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The Dark Eye

2020-04-14T01:54:58Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Characters */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Das Schwarze Auge
|picture = [[Image:Das_Schwarze_Auge_logo.800px.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Ulysses Games
|authors = Droemer Knaur Schmidt Spiele
|year = 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd ed) 1992 (3rd ed) 2001 (4th ed) 2015 (5th ed)
}}
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
{{stub}}
'''''Das Schwarze Auge''''' (The Dark Eye) is what Germany equipped on their character sheet where Americans wrote "Dungeons & Dragons". It's pretty much THE fantasy role-playing game in Germany, it's been around since the 1980s, and it's in 5th edition. And it exists because TSR said "we will not do business with the krauts."

There was one shit translation effort, but in the 2010s there was a kickstarter to raise funds to <s>bribe</s> fund DSA's publishers into making a decent English translation for 5th edition. Despite the lack of translations of the games themselves, the video game adaptions ''Realms of Arkania'', ''Drakensang'', ''Memoria'' and ''Blackguards'' were all translated and 3 out of 4 of those are considered solid entries into their genre. All of these games dropped the supertitle in translation as a result.

The default campaign setting is the world of "Dere" (an anagram of "Erde," or "Earth"), on the bog-standard fantasy feudal Europe continent of Aventurien. It's got the usual complement of fantasy races: orcs, Tolkien-like [[Elf|elves]], lizardmen, goblins, kobolds, giants, etc. It's got spellcasters and even their own [[Elminster]] named "Borbarad", and the technology level is somewhere below muskets and blackpowder. Over the sea far to the west is the golden land of Myranor where it looks more like Final Fantasy games with a decadent and declining wealthy empire, airships, and catgirls. A third continent and setting is the [[Mystara|Hollow World]] of Tharun which has an Edgar-Rice-Burroughs feel in island archipelagos.

==Species==
* [[Humans]] come in different kinds of Not- flavors. You got the Not-Germans (Middlelanders), the Not-French (Horasians), Not-Turks (Tulamids), Not-Arabs (Novadi), Not-Vikings (Thorwals), Not-Inuits (Nivese), Not-Russians (Norbards), etc.. Though the differences come through fluff and not crunch. Most cultures see men and women as equals, with only a few favoring one or the other.

* [[Elves]] come in three flavors:
**Wood Elves - Hippy snubs who dislike humans and act high and mighty.
**Shire Elves - They've arranged themselves with the human civilization, they might not all like us, but what are they gonna do about it?
**Firn Elves - Badass frost elves who take no shit from any outsider, also master skiers, fighting for their survival in the cold and unforgiving north.

Yep, there are no High Elves, cause there once were and they fucked up, so the survivors went back to hugging trees. Immortal until murdered or until they fulfill their destiny at which point they decide to just die.

*[[Dwarves]] come in four types:
**Anvil Dwarves - Here there be Gimli. Smithing and fighting, fighting and smithing.
**Gem Dwarves - [[/pol/|<s>The most jewish of them all.</s>]] Yikes.
**Ore Dwarves - Big into mining. Really big. Like, that's all they do.
**Hill Dwarves - The Hobbits of DSA. Comfy dwarves with a tendency of being british as fuck.

*[[Lizardmen|Achaz]] are Aztec lizard people, you know the drill. Long lost, ancient civilization, old weird gods. Also they do well in crystal magic shenanigans.

*[[Orcs]] are shorter than humans, hairy as balls savages. Treat their women like cattle, live in a caste system of: slaves (includes the gals)< farmers and stuff < warriors < the elite warriors < chieftain and shamans.

*[[Goblins]] are the orcs shorter cousins, also hairy as balls. Though most goblins live in tribes all over the northern half of Aventuria, some goblins live in human cities (most notably Festum and Uhdenberg) and do all the labors that no humans wants to do, like rat catching. The tribal goblins live in a matriarchy with each clan being led by an elderly shaman (male shamans are pretty much unheard of). They believe in the two gods Mailam Rekdai (a bodacious goblin female with a boar's head) who is the goddess of fertility and peace and Orvai Kurim (male goblin with a boar's head) the god of hunting and tribal feuds. Goblins do not honor their deceased. Like, at all. Once a goblin drops dead, he isn't considered a goblin anymore and often ends up just being fed to the pigs. Yeah, they also ride boars, or mountain goats depending on the location.

==The World==
As mentioned before, the setting is the fictional world of Dere, created when the Ur-God Los and the Ur-Giant Sumu had an epic brawl that ended in Sumu's death. Her body became the world and from her blood came the Titans (some of which would later join the pantheon of the 12 Gods), while Los' tears turned into gods.

==Playing the Game==
Chargen used to be dierolls and classes, but in 4th edition they changed a lot of mechanics and went to skills based. Then they had a D&D 3.0 moment and had to re-release a fixed version of 4th edition, which fans call "4.1 edition". Version 5.0 was recently released after a public Beta. Very few changes to the rules happened, the basic is how talent checks at a disadvantage work now, basically the minimum disadvantage is tripled, but the way the math plays out now allows for a more accurate representation. In short, Germans tweaked the math on how well you can build a table without the proper tools. Also, there is now a magic resistance against divine/demonic damage, so demon pacteerers and priests of the thirteenth god are no longer absolute nightmare fuel for even the most experienced heroes.

Success checks are rolled on 3d20, and each die has to roll under one of the three appropriate attributes for the situation. Character attributes are: Courage, Wisdom, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Strength, and Speed. Failing on one or more of these dice tell you exactly how you fail (i.e.: you were agile enough to climb, but got too tired on the way up. or you had enough constitution to last, but couldn't find handholds that lead all the way to the top).

==Characters==
Because of the [[GURPS]]-like point-buy system, characters can grow to be pretty wild.

Basically, characters buy skills, attributes, special abilities, spells, perks and all the other stuff with adventure points, which are awarded similar to experience points, but can be directly spent rather than waiting for a level-up.

Character development is pretty open after the creation. There are no classes, only professions, which are sets of starting skills and abilities which almost all can be learned later in the game as well. The amount of available professions is mind boggling and (in true kraut fashion) are categorized into Combat, Wilderness, Social, Magic, Priestly, Scholars and Crafting, and go through all social strata, from [[Slaanesh |whores (gender equality applies)]] and beggars to knights and royal guards.
This of course opens the possibilities to adventuring as anything.
Wanna play a baker who wants to see the world? CHECK! A former boy prostitute trying to steal and sweet talk his way through the criminal underworld? YEPP! A good-for-nothing (a literal profession in the rule book) who just wants to blow his inheritance on becoming a hero? CAN DO!

Skills are wild and all over the place. Especially knowledge and crafting skills can be anything you can dream of. Characters that specialize in these fields sometimes need additional sheets just to list all their skills because the default sheet could not fit them all.
The point is: if you find a teacher, you can learn it. With the exception of magic potential. Only people born and raised to be spell casters will ever be. Some special people like half elves can learn some basic spells throughout their lives but it will be hard. And in order to learn the skills that a certain profession starts with by default, a mighty amount of adventure points, so you better think twice whether you want to dualspec your knight into a shipwright. For some characters, it's necessary to branch into other stuff. Mostly for all mages and most scholars, since they are fresh out of college and need to learn to not suck at everything else.
If you chose one of the few gods that will let you keep your [[Mana|astral body]], you can even be a priest and a mage, giving you access to two different kinds of magic with two seperate mana pools.

This diversity of professions and skills, combined with the german spirit, of course means that YES, there IS an official adventure that allows you to win by accounting.

==The Gods==
In contrast to our own world, where the existence of true divinity cannot be proven (or disproven if you will), the gods of TDE are very real. The most well-known or rather mostly worshipped ones are the Twelve. They are:

*Praios - God of the Sun, the Law and Truth. Hates magic with a passion.
*Tsa - Goddess of Life.
*Boron - God of Death and Dreams.
*Rondra - Goddess of Battle, Honour and Lightning.
*Firun - God of Ice, Snow and Survival.
*Hesinde - Goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Fuck you, Praios.
*Efferd - God of Water and Storm.
*Rahja - Goddess of Sex and Wine and Tits.
*Phex - God of Trade and Screwing other people over.
*Peraine - Goddess of Harvest.
*Ingerimm - God of Smithing and Fire and Metal.
*Travia - Goddess of Being Nice To Each Other, Harvest and Hospitality.

Staying true to Germans' love of hierarchies and bureaucracy, these twelve gods themselves are not super powerful all by themselves and merely inhabit twelve thrones associated with their sphere of influence (it is even hinted that the positions have shifted multiple times). Gods that exist but do not inhibit one of the twelve thrones are considered "demi-gods" not because of their nature, but because they cannot supply their priests and shamans with an as big supply of divine power (their priests' mana-pools are halved by default).
And because we are big into numerology there also exists a thirteenth god. His sphere of influence was power and domination. When he tried to stay true to that, the other twelve just chained him into the starless breach so he can chill out until the thirteenth age. And they also destroyed his name, so is just called the nameless god.
And ADDITIONALLY to that, every of the twelve gods has a dark flip side, an arch demon who is their perverted image, so the flip side of Rondra is a demon of slaughter and unfair combat so honourless, even [[Khorne]] would be pissed.
Whether the thirteenth god has a flip side is unknown, but there is a myth of a being called [[H.P. Lovecraft|the demon sultan]].

==Magic==
Magic in Dere is pretty straightforward and takes its notes from the "useful things to have" book of magic, where spells are more like a 120-piece toolbox and less like a glowing rocket launcher.
From deciding to cast a spell to actually casting it, the caster can make quite some decisions on how to define the outcome.
Spells can have most components (duration, cast time, components) modified spontaneously (called "spontaneous Modifications")
Some spells also have alternative versions that a more experienced caster can utilize to, for example, turn a spell from a single gust of wind into a continuous wind as long as the caster can breathe out, or a simple telekinesis spell into a movement constricting inhibition field.

Also, spells arent organized into classes, only in difficulty to learn (increasing the adventure points necessary to achieve a certain skill level) and "Representation", indicating whether a spell is known in the different forms spell casting can take, from standard boring Guild mages' way, to witches and druids, dwarven, Kobold, high elven, Achatz etc. with some spells being only accessible to some specific professions or races. Every representation brings its own components. For example, druids need to have bare feet contact to the ground, Achatz' crystalcasters needs a special kind of crystal for each type of spell, Kobolds can only cast if it's funny (but they are very mischievous, so they might not have taken a situation seriously in the first place) etc. Also, some neat tricks can be applied, like Guild Mages being able to modify spells for half the disadvantage on the check, witches being able to amplify spells with emotions, giving even more flavour and customization to spells.

All this together boils down to spells being crafted by the player themselves and well thought-out. In combat, most spells are useless because of their casting time and direct damage spells are actually very rare. There are a few basic spells like speed or armor buffs that always help in a fight, but unless the group has a master of multi-target combat or the GM is so generous to NOT throw enemies at the casters, they better start learning how to fight.

The Dark Eye

2020-04-14T01:52:05Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Species */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Das Schwarze Auge
|picture = [[Image:Das_Schwarze_Auge_logo.800px.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Ulysses Games
|authors = Droemer Knaur Schmidt Spiele
|year = 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd ed) 1992 (3rd ed) 2001 (4th ed) 2015 (5th ed)
}}
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
{{stub}}
'''''Das Schwarze Auge''''' (The Dark Eye) is what Germany equipped on their character sheet where Americans wrote "Dungeons & Dragons". It's pretty much THE fantasy role-playing game in Germany, it's been around since the 1980s, and it's in 5th edition. And it exists because TSR said "we will not do business with the krauts."

There was one shit translation effort, but in the 2010s there was a kickstarter to raise funds to <s>bribe</s> fund DSA's publishers into making a decent English translation for 5th edition. Despite the lack of translations of the games themselves, the video game adaptions ''Realms of Arkania'', ''Drakensang'', ''Memoria'' and ''Blackguards'' were all translated and 3 out of 4 of those are considered solid entries into their genre. All of these games dropped the supertitle in translation as a result.

The default campaign setting is the world of "Dere" (an anagram of "Erde," or "Earth"), on the bog-standard fantasy feudal Europe continent of Aventurien. It's got the usual complement of fantasy races: orcs, Tolkien-like [[Elf|elves]], lizardmen, goblins, kobolds, giants, etc. It's got spellcasters and even their own [[Elminster]] named "Borbarad", and the technology level is somewhere below muskets and blackpowder. Over the sea far to the west is the golden land of Myranor where it looks more like Final Fantasy games with a decadent and declining wealthy empire, airships, and catgirls. A third continent and setting is the [[Mystara|Hollow World]] of Tharun which has an Edgar-Rice-Burroughs feel in island archipelagos.

==Species==
* [[Humans]] come in different kinds of Not- flavors. You got the Not-Germans (Middlelanders), the Not-French (Horasians), Not-Turks (Tulamids), Not-Arabs (Novadi), Not-Vikings (Thorwals), Not-Inuits (Nivese), Not-Russians (Norbards), etc.. Though the differences come through fluff and not crunch. Most cultures see men and women as equals, with only a few favoring one or the other.

* [[Elves]] come in three flavors:
**Wood Elves - Hippy snubs who dislike humans and act high and mighty.
**Shire Elves - They've arranged themselves with the human civilization, they might not all like us, but what are they gonna do about it?
**Firn Elves - Badass frost elves who take no shit from any outsider, also master skiers, fighting for their survival in the cold and unforgiving north.

Yep, there are no High Elves, cause there once were and they fucked up, so the survivors went back to hugging trees. Immortal until murdered or until they fulfill their destiny at which point they decide to just die.

*[[Dwarves]] come in four types:
**Anvil Dwarves - Here there be Gimli. Smithing and fighting, fighting and smithing.
**Gem Dwarves - [[/pol/|<s>The most jewish of them all.</s>]] Yikes.
**Ore Dwarves - Big into mining. Really big. Like, that's all they do.
**Hill Dwarves - The Hobbits of DSA. Comfy dwarves with a tendency of being british as fuck.

*[[Lizardmen|Achaz]] are Aztec lizard people, you know the drill. Long lost, ancient civilization, old weird gods. Also they do well in crystal magic shenanigans.

*[[Orcs]] are shorter than humans, hairy as balls savages. Treat their women like cattle, live in a caste system of: slaves (includes the gals)< farmers and stuff < warriors < the elite warriors < chieftain and shamans.

*[[Goblins]] are the orcs shorter cousins, also hairy as balls. Though most goblins live in tribes all over the northern half of Aventuria, some goblins live in human cities (most notably Festum and Uhdenberg) and do all the labors that no humans wants to do, like rat catching. The tribal goblins live in a matriarchy with each clan being led by an elderly shaman (male shamans are pretty much unheard of). They believe in the two gods Mailam Rekdai (a bodacious goblin female with a boar's head) who is the goddess of fertility and peace and Orvai Kurim (male goblin with a boar's head) the god of hunting and tribal feuds. Goblins do not honor their deceased. Like, at all. Once a goblin drops dead, he isn't considered a goblin anymore and often ends up just being fed to the pigs. Yeah, they also ride boars, or mountain goats depending on the location.

==The World==
As mentioned before, the setting is the fictional world of Dere, created when the Ur-God Los and the Ur-Giant Sumu had an epic brawl that ended in Sumu's death. Her body became the world and from her blood came the Titans (some of which would later join the pantheon of the 12 Gods), while Los' tears turned into gods.

==Playing the Game==
Chargen used to be dierolls and classes, but in 4th edition they changed a lot of mechanics and went to skills based. Then they had a D&D 3.0 moment and had to re-release a fixed version of 4th edition, which fans call "4.1 edition". Version 5.0 was recently released after a public Beta. Very few changes to the rules happened, the basic is how talent checks at a disadvantage work now, basically the minimum disadvantage is tripled, but the way the math plays out now allows for a more accurate representation. In short, Germans tweaked the math on how well you can build a table without the proper tools. Also, there is now a magic resistance against divine/demonic damage, so demon pacteerers and priests of the thirteenth god are no longer absolute nightmare fuel for even the most experienced heroes.

Success checks are rolled on 3d20, and each die has to roll under one of the three appropriate attributes for the situation. Character attributes are: Courage, Wisdom, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Strength, and Speed. Failing on one or more of these dice tell you exactly how you fail (i.e.: you were agile enough to climb, but got too tired on the way up. or you had enough constitution to last, but couldn't find handholds that lead all the way to the top).

==Characters==
Because of the [[GURPS]]-like point-buy system, characters can grow to be pretty wild.

Basically, characters buy skills, attributes, special abilities, spells, perks and all the other stuff with adventure points, which are awarded similar to experience points, but can be directly spent rather than waiting for a level-up.

Character development is pretty open after the creation. There are no classes, only professions, which are sets of starting skills and abilities which almost all can be learned later in the game as well. The amount of available professions is mind boggling and (in true kraut fashion) are categorized into Combat, Wilderness, Social, Magic, Priestly, Scholars and Crafting, and go through all social strata, from whores (gender equality applies) and beggars to knights and royal guards.
This of course opens the possibilities to adventuring as anything.
Wanna play a baker who wants to see the world? CHECK! A former boy prostitute trying to steal and sweet talk his way through the criminal underworld? YEPP! A good-for-nothing (a literal profession in the rule book) who just wants to blow his inheritance on becoming a hero? CAN DO!

Skills are wild and all over the place. Especially knowledge and crafting skills can be anything you can dream of. Characters that specialize in these fields sometimes need additional sheets just to list all their skills because the default sheet could not fit them all.
The point is: if you find a teacher, you can learn it. With the exception of magic potential. Only people born and raised to be spell casters will ever be. Some special people like half elves can learn some basic spells throughout their lives but it will be hard. And in order to learn the skills that a certain profession starts with by default, a mighty amount of adventure points, so you better think twice whether you want to dualspec your knight into a shipwright. For some characters, it's necessary to branch into other stuff. Mostly for all mages and most scholars, since they are fresh out of college and need to learn to not suck at everything else.
If you chose one of the few gods that will let you keep your [[Mana|astral body]], you can even be a priest and a mage, giving you access to two different kinds of magic with two seperate mana pools.

This diversity of professions and skills, combined with the german spirit, of course means that YES, there IS an official adventure that allows you to win by accounting.

==The Gods==
In contrast to our own world, where the existence of true divinity cannot be proven (or disproven if you will), the gods of TDE are very real. The most well-known or rather mostly worshipped ones are the Twelve. They are:

*Praios - God of the Sun, the Law and Truth. Hates magic with a passion.
*Tsa - Goddess of Life.
*Boron - God of Death and Dreams.
*Rondra - Goddess of Battle, Honour and Lightning.
*Firun - God of Ice, Snow and Survival.
*Hesinde - Goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Fuck you, Praios.
*Efferd - God of Water and Storm.
*Rahja - Goddess of Sex and Wine and Tits.
*Phex - God of Trade and Screwing other people over.
*Peraine - Goddess of Harvest.
*Ingerimm - God of Smithing and Fire and Metal.
*Travia - Goddess of Being Nice To Each Other, Harvest and Hospitality.

Staying true to Germans' love of hierarchies and bureaucracy, these twelve gods themselves are not super powerful all by themselves and merely inhabit twelve thrones associated with their sphere of influence (it is even hinted that the positions have shifted multiple times). Gods that exist but do not inhibit one of the twelve thrones are considered "demi-gods" not because of their nature, but because they cannot supply their priests and shamans with an as big supply of divine power (their priests' mana-pools are halved by default).
And because we are big into numerology there also exists a thirteenth god. His sphere of influence was power and domination. When he tried to stay true to that, the other twelve just chained him into the starless breach so he can chill out until the thirteenth age. And they also destroyed his name, so is just called the nameless god.
And ADDITIONALLY to that, every of the twelve gods has a dark flip side, an arch demon who is their perverted image, so the flip side of Rondra is a demon of slaughter and unfair combat so honourless, even [[Khorne]] would be pissed.
Whether the thirteenth god has a flip side is unknown, but there is a myth of a being called [[H.P. Lovecraft|the demon sultan]].

==Magic==
Magic in Dere is pretty straightforward and takes its notes from the "useful things to have" book of magic, where spells are more like a 120-piece toolbox and less like a glowing rocket launcher.
From deciding to cast a spell to actually casting it, the caster can make quite some decisions on how to define the outcome.
Spells can have most components (duration, cast time, components) modified spontaneously (called "spontaneous Modifications")
Some spells also have alternative versions that a more experienced caster can utilize to, for example, turn a spell from a single gust of wind into a continuous wind as long as the caster can breathe out, or a simple telekinesis spell into a movement constricting inhibition field.

Also, spells arent organized into classes, only in difficulty to learn (increasing the adventure points necessary to achieve a certain skill level) and "Representation", indicating whether a spell is known in the different forms spell casting can take, from standard boring Guild mages' way, to witches and druids, dwarven, Kobold, high elven, Achatz etc. with some spells being only accessible to some specific professions or races. Every representation brings its own components. For example, druids need to have bare feet contact to the ground, Achatz' crystalcasters needs a special kind of crystal for each type of spell, Kobolds can only cast if it's funny (but they are very mischievous, so they might not have taken a situation seriously in the first place) etc. Also, some neat tricks can be applied, like Guild Mages being able to modify spells for half the disadvantage on the check, witches being able to amplify spells with emotions, giving even more flavour and customization to spells.

All this together boils down to spells being crafted by the player themselves and well thought-out. In combat, most spells are useless because of their casting time and direct damage spells are actually very rare. There are a few basic spells like speed or armor buffs that always help in a fight, but unless the group has a master of multi-target combat or the GM is so generous to NOT throw enemies at the casters, they better start learning how to fight.

The Dark Eye

2020-04-14T01:51:23Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Species */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Das Schwarze Auge
|picture = [[Image:Das_Schwarze_Auge_logo.800px.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Ulysses Games
|authors = Droemer Knaur Schmidt Spiele
|year = 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd ed) 1992 (3rd ed) 2001 (4th ed) 2015 (5th ed)
}}
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
{{stub}}
'''''Das Schwarze Auge''''' (The Dark Eye) is what Germany equipped on their character sheet where Americans wrote "Dungeons & Dragons". It's pretty much THE fantasy role-playing game in Germany, it's been around since the 1980s, and it's in 5th edition. And it exists because TSR said "we will not do business with the krauts."

There was one shit translation effort, but in the 2010s there was a kickstarter to raise funds to <s>bribe</s> fund DSA's publishers into making a decent English translation for 5th edition. Despite the lack of translations of the games themselves, the video game adaptions ''Realms of Arkania'', ''Drakensang'', ''Memoria'' and ''Blackguards'' were all translated and 3 out of 4 of those are considered solid entries into their genre. All of these games dropped the supertitle in translation as a result.

The default campaign setting is the world of "Dere" (an anagram of "Erde," or "Earth"), on the bog-standard fantasy feudal Europe continent of Aventurien. It's got the usual complement of fantasy races: orcs, Tolkien-like [[Elf|elves]], lizardmen, goblins, kobolds, giants, etc. It's got spellcasters and even their own [[Elminster]] named "Borbarad", and the technology level is somewhere below muskets and blackpowder. Over the sea far to the west is the golden land of Myranor where it looks more like Final Fantasy games with a decadent and declining wealthy empire, airships, and catgirls. A third continent and setting is the [[Mystara|Hollow World]] of Tharun which has an Edgar-Rice-Burroughs feel in island archipelagos.

==Species==
* [[Humans]] come in different kinds of Not- flavors. You got the Not-Germans (Middlelanders), the Not-French (Horasians), Not-Turks (Tulamids), Not-Arabs (Novadi), Not-Vikings (Thorwals), Not-Inuits (Nivese), Not-Russians (Norbards), etc.. Though the differences come through fluff and not crunch. Most cultures see men and women as equals, with only a few favoring one or the other.

* [[Elves]] come in three flavors:
**Wood Elves - Hippy snubs who dislike humans and act high and mighty.
**Shire Elves - They've arranged themselves with the human civilization, they might not all like us, but what are they gonna do about it?
**Firn Elves - Badass frost elves who take no shit from any outsider, also master skiers, fighting for their survival in the cold and unforgiving north.

Yep, there are no High Elves, cause there once were and they fucked up, so the survivors went back to hugging trees. Immortal until murdered or until they fulfill their destiny at which point they decide to just die.

*[[Dwarves]] come in four types:
**Anvil Dwarves - Here there be Gimli. Smithing and fighting, fighting and smithing.
**Gem Dwarves - [[/pol/|<s>The most jewish of them all.</s>]]
**Ore Dwarves - Big into mining. Really big. Like, that's all they do.
**Hill Dwarves - The Hobbits of DSA. Comfy dwarves with a tendency of being british as fuck.

*[[Lizardmen|Achaz]] are Aztec lizard people, you know the drill. Long lost, ancient civilization, old weird gods. Also they do well in crystal magic shenanigans.

*[[Orcs]] are shorter than humans, hairy as balls savages. Treat their women like cattle, live in a caste system of: slaves (includes the gals)< farmers and stuff < warriors < the elite warriors < chieftain and shamans.

*[[Goblins]] are the orcs shorter cousins, also hairy as balls. Though most goblins live in tribes all over the northern half of Aventuria, some goblins live in human cities (most notably Festum and Uhdenberg) and do all the labors that no humans wants to do, like rat catching. The tribal goblins live in a matriarchy with each clan being led by an elderly shaman (male shamans are pretty much unheard of). They believe in the two gods Mailam Rekdai (a bodacious goblin female with a boar's head) who is the goddess of fertility and peace and Orvai Kurim (male goblin with a boar's head) the god of hunting and tribal feuds. Goblins do not honor their deceased. Like, at all. Once a goblin drops dead, he isn't considered a goblin anymore and often ends up just being fed to the pigs. Yeah, they also ride boars, or mountain goats depending on the location.

==The World==
As mentioned before, the setting is the fictional world of Dere, created when the Ur-God Los and the Ur-Giant Sumu had an epic brawl that ended in Sumu's death. Her body became the world and from her blood came the Titans (some of which would later join the pantheon of the 12 Gods), while Los' tears turned into gods.

==Playing the Game==
Chargen used to be dierolls and classes, but in 4th edition they changed a lot of mechanics and went to skills based. Then they had a D&D 3.0 moment and had to re-release a fixed version of 4th edition, which fans call "4.1 edition". Version 5.0 was recently released after a public Beta. Very few changes to the rules happened, the basic is how talent checks at a disadvantage work now, basically the minimum disadvantage is tripled, but the way the math plays out now allows for a more accurate representation. In short, Germans tweaked the math on how well you can build a table without the proper tools. Also, there is now a magic resistance against divine/demonic damage, so demon pacteerers and priests of the thirteenth god are no longer absolute nightmare fuel for even the most experienced heroes.

Success checks are rolled on 3d20, and each die has to roll under one of the three appropriate attributes for the situation. Character attributes are: Courage, Wisdom, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Strength, and Speed. Failing on one or more of these dice tell you exactly how you fail (i.e.: you were agile enough to climb, but got too tired on the way up. or you had enough constitution to last, but couldn't find handholds that lead all the way to the top).

==Characters==
Because of the [[GURPS]]-like point-buy system, characters can grow to be pretty wild.

Basically, characters buy skills, attributes, special abilities, spells, perks and all the other stuff with adventure points, which are awarded similar to experience points, but can be directly spent rather than waiting for a level-up.

Character development is pretty open after the creation. There are no classes, only professions, which are sets of starting skills and abilities which almost all can be learned later in the game as well. The amount of available professions is mind boggling and (in true kraut fashion) are categorized into Combat, Wilderness, Social, Magic, Priestly, Scholars and Crafting, and go through all social strata, from whores (gender equality applies) and beggars to knights and royal guards.
This of course opens the possibilities to adventuring as anything.
Wanna play a baker who wants to see the world? CHECK! A former boy prostitute trying to steal and sweet talk his way through the criminal underworld? YEPP! A good-for-nothing (a literal profession in the rule book) who just wants to blow his inheritance on becoming a hero? CAN DO!

Skills are wild and all over the place. Especially knowledge and crafting skills can be anything you can dream of. Characters that specialize in these fields sometimes need additional sheets just to list all their skills because the default sheet could not fit them all.
The point is: if you find a teacher, you can learn it. With the exception of magic potential. Only people born and raised to be spell casters will ever be. Some special people like half elves can learn some basic spells throughout their lives but it will be hard. And in order to learn the skills that a certain profession starts with by default, a mighty amount of adventure points, so you better think twice whether you want to dualspec your knight into a shipwright. For some characters, it's necessary to branch into other stuff. Mostly for all mages and most scholars, since they are fresh out of college and need to learn to not suck at everything else.
If you chose one of the few gods that will let you keep your [[Mana|astral body]], you can even be a priest and a mage, giving you access to two different kinds of magic with two seperate mana pools.

This diversity of professions and skills, combined with the german spirit, of course means that YES, there IS an official adventure that allows you to win by accounting.

==The Gods==
In contrast to our own world, where the existence of true divinity cannot be proven (or disproven if you will), the gods of TDE are very real. The most well-known or rather mostly worshipped ones are the Twelve. They are:

*Praios - God of the Sun, the Law and Truth. Hates magic with a passion.
*Tsa - Goddess of Life.
*Boron - God of Death and Dreams.
*Rondra - Goddess of Battle, Honour and Lightning.
*Firun - God of Ice, Snow and Survival.
*Hesinde - Goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Fuck you, Praios.
*Efferd - God of Water and Storm.
*Rahja - Goddess of Sex and Wine and Tits.
*Phex - God of Trade and Screwing other people over.
*Peraine - Goddess of Harvest.
*Ingerimm - God of Smithing and Fire and Metal.
*Travia - Goddess of Being Nice To Each Other, Harvest and Hospitality.

Staying true to Germans' love of hierarchies and bureaucracy, these twelve gods themselves are not super powerful all by themselves and merely inhabit twelve thrones associated with their sphere of influence (it is even hinted that the positions have shifted multiple times). Gods that exist but do not inhibit one of the twelve thrones are considered "demi-gods" not because of their nature, but because they cannot supply their priests and shamans with an as big supply of divine power (their priests' mana-pools are halved by default).
And because we are big into numerology there also exists a thirteenth god. His sphere of influence was power and domination. When he tried to stay true to that, the other twelve just chained him into the starless breach so he can chill out until the thirteenth age. And they also destroyed his name, so is just called the nameless god.
And ADDITIONALLY to that, every of the twelve gods has a dark flip side, an arch demon who is their perverted image, so the flip side of Rondra is a demon of slaughter and unfair combat so honourless, even [[Khorne]] would be pissed.
Whether the thirteenth god has a flip side is unknown, but there is a myth of a being called [[H.P. Lovecraft|the demon sultan]].

==Magic==
Magic in Dere is pretty straightforward and takes its notes from the "useful things to have" book of magic, where spells are more like a 120-piece toolbox and less like a glowing rocket launcher.
From deciding to cast a spell to actually casting it, the caster can make quite some decisions on how to define the outcome.
Spells can have most components (duration, cast time, components) modified spontaneously (called "spontaneous Modifications")
Some spells also have alternative versions that a more experienced caster can utilize to, for example, turn a spell from a single gust of wind into a continuous wind as long as the caster can breathe out, or a simple telekinesis spell into a movement constricting inhibition field.

Also, spells arent organized into classes, only in difficulty to learn (increasing the adventure points necessary to achieve a certain skill level) and "Representation", indicating whether a spell is known in the different forms spell casting can take, from standard boring Guild mages' way, to witches and druids, dwarven, Kobold, high elven, Achatz etc. with some spells being only accessible to some specific professions or races. Every representation brings its own components. For example, druids need to have bare feet contact to the ground, Achatz' crystalcasters needs a special kind of crystal for each type of spell, Kobolds can only cast if it's funny (but they are very mischievous, so they might not have taken a situation seriously in the first place) etc. Also, some neat tricks can be applied, like Guild Mages being able to modify spells for half the disadvantage on the check, witches being able to amplify spells with emotions, giving even more flavour and customization to spells.

All this together boils down to spells being crafted by the player themselves and well thought-out. In combat, most spells are useless because of their casting time and direct damage spells are actually very rare. There are a few basic spells like speed or armor buffs that always help in a fight, but unless the group has a master of multi-target combat or the GM is so generous to NOT throw enemies at the casters, they better start learning how to fight.

The Dark Eye

2020-04-14T01:49:06Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Species */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Das Schwarze Auge
|picture = [[Image:Das_Schwarze_Auge_logo.800px.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Ulysses Games
|authors = Droemer Knaur Schmidt Spiele
|year = 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd ed) 1992 (3rd ed) 2001 (4th ed) 2015 (5th ed)
}}
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
{{stub}}
'''''Das Schwarze Auge''''' (The Dark Eye) is what Germany equipped on their character sheet where Americans wrote "Dungeons & Dragons". It's pretty much THE fantasy role-playing game in Germany, it's been around since the 1980s, and it's in 5th edition. And it exists because TSR said "we will not do business with the krauts."

There was one shit translation effort, but in the 2010s there was a kickstarter to raise funds to <s>bribe</s> fund DSA's publishers into making a decent English translation for 5th edition. Despite the lack of translations of the games themselves, the video game adaptions ''Realms of Arkania'', ''Drakensang'', ''Memoria'' and ''Blackguards'' were all translated and 3 out of 4 of those are considered solid entries into their genre. All of these games dropped the supertitle in translation as a result.

The default campaign setting is the world of "Dere" (an anagram of "Erde," or "Earth"), on the bog-standard fantasy feudal Europe continent of Aventurien. It's got the usual complement of fantasy races: orcs, Tolkien-like [[Elf|elves]], lizardmen, goblins, kobolds, giants, etc. It's got spellcasters and even their own [[Elminster]] named "Borbarad", and the technology level is somewhere below muskets and blackpowder. Over the sea far to the west is the golden land of Myranor where it looks more like Final Fantasy games with a decadent and declining wealthy empire, airships, and catgirls. A third continent and setting is the [[Mystara|Hollow World]] of Tharun which has an Edgar-Rice-Burroughs feel in island archipelagos.

