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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 ...

Friday, August 31, 2018

Daemon Engines / Thousand Sons Full Armor

I've been experimenting with my Thousand Sons list and I realize there are a couple of ways to play them. Of course, the focus is always on the sorcery and psychic phase, but other than filling up your HQ slots with Sorcerers and Daemon Princes, I realize there are two options for the support units. I realize that many people go for the horde option, which is the Tzaangors and/or Cultists route. Very few Rubric Marines in these competitive lists, but hordes of Cultists and Tzaangors. The favorite tactic is of course to drop a 30-men (mutant?) Tzaangor bomb on your opponents' frontlines and let rip with Cycle of Slaughter. Now we've to use Dark Matter Crystal for that. I personally don't use Tzaangors - it's not that I hate them. I really like them, but I like my Rubric Marines and Traitor Guardsmen more.

Anyway, as I said, there are a few ways to play Thousand Sons. The elite route or the horde route. Right now my list seems to stand somewhere near the elite option, but I do have 3 squads of Cultists. Then again, I only took the minimal number of Traitor Guardsmen instead of filling up to 40 expendable bodies, so it's not really a horde list. It's a more elite list that relies on durable Rubric Marines, Deep Striking Scarab Occult Terminators and spamming sorcery and psychic powers from my Sorcerers. So it looks like this:

Thousand Sons Battalion

Ahzek Ahriman

Daemon Prince of Tzeeentch

5 Rubric Marines

5 Rubric Marines

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers

Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher

5 Scarab Occult Terminators

2nd Thousand Sons Battalion (Prosperine Spireguard?)

Exalted Sorcerer on disc with two power swords

Exalted Sorcerer on Foot

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen)

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen) with flamer

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen) with flamer

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 butcher cannons (Hellforged Contemptor battle-automata)

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array (Hellforged Deredeo siege-automata)

That's my list. Well, I have a lot of Command Points with this list (yay?) and I use tons of Rubric Marines unlike most Thousand Sons list. It's obviously not competitive and I'll get absolutely destroyed in an ITC or tournament. But hey, it's extremely fun to play with. I have at least 4 full psykers and 4 more mini-psykers with baby Smite. I think people will advise me to drop the warpflamer Rubric Marines, but honestly, they are awesome. Did I tell you how they overwatched a Space Marine Chapter Master to death with their warpflamers in my first game? Yeah.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize that this list is an anti-infantry or anti-horde list. Just look at the amount of shots they can fire. AP -2 for their inferno boltguns or warpflamers, and 8 more shots from the Hellforged Dreadnoughts. That's a pretty scary prospect for any horde or infantry list. On the other hand, I think I'll die to pretty much every Knight list or tanks list. Thankfully Knights aren't in my area's meta and we all play friendly games so I don't have to worry about that. But yeah, the lack of anti-tank is a real problem. It's nothing I can't solve by taking Predators with lascannons or allied Chaos Space Marines with Havocs (like in my previous post).

But that's besides the point. I'm more fun than what's viable or whatever. I'm not going to tournaments. I'm just here to talk about the various options and themes I can explore with my Thousand Sons, especially in casual settings. Right now I have an infantry dominated Thousand Sons list. I'm trying to see what happens if I try to turn it into a more Full Armored list with Daemon Engines, much like how I play my Imperial Guard with lots of Leman Russ tanks. If you remember my Imperial Guard lists, I always take at least 3 Leman Russ tanks - sometimes 4, and that's not even a game where I include my Shadowsword. Sadly enough, since my meta is pretty casual, taking a Shadowsword is overkill, so I'm trying to play more friendly lists, especially since my opponents are mostly kids.

So what's the Daemon Engines route?

Thousand Sons Battalion

Ahzek Ahriman

Daemon Prince of Tzeeentch

5 Rubric Marines with 1 warpflamer

5 Rubric Marines with 2 warpflamers

5 Rubric Marines with 2 warpflamers

Thousand Sons Spearhead

Exalted Sorcerer on disc with two power swords

Exalted Sorcerer on foot

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 butcher cannons (Hellforged Contemptor battle-automata)

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array (Hellforged Deredeo siege-automata)

Mutalith Vortex Beast

Mutalith Vortex Beast

Maulerfiend with lasher tendrils

Maulerfiend with lasher tendrils

There you go. A Full Armored list of Thousand Sons. The point of this list is to force my opponent to target the big guys. I have a lot of redundancy (I hope), so if you take out my 1st Maulerfiend, I still have a 2nd! Plus the Mutalith Vortex to dish out mortal wounds! Aiming at my Mutalith Vortex Beast instead? Well, if he has half his health left, his Mutalith Vortex power's range doubles! Plus I have 2 of them! And you're leaving my Hellforged Dreadnoughts unmolested. Concentrating all fire on my Deredeo Dreadnought? Great, while everyone's distracted by the Dreadnought, the Maulerfiends and Mutalith Vortext Beasts will charge forward and dish out mortal wounds or crash into your lines. The 2 backfield Dreadnoughts are protected by 3 squads of Rubric Marines, who have warpflamers to help against charges from Deep Striking units via overwatch. Additionally a single Exalted Sorcerer on foot to provide re-rolls of ones for the 2 BS 2+ Hellforged Dreadnoughts. Heh. And I still have 7 psykers in the list, 4 proper ones and 3 mini-psykers who will most likely sit back and cast Temporal Manipulation, Glamor of Tzeentch and Weaver of Fate on my Dreadnoughts or something. 6 big targets for my opponent to shoot at, and I can afford to lose a few of them. I hope.

Well, we'll see. I don't have the money for Maulerfiends and a 2nd Mutalith Vortex Beast now, so this will have to wait until Christmas or so.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Thousand Sons painted!

I've gone and painted all my Thousand Sons! Now my Rubric Marines are all fully painted! The only thing I have left to do is the transfer sheet, which I'll do tomorrow after painting my Hellforged Dreadnoughts and Havocs and Chaos Lord and Warpsmith.

Wait, what? I'm talking about Thousand Sons, right? Where did I get a Chaos Lord, Warpsmith and Havocs from?

