End-of-year 2023

So it's been another year. I'll get the grim stuff out of the way first.

At the beginning of this year, I wrote about the way the Marin government simply decided to stop trying to suppress the pandemic, and overall deaths surged from 1 500 to almost 9 000. As I write this, the World Health Organization has us at about 11 000 cumulative Covid deaths. Earlier this year, we elected an extreme-right government with neo-Nazis and sexual predators among its ministers, so you can easily believe that we're still strongly invested in pretending there's no pandemic. Here's one estimate of how that's going.

I don't really know what to say, except to repeat that the necropolitics of the pandemic are unbelievably grim. Eleven thousand people have died, and the media and what at least feels like the majority of the population simply don't care.

But then some 20,000 civilians have been brutally murdered in Gaza over the last couple of months, and it's not just that people don't care, but in fact actively support massacring children. Our government certainly does.

In the face of all this, I've become a lot more active politically this year. I had a very memorable time marching against our travesty of a government this summer, and I've taken part in a bunch of protests against Israel's slaughter of civilians in Gaza. Here's a picture from one.

The problem is that I'm quite convinced that things will only get worse. The indifference to mass death that we've seen during the pandemic and the butchery in Gaza is one sign of that. Another is the rising popularity of fascism, whether it be the orange oligarch in the US or the almost ridiculous performative cruelty that is UK immigration policy, or indeed our own government.

At this point, I think it's impossibly naïve to believe that the resurgence of fascism has nothing to do with the deepening climate crisis. It's amply clear that the powers that be are not going to take any effective action to stop the planet overheating. The farce that was Cop28 was yet another nail in the coffin of the biosphere as we know it. What they seem to be preparing for is mass repression. Witness, for example, the ludicrously draconian anti-protest laws being enacted in the UK, or for that matter, the actions of the Helsinki police this independence day. I took the following snippet of video there, to give you an idea of what it was like.

I participated in the antifascist protest at Töölöntori, which was broken up by mounted police. As I said elsewhere, it's certainly an interesting experience for a military historian to be charged by a mounted formation, but it's not really one I'd have chosen to have at a totally peaceful antifascist demo. The cops certainly picked their side, and it's difficult to not think that in addition to trying to provoke and intimidate us, they were also practicing for future protests.

What strikes me more and more often these days are the parallels I see in our society today to ancien régime France, or the country my grandfather was born in, czarist Russia, we then being a grand duchy of theirs. In both societies, it was quite obvious to so many contemporaries that the system was badly broken, and the needs of the many were being thoroughly neglected in favor of the endless greed of the few. Faced with peaceful attempts to reform their societies, the rich and powerful in both countries absolutely refused to make the slightest concession. They would give up nothing, not one penny to anyone, but rather use violence to suppress anyone trying to change anything.

We all know how that worked out for them. Today's political elites are too busy worshipping billionaire oligarchs, imposing austerity on the poor and inciting ridiculous culture wars to protect the rich whose reckless overconsumption is literally destroying the planet. There are so many sensible things we could be doing to create a more ecologically sustainable, more just society. They'd rather send out the riot cops.

As a historian, I do not believe this will end well. Our societies are facing one of the most extreme tests ever endured by any organized groups of humanity, in the form of the planetary ecological crisis. We are comprehensively failing that test, and it's only going to keep getting uglier from here.

**

So, that's the heavy stuff. On to more frivolous things, because in the middle of all this, ordinary life also goes on. It has to, because if we're going to try to do something about the big problems, we need to get energy from somewhere. Rest and relaxation are political and part of activism. Indeed, one of the popular ways to try to discredit activists is to set impossible standards for anyone who claims to care about anything, and then call them a hypocrite. It's a purely cynical maneuvre to maintain the status quo, when the reality is that no-one is perfect, and the goal of activism is never to be a perfect individual, but to do what you can to make the world better.

Last year I blogged about abandoning my so-called academic career for good. None of the above has exactly made me feel worse about my decision; on the contrary, the decision by the University of Helsinki to summon the police to violently clear people protesting Israel's war crimes from its premises on 29.11. made me feel quite confident that I did the right thing. Our academia is divided into two parts: the people holding actual power are far too privileged and cosseted to care about anything, and everyone else is too busy being torn apart by the inhumanity of neoliberal academia to be able to do anything even if they wanted to. And let's face it, most of them don't want to. So I'm tremendously happy to leave that nonsense behind me.

