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If you like your Warhammer lore weird as hell then pick up the four books by Ian Watson. You can skip Space Marine if you want, though it's very different than modern books, but the character shows up later in the Inquisition War trilogy. At the very least give "Draco" a read.
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Apr 27, 2021 10:48
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I just might. I remember reading a book and I wanted to pull my own face off. It was....hmm. There was a zombie outbreak on the planet and space marines with horns had to deal with it. Godawful writing and boring crap everywhere. So if it's better than that, I'll add it to my wishlist. Currently hammering my way through Gotrek and Felix #1, which I gotta say is a lot of fun. I get Witcher book 1 vibes from it and it owns
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Apr 27, 2021 11:21
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The William King Gotrek and Felix kick a lot of rear end. He knows exactly the kind of pulp he's writing and he fully embraces it. Then they switched authors (I have no idea why) and the prose was unbearable. I got about a paragraph into the preview chapter I had and noped out. Here's a couple of choice quotes from Space Marine: Ian Watson posted:Yet still, there was to be a branding upon the leather-tough buttocks: an imprint of a clenched fist, no larger than a fingernail. Only, this was indeed to be an honour - for the Sergeant himself personally wielded the electro-iron when Lexandro, Yeremi, and Biff bent over to flex the great gluteal muscles of their rumps. Ian Watson posted:“We're going in through its anus,” Biff whooped boisterously. Indeed. Indeed.
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Apr 27, 2021 13:24
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Atlas Hugged posted:The William King Gotrek and Felix kick a lot of rear end. He knows exactly the kind of pulp he's writing and he fully embraces it. Then they switched authors (I have no idea why) and the prose was unbearable. I got about a paragraph into the preview chapter I had and noped out. Indeed. Indeed.
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Apr 27, 2021 13:35
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Is that Orgasmachine author Ian Watson?
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Apr 27, 2021 13:56
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It sure is!
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Apr 27, 2021 14:07
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Atlas Hugged posted:The leviathan that loomed ahead seemed a cross between a nautilus and an omnivorous, spacefaring snail. It was the length of a four-K asteroid, and [...] I mean, ignoring all the other flaws, this seems like a very drawn-out way of saying 'it's 4km long'.  Also, I just ordered a well-reviewed 40k graphic novel on a whim, yesterday...I'm glad it was written by someone else! haha  (titled something like 'The Spiral Cult'. I dunno, it's the first 40k book I've gotten, aside from rulebooks. One of the very few graphic novels I own, too)
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Apr 27, 2021 14:20
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Picked up the Steam version of Underworlds yesterday. On the one hand, it's pretty cool. Pretty literal translation of the tabletop, which is great. On the other hand, it was pretty buggy trying it online, and the business model is a little baffling. It seems to me either a free-to-play model with DLC warbands OR a Pokemon TCG Online model of 'buy the physical stuff to get the digital version for 'free''* model would be better than charging everyone  just to dip their toes in -- especially if the online is buggy and the UI is clunky. People would be a lot more forgiving of that stuff if they got to try it for free. GW must be giving out licenses like candy to make games with their IPs. I like having all the great games to play -- Total Warhams and Vermintide especially, but if they don't get a little more picky soon the 'Warhammer' or 'Games Workshop' logo on a video game is going to be like seeing the Unity splash screen was a few years ago.*I've never understood why they haven't done this with some kind of game yet. Is it that they don't want to hurt the FLGS? Imagined fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Apr 27, 2021 |
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Apr 27, 2021 15:28
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Schadenboner posted:Indeed. Indeed. True fact: In a blind test, 9 out of 10 random sampled members of the public failed to distinguish between excerpts from 40K stories and ones from Garth Marenghi novels.
