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@Morgasm - I'd agree fully there. Mercs, or something like an 'Enemies of the Imperium' grouping would be perfect for a series of smaller releases of one-offs. And, it's not as though it's any more expensive to produce the CAD and mould for a box of Xenos than it is for a box of Space Marines. The design process and tooling is the same, only the financial risk is larger. That said, if the one off proved to be a flop, then they've only lost the cost of that one box's CAD and tooling, as against multiple boxes of a fully fledged faction. However, if it's a success, it gives them a clear indication of which direction they could go to keep people hooked - and for both them and us, that can only be a good thing.

 Warpig1815 wrote:

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:
One problem is that GW simply put to much at the end of the calendar. It's roughly 10,000 years between the siege of Terra and the fall of Cadia, yet I feel like more and more was shoved into M41 to the point of it almost being comical. It's like every other day it's dooms day.

I tend to belive that a LOT happened over the past 10,000 years just GW's not fleshed it out, that said I'd LOOOVE to see a "historical" series. that covered past conflcits etc

the problem is so many of the adversaries didn't come around till m 41. prior to M41 you had Imperium, Orks, eldar, and chaos. the Tau, Tyranids and Necrons are all "not avaliable"

Aha! And there comes another problem, the minis. The galaxy of, like, 400 billion stars sure has a lot of wiggleroom for more factions, but making minis for them is harder, and a big investment. And making media for something that has none of "'em toys" to sell is hardly money well spent in the eyes of bigwigs. So on with just the existing faction we go, with only passing mentions for all those interesting events too costly to invest further in. For example The Beast Rising had to, according to rumours, cut the Men of Iron that were supposed to feature because of their lack of miniatures to sell, and the ending was turned into Imperium defusing the whole situation with a Deus Ex Machina. Pity.

I agree to a certain extent, however the introduction of new factions isn't really dependant upon a supporting miniatures range. Indeed, I'd kind of suggest that a successful miniatures range (At least within the 40k arena) can only come about if people are willing to invest in the lore presented first. If a concerted effort was made to create a new faction which was well-balanced with flaws and advantages, an interesting aesthetic or a unique culture, then I can't see why people wouldn't get on board. I think most SM players wouldn't kick up a fuss if a new faction got a little time in the limelight - SM already have a pretty much comprehensive range of minis for them to be going on with. The main problem is that GW's financial departments have equated a lack of enthusiasm to buy models from other ranges (Which, in the case of Eldar, CSM and Orks are slightly to severely outdated) to a general lack of enthusiasm in the faction. For example, I'd love to start off a Napoleonic Themed IG Force - but am I going to buy a bunch of 3rd Party bits, which are relatively more expensive by dint of being specialised, to customise the dumpy, aged sculpts of the Cadian range - am I what! It would ruin the effect altogether. However, if we got a new range of IG Guardsmen, with better proportions, possibly some female representation and a greater degree of customisation - then I'd jump at the chance.

This BTW is why I've argued we see so many new IoM armies, and almost no new Xenos armies. Doing Custodes or Admech is pretty easy, the fan base knows them and has a built in there is already oodles and oodles of art that can be made into concept art fast etc.

Contrast this with an ENTIRELY new alien race. even if they've been named dropped a few times like the Hrud, there's a lot less of an eistablished fanbase for them they'd need entirely new concept art, and people couldn't pick up a small patrol detachment and plug it into a wider force like they could with a new IoM army.

The counterpoint to that is that with a new alien race you can explain where they come from and how they've risen to prominence now for example a species that uses Warp energy to power their civilisation receiving a power boost from the Rift would be a fairly logical way to introduce a new faction.

But by just unveiling SoS and Custodes it feels a lot like shoehorning in some new factions to make the most of the 30k models.

In one hand its nice to see stuff from the bowels of fluff given makeovers, but its also worrysome on a long run. 40k's too big and profitable for GW for its own good, since it makes them scared or greedy or both to do anything new. So it keeps getting more and more saturated with power armored imperials and knights, since the charts say that those are most profitable.

Compare recent 40k releases with AoS releases, it seems that the creative team's been given a lot more freedom with AoS. GW sees trying any new ideas on their cashcow as potentially too disruptive.

Nice for 40k on a short run but harmful for it on a long run.

It might also be a factor in the recent rise of specialist games, to a certain extent atleast.

