Doable, but it will require enormous amount of time to make a mod like that. Think about FFH2 for example.

Not necessarily. If you have a fairly large team each working on something, then you can do it pretty well. The key is finding out who knows what, and then assigning them tasks that make the most of their knowledge; for example, a TT player who ONLY plays Eldar would be assigned the creation and stats of Eldar units, spells, ad nauseum.

Probably the hard part would be doing the "sovereign". After all, the "sovereign" is effectively the HQ choice. As a result, it would be a bit difficult to implement those armies that tend to use a number of individuals as their HQ (ex.- IG command squads).

So, if Orcs need huge pop-caps ... then why is it always so painful to build a huge army in Dawn of War? -the original Dawn of War

I always thought that the actual populations of Humans vs Orcs was like 10 humans to 1 Orc (universe wide), its just that Orcs can replace population extremely quickly.

I understand that Craftworlds are the distinction of Eldar, but since there can't be multiple "Craftworlds" in one game-setting, I figured since all the inhabitants of each Craftworld are related, "families" might be appropriate. But yea, I guess with all the Web-Way teleportation, you could still separate via distinction of Craftworld.

In this case ... I would say that Eldar's population growth (on Elemental Earth) to be extremely low, however population can be teleported from their Craftworld (which costs something?) ... where their craftworld has an extremely high pop-cap and fast rate of growth ... however it costs (money?) to teleport people in.

As for necrons, they have infinite pop-cap (obviously) and zero pop growth. As new machines are awakened, their population increases slowly. Also, they are more like Empire .... they have no buildings other than buildings necessary to outfit their troops ... and all population are automatically soldiers (lowest level soldier) that can be upgraded into more powerful things.

Therefore, their population is always going to equal their army.

Tyrannid "civilian population" is going to consist primarily as breeders and Larvae, so they also won't use buildings. But their populations will still be vulnerable to attack (yet still deadly for attackers, with poisonous spores and other defenses -> including the breeders themselves).

Meanwhile, Tyrannid economy would also consist of units (are they combatant style? or more like Zerg Overlords?)

Actually, there's probably 10 Orks/1 Human, as Orks are able to reproduce prolifically via spores, and the Orks also infest the galaxy in 40K.

I'm not really sure what you're asking with the Zerg Overlord thing; for Tyranids all their units are produced from the Hive Ships (though in DoW2, they have a ground-based hive).

Probably an interesting take is to use a DoW2-esque thing for the 'Nids. In DoW2, there's this thing called the "Global Resource", that's used for Global Abilities. Each race has it's own name for it, and accumulates it at a steady rate. However, you also accumulate it through taking casualties and by killing enemy units (you only get 75% per/your casualty, but 100% for killed enemies).

The Tyranid name for the Global Resource is "Biomass"; thus, perhaps by harvesting surrounding tiles and killing enemies/losing their own troops they can accumulate biomass resources, that can then be spent on new units.

As for the Eldar; hmm. I'm thinking that it would probably be better to have a total pop cap similar to something like the Imperial Guard; then, having Aspect Warriors take up more population than Guardians.

That's an excellent idea for the Guard and the Tyranids (Hive Tyrant+Tyrant Guard) and some choices as the Eldar (Farseer+Warlocks/Seer Council); however what I'm thinking of in particular is the Eldar Avatar of Khaine. The Avatar is an HQ choice, but there's really not an interesting way to combine it with any of the other HQ choices for the Eldar.

It's not so much hoards of 'weakling' Orks, so much as hoards of tough Orks that have terrible ranged firepower.

The idea is that the Orks are strongest in melee, so they close to melee as fast as possible; however, against a very shooty army like the Guard or the Tau, this can spell death as both the Guard and Tau have some exceptionally strong ranged firepower.

I find it a little strange that the Necrons have lots of units; perhaps you got the impression because the Necrons have the "We'll be Back" rule, that allows them to come back to life?

A lot of my ideas for the economies of some of the more unique races are based on the DoW games; for example, the Necrons would use a lot of power to exhume all their Necron troops; Tyranids use biomass.

I'm not really sure about the others. Since a 40K mod in Elemental would probably still have *some* empire building, the economies are something that would be very difficult to figure out.

The one thing I would be worried about. Is that since GW is soooooo IP overprotective.

I mean these guys really are over the top. They would find someone to C+D a mod.

If they thought it might cut into their miniture sales share.. Yes They Would.

Not sure you could legally stop a mod, but if it infringed on CR and TM they might be able too.

