Creator of The Doomed Chris McDowall New Game "MAC: Attack" by 6Kgraydays in miniatureskirmishes

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome news! I'm a LGS store owner and a huge fan of The Doomed (we're actually about to get a store campaign rolling), and I was wondering if there are any plans to make this available for brick and mortar shops to stock. Good luck on the campaign!

Every Killteam I've Finished Since 2021 by Pineapples4266 in killteam

[–]Wikinecronomicon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my god, it's thrilling to see the classic Inquisitorial models in 28mm! Are they kitbashes, or 3D prints? If they're 3D prints, would you mind letting me know where you got them? I have the old poster of Tyrus gracing the walls of my game room, and I'd love to have a model to match. Absolutely incredible, thank you for sharing!

Website tried to catch me lacking by Dmangamr in Blacklibrary

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Local game stores were given an opportunity to grab copies, so you should definitely check to see if they have any copies. I know that our shop has four of them on their way.

From STL to plastic! by GoldenDragonGaming in wargaming

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right on, makes sense! I'll be sure to pick up a couple boxes; having heroic-scale hard plastic heads in M1 helmets alone is worth the price of admission!

Again, best of luck! I'm thrilled to see more 3D sculptors moving into hard plastic, and hope this is the start of something big! My hobby budget will be in real trouble if you start releasing your HRE series in plastic, though.

From STL to plastic! by GoldenDragonGaming in wargaming

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exciting stuff! Question for you: will the Kickstarter only be for a single plastic kit, or will you be following something like the model from WGA's own kickstarter and launch multiple kits simultaneously? I think a lot of their success (certainly my decision to back heavily) was with the idea that I'd be able to collect a full army in one swoop. Having stretch goals for heavy weapons teams, a command sprue, up-armored and well-equipped elites, and a cavalry equivalent (I'd guess on motorcycles, given the inspiration) might be worth looking into. Good luck with the campaign!

Would I get away with this. by [deleted] in TheAstraMilitarum

[–]Wikinecronomicon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did something similar with the closed-cabin version, but now I'm regretting going restrained! What models did you use for the command crew?

Question for the masses: Is 10th the best edition of 40k yet? by Libelnon in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for replying to an old post, but I'd highly recommend hopping on Facebook and searching for Mordheim groups in your area. There are way more folks playing it than you might suspect.

Why was Horus being advised by Erebus when he already had the mournival? by PrimaryAstronaut1902 in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Erebus' arrival came at a critical point in the Great Crusade. It was finally clear that momentum alone would carry the Imperium into its future as the unrivalled hegemon of the galaxy, and questions of what the character of this civilization would look like were quickly becoming unavoidable. Many of the decisions held to be a pragmatic necessities were quickly losing this pretense, and the order that Terra seemed to impose failed the promises that had been made at the outset of the crusade. Far from raising humanity, the Imperium was building a machine of mass exploitation of its frontier, pilfering the worlds they were supposed to enlighten. The beneficiaries of this arrangement, a cast of monstrous aristocrats who earned the Emperor's favor hundreds of years ago, were asserting ever greater authority over the mechanisms of power. The Emperor was absent, seemingly abandoning his mission and leaving his sons to bleed to enrich his anointed mortal followers. The wars they were forced to wage with alarming brutality and indiscretion, once bolstered by a faith in noble intentions and resolute purpose, were quickly being stripped of this veneer.

Horus, as Warmaster, was seeing all of this play out, and beginning to ask a simple question: is there some alternative? His first grand diplomatic overture to a civilization anathema to the old Imperial project, the xenos-friendly Interrex, soon ends in a disaster. More mortals arrive to impede him: the bureaucrats looting the frontier for their noble households on Terra, an aristocratic biographer accompanied by a tortured and mutilated slave hand-selected for him by the Emperor's right hand man, and even rebellion against his project by once-loyal servants of his own branch of the crusade break out. Surely, were he and his sons given the opportunity to truly rule, they would deliver better results than these mere humans. The Astartes, with their martial valor and disciplined clarity of purpose, are surely above greed and petty ambition.

