Now I've seen the sheer amount of threads relating to the elusive "5th Faction"
People want Tau, IG, SOB and even Necrons as playable characters.
This is a problem for many reasons, Fluff minded people AND Dev's both agree that it wouldnt make sense for some things to be in the game. Why would Necrons, work alongside everyone else? Why would SOB or IG fight the Space marine chapters?

Now i might be wrong, but it seems to me people really want to play certain kinds of units, but theres not usually enough players asking to warrent a new faction.

My solution, is that these units/races are introduced in an expansion/Second wave, and augment the existing other races.
for example;
An inquisitorial ship arrives after the initial spearhead. Sm players now have access to the "inquisition" subfaction including the most requested Imperial Units that keep coming up in the polls. (IG, Mechanicum, SOB Gk's etc)

same for the CSM, assume their stronghold o nthe planet has given them time to open a warp rift, their reinforcements consist of the "grey area" chapters, Dark Mechanicum, Daemons etc.

Eldar? well a planet of people fighting seems like an oppotunity to collect slaves for Commaragh, what they find on planet may make them desperate allies with their kin, in return for taking their prisoners home...

Orks will side with almost anyone for a good fight, and your welcoem to suggest ideas here.

Thanks for you patience guys, let me know what you think!

It depends on the lore. Some armies could be good for a 5th faction, others would be lore-breaking. I agree we cannot have the Imperial Guard fighting against Space Marines (it would work better as a subfaction), but I do not unedrstand what is wrong with Dark Eldars, Tau and others being their own faction.

I wouldn't exclude the IG simply because it's lore breaking as it's already lore breaking to have 4 chapters of Space Marine fighting side by side in a single campaign.

The Tau are also on the other side of the galaxy compared to where this campaign is taking place and have no warp drive so couldn't reach this conflict, thus that's also lore breaking.

The lore also states that Orkz were created to oppose the Necrons. As for the Necrons their base troops have no free will so playing them would be lore breaking as well.

To my mind including most factions would require a bending of the lore, so to me the objections against the IG simply disappear with that in mind.

Here is the Allies chart from the 6th edition Rulebook.



As you can see, Necrons will ally themselves with anyone except Eldar (normal and dark), Tyranids and Chaos Daemons.

Orks where created by the Old Ones to fight all their enemies. The Necrons, the Enslavers and all other Chaos spawn. The experiment got out of control and failed. Now the Orks fight with and against who they please. As you correctly stated, only Necron base units (aka Warriors and Flayed Ones) have no free will, every unit above them does.

I think 4 factions is fine for now. If a 5th gets a vote I will vote but I don't think it is something so massive that this game absolutely, positively needs a 5th faction. I think there is a lot of other stuff that will be more fundamental to the fun value of the gameplay over the next 18 months than another faction. I personally would like to see how the game plays out in the first 12 months with the 4 factions and then see if the Dev effort is justified in bringing a 5th or even 6th faction into the fold. If things get too diverse too quickly we may see struggles for number becoming an issue which starts to bring the game down.

I actually really like this idea, although I understand the feeling of wanting a 5th fully playable faction. The main problem I see is balancing: a storm trooper, hower tough, will get wrecked by a Chaos Space Marine in single combat, but there are ways to avoid it....I'm definetly interested in the possibilities this idea entails.

I believe we should follow the lore as much as possible.

Having said that, one area where the lore is required to be broken is taking sides/teaming up.

If one faction gets too big I don't care who I need to team up with to take them down, even if it breaks lore.

Remember that even whilst grouping up is generally against lore it isn't sacrosanct. There are numerous tales in the books where differing sides either allied, or knowingly didn't engage in certain ways to achieve an objective which is mutually beneficial. Generally they then turned on each other to gain the upper hand but that's just life in the emperors universe

There are things that are bearable (orkz fighting alongside chaos) and things that are not. Do you wanna see the IG or SoB allying themselves with Chaos Marines to take down Space Marines?