Dawn of War/Headscratchers

"Mekboy: I should invent some kinda machine that makes walking faster!"
 * What is up with the name of this game? Has every faction just discovered the use of weapons, and are trying them out for the first time or something?
 * The name refers to the mission Dawn of War from the tabletop game.
 * Except that the Dawn of War mission has only existed since 4th edition - after the game came out.
 * Rule of Cool, because "Warhammer 40K: Same killing stuff again" wouldn't have same effect.
 * Warhammer 40,000: Same Shit, Different Day would be a lot truer to the source material, though.
 * And there you go. In the grimdark of the 41st Millennium, every dawn is a DAWN OF WAR.
 * Dark Crusade: The buildings for every race are either dropped down from space or warped in, so why can't you have access to them in the quarry level, and yet have access to them in the (underground) Necron stronghold?
 * They fly them through the openings, I'd guess.
 * But you can still use orbital bombings and strafing runs. Why?
 * Rule of Cool plus Gameplay and Story Segregation.
 * Isn't the Stealthsuit phrase, "We will steal it right from under their noses!" a strange one to come from a species that has no nose? Why do the Flayed Ones damage the morale of the Dark Eldar units when surely they've seen it all before? Why did the Tau give their Soulstorm base the romantic name of 'Sword Moon' when they avoid melee combat like rape? What the hell was Eliphas the Inheritor doing for 10,000 years prior to the Dark Crusade? Shouldn't he either be dead or a Daemon Prince by now?
 * The Stealthsuit pilots could have picked it up from humans who joined the Tau Empire, and a sword is a pretty common symbol of precision, speed and lethality, which would fit the Tau's usual tactics and strategy.
 * That may be true of our culture, but is it true of theirs?
 * They weren't always using those pulse rifles. Melee weapons would have been easier to make and use, and since most ranged weapons before guns also rely on physical strength for their range and power, those wouldn't be much more effective. Besides, doesn't Commander Farsight have a sword on his battlesuit?
 * The Tau do not have noses. The Tau are fighting every other faction in the galaxy, who have noses. The sentence "We (noseless Tau) will steal right from under their (nose-having aliens) nosess" therefore makes sense.
 * Eliphas is a member of the most organised and second most powerful legion he could have been a later recruit or a founding member, Chaos marines are technically immortal because constantly being in the warp has weird effects on both time and the person involved.
 * All space marines are technically immortal.
 * No only Chaos Marines that's why the only Marines still alive from the Heresy are are Chaos Marines.
 * except for all the people still alive since then of course
 * Eliphas may have been a Chaos Lord at the time of the Dark Crusade, but 10,000 years before, during the Horus Heresy, he was just a rank-and-file soldier. He probably spent much of that time rising through the ranks.
 * The intro for the Chaos Campaign says he was an Aspiring Chaos Champion. After the whole 'Basilica of Torment' thing, he spent his time becoming an Exalted Chaos Lord.
 * It just bugs me that Relic did not even bother to follow even the basic principles of how the Alpha Legion acts. None of the things they do would be what the alpha's do.
 * For one thing, Bale breaks rule one he doesn't look like Alpharius. They all try to look like Alpharius to deceive people, but Bale just calls himself that.
 * Bale is also tactically stupid. The Alpha Legion are all manipulative bastards with great tactics. Sindri was more indicative of how they act but again he doesn't pretend to be Alpharius. It would be confusing gameplay-wish if everyone would be Alpharius, I realize. I wouldn't mind Bale just being outed as like a World Eater dressed like an Alpha Legion. It annoys me because next to the Thousand Sons they are the only interesting Chaos legion.
 * Can we get examples of what the Alphas did 'wrong'? Not everyone's memorised the fluff, heh.
 * Alpha Legion doctrine mandates that everyone looks like their primarch, partly to hide the existence of the Twin, and partly to confuse and disorient enemy intelligence agents. Alpha Legion put a lot of effort into recruiting spies and saboteurs in other factions, they rarely operate in the open unless their cover was blown or the final stage of their plan is being implemented which is usually kill all witnesses. Alpha Legion companies operate very independently in a cell-like structure and will often be following a plan developed years ago without any oversight from commanders, that way if the officer in charge of an operation is assassinated the operation will proceed anyway. When Alpharius was slain by Guilliman the Alpha Legionnaires kept on fighting as if nothing had changed. Not to say the least of Omegon, Alpharius's twin, the fact that their homeworld was never discovered and the fact that they have been declared exterminated seven times, nor suffered a lasting defeat. In essence if they were portrayed properly in Do W, the Blood Ravens would experience a mass of cultist attacks on random non-essential targets and return to base only to be nuked by a warhead buried under their stronghold while simultaneously their ships in orbit are declared traitors and attacked by the Imperial Navy. That's how the Alpha Legion operate, behind your back.
