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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, September 30, 2017

Utter failure

I don't know if it's because I have a cold and was not thinking straight, but I got crushed today. I should go and rest early, but just to take note: not a good idea to put Kastelan Robots out in the open.

Basically I brought a Mars Adeptus Mechanicus list against my Tau friend, and I failed. It was Belisarius Cawl, a Tech-priest Dominus, a Tech-priest Enginseer, 2 Skitarii Vanguard squads with 2 plasma calivers and 5 men each, a squad of 3 Kataphron Destroyers with plasma calivers and cognis flamers, 4 Kastelan Robots, 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with Icarus array, and a Knight Errant with Stormspear rocket pod.

Long story short, I started second, lost all my Kastelan Robots to my opponent's Deep-Striking Crisis Suits and Crisis Commanders' barrage of ion cyclic blasters and fusion blasters, and a bunch of plasma rifle shots, lost a Kataphron Destroyer to more plasma rifle shots, a Skitarii Vanguard squad to the Stormsurge and Breachers, and then it went downhill for there. I took out a bunch of Drones and 2 Crisis Suits with my Onager Dunecrawlers and 2 Kataphron Destroyers, one who slew himself with overcharge despite Belisarius giving him re-rolls, and killed a Breacher squad with the rest. The Knight Errant killed a second Breacher squad in melee and put 5 wounds on the Stormsurge with his Stormspear rocket pod, while the thermal cannon, true to form, did absolutely nothing.

Next turn, I lost my Knight Errant, Belisarius took 7 wounds and had one left, my Kataphron Destroyers were wiped out, and I lost 1 Skitarii Vanguard. I retaliated by wiping out even more Drones and 3 Crisis suits with plasma rifles, and then engaged Belisarius and my 4 Skitarii Vanguard in combat. I lost 1 of the latter to overwatch, and another 2 in combat while doing absolutely nothing. Belisarius himself only killed one or two drones and did nothing to Farsight, who slew him back despite Belisarius regaining 4 wounds back to 5 during the repair phase.

Ouch. I lost my Tech-priest Enginseer, Tech-priest Dominus, the last surviving Skitarii Vanguard and one Onager Dunecrawler, and only had one Dunecrawler left. He was a hero, because I used Wrath of Mars Stratagem and put a bunch of mortal wounds on Farsight to kill him and slay my opponent's Warlord. It was a crushing defeat, but at least I had some form of moral justice. Heh.

I played poorly, either because I was sick and not thinking straight, or because I made stupid mistakes. For now I'm going to rest early and hope I recover from this terrible cold, and try this list again next week.

For the Omnissiah!

Astra Militarum codex spoilers

Okay, now for some spoilers on the Astra Militarum codex!



Thank Winters SEO. Remember to support him on Patreon if you like his channel or something. With that out of the way, here are several spoilers about the Astra Militarum codex. And the link to Winters SEO's review can be found here:


With that out of the way, in case you don't want to watch a 38-minute long video, here are some spoilers.

I'm sure you guys already know this, but here are the remaining Regimental Doctrines, Orders and Stratagems for the un-previewed regiments.

Cadian Regimental Doctrine: All models with this doctrine re-rolls ones to hit if they didn't move this turn. This applies to combat too, I believe. Anyway, yeah. If an infantry unit has been issued the Take Aim! order, they get to re-roll all missed hits if they didn't move this turn. Sweet. I'm going to run a Leman Russ Executioner list with this!

Cadian tank order: You can re-roll D6s for your Leman Russ tanks' turret weapons if they are the D6 type. So like, if you're using a Leman Russ Main Battle Tank or Leman Russ Executioner (like me!) you can re-roll the D6s for them. And if you're firing twice, you get to re-roll for both times. Sweet!

Cadian Stratagem: If one of your units successfully wounded an enemy unit this turn, all other Cadian units get +1 to their hit rolls if they target that same unit that turn. Costs 2 Command Points. Not bad. For example, I can use an Executioner tank to wound a Stormsurge, and then I'll use my Shadowsword to fire, and I can add 1 to all his hit rolls!

