THE XENOS FILES: Alien Factions of Warhammer 40k

Joshy: 00:00:00

Well, hello, hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to TTP Field manual. Where your hosts? We got Joshi. That's me. Nice deep and sexy sounding. We have Johnny. Hello, Johnny. How are you?

Johnny: 00:00:13

Oh, I'm doing all right. Excited to get back into this now.

Joshy: 00:00:17

That we are past the Imperium factions. I'm sure you are a lot more excited to talk about Warhammer.

Johnny: 00:00:22

Oh, you'll see some numbers go up.

Joshy: 00:00:23

I'm very much a fan of today's topic. It is the Xenos factions.

Johnny: 00:00:28

Definitely some more interesting stuff going on here. A little bit more unique stuff.

Joshy: 00:00:32

I really had to go past myself to really enjoy some of those Imperial factions. Hey. But the Xenos came very easily to me in terms of affection.

Johnny: 00:00:42

Oh. Significantly less that I had to look into things. I knew a lot more of what was going on.

Joshy: 00:00:48

Yeah. So Xenos factions, for those that are not well versed with the Warhammer lingo, Xenos is a blanket term for aliens.

This is everything that's not humans and humans that have gone to the dark side of the Force.

This is everything from your classic fantastical orcs and undead and Elven type species which 40k has taken and then added a couple of extra themes to. To make them feel very sci fi and Grimdark. And we are doing our classic methodology of explaining the factions in nice glossy primer of the factions.

Nothing too in depth, nothing too detailed. This isn't going to be a deep dive into any of the factions, but we are going to give you the basic gist of them. We are using our slag method.

Johnny, can you please remind us all what that means?

Johnny: 00:01:41

Slag is our method that we're using to give you an idea of how everything works. So it stands for style, lore, accessibility and gameplay.

So looking at how it looks, how effective they are in the lore, or how much information is out there about them, how good is their model range? Slash like how easy are they to build and play?

And then also is it fun to play as a way of just giving us a five, a one to five category for each to give us a nice quick rating on how we feel about the faction as a whole.

Joshy: 00:02:16

Yes. This will be our third episode doing this methodology to explain all the various factions.

These videos are great for people who are just sort of getting into the hobby and need a little bit of a catalogue, I suppose, of what's out there. We have done two episodes prior. The first one was on Space Marines. The second was on the wider human factions.

We both weren't the biggest fans of most of those factions. But, you know, these factions exist for a while now. There's something to like about all of them.

All these factions play a little bit differently, collect a bit differently, look a bit differently. And I don't think any of the Xenos really firmly represents the Imperium factions. They stand out well enough on their own.

We have a few factions to talk about today. Shall we start off with the Necrons?

Johnny: 00:03:07

Yeah, let's do it.

Joshy: 00:03:08

I love these guys. Holy.

Johnny: 00:03:11

I mean, these guys are what introduced me to the hobby and really got me excited as well. So I feel that we're going way back in time to like, the start of the lore, essentially, with these guys.

And it's pretty exciting just how much they've done and been able to do.

Joshy: 00:03:28

Yeah. As we are here right now recording this. I had to move sprues away from my feet.

I had to move my Necrons bit box away from my desk so I could tuck my chair in here. I had to push the Necrons I'm actively building to the side of my desk to put my microphone set up here. This is my army.

For a long time, this was also your army.

Johnny: 00:03:52

It sure was. Not so much anymore.

Joshy: 00:03:55

Yeah. Half the Necrons on my table are actually your old Necrons getting ready to be assimilated into my lovely dynasty.

Johnny: 00:04:02

I can't wait to see them on the other side of the table and dread for my life.

Joshy: 00:04:07

Are you sure you're excited? I'm doing pretty well with the Necrons in our home games at the moment.

Johnny: 00:04:12

Sure are. But getting into this force as a whole. Why don't you kick it off?

Joshy: 00:04:16

Yeah. Am I kicking it off?

Johnny: 00:04:18

Go for it.

Joshy: 00:04:19

All right, so the Necrons, stylistically, they are your fantasy skeleton undead race.

What that means in the 40k setting is instead of just straight up undead Necron skeletons, you have a somewhat Android race, an eldritch abomination of living metal and ancient primordial energies from long deceased gods animating these Necron bodies way beyond death. They get shot, they get blown up, they get rebuilt, they put themselves back together. They are a horrifying undead race, usually fighting in silence.

They appear out of nowhere on hidden dimensional currents. They look like skeletons. They are sheathed in metal. All their weaponry are pure energy beams or swords that are made of compacted star energy.

They have constructs that do their bidding. They have absolute mad versions of themselves that go off and form murder cults.

These guys are your undead army, but they have a bit of an Egyptian Lovecraftian flair. To them. Hey.

Johnny: 00:05:39

Oh, for sure. So. Oh, the lore. Oh my God. These guys. These guys were the original rulers of everything that we know as the Milky Way.

They dominated the realmspace after a bad deal with some dark gods that left them in bodies made of metal instead of flesh. They went to sleep for a very long time after everything went down and are in more recent times starting to wake up.

And they really are just like the returning undead army, but in a more sci fi setting.

Joshy: 00:06:17

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. The 40k conundrum that all the races face is that something has happened to them which has basically put them all on relatively even playing fields.

Even if they had once a very strong seat of power in the universe. The Necrons had a vast interstellar empire about 60 million years prior to the modern 40k setting.

In that time, their various tomb worlds have been spread across the galaxy. Things such as meteor storms and other alien races, which we'll talk about have shut them down prematurely. And 60 million years is just a long time.

They're having a sort of degrading personality. Some of their tomb worlds aren't fully functional and will never be again. They have this. How would you put it? They.

They're kind of clutching at straws a little bit. They are so strong, but. But they're actually quite few in number compared to say, the Imperium.

The Imperium will just straight up lose in a fight, but there's not so many Necrons remaining.

Johnny: 00:07:22

They definitely were a lot more numerous, but as you said, only a very small fraction of their original army is currently functioning or awake. So they are outnumbered, but definitely not outgunned.

Joshy: 00:07:35

No, absolutely not. They're even in the gameplay setting, they have a lot of shenanigans to represent this power.

They have a lot of, you know, they get picked up, they get put back, they heal themselves back together. Their weapons go past armor quite easily. And that's only a small fragment of what you'll actually find in their lore.

