An unnatural hush falls over the battlefield as the air hangs heavy. Suddenly an ally falls to an unheard shot and an unnatural scream fills the air, filling all with dread.
They are coming.
The Eldar have left their webway gates and take to battle in Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. Having been announced as a playable race since conception, it wasn’t until this week that the promises have become a reality in the game’s Steam Early Access. This brings the total races available in the game up to three, joining the fight alongside the Chaos and Space Marine armies.
The trailer teases some of the classes that will be available to play. While no official word has been given on exactly how many of the game’s basic classes will be available right away, the website promises a total of seven by the game’s release. These include: The Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons, Dark Reapers, Swooping Hawks, Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, and Warlocks.
As you can tell, that’s quite a lot of classes. The other two races currently in game have four — each fulfilling a very unique role. Here’s a breakdown of what we can assume we’re guaranteed to get based on the above trailer.
Fire Dragon
These guys are your tank killers. Armed with powerful Fusion Guns, these warriors take great pleasure in reducing their enemies to ash in mere seconds. Their strengths lie in attacking the weak points of enemy armor units and absolutely destroying them. Their weaknesses tend to be dealing with other infantry. But a well-protected Fire Dragon, or a group of them working in concert, can wreak absolute havoc.
Dire Avengers
Dire Avengers fill the role of primary infantry. They are as noble as they are ruthless, and are more than capable of handling themselves against the Chaos God’s and Emperor’s finest. They often favor Avenger Shuriken Catapults as a weapon of choice, firing volleys of monomolecular blades capable of shearing through even the toughest of imperial body armor like a hot knife through butter. Like most Eldar, they are swift, deadly, and fragile. Stick to the shadows or move in groups to stay alive.
Howling Banshees
A battle caste comprised entirely of women, Howling Banshees get their name from the soul rending screams issued from their Banshee Masks,shi h are so piercing that they can cause severe nerve damage to the unprotected. Banshees are agile even for Eldar, and prefer to quickly close distance with their foes before hacking them open with their Power Swords. They carry a Shuriken Pistol as an offhand, but it won’t win you ranged battles against more capable shooters. Get in quick, be smart, and be deadly.
Striking Scorpions
There are no action shots of our final class, but that fits their profile rather well. Striking Scorpions are represented by that guy on the far right who has the predator cloak thing going on. They’re the assassins of the group, and are considered one of the most deadly aspects among the Eldar. They use advanced cloaking technology to close distance with their foes before killing quickly and retreating into the shadows for the next hunt. A talented Scorpion can absolutely terrorize an enemy group, while a poor one won’t survive very long in the heat of battle.
Still left unrepresented are the Dark Reapers, Swooping Hawks and Warlocks. It would make sense that these would come later though, since as I mentioned earlier, the other races only have four classes right now as well. The game is planning a summer 2016 release, so lets hope for more information as we get closer to that becoming a reality.
