Warhammer 40K: Why Is No One Banning Eldar?

Eldar are super OP in 40K 10th Edition, so why is no one banning them?

Since the start of 10th Edition, its been clear that Eldar are a problem. They’ve consistently dominated major events. The pointy ears also have the best win/loss ratio in game, with around an astronomical 70% win rate! Despite two rounds of nerfs by GW they continue to the army to beat with no other faction having a real answer for them. Back in 9th when the game faced similar issues with the new Leagues of Votann a large number of events started to ban them. However, no one seems to be considering this with Eldar. Let’s take a look at why.

The Votann Bans

Back towards the end of last year Leagues of Votann released as a brand new army and made a big splash. As the rules started to get into people’s hands it was clear that a few combos in the army were really good. Like really really good. It was fair to say that the army was looking pretty broken. In response to this, a number of events, mostly in Germany and Canada announced that Votann would be banned from playing at their events. GW did move pretty quickly to tone down the Votann rules, and while they remained very powerful, they were no longer – outright broken. It’s unclear if the bans had any real influence on getting LoV nerfed but it did seem to help the local situation.

So Why Aren’t Eldar Getting The Same Treatment

Firstly it’s not entirely fair to say Eldar aren’t getting the same treatment. Some events here and there have banned them. In particular, Bugeater GT, one of the first events after 10th launched talked about banning then. However, since then it doesn’t seem like other events have followed suit. While the Votann bans seemed to have gained some steam as time went on, the Eldar one has mostly died away. So why the different treatment?

Well, I think a large part of it is simply that Votann were brand spanking new to the game. No one really had the army and there just wasn’t a ton of players at the time to upset. Saying you couldn’t use this brand-new army for a little bit longer until it got balanced wasn’t as big an upset to the community. Eldar on the other hand, are an old, established, and popular army. There are a lot of Eldar players worldwide. As such, banning them would affect a much larger part of the player base. Nor are all Eldar payers band-waggoners. Some have taken the same old fluffy army to events for years.

Votann Were An Outlier

Votann were also a bit of an outlier. There have been plenty of other broken armies in the past before. Eldar have been super broken before. However, none of them saw any kind of widespread bans at big events. Votann are really the only army we’ve seen given this kind of treatment. Now maybe people just hate space Dwarfs, but I think there is more to it than that. I think a large part comes down to as I said above, it just being an army that not a ton of people played – with an incomplete range at the time. But I think it also had to do with them being a “fresh army”.

I think when an established army is suddenly really good, people kind of feel that it deserves it. That army should have a few minutes to shine. Other times it’s hard to see how good an old army is. Eldar have been good in that past, and no one cared. Are they really that much better now? Leagues on the other hand had none of those factors going for them and so I think the ban was more accepted.

Do Bans Even Work?

The fact is we also haven’t really seen any evidence that bans work. The Leagues of Votann ban was pretty small by all accounts. GW was also already aware of the brokenness of the army. It’s unclear whether the ban did anything, though it might have improved a handful of local events. By that measure it’s not clear that banning Eldar would do anything, which is one reason I’m not saying they should be banned. Potentially if every major event banned them, that would force GW’s hand to get some faster nerfs out. On the other hand, maybe it would just sweep things under the rug. Maybe GW needs to see them dominate for a while to collect the data on exactly what is wrong, and get things fixed properly. Who knows? What we do know is that the reaction to Space Elves dominating has been far different than from when Space Dwarfs tried to be on top.

And that difference between old space Elves and new space Dwarfs is an interesting thing to ponder.

Let us know why you think Eldar haven’t been banned, down in the comments!  

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.