They have doomsday weapons which will turn off solar systems. They basically Pokemon ed their old gods into little powerful fragments that you can run on the tabletop.

Just these avatars of really powerful deities which will melt tanks or suck the life force out of organics. I'm a huge fan of them. No matter which sort of part of the faction you really focus on, which we can talk about in their accessibility.

There's just a lot there to really enjoy and experience.

Johnny: 00:08:26

Well, without pushing too deep and making this a Necron episode. What did you give Them for your slag rating.

Joshy: 00:08:33

You want to guess?

Johnny: 00:08:34

I'm expecting some perfect scores here.

Joshy: 00:08:37

This is a perfect score faction for me. I am a huge fan of the style of this unique Eldritch artifice.

I'm a huge fan of the recent lore developments as they bring some more named characters to the forefront and bring some novels into the publishing firm. The accessibility, which we haven't talked too much about yet, I'm a big fan of. The edition's been around since about the third edition.

Could be a bit earlier, but they weren't really a faction. Every couple editions they get built up.

They either refresh the generic foot soldiers or they'll bring in some of those named characters or they'll bring in their sort of mechanized servant and walker units or they'll bring in the sort of madness, lots of swords, lots of guns, units. It's actually one of the few factions that is most consistently available.

Very few models overall in the entire history of them have been straight up discontinued or have not been refreshed. There are some of the Forge world editions that you just won't really find anymore.

They're very easy to buy, especially in the second hand market because they were the ninth edition poster boys for the sort of the alongside the space Marines. And so I'm going to give them a five for that.

Just with how much is available, how much of the core identity is still available and in the gameplay they have their codex out at the moment and there's lots of different play styles at the moment which gets another five from me. 20 out of 20. How'd you go?

Johnny: 00:10:14

I didn't fare quite so well now. It was close. I did give them an 18 overall. Okay, so for style I definitely gave them a five. They're sick. Everything fits. Everything makes sense.

For law again A5. They have very interesting lore. It's a lot of fun to learn and read through Accessibility as you said.

I've also given a 5 just because as you said, like there's just so many models available. They're getting good refreshes.

They're 9th edition launch was a very big refresh which had some very nice sculpts but for gameplay I gave them a three.

Joshy: 00:10:54

You hate first thing me, I know it's.

Johnny: 00:10:56

It's not that. It's just, it's. It's hard to explain but they just very, very samey to me.

You see, you see the nuance and I see an army of undead soldiers running at me.

Joshy: 00:11:10

Running at you? I play them anti. Running at you? Yeah. Our game Group's struggling against me a little bit, aren't they? They just keep getting back up.

Johnny: 00:11:19

But outside of like the Hypercrypt, I feel like there isn't a huge difference between the different attachments.

Joshy: 00:11:26

That's fair. I'm just a big fan of them getting back up.

Johnny: 00:11:29

Yes, you are. All right, well, moving on from Necrons, we're going to move into the Orcs, everyone's favorite xenos race. Normally, some of the most.

Joshy: 00:11:41

You can't be mad at orcs, some.

Johnny: 00:11:42

Of the most fun you can have in the game, lore wise and story wise.

These guys are the Mushroom Folk, the descendants of a hyper powerful race of orcs that were originally built to defeat the Necrons or fight the Necrons. They have this weird psychic energy that when enough of them get together, just creates some really weird and wacky situations.

Dumb as anything, but so much fun to like look into and see.

They are very typically like your, your orcs, your looters, your big brutes full of machines and scrap built and yeah, they're just a blast to look and play with. But yeah, no, it's. What about you? How do you feel about orky boys?

Joshy: 00:12:29

You can't be mad at orcs. If you meet a player who doesn't like orcs at all, they're probably not going to be a very fun person to be around, I find.

You know, you know the orcs, if you've seen Lord of the Rings or if you've played any fantasy game, you know what orcs are.

But much like how the Necrons are your classic skeleton groupings, the orcs are just your classic green skins in the 40k setting that makes them into these sort of carrion vultures of technology. Just putting all these various bits and bobs together with this sort of psychic power of, I guess you could say imagination. They just think it works.

So it works. A gun is nothing but a box filled with bits, you know, but they think it fires, so it fires. And you see that with their tanks.

You see that with just their whole mentality. It's just they love to fight, they love to get in of a good scrap. And they're based on, you know, the kind of soccer hooligans of England.

It's quite a humorous faction. It's quite a visually engaging faction. I'm a big fan of them.

They're also a Horde army, which if you just see an actual sort of kit bashed army on the tabletop, where people have sort of built up their own visually unique orcs, it's just. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, eh?

Johnny: 00:13:49

Oh yeah, for sure. So getting into our SLAG ratings, these guys tied with Necrons for me with an 18.

Joshy: 00:13:56

Wow.

Johnny: 00:13:57

Yeah, you can't go wrong with orcs, right? And got the same layout in point. So for style I gave them a five because they are so fun and the lore is ridiculous.

There's so many silly situations in the lore, both fan fiction and the actual lore that people can just run away with. So they got a five for lore as well.

For accessibility, I also gave them a five mainly because like there's so many models out there and most of their range is still very available. Outside of a few weird and wacky things and gameplay. I gave them a three mainly because they do suffer a little bit in the internal balance.

They just. Some detachments are very good while others just fall behind and don't quite have enough support.

Joshy: 00:14:47

I don't know what it is about the orcs. There's a little bit there that holds me back from liking them as much as you do, but I'm still pretty hot on them.

Overall, I gave them a 15 for the style. I think they're just very scrappy and unique. There's not anything pretty about them. Nothing succinct. It's just very visually interesting.

For the lore, I think it's just hilarious circumstances all around. There's always just some fun to be had with them. So I gave them a four. Accessibility again, I gave them a four. Very wide range of models.

Surprisingly, they actually had models predating the Rogue Trader era. So this is potentially the oldest Warhammer 40K faction.

What that means is you'll have a lot of discontinued models, even though a lot of the identity was set up in stone pretty early on. Over the years they've added like giant beasts, giant tanks, sort of scrap built guardsman tanks.

And in this sort of simple, more simplistic game we have now, a lot of that sort of excess of orc style has been sort of pushed away. I would have given him a five if not for that though. There's a lot there.

Lots of different styles, whether that's barbarian, orcs, Mad Max orcs and the gameplay. I just gave him a 3. I'm not a big horde gamer. That's it. Fair?

