2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Humanity's Last Stand

2018-05-14T04:09:50Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* But Even Heresy May Not Eternal Lie... */

{{heresy}}

It all began so simply...

A bunch of [[/b/|dipshits]] began posting a series of comics by [[Furry|Jay Naylor]], an avowed furfag, on [[/tg/]]. The comic in question, ''The Fall of Little Red Riding Hood'', started as a slumber party story wherein anthropomorphic wolf slips a roofie to and then bangs the titular Red Riding Hood, after which the comic-series quickly devolved into an apocalyptic, rambling tale in which Wolf-men were invading, using a combination of potions, pheromone cocktails, and sheer [[Munchkin|idiocy]] to corrupt women into wolf-breeding-fodder, topple a kingdom, and where humanity as it were was held at a precipice.

At about this time, [[HERESY|the thread was locked]], the comic itself [[PROMOTIONS|re-posted and re-re-posted]] on [[/d/]]. That would have been the end of it, but [[That Guy|certain powers]] just [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|would not let it lie]]. An [[Alpharius|Anonymous]] posted on /tg/ a few frames of the comic, posing a question to the fa/tg/uys and ca/tg/irls... A question that would quickly blossom into /tg/'s time-honored tradition of [[/tg/ gets shit done|getting shit done]]...

==The Question that Started It All==

Furry Anthros From Another World have invaded, do you:
* Live as a Slave, unharmed but subservient
* Live under wolf rulership, free but castrated

The answer, amusingly, was not one that the original poster ever truly expected: /tg/ chose the obvious answer: [[Imperial Guard|To die standing]]. The resulting backlash against the furries was as no one ever expected, as every major fandom /tg/ has organized together and stood as one, with the same answer: Die fighting, and in doing so, managed to unite that which could never be united; [[Angry Marine]] and [[Black Templars]] players stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the forces of [[Chaos]], the [[Necron]]s, and the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], just to name a few. As one all-too-canny Anon put it:

''"/tg/ takes a trolling attempt by furries and turns it into an effigy of furry hate to the point that space marines and chaos space marines have decided that killing Anthros are more important then killing each other.''

''I think that's taking lemons and using them to beat furries to death. So, well done /tg/"''

Quite.

The thread also had its share of people demanding a [[Saharduin|Sharkgirl]] thread, and assholes screaming about [[Exterminatus|fursecution]], but that's neither here nor there. The true gold was what resulted from the aftermath of this thread of delight: Several in /tg/ began to respond with the fact that [[/tg/ gets shit done|the prospect of the thread could make for a really goddamned interesting P&P RPG plot]]. And thus, the campaigns began. Though the majority were in [[Dark Heresy]] or [[Dungeons & Dragons]], one [[User Talk:Jaimas|dipshit]] decided to get a [[D20 Modern]] Campaign started using d20 Past's Age of Exploration model.

==Campaign Setup==

Basing itself a bit on the aforementioned [[Furry|Jay Naylor]] [[RAGE|comic that made /tg/ apoplectic for several minutes]], the campaign takes place in a war-torn kingdom - the largest one on the central continent the game takes place on - where the forces of Humanity have been at war with their neighbors, the [[Elves]] in the next kingdom over, for over a decade. With the King of the country doing an impression of [[Sigmar]] and leading his troops on the battlefield, the Queen was left to manage the day-to-day affairs of the country, but dark things have been brewing. The Wolven, a race of [[Furry|humanoid wolf-creatures]] with a tribal structure, have been harrying the fringes of this land for ages, striking from the forests and generally posing nothing more than a mild inconvenience. In time, however, they've become a far larger threat; using special potions and magic, [[/d/|they've found ways to entrance female humans, quickly (and extensively) altering their bodies to make them not only wholly subservient to the wolves, but to make it so they breed further Wolves atop this]]. [[Chaos|Several villages have recently fallen]], and the Capital itself has been thoroughly infiltrated by the Wolves themselves, the [[PROMOTIONS|queen likewise corrupted in the process]]. With the armies of man pressed by the threat of the Elves and unable to provide more than basic military defense against the ongoing Wolf Incursions, it [[Grimdark|seems like humanity has little hope for survival]]...

...Enter the party. Taking the role of adventurers, pirates, criminals, retired war heroes, mercenaries, civilians, and more, the party has emerged finding their homeland in chaos, and little standing to stop the Wolves - little, that is, except the party themselves. Unwilling to allow humanity to go quietly - or alone - the party begins to deal with the threat on a small level - starting with a low-level incursion at a border town - before slowly beginning to uncover the real extent of the threat and moving to counter it. Exactly how it flows is dependent on [[Gamemaster|DM]]; [[User Talk:Jaimas|this asshole]] recommended handling it by implementing a basic mission tree with different potential routes to go on dependent upon what the group accomplished. This led to the party organizing a civilian resistance, bringing proof of the Queen's corruption to the King and forcing a (temporary) peace with the Elves, and culminated with the party burning down the entire forest with the bulk of the Wolves' forces with it.

Other variants on the campaign involved a more-political approach, finding ways to infiltrate the Wolves' numbers (I.E. using Druids) and assassinating their leaders, or a more [[Call of Cthulhu]]-esque game where the party learns the horrifying full level of what the Wolves [[Rape|actually intend for humanity]], and must fight a foe mighty beyond their reckoning and with formidable power, waging a personal crusade that may never be acknowledged, but yet may still save humanity as a whole. Yet another canny fa/tg/uy made a Savage Worlds campaign that began with the players escaping a concentration camp of sorts and leading a glorious revolt against the Anthros' rule.

[[Dark Heresy]] variants focused on the various races of the [[Warhammer 40,000|41st Millennium]] encountering a furry race subjugating humanity (and other races) writ large and temporarily declaring a truce, forcing races that would normally drown one another in Bolter fire to put aside their differences - and temporarily put trust in one another - whilst they perform an anti-furry [[Exterminatus]].

There's a ''lot'' of potential here, in other words.

==But Even [[Heresy ]]May Not Eternal Lie...==

In an interesting turn of events, [[Furry|Jay Naylor]] himself has actually pointed out in a sequel of sorts (called "The Cottonwine Field Notes"), that [[Empire|humanity]] got [[/tg/ gets shit done|it's shit together and kicked their collective furfag asses out of their lands]]. Despite the comic generally being an excuse to provide more [[heresy]] (I.E. [[PROMOTIONS|porn]]) under the guise of a research paper (written by an [[inquisitor]], no less!), this possibly shows that even he did not, in fact, ''completely'' abandon his humanity.

The first theory is that Naylor knew full well what he was writing: a quick and dirty fetish comic that prioritized porn over plot. This is obvious when you look at the excuse made to have orgies happen in the first place: the narrator, the heretic Little Red Riding Hood, is dismissive at the prospect of her tribe of [[gnoll|wolves in loincloths]] ever being beaten by an onslaught of [[Warlord|rich and trained]] [[Paladin|religiously-motivated]] [[Knight|steel-age knights]] whose king is fanatical and popular enough to declare crusades. The second theory, is that he went full-speed backpedaling after the powerful response most ''sane'' people had while pointing out all of the above. In this way, not only [[fa/tg/uys]] have stood up for humanity, but many others took a nod from them, and did as well.

[[Fist of the North Star|And at least that was enough to scare a furry back in line]].

And that is ''[[/tg/ gets shit done|awesome]]''.

[[Category: Roleplaying]][[Category:Dungeons_&_Dragons]]

Doom

2018-04-13T20:55:52Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

"They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''." 
- A direct order from what is either God's seraphs or [[Khorne]] himself

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3d slaughterfest, ''Doom'' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/.

Minimalistic in plot, Doom is easy to grasp; you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else on the planet. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. And, for the time, it was incredibly dark and gory. To put it in perspective, there's still people playing it and hacking around with the source codes for it to make funner games to play - there's even a [[monstergirls]] modhack being churned out, complete with hand-drawn artscenes and a complete revision from "kill the demons" to "fuck the demons into submission". Hell, Final Doom is a compilation of maps made by two out-of-company designers made just because they could in the 90's!

According to the latest iteration of Doom, the Doom Marine has been tearing up demons from not just one, but ''multiple'' realities, becoming a literal boogieman for the forces of Hell. In that case, the [[Chaos Gods]] better hope that Doomguy never finds his way into their reality, or else they'll quickly learn the true meaning of [[Rip and Tear]]. After all, [[Kaldor Draigo|they've got enough of guys like him as it is!]]

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook.

==Adaptations==
===Vidya===
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody, but not afraid to take breaks for scares, either; there's some really creepy levels in there. Doom II, meanwhile, was even faster-paced, a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest that defined the game and the FPS genre in the eyes of its fandom. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) There were some other adaptations, an N64 port that played up the scary and Final Doom for the PS1 which had a bunch of fan maps being the most significant of them.

In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along, following in the example of Doom 64 (the little-remembered N64 port) as a slower-paced, creepy, almost Survival Horror themed game. The plot tries to be a bit deeper, with this prophecy about an alien weapon capable of killing the denizens of Hell once said denizens break out of a UAC portal. There was an expansion pack/semi-sequel in "Resurrection of Evil" that follows up a bit later with an unethical scientist [[Heresy|trying to get his hands on an unholy artifact]] while the new PC tries to keep it out of Hell's hands. Altogether, Doom 3's not a bad game, but it's not the same action-packed thriller that people were expecting after Doom II, wasn't nearly as mod friendly, and Doom eventually went back into obscurity.

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original, kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that this Doomguy could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Demonkind collectively shits itself as the [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SealedBadAssInACan Sealed Badass in a Can] is unleashed to [[Rip and Tear]] once more.

No, seriously, you're told to "Rip and Tear until it is done" in the opening narration.

The original was very mod-friendly in its day, and several mods and fan-games are available for the first two titles. One of the most famous is the [http://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom Brutal Doom] mod, that adds lots of dismemberment and gore to the game, but also a number of gameplay tweaks to give weapons useful trade-offs rather than each being a strict upgrade of the last, and "Glory Kills," melee-based finishers (then known as "fatalities" - yes, there is Sub-Zero's "rip skull along with the spine" finishing move). There is also [http://doom.chaosforge.org/ Doom the Roguelike], which somehow does a very good job of merging the notoriously cerebral and complex gameplay of a roguelike with the fast-paced demon-blasting of ''Doom'' into a surprisingly successful experience. Both included elements that were grafted onto the May 2016 Doom.

===Comic===
The only thing you need to know about it is that it's a masterpiece of absurdity and comedy that only the 90's could make. Sure, it's only one issue that was released back in the days of the first games, but each page of it was just that fucking [[Rip and Tear|'''STUPID''']] that you had to see it to believe it!

[http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ No, really. '''READ IT'''.]

===Board Game===
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.

===Movie===
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

[[Category:Video Games]]

Skyray Missile Gunship

2018-03-10T20:47:10Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* Tabletop */

[[Image:Skyray.jpg|right|450px|thumb|Functionally the [[Tau]] equivalent of the [[Predator Tank|Predator]] in that it's a decent choice that is traditionally outclassed by other available options.]]
Oh, the '''Skyray'''.

Sweet, beautiful, underappreciated Skyray.

It will never be as common as the [[Hammerhead Gunship|Hammerhead]], or Broadside [[Battlesuit]] teams, nor will it ever be as celebrated, and yet it remains there, acting as the favorite Heavy Support choice of Ninja and Infiltration [[Tau]] strategies everywhere. Notable mostly for the rather unique (and useful, dammit!) rules behind its main weapon, a battery of 6 seeker missiles, it is a fairly versatile weapon platform. Unfortunately, it's pricey, and takes up the oh-so-essential heavy support choice slot in a given Tau Army—which, unless the army in question is either heavily focused on mobility or has more than the usual ass-load of [[markerlight|markerlights]] in it, generally isn't a nice thing.

The TX78 Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship serves the [[Tau Empire]] as a perimeter and air-defense vehicle. Based on the Devilfish chassis, it is armed with deadly Seeker Missiles for the application of accurate firepower. They are rarely encountered in large numbers, with usually a single Sky Ray per Hunter Cadre, though more may be stationed to defend important targets. The Sky Ray is a known supporter with the policy on the [[Rape|"Macross Missile Massacre"]] which is the over reliance on killing the enemy with countless amount of missiles till it resembles explosive rain. The [[Imperium]] [[Deathstrike Missile Launcher]] and [[Manticore Launcher Tank]] are also firm supporters of the policy.

Still, it's a fun vehicle and genuinely useful if used correctly, so it gets a nod here.

==Overview==
Each of the Sky Ray's Seeker Missiles guided by the vehicle's marker light target designators. The marker lights usually scour the sky to find and lock on the enemy aircrafts. Then the automated systems of the Sky Ray quickly calculate how many missile needed to launch (from 1 to 6), which depends upon target type, speed and range. The Seeker Missiles are so fast and accurate that enemy pilots often don't have time to react and take an evasive maneuverer (unless if it is an [[Eldar]] of course, these fuckers can evade anything).

The Sky Rays also used in a ground assault role, but they can't operate for too long because of lack of ammunition. So most of the Tau commanders avoid to use them in ground operations.

The single Sky Ray often attached to a Hunter Cadre, so they are rarely encountered in great numbers. Also Sky Ray may be included as a part of defensing force for Tau airfields, headquarters or other important or vulnerable locations.

==Weaponry & Armour==
[[File:Skyray_tan.gif|340px|right|thumb|Noble Ethereal, I have located Gue'la plan-wait a moment, these aren't Gue'la avionics...these are...BY THE [[Greater Good|GREATER GOOD!]] NOBLE ETHEREAL THESE ARE ELDAR AIRCRAFT! OH SHIT WE ARE SO FU-{{Blam|*BOOOOMMMM!*}}]]
The Sky Ray carries six Seeker Missiles mounted in a 360° traversable turret. It also mounts a pair of networked Markerlights and a Target Lock support system, allowing the Sky Ray to aim and fire its own Seeker Missiles against two separate targets at once. Secondary armament is either a pair of independently-aimed burst cannons, a pair of Gun Drones or a Smart Missile System. This weaponry is aimed and fired by the Sky Ray's dedicated weapons operator.

In addition to its standard weapons, control and communications systems, the Sky Ray is equipped with retractable landing skids and can be further modified with additional upgrades, though it lacks room for mounting additional Seeker Missiles.

The Sky Ray is protected by the same nano-crystalline alloy used in the armour of other Tau vehicles, the composition of which is as yet unknown. While lightweight and malleable, the metal is strong and corrosive-resistant, providing good protection while cutting down on weight, improving the vehicle's speed and flight characteristics. However, the Sky Ray does not mount as much armour as seen on the Hammerhead Gunship which, combined with its limited ammunition, resulted in most Tau Commanders avoiding their use in protracted ground engagements.

==Tabletop==
The Skyray itself is a gunship—a classification the Tau have also given to the Hammerhead, since it's designed to be a support unit. It boasts surprisingly heavy armor (for a Tau vehicle), and has the natural ability of Tau vehicles to pack on a field and get a cover save. What truly sets it apart from other vehicles, however, is that its main weapon—seeker missiles—don't quite work like any other weapon in 40k.

Fans of the [[Imperial Guard]] have a love-hate relationship with the [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]. Whilst it can give a vehicle first-strike punch due to its unlimited range, it usually costs too much and is too wonky to be considered a serious anti-vehicle option. The Skyray gets around this problem by means of simply being a carrier for a large number of the Tau's nifty-swell precision-guided missiles—and is noteworthy in that it is not the source of its own missile attacks (usually).

See, when [[Tau]] Pathfinders or the like [[markerlight]] something, the markerlight counters are normally spendable on improving a unit's BS, or reducing an enemy's cover save. If you have a Skyray, you can spend a point launching one of the Skyray's seeker missiles at it. These missiles not only boast unlimited range as well as firepower equal to a Hunter-Killer missile, but they don't even need line of sight to drop a missile strike. In other words, the Skyray can provide long-range support and provide [[Indrick Boreale|multiple simultaneous and devastating defensive]] missile strikes as long as it has markerlight support. It's particularly effective at [[Rape|butt-fucking]] Tyranid monstrous creatures and light or medium armor that thought it had a helpless unit for prey, not realizing that the squad could call in a cruise missile from the Skyray.

In a pinch, the Skyray has 2 markerlights of its own—and yes, it can lock and fire its own missiles in said pinch. If that's not enough, it also can pack [[burst cannon|burst cannons]], [[gun drone|drones]], or a smart missile system (the latter being widely acknowledged as the better option) to deal with infantry units or <s>heavy infantry, respectively</s> S5, AP5 won't really cut it against heavy infantry. With its solid armor, the Skyray won't usually suffer for the change of pace, since no matter what action it takes—shooting its main weapons, dropping markerlights, or even parked in your deployment zone acting as a fuck-bus for a very bored Shas'ui—it's going to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done, /tg/ style]]. And most likely, not during its own firing phase.

If all else fails, the Skyray can stand still for a turn, fire off its networked markerlights, then fire its seeker missiles as regular weapons; using this you can launch up to six missiles at BS6 instead of two missiles with Ignores Cover. Say goodbye to that Command Squad or group of Berserkers.

===8th Edition===
The Skyray started 8th edition as being pretty terrible. Luckily the Tau codex proper is trying to fix it.

With two markerlights, six seeker missiles, and a burst cannon, the Skyray relies once again on the markerlight and seeker missile rules. At the start of the battle, Seeker missiles only hit on a 6+, and this restriction only goes away if you can score markerlight hits. One markerlight on a target lets you re-roll ones to hit, and two marker lights on a target lets you fire Seeker missiles at normal BS. So what do the seeker missiles themselves do? Well that was the sticking point: in the Index they were a guaranteed mortal wound. Yes, just one. Maximum of six ''per game''. Keep in mind, the Imperial hunter-killer missile deals D6 damage, and a Las-pred deals an average of 2d6 damage ''a turn'' (4d6 under optimal dice rolls). Luckily the codex fixed this, and Seeker missiles are once again using the hunter-killer missile profile, bringing it back to roughly where it was sitting in 6th and 7th edition.

==But Then, Hammerheads==
"But wait!" yells the concerned non-Tau player, perplexed by this article, "This unit sounds awesome. Why isn't it used that much?"

The answer is simple: [[Railgun|Railguns]].

The Tau [[Hammerhead Gunship]] and Broadside [[Battlesuit]] are both heavy support choices, both have AP1 Railguns (the Hammerhead with S10 and one shot or a Broadsides squad with S8 and three shots,) and Railguns will ''never'' disappoint as an antivehicle option - whereas the Skyray's missiles are S8 AP3 - great for busting open enemy Crisis Suits (lol) and the errant [[Carnifex]], but horrible against the big scary AV14 Armor that tends to hit the table when fighting [[Space Marines]], [[Chaos Space Marines]], or the [[Imperial Guard]]. The Skyray's deficiencies are especially notable on more conventional Tau army lists; whereas one can take a Hammerhead on virtually any mission without becoming a liability, a Skyray can be mighty difficult to justify when its lowered performance against [[Predator Tank]]s and [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]]s causes glancing hits as opposed to penetrating ones (though the Skyray ''is'' just as durable as more conventional tanks, if not more so).

Even though the Skyray can provide multiple support strikes in the same turn, it's simply just not as good as other choices. Heck, even the Hammerhead can double as an anti-infantry weapon too, since it has submunition rounds that also ignore cover and cover a wider area. No matter how boss the Skyray is (and it's very, ''very'' good), it will never be able to hold a candle to the undiluted armor-rape that are Broadside/Hammerhead Railguns. On top of that, the Skyray isn't even that much cheaper than other options; even if it were considerably cheaper, it still wouldn't really justify taking up precious heavy support slots.

