ThePenitentOne

I love the fact that you have to sacrifice in Crusade in order to field an Avatar. In 9th I think you had to remove an Exarch from your order of battle. In 10th, I think an Aspect unit has to take a battle scar. It also only stays with your army for as long as you're guiding fate; once the Crisis is over, it returns to the craftworld, while the sacrifice made to bring it to battle remains. Since the Nachmund campaign opened up named characters in Crusade, I think it might be interesting to expand situational narrative costs like these to other armies as a way of ensuring that it makes narrative sense to include a named character in a battle. Obviously this wouldn't apply in matched play games, so it doesn't solve any problems for pick-up games, but it provides a system that might be more conducive to successful inclusion of named characters in narrative games.

The outlander dragonflies are doggos for vespids.

Woo hoo! The Vespid Kanine unit is coming!

Okay- so Malys looks AMAZING (love the armour plated, bladed tail!). The Archon is also awesome, and the post specifically mentions options! I hope they give us back Wych weapons, possibly even making them better than before, as the Shardnet and Impaler were always better than the others. That combat patrol... I want it so much! I only have five Wracks, so I really want more. I only have one Talos, and I really wanted two with a Cronos buddy... So again, perfect! The launch box would be cool, but I don't need the stuff in it (though I wouldn't mind it either- there's nothing there I CAN'T use, but the only thing I NEED is the new Archon). So this is good... But allow me to express nervousness: every datacard in the game has one ability on it, and characters have two. Psykers are already stupid this edition, because usually their psychic power replaces one or both of these abilities that everyone gets for free. And when I hear that power from pain abilities are going to be on datacards, I just know those abilities will replace normal abilities everyone gets for free. There are ways it can be done- so maybe existing abilities stay as-is BUT they can be beefed up using PfP. The fear there is that they dumb down the unempowered version of the ability in order to make it so that the empowered version doesn't have to go as far to differentiate itself... But even if so, having a weak ability that works without PfP is better than NO ability that works without PfP. And of course, I have the axiety that they'll dumb down the best set of Crusade rules ever published... But they did okay with some of the other factions who had great Crusade content, so we might be okay here. My Drukhari Call to Arms challenge is on track- five Mandrakes, three members of the Court and the Haemonculus are done; tonight I put finishing touches on the Sslyth, and I might be able to bang out 2-3 Wracks on top of that- they're really close. And that gives me a complete Space Lane Raider boarding patrol. And that means any new stuff already has a painted army to slide into. The Ascendant Lord Archon Sykil Draeven is watching with great curiousity and anticipation.

Usually in a year there are three issues I love (almost always the ones with Crusade content for armies I play); there are usually six or seven issues I like (again, it will always be rules content that is the deciding factor), and 2-3 that are virtually useless to me as a player. This issue wasn't useless- the minigame and the KT Mission might see some use- Tyranid NPO cards are useful, and as I mention, I CAN play space marine things with Deathwatch or Grey Knight... But it probably the closest to useless issue for me personally this year. I knew that when I bought it, so that's on me. Next issue might be more useless to me because its focus appears to be mostly AoS, which I can't afford to play in addition to 40k.

I ended up getting it; I was interested enough in the mini-game that I thought I'd take a chance. The minigame is okay. I think I like the bunker Kill Team mission version better. I could play it with Deathwatch or Grey Knights. I thought the "Create your own Chapter" article revealed the weaknesses of 10th edition- with no subfaction mechanics available, creating your own chapter basically means coming up with a backstory. Paint scheme, heraldry. But nothing that actually impacts the game. I feel like a create your own chapter article would have been more impactful and interesting in an edition where some of the player choices had the ability to impact what happens on the table. But then, that's not the space marine's issue or a White Drawrf issue, it's very specifically a 10th edition issue.

