Warhammer 40,000/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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* Two things about the Horus Heresy:

*** In Magnus's case no matter what he did it would have turned someone traitor, he had to do something about The Thousand Sons Sorcery but if he did to much they would probably betray if he had done anything other than as far as he could go without killing them the Space Wolves would likely have turned traitor out of their hatred for the Thousand Sons.

*** The Emperor also rarely spent much time with primarchs other than Horus because in general the various legions where spread pretty thin usually conquering whole swaths of the galaxy with almost no input from the emperor, he may not have known about the problems until they had cemented themselves.

** Space Marines are designed to be like the tragic heroes of old and they share common flaws, like arrogance and overconfidence, which I think you mean by saying they act like teenagers.

** Space Marines are inducted into their training at a very young age. It's brutal, it's deadly and it leads to emotionally-retarded warriors whose only goal in life is to die fighting the enemies of humanity. I think the fact they act like teenagers is a reflection of the fact that they essentially don't get to grow up and understand things with an adult's perspective.

** I must have a massively different opinion on what is considered immature but in general I think of fart jokes, constantly talking about sex, and swearing more than a sailor with tourrettes who stubbed his toe as immature, Space Marines in general act more like mythical greek heroes with all the hubris and flaws that implies but also with all of the good things that implies too. Also what led you to expect them to act like regular adults? these are people recruited when they where 10-12 after most likely having spent much of their lives as child soldiers who are then taken away from their previous life implanted with many new organs possibly while fully awake and then forced to fight in conditions so bad that even by the standards of warhammer are hellish and you expect them to act like non-emotionally stunted PTSD sufferers in fact they take this remarkably well considering the circumstances.

** What the dude above me said.

* Are the Old Ones still canon? They seem to have been forgotten about.

** Unless they've been deliberately retconned out, they're still canon.

** The other possibility is that the Eldar and Ork gods (Khaine/Mork and Cegorach/Gork) are the last two surviving Old Ones.

** The New Necron codex confirms that the Old One's are still Canon, but claims the Necrons and the C'tan eliminated every last one of them. Then again, GW's fluff policy means that isn't necessarily the truth.

* What are the Imperium's views on gay people. There seems to be a general lack of gay people out of the TRILLIONS of people in the galaxy. As far as I know there are exactly two cannon confirmed gay people.

** Point the first: By your own admission, there are trillions of people in the Imperium of Man, let alone other races. We could not feasibly see even a small percentage of that number and still retain an interesting viewpoint. Point the second: Given the Imperium's methods, people may well be being bred and conditioned to be heterosexual, as this creates more workers and, therefore, weaponry and vehicles for the Imperium to use. Point the third: It's a totalitarian, brutal, militantly conservative-religious empire. How do you ''think'' they're going to deal with people who don't fit the religious perception of normalcy? Hell, they've probably declared any sexuality apart from straight (or asexual) to be examples of heretical behaviour.

*** Plus, look at Creed and Jarren Kell--you saying there's nothing there?

** Let's be totally clear here - the Imperium isn't a homogenous culture. Every world is going to have its own rules and customs, some of them even democratically elect their governor. Provided they worship the Emperor in some way, the Imperium wouldn't bother to look any further.

*** I'm pretty sure any kind of sex or indulgence feeds Slaanesh.

**** And any kind of hate and bloodshed feeds Khorne, every single hope, dream, and ambition feeds Tzeentch, and the universal principle of entropy feeds Nurgle. The Imperium by and large realises that its impossible to get rid of everything that empowers chaos is impossible which is why the Redemptionists who are so fanatical in fighting chaos that they kill almost everything that isnt a redemptionist.

** By overwhelming the necron device with too much energy. Anti-psy tech is not infallible, see for example how the pylons of Cadia slowly fracture and crumble over time.

** Probably because it has a unique consciousness that can't be duplicated, as its description clearly implies.

*** ... [[Cloning Blues|If its conciousness can't be duplicated, how can it be reincarnated?]]

**** Actually, on careful reading of the Swarmlord's fluff: its consciousness is kept separate from the rest of the swarm, thus creating its unique cunning. Cranking out trillions of those things will simply fracture the unique "one-ness of purpose" that is the Tyranid's strengths...

** The Swarmlord is valuable to the Hive Mind because it thinks differently from the Hive Mind. Making more would introduce the risk that they would eventually revolt over a disagreement with the rest of the Swarm.

* How do the Dark Eldar maintain their population? They are constantly taking casualties from raids, not to mention the enormous amount of betrayal and lethal backstabbing going on 24/7 in their society. To make all of that up, their birthrate would have to be huge. and somehow I don't see them as staying home to raise the kids.

** It seems the new codex provides an answer: While some Dark Eldar are "Trueborn", apparently a lot of them are [[Designer Babies]]. Being Dark Eldar, the Trueborn look down on the ones that were grown in vats.

*** [[BattleTech|What, not the other way around?]]

* What bother me about the game's (current, as far as I know it might have been different earlier) rules is that, apparently, frag grenades are used to make enemy defenders in cover ''duck'' and stop their fire ''before'' charging them into melee combat. They have no capability to harm anyone directly in the game, unless they are 'frag rounds' deployed from a launcher of sorts. It makes no sense to me at all that Imperium troops are essentially described as throwing frag grenades right outside the enemy's cover, so they can charge them. Throwing them ''into'' their enemy's cover would definitely interrupt their fire as everyone struggles to deal with the impending doom of a nearby frag grenade. Plus, I'm sure a frag grenade's explosive radius which sufficiently scares enemies to duck down would have to force the thrower to be at a rather far distance - probably enough for the defenders to just get up and continue firing again after the grenade goes off, which makes the whole process pointless. Why couldn't flashbangs just be standard issue and used for assaulting into melee and have frag grenades used as some sort of one-use, short-range blast weapon?

** Do you really think they can get [[Redshirt Army|guardsmen]] to manage to throw into cover every time? Pitiful frag grenades are of no use against even flak armor which can stop bullets from a typical hiver slugthrower with every single part of it and any shrapnel from a frag would be travelling slower and thus hit with less force than a bullet because frag grenades are made for spread, not penetration like guns. Heavier explosives to make the shrapnel go faster would destroy any shrapnel unless the grenade was built out of stronger materials which would probably be heavier (thus harder to throw) and more expensive. Flashbangs may cost more to make than simply frags which are only good for distractions against enemies wearing or made of things as tough or tougher than flak armor which is most every enemy army.

** In 6th edition frags became S3 AP- (Blast) and can be thrown in the Shooting phase. Problem solved?

*** In RPG frags are somewhat more killy, too. Deals to everything in 4 m radius 2d10X Dam 0 Pen. Typical flak armor soaks 4 (3 +1 for flak vs. Blast), common cannon fodder has 3 TB and 10-12 Wounds, thus with flak probability of any injury 0.79, being Heavily Wounded 0.28, but Critical Damage only 0.06 or 0.01, without it 0.97, 0.64, 0.28 or 0.15 respectively (not counting Righteous Fury, but it makes things much worse almost 19% of time). So for those who didn't take cover a non-critical injury is very likely even in armor, chance to get permanently crippled even with medical attention (or die, if unarmored and not very tough) is always here, and with a little bad luck things can get very messy.

** He's afraid it would only anger the smell.

** He uses it to deflect attention from himself.

*** You'd think that with their advanced technology, the Eldar would have some way of [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|eliminating the orgasm]].

** Plus in 40k "small numbers" means millions per Craftworld.

*** It's such a shame that Eldar don't have souls just waiting around waiting to be put back into a new body to fight again...

*** Actually they don't, off the top of my head I don't recall the specifics but the soulstones of those Eldar who die in battle are either strengthening Khaine or being used to create a new god to battle Slaanesh.

* Why don't the constant repairs ever affect the quality of Necron troops?

** It does. Every time the resurrect, they get crazier and remeber less of their mortal life. According to the new fluff, half of the Necrons are now outside of C'tan control because of this.

