The Astartes Family's Notebook

The origin of everything is D&D, and StarCraft and Warcraft are copied from Warhammer. The Warhammer universe has a very large setting, which can be divided into Warhammer Fantasy and the later Warhammer 40K.

Warhammer Fantasy was a disaster for GW, who messed things up by creating The End of Time and then restarting it. We 40 Warhammer fans should be grateful! If GW hadn't deliberately cut 40 lines, we'd have to fill in the gaps in the Warhammer Fantasy lore if we wanted to write about it.

Now things are much better. The Frozen Throne is the Frozen Throne, and 40K is 40K. In fact, when people talk about Warhammer, they think of 40K first, not Warhammer Fantasy. The Emperor has also made it clear that it is not Sigmar. GW is lucky. They actually did something decent.

I've been writing books on and off for ten years, from Warcraft to Warhammer. I've never liked deleting book reviews because as long as they're not unreasonable insults or personal attacks, you're just writing and leaving comments to exchange ideas with others, and there's nothing to delete about that.

Regardless of the reader's motives, even if someone feels uncomfortable upon first reading the comment, they will still assume that the reader's comments are well-intentioned.

Since your criticism is well-intentioned, the author will respond in a well-intentioned manner.

The most criticized aspect was actually the classification of the Imperial capital ships.

Furthermore, several readers who said Wu Nengyun had different opinions, mainly because the problem lay in the "Grand Inspector" level.

Some say light cruiser, ocean cruiser, large cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship.

Some say light cruiser, cruiser, battlecruiser, large cruiser, and battleship.

A super-large cruiser, a product of GW's brain farts. I'm so incompetent I don't even know how to explain this to this guy in detail. Let me light a cigarette first.

The following content is a bit aggressive, so I apologize in advance. If you know about the Great Cruiser, you may be a fan of the Hammer, but if you are incapable of questioning, you are probably not a military enthusiast.

It's not just domestic Hammer fans who are strict; international Hammer fans are just as strict, okay?

DD (Destroyer), FF (Frigid), CL (Light Cruiser), CA (Heavy Cruiser), BC (Battlecruiser), BB (Battleship) – this set of classifications is the parent of GW, a classification system created by the British Royal Navy itself.

When researching the term "super-large cruiser," most sources point to the Revenge-class cruiser. However, the Revenge-class has been clearly classified as a cruiser (CA). Is it possible that "super-large" refers to a battlecruiser?

Even ignoring the 10th edition rulebook, counting backwards from 6, 7, 8, and 9, the Empire's shipbuilding capacity meant that a single battleship would take hundreds of years to build, and they couldn't even distribute one to a single star sector.

What's the point of building a super-large battlecruiser? Just for looking cool?

To put it bluntly, the super-large cruiser is like a garbage can. It was never a formal classification of Imperial Navy ships. Instead, it was a wastebasket left by GW to facilitate their own wild imaginations. It has been criticized so much by foreign fans, especially their local British fans, that this thing that does not fit the British national context has been downplayed in the background of the story.

Humans cannot imagine things beyond their own comprehension. Even GW himself couldn't explain the specific tactical role of this super-large cruiser. Readers who criticize my Cloud Hammer, please leave a message here and post the ship type information of this super-large cruiser. Please don't just keep bringing up the Vengeance-class as an example. I really want to broaden my horizons.

With a background setting that doesn't have specific regulations for ship races, how can you expect me to lie to readers who don't know the story? Anyway, I've already admitted that I'm making things up, so be it.

There are so many contradictions in GW, from the Dawn of War series to Fleet of the Goths, then to the Merchant Ronin and later the Space Marines. Ironically, the Dawn of War series and Space Marines 2 are the ones that Hammer fans enjoyed the most. They must have had a really tough time with all that.

GW, that dog who sells chess pieces to protect copyright, is utterly wicked.

The cost of getting into this game is too high, and the rulebook is updated too quickly. I'm not trying to be a big shot by relying on my past experience. How many Warframe fans still understand the 3rd edition rulebook? I devoured it back then. If I wanted to be a rogue and use 3.0 to attack 10.0, that would be just being a pretentious old fogey.