Further, as good as the Seeker Missiles are for wiping out things like heavy infantry or light to even medium vehicles, they lose again to the Hammerhead. While most people grab Hammerheads for the delicious S10 railgun, they are also capable of mounting an Ion Cannon that offers S7, AP3, Heavy 3 that could probably bust a Sentinel squadron wide open, or S8, AP3, Blast when Overcharged to instagib a squad of Marines. And while the Skyray can provide six Seeker Missiles a turn, the ammunition is limited compared to the constant shooting the Ion Cannon offers.

Even if a player really wants to include seeker missiles, the Skyray does not own a monopoly on them. Though it brings more of them to the table than any other one source, many other kinds of Tau vehicles can mount a pair of seeker missiles each, including the [[Devilfish]], [[Piranha|Piranhas]], [[Razorshark Strike Fighter|Razorsharks]], and hell, even Hammerheads can mount a couple or Broadsides can mount one each, giving you railguns ''and'' seeker missiles in the same package and without taking up extra unit slots. The Skyray is certainly helpful in getting them, but by no means critical.

Also there's the fact that it used to cost more base than a Hammerhead, only had 6 shots (that could be fired all in one turn for some douchey and ''hilarious'' extermination of that precious little Carnifex over there) and thus become a floating, overpriced smart missile system, and of course in 5th edition's focus on mechanized play players would do better to take the seeker missiles on all their vehicles, thus spreading them out and reducing the chances of a single shot taking out all your HK knock offs. The weakening of vehicles in 6th has not been kind to it either, especially now with the emphasis on fliers and the Broadside's superior ability to take them on (since you can get a Broadside with Skyfire for 20 points less at minimum that can fire the same number of shots over the course of a game and isn't beholden to the luck of your markerlight rolls, or for 50 points more than a bog standard Skyray you can get ''two'' Broadsides with Skyfire and the ability to spit out twice as many shots as a Skyray over the course of a game).

==However...==
On the other hand, the Skyray does have a few uses on the battlefield. It works very well with mechanized Tau and Battlesuit-heavy lists (esp. Ninja Tau), since these are less likely to have oh-so-precious markerlights, and a number of Tau armies field one to back up their Broadsides and/or Hammerhead - since it's kind of hard to argue that seeker missiles ''aren't'' fun as hell to use. Armies which use fucktons of markerlights frequently have several, since one critical advantage the Skyray has over the Hammerhead is that it can fire numerous times in one turn if the markerlights allow for it. Another key advantage is that again, Skyray missiles ignore line of sight restrictions and terrain obstacles when fired at their target - this makes Skyrays far more useful in urban combat scenarios, since they'll never have to shoot through terrain obstacles to get at their targets. The Skyray also has a velocity tracker alowing it to have two skyfire markerlights, turning it into a formidable anti-flyer weapon.

The point is that Skyray Missile Gunships have their uses, provided you consider their strengths correctly. They may not have the raw firepower of Hammerhead Gunships or Broadside Suits, but the ability to drop extra markerlights or provide highly accurate indirect fire support anywhere a markerlight is drawn can be quite useful under some circumstances.

==And then 7E==
With the removal of requiring armies to follow the Force Organization Chart, nothing is stopping you from saying "fuck the formation bonuses" and picking up one of these in addition to your other heavy support options. The wisdom of doing this is completely solid! After alpha striking with 6 missiles on turn 1, and disembarking their drones, Skyrays form assault shields with markerlights that are hardly worth the opponent's trouble to kill. There's also, of course, the possibility of loading up on all the Skyrays you can get your hands on and making a list with them, so you can FIRE ZE MISSILES turn one for an absolutely hilarious game for both sides.

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Markerlight

2018-03-09T06:16:04Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

[[File:MARKERLIGHTS.png|thumb|right|300px|Their glorious light will illuminate the grim darkness of the 41st millenium.]]

'''Markerlights''' are laser pointers with attitude, and a key component of [[Tau]] strategies. Not to be confused with the [[Lasgun|angry flashlight]], which is a [[Matt Ward|useless pile of shit]], and therefore the opposite of a markerlight. Every Tau player should be campaigning to make [[Rule 34]] apply to markerlighting, though I'm probably woefully innocent and it probably already does.

Whereas most armies in 40k <s>are</s> were really loosely based on older medieval themes (Black Templars on the Crusades, most Chaos on Viking pillagers, etc.) the Tau are vaguely based on modern military tactics and technology. This is most obvious with the markerlights, based on real life laser guided ordinance, especially the seeker missiles mentioned below. It's barely science fiction, first-world militaries are testing storing missiles away from the front lines until scouts and saboteurs identify a remote target and light it up with a souped-up laser pointer, letting the artillery back at base fire a missile for maximum damage at minimum risk.

==Tell Me More==
Markerlights hits are put on enemy units by Tau units that are equipped with markerlights, who 'fire' them using their Ballistic Skill as if they were lethal weapons (which, as every Tau player with a serviceable IQ should know, they totally are, indirectly speaking). They're functionally laser designators, and each hit puts a markerlight counter on the target. Markerlight counters can be removed to do one of the following:

* Improve one of your units' (which is firing at the markerlighted unit) BS by one (with no cap as of 6th Edition). So basically, your standard Fire Warriors can potentially become as accurate as the [[awesome|FUCKING AVATAR OF KHAINE]].
* Ignore the cover save of the markerlighted unit (by spending two markers) so that [[RIP AND TEAR|FUCKING UNIT OF CAMO-COVERED BASILISKS BEHIND THAT DAMN AEGIS CAN'T HIDE ANY MOAR]]! Ahem...back to [[derp|the Greater Good]].
* Fire a seeker missile from a vehicle with BS5, Ignores Cover and Homing (no line of sight required), and it doesn't count toward the amount of weapons that vehicle can fire per turn. The rest of the weapons on the vehicle have to fire at the same target, however. This one is awesome when that 8-point [[Devilfish]] seeker missile blows up a 250-point Defiler - yes, I have seen it happen.

And due to the fact that the markerlight does not inflict wounds on its target, the target does not get to save against the markerlight hit—no Cover Save, no Invulnerable Save, no Armour Save. This might not seem all that great until you realise that when you hit on a BS3 and your opponent has an Invulnerable Save of 4++, that's half your squad hitting, and half of those hits doing damage, on average. With markerlights you can, and will, make all of those shots hit before any further saves are made, effectively doubling the danger that one Fire Warrior squad poses to any enemy squad.

The only few exceptions of this are Eldar Super Heavy and their "reroll to hit with 4+" holofields. <s>Luckily, you aren't going to face this bullshit unless you're stupid enough to play a sorry excuse of a game, which current Apocalypse is.</s> Escalation says hello.

And that's not even the full extent of it!

Suffice to say, this is [[awesome]] and a component of what makes the [[Tau]] fun to play, since the markerlight support is so versatile and useful. Hell, entire combat styles can be built around the strategy of mass-markerlights and using Skyrays as artillery pieces, which, frankly, is sweet. There's also a lot of ways to get markerlights on the tabletop, from the heavily-armored [[Skyray Missile Gunship|Skyray]], to the mobile [[Tetra]] skimmer and stealthy [[Remora]] drones, to the lowly Pathfinder. Markerlights of any stripe act as a force-multiplier for the Tau, so if you play Tau, you want to keep them close enough to target the enemy but with enough breathing room to pull back when targeted in turn. Contrarily, if you are playing against Tau, you want to kill those damn little target-painting blue commies as quickly as possible and make the entire Tau strategy fall apart. Just make sure it is not [[Not as planned|another damn lure]].

For the Tau players, remember that almost all sources of markerlights (except the commander bomb and [[Skyray Missile Gunship|Skyray]] with its AV13 front armor) are really squishy and will go down like a sack of wet shit if targeted properly. If you are going to use them as a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distraction]] then make sure they're in thick cover.

== Getting Markerlights ==

Yeah, we told you why and how markerlights are [[awesome| the goddamned center of your strategy]]. Now it's time to explain how you're going to get them out onto the battlefield to light up your life. (Note: This is limited to units and wargear from the base Codex, so if someone wants to add the Forge World stuff later, please do so.) Now with Forge World love.

=== Troops ===

Fire warriors do have access to markerlights, but they're permitted only one per squad. By upgrading one Shas'la to a Shas'ui (squad commander) he is allowed to take a markerlight and target-lock package deal, in total costing 34 points (9 for the Warrior, 10 for the Shas'ui upgrade, 15 for the markerlight and target-lock). One markerlight per squad might seem pointless, but it's the target-lock you want to look at. Your Shas'ui can now fire at another unit on the table seperate from his own unit's current target, effectively chaining his markerlight for another squad to fire at or to launch a desperate seeker missile. Not the most reliable tactic, but it's important to remember, especially for low point battles (500 or less).

=== Elites ===

Crisis suits don't have access to markerlights of their own, but they do have the option to take up to 2 drones each, meaning a squad of 3 Crisis suits can have up to 6 markerlights firing at BS2 (BS3 if you take a drone controller, though to be honest there are better ways to use that item). This choice is helped by the low cost for Crisis suits (22 points each), meaning you just got a 146-point (66 for suits, 72 for drones, 8 for controller) deep-striking blob of markerlights ready to drop wherever you want it. Alternatively, Stealthsuit team commanders can gain access to the marker light and target-lock combination the Fire Warrior Shas'ui can get, except with them you can have 2 per team and a higher degree of survivability. Having not tested this out yet, I can't speak to the effectiveness of this tactic, but Infiltrate, a 3+ Armour save, a 4+ cover save and a stimulant injector on your Stealthsuit Shas'vre commanders makes for a much more durable and [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX| aggravating]] target than some poor sap in the rank and file.

=== Fast Attack ===

Pathfinders. Pathfinders are the main source of markerlights in your army, and you need to remember a few facts about them: one, these guys are appreciably squishier than your Fire Warriors; two, they have (usually) inferior standard weapons without special drone support; three, they're scouts, meaning you can, and will, move them about before the battle begins. Seriously, these guys are the third squishiest unit in your army (the squishiest being the Kroot and Ethereals) and you are going to want to keep them behind cover and out of charging distance. Don't worry about them using markerlights on enemies in cover though; as long as you can draw line of sight, you can hit with a markerlight as your opponent gets no cover save against it. Also, they're infantry, so if you want them to move about the battlefield you are going to need to get them a Devilfish so they aren't arriving a day late and a dollar short. Next up, drone squadrons: how do they do in comparison to Pathfinders? Not badly; while they've got a higher base cost, worse leadership, lower BS, and can't take both a weapon and a markerlight, they've got better armour (4+), higher Toughness, higher Initiative, can deep-strike, and are counted as jetpack infantry (jump-shoot-jump), meaning if they do get in combat you might actually get lucky and pull them out without getting completely fucked by a lone Guardsman. You've also got the Sun Shark Bomber, a flyer with pulse bombs, two unique drones and a '''NETWORKED''' markerlight. Why did I highlight 'networked'? Because you can fire it and the unit that fired it can benefit from it. Duh. This is especially useful for a high-speed bomber as you can use it to reduce the scatter of your bombing run, take out opposing fliers with ease or just assist the efforts of the footslogging masses below; this gives your relatively average flyer a wealth of tactical versatility, something the Tau already have in droves, but should never pass up. This thing force-mutiplies itself, and considering how the game is becoming more flyer-heavy, this is a good way to make sure that your flyers retain their aura of danger. You've only got an AV of 11 on the front though, so don't get too carried away.

=== Heavy Support ===

For a section entitled Heavy 'Support' there are not many markerlights here—only 2 sources, and neither of them can put out a decent volume of markerlight hits. First up we've got the Skyray Missile Defence Gunship, a modified Hammerhead that carries 2 networked markerlights and 6 seeker missiles, and that's it's selling point. This thing is the producer of first turn Macross Missile Massacres, as it can deliver its entire payload on the first turn provided you have enough markerlight support, and if you play with a group of people who allow you to have infinite seeker missiles on your Skyray, then this is a cheesetastic hate machine, providing missile storms every turn that will cause [[Butthurt Marines|much hurt in the butt]] of your opponent. Granted, the only people who offer that rule have something to gain from it as well, so be careful lest your glee turn rapidly to pain and tears, but it's fun while it lasts. Another fun tactic is to give your Skyray a velocity tracker (which grants it Skyfire), meaning that its networked markerlights allow it to fire two BS5, S8, AP3 missiles at enemy aircraft, leading to fun times. (As of 6E, the velocity tracker comes as standard.) The other source of Heavy Support markerlights are the Firesight Sniper Drone teams, which consist of 1 controller and 3 Sniper drones. The controller is equipped with a pulse pistol, a drone controller (meaning your sniper drones fire at BS5) and a markerlight, letting him help his less accurate footsoldier brethren in a variety of ways. You can have up to 3 marksmen in a sniper team, but at 13 points each, it's an expensive method of getting markerlights. They are well-suited to mop-up duty, letting their drones shoot first, then hitting the remains of the enemy squad with their markerlights for any other units to clean up what they don't shoot dead.

=== HQ ===

There's a reason this section is left for last. Most of the markerlight strategies for your HQs are built off of the strategies that your other units use. For example, both Darkstrider and the Cadre Fireblades have access to markerlights, but Darkstrider is basically just a souped-up Pathfinder, and the Cadre Fireblade is just a souped-up Fire Warrior Shas'ui (he even comes complete with his own target-lock). A unique method for HQ markerlighting comes from the XV8-05 Crisis Battlesuit Commander. What you're probably going to do if you want to flood the table with BS5 markerlights is to take him with a drone controller, 2 Shas'vre bodyguards, and 6 marker drones, and then attach him to a drone squadron made of marker drones, making for a total of 14 (as the commander won't be able to join both his bodyguards and the drones) BS5 markerlight hits dropping out of the sky into your opponent's backyard. A good way to make your opponent shit bricks.

Now Forge World has given the Tau new ways to get markerlights in the HQ section. Commander R'alai and his Blacklight drones and the XV84 crisis suit.

R'alai is a pretty good HQ choice but not for markerlights. You can read more him on main Tau Tactic page. But he does come with two blacklight marker drone. Don't get excited all they are are markerdrones equipped with a blacklight filter. They ain't even networked. In short get R'alai for R'alai and accept the drones as a free bonus. If you want more markerlights you are better off getting somewhere else.

The XV84 Crisis suit is a signature sysyem crisis suit. For a flamer and a plasma pistol you get a networked markerlight and a target lock. Before you slap this in your commander or his bodyguard that it is a weapon system and the muti-tracker only let's you use two weapons. It's not a bad system but needs a unique suit build to get the most out if it. A body guard armed with this system, shield generator, stim injector and your favorite suit weapon might be the best way to go. Makes for a useful whipping body that still fires two weapons a turn.

== Using Markerlights ==

We've covered how you can get your markerlights onto the field. Now let's talk about using them to get your opponent off the field.

Now I hate repeating myself and repeating what other people have said, so go look at the top of the page and see those 3 bullet points. That's what you can use markerlights for. Read those bullet points and familiarise yourself with them; you're going to need to.

===Increasing BS===

First things first: you are playing Tau. You're a [[shooty]] (<strike>arguably</strike> the shootiest in 40k) army, you can outrange most people, and you can put out a suprising amount of fire and firepower at those ranges. None of that means shit, though, if you can't hit shit, and despite their style of warfare, the Tau are not naturally amazing at aiming. They are merely good at it. BS3 means your Fire Warriors and Pathfinders are only going to hit 50% of the time, and a S5, AP5 basic weapon means that most things are going to be able to save against their weaponry, even if it easier for them to wound than most other basic infantry. So with 50% of your shots hitting and a little more of those remaining shots causing wounds if you're fighting other basic infantry, at full range that's only around 3 or 4 wounds, even from a full Fire Warrior squad of 12 firing 12 shots. After Armour Saves, you'll kill maybe 2 or 3 guys on average, which seems like it should be a higher number coming from an army that specializes in ranged combat. Even with armies that field endless, teeming blobs of fodder for their Troop choices (Tyranids, Imperial Guard) whose basic troop saves you'll ignore anyway, you want more than just half of your shots to hit. Seeing as there is no limit on how much you can boost your units' BS with markerlights, if you want to, you can make those Fire Warriors BS 10, making that 1 in 2 miss chance a 1 in 36 miss chance on 12 shots at 30" and on 24 shots at 15". What this means is that without markerlights, you have an army of dudes who wouldn't completely embarrass themselves at the weeaboo gun range, and with them, you have an army of blue Annie Oakleys who could repeatedly shoot cigars out of an Ethereal's mouth without incident.

What this also means is that your opponent is going to target your markerlight units, and he is going to kill some of them, probably with concentrated fire and a shit-eating grin as he thinks he has just disrupted your entire strategy. If he has just wiped out all of your markerlights, then what the fuck is wrong with you, you had all of them out on the table straight away. Keep a couple back in reserve and then place them away from the assembled masses that your opponent just used to wipe out your lure(yeah, I got all your weaboo laser pointers WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT OHGOD). They should be safe as markerlights max out at 36", outranging most Tau weaponry itself. This way, you can have your opponent zigzagging all over the table trying to decide which markerlight squad to take out first.

===Ignoring Cover===

Next up is Ignoring Cover, the most expensive ability of markerlights. This allows you to nullify your opponent's cover saves for 2 markerlight tokens. If I need to tell you why this is a good thing, then obviously you haven't been paying attention to recent waves of cover-based FPS vidya games. Let's just say that having a Hammerhead railgun salvo smash through the [[METAL BOXES|METAL BAWKS]] that [[Fish_of_Fury|your opponent is hiding behind]] and turning your target into a fine cloud of red mist is never a bad thing, mostly because you want your Hammerhead to be dealing with enemy armour, and Jink is fucking annoying on skimmers, jetbikes and flyers who usually have lighter armour than most other things, meaning that your S10, AP1 railgun just got that much more useful in dealing with those [[Gay|poncy space elves]], Doom-Croissants, Smurfs on bikes, and defectors from the Greater Good.

===Seeker Missiles===

Lastly, there's your seeker missiles, which are like buttholes (or [[Anal circumference|whatever weirdass alien ANALogue is applicable]]—[[Wat|I see what you did there]]) in the Tau army—everything has these, everything. Your Devilfish has these, your Hammerhead has these, your Broadsides have these, your Skyray comes loaded to the teeth with these. So what's the point of these? Simple: if you don't want a free BS5, S8, AP3 attack with unlimited range that ignores cover and line of sight for the cost of one markerlight token, then don't bother with these. If you do (and you do, [[Derp|stupid]]), then take as many of these things as you can on everything that can take them. At 8 points for one missile, they're cheap, reliable and can easily be fired first round for a quick Macross Missile Massacre, before you fire ze railguns or drop ze bombs, without costing you one of your two weapon attacks per shooting phase. Just remember that seeker missiles are single use only, so save one or two for late game in case your opponent decides he wants to drop a superheavy on your ass from reserve.

== Lights Out: The problems with markerlights ==

In an unexpected plot twist in the story of [[Games Workshop]]'s rulemaking, markerlights are not the broken, be-all-end-all of a Tau army. Unlike several other units, they have a few distinct problems, and knowing about these will help you in the long run. Firstly, they count as heavy weapons (one of the few infantry heavy weapons in the mostly fluid Tau weapons list), meaning your Pathfinders have to stand still to use them at full BS, or otherwise move and fire off Snap Shots at BS1, which, spoiler alert, will generally not be helpful in your war effort. Drones, as jetpack infantry, have the Relentless universal special rule, allowing them to fire at full BS with heavy weapons even when they move; have fun with that, but drones start at a lower BS, so use a drone controller if you can afford it. Your opponent is also going to gun for them, hard, and while you might be able to have your Pathfinders ducking about the table with the aid of a Devilfish, if your opponent gets to them, expect them to drop fast as he unloads his entire army's ammo stocks at them. Any units who are not Pathfinders or drones can only field an extremely limited amount of markerlights, meaning that you suddenly have to properly ration them out, make proper target prioritization choices, and pray that you don't botch your rolls.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Tau]]

Markerlight

2018-03-09T06:12:31Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

'''Markerlights''' are laser pointers with attitude, and a key component of [[Tau]] strategies. Not to be confused with the [[Lasgun|angry flashlight]], which is a [[Matt Ward|useless pile of shit]], and therefore the opposite of a markerlight. Every Tau player should be campaigning to make [[Rule 34]] apply to markerlighting, though I'm probably woefully innocent and it probably already does.

Whereas most armies in 40k are really loosely based on older medieval themes (Black Templars on the Crusades, most Chaos on Viking pillagers, etc.) the Tau are vaguely based on modern military tactics and technology. This is most obvious with the markerlights, based on real life laser guided ordinance, especially the seeker missiles mentioned below. It's barely science fiction, first-world militaries are testing storing missiles away from the front lines until scouts and saboteurs identify a remote target and light it up with a souped-up laser pointer, letting the artillery back at base fire a missile for maximum damage at minimum risk.

Markerlights hits are put on enemy units by Tau units that are equipped with markerlights, who 'fire' them using their Ballistic Skill as if they were lethal weapons (which, as every Tau player with a serviceable IQ should know, they totally are, indirectly speaking). They're functionally laser designators, and each hit puts a markerlight counter on the target. Markerlight counters can be removed to do one of the following:

* Improve one of your units' (which is firing at the markerlighted unit) BS by one (with no cap as of 6th Edition). So basically, your standard Fire Warriors can potentially become as accurate as the [[awesome|FUCKING AVATAR OF KHAINE]].
* Ignore the cover save of the markerlighted unit (by spending two markers) so that [[RIP AND TEAR|FUCKING UNIT OF CAMO-COVERED BASILISKS BEHIND THAT DAMN AEGIS CAN'T HIDE ANY MOAR]]! Ahem...back to [[derp|the Greater Good]].
* Fire a seeker missile from a vehicle with BS5, Ignores Cover and Homing (no line of sight required), and it doesn't count toward the amount of weapons that vehicle can fire per turn. The rest of the weapons on the vehicle have to fire at the same target, however. This one is awesome when that 8-point [[Devilfish]] seeker missile blows up a 250-point Defiler - yes, I have seen it happen.

And due to the fact that the markerlight does not inflict wounds on its target, the target does not get to save against the markerlight hit—no Cover Save, no Invulnerable Save, no Armour Save. This might not seem all that great until you realise that when you hit on a BS3 and your opponent has an Invulnerable Save of 4++, that's half your squad hitting, and half of those hits doing damage, on average. With markerlights you can, and will, make all of those shots hit before any further saves are made, effectively doubling the danger that one Fire Warrior squad poses to any enemy squad.

The only few exceptions of this are Eldar Super Heavy and their "reroll to hit with 4+" holofields. <s>Luckily, you aren't going to face this bullshit unless you're stupid enough to play a sorry excuse of a game, which current Apocalypse is.</s> Escalation says hello.

And that's not even the full extent of it!

Suffice to say, this is [[awesome]] and a component of what makes the [[Tau]] fun to play, since the markerlight support is so versatile and useful. Hell, entire combat styles can be built around the strategy of mass-markerlights and using Skyrays as artillery pieces, which, frankly, is sweet. There's also a lot of ways to get markerlights on the tabletop, from the heavily-armored [[Skyray Missile Gunship|Skyray]], to the mobile [[Tetra]] skimmer and stealthy [[Remora]] drones, to the lowly Pathfinder. Markerlights of any stripe act as a force-multiplier for the Tau, so if you play Tau, you want to keep them close enough to target the enemy but with enough breathing room to pull back when targeted in turn. Contrarily, if you are playing against Tau, you want to kill those damn little target-painting blue commies as quickly as possible and make the entire Tau strategy fall apart. Just make sure it is not [[Not as planned|another damn lure]].

For the Tau players, remember that almost all sources of markerlights (except the commander bomb and [[Skyray Missile Gunship|Skyray]] with its AV13 front armor) are really squishy and will go down like a sack of wet shit if targeted properly. If you are going to use them as a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distraction]] then make sure they're in thick cover.

== Getting Markerlights ==

Yeah, we told you why and how markerlights are [[awesome| the goddamned center of your strategy]]. Now it's time to explain how you're going to get them out onto the battlefield to light up your life. (Note: This is limited to units and wargear from the base Codex, so if someone wants to add the Forge World stuff later, please do so.) Now with Forge World love.

=== Troops ===

Fire warriors do have access to markerlights, but they're permitted only one per squad. By upgrading one Shas'la to a Shas'ui (squad commander) he is allowed to take a markerlight and target-lock package deal, in total costing 34 points (9 for the Warrior, 10 for the Shas'ui upgrade, 15 for the markerlight and target-lock). One markerlight per squad might seem pointless, but it's the target-lock you want to look at. Your Shas'ui can now fire at another unit on the table seperate from his own unit's current target, effectively chaining his markerlight for another squad to fire at or to launch a desperate seeker missile. Not the most reliable tactic, but it's important to remember, especially for low point battles (500 or less).

=== Elites ===

Crisis suits don't have access to markerlights of their own, but they do have the option to take up to 2 drones each, meaning a squad of 3 Crisis suits can have up to 6 markerlights firing at BS2 (BS3 if you take a drone controller, though to be honest there are better ways to use that item). This choice is helped by the low cost for Crisis suits (22 points each), meaning you just got a 146-point (66 for suits, 72 for drones, 8 for controller) deep-striking blob of markerlights ready to drop wherever you want it. Alternatively, Stealthsuit team commanders can gain access to the marker light and target-lock combination the Fire Warrior Shas'ui can get, except with them you can have 2 per team and a higher degree of survivability. Having not tested this out yet, I can't speak to the effectiveness of this tactic, but Infiltrate, a 3+ Armour save, a 4+ cover save and a stimulant injector on your Stealthsuit Shas'vre commanders makes for a much more durable and [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX| aggravating]] target than some poor sap in the rank and file.

=== Fast Attack ===

Pathfinders. Pathfinders are the main source of markerlights in your army, and you need to remember a few facts about them: one, these guys are appreciably squishier than your Fire Warriors; two, they have (usually) inferior standard weapons without special drone support; three, they're scouts, meaning you can, and will, move them about before the battle begins. Seriously, these guys are the third squishiest unit in your army (the squishiest being the Kroot and Ethereals) and you are going to want to keep them behind cover and out of charging distance. Don't worry about them using markerlights on enemies in cover though; as long as you can draw line of sight, you can hit with a markerlight as your opponent gets no cover save against it. Also, they're infantry, so if you want them to move about the battlefield you are going to need to get them a Devilfish so they aren't arriving a day late and a dollar short. Next up, drone squadrons: how do they do in comparison to Pathfinders? Not badly; while they've got a higher base cost, worse leadership, lower BS, and can't take both a weapon and a markerlight, they've got better armour (4+), higher Toughness, higher Initiative, can deep-strike, and are counted as jetpack infantry (jump-shoot-jump), meaning if they do get in combat you might actually get lucky and pull them out without getting completely fucked by a lone Guardsman. You've also got the Sun Shark Bomber, a flyer with pulse bombs, two unique drones and a '''NETWORKED''' markerlight. Why did I highlight 'networked'? Because you can fire it and the unit that fired it can benefit from it. Duh. This is especially useful for a high-speed bomber as you can use it to reduce the scatter of your bombing run, take out opposing fliers with ease or just assist the efforts of the footslogging masses below; this gives your relatively average flyer a wealth of tactical versatility, something the Tau already have in droves, but should never pass up. This thing force-mutiplies itself, and considering how the game is becoming more flyer-heavy, this is a good way to make sure that your flyers retain their aura of danger. You've only got an AV of 11 on the front though, so don't get too carried away.

=== Heavy Support ===

For a section entitled Heavy 'Support' there are not many markerlights here—only 2 sources, and neither of them can put out a decent volume of markerlight hits. First up we've got the Skyray Missile Defence Gunship, a modified Hammerhead that carries 2 networked markerlights and 6 seeker missiles, and that's it's selling point. This thing is the producer of first turn Macross Missile Massacres, as it can deliver its entire payload on the first turn provided you have enough markerlight support, and if you play with a group of people who allow you to have infinite seeker missiles on your Skyray, then this is a cheesetastic hate machine, providing missile storms every turn that will cause [[Butthurt Marines|much hurt in the butt]] of your opponent. Granted, the only people who offer that rule have something to gain from it as well, so be careful lest your glee turn rapidly to pain and tears, but it's fun while it lasts. Another fun tactic is to give your Skyray a velocity tracker (which grants it Skyfire), meaning that its networked markerlights allow it to fire two BS5, S8, AP3 missiles at enemy aircraft, leading to fun times. (As of 6E, the velocity tracker comes as standard.) The other source of Heavy Support markerlights are the Firesight Sniper Drone teams, which consist of 1 controller and 3 Sniper drones. The controller is equipped with a pulse pistol, a drone controller (meaning your sniper drones fire at BS5) and a markerlight, letting him help his less accurate footsoldier brethren in a variety of ways. You can have up to 3 marksmen in a sniper team, but at 13 points each, it's an expensive method of getting markerlights. They are well-suited to mop-up duty, letting their drones shoot first, then hitting the remains of the enemy squad with their markerlights for any other units to clean up what they don't shoot dead.

=== HQ ===

There's a reason this section is left for last. Most of the markerlight strategies for your HQs are built off of the strategies that your other units use. For example, both Darkstrider and the Cadre Fireblades have access to markerlights, but Darkstrider is basically just a souped-up Pathfinder, and the Cadre Fireblade is just a souped-up Fire Warrior Shas'ui (he even comes complete with his own target-lock). A unique method for HQ markerlighting comes from the XV8-05 Crisis Battlesuit Commander. What you're probably going to do if you want to flood the table with BS5 markerlights is to take him with a drone controller, 2 Shas'vre bodyguards, and 6 marker drones, and then attach him to a drone squadron made of marker drones, making for a total of 14 (as the commander won't be able to join both his bodyguards and the drones) BS5 markerlight hits dropping out of the sky into your opponent's backyard. A good way to make your opponent shit bricks.

Now Forge World has given the Tau new ways to get markerlights in the HQ section. Commander R'alai and his Blacklight drones and the XV84 crisis suit.

R'alai is a pretty good HQ choice but not for markerlights. You can read more him on main Tau Tactic page. But he does come with two blacklight marker drone. Don't get excited all they are are markerdrones equipped with a blacklight filter. They ain't even networked. In short get R'alai for R'alai and accept the drones as a free bonus. If you want more markerlights you are better off getting somewhere else.

The XV84 Crisis suit is a signature sysyem crisis suit. For a flamer and a plasma pistol you get a networked markerlight and a target lock. Before you slap this in your commander or his bodyguard that it is a weapon system and the muti-tracker only let's you use two weapons. It's not a bad system but needs a unique suit build to get the most out if it. A body guard armed with this system, shield generator, stim injector and your favorite suit weapon might be the best way to go. Makes for a useful whipping body that still fires two weapons a turn.

== Using Markerlights ==

We've covered how you can get your markerlights onto the field. Now let's talk about using them to get your opponent off the field.

Now I hate repeating myself and repeating what other people have said, so go look at the top of the page and see those 3 bullet points. That's what you can use markerlights for. Read those bullet points and familiarise yourself with them; you're going to need to.

===Increasing BS===

First things first: you are playing Tau. You're a [[shooty]] (<strike>arguably</strike> the shootiest in 40k) army, you can outrange most people, and you can put out a suprising amount of fire and firepower at those ranges. None of that means shit, though, if you can't hit shit, and despite their style of warfare, the Tau are not naturally amazing at aiming. They are merely good at it. BS3 means your Fire Warriors and Pathfinders are only going to hit 50% of the time, and a S5, AP5 basic weapon means that most things are going to be able to save against their weaponry, even if it easier for them to wound than most other basic infantry. So with 50% of your shots hitting and a little more of those remaining shots causing wounds if you're fighting other basic infantry, at full range that's only around 3 or 4 wounds, even from a full Fire Warrior squad of 12 firing 12 shots. After Armour Saves, you'll kill maybe 2 or 3 guys on average, which seems like it should be a higher number coming from an army that specializes in ranged combat. Even with armies that field endless, teeming blobs of fodder for their Troop choices (Tyranids, Imperial Guard) whose basic troop saves you'll ignore anyway, you want more than just half of your shots to hit. Seeing as there is no limit on how much you can boost your units' BS with markerlights, if you want to, you can make those Fire Warriors BS 10, making that 1 in 2 miss chance a 1 in 36 miss chance on 12 shots at 30" and on 24 shots at 15". What this means is that without markerlights, you have an army of dudes who wouldn't completely embarrass themselves at the weeaboo gun range, and with them, you have an army of blue Annie Oakleys who could repeatedly shoot cigars out of an Ethereal's mouth without incident.

What this also means is that your opponent is going to target your markerlight units, and he is going to kill some of them, probably with concentrated fire and a shit-eating grin as he thinks he has just disrupted your entire strategy. If he has just wiped out all of your markerlights, then what the fuck is wrong with you, you had all of them out on the table straight away. Keep a couple back in reserve and then place them away from the assembled masses that your opponent just used to wipe out your lure(yeah, I got all your weaboo laser pointers WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT OHGOD). They should be safe as markerlights max out at 36", outranging most Tau weaponry itself. This way, you can have your opponent zigzagging all over the table trying to decide which markerlight squad to take out first.

===Ignoring Cover===

Next up is Ignoring Cover, the most expensive ability of markerlights. This allows you to nullify your opponent's cover saves for 2 markerlight tokens. If I need to tell you why this is a good thing, then obviously you haven't been paying attention to recent waves of cover-based FPS vidya games. Let's just say that having a Hammerhead railgun salvo smash through the [[METAL BOXES|METAL BAWKS]] that [[Fish_of_Fury|your opponent is hiding behind]] and turning your target into a fine cloud of red mist is never a bad thing, mostly because you want your Hammerhead to be dealing with enemy armour, and Jink is fucking annoying on skimmers, jetbikes and flyers who usually have lighter armour than most other things, meaning that your S10, AP1 railgun just got that much more useful in dealing with those [[Gay|poncy space elves]], Doom-Croissants, Smurfs on bikes, and defectors from the Greater Good.

===Seeker Missiles===

Lastly, there's your seeker missiles, which are like buttholes (or [[Anal circumference|whatever weirdass alien ANALogue is applicable]]—[[Wat|I see what you did there]]) in the Tau army—everything has these, everything. Your Devilfish has these, your Hammerhead has these, your Broadsides have these, your Skyray comes loaded to the teeth with these. So what's the point of these? Simple: if you don't want a free BS5, S8, AP3 attack with unlimited range that ignores cover and line of sight for the cost of one markerlight token, then don't bother with these. If you do (and you do, [[Derp|stupid]]), then take as many of these things as you can on everything that can take them. At 8 points for one missile, they're cheap, reliable and can easily be fired first round for a quick Macross Missile Massacre, before you fire ze railguns or drop ze bombs, without costing you one of your two weapon attacks per shooting phase. Just remember that seeker missiles are single use only, so save one or two for late game in case your opponent decides he wants to drop a superheavy on your ass from reserve.

== Lights Out: The problems with markerlights ==

In an unexpected plot twist in the story of [[Games Workshop]]'s rulemaking, markerlights are not the broken, be-all-end-all of a Tau army. Unlike several other units, they have a few distinct problems, and knowing about these will help you in the long run. Firstly, they count as heavy weapons (one of the few infantry heavy weapons in the mostly fluid Tau weapons list), meaning your Pathfinders have to stand still to use them at full BS, or otherwise move and fire off Snap Shots at BS1, which, spoiler alert, will generally not be helpful in your war effort. Drones, as jetpack infantry, have the Relentless universal special rule, allowing them to fire at full BS with heavy weapons even when they move; have fun with that, but drones start at a lower BS, so use a drone controller if you can afford it. Your opponent is also going to gun for them, hard, and while you might be able to have your Pathfinders ducking about the table with the aid of a Devilfish, if your opponent gets to them, expect them to drop fast as he unloads his entire army's ammo stocks at them. Any units who are not Pathfinders or drones can only field an extremely limited amount of markerlights, meaning that you suddenly have to properly ration them out, make proper target prioritization choices, and pray that you don't botch your rolls.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Tau]]

Ethereal

2018-03-09T03:38:51Z

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[[File:Ethereal6.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Such a juicy target for snipers everywhere.]]
The Ethereals (or Aun in Tau) are the leaders of Tau society and the existential space popes of WH40K ([[Ministorum Priest]] not counting). They are infamous for their supposed 'mind control' powers and their ability to inspire Cadres to fight with the religious tenacity of the Imperial Guard whenever they personally take to the field.

When we call Tau the blue space commies, Ethereals are the ones who are "more equal than others", as that old satire goes. Every single Tau ''loves'' these guys, seeing them as embodying all of the Tau species good traits and avoiding all the bad ones. Normal Tau are, despite being ([[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|almost]]) immune to Khorne, no less prone to being a bunch of spiteful violent fucks when left to their own devices for a few decades. Ethereals never have this problem, always in control of themselves and moving with a grace that just says "I'm in control of the rest of this shit too. Just chill out, space dad is here."

[[File:EtherealGuard.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Look at my bluie sixpacked abs Gue'la.]]
==Ethereal Guards==
The Ethereal Guard, also known as Tau Honour Guards are Tau warriors who serve as the bodyguards and protectors of Ethereals, the undisputed leaders of the Tau Empire. These warriors are dressed in ritual garb but wear Recon Armour and wield Honour Blades. Suffice to say, they seem mostly style over substance and are in no way in the same league of the [[Adeptus Custodes]].

==History==
Their arrival started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are struck with grief that causes them to lose battles or they get extremely enraged and charge forward, either way after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if a commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indocrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.

==Killing an Ethereal==
This being 40K, there is no small amount of writing on what happens when an Ethereal gets blown the fuck up on the field of battle. Without fail this sends the rest of the Tau soldiers into a brief panic attack and state of intense grief. The enemy forces at this point have a great opportunity to capitalize; if they move quickly enough they can butcher and route the rest of the Tau in short order. If they aren't quick enough, however, the Tau will replace "panic attack" with "[[RIP AND TEAR|just fucking attack]]" and [[Dakka|set all their guns to full auto]], and unload bullet after bullet into the enemy who closed the distance right into maximum [[rape]] range thinking they had an easy victory.

The [[crunch]] has gone through a few different phases of representing this. In the past, a dead Ethereal would mean all remaining Tau forces gain Preferred Enemy, but also have to take a leadership test and thus risk running off the board. This wasn't really fun, since the Ethereals were pretty damn shit in those days anyway, and your options were either find a way to get the Ethereal killed right at the start (when you're more able to regroup a fleeing squad) or just take a Shas'O instead you idiot. Starting in 6th edition they changed things around to be less fluffy but also less shit: now, the Ethereal himself gives buffs to his army, but give the Tau's opponent scores a bonus victory point if they manage to kill the Ethereal.

{{Template:Tau}}

Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

2018-03-09T03:23:43Z

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[[File:Warhammer+40,000+Fire+Warrior.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Skulls For the Greater Good!]]

Welcome, new [[Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]]. Here is a shitty weaboo [[Choppy|dagger]] you will never use, here's a lame 'pulse' weapon that hits like a [[Lasgun|cap gun]] and can't be replaced, and here's your first sortie. You'll loot [[Bolter|weapons]] [[Plasma|that]] [[Melta|don't]] [[Missile Launcher|suck]] from the enemy, until you [[Rail Rifle|trade up]]. You'll face marvelous varieties of the [[Imperium of Man|gue'la]] [[Chaos|menace]]. Worry not, they're pretty easy to outsmart. You'll also have to wreck a bunch of machines and daemons. Worry not, they're all in convenient arenas with cover and supplies. No, you won't get to ride a [[Battlesuit]] or [[Hammerhead Gunship]], because you are, after all, still a rookie, despite somehow racking up a body count to shame [[Farsight]]. And afterward, if you succeed, [[Sly Marbo| you will not be quite the same]]. [[grimdark|Have a shitty day.]]

