#do you love the colour of the skitarii

[bobombun]

[loathsome-little-creature]

1. Were you named after anybody?

Not really, I have a few names but I don’t think I am named after anyone for any of those.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I’m not sure, I can’t really cry even if I want to. I think I might have choked up a bit last time I got threatened with an involuntary trip to the psych ward?

3. Do you have kids?

No, I’d be an awful parent, as I am now at least.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Depends on the context. If it’s funny enough I’ll do it, sure

5. What sports do you play/have played?

historical fencing, focusing on arming swords/sideswords mostly but I love all culture’s fencing arts. I also play airsoft, I can ride a horse but that rarely gets used, and I’m a perfectly adequate archer.

6. What’s the first thing you notice about someone?

I tend to try and figure out how much of a threat someone is when I meet them, it’s not really a healthy behaviour but it’s manageable. Besides that I guess I naturally notice like, gender presentation, age, and vague ethnicity first?

7. Eye colour

Greenish I guess?

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Probably happy endings but I will watch anything if it’s well written and interesting

9. Any special talents

I’m a mediocre bladesmith, a tolerable woodworker, a so-so leatherworker, a good-enough armourer working with modern and historical armours, and a pretty decent archaeological finds researcher

10. Where were you born

Seattle. I was forged in the fires of pike place market and tested on the fields of uh, Carnation, I guess. Raised in Vancouver Canada though.

11. What are your hobbies

Reenactment, historical fencing, calligraphy, being super trans on the internet and boymoding hard as fuck irl

12. Do you have any pets

I have a corn snake called toast. She is good

13. How tall are you

like 5’10?

14. Favourite subject in school

I guess English but only because it was easy.

15. Dream job

I would like to get paid for my research, please I am desperate I have not been paid ever why has god forsaken me

Tags: @nebulaaaaaa @skitarii-posting @toebeancreature @yeehawcracy @antiobjecttaskforce

15 Questions Game

Tagged by @jenolicho <3

1. Were you named after anybody?

I was named after both my grandfathers, but that's my deadname lol

2. When was the last time you cried?

I cried a few weeks ago because of a shitty day at work :(

3. Do you have kids?

I sure hope not

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I'm very sarcastic, and my voice is super monotone so I always sound like I'm being sarcastic even when I'm being genuine

5. What sports do you play/have played?

I used to do baseball as a kid, I did soccer for a couple years (lots of fun), and I dabbled in archery

6. What's the first thing you notice about someone?

I remember how they act and any really defining physical characteristics. Beyond that, I cannot hold onto faces or names until like round 2 or 3

7. Eye color?

I have really dark green eyes with a ring of brown around the pupil, so it looks like I have brown eyes unless we're in making-out-distance

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

I love scary movies and horror, and overall I connect and vibe with bittersweet endings over happy ones

9. Any special talents?

I'm a writer, I can burp on command, I'm a fairly good voice actor (despite being monotonous, I can do a lot of accents n characters), and I can do the footloose dance

10. Where were you born?

I was born in Texas and thankfully don't live there anymore

11. What are your hobbies?

I love to read and write, brainstorm ideas for things to write, or play DnD/Call of Cthulhu/other TTRPGS

12. Do you have any pets?

I have a cat! A calico named Yog-Sothoth

13. How tall are you?

Between 5'9" and 5'10", or 175-176 cm

14. Favorite subject in school?

I always loved science, and math was something I grokked easily

15. Dream job?

I'd love to be an author, but the kind of author that travels the world

Tagging: @spideercabossed @sleepystellarsister @wolf-kisssed @local-vampire-queen @hummerous @nintendowiimote @polymoth

[tagedeszorns]

Titanicus by Dan Abnett

I apologise in advance for my English. It is not my first language and my reading comprehension is unfortunately much better than my speaking comprehension. I ask you to forgive bumpy phrasing and strange expressions!

I finished the novel a few days ago and am very, very pleased. I was well entertained, got the usual Abnett flavour that makes the Warhammer-verse more colourful, and had suspense and adventure.

But of course it doesn't go off completely without friction.

