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The only restriction is that it can't be anything done before or anything referenced in fluff. No Jorgali, no Hrud, nothing like that.

I would personally create a human republic. A republic formed after the age of strife, with no influences from the Imperium. It uses a lot of mech-y stuff, like walkers, exo-suits and bionics. Mostly infantry based. Think a more elite Imperial Guard, with augmentations and mechs.

I assume Custodians aren't allowed? Because that would be awesome

I like the idea of a race of aliens similar to the Predator, specializing in guerilla warfare and ambush tactics.

Honestly think we need less human or human-esque factions, too many humanoid factions with obvious and relatable goals.

Maybe something terrifying in the vein of the Rak'gol is what is needed after the comparatively bright and fluffiness of the tau & co.

Imagine an entire army list of them, what a absolute freakshow. Like a carnival of limbs and crude augmetics with butchery as the main attraction.

I'd go with something like the traditional alien 'greys' and try to keep it in line with the tongue in cheek parody-taken-too-seriously style I enjoyed from GW when I first started playing.

Greys as the HQs, who can't do much in a fight but offer lots of utility and synergy to the army.

The rest of their army would then be robots. Not mechanicum robot *bodies* and not necron Egyptians in metal bodies, but entirely non-humanoid, non-sentient robots. Things like the war of the worlds tripods but scaled down to be a pack of attack dogs as a grey sitting in a floating chair directs them.

Lava dolphins.

The Final Empire: The descendants of total mutual destruction that destroyed the Imperium and forces of Chaos survive on the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, or what's left of it. They're mostly Tau junkers who remained unaffected by the Warp Storms that snuffed out the stars, and managed to assimilate technologies from the ruins of Eldar, Necron, and human ruins. They proceeded to expand across the galaxy mostly unchallenged with the exception of the occasional Ork or Tyranid force.

Unsatisfied with their total and complete victory, they send their leaders back in time to preach the Greater Good. This changed their history and, on the brink of extinction at the hands of the Imperium of Man, a massive force that combines the reality warping tech of the Necrons, the psychic weapons of the Eldar, and the raw firepower of the Imperium appears in the material world, having made a jump through time to stop the galaxy from annihilating the Tau and preventing the Greater Good from coming to pass.

So, advanced Tau that's got the cheese of Eldar, the WTF of Necrons and the grimdark of Imperium appears from the future to shake things up, and they're just as arrogant as all of them.

Psyker Tau and Tau with close combat ability? Yes please!

I have this old idea of a alien race that focus on chemical and plasma technology. To many already humen or humenish races already, where are the aliens beside tyranid?
Everything in their tech is resolved be cemecals that they put into their own body and then release again after a modification.

They looks like a balloon with tentacles hanging down. Proberly 8 or so that they also use to handle weapons and other stuff.

Their guns are made of fluids that are formed into biology designs by hardening the fluids.

Their walkers should be animals that they ride with platforms and ordinary walkers with 3 legs with huge plasma weapons.

perhaps some heavy weapon platform that can "throw" small units up the table

Some of them have access to psyonic powers, that marks them to be difference that the rest of em. They will be HQ

The motivation for them is to break the "walls of the universe"
1st wall was the water surfice.
2nd wall was the space
3rd wall was the ability to enter the 5th dimension (fast space travel that is not the warp)
and they are still looking for the 4th wall whatever that might be.

They also in the beginning wished to be left alone, now they wish to befriend the universe, but learned the hard way that only was can bring them forward.
They wish to create a furture where all can live in pease with one another (yeah I know, they are way to optimistic that way) for their religion that is "For the light!"

Skynet became self aware...

A human civiisation that employed AI to their detriment and effectively becoming enslaved to their AI overlord. Like skitarii but more varied cyborgs being AI run they have no Psychic resonance so are effectively ignored by chaos. Could also have an abundance of pariah types.

A tripod-legged race bent on purification of the galaxy. Each individual would be strong but they would be few in numbers. Their only goal is to erdicate everything thats not logical.

(Yes, Erikson might be my "inspiration" here )

Lizardmen....

...IN SPACE!!!!!!

Joking aside, I think a reptilian species would be cool, preferably one that is focused on CC with a few tricky ranged weapons

While it is essentially mentioned in fluff, I'd like to see a pirate/mercenary/outer fringes kind of army. A mix of skiffs, jetbikes, cavalry mounted on alien mounts, various races - raiders, kit-bashed vehicles. Put their strength in speed, and asymmetric combat (booby traps, ambushes, impacting opponents reserve rolls etc.).

