Dark Eldar Rumour Summary

[eldargal]

"The Dude" over at Warseer has compiled a good roundup of the latest Dark Eldar rumours. I've posted most of them here, but there are some I missed:

Here is a summary of what I consider to be reliable Dark Eldar rumours. I'm not saying they are true, or that any other rumours are false, just that this is what I trust at the moment.

Feel free to discuss these and any other rumours to your hearts content, but keep it civil, don't spam, keep background discussions in the background forum, and please, if you want to complain about something, feel free, but do it once, and move on

Previous discussion can be found here.

Release Date

Much conjecture surrounds the release date, however the following “solid” information exists:

Harry gave us his best guess that Dark Eldar will appear in October / November 2010

At the start of April, Harry told us:


Originally Posted by Harry
Dark Eldar are coming.
Phil Kelly has completed the book.
The whole range is NOT done yet but the first wave IS done.
pricetb recently told us the following:


Originally Posted by pricetb
Since I'm not a frequent take this as you will. I friend of mine is a retail salesman for GW and was invited up to the nearest Battle Bunker to meet with his rep and such. Being part of the shop we went and got the usual speil. Isn't this model great blah, blah, blah. Now here's the interesting part, we were taken to the production floor for a look see at what the are producing? Dark Eldar. Couldn't get a great look but it was definately. Feel free to make fun of me now!
To which Harry replied:


Originally Posted by Harry
Six months out for production and global distribution .... Soooo sounds about right for November.
And for the lazy and hard of hearing (reading?), Harry again stated:


Originally Posted by Harry
They are set for release in the Autumn. (October/November) this year.
I imagine Novembers White Dwarf to be back to back Dark Eldar.
The Book is done.
First Wave plastics and metals are all done.
In May, Avian told us:


Originally Posted by Avian
I believe November is Dark Eldar for 40K.
So all up, I think it’s safe to say we’ll see Dark Eldar in November.

Rules

Harry has said here that he expects Dark Eldar to be “nasty but especially nasty for that first strike”

In mid June, Vineas reported that Yakface over at Dakka Dakka posted the following:


Originally Posted by Yakface
I have, from a very reliable source, that these rumors are a bit wrong.

The actual stats are as follows:

All poisons are 4+
Splinter Rifle 24" SX, AP5, Rapid Fire, Poisoned.
Splinter Carbine 18" SX, AP5, Assault 3, Poisoned.
Splinter Cannon 36" SX, AP5, Assault 4, or Heavy 6 Poisoned.
Spllinter Pods are an underslung weapon for the Hellions, essentially similar to the carbine.
reds8n added some weight to this, saying:


Originally Posted by reds8n
Actually I'm very inclined to believe these and mr. Yakface.
There has been some scattered talk about a “Pain Chart” which bestows effects based on the number of kills the army has done, much like Epidemius’ Tally Man rule. This has not been supported by anyone reliable as yet.

Miniatures

At the end of April, Rewison reported the following post from Waaagh_Gonads over at Dakka Dakka


Originally Posted by Waaagh_Gonads
After seeing (some) of the warriors that were assembled from the new DE warrior sprue (I did not see the bits on the sprue) last weekend and having been given the all clear to talk about them by my source:

Best start point is to use this pic as a reference.

[url]http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.co...5501389758.jpg[/url]

The warriors are not striding forward and hunched over like they are about to tip over- legs are laid out in a wide stance and the models are much, much better proportioned than the old ones, so no more legs that go all the way up and tiny torsos.
Helmets and non helmeted heads included.
Non helmeted head has a high ponytail.
Ribs/shards of bone poke through loincloths and the ponytail.
The helmets are pretty much identical to the above pic, but with lumps/gems over the ears/temples.
From behind the helmets look exactly like eldar guardian ones.
There is a gem/soulstone on the left chest armour- not the shoulder armour piece as per the above pic.
This is where you have to use your imagination as the pic doesn't show it: On the back there is a backpack that looks like it started as an eldar backpack but does not stick out as far, has vestigal 'vanes' compared to the eldar one (so doesn't stick up above the shoulder) and most excellently down the centre of the backpack, it is recessed with scaled armour over the spine (triangular scales with points downwards)
A high collar that flanges out
Rifle is almost exactly the same as the pic for the base model, even down to the jagged bit that pokes up in front of the warriors abdomen in the pic. There is a variant with what looks to be crossbow arms sticking out laterally (ends up looking like a mini anchor)
Attachable Loincloths (variable designs) One has a skull, one a hook on them.
As per the pic, greaves over the lower legs, then knee pads and scales over the upper legs, with points upwards.
Knife scabbard, 2 'rods' and 2 small sachels on the 'utility belt' posteriorly
Blades of differing lengths and size on various armour parts, primarily lower legs and shoulder pads.
Curved knife HW available.
Attachable blades for the end of splinter rifle.
Referring to the same Artwork, Harry said:


