The Game

The Armies of the 41st Millennium
- Space Marines.
- Dark Eldar.
- Tyranids.
- Sisters of Battle.
- Eldar.
- Chaos.
- Imperial Guard.
- Orks.
- Heroes of the Imperium.

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The Dark Eldar attack without warning, wreaking havoc and destruction, then disappearing just as quickly as they appeared. Vicious raiders and pirates is how they are viewed by the Imperium, but many are realizing just how big a threat the Dark Eldar are.

The Dark Eldar are without mercy or remorse, they gladly take prisoners back to their domain to perform cruel and twisted experiments upon them. The only thing worse than being attacked by them, is to be taken alive.

Defeated troops who are unlucky enough to be dragged back to Commorragh - the dark homeworld of these corrupted aliens - are fated for a lifetime of slavery and indescribable pain as they fufill the dark and inhuman desires of their wicked captors. Those that are lucky will die quickly, those that are not will lose their very souls to the hunger of the Dark Eldar.

Dark Eldar society is split into structures known as Kabals and each Kabal is ruled by a powerful Dark Eldar Lord (shown right). Often leading their armies into battle, Dark Eldar Lords have to be the most vicious and ruthless of their race in order to retain their positions of power. Evil beyond compare, Dark Eldar Lords leave ruined worlds and the corpses of innocents in their wake in a constant search for souls and slaves.

Due to the cruel and wanton nature of Dark Eldar society, Dark Eldar Lords need to have a retinue of their closest servants who fight with them on the battlefield. Often consisting of powerful troops such as the heavily armored Incubi, the Lord's retinue serves to protect him from the power-hungry asprations of his own followers nearly as much as they are required to shield him from enemy forces!

Perhaps the most terrifying type of Dark Eldar character is the torture-loving Haemonculi. These twisted and insidious beings serve their lords by administering incalcuable suffering upon those victims that are brought before them either for their own pleasure or to glean some nugget of information from their helpless captives.

The bulk of a Dark Eldar army consists of Dark Eldar Warriors (pictured above). These cruel and malicious troops attack swiftly and without mercy. Any who confront them are killed by bursts of crystalline shards from their Splinter Rifles. Often this deadly ammunition is impregnated with vile toxins and nerve agents which work their way into the body with the smallest scratch.

Dark Eldar Warrior Squads can also include heavy weapon troops carrying insidious devices such as the Splinter Cannon or Dark Lance which can devastate an entire squad or vehicle on their own. Warrior Squads are commonly led by powerful fighters known as Sybarites (an example of which is shown right) who often use powerful and arcane weapons drawn from the depths of the Dark Eldar armories.

Even the casual observer will notice the predominence of wicked curved and serrated blades which almost all Dark Eldar carry or even incorporate into their firearms or armor. Constructed in a wide variety of designs and styles all of them are made of lightweight materials and have blades which carry a mono-molecular edge keen enough to slice through materials as thick as Space Marine armor with sufficient force!

There are many strange and bloodthisty troop types which make up the forces of the Dark Eldar but among the most deadly and violent are the elite members of the Wych Cults (Shown at right and left).

These highly skilled gladiators are commonly hired by Dark Eldar Lords to accompany him into battle. Boosting their already honed abilities with a plethora of Combat Drugs, Wyches can pick apart enemy troops with almost leisurely ease!

A subsect of the Wych cults are the ultra-fast Reaver Jetbike Squads. Combining inhuman speed, unprecedented manueverability and deadly close combat skill, Reavers (an example of one of these speedy killing machines is shown at right) are perfect for making hit and run attacks against isolated enemy squadrons or even main battle units.

More than anything else, the Dark Eldar army takes skill to use properly. Its wide variety of troops combined with heavy firepower and amazing mobility but light armor makes the Dark Eldar a finesse force beyond compare. Used wisely and in the right proportions, Dark Eldar armies have the potential to defeat any unwise souls who would dare to cross their paths!

Games Workshop is in the process of creating a series of supplements for Warhammer 40,000. The second of these is Codex: Dark Eldar, a book devoted entirely to fielding, painting, and collecting a Dark Eldar army.

The Codex: Dark Eldar contains the complete army list, covering all of the cruel and malicious troops and vehicles which can be incorporated into an army of Dark Eldar raiders. What you see on this page is merely a sample of the truly insidious cruelty that the Dark Eldar can bring to bear on the batlefield. There is even a section devoted to the arcane analysis of Dark Eldar weaponry and various Special Characters whose evil is legendary even in the soul-shredding annals of Dark Eldar history.

Also included in the Codex: Dark Eldar book are lots of painting and modeling tips, a section devoted to Dark Eldar tactics and even a "How to" section on painting your own Dark Eldar forces, including examples of different Dark Eldar Kabal and Wych cult markings. Of course, there is a ton of pictures of terrifically painted Citadel Miniatures by our 'Eavy Metal team, and loads of great new art to inspire any prospective Dark Eldar Dracons!