Warhammer 40k Tabletop Thread XLIV - "Take a Shot of Paint Water"

[Wraith]

Warhammer 40,000 in the Playground

I'm new to the hobby. How do I start?

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The best and most obvious way to start is either the Elite- or Command Editions of the starter set. This will get you a solid and relatively cheap start on either an Adeptus Astartes* army, or a Necrons army. If you aren't starting the game with a friend, you can almost always offload the 'other side' that you don't want to recoup some of your money back. If you don't want to play Adeptus Astartes or Necrons, you will almost definitely want to look into Combat Patrol boxes - with a few exceptions.

*Due to how GW uses the same Astartes models across several different Chapters that all play very differently, some of the models will not be suited to the Chapter of Space Marines that you might want to play. Be wary. When buying the starter sets, they really lend themselves towards playing:

- White Scars
- Space Wolves
- Black Templars
- Blood Angels / Flesh Tearers

And are non-specifically 'just okay' when playing with:

- Iron Hands
- Salamanders
- Raven Guard
- Deathwatch

Generally, you'll want to outright avoid buying the starter sets if you play:

- Dark Angels
- Imperial- or Crimson Fists
- Ultramarines (yes really)

However, just having models, isn't really enough to play the game. The Core Rules are free and/or downloadable. But the 'main game' is found outside the Core Rules, which means that you're likely going to need to pick up a Rulebook at some point. Unfortunately, only the Command Edition starter comes stock with a Rulebook. So, if you don't end up getting the Command Edition, you'll probably want to spend even more money grabbing a Rulebook, too.

Also, you'll need Terrain. If you don't have terrain on the board, the game vastly swings to playing a certain way, and all other units that don't play that way, are terrible... You don't want that. The Command Edition comes with some not-very-good terrain - but at least it's a start to making your board not just a flat surface.

Additional Resources that you will want:
Battlescribe. Battlescribe is a free App for Mobile and PC (however, you can pay for it to remove ads). It's incredibly useful as it contains all the rules for all your units - including points costs. This greatly increases your ability to play the Matched Play version of 40K, as all's you need to do is plug the units you have, into the App, and you get given an army list complete with rules. However, do be aware that in the real world, when playing a real game, most people don't want to read rules from your phone - however, running it from a tablet, or printing it out, is almost always accepted. Battlescribe is for you, not for your opponents.

[Faction] Datacards. If you don't have a Codex, well, Battlescribe doesn't have rules for Stratagems. Your Faction's Datacards provide all the rules you need to run your chosen Factions' Stratagems and Psychic Powers. However, do be aware that it's really simple to just make your own, as well as print out cards with reminders for all your Characters' abilities that you might forget.

Open War Mission Pack. Open War is exceptionally useful for newer players as it gives you rules for Missions you can play, without having to buy the rulebook. Because of the random nature of the cards - like Maelstrom - you can have a variety of experiences depending on how the cards draw. The rules for Open War also allow for what happens when player has more Points or higher Power Rating than their opponent. Which can sometimes act as a balancing factor. However, those 'extra rules' can be very swingy depending on the units or army you have, so the better idea is to simply try and even out the points costs and ignore those rules.
While Open War cards aren't required to play the game (GW offers the Core Rules for free), they will give you a decent experience of the game until you can get your hands on the rulebook and/or the most current edition of Chapter Approved.

Spin-down Dice. What? Okay, Magic: The Gathering (and others, but M:TG is the most obvious) produces spin-down d20s. These are d20s where the numbered sides are consecutively next to each other, which makes them incredibly useful as Wound counters, Victory Point and Command Point trackers, additionally, they can't be accidentally picked up when you need more d6s to roll. They come in several different colours, just in case. GW themselves, sells 'Wound Trackers', but, they are in fact, just regular d10s and not quite what you want.

...Points? ...Power Rating? What's the difference?

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Both units of measurement are ways of keeping the game balanced. If one player's army is vastly superior to their opponent's, that's not a very fair game, is it? If you think that you're just going to 'put down everything you have on the table', well, that might work for smaller games. But once you get larger collections, what you have, and what your opponent has, may be very different collections and just...No.

Power Rating. Power Rating is the easiest method to play the game. Your unit is always Rated the same, regardless of what wargear it has. Whether your model has a Chainsword, or Thunder Hammer, still costs the same. This makes it incredibly easy to make army lists because you just put down your unit without regards to wargear. However, if everything costs the same, then the Good Stuff, costs exactly the same as the Bad Stuff, so why isn't everyone taking the Good Stuff all the time? Power Rating is incredibly abusable and all's it takes it a slight desire to start winning games and then the whole thing is ruined.

Points.; Points are exclusively found in your Factions' Codecies, Chapter Approveds (and Battlescribe). The way this works, is that everything has a points cost - even wargear. This means that Bad Stuff costs less points, whilst Good Stuff, costs more points. So, if you - or your opponents - want to start winning games, they're even further limited in what they can take. This is vastly more fair than using Power Rating to decide how to build your army. You're going to want to pick up the most recent edition of Chapter Approved, which GW releases annually. Which is the downside. In order to keep it fair, points need to keep being re-balanced.

So, what's a good start then?

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Stater Editions
[INDENT]- Recruit Edition.
- Elite/Command Edition.

[COLOR="#B22222"]Start Collecting!s and Combat Patrols
To be updated.

SC! - Astra Militarum. Not good.
SC! - Militarum Tempestus. Good.
SC! - Adeptus Mechanicus. Fine.
CP - Blood Angels. Good. Even for non-Blood Angels.
CP - Deathwatch. Decent...But not for Deathwatch.
CP - Space Wolves. Decent...Even for non Space Wolves.
SC! - Space Marines. Very bad.
SC! - Vanguard Space Marines. Decent.

SC! - Chaos Space Marines. Decent.
SC! - Daemons of Khorne. Fine.
SC! - Daemons of Nurgle. Good.
SC! - Daemons of Slaanesh. Good.
SC! - Daemons of Tzeentch. Fine.
SC! - Thousand Sons. Good.

SC! - Craftworlds. Bad.
SC! - Drukharii. Not good.
SC! - Genestealer Cults. Fine.
SC! - Orks. Fine.
SC! - T'au Empire. Good...For T'au.
SC! - Tyranids. Good.

Terrain - you mentioned it before. Talk about it, now.

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Terrain...Is good. It slows down Melee armies from destroying you on Turn 1 or 2, and it increases your defense against Shooting attacks so you don't automatically lose on Turn 1 against a gunline. Wargaming terrain is an extremely fun hobby project where you can find hundreds of tutorials online to scratch-build almost anything you want. If you want to be even more creative than that, you can even theme your terrain to your army!

A good rule of thumb is that anywhere between 33% and 50% of your table space should be covered in terrain.

