You've no idea how many times I've felt like excactly like that. I mostly just nod and act like I know my stuff when it comes to TT-rules; then again, that's already my ordinary duty as a Farseer, so.

Mandrakes look super cool and have an awesome backstory, but are one of the worst elite units and are just bad in general. They are outmatched pretty much everywhere by other units in the codex. I still field them anyways though. Reason? They looks freakin' awesome. (I tried to put in little to no hieroglyphics in that )

You did a good job

People keep saying this, but I'm not sure why it's an issue. Orkz will join any fight they can for the most part. Dark Eldar are opportunistic and would happily take advantage of one group or another being distracted by a larger force to go in and poach some slaves (really it makes more sense than them engaging in a 1v1 fight considering they're generally heavily outnumbered.) And it wouldn't be strange at all for the IoM to send in backup for the Space Marines if the fighting becomes protracted and there was a risk of losing too many marines otherwise. Necron's just happened to already be there like usual, or showed up because they like killing things.

Really the only faction that seems difficult to bring in after the fact would be the Tau, because they aren't inherently bloodthirsty like almost everyone else in 40k.

I think the biggest challenge for putting Dark Eldar in the game is not the motivation join the war, which is to cause bloodshed and pain (Dark Eldar's favorite pastimes), but the motivation to control the planet. The main focus of Eternal Crusade is world domination. It's been stated that players are taking part in a war to control the planet and its resources. What makes putting the Dark Eldar in the game tricky is the fact that the Dark Eldar don't really need to control a planet.

As far as the Tau go, I easily see them joining the war. This planet could be near the Tau empire, so it would make sense that the Tau would try to conquer the planet in their quest for galactic expansion that they are known for.

Lore/immersion isn't what this game is about. Think about Planetside; no one gives a damn about the backstory of the different factions, people choose their factions based on the weapons/playstyles that cater to them.

And there happens to be quite a few people who want to play Dark Eldar, so I see no reason why they shouldn't put them in.

In a sense Lore/immersion is a huge factor to a large amount of people. Quite a large portion of Warhammer 40,000 fans (Especially tabletop players) absolutely love the lore in the universe. The difference between EC and Planetside is that Warhammer 40,000 has been around for a long time, and has an intricate and detailed history. Casting that aside would be a huge slap in the face to many people in the fanbase. When you are working with an IP like Warhammer 40k, story is very important.

That being said, I don't agree with Agaith's statement. I think the Dark Eldar have a good motivation for taking part in the the war, but I don't think they have a motivation to conquer the planet. Also I would disagree about their army size. When you honestly think about it, out of the four armies that are warring with each others, the orks are the only ones that can be considered to have a "huge" army.

Space Marine Chapters only have a thousand marines, broken into ten companies, as laid out by the Codex Astartes. (With the exception of the Space Wolves' thirteen great companies, as they don't follow the Codex Astartes) There have only been a handful of times when a full chapter has been deployed to a battle (The only one coming to mind right now is the battle for Ultramaar), so seeing all thousand of those marines is highly unlikely. At the very least we would see perhaps three to four companies, which translates to around four-hundred marines.

Chaos Marines are even more scarce because they have no reliable way of producing more Chaos Marines. The process in which Chaos Marines are made is different (in a sense) from normal marines. They actually have to steal the gene-seed to make more marines, which is extremely difficult to acquire. In fact, most Chaos Marines are actually marines from the early days (during the Horus Heresy and slightly after), and the reason why they are still alive is because their base of operations are located in warp storms such as The Eye of Terror or The Maelstrom. Time has little to no meaning in a warp storm, so they can stay in a warp storm and circumvent aging.

Eldar are claimed to have smallest population of the major races in the galaxy. That's only half true. They are certainly dwarfed by the other races as far as sheer population, but that's if you are taking into account all of the population of the Imperium and the Tau empire. Out of the four, they are still probably the smallest, but they are certainly not a small handful.

