apologist

Using the Night Lords upgrade sprue as the basis is a good idea, @LSM. I'd take a stab in the dark (ho ho) that the non-Cult Legions have all had a sprue at least conceptualised, and they'll follow roughly the same premise of 'we can't justify a complete kit, but we can add some thematic elements to the basic Chaos Legionary squad', giving us a couple of mini sprues like the Night Lords ones: If that's the approach they're going for, then I'd anticipate the release being folded into a Kill Team release, like the Night Lords. That would build on some existing Kill Team roles, and has a few bits and bobs that reflect this. e.g.: Shieldbearer – big breacher shield, heavy loincloth. Mark III-style head. Linebreaker – double-handed hammer/maul Comms-specialist – special backpack, hand with daemony-vox/dataslate Explosives expert/minelayer – meltabombs, mines etc. ... and then leans into the more specifically Iron Warrior archetypes with the remaining space, to create something that is more distinct/saleable than simply aesthetic tweaks. Iterating from the Night Lords examples, I'd expect to see something like these: Some form of techno-daemon/warp influence specialist – but no idea how this would be modelled. Minesweeper – A tech-specialist who detects and disarms traps. A pseudo-Berzerker – close combat weapons Special 'Warsmith-lite' leader – servo-backpack, hammer 'Dark apothecary'/quartermaster – a Space Marine equivalent of the Death Korps/Astral Claw body/geneseed-snatching nasties. These are more speciafically Iron Warriors-themed, and thus GW get two bites of the cherry: once for Kill Team, and again as a new elite/specialist unit for 40k Chaos armies: 'Siegebastards*' to complement 'Nemesis Claw', 'Berzerkers', 'Noise Marines' etc. +++ The alternative is the altogether simpler approach we see for the Loyalists, where you get purely aesthetic sprue. On the face of it, that seems more likely if there is an Iron Warriors-specific Codex coming, as it'd be weird for a 'special' Iron Warriors squad to come out for 40k prior to Kill Team: Personally, I'd like to see an Iron Warriors Codex – it'd be a great place to gather some of the weirder 'technochaos' things together like: Negavolt Cultists – amongst the few things from BSF that haven't been released as a separate kit, and seemingly ideal for the Iron Warriors 'cultist' slot. Vashtorr the Arkifane – a bit centrepiece that would fit in nicely. Warpsmith Venomcrawler – Currently only available as a single-pose together with Obliterators Obliterators Mutilators ... and they're a natural place to have Chaos bunkers/weapon platforms/barricades etc. I'll take the rumour cum grano salis and not get my hopes up, but I certainly don't think it's beyond the realms of chaos possibility that we'll see something. * name pending

... and with (fitting!) apologies, I've only just come back to read this. On the premise of less disturbance, I'd inclined to agree with the chorus above and suggest leaving the icon as-is. My suggestions are really unnecessary sidegrades at best, on what's a workable system that seems to work well the vast majority of the time.

Just stumbled over this project – very cool indeed! As a loose suggestion on emulating command points, can I suggest using a Strategy Ploy? Veterans of decades or even centuries of warfare, Space Marine officers' terse orders are incisive and [blah blah blah] Each Terminator operative may perform up to 2 Overwatch actions per turning point/Until the Sergeant/Captain is activated, each Terminator operative adds 1 to its APL stat. or something? Might be a nice way to differentiate the Captain/Sergeant from the Librarian/Chaplain.

If you’re open to third party minis, check out Trollet’s awesome ‘Gor Axe’ boss. Looks like he’d be perfect:

I hope not – I’ve been discussing my own planets and Regiments there for years! :)

In background terms, then the Imperial Guard* subforum seems most appropriate for discussion. If you're intending to develop things, then I'd suggest setting it up as a blog. * Fine, Astra Militarum

We're coming to the end of beta-testing now, so if you have any comments, queries or playtesting notes, that you'd like taken into account, please let me know as soon as you can. +Link to the PDF+

It's the Crux Terminatus, isn't it? The symbol of veterancy in a Space Marine Chapter. That's certainly what I always thought these were. I think it's noted somewhere that the exact form varies. Either way, I absolutely agree that it's one of these amulets clutched in a hand – and the furry bit suggests it's been taken as a trophy by a Renegade Chaos Marine.