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:
In one hand its nice to see stuff from the bowels of fluff given makeovers, but its also worrysome on a long run. 40k's too big and profitable for GW for its own good, since it makes them scared or greedy or both to do anything new. So it keeps getting more and more saturated with power armored imperials and knights, since the charts say that those are most profitable.

Compare recent 40k releases with AoS releases, it seems that the creative team's been given a lot more freedom with AoS. GW sees trying any new ideas on their cashcow as potentially too disruptive.

Nice for 40k on a short run but harmful for it on a long run.

It might also be a factor in the recent rise of specialist games, to a certain extent atleast.

why is it worrysome to see GW bringing stuff thats been in the fluff for ages into the game? people have wanted Admech for ages, Knights are popular because at the end of the day people LOOVE big centerpiece units. These are things people can get excited for. Ansd it's not like we've ONLY gotten PA armies (genestealer cults and Admech anyone?) but the thing is, you've got oodles of factions that exist, why would you pull new ones out of your ass?

that said I think GW's begun to run out of low hanging fruit to grab that way, so I'd be expecting "newish" stuff sooner or later

GW were damned if did and damned if they didn’t. Biggest criticism of AOS was it killed the old world and went to far. Given time it’s coming good and the new armies are stunning. Now people say 40k end times didn’t go far enough.

I think the stalemate of halting after the indomitus crusade is only temporary while they get the codexs out. Things will move on and new armies will be born.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Warpig1815 wrote:

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:
One problem is that GW simply put to much at the end of the calendar. It's roughly 10,000 years between the siege of Terra and the fall of Cadia, yet I feel like more and more was shoved into M41 to the point of it almost being comical. It's like every other day it's dooms day.

I tend to belive that a LOT happened over the past 10,000 years just GW's not fleshed it out, that said I'd LOOOVE to see a "historical" series. that covered past conflcits etc

the problem is so many of the adversaries didn't come around till m 41. prior to M41 you had Imperium, Orks, eldar, and chaos. the Tau, Tyranids and Necrons are all "not avaliable"

Aha! And there comes another problem, the minis. The galaxy of, like, 400 billion stars sure has a lot of wiggleroom for more factions, but making minis for them is harder, and a big investment. And making media for something that has none of "'em toys" to sell is hardly money well spent in the eyes of bigwigs. So on with just the existing faction we go, with only passing mentions for all those interesting events too costly to invest further in. For example The Beast Rising had to, according to rumours, cut the Men of Iron that were supposed to feature because of their lack of miniatures to sell, and the ending was turned into Imperium defusing the whole situation with a Deus Ex Machina. Pity.

I agree to a certain extent, however the introduction of new factions isn't really dependant upon a supporting miniatures range. Indeed, I'd kind of suggest that a successful miniatures range (At least within the 40k arena) can only come about if people are willing to invest in the lore presented first. If a concerted effort was made to create a new faction which was well-balanced with flaws and advantages, an interesting aesthetic or a unique culture, then I can't see why people wouldn't get on board. I think most SM players wouldn't kick up a fuss if a new faction got a little time in the limelight - SM already have a pretty much comprehensive range of minis for them to be going on with. The main problem is that GW's financial departments have equated a lack of enthusiasm to buy models from other ranges (Which, in the case of Eldar, CSM and Orks are slightly to severely outdated) to a general lack of enthusiasm in the faction. For example, I'd love to start off a Napoleonic Themed IG Force - but am I going to buy a bunch of 3rd Party bits, which are relatively more expensive by dint of being specialised, to customise the dumpy, aged sculpts of the Cadian range - am I what! It would ruin the effect altogether. However, if we got a new range of IG Guardsmen, with better proportions, possibly some female representation and a greater degree of customisation - then I'd jump at the chance.

This BTW is why I've argued we see so many new IoM armies, and almost no new Xenos armies. Doing Custodes or Admech is pretty easy, the fan base knows them and has a built in there is already oodles and oodles of art that can be made into concept art fast etc.

Contrast this with an ENTIRELY new alien race. even if they've been named dropped a few times like the Hrud, there's a lot less of an eistablished fanbase for them they'd need entirely new concept art, and people couldn't pick up a small patrol detachment and plug it into a wider force like they could with a new IoM army.

I stilll don’t accept tau and have only recently come round to dark eldar.