Tallarn regimental doctrine: All infantry models can shoot their weapons except heavy weapons if they move and advance. So you can still shoot your rapid-fire lasguns, hot-shot lasguns, plasma guns, pistols even after you advanced. No firing lascannons or heavy weapons, though. But the sweet thing is for vehicles - all vehicles can move and fire their heavy weapons at normal BS. So if I move my Leman Russ tanks, they can fire their sponson and hull heavy weapons without suffering the penalty. Even better, titanic vehicles (Baneblades!) treat all their heavy weapons as assault. Meaning you can fire all your heavy weapons like the main weapon and lascannons, but take a -1 penalty. Speaking of Baneblades, I'll reveal more later!

Tallarn tank order: Your tank can move an extra 6" during the shooting phase before or after you shoot, and guess what? It doesn't count toward the half-movement thing in the Grinding Advance rule. WOOHOO!

Tallarn Stratagem: AMBUSH! Costs 3 Command Points, but entirely worth it. Pick 3 Tallarn units and put them in reserve. At the end of your movement phase, you can take them out and put them more than 7" away from any battlefield edge and more than 9" away from any enemy unit. Ambushing plasma Command Squads, anyone? Or how about an ambushing Baneblade/Hellhammer or Shadowsword? It's Creed all over again! Pop up a Baneblade or Shadowsword in front of the enemy, then charge it (maybe next turn). Using the Crush it! Stratagem, I mean. Heh.

Militarum Tempestus regimental doctrine: If you're firing within half range, you can roll for an additional hit for every hit roll of 6 you make, but these don't produce new additional hits. Very lackluster. I say screw it. You might as well take Militarum Tempestus Scions as your Troops for your regiment, like Kasrkins, because honestly, you're not missing anything with this doctrine. They don't benefit from the doctrines, sadly, but they don't need it. I mean, you want your Stormtroopers to be moving, so they won't benefit from Cadian doctrines, nor will they benefit from the Vostroyan one since their hot-shot lasguns are only 18". So just use them for Kasrkins!

Militarum Tempestus order: Elimination Protocol Sanctioned! Brought back from 7th Edition, it allows you to re-roll all failed wound rolls against monsters and vehicles. Now if it would also apply to hit rolls...but not bad. Not bad at all. Better than bring it down, that's for sure.

Militarum Tempestus Stratagem: Interceptor. Basically anyone who Deep Strike within 12" of your Stormtroopers will get a face full of hot-shot las-fire. You do get a -1 penalty to your hit rolls, though. But for 1 Command Point, can't really complain.

Leman Russ tanks!

We know they shoot twice with Grinding Advance if you only move 5". And as I said, you can mitigate that with the Tallarn tank order, so not bad at all. But what else? Plasma got buffed. Now you don't take 6 mortal wounds for every roll of 1. You just take a mortal wound for every roll of 1. It makes taking plasma a lot less painful and risky. Add the Cadian doctrine and you never have to worry about plasma again. Heh.

Leman Russ Vanquishers have no change. They're still Heavy 1 (though can shoot twice, but honestly still not a good reason to take them), Strength 8, AP -3 and Damage D6, roll 2 D6 and discard the lowest. They should have buffed the Strength. Honestly, the Onager Dunecrawler is a much better anti-tank tank than this guy, and he costs cheaper and comes with an invulnerable save.

No change to any of the weapons. But they all cost about 10 points less, if I recall. Demolisher cannon is still D3, change to D6 if targeting units with 5 or more models. Ugh.

But there's more! If you take a Spearhead Detachment, all your Leman Russ tanks have Objective Secured! No, I'm not joking. All Leman Russ tanks have Objective Secured if you take 4 of them (make sure one's a Tank Commander!)! How awesome is that!?

