Eldar and Malkavians

[Tubehead]

Though I was there to read attentively in White Dwarf as they debuted in '87 ish and changed with the times, I have personally never understood the appeal of Eldar.
The obsession people have for Malkavians in Vampire the Masquerade was something I never got either.
Someone please explain these things!
Seriously; Explain! Explain! (>ヮ<

 

[Citizen Sade]

I don't know anything about Vampire The Masquerade, but I can see the attraction of the Eldar and the Elves in Warhammer, come to that.

There's the fluff with sophisticated and advanced race(s) almost certainly facing drawn-out extinction. This will probably have chimed with some in the run-up to the millennium.

There's also the models, at least in the early days. Jes Goodwin was always a very decent sculptor. His style is pretty distinct and he seems to have a lot of fans. Things went a bit to pot with some of the ranges/sculptors later on, in my view e.g. Dark Eldar. This hasn't stopped me fielding a force of 3rd edition S&M naughty Eldar boys & girls though.

There's also a gameplay aspect for me, at least. While I'm not much of an army gamer, I occasionally field Wood Elves and Dark Eldar. There are some similarities between these two armies. Fast, fragile & potentially deadly. They both require a little finesse in play if you want to avoid getting spanked.

 

[Tubehead]

Lots of GW ranges had superb sculpting back then, so that I certainly understand. ( ´◡` )

So it boils down to this then?

IMPERIAL GUARD: shooty.
MARINES: dead shooty; 'ard.
ORKS: shooty; dead 'ard.
CHAOS: dead shooty; dead 'ard
EDAR: potentially shooty; sadomasochism; millennial angst

｢(ﾟﾍﾟ) Hmmm.

What about the tights and the harlequin business and all the mohawks?

 

[Citizen Sade]

Everyone’s packing in the early 40K ‘verse. Even the proto-Tyrannids.

There are a few more differentiators that you need to add to your list. Squishy from a gameplay POV and fascist from a fluff one, for instance. Neither of which apply to the Squats who you’ve badly dissed by omission.

What about the tights and the harlequin business and all the mohawks?

Long story. Firstly, it’s a little known fact that Bryan Ansell’s business empire included the Pretty Polly factory in Nottingham. The brand was named after his childhood pet and he often wore tights in the cold Nottinghamshire winters as he had very skinny legs. Citadel employees were wise enough not to take the piss to his face, but enjoyed getting subtle digs in whenever they thought they could get away with it. Hence all the tights.

The Harlequins are rumoured to be another joke at Bryan’s expense as Pretty Polly was a very vividly coloured parrot indeed.

Mohawks, or Mohicans as they call them in deepest, darkest Nottinghamshire, are a haircut that would have appealed mightily to the sort of people who ended up working for a company making toy soldiers in the 1980s. They are by no means an Eldar only hairdo. That said, only Space Marines are able to sport one without looking ridiculous.

 

[Sleepysod]

Original Rogue Trader Eldar were lethal. Shuriken catapults and profiles that were superior to original marines. Loved the first full wave of Eldar and the first scouts (although why las guns?). Like the concept of mercenaries and pirates handing out with soars. As 40k was more of a skirmish game I think they worked well. When they started to bring in other sects, jet bikes, walkers etc and I don’t think they are as pleasing to the eye - seem a bit fixed pose to me.

Like the Titan. Can’t say I’m really a fan of the other sculpts - at least until the wave serpent was released.

 

[Tubehead]

the Squats who you’ve badly dissed by omission.

Funny since I had a huge Squat army back in the day. I'll blame the cold medicine coursing through my veins...

The Harlequins are rumoured to be another joke at Bryan’s expense.

A joke about a man who wears tights I can understand.
I don't know about British people, but for Americans, harlequin essentially combines the worst aspects of a clown and a mime. Americans will call the police or reach for a gun if either is sighted in their neighborhood, and would have back in the 80's too. Back then, Thomas Ligotti wrote numerous horror stories about harlequins, and then there's all that Stephen King business... Maybe it's just me, but that's the last thing I'd settle on wargaming with. Please help me understand. I have puzzled over this for decades.

They are by no means an Eldar only hairdo. That said, only Space Marines are able to sport one without looking ridiculous.

True, but the presence of a mohawk along with the colorful tights approaches the realm of obligatory for Harlequins. Then there's the jester trappings and the masks with the giant leering grin. We've combined distressing, effeminate, and unsettling to get mega-repellent. ...Yet people still collect these things decades later. That's what I don't understand. More information is required.

 

[Tubehead]

Original Rogue Trader Eldar were lethal. Shuriken catapults and profiles that were superior to original marines.