Instead, I've been working on a video game: Goblin Camp. You can read our blog here, if you're interested. It's a follow-up to the shareware Goblin Camp I was involved in over a decade ago, and we're kinda excited about it. Do check it out! It's certainly been an experience diving into a totally different job, but I do get to use my professional skills. I've done historical research into things like wooden armor and farming, and I'm quite proud of the way our game takes inspiration from Finnic paganism. We'll see how it goes!

**

In even sillier hobby things, it's been a good year. I got to play a game of Warhammer 40,000, where I got my ass kicked by space wizards. I tried Battletech, and we played two whole games of Twilight Imperium, one of which I actually won! I made a golden Knight, and started collecting little ships. We've also played a lot of Darktide.

I'm very grateful I got into the miniature hobby again years ago, because frankly, it's really helped my sanity. Having something immersive I can do with my hands is such a wonderful experience when everything I do for a living involves thinking, writing and talking.

I'm running a tabletop campaign again as well! Our Rogue Trader campaign has been on hiatus for a while, what with the pandemic and everything, so I was persuaded to start a Dark Heresy campaign set in the same fictional universe. I'm trying to run a more focused campaign than my earlier sandbox efforts: this is a far more plot-oriented mystery-solving campaign with a definite structure and end point. Once it's done, I hope we'll be able to resurrect the Rogue Trader campaign and actually finish it. I've really enjoyed the Dark Heresy, we have excellent players and it's just been so much fun.

Speaking of finishing things, way back in 2019 I made a sort of new year's resolution to actually try to finish hobby projects before starting new ones. It's been going  variably, but I feel like I am actually getting better at thinking about my hobby activities in manageable chunks, and at least trying to finish more chunks than I start. I'm buying much less stuff, and actually, fuck it, it's time to extend my resolution.

In 2024, I will not buy any more miniatures.

I was going to come up with all kinds of exceptions to this, but I'm just not going to. No new minis in 2024, and that's the end of it. I will use next year to make a dent in my gigantic pile of undercoated miniatures.

**

So there! Happy New Year, everybody.

Warhammer 40,000: The Iconoclasts

When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person.

- From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem

My 40k Chaos Space Marines represent the Iconoclast Host, a loose collection of Chaos Marine warbands sworn to Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion. Based on the demon shrine world of Techke Baranos, the Iconoclasts haunt the Acheron sector. They've subverted the hive world of Kirov and attracted the support of various renegades, including Chaos Squats and even Knights; they participated in the Ignatian Rebellion, and who knows what else they've been getting up to since.

**

The latest thing my Iconoclasts did was get wiped out by Grey Knights. So obviously I've demanded a rematch, which we've set for 1 000 points, and have been thinking hard about how to counter their mobility and psychic dominance.

A good place to start would seem to be to bring an HQ that can do some psykering and counter-psykering. My first thought was a Sorcerer, but to be honest, the Dark Hereticus discipline just isn't great. I have fond memories of my Sorcerer using Warptime to launch my Berzerkers into a blob of Imperial Guard conscripts, which would solve both of my problems at one stroke - if 9th edition hadn't nerfed Warptime by prohibiting charges after it. The Grey Knights had no such limitations! Frankly, most of the other powers aren't great, either.

My original idea was actually for an army of exactly 500 points featuring a Sorcerer, but then I looked at the Master of Possession. You get Masters of Possession in Gladius, and while they have their uses, I tend to find both other hero choices more useful. The Malefic discipline is just so much better than the Sorcerer's, though, and they have both an anti-psyker aura and staff. Clearly this is who I need.

Hilariously, the GW model is totally unavailable. It came in several bigger boxes, but now can't be bought anywhere. Not that I particularly liked it anyway, so I hardly mind having to build my own. But it just never ceases to amaze me how often GW just refuses to take our money. (The model was re-released shortly after I finished mine)

My starting point is this Legion of the Damned marine I bought on eBay.

As I learned earlier, the old Legion marines aren't actually that badly out of scale, they're just a little short in the leg. I extended my guy's upper legs and torso, which made them almost as tall as one of the new Legionnaires.

The copper wire is actually firm enough to hold the different parts in place until the gaps are filled with green stuff. The lower legs do end up looking a bit stubby, but I don't think that'll be very noticable on the tabletop.

The next step was to add arms and a backpack from the Exalted Sorcerers kit, and an old CSM icon.