** The Necrons can no longer make new troops (including Pariahs). However, it is clear that yes, the Necrons do degrade (primarily mentally) after each reanimation, although much of the damage is more do to spending the majority of the human species' existence in stasis than the combat they've seen in the last few hundred years. It's also established that the Necron Warriors were the uninfluetial civillians of Necrontyr society, and as such, got the short end of the stick as far as control goes even when they were just stepping out of the transfer.

* When a Necron is severely damaged, it teleports away for repairs, right? But why is whatever technology they use to do this never damaged to the point where it stops working?

*** They have the last position, and use that. Maybe they can even make it so it only teleports Necrodermis.

** As the new codex states, it is rare, but not impossible, for a Necron to be irreparably damaged. If they can't be teleported out and repaired, they self-destruct instead, but in such a way that is visually indistinguishable from the teleportation method.

** It's because they aren't all awake yet, half of the awake ones are crazy, Eldar Farseers are running interference, and they don't ''need'' to overrun the universe.

*** Half the ones awake are crazy? What does that mean? Aren't they just mindless drones animated by the will of their Star Gods?

** So long as their gods are happy with their amusements there is no reason for them to do anything more.

** Because the last time they were fully awakened, they almost killed all life in the galaxy. If everybody died, what would we all do then?

** Also Necrons can never truly die, a Necron is really a mechanical body operated by a vengeful spirit, so even if the body is destroyed the host can find always find a new mechanical body to occupy.

*** No, that's just the C'tan. A Necron is ''trapped'' in it's mechanical shell, and once it's truly vapourized or cast into the Warp, it's gone for good. The 5th Edition rulebook fluff even tells of how the ravages of time are finally catching up to the Necrons, eroding their repair systems and minds.

** In addition, there seems to be a sort of mystical philosophy around a suit's loadout- "Mont'ka" suits, or those designed for close-combat are often designed to provide a pilot already prone to selfish and risky actions a way to burn out their own internal demons. Perhaps O'Shassera has a checkered past, or feels she is slipping into a similar mindset?

** She's also in a stealth suit... the weapons fit that.

** Then why can Shas O'kais and Shas O'res'ka end up getting equipped with a far more versatile and far more lethal loadout with things like a plasma rifle, flamers, shoulder mounted missile launchers, stealth fields, cyclic ion cannons (the tau's real more dakka weapon), jet packs, gun and shield drone companions, iridium armor, improved sensor load outs, and energy shields when they are presumably of a lower rank than Shas O'Shassera? Shouldn't she be as well equipped as they are?

** Most likely, those guns were there in Dawn of War so the Tau would have cool commander wargear. Those 'suits were the same model as Shassera's, and she evidently prefers having a tank-hunting ambush loadout over having more guns than she can reliably control (or use without markerlights and massive tracking beacon support).

** Tau don't have power weapons because they haven't researched it; power field technology is difficult to manufacture and even most of the tech-priests have no idea how it works. Keep in mind that the Tau have only had a fraction of the time as humanity to develop their technology and though they have made great strides in a short amount of time, not all of their technology is as advanced as the Imperium's.

** The Tau have poorer reflexes than other races, in close combat, lightning reflexes are a survival requirement, especially in melee combat. Hence why they stick to shooting the shit out of everyone at range, and let their mercenary Kroot (who can be assumed to have far better reflexes than the Tau) do the close combat and melee.

** Supposedly, its because Tau society considers all physical contact to be extremely distasteful. Hand-to-hand training for them would be like making military recruits make-out with each other as part of their training.

*** Actually in the Codex Xenos article GW put out when the Tau were first introduced there was a cut out box on this subject, basically the way Tau eyes work, they really fucking suck at following rapid movements up close and personal in hand to hand.

*** [[You Keep Using That Word|I'm not sure "I think we should kill less of them with each volley of shots" fits any sane definition of efficiency]]. Neither does "I think we should take away the ability for our troops to damage light vehicles". Besides, Tau aren't ''like'' the Imperium. They don't look at their troops' guns and think "These are inefficient at killing Guardsmen and other light infantry". They look at pulse rifles and think "These are effective at killing Guardsmen and other light infantry". Their power gives them a versatility that the Imperial Guard have to use special weapons to achieve - they can gun down light infantry, light vehicles, and can use the old "throw enough mud at a wall" tactic to bring down things like Carnifexes or Marines/Necrons. They've already gone for [[Crippling Overspecialisation]] by focusing exclusively on ranged combat, and they know that focusing on killing one specific type of opponent with that fire, on battlefields where anything can happen and very frequently does, is a recipe for disaster. (Besides, they're not going to release a Tau codex with "Normal Fire Warriors," "Marine-Killing Fire Warriors With Plasma Rifles", and "Guard-Killing Fire Warriors with Flashlights" entries.) Sure, if the Imperium was able to mobilise all its resources, the Tau would get wtfpwned. But they can't, because of Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, Chaos, Eldar, rebels and so on.

**** I just have to point out, one, the Guard do get special and heavy weapons, while Tau Fire Warriors do not: the addition of heavy and special weapons to basic Guard squads closes the gap between their ranged fire-power, and then some. Second, there are plenty of targets that the Guard can deal with, thanks to their special weapons, against which the Tau are useless. Go ahead, try to fight MEQs like Necrons or Space Marines with an equal points value of Fire Warriors: odds are overwhelming that you will be masacred. Or, to word that differently, the claim that "you can use the throw-enough-mud-at-the-wall tactic to fight MEQs or monstrous creatures" is laughably and obviously false to any Tau player who's actually tried. Tau Lesson One is: Fire Warriors are Garbage. One final note: the guard have easy acces to any number of heavy vehicles with template weapons that'll flatten pretty much any single Tau squad in a single voley (i.e. the Basilisk main gun, and anything with a Demolisher cannon).

*** And as an additional point, being better at killing Guardsmen at the expense of efficiency means the Fire Warrior is more likely to survive because there's less lasguns being fired at him.

** The truest reason for this is because of gameplay issues. Hand the Tau Battlesuit a force sword, and you have a weaker dreadnought that can fly around at will. The 'in-universe' reason is that, while tau frequently warred amongst themselves and indeed did have close-quarters fighting, they're just not as good at it as the rest of the universe. They recognized this deficiency and simply stuck to what they were good at. Hence, battlesuits have guns, not swords.

*** They ''don't'' insist on melee combat. The Space Marines' primary combat unit consists of Tactical Marines, whose primary weapon is the bolter. The only Space Marine unit that insists on melee combat are Assault Marines who, shockingly, assault things in close quarters where melee combat is inevitable. The Imperial Guard relies heavily on shooting targets at long range as well. The Orks go for close combat because they were engineered to enjoy fighting, Chaos goes for close combat because Warp mutations make them faster and stronger and good portion of them ''are'' crazy, the Tyranids engage in both close and long-range combat, ditto for the Necrons. Eldar have shooty and melee troops who specialize in their particular fields of focus. Even the Tau ''recognize'' that close combat is a necessity and thus employ Kroot. And for a lot of them, it ''works'', because of a combination of speed, armor, toughness, strength, and capability to bypass defenses (i.e. teleportation, jump packs, etc.) Bayonet charges didn't work in WWI and WWII because humans can be easily killed by most modern weapons, but that doesn't ''work'' in this setting; a shooting line backed by heavy weapons and armor that would stop a group of ordinary human soldiers dead in their place will just annoy an Ork or Khornate Berserker force, and wouldn't even slow down a Necron or Tyranid army. There's a reason why the Imperial Guard's default methodology is to dig in and pour fire from a distance.

** A better question is, why do Tau ethereals ''exclusively'' equip themselves for melee combat, without even grabbing a pulse pistol? Do they have a bad case of [[Star Wars|Jedi syndrome]]?

