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.

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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 ...

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Deathwatch: Overkill

Looks like Deathwatch: Overkill will be released soon, and it's opened to plenty of positive reviews. Who's buying it?

I'm tempted to buy it, but I don't earn all that much, plus I've to go to Minnesota in August, so no point stocking up on so many models. We shall see. I'll wait for the datasheet on the Genestealer Cultists and their formations before I write something more specific on them. Apparently Games Workshop is releasing the rules for Genestealer Cult and the Deathwatch Kill-Team on their official website! Once they do, I'll post the link here and do an analysis of some sort.

Keep in mind that an analysis isn't terribly useful. There's a term called theory-hammering, and while it's fun to hold discussions and stuff on how this model, unit or formation might work theoretically, it's only until you actually field them on the table that you can see how they work. There are many complaints about many factions and their formations being bloated, over-costed (is that even a word? just use overly expensive), lousy, blah blah blah...

Now, I'm not saying these complaints are unfounded. I, for one, will not field the Ogryn Auxilla because it's too expensive, and I don't really like the Ogryn and Bullgryn models. Fluff-wise, my Draconian Armored Defense Force doesn't use abhumans and rely completely on tanks, aircraft and storm troopers, so...yeah. But does that make the formation useless? Nope. If I like the abhumans, I'll be happy to field them no matter how dumb the formation is. That's why I field the Cadian Battle Group as a Draconian Battle Group with a Militarum Tempestus platoon as one of the auxiliaries. I like them fluff-wise, model-wise and I like their hot-shot lasguns and other gear options. Who cares about so-called strong formations when I'm having fun fielding my storm troopers and seeing them use "Bring it Down!" to wreck a tank or assassinate a monstrous creature?

So yeah. Instead of whining about how underpowered, incredibly weak and useless the Cadian Battle Group is (it's bloated, blah blah), let's field it in 2,000-point games where it's meant to be used, and have fun using it! I have close games with it, I have a lot of fun playing my Cadian Battle Group, so why do I care if I don't get free Chimeras for dedicated transports, objective secured for my Emperor's Shield Infantry Company (I'm not even using it, I'm using the Emperor's Fist Armored Company)? I've fun throwing out 40 BS4 shots from my Leman Russ Punisher's Punisher Gatling Cannon. Plus it's more fluffy - the Imperial Guard is meant to be a blob army, so when they have a formation that makes it a blob army, it's meant to align with the fluff. Sure, it's inflexible, rigid, bloated and unwieldy, but those people who actually use the Emperor's Shield Infantry Company find it extremely fun and durable. Keep in mind, these are the guys who actually go otu and field these armies in a real game, rather than theory-hammer, then rant away by slamming on a keyboard and forcing their opinions on other people online.

Maybe it's because I don't play in a competitive environment. I don't know. But let's stop worrying about balance, competitiveness, winning at all costs, and have fun with the formations, yeah? That's what I'm going to do, regardless of whether I win or not. I'm going to play Maelstrom, go for objectives with my tanks and guardsmen, and have tons of fun!

For the Emperor!

Friday, February 26, 2016

What's Next Deathwing press event

Last week I said I'll update you guys once I get stuff from the Space Hulk: Deathwing press event on the Focus Home Interactive.

And all they have are 4 new photographs. You can see them on the Space Hulk: Deathwing Facebook page here. Not much information other than these photographs, or so it seems. Oh well. Too bad.

I'll let you guys know more when I find more info, but I had best make it clear I'm not a rumor-monger or making a rumor site, so I probably will get very scarce information. I'll apologize in advance for that, so please don't hold any expectations.

For the Emperor.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Genestealer Cult models revealed!

I'm sure all of you must have read on Natfka's blog by now, but the images for the Genestealer Cult have been leaked!

To summarize for those who have not been following, there is a new board game for Warhammer 40K being released by Games Workshop, and it's Deathwatch: Overkill. It probably pits a Deathwatch squad of 11 Space Marines against a Genestealer Cult on some miner's world. The format probably plays similarly to Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, and Execution Assasination Force, where you set up your respective forces on a board, and roll dice and stuff to see them have a go at each other.

For me, I personally hope for a Genestealer Cult army, likely in the vein of a small codex like the Harlequins, Skitarii, Militarum Tempestus and Cult Mechanicus. It will be cool to field a Genestealer cult army, as allies to Tyranids or something. I would love to pit my Imperial Guard against the Genestealers. Maybe it's because I've been reading too many Ciaphas Cain novels, but the legendary commissar and his Valhallan Ice Warriors are always fighting against Genestealers and sometimes Genestealer Cults. It would be great to have a similar, fluffy game that depicts that!

Anyway, without further ado, let's compile the models rumored to be in Deathwatch: Overkill. I will not go over the Space Marines, I'm sure there are plenty of sites eagerly covering them and listing the various characters such as Chaplain Ortan Cassius (and they just have to make the Ultrasmurf, I mean Ultramarine the leader of Deathwatch. Argh) and providing their background story and info. Instead, I will focus on the cool and new models of the Genestealer Cult! If you want images, visit Natfka's blog and click on the links he provides. Yay.

Anyway, the first up is the Genestealer Patriarch, the patriarch of the Ghosar Quintus Broodkin. Ghosar Quintus, as I said earlier, is some mining world that has been invaded by the Genestealers. The Genestealer Patriarch is basically the idol and leader of the group, with awesome psychic powers. He's the dude that the Genestealer cultists worship, and his psychic prowess allows him to control thousands of minions. He's also cunning, deadly and more dangerous than any of the Deathwatch Space Marines. Too bad he can't stand in the face of good old Imperial Guard firepower. But still pretty cool. Oh, and he used to be a purestrain Genestealer, but he evolved like good old Pokemon and reached his final form. Nifty.

Next up is the Genestealer Magus, not to be confused with the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos. It's a u, not an o. So don't desecrate the servants of the Omnissiah by calling him the Genestealer Magos. Anyway, the Genestealer Magus is a fourth generation Genestealer hybrid who has cool psychic powers and acts as the high priest for the cult, leading it in the Patriarch's absence when he has better things to do (like nomnom some poor miners).

Then you have the Genestealer Primus, who's like the general or military leader of the Genestealer Cult, wielding the best weapons and donning the best armor the Cult can provide. It makes him able to stand up to the Space Marines in a fair fight, but I doubt that needler pistol of his can break through power armor. And make no bones about his bonesword, it looks like it can cut through...well, bones.

The Genestealer Familiars are tiny Genestealer hybrids not made up of flesh and blood but psychic manifestations conjured by the Genestealer Magus. Uh...well, can't say I have heard of that before.