So stop worrying about your grand patrol. Every version has its own meta, and GW just needs to sell pieces. Let's write some fanfiction and appease the 10th edition rulebook fans.

This long, rambling passage, seemingly written for those who criticize incompetence, is actually addressed to readers who support the author.

After all, most people who criticize me probably won't see this part anyway, and most readers who click into the Miscellaneous Talks series are probably interested in this book.

So please forgive me, I'm just a fan fiction writer, it's perfectly normal for me to have some secondary creations. After all, there are too many contradictions in GW, I have to choose a suitable one to write into the story, right?

As mentioned in the first section of the discussion, this book is aimed at all readers who like Warhammer and want to learn about it. The target audience is too broad, which is bound to attract criticism. I was prepared for this. I just hope that readers who are already familiar with Warhammer will not be so hostile towards the new Warhammer. I earn money by writing books, so I can accept the criticism. But I paid to read the new Warhammer book, so it's inappropriate to be mocked and ridiculed for asking a question in the comments section.

The atmosphere in the Hammer fandom is notoriously bad, so why bother? We're all victims of the original content. It's just a fanfiction; read it for fun. If you don't enjoy it, turn left and go find Zhang Xiaohua, the author of "The Most Chaotic History," who has a new book out there. That's hilarious.

Be more tolerant and forgiving, both to new Hammer fans and to the author. At least Wu Cheng dares to stand up and write a book that's supposed to be educational and recruit people into a pyramid scheme. So what if it's a bit far-fetched? Even Game Freak has to compromise for the sake of gameplay and modify the settings himself. Wu Cheng can just make things up for the sake of the storyline. If you're in a good mood, point it out and we can discuss it. If you're not, go read Zhang Xiaohua's work.

You can insult me, I won't delete your comments. But no arguing, I'll just ban you if I see it.

Everyone agreed.

Warhammer Musings (3.5)

Let's get back to Warhammer.

I think a comment from a fellow reader is very insightful: all the arguments among fans are ultimately just that of victims of those bastards at GW.

So the author doesn't argue about right or wrong, but simply collects a bunch of opinions that everyone is debating and talks about intelligence information from ten years ago.

Let me make this disclaimer clear first: I'm only saying what I know. Whether it's true or not is up to you to judge. I've stacked armor and am immune to Shield Slam!

After much deliberation, I'll finally mention the issue of classifying human empire warships in this book one last time—truly the last time.

GW's Warhammer 40K was based on the setting from the Ironclad era to World War I.

So, before the game "Gothic Fleet" came out, the author was right.

Those guys at GW (Geek) just like to seek reality in the virtual world.

Destroyers are essentially small fire-attack ships; they are fast and maneuverable.

Frigates act as shields and protectors for capital ships from torpedoes.

Only warships of cruiser rank or higher are called capital ships.

There is not much difference in firepower and protection between light cruisers and heavy cruisers. The main difference is in their endurance. For example, a light cruiser can travel from the British mainland to Gibraltar and back to the naval port, literally patrolling the ocean, while a heavy cruiser can cross the Pacific Ocean.

The significance of battlecruisers lies in the fact that the British could not imagine the existence of a navy outside of Great Britain.

Anyone who's played the Kantai Collection knows that Nelson's speed is 22.4, right? And light and heavy cruisers, even German ones, have a speed of 30+. So battlecruisers are essentially budget versions of battleships with speed specialization. Mrs. Hood, put down the gingerbread!

Warhammer 40K also used this underlying logic: battlecruisers were battleships that operated in conjunction with cruisers, while battleships were slow and heavy mobile turrets.

As for large cruisers, this category is really a huge dumping ground, cramming in all sorts of nonsense like shallow-water heavy guns.

Those who have watched the Lobster Ramblings series of videos should remember that the old naval colonel who was tricked by the 13th Regiment took over a new ship that was an antique from the Great Expeditionary Era with twin-barreled gun turrets. That thing was classified as a large cruiser.