Not only that, but you'll also want (trust us) terrain with the Obscuring and Dense terrain rules (in the Core Rulebook). It's also a good idea to create terrain that partially blocks Line of Sight. That is, some of the terrain, you can't see through, but other parts, you can. A good example of this might be a shelled-out Ruin. Where the foundations of the Building are intact, and thus, built like a wall. While the upper levels of the Building have been hit by explosive attacks like an air raid, and thus the walls are not so intact and you can see through them.

If your community has a gaming hub (such as a gaming store, or club), if those places are any good, they should have enough terrain for all of their gaming tables, and you don't really need to worry about this. If your local hub doesn't have enough terrain for its tables - or its terrain is just...Bad, and for example, doesn't block LoS - see if you can get involved in your community and organise a terrain building hobby day, or a challenge month or something, where terrain made is donated to the hub. More, better and diverse terrain in your hub benefits everybody, and your community manager should be on board for such an idea.

Obviously, you can simply just buy Games Workshop terrain. But then you kind of only get to use what they can sell you, and it gets very expensive. If that's what you want, well, it's less work than making your own terrain, that's for sure.

I've heard about Crusade. What's that about?

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Crusade is a way of 'gamifying' how you build and progress your army, as you play more and more games. This keeps you invested in the idea of playing games, and staying in the hobby. The idea that you have or will develop a personal stake in your army and your collection, will make it less likely for you to abandon the hobby, as opposed to playing a few games and then quitting once you get bored and/or lose your first few games and realise that the game/hobby isn't for you.

Pros. You develop a personal attachment to your army, as the Crusade format uses RPG-like mechanics to drive the impression that you are collecting and building your army.

Cons. There are strict zero-sum rules in how you can build your collection. Sometimes this might feel like you have no control over what you buy, because you'll only be allowed to use what the format lets you use.

This is so expensive!

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...It is. You'll be wanting to make sure that you get a lot of games and get the most out of your hobby that you possibly can. Sorry. There's just no way around it.

Wait...So you weren't kidding, there actually is 'Bad Stuff' in the game?

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Unfortunately...Yes. The good news is, what's bad or good, depends on your meta. It's always useful to check out what other players are playing, and build to your meta.

Build to my meta?

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What works for someone on the other side of the world, or Hell, just 200kms north of you, might not work for you, because their local meta, is different to yours. The only person who truly knows what you need to buy for your army, is you, and you only learn that, by talking and engaging with your other local players. Of course, you can build to the meta, and run some or all of the best units in the game. But, if your meta is even slightly reasonable, there's a good chance that you don't need - or probably even want - to run the best units in the game because your opponents don't play their armies that way.
...But, of course, they might, too.

So what am I here for?

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Other perspectives and opinions. A lot of people play the game a certain way that they enjoy - it's a hobby, after all. That means that even if you talk to people in your meta, the advice you get given will only be relevant to their skill ceiling and knowledge base. If no-one in your meta plays Necrons, it's probably fair to say that not many people in your meta have experience playing with or against Necrons, and thus, their advice will be limited. There's a chance that you could ask everyone in your meta for advice, and get no helpful directions.

It's also pretty fair that if you ask your opponents how to beat them, they're not going to tell you - why would they? It's also pretty fair that if you're asking your local store manager how to build an army, that your manager will make recommendations that end up with you spending the most money possible. It's a ****ty thing to do, but it is realistic.

Mostly, the internet is for looking for competitive advice. If you are looking to win games, the internet will tell you how. Mostly, the internet will talk about the meta. That is, objectively, there are units in the game that are more suited to playing to the win conditions of the game, than other units. Internet discussion usually revolves around either taking those units, or taking units that counter those units, sometimes with a third 'meta-buster' build that is reasonably good against the unit and counter-unit.

Now, if your meta, doesn't have people running those units, then talking about the meta, only goes so far. However, even taking 'sub-optimal' units, can still win games. A unit that's rated 8/10 is still pretty good, even if it's not 'the best' and will still cause problems given the chance.

If you're having fun, playing what you want to play...Then talk about that.

So can I take sub-optimal units that I like the look of, and still win games?

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That's the elephant in the room...And the answer, at best, is only 'Maybe.'

If having fun and doing hobby is what you care about, no-one can tell you how to have fun. No-one can tell you not to have fun - especially if you don't know them 'cause they're some dude on the internet and who cares what they think anyway? If you're having fun doing whatever it is you're doing, then you keep doing it. If, by some miracle, you're winning games while also taking like, units rated 5/10, 4/10 or worse, then who cares? You're playing with models you want, and you're winning games. Keep doing exactly what you're doing.

If the units or models you like are Not Good, and potentially contributing to you losing every game - and that matters to you. Well, that sucks. The units you like, are bad, they don't perform, and you have to buy new models. What you have doesn't work, you should probably replace it. Or, at the very least start cutting up the models you do have and start giving them new wargear. Everyone understands that this feeling sucks, and it sucks even harder that you've potentially wasted a lot of money. That's why making sure you know what you want to buy, before you buy it, is so important. That being said, GW can just nerf what you like into the ground and then what do you do?

At the end of the day, the important point you should know is that 'I want to have fun,' and 'I want to have fun...And win games,' are quite often different conversations.

So, are some Factions are better overall than others?

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Again, the answer is 'maybe', or 'kind of' or 'it depends'. Any Faction can win games, provided that the player takes the right units, in the right combination, and then makes the right choices during the game. No matter who your opponents are, the rules and win conditions of the game, are still the same. Any given unit is be more- or less-suited to winning games than any other unit. Which means there are definitely some sub-optimal and outright wrong choices you can make, when making your army.

Factions aren't bad. Units are bad. Many bad units in combination, make a bad army. But that doesn't mean the Faction is bad, necessarily. It just means that in any given Codex or Supplement, the Faction might have less 'good units' in it, than another Faction, which means that in order to win games - or sometimes even play games to a reasonable standard - your army must include a number of specific options and choices.

The more 'must-have' and 'auto-include' units your Faction has, the worse it is, as you - the player - are given less choices and less agency in what goes into your army. If your meta is full of people who are playing cutting edge, top of the meta lists, there's a pretty good chance that you wont be able to just put down any unit you like and still have a good game...And that sucks.

I can't paint.

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Like any skill worth having, you get better if you practice. 90% of a good paint job is just brush control - how much paint you put on your brush and where you put it. The other 10% is just colour theory (yeah, it's a thing). The most important tool this author has is a $5 Colour Wheel.

Wraith has put together how you can go about Painting your army without losing your mind.

WarhammerTV (YouTube) has several beginner guides on how to paint almost any model that GW sells. Other YouTube channels also do painting tutorials, there are a whole bunch of blogs that also occasionally talk about how they painted their models. If you want to learn how to paint something specific, there's almost definitely a guide for it, somewhere.

