So, I like to think of some of the cooler stuff a party might find. I know DH is less your army battling their army, and a bit more your team sneaking around, collecting details, ascertaining the lynchpin in the enemy's plans, and dealing with it, but I could see, if needed an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor + Cadre having to fend off the tops of some alien fighting forces. Say they might have to fight off the leaders of an invading Eldar force, though led by an Autarch, rather than a Farseer, or perhaps take down the Shas'O of a Tau Battle Cadre, or hopefully their Ethereal. Now, I don't have the energy to figure out the vehicle stats for a Crisis Suit, but an Autarch could be cool, and not too hard.

Now, my biggest problem with DH/RT might be that they kindly give me write-ups for stuff (the Farseer in Lure of the Abyss, for instance, is awesome), but they are not good at telling me what level, for lack of a better term, they are, or at least how many points they are worth. Is that Farseer a Rank 8 character, somehow, or more of a mid-teens Ascension-caliber foe? (Don't know if there is or is there are some sort of Ascension rules for Rogue Trader.) Would an Autarch be built at 12,000 XP, or 44,000 XP?

Anyone have some suggestions on how to stat that most martial of the Eldar Warhost? Thoughts would be great, especially in the form of XP estimates. Whether you would follow an existing career path, make one, or just figure out a point-total, and give them everything you want them to have. Thanks to anyone who responds.

An Autarch would certainly be a great confrontation for any DH/RT group, and it would make a great climax to any mission.

The Autarch would need have to a serious stat line. If you have the DH creatures anathema, you could look in there for help, as they have some Eldar NPC profiles, such as Dire Avengers. You could use that as your start point and go from there. The Autarch would need to be very good in terms of WS/ BS, and considering the fact that Dire Avengers have 50+ in those areas, it would suit the Autarch to have more. It would also make sense for the Autarch, like all Eldar, to have comparatively "normal"strength and toughness, along with high agility. And, of course, some kick ass weapons :)The Autarch should certainly be a challenging encounter, at least, and even higher if they have guards.

I hope that's of some use to you, and good luck!

Mr Hindsight said:

I think I'll have to use some stuff from Ascension, though, seeing as a Dire Avenger Exarch is in that setup, and any Autarch is effectively an Exarch in three or more Aspect Temples. I do happen to have Creatures Anathema, so with that, Ascension, and maybe some hints from Lure of the Expanse (if only to scale one HQ unit with another, being the Farseer), I think I'll be able to come up with something. I'll post it here when I've got something. Thanks.

The Autarch iirc can't have been an exarch (if you become one you stay one for life), but if we go by the TT stats they should be better both in terms of weapon skill and number of attacks. WS, BS and Initiative would be around upper 60s - lower 70s, strength and toughness in the 40s, Intelligence, WP and fellowship in the 50s or higher (autarchs are, after all, supposed to be masterful strategists and leaders). 30-ish wounds, AP 7 or 8 armor (likely high-quality), high-grade eldar personnel shield (4++ on the TT), and I'd expect a masterwork melee power weapon, pistol and basic weapon of some sort ( avenger shuriken catapult or any of the toys in the RT book detailing eldar gear - Lure of the Expanse, iirc).

Autarchs are Exarchs, as i understand it. They reach the pinnacle of what they can achieve in one Aspect Temple, and then go on to another, in order to repeat it again. In essence, they are a multi-Exarch. Even if i might be wrong, and they leave their various temples before they become an Exarch, the combination of temples they pile on would make them the equivalent of an exarch, with diversified experience and options.

My ideal Exarch would have the bulk of the stats as you described; WS, BS, and Agility to reflect the best one can achieve after 600+ years of learning under several of the various Aspect Temples (I favor a combo of Shining Spears, Dire Avengers, and Dark Reapers or Fire Dragons). He could sport either a Fusion Gun/Firepike or a Reaper Launcher, and carry a Diresword and Av Shuriken Catapault for occasional close combat. He could wear Aspect armor and either a shimmershield, or something better but more personal range, and move at high speeds on an eldar jetbike. He'd also have the Fellowship to lead other Aspect Warriors, some tactical acumen, and stuff. Granted, this makes mine a bit more specialized and detailed out then an "average" Autarch, written up to be flexible for a GM to modify, but I'd have to start somewhere.

venkelos said:

When an aspect warrior learns all they can from an aspect path, they leave it shortly after for another calling. An exarch is an eldar who becomes obsessed with the path and is literally unable to leave it (eldar have obsessive personalities, the path system was designed to keep them busy and moving); it is considered somewhat of a tragedy as the person who they were is lost, completely subsumed by the warrior persona. The exarch remains as a teacher of the new warriors and a priest to Khaine - after all, the aspects are effectively Khaine's death cults on the craftworld.

An autarch is an eldar who has visited all the aspect shrines on a craftword, and then (as I understand it, it's a bit unclear) sets on to become a commander. They are not an exarch, because they were never lost on any single path; instead, they walked them all. An autarch can't match an exarch in the exarch's own style, but has a broad mastery of all styles. By the TT rules, in the endautarch is in fact an even better warrior than an exarch, although they can't use specialized exarch gear (like the diresword). Whether you want to keep to that or not is up to you - if you want to give an autarch an Executioner, I'd say more power to you.

