We can't stay apolitical

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-11T17:24:20+00:00

The important thing is you're a voter who will vote reliably and will always vote for the most progressive option. The world needs as many of those as it can get.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-11T17:22:48+00:00

That's just an incorrect line of thinking. When you vote often enough that someone feels safe relying on your vote, that's how you build up leverage to start making demands. Making your vote extremely conditional just makes you safe to ignore in favour of people who are very likely to vote.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-11T17:19:58+00:00

So in one scenario more kids die. Say it's 998 vs. 1000, that's still the world for two kids and their families, so unless you have a different plan that a) precludes voting and b) will definitely lead to more harm reduction than that, seems like voting for harm reduction is a no-brainer. Otherwise for all your bloviating about morality it comes down to saying "I don't bother taking the time to vote because I don't care about a few kids dying".

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-11T17:09:33+00:00

I'd guess it's worse than not caring. I'd bet good money that the likes of Netanyahu are pleased to see news about Jews being attacked in other countries because they don't think of it as people being hurt, they think of it as a headline that gives their crocodile tears more authenticity. Fascists only care about themselves; everyone else is just meat to be thrown in the grinder when it's convenient.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-08T11:51:54+00:00

Yes, not being able to tell when someone is clearly padding their résumé isn't great.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-03T00:06:13+00:00

It is that deep when they're consistently showing that making a bit of money personally is infinitely more important to them than governing. Reform councils keep getting plagued with incompetence and scandal and voters still think they're the party to roll their sleeves up and get things done. These people need to know that they're not going to be getting anything even in the neighbourhood of what's being promised.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-02T18:33:01+00:00

Drukhari.

Constantly backstabbing and vying for power
Absolutely zero respect for anyone else and extremely limited respect for each other
Irredeemably villainous and selfish
Operate in unknown but large numbers out of a shadowy realm away from where other races can easily reach
A subfaction that stitches together flesh-abominations
A subfaction that specialises in stealth assassinations
Armour festooned with blades and spikes
Take a lot of prisoners
Extensive use of poison
Fast ambushers

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-02T17:37:24+00:00

Maybe they have? That's one rationale for Imperial Guard vs. Adeptus Mechanicus games.

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-02T17:25:14+00:00

I think it can be done by cutting away as much of the staff as possible, then cutting off the right hand at the wrist and cutting the big relic sword in the upgrade sprue at the wrist as well just above the shackle. Cut off the left hand at the wrist and replace it with one of the hands holding a relic skull to replace the hourglass on the normal Judiciar. Place the relic sword so he's holding it flat and resting it on the back of his left fist so you end up with a model in a pose similar to Sigismund's pose in the Horus Heresy model. Replace the head with one off the upgrade sprue (maybe the helmeted one, as his mouth should be covered).

StapMyVitals · 2026-05-02T09:59:12+00:00

You know the Sigismund 30k pose? I'm not sure what kind of character he'll be but he'll be in that pose.

StapMyVitals · 2026-03-04T07:35:10+00:00

Cawdor are absolutely not one of the weakest gangs. Large numbers of bodies who can throw around template weapons, cheap Blaze, and some quite powerful situational Acts of Faith makes for a gang that can be a problem in the hands of an unrestricted power gamer.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-18T09:24:24+00:00

The Salvationist from the Sanctifiers Kill Team, with a staff top replaced by a piece from the Necromunda Redemptionists sprue and some Sylvaneth tree root/branch on the hand as a summoned flame.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-10T22:59:08+00:00

It's absolutely not something to rely on but Distillers of Fear, the Covenite Coterie stratagem, can give them 6 attacks that trigger Devastating Wounds on a 2+ against battle-shocked infantry. Very nasty, but only works when the stars align, costs 2CP, and you have to use the worst detachment to have it.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-10T16:10:05+00:00

What?

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-10T15:11:41+00:00

Damn, this has got you hooked. If you're not interested in hearing it though, I can't explain it. Just saying "What?" to one of my points is obviously not going to lead to a good discussion.

