AlistairB1983

For the overwhelming majority of assessments, yes.

Whilst there doesn't exist a rule saying you must impose a blanket ban on AI websites, JCQ's recent guidance makes it clear that not only must there be an ban during assessments, it also says that a universal ban should be considered:

According to JCQ, yes. Regardless of whatever our own personal opinions on the subject are, the fact is JCQ have set down a number of rules and regulations which have to be followed. Failure to do so could lead to not only individual candidate malpractice, and thereby risk their qualifications, but centre malpractice which risks the qualifications of every student. Is our current system of examinations fit for purpose? Hell no. As someone who works within it I can give you a whole list of different ways/reasons that it needs to be fixed. Unfortunately it's not up to me to do the fixing - all I can do is operate within the boundaries laid down by JCQ. And this is one such boundary - no access to ChatGPT/similar.

Well, having played my first game of it last night, I must admit I am very much taken with this edition as opposed to previous ones. The lack of bookkeeping in terms of victory points is an absolutely massive improvement, it really is hard to overstate how much this has increased my enjoyment of it. Admittedly this was the basic scenario in the rule book, so the devil (as with everything GW) will be in the detail of the missions etc. but fingers crossed they keep the 'simplicity' which they seem to have been aiming for everywhere else into the missions/objectives. I really liked some of the small/minor things they've included - a Tau stratagem that allows them to emergency re-embark on a Devilfish if they're assaulted! The 'free' wargear, however, does feel like it's definitely an issue. My Redemptor took a free Icarus rocket pod, which has anti-fly 2. Unfortunately (for him), my opponent plays Tau, so over the course of the game it pumped out about 20 or so mortal wounds onto Crisis Teams/Hammerheads/Devilfish. Now granted this was one unit in one circumstance, but I can't help but feel this is definitely going to be something that imbalances between armies - my GSC getting free upgrades are never going to be as effective/efficient as my marines getting them. And I dread to think how useful/powerful this could be for IG players! Honestly I think it would be a shame if this continued for the entirety of this edition as I think it will mean you just don't see some versions/weapons, as the meta will quickly decide what's 'best' and that will just be spammed with little/no thought involved. Also, on a minor side, slightly (understatement!) annoyed by GW changing the weapon allocations for some units to match what comes in the box. Sure, going forward that's really helpful. Less so when you've an entire Ad Mech army that's now virtually useless as they're all doubled up on special/heavy weapons!

For the same reason they care about 'essay writing' services or similar - it's potential malpractice.

I mean, sometimes it being free is a little ... odd. Like the choice between a lascannon and a plasma cannon is one I'd be okay with being 'free' (ie no points difference) as they do similar but different jobs. But thinks like vehicles being able to add all their sponson/extra weapons for free is where is feels really awkward. I mean I could take this basic dreadnought, or I could take one that's armed to the eyeball, for the same price. Why would you ever not? I too think somehow they'll reintroduce wargear costs, I'm just not sure how they'll do it. I initially thought in the codex when it gets released, but that would kinda undermine the 'free to play' notion - unless they're going to eventually make the 'f2p' version of 40k a very much introductionary only system (which wouldn't surprise me!). - - - Updated - - - I mean, sometimes it being free is a little ... odd. Like the choice between a lascannon and a plasma cannon is one I'd be okay with being 'free' (ie no points difference) as they do similar but different jobs. But thinks like vehicles being able to add all their sponson/extra weapons for free is where is feels really awkward. I mean I could take this basic dreadnought, or I could take one that's armed to the eyeball, for the same price. Why would you ever not? I too think somehow they'll reintroduce wargear costs, I'm just not sure how they'll do it. I initially thought in the codex when it gets released, but that would kinda undermine the 'free to play' notion - unless they're going to eventually make the 'f2p' version of 40k a very much introductionary only system (which wouldn't surprise me!).

