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Not to cut into the Gaunt's Ghosts talk, but I've been picking through BL stuff for a bit, and recently decided, rather arbitrarily, that I'm interested in the Alpha Legion -- or I'd like to be, but there seems to be a lot of masturbatory, all-according-to-Keikaku bullshit and bolter porn. Does anyone have any good Alpha Legion recs that don't feel like completely unearned twists? I haven't touched any of the 30k stuff, but have a general familiarity with all the plot beats and don't mind reading out of order.
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Feb 4, 2022 10:19
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Alpha legion are used as antagonists most of the time, my recommendation would be to start with Legion and then with Alpharius: Head of the Hydra, both 30k era books. If you don't like them, then stop there because they set the basic character and lore of the legion.
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Feb 4, 2022 10:47
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Legion is great but suffers from Dan Abnett Ending Syndrome, where it doesn't so much end as just stops.
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Feb 4, 2022 11:45
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Mike Brooks has a secret Black Library project for 2022, I’m hoping it’s more alpha legion
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Feb 4, 2022 12:20
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Miguel Prado posted:Mike Brooks has a secret Black Library project for 2022, I’m hoping it’s more alpha legion Fitting that it is secret. Or will it be a story about another legion that is actually about alpha
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Feb 4, 2022 12:50
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Jerkface posted:One of the short stories in the Sabbat books has a chaos warband that is collecting POWs to convert to chaos troops, promising the Archon "60000" enough to take a world!
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Feb 4, 2022 12:55
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orphean posted:The numbers are really low throughout so at least it’s consistent in its wrongness. It is strange that the regiment deployed for a grinding war of attrition with the Cadians only numbers 5000. I just mentally add some extra zeros for immersion My mental gymnastics for the small regiment sizes and such is that most 40k planets are sparsely populated and also i add at least three zeros most of the time
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Feb 4, 2022 13:54
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New headcanon: we read the words English while they're supposed to be in Low Gothic. But with numbers they're actually printing lore-accurate Low Arabic numbers where the "0" equals to two of our High Arabic zeros.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:01
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I was just watching Netflix's latest excellent WWII documentary, and I was reminded of this thread when they were describing the Soviet preparations for invading Berlin. In a matter of weeks, they assemble 2.5 million men, 7,000 planes, 40,000 artillery, 7,000 tanks. And that isn't even considering that the western armies numbering 4.5 million men had fought their way eastwards and halted at the Elbe river only 100 km away by the time Berlin was actually conquered. It's estimated that at this time, these forces constituted only 10 percent of the total allied fighting forces in the field globally. Writers should keep this sort of scale in their minds when putting together these stories, because if anything the conflicts involved should be bigger. Even the smaller campaigns are larger than folks realize. The US committed 100,000 troops and 500 ships to take Iwo Jima (an island only 20 km square), which was defended by 20,000 Japanese troops. It took more than a month, and the US suffered 7,000 KIA and nearly 20,000 wounded. It's exactly the kind of pitched battle where a Space Marine company could shine, but a small brigade like Gaunt's Ghosts initial 2,000 would struggle to make an impact. Kaal fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Feb 4, 2022 |
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Feb 4, 2022 15:07
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NihilCredo posted:New headcanon: we read the words English while they're supposed to be in Low Gothic. But with numbers they're actually printing lore-accurate Low Arabic numbers where the "0" equals to two of our High Arabic zeros. Allah is the light, the Emperor powers the astronomicon. Checks out.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:22
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I deal with troop numbers in 40k like orks do, just swap any number with 'lots' or 'lots and lots'.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:28
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I always interpreted that small numbers representing the point cost of the armies.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:29
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Went ahead and read The Magos: I guess I shouldn’t have skipped the shorts? I feel like I missed something with regards to the Bequin setup as last I remember she was still in a coma? Can someone point me in the right direction or will starting Pariah answer these questions?