 

** Let's see: The Imperium of Mankind has over a million worlds including thousands of Forge Worlds, Chaos has stuff they've stolen from them as well as literal [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter]], the Tau, Eldar, and Dark Eldar have relatively low populations to begin with and the Eldar factions do a lot of raiding anyways, the Tyranids have the weaponized biomass of several galaxies, the Necrons have had eons to procure their resources before they converted to Necrodermis, and even more eons afterwards, and the Orks have hundreds or even thousands of mini-Ork Empires that raid when necessary or for fun.

** The Imperium is also, when talking about the bigger, more powerful and advanced weapons/machines, using things that are thousands of years old. The Imperium really sucks at making the more advanced stuff (like titans and dreadnoughts) because they've lost most of the technology used to do so, and the technology they ''do'' have, they don't really understand. In some cases, they literally can't make any more of something; they just repair and maintain the items they already have So when a particularly important piece of machinery goes down in battle, the Imperium will do anything to get it back. Entire companies/chapters of Space Marines will fight to get back the remains of a fallen dreadnought, for example.

*** VERY not valid for tourney play list. It asked the question about "How's come Marines aren't as good as they are in the books" So they made the marine profile, and pointed them out. You HQ was the Vet Sgt. at 250 points. Elietes were the "Grisled old vets." that allways pop up in those stories at about 200 points a piece. Troops were rank and file Space Marines, at about 150-200 points a piece. Fast Attack...well you get like one guy with a jump pack or something. And the Heavy Support was the guy carrying the LasCannon which wound up being heavy 4 or something like that...mabe rapid fire, i can't remember. But as I said...you wound up with about 6-10 modles giving you a 1500-2000 point army. It was a very funny read.

**** The lascannon was better than that. 1 shot with the best statline available for an anti-tank weapon, but to fire it you just laid out a line and hit the first thing it touched, then lost a point of strength and hit the next thing and so on till it didn't wound something. Then there's the flamer that hits everything within 12" and the assault 6 bolters and the small blast krak missiles that are frag grenades and so on.

*** However, being as tough as a Hive Tyrant/tank isn't so impressive when there's only 1,000 of you, while your opponents have many, many thousands of soldiers with tanks and anti-tank weapons of their own.

** I've always been under the assumption that each model on the board represents a differing number of actual units that combine to form the model's given stats. A model representing, say, an Imperial Guardsman, would, in one's imagination, represent maybe 500 soldiers (or whatever number is appropriate for the scale of battle you're waging). Elite units, like Space Marines, would represent maybe 20 or 30 men on the field, while still having stats comparable to the Guardmen. I've always thought of a tabletop game of 40K like a scene from any number of World War II or Vietnam films, with a group of generals standing around a large battle board, moving unit markers around with shuffleboard sticks.

** Movie marines are somewhat over the top representation of space marine cababilities. They are, however, significantly stronger than normal men. Difference between s/t3 and s/t4 may not seem much but that's just because the limitatiosn of the system. In Inquisitor, which uses a more detailed values, a marine can kill you by throwing a combat knife at your face through a brick wall.

** On the other hand, I have seen some amazing space marine victories. I once watched a tabletop game where Blood Angels were placing defensive against Eldar in the meat grinder scenario. The amount of carnage was incredible. The Eldar kept coming back since they had without number, and the marines would mow them down fast enough for the unit to return next turn (or MAYBE the turn after that). I myself played a space marine army for years, and only ever lost one game with it (first time I played against orks, I had no idea what they were capable of, and accidentally started with the Tac squad with the missile launcher in reserve instead of the tac squad with a flamer).

*** You forgot "a single Ork can wipe out a small hive city by himself" and "a Tau pulse rifle can punch a significant hole in a tank".

** A point could be made that the armies players use are tougher than average (since who wants to play mundane conflicts), meaning the Space Marines have a harder time.

*** That depends on the point cost.

 

** Most of the forces of Chaos are in fact former Imperial Guard. They just don't have an army in-game.

** They exist but they are functionally the exact same as the normal Guard but with spikes.

* In ''Horus Rising'' Horus shows a ring he got from the Emperor, which was apparently made a year before the Emperor was born. But as far as this Troper knows the Emperor was born 8000 B.C., so it was to early for jewlery made out of metal, wasn't it?

** Gold and copper jewelry have been found in Neolithic archaeological digs; those metals could be found in pure form at the Earth's surface back then, so people started working them early on. And meteoric iron tools are sometimes found in the hands of Stone Age societies, too.

** He's the Emperor. He was probably born in Atlantis, then sank the place to give himself a long-term technological advantage.

** It is revealed in old fluff (don't remember any exact books) that the Emperor was born in 8000 B.C. in Anatolia (modern Turkey), but this might not be canon anymore since other old fluff are not.

** The Eldar are perfectly willing to manipulate other races into sacrificing large numbers of themselves to protect even a single Eldar life. For example, the Eldar may divert, say, a Tyranid Hive Fleet or Ork Waaagh! into attacking Imperial space to protect a Maiden World or Craftworld. The Eldar have done and do ally with Imperial forces on occasion - but ''only'' when it suits them, and they'll probably find a way to screw over the Imperials during or after whatever battle they're fighting. The Eldar are in fact polar opposites to the Tau - they see everyone else as mere tools to be used and discarded, whereas the Tau just want everybody to join their club.

*** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|That depends on how you look at it]]. The Tau would probably do the same things as the Eldar given the chance.

** That reminds me. Do the Orks ''really'' have a twisted sense of honor about them that makes them worthier opponents than the Eldar?

*** Well, Ghazkull let Yarrick go on the grounds that a good enemy was worth keeping alive. Orks will kill indiscriminately, but they'd much prefer a good scrap. Which means they won't attack noncombatants when there's actual combatants to fight. Eldar, on the other hand, are far more pragmatic -- they'd probably virus-bomb your planet rather than risk their lives in combat, then come back 10 years later and move into the ruins.

*** Marines are about 8ft tall. The ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' novels have a Primarch's waist at the level of a Marine's ''chest''. Yeah, they're big bastards.

** ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' (possibly not the most accurate source possible) gives a more definite size for the Primarchs. It claims that they were 10 feet tall.

** If you want to see how tall the average Space Marine is, take a trip to Warhammer World. They have a life-size marine there (I forget what chapter).

** He's basically Conan... except also engineer and psyker. As to the extra organs, he already was demigod, and Primarchs were modded clones of himself. They were ''obviously'' superhumans - even to benighted death-worlders and while still babies; they probably didn't need enhancements that much. Spess Mehreens started as normal humans and had to be enhanced to almost this level.

*** Commodus Voke subverts this slightly, as he was older than Eisenhorn when they met and he was so puritanical that he considered Eisenhorn a radical (this was still relatively early in Eisenhorn's career when he considered himself a puritan). In general, however, inquisitors do become more radical as time goes on, not only because they feel it is justified, but as they grow more experienced (and more arrogant) they believe (sometimes correctly, sometimes not) that they are powerful enough to control the powers they wield. Eisenhorn frequently used that justification when he did something shady. "Sure this is bad, but I can keep it under control."

** So where does Mordecai Toth fall? Is he radical or traditional?

*** We don't really get enough information in ''[[Dawn of War]]'' to make a secure Radical/Puritan guess, and even less information when it comes to guessing which ''sect'' he's from... so all we can safely say is that he isn't an ultra-psycho Radical with daemonhost flunkies and a pitch black sword that drinks light. At the same time, we can guess that he's not an ultra-fanatical Puritan, based on his suggestion to work with the Eldar late in the game.

** It's generally assumed, well I know from a few tidbits that Quixos in particular, Recongregators and Istaavians in general all turn Radical when they have an epiphany that the greatest threat to the Imperium from within is the Imperium itself. Their differences lie between whether it is better to start over, or simply shake things up and manipulate circumstances to better the system and replace the corruption, both however agree that nuclear weapons are a fun tool for these ends..

** For the Tau vs. Eldar, any number of reasons. Tau could have landed on an Exodite or claimed Eldar world, which will provoke a holy hell of an Eldar response. Tau could be attempting to capture Eldar technology, or Tau could be doing something else the Farseers disagree with. Or this particular group of Tau are believed to threaten Eldar lives in some way, so they get attacked.

