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Classic RT race not represented yet in the current lore: Zoats. Could go the whole "doomed race fleeing their destroyers" bit, make them larger than an Ogryn and maybe mix in a bit of Posleen.

More realistically there is not much left from classic scifi that can not be accounted for by one of the existing races. Something like "AI controlled battle robots" is effectively covered by Necrons (aesthetics)/Tau (drones), particularly as 40k lacks robust Morale and Command/Control rules, so an army that ignores those means nothing.

The Iron Men would be a legion of purpose built autonomous machines. They could be completely inhuman in shape, unilke Tau crisis suits, and very industrial in aesthetic, lacking the round smoothness of Tau tech.

Think of all the Terminator series Hunter Killers, excluding the exoskeleton designs.

 adamsouza wrote:
The Iron Men would be a legion of purpose built autonomous machines. They could be completely inhuman in shape, unilke Tau crisis suits, and very industrial in aesthetic, lacking the round smoothness of Tau tech.

Think of all the Terminator series Hunter Killers, excluding the exoskeleton designs.

Maybe a little too close to Mechanicus but...

 Galas wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
The Iron Men would be a legion of purpose built autonomous machines. They could be completely inhuman in shape, unilke Tau crisis suits, and very industrial in aesthetic, lacking the round smoothness of Tau tech.

Think of all the Terminator series Hunter Killers, excluding the exoskeleton designs.

Maybe a little too close to Mechanicus but...

Beautifull work! You are a man ahead of his time!

 adamsouza wrote:
The Iron Men would be a legion of purpose built autonomous machines. They could be completely inhuman in shape, unilke Tau crisis suits, and very industrial in aesthetic, lacking the round smoothness of Tau tech.

Think of all the Terminator series Hunter Killers, excluding the exoskeleton designs.

We know what the Iron Men looked like though...they were human in shape.

The Gaunt's Ghost book, "First & Only" had them finding a corrupted STC producing Iron Men.

I am now totally on board for Rak'gol. Very different from Nids with a bunch of Rad weapons. Would love to see these guys on the table.

 ProtoClone wrote:
I am at a bit of a loss here as well. What I have been able to find about the Rak'gol they seem rather basic. So, unless they really plan on bumping them up on the power scale, I just don't them being Nid threats.

Maybe if they had figured out a way to block the hive mind? That's the only thing that I can think of that might scare the Warp out of the 'nids.

The problem would be how to represent this on the table in a way that didn't turn them into a race that was OP against the 'nids, and weak against everyone else.

I very much doubt the Nids are running from the Rak'gol, or that the Nids are running from anything.

It's a theory but a disproven one. The Nids were drawn here when a psychic device was activated during the HH. They are here to feed, Not on the run.

The Rak'Gol don't need to be tied to any other race, and I would really prefer they were not. I would like for them to be just crazy space barbarian lizards.

The Rak'Gol could be interesting on the tabletop. I'd like to see them be made out of parts of the two armies from WFB that never really got a IN SPACE! version in 40k, the Skaven (Clan Skryer in particular) and the Ogre Kingdoms. A small number of big, tough models, armed with powerful, yet unpredictable and dangerous (to you as well as the enemy) weapons.

Also, having them (or any race, really) do anything other than "run until you can't run anymore and hope you can stop them" as far as the Tyranids go robs the 'Nids of the whole "biblical plague of locusts on a cosmic scale" thing that makes them so thematically unique. They aren't an army, they're a swarm.

The Xenos I'd want to see most, though, is the Umbra, mostly because of how different to anything else the models would be, having these wispy clouds of shadow that form into solid shapes like jaws and clawed hands.

The thing with the Men of Iron is how they already did a spin on evil killer robots with the Necrons, so they'd need an interesting fluff angle with them. I was talking about this with a friend a while back, and what we came up with as a way to make what is basically Skynet fit into 40k is they are controlled by a vast computer intelligence built to accumulate information and process the data and make calculations to expand on what it had learned and so on and so on and so on, and in the process completely understood EVERYTHING, in the "someone just read from the Necronomicon in a Lovecraft story" way, and as such went totally nutzo bonkers about things too terrifying to now, and it uses an army of robots to do things only it can understand in its madness.

