Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition) - Codex Compliant 

Razorwing was one of the few times reusing a name made a lot of sense. I always thought the plane was named after the bird. That is actually good worldbuilding.

Glad that Snipe's throat is no longer being tortured by tiny, dark, pain-loving eldar.

this continues to be my favorite miniature-related youtube channel.

When the codex that you started an army with features on Codex Compliant Damn, time sure does pass Anyhow, BLACK HOLE IN A BOX is still my favorite bit of Vect lore

And Snipe looking healthy and great. Great to have the ‘posh ‘n’ Becs’ of 40k back!

I remember the what is now called the Community Website, had a whole build-up regarding the design of this codex' models. They had a nice in-depth interview with Jess Goodwin and Phil Kelly, beautiful sketches by Jess and I remember it just being particularly inspiring at the time. Good memories :)

Oubliettes and Dark Eldar just go well together. That's why they're in the Warhammer Horror novel _The Oubliette_

"Into skulls in a way that seems obsessive even by 40k standards" is objectively the funniest way you could put that, thank you.

I wonder how many people remember Dark Eldar were the obligatory space marine punching bags in the 3rd edition starter set...

I’ve always assumed Commorraugh rhymes with Sodom & Gomorrah for obvious reasons

The day this came out, we were coincidentally at WW. I got chatting to a nice staff man in the shop about Space Marine physiognomy and he seemed very happy to discuss how post-humans 'worked.' Good discussion. As we left, Jim turned to me: 'That was Jez Goodwin.' 🤣

If Lady Malys returns into the game, I'm starting a Drukhari army.

Them getting a nice update after being ignored for so long is an understatement. By 4th edition Dark Eldar were not available in store, I remember spending my time in a GW and reading the codices (ours had opened ones you could read) and never seeing any Dark Eldar. I had heard of them, but never seen them, I think only one of the employees at the store had played them (back when GW stores had multiple employees and not just one). By 5th ed at some point, you could no longer order any Dark Eldar models and I remember reading a story from a guy who said that he was interested in them but that the manager told him that they were basically getting squatted. Then this book and models dropped, and completely 180'd the situation. I didn't see it firsthand as I had stopped playing by that point, but when I came back in I've encountered them all the time. They're not SM common, but now they're up there with Tau as a commonly played faction. It cannot be overstated how this book and range re-fresh saved the faction., if it had flopped then Dark Eldar would have just been squatted, never to be seen again.

Dark Eldar have been my wife's army since 4th. Despite being sad that the Incubi lost their shooty helms, she has enjoyed unleashing terror against our friends for years now.

I love when Vect said "It's Kabaling Time" and Kabalited all over people.

Was literally talking about Codex Compliant about a minute ago, and behold, The Lore Gods provide! All praise Snipe and Wib

I like how snip's hair looks in this video

Greetings, algorithm pleasing engagement brethren. Please perform the requisite ritual liking and commenting.

Years ago I did a comunity vote on Warseer ( gezz, remeber that forum ? I feel old :P ) asking people wich ( and why ) GW codecies they think were best ones. 5th ed Dark Eldar got A LOT of votes, landing in the end on 2nd place, not far behind from winner, 3.5 ed CSM codex. So yep, quite a few people liked it.

One thing I always liked with the revamped Dark Eldar range was that it’s completely compatible with the 3rd edition rage. I’ve had hours of fun mixing the two ranges and it always looks great. Points to the model designers.

I think it was this Codex that I used when noodling together some rules for a version of Necromunda set in Commorragh. I really should dig out those rules one of these days and try updating them.

I loved how different HQ's made a large impact on what units were troops and how the army played. the codex I found had a lot of flavor and I preferred just how many unique armies you could make out of this codex.

5th Ed dark eldar may have been the first "serious" army project I undertook and quickly abandoned. Still have the Codex, though.

This book is still my favourite translation of lore to the tabletop. My Dark Eldar played exactly like they were depicted in every novel and codex blurb, a feat only shared by Necrons and Space Wolves of that era, imo. I miss those days 😢

In 10 years of playing Dark Eldar around 3rd - 5th i never once met another Dark Eldar player. I was so elated when this codex came out though, basically everything that the previous had but better and more. It was such a flimsy army on paper but the advantage was huge particularly when people didn't really know what they were up against. Really one of the best definitions of a glass cannon ever. (Also kinda scary that the algorithm served up what was absolute peak 40k for me lol).