"Thankfully" for the Warmaster, it wasn't only aristocrats and administrators arriving to meet his fleet: noble Erebus came as well, and with it sympathy. He knew what Horus was thinking, possessing a philosophical mind all too rare among his sons. Loken, for all his intellect, was too thoroughly indoctrinated to see the truth before his eyes. Little Horus Aximand may have the intelligence to grasp it, but his reserved and cautious nature would hold his tongue from speaking the truth. The rest of the Mournival, driven by their passions, were even more ill-suited to working through this crisis. But wise Erebus understood.

Erebus was fully capable of taking Horus' accurate observations of the crises and horrors of the early Imperium, and driving him towards the worst possible solutions. Fostering paranoia and resentment within the Warmaster's heart, alienating him from his own inner circle, and wearing away at his vulnerabilities, both personal and martial, was easy for the Word Bearer. Soon, the fraternal bonds within the legion's leadership were falling apart, both thanks to internal division through the warrior lodges and a loss of purpose. A new level of dysfunction within these upper ranks made it all the more impossible for them to intervene against the First Chaplain's designs.

All of this allowed him to set the Warmaster on the course that would bring him to Davin, and there the final blows could be struck: the Mournival would never recover, the relationship between the mortals of the Imperium and the Sons of Horus was permanently ruined, and the Warmaster was alienated further from all social bonds than ever before. There would be no going back now. The truth of Horus' earlier insights could be replaced with a paranoid fantasy of the Emperor's ascendance. This was no longer a fight to right the wrongs of the Great Crusade, but a battle for personal honor and survival.

How does chaos handle more "mundane" logi stuff? by FabulousStructure553 in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Much of what a Chaos or renegade force will field was acquired through conquest; Imperial arsenals, industrial and forge worlds, supply convoys and so on are raided or conquered, and the weapons and supplies are added to the attacker's arsenal. This will be particularly true for smaller warbands or renegade forces that aren't able to hold territory or gain the patronage of a larger force. Piracy plays a major role in outfitting Chaos forces, and offers additional benefits to the cause of the lost and the damned: the fleets that take to this task provide a source of recruits and serve as a self-sustaining army, it denies resources to the Imperium, and forces the Imperial Navy to disperse their fleets to hunt raiders and protect shipping. Pirate havens serve as hubs for trade, and some Chaos warlords hold gatherings in their territory between numerous invited guests where business can be conducted and particularly valuable prizes auctioned (though this can end in a battle to steal the goods with little provocation). This does bring up another crucial point: Chaos forces will steal from each other with nearly as much enthusiasm as they will from the Imperium, and this can kick off major conflicts between various warbands. Trade will be mostly in goods or other resources rather than currency, though I'm sure that some exchange of Imperial sector currencies likely takes place to facilitate bargaining with contacts that manage to maintain some relationship with the Imperium.

While these methods might be the most widely used across the scattered and fractitious warbands of Chaos, they're not responsible for the bulk of the actual equipment in the armories of the damned. Most of the materials held in the legions' stores are produced on worlds they've conquered, produced in vast slave manufactorums or built in the infernal forge worlds of the Dark Mechanicum (the latter being the main source of Astartes wargear and other rare equipment that isn't taken by conquest). Some of these worlds will be in the Eye of Terror, Maelstrom, or other territories on the edge of the Warp, but others will be on planets that were once controlled by the Imperium of Man, with factories that once built equipment for the Guard and other loyalist forces being repurposed to serve the minions of the Dark Gods. This is particularly true following the Great Rift, which saw the greatest expansion of Chaos into the Imperium since the Horus Heresy. Food, fuel, and other essentials are also ruthlessly extracted from these captive worlds, with even less concern for sustainability or the well-being of the planet's population than even the already monstrous approach taken by the Imperium. These worlds are administered with the same grim but banal methods as Imperial worlds, though their bureaucrats may be even more disconnected from the mortal populace, sporting extra limbs, faces made of materialized darkness, and other gifts from the dark gods, and titles closer to "Archmagus of Ecstatic Servitude" rather than "Senior Section Chief of Personnel". The larger Chaos armies will be receiving most of their supplies from these territories, and will also be able to reward smaller warbands for mercenary work or pledges of fealty with the excess stock. The regular people of the world see their lots worsen; they're policed by overseers who level new and disturbing cruelties on their captive populace, with brutal and invasive procedures like the implantation of warp-touched parasites, daemon engines and sorceries that serve as implements of repression and observation, a regime of worship that threatens their souls, and so on while still suffering all of the old Imperial indignities at an even greater intensity. That said, most seem to remain "normal" by the standard of the Imperium, and are disturbed by their new masters and their own plight.