Okay, this point I understood, at least initially; I too thought a strength 4 following-fire standard issue weapon with a -2 save modifier was tackle-out at the time. I just rationalized that it was a desperate attempt to make the "pansy Eldar" (as even the fluff had it) a desirable force to field. THEN, as you say, they went and suddenly switched to mostly lasguns (as a big surprise in the Guardians box set), shooting my theory dead at the same time.

 

[dieselmonkey]

I mean, they had a great visual aesthetic in my opinion from the very start, as well as being very easy to paint. The combination of carapace style armour and mesh/mail underneath meant that you could do a great looking army in an afternoon just by undercoating, washing and picking out a few details, but if you wanted, you could go a hell of a lot further.

Back to the aesthetic and background, as well as bring this heroic, aloof doomed race in decline who lived on massive roaming spaceships, they were fielded in the fluff as independent mercenaries or pirate raiders doing it for fun, rather than as a unified force, bringing a different energy to the game if you were into narrative gaming. No longer was it a heroic fight to the death, you could fight until it was no longer financially viable, or even until it just stopped being entertaining, then you could make a run for it! Also, as mentioned, shuriken catapults were fuckin' awesome, and they were a powerful and fun force to field with a decent statline and equipment. If anything they were too powerful.

Harlequins at the time were the most out there figures on the battlefield, let alone lethal, shredding anything they could get into HtH with. Their aesthetic was probably not entirely coincidentally due to Rock City in Nottingham having a well attended Rock and Glam Metal night on Fridays with the biggest hair and wildest clothes outside of a Poison music video.

Having said all that, personally though I lost interest when the Aspect Warriors were introduced and they turned them into an actual boring army rather than freelancing bands of renegades and pirates. Especially due to them only having one model for each Aspect for way too long.

Eldar in the Eldritch Raiders vein were just great though, both in looks and to game.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Yeah! First off they're Space Elves. So they're also Vulcans and Romulans - a highly advanced civilisation in comparison with the space-medieval and cannon-fodder humans. They are the best, most advanced troops in Rogue Trader. So they're kind of cool and deadly from the off - the power gamers choice - in the same way Half-Elf Rangers were for AD&D. They have an insectoid armour that kind of echoes Rodney Mathews work.

The original Eldar don't really have any more mohawks than many other Warhammer ranges - Wood Elves, Orcs, Dwarfs all have them, usually to denote 'berserker'. Separating out 40k/Fantasy isn't really useful at this stage, because it's all the same people using the same design language, and just adding space stuff to them.

The Harelquins came later and weren't part of the original Space Elf concept. One obvious thing is they are just a 'space' extension of Wardancer idea - based on 'celtic' mytho-historical gymnastic battle feats such as the Salmon Leap, balancing on chariot beams and all that, which first appeared with Glam in Scarloks Wood Elf Archers (87). It's also interesting to note a there is a lot of the same dolly-work (and hair-cuts) across the Blood Bowl Elves, Wardancers and Harlequins ranges, so I think there was a push to adapt and extend from the same base core, to 'cut corners' rather than design things from the ground up, and that probably explains why they exist at all.

Another thing to keep in mind is that 40k isn't really sci-fi, it's Space Fantasy, and while WFB covers the wargaming historical periods from Ancients up to Early Modern with some magic and fantasy, 40K covers the period from the Early Modern through to WW2 with some sci-fantasy elements thrown in. The Harlequins are clearly based on the 16th century, (Early Modern), Commedia dell'arte, so come from the same 'period' as the Holy Roman Empire of the Imperials. But the idea of giving 16th Century Italian Clowns ray guns, mohawks, and a travelling Carnival fighting across an intergalactic battlefield, a psycho-circus in space, seems really quite odd.

Then again, there's always a Blake's 7 episode.

 

[Tubehead]

Eldar in the Eldritch Raiders vein were just great though, both in looks and to game.

Hmm. Easy to paint. Hadn't considered that.
Now that you & Sleepy bring up the space raiders thing I seem to dimly remember buying a 3-pack of those first Eldar when they initially came out because of the very reasons you named, ...and then being thrown a curveball with the strange-looking warwalker and harlequins, which were received with horror and brought an end to my thinking that Eldar were cool. I did, however buy the Guardians box set with the plastic arms and a few aspect warriors on impulse several years later, though I became bored with them and moved on almost as soon as I opened the packaging. Now that I think back about it, I seem to recall listlessly examining my cookie-cutter aspect warriors and wishing the original GW vision of Eldar hadn't been changed so much.
Okay, so I guess I understand the appeal of those first eldritch reavers. Consider that accomplished. Thanks to all who helped...
I also understand mohawks and spandex being popular with the hair metal crowd of the 1980's, naturally.
But that just leaves clowns, masks with big disturbing grins, and perhaps their nebulous relationship to sadomasochism requiring some sort of explanation.
This is why I paired up this question with reference to Malkavians from Vampire the Masquerade; they too seemed to revel in masks with big disturbing grins, and mime/harlequin trappings.
Back in the 90's I worked at a gaming shop in Atlanta, the city where the White Wolf Games HQ was located, and we always got teenage goth Malkavian-obsessed loonies pumped to bursting with absurdist pretensions in there buying Vampire game books and dice and trying hard to act as creepy and wacky as they could manage. It seemed like every Vampire player that came in there was:
A) squarely 17 years old
B) a goth wannabe with top hat and black lipstick
C) currently gaming a Malkavian playing character
I got the impression that Malkavians were something like eldar harlequins crossed with ork madboyz with the movie The Lost Boys thrown in for good measure.
Well anyway to hell with that game. Didn't the GW fluff mention something about Slaanesh being born from the death of the Eldar culture? What was the connection to the old Slann then? Is Slaanesh where the sadomasochism connects with the Eldar?

