Byron's Introduction - Eälindor's Reaver Corps.

Eälindor's Reaver Corps.  - Eldar Pirates

This coming OWAC I plan to paint Eldar Pirates. There's a lot to cover in this introduction, so I will provide a quick roadmap before jumping in. First, I will start with the inspiration for my project, discuss my my color scheme ideas, and then end with a list of all the minis I plan to paint. 

First a picture of my scratch-built Wave Serpent/Raider hybrid. (For the thumbnail and because I am proud of my trash-made vehicle)

Inspiration

The ultimate inspiration for this project comes from Space Fleet. A few years back, a friend hosted a game of Space Fleet at a local convention that he hosts. I was hooked. I quickly acquired the three factions, Eldar, Imperials, and Tyranids. The Eldar fleet I painted first.

The Eldar Fleet rules for Space Fleet only included 2 types of ships, Wraithships and Shadow Hunters. I tracked some of those down. Then found that they made Nightwings for Epic and added some of those. A close up of one of my nightwing fighters.

One of my Wraithships came in sorry shape, so I heavily converted it to look like it was being torn apart by a torpedo and breaking up. I gave this ship an ill-fated name after the scenario at the end of the 3rd ed WFB rulebook.

Wanting to expand my fleet more, I looked for other contemporary references and found the counters for Doom of the Eldar. These counters included the nightwings, shadowhunters, wraithships and one more ship that I hadn't see any mini for, the Ghostdragon. 

The Ghostdragon appeared similar to a concept sketch by Jes Goodwin in WD 119, the "Super-Battleship or Carrier"

So, I had to build one! Below is my WIP Ghost dragon. I plan to finish it during OWAC. I think I will call it the Caledor.

This is a picture of my ghost dragon before I started painting it. Here you can see all of the bits I pulled together to build it as well as my putty work:

1. 2 Wraithships

2. 2 Epic Wave Serpents

3. An epic Eldar Titan

4. A library card cut into a big sail

Okay, so all of that is to say that I was getting really into Eldar Pirates, when I organized a local swap meet and found myself with the opportunity to trade for a bunch of RT era Eldar. Now, at this time I didn't own a single 40k mini but decided to take the plunge due to my Space Fleet collection. 

Now, I have this collection of Eldar, what do I do with them? Soon after this I decided to get my kids into Warhammer by buying minis from the old Macragge starter set since I had heard 4th was a simple edition. But, there are no Eldar Pirates in 4th edition. My first stab was to use the 3rd edition Dark Eldar as Pirate Eldar - basically I tried to line up RT Eldar with entries in the Dark Eldar book. This worked pretty well, but it resulted in some compromises. 

I remembered the EPIC Wave Serpent mini that I purchased for the Ghostdragon and I really liked its quirky design. I had to have one in my army, but it didn't quite match the functionality of the DE raider. The DE raider is a lightly armored and open topped vehicle with side platforms from which warriors can disembark.

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 So I crafted this compromise between the two. It has the general shape and form of a wave serpent, except that it has disembarkation platforms on the side like a raider. 

More RT/DE Inspiration

This image of Eldar with some sort of shoulder mounted weapon (can someone ID what it is in the comments??) appears in the RT rulebook.

So I converted a handful of Eldar to have shoulder-mounted Lascannons (note the choice of Hex bases because, in Warhammer history, they are relatively (I think AD&D and maybe LotR may have used them too) unique to the RT period.)

In WD 119, Jes Goodwin shared sketches of Eldar Pirate crewmembers. The two details I latched onto were the helmet tassels and the breather tubes. If I had an infinite amount of time I might have considered the gloves, bandoliers, and spats as well. 

Here is an example of a converted space elf with breather tube and helmet tassel. Nearly all of the helmeted space elves got this basic conversion work one. 

Early RT Eldar also feature Standard Bearers

As well as the early advertisements. 

I didn't have the original backpack banner so I had to improvise a new one out  of a toothpick and green stuff. The WD Space Fleet articles about flag ships include an icon for the Eldar Flag ship. I recreated this icon by hand for the top of the standard.

You can see the triple Yin Yang icon on the banner on the far right. 

A final detail in the army is that I have tried to purge my army of obvious aspect warriors. Many of my aspect warriors have had their heads swapped. This way they appear more like a ragtag army of Eldar rather than units of stylized warriors. Some of the heads looked too difficult to removed, so they've been left. But enough are swapped that no single unit remains in aspect form.

Anywho, Jump forward a few months of playing with the kids, and I ended up making a RT-inspired Eldar Pirate mini-codex for 4th edition. The codex is filled with references to the Pirate Eldar list in the book of the Astronomican. For the purposes of OWAC I will do my best to record my progress using RT era points and names, but I also want to be transparent about how I have been playing with them. 

Color Scheme

My planned color scheme isn't terribly inventive. Basically, I want my pirates to match my fleet. So this means that they will be grey-blue armor panels, lime green helmets, and with scarlet to denote weapons/danger bits. I want to use dark navy for their jump suits and give them dark blue mail where they have it. 