Purestrain Genestealers are back, and are the same Genestealers that everyone knows and loves. Rending claws that can tear apart a Terminator, as in Space Hulk and The Emperor's Finest where Ciaphas Cain watches a Terminator brought down by them. Actually, read enough of Ciaphas Cain novels and you'll be able to see plenty of Purestrain Genestealers. Fortunately, the heroics of Cain and the 597th Valhallan Ice Warriors ensured that these monstrous abdominations are eradicated. The Kill Team of Deathwatch, however, is not as tenacious and lucky as the 597th Valhallan Ice Warriors, nor as skilled as the legendary Ciaphas Cain, so I doubt they'll survive an onslaught. Fortunately, there seems to be only 2 Purestrain Genestealers in Deathwatch: Overkill.

Then you have 2 Genestealer hybrids with mining lasers, and another few Genestealer Aberrants with power hammers and power picks. 4 of them, to be exact. Apparently Ghosar Quintus is a Delverworld, a mine scoured for precious minerals, so these dudes have access to industrial tools and use them as weapons. Er...okay. I guess it fits the particular fluff for the board game, but it'll be funny if the Genestealer Cults only invade mining worlds (they invade a larger variety of worlds in Ciphas Cain's novels) whenever we field them as an army. Well, whatever.

We have 12 first and second generation Genestealer hybrids, who are monstrous-looking creatures that sport claws, three hands, and grotesque heads. Argh, they are not pretty to look at, that's for sure. They are also known as acolyte hybrids, because well...it's a cult and they need cool-sounding names.

In addition to the acolyte hybrids, we have 14 third and fourth generation Genestealer hybrids, who have progressed so far down the family tree that they are often indistinguishable from normal humans. In fact, by wearing the proper clothes, they can pass off as a loyal servant of the Emperor. They are known as Neophytes, and they infiltrate, sabotage and sneak into the human society to do Genestealer stuff. They embrace both human and Genestealer characteristics (I was about to say worlds, but it's Warhammer 40K, so there are millions of worlds). Cool stuff. 4 third generation Genestealer hybrids have autoguns, 2 of them carry grenade launchers and 8 fourth generation Genestealer hybrids are armed with autoguns. Cool. Yay. They can make good conversions for Chaos Cultists too. Heh.

Anyway, here we go. Let's tally up the number of models we have so far.

1 Genestealer Patriarch
1 Genestealer Magus
1 Genestealer Primus
2 Genestealer Familiars
2 Purestrain Genestealers
2 Genestealer hybrids with mining lasers
4 Genestealer Aberrants with power hammers and power picks
12 first and second generation Genestealer hybrids
14 third and fourth generation Genestealer hybrids

That's a whooping 39 models! Awesome! Add the 11 Space Marines and you'll get a total of 50 models in Deathwatch: Overkill.

Now all we have to do is wait for a supplement or codex to use a Genestealer Cult detachment or formation for regular Warhammer 40K games!

Update: Apparently there will be Warhammer 40K rules released for these models in the next White Dwarf, so look forward to it!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Space Hulk: Deathwing press event

Sorry for being 21 hours late, but I found this post on the Space Hulk: Deathwing Facebook page. Apparently there's a press event for Focus Home Interactive next week, and journalists will be going there to ask questions about Space Hulk: Deathwing!

Prepare for a swarm of information about Space Hulk Deathwing, as journalists gather from across the world at the Focus Home Interactive'What’s Next' press event next week!
For now, satiate your battle hunger by re-watching the ‘Rise of the Terminators’ trailer:

Ah, just go to the Space Hulk: Deathwing Facebook page and watch the trailer. It's the same trailer we've seen before, the one with the Walking with Ghosts music (if I got the name right).

I will post any updates about Space Hulk: Deathwing when I see them and let you guys know what's going on. I'm a big fan of shooters, so this is one game on my radar. Well, I'll be distracted by Doom in 13th May first, ha ha ha...

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Battle Report 9

Hello, everyone! I'm proud to present you Battle Report 9, which is a game I had today! A match between my Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation and my opponent's Space Marines, where he used a Combined Arms Detachment, a Battle Demi-Company and a Land Raider formation.

Let's see, my opponent had a Combined Arms Detachment where he had a sniper Sergeant T (sorry, forgot his name) as his HQ, and 2 scout squads, all armed with camo-cloaks and sniper rifles. One squad had a single missile launcher or something, and infiltrated. His Battle Demi-Company had 2 tactical squads, one in a drop pod and the other in a rhino along with his Brother-Captain. That Brother-Captain had artificer armor and was the Warlord. He also had 2 squads of Devastators, each with 2 lascannons and 2 missile launchers, a land speeder, and a Stormtalon. I think. Wrapping up his forces was a Land Raider formation of 3 Land Raiders and 1 Techmarine, who was hiding inside a Void Shield Generator along with 1 Devastator squad, and these Land Raiders had the bonus rule where they ignored all results from the vehicle damage table except Explodes!. Argh. And the void shield generator.

In contrast, I went with my standard Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation list, which you guys should be familair with by now. A Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation comprising of my Warlord, the Tech-priest Dominus, 2 Kataphron Destroyers (3 with heavy grav-cannons and 3 with plasma culverins) and a Kastelan robot maniple. A Skitarii maniple made up of 10 Vanguard with plasma calivers, 5 Rangers with arc rifles, 5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with dataspike and Omniscient Mask, 5 Sicarian Infiltrators with flechette blasters and taser goads, an Ironstrider Ballistarius with twin-linked lascannon and 3 Onager Dunecrawlers with Icarus array and Cognis Manipulator. Hooray. Rounding out my force is a Knight Crusader with rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pod.

My Warlord had the warlord trait that allows him to re-roll failed Feel No Pain rolls, but I ended up not using it because he...well...wasn't targeted at all throughout the whole game.

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation

Land Raider Formation!

The deployment was Vanguard Strike, so we took a slanted edge of the table. The mission was Maelstrom of War: Cloak and Daggers. Or was it Cloak and Shadows? Whatever, it's the one where you draw 3 tactical objectives, keep it a secret from your opponent until you achieve it, and then draw up to 3 at the start of your turn if you have less than 3. Forgive my clumsy use of language here.

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation versus Space Marines Battle Demi-Company, Land Raiders and Ultramarines Chapter Tactics

We rolled off, my opponent got first, and he deployed first. I failed to seize the initiative, and was punished for deploying aggressively, as you can see below.

Deploying the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation
 My Vanguard was left out in the open. How stupid of me. In any case, I rolled and didn't get Night Fighting, and was left to watch as my army got blasted to bits by a fierce Space Marine assault.

