About My Blog

Ave Omnissiah!

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My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.

Featured Post

Retrospective: Imperial Knights

Today, we're going to a Retrospective on...Imperial Knights! I mean, this is primarily an Imperial Knight blog, so obviously if I'm ...

Friday, January 29, 2016

Punishing the Punisher and Storming the Storm Troopers

Hello, everybody! So I went and began fixing my Leman Russ Punisher and Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions, aka Storm Troopers today. This means I have my 2nd Leman Russ Punisher, and my Emepror's Fist Armored Company can take more advantage of that +1 BS instead of worrying about the Gets Hot! rule on the Leman Russ Executioner's plasma cannons. So I'll be swapping one of the Leman Russ Executioner out for the 2nd Leman Russ Punisher. Makes more sense to me.

Leman Russ Punisher

Leman Russ Punisher from a similar angle
 In addition to finishing my Leman Russ Punisher, I also built 1 Storm Trooper squad from my new Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions box. I only had time to build a single 5-men squad today, which is sad, but I'll return next week to continue fixing them. 4 more squads and 20 more Storm Troopers to go. Plus 2 Taurox Prime APCs and a Valkyrie. Oh well. Oh, and I also finished building the Commissar, so I can pretend that he's Commissar Ciaphas Cain, or at least a protege of Ciaphas Cain. Yay. Time for a funny short story! Actually, I should write a Kamikaze Trooper short story when I have the time, it'll be fun.

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad and Commissar
I have 1 Tempestor Prime, who looks extremely cool with that uniform jacket draped over his shoulders. But he's very hard to fix and glue. I really hate fixing small models, argh. They just don't click very well. I also built a Storm Trooper with a hot-shot volley gun, and another with a meltagun, before wrapping up the last two with hot-shot lasguns. That should do the trick. Now there shouldn't be any problems left, I'll slowly build the rest of the squads next week when I have the time.

Once I'm fnished with my Storm Troopers, I'll have a game with them, using them in my Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group because they're Kamikaze Troopers following a Draconian Armored Defense Force Armored Company). We'll see how it goes! I can't wait to see them in battle!

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Curse of the Wulfen - Wulfen-stein: The New Curse

Apparently there are rumors about a new campaign for Daemons and Space Wolves, called Curse of the Wulfen. For those of you new to 40K or don't know what the hell Wulfen are, here's a brief overview.

Basically, after the burning of Prospero (Leman Russ, you dolt! You're not supposed to kill Magnus! You're supposed to bring him back unharmed!), the 13th Company of Space Wolves vanished into the Warp. The Space Wolves had this gene-seed that incorporates the heightened senses of wolves and superior physical abilities, but this sometimes caused a mutation (not unlike that of the Thousand Sons, take that, you wolves!) that turn them into Space Werewolves. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. Anyway, the 13th Company vanished for 10,000 years, and after Abbadon the Despoiler returns from the Eye of Terror to launch his 13th Black Crusade, the Wulfen, or 13th Company, apparently show up to beat him upside down. Which is awesome. Yay.

Now, you can find more information on the Curse of the Wulfen by visiting Natfka's blog, or Bell of Lost Souls. They have far more info than I do. What I'm doing here, however, is making a suggestion for a new game, especially in the wake of the new Doom being released sometime this year. Spring 2016, they say, so yeah. Therefore I propose that Id Software or MachineGames create a new Warhammer 40K game titled...

Wulfen-stein: The New Curse.

The story plays like this: Basically, you are a Cadian Guardsman who wakes up a decade after the 13th Black Crusade, only to find out that Cadia has fallen to the Daemons and Chaos. So what do you do? Pick up your trusty lasgun, collect that melting meltagun or powerful plasma gun on the way, even grab that heavy flamer for a heated warm-up, and go around shooting Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Mechanicus machine abominations and Crazy Cultists along the way. You can even dual wield two lasguns or two meltaguns! How awesome is that? Don't forget the glory kills that allow you to eviscerate and disembowel a Chaos Space Marine with nothing but a rusty bayonet!

Along the way, you discover a conspiracy involving the Wulfen, and set out to ursurp Abbadon the Despoiler and reclaim Cadia for freedom and the sake of the Imperium of Mankind!

How does that sound? Awesome, right? Let's go, Guardsman! Do you want to live forever?! The war ain't over. Look at all of the Traitors running around.

It'll be hilarious if you play as Ursarkar Creed with memory loss, and then deliver this badass speech:

"While I was gone, they set Cadia on fire. It wasn't a war anymore; it was a remaking. Some losses are inevitable. Some...heresy. Now they've built a new world from the Warp. Armies of Daemons and abominations. They're rewriting the Imperium. But they forgot about me."

:) For the Emperor! Wulfen-stein: The New Curse is out on release...sometime in the 41st Millennium!

Militarum Tempestus in Cadian Battle Group

I know, I know. Most competitive players will tell me it's a terrible idea, most people with any idea how to play a Warhammer 40K game properly will advise me against it, and any sensible person will order me to use a Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus army with its own codex and set of orders, not to mention Objective Secured.

But I'm doing it for fluff, so it's fine. I have also already written an entire post comparing Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus with Storm Troopers in an Astra Militarum army (argh, that sounds so pretentious, I'm sticking to Imperial Guard). If you've read it, you'll know that I've listed certain advantages for Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. For example, they have more access to more orders, by virtue of the Senior Officer rule for the Company Command Squads, effectively doubling the orders you can get in a Schola Progenium Storm Trooper army, and even unlock a fifth order via a Storm Trooper command squad that doesn't take up any slot in your standard Force Organization Slot! Not to mention, the Imperial Guard orders are not inferior to the Schola Progenium ones, and while the latter has advantages in terms of monster hunting, the former has their own advantages in dealing with mobs, movement and vehicle hunting.

Now keep that in mind, and let's move on to the Cadian Battle Group. I'm of the view that the Command Benefits the Cadian Battle Group provides can actually benefit and maximize the potential of Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. Yes, they probably don't have Objective Secured, but thanks to the benefits they make better killing machines so you can just shoot your enemies off the objectives.

Take the first benefit for example. Your Company Commander gets 24" range to issue his orders, and he gets an extra order - which means a total of three orders just from him alone. Wow. Not to mention, you can take as many Company Command Squads as you want for Battle Group Command to maximize your orders, but obviously you don't need that much. One is actually more than enough for me, but if you'd like, 2 should be fine. What this means is that your Company Command Squad does not need to be so close to your Storm Troopers, as with a regular Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment. They can issue orders from far away, from a safe distance without running the risk of getting shot. Just stick them in a Chimera and issue orders from it at a safe distance. Or if you want, use the Emperor's Spear Aerial Company, drop your Company Command Squad into cover (or run them into cover using the Forward, for the Emperor! order) thanks to no scatter, and have them issue orders from 24" away.

The next benefit is that any officer issuing an order gets to roll an extra dice for the leadership test and discards the highest. Everyone has been saying what makes Storm Troopers are their orders, and as I already analyzed, both Imperial Guard and Schola Progenium orders are pretty good, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. This means your orders are more likely to go off! Sure, the Storm Troopers' Schola Progenium orders are awesome, but a Leadership of 9 means there's quite a bit of chance the orders won't go off. With this command benefit, your orders are much more likely to go off, and don't underestimate the value of rolling an extra dice. Sure, you don't have the Rending or Sniping orders, but the Monster and Tank Hunter, Ignores Cover, Split Fire and First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! orders are much more likely to go off than those. And you have a lot more options and a lot more orders available!

The third benefit, while not competitive for anyone else, is a huge plus for me. My Storm Troopers get to re-roll ones for shooting their hot-shot lasguns. They are sharpshooters, thanks to being trained by Cadians, ha ha. With their already decent BS4, that means their chances of missing are pretty small now. Add this benefit to the one above, where your order First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! is much more likely to go off, there's a lot of AP3 shots landing home. Can be devastating, and I can't wait to try it out in an actual game!

Keep in mind, this is for fun and casual games. It's not meant to be competitive, it's not meant to sweep or win tournaments. I can try, but I guarantee I'll be kicked out of the tournament before the preliminary round ends. But this is a very fun, fluffy list with grossly underrated benefits that might actually turn the game around against casual gamers. No, I'm not trying to be a power gamer and bully amateurs (I'm an amateur myself), but at least I can play decent games against say, a Necron Decurion, a Khorne Blood Host, Eldar Warhost (okay, now that's a bit too far), Tau Hunter Contingent or Space Marines Gladius Strike Force. I hope. We shall see. I've to say I'll probably die against my own Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, what with all that Haywire and Imperial Knights stomping over my tanks. Ouch. Ditto if my opponent brings Wraithknights. It'll utterly destroy my Stormsword. The thing with casual games is that probably no one is a jerk to bring four or five Wraithknights or spam 3 Imperial Knights unless they're really desperate (and are willing to lose their friends).

Anyway, for the Emperor! Happy gaming!

Draconian Armored Defense Force

This page is horribly outdated, I have changed the name of my Imperial Guard regiment to Draconian Defenders, and you're better served looking into the Draconian Coalition and the history of Draconis III instead. Sorry.

The Draconian Armored Defense Force is an Imperial Guard regiment that...well, I created myself, thanks to Games Workshop's stance of "you create your own narrative". So I'll be penning the history for those interested (I doubt there's anyone interested in a fan-created Imperial Guard regiment, most people will rather read the canonical and more prominent regiments of Cadians, Catachans, Death Korps of Kriegs, etc.). In the end, it's more for myself than readers, so whatever.

The Draconian Armored Defense Force is an Imperial Guard regiment from the Knight world of Draconis III. It has a long history, because prior to Draconis III's discovery by the Imperium of Mankind in the 35th Millennium, Draconis III was arife with civil strife. The Knightly houses of Draconis III had long since divided themselves into feudal domains and often warred with each other in order to expand their territory. This was all put to a stop by the genius shogun Yato Yasutaka, who united all the Knightly Warlords, also known as Daimyos, under a single regime. Well, you can read the rest of the history under the House Yato and the Knightly Houses of Draconis III post. As a recap, the Draconian Armored Defense Force grew out of the ancient tank armies that accompanied the Imperial Knights and Titans as the various Daimyo waged war against each other. Prior to the armored column of tanks, the various houses relied on infantry, foot soldiers known as ashigaru, and Rough Riders to trasverse the agricultural world, but these infantry were rendered obsolete by the armored might of the Imperial Knights. As such, the greatest houses ensured that even the most common soldier was assigned a tank. While an individual tank was unable to destroy a Knight, a whole column of tanks firing in concert would be able to bring them down. As such, tanks were valued far more than infantry in Draconis III. Furthermore, this reduced the massive loss of life, the deaths of countless foot soldiers meaningless as they did nothing to damage a Knight.

As such, the precursor to the Draconian Armored Defense Force largely consisted of tanks and aerial companies. The few infantry who survived were later organized to form an elite core of infantry, the Kamikaze Troopers, storm troopers who were the equivalent of the Cadian Kasrkins and the Death Korps of Krieg Grenadiers. They often function as elite drop troops, grav-chuting out of gunships such as Vendettas to strike at key installations and high-value targets. This enabled even a small elite squad to assassinate a single, isolated Knight, when the opportunity arose.

When the Adeptus Mechanicus arrived and occupied Draonis IV as their new Forge World, the Draconian Armored Defense Force underwent modernization, with the Tech-priests eagerly replacing the ancient tanks with the superior Leman Russ variants. The old helicopters were also dismantled in favor of Vendetta and Valkyrie assault carriers, and the organization and structure of the army were significantly altered. The army was renamed the Draconian Armored Defense Force, with both the Planetary Defense Force and the mandatory tithed Imperial Guard regiment proudly bearing the same name. To further modernize and improve the new military, the Shogun Yato Yoshinobu updated the military doctrines, dissolved the old structure and appointed new leaders. One of his choices, General Iwakura Iemitsu, then embarked on a learning journey throughout the Imperium. He traveled to Cadia and invited old, retired Cadian officers to train the new, fledging army of Draconis IV, as well as combined teachings from the Elysian Drop Troops for the Kamikaze Troopers.

The Iwakura mission was successful, and the Cadian officers who agreed to train the army helped organize the Armored Defense Force into an armored regiment not unlike the armored regiments of the revered Cadian Shock Troops. Their uniform, too, was modeled after the Cadians, but they chose black and gold as their colors as a display of loyalty to House Yato. The Kasrkins also helped trained the Kamikaze Troopers, who along with Elysian Drop Troops manuals, managed to achieve a well-balanced elite strikeforce that can attack from both land and air. They often work in conjunction with the tanks, being the precise hammer to the Leman Russ tanks' armored anvil.

Furthermore, one advantage the Draconian Armored Defense Force had was their access to technology. Due to their close proximity to the Forge World Draconis IV, they often had priority to the latest and most advanced tanks, weapons and gadgets the Tech-priests of Draconis IV churned out. This meant that they had an unnaturally high number of tanks in their regiment, much more so than most Imperial Guard regiments, enough to allow them to be a completely armored regiment. In addition, they were given exotic weapons such as the newly improved MKIV hot-shot lasguns and hot-shot volley guns for better punch and increased damage. The Adeptus Mechanicus in Draconis IV generously gave away tanks and weapons, for they had their own superior tanks such as the Onager Dunecrawler, and more lethal weapons such as radium carbines, arc rifles and plasma calivers, that they kept to themselves.

The Kamikaze Troopers still receive superior equipment to most Imperial Guard regiments. Their masks, designed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, filters out toxic gases and allows them to survive in all but the most hazardous of conditions. In addition, their goggles have targeting auspexes not unlike those found in Skitarii Rangers', allowing them to have superior aim and accuracy. This, with improved carapace armor, allows them to operate in the void, in Space Hulks and other hostile environments. To this end, even their Taurox Prime APCs are able to trasverse any sort of terrain, be it vacuum environments in derelict space hulks or deadly swamps. Delivering them to the battleground, the heavily armored Kamikaze Troopers then unload their lethal weaponry into any xenos foes brave enough to face them.

The Draconian Armored Defense Force uses a variety of Leman Russ tanks. The most common is the Leman Russ Punisher variant, which allows the regiment to deliver volleys of punishing rounds into the foes. Thanks to their long history of fighting Titans and Imperial Knights, the Leman Russ Vanquisher, and the ubiquitous Leman Russ Battle Tank are also used very regularly, both often equipped with lascannons for that anti-armor punch. In addition to these, the Leman Russ Executioner is also a common sight among the Armored Defense Force as the Forge World Draconis IV often churns out plasma weapons and tanks with the Executioner plasma cannon at an alarming rate, in their attempt to emulate the Forge World Ryza. These four variants are the most regularly used tanks in the Draconian Armored Defense Force, and when used in a mix, they can be a very potent combination against any time of foe, be it blobs of Chaos cultists, teeming hordes of Tyranids or Traitor Terminators, not to mentioned heavily armored vehicles.

A typical Draconian Armored Convoy will consist of a single Super-heavy tank escorted by an armored company - such as this Stormsword being escorted by an Emperor's Fist Armored Company.

In time, the Draconian Armored Defense Force has been forged as one of the most efficient fighting forces in the Imperium of Mankind, often relying on sheer number of tanks, the precision of elite storm troopers, and aerial superiority provided by gunships, to crush the many foes that plague the galaxy.

A more bird's eye view of an Emperor's Fist Armored Company escorting the Super-heavy Element of the Draconian Armored Battle Group

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Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard Fluff

Astra Mili...what? You're in the Guard, son.

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Commissars are cool, right? Yes. Seriously, just say yes, even if you don't have a boltgun pointed right at your face.
The Astra Militarum, or the Imperial Guard in low Gothic (or by anyone who doesn't want to sound annoyingly pretentious), is the largest coherent fighting force in the galaxy. Basically, they're the foot soldiers of the Imperium in Warhammer 40,000, the cannon fodder, the "normal" dudes who die in their millons while those glory-hogging Space Marines jump in the last moment to steal the credit. You know, the poor little "normal" guys the Space Marines have to save everytime? Yeah, that's us. The games often mention us dying and getting slaughtered, but they always fail to give us credit for lasting this long against a superior army. I mean, think about it. In a galaxy where enemies are
 - skeletal robots with super-ancient technology that borders on necromantic magic, and near-broken 4+ reanimation protocol
 - genetically engineered superhumans with full-body armor and an attitude that borders on annoying
 - corrupted versions of above genetically engineered superhumans with full-body armor AND spikes, satanic symbols and heavy metal
 - beautiful girls in similar full-body armor and an obsession with faith (plus white hair)
 - hard-to-kill green-skinned, super-strong brutes that spread like a plague while shouting "WAAAGH!"
 - manipulative and selfish space elves with Wraithknights, Wave Serpents, Battle Focus and ancient wraithbone technology, abilities and psychic powers
 - above-mentioned space elves' emo, sadistic cousins who torture and enslave victims unlucky not to die from their pirate raids
 - space elves that dressed as clowns and wear masks because they think it's funny (well, they do it for their laughing god, after all)
 - highly advanced Gundam and mecha wannabes and space communists with superior firepower, ignores cover, markerlights and suits in a crisis
 - ravenous, insectoid swarms with lots of teeth and claws to eat you, and are scarier than the Zerg or the Queen of Blades (Kerrigan, say hello to Hive Fleet Leviathan)
 - Daemons from Hell...uh, the Warp, with all sorts of disgusting shapes and sizes that either turn you into zombies (Nurgle), let you die from the ultimate pleasure (Slaneesh - trust me, the reality is much worse than it sounds), mutilated just so you can spill your blood (Blood for the blood god! Harriers for the Cup! Khorne flakes!) or deceived into some annoying complex and complicated scheme just so some guy up there can smirk and say, "just as planned" (Tzeeentch)
 - Giant robots that make the mechas from the above space communists blue with envy (except that they are already blue), as well as their corrupted counterparts who somehow sport spikes and ugly daemon faces, as well as flesh over metal
 - red-robed cyborg freaks who like to keep and hoard all the good technological stuff for themselves, and their black-robed corrupted counterparts who go on a frenzy trying to outdo each other with the most outrageous daemon engines

