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 ...

Monday, November 26, 2018

Warbringer Nemesis Titan brings war!


I'm not going to say too much, but we're getting a new Titan. I already mentioned it when I covered the Vigilus news a few days ago, but here is the Warbringer Nemesis Titan in all of its glory. Carrying an anti-Titan Quake cannon on its back, it's meant to be an artillery dude. I think.



It's supposed to be between the Reaver and Warlord Titan in size, so cool. It also uses the Reaver's arm weapons for its weapons, so take note of that when purchasing one.

As much as I would love to own one (or any of the other Titans), I can't afford it. Hell, I would much rather buy Adeptus Titanicus models instead. Still waiting on the Warlord Titan with Sunfury plasma annihilators.

Anyway, that's all I've got and I'll see you guys next time! For more news on the Warbringer Nemesis Titan, head to Warhammer Community and read the full-length article there!

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Blackstone Fortress

So I had a game today with my friend and we braved the dangers of the Blackstone Fortress. My friend picked the Kroot dude and UR-025 (I think, or was it 75?). I took the Rogue Trader dude and the Navigator dude, and...well, we ended up killing all the Cultists in the area we found inside.

Messed up a few rules here and there, but it's only natural because it's our first time playing. We even forgot to search and look for discoveries, and got too carried away with wiping the entire level of Cultists. Heh. Still pretty wonky on the rules, but we'll figure it out someday.

I wonder what the future holds for us, especially when we get used to the rules!

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Let us make some noise!

Brothers from the revered Thousand Sons Legion! I bring news! I bring...NOISE!

An ominous, excessive video has sufraced on the Warhammer TV's Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerTVteam/videos/741405426260116/

Yes, we will be receiving new Noise Marines soon. And the Emperor's Children will soon drown the Imperium in noise and sensation.

Image may contain: one or more people and text

Oh boy...looks like the children of Fulgrim will descend upon the Imperium before the year is up. My brothers! Let us defend the Imperium with our lives! For Magnus!

Unlike the Emperor's Children, the Thousand Sons remain loyal to the Emperor and to the Imperium!

Breaking News from Vigilus Open Day!



Was about to do my own stuff when I saw this on Warhammer Community...no, actually I saw this on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page. Anyway, there has been great reveals from Vigilus Open Day! You can check all the news by clicking the link here.

Obviously I'm not going to regurgitate everything that has already been written by Warhammer Community, but I'll just sum up the news.

1. Marneus Calgar is getting a new Primaris Marine model. He has been reborn as a Primaris Marine (huh?! How?!) and you'll get a new Primaris model for him soon. Not just him, but we'll be getting a couple of new Ultramarine models, like the guys with awesome Ultramarine Shields as depicted in the video.



2. Seems like there will be new Black Legion models, new Warp Talons or Raptors...I dunno, you know, those Chaos Space Marines with jump packs. Among them is Haarken Worldtaker, who leads a massive Black Legion warband to assault Vigilus.



3. A new Campaign for Vigilus, called Vigilus Defiant. Basically what we had with Kauyou and Mont'ka from Warzone: Damocles, and Warzone Fenris: Rise of the Wulfen and Wrath of Magnus. And The Gathering Storm. Whoopedo.



The courageous Astra Militarum shall hold strong and protect Vigilus alongside the revered Adeptus Astartes and the stalwart Skitarii!

4. Genestealer Cultists are getting their codex, and a whole host of new units. Genestealer Cultist bikers. No, I'm not kidding. Genestealer Cultists on bikes. Hey, we Guardsmen don't get bikes, but Genestealer Cultists do?! How is this fair?!





5. New Chaos models for Khorne and Slaanesh in Wrath and Rapture. Cool.



6. New Warbringer Nemesis Titan from Forge World. Sorry, I'll never be able to afford that.



7. Chapter Approved 2018 will be out soon.



Good news for Grey Knights, who apparently have a huge points reduction across the board. Maybe the Grey Knights players will stop whining now, eh? I kid, I know how much you have suffered. Okay, not really, but...you know what I mean. I hope Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators get points reduction too. I'm getting really sick of hearing to all the whining on the Thousand Sons pages about how Rubric Marines are not competitive. They're not that bad, for Tzeentch's sake.

Congratulations, Grey Knights!

Oh, and we already know the Adepta Sororitas will have a beta codex in Chapter Approved 2018, so something else to look forward to.


Purge those heretics!

Anyway, I'll let you guys know when I get more news, but...yeah. Being in the United States, I can't attend Warhammer Open World or Vigilus Open Day. Thank the Emperor for the Internet!

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Before you give advice...

Now I'm on the Thousand Sons page on Facebook, and I notice - not just the Facebook page, but also on Dakka Dakka and a whole host of other websites including Reddit, BellofLostSouls, etc. - that whenever someone asks a question about starting a Thousand Sons army, or asks about Rubric Marines or Exalted Sorcerers, he (or she) gets jumped on by a certain group of people. This group of people would tell him about how awful Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators are, or how bad Exalted Sorcerers are, and advise him to buy bunches of Tzaangors, or take Daemon Princes over Exalted Sorcerers.

And this is less than a month before Chapter Approved drops.

