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I enjoyed the video game Age of Wonders-Planetfall in the last months. Especially the robot (Autonom) and the cyborg (Assembly) factions were really fun to play.

Therefore I wondered if something like the Autonoms could be introduced into the 40K setting. But after a bit of research I found out that there were already robots in the setting and they went by the name of Men of Iron. You can even play as one of them in the newest boardgame BF.

So what do you think: Would 40K benefit from a whole true playable robot faction? Would they invalidate the Necrons?
Imo they should introduce such a robot faction asap and squat this ridiculous Egypt in space nonsense.

Imperial.robots were a thing long back in the day. There was a whole system for logical.programming for movement and target priority.

What would bringing a new robot faction add? Self replication is already a mechanic in the Tyranids. High technology with the Tau and Necrons, and the latter also corner the angry murderbot theme.

IF they went with Men of Iron (personally I'm against it as they should just be a thing of the past. A bogeyman from days gone by like the Orgoth in WMH) then a way to distinguish them, maybe is to make them sort of like Migsula's TWAR systems army from back in the day. It was a Nidzilla army that took a lot of cues from Transformers in it's personality.

Now, this might step on the toes of Knights, but at this point that is hardly a concern. There is so much overlap in 40k factions it's not funny.

The best way to add the Imperial Robots would be as Relic units or some sort of sub-faction (probably for ad mech or guard)

They wouldn't invalidate the Necrons.

You're last sentence though... If implemented beyond just a cosmetic change would screw over the Necron players.

ccs wrote:
The best way to add the Imperial Robots would be as Relic units or some sort of sub-faction (probably for ad mech or guard)

They wouldn't invalidate the Necrons.

You're last sentence though... If implemented beyond just a cosmetic change would screw over the Necron players.

Egypt stuff is really bad. GW could change their appearance and retcon their fluff again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grimtuff wrote:
IF they went with Men of Iron (personally I'm against it as they should just be a thing of the past. A bogeyman from days gone by like the Orgoth in WMH) then a way to distinguish them, maybe is to make them sort of like Migsula's TWAR systems army from back in the day. It was a Nidzilla army that took a lot of cues from Transformers in it's personality.

Now, this might step on the toes of Knights, but at this point that is hardly a concern. There is so much overlap in 40k factions it's not funny.

The Men of Iron were invented by humanity, they rebelled and were nearly wiped out.

This new robot faction doesn't have to be linked to humanity. They even could have humanoid meatbags as servants which would really enrage the IoM.

 Grimtuff wrote:
IF they went with Men of Iron (personally I'm against it as they should just be a thing of the past. A bogeyman from days gone by like the Orgoth in WMH) then a way to distinguish them, maybe is to make them sort of like Migsula's TWAR systems army from back in the day. It was a Nidzilla army that took a lot of cues from Transformers in it's personality.

Now, this might step on the toes of Knights, but at this point that is hardly a concern. There is so much overlap in 40k factions it's not funny.

We already know that one still exists in modern day 40k, so that cats out of the bag that there could be more.

There is a robot faction. It's called the Legio Cybernetica. And all we need is for FW to get off their butts and give us 8e rules for the vast pile of robots they make that are currently only usable in 30k.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:
IF they went with Men of Iron (personally I'm against it as they should just be a thing of the past. A bogeyman from days gone by like the Orgoth in WMH) then a way to distinguish them, maybe is to make them sort of like Migsula's TWAR systems army from back in the day. It was a Nidzilla army that took a lot of cues from Transformers in it's personality.

Now, this might step on the toes of Knights, but at this point that is hardly a concern. There is so much overlap in 40k factions it's not funny.

We already know that one still exists in modern day 40k, so that cats out of the bag that there could be more.

And there are individual undead Orgoth (and a whole subfaction uses their weapons) in WMH, well the IKRPG (to tie it back to my original point). One is fine in an RPG-esq setting, which is sorta what BSF is. To me, they are like the Uncle Ben/Thomas&Martha Wayne of 40k. They are there to show why our protagonists are the way they are.

I hope not.. the last thing I'd want to see is yet another non imperium faction that will be initially popular but then have to wait 20odd years for some new models once released and annoy everybody.

To me necrons/ad mech are basically the robots of the setting.
Necron wraiths are basically automatons right ?

Id prefer to see tau drones could be expanded on for true robot vibe.

There are robots in the Adeptus Mechanicus faction.

I'd much rather see a human faction outside the Imperium of man and chaos than a robot faction

Yea the concept of a Terminator style AI awakening amougst the Tau has been floating around for a while and remains a cool way of both making the Tau background more interesting and introducing a new faction of rebel automatons.

As for a true robot army, I like the concept of the intensely capitalist, amoral robots called Acutians from The Last Federation!

They could be be introduced by having them follow Tyranid swarms in huge Megopolis ships, and strip mining worlds where the inhabitants and atmosphere has been devoured by the swarm.
Obviously as inorganic automatons they would be of little interest to the hivemind.

