Gallowglacht
Member
So in the Rogue Trader book Eldar Mercenaries and Pirates usually come with mesh armour and refractor fields.
Giving them a better armour save than marines and a cool sci-fi energy shield vibe.
The Book of the Astronomicon comes along and gives us some army lists, with more detail and character.
Again, Eldar Pirates and Mercenaries, be they Lightning or Thunder squads, Serpents or Dragons, are protected by Mesh Armour and Refractor fields.
It seems like an Eldar "thing". Standard issue equipment.
The Compendium gives us Harlequins, who are pretty different from the other Eldar types, but although these guys drop the Mesh in favour of Holo-suits, the refractor field shows up here too.
White Dwarf 127/Compilation give us the Craftworld list that goes on to form the basis of the Eldar moving forward. Avatar, Farseers and Warlocks, Aspect Warrior and Guardians. But the weirdest thing that struck me was losing the Refractor fields. OK, so the ritualised Aspect Warriors have their own armour, but the normal guardians wear the same Mesh Armour their Mercenary and Pirate counterparts do, which makes sense as they all come from the Craftworlds really, but lose the fields.
There are other changes. They lose some skill compared to what Rogue Trader established as the Eldar base, but these aren't full time warriors, so, sure.
They often use lasers, as opposed to the previous focus on Shuriken Catapults, but this seems fine too. The Eldar are mentioned as using laser weapons and they haven't shown up much, so this doesn't seem strange.
But having established a previous norm for protection, and established that the Eldar are a dying race, we now have civvies losing out on protection and that protection being the most common one used up until this point.
I like the refractor fields. They have imprinted on my mind as how Eldar "should" be. And, of course, I'm free to just use them whenever I want. One of the joys of Rogue Trader is the flexibility available and the fact that it isn't played competitively.
So really, I'm just curious. Does anyone know why this change was made? Or have any theories?
Is it a change for the better? Am I alone in pining for the lost refractor fields?
Giving them a better armour save than marines and a cool sci-fi energy shield vibe.
The Book of the Astronomicon comes along and gives us some army lists, with more detail and character.
Again, Eldar Pirates and Mercenaries, be they Lightning or Thunder squads, Serpents or Dragons, are protected by Mesh Armour and Refractor fields.
It seems like an Eldar "thing". Standard issue equipment.
The Compendium gives us Harlequins, who are pretty different from the other Eldar types, but although these guys drop the Mesh in favour of Holo-suits, the refractor field shows up here too.
White Dwarf 127/Compilation give us the Craftworld list that goes on to form the basis of the Eldar moving forward. Avatar, Farseers and Warlocks, Aspect Warrior and Guardians. But the weirdest thing that struck me was losing the Refractor fields. OK, so the ritualised Aspect Warriors have their own armour, but the normal guardians wear the same Mesh Armour their Mercenary and Pirate counterparts do, which makes sense as they all come from the Craftworlds really, but lose the fields.
There are other changes. They lose some skill compared to what Rogue Trader established as the Eldar base, but these aren't full time warriors, so, sure.
They often use lasers, as opposed to the previous focus on Shuriken Catapults, but this seems fine too. The Eldar are mentioned as using laser weapons and they haven't shown up much, so this doesn't seem strange.
But having established a previous norm for protection, and established that the Eldar are a dying race, we now have civvies losing out on protection and that protection being the most common one used up until this point.
I like the refractor fields. They have imprinted on my mind as how Eldar "should" be. And, of course, I'm free to just use them whenever I want. One of the joys of Rogue Trader is the flexibility available and the fact that it isn't played competitively.
So really, I'm just curious. Does anyone know why this change was made? Or have any theories?
Is it a change for the better? Am I alone in pining for the lost refractor fields?