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 ...

Monday, April 29, 2019

Warhammer 40,000 FAQ

I'm a bit late on this, but Warhammer Community has posted the big FAQ for April! YAY!

You can access the FAQ here.

I'm not going through them because I'm sure everyone has either already read them or can just read the damned FAQ itself (it's pretty long, so don't waste time reading my stuff and just go to it immediately). But I'll just pick out the couple that concerns an Imperium player like me, especially since I'm an Imperial Knight player.

First, the Imperial Assassins Stratagem, Operative Requisition Sanctioned, that allows you to set aside 85 points for an Assassin (so that you can pick and choose whoever you want) has been changed to 2 Command Points. That makes sense, because before you can just spend a Command Point for that and there was no reason ever to take an Auxiliary Support unit for a single Assassin (which costs 1 Command Point as well) unless you have no detachments. There was no downside to taking this Stratagem and all upsides, but now it's no longer an auto-take and if you have the Detachment to spare, you can just do an Auxiliary Support Detachment for cheaper, at the cost of flexibility and one less detachment.

For Imperial Knights players, take note that our Rotate Ion Shields only give us a maximum of 4++ invulnerable save now. That sounds fair to me, and in any case I usually just use Rotate Ion Shields on my other Knights to save them, not just the one with the Ion Bulwark Warlord Trait. It's cool and all to try and save a Knight Crusader or Knight Valiant with Ion Bulwark, but that means my Knight Gallant or Knight Errant are going to get hit hard, and only have a 5++ invulnerable save. It makes more sense, because a 3++ invulnerable save on a Toughness 8 model with 28 wounds is just unfair.

The last one that matters the most is the Knight Castellan going up 100 points. The plasma decimator now costs 40 points as opposed to 0, and the volcano lance is now a whooping 60 points. Well deserved, if you ask me. For Renegade Knights, the volcano lance is now 70 points, since Dominus Knights cost the same regardless.

Fortunately, if you've been following my blog, it doesn't affect me one jot. I don't use a Knight Castellan, I don't own one, despite being an Imperial Knights player who has a pure Knight army. HA HA HA HA HA! This is what happens when you chase the meta! This is what happens when you buy a model because it's strong, efficient and dominant in the current meta! This is why you should only buy a Knight that you like, not one that's dominating tournaments!

That's what I did. I stuck to my favorite Questoris Knights, got the Knight Valiant because of his awesome flamer, and a Cerastus Knight Lancer because he matches well with both my fluff and the Secutarii Hoplites I had, and not because they are that good. I didn't care about the Knight Castellan (he would have overlapped with my Shadowsword and Leman Russ Executioner tanks anyway). I didn't care that for the Cerastus Knights, the Knight Atrapos will be more efficient and deadlier than a Knight Lancer. I grabbed the Knights I thought were cool and I liked, and played whatever and however I want. And...so I emerge out of this FAQ unscathed. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Sorry for being childish. Never mind. Anyway, even if my Knights got nerfed, as long as I can still field a pure Knight army, or Imperial Knights supported by Skitarii/Imperial Guard, I honestly don't care. I'm not a win at all costs player, and I don't soup up to min-max - it's my fluff. House Yato fights alongside their Household Militia, the Draconian Armored Defenders Astra Militarum regiment. Command Points or not, soup or not, that's how I enjoy playing them. Or House Yato/Kanda (which is a branch clan of House Yato entirely seconded to Legio Draconis, the Titan Legion on the forge world Draconis IV) fights alongside the Skitarii and Secutarii Hoplites of Draconis IV. That's how I envision them playing, and I would still do so even if soup gets nerfed. If soup didn't get nerfed, then good for me! If it does, I wouldn't care less unless it becomes absolutely detrimental (allies costing 5 Command Points to field or something along the lines of that).

This, folks, is why you do not chase the meta!

Oh, right. I see a lot of people complaining about pure Knights being affected or punished for soup players min-maxing. They are saying this hurts pure Knights, etc.

The funny thing, however, is that, all these people are talking as if they are taking it for granted that the Knight Castellan is an auto-include. They assume that all Knight armies will automatically include at least a Knight Castellan.

If you see it from this perspective, you'll understand my point about the FAQ achieving balance. Now the Knight Castellan is no longer an auto-include. Now you're forced to assess other options and your other Knights instead of just taking it for granted that your Knight Castellan is in. Should I swap out an Armiger Helverin for a Knight Castellan, or should I use a Knight Valiant instead? Is a Knight Crusader and an Armiger Helverin better than a Knight Castellan, or do you need the anti-titanic volcano lance and better AP plasma decimator? Stuff like that. It makes you consider your choices rather than think automatically, "oh, of course a Knight Castellan is better in terms of points cost and effectiveness."

Well, you won't hear a lot of whining from me, just a lot of gloating! And this is coming from an Imperial Knights player! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Saturday, April 27, 2019

More painting!

So I managed to paint my Volkite Carnodon tank today. Yay. With this, my Imperial Guard has all its tanks painted and somewhat completed! Phew! Maybe in future I'll get a second Carnodon tank, because they are just so cool, and I like volkite weapons. Furthermore, I think they work better in pairs, and having a hi-tech (relatively) Imperial Guard regiment whose mainstay are Leman Russ Executioner tanks with plasma weapons, Guardsmen armed with plasma weapons, and more plasma stuff supported by Carnodon tanks with volkite weaponry just fits my fluff and theme very well! Since the Draconian Armored Defenders live next to a forge world, they might as well reap all the benefits to be gained from such close proxmity! Furthermore, with Orks, Tyranids, mutants and other terrifying foes swarming over the segmentum, volkite weaponry would be especially deadly against them!


Not to mention, I also have a new Eversor Assassin, which I intend to try out with the Assassins codex. If I ever get a game. I haven't had a chance to field him yet, but I'm looking forward to fielding him soon. I hope. The new Assassin rules look exciting, and I can't wait to try them out. I'm considering procuring a Vindicare Assassin to make full use of the Operatives Stratagem, but we'll see. I don't want to spend too much money.


