40K/Planetfall Hybrid

[Tropical Sunset]

Hello guys,

This thread is intended for anybody who also plays the 40K tabletop game. The aim of this thread is to transfer elements of Planetfall into 40K gaming of either 2nd or 3-6th edition. In addition the factions discussed in this thread are NOT intended to square off against established 40K vanilla factions but only against factions discussed here.

Being a 40K gamer for about 25 years leads to accumulating vast amounts of models. During 4th I have bought too many SM models and loathed the prospect of painting them in the same way. So I created two new SM chapters and painted the second one in rust/red Fallout 3 inspired colour scheme and the third in a green camo pattern to go alongside my Catachans.

Years later Planetfall was released and I got the following idea:
How about injecting some Planetfall vibes into 40K and thus giving the 2nd chapter the Promethean Tech upgrade and third one the Xenoplague upgrade?

And finally here comes my question to you:
How would you implement this idea?

I will now add the first ideas which came to my mind:

Promethean SM:
- Emphasis on flamer weapons.
- Emphasis on fighting any kind of animals and xenos.
- Protection vs. any kind of hazardous environments. Those were present in old Cityfight rules (WD article) and could also be of advantage when playing a campaign with a map which designates sectors as hazardous.

Xenoplague:
- Emphasis on high morale due to Xenoplague parasites on back of soldiers.
- Proliferation of xenos creatures during play. Would work like summoning in 2nd: A player needs to accumulate specific points. Once reached you can deploy the unit of "face huggers". When those accumulate enough points they ascend to true "xenos". The xenos can then later ascend to a "hive queen".

Problem is: Most 40K games would be too short to see all three stages on the tabletop so this might be reserved for campaign play.


Thoughts?

 

[Snorro Soliman]

A thought: if a wh40k mod would be feasible, i'd pay to play a Great Crusade 30k mod, combining this unexplored lore with the excellent Empire mode.
Ofcourse, it might not be possible, since...ya know Gdubs IP policies...


For the sake of argument, just imagine:
Pick a Legion
Pick a world
Invade it for the Emperor!
Perhaps a Primarch leads your Crusade, or you face an overwhelmingly fortified planet?
Perhaps you are limited to only a certain number of Astartes, and must use guard troops instead?
Perhaps 2 Primarchs wager who can take 3 capitals the fasted,and an allied rival spawns?

Nearly any xenoform we can imagine is possible, or the famous ones from the HH books: kinebrach, demiurg,diasporex, khrave, laer, etc.
Deploy special requisition troops (custodes, sisters of silence) and spec ops (lance strikes, stheel rein, etc)

 

[Draxynnic]

"Kill it with fire" is a pretty common approach with the Imperium, such that many organisations work out as being essentially Promethean by default. When talking about Space Marines specifically, it's pretty much the Salamanders' schtick, although they tend not to be as Exterminatus-happy as some Planetfall Prometheans come off as. They tend to have a liking for heat weapons such as meltaguns and flamers, hunt powerful creatures in hostile territory to prove themselves, and sometimes use firedrake cloaks as additional protection against heat-based attacks. So incorporating that theme would probably involve tracking down Salamander rules for the edition you'd be playing in. Unfortunately, they're not one of the super-popular chapters so they generally don't get a full codex worth of, but their fluff pretty much has all the elements you're looking for, and later editions usually at least have some basic Salamander rules in the codex. Call it a successor chapter to the Salamanders, poach their rules, and you'd probably be good.

Xenoplague is...a bit more complicated. A chapter actively using alien symbiotes, or even messing with their geneseed too much, would most likely be declared heretics as soon as they're found out. The closest analogue would probably be Death Guard or other Nurgle-related Chaos Space Marines - Nurgle daemons could then fill in for the Xenoplague stuff. Certainly, anything like the Xenoplague in the 40K universe would likely be linked to either Nurgle or the Tyranids, and the closest that the latter have achieved in practice are Genestealers. So you might be able to adapt something from the Death Guard rules, and for campaign play, have a system by which you get access to more and more plague units as you spread the plague.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

My 2 pennys worth.
Space Wolves, Nids, Chaos (marines), that order

I always though the total war style would be best for 40k, need real time combat for it to be "cool"
But i still like above ideas