Use Ogryns/Kroot/etc. Even a sneaky way to bring back some Squats. Perhaps introduce outer fringe barons, Rogue Traders etc.

Mad Max meets Jawas.

 Elbows wrote:
While it is essentially mentioned in fluff, I'd like to see a pirate/mercenary/outer fringes kind of army. A mix of skiffs, jetbikes, cavalry mounted on alien mounts, various races - raiders, kit-bashed vehicles. Put their strength in speed, and asymmetric combat (booby traps, ambushes, impacting opponents reserve rolls etc.).

Use Ogryns/Kroot/etc. Even a sneaky way to bring back some Squats. Perhaps introduce outer fringe barons, Rogue Traders etc.

Mad Max meets Jawas.

You had my attention at "Pirates" and sold me at "Mad max"

Well we defonitely do NOT need more factions. But If I could introduce one, it would be the Hrud.

And barring that we especially dont need any more human factions.

I would like to maybe see space lizards. Like Trandoshans or something. Very saurian. Who doesn't want a space T-Rex with lasers?!

T-Rex's with spaceships and guns -

Chaos exodites with Chaos Knights, Chaos Warriors, Marauders, monsters, and others.

I always felt the skaven would just be a small hop to be 40ked. Or any beasties in that theme would be sweet. Shaven would in my mind be a mix of ork and ad mech. Crazy guns with scrounged rides. All that said there are plenty of fluff races that I would love to see. Hrud, Bragassie. Dog soldier mercs. The Brb has some xenos art in it that I think is awesome.

A race who is only consciousness.
They have no models and can not attack.
They have no locality.
They can take over the minds of other races and utilize the enemies models.

okay then i tell them that first i get to kill off another faction entirely. how about we kill off the eldar, have them eaten by the tyranids or something yea id like that

 ionusx wrote:
okay then i tell them that first i get to kill off another faction entirely. how about we kill off the eldar, have them eaten by the tyranids or something yea id like that

I think most, if not all, of us would like that

 Galef wrote:
Lizardmen....

...IN SPACE!!!!!!

Joking aside, I think a reptilian species would be cool, preferably one that is focused on CC with a few tricky ranged weapons

Wasn't that the idea behind the original tyranids?

 jonolikespie wrote:
I'd go with something like the traditional alien 'greys' and try to keep it in line with the tongue in cheek parody-taken-too-seriously style I enjoyed from GW when I first started playing.

Greys as the HQs, who can't do much in a fight but offer lots of utility and synergy to the army.

The rest of their army would then be robots. Not mechanicum robot *bodies* and not necron Egyptians in metal bodies, but entirely non-humanoid, non-sentient robots. Things like the war of the worlds tripods but scaled down to be a pack of attack dogs as a grey sitting in a floating chair directs them.

This makes me think of the aliens from X-COM: Enemy Unknown (still haven't gotten around to buying/playing X-COM 2), which would honestly make for an awesome addition to 40k: a race whose entire civilization is dedicated to creating the "perfect specimen" through a mixture of genetic engineering and technology.

I would actually love to revamp the Tyranids (or make them allies) and put in the aliens from the planet Murder, the crazy titanium spider guys. I think they'd be kickass

Dark mechanicum with renegades

The Bifarious

I would say a human race in a galaxy that had been cut off by warp storms (great mechanic that) of part man and machine like just before the age of strife, tech just before the "men of iron".

A person is given when born a machine interface and is implanted with an AI "mentor" that is a partner throughout that person's infant life.
Implants and exo-suits for various tasks are a matter of course.
Both the human and AI partner in computational / memory / body / suit function.
At some point there is the coming of age: "fission" when the AI is uploaded from the human host to it's own form to work with the human or move-on if the person dies and becomes an "unpaired" entity. Presumably as the human matures into adulthood they both find another human to bond with to then have human children and an AI is chosen to be uploaded to mentor the child.

This society is utterly without crime due to an actual "bond" of man and machine.
There is a strong theme of binary: 2, pairing, symmetry, cooperation and discussion by polarized debate which is a favored means of competition.
Psychic powers were recognized and the bonded AI would assist with the amplification and dampening of these powers to overwhelm warp predation.
These gifted people move-on to become a form of Navigator and Clairvoyant where many visions seen by the human and witnessed by the AI are stored for processing and "Truth Seeker" task forces are sent out to confirm the portents of the visions.

This would be utterly abhorrent to the Imperium.