Honestly, if a Khorne Berzerker charges at me yelling "Blood for the blood god!", I'll respond with "Corpses for the corpse god!" and shoot him in the head.

Anyway, yeah, against this multitude of horrifying foes, the Imperial Guard meet them with nothing other than flak armor, flashlights...uh, lasguns and...balls of steel. Do how do they keep the enemies of the Imperium at bay? By sacrificing...ahem...I mean, fielding billions of men, supported by legions of heavy armor and thundering artillery. Oh, and don't forget, honest human intolerance backed by a sufficient number of guns. Just keep sending wave and wave of infantry, hurling their poor conscript corspes at the wall of a fortress until it falls. Really. And for some reason, they think fixing a bayonet to their lasguns and charging a giant foe is more effective than just shooting at it. Oh well.

The price of victory is often paid in Cadian blood. That's a great novel, by the way.
The Shield of Humanity is organized as such: The highest will be the Adeptus Administratum, with the Astra Militarum and Officio Prefectus under it. Under the Astra Militarum are several branches, including the Militarum Vendorum, which probably supplies stuff through a vendor, Militarum Ordinatus, the artillery division. the Militarum Auxilla, the auxillary forces such as orgyns, ratlings and stuff, Militarum Tempestus, the elite storm troopers, and Militarum Regimentos, which probably refers to the military regiments but in a more classy name. Huh.

The Imperial Guard first came to being during the Horus Heresy in the form of the Imperial Army (or Imperial Miltia and Cults), especially since the awesome Ollanius Pius who stood up to Horus and convinced the Emperor to finally destroy his treacherous son with his sacrifice. The elite Space Marines and Primarchs were limited in numbers, so to support them, the Imperium of Mankind needed vast regiments of soldiers in the form of Imperial Army, the precursor to the Imperial Guard. The more planets they conquered and brought back to the fold of the Imperium, the more soldiers they needed, so the Imperial Army kept growing and growing. They were self-contained and autonomous, possessing control of their own warships, and thus formed a fully fledged arm of humanity's war machine. While half of the Space Marines sided with the Warmaster when Horus decided to betray the Emperor, the majority of the Imperial Army thankfully remained loyal to the Imperium. Unfortunately, that meant more cannon fodder for Horus and the Traitor Space Marines as they schemed and conspired to destroy entire worlds (just look at Molech! All those loyal Guardsmen dead, and for what?! Horus's obsession with something, and House Devine's fault! Bloody hell, Imperial Knights shouldn't fall to Chaos!).

Anyway, after that, the Imperial Army ceased to exist so that such treachery wouldn't happen again, though it was the Adeptus Astartes's fault (but somehow we mortal humans have to shoulder the blame with them). The fleet and army were permanently separated, so now we have the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Guard. Yay. Thanks to this, commissars were introduced to ensure loyalty, and it's thanks to this system we have the badasses Ciaphas Cain, Sebastian Yarrick, Ibram Gaunt, all legends in their own right. Though Ciaphas is still the most awesome of the three, this writer being biased toward his favorite Warhammer 40K character. Anyway, the Imperial Guard were now a codependent organization where operations, structure and command were brutally compartmentalized. No wonder everything's so inefficient in the future. Damned bureaucracy and red tape.

Chain of command descends from the High Lords of Terra, the highest of the highest, to the Lord Commander Militant, and then Segmentum Command, who in turn are responsible for their own designated regions in the Imperium. In practice, this renders such centralized command elements little more than out of touch figureheads.

So in reality, the command falls to the officer of highest rank in any given theater of war, particularly the generals. Or they can be lord marshal or high chenzin because those sound cooler...not. Lord Castellan is not bad, actually. These officers are supported by a cadre of loyal personnel, who then have localized high command. Each officer has different style of commands and fight differently, so better pray your officer is a competent one if you go to war under him. The Draconian Defenders are pretty okay. I hope.

And then you have the Warmaster, dudes who lead star-spanning crusades or defend entire Imperial segmentums. Someone like Macharius who unfortunately, isn't as trollish as Lord Castellan Usarkar Creed.

Then you have the annoying bureaucracy of war in the form of the Departmento Munitorum, the military arm of the Adeptus Administratum, which the less said, the better. Think logistics. You need lasguns? Send them a note and they'll ship crates of lasguns to you...if they didn't mix up your orders with some other Imperial Guard regiment's demands for...say, lifeboats, which is little use to you in a desert. Ouch. And then you have tithes where every world within the Imperium must give one tenth of its total military force to fight for the Imperial Guard. The rest can be your Planetary Defense Force, who are often underrated by the Imperial Guard, but they actually aren't that bad. Just ask Ciaphas Cain, he really had good luck with awesome Planetary Defense Forces on Prosperity Wells in Perlia, and throughout his adventures he meets decent ones.

The Imperial Guard armies are often composed of a mixture of distinct regiments, so you have artillery, armor, infantry or specialists. Yay. And you even have the Schola Progenium who train the commissars. Oh well. They also have the Adeptus Ministorum that provides religious support. Just don't confess the wrong things or the priest will call a commissar to shoot you for heresy. They also have very close ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus because they need the cyborgs for their tanks and artillery, and even their lasguns! Not only that, the Tech-Priest Enginseers attached to armored armies are attached from the Mechanicus. Without the cogboys, the Imperial Guard will fall apart. There's also abhumans and the Scholastica Psykana, which is awesome.

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For Cadia! Hell, yeah! Cadians, tonight we dine in Warp!
It must be noted that each Imperial Guard regiment has different fighting styles and specializes in certain forms of warfare. For example, you send Catachan Jungle Fighters to a jungle planet, not an ice planet, and you send Valhallan Ice Warriors to an ice planet, not a desert. That's for the Tallarn Desert Raiders. And they each have their own tactics. The Death Korps of Krieg just keep sending wave of zombified infantry to die, but Cadians aren't that stupid (until some idiot orders them to fix bayonets and charge) because they know how to make a "tactical withdrawal". And the Armageddon Steel Legion is mechanized infantry so you'll never see them without a Chimera. Like how you'll never see an Elysian Drop Troop without their Valkyrie or Vendetta!

Anyway, we mustn't forget the Regiments of Distinction.

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Madness? THIS! IS! CADIA!
Cadian Shock Troops
The most awesome Imperial Guard regiment ever, and the standard which other Imperial Guard follows. The most widely used regiment too. Thanks to them being right in the Eye of Terror, they have to guard the Cadian Gate from Chaos, so they've been at war for thousands of years. So even Cadian children can strip and reassemble a lasgun. Awesome. Um, basically the Mobile Infantry from Starship troopers, or the generic infantry army from a thousand sci-fi movies.

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Hail America...uh, I mean Catachans. This is a Death World, not Vietnam...right?
Catachan Jungle Fighters
Cliched, American soldiers from the Vietnam War era who always come to conflict with "clean, organized, disciplined" Imperial Guard armies for their lack of adherence to protocol, uniform dress and military codes. Well, screw them, they're proud of coming from the death world of Catachan, and will probably slit the throat of any commissar who threatens to execute their officer for heresy. Also notable for always vanishing and dying after Inquisitors sequesters them for some stuff.