The Rogue Trader/early second edition Rough Riders (pictured below), owed their name to Teddy Roosevelt's 'Rough Riders' (the 1st United States volunteer calvary), who were partialyl drawn from cowboys – as you can see from the guardsman on the lower left of this picture, this inspiration was nodded to by the cattleman's hat on one of the two basic Guardsman sculpts. I think Imperial Guard cavalry would be a great place to start for this theme, perhaps using third party heads like these from Anvil Industry or these from PuppetsWar. Victoria Miniatures Van Diemen's world models are modelled after Australian and New Zealand forces, but they'd be a great place to start, too. In particular I think the horses Victoria sells would be absolutely ideal, as they're beautifully sculpted and more fitting in their equipment than the Attillan or Death Korps equivalents from GW. The appeal of Guard – for me at least – is that they're so wonderfully open to different themes. Cavalry-specialist regiments make a lot of sense for worlds that have limited fuel or manufacturing capability, or whose terrain is better suited to horses. +++ If Guard don't appeal, then I'd agree that Genestealer Cults have a lot of 'Wild West movie' touches that might lend themselves to an 'evil cowboy'/ 'rustler gang' feel – and if you want to play the goodies, then the rules would still be quite well-suited to some conversions. You could use dirtcycles rules for mounted troops, and then you've got shotgun-armed neophytes for the broader posse, kelermorphs as gunslinging heroes etc.

Absolutely – I’ve always felt that the Horus Heresy made a lot more sense (and had a heck of a lot more potential) when there was more character-driven conflict and less Chaos God magic machinations. The Primarchs are great (if melodramatic!) character archetypes – showing the conflicts and exploring genuine philosophical differences through their disagreements makes for compelling stories. The best HH novels are the ones where you find yourself rooting for both sides because they’ve got strong, principled arguments, rather than ‘well, they’re Demons.’

I keep coming back to this topic and drafting a post, then discarding it. I find myself agreeing with lots of posts here... and yet, I really like the fact that there's different things that appeal to different people. 40k is a broad church (fittingly, given the modern architectural style!). @Rogue and @Rain probably hit the changes to underlying themes that I like least – respectively the (loss of) sense of mystery and exploration, and characters that are archetypes rather than personalities. On the former, I don't fundamentally mind the resolution to fun mysteries like the 'quiescent perils of the C'tan' or the fates of the Primarchs, or whatever the Grey Knights thing was – except for two things: the answers to these juicy bits of mystery rarely live up to the hype there are fewer such seeds appearing in mainline books. Ultimately, I think the thing I'd change is a shift from digging into 40k, into exploring outwards. I bought one of the new Kill Team books – the one with Kroot and Naval Breachers – expecting to gloss over the same ol' background slightly rewritten, but was really impressed. The description of the space hulk included a load of beautiful, gleaming, tempting, tantalising snippets – of pre-Imperial space; of aliens I'd never heard mentioned; of places we'd never seen – that sent my imagination spinning. More of that, please! +++ Anyone who's bored or fool enough to look at my threads will know I love extrapolating from the existing lore (the War of the False Primarch, the 2nd Armageddon war, the Nova Terra Interregnum, the Halo Stars to name just a few), precisely because it's not been over-explained. So I think the second change I'd make is to change the perspective of the setting and zoom out. Remove the word of god, re-establish the yawning lacunae between spots of civilisation on the maps, and look at factions rather than individuals. Make a virtue of that 'absent truth', and present mysteries for hobbyists to decide upon and explore for themselves, through the stories, games, armies or simply imagination. I don't think that necessarily precludes what's currently going on, either – the ongoing story of M42 can rumble on, but without the sense that it's central to the universe; just another 'hotspot' or 'flashpoint' GW can expand upon. A mobile 'now' would add to the sense of chaos (with a small c), chronological disruption and misunderstanding; as though we're future historians sifting through the ashes.

Interesting back and forth – and I find myself commenting because I agree with certain parts of Evil Eye's suggestion and disagree with others; but have an overall sense that it's a 'good post'... so in the end I responded with an 'agree' reaction. Is it technically feasible to allow multiple reactions to be given? I've quite often found myself in the position that Evil Eye outlines – in that I disagree with the detail of a post but value other parts of it. In those cases I'd love to be able to put (say) a 'support' reaction alongside the 'disagree'. Likewise there are posts that I find funny and agree with – or I want to express thanks and laugh. Perhaps the most common is that I like the way a post is written and argued, even if I disagree with it. Being able to combine reactions like that opens up a lot more nuance, and goes some way to soften and rehabilitate the 'respectfully disagree' reaction from a sense of being purely negative. +++ Musing out loud, is it possible to customise the images of the reactions? Having themed reactions would be fun, particularly in combination – and replacing the universal 'minus of disapproval' with (say) a black purity seal for respectfully disagree – makes things more coded, and potentially less abrasive. +++ ... and a final note – is there coding that would disable reactions on a post that you're quoting? If I disagree with something, I can add a respectfully disagree reaction or reply. I don't need to do both; that seems overkill.

The old trick for visible slottabase gaps was a little bit of masking tape. It covers the gap, and when you add basing material the PVA or other glue makes it permanent. Should work a treat here; cut a little patch and add a dab of superglue to harden it up.

Like this?

... half a day late, half a toof short (sorry, missed the topic), but worked these up and thought one of these might fit, even if they are a bit late: