So what would 30k Xenos armies be?

[Arkhan Land]

I think some of these races would be fairly easy to modify.
Hopfully at some point GW delivers a cultist/stealer army/rules that could tackle both those at once.
Eldar of the RT era are basically Craftworld Raiding Parties/Raiders until 2nd edition so basically minus Wraith-anything/Aspects plus raider style jump/winged troops and maybe plus some sort of unique predecessor flyer/tank-s
Orks would minus some tech, plus more psykers, and My personal favorite missing element Digganobs! Perhaps some of the brood brother level cultist models +Tattooooos lots of em.
Im willing to accept the Tau were off minding their own buisness, and that necrons tombs were encountered similar to as they are now

[40kGamer]

I believe Tau are only around 6k years old so they wouldn't be on the table for 30k. (Which probably makes a lot of people happy.)

[DWest]

I believe Tau are only around 6k years old so they wouldn't be on the table for 30k. (Which probably makes a lot of people happy.)

The Tau have only really been active on a galactic scale for the past millennium; however, it is also heavily implied (as close to outright stated as anything in 40k background gets) that someone, most likely the Eldar, deliberately accelerated their evolution and culture.

It would be stretching the lore a bit to say they were established in 30k and then resurrected by the Eldar to have a place in 40k, but it's my opinion that stretching the lore in a way that requires less overall effort to provide an army in 30 and also provides a benefit in new models and rules for 40k would be preferable to making something up from scratch. Granted, as I don't work for Forgeworld, my opinion means nil, but one can always hope.

[Pietia]

Tau wouldn't be useful in a 30K context, but their codex easily could - the Great Crusade encountered many advanced cultures and species, some of them probably could be represented well enough using the Tau codex (or the Eldar codex in some cases).

[Blight-Company]

You know the old Squats players are hoping and praying for another day in the sun.

Tau were still in stick huts according to the fluff. I agree with the denizens of Murder but one can't deny the fluff about the Hrud infestations and hints about advanced lizard men.

[Thornblood]

Squats are mentioned in one of the Alpha Legion short stores- there's a Demiurg mining colony/asteroid that gets targeted by the Legion.

The thing is, whilst I would love weird and esoteric alien races, the whole Horus Heresy is about civil war and the birth of chaos. That very game of thrones style very slowly introducing the more fantastical elements back into the narrative. Its just that story. All the alien races are just background, not protagonists.

40k however is supposed to be the countdown to mega-war, the end times, the final hour and a minute before everything goes cataclysmic. Hence Tyranids are invading en-masse, the Necrons have awoken, orks have spread to everywhere, eldar (of various forms) can pop up anywhere across the galaxy and chaos is, well very established.

If it was financially viable, I would love to see gw incude more xenos races. But I think FW is doing really well with the Heresy seres because its such a focused civil war.

I would like to see the cabal get in on the 30k action. Eldrad Ulthran and whatever other alien species join on that council.

[King Fluff]

Tau wouldn't be useful in a 30K context, but their codex easily could - the Great Crusade encountered many advanced cultures and species, some of them probably could be represented well enough using the Tau codex (or the Eldar codex in some cases).

If anyone is interested I've spent the last two years developing a ruleset for the following 30k alien races;

Demiurg
Keylekid
Exodites
Hrud
Megarachnids
Interex
Olamic Quietude
Laer
Scions of the Storm
Nephilim
Jorgall
Interex
Nurthene

If you search for King Fluff on Facebook you'll be able to see the rules sheets and my WIP armies. I'm currently working on a murder board for Armies on Parade.

[Vance Murphy]

Before the time of the fall, there were personal pockets of the warp, private domains of those who would become the Dark Eldar. These were the private estates of the rich and powerful, the secret labs of "scientists" and inventors, lairs of cults , hidden cities and such. Once the fall occured the Dark Eldar retreated to these dimensional pockets and began an all out war for survival. Struggling to adapt to living in the warp and the constant attacks by it's denizens these small fiefdom would be constantly fighting each other for resources and territories. Though there would be treasure troves of Eldar tech like falcons,but by and large, they would be favouring the smaller more agile and raider vehicles that would be in the first stages of evolving into what they are today. Life would be a constant dog fight in a realm of nightmares where only the most ruthless and savage creature survives. Constant fighting and adaptation in a realm where time was distorted plus the Dark Eldar penchant for experimentation would eventually create a species as distant from their craftworld cousins genetically as the primate is from us.

On the other hand, the Craftworld were designed to be long term exploration and trade vessels, basically small self sufficient worlds in of themselves, though much smaller than their present forms so they would have much more of the falcons and more powerful weapons of war than today, since much of that tech has been lost in the years since the fall. They would probably have more Titans and such and machines of war we have never seen before. After the fall, you would probably have the craftworld Eldar fleeing lost in their craftworld with a core of experienced vetrans who are used to be in space and away from the homeworlds for long periods of time, trying to aid refugees who are lost and have never been away from home before . The craftworld would be filled far, far past normal capacity and it would be a constant struggle on overtaxed resources with people who had no idea how to survive outside the comforts of their lost homes and family.

[Mr Mystery]

Good point about the Pointy Ears.


I do wonder what their archaeotech equivalents would be .

If memory serves, the Aspects predate the fall? I think.

[daboarder]

Good point about the Pointy Ears.


I do wonder what their archaeotech equivalents would be .

If memory serves, the Aspects predate the fall? I think.

Aspects are from the "war in heaven" background as far as I am aware (unless that's changed)

That being said, it would be cool to see some more FW aspects, I still like the shadow spectres (no idea if their rules are good at the moment or not)