Eldar War Walker
A War Walker is basically what you get if you try walking on stilts to a battlefield while trying to fire two guns at once and not get hit yourself.
While this above opening does mock a little, it is basically what the Eldar War Walker looks like. The official position from Games Workshop is that they are ..."used in rough terrain, to scout out enemy positions". Although why then a faster jetbike isn't a better option is not disclosed...
It looked truly silly in the past when it was basically two legs with a gun on each side and the pilot hideously exposed (I don't care if you say there is some sort of shield there, it still looks like the guy will get sniper shot in no time). Now that the model has been updated for the better and comes with a cockpit to cower in it looks a hell of a lot better although for some reason the feet have now turned into fancy looking hooves.
Oh, and it comes with a variety of heavy weapons which, when you combine them in squads of three, makes them only half-bad.
Another Perspective
The Eldar almost exclusively travel by utilizing the Webway, which is best described by using the analogy of veins and arteries. You have the thicker “main” veins which are allegedly big enough to transport an entire Craftworld, which then branch off into smaller and smaller ones as you go further out to the extremities, which in this case is the edges or less travel areas of the old Eldar Empire. The War Walker is what the Eldar use when the Webways get too small for something like a Falcon (don’t look at the comparative sizes of the table top models since GeeDubs stance on realistically proportioned vehicles could be politely described as “out of proportion so they don’t take up the whole table” and impolitely described as “utterly fucked”) but require more fire power then what can be brought to bear by Jetbikes or Vipers is required. Also used in particularly rough terrain, because have you ever seen that bit from The Return of the Jedi when the Stormtroopers are on their version of jetbikes and they crash into trees while distracted? Space Elf reflexives aren’t infallible, especially when you are being chased by tentacle space bestie de jure.
On the table they really aren’t a bad choice. 60pts buys you a 10/10/10 2 hull point walker with a 5++ and two shrunken cannons with a choice to upgrade either of these to more gribby weapons. Also the carriers of the only ground to air weapons so they tend to see some use against list that feature flyers predominately. The biggest problem with War Walkers is that compete for the heavy support slots against things like Wraithlords and Dark Reapers. And I mean really are you going to take a bunch of chicken walkers or a ‘mech powered by the pure rage of a ghost?
Gallery
-
How it used to look. And you thought the Wardknight looked bad.
