About My Blog

Ave Omnissiah!

Image result for adeptus mechanicus symbol

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

Featured Post

Retrospective: Imperial Knights

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

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Mechanicus

Praise the Omnissiah!

Warhammer Community has announced a Mechanicus game in production!



The game is titled...well, Mechanicus. Simple and effective. What else can we ask for? It seems to be a turn-based tactical game (something like Sons of Cadia in Sanctus Reach), so it looks fun. I hope. Apparently, this is what the game is about:

Mechanicus puts you in control of an array of Adeptus Mechanicus forces for the first time ever as you lead your priests and troops on a tactical quest to salvage ancient technologies from the mysterious tombs of the planet Silva Tenebris. As Magos Dominus Faustinius of Mars, your every decision will shape the missions ahead and have far-reaching consequences for you and your team.

Awesome, I guess? Just look at the screenshots below!





It's slated for a late 2018 release, and if I have more information, I'll let you guys know. For now, here's an awesome sounding teaser trailer. Ave Omnissiah!


Magos Dominus, eh? Yeah, this is gonna be good. And the story is written by none other than Ben Counter. You know, the Ben Counter. The guy who wrote the Grey Knights omnibus. What was it, Heretech or something? The one with the Chaos Titan and Dark Mechanicum in it? I actually prefer Rob Sanders, but whatever.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Sons of Cadia

And so I've bought Sons of Cadia. Actually, I bought the whole bundle pack of the Sanctus Reach game, but the only one I'll play is Sons of Cadia, the Red Waaagh! campaign.


Image result for sons of cadia

I can't wait to play it! Maybe I'll try to record some gameplay or something. We'll see.

There was some Lunar New Year sale on Steam, so I took advantage of it and bought the Sanctus Reach bundle pack. I can't wait to see how this works!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Halfway through Gaunt's Ghosts

Phew, I just finished reading Double Eagle today. By Dan Abnett. So I basically finished the Founding and the Saint, plus Titanicus and Double Eagle. There's still the Lost and the Victory, which I'll try to get through as soon as possible.

Even better, I found out that there's a sequel to Kingsblade by Andy Clark. Knightsblade, which features good old Luk Kar Chimaeros. YAY!

Knightsblade

I'm going to buy that soon. First I'll finish the Gaunt's Ghosts series, then I'll proceed to buy Warmaster and that Mkoll short story, along with Exodus, Knightsblade and the Imperator Titan novel that's due to be released soon. If I have money, I'll get the Thousand Sons stuff like Battle of the Fang and perhaps that Inquisitor guy Czevak in Atlas Infernal and Necessary Evil. We shall see.

For the Emperor!

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Madness? This is Magnus!

Sorry for being late, but I was busily studying yesterday. School and all that. Anyway, Warhammer Community posted an article on Magnus yesterday!



This time, Eddie has offered advice on how to tool up Magnus. The Crimson King is the best psyker in the game, and if you know how to use his rules, you'll be winning a lot of games. Apparently.



Magnus, being the king of psykers, has access to 18 psychic powers from 3 different disciplines. It's going to be difficult to decide on what to take for Magnus, but throwing psychic powers is just so fun. There's a lot of options, and his passive buff to re-roll psychic tests of 1s and near-immunity to perils (you'll have to roll 5 ones in a row) plus the +2 to his psychic tests just makes him an awesome sorcerer.

Eddie has suggested three main themes, but Magnus the Warrior just isn't recommended. Honestly, Diabolic Strength is best casted on someone else, like a Daemon Prince. And I need Warptime for my warpflamer Rubric Marines. Death Hex sounds like a good option, though.

But the next two suggestions are pretty awesome.



Giving Magnus Glamor of Tzeentch, Temporal Manipulation and Weaver of Fates will greatly increase his chances of survival, upping his invulnerable save to 3++, restoring wounds if he needs, and forcing a -1 hit to him. However, I'm even more tempted by the next one.



Doombolt, Bolt of Change and Infernal Gateway, all of which deals lots of mortal wounds. Yeah, mortal wounds are awesome! I love mortal wounds! Not only that, you can increase his Smite and Infernal Gateway over the 10+ or 12+ with Cabalistic Focus. This is my favorite loadout, same as Eddie. Then again, that's why I play Thousand Sons. For mortal wounds and psychic powers. Heh.

Take note, Magnus has +6" range to all his psychic spells (woohoo!), and his Warlord Trait (if you take him as your Warlord Trait) is knowing an extra spell. Wish it was casting another spell, but okay. That's still better than nothing. Then again, that's what we have the Great Sorcerer Stratagem for.