If you want to get better at painting, full stop:
a) Make sure you have different sized paint brushes for different tasks - not every brush is useful, all the time.
b) Develop your fine motor skills. It takes practice. You wont be good at it for a while. Don't worry about bad paint jobs. When you get better, just strip them.

GW also has a Contrast Paint range, which is very helpful for getting people who don't want to paint, to paint. If painting for you is too hard, or too time-consuming, then make sure to look those up. Though, there are a number of stories where at the higher end of the painting scale, when you start getting good, Contrast Paints don't actually save you time, and are harder to use than normal paints (e.g; Once you learn drybrushing, it is both quicker and easier than Contrast).

Here are a number of Guides put together by the GitP 40K Community...

Helpful Army Building Guides

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Guides to Space Marines (Adeptus Astartes):
Detachment and Army Abilities - Core Units and Characters - Non-Core Units

- Ultramarines - Rapid Fire and Assault weapons
- White Scars - Melee and Assault weapons, favours Bikes, but not really.
- Iron Hands - Heavy weapons, favours Vehicles, but not really.
- Deathwatch - Anything you want
- Blood Angels - Melee weapons, favours Jump Packs.

Crusade Guides

- The 'basics' of building your Roster
- Playing a Mission
- Guide to Adeptus Astartes

All of the following use 8th Ed. books, but are currently out of date.
Adeptus Custodes Out of date
Adeptus Mechanicus Out of date
Astra Militarum by LeSwordfish Out of date
Chaos Space Marines by LeSwordfish Out of date
Craftworlds by Forum Explorer Out of date
Dark Angels Out of date
Death Guard by LeSwordfish Out of date
Drukhari by Gauntlet Out of date
Grey Knights Out of date
Necrons by Requizen Out of date
Thousand Sons by Wraith Out of date

Index: Inquisition (White Dwarf, Nov '19) Out of date
Index: Officio Assassinorum (White Dwarf, Mar '19) Out of date
Index: Sisters of Silence (White Dwarf, Oct '19) Out of date

Previous conversations to search through...

Previous Threads

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* Warhammer 40K Tactics
* II: Tactics for the Tactics God
* III: Hats for the Hat Throne
* IV: The Enemy of Your Enemy is Still Your Enemy.
* V: Everyone Is On Fire. Some Moreso Than Others.
* VI: Chaos Bringing Eternal Darkness? I brought my flashlight.
* VII: Common Sense is not RAW.
* VIII: You're Gonna have To Face It, You're Addicted To Maths
* IX: "Mech Is King? I Never Voted For It!"
* X: "Everybody expects the Inquisition!"
* XI: "More Threads than your Tactical Squad has Room for!"
* XII: "Now in Rapid Fire range!"
* XIII: "Ironclads, Furiosos and Soul Grinders, oh my!"
* XIV: "Pray for 6s!"
* XV: "More People Should Be Punched In The Head."
* XV: "Terminator? I hardly know 'er!"
* XVII: "Tyranids Don't Have Friends."
* XVIII: "Fortune Favours the Careless!"
* XIX: Understand the Gravity of the Situation
* XX: Barrage is the new Precision Shot
* XXI: Preferred Enemy (Dice)
* XXII: I C'Tan Has Cheese?
* XXIII: I Do Not Like Green Tides and 'Hann
* XXIV: ...And They Shall Know No Fluff.
* XXV: Friends Are Better Than Wraithknights
* XXVI: Frequently Asked, Frequently Ignored
* XXVII: Tyranids Finally Found a Friend
* XXVIII: Drasius Can't Have Nice Things
* XXIX: Ro, Ro, Ro Your Boute
* XXX: Imperium After Dark
* XXXI: Haters Gonna Burn
* XXXII: I Got 99 Guardsmen and Morale Killed One
* XXXIII: Only in Nerf Does Duty End
* XXXIV: Situation Normal, All FAQ'd Up
* XXXV: 4 Pages of Rules, 46 Pages of Pointless Bickering
* XXXVI: If it Ain't Broke, Nerf It
* XXXVII: Highlighting the Contrasts
* XXXVIII: toy soldiers r srs bsns
* XXXIX: Miracle on 39th Thread
* XL: Bloated Rules
* XLI: Secondary Opinions
* Thread XLII: The Dice Makes Fools of Us All
* Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XLIII: "This Is A New LoW For Us All"

Here's a bunch of Battle Reports for you to read. Plenty of army lists in there.

PLEASE NOTE: Blue Text (for sarcasm) is typically not in play in this thread, because pretty much all of it is sarcasm and/or petty whining about toy soldiers. It's all meant in good humour and none of it should be taken seriously, so please feel free to join in with the banter.

Last time on 40k-in-the-Playground

• In the grim-darkness of the... immediate... future, there is only culture war! By which we mean, Custodes have ruined everything, for everyone, forever. Or like, a month for some jerks on Twitter, maybe?
• The revenge of the Squats! What is YOUR favourite model that got crushed into obsolescence beneath the ruthless heel of capitalism?
• ACTUAL painting projects! In a 40k Thread! Who'da thunk it?

We now return to your regularly scheduled grim-darkness.

[Destro_Yersul]

In terms of things that I'm sad got squatted, a lot of the alternate Imperial Guard regiments were pretty neat. I especially liked the Valhallans.

[Cheesegear]

The revenge of the Squats! What is YOUR favourite model that got crushed into obsolescence beneath the ruthless heel of capitalism?

Bike Command Squads: If you were willing to put the time and effort and money into making a Bike Command Squad...Damn. Storm Shields and Combi-Gravs and the parts for an Apothecary and Ancient, and...It was basically a financial black hole to make...But damn it was worth it.
Techmarines on Bikes with Conversion Beamers. Like...Wow. I saw so many conversions and kit bashes on how to make that happen...And then they were gone.
Kor'sarro Khan on a Bike.
Sammael in a Land Speeder.

Ironclad Dreadnoughts: ...Just like, really cool design choices were made. Then Ironclads were bad. Then they were gone.

Hunter/Stalkers: Hunters were neat. Then they were bad. Then they were gone. Stalkers were always fairly terrible, though. 2/10. Do not miss.

Land Speeder Storm: No, not "Storm Speeder", I know what I said. A Dedicated Transport that could Scout with no Chapter shenanigans? You could just do it? Very cool.

Scout Bikes: Replaced by Atalan Jackals which don't look anywhere near as good. A really, really, really nice kit for a unit that was basically unusable except for a very, very, very specific army build which no-one wanted to play...Except me.

Sergeant Telion: ...He was so cool.

Thunderfire Cannons: The literal best unit in the whole Roster...And then they weren't...And then they were gone. A common story. Replaced by appaling Firestrike Servo-Turrets which look like trash and play even worse.

Everything from The Badab War and Carab Culln's whole storyline. There was a time when I really, really, really wanted to make every Character from the Badab Chapters.