I also painted my Skitarii and Secutarii. Okay, they look pretty plain and bad, but I'm more interested in just slapping 3 colors on them and claiming that they're tabletop standard. I'll probably buy red paint and color their robes red in the future, because...they are Skitarii, and I don't really like the black robes on them. That's for my Knights, Titans and Guardsmen. So I'll make them look more conventiona as Skitarii. But I didn't have time today, so I could only paint them black and gold, and a bit of blue. Not much else to do, to be honest.



I can't wait to field my painted Secutarii Hoplites alongside my painted Cerastus Knight Lancer! They look so cool together! I know Knight Lancer isn't the most competitive choice (most people on Facebook mock me for bringing a Knight Lancer instead of the Knight Atrapos or whatever), but he looks the coolest and fits my shock and arc lances theme. Honestly, a Cerastus Knight Lancer with a bunch of Secutarii Hoplites running along his feet looks a lot cooler than a Cerastus Knight Atrapos.



Oh, and my friend offered to help me build my Cerastus Knight Lancers for Adeptus Titanicus! This is our first step to playing Adeptus Titanicus! YAY! I think. He helped me build one and most of the second one, but we ran out of time. Fortunately, there wasn't much for me to do except to stick the left arm, ion gauntlet shield, small shield and then the body to the hips. And now they're completed! I'll have to paint them eventually, but that's for another day. Next week I should get a bunch of Adeptus Titanicus models shipped over, and we can begin our games in earnest!



Unfortunately, my local gaming store does not have Doom of Molech, and I had to put in a special order. We'll wait for Games Workshop to ship Doom of Molech over. A pity, because I really wanted to see what the new rules for the new Legios and the Knights are. Well, we're just getting started with Adeptus Titanicus, so there's plenty of time yet! Nothing to worry about!

Friday, April 26, 2019

Nothing on Adeptus Titanicus so far...

Unfortunately, no news on new Adeptus Titanicus stuff, so no new Knights, no new carapace weapons (for both Imperial Knights and Titans from Forge World), nothing. Oh, well...

I honestly don't want to make a blog post about this, but I have nothing else to post about this week. Maybe it's better if I don't post unless I have something to post?

But while at it, I might as well ask you guys if you want Acastus Knights, Dominus Knights, and the other variants for Cerastus Knights, as well as the Stormspear rocket pods for Questoris Knights. Oh, and if you want the Styrix and Magaera options for Questoris Knights too. And what other classes of Titans would you like to see? Stuff from the Ordo Sinister?

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

The moment when Slaanesh has better psykers or psychic batteries than our Tzeetch stuff.

Yeah, just look at their new model.

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And their abilities.

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Seems like the followers of the Dark Prince of Excess is better at casting psychic spells than the disciples of the God of Change and Sorcery now. To be fair, I think the Lord of Change and Kairos Fateweaver have psychic bonuses (which goes down if they are wounded), but none of our other Tzeentch Daemons have such cool stuff. Changeling just confers a 6+++ Feel No Pain (as opposed to a 2+++ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds - that's more Tzeentch than Slaanesh, isn't it?), and Blue Scribes are more fun than useful. Well, I guess you can count them as having a +1 to Deny the Witch, the potential to erase psychic spells, and a guaranteed psychic spell, so that's cool. But I can't help feeling that we should have something similar for Tzeentch. Oh well.

Apparently because I triggered a lot of rage and bashing from the Thousand Sons Facebook page, I guess I need to clarify that I'm exaggerating. Obviously I don't think this is imbalanced and I'm not whining about Slaanesh being overpowered. We'll still dominate the psychic phase (even if they field 3 of these dudes, they can only Deny the Witch 3 times)...mostly. I hope. In any case, I'm happy to play against Slaanesh Daemons. I'm just hoping the followers of the god of magic gets similar casting and deny the witch bonuses, that's all. And can you imagine how awesome it would be if All is Dust allows us to shrug off mortal wounds on a 2+? It would mitigate Perils on our Aspiring Sorcerers and not bomb the entire unit!

In any case, you can check out Warhammer Community for more details. I'm surprised Natfka has not posted on this yet on his Faeit212 blog, but he will. Eventually. For now, you can make do with this link and check out the new Keeper of Secret, Whoever Hellbane and other Slaanesh Daemons stuff. Not my cup of tea since my allegiance is to the Emperor first and Tzeentch second, and Thousand Sons over Emperor's Children. I didn't like Fulgrim, honestly, and was mindblown when I read A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill - those two stories were like night and day. You can tell I love the Thousand Sons and their lore a lot more.

Oh, and I still can't find any Adeptus Titanicus news, so I guess that's all the information we're getting for Doom of Molech. Makes me a little sad. Apparently we might be getting Acastus Knights down the road, but I haven't heard anything about Dominus Knights, and still no news on the Stormspear rocket pod. On the other hand, the release of the Mori Quake cannon and macro gatling blaster bodes well and we can look forward to the carapace weapons such as Vulcan mega-bolter, warp missile support rack and paired gatling blasters. Well, I'll let you know when I get more news.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Fully painted Imperial Knights!

I have finally finished painting my Imperial Knights! Both my Cerastus Knight Lancer, Dominus Knight Valiant and even my two Armiger Helverins have all been painted! YAY!


I haven't painted my Skitarii or Secutarii yet, though. My Kastelan Robots are half-painted, but it shouldn't take too much time to paint them up. I'll do my best next week! But it's really fun to see my Secutarii Hoplites running around the feet of my Cerastus Knight Lancer!



Thus House Yato is fully painted and ready to go! I really love my Imperial Knights, as you can tell, and I can't wait to field my fully painted Knights! I'm not sure how they will fare, and I'm currently thinking I should just go with House Griffith's Household Tradition over House Taranis's, because I can never roll those 6s I need, and I kind of like charging my Knights into melee anyway, especially since I have a Knight Gallant and a Knight Lancer. We'll see!

In other news, I'm starting on Adeptus Titanicus. I've decided that the mainstay of my Titan Legion, Legio Draconis or the Dark Dragons, will be Warlord Titans, and so I'll be fielding a Myrmidion Heavy Maniple. I will most likely be fielding a Warlord Titan with paired turbo laser destructors and two Sunfury plasma annihilators, a Warlord Titan with Apocalypse missile launchers and two Belicosa volcano cannons. and a Reaver Titan with warp missile support rack and two volcano cannons, because...well, I guess it's more advantage to take long-range Titans who can serve an artillery role thanks to the Myrmidion' Heavy Maniple's bonus allowing me to to pass the command check for First Fire on a 2+. That means firing one of my Titan's weapons twice (volcano cannons!) at the cost of not being able to move. Hell, yeah. Of course I'm going to make use of that.