==Species==
* [[Humans]] come in different kinds of Not- flavors. You got the Not-Germans (Middlelanders), the Not-French (Horasians), Not-Turks (Tulamids), Not-Arabs (Novadi), Not-Vikings (Thorwals), Not-Inuits (Nivese), Not-Russians (Norbards), etc.. Though the differences come through fluff and not crunch. Most cultures see men and women as equals, with only a few favoring one or the other.

* [[Elves]] come in three flavors:
**Wood Elves - Hippy snubs who dislike humans and act high and mighty.
**Shire Elves - They've arranged themselves with the human civilization, they might not all like us, but what are they gonna do about it?
**Firn Elves - Badass frost elves who take no shit from any outsider, also master skiers, fighting for their survival in the cold and unforgiving north.

Yep, there are no High Elves, cause there once were and they fucked up, so the survivors went back to hugging trees. Immortal until murdered or until they fulfill their destiny at which point they decide to just die.

*[[Dwarves]] come in four types:
**Anvil Dwarves - Here there be Gimli. Smithing and fighting, fighting and smithing.
**Gem Dwarves - The most jewish of them all.
**Ore Dwarves - Big into mining. Really big. Like, that's all they do.
**Hill Dwarves - The Hobbits of DSA. Comfy dwarves with a tendency of being british as fuck.

*[[Lizardmen|Achaz]] are Aztec lizard people, you know the drill. Long lost, ancient civilization, old weird gods. Also they do well in crystal magic shenanigans.

*[[Orcs]] are shorter than humans, hairy as balls savages. Treat their women like cattle, live in a caste system of: slaves (includes the gals)< farmers and stuff < warriors < the elite warriors < chieftain and shamans.

*[[Goblins]] are the orcs shorter cousins, also hairy as balls. Though most goblins live in tribes all over the northern half of Aventuria, some goblins live in human cities (most notably Festum and Uhdenberg) and do all the labors that no humans wants to do, like rat catching. The tribal goblins live in a matriarchy with each clan being led by an elderly shaman (male shamans are pretty much unheard of). They believe in the two gods Mailam Rekdai (a bodacious goblin female with a boar's head) who is the goddess of fertility and peace and Orvai Kurim (male goblin with a boar's head) the god of hunting and tribal feuds. Goblins do not honor their deceased. Like, at all. Once a goblin drops dead, he isn't considered a goblin anymore and often ends up just being fed to the pigs. Yeah, they also ride boars, or mountain goats depending on the location.

==The World==
As mentioned before, the setting is the fictional world of Dere, created when the Ur-God Los and the Ur-Giant Sumu had an epic brawl that ended in Sumu's death. Her body became the world and from her blood came the Titans (some of which would later join the pantheon of the 12 Gods), while Los' tears turned into gods.

==Playing the Game==
Chargen used to be dierolls and classes, but in 4th edition they changed a lot of mechanics and went to skills based. Then they had a D&D 3.0 moment and had to re-release a fixed version of 4th edition, which fans call "4.1 edition". Version 5.0 was recently released after a public Beta. Very few changes to the rules happened, the basic is how talent checks at a disadvantage work now, basically the minimum disadvantage is tripled, but the way the math plays out now allows for a more accurate representation. In short, Germans tweaked the math on how well you can build a table without the proper tools. Also, there is now a magic resistance against divine/demonic damage, so demon pacteerers and priests of the thirteenth god are no longer absolute nightmare fuel for even the most experienced heroes.

Success checks are rolled on 3d20, and each die has to roll under one of the three appropriate attributes for the situation. Character attributes are: Courage, Wisdom, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Strength, and Speed. Failing on one or more of these dice tell you exactly how you fail (i.e.: you were agile enough to climb, but got too tired on the way up. or you had enough constitution to last, but couldn't find handholds that lead all the way to the top).

==Characters==
Because of the [[GURPS]]-like point-buy system, characters can grow to be pretty wild.

Basically, characters buy skills, attributes, special abilities, spells, perks and all the other stuff with adventure points, which are awarded similar to experience points, but can be directly spent rather than waiting for a level-up.

Character development is pretty open after the creation. There are no classes, only professions, which are sets of starting skills and abilities which almost all can be learned later in the game as well. The amount of available professions is mind boggling and (in true kraut fashion) are categorized into Combat, Wilderness, Social, Magic, Priestly, Scholars and Crafting, and go through all social strata, from whores (gender equality applies) and beggars to knights and royal guards.
This of course opens the possibilities to adventuring as anything.
Wanna play a baker who wants to see the world? CHECK! A former boy prostitute trying to steal and sweet talk his way through the criminal underworld? YEPP! A good-for-nothing (a literal profession in the rule book) who just wants to blow his inheritance on becoming a hero? CAN DO!

Skills are wild and all over the place. Especially knowledge and crafting skills can be anything you can dream of. Characters that specialize in these fields sometimes need additional sheets just to list all their skills because the default sheet could not fit them all.
The point is: if you find a teacher, you can learn it. With the exception of magic potential. Only people born and raised to be spell casters will ever be. Some special people like half elves can learn some basic spells throughout their lives but it will be hard. And in order to learn the skills that a certain profession starts with by default, a mighty amount of adventure points, so you better think twice whether you want to dualspec your knight into a shipwright. For some characters, it's necessary to branch into other stuff. Mostly for all mages and most scholars, since they are fresh out of college and need to learn to not suck at everything else.
If you chose one of the few gods that will let you keep your [[Mana|astral body]], you can even be a priest and a mage, giving you access to two different kinds of magic with two seperate mana pools.

This diversity of professions and skills, combined with the german spirit, of course means that YES, there IS an official adventure that allows you to win by accounting.

==The Gods==
In contrast to our own world, where the existence of true divinity cannot be proven (or disproven if you will), the gods of TDE are very real. The most well-known or rather mostly worshipped ones are the Twelve. They are:

*Praios - God of the Sun, the Law and Truth. Hates magic with a passion.
*Tsa - Goddess of Life.
*Boron - God of Death and Dreams.
*Rondra - Goddess of Battle, Honour and Lightning.
*Firun - God of Ice, Snow and Survival.
*Hesinde - Goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Fuck you, Praios.
*Efferd - God of Water and Storm.
*Rahja - Goddess of Sex and Wine and Tits.
*Phex - God of Trade and Screwing other people over.
*Peraine - Goddess of Harvest.
*Ingerimm - God of Smithing and Fire and Metal.
*Travia - Goddess of Being Nice To Each Other, Harvest and Hospitality.

Staying true to Germans' love of hierarchies and bureaucracy, these twelve gods themselves are not super powerful all by themselves and merely inhabit twelve thrones associated with their sphere of influence (it is even hinted that the positions have shifted multiple times). Gods that exist but do not inhibit one of the twelve thrones are considered "demi-gods" not because of their nature, but because they cannot supply their priests and shamans with an as big supply of divine power (their priests' mana-pools are halved by default).
And because we are big into numerology there also exists a thirteenth god. His sphere of influence was power and domination. When he tried to stay true to that, the other twelve just chained him into the starless breach so he can chill out until the thirteenth age. And they also destroyed his name, so is just called the nameless god.
And ADDITIONALLY to that, every of the twelve gods has a dark flip side, an arch demon who is their perverted image, so the flip side of Rondra is a demon of slaughter and unfair combat so honourless, even [[Khorne]] would be pissed.
Whether the thirteenth god has a flip side is unknown, but there is a myth of a being called [[H.P. Lovecraft|the demon sultan]].

==Magic==
Magic in Dere is pretty straightforward and takes its notes from the "useful things to have" book of magic, where spells are more like a 120-piece toolbox and less like a glowing rocket launcher.
From deciding to cast a spell to actually casting it, the caster can make quite some decisions on how to define the outcome.
Spells can have most components (duration, cast time, components) modified spontaneously (called "spontaneous Modifications")
Some spells also have alternative versions that a more experienced caster can utilize to, for example, turn a spell from a single gust of wind into a continuous wind as long as the caster can breathe out, or a simple telekinesis spell into a movement constricting inhibition field.

Also, spells arent organized into classes, only in difficulty to learn (increasing the adventure points necessary to achieve a certain skill level) and "Representation", indicating whether a spell is known in the different forms spell casting can take, from standard boring Guild mages' way, to witches and druids, dwarven, Kobold, high elven, Achatz etc. with some spells being only accessible to some specific professions or races. Every representation brings its own components. For example, druids need to have bare feet contact to the ground, Achatz' crystalcasters needs a special kind of crystal for each type of spell, Kobolds can only cast if it's funny (but they are very mischievous, so they might not have taken a situation seriously in the first place) etc. Also, some neat tricks can be applied, like Guild Mages being able to modify spells for half the disadvantage on the check, witches being able to amplify spells with emotions, giving even more flavour and customization to spells.

All this together boils down to spells being crafted by the player themselves and well thought-out. In combat, most spells are useless because of their casting time and direct damage spells are actually very rare. There are a few basic spells like speed or armor buffs that always help in a fight, but unless the group has a master of multi-target combat or the GM is so generous to NOT throw enemies at the casters, they better start learning how to fight.

Paradox poker

2020-04-13T22:04:06Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Common Guests */

Every Saturday night, without fail, the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]], [[Tzeentch]], [[Cegorach]] and the [[Mephet'ran|Deceiver]] get together with drinks and [[Meatbread|snacks]] and sit down to enjoy another thrilling game of '''Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker''', or “paradox poker” for short.

The very epitome of [[trolling]], dickery and [[awesome]] in all its glory, the game is an [[Commander|intense battle of wits to outfuck your opponent's minds until only one remains.]] Since it is impossible for a point of space to maintain its form with so much concentrated [[Just As Planned]] in one spot, they create a new sub-reality to play their game in every week. However, since the reality collapses very quickly, no-one ever truly wins at paradox poker and the intent is more of having a good time with some bros and keeping their minds sharp. Should anyone ever actually win... it is said that men would look good in ponytails, dogs would mate with cats, and Games Workshop would lower their prices shortly before the known universe implodes on itself.

Mortals such as [[Asdrubael Vect]], [[Lady Malys]], [[Ahriman]], and [[Eldrad]] Ulthran keep trying to peek in through the window to catch a glimpse at this sheer awesomeness but the guard [[Chaos Spawn|Spawn]] around Tzeentch's bungalow deter everyone, lest they get nommed. A good thing too, since most mortals can't view this without... well, without imploding at the sight of this godly game.

There is a dumbed-down version of this game for mortals called [[Munchkin (Card Game)|Munchkin]] which involves great levels of dickery between players. Similarly, [[If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device]] also introduces the game as the focal point of an episode or two, where it's revealed to be [[Yu-Gi-Oh]] of all things, as a riff on the [[Skub|''seemingly'' increasingly complex nature]] of the game.

==The Players==

* The Emperor: The straightforward logicfag, the Emperor can plan ahead but prefers plans involving direct action and keeping tightlipped about his overall goals. This means though he may not be open to play with others even if this suits him and he can get blinded to the obvious if he is too focused on the task at hand.

* Tzeentch: The chancing gambler, Tzeentch is the king of dick moves. He is an expert of making plans within plans alongside existing plans and while small victories against him may be gained, he is rarely put into a disadvantaged position. He does play the game though for the sake of playing and can take big risks for seemingly no apparent reason. But then it is all fun to that old bird.

* Cegorach: The wild card, completely unpredictable and likes to play moves just to screw up the games of the others. However he is so obsessed with having fun that he usually kneecaps himself halfway through the second round.

* The Deceiver: The grand illusionist, he's been playing poker with peoples' lives back when the others were just wee nippers. His play style is a long haul gamer, using tricks and traps to lure his enemies in. When asked how he's still here, even after being sharded by the Necrons, he gave the interviewers the answer in riddle form that turned them irredeemably insane after obsessing to solve it.

==Great historic moments in the paradox poker games==

* The Emperor readies a new powerful card, [[Magnus the Red]], for use. Tzeentch reveals what he showed was a weak hand to be fake and he had the Magnus card and the [[Thousand Sons]] cards in his hand all along and what the Emperor had was a dud! The Emperor looks at his rapidly diminishing hand with worry.

*The Emperor sees that Tzeentch is gonna wreck him so he uses Stop Timeline card. Tzeentch uses card Expand Past Timeline. Emperor creates the series known as If The Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device.

* The Emperor pulls the wool from under Tzeentch by toppling the entire [[Horus Heresy]] in one stroke. In turn however Tzeentch declares this means the Emperor must do a dare or a forfeit. The Emperor wusses out and does a forfeit, in which he has to stay seated to a gold toilet for 20,000 years. Much laughter is had at the table and the Emperor goes bright red with embarrassment.

* Cegorach tries to trick the [[C'tan]] into eating each other. The Deceiver, not to be outdone, joins in. Laughing at it all, Tzeentch decides he'll have a go too. Only the Emperor holds back his hand, eyeing the weird brain shaped warp creatures crowding outside the table warily....

* The Deceiver tricks [[Abaddon]] the failure into attacking the [[Battlefleet Gothic|Gothic Sector]], so that the weapons Cegorach seeded there in the past couldn't be used against him in a later turn. Cegorach shakes his head and smiles, all the while stroking two cards he had placed in waiting in his hand.

* The Hive Mind (see below) uses the entirety of it's [[Slivers|Hive Fleet Behemoth]] deck in conjunction with the [[Swarmlord]] card then challenges the Emperor. The Emperor uses all of the 10 Ultramarine Battle Company cards and forfeits the 1st one to stop the Hive Mind.

* For giggles, Tzeentch keeps using the Abaddon and Black Crusade cards in combination, to try and confuse the other three into thinking some great big plan is in operation. While the Deceiver and Cegorach are not fooled the Emperor buys it hook, line and sinker and continues to keep foiling Abaddon's plans, which leaves him in a fluster, Tzeentch soiling himself in amusement and the other two wondering if they are going to keep getting into a loop over this.

* Just for once the Deceiver plans to do something totally unexpected and opens a Necron portal right inside the Emperor's place, causing a full scale Necron invasion of Terra, forcing the Emperor to respond, getting Chaos mixed up and threatening the centre of the Imperium to drown in legions of its enemies. Just before it all comes to pop, GW swoops in and informs everyone that move is no longer considered canon and resets everything, leaving a lot of [[Butthurt|sore asses]] everywhere.

==Banned Guests==
The game gets old a bit fast, so once in a while, the Parthenon tries to invite new players into the game to liven things up. Some guests, however, tend to be a bit more disruptive than most.

*[[Creed]] - Unanimously barred from ever participating at a game after hiding a Titan legion behind everyone's hand.
*[[Trazyn the Infinite]] - Also unanimously banned after trying to loot everyone else using a Tesseract Labyrinth.
*[[Sly Marbo]] - Unanimously banned (not that they could stop him if he decided to show up). In his first (and only) game Tzeentch went first and played the GW Retcon card, removing Marbo from the lastest <s> Astra Miltrium </s> {{BLAM}} Imperial Guard codex. This made Marbo flip the table and declare himself the winner. Everyone was too scared to deny him his victory thus making it the only game of Paradox Poker ever to be won by someone. Marbo hasn't bothered turning up again as he didn't think it was a challenge.

==Common Guests==

Some guests show up more frequently than others to add to the game but for whatever reason, aren't quite capable of becoming fully fledged players.

*The [[Hive Mind]] - While certainly smart and canny when it wants to be, the Hive Mind's voice of a thousand mental patients gargling a million nails in motor oil and weird syntax gets on the other player's nerves in short order, resulting in it mostly being a guest player. When it does show up, the Hive Mind likes to go for quantity over quality plays, a large number of winning hands that don't get too much of a lead but don't cost it much when it loses are preferable to big all-or-nothing plays but occasionally mixes things up with displays of shocking intellect; often paired with the Swarmlord card. However when conversed with the only message that comes up is I can haz galaxy.
*[[Mork]] and [[Gork]] - Though usually busy with fighting each other. “Da boyz” are always fun to play with even if they do have a rather crude sense of humor befitting the gods of Orkiness. Gork prefers to lay low for a bit or fool his opponents into underestimating him, waiting for a bit before people have written him off and then smacking his enemy in the face with a crushingly good hand. Mork on the other hand prefers making it look like he’s going all out in the beginning while actually having an entirely different back up plan in reserve. Needless to say they are not to be underestimated. It can be hard to tell who is playing at times. But Tzeentch always knows and loves their company.
*[[Cypher]] - Constantly tries to rig the game whenever he shows up, by seeing the cards everyone else plays then travelling to an earlier timeline and trying to counter them. This causes Tzeentch to rage, despite the fact that the gods all have better cards in their hands than Cypher. The Deciever combos with Cypher to pull some impossible shit that gets everyone else scratching their heads. Some people think he's rigging the game in the Emperor's favour, others think he keeps trying to position himself next to Big Emps to poke him with a sword. No one is entirely certain though, nor do they know how his head hasn't exploded despite his mortality.
*The [[Primarchs]] - All of the Primarchs, at one point or another, have had a go at their old man's hobby. [[Horus Heresy|It usually ends badly for everyone involved]], especially when [[Alpharius]] was invited and defeated, only for it to turn out that it was just a random member of the [[Alpha Legion]], while everyone else was actually Alpharius in disguise, leaving the real players locked outside Tzeentch's bungalow, bewildered and confused. [[Magnus The Red|Magnus]] in particular, has a surprising penchant for the game on par with both of his adoptive fathers. Though apparently [[Lorgar Aurelian|Lorgar]], [[Corvus Corax|Edgar Allen Primarch]], and even [[Leman Russ|wolfman]] are all talented in their own ways. (That last one causes Magnus a great deal of discomfort.)
*The [[Horned Rat]] - While technically coming from another universe, the Horned Rat often finds himself invited for games. When the Horned Rat loses rounds it's because the cards he plays have a nasty habit of stabbing each other in the back, but he finds ways to put himself out on top in the end and isn't afraid of making temporary truces with other players to get what he wants. He earned his status of major chaos godhood thanks to some tricksy hands and clever bets made during a game, earning quite a lot of grumbling from Tzeentch who regards the vermin god as a dirty upstart.
*[[Nagash]] - Not invited all too often because he still needs to get his "just as planned" game up, Nagash is nevertheless a very patient player who isn't afraid of spending assets in huge amounts. His primary weakness is that he often lets himself be suckered into ego plays that prey on his tendency to get pretty mad when things don't go his way. But if he can keep his cool, he can flip seemingly valueless assets into much better cards, like when he took the wastrel Arkhan and made him into one of the greatest human sorcerers to ever live. He also has a habit of seemingly losing a round only to end up ahead of where he was anyway and never seeming to be more than temporarily set back by defeats, managing to play his cards right and win the true godhood deck even during the [[The End Times|End Times Tournament]].
*[[Lord Kroak]] - Collectively representing the Slann is Lord Kroak, who in fact died so he could spend more time playing the fantasy version of the game. When the old world went kaputt and he ascended to godhood he started getting invitations to Tzeentch's bungalow as well, though he's often busy with the plans within plans the Slann are working on. Lord Kroak tends to rely more on divination and having the right card at the right time and place over luck to win rounds, and very often seeming defeats turn out to have been the plan the whole time.
*[[Sigmar]] - Much like the Emperor, Sigmar's plans tend to be more straightforward, though he's rather more open than the Emperor with them and is more willing to use cards that aren't from the human race deck. He's also more willing to make truces with other players when it suits him. Overall he's not invited to every game because the other players basically feel that he plays the game a bit too similarly to the Emperor, just a bit kinder and more willing to cut deals.

== Former Players ==

*[[Asuryan]] - His Fantasy counterpart used to be a semi-regular guest player before the End Times card was played and got him killed as a result, which part of Tzeentch hoped wouldn't happen as he was pretty decent with his orderly and logical planning to contrast Cegorach's wild card antics. But another part of Tzeentch thought that Asuryan was one knife-eared git with plans within plans too many and got with the other regulars and managed to piss off Fantasy Khaine into doing his whole thing, and thus eliminated Asuryan entirely for the time being, leaving all four cackling in the process.
*[[Lileath]] - While her 40K counterpart is still stuck in Slaanesh's gut, her Fantasy counterpart managed to get into the game through virtue of her incredibly dickish manipulations of everyone fighting for order, especially her own species and the Bretonnians. Her plays tend to be callous and highly emotionally manipulative. Eventually got outgambited and seemingly died, removing her from the game more or less until she's discovered in the new universe at some point.

== Foreign Company Players ==
Noncanon, but still show up, usually uninvited.

* Sir Humphrey Appleby - Never actually directly plays, but tries to pretend to be one or another player's employee, and tries to steer the game from that position. Since the players are more clever and observant than British MPs, this usually doesn't work, but his ploys are usually entertaining and useful enough that he's not actually banned.
* [[Batman]] - Some of the more [[Mary Sue]] versions of Batman sometimes show up in disguise, usually looking more for information on a case then to actually play.
* [[Exalted | Ebon Dragon]] - Usually winds up screwing himself over, in the process of screwing everybody else. Theoretically banned, but he somehow keeps on backstabbin'.
* [[Star Wars | Papa Palpatine]] - Mainly notable for being really hard to get rid of. We mean, the man is hardier then a Nuglite cockroach infestation. Otherwise, a surprisingly conservative player whose main weakness ''seems to be'' a great love of hearing himself talk; be careful, though, as his double and triple bluffs are what keep him in the game.
* Thanos - Tolerated mainly because he's a sucker whose plays are fascinating and entertaining in their ultimately self-defeating nature. Constantly tries to get some incredibly broken card into play; almost always fails.
* David Xanatos - Usually plays penny-ante compared to the other players, but is used to being a minor player among the Big Boys; is tolerated mainly because each of the other players consider him one of theirs, although he winds up working with the Emporer and Tzeentch the most.
* [[Urza]]

== See also ==
*[[Citadel Combat Cards]]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Darkest Dungeon

2020-04-13T20:33:28Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* The Heroes */

{{/vg/}}
{{topquote|In time, you will know the tragic extent of my failings...|Your Ancestor}}

'''Darkest Dungeon''' is a [[Grimdark]] sidescrolling [[Dark Fantasy]] turn-based videogame with [[Cthulhu Mythos|Mythosian]] overtones that has become very popular on /tg/, thanks to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRh_mlAwxTI the unique and moody artstyle, the constant and quality narration,] and its surprising similarity to [[Old School Roleplaying]].

==The Story==
You are the last scion of a fallen noble family, one brought to ruin by a hedonistic ancestor who squandered the family fortune pursuing decadence and ultimately turned to dark pursuits in search of forbidden pleasures. This resulted in your family estate becoming the site of a sprawling excavation project filled with horrible monsters, while the surrounding lands are similarly corrupted, populated by nightmares of the Ancestor's own creation. The only (mostly) safe place is the Hamlet, which acts as the hub area of the game. Using the last of your family's money, you have returned to the estate to begin hiring [[adventurer]]s to try to and clear out the dark things lurking in the dungeon, gathering the riches that lie beneath to finance further and further expeditions beneath.

After all, not all of your explorers will return alive, or even sane...

The quote at the top of the page is something of an understatement in regards to the background of the game. His failings are as follows (so far):
* In his youth, he enjoyed the debauchery and general 120 Days Of Sodom (don't look it up if you don't know it already) behavior of the nobility in the courtyard of the estate. One day an attractive woman appeared and fluidly navigated the assembled nobles...so the Ancestor tried to kill her. She revealed herself as a vampire but he succeeded at killing her. He then promptly did what any sane, rational being would do and hung her upside-down to drain out all her cursed blood, mixed it with a prized vintage of wine, and threw a party. After enjoying his new "Really Bloody Mary" invention, the attending nobles and servants all became vampires and tore their own bodies to pieces while the Ancestor, who had only drunk a single drop of blood, gained a vision of the Eldritch horrors that lay beneath his mansion and began his obsession with them. As the mosquitos were lured by the blood, the wine, and the bloody wine, the Ancestor sealed the '''Courtyard''' away where it has since sunk back into the swamp and contained the now mosquito/vampire hybrid court. They now break loose periodically requiring you to send heroes to eliminate one of the original members of the court to send the creatures back to the swamps for awhile. Ignoring them results in the vampirism spreading, called the Crimson Curse, which has very little effect on heroes other than making them constantly need blood to avoid stacking debuffs and irrational behavior plus eventually death if unsated. Well, that and a zealot called the Fanatic who your Ancestor was aware of and is obsessed with purging the Curse by attacking any party with at least one cursed individual.
* As a child a small homeless girl had a crush on the Ancestor while he played in the town, which was nice when he was a kid but as a young man he found her irritating. So when he needed money to fund his newfound Eldritch fascination he cut a deal with the fishmen (not fish''er''men, Kuo-Toa style humanoid fish) who lived on the coast. He lured the girl to the pier and shackled her to an idol, both of which were the Ancestor's end of the deal in exchange for gems to fund his ambition. The girl was transformed into the likeness of the fishmen while destroying the human portion of her mind, and is their queen/mother/slave. She occupies the '''Cove'''.
* Starting his journey into madness began with the purchase of rare books, which drew the attention of a young woman skilled in the arts of herbalism and magic (read: a witch). While he enjoyed her company early on, she was just as obsessed with the creatures beneath the manor as he was and her path of study was in experimentation with edibles. Her body was twisted by the concoctions and he no longer found her physically attractive, banishing her to the '''Weald''' to dwell with the beasts. She's now a cannibal by the way (although there's some implication she'd always been one), and has been preying on your villagers.
* As he became more skilled in magic he obsessed over prolonging his life. After making a dead mouse's leg twitch, he invited experts in life and death from foreign nations to share knowledge with him, using his newly-acquired expertise of alchemy to make them trust him. After learning everything he could he killed each one in their beds and raised their corpses from the dead with their knowledge intact. Said undead Necromancers proceeded to raise more corpses, and so on creating a growing empire of the undead with no end, which now occupy the '''Ruins''' of the estate itself. The Ancestor considered this a massive success, then disregarded the fact that there's a growing army of the undead literally right outside his door.
* As his skill in magic improved, the Ancestor moved on from animating bones with a human mind to summoning creatures from beyond into flesh using blood rituals. He found that pigs were useful for rituals "since their flesh is most similar to that of humans", and managed to summon a gigantic "Great Thing" into the form of a gigantic pig. The thing required a massive amount of food to survive and both the Great Thing and the lesser things, all in the form of pigs, now occupy the '''Warrens''' and prey on the Hamlet. They have joined sides with the fungus monsters that already occupied the area, which have now overcome the former human residents.
* Eventually an old man arrived in the town telling prophesies to the locals about what would happen and riling them up against your family. The Ancestor threw him in the stockades, attempted to drown him, and literally covered the prophet's back in daggers but each time the old man returned and warned the peasants about the end of the world. Having given up, the Ancestor simply showed the prophet the Great Thing and explained what he planned to do. As a result, the poor bastard tore out his own eyes and fled to the Ruins, where a cult has gathered under his leadership and now works against your attempts to reverse your Ancestor's doings.
* The byproducts of his experiments (which weren't stable enough to remain pigmen and/or pig demi-gods) began to stack up, and when the excavation of the place beneath the estate broke through into the ancient tunnels and aquaducts he shoved all the various twitching semi-dead fleshy things down into them until the abominations all fused together in the Warrens. Now the giant chunk of random organs and flesh threatens not only lives of the Hamlet, but the very sanity of anyone who sees it.
* In order to enforce order on the town once the folk and local guards turned against him, the Ancestor employed bandits using a massive cannon. Calling them his militia they slaughtered many of the townsfolk and became the secret police through which he ruled. By the time you arrive, they've returned to being mere bandits, living by raiding the town from their base in the Weald. They are the very first threat you encounter, trying to stop you from even reaching the Hamlet in the first place. Their attacks on the Hamlet will continue even after your arrival, making even the '''Hamlet''' a potentially deadly battlefield from time to time.
* When bandit raids and the delicate nature of his shipments became too unsafe for the main roads, the Ancestor employed pirates to bring him his evil goods via a small section of the coast inaccessible save by a stairway leading to the estate. Eventually they increased their prices knowing they obviously had the market cornered, and the Ancestor had again bankrupted himself so he used his magic to curse their anchor with his ambition and resentment, dragging them to the bottom of the sea...sort of, they came back to be a pain in your ass as ghosts still bound to the anchor.
* Some time ago, the Ancestor "helped" a local Miller whose farm provided food for the Hamlet's commoners. The farm was struck with blight, but rather than fixing the problem, the Ancestor set up the "Slabs edge with certain celestial designs" around the farm as bait for the things from beyond the stars. An answer came in the form of an alien comet, striking the farm's windmill, warping the land into a wasteland of crystals that distort space-time. Devastation to the poor miller caught in the disaster, while a harvest for the Ancestor. Oh, and it turns out the alien comet is but an infant form of the same creature behind the Darkest Dungeon.
* In the end your Ancestor broke through to an ancient underground site of Eldritch horror. He sent you a letter which would draw you to the Hamlet, and seemingly committed suicide, not out of shame but because the peasants had formed a mob of angry torch-wielders at the gates of the mansion and his only other option was a public execution. The manor has since fallen apart and the creatures from below have overtaken it, which makes it the hardest area in the game, literally the titular '''Darkest Dungeon''' which your Ancestor liked to end his sentences referencing. First you must clear out the ruins (which lay within the Ruins making the last level technically just outside the first) before cleansing the ever-shifting architecture in the tunnels below.
* Finally (as far as we know, which extends in every DLC) the Ancestor left one last “fuck you” to the player character yourself. Should you conquer the Darkest Dungeon and kill the final boss you get his final message, which (spoiler, but not really if you’ve read anything Lovecraft or Lovectraft-inspired) is that everything he worked for was to awaken the ancient unknowable terror that birthed humanity itself, with the entire world as its (either metaphorical or literal) egg. He lets you know that it’s now your job and eventually the job of your descendants to forever keep the thing he helped create at bay. So his last message to you actually taunts you with the fact he made this mess, and its your job to manage it since it can never be cleaned up. With a suggestion you should just follow in his footsteps. There is also an interpretation his messages are not for you, but all of humanity given his references to the “human family”, which is even darker (but shifts some responsibility off you at least).
* By the end of the game, the player character himself is traumatized by the knowledge he has gained. The final boss pretty much requires you to kill off two of your characters, so at the very least you have probably sacrificed two people for your goals, but you’re almost certainly responsible for more. You’ve left a trail of broken individuals scrambling away from the Hamlet, and the horrors your Ancestor unleashed continue to spread, or are at best contained temporarily, despite you having dealt with the origin of each problem. You begin to hallucinate, seeing the landscape twist into tentacles from darkness below into red light from above (or, as Ancestor implies and in classical Lovecraftian fashion, you're starting to see the world ''as it really is''). Your Ancestor himself may not have been dead, as your mercenaries encountered an abomination in his form (although it could also have been a madness-wrought delusion or a creature in his form), and according to the Ancestor-thing’s words the result of his actions are an ongoing curse on your lineage. The player is left wondering if their future is to repeat the Ancestor’s mistakes (as you’re now essentially in the same state he was after sealing the Courtyard, albeit far less sadistic) or to spend your days keeping the evil at bay using an unending supply of the poor unfortunates who come to the town (in other words, keep playing and buy future DLC).
* The Ancestor ''does'', however, sound '''utterly''' '''''amazing'''''. The voice actor, Wayne June, had a copious amount of fitting experience for the role via narrating the likes of audiobook adaptations of Lovecraft and most would agree that the game would not be the same at all if his dramatic, flowery narration had not existed for it.

==The Heroes==
The coach will deliver a fresh batch of would-be heroes to the hamlet every week (which is the length of time that a trip into one of the dungeons takes), allowing you to assemble many different possible teams to send into the dungeon. Each has a canon comic giving a view of their backstory, and beyond that many give clues with their dialogue about their backstories and goals.

The '''Abomination''' is a man possessed by an inhuman fiend (basically a demon/werewolf), which grants him unholy strength and the ability to vomit caustic slime at his foes causing Blight. If he needs greater offensive power, he can let the Beast out, transforming into a monstrous form - but this can be as crippling for sanity - his ''and'' the rest of the party's - as the other monsters he's battling. He can stun by using a chain as a whip, and his ability to prostrate himself before the enemy heals his health AND sanity. His backstory is as a tortured victim kept in a dungeon until the pain of his head being branded allowed his beast self to take over and for him to escape. He learned compassion and healing from his time in captivity.

The '''Antiquarian''' is a female archaeologist well-versed in the arts of exploring ancient tombs. This allows her to assist the other members of the party by healing their wounds, hurling flash-bombs and curing them of whatever noxious blights they may encounter. She can also use poisonous mixtures to bedevil her enemies, but she's awful at protecting herself and in general is very weak (hint, she's best paired with party members than can cause Riposte while she uses Protect Me! to give them more chances to counterattack), so the real reason to have her is earning [[15,000,000 Gold a Day]] - gold stacks higher in the inventory for each Antiquarian in the party and looting with her can find unique items which are essentially a different type of additional gold, akin to gems (except for how Minor Artifacts stack up to ''10,000'' in value). In her backstory she brought a magical censer to her master who was going to sacrifice a girl to empower it. Instead she killed him... and continued the ritual herself.

The '''Arbalest''' is [[musclegirl|an immensely strong and brawny woman]] who carries a '''huge''' crossbow and wears plate armor. A back-row fighter, she can cut down foes with barrages of massive bolts, but she has some support skills as well. Utterly [[rape]]s marked things with Sniper Shot. She was given her crossbow by her father, who forced her to flee as an angry mob killed him for unknown reasons.

The '''Bounty Hunter''' wields an axe and a hook on a chain, specializing in singling out specific targets and dealing massive punishment to them. [[Awesome|Can fucking uppercut eldritch monsters]]. The strong silent type (or in more revealing terms, Batman with more lethality), he hunts for money and vengeance, though there are hints that he only hunts things or people that really need killing and cares quite a lot for his team-mates.

The '''Crusader''' is a hardened, well-armored veteran of many holy wars, who combines brutal melee offense with defensive and bolstering magic, courtesy of his prayers. Utterly wrecks the Necromancer and the Ruins' shit. He left his family to go on the Crusade, and when he returned he was too traumatized and haunted by what he had seen and done to live their life and instead came to the Hamlet. His panicked raving dialogue suggests he may have been abused and/or molested by his father and/or a priest as a child. The guaranteed starting Crusader Reynauld is infamous for being [[Blood Ravens|a kleptomaniac son-of-a-bitch]] that will take your valuable loot while he's in the party until you cure him of the quirk.

