About My Blog

Ave Omnissiah!

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

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 ...

Friday, September 28, 2018

Big FAQ 2!

The Big FAQ 2 is now out! You can find the details on Warhammer Community or you can download it here.

Well, the biggest complaint about the Imperial Guard Brigade Blood Angels Captain Smashfucker Imperial Knight Castellan have been addressed. They essentially increased the Imperial Knights Stratagems Order of Companions, Our Darkest Hour and Oathbreaker Guidance System to 3 Command Points each, and the Blood Angels Stratagem Upon Wings of Fire to 2 Command Points. Agents of Vect also received an increase to 4 Command Points, by the way.



Oh, and no more Command Point farming with your Astra Militarum Grand Strategist Warlord with Kurov's Aquila Relic of War. Now, you can only refund up to a maximum of 1 Command Point per battle round. That's right. So you can spam like 3 or 4 Stratagems in your turn, but you can only roll and refund one of those. Same if your opponent is spamming Stratagems in one of his turns, you can only roll once and refund one of those. Too bad. Hmm, the wording seems that if you don't roll a 5+, you can actually keep rolling until you get a 5+ and refund 1 Command Point, so it's not that bad. But obviously once you roll that single 5+ for that battle round, no more rolling for the rest of it! Don't cheat! This should help to reign in the Command Point farming that so many people are complaining about. Good job, Games Workshop! It's a far better idea than what everyone has been saying on Bell of Lost Souls, like...uh, separating and restricting Command Points per detachment (which is really cumbersome and annoying), banning allies or Soup altogether (that's just dumb, sorry), etc. With the increase in those abused Stratagems, and the restrictions to refunding Command Points, I think the power of that Imperial Knight Imperial Guard Brigade Blood Angels Battalion list will be reigned in quite a bit.

Tactical reserves also received a big change. Now you can't deploy any of your reinforcements during your first turn, not even if you choose to deploy them in your own deployment zone. Oh well. Oh, and the Alpha Legion and Raven Guard Stratagems have been changed so that they will have a 9" movement before the game begins, instead of them being set up more than 9" away from enemy lines. Okay. Sounds good, I guess.



Oh, and another great change for dudes who are caught in the open with their pants down, either because they fail to seize the initiative or something. Apparently we have a new Stratagem called Prepared Positions, which should help us somewhat blunt Alpha Strikes from the other player. It costs 2 Command Points, but every unit except Titanic units receive the benefit of cover regardless of where they are - even if they're in the open. Awesome, isn't it? Might somewhat benefit melee armies as they run across the battlefield or something. Maybe.



The last thing...there are no points changes or tweaks in the FAQ because those will be in Chapter Approved coming in December. Wait till then!

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Nurgle

Sorry, caught a virus from Nurgle and am resting in bed for the past couple of weeks.

Once I fight off Nurgle's curse with the Emperor's blessings, I'll be returning to the Guard (or partying with the Thousand Sons). We'll see. I still have the Mechademia conference to attend this weekend, so it's gonna be hard. I also have no money for Warhammer 40,000, especially for the next few months. Need to buy food and pay rent. So I'll see you guys next time!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Let's greet House Griffith!

Okay, fellow Knights of House Yato, and all the other honorable houses of Draconis III. Today we're going to greet House Griffith!

What? You may ask. What brought about this sudden meeting? Well...apparently because Warhammer Community posted an article on House Griffith today, that's why.



The source comes straight from Simon Grant himself! They say he wrote the first Imperial Knights codex, so I assume he didn't write the next two? That's sad. But whatever. It really doesn't matter. Anyway, give that article a read, and I won't bother copying and pasting here. It makes more sense for you to visit the Warhammer Community website straight and read everything there.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

The gathering of House Taranis

Interestingly enough, there was a gathering of House Taranis Knights in Manchester. Something about the House Taranis Owners Club. Well, since I run a homebrewed household, I'm obviously not a part of it, but I thought it would be interesting to share it on here.

You can check it out on Warhammer Community.

What truly intrigued me, however, was the stuff that Graham McNeill wrote.