And being a Knight guy, I'll be supporting them with a single banner of Cerastus Knight Lancers. In bigger games, I'll probably get a couple of Questoris Knight banners (or have 5 Knights in a single banner), but we'll see. It'll be great if we can get more Knight options, but I won't hold my breath. Having Stormspear rocket pods would be awesome, but even though they gave us that option, Games Workshop for some reason hasn't released any sprue or parts for Stormspear rocket pods. I don't understand why. In any case, I'm thinking of swapping one of the Belicosa volcano cannons for a Mori quake cannon so that I can fit 5 Knights and 2 Stormspear rocket pods into the banner. Or perhaps by then they will release the Acastus and Dominus Knights, and I'll be more than happy to spend the points on one of them.

Speaking of Mori quake cannons, Forge World has released the Mori quake cannon and macro gatling blaster, but it's already sold out in the United States. I don't know what happened, but that's fine. I'll be waiting for the other options such as carapace options (paired gatling blasters, vulcan mega-bolter, warp missile support rack, etc.) before I order anything from Forge World. This will be fun! You can check out Forge World's Mori quake cannon and macro gatling blaster in their respective links.

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Doom of Molech up for pre-orders! And Astra Militarum stuff!



Warhammer Community has posted a list of what's available for pre-orders today, so you can check it out. The only thing of interest to me is Adeptus Titanicus: Doom of Molech, of course. I can't wait to see what they have in store!



While they allow us to field entire armies of Knights for maximum gallantry, I'm kind of annoyed they still haven't released a Stormspear rocket pod sprue upgrade yet. Like, come on, dudes. We want our Stormspear rocket pods already. Not to mention the Thunderstrike Gauntlets for melee Knights. Please give us more upgrade sprues, like you did with the plasma annihilator! To my chagrin, when trying to order the plasma annihilator, I found out that it's out of stock, along with the Knight terminals. Just my luck. Well, I'll wait for them to restock it and buy it once they resupply. I hope to the Emperor they have a building manual included otherwise I've to build it blind. Ouch.

Oh, and one more thing. The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook is back!



You can find out more from Warhammer Community. Here are the details - I might as well copy and paste instead of summarizing it (which won't do justice).

"The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook is a classic look at the life of a line trooper in the Astra Militarum, back in print for the first time in years. Within its pages, you’ll find such gems as which way to point a lasgun, why no alien enemy can ever be a match for an Imperial Guardsman, and exactly which hymns to sing in a variety of battlefield situations.

The new paperback edition includes the Munitorum Manual as well, letting you know how to requisition new equipment and cluing you in to the labyrinthine logistical structures of the Imperium. If you’re a fan of the Regimental Standard, or just want to know exactly how to march in lockstep with your fellow Guardsmen as the enemy bombard your position, you’ll want to pre-order your copy now."

I might consider buying it, sometime. No idea when. Obviously when I have the money - been spending too much on Adeptus Titanicus, whoops. Well, I haven't bought them yet, but we'll see.

Anyway, if I get more news regarding Doom of Molech, I'll post them here.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Sabbat Worlds Crusade

A new edition of the book Sabbat Worlds Crusade will be released in December. Fans of Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts rejoice! Yes, that includes me, even though I'm more of a fan of Ciaphas Cain. But I also love the Gaunt's Ghosts series.



For Tanith!

The new book will be twice as thick, and will provide the background and information about the first twenty years of the Sabbat Crusade.



That looks like one hell of a desktop wallpaper, eh? :)

We're also getting portraits of the Tanith's soldiers and even an image of a soldier from Sons of Sek (Traitor Guard incoming? Please, Games Workshop, give us Hereticus Militarum!). By the way, I asked for Traitor Guard/Hereticus Militarum in the Warhammer Community Survey, so I hope they'll answer it. Eventually.

Once I finish reading my entire Ciaphas Cain collection, I'll be reading Anarch! That will finish up my reading for Gaunt's Ghosts, and I think I can proceed on to several books I've gotten for the Horus Heresy. We'll see. For Tanith, Belladon, Verghast and the Emperor!

Now I should start working on my own Draconian Crusade...someday. Whenever I'm done with Graduate School, probably.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Doom of Molech news

Yay! Warhammer Community, as usual, has provided us with previews of Doom of Molech and it looks really promising!



We already know that we can pre-order Doom of Molech this Saturday, but what do we have inside the book? Well, that's what Warhammer Community is going to tell us.



As we all already know, Molech is a Knight World. Yes, there are Titans, but there are lots of Knights A lot of them, in fact. I can't wait to see what these Households do, and what rules they have! I wonder if House Taranis will ever get their own rules, but we'll see. Maybe House Terryn and House Krast too, given how they were pretty involved in the Horus Heresy, and I remember House Krast's world was destroyed by Horus and the Traitor Legions.

As I said, I've read Vengeful Spirit, and I've to say, it's not one of the Graham McNeill books I like. I like his coverage of House Devine's fall, and the Imperial Army's struggle against the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard, as well as Paragon of Terra's last stand against the numerous Traitor Titan Legions, but in my humble opinion he spent way too much time on the Knights Errant led by Loken and the Space Marines dude. I honestly couldn't care less about their mission to infiltrate the Vengeful Spirit and leave a marker for Leman Russ. I'm more invested in Molech. This should be about Molech and the Knight Houses there, and it was a great chance to move the attention away from the Adeptus Astartes. We already have Horus and Traitor Legions there, we don't need the Knights Errant and stuff. Focus more on the actual Knights, damn it! And the Imperial Army regiments!



But while the novel was a little disappointing, I am looking forward to playing games with my Titans. This will be fun! I can't wait to see what I'll get for my Titans, and I hope I can build a balanced list of Knights and Titans. Not a fan of Warhounds, but I'll definitely at least get a Warlord Titan.

