Warhammer and Such

[thin ibex]

Cain self deprecates a lot, but he is actually extremely elite and capable

[broken dew]

hasn't he dueled space marines

[charred bridge]

He has survived dueling in close quarters with things that would have no issues killing an astartes. Of course the true MVP is Jurgen who gets the kill

[broken dew]

pretty sure he did straight up just duel a chaos marine at one point(Jurgen got the kill presumably) but like

not dying in a close quarters with astartes

[bright dove]

(Not just any sort of Chaos Marine. He was dueling a Khorne Berserker.

Chainsword against Chainaxe.

[broken dew]

genuinely elite type shit

[charred bridge]

In melee is the wild part, considering they have like have like 10 times your body weight of just more muscle than you and doubly so for berserkers

Cain's just built different

[bright dove]

I do like that Amberly does also directly says that Cain is the best unmodified swordsman she's ever seen.

[charred bridge]

Anything less and he'd be dead

[bright dove]

Oh yes.

[charred bridge]

Or rather, dead much much sooner

[bright dove]

And a lot of his kills are just delaying his death long enough for someone else to shoot the damn thing.

[charred bridge]

Cain is the tank and Jurgen is the DPS

[bright dove]

Correct!

[charred bridge]

Just a dodge tank

[bright dove]

With a good head for "OK where are my odds of dying the least?"

[broken dew]

still genuinely insane to step up to a Khorne Berserker Space Marine(presumably a world eater) as a normal ass guy and not get pasted

[charred bridge]

Named inquisitors just built different

Like Yarrick taking on a warboss in a melee duel as a mostly unaugmented human and winning

[broken dew]

true

[charred bridge]

Still insanely goated, deserves that hero of the Imperium reputation

[bright dove]

I will point out that Cain also trained his sword skills against the Reclaimers as well.

[dense sedge]

Turns out the local necromunda game isn’t allowing malstrain a for balance and no ash wastes nomads could be found in my metro area

[upper canopy]

Caine didnt duel Khorne berserker

He dueled a mutant human warrior

[pulsar cairn]

i'll duel you Voy

[upper canopy]

The only marine he ever dueled was a loyalist marine Apothecary

And he didnt win but he did mark the marines armor which the marine decided to keep permanently as to remind him not to underestimate his enemy

[pulsar cairn]

so they basically became friends

[upper canopy]

Ya

[broken dew]

ngl dueling an astartes at all and managing to do anything

i'm impressed

[pulsar cairn]

Astartes often act like jerks around regular people too, so the fact they accepted it goes to tell of Cain's reputation

[paper bluff]

Cain swordfights entirely for defense and a chance to run away. I don't think he really looks for killing blow chances

[quaint compass]

Ye, he fought the berzerker one on one, but he's just keeping himself alive (in his own eyes at least)

Jurgen Ex Machina is a key talent Cain developed quickly

[paper bluff]

Hmmm........ theoretical: Cain can't be an imperial saint because he hangs out with jurgen

[rose hill]

no he fought a khorne berserker on that one planet that was tidally locked

said berserker was already heavily wounded

and cain only held him long enough that jurgen lined up the melta

[quaint compass]

I think Voy meant that it wasn't the formal type of duel

[rose hill]

but he did go hand to hand with a khornate berserker

[pulsar cairn]

does khornate berserker necessarily mean a space marine? or can humans, mutants or any xeno be a khorne berserker?

[rose hill]

technically anyone can fall to the influence of khorne and become a berserker, but when most people say "khornate berserker" they mean the specific class of khornate chaos space marines

[pulsar cairn]

right

[wide veldt]

Me looking at Rogue Trader with Sid eye

Side eye

[quaint compass]

https://tenor.com/view/sid-smile-ice-age-thin-gif-15636688

[pastel rampart]

https://www.pakitproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/CANCLIP-4-3-1.jpg

I got a bunch of these plastic 4-pak toppers and wondering how I can turn them into terrain.

Lord knows I go through seltzer pretty quickly so having empty cans is no issue.

[quaint compass]

Storage tank covers
Giant industrial vents
Greebling on the side of an enormous wall

[pastel rampart]

I definitely want to stick to giant containers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhE8VR9jnY Something like this feels right, just...y'know, 4 cans instead of 2.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/soda-can-tank-recreation Ah, hm, I think I can use some stuff from here too.

[paper bluff]

And again we must remember due to proximity from Jurgen, the power that dark pact users get from their patron would be diminished.

So then the question becomes could a very well trained purely fighting defensively human being go toe to toe with a heavily wounded depowered space marine in close combat? Yes imo

Is it 50% odds in Cain's favor?

[junior summit]

Cain has also beat an ork warboss in single combat

[junior robin]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/hd2ygsuz/defend-the-cadian-gate-with-the-archmagos-terminus-and-new-skitarii-heavies/ finally, the thing all admech players have been yearning and praying for all these years, rules for the horus heresy robots husky skitarii.

[floral herald]

Oh very sick

[tired cairn]

I wish it wasn't a named character, but she and the new Skitarii look sick

I love the spider legs

[junior robin]

she also hates Cawl, who I now hold responsible for the lack or robot rules, so I like her as well.

like come on GW even legends rules would be fine.

[tired cairn]

I also appreciate the lack of boobplate or something silly to mark her as a woman

[floral herald]

Those heavy skits are spiritually kill team themed ngl

[broken dew]

one thing i do like tech priests for is that oftentimes you can have them barely even read as human let alone have any physical characteristics one way or the other

[tired cairn]

The one guy with a sword seems a bit out of place given his everyone else has a heavy weapon lol

The shoulder mounted pistol is super cute though

[broken dew]

man, woman? my friend there is just barely enough flesh on there to even mark it as human at all

might as well be a robot if not for the fact that that's mega heresy

[tired cairn]

I feel like more tech priests would be non-binary or agender

Especially the really old ones that are probably just a brain in a weapon of mass destruction

[broken dew]

reminded myself that Kastellan robots are punch card operated, man that shit is fucking funny

[broken dew]

yeah

[floral herald]

It’s probably some kind of tech heresy to reject binary

[broken dew]

lmao

[tired cairn]

Wait, damnit lmao

[broken dew]

good one

ngl

https://giphy.com/gifs/9EwnzGNjvmIG4

[broken dew]

i do wonder about Tech Priests and gender

i wonder a lot about gender for different people in 40k

[tired cairn]

Tech-priest who has to pause for several seconds as they consult the noosphere for a database that is kept on a tape drive whenever they have to remember what their gender is

[floral herald]

Honestly I could see tech priests being really weird about gender since it’s a part of cosmic 1 and 0 or something

[broken dew]

what does it mean for Necrons for instance who are all soulless robots now and are actually just completely divorced from biology in its entirety despite having biologically derived minds

[tired cairn]

I'm putting that in my headcannon along with all space marines being trans with the gender of "space marine"

[floral herald]

Honestly that’s more or less textual

They don’t say it like that buuut

[humble plover]

It's a 50/50 on if any given tech priest is this or someone who only joined the machine cult in the first place for free bottom surgery

[charred bridge]

Necrons do care about gender for titles, not because of any gender identity stuff but because it's traditional formality for addressing nobles. .

[tired cairn]

It is the 41st millennium and GW is finally brave enough to be explicit about the weird space marine gender stuff

[still warren]

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/blogs/94 tiger people coming to totalwarhammer (and maybe the tabletop?)

[charred bridge]

Necrons love/hate tradition

[vital barn]

Oh those look extremely cool

Big Skitarii and the exact kind of second named character I wanted

[charred bridge]

You can get free everything else surgery too

[broken dew]

mmm

[charred bridge]

Although the bottom surgery you get is probably to shove a computer in your torso

[vital barn]

and they even use existing weapons, they have downscaled Dunecrawler guns

[floral herald]

There’s an older space marine biology post which notes that space marines have to get checked by Apothecaries every so often to make sure their literal HRT is working

[vital barn]

I suspect Agrippina is about to get rolled though since Admech never wins campaigns

[floral herald]

(And the armor can administer it directly)

[vital barn]

so shame to lose another major forge

[broken dew]

interesting stuff honestly

feel like i'm sitting here pondering it like a fucking thought in Disco Elysium

going to internalize space marine gender transition in my thought cabinet after 16 hours of consideration

[desert jay]

I thought they textually don’t give you free surgery at all, they just provide the knowledge and tools to do it yourself

[charred bridge]

If anything they'd probably find it weird if you hold any significance for it. Non-binary in that the one true path is machine there is no other option.