Turn 1

The drop pod came down. The Land Raiders moved forward. My Knight wasn't targeted at all, or if he was, he made all his ion shield saves from the twin-linked lascannons that 2 of the Land Raiders fired at him. But I don't think they fired at him this turn, or at least only one or two with the Power of the Machine Spirit. The other had a flamestorm cannon, but was out of range, so phew. S6 AP3 Ignores Cover is scary. Anyway, the Space Marines poured out of the drop pod and targeted my poor guys. Combined with the twin-linked heavy bolters and the other lascannon on the first 2 Land Raiders (and the heavy bolter on the Land Raider Redeemer), they killed 3 of my Sicarian Infiltrators despite them having cover. Well, lascannons instant-death them, so....I also lost 9 of my Vanguard to that strike. The snipers fired upon my Rangers and killed 1 of them, but it was the one with the arc rifle, so it was a devastating loss to me despite me making a few armor saves. The other snipers targeted my last surviving Vanguard, but he managed to make his saves, plus my opponent failed to wound with a  lot of his rolls. Ouch.

Nasty, nasty Land Raiders. Argh.
The Rhino popped smoke and stayed still. I think. I think the Devastators helped fire at my Vanguard or something, but for some reason they missed or that's why I only had one left, who surprisingly didn't break morale. On the other hand my Infiltrators failed their morale test and fell back. Argh.

I think my opponent scored one point this turn. He achieved psychological warfare by making me fail a morale test. And then my turn came, and my Infiltrators ran off the board, giving him First Blood. Ouch.

I fired at his drop pod with the Interceptor Icarus autocannons on my Onager Dunecrawlers but did absolutely nothing. No, actually I think they took a single hull point off the drop pod. Huh.

I retaliated as much as I could, with my Vanguard and Kastelan robots moving up and mowing down 4 of the scouts hiding in the ruins. My Ironstrider Ballistarius and Knight managed to tear through all 3 void shields, but didn't damage any of the Land Raiders. Oh boy. My Kataphron Destroyers fired their heavy grav cannons and failed to penetrate any of the Land Raiders too, as did my plasma culverins, which I mistakenly fired into the Land Raiders before realizing that I could do absolutely nothing to their AV14 with my S7 blasts. Whoops, stupid mistake there. My Rangers, or the remaining arc rifle Ranger to be exact, fired on the Land Raider and MISSED. Argh. Oh, by the way, I used the Shroudpsalm Canticle because that happened to be one of my tactical objectives.

Shooting was horrible. But then my Ruststalkers killed a couple of Space Marines with their mindscrambler grenaders and then charged right into them, tearing them apart in close combat. One took a wound from overwatch before succumbing to the Space Marines' attacks back, but I won the combat and wiped them out with 4 guys remaining, consolidating on the 2nd combat squad, as seen below.

Ruststalkers proceeding to their next target after wiping out the first combat squad
That turned out to be a terrible, terrible mistake.

Despite my horrible shooting, I managed to get all 3 of my objectives. One, Shroudpsalm, as I mentioned above, the second one being No Prisoners, which I had achieved by wiping out the Space Marine combat squad, and...uh...secure objective 6, which my Warlord and the grav Kataphron Destroyers were sitting on. Yay. So the score was 3-2 in my favor.

Turn 2

Despite the score being in my favor, everything went south. Fortunately for me, my opponent's Stormtalon and Land Speeder didn't arrive from the reserves, so all the more power to me. Phew. The Rhino advanced and its passengers disembarked, 10 Tactical Marines with the Brother-Captain Warlord. The Land Raiders moved in closer and began shooting my poor Imperial Knight. Despite the multi-meltas, lascannons and stuff, surprisingly, he only lost a single hull point thanks to poor rolling (failed to glance) and several ion shield saves. The Devastators shot at my Kataphron Destroyers, the plasma one, and I lost 1 eventually. Funnily enough, the Land Raider Redeemer killed 3 of my Rustsalkers (I told you I made a terrible mistake consolidating them so close!) with the flamestorm cannon, but the Princeps tanked everything my opponent threw at him, including the boltgun fire from the remaining combat squad, the snipers from the bottom of the table (the one with Sergeant T), heavy bolters and stuff. Wow. Amazing guy. My opponent was forced to charge him, and he actually lost 2 or 3 of his Space Marines in combat to my single Ruststalker. Amazing.

I lost a Kastelan robot to the Brother-captain and his tactical squad, ouch. I think my opponent managed to get another 2 or 3 points to bring the score to 4 or 5 to 3 in his favor.

My turn came and I fought back vengefully. I finally managed to take a hull point off one Land Raider with the Ranger's arc rifle, but despite being within rapid fire range he missed one shot. Bloody hell. The Kataphron Destroyers and the Ironstrider Ballistarius killed off the remaining Space Marines from the drop pod, granting me a small reprieve. My Imperial Knight killed the last surviving Scout in the ruins with his heavy stubbers (he failed his armor save by rolling a 2!), and then attacked the Land Raider Redeemer in vain. I think I only took out 2 hull points with the rending shots from the Avenger Gatling cannon at most. Sigh.

Combined fire from my remaining Kastelan robot (my Cybernetica datasmith missed with his gamma pistol despite being so close - he rolled a 2!), and the 18 salvo heavy grav shots from my Kataphron Destroyers absolutely ripped apart the tactical squad from the Rhino and wiped them out, leaving the Brother-Captain alone with one wound left. He originally had 3! My Kastelan robot then charged into him, he missed his overwatch, and then died to the Kastelan robot's Hammer of Wrath attack by rolling a one for his armor save. He died a miserable death without even being able to strike back at my Kastelan robot. How hilarious. And in such an anticlimatic fashion, I slew the Warlord. HA HA! For the Omnissiah!

My Knight Crusader charged in and only took another hull point off the Land Raider Redeemer. Argh. Those AV14 APCs are really a pain in the ass.

I scored another objective 6, and I think I got Archeotech thing, which had me roll 2 dice. I rolled a 1 and 6, and since I was sitting on either one of those objectives (6, to be precise), that round netted me 2 points. Add Slay the Warlord and I managed to haul myself back in front, 6 to 4 or 6 to 5. Phew.

Turn 3

My opponent's Stormtalon and Land Speeder finally arrived from reserve. I had my Onager Dunecrawlers fire upon the Stormtalon, forcing it to jink, and it lost 1 hull point from the Icarus autocannons. Yay!