Speaking of Titans, we have rules for 4 new Titan Legions, so it's pretty cool. Once of them is Legio Fortidus, also known as the Dauntless.



Cool, right? Anyway, I can't wait to see what the other Legion Traits for the other Titan Legions are. Since I'm Loyalist, I probably shouldn't be looking at the Traitor ones, but...you know.

We also have two new Titan Maniples. It's a little sad, but the Dominus Battleforce Maniple that has 1 Warlord Titan, 2 Reaver Titans and 1 Questoris or Cerastus Knight Banner is not included in this book, so if you want to use that, you'll have to get the February issue of White Dwarf. Oh well. Warhammer Community mentions Fortis Battle Maniple, which allows Warlord and Reaver Titans to merge their void shields and ignore armor modifiers, which is of interest to me. I hope it allows me to take a Warlord Titan and 2 Reaver Titans, or just 1 Warlord Titan and 1 Reaver Titan, and I can fill out the rest of my points with Knights, Knights and more Knights. Yay!

The other one is the Ferrox Light Maniple, which I'm not interested in, but I'll paste the image here just for you guys.



And then we have the Knights. There's not much stuff on the Knights and how to field them as an army as of yet, other than what we already know. That we can field entire armies of Knights. I wonder if Knights can take a single Titan or two as allies. That will be cool too.



We have Characters for Knight Households, sort of the counterparts for Warlords, I guess? This being Molech, obviously the first Household to get showcased is House Devine.



And then you have narrative missions, but unless my opponent wants to play them, I guess I'll just read through the fluff and create my own fluff. Yay.

We also have new Stratagems too, if you're interested. Here you go!



I already have a pair of Cerastus Knight Lancers waiting to be built, and I'll be adding a Warlord Titan to my collection in the near future. We'll see! I can't wait for Doom of Molech, even if it's just for the fluff alone, because I'm a great fan of Knights! And I can't wait to start fleshing out my Legio Draconis, or the Black Dragons, supported by various Knight Houses - House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda of Draconis III, and a branch clan of House Yato, House Kanda, being entirely seconded to Legio Draconis! This will be great!

Monday, April 15, 2019

Knights versus Tyranids

I had quite the interesting...uh, match today. Some kid came up to me and requested for a game, and as usual, I was game. He wanted to play a thousand points so I was like, "sure. Let me get out my Imperial Guard and field them against his Tyranids."

To my utter astonishment, he replied, "nope. I want to fight against your Knights. Bring your Knights."

"Are you sure?" I demanded in disbelief. "Nah, I think Imperial Guard will be a better matchup against your Tyranids."

"No. I want to play against your Knights," he insisted. "I have a plan. I'm going to overwhelm your Knights through sheer numbers."

And there you had it. It was a 1,000-point game between Imperial Knights and Tyranids. The kid brought three Zoanthropes, a Harpy, 2 Carnifexes, 2 squads of 10 Termagaunts, a Tervigon, a Trygon Prime, and 10 Genestealers. I think. That's a lot of models, for 1,000 points. Ugh. So scary.

In contrast, I brought just 3 Knights. A Knight Valiant and 2 Armiger Helverin. As usual, House Yato used the House Taranis Tradition, though I never rolled any 6s when I need them. Perhaps I will be returning to House Griffith in the near future. I originally wanted to add an Eversor Assassin but I didn't have the 85 points to spare (I only had 62 left over), and I thought it was too imbalanced anyway (I was feeling sorry for the kid).

Anyway, I let the guy start first because I felt bad playing Knights against him (as much as he insisted on wanting to play against them), and he moved everyone up the table. I think only his Carnifex was within range and he fired several shots, which did like 3 or 4 damage to my Knight Valiant? I can't remember. As usual, I failed the Omnissiah's Grace rolls, and I forgot about the Mark of the Omnissiah to heal him. Whoops.


When it was my turn, combined shooting from my Knight Valiant and Armiger Helverins decimated both squads of Termagaunts, the first of which had 3 added to them because of Tervigon's spawning ability. I think there were 2 left in one, and 3 left in another, and the Carnifex took a couple of wounds. My Knight Valiant was too far away to fire his Thundercoil harpoon or twin meltaguns, so nothing from that front.

The second turn was when everything fell apart.

The kid Deep Strike his Trygon Prime and Genestealers more than 9" away from my Knight Valiant, and moved everything up. Only the Tervigon was in range to Smite, and my Knight took a wound or two. Shooting was completely ineffective, and though the Harpy flew over him and bombed him, the kid rolled a 2, and failed to get any mortal wounds off. Shooting wasn't effective either.

Then everything that was within range - which was the surviving Termagaunts (which were now bolstered by 3 new ones from the Tervigon), the Trygon Prime, the Genestealers, the two Carnifexes, and that's about it, charged the Knight Valiant. Needless to say, the first wave of Termagaunts got wiped out by the conflagration cannon. Both Carnifexes were also incinerated by the conflagration cannon after eating a few shots from the siegebreaker cannons. The Trygon Prime ate 4 wounds in overwatch, but failed his charge - even after using a Command Re-roll. OUCH. The Genestealers lost 7 of their number, and the remaining three got in, so the last 2 Termagaunts charged, but also failed their charge. Whoops.

On the other end, the Harpy charged my Armiger Helverin, ate 2 wounds and was down to 6 wounds because each shot was 3 damage (wow, the Armiger Helverins are terrifying). It did two wounds to my Armiger Helverin in combat.

I think I took about 3 or 4 wounds or so from the Genestealers in combat, their rending claws being AP -4, which left him with about 20 or so wounds left. Then the Knight Valiant proceeded to stomp all 3 into oblivion with his Titanic Feet. Yep, they ain't gonna survive that.



Needless to say, in the shooting phase, I obliterated the Trygon Prime, a Zoanthrope and two remaining Termagaunts. I failed to hurt the Tervigon, at least I think I didn't, and one of my Armiger Helverins had fallen back, and couldn't shoot. The other fired on the Harpy and did only 3 wounds. Ouch. Oh, and Mark of Omnissiah - this time I remembered, and I rolled a 6, and then a 5 (which in D3 terms means 3), and healed 3 wounds. Nice!

