As a prospective Eloi customer who's interested finally getting some actual 6 mm miniatures (shocking, I know!
) I think what most attracts me is the prospect of a cohesively-designed army core. At the moment, there is no equivalent alternative Space Elf army design to GW's Eldar.
Since Epic (as well as GW games in general) is essentially based on common army tropes, getting a core in place that suits Epic also means good transferability of the range to other games. Besides the specialist infantry, I would suggest anything that isn't so transferable to other games is 'specialist' (like skyscraper-tall fighting machines) and can probably wait until the range is a bit more established and people are already spending money.
So, from that perspective, I think scouting infantry, recon bikers, and heavy infantry/organic robotic infantry are the highest priorities for a cohesive range (which also, as @malika2 says, covers quite a few EA factions!). Are the Eloi Flittertanks intended to be transport/normal-sized tanks for the Established? I've (sadly) never seen someone with the models to know but if they aren't, then a set of tanks should be on the list, too.
Maybe there's also room for one early specialist: if very common specialist is chosen, then you get maximum coverage with minimum expenditure. If the specialist is also visually distinctive, I think that would also suit the Eloi range really well. Another possible direction is to include some specialists in other sets (so maybe scouting snipers could be packaged with close combat infiltrators, etc.).
I definitely agree that command models are very nice to have! But I could make an EA Space Elf army without them if I was desperate. I think the robed Guard would make excellent psychic leader stand-ins (complete with the big spear!), for example.
On the topic of existing models aside from the Guard, the Blade Masters I think are nice to have around for other versions of Epic where they're still around, more visual variety in units, and as a distinctively Eloi thing—they do look a bit Striking Scorpionish, too! But I can see why they might not be as popular as the ranged Established. For teleporting arachnids, there is a Dark Realm Miniatures alternative that seems not too bad, the Andrayadan Vulturs: so perhaps it wouldn't be such a priority for a Vanguard offering if people used the DRM ones (and Moredakka wouldn't have to directly compete yet)?
Anyway, some food for thought,
Thinking Stone