This turn was bully the Knight. Everyone and everything that could fire on my Knight did so, the Land Raiders with multi-meltas and lascannons, the Devastators, all these guys from the front fired, but my Knight managed to tank them all, thanks to his ion shield saves, but he lost maybe 1 hull point from there. Most of the damage was done by the Land Speeder and the Stormtalon firing from the back. The Land Speeder's meltagun did a penetrating hit and exploded, taking 2 hull points off him, and I think the snap-firing Stormtalon took another. In the end my Knight barely survived, only having one hull point left. NOOOO!

I think 1 lascannon shot had immobilized my Ironstrider Ballistarius. Ouch. I lost another Kataphron Destroyer, either to sniper fire, or to a Devastator shot (I can't remember, maybe 1 squad fired on my Knight and the 2nd Devastator squad fired on the Kataphron Destroyers), but the last guy passed his morale test. Well, that's that.

I had 2 Secure Objective 5 cards by now, both of which were useless as I had no units anywhere near that objective marker, so I discarded one and ended up drawing Hold the Line and Behind Enemy Lines. Ah...what? Okay.

In any case, I desperately counterattacked. My Onager Dunecrawlers finished off the Stormtalon with their relentless Skyfire bombardment, and my arc rifle Ranger blew up the Land Raider Redeemer with a single shot from his haywire weapon. Woohoo! One down! My Imperial Knight was not as successful, his Avenger Gatling cannon only taking a single hull point off the Land Raider he was targeting. However, his rapid-fire battle cannon pasted 3 Devastators, but they held their ground by passing morale. The Kataphron Destroyers fired their heavy grav cannons and failed to do anything to the other Land Raider who had been glanced in the previous turn, but the Kastelan robot took a hull point off the Land Speeder as it marched toward it alongside its Cybernetica Datasmith.

Assault was a lot more successful. I basically wrecked the land speeder with my Kastelan robot, and at first I thought my Knight Crusader wasn't going to do anything to the Land Raider, but surprisingly enough he got an Explodes! result by rolling a 6 on the vehicle damage table with his single penetrating hit (yeah, 1 Hammer of Wrath and 4 hits, he missed 3, fluffed the Hammer of Wrath and only had one penetrating hit), and thanks to the AP2 granted by Smash, the Land Raider blew up. Yay. Only one left.

Thanks to my Kastelan robot and Cybernetica datasmith, I had Behind Enemy Lines, so that brought my total up to 7, I think. I can't remember if my opponent had any points this turn.

Turn 4

I lost my Knight. What do you expect? He only had 1 hull point left. Between the remaining Land Raider's lascannons and the surviving Devastators, they made short work of my poor Knight. Sigh. Sniper fire killed off my last arc rifle Ranger, meaning I had nothing left to glance it with unless I got into close combat with my Ranger Alpha's arc maul, and the bugger was too far away. The rhino took potshots at my Kastelan robot and put a wound on him despite all odds, and...that's about it.

I drew a bunch of weird cards this turn, I think it included securing objectives 2 and 4, and Ascendancy. I made a mistake by not having my Kastelan robots secure a 3rd objective, that was stupid of me. I only moved my Onager Dunecrawlers forward so that they can engage the Land Raider in close combat. My Rangers, with no arc rifle left, fired their galvanic rifles at the snipers to retaliate, and surprisingly enough, killed 2 of them. Or was it 3? I think 2. The Kastelan robot and Cybernetica datasmith fluffed their shots, and I think only took 1 hull point off the Rhino (how did the Cybernetica datasmith not destroy it with armorbane!?), and even in close combat failed to do any damage, having missed all their melee attacks. Earlier, the Kataphron Destroyers fired their grav on the Land Raider, but by being behind a ruin, it made all its cover saves. On the other hand, snap-firing from my Onager Dunecrawlers wrecked the drop pod. Hah! Fortunately, they were still within 3" of objective 2 to claim it. I could be mistaken, as my memory is fuzzy, so I might have earned objective 4 last turn, because I think I had a useless secure objective 5 in my hand.

I earned 2 points this turn (or 1 in this turn, and the other 1 during the last turn, curse my memory), but I don't think my opponent did. So it was 9-6 or 9-5 in my favor.

Turn 5

My opponent moved his Land Raider to secure Objective 4 and with combined fire from the sniper rifle and the Land Raider's deadly lascannons, multi-melta and lascannons, they wiped out the Ranger squad. See, I knew I should have grabbed 3 objectives for Ascendancy earlier. Damn it. Anyway, he got a point or 2 for Objective 4, which brought his total up to 6 or 7 points. He fired his Devastators', and one of the Land Raider's lascannons (Power of the Machine Spirit) at my Onager Dunecrawlers, and they rolled their field harmonics emanatus field saves like crazy! Very hot rolls! I rolled 5s and 6s, and only took one glancing hit in the end, shocking my opponent and another friend who was watching the battle in disbelief. Ha ha ha...great job, Onager Dunecrawlers, you guys are the men! Or spider-tanks!

Rhino did absolutely nothing to my Kastelan robot.

By this time I discarded objective 5 and drew demolitions, which was also unachievable unless I wrecked that stupid void shield generator of his, which by now had regenerated 2 AV12 void shields. Damn. Luckily there was only one Devastator squad hiding within there. Anyway, I decided to ignore the Rhino and had my Kastelan robot and Cybernetica Datasmith move 6 inches, and then ran another 5 or so inches onto Objective 3. My Onager Dunecrawlers moved upward and engaged the Land Raider in melee, after my Kataphron Destroyers fired and he made all his cover saves. They did nothing to the Land Raider in close combat as well as only one Onager Dunecrawler could crawl up and hit him. Huh.

Damn it, I should have gotten my Kastelan robot and Cybernetica datasmith to run to objective 3 in the previous turn, and because of my mistake, I didn't get Ascendancy. Argh. Oh well. At least my Onager Dunecrawler made his It Will Not Die roll and restored his lost hull point. Yay!

Turn 6

So we rolled and the game continued because the Omnissiah didn't see fit to end it and wanted to see how many more machines can last against the Space Marines' onslaught. The Land Raider retreated, evidently afraid of the S10 AP2 close combat attacks from the Onager Dunecrawlers' Cognis Manipulators. Again, combined fire from the Land Raider's anti-tank weapons and the Devastators finally brought down my lead Onager Dunecrawler, despite him bravely tanking with several 4+ invulnerable saves. Poor guy never stood a chance, but his sacrifice meant that his 2 Onager Dunecrawler comrades were unscathed.

