History Warhammer40000 / W40kTropesQToZ

** On the other side of the scale on quality are the Adeptus Custodes, the personal PraetorianGuard of the Emperor and completely unmatched among the forces of the Imperium - they are so powerful and elite that they make the ''Astartes'' look like PDF rejects. However there have probably never been more than ten thousand Custodes in existence at any moment due to the inherent difficulty in creating them. To demonstrate the difference, for the same points cost of a barebones, three-man squad of Custodian Guard, you can get ''two'', ''ten''-man squads of Guardsmen, and still have points spare to give them some toys!

** Most SpaceMarines have much longer lifespans. Barabas Dantioch, a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors, was estimated to have been prematurely aged by 3,000 years by the Hrud and their entropic fields in ''Perturabo - The Hammer of Olympia'', leaving him frail and infirm. It is theorised that a Space Marine can live for three millennia before their bodies start to deteriorate, with the Blood Angels in particular being particularly noted for their longevity (their current Chapter Master has served in that position for more then 1,500 years). Few if any of them ever manage to reach such an age without entombment in Dreadnought armor on account of their likelihood of being killed in battle.

* SeparateButIdentical: All races suffer really badly from this, although it's being gradually fixed with different Craftworlds, bio-augmentation, regimental doctrines, etc.

** In one book, the Emperor's Children accidentally trigger an ancient Aeldari defence system while invading a planet that causes the Astartes to be attacked by swarms of spectral warriors with swords that pass clean through their armour and kill the Marines inside without leaving a visible wound, and without the intervention of [[PhysicalGod post-ascension Fulgrim]], the Emperor's Children would have been wiped out to the last. In another book set during the Horus Heresy, the Cabal agent John Grammaticus was gifted a pair of Aeldari scissors that ''cut through time and space'' and allowed him to cross the galaxy to reach Terra in time for the siege. The Aeldari regularly launch suicide missions to their lost Crone Worlds to recover these incredible technologies and hopefully turn the tide of the war against the rest of the galaxy - one example being the Distortion Cannon, a powerful weapon that shoots ''miniature black holes''.
* SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: High-ranking Eldar may be seen with decorative spears and ribbed body armour, and carry little runes that look like they're made of carved bone in a little pouch-- the uselessly impractical looking spear actually projects a force-field that lets it cut through PoweredArmor like butter, the mail-looking bodysuits rapidly harden when struck and repair any damage all by themselves, and the little runes are made from a form of reactive living plastic that also acts as a conduit for their immense psychic prowess. Necrons have access to thing like Resurrection Orbs (little glowing crystals that enhance the self-repair protocols of the robotic warriors), Sempiternal Weave (which is a force-field that looks like a scale-mail suit of armour) and various staves. Quite a few of the more esoteric Imperial pieces look deceptively primitive as well, retaining a sort of Renaissance or Victorian aesthetic but leaving modern technology well behind-- the boxy Leman Russ looks like something that belongs in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the muddy trenches of Northern France]], but it handles like a European sports car and would thrash a top-of-the-line Abrams with little trouble.

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Armies tend to go for one side or the other. Elite armies and close combat-based armies tend to be the Performer, while hordes and gunlines tend towards the Technician. Armies like the T'au, the Astra Militarum, Tyranids and the Necrons are more likely to win by sticking to a strict gameplan[[note]]that is usually, moving little and blowing the enemy to smithereens with overwhelming firepower from the far side of the board; maybe saturating the table with artillery and armour or going for a "castle" strategy where buffing characters nearby make certain shooting elements very strong[[/note]] and using point-efficiency to carry the day. Armies like the Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Aeldari and Drukhari can rely on the versatility and quality of the army to switch things up as the game changes and avoid strategic pitfalls, using terrain, deep-striking elements and overload with multiple different threats to keep the other player on their toes and force them to concede those ever-valuable objectives, all the while rushing up to blast them apart with close-range fire or just shred them in melee. However it can be [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] as armies are flexible and varied by design and there is much room for deviation: Maybe a Militarum gunline keeps a small handful of competent melee fighters (some Ogyrns, characters or just sergeants with power weapons) to provide a little protection for the big guns; or the Orks, usually stereotyped as a horde of axe-wielding savages, instead have a decent go at a gunline-style army using Meks, Lootas and vehicles - nothing says humiliation quite like being tabled by the jury-rigged contents of a tatter's yard. Players might also TakeAThirdOption and use a more esoteric strategy - psyker-heavy armies, [[DeathFromAbove flyer spam]], mechanised infantry, and "Hero Hammer"-style armies (where the real strength is in the characters buffed up the wazoo to be {{One Man Arm|y}}ies and the troops are simply there to be CannonFodder).

* ThrowAwayGuns: Generally averted unless the weapon in question is damaged to the point of unusability. With common soldiers, this is because losing one's issue weapon is a serious infraction that can (and frequently is) be punished by summary execution (the weapon may very well be more valuable than the conscript who was using it). In the case of elites, the weapon in question could be a centuries or millennia old relic - something which, if lost, some parties might be willing to wage a minor war to recover.

** Zigzagged with certain traitor legion Chaos Marines and their Primarchs. Whilst over 10,000 years have passed in the material universe, a lot of the traitors have spent "time" in the Eye of Terror, which - as mentioned - has a purely incidental relation to material time passing. It gets lampshaded by several renegades wondering why the Primarchs, who were only "alive" for just over two hundred years, are considered a big deal when some renegades have been fighting the long war for thousands of real-space years longer than they ever did.

** Chaos started losing some of its threat as the Tyranid onslaught was increasingly hyped and the Necron/C'Tan were introduced. Besides the many failures of Abaddon and the Black Crusades, one of Chaos's big trump card - Corruption/Daemonic possession, was almost nerfed against any race that wasn't human despite fluff about even inanimate objects getting possessed. Recent editions have restored Chaos as the predominant danger to the galaxy and now every race faces the danger of corruption (Necrons had half a Tomb World turn to Chaos, Khornates brought an entire Tyrannid Hive ship and its crew under its control, increasing numbers of Orks and Kroot are going over to Chaos, and Slaanesh have even possessed an Avatar of Khaine).

* UngovernableGalaxy: The Imperium has minimal control over planets, by necessity. It's so impossibly vast and bureaucratic that entire worlds and populations are simply forgotten about for hundreds of years due to simple filing errors. Essentially, as long as Chaos is kept in check and the occasional planetary tithe is paid, the Imperium doesn't really care how a governor runs his world - as a democracy, as a monarchy, as a dictatorship, doesn't matter. Only the Tau really manage it with restricted range and powerful controls.

