Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have been playing 40K for over 15 years now and it has always bothered me that there are so few aliens. Does it bother anyone else that in the vastness of the intergalactic future there is really only 7 races represented as playable armies? The way I see it there is Humans (IG & SoB), Marines (good & bad), Tau, Eldar (Dark & Light), Necrons, daemons and bugs. We lost squats, but really they started as human anyway. I just think it is really sad that I have seen more aliens in one episode of Star Trek than GW can cram into a game in that has spanned nearly 30 years. Would you guys like to see more races or do you prefer things the way they are?

The Great Crusade killed all of the ones organized enough to represent a faction apparently.

There are others out there,

They just aren't being given codexes, or are mentioned in passing as the *fill in alien name and ship type here* who ally briefly with the imperium against *fill in other alien name and ships here* before being betrayed by the IOM and exterminated (or that kind of thing..)

A few less SM codexes and a few more Xeno ones would warm the cockles of my heart, but it'll likely be a cold day in hell before we see Codex: Noisome Reek

1st edition had numerous named alien races (and noted that there's many empires located within the Imperium that are peaceful...though this is now non canon). 3rd edition had a picture of the most common races (Kroot, Tarellian Dog Soldiers,Hrud, etc). Imperial Guard novels also mention capaigns against alien races (Hrud infestations). They're there, but GW only mentions them off and on in the fluff and no longer creates miniatures for them (or at least as much as they did during the RT days where you had models for everything) unless they're part of other armies like the Tau or Dark Eldar as allies/mercenaries.

There are many other alien races. The 5th Edition Rulebook said that the Ulumeathic League, Reek Worldweave, Church of Dracolith, and Draxian Hegemony are all emerging alien empires encroaching on Imperial space. Other persistent threats are the Hrud, Thyyrus, Barghesi, and Slaugath. Lots of mercenary/raiding races such as the Tarellian and Rak'Gol.


The problem is unless there's a codex/models for these races, GW won't ever focus on them as they can
t make sales. Because there's no information on them, Black Library books can't do much with them. Thus they go ignored.

From a fluff perspective, this ain't Star Trek/Star Wars where aliens and humans live in peace and harmony with each other. The Imperium wiped out just about every alien civilization it came across in the Great Crusade and still regularly commits genocide against Xenos civilizations (the planned elimination of the primitive Tau in M36 shows just how standardized it is). Thus weaker alien races exist mainly on the fringes of the galaxy, where they are now vulnerable to the Tyranids. I believe it was said that Hive Fleet Naga consumed 3 dozen alien civilizations.

Ummm...
Demiurg=Squats
Hrud=Space Rats
Enslavers=(any army you want)
Slann (Old Ones)=Lizards in space

plus the DE Codex offers a couple of options.

Demiurg =/= Squats, what little somewhat accurate rumors about the upcoming new Tau codex indicate that the demiurg are anything but space dwarves.
Hrud =/= Space Rats, Xenology shows us pretty clearly that Hrud are definitely not like anything we've seen before.

Anyway, don't forget that the Dark Eldar book has a handful of non-Eldar species in it, and the current tau book has Kroot and Vespids.

It's a bit of a shame from a modelling perspective, but makes sense from a gameplay perspective. There races represented (except the tau) are at the top of the food chain, they are the only players in that league. There are loads and loads of smaller xeno empires and races, but they can't really compete on a galactic scale and so they don't get their own armies, for the same reason USA and Russia appear in 90% or war games, but no Siam, Venezuela and Ethiopia are never represented.

The Tau were kind of GW's way of throwing xeno lovers a bone. Here ya go, see, there are other empires out there, heres a sample. But as is always brought up, they just aren't on the same scale as the rest of the armies.

Tons of xeno races are mentioned in the fluff though. They just don't get a codex. In the end only plausible antagonists to the Imperium get their own codex.

And as a final result, you can simply pick an already existing codex, and do a "counts as" xeno army. You have Tau for techy aliens, Nidz for bugy aliens, Orks for barbary aliens and Crons/DE for nasty aliens.