Johnny: 00:16:08

Fair. Shall we. Shall we move into the other race that was created to fight the Necrontyr race or races. Sub races of an overarching race?

Joshy: 00:16:21

Yeah. So we're going to talk about the Aeldari now. The Aeldari is another of the mega factions within 40k.

Originally though they were just one grouping set up to fight the Necrons. You're right. Do you want to take point on these guys?

Johnny: 00:16:33

Your Aeldari are your high elves from fantasy. Brought into the Sci fi universe. They are your space elves. Very shooty, very psychically minded.

They are one of the few races that can travel fairly safely across space without too much worry from the warp entities. And the warp, because of their webway technology, they are an old, old race.

As we discussed, they've been kicking around for since the Necrons high era. So they are technologically very advanced compared to a lot of the other species.

Unfortunately, they are also in a very elven fantasy decline due to long lifespans and low birth rates. And they're kind of near the end of their existence, whereas the humans are coming into their new age.

Joshy: 00:17:32

Yeah, the Aeldari are sundowning, but it's not because exclusively they're getting old, but it's also because there's like 17 other factions out to get them.

Johnny: 00:17:42

Oh yeah. Yep. Doesn't help that they Murder Fuckter got into existence.

Joshy: 00:17:45

All right. More on that note later.

So we're talking about the Aeldaris, first of the main sort of subgroupings here, the Azhuryani in their tongue, which translates to craftworld Elder. These are of the elves, the High Elf grouping. A lot of the other ones were once these guys and then moved on.

The ones that stayed within this High Elving. High Elving High Elf style live in the galaxy on these continent sized spaceships. They are essentially your sort of monkish Jedi esque elves.

A lot of their home worlds were, let's just say, not there anymore. They are very mystic, very ancient tradition, very martial art prowess, very high magic faction. Do you like these guys though?

Johnny: 00:18:43

They're. They're all right. I don't mind them. They are very. They're not something I know a whole lot about, but no, they're cool.

I've definitely looked at them and considered them as an option as well for an army in the past.

Joshy: 00:18:55

Yeah, I'm a big fan of them. When I was getting back into the hobby, before I picked Necrons, I wanted to pick these folks, but their Force was very old.

They didn't have any range refreshes until I had started to collect Necrons. And then they. They came back. They came back with Force. So I'm actually very hard on these guys.

Do you want to get into our Slag rating though, since we have a few factions to talk through and then we can add some notes as we go along there.

Johnny: 00:19:23

Cool, let's do it. So for style, I gave them a three. They are fairly simple. They kind of act exactly as you expect they would as space elves.

For lore, I gave them a three as well. They do have some interesting stuff, but I personally don't know a huge amount about their faction, so I couldn't really go much higher than that.

For accessibility, I gave them a 2. For all the reasons you said you didn't start that army.

The very old model range, they have come a long way, but there's still a lot that needs a refresh. And then for gameplay, I gave them a three.

I think that their ability to manipulate dice is very fun, as we discussed in our previous episode as well. Like, I am big fan of dice manipulation, but I'm not completely overwhelmed with their playstyle enough that I would jump ship.

Joshy: 00:20:14

That's fair. I have a lot of bias to these folks. For style, I gave them a 5. I love the mystic divining the strands of fate they go with.

Their survival as a species relied on a lot of their sort of scrying esque magic abilities. Their various societal pillars are based around different aspect warriors. They become a bit more of a martial species.

So for the lore, there's so many angles to them. You've got, you know, you've got the magic ones, the Farseers, the Warlocks.

You got various aspect warriors which are, you know, essentially Aeldari that have specialized into a specific way of war. They look very unique. They have models to represent every single aspect warrior that they have.

You've got these Wraith like constructs that essentially elven necromancers talk to and coerce into the fight. And they just have this sort of psychic pretentiousness to them that I quite love. They're very doomed and tragic, which is quite appealing.

It makes all their stories hit harder for me. So 5, 5, 4. For accessibility only, because I'm very optimistic about where they're going. They have a lot of armies within their army.

They got a lot of generic infantry and characters that got resculpted recently. We just had a spoiler for another upcoming of these characters. The Kill Team game is adding a couple more. They. They're coming back with fours.

I would give them a 5 if they had done the other half of the army. But right now you want to play the gameplay. They're very high skill. Ceiling glass cannon, very tricky faction.

You can go into the magic, you can go into the Constructs, you can go into the special warriors, but like half the faction is still like the models from the 80s and 90s and look old.

Johnny: 00:22:19

Yeah.

Joshy: 00:22:20

And then the ones that exist now, like the generic folk. So it's hard for me to rank the accessibility higher than a four. I'm just quite optimistic about them.

And five, I love a good high skill ceiling army. That's not a horde.

So I gave them a five because you can manipulate stuff and you can really sort of throw your opponent for a loop if they're not expecting the shenanigans in your pocket, which is always, always a bit spicy to me. That will take us to their inversion, though. We had the High Elves kind of noble.

Quite positive, all things considered, compared to their evil stepsisters, the Drukhari. Yeah. Do you want to take point on the Drukhari?

Johnny: 00:22:59

The Drukhari are your dark elves. They are a kind of piratey, hit and run tactics sort of vibe with some very messed up, gruesome lore.

A lot of flesh crafting and raiding and slavery and all the. All the really evil sounding keywords that you'd expect from a race of evil sounding space elves.

They are a little higher up in the list for me, but I kind of prefer a little bit more of that, like, darker, grungier side of the universe. I enjoy.

Joshy: 00:23:34

You're a bit edgier.

Johnny: 00:23:35

Yeah, I enjoy a bit more spiky stuff as opposed to the smooth Aeldari ways. And frankly, the Drukhari have some sick models.

Joshy: 00:23:45

They do. So the Eldar society had this moment in time called the Fall.

We don't have to go into that, but when the Fall happened, you had the Craftworlds which sort of escaped and continued on their, you know, mystic nomadic ways. The Drukhari were already doing bad stuff. They were essentially cursed.

They need to keep doing the bad stuff so that their souls are not drained from their body. Which sounds metal af, but they've really just come to accept their messed up ways.

As you mentioned, they love their torture, they love their raiding, their pillaging, they love to eat grapes and they just. They're just not afraid to be a bit messed up.

If they do have children, they like teach them from like, you know, youth to like kill people and skin them and flay them. It's just horrible. But it's so horrible you can't really take it too seriously because every single instance of Drukhari lore is messed up.