Dark Eldar 5th was one of my favorite codexes, ever. It was infinitely flexible with so many cool tricks to really show off good play that it makes me look at modern indexes and codexes and just sigh at what we lost.

10:18 GW "Well of course we got rid of named characters we needed to make room for the real stars which the Dark Eldar fans hankered for. Primaris Lieutenants. ...What do you mean that doesn't make sense?"

My favourite codex of all time, it got me into 40k and the dark eldar, who remain my exclusive army to this day. Great video.

Lelith's profile had me pause the video for a sec NINE WS If she took that statline into Horus Heresy 2.0, she could outfight nearly EVERY PRIMARCH

It's my birthday and then you upload a Codex Compliant of my favorite codex of all time. This really is great.

It's one of my favorite codex if all time, both 3 and 5th, but 5th especially. The 3rd ed, though, was hilarious as one of the first books released as it in the cover said it is not for beginners. Yet it was an army in the starter. A starter, which was so one-sided in favor of the marines it was not funny. But yes, I loved the grenades that when hot with one would make you explode. Or the rules about taking slaves as additional victory points and hit and run campaigns.

One thing i always found interesting about this book was how Grotesques became Wracks and then they made a new model called a Grotesque that was big. Interesting change. As an aside i must applaud you for avoiding the temptation to call Vect "ass dribble". I certainly wouldn't have been so tactful.

That Pedro gag was

I’m glad Snipe is feeling better! I love the nostalgia of something I never got to experience ❤.

Ancient is a rank equivalent to ensign, meaning standard bearer, or chap with the flag. See Othello by Shakespeare. I dunno if GW know this.

My 1999 starter army... the change in models and rules after so long blew my mind when it finally happened

This was an interesting codex as it came out near the end of 5th and was actually quite strong in 6th and 7th until Deldar got their 7th Ed book. I've always felt like more could be done with them. Thank you for a nice retrospective.

I have a fond memory of this book coming out. Me and my bestie was in the a hobby store, the bestie was reading it, and scream in terror either by the images or reading the rules. (can't remember which.) But that scream was so funny, it kinda burn into my mind as something to laugh at.

Right when I'm back into the 40k rabbit hole, you lads release a new Codex Compliant ! I feel like this is art

Aahh fifth edition. When dad and i started playing and my life long obsession was cemented. Still have my old fifth codexes

My day just got better!

A very pleasant romp through the seedy alleyways splintering off from Memory Lane, it's fun to see how my starting faction I inherited from my brother (I was 7 at the time, I turned out fine) have grown over the years. Well done! ^^ Also very happy to see that Snipe's recovered their voice properly, it's always a bother to be without it.

All the best to both Snipe and Wib. Thanks for another fun peek back in to the fog of eons gone past.

I'm well pleased with this look into the Dark Eldar 5h ed. codex. The original Dark Eldar models and codex were OK, but the way this army was re-envisioned and revitalized with this book is remarkable, with an accompanying model range which still looks great to this day.

5th ed was my original edition, so this really brings me back! Always wanted to play Dark Eldar but never got around to it (i would also rather die than call them drukhari, sorry gw)

Didn’t realise the “I’ve got minis to paint” sticker was one of yours, I’ve ordered a few now, a perfect gift for pals …

New codex complaint the second my lunch break stars? Baller

Aw yeah! Fifth edition was my shit. I remember trying to decide if I should start a dark elder or an elder army and ending up choosing elder but thinking I should have picked dark elder because those Raider models looked so damn cool.

Feeling much older now that you’ve featured this codex !

You both are right: The conversion pages in the older codices were the best!

This is the first time you;ve covered a codex that I'm actually pretty familiar with. Not because I played when 5th was the current edition, but because my play group decided to try an older edition, and 5th was what we landed on. While I will agree the color sections aren't as interesting to look through as earlier codexes there are some 5th codexes with pretty decent color sections like for the Space Wolves 5th ed codex there's a really useful section that goes over the iconography and different patterns for Wolf Packs.

