Ish

Assuming the new special character champion guy costs about the same as a Shield-Captain (so ~100-ish points) and there aren’t any big shifts in the costs of the current units, the Shadow Throne box will have about 400 Points of Custodes… and not form a legal army as it lacks Troops (unless the Sisters get moved to the Troops slot, which I don’t think is likely).

Oh, look, GW has decided to give my current army the exact sort of thing that turned me off to my previous armies: a complicated as hell system of wordy special rules with complex interactions with other special rules that I am forced to change ever turn of the game. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/12/02/powerful-new-shield-host-rules-cement-the-adeptus-custodes-as-the-true-elites-of-humanity/

I’m just waiting for someone at GW to figure out how to incorporate Loot Boxes and pay-to-unlock Keys.

It’s common practice in Saga to base your Warlord on a larger base than standard infantry, with most players taking advantage of the extra room to make little mini dioramas. A king and his bannerman, a Roman Legion Legate and a couple of runners, that sort of thing… (Go look at Koyote’s thread for inspiration).

I believe many of the mechanical problems with WH40k stem from an internal schism in the design team. Some of them seem to be trying to design a complex-but-tightly-controlled system optimized for MtG style tournament circuit play, some of them seem to be trying to design a narrative-focused-but-complete system for organized play, and a few still seem to be clinging to the old school “let the players fill in the blanks” design ethos from the Eighties. Basically, one team wants a CCG, one team wants a Eurogame board game, and a small minority of old guard wants mode railroading with rules. These are not compatible design philosophies.

Buster Crabbe, who famously played Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers in multiple film serials in the 1940’s and 1950’s had a cameo on the revived Buck Rogers in the 25th Century tv serial. He played a retired pilot named “Brigadier Gordon.”

I’m planning to order those and have @scottshoemaker print them for me. But working two retail jobs during the holidays has eaten my brain…

In happier news…

I’m a pedantic history nerd. I prefer to call the Nazis by their full name (or at least the acronym for it, because Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei is a lot to type) to make it clear I’m referring to the specific political party that existed between 1920 and 1945, not just defaulting to the Internet standard “everyone I don’t like is a Nazi” mode of argument. There’s quite a bit of difference between playing Imperial Japan in a game where the Imperial Japanese are part of the game’s narrative and showing up to play the game wearing a jacket festooned in symbols of the Kokka Shugi imperial fascist party. I mean, I own and regularly wear polo shirts that have the logo of Cobra (from G.I. Joe) or the Adeptus Custodes on them. No one is going to think I’m actually going to help Destro and Serpentor overthrow the United Nations… No one is going to think I’m actually the bodyguard of the immortal space Emperor. But this guy, seen here: That’s a t-shirt with a variation of the logo of the Falange Española Tradicionalista (the fascist party of the Francoist regime). His jacket has a variation of the National Socialist swastika… I don’t recognize the exact group, but I don’t really care. This is beyond “That Guy” levels of rude and uncouth behavior that sometimes infects our hobby. This is an actual freakin’ fascist. Not the overly hyperbolic “you’re rude to me so I’ll call you a fascist.” Not the Godwin’s Law cliche “I’m losing an argument to you so you’re Literally Hitler.” The Francoist dictatorship ruled Spain as recently as 1975. This @&$%^€ is wearing a goddamn t-shirt for the fascist party and using the name “Austrian Painter.”

To quote myself from this thread: [quote]I usually don’t mind when people use elements of the National Socialist aesthetic in gaming... I mean, let’s face it, they were unimaginably evil but they certainly had style. Games Workshop themselves has invoked elements of the Third Reich in their game’s imagery, everything from the sculpts for miniatures (like the original Ork Stormboyz or the Armageddon Steel Legion) to some of the artwork in the books (like the many pictures of massed Astartes gatherings that are homages to Triumph of the Will and other propaganda films). And GW is hardly alone in using National Socialist imagery as a visual shorthand for “the baddies.” It’s obvious to anyone and everyone that Lucasfilm ripped off the National Socialists lock, stock, and Hugo Boss designed barrel when creating the look of the Galatic Empire in Star Wars. I’m sure you can all come up with dozens of other examples... But that kind of thing is usually done with either a more subtly or it’s done in a way that removes it from the historical context and/or makes it a clear satire. But there’s a world of difference between something like Kromlech selling Ork dressed like a Waffen-SS officer and just straight up using the NSDAP flag as a chapter banner. (Also, people playing actual WWII games or alternate history “Weird War II” games are totally allowed to use Nazi iconography on their minis without judgement.)[/quote] But the incident that sparked this response, apparently, isn’t just that someone showed up to a game with miniatures that borrowed from the National Socialists in terms of aesthetics or theme. Apparently, some asshole showed up to a Grand Tournament in Spain wearing a shirt covered in National Socialist slogans, used the name ““Pintor Austriaco” (lit. Austrian Painter) on his entry form, and was just generally an unpleasant asshole. I’m not an aggressive man. But, yeah, I’d have reacted quite violently to someone pulling that [big bad swear word] in my presence. Cosplaying as the Red Skull at a comic convention? Cool. Wearing a Waffen-SS uniform as part of a living history reenactment troupe? Groovy. Using NSDAP inspired art themes to make fictional propaganda posters for your Star Wars Legion table? Fine. Naming yourself after Adolf Hitler whilst wearing clothes with anti-Semitic slogans and Nazi iconography? I’m throwing hands.

Where was Gondor when the Thunderdome fell?

Both are fantastic games, but they both do different things. Although Oathmark “scales down” pretty well, it’s sweet spot is for larger battles between big armies; each player fielding something close to a hundred models in multiple large units and a couple of supporting monsters or war machines. Contrariwise, although Saga does “scale up” pretty well, it’s sweet spot is for skirmishes between small groups; each player fielding something like forty-ish models. Both games present very different tactical challenges for the players too.

Hal Foster, man. Totally under appreciated by comic book nerds.

It’s a joke, a bit of a multi-layered one. In the popular fan-animation If the Emperor Had A Text-to-Speech Device there are a trio of recurring characters who look like these models. The trio are made using edited art from the manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, taking some of the ridiculously muscle-bound characters from that series and sticking Custodes helmets on them. This is, in turn, based on the old Rogue Trader era depiction of the Adeptus Custodes has musclebound and unarmored. JoJo’s Pillarmen (above) Rogue Trader Custodes (below)

I have the PDF of the core rulebook, so I’ve skimmed it but haven’t done a “deep read” and I haven’t played. But, I like what I’ve read and I’m a huge fan of Frostgrave and Oathmark, so at this point I’m just going to assume I’ll like Stargrave too. I like that the game isn’t so strictly tied to the grimdark aesthetic of Necromunda or WH40k/Kill Team, nor does it have the mountain of detailed rules (or the locked in manga aesthetic) of Infinity. But, at the same time, there’s nothing stopping people from going grimdark with their models if they want to. Personally, I’m planning on leaning towards a Golden Age Sci-Fi Serial / Pulp Magazine with my models when I get around to it. I’ve already ordered a bunch of minis and am snooping around the ‘net for an appropriately Flash Gordon-esque rocket ship STL file.