Infantry Platoons

You all already know the Combined Squads Stratagem, but there's another Stratagem called Consolidate. Pick 2 infantry squads with 2" of each other at the end of the movement phase, and for the rest of the game - yes, the rest of the game, not turn - they become one unit. YAY! Costs only 1 Command Point, too! Take note it's only infantry squads, so I don't know if it applies to Conscripts (no matter what Winters SEO says, and he completely missed the line in the Armageddon order where you can't issue that order to a unit that had already disembarked that turn - same mistake as Warhammer Community).

Other changes

Devil Dogs' melta cannon is now Assault, so they can fire without suffering the penalty when moving.

Basilisks are now AP -3. Awesome. No, really. Basilisks are AP -3. They used to be AP -2.

Rough Riders are gone. That's...rough.

You have a Stratagem for Hydras and I think Wyverns, where they can add +1 to their hit rolls when targeting ground units, and it's only 1 Command Point.

Valkyrie gunships now have marauding gunships that allow them to hover and shoot at their normal BS without suffering any penalty to their hit rolls when moving. They used to suck because they could only hit at 5+ with their heavy weapons when moving, but now that you can drop to hover, you should be able to unleash those lascannon and rocket pods at BS 4+ instead. Yay! And they're about 20 points cheaper.

Super-heavy Baneblade variants!

Oh, and I'm most excited for this change. We all know the Steel Behemoth rule allows Baneblade variants to move and fire their heavy weapons without penalty. Awesome. But what's even more awesome is that every Baneblade variant except the Stormlord has an extra D6 for their primary weapon! Basically Baneblade, Banehammer and Hellhammer fire 3D6 shots, and the Stormsword, Doomhammer, and Banesword fire 2D6 shots! The Shadowsword? Fires 3D3 shots now. Cool! The Stormlord still fires 20 shots, though, so no change for that poor fella.

And they all get points reduction and cost 40 points cheaper now! WOOHOO!

Anything else that I might have forgotten? Oh, In Memory of Cadia Stratagem. Re-roll all failed hit and wound rolls when firing Overwatch against enemy Chaos units. Works for all Regiments. I'm not kidding. Uh, there's a Commissar tank Stratagem that grants him a Leadership bubble. And one that heals your vehicle without needing a Tech-priest Enginseer.

Warlord Traits

Remember Kurov Aquila? Now there's Grand Strategist, where you roll a dice for every Command Point spent when using a Stratagem, and on a 5+ you get it back. Can you say awesome? There's Bellowing Voice, that extends your Order and whatever aura abilities by 3" (like Belisarius Cawl) and Master of Command that gives you an additional order.

Cadia has an improved version of Master of Command called Superior Tactical Training because every time you issue a Command, you can roll a dice, and on a 4+ an additional unit of the same type (Infantry or Leman Russ) gets the benefit of the same Order without you needing to use the order. So you can potentially affect up to 4 units that are 6" around your Warlord by issuing just 2 orders! And if you're doing that for your Leman Russ tanks and don't have Pask, then you might just work something out with this!

But what interests me is the Tallarn Warlord Trait, which allows your Warlord and any unit within 6" of him to charge even if they fall back that turn. Can you say awesome? Imagine charging with my Shadowsword or Hellhammer, then falling back, and then charging again! It will be hilarious to charge my tanks into the enemy!

Militarum Tempestus is meh, your Warlord can deny a psychic power in the same manner as a psyker. Whoopeedo. Speaking of psykers...

Psykers

We have 3 new psychic powers. Nightshroud has a warp charge of 6 and all enemies take a -1 penalty to their hit rolls when shooting at the targeted friendly unit. Mental Fortitude is 4 warp charge (wow!) and makes your dudes Fearless. The most interesting is Psychic Maelstrom, which costs 7 Warp Charges and piles wounds like Smite, but it's different. Basically you roll a D6 and on a 2+ you deal 1 mortal wound, and roll another D6. On a 3+ you deal another mortal wound. And then you roll another D6. This time, on a 4+ you deal a third mortal wound, and get to roll another D6. You need a 5+ this time and if you're lucky enough to get it, then a fourth mortal wound gets done, and you get to roll again! And hope you get a 6+ this time! Potentially up to 5 mortal wounds!