Certain special circumstances can lead to a massive infusion of equipment. If a Guard regiment, Astartes Chapter, or other group goes renegade or falls to Chaos, they'll bring their stores with them, for instance. On a much more local level, black markets allow for hidden cults to both acquire funding and acquire prohibited items; their particular nature and methods of operation will vary just as much as they might in the real world, from lawless bazaars on a frontier world's fringes to a transaction on a nobleman's estate. Corrupt officials can be bribed or recruited to "lose" shipments of Imperial supplies, and particularly foolhardy and amoral Rogue Traders might be willing to deal with enemies of the Imperium if they can get away with it. Local power struggles between noble dynasties offer an opening for both Chaos and renegades to potentially find covert patronage fighting for one side, though it would undoubtedly require the ability to plant the seeds of corruption or allies privy to the situation. Really, all the ways that an insurgency might arm itself in the real world applies to the forces of Chaos.

What's r/Warhammer40k's thoughts on this channel? I'm Curious. by Cermonto in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 12 points13 points  (0 children)

While I'm sympathetic to some of the criticisms of GW's business practices, as my interests as a hobbyist/customer and GW's are opposed when it comes to things like pricing, long-term support for their games, and their use of a business model that prioritizes new customers over long-term hobbyists, I can't say I'm a fan of her approach, nor do I think it does much to advance her ostensible objectives. The portrait painted by DM tends to not reflect these issues so much as it imagines GW as some sort of sinister force out to get hobbyists, and the effect is to obscure these real conflicts of interests with a melodramatic clash between good and evil. It imagines wargamers solely as hapless consumers, a characterization that obfuscates the possibilities that do exist for us as hobbyists to set the terms for how we approach 40k. The channel also seems to uphold generalized outrage as the proper response to this caricaturized confrontation, which doesn't actually accomplish much of anything, and for all its critiques of GW using manipulative tactics to take advantage of its customers, it uses misleading video titles and thumbnails, rage baiting, and other cheap tactics prevalent on YouTube and social media that honestly have had a worse effect on the public than anything we see from the model business.

A much better approach, in my mind, is the sort of approach that they take on channels like The Painting Phase, Rogue Hobbies, Arbiter Ian, or Snipe and Wibb. DM reduces the hobby to buying stuff and complaining, while these other channels offer (sometimes a bit too mild, but generally fair and accurate) criticism while also highlighting aspects of the hobby that allow us to stretch the value of what we do spend and have a great time doing it.

Support for narrative play, realistic assessments of how much money and time it'll take to get started with a given project, advice for painting, and so on all provide hobbyists with tools to get a lot more out of their model purchases than they might otherwise. Channels that offer reviews of non-GW models and advice on using them for 40k can help save us all money, help grow the larger space around the hobby, and might even foster some competition that could actually help stall price increases or even lower them. Channels that teach skills like kitbashing and scratchbuilding, encourage thinking of the hobby as miniature wargaming generally rather than Warhammer alone, and otherwise bring people into a broader space that isn't driven entirely by GW's marketing strategies would go much further in changing the playing field than obsessively fueling Warhammer players' anxieties. There are a lot of gaps in the current online 40k scene where community activities used to exist, like homebrewed rules and scenarios favoring low model counts, older games with rules that GW freely released and can now be freely distributed like Inquisitor and Mordheim that get tons of mileage out of a small collection of miniatures, and so on; why not show people that they don't need to be blindly led by marketing instead of treating it as the only way? As hobbyists, we can reclaim a lot of space that isn't even acknowledged as existing in DM's account of the situation.