Fully painted Rubric Marines. Wait, why are there metal Karskins? Well, I figured that since I was using super glue, I might as well glue the power packs onto my Karskins.
Well, a week ago or so, didn't I mention the backstory for the Sons of Shadow? The Sons of Shadow are a Thousand Sons warband operating autonomously and semi-independently of the Thousand Sons Legion (though they still answer to Magnus and have to obey him). They were formerly a Loyalist Chapter, the Shadow Seekers, who like to...uh, seek knowledge. They are also full of Librarians, and are one of those Chapters that use a huge number of psykers. Libarius Conclave? The Shadow Seekers are full of Librarians! Unfortunately, the demise of their Chapter came about when they fought the Death Guard. Prior to that, they were already getting into trouble with accusations of tech-heresy because of their collection and manufacture of sentient automata and artificial intelligence. Hence the Dreadnoughts. Anyway, the Inquisition wanted to get rid of them, but you don't just order the destruction of the Adeptus Astartes. Instead, one Inquisitor had a plan to lure the Shadow Seekers into a direct conflict with a massive Death Guard force so that they would wipe each other out, sacrificing not just the Shadow Seekers Chapter but also countless Imperial Guardsmen in the process. Needless to say, the Death Guard decimated the Shadow Seekers, who sustained massive casualties. Worse was a new plague that, well, plagued the Chapter, reducing most of their number into comatose near-corpses ravaged by rot and disease despite their superhuman or transhuman immune system.

Thousand Sons with Alpha Legion reinforcements
Fortunately, before the Shadow Seekers and their Astra Militarum allies were completed annihilated, help arrived in the unlikely form of the Thousand Sons. Ahzek Ahriman just happened to chance by, seeking some Eldar artifact in the planet (Ynnari-related), and they came into conflict with the Death Guard, who thought they were here to get in their way. Remember that the Death Guard has quite the enmity with the Thousand Sons, especially since the Council of Nikea. Anyway, the Thousand Sons and the Shadow Seekers Librarians, with the assistance of the surviving Astra Militarum regiments, defeated the Death Guard with sorcery and potent psychic powers, driving them away. And the rest, as we say, is history. Even though Ahriman couldn't care less, the Shadow Seekers swore loyalty to him for saving them, and the Librarians learned from him. Much like Astreaos did in the Ahriman Collection. One of the Librarians, in an attempt to save his diseased-riddled Chapter, accidentally cast the Rubric and reduced his sick Brothers into dust...so now they're basically Rubric Marines with a different paint scheme.

Chaos Lord with combi-plasma and chainsword, another Chaos Lord with combi-plasma and chainsword (doubles as Havoc Sergeant), Chosen/Havoc with plasma gun, Havoc Sergeant with boltgun, Warpsmith
The surviving non-psyker, non-Librarian members of the Chapter were then organized into Havocs teams, since they were mostly Devastators operating at long range and thus didn't suffer the potent effects of Nurgle's plague. So they continued their long-range, heavy support role with massive firepower (lascannons). The techmarines continued being techmarines (or Warpsmiths) since they were more machine than human, and continued to control the automata. Stuff like that. The psykers and Librarians all became Thousand Sons Sorcerers, while the non-psykers maintained a separate organization and continued to wage warfare from the shadows as they always did. The surviving Astra Militarum regiments followed the Shadow Seekers after being abandoned by the Imperium and betrayed by the Inquisition, and these form the bulk of the Sons of Shadow's mortal troops, bringing artillery, Leman Russ tanks and hordes of infantry to do the jobs the elite transhuman soldiers of the Adeptus Astartes (or Heretic Astartes) couldn't. These form the newly recruited ranks of the Prosperine Spireguard, or the Prosperine Shadowguard, an exclusive mortal army whose loyalty is to the Sons of Shadow.

Havocs with lascannons
So this is basically my list:

Thousand Sons Battalion

Ahzek Ahriman

Daemon Prince of Tzeeentch

Exalted Sorcerer on disc with two power swords

5 Rubric Marines

5 Rubric Marines

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers

5 Scarab Occult Terminators

Alpha Legion Battalion

Chaos Lord with combi-plasma

Warpsmith

10 Cultists with flamer (Traitor Guardsmen)

10 Cultists with flamer (Traitor Guardsmen)

10 Cultists with flamer (Traitor Guardsmen)

Havocs with 4 lascannons, Sergeant with combi-plasma

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought

I also have a Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought, a Thousand Sons Rhino and an Exalted Sorcerer on foot that I can swap into the list sometimes. I'll probably build my Mutalith Vortex eventually and buy a pair of Maulerfiends for the buffs. In such a case, I'll swap the Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought out for the Mutalith Vortex and Maulerfiends to get a full Thousand Sons list, but that might be a little difficult. We'll see. I also have an alternative list where I replace the Alpha Legion Battalion with a Renegades and Heretics list to represent the Prosperine Spireguard or Prosperine Shadowguard. So something like this:

Thousand Sons Battalion

Ahzek Ahriman

Daemon Prince of Tzeeentch

5 Rubric Marines

5 Rubric Marines

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers

5 Scarab Occult Terminators

Thousand Sons Battalion

Exalted Sorcerer on disc with two power swords

Exalted Sorcerer on foot

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen)

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen)

10 Cultists (Traitor Guardsmen)

Renegades and Heretics Spearhead Detachment

Renegade Commander

Leman Russ main battle tank with lascannon and heavy flamers

Basilisk

Basilisk

Renegade heavy weapons squad with 6 mortars

Havocs with lascannons and cables finally super glued to them.
Alternatively, I could replace the 2 Basilisks with a Leman Russ Executioner tank with plasma cannons and lascannon and give flamers to each of the Cultists/Traitor Guardsmen squads. There you go, a Thousand Sons list with Prosperine Spireguard allies.

Oh, and some stuff before I go. I hate working with resin. It's the most difficult thing to glue together. Even if you wash it. I absolutely hate resin. I might never buy Forge World stuff again.