However, the card classification in Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG has to be aligned with MD. Having a game is a big deal. Gothic Fleet can do whatever it wants, and the author doesn't argue. Whether it's reasonable or not is not important, nor is the tactical positioning. All you need to know is that the fleet classification in this book is just something the author made up.

After discussing the fleet, let's talk about the Alpha Legion.

Let me tell you a joke. Can you guess how tall AlphaRice and Omega, the Primarch brothers, were in the press release that interviewed GW back then?

Between 1.8 and 1.9 meters tall.

This is what GW himself said.

That's outrageous.

GW is a company that sells chess pieces. Before it ruined itself with Warhammer Fantasy, 40K was treated like an unwanted stepchild. In GW's eyes, Astartes was probably like a basketball player with a slightly exaggerated physique.

So when you reminded me that the Alpha Group has the biggest personality, I don't even need to look up any information to figure out how GW retconned the original, because for a long time, GW left the Primarchs' settings blank. They didn't even figure out how to make Primarchs three or four meters tall, otherwise they wouldn't have made the big joke of the Twin Primarchs being only 1.8 meters tall.

The Alpha Legion has the smallest average size, which was something GW himself made up early on. This is because the Alphas can not only infiltrate other warbands, but also infiltrate ordinary people. It would be difficult to explain if they were too tall, and it would not fit GW's usual pursuit of rationality in science fiction works.

For a long time, the Primarchs of the Twentieth Legion were all like fathers, except for the 1.8-meter-tall ones that even GW himself didn't recognize, which were just normal Astartes with a height of 2 to 2.2 meters.

So when I say that Alphareth's size is relatively small compared to all Astartes, I'm not mistaken or making things up; that's how GW has always set it up.

But since you all pointed out my mistake, then so be it. The author has learned his lesson and will simply delete the controversial parts.

Having discussed the body shape, let's talk about other interesting aspects of the Alpha Rex.

I saw this on a forum back then, but I can't find the exact source. Just take it as a joke.

The first one should be known to many. It means the twin Primarchs, one of whom sided with Chaos and the other was loyal to the Empire. So Alpharis is actually split in mind. One half wants to destroy the Empire and avenge the death of Omega, while the other half is loyal to the Empire and upholds justice in the shadow of Alpharis.

Therefore, there were indeed organized units of Alphareth within the loyalist Astartes Chapter.

Another version of the story is rather wild.

This means that the 20 Primarchs' warp essence is actually 20 warp lesser gods that the Emperor tricked into giving them. Therefore, the Primarchs of the Twentieth Legion are not actually Alpha and Omega, but a third Delta, which is a reference to the three Fates.

The future is dead, the present is nowhere to be found, only the ghosts of the past remain alive.

That British Unsa fatalism is clearly just anecdotal history, but the author thinks it would be interesting to write a novel based on it. Tsk tsk, why would an emperor keep his anecdotal history of selling his genitals?

Because the British are really guy.

Having discussed AlphaRes, let's talk about Eugene.

Many Hammer fans don't actually have a direct understanding of the Oglin; they only know that the Oglin is commonly known as the armorless Astartes.

That's actually true. When Astartes wears power armor, his size is about the same as that of Oglin wearing shorts.

However, there is a great deal of size difference among the Oglins. In different official novels, they range from 2.5 meters to 3.4 meters, with some individuals reaching a maximum height of 4 meters.

Therefore, it is quite easy for the Imperial Guard to equip the Oglins. Ordinary Astartes cannot be equipped with Oglins without modification surgery. A naked Astartes that is 2.5 meters tall is already considered a large Astartes.

As for that three-meter-tall behemoth from the Space Shark, he is a seed of the World Eater, not the cub of the Raven King. This is clearly stated in the official novel, so there's no need to argue about it.

By the way, the author's excessive use of Bloodraven is actually partly the fault of Dawn of War. I completed all races' story campaigns in Dawn of War 1, 2, and 3, including the DLCs. If you readers really played through all of them, I believe you would also start using Bloodraven.

I couldn't hold it in anymore.

Although the designers at the time were likely not Warhammer fans, it's worth noting that when the game was being developed by Sulley, the designers were probably not Warhammer fans.