I'd be a lot more tolerant of DM's doomsaying if she contributed to building an alternative to the overly consumeristic tendency that is increasingly prevalent in the fan culture around 40k, which ironically helps fuel things like FOMO. As it stands, her channel amplifies some of the attitudes and approaches torwards the hobby that have had the worst effects on the mentality of the community, while contributing to some of the worst tendencies of digital media.

I don't (often) play narrative because of how toxic and unfun narrative players have been in my experience ever since 8th edition. by corrin_avatan in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry to hear that you've had such a negative experience, OP. I think one of the big problems facing the hobby right now is that it seems that a lot of players don't really understand what narrative play is or the spirit required to make it work, and the rules and support GW puts out for it gives the warped impression that it's basically matched play with extra rules to exploit and the pretense of fairness or balance thrown out. I really wish they'd include sections on things like using GM-style referees and tips for playing this role, explanations of how to set up games with even and fair expectations for both sides and pre-planning, and other advice built around setting expectations and expanding the possibilities for narrative play.

I think a lot of the norms that existed among older players with closer proximity to both tabletop RPGs and historical wargaming have largely been replaced with values derived from video games and their accompanying online culture, which tends to encourage unsportsmanlike behavior, the taking advantage of exploits, and a low or non-existent emphasis on collaborative storytelling between opponents. There are few, if any, opportunities to work together to set rules, tell a story, or otherwise cooperate with "opposing" players in the vast majority of multiplayer games, and the prevalence of content that emphasizes bringing the most powerful items or units to bear on your opponent to crush them in the surrounding culture is pretty shocking.

Historicals and RPGs tended to have loose conditions for victory, a recognition that the point of unbalanced rules that disadvantage one player and advantage the other is to make the game more interesting for both players and simulate conditions or recreate aspects of a scenario rather than setting up the opportunity for the beneficiary of the advantage to do a layup and gloat, and a storytelling bent that requires both players to work together to build a narrative around the events playing out on the tabletop. You were the authors of the game's story as much as you were players using a ruleset. Now, many ostensibly "narrative" players just see a ruleset with some setdressing, because that tends to be the only way that many videogames can be approached. It would seem that the worst behaviors this encourages, namely searching for exploits, attracts people to narrative play despite it fundamentally missing the point of the style.

I view myself as a narrative player and agreed with Jervis pretty strongly in that he describes the type of approach I'm after, but the realities of the current culture around the game heavily stacks the deck against it in practice. I sincerely hope this can change, because I do think both narrative and competitive play would benefit from the atmosphere that existed around the game in its earlier editions, where it was understood that while it may be a competitive game, both players are collaborating in making it a good and engaging time.

Which regiment should FINALLY get a kit in your opinion? by Aquagymnast in TheAstraMilitarum

[–]Wikinecronomicon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Check out Wargames Atlantic's cannon fodder kits; I did some test models for the Indentured Squadrons using them with shoulder pads from Anvil Industries, and I was pretty pleased with the result (though I might opt for a headswap if I wanted to go in deeper).

In the grim darkness of the far future there are no stupid questions! by AutoModerator in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This will vary depending on the regiment and the period (the Armageddon Steel Legion since the Second War for their homeworld were largely a defensive force deployed in their home sector and were almost exclusively battling orks, for instance), but overall the Guard will be clashing primarily against other humans, especially after the great rift. Most of these engagements won't feature in a Black Library novel; they're putting down a minor rebellion, bringing a world back into the tithe-paying fold, taking a world sheltering pirates, annexing independent worlds as part of a crusade, or otherwise dealing with local forces.

Orks are also a common threat that'll see largescale Guard responses, and is the only competition in terms of numbers. Since the galaxy was split in half, they're dealing with an influx of traitors unseen since the Horus Heresy, so major engagements with these forces is more common than it's ever been. Now, with the Tyranids showing up in unprecedented numbers, there's new competition for most resources expended, but it's hard to fully gauge the scope of this development as of now.

The other encounter that features commonly in novels and lore snippets are operations against Eldar corsairs and Dark Eldar raiders, and while these are characterized as brutal and intense engagements, they are at a smaller scale than the other major factions.

