Gillyfish

Nice pictures (particularly the old Thunderbolts next to their larger successors - scale creep, what scale creep?).

Have you tried turning it on and off again? I am purposefully not asking that about your other problem.

Very nice to have, it may excuse a fourth Reaver...

Please note that the guidance is Interim. There is a lot of potential nuance to AI usage, as the discussion in this thread demonstrates, and a lot of strong opinion about its use, or non-use. Pandora's box has been opened and this new iteration of AI is out there and will remain so in one form or another. We are keeping an eye on how AI continues to develop and what it potentially means for the site. As with many tools, it can be used positively and helpfully (depending on what you are intending to use it for, of course) and it can produce utter garbage, as I am sure many people have seen from a lot of popular social media sites.

That's an interesting take Cactus. One thing I have been pondering is how the hive mind would work on board an actual hive-ship. The analogy of a body's immune system sort of works for this, where the players are initially facing little resistance until they are spotted/attack something and the ship realises they are there and mobilises its defences. Given they are on-board their own ship, would they always count as within synapse range (effectively), or would the destruction of certain objects, organs and adversaries reduce that (and affect the behaviours available for lower level Tyranid creatures)? The idea of an in-built creature as part of an organ could work (and feels rather Aliens, which is a definite positive). So perhaps Tyranids have actual creatures acting as organs, in the same way that they have symbiotic creatures as weaponry?

The Xenos Inquisitor team is a really fun idea. There is definitely a lot of room for expansion out from the base idea. I had been thinking of something akin to the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater set which uses a map book. having played a few games of that one of the key things you realise is that movement is fundamental to success, so, in the example of a Space Marine team above, whilst many people might look at a Terminator and be attracted by how survivable and 'killy' they are, the scout may well have far more importance in achieving your objective(s). Darkwater re-uses many of the same pages but with different missions (drawn randomly from cards for each Act of the game) as you get further into the Nurgle infested cathedral and you gain or power-up more treasure/abilities as you go. A similar approach to exploration (deck-based with choices for missions based on the cards drawn) might work as you try to reach a key organ (the end of each Act) and then each Act might get harder as the ship's defenses awaken and they begin to co-ordinate against you. Based on what you have said, I quite like the idea of themed 'teams', which would also work better for advancement and wargear cards, not to mention potential expansion. There is a key difference in this game to Darkwater though; Darkwater has the idea of a 'boss' for each act and a final boss to win. This would be about destroying the ship's organs, so there is a different focus and that might change the structure a bit. A three-Act arc might still work, but you might not have boss-fights, so much as harder missions as the hive-ships defences are utilised to try and fend you off. You would want the organ encounters to be memorable, so perhaps one might be wading through bile to reach the organ, another might be collapsing key ventricles which feed the organ so it chokes, etc. These would need to be memorable and there might need to be some variation to ensure replayability. Side missions might include killing off a local synapse creature which is co-ordinating defence against you, freeing prisoners, sealing off/purging brood-chambers before the occupants awaken and poisoning nutrient pools, as well as 'wade through creature type x before the timer runs out to escape the area'.

I believe so, yes. If they didn't then they definitely looked very similar. I can definitely see a scenario for the survivors of either a failed assault and/or a gobbled up vessel grouping up together to desperately try and take the vessel out with them, giving you options for some of the following: Space Marine Scout Power armoured marine Terminator Imperial Naval Rating PDF/Guardsman Tech-adept ..and so on. Options would also work for Eldar, Orks, etc., although it seems less likely that they might find common cause with some of the above. Note that I am going very much with the classic model/class ideas here. I would probably give starting stats to each and perhaps some equipment cards distinct to each class. So scouts are fast and can achieve objectives and carry special items like melta bombs more easily whereas terminators are slow, but heavily armoured and can dole out punishment.

An idea that occurred (to me) in Brother Tyler's estimable Space Hulk thread was how cool/interesting it would be to have a new version of Tyranid Attack/Advanced Space Crusade. Perhaps this time, instead of squads of marines, you might have survivors of squads or escapees from a hive-ship gobbling up ships it has encountered. This might allow for a Warhammer Quest style game akin to Darkwater, compete with map book depicting the various innards of the hiveship as the survivors try to kill off this threat to their homeworld/Craftworld, etc. Any thoughts on this idea? Worth pursuing?

