History Headscratchers / Warhammer40000

* Literature/{{Ravenor}} doesn't have a {{Headscratchers}} page so I'm just putting this here for now. What's the deal with limiters? How do you suppress not having a soul? I'm guessing they project some kind of small warp field around the wearer that allows for psyker abilities to work and masks the icky feeling people get around blanks.

[

** Just because the tactical marines are more experienced doesn't mean there's fewer of them, because there's not a set amount of time you're an assault marine. Marines are transferred into tactical squads as needed. a Codex chapter at full strength, not counting the veterans in the 1st company, will have 180 assault marines (20 each in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th companies, plus all 100 of the 8th company, while it will have 440 tactical marines (60 each in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th companies, plus all 200 of the 6th and 7th companies).

** It's been stated repeatedly within the setting. Lasguns have variable power settings, and at full power they can tear limbs off and shoot through two meters of concrete. I don't remember the exact soucebook (I think 2nd Ed. Imperial Guard Codex?) explicitly mentioned that power level, and both the ''GauntsGhosts'' and ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' books are consistent with this interpretation.

** One thing you have to remember about the Chaos Gods is that they don't actually want to win. They're fully GenreSavvy about the VictoryIsBoring trope. They much prefer the current status quo of the galaxy that lends itself better to feeding them than a galaxy under which they won would. With that in mind, they'd tolerate if not outright encourage the Alpha Legion's closet-loyalist tendencies to ensure that their forces never quite succeed.

* According to [[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Earthshaker_Cannon this page]], the standard Earthshaker Cannon is a 132mm gun with a maximum range of over 15 km (more with additional powder bags). While we don't know why the Imperium favors bagged propellant instead of cased munition, why a piece mostly inferior to our current weapons? The WorldWarII-era [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M114_155_mm_howitzer M114]] had similar range (and much superior with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M549 M549 rocket-assisted round]]) and a larger caliber (inherited by ''WorldWarI''-era pieces), and current guns have the same 155mm caliber ''and'' superior range (around 19 km ''without rocket-assisted rounds''. Rocket-assisted rounds would have longer ranges)...

* How long does a typical human live in the 40k universe? I mean, Space Marines live for hundreds of years, but I've read that Ciaphis Cain is two hundred years old. Do some people get some kind of regenerative treatment?

* Are the [[StarCraft Zerg]] really [[{{Expy}} expies]] of the Tyranids? I've heard somewhere that the 'nids only became a fully fledged HordeOfAlienLocusts after ''StarCraft'' was released. I've also seen some photos of second edition models, and they looked nothing like the modern Tyranids or the Zerg.

** It's also that Jurgen is an {{Expy}} of Private McAuslan, GM Fraser's other classic series besides Flashman. McAuslan is depicted as something like Pigpen, and is occasionably forcibly washed by his comrades. On the one occasion he is shown clean, he is unrecognizable.

** Well, to much darkness creates sooner or later DarknessInducedAudienceApathy and to prevent that, they put at least some hope into the 40k universe. If there wouldn't be any hope, at some point 40k would just be boring and at least some people would ask "Why are they fighting anyway?" But if there is still light, people have a reason to move on and it depends on the author anyway how dark 40k is. The CiaphasCaine novels for example a quite a bit less crapsack then other material.

