u/Quarterwit_85

So with carcass front still a few weeks away for me in Australia I'm taking the opportunity to start kitbashing some sacred affliction models.

And I'm really struggling with millstones!

It's next to impossible for me to make perfectly round ones out of greenstuff and I can't find any STLs I can print, resize and add to the models. Lifesavers or a similar candy are too small...

Any thoughts?

I played a little 40k about twenty years ago and haven't touched a tabletop game since. The lore and artwork of Trench Crusade tickled my strict catholic upbringing so I bought a 3d printer and went all in, printing and painting away before joining a local gaming group that was just up the road from me.

Never thought it would be this much fun!

Some genuinely hilarious moments. My musician armed with a club being that last man in on the dragon and taking it out of action in the last activation of the last round. My prophet getting eaten before bursting out of the Sineater's guts and instantly taking their heretic priest out of action. My communicant getting puppet-mastered into a hole and being unable to claw their way out. We always seemed to be having so much more fun than those around us.

Especially compared to those playing 40k nearby - they were always nose-deep in a rulebook, getting into some heated arguments and generally looking moderately miserable. Weird to hear the occasional snooty comment about TC but hey, sort of expected that.

Can't wait until some more campaigns and scenarios get released.

I received some excellent advice from people here when I started building a list so thought I'd pass on some of my own impressions in case someone searches up pilgrims in a campaign.

• I'd change patrons to the 'learned' option. There weren't all that many appealing skills on the warrior patron chart for me.
• I would hunt glorious deeds much, much more aggressively in the first few games. It took me five rounds to get enough to hire an AT communicant. When he arrived he gave me so many options across the board. Combining him with the ammo monk was chef's kiss.
• The punt gun on the castigator was really effective in the early campaign. Later on he became possessed, so I stripped him of the punt gun and ran him in melee. His ability to raise downed models really came in handy. I might run him that way in the future.
• I know people love the observer, but I never had much luck with him. I need to figure out how he works a little better.
• None of my plans ever survived first contact with the enemy.
• Stigmatic nuns were consistently incredible during the campaign. They effectively manned machine guns and cannons during the 'Hunt for Heroes' scenario, they grabbed supplies and ran them off the board and occasionally performed diving charges for sweet, sweet glory.
• The armoured train scenario was the most enjoyable round for me. Thinking of getting into FDM printing so I can get a full set up.
• The best opponents I played against used blood markers to keep me at my end of the board. They'd target my musician early on, they'd use chaff to place blood markers on my shrine before using them to ruin his dashes. Really fun to try and work around that.

Only things I could think of that should be improved:

• I became quite 'stompy' later in the campaign. Our boards always had plenty of cover, but I think we needed more large expanses of difficult terrain (building rubble, swamp land or similar) to really slow me down and funnel my forces.
• I think there should be more of a penalty to reinforcing or have more unique items and actions on the exploration chart to make reinforcing more of a loss. There were a few times where I should have reinforced rather than pushing through the exploration stage and getting... well, not much.

I know this is very much a 'dear diary' post but just wanted to drop a whole heap of positivity about his really fucking fun game.

Thinking of printing and painting up some Iron Sultanate next!

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

“We obviously face increasing challenges,” says co-owner Jerry Poon. “But I think we’ve been significantly impacted by the ongoing safety issues in the surrounding area.”

When Misfits opened in the former Baby Snakes site at the beginning of 2024, owners and nightlife pros Jacob Bell (of Ferdydurkeand Whitehart), Amber Hahipene (from Section 8 and Comet Beverages) and Jerry Poon (The Operatives) hoped to support grassroots music and be “almost like a cultural centre for music, arts and everything in-between”, Poon says. But after two years, the owners have decided to close the Footscray venue. 

“We obviously face increasing challenges – industry pressure, high operating costs, changing customer behaviours – but I think we’ve been significantly impacted by the ongoing safety issues in the surrounding area,” adds Poon, a Footscray resident who has lived in Melbourne’s west for almost 15 years. “It’s not something we didn’t really know about the area. We thought we could have pushed through it, [but] we’ve made the decision that we can’t physically carry on, as much as we want to provide a space for music and the arts in the area.

“Since opening, our staff and security have experienced repeated incidents including intimidations, verbal abuse, we got broken into. We’ve had a mattress set on fire in front of our building. We’ve had female staff followed. 

“These continued challenges have taken a significant toll on the business and the wellbeing of our staff and ourselves.”

