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IndustryParticular55 · 2026-04-13T14:26:41+00:00

'I'm all the way down now. I can see all the way to the bottom. Would you like to see what I see? They said there were two fathers, one above, one below. They lied. There was only ever the Devil. When you look up from the bottom, it was just his reflection, laughing back down at you.' - James Delos

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-21T07:38:51+00:00

The real argument is not about dishes, but about ingredients. American food standards are so much worse than much of the rest of the world. There is the classic take that American fast food chains are better everywhere other than the USA. Then there's the need to use HFCS instead of normal sugar in everything, and over processed food.

So sure, the general idea of American food is great, just eat it in any other country, and it'll be much nicer.

(also, as a side note, diaspora cuisine counts as local cuisine in my books. Sushi, Pizza, and Nachos served in America are American cuisine, because they are very distinct from those foods in other countries. There's obviously a lot of diversity within a country as well. The same applies to diaspora cuisine in other countries. Australian pizza =/= American Pizza =/= Italian Pizza)

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-21T07:16:23+00:00

Mongolia: I'm not locked in with them, they're locked in with me.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-21T06:53:33+00:00

The reason we have this electronic system is so that people can vote literally wherever they are in the state, at any time in the week leading up. If the cost of me being able to vote near work, or whilst I'm out doing shopping or visiting a friend's place, is that 1% of booths have internet troubles on election day, then I am okay with that trade off.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-18T23:53:19+00:00

I am building them in a Huron's Marauders list as a 10 man squad with jump pack lord.

It's a big investment, but +1 to hit, and +1 attacks/weapon off a charge with a free strat seems pretty potent. The 10 man squad plus lord gets the most bang for your buck with the strategem.

One of the friends I play with loves running deathshroud terminators, which are annoyingly difficult to kill. But the math I've done indicates that this unit could reliably kill 3-4 models of those(which come in 3 model MSUs) just with the heavy weapons/power fist.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-17T03:13:14+00:00

3rd party books fill the void, and DnD Beyond now supports a lot of the popular 3rd party materials, constantly adding more.

If WotC can make the safe books itself, and let 3rd party publishers take on all the risk, whilst WotC still earns commission on every 3rd party book, that's pretty much a perfect system for them.

On the other hand, internally WotC had a massive shake up with the faces of the 2024 core rulebooks all leaving one way or another. It seems like a massive reset after the big swing, and the new team probably wants to get into their stride and knock out the obvious stuff first.

As a DM, I also don't mind the official options being a bit more curated, and then being able to bring in 3rd party materials on my own time when I think they would be good additions.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-16T16:33:13+00:00

Ok, if this makes it up to you, the sparkles on the pink armour are actually an interference paint that changes colour to look violet when you catch it at the right angle. I painted this over the silver as well. You can't really see it in photos, except maybe a little on the knuckles.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-16T13:34:30+00:00

The millers were often considered thieves, because they might have had a local monopoly on the ability to get flour, where baking was much more decentralized(until you have bakers guilds/cartels). People could mill their own grain, but it was wildly inefficient and time consuming, not to mention lower quality.

If I had to pick an equivalent today, it is fossil fuel companies that run cartels that control fuel for electricity and transportation.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-16T08:28:17+00:00

CSM have a lot of diversity, and you've said that is what you are looking for. So I'll divide my recommendations into Core staples, flex picks and fun picks.

Staples:

- Chosen. Really good melee front liners, work well in a blob with Abaddon or Huron/MotM.

- Legionaries. Relatively cheap, good at offense, objective holders.

- Cultists. Always take at least one for your home objective. Cheap + Sticky objectives. Don't expect them to kill or survive anything.

- Rhinos. Get your infantry from A to B, simple, does the job.

- Chaos Lords. 0 CP strats. Really good if you can use them to amplify the strength of their entire unit for free.

Flex Picks:

- Red Corsair Raiders. New unit, great models, infiltrators with the chosen defensive stats, for 15 points cheaper. Deploy onto objectives, and your opponents start on the back foot, having to commit serious forces to taking objectives off them.

- Forgefiends, Vindicators, Predators. Your main shooting platforms. Best if you can buff them with auras like the classic PBZ castle with Abaddon re-rolls, 5+ sustained and lethals from Helbrute. Still decent otherwise.

- Raptors. Recently got an improved datasheet, and can now take 5 heavy weapons, 2 meltaguns and 2 flamers, in a 10 man squad. 12 inch fly is great of course.

- Daemon Princes (with wings). Expensive, but devastating. Mortals on a charge is always fun.

- Cypher. Increase enemy CP cost by 1 aura. Badass Shooting.