Since your Astropaths can only Smite on a single D6 or something, might as well give them Psychic Maelstrom while your Primaris Psyker goes around Smiting dudes. :D

I think that's all the changes I remember for now. Let me know if I've missed out on anything.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Armageddon and the end of the world

What's up, folks? Today we have Armageddon and the end of the world, I mean...ahem...the world formerly known as Ulanor. Warhammer Community has gladly provided what seems to be our last Imperial Guard preview, and it's none other than the Armageddon Steel Legion!



So where's Yarrick? I read through the whole article and there's no mention of poor Yarrick at all. Oh well. Then again the preview on Catachan Jungle Fighters didn't mention Colonel Straken, so whatever. Anyway, what can our Armageddon buddies do?



Fluff says they've adapted to fighting Orks and Daemons. Really cool.



Well, I ain't interested in that. I just know Armageddon Steel Legion is supposed to be a mechanized force. So how does their mechanized tactics translate into the tabletop? Well...it seems fun. Just look at what they have.



And you thought the Vostroyans were good! I was thinking of throwing 30" plasma gunners about the tabletop, but then the Armageddon dudes came along and laugh. "You can rapid-fire your plasma guns at 15"? Cute. We can do it at 18"."

Yeah. So if I want to go with my plasma gun strategy (which I probably will not), I will most likely go with Armageddon instead. Furthermore, it seems that my Leman Russ tanks and other vehicles will be a lot more resilient against autocanons, heavy bolters and heavy flamers. Basically AP -1 weapons. I suspect it's good not only for Chimeras, but also for Hellhounds to get close to the enemy infantry and unleash their inferno cannons and heavy flamers without worrying about AP -1 weapons.



So yup here's the Chimera. They have an interesting Stratagem that I can't say I'm fond of, but hey, at least it mitigates the plasma gun thing.



So yeah. Plasma gunners jump out of the Chimera and they shoot stuff with super-charged plasma guns that can rapid-fire at 18". Heh.



Okay, now this is confusing. Uh, what? The Warhammer Community article claims that you can use the Stratagem and order as a deady one-two punch or in tandem, but when I look at the order, it says the order may not be issued to a unit with disembarked in the preceding Movement phase. So you can't use the order to order a unit that just benefited from the Armored Fist Stratagem. Meaning, for example, if my plasma gunners jumped out of a Chimera and unload their supercharged plasma guns at 18", re-rolling ones, I can't exactly order them to Mount Up! because they just disembarked in the preceding Movement phase. You failed us, Warhammer Community! Hyping up their new orders so much that you didn't check your rules and made such a disastrous error!

Good thing your friendly regimental Commisssar (ahem, yours truly) is here to set the record straight. Otherwise how are you going to explain this to the Emperor!?



Why does this guy look like Death Korps of Krieg? Speaking of which, I think you can field Death Korps of Krieg using Armageddon Steel Legion models and their regimental doctrine...no, wait, actually you can use the Armageddon Steel Legion models for your Death Korps of Krieg, and then field them using the Valhallan Ice Warriors regimental doctrine, because that doctrine and their Stratagem is much fluffier for the Death Korps of Krieg. Who cares about the Imperial Index now? Do it!

Oh, right, and in this last preview Warhammer Community has finally revealed Relics! WOOHOO! Now let's take a look at some of them.



Now that's pretty neat! It basically allows you to SURPRISE! ambush an enemy by infiltrating your Company Commander and Command Squad of 4 plasma gunners right within 12" rapid fire range (if you're not using Vostroyan or Armageddon doctrines). Stick them 9" away from whatever you want to destroy and unleash 8 supercharged plasma shots into your target! Re-rolling ones, thanks to your Company Commander giving the order.

And guess what? Kurov's Aquila, the Relic I used in my 7th Edition Imperial Guard army (because I was using plasma before it became overpowered), is back! And it's much better than ever! Since we have the Take Aim! order, the whole Preferred Enemy thing has become redundant, so I'm pleased to see Kurov's Aquila make a comeback in the form of this:



Yeah. That's awesome. I'm going to do that every time my opponent uses a Stratagem, and it looks like I can get a free Command Point 1/3 of the time. I can't wait to see my opponent's expression when I do get that 5+!

