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It would be fun just leak some vague rumors. Bols etc would go crazy about Revamping dark future or perhaps even Gorka Morka, and the crazy again when you released your second leak that they where all wrong and that it would be even cooler.

An alien race based on spiders? I can't help but either think up humanoid form races, or tyranidesque races. They'd be technoligically adept but able to run swarms also. Maybe even using vehicles to augment their armies. Not an overly aggressive race but vicious when roused or disturbed

Someone already beat me to the punch with pirates

CSM that arn't crap and works as they are intended.

It does qualify as a new Faction...

Space Pengiuns
Basically their stat line is something like
BS3
WS3
S2
T2
W1
I2
Ld 8
They are mainly a shooting army but their range is a bit short. Their interesting gimmick is that they tend to have good armor on the combat infantry (lots of 3+ and 2+ armor), lots of assault weapons, and they all have hammer of wrath and it hits with improved strength and armor penetration. They all have Slow and Purposeful and move only 3 inches (but aren't slowed by terrain) but they can move 2D6 in the assault phase if they didn't fire a weapon or only fired assault or pistol weapons. Very MSU in nature but they basically have reverse combat squad where they can group together to form bigger units while on the battlefield.

Their visual design is based on World War 1 and 2 technology as they tend to wear a lot of trench coats and have the german style helmets (even some of the ones with the pointy spike on top). Vehicles are mostly shooting focused walkers with low hull points but AV 12 generally. No flyers while their ground transports are low capacity but well protected treaded vehicles. Lots of artillery units but their artillery weapons are T5. Their infantry guns are either some variant on crossbow guns (that fire metal spikes), rocket launchers, heavy machine guns (firing spikes), and flame throwers. The walkers tend to have bigger versions of infantry weapons while their artillery are a mix of traditional mortar/artillery guns with some unusual stuff like their bouncing bombs that are a blast weapon that after the first hit will bounce X number of times using the barrage template flip (but it must always flip each bounce so they can't hit the same spot on two consecutive bounches.

Close combat is generally focused on their HoW hits (they penguin dive into the enemy) then they attack last generally with their low initiative. Melee focused units are armed generally with shields (invuln) and harpoons that they can throw as a shooting attack or stab with in CC. Their big hitting melee weapon is a drill based weapon that is unweildly and AP2 but does multiple wounds and hull points per hit. They also have a very nasty weapon that is basically a small nuke that detonates when making a hammer of wrath attack. It places a blast over top of the user and it deals heavy damage to ALL models in the blast area.

They have psykers who use two unique schools of psychic powers and it generally revolves around one being blessing focused that makes the nearby space penguins to unleash their inner penguin potential while the other school is focused on witchfires including a power involving opening a portal into the warp to pull daemons into the physical realm and then instantly blow them up which potentially telefrags the target while dealing blast damage to nearby models. Also psychically turning a nearby space penguin into a psychic powered bullet that rips apart the enemy as the poor space penguin is sent flying at mach 20.

Space Penguins are insanely xenophopic and supremacist who view all life as inferior to penguin kind. Diplomacy with other races is basically surrender to be slaves or die a horrible death while they burn the atmosphere and laugh while your planets ecosystem turns into a literal hell. They are a monarchy and are structured as a feudal society with different houses and lords serving the space penguin king. While they aren't a collective goal society like the Tau, they do have some fanatical space penguins who will gladly give their own life for space penguin kind while other space penguins are often brave but not immune to the thought of self preservation.

Bring back squats!!!

 Vankraken wrote:
Space Pengiuns

Spoiler:

Basically their stat line is something like
BS3
WS3
S2
T2
W1
I2
Ld 8
They are mainly a shooting army but their range is a bit short. Their interesting gimmick is that they tend to have good armor on the combat infantry (lots of 3+ and 2+ armor), lots of assault weapons, and they all have hammer of wrath and it hits with improved strength and armor penetration. They all have Slow and Purposeful and move only 3 inches (but aren't slowed by terrain) but they can move 2D6 in the assault phase if they didn't fire a weapon or only fired assault or pistol weapons. Very MSU in nature but they basically have reverse combat squad where they can group together to form bigger units while on the battlefield.