[vital barn]

We literally have an aside on this from a Techpriest Dominus - gender identity is sticky for most techpriests, but nobody really knows why or particularly cares

[floral herald]

It looks like link rot ate the original article but here’s how lexicanum covers it

Originally from WD98

[vital barn]

That Dominus was agender and mildly confused that the literal floating armoured ball he was talking to still had noospheric tags for female pronouns while she was yelling at them

[broken dew]

sticky?

[vital barn]

Stays around even when your physical form is a fridge or what have you

[broken dew]

ahhhh

interesting!

[vital barn]

Re: new models, ordo reductor hell yes

[desert jay]

I read this and realized the Ordo Reductor doctrine is literally "in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, there is only war"

[vital barn]

Hopefully she is extremely killy

Both previous Reductor characters in lore have been almost pure gold so I have high standards

[desert jay]

XD

If he didn’t want her to slaughter traitors and xenos by the thousands, why did he make them so easy to kill?

I love WarCom's tone on the setting sometimes

[charred bridge]

Most peaceful ordo reductor member, actually had a brief conversation instead of just starting a meeting with weapons testing

[desert jay]

Ahh, and next campaign book is focusing on AdMech vs Iron Warriors

[broken dew]

Ordo Reductor are simply the best ordo

[charred bridge]

Ad mech: We have destroyer cult at home

[broken dew]

once again reminded of Alpharius trying to pull the "i have important information" move on Dorn and immediately getting decapitated

why diplomacy when i can simply rend you into your constituent atoms

it's Ordo Reductor and the Centurio Ordinatus

they are the most killy and thus the best

[vital barn]

They haven't got Perty yet so maybe the Admech stands half a chance of keeping their territory

the boys in red have something on the order of a 0% campaign winrate so it's not like it can get worse

[broken dew]

that's some bullshit 😭

[desert jay]

I didn't pay attention to how Pariah Nexus went, but I guess badly

[vital barn]

OK that one was kind of a draw, they basically went band for band with the necrons showing off obscure bullshit superweapons, everyone exploded and then Vashtorr showed up

[desert jay]

If you go even with obscure Necron bullshit, that's actually pretty good

[charred bridge]

I can confirm.
Source: am Alpharius

[broken dew]

fuckin Vashtorr huh

[vital barn]

but in general the 40k mech is Eldar level worfed because forge worlds, titans, Archmagi etc. are totally fungible in a way that Space Marines aren't

[broken dew]

mhm

[vital barn]

so they're narratively disposable

[desert jay]

Well I guess a named model Archmagos is significantly less fungible

[vital barn]

Yeah I am kind of doing the Hawkeye meme here

[desert jay]

So fingers crossed!

[vital barn]

especially since Agripinaa is like Ryza, it has previous for surviving serious invasion

(30k mech is not like this, they win about as much as they lose and have some terrifying showings even against Marines and Custodes)

[broken dew]

30k mech sounded scary as fuck

[vital barn]

I don't know why only the Mechanicum has game, I think it's because in the heresy the Marines are also disposable chumps that come in large quantities so you're allowed to kill a few thousand of them without a bunch of people with armies from XYZ chapter getting mad

[sour sequoia]

AdMech vs Iron Warriors

Finally. We can powerscale the autism lads

[pastel rampart]

Oh, huh, never thought they'd ever do something with that old bit of lore (different lands in WHFB had different kinds of beastmen).

[past sphinx]

he technically beat an apothocary in a duel

[rocky shale]

Based on that last sentences we may be seeing a knight-adjacent thing soon

[vital barn]

the new chunky skitarii are a great art callback

compare

[past sphinx]

good boys

[fossil violet]

games workshop knew I has having doubts about committing to admech so they rolled out these fellas

[vital barn]

the one-handed eradication gun is already quite mean, the big tank one is S10 D3 so I would expect these to be the marine eating crew

[junior robin]

if only they had not removed all the cool parts of it

[little bay]

yeah especially after all the radiation

[fossil violet]

Honestly looking forward to painting some nice wide armor plates

[atomic apex]

really looking forward to Mechanicus 2

[paper bluff]

Actually, in one book there is a non binary tech priest that uses xe xer pronouns

[paper bluff]

I enjoy seeing not ontologically evil beastmen characters finally

[deft crest]

@upper bluff lol

[deft crest]

*Note: If you don’t own any Grand Cathay content, don’t worry. With the purchase of Bhashiva, you will also get access to the core Grand Cathay roster to ensure you get a complete experience.

Also glad.

I know its just core TW3 but yeah

[upper bluff]

They put ajani goldmane in tw3

[deft crest]

She's looking so good after her transition.

[atomic apex]

oh hi Ajani

[past sphinx]

Sangheili for furries instead of scalies, even have the energy sword

[jaunty dawn]

New admech look really cool and theyre getting another thing too !??

Some kind of “armoured glory”

[junior robin]

cats and lizards sure is a weird combo for the old ones to turn into people 🤔

[wide veldt]

Considering that mech only has one, I think it’s okay

[deft crest]

https://bsky.app/profile/kallidorarho.bsky.social/post/3meygru3fs22k

Kallidora Rho (@kallidorarho.bsky.social)

Deeply appreciate the recent direction Games Workshop has taken where they'll have monstrous, completely inhuman looking characters with essentially 0 gendered characteristics and have them officially be women. It's genuinely so refreshing, designs like this almost always get he/him by default

Likes

144

Bluesky · Feb 16, 2026, 4:09 PM

https://bsky.app/profile/kallidorarho.bsky.social/post/3meygzrmezk2y

Kallidora Rho (@kallidorarho.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Kallidora Rho (@kallidorarho.bsky.social)
Especially since it's gone hand in hand with modelling older, fatter women lol. Sincerely wonderful, other companies are simply not doing it like this with their designs

Bluesky · Feb 16, 2026, 4:14 PM

So true

[floral herald]

I’m apologizing ahead of time but

[vital barn]

this was also my first thought not going to lie

exceptional archmagos model though

I feel she needs like two more guns but I eagerly await the rules

[deft crest]

Apologize again.

Cursed is thee who brings up aunt fanny of robots.

[floral herald]

Haha

[spice flicker]

In a 500 point game like king of the colosseum, would it be accepted to take an aircraft?

[rocky shale]

Wouldn't the table be so small you'd just fly off the table?

[spice flicker]

I was curious since I have a friend with a penchant for taking them. Also wouldn't the distance thing not be a concern with hover mode?

[upper bluff]

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THERE WERE NEW ADMECH MODELS

I LOVE THEM

Ah hem

Anyways heavy skitarii are neat

And a second epic hero is coolersr

[rocky shale]

If it has hover it would probably work?

At 500 points it still might just be like anti melee cheese

[spice flicker]

Only units with fly can melee an aircraft with hover right?

Also the idea that it could work fills me with dread since they'll likely try to do it now i feel.

[rocky shale]

Hover makes it lose aircraft keyword so you can hit it like normal

It just becomes a flying vehicle with 20" move

[spice flicker]

So even if a unit doesnt have the fly keyword it can still melee the vehicle if it gets close enough?

[rocky shale]

Yes

[spice flicker]

Thats nice I could never remember

[rocky shale]

It's basically the same as like an eldar hover tank

Only the aircraft keyword (which you lose when using hover) prevents being charged by non-flying units

[remote wharf]

The Omnissiah's widest soldiers

[upper bluff]

Wide skitarii

I love it

Also just a note if those shoulder arc rifles don't have anti-vehicle I'm gonna explode

[vital barn]

those might just be arc pistols, in which case these guys will really be the 12" enjoyers

since their main guns are essentially shotguns

[spice flicker]

Aren't their big guns the same as the onager's or is it the skorpus?

[vital barn]

they're smaller eradication beamers

which get stronger the closer they are to the target because they're B-movie death rays

[jaunty dawn]

The other gun looks like neutron laser too yeah

[tired cairn]

It looks more like they have either arc pistols or a small flamer for the shoulder mount

[jaunty dawn]

Oh the other pistol is phosphor

Which is also one of the pistols kataphrons get

[mental birch]

Mini katchapron gun platforms!?

[pastel rampart]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmCK0b2ogUA

[junior robin]

finally, palaeontology primaris Lieutenant

[jaunty dawn]

Giants got four fingers like that

[misty violet]

Good shout, I was thinking maybe a new troll but the hand is too human I think but with the right number of fingers

I wonder if this is gonna be like a giant with a pile of rocks that acts as a gargant artillery/ranged unit

[tired cairn]

It's funny they put a fossil in the rock

[quaint compass]

Secret garg necromancer unit

[junior robin]

return of scavvies? 👀

[quaint compass]

Return of Khaine?