I stilll don’t accept tau and have only recently come round to dark eldar.

right, and you certainly didn't rush out and buy them. meanwhile it's much easier to buy into admech, custodes death guard etc. because they've been there awhile so you've always accepted them as part of the setting, and you can run em as part of an allied force.

What I would like to see is existing Xenos factions become as diverse as the Imperium; Eldar are already close.

A kroot army needs to happen. Vespid too. That should give the Tau enough- three full dexes of army options.

I'm not sure how to take the Tyranids to the place they need to be- one option would by to put out a few more GSC models that are tyranidy and a few nid models that are more culty so that the break between the two isn't so severe. With GSC, you could also add more that blends with the imperium side. What about a box of genestealer/ork hybrids, a box of genestealer/ Tau Hybrids?

Grots as a playable army to round out Orks?

People have talked a lot about SM being the most popular force in 40k, but of course they are- there are 140+ models to choose from and there will be dexes for 5 chapters (including Deathwatch, Greyknights) plus the generic SM dex, which I guess also counts as Ultramarines.

If every army had as many options, maybe SM wouldn't be the face of the game.

BTW, fear is not the only factor that keeps GW from growing the range and adding factions- it's also the stupid twisted desire to rewrite the whole damn rules set every 2-3 years.

8th might be my favourite edition, but would I rather be playing second ed with 200 models and 6 dexes for each of 8 different factions?

Hell yeah. In a heartbeat. Some editions have been better than others, sure. But the truth is, any edition (with the possible exception of the original Rogue Trader) would have been good enough if they had just stuck with it and expanded the range.

The more editions you have, the harder it gets to satisfy a community, because at a certain point, everyone will have a rule that they liked better in a previous edition. This is why, although it's not perfect, I hope 8th is the last version.

keep in mind the more factions we have the less minis your faction gets. People like to poo poo whenever the blood angels, dark angels etc get something new as "OHH MA GAWD! MORE MARINES" But they are differant armies. it's unfair to them to complain in that way,

BrianDavion wrote:

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:
In one hand its nice to see stuff from the bowels of fluff given makeovers, but its also worrysome on a long run. 40k's too big and profitable for GW for its own good, since it makes them scared or greedy or both to do anything new. So it keeps getting more and more saturated with power armored imperials and knights, since the charts say that those are most profitable.

Compare recent 40k releases with AoS releases, it seems that the creative team's been given a lot more freedom with AoS. GW sees trying any new ideas on their cashcow as potentially too disruptive.

Nice for 40k on a short run but harmful for it on a long run.

It might also be a factor in the recent rise of specialist games, to a certain extent atleast.

why is it worrysome to see GW bringing stuff thats been in the fluff for ages into the game? people have wanted Admech for ages, Knights are popular because at the end of the day people LOOVE big centerpiece units. These are things people can get excited for. Ansd it's not like we've ONLY gotten PA armies (genestealer cults and Admech anyone?) but the thing is, you've got oodles of factions that exist, why would you pull new ones out of your ass?

that said I think GW's begun to run out of low hanging fruit to grab that way, so I'd be expecting "newish" stuff sooner or later

While it is nice to see older fluff getting pushed into limelight the point is that it's not healthy for the franchice to not add some new stuff to the lore. All those silly funky obscure pieces of fluff that GW suddenly noticed people like a lot are from a time when GW was more willing to try out new things with 40k, which no longer happens. 40k is curling up on itself, and is just sticking to it's more creative past instead of making new creative things in a good way. And no, I'm not talking few units here and there, like metamorphs or dunecrawlers, let alone the Primarchs, bringing those back ain't creative for sure. Maybe i'm an cynical, but as long as 40k as big for GW as it is now, I just don't see us getting much more that rehashes of older, more inventive lore, sprinkled with the Primarchs and superioris marines. And that ain't going to be a recipe for success forever.

Amusingly 40k's like the Imperium, inwards looking and pining for the good old days. Kinda like what Hollywood has become, with its endless remakes and adaptations.

Andykp wrote:
GW were damned if did and damned if they didn’t. Biggest criticism of AOS was it killed the old world and went to far. Given time it’s coming good and the new armies are stunning. Now people say 40k end times didn’t go far enough.

Many people including me thing it went WAY too far.