The end seemed rather abrupt to me, some things remained completely unresolved (what will become of Prinzhorn and the crew of the Victrix after the ... differences of opinion? Will someone take care of the remains of this tower? First the leak of the Heresy documents is a civil war thing and suddenly it's enough to say "haha, it was only fake!" and everything is fine again? With two fleets in orbit?) But maybe that will be cleared up in another novel. In any case, I would like to continue following the adventures of Legio Invicta.

And once again Abnett finds it really difficult to include female characters. He clearly tries hard, but doesn't get beyond his usual "diplomat, soldier" and they are also either stereotypical (the emotional Mechanicum woman, the hysterical Famula, the tough-motherly soldier ...) or men with breasts (the young Outland woman got heavy "I don't see gender"-treatment). As far as I can tell, there was not a single woman on any of the Titan crews. No female princeps, moderati or steersman. And that's with over thirty Engines involved. At first I was incredibly positively surprised that there was an Enby character (Sonne), but unfortunately they quickly became "he". Too bad.

But I don't read the Black Library books because I appreciate their authors for their progressive views (I think there's a female author by now, at least that's what I've been told), but because I want to see things explode in the most bombastic, thrilling terms imagineable. Heroic adventures in the grimmest of all the darknesses!

And Abnett delivers that in the best possible way. The description of the engine battles is so wonderful, you can almost feel the earth shaking beneath the god machines. The sequence in which a Titan begins its walk alone gives you goosebumps. You are shown an alien world in which man and machine can no longer be separated at some point - and losing oneself in the depths of a Titan is not a pleasant fate for every Princeps. But each of these men is incredibly proud to be among the best of the best - you can feel it in every sentence. They may belong to the Mechanicum and they may be largely no longer human - but they are something entirely their own. I like that this strangeness is so clear. I'm such a sucker for big machines and Abnett's Titans scratch that itch so good!

Wonderful details like the warhounds getting balance tails and really acting like a hunting pack drew me deep into the action. The glimpse into the heads of the crews was impressive and the strangeness of the Mechanicum was fantastically worked out. The description of the Noosphere was very, very Matrix. I liked it. The Skitarii were also given contour, which for me is often lacking with other authors.

In addition, small, loving details like a glimpse into the shop of a toy maker in the Hive or the confused spirit of an old Moderati make the immersion perfect.

I can also get over the fact that the machines and the staff of the Dark Mechanicum remain pale and do not get beyond the "horrible, completely insane monsters" status. Yes, they are not even allowed to do more than bleat their names like deranged Pokémon. All right, I'll live with that. The loyal engines are all the more colourful for it.

And, of course: Gorge Orwell. That's no typo. 😁

All in all, one of the best Black Library books I've read in a long time. Definitely in my top ten.

Associate Professor Demon Bird Hat says: Five out of five knitting Salamanders' balls of wool.

[banshee-king]

The Most Popular Faction?

I’m sure everyone knows that Space Marines are the most played faction, but does anyone know by how much? Space Marines get a new codex every edition, they also have the most updated models and overall receive the most love from Games Workshop. We all know Space Marines (specifically Ultramarines) are the poster boys, they’re the most iconic Warhammer faction, or so we’re told. But why? Where do we get this information from? When you go into a store, are they actually the army you see the most?

They’re a great army to start playing 40k sure, every new edition’s box set has Space Marines as one of the two factions, their rules are simple to grasp. But how many people actually keep their starting army instead of selling it, or jumping to a new faction once they’ve gotten into the hobby? Has anyone actually seen the sales figures for each faction? Has anyone been keeping track of what army they play against? I only really know one survey that holds any real truth.

A guy from Youtube (The Outer Circle) did a survey from a number of locations, online forums and people in real life I think, and made a video about how many people actually play what faction. You can find it here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wZ99-EVHiM&t. It’s not the greatest survey that ever was, I’m sure it’s not 100% accurate. But it is the best survey I’ve seen and it looks pretty reasonable. You can see the results in the video but I’ve also made a colour coded version here.

