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One thing I have noticed is that in each statline released so far for infantry models has had either a specific subfaction keyword (thousand suns) or simply <something>

I think we may see a return of craftworlds, Sept, covens, hive fleets, Astra militarum regiments, etc to the game as a way to get more thematic armies. A space Marine commander may give benefits to marine units around him, but they will all have this particular bonus for being the same chapter. Or ork clans gaining things like cover bonuses for bloodaxes, or bonus movement for evil suns.

The pictures currently in the various codexes and campaign books could all be represented on the tabletop as special varieties of units.

I am so incredibly excited by this possibility!

I'm excited as well. Hopefully that means Forgeworld tactics for Mechanicus (Cyraxus endures forever! Ryza rerolls plasma saves! Mars gets mastercrafted! Lucius gets preferred enemy Chaos! Stygies IV, preferred enemy Xenos! Agripanaa... um... dunno.)

Not getting my hopes up for ork clans. Would make me very happy though, of it happens. One can look to the savage orruks of AoS to get a gist of how it could be done.

Bring it on! Love the idea of all factions quirks and styled having a chance in 8th

I get excited by ideas like Ork Klanz, monogod Chaos books and stuff like it, even though I don't even play those armies and never plan to. It's just fun.

Weirdly, Forgeworlds I don't really feel like I need, and I'm a Skitarii player. I mean I guess it would be nice and all, but it's not something I'm sitting on the edge of my seat for.

Hive fleets are an illusion. There is only The Great Devourer.

Yep this will be excellent if it is fully realised, I do hope they go with the Snakebites = Traditionalists rather the the Snakebites = Feral Orks interpretation.

There has been some back and forth on this issue over the years and certainly there will be variation between fundamentalist and pragmatic Snakebites, but I won't be impressed if the only Snakebite unit is Arrer Boyz or something!
The most recent Codex did mention Gretchin Big Guns as a hallmark of the clan so that brings me hope.

Yey. Chapter hopping between games for every army with unfluffy army lists as a result.

Just give me BS 5 for my Crimson Fists. Feth rerolling 1s. Just give me BS 5 like in 30k.

Is that so much to ask?

It could be that the playtesters suggested more specific keywords, so as to differentiate who gets what bonus / how special rules interact with enemy units (ie preferred enemy in 7th).

There's a decent chance that outside of chapter tactics, the keyword might just be there to restrict what can be done via special rules. For example, if Calgar gets a rule saying "All Ultramarines get +2 leadership" or something, then every other marine allied in can't use that rule. I'm not keeping my hopes up for every single faction to get chapter tactics as an equivalent, when ti seems fairly reasonable for this to just be a way to restrict ally abuse.

It could also be a way to assign different units to different foc slots. Like Ravenwing bikes as troops instead of FA or how the FW Necron Dynasty can take Flayers as Troops or Farsight Crisis suits.

I expect we'll see some chapter tactics, but the wider the concept is used the less in depth and intreasting we can expect it to be, GW has said legion and chapter rules will bea thing, but I'd not go expecting IG doctrines, Tau sept abilities yadda yadda ya.

That would be soooo cool indeed !
It would really bring something to the game.
How long have they been working on the 8th, to get this kind of details, do you think ?

 Lance845 wrote:
It could also be a way to assign different units to different foc slots. Like Ravenwing bikes as troops instead of FA or how the FW Necron Dynasty can take Flayers as Troops or Farsight Crisis suits.

From what I understand, they have been moving away from the "X as troops" for a while now, but it would be nice, I grant you that...

My son's dread mob needs those Deff Dreads as troop part...

BrianDavion wrote:I expect we'll see some chapter tactics, but the wider the concept is used the less in depth and intreasting we can expect it to be, GW has said legion and chapter rules will bea thing, but I'd not go expecting IG doctrines, Tau sept abilities yadda yadda ya.

This subfaction keyword seems to be cropping up in many of the datasheets we've seen so far, so I'm guessing that yes, we're getting a very neat fluff injection in our armies...

It will be like in AoS where you have different Stormhost, Khorne warbands etc. with some bonuses and requirements to field. I really like it.

