Personally i will be putting my main focus on Space Wolves in regards to seriously gaming, but i and most of my chapter will also be playing the two new races simply because we can now. The two marine factions have built up a fan base from the game Space Marine with lots of new people to the 40k universe becoming involved who never new it existed (the look of a Space Marine is a rip off from gears oh my ) so expect similar for the two newer playable races.

If they make orks true to the lore i will definitley be setting up special Waagh! nights for the chapter purely for the amount of fun they will be to play, also the Eldar will bring their own finesse and dependant on class could potentialy be the most interesting choice.

So i wouldn't be overly concerned by numbers, not everyone bothers with forums either so wait and see is my call.

I think we'll see less Eldar than any other race for sure, Orks have the F2P thing going for them so there will always be a horde of BRs for the paying orks to toss around. I suppose Eldar will just have to make up for the number disadvantage with being extra sneaky.

And quick, don't forget quick.... I mean who can hit one of those damn Warp Spiders if they should teleport around like in the Dawn of War 2 intro or a Banshee that comes, slices you in pieces and then just runs away before you may even hit it!

Remembers me in the fight during one of the Blood Raven books where the Terminator Squad had huge problems against some Eldar because they just couldn't hit them properly while the Eldar shot through the hydraulic parts of the Terminators.

Haha, that's certainly true. And it brings up another question. Do you think we'll be getting warp spiders? Seems like it would be awesoem but how do you think teleportation would work for them?

To be honest? I have no idea... perhaps some kind of ahhh which game was it?! There was a game in 3rd Person and you could teleport there and it was relatively easy to aim with it as it just transported you always the same amount of distance in the direction you looked. It was relatively old and I have no idea if it was Sci-Fi or Fantasy or what kind of setting.... But it was kinda old. So it could work like that I guess, you look in a direction and then hit your teleporter key and then you are teleported where you looked to (included into the air I think)

But I hope to see warp spiders, they are very important in a good Eldar Army... especially imagine teleporting behind a tank, throw some anti-tank grenades on it's back and teleport away again (forgot the name of the anti-tank grenades / mines, lol!)

Besides that imagine a squad of them running around and teleporting united they could wipe out whole squads or just even divert while the slower main forces approach or to give Rangers nice confused targets. Not to forget in close combat just teleport behind your enemy and then shoot like crazy on him or run away.

I really wish that Eldar has FAR superior speed than any other species, so they can outrun enemies especially when it comes to running away. Nothing is better than luring your enemies into traps ^^

Yeah that actually sounds pretty cool. If the Eldar have the number issues most of us seem to imagine then they would probably become the standard unit for Eldar players. I see Eldar as more of an ambush based army anyway than head on tactics like marines or orks would use.

i doubt it. maybe at first but as interest grows people will branch out to other factions. i know i will.

I'd say that Orks and Space Marines will probably have the highest of populations since Orks will have the F2P element and Space Marines are the most popular. However, higher numbers doesn't guarantee skill. Plus I have to imagine that the devs will have some kind of plan in place to make sure things are as balanced as possible.

I just REALLY hope we get the chance to make 1 account with multiple characters of different factions. I just would love to experience the Eternal Crusade during a campaign as an Ultramarine Devastator and the next campaign as an Eldar Ranger or Warp Spider (depending on availability of classes)

But I guess I am also one of those rare people which actually want only 1 Class and specialize in that. I want a 100% Devastator, no Tactical Marine Loadout, no Assault loadout, pure 100% Heavy Weapons. I just wonder how it will be utilized for those people which want 1 Space Marine for all situations.

In other words: Tactical Marine as Standard Loadout, Assault Marine for Melee, Devastator for Anti-Tank / Anti-Tyranid.

I am saying this because for example I love the system of EVE DUST 514 in basic you can do whatever you want as long as you got the skill points and the money for all different items.

E.G. You can skill your dropsuit (armor) towards light, medium or heavy. If you have let's say all 3 armor types full skilled you can buy and use all kinds so you could make yourself a light, a medium and a heavy equipment. The light perhaps for recon, medium for regular combat and heavy for being a tank. Though I can promise you.... to make that possible will take you MONTHS (especially with a suitable weapon for each armor type, with light armor you are fast but fragile, medium is kinda balanced, heavy is slow but takes a lot of damage, even like 2-3 sniper head shots lol)

So I wonder how it will be like in EC:

A - Skill Trees / Ability Points or whatever (which results most likely into specialization or that it will cost extra to re-skill)

B - as described by EVE DUST 514's method (you can have everything but it will take a loooong time to achieve this)

C - you select your class at character creation and you are stick with it except for extra cost you may change your class and keep all Experience Points, Skills, etc. (kinda like MMO's usually work)

D - you start out with a basic class and then on Level X you have to decide which specialty path you take (e.g. start as Tactical Marine, when reached level 20 you can choose between Devastator, Assault Marine, Veteran / Captain)

I think they've chosen the correct races for quite a nice split. Hopefully the SM/C:SM sides will be fairly even. (Wishful thinking) but few Eldar and Orks in the mix will really spice things up.