** Necrons vs. Tyranids: Both groups respective methods of killing and consuming are mutually incompatible. Therefore, they have to fight to decide who gets the yummy souls/biomatter.

** DE vs. Orks: Orks make good pain-slaves. Dark Eldar are propa shooty. Both make for a great fight for the other.

*** Do orks even ''feel'' pain?

** Honor, reason, good engineering sense, and practicality all have have ''nothing'' to do with it. Once more, for the benefit of those sitting in the back: '''there is no such thing as inventing in the universe of 40k'''. Heretical or not, mankind simply does not have the knowledge to create anything new. What they DO have is maintained through religious rote and superstition. That power fist? It was made in a manufactorum by a Techpriest Engiseer who applied all the sacred oils, recited the proper litanies in the proper cants, and pressed the button marked with the mystical "ON" rune. They don't know even know the fist generates the field it does, let alone how to reproduce its effect in a very precise and controlled manner.

*** Actually, there ''is'' evidence that innovation does take place within the Imperium. Its just that the Mechanicus surrounds all its research and study with the trappings of their religion, slowing it down significantly. The Mechanicus higher-ups know and understand the science and engineering behind a lot of the technology they use, but the lay tech-priests don't.

*** Although some upgrades in power armour and bolters may be due to finding pieces of a Standard Template Construct system instead of actual research. Even the research they ''do'' do is more like back-engineering than actual science - the klepto Archmagos in ''Soul Drinker'' wanted to find out how the Soulspear worked by having someone take it apart, rather than taking existing vortex technology and trying to figure out how to make it better.

*** The way I remember it (and honestly, asking for consistency in 40k lore is laughable), The AdMech generally dislike inventing stuff because it interferes with the Quest for Knowledge. In short - you shouldn't be wasting your time thinking about how to make something new. Your time should be spent on searching for the STCs and finding the pattern the Ancients already made for whatever it is you were thinking of inventing. That and the AdMech believe that the technology the humans held in ancient times is perfect (and really, if that star ship was made several thousand years ago and still works, can you disagree with them?) and thus trying to invent something is like saying you are better than the Ancients. And you're not. [[And That's Terrible|And that's heresy.]]

** In answer to the question - this troper remembers reading something about that, possibly in the first Tau codex - in which the Tau were only just encountering the Imperium and rumours of building-sized killing machines would be likely to be dismissed as Imperial propaganda.

** Not so much told as they have trouble believing the things exist- being so colossal, ridiculous, and [[Awesome but Impractical|impractical]] (which is why the Tau don't have Titans of their own, yet anyway). The main character in ''Fire Warrior'' novelisation (better than the game, though that's not saying much) has a rather interesting reaction towards finding one - at first he thinks it's some massive, weird building, and once he comes to grips with it he muses on how destructive and terrifying it must be, but ultimately impractical (as he rigs it to explode).

 

* Which way do the blades spin on a Chainsword? If the teeth grind towards you, then the sword pulls itself into the target and out of your hand, and you get blood and goo all over your greatcoat. If it's reversed, then you keep cleaner, but wouldn't it be harder to push into somebody and wouldn't entrails get sucked into the mechanism?

** "Dere ain't no such ting beecuz [[More Dakka]] is best an' Enuff Dakka iz even bester!" *smacks previous troper's head* "You iz mukkin' about!"

** The Orks are already familiar with the concept of "too much dakka," It's just something they don't believe in.

* So, how is it that Horrors are described as "cheerful" if they serve Tzeentch rather than Nurgle? I can't imagine being happy under a guy who [[Manipulative Bastard|meticulously manipulates events]] so that he can safely say "[[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]" a lot.

** He manipulated them to be happy so they'd do their jobs better? He wouldn't be a very able god of scheming and treachery if he let everyone see that he's just using them, most of his pawns probably think he's a very generous god. Right up until the end.

**** Not ''strictly'' necessary. It's just that the Tau don't have any real anti-daemon measures (what with the lack of warp presence), and no Emperor, so either the Gue'vesa populations give rise to swarms of rogue psykers and thus a daemonic incursion large enough to block out the stars, or they get wise and end up rather similar to the Imperium (so we go from Catholic Space Nazis to, presumably, Mormon Space Commies).

** The Blue Scribes reform Tzeentch's Staff, the Gods go on a rampage of galactic proportions. Each doing their own things. Nurgle's diseases infecting everyone, Khorne murdering them all before the diseases take hold, Slaanash, you know, and Tzeentch chassmastering it all.

**** Nurgle would die in that scenario as well, The Chaos Gods are born of and feed off of EMOTIONS, Death and Decay aren't emotions, he doesn't feed on those, he feeds on the emotions brought about by them primarily Despair, but also Acceptance, also, in some fashion, Determination, if everyone is dead, if the universe dies, Chaos loses, unanimously.

*** A Chaos victory result is an enslaved galaxy populated by Humans who are still very numerous, constantly being abused and tortured, but also maintained, by their gods, and trapped in a vicious circle of breeding and petty wars amongst themselves, while on the macro level, the Great Game is played out. Slaanesh ensures that sufficient breeding takes place, Khorne ensures that the wars control the population, Nurgle ensures that humanity remains strong enough to survive under the abuse of himself and the other gods, as well as being primarily responsible for stamping out any attempts by humanity to throw off the yoke and Tzeentch ensures that nothing happens to throw the vicious circle out of its unstable balance. The Chaos Space Marines, Daemons and Chaos Undivided factions keep the galaxy against external treats, such as additional Tyranids, and if it becomes possible, will spearhead invasions into other galaxies.

** I'm no expert in W40K, but I can perfectly see a way for the good guys to win (or at least for the galaxy not to be destroyed/consumed/ corrupted). What if the Emperor is successfully reborn/revived (see Star Child and sensei)? I know we're not gonna see it happen because the war must continue forever for the game to exist, but it's still a possibility (in-universe). With the Emperor around and no treacherous Primarchs to oppose him, Chaos would pretty much be put back in control over time. With the galaxy unified under the Emperor's rule, winning over the Necrons is only a matter of pinpointing their bases and destroying them so they can't repair themselves, and with all other threats eliminated I'm pretty sure the Imperium could stand it's ground against the Nids when they come (since the Emperor is supposed to be nigh unstoppable and they would start researching technology again since superstition would be banned).

* Space Marine command structure. You have a Chapter Master in charge of ten companies? Fine. Under him are his ten Captains, each in charge of ten squads. Wait a minute... ''What happens if a conflict doesn't need a whole company?'' I know the Librarians, Master of the Forge and Chaplains can lead an in-game army, but they're outside the command structure- they wouldn't usually be in charge of a campaign, not being trained tactically. So who takes over if a company needs to split in two?

** It would vary from chapter to chapter but I'd think the most experienced or trusted squad leader would lead his and a couple other squads while the Captain splits off with the rest.

** There was a fiction piece in WD about it, which I think started the whole thing- basically, they went all multicoloured and mutated and turned on the Tau.

*** Not surprising that they would {{spoiler|become Chaos tainted, mutate, go insane and then renegade}}. It is surprising that they would eat flesh from Chaos creatures if they were smart enough not to eat the flesh of Genestealer cultists. Though to be fair, the ones that hadn't eaten the genestealer brood had a shaper with them that could tell that they were infected.

* Where'd this idea that lasguns could blow off limbs come from? In all the years I've been involved with 40K, I never came across anything that said that.

** It's been stated repeatedly within the setting. Lasguns have variable power settings, and at full power they can tear limbs off and shoot through two meters of concrete. I don't remember the exact soucebook (I think 2nd Ed. Imperial Guard Codex?) explicitly mentioned that power level, and both the ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' and ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' books are consistent with this interpretation.

** On that same note, several times in the ''Ciaphas Cain'' novels, someone's been shot, but the medic wasn't too worried about short-term death because the lasgun shot punched through the body and cauterized the wound, so there was no worry about death from bloodloss or infection.