* WeHaveReserves: Basically the CatchPhrase of the Orks and Imperial Guard. Tyranids take this to such an extreme that their {{Mooks}} don't even ''have digestive systems''-- they are created, sent into battle for a few hours of frenzied combat, and then recycled.
** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with the Craftworld Eldar. They're a DyingRace, so they do everything they can to avoid this. Although, then again, that doesn't mean they can't [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] ''[[UnwittingPawn someone else]]'' into being their reserves.

* WeirdWeather: Warp storms are disturbances over vast expanses of space that can engulf entire systems, cutting off sections for galaxy for centuries at a time. The Dark Eldar and forces of Chaos can exercise some measure of control over them. Subverted by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Shadow in the Warp]], which has the same effect - isolating a star system from hyperspace travel and communication - but isn't a natural phenomenon. It's the psychic presence of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranid]] [[EldritchAbomination hive mind]], and the first and only warning you'll get before the hive fleet arrives to eat your planet.

* SerialEscalation: How much [[MoreDakka Dakka]] can the Ork Mekboys put together [Answer: never enuff]? How much [[MoralEventHorizon more evil]] can we make the [[AbusivePrecursors Dark Eldar]]? How loud can Kharn scream "'''BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!'''"? How big of a BigBad can Literature/CiaphasCain, '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]]''', defeat through a combination of dumb luck, skill and [[IndyPloy fast thinking]]? How much bigger can the [[HumongousMecha Titans]] and various Planet Killing guns on Imperium ships get? Just how much worse can things get? How much more TropeOverdosed can this setting get? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the setting pretty much ''runs'' on SerialEscalation.

** Especially notable is the Sisters of Battle. Much is made about the strength of their faith in the God-Emperor, including rules for weaponizing that faith on the tabletop. So strong is their faith that only one Sister has ever fallen to Chaos, [[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Miriael_Sabathiel Miriael Sabathiel]]. Except that Mirieal has also turned to Chaos many Adeptas Sororitas who came hunting her. Then there are stories involving whole convents of Sisters falling to Chaos. Whether or not it's even possible for an Adepta Sororitas to fall to Chaos, and how often it may or may not happen, is [[FlameBait a somewhat contentious topic within the Sororitas fandom.]]

* {{Retcon}}: As you might imagine after thirty years and [[DependingOnTheWriter dozens of writers]], quite a lot has changed. Most of the more dramatic changes are instances of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, although there's exceptions. The Squats, Zoats and the fifth Chaos God, Malal, were removed from the game background-- the Squats because they weren't sure what to do with them, Malal because they weren't quite sure who owned the copyright. Other forces changed drastically, for example, the Tyranids turning from curiosity bugs into a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts galaxy-eating horror]], and the C'tan changing from the Necrons' star gods to their ''former'' star gods who got betrayed.

** There was a lot less romanticization/fetishization of the Space Marines in ''Rogue Trader''-- they were clearly badass mofos, and the most dangerous fighting force in the setting, but they were also played as the most brutal and insane individuals in a brutal, insane universe. In fact, most were recruited from psychotic murderers on feral planets. Most of their transhuman elements (such as all those extra organs) were also added in later.

** The Imperial Guard used to field the same vehicles as Space Marines-- down to dreadnoughts and land speeders-- before the IG vehicle range was introduced in the mid-90s.
** Primarchs were absent from the Rogue Trader rulebook. The Horus Heresy was initially introduced-- in the background for the original Space Marine game-- as just a huge civil war, and Warmaster Horus as a mere corrupted general. In this early version of the background, the Emperor had simply grown old and weak over the millennia until he had to be placed on life support.

** In the background material, the Astra Militarum are the go to example as they're millions if not billions strong and span across Imperial space as they come from any planet the Imperium can collect people. The problem is their weapons and armor pale in comparison to many of the forces they fight against so they often only have weight of numbers on their side. The Militarum do have their own speciality units (such as the [[HumanSubSpecies abhuman]] [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]], the elite Tempestus Scions, and unique elite regimental units like the Cadian Kasrkin and the Death Korps Grenadiers) who are much smaller in number but much better trained and equipped than their rank-and-file comrades.

* TheQuisling: Several human worlds near the Tau Empire have been assimilated into it, some more willingly than others. Not that the Imperium cares whether you were a willing traitor, had to surrender to survive or were born to people who did [[DisproportionateRetribution when they kill you for it.]]

* RandomNumberGod: A number of bizarre good-luck superstitions have arisen among players, such as never calling missile launchers by their proper name (it has the word "miss" in it), the idea that painted models are luckier than unpainted models, the usage of blue dice for important rolls and the practice of occasionally muttering prayers to the Emperor. Never taken seriously, but often endearing. It "helps" that he exists in-universe, going by the name Tzeentch.
* RandomTransportation: Warp travel (a demon-infested alternate dimension that allows FTL travel, sped up or hampered by Warp currents). While ships have a Navigator that allows them to navigate the Warp currents, all too often they end up adrift, and when (if) they do return to realspace, it's only occasionally on target, when not in deep space. And then there's the fact that sometimes you don't even come back at the right ''time'', as one ork Waaaagh found when they ran into their future selves (that one ended in considerable confusion, as the future!warboss killed past!warboss in order to have two sets of his favorite gun).

* {{Teleportation}}:

** Xenos races have also teleportation technology. Orks have several teleportation devices, and their "tellyportas" are unexpectedly advanced as their can teleport great masses at once and sometimes across interstellar distances. For their part, Aeldari Warp Spiders use portable warp jump devices to teleport mid-fight. Finally, the Necrons can teleport whole armies in and out of battle.

** The Avatar of Khaine, to the extent it's become a longstanding joke amongst players. The Avatar is a fragment of Khaine, the Eldar god of war, placed into an [[Humongous Mecha enormous mech]] that burns with his divine power. Its might inspires fear and awe amongst the Eldar, and it is only summoned in the most dire of circumstances. So naturally an Avatar of Khaine is most commonly found as a pile of rubbish at the feet of whoever Games Workshop wanted to look badass that week. In fact, the Avatar of Khaine has been beaten by so many people, so often, that it has basically lost its original Worf status (if it ever had it), and crushing the Avatar of Khaine at this point is just winking at the meme, rather than a demonstration of anything badass.