Johnny: 00:24:41

Oh, yeah, for sure. So for slag ratings, I did give them a four for style. I think that the model range is actually really cool. They have some really cool models.

They're like space ships are literally spaceships, like pirate vessels that they sail through the void. For Lore, I've given them a two. Even to me, they're a little bit too messed up, so I can't vote them too highly.

I do think there's some interesting stuff in there, but, oh, damn, they are messed up. For accessibility, I gave them a three, mainly because most of their models are available.

More than anything, they have some very good sculpts, they have a lot of fun, and they perform fairly well in the game as well. So I've given them a four for that, giving them a total of a 13 for me.

Their hit and run tactic gameplay really appeals to me and sounds like something I could have a lot of fun doing. So I couldn't vote them too low there because they're. They're an army that I would consider.

Joshy: 00:25:41

Wow. We're actually quite similarly scored there with both doing 13 out of 20. The Dark Elder for me has always appealed to me.

With their models, the Lore less so. For their style, I. I gave them a four. I love that they're not afraid to be a bit messed up.

You know, the spikes and the whips and the dark color palettes.

Johnny: 00:26:02

Oh, yeah.

Joshy: 00:26:02

For Lore, I actually gave them a 3.

I usually struggle with, you know, factions that are a bit unhinged and evil like this, but usually when you see these bad guys in various settings, they try and give them redeeming quality so that they're not like all bad, but these guys, all the stories is really bad. And I actually appreciate that. They really just like go into that in like. Don't apologize for it from a like, law writing perspective.

Doesn't mean I like it, though. For accessibility, I gave them a two. And whilst I do like their models, the Dark Elder army goes off of three various groupings.

You've got what are known as the Kabalites, which are your classic pirates, I suppose they're usually men. They got the dark spiky armor, they got the guns, they got the swords. They like to ride around in.

Those boats you mentioned, they're like the sort of the skiffs from, you know, Star Wars, Jabba's palace, you know, the wind sails and all that stuff. That's your Kabylites. They actually are pretty, you know, recent in the range, and that's cool.

But the other two styles, which are the witch cults, these are your feminine and agile forces. They. You are sort of hit hard and fast. In melee, jet bikes, etc. They're a bit older, haven't really had a range refresh.

Even harder to acquire is the covens. These are your flesh crafters you mentioned. They are your evil mad scientists who have a lot of gross abominations that you can run in the game.

Very hard to actually run a lot of covens. The actual Homunculi who are in charge of covens are really old, and so you're kind of a bit locked out of the whole extent of the army.

Some of the HQ just can't even buy, and that's a bit tricky for me to rate higher than that. But they are cool. The models that do exist are older, which means they're actually cheaper to buy, like, with money. So that's a positive.

But for the gameplay, I love them. I think the 4 rating you gave is very valid. The Lightning Assault is really cool. They're not going to stay in melee.

They're going to hit you hard and fast, and then they're going to get out. They. They are elves. They are squishy. They are glass cannon. But instead of manipulating the dice, no, they're just going to come in and hit you.

They're going to use a resource called Pain Tokens to improve themselves. If they kill people, they get more Pain Tokens and they just snowball with death and destruction and blood inflating. And that's fun.

Johnny: 00:28:40

All right, well, I think we have a couple of honorable mentions now that you want to run through.

Joshy: 00:28:45

Before

Joshy: 00:28:45

we move into the final part of the Aeldari faction, I do want.

Joshy: 00:28:50

To do some honorable mentions. The Aeldari race has been around for a while in both the setting and the gameplay.

That means that there are some sort of side factions that have had model support that aren't really armies anymore. There was the Harlequins as well as the Corsairs.

The Harlequins is actually my favorite part of the Aeldari faction, But while they did have an army support, they're now just folded into Aeldari as a whole. The Harlequins are this sort of neutral faction. They're not the good Jedi. They're not the evil Sith. They are in the middle as art kids.

They are clowns. They dance, they tell stories, but they're also incredibly capable combatants.

They essentially bring all the lore of their factions with them, and then they join in to various battles with not much rhyme or reason. Except to them, it's all this sort of master plan that they've got. They are Very colorful. They are very vibrant. They arrive on very fast.

Shimmering, hard to actually see, like fast attack transports. They have characters that are clowns and jesters and they're just a lot of fun. They had the army come out in seventh edition.

Not so many models, but you could actually run a whole army with them now. No. And that's really sucky. That's really sucky to me.

The Corsairs are those Aeldari that have kind of rejected all of the above and really lean into these sort of freelancing Aeldari roles. The Kill Team game added Corsairs into the overall game. You can add them to any Aeldari faction.

The Corsairs are sort of a visual hodgepodge of all various Aeldari. You have some definitely dark elder looking ones, some craftworld elder looking ones.

They really like to hold down objectives in order to get people off of them in the gameplay. So yeah, you got your hit hard and fast clowns. You've got your piratic ones.

There's not much more to say about them other than you can buy them and put them into your force. Do you have any notes to add to those guys?

Johnny: 00:31:12

Not so much. This was more your specialty, I will say, like recently listening to audiobooks from the lore.

The Harlequins were very involved in the lore in a very interesting and weird and wacky way that really showed off just how much they exist in the shadows and manipulate events and weave this grand narrative, which I thought was really cool to see.

Joshy: 00:31:36

Yeah. Do you have any scoring to give to them or did you sit this way?

Johnny: 00:31:39

I don't have scoring for these honorable mentions as there's not really enough of a range for either of them to be able to rate fairly.

Joshy: 00:31:47

That's very fair and valid. I still gave them scoring, but they definitely suffer in the A and G categories.

Johnny: 00:31:56

Yeah.

Joshy: 00:31:56

There's always the opportunity for them to be expanded upon later in the edition. I doubt they will, but they could for these guys. I gave them a five for style just because I love Harley Quinn's.

My Kill Team faction is Harley Quinn's, just because I adore them a lot. For the lore wise, as you say, they're weird and wacky and that's great. I gave them a 4. Very meta narrative of them for accessibility.

I gave them a 2. You can still buy everything that exists, but they just don't have an army. And gameplay. I gave them a two.

You know, you can run all these models, but they don't have, you know, specific rules when they're added into Aeldari. They don't get any of the overall buffs. They are just like an ally mercenary and that's it.