 * Given how much of a devious little prick Sindri is, it's entirely possible that he maneuvered Bale into the position he was in in order to have someone in authority he could easily manipulate, fully knowing the guy was completely incompetent.
 * OP here. My biggest problem was in Soulstorm though, I mean come on, they weren't trying to seem in any way smart. They weren't the Alpha Legion, the devs just picked traitor legions out of a hat with the preconceived notion of them being Khornate. I think they would have done the same thing if they got Thousand Sons.
 * Hey, it is entirely possible that Chaos simply was able to corrupt this particular company of the Alpha Legion until they said "screw this" to guerrilla warfare and took up Khorne worship. It is also possible that they acted the way they did because they were on a very tight schedule to seize the artifact before the Warp Storms made it inaccessible. They could have only discovered its location recently, and simply didn't have time to do their usual thing. Also, they took as many Khornate troops as possible, because they expected a lot of close-quarters fighting, and Khornates excel at that. Also, Bale was like that because Sindri needed a nominal "leader" to take the heat and fend off challenges while he worked on getting the maledictum.
 * People... ten thousand years down the line, these legions are not the same anymore. Chaos corrupts, every warband of every legion has developed its own Chaos allegiance, hierarchy, organization and so forth. There's a fucking Khornate warband who are all proficient daemon summoners for Allah's sake. You can't pigeonhold them into; 'covert, black ops geniuses' anymore. The Alpha Legion, along with everything aside from the Word Bearers and Black Legion, are fragmented wrecks. Oh, you'll find many warbands that are 'traditional Alpha Legion', but you'll find others that just bear the colors and geneseed. Also, if its worth anything, the Alpha Legion in Retribution infiltrated the Imperial Guard sent to pacify Aurelia and converted them to Chaos worship. That fits with the what everyone seems to think of when the AL comes into play. Also, Bale's choice of weapon suggests he worships Nurgle.
 * On the other hand, the Word Bearers in the Dark Crusade play exactly as they're supposed to. The game's habit of saving each map exactly as you left it, down to the last Listening Post, means you have every incentive to conduct a slow, crushing campaign that leaves Kronus totally subservient. You know, just like in the fluff.
 * If the Alpha Legion went and acted subtle, people'd immediately be suspicious. The Alpha Legion acting so out of character means it's not actually them but a ifferent chapter masquerading as the Alpha Legion.
 * But the best Legion for this kin of infiltration is the Alpha Legion. Therefore, it's the Alpha Legion masquerading as a different Legion masquerading as the Alpha Legion. (And if you think it's complicated, just remember it's all part of Tzeentch's plan.)
 * It Just Bugs Me that people think the Blood Ravens are somehow nicer than other chapters they are just as mean spirited and wasteful of imperial guard lives.
 * They're slightly sympathetic because they're dying out. They're still evil bastards but they're sympathetic evil bastards.
 * They're sympathetic because they may or may not be Thousand Son successors, they're evil because they may or may not be Thousand Son successors.
 * The Blood Ravens were actually so impressed by the loyalist Imperial Guard on Tartarus that they recruited some of the survivors. Also note that Avitus is the only important (aka, on-screen) Blood Raven to diss on them without good reason, and others even call him on it. The Blood Ravens seem more openly concerned with the lives of people caught in the crossfire and more willing to be respectful of non-Astartes who genuinely deserve it; even if it's because their future is in doubt and they need all the friends they can get, it's still a positive trait.
 * Wait when did they mention that in the games? Or was that from the awful awful book.
 * Also, apparently Avitus' seething hatred of the IG stems from some of them fleeing some battle(s) in the past and leaving the Marines on their own, which presumably got some of Avitus' brothers killed off. So it's not like he's bigoted out of nowhere. The whole Kronus episode probably didn't help, either.
 * Actually Avitus lost his friends while fighting against the Guard during Dark Crusade. Plus he grew up in a settlement that was abused by a corrupt regiment.