I'll keep any eye out for more Thousand Sons articles and let you know when we get more stuff!



Oh, and one last thing. Don't despair if Magnus dies. If your opponent spends the first couple of turns trying to take him down, that means the rest of your army are pretty much left untouched. Capitalize on that and let the rest of your army smash the guys who were audacious enough to think they could shoot at a Primarch!

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Adeptus Titanicus news

Some news regarding Adeptus Titanicus, and it sounds interesting. I picked this up from a Facebook post, but as always, add a lot of salt to these rumors.

Basically, this is what was said:

From Garro
TITANDEATH seminar
Seminar was talking about the events at beta-garmon, which is the main muster point entering/leaving the segmentum solar. This because the only major safe warp route during the heresy.
Several titan legions and billions of infantry were involved with the attempts to take and control the BG system. This conflict is where the main campaign for Adeptus titanicus will be set at.
There was a fair bit of info given for AT but as it's a 'instore’ release, head office is a lot more strict on info.
Basically the game is scheduled and on target. The planned release date hasn't changed for several months, and will have a considerable release amount in the few months after as well.
FW have the main box, the three main titans (warhound, reaver, and warlord) out in plastic, and several kights (all present FW and GW knights are coming). PLUS plastic scenery and gaming tiles are coming near release as well.
Talking of the titan kits, they will be plastic and have several weapon options in the box, with the kit designed to be magnetised without issue. They will also include several different cosmetic options like the knight kits do (heads, banners, armour plates etc)
FW are planning several resin kits to add legio specific icons, additional weapons, and heads. Most of the new stuff is being sculpted at 28mm scale and scaled down for easy of work, so we could see additional and missing titan weapons coming g for 40k should demand be there.

If true, we'll have an Adeptus Titanicus game released sometime this year, and we'll have Knights accompanying the three main Titans. This will be awesome! And billions of infantry! I can't wait!

I'll keep an eye out on more news, and let you guys know when that happens. Oh, and another great news is that there will be a Horus Heresy novel written from the perspective of the Imperial Army, so that's also something to look forward to. For now, I had best finish the Gaunt's Ghosts novels and hopefully get started on War of the Fang. Just praying for more Imperial Knights, Imperial Guard and Thousand Sons novels, along with Adeptus Titanicus.

New Thousand Sons codex

Sorry, I was exhausted yesterday and I couldn't post this news up, but the new Thousand Sons codex is up for sale!



You can pick it up from your local gaming store (which I did) or order it online from Games Workshop today!

I also picked up the Thousand Sons datacards for Maelstrom games (had a Maelstrom game with my Imperial Guard yesterday). Again, I bought it from my local gaming store, but you can also order it online from Games Workshop.



One more thing - I also bought and built Ahzek Ahriman and a Sorcerer in Terminator armor. I'm waiting for my Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators, Exalted Sorcerers and Mutalith Vortex to be shipped over, but I'm probably going to build an army around daemon engines such as Maulerfiends. And maybe a Forgefiend. I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, for the Emperor! Thousand Sons are secretly loyal, despite what the codex says.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Codex: Tzaangor

I dread posting this article from Warhammer Community up because I can already hear the cries from Dakka Dakka and other sites about how this will be Codex: Tzaangor, and that Tzaangors will be the only competitive way to play.



So...I probably won't talk too much about this since I will most likely not be fielding Tzaangors in my Thousand Sons army. Not because I don't like them, but because I like Rubric Marines, psykers and daemon engines more. And Terminators.



Eddie was talking about how Tzaangor Blades are better with the -1 AP, but he neglected to say that the chainsword grants your Tzaangors an extra attack in melee. That's 10 extra attacks for a minimum-sized unit, and up to 30 extra attacks for a 30-Tzaangor horde. Something to think about. It's not the autopistol you're taking to shoot in melee. It's the extra attack the chainsword grants you.

Tzaangor Enlightened, I guess you probably already know, has the Fly keyword, and can be equipped with fatecaster greatbows to zip around, shooting stuff from a distance, or divining spears to deal 2 damage in close combat.



This rule makes them pretty deadly and bypass wound rolls altogether if you roll lucky with your hit rolls. To improve the rate they hit, you can cast Prescience on them with a psyker, and pair them with a Tzaangor Shaman, who will both give them +1 to their hit rolls. This means you will be automatically wounding units on 4+s hit rolls without even needing to roll to wound.