By now, my opponent only had 2 Zoanthropes, a Tervigon and a Harpy left on the table. He used Smite, and he rolled an 11 for his Tervigon, and a 6 for his D6, and 2 each for his Zoanthropes, and my Knight Valiant was down to 13 wounds, having eaten 15. Ouch! The Harpy then charged my Helverin, and I killed it with overwatch, taking out its last 3 remaining wounds. The Tervigon survived overwatch from my Knight Valiant, and I think I took maybe 4 or 6 wounds from her? I can't remember. But she made it into combat. However, after the Harpy died, my opponent conceded and didn't even bother rolling for the Tervigon's combat rolls, despite the possibility that she might tear my Knight Valiant apart in combat. Oh well.

And so the Knights pretty much stomped and incinerated the Tyranids, despite their so-called overwhelming numbers and being a horde army. Are Knights too strong? Are hordes overrated? Please let me know what you think.

As a bonus, I was able to work on painting my Knights, and here's a picture of my Cerastus Knight Lancer and the Secutarii Hoplites. House Yato standing strong! They're still a work in progress and I'm far from completing the painting, but I'll continue to work on them bit by bit and they'll look like all the other Knights before long. For the Emperor! And ave Omnissiah!

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Doom of Molech up for pre-order next week!



Hell, yeah! Finally! Today, Forge World announced that Adeptus Titanicus: Doom of Molech will be available for pre-order next week! AWESOME! You can read more on Warhammer Community.



I'm definitely getting this expansion - I already ordered a pair of Cerastus Knight Lancers (the little ones), so I'm looking forward to this. Oh, I painted up my Knight Lancer and other Knights, but I'll reserve that for another post (maybe later today - we'll see, I have to study, so I probably won't write and upload that until later).

Anyway, Doom of Molech promises rules for 4 new Titan Legions and seven Knight Houses. Yahoo! Knights of House Yato, and House Kanda (a subsidiary clan of House Yato, completely seconded to Legio Draconis) have always been a big part of my army and fluff, so I'm excited about this! I'll also be getting a Warlord Titan with plasma annihilator to add to my army, so I'm excited about the rules. I know they say you can run an all Knight army, but I'm hoping they allow us to take a single Warlord Titan or whatever alongside my Knight House Banners in the same way you can take an extra Legio Titan along with your maniple. Or something. We'll see!

I don't know if they'll give us new Knight models or stuff, because we still have yet to get a Thunderstrike Gauntlet or a Stormspear rocket pod for our Knights, yet the Stratagems display a rocket pod.



So will we get new Knight stuff and new Knight models? When Titandeath came out the last time, we had a couple of new Titan armaments (I believe) in the form of the Sunfury Plasma Annihilator and Melta cannon, and new Cerastus Knights. Will we get more models or options or upgrade sprues for Doom of Molech? I don't know. I guess we'll find out more next week!

Monday, April 8, 2019

GW Community Survey wants

A week from now, Games Workshop will open their community survey for everyone! I remember asking for plastic Sisters of Battle during the previous community survey, and they really delivered! So let's hope we can get more stuff as well!

Now, here I'm trying to gather a bunch of feedback and see what everyone wants. I don't know what everyone wants, but I'll see if I can compile a bunch of stuff so that we can all deliver a consistent feedback. If enough people ask for the same thing, like plastic Sisters of Battle, I'm sure Games Workshop will respond like they did!

First things first. What would you like for Imperial Guard? I don't know. Seems like Imperial Guard is in a good place right now. All I would probably ask is for points reduction regarding the Superheavy tanks like Baneblades, Shadowswords, etc. Right now Knights just outperform our superheavy tanks and there's no reason to take a superheavy tank like a Baneblade or a Shadowsword over a Knight, which makes me kind of sad. I'll also be asking for better Cadian stuff, like not having to stay stationary to re-roll ones, like Orks. It's a bit boring to play static gunline with Cadians, and I hope we can improve them somewhat so that people will consider them over Catachans.

As for Imperial Knights, probably consider the Heirlooms of the Household and Exalted Court to be open to not just Dominus and Questoris Class Knights but all Knight classes including Cerastus and Acastus. Please.

Adeptus Mechanicus? I think we'll need to work this from the ground up, because they lost so much fo what made them awesome in 7th edition. But I don't know exactly what they need, so I can't say much for them.

Thousand Sons - this will really be a huge portion because there's a lot of things wrong with Thousand Sons that I'm sure everyone will agree. Just like how Cadians are often overlooked for Catachans, Thousand Sons are relegated to Ahriman and Daemon Princes, and that kind of sucks. We want a proper Thousand Sons list, not based on Tzaangors. So let's make a list for what we want for Thousand Sons.

1. A new Sorcerer Dreadnought like the Librarian Dreadnought for Blood Angels (I'm sure Forge World will give us rules for the Osiron Dreadnought, or that Forge World is a separate team from the main Citadel line, so they can't just give us rules for that - and it'll be cooler if they give us a new Sorcerer Dreadnought like what Blood Angels have).

2. Castellax-Achea battle-automata also falls into here, but I'm hoping for actual Daemon Engines Battle-automata for Thousand Sons. Warp-mutated Castellax or something, with siege drills and all that, like the ones the Thousand Sons used in their invasion of Fenris during The War of the Fang. Back then, we did not just have Thousand Sons and Rubric Marines, but we also had Battle-automata, robots and an entire army of Spireguard supporting the Thousand Sons Sorcerers in invading the Space Wolves' homeworld. Hopefully we can use these guys in place of Rubric Havocs. I don't like the idea of Rubric Havocs, it just feels somewhat lazy and tacked on. Like "hey, let's take the Havocs from the vanilla codex and rubric-fy them." I want something more unique for Thousand Sons, something that distinguishes us from the vanilla codex. A whole new line of battle-automata will go a long way in helping us with that, supplying the much-needed heavy weapons and striking a nice balance between Rubric Marines and tanks.

3. Ability to take Soupreaper cannons in 5-man squads of Rubric Marines. Some people even suggest upping the shots to 8 like the reaper chaincannons, but if they do that, they'll have to increase the points from 10 to 15. Ugh. Oh, well. Might be worth it. Maybe.

