Discussion YMMV / Warhammer40000

So is it safe to say that later on we should add Overshadowed by Controversy to this page after the crap Games Workshop pulled with their Fan-Work Ban on fan animations? It's been affecting almost everyone and nowadays I feel like that's all people know or care about thanks to this dumb stunt pulled by those asshats.

The Ensemble Dark Horse entry on the page is full of misuse. The trope is about minor characters being unexpectedly popular amoungst the fandom yet the entry lists almost every popular faction and character. What parts should be cut for misuse?

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Adeptus Mechanicus, to a certain degree among the fanbase. Probably helped by their recently released codexes.
  • The Imperial Fists (and related Space Marines chapters) qualify. They have a much larger fanbase than the limited amount of fluff and overly generic nature should indicate. If they win, it is usually as part of a battle force consisting of multiple Space Marine chapters. If they are by themselves, they tend to lose more often that not. The defining characteristics are an increased emphasis on will power, pain being educational, and discipline. These are all defining characteristics of every single Space Marine anyways. They aren't one of the "never had anyone fall to Chaos" chapters, so they clearly do not have a will-power advantage in actual practice. Space Marines are already some of the most highly disciplined troops in the setting. Pain being educational is kind of meh when you consider most Space Marine candidates die during training. They don't lose enough to be The Woobie, they don't win enough to be Badass, and they are defined by being uniquely more generic than most Space Marine chapters. On the other hand they are excellent fighters of siege warfare, they were the only legion who were allowed to recruit from Terra, and they were one of the most important legions to the defense of Terra from Horus. Despite being Out of Focus they are the second most important chapter in the entire Imperium.
  • Thanks to some positive portrayals in various novels, and buffs to make them more viable on tabletop, the Imperial Guard have lately been enjoying extreme popularity. We can't imagine why.
  • Amongst the Imperial Guard, the Commissars, despite them in the game just being a unit that gives a small buff to statline and leadership, has a huge following to the point where it's almost mandatory for Imperial Guard novels to include at least one.
  • Khârn the Betrayer is the most popular named Chaos Space Marine character due to his unfailing ability to kill everything around him, his role as the protagonist of the excellent short story The Wrath of Khârn, and his starring in a series of comedic fanfics on 4chan that portray him as a pretty nice guy despite the Ax-Crazy. Thanks to his popularity, Khârn is set to have a book detailing one of his adventures.
  • For the first time ever since Matt Ward's relentless shilling reduced them to Scrappy status, some Ultramarine characters are this. Specifically, these characters are found in the Horus Heresy novels such as the Tetrarchs, whose main quality seems to be comically over-sized shields and badassery. The Sisters of Battle, after basically being written by Ward as mobile blood banks for his favored factions, are also seeing this treatment with the fans.
  • The Iron Warriors, despite not being the most prominent of the Chaos Legions, have a following for being much less Stupid Evil than the rest. The Thousand Sons are very popular amongst the Chaos Legions as well, mostly due to the sheer amount of undeserved shit they got during the Horus Hersey and their Primarch Magnus the Red being amongst the most sympathetic of the traitor Primarchs.
  • The daemon prince Doombreed has a surprisingly following for a character that's only referenced in the background.
  • Nemesor Zandrekh, an old timey honorable general too riddled with robo-Alzheimer's to fully appreciate what's happened to him, Vargard Obyron, his eternally loyal and long-suffering bodyguard, and Trazyn the Infinite, or "Trollzyn" as the fandom likes to call him. Even though the Newcrons catch lots of flack from some quarters, their characters remains rather popular.
  • The Black Templars due how they prove to be badass even among Space Marines. This popularity elevated them to full codex status during 4th edition and still retained their Chapter Tactics in 6th, an honor usually reserved for only First Founding Chapters (the Black Templars are a second founding of the Imperial Fists).
  • Tzeentch is probably the most popular of the Chaos Gods next to Khorne, despite receiving the least focus.