* What motivations would certain races like say... The Tau and Eldar have for fighting one-another? Or Tyranids and Necrons, or Orks and Dark Eldar? (considering the Dark Eldar could wisk away from them)
** Eldar vs Tau: Farseer: We must prevent the Tau from spreading their Greater Good to this planet to prevent an Avatar of Khaine from tripping over a drone 6000 years from now. Ethereal: The Greater Good demands we procure that webway gate. Tau Soldier: Some Eldar appeared and gave us a long vaguely worded speech about some mysterious threat if we took it. Ethereal: Take it anyway.
** Tyranids vs Necrons: Some Necrons wake up on a planet where the Tyranids are harvesting and then one side attacks the other. Some Tyranids land near where some Pariahs are being collected by the Necrons and the Necrons fight to protect their new soldiers. A C'tan thinks fighting some Tyranids would make good sport.
** Orks vs Dark Eldar: The Dark Eldar leader is bored and wants to fight some Orks. An Ork Warboss is insulted by a Dark Eldar leader, the Dark Eldar attack the Orks or the Orks kill the people the Dark Eldar were going to enslave, they fight.
** For the Tau vs. Eldar, any number of reasons. Tau could have landed on an Exodite or claimed Eldar world, which will provoke a holy hell of an Eldar response. Tau could be attempting to capture Eldar technology, or Tau could be doing something else the Farseers disagree with. Or this particular group of Tau are believed to threaten Eldar lives in some way, so they get attacked.
** Necrons vs. Tyranids: Both groups respective methods of killing and consuming are mutually incompatible. Therefore, they have to fight to decide who gets the yummy souls/biomatter.
** The problem with that reason being that, if I remember the fluff correctly, the Tyranids ''stay away'' from the Necrons whenever they can. Necrodermis is pretty much the only thing Tyranid digestion pools can't break down into usable material, so the Tyranids avoid it -- I'm not clear whether it's simply a pragmatic decision by the Hive Mind to avoid expending Tyranids that can't be replaced after the battle, or because it freaks the Hive Mind out.
** You are saying that Tyranids do not invade Tomb Worlds, however both forces can meet on some other planet and fight over its population. Remember Harves of Ka'mais. The poor Gorgon tendril never knew what hit him
** DE vs. Orks: Orks make good pain-slaves. Dark Eldar are propa shooty. Both make for a great fight for the other.
** Do orks even ''feel'' pain?
** They do gain benefit from Feel No Pain rule, so yes, normally they do feel pain.
** Orks vs. '''anyone''': Because they were ''there''. Its a defining trait of the Orks that they have nothing better to do than constantly pick fights -- with each other, if there's no other fun-looking targets around. Likewise, Anyone vs. Orks: the Orks are going to take a swing at you anyway as soon as they notice you're there, you might as well use the surprise advantage and hit them first.
** Orks vs. Orks: we'z havin a party! Waaagh!
** Other versions include "Dat git Boss Krogsnik is a panzee 'umie-lovin' git an' 'e spat on my fav'ritest bootz. 'E needs ter be tawt a lesson" and "OY! Dose boys didn't foller me! We 'as ter give 'em a thump!"
** Hell, one ork warboss attacked ''his past self'' just so he could have two of his favourite gun.
** [[MST3KMantra I wouldn't consider taking too close a look at it.]] Forces that would otherwise be allies could degenerate into fighting each other over conflicts of interest. In this case it would probably be if there was a breakdown in diplomacy or one side would think that there are good reasons to fight the other side (i.e. [b]Heresy[/b], dogmatic differences, obedience to conflicting authorities, ect.) This is why you could get something like a Daemonhunters vs. Witchhunters scenario. Other times, your scenarios specifically, Necrons and Tyranids would be vying for a strategic world that would be a prime place to launch an offensive into Imperial space, Dark Eldar would be raiding an Ork settlement for slaves, or the Eldar are raiding the Tau in one of their [[ThePlan attempts to manipulate the future]]. Basically, any reason at all, even if the other army was simply there, in fact you can make a mad libs template, insert the two armies in there and fill in the rest, and it do as well as any other reason in terms of the tabletop.
** Anybody vs. Anybody: Faction A really likes peanut butter but only has chocolate. Faction B really likes chocolate but only has peanut butter. Faction A attacks faction B to get their peanut butter/ Faction B attacks faction A to get their chocolate. Logically this works well for teaming up incompatible factions too for team tournaments (I i.e. Dark Eldar and Eldar, Orks and Space Marines, tyranids/Necrons and anybody).
** A note on the Nids vs Necron question; the Silent King has deemed tyranids the single biggest threat to life in the Galaxy which kind of puts a damper on his intention for Necrons to reclaim organic bodies by taking over the flesh of the various races in the galaxy; hence, as far as he's concerned, the nids are priority number one to put down, even before the forces of Chaos. Worth noting that not every Overlord shares this opinion, either because they're too crazy to care, they're still in "kill all organics mode", they have no particular desire to return to flesh at all, or because they see the Nids as the best option when it comes to organic bodies to transplant themselves into.

** I haven't seen any mention of loyalist (or any) Space Marines dying from natural causes, although if it happens, I doubt it would be brought up in the fiction since it's all focused on combat. I personally don't think anything save for direct enemy action (and I'm counting poison and Warp disease as these) can kill a Space Marine. And there are some really old Space Marines. [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dante#.ULFWeYVlkgI Dante]], chapter master of the BloodAngels is at least 1,100 (and that just how long he's been chapter master), and [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bjorn#.ULFXvIVlkgI Bjorn the Fell Handed]] is a Dreadnought who is old enough to have known Leman Russ personally.

[[/folder]]Earth directly) the Black Templars (more numerous than several of the founding legion, manage to not be bothered by the inquisition despite their flagrant disregard for imperial regulations on chapter size)
** I was referring to Space Marine, not Ultramarine hatedom. Most of the complaints about the Space Marines, especially the fluff ones, are less applicable to the Ultramarines than most other major chapters.
** Because GW likes to focus most of its advertising for newer players on the Space Marines. Specifically, you guessed it, the Ultramarines. So most of the players are given far more exposure to, and are thus more likely to blame, the Ultramarines.
** Remember that not all mutations are anathema to the Imperium. Certain variations (like Ogryn) are tolerated. And the Space Wolves being good at what they do ''is'' a pretty good excuse. [[EverythingIs