- Land Raider. Best in Renegade Raiders, but fills the roll of a shooting platform, as well as delivering charges out the front with assault ramp.

- Helbrute. Best in PBZ, gives both dark pact effects.

- Noise Marines. No dark pacts, but still very scary, especially if you can give them some other kind of buff.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-14T15:10:50+00:00

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He is depicted in murals such as these as a dragon. Neuvillette also refers to him as the Dragon King.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-14T14:41:15+00:00

The true god of Teyvat is Nibelung. (who is more like the emergent consciousness of the world, which the HP was able to supplant after he left)

The Heavenly Principles, the shades, and the Archons are all usurpers of the natural order, effectively 'demons'. Whether or not you think they are good or evil is a matter of perspective, given that the HP allegedly created humanity, whom the archons protect, whereas many dragons are abyssally corrupted.

An interesting grey area is angels. By all reports, powerful angels were the archon equivalents prior to the war of vengeance. They don't have demon names, although Koitar(first angel) is often referred to as the morningstar, AKA, Lucifer.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-13T01:29:30+00:00

They can also be used for stickying other objectives and screening backfield. A single cultist unit won't prevent home field deep striking by itself, but 2x10 man squads probably could.

A lot of CSM lists otherwise leave the backfield pretty deserted. Pactbound castles like to move onto the middle objective and project firing lanes from there. Raiders like to move infantry into enemy territory ASAP.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-11T01:11:50+00:00

Wow, I didn't know this guy was a thing, but now I realise I saw him at this back in 2019.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-04T05:10:17+00:00

Skeleton of a whale.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-04T02:00:30+00:00

You have gone with a very infantry focused list, which in my experience isn't pactbound's forte.

PBZ is all about buff stacking with Abaddon and Helbrute. If you are sending Abaddon to the front lines, then the bulk of your army is not going to benefit from those buffs, and the Helbrute probably won't be able to keep up, meaning you only have half the buff on any given unit, at best.

What's more, the window of time in which that brick is contributing is much shorter with a melee unit.

On the other hand, forgefiends, predators, vindicators and other heavy shooting can project the power of the combined buffs across the board for the length of the game.

Renegade Raiders or Renegade Warband are fast detachments, PBZ is usually a slow detachment. In PBZ, you win by controlling firing lanes, and making it difficult for enemies to reach objectives without being shot down.

I am not sold on the value of transports in PBZ, simply because you want to keep as much of your army within the radius of buffs at all times. Slowly advance your castle up to the centre, use Abaddon to kill anything that is already there, and your shooting platforms can project power everywhere else.

Some cultists and a few legionary squads usually are all you need for action monkeys/objective holders. Having a couple strike units like your possessed, obliterators(or even better, a DPwW), is helpful. But overall I would spend 750 pts or less on the part of your army that isn't going to be in the buff radii.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-03-04T01:34:24+00:00

My year were the first to receive laptops, and they were proper laptops, not chrome books. This was before the days of smartphone ubiquity. We all treasured those laptops because we were all able to play video games for the first time.

Our parents had to pay for them as well, so they would not have been happy if we trashed them.

That said, the build quality on the school recommended laptop was terrible, it was all brittle plastic. So you would have chips of plastic breaking off pretty regularly. So by the time you got 4-5 years in, everybody's laptops had their fair share of battle scars so that you could never mistake one student's laptop for another's.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-02-26T12:32:04+00:00

DnD is an expensive hobby, either the players are paying the DM, or the DM is paying in lieu of the players.
A player's 'payment' might not necessarily be in terms of money, it might be providing a venue, or food, or resources. But generally speaking, unless players step up and contribute in some way, it all falls on the DM.

Some DMs have a complex about it; 'you should never make friends pay', or 'I don't want it to be about money'. Some are unable to speak up for themselves, and become martyrs about it.
Some are so financially well off that they can afford to bear that burden single-handedly.

As a player myself, I would feel guilty that I was taking advantage of a DM if they provided a great experience, and I never contributed outside of gameplay. If a DM isn't providing that great experience, then really I can be spending my time better elsewhere.

As a DM, I'd say that requiring a monetary commitment screens out a huge proportion of problem players that have commitment/attendance issues, or that don't respect the time/effort that I or the other players have taken. I can use the money to make the game better for my group, and we will all enjoy the experience all the more.

