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1. How many regular people play war games in your group? I'd say we don't have a group, but there is a chain of about a dozen people who overlap on various games, so my opponent for one game may never play my opponent for another game as they have no games in common 2. How long have you been in the hobby? 30+ years 3. Is your group growing? No, it's maybe 're-gathering' some people who reach the life stage to pick up things again, but no truly new players 4. What games does your group play? What don't we? Historicals in everything from 2mm to 28mm for periods from the 7 years war to cold war, Malifaux, Infinity, Dropzone and dropfleet. From GW it's pretty much just 40k, Blackstone fortress, Old World and Bloodbowl. We do 'technically have and have played Warcry, Underworlds and Kill team but they all got a 'not worth the effort' after a few trial games. 5. How often do people leave your group? How often do new people come into your group? People more get more or less active, we're probably pretty stable since lockdowns. 6. Age Range of oldest player? upper 40s 7. Age Range of Youngest Player? upper 30s 8. Average age of player? low 40s I guess 9. Where do you play regularly (Ex: Hobby store, friend's house, rented out space, tournament, etc)? Houses and a store 10. Do you think the hobby is growing or dying? Please explain why. Neither, I think it's contracting, but it's a re-balance caused by cost of living going up and it having expanded beyond what was sustainable in the lockdown years, it'll probably level off about 80/90% of where it is now.

Eh, I don’t think they’re inept at it, necessarily. It’s just that, for their mainline games anyway, rules-qua-rules isn’t really GW’s priority. Rules are marketing first, and a game second, and their marketing mantra is “ease of entry.” Their goal is for a player to be able to walk into a store (ideally a GW/Warhammer one), pick up a Codex and be able to purchase any model they see inside. That first interaction/purchase is something GW is very, very focused on, and it drives more decisions than I think a lot of people realize. GW rules designers, both current and former, talk about it pretty openly. This is why Legends exists - it’s a place for all those models that you can’t get on store shelves anymore. This is why they don’t get much in the way of updates or balance considerations. It’s also a driver for lots of other rules decisions that make no sense as rules decisions. Why don’t we have a Force Organization Chart anymore? Ease of entry. Why doesn’t wargear have associated points values anymore? Ease of entry. Having those things complicates that first sale, so away they go. This isn’t actually all terrible, IMO. Sure, it’s made 40K an increasingly shallow and boring game experience for long-term players, but there’s a sort of freedom in understanding and accepting GW’s reasoning for their own actions. Once you do that, the idea of abandoning or disallowing Legends units becomes fairly absurd. If GW doesn’t care, why should we? Use your old models. Enjoy yourself and don’t sweat ideas like “balance” or “competitiveness.” They’re not what the game is designed for.

Wow, I wasn't aware that we were going straight up to Respected Renown. This also means Zidemi gets a free Exceptional Cybernetic... (pg 176)

This looks really promising. Once I get my 3d printer rehomed I may just give some of these a go.

Interesting, I'll have to go look this up, is it like followers in Black Crusade? I am unsure if I have done a good or a bad thing... What are you after, mate?

It is. Scout is huge, self orders is huge, the Melta Mine is a strategic item that denies an extra 3" bubble around the Kasrkin otherwise a vehicle takes a potentially big hit. Scions don't get good unless you bring a command squad with them, and now you're more expensive than the Kasrkin (if youre using them for the same purposes). You also can't reinforcements the command squad, so every scion squad gets worse after it dies compared to Kasrkin, who remain exactly as powerful coming out of reinforcements. Kasrkin also getting access to double orders is a big deal. I think there's still plenty of play left in the Kasrkin even at 120, though I think they go from being an almost automatic 3-of to being a considered 2-of. Scions are great action monkeys or deep striking threats. I don't think they got the exact same use as Kasrkin tho there is some overlap. I'm considering running two squads of five just to have some chance at dropping them somewhere unexpectedly to pick up some freebies.

He's looking absolutely stellar! Very glad you had a great time painting him :)

If only there was a way to balance it. You know, like a base unit cost and then an equipment cost. I wonder why this hasn't been tried before. /sigh It's a moot point anyway. We're in the era of single Datasheet loadouts with no/minimal options and they want to do away with the Firstborn stuff anyway

JJ DC are paying for the sins of "Here's 10 power fists and 10 Inferno pistols, good luck surviving." Yes, 95% of DC squads arent those load outs, but they have to balance for the strongest possible loadouts.

You are absolutely right! I read the datasheet wrong. So yeah, not worth the extra 20 points for kasrkin at all.

Welcome brother. How's your Chapter Master doing? Ours is in a jar on Chogoris.

Double plasma/melta with a plasma pistol on the Sarg will still kill 5 Marines on average which isn't nothing (gets better if you can get First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! on them too) But with the Kasrkin it's the Scout and 4+ armor you're getting them for to plant on objectives. We're guard. We kill the mean things with vehicles. Everything on two legs is there to die for the objectives or keep things off the vehicles.

Just remember. No matter how bad your chapter gets it. The Imperial Fists have it worse lol

The Death Company Dread is very playable now, my 2000 point list went up 5 points. DC JP didn't need a points increase. It's not as if we have been dominating the meta, our good units got a points increase while cheaper SG are still very fragile T4 marines who cost more than DC and die as quickly. DC JP are still way better than SG. I'm indifferent this points change is swings and roundabouts. Grateful for the DC dread points drop.

On the Req and XP front our GM has humbugged me a bit, since I was planning on hoodwinking him into an outrageous combination of filth, but the trinkets are calling....

I dropped the stormraven in my last game. ironically probably would have been real helpful against an army of tough big stuff.

