William's Wargames

Though like most I had some Space Marines knocking around to use as a force in Rogue Trader, it’s a common tenet that for any niche game you need to provide an oppoisng force, so to go against my marines in 28mm RT/RS, I have decided to look at an Eldar Pirate list. This style of eldar pre-dates Craftworld Eldar as well as Dark Eldar, and contains a mixture of both.

I always admired Eldar, but never had the cash flow to buy them, and then they all went a bit funny with Vyper Jetbikes and odd plastic tanks. The only evidence of my early Eldar enjoyment is a 3rd edition Dark Eldar ‘conversion’ of a RT Wraithlord:

In typical RT fashion the list is not in the main rulebook, and instead in the ‘Warhammer: 40,000 – Book of the Astronomicon’ compilation, but shakes out roughly as follows:

• Prefector (94pts)
• 2x Probati (50pts)
• 2x Serpent Squads of 5 Eldar w/ Melta Gun, Flamer (238pts)
• Dragon Squad of 5 Eldar w/ Heavy Plasma Gun and Frag Grenades (188pts)
• Zoat Terror Squad w/ Multi-Melta (341pts)
• Eldar Dreadnought Spirit Walker (350pts)

The figures are still in progress, but are looking the part – I particularly like the little-head Dreadnought:

The Zoats are an interesting choice for Eldar Pirates, and it’s not entirely clear to me the reason by their inclusion in the list yet, but I painted up the models for an upcoming game of Squad Weirdos, and I think they look nice:

It’s going to be a challenge to ensure the special weapons and characters are easily identifiable in the standard Eldar squads, and I’d rather not buy more miniatures unless absolutely neccesary as individuals are incredibly inflated in price – but this should be a fine force for games of RT/2nd and small-scale skirmish games like Renegade Scout, Space Weirdos, Planet28, etc.

I played these in a game of Squad Weirdos – not at all like Rogue Trader but at least the figures have hit the table against a live opponent!

Much like my marines, these need painting at some point, but with no emphasis on 28mm right now, it’s not a priority.