They destroyed all probes and ship contact with this civilization and the entire civilization has mobilized for war.
There had been multiple "incidents" of psychic encounters starting with careful curiosity and a vengeful backlash when attacked.
Both human and AI forms can plug into "low consciousness" machines to act like a servitor that vastly improves the responses and efficiency of any device.
Battlesuits, walkers, titans and ships are like a second skin.

Any "lone" human fighter is a "mentor" and would be found to have vastly improved wargear operation.
Any "lone" AI construct form did not have opportunity to mentor a child and so looks at protecting their society as a whole: they will sacrifice themselves quite willingly so are especially dangerous.
Any paired fighters (human and AI with construct body) would work in concert perfectly.
Any group of four would be a "house-hold" of a mated pair of humans and their AI's.
They would be the greatest danger because they intend to have a family and would abide with no threat to their future.

They are unsure if the Imperium can be reasoned with.
Their collective anger is increasing and could become hate in short order which would vastly upscale their war efforts.
They are pragmatic and are already exploring means of colonizing in hidden places since they can adapt to pretty much any environment.

Tau have been encountered and "debate" meets have been setup repeatedly much to the consternation of the Tau: their greater good has had many holes unveiled in these talks.
Orks encountered are destroyed immediately or ran away from... they seem to understand them.
Webway portals are being found and destroyed as a matter of course: both Eldar and Dark Eldar are becoming concerned of the lack of them in this portion of the universe and are trying to defend the few remaining.
Genestealers are killed everywhere they are found, the AI's get exceedingly angry when their human is implanted.

There, had to get that out of my system.

Also, I think the Invid race from Robotech/Macross/MOSPEADA etc. scaled down slightly would be a pretty cool alien race for the 40K world.

Jelly bags sitting in nutrient baths controlling larger mecha. Add some of the sentinels etc. and you could have a cool force. (gears start turning if the Robotech game ever develops the Invid Invasion era...and produces models...)

 Caesar3594 wrote:

 ionusx wrote:
okay then i tell them that first i get to kill off another faction entirely. how about we kill off the eldar, have them eaten by the tyranids or something yea id like that

I think most, if not all, of us would like that

Wow, my level of enthusiasm for this fun thread dropped immensely, and instead of being able to focus on thinking of something cool, I spent too much time trying to think of snarky comments. Thanks for pouring salt here.

Idk, I keep coming back to an elemental-type race like the Genasi in D&D, but I feel like that might infringe on the elementally-named caste system of the Tau.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nareik wrote:
Lava dolphins.

Also, this. Please.

BossJakadakk wrote:
Wow, my level of enthusiasm for this fun thread dropped immensely, and instead of being able to focus on thinking of something cool, I spent too much time trying to think of snarky comments. Thanks for pouring salt here.

I find it particularly easy to shoot down other people's ideas and dreams... it just is easier to do.

I too heavily endorse the lava dolphins.
I think Super Mario had fleshed them out a bit:

BossJakadakk wrote:

 Caesar3594 wrote:

 ionusx wrote:
okay then i tell them that first i get to kill off another faction entirely. how about we kill off the eldar, have them eaten by the tyranids or something yea id like that

I think most, if not all, of us would like that

Wow, my level of enthusiasm for this fun thread dropped immensely, and instead of being able to focus on thinking of something cool, I spent too much time trying to think of snarky comments. Thanks for pouring salt here.

Idk, I keep coming back to an elemental-type race like the Genasi in D&D, but I feel like that might infringe on the elementally-named caste system of the Tau.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nareik wrote:
Lava dolphins.

Also, this. Please.

Pffft. I would barely qualify that as "throwing salt" especially since it's aimed at GW and not anyone in this thread. Being someone who started 40k playing eldar back in 4e it makes me said to see how much GW has fethed them up. It's like all of ever seen now, IF I see people playing eldar, is the stupid all jet bike 36 scatterlaser army, or the all wraithgaurd/lord/knight armies.

Besides I'm on your team anyway when it comes to what race I want to see. My vote goes to lava dolphins. Those magestic murderers.

Simple I would do what GW always did before.
look at current pop culture and "get inspired" by it and coppy right the hell out of it.

Mad max seems to be a good start. So non imperial human lowlife scrappers it is. That would be fun and all the oldskoolers might even like it since it kinda reminds them of gorka morka.

I would call the mini game featuring them
"Raging Ruins" and make it about scrap racers in a ruined desert city.

Well, clearly Dark Orks. (Or, Dorks)

They're like the Orks we know and love, but eeeevil.

Lots more skin tight leather, most units get stealth and shrouded, and their even more Goffik than normal.

Unfortunately, they're not very good, so you have to ally them with their overpowered battle brothers in Codex: Orks to make a decent army.