Time to get back to the big chap! Finishing off the various skulls on his trophy rack and the couple hanging from his waist (not pictured), but mainly finishing off his right pauldron with the massive eye! All that's left to do is: 1. finish off a his various 'metal' skulls such as on the talons and left pauldron 2. finish the helmet and decomposing head to complete the trophy rack 3. Paint his topknot and reattach to head 4. Paint and reattach the ammo feeder to the talon 5. Various details. 6. Do something with drach'nyen as I'm not happy with how it looks just now. That should be him finished after that! Next up, is little Roboute Guilliman: He's started, and I thought I'd try the good old Leadbelcher base, nuln oiled and drybrushed with runefang steel. Then contrast paints for the 'gold' (Iyanden Yellow) and blue (Akhelian Green). That's as far as I've gotten so far.

What do you mean, Lysander is the -- *gets passed a piece of paper from off-screen* Wait, hold on. I'm getting word that Lysander is not the Chapter Master, despite all indications from his model.

We as ordinary humans really struggle to understand the Cult legions, as we are not ancient bio-engineered monsters who has been touched by a god. What we know is true is that all Cult legion marines follow one god, but there are also marines that are close and similar to the Noise marines, Berzerkers, Plague Marines, and Rubrics in other legions. Some have defected to other legions, Abaddon seem to welcome anyone who swears his loyalty to him. The only Cult marines that are originally coming from one legion are the Rubrics, as Ahriman made an error with his spell. But when it comes to Noise marines I have a feeling they are rare outside Emperor's Children warbands. The original Noise marines grabbed an orchestras instruments and supercharged them. When it comes to the Noise marines I have the feeling that hey are the Elite troopers, not uncommon, but absolutely not in the majority of the legion, most of the legion are just very weird Marines that embrace debauchery and crave for the next high. To become a Noise marines might be the goal for many of the Emperor's Children, fueled by envy and lust for the weapons, but other might lust to get even more powerful things, which I think most of them do. Becoming a champion, a lord, a sorcerer, or even become eternally damned as a daemon prince. They willingly embrace the gifts that Slaanesh gives them, the mutations, the drugs, and/or the experiences of battle and near deaths. They still strive to be better, be more cruel and experiment on how to inflict more pain and misery on others and themselves, just to please their god and to fuel their debauchery. To fall to Slaanesh is easy, many of us are closer to falling without knowing it, our piles of gray plastic is the evidence. But I will try to explain in an easier fashion. The first time you had a Hamburger, you probably had it in one of those cheap fast food joints that litter our planet, it was good, maybe even the best thing you have had, but then you tried one with cheese, and suddenly that paddy between two slices of bread was kinda boring. You start to try other burgers, with dressing, bacon, and even try to dip the fries in the ice cream, finding out was might be the best combination. Some stop here, content to go back to the same fast food joint year after year. But one day you get a burger from a place that has used other kind of beef, maybe even and you understand that the fast joint burgers are dull. Now you strive to find the best burger in town, the fast food joints are not interesting any more. When it comes to burgers this is fine, if you don't start to travel the planet for the most perfect burger, because then you really have fallen and turned your burger eating to a an obsession, and if you start to kill people for a burger then you have really fallen. This can be applied to anything really but drugs, gambling, sex and other vices are the ones we think of as they are culturally "bad". But apply this to a Space Marine, who lives for so much longer, and only have one real reason for existence, to go to war, he will now try to become the best soldier trying to either kill in the most glorious way, find the most terrifying enemy or seek out new ways to get himself almost killed, just for the kick out it. If he is an original Emperor's Children, he has seen and fought almost everything, he has changed out his armour and weapons countless of times, the wear and tear of an armour over 10k+ years of warfare must be tremendous. His body is changed with mutations, and countless of scars litter his body. When it comes to sonic weaponry, it has probably gotten a bit boring for him, but the god has cursed him to use it for eons, other Marines in his vicinity has realised that maybe excelling in other weapons are better, like the sword, the spear, the fist, and the axe. Because now they can change the weaponry and find new ways to kill. An Emperor's Children Marine who kills a Blood Thirster with his bare fists has probably come to his ultimate high, What is more dangerous? A primarch, the emperor, a titan? He will try to find the more dangerous thing to kill in the most flamboyant fashion. Sure Noise Marines could be a Battleline choice, but also ordinary squads of Marines should be Battleline, with either a choice of close combat weaponry or a bolter variant. Give them a new and fun terminator variant, and also want to see the 3.5 option to change out combi-bolters to sonic weaponry. I still miss my Blast master bikes. Give them an original champions with option drug infused enhancements. Don't give them ordinary cultists, make the cultist either fanatics or slaves, one that gets better after it has been reduced to half (fanatics) fulled by the fear and pain, or so weak and feeble that he are always in cover, can't use stratagems, can't use transports, but can be used as suicide bombers (d6 mortal wounds in close combat twice per battle or something similar). A new weird daemon engine, I have no idea what it should do, but chaos has too few weird daemon engines. Maybe a "havoc" squad with blast masters. The option to change out vehicle weaponry to sonic ones (3.5 again). Now I need to stop my rambling. Cpt.Danjou

I wouldn't even consider kasarkin atm, special weapons tactical value has diminished considerably and the s3 guns....

I am inclined to see if we can first narrow down where to search with information from Xin (or his Autopilot) in his capacity as the Red Priest.

Assistance deBrae can willingly provide.

You can still provide assistance (+10) working with another player, or perhaps approach it from a different angle.

from Ejecutor on TGA forums

I was tempted by a battle servitor to carry my heavy bolter once I switch to a different weapon... sadly it's distinguished only. What would be the requisition cost of a combat wheelbarrow? :p Though looking at first founding 500xp does get a generic lesser follower - much like the guy carrying Helbrechts gun for him. A lesser 'gun polisher' is tempting...