Not that it mattered. I took potshots at the Rhino with my Kastelan robot and only took 1 hull point off it, not enough to kill it. Oh well. Can't have it all. My Kataphron Destroyers desperately rained down heavy grav shots on the Land Raider and I didn't even get a single penetrating hit. Pathetic. My Onager Dunecrawlers weren't interested in engaging the Land Raider in combat though, so they merely sat atop the objective marker 4 for me to claim 3 objectives and thus achieve Ascendancy. Unfortunately, when I rolled a D3, I only rolled a 2, which equals 1 point. Still, it was more than enough to bring my tally up to 10 points, out-scoring my opponent's 7.

We rolled and finally the game ended, and I won. Yes! A victory at last! My first victory in months! The score being 10-7 in my favor didn't tell the entire story, though. Yes, I might have won in terms of Maelstrom points, but the models left on the table say otherwise.

I had only 3 units left. My Warlord and his retinue of heavy grav-cannon Kataphron Destroyers, the single Kastelan robot herded around by his Cybernetica Datasmith, and 2 Onager Dunecrawlers just about to face down the combined might of 2 Devastator squads and 1 Land Raider. Added to those 3 units are a squad of snipers and Sergeant T inside the forest, and a void shield generator that shielded a full-strength Devastator squad. If it had been kill points, and had the game dragged on, it might have been a completely different story.

It was a close and fun game, extremely enjoyable, and made all the more sweeter by a hard-fought victory despite my dwindling forces in the face of formidable firepower. Still, the Omnissiah saw fit to bless my Skitarii and Mechanicus cyborg and robotic constructs with victory today, and we leave the barren world laughing as we snatch our prized xeno-archeotech from right under the noses of those nasty, self-righteous Space Marines. Those...ultrasmurfs. HA HA HA HA! For the Omnissiah!

Speaking of which, I'll either try my Cadian Battle Group against this Space Marine army sometime in future, or look for a game against the new Space Wolves formations that are being released in the Curse of the Wulfen. Yay.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Taurox Prime done, and Cohort Cybernetica and Skitarii versus Blood Angels

I managed to build my 2nd Taurox Prime today, and this one has a missile launcher instead of a twin-linked gatling cannon. I thought it will be better to have more options instead of having 2 Taurox Prime with the same weapons.

Taurox Prime with missile launcher
 With this, my Militarum Tempestus platoon is complete. All that's left is my 3rd Vendetta and I can play a 2,500-point Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group), or just swap the Stormsword out for the 3 Vendettas. We shall see.

I also had a game today, with my Cohort Cybernetica and Skitarii against Blood Angels. Long story short, it was one-sided and I got tabled pretty quickly (I think by turn 4). I fielded 10 Vanguard, 5 Rangers, 3 Onager Dunecrawlers, 5 Sicarian Infiltrators and a Cohort Cybernetica formation (Tech-Priest Dominus with 2 Kastelan robot maniples), and my opponent had 2 tactical squads, I think, a Furioso Dreadnought, a Death Company with a Chaplain, a Terminator squad, and 2 assault squads. Oh, and 2 Predators with assault cannons and heavy bolters.

Cohort Cybernetica and Skitarii

Blood Angels Predators and stuff

Furioso Dreadnought and Terminators
 Cohort Cybernetica and Skitarii versus Blood Angels

I started first, and my shooting was brutal. I had First Blood, wiping out a tactical squad and cutting the Death company down to just 2 guys. My opponent moved his Dreadnought up and wiped out my Vanguard with sweeping advance after taking 5 guys out in melee, and while he lost 1 Death Company guy to dangerous terrain, his surviving Chaplain survived all the overwatch my Sicarian Infiltrators threw at him and killed 3 of them, causing them to break and flee. His Predators pretty much wiped out my Rangers.

Ouch.

Deploying the Skitarii

Deploying the Cohort Cybernetica

My Onager Dunecrawlers then took 2 hull points off the Dreadnought while my Infiltrators continued to flee. My Kastelan robots fired on the Terminators, but they made all their 2+ armor saves. Then my opponent charged his Dreadnought and took 2 hull points off 1 of my Onager Dunecrawlers, and Deep Strike 2 of his assault squads right in front of my Kastelan robots. I think the combined fire eventually killed 1, but the Cohort Cybernetica was extremely hard to kill, and with It Will Not Die and the Tech-Priest Dominus's Master of Machines, I regained a couple of wounds. Yay.

I retaliated by killing one assault squad with my Kastelan robots, while I lost my Onager Dunecrawler to the Dreadnought. The Chaplain had charged in as well and did a few hull points worth of damage on another Dunecrawler, while my Kastelan robots wiped out the 2nd assault squad on overwatch. No, seriously. Twin-linked heavy phosphor blaster is insane, and if you have 3 of them (9 shots) plus the normal 9 shots...yeah, that's a lot of hits. The Terminators charged in, the Priest issued a challenge to my Dominus and proceeded to beat him up. I lost 2 wounds while doing 2 back, but he made his Feel No Pain. On the bright side, I killed 2 Terminators.

The combat went on, and eventually all my Onager Dunecrawlers were wrecked while doing absolutely no damage to the Chaplain and Dreadnought, who proceeded to charge my Kastelan robots. In the meantime, my Tech-priest Dominus had finally succumbed to the Priest's challenge and died while doing absolutely nothing, but I killed a couple more Terminators. In the end, when we decided to call the game after I lost another 2 of my Kastelan robots and all of my Cybernetica Datasmiths, he had his Chaplain, Dreadnought, Priest and 1 Terminator left. I was tabled. Well, not true, I still had a single Kastelan robot left, but it was only a matter of time before he got ripped apart by the Furioso Dreadnought. Sigh.

Oh, and don't forget there was still a 2nd tactical squad hiding in the ruins somewhere. Argh. It was a crushing defeat, to say the least.

Never mind, I'll challenge him again with my Imperial Guard and see if my Leman Russ tanks can take revenge for the Adeptus Mechanicus. For the Emperor.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Battle Report 8

This is Battle Report 8, a match between the Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group) and Space Wolves. The deployment is Dawn of War, and the mission is Maelstrom of War: Tactical Escalation. This means we draw a maximum number of tactical objectives equal to the turn number (turn 1 = 1, turn 2, draw 2 cards, turn 3 draw 3 cards, etc.).

In the spirit of the upcoming Curse of Wulfen, we did something similar to the Dark Angels hunting the Space Wolves kind of thing, and as the Space Wolves are fleeing from the Dark Angels, the Draconian Armored Defense Force is hot on their heels after being dispatched to pursue them. So the objectives are power points for the Space Wolves to charge their stuff, or something like that.

We rolled off, I got to go first, and my opponent failed to seize the initiative. Anyway, here's our list.