 Strg Alt wrote:

ccs wrote:


Egypt stuff is really bad. GW could change their appearance and retcon their fluff again.

Egypt stuff is really bad =/= I don't like Egypt stuff.

I don't play Necrons myself, but I always thought the Egypt stuff was cool; it was what made the Necrons more than a robot stereotype.

Either way, folks who suggest destroying someone else's army/ investment/ passion for their own personal preferences have a way of getting my ire up.

GW can make what you want without having to take away something that a lot of other people like; I always wonder why it's not enough for so many people on this forum to just wish for what they want without also wishing that it comes at someone else's expense.

For feths sake. Gw needs to take care of the factions it already has before introducing new ones.

Just go with Necrons, and build the models with out all the Egypt stuff. Wraiths make for awesome killer robot models. Immortals and Praetorians look fantastic, and the Monolith doesn't really look Egyptian at all. Just leave the goofy characters and Ghost Arks etc, behind.

Maybe you could make a cool sci-fi tripod and use it as their Titan-bot.

Eldar wraith construct lists might scratch that itch.

As for the fluff, if UR-025 was walking amongst some Kastellan robots I wonder what he'd think. Would he look at them as brothers, or would he look at them the same way we'd look at a dog?

 Grimtuff wrote:
IF they went with Men of Iron (personally I'm against it as they should just be a thing of the past. A bogeyman from days gone by like the Orgoth in WMH) then a way to distinguish them, maybe is to make them sort of like Migsula's TWAR systems army from back in the day. It was a Nidzilla army that took a lot of cues from Transformers in it's personality.

Now, this might step on the toes of Knights, but at this point that is hardly a concern. There is so much overlap in 40k factions it's not funny.

I would love a codex Dreadnaughts, just a whole army where your units are 1-3 models max.

I'd like to be able to field some of the Rogue Trader robots I still have as part of my IG, SM or Admech army. It does seem to make the most sense to give them to Admech as they already have Castellans, but I wouldn't mind them being a "mercenary" faction that could be tacked onto any Imperium (and Chaos) army.

Heck, I'd kind of like to see a Knight army with robots running around the Knight's feet instead of a bunch of guardsmen...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I could see them being done as an independent faction. Necrons are the implacable terminator-like legions; mindless, lethal, relentless hordes with bombastic battlefield-cratering superweapons/vehicles.

A robot legion could be done to be more akin to Transformers - lithe, intelligent and honorable (or dishonorable warriors) individuals. Their vehicles and certain units (such as bikes) could be "centaurs" - a robotic upper torso attached to a vehicle-like lower body; possibly with the ability to transform to trade speed for firepower (or perhaps defense?).

 DarknessEternal wrote:
There are robots in the Adeptus Mechanicus faction.

Sort-of. They have a biological component (the wafer). They're servitors really.

 Strg Alt wrote:

ccs wrote:


Egypt stuff is really bad. GW could change their appearance and retcon their fluff again.

Egypt stuff is really bad =/= I don't like Egypt stuff.

I don't play Necrons myself, but I always thought the Egypt stuff was cool; it was what made the Necrons more than a robot stereotype.

Either way, folks who suggest destroying someone else's army/ investment/ passion for their own personal preferences have a way of getting my ire up.

GW can make what you want without having to take away something that a lot of other people like; I always wonder why it's not enough for so many people on this forum to just wish for what they want without also wishing that it comes at someone else's expense.

@ PenitentJakeMade

Would you mind not misquoting me?
My stance is NOT that the Egyptian theme is bad or needs to be changed/ret-conned. Those are the words of Strg Alt.
You'will find my correct reply up in post #3.
But for the record it is:
The best way to add the Imperial Robots would be as Relic units or some sort of sub-faction (probably for ad mech or guard)

They wouldn't invalidate the Necrons.

You're last sentence though... If implemented beyond just a cosmetic change would screw over the Necron players.

‘Counts as’ is your friend. Pick a faction (or even two) that gives you the rules you want to play a ‘Men of Iron’ army, discard the Codex units that don’t fit, model to your hearts content. Voila!

 Kroem wrote:
Yea the concept of a Terminator style AI awakening amougst the Tau has been floating around for a while and remains a cool way of both making the Tau background more interesting and introducing a new faction of rebel automatons.

As for a true robot army, I like the concept of the intensely capitalist, amoral robots called Acutians from The Last Federation!

They could be be introduced by having them follow Tyranid swarms in huge Megopolis ships, and strip mining worlds where the inhabitants and atmosphere has been devoured by the swarm.
Obviously as inorganic automatons they would be of little interest to the hivemind.

Im afraid most hive minds even devour minerals and other useful things from the planet, leaving it barren in just about every resource it can possibly get any use out of.

But yeah, they sure do hate Necrons and Daemons. It's almost always a overall loss unless there's a convenient imperium outpost on the planet...