What’s Next? A Land Raider!

Mournful Knight

Song of the Day (stuck in my head)

I started listening to Devo when I was in junior high. My 7th grade class book had a picture of a computer with this caption: “Computers: wave of the future or passing fad?”

Hot Potato

http://lenderama.com/2008/12/how-much-is-the-total-us-debt/

I wonder how they’re going to wind-down Social Security. They all rolled over and one fell out.

Imperial Guard Rumors and Opinion

Here is a veritable tome of IG rumors and verifications with my own comments in bold.

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I also might add that I have various IG items for sale.

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All of this was lifted from http://www.warseer.com/ and thanks to “the dude” for taking the time.

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Also not that in there you see a concept sketch for a Dark Eldar splinter rifle. The Dark Eldar are going to be huge.

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General info
Release Rumoured to be 2 May 2009.

Holy crap, that’s really soon. I thought it would be later this year.

Rumoured to include at least 2 waves of releases. It is unclear when the second wave will appear.

I’m not a fan of the two wave release, since I can’t finish the army until months later. But it’s better than NO second release!

The following pic is from the March WD and confirms some of the rumours below including Orders, New Ratlings and the Valkyrie.

http://warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=52118&d=1234148406

Rules
Army-wide Special Rules
Doctrines
Doctrines have supposedly been replaced by Platoons options, so for example, rather than Armoured fist squads a player would buy Chimeras for a whole platoon, or buy the whole platoon grav-chutes to give them deep strike, or drop the heavy weapons from squads and give the platoon Scout. No details on exactly what upgrades are available have emerges as yet. This system would allow “crusade” style armies of multiple regiments.

I’m glad to hear that the doctrines are going to be in there somehow. This is consistent with what is being done generally: rolling all the rules into the main army list itself. One of the funnest things to do with an Imperial Guard army is to theme it. The IG list has also been the default list for a lot of unusual armies, like Squats. It looks like there is enough flexibility here to do some weird armies.

Another rumour says that there will be multiple flavours of Platoon with varying rules and options, such as Heavy Platoons, the squads will have the option of taking up to three heavy weapons teams; Assault Platoons, able to take up to three assault weapons; Stealth Platoons possibly able to infiltrate. It is not clear if this was based on a proper rumour or mutant wishlisting.

This has been given some credence with catdubh posting the following:
Originally Posted by catdubh
From the way I was told it an assault platoon can only take assault weapons, 3 flamers fine, 3 G/L fine, 3 plasma no. From both a fluff point of view and game balance it seams fair to me.
Also told Heavy Weapons squads are now 10 men not six and that the rumour of all squads in a platoon being able to take 3 Heavies per squad is not quite right. Instead a Heavy Weapon Squad can be attached to a platoon. Very similar but as to which one is correct we will have to wait

Orders

reds8n broke the news on Orders with the following:
Originally Posted by reds8n
I believe that command squads will in fact be able to give actual orders to their troops– I assume perhaps only the ones under their direct command perhaps ? These have various affects, the ones I heard about being one that reduces their chance to hit ( for guard ! ) but ignores/lowers cover saves.
…. and one that in affect puts the platoon onto overwatch.

Orders are given by Officers to a squad (note not the whole Platoon) within command radius or via Vox channel. Orders generally make a squad do something such as make them better shots, rally, or recover from things like pinning or gone to ground. These orders are not automatic and will probably require a Ld test.
Orders will be one or maybe two orders per Officer per turn, and it is assumed Platoon Officers will only be able to order their own Platoon whilst army Commanders will be able to order anyone. This has not been confirmed.
Some rumoured Orders include:“TAAAANK!!” which allows the squad to add +1 to penetrate armour for a turn of shooting.

“Front Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire” which allows the squad to shoot twice to represent your men firing in well timed volleys to increase rate of fire. This is probably just Lasguns.
Overwatch would supposedly allow them a round of shooting during the enemy’s shooting phase at the cost of not shooting and assaulting next turn (effectively going to ground).
I have been told the Orders system works a bit different to how it is currently rumoured above, but wasn’t able to get clarification yet.

Bring on the Orders. It’s an additional complication to playing the game, but I think it will give some good flavor. I will be glad to see Overwatch come back in some form.