Draconian Armored Defense Force
I brought an Emperor's Fist Armored Company comprising of a Leman Russ Vanquisher as the Tank Commander, a Leman Russ Battle Tank buddy, 2 Leman Russ Punishers and 1 Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons and a heavy bolter. The command tank squadron has lascannons, and the Punishers are fully decked out with 3 heavy bolters each. And then you have the Tech-priest Enginseer. Yay.

That's the core of my Cadian Battle Group (think of them as Draconian Battle Group). Battle Group Command is a bare company command squad hiding inside a Chimera, with the company commander holding a Wrath of Cadia pistol. Pointless, he did nothing in the end. Oh well. Anyway, to round the Cadian Battle Group off, I have a super-heavy element - the giant Stormsword super-heavy tank you see up there, in the middle, as well as a Militarum Tempestus Platoon. My storm troopers, or Kamikaze Troopers as they are known in my Draconian fluff. The Militarum Tempestus platoon consisted of a single command squad with 4 meltaguns, who stayed in Deep Strike reserve, a 5-men squad with 2 hot-shot volley guns inside a Taurox Prime with twin-linked Taurox gatling cannon and twin-linked hot-shot volley gun, and a 10-men squad with 2 hot-shot volley guns. Yay.

Space Wolves - drop pods and drop ships. They're sending in the infantry
Yeah. Drop pods and drop ships. They're sending in the infantry. Sorry, I've played too much Titanfall. Well, anyway, my opponent brought a scary-looking list with 5 drop pods. The black one contained the Dreadnaught with multi-melta and heavy flamer, while the other 4 had 4 Grey Hunters. Uh, I call them Tactical Squads because I'm not familiar with Space Wolves terminology. All Tactical Squads have meltaguns and combi-melta, all the better to melt my Leman Russ tanks with. Ouch. Wait, aren't Space Wolves supposed to revere the Leman Russ tanks that are named after their Primarch? Why are they shooting them with extreme prejudice? Add to that is a Thunderwolf Calvary of 5 dudes that include a Librarian riding a wolf. If they get in close, they will tear my guys apart. I think he had a Rune Priest as his Warlord, and he had the Furious Charge Warlord Trait. Mine was Unflappable Stoicism, which allowed my Warlord's unit and any friendly units within 12" to not take morale test even after suffering 25% casualties.

Space Wolves infantry
In addition to the 4 tactical squads above, my opponent brought along 3 squads of Long Fangs, which I believe are the Space Wolves equivalent to Devastators. Right? I think. 2 squads have missile launchers, and the 3rd squad has plasma cannons. Scary.

Emperor's Fist Armored Company
So I deployed my dudes, with my tank company right next to Objective 1, my Militarum Tempestus 10-men squad sitting on Objective 3, and the Company Command Chimera right next to them. And beside the Chimera is my Stormsword, and the Taurox Prime with 5 Storm Troopers. The Storm Trooper melta command squad is in reserve.

Fear the Stormsword!

Turn 1

I went first, and it was a good round of shooting. Mostly. I was eager to fire off the Apocalyptic Blast template with the S10 AP1 Ignores Cover Stormsword siege cannon...only for the whole thing to scatter off the board. Damn it. Anyway, comhined fire from the lascannons and heavy bolters, as well as from my Taurox Prime which made use of its fast vehicle rule to run 12" up the table, I managed to decimate the Long Fang squad until there was only 1 guy left. Ouch. Poor dude.

On the other side of the table, my Leman Russ Executioner, and combined fire from all my Leman Russ Punishers, wiped out a 2nd Long Fang squad and I got first blood. Not bad at all. Hmm...I think my Leman Russ Vanquisher killed a single Thunderwolf calvary guy with his Vanquisher cannon and lascannon shot, while my Leman Russ battle tank, like his Stormsword superior, scattered his battle cannon blast off the table. Damn it. The Tech-priest Enginseer used Power of the Machine Spirit to get the Leman Russ Battle Tank to fire his lascannon at the last surviving Long Fang guy, but he went to ground and had a 2+ cover save. Oh well.

I had drawn secure Objective 3, and thanks to my Storm Troopers camping inside the building with Objective 3, I scored a point. Add First Blood to that, and I have 2 points. Yay.

My opponent's turn came and he dropped 3 drop pods right in front of my tanks, as you can see below. Unfortunately, the black drop pod carrying his Dreadnaught scattered right off the table, and rolling a 6 on the Deep Strike Mishap table meant it returned to ongoing rserves. Anyway, the 2 Grey Hunter or tactical squads poured out and fired at my tanks. First, the drop pods killed my Tech-priest Enginseer with relentless storm bolter fire, and then the melta and combi-melta destroyed a weapon on my Leman Russ Battle Tank - the battle cannon of all things - and immobilized it with only 1 hull point left while the other squad fluffed their shots. Meaning the meltagun missed the Leman Russ Executioner while the combi-melta rolled a combined value of 4 to be unable to glance the AV13 side of my Leman Russ Executioner. Saved!

I can't remember what my opponent drew. I think it was secure Objective 2 or something, and he had it, so the score was 2-1 in my favor.

Drop pods in front of my tanks
Turn 2

I continued destroying the Space Wolves, while drawing Secure Objective 3 and Secure Objective 2. To get Objective 2, I Deep Strike my Storm Trooper command squad into the ruins, but they scattered right outside. Thank goodness for Move Through Cover, because they automatically passed Dangerous Terrain tests. Yay. I pivoted my Leman Russ Punisher around to shoot the tactical squad, and the other guy to get ready to shoot the Thunderwolf Calvary. Meanwhile, my Taurox Prime moved up to capture Objective 6 even though I didn't draw it. Well, that's that, I guess. Huh.

My Stormsword moved up and fired a huge blast down on the Thunderwolves calvary, and the S10 AP1 scary thing actually obliterated 3 of them. Instant Death! Woohoo! Unfortunately. I rolled a one, so one survived. On the other hand, it also meant my Leman Russ Punisher was out of range from the last guy. Whoops. Well, no worries.

My Leman Russ Executioner glanced himself with one roll of one, but he killed 3 of the Grey Hunters that had tried to shoot him earlier. Hah! The Leman Russ Battle Tank fluffed his lascannon shot and did absolutely nothing, so it was up to the 2 Leman Russ Punisher to kill 3 of his tactical squad, because they made most of their saves. Ouch. Only 3, despite all that dakka.

My Leman Russ Vanquisher then fired on one drop pod and absolutely wrecked it with his Vanquisher cannon and lascannon. Hooray!

The Taurox Prime, aftering securing Objective 6, killed the last remaining Long Fang. Unfortunately, the worst thing happened - my Storm Trooper command squad fired their melta guns into the Rune Priest, who sneered at them and made all his cover saves. WHAT THE HELL!?