Johnny: 00:32:41

Yeah. Although with their Codex coming out next year. Maybe. Maybe.

Joshy: 00:32:46

Yeah. You'll see in a couple of our Xenos races today. There are some Xenos which do this sort of allied factioning mechanic.

We'll see what happens with the Aeldari because the next one is Ynnari.

Johnny: 00:33:00

This is the culmination of all the factions and bringing it into the lore. This is the story mode of Aeldari. Take us away. Eh?

Joshy: 00:33:10

Yeah. So around 8th ish edition, 7th to 8th, you know, the early tens, GW wanted to extend the narrative for the Aeldari.

This meant getting them out of this sort of status quo. You know.

They created a couple of characters that went around to essentially unite the various factions into bringing about Aeldari God of Dead so that they can actually have some chance of surviving the horrors of the galaxy. This was represented as the Ynari. The Ynnari have had minimal support since this introduction.

They have a couple of unique HQ or character units, but they don't really have an actual army to speak of. What they do is actually bring all the Aeldari together into one sort of super faction.

They run off the Aeldari rule set, but they actually allow you to run half of your overall faction as Druikari as well to sort of supplement maybe some of the pitfalls in the Aeldari.

If you want perhaps a bit more of an aggressive melee or you want to really fluff up with some Harlequins, you know, that's what this sort of niche faction allows you to do.

They are like the Imperial agents just for Eldar, but they are tucked away into the Aeldari Codex and it would be nice to see what they can come up with later on. Yeah. Any notes to add to these peeps?

Johnny: 00:34:37

Oh, not too much to be honest. Although I do have to say Yvraine and the Yincon are very cool models.

Joshy: 00:34:44

Oh, for sure. I love. I just love how they look. Honestly. If they had maybe a couple of other troops, maybe like some Aeldari.

I don't know, like revenants, like undead Aeldari to really tie in with the theme of an undead cult of elves. That would be sick. But right now you're limited to just three character units, one of which is a big unit.

Do you want to go into any particular scoring? Or did you skip these guys as well?

Johnny: 00:35:11

I didn't skip Ynnari. But I didn't give them a very good score due to, as we said, they are kind of rolled into the codex. And while they.

They felt like they were going to get a big release, when they first were announced and introduced, they kind of just got forgotten. It was like they. They had this moment of lore and then that was kind of it.

Joshy: 00:35:33

Yeah, they had a planned trilogy of novels which didn't sell well at all. So they even cancelled the third book before it was even out and they haven't had anything else since.

So they've literally been like, handicapped as a faction.

Johnny: 00:35:49

So I've given them a seven overall, a three for this, three for their lore, a two for their style, and then a one for their accessibility and gameplay.

Joshy: 00:36:00

That's fair. I don't blame you. I gave them a four for style. I love supes. I love bringing all the factions together. It's my jam.

I will, you know, spend hours just reading on all the different synergies that exist. So that's cool. For the lore, I gave them a four. What exists is cool and engaging.

They're really bringing a lot of key characters together from all the groupings. For accessibility, gave them a 2. They have models you can buy them, but, like, where's the rest of them? You know?

And then for gameplay, I gave them a one, because they don't even have their own specific detachment and they actually limit you from bringing some models overall. So if you have those models you want to bring them, you can't. So that's. That feels bad. Gave them a 1 for that 11 overall, mainly for the aesthetic.

Johnny: 00:36:49

Well, moving on from that next up, eh?

Joshy: 00:36:52

Next up, we're done with elves.

Johnny: 00:36:55

Now we go to dwarves. Right? That's the obvious jump point. So recently the Leagues of Votan were introduced.

Only last edition, they are your space dwarves in a very hilarious, very strange setting in my eyes. Why don't you take us away on exactly where they sit in the universe and how they feel?

Joshy: 00:37:18

Cool. So humans were once spread out across the galaxy. Duh. They were doing that in sort of combination with the elves.

The elves brought about the fall of their society. This was such a psychically potent event that the galaxy was sort of torn asunder a little bit. Humans were cut off.

By the time they recovered, it was the Horus Heresy. The Votann were humans that were sent sort of off towards the galactic core.

They were cut off, of course, and I'm not sure if they always were small or if being around such high, you know, forces of gravity for so long Made them small. I don't really know, but they are. They kind of hid in the galactic center of the galaxy. They mined, you know, resources.

They traded with other alien races. They're kind of this, you know, like, mercenary group amongst the stars.

Their Holstick, the Votan are these actual, like, AI supercomputers that have guided their civilization for who knows how long. But that's about all we realistically know. They don't have any lore, like appearances yet. There's no novels.

They only had tidbits from their 9th edition Codex. That's unfortunately as much as we know. They were around. They disappeared and now they're back.

Johnny: 00:38:40

Yeah, for sure. So, leading into our slag ratings, go for it. I'm not a big fan of the Leagues of Oten, which is shocking hats, isn't it?

Which is shocking because I love dwarves. In all fantasy and every game, I love dwarves, but these guys just don't feel like dwarves to me. There's.

Joshy: 00:39:00

Why is that?

Johnny: 00:39:01

There's so few bushy beards. There's so few, like, yeah, runic aspects outside of, like, a few characters.

And there's just something about their bubble helmets and their very Martian sort of appearance that I just don't vibe with. So unfortunately, I've given them a total of a six. I think they're one of the lowest factions.

Joshy: 00:39:24

For me, this. I'm pretty sure this is your lowest.

Johnny: 00:39:28

I think it's the second lowest. I think Astra Militarum got a five.

Joshy: 00:39:31

Oh, okay.

Johnny: 00:39:34

So for style and lore, I've given them a one. One, I don't gel with it. And two, there's no lore yet. There's just nothing to go off yet. For accessibility, I've given them a two.

This comes down to the fact that they've only had one release wave of models, so they're missing a lot of things. And then for gameplay, I gave them a two as well.

I don't know a lot about their gameplay other than the fact that they hate people a lot, using their. Their grudges and all of that as a way of playing.

But again, like, without the interest from the models, it's hard for me to justify the gameplay as well.

Joshy: 00:40:09

Yeah, that's fair. I try and be very optimistic on these factions, but even I struggle with Votann. I've never been a fan of Dwarven aesthetics.

hate their sort of old, esque: 1960

I don't mind all of that. I do find them a bit odd. I would love to sort of see them extend with maybe one of their sub factions into more of that old style.

