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I have been trying to come up with a new home-brew Xenos faction for the game but I keep coming up with a problem. In the end I can't find a place for them that does not really set on the toes of another faction in some way.
I know that 40K has never been terribly original so is there any type of classic space trope that hasn't been used yet for another faction to fill as anything I come up with usually just ends up being like the Tau or Orks just a little different and related to that is there a place in play style that a new faction could be that hasn't been filled?
Basically my question is; is there any place within either the fluff or the crunch that a new faction could find their own niche?

I don't think an entire new faction is needed. What would work is GW doing more small scale add ons

A decent idea I've seen floating around the forum is an alien mercenary list that is come the apoc for the imperium but is battle brothers for everyone else except tyranids. I think that would be a great way to get in some new units with out having to retcon in a whole army

We need a Genestealer cult army. Lovecraftian mutant cultists pls.

I suppose no one has truly done a necromancer army. Reanimation protocols are nice for Necrons but no faction exists that creates more units out of the units you slay.

Likewise, I don't think we have any Kamikaze Kobolds or suicidal goblin factions either. Troops that essentially walk up to their intended target then detonate, taking out everything near them.

It would also be neat to have a Cthulhu cult comprised of horrifying creatures that don't attack your Toughness or Wounds, but your sanity. Forcing armies to constantly roll Morale checks or attacking their Leadership value or even using Psychic powers that force one unit to attack its own allies. Mental domination and manipulation of forces.

Considering Khorne Daemonkin is a brand new faction they added (sort of... we technically were missing a close combat zerg since Orks went shooty and Tyranids too).

There are limitless SM and Imperial factions. Maybe you could recast your Alien faction as some kind of new Imperial faction.

What we really need is a Xenos detachment Codex... like the Inquisition/ Knight/ Officio Assasinorum codices.

They write 1 fluffy unit for each famous Xenos race -
Thyrrus Soliloquy
Hrud Horde
Umbra Orb
Slaught Swarm
etc. etc.

I was recently thinking a borg theme might be interesting. Have the army start the battle at Sv6+ which steadily improves as more damage comes in. Start guns at s3 , AP6 improving both as they score hits and wounds. Use counters and when you hit thresholds unit improves.

Could even expand idea that when you cross thresholds you choose bonus, so versus hordes maybe you boost number of shots rather than S or AP of the weapon.

I always liked the advanced human faction that Horus wiped out before the Heresy started. (can't remember their name) Though I guess they would be just like Tau in many ways. Still would make for some interesting possibilities, since they accepted aliens and mutants in their society.

The Interex or the Auretian Technocracy?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although I don't think the INterex ever got wiped out, but the books never said...did they?

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
I was recently thinking a borg theme might be interesting. Have the army start the battle at Sv6+ which steadily improves as more damage comes in. Start guns at s3 , AP6 improving both as they score hits and wounds. Use counters and when you hit thresholds unit improves.

Could even expand idea that when you cross thresholds you choose bonus, so versus hordes maybe you boost number of shots rather than S or AP of the weapon.

If you went this route, I would suggest that you use kill points and victory points as the resource for the mechanic. It encourages playing to the normal objectives while having set, easily grasped, and plausable conditions. If you're doing well and have points to spare, sure upgrade a unit or two at the cost of points. Alternatively, if you're struggling, you can cash in the little points you have to buff units in the hope of tabling your opponent. I think it could promote a interesting playstyle.

Perhapes limit the amount of tiers you can upgrade in a single round, combined with set benefits like the dark eldar pain chart thingy (The name escapes me) to avoid insta uber units and confusion of what unit has what buffs.

For awhile, i was playing around with the idea of a race that drifted into the galaxy on a rogue planet that was ejected from the host galaxy. The planet was almost a gas giant, but it's chemical composition made the surface pressure habitable. It contained a roughly earth sized rock in it's centre. The planet had been written off as uninhabitable by the scholars if it's galaxy due to light never reaching it's surface and lack of visible chemical imbalances that could be caused by life (example: earth's methane/nitrogen/oxygen levels.) The planet itself was bright to an outside observer, but completely dark to visible light even a few hundred feet below it's atmosphere's edge.

The faction was going to be comprised entirely of creatures and life forms that either navigated differently, located differently, absorbed environmental energy differently, or had entirely new methods of sensing things. I drew up a couple sketches of some units and thought of some rules.

HQ was a monstrous creature, a mixture between a humanoid bat and daemon prince essentially that used echolocation and as a result had sound based shooting attacks. Body is covered in hairs to sense vibrations in the atmosphere and ground. Piercings to increase the sensitivity of points on the body used to sense vibrations, also for rule of cool. Basically a giant were-bat.

There was some shooty guys who anchor themselves with vibration sensing tendrils into the ground to increase their bs and strength of their shooting weapon. It increased the strength because they were drawing electric energy out of the substrate, and their bs because it increased their ability to sense the enemy organisms.

There was also a unit that was comprised of jellyfish-ish organisms that are electrovores. They were going to sort of do what grav does to people with powered armour and vehicles and tech and such. Wound against save, armourbane str5 ap1 against vehicles. Ability to join models to form tougher organisms with smaller model count and increased str. Thought of making them move on their own towards the biggest/nearest source of electrical energy because their fluff was that they're found in giant numbers near the planet's violent electrical storms but thought that would lack interaction.

I was going to make some thermal sensing arachnid type creatures that ignore cover and can shoot through los blocking terrain at -1bs per terrain piece or unit it's shooting through also. Unsaved wounds caused a pinning test. If the test was failed, unit became enfeebled by the poisoned webs. Sort of a cave dwelling thing that pins things down and then goes to digest them. The models would have been cool if they existed.

Then, i got to thinking, and realized that A) I had no reason for them to fight anyone in the 40k universe and B) no one was ever going to play it, no one was going to make models for them, it would never be accepted by anyone let alone GW, and i was almost entirely wasting my time. Also, i have zero money to start my own game.

The hardest part of introducing a truly brand new faction would be fitting it into the old rivalries and allies. It would be hard to incorporate anything without looking like an outsider, or just following the nid theme of "feth everyone"

That's my story for the day.

Yeah the Interex, the Centaur battlesuits with laser crossbows, full AI drones and ape like Aliens as their allies.

Seemed like an interesting faction idea. To bad as far as I remember the Luna Wolves took them down pretty thoroughly.

 Arkaine wrote:
I suppose no one has truly done a necromancer army. Reanimation protocols are nice for Necrons but no faction exists that creates more units out of the units you slay.

Likewise, I don't think we have any Kamikaze Kobolds or suicidal goblin factions either. Troops that essentially walk up to their intended target then detonate, taking out everything near them.

It would also be neat to have a Cthulhu cult comprised of horrifying creatures that don't attack your Toughness or Wounds, but your sanity. Forcing armies to constantly roll Morale checks or attacking their Leadership value or even using Psychic powers that force one unit to attack its own allies. Mental domination and manipulation of forces.

Considering Khorne Daemonkin is a brand new faction they added (sort of... we technically were missing a close combat zerg since Orks went shooty and Tyranids too).

Seconding the Necromancer idea, I've been working on a variant of the Imperial Guard based on that idea for a while. Main problem is differentaiting from the guard, and balance of course, since they would technically be getting free stuff. The cthulu idea is one I've been working on as well.