** The Imperial Guard (or at least the infantry not driving their [[TankGoodness glorious tanks]]) are this incarnate. The ''standard'' Guardsman is equipped with a Flak Jacket/Helmet that are as close to impervious against civilian/low-level-military firearms as you can get without carrying a six foot tall steel plate around in front of you; they are also armed with [[EnergyWeapon lasguns]] which are every bit as accurate as you would expect a laser to be, and (realistically) function by superheating the air at the target point with microsecond oscillations that cause a small ''explosion'', good enough to remove limbs or [[BoomHeadshot a head]] with one shot. And again, those are the STANDARD Guardsman, of whom there are ''billions''. No "standard" army could hope to stand against them, really... But compared to the rest of the PLAYABLE armies in the game, these astounding bits of weaponry and armor are derided as [[FanNickname flashlights and t-shirts]].
** I'll take your Imperial Guard and raise you the Eldar. Want to introduce a new character and present them as super-duper awesome? No problem! Make them beat up an Avatar of Khaine, lead forces against an Eldar warhost and {{CurbStomp|Battle}} them, or wipe out an entire Craftworld single-handedly! Games Workshop approved!

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Yes, not even this universe can throw out the rules of reality forever.
** Dark Eldar Wyches are {{Stripperiffic}}ally dressed gladiators...and have exactly the kind of piss-poor armour save you'd expect from someone wearing an armored bikini in reality. In a double take of this trope, they use their honed fighting skills and sheer speed to bob and weave in melee, making them considerably more survivable in hand-to-hand. Standard procedure for players using them is to use a transport, and if that's unavailable then to hop between cover and hope for the best.
** The setting makes full use of taking place over an entire galaxy, which is a bloody huge place. Massive wars fought over decades and dozens of systems and cost billions of lives, like [[Literature/GauntsGhosts the Sabbat Worlds crusade]], are ultimately minor affairs that have little to no effect on the galaxy as a whole. Even ten thousand years later huge swaths of the galaxy are still unexplored or barely understood, with new civilizations discovered ([[HumansAreBastards and promptly exterminated]]) on a regular basis. It takes months or years to travel any significant distance even with ([[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace almost]]) reliable FTL travel. And while the Imperium is most certainly dying, it's so big that it will take thousands of years to be destroyed completely, or centuries for any significant changes to take place, unless a galaxy-shaking catastrophe occurs (which it did, in the 8th edition).
** Due to its size and insistence on keeping worlds under direct if hierarchical rule, the Imperium has to break administrative sections down into increasingly smaller sections which results in a labyrinthine bureaucracy with endless red tape and record keeping that's sometimes shockingly bad. [[TheGovernment The Administratum]] has enormous resources at its disposal, but the chain of command gets slow and horrendously inefficient. Even then, it takes an almost feudal approach with planetary governments. So long as they [[IntimidatingRevenueService pay their tithes]], keep the headcount of mutants and psykers low, and avoid flirting with sedition, aliens or Chaos, then they get to rule the planet as they see fit, resulting in a dizzying array of cultures and governing styles.
** Similarly, most people would be greatly surprised to learn that [[TheFederation the Tau Empire]] actually holds very little galactic space within their territory. They were fortunate enough to have emerged within a dense galactic cluster, making new worlds relatively close. While they have dozens of star systems under their banner, the area their empire takes up is practically a speck on the galactic map. Also, as much as they ''have'' spread out, they're well aware that a single supernova could drive them extinct, further fuelling their expansionism.
*** Tau also have next to no presence in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]], which has a few consequences. First is that this makes it difficult-to-impossible for them to interact with it and their technology hasn't matured enough to do it for them. Though they are intellectually aware of the Warp, this lack makes them largely ignorant about its nature and how to better utilize it. In this 'verse, this means that they have only a crude, painfully slow FTL, but the tradeoff is that it's much safer. A secondary effect of this, combined with how young their entire race is and their short lifespans, they have not made much headway into the galaxy at large.\\\
The second consequence is that the Tau are almost completely ignorant of the nature of the Warp. They aren't aware of the deletrious [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous physical]] and [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil mental]] effects of exposure, the impossibility of trying to make sense of it, the [[TheHeartless living beings born from it]], nor [[TheCorruption Chaos]] as a whole, and no understanding of psychic powers beyond what they see from other species. This has some minor upsides, in that there's no risk of DemonicPossession, and not regularly travelling through the Warp means they don't have to worry about [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the countless horrors waiting within]]. It also means, however, that on the rare occasions when they ''do'' encounter Chaos forces, such as during ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Dark Crusade'', they struggle to understand just what they are dealing with. Tau armies that get suddenly thrust into a fight with Chaos forces are often totally blindsided by the heretical forces' capabilities and misinterpret the situation, such as teleporting Demons being mistaken for an xenos race allied with the humans (technically true but also fatally wrong). Even when they get a slightly firmer handle on Chaos, the Tau keep treating their findings like the ravings of madmen; while it is the ravings of madmen, this scientific viewpoint falls flat when the aforementioned madmen start a daemonic invasion.
** For all the equipment, training and propaganda supplied to them, most [[CannonFodder Imperial Guardsmen]] are absolutely aware of just how utterly [[PunyEarthlings outclassed they are]] against the majority of their opponents. This means they will use any dirty trick in the book, including [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere good old fashioned cowardice]]. The Imperium has [[ThePoliticalOfficer a novel solution to this]], however when they are insisted to fight bravely against impossible odds, the Guardsmen have been known to [[UnfriendlyFire "insist" back]].
** There's the Void Missile in Apocalypse, which kills you by opening a NegativeSpaceWedgie at the blast zone. The rules for it forbade special rules like Eternal Warrior or Cover Saves from saving you, as you, the ground under your feet, and anything within the immediate vicinity is either A) being ''erased from existence'', or B) not being killed, [[ExactWords technically]], but still being teleported off the battlefield to some other unknown location. Only a magical force field (invulnerable save) is allowed against it, because beings that have such fields, by their very nature, counteracting the Void Missile. Similarly, no matter how great your fortitude or determination is, being stomped on by a HumongousMecha will still destroy your bones and your internal organs, so in-game Stomp attacks made by Titans also ignore the Eternal Warrior rule and Armor Saves.
*** Although Terminator armor can withstand being stepped on by a Titan, the hapless Marine inside will still be completely submerged under ground in a bulky-ass suit of armor he can barely move around in as it is with no means to rescue himself, so he can't help you.
** There's a short story about a Navy Captain entitled "Rocks are NOT 'free', citizen" who figured that [[ColonyDrop crashing an asteroid into a planet]] was cheaper than firing an expensive magna-melta missile. Turns out the price of sub-light engine fuel and rations for the military personnel, who were sitting in the ship doing fuck-all for ''months'' while the asteroid slooooooowly made its way to the planet, was three times more expensive than the original missile plan.
*** The offending captain's punishment also stands out. The famously draconian Imperium decides this failure calls for... a week-long accountancy class. They aren't calling him a traitor, they just think he sucks at math. However, as he is addressed as "citizen", he may have been kicked out of the military as well.
*** It gets even better. Besides the above mentioned costs, the reply mentioned also takes into account the fact that it takes far more crew, especially the specialists needed to perform the necessary surveying and preparing an appropriate asteroid for the level of destruction desired. And highly likely course corrections required. Oh and also having to defend said rock from the likely counter-attack from the target planet's defense platforms and fleets. The obvious concerns and dangers to the crew and ship involved in all this. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And all of the paint required to fix the chips and scratches the ship's paint job will suffer from micro-meteoroid impacts]], [[MileLongShip all 7.5 km or more]] [[OhCrap of the ship]]. All in hopes that the rock will A. Hit the desired target and B. deal the desired amount of damage, otherwise this is all a grand waste of the Imperium's precious time and resources, that could've been better spent launching a precision planetary bombardment using the weapons on a ship more than suited for the task of delivering the Emperor's displeasure with the offending planet.
*** The kicker to all this? The story started as an in-character joke response someone typed up towards another player asking on the official forums as to why Orbital Bombardments have an ''[[PointBuildSystem in-game point value cost]]'', all by pointing out in a roundabout way that the Point Values also ostensibly is a version of resource allotment. And that it turns out the Orks' consider this a properly Orky way to launch an invasion by using the "Roks" for the dual-purpose of bombardment and DropShip by sticking as many thrusters on it and as many Orks and equipment inside of it, before pushing the BigRedButton and shouting "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" all the way to the planet. Occasionally the passengers even survive the trip.