Now, if the guy was asking for competition advice, or for tournament advice, I can understand that. But even so, it's still highly dangerous and irresponsible to give advice like that. Firstly, the meta changes all the time...or at least every six months, anyway. Rubric Marines might get a points cut. Tzaangors and Daemon Princes might get nerfed. A lot of things might change. According to rumors, Cultists might even go up to 5 points. Point is that you don't just advise a new player on what's competitive, and tell him how to build a list, usually in an overbearing manner by complaining how Rubric Marines suck (they don't) and almost forcing a Tzaangor/Daemon Prince build on him or telling him what models to buy. If they want an Exalted Sorcerer, then let them use an Exalted Sorcerer! Don't get all aggressive and tell him off, and force him to buy and use Daemon Princes over Exalted Sorcerers! If someone is talking about how cool his dual-sword wielding Exalted Sorcerer is, don't jump in and start telling him off for using an uncompetitive choice, force him to use a Daemon Prince, and advise him against using Seer's Bane! He's just describing how cool his model is or how his last game went!

Jeez, I know there's the competitive crowd, but honestly, can you not push your competitive ideals onto players who want to be fluffy and narrative? If I want to use Rubric Marines, I will use Rubric Marines, to hell with the tournament scene, or them being overcosted or whatever. And besides, the meta might change, and Chapter Approved is less than a month away. Can you imagine telling a new player to get nothing but Tzaangors and eschew Rubric Marines, then Chapter Approved drops next month buffing Rubric Marines and nerfing Tzaangors? Wouldn't he have wasted all that money? For the Emperor's sake, stop forcing competitive ideals on other people and let them play whatever they want! We're talking about new players who have chosen Thousand Sons for their fluff, beautiful models and other cool stuff, not a veteran player choosing a faction and building a list to win a frakking tournament!

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Thousand Sons automata

One of my favorite parts in A Thousand Sons, the Captain of the 6th Fellowship, Khalophis, controls battle-automata, or Cybernetica units.

With the number of Dreadnoughts, whether it's Contemptor, Deredeo or Leviathan, that I have, I'm thinking I can basically create a Thousand Sons automata army that's based off Khalophis's battle automata maniples.

So what I'm thinking...right now I have three Contemptor Dreadnoughts, a Deredeo Dreadnought and a Leviathan Dreadnought. All Hellforged, of course. Guided and controlled by psychic sorcerers, these "Dreadnoughts" will be automata (which fits the Thousand Sons theme) but counts as or uses their respective Hellforged Dreadnought rules.

I'll try to get a game with these new guys, but I need to find an opponent first. And with Thanksgiving coming up...yeah. That might be difficult. But I won't give up! And I also want to try out my new Deathwatch list! In any case, this is what I have planned, and I'll see you guys next time!

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Deathwatch Debut

I finally completed my Deathwatch army today! I purchased the very last unit I needed for my Deathwatch allies, the Corvus Blackstar, as well as the Codex. now Deathwatch allies are complete and I don't need anything else! Yay!

Reinforcements for my Deathwatch allies, which is now complete!

Corvus Blackstar, ready for action!
The Corvus Blackstar looks really awesome, doesn't it? I can't wait to field it in battle.
Deathwatch Master next to a Corvus Blackstar
I also procured a Deathwatch Master to keep the theme of Deathwatch. So this Deathwatch regiment is the Death Dragons Chapter (well, I changed it to Death Dragons instead of Reapers because of Draconis), who after suffering the threat of annihilation at the hands of a Tyranid Invasion (was going to use Hive Fleet Behemoth or Dragon for that), were reinforced by Primaris Marines. The surviving Veterans decided to just adopt the Chapter Structure and technology of the Deathwatch - technology that the Adeptus Mechanicus Priesthood on Draconis IV were only too happy to provide - and thus they became a Deathwatch-like Chapter that uses Deathwatch rules. Or something like that anyway. I hope that makes sense.

Deathwatch Master, who has a servo-skull for some reason.
Anyway, with my Deathwatch Master and Corvus Blackstar, my Deathwatch army is complete! I could now field a 2,000-point army of Imperial Guard and Deathwatch! Basically my army looks like this:

Draconian Armored Defenders with Deathwatch Allies!
Deathwatch Battalion (Death Dragons)

Deathwatch Master
Primaris Watch Captain
5 Veterans with 4 Deathwatch frag cannons, Sergeant with xenophase blade and storm shield
5 Veterans with 5 stormbolters, Sergeant with storm shield
10 Primaris Intercessors with bolt rifles, 2 auxiliary grenade launchers, Sergeant with power sword
Corvus Blackstar with Blackstar rocket launcher, twin lascannons and hurricane bolters

Astra Militarum Battalion (Draconian Defenders)

Company Commander with plasma pistol
Company Commander with bolt pistol
3 infantry squads with plasma gun

Astra Militarum Spearhead (Draconian Armored Defenders)

Colonel Ikeda Tank Commander in Leman Russ Punisher with 3 heavy bolters (uses Knight Commander Pask's rules)
2 Leman Russ Executioner tanks with lascannon and plasma cannons
Leman Russ Annihilator with hull lascannon and plasma cannons

Draconian Defenders and Deathwatch allies taking up position.
All that for 2,000 points! Awesome!

Scary Space Wolves army...
I tried to play this list against an opponent with Space Wolves, but the game only lasted a turn before he had to leave. :( I managed to get the first turn beyond all odds, wiped out his 3 squads of 3 bikers each, did about 2 damage or so to his Land Speeder, 2 damage to his Stormfang, killed 3 of his Scouts. He still had a bunch of Wulfen in his Stormfang and a bunch of Deep Striking units, so I doubted he was out of the game. But he had to leave, and he didn't even get to attack back. Oh boy.

The Space Wolves have brought a drop pod along with the Stormfang!
Hopefully I can get another game tomorrow and get a feel of how my new army works. I want to try this list out against a variety of xenos lists, such as Orks, Necrons, T'au, Eldar and Tyranids! I'll be looking for xenos players, so if you're one and happen to be in Minneapolis, please let me know and I'll be more than happy to test this list out against you!

Space Wolves versus Astra Militarum and Deathwatch!
Well, it seems like this list does decent against Imperium and Chaos opponents too, but I really want to play fluffy games. We'll see! For now, I'll wait for the temperature to go up so that I can spray-paint my dudes!

Friday, November 16, 2018

Kitbashed Mark III Space Marines for sale

Just so you know, I've a bunch of kitbashed Mark III Space Marines for sale:

This is the link to the page.





Basically, I used the Horus Heresy Mark III Space Marines (the plastic ones) sold by Games Worshop, and kitbashed 5 of them into Devastators. I used lascannons from Forge World, as you probably know, and now I have 5 Devastators with lascannons, who can double as Havocs if you choose to turn your back on the Emperor.





I also have 5 Company Veterans or Chosen (depending on your alignment), all with plasma guns and chainswords. The Sergeant has a combi-plasma instead of a plasma gun, though. But you know what I mean. Only the Sergeant and one of them are painted. The other 3 are not painted, but if you want me to paint them and sell them as a package, I can do that.



I also have a single kitbashed Mark III Space Marine Captain/Chaos Lord for sale, so if you're in dire need of a HQ and think Mark III armor looks cooler, then you're in for a treat. He has a chainsword, but that's so that he can use the Teeth of Terra or Blade of Hydra relic.



Ignore the Techmarine/Warpsmith and Captain in Gravis Armor. They've already been bought. The Captain/Lord is armed with a combi-plasma hust so you know. And the thing above his head is supposed to be an Iron Halo (though it's actually from Thousand Sons, heh).

Lastly, I also decided to sell my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought because I won't be able to use him. For some reason Chaos does not have twin lascannons for their Contemptor Dreadnoughts. I know, it makes no sense, but that's how it is. Ugh.



Prices are in USD and don't include shipping yet. If you're interested, click on this link and send me a message on Facebook.

Prices:

Captain in Gravis Armor, unpainted $8 SOLD
Kitbashed Mark III Armor Space Marine Captain/Chaos Lord with combi-plasma and chainsword (supposed to be that awesome chainsword relic, Teeth of Terra or Blade of Hydra) $5
Kitbashed Mark III Techmarine/Warpsmith with power axe, meltagun and flamer $5 SOLD
Mark III Armor Company Veterans/Chosen with plasma guns and chainswords, Sergeant with combi-plasma and chainsword. 3 of them are unpainted, 2 of them are painted. If you want me to paint them before buying, that's fine too. $20 for all of them, I guess.
Kitbashed Devastators/Havocs in Mark III Armor - 5 dudes with lascannons and a Sergeant with boltgun. Lascannons are from Forge World. $30 for them, I hope.
Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 twin lascannons. $55, but as I said below, negotiable.

Feel free to negotiate and make offers if you think they're too high, but please don't make ridiculous offers like $1 for the Veterans or $5 for the Dreadnought. Thanks!

I'm selling them off because I don't play Space Marines. I'm an Imperial Guard player. I have no idea what happened to my Adeptus Mechanicus army, but for now I'm almost purely an Imperial Guard player and/or a Thousand Sons player. I might splash some Deathwatch as allies for my Imperial Guard (not planning on playing pure Deathwatch), but other than that, my army will largely remain Imperial Guard. So I have no use for Space Marines like Devastators or Company Veterans. I do hope to see them in use, though, so if anyone plans to start a Space Marine army or something, feel free to make an offer or ideally buy them at the prices I'm using. Thanks a bunch!

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Tanks win battles, artillery wins wars

I probably don't have any money for this, but eventually I would like to buy the Forge World Carnodon tanks. But at the same time, I'm wondering if I'm better off with Basilisks. I mean, I love both tanks and artillery, but right now I'm leaning toward tanks. I would love to build a primarily armor-based Imperial Guard regiment...wait, that's what I'm doing. Never mind. But it never hurts to have more tanks. I'm wondering if my Brigade with Stormtroopers mixed inside isn't exactly optimal. Sure, it's fun to play with, but it feels...pretty weak. My infantry die too much, even the Stormtroopers, the Armored Sentinels make for good screening stuff and they are honestly quite a valuable addition. But even so...I feel like I could use more tanks than Stormtroopers and the like.

But Basilisks also provide me a long-range option that I'm sorely lacking, being able to shoot at units who are out of line of sight, and stuff. Furthermore, Strength 9 AP -3...yeah, that sounds pretty awesome to me. More awesome than the volkite weaponry on the Carnodon tanks. Plus they are cheaper and more affordable...ugh! I don't know!

I also don't know if I should get a Leviathan Dreadnought for my Deathwatch...but if I do, I won't be able to play them alongside my Imperial Guard and Leman Russ tanks. I do know I'm going to get a Leviathan Dreadnought for my Thousand Sons, though! I've managed to increase the number of Contemptor Dreadnoughts, and I hope they'll strengthen my Thousand Sons considerably! So I don't have to worry about almost getting tabled again like that time against Black Legion and World Eaters! Looking forward to my Thousand Sons reinforcements!