The '''Grave Robber''' is the last daughter of a noble family fallen into poverty, who was forced to turn to graverobbing to pay her debts. Quick and agile, she is the classic rogue of the party, specializing in dodging or moving between the various ranks as well as attacking pretty much all of them almost regardless of where she stands, and bypassing protection with her darts and pickaxe...or just tossing daggers at them. She actually enjoys her new profession and is quite greedy.

The '''Hellion''' is a glaive-wielding, howling, barbarian woman who lives for the thrill of combat, specializing in brutal, bloody attacks with far reach. When her people attacked a caravan of crusaders, she hid in fear. Has one of the few double-rank-hitting stuns in the game, which is easily worth using in spite of the debuff to herself it also inflicts. Everyone else in her raiding party died, leaving her to wander in self-hatred as a coward.

The '''Highwayman''' wields dirk and pistol to become a highly tactical fighter, capable of attacking from any position in the party, unlike some. In his backstory he robbed a carriage, but found out that he accidentally killed the woman and child inside during the fight which haunts him with guilt. Some have noticed that the woman and child resemble the Crusader's family, and the fact you begin the game with a Highwayman and Crusader further suggests the connection. His Crimson Court item set reveals he carries a locket with their images, as well as his blood-soaked mask, still.

The '''Houndmaster''' is a tough, uncompromising lawman with a faithful hound, whose diverse skillset and his very good girl makes him a truly welcome addition to the party, especially in the Warrens. [[Judge Dredd|May say "I am the law!" when getting the Courageous virtue.]] He was once a hero who set out in search of a missing girl only to find that the authorities of the town had in fact sacrificed her. Adorably, his healing abilities are displayed as him hugging the dog, and upon taking damage he shields the dog with his own body to take the blow.

The '''Jester''' is a manic, morbid figure who can unsettle the enemy as much as he buffs his own party, leaping back and forth with dagger and sickle to hew a bloody path through his enemies and singing inspiring/calming songs. [[Awesome|One of his moves is doing a power slide while shredding with his lute]]. He escaped from a tyrannical king and his court's abuse by snapping and killing every single one. A comic panel implies that he isn't sane at all, and honestly a lot of his dialogue would make you wonder already.

The '''Leper''' is a plague-riddled king whose body is slowly betraying him. Immensely tough and resigned to death, he carries a huge (broken) sword and excels at dishing out punishment ([[Rage|...when he hits]]) as well as taking it, waxing poetically all the while. Heavily inspired by Baldwin IV of Jerusalem as shown in Kingdom of Heaven.

The '''Man-At-Arms''' is a skilled, battle-hardened veteran whose toughness and tactical abilities allow him to brutally break up the enemy's ranks while protecting his allies. He is a broken soldier who fought valiantly to protect his unit, but emerged from a pile of their corpses after the battle as the only survivor.

The '''Occultist''' is a student of dark magics, a terrifying figure whose rituals can demoralize, blight and destroy those who oppose him, and [[Meme|0 bleed]] his teammates when you really don't want him to. Particularly noteworthy for being the fastest character that can also mark in the game while usually not doing a ton of damage on his own, so he's usually the best for marking an enemy for the rest of the party to take advantage of. He investigated the forces of darkness, finding the bodies of those who had taken up a pact before making it himself; it is revealed the same forces beneath the estate are the ones he is sworn to in his dialogue during the final boss fight.

The '''Plague Doctor''' is a masked student of anatomy, whose alchemical interests allow her to whittle down her foes with barrages of noxious fumes and plague grenades as well as patching up her allies. [[Awesome|Has a double-rear-ranks stun]]. Is basically your one-stop shop of solutions to the entire Cove region, seriously. She seeks to cure the diseases originating from the Hamlet, and is so focused that once her former teachers died of one of those diseases she dissected him without emotion.

The '''Vestal''' is a [[Sisters of Battle|holy warrior-nun]], who combines divine light and strength of arms to lay waste to her foes. Most will generally notice and focus on how she's the most reliable healer in the game, but only considering that is tunnel-visioning. She considers herself the un-favourite of her convent and its mother superior. She was forced to leave her convent after, while gazing with lust at a young couple making out, she let a holy brazier go out which implies she was a vestal virgin. She also has huge issues with her sexuality, constantly dreading that others wish to rape her due to being raised chaste.

The '''Flagellant''' is a masochistic warrior who yearns to accomplish something great through his sacrifice. The closer he comes to death, the harder he fights. This adventurer was added as part of the Curse of the Crimson Court DLC. He was once a beggar who found that the beatings from those better off than himself gave him purpose, as well as the ability to inspire and save those who'd harm him out of spite.

The '''Shieldbreaker''', added in the DLC of the same name, was a harem slave that killed her master and lost her hand in the ensuing carriage crash, swearing herself to snake spirits for a new one and the bonus magic that goes with it. She moves around a lot with her attacks like the Highwayman and Jester, dealing a fair amount of damage along with Blight effects. She has two major abilities, the first being the ability to break enemy Protect while pulling the target closer, allowing you to quickly finish off high threat foes. The second mitigates her glass cannon nature, an ability she can use twice per fight that gives her two stacks each time of immunity to damage (but not debuffs, Stress, and importantly Bleed or Blight). Anytime you camp with her in the group there is a chance to be attacked by snake monsters, even if using an ability that prevents ambushes; these snakes can drop her trinkets or items any hero can use which grant her damage immunity for one attack, so snake ambush isn’t bad if you plan for it. She herself is designed to end fights quickly, and she is very bad to use against most bosses or enemies with AOEs or ample Blight/Bleed. She becomes more effective with the Man-at-arms to guard her, and/or a Flagellant to remove her Bleed/Blight. Unless farming for immunity items, take her on short dungeons to speedthrough them faster. Avoid using if the Fanatic is a concern.

==Regions==
The Ancestral Estate is a sprawling affair, with many different segments that must be cleansed.

The '''Ruins''' are the first place you will begin exploring, in the form of the dusty halls of the ancestral manor and its attendant buildings. This region crawls with both the undead, servitors of a [[necromancer]]-[[lich]] who has taken up residence there, and mad cultists serving an insane Prophet.

The '''Weald''' is the local forest, which has become overwhelmed by grotesque fungus and slime monsters ever since a deformed, cannibalistic [[hag]] took up residence there. It also plays host to the local bandit population, who terrorize the roads surrounding the Hamlet with stolen cannons.

The '''Warrens''' are your first delve into the underground proper, an ancient labyrinth of aqueducts and tunnels that your ancestor unearthed in his expeditions. He used them as a dumping ground for his experiments in summoning demons, filling them with a grotesque civilization of man-pigs and writhing abominations of animated flesh.

The '''Cove''' was where your ancestor consorted both with pirates, who have since returned as water-logged undead after he betrayed and murdered them, and malevolent fish-people from the depths.

The '''Courtyard''' was where your ancestor held his debauched revels, until it became the epicenter of a truly horrific outbreak. Now the twisted, bug-like vampires who were once some of society's elite still hold their gory revels in the gardens that have merged with the swamp, creating a damp, miasmic maze where blood and rot compete in the air. This region only becomes available in the Curse of the Crimson Court DLC.

The '''Farmstead''' was a land bought by the ancestor from a poor old miller. The ancestors purposely set up the entire place as a bait for some crystal alien abomination being just so he could harvest them. "The Thing" crash down to the place like a comet and plague the entire area with "fuck you physics" plague, trapping everybody within range and distort space/time and even made the sky unrecognizable. The plague also affects living beings, for the victim gets "parasites" by the crystals like being from "The Thing", turning them into Husks, cold-blooded beings made of crystals and stone. This place is where the endless mode takes place. It is one of the place where you can get crystals to buy unique trinkets. Since the dungeon itself is endless, monsters will keep coming at the player until if the player decided to quit at any time.

The '''Darkest Dungeon''' is your ultimate goal, the place where your ancestor's experiments in summoning gave rise to the ultimate evil that now threatens the world. Few will ever enter this locus of corruption. None will enter twice.

==/tg/ Tips==
* The Colors Of Madness update, which is applied to the game regardless of whether you buy the DLC, changed the base game substantially. Among the biggest changes are: The Abomination can now group with religious heroes, the addition of the Musketeer (Arbalest reskin), various changes to Crits/Procs/buffs/class abilities/stats among MANY other things (processing the various changes has taken quite a bit of time and debate among the community, suffice it to say that it can all by summed up as "what everyone was doing is nerfed, what nobody did is buffed"), monster AI and hitpoints have been altered to make things less invincible but more damaging, District buildings cost more making them far more endgame, Crimson Court no longer replaces quests allowing you to ignore it for longer once activated.
** The biggest change in the game is heavy nerfing of Stuns and monsters being more lethal means that stalling tactics while you regenerate health/sanity via combat abilities are far less effective. The game now adds reinforcements to the enemy fight when there's only two opponents left alive as opposed to when there was only one, unless one of them is big enough to take up two spaces (since these are generally at least miniboss tier and not worth the stalling risk beyond a turn or two), and certain abilities of heroes being pegged as "stalling moves" in the game code meaning even if you keep three weak enemies alive, the game may still send something big and nasty your way in the 4th slot to punish you. This makes the game '''FAR''' more difficult than it was at launch since there are no longer cheap tricks to rely on for all your trash fights. On the plus side, running stronger heroes through weaker missions became MUCH easier.
* Keep your very first Highwayman (Dismas) and Crusader (Reynauld) alive. You get an achievement at the end if you can manage to make them reach the final level. If they do die, keep your graveyard as empty as possible so the resurrection event has a chance to bring one back. If you are an achievement hunter, you may need to simply accept your first playthrough will not result in that achievement; if you cannot keep them both alive, consider restarting once you feel confident you can get a better start by knowing the game better.
* The first big tactical lesson of the game is realizing characters shuffling back and forth in the ranks through abilities, and their ability to hit and/or be hit by certain enemies in certain ranks, is a large chunk of your strategy and how you basically rules-lawyer the mechanics of the game. Characters who swap ranks a lot like the Jester and Bounty Hunter can hinder rigid team comps so many newbies avoid them. Use the abilities of characters like the Crusader, Grave Robber, Highwayman, or Hellion who can launch themselves back to the front to keep your ranged specialists in position.
* You are NOT meant to continue to work on heroes other than the above. ALL of them are disposable, and should be dismissed via the bottom of the top left buttons once they become too insane or diseased to be of use. You are not a member of a noble brotherhood, you are a True Neutral nobleman recruiting insane and criminal mercenaries to become even more insane as throwaway pawns in your battle against unending evil.
* Don't neglect the provisions! At the least, bring all of the food you can get, plenty of torches, shovels to clear blockages, antivenom and bandages to cute bleed or blight (they usually may not seem like they do much damage, but they add up and can easily be cleared with one of these items without using the hero's own action. ''Cure'' them). You can mess around with skimping on provisions as you get more experience with your party's and expected enemies' capabilities.
* Invest all of your early energy into the Guild (to get better abilities), the Blacksmith (to get better base stats), and Wagon (to get more adventurers, higher levels reliant on the preceding two). That way you can recruit straight off the wagon and send them straight into battle.
* Once you max out the above buildings, feel free to invest into the remaining buildings so that you can eventually guide a team that is decent (as you cannot recruit max level heroes straight off the cart). Remember that if your hero levels up but you don't upgrade their abilities and gear, they are still basically the same level.
* You can only use abilities during their phase. As frustrating as it is, the Vestal can spam heals during combat but will let her party bleed to death while poisoned, including herself, as soon as a fight ends.
* Certain classes in certain positions cause a title of the type of party to appear, for example a party full of classes prone to causing Bleed will show the title Blood For The Blood God. These are all comedic or thematic commentary (from the Ancestor, your player character (the noble), or creators, whoever you prefer to imagine it being), and do not affect gameplay.
* To get additional gold, use a combo of the Antiquarian and the Highwayman. Highwaymen have an attack called Riposte that they can use to move forward one space and attack back at any enemy that attacks him, while Point Blank Shot sends him once space back and deals high damage. The Antiquarian allows you to stack gold higher per space in your inventory and also finds more money-making goods while having an ability called Cover Me which allows another character in your party to take attacks for her; as a result the Highwayman will essentially solo most fights while the Antiquarian makes you money. Technically speaking once you get the items which buff the Antiquarian's healing you can make a party entirely made of four Antiquarians, causing MASSIVE gold gains. As of the Color patch the Antiquarian even brings along her own Skeleton Key, saving you money on a treasure run!
* Similar to the above Antiquarian/Highwayman combo is using the Man-at-arms riposte ability on top of his guard ability and the Protect Me of an Antiquarian. Each time he guards another member of the party he gains a Prot bonus, although it was nerfed in CoM. So 3/4 of the party being attacked will result in him dealing a moderate amount of damage back to an enemy, he will take all the damage for those 3/4 characters so long as it isn’t an AOE attack and will negate a large chunk of it, and can end up with decent damage output. Sadly his guard will cancel a Highwayman riposte and the Flagellant won’t likely take enough damage to use his heal, but this combo goes with anyone else in various capacities. His Stress may become an issue without some Stress relief plan. Thankfully CoM gave him improved Stress healing via his own Crits, so as long as he's bashing he's also chilling.
* Ensure that in any party which goes on a non-Short mission has at least one Camp Ability that prevents nighttime ambush. Plague Doctors can have an ability which will cure the disease of another hero, for free, making Sanitarium treatment unnecessary.
* Fucking '''''KILL''''' those enemy assholes in the rear ranks first, or otherwise stun/move them forward. They're there because they can still hit your probably-most-vulnerable guys in your rear ranks while over there, and the most stress-inflicting enemies in the game tend to make their home there - remember, stress carries over from the end of the dungeon, ''unlike'' health. '''''MURDER THEIR SHIT ASAP!'''''
* Put a stun skill in your party! They tend to have higher accuracy than most other attacks, and even if they don't cause much if any damage and won't work consistently one after another due to combatants gaining a resistance bonus after being stunned, they still prevent enemies from attacking or building stress, making them a safe bet to do at least once in a fight.
* Buffs, debuffs, and damage over time attacks stack. This means you or your opponents can cripple their enemies, boost their allies into superheroes, and kill even the strongest bosses entirely though indirect damage. That last point is very important; generally speaking every round each character will have a turn in order of their speed, but bosses will go multiple times per round, so as a result they will take damage from any DoT each time they get their turn but by the same token any debuffs will fade quickly and Stun effects are only a minor annoyance to them. Creating a party specifically through one of the two damage over times, Bleed or Blight, will deal massive damage although make sure to prepare for enemies unable to be affected by a certain effect. Generally speaking Blight affects more enemies in the game, but Bleed has more heroes who can apply it meaning you will be able to stack it higher on a target. Keep additional Herbal Remedy to use to instantly remove a debuff, and extra Holy Water to provide a buff that will reduce the chance of certain debuffs and DoTs affecting your heroes. These can be used during a fight and do not take up the hero's turn, although the hero can only use it on themselves.
* Prefer to use skills that your heroes have trinkets boosting their effectiveness at. It's not an issue for the Apprentice difficulty expeditions, but Veteran and Champion ones will be more difficult from the enemies being tougher and more resilient to effects - stuns, debuffs, bleeds, etc. can no longer be applied consistently without a trinket increasing the odds of it happening.
* Take note of a dungeon's general occurences - their best resistances will tend to be almost insurmountable at later difficulties. It's pointless to try to bleed most of the unholy enemies in the Ruins, the Weald's enemies are most diverse and usually hard to blight (and the giant enemy's going to make having a damage-reduction debuff invaluable against them) while blockages are highly likely, the Warrens is also very blight-resistant, causes a lot of diseases, has a decent amount of prot but also has plenty of potential food curios (if you can purity them with medicinal herbs or bandages), and the Cove's eldritch fishies are very bleed-resistant, has some enemies with a lot of prot, and has curios that can be safely obtained with shovels or medicinal herbs.
* Damage heals at the end of the dungeon, Stress does not. Crusaders, Flagellants, Jesters, and Houndmasters are the best characters to remove Stress while in the dungeon, and most classes have good campfire abilities for removing or reducing Stress gain as well. Abominations have an ability to remove their own Stress.
* There is a button to unequip items. Use it. Characters you throw into someplace to get better such as the Bar can result in them losing their equipped items. Don't trust those fuckers. You also don't want to forget that your best gear is on someone so insane you send them on a suicide run. In general, unequip everything from everyone who you aren't immediately sending out. The only danger when you are holding onto the items is a fairly weak boss stealing them, and that happens very rarely after the first time.
* You can also change skills during a dungeon (but not during an actual battle). Feel free to swap out the Crusader's Inspiring Cry ability for the larger heal ability Battle Heal for the next battle if a hero got unexpectedly beat up.
* Speed is a very useful stat in general for most characters (...until they're on Death's Door with bleed or blight on them and act before a healer. Try to avoid this scenario from happening).
* Lepers are high damage, low accuracy, and can only hit the first two ranks while having minimal abilities to help the rest of their party. They were previously one of the worst characters in the game in general, although in the same ongoing theme of Color Of Madness the weak were buffed and now the Leper is decent to take (which shouldn't be surprising since in a patch FULL of nerfs he only got buffs). Even before the patch they were useful for things such as the Vvulf boss, but were by no means mandatory in any situation. They are particularly useful in the early game for having high damage and hitting both ranks with one of their primary attack, but even after the patch their use against bosses is minimal given that most bosses hide behind obstacles in the first two ranks.
* In the reverse of the Leper, the Occultist who was formerly one of the best classes in the game and usually auto-include when you weren't taking a Vestal has been nerfed as a healer substantially.
* CoM taking an axe to stalling was harshest for the Crusader, who’s main role was stalling. His Speed is low, his damage is middling, and unless you are using Antiquarians his durability doesn’t matter much in the new high damage/lower durability monster meta. Currently he is like the Leper where he is amazing in the early game, but is not as useful outside of the Ruins (many monsters are Unholy, high Stress) and Cove (same). His Stress Camping heal is very useful, but outside of the Darkest Dungeon itself you won’t likely need him much anymore for anything but Ruins runs. The exception is teams of four Crusaders, since those non-stalling abilities got buffed and they can shuffle/buff. Like the Leper their inability to hit rank 3 and 4 is their main weakness, keeping them out of most boss fights as a viable pick.
* Your party doesn't need to be in a logical melee-front, ranged-behind formation if they can just use shuffle skills. Combine characters with shuffle skills in the same party while considering the speed to determine their generally-expected turn order to let them do these skills repeatedly - these skills tend to be well compensated in effect for having to deal with this caveat (not much will last long against two Highwaymen up front repeatedly using Point Blank Shot).
* A character doesn't die when they drop down to zero health, they enter the Death's Door state. Every time they take damage there's a chance they will then die, and upon being healed they are no longer on Death's Door although the debuff lasts for the rest of the mission. The Vestal AOE heal as a result is very useful. A character with a damage over time effect on them however could die at the start of their next turn.
* The Crimson Curse DLC begins as soon as you finish the first mission. Avoid it in the beginning, it is a newbie trap which will result in almost all of your heroes being afflicted by the titular Crimson Curse and causing the very difficult boss The Fanatic to randomly spawn in dungeons where he will most likely wipe your party.
* Your Flagellant and Crusader can act as free Stress relief similar to how the Plague Doctor can cure Disease for free. The Flagellant has an ability that allows him to absorb a large amount of Stress from an ally but takes a medium amount himself. The Crusader has an ability which heals both the Stress and health of a party member while also increasing Torch level. In easier fights, the two can be used together to mellow put a party. Combine with the Houndmaster and/or Jester Stress heals for a therapeutic stroll through the estate. Note that if a hero gains a mental issue during the dungeon from recieving too much Stress, healing their Stress back to 0 removes it. This will not remove Quirks unfortunately. Such a Stress-relief party has only the Flagellant as a major healer, and abandoning the quest results in Stress gain, but this should be negligible if you manage to remove most of their Stress and still bring back some loot.
* Speaking of the Flagellant, there is a very good reason that the game forbids you from taking more than one of them in your party at a time: While at first glance they are an inconsistent class oriented around heavy risk-and-reward tradeoffs, a second glance at their abilities reveals that the debuffs a flagellant receives from performing his strongest abilities do not actually penalize his functionality, as being a bleed-based fighter he cares little about weapon damage debuffs, and being a character who can only perform said abilities at 50% health or below means that the Defense debuff is more of a benefit. And then there's the fact that he can heal stress, remove bleeds and blight AND can heal for large chunks of maximum health while being a durable frontliner with a soft-taunt, freeing up your backline slots to have more damage or another healer to ensure that your party will never, ever die. Add that to the fact that his offensive attacks have reasonable bleed damage AND inflicts bleed debuffs, making even the bleed-resistant fishmen vulnerable, and you've got a rock hard wheel of cheese in the form of a diseased beggar that can make many, many of the game's most frustrating encounters trivial. He took a nerf in CoM that makes his healing more debilitating to himself, but is still very good.
* The most debilitating Quirks are those which cause a character to irrationally act in the dungeons. When they investigate a Curio they do not use the correct tool, so they usually suffer the negative effect be it poison, minor Stress, summoning a fight, or massive Stress gain. Even worse, you lose out on potential resources. When scouting new recruits be on the lookout for these, and on your favorite level 6 heroes or your two achievement starters its fair to consider giving them mental treatment.
* Speaking of Curios, it is not cheating to look up what they do and what to use on them. Its sometimes counter-intuitive, and given you'll be running through these areas a LOT there's no surprise to ruin when you learn that using bandages to check something that might be poisonous somehow will help when an antidote to poison will not, or that adding that antidote to rotten meat will make it edible, or using a simple object on a strange statue you encounter early in the game will immediately send your party against a boss in another dimension that endgame parties would usually be butchered by.
* If frustrated, remember that the character which represents you does not accompany the heroes. You are more or less paying to stock them up for battle and sending them with a plan, what you the player control during the dungeon is them attempting to execute your orders. Thus remember that if the party wipes, its THEIR fault, not yours. YOU aren't losing, they are failing you.
* Remember that Curio tip about the boss that will kill your party? Well, spoilers, do '''NOT''' put a torch in the Shambler's Altar, unless you're extremely well-prepared for a very hard fight. The reward is an Ancestral item, though.
* The Color Of Madness added an Endless Mode at the Farmstead. This differs in that rather than trying to survive to complete the mission, the mission is obviously endless until you are wiped out or simply quit. You should either focus on killing encounters as fast as possible, focusing on anything you know deals high damage and/or Stress first, or surviving anything thrown at you and relying on the fact you can heal but they cannot. Stress will be the bigger concern, so Jesters/Houndmasters are recommended as are Vestals since most encounters will have attacks that hit most or all of your party at once. Corpses turn into crystals, which grow until they explode which forces you to deal with them, although since destroying a crystal heals the hero they give you an easy way to keep injured heroes going. Shovels and Skeleton Keys are useless, Bandages and Herbs are VERY useful as is food.
* The Thing From The Stars is the Color Of Madness wandering boss that can be found anywhere. The Shieldbreaker is the most effective against it for breaking the Protection buff it has, the Grave Robber is also recommended for ignoring Protection, as is any Bleed or Blight you can stack. It causes massive Blight and Stress, so any character who can remove Stress or cleanse Blight is also useful.
* The modding community is...[[Anime|colorful]]. Usually its best to stick with the official game, although there are many decent mods available and some to the same degree of quality that they are indistinguishable from official content. Just be prepared to sift for them. In particular the Marvin Seo mod classes are top notch and Muscarine's class mods are also excellent and tastefully lewd.
* Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

==/tg/ Relevance==
*Considered a spiritual successor by many to [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]].

*The rules are actually basically already a tabletop game, and could easily be converted into one.

*The final boss is a reference to Nssu-Ghahnb/The Heart of Ages from the Call of Cthulhu Role-Playing Game. This is supported by Nssu-Ghahnb being trapped within an alternate dimension and being responsible for spawning all the monsters in the known universe, just like the final boss.

*It is inspired by Torchbearer, a tabletop game

==Sequel==

As of February 12, 2019, Red Hook Studios has officially announced that they are creating Darkest Dungeon 2.

The trailer is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlGMsJgyORk here].

[[Category: Approved Media]]
[[Category: Not related]]

Female Space Marines

2020-04-13T03:05:26Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Dark Imperium and FemMarines */

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{{topquote|The Adeptus Astartes can only contain males. No girls allowed. They are yucky.|[[If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device|The Emperor of Mankind]]}}
{{topquote|Has Slaanesh inflamed your senses?|Flavius Alkenex of the Phoenix Conclave to Fabius Bile, discussing Fabius's implantation of geneseed into females.}}

[[Image:beakiegal.jpg|thumb|right|Guaranteed to garner at least 100 replies. Also not enough pauldron.]]

There is no tactic more effective for [[RAGE|enraging]] a diehard [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] fanboy than discussing/drawing their [[Rule 63]] companion, '''Female Space Marines'''. Not to be confused with [[Sisters of Battle]], the canonical equivalent to Space Marines and also armed with bolters and chainswords with the stats of shitty guardsmen (but still entirely equal to space marines, [[Games Workshop|we]] promise), but ''Space Marine'' Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, you know, the hypermuscular ones with [[pauldrons]]. According to [[Games Workshop]] [[canon]], the procedures that are used to create a Space Marine only work properly on male subjects (inferred to be because the Emperor is male), rendering female Marines impossible.

Sometimes it is pointed out that back in the [[Rogue Trader]] days, Games Workshop did briefly produce two power-armoured female models, but they were changed to "Female Adventurers in Power Armour" and were never meant to represent female Marines. Moreover, White Dwarf ''did'' in fact publish a Rogue Trader scenario back in the day featuring real, honest-to-[[Matt Ward|Ward]] female Imperial Space Marines, albeit with the caveat that such chapters were exceedingly rare. In addition, some will point out that both the [[Emperor]] and [[Magnus the Red|at least]] [[Alpharius|one Primarch]] can change appearance at will. Considering this is from Games Workshop, who [[Squats|routinely violates their own canon in subsequent editions]], fanbase be damned, take this as you will.

It's worth noting, though, that Games Workshop hasn't deterred /tg/ (or indeed, the [[Black Library]] writers) from coming up with ways to potentially allow for them, even with Space Marines being exclusively male being one of the rare things they've kept consistent. This is because we're talking about a tabletop game set in a universe where [[Orks|green mushroom men accidentally will things into existence]] and [[Daemon|manifestations of extreme emotions sometimes murderfuck you from the inside out]] because some idiot forgot to fix the Gellar field or a Custodian missed a couple psykers for the Emperor's daily meal. And as was brought up in [[Daemonette|previous]] [[Monstergirls|articles]], little gets between a man and [[PROMOTIONS|his fapbait]], much less the rather "spirited" lorefagging this inspires in detractors.



=The Canon Part=
While for a time GW's official stance was that it was impossible to create Female Space Marines, leading to spammed complaints about gender equality and claims that male-only Space Marines are sexist on their forums. Therefore, a minor concession was made. According to new [[fluff]] the Emperor of Mankind ''did'' see fit to attempt the creation of female Space Marines, whether in the spirit of equality, for the sake of a larger recruiting pool, or [[/d/|because he had an incest fetish to indulge.]] Emphasis on ''tried''; since he had based his Sons off of himself, and then Space Marines off of the resulting genes, it was impossible to twist that base around to reliably make a female Space Marine. The Emperor tried again and again, but could not find a way to reliably create a Female Space Marine in a reasonable time frame and soon found that if Male Space Marines were one in a million, then Female Space Marines were one in a trillion. There were many semi-successful female Space Marines that showed promise, but nearly all of them died shortly after implantation due to organ rejection and various hormonal imbalances causing their biology to shit itself. Quickly realizing that this shit was a waste of time and resources better spent conquering the galaxy, he decreed that Space Marines would be male-only, '''NO GIRLS ALLOWED.'''

TL;DR GW got tired of angry letters, so they said that Female Space Marines were possible but stupidly impractical (even by 40k standards), so that's why there aren't any Female Space Marines so stop the angry letters ''please''.

This all could have been avoided if [[SJW|some of the complainants]] had simply asked for (and GW gave) more focus on the [[Sisters of Battle|''real'', pre-existing Female Space Marines]] complete with a unique, empowering flavor all their own - not to mention [[Imperial Guard|other]] [[Sisters of Silence|the other]] [[Eldar|non-sexualized]] [[Tau|women]] available in the setting. [[Fail|Naturally, this seemingly obvious solution was lost on all parties involved]].

On the Black Library front, it was mentioned in one of the [[Horus Heresy]] books that [[Malcador the Sigillite]] had suggested making one or two of the Primarchs female, half-jokingly saying that it might help to defuse competition between them. The Emperor was not amused by this at all and insisted that it simply couldn't be done, thinking Malcador was joking about the idea entirely. And really, who wants to try to argue with him about it? He may have had time later to uplift all of humanity, but he is busy with that little "ten thousand years on life support while fighting various eldritch horrors" business.

==[[Sindri|SSSSSIIIIIINNNNNNDDDDRRRRRRIIIII!!]]==

And now a bit unexpected salvation - there are indeed (99.46% possible) Female Space Marines!... in The [[Eye Of Terror]]. Well, they're possible out of it too - see, due to the nature of [[Chaos]], mutations are often a fact of life. Some desired, some not. What if one hulked out, burning, warped Chaos Space Marine [[Moot|secretly wishes he was the cute little girl who got flowers? Who smiled with joy? Who was so sweet?]]

This was ''confirmed'' in one of the earlier Chapter Approved articles - one that re-introduced mounted Daemonettes - in which a Governor-Militant fighting a Slaanesh warband mused that there were (apparently female) creatures that [[Heresy|were once Space Marines, but no longer]]. Considering Chaos can cause [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]], is anyone surprised by this?

Furthermore, in the [[Fabius Bile]] series, there was a female Chaos Champion who'd been mutated up to Space-Marine equivalent levels, and was a subcommander in an Emperor's Children war band.

==[[Honsou]], You Sick Fuck==

We know that you among the fans, despite all our attempts to dissuade you, want cute FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS! And there is good news - technically, there ARE Female Space Marines IN OFFICIAL LORE. The catch? Yes there is a catch. And this one is the worst.

Your new waifu is a bloated, twisted, undying, insane, mutated pregnant mother-slave only alive because she's in the Eye of Terror.

You see, [[Honsou]] of the [[Iron Warriors]], in an effort to squeeze new MAHREENS into the ranks without having to pay that other sick fuck [[Fabius Bile]] for clones and because he was too lazy to do it the normal way, created a system of hideousness and sadness that pushes [[grimdark]] to a whole new level. He invented the [[Daemonculaba]], a system whereby a woman is chained and fed stuff which will morph her and her womb into something that was never meant to be. A boy is then (yes, a child), jammed, shoved or cut INTO the vagina and stays there for a while. When his time is ready, he, now XBAWKS HUEG and STRONG, will have to [[rip and tear|rip, tear]], or otherwise push his way out of his adoptive mother's womb/vagina. When he emerges, he will either be a skinless mutant abomination, or will emerge as a fully functional (albeit skinless) Chaos Space Marine in a fraction of the time, with all his growth stages and bionics and gene-seed already taken care of. How? [[Meme|It's fucking science]].

This goes back to our Female Space Marine - you see, while she was being morphed and changed, [[Dark Mechanicus]] Biologis hereteks worked on her body, implanting gene-seed and making her physically a Female Space Marine, even if the form is rather off. Thus, her womb can turn children as well into Space Marines by having her womb 'grow' the required organs and stages directly into their bodies in a fraction of the time - days and weeks instead of years. Thankfully for the entire universe, this horror was [[Uriel Ventris|destroyed]] before Honsou realized he could stick girls in there as well, and get double the recruits, and stumble upon the secret to true Female Space Marines.

==A Slightly More Reasonable Answer==

The problem really is one of terminology. Women can wear power armour, certainly; the Sororitas practically make it formal wear. Women can, through steroids, incessant bodybuilding, a high protein diet, and a little genetic modding to bring it all together, be as buff and rocking as a Space Marine. Pointlessly expensive and inefficient compared to grabbing a guy and shoving a growth hormone in him. But what really makes a Space Marine a Space Marine is all of the [[Geneseed|extra genetically-engineered organs and DNA and whatnot]] cloned from the Primarchs and implanted in the right way, which is impossible for women for reasons the Emperor himself ran afoul of. The closest thing to an exception in the fluff is any experiment involving Fabius Bile. It should be noted that the said woman is effectively lobotomized (and even there, the potential Chaos Space Marine candidate must be male since even that sick thing requires gene-seed to 'work'). And even if he did make you a Female Space Marine for reals, she still wouldn't be a "proper" Space Marine, just a weird, mutilated, Chaos-infused entity that approximates a Space Marine but [[Ultramarines|can never truly be one.]]

On the note of the Fabulous one, the crazy old fuck basically cloned himself but then decided to make the clone female and have a [[Warhammer High|'daughter']] just for the [[lulz]]. And the best/worst part is, he still made a better job out of parenthood than Big E. Bile's also experimented on damn-near everything (including the entire civilian populations of several planets) at some point or another for his attempts to duplicate the methods for creating new Space Marines, so there's ample evidence to suggest that [[/d/|he's tried it at least once]], ''going as far as saying Big E. was an idiot for making gene-seed only compatible with men and thus cutting off half the potential supply of warriors''. Fucking [[Slaanesh]]. In his own recent novels, his retinue has included a champion who is effectively, but not technically, a female Space Marine; when she claimed some Emperor's Children power armor on the battlefield, it bonded to her like Chaos Armour from Fantasy does, and she's tougher in a fight than most true Space Marines.

Another possible reason is that all of the Primarchs are men, with male genes, thus meaning that, [[Samus|unless there's secretly a girl Primarch out there somewhere,]] female Space Marines cannot be made in the traditional sense. Space Marine blood alone can eat through many durable materials due to the mess of chemicals in them. Any attempt to breed Space Marines the traditional way would be almost guaranteed to fail in a tragic fashion.

Of note is the fact that despite the names and histories of the two missing Primarchs being utterly obliterated from Imperial records, they are still unambiguously referred to as sons of the Emperor.

