Garacesh

I expected it was a holdover from when changes just gave you new/different weapon profiles, but now you have things like detachments modifying keywords and stats, adding extra abilities, and changing who can or can't be your warlord, I think people would be more receptive to: Lieutenant (45) [Leader: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I] [Ability α] Phobos Armour [0pts]: Change Leader to [X, Y, Z], remove Ability α, add [β] Reiver Armour [0pts]: Change Leader to [1, 2, 3], remove Ability α, add [γ] Combi Weapon [50 pts]: Swap whatever for Combi-Weapon [Statline] Especially with Marines allegedly going up in points to account for the new toughness, it doesn't make sense that you'd need 12 Lieutenants, 6 Ancients, 12 Captains, 12 Chaplains or 9 Librarians.

I think the proxies list is a good start, saying "Model X doesn't have a datasheet any more, but we're sanctioning it being used as Model Y" is a great middleground to not make someone's collection half useless. Of course that implies they actually want to include Model Y in their lists, but there's only so much you can do Now Marines just need to get rid of the bajillion 'same, but different' datasheets... Doodz, Doodz in Special Armour, Doodz in Special Armour but on a bike, Doodz with regular armour on a bike, Professor Dingus, Professor Dingus in Special Armour, Professor Dingus not in special armour but with a toilet brush, Professor Dingus with a Jetpack, etc etc etc etc

This has always been one of the biggest cruxes. I've seen interactive whiteboards thrown in front of teachers who made zero modifications to their classroom plans to account for it, so they were glorified projection surfaces. The most improvement they brought was maybe a nicer pair of speakers if they were using digital media. I've seen visualisers covered in dust in science classrooms whilst all the kids huddle around an experiment at the front and fight to look over each other's shoulders, when they could be scaling the visual up and projecting it on the board. I've seen trolleys laptops wheeled out and used for nought but flash games on the internet and maybe the occasional essay, when they could be so much more (but ok, fair enough, that's also the kids being kids, so I'm willing to cut some slack on that one). I've seen VR headsets get used a handful of times until the novelty wears off and never get touched again. Maybe some kids will 'automatically' write better work with the aid of a keyboard instead of a pen if there are dexterity issues in play, but outside of that, you can't just throw technology at classrooms and expect an improvement. Teachers need to implement it into their teaching and play to their strengths instead of using 20 year old schemes of work (looking at you, Boardworks!), and for some folk that's also going to require additional training. And the kids need to be taught how to properly utilise it, how to research properly, and when it is and isn't appropriate. Too many times I've seen "Oh if we get this, we can X Y Z" and it's like.. okay.. but are you gonna actually take the effort to X Y Z? Because it doesn't 'just happen', you have to actually set it up. But, in the interest of fairness, and to not sound like I'm just having a moan, I will say I've also seen some fantastic teachers that have taken the time to properly implement tech into their classroom, and the benefits are blatantly obvious when they do. But it is a lot of work, and it does require a re-think and a bit of a break from the norm. And if we're being fair, maybe if teachers weren't having to work 50+ hour weeks they'd have time to actually write new stuff...

I'm genuinely all for making your average 2k game have fewer models for some armies. It feels like everyone's been steadily growing more and more hordey over the last few years when really that should just be the playground of Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Orks, World Eaters (and maybe Drukhari since they die to a stiff breeze). Even my 1,000 points intro "Here's baby's first 40K game" SM list has 39 models (Ok, one is a Dreadnought and one is a Rhino, but that's still 37 infantry) and CSM has 45 infantry! vs my 1k Orks at 52 infantry, 'nids at 33 infantry (ok that has an Exocrine and a Tyrannofex in there, so not like for like) or Drukhari at 40 infantry, it definitely feels like the space marines have significantly inflated beyond "elite strike team". It'll all depend on the point drops. If your typical Marines & co list ends up losing 2-4 squads over the course of 2,000 points then it'll probably be fine - it just means Marine players will need to prioritise a little more. Do they shoot or do they action, do they head to an objective or do they screen, etc. Since I doubt they're going to modify many other armies' statlines to compensate.

Marines in all their flavours have just had some rather striking buffs as of yesterday (the incoming points nerfs will hopefully balance things out, but we won't really know until the next MFM update) which has put many folk with other armies in a bit of a bad spot, so as much as I'm not super enthused about it, I can't deny that now is a damn good time to be picking up Marines for a newbie. I admit that as a Drukhari/Tyranids player I'm not exactly overjoyed, as even our elite infantry is going to struggle to take enemy models off the table now (and, in the case of Drukhari, it's especially bad as the +1T makes us go from wounding on 3s to wounding on 4s, and with a lot of our stuff being T3 makes those S6 boltguns wound on 2s, neither of which sounds ideal), but hopefully they'll balance things out. Trying not to be doom and gloom about it.