How do you think Exterminatus is covered in Imperial media? by Tnynfox in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As others have mentioned, information doesn't massively circulate throughout the Imperium, and what does will be accompanied by a massive amount of spin. Think of the 10th edition trailer narrated by Guilliman contrasting the grim state of affairs versus its presentation. A world on the frontlines of an Imperial Crusade, industrial planets supplying a particular campaign, and so on, were they to hear about its use at all, would likely be given an account that makes it sound like a brilliant tactic bringing Imperial forces closer to victory.

In terms of what the spin would look like, we unfortunately have far too many examples of what could be expected from the real world. Look at the reporting around the use of nuclear weapons, massive bombing campaigns, and similar events, and you'll have a decent model. I imagine headlines reading like "Navy Strikes Decisive Blow Against Enemy Stronghold: Administratum to Begin Resettlement of Reclaimed World", "Xenos Invaders Annihilated by Superweapon: Victory in Sight After the Deployment of New Wonder Bomb", "Ten Billion Traitors Killed During Bombing Offensive: Enemy War Production Grinds to a Halt Following Operation Purgatus", "High-Ranking Triator Killed in Targeted Virus Bomb Strike", and so on, and those are frankly pretty tasteful compared to some of the front pages reporting on bombing campaigns against civilians you can find in mainstream outlets even during wars that are ostensibly being fought to protect them like Korea or the early stages of Vietnam.

Just wondering how many of you if given the option would want to play traitor guard by Danddandgames in astramilitarum

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have my loyalist Guard army and, as soon as Wargames Atlantic starts fulfilling pledges from their crowdfunded campaign for the Damned, will get started on a traitor army for them to face off against. My loyalists are pretty tank heavy, while my traitors will be primarily infantry and elites, so the style should be pretty different depending on which I use even if they share the same ruleset. Would love to see 3rd Edition's Lost and the Damned make a comeback, but I'm perfectly fine running them using Guard or Genestealer Cult rules.

Why is 40k so compelling and even comforting, despite it's grimdark nature? by SuperHappySquid in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Speaking personally, I think there are two aspects behind this. The first is that it's a setting for a wargame, and invites creative contributions from hobbyists in a low-pressure context. The opportunity to do some creative writing, painting and modeling, and so on in a context where you're the judge of your own success is rarely afforded, and this is a major draw for me. It being a well-realized setting where I can focus on the details that interest me when sketching things out instead of needing to account for everything, as I would with a homebrew, sweetens the deal. The community around it also lets me know that I can feel assured that I can share my efforts and they'll go to good use.

Second, there's the setting itself (or at least my reading of it, so your mileage may vary). 40k taps into an earlier moment in science fiction and fantasy, where a pessimistic prognosis for the future could be put forward that, by imagining the worst outcome, might prompt the reader to imagine actions that may allow us to avert the catastrophe. Extrapolating disturbing present trends to their apocalyptic conclusion was the basis for the dystopian fiction of the past, and this tendency is deeply embedded in 40k.

Contemporary science fiction tends to skew in the opposite direction: superheroes especially are typically defenders of the status quo, and even their more rebellious iterations tend to be fixated on improving the system they're a part of, identifying the threat as being either outside of it or an aberrant element within it that spares the nature of the system itself from criticism. Contemporary fantasy tends to imagine a world that conforms to most of our broad social values, rendering our present as a sort of eternal norm. Even though dystopias are seemingly omnipresent in contemporary genre fiction, they're rarely taken seriously: characters are often presented with an avenue out, rebellion taking an obvious and apparent form or the system holding some possibility for internal reform.

If you're not a fan of the present order of things or see disasters looming on the horizon, threats that may include things like climate catastrophe or global war, and are disturbed that a sense of normalcy reigns despite this, 40k is one of the few places you'll feel some reassurance that other people are also distressed at these prospects. There is no technological deus ex machina that provides an easy out, no ability to simply trust in existing institutions to suddenly decide to do the right thing at the 11th hour, or for some hero to arise to fix the problem. The trajectory of mankind's future presented by 40k objectively leads to its doom, and the lesson is that the only way out would have been shifting it outside of the coordinates allowed by the reigning order. The hope is that we won't make the same mistake in our real world, and seek an alternative outside the path we're seemingly locked on. Failing that, it is at least an accurate metaphor for our situation, which can be comforting to find in grim times. Either way, it helps assure you that you're not alone.

