Characters

Today, Warhammer Community has posted about Characters. Apparently the characters in Warhammer 40,000 shows a lot of character. And have a lot of characteristics. Okay, I should really stop now.

Anyway, what's new about characters? First one, right of the bat...dum, dum, dum...NO MORE Independent Characters! That's right. There's no such thing as Independent Characters...actually, well, there are. Independent Characters still exist, but the major change is that they can't join units anymore. So no more Death stars, Screamer stars, Invisible 2++ saves Stars, or whatever. YAY!

I don't use Independent Characters except Tech-priest Dominus anyway, so let's be honest. I don't really care about Independent Characters. That said, I usually hide my Tech-priest Dominus with Kataphron Destroyers, and just put him in the Cohort Cybernetica Formation, so maybe it might hurt me. Other than that, nah...I mean, I use Leman Russ tanks and my tank commander or Company Command Squad are not Independent Characters, and neither are my Imperial Knights. So this actually benefits me a lot more.

So now that Independent Characters can't join units and hide among them, what can they do?

Well...apparently they're now sort of like Real Time Strategy heroes that emanate an area of effect buff that...well, buffs nearby units. I don't really play MOBAs or whatever, but I'm thinking of Real Time Strategy games like Starcraft 2 where nearby units benefit from a hero character (movement speed and attack speed increase, HP buff, reduced damage) just by being within his aura or something. Warhammer Community gives specific examples where units within 6" of a particular charaacter all gain Preferred Enemy, for example, or allows nearby squads within a certain distance to share his Leadership. Neat.

Another thing that helps Characters now that they can't join a unit to hide behind meatshields is that enemy units are not allowed to shoot Characters unless those Characters are the closest enemy models. Take note, this only applies to Characters with 10 Wounds and less, so Magnus, who has more than 12 Wounds, will not benefit from this rule. On the other hand, with that many Wounds and a respectable Invulnerable Save (still no news on how this works in the new edition), he can apparently hold his own just fine.

Oh, and we have Heroic Intervention too. I'm not sure but apparently it allows a Character near a combat to pile in and attack if the enemy comes close enough, even if they aren't charged. I mean, if you can't shoot a Character, you can't charge him, but apprently if the squad next to him gets charged, your Character can perform a Heroic Intervention and join combat. I don't know how it'll work in melee - will your Character strike first, or will the chargers still strike first? Hmm...

Anyway, like Real Time Strategy games, you would want to bubblewrap your Characters - and trust me, the units bubblewrapping your Characters will gain quite a lot of benefits too - and have them charge alongside your armies. Make sure you keep them alive though! While it's awesome to maximize the buffs they provide your armies, they're still pretty vulnerable out on their own, even if they can't be shot unless they're the closest enemy model (which can be countered by your opponents positioning and moving his army accordingly). I don't know if Look Out, Sir! still comes into play, but we will see.

Anyway, we'll be getting new weapon profiles tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Infantry

What's up, guys? Today, Warhammer Community gives us a look at the new infantry rules in 8th Edition!

Apparently, infantry can still do the same things they did before. Take cover, hold ruins and claim objectives (speaking of which, is Objective Secured still in 8th Edition?). The usual. They do those better than vehicles, bikes and walkers.

One good news is that even our humble lasguns can hurt a Wraithknight or a Land Raider now. Don't worry, it's not as ridiculous as it sounds. Basically, thanks to the Strength and Toughness no longer cap at 10, we have a new wound table!



There you go. Simple and elegant. Sad to say, plasma doesn't wound Marines on 2+ anymore, but at least my Guardsmen won't die as easily to heavy bolters or something.

On the other hand, thanks to armor saves and a massive number of wounds, you obviously can't count on your Guardsmen's lasguns to take down a vehicle or a Morkanaut. Yeah, you can effectively have all 500 of your Guardsmen aim their lasguns at the Morkanaut or Imperial Knight or even Land Raider to finally bring it down, but you're wasting almost your entire army's shots on a single unit, and the rest of your opponent's army will just crush you next turn. Not worth it at all. Different weapons for different targets, and all that. Speaking of which, does anyone know how invulnerable saves work? Or do they just mean your armor save will not be modified no matter what?

