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There seem to be rumors about it, how reliable are they?

I'd love to see it, but I'd not hold my breath. I'd be very skeptical until gw actually confirms something.

There should be no new Factions until GW can write the ones they have correctly. They can't even get AdMech correct and they previewed they're gonna do DarkMech as though they got it right the first time.

EviscerationPlague wrote:
There should be no new Factions until GW can write the ones they have correctly. They can't even get AdMech correct and they previewed they're gonna do DarkMech as though they got it right the first time.

Fortunately for you there's many previous editions to choose from where you never have to worry about seeing new stuff.

I'd say the exodites are a bit like the Lion - they'll be released eventually but whether that is in 1 year or in 10 years nobody but GW can say.

I hope not, there's already a surfeit of factions in 40k and plenty of old ones that need attention. Exodites should be like Harlequins or Corsairs where they can be included in Eldar armies.

I really hope so. GW has teased them for ages, even going so far as to have one of the Warhammer+ shows titled and featuring one (though honestly you couldn't really tell as the character acts more like a ranger and is secondary to the Tau).

In the end its a concept I'd love to see GW do and they clearly are more than aware that its in their lore. That said Craftworld Eldar needed a leg up first and they've had what I consider 70% of a legup with their recent update. Get those last few Aspect warrior groups up into modern platics, get a few heroes into plastics and get perhaps a new aspect type on the field and maybe update one or two of the vehicle kits THEN unleash dinosaurs with space elves and lasers


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 The Red Hobbit wrote:
I hope not, there's already a surfeit of factions in 40k and plenty of old ones that need attention. Exodites should be like Harlequins or Corsairs where they can be included in Eldar armies.

Actually I'd say Exodites have more right to be their own army.

Harlequins in lore are nearly always shown as small elite groups that aid regular armies in major battles. Rather like the Inquisition is for the Imperials. You "can" try and make them their own army but its strange and in the end they are a supportive force or a niche large one.

Corsairs are interesting, but I always saw them as more of a Battlefleet Gothic than large land armies.


Meanwhile Exodites rule whole worlds on the fringe; have their own infantry and creatures and ground armour and weapons. Granted in a bit of the lore we see the Craftworld still do the bulk of heavy lifting in fighting.


Furthermore Exodites bring something totally new to the visual theme. Harlies and Corsairs are mostly using the same kind of tech and weapons and units. Even when they have unique appearances its the same kind of design and conceptual ethos. Exodites are riding into battle on space dinosaurs and thus give a really unique visual flavour. They are to Eldar what Genestealer Cults are to Tyranids (and Imperial Guard) - same faction, same underlaying elements, but visually a lot of change

They should do them like Knights/Chaos Knights where you can run them alone or spike them into other Eldar factions. Dino Riders as the wardog tier unit and Eldar Knights as, well, knights.

Given what we’ve received over the past few years? Quite possibly. I mean, Squats are back. And in three flavours (Squat hired guns, Squat Gang, LoV). Even Genestealer Cult have come back as a fully fleshed army, rather than just a handful of dedicated models.

I mean, if you’d told anyone back in 3rd or 4th we’d see Knights, Mechanicus, Squats, Sisters, GSC all back, we’d have laughed in your face.

If we're really lucky, there could be an Exodite kill team after the Gallowdark series is over. Probably not more than that.

ccs wrote:

EviscerationPlague wrote:
There should be no new Factions until GW can write the ones they have correctly. They can't even get AdMech correct and they previewed they're gonna do DarkMech as though they got it right the first time.

Fortunately for you there's many previous editions to choose from where you never have to worry about seeing new stuff.

Boy that point flew WAY over your head didn't it?

I really hope so.

They will be the most unique looking army in the game. No other army will have the same silhouette.

Plus, dinoriders was awesome and being able to take on a greater daemon while riding a t-rex would look awesome.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

I mean, if you’d told anyone back in 3rd or 4th we’d see Knights, Mechanicus, Squats, Sisters, GSC all back, we’d have laughed in your face.

