Natives Theme

Hi all, I'm Le Pistolet, I'm new to the forums, Dark Eldar, and indeed, Warhammer 40K.

I have played fantasy for over 13 years however, so I'm not a n00b to the hobby in any respect. However, I have got a little bored of the Fantasy world and am considering moving over to 40K in light of the 6th Edition being round the corner.

When considering armies, I liked the Dark Eldar playstyle a lot, it reminded me of back in the day when I played Wood Elves several years ago (before they got hit with the nerfbat). However, I am not a huge fan of the BDSM, gimp mask and nippleclamp wearing style of the Dark Eldar, so have been thinking of a way of taking their rules but making them more aesthetically pleasing to me.

Taking inspiration from both my old, sold Wood Elf army and my love of Native American culture, I am considering making a tribal Dark Eldar army, based on a group of Natives repelling all Xenos, Imperials etc from their home planet. Although I greatly disliked the film, for ease of thinking about this, imagine Avatar, but without Pochontas references, and blue hissing cat people...

Basically my question for all of you is how should I go about this? I am considering using the Webway Portal to represent some kind of ambushing skill the natives have adapted. I am thinking the army will be based around Wyches and close combat, but with some support from light arms fire (techno-bows!). I want to emphasises the Guerrila warfare the natives will employ.

I also want to include some cool flying beast of burden to represent my Raiders, but I can't find any suitable miniatures in any ranges that look alien enough and are big enough to look like 10 natives could cling to them somehow.

I want this thread to be some kind of ideas pot, so post any models, suggestions, unit choices, etc that might be useful, I want to get brainstorming and develop this idea into something more realistic...

A "counts as" DE army? er...

I have to say, your idea displeases me (and may not sit well with a few people here, as between the BDSM costumes our awesome line of models wear, and the backstory the DE hold are what draws and keeps people to this race, usually...)

Now for some advice, so I dont sound like a total butt...

I think that backstory wise, and playstyle wise, you may want to look more at the craftworld eldar (traditional eldar, or just eldar). They definitely have more of a "tribal, native american feel" with the way that their phoenix lords work, and the fact that they can call upon their ancestors spirits to protect them and give them guidance... and they will probably be getting a update in 6th.

If you want to play some real underdogs, you can go for the kroot as well (a jungle themed native-esque race in the tau codex). From the Tau codex, you can make pretty much a whole kroot army! (if i remember right) And if your play group is friendly enough, and doesnt mind some outside stuff, there's a official (i think) kroot codex as well, just search for it online...

If you really want to go with DE however, you can look at the tyranid harridan for your giant flying beast, as I think it has similar dimensions to the razorwing jet fighter.



Theres also the kroot hounds and squigs (that you can substitute for some of the beasts in a beastmaster unit)





and the kroots great knarloc, which seems to be about the size of a venom...



Krootox could replace your skyboards



And Eldar swooping hawks, or MAYBE vespids might make a suitable replacement for scourges






>.>... or you could just glue some wings on a kroot...

check out exodites eldar in fluff sites (like lexicanium) and see if you are looking for more along that lines. They are pretty much Eldar who have settled on a planet, and just kick people off whenever they try and colonize it.

Now personally I think Craftworld Eldar codex would better suite Exodites, but our DE codex wouldnt be too bad. You would have a ton of beasts to choose from, and come to think of it either terradons from the Lizardmen range or Great Eagles or Warhawks would be nice for venom substitutes (depending if you want pure Exodite which are dino rider style with freaking lazors!!!!!, or some WE in space theme) As for bigger craft... maybe get some stegadons for Ravagers... but i dont know how you would explain them moving so fast

Also check out this Predator themed army and maybe it will give you some ideas

I would definitely suggest that you consider an Exodite theme. Here is a basic description from Lexicanum about how they evolved from traditional eldar society at the time of the Fall:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exodite#.T8Zxb2NrZY0

Quote :

Soon the general collapse of society convinced even the most resolute amongst them that the only end to the steady decline would be in a terrible collapse. Some decided to leave the Eldar worlds, and settle new planets far from Eldar civilization. They were the ones still untainted by the touch of Chaos, and by now they were few. These Eldar are known as the Exodites.

The Exodites purposefully settled worlds where life would be hard. Those among the original Exodites came from all levels of Eldar society, but all were united in their powerful determination to survive. Eventually a new form of society took shape. The Exodites divided into clans each led by a warrior elite. When the Fall came, the Exodite worlds were untouched.