 * Soulstorm. Just... Soulstorm. It came out more as a parody of 40k then an actual game from the setting. Everyone was such a Large Ham that it went into positive Narm. Before that they were hammy, and even though you expect that from Space Marines Spess Mehreeens, it was a little much.
 * METAL BAWKSES
 * THE COWARDS! THE FOOLS!
 * We... we should take away their metal boxes...
 * The Eldar's actions in Do W 2 just make bollocks sense to me. I mean, OK, I get the "not caring if entire worlds live or die if it saves a single Eldar" bit. I do. I also get the plan to "lure" the Tyranids down on the planets, then blow them up all at once. Makes some sense. However :
 * a) why fuck around with the Orks in any way, shape or form ? It's not like they were expecting them to win, since the only reason Eldar got involved at all was that they figured the Hive Fleet was unstoppable. But even if they hoped the Orks could win, why try and sic 'em on the Space Marines, which would bleed both sides out ? Surely letting both full strength Orks and Imperium concentrate on blasting 'nids instead of each other would have worked better. Which leads to
 * b) Why not let the Imperium duke it out with the Tyranids and instead actively fight the IG and the Blood Ravens ? Especially when the master stroke is to blow the planets up when nobody's looking. And the big one,
 * c) the whole idea is to get involved as discreetly and minorly as possible in order to save many Eldar lives down the line. In order to fulfill this plan, you throw countless Eldar mooks at pretty much every sentient species in the sector. Untold numbers of them die in the fighting. Yeah, that makes sense. Better get killed than die, amiright ?..
 * Fairly simple on B, at least. The Ravens have been caught up in Eldar struggles for some time now, and Gabriel is actually on his way after the 'nids arrive. Even if they didn't predict that, it would make perfect sense for the Eldar to lure as many Marines as they could into a deathtrap. Saves them the bother later.
 * It is possible that the things went Exactly As Planned for the Eldar, since the Tyranid Fleet wound up being stopped and the threat to their craftowrld's eliminated. After all, without the Eldar stirring up the Orks and getting the attention of the Blood Ravens, the Tyranid Invasion would have caught them completely unprepared.
 * More will be revealed when we finally get to play the eldar campaign.
 * There's some of the Eldars' hidden motive blurred into one of the Do WII: Chaos Rising missions. Something about . Perhaps the Eldar took advantage of all the craziness in the subsector to achieve their real goal. (After all, when Idranel mentioned saving a Craftworld, ...)
 * Well although it is not confirmed, it is highly speculated that the Ulthwe Eldar were trying to destroy Meridian in the Vanilla campaign because, and the fact they failed means Meridian is so screwed one way or another...
 * Why don't the Tau get turrets? They're the only race without a We Have Reserves approach, they use drones to reduce the number of Tau casualties, if anything, they should be the only ones with automated defenses.
 * It's also a bit unusual that despite being such a technologically advanced/range-focused faction, their Relic Unit in the first game is a giant T-Rex that's technically mercenary firepower.
 * Tau aren't much of a believer in static defenses, preferring to use mobility and distance to get the drop on their enemies. It's a nod to the fluff.
 * For god's sake, Tau already have FW spam and Broadsides.. shooting across half the map.. and the burrowing gun drones.. I'd say they're fine. Not to mention the goddamn snare traps.
 * But it especially annoys me in the campaign, where you need to sacrifice part of your army to maintain a viable defense. Also no turrets means no detection.
 * While there is an undeniable need for gameplay balance, the Tau actually do have turrets in fluff. In fact, Forge World makes models for them and there are rules for using them on the tabletop. They are typically rapidly deployed from arial transports ahead of an enemy advance and operated by drone intelligences, and if they survive the battle, can be recovered and repositioned afterward. Seems like a perfect fit for RTS use, but no...
 * Why are the Blood Angels colored blue?
 * ...what Blood Angels?
 * The version of Dark Crusade I have has blue Blood Angels as one of the Space Marine armies. It might be a bug though.
 * Probably. Wiki has them red.
 * You got bug. I have them red. It might have mixed them accidentally with Ultramarines.
 * While most of the Marines in a given Chapter maintain the Chapter's colours, there are some variants: Chaplains are almost always in black, while Librarians tend to wear blue and Techmarines wear red. However, they maintain their Chapter's colours and insignia somewhere on their armour, usually one shoulder pad at least.
 * Some of the choices of Heroes in multiplayer are questionable at best. Each army really has there own stupid mistake actually.
 * Space Marines: Apothecaries would definately not be in a major leadership role and a better choice would probably be Librarians who can definately fill a suport role.