4. Better Scarab Occult Terminators. Right now they overlap too much with Rubric Marines, so we want something better for them, like better close combat rules, or bodyguard rules.

5. Change All is Dust. Right now, All is Dust is pretty useless against 2-damage weapons like autocannons and overcharged plasma, which is what people will be shooting at our Terminators anyway, so it's pretty pointless. I would rather a flat +1 to invulnerable and armor save. I miss the old 4++ invulnerable saves for Thousand Sons. Besides, it makes no sense that Loyalists have the 4++ invulnerable saves for CataphractiiTerminators and Death Guard also have it, but we don't even though our Scarab Occult Terminators move 4". Like...what the hell, man? Or make All is Dust a Feel No Pain, though that would just make us Death Guard with Disgustingly Resilient, which is...no thanks. I prefer having a superior invulnerable save to them. Might as well make our Scarab Occult Terminators have a native 4++ invulnerable save with All is Dust turning it into 3++, so they can compare well against Death Guard Blightlord Terminators or Death Shrouds who not only have 4++ invulnerable saves but also Disgustingly Resilient.

6. Full smite for both Rubric Marines Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Terminator Sorcerers.

7. Allow us to revive fallen Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators (since they're dust). Like an Apocethary or something, but in the form of a psychic spell. Or a Stratagem.

8. Inferno Bolts Stratagem to affect all weapons on a vehicle, or make it a wargear option for vehicles in the form of points.

9. Access to a new summoning Character like Master of Possessions, but instead of that guy, we get a Tzeentch version of the Malefic Discipline. Since we don't have Possessed or Greater Possessed or Obliterators, we don't need some of the psychic spells, but we should have a similar branch that focuses on summoning since that's in the fluff.

10. Order of Ruin Characters or models - a Sorcerer Warpsmith basically, who leads the battle-automata or warp-mutated robots I mentioned earlier.

11. Give us bonus to psychic casting, or lower the warp charges in the Discipline of Change. 9 is way too much for Doombolt, and other disciplines and psychic powers are cheaper in warp charges than our Discipline of Change equivalents (like Temporal Manipulation or Glamor of Tzeentch).

Oh, just wanted to add something here. I'm also hoping for a reaper chaincannon upgrade sprue so that we can build Havoc squads according to heavy weapons without needing to buy 4 of the same boxes.

Lastly, please release models and a codex for Traitor Guard/Hereticus Militarum and Dark Mechanicum! Please! Or at least allow Chaos Space Marine Legions to take an Astra Militarum Detachment in much the same way that Genestealer Cultists can, but change their Regiment to Renegades or something.

Let me know if you have requests and I'll compile them in preparation for the big Games Workshop Community survey!

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Purge the Galaxy!

Let's get onto the Chaos hype train! All aboard the new Chaos hype train!

Well, as you know, Thousand Sons (and Death Guard) didn't get anything from Vigilus Ablaze. Sad, but I guess that's to be expected. However, there are a few stuff that I did like about Vigilus Ablaze, and the new units look awesome. One thing that caught my eye particularly, waas the Renegade Chapters. If you recall from the Ahriman Collection, Ahzek Ahriman recruited an unlikely band of Renegade Space Marines from a Renegade Chapter to his cause - the Librarian Astraeos and his battle-brothers. So I was thinking we can have more Renegade Chapters subordinating themselves to the Thousand Sons Legion even though they are not Rubric Marines and stuff.

Among the Renegade Traits, the most interesting one I found was the Purge. Their Bringers of Oblivion Renegade Trait combos very well with Thousand Sons, especially with Smite and stuff. Can you imagine Smiting and causing units to lose wounds during the psychic phase, and then unleashing a volley of heavy weaponry on them? That would be so cool!

So I was thinking of getting a Spearhead Detachment of Renegade Space Marines with the Bringers of Oblivion Renegade Trait. Okay, I know people will be complaining about the fluff. "Hey, the Purge is Nurgle! They will never ally or subordinate themselves to Thousand Sons! Screw you for min-maxing and being unfluffy!"

But wait, hold on. No one ever said that only the Purge can take the Bringers of Oblivion Renegade Trait. It's just like how my Draconian Armored regiment takes the Cadian Regimental Doctrine even though they are not strictly Cadians, and my Knights of House Yato takes the House Taranis Household Tradition even though they are from House Yato and not House Taranis proper. Before you starting shouting about unfluffiness and stuff, make sure you read Vigilus Ablaze properly. Right on page 196, under the RENEGADE TRAITS section, they clearly stipulated, "If your chosen Renegade Chapter does not have an associated Renegade Trait, you can instead pick the trait that you think best represents your army." That's right. You don't need to strictly pick Purge and only the Purge for the Bringers of Oblivion Renegade Trait. So if I have a homebrewed Chapter of Space Marines (let's call them the Sons of Ruin), I can choose whatever Renegade Trait I think most appropriate for them, and then give them the Mark of Tzeentch. Why Mark of Tzeentch? because Thousand Sons, duh. Well, I have another reason but I'll get into that later. Anyway, that's what I'm hoping to do with my Thousand Sons. Getting a Renegade Chapter to join their Legion, and as the Sons of Ruin, they excel in destruction and heavy weaponry.

So what exactly is in this army? We have the Warlord himself Ahriman (or some other Arch-Sorcerer who uses his rules), and a bunch of Exalted Sorcerers and Rubric Marines. I'm going to assume that the Obliterators cost 115 points each as opposed to 65 (there's no way in hell they are 65 points per model, the FAQ will be coming soon), so we'll work on that assumption. So what have we got here? We want to use the new models. Oh, and I have a couple of assault cannons that I can use for kitbashing.