But as other people pointed out their is no TT sim because they are afraid of the margins to their miniture sales. and these people routinely C+D sites and games.

It's funny I own a bit of their minitures, Orks and SM mostly. But I can never play because I just don't have any freinds that do. Shame to because I love the system and lore. But I'll never play because they will never have a TT computer version.

Yeah, using the DoW games as the basis would be best.

With the Orks- high pop, very unreliable equipment, crazy-good melee, and extremely poor ranged weaponry (for the most part); some Ork ranged weapons are devestating but could have a chance to either self-detonate the weapon, not do anything, or cease working after a single shot.

With the Orks, if the Warboss is killed (the Warboss is always the biggest/strongest Ork), then they would start fighting each other to find out who's in charge.

Well, considering the background of Warhammer 40,000, not really, no. And marching in a column is actually more efficient if you think about it. In some ways anyway.

Too true. While there would probably be quite a bit BASED on the Codices, there would have to be a middle ground because for all of Elemental's modding-goodness, I highly doubt it could (without significant work) properly implement a TT simulation of Warhammer 40,000.

Yeah, a TT sim mod also wouldn't be taking full advantage of 1) the fluff/lore of 40K, 2) the potential of the Elemental engine, and 3) the sheer awesomeness of Warhammer 40,000.

Though I did note that GW should make their own TT sim, as they would reach a large amount of people, and might even get people to buy their minis more often.

I myself want to collect some 40K minis, since their just so damn cool.

The Imperium controls pretty much all of the galaxy and has trillions upon trillions of subjects, so it has no shortage of replacements for its cannon fodder.  Considering this is the grimdarkness of the far future where most of mankind's technology has been lost except for what the AdMech has managed to salvage, its best bet for survival is to throw wave after wave of expendable infantry at their foes in order to bury them under a wave of corpses.

The Imperium's best Advanced Weaponry are bolters (which use some sort of expensive diamond-like material for their tips since using far cheaper steel, tungsten, or U-238 tips never occurred to the AdMech, and bolters are somehow extremely complicated weapons despite them being stubguns that fire HE rounds instead of solid slugs) and plasma guns (which are expensive and difficult to produce and have a chance of exploding when fired), so it is a bit hard to equip a newly-founded IG regiment numbering around 30,000 men who are each expected to die within fifteen hours of arrival on the battlefield with bolters and plasma guns when las weapons can be manufactured quickly and cheaply.

I know, it still doesn't explain why Guardsmen aren't equipped with decent armor considering carapace armor probably isn't much harder to make than flak armor.

See, this is what I can't possibly understand. If the Imperium holds trillions of trillions of subjects, and controls most of the galaxy, then it would follow that the Orks never actually have anywhere near that amount, but instead bloom like viruses in various pockets of the Universe and attack and die just as quickly as they are birthed from a single parental generation.

Thus, it seems that the orcs have either billions or trillions of troopers depending on whether they were just recently decimated in a campaign or were preparing for a campaign/ actually sucessful

So that in any pocket of the Galaxy, the Orcish population could fluctuate between a few million to a few billion and back again.

Which is why I should think only 50%-75% the pop cap of Imperium of Man ... while having a growth rate 5x or 10x higher.

What is an entire Orkish ecosystem?

1. No, it doesn't explode, it just gets really really hot and causes significant burns, and the model that fired it can roll a save against the wound (yes, even Guardsmen can try and roll a 5+ to avoid dying).  Note that it doesn't kill the model if the save roll is failed, it just causes a single wound so any multi-wound models that roll a 1 and fail the armor save won't die unless they only had one wound left.  Of course since you did roll a one on the To-Hit roll you end up missing your shot.

2. Vehicles are immune to the effects of Gets Hot! since being vehicles they carry additional cooling and venting systems, preventing overheats from plasma weapons.  So go ahead and enjoy your Heavy 3 plasma cannon tank with plasma cannon sponsons.

Yeah well, it is expensive, and you may want a regular Leman Russ as well for the 72" S8 AP3 Ordnance Blast Battle Cannon.  You read that correctly, the regular Leman Russ can match Tau Hammerheads for range, and hit them with a S8 Ordnance weapon (which is great, since Ordnance weapons get +1 on vehicle damage table rolls).  Oh, and get a Basilisk or three for the 240" range and Ordnance Barrage S9 AP2 Large Blast weapon.  And remember, you can get three Leman Russes or three Basilisks for the price of one Heavy Support slot.

I love the new IG codex and the vehicle squadrons for everything from Hellhounds to Basilisks.