[Wraith]

There was a time when I really, really, really wanted to make every Character from the Badab Chapters.

I had that idea, too. Or rather, I was also going to make Grey Knight versions of each, to go with my Purifier/Justicar Sevrin Loth.

Speaking of Grey Knights, I did a test run of the scheme I'm thinking, and would be grateful for critical feedback. I already know that I should have stripped and cleaned the model before I started, but as a test run I couldn't be bothered so it's paint-on-paint. Still, I think I'm on to something that I like.

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Front view - Imgur link = https://i.imgur.com/rl8Xjgf.jpg


Rear view = https://i.imgur.com/8UDzoKY.jpg


Side-by-side with one of the original few that I painted in... 2009 or something. A cleaner version of this is the alternative, if I don't go for Shiny Knights.
https://i.imgur.com/kTMAIN3.jpg


Rear view comparison = https://i.imgur.com/agKAXc9.jpg



First Edit - A genius friend suggested adding hot muzzles to the storm-bolter. I think I love it - it's subtle, but a nice splash of colour and balances out the mini so there's a focal point left, right and centre instead of lop-sided to one way.

I think the Shiny Knight needs a much darker rear, I went a little overboard with the silver when it should be virtually black, but that's an easy fix. And I knocked this out in about 15 minutes from undercoated to finished, which will only get faster as I arrange a production line.

...Christ only knows how I'd do the bases, though. Probably just black and pretend they don't exist, otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to do shadows or something

[Hootman]

...Christ only knows how I'd do the bases, though. Probably just black and pretend they don't exist, otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to do shadows or something

One of my local guys exclusively bases his minis on clear plastic disks of the correct diameter. Like, his entire 10,000+pts of Necrons and his Dragonogres and Blood Bowl teams and everything else, are on little flat disks that remind me of Tau Drone flying bases, but more flat and less "breaks if you sneeze too loudly near them".

It's kinda neat, in a way. It is as close to having the base match the map they're on as possible without actually putting in any work to do that, and conveniently, it matches every possible table he could play on without needing to be updated.

Might be worth doing if you 1) do not actually want to do anything for the bases, and 2) do not especially care about painting/basing score in any tournament settings.

[Renegade Paladin]

So... Over 10 years ago?

I mean...Okay. Buy new models. ...This time it's not in blue text.

My Guardsmen are still going strong fourteen years on. Sucks to wear power armor.

[LeSwordfish]

I had that idea, too. Or rather, I was also going to make Grey Knight versions of each, to go with my Purifier/Justicar Sevrin Loth.

Speaking of Grey Knights, I did a test run of the scheme I'm thinking, and would be grateful for critical feedback. I already know that I should have stripped and cleaned the model before I started, but as a test run I couldn't be bothered so it's paint-on-paint. Still, I think I'm on to something that I like.



I think the Shiny Knight needs a much darker rear, I went a little overboard with the silver when it should be virtually black, but that's an easy fix. And I knocked this out in about 15 minutes from undercoated to finished, which will only get faster as I arrange a production line.

...Christ only knows how I'd do the bases, though. Probably just black and pretend they don't exist, otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to do shadows or something

Hmm - I wonder if you might get an effect you like with Zenithal shading? (i.e. give it a quick careful spray with a spraycan from the right direction). Usually that's used for Zenithal Preshading but maybe you'd get an effect you like from, uh, Postshading? Or Preshade very aggressively and then use contrasts, washes etc for the rest of it?

[Wraith]

One of my local guys exclusively bases his minis on clear plastic disks of the correct diameter.

Neat idea, but unfortunately would be a nightmare project. My minis are mostly metal from the last millennium which means they're quite top-heavy, and also all slotta-based. Either I'd have to use clear slotta-bases so that you can see the slotta itself, or if I trim them off then there's absolutely no way that many of them will stick and stay upright without superglue, which will probably turn the plastic misty?

Check out the two in my pictures I posted, for example - if you look closely, they have one foot in the air and the other on tip-toe as they're "running". And some of the others are worse.

Hmm - I wonder if you might get an effect you like with Zenithal shading? (i.e. give it a quick careful spray with a spraycan from the right direction). Usually that's used for Zenithal Preshading but maybe you'd get an effect you like from, uh, Postshading? Or Preshade very aggressively and then use contrasts, washes etc for the rest of it?

Interesting - something I'll definitely look into and see how it works. I think the next alternative, apart from investing in and learning to use an airbrush, might be using a sponge instead of a brush to get smoother coverage, but I'll see what happens. Thanks!

[Cheesegear]

My Guardsmen are still going strong fourteen years on. Sucks to wear power armor.

I dunno. There are a lot of people with Infantry Platoons and Leman Russes collecting dust in a meta that is all Bullgryns, Kasrkin and Manticores.

Dilemma:

Lysander sucks. Full stop. But, regular Terminator Captains take take Thunder Hammers or Storm Shields.
There is no "Vanilla Lysander".

Which means either
a) I build a Lysander, spending money time and effort on a model I will never, ever use.
b) I build a good Terminator Captain that isn't terrible...But it wont be "Lysander" anymore.

[Mx.Silver]

...Christ only knows how I'd do the bases, though. Probably just black and pretend they don't exist, otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to do shadows or something

There's always snow flock

[Wraith]

Dilemma:

Truthfully, I think the best you're going to get this edition is to build it as Lysander and use it to Count As another model. A Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant, or maybe a Chaplain (Crozius + Rosarius = Hammer + Shield, -ish). He might not get to be your Warlord, but... Well, that's what Gregor Dessian is for.

There's always snow flock

No there isn't! I threw that stuff out in 6th edition when Matt Ward's codex went away and I was too sad to play Grey Knights any more

Yes, I know there were "fine" in 6th, but they just weren't 5th anymore!

[LeSwordfish]

Truthfully, I think the best you're going to get this edition is to build it as Lysander and use it to Count As another model. A Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant, or maybe a Chaplain (Crozius + Rosarius = Hammer + Shield, -ish). He might not get to be your Warlord, but... Well, that's what Gregor Dessian is for.

A terminator chaplain is what I was going to suggest - they can take a storm shield.

[The Patterner]

Scout Bikes: Replaced by Atalan Jackals which don't look anywhere near as good. A really, really, really nice kit for a unit that was basically unusable except for a very, very, very specific army build which no-one wanted to play...Except me.

Sorry but what?
Atalan Jackals looks absolutely amazing and the sniper character is one of the coolest models in the GSC range.

Sergeant Telion: ...He was so cool.

100%, everything about him was awesome.

[Wraith]

100%, everything about him was awesome.

He kind of still works as a Phobos Captain. They have the same cloak-and-bolter equipment, not to mention the same Errol Flynn-style moustache.