Y'all, I just love your videos. Thank you so much for putting these out into the world!

Ahhh, Dark Eldar in 5th edition. I didn't play them myself, but I recall the local DE player getting very nervous about the 5th edition codex release once word got out. The codexes prior in that edition weren't very well received in my group, Robin Cruddace and Matt Ward were cursed weekly, if not daily.

Love your stuff and it's great yourselves are back!

Funniest thing to do in 5th edition Dark Eldar. Get a Raider with a Prow, Aethersails, and Flicker Field. Prow makes ramming with the raider very likely to kill and you get bonus Str on the ram based on distance traveled. Was not uncommon to do 26-28 inches and slam into a Land Raider. You hit the target with stupid strength and pen, blowing it up. You then roll your 5++ invul save from Flicker Field and save against the hit from your own ramming maneuver. Another fun one was I played against Imperial guard once who deployed on the table edge in a corner to try and give his guys more time to shoot me. Stole the init with Vect, and then proceeded to fly like 30ish inches into his line and tank shock off the vast majority of his force off the board. One of the fastest games of 40k I ever won, right up there with my opponent losing half his army to off the board deep strikes.

tbh 5th edition codex was major fun i started with it in 6th edition and it was a blast when wasnt against outpowercrept stuff like 6th tau

Wonderful to see you both again! Thank you!

Sorry to hear Snipe's been unwell; hope they're feeling better now.

Ta for the great vid as ever! Nostalgic for this one, new dark eldar was when I first started played as but a wee lad.

I learn something new every time these come out! Well done, you two, on a cool and interesting vid!

Love you guys, wonderful video as always

Got to agree with you on the lack of hobby section in newer editions (and given 5th falls under ‘new’ in that statement, guess that shows how old I’m getting…guess I really should stop procrastinating and get back to working on stuff for playing tOW 👴🏻). With no hobby section the books feel a little sterile and lacklustre, even though production values have gone up otherwise. I think GW dropping it from their books is largely a result of a shift in ideology within the company and them not wanting to encourage conversions too enthusiastically as doing so results in people looking outside the GW biosphere for resources to use for those conversions. A shift that’s continued to the point that these days it feels like GW really want you to use things out of the box assembled as is with no conversion work whatsoever, which just feels so lacking to me; yeah minis now are more dynamic than they used to be, but that loses its effect when you need multiples of the same kit and end up with three guys in the exact same very specific action pose. Say what you will about the old regimented rank and file units in WHFB/tOW, but the way those kits were/are constructed gave you the flexibility to easily make slight variations so that the repetition wasn’t so in your face (plus the similarity in poses between minis in a unit works better for ranked up stuff than skirmishing units like in 40k and AoS). Edit: I should also say that I haven’t bought a White Dwarf in a few years, so maybe the more creative side of the hobby is pushed there more and I’m just unaware of it due to not buying it.

One of the best redesigns in the history of GW imho

Thank you for the video. I started a Drukhari army just earlier this year and this gave me some good perspective. I really hope that the 10th Edition release for the faction will be good. Besides Vect himself, the Homunculi section of the faction also needs a rework and seems like they are getting one, given that Grotesques actually can't be purchased at the moment.

I always felt the "We do slannesh things, but this keeps slannesh away and we are totally not slannesh." was a plot contrivance at best for DE not being Chaos Eldar. I would've had the Dark Eldar as puppets of slannesh without knowing it.

Great vid as always, cheers for the trip down memory lane 😊. Honestly 2010-2011 was such a great year to be in the hobby. The sheer hype and energy everyone felt around the new Dark Eldar release was almost palpable. So glad I was part of the community back then. God the Forums were going wild in anticipation 😂. Was also great to actually meet Phill Kelly at Warhammer World. Games Workshop held a vig event there the same year the codex came out - back in the day you'd actually get to talk to the writers and artists behind the new books - getting to hear Phil talk about what inspired him RE. the new design for Raiders and Talos, hearing 1st hand about how much R&D they did to make rhe new ball-socket flying stands work, etc. Such a privilege and I'm glad we had it. Same fir the sheer amount of lore and full pages of unbroken text you got in 5th ed codexes. Way more than you get nowadays. Makes all the 10th ed codexes look obsolete and half vaked by comparison. Reall6 is no need to buy them if you've already got the 5th ed codex and wahpedia (one gor lore/ art and obe for latest rules)

This might be the best overall codex in 40k. I still have it in a box somewhere and it’s just a joy to read.