"Of the galaxy-spanning foes, the ancient Eldar are the most enigmatic. Their technological and societal attainment far outstrips that of humanity, yet they are capricious and vexatious beyond belief, as likely to side with Mankind as they are to inflict murder and devastation upon it. For the moment, the Imperium mostly refrains from aggressive action against the Eldar. This is partly because the Eldar are numerically amongst the smallest galactic threats, partly because they are allies almost as often as enemies, but largely because the last Imperial assault on an Eldar Craftwrold ended with the disaster of Blood Nebula and the loss of an entire sector fleet. It is better to fend off a single wasp than to provoke the entire nest." - 5th Ed. Rulebook pg. 119

The point of that excerpt is to say that, yes, the Eldar are numerically the smallest force. But, they certainly have enough manpower and skill to fend of an entire sector fleet. They can certainly handle themselves.

It has been stated that the Dark Eldar are more populous than their Craftworld cousins, but most of that population is broken up between Kabals, Cults, Aeries, Covens, Shrines, etc. All of them warring between each other for vanity, adoration, and pride.

The Kabal of the Black Heart however, contains a sizable number of warriors and if a deal is made with an assortment of cults (Wyches), Covens (Haemonculi), Aeries (Scourges), and Shrines (Incubi), they could easily make a fighting force on par with the other factions.

That's all fine and dandy. But people who are looking to be immersed will quickly be disappointed. When you are trying to be immersed, or have an rp session, and you got flattened by a group of players who then T bag you, all of your fluff will be broken.

Lore is not about to be a dominant force in this game, of this I'm 100% certain. 90% of players aren't going to care about "who has a reason/motive/capability to capture a planet" while they are playing. Most are just going to be playing for the fun combat that looks to be coming our way.

I know 40k has an incredible lore to it (I'm currently waiting for Andy Chambers' final novel in the Dark Eldar series to be released in March) and that many die hard fans are looking for an immersive 40k MMORPG with some PvP elements to it. I'm sorry to say, but this is NOT that game.

This is going to be more so of a third person shooter with some MMORPG elements; essentially PS2 but set in the 40k Universe and with melee pushing and third person as opposed to first person. Conclusion: lore is going to take a back seat.

There's no reason every race shouldn't be represented; if people want to play as a certain race, who is anyone else to tell them "they shouldn't be able to" ?

I think you are missing the point that I was trying to make. I wasn't saying that the game should focus on lore, it is a third-person shooter after all. What I was trying to say is that disregarding the lore of the universe is a disservice to the fanbase. I'm not going to play this game for some deeply involved storyline, I'm playing to kill some mon-keigh. That being said, there are lore guidelines that should be followed, and abandonment of those guidelines will have a negative impact on a fair number of players. And once again, I disagree with the statement in that the Dark Eldar have no reason to not partake in this war, but I don't want to see an army enter the fold because of 'reasons', with no explanation at all. Seeing your favorite army misrepresented with their story all messed up for the sake of gameplay can be a very angering issue for a lot people.

In addition, you can just as easily RP a battle with your squad through in game chat and not get thrashed. I don't know where the misconception is in that if you RP, you're bad at PVP. I also don't understand how a person's fluff can be broken if their squad gets demolished. There are a number of fluffy reasons that can be used as to why your squad got owned. If were a squad of Dark Eldar, then you were just culled because you were too weak. If you were a squad of Craftworld Eldar, the runes simply spelled your death as fate. Chaos Marines? Tzeentch was just trolling around. Immersion can be done at any level and is only broken by the individual's imagination.

I respect the point that you're trying to make and appreciate that you are pro Dark Eldar, but I disagree with most of your post. Again, not that I don't see where you're coming from; I just happen to not see eye to eye with you.

From my experience of gaming those who RP tend to be the worst at PvP (my experience being Darkfall, Tera, and Global Agenda). Not that I don't respect those who choose to play the game they wish, but I recall distinctively from all three of the above mentioned games that when the RP community was getting mashed by people who didn't care about their RP they cried about it all over the forums before quitting early in each game's existence (Tera still has an RP server now, but it's only a PvE server). Not exactly the crowd you want to aim to please.

I can't see anyone getting overly upset because a race is introduced for reasons that are "poor" in terms of the lore. Just doesn't make sense to me. If my favorite race gets implemented (Dark Eldar in my case) and the lore behind it is because they are here to clean to toilets of the other races, I could care less as long as I get to cut people to pieces as an Incubus or swoop down on kids as a Scourge. I would think many people would say the same.

But to each their own; I'm not here to judge, just voice my opinion same as anyone else.