That is awesome. I love this. I have always been a fan of House Taranis ever since reading Graham McNeill's Mechanicum, and this just takes the cake. I hope to see more books about House Taranis in future! Please, Sir McNeill, write a present-day Warhammer 40,000 about House Taranis after the Great Rift!

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Solar Auxilia

I have a dream.

I dream of building a Solar Auxilia army one day.

To be honest, I already have the armored core of a Solar Auxilia army. I mean, I have my Leman Russ tanks! Of course I can't use the sponsons, which kind of sucks, but they're still Leman Russ tanks that will form the core of my army. Or so I hope. All I probably need now is a bunch of Veletaris Storm Sections for the compulsory troops, and I can fill the rest of my points out with my Leman Russ tanks.



Sweet, eh? All of them armed with volkite chargers. Great infantry to escort my armored tanks. Plus a single Lord Marshal as the Warlord, fully upgraded with everything to make him as survivable as possible. As usual I'll be using Leman Russ Executioner tanks backed up by Leman Russ Annihilators. If possible, I'll add a bunch of Carnodon tanks to my Solar Auxilia army as well, but I don't think I have the points for a Shadowsword (which I plan to turn into a tank commander). But Carnodon tanks with volkite weaponry to fit the theme, that will be so cool. I'll have to take out a Leman Russ Annihilator to include them, though.



Rounding them out are Legio Cybernetica allies. I can use my Tech-priest Dominus as a Magos Dominus, and my 2 Castellax Battle-automata as Troops, followed by my Thanatar Siege-automata as the single heavy support. All of them with enhanced targeting array. Sweet. I already have my Mechanicum army, which is sitting around and collecting dust because I can't use them in 40,000 games (when will they make 40,000 rules for Mechanicum units?! Seems like they've given up on publishing Fires of Cyraxus).

So that's probably my next big project...except that I don't have money for them. I guess I'll have to wait a year or two before I can save up enough cash for these dudes. At most I can just forego the Carnodon tanks and work on my Veletaris Storm Sections for now. Oh well.

Friday, September 14, 2018

New Carnodon tank!

Forge World has come up with a new Forge World tank for the Astra Militarum!

Astra Miliwhat? You're in the Guard, son.

Anyway, check it out. We have a new Carnodon tank from Forge World. And it looks awesome. The tank can be fitted with twin lascannons and sponson lascannons (I prefer the Leman Russ Annihilator for that), twin autocannons and sponson autocannons (might as well go with the Leman Russ Exterminator for that but not a bad choice for a budget tank), twin multilasers and sponson multilasers (good if you want a super-cheap tank for about 100 points, not a bad choice if you're on a budget for points) or Voklite Culverin and Volkite Caliver sponsons (now we're talking! This will be my first choice!).

Looking awesome! 4 lascannons! Basically a budget Predator!

Oh, and you can download the rules here. Good luck, and I hope to be fielding these Carnodon tanks in future! Except that I don't have any money. These things cost US$106 a piece, and I hate dealing with resin (they're so hard to glue!). Ugh. We'll see.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Anyone knows what happened to Charlie and elite40K?

Apparently Charlie has gone missing, and removed/deleted his elite40K blog. I tried to contact him via email, but his email seems to be deleted too. Anyone knows what happened to him? From what I last heard, he seemed pretty unhappy with 8th edition or something like that. But he was building a Tallarn Desert Raiders army?

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Canis Rex Rides Forth!

As the title says, next week we're getting a new Imperial Knight kit! Just check out the news on Warhammer Community here.



Not going to say much other than that I'm pretty excited for this release! Not only will we get the new Knight Preceptor, we're also getting a fancy new cockpit and the pilots!



You can build all 7 Questoris variants with this kit, at minimal cost because it doesn't cost much more than the old Knight Gallant kit! Cool, right?!



"Wait!" you may cry. "But that's only six!" Well, apparently Canis Rex counts as his own model. Don't ask me why. But whatever. Anyway, I'm going to start saving up for a Knight Preceptor and a couple of Armigers. Still deciding between Warglaives and Helverins. But I suddenly realized something. Renegade Knights don't get the Knight Preceptor, right? Wait, what?! Where's the Knight Preceptor or las-impulsor for Renegade Knights? It's not there!