 * Eldar: The Warp Spider Exarch leading an entire army doesn't make sense and the better choice should be obvious an Autrarch who could move around just as fast.
 * Note though that as of Retribution, the Autrarch is now a playable hero for the Eldar.
 * Orks: Actually works for me.
 * Tyranids: A Ravener obviously isnt leading the hive fleets troops but a Zoanthrope would probably make a better choice.
 * Chaos: It actually works for me.
 * Imperial Guard: Best chosen out of the armies.
 * ...you do realise this is why they're called heroes and not leaders, right?
 * But they still are understood to be the leader.
 * By you, yes. By the game, no. They're hero units. You are complaining about an interpretation you've forced onto the game, not a genuine mislabelling.
 * Yes but invariably the other two choices are HQ choices in the Tabletop so its not too hard to just pick an adequate replacement that is also an HQ choice.
 * It's not too difficult to take things at face value rather than being finicky, pedantic and over-anal but there you go. The hero choices in the game were picked because they were iconic and easily identifiable, not to appease people such as yourself who are apparently incapable of realising this.
 * In Chaos Rising, they brought back a lot of original voice actors, including the fan-favored Eliphas. And then, instead of letting him reprise his role as Eliphas, they make him the Chaos Lord.
 * It's especially grating in Retribution, Steve Blum voices damn near every fucking character going. Including Eliphas. Whose original VA is in the game. Everyone sounds the goddamn same when he's behind them, and it is immensely annoying.
 * ... Steve Blum only voices 3 characters... Martellus, Cyrus and Eliphas. If there's anyone voicing EVERYONE it's Brian Dobson doing the entire Space Marine faction and Paul Dobson doing the entire Chaos Space Marine faction. In fact, that's probably why Paul wasn't called to do Eliphas.
 * Why is the Ork Mekboy not only the best shooter, but also essentially the fastest mover in The Last Stand?
 * VC Tyrant easily out-shoots Mekboy even without Implant/Sacs. Sorcerer is just as fast with the teleport. Farseer is even faster.
 * Two words: More Dakka


 * Why is Cyrus the only space marine in the entire sector who knows about the Tyranids? It seems like they'd be kind of big news all across the imperium. Making matters worse, the chapter archives have incredibly detailed records on them. Does no one bother to actually read them once in a while?
 * The Tyranids are not well known outside of forces that fought them and any records could easily have been Ultramarine records on loan.
 * Er, why aren't they well known? They don't seem to get classified, and they're pretty widespread. Also, the Shadow in the Warp was in effect, so it's highly unlikely they obtained any new records. The records may be from Ultramarines originally, but they're clearly in the chapter archives and not obtained from elsewhere after they figured out what they were up against.
 * I had forgotten the shadow in the warp part.
 * Plus Cyrus was in the Deathwatch and thus has far more detailed information regarding any xenos.
 * We don't know exactly when Dawn of War takes place in the 40K timeline. It could be near the beginning of the tyranid invasion as they first breached into the galaxy.
 * Fits with the fluff. Space Marines, and pretty much anyone outside Ordos Xenos, are highly discouraged from learning about any alien species, even when its relevant. Most Space Marines won't even both distinguishing between Eldar and Dark Eldar even though they employ different enough weaponry and tactics that it should be worthwhile.
 * Where is the first mission in DOW Retribution set? It can't be Cyrene, as Angelos didn't get his daemonhammer until he was on Tartarus, but it can't be Tartarus, as Jonah wasn't there (you also cannot build librarians in the last level of the game, where you fight the daemon), it was Toth.
 * It's pretty obviously on Typhon, for all races. And the final mission is always on Cyrene. But seriously your continuity is all over the place. Retribution takes place after Chaos Rising and waaaay after Dawn of War I.
 * Two things: one, I meant the prologue mission and two, I was narrowing down the possibilities based on the three games in the series I've actually played: DOW 1, Winter Assault and Dark Crucade.
 * The prologue mission is the ending mission from Gabriels perspective, and yes, it's on Cyrene. Planet's just lifeless by the time the game takes place.
 * Relic seems to have written Slaanesh out of Retribution. I can see how it would be messy from a gameplay standpoint to have all four gods represented in gameplay, but come on - featuring the Noise Marines and then giving them to another god (Tzeentch, IIRC) just bugs me.