Some views on Thousand Sons, now that I've played a couple of games with them. I love how they play, I love using psychic powers. Now I know there are a few very outspoken whiners such as Thousand-Son-Sorcerer on Dakka Dakka and a bunch of others who complain about Thousand Sons not being Thousand Sons, relying on weird hyperbole and twisting facts to fit their agenda (such as lying about the cost of Tzaangors or whatever). You don't need Tzaangors to run a viable Thousand Sons list. As you can see, my lists don't rely on Tzaangors at all, no matter whether I'm playing a pure Thousand Sons list or not. Instead, I use Cultists to capture backfield objectives. The strength in Thousand Sons lies not in Tzaangors or hordes, but in psychic sorcerery. No, seriously. If your only "viable" strategy of playing Thousand Sons is to Deep Strike 30 Tzaangors and spam the Cycle of Slaughter Stratagem, then you might as well play Chaos Daemons with a Bloodletter bomb instead. Or Alpha Legion Khorne Berzerkers. Or Tyranids. There are plenty of other armies that do the melee bomb a lot better than Thousand Sons, and if your only competitive list of Thousand Sons is just 30 Tzaangors and Cycle of Slaughter, I think you should pick another army. If you insist on this hyperbole, then go join Thousand-Son-Sorcerer on Dakka Dakka...who has made a fool out of himself - how many Thousand Sons lists do you see in tournaments featuring the Tzaangor bomb? He must be feeling pretty stupid after all that hyperbolic whining.

Rather, the strength in Thousand Sons lies in their psychic mastery. Take a look at the list that was unbeaten in Best Coast Pairings, reported by the Bell of Lost Souls 2 weeks ago. You'll see that the Thousand Sons list that won the largest event in that week didn't feature any Tzaangors at all. Instead, it brought 3 Thousand Sons Sorcerers including Ahzek Ahriman. Funnily enough, Thousand Sons wasn't the main army but Alpha Legion was, which brought a Chaos Lord, a Sorcerer, Cultists, Havocs and Obliterators. Oh, and a Renegades and Heretics Spearhead Detachment spamming Basilisks! Another Thousand Sons list paired them with Black Legion and had Ahriman buddying up with Abbadon the Despoiler, but didn't feature many Tzaangors. If you look at most of the Thousand Sons lists, they are built not on Tzaangors but lots and lots of psykers. And not even Tzaangor Shaman but Sorcerers, Ahriman, Sorcerers in Terminator Armor and Daemon Princes of Tzeentch. The top Thousand Sons lists lay heavy emphasis on the psychic potential of the army, and the backbone of the lists are Sorcerers, and rightly so. Okay, maybe it sucks that most Thousand Sons lists don't take Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators, but it has to be pointed out that the Sorcerers are the ones being taken, not Tzaangors. Which fits the fluff, since the Thousand Sons is all about Sorcerers. So much for pushing the Codex: Tzaangor or Codex: Tzeentch Daemonkin, am I right?

From personal experience, the Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators are pretty durable in casual games. I can't say the same for any competitive setting since I don't play in tournaments, but in the past 2 games so far, my Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators earn back their points and do extremely well against similar Marine Equivalent armies such as Space Marines. I think they also do well against Custodes but I need to play against an Adeptus Custodes army to find out. I don't know how they'll fare against top tier armies or competitive lists, but I might never know. However, in normal games, they are pretty durable with their All is Dust rule and my opponent has to dedicate a lot of firepower to take them down. In my first game, 2 full Rubric Marine squads survived. In my second game, my opponent was forced to direct more firepower toward them and hence neglected my Hellforged Dreadnoughts, which ripped him apart, and my Scarab Occult Terminators survived, taking only a single wound. Yeah, it takes a lot of firepower to bring these guys down, and if your opponent does shoot at them, he's not shooting at your other threats like your Hellforged Dreadnoughts or Maulerfiends or whatever. Funnily enough, in both games, 2 full Cultist squads also survived (well, in the 2nd game, 1 of the 2 surviving squads took 1 casualty or so). Not because they are as durable as the Rubric Marines - an Inceptor squad wiped one squad out in the second game, and the Baneblade also killed another in the first game. But because my opponent was directing so much firepower into my Rubric Marines, he couldn't shoot my Traitor Guardsmen. Like I said, Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators have their place.

But the most fun part was the psychic phase. Sure, I did perils sometimes, but bringing 2 Battalions provided me with a lot of Command Points, even if I spent 3 of them on bringing 2 Artifacts. Command Re-rolls and Gaze of Fate really help a lot. So don't worry about perils - it's statistically unlikely to happen. I did get a couple in the first game, but I spent my surplus of Command Points to re-roll them, and didn't get any in my second game. So rather than worrying about perils, just do what you need and keep that Command Point handy for a re-roll. But having Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer fly around casting Doombolt, Smite, Death hex and other awesome spells and mounting mortal wounds on the opponent is hella fun. Makes me wish I could take more Sorcerers. I'm kind of hesitant to drop my 4th HQ (Exalted Sorcerer on foot) for an Alpha Legion because he's just that fun to play with, using Smite and all that! And Temporal Manipulation is awesome! Diabolic Strength is also fun! In any case, the psychic phase is where the Thousand Sons shine, and this truly is where the strength of a Thousand Sons list lies in. Not the damned Tzaangors (so quit your whining, Thousand Sons Sorcerer and others), but the Sorcerers and their psychic spells. People take Supreme Command Detachments of Thousand Sons just to get access to these awesome psykers, not Battalions of Tzaangors. Because the top players truly know where the real potential of Thousand Sons lie. In their psychic abilities, not a melee horde bomb.

It's a bit sad that my Daemon Prince of Tzeentch always died before my 2nd turn, but I guess it's because he's that much of a threat that my opponent had to focus everything on him. Heh. But in just 1 turn he deals massive, massive damage, destroying an Ironclad Dreadnought in game 1, and just doing lots of damage in game 2 before he died. Well, maybe he'll have better luck next time, but we'll see!

Anyway, I hope to play more with my new Thousand Sons army and I'll let you know if I get more games or opinions on how they play. For now, all I can really say is focus on the pyschic phase and they'll never disappoint you!