Excellent trip down memory lane.

Lol imagine this video is how Drummermatt finds out that Snipe and Wib still have his codex

5th edition was, indeed, 40k's peak in many ways. The base rules were the best and most fun they've ever been, and the factions felt as they should, for the most part. Then came that edition's Codex Chaos Space Marines, and it all went downhill from there.

One of my favorite codexes for Dark Eldar! Love the flavor and characters

Hekatrix bloodbrides. Too soon Wib, too soon.

Ahh my first codex, glad you've finally got round to it!

Fluff heavy, or... fluffy!

Dark Eldar were my first army. That 5th Ed codex was my first

I started 40k with that codex and the megaforce army box. Loved the codex, but didn't know much of the game back then :)

As always the absolute best warhammer content on the internet

I remember when this came out! I was on a childs budget at the time so I didn't get to explore it, and I've always been curious about their transformation. Excited for this video!

Agree with the idea of colour sections being a little more charming when they had conversions in them,

Zodgrod Wortsnagga's return is less surprising than Makari surviving being sat on by Ghazza And it's a more insulting return, given we haven't seen Nazdreg since THIRD EDITION!

First, I see a codex compliant update and I click

Oh cool, it's a new Snipe and Wib Codex Compliant!

I'm so happy for Zodgrod's return, specifically because he demonstrates just how nostalgic GW's designers can be of their own idea. He's by no mean a character people would be hyped about after nearly 30 years of absence, he wasn't a particularly interesting design or anything, and yet he dropped from absolutely nowhere. Thanks for that Zodgrod.

This codex is what made me a dark eldar fan.

I've never really had much to do with the Dark Eldar so this was a great way to hear about what they were in a period of 40k history that I also missed. Plus the Cybernoid music is a classic tune!

Yeah I got this codex and two battle forces and a bunch of extra stuff and they've sat in a box every since. Most got built but that was it lol

Oh man, I remember this coming out. It was a shock to the system, I was so used to them being a relic of 3rd ed. Their antiquity was almost a comforting constant--but it was a super cool update for sure.

Snipe and Wip >>>>>>>>>>>>

My fav army for 40k and this was my first and last codex for them. I went full wytches with some specialized elites. It was fun to get bazzilions of attacks and 4+ spceial save in HTH :P

It's weird to get to 5th edition, feels like yesterday.

I love this series so much

Wait, I just noticed, isn't Commorragh almost the same as... Gomorrah? Ha, how could have I missed this with all the obvious parallels...

I am very much enjoying seeing the 5th ed codexes looked at, I know nostalgia bias is huge, but I love this era of codexes. Feels a good middle ground between the 3rd ed Wonkyness and Fun and the 8th ed "balanced game" style.

Love it, I stay subscribed for this program.

You two rock! Thank you!

It was also around this time when artwork inside many codices were black and white iterations of color originals and printed WAY too dark. Near silhouettes at times.

Brilliant video, grud I miss them :-) you guys rule!! Fingers crossed for Snipe!

Welcome Back Friends!!!! Snipe your hair looks great!!!

I collected Dark Eldar in 6th edition and allied them with my small Iyanden force, it was a really fun and fluffy time (though my one wave serpent was doing most of the work). I really miss the 5e codex characters that didn't ever get models - I made a Baron Sathonyx model including the farseer skull, and was really into Lady Malys. She'll probably never get a model now that Yvraine's here which I'm very sad about. Hopefully Vect comes back in 10th and DE get a few more plastic options, so much of their range is still the 5e models. They still hold up as some of the best designed models GW's ever made imo, but they've gotten zero actual new units/datasheets since then, merely plastic releases of older finecast models. And they've still got the whole Court of the Archon and Beastmaster stuff in finecast! They really need a new unit of some kind to spice them up.

Craftworld Eldar have almost had their entire range refreshed at this point, Dark Eldar could use the same bone this edition and some new/returning units. I'm trying to pool money together in preparation for that possibility as we speak.