[Lord Torath]

...Christ only knows how I'd do the bases, though. Probably just black and pretend they don't exist, otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to do shadows or something

There's always snow flock

No there isn't! I threw that stuff out in 6th edition when Matt Ward's codex went away and I was too sad to play Grey Knights any more

I've always gone with a flat grey base. Black stands out sharply on some boards, and white is just as bad on others. Grey is more neutral, and will go alright with almost anything. Except for grey-painted miniatures - then it becomes hard to tell where the mini ends and the base starts.

Best of luck to you!

I need to do some repair work to some of my firstborn, and then I've got half-a-dozen land speeders I should probably paint. Is the Tornado the version with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter?

[Cheesegear]

Project Log: Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

Nearly everything comes from the fantastic 8th Ed. Imperial Fists' Supplement, combined with my own headcanon.
Only minor stuff from 6th Ed.'s Sentinels of Terra, which is bad - that's where the Garadon plague started.

Spoiler: Chapter Master: Gregor Dessian

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Vorn Hagen apparently died off-screen shortly after the Fall of Cadia.

Gregor Dessian was originally Captain of the 7th Company - we'll come back to that.
Infuriatingly, the 7th's Reserve job is to defend Phalanx from boarders...So before the Fall of Cadia, when Phalanx was boarded by the Iron Warriors and Be'lakor:
a) Where were the 7th? And
b) Why was the defense of Phalanx left to Tor Garadon, Master of Wet Cardboard, then?

Even though Dessian didn't do his job; It can be surmised that Lysander still voted for him over Tor Garadon - and that's including that Garadon helmed Phalanx during the Fall of Cadia for no reason.

Rules/Model; Obviously we have to go with a Chapter Master:

Marneus Calgar. Calgar is good. He is the first (and most likely, best) choice. An issue that surround him is that his Victrix Guard are mandatory. The base models...Are very Ultramarine. Which means the best way to make them is likely to be something with some Bladeguard and maybe some 3D printed bits. Probably taking inspiration from Templar Brethren (30K). Bladeguard come in boxes of 3, so if I go down that route I'll have a third model to tear apart and do conversions with down the line.

Pedro Kantor. He has a Master-Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle and a Power Fist. That's entirely doable using a Primaris Captain and some bits. Some light conversion work to get a nice wrist-mounted Storm Bolter and we're good to go.

Iron Father Feirros. The model is amazing and the rules are...Fine? He's not meta but he wont lose you the game, not when the Ironstorm Spearhead is meta. He's everything that Tor Garadon wishes he was. He just doesn't feel...Chapter Master, I guess. I know his rules say he is. But like...Not really.

Kayvaan Shrike. No.

High Marshal Helbrecht. I love him. Black Templars are the "Space Marine+" meta. He even has a nice Master-Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle. Unfortunately he really, really, really wants to be in Melee. And for an Imperial Fists Chapter Master, I think that should be an option, not mandatory.

Commander Dante. No.

Azrael. He's definitely in my Top 3 for sure. He's in the meta. And Dark Angels have the advantage of being "Space Marines+", because nobody plays vanilla Space Marines anymore. Mostly playing Dark Angels gives me access to a bunch of special Terminators, and that appeals to me. Unfortunately I don't have a solid conversion in mind for Azrael. Unlike Calgar. If I go the Calgar route I know exactly what I want to do. If I go with Azrael (and ultimately Dark Angels), I have a lot more planning to do when I want to use him.

Logan Grimnar. Absolutely not.

I think the competition is between Calgar and Azrael, with Kantor a very far third choice. And I'm leaning towards Calgar because I have a very clear conversion in mind.

Spoiler: 1st. Darnath Lysander - The Emperor's Wrath

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Lysander is The Milky Way's Best Street Fighter. In a Company called The Emperor's Shield, he is The Emperor's Wrath.
Imperial Fists don't vote for Chapter Masters like other Chapters do. There is one vote; Lysander's. The Imperial Fists venerate and revere Lysander and would follow him into the jaws of Chaos. He's so hardcore that even Battle Brothers from other non-Imperial Fist Chapters would follow him. But Lysander knows that his time in the Warp...Changed him. Nothing the Pain Glove can do could ever be as painful as what he's already experienced. No ritual the Imperial Fists follow changes the fact that Chaos is out there - winning.

Lysander is three litres of rage in a two-litre bottle. However, unlike other Imperial Fists who enter uncontrollable states of anger, Lysander hasn't run off to join the Black Templars or served time in the Deathwatch to work it off. He spent a millennium in the Warp and came out clean on the the other side. However, Lysander knows that just because he hasn't Fallen yet, doesn't mean he wont lose control ever. That's why he can't be Chapter Master. He doesn't trust himself, and he must keep his rage controlled...Because the day he fails, if he's Chapter Master at the time, the Chapter will fall - again. But, he will also refuse to follow any Chapter Master he deems unworthy, and since his Brothers follow his lead...No Imperial Fist becomes Chapter Master without Lysander's approval.

"The Imperial Fists follow me, and I refuse to follow a moron." - Lysander, probably.

Lysander is such a beacon of resilience to the Imperial Fists that some of the Chaplains actually worry what happens to the Chapter's morale, should he ever die, or worse, Fall.

Rules/Model
Unfortunately, due to the way Characters work in 10th Ed., he is unusable as written. Hammernators don't need him, and Shootynators don't want him.

That means we have to create a model, and just call him Lysander.

Captain in Terminator Armour. Relic Fist.

- Gladius Task Force - The Honour Vehement. Makes the Relic Fist S10. Lack of [Devastating Wounds] hurts a lot.
- Ironstorm Spearhead - The Flesh is Weak. FNP (4+) is nice and the Ironstorm Spearhead is the current meta. But also Lysander is supposed to help his unit.
- Firestorm Assault Force - War-Tempered Artifice. The Relic Fist is now S11, which is...Unnecessary, I think.
- Firestorm Assault Force - Adamantine Mantle. This is where the Storm Shield could come in, because regular Terminator Captains can't take Storm Shields (or Thunder Hammers). But also Lysander is supposed to hand out a defensive buff to his unit.
- 1st Company Task Force - Iron Resolve. This one makes the most sense. But also somehow I feel like it doesn't. Ah well. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel.

Chaplain in Terminator Armour. With Storm Shield. But a Crozius is so laaaame.

Belial. No. It might be nice to synergise with Azrael if I go down the "Yellow Dark Angels" route. But also no.

Arjac Rockfist. Very, very close to acutally running Lysander. However Space Wolves play differently to every other Chapter and "Yellow Space Wolves" becomes a whole project in and of itself, and I already tried to do that - and gave up very quickly - back in 6th Ed.

