WH40K: Why I’m not buying that new Armageddon book (yet)

Righty, a bonus article. Part blog update, part opinion piece. If you follow 40k news at all, you might have noticed that things seem a bit hype lately. We've had a few campaign books, with new units added, the most recent being the for Armageddon front, the famous orks versus guard meatgrinder. This one is almost perfectly tuned to interest me, but like the 10th ed Ork codex I'm not indulging. Why? Because 11th edition has been announced, and we've got maybe six weeks before it goes live. Yes, I probably could get some new models painted and get a couple of games in, but I'm not playing 40k regularly just now, and I have other commitments. It's an expensive and silly idea to even try. I need only to point to my Astra Militarum experiences as to why being an early adopter with FOMO is bad idea. Truthfully, my plans with respects to 40k are to wait for 11th edition, get a deal on a launch box, and paint it as a long-term project. It should be easier to find new sparring partners around then too, as everyone will want to learn the new game.  This Armageddon book will either be a flash in the pan, made obsolete before the end of the year, or an expense I can defer for a while. As the actual data sheets and detachments are free to download, it's not like it's urgent. Its not like the lore matters...

All that being said, I didn't want to let Armageddon pass without comment. And I currently have a suspiciously coincidental 6 week buffer on articles, so you get a bonus post, to help make it i vaguely topical. Presenting room temperature takes on the stuff that interests me.

 

Commissar Yarrick: Possibly the best single retcon in a setting made of retcons. So good to see this guy back, and I'm so glad he has interesting and powerful rules. As opposed to "anti-ork 2+" or some other targeted bonus, that kinda thing is deeply boring and can feel like a fuck-you. See the assorted Imperial Oddments factions for where this can go wrong. I dunno if his power in ordering infantry will last, nerfs are probable, but if I did indulge in named characters, it would be he. I'm looking forward to fighting him with my Orks, and he is supposedly amazing in Recon Element, where he would lead scores of hard-to-see infantry.

Commissar Graves: I don't think anyone was actually expecting a deranged lady commissar on a pimpmobile, but I think we're all happy she's here. It takes a lot of charisma and novelty not to be immediately overshadowed by Yarrick in this context, but I'd say yeah, she's doing OK. Who doesn't like an efficiently priced vehicle that does good support work and some melee? Definitely of interest in mechanised forces, although the on-foot version suffers from similar design issues to the generic commissar. I also expect fan art and memes, but I'm not gonna go looking...

The Centaur RSV: Yes, it's a fine Ork Trukk! I will be doing that eventually, as will about 100% of all Ork players. As a guard unit, it's definitely a welcome tool to have for objective play. It's current price is perhaps not ideal though, coming in at the same cost as the Chimera for a much less durable and less well-armed platform. What commentary I've read on this suggests that we'll see this unit as a ride for heavy weapon teams, Ogryns, or Kasrkin, which would be kinda boring, but ok. I'm not a huge fan of when Orks try that trick, trying to form a light tank or mobile bunker from a transport, and I don't think it fits the guard vibes either. Catachans and Combat Engineers probably have a nice new ride though. 

 

The Hippogriff AFV: And speaking of light tanks, we have this. I like the look of the Hippogriff. I like it's fire & fade rule. I also like how that new Armoured Infantry detachment plus this tank, means that guard can do more mobile styles of play, like mechanised but more agile. But I don't like the mislabeled weapons, and I don't like the price comparisons. For most things you want this tank for, you'd just take a Scout Sentinel, which is cheaper. Hellhounds and Chimeras are also potentially unfavourable contrasts, those being more established with the option for HK missiles. I do really want this unit to work though, and it looks to be a great board control piece. I suspect we won't have a good handle on this unit though for a while. Probably not until 11th is established and we know what is "optimal" weapon fit is. Is it all melta? Or does the cannon/stubber option have legs? We just don't know. 

Wazdakka Gutsmek: Yes, it's grand to see him with an actual model after all this time. And the model is incredibly extra.  Not my current vibe for Orks, and I'm not into Epic Heroes as mentioned, but I see the appeal. I would have liked more Orks in the Armageddon book, TBH, but if we're in the 11th edition starter box we're probably fine.

The Various New Detachments: Yeah, these look fun, especially the Superheavy Tank one. I'm not touching any of them until the meta settles though.