If I ever collected leagues, I would definitely want some more money to buy bits and pieces from the age of Sigma fantasy ranged dwarves and sort smoosh them together for the lore. I gave them a 2. I like where they are. I think no one else has really gone there and there's a lot of opportunity to expand upon it.

They have a few different. What do they call, like, leagues? Makes sense. They have a few different leagues that they've teased.

I would love to see what they do with them because they all sound pretty unique. Their whole like falling apart. Super computer overlords. This a neat idea, the accessibility of them. I gave them a three.

I do think they need more models, but it's a new wide range that you can buy everything for. They will get more models soon. I hope. There's a decent amount of infantry characters, vehicles. You're just still a little bit limited for gameplay.

I gave them a three. They kind of feel like space marines in a way where they're sort of multiple small units and a couple of heavy armor to back them up up.

They work off of this sort of reprisal gameplay where if you hurt them, they're going to hurt you back harder. They assign a token system to various units. The more tokens the enemy units have, the harder they're going to get hit by the Votan.

And this sort of like, if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you right back worse. Is quite, quite a fun idea to me. I don't mind it.

There's not a whole lot to actually go off of it until they get a Codex, but I don't mind it's a 3, which brings a 10 overall. Very average though.

Johnny: 00:42:25

Yeah.

Joshy: 00:42:26

I feel better about the next faction though, that. So do I. The Taou.

Johnny: 00:42:31

The tower.

Joshy: 00:42:33

There's an apostrophe. Tao.

Johnny: 00:42:35

Oh man.

Joshy: 00:42:36

Tao.

Johnny: 00:42:38

However, they decide to be called the Tao Empire. One of the.

Joshy: 00:42:42

Do you think they're cows or fish?

Johnny: 00:42:44

Oh, mate, I think they're fish. They are the newest race. They are babies in the grand scheme of the universe. But hyper evolved, they.

They grew and adapted and developed technology at a very quick pace. They were kind of left alone for quite a while. Well, for most of their, I guess, evolution. And left to thrive.

These Are your Gundam fighters kind of fish people who worship the greater good? They. They focus on a more.

Joshy: 00:43:21

They.

Johnny: 00:43:22

They're almost the good guys of the setting.

Joshy: 00:43:25

Almost. Couple of caveats.

Johnny: 00:43:27

Except yeah. They're. They run into the humans and things go poorly for everyone. For. For style. I gave them a three. Mostly because like I think these guys are cool.

I think they have some very cool models. They have this weird like coalition of Xenos races that work together. And then they've got these huge mech suits that just.

With some of the biggest guns you'll ever see. They also have the biggest model available in the Manta.

Joshy: 00:43:59

Oh yeah. Big enough to be a belt. Like a board you play on.

Johnny: 00:44:03

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. The. The tower. Cool. I kind of dig their whole schtick. If only their faces weren't so weird to look at.

Joshy: 00:44:11

I do like the Tau. Actually. I. I was always a bit lukewarm on them until I started looking at their models a bit more. The Tau really did come up very quickly.

The Imperium surveyors saw them as primitives. Left them alone for like the next like 5,000 years.

Until this small contingent of hyper advanced squishy fish people in mech suits just came out of nowhere and started blasting. The potential bad side to the faction is that their spiritual leaders may be brainwashing them all. Not very well confirmed.

But you can't have a good guy in this faction. You can't have a good guy in this setting. Can you? But overall they're actually quite positive. They want to essentially spread communism.

I suppose they want everyone to be besties. It just might be through brainwashing. They have a bit more of a law as some of their characters actually are cut off from the overall Empire.

Shake off the brainwashing and go hang on a minute. And then sort of form these sort of enclaves around the galaxy as sort of like rival elements of the Empire. But they're. They're small fish.

That wasn't even intentional. They're small fish in the barrel. A lot of the Xenos races occupy small aspects of the galaxy still. And the Tower no exception.

They have a little corner of the galaxy so they're not really involved in the lore. Except for a couple of war zones. Their style is really cool. I didn't like the Imperial Knights because they were only big knights.

The T'au have like guys and big mech suits. Wow. I don't really care for the lore. But I do like this sort of combined arms approach. I love the auxiliaries.

They recently Did a whole range of their main ally, the Kroot, which are like carnivorous dinosaurs. And the kill team has updated their avian bird like bug like vespid allies.

They could always use more in my opinion, but hopefully soon they'll do that. Do you want to give a bit more of your Slag rating? I think you only said the style.

Johnny: 00:46:29

I have only said style so far, so for Lore, I gave them a two. While I think that their lore is interesting, it's just not as involved in the universe at the moment as you said.

They're only kind of involved in a couple of war zones and kind of stick to their little corner for accessibility, I gave them a three. I think they have a very good range. The expansion to the Kroot range has definitely helped flesh out some of their like gaps, chinks in the armor.

But they could definitely use some more. I think the broadside battlesuits and the huge big mechs are really cool looking models with very Gundamy anime style appearance.

Lots of clean lines, which is nice. And for gameplay I gave them a four.

I think it could be fun to have an army that focuses this heavily on shooting and trying to manipulate the battlefield in a way where your opponent can't get to you before. Because these guys are squishy in melee. So yeah, I gave them a total of a 12.

Joshy: 00:47:28

They're neat for my rating. I was quite positive on them. I gave them a four for the style. Love them. I think they're very cool, very unique.

It's nice to see clean robots rather than falling apart. Robots.

Johnny: 00:47:42

Oh yeah.

Joshy: 00:47:43

For Lore, I only really care about Farsight and their various enclaves. Farsight's a commander in a battlesuit. They love battle suits. If they're not giant mechs, they're like small exosuits. I really like Farsight.

He's a fun character. If they had a bit more of the aliens with some narrative stuff rather than just simply existing, I would rate them higher than a 2.

For accessibility, I gave them a 4. They have a very wide range. I would maybe even give them a 5 if they weren't actually quite expensive to collect.

They're like a gun army, but a Horde army. Just Horde army of guns?

Johnny: 00:48:18

Yeah.

Joshy: 00:48:19

Even if you have these really big mechs, they can still be blown up like relatively easily. So you need a bit more of them.

Johnny: 00:48:25

It was part of my game before.

Joshy: 00:48:27

For accessibility, yeah. But for gameplay I gave them before. This is actually your most ranged, focused army in the game at the moment.