Sisters had a codex and new models in 3-4, and FW was already releasing Superheavies, so I wouldn't have been surprised by Knights. Mechanicus had models from the Skulls promotional catalogue thingy, and Genestealer Cults had a list in the Citadel Journal (?) iirc. Really the only one I would have been surprised at is Squats.

 Overread wrote:

Meanwhile Exodites rule whole worlds on the fringe; have their own infantry and creatures and ground armour and weapons. Granted in a bit of the lore we see the Craftworld still do the bulk of heavy lifting in fighting.

Yeah that's where my mind was, most of the time Exodites pop up in the lore the Craftworlders (or Rangers) are helping them out. We don't see a ton of them fighting exclusively for themselves. So for me, having them as an addition to an existing army makes sense.

Furthermore Exodites bring something totally new to the visual theme. Harlies and Corsairs are mostly using the same kind of tech and weapons and units. Even when they have unique appearances its the same kind of design and conceptual ethos. Exodites are riding into battle on space dinosaurs and thus give a really unique visual flavour. They are to Eldar what Genestealer Cults are to Tyranids (and Imperial Guard) - same faction, same underlaying elements, but visually a lot of change

That's a good point, I hadn't considered the GSC Tyranid angle but does make quite a bit of sense. I'll have to reconsider my position.

I think the thing is Exodites do have the potential to go to war on the large scale, they just choose not too. So when their worlds get attacked its normally a huge invasion that they aren't prepared for. So in come the Craftworld.

Plus because GW doens't make models for Exodites the authors likely have limited to no actual models/concepts they can put into the stories to use. So the Exodites end up pushed to the fringe of conceptual ideas here and there, but otherwise Craftworld or other forces are allowed to take the lead light.

Space Elves riding Space Dinosaurs to Space War definitely deserves to be their own faction.

I find it quite weird that there is not any *Exodite* units.

Back in the day they had warring clans who used to pilot the precursors of the Wraithknight model (Fire Gale, Bright Stallion) and according to lore the Imperial Knights are just the human copying similar honor codes and way of figthing.

The easiest and quickest way would be an Exodite Champions (add some extravowel copyright friendly name) and just make an alternative/compatible Kit for the Wraithknight akin to what IK are and check the interest of the people.

No poll?

I don't believe we'll see exodites for at least three years or so, if at all.

 Overread wrote:


Corsairs are interesting, but I always saw them as more of a Battlefleet Gothic than large land armies.

Eh...Smallest BFG ship has more corsairs than the size of 40k forces. The tiny patrols of 40k pale in scale. Only tiny % of corsairs needed for smallest BFG ship need to be present to be oversized 40k force.

IF their tiny vessel armed forces can't outnumber 40k force like 100 to 1 they have no chance whatsoever in boarding space ships...

Laser-dinos would be a massive seller. Seriously, who wouldn't take an AoS Dragon Prince and slap Wraith Knight weapons on it?

Probably at some point. GW don't seem to have any problems bloating their game so what difference will another army make?

Dino-Riders would be pretty cool.

Makes me think what races/factions are currently "missing" from 40k now.

For a long time we were bereft of the Inquisition, Genestealer Cults and Squats. All three of those came back (although the Inquisition didn't last long, and really were all but gone before the other two came back).

Corsairs sort of got a boost from FW, but are now back with the current Eldar book.

Feral Orks have morphed into Beastsnaggaz.

Kroot Mercs could be another one?

Slann I suppose? But Exodites are about the only unit from 2nd Ed now missing.

We're still missing ACTUAL SQUATS...but that's neither here nor there

 The Red Hobbit wrote:

 Overread wrote:

Meanwhile Exodites rule whole worlds on the fringe; have their own infantry and creatures and ground armour and weapons. Granted in a bit of the lore we see the Craftworld still do the bulk of heavy lifting in fighting.

Yeah that's where my mind was, most of the time Exodites pop up in the lore the Craftworlders (or Rangers) are helping them out. We don't see a ton of them fighting exclusively for themselves. So for me, having them as an addition to an existing army makes sense.