Anyway, I earned one point from here, for securing objective 3. 3-1. For now.

My opponent's turn came. Then everything changed.

2 Drop Pods made it, with 1 not coming in. Both didn't scatter and landed right in front of my Chimera and Storm Troopers, with a 10-men Grey Hunter squad and a Dreadnaught lumbering out. My opponent had drawn Kingslayer, you see, and he was out for blood. Wow. I think he had another secure the objective thing, which he got. Anyway, BOTH his Stormfangs came on. And this was where everything went to hell for me.

In just 1 round of shooting...yes, just 1 round...both Stormfangs fire all 4 of their twin-linked multi-melta guns into my Stormsword, and with so many Explodes! results, they tore through all 9 hull points of my super-heavy tank and blew him up. Vicious. Utterly vicious. I couldn't help but stare in disbelief.

His Grey Hunters didn't do much to the Chimera, but it was his Dreadnaught that blew it up with his multi-melta, then incinerating all 4 company command squad dudes with his heavy flamer (1 died when the Chimera blew up). I lost a couple of my Storm Troopers to both that heavy flamer and the storm bolters as well, and they failed their morale test and fled 5". Right to the tip of the table. Wow. Scary.

The Thunderwolf Calvary, the last guy, came charging in and tore my Leman Russ Punisher apart. Ouch. The 2 survivors from the 2 squads each charged my tanks, but while one ripped apart my poor Leman Russ Executioner tank, the other 2 did absolutely nothing to my Leman Russ Vanquisher despite hurling their krak grenades at him. Hah!

The Rune Priest, having casted Prescience on himself, killed a guy with his storm bolter, and then charged the Storm Trooper Command squad. We did absolutely nothing to him in combat, and he wiped out all 4 of them by himself in a single assault phase. And despite overewatching with 4 guys, I rolled all ones and twos, and not a single six. What's worse, a single six (and a subsequent 2) from a meltagun would have instant death the guy. Damn it. Just damn it.

Kingslayer brought my opponent D3 points and he rolled a 5, meaning he has 3+1+1. That meant he had 5 to my 3 points. That turn was brutal and just turned everything around.

Turn 3

My fleeing Storm Troopers rallied and managed to move back 6" into Objective 3. I drew a few more Secure Objective cards, one of which is Secure Objective 5, so I moved my remaining Leman Russ Punisher up to capture Objective 5. My Taurox Prime gunned away from the Stormfangs, trying to escape their merciless multi-meltas. Argh. I hate those things. I should have brought anti-air, but I was banking on having one of the objectives be a Skyfire nexus, and I didn't get that. Oh well. That sucked.

I tried to retaliate as best as I can, with my Leman Russ Vanquisher ramming the drop pod and stripping one hull point off it. But that was all I could do, though the combined ram and tank shock tossed the 2 guys who failed to hurt him with their lousy krak grenades away. Ha ha ha! However, after ramming the drop pod, the Leman Russ Vanquisher fluffed both his Vanquisher cannon and lascannon shots, with me rolling twos for BOTH of them! Did the targeting system go haywire after ramming or something?

My Leman Russ Punisher punished the surviving Thunderwolf calvary guy for killing his other Punisher buddy by hosing him with so many S5 shots the guy finally wilted, thus earning me Objective 5. Hah!

The Storm Troopers killed 3 of the Grey Hunters with their AP3 shots, but I already knew they wouldn't survive the heavy flamer from the Dreadnaught. Well, they already did me a massive service by earning me 2 invaluable VPs by securing Objective 3 twice. I can't ask for more.

I then had my Taurox Prime fire his Gatling cannon and hot-shot volley gun at the Rune Priest and killed him under the weight of so many shots. He finally died! Damn bastard. That earned me Slay the Warlord, and I at least took revenge on my opponent for achieving Kingslayer the last turn. Argh.

Unfortunately, that was all I could do. I had drawn Secure Objective 2 and Objective 4, both of which were firmly in my opponent's grasp...until I slaughtered the Rune Priest, so Objective 2 is actually open now. Yay. I did get Objective 5, so that was one point, and with Slay the Warlord, I earned 2 points to bring my tally up to a meager 5.

Unfortunately, my opponent continued to destroy me. His final, remaining drop pod landed right in front of Objective 5, and with their melta gun and combi-melta, they immobilized my poor Leman Russ Punisher who was sitting right on top of it. NOOO!

He moved 2 of his guys up to capture Objective 1 as he drew that, and I think he drew Objective 3 as well, and Objective 5.

The Stormfangs split up, with one flying toward me and destroying my immobilized Leman Russ Battle Tank. The other dropped to hover mode and blew up my Taurox Prime, and the explosion, as well as storm bolter fire from the drop pod that just landed on Objective 5, killed about 2 of them. Ouch. They passed their leadership, I believe. Anyway, the worst thing was still my poor Storm Troopers. They got incinerated by the Dreadnaught's heavy flamer, and the only 2 guys remaining were taken down by melta and boltgun fire from the tactical squad. So they got wiped out.

My opponent earned 3 points in this turn, thus turning the score to 5-8 in his favor.

Turn 4

Well, the game was winding up and we both knew it was my loss, but we decided to play one last turn for fun to see if I can do any more damage. Yay.

I had drawn Secure Objective 1, so I had my Leman Russ Vanquisher tank shock the 2 Space Wolves sitting on Objective 1 and chase them off while grabbing it. He then fired on the hovering Storm Fang, but unfortunately didn't do anything - I scored a penetrating hit, but it made its cover save since it was hovering behind some Ruins. What....

My 3 surviving Storm Troopers walked, and then ran to Objective 2, securing it for me in the absence of the now late Rune Priest. My Leman Russ Punisher fired off one last round of defiance, taking out about 3 of the Space Wolves that had immobilized him earlier. With these guys being my only models left on the table, there wasn't anything for me to do, but I at least earned 2 points to plug the score 7-8.

My opponent didn't draw many cards that he could use - for example, I had no buildings or bulwarks and he was required to destroy them. I also have no Psyker, while he had kill the Witch or something. The only thing he could actually get was Tank Hunter or something, if he was lucky, so we called the game. It was clear that it was his victory. I had not enough units left to overtake him, and while I decimated the infantry, his 2 flyers were in ascendancy. Oh well.

The game then ended 8-9, because both of us have Linebreaker. Small consolation, that. Oh well.

Aftermath

So the Space Wolves, despite suffering horrific casualties in the first couple of turns, managed to claw their way back to victory (claws and wolves), and once both their flyers came onto the board, their ascendancy was never in doubt. Losing that Stormsword was a big blow for me. Perhaps next time I should bring my 3 Vendetta gunships in place of a Stormsword. They might be able to take down the Stormfangs and kill the Dreadnaught and stuff. I hope. I'll never know. Sigh.