Spoiler: 2nd. Zandar Chrios - Master of Rituals

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The 2nd Captain is a position of both honour and shame.
Back during the War of the Beast, the 2nd Captain was the last surviving member of the Chapter, and it's unclear whether Captain Koorland saved the Chapter or nearly brought it to ruin with the actions afterwards.
To that end, the 2nd Captain is responsible for holding the Chapter's traditions (because Lysander wont do it), and he's also responsible for taking in those Brothers of the Chapter who have depression and rage-control issues. Your last shot at regaining control over your emotions is with the 2nd. If you can't control your rage, if you can't follow orders even under Captain Chiros...We're sending you to the Templars. You're done, kid. Pack your bags. This is a tradition that goes all the way back to Sigismund himself; You don't have to go home, but you can't stay on Phalanx.

To that end, Captain Chiros runs his Chapter by the book. No, not Guilliman's Codex, that's dumb. But by Dorn's teachings; A Bolter & Chainsword is good enough for Him, it's good enough for the rest of us.

Chrios is extremely bothered by Lysander's refusal to follow the Chapter's traditions. Lysander is very clearly fueled by rage, and that will get everyone killed one day...One day. Chrios is also very aware that even the combination of Chaplains and the Pain Glove does nothing for Lysander anymore. There is no saving him...There is only waiting for him to fail. It's also extremely painful that Lysander himself, was once Captain of the 2nd, he was responsible for maintaining the Chapter's Order, and then suddenly...He wasn't. He gave it all up for...Whatever he is now.
(PROTIP: If you're writing Chapter background, and your First and Second Captains don't have personal conflict, you're doing it wrong.)

Rules/Model
I really want my model to have a Bolter & Chainsword - the way Dorn intended. The only one that does is a Captain in Gravis Armour, which is fine with me. Due to the fact that the 2nd Captain very obviously has close ties to the Reclusiam, I'll probably end up painting him black, like Templar Brethren. If I go with Calgar as Chapter Master, and have Templar Brethren as Victrix Guard, I'll also say that those who guard the Chapter Master himself must have served time - and have been given atonement (i.e; "Graduated") - in the 2nd Company.

Alternatively, I take Pedro Kantor and give him a big, ****-off Chainsword instead of a Power Fist - the way Dorn intended.
Dorn didn't have a Power Fist or Thunder Hammer - you can check! Dorn said if a Bolter & Chainsword was good enough for the line troops, it was good enough for him. Can't ask your men to use something you wouldn't use, yourself.

Ragnar Blackmane. His rules are so good...Unfortunately "Yellow Space Wolves" becomes a whole thing. We want to avoid that.

Spoiler: 3rd. Tor Garadon, The Bastion of Defiance

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I hate his story.
I hate his rules.
I hate his model.

It's canon that other Companies hold special disdain for the 3rd Company for being lame. That's not headcanon. That's real. Somebody on the design team hated Sentinels of Terra and threw Garadon under the bus. We also had fairly strong rumours at the time that Sentinels of Terra was the last thing Matt Ward wrote.

Rules/Model
As much as I hate him...I have the model.
I did not vote with my wallet. I hate Tor Garadon and I bought him anyway. Damn it.

Spoiler: 4th. Alars Lydoro, Master Armourer

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The 4th Company runs Dreadnoughts and Repulsors. The words "Pulverising Fist" is mentioned at least once. When it comes to siege warfare, the 4th Company are the besiegers. Not the besieged.

Captain Lydoro has an augmetic arm and eye.

Rules/Model
...It's Iron Father Feirros. Let's not kid ourselves. He's even got the arm and eye. Whilst he's not in the meta per se, the Ironstorm Spearhead absolutely is. I can probably replace the Axe with some a Deathwatch Thunder Hammer (the best bit GW has ever made, probably). However I also worry that I'll be using the Deathwatch Hammer...A lot. This would make the third use of it. However also I can appreciate that the Master Armourer has strong ties to the Armoury (i.e; Techmarines). So maybe the Omnissian Axe doesn't go too far out of bounds? The real question is how to paint him.

Spoiler: 5th. Dravastis Fane, Keeper of the Archive

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Fane is responsible for maintaining Dorn's library. He's a librarian (lower-case l), and that makes him a big, big nerd. His job during battle plans is to look at the other Captains and say "Umm akshually, Captain Loser tried that in 177.M40 and he lost bad. Maybe you should try not being terrible at making battle plans? Look, let me explain it to you..."

Fane found one of Dorn's diaries, that said Chaos was winning - even back when the Emperor Himself walked. Vorn Hagan, the previous Chapter Master, was also Captain of the 5th. Did every 5th Captain know this? Was that why Hagan was...The way he was? To that end; like many Imperial Fists, Fane has a paranoid obsession with obliterating Heretics...He's read Dorn's diaries. He knows too much. Sigismund was right all along.
Does Captain Lysander know that he is correct? How could he...Lysander can't have read Dorn's diaries...Not unless Vorn Hagan told him. But no...Nobody who has read that diary would share it with anyone. What did happen to Lysander in the Warp?

Rules/Model
I think he's just a regular Primaris Captain, converted to hold some kind of Daemon's head. I'll get my hands on some Servo-Skulls from the Devastator box.

Obviously I hate having fun, I hate hobby, and I haven't even read any books.
Frankly I think Reserve Companies need more love. When was even the last time you saw Imperial Fists with purple or blue shoulder rims? Never? But purple rims fit yellow armour so well.

Spoiler: 6th. Hector Antaros, Master of Vigiliance

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If the 4th Company are the masters of breaking down walls, the 6th Company are the masters of building walls. Their reserve duties mostly consist of fortifying positions. In fact, they fortify positions so hard that chroniclers often mistake them for the 9th Company.

Rules/Model
Despite being a majority shooty Roster, GW loves making Space Marine characters Melee models. Like...Every single one. The only Space Marine character that can even almost "shoot good" is a Gravis Captain with Heavy Bolt Rifle. Heavy Intercessors pair well with what I'm trying to do. So the idea isn't totally unplayable. I mean it's not good. But it works.

Spoiler: 7th. Orpheus Taelos, Bearer of the Grail

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What!? Grail? GW are you sure that's what you meant? ...What Grail? I know Blood Angels do something stupid with their gene-seed. But Imperial Fists don't do that. I'm trying to remember if Sons of Dorn (a not very good remake of Space Marine...But if you haven't read Space Marine, because who in 20xx has? Then I suppose Sons of Dorn is slightly barely almost above average) gives Taelos a Grail...Maaan, I don't remember nothing like that. Grail!?

Used to be Captain of the 2nd Company - yes, really. Unfortunately, his command was annihilated by T'au, and he was one of the few survivors. Captain Taelos requested to become a Black Templar for his utter, utter, utter failure of command - which is saying something since he was Captain of the 2nd. Vladamir Pugh - that's two Chapter Masters ago - said "Hell no." Taelos instead becomes Captain of the 10th. Placing the entire future of the Chapter on Taelos' shoulders. It's not a demotion. That would make him look bad. No. Going from Captain of the 2nd, to the 10th, isn't a demotion. Punishment? No. The Imperial Fists don't do that. It's a massive burden of responsibility.