Oh well. I guess that's a bonus for Imperium and why you should never turn your back on the Emperor. Staying loyal to the Emperor will net you a neat-looking Las-impulsor!

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Unfinished battles

Well, I'm too tired to write full battle reports, especially since it's late and I had 2 of them...both unfinished. So I'll just summarize briefly and let you guys appreciate the pictures.

First battle was a 2 versus 2 game, with each player bringing 2,000 points. For some reason I ended up allying with a friend who plays Space Wolves. So you saw an unlikely alliance of Space Wolves and Thousand Sons (with Prosperine Spireguard) against Ultramarines and Orks. Wait, what? Yeah, I know. That was just weird. Anyway, the Ultramarines brought a Baneblade along with a Land Raider and a bunch of infantry and a random Leman Russ Punisher (because the kid thought tanks were powerful). The Orks brought lots of Boyz, Flash Gitz, Grots, Nobs and a Warboss. I brought Thousand Sons with Prosperine Spireguard, so basically a Daemon Prince, 2 Exalted Sorcerers, Ahzek Ahriman, 3 squads of Rubric Marines, a Terminator Sorcerer, 2 Renegade Commanders, 3 Renegade Militia squads, a Leman Russ main battle tank with heavy flamers, a Leman Russ Punisher and a Valkyrie assault carrier.

Thousand Sons with Prosperine Spireguard allies
The Orks and Space Marines went first but they failed to do much in the first turn, and it was the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves who scored First Blood by destroying the Land Raider, a squad of Boyz and the Leman Russ Punisher. The Orks and Ultramarines retaliated, killing a Leman Russ Punisher, a squad of Rubric Marines, the Stormfang, and the Thunderwolf Calvary if I'm not mistaken. I think we killed a Librarian in return. We managed to kill more Boyz in the 2nd turn, but I don't know, I only played until the psychic phase because I had arranged another game with another friend and he arrived.
Thousand Sons and Prosperine Spireguard allying with Space Wolves of all people...
The second game was me playing a pure Astra Militarum list against Blood Angels, Imperial Knights and Astra Militarum. My opponent brought a Blood Angels Captain with Thunder Hammer, Gabriel Seth, a Company Ancient, 2 scout squads, an Intercessors squad, a Predator Annihilator, Devastators with 4 lascannons and Sanguinary Guard in his Blood Angels Detachment. He then brought a Knight Paladin and 2 Armiger Helverins in his Knight detachment. Rounding them up were 2 Company Commanders and 3 infantry squads, all with mortars. As for me, I brought a single Brigade of 3 Tempestors Prime, 3 Tempestus command squads with plasma guns, 3 Tempestus squads - 2 with 2 plasma guns, and 1 with 2 hot-shot volley guns, 3 infantry squads with plasma guns, 2 Armored Sentinels with lascannons and 1 Armored Sentinel with plasma cannon, 2 Leman Russ Executioners and 1 Leman Russ Annihilator. Attached to the Brigade was one Shadowsword in a super-heavy auxiliary detachment. The game was Secure and Control, and we had 2 objectives in total. We got the weird slanted deployment zone (the 6th one in the rulebook).

That's a beautifully painted Blood Angels army (with Imperial Knight and Imperial Guard allies).
I rolled prettty badly this game. First off, my opponent had first turn, and I failed to seize the initiative. He destroyed a single Leman Russ Executioner and claimed FIrst Blood. He killed 7 Guardsmen and put 12 wounds on my Shadowsword. 1 Guardsman fled to morale, leaving just 2 in that squad. Oh well. As I said, I rolled pretty badly and fluffed most of my Shadowsword's shots. I failed to kill the Knight, and probably only did 10 damage in total despite my Shadowsword and Leman Russ Annihilator shooting at it. My Armored Sentinels and remaining Leman Russ Executioner took the Predator Annihilator down to 4 wounds. I put 2 wounds on the Armiger Helverin, but a 1 meant the plasma gunner killed himself. Ouch. The Sergeant tried to charge, but was slain in overwatch.

