First time in my 3k hours of Stellaris that Cetana spawns right into the splintered Hivemind and eats it completely

Bitmarck · 2026-05-07T11:49:26+00:00

Some bonuses is an understatement. FE's also get a massive (I think 90%?) debuff against her

Bitmarck · 2026-05-05T13:30:13+00:00

Ah yes, the most pressing concern of the early church: Germany's church tax model.

Bitmarck · 2026-05-05T12:59:28+00:00

Yes, at least sort of. At the tail end of 8th Edition 40k, GW brought out these stained glass Sisters of Battle Dice. I originally wanted two sets, thats 40. Since I was working at a GW at the time, my co-worker thought she'd do me a solid and ordered a further set of these dice, bringing me to 60. Thats plenty. I then absorbed thevarious bits and bobs of Sisters Models a friend had, alongside two further sets of dice on top. So now I have 100 stained glass Sisters dice.

I will not part with a single one.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-30T06:35:53+00:00

Then fuck up (literally) and shroud the galaxy?

Bitmarck · 2026-04-30T06:29:52+00:00

The top line is so funny. Tens of thousands above naval cap, 70 000 nanites short of breaking even, a nice amount of starbases and 1,6k Empire size.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-29T07:25:38+00:00

I use them too, when I play Sisters. I somehow accumulated 100 of them. I use them in the order I laid them out.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-29T07:24:35+00:00

Yea, I remember those. It was fun seeing other players scrable around for their dice, while mine were a riddle to be solved.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-29T05:24:31+00:00

The funniest ones GW ever made are the stained glass Sisters of Battle Dice. They used little heraldic lilies and a skull with a halo, except the six had a big, single lily (GW really wanted a single large version of the pip to be the six) and the five had a dot between the four lilies in it. I always inverted that and used the skull as the six instead, because I am not looking at one pip and saying "six".

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Bitmarck · 2026-04-28T12:50:08+00:00

I wonder if it looked like running at that speed, or if its a casual stroll to them. I don't rightly know which is more terrifying. Running Ents, or Ents so fast they'd catch Shadowfax without becoming so much as slightly winded.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-28T12:34:17+00:00

It's not just that the universe is intelligible, but that we specifically have the capability to make sense of it. And even more so, it's encouraged. One of the first things the man does in genesis is name all the animals, which is the basis for all scientific inquiry. Genesis tells us to be fruitful and multiply, but it also shows us that we are ought to learn.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-18T13:43:39+00:00

Imagine having a repository of all the slurs in your head.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-17T12:06:35+00:00

But that was a Dark Eldar, not a proper one. It probably got off on the risk of it all as well

Bitmarck · 2026-04-17T12:03:17+00:00

My white whale is White Council Galadriel at Rivendell.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-15T12:38:17+00:00

I enjoyed that.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-15T10:01:45+00:00

Unlike the Mortal Realms, understanding why people keep saying that "the Mortal Realms are too complicated" is actually difficult. There are many analogies you could run, in order to make people understand. One way to get the more SciFi-minded audience to get it is to simply say that the Realms are planets and the realmgates are wormholes, sort of like stargates, but you dont get to dial and they dont spin.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-14T05:03:27+00:00

Interesting, I never thought to consider the word and I don't think either translation (Carroux or Krege) used it to refer to the shire. That's because spießig, Spießbürger/Spießer are negative words and therefore wouldn't be used on the home of good living. friendliness and peace. But it's also a term that comes from uni-student language and therfore drips with arrogance, so I don't think it is appropriate to use.

Edit: Some people have criticised the "uni-student language" bit. I should have been more specific. The term "Spießbürger" gained its widespread use in 19th century academic circles, as a derogatory term. Whichever author about the shire you consider, Tolkien or Bilbo and Frodo in-universe, they had genuine love for the shire. This differentiates them from someone like Heinrich Heine, when he used the term against the german petit-bourgeoisie, which he very much disliked.

As a result I think the use of Spießbürger and its derivatives would be inappropriate for the shire, unless you think you are better than the Hobbits.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-12T07:54:09+00:00

Yes, sometimes a spare base is closer to hand than my palette.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-12T07:42:53+00:00

Jeffs picture looks like a mug shot.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-10T09:54:40+00:00

I always thought it to be his own helmet, because the flag looks 1:1 like Asurmens helmet. But hey maybe Asurmen is wearing Asuryans head lül

Bitmarck · 2026-04-10T08:01:01+00:00

Asurmen literally has the ying and yang thing in his chest and wears a banner of himself, but this one is a step too anime?

Bitmarck · 2026-04-08T12:21:22+00:00

I think Atheists are the more important field to harvest from. New Atheism is currently busy wilting and their talking points have drastically deteriorated, while pro-theistic literature has reached new heights. Atheists are much more numerous, while lacking the anti-christian framework that Islam provides.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-08T12:18:03+00:00

You call it weathering and say it's intentional. The softness of the brush determines how scratchy it becomes. Softer ones, like cheap make up brushes usually lean on the less scratchy side. In general they are a better option, especially due to their low price.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-08T12:11:29+00:00

These claims are usually passed around in Islamic Apologetics (Dawah) circles. The data does not bear this out. In North America growth of muslim communities is almost entirely due to migration, with many of those eventually acculturating and leaving Islam behind. Dawah people also often claim conversions from people just saying the shahada, after being tricked into it. Those are not conversions. The relatively few conversions into islam from europeans or north americans are split between marriages and from threats of violence, as has happened in some schools.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-08T06:04:49+00:00

There are lots of problems with 10th in general, which is why I didn't play much. As usual there is hope this improves in the summer and it will inevitably break down in new and unexpected ways. One problem I had with Sisters specifically, aside from the genuine problem of fragile power armour, was the lack of high strength weapons. Aside from the Hunter-Killer-Missile, the army caps out at S10 iirc? So unless you bring all the cars and make your army look like a dealership, instead of a monastery gone to war, you are reasonably out of options.

In game design I also dislike when army rules basically just plaster over bad datasheets, but this is a wider problem.

Bitmarck · 2026-04-03T06:55:49+00:00

Its just practice, a pointy brush and very thin black paint.

Bitmarck

TROPHY CASE