THQ released a video game tie-in called '''Fire Warrior''' soon after the initial release of the [[Tau]] Codex. Taking the role of Kais, a [[Fire_Warrior|Shas'La]] about to undertake his first trial-by-fire (ha!) in an attempt to rescue an Ethereal, it was a thoroughly unremarkable introductory FPS, similar to many that followed any successful or hopefully-successful movie of the 00's. It is not a ''terrible'' game. Neither is it a good game. It's just... there. If it's any consolation, it's from pre-Fourth Edition, and they were still ironing out some of the Tau's wrinkles at the time.

Highlights include [[Bolter|bolters]] working pretty close to the fluff: semi-automatic mini-rocket launchers (actually, they're pretty close to a goddamn Soundstrike Missile Launcher now that we think about it), some badass dialogue, [[Doctor_Who|Tom Baker and Sean Pertwee (son of John Pertwee, the Third Doctor]], [[Ultramarines:The_Movie|who is becoming]] [[Warhammer_40,000:_Space_Marine|a recurring guest]] [[The_Actors_of_Warhammer_40,000|star in 40k)]], and [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]], great art-direction, and somewhat interesting level design.

Not-so-good highlights include shitty hit detection, pulse rifles that somehow trade equivalent to ''lasguns'', shooting down a [[Valkyrie#Valkyrie|Valkyrie]] with small arms fire (shoulda sprung for the extra armor upgrade!), and killing a [[RAGE|LORD OF CHANGE ON YOUR OWN]]. Managing to sword a Space Marine is hilarious though. The fact that you're essentially a one-man unstoppable killing machine is rather silly, for better AND worse, especially considering you're just a Shas'La on his first day of duty (If you were around a Shas'Vre or Shas'O in a functioning battlesuit, it would have been slightly more realistic to be the Tau version of Rambo). But, [[Sly Marbo|Rambo]] you are, and if you ''want'' to do that and don't mind that you're ripping more holes in canon than an actual cannon, again, it's not ''terrible''. Just... run-of-the-mill. The game was notable at the time for being one of the first console games with online capability, and in this capacity, it saw a lot of chaotic fun, since your character in Multiplayer could be a Tau, Guardsman, Cultist, Space Marine, or Chaos Marine, all with their own unique taunts and animations. It's very much a product of its time; enjoyable, but stupid, and [[/tg/]] had a fun time with it.

The novelization of the game suggests he was being helped by [[Khorne]] (which makes even less sense that you're eventually trying to stop a [[Lord of Change]] that for some reason has Khorne's favor). If anything Kais could be being influenced by [[Malal|a certain pseudo-existent self-loathing asshole]] that loves to fuck with his fellow Chaos gods because reasons. Hell, it's also implied that Kais was being guided by the [[Fail|Lord of Change himself]] in his Tzeentch fetish for [[Just as Planned]]. Needless to say, said Lord of Change [[Not as Planned|got his feathered ass handed to him]].

tl;dr: Fun, perhaps, but unbelievably stupid. Bizarrely atmospheric, in that it captures the feel of being the Fucking New Guy dumped in the trenches, even if you rack up way, way more kills than an FNG should be able to. Saved by the fact that you can shoot some [[Ultramarine|Ultrasmurfs]] if you are so inclined.

==Weapons and Wargear==
Fire Warrior has an impressive weapons arsenal - mostly Tau and Imperial, but some Chaos too:

* '''[[Plasma#Pulse Weapons|Pulse Rifle]]'''
** The standard weapon you start with. Actually pretty strong, and relatively effective, firing with a sluggish full-auto fire rate, but boasting both good firepower and accuracy. Secondary fire is slower, but substantially more accurate. It's a decent weapon, but it winds up having pretty bad concentrated damage due to its slow refire rate; great at mid-to-long range firefights, but generally better off replaced by other weapons for closer ranges and tends to flag with tougher opposition becoming available.
***Primary Fire: Slow-firing but nonetheless full-auto plasma bursts. Per-round damage is good but DPS is terrible.
***Secondary Fire: Fires even slower but considerably more accurately.

* '''[[Plasma#Pulse Weapons|Pulse Carbine]]'''
** A solid upgrade; gives you a much faster-firing rifle that has vastly higher damage-per-second at the cost of accuracy; fires the same projectile as the Pulse Rifle, making this a very good weapon for close-combat and solid out to medium range. Secondary fire remains the same but is now much less useful because the Carbine is still less accurate; it's often better to use it only to pick at long-range foes. When this weapon is equipped, hitting the "throw grenade" button launches the grenade from the Pulse Carbine's grenade launcher, giving them more range and accuracy.
***Primary Fire: Rapid-firing full-auto plasma bursts. DPS is way better than the Pulse Rifle, but accuracy is lower.
***Secondary Fire: Fires even slower but more accurately.

* '''[[Plasma#Pulse Weapons|Burst Cannon]]'''
** Ironically enough, given to you for the first time by a Space Marine during a peace delegation. The Burst Cannon is a blunt instrument; a vulcan cannon of Pulse weaponry that hoses out ammo like crazy. A godsend because you're about to be facing Chaos Marines. High DPS and a massive magazine make up for its spin-up delay the best of any pulse weapon, but accuracy sucks; do not use beyond medimum range.
***Primary Fire: Extremely quick-firing full-auto plasma bursts; DPS is the highest of any pulse weapon but it sprays a lot.
***Secondary Fire: Pre-spins barrel for quick firing.

* '''[[Lasgun]]'''
** The humble Lasgun is extremely common early on; it does less damage than the Pulse Rifle but fires much faster, making it much better at closer ranges. Solid early-game mid-ranger that tends to lose its use by about halfway through the game. No secondary fire mode. Carried by Guardsmen.
***Primary Fire: Rapid-fire laser bursts. Modest DPS and accuracy. Good early gun.
***Secondary Fire: None

* '''[[Lasgun|Laspistol]]'''
** The Laspistol in this game is closer to a hand cannon; it holds a mere six rounds and actually does pretty solid damage per-shot but due to frequent reloading, can't really achieve the rock-solid DPS it would otherwise have. A fun little weapon that tends to get sidelined in favor of more conventional weapons. Carried by sergeants.
***Primary Fire: Semi-Automatic laser bursts. Higher damage but limited power pack size.
***Secondary Fire: None

* '''[[Shotgun]]'''
** Carried by shipboard troopers and scouts, these things pack serious punch but have limited range. Not as good as shotguns in other games, the Shotgun in Fire Warrior is still great at close range - just don't try to go after enemies tougher than a Stormtrooper with it outside of Multiplayer - you've been ''warned''.
***Primary Fire: Single Shot.
***Secondary Fire: Two-Round Burst.

* '''[[Autogun]]'''
** The Autogun is the main weapon of the game's Stormtroopers (and the primary weapon in Multiplayer you start with). It fires incredibly quickly, and its high-speed shots are hard to dodge, but each round does relatively little damage. However, because it fires so quickly, it's quite capable of whittling down a target's health in no time at all. Even a Space Marine isn't taking more than two or three mags from this thing; it's just a matter of surviving to get the ammo in. Solid out to long range.
***Primary Fire: Fully-automatic ammunition barrage.
***Secondary Fire: Fires a single round. Used for picking at long ranged foes ''only.''

* '''[[Sniper Rifle]]'''
** Holy shit, [[Vindicare|Exitus Pattern]] even. The Sniper Rifle does massive damage from obscenely far away, provided you can line up a weak spot. Note that on targets like Marines, you're probably going to need more than one shot in the face. Outstanding for handling most basic situations and makes it easy to dominate long-ranged engagements. In Multiplayer it's similar to (but weaker than) the Rail Rifle, which does more damage but also announces your position with each shot.
***Primary Fire: Single Shot.
***Secondary Fire: Engages/Disengages scope.

* '''[[Meltagun]]'''
** Rare and precious, the Meltagun fires a continuous stream of white-hot death while its limited ammo lasts. Absolutely ''nothing'' survives this fucking thing; even a rampaging Chaos Dreadnought won't fare well against this damned thing. Unfortunately it's both incredibly rare, eats ammunition in short order, and has terrible range, but - hey - it's a goddamned Meltagun, what were you expecting?
***Primary Fire: Continuous stream of incendiary death. Fun!
***Secondary Fire: None.

* '''[[Rail Rifle]]'''
** The Tau Sniper rifle fires hypersonic metal slugs. It has a zoom scope and effectively renders the Sniper Rifle an afterthought in single-player. It optionally replaces the Burst Cannon as your primary late game and is generally considered a good choice - you aren't mandated to take it, however, and you can stick with the Burst Cannon if you want. Make no mistake, it's one of those guns where if you miss, it sucks, so make sure each shot from this thing connects.
***Primary Fire: Single Shot.
***Secondary Fire: Engages/Disengages scope.

* '''[[Bolter|Boltgun]]'''
** The [[Space Marine]] primary weapon can be used by Kais, but only in its single shot and 2-round burst modes. Kais can barely control the recoil of the damned thing but the damage it does is hilarious, and it's relatively common on maps where [[Space Marines]] are opposition. Do note that the micro-rockets can and will mess you up if fired at close range. Dumbass. With a pretty big magazine and decent utility, one of the game's best versatile guns.
***Primary Fire: Single explosive shot.
***Secondary Fire: Fires a 2-round burst of explosive shots with less accuracy.

* '''[[Bolter|Chaos Boltgun]]'''
** The spikey version of the Boltgun is almost identical to the basic version, except it's covered in spikes, has 5 more rounds per magazine, and is notably less accurate. At close range it's pretty deadly, but in most situations its loyalist counterpart is better. Ironically they can't share ammo in this game.
***Primary Fire: Single explosive shot.
***Secondary Fire: Fires a 2-round burst of explosive shots with less accuracy.

* '''[[Plasma Pistol]]'''
** Everyone's first encounter with one of these in ''Fire Warrior'' is the blinding flash, taking a shitload of damage, and wondering what the fuck just happened. Used by Stormtrooper Sergeants and Techpriests, this is a rare find, but once secured is hilarious; each shot does tons of damage - often enough to kill normal enemies in one shot - and the killing shot will ignite the corpse hilariously with plasma fire. For a brief time after getting one, you will laugh as any target you shoot gets a lesson in humility, and then the ammo will run out. Later on it becomes way more common because Chaos [[Raptors]] carry the damned things.
***Primary Fire: Single big plasma blast.
***Secondary Fire: None.

* '''[[Plasma Gun]]'''
** Used by Space Marines of both Chaos and Loyalist flavors, this is basically a bigger, stronger, and longer-ranged version of an already-great weapon. In all ways it handles like a better version of the Plasma Pistol, and it's good for both hammering heavier targets (Marines) and punching weaker foes. It has a secondary mode that is absolutely hilarious as well, letting it charge up and pierce everything in front of it. Use that mode for hallway clearance.
***Primary Fire: Single big plasma blast.
***Secondary Fire: Charges up to fire a piercing plasma blast.

==But Then Suddenly==
Word from Dark Crusade's development team is that [[Shas'O Kais]], the protagonist of ''Fire Warrior'', [[Tankred|is the very same Kais]] that is the Tau Commander in ''[[Dawn of War|Dawn of War: Dark Crusade]]''. This is actually kind of clever, since after all the shit Kais wound up drowning in pulse fire/photon grenades/railgun slugs/etc in ''Fire Warrior'' (including a Greater Daemon, apparently), Kais was certainly qualified for a promotion. According to interviews, it's never fully stated that such is the case in-game (Kais is an ''extremely'' common fire caste name, as evidenced by the fact that [[Farsight|Commander Farsight]] has it, among others, but that him being the same Kais from Fire Warrior was expressly intended as a polite nod towards the earlier game.

You shouldn't be surprised; [[Eliphas the Inheritor]] came back like 3 times, albeit by Chaos bullshit a tau wouldn't have access to.

== The Novelization ==

Believe it or not, they made a book about this game. Written by Simon Spurrier, it is a lot less [[Derp|goofy]] than the game, thought that alone is not saying much. It still struggles a bit in the sections where it cannot avoid some of the more egregious crap that happens in the game, but it balances those out with several moments of [[awesome]] too.

It goes into a lot of Tau philosophy and psychology, often switching perspectives between characters both to give a wider view of the conflict and to bring their views of the situation into contrast. Lots of pointless characters get introduced to give the narrative weight and get the reader empathizing, and many of those characters are killed off a paragraph or so after their introduction and exposition of their back stories and aspirations just to underscore how fucking [[Grimdark#Grimderp|Grimderp]] the setting is.

It is also interesting in that it gives snippets of Ethereal perspectives that both impart the evidence of them [[Grimdark|being on blatant power trips, using pheromone conditioning, and displaying their absurdly derp levels of ignorance towards the dangers of Chaos]] counterbalanced by their [[Noblebright|genuine desire to bring prosperity to the Tau race, foster order and cooperation between the castes, making a cursory attempt to get along with the rest of the galaxy, and wrecking the shit out of the races that are a threat to everyone]]. Though one could dispute the last statement since the fluffy Tau, at the time of ''Fire Warrior'', were kind of trying to give three-fingered handshakes to factions like the [[Dark Eldar]] and [[Ork|Orks]]. At least they were smart enough to yank said hands back from the [[Tyranid|Nids]] before they were bitten off, because the mere thought of them jetting some Por'El diplomats to a Hive Fleet just epitomizes [[Fail|failure]].

There is lot of semi-poetic description going on, with characters observing to themselves the vagaries of the universe they inhabit. For example, this is an excerpt from a scene in which Kais comes on the remains of some Fire Warriors and Imperial Navy Armsmen in the wake of a Chaos attack:
* "Here a tau arm lay, knuckles clenched, beside a de-limbed human corpse. There was a symbolism here, perhaps. A sense of unity, a sense of physical sameness. Given a talented enough Por'Ui journalist, this scene might mean something. `In death, we're all the same'..."

Heavy shit right there. [[Khorne]] cares not from where the blood flows, red or blue is all the same to him, no matter what side of the conflict you are fighting on. In this universe, everyone ends up butchered meat, no matter which species they are.

Speaking of Chaos, the book does justify a lot of why Kais is kicking Imperial ass left and right. You know the big bad of the piece is a [[Tzeentch|Changer of Ways]] [[Rage|of Chaos Undivided]], right? Did you really think that a lone Fire Warrior doing improbably well would ''not'' be a case of [[Just As Planned]]? Or that Khorne himself is not also capable of pulling off a different plan of his own? The Tau are as a whole resistant to Chaos, but not completely immune. When they find one Tau with enough [[rage]] to get Khorne's attention, even despite the weak warp connection, that starts the [[Chaos Gods]] thinking about trying a few experiments.

This is probably the only time you will hear a tau yelling Khorne's favorite line... which would certainly explain the cover art quite nicely.

The end also has the main character's commander talk about the Nature of the [[Greater Good]] in a Galaxy like 40k has. More or less the Tau ideals are impossible to truly reach, but what's really important is trying to reach them. In other words "the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium is grimdark enough as is, so let's not add to it if we can help it."

== Once upon a time, there lived a Tau who wanted to be a one-man army... ==

While you would certainly be forgiven to think this game was just a fluke, and non-canon for the most part, there have been some recent developments in the fluff pointing otherwise. Aside from the aforemented Dark Crusade character, the name Kais has been popping up surprisingly often in Tau Codexes and novelizations. Specifically references to a third pupil of Puretide who, unlike Farsight who chose Mont'ka and Shadowsun who chose Kauyon, this one sought a third way of warfare. This pupil named, in a totally coincidental way, Kais sought to master the way of Monat, the way of the lone warrior. In other words the bastard wanted to be an army in and of himself.

Considering Kais is actually a pretty common name for Tau in the Fire Caste (hell Farsight even has it), it could just be a coincidence. But with the whole "lone warrior taking on outrageous odds" thing, it's hard not to see this as GW making a nod to this game.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Tau]] [[Category:Video Games]]

MEQ

2018-03-08T02:15:57Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* Knight */

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'''MEQ''' is a slang term among [[Warhammer 40,000]] players that stands for '''[[Space Marines|(Space) Marine]] Equivalent'''. It refers to any unit with a stat-line similar to that of a Space Marine (WS3+ BS3+ S4 T4 W1 A1 Ld7 Sv3+). Usually the important part is how easy or hard they are to kill (Toughness, Wounds, and armor save). A model with T4 W1 Sv3+ is a "pure" MEQ.

Strong examples:
*Space Marines in [[Power Armour]]
*[[Chaos Space Marines]] in Power Armour (with the exception of [[Plague Marine]]s, who have an extra point of Toughness)
*[[Necron]] Immortals.

Loose examples:
*[[Tyranid]] Tyrant Guard, which have a 3+ save, but they are toughness 6 and have an extra wound. They are slightly more in line with Terminators, however, fluff-wise, they apparently are partially based on DNA from downed Space Marines
*[[Necron]] Warriors previously (Only a 4+ save now, but still T4, and Reanimation Protocols keeps them around for a while.)
*[[Tau]] Stealth battlesuits (two wounds and penalties to hit - they fall in between big MEQs and squishy TEQs)
*[[Eldar]] Shining Spears. (Two wounds, so more like Stealth suits)
*[[Eldar]] Windriders and [[Dark Eldar]] Reavers (T4/4+, but 2 Wounds each)

==TEQ==

'''TEQ''', short for '''Terminator Equivalent''', refers to a unit with a statline similar to [[Space Marine]] [[Terminators]]. Usually, this means a 2+ armor save and some kind of Invulnerable save (on top of the regular MEQ profile), but in some cases they may have higher Toughness instead of increased saves. As of 8th edition, the vast majority of these have at least two wounds each.

Strong examples:
*Space Marine Terminators (the basic version, as well as the faster Tartaros Terminators and the slow but better protected Cataphractii Terminators)
*Chaos Terminators (which are basically Terminators with spikes, some flayed skin and the kind of bad attitude that you have if you have not had your regular cup of morning coffee)
*[[Grey Knight]] Paladins (which are actually just super-Terminators)
*[[Dark Angels]] [[Deathwing]] Terminators and Deathwing Knights (although, again, these are just super-Terminators)
*[[Adeptus Custodes]] which are basically yet again Super-Terminators but even more "super".
*[[Aquilon Terminator|Aquilon Terminator]] are Custodes Terminators with rules and equipment that make "regular Custodes" look tame.
*[[Allarus Custodians]] (Adeptus Custodes Terminators only slightly weaker than the Aquilon Terminators)

Loose examples:
*Ork Meganobz (though they have two wounds each, altering the dynamic to grant S8+ extra utility for inflicting Instant Death. In addition, they don't have inv. saves.)
*Chaos Space Marine [[Mutilators]] and [[Obliterators]] (same multi-wound factor favoring S8+ weaponry).
*[[Tau]] Crisis Battlesuits (T5/W3/3+ instead of T4/W2/2+)
*Tau Broadside Battlesuits (six wounds - they act almost like small dreadnoughts)
*Necron Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians (with Toughness 5, 3+ inv. save and reanimation protocols on top of that? Bruh.).
*Tyranid Warriors, Shrikes, Raveners, Tyrant Guard and Hive Guard.
*Imperial Guard Ogryns and Bullgryns.
*Eldar Wraithguard and Wraithblades (T5/W3/3+ just like Crisis suits).
*Dark Eldar Grotesques.