==Dark Imperium and FemMarines==
[[Image:YouHaven'tMadeFemaleSpaceMarinesHaveYou.jpg|thumb|right|The Emperor's reaction to [[Primaris Marines]]]]
In the Master of Mankind and Dark Imperium novels, it's revealed that the [[Emperor]] never cared for the Space Marines [[Adeptus Custodes|as much as his more favored sons]], and saw them as little more than tools to secure his [[Imperium of Man|empire]]. [[Ultramar|He never intended for them to rule over it]], as it was planned to be an empire [[High Lords of Terra|ruled by humans for humans]]. Given this revelation, it's possible that the Emperor ''could've'' made Female Space Marines, but chose not to because he wanted a reliable way to keep their population in check. Keep in mind that [[Belisarius Cawl|very few people outside of the Emperor himself]] were actually involved in the [[Primarch]] Project, so he was adamant that FemMarines were impossible, and no one actually tried to prove him wrong - they mostly just took him at his word (because calling him out seems like a much less preferable alternative). It is also simply far quicker and more efficient to implant recruits. Plus the changes needed to create a female Space Marine, given the large physical abilities differences between men and women, would be extreme, with an immense fatality rate, and expensive. You could make ten male and female Space Marines or thirty male Space Marines in half the time. The right choice is obvious. Besides, after the changes to put the women on par with the men Marines, the only real difference left would be genetalia, so the extra expense and risk would be pointless in the end. Sure, the fem Marines would only need to outclass the enemies of the Crusade, so full body alteration wouldn’t be necessary. But, the male Marines frequently suffered heavy, sometimes dramatic casualties. Less durable, less strong female Marines added would mostly increase the body count. Not to mention the incredible risk of enemies getting DNA of both Marine types and making their own in their labs. Besides, Emps had Chaos to consider. Even if you don't buy into all the [[-4 Str]] [[bullshit]], the impracticality of the numbers is still worth noting.

Although Space Marines have their sex drive curbed or removed, we know that [[Space Wolves]] can still sleep around (especially true for [[Lukas the Trickster]]), to say nothing of the [[Emperor's Children]], who are explicitly described going on a [[RAPE|rape rampage]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], which likely means that the reproductive suppression isn't 100% effective or irreversible, though the latter example does carry a load of salt big enough to fill a Blackstone Fortress in that they worship Slaanesh. It should also be considered that although Space Marines have a reduced or eliminated sex drive, it's never been suggested that they're sterile, meaning that [[Fall of the Eldar|accidents could still happen]]. Space Marine sex drive also seems to be born more out of culture than anything actually biological, most marines consider themselves too busy to get sexually or romantically attached to other people and are "married to the job". However the Space Wolves, having a rowdy and raunchy chapter culture where picking up chicks is a sign of manly strength and a source of tales to laugh about at the mess hall don't see any problem with their brothers spending their free time having "fun" with the local women.

Given all this, it's possible that the Emperor didn't want to take any chances and potentially have his living weapons start reproducing and becoming self-sufficient, replacing the humans they were designed to protect. Keeping Space Marines mono-gendered and reliant on [[geneseed]] would ensure that he maintained tight control over his tools and how many there were at any given time. Of course, this is all speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. Keep in mind, Implants are not heritable, this is basic biology. Unless the Astartes-to-be DNA is altered, which once again would mean Female Astartes should be possible. Even then the theoretical baby Astartes wouldn't get the implanted organs, meaning probable miscarriage. Instead they would have to be genetically altered clones. These attempts have almost always created questionable results.

Also the statement that the Emperor blatantly favors the Custodes over the Space Marines? 100% true. Space Marines during the time of the Great Crusade were mostly just genetically engineered frontline soldiers with cybernetics, Power Armor and really big guns. Instead of being a mix of Tier 1 Special Operators and Dark Age Knight Orders like they are during M41 and M42. Some were even used as right out cannon fodder, more so if they were traitors during the Heresy. (e.g. Stor-Bezashk White Scars were those who were found to be on the side of the traitors and reassigned to take most deadliest missions as punishment, while getting all the shit jobs were one of the reasons the [[Iron_Warriors]] sided with [[Horus]].) The Emperor also had no problems purging two whole Legions of them for reasons that we'll never know about. So he wouldn't care about massacring Space Marines wholesale if they were made up of gender equal units.

A mass Legion purge is something he never considered doing to the Adeptus Custodes, as they have no flaws that allows to be corrupted by Chaos or Xeno influence. And if it were possible, they'd be too dead to talk about. Nor would he send them to some forsaken planet to be slaughtered like he would with Space Marines. Of course, female Custodes are also a whole different can of worms in of itself and turns the discussion into [[skub]], despite Games Workshop themselves considering this as being potentially canon.

==On The To-Do List?==
There is a paragraph in "Ashes of Prospero" were Arjac Rockfist identifies him self as a "Son as Russ", and a woman with a spear asks "Only sons?" Arjac thinks on it, and realizes that the spirit of Fenris, and of the Space Wolves, is in all the people of Fenris, men, women and children. Then he considers that Guilliman had made an even more deadly and powerful version of a Space Marine, so it was possible. At the end he pointedly does not reject the possibility of women space marines, ending with a "Perhaps."

Whether or not this is a case of fandom baiting/lorefag trolling, lampshade hanging, or just leaving space for '[[Your Dudes]]' is debatable; the fact that this happened among the [[Viking]]-themed Space Wolves is interesting, given the Valkyrie and Shield Maiden connotations that go along with that theme. Additionally, the Wolves took a beating from the Thousand Sons, so increasing the recruiting pool would be a boon to the beleaguered Wolves. If female marines were going to be suddenly created, it happening to the Space Wolves would not be thematically out of the question the way it would be for other more 'ascetic' Space Marine chapters. This being said, Fenrisian Shield Maidens were mentioned as having fought in Wrath of Magnus, so it's also possible that the Space Wolves will stop being a Marines-exclusive force and start incorporating the native warriors of Fenris, though that would be a blatant case of legion building that would draw the attention of the already inclined to look disagreeable on them Inquisition in a way the more Inquisition friendly Ultramarine do not with the Ultramars IG and PDF.

=What Would A Female Space Marine Look Like If They Could Exist?=
[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|right|thumb|Tina likes long walks on the beach and slaying the Emperor's foes.]]
Obviously, in the land of Rule 63 they are amazingly hot [[Rape|(and would totally do]] [[Mary Sue| you)]], but in dark and gritty fluff-land where they would be optimised for combat rather than jacking off, they would probably have very few notable female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery. Marines are made from pre-adolescent kids who still have very little in terms of sexual dimorphism, and the process of transforming includes total rewriting of the hormonal system (which is responsible for developing secondary sexual characteristics).

Hypothetical femarine wouldn't have narrow shoulders, wide hips, (big) breasts, delicate face structures (though the blood angels often manage it), feminine voices or even traditional feminine character traits like higher capacity for empathy and increased aversion against danger as those two psychological traits are pretty easily conditioned in or out of people if you can control their social contacts. And unless you're one of the nice chapters like the Salamanders, Lamenters, or Celestial Lions; empathy is almost certainly going to be trained out of most recruits to make them better able to deal with the kind of guilt that killing other people inflicts on humans. If you don't think that's a big concern, note that this is the kind of guilt that notably caused [[Avitus]] to fall to [[heresy]] when the truth about his chapter master made it his old excuses of it being justified as the chapter being in the right invalid and found himself unable to live with his actions. An entire Chapter of Marines in service to the inquisition who purged civilians who knew too much was also driven insane by the guilt because they simply cared too much for other people. Too much humanity can and will drive space marines to madness over the course of their duties.

In essence neophyte does not mature into man or woman - it matures into '''marine'''. A female Space Marine would only differ from male Space Marine by having (possibly) different genitalia, so no "Samus is a girl" moments would occur, given that they would never have a traditional female puberty. Either way, Female Space Marines are not going to be conventionally attractive. Being recreated exclusively for war tends to do that. They would be bigger than an ordinary human, of course, but they would still be proportioned like a normal human. Or like some bikini model if the Emperor decided he wanted to make hot White Scar bikers or something.

It is worth noting that official art from GW shows that unarmoured space marines look pretty normal if tall and swole discounting all the plug holes in them; like Captain America if he were a head or two taller rather than blob like roid freaks. Which does make sense, as the hulking bodybuilder physique is actually not very good in a fight compared to the more lithe MMA fighter build or the kind of fat looking powerlifter bod and in the military, endurance and leg power matters far more than how big your gains are. It's also worth noting that the sons of Sanguinius in particular are generally handsome in an androgynous, angelic way and that most of the primarchs aren't half bad looking. The Alpha Legion and the Fallen are also able to pass off as normal if tall and buff humans without their power armour. Also worth noting is that many, many marines are somehow able to have long, flowing hair or beards (or both) and still fit helmets onto their heads without issue with what can only be explained by space marine helmets doubling as pocket dimensions.

As Space Marines are surgically altered with organic implants and not traditionally genetically modified, progenoid glands would still play a vital role in gene-seed replication, and any child a female Space marine would have would at most just be guaranteed to be at least somewhat compatible with the chapter's gene seed. All the extra organs that go into a Space Marine are lab-grown things stuck into them that they're genetically compatible with, no more inherently part of the body than a prosthetic arm, and it's very unlikely that they would develop on their own in a Space Marine's child. Knowing Lukas the Trickster's "hey babe, I'm a space marine, wanna see the inside of my land raider?" antics though, it's probable that unless trained to suppress it, they'll still have a sex drive.

And, assuming that Sister Generica can be considered attractive in any form, she's also wearing a ton or two of ceramite power armor, so you wouldn't tell until she speaks or removes her helmet (Though depending on who you ask, that would make her MORE attractive.) And even if she does, you'd have to be a very lucky man to catch her eye during her limited free time, and she'd need to be from a chapter where fraternizing with normal humans is acceptable.

Finally, God Emperor help you if you suggest they wear boob plate. Physics ITSELF says no, and it'd slow down production which - given the current state of the Imperium - all but ensures you'll be ridiculed and [[BLAM|"corrected"]] if you so much as try to suggest it.

=RAGE=

RAGE is generated by this tactic in two distinct ways; either the neckbeards assume that the creator of the work in question is unaware of the Space Marine fluff, and rage about his or her ignorance; failing that, it becomes clear that they are well aware of the fluff regarding these matters and willingly chose to disregard it, sending the poor neckbeards into fits of spastic rage that anyone would dare deliberately defile the sacrosanct canon of Games Workshop's masterpiece.

[[Troll|Still, the aforementioned creator will just ignore him.]]

Alternatively, call your all-female IG army converted to be [[Imperial Navy]] armswomen "custom female space marines" for a joke the guys at the game store will find funny once and infuriating forever after.

=What If I Still Unironically Want This?=

Then it's time to apply some of '[[your dudes]]'. GeeDubs has been downplaying this more and more in the marketing, especially going into 8th edition, but they still secretly love it and never want us to stop applying our stories and color schemes to their precious and expensive models. Besides, with such a thoroughly batshit crazy setting, there's no reason you can't make your toy soldiers girls.

As mentioned before, you could always invoke the two lost Space Marine primarchs and say their geneseed works in females. Maybe a successor chapter somewhere down the line got a mutation and now they need to recruit young girls instead of young boys.

Of course, the "easiest" way that will generate the fewest complaints is just saying that this is possible in your chapter. Either the geneseed your chapter uses is mutated to allow a higher success rate with females, the females are [[Luther|surgically]] [[Kor Phaeron|altered]] to be basically just Space Marines, or that [[Belisarius Cawl|Daddy Cawl]] conveniently forgot to tell Guilliman that the Primarines can take girls too. Or, assuming you don't play in a brick and mortar Games Workshop store, you could try and convince your fellow neckbeards to accept it as a sort of "local canon," the same way you'd all start writing each others homebrew Chapters and Craftworlds into each other's lore. Above all, just remember to try and take it easy.

=Writefaggery=

===A New Arrival===

* From the livelog of Inquisitor Perstringos, archive #32AA9-99
* Redacted copy dispatched to Magos Tzeel'Etil of Mars under code of practice 73-Greyfax-Cawl

The lifespan of an Inquisitorial liaison to the Angry Marines is a famously short one.

Take offence to their unorthodox methods, and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Partake too enthusiastically in their furious idiom and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Stand too near one when they're feeling a little more umbrage than usual and you're likely to... and so on.

I have lasted in the role for nearly seven Angermar months and so consider myself quite the survivor. Alas, my run of good luck may soon be at an end. The Angry Marines are not generally characterised by a cheerful acceptance of change...

especially changes imposed from without...

very particularly especially changes to their unit composition mandated by none other than the Ultramarines, whose very Codex Astartes (oh Guilliman Restored, forgive me!) I have been impelled to use as an item of intimate personal hygiene in the Angry Marines' commode.

And yet today the first company of Primaris Marrnes will be arriving on McRage to join their new battle brothers. The "Guillimarines", as I've heard them called around the barracks here from the day I arrived. The Ultra-Ultrasmurfs. The Fuck-knuckles. The Bitch-clone-fucking-sellout Poser Marines.

Such a momentous occasion will naturally require an Inquisitorial observer on site.

I am going to fucking die.

Which is why I am taking care to record this surreptitious livelog, tapped by my tongue against my molar-transcriptor as I take my place in the Rite of Welcome. My life is nothing, praise the Emperor. Direct observational feedback on the reception of our Imperium's newest super-Astartes into the Chapter deemed least likely to accept them will be invaluable to several parties.

They are docking now with our Battle Barge, the FUCKYOUNAMEITYOURSELF. Their vessel, officially the Undaunted but renamed in our local records "THE OFFICIOUS CUNT-BASKET", is busy initiating standard pre-docking handshake protocol, but I expect that...

yep, there it is. The Angry Marines have taken the simple expedient of ramming the FUCKYOU directly into the Undaunted's docking bay. It was a fair hit. Air is already cycling across both ships with only superficial loss to the void, it won't take long to clear the wreckage, and so the joining Rite is soon to begin.

A mere ten paces in front of me, well within explode-my-head-with-a-backslap range, stands Chapter Master Temperus Maximum himself. An AdMech representative, Magos Errant Gjarran 3FF stands some ways to my left. I am sure I sense fear in the writhing of its mechadendrites.

Two long lines of Angry Marines, each four long files of seven hundred ranks, stretch out behind us in a widening wedge, as though to flaunt the Codex Astartes prohibition on companies larger than a thousand. Aside from their numbers and their angry yellow banners, the most striking sight to one accustomed to other Astartes chapters is the conspicuous lack of bolt pistols in favour of a second chainsword or the heaviest of heavy weapons.

I also note that customary Space Marine practice is to greet newcomers with weapons RAISED, not brandished threateningly -- and thus also pointed directly at my back.

On either side of these lines there mills a mob of chapter serfs, aspirants, servitors and ordinary ship's crew. Banners burn with the emblematic angry face and raised yellow middle finger.

I now hear the stomp of boots but haven't caught sight of the 100 who will be the first in history to join the Angry Marines from outside their chapter. Having already written off my own life, I find myself idly wondering if anyone has warned them of what they will encounter. We went through sixteen liaisons in as many weeks before we started to get the hang of their red lines. How many of these "Primadonna Marines" will survive the year?

Ah, there they are. They march in a column five across, twenty files deep. I see the first file now...

I had heard that these new marines were taller but the effect is staggering. Every Space Marine inspires terrified awe with their size, their power, and above all their devotion to the Emperor. These new Primaris radiate the same majesty... perhaps it is as they humbly claim, that they are no better than their other battle brothers, but they are certainly... newer.

As my eyes take in the holy might of the Emperor's newest instruments, my trained Inquisitor's eye perceives what at first was a vague impression. The specifications of these marines' armor, while taller and sleeker than earlier models, are in fact even sleeker than the schematics of the Mark X Tacticus Armour I have memorised as a matter of course.

How strange. Thinner in the waist. Wider at the hips. Bulkier at the chest... at the bust!

Subtle as the difference is, certainly not detracting from their power and terror, their armour is unquestionably FEMALE.

How?

Before anyone speaks the center Primaris of their first file--surely their Lieutenant--is removing his helmet... HER helmet. By the Emperor! As strong and intimidating and, well, grizzled a face as any Space Marine's, and yet entirely feminine. Long luxurious red hair is cascading down her shoulders... by the Emperor, to live to see these days!

No word yet from the Angry Marines. I fear the worst. I'm enabling my audio pickup; it may well outlive me.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WELL FUCK ME IT'S THE MUTE MARINES! HELLO THE FUCK TO YOU TOO, ASSHOLE!

[Assault Sergeant Dickface, interrupting]: OH NO NO FUCKING NO. NUH-UH. FUCK OFF. CHADMARINES ARE BAD ENOUGH BUT A STACY? GIRLYMAN AIN'T GONNA SHOEHORN SOME BOLTER BITCHES INTO OUR YEEEAAAARGH!!!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WHOOPS DID I JUST "SHOEHORN" MY FOOT UP YOUR ASS? YOU CAN EAT YOUR OWN SHIT OFF MY BOOT LATER, SERGEANT. DO I LOOK TO LIKE I'M ARMED WITH SOME PUSSIFIED BOLTER?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WELL FUCKING ARSECHUNKS IF THIS ISN'T A CUNTY TURN OF EVENTS. I'VE SAID FOR MONTHS YOU NU-SMURFS HAVE NO BALLS AND WHADDYA KNOW.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH YOU CAN KISS MY TURGID OVARIES LATER FUCKLICK. LIEUTENANT PEDICABA REPORTING! BY THE EMPEROR'S SWEATY ASSCRACK WE HAVE ARRIVED THROUGH THE WARP INTACT, ONLY ONE LITTLE FUCKSLEAZE DAEMON INCURSION NEEDED ITS SHIT PUSHED IN. ONE HUNDRED NEW ANGRY MARINES ARE YOURS TO COMMAND, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER!

(Oh Emperor protect us, they're all removing their helmets. Blonde hair, black hair, more redheads... if it weren't for their size you'd know they weren't Sisters of Battle by their color. And their language!)

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEY COGBITCH, YOU SURE THOSE FAGNUTS FROM MARS SENT THE RIGHT DELiVERY?

[Magos Gjarran]: All is in order, lord Chapter Master. These are indeed the Primaris Marines assigned by my masters to your most holy Chapter, uncorrupted by the Warp and in perfect genetic order. The Machine God smiles upon your union.

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: AND YOUR ARCH-ANUS FAGMASTERS DIDN'T SEE FIT TO MENTION THEY COME WITH A CUNT APIECE?

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YOU WANT "A PIECE" OF CUNT JUST FUCK YOUR OWN WHORE MOUTH, MY LORD.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium, interrupting]: No!! Stop!! Please!! I can't bear it!

(Has this serf lost his mind! What is he doing?)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My lords, this cannot be! Kill me if you will, but we cannot have fucking WOMEN ruining EVERYTHING! It's all a trick by... by SLAANESH JUSTICE WARRIORS to force the evil of HEResy upon us. A trick! The holy gene-seed can't work on females! Blah!

(The Primaris nearest the serf has just spat on him. Looks like she got him right in the crotch.)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: You stupid bitch! I'll fucking end you! I'll take a flamer to all the vapid whores in the Progenium! I'll...

[a distinct sizzling noise is audible]

[Interceptor Miserabila]: GUESS MY BETCHER'S GLAND WORKS AFTER ALL, HUH ASS-BADGER?

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My DICK! Oh FUCK, OH EMPEROR! MY BALLS! MY BALLS ARE MELTING AWAY! AHHH!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: "BETCHER" WEREN'T USING THOSE ANYWAY, PANSY-ASS QUEEFSNIFF.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: [voice dissolves into screams and groans]

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEH HEH, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. MAYBE YOU REDRAGE WHORES WON'T EMBARRASS THE REAL SOLDIERS TOO MUCH AFTER ALL. TELL YOU WHAT, LET'S WIPE OUT THE ASSCHEESE HERETICS PLANETSIDE AND I'LL LET YOU FIX ME A SANDWICH.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: SAY THAT TO MY HAIRY PUSS, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER PISS-BREATH. NOW ARE YOU GONNA FIND US SOME HERESY TO MURDER OR ARE YOU GOING TO STAND THERE ALL DAY LIKE YOU'RE SCARED OF A LADY?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WE MAKE PLANETFALL IN TWENTY MINUTES. WELCOME TO THE ANGRY MARINES... BATTLE BROTHER.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH, SLURP SHIT SISTER.

Audio pick-up disabled. I think that was the ceremony. The Angry Marines, Primaris and all, are exchanging soldierly embraces and head-butts and marching back to the barge, chanting as one, "ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME! ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!"

I'm racing down the corridor with Magos Giarran as fast as my legs will take me. You just know they're going to perform an "expedited undocking" with fucking frag grenades. Again. Planetfall in seventeen minutes. If I'm somehow not rendered into inquisitor-flavoured jello... well, I'm already praising the Emperor's unlimited munificence that I'm alive at all.

Word must get back to Mars. If the Primera mix so well even with the Angry Marines, they'll be a valuable reinforcement to all our companies. In our darkest hour, the Imperium's new hopes redouble.

+++
Thought for the Day: The Emperor has fury enough for us all.
+++

=See Also=

*[[Golden Aquilas]]: /tg/ [[homebrew]] chapter, designed to cause as much [[Rage|RAEG]] and accusations of [[derp]] as possible.
*[[Space Marines]]: Rule 63 equivalent of female Space- wait...
*[[Sisters of Battle]]: The warrior nuns of the Imperium that wear power armor, often fight with bolters and chainswords, and are in a sense the "real female space marines" of Warhammer 40,000.
*[[Stormcast Eternals]], GW's [[Warhammer Fantasy|Fantasy]] Space Marines in [[Age of Sigmar]], which can be any species and gender thanks to their magical origins. At least one Stormcast group was announced to be comprised of men and women and SURPRISE WARHAMMER SHADESPIRE WAS ANNOUNCED AND FEATURES A FEMALE STORMCAST MINIATURE. And the Sacrosanct Chamber added a bunch more.
*[[Samus]]: How about a female Primar-{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|REVEALING IMPERIAL SECRETS IS HERESY!}}
*[[A Song of Ice and Fire|Brienne of Tarth]]: The quintessential female space marine; through the obsession with duty and honour to the bulky, muscly form and skill at arms.
*[[Daughters of Terra]] A not-quite Space Marines Female Space Marines chapter.

=Gallery=
<center><gallery>
Image:Sisters of anger2.png|A girl can get angry too.
Image:1227373581722.gif|Lol. Why u mad tho?
Image:Nidsrape.jpg|Good to know the Smurfs get fucked by Tyranids no matter who their genestock accepts.
File:Love is a Battlefield by blazbaros.png|An almost perfect example of a female space marine, complete with the typical bulky space marine form.
Image:spessbitch.jpg|Not in fact [[Horo]].
File:Female_warhammer_40k_imperium_model_--_100D0212.jpg|She'd be even scarier if she took off that mask.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Gabs.jpg|Old Imperial Adventurer from [[Rogue Trader|Ye Olden Days]].
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Jayne.jpg|Your eyes should start bleeding right about now.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_--_Ingunna_Daughter_of_Russ_by_Greymark.jpg|BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
File:1k heresy.jpg|<s>Not</s> [[Just as planned]]. Now you know why Tzeentch doesn't invite Slaanesh to his birthday parties anymore.
File:Primarchs as teen girls.png| The Emperor made the Primarchs to be the greatest human warriors of all time, but [[Warhammer_High|even they were not immune]] to [[Rule 63]].
File:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|She was not amused by this development.
File:Saber ultra marine.jpg|Don't piss off Mama Smurf. [[FATAL|Your ass will not survive]].
File:Chaos saber.jpg|Still less of a failure than the real Abaddon.
File:Belldandy_blood_raveness_for_propertyoflamb_by_elvishprincess25-d9z451u.jpg|Belldandy of the Blood Ravens... Bloody Bell?
File:Propoflambcomm_urd_space_wolf_by_elvishprincess25-db1s3ab.jpg|Urd of the Space Wolves.
File:Skuld_amg_as_wh_iron_hand_by_elvishprincess25-daeba5v.jpg|Skuld of the Iron Hands.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 1.png| Canon or not, the ideas's been around for a while.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 2.png| Featuring Jokaero. Yes, there is a scenario.
File:Adepta Mechania Warpsmith (Pre Heresy) 01.png|Because metal tentacle rape That's Why.
File:Ariel Ventris 01.png
</gallery></center>

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

Female Space Marines

2020-04-13T02:59:10Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95:

{{Promotions}}
{{heresy}}
{{cleanup}}
{{topquote|The Adeptus Astartes can only contain males. No girls allowed. They are yucky.|[[If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device|The Emperor of Mankind]]}}
{{topquote|Has Slaanesh inflamed your senses?|Flavius Alkenex of the Phoenix Conclave to Fabius Bile, discussing Fabius's implantation of geneseed into females.}}

[[Image:beakiegal.jpg|thumb|right|Guaranteed to garner at least 100 replies. Also not enough pauldron.]]

There is no tactic more effective for [[RAGE|enraging]] a diehard [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] fanboy than discussing/drawing their [[Rule 63]] companion, '''Female Space Marines'''. Not to be confused with [[Sisters of Battle]], the canonical equivalent to Space Marines and also armed with bolters and chainswords with the stats of shitty guardsmen (but still entirely equal to space marines, [[Games Workshop|we]] promise), but ''Space Marine'' Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, you know, the hypermuscular ones with [[pauldrons]]. According to [[Games Workshop]] [[canon]], the procedures that are used to create a Space Marine only work properly on male subjects (inferred to be because the Emperor is male), rendering female Marines impossible.

Sometimes it is pointed out that back in the [[Rogue Trader]] days, Games Workshop did briefly produce two power-armoured female models, but they were changed to "Female Adventurers in Power Armour" and were never meant to represent female Marines. Moreover, White Dwarf ''did'' in fact publish a Rogue Trader scenario back in the day featuring real, honest-to-[[Matt Ward|Ward]] female Imperial Space Marines, albeit with the caveat that such chapters were exceedingly rare. In addition, some will point out that both the [[Emperor]] and [[Magnus the Red|at least]] [[Alpharius|one Primarch]] can change appearance at will. Considering this is from Games Workshop, who [[Squats|routinely violates their own canon in subsequent editions]], fanbase be damned, take this as you will.

It's worth noting, though, that Games Workshop hasn't deterred /tg/ (or indeed, the [[Black Library]] writers) from coming up with ways to potentially allow for them, even with Space Marines being exclusively male being one of the rare things they've kept consistent. This is because we're talking about a tabletop game set in a universe where [[Orks|green mushroom men accidentally will things into existence]] and [[Daemon|manifestations of extreme emotions sometimes murderfuck you from the inside out]] because some idiot forgot to fix the Gellar field or a Custodian missed a couple psykers for the Emperor's daily meal. And as was brought up in [[Daemonette|previous]] [[Monstergirls|articles]], little gets between a man and [[PROMOTIONS|his fapbait]], much less the rather "spirited" lorefagging this inspires in detractors.



=The Canon Part=
While for a time GW's official stance was that it was impossible to create Female Space Marines, leading to spammed complaints about gender equality and claims that male-only Space Marines are sexist on their forums. Therefore, a minor concession was made. According to new [[fluff]] the Emperor of Mankind ''did'' see fit to attempt the creation of female Space Marines, whether in the spirit of equality, for the sake of a larger recruiting pool, or [[/d/|because he had an incest fetish to indulge.]] Emphasis on ''tried''; since he had based his Sons off of himself, and then Space Marines off of the resulting genes, it was impossible to twist that base around to reliably make a female Space Marine. The Emperor tried again and again, but could not find a way to reliably create a Female Space Marine in a reasonable time frame and soon found that if Male Space Marines were one in a million, then Female Space Marines were one in a trillion. There were many semi-successful female Space Marines that showed promise, but nearly all of them died shortly after implantation due to organ rejection and various hormonal imbalances causing their biology to shit itself. Quickly realizing that this shit was a waste of time and resources better spent conquering the galaxy, he decreed that Space Marines would be male-only, '''NO GIRLS ALLOWED.'''

TL;DR GW got tired of angry letters, so they said that Female Space Marines were possible but stupidly impractical (even by 40k standards), so that's why there aren't any Female Space Marines so stop the angry letters ''please''.

This all could have been avoided if [[SJW|some of the complainants]] had simply asked for (and GW gave) more focus on the [[Sisters of Battle|''real'', pre-existing Female Space Marines]] complete with a unique, empowering flavor all their own - not to mention [[Imperial Guard|other]] [[Sisters of Silence|the other]] [[Eldar|non-sexualized]] [[Tau|women]] available in the setting. [[Fail|Naturally, this seemingly obvious solution was lost on all parties involved]].

On the Black Library front, it was mentioned in one of the [[Horus Heresy]] books that [[Malcador the Sigillite]] had suggested making one or two of the Primarchs female, half-jokingly saying that it might help to defuse competition between them. The Emperor was not amused by this at all and insisted that it simply couldn't be done, thinking Malcador was joking about the idea entirely. And really, who wants to try to argue with him about it? He may have had time later to uplift all of humanity, but he is busy with that little "ten thousand years on life support while fighting various eldritch horrors" business.

==[[Sindri|SSSSSIIIIIINNNNNNDDDDRRRRRRIIIII!!]]==

And now a bit unexpected salvation - there are indeed (99.46% possible) Female Space Marines!... in The [[Eye Of Terror]]. Well, they're possible out of it too - see, due to the nature of [[Chaos]], mutations are often a fact of life. Some desired, some not. What if one hulked out, burning, warped Chaos Space Marine [[Moot|secretly wishes he was the cute little girl who got flowers? Who smiled with joy? Who was so sweet?]]

This was ''confirmed'' in one of the earlier Chapter Approved articles - one that re-introduced mounted Daemonettes - in which a Governor-Militant fighting a Slaanesh warband mused that there were (apparently female) creatures that [[Heresy|were once Space Marines, but no longer]]. Considering Chaos can cause [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]], is anyone surprised by this?

Furthermore, in the [[Fabius Bile]] series, there was a female Chaos Champion who'd been mutated up to Space-Marine equivalent levels, and was a subcommander in an Emperor's Children war band.

==[[Honsou]], You Sick Fuck==

We know that you among the fans, despite all our attempts to dissuade you, want cute FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS! And there is good news - technically, there ARE Female Space Marines IN OFFICIAL LORE. The catch? Yes there is a catch. And this one is the worst.

Your new waifu is a bloated, twisted, undying, insane, mutated pregnant mother-slave only alive because she's in the Eye of Terror.

You see, [[Honsou]] of the [[Iron Warriors]], in an effort to squeeze new MAHREENS into the ranks without having to pay that other sick fuck [[Fabius Bile]] for clones and because he was too lazy to do it the normal way, created a system of hideousness and sadness that pushes [[grimdark]] to a whole new level. He invented the [[Daemonculaba]], a system whereby a woman is chained and fed stuff which will morph her and her womb into something that was never meant to be. A boy is then (yes, a child), jammed, shoved or cut INTO the vagina and stays there for a while. When his time is ready, he, now XBAWKS HUEG and STRONG, will have to [[rip and tear|rip, tear]], or otherwise push his way out of his adoptive mother's womb/vagina. When he emerges, he will either be a skinless mutant abomination, or will emerge as a fully functional (albeit skinless) Chaos Space Marine in a fraction of the time, with all his growth stages and bionics and gene-seed already taken care of. How? [[Meme|It's fucking science]].

This goes back to our Female Space Marine - you see, while she was being morphed and changed, [[Dark Mechanicus]] Biologis hereteks worked on her body, implanting gene-seed and making her physically a Female Space Marine, even if the form is rather off. Thus, her womb can turn children as well into Space Marines by having her womb 'grow' the required organs and stages directly into their bodies in a fraction of the time - days and weeks instead of years. Thankfully for the entire universe, this horror was [[Uriel Ventris|destroyed]] before Honsou realized he could stick girls in there as well, and get double the recruits, and stumble upon the secret to true Female Space Marines.

==A Slightly More Reasonable Answer==

The problem really is one of terminology. Women can wear power armour, certainly; the Sororitas practically make it formal wear. Women can, through steroids, incessant bodybuilding, a high protein diet, and a little genetic modding to bring it all together, be as buff and rocking as a Space Marine. Pointlessly expensive and inefficient compared to grabbing a guy and shoving a growth hormone in him. But what really makes a Space Marine a Space Marine is all of the [[Geneseed|extra genetically-engineered organs and DNA and whatnot]] cloned from the Primarchs and implanted in the right way, which is impossible for women for reasons the Emperor himself ran afoul of. The closest thing to an exception in the fluff is any experiment involving Fabius Bile. It should be noted that the said woman is effectively lobotomized (and even there, the potential Chaos Space Marine candidate must be male since even that sick thing requires gene-seed to 'work'). And even if he did make you a Female Space Marine for reals, she still wouldn't be a "proper" Space Marine, just a weird, mutilated, Chaos-infused entity that approximates a Space Marine but [[Ultramarines|can never truly be one.]]

On the note of the Fabulous one, the crazy old fuck basically cloned himself but then decided to make the clone female and have a [[Warhammer High|'daughter']] just for the [[lulz]]. And the best/worst part is, he still made a better job out of parenthood than Big E. Bile's also experimented on damn-near everything (including the entire civilian populations of several planets) at some point or another for his attempts to duplicate the methods for creating new Space Marines, so there's ample evidence to suggest that [[/d/|he's tried it at least once]], ''going as far as saying Big E. was an idiot for making gene-seed only compatible with men and thus cutting off half the potential supply of warriors''. Fucking [[Slaanesh]]. In his own recent novels, his retinue has included a champion who is effectively, but not technically, a female Space Marine; when she claimed some Emperor's Children power armor on the battlefield, it bonded to her like Chaos Armour from Fantasy does, and she's tougher in a fight than most true Space Marines.

Another possible reason is that all of the Primarchs are men, with male genes, thus meaning that, [[Samus|unless there's secretly a girl Primarch out there somewhere,]] female Space Marines cannot be made in the traditional sense. Space Marine blood alone can eat through many durable materials due to the mess of chemicals in them. Any attempt to breed Space Marines the traditional way would be almost guaranteed to fail in a tragic fashion.

