Are Eldar Exodites worth it?

Image from here

As a neckbeard and alpha nerd who has attained the highest ranks of geekery, showing me an elf riding a dinosaur wielding a knight's lance that shoots laser beams is like dangling sausages in front of a dog. All rational thought disappears, and we both start whining, begging and doing little tricks.

But as a scientist and a teacher, I have that annoying voice at the back of my head pulling me back and considering what that would mean. It also tells me to get on with marking books, but I can resist that urge to paint models. Most of the time.

So, Eldar Exodites.. worth it?

Consider the Eldar Corsairs. In their first incarnation, I don't remember them being anything more than Guardians with lasguns, and maybe a nice character model to lead them. These were the days when Guardians also had lasguns, and there wasn't much to the average corsair other than cool fluff.

For a while, the Corsairs kept to the background, until Forgeworld came to their rescue and gave them the unique selling point of army-wide jetpack troops. From this, the Deep Strike proliferation and emphasis on speed was layered on. At their core, they are meant to be jetpack/highly mobile troops, with some nice exotic weaponry. Which should really have been the Dark Eldar.

So now back to the Exodites, and their unique specialization would be cavalry. Dragon riding is a big selling point for the Exodites, and makes them a little more thematically removed from the Wood Elves they used to be the analogue to (although at this point the Eldar and their Elvish origins have diverged to such an extent that all that links them is pointy ears).

Is army wide cavalry a good thing? I think so... right now all we have are Thunderwolves and Imperial Guard Rough Riders as cavalry types, which almost seems a waste of a unit type.

But cavalry in 40K is lesss of a mobility option, and more of a close combat upgrade. You will move 12-inches, yes, but you also gain the ability to re-roll run and charge distances, along with a Hammer of Wrath attack on the charge.

So we'd end up with a very close combat themed Eldar army... which should really be Dark Eldar.

And so the final issue: Should Exodites really come along before Dark Eldar have had a little care and attention?

As someone who likes both armies, I can't really make a decision on that. I can't answer the question I started with using my rational head. So I'll let the giggling nerd in me answer it.

Yes. Space elves riding dinosaurs wielding knight lances that shoot laser beams are awesome. But for inspiration... maybe avoid this:

Image from here

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

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