** Orks, as a genetically engineered race specifically for war, actually has numerous "failsafes" built into them to ensure that they can run on their crazy redneck crap across the galaxy without suffering this trope. The biggest one is their Gestalt Psychic Field, which literally makes their beliefs real if enough of them believe in it. Minor ones include hardcoding technical designs and specs into the genes of Mekboyz, so they'd instinctively know how to build vehicles, guns and everything else for basic survival without actually needing to be taught it. Their entire biology also centers around this, with Gretchin and Squigs showing up before actual Orks do, to be a form of manual labor and food source so that the warband doesn't starve upon pulling themselves from the ground. They also reproduce like fungi, ensuring that as long as there's something organic around, Orks can reproduce indefinitely.
*** Note that the Orks are not completely immune to the effects of this trope. As it turns out, their greatest enemy is not the Imperium, the Eldar, the Tyranids or even the Forces of Chaos; it's... themselves. The Orks take their BloodKnight tendencies to their logical conclusion -- in the same way that some pieces of Ork tech have a chance to backfire horribly due to [[WhatAPieceOfJunk shoddy workmanship]], Orks can and will turn on each other out of boredom and frustration if they run out of enemies from other races to fight. You may think that because of how vastly numerous they are this wouldn't be an issue, but Ork empires regularly rise up and go on campaigns of slaughter, only to eventually collapse in on themselves in a frenzy of fratricidal carnage. Also, while they may believe that WarIsGlorious, it bears repeating that they are made for fighting '''and winning'''; enjoying a fight is well and good, but constantly losing is no fun at all. If a Warboss can't lead his subordinates to victory on a semi-reliable basis, they ''will'' turn on him. It is theoretically possible for a Warboss to force his warband to get their shit together to the point that [[Literature/TheBeastArises they become one of the biggest threats to the Imperium in the galaxy]], but Warbosses with both the strength and intelligence to live long enough to make that plausible, never mind pull it off, are extremely rare.
*** There's also the matter that they primarily use their guns to listen to [[NoisyGuns the loud]] [[MoreDakka sounds they make]] rather than to hit something. A a result, Orks are infamous on the tabletop for their [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy incredibly shoddy accuracy]].
** Wounds from weapons with a Strength twice the target's Toughness will cause Instant Death, since logically the weapon is strong enough to tear them in half.
** The FeelNoPain rule allows units to shrug off wounds, on the grounds of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin not feeling them]]; however, wounds caused by attacks with Instant Death can't be ignored in this way. There's a variety of reasons justifying the rule including [[SuperToughness superhuman durability]], a HealingFactor and the support of a nearby CombatMedic, but ultimately they all fall prey to a simple principle: if a weapon can kill you in one go, it doesn't matter if you can't feel a wound like that.
*** In the Horus Heresy variant ruleset, there are far less characters with the Eternal Warrior special rule. This means that some fancy swords that cause Instant Death one sixth of the time are popular, but the ChunkySalsaRule is also in full effect, and the weapons don't often make the wielder more likely to actually hurt the target. Many an epic feat of swordwork from a peerless Astartes warrior with a billion points worth of equipment has been cut short because the enemy Archmagos simply [[NoSell shrugged off the hits]] and splattered his opponent with a PowerFist.
*** A similar point of fact about the Heresy is that the vast majority of armies are some variant of [[SpaceMarine Adeptus Astartes]]. This means that you normally have a very good read on your opponent's capabilities. However, they get the same advantage, and while the Night Lords' terror tactics or the [[TheBerserker World Eaters']] rage-filled melee charges may work extremely well against squishy human conscripts or filthy xenos scum, against other Space Marines or the monstrous combat robots of the Mechanicum, they're an extremely good way to get your head blown off in shower of [[MoreDakka bolter shells]].
** When Roboute Guilliman finally awoke from stasis and started sorting out all of the issues with the Imperium, he was not met with rejoicing but with disdain and hatred. This is because that the only way for the Imperium to have functioned for so long was that everyone in charge was keenly aware of their own corruption, but it also mean that they were competent enough to at least keep things going. Guilliman suddenly coming in and purging the corrupt people and policies meant that a lot of powerful people (like the Inquisition and ''Mars'') hate him for taking away a lot of the freedom and powers they had before. Similarly, Guilliman would realize that due to the massive bureaucracy, purges and general incompetence of the Imperium's administration, the actual chronology of the Imperium is completely out of whack; he's unsure if the "present day" is in the early 41st millennium or ''a thousand years later''.
** Conversely, when Guilliman awakened he had nothing but disdain for the Imperium he woke up into. In his day, the Imperium was intended to be defined by secularism, unity of purpose and the veneration of knowledge and wisdom above all else; fast-forward ~10,000 years and the Imperium is divided by civil war and clashing agendas, an Emperor-worshipping CorruptChurch is one of the biggest powers in the galaxy and the people openly celebrate their own ignorance and petty hatred of things and people they don't understand. The chances of someone like Guilliman liking what they had done with the place were zero and of course he didn't, with him going so far as to openly tell everyone involved that if he had known this was what he gave his life fighting for, he would have let Horus win long ago.
** Marneus Calgar got hit with a case of this after Guilliman awoke and reclaimed his personal quarters; previously Calgar had assumed everything within it to be a "great relic" from the time of the great crusade, and would often take time to bask in their radiance. However, to Guilliman, these items are mere tools he had used (and to his perspective, mere days ago) and were of no more importance than the casing on a bolter shell. To Calgar it seems like sacrilege that Guilliman would use what he thought were ancient relics haphazardly, while Guilliman cannot understand why Calgar would venerate what is essentially his old trash.
*** Calgar himself, what happens when your ancient, venerated, mythic war hero, saviour of civilisation and progenitor of the Space Marine chapter you lead makes his prophesied return? You get DemotedToExtra while he does his superhero thing.
** What happens when Guilliman introduces the Primaris Marines, stronger, faster, and all around superior versions of the existing Space Marines? Almost ''universal'' sentiments of unease, resentment, and anger against the new Primaris, and even the Astartes willing to accept the enhanced Marines don't trust them. Not only due to many of the existing Space Marines fearing that they are being rendered obsolete and will eventually be replaced... which has historical precedent, when the Emperor lost all of his original Thunder Warriors after conquering Terra, whereupon the Emperor replaced his armies with then newly-developed Space Marines. This resentment also springs from that they are expected to accept complete strangers who have gone through none of the training, rituals, or rites of passage that each Chapter holds as sacred into their ranks, causing numerous cases of DislikesTheNewGuy.
** As for the boardgame, players must have models on the table to continue playing. An additional errata to the rules stated that Fliers and Fortifications alone do not count, since Fliers can only provide air support and there needs to be a ground force of some kind present, while Fortifications are useless without someone to man them.
** In previous editions, the Fearless rule was a double edged sword. While it made characters and units immune to breaking and fleeing due to failed morale tests, they could also take extra damage in melee since they were too brave to run from a losing fight, no matter how wise that might be. These models (if not shot down) either won their melee fights with varying degrees of damage since they wouldn't run, or the unit died completely.
** The Eldar race is stated to be dying, but the fluff frequently shows them dying in droves no worse for wear, and in-game players are encouraged to use Guardians (who are a levied civilian militia, not a standing military force) as ''cannon fodder'', which seem to contradict canon. The Eldar Race is indeed dying, as they can't reproduce fast enough to make up the losses from their various conflicts. But because they were a galaxy-spanning empire before their fall, much like the Imperium it will take centuries before they actually do become extinct. Unlike the Imperium though (where if they get their shit together they can actually fix their downslide), it's also hinted that this might be an inevitable outcome for the Eldar as their birthrates are just ''that low''.
** Chaos Space Marines frequently raid their loyal counterparts' strongholds for relics, but also for geneseed. While the Space Marines of either alignment are Warp-resistant, Chaos Marines willingly accept transfusions of Warp energy in the form of Blessings from the Chaos Gods, in addition to being based in the Eye of Terror, a permanent Warp Storm. As it turns out, the rampant mutation this engenders renders most of their geneseed useless, and they need fresh infusions, either from recruits infused with untainted geneseed or more recent traitors joining up in order to recover losses, which they take frequently because the Loyalists hate them just as much as Chaos Marines hate the Loyalists... and the Chaos Marines are typically fighting each other in the Eye of Terror to begin with.
** While the [[CorruptChurch Ecclesiarchy]] would love nothing more than establishing one standard version of the Imperial Cult throughout the Imperium, they know there are far too many worlds and different cultures to ever attain that goal. While certain core tenets are enforced, there is an ungodly amount of both sanctioned and unsanctioned additional dogma, with the Imperial missionaries usually trying to work with the established cultures (for example, if a newly conquered human planet has a religion that revolves around worshipping an omnipotent father figure, said father figure will usually just be declared to be an aspect of the God-Emperor).