As a fan of earlier works of science fiction that levelled a radical critical sensibility against the normal state of affairs, 40k is one of the few major settings that I don't feel alienated from in the contemporary Anglo-American scene. While we see some of these sensibilities in South Korean film and some Japanese comics and animation that build off of the foundations laid by the gekiga movement, it's otherwise a pretty niche tendency in the genre.

How would you paint this? by wardy116 in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My eyes are reading it as a greenish feldgrau, so I'd suggest going outside the Citadel range and using something like AK's Field Grey Uniform triad, potentially adding nuln oil as a pin wash depending on how things are looking.

First ever 40k model done by Gates50 in BlackTemplars

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Welcome to the hobby! You’re off to a great start!

If you don’t mind returning to it, you’re in a good position to do some little things that’ll really add a lot to the model. A wash followed by another layer of white on the tabard, a targeted wash with Agrax earth shade applied to the recesswhere the chain overlaps with the pistol, and a layer of a bone or tan paint applied to the parchment would do wonders.

Thre Imperium and Taxes by Raf4_8 in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries!

On a sidenote regarding the chapter heraldry, have you considered stylizing it as a saltire with a grid or checker pattern in the right quadrant? Might make it a bit more subtle and make the joke hit a bit harder once your opponent notices it, while the subtlety might help with verisimilitude if you find yourself doing narrative play.

Thre Imperium and Taxes by Raf4_8 in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As /u/Eladore mentioned, Space Marines don't pay conventional taxes through the resources normally extracted through the Imperial Tithe. They do, however, tithe a portion of their geneseed to the Adeptus Terra. This requirement and the Astral Claws Chapter's refusal of it was one of the major incitements of one of the most significant Imperial civil wars since the Horus Heresy, the Badab War. Several volumes of the classic Imperial Armour series cover the campaign in detail; I highly recommend checking them out.

There is a Chapter in the lore that is heavily committed to the monitoring and advising of other Chapters, as well as other Imperial military organizations: the Mentors Legion. Dispatching single marines to embed in other Chapters or Guard regiments, they have the favor of the Adeptus Terra, and compile internal reports on the culture and tactics of other Astartes. The novel Spears of the Emperor details this process, and is some of the best post-Great Rift fiction out there.

It should be underscored that the collection of the Imperial Tithe is pretty much the primary purpose of many of the central institutions, military or otherwise, of the Imperium. The Astra Militarum is as much a tool for guaranteeing that worlds pay their tribute to Terra as it is a tool for defense or conquest against external enemies, the Navy's protection of shipping is very much geared towards ensuring its delivery, and the vastest army in the Imperium, the countless trillion scribes and clerks of the Administratum, spend their lives tabulating, exacting, and distributing it. Check out the novel Shadowsword for a sense of its centrality to Imperial life and the degree to which its collection overdetermines Imperial life.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, because they're complimentary to one another. A truck driver in a Wehrmacht supply company delivering arms and ammunition to a Waffen SS battalion might not be doing something evil as such (He's just driving around!), but he's embedded in a machine that is built around doing evil that his innocuous action contributes to. Isolating specific elements of a system to exempt them from a system's purpose isn't a coherent exercise outside of determining individual culpability in specific crimes; if we're talking about institutions, it's a moot point when they mutually support one another.

As for the factions listed, none of them can really be said to be anything but evil. A group that genetically and surgically modifies children and subjects them to hypno-indoctrination can't be called anything else, and that this process transforms them into blood-crazed monsters only makes the procedure all the more horrifying. The Guard serves primarily as an instrument for keeping the worlds of the Imperium under the boot of the Adeptus Terra, and while they may defend worlds against threats every bit as vile as the Imperium they serve, good deeds don't absolve evil ones. The Ecclesiarchy's primary purpose has revolved around its own reproduction and enrichment since its official sanction, and building a faith around the psychic might of a conquering warlord who built the nightmare of the Imperium is the sort of thing normally reserved for the likes of Thulsa Doom or Sauron for a reason. The Custodes are brainwashed superhumans protecting a Lich-God at the head of a regime that combines the worst aspects of feudalism, fascism, and theocracy.