BrianDavion wrote:
keep in mind the more factions we have the less minis your faction gets. People like to poo poo whenever the blood angels, dark angels etc get something new as "OHH MA GAWD! MORE MARINES" But they are differant armies. it's unfair to them to complain in that way,

Given the number of chapter-agnostic models that Marines have, it's actually fair.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

There shouldn't be an Eldar or necron equivilant, they are two vastly different species and armies, that's just wishful thinking. Eldar already have two avatars and the necrons have shards and a transcendental, its completely ridiculous to give them a Primarch equivalent, we have a rich game because the armies are so different, I don't want them all to have the same stuff but just with different paint. do you also believe that there should be an Imperial version of a phoenix lord?, a Primarch can be as powerful as an avatar, they are pretty much demi-gods and the avatar is just that and 'avatar' he isn't Kaela Mensha Khaine and the lore shows that the Primarchs are just as powerful what is their to 'believe'. The Emperor could fart on the avatar to kill it, not surprising that his sons could. Your logic is just, I want my stuff to be the most awesome.

There's a massive difference between "We should all have identical armies" and "All factions should have characters equivalent to Primarchs in their ability. The idea that it's about keeping factions unique is fairly ludicrous. No, these other factions should absolutely get to have Primarch-level characters, because yeah, the logic is all the factions should have awesome stuff, not just the Imperials.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Warpig1815 wrote:
@Formosa - And if that becomes a reality, paired with some proper Chaos realms coming into existence outside of Warp Rifts (Such as Huron Blackheart establishing himself outside of the Maelstrom), Tau expansion and possibly the re-establishment of Eldar Maiden Worlds, then the lore would become somewhat more balanced. The trouble with 40k's focus on the Imperium, is that the Imperium lacks a counter-foil of sufficient magnitude.

Tau ca't expand, they can't travel faster than light, It would take us 4 years to get to the nearest star travelling at the speed of light. Even just going from system to system, it would take 100,000 years to get from one end to the other side of the galaxy traveling at the speed of light. Until they master warp travel they are no threat whatsoever.

The Tau CAN expand, pretty easily Just have them establish FTL. If you're going to have them expand, there's no reason they can't just quickly master that and that's the reason they expand. But yeah, Warpig's 100% right, I would absolutely love the proper establishment of other races actually having empires themselves. Chaos aren't just hiding in the Warp, Eldar can actually control land, the Tau can be made far bigger so they can actually take some hits.

BrianDavion wrote:, you've got oodles of factions that exist, why would you pull new ones out of your ass?

I wouldn't say there are too many factions really, and as someone who doesn't play 40k (Only collect and read the lore), I wouldn't equate Codex factions with in-universe factions. As it stands, in terms of lore (Not the model range, which is endlessly strung out with different flavours) there are relatively few 'alignments' considering the scale of the galaxy:

Imperium of Man
Necrons
Tyranids
Orks
Tau
Eldar
Dark Eldar
Chaos

Obviously, before anyone jumps down my neck, there significant differences between the various sub-factions and the Imperium of Man is particularly diverse, but in terms of general alignments in the Galaxy - there aren't that many. We're talking about an area of space filed with 400 billion stars, potentially 4 Trillion planets and the potential to host as many species again. So, IMHO, it does seem daft that there are only 8 real powers in the Galaxy. We consistently hear of areas such as the Halo Stars, Ghoul Stars, Veiled Region and the Eastern Fringe (Areas the Imperium doesn't fully understand) and yet nothing seems to dwell there. How many obscured areas in the main body of the galaxy exist, passed over by the Great Crusade, hidden by nebulae, lost in the warp or simply undiscovered - and yet again, nothing lives there.

Linked into my previous comments, I feel one of the reasons people avoid Xenos races, is just the fact that they always seem to be irrelevant. The reason SM or IoM is the most profitable is not because the other factions are uninteresting - it's because they're quite simply playing second fiddle to the IoM all the time. They'll never become popular, because lore-wise, they're never permitted to make significant gains on the IoM. Hence circling back to my belief that the 'Dark Imperium' should have been implemented more ruthlessly, giving Xenos players, and newcomers, more of a stake in the setting.

