Dark Eldar are something of an oddity in 40k. Initially they made their way to the tabletop after developers noticed the growing number of Eldar armies which had been painted and/or converted to represent a lightly darker brand of Elf. So the Dark Eldar were officially born. Now, after more than a decade in the wilderness the Dark Eldar are back! Possibly, with a vengeance.

The Games Workshop website has the following listed as 40k advance orders available on the 6th November:

• Codex: Dark Eldar
• Dark Eldar Reavers
• Dark Eldar Raider
• Dark Eldar Incubi
• Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors
• Dark Eldar Wyches
• Dark Eldar Archon
• Dark Eldar Lelith Hesperax

I guess they wanted to be sure that everyone knew these would be part of the Dark Eldar range then…

These are the advance orders that will be available as part of the second wave:

• Dark Eldar Ravager
• Dark Eldar Mandrakes
• Dark Eldar Hellions
• Dark Eldar Urien Rakarth

Despite the impressive raft of new and frankly gorgeous miniatures, it’s the codex that’s been drawing the most attention. The Blood of Kittens blog went ahead and posted photographs of most of it, fuelling conjecture about the codex as well as Games Workshop’s IP policies. In the main those with advance copies of the codex have been well behaved, commenting on the possible or probable impact of the new codex and it’s ranking among the others. Most notably the Space Wolves and Blood Angels which are

Dark Eldar have always been considered hard to use but their presence at GTs and other tournaments indicated that they still have a sizeable players base who think they’re capable of competing. This will certainly be more true now that they have been properly 5th’ed. After Codex: Space Wolves Phil Kelly’s reputation for producing codex army books which are interesting fluffy and contain effective units all the way through the Force Organisation Chart (FOC) is moving from sort of OK to brilliant.

One thing that is clear is that the unit plus transport paradigm which has been proving so popular among players and Games Workshop shareholders is looking fit to continue at full strength.

The new Dark Eldar are perhaps the most mobile army ever produced by Games Workshop and with troops which can be literally mown down by rapid firing bolters it should come as no surprise that players will be more than happy to play along.