[sweet solar]

return of fomori

maybe as an evil sea elf unit

[pastel rampart]

And with 100% less uh, that as lore.

[jaunty dawn]

Fomori?

[quaint compass]

Fomorians from old world

Mist-cloaked cyclopian lizards from the northern reaches of the empire

[pastel rampart]

They're known as Fimir actually.

[quaint compass]

Oh shit ye

[jaunty dawn]

That explains a lot lmao

[pastel rampart]

https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Fimir

[quaint compass]

Big fucky-wucky from me

Banished to Albanion

[pastel rampart]

They have uh, SA as a part of their lore which is very yikes.

[quaint compass]

Very, especially as there isn't much elsewise in their lore

[pastel rampart]

They've had a long span of not being in the spotlight or even having miniatures; they famously had models for Heroquest, and got some FW ones around 8th edition via Storm of Magic, but otherwise don't show up much.

They had rules in 3rd and then nothing until 8th.

[pine matrix]

I do think one of the really cool features of Old World is that there are creatures that existed before the arrival of the Old Ones, Dragons, Dragons, presumably Fimir. The current state of the Old World is directly due to terraforming by the Old Ones

[mental birch]

https://pastebin.com/JGwYYU1t

Thinkjng thtough my 30k list

Any mechanicum weirdo wanna take a peek

[pine matrix]

And those indigenous races are fucking pissed! Iirc They made pacts with the dark gods after the Old Ones opened the northern gate

[jaunty dawn]

I liked that aspect of the fimir of being like

Attacked by basically every player faction

Even chaos as the favour fell to humans

[pastel rampart]

WHFB is full of races that once were favored by the gods but then abandoned (dragon ogres and to a lesser extent beastmen).

[pine matrix]

"why do the gods favour these smoothskins so? They don't even have horns unless they're given them!"

That's actually a point, is there any canon lore of Beastmen leading "regular" chaos empowered humans in WHFB? My inclination is no, they're either following a human chaos leader or fighting as only beastmen

[pastel rampart]

None that I've ever seen.

[pine matrix]

That'd be pretty cool, some Bray Chief who's strong enough to bring some chaos warriors to heel

[pastel rampart]

A beastmen daemon prince would be cool too.

Surely one of them has exalted themselves to the gods in a sufficient manner and turned immortal.

[jaunty dawn]

I dont think belakor is human

[main pagoda]

we straight up dont know what belakor was prior to becoming a DP

[pastel rampart]

He was the first mortal and that's all we know.

[pine matrix]

Definitely be interesting for their altered point of view, Daemon Princes we see in the fiction are former humans who still maintain some kind of human view point, even if their priorities and scale differ. But a DP who was never human and in fact spent their whole existence hating humanity and civilization?

[upper canopy]

They actually do talk about this in some older content

Beastmen don't turn into Daemon Princes because (from the perspective of the Gods) you don't have to tempt Beastmen with anything to make them work for you

There's no carrot required, it's just stick

Beastmen are so inherently chaotic that you just tell them what to do and reliably they will do so

[broken dew]

sucks to be a beastmen i guess

[pastel rampart]

Mostly in the 7th ed Beastmen army book, which is where they took away their ability to get Marks of Chaos.

(the 7th ed book was not good)

[tepid stratus]

And nowadays we've got the special sub species for marks

Well, have them back anyways and a bit more refined IMO

Just missing khorngors

[pastel rampart]

I'm sure khorngors will come out eventually, they were only one of two god-specific beastmen to get models back in the day.

[tepid stratus]

Didn't slaangor have a sculpt way back in the early metal days?

Tho I do much prefer the gangly crabclaw slaangor

I hope khorngors get something to differentiate them from bestigors, make them buffer or maybe make them a minotaur variant

Khorne has lots of infantry but they don't really have a 3 man monstrous infantry unit in AOS

[pastel rampart]

Nah, slaangors never had a model.

Khorngors and pestigors had metal models in 6th.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9SYfBTDjX58/maxresdefault.jpg now, there is an old keeper of secrets that sort of looks like a modern slaangor.

I'm lucky enough to have two of those.

[tepid stratus]

Damn can definitely see the inspiration on that one

[pastel rampart]

Yeah, it's very clearly a source of inspiration.

I've been wanting to track down an STL of that one and then scale it up to modern GW KoS sizes for kicks.

[upper canopy]

Its also in WHFRPG

In Tome of Corruption

[pastel rampart]

The RPGs are often off doing their own thing.

They do get the GW nod of approval of course, but Tome of Corruption came out at around the same time as the 7th ed book.

Well, Tome was 2006 and 7th ed beastmen was 2010 but still, prior to those two it wasn't mentioned in any previous material.

[upper canopy]

Well most of the expansive WHFB lore is from those rpgs

[wide veldt]

Oh uh

Taurox

Is immortal

Isn’t he

And the mutant one

[spice flicker]

What do you think of this harlequin/corsair king of the colosseum list? I know its a little lacking in anti-high toughness but I was trying to focus a bit more on mobility and scoring.

Not used to building for eldar admittedly

[thin ibex]

Koc is max t8 or T9? I forget

The main thing is a lot of other basic infantry will shred yours, so it's about controlling and timing your engagements, cause you can hit hard too

So where ever you can pull it off, you gotta hit first

[spice flicker]

Its T9 max and no duplicate units outside of battleline and even then only 2 of each. Also a minimum of 2 non-character infantry units.

I will admit while I find aspect warriors and recently corsairs to be interesting, the fragility of the Eldar always made me weary of trying to brainstorm around them.

[thin ibex]

I've learned there's no way to just play them good out the door, you kinda need reps and a strong understanding of movement in the game

But they are cool and fun, even though I'm bad at them

[spice flicker]

Shame there isnt a corsair character (that isnt epic or legendary) to use as a warlord. Originally had a death jester but was left with quite a few left over points but not enough for another unit which is why I went with the troupe and shadowseer.

[jaunty dawn]

That is a shame

Especially since there is one for their csm counterparts

I wonder what unit name is the most prolific

Like warriors in tyranids, necrons, and votann

[west zealot]

Edit: Link deleted for being shitty ai slop instead of cool modding.

[spice flicker]

I know recently with colosseum I did a match where I did the new destroyer cult neurons against the flame detachment of sisters my friend played (i made the list for him as per his request) and was surprised at how effective sisters were at shooting down necrons. Managed to table him but the sticky objectives from the battle sister squad let him outscore me big time. It was the first for either of use to play the game mode or those factions but we enjoyed it. Lychguard brick plus cloak overlord is funny and tough to deal with.

36" map with assault multi-meltas are funny.

[pastel rampart]

It's all revenge for the slaughter at Sancutary 101.

[spice flicker]

Probably

[pastel rampart]

(said slaughter was the first instance of the imperium meeting the necrons and also a battle report!)

[spice flicker]

I wonder how guard should be built in colosseum? Infantry+transports? Massed infantry spam? Infantry+sentinels? Tempestus scions focused?

[spice flicker]

Missile Launchers, autocannons, or something else on sentinels for colosseum? Max toughness is 9 so lascannons seem excessive.

[upper canopy]

Taurox is immortal in that he is borderline unkillable and ageless, but he is not immortal like a true Daemon Prince

Same with Valkyia the Bloody

There is genuinely a blurry line between "chosen above all others" and "daemon prince"

[wide veldt]

I guess so

The difference is really thin tho yeah lol

[paper bluff]

They should be allowed to have favourite special little guys They just bring back

[pastel rampart]

Yeah like, a daemon prince is immortal in that unless he suffers a True Death (which there's maybe 6 ways to do that, tops) they will eventually come back. Taurox dies in The End Times by a random arrow to the throat.

[upper canopy]

Well an arrow from the Huntsmarshal

Who is The Guy Who Kills Things Like That

[mental birch]

Any fellow mechanicum weirdos around?

[stark cypress]

I might be a mechanicum weirdo

I have been going through it

[mental birch]

https://pastebin.com/JGwYYU1t

Messing around with liztbuilding

Haahah

[stark cypress]

Oh my god

You mad woman

I approve

[mental birch]

Oh?

Hahaaha

[spice flicker]

30k admech you mad lad

I approve

[mental birch]

Hshs

[remote wharf]

Hmmm....