Yeah .... Not quite sure how I feel about this to be honest. On the one hand I do like the simplicity of having all the points for wargear etc. included in the points cost of the unit. However on the other hand I dislike the 'leftover' points I'm finding when I'm writing all my lists! One '1000 point' list comes in at 915, because all the other units I have are at least 90 points. Now I don't expect (m)any of my usual opponents to care about me going 5 points over, but I still don't like doing it, and it just feels wrong to call a list 'done' pretty much as soon as it tops out over 900 points. But have first game this evening so I guess I'll see what my friend's list looks like at that point too - see how well Tau can squeeze out those last few points.

Has anyone else read any of the unit cards/rules that GW have been releasing? I had a quick flick through the GSC ones last night (I have a small force of them, <1000 points worth) and was ... surprised by how very strong everything seemed to be! From the Cult Icons (i.e. banners) bringing back dead guys, to their new strategems essentially being all the really strong ones from the previous book, all now massively cost reduced! It'll be interesting to see how things actually play out, but from initial viewings it did look as if, for GSC at least, this edition is going to give them a massive power boost!

Previous school used Arbor and still had SISRA - although that was when Arbor was in its infancy in terms of secondary school users. I'm aware its reporting system has come on a long way since then. Current school is moving MIS (most likely Arbor) and will be holding onto SISRA - mainly for the national comparisons. SISRA has almost 50% of the country cohort using it, Arbor unfortunately does not. So for the foreseeable future we'll be using both our new MIS and SISRA.

Woof !

Very interesting to see the movement between MIS'. 11 schools moved from Bromcom to Arbor, but none went in the other direction. But perhaps more 'interesting' is that 3 schools went from Arbor to SIMS! And another 3 went from Integris G2 back to SIMS! I can only assume (/hope) these are as a result of trust-level decisions to unify MIS across all schools, because if a single school is voluntarily choosing to return to SIMS ...

Tabletop gaming (Bolt Action, Warhammer etc.) mostly, including the building & painting aspects of them - currently building/painting another Sherman for my Free French force and a Stug III G for my Romanians. That and TTRPG (D&D, Starfinder, Shadowrun etc.). Means I mostly stay out of the Mrs' way around the house, which she seems to appreciate.

Lucifer is definitely worth watching all the way through - the ending is extremely well done.

Mine always used to call them 'Snake & Pigmy', which as a child I was convinced was to try and make me laugh/want to eat them. However, as an adult I've realised it's because it winds my mother up no end!

I don't use it in my current school - although on Friday we did have our first meeting with them about moving over (so will hopefully do so from next year!) - however I did use it extensively in my last school (2018-2022). So not only was I essentially the only person in the school who really understood how it worked, I also got to see how it changed from when I joined (when it was essentially a primary MIS with secondary 'tacked on') to when I left (a complete rival (if not superior) to SIMS). My view across the 4 years changed - to start with it was horrible, absolutely horrendous due to it's lack of flexibility. I couldn't understand why I couldn't just make or hide columns on marksheets, like SIMS. Everything just seemed to be designed around KS2/Primary users, as we were one of very few secondary schools using the product at the time (approx. 30 or so if I remember right back in 2018). However as the years progressed they updated and refined Arbor more and more, and also came out and did some on-site training with me one summer when everyone else was off, so that I could get the assessments built for the following year exactly how SLT wanted them (I pretty much knew most of it, but she did show me a few improvements/alternatives). By the time I left in 2022 to join my current school, I was genuinely impressed with Arbor day-to-day. It did virtually everything I needed it to, and usually in a format quicker/more obvious than with SIMS. Having now returned to a school using SIMS (for now!) I hate the fact that some things require going into about 4 different menus to fix. Census, for example, in Arbor you run the census and in the 'report' page where it lists the errors and queries, you can click on and fix most of them from within that page. In SIMS you have to load one page with the list of errors/queries, then go somewhere else to input the data, then go back to the census page and re-run it etc. Arbor it's all on the one page (assuming you have the missing info), and you can do it with a couple of clicks and then *poof*, goodbye error. Not only that, but they do all the importing of patches/updates/basedata (for exams) automatically, so you don't have to do anything! Which as a DM/EO in my last role was an absolute blessing. So personally, I absolutely love it. So much so that I've convinced my current school to move over to it.