  • The Space Wolves standing against much of the Imperium's Kick the Dog against its own people helped earn them a sizeable following, prior to their 5th edition Codex where they were turned into a Tier Induced Scrappy because of how they were in a number of ways a better version of the vanilla marine codex. The Salamanders as well, for similar reasons; although they're relatively small-time compared to the other chapters, they have a very large fandom because they're pretty much the only Space Marines who will go out of their way to help and protect regular people. Shooting civilians is something they... frown upon.
  • There's a lot of people in the community who would like to see a codex for the Rak'gol, a relatively minor xenos race. Think the Reavers, except they're cyborg scorpion creatures... and they're even worse.
  • Malal is surprisingly popular despite apparently not existing in the current setting due to Games Workshop losing the rights to him.
  • The Adepta Sororitas, aka the Sisters of Battle, are extremely popular with some segments of the fanbase, with widely liked fluff and models, but have been completely sidelined by the company, with no physical codex or new models released since 2004, and 1/4th as many units as any other main codex. Their Ensemble Darkhorse status was actually enough to convince Games Workshop to finally start working on new models for them again in 2017, after they were inundated with demands for plastic Sisters in their first community survey.
  • The Salamanders went from a relatively unknown first founding chapters to one of the more popular ones due to recent fluff portraying them as champions of humanity; unlike other space marine chapters they are often found to defend the weak rather than parade their superiority over others. It helps that in 5th edition they received Vulkan He'Stan, who made Salamanders one of the more powerful Space Marine armies.
  • Thanks to the Badab War, Alot of Minor Chapters have recived followings. Such as the Carcharodons, Lamenters, Raptors, and Minotaurs
  • The Carcharodons as mentioned above, have little lore about them. Yet they seem to be a Very popular Chapter rivaling even the Black Templars for most popular Successor chapter.
  • The Dark Angels are fairly well-liked thanks to their nobility, aura of secrecy and unique "Repentance Warriors" gimmick. It helps that they're also one of the least ostentantious of all the Astartes and have something of a Memetic Badass reputation as spies and secret-keepers. Similarly, the Legion of the Damned are highly popular for being even more noble, badass, and mysterious than even the Dark Angels.
  • The Tyranids have the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord is an ancient, unique and incredibly powerful Hive Tyrant, made whenever the Hive Mind needs to come up with new tactics. It helps that the managed to take the Ultramarines down a peg, mostly through outwitting Marneus Calgar and beating him in a one-on-one fight.
  • Alessio Cortez, for being a major Badass Lore wise, and having a Cool looking model on the tabletop. Many Non-Crimson fists players have even converted his model for use for their own armies.
    • Perhaps not his official model◊, as quite a few people actually consider it to be one of Games Workshop's worst sculpts of all time. Pedro Kantor's model, on the other hand, is quite a popular starting point for custom Space Marine Captain conversions.
  • Out of all the unique Imperial Guard regiments, The Death Korps of Krieg are the most popular.
  • The Space Marine Chapter known as the Scythes of The Emperor, have had a sizeable fan base despite having most of their lore revolve around how they were devasted by the Tyranids. One reason for their fanbase is probably because of their nice looking color scheme. There is even a site dedicated to them.
  • Another popular Space Marine chapter is the Lamenters, a Blood Angels successor chapter who define themselves by the idea of self-sacrifice and defending the people of the Imperium, to the point that their chapter's motto is "For Those We Cherish." Being one of the most unquestionably heroic and selfless Space Marine chapters has won them a dedicated following, despite the very small amount of lore surrounding them. The Fact they also happen to be one of (if not) the the unluckiest factions in the setting, only adds to their popularity.
  • Among Chaos Renegade Warbands, The Sons of Malice remains one of the most notable and popular (though not on the levels of the Red Corsairs). This could be because they are the only offical army to be worshippers of Malal, who is also an Ensemble darkhorse.
  • The Men of Iron, the human-made A.I.s who Turned Against Their Masters and brought about the end of the Age of Technology some 16,000 years before the game's present, are quite popular among fans, for a faction who have only had a few brief mentions and appearances in older publications. The inclusion of a Man of Iron character (and model), UR-025, in the 2018 Gaiden Game Blackstone Fortress generated quite a bit of excitement among fans.