==GEQ==

'''GEQ''', short for '''Guard Equivalent''', refers to units with a statline similar to [[Imperial Guard|Guardsmen]]. Usually, this means T3 W1 Sv5+, although the important part is usually that they are more vulnerable than Space Marines. T3 Sv4+ or T4 Sv5+ can loosely fit into this category.

Examples:
*Imperial Guard (pretty much every type).
*[[Eldar]] [[Guardian]]s, Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees, Swooping Hawks and Harlequins.
*[[Dark Eldar]] Kabalite Warriors, Wyches, Mandrakes, Wracks, Scourges and Hellions (although they can get FnP, among other fun things.).
*[[Tau]] Fire Warriors, Pathfinders and Kroot. (Slightly tougher, "pure GEQ" and slightly squishier respectively)
*[[Tyranid]] Gaunts and Gargoyles.
*[[Chaos]] Cultists.
*[[Genestealer]] Cultists.
*[[Chaos]] [[Daemon]]s such as Bloodletters, Pink Horrors, Daemonettes, Chaos Furies and Seekers of Slaanesh.
*[[Orks]] ALL OF THE ORKS W/OUT 'EAVY ARMOUR.

==Knight==

Although not a widely-accepted term, '''Knight''' has been used by some to refer to the large models being released by [[Games Workshop]] that don't quite qualify for [[Titan]] status but still pack a significant punch. Usually, these have a high Toughness (at least 7, and often more), a large number of Wounds (12-24 now in 8th Edition), a 3+ or 2+ save, and an invulnerable save (or some way to get them). They also seem have to have high mobility, usually in the form of jetpacks or teleporters or similar. These models are also very large, which means it's hard to hide them, and most are either Monsters or Vehicles.

The term "Knight" is both a reference to the high incidence of the term "knight" in their names, and the Knight Titans of [[Epic 40,000]] (who not coincidentally would be re-released the Imperial Knights below).

Examples:
*[[Grey Knights]] [[Dreadknight]]
*[[Tau]] [[XV-104 Riptide]]
*[[Eldar]] [[Wraithknight]]
*[[Imperial Knight]]
*[[Ork]] [[Gorkanaut]]/[[Morkanaut]]
*[[Chaos Daemons]] [[Bloodthirster]] (and other Greater Daemons to a much lesser extent)
*[[Tyranid]] [[Hierodule]]

==The Other Stuff==

Of course, a lot of stuff doesn't fit very well into any of the above categories. For instance, Space Marine Centurions have multiple wounds, extra Toughness, as well as 2+ saves and larger bases, so they don't really fit as MEQ or Knight. Similarly, the entirety of [[Sisters of Battle]] is somewhere between GEQ and MEQ; they all have Toughness 3, but they also have 3+ saves and a 6+ invulnerable save. The same applies to Ork Boyz who are Toughness 4 and have a 6+ save or various Eldar Aspect Warriors who have T3 but a 3+ save. Several Tyranid organisms have 2-3 wounds but a 4+ save or worse and no Toughness increase meaning that they are between the resilience of a TEQ and a MEQ.

[[Category:Gamer Slang]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

MEQ

2018-03-08T01:20:11Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* Knight */

{{wh40k-stub}}

'''MEQ''' is a slang term among [[Warhammer 40,000]] players that stands for '''[[Space Marines|(Space) Marine]] Equivalent'''. It refers to any unit with a stat-line similar to that of a Space Marine (WS3+ BS3+ S4 T4 W1 A1 Ld7 Sv3+). Usually the important part is how easy or hard they are to kill (Toughness, Wounds, and armor save). A model with T4 W1 Sv3+ is a "pure" MEQ.

Strong examples:
*Space Marines in [[Power Armour]]
*[[Chaos Space Marines]] in Power Armour (with the exception of [[Plague Marine]]s, who have an extra point of Toughness)
*[[Necron]] Immortals.

Loose examples:
*[[Tyranid]] Tyrant Guard, which have a 3+ save, but they are toughness 6 and have an extra wound. They are slightly more in line with Terminators, however, fluff-wise, they apparently are partially based on DNA from downed Space Marines
*[[Necron]] Warriors previously (Only a 4+ save now, but still T4, and Reanimation Protocols keeps them around for a while.)
*[[Tau]] Stealth battlesuits (two wounds and penalties to hit - they fall in between big MEQs and squishy TEQs)
*[[Eldar]] Shining Spears. (Two wounds, so more like Stealth suits)
*[[Eldar]] Windriders and [[Dark Eldar]] Reavers (T4/4+, but 2 Wounds each)

==TEQ==

'''TEQ''', short for '''Terminator Equivalent''', refers to a unit with a statline similar to [[Space Marine]] [[Terminators]]. Usually, this means a 2+ armor save and some kind of Invulnerable save (on top of the regular MEQ profile), but in some cases they may have higher Toughness instead of increased saves. As of 8th edition, the vast majority of these have at least two wounds each.

Strong examples:
*Space Marine Terminators (the basic version, as well as the faster Tartaros Terminators and the slow but better protected Cataphractii Terminators)
*Chaos Terminators (which are basically Terminators with spikes, some flayed skin and the kind of bad attitude that you have if you have not had your regular cup of morning coffee)
*[[Grey Knight]] Paladins (which are actually just super-Terminators)
*[[Dark Angels]] [[Deathwing]] Terminators and Deathwing Knights (although, again, these are just super-Terminators)
*[[Adeptus Custodes]] which are basically yet again Super-Terminators but even more "super".
*[[Aquilon Terminator|Aquilon Terminator]] are Custodes Terminators with rules and equipment that make "regular Custodes" look tame.
*[[Allarus Custodians]] (Adeptus Custodes Terminators only slightly weaker than the Aquilon Terminators)

Loose examples:
*Ork Meganobz (though they have two wounds each, altering the dynamic to grant S8+ extra utility for inflicting Instant Death. In addition, they don't have inv. saves.)
*Chaos Space Marine [[Mutilators]] and [[Obliterators]] (same multi-wound factor favoring S8+ weaponry).
*[[Tau]] Crisis Battlesuits (T5/W3/3+ instead of T4/W2/2+)
*Tau Broadside Battlesuits (six wounds - they act almost like small dreadnoughts)
*Necron Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians (with Toughness 5, 3+ inv. save and reanimation protocols on top of that? Bruh.).
*Tyranid Warriors, Shrikes, Raveners, Tyrant Guard and Hive Guard.
*Imperial Guard Ogryns and Bullgryns.
*Eldar Wraithguard and Wraithblades (T5/W3/3+ just like Crisis suits).
*Dark Eldar Grotesques.

==GEQ==

'''GEQ''', short for '''Guard Equivalent''', refers to units with a statline similar to [[Imperial Guard|Guardsmen]]. Usually, this means T3 W1 Sv5+, although the important part is usually that they are more vulnerable than Space Marines. T3 Sv4+ or T4 Sv5+ can loosely fit into this category.

Examples:
*Imperial Guard (pretty much every type).
*[[Eldar]] [[Guardian]]s, Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees, Swooping Hawks and Harlequins.
*[[Dark Eldar]] Kabalite Warriors, Wyches, Mandrakes, Wracks, Scourges and Hellions (although they can get FnP, among other fun things.).
*[[Tau]] Fire Warriors, Pathfinders and Kroot. (Slightly tougher, "pure GEQ" and slightly squishier respectively)
*[[Tyranid]] Gaunts and Gargoyles.
*[[Chaos]] Cultists.
*[[Genestealer]] Cultists.
*[[Chaos]] [[Daemon]]s such as Bloodletters, Pink Horrors, Daemonettes, Chaos Furies and Seekers of Slaanesh.
*[[Orks]] ALL OF THE ORKS W/OUT 'EAVY ARMOUR.

==Knight==

Although not a widely-accepted term, '''Knight''' has been used by some to refer to the large models being released by [[Games Workshop]] that don't quite qualify for [[Titan]] status but still pack a significant punch. Usually, these have a high Toughness (at least 7, and often more), a large number of Wounds (12-24 now in 8th Edition), a 3+ or 2+ save, and an invulnerable save (or some way to get them). They also seem have to have high mobility, usually in the form of jetpacks or teleporters or similar. These models are also very large, which means it's hard to hide them, and most are either Monsters or Vehicles.

The term "Knight" is both a reference to the high incidence of the term "knight" in their names, and the Knight Titans of [[Epic 40,000]] (who would be re-released the Imperial Knights below).

Examples:
*[[Grey Knights]] [[Dreadknight]]
*[[Tau]] [[XV-104 Riptide]]
*[[Eldar]] [[Wraithknight]]
*[[Imperial Knight]]
*[[Ork]] [[Gorkanaut]]/[[Morkanaut]]
*[[Chaos Daemons]] [[Bloodthirster]] (and other Greater Daemons to a much lesser extent)
*[[Tyranid]] [[Hierodule]]

==The Other Stuff==

Of course, a lot of stuff doesn't fit very well into any of the above categories. For instance, Space Marine Centurions have multiple wounds, extra Toughness, as well as 2+ saves and larger bases, so they don't really fit as MEQ or Knight. Similarly, the entirety of [[Sisters of Battle]] is somewhere between GEQ and MEQ; they all have Toughness 3, but they also have 3+ saves and a 6+ invulnerable save. The same applies to Ork Boyz who are Toughness 4 and have a 6+ save or various Eldar Aspect Warriors who have T3 but a 3+ save. Several Tyranid organisms have 2-3 wounds but a 4+ save or worse and no Toughness increase meaning that they are between the resilience of a TEQ and a MEQ.

[[Category:Gamer Slang]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Inwit

2018-03-01T03:44:46Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

[[File:Inwit.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Before we start, say the planet's name out loud... yeah, "Inuit". Real subtle, GeeDubs (Inwyt also means "inner understanding" in old kentish.)]]
Inwit is a tidal-locked ice-world. It rotates on its axis at the same rate it rotates around it's sun (like how the Moon rotates around Earth), meaning that one half is permanently bathed in sunlight, and the other half is also dark.

Hmmm?

Oh, that guy.

It's ''also'' the original homeworld of [[Rogal Dorn]]. Dorn landed among the ice-hives of the warrior caste, and was taken in by the Patriarch of House Dorn, who raised him like a grandson. Over the next few decades Dorn became Warlord of House Dorn and Emperor of Inwit. The shipyards of Inwit were also the place where the ''[[Phalanx]]'' was built (according to some stories). Following the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s arrival to Inwit (where they learned the true meaning of Emperor) Inwit became the [[Imperial Fists]] homeworld, recruiting ground, and dry dock. The shipyards of Inwit became dedicated to building battle-barges and strike cruisers for the VII Legion. People who wanted to join the Imperial Fists had to dress in rags and walk across the Splintered Lands on Inwit's nightside while avoiding [[Bear lore|bear-like monsters]], which proved you were <s>masochistic</s> determined enough to join the Fists.

Following the Ullanor Triumph and the Emperor's decision to return to [[Earth|Terra]], Dorn was charged with building the fortifications of the Imperial Palace, and the Imperial Fists homeworld was officially transferred from Inwit to Terra. Following the [[Horus Heresy]], the Imperial Fists official homeworld is still Terra, but for all intents and purposes the Imperial Fists are fleet-based with ''Phalanx'' serving as their mobile fortress-monastery. Inwit remains one of the Imperial Fists primary recruiting worlds, but holds that distinction with a number of worlds, including Terra and [[Necromunda]].

{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Chapter Serf

2018-02-14T08:06:34Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* Serfs' Role */

[[File:Serfs.jpg|300px|thumb|right|"Hail to thee, honoured mortal servant. Wouldst thou consider serving the [[Space Marines|Adeptus Astartes]] in Their daily routines and perhaps end thine life as the [[Space Marine Hunter|insides of an anti-air missile?]]]]

[[Space Marines]] are big tough supermen and all, but even they need a helping hand. Someone has to to polish their armor and nob, cook their food, sweep their halls, clean their toilets, file their tax returns, and keep the [[fortress-monastery]] defended when the brothers are out stomping [[Bloodletter]] faces into the ground and tearing [[Ork]] rectums apart with [[chainsword]]s. After all, Space Marines are knights ''in spaaaace!'' and every knight needs his retainer. These people are '''Chapter Serfs''' and live comfortable, well-to-do lives... at least by [[Imperium of Man]] standards.

Chapter Serfs (formerly Legion Serfs), were originally picked from failed Space Marine Aspirants and other natives of Space Marine homeworlds who, though physically unable to become Space Marines, still wished (and were deemed able and worthy) to serve. The children of Chapter Serfs also often become chapter Serfs themselves. Generally speaking, Chapter Serfs are well-trained, highly educated, and treated well; they are officially part of the Chapter, and therefore get access to the fancy toys in the space marine armoury.

How well they're treated depends on the Chapter they serve. [[Ultramarines]], [[Blood Angels]], [[Space Wolves]], and [[Salamanders]] are well aware they couldn't purge aliens, mutants and heretics without the 'unglorious' support Serfs provide and [[this guy|treat them as equals to other Space Marines, like soldiers might treat their friends in the supply corps.]] The Wolves use their serfs as a defence force on Fenris, known as "Kaerls", though we don't know if they get to go on campaign or not except for those serving in the fleet. The [[Star Phantoms]] entrust them with maintaining the chapter's faith and up keeping their massive ossuary. [[Blood Drinkers]], being vampires, let them volunteer to be ritually drained of blood for them to (surprise surprise) drink to stave off the Red Thirst. [[Iron Hands]] and [[Imperial Fists]] and their countless successor chapters see them as just kind of there. They don't really care one way or another and form little bonds with them, considering service to be its own reward (think the way you treat the fast food workers and garbage people who make your comfy life possible). [[Marines Malevolent]], being dicks, treat them like slaves. [[Flesh Tearers]] being psychotic, treat them like stress balls to work out frustration on between missions. (Spoiler alert: a human can't usually survive being used as a stress-ball by a Marine.)

As for the the Traitor Legions, it varies from "tolerably bad" to "absolute hell", mostly depending on the guy in charge and what God(s) he worships. Most often though, Chaos Warbands doesn't have actual Serfs anymore but use Cultists who are pulled towards the Warband to worship them as living avatars of the Chaos gods. Cultists are most of the time treated like crap by the Traitors, since their own hubris and newfound freedom doesn't go well with 'being nice to people below you'. But on the other hand, [[Chaos Lord|Chaos Lords]] knows how important a healthy supply of fanatic cults is for the runnings of a Warband and the value of meatshields in combat. Even bands of [[Khorne Berzerker|Khornate Berzerkers]] still have mortals tagging along with them despite their constant urge to kill anything crossing their path in the name of the Blood God, which means they do show ''some'' restraint. (of course, said mortals are just as bloodthirsty and just as often end up killing some of their own, but Khorne cares not from where the blood flows).

Of the various Traitor Legions depictions so far, the Emperor's Children are the worst, mistreating their "serfs" to death so hard they had to resort to stealing everyone else's during the Great Scouring (causing a huge civil war amongst the Traitor Legions). The Word Bearers mostly see mortals as a reserve of walking sacrifices waiting to happen. One band of Iron Warriors used slaves instead of chapter serfs, seeing them as nothing but replaceable cogs in their machines of war (and they ended up being just as reliable as you'd expect when the shit hit the fan); [[Honsou]] however sees the armies of cultists in his service as low-quality troops that nevertheless have their use so he values them a tiny little bit. The Thousand Sons use a combination of Tzaangors (who are actually voluntary employees who are treated relatively well and respected) and enslaved native human population from the [[Sortiarius]] (who, should they manage to escape and survive, become primary candidates for new Thousand Son marines. That's how Tzeentch rolls). The Crimson Slaughter has an entire city's worth of serfs in the depths of their battle barge that they just ignore most of the time (they tag alongside the Crimson Slaughter in battle hoping to get noticed, and those that somehow distinguish themselves get a shot at becoming new Crimson Slaughter marines). Talos Valcoran of the [[Night Lords]] treats his serfs surprisingly well (better than even some Loyalist Marines), and the others in his warband at worst see mortals as useful tools that shouldn't be wasted pointlessly.

In summary they are the [[/co/|Alfred]] of 40k, because no fine super hero are without a friend/allies that would comfort them after all the grimdark shit happened outside to fight another day.

==Rules for Serfs==
Chapter Serfs are represented with various rules both in the 40kRPGs and on the tabletop:

On the tabletop ''(both in 40k by the Badab War books, and in 30k Extermination)'' they are represented in battles where space marine capital ships get invaded by enemy forces, where the crew has to get involved by necessity. They come in squads of 6, are armed with either laspistol and melee weapon or shotguns, and wear void-hardened flak armour. However, they have the same stat-lines as Imperial Guard Conscripts, because they aren't battle-hardened fighters, or expected to be.

The [[Deathwatch (RPG)]] does it very similarly, having stat lines weaker than starting [[Dark Heresy]] player characters, and if you take the tens digit of their statline it very nearly exactly follows the tabletop stats for them, too. What is different about them, though, is that chapter serfs ''do'' have biological enhancements, and have the ''Unnatural Strength'', ''Toughness'' and ''Senses'' traits, as well as Dark Sight, which actually falls into line with how the main character of ''Prospero Burns'' is presented (though he's not strictly a Serf, his enhancements were apparently no great expense for the Legion possibly because instead of giving him a augmetic eye they just rammed a wolf eye in there, but they replaced every organ system but his nerves with new ones).

However, with the ally rules, you could probably take them as Imperial Guardsmen, just modeled differently. What to do with all those Spare Marine and scout torsos? Give'em lasguns and play them as Chapter Serfs.

== Serfs' Role ==
Granted, even serfs are specialized in specific roles and not an all-rounder 'slave'. Here are the most common roles that serfs might serve in a Chapter
*'''Artificers''' - Technicians and assistants to Techmarines. Routinely polishes and conducts minor repairs on their master's power armor and wargear while the Techmarines handle the more complicated tasks.

*'''Master of the Refectorium''' - These are the 'head chef' of a Chapter's kitchen, ensuring the hefty amount of food served is prepared at its highest quality. Some of the most prestigious position that a serf might get into since even Space Marines would love to have a well-served meal.

*'''Medicae''' - Nurses to the Apothecarys' doctor. As the Space Marines' anatomy is complex beyond comprehension, these are often staffed by the most intelligent and dexterous serfs.

*'''Ordinator of the House''' - Chapter Master's personal teddy bear. Well performed serfs (usually on the field of battle) can catch the attention of their Chapter Master lords and get promoted to this position. Acting as the nominal head of the Serfs, these folks ensure that other Serfs are smoothly performing their duties and get the special privilege of being in the presence of the Chapter Master at any time.

*'''Monitors''' - Messengers, engineered to be able to remember pages long worth of information and SOMEHOW ENCRYPT THE TEXT and DECRYPT it when given correct verbal code. Fleshy 1940s Enigma Machines, creepy

*'''Sacratium''' - Lay assistants to Chapter's Chaplains. Tends Chapter's relics and assists in perform ceremonious tasks.

*'''Scribellum''' - Clerks to the Chapter's Librarians. Chronicle the Chapter's history and deeds, also assists in creating Purity Seals.

*'''Shipmaster''' - The commanding officer of a ship in the Chapter's fleet -- they would be the Captain if that wasn't [[Brother-Captain|their boss' rank]]. They oversee the ship's operations, including combat when the Space Marines are engaged in fighting off opponents.

{{Marines-Forces}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Chapter Serf

2018-02-14T08:04:12Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

[[File:Serfs.jpg|300px|thumb|right|"Hail to thee, honoured mortal servant. Wouldst thou consider serving the [[Space Marines|Adeptus Astartes]] in Their daily routines and perhaps end thine life as the [[Space Marine Hunter|insides of an anti-air missile?]]]]