Miscellaneous

Some squads will supposedly have access to heavy flamers, but it is not clear which ones.
HQ
OfficerCan reportedly be upgraded for x-amount to get Storm Troopers as Troops

This is the best news and I hope it’s true. One thing I don’t like about 40K is that all the fun choices are outside of the Troops list. Troops are boring. I wish they would stop forcing me to take them. It’s so contrived. But Storm Troopers are cool.

Primaris PsykerApparently able to blast tanks with a psychic power. No further details have emerged as yet.

Well, almost anything would be improvement over the old pieces of crap. Rolling powers randomly is lame. If they were like zoanthropes as mid-range heavy hitters to support other units that would be cool. But more than that I’d like to see them as viable support units.

Commissar Lord Early on was rumoured to allow Stormtroopers as Troops choices. This has since been debunked. Newer rumours say he is described as having lots of inspirational powers (possibly fearless) and will supposedly allow more freedom in selecting Commissars for other squads.

Inquisitor and Retinue Very early rumours pointed to an entry for IG as an HQ choice, which would supposedly appear much like the elites from the current Daemon Hunters/Witch Hunters books. There has been no recent mention of this however.

This is another great opportunity for using out-of-the-ordinary miniatures. Great possibilities for conversions here. This is along the lines of miniatures crossovers like using imperial vehicles for Ork looted stuff.

Commissars Are supposedly now squad upgrades, technically allowing a lot of Commissars to appear in an army. Rumours now say they are allowed to attach to “certain squads”, However once a Commissar Lord is taken they have more freedom and there can be more of them. They are also supposedly cheaper (almost half their current price).

Commissars are overpriced now in my estimation. It’s the old eggs and hammers thing. If a model is very weak on defense it doesn’t matter so much how much offense it has. Of course, being in a giant unit, a meat shield is a sort of defense. Eldar suffer from this a lot, and you see that people won’t take these units. Like Swooping Hawks. They have a zillion powers, but they are T3 and low armor. Same for Shining Spears.

GGM007 also offered the following from a GW Manager:
Originally Posted by GGM007
He said that command squads could be accompanied by 3 types of ‘Councilor’ which were ‘Fleet liason officer’ some kind of psyker/astropath and an artillery spotter/officer.
Master of the FleetRumoured to allow some type of orbital bombardment, details unknown.
AstropathSupposedly has a ‘predicting’ ability, possibly similar to Sicarius’s ability to re-roll “seize the initiative”.

Master of the Watch
Artillery Officer. Rules unknown.
There are apparently a few other things that you can give the Command Squad to affect the army. No further details are available as yet.

Elites
StormtroopersThe assumption has been made based on the WIP Stormtrooper mini that Stormtroopers will be able to take shotguns this has since been refuted, with the new rumour being they are for WH Arbites-style Stormtroopers.

Are there going to be Storm Trooper plastics? If so, this would be consistent a la the Temple Guard for Lizardmen– a new plastic kit of an Elite type.

You can supposedly have a Storm Trooper Squad/Platoon as a Troops choice (not clear if this means both or one of), but this is reliant on an upgrade to the Officer leading the army. They may also get to pick from a list of mission ‘operations’, such as outflank, deepstrike etc. They may be able to infiltrate if not transported.

Bestiaparda offered the following:
Originally Posted by Bestiaparda
Hellguns will be now AP 3 as I said in the other long dead post, making stormtroopers capable of dealing with a lot of different (MEQ) opponents…
Yeah, but what will they cost? This sounds quite powerful ifi you ask me. Of course, people don’t take Thousand Sons that often.

This has been confirmed by one of my Ninja who said that AP3 “hot shots” for Hell Guns will be in there, but wasn’t sure if it was a permanent thing. He gathered it’s more likely going to be like the Dire Avengers’ Blade Storm skill.

This sounds more like it. Like that first volley is lower AP.

OgrynsRumoured to be T5 with a 4+ save and Feel No Pain. Further rumours said EITHER T5 or FNP will make the final cut, but probably not both. More recently rumoured to be 25 pts, S5 T5 A3 Sv4+ Furious Charge.

See? They are starting to give more defenses to some units. You’ll notice that things cost less points in 40K than they do in Fantasy. That’s because a Lascannon is a great leveller.