* If Ork tech works as long as they believe it does, why aren't they invincible? Surely one Ork has looted a Rosarius at on point, and having seen what it does, is now bulletproof?

*** Their virus doesn't just kill living things, it breaks down all organic material to an organic, goopy, volatile material. (We know, an actual virus wouldn't work that way.) The material would then turn a planet's surface to an organic bog and then be used to create a firestorm. In the fluff, several sources say that this leaves the world hot enough that the surface would glow for about a month. Also, the planet-killing protonic torpedoes are implied to be to nukes (we know, nukes are fissioning masses of protons), as nukes are to high-grade firecrackers. Or to the very least, as nukes are to conventional bombs.

*** Yes, nukes have their side effects, but isn't it implied that virus bombs are rendered obsolete because ''they feed Nurgle''?

** There are even "rad cleanser" personal weapons, but anything of this sort is considered extremely undesirable. The Imperium doesn't like stuff that messes up the sacred Human genome, as simple as this. And this goes double for even more sacred Astartes geneseed.

* Wait a second, If the Emperor tried to suppress religion in general and the worship of himself in particular, than why are all the 10,000 year old, pre-heresy, irreplaceable machines of war like Imperator Titans and Battleships have all the Gothic-Cathedral aesthetics like stained-glass and gargoyles and [[Bling of War|Baroque-style ornate bling]] on it? Surely skipping those decorative flairs would allow for more resources to be used conquering the Galaxy. Having all those frills was just begging for them to become objects of worship. Maybe use all that metal saved by designing efficiently to make radios for ''everyone'' in the Empire, so the Emperor could have Fireside Chats with his people, and that way they would know not to worship him!

**** Either two possibilities I see. Option two, and GW hadn't considered all of the implications of the religion-inspired violence based on zealotry or misinterpretation being part of the Emperor's plan (or he hadn't realized that would happen). Or option four, probably the latter option four.

** Going way back into the fluff its more a case that the Emperor was Jesus's 13th disciple, its stated that he would had manipulated those who would forever change the history of humankind, the full piece hints that the Emperor "hung out" with Jesus, Da Vinci, Einstein, Galileo, Tesla AND Edison. The whole founding of the Imperium is what happens when he rolls up his sleeves and does the job himself...

* Why is it whenever GW changes the rules or makes edits or... pretty much does anything, that the players always say "It's to sell more models!" It doesn't even make sense! The play-testing and game design division has little to nothing to do with the marketing department! What is this I don't even-

** Chalk it up to [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].

**** Most planets with the resources to make clones have the resources to defend against orbital bombardment.

***** Its implied that the Imperium and the Mechanicus look the other way when it comes to Krieg. Probably due to their soldiers being really good and the entire planet being even more loyal than usual for an Imperial World out of atonement for the earlier rebellion.

* This may sound silly, but work with me here. Now, apparently each space marine has armour that would put some tanks to shame. This would easily make an average marine weigh about 1-3 tonnes at ''least'' (not counting those with heavy weaponry). So, how could an average Space Marine be able to move around in a multiple-floored building, or hell, ''stairs'', without falling through? How would they move through muddy terrain without automatically sinking like a stone? ''WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS IF ONE OF THEM TRIPS OVER!?''.

** Space Marines don't weigh multiple tons, and they have big boots to spread their weight around. They can move through mud just fine. If mud is loose or wet enough to hinder a Marine, it would hinder Guard troops as well. Upper levels of modern buildings are generally designed to handle tons of weights, let alone Imperial architecture. If they trip, they stand back up; they're not bloody turtles.

** Marines would weigh, probably, not quite half a metric ton. They're so well protected because they have [[Power Armor]]. While this does give them considerable protection, the armor not as guaranteed to block a hit from conventional weapons as a tank's armor would. Also, a tank could concievably stand up to a hit that would pulp or vaporize a marine if their armor dodn't stop it.

 

** All of the above. 40K's Chaos Gods are a mixture of both Lovecraftian horrorabominationgods and a more Christian/Abrahamic-style Satan figure. Or rather, they're Satan fused with Cthulhu, for the extra unstoppable evil. It's worth noting that some interpretations and fluff surrounding the Chaos Gods posits them as not a wholly evil force, but rather as a neutral force made up of both good and evil elements; i.e. Khorne is a god of violence and murder but also honor and bravery. Slaanesh is a god of excess but also a god of love and creativity. Nurgle is a god of despair and waste but also a god of endurance and determination, and Tzeentch is a god of scheming and manipulation but also learning and hope.

*** More specifically, they really are pure evil, but embody some positive traits, and also the logical next step these traits can take when corrupted and evil. They just wouldn't be Chaos if they didn't embody how the feelings of mortals can be taken to extremes.

** Who are the C'Tan gods based on? Now those guys are ''really'' Lovecraft-style incomprehensible, especially the Outsider and the Deceiver.

** Because if I'm not mistaken, the Commissars are somewhat unique in that they're supposed to be doing it for the sake of maintaining discipline, as opposed to business as usual. A cat grooms by licking itself, but if you saw a human doing that you'd think he's weird.

** Commissars A) have [[Nice Hat|Nice Hats]], B) have [[Badass Longcoat|Badass Longcoats]], and C) are the only units that routinely execute their men on the tabletop as a game mechanic (excepting Kharn). Thusly, [[Memetic Mutation]].

** Also if you read the fluff, Orks and Dark Eldar are very good at working with each other when attacking other races. They wait until after the battle is over before turning on each other again.

** Commissars kill their own men to prevent them from fleeing, Orks kill their own boyz because of any reason, often for laughs, the Dark Eldar kill their own people because they need to get-off and 7 hour torture sessions are a little too time consuming...

 

** You need to tack about four more zeros on that number listing and you'll have an accurate assessment of Cadia's population.

** Cadian units tend to take far lower casualties than other Guard units because of their extreme training and discipline. Also, Guard regiments have a tendency to "collect" other units that have suffered extreme casualties to add to their ranks, kind of how the Ghosts picked up troops from Vervunhive and the Belladon 81st. The Munitorium will often merge battered units into new ones as well. Coupled together, it makes sense that the Cadians would be able to deploy hundreds of regiments across the galaxy; after a few decades of service, a Guard regiment will likely have a fairly reduced number of genetically-descended troops from the homeworld itself, simply because they'll be picking up new troops in whatever theater they're in. Every few decades a Guard regiment will rotate back to their homeworld to be replinished with fresh troops as well.

** According to the Lexicanum Cadia has a ON PLANET (as in not counting soldiers deployed offworld) population of two hundred and fifty million, somewhat less than the total population of the United states. However, 71% of Cadia's population is in the military, a percentage that virtually none of the nations in the real world have ever, ever come close to reaching. This would mean that Cadia has 177,500,000 (one hundred seventy seven and a half million, or thirty or so million more soldiers than Russia has people) soldiers deployed at any one time which would easily allow for thousands of regiments to send wherever. One can reasonably guess that you would have about that many cadians deployed offworld, so again Cadians can easily be pretty much everywhere.

** Not everyone in a Cadia-pattern uniform is from Cadia.

 

* Why does it seem like every rebellion against the Imperium is Chaos backed? It seems there aren't any rebellions in the background that exist for any other reason other than for the evulz.

** The Imperium doesn't terribly ''care'' about the type of government on a world in question so long as that world pays its Guard tithes, supplies materials for the Imperium, and venerates the Emperor. If the government is democratically elected, they don't care. If the government is a feudal kingship, they don't care. If the new government has just finished murdering the last government and says "Yep, we'll keep sending you men, material, and whatever else you'd like" to the administratum, everyone is happy. Except for the previous government.

** A few sources also mention Tauist rebellions, inspired by propaganda sources which have have fallen into human hands.

 

* Rephrasing this question: Where does it say that Inquisitor Toth was daemon possessed or anything similar?

 

* This is probably easily answered, so I apologize in advance, but there's something I'm confused about. It's said on numerous places on this wiki that if the Emperor ever woke up, he could probably stomp all of the chaos gods into oblivion. If he's that powerful, how was Chaos able to lay him low in the first place?