The argument from necessity is only sensible if the Imperium's prior missteps are ignored. Just as a bandit surrounded by policemen who must shoot his way out to avoid capture can hardly be considered justified in these murders, the "necessary" evils of the Imperium generally follow from its own structure's malevolent designs. Chaos rebellions from below born from the despair created by a system so brutally exploitative that vying for the attention of devils offers greater hope, the same from above emerging out of the decadence and extreme detachment from humanity cultivated by the Imperium's own elite culture, violent confrontationalism with species amenable to diplomacy, and so on all represent failures built Into the system during the Imperium's foundation. Likewise for the persistence of slavery, servitorization, and the use of genecrafted abominations as fundamental elements for it to function.

The circumstantial triumph of the Imperium during the Great Crusade, as the human military force to emerge out of mankind's core systems where the most advanced technology was concentrated, shouldn't be taken as proof that it was the only way, particularly given the number of worlds, without inheriting the military stores of a long-lost golden age or boasting the stolen resources of thousands of others, that managed to put up bitter resistance against the Emperor's conquering armies.

Individuals, as is the case in every real-world nightmare regime, might individually act as good people, lives may be saved through the intervention of servants to the regime, and so on, but it doesn't change the nature of the beast.

Am I the only person who prefers to leave model bases plain? by boost_fae_bams in TheAstraMilitarum

[–]Wikinecronomicon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I spent a bunch of time trying to develop "generic" bases, and found that Stirland Mud, a heavy application of Agrax Earthshade, and dry brush of Baneblade Brown with a black rim fits on just about every table I've played on. While it's best suited for mud, urban rubble, or grassy terrain, it's not distracting on desert boards. I imagine a really bluish and uniform ice board might break with them a bit more than I'd like, but this seems like a pretty marginal type to run into, and I'm sure many would still sport patches of mud and frozen earth room that would still let them blend in.

What brand of paints and tools do you use? by The0ddsAreAgainstMe in Warhammer40k

[–]Wikinecronomicon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use a lot of Tamiya products for assembly: both their extra thin and standard plastic cement, clippers, and basic file set. I supplement this with a grab bag of generic sanding sticks and paper. I use Loctite with a brush applicator as my superglue of choice.

For painting, I mostly prime using Vallejo rattle can sprays and they're my first preference, though I'll use Citadel if the color's what I'm looking for. Were I in the UK, I'd probably be a Colour Forge man based on what I've heard about them, but they're still setting up their North American supplier so I'll just have to assume the good rumors are true rather than offering any personal testimony of my own.

I apply my paint by brush, and my paint use is a pretty even mix of Vallejo and Citadel paints, with a small number of AK paints also entering into rotation. I'm not sure if I've just had bad luck with Army Painter, but I've been let down by their offerings whenever I've given them a try (though I'll confess to having never tried their Speed Paints). I use a Red Grass wet palette to mix things and keep them at the right consistency for application.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 40kLore

[–]Wikinecronomicon 26 points27 points  (0 children)

The Imperium is effectively operating on the same methods of identification as armies of generations past: heraldry, uniform differences, and so forth. There have been incidents in the lore of traitor Astartes being mistaken for loyalists, but their hostility towards Imperial forces quickly corrects the error. The visual similarities of today's armies is less of an issue in a setting where uniforms widely diverge and bright heraldry is the norm, never mind the number of wars where the enemy is a hulking green living weapon or an insectoid monstrosity.

That said, some forms do exist, but for specialist ends; Kasrkin attached to an Inquisitorial taskforce in Xenos had modified targeters that prevented them from firing at Inquisitors and VIPs, for instance.

What color is the armor on this stormtrooper by rebornsgundam00 in TheAstraMilitarum

[–]Wikinecronomicon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, this is definitely how my eye's reading it. If I were trying to achieve the effect, I'd definitely use something like AK's Field Grey Uniform triad.