They rely on the infantry Using like a laser guiding system for their big mechs to shoot better. If they're not guided, they shoot worse.

And so you have this very interesting play style where you want to bring a well thought out force, you want enough infantry to line up the big guys, a couple of their detachments. Focus around how this works.

Whether you are actually you know, staging for your first couple of battle rounds to hit harder later or if you want to just go now and really like lay on the pressure. So there's a. There's also a couple of others. You know, you got the Kroot, the carnivorous dinosaurs have more of a fluffy detachment, etc.

It's mainly just guns though. I gave them a 4, which overall is a 14.

Johnny: 00:49:20

Nice.

Joshy: 00:49:21

We're in the home run.

Johnny: 00:49:22

Yep.

Joshy: 00:49:22

Bugs.

Johnny: 00:49:24

I mean we're going from fish to bugs, right?

Joshy: 00:49:26

We went from fish in very big gun toting barrels to bugs. Tyranids, eh, Terminids.

Johnny: 00:49:33

Tyranids, whatever you want to the Starship Trooper bugs.

Joshy: 00:49:38

The Helldiver bugs, the Space Marine 2 bugs. Take your pick of bugs. Australian wildlife bugs.

Johnny: 00:49:44

Oh they're all the same everywhere you go, right.

Joshy: 00:49:46

I can't tell them apart.

Johnny: 00:49:48

I feel that you know, how many, you know, I have no idea which one is a hormigant and which one is a termagant. One of them sword arms, who knows Tyranids and, and their small cultish friends in the corner which we will get to afterwards.

Joshy: 00:50:06

Small coldish friends under. Under everybody's rug.

Johnny: 00:50:10

Oh yeah, they are space bugs. You're hyper evolved. I just want to eat things. Army of chitnuss, stabby boys and goopy shooty boys.

Joshy: 00:50:23

I want to actually you, you said the tower, the new kids on the block. But it's actually these guys. Funnily enough they've been in the setting the whole time.

But in terms of actual lore, they've only just arrived to the galaxy. Except they're coming at it from every angle like a deep sea predator coming for the human that just fell overboard.

Johnny: 00:50:44

It kind of works in like the hand grabbing at the Milky Way and each tendril of the Tyranid force is like a finger reaching in to grasp hold. They're like an entity that's larger than the galaxy itself and one huge hive mind.

They honestly lore wise they're pretty cool as the big engine of doom and devastation. The people who are flooding through and they're just to absorb and eat everything. But every single model is very similar in my opinion.

It's like is it a leaper or A lictor. Is it a termagaunt or a homogaunt or a Barb gaunt or a, you.

Joshy: 00:51:30

Know, a biophore, A pyrophore, A Malice scepter. A barb scepter. A barb gaunt. A gargoyle. A Hive Lord. A swarm Tyrant. A tyrant Swarm Lord. A tyrant Hive Guard. Someone has wings.

Johnny: 00:51:44

Yeah, right. It's, it's, it's an interesting faction and I can see the appeal.

And when you see this horde of bugs on the table that all look very much the same, it really tells the story of exactly what the Tyranids stand for.

Joshy: 00:51:58

Yeah. In the lore, they're not, they don't really have characters. They are the character.

The whole Tyranid hive is not separate entities but like nerves and blood cells, I suppose of the overall hive mind, which is Tyranids. They're not sub factions of Tyranids, but like extensions. Like those colorful blue ones is the foot.

That colorful yellow one is the toes of the other foot. You know, it's, it's a huge hive mind. There's no characters. It's just oppression. And these probably pose the biggest threat to everyone.

They fought about everyone. They consume biomass on a galactic scale. They leave planets as hollowed out asteroids, no air, no water.

You basically have like a month or two to fend them off. And if you don't do it, goodnight. You know, they're horrifying. Really hard to figure out who's who.

Johnny: 00:52:58

Totally.

Joshy: 00:52:59

Do you want to go into our little ratings? Because you can't say too much about a horde of bugs that don't have characters for sure.

Johnny: 00:53:07

For style, I did give them a four. I think from the perspective of where they sit in the universe and what they stand for and all of that, they are incredibly cool.

This, this big galaxy spanning entity, this God like thing that's just consuming everything. I think it's, it's a neat approach to a force of energy that just exists for lore. I gave them a three.

They're as you said, like they don't have characters.

They have certain and certain parts that are kind of turned into characters by the humans in the same way that like you might see a giant elk in the wild and give it a name.

You know, like there's, there's one Carnifex that's missing half his face due to a fight and he just keeps showing up because he's an unkillable machine of death. For accessibility, I have given them a four. They are the starter faction for this edition. They have a very large Range.

If you can wrap your head around what is what and what does what, then I think you're in a very good place.

The new sculpts for their small infantry battleline units are very nice and have some very nice details to build on and paint easily and make look good. But for gameplay I gave them a 2. I am also not that interested in a horde army and I don't feel the need to try and work out what is what.

But they do have some cool bugs that gives them a total of a 13.

Joshy: 00:54:47

Okay. At first I was thinking, oh, he likes them way more than me. But I gave him an 11 for style. Eh, I gave them a two. I got them.

I got them in the start collecting box for the edition. I was excited and then I got them and built them and painted them. And then I was like, I'm okay now. I don't need any more.

I just something about them. I think I need a bit more sort of characterization for me personally, but I've seen people that just adore their tyranids.

Everyone's got a little name like old Snoopypants and Stabby Butt, you know.

Johnny: 00:55:23

Oh yeah, yeah.

Joshy: 00:55:25

But they're okay for lore. I actually rank them higher simply because I love this galactic threat on top of all the other galactic threats.

It's an interesting narrative device and some of the things they can do, like shut off the warp by their actual presence is pretty cool. For accessibility, I actually gave them a four. You have a lot of options. You've got a brand new range.

You do have to buy a lot of them which might be a turn off. You have to paint a lot of them, which might be a turn off. But you have so many bugs to choose from. They also represent this well in their gameplay.

This is the hoardiest of all the hordes for me. I gave them a 2 for gameplay. I don't really care for hordes, but they have their codex.

You can play sneaky bugs, ginormous bugs, endless swarming bugs. You can, you know, play the bugs which like to eat things and then you can use the eating bugs to heal your other bugs.

There's a lot of nuance to bugs.