I'm actually really happy with how this looks! Final additions are a Greater Good skull and Bad Squiddo mushroom on the base, and some Anvil parchments for a Word Bearers touch.

And then some paint.

After painting, I added a few sprinkles of green flock and a tuft of Gamers Grass Wild Flowers. I was inspired by Aekold Helbrass and his Breath of Life, and wanted a little extra Chaos in my Chaos.

**

That's not all we can do on the psychic front, either. The Chaos Marines in Kill Team got an option to have a squad-level psyker, and 9th edition brought that over to 40k. So if I take a unit of Legionaries, which is just a fancy name for Chaos Space Marines, I can make one of them into a psyker by paying 20 points for a Balefire tome. This seems to me to be a very Word Bearers thing to do.

She has a Statuesque Miniatures Bionic Roider head, some Wargame Exclusive books and some Anvil parchments. Another Kill Team weapon option I went for was the heavy chainaxe. I quite like the way the Scab Maulers in Darktide look, so I tried to do something a little similar here.

As none of the wargear options other than the Balefire tome actually cost anything (for now!), there's really no reason to not give the Aspiring Champion a daemon blade. The sword in question is a Kromlech vibro katana, and the Champion is also decorated with a Wargame Exclusive Imperial book, and has a Statuesque head.

When I was painting my Horus Heresy Word Bearers, I came up with the idea of having a sort of apprentice chaplain in each squad called a deacon. Here's a 40k one.

And here's the whole squad.

I also made a chaincannon guy, because hey, why not.

**

So that should give me at least some tools to counter the Grey Knights' relentless space wizard fuckery. The other need I identified was for speed, and with the help of a convenient French bits store and some stuff left over from my Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans, I intend to address it. Here are some Warp Talons.

The Champion has a Statuesque Roider head, and Warp Talon claws.

I made a Deacon for the Warp Talons as well, and he has a Kromlech Cranium Pattern head, and Wargame Exclusive book as well as some Anvil parchments.

**

With the points I had left, I decided to give my Chaos Dreadnought another chance. If it just blows up again, I'll know to bring something else next time. That still left me with something like 20 points, so I decided it was now time for my first Chaos Spawn.

The body is a Minotaur, the tentacles and head are from my Beast of Nurgle, and the rest are random daemon and Tyranid bits I had. I think the overall impression is fairly, well, spawn-y.

**

So, here's the Word Bearers half of my 1000 point army:

HQ - Master of Possession - 105 points

Troops - Legionaries (6) - 108 pts

 + Balefire Tome (20) = 128 points [233]

Fast Attack - Warp Talons (5) - 140 points [373]

Elites - Helbrute - 105 points [478]

Fast Attack - Chaos Spawn - 25 points [503]

**

It was painting Horus Heresy that made me realize I actually really like the dark red I've picked for my Word Bearers, and I'm happy to bring it over to 40k. I mean yes, if I ever field a big Chaos Marine army, it's going to look like a whole bunch of different armies all rolled into one, but if it's a problem that Chaos looks, well, chaotic...

Our rematch will hopefully happen soon!

Twilight Imperium 2: Enlightenment is a Function of Willpower

I maintain nonetheless that yin-yang dualism can be overcome. With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower, not of physical strength.

 - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

We enjoyed our first game of Twilight Imperium, The Assassination of Bug Jesus by the Coward Space Turtles, so much that we wanted to play another one. So, with our newly painted red miniatures, we did.

**

Well before the game, we randomized seating order and factions. I ended up getting the Yin Brotherhood, an all-male faction of clones. Our special abilities are a kamikaze attack with cruisers or destroyers, and for some reason, Indoctrination, which lets us convert opposing infantry. I'm just going to think of them as what happens when the Hive builds Cloning Vats and then wins Alpha Centauri. Because they are so clearly the Hive, I picked the blue miniatures.

Going clockwise, on my left I have the Barony of Letnev (green) who won last time, then also on my left but with a different player. Then it's the Yssaril Tribes, some kind of space goblin spies with the yellow miniatures, and a new player in black with the Emirates of Hacan, the trader space cats.

Next we have the Embers of Muaat, who start with one of the death stars I just painted, and have a special ability, Star Forge, which means they can produce ships in their death star. Given that they also start with the speaker token, they're basically Emperor Palpatine. Finally, on my right, last time's winner with the violet Ghosts of Creuss: the spooky space ghosts live on the other side of a wormhole.

