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ArcaneHorror wrote: The fronts of the new sonic blasters are in two parts that have to be glued together before being able toe glued on the gun, but the front of the blastmaster for some reason is just one piece and can be attached more quickly.
Shadow Queen Morathi's head was a whopping eleven separate components.
How is that even possible?
I wonder how many components the new Knights are going to be?
Several of her head-snakes are not only separate, but also two bitz each.
She/Her
"There are no problems that cannot be solved with cannons." - Chief Engineer Boris Krauss of Nuln
Kid_Kyoto wrote:"Don't be a dick" and "This is a family wargame" are good rules of thumb.
ArcaneHorror wrote: The fronts of the new sonic blasters are in two parts that have to be glued together before being able toe glued on the gun, but the front of the blastmaster for some reason is just one piece and can be attached more quickly.
Shadow Queen Morathi's head was a whopping eleven separate components.
How is that even possible?
I wonder how many components the new Knights are going to be?
Several of her head-snakes are not only separate, but also two bitz each.
Ouch. Is that the worst model to assemble? Sounds like a pain.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
ArcaneHorror wrote: The fronts of the new sonic blasters are in two parts that have to be glued together before being able toe glued on the gun, but the front of the blastmaster for some reason is just one piece and can be attached more quickly.
Shadow Queen Morathi's head was a whopping eleven separate components.
How is that even possible?
I wonder how many components the new Knights are going to be?
Several of her head-snakes are not only separate, but also two bitz each.
Ouch. Is that the worst model to assemble? Sounds like a pain.
Probably not.
Morathi's 11 piece head? Annoying as it is, you do it once. And when you're finished you have a nice big centerpiece model.
Whereas when they cut infantry squad members into 11+ bitz (Krieg engineers for ex).... You put one together. And then you have to put at least 4 more together just to play with the 1st one.
Or you get things like the Genestealer cult bikers, which are cut into a lot of pieces that look like they should be all cross-compatible between the models... but are not. Made the mistake of trying to build the first one by eye instead of following the build instructions, and couldn't figure out why the arms didn't fit.
Wyldhunt wrote: Not sure if it quite fits the criteria, but the back of the dark eldar raider box has the labels for the guns swapped. The dark lance is marked as a dizzy and vice versa.
Kinda like Tau having the Airburst Fragmentation and Cyclic Ion Blaster mislabeled for years.
One was very clearly an ion weapon with multiple barrels while the other was clearly some sort of bomb launched from the end of a stick.
insaniak wrote: Or you get things like the Genestealer cult bikers, which are cut into a lot of pieces that look like they should be all cross-compatible between the models... but are not. Made the mistake of trying to build the first one by eye instead of following the build instructions, and couldn't figure out why the arms didn't fit.
Yeah that's a true point - in the past you could build most GW kits by eye even some of the larger ones. Today you've got no hope at all. You have to follow the guide and use the right parts on the right model. I'm steadily putting together direwolves and even the heads are pretty much set to which body they will attach too since the neck angles shift around
Metal models with tiny contact points. I can remember there being two cases back in the mid-90s, but the only one I can recall right now is the standard bearer for the Vampire Counts Black Knights cavalry, who had wings on his helmet that had like a 2mm square contact point..... I never did get round to doing that model (also of course, it was a metal rider on a plastic skeleton horse, which were also terrible for staying assembled, in the end I resorted to drilling two holes underneath the riders and gluing a loop of paperclip from underneath that hooked around the spine of the horse).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/06/03 23:51:35
Ex-Mantic Rules Committees: Kings of War, Warpath
"The Emperor is obviously not a dictator, he's a couch." Starbuck: "Why can't we use the starboard launch bays?"
Engineer: "Because it's a gift shop!"
Dai2 wrote: Everything is sheer bliss compared to top heavy metal models. Extra points if on a flight stand.
Or a 50x50 square base, and the heads (yes, two!) both extend FAR beyond the base.
Ooof, I know the one that you mean but never assembled it, the High Elf dragon was enough to put me off metal dragons for life and that is much simpler!
Dai2 wrote: Everything is sheer bliss compared to top heavy metal models. Extra points if on a flight stand.
Or a 50x50 square base, and the heads (yes, two!) both extend FAR beyond the base.
Ooh! Is that the Chaos Dragon you refer too? Working with that model was something special.
Specifically, Galrauch. I don't think I ever got him to stay together.