Another welcome change is SPLIT FIRE for all infantry! Woohoo! It doesn't apply to infantry alone, it seems, but all models in the same squad/squadron can fire at different targets! Say I have 10 Militarum Tempestus...ahem, Storm Troopers. 2 of them carry meltaguns. These guys can fire their meltaguns at a vehicle, while the others fire their hot-shot lasguns at a bunch of Traitor Marines elsewhere. You can theoretically have 10 of them shoot at 10 different targets, but that's just stupid because 1) most of the targets would be out of range and 2) you're not going to deal enough wounds or whatever to take out any of those targets. Take note, it's each model firing at a different target, NOT each weapon type. Warhammer 40,000 officially confirmed that in their Facebook page. So 10 models can fire at 10 different targets, provided all those targets are within range. Regardless of weapon type. Yeah.

Since my infantry consist mostly of Storm Troopers grav-chuting from Vendetta gunships to support my tanks and claim objectives, I can't say I'm not looking forward to using them. Not to mention I'm going to create Battle Psyker squads with my current infantry or something (use the normal Veteran squad as Wryvdane Psykers and Company Commander and Sergeants as the Primaris Psykers). We shall see, that will be awesome.

Tomorrow, Warhammer Community will be looking at characters, so I'll keep you guys posted.

The Crimson King

Sorry for the slew of posts, I forgot to write about this yesterday. I mean, I'm still in the midst of reading the Ahriman Collection, so this actually means a lot to me, as a fan of the Thousand Sons.

Yeah, we're getting a new Thousand Sons novel. A Horus Heresy novel, to be specific, but about the Thousand Sons after their flight from doomed Prospero and into the Planet of Sorcerers.

Graham McNeill has written The Crimson King: A Soul Divided, which is slated for a June release. June 3rd 2017, to be precise. It's up for pre-order now, so I can't wait.

Basically here is the main synopsis:

THE STORY
After the razing of Prospero, Magnus the Red spirited the Thousand Sons away to the aptly un-named Planet of the Sorcerers, deep within the Eye of Terror. Removed from the concerns of the galaxy at large and regarding the Warmaster’s unfolding Heresy with cold detachment, he has dedicated his hollow existence to the preservation of all the knowledge once held in the great libraries of Tizca, should mankind ever seek such enlightenment again. But his sons can see the change in their primarch – he is a broken soul, whose mind and memories are slipping away into the tumult of the warp. Only by returning to the scenes of his greatest triumphs and tragedies can they hope to restore him, and allow the Crimson King to be crowned anew by the Ruinous Powers.

Written by Graham McNeill

Sounds awesome to me. I can't wait to read it. Hell, I'll go pre-order it now, like the loyal Thousand Son that I am. I bet this is the story where Ahriman conducts a ritual to combine the many fragments of his father's soul - this was alluded to in Ahriman: Unchanged. Yeah, I've just finished reading Ahriman: Unchanged and I'm reading Ahriman: Exile right now, which interestingly enough is written from the point of view of Ctesias. But anyway, it was mentioned there (spoilers, so skip this paragraph if you don't want to be spoiled) that Magnus's soul had fragmented, and Ahriman being the loyal and prodigious son that he is, went and collected and combined most of these fragments back together. However, his ritual was flawed and he didn't actually succeed. There were still cracks in Magnus's recombined soul, and a single fragment - alluded to be the fragment of wrath - wanted to dominate the other fragments in the second Rubric that would combine these fragments together. Fortunately, that did not come to pass, and the more "rational" (if you can call it that) aspect of Magnus subsumed the Wrath aspect. Or something like that.



There's also a key thing that Magnus said at the end of Ahriman: Unchanged that caught my attention. He was telling Astraeos that vengeance makes one weak. Does that mean he's no longer going to focus on vengeance against the Imperium (and the Space Wolves) and instead focus on the greater cosmic game? I mean, he did wreck the Fenris system and all in the Wrath of Magnus, but in the end he let the Wolves live because he had more sinister agendas in mind. Such as bringing the Planet of the Sorcerers to reality, and stuff. We shall see.

Anyway, it's up for pre-orders, so if you're a Thousand Sons fan, you probably don't want to miss this. As usual, I'll write a book review for it when I'm done. I'm close to finishing the Ahriman Collection, so you could probably expect a book review for that book...soon. I hope. Emperor willing.