I was thinking of having something similar to the Order of Ruin, a Cybernetica Order. I mean, in Horus Heresy A Thousand Sons, we have Khalophis, the Captain of the 6th Fellowship, control maniples of robots. I would like to think that similar Thousand Sons Sorcerers remain, and we have a few Sorcerers who continue to control and lead maniples of robots and automatons into battle. The Contemptor Dreadnoughts are to represent that - so we have Contemptor-class, Deredeo-class and Leviathan-class automatons fighting under the control of Thousand Sons Sorcerers as opposed to Dreadnoughts, but they look the same so it hardly matters. And these very same Thousand Sons Sorcerers continue to recruit and maintain a Traitor Guard regiment called Spireguard, just like they did in The War of the Fang. One day I'll try to develop a storyline further along these lines, but as you already know, my writing is horrible, so whatever.

Maybe I'll get a couple of games for my Thousand Sons this weekend, and I'll let you know what happens then!

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Soup is overrated...mostly

Well, there's this fella named Karru who comments a lot on the Bell of Lost Souls. Some of his points are valid, but he has a major bias against soup. He simplifies the problem as Soup allowing people to cherry-pick and take the best units in each faction, and then produce "overpowered" lists. He claims that mono-faction lists such as T'au, Necrons and Orks are not viable, and that Soup must be nerfed to achieve a balanced game.

Tempestus regiment...Kamikaze Troopers. YOU FAILED ME!!!! Well, at least they took out 2 Predators and an Intercessor squad...
I've been trying out with many games, and my experience seems contrary to his claims. Granted, I'm a terrible player with no skill or tactical nous whatsoever, I have the worst luck in rolling dice, my lists are inefficient, not optimized and downright awful, but I find mono-faction lists more viable than Soup. At least in my not-tournament setting and experience.

I have tried playing Imperial Guard with Imperial Knights. Nope, that was disastrous. Today, I played Militarum Tempestus Scions with a Spearhead detachment of Space Marines. Now I know why nobody plays mechanized Space Marines or Adeptus Astartes armor. If I want tanks and armor, the Imperial Guard simply does it much better. Ugh. There was one time I played Thousand Sons with Alpha Legion allies just for anti-tank, and my Thousand Sons list just didn't have the psychic potential that I needed because I took out at least one Sorcerer to put in the Havocs. The thing is that you need to build your list around a single theme, for example, psychic or tanks. Trying to mix it up with allies to shore up your weaknesses will reduce that theme drastically, like how the Alpha Legion ruined my psychic stuff for Thousand Sons by taking up a huge number of points. It just didn't work out very well for me. The same goes for Imperial Guard. Every time I try to bring allies, it just doesn't quite work out. Today, my heavy armor Space Marines got torn apart, and even though my Tempestus Scions did a lot of damage, the better part of my army was destroyed. I couldn't even kill my opponent's Knight despite having 9 lascannons (4 on my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought and 4 on the Devastators, but 2 died before they could fire). Not only that, I was rolling so horribly I might as well just concede. My melta Tempestus squad rolled 3 2s and 1 one, and even with the Take Aim! order, I re-rolled the one to get a second one. Evidently the Emperor did not wish me to win today.

Kasrkins
Normally, my mono-faction list beats soup lists, unless it's unfairly gimped (like the time I played Thousand Sons against Space Marines and a Baneblade without any anti-tank weaponry). Okay, Thousand Sons beating World Eaters and Black Legion soup was just sheer luck. But normally mono-faction lists seem to have an advantage over soup. Or maybe I'm playing Soup wrong. I thought with the Space Marine providing anti-armor and anti-tank support, my Militarum Tempestus Scions could perform surgical strikes and take out key units. I was wrong. So that's why people hardly play Adeptus Astartes armor or Heavy Support. Just so you know, I brought a Spearhead Detachment of Primaris Captain in Gravis Armor, Company Veterans with plasma guns, Relic Deredeo Dreadnought, Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 twin lascannons, Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 twin autocannons, Devastators with 4 lascannons. With that amount of firepower, I thought they could take out a Knight, but nope...they couldn't even take out a Knight before they got utterly destroyed. Furthermore, my opponent also had 2 Predator Annihilators. At least my Tempestus Scions took out those 2 Predators with their plasma guns and meltaguns, but even then they were in danger of getting wiped out with the Knight still stomping around on the table. Do I really have to play Imperial Guard with Shadowsword just to take out a Knight? And even then my Shadowsword usually is unable to take out a Knight. Ouch. I mean, my rolls are horrible, and I mean really horrible that they are unbelievable. Statistically-wise, you would expect a Shadowsword to be able to take out a Knight, but...nope, I end up relying on my Leman Russ Annihilator tanks or other anti-tank stuff to take out a Knight (which never happens, I can't remember the last time I destroyed a Knight). Oh, right, against an opponent who brought 3 Knights, Adeptus Mechanicus and a random Imperial Guard Battalion. Another fine example of how soup does not always work.

Yeah, that Knight us unkillable...
Now, am I saying soup is bad? No, I am not. Soup can be awesome if you know how to soup up and use the different units properly. But it is far from being the only viable way to play, as Karru loves to claim. Mono-factions can be very competitive, as my Imperial Guard and Thousand Sons have shown. Of course, my Guard always get decimated (as does my Thousand Sons), but they have awesome tools to capture objectives and win by playing to the mission. Guard, particularly, is strong in that it's pretty hard to mow down every single infantry model with the sheer numbers you can put on the table. Will Guard be tabling opponents and wiping out armies from the table with sheer firepower? Probably not. But in my experience, they are durable and hardy enough to dig in and survive until the end of the game to capture vital Objectives and win the mission. Come to think of it, that's always what happens to the Imperial Guard in the fluff, doesn't it? We never win a direct battle by wiping out the army. Our only victories often come through obscure objectives, taking out an enemy commander or destroying some key installation to throw the foes - who outnumber us and are massacring us - into chaos. So that's how we're supposed to play them, huh...

