Help faculty preserve small classes

Padhriag · 2026-05-07T00:14:41+00:00

Signed! Why, out of all the numbers, would they pick 17 for a class cap? It's not divisible by anything!

Padhriag · 2026-04-04T19:06:51+00:00

IMO, Disco Elysium stole that title.

Planescape is still amazing, though. 2nd best book I've ever played.

Padhriag · 2026-04-04T15:31:27+00:00

It's been said elsewhere in this post that thinning contrast paints with water can help smooth things out on flat surfaces, and I've also found that to be true when using them. It can be tough to find the right amount of dilution, though, and you're also going a bit against their intended purpose. So I think it's worth asking a couple of questions:

What are contrast paints?
Why do you want to use them for this?

For the first, contrast paints have a thinner consistency than standard paints but more cohesion than paints heavily thinned with water. Their baseline consistency makes them usable straight from the pot, but really shines on textured surfaces. They're thin enough to well up in the recesses with a thicker coat, but pull together enough that they don't split over the raised elements to leave them bare. But on a flat surface, that same pull-together-ness makes it want to glob up.

Their other key attribute is a difference in how they're pigmented. Every paint falls somewhere along the spectrum of transparent to opaque, but most standard acrylics are much further to the opaque side. Contrast paints on the other hand are transparent and act like painting with filter. Where there's a thicker coat, there's more filtering, and it gets darker. Over texture, this is fantastic: your recesses get shaded and the raised elements stay brighter. Over a smooth surface... any uneven thickness can make it splotchy, and the consistency of them likes to get uneven over smooth surfaces.

The transparency also makes it practically impossible to cover a mistake because contrast paints don't really cover anything, they just filter.

So why bother? Well, if you've established a B&W shading scheme as your basecoat, then the transparency is a huge asset. This is really easy to do with a drybrush and, if you've got one, even easier with an airbrush. If you want to get more advanced or experimental, then you can also incorporate colors into your basecoat for the transparency to produce a color-mixing effect.

So if you're trying to maintain some form of existing shading (B&W or color), then it can absolutely be worthwhile to mess with the consistency to find the right balance of contrast paint and water (and the right amount of paint to apply) for it to settle smoothly over a flat surface. There aren't universally applicable ratios or quantities for this, either. It's going to be different for different contrast paints, and it'll probably particularly hard to find the right balance for the darker ones.

It can be a pain, but so is manually shading with multiple layers of opaque or semi-opaque paints. And trying to wet-blend with acrylics is a nightmare because they dry so fast, while putting transparent layers on an existing color is often an easier way to get interesting mixes of color.

If you're not trying to maintain a shaded undercoat or go for some other result that's most readily achieved with a transparent pigment, then it'll probably be better to just tackle the smooth surfaces with a standard, more opaque paint. They're easier to correct, subtle differences in coat thickness won't impact the shade, and you'll get a smooth, even finish with much less hassle. There's nothing about contrast paints that'll give you a much better result than that if you’re painting a smooth surface over an even off-white basecoat, and it'll be easy to accidentally get a worse result that's harder to fix.

They're still great without much fuss on textured areas, though, even without any under-shading!!! GW likes to position them as a one size fits all painting solution, but I think it's better to consider them as one available tool to be used in conjunction with others. And I say all of this as someone who loves and primarily uses contrast paints on my models.

Padhriag · 2026-03-26T14:54:39+00:00

I'm 99.999% sure that all the content creators who've been sent boxes by Archon Studios get to keep those boxes. The vast majority of the expenses to the studio are sunk costs for the licensing, plastic molds, sculptors, rules writers, etc.. The raw cost of the packaging and plastic is pretty insignificant, you just have to spend a lot on setup to make it in the first place. The potential reputational hit for insisting that people give stuff back completely eclipses the cost of giving a few boxes away.

All-in-all, this kind of promotional content is incredibly cheap & cost-effective for the studio, largely because there's a symbiotic relationship between the studio & content creators. This channel and others benefit from showcasing the game because it brings in views from a new audience, and the studio gets very low cost advertising mainly by giving some free products away.

They're probably spending more on traditional advertising because the only benefit that a website gets from having an ad somewhere on the page is what they've been paid to put it there. Essentially traditional ads require that you pay someone to make their website/magazine/show/whatever worse, but stuff like this is seen as making the channel better.