Huh! I wasn't thinking of that one, although I know it (I think my brother has one). I was thinking of some different Chaos two-headed dragon, but one with the old plastic wings that were on a bunch of dragons from the day.
Sgt. Cortez wrote: Giving Primaris Heavy Stubbers that were usually associated with Guard, Autocannons that were associated with CSM and hover tanks that were usually a Xenos thing.
Agreed - this is where Primaris seemed 'off', rather than the design of their power armour. And putting Intercessors in Heresy-style units with no special or heavy weapons, thus making the iconic Tactical squad obsolete when it was both more effective and cooler looking. Or, for that matter, adding Desolation squads instead of just having Primaris Devastators.
"Marine Aspect Warriors". Yup! Totally against the OG Marine organizational paradigm.
Game wise it makes a lot of sense. In the sizes battles are now, it makes more sense to have squads with a dedicated role rather than generalists, and it is quicker to resolve attacks if the squad is uniformly armed. What I find bizarre, that GW has very heavily went against this in other armies, with "no doubling the same special weapon" thing, forcing skitarii, guard, kabalites etc to have stupid amount of different profiles in each squad, making resolving the shooting to be super tedious. If I were writing the rules I would endeavour to write the options so that for most units you could have reasonable loadout with no more than two different weapon profiles in the squad.
I don't think the size of battles has changed much since 5th, tbh.
Gameplay wise, sure giving every model the same weapon makes things faster. But also gameplay wise that makes unit decisions less interesting. There's little tradeoff to consider, and the inter-unit coordination is less dynamic. The idea that generalists can't have a place is way off the mark, imo.
And fluff-wise it's just terrible.
But it sure makes sense $$wise for GW, because they can encourage more model purchases to chase the meta.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/06/04 19:24:42
Lord Damocles wrote: It's so narratively satisfying that we never got any exploration of why Guilliman, who wrote the Codex Astartes, and established more generalist Marine squads, organised his secret super-Marines along the lines of specialised Legion units.
Forge the Narrative!
They actually do explain that though? The dark imperium novels and later books which focus on Cawl and Gulliman regularly bring up this topic.
First, Gulliman explained that he intended the codex as a handbook of best practices that you were supposed to follow unless you have good reason to not do so. The later part somehow got lost in time, and now most chapters following to the letter. He is literally more troubled by the Black Templars revering the emperor as a god than by them not following the codex, but all he does about is call Helbrecht a fool.
The second, and probably bigger part is that Cawl more or less does whatever the hell he wants and Gulliman is taking the pragmatic approach to this. He needs a ton of weapons and Cawl is providing them. Without Gullimans protection, Cawl would probably have been executed for heresy for most of his projects - and some of his more secret ones would get him executed despite that.
Jidmah wrote: First, Gulliman explained that he intended the codex as a handbook of best practices that you were supposed to follow unless you have good reason to not do so. The later part somehow got lost in time, and now most chapters following to the letter.
Somewhere in the Battlefleet Gothic lore (maybe the Armada rulebook?), after the Ultramarines get handily slapped about by the Tyranids during the early encounters, Marneus Calgar locks himself in his room for an amount of time that I don't remember, and when he comes out, this is the great revelation he shares.
Ex-Mantic Rules Committees: Kings of War, Warpath
"The Emperor is obviously not a dictator, he's a couch." Starbuck: "Why can't we use the starboard launch bays?"
Engineer: "Because it's a gift shop!"
To be fair that's how most military and other manuals are "supposed" to work. Even a good many laws in countries are not set in stone but are closer to "Best Practice" guidelines.
Ergo things you CAN go against if you have a good justifiable reason that you can provide reasoning and evidence for.
That the Imperium lost this over time is 100% very fitting for the setting.
Overread wrote: To be fair that's how most military and other manuals are "supposed" to work. Even a good many laws in countries are not set in stone but are closer to "Best Practice" guidelines.
The extra irony is that the Guard has a similar Big Important Book(ish) in the Tactica Imperium*, and that's how they treat the Tactica - guidelines and best practices, with the challenge being less "how do I pull off maneuver x" and more "why should I pull off maneuver x".
(*To be fair, the Tactica is less one clear text with one clear author and more a massive collection of notes, studies, and treatises gathered over the millennia, many with contradictory or outdated info that's still useful as a jumping-off point for critical thinking about a strategic or tactical problem. However, the Imperium absolutely would be the sort to demand slavish obedience to a text - see the Codex Astartes - and it's amusing that the more independent and adaptable Space Marines are the ones bound to a book where the Guard is allowed more latitude).