And to end on a sour note...

The Steel Legion Controversy: For heaven's sake, could we fucking not? I get it. I'm angry about the loss of the generic infantry squad too. And it makes sense that you'd want actual Armageddon troopers for an Armageddon campaign book. But Krieg started out as player 2 colours Steel Legion, just reverse the trick. Or look up Death Fields, maybe? I think the Catachans need the attention more.

 

Gaming: The Last Starship (PC, Steam)

So, I picked this up in mid February. I was in need of a fresh distraction, and this looked to be an inexpensive one. And its from the Prison Architect people, so that's pedigree. The demo was fun too, so I rolled the dice on the full version. I played it pretty intensely for a week, before pausing, and reassessing it. What follows is a brief discussion of it's positives, before moving onto wider discussion.

The Last Starship is a sandbox spaceship game, with a variety of gameplay styles. You can variously play as bounty hunter, courier, industrialist, cruise liner, or just stick to a thread of story missions that might teach you how to be those things. Mostly these are bite-sized chunks of gameplay, and you can pace yourself however you want. One aspect where it does stand out is it's 2D art direction. Your ship is always presented from the same isometric angle, so the universe spins around you as you turn. It's honestly a fun thing to do. Visuals are generally characterful and the combat isn't without it's charms. You switch into tactical mode, which has a wireframe/radar vibe, and things become about inertia and positioning. It's very age-of-sail at first, with ships kiting around each-other and such. Ship customisation is very much a thing, and it's probably the thing that the game does best. Yes, you can treat it as a base builder with a FTL drive bolted on, but there's definitely more things to be doing, with facilities to manage entire fleets of ships. Its pretty in it's way, with a lot of variety in things to do, and it's priced at 15 quid. Its a good value proposition, is what I'm saying. So why did I go off it like I did?

 

One thought  that did occur to me after 12 hours or so of fumbling around, was that I wasn't sure if the game was complex or shallow. There's an awful lot presented to you at the start, it's a big sandbox even before you get into other game modes. Figuring out the various systems is a big part of the experience, and you're probably gonna need to look at the odd YouTube video or two, despite in-game help. However, once I got a working knowledge of something, the game suddenly felt a bit simple and small. One thing I took to quite quickly was mining and smelting ore. I found a good spot, put in systems so I could produce my own fuel etc, parked up, and cranked up the game speed. I'd effectively turned this into an idle game, my efforts being so profitable that the bits I still had to buy were trivial percentages. My ship became like a cancerous tumor of capitalism, relentlessly consuming, expanding, while my faceless and totally interchangeable crew do muscle work. I got bored after that, and decided to do something else for a bit, easily buying my way into whatever I wanted to. I didn't bother with the robot arm and track automation stuff either, because there didn't feel a need. Ships have to get real big before human crew stop being practical. My point? Well, once you get to a certain level of wealth both risk and the desire to innovate kinda drops off. Sorry folks, this is no longer a games review, its Babbee's First Marxism. I suppose there's the creative mode if you just want to skip all that.

 

This is not me saying the gameplay loop is bad, I actually found it to be rather intoxicating in my neurodivergent way. But I would say the gameplay is functional and perfunctory in what it does, but rarely noteworthy at something. A jack of all trades, if you will. It's a typical example of it's genre I think, the sandbox aspects being a mixed blessing. Or I just found an obvious way to break the difficulty progression, I'm not totally sure. I did notice that much of the logistics and industry were relatively basic and automated. You have mining lasers to mine stuff out, and drones to collect the resources for example. And they will do this of their own accord, but direct instruction, of anything, isn't something the game does. There's no immediate scarcity of resources, nor large scale economics model that noticed, so it can feel like mining for mining's sake. Most of it feels like content for content's sake TBH. Or possibly a game that hasn't quite matured from its Early Access period. Ultimately, the it didn't hold my interest after its good first impression.

 

 

While I've not tried everything The Last Starship has to offer, I have spent 19 hours with it at time of writing, so I think I've seen a lot. And I think I've got a good way to sum it up. It's like an inexpensive buffet breakfast at a hotel. None of it is really that great, but most of it's OK. I've spent more to get less, but unless some killer DLC comes out for this, I doubt it will have a lasting impact.