Alright, so let's look at what we're really talking about here. There's the Black Library piece... That is, named characters being a huge part of novels. This is more complicated than we're giving it credit for though, because some named character models were created based on BL novels. Ephrael Stern, Minka Lesk, and the Grand Daddy, Eisenhorn... And there are probably others. We can't complain about THESE named characters being in a ton of BL material, because they were a part of BL material before they were named characters, and if BL wasn't done with them when the models dropped, we certainly don't want "fix" the perceived problem by saying "Oh, sorry Mr. Abnet, we can't publish the third book in your trilogy because we made a model of the protagonist, and people think it's ridiculous for named character models to play an oversized role in the lore." What's ALSO true of this category of named-character dominance is that we have little control over it- the novels are what they are, regardless of how we choose to use them or engage with them. Then there's the category of characters that were made as models first and then had BL books written about them, or who play what many of us perceive to be an outsized role in the Codex-based lore. These guys, we can choose to use in our armies or not. Now, admittedly, GW does make that challenging sometimes by making the rules for these guys SO awesome that it's a lot harder to win if you don't use them. But ultimately, that choice DOES exist, and if the issue does bug you as much as it seems, not simply not using the character IS a solution that pretty much IS firmly in our control. Want guard characters dead? Don't use'm. They're dead. Unless..... Unless the REAL problem is you don't want anyone else to be able to use them either. And see, that gets a little sticky. I tend to think that many of the "problems" that people post about are a result of the 2k matched stand-alone pick-up game in a store with a stranger phenomenon, and occasionally I will suggest that people just try a 500-2k Crusade escalation campaign to see if that improves their experience or changes their opinion. Sometimes people react and say "But you're telling people how to play" - but that's a misreading of what I'm saying. Because I would NEVER advocate for the removal of ANYTHING. Imagine if I was bold enough to say "All the problems everyone sees exist primarily in 2k matched stand-alone pick-up games, therefore we should just eliminate that option. Ridiculous, right? But isn't it really just a difference of degree to say "Oh, Crusade is a waste of time, space and development resources because no one plays it anyway" or "Grey Knights should be just a unit you add to other armies" or "Named characters shouldn't exist"? Now, I'm all for GW adding text to their campaign books saying "Note: at the time when this campaign takes place, the following characters are unavailable because they are dead, the following characters are unavailable because they are engaged in other campaigns across the universe. Caveat: any of these characters can be used, but only if both players consent to their use." This does a few things: first, it acknowledges that character death is only relevant in a narrative context. Seriously, try this: at your next pick-up stand-alone 2k matched play game in a store with a stranger, spend a minute or two asking your opponent questions like "Where in the universe is the game taking place, when and why?" The vast majority of people you play against (based on my own, limited experience, of course) will have no idea. They may find it unusual or quirky that you're even asking. And so how is it possible to say which characters do or don't belong in that battle when you and your opponent neither know nor care where or when that battle is taking place? "You can't use Yarrick because he's dead." "Oh, I just assumed we would set the battle in a time and place when he was alive because I really like him and wanted to include him in my army." "Yeah, well you assumed wrong." "Oh, okay. When is this battle taking place?" "Oh, I didn't really think about that, it's just taking place sometime after he died." "Well, if you don't really have any strong ideas about where or when, why not just play it as if it's taking place during his lifetime so I can use the army I brought?" Obviously, if you talk to your opponent before game night (not always possible, I know), you can come to an agreement about context. I always do- last game I asked my opponent "So in your mind, is this a Deathwatch vessel, or is it an Imperial vessel that put out a distress call when they detected Xenos on long ranged sensors and the DW showed up to save the day?" - I wanted to give my opponent control over shared narrative, because sometimes I come across as a bit of a control freak. I wanted to make sure that when I finally write up the battle and post it, he could get behind what I wrote. At first, he did seem somewhat surprised I asked. But what was so cool, as that once he adjusted, he took the ball and ran with it. "How about we set it on a SpaceHulk. Both of our teams have been there a while, and we're both looking for "Stuff" and we just happen to bump into each other in this little section of the massive hulk?" I immediately agreed. Based on the composition of our armies, that's all that was necessary- neither of us HAD named characters in our army (or rather, the named characters in both our armies were OUR DUDES). If either army DID have named characters, we probably would have settled on a where and a when- I would pretty much need that, because the story of my battles is important to me. Now, for my story, the "where" wasn't super important- we're Drukhari and we travel via webway, so "wherever" my opponent needs the game to be, I'm cool. If he had been using Draxus, I'd have recommended somewhere in the Pariah Nexus, because that's where she is in the current timeline as I understand it. The "When" however, IS important to my story, because my Ascendant Lord Archon has been tasked with recovering the territories of a Commorrite splinter realm that fell to Daemons after Yvraine's Ascension during her fight against Lelith in the Crucibael. If his army included a character inconsistent with that timeline, I would have continued to play, the game would have been just as fun, but it never would have been recorded as part of my army's story, because it couldn't possibly have been a part of their story... And that's fine. My army CAN be the Space Lane Raider force organized by Ascendent Lord Archon Sykil Draeven to win an Alliance with Aeldari Corsairs of Prince Larridian Vayle when I'm facing a force that allows me to advance that narrative, but it can just as easily be anonymous Drukhari army 453 when I'm facing a force that does not allow me to advance my narrative. For my opponents and I? Problem solved, with no need for GW to make huge changes to the way the game works just to make a few random players happy.

