The Grimdark’s first allied armylist was hoisting the Jolly Roger in 1988. Take a look at 40K’s first tri-faction list from Rogue Trader. Squats are involved!
It’s time to go back to the early days of the game. The original pirate armylist arrived in the Chapter Approved: First Book of the Astronomican from 1988.
This insane book had lists from the original Eldar Corsairs, to the Imperial Army, to White Scars, Rogue Traders and all kinds of funkiness. We’ll cover those another time.
The initial pirate list laid down the foundation for an allied army containing, human, Eldar and…Squat elements all working together. For profit of course. Let’s dive in.
The List
Are these guys really pirates? The Imperium describes them in the introduction as “semi-military hooligans”, who are in space. Sounds pretty much like space pirates to me. The first page describes their tri-racial makeup and areas of operations in and around the Claw Nebula. The main commanders are human and squat, with a mean Level 4 psyker leading up the group.
On to the minor officers. These folks are sporting flamers and plasma pistols, and a ton of close combat weapons for close-quarters action. Next note the amazing minis on the left column. It’s all 1980s all the time up there. I think the lady is wearing cowboy boots, and the guy below her is wearing brown leather wingtips.
Page three finally gets to the Eldar. We get 4 categories of support characters, three of which are psykers. We have the typical early Eldar mix of lasguns and shuriken catapults in there. The bottommost Exigators have flight packs, so there’s our first fast element to the list.
Page 4 has the main troops units for the humans and squats. These have typical weapons and pistols, but some interesting upgrade options. You could take the human squads and put them on bikes while the stylish Squats can take to battlefield on power boards. Zoooom!
Page 5 has the core Eldar infantry and the start of the vehicle auxiliaries. The Lightning squads can all get flight packs – almost early Swooping Hawks, while the Thunder Squads are loaded down with heavy weapons. The Black Shadow bike starts off the motorpool, continued below.
Here is where it gets cool. You can mix up Land Speeders, Land Raiders (with no Marines EGADS!), and Eldar dreads and grav tanks. How’s that for an allied list working together in 40K – in 1988!? Also, note the plethora of banners for you to copy and stick on your minis.
What do you think of Human, Eldar and Squats mercs working hand in hand for hard cold cash? I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that return to 40K.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