GW have experimented with MDF scenery and that could lead to a less expensive take on Space Hulk than an all-plastic or printed-card version might (given most card-stock printing is done in China at present). MDF might represent an interesting alternative, depending upon how they feel their experiments in that area have gone. An alternative for them might be to revisit the territory of Advanced Space Crusade/Tyranid Attack in a style similar to Warhammer Quest Darkwater with a printed book detailing different parts of the Hive Ship and having specific missions for the marines to accomplish in the time available (actually, I really like the sound of this, but would want a more detailed ruleset than Darkwater has, perhaps more akin to Space Hulk). Darkwater does have multiple models sometimes starting in the same hex but then occupying only one thereafter, and that could work, but it would radically change the nature of the game from Space Hulk to something else entirely.

I completed Rites of War first time round when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it (I loved having my 'brick' of Exarchs and fully-developed tanks towards the end of the game). I picked it up for free again a while back from GOG, but have yet to install it. I also had Chaos Gate and Final Liberation when they were released. Both crashed a fair bit at the time, so I didn't get very far, so this may well be a good opportunity to do so. A newer game I have been revisiting is Space Hulk Ascension, which I would thoroughly recommend; a nice take on the board game, but with stat progression and equipment unlocks for your terminators, plus some differences between some of the Chapters (particularly Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and Salamanders). Graphics are still fun and it still provides a reasonable challenge. I haven't picked up Fire Warrior yet, although I remember it being quite fun at the time. I tended to be more of a strategy player than an FPS player.

Thank you. The one-shot went incredibly well (I will have to see if I can dig out pictures). So much so that the players have asked for a follow-up, so I am prepping that for later this year. I am writing it myself this time and using it as a staging point into some of the other written material.

So back when I finished school in the late 90s I had a year out before I went to university. I had a piece-rate job and one of my colleagues was an artist (turns out art doesn't often pay well). I showed him some of the GW stuff, which I loved. Most of it he dismissed as a bit derivative, but John's work he paused on, a bit surprised. He described it as simultaneously by a really, really good artist and a really bad one. That description has never left me; this was someone who looked for art to do something new and exciting and it was what he had been trained for it to do. In common with many 'artists', there was a definite air of disdain for those trying to achieve photo-real(ish) illustration, but there was still something about John's work which made him pause and admire it. Probably the same aspect which captivates those of us who didn't study art too; the wild, flamboyant and (small c) chaotic nature of it all which is really evocative. There are many GW artists I admire and John was amongst the most imaginative of them. It feels like he should have had a good few more years left in him. He will certainly not be forgotten.

Well, I think it depends on the faction and the 'feel' you are after. Guard and Genestealer cult vehicles definitely make sense to have weathering on them; they may been deployed for extended periods and it works really well over camo schemes or other iconography that might otherwise appear to clean or bright. Space Marine vehicles can also benefit from weathering, although perhaps not to the same extent; they are not usually deployed for such lengthy periods (after all, marines are supposed to be a precision tool, hitting hard and fast, rather than a meat grinder used for extended attritional deployment). But they would still have mud and dust and scratches on them. Infantry are a bit more to taste. You can absolutely do it, but it seems fewer people tend to, possibly because of the scale of the task (whereas vehicles are centrepieces)! There is an argument that marines, for example, might take pride in their heraldry and repair armour damage with armour cement in the field and they would certainly have it repaired by the chapter artisans between deployments. Other factions might not look so good with weathering: the Eldar aesthetic is all clean lines and strong colours and weathering just doesn't seem appropriate for them. Similarly, the organic feel of Tyranids would make weathering seem inappropriate, although you could seem an argument for a Lictor emerging from a swamp... Finally, there is the 'feel' you are after. As noted above, the Eldar, as a faction, have a particular 'feel'. You don't have to go with it, but many do. Weathered Eldar vehicles might be quite interesting, but also difficult to pull off given they are made of wraithbone. To take marines as an example, you might use weathering to say something about the army; has it been on extended deployment, do the battle brother take pride in their heraldry and armour, or are they more pragmatic? When you use the weathering, you are helping tell a story of your army and I try to think about what my concept overall is (I mean, I say that, my army was assembled over decades and has models with goblin green bases sitting alongside ones with brown bases and static grass, but at least I think about it! ).

Always great to see some classic Bad Moonz. I have some non-GW Blood Bowl Orcs painted in a similar scheme with some black sags as decoration and that works nicely. By the way, you mentioned Star Wars minis; I'm afraid that they could not be shared here unless they converted to fit into 40k universe. There are some other forums where you could share them though.

Always nice to see new content for AT, even if unofficial.