Sanguinary Guard...yay. Extremely powerful.
Anyway, bottomline is that stop blaming Soup for being imbalanced and question yourself on how you really want your army to play. Don't soup just for the sake of it, or because you're trying to plug a hole in your army. You risk upsetting your overspecialization or themes - like how Alpha Legion gimped my Thousand Sons's psychic stuff. In today's case, I didn't even build around a theme - or if I did, I guess I built the army around the Space Marine Forge World Dreadnoughts - 2 Mortis Contemptor Dreadnoughts and 1 Deredeo Dreadnought, and just brought Militarum Tempestus Scions because why the hell not? My idea was that with the Space Marines being a static gunline, I would need mobile units like the Tempestus Scions Deep Striking wherever I needed them to - especially in my opponent's backline or something, to deal maximum damage to their gunline. Well, as you saw, it didn't quite work out. Or maybe I need to play a few more games to work it out, but nah, I'm sticking with my Imperial Guard list or Thousand Sons. I don't really fancy Space Marines that much anyway. The Company Veterans, particularly, were outshone by the Militarum Tempestus command squads in terms of plasma and damage dealt, and they failed spectacularly in combat despite having chainswords. Ouch.

The Adeptus Astartes armored/mechanized division. YOU FAILED ME!!!!!
So Karru, stop whining about Soup. Soup is not imbalanced. Just as there are ways to build Soup and field either extremely strong Soup lists or pathetic Soup lists that are outright terrible, it's the same way with mono-factions. They are viable and are often more viable than Soup lists, especially if you're extremely familiar with how the army plays, their strengths, their weaknesses and what they can do. Abusing soup to plug those weaknesses do not always work and are not always the right solution. Moreover, there are ways to work around and mitigate those weaknesses for mono-factions without automatically turning to allies. It's not as simple as "allies remove weaknesses and plug holes inn your list" or "cherry-picking the best units from each faction". If you put in allies, you're basically removing a big portion of your original list - like for Thousand Sons, if you put in Havocs for anti-tank, you're removing a Detachment that would allow you more Sorcerers, Daemons and other psykers. You're giving up a big part of your specialization to cater to threats.

That doesn't mean I'll only play mono-faction. I'll continue to experiment and see how I can come up with more interesting lists that are both fluffy and thematic, yet not as awful as my attempts at Soup thus far. Maybe Deathwatch with an armored Imperial Guard list might be more viable than an armored Adeptus Astartes with Militarum Tempestus support (actually, the Militarum Tempestus was my main detachment, but never mind).

Waaagh! And Deathwatch reinforcements

Well, yesterday I played a 3,000-point game of Imperial Guard versus Orks. There was too much to say and it only lasted 2 turns, so I will be pretty brief about it. But I did take a lot of pictures (I hope).

Red Orks!
Basically, I played a 2 versus 1 battle, where 2 Orks players teamed up against me - of course, each player has 1,500 points versus my 3,000. They brought a lot of different Orks that I can't remember all. I know one player had tons of Boyz, Gretchin, Killa Klans, a Morkanaut, 2 Deff Dreads, a Mega Dread that could supercharge and move 28" in the first turn, Kommandos, Tankbustas, Painboy, Big Mek, Warboss, etc. The other person had similar stuff and a Weirdboy, a Battlewagon, Lootas, that anti-air tractor gun thing (Mek Gun?), Storm Boyz, another Deff Dread, Boyz, Gretchin, Nobz, etc. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure he has more than that. I'm pretty sure they had Flamer Boyz too. Basically lots of stuff.

Imperial Guard gunline, got smashed into by the Meka Dread who moved 28" in the first turn
Against that I only had a Brigade - the normal one - and a Spearhead of Leman Russ tanks, and a Supreme Command detachment with Primaris Psykers and a Shadowsword. Obviously my list was not tailored to fight Orks, and was more suited for fighting armor or power armor infantry (Marine Equivalents), so...you can imagine what happened.

All the infantry getting slaughtered by the Orks
It was a massacre.

In the first turn, I lost 2 Leman Russ tanks, and a whole squad of infantry, while another infantry squad was reduced to just 4 men - and 3 ran away, leaving just the Sergeant after morale. Another Armored Sentinel was clubbed to death by two squads of Boyz. Oh, it was the Mega Dread that slammed into my Tank Commander and destroyed him before he could fire a shot. Another Sentinel took 3 wounds. I took a lot of damage in the first turn.

The poor tanks, wrecked and scrapped by the Orks...
I couldn't retaliate. I tried, and threw everything I had into the Mega Dread that was right in the middle of my forces, and it absorbed everything with its 4+ Feel No Pain, 5++ invulnerable and high toughness. According to the owner, it could double its movement in the movement phase, and move 28" once per battle (apparently its Movement Characteristic is 14"?). Or was it a Meka Dread? I dunno. He called it a Mega Dread. Anyway, it wreaked havoc in my lines, and took everything I had to bring it down. And when it did, it blew up and killed another 3 soldiers in my infantry squad, 3 mortal wounds to my Primaris Psyker, and a few mortal wounds to the nearby Boyz. Despite shooting as much as I could with my Kasrkins and hot-shot volley guns Stormtroopers, I couldn't kill that many Boyz - maybe about 12 or so, leaving still a big chunk of Boyz left. Huh, he didn't roll for Morale, but I assume Boyz automatically pass morale when within 6" of the Warboss or something? Wait a second...they weren't within 6" within the Warboss...

