Our Cast Of Factions?

Watchwood here. I've been putting a little thought into armies. We took a good hammering to Marines and Chaos, but there's a whole realm of armies out there at are more then just those 2. I've summarized both of them at the top of the list as well. We can go into detailed mechanics for the individual races in later posts, but I think it'd be good to sort out the basics for all of them in a batch so that it all comes together nicely.

Note: I've picked names for them all purely as a matter of convenience. We should probably stop referring to our armies by GW's names at some point.

(Also Note: This list is outdated and doesn't fully reflect the current fluff discussions. But it does serve as an introduction until we can get it updated. -Sandwyrm)

Codex: Knights (GW Space Marines) 

Stereotypical badass mercenary types, with big guns and bigger armour. Dispose of the gene-seed notions, but still be genetically and biomechanically enhanced. Flash cloning to replace combat losses would not be uncommon amoung the richer groups. Heavy infantry and light tanks, individual units should be extremely customizable. Fluff them up as a sort of mercenary crusaders, not unlike the way knight orders actually were in the middle ages.

Codex: Army of Darkness (GW CSM and Daemons) 

The Army of Darkness would be a trifecta of Traitors (CSM), Renegades (LotD), and Daemons. Renegades would form the bulk of the armies, as the common shock troops and cannon fodder. Traitors would be elite units within the Army of Darkness, similar to the Knights but with an extra array of veterency options. Daemons would take a someone unique role, and would all be summoned by sacrificing some of your own units. Regular Daemons of various sorts would spawn by sacrificing a group of Renegades, and the truly badass daemons would come into play by sacrificing a Traitor. This would require some Sorceror type units available to perform the summoning as well.

Codex: Army of Light - GW Sisters, GW Grey Knights

The direct counterpart and opposite to the Army of Darkness, we'd concentrate all of our good-side religious overtone into this book. The inquisition would take the core role, with warbands and stormtroopers as the stock infantry. GKs would be reworked a bit back into elite CC specialists, Sisters upgraded into the prime infantry for short ranged firefights, and the Deathwatch into long ranged combat specialists. Naturally, there'd be leader options to take each of the 3 branches of specialists as scoring units.

Codex: Colonial Militia - GW Imperial Guard

This book would represent the militias and armed forces of conventional human worlds. They would typically have lots of light infantry and heavy tanks, but with a lot of room for variety as well as some relatively elite formations. Relatively limited options per unit, but a wide variety of units.

 Codex: Feral Races - GW Orks, Fantasy Models

Representative of the low tech militaries of primitive worlds under invasion, or having been hired by someone to do some dirty work. Would be a swarming CC army with artillery support. My thinking with this army is to focus it on the Orks, but provide options so that fantasy players can bring their own armies into the game with relative ease. Monstrous Creatures and additional artillery options would have to be brought into the ruleset, but that's not a big deal.

Codex: Fedarates - GW Eldar, GW Tau, Etc.

I'm pretty undecided on this idea myself, but I figured I'd throw it out to you guys anyways. I figured it'd be interesting to take the Caste system of the Tau Empire, and extend it upwards and outwards. Eldar would take position as the most elite and advanced units, with the Tau forming the Core of the armies and the assorted auxiliary castes taking their support roles. Kroot, Humans, Vespids, and some other races as well. Perhaps bring Squats back as the battlesuit drivers? I think this'd work out into a pretty sizable rulebook if we combined them, but the results could be interesting. (Dark Eldar could even be tossed into here as some kind of dedicated skirmish force)

Codex: Bugs - GW Tyranids, Etc.

Like the current Nids codex, except good. Hungry insect races make for great fluff everywhere, they just need rules that are balanced to everyone else's.

Codex: Cyborgs - GW Necrons, etc

Infantry based power armour army that's out to kill everything. Assorted bonuses and perks coming from not actually being alive. Perhaps they breed by harvesting the nervous systems of their victims and using them to make more of themselves?

I think that covers everything. If I've missed an army, do speak up.

-Watchwood