Since they are Pirates, I think I will go with the traditional scheme of painting their helmets with dark wiggles/flames/tiger stripes

Now, The Minis

I have a handful of shoulder-mounted Lascannons. I know that even in RT that Eldar use weapons platforms. However, having shoulder-mounted weapons felt more old school, like the monopose missile launcher marines  that came with the 2nd edition starter set, or the plastic guard kit with shoulder-mounted heavy weapons. These will bolster my Warrior Squads.

Next, I have 3 Eldar with Shuriken cannons. I'm not sure how these would be fielded in RT. But shuriken cannons were a staple by 2nd edition. 

These are my close combat troops that I will field as a Falcon Squad. They are mostly a combination of Harlequins and Striking Scorpions that have been modded (at least the Scorpions have been). There is also a wych whose head has been replaced with a dire avenger helmet and equipped with a more recent pistol and sword bit. 

These are my Eldar Warriors. A mixed matched group of guardians, space elves, a ranger, a Dark Eldar, some weapons platform crew, swooping hawks etc. Their heads have been swapped around and they carry an assortment of lasguns, shuriken catapults, and splinter rifles. 

Next, there are my Razorwings. Functionally they are identical to scourges or Eldar with jump packs and multilasers. They are a mix of Dark Eldar scourges, swooping hawks, and other RT eldar with wings.

The Lochiarch (the analog for Sybarites) for the unit is a heavily converted Scourge Sybarite. They've been given a gender swap, an RT helmet, pistol swapped from right to left hand, given a power sword, and swapped their DE wings for the Swooping Hawk exarch wings.

Eldar Baggage Train

For a while I've been mildly obsessed with the idea of a RT baggage train. Baggage trains seem like a quintessential oldhammer element and I want to carry that over to RT and my pirates. I assume they have to have some way to load their plunder and manage their stowage. 

So I converted a wraithlord thingy into a Wraithdrone cargo bot. I swapped his upper arms with his thighs. This made him much shorter and made his arms gangly - making him must less graceful. I swapped his left hand for a grav weapon platform piece that loos like a clamp. I put a spoon on his back as a bin to carry cargo. He's been fairly heavily converted.

Next, I wanted something like a wagon or a pick-up truck. I thought the war walker was a weird mini with the pilot jutting out front, so I applied that same arrangement to a little hover truck. It's made from a mix of bits, an old debit card, and a hair tie. 

I am happy that the trunk is big enough to slot a standard base into the back. Those sorts of details and versatility just makes me happy. 

Camp followers. I made a handful of camp followers using blood bowl elves. I put random Eldar bits in their hands so now instead of being catchers they are loaders. I also made a random pile of bits to act as stowage. I am happy that this bit of stowage can fit in the pick-up truck to be hauled about. 

Points/Army Composition

Army Composition in Rogue Trader

The Rogue Trader rulebook doesn't have force composition rules. However, there is some reference for armies from that era. In the Book of the Astronomican there is an Eldar Pirate Army list. This list is designed for a force that is 1,500 to 2,000 points. Leaders, Squads, and Support are each given a range of points that can be allocated to them. These translate to the following fractions of points:

Leaders: 25-66% of the army

Squads: 30-100% of the army

Support: 0-60% of the army

This compares to 2nd edition Eldar:

Characters: 1-50% of the army

Squads: 25%+

Support: 0-50%

Harlequins: 0-50%

Leaders

Pelagarch - Eldar Major Hero w/ conversion field, mesh armor, power sword, las pistol, level 1 psyker abilities, 3 level 1 abilities, psi level 10 = 170.5 pts

Farseer - Eldar Minor hero w/ conversion field, power weapon, level 4 psyker abilities, 3 lvl 1 abilities, 3 lvl 2 abilities, 2 lvl 3 abilities, 2 lvl 4 abilities, psi level 35 = 260 pts

Warlock - Eldar Minor hero w/ conversion field, power weapon, las pistol, level 2 psyker abilities, 3 lvl 1 abilities, 3 lvl 2 abilities, psi level 20 = 102.5 pts

Falcon Squad Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, Chainsword and las pistol = 14.5 pts

Razor Wing Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, jump pack, power sword and las pistol x1 = 22 pts

Sub-total: 569.5 (36%)

Squads

Warrior Squads

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and Las Cannons x 6 = 333 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and heavy bolters x 3 = 76.5 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and shuriken catapults x 10 = 125 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and lasguns x 5 = 60 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and autogun x 1 = 12 pts

Falcon Squad

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, hand weapons and las pistols x 6 = 69 pts

Razor Wing Squad

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, jump pack, heavy heavy bolters x 4 =  110 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor field, jump pack, lasgun x1 = 14 pts

Sub-total:764.5 (48%)

Support 

Wave Serpent (grav attack tank, with increased capacity, swapped weapons for a single las cannon, -2 damage, and only a 6+ save.) = 240 pts (15%)

Non-point extras

Space pickup truck

Wraithdrone

Stevedores

Standard bearer

Musician

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Total 1609 pts

Stretch Goals

In addition to all the models I have prepped I also have a heap of additional eldar minis. There is a mix of warriors, close combat troops (Falcon and Crotalid squads), and a few support weapons like flamers.

Finally, I have this thing. It's the base to the kids' broken toy telescope. I thought it had an Eldar vibe and could make some basic terrain like an HQ or outpost of some sort. We'll see.