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Yeah, courtesy to David Nash and Fantasy Flight Games (not Games Workshop? What blasphemy!). Tallarns are well known for their armored warfare!
Tallarn Desert Raiders
Guerilla warfare dudes who specialize in fighting in deserts, they're Arab versions of the Imperial Guard, with lots of tanks. Pretty cool guys too, if you played Warhammer 40K: Final Liberation (just watch the cutscenes). Had a good laugh when one of them, Alem Mahat, began worshipping Ciaphas Cain as a prophet of the Emperor. Also the protagonists who whipped the Iron Warriors when they were audacious enough to invade Tallarn in what is known as the largest tank battle and armored warfare during the Horus Heresy.

No, that's not the Adeptus Mechanicus. I know it's confusing, but the Vostroyans do have augmetics and awesome self-improved weapons.


Vostroyan Firstborn
Fancily dressed Russian soldiers in space, and apparently only firstborn sons make up the army. They are known for their master-crafted weapons, which put them at an advantage over other regiments in terms of arms (and range).

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Death Korps of Krieg. They are all humans. Yes, seriously.
The Death Korps of Krieg
The grimdark of grimdark. Looking like terrifying Germans from WWI, these masked killers go around killing the enemies of mankind with ruthless efficiency, not caring for their lives. Well, apparently their planet Krieg betrayed the Emperor once, and now they want to make up for it by losing the fear of death and never retreat or surrender. To be honest, I hate them ever since I read Dead Men Walking because they're just so...argh...well, what do you expect, I'm a Ciaphas Cain fan.

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Ciaphas Cain, the most awesome Commissar ever in the Imperium of Man. I'm not kidding.
Tenacious and stoic, our hearts are as cold as ice and as bitter as winter.

Valhallan Ice Warriors
My favorite regiment next to Cadians, and my very own Draconian Defenders. Why? Because Ciaphas Cain has been attached to this iceworlder army almost all his life! They specialize in killing Orks and fighting in ice worlds, the Anarctic counterparts to the Tallarn's desert warfare. Also reminds me of the Soviet army. And no, we do not talk about Chekov. That bugger can burn in the warp.

I don't want to close my eyes! I don't want to fall asleep, because I'll miss you, Armageddon, and I don't want to miss a thing!

Armageddon Steel Legion
Thanks to Commissar Yarrick, they are awesome. They are mechanized assault infantry, and often ride along in Chimeras. They, like the Valhallans, specialize in killing Orks, particularly after that damned Warboss Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka invaded their world twice. Reclusiarch Grimaldus inspired a whole bunch of Armageddon Steel Legionnaires to victory in Helsreach, and we have Andrej Valatok, an Armageddon Steel Legion stormtrooper, who is my favorite character in the novel Helsreach. He's just amazing.

Looking smart, aren't we? Tzeentch has nothing on us!

Mordian Iron Guard
Uh, Napoleon? They like their cool uniforms, and are known for discipline and unwavering obedience to orders. They have a bad break when Magnus and the Thousand Sons invaded Mordia, and while the Stygius Sector fell to the Thousand Sons, Mordia alone stood strong and held against waves and waves of screaming Tzeentch daemons and forces. Thanks to the Mordian Iron Guard, Mordia never fell into the hands of the enemies. Fortunately, the Iron Hands and their successor Chapters showed up shortly after that to reinforce the victorious Mordian Iron Guard and launched the Iron Crusade to begin reclaiming the Stygius Sector from the Great Enemy. They had better do an entire campaign for Warzone Stygius like they did for Warzone Charadon, or I'll whine about it.

Image result for ibram gaunt
Ibram Gaunt. Not as awesome as Ciaphas Cain but still a badass in his own right.
Tanith First and Only
Scottish wannabes with the awesome Ibram Gaunt who has lots of books and novels written about their amazing exploits (still not as awesome as Ciaphas Cain, though). They specialize in scouting and infilitration, plus sniping! I don't think they have tanks. They're known more for recon and light infantry, even after merging with the Belladon regiment and receiving recruits from Verunhive.

Who the f thought it was a good idea to condemn the entire Forge World Elysian Range to Legends?!
Elysian Drop Troops
Hell yeah, the British paratroopers! Jump aboard Valkyrie and Vendetta assault carriers, then jump down with parachutes...or in Warhammer 40K, it's grav-chute. Anyway, they specialize in boarding operations, in fact they scuttled a Chaos Hades-class heavy cruiser called Injustice during the twelfth Black Crusade.

Well, that's all folks! Have fun playing with the Imperial Guard! We're not Adeptus Astartes losers who need to steal the credit and hog the glory! We're the Imperial Guard who lay the foundations and sacrifice a ton so that the Imperium can survive! FOR THE EMPEROR!

Other Links:

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Militarum Tempestus - As a separate Schola Progenium army or Elites in Astra Militarum?

In the end, thanks to some events in the university today, and after thinking about it, I've decided to return to Stormtroopers. In fact, I made up my mind and ordered the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions box set today, after comparing the prices. I'll probably spend around $411 buying a Cadian Armored Fist, Company Command Squad, 2 Chimeras and 2 Hellhounds. And that's not even including a Valkyrie. On the other hand, the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions cost about $470, with the Valkyrie already included. So I think it would be cheaper to buy the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions than to complete the Emperor's Blade Assault Company. Not only that, if I get storm troopers, I'll be able to field everything I own in a Draconian...er...Cadian Battle Group for 2,500-point games, unlike the points-sucking Emperor's Blade Assault Company which means I have to sacrifice either my Stormsword or my Emperor's Spear Aerial Company for 2,500-point games. Another huge reason is fluff, because for Draconian Armored Defense Force, the Kamikaze troopers play a huge part in it.



Anyway, enough about that. The purpose of this post is to compare Storm Troopers as their own separate Schola Progenium army against Storm Troopers as an Elites slot in an Imperial Guard army. There have been many people, particularly 1d4chan, arguing for Schola Progenium Storm Troopers because they have "superior" orders AND Objective Secured - the latter being the one advantage to rule them all. Of course, in a meta where all your opponents want to play Kill Point games (and not Maelstrom, objective-based games), Objective Secured is meaningless. So...yeah. Aside from that little detail, I would like to discuss the pros and cons of having Storm Troopers as Elites in a regular Imperial Guard army, and compare that to Storm Troopers as their own detachment. I would like to argue that even if you don't have Objective Secured or the powerful Militarum Tempestus orders, your Elite Storm Troopers in an Imperial Guard army can still work very well.

Yes, there is no doubt that Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus has a huge advantage with Objective Secured. They also have a great set of orders that make them fearsome warriors that can threaten even Gargantuan Creatures and Super-heavies. Their Schola Progenium detachment allows them to strike and eliminate high-value targets and make them awesome monster/tank hunters, thanks to their orders.

Militarum Tempestus Orders

1. Directed Firestorm Sanctioned!: Twin-linked. Awesome, particularly for the Storm Trooper Command squad with 4 special weapons like meltaguns, but meant particularly for Deep Striking 5-men Storm Trooper Squads with only 2 meltaguns because you really need all those shots to hit.

2. Autonomous Fire Sanctioned!: Preferred Enemy. Again, super-awesome, and a match made in heaven for Storm Trooper Command squads that spam 4 plasma guns. Yes, if you equip your command squad with 4 plasma guns, you must absolutely give them this order and pray that you roll less than a 10 every time (unless you get Inspired Commander as a Warlord Trait, which means you can breathe easily...until you roll a 11 or a 12).  Better start spamming plasma if you haven't already. Re-rolls rolls of ones for Gets Hot! AND To Wound? With BS4, and most things being wounded by plasma on 2s, this is one order you must absolutely issue!

3. Close Assault Doctrine Sanctioned!: Crusader. Er...I guess it'll be useful if you need your Storm Troopers to run to that objective...but don't bother with the Sweeping Advance because it's more likely that your Storm Troopers will be swept instead.

4. Advance on Target!: Fleet. Like above, it'll be useful to run to that objective...and charge. But I don't think you want to charge your Storm Troopers into combat. Their shooting is way better than their melee. I'll...pass.

5. Suppression Doctrine Sanctioned!: Hot-shot laspistols and hot-shot lasguns only fire one shot, but get Sniper and Pinning, and Storm Troopers can't charge (I already told you not to charge them!). Awesome against Monstrous Creatures now...used to be great against Wraithknights, but now they can only Wound on 6s...at least they can wound Wraithknights at all. But if you want to hunt Gargantuan Creatures and Super-heavies, I would rather you use the order below. Still, this is good for hunting regular Monstrous Creatures like those T7 Kastelan Robots, or that Carnifex, or even Hive Tyrant. Make sure you order a 10-men squad and let loose 10 hot-shot shots! You'll at least get 3 or 4 wounds (5 if you're really lucky) on average.