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Apr 27, 2021 15:53
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Crackbone posted:What's wrong with the new version? Other than passing stat it doesn't seem like they changed that much of the fundamentals of the game. The changes are pretty groggy, but I can run down the big ones. Passing is just a straight nerf to teams that rely on passing, as well as some teams that didn't. (Orcs and Chaos Cult are now much worse at it in an extremely fiddly way, for ex.) Even the teams that got buffed throwers (humans, mainly) got worse on literally everyone else so it's still hard to set up passing plays. Passing was always really marginal and now it's even more marginal. There are two new teams and both of them are kind of a shitshow. (Technically both of them came out slightly before 2020 edition in Spike Magazine.) Old World Alliance is an alliance of humans and dwarfs but the dwarfs all have different, inferior skills so the team is just worse than humans, which were already not great. Snotlings obviously suck rear end but they're intended to suck so whatever. You can use team rerolls multiple times in a turn, rather than just once. This makes TRRs more valuable - it used to be you only wanted 3-4 on your team, tops - but it also makes the game less strategic. There used to be a distinct difference in how you play before you use the TRR for the turn and after, and now that's no longer a distinction. It does allow for wasteful play, and not being wasteful is going to be a skill, but it's a less interesting skill than before I think. The injury table changed. Permanent harm (especially death) is much less common, but miss-next-game is now much more common. You're going to be down players more often, and if that's a powerful positional, you can't even buy a replacement without firing the injured guy. This leads to a bit more of a death spiral where having a bad game means you have another bad game, as you're going to be down your good players (or maybe down players entirely). Players are more expensive across the board. This means you'll often start with only one of a key positional when the cap is two, or else start with fewer TRRs. This makes you more sensitive to a bad first game, which was always a thing because of how people tend to skip the apothecary on starting teams. (Skipping the apo is now an even better idea, though, because few teams can really afford it.) It also makes it harder to replace players who are killed or permanently injured. There are rules for recovering a player who's injured, which wasn't possible before, but they're basically "remove them from the team and they might show up for next season idk." Money is also a little more of a death spiral now. You basically earn 1d3+TDs+"dedicated fans" * 10K per match. Dedicated Fans is a renaming of the old Fan Factor (which no longer contributes to TR), and it's actually bit more complicated (it's technically an average of both players' 1d3+DF, plus your TDs), but that's good enough for a start. Making income based on TDs means losing teams - who need the money more to replace players - earn less money than winning teams. I don't think this has a really large effect, but it can feel bad. There are hideously overcomplicated rules for "redrafting" at the start of a new season, where you make a new team but have a chance to buy your old players for an inflated cost but also you get some extra money based on how you performed last season but your players might refuse to play and but and but and but and but. The rules are just loving terrible, and would be too complicated for a game where you had a computer handling all of this for you. They're not fair at all - winning players will get more money and better players to keep winning - but they're also not as simple as just keeping the team you have and playing more games. I don't get what the point of redraft is, and I don't think many players will use these rules more than once. Players no longer advance randomly. Instead, you can buy "doubles" skills from other trees and stat-ups (which are semi-random) by earning more SPP. You can buy randomly-chosen skills for a discount, but this is really random: you roll on a table rather than picking the skill. It allows you to choose the degree of randomness you're comfortable with but players who roll randomly get a TR discount. I think this is fair but some people are down on this system. It is going to be really bad in open ladders like on FumBBL or BB2's official online league where people basically treat it as a roguelike, constantly throwing teams away and restarting whenever they have a single early setback. (I think those leagues suck rear end anyway though.) These rules also have the effect of flattening out the differences between teams a bit; expect to see a lot more MB/Guard on agi teams and a lot more Block/Dodge on literally every team. There's a bunch of skill changes. The biggest is that "clawpomb" is mostly gone. Claw and Mighty Blow don't stack quite as well as they used to, and Piling On is nerfed to the ground. The Claw and MB changes are good and match common house rules, and Piling On was a bad idea from the start anyway. (It might've been better to remove it rather than nerf it to uselessness though.) There are lots of new skills, and almost all of them are completely useless filler. Highlights (lowlights?) include Arm Bar, Defensive, and splitting the already-bad "Accurate" skill into two separate skills.I also posted about how the teams were affected a while ago. Cease to Hope posted:I ended up typing up a bunch of words on how teams have changed in BB2020 That post is a little out of date because all of the missing teams except Slann/Kislev were updated in a Warhammer Community post but otherwise it holds up. Cease to Hope fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Apr 27, 2021 |
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Apr 27, 2021 20:46
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Just to jump in on the Ian Watson praising bandwagon. The very first 40k fiction I read was Watson's Warped Stars and I was blown away. It was quickly followed by Space Marine and Inquisitor (now Draco?) I don't remember in which order but to this day I think they are some of the best (if not the best) Warhammer 40k novels I ever read. So of course they got retconned. I heard in some versions of the Inquisition War Trilogy, Grimm the squat got replaced with a tech priest... Anyway, his 40k books lead me to read other of his works and his short writings on his webpage. Everyone should read about his time working for Stanley Kubrick.