My goal is to bring Magnus and the Thousand Sons back into the fold of the Imperium (it'll never happen, I'm just deuded)!

Faction Focus: Chaos Space Marines

Just when you thought we'll only be getting large models today, Warhammer Community followed up with a Faction Focus article on Chaos Space Marines!



Except that they don't really tell us anything...no Chaos Space Marines Detachments, no new stuff, no mention of Traitor Legions (though the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page assures us that we will still have Traitor Legions-specific Detachments and stuff). Nothing. There really wasn't any additional information they provided that we don't already know or can't figure out for ourselves.

Too long, didn't read? Let me sum it up for you then.

We get to use a lot more Chaos Space Marines models in a Chaos Space Marine army (instead of spamming Cultists, Daemon Engines and Daemon Princes). So no more spamming Tzaangors instead of overcosted Rubric Marines for a Thousand Sons army...I think.

Havocs are better at wreaking havoc. Apparently.

Chaos Terminators are better at "striking fear" apparently. Because of Deep Strike?

Abaddon (which Frankie hilariously spells "Abbadon" by mistake in his post - some Chaos Space Marine fan he is) is better and stronger. How so? "I'll tell you that he's better, but I won't spoil it for you!" Thanks for effectively saying nothing.

Daemon Engines are stronger and more durable thanks to the change to vehicle rules. Uh, we know that already.



Khorne Berzerkers are better and stronger in melee now because of...drum roll...the new charge system. Uh, okay...I'm sure we could have figured that ourselves. They're better if you arm them with chainaxes! But Frankie isn't going to tell us what chainaxes do. "'-___- And then he teases us with Blood for the Blood God, only to say "you'll find out what they'll do...soon!" Thanks for effectively telling us nothing, and I'm sure we've all already guessed it'll be identical or at least similar to the Blood Tithe system used in Khorne Daemonkin.

So this post effectively tells us nothing new, and comes across more as a fanboy gushing about how we're going to love the new edition and how certain Chaos Space Marines units will be much better without telling us exactly how they will be better (other than the obvious ones that we can figure out ourselves). I would much rather they wait and write a more detailed and informative Faction Focus article on the different Detachments and actually ebalorate specifically on how each new unit is different instead of what we got here ("I promise they'll be better, but I won't spoil you!").

The next Faction Focus article seems to be on my faction, the Imperial Guard (cough, I mean Astra Militarum), but I can't say I'm looking forward to it after reading this...uh, sorry, mess of an article. If all I read is about how Heavy Weapon teams will be better because of the changes to heavy weapons, or how our Leman Russ tanks are more durable because of the new statline and profiles (like I haven't figured that out myself already) then...dude, I would much rather you put off the article until you're allowed to release more specific details. What we want to know is the specific Detachments we might be getting. Can we Imperial Guard players still play an armored company Detachment, for example? Will there be flavors for the different Imperial Guard regiments such as Cadian Shock Troops, Catachan Jungle Fighters, Valhallan Ice Warriors, Tallarn Desert Raiders, Armageddon Steel Legion, etc.? I mean, from this article we saw nothing about Traitor Legions or how the Chaos Space Marines might get Traitor Legion-specific Detachments or different Chaos flavors. I'm sure we want those kind of information, and not just "your units will be better, you'll be able to use every unit in the Codex now!"

Anyway, they say the Imperial Guard...ahem...Astra Militarum Faction Focus article will drop in a few days, so I truly hope that they take the time to write a more detailed article instead of the one we have today. I won't keep my hopes up, though. Ugh. Poor Chaos.

Large models (?)

Move over, Super-heavies! Now we no longer have Super-heavy or Gargantuan Creatures. Instead, we affectionately call these large models...well, large models.

Here's the post from Warhammer Community about large models!

To give you a quick rundown, basically vehicles have become Monstrous Creatures in terms of profiles. So no more Hull Points, Armor Value, etc. Instead, vehicles now have Toughness, multiple wounds - many more wounds than Hull Points! Whoopee! - and even an armor save! They get Strength too but I don't know how the heck my Leman Russ tanks are going to make use of Strength when they probably have a WS of -. Whatever.