 

[Tubehead]

...Vulcans and Romulans...

Never understood those either (except as part of a vehicle for marxist propaganda).

Then again, there's always a Blake's 7 episode.

Now Space Rats I get, I've got a 28mm army complete with buggies that go bang/splat.

You know Zhu, you've got a huge collection of really good observations condensed in all the points you delineated in your message above. Now I kinda feel like I understand how the whole Eldar thing came about, although...

But the idea of giving 16th Century Italian Clowns ray guns, mohawks, and a travelling Carnival fighting across an intergalactic battlefield, a psycho-circus in space, seems really quite odd.

I know right! What the hell! Who is responsible for coming up with this! Here it is decades later and I'm still utterly bewildered!

 

[Citizen Sade]

We’re 11 posts in, the Harlequins are in play and nobody’s mentioned Sigue Sigue Sputnik

 

[Tubehead]

We’re 11 posts in, the Harlequins are in play and nobody’s mentioned Sigue Sigue Sputnik

The first Eldar Harlequins article in WD#105 was written by some looney called Graeme Davis. Wasn't he the bass player for S3? Suddenly it all becomes clear...!!

 

[Zhu Bajie]

My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that most of the visual concept design and development is generally done first, and then the background and rules written around that, so the chances are the Harlequins are mostly Jes Goodwins work. Having said that Graeme Davis is on twitter, Facebook and has a blog at https://graemedavis.wordpress.com if you wanted to ask him about his role in their development.

We’re 11 posts in, the Harlequins are in play and nobody’s mentioned Sigue Sigue Sputnik

There's a lot of that in the confrontation / necromunda gangs as well. Always amused me how MOR the Ork Goff Rockers were, really odd that they look more like Guns n Roses than Bauhaus. TBH Oi / Ska / two-tone would have been more orky.

Reminds me of Bowie singing Starman in his metallic harlequin costume. Jes also sculpted a Tanglebones for the Eternal Champion range that looks like Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture show, so I dunno, there's always been elements of theatrical camp in his work. There might be a bit of The Joker's manic psycho to Batmans grim dark knight going on as well, and he's been a popular character for decades. When was Alan Moores The Killing Joke published?

Oh yeah, and the Eldar reflective mask that shows the death-throws of is straight out of Moorcocks Hawkmoon books.

 

[Tubehead]

Graeme Davis is on twitter, Facebook and has a blog at https://graemedavis.wordpress.com if you wanted to ask him about his role in their development..

 

[Tubehead]

Oi / Ska / two-tone would have been more orky.

That would definitely have been so. "Rudeboyz" yeah?

Okay, thanks to your ideas, I think I get how they went about doing it now.

Let me see... New wave halflings in Gary Numan jumpsuits with Flock of Seagulls or Max Headroom hairdos and giant Dirty Harry handguns...?

Anybody else wanna give it a try?

 

[dieselmonkey]

Always amused me how MOR the Ork Goff Rockers were, really odd that they look more like Guns n Roses than Bauhaus.

It's not really that odd, the GW rock lot were a far larger contingent than the Goth/New Wave crowd, especially by 1991 when they came out. I mean, even the Sisters of Mercy were doing MOR rock by 91, (literally with 'More'!)


More to the point, they were by Kev, I'm not sure he knew what a Bauhaus was.

 

[Tubehead]

I'm not sure he knew what a Bauhaus was.

I've been chuckling about this remark on and off for hours.

Daniel Ash's hairdo at the time would not have been out of place on an Eldar fig.
...
In fact, Daniel Ash may have actually been an Eldar.

"I received a croissant from Jean Luc; a token of esteem..."

 

[Tubehead]

when was Alan Moores The Killing Joke published?

Let's see, I'm ashamed to admit I bought that the week it came out; it must have been '87 or '88?

My Gary Numan halflings still need some element of fantasy novel trappings to stand getting anywhere near as whack as Eldar Harlequins. Somebody suggest something.

 

[Citizen Sade]

Giant pink Flamingos & flame lances?