Oh, and the Cadian Battle Group isn't as bad as most people say it is. Sure, it's not competitive, but it was fun, it was fluffy, and it did a good job. This game was much closer than my last Imperial Guard game where my Guardsmen were absolutely slaughtered and torn apart by the Space Wolves. They put up a good fight here and did quite a lot of damage. The Storm Troopers, especially, were awesome. With the exception of the melta command squad, which was a huge fail (how did 4 meltaguns not kill a single Rune Priest?!), they actually punched above their weight and took out a lot of Long Fangs and the Rune Priest, as well as a sizeable number of Grey Hunters. The Taurox Prime epecially was very useful, running from Objective to Objective and unleashing heavy firepower. I should have more of it! It was great!

We'll continue to see how this Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group) continue to perform in the near future. I really like this army, and I'm looking forward to playing more with it!

For the Emperor!

Friday, February 5, 2016

Prime Target

First, allow me to apologize. Sorry, but in the end I didn't have a game today. Damn, and I was really looking forward to it, too. Oh well. Long story short, after I reached Battle Bunker from work (or university, since I'm working in a university), I found people already having a game. Blood Angels versus Tau, and both parties were using Forge World models. One had an awesome Fire Raptor that set its opponents on fire, and the other had some weird Riptide-type Forge World suit that looks cool. I suspect his Crisis Suit Commander is also a Forge World model. Anyway, the Tau won overwhelmingly, destroying most of the Blood Angels, and leaving the Fire Raptor with just 1 hull point (I didn't watch on because I had other things to do), and was way ahead in Maelstrom points. Ouch. Damned xenos.

As for me, I glued all my Storm Troopers into their black circle bases today, and fixed up a Taurox Prime. With the table being occupied, I decided to head to the workbench and assemble stuff instead. The result is as below:

Taurox Prime
My first Taurox Prime. I built it with a twin-linked Taurox gatling cannon and twin-linked hot-shot volley guin beacuse I like those weapons. I love having dakka. So this suited me fine. I can't wait to use this awesome dude in battle.

Storm Troopers of an armored regiment
Yeah, I'm all about the fluff, and if you've been following me so far, my Imperial Guard army is an armored regiment. So they're all about tanks, tanks and more tanks. Hence the Leman Russ Punisher you see above. The backbone of the army is an armored company of Leman Russ tanks, which are supplemented by a Stormsword, a wing of Vendetta gunships and an elite Storm Trooper platoon. I'm looking forward to fielding them in battle soon.

That leaves me with just 1 Taurox Prime and 1 Vendetta left. For the Emperor!

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Brewing a Storm Trooper

And I went and finished the rest of my Storm Troopers. So now I have all 25 Storm Troopers, known as Kamikaze Troopers in their fluff, assembled and ready for action. All that's left is painting, and of course the 2 Taurox Prime APCs and the 3rd Vendetta for my Emperor's Spear Aerial Company.

I want to try writing a Space Hulk story for these guys, it'll be fun. We'll see, I have a job, I have to build these guys, and I have other responsibilities.

Anyway, here's what I have so far.

25 Storm Troopers and a Leman Russ Punisher
Yeah, that's the full platoon. Or actually detachment. For the Cadian Battle Group, also known as Draconian Battle Group, we have 2 Command squads serving as HQ, and 2 Troops, 1 5-men squad and 1 10-men squad. Yay. That's a lot of firepower. I hope.

I have a plasma command squad, which will make full use of the "Autonomous Fire Sanctioned!" order. I also have a hot-shot volley command squad, who will maximize the Rending granted by the "Elimination Protocol Sanctioned!" order. Of course, this is only for when I use them as a pure Militarum Tempestus army. If I were to use them as part of the Draconian Battle Group, I'll only use 1 melta command squad, and shuffle the hot-shot volley gunners into the 5-men squad and 10-men squad. It's to maximize their dakka with the First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! order.

Hot-shot volley command squad and melta squad

Plasma command squad and 10-men melta squad
I will make one Taurox Prime with the twin-linked Taurox gatling cannon and twin-linked hot-shot volley gun, and one Taurox Prime with the Taurox missile launcher and twin-linked autocannons. That should round out my Militarum Tempestus platoon/Militarum Tempestus army. It seems playing them on their own is quite fun, so I might run them with Skitarii allies or as allies for Cohort Cybernetica (pseudo Skitarii!). If I ever get down to it, they'll all have fun in a Space Hulk together!

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

A Storm of Storm Troopers

I managed to build over half of my 25 Storm Troopers today. As of last count, 15 of them are done, and 10 are left. Oh, and don't forget, I still have the Taurox Prime APCs and 3rd Vendetta to build.

Yeah, that's right. A 3rd Vendetta. My friend, who works in Battle Bunker, has kindly helped me order the triple twin-linked lascannons (Vendetta Conversion Kit), so I might as well make use of it and build a 3rd Vendetta! Fits in with the fluff anyway, particularly because the Draconian Armored Defense Force primarily uses Vendetta gunships. That and I can take advantage of the Formation The Emperor's Spear Aerial Company. That will give me quite the aerial superiority. I hope.

Said friend will be having a match with me, about 2,000 points, on Friday. He's bringing his Space Wolves again, and this time I'm thinking of using the opportunity to bring my Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group) to test out the new formations and the command benefits. We shall see. This means I had best assemble the remaining 10 Storm Troopers by Friday, and if possible, throw in a Taurox Prime APC. I need to shuffle my list though. Oh boy. Right now I have assembled a Storm Trooper Command Squad, and 2 normal squads, each with 1 hot-shot volley gun and 1 meltagun. Obviously I'll shuffle the special weapons into their respective squads, but yeah. That's what I have for now.

I also ordered the Miltiarum Tempestus codex so that I have more options to play with. I can already foresee me playing 1,850-point to 2,000-point games of Storm Troopers allied with either Cohort Cybernetica or Skitarii. Now that will be fun and very fluffy.

3 squads of Storm Troopers
I have no idea how I'm going to finish the rest of my forces, but I will think of something. Oh well. Good thing I only need 1 more Storm Trooper squad and probably only one Taurox Prime APC. The rest, particularly the Vendetta, I can fix up next week. The centerpiece of my Draconian / Cadian Battle Group is my Stormsword, after all.

Oh, right. Before I leave, I'll leave you with this interesting picture I found on the door in my local gaming store.

Warning: Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
So yeah, don't trespass. We have a First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! enhancement in the store.