Draconian Armored Defenders with Shadowsword, Leman Russ squadron and Armored Sentinels, bolstered by Kamikaze Troopers. That's a lot of plasma!
The Captain and Sanguinary Guard Deep Struck in and tried to destroy my Leman Russ Execcutioner. I think I lost a Tempestus squad with plasma guns to the Armiger Helverins, and my Shadowsword ate a few more wounds to drop down to 12 wounds. The Leman Russ Executioner survived combat with the Sanguinary Guard to have 4 wounds left, while the Armored Sentinels survived the Knight Paladin's Titanic Feet, one having 1 wound and the other having 5 (I think). I did lose a single Armored Sentinel to the Devastators, though. Ugh. I tried to retaliate by having my Tempestus command squads Deep Striking in the backfield and slaying the Devastators and 1 Scout squad with supercharged plasma, and putting 4 wounds on Gabriel Seth. I think, I know he only had one wound left. The Armored Sentinels ran away from combat and finally my Leman Russ Annihilator destroyed the Knight Paladin. Needless to say, my Shadowsword fluffed all his shots and did absolutely nothing (or minimal damage). The Knight blew up, took out one Sanguinary Guard but dealt 6 damage to my Armored Sentinel with 5 wounds left and killing him. What?! That isn't fair.

The Draconian Armored Defenders face off against the Blood Angels.
My opponent then charged Gabriel Seth and the Ancient into my Tempestus command squads, killing 2 of them. I think the Captain charged and failed again, whereas the Sanguinary Guard charged the Leman Russ Annihilator and were wiped out in overwatch thanks to defensive gunners. The Armiger Helverin charged the infantry squads and killed maybe 1 or 2 poor guys. But that's about it. I killed Gabriel Seth with my plasma command squad, and the Company Ancient with my normal squad with plasma, but that's all I was able to do. I did like 8 or so damage to the Armiger Helverin with my Leman Russ Annihilator, and despite firing everything he had, my Leman Russ Executioner failed to kill the captain, only doing 4 damage or so? Or 3? He had 1 wound left. Ugh.

The Blood Angels with their oathsworn Knights are really scary!
We had to call the game because the store was closing, so that was it. Well, it was fun, and I hope to have more games like this! It was so close! I don't know if I could have survived a bit longer, but I did my best. I wished my Shadowsword did better this game, but...yeah. He fluffed his shots and did pretty badly. That was kind of sad. :(

Anyway, it was great to play with my Imperial Guard again after spending a few weeks playing Thousand Sons. I do miss the psychic phase, though. Can't wait to bolster my Thousand Sons with Prosperine Spireguard!

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Absolutely nothing wrong with allies

Look, I know there are a lot of people who hate allies and are unhappy with them. But there really is nothing wrong with allies.

No, no. I'm not saying there's no problem. It certainly is a problem when the meta is dominated by cookie-cutter lists such as Imperial Knights-Imperial Guard-Blood Angels. Or Ynnari with Craftworld Aeldari and Drukhari. When everyone begins to bring the same list to exploit some mechanic, there is a problem.

But the solution is not to ban allies. That's just, forgive me, dumb. Rather than banning allies outright or penalizing people for bringing allies, you need to give people a reason to take mono factions. Perhaps allied detachments don't get Chapter Tactics or Regimental Doctrines. I dunno. Or perhaps you can only use the Warlord Trait, Relics and Stratagems for your primary Detachment (the one with your Warlord) as Karru on Bell of Lost Souls suggested. Or perhaps mono-factions get more Command Points (I doubt this will work because honestly, if you're taking allies to fill up gaps in your army and cover weaknesses, those extra Command Points aren't going to help you unless you get Stratagems that help you cover those weaknesses).

Another thing that people seem to forget when they accuse the allies system of cherry-picking and having no downsides (which is plain stupid - there are downsides), is that when you bring allies, you're not just bringing their strengths to cover your weaknesses. You're bringing your allies' weaknesses along with them. If I bring Guard allies for my Knights, suddenly my opponent's anti-infantry weapons have a juicy target. Those same anti-infantry weapons would be near-useless and inefficient against a mono-Knight list. Similarly, if I bring Space Marines or Terminators to back up my squishy Guardsmen, my opponent's plasma weapons would suddenly be a lot more efficient than if they are used to shoot at cheap Guardsmen. On the other spectrum, if I bring Guard allies for my elite Space Marines/Deathwatch army, suddenly those flamers have something to shoot at, and those Orks would probably rather charge my Guardsmen than my Space Marines. If I bring a single Knight for my Guard, he's going to attract a lot of anti-tank fire, and once he goes down, that's a huge chunk of my list gone because I don't have other Knights - I spent most of my points on a Guard Brigade (and maybe Blood Angels).