The new edition has eliminated the specific rules for Super-heavies and Gargantuan Creatures. So no more Feel No Pain, no more Poison wounding only on 6+, and no more unaffected by vehicle damage table! Instead, the vehicle damage table will be replaced by a new mechanic - more on that later. For one thing, we no longer have to worry about losing our tanks to an Explodes! result or see more than half of my Imperial Knight's hull points shaved off by a single melta shot! I don't know what's going to happen to Stomp, that's going to be a pain to lose. Boohoo.

It also means the units that sat just shy of Super-heavy status and missed out on those rules will now be much stronger and durable. We're looking at you, Morkanaut and Gorkanaut. Oh, and Magnus probably benefits from this too because he's no longer a Gargantuan Creature that's not a Gargantuan Creature.

Furthermore, all these large models have their Wounds bumped up to eleven! The biggest Tyranid monsters now have over a dozen wounds. Better news. My Imperial Knights now have more than 20 Wounds each! Talk about awesome! I can't wait to field my Imperial Knights with their new statline and profiles! Losing Stomp hurts, and probably the new damage thing that will reduce their effectiveness when they lose lots of wounds will also hurt too, but that's a small price to pay. I bet their cost will be suitably adjusted and they won't be, say, more expensive than a Wraithknight which is actually a lot more powerful. -___-

Thanks to the scrapping of Strength D weapons, we don't have to worry about anything shooting them and killing them with one shot thanks to rolling a lucky 6. Yeah, my Imperial Knight is going to survive even if a Wraithknight shoots him with that overpowered Strength D Wraithcannon or whatever and rolls a 6. Phew. I still remember that awful game where a Wraithknight basically wiped out a Stormblade on the very first turn when he rolled 6 with his Strength D weapon. Ugh.

You can probably see the new mechanic in the link, but to sum it up, the more damage these large models take, the less effective they become. For example, we have a Morkanaut who probably shares the same statline as a Gorkanaut. Anyway, it has Toughness 8 and 18 Wounds (wow). Right now, you'll see *s for its Movement, Weapon Skill and Attacks. Otherwise it has a Ballistic Skill of 5+, Strength 8, 18 Wounds, Leadership 7 and a 3+ armor save no matter what.



However, when he takes wounds, he becomes less effective. For now, at full strength - in other words, when he has 10 to 18 wounds left, he can move 8", his Weapon Skill is 3+ and he has 4 Attacks. Neat! However, when he has only 5-9 wounds left, his movement drops to 6", you need to roll 4+ for his WS to hit and his Attacks drop to 3. 1-4 Wounds left, and he can only move 4", hits at 5+ and deals 2 Attacks during the combat phase. Ouch.

Now I wonder how this will work for my tanks. Never mind Leman Russ tanks, what about Imperial Knights? How about repair? Let's say I've a Tech-priest Dominus or an Enginseer following my tanks and Imperial Knights around. Do they restore multiple wounds with each successful repair roll? In 7th Edition, they can only restore 1 Hull Point per sucessful repair roll. How will the repair mechanic work now? I mean, it'll be absurd to only restore 1 Wound per successful repair roll because the repair mechanic will almost be useless if my Knight loses, say, 6 Wounds at one go. My tech-priests will not be able to keep up with the damage! And what about Leman Russ tanks?



I don't think we'll ever find out until 8th Edition, because tomorrow Warhammer Community will be talking about infantry instead. Maybe we'll get to see Guardsmen's profiles and statlines tomorrow! Emperor willing, I mean. So stay tuned for more!

Reclaiming Cadia

Just two days after I posted on how the Draconian Armored Force and the Imperial Knights of House Yato will march on to reclaim Cadia after ghe Great Rift, Warhammer Community shows up with a post on War Zone: Cadia. Coincidence much? No, it's one of the effects of the Great Rift awakening my dormant psyker abilities and now I can cast Prescience from the Divination table(wait, what?).



Long story short, Abaddon and his thirteenth Black Crusade smashed Cadia. Boohoo. On the other hand, the Imperium reinforced neighboring worlds and systems. Yay.  While the Imperium prepared to defend these neighboring worlds and systems, Chaos basically ran rampant and across the entire length the Imperium because...well, the Great Rift allowed them to do that. Thanks to that, not much forces remained around the Cadian Sector, because...well, plot. The renegades, warbands and Traitors all ran past the defenders to attack more vulerable worlds because they're too cowardly to face the valiant Imperium forces in direct combat.

