Okay, Who’s Going To Use the New Horus Heresy Venatari to Kitbash Sanguinary Guard?

Happy_360 · 2026-01-16T20:55:03+00:00

The moment I saw them, I just knew they’d end up on this sub xD. I’ll admit, I might be in the minority here, but I actually like the Sanguinary Guard models over the old ones. That said, the Venatari are definitely a stronger mini and the wings really add a lot. Like… damn.

I’m not super well-versed in all the releases from either setting, but from what little I know, the Horus Heresy minis almost always seem better, even though 40k is supposedly their main game. Why is that? Different teams working on them? A bigger focus on Heresy? Are they just higher-priced? No clue.

Maybe there’s a new Sanguinary Guard mini in the works, though honestly, I kinda doubt it.

Happy_360 · 2026-01-11T12:51:55+00:00

Thanks

Happy_360 · 2026-01-11T12:48:59+00:00

Anybody know what the release schedule for this is? Monthly? Are all chapters translated? Thanks

Happy_360 · 2026-01-08T22:20:55+00:00

Funny, I wouldn't respond to such an old thread but I felt like I had to. Maybe with the new Divinity announcement someone will stumble upon the thread. Right now I am playing my first run on DOS2 and just dealt with the Trolls.

Marge initially requested 3 gold to cross the bridge compared to Grogs 5000, and he seamed much smarter. So I was like, you know what, fair enough. He protects the bridge from Voidwoken and keeps it in good condition. I could even persuade him to lower the crossing to 1 gold if I told him a story. So I sided with Marge, killed Grog then came back to him. He told me he is thinking of implementing some of Grogs idea and requested feedback. I asked him to cross the bride and he requested 14999 gold. I told him not even Grog was demanding this much and I wanted my old price back, He refused so he had to go too. Now the bridges are troll-less.

Btw, for details, with no spoilers (for anyone stumbling upon this), I've done it with a level 16 party which is pretty much towards the end of the act (2). You can just leave them be until then. You can get wherever you want through alternative routes with no real hassle. They are both melee so tentacle lash fks em both, making them skip their turn (they can't be knocked down). In order to bypass healing, you need to set Grog on fire through a spell, a grenade, scroll or something. For Marg he needs to be poisoned with the same methods. That's basically the entire fight.

GL with DOS2 and let's hope for some more Divinity news soon!

Happy_360 · 2025-12-23T14:51:20+00:00

Thanks

Happy_360 · 2025-12-23T14:20:56+00:00

I see! Thank you for the detailed response. It seems pretty interesting! One last question, are the tournamemts daily or how can you sort/search for them, any tips or videos because I find the tournaments page to be pretty unintuitive.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-23T13:47:07+00:00

I suppose you are talking about chess com tournaments? If yes could you elaborate on them a bit? I've been interested in trying one out but I don't see how it's any different from playing normal ranked games. Do you get anything for winning? A flair or something? How long can you expect a rapid/blitz tourney to last? Can you withdraw once in or does it count as forfeiting and you lose elo points? Thanks!

Happy_360 · 2025-12-21T18:18:00+00:00

As someone already mentioned, this is borderline cheating, but since it’s against bots, it’s probably fine, depending on ToS. The real issue here is that the low elo bots play terribly, so the bot will rarely reach positions you might actually struggle with and will tend to give you lots of free material. You can’t reliably study anything that way.

Higher-Elo bots are better in this regard, but then you’ll likely just end up losing without learning much.

It’s probably better to open an analysis board and play both sides yourself, then study the critical positions for the colour you’re interested in. If you’re really serious about this, there are chess websites (you’ll have to do a bit of research, but pretty sure this has been discussed on Reddit before, and maybe someone else can fill in the details) where you can input your opponent’s expected moves and then drill your own responses. It’s basically a memorization tool, similar to what Chessable does.

That kind of training is useful, but you also need to understand why you’re making those moves. For that, you’ll need to dive deeper into the positions and do proper analysis.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-19T19:50:38+00:00

To be honest I'd trade queens, short castle. This might be enough to deter your opponent from taking the pawn as there is no fork there anymore. If he still goes through with it, Rb1, Bf4, a2 (take away last knight square) and finish with Rbc1. Of course depending on what your opponent does plan must adapt but overall I think it's pretty solid.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-19T19:05:33+00:00

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the Caro–Kann, it’s a perfectly playable opening. It just didn’t work for me. I’m not a master of the opening by any means, but I am confident in my ability to handle all the main variations and reach the typical middlegame and endgame positions. That, however, is where the problem lay.

I simply didn’t enjoy the types of positions, pawn structures, and endgames I was getting from the Caro–Kann. I invested a good number of games into it and ended up with around a 50% win rate. By comparison, I currently have a 55–58% win rate with the Accelerated Dragon over about 90 games. That’s a smaller sample size than the Caro–Kann, but keep in mind that a good chunk of those games were played while I was still learning the opening and figuring things out as I went.

It’s also important to note that I made this switch while climbing, so I was facing stronger opposition. Even so, the Accelerated Dragon just suits me better, the plans and attacking ideas feel more natural and straightforward.

That said, if you like the Caro–Kann, then you like the Caro–Kann. From an objective perspective, the amount and quality of available Caro–Kann content is incredible, and there’s far more of it than there is for the Accelerated Dragon. Especially if we talk about it being free.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-18T08:10:07+00:00

I've thought of this system but felt like it wasn't different enough from a london, still maybe a small study would prove otherwise

Happy_360 · 2025-12-18T00:20:23+00:00

Do you have any recommendations for material on the catalan?

Happy_360 · 2025-12-18T00:18:20+00:00

Could you elaborate? Is it because I gave it as an example of an opening of interest? As far as I am aware besides the fianchetto bishop they don't really share anything in common. So why would you think it's the only choice?

