"Shas'la, that green marine smells like the underside of a Knarloc"
"Put these nose plugs on, its for the Greater Good"

Tau/Necron works, and is supported Lore-wise, especially with the expanded Necron lore. A Necron Overlord could easily make a pact with Tau, who would happily take them on, then there is the whole "Deciever being the one who created/guided the Tau in the first place" argument...

Eldar and Dark Eldar can be battle-brothers on the current allies charts. They don't really hate each other so much as have different philosophical outlooks.

The sheer size and number of Imperial forces is also a reason why allies would work better.

So wait im not versed in Deldar/Eldar wholly but the decadence that led to the birth of their arch enemy, the destruction of their empire and their race is just ignored? The very same behavior of Deldar is what led their race to near extinction is just water under the bridge and they can be best buds? Can you please link me some mention of the said alliance somewhere in lore, perhaps some book? Or are you basing the alliance on the chart alone.

I'm at work so I dont' have references. What it boils down to, basically, is that the Eldar still recognize the Dark Eldar are their kin, they just disagree with how they go about resisting She Who Thirsts. They will still band together against 'lesser' races. It's similar to the Eldar - Exodite relationship.

I don't think we'll get new subfactions, instead brand new factions unaffiliated with the existing ones make more sense.

Not for small forces like chaos deamons and harlequins. It would be crazy/very low priority to create an entire faction for them, and they're allied with an already existing faction already. It makes a lot of sense to have a subfaction that differs from the norm for folks who want a novel challenge or really love those units.

I'm not arguing against new factions in any way shape or form when they make sense. I fully expect Tau, IG and DE will eventually be factions in their own right (Tyryt, I don't know what you're smoking with this pairing business). But this might actually be a good way of moving up the production schedule for some races that would be slowed by expecting an entire faction.

Harlequins and corsairs being subfactions available for eldar and DE it's the only one i see possible, plenty of people want to play daemons, plenty of people want to play space nuns, grey knights are a problem, because they should be hero classes or they will have to be nerfed to SM level if they want to add inquisition as a faction.

"My Aun'O,im going on a trip to the homeword of the Dark Eldar,they said they have matters of great importance to speak with me"
"You need to stop thinking with your reproductive organ Shas'la"

Tau can be allied with everyone to be honest,even Necrons and Demons,however,they are a pretty big faction,with their own "subfactions",the auxilliaries.I feel that they should not relegated to a secondary role,as they desserve more.

Scratch that,i think we should have everyone as their separate faction(excaept for stuf like IG).Now before you drag balance into this,remember:Alliances are possible.No doubt any underpopulated faction would make a treaty(perhaps for the full duration of the campaign even) with one of the major ones.

While an argument could be made for or against any faction, SM are, technically, simply a subfaction of the Imperium of Man. You aren't going to have SM, SOB and IG all fighting against eachother and allt eh rest of the xenos and traitors on a planet. They might fight after the rest are killed, it wouldn't be the first time or the last that one side or the other has branded the other heretics/traitors/etc, but it's really really really unlikely, especially while there are still actual xenos and traitors shooting at you.

In your view that leaves you with is the unified Imperium of man (likely comprising over 50% of the player base) facing off against 6 other factions, where even if spread evenly you are looking at less than 10% in each. While that's great fun for the IoM as they always have a fight and get to fight against everyone, it basically leaves the other factions only fighting against the IoM. That lessens the fun for everyone.

Keeping it to 4 factions overall greatly raises the chances for a more even spread (or at least not so out-numbered), as well as making the balancing of maps and forces much easier (though by no means easy).

Oh, another reason Ork/DE go well together is that the DE don't have a large following (though they are devoted...), which would sync up well with the free player-base of the orks, to again, more evenly distribute the player base.

Or just break the Imperium apart. Give all the subfactions conflicting goals. Forcing players to a permanent alliance they may not agree with or can't find sense to will stop them from playing the game.


Just a quick example:

Individually:
The IG is sent in to stand their ground until civilians and supplies can be evacuated off the planet.
The SM are sent in to defend the planet but at the same time are trying to recover some lost relics belonging to their respective chapters.
The inquisition wants to perform exterminatus on the planet.

Conflict arises because:
The SMs think that some of the relics they are looking for have been stolen by the IG and suspect that they have gone traitor.
The Inquisition can't get their fleet close enough for a exterminatus due to the all the antiorbital defences every single faction has built, including SMs and IG who are refusing until they've completed their mission.
The IG is just trying to do their job.