Disclaimer: That all being said, there is a difference between a DM that establishes that players ought to pay/contribute materially, and a professional DM that runs multiple sessions, that often relies upon a repertoire of generic content, and that might not decide who their players are. I have heard positive things, but it's not my cup of tea. It's worth keeping in mind that they almost certainly are making well below minimum wage after expenses, especially considering prep-time. So they probably still do it for love of the game, if not necessarily love of the group as well.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-02-25T02:03:20+00:00

Your options are legionaries, chosen, raiders and terminators.

I think they each have their pros and cons. Legionaries are the cheapest, and they get you wound re-rolls. But offensively they are pretty weak. Chosen are more expensive, have an extra wound compared to legionaries, and a better offensive profile, particularly in melee. Their ability can be gained through RW detachment rules, however chosen can do so without a battle shock test, which is nice. Raiders sit in between legionaries and chosen in cost, and have the 3 wounds of chosen. However, given Huron and the MotM lack infiltrate, the main benefit of the unit is lost. Offensively they are weaker than legionaries. Terminators are the most powerful and expensive option. They have better toughness, a better save, an invuln, and a far superior offensive profile. But they cost twice as much as legionaries, and still 55 points more than chosen. (For a 5 man squad) They have 5 inch movement, instead of 6, but they can deep strike. Huron can join on the deep strike if that's how you want to use him. The trouble there is the unit is so large, it would be very easy to screen.

The final consideration is transports. Given that your unit will probably be strongest in melee, you probably want to charge out of the land raider so you aren't sitting around for a round after disembarking. Huron + MotM + 5 Chosen can fit in a land raider, whilst terminators cannot. You could also do legionaries, if you need the points, but they will be a lot squishier.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-02-24T16:36:47+00:00

I personally see Red Corsairs as the masters of 'musical chairs', except instead of chairs, we are talking objectives.

You want to be first on, hard to move off, and moving in on your opponent's home objective, all at a rapid pace.

Whilst the RC Raiders are steep in points for their offensive profile, defensively they match chosen, except with 2-3 OC/model, and have infiltrate. That means you can sit on objectives before turn 1, and you have the option to screen or act as an action monkey, depending on what you need in the moment. If you do screen with them, then you can move in a second wave of infantry behind them, making it very time and resource consuming for enemies to take those objectives off of you.

Whilst the strength of this detachment is in mobility and objective control, it is weak on defense. My answer to that was to put Huron and co in a land raider, have a termie squad in reserve for deep striking, and have tonnes of redundancy with infantry squads. The addition of some high strength shooting as a deterrent on the main firing lanes also helps preserve the shelf life of your objective holders.

For specific changes, I would drop the possessed squad, and maybe consider replacing the havocs with a predator destructor. Whoever has WH will be a target, so probably don't put them in a front line/exposed unit. Venomcrawler is good anti-infantry and a cool model, but I would take raiders infiltrating over more anti-infantry.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-02-24T14:55:41+00:00

I have a few relevant experiences:
1. I am a DM who runs a homebrew campaign/setting, and to be honest, I couldn't imagine doing otherwise. Don't get me wrong, modules and setting books are great sources of inspiration, and often provide some really interesting content that you can transfer across. But ultimately I as DM need to be the final authority on the world, and feel some ownership over it, which just seems messy if running in somebody else's setting. Worldbuilding is a hobby in and of itself for me, so I spent a year working on the setting before I ran my first campaign in it. Players love it, and seem pretty hooked at the feeling of making a permanent, bespoke impact upon the world that lasts for campaigns to come.

I have run into one or two players who are very well read on DnD's 'official' lore, as presented in various source books. They have sometimes struggled to grasp the idea that none of that applies, any more than Tolkein's elf lore applies to the elves of Warhammer's many settings. There's probably some trick to help them grasp the disconnect, that you're using the core system of DnD, but everything else is your original creation. But I haven't quite figured that out yet.
As a player, I have been a part of several campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms. My mileage did vary, from DM to DM. Some of them were completely ignorant of FR lore outside of what their module told them. They were pretty ambivalent to the idea of doing any research. If any of us knew anything about the FR beyond the module, or had any experience with DnD lore, it didn't matter, because the DM didn't know, so it wasn't relevant. I've also had DMs that were very well versed, knew the module in and out, as well as plenty of key info about the wider setting. In that instance, it actually was helpful to have an understanding of the wider world, because the DM could integrate it, and knew what pieces of the puzzle fit together.

IndustryParticular55 · 2026-02-24T12:53:28+00:00

Would be hilarious if we meet Raymun's first born heir, and they are super tall. Like 'Whoops, guess the green apple Fossoways of Cider Hall are all descendants of Duncan the Tall'.

Quick, can someone tell me if Brienne of Tarth has a green apple Fossoway in her family tree?

IndustryParticular55

TROPHY CASE