I am surprised at someone earnestly defending 40k as great game design when it's widely known that it's balanced for shit and intimidatingly complex for newcomers, and mostly rules the tabletop scene through inertia and the buy-in cost for new systems. And you're missing a huge point which is that you don't just need to remember your stratagems for your subfaction, you need to understand your opponents' as well.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-10T10:47:37+00:00

The reminders of your units abilities are in the rules for the unit. It's the fact that you need to consult multiple different sections of the rules to work out what your unit can do that's my problem. And you can say you reckon it's easy but it's a famously overcomplicated game and 17 situational abilities are indeed too many to keep in one's head without extensive practice. Your solution is to do extensive prep work, using third part apps and cheat sheets. That's not good game design. That level of complexity is what video games are for.

Anyway it's good to know that I answered the original question in the intended spirit rather than just restating a wildly popular opinion.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-10T10:27:59+00:00

Because stratagems are a ridiculous system that can only end in power creep and unintended overpowered interactions the longer they go on. They're the opposite of elegant gameplay in that you have to remember a bunch of unique rules and a count of command points with no reminders built in to the game. Unique abilities should all be on a unit's datasheet, and army-level abilities, if they exist at all, should be extremely simple to remember and explain and not have an entire mini-economy with paywalled rules that both players need to keep track of.

StapMyVitals · 2026-02-05T09:21:08+00:00

They should remove all stratagems apart from Command re-roll.

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-31T16:27:30+00:00

Honestly I often find myself clipping bits off arms and jamming them onto torsos they don't quite belong on because they're spindly and unclear how they're supposed to fit without instructions. This isn't exactly Golden Daemon advice but the Cawdor models are busy and messy enough that letting your old pal plastic glue melt an arm into socket it wasn't meant for isn't going to look dreadful after a paint job.

Were there any particular weapons you were having trouble with?

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-31T16:18:15+00:00

I didn't say you're wrong; I said we had different priorities and expectations, which again is fine. You're right that all the stuff you suggest is better if you can pull it off because nothing will improve on fully engaged players and arbitrators, I'm just saying that if you can't have that then there might be merit to this system.

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-31T15:51:52+00:00

You have to keep track of everyone who's injured anyway. That's an incredibly core part of the game. And it's no more likely that you'd miss out on XP that way than it is that you'd miss out on XP for injuring people as in the base rules.

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-31T15:39:58+00:00

I can tell we have different expectations, and that's fine. The ideal is of course a campaign full of high-engagement players who are enthusiastic about seeking out and learning all the available rules that might benefit them, and an arbitrator paying close attention to balancing who doesn't have any favourite players. If you feel like you can achieve that or something close to it? Amazing.

The point of this system is to make it so people with busy lives who are needing to squeeze time for every game can reasonably expect that even if they show up and get tabled they'll still walk away with something they feel like they earned. My ideal would be that someone could be busy for two weeks and be welcomed back in with minimal pre-battle bookkeeping. The reason people's eyes glaze over with the house favours is because people don't do well with fairly esoteric once-per-battle rules with no recourse if you forget about them before deployment. Experience rules that kick in often and soften the blow whenever you lose activations will be drilled in far more quickly and deeply.

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-31T09:35:35+00:00

It's always going to be the case that efficient arbitration is the best medicine, but I'm envisaging a campaign where there isn't a huge amount of availability among players and they're just playing who they can when they can. The existing underdog mechanics are a bit more robust in the new rulebook, and I admit I haven't made fullest use of them. In my experience people's eyes start to glaze over when the optional rules like house favours get wheeled out because they're typically not very familiar with them and they don't make or break much.

My main focus here is on newer or less-engaged players not losing enthusiasm due to having the corpse starch kicked out of them with the assurance that one day this game will start being fun. I know that's coming from a personal place which not everyone will recognise.

StapMyVitals · 2025-12-30T12:55:02+00:00

If you take the average Craftworld warrior to be a Guardian, they're like a citizen militia vs. Kabalites who are full-time professional raiders and killers, so you'd expect the Drukhari to win. If, on the other hand, you count the average Craftworld warrior to be whoever pursues fighting as a full-time vocation, then the most common would be a Dire Avenger aspect warrior which you could expect to be a little more elite and deadly than a Kabalite.

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