 * When they attack somebody with sonic blasters, their victims get the distinctfully Slaanesh logo over their heads, and are kind of mesmerised, which meets the description of Slaaneshi powers quite nice. And also, THEY INVOKE SLAANESH WHEN YOU SEND THEM INTO BATLLE.
 * Slaanesh wouldn't be that messy from a gameplay standpoint. From a game rating standpoint, however... ;). FWIW, that's also why Tzeentch is the only Chaos god Chaos characters can be from in the Warhammer Online MMORPG: Khorne would have meant a dearth of magic in that particular faction, Nurgle would have been too disgusting for most players leading to population imbalances, and Slaanesh... well, Slaanesh would have implied more tits everywhere. Weaponized tits, eye tits, tits tits. So Tzeentch it is.
 * The Sorcerer says "Their Souls to Slaanesh!" when attacking Eldar, and there are several Slaaneshi items in Retribution. There would probably be more Slaanesh focus if they had room to add a Slaaneshi Hero.
 * What is the point of Araghast in Chaos Rising? He adds nothing to the story, and apparently has no purpose in life other than spamming the Blood Ravens with lame insults. First he yells his name over their vox channel, just to prove that he can. Then he remains quiet for some time, until he decides that he is not getting enough attention, at which point he challenges the Blood Ravens to some sort of schoolyard fight, which he loses spectacularly. The Black Legion suffers no setback from this, and the Blood Ravens gain nothing from killing him, except from no longer having to listen to his yelling. The campaign would have worked perfectly well without him.
 * This troper always figured it was a reference to the original Do W campaign, with Eliphas, much like Sindri needing some idiot lord running around making loud noises while he focused on the 'real' objective, in this case bringing back Ulkair. Not that it helps Araghast's case much.
 * Oh! Oh! Can I answer this? Thanks. Eliphas wasn't supposed to be in Chaos Rising originally. He was brought back due to massive fan outcry, after mistaking Araghast in the original trailer to be Eliphas. His was a last minute addition, with the entire Chaos story being rewritten to accommodate him. If outcry hadn't risen, Araghast would have been the main villain as intended. Also, Araghast is awesome, cry more.
 * Araghast is awesome but Eliphas is a more established villain with more history fighting the Blood Ravens it makes sense for him to be there.
 * Of course, Eliphas is a far more established and very badass villain, but the point is that he wasn't originally planned to be in CR until the fans jumped to conclusions. And yes, Araghast is perhaps the only Chaos Lord who begins to approach Eliphas' badassery.
 * In the first game the Tactical Marines carried combat knives they used in melee and fared just as well in it as they did in shoot-out, if not better. In the second game they...kick or punch their foes or hit them with the absent gun-butts of their bolters. The hell?
 * This also bugged me for a while, but it is mostly to put a clear distinction between ranged and melee units, in DOW 1 people would just send their whole army into melee combat just to see some knife to knife action, obvious this pretty much wasted the value of ranged units. And so by doing the lame punch and kick animations it forcibly tells people that units with guns should shoot them, not charge them into close combat where they are just going to die, and that the guys with chainswords, should use them on the guys with guns.
 * Why are the Alaitoc the Eldar faction in Retribution? What interest do they have in an Ulthwé craftworld?
 * It's not an Ulthwe craftworld, Craftworld Ulthwe is the only Ulthwe craftworld. The craftworld is destroyed, so forces from other craftworlds are trying to salvage the Infinity Circuit. Eldar are semi-unified, and they're all for keeping souls from being eaten by Slaanesh. Presumably Ulthwe farseers were the first to get visions relating to this craftworld, and Alaitoc took longer to get enough clarity to decide to intervene.
 * Why is the Ravener a hero unit for the Tyranids in Multiplayer? Wouldn't an ambush unit designed to support troops be better suited to a Genestealer?
 * Because Genestealers were only added in Chaos Rising. If they were in vanilla, a Genestealer Broodlord would probably replace the Ravener Alpha.
 * What exactly where the plans of the Alpha Legion in Aurelia it is never mentioned but for some reason the enemy chaos worshipers are from the Alpha Legion I know it was probably just that the Alpha Legions color scheme lent itself best to the incidental chaos worshipers but it would have been interesting if they explained their existence.
 * Remember the Alpha Legion you fought in the first Dawn of War? They've decided to come back and help out the daemon that Sindri released.
 * Why though, what do they have to gain from a daemon who has already served its purpose?