It’s not just the neighbourhood. Running a live music venue has become increasingly difficult, with Stay Gold being one of the most recent casualties. Poon also cites lower alcohol sales, increased operational costs and increasing costs from music rights management service APRA AMCOS as part of the challenge

But the founders are proud of what they achieved in the space. “In a short span of two years [Misfits] became quite an institution,” Poon says. “We’ve broken acts. We’ve allowed a lot of young artists to support much larger artists, and we’ve also had much larger artists perform there just for the love of being quite intimately and directly connected to their fanbase.”

The team is working out the closing date, but it will most likely be at the beginning of September. “The space has made an impact, which is awesome. So we want to give it a month to let people just enjoy it.” Upcoming acts and events will be announced via Misfits’ Instagram.

Inspired by a recent comment on this subreddit by a serving Royal Australian Navy officer, I thought I'd brush up on my limited knowledge of early RAN actions - and what better way than to look into one of the first combat actions of Australia's then-fledgling naval force?

I remembered trying to tackle a book on the Emden when I was very young and being bored stiff. So now I'm much older and very boring myself, I thought I'd give the topic another tilt - and really didn't expect how interesting this book would be.

First Victory follows the incredible actions of the German commerce raider Emden in 1914, with a particular emphasis on the Australian forces that attempted to put her out of action. There have been a few accounts written about the Emden - including by several crew members - but First Victory seems to place particular emphasis on the Australian forces dispatched to sink her.

On going in I had a vague idea that the ship was very effective in its assigned role and that the captain and crew conducted themselves impeccably - but I had no idea how successful the Emden was.

Over the course of just a few months she captured over 24 vessels in an AO that spanned from India down to Indonesia, variously sinking and seizing vessels to assist their own operation. With limited supported from Germany, the Emden relied on stores and coal from merchant vessels she intercepted.

To give you an idea of the intensity of their action, on one occasion she seized 3(!) vessels in the space of a few hours. (The last of which was a dredger, barely seaworthy, being sailed from Scotland to Australia. The crew were actually relieved to be captured by the crew of the Emden and cheered when they holed her and sent her under).

There was a mild panic at the admiralty who, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, believed that Australian ships should be steamed from the pacific to the Atlantic to assist in operations there. As the Emden's tally grew they seemed increasingly concerned about the unprotected shipping lanes between Australia, India, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

The development and crewing of the early Royal Australian Navy is covered in some detail, and their actions in the first months of the war - largely raiding small German outposts with a few men, smashing their wireless sets, having some schnapps with them and moving on. But their chief concern remained the Emden, which had pulled off a spectacular raid in Penang, where they sank a Russian cruiser and French destroyer before slipping away into the night, suffering no casualties.

(The raid made such an impression on the local population, many of whom fled the city, that the word Emden means a 'cunning or deceitful person' in Malaysian to this day).

Without spoiling the ending - actually I will, the Emden had seven shades of shit shot out of it by the Australians - the book does a fantastic job of ramping up the tension until it's final encounter with HMAS Sydney.

It also admirably described the horrors of a naval engagement, with little moments like the driving band of a shell being sheared off as the round deflected off a gunshield, with the band whipping through the air to gut a gunner really driving home how violent this kind of warfare can be.

All in all it's a great read, clearly written by an accomplished journalist able to recount a banger of a story and scattered with moments that verge on the boys on adventure. It still maintains a poignant end and does excellent service to the brave crews of both the Emden and the Sydney.

(Also taking recommendations for any other books about naval actions, with particular interest in the Royal Australian Navy).

Forgotten Armour: Tank Warfare in Burma

Jack Bowsher, 2024

I picked up this book wanting to fill a gaping hole in my knowledge about the employment of British & Commonwealth armour in the pacific during the Second World War. It's a great read about a previously underappreciated theatre.

The book covers the northbound withdrawal by British and Indian forces in 1942 and the later southern push by reinforced allied forces, ending in Rangoon in 1945.

The emphasis firmly remains on the use of armour in very dense jungle and how critical it was during both the withdrawal and advance of allied troops. There is also no small of operational-level analysis throughout and plenty of coverage on the incredible logistical trials required to move men and armour through such difficult terrain.

It's also interesting to read the author rehabilitate the reputation of two much-decried armoured platforms - the M3 Stuart and the M3 Lee.

The Stuart 'Honey' proved to be incredibly reliable - so much so British soldiers had some difficulty permanently disabling their own engines during their retreat. They also proved very effective in the anti-armour role, helped along by the woeful Japanese armour employed in the region.

The Lee was also a reliable platform - especially given the models used in the Pacific were pretty clapped out from service in Africa.