It's the same kind of dilemma I face when I try to build my Thousand Sons. Sure, they are weak against vehicles and tanks, but if I try to bring in Alpha Legion allies for Havocs for anti-tank, I suddenly have a lot less psychic potential in my army. I'll have to trade a few Sorcerers, and probably a Rhino for my slow Rubric Marines. That hurts a lot, believe me. It's not a simple equation of bringing allies = no more weaknesses. Since you have a set number of points, you need to remove something to add allies. If you're playing Thousand Sons for psychic mastery, you need to remove some of that psychic potential to make space for allies. If you're bringing Guard allies for your Custode lists, you're taking less durable dudes and jetbikes with invulnerable saves and high toughness while exposing a good portion of your army to mortars and other low AP high volume of shots anti-infantry firepower. People who decry allies seem to completely overlook this and pretend that all weaknesses disappear if you take allies. It's not that simple.

However, it's also not a good thing if tournaments are dominated by similar cookie-cutter lists that bring the same allied combination over and over again. Perhaps a tweak to the allies system, reining in the Command Points farming, restricting Stratagems to the Warlord's faction, etc. might go a long way in mitigating that. But banning allies is just ridiculous. With T'au, Orks and Necrons being exceptions, you wouldn't be happy if you're suddenly told that mono-factions are banned and you must play allies. Similarly, it's not fair to ban allies just because you want mono-factions. Variety, choice and options are a great thing, and should be encourageed. Instead of smashing allies with a ban, think of ways to make mono-factions just as viable so that everyone can play their favorite combinations or mono-factions or whatever. Right now, I prefer playing mono-Guard (if you notice, most of my lists are mono-Imperial Guard and I rarely ally my Guard army with anything like Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus or even Knights) and mono-Thousand Sons. Yet I would also like the option to play allies (Knights with an Adeptus Mechanicus or Astra Militarum ally) because it would be boring to play the same mono-list over and over and over again.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

What's on my table - Thousand Sons

What's on my table? Well...Thousand Sons, obviously.

I finally finished painting all of my Thousand Sons. The only thing I have left to do is transfer sheets, but it'll be a while before I get those done because...well, quite frankly, they're a pain to do. But I'll do them eventually. I hope.

Anyway, this Thousand Sons army is a specific warband, the Sons of Shadow, who is a renegade Space Marine Chapter. Former loyalists left to die by the Inquisition, they could only save themselves by turning to the Thousand Sons. With them are renegade Imperial Guard regiments that are now incoporated into the Prosperine Spireguard, but these guys have taken the name Prosperine Shadowguard. At least that's the backstory. Well, that's enough for now and I'll let the pictures do the talking!

The painted Alpha Legion (Sons of Shadow) Havocs

Alpha Legion Chaos Lord with combi-plasma

Alpha Legion/Thousand Sons (Sons of Shaow) Hellforged Dreadnoughts

Thousand Sons army getting ready for battle!

Thouand Sons army again getting ready for battle!

Took the picture twice because I forgot one of my models.

Hellforged Dreadnoughts and converted Daemon Prince of Tzeentch

The Sorcerers

Rubric Marines

Scarab Occult Terminators and Chaos Rhino

The Alpha Legion (non-Rubric and non-Sorcerer Sons of Shadow) Detachment

The Alpha Legion/Sons of Shadow Warpsmith

Alpha Legion/Sons of Shadow Chaos Lord

Thousand Sons with dark Mechanicum allies.
So there you have it. That's the Thousand Sons army I have. Maybe in future I'll begin to add Mutalith Vortex Beasts and Maulerfiends or tanks and artillery from the Renegades and Heretics. We'll see!