BrianDavion wrote:keep in mind the more factions we have the less minis your faction gets. People like to poo poo whenever the blood angels, dark angels etc get something new as "OHH MA GAWD! MORE MARINES" But they are differant armies. it's unfair to them to complain in that way,

While I do agree with the more factions=less minis point, I've long thought that BA, SW and DA are all undeserving of the attention. They're only popular because they've been given attention, which in turn fuels their popularity. But there are just as many other diverse and interesting chapters that could easily be as unique. Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Salamanders, Minotaurs and White Scars to name but a few. Those 3 should have simply been rolled into the main line, with a few upgrade packs or a FW line if you ask me (Although I do often utilise BA stuff for my models ). Same for Deathwatch - a single box set and upgrade pack would have sufficed.

Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

On the Tau....

We know an entire sphere expansion was lost to the Warp Storms - but there are suggestions at least they survived, and were spat out elsewhere.

That brings the very real possibility of them getting their hands on Warp Travel. At the moment, the Kroot have it, but aren’t sharing it for some reason.

If they’re in a new sector, who knows what Warp Capable minnow species they might bring into the fold - and that offers interesting ramifications, and certainly allows them to break out their protective bubble of the Damocles Rift...

As I recall Humanity has the most effective warp travel because of the combination of the Astronomicon and Navigators, meaning they can hold together a galactic empire with relative ease (Narrator: "It wasn't easy at all.").

Where people are making less well-guided warp jumps, I'd imagine nobody wants to be on a T'au ship when it attempts to translate into warp without a gellar field or equivalent. Likewise I'd imagine the Kroot wouldn't be able to explain to the T'au why they need warding, or how to adapt it to the T'au psyche.

 Nurglitch wrote:
As I recall Humanity has the most effective warp travel because of the combination of the Astronomicon and Navigators, meaning they can hold together a galactic empire with relative ease (Narrator: "It wasn't easy at all.").

Where people are making less well-guided warp jumps, I'd imagine nobody wants to be on a T'au ship when it attempts to translate into warp without a gellar field or equivalent. Likewise I'd imagine the Kroot wouldn't be able to explain to the T'au why they need warding, or how to adapt it to the T'au psyche.

Tau Warp travel is completely safe because they don't enter the Warp enough to be at risk but they tradeoff is they're way slower than everyone else.

Andykp wrote:
Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

Eh, not really. We have very, very little information on most of the galaxy comparatively. We could easily just be told "There's this militaristic race over here, we haven't dealt with them in lore but they've been here", or "This race is now joining the fray as they took a massive amount of land over in the timeskip. Easy peasy.

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

Andykp wrote:
Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

Eh, not really. We have very, very little information on most of the galaxy comparatively. We could easily just be told "There's this militaristic race over here, we haven't dealt with them in lore but they've been here", or "This race is now joining the fray as they took a massive amount of land over in the timeskip. Easy peasy.

you'd think but the fanbase would bitch all the same, consider how everytime something new comes out the internet goes crazy with grognards screaming "HOW DARE THEY SLIDE THIS IN!"

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

Andykp wrote:
Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

Eh, not really. We have very, very little information on most of the galaxy comparatively. We could easily just be told "There's this militaristic race over here, we haven't dealt with them in lore but they've been here", or "This race is now joining the fray as they took a massive amount of land over in the timeskip. Easy peasy.

You could say that their race advanced by millions of years due to the timeskip around their homeworld and they carved out a massive territory on the Eastern Fringe that makes them an issue...

Oh wait that' the Tau.

Also with this thing of new aliens just appearing you end up like with the tau, how do they get about. How would they fight on the other side of the universe if they only are around the one side. They have just fixed it with tyranids and are trying with tau being able to faster than light travel. More factions might not be the answer.

The Interex return! Remnants of their empire have been hiding in the globular clusters above the galactic disc for 10K years, and now with the rift opening up they are convinced of what they originally believed, that the IoM is in fact in league with 'Kaos' and that they can save mankind from itself. highly technologically advanced, they descend a large outer section of the IoM and convert whole worlds/systems to their cause, creating a huge empire in a very short span of time. Tearing down religious stuffs, convincing the populace it was all a lie and replacing it with techno-stuffs.

 Kcalehc wrote:
The Interex return! Remnants of their empire have been hiding in the globular clusters above the galactic disc for 10K years, and now with the rift opening up they are convinced of what they originally believed, that the IoM is in fact in league with 'Kaos' and that they can save mankind from itself. highly technologically advanced, they descend a large outer section of the IoM and convert whole worlds/systems to their cause, creating a huge empire in a very short span of time. Tearing down religious stuffs, convincing the populace it was all a lie and replacing it with techno-stuffs.