Of note is the fact that despite the names and histories of the two missing Primarchs being utterly obliterated from Imperial records, they are still unambiguously referred to as sons of the Emperor.

==Dark Imperium and FemMarines==
[[Image:YouHaven'tMadeFemaleSpaceMarinesHaveYou.jpg|thumb|right|The Emperor's reaction to [[Primaris Marines]]]]
In the Master of Mankind and Dark Imperium novels, it's revealed that the Emperor]] never cared for the Space Marines [[Adeptus Custodes|as much as his more favored sons]], and saw them as little more than tools to secure his [[Imperium of Man|empire]]. [[Ultramar|He never intended for them to rule over it]], as it was planned to be an empire [[High Lords of Terra|ruled by humans for humans]]. Given this revelation, it's possible that the Emperor ''could've'' made Female Space Marines, but chose not to because he wanted a reliable way to keep their population in check. Keep in mind that [[Belisarius Cawl|very few people outside of the Emperor himself]] were actually involved in the [[Primarch]] Project, so he was adamant that FemMarines were impossible, and no one actually tried to prove him wrong - they mostly just took him at his word (because calling him out seems like a much less preferable alternative). It is also simply far quicker and more efficient to implant recruits. Plus the changes needed to create a female Space Marine, given the large physical abilities differences between men and women, would be extreme, with an immense fatality rate, and expensive. You could make ten male and female Space Marines or thirty male Space Marines in half the time. The right choice is obvious. Besides, after the changes to put the women on par with the men Marines, the only real difference left would be genetalia, so the extra expense and risk would be pointless in the end. Sure, the fem Marines would only need to outclass the enemies of the Crusade, so full body alteration wouldn’t be necessary. But, the male Marines frequently suffered heavy, sometimes dramatic casualties. Less durable, less strong female Marines added would mostly increase the body count. Not to mention the incredible risk of enemies getting DNA of both Marine types and making their own in their labs. Besides, Emps had Chaos to consider. Even if you don't buy into all the [[-4 Str]] [[bullshit]], the impracticality of the numbers is still worth noting.

Although Space Marines have their sex drive curbed or removed, we know that [[Space Wolves]] can still sleep around (especially true for [[Lukas the Trickster]]), to say nothing of the [[Emperor's Children]], who are explicitly described going on a [[RAPE|rape rampage]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], which likely means that the reproductive suppression isn't 100% effective or irreversible, though the latter example does carry a load of salt big enough to fill a Blackstone Fortress in that they worship Slaanesh. It should also be considered that although Space Marines have a reduced or eliminated sex drive, it's never been suggested that they're sterile, meaning that [[Fall of the Eldar|accidents could still happen]]. Space Marine sex drive also seems to be born more out of culture than anything actually biological, most marines consider themselves too busy to get sexually or romantically attached to other people and are "married to the job". However the Space Wolves, having a rowdy and raunchy chapter culture where picking up chicks is a sign of manly strength and a source of tales to laugh about at the mess hall don't see any problem with their brothers spending their free time having "fun" with the local women.

Given all this, it's possible that the Emperor didn't want to take any chances and potentially have his living weapons start reproducing and becoming self-sufficient, replacing the humans they were designed to protect. Keeping Space Marines mono-gendered and reliant on [[geneseed]] would ensure that he maintained tight control over his tools and how many there were at any given time. Of course, this is all speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. Keep in mind, Implants are not heritable, this is basic biology. Unless the Astartes-to-be DNA is altered, which once again would mean Female Astartes should be possible. Even then the theoretical baby Astartes wouldn't get the implanted organs, meaning probable miscarriage. Instead they would have to be genetically altered clones. These attempts have almost always created questionable results.

Also the statement that the Emperor blatantly favors the Custodes over the Space Marines? 100% true. Space Marines during the time of the Great Crusade were mostly just genetically engineered frontline soldiers with cybernetics, Power Armor and really big guns. Instead of being a mix of Tier 1 Special Operators and Dark Age Knight Orders like they are during M41 and M42. Some were even used as right out cannon fodder, more so if they were traitors during the Heresy. (e.g. Stor-Bezashk White Scars were those who were found to be on the side of the traitors and reassigned to take most deadliest missions as punishment, while getting all the shit jobs were one of the reasons the [[Iron_Warriors]] sided with [[Horus]].) The Emperor also had no problems purging two whole Legions of them for reasons that we'll never know about. So he wouldn't care about massacring Space Marines wholesale if they were made up of gender equal units.

A mass Legion purge is something he never considered doing to the Adeptus Custodes, as they have no flaws that allows to be corrupted by Chaos or Xeno influence. And if it were possible, they'd be too dead to talk about. Nor would he send them to some forsaken planet to be slaughtered like he would with Space Marines. Of course, female Custodes are also a whole different can of worms in of itself and turns the discussion into [[skub]], despite Games Workshop themselves considering this as being potentially canon.

==On The To-Do List?==
There is a paragraph in "Ashes of Prospero" were Arjac Rockfist identifies him self as a "Son as Russ", and a woman with a spear asks "Only sons?" Arjac thinks on it, and realizes that the spirit of Fenris, and of the Space Wolves, is in all the people of Fenris, men, women and children. Then he considers that Guilliman had made an even more deadly and powerful version of a Space Marine, so it was possible. At the end he pointedly does not reject the possibility of women space marines, ending with a "Perhaps."

Whether or not this is a case of fandom baiting/lorefag trolling, lampshade hanging, or just leaving space for '[[Your Dudes]]' is debatable; the fact that this happened among the [[Viking]]-themed Space Wolves is interesting, given the Valkyrie and Shield Maiden connotations that go along with that theme. Additionally, the Wolves took a beating from the Thousand Sons, so increasing the recruiting pool would be a boon to the beleaguered Wolves. If female marines were going to be suddenly created, it happening to the Space Wolves would not be thematically out of the question the way it would be for other more 'ascetic' Space Marine chapters. This being said, Fenrisian Shield Maidens were mentioned as having fought in Wrath of Magnus, so it's also possible that the Space Wolves will stop being a Marines-exclusive force and start incorporating the native warriors of Fenris, though that would be a blatant case of legion building that would draw the attention of the already inclined to look disagreeable on them Inquisition in a way the more Inquisition friendly Ultramarine do not with the Ultramars IG and PDF.

=What Would A Female Space Marine Look Like If They Could Exist?=
[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|right|thumb|Tina likes long walks on the beach and slaying the Emperor's foes.]]
Obviously, in the land of Rule 63 they are amazingly hot [[Rape|(and would totally do]] [[Mary Sue| you)]], but in dark and gritty fluff-land where they would be optimised for combat rather than jacking off, they would probably have very few notable female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery. Marines are made from pre-adolescent kids who still have very little in terms of sexual dimorphism, and the process of transforming includes total rewriting of the hormonal system (which is responsible for developing secondary sexual characteristics).

Hypothetical femarine wouldn't have narrow shoulders, wide hips, (big) breasts, delicate face structures (though the blood angels often manage it), feminine voices or even traditional feminine character traits like higher capacity for empathy and increased aversion against danger as those two psychological traits are pretty easily conditioned in or out of people if you can control their social contacts. And unless you're one of the nice chapters like the Salamanders, Lamenters, or Celestial Lions; empathy is almost certainly going to be trained out of most recruits to make them better able to deal with the kind of guilt that killing other people inflicts on humans. If you don't think that's a big concern, note that this is the kind of guilt that notably caused [[Avitus]] to fall to [[heresy]] when the truth about his chapter master made it his old excuses of it being justified as the chapter being in the right invalid and found himself unable to live with his actions. An entire Chapter of Marines in service to the inquisition who purged civilians who knew too much was also driven insane by the guilt because they simply cared too much for other people. Too much humanity can and will drive space marines to madness over the course of their duties.

In essence neophyte does not mature into man or woman - it matures into '''marine'''. A female Space Marine would only differ from male Space Marine by having (possibly) different genitalia, so no "Samus is a girl" moments would occur, given that they would never have a traditional female puberty. Either way, Female Space Marines are not going to be conventionally attractive. Being recreated exclusively for war tends to do that. They would be bigger than an ordinary human, of course, but they would still be proportioned like a normal human. Or like some bikini model if the Emperor decided he wanted to make hot White Scar bikers or something.

It is worth noting that official art from GW shows that unarmoured space marines look pretty normal if tall and swole discounting all the plug holes in them; like Captain America if he were a head or two taller rather than blob like roid freaks. Which does make sense, as the hulking bodybuilder physique is actually not very good in a fight compared to the more lithe MMA fighter build or the kind of fat looking powerlifter bod and in the military, endurance and leg power matters far more than how big your gains are. It's also worth noting that the sons of Sanguinius in particular are generally handsome in an androgynous, angelic way and that most of the primarchs aren't half bad looking. The Alpha Legion and the Fallen are also able to pass off as normal if tall and buff humans without their power armour. Also worth noting is that many, many marines are somehow able to have long, flowing hair or beards (or both) and still fit helmets onto their heads without issue with what can only be explained by space marine helmets doubling as pocket dimensions.

As Space Marines are surgically altered with organic implants and not traditionally genetically modified, progenoid glands would still play a vital role in gene-seed replication, and any child a female Space marine would have would at most just be guaranteed to be at least somewhat compatible with the chapter's gene seed. All the extra organs that go into a Space Marine are lab-grown things stuck into them that they're genetically compatible with, no more inherently part of the body than a prosthetic arm, and it's very unlikely that they would develop on their own in a Space Marine's child. Knowing Lukas the Trickster's "hey babe, I'm a space marine, wanna see the inside of my land raider?" antics though, it's probable that unless trained to suppress it, they'll still have a sex drive.

And, assuming that Sister Generica can be considered attractive in any form, she's also wearing a ton or two of ceramite power armor, so you wouldn't tell until she speaks or removes her helmet (Though depending on who you ask, that would make her MORE attractive.) And even if she does, you'd have to be a very lucky man to catch her eye during her limited free time, and she'd need to be from a chapter where fraternizing with normal humans is acceptable.

Finally, God Emperor help you if you suggest they wear boob plate. Physics ITSELF says no, and it'd slow down production which - given the current state of the Imperium - all but ensures you'll be ridiculed and [[BLAM|"corrected"]] if you so much as try to suggest it.

=RAGE=

RAGE is generated by this tactic in two distinct ways; either the neckbeards assume that the creator of the work in question is unaware of the Space Marine fluff, and rage about his or her ignorance; failing that, it becomes clear that they are well aware of the fluff regarding these matters and willingly chose to disregard it, sending the poor neckbeards into fits of spastic rage that anyone would dare deliberately defile the sacrosanct canon of Games Workshop's masterpiece.

[[Troll|Still, the aforementioned creator will just ignore him.]]

Alternatively, call your all-female IG army converted to be [[Imperial Navy]] armswomen "custom female space marines" for a joke the guys at the game store will find funny once and infuriating forever after.

=What If I Still Unironically Want This?=

Then it's time to apply some of '[[your dudes]]'. GeeDubs has been downplaying this more and more in the marketing, especially going into 8th edition, but they still secretly love it and never want us to stop applying our stories and color schemes to their precious and expensive models. Besides, with such a thoroughly batshit crazy setting, there's no reason you can't make your toy soldiers girls.

As mentioned before, you could always invoke the two lost Space Marine primarchs and say their geneseed works in females. Maybe a successor chapter somewhere down the line got a mutation and now they need to recruit young girls instead of young boys.

Of course, the "easiest" way that will generate the fewest complaints is just saying that this is possible in your chapter. Either the geneseed your chapter uses is mutated to allow a higher success rate with females, the females are [[Luther|surgically]] [[Kor Phaeron|altered]] to be basically just Space Marines, or that [[Belisarius Cawl|Daddy Cawl]] conveniently forgot to tell Guilliman that the Primarines can take girls too. Or, assuming you don't play in a brick and mortar Games Workshop store, you could try and convince your fellow neckbeards to accept it as a sort of "local canon," the same way you'd all start writing each others homebrew Chapters and Craftworlds into each other's lore. Above all, just remember to try and take it easy.

=Writefaggery=

===A New Arrival===

* From the livelog of Inquisitor Perstringos, archive #32AA9-99
* Redacted copy dispatched to Magos Tzeel'Etil of Mars under code of practice 73-Greyfax-Cawl

The lifespan of an Inquisitorial liaison to the Angry Marines is a famously short one.

Take offence to their unorthodox methods, and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Partake too enthusiastically in their furious idiom and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Stand too near one when they're feeling a little more umbrage than usual and you're likely to... and so on.

I have lasted in the role for nearly seven Angermar months and so consider myself quite the survivor. Alas, my run of good luck may soon be at an end. The Angry Marines are not generally characterised by a cheerful acceptance of change...

especially changes imposed from without...

very particularly especially changes to their unit composition mandated by none other than the Ultramarines, whose very Codex Astartes (oh Guilliman Restored, forgive me!) I have been impelled to use as an item of intimate personal hygiene in the Angry Marines' commode.

And yet today the first company of Primaris Marrnes will be arriving on McRage to join their new battle brothers. The "Guillimarines", as I've heard them called around the barracks here from the day I arrived. The Ultra-Ultrasmurfs. The Fuck-knuckles. The Bitch-clone-fucking-sellout Poser Marines.

Such a momentous occasion will naturally require an Inquisitorial observer on site.

I am going to fucking die.

Which is why I am taking care to record this surreptitious livelog, tapped by my tongue against my molar-transcriptor as I take my place in the Rite of Welcome. My life is nothing, praise the Emperor. Direct observational feedback on the reception of our Imperium's newest super-Astartes into the Chapter deemed least likely to accept them will be invaluable to several parties.

They are docking now with our Battle Barge, the FUCKYOUNAMEITYOURSELF. Their vessel, officially the Undaunted but renamed in our local records "THE OFFICIOUS CUNT-BASKET", is busy initiating standard pre-docking handshake protocol, but I expect that...

yep, there it is. The Angry Marines have taken the simple expedient of ramming the FUCKYOU directly into the Undaunted's docking bay. It was a fair hit. Air is already cycling across both ships with only superficial loss to the void, it won't take long to clear the wreckage, and so the joining Rite is soon to begin.

A mere ten paces in front of me, well within explode-my-head-with-a-backslap range, stands Chapter Master Temperus Maximum himself. An AdMech representative, Magos Errant Gjarran 3FF stands some ways to my left. I am sure I sense fear in the writhing of its mechadendrites.

Two long lines of Angry Marines, each four long files of seven hundred ranks, stretch out behind us in a widening wedge, as though to flaunt the Codex Astartes prohibition on companies larger than a thousand. Aside from their numbers and their angry yellow banners, the most striking sight to one accustomed to other Astartes chapters is the conspicuous lack of bolt pistols in favour of a second chainsword or the heaviest of heavy weapons.

I also note that customary Space Marine practice is to greet newcomers with weapons RAISED, not brandished threateningly -- and thus also pointed directly at my back.

On either side of these lines there mills a mob of chapter serfs, aspirants, servitors and ordinary ship's crew. Banners burn with the emblematic angry face and raised yellow middle finger.

I now hear the stomp of boots but haven't caught sight of the 100 who will be the first in history to join the Angry Marines from outside their chapter. Having already written off my own life, I find myself idly wondering if anyone has warned them of what they will encounter. We went through sixteen liaisons in as many weeks before we started to get the hang of their red lines. How many of these "Primadonna Marines" will survive the year?

Ah, there they are. They march in a column five across, twenty files deep. I see the first file now...

I had heard that these new marines were taller but the effect is staggering. Every Space Marine inspires terrified awe with their size, their power, and above all their devotion to the Emperor. These new Primaris radiate the same majesty... perhaps it is as they humbly claim, that they are no better than their other battle brothers, but they are certainly... newer.

As my eyes take in the holy might of the Emperor's newest instruments, my trained Inquisitor's eye perceives what at first was a vague impression. The specifications of these marines' armor, while taller and sleeker than earlier models, are in fact even sleeker than the schematics of the Mark X Tacticus Armour I have memorised as a matter of course.

How strange. Thinner in the waist. Wider at the hips. Bulkier at the chest... at the bust!

Subtle as the difference is, certainly not detracting from their power and terror, their armour is unquestionably FEMALE.

How?

Before anyone speaks the center Primaris of their first file--surely their Lieutenant--is removing his helmet... HER helmet. By the Emperor! As strong and intimidating and, well, grizzled a face as any Space Marine's, and yet entirely feminine. Long luxurious red hair is cascading down her shoulders... by the Emperor, to live to see these days!

No word yet from the Angry Marines. I fear the worst. I'm enabling my audio pickup; it may well outlive me.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WELL FUCK ME IT'S THE MUTE MARINES! HELLO THE FUCK TO YOU TOO, ASSHOLE!

[Assault Sergeant Dickface, interrupting]: OH NO NO FUCKING NO. NUH-UH. FUCK OFF. CHADMARINES ARE BAD ENOUGH BUT A STACY? GIRLYMAN AIN'T GONNA SHOEHORN SOME BOLTER BITCHES INTO OUR YEEEAAAARGH!!!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WHOOPS DID I JUST "SHOEHORN" MY FOOT UP YOUR ASS? YOU CAN EAT YOUR OWN SHIT OFF MY BOOT LATER, SERGEANT. DO I LOOK TO LIKE I'M ARMED WITH SOME PUSSIFIED BOLTER?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WELL FUCKING ARSECHUNKS IF THIS ISN'T A CUNTY TURN OF EVENTS. I'VE SAID FOR MONTHS YOU NU-SMURFS HAVE NO BALLS AND WHADDYA KNOW.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH YOU CAN KISS MY TURGID OVARIES LATER FUCKLICK. LIEUTENANT PEDICABA REPORTING! BY THE EMPEROR'S SWEATY ASSCRACK WE HAVE ARRIVED THROUGH THE WARP INTACT, ONLY ONE LITTLE FUCKSLEAZE DAEMON INCURSION NEEDED ITS SHIT PUSHED IN. ONE HUNDRED NEW ANGRY MARINES ARE YOURS TO COMMAND, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER!

(Oh Emperor protect us, they're all removing their helmets. Blonde hair, black hair, more redheads... if it weren't for their size you'd know they weren't Sisters of Battle by their color. And their language!)

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEY COGBITCH, YOU SURE THOSE FAGNUTS FROM MARS SENT THE RIGHT DELiVERY?

[Magos Gjarran]: All is in order, lord Chapter Master. These are indeed the Primaris Marines assigned by my masters to your most holy Chapter, uncorrupted by the Warp and in perfect genetic order. The Machine God smiles upon your union.

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: AND YOUR ARCH-ANUS FAGMASTERS DIDN'T SEE FIT TO MENTION THEY COME WITH A CUNT APIECE?

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YOU WANT "A PIECE" OF CUNT JUST FUCK YOUR OWN WHORE MOUTH, MY LORD.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium, interrupting]: No!! Stop!! Please!! I can't bear it!

(Has this serf lost his mind! What is he doing?)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My lords, this cannot be! Kill me if you will, but we cannot have fucking WOMEN ruining EVERYTHING! It's all a trick by... by SLAANESH JUSTICE WARRIORS to force the evil of HEResy upon us. A trick! The holy gene-seed can't work on females! Blah!

(The Primaris nearest the serf has just spat on him. Looks like she got him right in the crotch.)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: You stupid bitch! I'll fucking end you! I'll take a flamer to all the vapid whores in the Progenium! I'll...

[a distinct sizzling noise is audible]

[Interceptor Miserabila]: GUESS MY BETCHER'S GLAND WORKS AFTER ALL, HUH ASS-BADGER?

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My DICK! Oh FUCK, OH EMPEROR! MY BALLS! MY BALLS ARE MELTING AWAY! AHHH!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: "BETCHER" WEREN'T USING THOSE ANYWAY, PANSY-ASS QUEEFSNIFF.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: [voice dissolves into screams and groans]

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEH HEH, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. MAYBE YOU REDRAGE WHORES WON'T EMBARRASS THE REAL SOLDIERS TOO MUCH AFTER ALL. TELL YOU WHAT, LET'S WIPE OUT THE ASSCHEESE HERETICS PLANETSIDE AND I'LL LET YOU FIX ME A SANDWICH.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: SAY THAT TO MY HAIRY PUSS, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER PISS-BREATH. NOW ARE YOU GONNA FIND US SOME HERESY TO MURDER OR ARE YOU GOING TO STAND THERE ALL DAY LIKE YOU'RE SCARED OF A LADY?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WE MAKE PLANETFALL IN TWENTY MINUTES. WELCOME TO THE ANGRY MARINES... BATTLE BROTHER.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH, SLURP SHIT SISTER.

Audio pick-up disabled. I think that was the ceremony. The Angry Marines, Primaris and all, are exchanging soldierly embraces and head-butts and marching back to the barge, chanting as one, "ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME! ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!"

I'm racing down the corridor with Magos Giarran as fast as my legs will take me. You just know they're going to perform an "expedited undocking" with fucking frag grenades. Again. Planetfall in seventeen minutes. If I'm somehow not rendered into inquisitor-flavoured jello... well, I'm already praising the Emperor's unlimited munificence that I'm alive at all.

Word must get back to Mars. If the Primera mix so well even with the Angry Marines, they'll be a valuable reinforcement to all our companies. In our darkest hour, the Imperium's new hopes redouble.

+++
Thought for the Day: The Emperor has fury enough for us all.
+++

=See Also=

*[[Golden Aquilas]]: /tg/ [[homebrew]] chapter, designed to cause as much [[Rage|RAEG]] and accusations of [[derp]] as possible.
*[[Space Marines]]: Rule 63 equivalent of female Space- wait...
*[[Sisters of Battle]]: The warrior nuns of the Imperium that wear power armor, often fight with bolters and chainswords, and are in a sense the "real female space marines" of Warhammer 40,000.
*[[Stormcast Eternals]], GW's [[Warhammer Fantasy|Fantasy]] Space Marines in [[Age of Sigmar]], which can be any species and gender thanks to their magical origins. At least one Stormcast group was announced to be comprised of men and women and SURPRISE WARHAMMER SHADESPIRE WAS ANNOUNCED AND FEATURES A FEMALE STORMCAST MINIATURE. And the Sacrosanct Chamber added a bunch more.
*[[Samus]]: How about a female Primar-{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|REVEALING IMPERIAL SECRETS IS HERESY!}}
*[[A Song of Ice and Fire|Brienne of Tarth]]: The quintessential female space marine; through the obsession with duty and honour to the bulky, muscly form and skill at arms.
*[[Daughters of Terra]] A not-quite Space Marines Female Space Marines chapter.

=Gallery=
<center><gallery>
Image:Sisters of anger2.png|A girl can get angry too.
Image:1227373581722.gif|Lol. Why u mad tho?
Image:Nidsrape.jpg|Good to know the Smurfs get fucked by Tyranids no matter who their genestock accepts.
File:Love is a Battlefield by blazbaros.png|An almost perfect example of a female space marine, complete with the typical bulky space marine form.
Image:spessbitch.jpg|Not in fact [[Horo]].
File:Female_warhammer_40k_imperium_model_--_100D0212.jpg|She'd be even scarier if she took off that mask.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Gabs.jpg|Old Imperial Adventurer from [[Rogue Trader|Ye Olden Days]].
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Jayne.jpg|Your eyes should start bleeding right about now.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_--_Ingunna_Daughter_of_Russ_by_Greymark.jpg|BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
File:1k heresy.jpg|<s>Not</s> [[Just as planned]]. Now you know why Tzeentch doesn't invite Slaanesh to his birthday parties anymore.
File:Primarchs as teen girls.png| The Emperor made the Primarchs to be the greatest human warriors of all time, but [[Warhammer_High|even they were not immune]] to [[Rule 63]].
File:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|She was not amused by this development.
File:Saber ultra marine.jpg|Don't piss off Mama Smurf. [[FATAL|Your ass will not survive]].
File:Chaos saber.jpg|Still less of a failure than the real Abaddon.
File:Belldandy_blood_raveness_for_propertyoflamb_by_elvishprincess25-d9z451u.jpg|Belldandy of the Blood Ravens... Bloody Bell?
File:Propoflambcomm_urd_space_wolf_by_elvishprincess25-db1s3ab.jpg|Urd of the Space Wolves.
File:Skuld_amg_as_wh_iron_hand_by_elvishprincess25-daeba5v.jpg|Skuld of the Iron Hands.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 1.png| Canon or not, the ideas's been around for a while.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 2.png| Featuring Jokaero. Yes, there is a scenario.
File:Adepta Mechania Warpsmith (Pre Heresy) 01.png|Because metal tentacle rape That's Why.
File:Ariel Ventris 01.png
</gallery></center>

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

List of 40K Cheese

2020-04-13T02:16:00Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Necrons */

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The history of Warhammer 40,000 is a history of violence. . . well OK yes it's part of the setting, but it's history of 40k's balance is almost as violent as the grim dark future it takes place in. No matter what people will tell you, the game has always had excessive problems with imbalance, min-maxing and blatant bullshit - From the days of [[Rogue Trader]] to modern day 8th Edition, the game has fostered many [[Cheese|cheesy]] units, army lists or deathstars, who have changed the meta and repeatably broken the game - Not through players maximizing their gear or people abusing unclear rules, but by simply being awfully balanced and written.

Fortunately, many of these, if not all of them, are the very concept of "The flame that burn twice as bright dies twice as fast", as they all got their reckoning at some point or another. Being either nerfed to the ground, changed to the core or completely removed from the game, this allowed the next-cheesy thing to step in with a silly hat and a way too small point-tax.

But life will go on. New codices will be under/overpowered and grind the others to dirt, the meta will change to deal with what-ever is the most powerful at the moment, and [[Warseer|the forums will]] be white-hot with [[Rage|rage]] over the unbalance present, but life will go on, and as soon as you accept this eternal struggle for our fun and wallets, you will be at peace.

As time goes on, this list will grow, to encompass more and more cheese as it gets released. If you feel that a unit, model or deathstar needs mentioning in the list, feel free to add to it with your own experiences and knowledge.

== 2nd Edition ==

====Tyranids====
When their Codex hit, Tyranids in their entirety were absolutely insane. Units like the carnifex, which had 10 wounds(!), the equivalent of Terminator Armor in chitin (!!) and could regenerate [[bullshit|even from a negative total of hp (!!!)]], meaning it was nigh-on unkillable and would shred even a fucking Greater Daemons in tiny pieces given the chance (due to how CC worked back then only one combatant would get the chance to wound the other each turn, but since the 'fex regenerated the GD would have major trouble killing it for good even with a very good roll. Whereas on a poor roll, it would get cut to pieces.) Lictors were a nightmare to deal with (being basically undetectable until they entered CC), genestealers were already the genestealers we love (aka. fragile if spotted early, but close combat monstrosities able to butcher about anything in melee) and hive tyrants were just absolute beasts: [[rape|about as tanky and choppy as a carnifex, with decent dakka to boot and level 4 Psychic Mastery...]] On top of that, beyond how fast and tanky the models were in general, there came the army special rules. Tyranids didn't use wargear or strategy cards (comparable to what you could do during the game with CP in 8th edition), but they got something worse: Instead of buffs, each enemy model/unit had to roll for which negative effects they got right before the game started. Special mention to ''Jones is acting Strangely'', which could instantly kill off the whole enemy unit ''(there is also no rules to say that certain units were immune to the debuff,so anything from a [[Baneblade]] to a [[Bloodthirster]] or a whole squadron of Marines could theoretically be oneshot at the start of your enemies turn if they rolled the debuff and failed the check, Which could cripple entire strategies that were carried by specific units and [[Awesome|tilt the game in your favour]])'' if they didn't pass a dice roll and could entangle fellow squad members. Needless to say they were more than well equipped to curbstomp Chaos and Imperial armies AND go toe-to-toe with the other armies like the Eldar and Necrons that were also incredibly strong.

====Polymorphine====
Assassins (and anyone else with the access to the wargear) used to be able to magically appear in the middle of a squad via Polymorphine (killing a troop when you exploded out of his body, leading to such shenanigans as [[Arseplomancer|a Guardsman hiding a dude in power armor on a bike]]). Then Jump Pack over and throw a Vortex Grenade and killing anything on a 2+.

====Virus Weapons====
The Virus Grenade was 50 points for a grenade with a 2 inch blast radius. Any model that was hit by the Virus Grenades (partial hits were on a 4+) was not explicitly stated to be immune (Space Marines, Terminators, Aspect Warriors and vehicles were immune) to said Virus Grenade would die on a 3+. So far, not to bad right? The problem with the Virus Grenade was that when a model was killed by it, every other model not immune that was within d6 inches would have to test, dying on a 4+ and recursively requiring every other model within d6 inches to test not to die on a 4+. Thus, a Virus Grenade could become something of a Grey Goo situation where the more enemy models are bunched up, the easier it was to spread out and kill them all. However, the real rage-inducer was the Virus Outbreak stratagem card, which acted like a Virus Grenade template that you just placed anywhere on the board without restriction; the writers went so far as to recommend that players tear up their Virus Outbreak cards from the Dark Millenium set since they hadn't intended on it being so powerful.

====Wolf Guard Crisis Suits====
Back in 2nd edition, the Cyclone Missile Launcher required the Terminator to replace his Power Fist with a laser targeter. However, when the Space Wolf codex first came out, it was entirely possible to make your army nothing but Wolf Guard Terminators, and to give each Terminator an Assault Cannon **and** a Cyclone Missile Launcher. Add in the fact that Terminators made their armor saves on 3+ on 2d6 (this game did use save modifiers), and it was possible for them to teleport in, weather most overwatch, fire all missiles and assault cannons, and only have to mop up the remnants from the burning wreckage. When the Space Wolf codex was reprinted, it explicitly banned Wolf Guard Terminators from going with Assault Cannon and Cyclone Launcher.

====Deathspinners:====
Deathspinners were a flamer template in 2nd edition, that had a "save or die" initiative check. Imagine an entire squad of Warp Spiders with Jaws in flamer form. Yeah.

== 3rd Edition ==
Eldar Exarchs with the unique ability to "Build your own Exarch." You could have a bright lance that shot twice with warp spider pack that allowed you to jump all over the field, then add a Powerfield that gave you a 2+ invulnerable save). This was just one of many cheese custom Exarchs that were possible; however, they were also the only thing keeping Eldar on the table - those customizable Exarchs, though cheesy, were expensive in an army with nerfed and expensive units and weapons. Eldar were largely bottom-tier in 3rd edition.

===3.5 Edition===
In general, 3.5 had 3 specifically cheesy armies, two of which belonged to Chaos.

====Necrons====
Necrons were introduced as a stand-alone codex army for the first time in 3.5. Their release was met with immediate hostility once neckbeards read their codex; here's why:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hod0WtYE4SA|here is a video of their grand debut]
* Basic infantry guns that could kill a Land Raider with a lucky shot.
* "We'll Be Back!" made infantry immune to death as they basically had a 4++ that could be rolled after they failed their 3+ armour save and after your opponent was done shooting.
**Compounding that, the Resurrection Orb that ignored any of the restrictions previously applied to the WBB rule like instant death or bypassing armour saves in CC.
* Warscythes in abundance that ignored all saves and rolled 2D6 for pens.
* Veil of Darkness which allowed you to Deepstrike hop a unit all over the board.
* The fucking Monolith - immune to anything that wasn't S9/10 and/or ordinance, could deepstrike and never suffer a mishap, fixed your broken troops and could deepstrike in any from reserves. Oh, and Melta/Ordinance rules that gave better chances to penetrate armor? Into the trash they went thanks to ''Living Metal''. And for that extra little rub of salt in the wound, if you managed to damage it and get an "immobilized" result it would land but remain active (if immobile) unlike any other skimmer in 3rd that crashed and burned and got removed.

Necrons lacked the mind-boggling amount of possible unit and wargear combos that Chaos had access to (in fact, they were pretty light on both unit choices and wargear) but they earned the title "n00bcrons" for another reason: the cheese was so prevalent, so built into their army's very identity (i.e. "We'll be back!" and Gauss weaponry) that it was easily used (and occasionally abused) even by complete beginners more or less by accident.

====Chaos====
Going into third edition, Chaos was... unremarkable. Bland. Decent crunch-wise, but without the wealth of options to field Daemons/Cultists/Mutants/Fallen/Renegades/... they had in 2e. Pete Haines listened to the players (yes, GW did that back then) and Chapter Approved articles in White Dwarf did provide those variants over the years. Eventually GW decide to bring out a 3.5 Codex updated with all those options and a couple extra added on top... and that's where it went horribly wrong. A wealth of options meant a wealth of possible combinations and some were just... too much. They went from 'strong but expensive' to 'outrageous'. Here's a smattering of what CSM had in 3.5:

''Young cheese'' (things that were a-okay on their own but could combine into ungodly monstrosities.)
* Khornate chain axes: Being one of the only things that could outright modify armour saves, reducing them to 4+ unless worse, across the board - that's right, your terminator's save is no better than carapace armour against them. Ork Choppas did the same on an army-wide level for free back then.
* Unit Champions could take Psy Powers and even Daemon Weapons. Strong, but with only 1 HP it could turn very ugly very quickly both ways.
* [[Possessed]] were expensive but they could ''buy'' their powers instead of rolling for them, which included rending, fleet ''and'' a magical bolt pistol shot, making them point-for-point one of the killiest assault units in the game, but with a 3+/5++ and a single HP they didn't last long if the enemy had any occasion to shoot/strike back at them.
*The [[World Eaters]] army list in general: Tough motherfuckers full of [[rage|RAEG]] that would murder the fuck out of everything they got their hands upon on the charge, giving the opponent the easy to understand but hard to solve problem of "shoot me before I reach you!" The only thing that kept them from being completely broken was their lack of firepower, jump packs and assault vehicles and the unpredictability of their special 'rage' rule that would give them a free "run" move on a dice roll of "1" (tested each turn, roll 2 dice with the ''correct'' wargear) but they had to rush toward the enemy even if it meant disembarking or leaving cover. It would leave them helpless in the open to be shot to death just as often as it allowed them to get into charge range to murder shit, which kept the army manageable (if unpredictable) to play both with and against.