So basically we have a large force of Imperial Defenders sitting around idly while waiting a coordinated Chaos second wave that may never come. So instead of sitting around, someone high up in the chain of command thought it'll be a good idea for the Imperium to retaliate and strike back instead, and RECLAIM Cadia! FOR CADIA! For the Emperor!



So we have a bunch of Space Marines supposedly rivaling Legions of old, entire Knight Households (you can bet that House Yato is one of them) and more than 200 regiments of Cadian Shock Troops all eagerly sitting around the Eye and waiting for a chance to strike back and reclaim the Cadian Sector. They are not alone. I already mentioned how House Yato is just one of the many entire Knight Households circling the Eye. They're reinforced by their retainer Imperial Guard regiment, the Draconian Armored Force. So the Leman Russ tank squadrons of the Draconian Imperial Guard will join their Cadian brothers in reclaiming the Cadian Sector, not matter how much of a price they have to pay in blood and steel.

I'll try to add a Psyker angle as effects of the Great Rift on the Draconian Imperial Guard. As I said, I'll be writing Mere Mortals in the summer, and the main plot focuses on the Draconian Armored Force and a single Imperial Knight from House Yato, as well as a Skitarii maniple, all working together to reclaim a plague-infected agri-world from the forces of Nurgle and the Death Guard. Far above, the Thousand Sons watch and wait. Whose side will they oppose?



Remember that this agri-world is just one of the many worlds in the Cadian Sector to reclaim. The Indomitus Crusade has swung into full gear, and the armored fist of the Draconian Armored regiments will smash through whatever pitiful forces of Chaos that Abaddon left behind to defend the sector. Aided by the overwhelming power of the Imperial Knights of House Yato, and the arcane technological prowess of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the armies of Draconis are a force to be reckon with. But can they resist the inexorable plagues and virulent diseases of Nurgle and the Death Guard? And what of the engimatic Thousand Sons? Will they continue to torment the Imperium with their wizardry, or do they still hold a vendetta against the Death Guard? We'll find out.

Factions and Allies

Oh yeah, something struck me after that last post. There was an interesting segment in the Warhammer Community post about Battle-forged armies that mentioned the Imperium as a faction keyword. Now I don't know if I'm reading too much into it, but if Imperium is also among a faction keyword alongside more specific factions such as Blood Angels or Space Wolves, this brings interesting implications. Does that mean we'll be able to mix and match armies of the Imperium rather than be limited to specific factions? Of course, we won't be able to have the specific or thematic command benefits that an all-Imperial Guard Detachment will bring, for example (extra orders, replenish troops, etc.), but this allows us to be more flexible and take our favorite Imperial units rather than be forced to play solely faction-specific units.



I think it's easier to illustrate with an example. Say I use the Battalion Detachment. Now the Battalion Detachment has requirements of 2-3 HQ, 3-6 Troops, 0-6 Elites, 0-3 Fast Attack, 0-3 Heavy Support and 0-2 Flyers. Plus you may include 1 Dedicated Transport for each other choice, for a potential 0-21 slots. I'm going to assume you can take Lords of War and Fortifications (let's assume 1 each) because it makes no sense to exclude Lords of War and Fortifications from the new Detachments. In return, I get 3 command points. As you all know, I play either Imperial Guard or Adeptus Mechanicus, and am restricted to fielding entirely one or the other without space for the others unless I find an opponent willing to play 4,000-points games with me.