Some teams require two boxes to get all the specialists- Inquisitorial Agents, I think Sactifiers. And some have multiple 40k units Arbites, Corsairs, Rogue Traders... I think there might be others in both of these categories, but those are the ones that come to mind for me. There are also some that you might want multiple boxes for 40k purposes, though this tends to be something that appeals to people who want a certain kind of army for fluff reasons rather than because they can win... Thinking about folks who want to replicate a lot and the damned army full of Beastmen and Renegade Guard- it won't win, but it would be cool and fluffy. These are all edge cases of course- generally, your statement is true... But it is at least a bit more complex.

They do, but also they don't. You'll get the rules for each team, and fairly quickly and that's good. But the campaign rules and NPO stuff? It's only available in the box, so not only does it not go up for free (ever); it's also not available (ever) if, like most players, you can't get your hands on FOMO box. Funny, this actually provides an unexpected silver lining to the death of Spec Ops: If Spec Ops still existed, not having the damn book would bother me, because the Spec Ops content was always the coolest part of any team. Yes, I HATE that they removed Spec Ops, and yes I'd rather have it back... But at least the fact that it's gone means I won't really miss this book.

What I would do if I wanted to play cheap is build my own- you can cut out pieces of thick corrugated cardboard that are the same size as the walls and have "hatches" in the same locations. You'll need to glue layers of corrugated cardboard together to get them to stand up on their own- if the cardboard is double thickness like the stuff refrigerator boxes are made of, three layers will be enough, but if it's the more common thinner cardboard, you might need more.You can add detaillng made from thinner, uncorrugated cereal box cardboard and pipes made from drinking straws of various thickness (McDonald's straws are fat, Taco Bell are skinnier and elbow straws are the bomb if you can find them).For hatches, what I do is cut hatch-shaped holes in the outer layers, and then leave a blank rectangular cut out wider than the hatch-hole in one of the inner layers. Then you can slide a cardboard rectangle into that cut-away to close the door, and pull it back out to open it again. As a bonus, this means you don't have to ever worry about moving models to accommodate the swing of an opening hatch, because the doors just pull straight up.It sounds cheap, and it is. Most of the stuff you need to build it, you can accumulate for free over three months or so... Faster if you go looking for empty boxes from retailers- many places will give away their boxes if you ask. You can also buy boxes for moving and stuff- the advantage there is that it's all exactly the same thickness and you can get it all at once... But the disadvantage is that it isn't free.There's another design for 3d boards that involves putting thick, identical squares on the floor of the board with gaps between them that you can shove a layer of cardboard into- the squares on the floor will hold the wall upright even if it's too thin to stand on its own. In this method, you put a lot of time into the floor, but once it's done, you can cut more walls than you'll ever need in a single day, because they only have to be one layer thick, unless they include sliding hatches as described above. When I built my first 3d Space Hulk board in the late 90's this is the method I used. On door walls, for the outer layers, I used cereal box cardboard because I didn't need extra thickness to help the wall stand. This allows the door walls to be almost the same thickness as the single layer walls without doors. Just remember that you don't want to add any cereal box detailing to the part of the wall that has to fit into the floor groove.If you're using official printed missions, you need to cut your walls to match the commercial stuff, and/ or make sure that your floor grooves are placed in such a way that they allow to build all of the board layouts you want to create. But honestly? If you build your own board pieces, it's really easy to write your own missions. You have the freedom to make whatever size and shape of boards you want.That Space Hulk Board I built in the 90's? It was awesome- I divided it into 2'x2' sections. Each section had 10x10 2.25" sections with roughly 1-2mm gaps between them. I built 8 such tiles, and for most games we used 6 of them, which allowed us to build a 4'x6' board. But what's cool is that we didn't HAVE to lay them out that way- one time we used 4 tiles to build a 4'x4' square, and then we placed the other floor tiles in a long corridor leading to it. We also built L-shaped boards and all kinds of cool weird layouts. I wish I still had the board because I could post a Youtube video, but I left it at the Youth Center I was working at because the members of the gaming club at the center helped build it. Sadly, we didn't document the process of it's creation or any of the games played on it, because back in the 90's, internet and scial media were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are now.

