Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Also - top-left - makes me think of the captured sphere from Astartes....

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:
God those look cool.

Once again makes me wish the game had some mercenary "faction" like the one in Warmachine, as a home for small armies and one off units.

Yes, absolutely!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I was cheeky and asked them on the Facebook if any of the new art would feature non-Primaris Space Marines.

I'm sure there will be some new pictures of Chaos Space Marines. They're not Primars... yet.

The Merc faction was going to be Tau. You can see this very clearly when they started.

The problem was the whole mecha army side of htem really took off in popularity far more than the Vespid and Kroot. That Kroot then spent a long time without any updated models hasn't helped.

Right now I think the best thing would be to split Tau like GW split Tyranids. Create the "core" army with its heavy abundance of mecha and core Tau; then an Allied Tau force that lets them perhaps focus it on Kroot, but then draft in multiple other Xenos.

 Overread wrote:
The problem was the whole mecha army side of htem really took off in popularity far more than the Vespid and Kroot. That Kroot then spent a long time without any updated models hasn't helped.

Agreed, The Tau concept worked better without the humongous battlesuits, Broasides should have been the upper limit and building-sized units should have been a no-go. In earlier lore The Tau believed large bipedal walking machine a la titans were a liability due to their poor manouverbility, being instant prime target and their vulnerabilty to air-power. hence why the Tau generally used attack runs of aircraft whenever the Imperium deployed said Titans.

Makes me wish Kill team had a proper dedicated model range like Warcy has.

Caradman Sturnn wrote:

 Overread wrote:
The problem was the whole mecha army side of htem really took off in popularity far more than the Vespid and Kroot. That Kroot then spent a long time without any updated models hasn't helped.

Agreed, The Tau concept worked better without the humongous battlesuits, Broasides should have been the upper limit and building-sized units should have been a no-go. In earlier lore The Tau believed large bipedal walking machine a la titans were a liability due to their poor manouverbility, being instant prime target and their vulnerabilty to air-power. hence why the Tau generally used attack runs of aircraft whenever the Imperium deployed said Titans.

Personally I could take the Riptide as a failed experiment they were getting their moneys worth out of or something but they needed to stop there.

Zoats are coming to 40k with the unaligned keyword so they can go in any army although I think it screws with the cannon to have SM and IG armies take xenos units. However more of this will be very cool

Both the IG and Space Marines have worked with Xenos before - most often Eldar but there's tales of short alliances with Orks even Necrons once.

About the only race they flat out cannot ally with is Tyranids - otherwise most Xenos can be allied with.


The key is that alliances are often only self serving in the presence of a greater foe. Or they are on the fringes with Rogue Traders operating a bit outside of the normal Imperial conditioning to be xenophobic.

 Overread wrote:
Both the IG and Space Marines have worked with Xenos before - most often Eldar but there's tales of short alliances with Orks even Necrons once.

About the only race they flat out cannot ally with is Tyranids - otherwise most Xenos can be allied with.


The key is that alliances are often only self serving in the presence of a greater foe. Or they are on the fringes with Rogue Traders operating a bit outside of the normal Imperial conditioning to be xenophobic.

Sure but this isn’t a xenos army this would be the odd Zoat merc. I dunno I just don’t like the idea that SM And the imperium can be Xenocidal (even with some exceptions) and then buddy up with xenos when it suits a story or author. It’s not grimdark guys.....

The Grim Dark part is that the Imperium will use a Xenos and then kill them at the end

They are xenophobic until it doesn't benefit them and then they will use a Xenos until such time as the tables turn and its safe to destroy them.


Or in the case of something like a Zoat they might use the Xeno and let them go. Using the experience to study, gain information and perhaps even track it afterwards. Using it (after it helped them) to track it to its homeworld for later cleansing. The Imperium doesn't have to rush - they've time. they are the dominant force in the Galaxy - they can afford to wait before they obliterate your homeworld and all who live there in the Name of the Emperor. All a Xenos aiding them might do is prolong its own life a little; not he life of its people and homeworlds.

 Overread wrote:
The Grim Dark part is that the Imperium will use a Xenos and then kill them at the end

They are xenophobic until it doesn't benefit them and then they will use a Xenos until such time as the tables turn and its safe to destroy them.


Or in the case of something like a Zoat they might use the Xeno and let them go. Using the experience to study, gain information and perhaps even track it afterwards. Using it (after it helped them) to track it to its homeworld for later cleansing. The Imperium doesn't have to rush - they've time. they are the dominant force in the Galaxy - they can afford to wait before they obliterate your homeworld and all who live there in the Name of the Emperor. All a Xenos aiding them might do is prolong its own life a little; not he life of its people and homeworlds.

Is Imperium is indeed keen on utilising the xeno sometimes, figuring out most of the time they'll preserve their own forces or weeaken those of the xenos to then either escape and strike back later or finish them off. In its most extreme form you get the war in Octarius where they Kryptman literally makes use of a xeno race to combat another xeno race instead of the Imperium.

Hopefully, there continue to be things like Necromunda and Blackstone Fortress where 'non-army' models get made. I'm so happy that there are some Squats, and Beastmen, and Ambulls, and Zoats out there, and maybe we can hope that they continue to trickle out in 'non-core' releases (or whatever you wanna call them). Even if they don't put out rules specifically for using them in 40K proper, they are great models, and the kind of stuff that is really cool for narrative games, RPG games, and conversion fodder.

Can we talk about the thing on the bottom right?