Building a new Imperial Guard list and restructuring the fluff - Draconian Armored Dragons

I probably have to write my Imperial Guard army in Singapore off. My friend isn't replying to any of my emails and messages, and seems disinterested in shipping them over to the States, so the only option left is to buy a new army here. I hope he helps me sell them off, but if he doesn't, I'll just drop by his house like a loan shark, pick my stuff up and sell them myself.

For now, I'll just buy a bunch of tanks second-hand. Good thing I found a guy who's selling 4 Leman Russ tanks for cheap. I'll have to modify them when I get them because I might need to swap the lascannons out for other stuff. We shall see. I'm waiting for him regarding Cadian infantry, but if he doesn't have what I need, I'll just buy new Cadian infantry along with my Leman Russ Executioner. And I've already ordered a new Baneblade, which I will build into a Shadowsword.

So basically this is my tentative list for now:

Spearhead Detachment (Cadian) Tank Commander - Leman Russ main battle tank with plasma cannons and lascannon 2 Leman Russ main battle tanks with 3 heavy bolters each Leman Russ main battle tank with 3 heavy flamers
Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons Heavy weapon squad with 3 lascannons. Supreme Command Detachment (Cadian) Company Commander with plasma pistol 2 Primaris Psykers
Astropath with laspistol Shadowsword with 3 twin heavy bolters and 2 lascannons Battalion Detachment (Vostroyan) 2 Company Commanders with boltguns 2 Command Squads with 4 plasma guns each 3 infantry squads with 1 plasma gun and 1 boltgun (Sergeant) each

I'll be buying the Primaris Psykers online. I'll also have to kitbash the plasma guns, buy 10 resin plasma guns from somewhere and glue them onto my Draconian Guardsmen. The point, as you can see, is to have two Cadian-styled armored detachments. The Spearhead Detachment with 5 Leman Russ tanks gives them Objective Secured and a ton of firepower, and the Supreme Command Detachment confers the regimental doctrine upon my Shadowsword to allow him to re-roll hit rolls of ones if he doesn't move. Yeah, take note: your Baneblade variant does not get regimental doctrines if you take it in a superheavy auxiliary detachment, so you must take it in either a Supreme Command Detachment or a Super-heavy Detachment (meaning 3 Baneblade variants) to get the regimental doctrine. I chose the former, as you can see above. The 2 Primaris Psykers are there to buff his armor saves and forces a -1 penalty to my opponent's shooting at him. Or Smite any Deep Striking dudes who appear nearby.

Then I have a purely infantry Battalion that makes use of the Vostroyan regimental doctrine to confer extra range to my lasguns, boltguns and plasma guns. There's a reason why I gave the company commander and sergeants boltguns. It's to benefit from the extended range. Yay. That will be sweet. So their rapid fire range is now 30" (2 shots at 15"). One possible strategy is to Consolidate squads and combine all 3 infantry squads into one giant blob over 2 turns, get them within rapid fire range, and issue the First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! order in conjunction with the Vostroyan Stratagem that gives them +1 to their hit rolls. And then I can issue the Take Aim! order to the command squads with 30" plasma guns and supercharge them. Hell, yeah. The Cadian Company Commander will grant re-rolls to the Cadian heavy weapon squad's hits with the Take Aim! order. Re-rolls of hits with 3 lascannons. Oh boy, this is going to be so fun.

What about the fluff? They are Draconians, after all. In the past, I just had Draconian Armored Defense Force, with Kamikaze Troopers using the Stormtroopers/Militarum Tempestus rules. But now it seems my fluff has to undergo a huge transformation. Nope, don't worry, the Draconians are still mainly armor. But without my Militarum Tempestus army (which wouldn't fit into this list because they cost too much), I'll have to alter the fluff and my gameplay. A shame because I wanted to Deep Strike them 9" away from the enemy and unload plasma. Oh well.

So what I have for now is that Draconis IV has retrieved its reputation as a forge world that manufactures plasma technology gleaned and replicated from Ryza. That's why there's so much plasma in this list. It's to reflect the fluff that Draconian Imperial Guard regiments use lots of plasma. As I go further down the line, I will be swapping the heavy flamers Leman Russ tank for another Leman Russ Executioner (I need money for that, though) to show my preference for plasma. They are also renowned for churning out super-heavy tanks like Shadowswords. So yeah. The armored regiments and infantry regiments are seperated and receive different training. That is reflected in their different regimental doctrines. So the Draconian Imperial Guard regiments are now the Draconian Armored Dragons. The armored companies learn from Cadia, and are supported by specialist armor infantry with long-range weapons or plasma guns. The infantry regiments have close ties to the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, specifically the forge world Draconis IV, and this is reflected in their augmented weapons that have a greater range than most Imperial Guard regiments.

Actually, the world of Draconis III has close ties to the forge world Draconis IV, who supplies them countless Leman Russ tanks, plasma weapons and enhanced infantry weapons. That is why their infantry is so similar to the Vostroyans. To maintain, repair and manufacture tanks, there is a very close alliance between Draconis III and Draconis IV, and as I have mentioned before, the knight houses of Draconis III (Yato, Uesugi and Takeda) are also intimately linked to the forge world of Draconis IV, the sacristans maintaining and repairing the knight suits or manufacturing new ones.

But that's not all. Do you remember back in the beginning of 8th Edition and the Great Rift with all the psychic fluff? I was saying how the citizens in Draconis III were beginning to awaken their psychic powers thanks to the Great Rift and warp storms. Thanks to that, we are seeing an increased number of battle psykers in the ranks of the Draconian Armored Dragons. Those with latent psychic abilities are brought to the psykana training facilities in one of the moons orbiting the gas giant Draconis VIII, where their warp powers are honed and refined as weapons to be used for the Emperor. I'll probably establish a more flavorful fluff for my Draconians, so meditation, Zen and esoteric philosophies are instilled and taught to these psykers so that they can better harness their powers and unleash them on the foes of the Emperor. This accounts for the large presence of so many Primaris Psykers and Astropaths in the ranks of the Draconians. The Astropaths are viewed as seers or Draconian priests, often with prescience or precognition to tell the future. Combined with their ability to guide ships through the Warp, they are highly respected and feared in Draconis III.

So that's the fluff, and I can't wait to see how they fare on the tabletop! I will have to slowly build them up first, though.