But with this new system of including Imperium as a faction keyword, does that mean I can field a combined Imperial Guard-Adeptus Mechanicus army? For example, I can field a Tech-priest Dominus and a Tank Commander squadron for my 2 HQ, a Skitarii Vanguard squad, a Skitarii Ranger squad and a maniple of 3 or 6 Kataphron Destroyers as my 3 Troops choice. Then I can field 2 squadrons of Leman Russ tanks (1 squadron of 2 Leman Russ Punishers, another squadron of 2 Leman Russ Executioners) and 1 squadron of 3 anti-air (Icarus Array) Onager Dunecrawlers for my 3 Heavy Support choices. Assuming there is a Lord of War slot that isn't shown for some inexplicable reason, I can field an Imperial Knight (Knight Crusader) as my Lord of War. If I have space left over I can throw in the Sicarian Ruststalkers and Sicarian Infiltrators as my Elites, a squadron of 3 Vendetta gunships for Flyers, and a Primaris Psyker or Space Marine Librarian for the 3rd HQ slot. I could go crazy and throw in a Grey Knight Terminator squad for my Troops slot. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, this won't benefit me as much as say, a pure Imperial Guard Detachment, which might offer me 1 HQ and 1-4 Heavy Support choices (no Troops! YAY!) for an armored company option, which gains better Ballistic Skill for my tanks or something. But it's more flexible? I dunno. As I said, I'm just speculating here. I've no idea how this is going to work. We'll need to see.

And then we come to the next crux of the problem. Allies. How will the Allies matrix work in 8th Edition? Are we still following the same old Armies of the Imperium being Battle Brothers with each other, having Eldar as Allies of Convenience, Tau and Dark Eldar as Desperate Allies, and everyone else as Come the Apocalypse? Will the One Eye Open rule still be in effect? I suspsect it will be. I also heard rumors that we might follow an Ally Matrix from Age of Sigmar, where they have a Grand Alliance of sorts, or Order versus Chaos and that sort of stuff. In that case, the Imperium of Man will be a Grand Alliance, and all the Astra Militarum, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Astartes, etc. will be sub-factions. Hmm...



If that's the case, the Castellans of the Imperium Detachment might make more sense. Perhaps they put it in there to test out how a combined Imperium army might work. We'll see. I've no idea how this is going to play out, but it might work somehow.

But if the Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance thing is true, then maybe it makes sense how the official Warhammer 40,000 website divided things up into Imperium, Chaos and Xenos. Let's look at their Explore the Factions page and see how things are divided.

Now, if you notice, the first thing they tell you to do is Choose a side. You'll notice that there are 3 sides to choose from: Imperium, Chaos and Xenos. From there you choose a Faction. Now note this interesting choice of words - the Imperium is merely a side, and it is further divided into Factions. If that's the case, my speculation above on a combined Imperium army or a Grand Alliance thing is completely nonsense and I just wasted my time writing it (and I apologize for wasting your time if you read through all that rubbish). What we do know, however, is that each Faction will get its own thematic Detachments and unique Command Benefits, so hooray for that at least. Even if we don't get a Combined Imperium army, we still benefit somehow. However, this will then throw the whole Allies Matrix into question, but we'll talk about that later. For now, let's focus on the Factions.

For the Imperium, we have the following Factions:

Space Marines (Ultramarines, the poster boys for Games Workshop)
Blood Angels (because they're not Space Marines...uh, what?)
Dark Angels (ditto)
Space Wolves (special snowflake and all that...fitting, given how they live in Fenris, an ice world)
Grey Knights (because they're in a...uh, grey area)
Deathwatch (not on my watch!)
Imperial Guard...ahem, I mean ASTRA MILITARUM (this is MY main Faction)
Adepta Sororitas (Space Nuns in Power Armor)
Adeptus Custodes (why bother?)
Sisters of Silence (I'm gonna stay silent on this matter)
Adeptus Mechanicus (another of my Factions)
Imperial Agents (they can play secret agents)
Imperial Knights (this is also MY main Faction)



For the Chaos we have the following Factions:

Chaos Daemons (I notice that Khorne Daemonkin and Pandemonium of Tzeentch aren't mentioned?)
Chaos Space Marines (Traitors!)
Death Guard (they make me sick)
Thousand Sons (the most awesome Chaos Faction...okay, I'm biased...I mean, c'mon. "All is dust.")

Wait, what? That's it? Huh. Well, okay. I suspect at some point they'll continue to expand the number of Factions in Chaos. Since we have Death Guard and Thousand Sons, I believe we'll eventually have World Eaters and Emperor's Children. Furthermore, based off the Battletomes of Age of Sigmar where they had Disciples of Tzeentch and some Korny Khorne faction, I think they'll further split the Chaos Daemons into Khorne Daemonkin, Pandemonium of Tzeentch, uh...something of Slaneesh and Nurgle Zombies or something. Or Nurgle Plague-bringers. Or Nurgle Gurgle. Maybe Slain Slaneesh, or Slaneesh Slash. Oh, throw in Traitor Guard, Dark Mechanicum and Renegade Knights while at it. Then we'll have as many Chaos Factions as we have Imperium Factions! Yay!

