Ish

I stand corrected on that point then. But, overall, the trend has long been that the Necrons were in the same “are we getting a codex this decade or are we getting squatted” club as the Sisters, Dark Eldar, and Grey Knights.

Subjectivity is subjective. I’m not saying these things are great comic masterworks, but they’re worth a rye chuckle or two and I find them to be a much more innovative way to tease new products than just a few boring photographs in a magazine. These things also probably only involve 3-5 people who are already on staff, a cheap digital camcorder, and a couple hours work in Adobe After Effects or similar. The Dawn of War introductory cutscenes involve dozens of programmers, equipment and training not within GW’s regular business operations therefore necessiting an outside contractor, require months of work... Yeah, much more cost effect to record a couple blokes around the office hamming it up. Remember as well, most of these ads aren’t focused on bringing in new gamers. They’re community outreach meant to create goodwill in existing customers. To see these skits, you need to already be reading Warhammer Community or regularly watching their YouTube channel, they’re not going to air them on NBC. GW has long had a reputation as tight-lipped, stern, and kind of passive-aggressively hostile towards the fan community on the internet. For the last four or five years, on the other hand, GW has really stepped up their online outreach efforts and these silly little skits are a small (but IMHO kinda charming) part of it.

They do take an awfully long time to reload. 🤔

The Necrons debuted as a “full” army contemporaneously with the Sisters of Battle who were my primary army for Second through Fifth Edition. They also shared a similarly rocky history of delayed codices. Necrons got an army list in White Dwarf a few months before Second Edition was replaced by Third, but never got a proper Second Edition codex (The Sisters did, about a month before the edition changed and rendered it completely incompatible with the new mechanics.) They started out in 3rd Edition with the same “back of the book” list as everyone else, then got a White Dwarf list that expanded upon it. The White Dwarf list got slightly revised and published in Chapter Approved 2001 a few months later. Chapter Approved 2001 was replaced by Codex: Necrons in 2002 and would remain their only book through fourth edition until Codex: Necrons in 2011, well into the fifth edition. As of now in late 2018, they haven’t gotten a replacement codex and still use the Index Xenos list.

If they’re funny and/or clever, then sometimes yes I do.

No, Netflix only just started spamming me with commercials for it every time I log in. Based on the commercials, it doesn’t look like the kind of thing I’d be interested in... But, well, I do have one absolutely dead graveyard shift every week. I figure I might give it a shot one night.

Well, to be fair, the indices were never intended to be anything other than stop gaps to get people playing on launch day. I’ve been around long enough to have seen the same thing (more or less) twice before with the very rudimentary army lists we had in ‘Rogue Trader’ and the ‘back of the book’ lists we got in the appendix to the 3rd Edition rulebook.

Honestly, unless there is a major overhaul in the system (i.e., 2nd to 3rd; 7th to 8th) I think it’s probably better to have the late codices in an edition, instead of the earliest codices. The closer the codex is released to the launch of the edition, the more boring and bland it tends to be.

Not yet, anyway.

Whoa, dude, call off your dogs.

Vikings Seasons 4.2 and 5.1 I'm a history buff and a grognard for historical accuracy. The kind of guy who can launch into a fifteen minute tirade at the drop of a hat about some insignificant anachronism in a film or television show... But I love this series. Like most historical fictions that span a lengthy period of time and/or a period of history where the record is ambiguous, Vikings takes some liberties. Timelines are compressed, many characters are amalgamations of historical persons, other characters are invented whole cloth, and absolutely everybody is wearing really odd amounts of studded leather for no apparent reason... But (and this is key) it’s one of the only series I’ve ever seen set in this time and place that has the characters think like people in their situation would have done. These are late 8th Century men and women who act like it. The Norse aren’t a biker gang of knuckle dragging savages, the Saxons aren’t perfectly pacifistic victims of pillaging heathens nor are they mustache twirling evil overlords, the Franks aren’t (all) sneering hypocrites who claim to be Christian but are secretly evil overlords, the word “Viking” is properly used as a description of a lifestyle and not as an ethnicity. The show treats the Norse beliefs in their gods, their omens, and their faith with the exact same treatment as that of the Christians (and briefly, in a couple episodes in the later seasons, the Muslims). It avoids the old Hollywood trope of depicting the heathens as idiots and the Christians as righteous, but also avoids the New Hollywood trap of the pagans being perfect Noble Savages and the Christians as self-deluded morons. The action sequences are fantastic, both the one-on-one duels and the big set-piece battles. Yeah, they have to make some concessions to the needs of dramatic storytelling, actor safety, and limited budget... But, holy [big bad swear word], these people know how to use shields! Do you know how rare it is to see people in medieval films actually using and not just carrying shields!? Awesome series, highly recommended. A+ overall (even the dullest season is still a respectable B-).

In the Netflix MCU shows, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a comic where Knight wasn’t wearing a miniskirt or hot pants... There might have been some hip-hugging bell bottoms back in the Seventies, but none I can recall. I think they had her go through a Emma Peel catsuit phase in the Late Nineties/Early Aughts, but I admit my knowledge of Marvel’s D-List kind of peters out during the period.

I’ve never used yellow as a main color before, just the occasional accent or secondary color. Kill Team was a great excuse to try my hand at it.

Let’s just all agree the real enemy are those filthy collectible car game hobbyists. (Spits on floor.)

Re-re-re-[etcetera]-watched Hunt for Red October. Best damn adaptation of anything Clancy ever wrote and just a damn near flawless film on its own merits.

Nipples will be an optional upgrade from Forgeworld. Only £74.99 + VAT per pair.

GW’s social media team has been absolutely on fire the last couple years.

I built myself a nearly 2,000 Point WHFB 8th Edition Empire army using Wargames Factory’s plastic ashigaru and samurai. Don’t remember the exact numbers, but I know I had over 200 models. They’re in storage back in Detroit, but if a Saga Age of Samurai sourcebook is ever released, I’ve got more than enough models for it.

One of us! One of us!

GW has a very annoying practice of writing their rulesbooks in a “conversational” tone, which causes a great deal of ambiguity compared to a more “legalistic” tone. Often important things are implied instead of explicitly stated, terminology for key game concepts changes from page to page instead of using defined key words, and so on and so forth. I’m not saying they need to write their rules with the tax code-like soullessness of Starfleet Battles or Advanded Squad Leader, but it’d be better if they were at least as consistent in their use of key words as Dungeons and Dragons 3.x (and maybe used some of the step-by-step process lists / flowcharts of Gaslands).

Question about this mission: is the central ruin (the Objective) a valid choice of terrain feature for the Set Traps scouting phase option? Because that seems like a problem.

Frankly, I am shocked that an AoS-style app has not been produced for WH40k yet. When the current edition launched, with its indices and power levels, I thought for sure an app was in the works... and yet, here we are, still without one.

Missing more than one...

No television news channel is accurate.