[pale narwhal]

I dig it tbh

Like it’s kinda goofy but it fits

[thin ibex]

I do wonder what the next votann unit or units will be

I'm kind of expecting a jump pack warrior squad

Aside from that there are many options

[quaint compass]

I can imagine a walker or dedicated tank

Even if my Hekky is the best girl

[tranquil ivy]

fuck it we ball

[quaint compass]

We love balls here

[tranquil ivy]

',:/

[quaint compass]

https://tenor.com/view/bow-daphne-bridgerton-simon-basset-phoebe-dynevor-rege-jean-page-gif-20242585

[pulsar cairn]

btw question

Do groups such as the Black Legion and the Iron Warriors, who are mostly into the Chaos thing for the benefits rather than out of devotion like the Word Bearers, use Daemon Engines out of necessity, or because they are just better than tanks and other vehicles and so on?

[quaint compass]

They use the tools chaos provides, such as daemo-engines

otherwise there wouldn't be too much benefit of going into the chaos sauce

Sometimes they don't have access to their "favorite" vehicles and make use of the daemon-engines Heretek Michaelsson had on hand
Sometimes they favor them for the brutality (they often favor brutality)

[pulsar cairn]

i imagine it would also depend on the kind of operation they are running

[upper canopy]

https://bsky.app/profile/tshae.bsky.social/post/3mf4ypxzjik2y

Tshaeness (@tshae.bsky.social)

Post your contextless “Photoshops”.

-# Snipe (@snipethesorrow.bsky.social)
Post your contextless “Photoshops”.

Bluesky · Feb 18, 2026, 11:41 AM

[paper bluff]

Fabius bile keeps a word bearer around with a bomb near his heart. Because he realizes that demons and the seeming mechanisms to control demons is useful, but bile's still a Turbo atheist, and I think the word bearer says, "oh 1 day I'm gonna get bile to believe in the dark gods."

[pastel rampart]

Daemon engines are useful despite their drawbacks so from a practical standpoint there's no reason not to use them, so BL and IW make use of them as much as any other legion/warband.

In the case of the Black Legion they're like 30 different factions in a black trenchcoat kept together by Abaddon's force of will so overall thoughts on daemon engines will vary from warband to warband; Abaddon clearly likes using them because it'll mess up loyalists real good but he's not really interested in the fanatical devotion to the dark gods like some of his underlings might, so further down the ladder thoughts on it will vary. If the big guy says to use'em though, they'll use it.

Iron Warriors very clearly like using them because adding a bunch of chaos juice and a pack full of daemons increases the machine's killing ratio by 50 so yeah let's shove some evil in there, this shit rules. Be sure to paint hazard stripes on there, as a joke.

[broken dew]

that is INCREDIBLY funny

you know what this is

it's this lmao

except the chaos gods instead of christianity

[pastel rampart]

Everything from the Bile trilogy is great, I consider it a must-read because he's such an asshole.

[paper bluff]

One of the most evocative parts of those books
https://youtu.be/Yy-K_f2uq9k?si=Qm1tKZvPzyi8uWzv

[broken dew]

i don't believe in chaos, but i do believe in the usefulness of daemons and warp power. For this reason, i keep a Word Bearer with a bomb rigged to his heart on my ship who believes in the chaos gods. Whenever i want to do affect the warp through the power of the so called chaos gods, i poke him with a stick and he clasps his grubby little hands together and starts chanting in high gothic. His prayers to the chaos gods always go through because he is a true believer of the chaos gods
-Fabius Bile

[pastel rampart]

YEAH

Reading that really clicked like, yeah this is the good shit right here.

[paper bluff]

"I know my crimes!" Said Johnnie Crimes to the crimes god he didn't believe in

[broken dew]

i gotta love Fabius sticking to his guns in this scene

insane thing to do given what is happening but he didn't give a shit

[paper bluff]

Which is also funny because he has his cloned demon daughter

[broken dew]

i like how during that scene all his organs are just turning off

[desert jay]

There's also the other kind of undevout Chaos guy, "I acknowledge their existence, but I don't owe them shit unless I need a favor"

[paper bluff]

Another thing I love from that trilogy is the Relatively sane butcher surgeon

OH and the death guard apothecary with the pet

[pastel rampart]

The death guard is the funniest because he's just so like, chill about everything.

[pulsar cairn]

do you think he has any chances of actually making bile believe? i have a feeling it's a lost cause

[pulsar cairn]

[paper bluff]

He believes he does and that's the key

Oh right! Bile is also becoming a minor warp god

[pulsar cairn]

didnt slaneesh straight up talk to Bile once and he was like "nah, not real" ?

what

how

[paper bluff]

Also close! That is this moment. Slaanesh gazed directly at him and bile went "nah nothing there"

[paper bluff]

So he's responsible for a lot of mutants like a lot a lot and his own race of people. They honor him as the "father of mutants"

You get enough honoring/ worshipping him.......

He is the symbol of their belief

Soooo

[pulsar cairn]

does it make Bile the god or does it create a warp entity in the image of their worship of Bile?

[paper bluff]

Great question

[pulsar cairn]

i always had the same question about the emperor

[paper bluff]

Okay So the emperor is slightly different because he is a psycher. And he also cast a bunch of good human parts of him into the warp. When he was becoming the dark king in the siege of terror so the worship of the emperor does go to the emperor in a manner speaking. But then there's also the physically existing emperor whose mind is in the warp spread out across the Galaxy pretty much

Bile is like.... Brian from. The life of brian

[pulsar cairn]

[paper bluff]

But his being worshipped might directly contribute him being able to pull off multiple bodies and very real plot armor

[pulsar cairn]

i see

it's pretty ironic tho

[paper bluff]

Also, due to those followers, he got the uncorrupted fulgrim clone

[pulsar cairn]

is that the one he sold to the Necron guy?

[paper bluff]

Less sold and more traded

You gotta read the books

[pulsar cairn]

at some point i should

trading your dad is awful tho

[charred bridge]

Cawl also directly calls out Fabius for thinking he can do better than the emperor when he's basically the same, a leader of their people who become worshipped as God's even if they don't see themselves as one

[charred bridge]

Trazyn is playing 40k in 40k

[paper bluff]

TECHNICALLY

Not his dad

What he traded was a physical body that had part of the soul of his dad

His version of his primarch became a demon

[broken dew]

fuckass snake man

[pale narwhal]

There’s mentions in the mechanicus video game of rooms in necron tombs with shelves of miniatures

[atomic apex]

yeah that event is really funny

[paper bluff]

He's more collecting. Perturabo is playing battle fleet Gothic and 40k in 40k

[spice flicker]

Iron warriors have been playing 40k in their free time since 30k.

[pulsar cairn]

is Iron warrior geneseed stable?

[spice flicker]

I wonder if the Iron Warriors are even aware that the Imperial Fists of 40k arent the imperial fists of 30k since the chapter got completely wiped out and was replaced by successors?

[spice flicker]

Iirc it was actually on the more stable side.

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah

[pulsar cairn]

i mean...its still the same geneseed at the very least no?

[floral herald]

It would be funny if they just didn't know

They weren't involved after all

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah from the iron warrior perspective its like

[broken dew]

oh yeah they did just get fucking killed down to the man during War of the Beast didn't they

[jaunty dawn]

Okay the first chapter got wiped out and replaced

That is in fact kinda how the legion is meant to work

[spice flicker]

Yep

[jaunty dawn]

So its less weird for the remnant legions than it is for anyone else really

[floral herald]

And the Fists are one of the most legion-like of the first founding chapters too

[broken dew]

last wall moment

[floral herald]

Since they hang out with their successors and also do centralized recruitment

[jaunty dawn]

Like it was the loyalists who said that only one institution will keep the full battle honours of this regiment

I mean it is still funny to think anout

[spice flicker]

Storyline happens where the Iron Warriors successfully wipe out the Imperial Fists chapter only for a member of a successor chapter to reveal that someone already beat Perty and his son's to the cake of wiping out the IF before. "Yeah this isn't the first time this has happened so dont be too proud of yourselves." Meanwhile an entire replacement for the chapter is already being arranged elsewhere.