Thousand Sons Battalion
Ahzek Ahriman
Exalted Sorcerer on disc with dual power swords
Rubric Marines (5 guys)
Rubric Marines (5 guys)
Rubric Marines (5 guys with warpflamers) (I don't care what people say, I don't care if they are a waste of points or rubbish, I'll bring them because they are Rubric Marines with warpflamers)

Thousand Sons Supreme Command Detachment
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch
Exalted Sorcerer on foot
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor
Scarab Occult Terminators

Sons of Ruin (Bringers of Oblivion Renegade Trait) Spearhead Detachment
Lord Discordant (because why the hell not?)
Havocs with 4 lascannons and 1 meltagun
Havocs with 4 reaper chaincannons and 1 meltagun
2 Obliterators

That's for a 2,000-point game, obviously. Yay. The Obliterators will Deep Strike with the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and Scarab Occult Terminators, who will obviously pile on mortal wounds during the psychic phase. That means they get to re-roll all hit rolls against their wounded target. Heh. Nice. The Havocs with 4 reaper chaincannons - where am I going to get the other 2 reaper chain cannons from? That's where the assault cannons come in. I'll just kitbash them and glue the barrels into the heavy bolters, and voila! You get reaper chaincannons. Sort of. Otherwise I hope they give us an upgrade sprue because it's going to be annoying when you have to buy 4 boxes for just that weapon (and nobody in their right mind will do that).

Earlier I said something about making the Sons of Ruin Tzeentch. I thought that would be cool because I can use Chaos Familiar to swap one of the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor's psychic spell for Flickering Flames and cast it on the Obliterators to add 1 to their wound rolls. That would make them even more terrifying. Heh.

Anyway, a lot of this is subject to change and I'll be waiting for the FAQ in any case. Hopefully the Obliterators won't go up to 115 points (we can all hope, but I highly doubt it), but if they get a slight increase (for example, going up to 90 points instead of 115), I can change things around. Like, replacing the Lord Discordant with a Dark Apostle with Dark Disciples, swapping the Rubric Marines out for Cultists (with a flamer), the Havoc Sergeants' meltaguns for plasma guns and then adding 2 Obliterators. Obviously that's unlikely to happen, but we can all hope.

We'll see what happens!

Thursday, April 4, 2019

More hyperbole and DISCORD



I swear, the people on the Internet are so prone to hyperbole and over-reacting that it makes me wonder sometimes if we really should embrace "freedom of speech" as it is right now, or at least take responsibility for the stuff we're saying. If I offend people, I'm going to say sorry, and I'll be cautious not to write racist and insulting stuff. But honestly, I feel that many comments, particularly in what should be a fun hobby and gaming epxerience, are straight-out toxic, hyperbolic and grossly self-entitled.

Many of us are most likely looking forward to the release of the Lord Discordant. I know I am. He's an amazing miniature, with cool details and awesome-looking weapons. But there are quite a few know-it-all people clambering onto the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page and complaining about the model's rules instead of, you know, actually building it, painting it and fielding it. Imagine that. Complaining about how useless a unit would be before it gets released or played by anybody (other than the play-testers).

Just take a look at some of the comments.

"He’s useless because you gave him 12 wounds. End of....."

"nope, he’s useless and he’ll die turn 1/2 in all but the friendliest of games. Any well composed competitive army will straight up slot him almost immediately. It’s embarrassing how useless he is. Yeah ok, the warlord trait and the -1 prayer and half a dozen other things will male him slightly more difficult to deal with but then you’re building your list around a mediocre character who’s only real strength is in combat where he will hardly ever get. 


TL:DR - we have so much more points efficient stuff to choose from without the risk of loosing it straight away. At 180 points a daemon prince does sooooo much more.
" (never mind that the opponent will be spending 200-300 points trying to shoot a 180-point model, and that the Lord Discordant has a 2+ armor save as opposed to the Daemon Prince's 3+, and 4 more wounds, and a lot more attacks, and can heal himself both through auto-regen and eating vehicles, which the Daemon Prince can't - I'm not sure what this guy's issue is - are you expecting Daemon Prince MKII or something?)

"Character with >10W that is not superb resilient won't last long."

"nope. It's still t7 12w 3+. It will die 1st turn from unit of slanesh Havocs (chain guns) or any anti tank unit." (I have no frakking clue how 24" range Reaper chainguns are supposed to kill the Lord Discordant in the first turn - this is hyperbole at its finest, never mind that he got it wrong and the Lord Discordant has a 2+ save, not 3+. And moreover, that's the job of an anti-tank unit, to kill tanks, so why are you whining about anti-tank units killing a tank?)

"In alpha-strike hammer 40k, he's definitely dead first turn." (in alpha strike, your whole army is going to be dead anyway, not just the Lord Discordant)

"Alexander Cragg And what is mind boggling is is why the designers/play-testers can’t spot the obvious flaws that the averages player spots after a single read of his rules.🤷‍♂️ 

The response shouldn’t be “hey send your comments to the studio” AFTER release, GW needs to move towards more beta releases and rules previews PRIOR to printing: the player base at large is very good at spotting things that are off or that are going to make a unit underwhelming, etc. Why they don’t use it more is beyond me..."

" and maybe hire some game designers to write and playtest the rules.
It always feels like the people writing the rules do so in a vacuum."

-> The top two comments, particularly...the two who wrote them obviously do not recognize the irony in their statements. "Average player spots obvious flaws" - the model hasn't even been released yet and they're already treating it in a vacuum and assumng it'll get shot off the table first turn no matter what and thus he is useless. BEFORE PLAYING A SINGLE GAME. For Emperor's sake, you haven't even played him in a single game and you're already claiming that you know the rules better than the playtesters and can spot the obvious flaws. Best of all, "do so in a vacuum" - isn't that exactly what you're doing? He has 12 wounds, therefore he can be targeted, and therefore he'll be destroyed first turn. What the hell, man? That's vacuum if I have ever seen one.

Actually, why the hell are you playing this guy like he's a Character? Yeah, he buffs your Daemon Engines. Yeah, he's a HQ. But why are you all assuming he should be played the same way as a Chaos Lord, or a Sorcerer or Abaddon? Or even a Daemon Prince? Of course if you're going to park him at the front of your army and charge your opponent, then he'll die. But perhaps that's not how you're supposed to play him? How then? I don't know, I'll need to actually play him in a real game and find out instead of just theoryhammering and dismissing a unit as trash because he has more than 10 wounds?

"This guy should really be named the lord disappointment"

"for player this is trhowing money in the trash can" (I wish I could throw YOU into the trash can - and it's spelled "throwing," not "trhowing.")

"did you forget that that means he can be picked off first turn by literally anything?"