Eddie gave us several ways to use them, and I hope people won't complain and say that these are the only ways to play Thousand Sons now. Sure, these look powerful, but Eddie also gave us several tips on how to use our Rubric Marines in the last article and he explains how these guys should be used as distraction carnifexes so that our Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators can do their thing. In other words, the Tzaangors here are used as fodder to distract the enemy while your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators grab objectives or purge the enemies with their wrapflamers safely. Remember, if your enemy is devoting resources to eliminating your Tzaangors, it means they're not shooting your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. Get that into your head and stop whining about how Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators support Tzaangors now and that Tzaangors are the mainstay of your army. They are not. For Tzeentch's sake, even Eddie's use of them shows how they're meant only to be fodder, to run around and distract the enemy by doing as much damage as possible before they die, while your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators do shadowy stuff in the background, unnoticed. As Tzeentch would say, 「計画通り!」 or "Just as planned!" If you're banking on winning with just hordes of Tzaangors, then you're playing them wrong.



This Stratagem, for example, might look powerful, but you can only use it for one Tzaangor unit per turn. In other words, why would you take an entire army of Tzaangors just so you can use this Stratagem, when only one unit is enough?

Another idea that Eddie gives is the Mutalith Vortex.



Again, people are going to complain that the Mutalith Vortex benefits Tzaangors more than Rubric Marines. Uh, use your imagination. Mutalith Vortex works well with Daemon Princes, Exalted Sorcerers, Ahzek Ahriman and Scarab Occult Terminators. You'll be wounding normal Marines on 3+s with Strength 5 Scarab Occult Terminators with AP-3 - something you can't do with Tzaangors with their AP0 (or AP -1 if you took the Tzaangor blades). Tzaangors will sacrifice AP for the better Strength, whereas your Scarab Occult Terminators will probably destroy more Marines and 3+ armor save and even 2+ armor saves Terminators with their power swords. Plus the Mutalith Vortex will help your Exalted Sorcerers wreck vehicles more reliably - and you casted the Boon of Change on them, right?

See, it's not always about Tzaangors. While they're strong and certainly will pose an immense threat, the strategies to use them are pretty similar to how you can use for Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators, and these guys have their own psykers to buff them further to be more survivable. While your Tzaangors are fragile - and they should be, they are fodder whose purpose is to die while distracting your enemies while your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators dig into objectives or do the real work (getting close enough to unleash their warpflamers on the survivors) - your Marines are more durable, survivable and flexible. Tzaangors can't cast spells except the Tzaangor Shaman. And think about it this way. Your Tzaangor Shaman has to take a bunch of Tzaangors or Tzaangor Enlightened to be useful. Lose any one of them, and they'll be nigh useless on their own. Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators remain useful even when left to their own devices. Use that to your advantage and stop harping on how Tzaangors are superior in every aspect.

Tzaangors have their own strengths and roles. Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators have different roles that they excel in and they do those better than Tzaangors. Of course Tzaangors are better in melee, but that's their role! Think about the stuff that make Rubric Marines better and play them to their strengths instead of whining about how Rubric Marines are not as good as Tzaangors - it's like complaining how apples are worse than oranges when they're meant to be two different fruits!

You're playing an army of Tzeentch followers. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems. Think about it. Adapt to change. If you still think Tzaangors are better, then perhaps it is you who needs to change your mindset and strategy, not demand that Rubric Marines get buffed to be better than Tzaangors. Otherwise what's the point of taking Tzaangors? People are asking why take Rubric Marines over Tzaangors. I already told you. They are better at shooting, they don't have to worry about overwatch (unless you're desperate enough to charge), they're less susceptible to morale, they are much more durable and survivable, they have an in-built psyker that makes them more flexible, and while the addition of an Exalted Sorcerer makes them better with re-rolls to hit, they are not completely reliant on buffs and synergies the way Tzaangors are on Tzaangor Shamans. And you can have a 10-men Rubric squad armed with nothing but warpflamers to incinerate hordes rather than charge in and hope your Tzaangors wipe the enemy out in melee with AP0 close combat attacks. Well, AP-1 if you take the blades, but that's one less attack.

That said, we should have a Rubric Marine or Scarab Occult Terminator Stratagem that allows our power armor guys to shoot twice in the Shooting Phase. Oh well. Wasted opportunity there, but not something to get angry over (it will have to be pretty expensive, especially since I can abuse it with my 9-19 warpflamers).