''Aged cheese'' (This is where it started to get really ugly, although those things were still within hailing distance of manageable.)
* Chaos Lords that could out-punch anything, point-for-point.
* Vehicle upgrades that could regrow lost weapons and become mobile again on a 4+, ignore crew shaken/stunned ''and'' grant +1 AV on all sides.
* Bloodletters that wore the equivalent of Power Armour and wielded the equivalent of Power Swords. Basically an evil deep-striking Space Marine [[Honour Guard]] (albeit without guns).
* [[Sonic Weaponry]] - anything with a Mark of Slaanesh could exchange their guns for sonic weapons (and get access to the Slaaneshi armoury if they were characters). This lead to [[Rhino]]s, [[Dreadnought]]s, Defilers, Lords, Lieutenants, regular Marines, Chosen, Possessed, Aspiring Champions, Bikers, Havocs, Terminators and ''Predators'' all sporting Sonic Weapons. They weren't as good as they would become in later editions, but they were better than the Bolters and Autocannons they replaced (almost) for free.
* [[Defiler|That enemy crab thing]] gets introduced as both a monstrous creature and a walker, which made it pretty much invulnerable in melee against anything without Power Fists (or equivalent Strength-doubling CC weapons).
* [[Obliterator]]s. Back then they were fucking GOD-TIER - S/T5, two wounds, 2+/5++, loaded with heavy and special weapons they could freely choose from, Fearless, deep-striking and with ''slow and purposeful'' (that was supposed to limit their mobility but just allowed them to fire heavy weapons all the time). Even engaging them at close quarters wasn't a great option with their absurd tankiness and the fact they strike back with [[rape|S10]] Power Fist blows. Luckily for your opponents you could only take a single squad of up to three of them. Eventually they got FAQ'd down to T 4(5) which made them more vulnerable to meltagun/lascannon/power fist 'Instant Death' but they were still ''hard'' customers and an auto-take.

''Premium cheese'' (The really retarded things that could break the game. Never mind those costed arms and legs in points, unless the opponent knew what was coming and went to great lengths to avoid them, those things were "I-win" buttons.)
* A [[Daemon Prince]] with Power Armour, Wings and the Dread Axe. Tough, moved like jump pack infantry, a beastly statline, 3+/5++ and the really cheesy part: the Dread Axe ignored invulnerable saves and wounded on a 4+ unless better. Combined to the fact the DP was a monstrous creature that ignored armor saves; and you had a tough, fast motherfucker with a truckload of attacks that hit/wounded easily, ignored '''all''' saves and could easily consolidate from unit to unit, remaining locked in CC and untargetable the whole game as it solo'ed the enemy army. (And I wish I was exaggerating...)
* Siren. A Slaaneshi minor psychic power that made a model immune to shooting and blocked line of sight. Spam generously. Worst of all, it combo'd way too well with the Daemon Prince load-out above - hell, this thing could actually take on and defeat a Nightbringer back in the day with some luck.
* Veteran skills - ranging from 1-3 pts. per model, could be taken on any squad (only 1 skill for marked units) with higher costs for independent characters. You could load up whole squads that infiltrated, moved through cover and furiously charged.
* Chosen. Chosen were... absurdly powerful since you could make any member in the squad an aspiring champion, giving them access to the armoury. If they were marked and if you took a chosen squad in a multiple of the number of that God (Slaanesh 6, Nurgle 7, Khorne 8, Tzeentch 9), then the 10 pt. upgrade cost was free! Deathstar of 8 Khornate champion TERMINATORS that could butcher through anything (and I mean anything). A truckload of [[exploding dice]] S7 attacks ignoring armor saves on the charge coming out of a Land Raider to chain-rape unit after unit anyone? Or maybe a squad of 6 Slaaneshi Chosen all with Doom Sirens, plasma pistols and power weapons? If you prefer, 9 Tzeentchian Sorcerers [[troll|auto-succeeding on psychic tests thanks to the Mark of Tzeentch]] with psychic Heavy Bolters and Lascannons unleashing some next-level mind-bullet dakka (or alternatively turning everything into [[Chaos Spawn|those things]] or throw down templates that wounded on a 4+ and ignored armour and glanced vehicles)? Yeah, it was kinda like that back then...
* The [[Emperor's Children]] Legion list. Sirens, sirens you can't shoot and that will demolish you in CC everywhere.
* The [[Iron Warriors]] Legion list. Remember above where it said you could have only one unit of god-like Obliterators? Well, nope! Take as much as you can! Oh, and you can exchange two Fast Attack slots on the FOC for one more Heavy Support choice! More Obliterators? Well, nope, since they were elite but here came the second best thing: [[derp|the only ones amongst the Chaos Legions]], Iron Warriors had access to both the Vindicator from the loyalist armoury and the Basilisk from the Imperial Guard's armoury. You know, just in case the nine Obliterators ran into some trouble and needed some long- and/or close-range fire support!

Now, you'd think that with that generous amount of cheese, GW would get the message and stop piling it on... But then the world-wide "Eye of Terror" campaign happened and Chaos got another toy to play with - the Lost and the Damned army list. Veteran Chaos players actually rejoiced when it was announced as it meant they could go back to the 2nd ed days of fielding traitor Guard, Beastmen, mutants and other dregs supported by a very small number of traitor Marines. Sadly enough, while it did allow to do that, the army list came with its own rapetrain of cheese:

* The list allowed players to take units from the 3.5 CSM and Imperial Guard Codices in various FOC slots, as was announced. In practice, the (lack of) limitations amounted to taking the best of all worlds.
* A cheap HQ choice (Chaos Lieutenant) that was point for point even more killy than the 3.5 Chaos Lord and way too good for the measly points paid.
* Mutants could be taken in huge cheap hordes that could tarpit pretty much anything forever.
* Big Mutants were awesome dakka blobs with 3 wounds each and great Chaos mark effects - basically, better Ogryns!
* Traitor guardsmen had better stats than loyalists, access to chaos marks, veteran skills here and there (Infiltrate ahoy!) and could wield '[[Bolter]]s'. Yes, said slapdash 'Bolters' had the same "Gets Hot!" rule as plasma weapons which meant you'd lose some traitors each time you fired but it was a very small price to pay to unleash an ungodly amount of dakka.

It's really no mystery as to why Chaos won the Eye of Terror campaign. Games Workshop, concerned with their future revenue streams from Spess Muhreen fanchildren, decided to basically reset the crunch and shift the timeline away from the event while attempting to balance (read: nerf to the ground) what it could in 4th edition.

===Honorable Mentions:===
====Blood Angels====
Blood Angels were tied with Khornate Berzerkers for the title of most killy fuckers in glorious melee. The 'zerkers were just a bit killier thanks to their chainaxes but the BA enjoyed better mobility thanks to being able to equip jump packs everywhere. That almost assured they would get that precious charge bonus of +1S and + 1I (on top of the +1A) from the army-wide Furious Charge, ensuring whatever they got their hands op would be [[rip and tear|brutally dismembered]]. For extra [[lulz]] you had the option to go for a full [[Death Company]] army that would forego any firepower for an army-wide FnP save on top of the [[rage|righteous fury at the death of Sanguinius]]. This said, each mini costed a premium when kitted-out, so it was an army of extremes: when things went right they'd table the enemy in three turns but when they went wrong they'd get tabled themselves in little more time, with few compromises due to the low model count.

====[[Imperial Guard]] Armored Division====
This one deserves an honorable mention as well, even if it quickly disappeared after the arrival of [[Necrons]] and their vehicle-killing Gauss everything and "We'll be Back!" shenanigans. Back in 3rd ed., vehicles were much less prevalent, as were the ways of dealing with them. Most armies had a couple of heavy weapons like Lascannons, some power fist equivalents and a melta-bomb here and there, and it was more than sufficient to deal with the occasional armoured behemoth. This list? It was [[rape|vehicles only!]] HQ? [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ]] variant. Troops? Leman Russ variants. Anything else? Leman Russ variants (with the token Infantry Squad in a Chimera). Park together covering the vulnerable rears, point battle cannons and let fly, all guns! Due to the lack of heavy weapons being able to affect the Russ' frontal AV, "all-rounder" armies stood little chance of doing anything.

== 4th Edition ==

* '''Assault Cannon Spam:''' Rending in 3rd and 4th edition Edition was far more powerful than in 5th through 7th. [[Rape|Instead of a 6 to wound ignoring armor saves, a 6 to-hit automatically wounded and ignored armor saves]]. Combine with the fact that Terminator Squads could take two of them at minimum size, and it was quite common to run a lot of them.

===[[Fish of Fury]]===

It has its own page, but the basic gist involved using a semi-invulnerable troop transport as a mobile bunker for the otherwise assault-prone Fire Warriors.

The tactic died when errata changed how skimmers worked.

===[[Imperial Guard]] 500-Point Assholery===
Take minimalist choices for the bulk of your mandatory force org setup. Use the remaining points to buy a [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Fucking Russ]] and absolutely butt-fuck the balance of low-point games. The personification of being [[That Guy]].

===[[Imperial Guard]] Unit Deletion Barrage===
In the 4th edition codex, the Hunter-Killer Missile cost a mere 5 points. Because of this, an insanely common strategy was to load basically every single vehicle you fielded that could fit one with one, and with many guard armies that could be 6-7 vehicles on a 1000-point list at the time. Once loaded, the tactic was simple: find the single most threatening enemy model on the board that could be reliably penetrated with a Krak Missile, acquire line of sight, and hammer the shit out of it with all your Hunter-Killers in one go. Even with guard accuracy being what it is, the fact that you could potentially obliterate a lynchpin unit or pesky independent character meant that this was often used to secure early dominance.

When the 5th edition Tyranid codex came out, this tactic was very often used to flat-out cripple 'Nid players by taking out their [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]ES and [[Hive Tyrant]]s from standoff range, fucking over attempts to counter.

The tactic ended when 5th edition cranked the cost of HK Missiles to 15 points each.

== 5th Edition ==

===General===
* 5th edition was generally known as "Mechhammer" or "Box Hammer" due to how relatively hard it became to kill vehicles. Compared to 4th edition, the vehicle damage became more forgiving, being consolidated into a single damage chart where vehicles were destroyed on a 5+. Glancing hits subtracted 2 from this modifier, AP - weapons subtracted another -1 from this and AP 1 weapons simply added 1. Hull Points did not exist in 5th, and a vehicle that moved more than 6" in a turn was only hit in 6s on melee (stand still). Thus, most lists gradually became "Parking Lot" builds, where sheer quantity of cheap Rhino and Rhino-equivalents could jam up the board, form armored convoys, or otherwise make your enemy hate your life.
* 5th edition was also known for Musical Wounds. The owning player had to allocate wounds to each model that took a hit, with wounds allocated as evenly as possible: For example, a 5-man Tactical Squad with Combi-Melta Sergeant, 3 Bolter Marines, and a Meltagun Marine takes 9 wounds and needs to make 9 armor saves. You would need to allocate at least 1 hit to the Sergeant, 1 to the Meltagun, and 3 to the Bolters. 3 of the remaining 4 hits could be allocated to the Bolter Marines, and the last one would have to be allocated onto either the Sergeant or the Meltagunner. The problem with this system was that certain "multiwound" units (Most notably: Nob Bikers and Grey Knight Paladins) could be equipped so that each model had a unique loadout. One Grey Knight Paladin would have a Halberd, one would have a Hammer, one would have a Sword, one would have a Psycannon, one would have a Psycannon and Hammer, one would have the Standard, etc. The end result was that versus attacks that couldn't inflict Instant Death on this unit, the unit effectively got its model count's worth of ablative wounds.
* On a tamer yet more comedic note, 5th edition also had the "50% cover rule." If at least half of a unit was considered to be in cover, the entire unit was treated as being in cover. What was viewed as an amusing abstraction could quickly be gamed, either with vehicle squadrons (2 Piranhas, one Disruption Pod) or large units of light infantry. Imagine the rage a Thousand Sons player must have faced versus Guard: A Guard player could get 30 Guardsmen for the cost of 4 Rubric Marines and an Aspiring Sorcerer...and this was before the Sorcerer spent points for a mandatory Psychic Power! By combining squads into a single unit of 30, you could keep 15 models in cover and the other 15 proudly advancing in the open with 4+ saves (or 2+ saves if they use Incoming)...

===Imperial Guard===
Arguably the only army in 5th that got a stratospheric Cruddex buff, the rest getting nerfed into uselessness as [[Robin Cruddace]] hates you:

* This was the first time Guard could field vehicle squads, particularly for Basilisks and Leman Russes allowing players to cover the field in pie plates.
* Master of the Fleet, which subtracted 1 from your opponent's deep strike rolls. Particularly nasty against the above two lists which relied on deep-strike spam to get close enough to shred armies.
* Master of Ordnance, which came with its own pie plate attack.
* [[Creed|CREEEEEEEED!!!!1]]
* Hellhound squads and variants get introduced, especially the bane(wolf) of all MEQs, the banewolf.
* Veterans - particularly melta-vets. They are legend when it comes to vehicle busting.
* Valkyries and Vendettas - fucking hell, where do I even begin? Super fast chimera, identical armour and a shitload of guns; Vendettas take it to the next level with 3 TL Lascannons.
* Hydra flak tank debuts in this list outside of FW and is amazing at taking out bikers and fast skimmers with its super-long range autocannons that bypass Jink saves. Eldar tears flow unstoppably.
* Orders are introduced here as well; they weren't OP per se, but combined well with other buffs to the list for horrifying efficacy.
* Up until the release of the GK codex in 5th, Guard could still take allies with Daemon or Witch Hunters leading to the construction of the infamous Guard leaf-blower list, so named for how fast it removed your opponents models from the board. Mind, when GK came out with their Wardex, this didn't really put too much of a damper on the blower but now they had competition at least.

===[[Space Wolves]]===
The Space Wolf codex became an infamously powerful tournament army due to having ruthless point-efficiency all around. While the Blood Angels got speed and flashy toys, and the Grey Knights would get mass Force Weapons and Psybolt weapons, the Space Wolves were able to look at those armies and shut them down by pure attrition. Notable reasons for the Space Wolf hate include:

*'''Space Wolf Psykers:''' Compared to the other Marine codexes, the Space Wolf Rune Priests caused rage for several reasons.
**'''Good Blastiness:''' Rune Priests got Living Lightning instead of Smite, a Strength 7, D6+1 shot, infinite range gun. Rune Priests could also buy a Chooser of the Slain, a "counter" placed that served as a +1 BS marker when targeting enemies near it. However, the real fondue was Jaws of the World Wolf. Jaws was a 24" beam, and all non-Jump/Jetbike/vehicle models underneath had to take an Initiative Check or be removed outright. No Invuln, no Feel no Pain, no Eternal Warrior, just death. Monstrous Creatures got +1 to the test, but since many Tyranid Monstrous Creatures were only Initiative 1 anyway, Jaws meant that you had a 66% chance of losing a Carnifex, Tervigon or Tyrannofex in one go!
**'''Good Denial/Defense:''' Rune Priests also had access to good defense auras, with Storm Caller acting like a psychic Kustom Forcefield and Tempest's Wrath shutting down Bikes and Jumpers in its 24" radius bubble. Compared to regular Marines, they were arguably more reliable at shutting down Psykers; while a standard Psychic Hood required beating your opponent's Psyker's Leadership on an opposed roll, the Rune Staff would simply stop any incoming power within 24" on a 4+. You could include an allied Inquisitor if you so desired, allowing for a chance to double-deny. And remember that Chooser of the Slain? When it was placed down during deployment, no enemy units could Infiltrate near it.
**'''Njal Stormcaller:''' Njal took the strengths of the Rune Priest and amplified them. Although he didn't get the anti-Infiltration effect of the Chooser, he automatically knew every Space Wolf power, could cast two per turn, and his staff could deny any incoming powers on a 3+. However, his real claim to fame was that as the Stormcaller, you would roll a D6 at the start of each turn, add the turn number, and consult a chart to see the effects. Some were innocent yet annoying enough (the enemy suffers -1 BS for a turn), but the real fondue was rolling Chain Lightning. EVERY enemy unit within 18" of Njal would take D6 S8 AP - hits. At Nova 2011, this Chain Lighting went off against a Dark Eldar Venom Spam list with predictably destructive results.
*'''Wolfwolfwolf:''' This is the edition that saw the introduction of [[Canis Wolfborn]], Thunderwolves and Fenrisian Wolves being their own units. The Thunderwolf in particular garnered a lot of hate at the time since it increased its rider's base Strength and Toughness (in 5th, Bikes and Marks of Nurgle were not counted for purposes of checking Instant Death), meaning you now needed S10 to inflict Instant Death, while you could Instant Death T5 models in turn. Combined with super-cheap wolves to act as rapid-moving bullet catchers and you could get into melee.
*'''Long Fangs:''' Long Fangs were the Space Wolf equivalent of Devasatators. However, while Devastators were considered inefficient and fragile, Long Fangs were the peak of efficiency. Sure, they didn't get regular Bolter bullet-catchers, but when deployed well into your deployment zone while the rest of the Space Wolf army midfielded, they weren't a reliable target anyway. Instead, Long Fangs had a single throwaway sergeant and 1-5 heavy weapon guys as needed; Missile Launchers only cost 10 points, making them the default Heavy of choice. But the real kicker was that Long Fangs had Fire Control; this was the ancestor to Split Fire and superior overall. As opposed to 6th and 7th where Split Fire meant "one model in the unit can shoot at a different target unit," you could divide the Wolves to shoot at two targets however you wanted.
*'''Loganwing:''' Loganwing was and arguably the only viable foot marine list in 5th. See, taking Logan Grimnar let you take Wolf Guard as troops. Back in the day, Wolf Guard were a single customizable unit of 3-10 models, individual models being able to switch for Terminator Armor, Jump Pack or Bike; you could intentionally make your squads smaller by having Wolf Guard detach from their squad at deployment in order to lead another non-Wolf Guard unit. However, the real advantage of Wolf Guard in Loganwing lists is it let you take units each of a Cyclone Missile Launcher Terminator and 4 power-armor bulletcatchers. You would run Lone Wolf Terminators as anti-heavy support, Thunderwolves as chasers, and Long Fangs as support; Logan himself usually joined a unit of Lascannon Long Fangs to either grant them Tank Hunters or Relentless for the turn.
*'''Razorwolf:''' Space Wolves could spam Razorbacks more cost-effectively than other Marines. Compared to Tactical Marines, 5 Grey Hunters were only 75 points instead of 90. Space Wolves didn't get Sergeants, but they instead got Wolf Guard. The kicker of course was that there was no restriction that stated that a Wolf Guard squad actually needed any models. Thus, you could buy 6 squads of 5 Grey Hunters, each with Razorback, buy two units each of 3 Wolf Guard and Razorback, attach them all among the six squads, and have two "spare" Razorbacks. Since Long Fangs didn't need to stay in a transport for the most part, you could also buy even more Razorbacks, points permitting.
*'''Wolf Scouts:''' Wolf Scouts by themselves were unassuming. They could Outflank from their opponent's deployment zone and bring a Wolf Guard alongside. Their real danger came from their usage alongside mechanized Wolves and Long Fang support, as they could be used to eliminate or tie up backfield threats. It was common to equip them with a Meltagun and Combi-Melta Wolf Guard for neutralizing backfield Guard artillery.
* An honorable mention goes to the Saga of the Warrior Born, an upgrade only available to Wolf Lords. If you think this bonus gives an extra attack like the Mark of Khorne, oh you're sadly mistaken for the Wolves outbless the God of War. Rather than +1 attack, the way the Saga of the Warrior Born worked was you kept track of how many models the Wolf Lord killed in an Assault Phase, and the Wolf Lord would gain that many bonus attacks in the *next* Assault Phase. There was no theoretical cap to how many extra attacks you get if you were able to keep your Lord in assaults. In practice, the number of bonus attacks would reset if your Wolf Lord missed an Assault Phase.

===[[Blood Angels]]===
Cheesy for the [[Matt Ward|exact same reason]] as Grey Knights. Here are just a few things they received:

* Furioso Dreadnoughts in general. Their FA13 made them immune to Krak grenades prevalent on most infantry; coupled with Blood Talons which generated more attacks every time you caused a wound. With S6 and WS6. Fuuuuuuuuck!
* In addition to regular Furiosos, you could also take a [[Librarian Dreadnought|FLYING. LIBRARIAN. DREADNOUGHT.]] Jesus Christ...
* Death Company Dreadnoughts were also outrageous - taking up a fucking ''Troops'' slot, they were Furiosos with a more offensive focus, their WS and FA lowered by a point in exchange for fleet, more attacks and furious charge and rage.
* Blood Angels Dreadnoughts could also take a Magna Grapple on top of their arm weapons, an S8 AP2 assault 1 weapon with a 24" range that, should it pen a vehicle or wound a monstrous creature, could then drag it closer to the dreadnought.
* Mephiston - basically a captain with the stats of a monstrous creature and with psychic powers. He could also fly, and reduce his opponent's WS/I to 1.
* The Stormraven gunship debuted in this list - a flying landraider with weaker armour but immune to melta weapons that could transport a squad AND a dreadnought. Oh, and it's an assault vehicle ffs. Given how powerful in CC Blood Angels infantry is as well as just how deadly their dreadnoughts are, getting them where they needed to be in a fast skimmer that was immune to melta weapons AND was heavily armed was the cherry on top of this particular cheesecake.

===[[Grey Knights]]===
Seriously, there's a shitload to explain here for the noobs:

* First and foremost, Psycannons - S7 AP4 rending on models that could otherwise always shoot them.
* Psybolt ammunition, leading to the creation of the much feared Psyfleman Dreadnought, pumping out 4 S8 AP4 twin-linked shots a turn.
* Kaldor Draigo outcreeding Creed and just generally being a monster (unless and until he fought Abaddon).
* EVERYTHING ARMED WITH A FUCKING FORCE WEAPON SERIOUSLY WTF - in particular, Force Halberds. Auto-take, granting all the bonuses of a nemesis force weapon and +2 Initiative, meaning your silver armoured Mary Sues struck before most Eldar units.
* Librarians with a flamer template that removed models from play - not just instant death, they took an initiative test or were removed from play doling out auto-pens to vehicles.
* The only list that could take Assassins or Inquisitors, which both got buffed into the fucking sky.
* The goddamn Nemesis Dreadknight debuted here - absolutely broken if not expensive (MC w/ 2+ save, psychic powers).
* Oh hey, they ''also'' got stormravens - on top of being immune to melta weapons and transporting an OP squad plus an OP dreadnought, the GK stormraven could also take psybolt ammo for its heavy bolters, assault cannons, etc.
* They were more point efficient then normal marines. A tactical squad cost 90 points, giving you 4 bolters boys and a sergeant. A GK strike squad cost 100 points, for 5 guys with force weapons, storm bolters, and a psychic power. For 10 points, they could move, unload 10 bolter rounds at full range, then assault with weapons that ignored armour and could inflict instant death or strike at S5.

People hated the Grey Knights - even longtime GK players hated them. A list that was built to destroy daemon armies (during a time when they didn't even need a special list to destroy them because they were so bad - seriously, it wasn't uncommon for GK players to fight demons without suffering so much as a wound!) got buffed into a list with units that were just flat-out better than anyone else could field. Some GK players took to making lists that used none of the staples mentioned above in order to give themselves a challenge.

===Honourable Mention: Chaos Daemons===
Daemons were not a very broken army in 5th Edition, but they had one strategy that really was agony to play against; FateCrusher. FateCrusher revolved building an army around Kairos Fateweaver. Fateweaver was a Lord of Change whose main draw was that ''any Daemon Unit'' within 6 inches of him could '''re-roll all failed saves - including cover.'''

Chaos Daemons at the time did not encourage mono-God armies as it did in 6th, 7th and 8th. Daemons could freely ally with each other (but couldn't join units). So Fateweaver's abilities affected tough, non-Tzeentch units like Plaguebearers (who at the time of 5th ed, still had a 4+++ FNP) and Bloodcrushers (which had a 3+ armour save).

The tactic was simple; surround Fateweaver with Bloodcrushers and Plaguebearers, and your enemy would weap. Not only were your Plague Bearers now getting ''3 saves'' (since all Daemons were Immune to Instant Death, Plaguebearers almost always got their FNP), but your Bloodcrushers could re-roll their 3+ armour save. The weakness of the strategy came from the fact that Fateweaver himself to take a leadership check every time he suffered a wound, and if he failed he would be removed from play, but considering he had a re-rollable 3++ this wasn't too likely to happen.

With the arrival of Codex: Daemons 6th edition, this strategy ceased to exist.

===Honourable Mention: Chaos Space Marines===
Only one thing was truly busted in the otherwise unremarkable 5th Edition CSM codex (that was really released in very late 4th edition): The Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with Wings and Lash of Submission. See, Lash of Submission was a psychic power that let you move an enemy unit. It didn't have a long range, which is one of the reasons you took wings, and it didn't move them very far, but this power could pull scout units out of cover or critical HQ into a chargeable position. This combination would reliably get your Daemon Prince into close combat on your first turn and, with the ability to consolidate into combat, could keep you in combat and safe from shooting the entire game. Another popular stategy was taking 9 obliterators and 2 lash princes; this allowed players to lash 2 units into close quarters with a 3rd and then fire 9 plasma cannons (small blast template) into the massed bunched models.

== 6th & 7th Edition ==

7th edition came out barely two years after 6th and in many ways could be called 6.5 or so. There were differences of course, such as the reworked Psychic Phase, and shooting phase resolution, but most of the changes were small enough tweaks that it's sane enough to include entries for both editions in here.

===Allies===

A mechanic that got a mixed reception when it hit, and one it was never able to truly shake. Listed below are some of the most infamous examples that resulted from exploiting this mechanic.

*'''ChaosCrons:''' In 7th edition, Chaos Space Marines and Necrons were considered Allies of Convenience, meaning that they were treated as "enemies" for all intents and purposes except you could intentionally target your own Allies of Convenience with Warlord Traits, shooting, charging, or Psychic Powers. However, all other abilities remained in theory able to interact with each other (barring exceptions like the Genestealer Cult ruling stating that Tyranid Allies of Convenience did not cause Shadow in the Warp/hinder Return to the Shadows). However, Anrakyr's special ability "Mind in the Machine" was RAW none of the above and [[cheese|in theory could be used on your own allied Typhon to have it fire its gun twice]]. [[Derp|More amusing however was a Black Legion Spearhead using Turn 1 Deep Strike while triggering Ethereal Interception from Allies of Convenience Deathmarks for a front-loaded alphastrike that required no Drop Pods to pull off]].

*'''TauCrons:''' Necrons had a lot of good mid-strength ranged weapons that could drown enemy units in saves or strip Hull Points off enemy vehicles, but most of their weapons were confined to the 24" range-bracket. Thus Tau were popular for providing longer-range: [[Cheese|The Firebase Support Cadre added 36" threat projection via Tank-Hunting Missile Broadsides and the Riptide was always appreciated]]. However, the real comedy came from the fact that [[Nemesor Zahndrekh]] had the special rule '''Adaptive Tactics:''' Whenever an enemy unit with one or more USRs from a bucket list (Counter-Attack, Furious Charge, Hit & Run, Split-Fire, Stealth, or Tank Hunters) was within 24" of Zahndrekh, Zahndrekh's unit also benefitted from that rule as well. [[Cheese|Many Tau wargear options and abilities made it shockingly easy to acquire said USRs and provide them to Zahndrekh]]; [[Derp|perhaps he thought Puretide was actually a Necrontyr prodigy]]?

*'''TauDar:''' Allies Abuse was not entirely uncommon in 6th and 7th Edition, however the combined cheese from these two Codexes - each very powerful in their own right - resulted in a combination of Cheddar so potent it practically warped space and time. In short, imagine the best parts about both the Tau and Eldar Codexes, and fuse them together into a potent strike force. The even worse part? In 6th Edition, the two Factions were considered Battle Brothers - meaning there was no penalty for taking either one as Allies.

===Admech===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Cult_Mechanicus(7E)#Formations|Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation]]:''' Includes units from Cult Mechanicus, Skitarii, and and Imperial Knights. Everything has Canticles of the Omnissiah, all wargear is free, and nothing Gets Hot. You like winning? Use this formation and literally pay to win.

===Chaos===

* '''[[Heldrake]]:''' The [[Heldrake]] was added to the 6th Edition [[Chaos Space Marine]] Codex as a new unique flier. It could Vector Strike like a Flying Monstrous Creature, was incredibly resilient due to numerous stacked defensive rules, all of those ultimately played second fiddle to the real reason it was so powerful: The Baleflamer. Sure, you "could" give the Heldrake a Hades Autocannon, but as it only hit on 4+s and didn't ignore Marine armor, it was pointless considering both weapons cost the same. Imagine the Inferno Cannon of a Guard Hellhound, able to project a Strength 6 flame template anywhere within 12", but make it AP 3 so even regular Space Marines don't get an armor save. 7th edition brought a series of nerfs to the Heldrake, the most notable one being to limit the fire arc of its Baleflamer to a 45-degree arc, as well as Vector Strikes only doing one AP 2 hit (instead of D3+1 AP 3 hits) versus ground targets. However, the real reason the Heldrake lost its viability was an indirect one; whereas only disembarked troops (and certain unit types depending on scenario) could score objectives in 6th, 7th allowed any units to score while giving Troops Objective Secured.

*'''The [[Screamerstar]]:''' a combination of artifacts and psychic powers that gives a unit of Screamers a rerollable 2++ Invulnerable Save, making them effectively invincible.

*'''[[Magnus the Red]]:''' Magnus the Red is one of the cheesiest units to grace this section. He got a plethora of special rules (including Eternal Warrior, It Will Not Die and Fearless) along with being a Flying Monstrous Creature for even more cheese, but wait! There's more! As befitting the Demon Primarch of Tzeentch, Magnus was a psychic powerhouse. He was the only Mastery Level 5 Psyker in the game, and knew the complete Lores of Tzeentch and Change. He could cast these powers without needing line of sight, and possessed at least two Strength D powers. His Horus Heresy incarnation wasn't much better, becoming able to completely avoid attacks if he had Invisibility cast upon himself and could boost his psychic attacks to Strength D with a 2D6 roll, for even less points than both his 40K incarnation and ''Horus''!

===Eldar===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Eldar(7E)|The Entirety of 6th and 7th Edition Eldar]]''': No really. Eldar were pretty much the pet army of [[Phil Kelly]], and it showed in how their army consistently managed to be the top or damn close to it. To include a few notable crimes against balance:

* '''Battle Focus:'''

* '''Serpent Spam:''' From 6th Edition, the Wave Serpent gained a massive upgrade in power from 5th Edition. Aside from getting a bump to Ballistic Skill 4 (as opposed to 3 in the previous Codex) for a pittance of point-costs, and all Shuriken Weapons gaining the Bladestorm upgrade (6s to wound ignore armor saves), the Wave Serpent's Shield was changed so that rather than capping the strength/removing bonus dice to penetrate it, it would downgrade Penetrating Hits into Glancing Hits on a 2+. However, the real the Serpent Shield could alternately be used "in extremis" as a glorified wave motion gun: [[Cheese|It would fire D6+1 strength 7 shots with infinite range, ignoring cover, and wrecking enemy vehicles]]. [[RAGE|Since the Serpent Shield was wargear and not a weapon, you couldn't destroy it with Weapon Destroyed]]. [[Anal_Circumference|The real fondue was taking a Twin-Linked Scatter Laser for "Laser Lock;" You got 4 S6 shots, rerolling to-hit, and if you hit with at least one, you could reroll to-hit with all other weapons being fired by the Wave Serpent. Thus, the Wave Serpent was transport, anti-aircraft, anti-everything in one go.]] Although Serpentspam got suitably nerfed in the 7th Edition update, it got replaced by the below:

* '''Scatpack Spam:'''

* '''Warp Spider Spam:''' Warp Spiders got a notable upgrade in 6th Edition, receiving a point drop and innate Hit and Run/Deep Strike, while their Deathspinners gained the '''Monofilament''' rule, making them deadlier against low-initiative models and vehicles. Although 7th Edition reworked Monofilament so they weren't innately stronger versus vehicles, they got upgraded in two additional ways: First of all, [[Cheese|Monofilament was changed so they wounded enemy models on Initiative instead of Toughness, and very few models had Initiative greater than 5]]. However, the real issue was Warp Spiders gained the ability '''Flickerjump:''' [[Cheese|If targeted by enemy shooting, the Warp Spiders could immediately move 2d6 inches, and if they ended up out of range/line of sight, the enemy attack was wasted.]] [[RAGE|Aggressively spamming Warp Spiders allowed an Eldar player to win Maelstrom objective games on your turn, after they dropped in to slag any real resistance otherwise.]]

* '''Wraithknights:''' "And you thought the Riptide was Big." The Wraithknight was the penultimate step (after the Riptide) to the reintroduction of Knights to 40k that Games Workshop was going to continue making the game revolve around giant models. It was powerful enough in 6th edition, where it cost like two Wraithlords while having twice the wounds, and extra mobility while sharing the same slot to boot, but [[Cheese|7th edition went and turned them from Jump Monstrous Creatures to Jump Gargantuan Monstrous Creatures, giving them Stomp, Feel No Pain, immunity to Instant Death (only taking D3 extra wounds instead), and the ability to fire an unlimited (rather than two) number of guns, split-fired at different units.]] [[Rage|This came with a point increase that was less than the price of an unupgraded Razorback, still making it cheaper than the Imperial Knight which it was vastly superior to.]]
**Note that despite the rage about the Wraithknight having access to D-Weapons, the most common variant was actually the Forgeworld Skatach Wraithknight. The Skatach cost a few more points than the vanilla one, but rather than having two Wraithcannons, it had two Deathshrouds. [[Rape|Imagine a Nightspinner's gun, but as a Hellstorm.]] [[Cheese|The Skatach became a tournament staple because it had innate cover-ignoring and crowd control that the rest of the Eldar army lacked, while being able to operate at optimal efficiency without needing a Farseer to buff it.]]

===Necrons===

Necrons technically got their codex update at the end of 5th Edition, but 6th really made them shine for awhile. Their 7th ed codex toned down a lot of that in exchange for adding the Decurion.

