For Ultramarines, how about the said copy of the codex is autographed by a certain beloved author? As for the Dark Angels...another excuse to shoot them is always nice...
Ultramarines: A quick google search told me, that in tabletop, the ultramarines have the ability to easily regroup. "Superior Tactics" - A visual enhancement, that shows a feint (blue) silhouette of friendly (ultra)marines. friendlies are visible even behind terrain. Only effective within a certain distance. It would reflect their tactical, codex-enhanced understanding of warcraft. Positioning and stuff. in any way, as long as its not a passive "x-% increased dmg with y" i'm happy. though i would find them cool as flaws. Black Legion: - "Spoils of War", pillage the bodies of your enemies for a one-time-use-weapon/ressources/amunition. i think its clear why that feels csm-like. or... - a more Sons of Horus approach would be: "Engage/Disengage" - When moving in a Squad and being in their vicinity, gain a slight boost to walking speed and defense. Ends after x-period of time or when dealing damage. Sons of Horus were a flexible, adaptable fighting force. Their Tactical Marines did limited hit-and-run attacks, just to keep pressure on the enemy. "Engage/Disengage" could make their retreat easier while making it as a offensive tool in this regard less helpful. Black Legion "speartips" went in, when pressure was highest and delivered the killing blow to command structure. "Engage/Disengage" would bring the speartips into melee-range. generally, black legion/sons of horus prefer close combat just a bit more than ranged.
With some of the things you guys are saying I think it may be ok to give Iyanden players Wraitghguard/blade as a regular class... Personally I would like to differentiate the sub factions more, for example instead of farseer the Iyanden players have spiritseers as hero class, less powerful but specialized on support for wraith units, Ulthwe gets half the CD or requisition cost on farseers, Biel-tan on autarchs and stuff like that.
Guys, I've seen a lot of this concerning SM and CSM, but what about Eldar and Orks? What abilities would their subfactions have?
Biel-Tan: Wrath of Khaine - an aspect warrior gets +5% speed for each other Biel-Tan aspect warrior nearby Iyanden: Wraithsight - an Iyanden warlock passively buffs all wraith-constructs nearby with some random stuff Ulthwé: Lessons of the Cursed - An Ulthwé warlock may pause for a moment to meditate on enemy positions. All nearby eldar will have a momentary awareness to the proximity of nearby hostiles (maybe a meter of how far and what direction) (I also thought about time-travel for these guys but maybe that is just too good) Saim-Hann: A Wild Hunt - Siblings from the craftworld begin the elimination of their enemies. Two or more Saim-Hann eldar will give each other damage and speed buffs whenever the other one makes a kill for a duration of 20 seconds, and the buffs will stack. Fifth craftworld is unknown, but I am assuming it is Alaitoc. Alaitoc: Chase for a Ghost - An eldar from Alaitoc can make a quick disappearance at the encounter of multiple foes, having more speed for each enemy nearby. Those are just a few I came up with. I will see if I can think up anything else
Oh, well we dont give a rats ass about them now do we? The faults of those before are but our guidelines to avoid.
I think differences definitely should exist. Blood Angels may be considered better Jump Troops than Ultramarines, Ulthwé may be considered better psykers than Biel-Tan, so on, so forth. It would perhaps be a bit disappointing if there was no trace of this in the game at all. But perhaps not too disappointing. But if it happens if obviously shouldn't be too great a difference. For example, give Blood Angels 20% better melee damage and you've got a problem even if they suffer in some other department. Also, about people being "forced" to play something for a small bonus to be competitive. That usually happens to a much lesser extent that some people apparently believe. Min-maxers will always be present and will always consider it to be stupid to not do such a thing. But there is usually a huge number of players that don't care whether race X has a 2% increase to some stat. Next, Red Thirst and Black Rage are not feasible to be implemented in the game, at least no easily. But why not a simple "Bloodthirst" ability or something like that? After all, Blood Angels and their successors are kind of bloodthirsty at the best of times, and not just when they're gripped by the Thirst and the Rage. I think it would be cool if every sub-faction had their own abilities and bonuses and not just visual stuff. But it shouldn't be strange, over-the-top abilities or too great differences in any department.