[broken dew]

lmao

"we did it, we killed the Imperial Fists!"
"yeah well get in line bud, The Beast of Ullanor already got here before you all did"

[charred bridge]

Perty would be upsetti if he learned a big ork got closer to completely defeating the Fists than he ever did

[broken dew]

for sure

[jaunty dawn]

I think the legion scale is kinda funny becuase like ultramarines a simultaneously up there but from sheer gene share also arent in numbers

[broken dew]

i mean technically he didn't just get close, though that's depending on how you count the legion stuff

[jaunty dawn]

Like theres an ultramarine legion but then also any given loner chapter is also likely to be ultramarine

[charred bridge]

Just a bunch of seeds in the gene vault ig

[broken dew]

if the successors count then yeah but otherwise they did get taken out back by The Beast/s

[charred bridge]

I think primaris was funny cause gman asked if cawl ever finished primaris and cawl's just like, yea I got few million geneseeds ready just give me astartes

[jaunty dawn]

Or like size of the ultramarine legion is really high but its saturation in the ultramarine gene line is lower than a lot of them

[broken dew]

saturation in the ultramarine gene line?

[jaunty dawn]

So like

Last wall gets you almost every imperial fist chapter, almost every dark angel chapter has an inner circle in communion with the rock, etc. thats high saturation

Low saturation is like idk white scars and raven guard who dont do that

Afaik

[charred bridge]

Have White Scars been in anything recently

After like the HH series they just seem to not be in much books

[jaunty dawn]

Ultramarine institutions control a comparable amount of space marines to the imperial fists and dark angels, I think, but that pales in comparison to the fact that the supermajority of all space marines are ultramarines

[broken dew]

mhm

don't they have a whole chapter to pull from for replenishing their main one

Genesis chapter i wanna say?

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah

[pulsar cairn]

sorry, wrong channel

[jaunty dawn]

They are literally the uh

Tiger claws

But for ultramarines

Oh apparently i misremembered the details of the tiger claw lore

And it doesnt really make sense lmao

In any case yeah genesis chapter are just ultramarines expansion pak

[spice flicker]

I feel like the IF, DA, and UM all had different reactions to the changes to chapters format.

IF: we'll do it reluctantly but have plans to rejoin into a legion if needed.
DA: sure we'll totally do that and split up, just ignore the fact most of our successors share the rock as a homeworld or are fleetbound but still tied to the Rock. Totally still not a legion in all but name.

[charred bridge]

My favorite nonsense chapter that doesn't make sense is Carcharodons

[spice flicker]

The space sharks are wonderful

[broken dew]

i wonder how aware Guilliman is of like

chapters with lost history

that don't know who the fuck they hail from

[spice flicker]

Saw a meme recently about the Minotaurs being essentially SM IRS.

[charred bridge]

He probably knows most of the OG chapters before he went into a coma

[spice flicker]

First and maybe 2nd founding at least

[broken dew]

likw i imagine it must be a bit of a shock to him how many random ass chapters that appeared from thin fucking air there are

[charred bridge]

Considering he couldnt get a straight answer for what year it is

[broken dew]

lmao

i suppose he might be desensitized

[charred bridge]

And all of the gaps and contradictions in the archives, probably has low expectations for record keeping

[charred bridge]

Assuming Jaghatai Khan is still alive, he made the right call leaving the mess that is the imperium whether he meant to or not

[broken dew]

poor Guilliman, being the paperwork guy and waking up to the 40k imperium must be apocalyptic

[atomic apex]

is this real or just a joke?

[charred bridge]

Joke of something real

[broken dew]

joke but they actually don't know what year it actually is iirc

[soft willow]

And the Ordo Chronos did have a war over it, but they kinda don't exist anymore.

They may also never have existed now.

[charred bridge]

Ordos Chronos has had a civil war of one side of inquisitors believing all heretical infomation including history should be expunge and the other that it should be studied.

[soft willow]

Time war.

[charred bridge]

Yea one of them went back in time and made sure he was right

[pulsar cairn]

i feel kinda sorry for Guilliman i know he's not a good guy but he's more likeble than most

[broken dew]

he's better than most as well

[charred bridge]

Also noting that being right and being true is different

Possibly gaslit the entire imperium to be right

[broken dew]

mhm

[spice flicker]

As someone who once worked adjacent to management, I understand the feeling of being off work for a while only to come back on duty to discover that you need to take charge because everything has gone to hell in a hand basket while you were off and nobody can tell you exactly what is going on.

[desert jay]

AIUI there is an official date that is maintained on Terra, but whether that date is correct is part of the argument

[broken dew]

yeah

they have an official date but jury is out on if it's right

[desert jay]

And also synchronizing with that date is... spotty

[broken dew]

woe, 10k year work backlog be upon ye

[charred bridge]

Correct is also an issue with warp travel being RNG with travel time

[desert jay]

They also have FTL comms via astropaths, which is the primary date synchronization method

[broken dew]

routing the phone line through a guys head into hell and then back out another guys head does feel a bit of a spotty communication method

[charred bridge]

Tbf most everything in the imperium involves stuff going through a head, eg cognitators

[broken dew]

true

[paper bluff]

Hey, now the source for those message is also the warp.And it came to me in the dream

[charred bridge]

Warp based witchery

I only get divinations from the blessed emperor's tarot

[spice flicker]

Which faction/army has the best combat patrol at the moment?

[wide veldt]

Jesus Christ I just saw the Necromunda genestealers

What the fuck is going on down there

[jaunty dawn]

Badness

[charred bridge]

They're fighting for their lives down there

[broken dew]

they are fr on double time

[wide veldt]

Dare I say I like them more than normal genestealers tho

[charred bridge]

I love necromunda as a setting, it gets wild in the underhive

[wide veldt]

Like holy shit

[charred bridge]

There's probably been a latent psyker that popped their head into a portal and the daemons just got murked and closed the portal. Daemon Engine got its chaos catalytic converters stolen

[wide veldt]

I wanna take these and replace normal purestrain fellas

With this guys

For 40k GSC

LMAO sorry I just read their lore

The Malstrains call out to the hive mind still but the hive mind looks at the signal and goes

That’s uh

I’m not doing that

[charred bridge]

Theyre not calling out to the hive fleet to bring an invasion, theyre sending out an SOS

[wide veldt]

LMAO

“MOM PLEASE COME PICK US UP”

“SHIT SUCKS SO BAD HERE

[broken dew]

Malstrains looking at Necromunda knowing the hivemind did not want any part of that shit

[charred bridge]

Love stupid deadly planets, catachan being left alone by both daemons and tyranids

Necromunda is my favorite death world

[broken dew]

i do love the fucking uh, catachan stuff

especially the implication that some of the weird things on that planet are related to nid scouting elements

[floral herald]

It’s kinda funny how this keeps happening

[charred bridge]

Necromundan Genestealers: Where you at?
-# read

[broken dew]

lmao

[charred bridge]

I forget, arent there genestealer cults in commoragh

[pastel rampart]

Genestealer cults are kinda everywhere honestly

[charred bridge]

And theyre just allowed to exist as they make things worse for the human slave populations and not a threat to drukhari, also fasionable bug bits

[jaunty dawn]

I think my favourite necromunda weirdness is that the native xenos of the planet are sentient fish but unfortunately the planet no longer has bodies of water

[charred bridge]

I would have many questions about Necron Genestealer

[mental birch]

Iirc most genestealer cults stall out

[broken dew]

that is quite amusing

[jaunty dawn]

Theyre not letting that stop them though

[charred bridge]

Ah yes the psychic deep core fish

[dense sedge]

I love malstrain

[finite compass]

Cadia: Gets invaded by Chaos. Planet breaks in half.

Catachan: Gets invaded by Chaos. Planet eats the invaders before the human population really notices anything amiss.

Any questions?

[wide veldt]

So like

They don’t in like…. Game

Because it would be too much work

But there’s gotta be genestealer cults of other races right

Like Orks and Eldar

[pastel rampart]

Yes.

[raven meteor]

There are yes
Iirc a whole craft world got genestealerd

[pine matrix]

I remember in the lore that genestealer orks get sniffed out real quick for not being "orky" and merked, so they don't get too far

[raven meteor]

And there's also that insane Tau lore I told you about

[quaint compass]

Or are delegated to the outskirts of ork towns

[pine matrix]

Love the back banner

[quaint compass]

Da Four-Armed Gork! (or Mork!)

[broken dew]

listened to Sangy's speech at eternity gate again

[charred bridge]

Eldar are highly psychic and would immediately notice a genestealer eldar hybrid

Not to say it cant happen but theyd be killed or ostrasized very quick before it can spread

Also considering Eldar dont really have kids anymore itd be difficult to propagate

Tau have found Genestealers but are able to do genetic tests to sus them out if need and iirc they just allowed genestealers to be around because they didnt realize the connection with the tyranids.