** The Emperor is more powerful in the Warp than he was in the flesh. In his current state, he's reduced to ineffectiveness, but if he were to die, one of the prevalent theories among one of the Inquisitorial schools of thought is that the Emperor can fully enter the Warp where he can release his full power.

 

* Is there a difference between psykers and sorcerors? From what I've read it seems like there isn't, but sometimes I see something that makes me wonder. Like, arcane runes are mentioned every now and then, and runes generally aren't associated with psychic powers.

** [[Sam and Max|None of your damn business.]]

** Hard to say. She may have a [[Hyperspace Arsenal|pocket dimension in her pocket]], [[Victoria's Secret Compartment|stuff them in her top]], [[Stomach of Holding|swallowed them to spit them back up]], [[Hammerspace Hair|braided into her hair]], [[Trouser Space|kept in her trousers]], or perhaps even kept "in" her [[Ass Shove|trousers]]. Although she's understood to have these, the core rules mention that the model should be modelled with them, if only particularly for the formal games. Creative or [[Character Alignment|Lawful]] players will likely go to the trouble to model a few on her or something that she could carry them in.

*** it could just be a way of showing her skills ingame. Her prowess in combat means that its hard to get the upper hand.

 

* Why doesn't the Imperium make greater usage of Combat Servitors and Robots (The mindless kind that were in the older editions and still pop up from time to time, not the Men of Iron) in concert with Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, Adeptes Astartes, Adeptes Arbites, and Inquisitional forces? Yes there was a little tidbit about Combat Robots winning a battle for a Space Marine chapter and ended up becoming honorary members of the Chapter, but outside of that Combat Servitors and Robots don't seem to appear outside of the Skitarii even though the Adeptus Mechanicus has a presence in virtually every other branch of the Imperial Government and a Techmarine/Tech Enginseer could probably requisition at least a squadron of Combat Servitors or Robots each. And yes I am aware that the AM may not exactly consider Robots to be expendable regardless of how little time and resources went into making one due to their religious view of machinery (though they do seem to regard Combat Servitors as almost completely expendeble.)

** Combat servitors are more expensive and specialized technology than Imperial Guard regiments. With the Guard, you can crank out ten thousand lasguns and sundry low-tech support weapons, hand them to ten thousand men with a month's training in drill and fire, and load them up for a fraction of the cost. Combat-capable sevitors are expensive, human lives are cheap; that's how its always been with the Imperium. Guardsmen are also more adaptable, being actually sapient, so that's a plus.

** As for robots, it's exactly because of incidents like the Iron Men that the Imperium has developed a deep distrust of A.I. They still use pretty simple A.I.s in vehicles and some machinery, that they call the Machine Spirits; but they tend to be simplistic. Any Machine Spirit advanced enough to replace, rather than aid a man in its operation would draw attention from the Inquisition.

 

* What ''is'' the [[Space Marine]] position on the Emperor's divinity? Most fluff says they view him as a very powerful human, but the [[Dawn of War]] marines definitely call him a god.

** It's pretty much ancestor-worship, judging by the Codex. He's a father figure with aspects of [[The Messiah]]. The Eclessiarchy puts up with it becasue they're Space Marines.

*** They don't worship him as a ''god''. The fluff is very clear on this. It's been a point of contention with the Ecclesiarchy for as long as both organisations have existed.

*** ''Some'' don't worship him as a god, even ''most'' don't worship him as a god, but there's nothing that says none of them revere him as a god.

* Are the average citizens of the Imperium (or even the Space Marines) aware of the difference between Craftworld Eldar and Dark Eldar?

** No they look almost identical and your average imperial citizen doesnt even know the eldar exist.

*** [[Fate Worse Than Death|Until it's too late]].

** Ordo Xenos (and thus Deathwatch) knows the difference between Craftworld, Dark, Exodite and Corsairs. And doesn't like any of them. Ordo Malleus occasionally cooperates with certain Craftworlders against Chaos. For average citizen consorting with any alien is heresy, not that they'd expect anything good of ''any'' Xenos.

* What is it about Chaos that makes you [[Evil Is Hammy|hammy]] and [[Card-Carrying Villain|card-carrying]]?

** Hammy? tell that to Eliphas and Magnus The Red. Card carrying is fairly obious anyone who openly serves chaos acknolages that the gods they follow want to kill rape disease and mutate the entire universe ONLY people who are sociopathic monsters would knowingly work with them. There are even cases of people serving Chaos subtley without knowing.

 

* ...Anybody else find that Games Workshop really really likes making the Eldar the whipping boys of 40k these days? Honestly, they're a dying race and older fluff material makes a great impression that they're dwindling but still highly badass, but now GW seems content to have them get their [[Curb Stomp Battle|butts spanked in every fight]] or win a VERY Pyrrhic victory as of 4th-5th edition. Examples. Examples everywhere.

** There are so few tomb worlds that its more unlucky that they ended up on Mars.

 

** Semi-auto is more likely, I think. It's only [[Dawn of War]] that flanderises them into full-auto assault rifles.

*** In Dawn of War 2 and from what I can recall in the opening cutscene to [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]] the bolters were only firing in semi-auto.

** Considering how the setting runs on [[Rule of Cool]], I think they're supposed to be full auto in the other fluff as well.

** The novels seem to suggest the commissar's standard-issue bolt pistol is indeed semiautomatic. The Spess Mehrens could probably mod theirs with belt feeds if they really wanted more dakka.

*** All bolt pistols are semi-auto, even Astartes. [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bolt_pistol#Garm_Pattern_Service_Bolt_Pistol Garm] (Lexicanum says typical for Commissars) and Ceres (usually Navy/Rogue Traders) bolt pistols by RPG stats has ammo 8. Sacristan (made for Ordo Calixis) and Mauler (high-end "normal human" model) - same deal, both ammo 6.

** /tg/ has Deffwotch, Emperasque, etc.

* Why does the fluff give physical attributes to the Chaos Gods and their realms if the Warp is a non-physical dimension?

* What happens if two people kill Lucius the Eternal at the same time? Or if he gets killed by a natural calamity? Or if he kills himself?

** Probably the one who takes the first, or the greater joy from the kill, or Slaanesh flips a coin. Otherwise they'll likely say that the killing blow was just by one of them. The more interesting one , and therefore the more fun, is that they will probably meld together in a parody of a Salvador Dahli painting as they turn into him. If he did die in either other manner, he would logically cease to exist. On the same note, he probably spends most of his time in a starship, cruising and marauding the Imperium, so he would probably not be on a planet long enough to die that way. And that's a boring way to go. Also he would likely never kill himself, since being evil, especially Slaaneshi, feels good.

* Whatever happened to the Star Vampires?

** I think they eventually developed into the C'tan, called Star Vampires in the Necron codex.

** Largely, because the Emperor told them to. It's been verified that the two legions were expunged by the Emperor himself, and told to forget all of them. The worlds conquered by the Legions could have seen them as merely another part of the military force that subjugated them. Not likely but it's possible that these worlds were largely ignorant about these space marines. Other worlds that had been freshly subjugated had probably been ignorant of them, and when the records became available of other Legions, they had already been expunged. Beyond that, the army of civilian, support, and attached allied personnel...they could possibly be following the same thing, but then again, we don't even know if they even lived to remember them.

* Why did Magnus join Horus' Rebellion? He sacrifices his utopian world, legion and place within the imperium, because "the emperor will have need of the Space wolves in the coming conflict" and also to show his father that he acknowledged his mistakes and wants to atone. hell, he outright refuses tzeentch's offer to destroy the wolves before they reach prospero. This is probably as loyal as one can ever hope to be, so why did his legion join Horus after all that?

** Because Magnus and the Thousand Sons get trapped in the Warp and were subverted by Chaos. Being utterly loyal probably made it easier for Tzeentch; the strongest emotions fuel the biggest falls.