* '''ScytheWing:''' This was a build that was overpowered at the start of 6th Edition, and would only be slightly reduced in strength as 6th Edition continued. Essentially, ScytheWing (also known as Croissant Spam, 'Cron Air and a variety of other colourful names) was a build based around how many Doom Scythes and Night Scythes could be squeezed into a list - and the 'Crons could squeeze in a lot of these two units. It didn't even have the traditional weaknesses of Flyer-Heavy armies of 6th Edition usually had, as Scarabs and Canoptek Spiders were very easy to hide, minimising the odds of the army being tabled on turn one. As 6th Edition continued and factions gradually got access to actual Anti Aircraft options this died down, but it remained strong for the rest of 6th. 7th Edition finally put the Scythewing to a gradual rest, as changes to how objectives were scored, and the 7th ed codex upping the cost of Nightscythes/making Tesla no longer work on Snapshots put an damper on Necron destruction.

* '''Necron Pimpmobiles:''' The Catacomb Command Barge was infamously durable and only got moreso at the start of 7th. [[Cheese|Due to numerous rulings, taking a Phase Field gave both the Necron Lord AND the Barge a 3++]], [[RAGE|While making a successful Reanimation Protocols would bring back both the Lord, as well as the Barge at full Hull Points]]! Changes to how the Phylactery and Phase Field worked in 7th did a lot to tone the Barge to more realistic levels though it still remained a powerful unit so long as it did not come up against Destroyer weapons.

* '''Stormteks:''' The Storm Harbinger was a "free" swap for a Cryptek, that traded out its Staff of Light for a Voltaic Stave. As opposed to the S5 AP 3 3-shot weapon that the Staff of Light was, the Voltaic Stave was a 4-shot 12" Haywire projector. In 5th edition, this wasn't too dangerous but was annoying for stunlocking enemy vehicles. [[Anal Circumference|When 6th edition added Hull Points and changed how Glancing Hits worked, the Voltaic Stave became better than a Meltagun for tearing apart enemy vehicles; it was common for a Scythewing to run as multiple units of "5 Warriors, 2 Storm Harbingers" for them to drop down and zap enemy units to pieces.]] The Stormtek was eradicated with extreme prejudice with the 7th Cron codex.

* '''The Decurion:''' The 7th Edition Necrons got largely toned down from how they were at the start of 6th Edition. However, they would go back up to complete cheese in the same book. You see, GeeDubs had this great idea - what if we let people take armies that consisted...of nothing but Formations? Enter the Decurion, a force organization that would forever change the face of warfare for all the 7th Edition Codexes going forwards. This formation offered several, powerful bonuses to the Necrons - with individual formations granting rules like enhanced Reanimation Protocols for example. It would also make every Codex released prior to Necrons suffer from being severely underpowered for the rest of the Edition. The worst part was that every book after the Necrons had Decurions of their own, some more powerful than others but all of them making more traditional forces obsolete.

* '''The Orikanstar:''' The assorted changes to Reanimation Protocols and the introduction of the Decurion were both powerful upgrades for Necrons, but Orikan the Diviner also got a nice buff. Aside from being able to transform to have the statline of a C'tan Shard, his main ability was that he granted all models in his unit that had the Reanimation Protocols rule the ability to reroll 1s on all their Saves. Not just Armor Saves, but all Saves. Combined with Lychguard getting a point reduction and their Shields granting a 3++, this became a notoriously difficult unit to remove, and one whose defenses couldn't be debuffed by a Culexus. However, it wasn't until this unit took Zahndrekh that it became notoriously more powerful: [[Cheese|"Hit and Run" was a common ability used by tournament armies and Orikan effectively gave his unit Initiative 4 for the test, letting what should be a "slow" and frail unit pinball across the map to cap objectives and slay backfield units like.]] [[Anal Circumference|However, it was also common to swap out the Lychguard for Wraiths from a Canoptek Harvest, for extra threat range and the ability to destroy Knights with a pile of Rending attacks]].

===Space Marines===
*'''[[Chapter Master Smashfucker]]:''' Smashfucker is a character build for the [[Iron Hands]] that went through several revisions as 6th and 7th edition came along, starting from 6th ed Codex: Space Marines, getting a proper birth in Clan Raukaan, but ultimately reaching his ultimate form in the 7th edition Space Marines/Angels of Death codex and supplement. Smashfucker was a beatstick, an immovable rock and irresistable force in one that with enough buffs could beat most things into a pulp.

*'''Grav Weapons:''' After sitting out core 40k for three editions, Grav Weapons came back with a Vengeance. In an edition that introduced ever-tougher Monstrous Creatures, Grav reversed the normal rules of combat, as it rolled to wound versus the target's armor save instead of Toughness, while ignoring Armor Saves. Thus, a Guardsman in cardboard was wounded on 5+, but a Riptide was wounded on 2+. By itself, this seemed "ok," except Grav was an excellent troubleshooter weapon, and Bolters could reliably destroy most enemies that Grav struggled against. While the 6th Ed Marine codex became known for Grav Bikers and Centurions (the infamous "Centstar"), the real fondue came in 7th when Grav Cannons with Grav Amp became a Heavy choice for Power Armor Marines, so even a few Tactical Squads could reliably tear holes in the enemy.
** Lest you think vehicles were safe, think again. Versus vehicles, you rolled a d6 per hit. On a 6, you inflicted a Penetrating Hit that automatically Immobilized the vehicle in question. This was FAQed to clarify that two 6s meant doing 3 Hull Points of damage...when the Leman Russ had 3 Hull Points. Since a Grav Cannon had 5 shots and could reroll to Penetrate...really, only Superheavy vehicles stood a realistic chance, or the odd vehicle with resilience versus Immobilization.

*The [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marines(7E)#Dataslate_Formations|Skyhammer Annihilation Force]], a Space Marine dataslate formation. Two Devastator squads in drop pods that ignore Drop Pod Assault, and two Assault Squads with jump packs. The devs are Relentless on the turn they Deep Strike, and the assault squads can charge immediately.

* [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marines(7E)#Gladius_Strike_Force|Gladius Strike Force]]: Space Marines' detachment-size formation. Anything in a Battle Demi-Company is Objective Secured, and any Drop Pods, Rhinos and Razorbacks taken as dedicated transport have their base cost reduced to 0 if you take two demi-companies.

===Space Wolves===

*'''The Barkbarkstar:''' Fenrisian Wolves were relatively cheap, at 8 points per model for a Beast unit with Marine statlines, but with a 6+ armor save. By themselves, they were mostly an escort of throwaway bodies for a Thunderwolf Lord. However, the real cheese came from the Fenrisian Hunting Pack, which allowed for 5 units of Fenrisian Wolves to be merged together into a blob of up to 75 Wolves. Such a huge unit could gain incredible mileage from stacking buffs on it, but the real piece de resistance was attaching Grand Commander Azrael of the Dark Angels to the unit. Azrael granted the entire unit a 4+ Invulnerable Save, while being able to choose the Warlord Trait that granted the unit Feel No Pain while within 3" of an Objective (the unit was large enough to practically cover the entire map).

===Tau Empire===

*'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Tau(7E)|The Entirety of 6th and 7th Edition Tau]]''': This part is debatable, because Tau had weak troops (not that anyone used them, and Farsight had his Crisis suits as troops), bad leadership, and were bad at "playing the mission" due to generalized fragility (battlesuits are anything but "fragile", but not exactly tough for their points-value), but this was made up for by numerous items detailed below and generally great synergy. That said, minimaxed mono-Tau lists were great at wiping the table of almost any list, making them the bane of the local game store, if not necessarily the tournament scene due to lack of psychic powers/defense from those.

*'''Markerlights:''' The Tau Empire had access to cost effective cover removal and Markerlights, allowing them to do things like increasing their to hit rolls for Overwatch (though they were chiefly used to remove cover). The fact that Markerlights only required a To Hit roll to apply their effects cheesed the onions of many players on the receiving end. Not a game-breaking mechanics per se, but it compensated the only thing holding Tau ''horrendous'' firepower back - their mediocre BS. Oh, and with so many Ignores Cover options (not all of them from Marketlights) it was sometimes faster to just remove marked unit that had no invulnerable without resolving the hits from an actual attack - most Imperial Guard infantry squads, for example, had virtually no chance to survive.

*'''Interceptor:''' 6th Edition brought back Overwatch...as a weakened form of WHFB Stand and Shoot. It also made Interceptor a Special Rule available to some units: A unit with Interceptor could at the end of the opponent's Movement Phase, shoot at an enemy unit that had entered from Reserves. Unlike 2nd Edition, this did not require forfeiting shooting during your prior Shooting Phase, but your *next* Phase. Very few armies got access to this, but Tau could give [[Wat|each and every one of their Battlesuits this ability for the price of a Melta Bomb]], [[Rage|thus letting said Suits shoot in their turn, shoot when the enemy tried to appear from Reserves, then hightail it to safety in the Tau player's next turn.]] Oh, and it combined nicely with the ability to give those battlesuits Skyfire, blasting enemy aircraft from the sky the moment it entered play. Thanks to this, Tau were the only army able to reliably table dreaded Flytyrant list.

*'''Riptide:''' The Riptide was introduced in 6th Edition, as a Jetpack Monstrous Creature. It came with a Primary and Secondary, and was about as tough as a Dreadknight on paper. However, while the Dreadknight was primarily a melee unit (with some gun options), the Riptide mainly existed as a shooting platform that could give Tau the option for the occasional Linebreaker or finisher assault. Its main draw however was the Nova Reactor: You could pick a bonus from four options and roll a D6. On a 3+ you got the bonus, while you lost a wound otherwise. In practice, since one of the four options was to upgrade the Riptide's Invulnerable Save from 5++ to 3++, [[derp|you statistically took less wounds from Nova-Charging your Shields than from your opponent shooting you unshielded.]] In addition, the Riptide's Drones allowed it to be treated as a Unit, thus making it a Monstrous Creature that could be joined by Independent Characters, such as a Buffmander (a Tau Commander optimised to hand out supporting buffs to Units he joins) or perhaps more infamously, a character like a Space Marine Librarian or Eldar Farseer, who got a big meat shield to protect themselves while they in turn buffed the Riptide with access to the Divination table, or Space Marine Captain (eliminating close combat weakness) with Storm Shield that allowed him to tank wounds with 3++ using Riptides T saving Nova reactor of the latter for more dakka. All of this for a relatively paltry sum of points that made it cheaper than a squad of Terminators, and it didn't cost much more due to the inexpensiveness of it's upgrades. As a result, the "Triple Riptide" (or Triptide) became a common 6th Ed build, becoming less prevalent in 7th due to general scoring changes. However, the Riptide would be largely untouched for 7th Edition, remaining a very strong unit that practically made all other options in the same slot obsolete (At least until the Ghostkeel became a thing).
**'''The Riptide Wing:''' And then the Riptide Wing came out for 7th. This Formation simply required you take 3 units of Riptides, with no extra tax. In exchange, the Formation got three obscene bonuses: If a Riptide unit from the Formation was near its buddies, it could reroll the Nova Reactor, it could get +1 BS when shooting an enemy unit shot at by another Riptide unit from the formation in the same Phase, but the real fondue was that once per game, the Formation could perform a Hailfire Attack: Any Riptides that did not move in the preceding Movement Phase could shoot twice in that Shooting Phase. This formation was "no tax" for already-good units while eliminating two of their only real weaknesses (marginal damage without Markerlight support, unreliable Nova Power). That said, the sheer power of the Riptide Wing meant that this Formation was commonly used to support an Eldar army.

*'''Farsight Enclaves:''' This was the next logical step for Tau Cheese. It had access to several very good formations (most notably The Eight, a Formation of Independent Characters unique in that you could take some or all of it's members, who in turn got some of the best relics from this supplement and the OG Tau Empire Codex and allowed you to '''have two unique relics''' in a single army as members of the Eight didn't count for 1 per army relic limitation. Bears mentioning Riptide was also an Independent Character, so even in 7th edition it could be joined by Buffmander) as well as removing a key weakness of the Tau on paper, its weaksauce selection of Troops Choices. Instead of Fire Warriors or Kroot, now you could take Crisis Suits as Troops choices! This allowed for even further Min-Maxing, which capitalised on some of the other problems listed above. Compounding this, in 6th Edition it was perfectly legal to take a Tau Empire Force and a Farsight Enclaves force, and the two treated each other as Battle Brothers (meaning there were no penalties).

*'''The Firebase Support Cadre:''' Introduced in 6th, the Firebase Support Cadre was the OG Formation. Two units of 3 Broadsides and a Riptide teamed up, getting [[Cheese|Tank Hunter and Preferred Enemy(Space Marines)]]. This was a popular Formation for Necrons.

*'''The Optimized Stealth Cadre:''' The last real rage-inducer, the OSC had a Ghostkeel unit and two units of Stealth Suits. Any units from the Formation near the Ghostkeel got +1 BS, Ignore Cover, and automatically hit the Rear Armor of enemy vehicles. The OSC basically said "Flanking? Meh." That said, Stealth Suits were generally seen as a tax for this formation, which was mostly taken for the upgraded Ghostkeel(s).

===Tyranids===

Well, you see, Tyranids had bad codexes back in 6th and 7th edition. They were so bad Tyranid players still hate [[Robin_Cruddace|Treadhead's]] guts, but they also had the power to create one list to rule them all...

*'''Flytyrant list:''' aka [[Flying Circus]]. You take 3 Tyrants with wings and Devourers with brainleech worms, 3 Crones, Spore Mines as Troops and Venomthrope to allow them to live through the first turn. The trick is Flying Monster Creatures were able to start on the board in 6th and 7th, but not begin in Swooping mode, therefore being hit not only on 6's. However, they still could Jink, and Venomthrope upped that save to 2+, enabling you to live through first enemy turn, reach to the sky and blast enemy below with impunity, while also being virtually unhittable, and even Invisibility-spam couldn't save from Vector-strike autohits. It was not unheard of for people to outright refuse to play with this list on tournaments. Shield of Baal even introduced formation that was basically this list, but weaker.

== 8th Edition ==

===T'au===

*'''For The Greater Good:''' Your entire army gets shared overwatch and with the T'au sept trait can overwatch on 5+. This is pretty much a 2nd shooting phase, and pretty much ensures that T'au armies will remain static firewarrior gunlines for the remainder of 8th edition

*'''Savior Protocols:''' No T'au player worth his salt (or the more fun oriented ones) shows up without at least 20 Shield Drones these days, and you have to kill every single one of them before you can even hope to scratch their precious Rapetides.

*'''Darkstrider:''' Oh what's that? Your charge actually made it through a solid wall of overwatch shooting? Hold up a minute while I move my entire gunline back 6" and gun you down. Also Structural '''Anal'''yser.

*'''Fusion Blaster Coldstar Commander:''' Oh what's that? 4 fusion blasters BS2+ that can advance swoop 40" across the board? Combined with Mont'ka you'll have 4 point blank melta shots on demand for that pesky armour. Having the Farsight Enclave Sept will also allow wound re-rolls of 1 within 8 inches, which will never be a problem getting within.

*'''Modulated Weaponry:''' Oh, I can only have one Riptide have max shots AND an Invuln save? Hold my beer while I spend a cp and a few extra points to give this guy an Ion Cannon with max shots, AND the Invuln save from the base abilities of the Riptide, essentially creating two super buffed Riptides. This stratagem works on anything with randomly rolled heavy weapons BTW. Longstrike hitting anything with 6 S8 shots and wounding on two's? Iron Hands and Imperial Fists, move over! T'au are taking back the award for best cheese!

===Eldar/Ynnari Soup===

Ironically, in what may be a case of "is it the army or is it the tournament format," the Eldar did better at LVO 2018 than they did in any 7th edition LVO tournament. Although many other aspects about why they are so powerful are being debated, there is a general consensus on what is problematic:

*'''Hard to Hit:''' The Alaitoc Craftworld grants the "-1 to be hit vs attacks >12 away" bonus that is associated with Alpha Legion and Raven Guard. Unlike Space Marines, however, their entire detachment gains this bonus including vehicles; not only that, but Eldar, in general, have a Psychic Power to grant a -1 to-hit buff, a Stratagem to do the same, and several of their units have such an ability just because. Further making Alaitoc harder to actually hit is the fact that their unique Stratagem can be used on Rangers (which normally get taken anyway to "push back" the deep strike deployment bubble) to make it so you can only hit them on 6s.

*'''Not as Penalized going Second:''' Eldar is currently the only "main" faction (excluding Thousand Sons and Custodes or other "secondary" factions) with a codex that has a Reserve stratagem that is not dependent on taking a specific subfaction. Rather than having to take Tallarn or Alpha Legion or Jormugandr, any Eldar can Webway Assault without issue. Furthermore, they have a superior equivalent of the Auspex Stratagem, which helps further protect them against Deepstrike. Said stratagem can be used against any DSer and not just those that land within 12", and does not have a -1 to-hit penalty; however, said penalty is moot since it the Stratagem tends to be used by the below.

*'''Dark Reapers are reliable when other units aren't:''' Dark Reapers are the only long-range unit that innately ignores all hit modifiers in the game while having two firing modes that can either reliably mow down 2-wound models or blow up heavy armour. Their leader is armed with the equivalent of two Guard Mortars if those Mortars could hit on an unmodified 3+ rerolling ones and had a -2 save mod. Furthermore, a Stratagem exists that lets an Eldar unit make a 7" move after shooting.

*'''Soup and Free Actions:''' Ynnari are infamous for getting extra "out-of-phase" actions, and despite Strength from Death being nerfed so you can use each type of action once (and only once) on your game turn, they give Eldar extra utility in general. However, the real issue with Ynnari is that if you take at least one battleforged Craftworld Detachment, the Craftworld Ynnari gain access to Craftworld Stratagems, including all Craftworld-specific ones. This means if you took an Alaitoc Craftworld Eldar detachment, Saim-Hann Shining Spears in a Ynnari detachment would have access to the Saim-Hann Stratagem, a Biel-Tan Spiritseer could take the Spirit Stone of Anathlan, etc. Thankfully this got put down for the count in the 8th Edition Ynnari White Dwarf Index where strength from death was changed from free actions to a universal "Always Strike First" rule for an entire round should any unit die.

*'''The Fondue:''' All of this resulted in a scenario where an Alaitoc army took several small units of Rangers to screen several two Wave Serpents, lots of small Dark Reaper units, and an allied Ynnari detachment which took a block of 10 Dark Reapers. If going second, the Eldar player could hide the Reapers in the Serpents and wait it out; alternatively, the large block of Reapers could pop out of a Wave Serpent, shoot twice (the equivalent of 20 Krak Missiles or 40 Starshot Missiles), then Fire and Fade back into the Serpent before they could be targeted. Soulburst could let a Ynnari caster use Quicken to reposition an Eldar unit as well, while a unit of Shining Spears ran inference while acting as the equivalent of Bike Terminators (Protect turning their save into 2+/3++). Whereas in the 2016 LVO (which gave the "Strength 6 Intensifies" meme), 3 of the top 8 lists were Eldar, 5 of the 8 were Eldar in 8th. Oops.

*'''The Tournament Format itself:''' It's no big secret that the ITC Format and Mission packages heavily favour armies like the Eldar due to how the scoring for missions works. Eldar has always been one of the better armies for "just playing the mission" and over the years they have become very good at this alongside being able to eliminate scoring units very efficiently (Ynnari are effectively a hard counter to MSU lists in general thanks to all of the bonus actions). It's very easy to pick a bunch of Secondary Missions that the Ynnari can very easily and reliably score, and with all the extra actions that the Ynnari get? It's very easy to build up an insurmountable lead. Compare to playing just a regular pick up game of 40k with a list designed to exploit and abuse the ITC format? The lists tend to be far less dominant compared to the armies that are strongest when playing the regular Warhammer 40k format. Would an overhaul of the Format cripple the Ynnari for ITC Tournaments? No, of course not, but it would be disingenuous to ignore the Tournament Format as a reason why the Ynnari were so dominant at the 2018 LVO, especially when combined with the above.

===Imperial Guard===
'''[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Guard(8E)|The Entirety of 8th Edition Imperial Guard]]'''. Remember Eldar and Tau in 7th Edition? [https://youtu.be/heLjS0_vcSY?t=129 Yep, that's the Imperial guard right now.] Between blobs of dirt-cheap Conscripts flooding the board (which was so bad they had to be nerfed hard into being near-useless), sheer volume of fire in rapid fire range will handily whittle away big targets, or deep-striking Scions shoved full of Plasma or Melta as well as the best tanks in the game, and most point efficient troops choice in the game in the Infantry Squad. Like Eldar, Tau and Necrons in 7th, it's pretty bad when the only ways to beat them is saying "Fuck you, I'm not playing against Imperial Guard", or being some manner of a godlike [[Creed|tactical Genius]].

Or by just bringing Guilliman, who buffs the guard like nobodies business. Hell, you can leave the smurfs at home and just enjoy a 12" reroll 1s and spam plasma for days;

Now they have a new Codex. Let us see the highlights:

*Bullgryns in general. They changed the wording for slab shields - instead of giving the unit a flat 2+ armour save, they give you +2 to all your save rolls. So if you field A Custode Vexilla, who has an aura that gives 5++ invuln, slab shields improve it to a 3++. So now they are a 2+/3++ unit. And you can take it further, with the psychic power psychic ward they get an additional +1 saves so now they are at 1+/2++ and finally with the 1CP stratagem Take Cover they get an additional save in the enemy shooting phase. Enjoy your 0+/1++ (it is important to note that ones always fail, however) Bullgryn-Custode deathstar of doom that requires two Smites per Bullgryn to wear down.
**It is worth it to mention that Bullgryns have almost the exact same statline as the Custodes, proving who the true Emperor's finest are.
**This has been updated by the FAQ. Bullgryn slab shields only give +2 to armour saves. You can still stack the psychic power (which, remember, you have to actually get off in the first place) and the Take Cover! stratagem (which costs CP).

*HQ units can take a Relic that lets them regain spent CP on a 5+. Remember that the Imperial Guard is second to Chaos Daemons in cheapest Brigade Regiments in the game so if you are somehow below 12 CP you are optimising your list wrong (or just realize that you will never spend all the CP that you have).
**The Tactical Restraint rule has capped how many CP can be refunded per turn, so this is not as cheesy anymore.

*'''Cadians.''' General Rerolls of 1 for standing still, having a 2 pt stratagem that boosts their hit rate by 1 for targeting one thing of your choice so amazing for Superheavies and 40man boy squads, and then there are the Leman Russes, as not only do they also get rerolls of 1 but also have Pask who for only 10 Points more than a regular Tank Commander can do an additional order, including one for the tanks that allow them to re-roll the number of shots they get with the turret, hits on fucking 2s
**Pask is no longer 10 points more expensive than a standard Tank Commander, though this is because they got a points cost, not because Pask got a points increase.

* '''Mordians:''' The Mordian Strategem "''Volley Fire''" is written similar to other abilities that grant exploding 6s to-hit, but due to bad RAW, lets you shoot your weapon again instead of getting an extra shot. This means that a Mordian Guardsman under FRFSRF can "potentially" get 20 shots. However, the real fondue occurs when said Guardsmen are being assisted by a Forgeworld Searchlight, which grants a unit a flat +1 to hit (meaning shooting again on 5+s); enjoy watching your Guardsmen throw out a truly insane amount of dice. They also have an Order that lets units with lasguns target characters directly, pretty much making them the only counter to the Imperial Guard. It's bad when the only counter to an army is to play that army yourself.

*Valhalla can [[Skaven |fire into melee combat without any penalty other than hitting friendly units on a 1 to-hit]]. Flamers don't roll to hit. Or you could just issue the order to a heavy Weapons team and use your Conscripts like Skavenslaves... [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov |Conscript blob died? You can spend 2CP and some reinforcement points to bring them right back]] in an army where you are guaranteed a Brigade detachment for most games. Before it was FAQ'd you didn't even have to spend reinforcement points to do this in Matched Play.

*Vostroya has an order that allows them to shoot any weapon in close combat. They this includes Grenades, Flamers, you heavy Weapons teams...Oh, and they can spend CP to add +1 to their hit rolls in the shooting phase meaning that all Plasma Weapons are safe to supercharge.

*But four of those are army traits, so I should be safe and only encounter one per Guard Army right? Wrong! Two or more Detachments can take different Army Traits, doubling the combinations of cheese one might encounter. Have fun!

*Crusaders, teamed up with a Primaris Psyker and Ministorum Priest, packed into a Valkyrie. This combo will have them dumped as far as 29 inches away (though no closer to enemy models than 3 inches), essentially giving you a virtually guaranteed first turn charge. Furthermore, when buffed by a priest they will have 3 attacks each, rerolling hits on the charge. A full squad will be delivering an average of 27 hits per turn (though at only Strength 3). They also have significant staying power with Psychic Barrier adding 1 to all saves, giving these guys a 2++ save.if you fail the psychic power you can also use Take Cover! to get the 2++ from shooting attacks. Use a Command Point Re-Roll and Grand Strategist re-roll to save the couple casualties you may eventually take or just heal one back next turn with AoF.

No doubt [[Robin Cruddace|He]] had a part in this.

At least, unlike all the other cheese in the game (cough cough IMPERIAL KNIGHTS cough cough), the Guard has been FAQed into the ground. The fact that they are still a solid choice demonstrates just how awful it was to play against in the first few months of 8E.

===Space Marines===
You see, this is a weird one. At the start of 8th Edition, Marines just couldn't pull their weight against most armies unlike Guard. Now that they have a new and improved codex, THEY'RE the ones who can now one-up Imperium armies such as Guard and at least go toe-to-toe with Imperial Knights, Xenos, and Chaos who they traditionally struggled with.

====[[Ultramarines]]====
Have all of the best Marine toys plus a number of game-breaking Chapter abilities. First, all Ultramarine units can literally walk out of Close Combat and keep firing, making assault orientated armies useless against them. Second, they can regain any spent Command Points on a 5+ so really can spam those Re-Rolls. This is before we even get into what Rowboat can do to your army.

=====[[Roboute Guilliman]]=====
Any keyword '''Imperium''' unit within 12" adds 1 to advances and charges, re-roll hits of 1 and can re-roll failed morale tests, meaning you can spam the '''fuck''' out of stupidly cheap [[Imperial Guard]] Plasma.

'''Ultramarines''' units within 6" re-roll all hit rolls, and to-wound rolls of 1 as of the Ultramarines codex supplement. Guilliman himself is affected by his own aura, allowing him to add 1 to charges and advances as well as re-roll hits and 1s to wound. If all that wasn't enough if your army is battleforged you get 3 extra CP.). [[That Guy |It's not unusual to see him sat in the middle of a pile of Assault Cannon Razorbacks with Lascannon Squads inside, and Stormravens tossed in for good measure. Or sat behind a huge wall of Hellblasters]].

Guilliman himself is a beast in close combat, with a 3++, 9 Wounds and 6 S8, AP-4 3 Damage attacks with 6's adding d3 Mortal Wounds. He also has a Power Fist with no to hit penalty and flat 4 damage because of course he fucking does. He also revives on a 4+ with 1d6 Wounds back so good luck killing this fucker for good unless you literally send hordes of Fire Dragons or Scions after him. And even then he's just going to get back up and murder whatever downed him next turn.

So for all of this, he must be expensive, right? Even Wraithknights must be cheap compared to-[[What |what he only costs fucking 350 points as of the new Ultramarine supplement?!]] Yeah. So, barring restrictions, it's very possible to take him in [[Fail |500 point games...]] and is one of the few LoW choices that can be. There are countless batreps out there of him taking on entire armies alone and just crushing them.

Basically, Ultramarines, and Imperium by extension, shoot better than any other army, fight better than any other army and are all but immune to morale thanks to this unbalanced cunt.

====[[Raven Guard]]====
Anything shooting at the Raven Guard is shooting at -1 to hit if outside of 12" (this was changed to only apply while in cover, 12" away, and only to non-vehicles, as well as giving the cover armor bonus while outside of 12" regardless of being in cover or not), and they can spend CP to allow infantry to Deep Strike just before Turn 1 (this was changed in the April 2019 update, you still set up after normal deployment during turn one but instead of anywhere on the board you set up in your deployment zone and move up to 9".). This pretty much guarantees that you will always be going first with your Aggressors dropping in right next to an opponent without having counted as moved.

Oh, and their Warlords are immune to Overwatch so [[MURDERWINGS]] is back, and it's cheaper to do than just taking Shrike.

====[[Iron Hands]]====
Dear lord, where do we begin with their current supplement?
They can make Dreadnoughts Characters, they have T'au-level overwatch, and they're hardier than the usual Space Marines. Their combination of relics is beyond busted, able to make the castle of all castles where you can't target rifleman dreadnoughts, as well as healing any damage you may have inflicted if you got lucky enough to do so.

====[[Chapter Master Smashfucker]]====
Smashfucker is back and broken as ever. Take an Iron Hands Captain on Bike with a Thunder Hammer and Shield Eternal and the Iron Resolve Warlord trait. The result is a stupidly mobile Beatstick with 7 Wounds and a 3+/3++/6+++/6++++. Plus unlike Girlyman, an Apothecary can heal him. The FAQ ruling on I-can't-believe-it's-not-FNP abilities nerfed him down to "only" a 3+/3++/6+++, but he's still dead 'ard.

====[[Chapter Master Slamguinius]]====
Well, known [[Murderwings]] variant exclusive to the [[Blood Angels]]. Take a Captain with Jump Pack and give him a Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield and Angel's Wing. It comes in at 129 points, making him cheaper than Dante. [[Awesome |Toss in Black Rage for 1 CP you get 5 S8 AP -3 3 Damage attacks that will wound all infantry in a 2+ due to Red Thirst, and Wounds T8 on a 3+, all ignoring Overwatch]]. Taking Artisan of War puts him up to 4 Damage per attack which means [[rage|even Knights and Spiritual Lieges aren't going to be safe]]. Or you can throw in Gift of Foresight so he's sitting at a 3+/3++/5+++ (3+/2++/5+++ with Celestine around). What else can be done to break him further? [[Rape |Well Throwing in Unleash Rage and Red Rampage for 1 CP puts him at 7-9 Attacks which are S8, Ap-3 and 4 Damage, and having a Sanguinary Priest around buffs those attacks up to S10!]]. If the Sanguinor is around you get another bonus attack. Did we also mention that if he's fighting Chaos marines, [[anal circumference|those attacks Explode on a 6+ with the use of Vengeance for Sanguinius]]? 4+ against Black Legion? Have fun!
If that is still not enough damage take "Honour the Chapter" or "Only in death does duty end" for a second fight phase.

===Iron Leviathan===
Leviathan Dreadnoughts are legal for 40k. You can take them, and with the new Iron Hands Supplement rules they get not only T'au Sept level overwatch, they also treat their wounds twice as high for the sake of damage charts. The stupid thing can also get 6 wounds back a turn with the help of [[Malkaan Feirros|Iron Father Feirros]] EVERY TURN. Oh, don't forget the 6+ FNP (5+) with the stratagem and the 3++. Also, it's a fucking dreadnought. Thankfully Iron Hands Leviathans can at most shed 2 points of damage thanks to an FAQ.

===Chaos Daemons===

[[Chaos Daemons]] are one of two armies in the game that can fill multiple Brigade Detachments in a normal match thanks to Brimstone Horrors (the other is Imperial Guard). Plus they can cherry pick the Guard's best units via the Renegades faction, and the Chaos Space Marines best toys and characters due to the Chaos keyword.

*Daemons and thousand sons with 60 plague bearers, some sorcerers and the dreaded skullreaver khorne daemon prince is one of the most infuriating and powerful lists in the game as all the lists true damage dealers can't be targeted normally, at least not without killing 60 Plague bearers. Or, if you have spare Vindicare Assassins or Snipers laying around...

===Adeptus Custodes Doombike===

[[Adeptus Custodes]] are very hard to kill in general, but if you're really intent on feeding off your enemy's impotent rage then you can build a nice little Doombike. Take a Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike as your warlord and give him the '''Auric Aquilas''' Relic which gives him a 3+ Invulnerable save (as well as the ability to re-roll failed charge rolls). Next, give him the '''Superior Creation''' Warlord Trait which gives him a 5+ FnP. Top that with the '''Victor of the Blood Games''' Stratagem right at the start of the game that allows him to re-roll a failed hit/wound or '''save roll''' per turn!

This results in a highly mobile '''character''' (which means he can't be shot at if he's not the closest target, so with clever positioning as with all characters, it will take an eternity until he even gets hit once) that has 7W, 6T, 2+/3++/5+++ with the ability to re-roll one save per turn outside of command re-rolls. Besides that he is extremely mobile, meaning he will extremely hard to outmanoeuvre by your enemy and he's in an army that already soaks up firepower like nothing... If he is caught in a bad fight for him, he can always disengage using his {{W40kKeyword|FLY}} keyword. Against Mortal Wounds, in the Psykic phase, he has his Custodes standard 6++ save as well. And with all that, he is very good in close combat and very good at shooting too: His natural aura gives him reroll 1s to hit, and as he has BS and WS 2+, it means he will miss an attack '''once out of thirty-six'''. And if that wasn't enough, his interceptor lance allows him to reroll all failed wound rolls on the charge, and as he has the {{W40kKeyword|FLY}} keyword, he can shoot, charge, attack, fall back, shoot again, and then charge and fight again. So, let's recap: 5 attacks that hit on 2s, rerolling ones, that are S6, rerolling all failed wound rolls on the charge, with an AP that makes anything without a decent invuln cry, and D3 damage per failed save. And he has an extra Misericordia attack (S5, AP-1, D2). And as he has the {{W40Kkeyword|fly}} keyword, he can fall back and charge in the same turn, meaning he always gets to reroll failed wounds. We weren't joking when we said this page was for the cheesiest units in the game. Oh, and if you were thinking about swarming him, think again, because he can take hurricane bolters. Fucking hell.

But at least if you kill him you get Slay the Warlord right? '''''WRONG!''''' Your opponent can simple use the '''Shoulder the Mantle''' stratagem for ''1CP'' and make one of their other 2+/3++ Bike Captains their new Warlord who also gets to generate a new Warlord trait (which you'll obviously just choose 5+++ save again). This new Captain won't have VotBG but still. Fucking. Hell.

For about 180 points quite a steal...

Get out of here, [[Smashfucker]], you've been dethroned!