The Exodite Worlds are generally considered backward and rustic compared to the rest of the space-roaming Eldar although they still possess a good deal of high technology.

Ruke's and Shadows' suggestions are solid and there are many other Exodite resources on the web - fandexes, modelling ideas, etc.

Be careful with fandexes though, you don't want to make your army unplayable in tournaments, or just at your local game shop. Your best bet would be to look at the tau, eldar, and dark eldar codexes, figure out which one fits your idea for your army the best (though I would bet it's CWE), and then used Exodite modeling resources (those fandexes, and other people mods, etc...) to help you design a nice looking efficient army...

Shadows Revenge wrote:

check out exodites eldar in fluff sites (like lexicanium) and see if you are looking for more along that lines. They are pretty much Eldar who have settled on a planet, and just kick people off whenever they try and colonize it.

Now personally I think Craftworld Eldar codex would better suite Exodites, but our DE codex wouldnt be too bad. You would have a ton of beasts to choose from, and come to think of it either terradons from the Lizardmen range or Great Eagles or Warhawks would be nice for venom substitutes (depending if you want pure Exodite which are dino rider style with freaking lazors!!!!!, or some WE in space theme) As for bigger craft... maybe get some stegadons for Ravagers... but i dont know how you would explain them moving so fast

Also check out this Predator themed army and maybe it will give you some ideas

+1 to this, Exodite Eldar are essentially 'feral' Eldar who eschew most technology because they think it caused the fall or something like that. If craft world Eldar are the high elves of 40k and DE are the dark elves then exodites are the wood elves, figuring out cool ways to theme your force will be challenging though, it's going to be difficult to translate some aspects of dark Eldar society to an Exodite theme, I'm especially thinking the haemonculi stuff and webway portals etc.

Harlequins would also be a good fit, but I'm not sure how to get them to work without a portal.

I think 'count as' armies are awesome and really make for some cool conversion work. The using Portals as some sort of ambush set up (maybe an underground tunnel) or something is cool. I could totally picture some sort of savage Eldar using giant flying beasts instead of vehicles. Beastmasters would be a perfect fit in an army like that. Also you could use Talos rules for some sort of really big smashing monster. Perhaps you could use your "Hameoncului" as some sort of Shaman or something with wracks/grots/ scourges being some sort of 'blessed' warriors (hence their stat changes) These are all the things I thought of after reading your post. My favorite part of the hobby is the converting of models and making an army really yours. I know some may disagree with me, but the way I see the GW fluff is that since the galaxy is such a big place that there have to some sort of different armies out there that arent exactly what the codexes say, and some variation makes things interesting.

I think your idea is cool and you should do it! Actually I've been thinking on the same lines (*). Just buy yourself a box of warriors and a box of guardians and interchange heads and weapons and it should be fine.

However considering Eldar is not a bad idea either, I think. They can be just as fast if you want them to. Falcons and jetbikes are pretty cool!

However if you DO want to keep on playing Dark Eldar with this idea, why not base them at the edge of the Eye of Terror? Eldar survivors gone rotten by chaos influences?

(*) My Kislev contingent is heavily influenced by Slaanesh so the idea is not new...

Eldar jetbikes only move up to 24" as i recall, reavers on the other hand 36"

Enfernux wrote:

Eldar jetbikes only move up to 24" as i recall, reavers on the other hand 36"

Heh, cool to have the fastest thing in the book

Also recommending Exodites, you can have fun combining lots of elements from WH fantasy Wood Elves and Lizardmen (for dinosaurs) as well. Back in 2nd edition, Exodite "dragon knights" (guys on Deinonychi, basically) were available to CWE. While Dark Elf Cold One Knights are an obvious conversion basis for this, I'm not sure what the best "counts as" option would be for rules. Kymerae packs would be ideal except for the need for Beastmasters.

yeah, packs of cold ones would be a fine replacement khymeras.

Keep in mind eldar are crazy advanced, so "feral Eldar" should still be classy. They don't necessarily have to be loincloth wearing hippies with feathers in their hair.

but, it sounds fun to see what you can kitbash out of a WE kit and a DE warrior kit. wardancers would make some awesome bloodbrides with the right bits. and cold-ones would be great khymeras. Though you could take some plastic Fenrisian wolves and paint them to look like spirit beasts...

hellions could me made from woodelf warhawk riders with underslung splinter pods.