Sniper SquadsCan supposedly infiltrate, get stealth, range finders and all models in the squad have sniper rifles and BS 4. A new rumour says they will also get camo cloaks.

Veteran Squads Have been rumoured to become upgrades to platoons rather than Elites choices and may work like Ork Ard Boyz in that you may upgrade one unit in the whole army. Although a newer rumour says they probably won’t be upgrades for platoons.

Troops
Imperial Guard PlatoonsPlatoons will supposedly be structured as follows: 1 command squadPlus up to 5 of the following taking into account specific limitations -2 – 5 infantry squads0 – 5 heavy weapons squads (this is suspected to be a typo)0 – 2 special weapons squads0 – 1 conscript squadThe entire platoon with all these squads will only take one Troops selection in the FOC.

OK, so they are taking all these elite type squads out of the command section?

Platoons are rumoured to be able to attach sentinels, chimeras, and hellhounds as support vehicles, but not demolishers as previously thought.

Well, this is great, because the problem I had with my IG army was not enough slots. The more that can get crammed into the Troops section the better.

Platoons will supposedly benefit from a special rule called “Platoon Drill” which grants the ability to ignore any other squad within the Platoon for the purposes of determining the enemy’s cover save. What this means is that the Guard squads will get a cover save when being shot at through a squad in the same Platoon, but their enemy will not get one when the squad shoots back. This will supposedly only work if the Vox network is still intact.

Platoons have been rumoured to have a great number of options available to them including attaching various support vehicles like sentinels, hellhounds and demolishers. They still take up a FOC spot, but become part of the platoon and so will benefit from “Platoon Drill” and other Platoon-wide rules rule. Platoons are rumoured to be able to merge into one big unit (sort of the opposite of Space Marine combat squads). So for example the platoon HQ and all its squads can merge into a single unit to hold an objective. Some more rules are probably applied to this but no further details have emerged forthcoming.

Kill Points for Platoons have been ruloured to be 1KP per half of the Platoon killed. More recently, this has been rumoured to be 1 KP for the entire Platoon, although there is some conjecture about whether Officers will yield a further KP. This could possibly be related to the ability to merge the Platoon into a single unit, thereby giving up a single KP.

There has been much talk about a point decrease to 4points per Guardsman. This has also been rumoured to be 50 point Infantry squads (10 men with Sgt, Heavy Bolter & Flamer). Another rumour says the basic squad load-out will be 10 Lasguns or 9 Lasguns and a Laspistol for 40 points.

GW really screwed the pooch with the Orks. Now every single army will have their basic models compared to the 6 point Ork boy, which is (as you can tell by all the Green Tide armies springing up) a very effective warrior. However, this is a positive thing if you want to get Troops back into the mix. I have long argued that if you want the game to revolve around Troops you have to MAKE THEM GOOD! My prediction is that guardsmen will be cheap, cheap, cheap.

Heavy weapons teams will supposedly be required to be on large bases. It is assumed there will be some sort of rule making HW Teams a single 2W entity, like a Space Marine Attack Bike. Nothing has been rumoured on this yet though.

This will certainly solve a serious problem. I predict this is right. They will invent some kind of universal rule that is the same. Along those lines I predict that Eldar heavy weapons will see a similar merging when the Eldar are re-done.

Conscripts Originally rumoured to be a Troops choice that didn’t take up a FOC slot and come with a command squad of a Commissar and three teams of Heavy Bolters. The Heavy Bolter team guns them down the conscripts if they break adding bonuses. This rumour has been refuted by several sources. Other rumours say conscripts will disappear altogether, or remain only as “naked” Platoons.

I predict that conscripts will disappear. They are a vestigial limb. If regular guardsmen are cheap, these guys will go the way of the dodo. They were a lame idea to begin with if you ask me.

Penal Battalion50 pts. 1 Custodian and 9 Penal troopers. Ld 8. Rifle and close combat weapons. Scouts, Stubborn, “Desperate”. No news on what the last Special Rule may entail.

Another reason why the Conscripts will be gone.