Speaking of which, they really, really need Traitor Guard. You know, like the Prosperine Spireguard. Then I can safely ally my Traitor Guard with Thousand Sons. And complete the stuff with Dark Mechanicum Daemon Engines. Muahahahaha! Oh, wait...sorry, Emperor! I'll stay loyal and resist the temptation!



Last but not least, for the Xenos side we have the following Factions:

Uh, first we should cover the Aeldari because they have a whooping four Factions for them alone (pitiful compared to the Imperium but on par with Chaos if we discount Khorne Daemonkin, Pandemonium of Tzeentch, and the inevitable World Eaters and Emperor's Children). What's with the damned name change, anyway? Why can't Games Workshop stick to Eldar? Aeldari may sound cool and all, but...ugh...it just doesn't make sense. Well, apparently the the fluff, Aeldari was the name of the Eldar before the fall, so after the Aeldari fell, the alphabets A and I fell with them and they became the Eldar. Anyway, here's the four factions of Eldar...ahem, I mean AELDARI.

Craftworlds (they know their craft)
Harlequins (also known as Harley Quinn)
Dark Eldar (because having the name dark makes you sound cooler)
Ynnari (Eldar necromancers. No, I'm not kidding)



Then we have the two Tyranid Factions. Yay!

Tyranids (giant space bugs)
Genestealer Cults (they steal your jeans too)



And then we finally have the three remaining xenos Factions:

Orks (Waaagh!)
Necrons (space undead)
Tau Empire (I'm surprised they didn't divide this into Tau Empire and Farsight Enclaves)



Okay, that's pretty much all the Factions. Phew, I don't know how we're going to get all these guys into a Dawn of War game. We'll need like 3 more expansions to get every single one of them into the game (it's actually doable!), assuming that each expansion adds 3 Factions. So yeah. Let's see. Right now we have Space Marines, Eldar and Orks. 1st expansion adds Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines and Necrons. 2nd expansion adds Tau Empire, Tyranids and Sisters of Battle. 3rd expansion adds Adeptus Mechanicus, Dark Eldar and Chaos Daemons. Something like that. That's for Relic to decide. I'm just throwing stuff around. But then, this isn't a Dawn of War III blog and I'm not going to play Dawn of War III until Imperial Guard is added as an official Faction in the game. I mean Astra Militarum...wait, Relic, you're not going to buy that Astra Militarum BS, are you? Stick to Imperial Guard. Speaking of which, there is no longer a Militarum Tempestus Faction, so I assume the Storm Troopers have been subsumed into the Imperial Guard itself. Yay.



Anyway, I digress. The whole point is, how will the Allies Matrix work here? Can the Eldar use each other's stuff like a Combined Imperium army? Will we even have a Combined Imperium army? I mean, Chaos Space Marines is pretty much a Combined Chaos army that can field the Rubrics of the Thousand Sons, the Plague Marines of the Death Guard, Khorne Berzerkers of the World Eaters and Noise Marines of the Emperor's Children. So why can't a Combined Imperium army do the same? I dunno? And how will they help each other? I can see Chaos being Battle Brothers with each other, but the xenos obviously will not have the same Battle Brothers tag as Armies of Chaos and Armies of the Imperium. I mean, Craftworlds sure as hell ain't gonna be Battle Brothers with Orks. Neither will the Tau Empire. And the Tyranids will eat everything except their spawn, the Genestealer Cults (unless those Genestealers belong to a different Hive Fleet, then everything's fair game). So how will this work out?

And will we ever have a General's Handbook or Battletome/Codex (whatever Games Workshop want to name it) for Traitor Guard? Dark Mechanicum? I believe World Eaters and Emperor's Children are only a matter of time, but don't forget about Traitor Guard and Dark Mechanicum!

For now, this is just speculation, so please ignore my rambling. You can have the Emperor execute me and delete this blog from the Webway if you find my posts annoying, and I apologize in advance for making readers trawl through this post of nonsense. Sorry!