* I've seen some fluff about a Necron Lord known as the Silent King forming an ''[[Character Derailment|alliance]]'' with the Blood Angels to repel a Tyranid attack.

** That bit is blown out of proportion on the internet. The fluff bit (which is from the Blood Angels codex) states that the Blood Angels and Necrons were fighting on a planet when the Tyranids showed up. Both sides stopped focusing on each other in favor of not being eaten and manage to beat back the 'Nid invasion. Afterwards, both sides are too depleted and weakened from fighting the Tyranids to pursue further engagements so they just mutually leave the planet. The implication is that it was a temporary truce in the face of a greater threat, not a cultural exchange and pledge of friendship.

** Except the Blood Angels were there to fight the Necrons in the first place, and Dante [[Honor Before Reason|didn't want to fight somebody he was an ally with]].

** No.

** I've seen some articles on the old Games-Workshop page about daemon possessed Tau Battlesuits. Also, it's been stated that the Tau have a minimal Warp presence. Minimal, sure, but they still have one.

* The Necrons hate all life. Hate is an emotion. All emotions are stored in the Warp. Necrons are anti-Warp. How is that possible?

** They have no souls. No souls means no warp presence.

** Emotions are not "stored" in the Warp. The Warp is a realm of pure emotion and thought, and emotion influences the Warp if the one feeling it has a warp presence. In order to do that, you need to have a soul.

*** Emotions do go into the Warp, many of them form daemons, and mass amounts of the formed gods.

* Where did the "C'tan devour souls" bit come from? Forgive me if my knowledge is a bit out of date, but don't they and the Necrons have no real concept of the Warp, and therefore no concept of a soul? I even remember one bit about a demon who was particularly looking forward to the "cast off souls" that result from the Necron harvest.

** The Necron Codex. It says that they used to feed off stars, but when the Necrontyr made contact with them, they began to feed on souls because they tasted so much better. They had a concept of the Warp, they just hate it because it's horrible and only causes problems (especially since their enemies, the Old Ones, were powerful psykers). If a species already has a form of FTL travel that doesn't require the Warp, I think it would be justified in trying to separate that literal hellscape from the material world (especially, once again, if your archenemies feed of its energies). The "soul" thing doesn't make any sense, but souls just don't make any sense in WH40K anyway. Sometimes it's just a life force (Necron Codex), other times it's a Christian concept of a soul (In Imperial fluff), sometimes it's something that the Dark Eldar and Chaos can actually eat (and is it destroyed when its consumed, or just taken and tortured by the gods?), and other times it can basically be stored in a waystone external hard drive (Eldar codex) or even stay in a body part to be regenerated (Dark Eldar codex). The metaphysics of the setting are very inconsistent.

** Genestealers first appeared as enemies in 1989's ''Space Hulk''. Here, they were plagiarized xenomorphs from ''Alien''. Though they appeared all the way back in 1987's ''Rogue Trader'', "Tyranids" as we know them today first appeared in ''Advanced Space Crusade'' in 1990, with biotech and the insectoid-dinosaur appearance instead of their original technological armaments. 1993 brought Warhammer 40K's Second Edition, featuring the first Tyranid codex and complete model range, with the Hive Tyrant, Carnifex, Zoanthropes, Lictors, Biovores, Genestealers, Gargoyles, Warriors, Termagants, and Hormagaunts. They were now an all devouring swarm. 1998 brought 3rd edition, in which Tyranids looked like [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/thumb/f/f0/Codex_Tyranids.jpg/220px-Codex_Tyranids.jpg this]. Starcraft was also released in 1998.

* If the chaos gods are as powerful as generally assumed, why don't they destroy loyalist ships once they enter the warp? Or are we to expect that they cannot overcome some artificial "bubble of real space" in their very own dimension? "Ruinous powers" indeed...

** Mostly because the Chaos Gods don't ''care'' enough to bother with Imperium ships. For the most part, they ignore them because they don't much care whether Chaos wins against the Imperium. They just care that their particular agendas are being pursued. The guys who are generally hostile toward the Imperium and perate under the "Chaos" namesake are mostly mortals who've earned favor of a warp entity of one sort or another.

*** There's also the Gellar Fields that keep daemons out.

*** The warp is a pretty big place, too. In ''[[Ciaphas Cain|Death Or Glory]]'' it's mentioned that an ork psyker attack (launched from a ship in the warp, at other Imperial ships in the warp) would be fatal to its crew because the energy would attract the attention of daemons who otherwise wouldn't have noticed the ship.

* I've always wondered, the fluff mentions in great detail on how a Space Marine is made in great detail especially the various new organ implants. However, are there any moments in the games or novels where a marine actually uses some of these abilities? Examples like the organ which lets them gain a creatures memories by eating it's flesh, or the marines acid spit, or the ability to track down a target by taste etc. Are many of these merely [[Informed Ability|Informed Abilities]]? Though I must admit I've not read that much Warhammer 40k novels so it's probably quite common in them and I don't know about it.

** Yes, they do. Hell, during the Medusa V campaign, there was an entry on one of the despatches for the Dark Eldar where a group of Space Marines had been captured at great cost but ended up escaping due to their acid spit and wreaking havoc inside the entire encampment before escaping.

** The brain-eating memory thing is used in ''[[Soul Drinkers]]''. There's also a scene where a severed Soul Drinker head sprays acid, and it's a sign of how degraded their gene-seed is since that organ doesn't work for Dorn's descendants.

** Ian Watson's ''Space Marine'' novel has a group of marines operating a rebel Titan after eating the brains of its crew.

** Because the Ultramarines are both the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] and the Space Wolves are a fan favorite for their design aesthetic and general demeanor. Ultramarines are hated because they are bland. Hell most of these complaints are true of the Imperial Fists (still keeps their legionary numbers, have the most relics of their primarch, recruits from Earth directly) the Black Templars (more numerous than several of the founding legion, manage to not be bothered by the inquisition despite their flagrant disregard for imperial regulations on chapter size)

*** I was referring to Space Marine, not Ultramarine hatedom. Most of the complaints about the Space Marines, especially the fluff ones, are less applicable to the Ultramarines than most other major chapters.

** Remember that not all mutations are anathema to the Imperium. Certain variations (like Ogryn) are tolerated. And the Space Wolves being good at what they do ''is'' a pretty good excuse. [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You|The Imperium needs all the Space Marines it can get.]]

* Do Sentinel pilots ever get you know... motion sickness?

** They can use cover but they actually do move at normal speed, their tactics are pretty simple if a little weak by the modern standards. The whole firing from the hip makes more sense when you realize they are robots using impossibly advanced technology that aiming may not be necesary.

* Why does the Imperial Guard get screwed so often? They use far more advanced tactics and strategems than the ever-so-hyped [[Space Marines]], namely '''COVER''' and '''ARTILLERY''', their vehicles can chew through xenos like nobody's business, they have immensely greater numbers than SPESS MEHRENS, so from what I've seen, they have quality and quantity, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|yet somehow they're portrayed as bumbling, clueless retards who get by on numbers!]] Not to mention, they actually act like human beings and not one-note bloodthirsty jerkasses, so they're actually somewhat likeable, so really, why?

** Most enemies the Imperial Guard fights fight through fast Hit And Run attacks that the Imperial Guard isn't expecting and which in general attack weak targets. The Guard are very good at fighting enemies who they know are coming and plan for such as Orks there just so happen to be a lot of pirates and raiders in the Imperium.

** The Guard are fighting enemies that are just that damned powerful. Some have much better technology and gear (Space Marines, Tau, Eldar) some are more maneuverable (Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar) some use sheer numbers (Tyranids, Orks) some are just vastly more intelligent (Eldar, Tyranids) and some are '''[[Legions of Hell|MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAKILLMAINMBURNKILLMAIMBURNBWAHAHAHAHAHA!]]'''

** The Administorum, knowing how easy it is for people to fall to Chaos, eliberately give them bad armor and weapons so they won't have a significant advantage if/when they do?