But since Gregor Dessian become Chapter Master, Taelos has taken over the 7th Company. Presumably in M42 recruitment is great and Scouts don't die in droves, so Taelos has completed his atonement. Taelos' Reserve duties include maintaining the Auric Auxila (he's still training noobs, even when he's not in the 10th), and defending the Phalanx. Again, where the Hell was Gregor when Be'lakor teleported a bunch of Iron Warriors on board?

Rules/Model
Taelos has official art. The furry nonsense on his armour means Kor'sarro Khan is gonna be the base model. It'll be a shame to destroy the bird. I haven't touched the model in a long, long time. I bought Kor'sarro when he was good, and just never used him.

Spoiler: 8th. Aeneas Strom, Wielder of Terra's Flame

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Wielder of Te- What!? First it's a Grail and now it's the light of Terra? The authors must be running out of ideas 'cause either these titles are really esoteric, or they're gonna have to start explaining things a lot better.

Anyway, as the 8th Company these guys are effectively the most recent graduates from the Scout program. Their Reserve duties include...Going out and doing things. Getting experience. Liasing with other Chapters and getting **** done. The bonds they form during this time with other Chapters will probably last their entire career. Their Company's history has deep ties to the Black Templars and Space Wolves. Nope. I know I'm Cheesegear and I love the idea of Imperial Fists and Space Wolves being best friends (Because Rogal Dorn and Leman Russ were; Even though there's a whole Heresy series with 50 books in it and I'm pretty sure they never even interact once). But the reason I say that is because that's not headcanon, it's actual canon.
There's a whole Company of young(er) Imperial Fists who make it their business to have a drink with a Space Wolf and then help a Black Templar kill an Ork.

Rules/Model
...Gotta go fast! ...Captain with Jump Pack, obviously. Maybe I can make a Kayvaan Shrike and replace all the Raven Guard stuff with a combination of Fists, Black Templars and Space Wolves stuff? Hmm. This is starting to get expensive.
"Yellow Sammael" could be on the table, I think. But on the other hand I think that really is going a step too far.

Spoiler: 9th. Miklos Kaheron

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"Kaheron has at his disposal many other relics of chastisement besides [the Pain Glove] - some of which even the Chaplains refuse to endorse."
...Wait.
...What!?

I know the hobby is supposed to be PG (in 20xx, that is), but that line is...Kind of terrifying. You know what they say? Whatever you can imagine is probably definitely worse than the real thing. So you're gonna have to elaborate on that, 'cause I'm thinking of some really dark stuff. Like, the cool thing about the Pain Glove is that doesn't actually cause nerve damage. But for real though...How are you even a Captain when the Chaplains have literally told you to knock that **** off. I have questions. That's...Not right.
I don't mean that it breaks canon.
I mean the canon doesn't make sense. The Chaplains should be doing something about this.

Rules/Model
This is the Devastator Company which means there's gonna be Hellblasters. So the only option is a Captain with a Plasma Pistol. Plasma Pistols don't scream "Devastator Captain" to me, but them's are the rules.
But I also really like Adrax Agatone in a unit of Sternguard (re-rolls for Devastating Wounds).
Is Pedro Kantor still on the table? I can't remember anymore if I've used him yet. I think he's been on the table like four times.
Azrael as Captain of the 9th? ...That can't be right. Maybe not. But Azrael and Hellblasters is fairly meta. Awww...But still. Azrael is Azrael. It's gonna be a lot of conversion work.

Spoiler: 10th. Metrios Carr, Master of Recon.[/spoiler

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Blah, blah, blah.

Captain in Phobos Armour. 'Nuff said.

[LeSwordfish]

Inspired by some of the fiction and Crusade Rules in the T'au book, I'm going to do a little modelling project that's been on my mind for a while - a water caste Diplomatic Corps. I think that's a super interesting aspect of the Tau, their non-combat relationships with the other races, and I don't yet have any modelled objective markers, so I'd like to put together some objective markers to represent imperial/tau/other race's dignitaries that need to be rescued/controlled/captured. (There's also a specific crusade objective asking for these).

I've got a line on some third party Water Caste models, and also want to see if I can fit these two chaps on to one 40mm base, representing a diplomat and his unimpressed space marine bodyguard.

I've also got a kitbashed Prophagandist tau with a camera (like the very old short story), so that's three bases worth of stuff (assuming the Water Caste go on one base together). Anyone got any suggestions for any other models that would work? I think generally i'm looking for calm poses without drawn weapons (Amulius is getting an arm swap), specifically looking for Imperial, Votann, Kroot, etc. (I can't really picture Necron diplomats). Maybe the Blackstone Fortress navigator?

Third party interesting aliens of the right scale and vibe are also very welcome. If anyone knows where I can buy models or STLs for Earth Caste or Nicassar, too, let me know.

[Cheesegear]

Anyone got any suggestions for any other models that would work? I think generally i'm looking for calm poses without drawn weapons (Amulius is getting an arm swap), specifically looking for Imperial, Votann, Kroot, etc. (I can't really picture Necron diplomats). Maybe the Blackstone Fortress navigator?

Janus Draik and Espern Locano from Blackstone Fortress are the first ones that come to mind. Draik has his sword out. But that's as simple as a weapon swap, depending on how much you paid for the model.
There might be a model worth looking at in the Elucidian Farstriders or the Inquisitorial Agents?
There's also Regimental Advisors. The Officer of the Fleet is one of my favourite models. Because of its simplicity.
I also like OG Smoking Creed.
Also you have to have a Jokero.

Nexos and Clamavus from Genestealer Cults could work. But I don't think the T'au are stupid enough to try and be diplomatic with Genestealers.

Third party interesting aliens of the right scale and vibe are also very welcome.

You could almost definitely find something in the Reaper or Starfinder ranges.

[Renegade Paladin]

What you don't do, is blatantly lie that it's always been the case (it clearly wasn't), then subsequently tell people who don't like being lied to to gtfo if they don't like it."

Just to pick this out for a second, that's not what they did. They're not denying previous lore existed, but now the lore is that they've always been there (just like the Newcron retcon being that they were always like that)- and really, it's barely a change because once again, unlike Marines the Custodes lore never said the process wouldn't work on a woman, and taking the sons of the conquered Terran warlords doesn't mean the Emperor took no one else; it isn't an exclusive statement. There weren't ten thousand techno-barbarian warlords to have firstborn sons for the Emperor to induct into the Custodes, perforce he must have gotten some of them from other sources.