I sure hope so! Since it seems they're stripping a bit of complication from the normal rules (Looking at Thousand Sons, their flamers no longer do extra stuff, their miniguns no longer have rending, their sorceror only has the one basic "1 mortal wound" spell, etc.) and obviously Formations are gone so army compositions are going to be looking a lot more samey, so I hope that "faction tactics" are a way to personalize our armies a bit more.

It's likely that new formations (whatever their name is) will mimic AoS battalions, or even super battalions.

tneva82 wrote:
Yey. Chapter hopping between games for every army with unfluffy army lists as a result.

Is it unfluffy though? Different companies of a chapter have different specialisations. Some are siege experts through experience or their Captain's preference. Some specialise in a particular breed of warfare due to codex doctrine. Here's an example of a Space Marine chapter that can utitlise different chapter tactics dependent on company


1st Company - Dark Angels Deathwing or Minotaurs

- Terminators
- Elite Units

2nd Company - Ultramarines

- Premier fighting force of the chapter
- Favours tactical balance and flexibility

3rd Company

- Captain X is master of the Fleet, and favours drop insertion from Thunderhawk and Stormraven
- Use Blood Angels for Deepstrike

4th Company

- Master of the Arsenal captain
- Has access to high quality wargear
- Use salamander tactics

5th Company

- Master of the Marches
- Captain Bob is ferocious in combat and zealous
- Use Black Templars


6th Company

- Whole company is trained exclusively as Tacticals and Bikers
- Use White Scars or Ravenwing


7th Company

- Trained entirely as Tacticals or Land Speeders
- Use Ravenwing Speeder spam


8th Company

- All Assault Marines, Bikers or Land Speeders
- Use Blood Angels, White Scars, Raven Guard, Ravenwing


9th Company

- Devastator Company
- Heavy weapons and proficiency for siege
- Use Imperial Fists


10th Company

- Scouts
- Specialise in guerilla warfare
- Use FW Raptor or Raven Guard tactics.

 Deadshot wrote:

6th Company

- Whole company is trained exclusively as Tacticals and Bikers
- Use White Scars or Ravenwing

Thanks for demonstrating my point. White scars is not about all bikes.

The second you see white scar list that's all bikes you know player is just minmaxing without caring about fluff.

tneva82 wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

6th Company

- Whole company is trained exclusively as Tacticals and Bikers
- Use White Scars or Ravenwing

Thanks for demonstrating my point. White scars is not about all bikes.

The second you see white scar list that's all bikes you know player is just minmaxing without caring about fluff.

Not really. The white scars don't exclusively use bikes, but they are known for it and their rules favour it. A personal who uses all bikes may but an unfluffy minmaxer, or they are simply representing a White Scars biker force because that's what they specialise in? White Scar all biker armies have been around long before 6th Ed, when the bike didn't help vs Instant Death Str 8 weapons, didn't have special jink rules, grav guns, and weren't nearly as powerful.

oh noooooo~ not unfluffy! Whatever will we dooooo~

Or the white scars player is simply running an army they find fun and interesting on the table. You wouldn't claim that a Raven wing army was unfluffy, would you?

The only named character in the white scars chapter can take a bike as wargear, if they didn't want that to signify something on the tabletop why doesn't any other names character get that? Why is the named deathwatch character on a bike a white scar?

Because the company WANTS them to be a bike heavy army.

In regards to the purpose being limiting bonuses that would be what the general names imply. The commander can order any guard model on the tabld, but he is attached to a talarn regiment and that means he and they all move a bit faster but can't be burdened with heavier armor.

 Deadshot wrote:
...White Scar all biker armies have been around long before 6th Ed, when the bike didn't help vs Instant Death Str 8 weapons, didn't have special jink rules, grav guns, and weren't nearly as powerful...

Why, back in my day Bikes were 32pts/model (+2ppm for Skilled Rider), had a 5-man minimum squad size when used in Troops, didn't have Jink, and took a Chapter Tactics drawback to get in Troops in the first place...

(Uphill both ways in the snow five miles to get to school and all that...)