** The Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers was ultimately responsible for half the Imperium falling to Chaos because all he wanted to do was spread worship of the Emperor as a god. Unfortunately, the Emperor was a strict atheist, as he believed it would starve the Chaos gods (and was wrong on that point, as the only way to kill them is to kill off all life in the galaxy). When he heard about it, he severely humiliated Lorgar and his Legion before destroying the cathedrals they'd built (another sore point, as this meant they weren't conquering planets as fast as the other Legions). So when Lorgar heard about certain other powers in the Warp that welcomed being worshipped, he promptly switched sides and kickstarted the Literature/HorusHeresy, leading the the Emperor suffering wounds so severe he had to be placed on permanent life support and powerless to stop him being worshipped as the GodEmperor.

** In the early days of the Great Crusade, the Space Marine standard weapon was the Volkite Charger. This was a heat ray that was as devastating as the Tau Pulse Rifle. Unfortunately, demand outgrew supply and Mars couldn't keep up, so the more easily manufacturable bolter became the Marine main gun. And after the the Horus Heresy, the knowledge of making more Volkite weapons have been lost. So Space Marine Volkite weapons are also a case of KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter.

** Ollanius Pious, in first edition, was an [[BadassNormal ordinary]] [[RedshirtArmy Guardsman]] who pulled a YouShallNotPass on a DEMIGOD. Later editions retconned him out of existence. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks The fandom most definitely did NOT rejoice.]]
*** As of ''Know No Fear'' he's back, although the revelation as to his identity may leave distaste with some.