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Feb 4, 2022 15:44
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Well the initial Tanith Ghosts are nearly extinct now. I did a rough headcount of surviving named characters and I think there's less than twenty, currently.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:45
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^burtle posted:Went ahead and read The Magos: I guess I shouldn’t have skipped the shorts? I feel like I missed something with regards to the Bequin setup as last I remember she was still in a coma? Can someone point me in the right direction or will starting Pariah answer these questions? Don't worry about it just read. The shorts are really good but they're not about what your spoiler is about.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:47
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Can do, thanks.
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Feb 4, 2022 15:56
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Its important to remember that The Magos came out between the two Bequin books
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Feb 4, 2022 16:13
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Kaal posted:I was just watching Netflix's latest excellent WWII documentary, and I was reminded of this thread when they were describing the Soviet preparations for invading Berlin. In a matter of weeks, they assemble 2.5 million men, 7,000 planes, 40,000 artillery, 7,000 tanks. And that isn't even considering that the western armies numbering 4.5 million men had fought their way eastwards and halted at the Elbe river only 100 km away by the time Berlin was actually conquered. It's estimated that at this time, these forces constituted only 10 percent of the total allied fighting forces in the field globally.
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Feb 4, 2022 16:24
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AnEdgelord posted:Its important to remember that The Magos came out between the two Bequin books Ah okay, I did not know that.
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Feb 4, 2022 16:27
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Arquinsiel posted:Teeth to tail ration matters there too. The USA committed 100k troops, but in practice probably only 30k or so were expected to fight, with the 7k KIA being counted in the 20k WIA. The rest drove trucks, guarded HQ areas, cooked food etc. It certainly does matter, that's for sure. The numbers can be debated, though I believe that total American casualties in Iwo Jima were ~27,000. It takes more to fight than just frontline infantry. You can see this reflected sometimes in exposition about the Ministorum or the Adeptus Mechanicus doing logistic or administrative work in the background, but it is generally sort of forgotten about and worlds are reduced to either the soldiers in the field or the civilians in the factory.
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Feb 4, 2022 17:22
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Also the western allies had a policy of "Steel not Flesh". I.e. drown the enemy in firepower because they had both the luxury of resources to do so, and a reluctance to repeat WW1 level casualties. As a natural corollary of this tooth to tail ratios were very high, because you need so many people who aren't infantry to use and support the equipment. Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Feb 4, 2022 |
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Feb 4, 2022 18:34
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Sinner Sandwich posted:Not to cut into the Gaunt's Ghosts talk, but I've been picking through BL stuff for a bit, and recently decided, rather arbitrarily, that I'm interested in the Alpha Legion -- or I'd like to be, but there seems to be a lot of masturbatory, all-according-to-Keikaku bullshit and bolter porn. Shroud of Night was pretty fun imo, and Head of the Hydra is really good.
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Feb 4, 2022 23:17
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I’ve always just imagined after the events of any novel where a small force conquers a planet in the course of a few battles or whatever there’s a decade+ of occupation by a myriad of forces from the rest of the imperium.
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Feb 5, 2022 02:15
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At least 40k is a lot better than Battletech when it come to this. "The enemy has landed 7 mechs in an entirely different hemisphere! The planet is now theirs."
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Feb 5, 2022 05:43
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I mean it's possible for a Titan Legion to land on a planet in 40K and take it over themselves. I'm not too familiar with Battletech outside of Mech Assault 2, so I don't know how powerful battlemechs are compared to a Warhound or larger.
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Feb 5, 2022 05:57
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I’d surrender pretty quick if a Titan legion landed in my country tbh.
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Feb 5, 2022 06:32
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Yeah even if it was on the other side of the world if the Empire State Building sized robot shrugs off a nuke that's basically gg right there.
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Feb 5, 2022 06:37
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I find Abnett books to be almost like a very long, very heavy freight train with an underpowered engine and lovely brakes; it has a hard time getting started but when it gets going, it really gets going and it doesn't so much stop as crash into a wall. All in all an enjoyable ride 8/10 would ride again.
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Feb 5, 2022 06:50
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Also battlemechs aren’t that big. The largest ones are 100 tons, that’s two modern tanks.
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Feb 5, 2022 06:53
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Demiurge4 posted:Also battlemechs aren’t that big. The largest ones are 100 tons, that’s two modern tanks. And they don't have void shields, volcano cannon, or void missiles. Hell, even "just" a mega bolter would cut down an assault lance like wheat before the scythe.
