LameBeard

The great thing about Warhammer is that there is not such thing as “horribly over-sized”. Dooooo iiiittttt.

I believe there was once a Ravenwing venerable dreadnought in White Dwarf, modelled as stepping off a drop-pod. That was the rationalization for keeping up with his brothers. I like @Interrogator Stobz version, but I think there’s room for both.

42 degrees Celsius at 10am!? It sounds like living on Baal. Terrain is looking amazing though - kudos to you for following through and making the vision a reality.

Pointy ‘Eads? Or Pointy Ears?

Truly incredible skill and devotion.

I agree a party of Eldar works well in the 40k theme: they are few in a galaxy of myriad threats. Their response to these threats will not always be direct violence. Instead subterfuge, diplomacy, exploration, assassination, ambush, negotiation are all real roleplay possibilities, actually much more interesting than straight soldiers. And @ThePenitentOne’s idea of the path system is clever - it could be like careers in the original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I love Horus Heresy and I love space marines and I love RPGs but I’m not especially excited about the middle of that Venn diagram. Like when I read the Gaunts Ghosts novels, the best bits are when he’s fighting (sometimes through violence, sometimes through politics) other branches of the Imperium. That theme would make a great RPG. I feel like there’s only a narrow window for that sort of thing in the Heresy. A mixed race party is more difficult but I can see (say) a T’au Water caste with a Kroot mercenary and a human who is non-Imperial having some fun adventures on the fringes of Imperial Space - and it’s fun because the Imperium will be generally suspicious but need not be so hostile that violence is the immediate response. For extra fun the human is actually ex-Imperial, but doesn’t reveal that.

I agree with @Helias_Tancred on the longstanding plasma lore, not sure if I can prove it predates 4th edition, but didn’t Azrael and his combi-plasma predate that? And Samael has big old plasma cannon on his jetbike, so definitely the designers have had a lot of “Dark Angels like plasma” for a while, even if not baked into rules all the time. But I’m not sure about Caliban being a Forge World, it was a forested Death World, surely?

It’s already April where Grotsmasha is, right? I, Lamebeard, answer the call of the 12 months of hobby and vow to finish these two tau pathfinders on the left.

Leg alignment was certainly an issue in them days. If I can find any, I had several models on a “tactical paving slab” to sort out an unsightly gap between foot and floor.

The most important advice for kids’ armies is “try not to take over!” - advice I struggle to stick to myself. You just gotta let them make their own bad decisions, they will still appreciate that more than having something forced on them. If they do choose something that’s weak in the current edition, I would just house rule it’s (say) 50 points extra for the loser to spend next battle. You keep going until you find your own balance. but yeah, Killa Kans, obvs.

Vow complete! Sort of. I vowed this model sometime in the Spring of 2023. I’ll try to get back in the swing of things for April, I have some Tau on the painting table.

I just noticed that they are all Alpharius. That is perfection.

As beautiful as the new terminators are, I’m struck by how few ‘boots on the ground’ these Leviathan starter armies have. If you think he’s got the painting stamina, then massed troops looks great on the tabletop, and the dark green scheme isn’t too hard. So that would be intercessors, or assault intercessors with jump packs if you want a bit more mobility.

There is a fine Orky tradition, certainly earlier than 1993, of having one foot planted on a Space Marine Helmet. See the Bad Moon top right here, for example: http://www.solegends.com/citcat1991a/cat1991ap063orkbosses-01.htm is that cheating? Doesn’t count as tactical rock?

It is not beyond GW to take away Rites of War at inception and then sell them back to us through supplements. They could theme the supplements around battles and legions that favoured a particular style, but give everyone a reason to buy the book - it might even be a little like Titanicus did and a little like the original Black Books. Or it could be more like the Necromunda model, a very gradual evolution and tidy up, minimal invalidation. If I were them I’d want to hide the embarrassment of that Day 1 Reaction FAQ, that can’t be good for getting in new players, a reason on its own for a new version of the rulebook.