Warhammer 40K: 1998’s Original Dark Eldar Army
We are pulling out the old-school 1998 Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40K 3rd Edition. No one truly escapes the Dark City – or these 90’s hair-dos!
In the Early Days of Commorragh
There were undoubtedly some random very early Eldar models from Rogue Trader that could be considered Corsairs or Eldar pirates. That said, things were very much in flux back then. It wasn’t until 40K 3rd Edition that the Dark Eldar burst upon the scene in 1998 with their very own codex and a full line of minis. For all you Sisters and Leagues of Votann players out there shooting your hands up to whine:
- The Sororitas plastic army was well worth the wait!
- Dark Eldar players used to hold the Warhammer 40K record for being patient. They waited 12 YEARS for their next codex that arrived in 2010! These guys came dangerously close to being Chaos Dwarfed (AoS’s verdict is still out on the naughty stunties)
- Yes, yes, the Squats… erm Leagues of Votann have taken the crown for patience, having waited 29 YEARS between 2nd and 9th Edition! We’ll see what 10th Edition has in store for them.
But back to the stars of this show. The Dark Eldar were the opposing force to the Space Marines in the 3rd Edition boxed set! When do you think THAT will ever happen again? No, Piety and Pain does not count. Take a look at this:
How many of you still have those plastic trees & ruins! (yes, GW’s 2021 reprint counts!)
The Original Range
The current Dark Eldar range is coming down off their recent new plastic Lelith-Drazhar-Incubi high, but regardless of rules, they are a visual masterpiece – and scrub away most people’s memories of the original range from 1998 (which was very cool for its time). Let us take a walk down memory lane…
Hello Archon and Dracon! I HATED this dude’s Shadowfield back then!
The first Haemonculi. Even back then you see the skins and misshapen heads.
The first Incubi – hard as nails back then with head guns for extra style points!
Meet the first Grotesques.
Mandrakes. These remind me of male Wyches… Also, all leaning to the right, odd.
Hello Ladies! No one had better hair than the classic Dark Eldar Wyches.
Warp Beasts Pack – Somewhere in Commorragh is a giant mountain of catskins. Fabius Bile can make a tent!
Warriors. I actually played a guy at Adepticon many moons ago, who leaned over the table and got half a dozen of these stuck to his sweater. It was a thing. Also, a call out to the Warrior 5th from the right – BEST HAIR STYLIST IN COMMORRAGH!
The original Raider. Also a risk to play with during the winter (or if you are very hairy).
Reavers. One of the better models in the range. The overhead firing guns (with blades) just add to the danger!
Hellions. I dare you to NOT think of Green Goblin.
Scourges – these guys made the old CSM Raptors with their pipe-organ jump packs look like dimwitted slowpokes.
The Talos. Giving Dreadnoughts a run for their money back in the day! Also explodes into millions of metal and dried superglue pieces if dropped – BONUS!
The Ravager was fast and deadly – and looked the part. Just be careful, the old plastic base could barely hold its hybrid plastic and metal weight.
The man, the legend himself – Asdrubael Vect on his Dais of Destruction. Pimp your Raider indeed. Perhaps one day he will return to the Grimdark. I can dream!
Original Dark Eldar On the Tabletop
The Dark Eldar were exactly what you expected on the 3rd Edition tabletop. They were the game’s definitive glass hammers (aside from the thrice-damned Shadow-field and the Talos, grrr, I’m still bitter). From a visual perspective, they had a powerful unified theme and appeared in GW art as a mono-colored force. A rarity in the ultra-bright multi-hued style of most 3rd edition armies. Take a look at them kicking some original metal Catachan butt from 1998:
Here is an enormous Asdrubael Vect Kabal of the Black Heart army that rolled out with his mini. An extremely large force for its era.
Today you can still occasionally see some real old-timers rocking the Classic Kabalites on the tabletop, often in combination with the newer models. I like to think of these as “down on their luck” Kabals from the poorer, distant sectors of Commorragh. They just need to get enough slaves on that next big job to buy those new sexy Raiders.
But we have come a long way in 26 years…
~Who’s still got some of these metal classics lying around?