Rak'Gol remind me of Zoats (at least physically). I reckon that if we do see them, we'll probably see them augmented by slave-xenos (maybe allies), but more brutal, animalistic xenos than the sentient creatures the Tau tend to work with.

Skaven reimagined in 40K (whether it's the Hurd or some other group) would be interesting.

Make them use Chaos without just being another Chaos force, 40K-i-fy the Clans. Would make for some interesting miniatures.

I'm definitely in the camp of wanting a more distinct sci fi race in 40k, as opposed to porting a fantasy race into sci fi (or in the case of the stormcasts, vice versa) the legacy races are untouchable at this point, but of GW is going to expand the setting in terms of major races on the table top itd be nicenti see 40 do it's own thing.

Carlovonsexron wrote:
I'm definitely in the camp of wanting a more distinct sci fi race in 40k, as opposed to porting a fantasy race into sci fi (or in the case of the stormcasts, vice versa) the legacy races are untouchable at this point, but of GW is going to expand the setting in terms of major races on the table top itd be nicenti see 40 do it's own thing.

I wouldn't be made if it turns out to be the 40K version of Skaven. However, I also would love if it were something unique to the 40K setting. The Rak'Gol to me would be disappointing. Those pictures of the lizards are just not remotely exciting to me, I think they look silly. I also do not think they really bring anything new to the line up of armies.

The Slann are the bipedal fat Frog priests as seen in War-Hammer Fantasy armies of Lizardmen
http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Slann (pics towards top of article)
Here is a 40k wiki version of the bipedal Lizardmen
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Slann


For those of you who do not want to see biped Lizards in space, I agree, I too do not want to see biped Lizards in space... my emphasis is on no more 'bipeds'

Now, for those of you who may not be fully aware of Rak'Gol:
The Rak'Gol are almost an Arachnid type Lizard folk since they have 4 "legs" and 4 "arms"
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Rak%27Gol (pics towards the middle of article)

Much more aggressive and mean, very well armed, much uglier (or prettier if you are a Rak'Gol), much more established in Rogue Trader than Slann space Lizards, and they already have fleets of ships in their Space Armadas...

Imperial Guards have 2 arms,
Some Orks build a 3rd,
Some Tech Priests go as far as 4 or 5,
Tyranids have 6 arms
That means the only way to go is up Up UP!

So I vote Rak'Gol... But this is all rumors and speculation...

The Rak gol are awesome

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/6e/Ransacking_the_dig_by_columbussage.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130328220750

and I jope we see them along with Exodites, because, lets face it, theyre so cool as a concept

I'll put forth a vote of confidence for the Rak'gol. I agree that a new distinct 40k race is needed. Not an older fantasy race turned 40k.

My biggest complaint about the "Rak'Gol" right now is that the name sounds almost the same as the "Rak'Guls" that were a problem in Knights of the Old Republic.

What can I say. Every time I see the name, what pops into my head is the stupid crazed ghouls from the planet Taris.

On reflection, I want Eldar Exodites.

Background wise, with the great rift and of course Ynnead, it makes a certain amount of sense for them to be more aggressive.

 Psyker_9er wrote:
Imperial Guards have 2 arms,
Some Orks build a 3rd,
Some Tech Priests go as far as 4 or 5,
Tyranids have 6 arms
That means the only way to go is up Up UP!

No you can go down you can have armies of one armed warriors you can have armies without any arm at all for instance you can get an army of psychic space starfishes!

I would love to see GW do another totally alien looking race; rather than another bipedal based race. Tyranids have a pretty firm appearance and set of properties now, so there's ample room to introduce a totally new appearing faction.



That or Space Skaven!

 Overread wrote:
I would love to see GW do another totally alien looking race; rather than another bipedal based race. Tyranids have a pretty firm appearance and set of properties now, so there's ample room to introduce a totally new appearing faction.

You can't get any more unlike "bipedal humanoid-based" than the Umbra. Just saying.

I'd love to see some genuine big beast riding races.

