well IIRC

the Devs did say that we (founders) would get to vote on 5th subfactions for the factions, like a new chapter for SM etc,

the possibility of a 5th faction was one of the "stretch goals" that might be achievable if the founder program raised enough cash to help fast track such development,


they also stated early that they did intend to eventually incorporate almost all races from the 40K universe into the game as PC's with the exception of the Tyranids that they would reserve as the NPC faction,

the OP seems to be suggesting either the 5th subfaction concept or a total merging of the 2 concepts (5th subfaction/5th faction) into what almost sounds like the implementation of 4 new factions which would then be partnered with an existing faction...thats a whole lot more work then anything suggested by Devs so far

I understand how some things are definitely lore breaking in any sense of the word, but others not so much. There have been numerous instances where space marines have went after IG after deeming them as tainted or accusing them of foul practice. I could see space marines fighting guardsmen, but as someone else stated, you would never see space marines teaming up with chaos or SoB and IG teaming up with chaos, etc.

I think if anything, they should implement an ally system based on the sheet found in the 6th edition rule book, like someone on the first page pointed out. Actual allies and allies of convenience, etc are all different. There are some factions that should never be able to team up/ally under any circumstances, and then theres some factions that should be able to declare a temporary cease fire or something of the sort. Even allies of convenience are never actually working together. There may be scenarios where space marines and the eldar have the same goal, but they will never directly work with each other. They'll typical work parallel to each other despite having the same goal, and when one party achieves that goal, the other party will fight against the winner to further their own agenda. They dont really have an alliance, they're basically just riding out the same storm and trying to get to similar endings. They're not actually on "speaking terms" with each other.

As an example, say a chaos warbands trying to obtain an ancient and valuable relic they need for a ritual. The eldar know what kind of power it contains and will stop chaos at any cost to prevent the ritual. Space marines want the relic because its a lost artifact and they want to stop chaos at any cost as well. Both the Eldar and Space marines will be fighting chaos, but they wont be working hand in hand. Most likely in situations like this, one party would attack first, say Space Marines. While the space marines are engaged in combat with chaos, Eldar will come up behind the chaos warband and flank them. So both will be fighting against chaos for similar reasons, and once chaos is defeated, they'll end up fighting each other over the relic. I think rulebook wise, thats what these temporary alliances mean, and I think thats really what should be reflected in the game. Its not an ACTUAL alliance, it just happens to be similar goals.

I'd like to see some sort of system be implemented thats similar. Since we know they plan on dungeons and such, perhaps set it so that factions with similar goals will get less points for killing each other for the time those goals are active, or have something in place to discourage you from killing that faction for the time being in order to help people focus more on the goals at hand.

You do realize that 7th edition is out now, and has a different Ally chart...

Yea, I found an image of the new 7th edition one, but it didn't link somehow, so I took one from the 6th edition and forgot to remove the word "new". My bad.

And yes, the Necrons' cooperativeness got downgraded a bit. It went from "desperate allies" to "come the apocalypse" with the Imperium and from "allies of convenience" to "desperate allies" with the Orks.

7th ed. ally chart

Kind of bullshit that Dark Eldar can ally with chaos daemons... oh a Slanesh daemon prince, let's go kill some space marines, I totally trust you not to kill me and fed my soul to your god...

cant say I totally agree with its proposed possible alliances either...

DE and CWE as "blood brothers"....maybe on a DE altar

Also bigger Factions will have to achieve more than smaller Factions.
For example the Eldar might only have to capture and hold 3 Strategic Positions while the SM need 12.

Now yes that means even an huge Imperium of Man Faction would still be somewhat fair against the other Factions but it also means that the other Factions would have to fight against 5-10 times the troops they have.
And while this is fun for the elite and some hardcore noobs like me, it will shrink those small factions even more. To the point where you cant even leave your spawn zones because a couple dozen zergs wait outside on every of your main bases.

Ive seen this happen in Warhammer Online and other games often enough, to know that a huge Imperium of Man faction is a bad idea.

And while i see your point, huge territories are hard to defend.
That still does not change the fact that huge Factions simple roll over small Factions if they try to defend their newly gained territories.

That chart is pure bs if you ask me.
And in every cirlce i played its shunned.

To be honest you are missing out one huge factor: The Players.

We all know what would happen if IG cannot fight against SM but the SM players and / or guilds piss off the IG players.

A: IG relay information to all other factions of where the Space Marines have flaws

B: IG tells SM where they guard, but then don't - giving the SM a feeling of safety though suddenly the other factions clash in from those sides

C: IG Players / Guilds switch to other factions and start killing the SM extreme-style

So even if players won't be able to play together with other factions, the player will find a way. And in ANY case one of the three options above will find their way into the game. If it won't be the regular base anyway.

And then there is always the way of 'No Attack Pact' it may not work for the entire faction, but majority. I.E. SM and CSM simply say "Oh okay, look you guys get those continents over there, we take these down here and simply stay off eachothers back, alright? Good, cool!"

Players will always find ways around things. Even if we do things by lore. What you expect is going to happen once the Steam Community finds their way into EC? ^^