Transports
Chimera 55 pts. 12 10 10 Tank, Amphibious, Mobile Command Vehicle. Multi-laser, hull Heavy Bolter, searchlight and smoke launchers. Options: Upgrade Multi-laser to Heavy Flamer or Heavy Bolter – free; hull Heavy Bolter to Heavy Flamer – free; Storm Bolter or Heavy Stubber +10pts, Hunter-Killer Missile +10pts, Dozer Blade +10 pts, Extra Armour +15pts, Camo Netting +20pts.

Valkyrie Skimmer. 24″ move. Troops may disembark at any point in its movement, but more than 12″ and they take a dangerous terrain check. Was rumoured to allow embarked troops to deploy after deep striking. Another rumour says they will be able to DS more accurately like Drop Pods. It was originally rumoured to only be a transport for Stormtroopers, but more recently it has been said it will be available to all units that have access to Chimeras.

Fast Attack
SentinelsWill be available for both Fast Attack and HS slots, with the slot determining the weapon and upgrade options, as well as special rules. Fast Attack Sentinels will retain Scout, but only have the option to be open topped.

That sucks. I really like the look of enclosed sentinels. Well, no reason they can’t look that way at least.

Hellhound12 12 10 Tank, Fast. Inferno Cannon: 12″ Template, S6 AP4 Heavy 1 (like the previous version but there is no roll to hit and no partials, but reaches 12″).

This is my MVP pick for the imperial guard force.

Devildog12 12 10 Tank, Fast. Fusion Cannon: 24″ S8 AP1 Heavy 1, Blast, Melta.

I really like this one. A Hellhound with Bite. Note that this is a Fast vehicle.

Banewolf12 12 10 Tank, Fast. Chemical Cannon: S1 AP3 Heavy 1, Template, Poison (wounds on a 2+ to targets with a Toughness stat).

I am giddy with these new tanks. These are really great. And to see them in the Fast Attack slots is really the best. It allows for more tanks. Are there any Elite tanks?

Valkyrie (possibly Valkyrie Vendetta)The “up-gunned” version of the Valkyrie is rumoured to be a Fast Attack Choice called the Vendetta. There is much speculation about this.

Heavy Support
Spearhead Sentinels Heavy Support Sentinels will supposedly lose Scout, but will be enclosed, have slightly better front armour and have options for heavy weapons such as the Plasma Cannon.

Leman Russ Can reportedly be bought as a squadron so you can get 3 for a single FOC. It is unclear if this is a true Vehicle Squadron, or a three-to-a-slot situation.

Russ’ have been rumoured to cost 150 points with increased Sponson cost, so a LR will supposedly cost 180 points with 3 HB.

They have been rumoured to come with a hull heavy bolter, smoke launchers and searchlight as standard.

Leman Russ Battle Tank14 13 10 Tank. Battle Cannon.

Leman Russ Exterminator14 13 10 Tank. Exterminator Autocannon: Heavy 4, Twin-linked.

Leman Russ Vanquisher14 13 10 Tank. Vanquisher Cannon: AP2 Heavy 1, +1D6 penetration.

Leman Russ Eradicator14 13 10 Tank. Eradicator Nova Cannon: 36″ S6 AP4 Heavy 1, Large Blast, Ignores cover saves.

Leman Russ Demolisher14 13 11 Tank. Demolisher Siege Cannon.

Leman Russ Punisher14 13 11 Tank. Punisher Gatling Cannon: 24″ S5 AP- Heavy 20.

Keep your eye on stuff like there. There is a slow and substantial change to 40K. It used to be about armor and AP. You will start to see more effective counters to the Horde army (that is how they will balance out that army type). You will also start to see other Horde army types with other lists, like this one– four point guardsmen will mean you can spend 800 points and have 200 models in your force. This also jives with the “move to Apocalypse” view.

Do the math-hammer.

I may actually take some Scatter Lasers in my Eldar army.

Leman Russ Executioner14 13 11 Tank. Executioner Plasma Cannon: 36″ S7 AP2 Heavy 3.

Lumbering Behemoth rule – Can choose to move 6″ and fire all weapons or fire nothing and move 6″ +1D6″.

I really like this. I hope a lot of tanks have this. It allows them to break out of the stationary gun-platform role.