* RealityEnsues: Yes, not even this universe can throw out the rules of reality forever.
** Dark Eldar Wyches are {{Stripperiffic}}ally dressed gladiators...and have exactly the kind of piss-poor armour save you'd expect from someone wearing an armored bikini in reality. In a double take of this trope, they use their honed fighting skills and sheer speed to bob and weave in melee, making them considerably more survivable in hand-to-hand. Standard procedure for players using them is to use a transport, and if that's unavailable then to hop between cover and hope for the best.
** The setting makes full use of taking place over an entire galaxy, which is a bloody huge place. Massive wars fought over decades and dozens of systems and cost billions of lives, like [[Literature/GauntsGhosts the Sabbat Worlds crusade]], are ultimately minor affairs that have little to no effect on the galaxy as a whole. Even ten thousand years later huge swaths of the galaxy are still unexplored or barely understood, with new civilizations discovered ([[HumansAreBastards and promptly exterminated]]) on a regular basis. It takes months or years to travel any significant distance even with ([[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace almost]]) reliable FTL travel. And while the Imperium is most certainly dying, it's so big that it will take thousands of years to be destroyed completely, or centuries for any significant changes to take place, unless a galaxy-shaking catastrophe occurs (which it did, in the 8th edition).
** Due to its size and insistence on keeping worlds under direct if hierarchical rule, the Imperium has to break administrative sections down into increasingly smaller sections which results in a labyrinthine bureaucracy with endless red tape and record keeping that's sometimes shockingly bad. [[TheGovernment The Administratum]] has enormous resources at its disposal, but the chain of command gets slow and horrendously inefficient. Even then, it takes an almost feudal approach with planetary governments. So long as they [[IntimidatingRevenueService pay their tithes]], keep the headcount of mutants and psykers low, and avoid flirting with sedition, aliens or Chaos, then they get to rule the planet as they see fit, resulting in a dizzying array of cultures and governing styles.
** Similarly, most people would be greatly surprised to learn that [[TheFederation the Tau Empire]] actually holds very little galactic space within their territory. They were fortunate enough to have emerged within a dense galactic cluster, making new worlds relatively close. While they have dozens of star systems under their banner, the area their empire takes up is practically a speck on the galactic map. Also, as much as they ''have'' spread out, they're well aware that a single supernova could drive them extinct, further fuelling their expansionism.
*** Tau also have next to no presence in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]], which has a few consequences. First is that this makes it difficult-to-impossible for them to interact with it and their technology hasn't matured enough to do it for them. Though they are intellectually aware of the Warp, this lack makes them largely ignorant about its nature and how to better utilize it. In this 'verse, this means that they have only a crude, painfully slow FTL, but the tradeoff is that it's much safer. A secondary effect of this, combined with how young their entire race is and their short lifespans, they have not made much headway into the galaxy at large.\\\
The second consequence is that the Tau are almost completely ignorant of the nature of the Warp. They aren't aware of the deletrious [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous physical]] and [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil mental]] effects of exposure, the impossibility of trying to make sense of it, the [[TheHeartless living beings born from it]], nor [[TheCorruption Chaos]] as a whole, and no understanding of psychic powers beyond what they see from other species. This has some minor upsides, in that there's no risk of DemonicPossession, and not regularly travelling through the Warp means they don't have to worry about [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the countless horrors waiting within]]. It also means, however, that on the rare occasions when they ''do'' encounter Chaos forces, such as during ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Dark Crusade'', they struggle to understand just what they are dealing with. Tau armies that get suddenly thrust into a fight with Chaos forces are often totally blindsided by the heretical forces' capabilities and misinterpret the situation, such as teleporting Demons being mistaken for an xenos race allied with the humans (technically true but also fatally wrong). Even when they get a slightly firmer handle on Chaos, the Tau keep treating their findings like the ravings of madmen; while it is the ravings of madmen, this scientific viewpoint falls flat when the aforementioned madmen start a daemonic invasion.
** For all the equipment, training and propaganda supplied to them, most [[CannonFodder Imperial Guardsmen]] are absolutely aware of just how utterly [[PunyEarthlings outclassed they are]] against the majority of their opponents. This means they will use any dirty trick in the book, including [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere good old fashioned cowardice]]. The Imperium has [[ThePoliticalOfficer a novel solution to this]], however when they are insisted to fight bravely against impossible odds, the Guardsmen have been known to [[UnfriendlyFire "insist" back]].
** There's the Void Missile in Apocalypse, which kills you by opening a NegativeSpaceWedgie at the blast zone. The rules for it forbade special rules like Eternal Warrior or Cover Saves from saving you, as you, the ground under your feet, and anything within the immediate vicinity is either A) being ''erased from existence'', or B) not being killed, [[ExactWords technically]], but still being teleported off the battlefield to some other unknown location. Only a magical force field (invulnerable save) is allowed against it, because beings that have such fields, by their very nature, counteracting the Void Missile. Similarly, no matter how great your fortitude or determination is, being stomped on by a HumongousMecha will still destroy your bones and your internal organs, so in-game Stomp attacks made by Titans also ignore the Eternal Warrior rule and Armor Saves.
*** Although Terminator armor can withstand being stepped on by a Titan, the hapless Marine inside will still be completely submerged under ground in a bulky-ass suit of armor he can barely move around in as it is with no means to rescue himself, so he can't help you.
** There's a short story about a Navy Captain entitled "Rocks are NOT 'free', citizen" who figured that [[ColonyDrop crashing an asteroid into a planet]] was cheaper than firing an expensive magna-melta missile. Turns out the price of sub-light engine fuel and rations for the military personnel, who were sitting in the ship doing fuck-all for ''months'' while the asteroid slooooooowly made its way to the planet, was three times more expensive than the original missile plan.
*** The offending captain's punishment also stands out. The famously draconian Imperium decides this failure calls for... a week-long accountancy class. They aren't calling him a traitor, they just think he sucks at math. However, as he is addressed as "citizen", he may have been kicked out of the military as well.
*** It gets even better. Besides the above mentioned costs, the reply mentioned also takes into account the fact that it takes far more crew, especially the specialists needed to perform the necessary surveying and preparing an appropriate asteroid for the level of destruction desired. And highly likely course corrections required. Oh and also having to defend said rock from the likely counter-attack from the target planet's defense platforms and fleets. The obvious concerns and dangers to the crew and ship involved in all this. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And all of the paint required to fix the chips and scratches the ship's paint job will suffer from micro-meteoroid impacts]], [[MileLongShip all 7.5 km or more]] [[OhCrap of the ship]]. All in hopes that the rock will A. Hit the desired target and B. deal the desired amount of damage, otherwise this is all a grand waste of the Imperium's precious time and resources, that could've been better spent launching a precision planetary bombardment using the weapons on a ship more than suited for the task of delivering the Emperor's displeasure with the offending planet.
*** The kicker to all this? The story started as an in-character joke response someone typed up towards another player asking on the official forums as to why Orbital Bombardments have an ''[[PointBuildSystem in-game point value cost]]'', all by pointing out in a roundabout way that the Point Values also ostensibly is a version of resource allotment. And that it turns out the Orks' consider this a properly Orky way to launch an invasion by using the "Roks" for the dual-purpose of bombardment and DropShip by sticking as many thrusters on it and as many Orks and equipment inside of it, before pushing the BigRedButton and shouting "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" all the way to the planet. Occasionally the passengers even survive the trip.
** Orks, as a genetically engineered race specifically for war, actually has numerous "failsafes" built into them to ensure that they can run on their crazy redneck crap across the galaxy without suffering this trope. The biggest one is their Gestalt Psychic Field, which literally makes their beliefs real if enough of them believe in it. Minor ones include hardcoding technical designs and specs into the genes of Mekboyz, so they'd instinctively know how to build vehicles, guns and everything else for basic survival without actually needing to be taught it. Their entire biology also centers around this, with Gretchin and Squigs showing up before actual Orks do, to be a form of manual labor and food source so that the warband doesn't starve upon pulling themselves from the ground. They also reproduce like fungi, ensuring that as long as there's something organic around, Orks can reproduce indefinitely.