And we have Relics and Warlord Traits that turn your Company Commander or whoever into a melee expert.





I probably will not play Armageddon Steel Legion, but this is so cool.

Oh, and we have a new unit. The Ogryn Bodyguard. WHAT?!



This is just freaking hilarious.



What can I say? I don't use Ogryns, and I probably won't, but this looks extremely fun. Anyway, I think that's the last of the previews, so...until next time! Oh, and you can pre-order your Astra Militarum codex tomorrow. I'll probably write an article later about spoilers on Cadia and other stuff (because they didn't get featured) and think about what to do about my Imperial Guard army back home (probably just sell it) and if I should just buy a new one in the States.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Valhalla and Ciaphas Cain

Just kidding, we didn't get new rules for Ciaphas Cain. :( But we do have the Regimental Doctrine for the Valhallan Ice Warriors!



And guess what? They look really, really cool!



Yeah, they look absolutely awesome. Did I see Ciaphas Cain inside there somewhere? With Jurgen next to him? Anyway, with Ciaphas Cain around, we never have to worry about morale in a Valhallan Ice Warriors army. Seriously. In fact, we don't even need Commissars (Ciaphas being an exception). Just look at the Regimental Doctrine.



Wow. Not bad. Not bad at all. Like I said, who needs Commissars? But being a tankie (or treadhead) I'm more interested in the vehicle thing. If my Leman Russ tank has say, 4 wounds left, I can double it to 8 and pretend that it's still moving at full speed and shooting at full BS. AWESOME!



That image above is the cover for the novel Ice Guard. I should know, I own the novel and absolutely love it.

Anyway, the much-awaited nerf to Conscripts have finally come. Doesn't bother me none since I don't really play Infantry and I probably will never touch Conscripts, but just for those of you who do, here are the changes. No more 50 Conscripts. We can only take 20-30 of them. So yay. And unlike the other soldiers, Orders only work for Conscripts on a 4+ (other soldiers, uh, professional Guardsmen automatically pass their Orders), and if they fail, no more Orders will work on them for the rest of the turn. Not bad. Well-deserved nerf.

We also have a Valhallan Order.



If you can't read it, basically the ordered unit can shoot at enemy units locked in combat with one of your friendly units. So say your conscripts are locked in combat with a Daemon Prince. You can order your Veterans to shoot the Daemon Prince even though you didn't have your Conscripts fall back (thanks to that Commissar watching over them). The catch is that, every time you roll a 1 for your hits, your poor Conscripts takes a hit instead. Take note the order cannnot be issued to a unit already locked in combat, so you can't order your Conscripts to fire at the Daemon Prince if they're the ones locked in combat with it.

With me so far?

Now assuming your Conscripts just got wiped out by the Daemon Prince because...well, Daemon Prince, you don't have to worry. If you have Command Points left over, you can use this Stratagem.



Yeah! So your Conscripts will return at full strength, marching toward the Daemon Prince once again! This is awesome! Heh.

And that's not all. I got even more good news for people like myself who field a Shadowsword or other Baneblade variants.





I don't really care about transporting infantry in a Stormlord because, quite frankly, I don't have that many infantry to begin with. What I'm more interested, is this: "the Steel Behemoth rule has been updated so that Baneblades of all types don’t suffer penalties for shooting Heavy weapons after moving." Hell, yeah! Can you say, hell yeah?! HELL YEAH! And if you make it a Valhallan super-heavy tank, then it doesn't matter how much damage it suffers. Your tank will always have double the wounds for its shoot and move characteristics, so even if it's down to 8 health, it counts as 16, which allows you to continue shooting at full BS and moving at full speed! Furthermore, you don't have to worry about the -1 to shooting Heavy weapons after moving anymore, which was always quite the stupid thing I wondered about in the Index. YAY!

Oh, and the adamantium tracks on a vehicle with a terrible WS of 5+? Worry no more. We can Crush Them! with our new Stratagem!



Yeah, this will be fun. Really fun. I can't stop laughing at how fun this will be. Move and Advance my Shadowsword/Stormsword, crush the enemy in melee with a super-heavy tank of all things, and then unload a lot of stuff with the weapons at point-blank range next turn.

Tomorrow will be Armageddon Steel Legion, and I'm looking forward to how Ciaphas's buddy, Yarrick, is faring with his regiment!

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Vostroyan Ranges!

Today Warhammer Community has put up the preview for the Vostroyan First-born (incidentally the regiment I'm reading about in the novel Commissar), and my, oh my. This is insane.



No kidding. Just look at what they have for their Doctrine. No, seriously. Just frakking look at it.



This is huge. God-Emperor, this is frakking huge. Thank you, Emperor, for answering our prayers. Think about it. This is just insane. Our lasguns and plasma guns just turned into bloody 30" weapons. You heard that right. Lasguns and plasma guns. What the...

It isn't just infantry, though. Every freaking weapon on the Leman Russ bar heavy flamers have just gotten a 6" boost to their range. While this isn't much of a difference to a main battle tank or Leman Russ Vanquisher who already have an enormous 72" range, it makes a huge difference for my Leman Russ Punisher and Leman Russ Executioner tanks, turning the Punisher Gatling cannon into 30" and the executioner plasma cannon and plasma cannons into 42". That 6" makes a lot of difference, I can assure you. Oh, and the heavy bolters on my Leman Russ Punisher tanks? 42" as well. Jeez, what the heck? Combine it with the turret ability that allows them to shoot the Punisher Gatling cannon twice, that's 40 Strength 5 shots at 30" range. Holy Throne...



I don't use heavy weapon squads so I ain't gonna talk about them. On the other hand, I should talk about the Vostroyan order, which isn't bad.



Basically we get to shoot in the shooting phase even if we're locked in combat. Pretty nice for my Guardsmen with special weapons, like my heavy flamer and flamer command squad, or plasma gun command squad. I mean my flamer guys can double as plasma gunners since I glued plasma guns to their flamers. Heh. And they get 30" range now. 2 shots at 15". That's insane, isn't it? 30" range for plasma guns that can overcharge and re-roll ones with orders. That will be painful. HA HA HA HA HA!



I like Sentinels, and it's cool that every weapon they have other than the heavy flamer benefits from this. Well, if you want to run heavy flamer Sentinels, you have the Catachans for that. Hellhounds and heavy flamer Sentinels benefit from the Catachans' re-roll D6 shots a lot. On the other hand, if you're packing heavy bolters, lascannons, plasma cannons and missile launchers, the added 6" range from the Vostroyans will be awesome for you (or us, since I'm considering using this Doctrine).



Scout Sentinels can move 9" at the start of their game, even before the movement phase, so that's an additional 9" range for you, or for you to get closer by 9". And since you don't want to suffer penalties for moving when firing a heavy weapon, just take the 9" and add it to the extra 6" for an effective total of 51" range. Or something.



Not sure how this works against enemies "hiding" on the table, because it seems more like a Stratagem for capturing Objectives rather than hunting them down, but Warhammer Community has a tendency to exaggerate.

Anyway, this is a serious contender for my armored company, particularly since my Leman Russ Punishers (and maybe Executioners) need that extra 6" range, and my plasma Veterans or Command Squad can just go to town with 30" plasma guns!

I can't wait for tomorrow's preview, which features my beloved Valhallan Ice Warriors! Thanks to Ciaphas Cain, I always have a soft spot for the Valhallans, and they were like my first ever favorite army before the Cadians. I hope they get a cool regimental doctrine as well!

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Mordian Iron Guard and Leman Russ tanks!

Sorry for posting this so late, I had class so I could only type this after class and my teaching assistant duties ended. Well, basically today we have the Mordian Iron Guard featured in Warhammer Community's preview posts!