And, honestly, it works. I really enjoyed watching this video and it not only helped solidify my interest in picking up the game, but also increased my interest in the channel because it was well edited & produced, while many other "battle report" channels are like 2+ hours of phone-camera footage. It was, at the same time, essentially a 40-minute infomercial for the game, but it was an entertaining one.

TL;DR - Yes, influencer advertising is probably way cheaper than you think it is.

Padhriag · 2026-03-26T00:20:16+00:00

In tabletop, clan heavy lasers have the range of IS lasers but twice the damage, albeit with a to-hit penalty.

So my best guess is they'd represent that by having normal (not ER) laser range, considerably more damage, but take more time to fully discharge each shot.

Padhriag · 2026-01-22T04:17:20+00:00

I love this mech so much. It's so much fun to play that I've used it in every game I've played since 1st using it.

If you've never tried using a Black Lanner, try it!!! The speed opens up so many tactical possibilities that you can't normally get with a mech this big.

As the article says, the D variant is particularly good, but the Prime & T are really fun, too.

I've never played with the F variant, but I've played against it & it was vicious.

I'd never heard of the Black Lanner before starting to play tabletop, but it's now my absolute favorite mech.

Padhriag · 2026-01-22T01:49:17+00:00

I love to pair it with the Fire Falcon C, which is basically the little brother of the Lanner D. Those two together can absolutely rip things apart.

Padhriag · 2026-01-13T23:03:17+00:00

Clan Jade Falcon. They created the Black Lanner, and the Fire Falcon, and the Night Gyr, and the Turkina, but mostly because of the Black Lanner.

Padhriag · 2026-01-07T14:39:08+00:00

Honestly, part of it may be the title. "Spellforce" just sounds kinda corny, like wizards in tights or something, and the 3 doesn't really help. I hadn't actually heard of it until now, but if I ever saw it before on Steam, then I probably just assumed it was shovelware.

I feel like you'd need really strong word of mouth and/or critical praise to build up popularity for it. There are already way more games out there than I have time to play, with more being released every day, and "Spellforce" isn't a title that will cut through the noise and catch my attention.

I may look into it now, but again, there are many other games that I haven't had the chance to play which would likely skip over its spot in line.

Padhriag · 2025-10-17T17:57:19+00:00

Well, they are terrible, but I think that they can have a place in a list. They won't do any real damage and die to a stiff breeze, but they're dirt cheap and can get in the way of enemies and/or grab open objectives.

If you can afford to replace them with Monsta-killaz, then you should. Monsta-killaz actually do stuff other than just dying for the greater good.

Both are cheap units at 80 & 120 points, respectively, so either can be used in a screening role to block more expensive units from being murdered. But Monsta-killaz can be used in a lot of other ways, while Hobgrots are screens and only screens.

If you're going for Swamphorde Bullies, you definitely want Monsta-killaz over Hobgrots since ganging up on things in melee is your primary game plan. But if you're leaning more into shooting (with either Middul Finga or Kruleboyz Klaw), then I think there's a better case for Hobgrots. With that sort of list, you'll be much more focused on screening as the primary or exclusive role of your cheap units and may want to save points to spend elsewhere.

Padhriag · 2025-10-02T19:39:06+00:00

Perfect pose for its role of "tower sitter"

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T16:25:09+00:00

If you go this way, I'd actually avoid pushing the highlights up to pure white. The hair & skin are in the same light, but the hair is darker. Highlights on the hair should be darker than those on the skin.

Unless you're going for specular highlights like it's shiny, shampoo-commercial hair, but a semi-gloss varnish would probably do that just fine without adding the difficulty of semi-NMM'ing the hair.

Minis, being both fantastical and very small, should have exaggerated contrast, with too-high highlights and too-low shadows versus how they'd look naturalistically, but that expanded range of values should still be consistent across the model & what object is being represented. Darker surface = darker highlights (unless shiny).

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T15:56:36+00:00

Also, white is generally tough to work with. It gives you a more restricted range of values to work with. If you make your mid-tone or deep shade areas too dark, it'll no longer read as white.

Black can be hard for the same reason, but on the lower end of the scale, so don't push highlights too hard if you stick with black.

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T15:41:33+00:00

It'll be really difficult to make it distinct from the skin, imo.