The Orks still in reserve
Anyway, I was rolling pretty badly with my remaining Leman Russ Executioner tanks and failing to kill many Boyz, and the only unit I really took out was the Meka Dread or Mega Dread. Despite taking out all the Grotts or Gretchin, and a few Boyz, I wasn't able to do anything effective. I did kill 2 Killa Klans, but that was about it.

So everything ended on Turn 2. 14 different Ork units including the Morkanaut Deep Struck in front of me. All the Kasrkins were murdered, as was the remaining Guardsmen - the 2 remaining infantry squads wiped out by pure shooting. Funnily enough, my Shadowsword made a lot of armor saves against all the rokkits and other anti-tank weapons and got away with just 8 wounds in the shooting phase. Then the charging phase began.

Scary-looking Orks army, right?
The only thing of interest is that my Shadowsword - using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem - killed the Morkanaut in overwatch, his Volcano cannon and lascannon blowing the dude up through sheer amounts of damage. Yeah, crazy, right? The Boyz survived the storm of twin heavy bolters shots and piled into my Shadowsword, along with a Deep Striking Deff Dread. Stormboyz charged into my Valkyrie, along with 2 Deff Dreads, and the Stormboyz alone did 10 to 12 wounds to my hovering gunship. Damn. On the other side, the 2 remaining Sentinels were mobbed in combat and taken out in short order - we didn't even waste time rolling the dice because the first Sentinel had 3 wounds left, and the Boyz had 40 attacks. The Deff Dread fought twice using the Stratagem and in the end my Shadowsword was left with 8 wounds - while his armor tanked shooting attacks, he didn't fare as well in melee. Ouch.

This was before everything got wrecked.
One of the players had to leave, and we left the game there. It was obvious I wasn't going to win. This wasn't a mission with objectives, it was just the two of them aiming to table me. I sure as hell wasn't going to table them with the amount forces I had left. Sure, I still had 3 tanks left, but that was all. The Shadowsword probably wouldn't survive the 40+ attacks from the Boyz, and the Valkyrie wouldn't survive the Deff Dreads. So I effectively would only have 3 Leman Russ tanks by Turn 2, with a couple of Company Commanders (both Primaris Psykers were dead by now, I believe), and maybe the hot-shot volley guns Stormtroopers with their Tempestor Prime. I did have 3 Tempestus command squads (8 plasma guns, 4 meltaguns) and 2 Tempestus squads with 2 plasma guns each, and the 3 Tempestors Prime commanding them, still in reserve, but they had far too much for me to deal with. A Battlewagon, 3 Deff Dreads, lots of Killa Klans, Mek Gun, Kommandoes, countless Boyz, Stormboyz, Flamerboyz, Lootas, Tankbustas, the Warboss, Big Mek, Painboy, Weirdboyz, etc. and etc. There was no way in hell my Stormtroopers could take out all that, and even if they did take out a significant portion, the retaliation would have wiped them out. Besides, one of the players had to go, so we stopped the game there. It was my total, crushing defeat.

Why am I taking multiple pictures of the same thing?
That's fine. For my beleaguered Guard would be receiving reinforcements in the form of Deathwatch. I've managed to build my Deathwatch Primaris Intercessors today, and I hope to the Emperor that they would be more than enough to stem the Green Tide where the Guard has failed. Do take note that my Deathwatch is not a standalone army - I only got them as a supplement, as an anti-xenos option for my Guard. I mean, my Guard seems pretty...weak and fragile. Maybe I'm playing them wrong, but I'm not going to give up. I'll continue experimenting here and there and hope the Deathwatch and Imperial Guard alliance can stop these one-sided massacres. Funny thing is that, most of the time I'm being slaughtered, I usually win because I play to the mission and secure the objectives to gain as many victory points as possible. But once there are no missions or objectives, then it becomes a pretty one-sided affair. Oh well. Fortunately, I'm not a win at all costs type of person and I honestly am not bothered, but honestly, it is a little unfun and frustrating if the majority of my army is always massacred one-sidedly without me being able to fight back. The problem probably lies with me - everyone says Guard is a top-tier army, and discounting the times I play Thousand Sons, they're always getting killed. Like against Orks, or against Tyranids that other time. Or against Adeptus Custodes. Top tier army? I must be doing something wrong somewhere and playing them wrong...but I won't give up on playing a mainly tank army. I will keep my Leman Russ tanks in my list no matter what and find a way for my armor-heavy list or tank-heavy list to work. The infantry aren't the important ingredients - my focus is and has always been my tanks. Anyway, I'll continue to experiment and we'll see what happens next time!

Deathwatch army

Just look at those awesome Deathwatch shoulder pads! So I have a Primaris Watch Captain, a normal Watch Captain with relic blade and master-crafted boltgun, a Deathwatch Veteran squad with 4 Deathwatch frag cannons, a Deathwatch Veteran squad with 5 stormbolters, a Deathwatch Primaris Intercessors with 10 bolt rifles and 2 auxiliary grenade launchers. Sergeant has a cool-looking Deathwatch power sword too. In addition, we have 2 Inquisitors with incinerators and power mauls, plus  6 Acolytes with stormbolters and 1 Acolyte with plasma gun (they're just Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, to be honest). Plus either my Guard army or my Inquisitorial Stormtroopers army.

Deathwatch Intercessors!

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Battle Report 31

And so from the warp fires of Tzeentch and the psychic maelstrom of the Planet of Sorcerers, I bring to you Battle Report 31! This time, I managed to get a game with Black Legion and World Eaters, and my opponent suggested that I bring my Thousand Sons - which I was more than happy to do so. After all, what could beat a skirmish between rival Chaos factions?