6. Elimination Protocol Sanctioned!: Rending. If you really need that Wraithknight to die, order your 10-men squad to fire as many rending shots into it as possible! Works great if you have 2 hot-shot volley guns in thr squad, and of course it works excellent if you have a command squad with 4 hot-shot volley guns. The latter would potentially deliver 16 salvo shots (just don't move then), all with Rending. Maximize this order with either huge squads with a lot of dakka or command squads with 4 hot-shot volley guns (beware of salvo though, so it'll be better to wait for your enemy to come to you before unleashing 16 salvo rending shots). Superb for eliminating Gargantuan Creatures, and perhaps good for wrecking super-heavy vehicles. Can't say it's reliable for destroying armored vehicles, though. Meltaguns don't need rending (might as well use the twin-linked order to make sure they hit), plasma guns benefit more from Preferred Enemy, though it'll be hilarious to see a plasma command squad glance or penetrate a Land Raider to death if you get really, really lucky.

In comparison, Storm Troopers taken as part of a regular Imperial Guard detachment don't have access to these orders, and they don't have Objective Secured. Yes, that might be a huge disadvantage, particularly to competitive and pro gamers. Fortunately, I'm not pro or competitive, and I can see the benefits of taking Storm Troopers in a regular Imperial Guard as opposed to taking them in a Schola Progenium army. As above, I already mentioned that Objective Secured is meaningless in Kill Point games where the sole objective is just to kill each other, with no objectives to secure.

But there are also other advantages. First, one of the major disadvantage of taking a Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus army is that the orders you give are limited. You only have 2 HQ slots at most, and your Tempestor Prime does not have the Senior Officer rule. That means he can only issue one order. In other words, your single detachment of Storm Troopers can only issue 2 orders at most. People will get around that by taking a few detachments to maximize the HQ, but that's a bit cheesy, and not ncessarily wise. Let's look at the bare minimum detachment first - taking 2 HQ and 2 Troops for the minimum requirements, which means that half your number of units will not benefit from the orders. That ratio will not change even if you spam many Storm Trooper detachments. So while people may argue that Militarum Tempestus orders are better in terms of monster hunting, the reality is that the number of those orders being issued is severely limited. If you choose to order your 10-men squad to snipe those Kastelan robots to death, it means your plasma squad will not have Preferred Enemy for their 4 plasma guns. If you order your command squad to fire rending hot-shot volley guns into that Wraithknight, your 5-men melta squad might miss the Wave Serpent with their 2 melta guns. So yeah, there are advantages and disadvantages to using a schola progenium Storm Trooper army.

On the other hand, if you stick to Elite Storm Troopers in a regular Imperial Guard army, you have more orders available. Let's say you use 2 Command Squads. With the Senior Officer rule, they can dish out 2 orders each. Add to that, you can take a Tempestus command squad as part of your Storm Trooper platoon, which doesn't take up a slot AND increases the number of orders you have to 5. With the option to take up to 3 Militarum Tempestus squads in a single platoon, that means all of them will have the chance to be ordered to do something nasty, and you have a chance to order one of your command squads to do mean stuff with 4 special weapon-equipped veterans. That's assuming you didn't buy them a Chimera (another benefit - Chimera APCs are Mobile Command Vehicles but Taurox Prime APCs are not) or you disembarked them as soon as possible. Not a bad deal, huh?

Additionally, the regular Imperial Guard orders are not bad as well. Yes, the Militarum Tempestus orders are made specially for Storm Troopers to take out high-value targets such as Monstrous Creatures and even Gargantuan Creatures, but what about the regular Imperial Guard orders? Let's look at them more carefully.

Imperial Guard Orders

Senior Officers

Bring it down!: Tank and Monster Hunters. Arguably on par with Elimination Protocol, and might be better than Suppression Doctrine. Allows you to re-roll failed To Wound and To Hit rolls against Monstrous Creatures and vehicles (don't forget Gargantuan Creatures and super-heavies!). All right, it might not work against Wraithknights, but look at this. If you're running a command squad with 4 hot-shot volley guns, I think you still wound the Wraithknight on a 6. The AP2 is pointless because you already have AP3 and the Wraithknight only has a 3+ armor save. However, don't just think about Wraithknights. Your 10-men Storm Trooper squad can re-roll failed To Hit and To Wound rolls against the Tau's newest Stormsurge! And Riptides! And don't forget Hive Tyrants too (if I'm not mistaken, they're also toughness 6) and Carnifex! Which is better, a few Rending rolls of 6s with AP2, or the opportunity to re-roll both hits and wounds and get even more 6s when you already have AP3? We haven't even talked about tank destroying - well, if you're relying on Rending Hot-shot lasguns to glance vehicles to death, that's fine, but if you have meltaguns, you might as well issue this order to make sure they get destroyed. Even with only 2 meltaguns, this order will make sure you wreck those tanks.

Fire on my target!: Ignores Cover. Now combine this with your mostly AP3 weaponry. Most enemies, save Terminators or stuff with a 2+ armor save, will be unable to avoid taking wounds from your onslaught...unless they have invulnerable saves or that near-trollish 4+ reanimation protocol for Necrons. Works great against jinking bikes and Wave Serpents as well! Order your meltagun command squad to fire 4 melta shots and laugh as your opponent realizes that no amount of jinking will save it! Or fire a volley of hot-shot lasgun bolts from 10 Storm Troopers or 16 hot-shot volley gun rounds from your command squad and watch that camping Tau squad (or cultists) melt under their useless cover!

Get back in the fight!: Could be useful, particularly if your storm troopers fail their morale test (well, Leadership of 8 does that sometimes) and fall back. Also useful for them getting a better cover save after going to ground and then firing at their normal BS4 instead of snap shots as per usual.

All officers

First rank, fire! Second rank, fire!: Also known as the awesome lasgun spam, now with AP3.  Do you remember when you first issued this order to your guardsmen and rolled lots of dice? That was with BS3 and AP-. Now do that with 9 hot-shot lasguns and watch them pour out up to 27 AP3 bolts at BS4. Then laugh. Laugh very loudly. Worth noting that even if you replace 2 of your hot-shot lasguns with hot-shot volley guns, you still get more or less the same amount of dakka (2 less if you moved, 2 more if you didn't move), but with a nice fraction of shots at S4 instead of S3. Awesome. Get in close and let loose a volley of hot-shot lasguns on that nice blob of Space Marines and watch them DIE! Dakka is awesome, and the more shots you have, the more wounds you're likely to deal to them. Works great against low to medium toughness targets, but high-toughness targets, you're better off using Bring it down! Not only that, this turns your Storm Troopers into blob killers, something the Schola Progenium Storm Troopers lack. It gives you quantity over quality, and as they say, quantity has a quality of its own.

Move! Move! Move!: Come on you apes, you want to live forever? Run, but with the highest result from 3 D6 instead of 2. Uh...okay, it's basically like Fleet and Crusader in the Militarum Tempestus one. I think this is better than merely re-rolling 2D6. My personal opinion, though.

Smite at will!: Split fire. Awesome. Works great for regular Storm Trooper squads with 2 meltaguns. It means you don't have to waste those other 3 hot-shot AP3 shots and can fire at someone else. Now, if only the regular Militarum Tempestus has something like this...hard to say if twin-linked is superior to this - it definitely makes sure you hit those vehicles, but split fire allows you to fire at 2 different targets. Both have their pros and cons. Then again, I would much rather make use of Bring it down!'s tank hunter if it's available, and that's superior to twin-linked.

Forwards, for the Emperor!: Shoot and Run! This is extremely powerful for Storm Troopers hurrying into objectives, as it allows them to both shoot and destroy a target before running in to occupy the objective. Alternatively, it also strengthens Storm Troopers that make use of the grav-chute insertion from Valkyries and Vendettas (which I'll be using thanks to the Emperor's Spear Aerial Company). Land them near an objective, shoot an enemy within range, then run into that objective without needing to worry about mishaps and stuff. Then again, they have Move Through Cover, so forget about the mishaps, just run them into cover after shooting. Awesome.

Suppressive fire!: Pinning, but no sniper rule. Well, that's okay, you get your regular number of shots, and it applies to all weapons, including your special weapons. Well, the other orders above are better, I suppose.

Take Aim!: Precision shots. Hey, actually this isn't bad, especially if you draw a tactical objective that needs you to assassinate. Fire a bunch of hot-shot volley gun rounds (16 salvo shots!) or a whole bombardment of 9 hot-shot lasguns (or a mix of both hot-shot lasguns and hot-shot volley guns) and gain 1 VP for assassinating that character, because you're almost certain to roll a few sixes with that many shots. Can be useful.