Every once in a while, I guess I is wrong, but no loss to me. Other folks definitely know more about this stuff than I do. I could easily still have a character with excessive WS, BS, Ag, and Fel, riding around on a jetbike, wearing Good or Best Quality Aspect Armour (AP: 7 base) ( shame I can't grab rune armour, but they aren't psykers ), carrying a reaper launcher ("regular" DReap weapon), a fusion gun ("regular" FDrag weapon), and a stowed shuriken catapault or pistol, with a best quality Xenos-manufacture power sword. This allows for ridiculous mobility, even for an Eldar, allowing them to lead ground troops or bikes, and to drop even the best of most ground troops (reapers kill infantry) and/or vehicles (dragons kill tanks), while still being totally legit with how Autarchs are known to work. Maybe give them the Scorpion Swords over a P.Weapon, but i like Power Swords, and Mandiblasters or Banshee Masks are useful, too. They really have heinous options, and even all in one guy, if they pick one of each group (one big gun, one cc weapon, one mask), or stow alternate options on their bikes. I really need to get some stats down for this thing!!!

what party of acolytes would have any hope of surviving in battle against an Eldar Autarch? It's like taking on a Space Marine commander.

An Autarch would indeed be a nasty fight... Unless those crafty Throne Agents brought a Sentinel Scout to lock the "ultimate warrior" in melee for all time... (I joke... or rather weep.). On a more serious note, I would start with the Dire Avenger Exarch in Ascension and then just start tacking on skills, talents and minor stat bumps until it "feels right" for your adventure. No two Autarchs are the same other than having creepy eyes and pointy ears, so pick a few warrior aspects and pile on their hallmark abilities.

As for your Tau needs, check out Deathwatch! Your filthy fish-heads and their soulless wargear have been documented for sumary study and purgation. Yes, they statted battlesuits!

If they are throne agents, things can be a bit more even, but I was under the impression that we are talking about un-ascended characters here; for them taking on an autarch would be nearly impossible. These are the guys that are the eldar equivalents to Space Marine commanders or Chaos lords, usually have a retinue of experienced troops and some of the flashiest bling the space elves can get. And I wouldn't be advising to use a sentinel, btw - an autarch will likely have either meltabombs or haywire grenades, if they don't have a meltagun or the like.

I was making a joke based on the current (AWFUL!) Eldar Codex and TT rules in combo. Attatching a grenade or melta-bomb onto a vehicle with a WS (regardless of score) makes only ONE attack and it is likely to MISS unless the vehicle is immobilized first. Since the Autarch fights with a S3 power weapon or a S4 chainsword your options when charged by a Sentinel Scout are A) Swing your chainsword around some and hope you accidentally stun the driver for a moment or B) Give up all your extra attacks and try to clamp a melta-bomb onto the evading machine. In the almost mathematically certain event that you FAIL to damage the Sentinel it will then try to step on your Autarch... Since the assault chart is retarded the WS3 driver has a 50% chance to step on the WS7 Autarch with a S5 hit (84% chance of wounding), so roll armour save and hope... Now either both sides failed to do any damage (a draw) and they stand around for another round of whacky fun or the Sentinel kicked the Autarch's shins for a wound (thus winning the assault!) and your glorious leader now gets to test Leadership or be forced to try running away, possibly getting trampled to death in the process if the rolls go badly!

The math is even more sad if it is an ARMOURED Sentinel with the enclosed crew cab since the dainty chainsword fanning is no longer a bad option, but instead a useless option!

Since you probably spent around 150 points on this guy.... Shameful!

Even more tragic: Replace Sentinel with Astartes Dreadnought!

Fortunately, as a DH GM you do not have to willingly tolerate this stupidity and can make this peer to Astartes Chapter Masters worthy of the name! Of course, he is still incapable of hurting his Astartes counterpart with a shuriken catapult.... Meanwhile since apparently Exarch Armour is (AP6 body, AP 5 everything else) according to RT, the Astartes bolter will smear the Autarch into a bloody stain with minimal effort. Seems like the wargear nerfs are not limited to the TT game, since this stuff is supposed to be comparable to Astartes power armour! Explains why the Eldar are constantly scheming to make the Imperium fight their battles for them...

If you look at my webpage, in my signature, there's a document there called Children of Isha ; it's a set of rules for Eldar NPCs for use in Deathwatch. On page 25 of that document are rules for an Autarch Fiannathail, who should serve as a more than able representative of Autarch-kind. There are also a variety of Exarchs and Aspect Warriors, a Warlock, a Farseer, several vehicles (using the Into the Storm/Rites of Battle vehicle rules), and the Avatar of Khaine.

Well, the thing is if we are statting pretty much anything we need to decide if we should use it against humans or marines. Marines get higher damage on pretty much anything - unlike in the TT game where a bolter = bolter no matter if it's used by a marine, sister, or guardsman, here marines get much better toys than other people. Weird, and IMO inappropriate, but there you go.

@ Zillaprime: not to be too much of a nerd, but autarchs are actually WS 6 in the TT. If they were 7, WS 3 units would hit them on 5+ . As for walkers or dreadnoughts - that's why I mentioned the meltagun . But yes, they might need a bit of a buff in the equipment section and maybe combat rules for the next codex. OTOH, in DH his BS should be more than sufficient to lob a fusion bomb at any vehicle nearby... Hey, is there a thrown version of double shot ?

The_Shaman said:

Having GMed all four 40kRP games, I can honestly say that I've never found a requirement to do this, and I don't see why people are so insistent upon the idea, particularly now that Black Crusade is out and presents a context where Astartes and mortals coexist in the same group without requiring that there be two sets of rules for every adversary depending on whether they're fighting humans or Space Marines.