The intention of this article
To create an army with a unique feel and mechanic, while retaining the Eldar aspect of fragility and firepower.
This army is intended to be something of a high-tech clan or tribe, an unholy combination between plasma and tipi.
What the intention is not is to make an army capable of mechanization.
Beastiary
The Exodites are a hunter-gatherer society by choice, they live on maiden worlds at the edge of the galaxy, usually in zones relatively free of conflict. On these maiden worlds, they have moved herds of what the Eldar call dragons. A human seeing these dragons would be more likely to call them lizards, dinosaurs, or maybe even confuse them with Tyranids! While dragons are not all that the Eldar on the Exodite worlds handle, they are the most eye catching.
The herd
All beasts the Eldar bring to war to which fight on their own are of the carnivorous kind, not seldom utterly insipid as far as intelligence goes, and tend to be utterly loyal to the Eldar handlers. Should a herd find itself without an Eldar master, they will be subject to Rage.
Dragons
All dragons are carnivorous lizards, and most of them can be used as mounts by particularly skilled Eldar. A dragon mount will confer an increase in the rider's toughness by 1 similar to a jet-bike, but will otherwise not differ from the standard cavalry rules. The dragon and rider are treated as two separate models for all purposes, but should a mount fall and die, the rider is treated like a casualty as well.
Rippers are small, aggressive, lizards, usually about the size of rabbits. These creatures form a symbiosis with the much larger serpents as caretakers of the nest and egg, and in return have a home where the myriad of eggs and vulnerable young are kept safe.
Raptors are bipedal creatures, larger than a horse, with a vicious maw, domesticated as mounts and are almost as common as horses mostly due to the morbid humor only an Eldar will understand.
Serpent are monstrous quadrupeds, usually winged, and truly fearsome creatures capable of eating a human in a single bite. Serpents are rare and treasured creatures of each clan, usually with near-sentience they are less domesticated animals and more friends of the Eldar clans.
Mammals
Not all of the Exodite beastiary are dragons, most domestic creatures are mammals, these include pets and food-stock.
Horses are nearly exactly the same, if different breeds, as you might find on more rural human worlds. Horses are the favoured mounts of the Exodites for two reasons; they are easy to domesticate but mainly they don't try to eat a rider they aren't used to.
Skags are often mistaken for wolves at a distance, but are much larger with a distinct alien look. A skag is a carnivore and a pack animal through and through. The domesticated breed which are common among the Eldar fill the same basic functions as dogs do among humans, with the exception that they are a bit more lethal when they decide to bite something.
Technology
The Exodites are under a generation long self-imposed exile from the Eldar society. It is a tribal society rich in culture, but also have the anomaly of having access to some of the most advanced weaponry and manufacturing techniques in the galaxy. Compared with the stature of the dragons, the Exodites are small and need to put this technology in use to survive and prosper. Titans are common on exodite worlds, as far as titans go, although they are extremely valuable family vehicles used for farming rather than warfare. Likewise, the exodites are capable of the production of the full range of technology the Craftworld kin use - the biggest difference being that the exodites do not keep an industry for it's purpose and as such tend to focus towards the higher-yield manufacture of weapon, particularly infantry weapons, and rely on the skill of the users and the dragons to make up for the lack of armoured vehicles.
Weapons
This section is mostly a stub. Just trying to plot down roughly what you can expect in this army.
Shuriken Catapult
Shuriken Cannon
Longrifle
Fusion Gun
Vehicles
This section is mostly a stub. Just trying to pinpoint what sort of vehicles (if any) these Eldar would use
Eldar Jetbike
These jetbikes tend to not have any under-slung weapons, the rider tend to be the one carrying them.
Wargear
This section is a stub. It will be filled as inspiration and new units need gear.
Force organization
Until this section is fully fleshed out, it'll just contain a rough description of the units. The basic Exodite stat-line is improved over the CWE.
HQ
Clan Elder.
Psycher, support character.
Clan Chieftain.
Warleader, army general.
Beastmaster.
Combatant, can mount the largest dragons or lead ripper swarms.
Elites
Harlequin Troupes.
Exactly like in CWE
Dragonkin.
Somewhat like jetbike firedragons. Mainly for anti-tank.
Troops
Clansmen
Similar to Guardians. Infiltrate. Can upgrade some weapons to slightly heavier versions like Shuriken Cannon, Longrifles or Fusion Guns.
Mounted Clansmen
Storm Guardians on horses! Has unit-wide access to more exotic close-combat weapons.
Skag Pack
Consist of 3-5 clansmen and 5-10 skags.
Fast Attack
Outriders
Shooty clansmen on jetbikes.
Yet-to-be-named winged dragon rider
Smaller than serpents, tend towards shooty.
Heavy Support
Raptor Herd.
Each herd consist of 3-10 raptors. Each raptor may be upgraded with a Huntsman, the first three have huntsmen riders. Each huntsman may have exotic close-combat weaponry.
Serpent
Serpents are monstrous creatures which can breathe fire. They may be upgraded with wings. They have a huntsman mounted on them who can be given exotic ranged weapons.
Strengths and weaknesses
The list has a clear strength in melee and close range shooting. The list is perhaps a bit excessively weak in terms of anti-vehicle (the sort of vehicle you want to keep away). The troop choices are soft and squishy, making objective-holding hard. Something will have to be devised...