Turns out their core mechanic though is simply forcing failed morale tests of your opponent, doing better with your own morale tests and oppressing them that way as you just consume them, like flush the board with bodies and just crush them like a tidal wave. Still leaves it with an 11 for me though.

Johnny: 00:56:50

I mean, we're just not bug guys, you know.

Joshy: 00:56:52

We might not be bug eyes. But you could be a bug person, easy. I do like the last faction, though, a lot more.

Johnny: 00:57:00

As do I. Although in ratings, it doesn't appear so.

Joshy: 00:57:03

Same Genestealer cults. Want me to take point on these guys?

Johnny: 00:57:09

Go for it. Do it.

Joshy: 00:57:10

Genestar cults. So the Tyranids, they need, you know, vanguard organisms, right? They kind of need, like, feelers.

They need the nerve endings at the very end of their tendrils of flesh to sort of see where the food is, where to go and eat next. But that manifests as the Genestealer cults.

The gene stealers are these insidious, sneaky organisms that like to board derelict space vessels primarily, or they usually just infect you with spores and the whole, like, alien, like, tongue down your throat methodology.

But what happens is, over the course of many generations, infected people, usually humans, have this very potent sort of psychic energy, and there's a lot of them, so that's a very tempting prey.

Over the course of generations, the Genestealer cult rises up, usually from a small religious esque underground cult, usually the oppressed workforce. Over a few generations, this influence spreads. It can become planet wide. It can infect the military, it can infect the nobility.

Oftentimes they're not really aware of it.

The virus doesn't really let them know they're sick, even if they might look a little bit mutated, maybe an extra arm, maybe their skin's a bit purple and scaly. Like, mentally, they don't really acknowledge it.

And then when the Tyranids themselves actually arrive to this planet, because the Genestealer presence is like sort of a beacon, like, come here, we're ready for you. They basically just flip the script. They blow things up, they annihilate nobility. They assassinate commanders, they turn off orbital defenses.

Makes the Tyranids job a whole lot easier. And then the Genestealer cults get eaten up as well. And they're happy about it. That's the faction, really?

Johnny: 00:59:10

Yeah. It's kind of gross.

Joshy: 00:59:11

It's awful. And they do it in multiple ways.

You have like, one of the cults basically infected whole solar systems because a scientist was infected, and put the gene sealer cult in medicine.

Johnny: 00:59:25

Oh, God.

Joshy: 00:59:27

Right. And stuff like this, you know, they have the classic approach of brute force. They have the sneaky approach, like medicine. It's terrifying.

They even managed to make it to holy terror. So, yeah, do you want to go into any slag ratings or do you have any other notes to add to them? What would you like to do, Johnny?

Johnny: 00:59:46

So here's My problem with Genestealer Cults, they feel like a Chaos Cult, which is exactly where I want to be. But they're not a Chaos Cult. They're above.

Joshy: 00:59:56

They're an alien cult.

Johnny: 00:59:58

They have this like guerilla tactics gameplay that kind of vibes with me a little bit. But if it was chaos, I would probably be a lot more. More enticed.

It makes me wish we had a Chaos Cult faction in a similar way to what Genestealer Cult has. With their ability to take on some of the other factions in one of their detachments as well. Being able to use the Astra Militarum to their effect.

Their ability to get in and around and always there's. There's always someone who's the Genestealer Cult in there, you know, like I want them. I want to gel with Genestealers so much, but I just don't.

And that's why I said like, I think these guys are cool, but it won't necessarily show in my ratings. For style. I've given them a two again. It's the. It's the bug part that I don't like, not the cult part.

I really like that they've got these machines that they ride around on that are essentially old mining equipment. Like they're adapting to the surroundings. They're. They're forcing their way in. The guerrilla tactics are really cool.

For lore, I've given them a one because bugs and because I don't know a whole bunch of their lore, so I couldn't really rate them too highly. They don't really have main characters because that's not really their vibe.

It's not so much about the main characters, it's about what they can accomplish as a group. For accessibility, I did give them a four though I think that they do have a very well rounded model range.

Pretty much everything is available to purchase at the moment. Their models have some very fun detail in them and can look very good when painted up.

Which is always a positive for me when it comes to the accessibility is how good can the models look with minimal effort. And for gameplay, I did give them a 4 because I think that I could really enjoy their gameplay if I kit bash them into a Chaos Cult.

Joshy: 01:02:00

Cool. I'm gonna have to be quick here because my laptop is dying and not charging.

Johnny: 01:02:07

Oh no. Good thing we're near the end. Go for it.

Joshy: 01:02:10

Yeah. Genestealer cults 4 for style mining shtick. They're usually miners. Their tabletop style is this mining gorilla force. Love it. 4 style 3.

Brainwashed underminers of society. Gorilla rebels. Love it. 2 for accessibility. For me, great sculpts. Very expensive.

You have to buy so many of these guys because their gameplay for it rewards cunning and stuff. But their core rule, cult ambush. If they die you can actually bring them back. But the chances of it's actually quite slim.

So you need lots of models to make it worthwhile. But they're a very tricky, very battlefield manipulative army. Another of those high skill ceiling forces which I love.

I love that you can get really good with your army if you just learn to play it better. Overall that's a 13 for me. Any final notes before we take it out there Johnny?

Johnny: 01:03:03

No, I think we're good.

Joshy: 01:03:04

Eh.

Johnny: 01:03:04

That kind of sums up the Xenos races as a whole.

Joshy: 01:03:08

I hope so. I'm pretty sure we got them all. That just leaves chaos though. Next week will be chaos. I think you're gonna take the reins on that one your guys.

Johnny: 01:03:16

Sure Em. This is gonna be my jam next week.

Joshy: 01:03:19

I love Xenos. You love chaos. We're both lukewarm on the Imperium.

We can have a bit more of an in depth discussion on our ratings perhaps in a bonus episode somewhere. But we're gonna have to leave it there for today. Thank you very much for listening. You guys have been great.

Or girls or Genestealer cults, whoever you are. You guys take care. Have good hobbying. We'll catch you next time with Chaos. This has been the TTP field manual. Tell your friends please.

Johnny: 01:03:46

Thank you so much.

Joshy: 01:03:47

I'm Joshy.

Johnny: 01:03:48

And I'm Johnny.

Joshy: 01:03:49

Goodbye Johnny. Goodbye fans. Goodbye listeners.

Johnny: 01:03:53

Bye.