But Astartes traded one for one with the Orc Boy, the Butcher used a magnetic grenade to blow up the Dreadnought, and the Chainsaw Sword clashed with the Killer Can...

I really couldn't hold it in anymore.

The latest short story, "Fearless," follows the same principle.

A single Storm Shield, let alone a relic-level one, is basically worth more than five sets of power armor.

The Toilet Crew is indeed extravagant. They have Storm Shield but don't activate Force Field, and they throw away twenty sets of power armor without a second thought. Does Guilliman know how wasteful they are?

Some warbands even have to scavenge and piece together power armor from spare parts, while Ultramarines can just throw it away whenever they want. It's tough.

Ultimately, the team that loves crashing is taking on commercial orders. Although the quality is good, there are really a lot of flaws in the details.

The same logic applies to the speed of ships in the human empire. It's GW's fault. These British guys had a wealthy past. They know a lot about Earth's navy, but when it comes to space travel, they're complete idiots, totally making assumptions.

The biggest problem in space travel is the loss of mass of the aircraft.

The faster the speed, the more serious the problem of mass loss. Space is not an absolute vacuum environment. At high speeds, any particle collision can completely penetrate the aircraft's armor. Therefore, the difficulty in achieving high-speed sublight travel lies in shield technology, not engine technology.

Given the technology of the human empire, it would be unreasonable for them not to be able to travel economically at 0.5 times the speed of light on established shipping routes.

As for faster-than-light travel, there are indeed no existing scientific papers to refer to; it can only be described as the power of subspace.

After criticizing the plausibility of GW and Warhammer, let's talk about this book.

Several comments have mentioned that the first ten or so chapters are tedious.

After thinking it over, Wu Neng realized he couldn't argue with anything. He understood the logic behind the so-called "Golden Three Chapters."

But we're writing Warhammer.

Firstly, it directly describes Kars' interrogation in the first person, using the Sephiroth murder case as background, and writing a small conspiracy in more than ten chapters. Wu Neng is capable of writing it well.

The problem is, this is Warhammer.

There is rationality in absurdity, loyalty in madness, chaos guards the nation's gate, and cunning dies for the country.

This is Warhammer.

Kars is not the Primarch, nor is he a reincarnation of a sub-god from the warp. He is just an ordinary Astartes with impeccable credentials. He has no cheat codes, or rather, his cheat code is the Emperor.

I really don't know how to write a happy ending in Purgatory Galaxy.

As one reader said, the way to break the deadlock in the domestic Warhammer writing scene is for Emperor to rise up.

It was correct to write it this way before; it was acceptable.

The problem is that the Dark Lord has already established that the Emperor did not sit on the Golden Throne to block the demons beneath the net. If the Emperor wanted to, he could stand up at any time.

However, after the Horus Rebellion, the truth of the empire had been shattered, and the emperor had two purposes for sitting on the golden throne.

One way is to light the Star Torch yourself. A thousand psionicists a day are simply not enough to support the Star Torch's brilliance. The Star Torch is the Emperor, and the Emperor is the Star Torch.

Secondly, it suppressed the Dark Lord's ascension ritual.

After being persuaded by Ma Xiang and the others, the emperor understood the four peddlers' scheme, sincerely refused to ascend to godhood, and blocked any possibility of later people ascending to godhood.

Therefore, it's not as simple as having the emperor sit on a golden toilet. Without solving the two problems of the Star Torch and Ascension to Godhood, the emperor will never be able to stand up.

Therefore, for fanfiction where the protagonist is set as the original, I really don't know how to write the ending.

I can't write it, I don't have the ability.

Once you understand this, you'll realize that this book could also be called "The Rise of Astartes".

To walk this unforgettable journey with Kars, to die in the battle destined for us, and to carry on with our loyalty to the very end—that is enough.

That's enough for now. We'll continue next time we've gathered enough material.

Random Thoughts (Part Four)

This issue is not primarily about Warhammer.

Let's talk about the results after a week on the shelves. It's not bad, meeting my expectations. By the time this chapter of miscellaneous writings is published, the average subscription is 998, which is auspicious.