I played my first game in '89 and played pretty hardcore from 95- 09. I'm trying to remember if I've ever used a named character. I don't think I have... Accept for BSF Characters, and they only appear as guests for a limited number of games without ever actually being added to the roster. As a Crusader, of course I'm very used to "Out of commission =/= Dead" so it's a bit less of a problem for me than other players. Also, full disclosure, I don't read a lot of BL. I might look into some Eldar and Drukhari stuff soon, and there's a Corair novel coming... On a big "Many Flavours of Eldar" kick right now because I'm actually playing my Drukhari regularly.

Whether the increase is due to tariffs or not, you can be sure of one thing: when the tariffs disappear, the price will stay high. Just like all the other retailers jacked their prices due to Covid complications and never reset them once Covid was gone. Business will use ANY excuse to raise prices, but will never, ever lower them, even when the supposed "cause" of the increase is no longer present.

It's a ways off, but if you're thinking Inquisition, leftover bits from the upcoming Witch Hunter unit for Kill team could probably bling up a Canoness' basic body. I find the weird helmet for the Exorcist gunner is just such a weird curiosity... But it isn't everyone's cup of tea. You might not have a spare one either. Specialty backpacks are good too- all the characters have one, but some of the units have them too- like a Sacressant backpack, an exorcist head and a cherub on the base could be a good glow up. Also: if you use the Penitent Legion detachment, you can give the Penitent Keyword to a Canoness, so I've always want to kitbash a Canoness and a Repentia Superior.

I played another Boarding Action game with my Drukhari Space Lane Raiders, this time versus Deathwatch... And we won! It was a nailbiter of a game, but in my last turn I was able to seize control of a primary objective, claim an additional minor and drop his warlord... But right up until that moment, the game could have gone either way- the additional minor objective, for example, was claimed by a single surviving Kabalite who very easily might not have survived; one extra save could have kept the warlord on his feet. My army was STILL not 100% painted, but it was MUCH closer than last time- only the Wracks and Haemonculus were unfinished, and the Wracks are close, but the Haemonculus needs a bit more work that them. They should all be done by September 1st in plenty of time to successfully complete my Call to Arms pledge. The highlight of the game: The ten painted Wyches I bring to the battle AREN'T actually a single Wych unit- they are two teams of five who are meant to compete in the Arena to become full units, and figure out which among them will become a Succubus. So I can't field an ACTUAL Succubus until that Arena fight. Now one of these teams is sponsored by the Archon, and the other is sponsored by a Lhamaean. So since I haven't figured out who the Succubus will be, I didn't have a Succubus model, so I proxied in the Lhamaean. She is both my favourite model in the range AND the best paint job I've ever done. Rather than just saying "This is my proxied Succubus," I came up with the narrative hook that she was hopped up on extreme cocktail of combat drugs that allowed her to perform like a Wych for a limited time. It's the first time I've used the fully painted model in a game... And she's the one who killed the Warlord. All hail Skythia Xesh! Note: In addition to being an AMAZING opponent, the army I fought against was fully painted and BEAUTIFUL. We spent the first 5-10 minutes just showing off the models and sharing bits of our personal narrative- the bits he added to his models dovetailed with their former Chapter affiliations, and once I start painting my own Deathwatch, I'll be using the same idea on my own marines... Though my Marine bit box will be much, much smaller than his. What a great day!

Not exactly. First off, in a box of 5, every Tacticus model has two load out options, as does the Spectrus while the Gravis has three. And with the amount of heads and pads ON TOP of dual and tripple build models, I'd say calling these monopose kinda misses the mark, but your post DID point something out to me: If these are repackaged in boxes of five, it's likely that each kit will include the same number of options, but it will just be missing the five bodies to make al but one of the Gravis load-out options. So by waiting and buying two boxes of five INSTEAD of buying the big box, you probably end up with twice as many bits. Of course, all of this is speculation anyways- we don't know if the Kill Team kit will be limited to five models (though I'd say its a good bet) or if the eventual 40k repackaged box will be limited to five models, but I'd say that's an even better bet. Which is not to say I don't agree with your overall point about all of the stuff being as expensive as it is- obviously I do. But just like the firstborn DW Kit was the most versatile on the market, this box will be wicked versatile compared to any other KT/ 10th ed 40k box. Also, the team that it allows you to build could end up being even more versatile once it gets 40k rules because you might be able break the 3 Tacticus, 1 Spectrus, 1 Gravis ratio- doubtful, but possible.