Unfortunately, my Thousand Sons got pounded to...uh, dust, in this game. But it was still an extremely fun game with quite a few unexpected twists and turns (as you would expect of Tzeentch, but I digress), as you'll see if you read.

Black Legion and World Eaters force - terrifying, aren't they?
My opponent brought a Black Legion Battalion, which consisted of a Lord, a Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch, 10 Cultists with autopistols and brutal assault weapon, a 10-men squad that had 2 plasma guns and a combi-plasma (Aspiring Champion), a 5-men squad with a missile launcher, and 4 Chaos Bikers with 2 or 3 plasma guns and 3 Obliterators (how annoying)...I think that's it for Black Legion. As for the World Eaters Battalion, he had a Dark Apostle with Dark Mace, a Chaos Champion with the Khorne collar thing that allows him to deny the witch and cause psykers to peril on a successful deny (how I hate that thing), 2 squads of 8 Khorne Berzerkers, and a 20-men Cultist squad with auto-pistols and brutal assault weapon (and 1 flamer for the laughs). Oh, and 2 Rhinos to transport the Khorne Berzerkers and the World Eaters HQ unit, plus a Chaos Decimator because why the hell not? That should sum up his list. As you can see, it's a really brutal list that deals a lot of damage with plasma and melee units. That's 1,750 points. Yup.

As for me...you guys should know what my Thousand Sons army looks like by now. Nonetheless, I'll just record it for the sake of recording. 2 Battalions - Ahzek Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer on disc, Exalted Sorcerer on foot, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, 2 squads of 5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns, a 10-men squad of Rubric Marines with warpflamers, their Rhino (I removed the havoc launcher to fit the game within 1,750 points), 3 squads of 10 Traitor Guardsmen that count as Cultists (one squad has a flamer), a Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought with butcher cannons, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array, twin heavy bolters and greater havoc launcher. That's about it.

The mission was Relic, so we have a Relic right in the center of the map that we have to secure. Makes for a very fluffy game, doesn't it? The Thousand Sons, as usual, wish to obtain the relic for the purpose of unending knowledge (sounds very similar...cough...Adeptus Mechanicus...cough), but their Black Legion and World Eater rivals band together to steal the relic from them because you know. Chaos. Don't need a valid reason to attack other Chaos Factions, especially those aligned to a different chaos god. Khorne wants to smash Tzeentch and so he will, and snatch the Relic the Thousand Sons desire from them while at it.

The Black Legions and World Eaters attack!
Obviously I have more forces, so my opponent had the +1 advantage, and he went first. I failed to seize, and the game began.

Turn 1

Not very eventful, since our forces are still too far away, and as you've noticed, the Black Legion and World Eaters are a melee-orientated or close-ranged army. The Obliterators are in Deep Strike, by the way, and I didn't bring my Scarab Occult Terminators. Anyway...

All the units moved up. The Black Legion and World Eaters Cultists advanced. I think the Black Legion Marines moved and advanced too, but stayed behind the Cultists so that they wouldn't get smited. Same for the Chaos Bikers. The missile launcher tried to hit my Contemptor Dreadnought, but I don't think it did anything. I think the Chaos Rhinos tried to shoot my Guardsmen with the combi-bolters, and maybe 1 or 2 Guardsmen died here and there. But they held morale. That's about it, I believe. Oh, the Decimator fired on my Deredeo Dreadnought, but did absolutely nothing. It was a very poor round of shooting, as I said.

I fared a lot better. I wiped out almost all the 20-men Cultists, put a few mortal wounds on them and the Rhinos, and I think the 10-men squad of Marines. Ahriman used Doombolt on the Rhino of Khorne Berzerkers to halve their movement. Yay. The Deredeo Dreadnought killed the Chaos Decimator and 4 of the 5-men Chaos Space Marines squad, leaving the missile launcher guy. Or was that the Contemptor Dreadnought? I know the twin heavy bolter took out a big chunk of the Cultists. Anyhow, I killed all but 3 or 4 of the 10-men squad, and I think there were about 3 or so Cultists in the 20-men squad. I thought I had First Blood by destroying the Decimator, but alas, this was Relic, so there was no First Blood. It was an okay phase.

Against the World Eaters and Black Legion stands the loyalist forces of the Thousand Sons, sworn to serve the Emperor...wait, what?
Turn 2

My opponent spent 2 Command Points to use Tide of Traitors, and suddenly the 20-men Cultists showed up at full strength in my backline. What...

Everyone continued moving forward, and one squad of Khorne Berzerks disembarked from their Rhino and moved forward. The Obliterators Deep Struck next to the Chaos Lord and the Chaos Bikers and decimated 10-men squad. Between the plasma survivors in the 10-men squad and the rocket launcher guy, they destroyed my Rhino, spilling my Rubric Marines out. The Chaos Bikers, Cultists, the Obliterators, everything fired at the 10-men warpflamer Rubric Marines squad and wiped them out. Ouch. Damn it. The Chaos Rhino killed more Traitor Guardsmen, reducing 1 squad to just 2 guys (after morale). The Dark Apostle and Khorne Berzerkers then charged and wiped out both my Exalted Sorcerer on disc and Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in combat. Double ouch. That was practically half my army gone in just one turn, with 330 points wasted doing absolutely nothing. Damn. As for the Cultists that suddenly appeared in my backline, they charged my 5 Rubric Marines and killed 3 of them through sheer volume of attacks, and I failed to kill any in return. I was rolling horribly for saves and everything. Oh, the Black Legion Cultists had also charged into my Rubric Marines for more attacks.

