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Hello there! Inspired by the Overlords podcast's fixation on fandexes and intriguied by The Codex Project, I've begun to brainstorm ideas for a brand new race in 40k. This race will be playable in game and have it's own codex and models (theoretically).

What I will present below is just a list of ideas I've thrown together in notepad. What I could use help with is some answers to my questions, perhaps some examples of pictures that help convey my ideas, and a general critique of how interesting this new race would be.


Fluff
--------
- Large, Lizard-like Humanoids, small lower body with hooves and bent legs, large muscular upper body, fin on back of head down spine, size similar to Space Marines
- **Possibly regenerative?
- Advanced technology but primitive feel, aka Gungans from Star Wars
- Psychic Capable, Shamanistic & Tribal Society
- Not directly malicious, but highly distrustful and war-like culture; very expansionistic, in constant need of new slaves
- A-sexual reproduction via laying eggs, all members of the species reproduce singularly
- Quick life cycle; short life spans. Reach adulthood @ 5-8 years old, average death age is 40-45 terran years
- Small Empire under attack by Orks and Tyranids, Trade with Tau, have made contact with Eldar, new to Imperium
- Thrive in warm temperatures, large oxygen content via large amount of foliage aka Tropical Jungles
- Have technology to "farm/create" large amounts of fauna/tropical jungles and alter planet's ecosystem & atmosphere to their liking
- **Possibly chameleonic abilites? Army-wide Stealth USR? Move through cover/assault grenade special rule army wide
- Frequently Employ slave labor
- Poor eye-sight made up for with super-human sense of smell, hearing, relfexes
- Lack any sort of speech ability, communicate via racial psychic link, difficult to communicate with other races, much like Tyranid synaptic link, can even
sense and possibly understand Tyranid communication, they do have a written language much like heiroglyphics, other races psykers can detect and be trained to understand/interact
- Distrustful of automated technology/AI, Frequently Employ slave labor to compensate, a result of conflict with necrons in early history
- Capable of under-water breathing
- Aversion to skin covering like clothing, armor, their body is much more efficient at producing and maintaing it's internal temperature, cold blood maybe?

Gameplay Effects
-----------------
- Assaulty Army
- Fast moving, aka fleet army wide
- **Possibly regenerative?
- Fast skimmer vehicles used to carry assault troops, light weaponry, count as open-topped for passengers, but not damage, see images of vehicles for elaboration
- Basic foot troops use guns but are still assault orientated, army wide BS2
- Low army-wide "armor" made up for speed, high toughness, high strength
- basic troopers have anti-tank abilites, aka thrown grenades
- Force fields, laser blades/weapons
- Psykers
- ***Possibly chameleonic abilites? Army-wide Stealth USR? Move through cover/assault grenade special rule army wide
- Acute senses army wide USR

Unit Ideas
---------
- Halo Elite/Starcraft Zealot like Elite Warrior Caste, one of a few armoured warriors,
- Use of jetbike riders with melee focus
- Psychic "Ethereal-like" spiritual leaders
- Ability to take HQ's on large flying bestial mounts, capable of fighting as an effective singular assault unit ala Lords on Dragons from
- Quadriped shooty walkers


Pictures
---------
Transport vehicle idea: http://www.supercheats.com/xbox360/guides/halo3/images/level1-loadedphantom.jpg
Quadriped Walker: http://www.halo4.co.uk/communities/4/004/006/027/254/images/4526942214.jpg
General idea of race: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/mkiiBogTrogAmbushers

Questions
---------
- Religious views?
- Views on death?
- Interactions with other races?
- What happens to them in especially cold/"dead" worlds? What is their lower tempature threshold?
- How do they travel around the galaxy? The Warp? Webway? Something else?
- What are their names like? What about miltary ranks, organization? I'm thinking of perhaps using a Native American language as inspiration
- They are psychic, so they must have some warp presence. How do they interact with Chaos? Daemons? Dark Eldar? etc etc

As you can see, they're sort of a fusion between Lizardmen, Kroot, and Covenant (Halo), but with unique 40k twists.

If anybody has some artistic ability and wants to/can draw concept art, I'd be happy to have you. What I plan on doing is getting this registered on thecodexproject.com with me as lead designer and a staff of people willing to help/contribute.

I don't think there is 'space' in the eastern fringe for another race bar Tau ally races.

Apart from that i think they need a bit more of a refinement in terms of purpose and uniqueness.

Things that havent been done yet that could be interesting:

Mix of ranged and melee guys in the same unit, possibly providing 'support attacks' from guns. A 'mobile' HQ, think a possesing spirit that moves between units, if desired, on a sucessful test. If you are gonna go stealth i would recommend making that the Total focus of the force, think ambush, pinning tests, causing panic etc. A fast moving anti tank melee unit. A slow moving 'fortress' that can house the whole army. Units that combine 'Voltron' style into better units, different combinations yielding different results. Something that can deep strike multiple times. An army that get individually stronger as it diminishes in number.

Perkustin wrote:I don't think there is 'space' in the eastern fringe for another race bar Tau ally races.

Apart from that i think they need a bit more of a refinement in terms of purpose and uniqueness.

