Mercenaries for Dark Eldar

[OzDestro]

Hello there,
I was hoping minds greater than mine might be able to help me with Dark Eldar mercenaries.
The older Codex refer to the Dark Eldar using mercenaries, in fact 6th edition mentions Kroot, but the most recent Codex (which seemed to be about writing like a smart arse than giving much usable info) has nothing on it.
So my question is - what do the Dark Eldar use as mercenaries?

I have some Sslyth and some Kroot, but who else did they use?
- Humans? Would human mercenaries be seen as worthy by the Dark Eldar and if so, what would they be armed with?
- Other Eldar? maybe rogue Guardians or something??
I've been chasing links around and there's some really old stuff, but nothing really concrete.

For my Tau I have quite a bit of Auxiliaries, but for the Dark Eldar I'm trying to get an idea of fluff and background - build a narrative really.

Thanks for your assistance!

[Morgrim]

Dark Eldar have two 'ranks' of mercenaries, one could say. There is the "we are not planning to immediately betray you" ones, of which Sslyth are the most common xeno, and Incubi are the most common period. Kroot and Eldar Corsairs aren't too uncommon either. It's implied that there are other xenos the Kabalites have reasonable relations with but they haven't had models. You've also got 'pets' in this category, like Medusae and Ur-ghuls. You could go wild here with one off conversions as long as they're a similar size to the model you're counting them as and it's clear to opponents what is what.

The other rank is "you are useful for now, but I may harvest you later" which is pretty much everyone else. It depends on their usefulness; valuable minions are nice things to have and are likely to be kept (possibly in the manner of farm animals <.< ) but others are down to the Archon's whim. (Haemonculi and Succubi aren't interested in mercenaries, they're more likely to be the ones getting hired). This is where humans usually end up, either as people living in a place a Kabal temporarily or permanently takes over or as poor fools hired to slow an enemy down/pin them in place while the raiding party does their thing. It's possible a Kabal could decide warrior-slaves from a particular planet are useful, in which case they'd probably be given splinter rifles if they weren't using human weapons. In The Masque of Vyle there is a pocket of the webway filled with salt marshes and inhabited by humanoid aliens with webbed hands and feet and giant lidless black eyes; the Kabal controlling that pocket uses them as slaves for manual labour and as playthings; you could have something similar as cannon fodder.

[OzDestro]

Dark Eldar have two 'ranks' of mercenaries, one could say. There is the "we are not planning to immediately betray you" ones, of which Sslyth are the most common xeno, and Incubi are the most common period. Kroot and Eldar Corsairs aren't too uncommon either. It's implied that there are other xenos the Kabalites have reasonable relations with but they haven't had models. You've also got 'pets' in this category, like Medusae and Ur-ghuls. You could go wild here with one off conversions as long as they're a similar size to the model you're counting them as and it's clear to opponents what is what.

The other rank is "you are useful for now, but I may harvest you later" which is pretty much everyone else. It depends on their usefulness; valuable minions are nice things to have and are likely to be kept (possibly in the manner of farm animals <.< ) but others are down to the Archon's whim. (Haemonculi and Succubi aren't interested in mercenaries, they're more likely to be the ones getting hired). This is where humans usually end up, either as people living in a place a Kabal temporarily or permanently takes over or as poor fools hired to slow an enemy down/pin them in place while the raiding party does their thing. It's possible a Kabal could decide warrior-slaves from a particular planet are useful, in which case they'd probably be given splinter rifles if they weren't using human weapons. In The Masque of Vyle there is a pocket of the webway filled with salt marshes and inhabited by humanoid aliens with webbed hands and feet and giant lidless black eyes; the Kabal controlling that pocket uses them as slaves for manual labour and as playthings; you could have something similar as cannon fodder.

This is brilliant!
Thank you very much.
Seems like Kroot might be a good starting off point, but love to have some humans at some point.
I have Beastmen in my Tau units, so maybe the odd Beastman too.

Thanks again!

[Da Gargoyle]

It occurs to me that humans might have a place in the fighting forces of the DE from the point of view that they would have had to have had a tremendous reservoir of will power to survive capture and whatever else they were put through. If they were also veteran troops in the first place they would have valuable knowledge on how to fight. They would not be mercenaries though. To my mind they would be more like those soldiers in WWII that started off fighting for one army and ended up in another. My old man knew a lad that had started in the Polish army, was dragooned into the German army and when captured by the Soviets fought against the Germans again. The only army he had enlisted in was the Polish army and for the other two he was not paid, other than they fed him and equipped him. In the end he escaped the Soviets before they built the Berlin wall.

So humans yes, more your conscript than your mercenary. However given the nature of the imperium they might not be too uncomfortable in their new role.