Invent a New Warhammer Race

[chiasaur11]

Artificial intelligences.

Really. I'm not talking about the smart as dogs Tau ones, or the souls-in-machines Necrons, but autonomous solar-powered AIs who continue to improve battle technology and manufacture unmanned combat vehicles. The Imperium previously eliminated all "Abominable intelligences" during the Dark Age of Technology; what if one artificial intelligence, before the crusade, was lost in the depth of space in a freak warp accident ?

Left to itself, it continued to improve its weapons, building similar AIs and regarding every lifeform as an enemy. The new fully robotic faction finally encountered the Imperium again in the 41th millennia, and unsuccessfully hunted down by the Imperial Guard. Now seeing the Imperium as enemy, it is conquering planets after planets, heading (of course) for Terra itself.

EDIT: Although they are not really over-the-top enough...

Still, robots are good.

Hmm. They won't have souls, of course, so no real Warp presence, which means most long range sensors won't spot them at all. And AIs tend to, in theory, understand tactics.

Now, the AI in charge pretty much determines the fraction. I mean, just taking the first 2 AIs to come to mind, Durandal's tactics would differ greatly from AM's.

Edit: Hey, they'd have Golden Age era tech, and even the modern day has active camo type prototypes. Between that and Warp transparency, these guys could be invisible to pretty much everyone. The "they're so much better than everyone else" scene could be a battle between IG and Eldar, with both sides suddenly falling over dead with no visible cause. Both sides desperately ally, random bursts of fire drop one hunter-killer looking nasty before the last outpost is slaughtered, one guardsman left, one of the bots materializes and gives a message "Tell your corpse-god that all flesh will fall as easily as this. The bastard Oedipus has come for his throne." At the debriefing, said guardsman incinerates after delivering the message.

Or some such. Tossing out ideas at random.