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Orktober, Approved Adepta Sororitas and Knight Preceptor in September!

Just after a bunch of people complained on Natfka's blog, Faeit 212, about Orks, NOVA came and rammed their complaints down their throats (sorry, I couldn't find a better expression for making them eat their own words).

I mean, just look at the comments. People were complaining that the new Ork codex will not solve the -1 or -2 to hit modifiers that destroy Orks, people were complaining about there not being any Warboss on bike, etc. To be fair...well, the rumors did say there was no Warboss on bike and they were going off what they knew. That said...a lot of the reactions were over the top and some comments were certainly overboard. I mean, if you want to quit the game just because Games Workshop didn't give you a Warboss on a bike in the new codex, then I think you have a lot more problems than your converted Warboss on a bike.

Anyway, Warhammer Community has the news here about reveals from NOVA, and Ork players have a lot of reasons to be excited about!



Now people can finally stop complaining about how Orks are screwed over by negative modifiers to shoot, or how Orks will never be able to hit anything with negative modifiers such as Eldar Rangers. Yeah, you can. Any unmodified hit roll of a 6 counts as a hit. So yeah. Quit your whining and don't jump into conclusions about how terrible the codex will be just because you think it won't fix the negative modifiers to shooting (yes, some people actually made those comments).



No Warboss on bike? No worries. You now have a Warboss on Deffkilla Wartrike, a new unit that allows you to run a VEHICLE HQ. So if you want to run an all-vehicle list like Imperial Guard (our spearhead detachments of Leman Russ tanks, for example), you can! Granted, the people complaining about this could only go off the rumors that someone else posted about no Warbosses on bikes, and technically he was correct, so I can't blame them here.



It's not all Orks, though. We have a beta codex for Adepta Sororitas in Chapter Approved 2018! Bring it, Sisters of Battle players! I'll challenge you with my Thousand Sons! Or Imperial Guard! Or whatever you want!

And lastly, the news that impacts me and this blog the most. IMPERIAL KNIGHTS.



They're finally releasing Sir Hekhtur and the Knight Preceptor in September! So watch out for it! Furthermore, the new Knight kit will cost the same as the current existing Knight kit, so you don't have to worry about Games Workshop being "money-grabbing bastards" that many commenters seem to accuse them of.

Oh, and we're getting a new Knight transfer sheet that will include House Griffith. Cool!

Anyway, I'll let you know when I get more news regarding Knights or whatever. Sadly enough, there's still no news regarding Adeptus Mechanicus getting Mechanicum units in Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus. I guess we'll have to give up on that.

Renegades and Heretics, plus Death Korps of Krieg and Elysian Drop Troops

Before I begin, I want to make it clear that some of the information in this reddit thread is incorrect. Apparently, this was what was said.
level 2
Do note that renegade leman russes dont get the grinding advance rule so watch out with those
level 3
Where is this stated?
level 4
The FAQ gives elysians and krieg the rule but not renegades
level 5
Aw damnit. Thanks.

This is blatantly false. Do not listen to DontSayUsernameTaken. He is (most likely unintentionally) spreading false information. The FAQ actually says Renegades and Heretics do get the Grinding Advance rule. It's right here:

Q: The Death Korps of Krieg, Elysian Drop Troops and Renegades and Heretics Army Lists each detail numerous units that can be taken from Index: Imperium 2. Do these units have to be taken from Index: Imperium 2, or can they be taken from Codex: Astra Militarum instead?
A: If the unit appears in Codex: Astra Militarum, you must use the datasheet from there.

If you don't believe me, you can visit this link to see for yourself. Again, do NOT listen to DontSayUsernameTaken. Renegades and Heretics are clearly mentioned there, so they can take Leman Russ tanks with the Grinding Advance rule. The Grinding Advance rule is in the Leman Russ Battle Tanks datasheet in the Codex. If you want to use the Leman Russ tanks for Renegades and Heretics, you must use the datasheet from Codex: Astra Militarum. Period. If anyone has a Reddit account (I don't), please help me post there and halt the spread of misinformation so that our brothers can stand strong against the false Imperium.

Anyway, I have suggested changes for the Renegades and Heretics. I don't think anyone cares or will read this, and most people will just ignore this article, but I'll just write it out all the same. Here's my proposed changes:

1. All Renegades and Heretics units get Chaos Covenant, regardless of whether your Warlord is a Renegade Commander or Malefic Lord. Probably only Marauders don't get Chaos Covenant, but everything, including vehicles, get a Chaos Covenant (or Mark of Chaos). The important thing is that you no longer need your Renegade Commander or Malefic Lord to be your Warlord to get a Chaos Covenant.

2. Renegade Militia Squad's BS is improved to 4+, but WS remains 5+. Main difference between them and Cultists is that Cultists gets WS 4+ and access to brutal assault weapons, but Militia don't have access to melee weapons except the Renegade Militia Sergeant, and Renegade Militia can take a special weapon for every 5 models, and 2 models may form a Renegade Militia Weapons Team per every 10 models.

3. Either Renegade Heavy Weapons Squad get their points raised to 4 or 5 points per models and their BS gets buffed to 4+, or they remain 3 points per model with BS 5+.

4. The most important change, which is linked to idea #1. If your RENEGADES AND HERETICS Detachment is made out of a single Chaos Covenant (e.g. Tzeentch), they get a Renegade Rite.

- Covenant of Khorne: BRUTAL STRENGTH. INFANTRY units with this rite add 1 to their Strength and Attack characteristic. VEHICLES with this rite add 1 to their hit rolls in the Fight Phase, and improve the AP of all their melee weapons by -1 (for example, a weapon with an AP of 0 would have an AP of -1 instead).

- Covenant of Nurgle: DISGUSTINGLY RESILIENT. Each time an INFANTRY model with this rite loses a wound, roll a dice; on a 6+, the INFANTRY models does not lose that wound. VEHICLES with this rite that have a damage table double the number of Wounds they have remaining for the purposes of determining what their characteristics are.