 * 'Purpose'? What 'purpose'? Anyway, the reason why the Alpha Legion assists said Daemon is because this particular warband wants to see the Blood Ravens destroyed. Also, daemons tend to be revered by the servitors of Chaos, hence why it is an honour amongst them to be possessed by one. So, there you go.
 * But the Alpha Legion doesn't follow chaos, they seek the downfall of the Imperium but they don't use daemons or help them unless it benefits them everything they do is for a very strict purpose and wasting precious marines on a matter where they probably wouldn't even operate in the open for. If they had been acting like they normally would you would have never seen anyone displaying their color scheme unless the operation went tits up. They also are in places where they are not helping the maledictum daemon at all like with those traitor guardsmen and marines on Aurelia where they where setting up a warp portal because they wanted to one up Araghast and re-summon Ulkair respectively.
 * The only remaining unification among the Traitor legions is that they share a heraldry. 10,000 years of Chaos corruption, there are some warbands who have deviated from the norm. The legion you face in Retribution is one of those. Also, there's nothing really saying that they wanted to 'one up' Araghast by opening a portal. Araghast's agenda was simply to destroy the subsector. Also, that portal helped to summon Bloodletters. Footsoldiers of Khorne. Perhaps the daemon wished an army? I mean, Space Marine legions aren't Planets of Hats where every member and group are clones. I mean, Kharn used to be a calming influence and there's an obese Space Wolf.
 * Why can't you bring the whole team in for the last mission of Chaos Rising? It seems to me that they'd want all available hands on to try to kill that thing that's been trying to kill off your recruiting worlds, yes? Especially matters as Captain Angelos has been rallying all loyalist Blood Ravens.
 * Possibly because of gameplay reasons, as you can lose quite a few of your squads to corruption. It would be a lot of work to account for all the possible permutations. As for an in-story reason... well, no idea. Maybe they just ran out of Drop Pods.
 * Any in-game reasons why a fully corrupted Commander would still bother fighting Ulkair and all his mininons only to escape into the Warp immediately afterwards? Ok, killing Eliphas makes sense, but shouldn't you technically take his place by Ulkair's side in this case?
 * Residual loyalty to the Chapter.
 * It is also possible that he dedicated himself to a god other than Nurgle, in which case he would be Ulkair's enemy. The different Chaos factions fight each other as much as they fight everyone else.
 * The description of the Force Commander's Chaos abilities imply that he was dedicated to Khorne (ie: Call for Blood) . Cyrus, on the other hand dedicated himself to Tzeentch. His ultimate ability causing a Tzeentchian mark to form underneath him. Avitus was dedicated to Khorne, obviously, but he was apparently the traitor so it doesn't count. Tarkus was Nurgle, and Thaddeus was undivided. On the other hand, Chaos Champions also gain great esteem in the eyes of the Gods when they overcome their own Patron's daemons as well as those of others.
 * Speaking of which. The top ability of Chaos!Thaddeus is called "Daemoniс possession", and it basically sacrifices a squad member to summon a daemon. Uhm, shouldn't possession turn you into, well, a possessed marine? After all, those were present in [DoW] and went by just fine.
 * It probably relates to the whole tabletop game in general, but why are there so few weapons for Terminators? Bolters, assault cannons (which, IMO, suck), flamers, Cyclon launchers and...that's it? No normal missile launchers (i.e. such that can hit a broad side of a Carnifex), no plasma, melta or laser guns? Why?
 * Giving them all of those weapons would make most other infantry units redundant and let the terminators counter everything else, thus unbalancing the game. The in-universe reason is probably that they don't need more weapons, as they are already fully capable of handling most of the enemies they face.
 * Firstly, there's likely not to be an STC or schematic for doing so, and modifying tech is strictly forbidden. Secondly, Terminators are supposed to be ranged combatants, but also act as a close-range meatshield and have some melee capacity, hence the powerfists, meaning that weaponry with a large blast area (plasma cannon) or pinpoint weapons (lascannon, launcher) would defeat the purpose of them. Also, Codex Astartes.
 * So, uh, why didn't Adrastia just give Bluddflag the hat? It is of little cost to her to do so, and she surely didn't need another enemy in the sector and the Orks would have proven more useful were they totally on her payroll.
 * I guess she thinks it's a Nice Hat too
 * He's a Xeno. Humans don't deal with Xenos when it's possible. She most likely thought she could order him to do what she liked for nothing since her speices evolved on Earth.
 * Well, that's no entirely true, she did offer him a fight afterwards.