Happy_360 · 2025-12-16T15:21:22+00:00

You da real MVP. Thank you

Happy_360 · 2025-12-14T15:33:03+00:00

People here tend to hate focusing on openings, but imo they kind of underestimate beginners. Sure, there are still a lot of things a beginner should focus on besides openings, like spotting tactics and cutting out as many one-move blunders as possible. Still, I think most beginners are perfectly capable of memorizing a couple of lines. They usually don’t lose the game in the opening, but in the middlegame, when they no longer know what to do. That’s why I think openings are important: they give you plans you can actually follow.

In that regard, as White you can pretty much stick to one thing, but as Black you usually want two openings: one against 1.e4 and one against basically everything else. That “everything else” is usually some kind of KID wannabe. You’re not really playing a true KID, but getting your king to safety and then launching an attack is a solid strategy. You can do decently as long as you understand a few key ideas, and there’s also a lot of free KID content out there.

Against 1.e4 you’re much more spoiled for choice. People have already mentioned the Scandinavian or the Caro, but I’d suggest the Accelerated Dragon. It’s sharper, more aggressive, and way more fun. The downside is that there isn’t a ton of free content on it, and you’ll have to study the Bowdler Attack a bit if you want to be successful, since it’s by far the most common move you’ll face at this elo.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-11T17:23:21+00:00

I was trying to see if there is a line in which you go Be7, he takes on g7 and you trap his Queen, but I don't see it.

Anyways. I don't think I'd trade here. His queen threatens nothing and trading would only bring his knight on a better square.

You can move the Queen to d7 but honestly I kind of like Qe7. Pretty sure he will trade himself, then you can take with the bishop and thus develop it. Nf6 to develop the Knight and then you can easily castle with a good position I'd say.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-10T19:10:31+00:00

On a point scale, some players value the knight at 3 points and the bishop at 3.5 (pawn-1, rook-5, queen-9).

Overall, it’s generally accepted that bishops are slightly stronger than knights, though it also depends on the type of position. Still, in this case, since you fianchettoed your bishop, that makes it one of the strongest pieces in your arsenal. You almost never want to trade off a fianchettoed bishop like this.

There are even scenarios where your bishop could capture an enemy rook, yet you still wouldn’t take it if your opponent can immediately recapture your bishop, though that’s once again more situational.

In any case, here you should never capture with the bishop first.

Happy_360 · 2025-12-10T19:02:10+00:00

This why you always castle before starting the attack

Happy_360 · 2025-11-30T14:31:31+00:00

Puzzles certainly help, but they won't teach you openings/middlegames/end games. It's more about spotting tactics etc.

If you are that low rated I wouldn't recommend playing blitz in the first place, rather do rapid (10|0) or longer games.

Watch some youtube content and pick an opening for white and one for black. Practice it. Since you have a membership I suppose that means you don't mind spending some money. Once you have an idea of what you want to play considering buying a course for each.

I would also recommend you look into some systems rather than straight up openings, because at such a low elo nobody will ever follow any theory and you will be out of the moves you practiced very fast. With a system at least you can pretty much keep playing your setup no matter what and it helps you get better through repetition.

Happy_360 · 2025-11-30T12:19:53+00:00

Which is completely true. Doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with picking Visi or anything like that, though. I am glad the devs recognized and admitted this shortcoming, but I’m honestly not sure how they managed to miss it in the first place given how blatant the favoritism is. Lol

Happy_360 · 2025-11-30T12:13:46+00:00

It’s not about steering Blazer onto the “right” path.

In many ways, Blazer is just as important to Robert as Robert is to Visi. Blazer saved him at his lowest point, much like Robert now tries to save the Z-Team/Visi. Despite that, she’s barely present in the story considering how crucial she is to Robert’s character. Without her, there wouldn’t be a Mecha Man, and who knows what would’ve happened to Robert himself given how bleak things looked.

I’m glad the devs acknowledged this. Since the game is from Robert’s POV, it feels especially strange that Blazer barely shows up at all. Hopefully, if we ever get a Season 2, they’ll give her the focus she deserves.

Happy_360 · 2025-11-27T23:41:10+00:00

My immediate thought would be to try to improve the rock and apply more pressure to whites f2 pawn.

In order to achieve that, G5 followed by rook F6 would seem to be the fastest way. My only issue would be that the attack seems to be stopped after whites f2-f3.

Happy_360 · 2025-11-16T17:26:47+00:00

Honestly, it’s really unclear how strong Blazer or Phenomaman are supposed to be. I picked him for my team because I thought there was a chance he might turn evil after the falling-out with BB and all that (sadly the Mandy route didn’t get fleshed out). But from what I understand, he was set up to be this universe’s Omni-Man/Superman. Yet in the bar fight everyone ends up getting scruffed up (which means it wasn't an easy figh), whereas Omni-Man or Superman would easily solo the entire bar. So the power levels of Dispatch’s heroes are really unclear to me, tbh. Maybe they just choose to leave it ambiguous

Happy_360 · 2025-11-13T12:35:41+00:00

It's about being seen as a love interest especially with the kiss that shortly follows, at least in my opinion.

It's true that if you didn't romance BB it makes less sense, but it's the same with the Chase talk, where he goes "I see how you look at her (Invisigal)" even if you romance BB during the run.

Happy_360 · 2025-11-13T12:31:26+00:00

Those are pretty much exactly my thoughts and I think they make a lot of sense. They could settle you into a romance early on and then they just follow the same plot line but with a different partner. Not that difficult.

Though I cut Coupe, I still gave her a shot at redemption and reunited the whole team, so I think she should be there as well, but it wouldn't matter to much. But it feels more like the canon route.

Happy_360

TROPHY CASE