I feel like it would make a lot of sense for exodites to become Ynnari units. You might not see huge forces of exodites going out into the stars to pick fights, but I can totally picture a small number of exodites on a given maiden world being convinced by Yvraine's message and leaving to join the ynnari for the sake of the future.

That said, it seems like exodites do field rather large forces and defend themselves pretty well. We see little instances of this in The Infinite and the Divine and in a short story where the main character is sent to convince an exodite prince to abandon his planet so that he can rally other exodites to his banner in the future. They're also numerous enough to make a decent showing against a seemingly large drukhari raid in The Path of the Renegade. While we do see them getting an assist from off-worlders quite often, I feel like that's more to do with their numbers being restricted to the population of a single planet having to face the endless numbers of something like the astra millitarum or a hive fleet. It's like when you win an RTS mission by overwhelming more individually powerful NPCs with semi-endless waves of units.

Also worth mentioning that at least some exodites seem to have a somewhat limited grasp of interstellar societies and little to no ability to go into space themselves (see: Path of the Incubi). Sure, there's the webway, but the eldar often use full on ships to travel through that place and it still takes a while. Travel in the webway is weird, but it does seem to be implied that being physically faster still translates into quicker travel times (at least sometimes). So shipless exodites trying to march their way through the webway on foot... could take a while. And you have to keep those dinos fed along the way. Basically, exodites kind of have the GSC problem of not having an easy/obvious way to bring a given faction out into the galaxy, especially for multiple fights. Unless transportation is being offered by a different faction, you kind of have to bring the fight to them. But then that begs the question, "Why are so many 40k factions fighting over this one maiden world?" And that question gets harder to answer if you've lost a few campaigns to your necron friend thus implying that he's probably won that planet.

Furthermore Exodites bring something totally new to the visual theme. Harlies and Corsairs are mostly using the same kind of tech and weapons and units. Even when they have unique appearances its the same kind of design and conceptual ethos. Exodites are riding into battle on space dinosaurs and thus give a really unique visual flavour. They are to Eldar what Genestealer Cults are to Tyranids (and Imperial Guard) - same faction, same underlaying elements, but visually a lot of change

That's a good point, I hadn't considered the GSC Tyranid angle but does make quite a bit of sense. I'll have to reconsider my position.

The visual theme is a big deal, I think. To flanderize the faction for a moment, an army of moderately squishy troop cavalry would be really different from pretty much any other army in 40k. Even bike lists don't really look the same as cavalry. I picture exodites combining that with a lot of terrain-related special abilities that represent them having the "home planet advantage". You could probably throw in some actual aeldari fortifications for once given that they're presumably defending their home planet. Combine all those elements, and you almost end up with the opposite of the drukhari (light on the transports, and make use of psychic powers and fortifications). Which could add a lot to round out the space elf family.

The issue with exodites is that they tend to be homebodies, and that makes a faction problematic if you can’t justify why they would be in any fight, if they only ever defend their worlds they are always limited. So if they did do them they’d need a refresh with some reason why they’ve upped sticks and started getting involved. Like how the leagues are now “venturing out” of the galactic core to find new stuff. Ynarri is a good enough idea, it’s already a story arc. This was always the downfall of some factions in old fantasy, wood elves for example were always a marginal group because they only really fought in their little Forrest, so didn’t get into the bigger stories like Orcs or high elves.

Andykp wrote:
The issue with exodites is that they tend to be homebodies, and that makes a faction problematic if you can’t justify why they would be in any fight, if they only ever defend their worlds they are always limited. So if they did do them they’d need a refresh with some reason why they’ve upped sticks and started getting involved. Like how the leagues are now “venturing out” of the galactic core to find new stuff. Ynarri is a good enough idea, it’s already a story arc. This was always the downfall of some factions in old fantasy, wood elves for example were always a marginal group because they only really fought in their little Forrest, so didn’t get into the bigger stories like Orcs or high elves.

It's not that much of a problem. DE are a faction despite only leaving their home to go slaughter and kidnap helpless civilians. Gold and silver space marines are factions despite being ridiculously rare and only deployed in very specific situations. Tau are a faction despite being limited to a single corner of the galaxy. GW is clearly willing to ignore these issues and put factions into the game so exodites wouldn't be a problem either.

Andykp wrote:
The issue with exodites is that they tend to be homebodies, and that makes a faction problematic if you can’t justify why they would be in any fight, if they only ever defend their worlds they are always limited. So if they did do them they’d need a refresh with some reason why they’ve upped sticks and started getting involved. Like how the leagues are now “venturing out” of the galactic core to find new stuff. Ynarri is a good enough idea, it’s already a story arc. This was always the downfall of some factions in old fantasy, wood elves for example were always a marginal group because they only really fought in their little Forrest, so didn’t get into the bigger stories like Orcs or high elves.

Thing is lore can easily change. A new seer rises up within the ranks of the Exodites who foresees their people falling to nothing if they remain defensive on the rim; but can spy a pathway toward victory and survival if they go on the offensive. Shifting gears lore wise is easy and often as not the only reason a faction is fairly tame lore wise is because GW isn't making anything with them. 40K Fiction is already heavily Imperial focused from the start, so if the Imperials aren't fighting them regularly, there just won't be the stories to start with. If Exodites start appearing as models you can bet we'll see the story advance to have them marching forth. Exactly the same as how the Squats have done nothing for decades and now they are on the move.




Yinnari is a risk because at its core its a combined arms army. It's idea is to take two separate armies and mash them into one. Exodites could, lore wise, be pushed on by Yinnari to go war and could become part of that combined arms force; but I think if they want to do justice to them then they want to be their own thing. Not a few dinosaur units bolted onto the side of a craftworld force.

Aecus Decimus wrote:

Andykp wrote:
The issue with exodites is that they tend to be homebodies, and that makes a faction problematic if you can’t justify why they would be in any fight, if they only ever defend their worlds they are always limited. So if they did do them they’d need a refresh with some reason why they’ve upped sticks and started getting involved. Like how the leagues are now “venturing out” of the galactic core to find new stuff. Ynarri is a good enough idea, it’s already a story arc. This was always the downfall of some factions in old fantasy, wood elves for example were always a marginal group because they only really fought in their little Forrest, so didn’t get into the bigger stories like Orcs or high elves.

It's not that much of a problem. DE are a faction despite only leaving their home to go slaughter and kidnap helpless civilians. Gold and silver space marines are factions despite being ridiculously rare and only deployed in very specific situations. Tau are a faction despite being limited to a single corner of the galaxy. GW is clearly willing to ignore these issues and put factions into the game so exodites wouldn't be a problem either.

I feel like those examples are kind of counter to your stance. DE are the opposite of exodites; they go all over the galaxy pretty frequently. They go out of their way to start beef with every faction in every corner of the galaxy. It's easy to write them into a conflict even if their home turf isn't attacked (by outsiders) very often. Grey Knights are similar; while they only get off the couch to go after demons, they still end up going all over the galaxy to planets where drama is about to happen. So it's easy enough to say that they got caught up in an ongoing fight against orks on their way to destroy a chaos relic or whatever. Custodes and tau were both recently given excuses to show up all over the galaxy, and that lack of an excuse was definitely awkward for tau in the past.

So if anything, it feels like GW is somewhat aware that it's awkward to not give factions an excuse to roam around a bit.

A better comparison would be Custodes - a force who once were tasked with only defending the Emperor on Terra and hardly even leaving his side let alone the planet. Until GW gave them models, the Custodes weren't doing anything to anyone, they were grim guardians who'd never see the edges of the Imperium; fighting Tau on the fringes or Tyranids or anything.


Again the lore serves as a backdrop to the physical model sales. GW won't generally develop the lore and activities of agents and factions that aren't really going to be models to sell to customers. Because in the end the core of their business is selling models not worldbuilding