[[Space Marines]] are big tough supermen and all, but even they need a helping hand. Someone has to to polish their armor and nob, cook their food, sweep their halls, clean their toilets, file their tax returns, and keep the [[fortress-monastery]] defended when the brothers are out stomping [[Bloodletter]] faces into the ground and tearing [[Ork]] rectums apart with [[chainsword]]s. After all, Space Marines are knights ''in spaaaace!'' and every knight needs his retainer. These people are '''Chapter Serfs''' and live comfortable, well-to-do lives... at least by [[Imperium of Man]] standards.

Chapter Serfs (formerly Legion Serfs), were originally picked from failed Space Marine Aspirants and other natives of Space Marine homeworlds who, though physically unable to become Space Marines, still wished (and were deemed able and worthy) to serve. The children of Chapter Serfs also often become chapter Serfs themselves. Generally speaking, Chapter Serfs are well-trained, highly educated, and treated well; they are officially part of the Chapter, and therefore get access to the fancy toys in the space marine armoury.

How well they're treated depends on the Chapter they serve. [[Ultramarines]], [[Blood Angels]], [[Space Wolves]], and [[Salamanders]] are well aware they couldn't purge aliens, mutants and heretics without the 'unglorious' support Serfs provide and [[this guy|treat them as equals to other Space Marines, like soldiers might treat their friends in the supply corps.]] The Wolves use their serfs as a defence force on Fenris, known as "Kaerls", though we don't know if they get to go on campaign or not except for those serving in the fleet. The [[Star Phantoms]] entrust them with maintaining the chapter's faith and up keeping their massive ossuary. [[Blood Drinkers]], being vampires, let them volunteer to be ritually drained of blood for them to (surprise surprise) drink to stave off the Red Thirst. [[Iron Hands]] and [[Imperial Fists]] and their countless successor chapters see them as just kind of there. They don't really care one way or another and form little bonds with them, considering service to be its own reward (think the way you treat the fast food workers and garbage people who make your comfy life possible). [[Marines Malevolent]], being dicks, treat them like slaves. [[Flesh Tearers]] being psychotic, treat them like stress balls to work out frustration on between missions. (Spoiler alert: a human can't usually survive being used as a stress-ball by a Marine.)

As for the the Traitor Legions, it varies from "tolerably bad" to "absolute hell", mostly depending on the guy in charge and what God(s) he worships. Most often though, Chaos Warbands doesn't have actual Serfs anymore but use Cultists who are pulled towards the Warband to worship them as living avatars of the Chaos gods. Cultists are most of the time treated like crap by the Traitors, since their own hubris and newfound freedom doesn't go well with 'being nice to people below you'. But on the other hand, [[Chaos Lord|Chaos Lords]] knows how important a healthy supply of fanatic cults is for the runnings of a Warband and the value of meatshields in combat. Even bands of [[Khorne Berzerker|Khornate Berzerkers]] still have mortals tagging along with them despite their constant urge to kill anything crossing their path in the name of the Blood God, which means they do show ''some'' restraint. (of course, said mortals are just as bloodthirsty and just as often end up killing some of their own, but Khorne cares not from where the blood flows).

Of the various Traitor Legions depictions so far, the Emperor's Children are the worst, mistreating their "serfs" to death so hard they had to resort to stealing everyone else's during the Great Scouring (causing a huge civil war amongst the Traitor Legions). The Word Bearers mostly see mortals as a reserve of walking sacrifices waiting to happen. One band of Iron Warriors used slaves instead of chapter serfs, seeing them as nothing but replaceable cogs in their machines of war (and they ended up being just as reliable as you'd expect when the shit hit the fan); [[Honsou]] however sees the armies of cultists in his service as low-quality troops that nevertheless have their use so he values them a tiny little bit. The Thousand Sons use a combination of Tzaangors (who are actually voluntary employees who are treated relatively well and respected) and enslaved native human population from the [[Sortiarius]] (who, should they manage to escape and survive, become primary candidates for new Thousand Son marines. That's how Tzeentch rolls). The Crimson Slaughter has an entire city's worth of serfs in the depths of their battle barge that they just ignore most of the time (they tag alongside the Crimson Slaughter in battle hoping to get noticed, and those that somehow distinguish themselves get a shot at becoming new Crimson Slaughter marines). Talos Valcoran of the [[Night Lords]] treats his serfs surprisingly well (better than even some Loyalist Marines), and the others in his warband at worst see mortals as useful tools that shouldn't be wasted pointlessly.

In summary they are the [[/co/|Alfred]] of 40k, because no fine super hero are without a friend/allies that would comfort them after all the grimdark shit happened outside to fight another day.

==Rules for Serfs==
Chapter Serfs are represented with various rules both in the 40kRPGs and on the tabletop:

On the tabletop ''(both in 40k by the Badab War books, and in 30k Extermination)'' they are represented in battles where space marine capital ships get invaded by enemy forces, where the crew has to get involved by necessity. They come in squads of 6, are armed with either laspistol and melee weapon or shotguns, and wear void-hardened flak armour. However, they have the same stat-lines as Imperial Guard Conscripts, because they aren't battle-hardened fighters, or expected to be.

The [[Deathwatch (RPG)]] does it very similarly, having stat lines weaker than starting [[Dark Heresy]] player characters, and if you take the tens digit of their statline it very nearly exactly follows the tabletop stats for them, too. What is different about them, though, is that chapter serfs ''do'' have biological enhancements, and have the ''Unnatural Strength'', ''Toughness'' and ''Senses'' traits, as well as Dark Sight, which actually falls into line with how the main character of ''Prospero Burns'' is presented (though he's not strictly a Serf, his enhancements were apparently no great expense for the Legion possibly because instead of giving him a augmetic eye they just rammed a wolf eye in there, but they replaced every organ system but his nerves with new ones).

However, with the ally rules, you could probably take them as Imperial Guardsmen, just modeled differently. What to do with all those Spare Marine and scout torsos? Give'em lasguns and play them as Chapter Serfs.

== Serfs' Role ==
Granted, even serfs are specialized in specific roles and not an all-rounder 'slave'. Here are the most common roles that serfs might serve in a Chapter
*'''Artificers''' - Technicians and assistants to Techmarines. Routinely polishes and conducts minor repairs on their master's power armor and wargear while the Techmarines handle the more complicated tasks.

*'''Master of the Refectorium''' - These are the 'head chef' of a Chapter's kitchen, ensuring the hefty amount of food served is prepared at its highest quality. Some of the most prestigious position that a serf might get into since even Space Marines would love to have a well-served meal.

*'''Medicae''' - Nurses to the Apothecarys' doctor. As the Space Marines' anatomy is complex beyond comprehension, these are often staffed by the most intelligent and dexterous serfs.

*'''Ordinator of the House''' - Chapter Master's personal teddy bear. Well performed serfs (usually on the field of battle) can catch the attention of their Chapter Master lords and get promoted to this position. Acting as the nominal head of the Serfs, these folks ensure that other Serfs are smoothly performing their duties and get the special privilege of being in the presence of the Chapter Master at any time.

*'''Monitors''' - Messengers, engineered to be able to remember pages long worth of information and SOMEHOW ENCRYPT THE TEXT and DECRYPT it when given correct verbal code. Fleshy 1940s Enigma Machines, creepy

*'''Sacratium''' - Lay assistants to Chapter's Chaplains. Tends Chapter's relics and assists in perform ceremonious tasks.

*'''Scribellum''' - Clerks to the Chapter's Librarians. Chronicle the Chapter's history and deeds, also assists in creating Purity Seals.

*'''Shipmaster''' - The commanding officer of a ship in the Chapter's fleet. They oversee the ship's operations, including combat when the Space Marines are engaged in fighting off opponents.

{{Marines-Forces}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Starship Troopers

2018-01-25T08:48:59Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* The Movie */

[[File:Whatiplayed starship troopers.jpg|thumb|450px|The movie gets it completely wrong. But seriously, read the book. Then see the movie.]]
''"A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are... A suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little - on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in."''

'''Starship Troopers''' is a science fiction book by [[Robert Heinlein]], later adapted into a series of movies, a cartoon, and several board and wargames. It influenced the look and feel of science fiction militarizes that came after -- and it influences real-world militaries as well, as it is on the required reading lists of the United States Marine Corps and Navy.

The basic storyline is that [[humanity]] is fighting a war against an implacable species of insectoid aliens called "Bugs" or "Arachnids". The actual front-line combatants are the Mobile Infantry, an elite, all-volunteer force equipped with devastating weapons and [[powered armor]]. Life for the average human is not bad, but the only way to attain citizenship and the perks that go with it, such as suffrage, is to do a term of public service. Military service is only one of the possible avenues to citizenship mentioned in the book, a point often overlooked due to the heavy emphasis placed on the armed forces by the viewpoint character and his comrades.

Does any of this sound familiar? ''Would you like to know more?''

Frankly, the only reason that Starship Troopers avoids falling into a pit of cliches is because it did them all first -- the ''Alien'' films, [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[Starcraft]], and essentially all military science-fiction since the 1950's owe a lot to Mr. Heinlein. For example, Starship Troopers is credited with the invention of power armor.

Worth noting, Heinlein's Bugs (not the movie Arachnids) are like the only hivemind-insectoid race in the fiction capable of using actual tech (like metal-made spaceships, electromagnetic guns and good-old nukes) instead of biotech.

== The Movie ==

{{main|Skub}}

So come the 1980s, Heinlein's idealization of the soldier is less compatible with the post-Vietnam counterculture (and the hippies therein). Heinlein said he based this future society off of Switzerland (which has a longstanding tradition of national service) but made voluntary as he was not a fan of conscription (he also stated the Bugs' hivemind was there because one of the book's themes was to critique communism). However the glorification of the military's role in society and the use of war to strengthen the nation (along with common corporal punishment) means that the Terran Federation often comes off as being somewhat fascist to a modern audience, to the point that [[SJW|some people]] accused Heinlein himself of being fascist (which he wasn't, he was sort of a proto-libertarian). This is made all the more noticeable by the publication of Ender's Game, which is another popular science fiction novel which in the broad strokes has a lot of similarities to Starship Troopers but with notable twists (most notably the bugs invaded earth because they had no idea that non hive-minded creatures could be anything more than animals and relent when they find out their mistake, the battle-school is run by lying manipulating bastard who are willing to physiologically break and even kill children to forge perfect officers and the notion of committing genocide of an entire species is presented in a negative light) did not help with this.

Eventually, it came time for Hollywood to do its inevitable movie-of-the-popular-book, and shooting began for a Starship Troopers movie. The above paragraph of skub might have been quietly swept under the rug were it not for one thing: the director, Paul Verhoeven, was a Dutch refugee of Nazi occupation and [[Grimdark|almost died via collateral damage as a child when a bomb from an Allied Powers air strike landed in his backyard]].

When Verhoeven read Heinlein's book, he couldn't help but see the Terrans as [[Imperium of Man|a bunch of Space Nazis]] (ironically, since Heinlein served the US Navy in the 20's and the 40's), between their near-conscription level of military signups and the incredibly heavy use of propaganda enforcing "the individual's obligation to society". As such, he decided to crank the patriotic jingoism up to eleven and make the Terrans a bunch of hot-blooded dumbasses who, aside from a couple of sergeants, had no idea how to do anything more advanced than run at the enemy shooting guns. The Terran political officers were even dressed up in black Nazi trenchcoats, to really drive the point home how much Verhoeven hated Heinlein's book. The movie is a giant 2-hour "fuck you" disguised as a parody disguised as a sci-fi action movie.

This was not entirely deliberate however, unlike most book-to-film adaptations the movie that would become Starship Troopers was already in production before Verhoeven had even read the book. Verhoeven had been working on a dark satire sci-fi film similar to Robocop, except instead of being about capitalism in Detroit it was about fascism in space. One of the marketers at the production company noticed some similarities to the novel and decided that the movie would sell better as an adaptation of an influential novel than as a new property. So everything was renamed and several aspects rewritten to make the movie into a loose adaptation with as few budget increases as possible.

The problem is that with that much disguising, quite a lot of people ''still'' didn't get the satire. So you have people who didn't get the movie, people who thought the movie was great, people who said that the book was better, and people who didn't get the movie, thought it was great and made a 'sequel' with... flashlights, and all of these things are backed up by the intensely political nature of both the books and the parody. At least the third one (''Starship Troopers 3: Marauder'') featured real powered armor, for all of like five minutes.

So yeah... Lotta skub there.

=== The Remake? ===

Talk circulated in late 2016 of a possible remake of ''Starship Troopers'', supposedly more faithful to the book. Remakes are the vogue in Hollywood in the 2010s, and it would not be difficult to make a more faithful adaptation than Verhoeven's, but "more faithful" doesn't mean "particularly faithful", and it's easy to ''talk'' about movies but much harder to make them. In short: we'll believe it when we see it.

== ''Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles'' ==

{{main|Approved Television}}

A 1999-2000 CGI cartoon adaptation of the movie. The computer animation looks its age, but the show otherwise combines the better elements from the book (e.g. the aliens and small-squad focus that the movie left out) and the movie (e.g. a slightly cynical take on the Federation, without Heinlein's lectures or Verhoeven's over-the-top satire). It was cool, but it was also plagued by budget and production troubles. The series progressed from Pluto, through the galaxy, to the Bugs' homeworld of Klendathu, and then the Feds got word that the Bug Queen escaped and is invading Earth.

And then production stopped, with the last four episodes not produced.

Commentary from the production staff indicates that the final episodes would have featured the Queen's final attack destroying SICON headquarters and turning it into a volcano, followed by a Federation counter-attack themed after Dante's ''Inferno'', culminating in a final showdown between one of the main-character squad members vs. the Queen herself, but sadly we'll never get to see it. The material leading up to it is still worth watching, though!

== Games ==

There have been a few video games, none outstanding, but [[Avalon Hill]] made a two-player board game way back in 1976 -- in fact, a review of it was included in the very first June-July 1977 issue of ''[[White Dwarf]]''. One player takes the role of the Arachnids and draws up a hidden map of where the bugs are hiding and where their tunnels run, and then the human player tries to root them out. It was re-released following the movie.

[[Mongoose Publishing]] produced a [[d20 System]] RPG and a miniatures game from 2005-2008. There were plans to port the RPG to the [[Traveller]] system and produce a second edition of the miniatures game, but they no longer have the license.

== External Links ==

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGHCoVzqtk Klendathu Drop], from the first movie's soundtrack, and one of the features of the movie that everyone agrees is awesome. Very useful in [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Deathwatch]] and [[Only War]] games.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article_19259_6-mind-blowing-ways-starship-troopers-predicted-future.html This article] suggests that the movie may have been a parable for the War on Terror '''''before''''' the war began.

[[category: Literature]]

Starship Troopers

2018-01-25T08:46:39Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* The Movie */

[[File:Whatiplayed starship troopers.jpg|thumb|450px|The movie gets it completely wrong. But seriously, read the book. Then see the movie.]]
''"A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are... A suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little - on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in."''

'''Starship Troopers''' is a science fiction book by [[Robert Heinlein]], later adapted into a series of movies, a cartoon, and several board and wargames. It influenced the look and feel of science fiction militarizes that came after -- and it influences real-world militaries as well, as it is on the required reading lists of the United States Marine Corps and Navy.

The basic storyline is that [[humanity]] is fighting a war against an implacable species of insectoid aliens called "Bugs" or "Arachnids". The actual front-line combatants are the Mobile Infantry, an elite, all-volunteer force equipped with devastating weapons and [[powered armor]]. Life for the average human is not bad, but the only way to attain citizenship and the perks that go with it, such as suffrage, is to do a term of public service. Military service is only one of the possible avenues to citizenship mentioned in the book, a point often overlooked due to the heavy emphasis placed on the armed forces by the viewpoint character and his comrades.

Does any of this sound familiar? ''Would you like to know more?''

Frankly, the only reason that Starship Troopers avoids falling into a pit of cliches is because it did them all first -- the ''Alien'' films, [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[Starcraft]], and essentially all military science-fiction since the 1950's owe a lot to Mr. Heinlein. For example, Starship Troopers is credited with the invention of power armor.

Worth noting, Heinlein's Bugs (not the movie Arachnids) are like the only hivemind-insectoid race in the fiction capable of using actual tech (like metal-made spaceships, electromagnetic guns and good-old nukes) instead of biotech.

== The Movie ==

{{main|Skub}}

So come the 1980s, Heinlein's idealization of the soldier is less compatible with the post-Vietnam counterculture (and the hippies therein). Heinlein said he based this future society off of Switzerland (which has a longstanding tradition of national service) but made voluntary as he was not a fan of conscription (he also stated the Bugs' hivemind was there because one of the book's themes was to critique communism). However the glorification of the military's role in society and the use of war to strengthen the nation (along with common corporal punishment) means that the Terran Federation often comes off as being somewhat fascist to a modern audience, to the point that [[SJW|some people]] accused Heinlein himself of being fascist (which he wasn't, he was sort of a proto-libertarian). This is made all the more noticeable by the publication of Ender's Game, which is another popular science fiction novel which in the broad strokes has a lot of similarities to Starship Troopers but with notable twists (most notably the bugs invaded earth because they had no idea that non hive-minded creatures could be anything more than animals and relent when they find out their mistake, the battle-school is run by lying manipulating bastard who are willing to physiologically break and even kill children to forge perfect officers and the notion of committing genocide of an entire species is presented in a negative light) did not help with this.

Eventually, it came time for Hollywood to do its inevitable movie-of-the-popular-book, and shooting began for a Starship Troopers movie. The above paragraph of skub might have been quietly swept under the rug were it not for one thing: the director, Paul Verhoeven, was a Dutch refugee of Nazi occupation and [[Grimdark|almost died via collateral damage as a child when a bomb from an Allied Powers air strike landed in his backyard]].

When Verhoeven read Heinlein's book, he couldn't help but see the Terrans as [[Imperium of Man|a bunch of Space Nazis]] (ironically, since Heinlein served the Allies in World War 2), between their near-conscription level of military signups and the incredibly heavy use of propaganda enforcing "the individual's obligation to society". As such, he decided to crank the patriotic jingoism up to eleven and make the Terrans a bunch of hot-blooded dumbasses who, aside from a couple of sergeants, had no idea how to do anything more advanced than run at the enemy shooting guns. The Terran political officers were even dressed up in black Nazi trenchcoats, to really drive the point home how much Verhoeven hated Heinlein's book. The movie is a giant 2-hour "fuck you" disguised as a parody disguised as a sci-fi action movie.

This was not entirely deliberate however, unlike most book-to-film adaptations the movie that would become Starship Troopers was already in production before Verhoeven had even read the book. Verhoeven had been working on a dark satire sci-fi film similar to Robocop, except instead of being about capitalism in Detroit it was about fascism in space. One of the marketers at the production company noticed some similarities to the novel and decided that the movie would sell better as an adaptation of an influential novel than as a new property. So everything was renamed and several aspects rewritten to make the movie into a loose adaptation with as few budget increases as possible.

The problem is that with that much disguising, quite a lot of people ''still'' didn't get the satire. So you have people who didn't get the movie, people who thought the movie was great, people who said that the book was better, and people who didn't get the movie, thought it was great and made a 'sequel' with... flashlights, and all of these things are backed up by the intensely political nature of both the books and the parody. At least the third one (''Starship Troopers 3: Marauder'') featured real powered armor, for all of like five minutes.

So yeah... Lotta skub there.

=== The Remake? ===

Talk circulated in late 2016 of a possible remake of ''Starship Troopers'', supposedly more faithful to the book. Remakes are the vogue in Hollywood in the 2010s, and it would not be difficult to make a more faithful adaptation than Verhoeven's, but "more faithful" doesn't mean "particularly faithful", and it's easy to ''talk'' about movies but much harder to make them. In short: we'll believe it when we see it.