- Covenant of Slaanesh: EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE. INFANTRY units with this rite can shoot twice in the Shooting phase if they did not move in the previous Movement phase. VEHICLES with this rite treat attacks against them with an AP of -1 as having AP 0.

- Covenant of Tzeentch: DAEMONIC DIVINATION. Add 1 to the saving throws for INFANTRY units with this rite. Re-roll hit rolls of 1 in the Shooting phase for VEHICLES with this rite if they did not move in the previous Movement phase.

5. Malefic Lords are reduced to 45 or 50 points instead of 80 (I mean, Primaris Psykers are 46 points, have better wargear, better BS and WS and a better armor save, it makes no freaking sense, plus the Smite nerf also renders them useless). I was also thinking of giving them a force stave at least. If you really want to keep them at 80, allow them to add 1 to their psychic tests and Deny the Witch rolls. Renegades and Heretics have new psychic powers called HERETICUS DISCIPLINE.
 - 1. Warp Flux. Warp Flux has a warp charge value of 7. If manifested, choose an enemy unit within 18" of the psyker, it immediately suffers D3 mortal wounds. If the target is a VEHICLE, it suffers D6 mortal wounds instead.
- 2. Creeping Terror. Creeping Terror has a warp charge value of 7. If manifested, choose an enemy unit within 18" of the psyker. That unit subtracts D3 from its Leadership until the start of your next turn.
- 3. Psychic Barrage. Psychic Barrage has a warp charge value of 6. If manifested, choose an enemy unit within 18" of the psyker. Until the start of your next turn, subtract 1 from the enemy's saving throws (armor and invulnerable).
- 4. Web of Shadows. Web of Shadows has a warp charge value of 6. If manifested, select a friendly RENEGADES AND HERETICS unit within 12" of the psyker. Until the start of your next turn, any enemy unit that targets the chosen unit with a ranged weapon suffers a -1 penalty to its hit rolls.
- 5. Unnatural Vigor. Unnatural Vigor has a warp charge value of 7. If manifested, select a friend RENEGADES AND HERETICS unit within 6" of the psyker. Until the start of your next turn, the chosen unit re-rolls failed charge rolls, and re-rolls failed hit rolls and wound rolls in the Fight phase.
- 6. Dark Blessings. Dark Blessings has a warp charge value of 6. If manifested, select a friendly RENEGADES AND HERETICS unit within 12" of the psyker and roll a D6. Consult the table below to discover what effect this power has on all models in that unit until the start of your Psychic phase.
-- D6 EFFECT
    1 Fearless Mind: This unit automatically passes Morale tests.
    2 Extra Limb: +1 Attack
    3 Mystic Strength: + 1 Strength
    4 Iron Skin: + 1 Toughness
    5 Arcane Armor: The unit gains a 6+ invulnerable save. If it already has an invulnerable save, add 1 to its saving throws instead.
    6 Chaos Spawn: The unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. For each slain model, you may replace it with a Chaos Spawn (these do not cost reinforcement points).

6. Allow Renegades and Heretics to take Shadowswords and Leman Russ Annihilator tanks.

That's basically all the suggestions I have for Renegades and Heretics so far. Obviously I don't think anyone will take me seriously, but it will be fun to try out these homebrewed rules and see how they will fare. I doubt anyone will use these rules. They are most probably imbalanced, but I tried to model them after the rules and Regimental Doctrines in Codex: Astra Militarum. Not sure if they would work. I mean, Tzeentch Rite seems to be a copy of Cadian Regimental Doctrine except for the Infantry models, but you probably need to remember that Renegades and Heretics don't get orders so perhaps improving their saving throws might help. Same thing with the Slaanesh Rite, which might seem overpowered, but unless you're spamming special weapons, it probably won't be that much of a problem - especially since you have to not move to get that bonus. And infantry rarely get long-ranged heavy weapons, and those that do cannot receive orders or have a terrible BS (Renegade Heavy Weapons Squads with BS 5+).

As for Death Korps of Krieg, let's give them a Regimental Doctrine.

Death Korps of Krieg: DEATHLY FANATICAL. INFANTRY units with this doctrine automatically pass Morale tests. VEHICLES and CAVALRY units with this doctrine add 1 to their Move characteristic, Advance and Charge rolls.

Death Korps Additional Order: Duty unto Death!: The ordered unit can fight twice in the Fight phase.

Huh. I suck at this. Sorry. How about Elysian Drop Troops?

Elysian Drop Troops: AIRBORNE ASSAULT. All units with this doctrine gain the Aerial Drop ability (basically Deep Strike anywhere on the battlefield more than 9" away from any enemy models). Treat all Vendetta gunships, Valkyrie Sky Talons and Valkyrie Assault Carriers as having the Dedicated Transport Role instead of Flyer role, but they can only capture objectives when they are in Hover mode. (Take note that models with the AERONAUTICA IMPERIALIS keywords replace them with ELYSIAN).

Elysian Drop Troops Additional Order: Rapidly Redeploy!: Until the end of the phase, the ordered unit can shoot and then immediately embark within a friendly ELYSIAN TRANSPORT VEHICLE, as long as all models are within 3" of the vehicle. This order may not be issued to a unit which disembarked in the preceding Movement phase, but can still be issued to a unit which arrived on the battlefield through the Aerial Drop ability.

Yeah, I'm just basically copying Armageddon here. I don't know...I'm not sure what to do.

Anyway, what do you guys think? I doubt anyone will try these homebrewed rules out in home games, but you'll never know. Of course, you're free to add ideas, suggestions and discussions even if nothing ever comes out of it. That's the whole point of having fun in Warhammer 40,000, homebrewing your own stuff, rules and armies!

