iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

But the Dark Elves have pretty much since 1984 just been Like That in Warhammer. Every era of DE model can live together in the same army, even if the Marauder Miniatures for 3rd and 4th make it consistent, it's still a continuity no other army has.

100

The rules barely change, but the models, aesthetics, and army construction sure do! That's a big hit to Bretonnians through the years: not only nothing in 2nd, 3rd looks very different to 4th/5th, looks very different to 6th and later. Empire aesthetics start in 3rd and gel in 4th. And so on...

100

Everything else sort of gels in 3rd or 4th, or shows up early, vanishes, and comes back in 7th or 8th or Old World. If they release Nippon, I think that's the biggest jump: sort of in 1st, whole army list in 2nd, and then vanishes forever. It's fun looking through this whole game's life...

100

Interestingly enough, only really Dark Elves and Orcs and Goblins can do the whole range of editions. High Elves, Wood Elves, and Dwarfs mostly can but have more things that you need to call other things. Undead obviously split along the way. Bretonnians have no representation in 2nd. Everything...

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 21h

(to get a 2nd and 3rd edition legal force, I have to add 10 crossbows and pretend they're not repeating, 10 more warriors - probably corsairs - and the 10 executioners and black guard. And for 2nd edition Ravening Hordes, some orc allies because you can spend only a max of 2750 points on the elves)

020

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 21h

I need some Executioners and Black Guard. Maybe harpies. I've got some Dark Riders thanks to an Age of Sigmar box. Here's my current force if you're interested! Part of my goal is to show army composition in every edition of Warhammer. Almost there!

Dark Elves army painted by Airylan.

Included are:

10 witch elves;
1 cold one chariot;
5 cold one knights, accompanied by a dark lord and a sorceress;
10 corsairs;
6 shades or scouts;
10 repeater crossbow elves;
Lokhir Fellheart;
21 spear Elves accompanied by a master, supreme sorceress, and assassin.

220

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 22h

Looks great, with the classic models! My own army is 7th edition era, and I'm just finishing the last models I own... But I gotta get more.

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

And of course looking forward to the question of the week and seeing how others answer.

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Scratch built stuff and minis initially. I remain following because you seem pretty cool.

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

And just got a chance to check what I was thinking of. WD 221 (Canada) advance orders... And it's the same angle or near enough to. Drat.

A photo excerpt from White Dwarf 221 showing the same Sentinel photo that launched the thread, with the pre-order deal text. It was only 30 CAD for pre-order at the time, with an offer to get the third at half price.

000

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I was sure that I saw it from the other side earlier today, but it's in one of the WDs you mentioned so probably not. I think it was the catalogue pages. I remember having the thought "that's not the usual angle" This is by far my favourite Sentinel design, and I wish to track one down some time.

300

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I just have to state my appreciation for the interrobangs.

030

Reposted by Airylan

Eniko Fox @enikofox.com · 01/10/2026

Think SMB3 needed more lesbians with fox ears? Kitsune Tails is 35% off: kitsunegames.com/kitsunetails Or help our queer studio survive the year by getting all our games bundled for $17.99 on itch (itch.io/s/202703/kit...) or $18.75 on Steam (store.steampowered.com/bundle/15673...) Bundled games 👇

5509218

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

What about what I remember my friends and I calling "rainbow Star" (back when Homelands). Each player mono colour, all 5 represented, can only attack the player two seats to your left (might have also had two seats to the right). Rainbow Vale was fun in that setup.

000

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The only real ones I've got on bikes are these Blood Angels Outriders from the ... 9th edition starter? These pictures are apparently from 2022...

Blood Angels Outriders painted by Airylan, front-left view.

Blood Angels Outriders painted by Airylan, front-right view.

Full set from the edition's launch box - 9th edition probably - painted by Airylan as Blood Angels, in front of a backdrop painted by Airylan. The Outriders are in front of the army leading.

0253

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Since I didn't scratch build a tank last month because I was busy scratch building terrain... I might do this one. (The piece I'm slowly finishing is too big for this entry... See picture!)

A model built and painted by Airylan, still work in progress. It is a "Coaching Inn" with cream walls, brown and dark brown timbering, and red roofs. There are two main buildings, a stables, long and squat, and the inn - in three sections, one two storeys, one single storey, and a corridor segment between them. There is a Bretonnian spearman for scale.

This was constructed from the old Modelling Workshop article on the Coaching Inn from White Dwarf.

080

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Good point! I realize some part of me files "couch co-op" as "works like the distinctly not co-op Mario Party". Huh!

000

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I don't personally feel lan parties fit - nor the modern equivalent of two TVs and two consoles - but the style with two players and one computer would. I go back and forth on whether turn based like Scorched Earth or MoO would count for me.

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I'd expand to on the same equipment, by which I mean console and tv or equivalent. But this.

100

While Monster of the Week is about fighting things with cool powers. Which, sure, is fun, but I don't personally feel that PBtA thrives in that kind of game. See also tremulus, which is about supernatural investigation, and the toll that takes on the investigators and on the towns - or the monster

And while we have choice and control over that, sometimes we are surprised by our own desires and feelings. And the game is designed to push that theme, from playbooks to moves. And especially important is allowing the player to reject the theme during play, and exploring *that* too. ...