===Autarch Skyrunner===

No, really.

On the opposite end of the Spectrum, [[MURDERWINGS|the Eldar are able to make an obscenely fast character that is less durable than the above, but is more mobile and hits even harder]]. 125 Points (using the Xenos 1 Index - this loadout is no longer available in the Codex) gets you a Jetbike character with 6W, T4, and 4 S6 AP3-, D2 Attacks (Hitting on 2+, Re-Rolling 1's) on the Charge (only S3 when not on the charge) that is immune to Overwatch, has a 3+/4++ (Can be boosted to 2+/3++ if a Warlock Protects them) 16" movement. They also have 4 Shuriken shots, a Meltagun shot (that they can snipe characters with, with the right trait) as well on top of all of this, as well as access to a stratagem that lets them Fall Back and Charge for one turn (for 2 command points). They also can pick a Relic that gives them a blanket -1 to hit with access to a Stratagem that can make that -2 (costs 2CP and lasts for a single shooting or fight phase) with the potential to boost that up to a -3 with a warlock casting conceal or even -4 if 12" away for Alaitoc. You can also make him more effective at shredding infantry with the Blazing Star of Vaul if you swap out the wargear that gives -1 to hit.

So let's look at how silly the Variants are:

*'''Saim-Hann:''' With the Right Warlord Trait and Novalance, (you lose your -1 to hit, though), but you are now up to 5 S8 AP-2, D2 attacks, D4 on any 6's to wound, 5's if a Warlock casts Enhance on them. Combine this with the Supreme Disdain Stratagem and they also Explode on 5's. Oh, and you can advance and charge for 1CP though you are likely reserving that strat for the huge Shining Spear blob with them. Cast Empower on him for a flat +1 to wound and even Imperial Knights are suffering critical existence failure.

*'''Ynnari''': Everything the default Autarch gets but the ability to move twice, charge again, shoot twice or attack twice. As mentioned in the Soup section, these free actions are incredibly powerful themselves, and the Autarch can benefit from the majority of the Bonus actions that Strength from Death can grant. There's a very good reason why lists at LVO basically spammed these guys. With the Shuriken Catapult and Laser lance hits after charging, and they can easily charge twice per turn.

Looks like [[MURDERWINGS]] didn't vanish, he just ran off to race the Space Elves.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Gamebreaking]] [[Category:Warhammer 40000 Tactics]]

===Imperial Knights===
This is partly debatable, unlike Guard. Knights are an enormous point-sink and don't have quite as much firepower for their point-costs. However, the following Household-specific stratagems can make these big boyz infuriatingly hard to kill, or infuriating in general. This being said, many of these stratagems were slapped with an additional Command point tax due to how cheesy they were.

*'''Rotate Ion Shield:''' Watch how I turn this 24W with 5++ behemoth into a 24W 4++ behemoth, at the cost of 1 CP. Or 3CP for a Castellan. When combined with 'Ion Bulwark' it gives your 24/28W Knights a 3++ (CA 2018 nerfed this to a maximum of 4++). For maximum cheese, the Knight player can use the House Hawkshroud trait so that the Knight's wounds count as double for the purposes of the damage table. NOW have fun taking it down.

*'''Order of Companions:''' House Raven stratagem which makes your knight reroll every hit rolls, wound rolls, damage rolls, number of shots rolls of 1 in the shooting phase for 2 CP. The aforementioned Castellan with Cawl's Wrath relic (S8/9; AP-4; D2/3) make sure that not only your big boy is not going down easily, but he can just pop any vehicle without invul save or with negative hit modifier in a single turn of shooting using the overcharged profile. Or just point the Lance in the general direction and let it go. One of the reasons why 3 of the top 4 players in NOVA Open played what is basically the same stuff: AM battalion/brigade for CP and board control - BA battalion with Slamguinis and a lone Raven Castellan. After the 2nd big FAQ bomb, this had been nerfed to 3 CP. Some lists simply drop the Blood Angel Battalion to keep the CP and fuel the knight instead.

*'''In our darkest hours:''' House Taranis stratagem. On a 4+ your Knights get back up with D3 wounds remaining if it didn't explode. Your opponent thought they finally killed the raid boss, only for it to unleash hell next turn thanks to 'Machine Spirit Resurgent'. Fun times inbound.

*'''Death Grip:''' You and your opponent roll a d6 and each add your respective strengths, if your opponent rolls equal to or greater nothing happens otherwise they take d3 mortal wounds and YOU KEEP ROLLING UNTIL THEY DIE OR WIN. Given you're strength 8, this means you can effectively auto kill certain character's like Creed and Eldrad unless you roll a 1 and he rolls a 6. Not so obscene now that your opponent auto-escapes on a 6 but can still infuriate your opponent if he rolls badly.

===Tyranids===
*'''Sonic the Genestealer:''' As covered in the rules bloopers page, Genestealers can potentially reach a top speed of 66". Tyranids have a Stratagem called Metabolic Overdrive that lets a unit move a second time in the Movement Phase in exchange for not being able to Charge that turn. Hive Fleet Kraken Tyranids roll 3d6 and pick the highest roll for determining their Advance move, while their Opportunistic Advance Stratagem lets them double their Advance distance for that movement phase. The initial issue was that RaW, Advance added to your Move Characteristic for that phase, instead of increasing your characteristic for that specific move. Thus, a unit of Kraken Genestealers could move not 8 + 12 + 8 + 12 inches in the Move Phase, but 8 + 12 + 8 + 12 + 12. Combine with a Swarmlord's Hive Commander ability for an effective top speed of 66", and a unit of Kraken Genestealers could outrun a supersonic aircraft on foot. Gotta go fast!

===Renegades and Heretics===
Renegades and Heretics are probably one of (if not the) weakest armies in the game right now. They are significantly worse than Guard with nothing to make up for it, but at the start of the edition they did have access to one notably broken list, featuring the one, the only...

*The Malefic Lord! At the start of 8th, he was a mere 30 points. With no Rule of 3 or Smite casting value increases, you could take 12 of these, stuff them in a Valkyrie, run it across the board, drop them out, move them each of them closer and spam Smite. Didn't care too much about Perils, because if they survive, they become S8, A5, WS2+, and their Bare Hands becomes AP-1, D1. They got hit hard in the early FAQs and Chapter Approved. Became 80 points each, then the Rule of 3 limited how many you could take, then the Smite nerf happened. Can't quite be run to the same effect anymore

*[[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw--]] Those things shared similar statlines here as they did with every other entry, except for {{W40kKeyword|BEAST}} being swapped with {{W40kKeyword|INFANTRY}}. Meaning, you could stick 12 of these in a Valkyrie (as one unit, mind) and well, you can guess the rest.

The Horus Heresy: Legions

2020-04-11T14:35:11Z

2A01:598:8082:AEA3:99D8:3FAB:648E:F95: /* Card Attributes */

{{/vg/}}
'''Horus Heresy: Legions''' is a card game for mobile released by Everguild. The card game focus in each of the 30K Space Marine Legions and their conflict through the Age of Darkness (though you have a few Imperial Army Commanders, Mechanicum and Deamons in here). The card game can be surprisingly strategic, and not as RNG focused as say, Hearthstone. The game uses a basic resource called energy, with a max of 10 per turn and has a standard competitive ladder (named after different planets and battlefields of the Heresy), practice modes, and "Events" - narrative themed challenges with a selection of 3 sealed format decks per 4 warlords, which are occasionally ones that cannot be acquired in the main game (although some are introduced after being balanced) and let players try out Warlords they wouldn't normally have access to. Some Events will have unusual rules or conditions, like playing as Titan's or Super Heavy Tanks with exaggerated health and abilities. Everguild have also put a lot of effort into trying to make the legions thematically fluffy with appropriate game mechanics, along with a decent effort at creating competitive balance.

==Warlords==
Warlords are your center characters of the game, with each possessing special abilities that differentiate them from each other. Each faction have their own unique commanders, along with each legion’s Primarch. Primarchs (and Constantin Valdor, for some reason) differ from other warlords by having an alternative form (such as Daemon Primarchs, getting angry, going mad, or some other fluffy thing) as a card that can only be played (or reduced in cost to be playable) under certain conditions, like having a certain number of troops die, being reduced to one health, or triggering a certain number of effects per game. They then heal a set amount of health and are buffed in some way, along with their special ability changing.

Warlords also vary in terms of starting hp (25, 30, 35, and 40, with some Warlords having Survivor to buff up the number)and their initiative (Very Low, Low, Medium, High, and Very High) which defines who goes first. If both Warlords have the same initiative, then it becomes a 50/50 chance. Despite the apparent advantage of higher hp, lower hp Warlords will often have more useful abilities, higher initiative, or additional advantages like starting with extra cards, extra energy, having unique cards, or other abilities like Relentless or Battle Honour (discussed later) to compensate, so having a Primarch with 10 extra HP isn't an automatic I WIN button. It should also be noted that unlike several other card games (Hearthstone springs to mind) your Warlord can always deal damage and - in the case of some Legions (like World Eaters, Night Lords, or Custodes) - will depend on them as part of their overall strategy - Angron and Sevetar are built around this, for example.

==Legions==
Each legion have their own "shitck" as it should be, and some special abilities. So far Everguild released the following Legions:

===I Legion: [[Dark Angels]]===
NOT YET RELEASED

===III Legion: [[Emperor's Children]]===
*Warlords - Saul Tarvitz, Fabius Bile, Lucius, Fulgrim
Fulgrim's Prancing Peacocks. Their main skill is "Perfection" which activates if you spend the rest of your Energy on that card it triggers some special effect (drawing a card, for instance). Have lots of ways to reduce cost of cards. They also have a lot (but not all) of "Battle Honour" cards, which trigger an effect when a unit with it kills another. Their playstyle relies on timing effective combos and ensuring you can trigger as many Perfection effects as possible to gain the advantage, which you'll have to do because their troops are average if you don't. They also depend on breaking the "curve" of energy costs and getting more powerful units into play ahead of time.

===IV Legion: [[Iron Warriors]]===
* Warlords - Narik Dreygur, Forix, Barban Falk, Perturabo.

Perturabo's Bitter Boi's. Lots of front line, bunkers, barricades, and Siege, an ability to "prepare" for one turn, and allowing you to use it whenever you want. Said abilities are usually proportionately strong - one card has the ability to deal 15 damage to the enemy warlord. The disadvantage is that the enemy will usually have at least two turns to eliminate a seige unit before they can do something but this can be used as a soft front line. This said, they now have the ability to remove the turn long wait, as well as mitigating siege by adding Bloodthirst. They have lots of front line troops as well as lots of ways to do damage to and destroy front lines and vehicles. Also have a theme of damaging/destroying their troops for buffs, buffing cards in your deck ahead of time, and generating new troops and recycling cards back into their deck.

===V Legion: [[White Scars]]===

Coming Soon!

===VI Legion: [[Space Wolves]]===

* Warlords - Othere Wyrdmake, Giegor Felhand, Bulveye, Leman Russ.

Russ's Space Corgis. Very aggressive cards that rely on having lots of board control to maximise utility. Have two unique mechanics ; "Ward" makes a troop or warlord unable to be targeted by enemy tactics or abilities (random or blanket targeting still works). "Pack" triggers beneficial effects when allied units attack and unlike many other abilities, this can activate the turn the unit comes into play. Have a fair number of Berserk and Bloodthirst cards too. Appropriately, they are rather effective against the Thousand Sons, with Ward providing cover for many of the Thousand Son's tactics and unit abilities. A powerful unit with Ward is incredibly hard to deal with without drowning it in troops, so keep some blanket targeting or cleave troops handy.

===VII Legion: [[Imperial Fists]]===
NOT YET RELEASED

===VIII Legion: [[Night Lords]]===

* Warlords : Mawdrym, Sevetar, Malcharion, Konrad Curze.

Curze's Spoopy Skeletons. Their big thing is Terror. Troops won't take damage when the enemy has less attack than you do, which synergises well with their plentiful debuffs for enemy attack power. They also get the ability to stop enemy troops from attacking, which you will need because your troops can't take as much of a hit as other legions. Lots of flank, unstoppable, conditional fast, and stealth, as well as situational abilities when the enemy doesn't have any troops, further egging on the bullying theme.

===IX Legion: [[Blood Angels]]===

* Warlords : Meros, Raldoron, Sanguinius.

Sanguinius' heavenly heamatophages. They have a lot of flank, drop pod, beserk, bloodthirst and unstoppable. Their unique mechanics are Requiem and the rather prosaic sounding Landing. Requiem creates effects when an adjacent troop to the Requiem holder dies and Landing is an additional effect attatched to Drop Pod that triggers an additional effect if the 2 hp drop pod isn't destroyed before the next turn.
They are a troop heavy legion that relies on, if not outright board control, then a consistent stream of troops in play at all times, as well as the expectation of deliberately losing troops to get the most out of Requiem. Their tactics are orientated around buffing their troops, as well as giving them a little bit more survivability. You will want Front Line units to screen your Requiem and Landing units as much as possible. They also uniquely get the ability to make their drops pods tougher, potentially up to 4hp, meaning that your glass cannons will have a greater chance of actually doing something or Landing activating without a hitch.

===X Legion: [[Iron Hands]]===

* Warlords: Shadrak Meduson, Amadeus Ducaine, Gabriel Santar, Ferrus Manus.

Ferrus' Stubborn Soldiers. Focused on Relentless cards, which activate an effect - usually a stat buff - at the start of each turn. Also have tons of healing and board clears as well as some powerful vehicles which can be created by Captured Forge. Their game plan is typically to either use their healing and board clears to outlast the enemy before dropping heavy units in the late game or to build a board of relentless buffing troops whose stats snowball out of control. However, you really need to keep your troops alive in order to get the most out of them, and you're going to feel every loss a lot more acutely than other legions.

===XII Legion: [[World Eaters]]===

* Warlords : Ehrlen, Shabran Darr, Kharn, Angron.

Angron's Angry Aggressors. Their gameplan is to hit the opposing warlord in the face every turn and kill him quickly. Have a lot of units with abilities that proc when damaged. Also have lots of board clears that damage themselves and the enemy. Their unique mechanics are Berserk (which forces the troop or Warlord to attack each turn which can be lethal against high end front line troops) Rage, which triggers an effect when the unit takes damage, and they have a lot of cards with Bloodthirst, which lets a unit act twice. As a result, the World Eaters also have a lot of cheap tactics that inflict damage, as well as tactics that buff damaged troops. Stun and strong Frontline is their kryptonite. The only one of the base set legions to remain consistently competitive throughout. It's not uncommon for World Eater decks at all levels of play to compromised almost entirely of tactics, as they frequently don't need troops at all.

===XIII Legion: [[Ultramarines]]===

* Warlords - Aeonid Thiel, Marius Gage, Roboute Guilliman.

Roboute's Rule-abiding Rangers. They're a generalist deck (appropriately enough) with an emphasis on buffing, card draw and adaptability ; many of their troops, tactics, and warlords do 2 different (usually mutually exclusive) things, giving them some flexibility in how they're used. Their unqiue mechanic is Courage, which activates an additional effect if the opposing player has more units than you. Their tactics are also labelled as Theoreticals and Practicals ; several of their regular tactics and unit abilities either generate them or draw them from your deck. The gist is that an Ultramarine deck ought to have the right card for any situation but their playstyle relies on being reactive rather than proactive, in addition to relying on an enemy having more board control in order to get the best out of your deck, which is pretty hard to justify. They also really depend on their Courage mechanic, otherwise their troops are badly costed for what they do. Roboute is also much closer to Julius Caesar than to our [[Spiritual Liege]], using strategy from behind the lines but joining them as soon as he deems it needed, and even if they have all been slain, he is still capable of overturning the whole situation by himself.

===XIV Legion: [[Death Guard]]===
* Warlords - Nathaniel Garro, Durak Rask, Callas Typhon, Mortarion.

Mortarion's hazardous hardcases. They focus on poison (kills enemies in the following turn), high health front line troops, and healing themselves. Also have a lot of troops with backlash- abilities that trigger on destruction of the troop.Deathshroud is an 8/8 troop whose backlash ability spawns another Deathshroud! WAIT NO I DIDN'T MEAN THAT KIND OF SPAAEARRGH They also have a smattering a Chaos synergy, along with self healing troops and the odd Nurgleing. Have been rather left behind with power creep and other legion's more dynamic playstyles, although they have recently recieved a retool that emphasises their Poison abilities, along with ways to instantly destroy units that have been Poisoned.

===XV Legion: [[Thousand Sons]]===
* Warlords - Phosis T’Kar, Ahriman, Amon, Magnus.

Magnus' Magical Musketmen. All their Warlords and a few of their units generate Psychic Power per turn ; an additional resource a bit like energy that you can use to play tactics or unit abilities. The upside of this is that if you manage your energy and psychic energy well, you can unleash all of the mind bullet dakka - do it badly or lose your crucial generating troops and you'll be forced to play like a more conventional legion (and lose). Their other mechanics include precognition, which stops friendly units being attacked (tactics and abilities are still bueno) and Reflection, which allows tactics to be cast as many times in the same turn as you have energy / psychic power to cast it. Because they got released in Yin-Yang with the Space Wolves, Precognition is a useful counter for the Space Wolves' aggressive troops. Were horrifically broken on release, to the point that most TS deck strategy was to survive until they got 10 energy, and then just unload all the psychic power they'd stockpiled (or more sadistically spam a 4 energy/damage card that returned to hand if there are no troops on their side).

===XVI Legion: [[Luna Wolves]]/[[Sons of Horus]]===

* Warlords : Garviel Loken, Abbadon, Tarik Torgaddon, Horus.

The Warmasters own and the first deck you get with Loken as its center Warlord. A jack of all trades faction with a focus on drop pods, direct damage, and card draw, with a smattering of Chaos synergy on the side. All of their warlords' abilities do direct damage, draw a card, or both. They certainly aren't bad but power-creep has very much come into play, and their lack of a unqiue play dynamic can leave them sidelined. They recieved a minor retool to give them more Chaos synergy, buffing several key troops, and creating more focus on doing massive burst damage.

===XVII Legion: [[Word Bearers]]===

Warlords : Argel Tal, Erebus, Lorgar, Zardu Layak.

Lorgar's Fundamentalist Fellows. Have lots of synergy with Deamons (along with specific buffs with the UNNAMEABLE BEASTS), Sacrifice cards, and wholesale buffs to troops. Their unique mechanic is Deamonhost, which confers random buffs on a unit. They also have a lot of cards that benefit from sacrificing (not the keyword) other troops to either deal damage, buff your own troops, or summoning deamons. They have a lot of synergy with the Chaos neutral deck, including one of their warlords taking an alternate form if half your deck consists of Chaos cards. Another unique feature is that some of their troops have dual troop types, meaning they can get buffs that apply to both. They also get the ability to mitigate maintenance costs for Deaemons.

===XVIII Legion: [[Salamanders]]===

* Warlords : Artellus Numeon, Cassian Dracos, Nemetor, Vulkan.

Vulkan's Pyromaniac Pillar-Men, focused on fire (several of their troops have abilities that damage enemies), "Survivor" (which allows it to survive and heal a set amount of health when it has its health reduced to 0 by damage), and Sacrifice (when they are reduced to 0 health while attacking an enemy, an effect is triggered, hopefully activating "Survivor" and bringing the unit back where they can potentially activate their Sacrifice ability again). They are a slow faction and lack fast or flank units and only have 2 direct damage tactics, both of which only do 2 damage per target. You'll want to put as many troops with Survivor on the board as possible, along with balancing keeping your troops alive with the advantages that Sacrifice will give you (which ties in nicely with the fluff of Salamanders being enduring and self-sacrificing at the same time).

===XIX Legion: [[Raven Guard]]===

* Warlords : Vicente Sixx, Agapito Nev, Nykona Sharrowkyn, Corax.

Corax's furtive flighties. Focused on Stealth (making the unit untargetable), Sneak Attack (causing damage on attack without taking it back), Flank (allowing a troop to attack another troop immediately when summoned) and their own special skill "Sentence" (additonal damage caused to a unit that is marked as sentenced). Have lots of tactics that deal damage (usually smaller amounts) to seperate targets or multiple times seperately, so as to maximise Sentencing damage. Can be insanely difficult to beat if you don't have stealth revealing and blanket or random targeting.

===XX Legion: [[Alpha Legion]]===

* Warlords : Alpharius, Alpharius, Alpharius, Alpharius (Armillus Dynat, Ingo Pech, Exodus, Alpharius, Omegon, Alpha Legionaire)

Alpharius' Alpharius. They have special tactics like Orders, that target enemy units and forcing them to use certain abilities and traps, which insert cards into the opponents deck and cause negative effects when drawn. Play very different from other factions and currently the only faction that can mill the opponent's deck and use fatigue damage as a win condition. Many of their units have stun abilities or abilties that harm the opposing player when they play cards. In short, they are fucking annoying to play against, which is kind of the point. All their Warlords also start each game as an 'anonymous' Legionary (who isn't actually a bad warlord in any case) which can then be revealed at any point by the Alpha Legion player, along with healing the difference in health at the same time, thus simulating the "I am Alpharius" thing. They also have a tactic that allows them to become a different Alpha legion warlord. This tactic can be copied by opponents using certain cards like Jubak Starsight. This means that a warhound titan can transform into Alpharius.

===Adeptus Custodes===

* Warlords : Arascid Nassau, Vettranio Shapura, Amon Tauromachian, Constantin Valdor.

Daddy's real favorites. Soft focus on front line units, with lots of flank, and disproportionately high stats for their energy cost. Many of their troops also get "First Strike", where they don't take any retaliatory damage if they kill an opposing troop while attacking. A few of their warlords have it too, giving them a lot more utility than other warlords who have to be kept safe. The downside is that many of their units have the Sentinel ability, meaning that you cannot draw a card the beginning of your turn whilst the card with sentinel is in play. A lot of their tactics and unit abilities revolve around card draw and troop generation, so you need to keep your hand full or you'll lose. It's also worth noting that they have a unique Custodes troop type, which can affect how cards in the neutral decks work (or don't) with them. They also have a lot of ways to boost their warlord's damage and survivability.

===Orphans of War===

Warlords: Atesh Tarsa, Endryd Haar, Ulrach Brantham, Nerat Kirine

The cast-off and shamed legionaries of everyone else, they form a Blackshield fighting force that gets access to the unique abilities of almost every legion. Their tactics are highly effective at messing around with the enemy, including mass copying and (uniquely) STEALING cards from the opponents deck, and their wide use of Stealth and Survivor means that they are suprisingly difficult to put down (again, thematically appropriate). However, they aren't so much a jack of all trades as a middling 9 and their lack of a consistent play dynamic can cause problems against a focussed legion deck. They also rely on quite a bit on RNG in several of their units and tactics, making them more a gamble than most other legions. Several of their cards also generate troops and tactics from other decks, but again, this is randomly determined. Card stealing is also dependent on your opponents deck, although it's worth it to deprive the enemy of their trump card or wombo strategy maker.

===Deamons of the Ruinstorm===

* Warlords : Kyriss, Cor'Bax, Kah'banda.

Those nice boys from over the road. They are are unique for a legion deck in that they can't take cards from the Imperial Army or Mechanicum neutral decks, which limits some tactical options. But as you can imagine, they get a lot of synergy with the Chaos neutral deck. The majority of their cards, which are classified as Deamons, don't have maintenance and you have a few ways to mitigate maintenance for the neutral daemons too. Mutation is their unique mechancic, playing similarly to Deamonhost (natch). Their cards are also fairly strong for the their cost, making them the traitor equivalent of the Custodes deck. Their tactics focus on buffing and generating more deamon cards, along with a lot of buffing for the warlord.

==Neutral Decks==
Imperial Army, Mechanicum, and Chaos are included here. Whilst Legion Warlords can take cards from any of the Neutral decks, the Neutral Warlords can only take cards from other Neutral decks, which is a pretty big handicap. To compensate, Neutral Warlords typically have more immediately powerful abilities and attritbutes than Legion Warlords. Their 40 hp warlords also don't have an awakened form, for some reason. And yes, you can have Chaos cards in Loyalist Warlord decks, move along..

===Imperial Army===

Warlords: Colonel Ornatov, Lucretia Elunnirai, Lotara Sarrin, Thaddeus Fayle, Callidus Assassain

Lots of Frontline, cheap infantry, expensive vehicles, and structures - usually with buffing effects for troops or ways of generating more troops. No unique mechanics or focus but almost every deck will benefit from them, especially their Front Line stuff.

===Mechanicum===

Warlords: Kelbor Hal, Caleb Decima, Tacitus Proctor

Varied troops and vehicles with a variety of buffs, debuffs, and other effects, as well as healing for vehicles and structures. A few of their units and commanders generate mechadendrites - cheap buffs with a variety of effects.

===Chaos===

Warlords: Ingethel, Canis Vertex, Captured Mandragorax, Chaos Spawn OHGODNOIDIDN'TMEANARRRGHGHGLGPGP.

A variety of aggressive unit types, debuffs and damaging effects, usually with an indiscriminate or random targetting / damage. Their main shtick is Chaos Marks and Deamons. Chaos Marks are random but cheap buffs (one per Chaos god). If you manage to get all 4 on a non-deamon troop (you won't get the same twice, so you'll only need 4), they turn into one of the greater Deamon cards, which can be pretty powerful if you can get them off early. Deamons are (generally) pretty powerful units for their cost but they all have maintenance, which subtracts a given value from your total energy pool, which can be a handicap mid/late game. A few commanders and units can reduce maintenance or circumvent it completely. Also have access to Titan warlords rather than the Mechanicum, for some reason..

==Card Attributes==

Whilst various legions specialise in a few unique abilties, this doesn't necessarily mean only they will have them. Blue abilities cost energy to activate. Grey Abilities are persistant. Red abilties are Seige - an Iron Warriors exclusive - and works a bit like a regular Blue ability, except that it takes a turn to charge and then can be activated at the controllers discretion. They're usually a lot stronger than most unit abilities and your opponent will try to murder them first. Purple Abilties are Psychic abilites and can only be activated with Psychic Energy. They're Thousand Sons exclusive. Some abilities will also cancel out the effects of others ; you can apply Stealth to a Front Line unit, but then Front Line won't work until the unit is unstealthed. Troops are also designated a type such as Astartes, Infantry, Vehicle, Custodes, Deamon, Structure etc, that affects how they interact with certain other cards and abilities (such as Chaos Marks only being usable on non-Deamon cards).

* Backlash : Triggers an effect when the troop dies.
* Battle Honour : Does something when one unit defeats another, although it has to actually survive too.
* Beserk : Unit has to act every turn. World Eaters have a lot of these. Doesn't necessarily mean the unit has to attack ( Warlords could use their ability, for example) but most cards with it are just beatsticks.
* Blood Thirst: Unit can act twice per turn. World Eaters, Space Wolves, and Iron Warriors love these. Usually on cards that don't have lots of health as a check. As with Beserk, it doesn't have to be used for attacking twice.
* Can't Attack : Self explanatory, usually on Structure type troops but occasionally an appliable debuff. Night Lords like this a lot.
* Cleave : Deals a set amount of damage to the units on either side of the unit attacked. Good at circumventing Front Line.
* Courage: When your opponent has more troops than you (including their warlord) this activates additional effects. Ultramarine's unique attribute.
* Deamonhost : Confers a random attribute buff from a list onto the troop. They can stack and if you get all of them, any additional Deamonhost counters will just add +2/+2. However, you'll have a hard job keeping the troop alive long enough to do so. Also adds the Deamon troop type to the unit.
* Drop Pod : Gives the troop a 2 hp shield until their next turn after being played, giving cheap or fragile cards a chance to do something.
* Fast : Troops can attack the moment they come into play. Usually on glass cannon cards.
* First Strike : Custodes only. You won't take damage attacking if you kill the opposing troop (and technically the Warlord but that's a very rare scenario to avoid drawing).
* Flank : Like fast, but can only attack other troops out the gate.
* Front Line: Troops with this have to be attacked first before attacking the warlord or non-frontline troops. You will need them in your deck.
* Jam : Gets rid of any buffs, malus', or special abilities on a card. Using it on your own units can result in some fun things, like buildings attacking or getting rid of Maintenance on Daemons..
* Landing : Blood Angels signiture attribute. Attached to Drop Pod units, it triggers an additional effect if the 2hp Drop Pod survives till the next turn.
* Mark of Chaos: Gives the (non daemon) troop one of four random Mark of Chaos buffs. Get all 4 on one troop and they'll turn into a greater deamon card.
* Maintenance: Deamon exclusive - subtracts a given amount of energy from your total pool whilst the deamon card is in play. Can be really bad news if your opponent is able to stun that unit, rendering it useless, and hobbling your energy supply. Can also be applied to other troops in very rare circumstances.
* Meltdown : A card attribute applied to Titan Weapon cards for Warlords. Killing the individual weapon will deal a substantial amount of damage to adjacent units - usually the other Titan components. Only applies to one warlord in the main game but the special event warlords have random titans more often.
* Mutation : Ruinstorm signiture ability. Gives a daemonic buff - always good - AND reduced maintenance for Daemons. Nice synergy with the Neutral daemon cards too.
* Pack : Space Woof unique ability. Activates an effect whenever another friendly unit attacks. With board control, this is incredibly powerful.
* Perfection : Emperor's Children signiture ability. Causes additional effects if the card being played uses all the remaining energy from your pool.
* Poisonous : when applied to a troop, makes it's attacks kills the affected troop at the end of the controllers next turn. Usually used to prompt the affected player to throw that troop away, as it's going to die anyway. Death Guard have most of these but a few other decks have cards that can remove the effect.
* Psyker : Thousand Son's exclusive. Generates x amount of psyhcic energy per turn, which is used by the TS's to pay for tactics and unit abilites. You will want a lot of it.
* Precognition : Thousand Son's unique ability. Units with this (usually a buff, but a tiny number of units have this PERMANENTLY) cannot be attacked by other units. Kill them with abilities or tactics instead. Good against Space Wolves. Worth of note, one of the Custodes warlords, Arascid Nassau, has an ability that can give him this if he kills an enemy with it.
* Rage : Triggers an effect when directly damaged. World Eaters have most of these.
* Rally : Does something when the card is played out of the hand. Nice and easy.
* Relentless : Iron Hand's favorite. Triggers an effect at the beggining of every turn AFTER the card is played. Kill them quickly before they snowball out of control.
* Reflection : Thousand Son's unique ability. Usually a base part of their tactics but some of their troops can confer this on other cards. It lets you cast a Psychic Power tactic as many times in that turn as you have Psyhcic Energy to cast it. A few neutral cards have this, with regular energy being the cost instead.
* Requiem : Blood Angel's signiture ability. A unit or warlord with this will trigger a specific effect when an adjacent troop dies. Notably easier to use than Sacrifice as this would work regardless of whether it's your turn or not.
* Sacrifice : Salamanders and Word Bearers exclusive - activates an effect when the troop dies whilst ATTACKING another unit. Synergies nicely with Survivor.
* Secret Order : Alpha Legion exclusive. Applied to an opponents troops, and triggers negative effects under certain conditions, like playing another troop, or attacking a warlord. The kicker is that you don't know which trap Secret Order was played until you activate it's condition. Have now been heavily nerfed by only taking effect once when triggered but are all now equally reduced in costs.
* Sentenced: Raven Guard exclusive - applies a malus to enemy units to a given value. Attacking that unit then causes additional damage to the value of how many Sentenced markers are on the target. Usually only a debuff for one turn but a few cards can apply it permanently to enemy troops.
* Sentinel : Custodes exclusive. The only flatout negative effect in the game so far. If a troop with this is in play, you won't draw any cards at the beggining of each turn. You'll want to find ways to get around it.
* Sneak Attack: Attacking doesn't damage you back.
* Shield: Creates an unlimited damage shield on a troop that persists till the first point of damage it takes. Useful on those glass cannon troops.
* Stealth: The unit is untargetable until it attacks or the duration specified expires. Doesn't prevent random or blanket targetting though and there are a few cards that are specifically designed to reveal stealthed units.
* Stun: Self explanatory, lasts till your next turn and also stops units from using abilities. They'll still deal damage if attacked though.
* Survivor: Keeps the troop (and irritating warlord - looking at you, Vulkan) alive after being destroyed, to a set value of health. This doesn't trigger effects that are conditional on killing an enemy unit, like Battle Honour.
* Terror : Night Lord's signature attribute. Attacking units don't take damage if their attack power is higher than their opponents. Does not apply to attacking the warlord. Thematically appropriate for the Night Lords.
* Trap : Alpha Legion exclusive - these are shuffled into the opponents deck and cause a negative effect when drawn - one forces you to draw more cards, so you can mill your own deck or get caught drawing more Trap Cards. As with Secret Orders, they aren't identified when initially played ; you'll know a trap was played but not which one. They also all draw another card for the opponent, which is hillarious when it daisy chains even more trap cards.
* Unstoppable: Allows troops to circumvent Front Line troops. Usually represented by assault marines, which is a nice thematic touch.
* Ward : Space Wolf exclusive. Makes the unit untargetable by enemy abilities and tactics - as with Stealth, random or blanket targetting will still work. Good against Thousand Sons.

==Getting Started and Getting Cards==
The game provide a few ways for getting cards. First, the currencies are gold and gems. Gems only come from crates (card packs), while gold can be purchased in the store. You can also get tickets for Events, which are focused on pre constructed decks used against each other.

Most of the games rewards are the "crates" that can give you gold, gems and obviously, cards. The few ways you can earn them:

* Doing the Daily Mission which can be done in both Practice and Ranked modes by winning games.
* Challenge, also daily, usually dictating some specific kind of unit, deck or type of action that you have do it many times (like hitting an enemy Warlord with your own). If you do it enough times, you can get a better crate. Some of these are simple, like attack the enemy warlord, while others are extremely specific, like winning a match without putting troops into play.
* Free Crate that shows up each 6 hours (though its obviously not as good as the other crates, it can give some good rewards).
* Events Wins. For every three wins you can get a better crate with better rewards while doing Events. Events use pre-made decks so it's a great way to get new cards without having to start from the bottom.

==Places to check==
*'''Communities:'''
**https://www.reddit.com/r/HorusHeresyLegions/
**https://discordapp.com/invite/vZzJGRp

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]