As you probably already know (or read), Mordians are all about discipline and that cool looking uniform. It looks like Mordians are pretty defensive, and they play greatly against assault or melee armies such as Tyranids, Orks, Chaos Space Marines, and a bunch of other stuff that want to charge.



Yeah, like that. Against Tyranids. Heh. So what exactly is their Regimental Doctrine, you say?



That's right. Overwatch in 5+s. Awesome. Very, very awesome. Even Baneblades get this rule, as do Leman Russ Punishers. This is going to punish melee-orientated armies, but obviously doesn't work against shooty armies like Tau, other Imperial Guard armies, or Adeptus Mechanicus. Will still do well against everyone else who loves to dive in and charge, though. I mean, that's a third of your oveerwatch shots hitting.

And guess what? Our Leman Russ tanks have gotten a lot better!



If you guys have been following me for a while, you'll remember that I have 2 of these bad boys, and they are awesome. If I use the Mordian doctrine for my Draconians, they will be hitting on 5+s with overwatch. But hang on! There's one thing that really caught my eye.



Yeah. Now, if you notice, the Mordian Regimental Doctrine doesn't say we hit on 5s and 6s. It says add 1 to our overwatch rolls. So with this Stratagem, my Leman Russ Punishers will be hitting charging enemy units with 4+s on Overwatch. That is really, really scary. Okay, it's situational, the Doctrine is pretty much pointless against Tau and other Imperial Guard armies, but don't forget Tau has charging Crisis suits and Commanders, so yeah.

And that's not all! Look at what my Leman Russ tanks get! Not just the Leman Russ Punisher, but all of them! Just read this!!!!



Can you say awesome? If I move half my movement speed, I can fire my turret weapon twice. TWICE! If my Leman Russ main battle tank and Vanquisher keeps still, I can fire their 72" cannons twice across the table! If I keep my Leman Russ Executioner still, or move them just 3", I can fire their executioner plasma cannon twice. TWICE! AWESOME! This is a great buff! Oh, and let's not forget. All our Leman Russ tanks are getting small points discount! I have no idea how small is small, but this will be great, especially for Imperial Guard players like me who play armored companies and armor regiments! WOOHOO!



Well...Veterans and Command Squads seem good. Yay. I'm not an infantry player, but just look at this new order for Mordians.



If you can't read it, basically you can target Characters with Rapid Fire weapons even if they aren't the closest model. So your Mordians become snipers! Give them plasma guns, and wow. Okay, that's insane. Heh. Anyway, tomorrow we will have Vostroyans, so stay tuned to see what they have! Again, I have classes early in the day, so I might take until evening to update my blog. I apologize if that happens. Don't worry, I won't disappear like Grumpy Guardsman or Charlie!

Monday, September 25, 2017

Catachan!

Oh, boy. Look at what we have here today. Warhammer Community is featuring Catachans! WOOHOO! (What happened to my Cadians, though?)



And I have to say, their regimental doctrine is insane! If there's no other doctrine that appeals to me, I'll definitely use their doctrine because I use Hellhounds and Leman Russ tanks that all depend on rolling D6 hits! And my guys all use flamers and heavy flamer! What the hell? Can you say match made in heaven?

Well, my Draconians will be using the Catachan doctrine at most, we aren't actually Catachans nor do we dress up like them. We just play similarly.



What's awesome is that the Imperial Guard doesn't just benefit from infantry-based doctrines. Their doctrine also grants bonuses for vehicles too! I hope Cadians have a passive +1BS to all vehicles or something, because if they do, that's the doctrine I'm going for. Otherwise Catachans it is. So what exactly do Catachans get?



That's brutal, all right. That is....brutal. I like this. This is just awesome.



We also have something for the awesome Deathstrike Missile. Just look at this Stratagem.



Well, to be honest, it's not practical at all, and I don't foresee myself using it. But hey, that is pretty cool.



As for the Catachans themselves? We get a cool Command Squad that makes liberal use of heavy flamer and flamers with their unique order Burn Them Out! What does it do? I have no idea. What I do know is that I have a heavy flamer and flamer so I can actually make use of it. I just don't know what the heck the order does for me.