Things that havent been done yet that could be interesting:

Mix of ranged and melee guys in the same unit, possibly providing 'support attacks' from guns. A 'mobile' HQ, think a possesing spirit that moves between units, if desired, on a sucessful test. If you are gonna go stealth i would recommend making that the Total focus of the force, think ambush, pinning tests, causing panic etc. A fast moving anti tank melee unit. A slow moving 'fortress' that can house the whole army. Units that combine 'Voltron' style into better units, different combinations yielding different results. Something that can deep strike multiple times. An army that get individually stronger as it diminishes in number.

Hmmm...perhaps the trading with Tau fluff should be removed then, it does seem like that's a rather crowded place in the 40k universe.

As to the gameplay aspects, thank you very much. This is what I'm looking for, just throwing a bunch of ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks. The actual tabletop abilities of the army isn't something I've developed very much.

And the point of this army is?

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:And the point of this army is?

To come it with a new and unique 40k xenos race? Fun? Practice working with other people to create something?

I'm regretfully reminded of:

40k Lizardmen! Cool!

Didnt they already kill off a race like this from back in the day?

Sounds a lot like Kroot, no?

Almost sounds more like the Zoats.

If you're reminded of Gungans, Lizardmen, and Kroot, that would be because I've listed them as inspiration by name in the original post

I would recommend lizard men bodies, marine shoulder pads, ork cc weapons and tau pulse rifles. No armor save higher than 4+ for troops. Try and base these off of similar models in terms of capability and wargear for fair points costs. Can't wait to see how this turns out

They could be like hippis and believe in a "Circle of Life" Which has been broken by the Forces Of Chaos, The Forge and Hive worlds of the Imperium, and finally Orks, the beasts who kill all in their path.

In the 3rd rulebook there is a picture of a Slanni, kind of reminds me of that pic

@Horizon9: Thanks for the ideas! That was of course the major stumbling block with this fandex, finding a way to model it! The vehicles I think will be a different story though. The pictures I have in my head are really nothing like anything in the 40k range.

@camboyaz: Certainly something to consider, the more layers their participation in 40k has the better.

@Huckleberry: Hmmm looks like I'll have to google that and see if I can come up with anything.

Though honestly the basic fluff sounds like a cross between Orks and Tyrranids. I'd say remove the tech completely, and just have all their ranged power be a combination of psycher and primative majiks (that is, alternately channeled warp energies). Keep the tribal, shamanistic feel, of course, and the stealth angle is definitely one that's different than most of the 40k races.

and here's an idea: Instead of the purely humanoid approach, what about giving them a drastically different body? Say, two legs, two tails, but instead of a head on their shoulders, they have a head on each arm (or part of one) and between the shoulders and down the back are a couple rows of manipulative appendages?

Vehicles way, offer a deep-strike option for some points as a dedicated transport kinda . Like add a warlock type unit to the rank and file for 40-ish points. Otherwise you could just follow the tyranid path and forsake vehicles for mutated lizard guys who are pure animals as heavy Support psychers and/or ccers ... Modeled with a carnifex body with LOTS of green stuff

And then of course, can't forget that old mainstay of Fantasy, the Cavalry and Beast units. Which, to be honest, offer some ridiculous advantages in 40k, like the long Assault range and such. squads of heavy, multi-wound cavalry would easily replace basic tanks, and squads of beasts with handlers could be the replacement for light vehicles.

Yeah, cavalry get serious bonus points in w40k. I would pull statlines from thunderwolf cavalry from the spacewolves as well as point value. Instead of being a fast Attack option, have it be an elite or troop, to better suit the feel of the army

And maybe look at the Squiggoths of the Ork Apocalypse rules, scaled down for some Heavy support.

This sounds like a nid army but where they are all psykers. Possibly grey knight combined with nids.

(If you want to do this army make the leader wear a tye dye shirt)JK. This is a pretty good list, but remember the FUTERISTIC SKAVEN. If this army actually comes out, you will have to explain to all of them that their favorite army's worst enemy makes the cut but theirs doesn't.

I would dig on some 40k reptiles. Could be fun, if done right. I would love to see where this goes.

I like the idea of the lizards a more reptillian race than the kroot (as in looks) would be great i had a few ideas of a race myself but fluff wise im terrible, some people have said about the EF being crowded i do agree. Any one remember starflight on the mega drive? well they hade a race called Thrynn and there kinda addicted to trading and getting the best tech they can.

As for my race ideas i was thinkin on the lines of a race fleeing/hunting the nids, fleeing does have an eldar esque race feel and sound to it, the hunting them they are like there creators or something along the lines, the nids being an experimental bio wep gone wrong and there here to try and stop what they created. As i said im terrible with fluff lol.

Kinda reminds me of the old rogue trader slann, I always wondered why they cut them out.. Anyways, sounds like a cool army, perhaps if they did have tech stuff, you could model it on aquatic animals and sea creatures. They do sound an awful lot like nids, but I think it's worth a go creating them, even if you couldn't convince gw to make an official codex; just make an unofficial one!

Here is their affiliation to other races based on my religion idea:

Eldar: A ENDANGERED SPECIES that needs to be protected!
DE: Animal Cruelty inflicters, must be eliminated
Orks: Kill to much so nothing is left, must be eliminated
Tau: Greater Good lets everyone benifit, including wildlife, ALLIES
Man: To large and pollute to much, must be reduced in size
Necrons: None living metallic destroyers, MUST BE EXTERMINATED!
Chaos: ???
Tyrainids: ???