Transformers: Collaborative Twin Mill is Something That Exists

OK time for a brief follow-up to the Bone Shaker article. Twin Mill is Bone Shaker's wavemate, and the general consensus seems to be that he's good, but not quite as good as the greaser. That's probably fair, but it just goes to show how much context matters. If I'd picked this up first, I'd spend a lot more of the word count talking about refreshing it is. And trust me, it is refreshing as carformers go, and there's at least one area where he does better than Bone Shaker. His flaws are however are perhaps more immediate.

 

The car mode for example is extremely well-presented, with loads of paint, more style, and translucent windows. Few, if any corners were cut here, and complaints are in nitpick territory. However, taking it out of the packet revealed a case of visible Head Syndrome, and some minor imperfections on the shoulders which I touched up. Not the best first impression, TBH, took a bit of the shine off. Its fairly compact car mode too. Bone Shaker in general actually isn't that much bigger than Twin Mill, but that open top and wheelbase do make him look like he's in a slightly different scale. Twin Mill is more like a modern minibot deluxe by comparison. These are all fairly ignorable flaws though, and it turns out you can turn the head around. It rolls well, the wheels being pinned, if loosely at the back, and this mould does a lot better with accessories. The air intakes are on 5mm pegs, so you can swap them for guns if you want. As car modes go it's almost ideal, despite that rough start, if maybe a bit small considering crossover premium.

The transformation and subsequent robot mode are similarly good, putting me in mind of several other Autobots. The overall vibe is of Tracks by way of G1 Blurr, with a bit of Armada Blurr thrown in for the arms. It's a skinny and lithe build, with long legs like a runner. The proportions are better than Bone Shaker, size comparisons being more favourable in this mode too, but the leg issue is here too and more obvious. This was crying out for something to fill in those lower legs, and he's mainly leg. On the plus side, Twin Mill has a much better accessory game, as he ends up with wrist swivels, forearm mounted flame throwers, which retain the 5mm port functions from car mode, and the flame effects I've yet to mention. These flames are hard plastic, so I’d advise a touch of caution, but otherwise this beats Bone Shaker hands down. Those engine blocks bulk out the otherwise thin forearms nicely, adding that little bit of 5mm play value without ruining the look, and robot arson is always great. Its poses well too, although my example has loose knees. So, much like Bone Shaker, it's pretty great toy in both modes, but with at least one potentially deal breaking quirk.

Is Twin Mill actually the worse of the two? Well, I've been back and forth on this, and I'm gonna say "No, but". What better describes Twin Mill is to say that he is the more conventional of the two, and my example seems to have slightly weaker quality control which makes it feel less premium. He's much closer to the Transformers baseline, so he's got better fundamentals, but ends up less interesting. Physically, and metaphorically, he is a touch overshadowed by Bone Shaker, which isn’t great given the price tag, but that's a long-long way from saying he's bad. And he will soon be available in red. If in doubt, pick up the one you like best first, and then maybe see about a sale for the second. 

Gunpla: The WMS-03 Maganac (HG)

 Yes, it's time to talk about Wing's lesser known grunt.

The eponymous machine of the Maganac Corps is something without a clear or direct equivalent in wider Gundam. It's a good guy grunt treated with some dignity, and isn't obviously a re-imagining of something from the One Year War. Rather they are what are the box calls a Middle Eastern Nations design, with all that implies. There is possibly an Orientalist aspect to this, and if Quatre Raberba Winner isn't a nod towards Lawrence of Arabia I'd be very surprised.  But then I am British. There's supposedly 40 of them, there was even a big multipack towards that end, and how many thieves did Ali Baba have? I did attempt some research on the creative intent here, I asked around, but I did not find much, so I'll leave that discussion to other writers. Practically, the Maganac was judged to be superior to the Leo, although that's a low bar, with customised versions being common. My recollection is that these guys weren't in the show that much, but generally gave good account of themselves when they did.

 

As a kit, the Maganac is one of those 30 Minutes Missions adjacent armybuilders. It's a relatively simple design with a few polycaps, but mostly friction/clip joints. In some respects it's a transitional piece, with the shoulder joints looking an awful lot like, no, exactly like common polycaps. Colour accuracy is good, but also an annoying near miss. I don't really care that the gun's magazine is the wrong colour, or that you need to put a couple of stripes on the tower shield. I do mind that the yellow panels on the shoulders are stickers when the kit is otherwise very good at colour separation. On the plus side, there's a few weapon storage options, the gun being stowable in the shield, and there being adapters for the axe and shield to stow on the back. The latter two are functional, but don't look great. They look a bit "first draft"; doing the job, but aren't that visually pleasing.  There’s transfers though, if that’s your thing.

