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Been watching Total War: Warhammer streams while I wash the dishes lately, and the streamers in question are phenomenally well-versed in old Warhammer lore. One thing I really love is when they go down bizzarre rabbit holes with old minis that as someone who was only interested in Warhammer for about a year before fantasy was axed, seem super goofy and exotic, and kinda make me wish I'd gotten into the hobby a bit earlier.

I had a little poke about, but I can't seem to find anything for dogs of war/ regiments of renown (specifically the minis!) In 40k? Was it just never a thing? Anyone know why?

Cheers! McBogus

it was a thing in some of the specialist games but never in 40k

main reason that there was never a need for special Allied Forces and most of those Mercenary factions that exited in the background could be easily done with the later introduced allied rules anyway

Something that could be seen as such rules early on were Lost $ Damned and Eldar Corsairs.

Closest I think we had/have is the little micro-factions. Stuff that was compiled into the Imperial Agents book, or more recently the rules for the KT/Blackstone fortress units.

 kodos wrote:
it was a thing in some of the specialist games but never in 40k

main reason that there was never a need for special Allied Forces and most of those Mercenary factions that exited in the background could be easily done with the later introduced allied rules anyway

Something that could be seen as such rules early on were Lost $ Damned and Eldar Corsairs.

Lost and the damned?

There is one mercenary unit in the whole dex.: Marauders.
The rest is Chaos and or conscripts and or chaotic conscripts.


Also marauders can note really hired by outside sources and are probably themselves pretty diehard Chaos worshippers.

of course those working for anyone would be seen as heretics by the servants of the Imperium.....

but it was still the closest thing to Dogs of War we had in 40k

 kodos wrote:
of course those working for anyone would be seen as heretics by the servants of the Imperium.....

but it was still the closest thing to Dogs of War we had in 40k

Considering that you more or less insta end up on the Blacklist of the Imperium
.

The closest thing would probably be bloodaxes orkz though, that and freebootaz.

The only mercenary faction of significance in 40K are the Kroot and they only work for the Tau on the table-top. There used to be a Kroot Mercenary army list that was released in White Dwarf way back in 3rd/4th edition.

The other units that spring to mind are Schaeffers Last Chancers and the Tanith First. Not mercenary units but Regiments of Renown for the IG at least.

Ork freebooterz are another, as well as many sub species used by the drukhari, the snake figure from the court; incubi hire themselves out to other eldar races.

A race comes to mind from the novels but without any known TT figures is a merc species that looked like the modern Komodo dragon with flechett strapped to its back.

 Big Mac wrote:
Ork freebooterz are another, as well as many sub species used by the drukhari, the snake figure from the court; incubi hire themselves out to other eldar races.

A race comes to mind from the novels but without any known TT figures is a merc species that looked like the modern Komodo dragon with flechett strapped to its back.

Weren't those called Slann? I think there was a picture of it in the 4th ed BRB.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Big Mac wrote:
Ork freebooterz are another, as well as many sub species used by the drukhari, the snake figure from the court; incubi hire themselves out to other eldar races.

A race comes to mind from the novels but without any known TT figures is a merc species that looked like the modern Komodo dragon with flechett strapped to its back.

Weren't those called Slann? I think there was a picture of it in the 4th ed BRB.

No slanns are whfb.
You mean the mercenaries working alongside the bloodpact.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Big Mac wrote:
Ork freebooterz are another, as well as many sub species used by the drukhari, the snake figure from the court; incubi hire themselves out to other eldar races.

A race comes to mind from the novels but without any known TT figures is a merc species that looked like the modern Komodo dragon with flechett strapped to its back.

Weren't those called Slann? I think there was a picture of it in the 4th ed BRB.

No slanns are whfb.
You mean the mercenaries working alongside the bloodpact.

Oh, there were Slann in 40k back in the RT days: http://solegends.com/citrt2/tsf18slann/index.htm

The Slann were slaughtered by Eldrad AFAIK because the Slann wanted to let humanity kill itself. News to me but I read it on some wiki the other day, take with a heap of salt.

You might be thinking of the Tarellian dog soldiers, those are also allies of the tau and I don't know enough about them to say they wouldn't ally with Chaos but I believe they hate the Imperium if not all humans.

I'm talking about this



https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Slann

Remember how in the past GW would give tidbits about minor factions and lore that go beyond a tiny footnote in the back of the Brb? The Longbeards remember.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I'm talking about these



https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Slann

Remember how in the past GW would give tidbits about minor factions and lore that go beyond a tiny footnote in the back of the Brb? The Longbeards remember.

Yeah I've seen pictures of those before, I'm 99% sure they were retconned out of existence, but the Cabal that enticed the Alpha Legion into betraying the Emperor probably had Slann, but the Cabal was slaughtered by Eldrad.

Talking about Loxatl from the GG books.

 vict0988 wrote:
The Slann were slaughtered by Eldrad AFAIK because the Slann wanted to let humanity kill itself. News to me but I read it on some wiki the other day, take with a heap of salt.

Nah, I don't think the Cabal is canon. The Slann, or Slanni rather, are supposed to still be around.
It seems though that the Slann were originally the Old Ones, but GW decided to make the Old Ones their own thing, and the Slann become just another alien race.

 vict0988 wrote:
The Slann were slaughtered by Eldrad AFAIK because the Slann wanted to let humanity kill itself. News to me but I read it on some wiki the other day, take with a heap of salt.

You might be thinking of the Tarellian dog soldiers, those are also allies of the tau and I don't know enough about them to say they wouldn't ally with Chaos but I believe they hate the Imperium if not all humans.

Eldrad had a single creature whose appearance was described as kinda Slann-like killed. That hardly constitutes them all being wacked. Besides that the latest mention of Slann I can remember is in the current Adeptus Titanicus' rulebook. Though thats just a name drop.

Tarellian models would be dope by the by.

Karhedron wrote:The only mercenary faction of significance in 40K are the Kroot and they only work for the Tau on the table-top. There used to be a Kroot Mercenary army list that was released in White Dwarf way back in 3rd/4th edition.

The other units that spring to mind are Schaeffers Last Chancers and the Tanith First. Not mercenary units but Regiments of Renown for the IG at least.

Good shout! Yeah, this is kind of what I'm talking about. I guess I wish GW had done a bit more stuff like this, maybe like some HB devastators for Imperial fists, or something of the like for other factions etc. The regiments of renown seem to really ooze character, and I guess I was hoping maybe a similar thing had existed in the mists of time, especially since 40k is probably GW's most distinctive IP

CthuluIsSpy wrote:I'm talking about this



https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Slann

Remember how in the past GW would give tidbits about minor factions and lore that go beyond a tiny footnote in the back of the Brb? The Longbeards remember.

I always thought the Slan/Slaan/Slanni were kinda "...everything according to plan" from the shadows puppetmasters. I'm probably wrong, but are they also guns-for-hire, too? The minis are neat, and very rogue trader, would love to see them come back a la the blackstone fortress stuff (tho without the pricetag pls GW thank u)

Freebootas, Kroot etc are obviously honorable mentions, but again, as minis representing a wide range of units, rather than like, a unit of only characters, I guess kinda feel like the miss the mark. I suppose I was more interested in the regiments of renown part than the mercenary part, which sort of only fits 40k as in like rogue traders etc...