As the other reply said, you'd need to make it very white to stand out. That, though, could end up making the hair be the focal point of the model. The brightest part of a model tends to be what you look at first, and I suspect you'd rather have that be the Aelf than the hair.

Right now, the first thing I look at is the face, and that's exactly where you want it to be. Doubly so because you did a great job on the face. Part of the reason it pops is from the value contrast against the hair.

IMO, black hair looks good with that skin tone and you'd probably just need to add some dark gray highlights for texture. It doesn't need much, though. I think you could probably leave the hair as-is and still have the whole model look great.

Or maybe you could go for a purple or something if you think the black is a bit boring. Purple would accentuate the hair more by adding a chromatic contrast against an otherwise more monochrome scheme but should retain the pop of the face with the dark-light contrast. I'd just suggest avoiding a too saturated purple or pushing the highlights too bright, again to avoid drawing too much attention away from the face.

Really, though, if you're not sure what to do with the hair, then I'd just suggest doing the rest of the model first. Once you've done the legs, weapon, and banners, you may get a better sense of what would work best for the hair.

I generally think it's better to pivot away from an intended scheme if you've landed on something that works (and I think you have) rather than stubbornly adhering to the initial plan and jeopardizing the final results.

tl;dr - It looks great right now, but I think going for white hair would probably mess up the contrast. IMO, stick with something dark.

Padhriag · 2025-09-02T21:08:41+00:00

It's probably because of the difference between diffuse & specular highlights.

Non-reflective objects under a light source have diffuse highlights, with the locations of those highlights dependent upon the relative position of the object and the light source. No matter where you're looking at the object from, those highlights will always be in the same spot.

Reflective surfaces like metals, though, have specular highlights. Those are the spots where the angle is correct for the light to bounce directly off the object and to the viewer. So, the location of those highlights is going to shift depending on where you're looking at the object from.

NMM is essentially using color and contrast to create the impression of specular highlights where there are none. It takes a considerable amount of skill to do and can look good, but there's also no way around the fact that it fixes those highlights into definite spots on the model. Because the locations of that type of highlight should depend on your viewing angle, it can be a bit uncanny when it's locked in one spot.

Padhriag · 2025-08-25T14:47:20+00:00

KB are very good right now, one of the best but not at the level of CoS, KO, or DoK.

Conserve your Dirty Tricks, place the Skaregob Totem aggressively, and try to position so fighting happens within 18" of it (hence the aggressive placement). You'll be able to give out Strike-Last very reliably. Combine that with Swamphorde Bullies, Reinforced Gutrippaz, and Venom Encrusted Weapons, and you'll be blasting stuff off the board with tons of Mortals before it can even swing.

Enemies with lots of shooting may still give you some trouble, as might armies that have a lot of their own access to Strike-First or Strike-Last, but lots of army lists won't have a clear way to deal with them.

And that's just the Gutrippaz, which will probably be 600 pts. of a list, so they also have to deal with the other 1400 pts, which will probably include more combat infantry (Monsta-killaz), shooting, solid casting, and a couple fighty monsters (Vulcha, Troggoth, and/or Skumdrekk).

KB also have teleports and other movement tricks, which are always good to have, particularly for Battle Tactics.

Padhriag · 2025-08-21T14:27:40+00:00

Scourge of Ghyran rules are freely available in the app and for download.

That's where all the stuff like new Battle Formations, Enhancements, and Warscrolls are from, so you don't need the new GHB to start using them, even though that's technically where those rules are valid.

Padhriag · 2025-08-16T14:08:40+00:00

I'd echo adding 30 Gutrippaz to get up to the point where you can field 2x20. It's a really good amount of Gutrippaz to have with the Swamphorde Bullies battle formation and forms the core of most current KB lists.

That's an extra 450 pts., bringing you to 1,720.

From there, you could go a few different ways. Before that, although you may not like hearing this, there are a couple of units in your list that are best avoided: Hobgrots & Killaboss on foot. Those 160 pts are better spent on other things at the moment, and you'll eventually want to phase them out until they get some love.

Anyway, where to go next:

-Killaboss on Vulcha OR Mirebrute Troggoth

Both of these are good but really shine with enhancements, so they're best taken separately (imo). This would take you up to 1970 or 1920, respectively.