So yup! Each set of orders have their own advantages and disadvantages. If you're playing a plasma-heavy list for example, a Schola Progenium Storm Trooper army is for you. As for monster hunting, it's hard to say if Elimination Protocol with Rending is better than Bring it down! with Monster and Tank Hunter. Of course, if you're playing against Wraithknights, the former is better, but in most cases Bring it down! is sufficient. On the other hand, it's better for tank-hunting and vehicle destruction - more reliable than Rending, if you ask me, unless you're making use of Rending Hot-shot lasguns to hunt vehicles. BUT Schola Progenium Storm Troopers are better at taking down Monstrous Creatures with their Sniping Suppressive Doctrine. On the other hand, the Split Fire rule allows you to both hunt tanks with 2 melta guns and still fire at other targets with the hot-shot lasguns. But you run the risk of missing so little shots, which is mitigated by the twin-linked provided by the Schola Progenium Directed Firestorm order. Then again, if you want to compare that, you might as well get your company command squad to order your Storm Troopers to Bring it down! not just for more reliable hits BUT also for a better chance of glancing or penetrating that tank. So in terms of monster hunting, Schola Progenium Storm Troopers win out, but regular Imperial Guard Storm Troopers are better tank and vehicle hunters.

I can't see how Fleet or Crusader is superior to Move! Move! Move!, and to be honest I much prefer Forwards, for the Emperor, because it allows my Storm Troopers to shoot (which is why I brought them in the first place) and run, while the other 3 orders don't. Forwards, for the Emperor also makes my Storm Troopers superior drop troops/airborne calvary than the individual ones.

Speaking of orders, you have to take note that the Imperial Guard Storm Troopers have access to a lot more orders, thanks to taking 2 Company Command Squads with the Senior Officer rule AND an extra Tempestus Command Squad that doesn't take up a HQ slot and essentially comes free with the regular Storm Trooper squads. On the other hand, Schola Progenium Storm Troopers only have 2 orders at most, so effectively at least half your army doesn't benefit from the supposedly superior orders. On the other hand, even if you use up all your orders on Storm Troopers in Imperial Guard, the regular infantry platoon still has a platoon commander to order them to unleash First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! So there's no shortage of orders there. Of course, the downside is that Imperial Guard Storm Troopers do not benefit from Objective Secured like their Schola Progenium counterparts. So it really depends on how you want to play and what your objective is. If you just want to grab objectives, then perhaps it's better to use Objective Secured Schola Progenium Storm Troopers to seize them. But on the other hand, it's not impossible for your Imperial Guard Storm Troopers to shoot your enemies off the objective by using the force multipliers your numerous orders provide.

Now, we come to the heart of why I'm writing this article. Because I'm planning on using a Militarum Tempestus platoon in my Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group). Mostly because of fluff, because my Kamikaze Troopers, the counterpart to Cadian Kasrkins and Death Korps of Krieg Grenadiers, play a huge role in the Draconian Armored Defense Force. But that is another post for another day because this one has gone on too long. Tomorrow (or next time whenever I'm free), I'll explore the reasons why I want to use Storm Troopers as part of my Draconian / Cadian Battle Group.

Till then! The Emperor protects!

Warhammer 40K Datacards: Cadia - analysis

Sorry for the long overdue article on the new Cadian Datacards. Actually, I didn't even know nobody wrote anything on it, until I tried searching for them on the Internet yesterday and found absolutely nothing. Only 1d4chan has anything on Cadian Tactical Objectives. Huh. Strange.

As such, this is a belated article on the new Cadian Datacards! First, let's look at the six Warlord Traits that they feature, which I didn't talk so much in my Mont'ka analysis and review the last time.

Basically, I can choose to randomly draw one of these Cadian Warlord Trait cards instead of rolling on the Warlord Trait Tables in the Imperial Guard codex or Mont'ka: The Rules. Let's see what we've got.

1. Master Orator: Warlord ges Zealot. Uh...why? There's no way in hell I'm going to let my Company Commander get into melee unless I want to give my opponent a free victory point in Slay the Warlord. And it's useless for a Tank Commander. On the other hand, it grants Fearless to my Company Command Squad, or so I think.

2. Dead-eye Shot: Warlord gets +2 to his BS, and the rest of his unit gets +1 to their BS. Sweet! Awesome! Then again, my Company Command Squad is equipped with heavy flamer and flamers, so I can't maximize any use of it. On the other hand, if my Warlord is my Tank Commander in my Emperor's Fist Armored Company...awesome!

3. Artillery Veteran: Once per game, my Warlord transforms into a Master of Ordnance. Uh...only once? Pass. I might as well spend the points for a real Master of Ordnance.

4. Unflappable Stoicism: Cadian version of Draconian Disciplinarian - the latter suits my Draconian Battle Group more, actually, but whatever. Friendly units don't take Morale tests for suffering 25% or more casualties as long as they're within 12" of my Warlord. Useful for my particular choice of Imperial Guard units (Storm Troopers!)

5. Above the Thundering Guns: Warlord has Voice of Command, or if he already is an officer, then he can issue one additional order each turn. I dunno if this stacks with Tank Orders because Tank Commanders don't have the Voice of Command rule, and even if they do, are they supposed to issue orders to infantry units? I suppose so. It doesn't stack with the command benefits of Battle Group Command, though, so if I'm using it, this is pretty pointless unless I make my Tank Commander the Warlord instead.

6. Staunch Traditionalist: Friendly Cadian Characters (or Draconian) must issue and accept challenges wherever possible. I can choose which model issues or accepts the challenge, if I've got more than 1 of them. Argh, hell, no. Imperial Guardsmen aren't supposed to run into melee combat, they'll get torn apart. I'm not a big fan of this one. On the other hand, these friendly characters get to re-roll failed To Hit and To Wound rolls. That's pretty nice, but with their WS3 and Initiative 3, I dunno if it's going to help much. They'll get ripped apart by virtually anything in melee (except Tau). Oh well.

Tactical Objectives

We have the same as everyone else, like Assassinate, which scores you 1 VP for a character killed, and D3 VPs for 3 or more enemy characters killed, Demolitions...which, uh, isn't much use if your opponent doesn't have a Fortification. I don't think I need to talk much about Domination, Ascendency, Supremacy, Hold the Line, Recon, Behind Enemy Lines, Secure Objective *input number here*, Scour the Skies, Witch Hunter, King Slayer, Harness the Warp (wait, but I don't have Psykers in my Imperial Guard army?!), Psychological Warfare, Hungry for Glory (synergizes with the Staunch Traditionalist Warlord Trait), No Prisoners, Blood and Guts, Overwhelming Firepower, and Big Game Hunter. Everyone knows what those are, and if you don't, go watch Winters SEO's channel. Now. That's an order...no, don't roll a Leadership test...sigh, Guardsmen.

Anyway, the new Cadian Tactical Objectives that everyone is interested in are these:

11. Armored Assault: Score 1 Victory Point if I destroyed at least 1 Tank type. Nice. Doable, especially since I have a Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon, plus 2 more BS4 lascannons from my Leman Russ Battle Tank and Leman Russ Executioner. If need be, I probably have a Stormtrooper command squad with 4 meltaguns, so yes. Definitely a good Tactical Objective for me, unless my opponent has no tanks.

12. Fix Bayonets!: Score 1 Victory Point if 1 or more Guardsmen squads charged successfully. Stop forcing my Guardsmen into combat! I don't want them to die! Jeez, my Imperial Guard army is a shooty army, not a melee-orientated army. Every time I see them charge into a wall of Space Marines or Tyranid monsters with nothing but bayonets, I want to weep tears of blood.

13: Strength in Unity: Score 1 Victory Point if I successfully issued at least 3 orders and D3 Victory Points if I successfully issued six or more orders. Hell no, I'm never going to get that D3 Victory Points. I don't have enough infantry units to issue orders to. Huh, I guess Tank Orders count here, but even then, I don't have enough, and the Tank Commander's Leadership of 8 means it's more than likely not going to succeed. Well, it's fine. I'll settle for just 1 Victory Point, that's doable. I have 4 infantry units, mostly with Leadership 9 (my stormtrooper command squad grants his Leadership value to nearby stormtrooper squads with clarion vox), plus I get to roll an extra dice for Leadership rolls and discard the highest, so yeah, this is good. I'll take 1 VP over 0. Getting D3 VPs will be near impossible.

14. Hold your ground: Score 1 Victory Point if at least half of my army are within my deployment zone. Hell yeah, very doable, especially with my Leman Russ tanks. An armored gunline (well, not really a gunline since my Leman Russ Punishers have very short range) can score this easily. I hope. I can imagine General Horace Warfield shouting "Hold your ground!" as Zerglings and Hydralisks charge on our position...except that this is Warhammer 40K, not Starcraft 2.