== ''Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles'' ==

{{main|Approved Television}}

A 1999-2000 CGI cartoon adaptation of the movie. The computer animation looks its age, but the show otherwise combines the better elements from the book (e.g. the aliens and small-squad focus that the movie left out) and the movie (e.g. a slightly cynical take on the Federation, without Heinlein's lectures or Verhoeven's over-the-top satire). It was cool, but it was also plagued by budget and production troubles. The series progressed from Pluto, through the galaxy, to the Bugs' homeworld of Klendathu, and then the Feds got word that the Bug Queen escaped and is invading Earth.

And then production stopped, with the last four episodes not produced.

Commentary from the production staff indicates that the final episodes would have featured the Queen's final attack destroying SICON headquarters and turning it into a volcano, followed by a Federation counter-attack themed after Dante's ''Inferno'', culminating in a final showdown between one of the main-character squad members vs. the Queen herself, but sadly we'll never get to see it. The material leading up to it is still worth watching, though!

== Games ==

There have been a few video games, none outstanding, but [[Avalon Hill]] made a two-player board game way back in 1976 -- in fact, a review of it was included in the very first June-July 1977 issue of ''[[White Dwarf]]''. One player takes the role of the Arachnids and draws up a hidden map of where the bugs are hiding and where their tunnels run, and then the human player tries to root them out. It was re-released following the movie.

[[Mongoose Publishing]] produced a [[d20 System]] RPG and a miniatures game from 2005-2008. There were plans to port the RPG to the [[Traveller]] system and produce a second edition of the miniatures game, but they no longer have the license.

== External Links ==

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGHCoVzqtk Klendathu Drop], from the first movie's soundtrack, and one of the features of the movie that everyone agrees is awesome. Very useful in [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Deathwatch]] and [[Only War]] games.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article_19259_6-mind-blowing-ways-starship-troopers-predicted-future.html This article] suggests that the movie may have been a parable for the War on Terror '''''before''''' the war began.

[[category: Literature]]

Humanity Fuck Yeah

2018-01-25T08:44:41Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09: /* Recommended media about humans kicking ass */

{{Editwar}}
{{Cleanup}}
'' "We poison our air and water to weed out the weak! We set off fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our God to a stick!'' '''''Don't fuck with the human race!"'''''

Out of all threads that appear at the [[/tg/]], it is this kind of threads that hold that one special place in the hearts of [[neckbeards|fa/tg/uys]]. It shows [[Humans|humanity]] for what it really is: a savage but superior bunch of mighty and brilliant alphas with machines that [[rape]] any organism that dares stand in its path, then proceed to do the same to any aliens across which they come, as they are all pathetically inferior in every way. This can take many forms, including military, cultural, culinary, and sexual. The foremost is the most common in these stories.

Many glorious hours of dedicated hard work were given to these threads, the finest lines of which would make any xeno race run to the edge of the known universe, even if the humans were still in the stone age. Reasons why humans are such a threat to the rest of the galaxy are various, but a good deal can be summed up in the following list:

*'''Our evolution''' - We evolved and THRIVED in the African savannah, a place where everything is trying to KILL YOU! '''ALL THE TIME!''' Aliens usually evolved on some herbivore world or become less "on their guard" due to centuries of living away from nature, not troubled by survival.
*'''Our history''' - Humans have been getting better at killing each other basically even '''before''' they made stone axes, and we got [[awesome|better]] over time. You think proud warrior races have shit on us? Spartan style training they undergo makes only a handful of survivors. No matter how good they are, we'll just drown them in conscripts. We also nearly went extinct once, BECAUSE A '''HUGE''' VOLCANO EXPLODED, making us only have about 5000 INDIVIDUALS left and of them ONLY 40 PAIRS were BREEDING ONES. Did that make us quit? NOPE. Only about 70000 years later we had 7,4 BILLION INDIVIDUALS, having 100 TIMES more biomass than any other large animal species in the history of our planet!!! That is a hell of a lot of breeding (which has also made us have a very low genetic variety almost making us inbred but not quite. BUT STILL)! The moral of the story is that do not fuck with us, xenos. No matter what you do WE WILL SURVIVE. And after a while: WE. WILL. THRIVE.
*'''Our bodies''' - We're the ultimate Omnivores, we hunt down, kill, burn and eat absolutely anything until totally nothing is left, even more so than so-called "apex" predators like lions, bears, snakes and sharks (in fact, contrary to what ''Jaws'' may lead you to believe, we ''eat'' sharks so much they're almost extinct. Why? Simply because they make ''fancy soup''). From a lower animal's perspective, we're basically [[Tyranids]]. We also drink alcohol, one of the most volatile, flammable, caustic solvents in chemistry that is for all intents and purposes, POISON. It's the same toxic stuff used to [[Exterminatus]] bacteria, fungi and everything else biological. Why? Because it's FUN!
*'''Our mind''' -The most terrifying aspect of us would probably be our brains and technology. Our aggressive instincts combined with our intelligence will never cease to come up with better and deadlier ways to warp reality in our own Image, and to torture and exterminate the enemy, and such would probably seem like incomprehensible Lovecraftian Magic to lower species. Our modern tech would scare the shit out of tribal communities. We have exterminated a lot of species like the Dodo ''simply by uncaring accident'' (which is probably why '''we are thriving during an extinction event''' (for now at least)). What we can come up with scares the shit out of ourselves even. Think Nuclear Weapons and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction M.A.D.] for example.

As you can see there is a lot of material to roll around in these kind of threads. Humans may not be as powerful sometimes, just a serious player in the galaxy through economic superiority or science, but that's not the real "Humanity Fuck Yeah" thread. The real deal is us having our way with the galaxy as we see fit. Murdering billions of xenos, or fucking them if they're hot enough, taking their delicious alien babies and eating them in front of their parents, mining their planets to the core and moving on, leaving nothing but dead rocks in our wake. We march on, our mantra singing through the stars:

'''GENOCIDE! MINING! GENOCIDE! MINING! GENOCIDE! MINING! '''

== Xenos Pay Attention You're Next ==
Our species thought we knew war. We built our civilization on foundations of honor and prowess, we were like a rapier; crippling our foes with small yet decisive blows. We killed our enemies yet we allowed them to surrender, there was no needless killing. That was before the humans came and they showed us the truth...That we were just naive children and that true war is won through unrelenting cruelty and spite. Despite our warriors training, despite all our experience, still we fell to the innumerable waves that the humans sent against us, they burned our worlds; slaughtering our children in horrific ways using them to learn how to kill us more efficiently. After many blood filled years these Terran butchers arrived on our home and they transformed it into a corpse-filled landscape. I tried to take my life but one of these power armored animals stopped me. As he leveled his vicious weapon at me I noticed his face for the first time; His eyes were filled with murderous glee and his mouth twisted into a sneer he whispered three final words to me..."Humanity, fuck yeah"...

''"Do they not know who we are, my brethren? We are the chosen of the Emperor, the scions of Terra. We are dominion and we are numberless. We are war itself and the death of all who oppose us. We are Humanity and we shall educate our ignorant foes as to the true meaning of that word!" -- Lord Inquisitor Aedrick Mantel of the Ordo Xenos, from [[Imperial Armour]] Volume 12 "The Fall of Orpheus".

In real-life there are people who claim encounters with aliens. Contrary to the popular trend here on HFY, the people who supposedly encountered aliens in real-life are often shocked or even frightened of them. In addition, abductees and witnesses stated the aliens had advanced technology beyond anything humanity has made that rendered the humans involved helpless against the aliens before being taken to their spaceships for experiments. But don't despair HFY, there are a few accounts where the people in question fought back; in one account a person was about to be abducted by an alien but stabbed them with a knife. Though the knife couldn't pierce the alien's skin, the resistance resulted in the aliens were driven off without abducting anyone. There was also an incident in which the would-be abductee ran inside, grabbed his rifle, ran out, and starting shooting at three aliens coming at him. One of them had to be dragged away by its compatriots. He hasn't had any xenos problems since then. In other words, if you're being abducted by aliens, fight back! Armed or not. Kick them in the gornacks! Gouge out their eyes! Bite them!

-- There was also a reference once on an infamous board to a story about an overweight powerlifter who was abducted, woke up and threw a few greys off him after breaking from restraints, afterwards he was lead down a hall where he passed out and woke up at home. I dont think he killed any of the aliens but they were suppposedly the 4ft tall skinny greys, and he was able to punch one which flew with a wall, and the others retreated. He was then lead into the hall. Source pending.

== Now with a song! ==
Humanity
Humanity

Humaniteh, fuck yeah!
Coming again to kill some mother fucking xenos
Humaniteh, fuck yeah!
Genocide is the only way, yeah

Aliens your game is through 'cause now you have to answer too
Humaniteh, fuck yeah!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls
Humaniteh, fuck yeah!
What you gonna to do when we come for you now

It's the dream that we all share
It's the hope for tomorrow
Fuck yeah!

Burgers, fuck yeah!
Space-mart, fuck yeah!
The Earth, fuck yeah!
Grifball, fuck yeah!

Orbital drop, fuck yeah!
Run and gun, fuck yeah!
The Internet, fuck yeah!
Slavery, fuck yeah!

Fuck yeah!

Spacebucks, fuck yeah!
Disneyverse, fuck yeah!
Porno, fuck yeah!
Petroleum, fuck yeah!

Assasination, fuck yeah!
Killing, fuck yeah!
Sushi, fuck yeah!
Taco Bell, fuck yeah!

Rodeos, fuck yeah!
Space ship and beyond
Fuck yeah, fuck yeah

Democracy, fuck yeah!
Space ships, fuck yeah!
The Emperor, fuck yeah!
Band-aids, fuck yeah!

Sly Marbo, fuck yeah!
Christmas, fuck yeah!
Premier Sanders, fuck yeah!
Popeye, fuck yeah!

Capitalists, fuck yeah!
Communists, (muffled fuck yeah)
Fuck yeah, fuck yeah
Simple deaths, fuck yeah!

[[Avenger Strike Fighter|A-10]] , fuck yeah!
[[Baneblade]], fuck yeah!

== Trivia ==
"Humanity Fuck Yeah" sometimes refers to omnicidal maniac-level racism against everything that isn't non-powered and normal human beings (because, you know, a human with superpowers is not really a human, right?).
Readers may experience ocular bleeding due to excessive [[TVTropes]]isms escaping from humanity's natural habitats. This is a normal, if unpleasant side-effect.

Some great examples of "Humanity Fuck Yeah":
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2709630/ Humans are insane]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2710711/ Humans are insane again]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2711290/ Humans are insane, still]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16727562/ Humans are insane (and also rapists)]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Humanity%20fuck%20yeah Every archived thread with the tag.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfbsZRbwbJ4 A reminder of what we at HFY stand for]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreWarriors Now available at TVTropes, Humans Are Warriors.]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreCthulhu Humans Are Cthulhu]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MugglesDoItBetter Muggles Do It Better]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanityIsSuperior Humanity Is Superior]
* <s>[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreBastards Humans Are Bastards].</s> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!*''' WE'LL KILL YOU AND YOUR WHOLE FUCKING INFERIOR RACE, XENO!}}
* [http://youtu.be/OcPqk-O-fD4 Danger: Humans]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY Humanity Fuck Yeah's anthem]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI Humanity Fuck Yeah's OTHER anthem]

== Recommended media about humans kicking ass ==
'''Note:''' While any media can actually bring a moment of a human kicking ass, it is imperative that such narrative presents humanity as a whole showing exceptional abilities to defeat super-powered/non-human adversity. For example, a book about humans slaughtering hyper-advanced alien invaders is absolutely "Humanity, Fuck Yeah". A book about World War 2 is not "Humanity, Fuck Yeah", because although it presents humans kicking ass and taking names, it is against other humans and there's ass kicking on all sides so that does not count.

Also, "Humanity, Fuck Yeah" only applies if humans are defeating super-powered non-humans through strictly technological means. For example, in ''X-COM: UFO Defense'', regular troops gunning down aliens is HFY, as are heavy weapons platforms (big robotic gun platforms). PSI troopers, despite being humans, use supernatural powers so they are not HFY.

Behold a list of "Humanity, Fuck Yeah" works:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse Kevin Jenkins universe] Humans are from a 'deathworld'. Lot's of stories here. [<-- These stories suck. They have a terminal case of 'no plot just backstory'. There's no red thread of a tale being told snaking its way through the writing, no meaningful happenings. If you want random fluff, go for it, but there's no crunch here, not for anyone who demands a modicum of standards to his writing.] [I would disagree with this, IDK when this opinion was given, two years ago I would say it held some truth. However the main story as well as a few of the canon stories by different authors do have a plot and quality. Of course this is only my opinion on it.]

* '''Independence Day''' (1996). This is a must-see film. "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
**Now having a sequel '''Fuck YOU ALIEN SCUM''

* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The ''ST'' movie by Paul Verhoeven has humanity taking Humanity Fuck Yeah by the balls and cranking it up past 11... and failing miserably at almost every turn for black comedy.

* [[Conan the Barbarian]] from Robert E. Howard, because going hand-to-hand combat with a cthulhu-like daemon-god and making it run away screaming in fear is the very definition of HFY. Remember that R.E.Howard and H.P.L. were friends, and many of the Cosmic Horror entities that HPL created are actually canon in Conan's universe, and he banishes them with brute force and axes.

* Incidentally H.P. Lovecraft, who was pals with Howard, got a few tales where humans beat back the Great Old Ones, namely The Dunwich Horror (elegan/tg/entlemen professors fight back a huge eldritch demigod), The Call of Cthulhu itself (badass norwegian officer ramming a ship against Cthulhu's head anyone?) and the Dream-Quest of unknown Kadath (/x/ dreamer rallies an army of ghouls and nightgaunts to kill lunar toad-like abominations and then storms Kadath, residence of Earth gods).

* The Damned trilogy, by Alan Dean Foster.

* Warhammer 40000, obviously, particularly when it comes to the [[Imperial Guard]]. Although admittedly, Humanity Occasionally Does Not Fuck Yeah here, but then again, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzPuK1vib_c here is the awesome].

* Traveller

* [[Star Trek]] - yes, somehow. A note - the Mirror Universe episodes (TOS - Mirror Mirror, various DS9 ones, ENT - In A Mirror Darkly part I and II) in general are basically Humanity Fuck Yeah at it's best. In TOS-MU, everyone is more badass and horny, and mass killing alien scum who refuse to submit is the order of the day, but get told to make things better and more peaceful by our flawless prime universe counterparts. Does that sound like humanity to you? No? Good, because it's not because fuck that noise. Even their uniforms are more awesome (and sexy). ENT's In A Mirror Darkly shows the Empire at it's most brutal, starts with Zefram Cochrane '''trying the Vulcan salute, only to pull out a shotgun and shoot the Vulcan point blank!''' And from there, they straight up are attacking THE THOLIANS, and STEAL the USS Defiant from TOS's The Tholian Web! Many other shenanigans ensue. No less than later in DS9 confirms that hippy peace kumbaya is bullshit as in the intervening 100 or so years, M-Spock became Emperor and instituted weakness, and the Empire is predictably overthrown by the Alliance (a Klingon/Cardassian dominated political order) - and it's not just humans that are mass enslaved, but all the core races who were cowed or bros with humans and the Empire like the Vulcans and Andorians. See, conquest and HFY is good for the galaxy! But thanks to efforts of people who find themselves on the other side like THE SISKO, not only do the enslaved start a rebellion, but by the last Mirror episode, are looking like they will seriously win it. According to some books, this was actually Emperor Spock's master plan - cause reform to weaken the Empire, and lead to it's seeming death, which would make him one of the best alien believers of HFY of all time. Eventually, revolution will come, and the Empire is reborn as a sort of human-centric Galactic Republic - shorn of all the weaknesses but with an unquenchable thirst for HFY. They are last seen conquering the Breen and Klings or some shit - pure [[awesome]]. Hell, lots of REGULAR Trek episodes eventually are filled with HFY - especially anything involving THE SISKO, later era [[Mary_Sue|Kathryn "KILL THEM ALL" Janeway]], or Section 31.
** Also, [http://beka-tiddalik.tumblr.com/post/150425828285/roachpatrol-deadcatwithaflamethrower a tumblr thread of utter hilarity] showed that compared to Vulcans, humanity is an entire species of Doc Browns -- a bunch of deranged hyper-neophiles tooling around in ships packed full of beyond-cutting-edge tech they don't actually understand very well. And constantly succeeding. When Vulcans have two warp cores, they experiment on one and save the other for a backup. When humans have two warp cores, they plug them both into a third warp core, travel to an alternate dimension, steal ''their'' warp cores and plug ''those'' together, punch their way back here, then try to turn a nearby sun into a torus because that was what their initial scientific experiment was for and they didn’t want to waste a trip. That happened last week and we still have no idea what the torus sun is supposed to accomplish.

* Mass Effect. Only on certain Renegade playthroughs, though; Paragon is hippy dippy "live in peace with xenos" Federation bullshit (to be fair, xenos in Mass Effect are actually friendly or reasonable, with a few exceptions). Even just the backstory has only-just-then-become-a-spacefaring-species humanity fighting a widely-feared and centuries-old galactic superpower to a standstill, followed up by earning their respect to such a degree that they let us jump the queue to join their galactic council club (or letting the current heads of the galactic council club die in battle so humanity fills the power vaccum). Although is just in the first game; in the second and third games reality ensues, concepts are deconstructed and the only way to beat the several-million-millennia-old alien main villains is to turn their resources against them or humanity gets wiped out more thoroughly than the dinosaurs were (if you believe some dinosaurs evolved into birds).

* X-COM: UFO Defense. And XCOM Enemy Unknown/Within. Turns out humanity is the greatest hope the alien invaders have, and we're being tested to see if we are worthy of it (we are). And XCOM 2, because even when we lost the war, we WILL win it!

* Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. '''BELIEVE IN THE ME WHO BELIEVES IN YOU!'''

* Gurren Lagann's precursor Getter Robo deserves mention, too. '''WHY DID THE GETTER RAYS CHOOSE LOWLY HUMANITY?!''' Also '''FUCK DINOSAURS!!'''

* Stargate, both SG-1 and Atlantis.

* '''Pacific Rim.''' Ye Gods, Pacific Rim.

* Halo, because being the [[Mary Sue|special snowflake race that can manipulate]] [[Old Ones|the technology of long dead, super-galactic, hyper advance aliens]] [[AWESOME|and yet still having the "Humanity first and only bitch!" personality, as well as standing up to (and winning against) a massive alien hedgmoney and then an omnivorous parasite in a war lasting nearly THIRTY YEARS gives the UNSC the honorable status.]] . Further noted due to the UNSC Marines (Whose personality is a fusion between Alien's Colonial Marines and Starship Trooper's Mobile Infantry) and because the UNSC built a NOVA bomb which is a petaton-exaton thermonuclear bomb that vaporized an entire covenant fleet in orbit and the entire nightside of a planet, and completely SHATTERS another when its detonated on the surface.

* [[Command and Conquer]] Tiberium Wars. While it sucks compared to the earlier ones, Xeno scum come to harvest Tiberium on our planet, then find out they got played like a bunch of fools. More forces wouldn't have helped the Scrin, Kane has a motherfucking Scrin battleship he built '''when Bill Clinton was president''', and another crashed UFO chilling out in Egypt. <s> What the hell were the expecting, trying to fight a grandchild of [[God]]? </s> They were expecting no resistance because they assumed all life on the planet had been consumed by Tiberium. The Scrin "invasion force" had only come to Earth to harvest Tiberium.

* Marvel Cinematic Universe. At numerous points in the setting (read: every other week), everything from alien empires and planet-eaters to GODS come to Earth looking to squash humanity like a Warboss sitting on a grot. They’ve conquered/destroyed/eaten every species/planet/galaxy they’ve encountered up to that point. Humanity’s heroes fly up and kick them in the dick!