Now, this is the most ridiculous and self-entitled comments I've ever seen. Basically a good number of players are going, "WAAAAAAAAAAH! He has 12 wounds! This makes him ABSOLUTELY USELESS! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" and rolling on the floor, throwing a tantrum and kicking the trashcan while at it. No seriously. Take a deep breath and then look at the comments you're spouting. It's utterly childish and juvenile. From the way they're ranting, you would think that a Lord Discordant having 12 wounds heralds the end of the world.

Yes, he can be shot off the table in the first turn. But if that makes him useless, then basically anything with over 10 wounds are useless. So people shouldn't take vehicles? I mean, Tank Commanders in Leman Russ tanks have 12 wounds too, but Imperial Guard players are not throwing a fit and screaming, "TANK COMMANDERS ARE USELESS!" Magnus and Mortarion have more than 10 wounds, but you don't see Thousand Sons and Death Guard players shrieking at Games Workshop about it. For a time, the Daemon Primarch Smash Bros were even popular in tournaments, despite the fact they could be targeted. Imperial Knights have over 20 wounds, but people still take them. Look at the damned Knight Castellan in every Imperial Guard list. Okay, maybe the Knight Castellan doesn't buff anyone, but the point is that he's not useless just because he has more than 10 wounds and can be shot off the table. The same measures you take for a Knight Castellan to improve his invulnerable save, you can probably take for a Lord Discordant, like Cursed Earth, making him Tzeentch and using the invulnerable save Stratagem. By the way, 3 Lords Discordant cost about 60 points less than a Knight Castellan if you take the baleflamers, and 120 points less if you take the autocannons, to put it into perspective. So if your opponent is sneering about his Knight Castellan nuking him off the table, you turn around and laugh inwardly at how he invested 600 points into killing a 180-point model (or more if he shoots the plasma decimator at something else, but I don't know what and I doubt it'll even be half of his points). Just as planned by Tzeentch. Furthermore, this guy will give -1 to hit to a Knight Castellan because he's a vehicle (granted he has to be within the 6" Aura of Discord or something, though). The thing is, the Lord Discordant will heavily damage even melee Knights like Knight Gallant if he charges into them, for less than half their points. Think about that.

Particularly in 2,000-point games, a single Lord Discordant is less than 10% f your total points. So what if your opponent focuses him down? That's another unit he's not shooting. Moreover, you can bring three of this guys, considering how cheap he is. The thing is that people are treating him like a Character who buffs Daemon Engines, and howl about how useless he is when he gets shot off. Sure, his buffs are good, but if he gets shot off, your Daemon Engines don't. And don't tell me you automatically lose the game without those buffs. Just charge your surviving Daemon Engines into them. To take this guy out, you'll need dedicated anti-tank stuff, or even plasma. And those are expensive. Havocs with lascannons are about 170 points, Predator Annihilators are 180 points. To take out a 180-point model. So it's not like your opponent is getting free shots off.

How do people use Leman Russ Tank Commanders? I don't scream and concede the moment my Tank Commander gets shot off the table. I don't pretend that all my Leman Russ tanks have suddenly become useless just because their commander is gone and they can't receive orders. I just hammer them with my surviving Leman Russ tanks because that's how they are played. Why should Lord Discordant be any different? Why are you acting like they should be played like...I don't know, Daemon Princes? They have different roles. If you want a Daemon Prince, then use a Daemon Prince, don't complain that a new unit is not a Daemon Prince. Like, what the hell, man? Why would you want a unit that basically does the same thing as a Daemon Prince (only better)? No point creating a new unit then. And run him alongside units he synergizes with. Yes, he buffs Daemon Engines. But your entire strategy should not rely on those buffs. If he gets shot down, your other Daemon Engines should just laugh and pile in. And force them to make a choice. Bring 3 of them if you're so afraid of competition. Or ally them with Knights - if they shoot your Lord Discordant, then your Renegade Knights can charge in and are free to rampage arund. There's so many strategies you can do with this guy that you don't need him to have less than 10 wounds and be a Character just to run away from being nuked. Besides, why aren't you worried about Snipers and stuff like the Transquranic Arquebuses spam or the Primaris Eliminators or Vindicare Assassins? You assume that your opponents have alpha strike lists and anti-tank weaponry and lascannons, but you assume that they don't have sniper weapons? Right...

All I can say is, stop descending into hyperbole and dismissing stuff as trash or useless just because he doesn't do what you want him to do (as opposed to using him for what he is intended to do - like the other Daemon Engines, and if he dies, then your other Daemon Engines will fill the void). You haven't even played with him yet! Are Tank Commanders trash? Are Knights trash? No, they are not. So stop all this hyperbole and self-entitled whining, and actually learn to play the game properly instead of demanding that the model changes to your specifications. Most likely he's not useless, you're just using him wrong. I've been using Leman Russ tank commanders for years and have no complaints about them - in fact, they've won me countless games. The Lord Discordant is so much better in terms of stats, survivability (2+ armor save, regen, 5++ invulnerable save, BS 2+, WS 2+), and you're whining about him being useless?

The nerve of some people, honestly.

Lord Discordant Tactica

Warhammer Community has a tactica on the Lord Discordant!

Nothing on Dark Mechanicum, so...oh well. On the other hand, my Skitarii are about to make a mess of him and his foul Helstalker. I can see the Chaos Space Marines being massacred by the Skitarii and Electro-priests here. Furthermore, we won against the Iron Warriors by ourselves (see Rob Sander's Adeptus Mechanicus duology). No, not just the Iron Warriors. Just by ourselves, we destroyed and won against a combined Iron Warriors and Dark Mechanicum force. HAH!



Might as well include a picture of the Lord Discordant's stats here. They look really good. I'm tempted to get one, but I have no money, so it'll be a long while before I get any Lord Discordant or Daemon Engines. If any...



Anyway, we already know what Vigilus brought for us, and the new stuff Chaos get, and you probably remember the Soulforged Pack with Daemon Engines, so that's all I need to know, really. An allied Lord Discordant with a bunch of Tzeentch-marked Maulerfiends and maybe a Venomcrawler or something. I don't know. We'll see. Or maybe I should stick to the Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Leviathan Dreadnought. Anyway, let's hope we get more news, and I'll see you guys next time.