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Feb 5, 2022 07:35
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titans fucken own
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Feb 5, 2022 07:48
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Kaal posted:It's exactly the kind of pitched battle where a Space Marine company could shine, but a small brigade like Gaunt's Ghosts initial 2,000 would struggle to make an impact. The Ghosts would do something like stealth in, destroy all their food and ammunition, and stealth back out. Then a big heavy regiment like the Volpone would move in and crush the starving disarmed troops and get all the credit for taking the island without significant losses, despite the fact that it would have been impossible without the Ghosts.
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Feb 5, 2022 08:02
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Khizan posted:The Ghosts would do something like stealth in, destroy all their food and ammunition, and stealth back out. Then a big heavy regiment like the Volpone would move in and crush the starving disarmed troops and get all the credit for taking the island without significant losses, despite the fact that it would have been impossible without the Ghosts. Also a named character would die.
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Feb 5, 2022 09:29
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Battletech's mechs are more similar in size to knights rather than titans and they are usually used alongside conventional forces, like the titan legions. Fun setting, but it also has its own share of inconsistencies.
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Feb 5, 2022 09:45
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Sabbat Martyr apparently was released on Audible in December, so it looks like Toby Longworth is doing two audio books per year in the series. Only three more years until the series is complete. 
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Feb 5, 2022 10:35
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Duzzy Funlop posted:Sabbat Martyr apparently was released on Audible in December, so it looks like Toby Longworth is doing two audio books per year in the series. Only three more years until the series is complete. Toby Longworth is good and all but James MacPherson did such a phenomenal job on Salvation's Reach I can't imagine Toby Longworth doing the series justice in comparison. It's definately going to throw you for a loop when you get to it.
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Feb 5, 2022 11:12
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I think the siege of terra is the only place the numbers kinda sorta match up to what would be expected. Theres like 300 million active combatants per Saturnine I think.
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Feb 5, 2022 12:47
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Chemtrailologist posted:At least 40k is a lot better than Battletech when it come to this. In Battletech humanity ritualised warfare in order to prevent civilian casualties, and losing their infrastructure, some of which they don't know how to rebuild (because giant robots don't make sense and the writers needed a justification). It's like two armies each sending a champion to duel, and the losing side respecting the loss and going home, because to break the rules means your family and homeworld are no longer protected by space bushido. The alternative is orbital bombardment which is how war was fought for 200 years before the mech era and the signing of the "Ares Conventions". If a mech lands on the other side of the planet and wins it's duel, you're just gonna shrug and carry on going to work. Brendan Rodgers fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Feb 5, 2022 |
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Feb 5, 2022 14:00
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^^^^ That's only accurate for the (third...  ) "yellow peril" faction introduced in the 90s. They met the rest of humanity and pretty quickly bogged down when their bullshit was easily exploited.Deptfordx posted:Also the western allies had a policy of "Steel not Flesh". I.e. drown the enemy in firepower because they had both the luxury of resources to do so, and a reluctance to repeat WW1 level casualties. Chemtrailologist posted:At least 40k is a lot better than Battletech when it come to this.
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Feb 5, 2022 18:12
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FYI here is the anthology book for this year's store anniversaries. Five of the six stories have not been in print before so figured many of you would want this.  There are links at the bottom of this article to find out when your nearest store anniversary is: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/01/03/celebrate-this-years-store-anniversaries-with-a-brand-new-inquisitor-and-gutrippa-boss/ The stores sometimes only get 1-2 copies of this book so it's best if you call your store a few weeks before their anniversary as often they will let you get on a list or can sometimes get extra copies if people have asked. If you don't have a store nearby there is a FB group called 40k Warhammer and General Wargames Trip Loot Sharing that has a bunch of cool folks who will post when they are making trips to stores and will buy you stuff and ship to you at cost. It's great for any store exclusives or the like if you can't get to a store yourself. People will typically make an interest post before their store's anniversary but you can also make one asking if anybody has an anniversary coming up that could grab you a copy.
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