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Apr 27, 2021 21:46
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lilljonas posted:True fact: Garth Marengthi is definitely working for Games Workshop naming the Khorne models. 
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Apr 27, 2021 22:02
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Zaphod42 posted:Garth Marengthi is definitely working for Games Workshop naming the Khorne models. Blood. Blood? Blood. Her blood.
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Apr 27, 2021 22:41
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lilljonas posted:Blood. Blood? Blood. Her blood. and bits of sick
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Apr 28, 2021 02:41
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Speaking of 40k fiction, are any of the Necromunda books not poo poo? I'm kind of over 40k as a setting in itself (its familiarity makes it the perfect stock setting for games and orks are fun, but that's about it) but the thing that keeps me attached to Necromunda is that it's sort of its own thing with its own distinct vibe. A lot more human, "people trying to make the most of their lives in a lovely awful system" than mainline 40k's emphasis on big badass heroics. Could make for a decent mindless fun read, but of course it's all in the execution, so has anyone read any of those?
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Apr 28, 2021 09:02
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Guildencrantz posted:Speaking of 40k fiction, are any of the Necromunda books not poo poo? I'm kind of over 40k as a setting in itself (its familiarity makes it the perfect stock setting for games and orks are fun, but that's about it) but the thing that keeps me attached to Necromunda is that it's sort of its own thing with its own distinct vibe. A lot more human, "people trying to make the most of their lives in a lovely awful system" than mainline 40k's emphasis on big badass heroics. Could make for a decent mindless fun read, but of course it's all in the execution, so has anyone read any of those? In the spectrum of 40k pulp fiction, I would say Terminal Overkill, and to a lesser extent Road to Redemption, were good. A lot of the recent short stories etc have been OK, but nothing exceptional.
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Apr 28, 2021 09:22
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Thanks! "Terminal Overkill" sounds like something spit out by a thrash metal album title generator But hey, I looked it up and it's about an Escher, which is the gang I play, so points in its favor there. I'll grab a copy.
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Apr 28, 2021 09:31
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Guildencrantz posted:Speaking of 40k fiction, are any of the Necromunda books not poo poo? I'm kind of over 40k as a setting in itself (its familiarity makes it the perfect stock setting for games and orks are fun, but that's about it) but the thing that keeps me attached to Necromunda is that it's sort of its own thing with its own distinct vibe. A lot more human, "people trying to make the most of their lives in a lovely awful system" than mainline 40k's emphasis on big badass heroics. Could make for a decent mindless fun read, but of course it's all in the execution, so has anyone read any of those? It's firmly in the era of Old Munda, but I remember some of the stories in Status: Deadzone were pretty good
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Apr 28, 2021 13:16
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Wasn't some of the Kal Jerico stuff good, it was 20 years ago so O can't really remember.
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Apr 28, 2021 13:56
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The comic was not good even by the standards of the time.
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Apr 28, 2021 13:58
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Cease to Hope posted:The comic was not good even by the standards of the time. 20 year old me had a lot of tolerance with bad writing compared to 40 year old me.
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Apr 28, 2021 14:04
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I think Kal Jerico got cut a bunch of slack in the 90s because it was one of the least dreary stories in the generally-awful Warhammer Monthly anthology comic. But if you read them today, it doesn't benefit from being contrasted with some horrendously ugly story about a sad sack Blood Angel or whatever because you're probably reading them in a collection of Kal Jerico stories. I think Warhammer Monthly is Dan Abnett's first work on Warhammer stuff. It's definitely his absolute worst, though.
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Apr 28, 2021 14:18
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It's astounding how much the general quality of warham writing has improved over the years.