This is the problem with lots of the HH alien races. They are very doctor who and cheesy. Xenobia? Mega-arachnids, a planet called murder that is a prison world for dangerous aliens. It doesn’t feel right to me for 40k and that’s from one wiki page. Hrudd, ambuls, zoats. They all feel ok but aren’t full armies. Except maybe hrudd. Kroot also aren’t known for being widespread. Scraping the barrel after sisters. Dark mech, renegade guard. Yep.

Andykp wrote:

 Kcalehc wrote:
The Interex return! Remnants of their empire have been hiding in the globular clusters above the galactic disc for 10K years, and now with the rift opening up they are convinced of what they originally believed, that the IoM is in fact in league with 'Kaos' and that they can save mankind from itself. highly technologically advanced, they descend a large outer section of the IoM and convert whole worlds/systems to their cause, creating a huge empire in a very short span of time. Tearing down religious stuffs, convincing the populace it was all a lie and replacing it with techno-stuffs.

This is the problem with lots of the HH alien races. They are very doctor who and cheesy. Xenobia? Mega-arachnids, a planet called murder that is a prison world for dangerous aliens. It doesn’t feel right to me for 40k and that’s from one wiki page. Hrudd, ambuls, zoats. They all feel ok but aren’t full armies. Except maybe hrudd. Kroot also aren’t known for being widespread. Scraping the barrel after sisters. Dark mech, renegade guard. Yep.

keep in mind the planet was called murder because after campajging on it a Space Marine commented "this world is murder" (refering to the hard fought campaign) and the name stuck.
And the idea of a alien race that was insanely deadly being trapped on one world because the power that beat them was unwilling to commit genocide isn't that nuts. The Interex is basicly Star Trek's federation in 40k (who, suprise suprise, met a bad end)

I still think the heresy was best left as myth and legend. All these enemies don’t sound too bad in brief snippets but any more depth to them and it gets dodgy. My opinion only, I know it’s very much horses for courses with this stuff. Hrudd are the only random xenos I could see them making an army out of that made sense over the whole galaxy.

 Deadshot wrote:

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

Andykp wrote:
Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

Eh, not really. We have very, very little information on most of the galaxy comparatively. We could easily just be told "There's this militaristic race over here, we haven't dealt with them in lore but they've been here", or "This race is now joining the fray as they took a massive amount of land over in the timeskip. Easy peasy.

You could say that their race advanced by millions of years due to the timeskip around their homeworld and they carved out a massive territory on the Eastern Fringe that makes them an issue...

Oh wait that' the Tau.

Was it the timeskip? I've heard that, but I've only ever heard that as a theory. Other than that, I thought it was just that the Tau were very fast at technologically advancing?

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

Andykp wrote:
Problem with bringing in new xenos factions now is the issue of where they have come from. Why haven’t we heard of them before now. So it’s better to drag ones from the depths of old fluff than to imagine fully new ones. Tau being stuck in the eastern fringe is an issue for them but they needed to come from somewhere outside the known galaxy, hence why ypghey aren’t in previous fluff.

Eh, not really. We have very, very little information on most of the galaxy comparatively. We could easily just be told "There's this militaristic race over here, we haven't dealt with them in lore but they've been here", or "This race is now joining the fray as they took a massive amount of land over in the timeskip. Easy peasy.

You could say that their race advanced by millions of years due to the timeskip around their homeworld and they carved out a massive territory on the Eastern Fringe that makes them an issue...

Oh wait that' the Tau.

Was it the timeskip? I've heard that, but I've only ever heard that as a theory. Other than that, I thought it was just that the Tau were very fast at technologically advancing?

I'm a bit behind on fluff, last time I delved deep into Tau history was the 5th Ed rulebook. What I remember from then was that a AdMech explorator fleet crashed on the Tau homeworld when they were just savages fighting over gak and rocks. Shortly after a warp storm cut the planet off from the rest of the galaxy for a few hundred years and when it cleared, the Tau had morphed into a sophistocated technological society with technology millennia ahead of where they should be, likely developed by study of the crashed Imperials.


Its not exactly a time skip, but having an alien race advance rapidly while hidden behind the Warp and suddenly because a big threat worthy of a Codex is just the Tau's schtick