[Inquisitor Goldeneye]

Yes, these background changes are 'a bit awkward' all right.

In terms of abrupt tonal shifts it would be like releasing a cut of 'Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang' which included a Jhonn Woo-esque gun fight, complete with screaming rock sound-track and loads of 'bullet-time' effects.

Are we really beeing asked to accept a world where the Black Templars, one of, if not the most fanatically zealous of all the Space marine chapters, are more kindly desposed towards the Craftworld Eldar (allies of convenience, according to the above chart) than they are towards the Sisters of Battle (desperate allies)?

In the immortal words of one Charles Brown; "Good grief!"

[Charax]

I really think too many people are reading too much into the allies matrix, especially in terms of converting game mechanics into background.

Black Templars being Desperate Allies with Battle Sisters basically means that if they're deployed very close to each other, there's a chance of units not doing anything for a turn - probably because they're having some intense ideological discussion about the true nature of the Emperor's Divinity. the Templars, being more fanatical than most chapters, are more likely to get into such an argument in the middle of battle than other chapters, who are Allies of Convenience. It's not that they're more friendly with the Eldar, it's more that they're not likely to have these arguments with the Eldar, because both sides know that as soon as the common enemy is dealt with, the Black Templars are going to start firing at their sometime-allies.

The allies matrix is just a set of game mechanics, it's not a political map of the 41st millennium

[Dolnikan]

But even then that matrix is immensely strange, punishing some rather likely alliances while encouraging some very strange ones. Of course imperials can ally with xenos when they are forced to, but they would always expect to be attacked in the back by them, and the aliens also have no reason at all to trust them.

Of course it just is a game mechanic but I think that it is a bad one, it encourages strange alliances. Either leave it out completely and say that players should work it out on their own(nearly every possible alliance can be explained in some way by the players anyways) or ensure that it makes sense. The 41st milennium is no trusting place, and especially another species can never be trusted even remotely.