My flatmate was kind enough to build a map for us:

And we were ready to go!

**

We got off to what I'm coming to think is the usual Twilight Imperium start where we expand cautiously into the immediately adjacent systems.

Aided by the menacing presence of the Muaat death star, the trash talk was heaviest at the opposite end of the table. I quickly established friendly relations with what I was informed was called the Baloney of Satnav, and a cautious accord with the creepy wormhole ghosts. Seeing as how the Creuss player won last time, I was definitely most nervous about them!

My suspicions were quickly confirmed when the Ghosts sent a fleet through the alpha wormhole, and grabbed Arinam and Meer from right under the noses of the Satnav. One of the public objectives involved controlling planets with the same planet trait, and Meer is a hazardous planet.

The Baloney was having none of it, and very quickly got them back.

As the second turn drew to a close, everyone was busy building up their fleets, and the first shots had been fired.

**

On the third turn, I decided to make my contribution to the shot total by invading New Albion.

What I wanted was a planet with some decent production. I told the Ghosts quite frankly that I was having New Albion, and either Starpoint or Hodor in the adjacent system. The Ghosts preferred to keep Starpoint, so I let them. It was a hazardous planet, and I figured it would keep them bugging their neighbors for another one.

Right after all this, we were a little bit shocked to find the Muaat war sun materializing out of the beta wormhole!

Because there was a public objective for having two unit improvements, several players had upgraded their PDSes to fire into adjacent systems. The Muaat took a bit of a cannonade, but only ended up losing one fighter and taking some damage on their dreadnought. As the Muaat fleet withdrew into the safety of the adjacent supernova, the Ghosts rode their wormhole slipstream right to Mecatol Rex, and took possession of it.

The Ghosts also made a play for a different hazardous planet, this time at the expense of the Muaat. However, they hadn't counted on the Muaat planetary defense systems, and the Creuss fleet was wiped out in the First Cannonade of Waffle II.

Here's the situation at the end of the fourth turn. We've had an agenda phase; I can't remember which was which, but they always provide opportunities for shenanigans and are an excellent part of the game. The goblins were building a giant fleet and hoarding strategy cards, while the Emirates of Håkan were somewhat hemmed in between them and the Muaat.

Luckily, I had the perfect counter to the Muaat death star: the Yin Brotherhood flagship, the van Halen, is rubbish at combat, but if it's destroyed, it takes every other ship in the system with it. When that war sun showed up on our side of the board, you bet I built the Eddie van Halen right away.

**

The Muaat got the new turn started by moving on Mecatol Rex, where they soon evicted the Creuss with the aid of their upgraded death star.

For my part, I invaded Hodor in pursuit of more production and a public objective for controlling planets.

The Ghosts of Creuss continued their quest for hazardous planets by sending another fleet to Waffle II. This time, some of the ships survived the space cannon, but none of the drop troops made it to the surface. The Second Cannonade of Waffle II ended with the Creuss still frustrated.

Meanwhile, the Muaat had built a second death star. Below is the overall situation at what I think judging from the public objectives should be the beginning of turn seven.

The Muaat tried to reinforce Waffle II with Frontline Deployment, but the Creuss countered with Unstable Planet. Must be all the cannoning.

Meanwhile, the great war of the goblins and the space cats finally started.

A lot of action cards were played in that one. For my part, I sent the Eddie van Halen to drive off a Muaat destroyer hanging around the beta wormhole.

Once again, the Ghosts of Creuss launched a fleet, and this time, both the starships and ground troops got through, and the Third Cannonade of Waffle II ended in the planet falling to the Creuss.

At this point, the Baloney of Satnav sprang into action. First, their flagship defeated some of my fighters for a victory point.

Then they intervened in the goblins wars by blowing up the Håkan flagship, for another victory point!

I sent my fleet through the wormhole to grab Quann off the Muaat, so I too could score the planet trait objective, and also deny a planet to the Muaat.

The Eddie van Halen deterred the Muaat from getting Quann back, so they attacked me at Hodor instead. The Muaat player took a hit on their death star, finally letting me play the Direct Hit action card - which was immediately sabotaged by the Satnav.

The Muaat wiped out my fleet, but chose not to attempt a landing on Hodor. A possibly incomplete list of things that were sabotaged in this game: a skilled retreat, a morale boost, a direct hit on a Muaat death star, and a public disgrace of the Satnav.