Originally Posted by Harry
They don't look exactly like that.
That artwork was based on a sculpt done at the start of the project.
They have that 'look' ... but they evolved a bit.
And this:


Originally Posted by Harry
Dave Gallagher painted it ages ago based on some of Jes's first concept sculpts for the project.
Harry also implies here that Wyches will be plastic (which was pretty much assumed), but doesn't tell us which wave they may appear in.

[Drew da Destroya]

If that's hilarious, then so are biovores.

They are a shooting unit based off of Ork DNA... so yeah, they're pretty hilarious. I mean, if you saw them in a game, you'd probably crack up, right?

[Melissia]

Yes, but not for the same reason :P

[eldargal]

Scryer in the Darkness over at Warseer has a GW product list which includes the upcoming Dark Eldar released, which may or may not be split over one or two waves:

Edit: Oh, and coming in November.

Right, well my eyes are now rolling with code like The Matrix, but here's the result barring any last minute additions/subtractions:

Codex
3 metal blisters
3 metal boxes
6 plastic boxes

Harry indicates this is just the first wave, with waves 1.5 and 2 on the way also:

It is a MONSTER first wave.

BRING IT ON!

The 2nd wave is well on the way too ... and a 1.5 Wave is done.

Insomnia fuelled Eldargal, bringing you rumours since, oh I don't know, a bit or more.

[DrLove42]

*starts to get excited*. A codex, 9 boxes and 3 blisters? Bet put £200 or so aside...

[Havik110]

*starts to get excited*. A codex, 9 boxes and 3 blisters? Bet put £200 or so aside...

okay so 6 plastic boxes...my guess is
1. Warriors
2. Wyches
3. Mandrakes
4. Raider/ravager
5. Jet Bikes
6. Talos

3 metal boxes? (do they even make these any more outside of vanguard and sternguard?)
1. Incubi (i wish they were plastic)
2. Hemoi/grots
3. Warp beasts

3 metal blisters
1. archon/dracon
2. Lilith
3. Vect

I dont like the idea of metal boxes, characters are okay, but i would prefer to see the archon get a box similar to the plastic space marine captain box

[eldargal]

One more thing to add, now that I've had a chance to comb through all the specialty item codes... one of them has a Dark Eldar prefix. :evilgrin:

Specialty items are wide and varied and range from things like limited edition dice sets, basing kits, resin markers, templates and things like the L.O.S Marker Light, but they all carry non-army-specific prefixes. The only army-specific specialty item product code that springs to mind in recent memory (though I'm sure there's been others) is the resin Ork Barricades set.

Enjoy.

*squee* I want to know what it is. DE themed building would be nice, some kind of slave holding pen or such. <--pure speculation, to be clear.

[Bigred]

Eldargal, you're a champ!

[synack]

okay so 6 plastic boxes...my guess is
I dont like the idea of metal boxes, characters are okay, but i would prefer to see the archon get a box similar to the plastic space marine captain box

I hate metal models... Hive Guard, Tyrant Guard, Hive Tyrant, Venom Thropes, Zoanthropes, Broodlord... all metal and all don't fit together and are a complete pain the arse to assemble. It took me 2 days to do a single Hive Guard... 2 DAYS!

[Drew da Destroya]

okay so 6 plastic boxes...my guess is
[list of stuff]

Seem like good guesses.... I'm bored at work, so I'll take a stab, too!

1. Warriors
2. Wyches - Includes 1/2 Warp Beasts
3. Scourge
4. Raider/ravager
5. Jet Bikes
6. Incubi

3 metal boxes? (do they even make these any more outside of vanguard and sternguard?)
1. Talos
2. Mandrakes or Hellion
3. Vect Ravager

3 metal blisters
1. archon/dracon
2. Lilith
3. Haemunculi

Plausible?