If the Rak'Gol were about the same size as Dragon Ogres on some of the larger oval bases that would give them a bit of a different profile on the table, even though we're all wishlisting here.

What books detailed these things and the Umbra? The Fantasy Flight RPGs?

 adamsouza wrote:
The Iron Men would be a legion of purpose built autonomous machines. They could be completely inhuman in shape, unilke Tau crisis suits, and very industrial in aesthetic, lacking the round smoothness of Tau tech.

Think of all the Terminator series Hunter Killers, excluding the exoskeleton designs.

An industrial aesthetic would not fit the descriptions of Dark Age technology. If anything, the Men of Iron should look far more advanced than the Tau.


It would defeat the purpose of a new faction/race if they are nothing more than redressed Mechanicus or Imperial technology. There wouldn't be much of a distinction between the Imperium and Men of Iron.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ArmorOfContempt wrote:


The thing with the Men of Iron is how they already did a spin on evil killer robots with the Necrons, so they'd need an interesting fluff angle with them. I was talking about this with a friend a while back, and what we came up with as a way to make what is basically Skynet fit into 40k is they are controlled by a vast computer intelligence built to accumulate information and process the data and make calculations to expand on what it had learned and so on and so on and so on, and in the process completely understood EVERYTHING, in the "someone just read from the Necronomicon in a Lovecraft story" way, and as such went totally nutzo bonkers about things too terrifying to now, and it uses an army of robots to do things only it can understand in its madness.

If we're talking about the Oldcrons, I would agree. But the Newcrons (who have replaced the mindless automaton Necrons for the most part) are a different animal. The Men of Iron make the current Necrons look like paragons of virtue.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
What books detailed these things and the Umbra? The Fantasy Flight RPGs?

None of the RPGs had Umbra. Xenology had them, and that's the reason we won't see them.

I am completely sold on the Rak'Gol after reading about them. Didn't even know they existed before this thread popped up, but they fit perfectly in the current line up of armies I think.

They would be another race of slightly high-tech, but still brutal and primal. Right now the Orks are the only ones really falling into that category, with Nids just being primal 100%. Dirty and tough sci-fi is always cool, and giant reptiles that raid and brutally murder all they see sounds pretty good.

I really like the idea of them using rad weapons to, and their ships look awesome. Imagine a hover/flyer transport for them with this aestethic:

 Hollow wrote:
I'd love to see some genuine big beast riding races.

You'd get that with either Exodites or a potential space Lizardmen army.

One way to think of this is in terms of marketing and expenses. GW wants to minimize the number of different products they have to make, stock and support. And maximize sales of each box. They also don't want to put too much into a new, unproven faction.

When GW introduced the Necrons back in the day they did with a very small number of units (just warriors, scarabs and lords IIRC) and absurdly overpowered.

It's been funny watching Necron Warriors devolve from T5, 2+ saves to their current T4, 4+ saves (I expect T3, 5+ saves with the next codex!).

So from that angle a Monsterous Creature army might make a lot of sense. A hypothetical Star Dragon army with just one or two kits and a half dozen models in an army would be new, different and provide minimal risk to GW financially.

Another might be the Army Ants (or skaven or zombies or whatever). Just 1 kit of 20 of them. You put 200+ in an army. They're just a carpet of eating monsters.

Both overlap with Nids, basically choosing one aspect and making it a faction but good enough designs might make a new race along either line work.

Honestly whilst GW wants to minimise investment and maximise profit they don't want to do it the Necron way. Necrons had a laughable 5 or so units for a very very long time. It made the less popular because there was so little variety.

Similarly around that same time we had Dark Eldar unpopular for their lack of current rules.

I think GW has learned from that; look at the new fantasy army being introduced with a wealth of choices. A new army is a risk to add ,but if they are going to add it they know its got to have long term support (updated rules all the time in keeping with the others); and its got to have a variety of units to get people interested.

GW can clearly produce on a much larger scale than ever before; they've got design teams and potential to invest in a new army in a serious way. That said at present I'd think the timing is wrong for a full new army; they've still got shortfalls in production for current armies; another year or so and perhaps there will be more production time to add another faction into the game that isn't Marines/Imperials