Or you can just write your own codex ...

All of the Xenos races represent major galactic threats to the IoM, with the exception of the Tau who were the result of a marketing ploy and not an expansion of a previously created side race.

Only the Eldar, Orks, and Tyranids are major galactic threats that a worthy of a codex.

The Hrud are vermin with no real military force. They simply infiltrate space docks or hive cities and begin killing people from the shadows who wanderinto their nests. They are dangerous when cornered, but they arn't going to land on Planet 1835, assault the defenses in a military fashion, and then set up their own little civilization.

Demuirg are a sub race of the Tau Empire and will be included in the new codex(and are NOT space dwarves) which as I said earlier only exists to fill a market demand building off the Anime craze and coenciding with the first GW in Japan(I like the Tau race and super advanced tech, the Greater Good just has no place in 40k and ruins the codex)

Kroot are a very common race and I would like to see them get an official codex besides the old Kroot Merc list.

Space Slann havn't been written out of existance, but the fluff is so old and mixed with stuff that has been written away that their existance is dubious at best. Although I would like to see what Lizardmen in space would look like.

It's being expanded these days with the few extra aliens in the DE codex and with the rumored Demiurg (and then some) being added to the Tau. Give it time.

The wheels of GW turn slowly, if they turn at all.

King Pariah wrote:The wheels of GW turn slowly, if they turn at all.

I think this hits it on the head. I understand that there are aliens mentioned in the fluff, but I am talking about game play. I used to read the fluff years ago when it was good, but now days it is really just Space Marine X kill/destroys/defends Y and saves the day. It is not really worth reading anymore because it is just the same thing over and over again. It just seems like there is so much more they could do if they wanted to put forth a little effort, come on they practically came up with the Tau out of the blue.

40k Needs space skaven, now.

AtomicEngineer wrote:40k Needs space skaven, now.

Isn't that supposed to be the Hrud?

King Pariah wrote:

AtomicEngineer wrote:40k Needs space skaven, now.

Isn't that supposed to be the Hrud?

Yes and no, The Hrud are the vermin race, but the cheap horde of gribblies is taken over by the Nids.

Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
I have been playing 40K for over 15 years now and it has always bothered me that there are so few aliens. Does it bother anyone else that in the vastness of the intergalactic future there is really only 7 races represented as playable armies? The way I see it there is Humans (IG & SoB), Marines (good & bad), Tau, Eldar (Dark & Light), Necrons, daemons and bugs. We lost squats, but really they started as human anyway. I just think it is really sad that I have seen more aliens in one episode of Star Trek than GW can cram into a game in that has spanned nearly 30 years. Would you guys like to see more races or do you prefer things the way they are?

Orks? They have been around since the beginning.

MakersHitstheMark wrote:

Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
I have been playing 40K for over 15 years now and it has always bothered me that there are so few aliens. Does it bother anyone else that in the vastness of the intergalactic future there is really only 7 races represented as playable armies? The way I see it there is Humans (IG & SoB), Marines (good & bad), Tau, Eldar (Dark & Light), Necrons, daemons and bugs. We lost squats, but really they started as human anyway. I just think it is really sad that I have seen more aliens in one episode of Star Trek than GW can cram into a game in that has spanned nearly 30 years. Would you guys like to see more races or do you prefer things the way they are?

Orks? They have been around since the beginning.

ooops I was tired when I was typing this. Even if we include them that does not raise the alien tracker all that much.

The core of 40K is the Space Marines versus the Chaos Space Marines.

Hopefully, if GW ever decides to advance the plot (face it, they'll have to. No one likes playing the same story over and over again, and if they want to keep ahead they will need to bring something new eventually), we'll see some new alien races. Who knows, maybe the Hrud will finally build an outpost somewhere?

