Colossal New 40k Project: Biel Tan Dark Eldar!

Successful Tau Exodus

The vast majority of my Tau force has been sacrificed to the ebay gods...I am sure it's for the greater good. Thanks to any readers who made a purchase, it has been vastly more successful than I imagined. The army is mostly gone now but there are still some items up for sale if anyone is still interested. Tau Empire Ebay

Thanks to this I have been able to fund a vast new project that will be occupying me over the coming months. I have decided to delve into the glass cannon army known as the Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar Purchase List

I have planned this force carefully which is a first. I took some time chatting with people from various places around the internet trying ascertain what is currently competitive and what won't be sitting on shelf when I finally start having some tabletop battles. Fortunately, the competitive lists seem to match up very closely with the units I simply want to buy for painting pleasure. From what I understand so far, Dark Eldar at there best at the moment is effectively a highly mobile gunline, with a few options for close combat if you really want.

I am very taken by the idea of a mobile gunline. Especially with the onset of 7th Edition maelstrom missions where you need to have fast and flexible troops for capping different objectives throughout a game this army makes a lot of sense to me. At the same time they are not really renowned for cheesy builds or particularly overpowered units either. This makes them even more appealing.

Lastly there are rumours of a update release for this army near the end of the year so this is good timing to get painting. I am especially hopful for the rumour around a Blood Angels vs Dark Eldar boxed set in vein of the recent Stormclaw release from Games Workshop.

So I have started with is:

• 2x Battleforce (each contains a squad of Kabalites, Wyches, Reavers and a Raider)
• 4x Venom
• 2x Ravager
• 1x Razorwing
• Ebay parts for an Archon conversion

The Razorwing chassis looks so tantalising but I am resisting and getting on with some troops to begin with. Which leads me into the next important topic...

Colour Scheme - Biel Tan Dark Eldar

You are reading correct. I am going to use a craftworld colour scheme. I have always loved the Biel Tan colour scheme and have had a desire to try it out on the naturally thorny, spiky looking dark eldar models for some time now.

I'll be going for a more weathered style than the super clean eldar look. Lots of battered, worn look vehicles.

The above images from the 'A Galaxy at War' GW book really captures my imagination. I'd like to have a stab at doing some free hand thorns on vehicles too but only if I am confident I can make them look good.

I'll be working on a backstory soon. I'd like to find a good fluffy way of reconciling the connection of this Kabal with Biel Tan roots but I need to learn a bit more about both the factions backgrounds to make this conceivable. I think it helps that the Biel Tan craftworld are already regarded as exceedingly warlike and sport a superior attitude. It will be easier to describe a splinter faction that have evolved more dark eldar behaviour from this initial warlike attitude. This will also make it very easy to expand into Eldar allies in the future which is something I'd very much like to do.

Will it Work?

I'd like to hear from you about this new project idea! 

Let me know if you think this craftworld/Dark Eldar mash up will work or if it's just a silly idea.