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Battle Report 26

I managed to get one last game in before I return to university life tomoorrow (or today, considering it's already 2am). It was a great game, and my opponent was the same kid I faced on Saturday. Weirdly enough, he elected not to bring his Baneblade today, choosing instead to replace the Baneblade with a Stormraven, a Primaris Ancient and a Primaris Lieutenant. Oh, and Inquisitor Greyfax. Otherwise, his list was almost identical to the one on Saturday. So to sum it up, he had a Chapter Master (he used the Stratagem to upgrade his Captain), a Librarian, a Primaris Ancient, a Primaris Lieutenant, Sergeant Chronos in a Razorback (his Warlord again - and on Saturday it was a Razorback, not a Rhino, so my mistake!), 2 Intercessor squads, 2 tactical squads, an Ironclad Dreadnought, a Stormraven, Inceptors, Terminators, Hellblasters and Inquisitor Greyfax. He placed a tactical squad inside the Razorback, and the Terminators, Inquisitor Greyfax and the Ironclad Dreadnought inside the Stormraven. He brought a single Battalion and Vanguard, but had to subtract a Command Point for an auxiliary Elite who was Inquisitor Greyfax. Oh well.

This time, I remembered to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought, so I basically played a list with 2 Battalion Detachments. So basically Ahzek Ahriman, a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, 2 squads of 5 Rubric Marines, a squad of 10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers, 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, a Chaos Rhino, 3 squads of 10 Traitor Guardsmen (playing them as Cultists), a Deredeo Dreadnought and a Contemptor Dreadnought. Both Dreadnoughts were equipped with butcher array or 2 butcher cannons.

Thousand Sons army rolling out for battle!
We drew the Scouring, and placed objectives. It turned out that I had both the Superior and Inferior Objective under my control, but that's another thing to talk about next time. The kid went first, as usual, and he proceeded to zoom his Stormraven across the map aand drop it right on top of my dudes. Sergeant Chronos fired his Razorback's weapons on my Rhino and did 2 wounds despite them mostly being heavy bolters. I think he tried to shoot my Deredeo Dreadnought with his Hellblasters and put 4 wounds or so on him, but his Stormraven totally fluffed his shots, failing to do anything with his multimelta, while I made a save for my Contemptor Dreadnought against his Stormraven's lascannons. Hmm, I don't think I lost anything this turn. His Intercessors and tactical squad were too far away to shoot anybody while he didn't disembark any of his dudes.

My turn and I moved my Rubric Marines up, along with the Rhino but I didn't disembark my warpflamer Rubric Marines. The Aspiring Sorcerer in one of the squads healed 2 wounds on my Deredeo Dreadnought with Temporal Manipulation, and then I had the Deredeo Dreadnought shoot his Butcher Array into the Stormraven after landing several Smites on the poor Stormraven. That destroyed it and sent the Terminators and Inquisitor Greyfax and Dreadnought tumbling out. Greyfax actually died, but my opponent spent a Command Point to save her (and I stole his Command Point with Helm of the Third Eye). The Contemptor Dreadnought then shot and killed another 2 Terminators, leaving just 2 guys left. My Rubric Marines fired on the tactical squad, and wiped them out, if I'm not mistaken. Funnily enough, my Traitor Guardsmen fired their lasguns (okay, autoguns, but they're practically the same thing) and actually put a wound on one of the surviving Terminators. The Daemon Prince charged into the Ironclad Dreadnought while Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer on disc charged Greyfax, who put a mortal wound on Ahriman with her psyk out grenades in overwatch. The Daemon Prince put 6 wounds on the Ironclad Dreadnought but failed to kill it, taking 4 wounds in return when my opponent spent 2 Command Points to go on counter-offensive (huh? I know, that was weird). Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer hacked away at Greyfax, dealing a total of 4 wounds. Actually, Ahriman killed her, but my opponent spent yet another Command Point to make that one save to keep her on one wound, and she did nothing in melee. He's really burning away his Command Points, huh...

Oh, and I got First Blood from killing the Stormraven. Yay.

My opponent's turn and he retaliated hard. And I mean hard. First, he disembarked his tactical squad from the Rhino, then he fired and killed a couple of Rubric Marines. Funnily enough, I made my invulnerable save against his plasma cannon in that tactical squad, so it could have been worse. Anyway, his Hellblasters wrecked my Rhino, and the Rubric Marines came pouring out. I lost 1 guy. Oh well. The Intercessors at the back fired and took out a few Rubric Marines when I failed my saves. Ugh. I think his Librarian tried to smite my Rubric Marines, but I denied the witch. Phew. Greyfax put another mortal wound on Ahriman with her psyk out grenades, and then the Ironclad Dreadnought swung and killed my Daemon Prince. What the f?! Ugh. That sucked for me. The Terminators had fallen back after getting locked in combat by Ahriman and my Exalted Sorcerer (I declared a double charge and locked all of them in combat) and because of their -1 penalty to shooting since they are Ultramarines, they could only kill 2 Cultists. On the other hand, the Inceptors swooped in and wiped out my entire squad of Traitor Guardsmen holding the Superior Objective with their assault bolters. Holy...

That was bad for me. My Rubric Marines went forward and despite their warpflamers, they only killed 2 or 3 Hellblasters - I know 2 survived. They did manage to kill the Primaris Ancient, though! Oh, and they took out quite a few guys in the tactical squad, who were then wiped out by shooting from my surviving Rubric Marines. Heh. But I'm getting ahead of myself. During the psychic phase, I killed the Ironclad Dreadnought with Smite, and he didn't blow up. I also killed Greyfax with another Smite from my Exalted Sorcerer on disc (heh), and Ahriman did 3 mortal wounds to the Terminators, also wiping them out. Remember the wound my Traitor Guardsmen did to the Terminators? Let's just say it made a whole lot of difference. Heh. Tzeentch sure has hilarious schemes all planned out. To make matters worse for my opponent, Ahriman was healed back to full health by my Aspiring Sorcerer's Temporal Manipulation. Yay! My Deredeo Dreadnought fired his Butcher Array and Greater Havoc launcher and wiped out the Inceptors. The Contemptor Dreadnought fired and put a few wounds on the Razorback. Was it 6? Or 8? I can't remember. I think it was 6. Anyway, the Scarab Occult Terminators who Deep Struck right in my opponent's backfield killed 2 Intercessors and put one wound on the 3rd guy. They tried to charge, fluffed their charge roll and one of them ate a wound in overwatch, but managed to survive.