And to add insult to injury, because I already have a wall of flame against Traitors, Heretics and Xenos charging at me, I also this Stratagem that I can use (if I'm playing Catachan, and I'm tempted to add a flamer Catachan Detachment at least to bolster my tanks)



Yeah, that's just insane.

Well, tomorrow we'll be looking at the Mordian Iron Guard, who are more defensive in nature, so let's see what happens! I'll be waiting for the Cadians, though.

Oh...right. With Cadia's Creed and Charlie's Elite40K blogs uh...inactive, am I the only active Astra Militarum....cough, I mean Imperial Guard blog left? Where's all the Imperial Guard players? I expect more blogs to be covering the new Imperial Guard release. I know technically this is an Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knight blog, but the Imperial Guard is my second faction (after the Knights) and ahead of the Adeptus Mechanicus in my priority list of armies. Hell, I'll wager that my Imperial Guard army is bigger than my Adeptus Mechanicus army. I have a superheavy tank, 6 Leman Russ tanks, Militarum Tempestus Scions, 3 Vendetta gunships, a Command Squad full of flamers and heavy flamers, and 2 Veteran squads (which I will probably dismantle and turn into special weapon squads or something).

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Imperial Guard codex...ahem, I mean Astra Militarum Codex out soon!

Good news, everybody! Especially for those of you who play Imperial Guard!

The Imperial Guard codex is out for pre-orders next week! The news came from Warhammer Community so take note of it! Ignore the Death Guard, we are the real Guard!



So what do we get? Apparently we get rules for our Imperial Guard regiments! Of course Cadia will be getting their regimental rules, and knowing how my Draconians are wannabe Cadians, I think that's the regiment I'm most likely going to model my Draconian Armor after. We also have our regiment-specific Stratagems, orders, relics and Warlord Traits, so I can't wait to cover them all! Oh boy, I still have to cover Adeptus Mechanicus first. We'll see.



And we have new Regiments too! Of course my homebrewed Draconian Armor and Kamikaze Troopers will not be featured in the Codex (duh...Games Workshop probably doesn't know they exist), but there's several of the less well-known regiments being featured like the Savlar Chem-dogs that I've been reading so much about in the Imperial Guard novels. I wonder if the Tanith First and Only will be making a return. Elysians and Death Korps of Krieg, sadly, will not be featured in the Codex, but they already have their own rules in the Forge World Index. I suspect Forge World will release new Stratagems, Regimental Doctrines and orders for them in the future, but don't hold your breath.



So who are the lucky dudes whose regiments are getting featured? The ever-popular Cadian Shock Troops and Catachan Jungle Fighters, of course! And we have Armageddon Steel Legion, Tallarn, Valhallan Ice Warriors (Ciaphas Cain! Woohoo!), Vostroyan First-born (incidentally the regiment I'm reading about in the novel Commissar right now), Mordian Iron Guard and the Militarum Tempestus. It sucks that my Kamikaze Troopers will be using Militarum Tempestus Doctrines and Orders instead of Cadian ones, but hey, that's what my Leman Russ tanks and armored Detachments are for. I can see them now. My Militarum Tempestus Detachment as one Battalion Detachment, and an all-Leman Russ tank Detachment as a Spearhead Detachment, and a single Outrider Detachment that will include one Leman Russ tank commander and 3 Hellhounds. And I'll be swapping my Kamikaze Troopers for a Shadowsword and 3 Tech-priest Enginseers as one Supreme Command Detachment (assuming they're in the HQ slot for Astra Militarum, otherwise I have to run them as Imperium and a mix of Adeptus Mechanicus and Astra Militarum) for smaller games, or just ditching the Tech-priest Enginseers and adding the Shadowsword for bigger games.

Yeah, I have my Kamikaze Troopers with their Taurox Prime APCs, which look really cool!



Not as cool as the dudes above, but hey. Whatever. Now time to contact my friend and ask him for help. I need to ship my Imperial Guard army from Singapore to the States right now.