[jaunty dawn]

Zombie plague vs rudimentary epidemiology

Um

Idk though the thing is like eldar are highly psychic. An eldar genestealer is also gonna be highly psychic

[charred bridge]

Yea and they'd sus out that Eldar is different somehow and emitting a psychic beacon

[jaunty dawn]

Id argue more like

The genestealer hybrid is gonna be using its own power to actively avoid that

Like uh

[charred bridge]

There is a case of a craftworld infected by genestealers

[jaunty dawn]

Genestealer cults go unnoticed not just underresponded

[charred bridge]

Although it wasnt that the patriarch fooled the Eldar and hid amongst them but convinced the Eldar that they were an Avatar of Khaine and got everyone to get infected so shadow in the warp will cut them off from Slaanesh

Genestealer cults also take generations for it to get stronger and Eldar arent having kids.

[jaunty dawn]

Even if not every human is a psyker its not like you can just take a psyker and use them to x ray vision every genesetealer on a planet

[charred bridge]

Genestealer cult going undetected is just extremely unlikely for Eldar, it doesnt take a lot for Eldar to detect hybrids

[jaunty dawn]

I think that just like

[charred bridge]

Human Psykers arent on the same level as Eldar

[jaunty dawn]

Idk at the end of the day its 40k

Good human psykers are better than non seer eldar

[charred bridge]

And in Rogue Trader video game there is basically that exact ritual you described that used astropaths to sus out a genestealer cult

[jaunty dawn]

Its always gonna be a competing thing with different lore

But my point is mostly that genestealers arent chumps

[charred bridge]

It just hasnt happened it, genestealers and Eldar only have one interaction afaik and they were sussed out quick

[jaunty dawn]

I mean that sounds like a cool scene and thats fine

[sour sequoia]

I mean. The entire craftworld was destroyed for it

[jaunty dawn]

If that actually worked as a regular counter strategy to genestealers they wouldnt cosntantly succeed

[sour sequoia]

The problem with genestealers is always that they’re fucking everywhere and the moment you underestimate them you are now also a genestealer

[charred bridge]

Yea but it was cause the patriarch tricked them into taking it despite them knowing they were genestealers

[sour sequoia]

Much like tabletop

[jaunty dawn]

Like im not trying to diminish other cool things factions can do

[sour sequoia]

Your Trick Only Worked Because We Fell For It

[jaunty dawn]

Im just saying that genestealers are also a cool faction that do cool things

[charred bridge]

They knew the patriach was a genestealer but super desperate and thought the patriarch had a good idea of shadow in the warp would protect them for slaanesh

[charred bridge]

Patriarch failed the stealth trick
Patriarch succeeded on the charisma trick

[charred bridge]

I never said otherwise

They just have a bad track history with many factions.

Tau one they genestealers also are super easily detected by genetic tests and kroots literally sniff them out. They lost a planet not because they went unnoticed but because the Ethereal in charge purposefully let it get bad to see where it'd go, which was very poorly

Idk if genestealer orks are still canon or thats old old lore

[wide veldt]

could u remind me

also okay

thats fair but consider

they would be eldar hybrid genestealers

so tbh they could say that theyre just really good at masking the shadow

[charred bridge]

Drukhari have an issue with them cause they let genestealers roam but the issue isnt genestealers infecting Drukhari but genestealers ruining the human slave areas, at first it was fun but now theyre actually becoming an issue cause the Drukhari thought it was fun to let them cause more suffering for the humans

[wide veldt]

and id be like "yeah that tracks"

[raven meteor]

The one where tau scientists infected tons of the own dudes with genestealers to see what would happen because they weren't Racist Enough

[charred bridge]

If it comes up then sure

[wide veldt]

Oh right yeah

That

Lmao

votann would be prime for genestealin i think

well... the clone thing

[charred bridge]

They dont really reproduce normally, they get handmade as clones

[wide veldt]

fair

maybe as a slower burn

[jaunty dawn]

Get into a votann yeah

[wide veldt]

anyway yeah tbh i think it would just have to be like

different strains

that work differently

which is v tyranid anyhow

[charred bridge]

Are Squats clones?

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah

They have a votann

Or maybe a couple

[floral herald]

They're artificially gestated but I'm not sure if they're genetic clones per se

Or just like genetically designed by their Votann

[charred bridge]

Are Squats just now part of Votann or are they their own thing

[jaunty dawn]

Uh

All space dwarfs are called squats and also are part of the votann civilisation

Are called that by humans I mean

Who realise theyre talking to a humanoid

If they see one with idk scales and hanging out with tau theyre like aaaa an alien

[wide veldt]

so also quick q

[charred bridge]

When I mean squats I mean Ironhead Squats

[jaunty dawn]

But also seperate from that theres a faction that is still-

Yeah

[main pagoda]

i think squats tend to refer to those living in imperial space

[wide veldt]

is tyranid shooting like... unplayable? or is it just that there isnt a detatch that specifically is crazy about it

[jaunty dawn]

The ironhead squats are like squats tm squats

They have votann on necromunda

[wide veldt]

i watched the new poorhammer video and it reminded me how much i love tyranids

[main pagoda]

while votann are well votann

[jaunty dawn]

Like they dont hang out with any other clans afaik but

Theyre the same guys

Oh

Okay

Might be mistaken

So for one theres one of them but its fate is unknown

And uh

The ironheads arent tellin I guess

[pastel rampart]

Kroot can sniff them out pretty easily and are one of the ways Tau check for any potential hybrids.

[jaunty dawn]

Whether they get babies delivered by a storkbot or not

[tepid stratus]

Yeah they check for genestealers the same way they check for Callidus assassin's, genetic scans and kroot vibe checks

[jaunty dawn]

Oh no okay I mean theyre not telling but theyve also fully lost it

So uh

Yeah I guess theyve probably stopped cloning

Hm

Maybe they still have their internet terminals

But lost access to other things

Conflicting sources

Idk. They lost their core and this has degraded their ability to do votann shit but they are still able to do some amount of votann shit because it still gives them an edge. I think one source is directly euphemising that they fuck

[sour sequoia]

Tyranids are better in shooting than in melee on the whole

[wide veldt]

oh!

[sour sequoia]

Exocrines, zoanthropes, tyrannofexes, norns all have extremely good guns

[jaunty dawn]

And is the more recent and focused source

[sour sequoia]

Shoutout Funney Haruspex Gun

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah tyranid shooting is actually really good generally

And melee super anaemic this edition because

Uh

[sour sequoia]

Melee runs into an issue where str 11/12+ Doesn’t Exist

[jaunty dawn]

Like early codex syndrome is a big part of it

But even then it was like really obvious on release that the melee was incredibly undertuned

[sour sequoia]

But you’ve also got stuff like hyper-adapted and regular raveners or big broodlord + genestealer bricks that will kinda eat whatever they want

[jaunty dawn]

Woah raveners

I think part of it is a lot of the detachments arent great but theres a lot of datasheets and some are good?

[wide veldt]

oh i didnt really know melee was bad this editions

[jaunty dawn]

they dont need a rule to make it better

[sour sequoia]

Melee’s really good and they forgot to give tyranids any

[wide veldt]

ahhh

[jaunty dawn]

Like even compared to like bladeguard justicar and other stuff

Kinda baffling

[sour sequoia]

So then you get your shit rocked by five space marines painted red because everything is powerfists and thunder hammers without initiative now

[wide veldt]

also oh my god

the swarmlord is mean

having a chance to increase the cost of enemy strats is

a real dickhead aura

[floral herald]

His whole job is to ragebait lore wise so it makes sense

[tepid stratus]

You've got the haruspex and the winged give tyrant... That's about it

[wide veldt]

initiative used to determine what order stuff fought in?

right?

[main pagoda]

ye

[sour sequoia]

Yeah. Initiative was bad in a few ways but it did mean you could balance punchy weapons by making em slower to activate

Could get some pretty involved trading between units

[jaunty dawn]

But um historically zoanthropes are really solid though vary in if theyre a shooting unit or not. And then the big shooty bugs they added are pretty massive, cause exocrine is just like mega plasma (and plasma is always super efficient) cannon the bug and tyrannofex is even bigger gun the bug. There was also hive guard which were an indirect menace for so long before being sent to a farm upstate

[wide veldt]

I love how like

The changes to psychic didn’t matter much for a lot of mods

[sour sequoia]

Maleceptors also crank

[wide veldt]

Cause they already Cast Gun

In like

Most editions

[sour sequoia]

Great news Hive Guard are back to fucking

[wide veldt]

Nids, Jesus

[jaunty dawn]

What!!!