Their visual design is based on World War 1 and 2 technology as they tend to wear a lot of trench coats and have the german style helmets (even some of the ones with the pointy spike on top). Vehicles are mostly shooting focused walkers with low hull points but AV 12 generally. No flyers while their ground transports are low capacity but well protected treaded vehicles. Lots of artillery units but their artillery weapons are T5. Their infantry guns are either some variant on crossbow guns (that fire metal spikes), rocket launchers, heavy machine guns (firing spikes), and flame throwers. The walkers tend to have bigger versions of infantry weapons while their artillery are a mix of traditional mortar/artillery guns with some unusual stuff like their bouncing bombs that are a blast weapon that after the first hit will bounce X number of times using the barrage template flip (but it must always flip each bounce so they can't hit the same spot on two consecutive bounches.

Close combat is generally focused on their HoW hits (they penguin dive into the enemy) then they attack last generally with their low initiative. Melee focused units are armed generally with shields (invuln) and harpoons that they can throw as a shooting attack or stab with in CC. Their big hitting melee weapon is a drill based weapon that is unweildly and AP2 but does multiple wounds and hull points per hit. They also have a very nasty weapon that is basically a small nuke that detonates when making a hammer of wrath attack. It places a blast over top of the user and it deals heavy damage to ALL models in the blast area.

They have psykers who use two unique schools of psychic powers and it generally revolves around one being blessing focused that makes the nearby space penguins to unleash their inner penguin potential while the other school is focused on witchfires including a power involving opening a portal into the warp to pull daemons into the physical realm and then instantly blow them up which potentially telefrags the target while dealing blast damage to nearby models. Also psychically turning a nearby space penguin into a psychic powered bullet that rips apart the enemy as the poor space penguin is sent flying at mach 20.

Space Penguins are insanely xenophopic and supremacist who view all life as inferior to penguin kind. Diplomacy with other races is basically surrender to be slaves or die a horrible death while they burn the atmosphere and laugh while your planets ecosystem turns into a literal hell. They are a monarchy and are structured as a feudal society with different houses and lords serving the space penguin king. While they aren't a collective goal society like the Tau, they do have some fanatical space penguins who will gladly give their own life for space penguin kind while other space penguins are often brave but not immune to the thought of self preservation.

Heck yes! I love it!

 Elbows wrote:
While it is essentially mentioned in fluff, I'd like to see a pirate/mercenary/outer fringes kind of army. A mix of skiffs, jetbikes, cavalry mounted on alien mounts, various races - raiders, kit-bashed vehicles. Put their strength in speed, and asymmetric combat (booby traps, ambushes, impacting opponents reserve rolls etc.).

Use Ogryns/Kroot/etc. Even a sneaky way to bring back some Squats. Perhaps introduce outer fringe barons, Rogue Traders etc.

Mad Max meets Jawas.

Eldar Corsairs are kinda similar to this, except they're all Eldar instead of mixed xenos.

 Vankraken wrote:

Spoiler:

Space Pengiuns
Basically their stat line is something like
BS3
WS3
S2
T2
W1
I2
Ld 8
They are mainly a shooting army but their range is a bit short. Their interesting gimmick is that they tend to have good armor on the combat infantry (lots of 3+ and 2+ armor), lots of assault weapons, and they all have hammer of wrath and it hits with improved strength and armor penetration. They all have Slow and Purposeful and move only 3 inches (but aren't slowed by terrain) but they can move 2D6 in the assault phase if they didn't fire a weapon or only fired assault or pistol weapons. Very MSU in nature but they basically have reverse combat squad where they can group together to form bigger units while on the battlefield.

Their visual design is based on World War 1 and 2 technology as they tend to wear a lot of trench coats and have the german style helmets (even some of the ones with the pointy spike on top). Vehicles are mostly shooting focused walkers with low hull points but AV 12 generally. No flyers while their ground transports are low capacity but well protected treaded vehicles. Lots of artillery units but their artillery weapons are T5. Their infantry guns are either some variant on crossbow guns (that fire metal spikes), rocket launchers, heavy machine guns (firing spikes), and flame throwers. The walkers tend to have bigger versions of infantry weapons while their artillery are a mix of traditional mortar/artillery guns with some unusual stuff like their bouncing bombs that are a blast weapon that after the first hit will bounce X number of times using the barrage template flip (but it must always flip each bounce so they can't hit the same spot on two consecutive bounches.

Close combat is generally focused on their HoW hits (they penguin dive into the enemy) then they attack last generally with their low initiative. Melee focused units are armed generally with shields (invuln) and harpoons that they can throw as a shooting attack or stab with in CC. Their big hitting melee weapon is a drill based weapon that is unweildly and AP2 but does multiple wounds and hull points per hit. They also have a very nasty weapon that is basically a small nuke that detonates when making a hammer of wrath attack. It places a blast over top of the user and it deals heavy damage to ALL models in the blast area.

