Ish

Ten Battle Sisters with a combi-flamer on the Superior, a meltagun, and a heavy bolter (a nice generalist mix) transported in a Rhino with an extra storm bolter works out to 205 Points, if I'm reading this right. A similarly equipped Tactical Squad clocks in at 268 Points...

No, we need a campaign box that will reunite all of the Duardin Dwarf Factions into one glorious combined army of Dispossessed, Kharadon Overlords, and Fyreslayers: Earth, Wind, and Fire

Killing ten Marines in a single round of shooting is a pretty high bar to clear. Most infantry units in the game are going to need similar investment in points and support characters in order to accomplish this.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder, like every other red-blooded American man, I’ve seen the first Die Hard more times than I can count, I’ve also seen most of the sequels at least once (except the one where he inexplicably goes to Moscow. WTF?). However the only sequel that ever really felt like a proper follow-up to the Nakatomi Tower Epic was Die Hard 2... and I don’t think I’ve rewatched it since the mid-Nineties! It isn’t as good as the original Die Hard, but mostly because we in the audience already know who John McLane is and there isn’t as much tension over how much punishment this one man can endure. So instead of matching wits with Hans Gruber and enduring hours of grueling physical abuse (e.g., the classic bare feet on broken glass bit), we get McClane in a more typical “loose cannon outsmarting obstructive bureaucrat boss” character arch. It’s a lot more cleverly done than the typical Loose Cannon Cop trope, however. William Sadler is a really good action-movie antagonist, growling into the microphone when threatening the hero and actually having a credible screen presence as a criminal genius mastermind who is also a physical threat... But the inevitable comparison to Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber has to be made and Sadler does not measure up. But that’s a high bar to clear. The plot twist that sets up the third act is pretty clever, re-watching it I obviously can’t be a surprised by it as I was the first time, but it’s still great. Especially the suddenness and cold-hearted violence of the act that signals the start of it. 4 outta 5 stars.

The researchers then tried giving each bee a dose of Methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA). The bees were still more likely to dance than the control group and the dances were again particularly vigorous... But the music was awful and the outfits they wore we atrocious.

There’s supposed to be a “do it yourself” heroic character option in the upcoming Chapter Approved. Narrative and Open Play only, but I imagine it will be commonplace to use the in “friendly” Matched Play games.

I have a whole thread on this subject. I really have no clue what GW was thinking when they broke up the old WHFB armies into new sub-factions. Especially since some of the “old” became “new” without any separation of units (e.g., Lizardmen/Seraphim) and several others lost almost nothing (e.g., Slaves to Darkness, Beasts of Chaos). Meanwhile, several others got fractured into so many factions they’re essentially unplayable (e.g., Empire is now Free Guild, Collegiate Arcane, Ironweld Arsenal, and Devouted of Sigmar!) even after they added in Allies rules. I just think that if Unique Named Special Characters are going to continue to do things in WH40k that you cannot do with a generic Character than GW needs to make a better effort at getting some parity between the factions. In the cases of Space Marines it could really be as simple as changing a name and a few keywords: Sgt. Telion has the [ Ultramarines ] keyword, but Sgt. Krähen has the [ Raven Guard ] keyword. Done.

To be fair, my other primary army — the Ironjawz — has a grand total of nine unit options in their entire sub-faction. That’s actually one less than they had when AoS launched!

I could see the Sisters getting missile launchers. Krak Missiles don’t quite do what Lascannons do, but they would give the Sisters a long-range anti-vehicle option that they don’t have now.

When mathhammering the Tau, you really have to run the numbers multiple ways. Markerlights make a big difference on the performance of all of them.

No, no. The the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace that held the brew is true was broke and replaced by the flagon with the dragon...

A flagon with a dragon? Did someone break the chalice from the palace?

The Imperial Fist puts his fist in the fist with a fist on the fist, so that everyone will know that it was an Imperial Fist that fisted their face with his fist.

I see Holy Trinity as an opportunistic stratagem: use it when the opportunity arises, but don’t hang your gameplan on it. Its probably worth making sure every unit has one of the three weapon types when you build your list to make sure you have the chance to use it when opportunity arises. But, given that boltguns are pretty much ubiquitous, all you really need to do is figure out how to work a melta- and a flamer-type into the squad.

It’s not the handedness of the power fist that is the problem: it’s the handedness of the Chapter Badge. The Chapter Badge of the Imperial Fists (as well as the Crimson Fists, Hammers of Dorn, and other successor chapters) is supposed to be a left-hand.

Just noticed a major problem with the power fists included on the Imperial Fists upgrade sprue in the new Primaris Battleforce...

Fair enough, but with the new Holy Trinity stratagem in the mix, it is probably worth including a mix a weapons in squads now. Two Heavy Flamers and two Multi-Meltas seems like a good general purpose Retributor Squad mix (with a combi-bolter on the Superior).

Well, you were probably going to have the Canoness, a Dialogus, and the four-heavy flamer Retributor Squad in the army anyway... You might as well take advantage of it.

I’m sloggin’ my way there now. Stupid traffic is stupid.

I’d wager we’ll see at least one hero from each of the “Big Four” cross the Rubicon Primaris in the next few years. My money is on Ragnar Blackmane (SW), Mephiston Calistarius (BA), Azrael of Kimmeria (DA), and Cato Sicarius (UM). I also imagine we’ll be also seeing Angron and Fulgrim making a comeback, giving a Daemon Primarch to each major Chaos God. (Mind you, what I would like to see them do is create some new characters. It’s kinda silly that the Iron Hands still don’t have any named characters or that the Imperial Fists, Salamanders, and White Scars only have one.)

Clearly, you should try to be the first person to collect a completely canon-accurate Waaagh! Bitespider. You just need 165 mobs of gretchin, twenty-some artillery pieces, and two score squiggoths, and a dozen gargantuan squiggoths. “You're not gonna lose the house, everybody has three mortgages nowadays.” —Dr. Peter Venkman

I completely agree. If for no other reason than I imagine it will be a complete pain in the toches to try to keep track of Command Points and Faith Points... I forget which iteration of the Battle Sisters it was, but I rather liked the period when each squad type had their own specific special ability that was used on a die roll, rather than having to keep track of a currency resource. “In the Shooting Phase, after resolving all your attacks, this unit may shoot again on a 6+“ or something like that.

GW has done beta tests like this in the past, even in the Bad Old Days before they learned what “the internets” were. The tai end of third edition saw “trial” combat rules, for example, that became the rules in fourth edition.