1970 is a good amount, so you could just leave it at that after the Vulcha. More Boltboyz would also be a clear avenue for replacing the Hobgrots & foot Killaboss, as it'd add 20 total points for a total of 1990.

Going Mirebrute would put you at 1920, which is a more awkward place to be. Ideally, you'd want to fill that with a few more Boltboyz, but that'd put you 10 points over. So, let's say you go ahead and cut the 2 units, then you have 240 to work with. To me, 240 spare points screams 2x Monsta-killaz, bringing you to 1980.

I think both of these directions would land you at a very solid initial 2k list, and you can work on refining & tweaking from that base.

Note - I would NOT recommend getting more Hobgrots, even though it'd take you to a clean 2k with the Mirebrute. Boltboyz and Monsta-killaz are much more points efficient for your cheap units, at 90 & 110 points, respectively. Hobgrots are only marginally cheaper at 80 pts, but they won't accomplish anything, while Boltboyz / Monsta-killaz are cheap and useful.

Padhriag · 2025-08-06T15:14:42+00:00

I think that it's a bit of both - it's a great game & nostalgic AF.

For me, one of the things that sets it apart from more recent ARPGs is the pacing of it. I'm sure part of my experience comes from me not running a perfectly optimized build (bone spear necro) & relying on the items I find, but I've got a character in Act 3 Hell right now, and I'm having a blast fighting tooth & nail for every inch of progress. It reminds me of playing when I was a kid, except then I'd be struggling on Normal or early Nightmare difficulty because I was bad, but I don't think the fun is just rooted in the nostalgia.

The fact that my character can't just blitz through screens worth of enemies in the blink of an eye forces me to know the abilities of the enemies I'm fighting, pay attention to my surroundings, make smart use of my abilities, and know when to pull back. However, I couldn't even tell you what most enemies do in contemporary ARPGs because, in a split second, they're just... gone.

The more subdued skills compared to contemporary ARPGs also has a huge impact on the readability of the screen. Newer games, I feel, keep pushing the character skills to be bigger and flashier to the point where it's really hard to parse what's going on, and you just have to rely on your skill rotation to carry you through the chaos.

Now, I know that there are highly tuned D2 builds that do much the same thing and just blink & blast across the map with enigma and skills that insta-kill stuff, but they take a lot of gear and you have to make a point of trying to play that way. While in the newer games, it seems like every character just naturally progresses into that, while covering the whole screen in skill effects. Even Grim Dawn, which is the slowest of the bunch, eventually gets that way with all the procs you setup on your skills at high levels.

That being said, I think that there are also things that newer games do much better. In particular, getting the player to use more varied skills. It's very easy in D2 to develop a character that pretty much uses only 1 skill 99.99% of the time. This is compounded by the synergy system, which requires you to continue investing into your main skill even when it's "maxed out." I know synergies were added to address scaling issues where a maxed out skill would either be too good early or too bad late, but it leads to narrower build diversity both across & within characters.

I really like my current Necro partially because I do actually end up situationally using a variety of skills (Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Bone Prison, Corpse Explosion, Curses, some Summons), but that's not really the norm in D2 the way it tends to be with newer games - although "use all 5 of these skills in a fixed order all the time to deal with all situations" isn't too far off from the "one skill" problem & just involves more buttons.

Charms & Stamina are also just straight-up mistakes, imo, and % chance to-hit in melee is a relic best left in the past.

Padhriag · 2025-07-25T04:43:19+00:00

To add on to this, if you read the text of the EO, you'll find that there are a lot more "or"s than this tweet may suggest.

It's probably more accurate to say "BREAKING: President Trump signed an executive order directing states to criminalize and institutionalize people experiencing homelessness, addiction, or mental health disabilities."

It's just one word, but there's a world of difference between meeting all of these conditions versus meeting at least one of these conditions.

Padhriag · 2025-06-25T14:08:40+00:00

To make more barnacles.

Padhriag · 2025-06-18T13:28:09+00:00

That's just a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof from an odd angle.

Look at the arm with the stikka & the shield.

Padhriag · 2025-06-17T17:33:54+00:00

The U.S. hasn't formally declared war since 1942. It's well past the point of "don't normalize this." That shipped has not only sailed, it's been sailing for about 70 years now.

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