*** Note that the Orks are not completely immune to the effects of this trope. As it turns out, their greatest enemy is not the Imperium, the Eldar, the Tyranids or even the Forces of Chaos; it's... themselves. The Orks take their BloodKnight tendencies to their logical conclusion -- in the same way that some pieces of Ork tech have a chance to backfire horribly due to [[WhatAPieceOfJunk shoddy workmanship]], Orks can and will turn on each other out of boredom and frustration if they run out of enemies from other races to fight. You may think that because of how vastly numerous they are this wouldn't be an issue, but Ork empires regularly rise up and go on campaigns of slaughter, only to eventually collapse in on themselves in a frenzy of fratricidal carnage. Also, while they may believe that WarIsGlorious, it bears repeating that they are made for fighting '''and winning'''; enjoying a fight is well and good, but constantly losing is no fun at all. If a Warboss can't lead his subordinates to victory on a semi-reliable basis, they ''will'' turn on him. It is theoretically possible for a Warboss to force his warband to get their shit together to the point that [[Literature/TheBeastArises they become one of the biggest threats to the Imperium in the galaxy]], but Warbosses with both the strength and intelligence to live long enough to make that plausible, never mind pull it off, are extremely rare.
*** There's also the matter that they primarily use their guns to listen to [[NoisyGuns the loud]] [[MoreDakka sounds they make]] rather than to hit something. A a result, Orks are infamous on the tabletop for their [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy incredibly shoddy accuracy]].
** Wounds from weapons with a Strength twice the target's Toughness will cause Instant Death, since logically the weapon is strong enough to tear them in half.
** The FeelNoPain rule allows units to shrug off wounds, on the grounds of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin not feeling them]]; however, wounds caused by attacks with Instant Death can't be ignored in this way. There's a variety of reasons justifying the rule including [[SuperToughness superhuman durability]], a HealingFactor and the support of a nearby CombatMedic, but ultimately they all fall prey to a simple principle: if a weapon can kill you in one go, it doesn't matter if you can't feel a wound like that.
*** In the Horus Heresy variant ruleset, there are far less characters with the Eternal Warrior special rule. This means that some fancy swords that cause Instant Death one sixth of the time are popular, but the ChunkySalsaRule is also in full effect, and the weapons don't often make the wielder more likely to actually hurt the target. Many an epic feat of swordwork from a peerless Astartes warrior with a billion points worth of equipment has been cut short because the enemy Archmagos simply [[NoSell shrugged off the hits]] and splattered his opponent with a PowerFist.
*** A similar point of fact about the Heresy is that the vast majority of armies are some variant of [[SpaceMarine Adeptus Astartes]]. This means that you normally have a very good read on your opponent's capabilities. However, they get the same advantage, and while the Night Lords' terror tactics or the [[TheBerserker World Eaters']] rage-filled melee charges may work extremely well against squishy human conscripts or filthy xenos scum, against other Space Marines or the monstrous combat robots of the Mechanicum, they're an extremely good way to get your head blown off in shower of [[MoreDakka bolter shells]].
** When Roboute Guilliman finally awoke from stasis and started sorting out all of the issues with the Imperium, he was not met with rejoicing but with disdain and hatred. This is because that the only way for the Imperium to have functioned for so long was that everyone in charge was keenly aware of their own corruption, but it also mean that they were competent enough to at least keep things going. Guilliman suddenly coming in and purging the corrupt people and policies meant that a lot of powerful people (like the Inquisition and ''Mars'') hate him for taking away a lot of the freedom and powers they had before. Similarly, Guilliman would realize that due to the massive bureaucracy, purges and general incompetence of the Imperium's administration, the actual chronology of the Imperium is completely out of whack; he's unsure if the "present day" is in the early 41st millennium or ''a thousand years later''.
** Conversely, when Guilliman awakened he had nothing but disdain for the Imperium he woke up into. In his day, the Imperium was intended to be defined by secularism, unity of purpose and the veneration of knowledge and wisdom above all else; fast-forward ~10,000 years and the Imperium is divided by civil war and clashing agendas, an Emperor-worshipping CorruptChurch is one of the biggest powers in the galaxy and the people openly celebrate their own ignorance and petty hatred of things and people they don't understand. The chances of someone like Guilliman liking what they had done with the place were zero and of course he didn't, with him going so far as to openly tell everyone involved that if he had known this was what he gave his life fighting for, he would have let Horus win long ago.
** Marneus Calgar got hit with a case of this after Guilliman awoke and reclaimed his personal quarters; previously Calgar had assumed everything within it to be a "great relic" from the time of the great crusade, and would often take time to bask in their radiance. However, to Guilliman, these items are mere tools he had used (and to his perspective, mere days ago) and were of no more importance than the casing on a bolter shell. To Calgar it seems like sacrilege that Guilliman would use what he thought were ancient relics haphazardly, while Guilliman cannot understand why Calgar would venerate what is essentially his old trash.
*** Calgar himself, what happens when your ancient, venerated, mythic war hero, saviour of civilisation and progenitor of the Space Marine chapter you lead makes his prophesied return? You get DemotedToExtra while he does his superhero thing.
** What happens when Guilliman introduces the Primaris Marines, stronger, faster, and all around superior versions of the existing Space Marines? Almost ''universal'' sentiments of unease, resentment, and anger against the new Primaris, and even the Astartes willing to accept the enhanced Marines don't trust them. Not only due to many of the existing Space Marines fearing that they are being rendered obsolete and will eventually be replaced... which has historical precedent, when the Emperor lost all of his original Thunder Warriors after conquering Terra, whereupon the Emperor replaced his armies with then newly-developed Space Marines. This resentment also springs from that they are expected to accept complete strangers who have gone through none of the training, rituals, or rites of passage that each Chapter holds as sacred into their ranks, causing numerous cases of DislikesTheNewGuy.
** As for the boardgame, players must have models on the table to continue playing. An additional errata to the rules stated that Fliers and Fortifications alone do not count, since Fliers can only provide air support and there needs to be a ground force of some kind present, while Fortifications are useless without someone to man them.
** In previous editions, the Fearless rule was a double edged sword. While it made characters and units immune to breaking and fleeing due to failed morale tests, they could also take extra damage in melee since they were too brave to run from a losing fight, no matter how wise that might be. These models (if not shot down) either won their melee fights with varying degrees of damage since they wouldn't run, or the unit died completely.
** The Eldar race is stated to be dying, but the fluff frequently shows them dying in droves no worse for wear, and in-game players are encouraged to use Guardians (who are a levied civilian militia, not a standing military force) as ''cannon fodder'', which seem to contradict canon. The Eldar Race is indeed dying, as they can't reproduce fast enough to make up the losses from their various conflicts. But because they were a galaxy-spanning empire before their fall, much like the Imperium it will take centuries before they actually do become extinct. Unlike the Imperium though (where if they get their shit together they can actually fix their downslide), it's also hinted that this might be an inevitable outcome for the Eldar as their birthrates are just ''that low''.
** Chaos Space Marines frequently raid their loyal counterparts' strongholds for relics, but also for geneseed. While the Space Marines of either alignment are Warp-resistant, Chaos Marines willingly accept transfusions of Warp energy in the form of Blessings from the Chaos Gods, in addition to being based in the Eye of Terror, a permanent Warp Storm. As it turns out, the rampant mutation this engenders renders most of their geneseed useless, and they need fresh infusions, either from recruits infused with untainted geneseed or more recent traitors joining up in order to recover losses, which they take frequently because the Loyalists hate them just as much as Chaos Marines hate the Loyalists... and the Chaos Marines are typically fighting each other in the Eye of Terror to begin with.
** While the [[CorruptChurch Ecclesiarchy]] would love nothing more than establishing one standard version of the Imperial Cult throughout the Imperium, they know there are far too many worlds and different cultures to ever attain that goal. While certain core tenets are enforced, there is an ungodly amount of both sanctioned and unsanctioned additional dogma, with the Imperial missionaries usually trying to work with the established cultures (for example, if a newly conquered human planet has a religion that revolves around worshipping an omnipotent father figure, said father figure will usually just be declared to be an aspect of the God-Emperor).