Not that I have a dog in this fight any more since I went corporate, but I kinda can't help but agree with this. Maybe it's because I'm a power user and I understand how to lock down a device, but if my hypothetical (hopefully!) kids' school wants them to have a 1:1 device, and they want me as a parent to have no say in that device, then that device ought to belong to the school. Sure, offer that I can buy it out at the end of its lifecycle if I want it. I'm good with that, and it's a nice way to lessen the amount of e-waste floating around out there. And sure, put me on the hook for damages the kid might cause, I consider that reasonable, because it's an expensive device and I appreciate a) the school doesn't have infinite money and b) little Johnny needs to learn how to look after stuff. But to say it's my device, I'm paying it off, but it's not my device because the school/government have full control of it via MDM? That's too much of a grey-area middleground to sit right with me. Maybe the idea is most parents aren't power users, I appreciate I'm coming from a position probably the majority of parents wouldn't be. But as a hypothetical parent, do I also not have a say over my kid's digital activity? What if I wanted to put software on to brick it after 10pm*? Or block certain sites myself that the school's filtering doesn't**? I've always been on board with the 1:1 devices idea, but 1:1 devices with offsite filtering that the kids take home has always been iffy with me. * Yes, turn off the router, but there's still wifi hotspotting etc ** Again possible at router level but DNS over HTTPS exists.

Deserved for canning Gamestation tbh. Clearly the superior store. Always felt like the folk in GS were actually interested in games whereas GAME was 'just another retail job'. I can't say I'm surprised though, everything's gone digital distribution these days. Heck I bought Split/Fiction the other week and even that was just code in a box.

[Grumbles in corporate] Enjoy either your time off, or your freedom to sink your teeth into the big projects!

"a wand"? I can't imagine how many false positives you'd get in the changing rooms! My first school was constant fire alarms needing to be silenced.. Okay, sure, 50% of the time it was active vandalism of the break glass boxes, but around 75% (of the remaining 50%) was the boys changing rooms. I'd definitely be curious as to see the air quality stats ~10 minutes to end of period though!

That just means codex errata (of which their will be many, a fair amount of rules in 11th just don't work as written.. Drukhari Archon Shadowfield springs to mind) and balance changes. So you always have the most up-to-date codex for the army until they release a new one. A lot of WH+ people have been asking for all the rules included but nope, it only gets you access to more than one army list (the free version only gives you one list. One. Not one per army. Just one. You usually play Orks and fancy giving the Blood Angels you got in the Armageddon box a try? Gotta delete your Ork list first!). It's the reason I still buy codices but use third-party list builders. The 40K app now lets you share your army list with your opponent though so you can see each other's army rules/stats/etc without buying their codex, which is nice. Also, If anyone's been following the recent TTS40K drama, ForceOrg is now back on the Workshop (new ID 3753014527) so looks like meat's TTS40K's back on the menu!

I haven't played anything except standard 40k, but I do have a Bloodbowl team 50.2% painted (6 done, started another 3 last night), mostly because I wanted to practice bigger armour plates and skin tones (so bought the Khorne team) I don't think I've even heard of Man O' War! 😅

Grounded was pretty fun, and the sequel looks to be coming on really well, but I'm waiting for the full release before I jump into it.

Always happy to give people intro games, see above-mentioned Discord and Tabletop Simulator Oh yeah, I fully expected Subterranean to go to 3DP, was 50/50 about Invasion Fleet. Mostly I like the idea of Ambush Predators, I'm not 100% about pairing it with Crusher Stampede but I'm not sure what else I'd put with it, Ambush fulfils a lot of your general dogs-body requirements (VRL's annoyingly don't get Battleline but up to 3 squads of 6 is still dece, and 3 Lictors now deep striking means you don't need to use Gargs/Rippers for Forward Position/Outflank/Behind Enemy Lines/etc) so pairing it with beefy monsters sounds like it might be the right call Currently mulling up 10 Gargs, 2x 20 Horms with TP w/ LW, 2x 3 Zoans with NT, 3 Hive Guard (Impalers), 2 Biovores, 2 Lictors, 2x6 VRLs, 2 Exocrines, a TFex with casino cannon and 2 rippers (because there's spare points left over but that'll probably be spent on enhancements or cut if points go up) Hive Guard and Biovores protect home turf, the rest get to go up the board and do their thing

Faction packs are available too (kind of like the indexes they put up for 10th, but only focusing on the new bits, so they read more like an errata.. modifications to keywords, etc) Loyalist, Xenos and Heretic factions out already with the rest of the Imperium due today. As a primarily 'nids and Drukhari player, I am thoroughly whelmed. Reaper's Wager and Subterranean Assault are both 3DP so not a whole lot changes for me, although I am toying around with the idea of Crusher Stampede + Ambush Predators. Coincidentally enough, in the run up to 11th I've set up a Discord server for UK 40K for us grown-ups with boring life commitments and other stuff that gets in the way of. The focus is on getting games in online via Tabletop Simulator. If that's up your alley, give me a DM and I'll drop you the invite

+1 for see if you're in a CityFibre area. I'm on CityFibre and while it hasn't been flawless, who is? We've had very few issues, definitely no greater number of issues than I'd expect from any other ISP (and definitely less than I've had with some other suppliers in the past).