Regarding Necrons:

897.M41 was the first reported contact with the necrons. It´s not beyond imagination that the DW or Ordo Xenos would not report anything on that matter. Especially since they´d probably entirely unaware about the extend of the threat the necron pose.

So we´ve encountered a couple of metal skeleton´ish guardians and a bunch of robot beetles in an acient xeno structure, and now what? Ring the alarm bells at terra? They´d probably wait till they can say a wee bit more than "We´ve found a pyramid shaped xeno structure with some sentinel robots inside on backwater planet whatever-the-heck-4375", before the message goes official.

I wouldn´t bet on their appearance but I don´t think the necs are cancelled out of the setting by virtue of lore inconsistency.

Face Eater said:

But we already know about those; at least in terms of fluff and tabletop rules. It's the work of a few moments to stat them for DW. What's more valuable is new ideas, concepts and things to spark the GM's imagination that aren't orcs, eldar, chaos, tau or necron, or any of the existing 'army lists'.

moepp said:

SPOILER WARNING

There are necrons in the Jericho Reach and they have already made an appearance in something that FFG released.

Alex

Siranui said:

I concur. Stat-ing anything you have 40K stats for is easy. New, innovative, exciting races are much more time-consuming and therefore much more worthy of my money. Looking at MOTX diary entries, I am not sure that is what we'll get though. It sounds as if at least half the book is about expanding rules for Nids and Tau and, yes, Chaos too.

And let's have a look at this:
"Game Masters will find a host of new foes designed to challenge Kill-teams, and players will gain knowledge of these adversaries, as well as guidance and counsel from notable members of the Deathwatch on how best to exterminate each threat. Mark of the Xenos even features new advanced rules for battling hordes of creatures in massive engagements."

So improved horde rules (that's a selling point to me, unless its only 2 pages or so). Much needed. And: new xenos with hints by NPCs on how to find them. That sounds good, doesn't it? Unless it again is only a short chapter.

Nonetheless if it wasn't for horde rules, I'd probably skip the product. It might depend on that chapter in the book. At present I am more inclined to spend money on Achilles Crusade, depending on the exact nature of its contents.

Alex

There are also Necron structures in the Koronus Expanse...

ak-73 said:

Not everyone has a working knowledge of the TT systems though. And even when they do, the realisation in the RPG is often vastly different from what people were expecting.

Although a lot of people would just complain that they haven't done it right anyway

Face Eater said:

Yep, a lot of people will surely welcome known xeno's stats. It's not that I rigidly opposed that either, it's just that I am not sure I will need MOTX. I hope the advanced horde rules include a better mechanic for hordes distributing their fire. Part of a horde should be able to be put on delayed action/overwatch/suppressive fire, so that it for example can keep a kill-team from closing in for the kill or take a charging Assault Marine out of the air.

Alex

ak-73 said:

That's why you have 2 30-magnitude hordes rather than 1 60-magnitude one.

MILLANDSON said:

Even so, that isn't entirely satisfying. Why can't a general command part of his company sponaenously to hold fire in reaction to battlefield events? You see, organization is a strategical choice but reserving fire is tactical in nature much of the time. Personally, I would like to see a mechanic more tactical in nature.

Alex

ak-73 said:

"Discover over 35 alien predators that exist within the Jericho Reach!

This chapter features some better-known aliens such as the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon, the Tau forces of the Velk’han Sept, Orks, as well as more minor species like the shapeshifting Lacrymole,more"

Sounds like you may get what you ask for. Tyranids & Tau are just 2, add Orks, Eldar,Necronsyou've still got 30 left. I just hope there is a little more detail on those remaining 30 species than what the main book had regarding say enslavers. Though personally I welcome the extra info on the existing bad guys as I don't own their codexesLexicanum only tells you so much, I just don't want it to take up too much space.

I do have to say I'm a wee bit disapointed this appears to be a "Adversaries of the Jericho Reach" rather than a real Xenos handbook. I'll be interested to see how many pages they burn on ChaosHeretics...fingers crossed it's light...

I sure hope that "radicals and heretics" refers to those who collaborate with the alien. Though the dude with pointy hatthe wall of chaos text attached to his staff next to that segment is quite unsettling.

@Charmander: assuming that the term "alien predator" stands for an entire race rather than a single specimen is quite optimistic imo.