130

More successful I think largely because of Evil Hat's backing, but *for me*, Monster of the Week doesn't have much to say. It's a Buffy simulator, sure, but it's not *messy*. Monsterhearts by contrast is using the romance side of Buffy and the like for a reason: we continually discover who we are..

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My personal opinion is that PbtA games are at their best when they are about something and have something to say. The game has a *theme* in other words, not just stories it wants to replicate. I think for me a great example is Monsterhearts 2 vs Monster of the Week. Both good games, the latter ...

140

Somewhere. A search for Coaching Inn Modelling Workshop from White Dwarf should find it.

100

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A lot of my hobby time recently has gone into this model. I started building it in mid 2024 and been working on and off since then. It's the Coaching Inn from an old White Dwarf Modelling Workshop article. I still have details to go through and the like, but now that I did the ground, I can post it

A model building, work in progress, built and painted by Airylan.

It's a model in two sections, one with a large surrounding wall, a barn, and an area that will be an outdoor forge.

The other area is dominated by the inn model, with three portions. A single storey area to the right, a middle hallway section, and a two storey section to the left of the building.

The first storeys are "half-timbered" with visible wood pillars and cross struts (made out of balsa), with plaster in between. Painted an off white with sepia shading.

The second storeys and roof sidings are fully wood paneled - out of balsa wood.

The roofs were set with individual card tiles, and are painted red, in the style of late 80s and early 90s Warhammer Fantasy terrain.

The ground is covered in a mixture of Woodland Scenics ground covers, ranging from brown mud to mid and deep greens for foliage.

There's also a Bretonnian spearman for scale.

1406

And I'm only vaguely aware of the vtt - no one I play with is interested in trying them sadly

More like BattleSpace or Iron Crown's SpaceMaster. Much simpler to keep the three axes of movement for the hex map and one for vertical movement, with consolidation as necessary, rather than constantly consolidating vectors.

Ad Astra's games astound me. Getting the right detail and simulation out of 3d space in that way? Simulating Honor Harrington space battles in a playable way? Amazing. There's a lot of cool tech in those games. Very bookkeeping heavy of course. Much better than consolidating vectors every turn.

Interesting note: even 5 bubbles, I have to count or write down the number, because I can't just *see* it with dots. Always been a little stumble for me with White Wolf systems. "Oh one die per filled in dot" okay now I have to count two things. If I just write a number I can just go to the dice.

210

The S dragons were and still are some of my favourite dragon minis. I wish I had more, but at least I have the wood elf one - now built and ready to paint with skills I didn't have 30 years ago. (Probably only 28 but still oh my it's been waiting for an age)

130

Well, Mordheim did come out of the same concept in the 5th edition WFB era, so.

020

That was the first dedicated one yes. Before then, there were scenarios, and often if you and your opponent wanted to play a certain way, you just did. It took until 4th edition I think to drop dungeon crawling from an assumed way to play. Though the building rules in 4th and 5th still implied it.

(40k 3rd is still "the new one" in my mind, but then I - and many of my models - am old)

40k? Probably 1250 or something like that. Should be something like 30-50 models depending on army. Fantasy? 2k points should fit 4' wide.

Are those the old resin tanks? They're pretty nice

Oh I missed House is on the list, so I guess that's another for me

I've seen all of Andor, and Battlestar Galactica. Some of Game of Thrones and maybe one or two others. ... And that's about all I *want* to see on that list?

Gold? Well, I've got a pretty small Custodes force, but it's not like you need a lot of them is it?

Adeptus Custodes painted by Airylan. I no longer remember the composition beyond Contemptor Dreadnought from their original release, Blade Champion, 3 terminators of some variety, and 5 regular troops.

1152

Tiny Novamarines are surprisingly cute!

131

Many of these things are in the past 2-3 years, so take another look! ... That doesn't mean any particular group is doing what you would want though, the club local to me when I checked was still very tournament focused with 2d terrain and all the reasons I bounced off the game previously...

000

Two things done there is make sure that the tournament missions better suited a wide variety of play styles (getting better every year from what I can see, as a non tournament player) ... And having a very non tournament focused booklet with league, campaign, and casual missions and game styles.

100

Warmachine still does, but since I generally play Legacy armies, not having Mk4, it doesn't actually affect me... Though their collection of non-tournament data is still from the main tournament tracker, as I understand it, so players still have to push data. That still limits the quality.

100

For the Age of Sigmar analysis, and Warmachine does the same thing, they did look at list composition to ensure that units had the expected frequency. (Aos might not anymore) Though it's easier to collect tournament data, Warmachine is able to collect at least some non- to improve decisions overall

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Current "Roguelikes" are not quite entirely unlike Rogue. Turn based fantasy RPG exploring a world where yes most things including the unidentified potions will harm you? Nah, the only thing that matters is the random generation. Bah.

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I hesitate to tag people, so I'll just mostly note that those I follow in the minis space I tend to follow for inspiration, so checking out my follows is a good starting point. There's some good starter packs too. Some inspiration is minis, army shots, etc... Some is just a question for discussion

020

Airylan @airylan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It's fun realizing options you could have had and then decide to make that happen. There's so much cool stuff in that game and I've only done like 3 or 4 playthroughs so far...