I was curious if the Creatures Anathema is going to cover the typical Xenos races we know and love from 40k.

We can probably design Eldar or Dark Eldar from the books we have already, but we don't have a stat generator for them.

We still have no info on Orks, or Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids, Tau, Kroot, or Necrons.

think we might get Squats too?

just some thoughts. because so far all I've seen of Creatures Anathema is critters.

thanks

Enoch

Creatures Anaethaema definately has Eldar, Orks, Genestealers and Lictor Tyranids (just look at the cover preview on the website).

Doubt you'll see Squat as they are no longer in favour by GW.

I'm hoping that Necrons will get some coverage in CA, but if so its the best kept secret ever.

excellent!

I've looked at a couple previews of CA... but hadn't seen any Humanoid or Tyranid xenos. So I'm psyched!

and you know I was joking about the Squats I do have a squad of Squats

thanks for the info.

Enoch Constantine said:

The squats were written out of the GW 40k timeline. One of the Tyranid hive fleets basically swept through the sector they were in and devoured them all.

GW could not fully follow through any themes with the army as a whole.

They tried many times to distance it from the Fantasy dwarf armies and all they could do was Biker Vikings who were far to similar to the various Imperial Guard forces that were taking shape.

GW asked several members of staff to make a new codex for them, but ultimately no one could do anything to the companies satisfaction, so the decision was made to remove them from the playerble armies by way of the "A Hive Fleet Eats Them All" excuse.

Now, as it is there IS a Xeno race called the Demiurg who're suspiciously like the squats, or rather a reimmagined version of them.

They feature heavily in the Spacefleet game, and are mentioned as being allies of the Tau.

They however are NOT the abhumans formerly known as Squats.

However, on the Dark Reign website there IS a dowloadable document for rules on playing one of the few surviving Squats which is very good, it also has rules for Ratlings & Ogryns, the other Abhumans who're not branded as Mutant scum or Xeno filth.

Enoch Constantine said:

Eh, use elves from WFRP, just add Unnatural Agiltiy (X2).

Enoch Constantine said:

Tau are very unlikely. They are not even close to the Calixis Sector (though the novel Scourge the Heretic does mention them). But we do have a Space Marine in Purge the Unclean, add a few chaos mutations to him and you get a Chaos Space Marine.

We are getting Nids, yay. Kroot and Necrons, well I would initially say no, but Kroot are mercenaries and after reading that post about the Halo Devices and Necrontyr, hmmmm.

Enoch Constantine said:

Doubt it, but it would be a nice little surprise.

It would actually be a good move for GW to see what an outside source could do to "reimagine" the Space Dwarves.

Actually I had heard they "wiped" out Squats... but I had thought they were abhumans, like Ogyrn and Ratlings, so they could have fit them in IG. I know the background that they separated from Humanity on heavy gravity worlds, and when the Warp Storms ended, they found em.

Also I found out they claim that the Tyranids destroyed the Squats. Hmmm interesting, maybe I should make a Dark Heresy character mercenary who calls himself "The last Squat"

lol

You know what race I'd like to know about is the Hrud

since all the books talk about that Hrud Fusil (?) that plasma musket

but nothing about the race.

that would be interesting.

Enoch Constantine said:

Unearthed Apocrypha did an article on Hrud, but we did it more in the vein of the original SpaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaace Skaven flavor.

It would be nice to see FFG get a chance to flesh out some of the lesser known or detailed Xenos from 40K.

Hrud are Space Skaven huh? I suppose that makes sense.

I have been looking up Dark Reign and don't see the rules for the abhumans. What section is it located in?

thanks

The Hrud can be found here on Unearthed Aprocryphia:

http://www.geocities.com/peacekeeper_b/apocryphaarticles.html

Also, there is some background-information in a book called "xenology" published by black library. it is out of print now, unfortunatly, but contains some neat inof on several different races from the WH40k background. Including autopsy reports and such in-character stuff

Enoch Constantine said:

Since those Abhuman rules are mine, you may as well go straight to the source: click the link in my signature, below, and then look for the file "Something Other Than Human".

Thats some interesting rules Nathan...

thanks!

Peacekeeper_b said:

To be honest, there were features from those elves that make them more "alien" (despite the silly names) than sometimes we have from the current interpretation by GW, e.g. " Bran Wa Shin ," so I for one don't find that to be too silly of an idea!

Also, Dark Reign contains specific rules for Eldar Outcasts. Might be interesting to compare those when Creatures Anathema comes out. (And the same 'ole soap box of whether there is going to be enough information to effectively play an Eldar, Outcast or not, can also be mentioned again!)

Kage

I'll be rather cross if they never get around to including Tau. And not just stats for individual Tau and Tau weapons, either.

Tau carry great potential for DH games, because they're the only xenos with lots of human sympathizers. Rooting out a cult that's trying to cause a planet to fall to chaos is fairly unambiguously the right thing to do. Violently putting down a political movement that wants a planet to defect to the Tau is more morally interesting, especially if the movement has widespread popular support on the planet and is motivated by past Imperial atrocities.

More dangerous, and an interesting change of tone for the game, would be a group of more powerful acolytes on a Tau-controlled human world, trying to assassinate Tau leaders and incite a human revolt. Ohh, and then they find that many of the humans who are willing to engage in violent rebellion are chaos worshippers... do you warn the Tau about the chaos threat, or use the chaos uprising against the Tau?

Tau would be interesting. Course the Tau don't have many career choices... sure, you can choose a career by the caste you are in, but I'm curious.. Can the other Castes fight if they really don't have any training in that..? I would love more on the Castes: Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Ethereal.