Train station and/or shopping centre.

Football Manager. It becomes your own parallel universe.

Reform bad. Femi bad.

I’m in a very similar situation and despite earning well (just under 100k) my partner has struggled to earn properly since the pandemic and so my actual take home after tax is probably more accurately described by dividing the amount by a number somewhere between 2 and 3 given my income has to cover the needs of two adults and a child, plus mortgage, childcare (my wife is still trying to make her career happen but that comes at cost of child minder fees), car etc that isn’t a luxury item but something we depend on every day. Easy to roll your eyes at the idea of someone on a good salary struggling but there’s often a lot more going on that can’t be accounted for by bad budgeting.

I’d go even further. I think there’s an AI-Human allied civilisation existing across the stars that is the true continuation of humanity’s golden age, living on planets and traveling far away from the warp routes, but otherwise pretty close (in terms of the physical space geography) to places within the setting of 40k. They are so advanced as to not need to mess with the taunted technologies of the galaxy we play in and are discreet enough not to be seen/detected. They basically exist in the pockets that the Imperium and other warp powers are blind to and are the true reason the Necrons, Nids etc haven’t truly been able to run amok.

I agree and possibly failed to properly explain what I mean. This sort of game would let us play our own way in this period without explaining anything more beyond what’s already been revealed in the lore we have now if it’s done right. There’s no canon/lore to the games I mentioned once you take them off in whatever weird alt history direction you want to. I’d be wanting something offering that experience with the themes/atmosphere of the Unification Wars, not a narrative-driven thing putting in hard lore/canon to make things less open and mysterious.

Ok I’m never knowingly playing Risk ever again without interpreting it as exactly this.

I agree with you but I don’t think I’ve explained myself well enough in my post, I absolutely would not want a game defining the setting but taking the themes and details the setting has already provided and giving us what would be an alt history sandbox to play as the Emperor or another faction of this era we already know about, or one of our own creation.

How do you mean? If it’s just a “play as Emperor and win” yeah, it’d suck, but what I gather from what more we do have on this period is that the conquest of Terra was actually a pretty close run thing and not a guaranteed victory at all. We could have our pick of factions or create our own and play an alt history save, like when you pick a non-Roman faction in Rome Total War and conquer the world.

Completely understand this and actually agree with you which suggests I did a pretty terrible job of articulating what I was actually pitching!

I’d want a game that is, in terms of lore/canon, a sandbox where you’re effectively playing with suggested mythology rather than anything actually fleshed out.

We already know the names of some powers who the Emperor’s forces opposed and which parts of the world they controlled. Anything beyond that would be different with every save, like how Civ/Stellaris/etc has different, emergent lore and narratives with each save.

I’d definitely not want a flattened out, explained setting without any mystery left (as they did with the Horus Heresy) and that’s why this kind of game, in my experience, would be great for this… suggested theming/atmosphere rather any actual hard lore, canon, history, whatever, especially if (like Stellaris) we could create our own Unification Era-style faction to play as.

I get you completely on not wanting yet more mystery taken away (ugh, Horus Heresy) but I think I may have mangled my OP post as I was suggesting a game where the details/events cannot be canon, and is effectively all suggested mythology that we fill in the gaps with using our own imagination/emergent gameplay - that’s part of what is so great about Stellaris for me, for example. The lore changes per save based on your choices so there’s very little actual hard lore/canon. I think a similar approach could be taken here, but perhaps I’m being naive.

Completely agree.

Forge World. I love the idea of a Forge World ocean planet, using all that water for quenching and other processes.

DM(S) or IWB(S).

Hard mode in a swimsuit contest would result in a disqualification. Could poke someone’s eye out.

Hey guys, here’s a dose of that personal responsibility you asked for. Enjoy!

Entertaining? I’d take that right now, ha.

Not taking any other left footed LBs is one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen when it comes to squad selection. He had options too. Braindead.

You’re right. Can’t do the Sir Alf/Sir Bobby thing before he’s laid the foundations.

Kieran McKenna as manager after the job he’s done. I know he’s Irish but was born in London…

Ha! You’re probably not wrong but… a boy can dream.

Imagine the crumble meme comeback we’d have had on our hands this summer at least.

Anything that doesn’t offer a coherent, self-contained single player experience worth the entrance fee alone.

Then anything that doesn’t allow me to take a step back and/or pause - so shooters/action games are out.

God I’m old.

Anyone got a light?