[LeSwordfish]

Janus Draik and Espern Locano from Blackstone Fortress are the first ones that come to mind. Draik has his sword out. But that's as simple as a weapon swap, depending on how much you paid for the model.

Locano maybe, but I don't think Draik is quite right - the beast on his shoulder looks like something he's killed himself, not an affectation like on the House Greim guy. But maybe it would look different if it was painted gold?

There might be a model worth looking at in the Elucidian Farstriders or the Inquisitorial Agents?

Farstriders I don't think so, but I reckon one of the Agents might do nicely. The Tau codex refers to a Gue'Vesa who's a monk, who now serves the greater good but is specifically allowed to keep his old faith, and I think the calm poses and long robes will work really well for those.

There's also Regimental Advisors. The Officer of the Fleet is one of my favourite models. Because of its simplicity.

I do like the Officer of the Fleet. Maybe a bit similar to the House Greim guy? But a very plausible prissy high-ranking civilian.

I also like OG Smoking Creed.

He's lovely, but too recognisably Creed I think.

Also you have to have a Jokero.

Yes, of course! Excellent suggestion.

Nexos and Clamavus from Genestealer Cults could work. But I don't think the T'au are stupid enough to try and be diplomatic with Genestealers.

I was considering the female Magos. Maybe she could be wearing a hat, so they think she's just a human? That seems like the sort of thing that could cause problems for the T'au.

You could almost definitely find something in the Reaper or Starfinder ranges.

I will check Reaper out. Starfinder does lovely models but I'm not sure their range of non-combatants is what i'd want.

[Destro_Yersul]

Hm, I don't think Votann have anyone relaxed enough. The Grimnyr has no weapons, but is posed doing Wizard Nonsense. Ancestor's Wrath is relaxed, but it's a limited edition model with drawn weapons. Maybe you could do something with the Iron-Master?

Or, actually...
https://www.warhammer.com/app/resour...bp&w=920&h=948

Upgrade sprue from the Salvagers kill-team might be the ticket.

[LeSwordfish]

I am very fond of the Votann robots, and having one who acted as a spokesman would be fun... I wonder if I could get away with it being like, fully power armoured up if I claimed that was just what they looked like. Is there anything in the Votann book about how the robots look out of their power armour?

[Destro_Yersul]

Nothing I could find on a quick skim. If you look at the purpose-designed bots that come with the Iron-Master, though, and not the ones that are a head option for standard models, it seems pretty plausible that they're just built that way. They're not wearing anything so much as they are constructed with armoured bodies.

[DaedalusMkV]

If you could get the old, old 2nd edition Eldar Farseer, he'd make a good Eldar diplomat. He's just standing there, pointing at you disdainfully. The Bonesinger is another option. It has no weapons, though it's hard to say the model's pose is relaxed. An Eldar noncombatant diplomat with a Ranger bodyguard would make a lot of sense; aside from humans, Eldar are the most common thing the Tau actually negotiate with. The Farseer with Staff also has a reasonably relaxed pose that would be good for a diplomat, and we know Farseers tend to be the ones doing 'diplomacy' for the Eldar.

It might be funny as well to recreate the scene from Farsight's expedition to Arthas Moloch where the Water Caste sent out a team of envoys to negotiate with Khorne Daemons. Because that's totally a thing they did. People who don't remember that event might be confused why one of the objectives is a Water Caste civilian walking calmly up to a couple of Bloodletters, though.

[Wraith]

Anyone got any suggestions for any other models that would work? I think generally i'm looking for calm poses without drawn weapons (Amulius is getting an arm swap), specifically looking for Imperial, Votann, Kroot, etc. (I can't really picture Necron diplomats). Maybe the Blackstone Fortress navigator?

I think you'll enjoy the Necromunda range. The Ironhead Squat gang has some nice looking 'relaxed' minis, and some more of them that are just a hand-swap away from being pretty neutral. There's also Hired Guns like the Squat Prospector Claim Jumper

More importantly are the non-Gang affiliated minis. The Chem Dealer, Outland Beastmaster, Underhive Traders, Propagandist and Agitator, Rogue Docs, and most of the Water/Corpse Guilders all look like civilians rather than soldiers. Even the Palanite Enforcers, Ogryns and various Automatons would make great, not-inherently-aggressive bodyguards.

[Renegade Paladin]

Points update. They took a sledgehammer to Guard.

[LeSwordfish]

I think you'll enjoy the Necromunda range. The Ironhead Squat gang has some nice looking 'relaxed' minis, and some more of them that are just a hand-swap away from being pretty neutral. There's also Hired Guns like the Squat Prospector Claim Jumper

More importantly are the non-Gang affiliated minis. The Chem Dealer, Outland Beastmaster, Underhive Traders, Propagandist and Agitator, Rogue Docs, and most of the Water/Corpse Guilders all look like civilians rather than soldiers. Even the Palanite Enforcers, Ogryns and various Automatons would make great, not-inherently-aggressive bodyguards.

This chap might work with an arm swap to take away his gun... and he even has a buddy. Lady Haera is also a fun option.

[DrakeRaids]

Happily the Necron list I've been playing only went up 60 points, and I was already on the edge of taking Flayed Ones anyway. Trying to decide how I want to shift things around, I probably drop my Immortals + Plasmancer Package, maybe go all in on chronomancers for my warrior bricks.

[Cheesegear]

I dunno. There are a lot of people with Infantry Platoons and Leman Russes collecting dust in a meta that is all Bullgryns, Kasrkin and Manticores.

Less than two days later...

They took a sledgehammer to Guard.

...I literally ****ing called it!
(Although to be fair, if you follow the meta at all, it's a fairly easy call to make.)

The good news is that maybe the Grognards with 18 Leman Russes might actually start using them again. But Rogal Dorns didn't get touched. I haven't done the maths but I'm pretty sure RDs are still better. LRs are just...Less bad, but still not good.

Space Marines have been out for a while and there's not a lot to do with them. At this point they're basically where they need to be.
- Did Hellblasters need a buff? Really? ...Okay. I mean if you're sure. Maybe it's a way to sell models?
- Eliminators didn't need to be nerfed. Phobos Librarians did.
- The nerf to Black Templars was totally expected. Being "Space Marines+" should probably cost extra points.
- Firstborn Blood Angels getting nerfed again. Again, totally expected.

[LeSwordfish]

Eliminators didn't need to be nerfed. Phobos Librarians did.

I believe the specific combo that's the rrason they're taking a hit is that Eliminators near an impulsor can Shoot, move (embarking the impulsor) and shoot again. Frankly it seems silly to solve this with points but I guess the next big patch is happening in summer so they can use that to do an errata or FAQ that says "no you can't do that".

I'm a bit grouchy that they didn't do the Tau points at the same time though. I paid for the Kroot box to get the fancy book and it's irritating to have to use a sort of bodged guess at the points for a month, or play with old rules.