[RT]What happened all the Craftworld Refractor Fields?

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?
 
I think you mentioned the answer in your second sentence: It gave them a better armour save than Marines.

Effectively the guardians are a civilian levy, it wouldn't make logistical sense for them to be harder to kill than Spac Marn Ultimate Killbastard Warriors.

The Aspect Warriors became the backbone of the army, with the Guardians relegated to last ditch defence.
 
Gallowglacht":3tsxjwha said:
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?
I think it was a part of progressing de-futurisation of Wh40k. Like, you see Imperial Guard losing Predators in the Space Marine Army List in WD125.
Space Marine already removing all the high tech gadgets like power fields from all Imperial tanks and vehicle rules making tanks much more backwards .

I generally disliked that trend.
 
You are asking about rules here and why the why of it. Have you considered that the rules for armour and fields aren't consistent or even resolved? The rules state that you can take the save separately or combine them into a single save!

You can argue from "fluff point of view" all you like, but in the end the actual rules are inconsistent and contradictory, and it all flows from that basic premise ;)
 
ramshackle_curtis":3ku9has2 said:
You are asking about rules here and why the why of it. Have you considered that the rules for armour and fields aren't consistent or even resolved? The rules state that you can take the save separately or combine them into a single save!

You can argue from "fluff point of view" all you like, but in the end the actual rules are inconsistent and contradictory, and it all flows from that basic premise ;)
Fluff also massively changed.

Armies massively changed.

For example Imperial Guard started out as something like a weaker version of Space Marines but still a sensible starborne force and then it devolved into cannon fodder, which I think was partially connected with Battlefleet Gothic/Space Fleet introducing enormous starships.

Lots of stuff used to be massively high tech like Imperial AFVs but became WWI/WWII style by the end of Rogue Trader era.

I see it basically as Rogue Trader developing, peaking with the Compendium content and then both fluff and rules degenerating into 2nd edition.
 
Gallowglacht":2dguoomp said:
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?
I also like the ultra-tech period of the Compendium much more.

That's what I used when I was working on my Rogue Trader mod for Epic 40k: Final Liberation.
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
OK, so far...
  • Ensuring Space Marines are teh awesum
  • Reducing the tech-level of the game universe
  • Inability to reconcile how armour stacks

I think there is also a case that moving towards a WYSIWYG design philosophy, so if it can't be sculpted on (armour) or painted on (holo-suits) then it doesn't appear in the game.

Personally I like Space Elves as the super-advanced high-technology alien archetype. It makes sense.
 
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