Alternatively, there could just as easily be a Storm of Magic esque expansion.

there were those mecharachnids or however it's spelt that were space spiders and I think there were some other space spiders as well :3

DPBellathrom wrote:there were those mecharachnids or however it's spelt that were space spiders and I think there were some other space spiders as well :3

yeah but the Luna Wolves killed them all.

Grey Templar wrote:

DPBellathrom wrote:there were those mecharachnids or however it's spelt that were space spiders and I think there were some other space spiders as well :3

yeah but the Luna Wolves killed them all.

ALL of them? I thought they got isolated on some planet. Murder I believe it was called.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:

DPBellathrom wrote:there were those mecharachnids or however it's spelt that were space spiders and I think there were some other space spiders as well :3

yeah but the Luna Wolves killed them all.

ALL of them? I thought they got isolated on some planet. Murder I believe it was called.

The Mecharacnids were an ancient foe of the Interex(a human empire on the eastern fringe)

The Interex won a war with them and confined all the Mecharacnids to the planet of Murder, taking away their ability for space flight.

Then the Great Crusade reaches Murder and conducts a systematic and routine xenos purge.

Grey Templar wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:

DPBellathrom wrote:there were those mecharachnids or however it's spelt that were space spiders and I think there were some other space spiders as well :3

yeah but the Luna Wolves killed them all.

ALL of them? I thought they got isolated on some planet. Murder I believe it was called.

The Mecharacnids were an ancient foe of the Interex(a human empire on the eastern fringe)

The Interex won a war with them and confined all the Mecharacnids to the planet of Murder, taking away their ability for space flight.

Then the Great Crusade reaches Murder and conducts a systematic and routine xenos purge.

Looks like I had my time line messed up then

There are dozens, if not hundreds of alien species littered throughout the galaxy, they just aren't mentioned. The Ghost Stars area is host to dozens of species, and require an entire SM chapter just to guard it, to make sure the malevolent aliens inside don't get out.

Keeping mind that, despite all of the worlds the Imperium has, they probably haven't explored that much of the galaxy. There could be aliens species left untouched in random areas, not due to Warp storms or anything like that, but simply because the galaxy is really really big, and they just haven't been discovered yet. I would hazard that the IoM has only fully mapped and explored about 20-30% of the galaxy.

As for why they aren't playable armies, it mostly comes down to how much money GW wants to spend on creating models the might not sell well. Also, the current species we can play are the biggest players in the galaxy.

Grey Templar wrote:the Greater Good just has no place in 40k and ruins the codex

Wow, talk about a sweeping statement. Do I need to point out some might disagree ?

Old or new aliens are likely to get included in Tau and DE armies as those are the most likely to use allies, with the odd abhuman thrown in with the Imperium (everything's better with space tech monkeys !).
Any brand new codex would most likely be Xenos ; seeing as the existing factions have been rather well covered at some point (not counting, amusingly, the Ordo Xenos which still has to get its own list in a book), the only unexplored ways are new species. I wish they avoid the "Warhammer... IN SPACE !" trick though.

In fluff terms:

There are countless races out there, but most of them are either dead or so small they aren't a threat.

Real-life terms:

Having hundreds of codices for different races would be really expensive and hard to do. It's kind of better that they keep the number limited, especially since it's so hard to come up with new original ideas that fit.

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:In fluff terms:

There are countless races out there, but most of them are either dead or so small they aren't a threat.

Real-life terms:

Having hundreds of codices for different races would be really expensive and hard to do. It's kind of better that they keep the number limited, especially since it's so hard to come up with new original ideas that fit.

If you read xenology, you'll find that they are a threat

-Umbra are hard to kill and can make weapons out of shadows
-Qoorl are hyper agressive fanatics that can deal a lot of damage. And there's a lot of them.
-Thyruss (whatever they are called) have unpredictable tactics that can catch IoM commanders off guard.

And in real life they can easily produce an expansion set that includes entries for all these beasties.
They did for Fantasy didn't they?

I'd like to see a Codex:Xeno Alliance or something. How Tau were meant to be, a load of previously mentioned but never expanded Xenos.