On the other hand, I would be surprised if any particular species got more than 5 or so entries, so assuming 35 statblocks I would expect at least 7 different species.

Charmander said:

And it won't even be a complete Adversaries of the JR either. I have no problem with seeing Chaos in there, it's useful. Still I am only really interested in the last chapter. Perhaps if I get the book as a gift.... but otherwise... don't think I'll buy it. I wonder how MOTX is going to sell overall...

"Battles are seldom fought to the last man [...]"

These guys have never played classic 40K!

Alex

The Lacrymole?

Now that brings back memories, obscure, brief memories.

Personally I don't have any problem with running Eldar Guardians as a horde. I have a friend that ran an all guardian army so they always seemed like a horde to me! Plus they are citizen soldiers. I don't expect them to be awesome out there. Running a group of 30 as three magnitude 30 hordes would be fine with me. After all, the whole point of the horde rules is to run fights with large numbers quickly, as trying to do a battle with 30 individual troopers would be an utter grind.

Aspect warriors on the other hand I would run as troops/ light elites with exarchs counting as elites. These guys can take on Space Marines very closely. In the tabletop they are better at their specialization but inferior in an other way. For example Space Marines can shoot up Banshees but get killed in melee, and vice-versa for Fire Dragons. And of course the various character types (warlocks, etc) providing the master level. This gives me a good blend of schlubs, cool guys, and "oh crap" for the players to deal with.

I found this thread over in the Rogue Trader Forums a while back, and this discussion of new xenos reminded me of it, so here's a link that I think you might enjoy if you haven't seen it already:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=158&efcid=3&efidt=282950

Defenstrator said:

Nor I.

And I envisage a day when eventually even genestealers could be horded-up to challenge high-level characters.

Basically; if there's more of the bad guys that I can be bothered to keep track of, or enough that I feel it's slowing the game down; they go into a horde.

What i would like is helpful stat blocks, rather than having to look everywhere for a talent or trait, it would like to have all the information at my finger tips when i need it.

I'd also like genestealer cults, Hurd, Demiurge and Jerico Reach based creatures. Oh and really, really big monsters, things on an epic scale!

I am worried about the section on heretics, I don't want to see a rehash on cults and mutants.

From the preview that's available, I'm very, very uneasy and somewhat disappointed. The book is nominally 'Mark of the Xenos' - yet two-thirds of its material is devoted to Chaos and Heretic enemies?

Oh come on...

It's not like we could expect the book to be all/mostly about aliens. There's a lot of threats in the Jericho Reach and the Xenos are only one part of them. And I doubt there'd be enough to spread between three books (chaos, heretics, and xenos). Not to mention that Space Marines aren't prone to ignoring threat to the Imperium, even if they're 'supposed' to be hunting aliens instead of traitors.

Though, if it had been all/mostly Xenos adversaries, then you'd have people complaining about the lack of material on other stuff.

Just because it has aliens, heretics and chaos doesn't mean they will be covered in equal space. I would expect more xenos than the others. We'll have to wait until it is out and someone posts the table of contents.

It's called Mark of the Xeno's, it's represents the enemies that the Deathwatch was formed to combat...

...which includes heretics and deamons now apparently. But what ya gonna do?

Just think, somewhere in the Galaxy there's dejected looking DW kill team who's xeno overlord target has just been stomped by a passing GK squad.

Face Eater said:

Just as with the Ordos of the Inquisition and their Chambers Militant, while the Deathwatch may be focussed upon a particular type of target (in this case, Xenos), doesn't mean they'll ignore other types, particularly given that the Deathwatch has its own agenda and its own priorities beyond the simple matter of jumping up and down upon the faces of aliens. The Grey Knights fight Daemons, yes... but that doesn't mean they don't clash with aliens or heretics as well. Similarly, the Sisters of Battle are primarily concerned with internal religious matters... but if the situation requires that they smite Orks or hold a shrine against a daemonic incursion, they're not going to shrug and say "not my problem".

True, bit you'd think that bearing in mind the book's title, it would be at least 60% about xenos. I hope it will be anyway, because stats for human heretics and for demons are liberally scattered though a bunch of other FFG books that I own.

Well, i for one would like more tau, eldar and necron rules. I find all the nids in deathwatch are far too powerful, both compared to their TT counterpart and background (books etc etc). They made hive tyrant warhound titans!