It was also interesting to read about the Lee, who's seven man crew and high profile greatly assisted with the crew maintaining 360 security in the dense jungle environment, the importance of which is emphasised by the action that awarded Trooper Vernon Jenkins the Military Medal:

>As they passed the village, 4 Troop set the town ablaze with tracer fire. The rest of the squadron were engaging some Japanese to their front in some thick scrub, when two Japanese soldiers broke cover and climbed the rear of Cornaby’s Lee tank. One of them was later identified as the commander of the Japanese 5th Medium Artillery Regiment, the other an unidentified other rank.

>Cornaby was directing his tank’s fire from his open turret hatch, unaware of the Japanese officer, who had reached the turret from the engine deck. ‘They were not noticed by anyone until the officer was in the act of plunging his sword into Captain Cornaby’.⁠6 There was a clatter of Browning machine gun fire, and bullets pinged off the rear of the Lee. The Japanese other rank tumbled to the ground killed, but the officer was apparently unhurt and started climbing into the turret, immediately killed the 37mm gunner.

>The 37mm loader, Trooper Vernon Jenkins, saw what was happening, and was now in a fight for his life in the tiny confines of a Lee tank’s turret with the rest of the crew oblivious to his desperate struggle. He awkwardly pulled his pistol from his belt holster, and fired wildly across the 37mm gun’s loading mechanism, wounding the Japanese officer. The Japanese officer, fighting with all of the fanatical spirit expected of Bushido⁠ , continued to fight hand to hand with Jenkins.

>Luckily for Jenkins, whose pistol was now empty, there was clearly no space for the Japanese officer to swing his samurai sword. Jenkins managed to reach into the gunner’s belt and pull out their pistol, firing three rounds that finally killed the Japanese officer. The three bodies were now lying in the floor of the turret and might jam the mechanism if they moved it too much. The tank reported their predicament, and under cover of the rest of the troop, they withdrew. The rest of the squadron cleared the nearby villages, and destroyed a 47mm AT gun, although two tanks were burned out in the process.

The Lee's 37mm and 75mm cannons were also used to great impact, often used in a specific order against a single target in a manner I hadn't heard of before:

>Out of this though, a system was developed, built on the accuracy of the tanks’ 75mm guns. After reconnaissance of a target to try and locate as many bunkers as possible, artillery and aerial bombardment would now aim to clear vegetation in the area rather than supress the occupants. This would make the bunkers easier to spot before the artillery moved their fire to suppress other bunkers on nearby features.

>Ley then drilled the 25th Dragoons in a method that would be shared across the entire Indian Army and would save innumerable lives. If needed, the tanks would clear any more vegetation with HE, then switch to AP to soften the earth around a bunker’s loophole – a trick Ley had trialled on Razabil. They would switch back to HE with delayed action fuses, and using the Lee’s 75mm gun’s superb accuracy, fire directly through the loophole into the bunker, and hopefully blow it apart and kill the occupants.

>The 75mm’s HE always burst forward because it was a direct fire weapon, whereas artillery HE dropped down with a wider spread in all directions when it exploded. This meant the infantry could confidently close to within ten yards of the bunker and give a prearranged signal. The tanks would switch back to AP and machine gun fire and continue firing to keep any survivor’s heads down, only ceasing their fire as the infantry made the final assault with grenades, sub-machine guns, bayonets, and kukris.

Overall it's a great read. Like any book that features battles of maneuver more maps would have been helpful, but it's great to see a light shone on a little-acknowledged corner of the allied war effort in WW2.

As the title suggests!

I’ve got a bunch of friends coming around to sink some piss and listen to his music in September. It’s not for me, so I have no idea of his back catalogue.

Is there an entree/main/desert you’d recommend from his tunes?

I’ve had a lock/listen around and while he pens tunes about all sorts of things, there’s not much that’s food-based.

Dank je wel,

Marlon

Getting a little stale at my end and hoping for some new music to check out.

Big fan of The Drones, Alex Cameron, Peep Tempel/Blake Scott, The Slingers, Owusu and all the other shit that an inner city white dude with an arts degree listens to.

Preference to Australian artists.

What's on high rotation for you right now, and why?

Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a man in Footscray this evening.

A man was located with serious injuries behind a licenced premises on Nicholson Street, near Irvine Street, about 7.45pm.

Emergency services worked on the man, who is yet to be formally identified, but he died at the scene.

The death is being treated as suspicious, and a crime scene is in place.

No arrests have been made at this stage.

The investigation is ongoing.