**

After some further shenanigans and one last agenda phase, we had to call it a night at the end of the seventh turn.

The final scoring was very, very tight.

The space goblins were last with one victory point. Our new player piloted the Emirates of Håkan to a very respectable 5 VP, just behind the Embers and Ghosts at 6. I ended up tied with the Baloney of Satnav at 8 VP, and I won the tiebreaker by being ahead in initiative order. However, the Embers of Muaat were a few measly influence points away from scoring one of the 2-VP objectives, and they would have won the tiebreaker against me! So this one really went down to the wire.

**

So, what did we learn? First of all, we had a great time. However, we also had to stop the game earlier than we would have liked due to time constraints. We're going to look into running a two-day game at some point next year. Even with the premade map and everything, this is still a lot to get through in one day.

We also focused more on victory points, which led to a tighter game and more surprises, as people went for both public and secret objectives. Another way that Twilight Imperium is like Game of Thrones, or for that matter Scythe, is that if you play it like a wargame, you lose. I like the way the objectives direct play, so you have to both have a strategy of your own and be able to respond to events.

Overall, I think Twilight Imperium is a fantastic game. The theme is on point: it feels like we're playing Master of Orion. The mechanics work, none of the rules feel overly complex or counterintuitive, and the game flows quite nicely. Finally, even though it's a big game that takes a long time to play, it doesn't leave me mentally exhausted like, say, Game of Thrones, let alone totally destroyed like War of the Ring.

So this one's a winner: I strongly recommend Twilight Imperium, and we will be playing it again.

Let's Paint a Twilight Imperium Faction

Our first ever game of Twilight Imperium, The Assassination of Bug Jesus by the Coward Space Turtles, was won by the Barony of Letnev playing with the red miniatures in a very sort of sneaky, Dark Eldar-y fashion. I've decided to do the same thing as I've done with Scythe, which is to paint each faction, or in this case color, as they win. I enjoy painting board game miniatures, and I also feel that it's just so much more fun to play with painted minis. After all, my return to miniature hobbying was through painting Star Wars: Rebellion, a game very similar to Twilight Imperium. I've also been working on a lot of little ships lately. So I'm painting the red fleet.

**

So, what we're looking at here is 59 units to paint. There are twelve infantry units, six planetary defence systems and three space docks, and the rest are spaceships: a flagship, two War Suns, five dreadnoughts, eight cruisers, four carriers, eight destroyers and ten fighters.

That's not even a lot compared to painting all of Rebellion in one go. As these are board game pieces, I do want to stick with red and avoid anything too dark, so as to make sure they stand out on the game board and are obviously the red faction. I'm thinking of something Word Bearers-ish, so a dark red.

I decided to start with the cruisers. They got a basecoat of Burnt Cadmium Red, with a drybrush of Dark Red. I then picked out some details in Gunmetal Grey, and painted the outer edges Dark Vermillion.

While I was working on the cruisers, I got an idea for how to paint the infantry bases: Gunmetal Grey and a Black Glaze wash, with red details.

I liked it, so I went with it, and added Dark Vermillion flags. I'm very happy with the result.

The Deep Space Nines space docks were fairly easy to paint.

For the war suns, I went with a very simple paint job that made them look a lot like Word Bearers Death Stars, which makes me happy. The models themselves, however, did not: they're so spiky that no matter how I tried to pick them up, some paint chipped off, even after a double coat of varnish. So I stuck them on 32mm bases.

**

Next up were the carriers. I did the same as with the cruisers: Burnt Cadmium Red base coat, drybrush with Dark Red and pick out some details with Dark Vermillion. I also left the underside clearly darker than the top of the hull, so it's easier to tell which way is up.

I did a quick little paint job on the PDSes; I considered making the gun barrel metallic, but decided to stick with the board game esthetic.

Then it was time for the dreadnoughts, which, again, I kept very simple.

As well as the flagship.

I mean these are basically star destroyers and a super star destroyer, so that's what I went for, with the exception of the brighter edges to make them hopefully stand out on the board.

**

I gave the destroyers a bit more detail, but they have the same overall scheme.

And finally, just in time for our next game, the fighters.

I went for a darker, slightly more Word Bearers scheme on them.

**

So here's the red fleet!

This was fun to paint, and I even managed to finish in time for our next game! For someone like me, who constantly has about two thousand unfinished hobby projects going, it's very therapeutical to be able to actually start and finish something.