Basilisk12 10 10 Tank, Open Topped. Can be enclosed

Medusa12 10 10 Tank, Open Topped. Medusa Siege Gun: 36″ S10 AP2, Ordinance 1, Large Blast. “Fortification Buster” Ammunition: 48″ S10 AP1 Heavy 1, Blast, +1D6 penetration. Can be enclosed

Colossus12 10 10 Tank, Open Topped. Colossus Siege Cannon: 24-240″ S6 AP3 Ordinance 1, Large Blast, Ignores cover saves. Can be enclosed

Griffon12 10 10 Tank, Open Topped. Griffon Heavy Mortar: 12-48″ S6 AP4 Ordinance 1, Large Blast, can choose to re-roll deviation dice roll. Can be enclosed

Manticore12 10 10 Tank. Storm Eagle Missile: 4 only. 24-120″ S10 AP4 Ordinance 1D3, Large Blast.

Deathstrike12 12 10 Tank. Deathstrike Missile: 1 only. 12″-960″ S10 AP1 Ordinance, Blast (radius 1D3+3″).Special Rules:
– Cannot be fired on Turn 1. Each turn roll a D6, weapon can be fired on a 6. Modifiers: +1 per turn, -1 for each crew stunned or weapon destroyed results sustained. Can always be fired on the roll of a natural 6.
– Any weapon destroyed results received are ignored, the only effect they have is to delay the launch.
– Hits on vehicles in the area of the Deathstrike Missile are not calculated at half strength but at S10.

Minis
First Wave rumoured to be as follows (US$):

IG Codex $25

IG Primaris Psyker $15

IG Ratling Snipers $20

IG Sentinel $25

IG Cadian Command Squad $25

IG Catachan Command Squad $25

IG Valkyrie $50

IG Cadian Shock Troops $22

IG Catachan Jungle Fighters $22

The green of the Commissar Lord can be seen here:
http://warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41307&d=1214001137
New Ratlings have supposedly been spotted and have cloaks and hoods.

The new Sentinel box is rumoured to have all Heavy Weapon options including at least a Plasma Cannon, as well as the Armoured Crew Compartment bits in the box.

Thank goodness. I am not a fan of kits that do not have all the options in there.

The Cadian Command Squad Boxes will supposedly include all the special weapons in plastic (1 of each), 3 different officer heads, several different close combat weapons (Swords, Fists etc), various embellishments, 2 suits of officer armour, one more practical one more dressy, and 4 Cadians with a few new/special heads. Also said to have a “Drill Instructor style” underarm swagger stick.

The Valkyrie will be different from the FW version, but not hugely. A CAD picture of the interior can be seen here:

http://warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41308&d=1214001168

And this is supposedly the full thing:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VbB1uRVgs8g/SY4Y01cHs6I/AAAAAAAACWI/AaKAZ0daX_M/s1600-h/IG+Valkyrie+copy.jpg

The Cadian and Catachan Boxes are most likely 10 man sets with a heavy weapon included. Nothing has been said about whether the box will include multiple heavy weapon options, or if individual heavy weapons sets will be withdrawn. The Catachans are rumoured to be a slight improvement in sculpt more in line with the recent Heavy Weapons team than their original incarnation and will have scaled down arms.

GGM007 has dished the following info from a Manager:
Originally Posted by GGM007
He said Cadians will be repacked from 20 to 10 but he didn’t think it would include a HW team. The Battleforce would also change (prob losing the Russ and gaining Sentinals or something, basically Troopers are about to get more expensive……….)

There will apparently be a Direct Only blister with the three advisors: Master of the Fleet, Master of the Watch (Artillery Officer) and Astropath.

CAD drawings of some tanks have been spotted but it is not clear if these are simply concepts or if they are in production. The CAD picture of what is thought to be the new Hellhound (the Devil Dog) can be seen here:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=51588&d=1233353300

Apparently the Leman Russ box will include parts to make LRBT, Demolisher, Vanquisher, and Exterminator. The Chimera box will have parts for 3 other variants (including Hellhound). The Basilisk box may come with parts for Medusas and Griffons. They don’t seem to be included in the first wave.

CAD Images of what is believed to be the Leman Russ Executioner Turret and possibly the Griffon or other Heavy Mortar can be seen here:
http://warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=52171&d=1234206422Plastic Roughriders in the Cadian style have been rumoured. They will supposedly be in the “1.5 wave”A WIP Stormtrooper with shotgun (assumed to be Plastic) has been seen. It is unclear when or if this will be released. It doesn’t appear to be in the first wave, but is rumoured to be released with an “Inquisitor supplement oriented around Planetfall”.