Turn 3, I think he killed all my warpflamer Rubric Marines with his Razorback, Hellblasters, Intercessors and Characters. I can't remember whether it was this turn when he killed another 2 Rubric Marines in my battered squad that already lost 2 Rubric Marines in the previous turn. I believe it is. He tried to put a few more wounds on my Deredeo Dreadnought, and I think he succeeded in putting another 2 or so, leading to him taking 4 wounds in total. His Intercessors fired on my Scarab Occult Terminators and I spent a Command Point to make sure all survived (because I failed one save, but I managed to command re-roll that). Phew.

Then I Smite the Razorback with the last Aspiring Sorcerer in my decimated Rubric Marine squad after he passed morale. The Scarab Occult Terminators also killed the wounded Intercessor guy with Smite. I moved my Exalted Sorcerer and Ahriman up so that the Chapter Master would be the nearest target, and using Smite, I dealt 4 or 5 mortal wounds to him. Ahriman also used Death Hex on the Chapter Master and stripped away his invulnerable save. My Rubric Marines then fired and killed the Hellblasters, wiping them out. On the other side of the table, my Deredeo Dreadnought killed the Razorback, and his Greater Havoc Launcher killed an Intercessor. I think my Contemptor Dreadnought also fired at somebody, but I can't remember who. The Razorback exploded and took out 2 Rubric Marines. Ouch. The Scarab Occult Terminators fired and killed another couple of Intercessors far away (not the squad with 2 left). Then I charged and killed the Chapter Master with my dual sword Exalted Sorcerer, but the Librarian and Primaris Lieutenant performed a Heroic Intervention and killed my Exalted Sorcerer. My Scarab Occult Terminators charged and killed the 2 remaining Intercessors in the backfield and stole the Objective from my opponent.

That went on to Turn 4. Sergeant Chronos ran off, along with the Primaris Lieutenant and Librarian. I can't remember what happened, but I think the Characters basically shot and killed the Aspiring Sorcerer who was the sole survivor of his squad. The Intercessors fired and failed to wound my Scarab Occult Terminators again.

I did some mortal wounds to the Primaris Lieutenant with Ahriman's Smite, but the Aspiring Sorcerer failed to cast Temporal Manipulation...though why I used that, I can't remember. I did another couple of mortal wounds to the Librarian, and then charged with Ahriman. Oh, and my Scarab Occult Terminators wiped out the Intercessor squad. Huh, what did my Dreadnoughts shoot at this turn? I don't remember. That's weird. Did I forget about them, or were they unable to shoot the Characters? Oh, I think they shot at Sergeant Chronos who was the closes to them and put 2 wounds on him? I delivered 2 attacks to the Librarian and the Primaris Lieutenant each, but failed to kill either of them because my opponent made his 4+ saves (since the black staff is only AP -1). Ugh. By the end of melee, both the Primaris Lieutenant and the Librarian had 2 wounds each. They attacked back, but Ahriman and his 3++ invulnerable save basically tanked everything like a boss. Heh!

Turn 5, which was what seemed to be the final turn. My opponent continued to lock Ahriman in combat, and then had Sergeant Chronos join combat. Between the three of them, they succeeded in putting 4 wounds on Ahriman, and I was forced to spend a Command Point to re-roll a failed save to make sure he survived on his last wound. Ouch. And that was it for him. Ahriman denied a Null Zone too, ha ha ha ha ha ha! And the Exalted Sorcerer denied a Smite! Well, anyway...I can't remember what happened, but, I think that was it. By turn 5, those 3 - Sergeant Chronos, the Primaris Lieutenant and the Librarian were the only 3 models left on the table for my opponent.

Once it was my turn, I had Ahriman fly away from combat and snatch the Objective in the center. Then I used Smite and killed the Primaris Lieutenant. My Aspiring Sorcerer failed Temporal Manipulation this time, so Ahriman remained on 1 wound. Ouch. But Ahriman killed the Librarian with Doombolt. Then my 2 surviving Rubric Marines fired and killed Sergeant Chronos, who had just 2 wounds left. Their inferno bolt rounds dealt the last 2 wounds (my opponent failed the saves and had used up all his Command Points) and I earned Slay the Warlord. My Dreadnoughts never got to fire a single shot in Turn 5 because...the table was wiped clean. I tabled my poor opponent. Ouch. Not only that, I essentially captured 5 out of 6 Objectives. While my opponent was totally annihilated, I still had a wounded Ahirman, 2 Rubric Marines and an Aspiring Sorcerer, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, a Deredeo Dreadnought and a Contemptor Dreadnought. Heh. Overwhelming victory.

I think the kid needs his Baneblade. I'll play against him and his Baneblade on Saturday. For now, I'll have to concentrate on university since I need to do stuff today. Oh, and after the game, I managed to paint my Daemon Prince of Tzeentch and Scarab Occult Terminators. I did a messy, rushed job, but I guess this will do. 3 colors, right? I don't give a feth! As long as they have 3 colors and they can play in a tournament, it doesn't matter how badly I paint them!

Painted Daemon Prince and Scarab Occult Terminators
Long live the Sons of Shadow!

Kitbashed/converted Daemon Prince of Tzeentch

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Thousand Sons versus Baneblade!

Today I managed to get a game with one of the kids I'm friends with, and he brought a Baneblade. Having just built my Thousand Sons army, I couldn't wait to try it out...and I completely forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought. Damn. I also haven't squeezed the Alpha Legion allied detachment with Havocs inside, so without anti-tank I was pretty much fighting an uphill battle against the Baneblade list.

My opponent brought an Ultramarine Battalion Detachment with 2 Intercessor squads (or 3?), an Inceptor squad, a tactical squad, a Hellblaster squad, an Ironclad Dreadnought, Sergeant Chronos in a Rhino (the Warlord), a Space Marine Captain who he upgraded into a Chapter Master with the Stratagem, a Librarian and a Terminator squad. He then allied the Ultramarines with a single Baneblade (because Baneblades are awesome, and screw the fluff). Uh, I think that was about it. One of the Intercessors were in the Rhino along with Sergeant Rhinos.