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Apr 28, 2021 14:38
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I was a dumb teen who loved Kal Jerico too, I was jealous of the people who got the limited edition model of him lol
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Apr 28, 2021 15:33
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Guildencrantz posted:A lot more human, "people trying to make the most of their lives in a lovely awful system" than mainline 40k's emphasis on big badass heroics. It sounds like you'd enjoy the Wh40K crime series. The took a random hive world, fleshed it out as a shared setting, and turned a bunch of authors loose in it. They're mostly noir cop and/or detective stories with a minor 40k twist. Chris Wraight's Bloodlines is a good place to start. Is this too long to be a thread title ?
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Apr 28, 2021 15:51
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Guildencrantz posted:Speaking of 40k fiction, are any of the Necromunda books not poo poo? I'm kind of over 40k as a setting in itself (its familiarity makes it the perfect stock setting for games and orks are fun, but that's about it) but the thing that keeps me attached to Necromunda is that it's sort of its own thing with its own distinct vibe. A lot more human, "people trying to make the most of their lives in a lovely awful system" than mainline 40k's emphasis on big badass heroics. Could make for a decent mindless fun read, but of course it's all in the execution, so has anyone read any of those? Underhive: A Necromunda Anthology has some good short stories in it. I think the standout one would be Wanted: Dead by Mike Brooks, who's gone on to write some pretty well received novels for Black Library. The rest of the stories aren't all great but there's enough good material in there to be worth a look.
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Apr 28, 2021 16:59
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mllaneza posted:It sounds like you'd enjoy the Wh40K crime series. The took a random hive world, fleshed it out as a shared setting, and turned a bunch of authors loose in it. They're mostly noir cop and/or detective stories with a minor 40k twist. Chris Wraight's Bloodlines is a good place to start. Seconded. They're very Necromunda-like without being confined to the established confines of Necromunda itself.
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Apr 28, 2021 19:33
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mllaneza posted:Is this too long to be a thread title ? That entire post? It's too long. Thread titles can be maximum 50, 70, or 100 characters, depending on which interface is being used to set them (lol radium) but I'm happy to update titles for folks whenever.
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Apr 28, 2021 20:03
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Some dude (Always board never boring I think) suggested some house rules for cursed city that look like bangers for hunt missions being a snoozefest. This may break the game at higher difficulties, also scavenge missions. Level 2 with a sub optimal party has been frustratingly random difficulty with vanilla rules. Driven off groups happen at the end of turn, the group still activates as normal at their initiative step. Revealing new enemies happens at the start of the next turn, they make an advance on entry and still activate at their initiative step. Randomise the entry point for reinforcements. It means that driven off groups will clog up the board to block your movement, get more attacks off, there's less empty turns waiting for challengers to arrive and they can threaten anywhere on the board. Also whoever thought up the elf's path to glory can gently caress right off.
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Apr 29, 2021 00:17
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Hey, basic Adeptus Titanicus question: For Cerastus Knights' weapon loadouts, is it better to have this combo: Knights (x2) Left arm: Flame-cannon Right arm: Chain-fist Knights (x2) Left arm: bolt cannon Right arm: warblade Or should I swap around the melee weapons? I could magnetise them, but I don't think I should bother with the knights, since it's not like they'll have any other spare weapons to swap in/out like my Reavers and Warhounds. Presumably it doesn't matter too much, but I'm assuming the flame-cannon ones will be excellent in close-range as-is, while the bolt cannon ones are more long-ranged - so therefore they should have the better melee weapon to compensate, surely? (Whichever one that might be. I assume the sword, but I'm totally new to any 40k stuff other than KT)
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Apr 29, 2021 08:00
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Major Isoor posted:Hey, basic Adeptus Titanicus question: For Cerastus Knights' weapon loadouts, is it better to have this combo: Cerastus Knights can only choose between a few loadouts, so you can't actually swap the melee weapons.
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Apr 29, 2021 08:25
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Electric Hobo posted:Cerastus Knights can only choose between a few loadouts, so you can't actually swap the melee weapons. Oh! I'll have to take a closer look at the rulebook then, just to make sure I don't botch my knights/purchase Thanks for the heads up!