[sour sequoia]

Subterranean does funny things

[wide veldt]

Oh?

[floral herald]

A lot of Tyranid psychic powers were actually in the current format

[jaunty dawn]

Thats so funny

[floral herald]

Just like a gun or special ability

[wide veldt]

Oh yeah

Makes sense

Nids casting spells feels weird

[jaunty dawn]

Im getting the impression that like tyranids have just been given deep strike on everything and its fixed them

It was also their invulns

But also their 2+ save

[wide veldt]

Were they not good this edition or smth ?

[floral herald]

They've been fine

But not super strong

[wide veldt]

Mhmhm

Which is funny cause this was supposed to be the edition where they were the baddies

[jaunty dawn]

Its a pretty common thing to happen

Uh

Its just when space marines fall behind its more alarm bells

Because that likes 50% of players

Or w/e

[wide veldt]

Mhm

[raven meteor]

Space Marine 2 made me like Tyrannids a lot
I like that some of them have Bone Swords
So silly
Just
Give Them Claws, Hivemind

[wide veldt]

Swords are better tho

[jaunty dawn]

Which is why they get stuff happen like bolter discipline and armour of contempt etc

[raven meteor]

Hivemind is aura farming

[wide veldt]

I mean the deathleaper had a fucking cape so

Yeah

[floral herald]

Boneswords are much scarier than claws though

[wide veldt]

It kinda is

[floral herald]

Since they're sapient swords which eat your soul

[wide veldt]

What

[floral herald]

Mechanically speaking they were force weapons

[jaunty dawn]

But if youre 9e necrons or 10 e nids its . You still get a lot more help than you wouldve done but you also regularly need that help haha

[wide veldt]

Nids eat your soul???

[jaunty dawn]

Bone swords have little brains hanging off em

[raven meteor]

No I just mean,
It's funny to think of an animal Evolving a sickass sword instead of claws that do the same thing

[wide veldt]

And next edition it’ll be drukhari let’s go drukhari it’s dhrukari time

What do you mean it’s ikit claw in space

[jaunty dawn]

Hopefully

[floral herald]

A bonesword is living organism, which has a small brain situated deep within its hilt and has a rudimentary sentience that allows it to gradually grow in length and repair any battle damage to itself and maintain a deadly monomolecular edge. However, it is completely slaved to the will of its wielder and is incapable of any independent thought.[1] The weapon is made of chitin and constantly crackles with powerful psychic energy that flows along embedded nerve tendrils to create a psychic field around the blade, effectively creating a biological version of a force weapon.

[jaunty dawn]

The bit between the arm and the handle

[wide veldt]

That brain exists purely to generate a psi field?

That’s delightful

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah

Its funny though the thing cyan quoted saying that its also responsible for growing the sword and giving it an edge and its like dawg crystals grow theyre arent even alive

[misty violet]

All the Tyranid weapons that aren't just teeth and claws are smaller organisms. Some of them even have eyes and aim themselves

[jaunty dawn]

I think all the guns have one or more eyes

[wide veldt]

Teah I just did t know that applied to swords

[jaunty dawn]

Though really not like. Useful eyes honestly

They have prey eyes

[misty violet]

I have such mixed feelings about the boneswords. On the one hand they're completely ridiculous when the same organism could just have scything talons, on the other hand a Tyranid with an actual sword delights me

I almost wish there was some lore aside about Boneswords being evolved directly to counter all the guys with swords in 40k

[jaunty dawn]

Ngl I think the scything talons are actually the less realistic weapon

Swords are good at doing sword thing

I was gonna say where are all the tyranids with spears but uh they have guns and also flesh hooks and also

But

At the same time I actually do totally agree and I remember when bone swords for warriors came out I thought they looked really dumb

[misty violet]

Huh, this is my first time really taking a close look at boneswords and I had assumed they were more or less fused to the Tyranid's hand like almost all Tyranid guns are

But they do appear to actually be holding them, with the little tendril connected to their wrist admittedly, but not fused

Actually it's hard to say

The Hive Guard bonesword is clearly something it's just holding

The Warrior it's fused to the hand more

[misty violet]

To my credit, all my warriors are Bonesword warriors rather than Scything Talon warriors just because they've grown on me that much

[jaunty dawn]

It has grown on me too

[misty violet]

My contention is more that if it's going to be fused to the hand, as it seems to be with the warrior, why is it sword shaped? But I guess the same could be said of the termagaunt guns with obvious AK magazines

[pastel rampart]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/8/8d/Tyranidwarrior1990-2.jpg

[misty violet]

See if they had kept it just "This thing has swords, not even symbiotic bioweapons" I would honestly like them even more

[jaunty dawn]

I refuse to acknowledge pre 4e nids 😌

Except

Bugulon genesestlers

[wide veldt]

Also Jesus

[jaunty dawn]

They can stay

[wide veldt]

6 tyrant guard + swarmlord is just

Impossible

To kill

It’s so many wounds

As such high toughness

[pastel rampart]

I love the goofy 2e nids.

[jaunty dawn]

Bugulon genestealer

Intellectually I can like

recognise og nids

And like i see why people like them

[pastel rampart]

Genestealers haven't really changed much since Space Hulk.

https://i.etsystatic.com/8870251/r/il/f637e9/2042996952/il_fullxfull.2042996952_h31w.jpg

Whereas like, hive tyrants change a lot

[jaunty dawn]

But my love for nids is too tied to like specifically battle for macragge nostalgia for my brain to ever accept it

I dont even really deal with like the anphelios flying hive tyrant haha

[tepid stratus]

Yeah without context I would have called this a warrior

[pastel rampart]

This is the 3rd ed tyrant, which is when GW started aiming for a more cohesive look for the 'nids.

So that head-shape was standard for a number of models.

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah like

Its pretty much the ur model for the 4e unified aesthetic

I do like the harridan though

Even as much as like

[pastel rampart]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/e/e8/Tyrant_guard_3rd3.jpg though tyrand guard were uh...this.

[jaunty dawn]

Nowadays recognise it as being more 3e

Nooooo

Tyrant guard 😭

[tepid stratus]

Ah hello immortis guard.

[jaunty dawn]

Fuck *6e tyrant guard too though

[pastel rampart]

They were doofy as hell and not in a fun way (also metal and in single blisters so, expensive)

[jaunty dawn]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:TyrantGuardMini.jpg

Bol

[pastel rampart]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/b/b3/Tyranid_Carnifex_2.jpg the 3e carnifex was kinda fun tho, very beetle-like.

TINY compared to the plastic kit just a handful of years later.

[jaunty dawn]

Like literally every one of these images is a jump scare to me 😭

[zinc field]

Apparently this is the OG tyranid

honestly not that much of an evolution to get to the termigant

[jaunty dawn]

Theres a version of beetle carnifex that was old one eye tho

Um

[pastel rampart]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/e/e0/Old_One_Eye_mini.jpg

[jaunty dawn]

Before they decided that generic carnifex with regeneration counts as old one eye in stock yep

I wonder when theyll decide to make the red terror again

I mean thats kinda what the mawloc was really

But gw is so about that more than ever its gotta happen

Eventually

[pastel rampart]

We haven't seen it since 3rd and that was 25-ish years ago. Kind of unlikely.

[jaunty dawn]

Wait

Im

Confused did they

What is thisss

It was sold mto in 2023

5th edition??

[misty violet]

3rd originally I think

[pastel rampart]

That was 3rd, yeah

[jaunty dawn]

No

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/42/990600106035_Tyranid_Red_Terror.jpg

this is 3rd

[rocky shale]

It is also 380 points haha

[jaunty dawn]

Am I just being bamboozled by posing

(And paint)

[rocky shale]

The T8 3+ 4W profile is pretty tough but you do get blasted by S10 autocannons and such

[pastel rampart]

That's the same model.

GW rereleased it for a bit in resin a couple years ago.

[jaunty dawn]

Thats bananas

[sonic hare]

why

[jaunty dawn]

Like doing it mto is whatever sure

[finite compass]

Does the Red Terror even have rules anymore?

[pastel rampart]

Hey, they MTO'd a bunch of ancient space marine models a week ago. Why not 'nids?