On the other hand, I brought my newly built Thousand Sons army. Daemon Prince of Tzentch, Ahzek Ahriman (the Warlord), an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, 2 squads of normal Rubric Marines, a squad of Rubric Marines with flamers in a Chaos Rhino, Scarab Occult Terminators and 3 squads of Cultists, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought. Since I forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought, I had 147 points left. I decided to proxy my Kastelan Robot as a Daemon Prince without wings by removing a flamer from one of my Cultist squads and voila! Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from the Chaos Codex that...well, I summoned through Daemonic Ritual and summoning. Now that I think about it, I should have just put him in my Battalions instead of summoning him. Stupid of me. In other words, I brought 2 Battalions for a whooping 13 points. Not that it helped me much because my opponent went first, and I was basically destroyed and crushed by the power of the Baneblade.

First turn, I lost my Deredeo Dreadnought and 7 Cultists but somehow didn't lose anyone else. My opponent scored First Blood. I retaliated by killing his Ironclad Dreadnought through lots of shooting and combat with my Daemon Prince, Smited the Inceptors to death, killed a bunch of Hellblasters but didn't managed to kill all of them, and...that's about it. Oh, well. The Daemon Prince and Ahriman consolidated into the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos

The Intercessors disembarked and the Rhino fell back. The Baneblade fired and killed Ahirman right away despite his 3++ invulnerable saves. I failed most of my invulnerable saves, and I rolled really, really badly this game. The Daemon Prince with wings also went down to a combination of shooting and combat when the Librarian slapped him into oblivion with his force stave. He also Deep Struck his Terminators in my backfield and shot at my dual sword Exalted Sorcerer on disc, but failed to kill him. My opponent now had 5 Victory points to my 2, thanks to slaying the Warlord and First Blood. I did my best with my psychic mastery and killed the Intercessors and Librarian that had slain my Daemon Prince with Smite and other stuff, then finished off the Hellblasters with my Rubric Marines. The warpflamer Rubric Marine squad disembarked from the Chaos Rhino that was locked in combat with the Librarian and Intercessors, but had nothing to shoot at since they all died during the psyhic phase, and did a few wounds to the Chronos Rhino. My Scarab Occult Terminators shot down 3 or so Intercessors in the backfield after Deep Striking, and did 2 missile shots into the Baneblade, dealing a whooping 6 damage in total. However, my Exalted Sorcerer got cocky and charged into combat, only to fluff his wound rolls or the Chapter Master made all his Iron Halo saves, and...yeah. The Exalted Sorcerer died after the Chapter Master struck back and killed him. Damn. So my opponent had 6 victory points while I had 5. Still trailing behind.

The Baneblade did a number on my Scarab Occult Terminators, taking out one of them for some reason. The Terminators advanced and took out quite a few warpflamer Rubric Marines, along with the Baneblade's many heavy bolter shots. Despite have 2+ saves from All is Dust, I kept failing tons of saves and losing 6 Rubric Marines. Bloody hell, Tzeentch has something against me, I know it. Funnily enough, when the Chapter Master charged my warpflamer Rubric Marines, they killed him with overwatch. 4D6 warpflamer auto-hits with AP-2 is really awesome. On the other side, the Terminators destroyed my Chaos Rhino in combat and consolidated into my poor warpflamer Rubric Marines. That gave him 7 victory points to my 6, and my warpflamer Rubric Marines passed their morale. I think my Daemon Prince was wounded, left with 1 wound, but no matter how many times I used Temporal Manipulation to heal him, I either Perils or failed - for 2 or 3 turns in a freaking row. This was getting ridiculous.

Anyway, I killed the Terminators in my backyard through lots of Smite, killed another 2 Intercessors with my surviving Scarab Occult Terminators as they slowly advanced forward. The Daemon Prince and warpflamer Rubric Marines charged at the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos, and I absolutely fluffed my attacks. I rolled 5 ones despite hitting 7 times. I don't understand. Tzeentch definitely has something against me, I know it. Well, I had 7 victory points and caught up with him or something.

However, his Baneblade killed 2 more Scarab Occult Terminators and wounded one of the remaining one. I think that was about it. My Daemon Prince then charged and finally destroyed the damned Rhino, while my 2 remaining Scarab Occult Terminators smited the last Intercessor in that squad out of existence and killed maybe 1 Intercessor in another squad. That gave me 9 victory points, but Sergeant Chronos survived and disembarked the destroyed Rhino. The next thing I know, in turn 5, my opponent killed my Daemon Prince and wiped out both the warpflamer Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators to give him 11 victory points. It was my loss...except that I stubbornly dug in and moved my 2 surviving Rubric Marine squads forward with the Exalted Sorcerer on foot. I managed to kill Sergeant Chronos, netting me Slay the Warlord and giving me 11 points, but I failed to kill either the Intercessor or the tactical squad. It was a draw, but we rolled and continued on to turn 6.

His Baneblade fired and killed the 3 Cultists that survived the turn 1 bombardment, and he pulled ahead on 12 victory points to my 11. I tried to charge up but despite killing most of the Intercessors and tactical marines, each squad stubbornly had 1 Sergeant remaining, and I failed to earn the 2 victory points I needed to win the game. Needless to say, they passed their morale. I rolled, and the game did not go on to turn 7. Wouldn't have worked for me since the Baneblade would have wiped out my Rubric Marines and earned him more victory points anyway.

Wait...what? I just remembered I had Linebreaker since my units were all in his deployment zone. So it actually means it was a draw! I can't wait to see the expression on the kid's face when I tell him that on Monday...that we forgot Linebreaker and it was a draw. Nah, I might just keep quiet about this and let him enjoy his victory. It's just a game, we both had a lot of fun, and despite facing a Baneblade I managed to survive and draw with him or gave him a run for his money (11-12, if excluding Linebreaker) even though I had no anti-tank weapons whatsoever!

Well, we'll see. As always, I would appreciate advice on how to improve my game (I doubt I'll get it, and even if I do, most likely I'll get cynical remarks telling me not to field Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators but buy and field lots of Tzaangors instead). The terrible roll costed me a lot, but I guess it's not meant to be. At least the both of us had a blast, especially the kid! :D That's the most important thing!