9th edition is on the way!

[The Other Dave]

Oh, sorry I didn't mean that I wasn't going to play Crusade. I meant that Narrative is probably never going to be "balanced" and we need to understand that before we build lists that'll be fun for us and our opponents and play with a suitable mindset. Its just that in the 40k community as a whole, matched play is still going to tend to be more popular since its easier to play it against strangers while still having fun.

Oh, absolutely, sorry if there was any confusion - yeah, I have no doubt that matched play will very much remain the standard game mode for the 40K world at large. I think this comes back to the idea you raised a bit ago of making a narrative framework for our 40K gaming in general - with any luck Crusade will help is work towards that, and if we get a story going it shouldn't be hard to start building missions too.

And I guess I can see everybody's trepidation at my mention of free summoning. You saw very directly last week just how bad I am, personally, at making synergistic lists that play to the strengths of the army I'm using (i.e, very bad indeed ) - my interest in summoning plaguebearers is colored by my self-image as someone who needs all the help he can get, heh. If it does turn out to be un-fun for opponents, you can be sure I'll stop, and at any rate the theoretical danger of Infinite Plaguebearers will be very strongly tempered by the fact that I'm extremely stingy.

[Karantu]

I've been thinking about how to tie in the Crusade system to the campaign I was thinking about running in 8th as well as whether we should set some basic guidelines for our group's Crusade system if I do end up having a persistent system map for our campaigns. Things like being able to attack and take territory(which could give bonus glory or something?) which could help players decide which missions they wanted to do instead of just playing random missions all the time. I'd prefer not to limit people's opponent choices though or greatly influence which factions people pick and given all in the in-lore infighting that probably isn't going to be a huge issue.

Certain mechanics like free summoning or someone running Knights might catch people off-guard so it might actually be beneficial if everyone could post their rosters for everyone to see and after every game day we could post updates too. However, that might also lead to some list tailoring and I'm not sure if people want to bother with the trouble of making regular posts like that. Anyway, we could just give it a shot and change things after people get a feel for things.

[Jye Nicolson]

And I guess I can see everybody's trepidation at my mention of free summoning. You saw very directly last week just how bad I am, personally, at making synergistic lists that play to the strengths of the army I'm using (i.e, very bad indeed ) - my interest in summoning plaguebearers is colored by my self-image as someone who needs all the help he can get, heh. If it does turn out to be un-fun for opponents, you can be sure I'll stop, and at any rate the theoretical danger of Infinite Plaguebearers will be very strongly tempered by the fact that I'm extremely stingy.

I think it's a potential weak point in the Narrative rules which needs (and may very well get) a FAQ.

In the meantime though, summon away, my Wolves will grind them for XP even if you're winning the game

[The Other Dave]

I mean, it's all academic until I buy and paint them anyway.

[Karantu]

This might be a bit late but I was wondering is anyone else is as free as I am and wanted to hang out in a discord server during GW livestreams. They're doing a face off between units from the Indomitus box set tonight starting at 9:45pm and having seen some of the datasheets, I'm pretty sure the Necrons are going to get destroyed. So if anyone wants to wager on them winning feel free to join me here. I'm probably going to stick to text typing while watching the livestream.

[Karantu]

Well that was a little unexpected. The actual face-off was pretty underwhelming. Due to the whole quarantine they didn't actually play out the battles live but just read out what happened. The match ups were questionable and seemed a little rigged and the Necrons won the in end but they in at least two match ups they were higher in power level than their opponents.

What I didn't expect was the number of reveals.
They have the Datasheets for the new stuff here.
Which isn't really a reveal.
They gave us a proper look at the Silent King, which isn't entirely new.


Then there was this chap on a bike. Which was leaked from an picture in one of the new books.


This was new though. A Tech-marine. I guess it makes sense with the new fortification coming out and stuff. This is probably going to be my first Primaris model... to convert into a Warpsmith.


And then they ended with this.


Overall, on the Space Marines side, the new Primaris characters are pretty obvious I guess. They're filling out the range, something I wish they'd do with other armies too.

The Necron centerpiece models look cool but look like an absolute nightmare to transport. Also I was hoping that a Void Dragon related model would be be a bit more dragon-like but I guess he's got wings. It's nice that Necrons will get two Primarch/Daemon Primarch class models with this though. I hope they're good on the tabletop too.

[The Other Dave]

I dig those models, although I'm increasingly thinking the only real way to transport GW models going forward is going to be the whole "magnetized base on a metal sheet, or vice versa" thing.

Huh. I may even have (an extremely non-optimal) 50 power ready by launch day. (He said, immediately guaranteeing he would lose his painting drive and not get it all done in time.)

[The Other Dave]

For people like me whose google-fu for leaks is weak, Goonhammer did a writeup about the basics of Crusade:

https://www.goonhammer.com/the-narrativ ... sade-mode/

[Karantu]

Reading that post reminded me. What do you guys wants to do about the upgrade tables? According to how its written we're allowed to either roll for or pick upgrades but it might be more interesting to limit it to randomly rolling only? I don't really mind either way so I was wondering if you guys do have a preference.

[Jye Nicolson]

Pick. I think min-maxing your upgrades is more fair, and your best bet of making the Crusade Point --> Command Point balancing mechanism work.

I'd also like to use this Crusade outside the bounds of Nagoyahammer (if nothing else in the far off time when getting on planes is a thing again) so I'd rather not mess with the core Crusade rules (overlays on top of them I'm all for though)