They have psykers who use two unique schools of psychic powers and it generally revolves around one being blessing focused that makes the nearby space penguins to unleash their inner penguin potential while the other school is focused on witchfires including a power involving opening a portal into the warp to pull daemons into the physical realm and then instantly blow them up which potentially telefrags the target while dealing blast damage to nearby models. Also psychically turning a nearby space penguin into a psychic powered bullet that rips apart the enemy as the poor space penguin is sent flying at mach 20.

Space Penguins are insanely xenophopic and supremacist who view all life as inferior to penguin kind. Diplomacy with other races is basically surrender to be slaves or die a horrible death while they burn the atmosphere and laugh while your planets ecosystem turns into a literal hell. They are a monarchy and are structured as a feudal society with different houses and lords serving the space penguin king. While they aren't a collective goal society like the Tau, they do have some fanatical space penguins who will gladly give their own life for space penguin kind while other space penguins are often brave but not immune to the thought of self preservation

.

What could be neat, especially if they're so slow, is to give them harpoon weapons similar to what Blood Slaughterers have, where they move the target 2D6 towards the Blood Slaughterer and if they end up in base to base, the Slaughterer counts as having charged into combat.

How about bringing lizardmen into 40k- fluffwise they could be an old-one worshipping race that has recovered some of their technology.
So there would be a mix of high tech weapons on elites and more primitive ones too, so that close combat and ranged would be covered.
Aesthetically, i imagine the saurus and skinks to be armoured and shielded in a similar way to halos' elites. I also like the halo energy sword idea, so saurus would have some badass looking energy blades that would be retractable (a bit like in predator). The heavy support? Ever seen dino-riders? How awesome would a cannon armed carnosaur look on the tabletop!
Game play wise, i imagine the army to be quite slow, but have a few very powerful weapons/units, among lots of assaulty infantry. A basic saurus would be something like ws4, bs3, s4, t4, w1, i3, a2, ld8, sv 4+/6+ inv, armed with a short range and rather unstable weapon, and an energy blade that perhaps is ap5?
Please GW!
Ps no mayan/aztec theme

Furries.

They'd have a wide variety of species among their number, and the squad kits would contain an even amount of males and females.

They would be technologically progressive, and they would consider each soldier's life to be valuable enough to invest in protecting. The normal armor save for infantry in the Codex would be a 4+, with a couple of power armor or heavy power armor Elites or Heavy Support units. Commander models would have a choice of armor.

Every model in the army would have some sort of ranged weapon, with their melee units having a pistol and one melee weapon (can be one-handed or two-handed) each. Their basic Troops unit would be primarily a ranged unit, with a rifle and pistol being standard armament and the squad having the option to include one special and one heavy weapon.

If they had plasma weapons at all, their plasma weapons would take the Tau route of being less powerful, but safer to use, so they'd eschew the Gets Hot! rule in exchange for reduced Strength.

They wouldn't have much ornamentation on their models, and their technology would be designed for practicality, durability and potency rather than impressiveness or fear factor.

Grav-tanks would be something they might have, but it wouldn't be the standard, and most of their vehicles would be wheeled or tracked.

No Cavalry or Beasts at all, their level of technology and preferred way of fighting has eliminated the need to use riding or combat animals.

Their normal statline would be similar to an Imperial Guard Veteran. Dedicated melee units might have a 4 in WS and a 3 in BS instead of the other way around.

Their melee units would also have the option of equipping every model in the unit with a Combat Shield (not a Storm Shield) for an extra points cost per model, though doing so would prevent them from choosing a two-handed melee weapon. Their melee squads would also be required to be equipped identically, perhaps with the squad leader being the only one who can choose to arm himself or herself with something different from the rest of the unit. You could take multiple units and equip those units differently, but each individual unit would use identical equipment for each member of the unit. Make a point of mentioning in the Army List section in the Codex that all models in the unit except the Sergeant must choose the same equipment. Provide enough bitz in their kit to accommodate this. No gosh-darned wound allocation shenanigans if they decide to bring the possibility back in the future.

Edit: Let's be honest here. If GW decided to hire me, a 27-year-old schizophrenic geek with no employment record, no history in game design and no marketable skills of any sort, to create a new faction which they'll actually produce and support, and I get to decide everything about it, then they've gone so far off their rocker that the company's probably going to self-destruct in short order, and the only two reasonable options are to either refuse the job or exploit their insanity to suit my own purposes and hopefully get something official that I would like to have before the company no longer exists.

I agree non-Imperum humans would probably be best.