They are supposedly 10 models to a box from £12-15. No further word on box contents. WIP can be seen here:http://warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=51084&d=1232629639

Ogryns will not be getting new models just yet

There have been rumours of Greatcoat plastics for some time, but these have been consistently shot down by those “in the know”. Despite this, it seems quite a few GW managers are reporting that plastic Greatcoats are in the pipeline, possibly even as soon as 2nd wave. They will supposedly make Steel Legion, Kreig, and/or Valhallans, which some people believe to be a sign the rumour is untrue, as the look of those regiments would need to be drastically altered to create them all from one kit.

Background & Art

The front cover of the codex supposedly features Cadians.

All Hands on Deck

Robot Chicken Star Wars

Watch this while you can.

"Stormwing" Eldar Warhost- first wave

All right, here’s what I have for the first wave, which I plan to finish this week:

2x Night Spinner
2x units of Dire Avengers
3x Vypers

Song of the Day- Rocket Ship

I heard a snippet of this in a Futurama movie: Bender’s Game.

"Nanny" Tax

Here’s an interesting article about Payroll Taxes. They call it the “Nanny Tax” but it’s what is applied to any employee, as far as I can tell.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/183487

I am surprised that most people don’t know that the employer has to match part of the tax. It works something like this: If you make $12 per hour, the employer takes out about $1.00 for “with-holding” and then has to send that as well as another $1.00 to the Feds. On top of that there are labyrinthine state taxes.

If you could choose, would you forego the benefits to Social Security etc. in order to make 12% more?

Why is the payroll tax split? Why not make the employer pay it all? Why not make the employee pay it all? It can’t be an accident.

It’s also interesting to see how the various parties (employer, employee and the government) spin the various portions of the tax. What do you think?

I for one, don’t trust faraway bureaucrats to administer a worker’s money to their best benefit. I think that in the end they will take the money, mis-use it, over-extend, and ultimately the worker will be left to fend for his-her-self in the end anyway. That’s what you’re going to see in the coming year: government agencies at all levels howling how the money is all gone and how people just need to stand up and take care of themselves and each other. Hmmm… sounds like paying twice to get the job done once.

Then again, I know a lot of people that wouldn’t save up for retirement left to themselves. They would blow it on soda and twinkies, then have to live in a box and eat Alpo in their golden years. I mean, heck, I blew my retirement money to start a miniatures painting business. So how smart could I be? Do I need a benevolent and all-powerful government to take care of me and make me do the right thing?

It’s my opinion that individuals and small communities are well-suited to taking care of themselves most efficiently. Of course, it’s easy to believe this when living in such a tight-knit community as I do. We have monthly collections for the poor, that are administered carefully through a local man well-known for his integrity (and with oversight– this is called Fast Offering*). When a woman gives birth, the local Relief Society starts bringing meals to the family. Same for if someone is sick or injured. Help with medical bills can happen, too. There are two de facto public parks. One family even built a pavilion on the edge of it. Another a basketball court. Children play there under the watchful eye of a ring of two-story houses. Yards are well-tended and planted with flowers. If you move in here, and someone notices, it won’t be long until a brigade of volunteers shows up to lend a hand with the boxes. I can recite almost every family by name in a three block radius.

When we moved here, our house wasn’t ready to move in to. A local family took us in. For FOUR MONTHS.

This is what is called in an LDS community a “Ward”. Ours has 105 families. And we take care of each other quite well. On top of paying our Payroll taxes. I’m living in a Utopia of sorts. The main feature (invisible) is that it is voluntary. For me, that is the most important part.

Last thought: it is easier to fight and terminate local corruption than it is to fight corruption at the federal level. Where there is money there is rotten-ness. Where there is a LOT of money, there is a festering and putrid swamp of putridity. If you want to get rid of mosquitoes you have to drain the standing water.

*I realize this idea/practice is not unique to the Mormon people. In fact, I think any group of people could perform a similar function. Heck, you see this spontaneously at some game shops, where everyone bands together to help a member in need.

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