Readying Eldar for 10th Edition – The Story So Far
The release of 10th edition Warhammer 40k is about a month away at the time of writing. I want to have an army ready for that release. The catch is that I sell my painted miniatures as fast as a create them. One of my little income streams is painting miniatures to sell, see here for the store page.
Due to these sales, at the time of writing, I do not quite have a large enough army to play for myself. I think the Eldar that I have in stock is the nearest to being a playable army at the moment. So this is the faction I will focus on readying for the launch of 10th edition.
Taking Stock of My Wargame Ready Craftworld Miniatures
What follows is a snapshot of what I have fully painted right now. It will not include any Dark Eldar, only Craftworld Eldar. I feel a pure army without allied factions will be better until the new 10th edition rules are well understood. Keep it simple.
Each unit will presented with its base points cost using 7th edition rules. This is the last edition I am familiar with. Of course 10th edition will value these units differently. I just want a rough idea of the strength of the forces I have right now.
All, or almost all, of these units are still for sale in my shop. This means at any time some could sell and I will be short, but I am loath to take them down. I will just have to take the chance that they will not sell before I get a chance to use them.
Five Oldhammer Rangers
These lads are the only Troop class I have at the moment. 60 points.
Five Oldhammer Striking Scorpions
These are an early experiment in painting coloured metallics. The metallic sheen of the green is not well captured in the photo. The odd yellow one in the middle was painted for my critique of the ‘eavy metal style of highlighting. See here for that article and video. The yellow one will count as an exarch.
95 points.
Five Fire Dragons
120 points.
Eight More Fire Dragons
The tall one here will count as an exarch. 186 points.
Five Wraithguard
In contrast to most of the rest of my painted eldar, these bois are in plastic. They are painted in Alaitoc colours.
210 points.
Eleven Dark Reapers
These would best be split up into three units. Two units of three models and one unit of five with exarch. Total points, 290 points.
War Walker
The only vehicle in the force is this Eldar War Walker in Alaitoc colours. This war walker has the advantage of having every single possible weapon option magnetised, including duplicates. Minimum of 60 points.
Warlock
This old metal warlock is the only HQ choice I have painted currently. He is armed with a singing spear so, 40 points.
The Starter Force
Adding together all the points for this starter force we get 1061 points, a small but respectable army. It is light on troops, HQs and vehicles but runs heavy on aspect warriors. Of course the Eldar lean elite so it does not take too many models to make a viable force.
What I have here will probably not be competitive as it is just composed of whatever is left on the shelf after everything else I painted has sold.
Expanding The Force Further
I will now have a bit of a think on how to expand this force further. I still have plenty of suitable models in my pile of shame so there is no need to buy more just yet.
Unassembled and Unpainted in Pile of Shame
What follows is a from-memory list of all the Craftworld Eldar kits and models in my pile of shame.
- 1 unit of Eldar Guardians with Storm Guardian upgrade bits
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 2 Cobras
- 1 Vyper
- 1 unit of Howling Banshees (plastic), one or two extra ones in old metal
- 5-10 metal Swooping Hawks
- 2 units of 5 metal Warp Spiders including exarchs
- 5 or so old metal rangers (battered)
- Plastic Jain Zar
- Metal Maugan Ra
- Metal Baharroth
- Possibly another metal Warlock
There is plenty there for filling the vehicle and HQ options that the starter force is a bit short. It might be wise to prioritise knocking out some more troop choices too.
Final Thoughts
So it turns out I do have a small force ready for 10th edition. What do you think I should prioritise to expand it further?
Share this article to my twitter @SolarCrossGames or my reddit community r/SolarCrossGames and let’s chat about it.