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Apr 29, 2021 09:38
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Major Isoor posted:Oh! I'll have to take a closer look at the rulebook then, just to make sure I don't botch my knights/purchase Questoris can mix whatever weapons they want, and Acastus has a few specific loadouts that I can't remember since I don't have any of them.
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Apr 29, 2021 10:27
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mllaneza posted:It sounds like you'd enjoy the Wh40K crime series. The took a random hive world, fleshed it out as a shared setting, and turned a bunch of authors loose in it. They're mostly noir cop and/or detective stories with a minor 40k twist. Chris Wraight's Bloodlines is a good place to start. i see nothing
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Apr 29, 2021 11:31
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mllaneza posted:It sounds like you'd enjoy the Wh40K crime series. The took a random hive world, fleshed it out as a shared setting, and turned a bunch of authors loose in it. They're mostly noir cop and/or detective stories with a minor 40k twist. Chris Wraight's Bloodlines is a good place to start. I like the Shira Calpurnia trilogy by Australian author Matthew Farrer. The series is set on a capital planet where various imperial institutions are struggling for power, so the story is an arbitor investigating 'everyday' infighting between organisations such as the space fleet, the church and the nobility. The author's made an effort to describe weird imperial customs and insane attitudes among the powerful I've got six Titanicus knights from the starter kit but there's not nearly enough weapons in the box (two of each) compared to what they're allowed to take (six knights could equip twelve flamers if they wanted). I don't know what to stick on them considering the lack of weapons and the variety of options. Is a model with a gun and a regular melee weapon useful? Should I buy the upgrade sprue? Do I want meltaguns or power fists?
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Apr 29, 2021 12:38
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My first car was a stick
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bandaid.friend posted:I've got six Titanicus knights from the starter kit but there's not nearly enough weapons in the box (two of each) compared to what they're allowed to take (six knights could equip twelve flamers if they wanted). I don't know what to stick on them considering the lack of weapons and the variety of options. Is a model with a gun and a regular melee weapon useful? Should I buy the upgrade sprue? Do I want meltaguns or power fists? Goonhammer has a great article about all knights and their loadouts: https://www.goonhammer.com/warlord-wednesdays-knight-focus-adeptus-titanicus-tactics/#Questoris_Knights The upgrade sprue has powerfists, rocket pods, meltas, and alternative heads. The powerfist stats are identical to the chainswords, so they're pretty good. There are no extra shoulder joints, and that's terrible, since magnetizing the shoulder is much easier than the elbow. I just 3d print more shoulders, but not everybody can do that.
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Apr 29, 2021 13:39
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I’ll counter that in my experience the Gatling cannon can be quite good in the kind of situation that questoris knights tend to excel in - finishing off damaged, unshielded Titans from the flank or rear. 3 Gatlings is an astonishing number of dice, generating a lot of hits at short range even with called shots, and then even if you just need a 6 to penetrate on a compromised location that can give you that last crit or two. It’s not easy to set up, but that’s arguably true for doing pretty much anything useful with questoris, and when you do it can be a satisfying clinch move with a very cheap unit.
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Apr 29, 2021 14:21
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What are we expecting from the Warhammer week box to game day? Personally, I think we'll see the next season of Warhammer underworlds. My Pie in the Sky wish list of course involves things like a new edition of space Hulk or gorkamorka
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Apr 29, 2021 14:22
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:What are we expecting from the Warhammer week box to game day? Personally, I think we'll see the next season of Warhammer underworlds. My Pie in the Sky wish list of course involves things like a new edition of space Hulk or gorkamorka The Idoneth warband and the name of the next UW season is probably a good bet, yeah
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Apr 29, 2021 14:23
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Giant Ethicist posted:I’ll counter that in my experience the Gatling cannon can be quite good in the kind of situation that questoris knights tend to excel in - finishing off damaged, unshielded Titans from the flank or rear. 3 Gatlings is an astonishing number of dice, generating a lot of hits at short range even with called shots, and then even if you just need a 6 to penetrate on a compromised location that can give you that last crit or two. It’s not easy to set up, but that’s arguably true for doing pretty much anything useful with questoris, and when you do it can be a satisfying clinch move with a very cheap unit.
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Apr 29, 2021 14:40
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