Create Pan Fo so their secrets may finally be reviled

Daleks (since GW has no issue ripping off ideas), fleshbane weapons on basic troop to exterminate with. They all treat stairs as dangerous terrain.

 Pouncey wrote:

Spoiler:

Furries.

They'd have a wide variety of species among their number, and the squad kits would contain an even amount of males and females.

They would be technologically progressive, and they would consider each soldier's life to be valuable enough to invest in protecting. The normal armor save for infantry in the Codex would be a 4+, with a couple of power armor or heavy power armor Elites or Heavy Support units. Commander models would have a choice of armor.

Every model in the army would have some sort of ranged weapon, with their melee units having a pistol and one melee weapon (can be one-handed or two-handed) each. Their basic Troops unit would be primarily a ranged unit, with a rifle and pistol being standard armament and the squad having the option to include one special and one heavy weapon.

If they had plasma weapons at all, their plasma weapons would take the Tau route of being less powerful, but safer to use, so they'd eschew the Gets Hot! rule in exchange for reduced Strength.

They wouldn't have much ornamentation on their models, and their technology would be designed for practicality, durability and potency rather than impressiveness or fear factor.

Grav-tanks would be something they might have, but it wouldn't be the standard, and most of their vehicles would be wheeled or tracked.

No Cavalry or Beasts at all, their level of technology and preferred way of fighting has eliminated the need to use riding or combat animals.

Their normal statline would be similar to an Imperial Guard Veteran. Dedicated melee units might have a 4 in WS and a 3 in BS instead of the other way around.

Their melee units would also have the option of equipping every model in the unit with a Combat Shield (not a Storm Shield) for an extra points cost per model, though doing so would prevent them from choosing a two-handed melee weapon. Their melee squads would also be required to be equipped identically, perhaps with the squad leader being the only one who can choose to arm himself or herself with something different from the rest of the unit. You could take multiple units and equip those units differently, but each individual unit would use identical equipment for each member of the unit. Make a point of mentioning in the Army List section in the Codex that all models in the unit except the Sergeant must choose the same equipment. Provide enough bitz in their kit to accommodate this. No gosh-darned wound allocation shenanigans if they decide to bring the possibility back in the future.

Dear god no. The Wulfen are bad enough. But this? No.

A faction comprised entirely of cybernetic flowers riding vorpal bunnies, that have lazer beams from thier eyes, and bees in their mouths, so that when they yell they shoot bees at you. And the bees are also vorpal.

Something alien, definitely. But not something bug-like. Tyranids got that covered, as do the Vespid and the Necron scarabs/spider to a lesser degree, but also typical powered armor tends to be rather arthropod-y.

Could take a page from War of the Worlds and have the aliens themselves be little more than brains who build various machines as new bodies. Basic infantry can have very minimal suits, just legs and weapons and a touch of armor, while the supreme commanders get so many super fancy mecha extras that you can't even tell what the original xenos even looked like. And since the suits are wholly artificial, you can get a HUUUUUGE variety of body forms - no shared anatomy at all, apart from the token appearance by the brain-alien. Perhaps for that extra bit of weirdness, the brains could sit in the bellies of the suits, a la Krang.

I would create an army with the army wide rule

Hatred: GW

All models with this rule gets hatred against any model sold by GW. That means virtually everyone who buys NiB from any Games workshop or independent dealer.

Preferred enemy: FW

All models with this rule gets preferred enemy on any model sold by Forge World.

This is more of a joke that anything.

The army would be a generic mix of GEq and MEq that allows you to use models from another game or scratch built. As long it is on a base, is standard height and dimensions of a GEq and MEq you are good to play.

There would be no fluffy rules beyond that. Just a bunch of GEq and MEq and some generic tanks and MCs thrown in.

What if the faction was more stationary and similar to terrain? Something like coral based aliens that are limited in ability to travel, but have powerful gunline/defenses available to them.

Coral could easily be adapted to a wide range of offensive powers if scaled up to human sized polyps. Giant rings of tentacles surrounding a voracious mouth connected to multiples of itself with a different type of coral growing from above it that launches bio weapons, crewed by sentient crustaceans or Corralimorphs.

And the coral species could survive out of water or possibly even in space, tropical coral species are well documented to be exposed during low tide for many hours at a time with zero nbegative effects.

Simeans - ala Planet of the Apes, but they have reached the technoligical level to become a spaceborne race. Basically, the Karmens from AT43, but without the philosopical bend and some slight tweaks.

