after the injection mold was tooled).

Then either:
a) It is now being actively produced for a release later this year and as part of that someone in the warehouse has misplaced the sprues; likely dropping some in the wrong tote/stillage. The minimum-wage staff doing picking & packing are unlikely to notice things like that.
b) Studio staff had pre-release copies of this model and sold it on with others they recieved for free

Or, C) GW knows what it’s doing and is seeding these out to randoms deliberately (a wee tug on our collective Douglas)

Or or D) RANDOMER MY FOOT! And those showing them off on Reddit are GW employees, with GW’s knowledge, consent and direction, to do so, again to give us a wee tug on our collective Douglas.

 RaptorusRex wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
I hate to be a negative Nancy, but if there is any truth at all to how the model was acquired, then there is a slim chance it might never be a production model.

There isn't. Dante was acquired from "a car boot sale", too.

Nope, he was sent out incorrect in a GW direct order


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

xttz wrote: My best theory for this case is that this is a model originally planned for Arks of Omen (as discussed above), but held back before going into full production (either just before or just after the injection mold was tooled).

Then either:
a) It is now being actively produced for a release later this year and as part of that someone in the warehouse has misplaced the sprues; likely dropping some in the wrong tote/stillage. The minimum-wage staff doing picking & packing are unlikely to notice things like that.
b) Studio staff had pre-release copies of this model and sold it on with others they recieved for free

Or, C) GW knows what it’s doing and is seeding these out to randoms deliberately (a wee tug on our collective Douglas)

Or or D) RANDOMER MY FOOT! And those showing them off on Reddit are GW employees, with GW’s knowledge, consent and direction, to do so, again to give us a wee tug on our collective Douglas.

I'm 50% Douglas genetically, so I'm curious what it is that's an euphemism for? I'm near the window and ready to defenestrate just in case.

 RaptorusRex wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
I hate to be a negative Nancy, but if there is any truth at all to how the model was acquired, then there is a slim chance it might never be a production model.

There isn't. Dante was acquired from "a car boot sale", too.

Look, if Honest Tony says that Dante just fell into his pocket at a 'car boot sale', and Jimmy The Fence backs up his story, who am I to question it?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
So do we reckon we’ll get a “oh no, not again’ emergency reveal today?

GW are normally pretty swift, unless there’s an upcoming reveals show.

As for those pondering whether Dark Eldar might get more? Remember that Fuegan got a similar leak treatment, and was just the tip of a pretty solid iceberg for Craftworlds.

Didn't we already have rumors of an Eldar refresh before that, though? Haven't heard of any for the DE, so I'm more inclined to believe she's gonna be part of some random "Versus" boxset

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

We are excited because we havent gotten much love since 5th edition. The new models (while small) still hold up (current archon is meh time for a new one GW)

In 6th edition they removed 5 characters
Vect, Lady M (pictured here), Duke Sliscus (another archon that likes Drugs), Baron Sathonyx (hellion leader), and the Decapitator (mandrake HQ). None of the 6 of us dark eldar players were very happy

They also removed the Dias of destruction (vects ride) which while old they had a model for

They gave us 1 grotesque sculpt, the court, and beasts, that have since been removed from sale since they were in fine cast

Since then they have upgraded characters we got in 5th to plastic, made Lilith snarl, and generally ignored us. Anything new is welcome so they can ignore us for ~20 years again.

Valrak rumour vid today:

End of edition campaign probably based around Pariah Nexus with Imperial, Chaos, Necron involvement.
Necrons: Nightbringer & Trazyn models
Vashtorr will get some chaos 'creations'. Probably not a full new faction

I hope they just update the Nightmodel to plastic rather than a remodel. If it's a remodel they'll probably add a bunch of pointless gribblies and make it stand on a rock instead of surfing scarabs.

I really don't like GW's current design philosophy, everything looks busy and overdone to me. As if the model artist just didn't know when to stop modelling and kept adding more and more details.

Havik110 wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'm not really familiar with the Dark Eldar. Who is the Lady, and why is everyone so excited to see her?

We are excited because we havent gotten much love since 5th edition. The new models (while small) still hold up (current archon is meh time for a new one GW)

In 6th edition they removed 5 characters
Vect, Lady M (pictured here), Duke Sliscus (another archon that likes Drugs), Baron Sathonyx (hellion leader), and the Decapitator (mandrake HQ). None of the 6 of us dark eldar players were very happy

They also removed the Dias of destruction (vects ride) which while old they had a model for

They gave us 1 grotesque sculpt, the court, and beasts, that have since been removed from sale since they were in fine cast

Since then they have upgraded characters we got in 5th to plastic, made Lilith snarl, and generally ignored us. Anything new is welcome so they can ignore us for ~20 years again.

You’ve also got that incubi character and the incubi and then mandrakes via killteam.

None of those are new though, just model refreshes for existing characters / units.

Havik110 wrote:
They also removed the Dias of destruction (vects ride) which while old they had a model for

In fairness, if you're resculpting the Raider & Ravager, then removing the Dias makes sense - though it (and Vect) should've returned by now.