The Inside Scoop on Gaming

If you read my review of the Space Marine codex, you may well be wondering what I'm doing reviewing another codex. I asked myself that same question as I was checking out at my local GW, on my way home from said GW and when I started thinking about this review. This codex is much like the Space Marine codex: it's short, it's got lots of pictures and it's really short. Did I mention it was short?

Anyway, the big problem I had with the Space Marine codex was that it consisted of entirely regurgitated material. With the exception of a few pictures and some trival details, everything in the Marine codex I already owned, some of it many times over. The Dark Eldar codex, however, doesn't do this. It can't, to be honest, as the only material for the Dark Eldar has consisted of a few blurbs in a White Dwarf from a few years back about a guy who won a tournament with a then-unheard of Dark Eldar army, and the list form the box in the basic box.

The list didn't change all that much, about the same amount as the Marine list, but all of the background was new, and I'm a sucker for background.

Be warned, though. GW does it's best to rehash old material. If you have the Dark Elves army book, as I do, you'll notice many, many similarities between the two. Which is fitting, I suppose, as the Dark Eldar are really Dark Elves in space, but that whole line of thought belongs in a different place. Suffice it to say that the Dark Eldar all live in one (1) big city with lots of towers, like to kill people and are a generally sadistic bunch. They're also an extremely fast and deadly army, but exceedingly lightly armored, the kind of army best suited for surgical strikes where speed is key.

The art is decent, although not up to the standard I've come to expect. Mark Gibbons and John Blanche are once again missing. The art as a whole has a dark and scratchy feel to it. Dark and scratchy with buckets of blood thrown around for good measure, that is. There's also the requiste scantily-clad Elven, I mean Eldar, Witch Elf, I mean Wych, maiden, so that at least is a high point.

All in all, this is defintely a better value than the Space Marine codex, but still doesn't deserve the $15 price tag. I never thought I'd look back fondly at the days of a $25 100 page codex, but sadly I'm begining to.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Codex - Dark Eldar
Author: Jervis Johnson & Gavin Thrope Category: game Company/Publisher: Games Workshop Cost: $15 Page count: 48 ISBN: 1869893417 Capsule Review by Bob Roberts on 12/03/98. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space	If you read my review of the Space Marine codex, you may well be wondering what I'm doing reviewing another codex. I asked myself that same question as I was checking out at my local GW, on my way home from said GW and when I started thinking about this review. This codex is much like the Space Marine codex: it's short, it's got lots of pictures and it's really short. Did I mention it was short? Anyway, the big problem I had with the Space Marine codex was that it consisted of entirely regurgitated material. With the exception of a few pictures and some trival details, everything in the Marine codex I already owned, some of it many times over. The Dark Eldar codex, however, doesn't do this. It can't, to be honest, as the only material for the Dark Eldar has consisted of a few blurbs in a White Dwarf from a few years back about a guy who won a tournament with a then-unheard of Dark Eldar army, and the list form the box in the basic box. The list didn't change all that much, about the same amount as the Marine list, but all of the background was new, and I'm a sucker for background. Be warned, though. GW does it's best to rehash old material. If you have the Dark Elves army book, as I do, you'll notice many, many similarities between the two. Which is fitting, I suppose, as the Dark Eldar are really Dark Elves in space, but that whole line of thought belongs in a different place. Suffice it to say that the Dark Eldar all live in one (1) big city with lots of towers, like to kill people and are a generally sadistic bunch. They're also an extremely fast and deadly army, but exceedingly lightly armored, the kind of army best suited for surgical strikes where speed is key. The art is decent, although not up to the standard I've come to expect. Mark Gibbons and John Blanche are once again missing. The art as a whole has a dark and scratchy feel to it. Dark and scratchy with buckets of blood thrown around for good measure, that is. There's also the requiste scantily-clad Elven, I mean Eldar, Witch Elf, I mean Wych, maiden, so that at least is a high point. All in all, this is defintely a better value than the Space Marine codex, but still doesn't deserve the $15 price tag. I never thought I'd look back fondly at the days of a $25 100 page codex, but sadly I'm begining to. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)

Codex - Dark Eldar