Now you may be looking at that and thinking that Space Marines cannot possibly be that small, so here’s a graph of the factions grouped together by similarity. (All Marines = Space Marines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Deathwatch) (All Chaos = Chaos Marines, Chaos Daemons, Renegade Guard) (All Astra Militarum = Imperial Guard, Astra Tempestus) (All Eldar = Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequins) (All Tyranids = Tyranids, Genestealer Cults)

As you can see, Space Marines (at 353) are in fact the most popular faction… but not by much. The forces of Chaos together (327) is a pretty close second. Astra Militarum (276) is notably smaller but still not too far behind the Space Marines, they’re also just above Chaos Marines on their own. Eldar (179) and Tyranids (167) however would still be just less than the Space Marines if added together. Orks, Necrons and Tau are just there for comparison.

So results? Space Marines as a whole, with all the offshoot codices, are the biggest faction. Codex Space Marines is not more popular to Codex Chaos Marines however. This can probably be attributed to Chaos Marine not having any dedicated codices to any of the traitor legions, thus its 9 legions vs 6 legion, plus successors on either side. What’s more interesting than looking at Space Marines however, is seeing in which order the other faction stack up. So in order of most popular to least…

First of all, Imperial Guard. I personally didn’t think they were that big, but here they are. According to the Youtuber, the most popular playlists were Death Korps of Krieg, and then mass vehicle armies. Just a fun fact to note.

Secondly, Tyranids. Again I didn’t think they were that popular, but then again they are much closer to the other codices than Imperial Guard so the error in the results could mean another faction is more popular.

Thirdly, the Orks. I personally thought they were more popular to be honest. Perhaps they are, and the survey just happened to pick up more Tyranid players. Still doesn’t discount that Space Marines, Chaos Marines and Imperial Guard make up around 42% of all armies.

Fourthly, Adeptus Mechanicus. Yikes. Just wow. For such a relatively new faction, boy do they have a lot of players. GW sure did struck a gold mine on that one. Now it does include both Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus together, but still. Just goes to show what untapped resources some faction can be. Adeptus Arbites anyone?

Fifthly, Dark Eldar. More popular than their Craftworld cousins, surprising enough. Again that could be wrong if every single 40k player contributed, but then that’s also a pointless statement. Harlequins however. They have what, three units? Four? Yeah they’re going to need some work before they become a “proper” army and not just a tag along to the real Eldar.

Sixthly (try saying that three times), Necrons. Can’t say I’m too surprised. The change in lore back in 5th Ed probably stumped their growth a bit. But who knows, maybe 8th will do them good?

Seventhly, the Tau. What went wrong? For the amount of bitching I hear about how OP Tau are, and how cheesy their lists are, there sure aren’t a lot of Tau players. According to this survey there are more Dark Angels players than there are Tau, ouch. There are also more Dark Angels than Space Wolves however, so I guess the whiny Wolf Wolfs just can’t beat the gothic knight “heretics”. Still it sucks for the Tau, they’ve had regular codices, updated models, but still that’s not good enough? They are a pretty pricy faction to play, and I’m sure all the childish hate form the 40k community doesn’t help new people pick them up. Shame.

Eighthly, Chaos Daemons. I guess when you make four factions compete for space in one book, then give each one only 1 Troops, Elite, Fast Attack, & Heavy choice each, it really doesn’t make a compelling army. Daemons are going to need many more units, or better rules for taking them with other Chaos factions, if we’re going to see more of them.

Ninthly, Sisters of Battle, oh my. Now I didn’t have high hopes for them, but they did surprisingly well all things considered. They’re more popular then Harlequins, Tempestus and Deathwatch, not too shameful. Interestingly however, Sisters are almost as popular as Grey Knights, there really isn’t much of a difference. That seems strange. The Knights have plastic models, codices that add new units to the army instead of taking them away, they’re relatively cheap to collect since they’re so elite, but what does that account for? 2 more players according to the survey. Maybe, just maybe, all that attention on the Grey Knights was wasted? Just a thought.

So there you go, the biggest and most accurate survey on the player size of 40k armies I’ve seen to date. I would strongly encourage you to watch the actual video by the guy who made it himself, but I hope you’ve enjoyed my review all the same. Cheers.