15: Overwhelming Numbers: Score 1 Victory Point if I control more Objective Markers than my opponent, and D3 Victory Points if I control at least 3 more Objective Markers than him. Uh...I don't know if I can get that. Like Strength in Unity, I'll settle for 1 VP. Oh well. Getting D3 VPs is tough. One way is to hold 3 objective markers and wipe my opponent's units off theirs. Now I see why Objective Secured is so important.

16: Storm of Fire: Score 1 VP if I completely destroy an enemy unit, D3 Victory Points if I destroy at least 3, and D3+3 VPs if I destroy 6 or more. Huh. Probably can get 1 VP, that's doable. D3 is still possible, but a bit difficult - then again I have a freaking Super-heavy in the form of my Stormsword, and a bunch of Leman Russ Tanks AND Stormtroopers, so never say never. On the other hand 6 is impossible. I don't think I have enough units and firepower to take out that many. Good thing I'm going with a tank company, or it'll be difficult. The Emperor's Shield Infantry Company can probably destroy only one with their awesome Punishing Fusillade. Hmm...

So that's the new Tactical Objectives for Cadians, looks like I finally explored them! Along with the Warlord Traits as well! I hope it's useful...I doubt it is, but at least people looking for what these new Tactical Objectives are can finally find a place to read about them (well, just refer to 1d4chan if all else fails).

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Change of plans

I can't say this is totally unrelated to my plans to run off to Minnesota, but I've decided to change my plans. A major factor in this decision is budget - the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions really cost a lot, and because I'm not earning plenty, I think I should scale down on my spending. Another reason is because 1d4chan advised me not to use Militarum Tempestus platoon. Basically, they told me, "just don't." If I wanted one, I should take an allied detachment of Militarum Tempestus Scions for their supposedly better orders, and also for Objective Secured. I might do an analysis of Militarum Tempestus Scions by themselves versus them as an Elites slot in a regular Astra Militarum detachment.

In Low Gothic, that means I'll be comparing the pros and cons of Stormtroopers as an army by themselves, or Stormtroopers as an Elites slot in a normal Imperial Guard army. Astra Mili...what? You're in the Guard, son.

Anyway, I digress. The plan for me now is to either buy two tanks for an all-tank army. I'm thinking of getting another Leman Russ Punisher, another Leman Russ Battle Tank with a 3rd Tech-priest Enginseer, and perhaps a few servitors with servo-arms. You know, because they can repair stuff. Yay. This will allow me to field an all-tank Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group, with the Leman Russ Executioners as the Battle Group Command (I'll upgrade the tank commander to Knight Commander Pask and make him my Warlord for the Preferred Enemy Old Grudges confer), the Emperor's Fist Armored Company and a Stormsword. Whoopee. For 2,000 points, that's 7 Leman Russ tanks, one super-heavy tank, 3 Tech-priests Enginseer and 4 Servitors. I'll eventually add a 3rd Vendetta for 2,500-point games (just remove a Servitor).

The alternative is to build an Emperor's Blade Assault Company. As I already have 1 Company Command Squad, 2 Veteran squads and 2 Chimeras, "all" I really need is "just" another Veteran squad, 2 more Chimeras and 1 Hellhound. I can get a Cadian Armored Fist for one of the Veteran squad and Chimera, whoopee. On the other hand, to make full use of the command benefits of the Cadian Battle Group, I probably need a 2nd Company Command Squad, and probably another Chimera. Oh wow, that means I need a Cadian Armored Fist, 1 Company Command Squad, 2 Chimeras and 1 Hellhound. Wait, that is going to cost me twice as much as buying another couple of tanks (to be fair, I haven't counted the servitors). Still cheaper than buying the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions, though. On the other hand, this will make my Cadian Battle Group a lot more competitive with Objective Secured and allows me to maximize the command benefits - particularly in Maelstrom games this will give me added advantages. Particularly since one of my Cadian tactical objective cards demands that I have them shout Orders. Strength in Unity: 1 victory point for 3 successful orders, D3 victory points for 6  or more successful orders, Combine with Volkov's Cane for maximum carnage. Yeah, sure, I only have 5 infantry squads to order around, but I think Tank Orders count as well, so it's easily reached! I hope. Speaking of which, I realize nobody has written a post on the new Cadian data cards. Tell you what, the next time I go to Battle Bunker, I'll bring home my Cadian data cards and write an analysis or review on it.

Anyway, the thing that's stopping me from building an Emepror's Blade Assault Company is that I really, REALLY want to throw in my Stormsword, but I don't have enough points for it unless I play a 2,500-point game. Sigh. Oh well. It is more competitive than fielding 7 Leman Russ tanks and 1 Super-heavy, that's for sure, but I have more fun fielding super-heavies and large amount of tanks, plus I save more money that way, so I'm leaning toward the tank route for now.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Should I go for the cheap option? Or should I be competitive and build an Emperor's Blade Assault Company, seeing that I already have half of it?

Friday, January 22, 2016

From Singapore to Minnesota

Guess what?!

It seems I have been accepted into a PhD program in the University of Minnesota. So I won't be in Singapore for much longer. I'm going to the United States!

If there's any local gaming store with Warhammer 40K and stuff, please let me know (I'll do my own research and find them as well, but I'll appreciate any info I can get)! I'll see if I can bring my Adeptus Mechanicus and Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group to the United States and get some games!

For the Emperor! And the Omnissiah!

Space Hulk: Deathwing

Speaking of Warhammer 40K computer games (I know I mentioned Battlefleet Gothic: Armada before), there's been another game I am tracking. It's Space Hulk: Deathwing, which is a co-op shooter that puts you in the shoes of a Deathwing Librarian leading a squad of Terminators to fight genestealers aboard a Space Hulk.

For more than 6 months I thought the developers quit and the project went dead - you know, in games there's always this thing called development hell, cancellation, etc. After a bunch of screenshots in June last year, the developers fell silent. There was no news, no updates, no post, no comment, absolultely nothing. I got worried, because to be honest I was looking forward to this game more than Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. My favorite genre is still shooter games (speaking of which, I should write a post on Doom, which is slated for a release in Spring this year), I like shooting a lot more than strategy games, so it pained me when I realized Space Hulk: Deathwing was in danger of being scrapped.

And lo and behold...they came and pasted a bunch of screenshots in their Facebook page and website today. You can check out their Facebook page here, or go over to their main wesbite/forum to check out the mammoth environments. Let's see if I can paste their screenshots here.

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Um, wow?
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That's huge, all right.
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This must be the Adeptus Mechanicus ship they're talking about.
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Black Templar, maybe?

Description:

Space Hulk: Deathwing, the first-person shooter by Streum On Studio set in Games Workshop's famous Warhammer 40,000 universe, showcases a few of its mammoth ship interiors with a batch of atmospheric new screenshots. 

From a large battle-barge belonging to the Black Templars, to a vessel from the Adeptus Mechanicus, explore and fight inside huge derelict Warhammer 40,000 vessels, oozing with atmosphere and authenticity. You play as a Librarian accompanied by a Terminator squad - either cooperatively with friends, or in solo - fending off Genestealer advances and recovering ancient relics in the mangled ships and asteroids composing the Space Hulk, drifting along the currents of the Warp. 


The game features a full story campaign, and all of the weapons from the Space Hulk board game (including the famous Storm Bolter, Assault Cannon, Lightning Claws, and Thunder Hammer). Wielding these relics of war you will fight through the cargo bays of the Adeptus Mechanicus, ancient chapels of a Black Templar warship, and the gigantic engine rooms of derelict ships. 

Space Hulk: Deathwing releases in 2016. 

I can't wait! What about you guys?

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Cult Mechanicus Painting Guide: Crusaders of the Machine God

All right, as I said yesterday, I was going to write a post on the fluff inside the Cult Mechanicus Painting Guide: Crusaders of the Machine God. It contains 3 stories about 3 different characters and their forge worlds, which I will summarize and talk about below. As I can't find any articles written about them in the Warhammer 40K wiki or even 1d4chan, I will write a post regarding them for anyone who wants more information. I doubt anyone will use this post for the wiki articles, but hey. At least this entry will show up on Google when anyone wants to search for who Magos Emperygen Kryptaesrex, Magos Hexterramere Vorght and the evil Magos Ozermadus Phal are. Oh, and the lovable Furator 9-Dhul too.