While this kit is more solid than the Leo, with fewer fiddly bits, I like it less. Part of that is because the Leo is a fucking classic design, and the Maganac isn’t. However part of that is execution, like the stickers which just aren’t great. The Leo has its flaws, but can easily be built up with little things like foil behind the visor, some black paint, basic panel lining, gundam markers, and/or the inkwash of your choice. Its a simple design that rewards simple techniques, but if you go that extra mile it can shine. If you want a great Maganac, this kit requires you to either sticker the thing up, or paint yellow atop of brown, both options being very annoying.  Also, while true to the animation, there's a notable lack of surface detail here, especially on the lower legs, and a some flair wouldn't have gone amiss. I’d also like the highlight the elbow and knee joints as areas where corners were cut, although they are entirely functional.

 

I ended up doing some basic weathering here, trying to conceal some cutmarks, and did up the sensors with paint. I think it works alright, but this isn't the best kit to start with TBH. 

My Time at TFNation Manchester 2026

Bloody hell, 3 years. And its a full convention now, with a slight name change, and panels on the Friday.

I kinda went into this one with mixed feelings though. My selection of increasingly boring mental health issues had been bothering me in the weeks leading up to the event, while Transformers in general wasn't grabbing me that much. Well, except for Bone Shaker, but I already had him, and I'll be talking about his wavemate soon. I was aware of a need for a holiday, and welcomed the opportunity to see friends. But I wasn't really going in with a shopping list or itinerary. My objectives: try to socialise, and do some good work for charity as part of Toy-Fu. We as a group definitely did that last one, although I continue to struggle with the first.

I regretted not taking a taxi to the station almost immediately, as a bus time table proved to be inaccurate and my burden comical. Back in January, I'd collected an eBay order on Toy-Fu's behalf, and while I am stubborn that only helps so much. I got to the station though, and the journey wasn't too bad. I just needed to have a shower afterwards. Having showered, probably to the benefit of all and sundry, I attempted to socialise while waiting for the Toy-Fu crew to arrive. I found this a touch difficult. At previous events I was able to recognise a few people, less so this time. Seemed a slightly different crowd, although I did manage to use the old “is that robot any good?” technique. This however stopped being a concern once the dealer’s room opened for a late night set-up. This made for a much easier Saturday morning, and a generally more chill experience all round. Which was nice. Not perfect though. For most of Saturday morning my brain played the ending theme to Dragon Half on loop. And by the end of it, I was making the sort of mistakes where I wasn't sure if I was overtired or just an idiot. Those options are not mutually exclusive, given how many toys I’d decided to transport via crowded public transport. On the plus side: those toys mostly sold, I think I pulled my weight, saw a couple of friends in person, and I did find it easier to talk to people in a salesman role. I did eventually get to do some socialising after we’d loaded the van, we had a nice meal, but I was fading fast. And really felt it the next day. Because if it wasn’t the physical exhaustion, it was the fucking clock change. 

Anyway. A nice and productive time overall. How was the robot side of things? Uhh, kinda neutral. I did manage to attend one panel, and I did manage to pick up a few indulgences.  Reading TFN is still a smaller event than Birmingham TFN, and so both traders and events were scaled to match, so I didn’t find that much. The Hotwheels Collaborative was present, and I know if held off to purchase them there, I’d be a lot more hype. Something-something don’t spoil your dinner. I did however pick up four items, with a majority of the money going to Toy-Fu, because I’m like that. In order of increasing size and cost:

Blokees Galaxy Version Defender Megatron: Yeah, so I brought this to build in the bar, as I’d waited too long to get Tarn. Oh well. If/When I do get Tarn, he can have his idol.

Titans Return Scourge: An obsolete, headmaster-styled version of Galvatron’s bearded lackey. It was cheap though, and I kinda vibe with it.

