I agree with everything you said but the Sisters bit. Sisters are their own facton and should NEVER be relegated to a subfaction. EVER. They are far too different from Space Marines in almost every way to be part of their faction.
As I've said elsewhere, my personal preference on adding Sisters to the game would be a faction restructuring. I've proposed, previously, that we change the factions to the Imperium of Man, The Forces of Chaos, The Eldar, and The Orks - with that restructuring it gives us the latitude to add different armies under one banner; armies that it wouldn't necessarily make sense to see fighting each other. You could imagine something like this then: IoM - Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Grey Knights FoC - Chaos Space Marines, Daemons, God-Specific Chapters Eld - Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequins Ork - Orks, Orks, and Squiggs. Evetually, we could then add the Tau as the 5th faction, and everyone get's their way THIS IS ALL SPECULATIVE. Please don't run off and quote this as "what is happening", because that's just going to make me stop posing anything remotely theorycraft in nature
You forgot the Exodites and the Corsairs! Except you count them in 'Eldar' but then why bother, since Harlequin and Comorrites are Eldar too but counting them separately, da hell Ivan?! As Eldar fan I am disappointed of you....
I didn't "forget" about Exodites or Corsairs, I simply chose not to include them on my list Honestly, it's a wave thing - right? If we were going to add Daemons, for example, it makes sense to add Harlequins and Grey Knights. You're going to have to come up with some far more significant bribes for me to envision Exodites and Corsairs in my narrative... ;P Certainly before my precious Harlequins and Shadow Spectres.
I agree that GK, Harlequins and Daemons should be added together. Also Shadow Spectres or Mymeara as an entirety > Any other Eldar faction. (look at dat avatar of mine, hellooo! ) But for Corsairs I see this chain: Imperial Navy - Corsairs - Other fleet elements of other factions. As for Dark Eldar, I see them coming with other rapid-assault units added to the game and probably also the Sororitas and a Slaanesh specific Warband (Emperor's Children, pretty please )
As long as Sisters are There, and work/fight like Sisters, do whatever you have to do. And never stop Praising the Emperor!
I think your idea for the factions would work well. Having 8+ different factions fighting each other at the same time just wouldn't work all that well, I think. How I'd have them: Imperium: Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Inquisition, IG Chaos: Chaos Space Marines, Lost and the Damned, Daemons Eldar: Craftworld Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequins.(Having the Exodites would really be a bit of a stretch I think, they stick to their planets. And what do Corsairs bring to the table that CWE and DE don't have?) Orks: orky tingz n bitz Tau: Tau and whatever allies they have. NPC factions: Necrons, Tyranids, maybe some original species native to Arkhona's solar system? Granted, balance would be a bit of a problem since some factions just have more stuff.
I still don't like the idea of Imperial Guard as a playable group. What I'd prefer to see, in the grim-dark future of the game (circa 2017-18) would be Tyranids, Necrons, and Imperial Guard as NPC/PVE factions - that you'd only fight with the appropriate enemies of course.
I hadn't considered using NPC factions as enemies for specific playable factions. Sounds like a great idea. Then the Lost and the Damned could be NPCs as well.