The Emperygenic Congregation

This story is about Emperygen Kryptaesrex, a Tech-priest Dominus from Mars. Basically, the story begins when a Stygian explorator fleet scavenges on a swamp planet called Exhubris II and raid the ancient tombs a la Tomb Raider (just without Lara Croft), only to disturb the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwe. The annoying xenos pour out of the webway to get in the way of our inquisitive and intellectual tech-priests for no reason other than because they're xenos scum, and basically shit hits the fan. The Stygian Explorator forces are quickly overwhelmed, the Skitarii warriors bravely holding the last line, and the Magos in charge sends SOS into the void.

Emperygen Kryptaesrex, a Tech-priest Dominus from Mars (I suspect he's ranked Archmagos at least, but they want to force the dude in line with the codex rules), receives it, and instead of thinking, "we should help our Adeptus Mechanicus Brothers for the Greater Good!", is more interested in the webways the Eldar are opening. He's like, "hell, yeah! Screw the dudes from Stygies, let's go raid the Eldar tombs and steal xenos technology!" The Eldar tech he's particularly invested in is the webways because he's already a master of the Warp engines and geller fields - an Immaterium Mechanist, so to speak. But he's curious on how the Eldar manage to jump up and down between worlds and disppear like the ninja ripoffs they were, and he knew it has something to do with the webways. The fact that the webways protect the Eldar from the baleful energies of the Warp is an added bonus.

Long story short, Magos Kryptaesrex lands on Exhubris II, thrashed the Eldar trash infesting the place with his Kataphron Destroyers and Kastelan robots, captures the webway after his Kastelan robots pummel an insolent Wraithlord into messy wraithbone pieces, and proceeds to study it. As usual, Warhammer 40K leaves the thing open-ended, but we all know Magos Kryptaesrex finally has a webway in his hands, which means he'll be able to recreate the energies that power the webway and begin to build his own versions for the Imperium. All hail the Omnissiah! WOOHOO! Adeptus Mechanicus forces and Skitarii pouring out of webways and then disappearing as mysteriously as the Eldar! I would like to see that! We don't need those Flesh Tearer drop pods anymore!

The Xenophagist Expedition

Uh, what? A Xenophagest (what the hell does Xenophagest/Xenophagist mean? And why two different spellings? Is it an e or an i? Make up your mind, Games Workshop) named Hexterramere Vorght (don't you just love their naming sense) is seeeking out the Orks' homeworld, which the Adeptus Mechanicus has dubbed Orkadia. For some reason, Vorght is obsessed with the Orks' geno-form because he believes it has clues as to where their homeworld is. I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure studying the genetic code of an alien will not bring clues to which planet it came from. Then again, I'm out of my depth, so whatever. Anyway, Magos Vorght goes around wrecking xenos shit, destroying Orks on Ryza, then flies out of Ryza because he thinks he can find Orkadia, and ends up in a skirmish with Eldar Corsairs, only to crush them under the treads of his Kataphron Destroyers and metallic feet of his Kastelan robots. Yippee.

For some reason, Hexterramere Vorght (why can't he Mechanicus just stick to simple names?) thinks that by locating the Ork's homeworld, he will be able to eradicate them. Uh...no? I don't know how that works, but even if you destroy Orkadia, it's not as if all the Orks throughout the galaxy will spontaneously combust or something. Such convenient miracles don't fit into the grimdark realism of the Warhammer 40K universe. Anyway, his obsession leads him to leave his planet Ryza even though it's being besieged by Orks, and goes to the stars in search of the homeworld...even though he could just create a gene-bomb that targets Orks' genes with all that genetic information he gleaned off dissections and stuff. Argh.

A special guest appearance by the Kastelan robot named Furator 9-Dhul, because for some reason Games Workshop think a Kastelan robot would be important. Anyway, this poor guy hails from the now severely depleted Dhul X Cyberkastel Cohort, who has fought Daemons from the Warp, then Eldar pirates, and then Orks. Oh, and laser-clawed alien constructs ibn the Ghoul Stars (what? Never heard of them). It used to have 24 robots before the Age of Strife, but they were down to 10 after the numerous skirmishes with Eldar pirates. Don't be a pirate, and don't pirate Games Workshop products, faithful servants, uh, customers of the Imperium! By the time the disastrous Ghoul Stars expedition was over, only 6 Kastelan robots returned to Ryza. And then the Orks came and they wrecked 4 more, and only 2 were left. Furator almost died, but Magos Vorght saved him by welding the spare parts of his destroyed brothers into his frame. Way to go, Vorght!

In the end...they still haven't found Orkadia, and they're still searching for it. Dude...just come home. Ryza needs you.

The Bioextinction Congregation

This is about a douche called Ozmerhadus Phal, a Magos from Metalica, who seeks to eradicate flesh and all biological life-forms from the galaxy to achieve his machine perfection. Hey! Respected the revered fields of your colleagues, the Magos Biologis! Anyway, this asshole goes around destroying planets and rendering their atmospheres sterile and unliveable, eradicating entire ecosystems and scouring worlds of life.Notable worlds include Vortex XII, where he murdered fellow Mechanicus Magi by launching a cycolnic torpedo into its unstable core and triggering an implosion that destroyed the planet completely. What an asshole.

The jerk didn't stop at that. When he's supposed to save the Adepta Sororitas on Nightlock Prime, who had rallied in their cathedral in Saintwall against Chaos forces, he up and left them all because he found a species of silicoid life in the soil of Saintwall. Bloody bastard.

He even pissed off the Knights of House Raven with his brutal and inhumane measures, and one couldn't bear the douchebag he just left and became a Freeblade called Strident Ghost, aiming to get in the way of Magos Ozmerhadus Phal and his plans of extinction. By the way, House Raven almost came to blows with him on Tylos Deep and the Lastholm Worlds. Don't blame them, I'm going to send my Skitarii and Knights after him.

Unfortunately, lore-wise, the madman's still loose in the galaxy, seeking to purge more life from the universe. The good news is that the Fabricator General of Metalica and the Lord of House Raven have sent him in the direction of the Empire of Charadon to fight against Orks. Let's hope he dies painfully at the hands of Orks, the guy needs to get dissected by Painboyz. I can't believe I'm supporting the Orks to kill a fellow Magos. What Heresy.

I think that's it for the three stories of the Adeptus Mechanicus fluff. I'll purchase the Skitarii Painting Guide: Legions of the Omnissiah one day and see what I can do. If it has more fluff in it, I'll write about it!

For the Omnissiah!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Cadian/Draconian Battle Group update

I've been searching around the Internet and I can't find any battle reports of Cadian Battle Group, except one on Youtube that for some reason isn't available in my region (why?!). Weird. Anyway, I'll try to build a Cadian Battle Group, which is actually a Draconian Battle Group according to my own personal fluff, and write a battle report to test it out.

My Emperor's Fist Armored Company is complete, so that's my Core done, and I do have a Company Command Squad in a Chimera for my Battle Group Command. I even have a single Stormsword for my super-heavy element (if I want to, I can change it into a Shadowsword) as an Auxiliary. So the bare minimum of my Cadian/Draconian Battle Group is done, so to speak. That's basically about 1,575 points though, so if I want to play a 1,850 or 2,000-point game, I need a few more models in the form of another Auxiliary.

Currently, I'm planning on buying a Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions box set to complete my Draconian Battle Group - these stormtroopers serve as the Draconian Armored Regiment's famed Kamikaze Troopers because they always carry out near-suicidal missions and live to tell the tale. Um, most of the times, anyway. That will net me another Vendetta (I'm going to convert the Valkyrie), so I can swap the Stormsword for an Emperor's Spear Aerial Company, or play a 2,500-point game. Yippee. I can only buy this next month because I'm waiting to receive my salary. I don't use credit cards and I don't believe in borrowing and spending what I don't have. So waiting for salary it is. If all goes according to plan, I should theoretically be able to play a game and write a Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group battle report by the end of February. Fingers crossed, of course.

On another note, I lost the volkite blaster for my Tech-priest Dominus. I need to buy a new one, but bits and kits UK has sold out...if anyone has a spare volkite blaster bit, please let me know. I'm willing to buy it from you. Thanks.

Oh, and one last thing. I bought Cult Mechanicus Painting Guide: Crusaders of the Machine God. No, not for the paint schemes. I bought it for the fluff. I'll be writing a post on the fluff inside Crusaders of the Machine God tomorrow. It's pretty interesting, and I think I can add to the online Warhammer 40K canon if it hasn't been added already. I hope. I should look into buying Skitarii Painting Guide: Legions of the Omnissiah. That might have even more fluff! Yay!

As a bonus, I'll leave this poorly taken photograph for you guys to enjoy.

Cadian Artwork - apparently only 250 of these exist in the world!

Um, I found a better picture of it off the Internet. Whoops. Should have used this instead.