Dr Wu Great Claw: In the apparent shortage of compelling items from Hasbro I’ve found myself drawn to Dr Wu’s assortment of baby citiformers that are also beastbox. It just makes for a nice treat, although I mustn’t let this become too much of a habit. This one seems to split the difference between Energy Dragon and Iron Fortress, but I’m still getting used to it.

Webdiver Galleon: Look, sometimes you just get an urge for something amazing. Its a Japanese-dragon-robot-pirate-ship. And also a video game accessory. Do I need to say more?

I dunno if any of these are blog material, but I kinda like ‘em.

Plamo: Stargrave Automatons

At time of writing, I’m between major modeling projects. And that will probably remain the case until either 40K 11th edition, or I discover something fun, whatever happens first.  But I did get these in late January, and wanted to briefly talk about them, once I got around to it...

OK, so the inspiration for these as models is obviously a melange of Borg and Adeptus Mechanicus, spiced with the Strogg from Quake and the 1999 Jamie Lee Curtis film Virus. Like so many Stargrave kits, there's innumerable head and weapon options, with the ratio of melee to guns being more choppy than the norm. There is however some bigger guns in there too,  like a recognisable flamer and heavy bolter-alike. The heads meanwhile  tend to straddle the cyborg/zombie line, although there are some necron-adjacent scarabs that seem rather interesting.  In many ways its a kitbasher’s dream. One observation I would make however is that these models sometimes have bare feet, and a tattered look on the fabric. This leads to ye olde fixed pose problem, whereby a supposedly unique model with individual battle damage gets repeated in a squad. I mean, how many guys with one robot leg, but no shoes, would you expect to see? It's not an actual problem, but if you're wanting to make, say, military cyborgs, you're probably better off not using the bodies here. However, I'd go so far as to say that making a Servitor Killteam is very possible, and that may indeed become something I try.

 

As I was feeling out this kit, I built two sets of five. The first set was mainly melee, attempting a Borg colour scheme, while the second was shooty in admec red, or orange as it turned out. The colour schemes were experimental, and due to a paint drying out, I had to improvise a bit with the flesh tones. These were painted by dry brushing the fabric first, followed by basecoats for skin and metals, trying to keep an optimised order of application. Secondary colours and such followed, then an inkwash, and finishing touches. The bare feet presented some challenges to basing, so I kept that, um, basic.

 

 
Perhaps not my best work, but a fine distraction. I don’t know if I’ll do any more, but I’m happy to have the leftovers in the bitz box.

 

Kitbash: Another Deathskull Looted Rhino

 

I will admit to being tempted by those new Red Corsairs. Sometimes... you just get bored, and space pirates are fun. Then that mutated into a more general interest in capital C Chaos, as a modeling project. I even got some models to test out a few paints, but it didn't quite come together. That might be for the best. At time of writing, mid-March, it's clear 11th edition is  approaching and it is therefore massively dumb to start anything 40k related, but I still needed to do something. Then I tried a freeform scratch build, and that didn't come together either. So, I went back to something I'd shelved.

 

You see, as much as I love Orks, I've basically done everything. Not beast snaggas admittedly, but near enough, and I dunno if 11th ed will change that. Although Yarrick is back, that's pretty cool. Really brightened a Monday. Anyway, that leaves either reclamation/modernisation projects like today's subject, or more modern and thus more expensive plastics. The former isn't that exciting, and it's hard to justify the latter. Especially as I'm not playing 40k regularly just now. So, the best thing I could find to do was rebuild an old predator/rhino hull into a "counts as" trukk. This would bring my count up to 6, which is likely to be as many as I'd ever need, and, you know, having a couple of rhinos makes sense for Deathskulls. As Warboss rides and such. Fortunately, this proved to be a fun little distraction of a project, that people seemed to like too.

 

As I'd already orkified this once, the main things I had to do here was expose the crew compartment and to add a wreckin' ball.  This makes it a less thorough rebuild than the last one, but truthfully less structural work was needed. This was then painted in my usual manner, if only to stay in practice. I mixed my own metal paints for the hull, and mud paint for the undersides. Perhaps the most significant thing I did was paint in the grilled(?) headlights with a tiny wee brush, which is the kind of detail I’d avoid in the past. I didn't do it that well, now I look at the photos, but paint mistakes are fine with orks, I suppose. I touched those up later on.

Job’s a good ‘un.