Kongas as fast-moving melee troops with powered armor, armed with double powerfists.
Yetis as powered armored troops and jump packs with freeze weapons (act like flamers, but also slow enemy troops)
Silverbacks as the heavy troops in terminator armor with bazooka-like weapondry on their backs.
Orangatang priest/psykers dispensing the law of the Loregiver.
Anti-grav bikes, hovertanks that double as fliers. Transports that allow troops to rappel via electrified power lines (no DS mishaps vs. infantry as it forces them to get out of the way)

Of course, their knight/titan would be modeled after (robo)King Kong

 oldzoggy wrote:
Simple I would do what GW always did before.
look at current pop culture and "get inspired" by it and coppy right the hell out of it.

Mad max seems to be a good start. So non imperial human lowlife scrappers it is. That would be fun and all the oldskoolers might even like it since it kinda reminds them of gorka morka.

I would call the mini game featuring them
"Raging Ruins" and make it about scrap racers in a ruined desert city.

Well gak I already want to play this game...

 ThirstySpaceMan wrote:
I always felt the skaven would just be a small hop to be 40ked. Or any beasties in that theme would be sweet. Shaven would in my mind be a mix of ork and ad mech. Crazy guns with scrounged rides. All that said there are plenty of fluff races that I would love to see. Hrud, Bragassie. Dog soldier mercs. The Brb has some xenos art in it that I think is awesome.

This.

Can we please just flesh out kroot instead and then into an army proper like before?

 Slayer le boucher wrote:
CSM that arn't crap and works as they are intended.

It does qualify as a new Faction...

I would just go for a supplement that adds marks, daemon weapons, traits and powers to codex SM. That way they will not get outdated unless SM do.

 jreilly89 wrote:
Dear god no. The Wulfen are bad enough. But this? No.

Luckily I don't need to consult you for your opinion.

An evolved AI faction. The machines that ancient humans sent out to colonize and terraform the galaxy have evolved into a true race of their own, and they've come back to meet their legendary makers. Of course once they show up they'll be set upon by pretty much every race in the 40K universe, and deem them hostile threats that need to be eliminated before colonization and terraforming begin. HQ's are humanoid in appearance, but nothing else is. All shaped by being purpose built.

An advanced Human faction. Human faction that evolved deep in space away from the corrupting influence of the warp. No worshiping the God Emperor, no anachronistic misunderstanding of technology. Make use of vat grown Clones for infantry, and drone support.

Imagine the US military from Fallout: mostly infantry with bionics, with some Power Armour mixed in.

Also, I would love to see dinosaurs. Like a T-Rex with a cannon on its back.

I'd like a race of fish that drive around in tanks.


Fish tanks... (okay, the tau already makes this joke)

I definitely think the last thing the game needs is more imperial (or at least human) factions.

Not sure how they could shoehorn it in, but a race of 'good' demons could be interesting. Maybe not quite on-the-nose as angels, but something akin to slann from AoS. They are somehow 'good' demons, I think.

I mean, you'd think that there's more flavors than 4 in the realm of souls, and that not every dead spirit gets gobbled up by the evil chaos gods. It isn't inconceivable to think there are entities and forces in the realm of souls that are opposed to the chaos gods.

Or maybe it could just be a race that has evolved to the point where everything is naturally a psyker. So that they wield the immaterium on par with demons, but are still corporeal. Like eldar, but less lazors and more mind bullets.

The angels of fire, aka the emperors demons. They would use the storm cast eternals models (as they match the description from the fluff, and they wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel), be allies of convenience with the IoM and battle brothers to the legion of the damned, sisters of battle, and maybe grey knights. They would use the warp storm rules, count as demons, and have a melee focus (like the rest of the demons). They would have hatred demons of chaos, and special rules to reflect order and synergy, like gaining toughness when the unit is over a certain size.

Eh, like I said, I think angels would be a little obvious. And there's plenty of sentient beings in the galaxy who have died that have no particular allegiance to the emperor, but who also wouldn't want to be a part of chaos. So, maybe something a little less overt and imperial, but I'm not sure what form that would be, exactly.

I also liked elbow's suggestion of fringe groups, rogue traders, pirates, mercs, etc, though it is a very human and pseudo-imperialy army.

Nathaniel's thought of a skynet-type race could be nice. I personally always liked the geth from mass effect, but to be honest, either would be so close to necrons that they may as well just be necrons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Matthew wrote:
Imagine the US military from Fallout: mostly infantry with bionics, with some Power Armour mixed in.

Also, I would love to see dinosaurs. Like a T-Rex with a cannon on its back.

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Ork-Gargantuan-Squiggoth


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There was also an old, out of print greater knarloc model for tau that was literally a t-rex (with a beak) with a gun.

Squats