[jaunty dawn]

It only ever had rules in 3e

But it was mentioned in the 5e codex

Uh

Rules wise though its the mawloc like the mawloc is just the red terror

Mechanically

Like the neurothrope and the doom of malantai

[finite compass]

I do like how Tyranids did special characters

Less "This is a named character and hero of the faction" and more "this might be a one-off and what the hell even is this"

[pastel rampart]

Yeah, GW eventually just made a select number of special characters either default models or some upgrade/variant on a normal unit.

[jaunty dawn]

But yeah I just think its wild that they did a massive glow up studio paint job for a model they were just selling for 5 seconds

Like

[pastel rampart]

Not that 'nids have ever had much in the way of special characters, there's like...4? and the Swarm Lord is the only one that has survived.

[jaunty dawn]

Old one eye is still around isnt he

[pastel rampart]

Nope.

Just make a carnifex with regeneration. scything talons, and crushing claws. Same thing mechanically.

[tepid stratus]

His datasheet still exists

[pastel rampart]

Does it? Weird.

[tepid stratus]

He's a leader for carnifexes

[jaunty dawn]

Yeah literally

Pff

The parasite of mortrex was a named character

[pale narwhal]

deathleaper is still around

[jaunty dawn]

But when they brought it back and gave it a model they didnt actually make it a name character anymore

Deathleaper

I knew there were three

[pale narwhal]

only the red terror doesn't have a datasheet anymore in any capacity

[jaunty dawn]

In terms of anything that ever had models yeah

[wide veldt]

okay i gured

it has too specific a name

also just wanna say that von ryans leapers is such an ass name

for a nid

[pastel rampart]

It's an old-ass name they dropped back in 3rd.

Originally not connected to tyranids.

[wide veldt]

they...s hould probably change it

[pastel rampart]

Why?

[wide veldt]

its weird and doesn't really fit the rest of the line

[jaunty dawn]

5e threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall (swarmlord, brought back old one eye, deathleaper, doom of malantai, parasite of mortrex, ymgarl genestealers)

Its a brand new unit haha

And like

The name is meant to expand the possibility

If that makes sense

A lot of its just fanservice nostalgiabait

[pastel rampart]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Ryan's_Express That and it's another pop culture reference.

[jaunty dawn]

Like yeah I can understand not liking it but it was a name given knowing it wouldnt fit what the theme had historically looked like

Though its kinda similar to genestealer

Or ripper

[pastel rampart]

Or like, a ton of unit names in the game.

[jaunty dawn]

This was after 4e decided not to have any at all (blanking old one eye and red terror)

Which was the only real time that like

Tyranids actually did not have named characters

That you put on the table

Swarmlord ended up being really popular and is like way more of a personality than either of the preexisting ones

Got put in the updated plastic tyrant

The latter three were quickly abandoned in the next codex, though the doom became the neurothrope when plastic zoanthropes came out and the parasite was eventually made a thing

Ymgarl mechanics were adapted to a recurring relic

[soft willow]

God the Red Terror was an awful model back then.

[jaunty dawn]

I think the repaint looks really good!

[soft willow]

Like may actually be up there in terms of one of the worst models to keep together of all time.

[jaunty dawn]

and its the same model!

Okay metal vs resin makes a big difference there

[soft willow]

Yeah.

Like I don't mind it being goofy toothed and mega clawed, but when it was metal it was basically a given that you would break it twice a match and on the way in/out of your shop.

[jaunty dawn]

A lot more pieces than like

Okay abaddon your arms fell off

Red terror disintegrates

Breaks apart like a lego game

Im so glad we have magnets now

Instead of foam

[charred bridge]

Necron guns sag

[tepid stratus]

It's just anxiety we swear

[charred bridge]

Look your guns would go limp if you were asleep for 65 million years too

[tepid stratus]

My phaeron says my gauss rifle is very potent!

It's just not as big as her staff of light...

[charred bridge]

Smh Necrons have gone woke, matriarch's staffs are larger than patriarch's staff

[tepid stratus]

She wasn't always our matriarch but that changed

Stasis sleep is a very introspective thing to those privileged enough to have all their mental faculties

[sweet solar]

tey should add a necromundan malstrain reverse genestealer cult

mechanicus magus biologis is just like
"i can work with this"

aproaches hybridizarion from the other side for n9n genestealer benifit

[sweet solar]

nid names are all imperial codenames

tyranids dont call themselves anything

its like nato reporting names

i personally think they should lean into this more and retcon genestealers to have been first encountered on planet gene by magos stealer

because its be funny

[charred bridge]

I think about Arkhan Land often

[broken dew]

i always think of Jimmy Space when i remember Arkhan Land

"It's revealed his name is Jimmy Space, and they are his Space Marines"

lets not forget Amar Astarte, Chief Scientist in charge of making the Astartes

https://youtu.be/IJOIaEzGe8o?si=m5GeyOVohT8WZ1rh

[paper bluff]

I love that the patriarch remade the tech priest that is responsible for its existence

[wide veldt]

OOOOOOOOOOO

also

man hive tyrants are weird

i want one that is ranged but it doesn't have lone op and can only be embedded in a dedicated melee guy

[jaunty dawn]

Walky tyrants are like

Basically tanks right

Less wounds I guess

But yeah its okay tyrants have always done alright without any character protection

4++ does work

[wide veldt]

okay ball

[jaunty dawn]

Thats the neat thing about nids :)

[dense sedge]

malstrains have a terrifying profile
most necromunda leaders are
m4" ws/bs 3+/4+ (depending on speciality) a2 s3 t3 w2
a malstrain is
m6' ws3+ a3 s4 t4 w3
with a native 5+ armor and -1ap on their attacks

[raven meteor]

The Tyrannofex gun is so silly
What do they put in the bug rifle to make it 'only gets beaten by the shadowsword gun'

[atomic apex]

lots of acid

[raven meteor]

Apparently, a tick made of matter and a seed made out of antimatter
(Slightly hyperbolic, just two materials that apparently react extremely viciously with eachother)

[finite compass]

IIRC Tau was the same way, at least originally.

Eldar are explicitly like "This does technically translate to 'Falcon' but we're a bunch of filthy Mon'keigh so that's missing a few million layers of poetry and subtle meaning."

[dense sedge]

It’s annoying how necromunda nomads feel like they’re taxed for a bunch of rules that explicitly only work in ash wastes campaigns, gw has a strange design philosophy for them

[desert jay]

If I search this the answer is probably gonna be something like "living ammo that literally chews its way into tanks with monomolecular teeth"

Nope it's weirder

Rupture Cannon — Launches two cannonballs in quick succession. The first is a bloated tick that bursts upon impact, showering the target in oil. The second is a hard, virtually impenetrable seedpod. The fluid from the first hit dissolves the shell of the second in a fraction of a second, causing a massive implosion of the target powerful enough to force armoured vehicles inside out.

(There's also the Fleshborer Hive which does have living ammo that eats targets, but it's anti-infantry)

[misty violet]

The rupture cannon is pretty close to the goofiest weapon the Tyranids employ

Why does it need to fire a tick that explodes into oil? Why not just shoot the oil itself? What about melting the seed causes a catastrophic, vortex grenade level implosion?

I get that the Tyranids are evolving new bioweapons so sometimes the solutions are going to be a little less straightforward than weapons that were engineered but what da hell

At least with the exocrine they're just making a biological plasma cannon

[rocky shale]

Nid gun lore is just sorta an adlib of bug words, plant words, and chemistry technobabble

[junior summit]

Also goop

[finite compass]

Honestly Bio-Plasma is more believable

Or the classic Venom Cannon "Giant chunk of crystalized toxins accelerated to mach fuck"

[runic swallow]

And the whole binary-pyrotechnic flamethrower thing

Which isn’t that far from reality tbh

[sweet solar]

i cant wait for them to evolve a biological shock attack gun to telaport spore mines inside of enemy vehicles

[runic swallow]

Spore mines are kinda hilarious because they’re just literally born to just drift towards movement and explode

[desert jay]

Now thinking of how FC Chariots of Steel has a gremlin grenade for anti-tank purposes

Gremlins just like to take things apart and put them back together, they're even pretty good at the "back together" part

The issue is just that tank combat is the least opportune time for this to happen to a tank

[pulsar cairn]

who's that?

[broken dew]

Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels

during the siege of terra he gave a speech at Eternity Gate, which was the last defence they had against the traitors at the end of the siege iirc

[pulsar cairn]

[broken dew]

essentially told the defenders that they were all gonna die and he respected if they wanted to go die elsewhere, but his speech was so good that nobody left