There will probably be a baseline speed, some classes (banshee) faster, some (termie) slower. There will probably be an overall point score and different things award set points, highest at the end or "tableing" results in winning that planet. But basehopping empty outposts is pretty meh.
That's what is always fun about playing eldar. Out numbered by some, and out gunned by the rest. The devs had said from day one that this game was not going to be balanced as some games try. We will have to see where our strengths lay as a race (army). The Orks and SM will easily be able to take a fight head on but the Eldar will have to use their brains and do thing like infiltrating and go after smaller targets. Hit and run, just like the fluff talks about. I can say that Eldar will have to be organized more so than the other races and be able to pick their targets more carefully. Not going to have a lot of patients for those one man army types.
It will be most likely that Eldar will need to use their tactics, skills and brains a lot more to win a fight then the other races. Even if you take a look at most of the tabletop 40k/fantasy or PC games, Eldar was always the underdog. Mostly it has to do with them labeled as "gay" by a lot of ignorant idiots ^^; Aside of that, for sure I'll be joining the Eldar when I can get to play this game My 2x fave races are not included yet (Necron + Tau) and Eldar seems to be the most interesting out of the 4 choices (seriously... I dont want to play a buffed up human... XD got a sweet spot for Orks, but they will be overflooded with F2P players). And as others have mentioned: Eldar will most likely pull in the more mature and experienced player base, who like to play against harder odds and loves chellenge. Personally I loved to play Order side on WAR since it was usually 4-5:1 ratio of Destro-Order. If this game will have it, I'd want to get my hands on a support type class, since that alwas what I play (Engineer in Planetside 2 ftw ^^) Thinking about Farseers and their kin :3
To be honest, that is likely to happen only with newcomers to 40k lore and people who have some space in their heart for every army. It is unlikely to see a Space Marine fan hopping over to Eldar because they are slightly stronger in some aspects. Well that is the way I see it. For me personally the aesthetic aspect of the character plays a major role in games, about equal to the actual gameplay. And since this is wide and somewhat thoroughly written universe, I don't see people caring only about who is stronger.
Any established 40k fan probably knows what race or races they will play. That is predominantly Astartes it would be easy to assume when looking at the TT. A lot of new comers will want to be the winners though sadly so there will be some shifting at first but it should settle down after the initial month.
No way to predict really. Seems just as likely that Eldar will get all the vain barely competent chaff that forces like the marines or chaos wouldn't satisfy, maybe. In WoW for example all the kiddies and muppets in general were mostly on the Alliance side and the Horde ended up with a reputation for being mostly competent while the Alliance was swimming in shit. Which would be bad, simply put. So, I figure, we leave things as is. Say Eldar do end up smallest and weakest. You'd end up with a faction that would by necessity make good use of the diplomacy function of the game. If one of the factions is only slightly losing to another we could get really favourable terms from them in exchange for our help. Assuming people will even bother with the win condition and not just sate themselves in blood-shed and damn all else.
I would actually claim that many newcomers who do not know the 40k universe at all may find the Eldar quite an attractive faction - being the "shadow-y" and "mysterious" warriors, who also happen to be Elves. Think of WoW's blood elves, if you will.
I have to disagree on that. I think that for some strange reason, most beginners tend to be more attached to the bulky genetically engineered super humans, maybe because they are treated as protagonists by GW.
This is why there are so few BL books written from xenos perspectives. We like things that are familiar, it is my only big gripe with the 'Path of the Eldar' series is that the Eldar in it are too human. If they borrow from the TT enough for guidance on this, then Eldar classes will each have a concrete role to play in combat. Rather than the SMs where you can switch from bolter to chainsword in a heartbeat. If so, it will make commanders of the Eldar factions experts at knowing who to put where. Unfortunately, it makes the learning curve for a newly promoted Eldar officer fairly steeper than the other factions, but the pay-off is more rewarding.