** The Guard isn't screwed all that often, but if they aren't, there's no drama. What's more interesting, a fight between Guard and rebels where the rebels are obliterated without casualties, or one against orks where it goes down to the wire?

* Did the Eldar Empire have any contact with humanity before their fall? Seeing how as they were at their height during humanity's Dark Age of Technology, it seems pretty feasible.

** Yes.

* How do you pronounce the names of the four Chaos gods? I've never played the game but I know about it through cultural osmosis (and tvtropes!).

** Nurgle- Seems straightforward. Rhymes with "burgle?"

**** You seem to be drastically understating the consequences of allowing the Emperor to die. Say that the theory turns out to be false and the Emperor just stays dead. Now the Imperium has just lost its one and only method of FTL travel, effectively cutting all their sectors in space off from one another and leaving them in the dark to be picked off one by one by the Imperium's numerous enemies. Yes, they could try, but they simply have far too much to lose should the plan fail.

*** The bit about shutting down the FTL is especially important. FTL is the only thing keeping the Imperium together. Cut that, and there's no Imperium, just individual worlds that will die off one by one without Guard/Space marine support and interstellar trade. Hive worlds starve, agriworlds have no support to defend themselves, and the enemies of mankind have a field day. They won't risk it for possible zero return.

* In related news, why is the Astronomican made as retarded as possible? 1. It's a beacon, but still needs the Emperor's will to direct its power. Is that so. He's obviously not contributing any power, because he's trapped between life and death and can't do shit. 2. If the Empire's FTL travel uses beacon-based navigation, they are also using coordinates. Now everything in the Milky Way shifts around constantly, but on a cosmic time scale where even 40,000 years is about as significant as a second's fart. And updating the Galactic map would provide a nice bread-winning avenue for that many extra Imperial citizens. 3. It is a [[Card-Carrying Villain|pointlessly evil]] solution. Why have just the one huge beacon that stretched even the height of the Empire's technological progress, and kills every one of its crew within months, instead of building smaller beacons on each world, creating a much more useful signal map in the Warp? 4. Why doesn't it use a lot more psykers, so they don't wear themselves out? If the Astronomican crew would live their full lives, that's two orders of magnitude AT LEAST shaved off the needed number in the long term. Moreover if these people live long enough they can reproduce. Way more Psykers = way more Tyranids etc. rendered extra crispy. The same % would fall to Chaos, so that's not an issue. I know common sense takes a back seat to horror in WH40K, but the Astronomican [[Full Metal Jacket|took a giant shit on]] my willing suspension of dispelief when I read about it.

** ''1. It's a beacon, but still needs the Emperor's will to direct its power. Is that so. He's obviously not contributing any power, because he's trapped between life and death and can't do shit.'' Incorrect. You contribute nothing to the power of a car, computer, or other piece of machinery but you still direct it.

** ''2. If the Empire's FTL travel uses beacon-based navigation, they are also using coordinates. Now everything in the Milky Way shifts around constantly, but on a cosmic time scale where even 40,000 years is about as significant as a second's fart. And updating the Galactic map would provide a nice bread-winning avenue for that many extra Imperial citizens.'' Misunderstanding of the Astronomicon's purpose. It serves as a beacon within the Warp that Navigators use to keep them from getting lost within the Warp, which is unmappable and ever-changing. They have no trouble navigating in the Materium, but they have no FTL ability in the Materium.

** It's also worth keeping in mind that the Imperium is not a society where rational thinking and innovation are values. It's considered outright heretical in some circles to modify technology. This is in addition to the fact that humanity has lost most of its most advanced technology. Much of the Imperium's contemporary tech is based on scavenged remnants from its so-called Dark Age of Technology. There's a very good chance that the Penitent Engine and Dreadknight designs aren't from military templates but civilian ones, such as power lifters or construction units.

* If the Alpha Legion really are undercover Loyalists, how are they keeping their true intentions from the Chaos Gods, who are you know, '''GODS'''?

* Maybe I'm being overly sentimental, especially since it's the game that coined the word "grimdark", but I can't help but feel a little sad about the Eldar's master plan. What's the point of destroying Slaanesh if there are no longer going to be any Eldar around to enjoy the new freedom? On the other hand, it would at least mean no more [[Complete Monster|Dark Eldar]].

** They won't be alive, but at least their souls would be free.

** For another potential bright side: what would become of the Emperor's Children when Slaanesh is no longer around?

* This may seem like a dumb question,but what is the biggest Tyranid ever

 

* Just for the sake of asking,is there anyway that Ollanious Pious could have killed or harmed Horus?

 

* How can you kill Necrons?

* So the necron backstory has been retconned. Does that mean that necron and c'tan-centered novels, like ''Nightbringer'' are now obsolete?

** That's not necessarily the case; perhaps it would be related more to one of the C'tan shards rather than the C'tan itself, and thus fit neatly into current canon.

* If the 41st millennium is the ultimate [[Crapsack World]], then why did the writers create the [[Hope Spot|Starchild theory]]?

** Either they were trying to decrapsackify it, or they were intentionally setting up hope so they could dash it against the rocks.

 

* Who is the most badass human in the Warhammer universe?

* I am no authority on warp travel, but try as I might, I could find no answer in the fluff or elsewhere to the question: Why doesn't Abaddon simply enter real space beyond the Cadian Gate? I know that it's been established that the only stable route from the eye of terror lies here, and Cadia is in the way. I'm just wondering, what keeps Abaddon, or for that matter, any Chaos ship from entering the warp, and just navigating until they reach Terra or whatever other vital system they want to conquer, and return to real space basically on the doormat?

** Even with the help of the Astronomican it's good practise to drop out of the Warp on occasion to get your bearings. Being in the warp for too long completely distorts your perception of time and space, so while you may think that you've been travelling for six weeks and crossing 100,000ly in a strait line, you may reappear four years later and 30,000ly off course (and that would be a mild case).

 

* Why aren't there plasma/melta/laser weapons for Terminators?

 

* Why don't the Tyranids farm? Okay, I realize that sounds absurd, but clearly the Tyranid hive-mind has the intelligence to understand what farming is, and to realize that, having conquered a life-bearing world, it can generate more biomass for consumption by continuing to farm it than by consuming everything and moving on. After all, there is no particular reason to assume that life-bearing worlds are especially common; out of all the planets and moons in our solar system, only one supports a biosphere (yes, it is possible that there are or were microbes on some of the Jovian or Saturnine moons, but nothing like earth). Isn't it kind of shortsighted for the Tyranids to constantly destroy their only food sources? It seems as though the Tyranid hive-mind forces itself to endure constant cycles of feast and famine, when it could easily maintain a steady source of food over the long-term. So why do the Tyranids consistently kill the golden goose?

** Answer? It simply wouldn't be GRIMDARK enough.

** They do. Once the Hivemind caught on the Imperial tactic involving luring large numbers of Tyranids onto a planet and dropping an Exterminatus on it at the last moment, it began seizing worlds and steadily farming biomass off it instead of just eating and moving on.

** They are both incredibly well disciplined and are better armed and equipped than most of their enemies. Think about it their most common opponents are the Orks and Rebellious humans, the latter are usually PDF troops (commonly equipped with poor equipment and poorly trained because the guard snaps up the most promising soldiers and officers) and the former is using tactics even more outdated then the Mordians. They basically lack competetion.

 

** It isn't the only way in or out of the Warp. A ship with a Warp engine can enter and exit the Warp at any time. The Eye of Terror is simply a spot where the Warp intersects with real space, and it isn't even the only one. It's simply that largest.

** How in all of the Imperium would anyone even ''get'' the idea that the Eye of Terror was the only way to enter the Warp? Every single 40k work that involves Warp travel makes it clear that one can enter the Warp anywhere as long as one has the right equipment on their ship. And a Gellar Field generator to prevent getting eaten by a trillion daemons.

*** ''They do exist''. They're implied to be more than a match for the Chaos Gods. They just spend most of their time fighting each other. Occasionally they intercede via Weirdboy Foot of Gork.

 

 

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