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
...White Scar all biker armies have been around long before 6th Ed, when the bike didn't help vs Instant Death Str 8 weapons, didn't have special jink rules, grav guns, and weren't nearly as powerful...

Why, back in my day Bikes were 32pts/model (+2ppm for Skilled Rider), had a 5-man minimum squad size when used in Troops, didn't have Jink, and took a Chapter Tactics drawback to get in Troops in the first place...

(Uphill both ways in the snow five miles to get to school and all that...)

Back in my day as well, though if you are refering to 5th Ed you didn't have to take Chapter Tactics through K-Khan, you needed a Captain on a bike, which also included Kor'Sarro Khan on Moondrakken. I don't remember the +2ppm for Skilled Rider though, was it 4th Ed you're thinking of?

 Deadshot wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
...White Scar all biker armies have been around long before 6th Ed, when the bike didn't help vs Instant Death Str 8 weapons, didn't have special jink rules, grav guns, and weren't nearly as powerful...

Why, back in my day Bikes were 32pts/model (+2ppm for Skilled Rider), had a 5-man minimum squad size when used in Troops, didn't have Jink, and took a Chapter Tactics drawback to get in Troops in the first place...

(Uphill both ways in the snow five miles to get to school and all that...)

Back in my day as well, though if you are refering to 5th Ed you didn't have to take Chapter Tactics through K-Khan, you needed a Captain on a bike, which also included Kor'Sarro Khan on Moondrakken. I don't remember the +2ppm for Skilled Rider though, was it 4th Ed you're thinking of?

Yup.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
...White Scar all biker armies have been around long before 6th Ed, when the bike didn't help vs Instant Death Str 8 weapons, didn't have special jink rules, grav guns, and weren't nearly as powerful...

Why, back in my day Bikes were 32pts/model (+2ppm for Skilled Rider), had a 5-man minimum squad size when used in Troops, didn't have Jink, and took a Chapter Tactics drawback to get in Troops in the first place...

(Uphill both ways in the snow five miles to get to school and all that...)

Back in my day as well, though if you are refering to 5th Ed you didn't have to take Chapter Tactics through K-Khan, you needed a Captain on a bike, which also included Kor'Sarro Khan on Moondrakken. I don't remember the +2ppm for Skilled Rider though, was it 4th Ed you're thinking of?

Yup.

Ah, well that explains much. Seems bikers have been easier over the last 20 years, but the leap from 5th to 6th Ed was the biggest kick. Changes from 4th to 5th were getting slightly cheaper, losing the option for Skilled Rider entirely and not needing to Chapter Tactic.

Changes from 5th to 6th included getting a lot cheaper, getting Skilled Rider for free, permanent toughness bonus and gravguns.

 Traditio wrote:
Just give me BS 5 for my Crimson Fists. Feth rerolling 1s. Just give me BS 5 like in 30k.

Is that so much to ask?

Yup, it is. An entire army of BS 5 troops unless it comes with a significant price increase is way too powerful.

Personally I am hoping that these chapter tactics come with a cost, either restrictive FOC or Points.

Many armies more or less had an equivalent, usually just through formations which gave special rules. So I'm looking forward to seeing more or this.

Breng77 wrote:

 Traditio wrote:
Just give me BS 5 for my Crimson Fists. Feth rerolling 1s. Just give me BS 5 like in 30k.

Is that so much to ask?

Yup, it is. An entire army of BS 5 troops unless it comes with a significant price increase is way too powerful.

Personally I am hoping that these chapter tactics come with a cost, either restrictive FOC or Points.

Keep in mind it would only be BS 5 for troops with bolt weapons. Which is still powerful, but not to the point it couldn't be balanced.

Also, why do you not want to see chapter tactics spread around?

Breng77 wrote:

 Traditio wrote:
Just give me BS 5 for my Crimson Fists. Feth rerolling 1s. Just give me BS 5 like in 30k.

Is that so much to ask?

Yup, it is. An entire army of BS 5 troops unless it comes with a significant price increase is way too powerful.

Personally I am hoping that these chapter tactics come with a cost, either restrictive FOC or Points.

(Yeah, in 30k it's BS5 with bolters, not BS5 across-the-board all the time...)