** Most SpaceMarines, have much longer lifespans. Barabas Dantioch, a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors, was estimated to have been prematurely aged by 3,000 years by the Hrud and their entropic fields in ''Perturabo - The Hammer of Olympia'', leaving him frail and infirm. It is theorised that a Space Marine can live for three millennia before their bodies start to deteriorate, with the Blood Angels in particular being particularly noted for their longevity (their current Chapter Master has served in that position for more then 1,500 years). Few if any of them ever manage to reach such an age without entombment in Dreadnought armor on account of their likelihood of being killed in battle.

** Similarly, most people would be greatly surprised to learn that [[TheFederation the Tau Empire]] actually holds very little galactic space within their territory. They were fortunate enough to have emerged within a dense galactic cluster, making new worlds relatively close. While they have dozens of star systems under their banner, the area their empire takes up is practically a speck on the galactic map. Also, as much as they ''have'' spread out, they're well aware that a single supernova could drive them extinct, further fueling their their expansionism.

** On the other end of the spectrum there's the Gue'Vesa, Human Auxillaries of the Tau. Unlike the Kroot or Vespids, Gue'Vesa are recruited from the fringe Imperial Worlds that the Tau have conquered, so they get little in the ways of diplomatic rights the Kroot and Vespids enjoy, so they're largely used in the same way the Imperial Guard use the PDF, to the point that rarely do the Tau even provide them with weapons (with the Gue'Vesa relying on what remaining Imperial Hardware they have left).

[[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesAToH Tropes A to D]] | [[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesEToH Tropes E to H]] | [[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesIToP Tropes I to P]] | '''Tropes Q to Z'''

* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: C'tan/Necrons, and to a lesser extent the Eldar.

By the will of the Immortal God-Emperor, the great reliquary, or "page" as it is known, of tropes has grown to the point that it shall be broken up into three different pages. These pages are divided by the letter that starts the trope, and misplaced tropes shall be returned to their proper place. This page is for those tropes that start with the letter Q through the letter Z.

[[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesAToH Tropes A to H]] | [[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesIToP Tropes I to P]] | '''Tropes Q to Z'''

* TooBrokenToBreak: The 40K games (''Dark Heresy'', ''Rogue Trader'', ''Only War'' and probably ''Deathwatch'') all include an advantage called "Jaded", meant to represent the character having gone through so many of the horrors that are normal to the Crapsack Universe of 40K that the only things that can make him nervous any more are the literal Cosmic Horrors.

** Several characters rely on this. Like Konrad Kurze, who as the Night Haunter was 40K's amalgamation of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ThePunisher. He's notable in that when the left, the planet fell back into its criminal ways, which played a part in his VillainousBreakdown.

* TheQuisling: Several human worlds near the Tau Empire have been assimilated into the Empire, some more willingly than others. Not that the Imperium cares whether you were a willing traitor, had to surrender to survive or were born to such persons when they kill you for it.