* The Salvation War. Demons invade Earth and begin attacking cities. In response, we invade Hell, curbstomp the forces of Chaos (they expect us to have swords, we actually have tanks and big fucking guns) and even end up perma-killing Satan with a ship-to-ship missile. THEN we invade Heavens and exterminate angels.

*GATE: Thus The Self-Defense Force Fought There. Related to the above, but its other humans from a magical realm with mystical creatures backing them up invading modern-day Tokyo. Turns out swords and shields dont work to well against machine guns and attack helicopters...and then the JSDF proceeds to roll through the gate they came from and basically conquer the entire world on the other side...without a single casualty.

* Gears of War. A horde of inhuman killing beasts erupt from every human city and then later on our would-be 'fuel' turns out to be an ever-infectious virus of OMNOMNOM! which screws both of our races up. We came back, re-strengthen our forces and gave a response which includes the massacre of all three species including ours via mass orbital bombardment of lasers from SPEHS!, detonation of a bomb that kills by intense light and heat akin to a flashy nuke, the flooding of every cave and hole on our planet(by sinking our last sanctuary no less) and the detonation a fucking NEUTRON BOMB... all because we could.

* The annihilation series. Book one love conquers all. It's a stupid name but the book is really good it's about a boy who figures out that he has psychic powers that grant him the ability to fuck over people's shit the 2nd book is where things get crazy. An alien race who are arrogant and want nothing more then the human race to be gtfo go behind the galatic alliances back and attacks a colony killing 1/3 of the population. That's when the humans go batshit.

* The humourous Poul Anderson novel "The High Crusade". A hyper-advanced alien empire tries to 'ave a go at medieval England and get hilariously rolled over because EMP doesn't work on knights and longbowmen.

* Peter Bergs' Battleship. Generally shit storyline; basically aliens come down to Earth to fuck shit up, and accidentally land in the middle of a global naval wargame.

* Factorio. The premise sounds weaker than most other entries here, but considering you start with nothing but a steam drill, and you are going to have to wipe the floor with the local [[Tyranids|giant bug creatures]], even the smallest of which is about the size of a Smart car, in order to expand your mining, smelting and assembling industries, it is pretty much '''GENOCIDE! MINING! GENOCIDE! MINING! GENOCIDE! MINING!: ''THE GAME.''''' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDZM0diiYc To whit].

* All Brotherhood of Steel Fallout 4 breakthroughs. The Brotherhood supports genocide of all the non-human abominations that exist throughout the wasteland. Ad Victoriam! The Minutemen kinda qualify as well for the same reason as the Rimworld example listed above - less on the non-human killing, but instead its humans coming together, working together, and taming the everloving shit out of the irradiated and mutant-infested swamps of Massachusetts (post-nuclear war, must clarify) to make the cosiest apocalypse ever.

* While on the topic of [[Fallout]], the Enclave are most definitely HFY. Using a modified virus to systematically wipe out any and all mutated scum that rove the wasteland like it's theirs is a prime example of how awesome humans are at causing mass destruction, and even if a certain tribal mutant was able to infiltrate their base and blow it up, the legacy of the human patriotism of the Enclave will always live on. In New Vegas, even down to only five [[Old Ones|oldfags]] and a snot nosed kid, they kick veritable ''ass''. Though this one's a little up-to-you, as the Enclave were a wee bit too enthusiastic about the genocide part of HFY for their own good, as they actually wanted to bump off most of the human population of the post-apocalyptic US too.

* The Muv Luv franchise. In 1967, all consuming aliens (BETA - Beings of Extra Terrestrial origin which is an Adversary of the human race) are found on [[Mars]] during the explorations there. They land on the Moon, and even though we stand no chance then on the moon, America fights back with fucking prototype SPACE MARINES, space fighters, and re-purposing exoskeletal lifters as power armor. While the universe proves to run on a lot of Humanity What The Fuck Are You Doing too (the first BETA Hive on Earth lands in Kashgar, [[Derp|and the PRC and USSR get greedy letting them get powerful enough, so they can harvest whatever goodies they have]]. When they try landing a hive in Canada, America says "lol fuck no" and nukes the Hive to oblivion with only minimal apologies). What makes it so wonderful is that even for decades, as humanity loses constantly, as literally children are forced to fight, the breathing HFY of everyone involved making last stands and killing wave upon wave of alien scum in [[awesome]] mechs or as infantry on the battleline is enough to make you shed [[manly tears]]. Even when we're down to less than one billion people, we do NOT, STOP, FIGHTING. And then to crown it, in 2001, we have our first major victory with a captured Hive. The main storyline ends with humanity just about ready to start the great reconquest of Eurasia.The snippets in Exogularity show how AWESOME Humanity has become with the break-neck technological advancement fueled by alien tech. I mean Shielding, Mecha Hand-held practicle beam weapons, ships that have length measure in 8KM-9KM and HUNDREDS of G-17B(Descendants of the Susanoo, which they use to GLASS BETA hives on Mars) and other shits. HFY indeed.

* [[Doom]], Doom 2, Doom 3, and DOOM. Because one human can slaughter every breathing thing on two moons and then in Hell. And again. And again. The reboot takes it even further by taking the whole "ancient evil being locked away to prevent it wiping us out" trope and '''reversing it'''. So you, the human main character, is the ancient evil while the demons are the horrified and massacred prison wardens. '''Fuck yeah.'''

* Pokemon. I mean, mere human children can capture and enslave(those little balls they use to contain GIANT MOTHERFRICKIN DRAGONS! must be some brainwashing device!) peaceful creatures and then force those peaceful fire-breathing, water-spouting, grass-grassing monsters to fight each other to the death while the kids... KIDS! just stand behind them giving them orders. Also these little kids at the age of 10 are expected to go off on their own around the globe for fun.

* Space Battleship Yamato. Aliens (humans with green skin... they count right?) enter our solar system and we blow their spaceship up for no reason! Then our arse gets handed to us as they start bombarding our planet with meteorites using a tractor beam. However the moment a friendly alien race (hot chicks) gives us a power generator what do we do? We use it to invent a destructive ima-firin-my-lazor-cannon stick both items into a battleship turned spaceship, send that one ship off on its own to go get a life-saving tech thingy from hot chic aliens while single handedly blowing up an entire space empire armada... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs7r9NUlAuI All with a kickass main theme]

* Rescue Party by Arthur C. Clarke. While there is not conflict in the short story it still counts. Hippie aliens arrive on Earth only hours before the sun will explode, destroying the planet. The mission of the hippie aliens is to try to save as many people and as much of the culture as possible. Normally the galactic civilization does surveys of planets every one million years for new species, but the human race did not exist the last time the survey was done – four hundred thousand years before. We simply evolved too fast for them! However, radio signals had been detected on a planet 200 light years away, indicating intelligent life had arisen. They arrive, but nobody is home. As they search for any living humans, we learn that its typical for races to take thousand of years between the invention of the radio and space flight. The only thing they find is a communication tower beaming into space. They follow the beam with their FTL ships and discover an enormous fleet of rocket space ships (the largest fleet in galactic history), traveling into space without any FTL tech. Their tiny alien minds melt in the face of the sheer determination and steel balls Humanity posses. As they watch Humanity flying toward their birth right of total Galactic domination, the hippie aliens know that they are fucked.

* '''Worldwar''' by Harry Turtledove. A series of eight alternative history novels. World War II is doing well, and humanity is having a lot of fun with itself, until 1942, when the reptilan aliens known as the Race attack. They start off by detonating nuclear weapons in the stratosphere, creating EMPs, which most developed nations don't even notice, because primitive vacuum tubes don't care about that at all. Their technology is pretty superior to the humans', but humans have a knack for thinking so far outside the box that the box can't even be seen anymore, combined with the fact that they simply don´t give up, like, at all. Notable HFY moments include all human armies, including lots of nasty partisan groups pretty much halting their previous conflicts, and all descending on their new, common foe (almost makes you pity the invaders); humans destroying an alien spaceship with a motherfucking huge cannon (hint: Dora), humans turning the aliens into drug addicts and disrupting their whole culture with their ''corruptive nature'', an alien invasion on Britain stopped by chemical warfare, humans nuking a whole alien fleet killing millions, and finally humans driving the Aliens away and forcing them to accept a jolly human tradition: peace by '''''mutual assured destruction'''''

==An Alternate Take on HFY==
''Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.'' 
— Proverbs 16:18

''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9g2r0SdEZc| I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species, and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer on this planet. You are a plague, and we...are the cure.]'' 
- Agent Smith, ''The Matrix''

What started as a reasonable response to human suffering in fiction has blossomed into a cringe-fest of masturbatory autism that can be seen in the page quote. [[Eldar|Haughty pride, arrogance,]] [[Imperial Cult|zealotry, blind idiocy, self-righteousness,]] and many more vices are enabled by such tooting of our own metaphorical horns. [[Cancer|The worst part is how this attitude spreads to other fandoms like wildfire, even if humans or aliens aren't interacting with each other or even involved in the setting!]] The irony kicks in when you realize that many of the idols that HFY memers get their [[Heresy|Idolatry on for]] would be disappointed at such vainglorious pride, the [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|The Man-peror of Mankind]] would not approve! Even more ironic is how this attitude is exactly the same as [[Matt Ward|a certain fluff rapist]] [[Ultramarines|and his favored infallible, can't do wrong, and always victorious]] [[Mary Sue|mary sues.]]

The real crime however, is how HFY quashes new ideas, sucking the rest of the entire fandom down a creative black hole. Guess you can in fact get sick of winning in fiction all the time!

Basically put, what little potential HFY had has long since been stifled in a sea of mental masturbation over our own imaginary greatness.

So when would such attitudes be appropriate? In dangerous settings where such attitudes are backed up my much human suffering and bloodshed. In settings where we truly earned the right to be a bit proud of our survival. [[Warhammer 40K|In settings where humanity is beset on sides by hostile foes within and without, eternally under siege, with their very vices and souls threatening to rebel against the- hey wait a minute...]]

HFY tends to manifest itself especially terribly in fanfiction, where whole fandoms are plagued by a never ending slew of shitty fix fics that look at settings where humanity is already ridiculously special for no good reason and already has disproportionate influence on the setting and is already among the setting's winners and go "nah, humans need to win some more". Thus turning the sentiment into a code for "this fanfiction is shit written by some moron who doesn't understand how dramatic tension works" and turning HFY from a statement of pride to an ironic statement of mockery and a seal of low quality writing. The worst kinds of these fanfics tend to be written by people who legitimately think that the [[/pol/|unfamiliar needs to be purged]] and it all starts reading rather disturbingly like Mein Kampf more than good literature (and worst of all, these fanfics will also have writing quality about as good as Mein Kampf, which is legendarily terrible and incoherent if you're unfamiliar with it) as the more mouthbreather type of fan projects their race war fantasies where they think no one will notice. However, much like with FATAL or Racial Holy War or other works written by the inbred, these attempts to escape notice tend to fail and instead will only draw further mockery upon discovery. Original works, even on /tg/, are little better in this respect due to the community that springs around them acting like an echo chamber to drown out any kind of negative feedback no matter how justified it may be.

The most important rule in any story with a conflict is of course a need to maintain tension. If people win without effort, it gets very boring very quickly unless effortless victory and anti-climax is the whole joke (and most fanfic writers simply aren't funny enough to make the space opera/high fantasy equivalent of one punch man and probably shouldn't try to either), so when you start writing humans as simply piledriving everyone in the way without trying you end up making the humans more insufferable than pretty much any variety of Elf has ever been. Instead of badasses, you have turned our species into uninteresting Mary Sues who most people who don't have their heads up their asses will start to root against, much like how people generally start rooting against a sports team that always seems to win. With no effort being expended, there's no reason to care about the struggle because there is no struggle to care about. Bad HFY forgets all this in favor of what amounts to masturbation via text and unfortunately, as most writers aren't all that great, most HFY fics will tend to be of the shitty tensionless curbstomp variety where humanity does nothing to deserve any victory it gets.

You can express how great humanity is, but always remember these few rules:

*Don't make everyone else stupid, this is not only a lazy means of making your favoured faction right it's also one of the strongest signifiers for a Mary Sue as not only are they always right, anyone against them is a moron and probably eats babies too. Do make humans suffer setbacks and make mistakes, nobody wants to read about a hero who is never challenged and never stumbles or fucks up.
**To quote an old saying "to err is to human", someone without flaw is more akin to a god (or God) than an actual person, so don't go that route unless the character is a god or God (whether you believe in a god/God/religion or not, that is a subject that should be handled with care). Push them to the brink of destruction and have them claw their way back up from nothing instead of acting as if the universe will bend over backwards for them on account of their species alone. And remember to give them humility as a result of whatever struggle they go through; they should be very much aware they're little fish in a very big pond.
*Don't use "human ingenuity" as an advantage; this trope is so tiresomely played out that it produces nothing but eyerolling these days, especially since it tends to be a signifier that you've created a planet of hats setting where humanity is the only species not forced to have a hat (ironic, since this is itself a hat). This is lazy and overdone so don't do it.
**Elevating things like "pragmatism" and "brutality" in its place is just as bad if not even worse, because they make humanity look like a race of [[Tyranids|all-devouring monsters that leave nothing but destruction in their wake]] who need to be wiped out for the sake of all other sentient life in the universe.
*Don't force humanity into a hat itself either, saying things like "humans are good diplomats/warriors" is easily disproven by just looking at about a hundred randomly selected people so it's always going to ring kind of false to people in the real world. Do give people weaknesses of some sort, whether cultural or physical or governmental some kind of flaw will help to make humanity seem human instead of efficiency obsessed robots.
**Do give other species nuance of their own, just as you shouldn't give out a hat to humanity, you should try to avoid essentially typecasting the races in your setting without a very good explanation like Orks having their mentalities being genetically programmed or a species being an outright hive mind, this just makes everyone more interesting overall.
*It's ridiculous to assume that alien life evolved (or was created, depending on the story and who you ask) along the same lines as we did. Consider showing how humans are just as unsuited for alien environments as the aliens would be unsuited for our own. Oh sure, we can breathe oxygen, but outside any Earth-like planet that's just a liability. What good is that when the air on most inhabitable planets either has minimal oxygen or flat-out poisons us?

While these tips are just generally good for worldbuilding and story telling, they should always be taken into account by anyone who wants to write HFY without falling into the ubiquitous pitfalls.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Humansfuckyeah.png|Start of earliest saved HFY threads.
File:Soniamproud.png|WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!
File:1222851447080.png|The banner is from Star Trek, but it gives you the basic idea.
File:Humanlegacy.png|Fine example of how we at HFY think.
File:Colonel-quaritchsmall.jpg|HFY's official spokesman.
File:Hfy imp.png|The [[Imperial Cult]] is basically built on HFY.
File:The_pulse.png|Technology "saves" the day.
File:Terra_Is_Alive.png|Terra is a cruel matriarch. But her forge has made us strong.
File:Semen.png|Humans are more hardcore than most sci-fi insect races.
File:HumanityFuckYeah1.jpg|This is what we do to OUR home. Think your planet will fare any better?
File:The Courage of Man.png
File:Stabbed.PNG
File:Diplomat_1.png|Part 1 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
File:Diplomat_2.png|Part 2 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
File:Diplomat_3.png|Part 3 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
File:Diplomat_4.png|Part 4 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
File:Diplomat_5.png|Part 5 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
File:Diplomat_6.png|Part 6 of /tg/'s longest non-ongoing HFY.
</gallery>

Persistence Hunting with David Attenborough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

Humanity, fuck yeah.

<blockquote>''Let me tell you about humans, using something I'm familiar with in anthropology. When a Shoshone warrior wants a pony, he goes to a herd, picks one, and walks toward it. Naturally, the pony runs away. The Shonone follows, day and night just walking, usually for three full days. Pony runs away, man just keeps walking at a steady pace. Finally the pony simply collapses from exhaustion after running away for days, and the man walks up and puts a bridle on it. That is the kind of monster humans are.''</blockquote>

HFY vs African [[Pokemon]], by Andrew Ucles (without Pokeballs, because fuck you pokemons). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJiZ2HgV5E0

{{clear}}

Laspistol

2017-12-05T23:02:25Z

2600:1700:BF90:B950:29B0:7CA5:F22D:BF09:

[[File:Laspistol1.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The humble Laspistol.]]
[[Image:Laspistol.jpg|thumb|right| A completely accurate depiction of how useful this is.]]

The '''Laspistol''' is the pistol-sized variant of the [[Lasgun]] used by the [[Imperial Guard]]. It was primarily made as a sidearm for officers, as well as what few assault troops are present in the Guard. A laspistol can be made in many different ways, ranging from your standard factory-produced pistol for average squad sergeants to [[Adeptus Mechanicus|artisan-crafted]] pistols for for [[Rogue Trader]]s or Imperial Governors that are just as much pieces of art as functional weapons.

Virtually all [[Imperial Guard]] officers (aside from [[Commissar]]s, who generally prefer [[Bolt Pistol]]s) and combat personnel, will be armed with this pistol (unless they can get access to shinier bits like [[plasma]] or [[Bolter|bolt]] pistols) since it's fuckeasy to make, maintain, use, and die with. Especially the latter. The laspistol lacks the range of the lasgun but when in range it has the same effect as the lasgun. Basically, <s>if</s> because the lasgun is a flash light, the laspistol is a pocket light.

Of course, ''real'' Imperial Guard assault troops, like [[Krieg]] combat engineers, prefer shotguns to laspistols, because they hold no illusions about their close combat capabilities, and because a boomstick is a fucking manly weapon, approved by [[Straken|Colonel "I kick Chaos Terminators in the balls for fun" Straken]]. It also suggests that they've seen Aliens, which as well as helping to cement the look of the Imperial Guard, demonstrated that shotguns are an excellent choice for purging the foul xenos at close quarters.

Of course, like the lasgun, a laspistol is generally described as being quite capable of shooting through a modern-day concrete wall, penetrating a civilian car's body in one shot, and dealing a similar amount of damage to a modern day high-caliber revolver/pistol or an SMG burst. At least it has the same stats as the Autopistol and Stub-pistol which are essentially the same as today's micro-Uzi (or equivalent) and Desert Eagle (or other heavy pistol) IN SPACE.

While shots from the laspistol are less likely to kill than shots from a bolt pistol, [[Commissar]] [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''', argues that the saving grace of the laspistol is one of reliable ammunition, since a laspistol power pack can be recharged by anything (batteries, solar panels, or even just chucking it in a firepit if the AdMech aren't around to whine at you) while the bolt pistol needs physical ammunition to feed it, and a Commissar can only carry so much (even with [[Jurgen]] and endless pouches could only carry a few magazines). Cain also says that part of the appeal of bolt pistols is because they're big, loud, and make a statement. Ironically, [[Amberley Vail]] also notes this is also the reason why so many [[Orks]] are attracted to bolt pistols over laspistols, although Vail warns that telling a commissar that to their face would probably get you a demonstration on how dangerous a bolt pistol is.

So remember, the pistol is actually quite powerful by our standards, it's just that it's in a setting where the standards are [[Bolter|guns loaded with miniature rockets for ammunition]], [[Plasma|lightweight guns that fire super-heated bolts of energy capable of penetrating heavy armor as if it were wet tissue paper]], [[Gauss|guns capable of disintegrating anything that they're fired at]], [[Shuriken Catapult|literally recoilless guns that are capable of sending out a flurry of jagged disks capable of severing limbs]], or somewhere along those lines.

Of course, all of this depends on who's writing the fluff - different authors portray weapons differently.

==See Also==

*[[Commissar]] - The famous users of the <s>laspistol</s> Bolt pistol, which they use to motivate their troops.
*[[Lasgun]] - Laspistol's mommy.
*[[Multilaser]]- Laspistol's big bro.

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[[Category:Imperial]][[category:warhammer 40,000]]