They are coming...
The Thousand Sons were pretty much shaken by the blow they had taken, but I did my best to retaliate. Between psychic spells and the shooting of the Hellforged Dreadnoughts, I killed 2 Bikers, all Khorne Berzerkers, finished off the plasma Marines, charged my Traitor Guardsmen in, and killed a few of the 20-men Cultists, and this time I killed another with my Rubric Marines, but that was it. I lost a bunch of Guardsmen to the Khorne Cultists or Black Legion ones, doesn't matter. On the other hand, the 2 survivors of the decimated Guardsmen squad, and the other squad, moved up to the center to grab the relic. Not that they would be holding it for long. Right, and the Rubric Marine on the far left descended the stairs.

Things were not looking good for me.

Turn 3

Needless to say, the Thousand Sons were getting slaughtered. The Khorne Berzerkers piled out of their Rhino along with the Champion, and they killed all the Guardsmen on the left, with the Rhinos destroying the 2-men squad. Uh, the Obliterators shot and reduced my poor Contemptor Dreadnought to 4 wounds, I believe? I can't remember. I might be mixing things up. The Cultists killed more Guardsmen and I was struggling to hit back, but I did manage to reduce the 20-men Khorne Cultists to just 1 dude. Phew. Other than that...I think Ahriman took a few wounds here and there, and was charged by the Dark Apostle and 2 remaining Chaos Bikers, but didn't do much. Oh, he made his saves against the Dark Apostle and did 3 wounds to him, but that's about it.

Yup, a lot of Black Legion and World Eaters, but not a lot of Thousand Sons...
During my turn, I spent 3 Command Points on Crosucrating Beam and failed to do any mortal wounds to any of them. Damn it! I think I did a couple of mortal wounds to a Rhino and 2 mortal wounds to an Obliterator, but failed to kill any of them. UGH! That was about it. But Smite did 3 mortal wounds to the Bikers, and the Exalted Sorcerer finished him off with an inferno pistol shot. But the stupid World Eaters collar denied Ahriman's spell and caused him to peril. Ouch. Yeah! The Deredeo Dreadnought wiped out the Khorne Berzerkers with his shooting, and that really should be all I could do, since I didn't have much left. I believe I lost all my Traitor Guardsmen in combat in this turn. But at least the 2 Rubric Marines survived, but as usual they killed no one. Oh, and the Rubric squad moved down another level. The Deredeo was able to shoot and kill the Dark Apostle because he was finally the closest model so a small victory there. But I was dangerously running out of models.

Turn 4

The World Eaters Champion, Dark Legion Lord  and Obliterators moved forward. The Rhinos as well. Hmm, I believe the Obliterators finished off the injured Contemptor Dreadnought and destroyed him. The Champion and one Rhino charged Ahriman and my Deredeo Dreadnought and killed Ahriman while dealing 10 wounds to the Deredeo Dreadnought. As I said, I was rolling pretty badly for my saves. On the other side, the Cultists finally finished off the last 2 Rubric Marines. So I had only a heavily wounded Deredeo Dreadnought, an Exalted Sorcerer and 5 Rubric Marines left on the table.

We're getting our asses kicked!
I spent a command point to swap the Aspiring Sorcerer's Glamor of Tzeentch power for Warptime. Then I moved them twice and advanced them. Meanwhile the Exalted Sorcerer was denied by the dumb collar and periled. I tried to charge the Champion with my Exalted Sorcerer but the Sorcerer got wiped in combat. Lesson learned. Never try to challenge a World Eater in melee. The Deredeo Dreadnought took another 2 wounds, leaving him with just 2.

Turn 5

As I said, things were not looking good for me. I only had 6 models left while my opponent had so many. He got his Obliterators, Lord and Cultists to move toward the relic but they were too far out. That's fine. The Obliterator fires and killed 2 Rubric Marines, the rest surviving because of their invulnerable saves. The Aspiring Sorcerer also denied the Black Legion sorcerer's Warptime, denying the Obliterators from moving forward so only 2 of them could shoot. The Champion destroyed the Deredeo Dreadnought in combat, however, meaning I only had 3 models left. Holy Emperor...

At least I managed to kill these Khorne Berzerkers! Both squads!
Again, I moved the Rubric Marines forward and advanced them. I cast Warptime again, but the Black Legion Sorcerer failed to deny  (or was it that dumb World Eaters collar?) Which allowed me to move and advance to the relic, and the last 3 Rubric Marines grabbed it, taking sole possession of the relic. That's all the models I had left on the table.

Here, my opponent said that I had a one out of three chance of winning the game. Which is fair, since I only had 3 Rubric Marines left and he had Obliterators and Cultists all ready to shoot them. He would have tabled me then. So he rolled to see if the game continues...only to roll a one.

The Thousand Sons...before they got wiped out.
The game ended there. When the dust has settled (see what I did there?), there were only 3 Thousand Sons models left on the table facing an overwhelming number of Black Legion and World Eaters forces. With the 3 remaining Rubric Marines in control of the relic. It was a Thousand Sons victory against all odds. Despite me being on the verge of being tabled. Just as Tzeentch planned. Both my opponent and I got a huge laugh out of it. I mean, what are the odds? This definitely was Tzeentch scheming and screwing around!

And so, despite being one-sidedly massacred, the Thousand Sons won. Yay! Just as planned!

Yup, the casualty rate of the Thousand Sons are increasing. When the dust has settled (see what I did there?), only 3 Rubric Marines remain against overwhelming odds.