Why cross through something only to write it exactly the same the second time?

Congratulations! However we didn't get accepted, so sadly can't help with anything further. Though wishing you luck going forwards #jealous

My OH will not want me sharing this story ... but she doesn't read here, so I think I'm safe We live in Reading where the bus routes all have colours associated with them, as well as numbered e.g. the 13/14 buses are the Orange route, the 17 is the purple route etc. Anyway, sat in the car at some traffic lights one day as a dark red dark red bus drives past us. "Oh look" she exclaims, "the Clarey (claret) bus". Queue me bursting into a fit of giggles, which she definitely wasn't impressed with. Even less so now, when I mention the incident whenever we see another of those coloured buses.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves Saw this yesterday with the OH (who is in no way a 'geek') and both absolutely loved it. I enjoyed several of the 'inside' jokes, but not getting them had no impact on her enjoyment of the film. It reminded me very much of a Marvel film in terms of the overall presentation/humour. Think Guardians of the Galaxy, but in Fantasy not Sci Fi - though possibly with a better storyline (although it's still not going to win any awards for it).

Sounds similar to what Top Gear experienced when they tried to make a shuttle. Albeit, one would hope, with a lot more scientific experience behind it.

Mine is a bit more recent than some of those on this list, but having looked at the 'how many left' website I think it now qualifies! Nissan Pulsar - Only produced from 2014-2018 in Europe and never had more than about 15,000 of them around. I personally loved mine, but the PCP was coming to an end and by that time they'd announced they'd discontinued the model, and I didn't fancy owning a car that obtaining spare parts for would become increasingly difficult, so I swapped in for a new Micra instead. I think I only ever saw one other Pulsar during the 4 years I owned it - and that was owned by the Receptionist at the school I worked at otherwise not seen one before or since.

There have been issues with units ranking up for almost as long as I've been playing it (late 90s)! Trying to rank up Skaven was always a nightmare because of their stupid ratty tails! You ended up having to base them diagonally to get them to rank up. Then you have Orcs - particularly Savage Orcs - who all wanted to raise their weapons up and shout. Which looked great, until they started having elbow fights with their neighbours. Dark Elf Corsairs like to try and shoot the guy in front of them in the back. Very Dark Elfish, but not much fun to try and rank up! I have ... concerns my 3D printed ones are going to have a similar issue with some of my Black Guards, as they have quite large Halberds with some dynamic, forward facing, poses which could be .... interesting to try and rank up. (Although similarly I'm going 7x3 (20 + 1 Sorceress), so hopefully that'll limit the issues!)

I imagine there'll be loads of custom movement trays to 'upscale' bases to the new required size as a lot of people will be in a similar position! I know at least a couple of guys from my club have some already as they use them for an alternate game (Oathmark) where they're required to be on 25mm. They don't look too bad actually - I think especially if you ran the same basing material/design between the models it would look fine (but still not as good as properly ranked up!). I wouldn't be surprised if even GW did something official, which will obviously be about 4 times as expensive as it should be/any alternatives.

Oh, how I would love for TOW to be end of the year! I still own Wood Elf, O&G, Daemons, VC, Empire and Dwarfs from before they blew it up, and am currently building a 3D printed Dark Elf list to the collection, so the release can't come soon enough! (Even if they are borking up the base sizes! *grumbles* )

Agreed - I only played one game of 9th and that was enough for me to know it had sucked all the fun out of it by turning it into Bookkeeping 40,000. Hopefully this looks to be trying to reduce a lot of that, and although it might make the game more 'simplified' maybe it's a sign of old age that I actually welcome that simplification! And yes, very jealous of the new 'gant models, although the new Termi models are looking nice as well. Maybe just a few more recruits for the 1st Company then ....